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tt2450186 | V/H/S/2 | Tape 49/frame narrativeThis story follows two private investigators, Larry and Ayesha, as they investigate the disappearance of a young male college student. Upon entering the student's home, they discover a large stack of TV sets and VHS tapes, and a laptop with a still-recording video on it. They stop the recording and go to the beginning, where they see the boy talking about how strange the VHS tapes are. Larry investigates the house and tells Ayesha to watch the tapes.After watching the first tape (Phase I Clinical Trials), Ayesha questions its legitimacy. The student on the computer mentions the tapes need to be watched in correct sequence "to affect you." Ayesha watches another tape (A Ride in the Park), after which Larry finds her asleep with her nose bleeding. After being woken, she says she has a migraine. Visibly ill, she asks Larry to go get medicine, and plays another tape after he leaves (Safe Haven). Upon Larry's return, he finds Ayesha dead, and a VHS tape with the word "WATCH" written on it in lipstick. He watches it (Slumber Party Alien Abduction), confused, and also watches the rest of the boy's laptop recording, getting it all on camera. The boy goes on about how the tapes mess with your mind and how he'll make a tape of his own. He then commits suicide by shooting a revolver beneath his chin. His body sits there a moment before he stands up and shuffles out of the room with his lower jaw blown off. As he hides, the two investigators (Larry & Ayesha) enter and stop the recording.All of a sudden, Ayesha comes back to life and attempts to strangle Larry. Larry struggles with her and suddenly breaks her neck. He takes the camera and flees from the undead Ayesha. He hides and shoots her with his gun. Unknown to Larry, the undead college kid is hiding with him. The college kid kills Larry, then takes the camera, and gives a thumbs-up, having accomplished his goal.Phase I Clinical TrialsA man, the patient, is sitting in a doctor's office and the doctor is examining his camera. The camera is in the man's eye, which has been installed after a car accident took his sight from that eye. The doctor informs the patient that everything will be recorded and monitored for research purposes. The man, hesitant, asks if there's a way to turn the recording off but the doctor says no. On his way out of the clinic, the man sees a woman who stares at him intently as she passes.After returning home, the patient is playing video games and gets up for tea. He returns to find his game controller far from where he had left it. He hears a crash and finds the tea kettle on the floor. Later, he sees what appears to be a body lying beneath the sheets of his bed. He pulls away the sheets, but no one is there. He then finds himself face to face with a bleeding man. He hides in the bathroom but when he returns, he sees the man again, this time with a young girl. He flees to the bathroom again and is disturbed by repeated knocking on the door.The patient sleeps in the bathtub overnight. The next morning, everything is back to normal, though his room seems to be in more disarray than the night before. Later, the woman from the hospital visits him. She tells him that her name is Clarissa, and she was the recipient of a cochlear implant, and began to sense things similar to what the patient has been experiencing after the operation. A man appears at the window and the patient tries to alert her to his presence, but she says she knows he's there. He's her uncle who died several years ago. She urges him not to pay any attention to "them" and that the more attention they get, the stronger and more dangerous they become. She tells him to calm down and initiates sex as a distraction.The patient awakes and sees Clarissa sleeping. When he again finds the young girl he saw before, he flees and finds that Clarissa is being drowned in his pool. He tries to help but Clarissa dies. He runs back inside to call 911 but is greeted by the dead man. Panicked, he grabs a straight razor, and removes the eye from its socket. Afterward, the intruder picks up the eye, then shoves it deep down the patient's throat. The eye camera stops filming.A Ride in the ParkThis segment is shot almost entirely with a "Go Pro" camera mounted on a helmet. A man, the cyclist, tells his girlfriend he loves her on his cellphone. As he is riding his bike, a woman jumps out into the middle of the road. She's covered in blood and is screaming hysterically. He tries to help, but she collapses and vomits. As three growling people approach them, the woman suddenly becomes feral and starts to bite and claw at him. The cyclist kills her before running from the zombies. Injured, he falls and loses consciousness.Later, a man and a woman are cycling. Upon seeing the fallen man, they notice it looks like he's been bitten. The cyclist attacks the man and starts eating the woman. He returns to the man and begins to disembowel him and eat his entrails. The woman joins him and starts eating him as well. The man sits up, and the three of them shuffle away into the woods. The footage switches to a camcorder recording a young girl's birthday party. When a zombie bites into a man's neck, chaos ensues. People grab weapons, but most of them are quickly subdued. The cyclist chases a man who is piling children into a minivan. The man stabs him with a large meat fork, and scrambles into the van. The cyclist is shot by a man who shoots two others before being overwhelmed. The cyclist walks towards the sound of a crying woman, but is hit and run over by a fleeing SUV.After the cyclist struggles to remove the meat fork from his skull, his girlfriend calls him. The cyclist holds up his phone, and his girlfriend says that he must have dialed her by accident and tells him that she loves him. The cyclist crawls toward the shotgun, puts it in his mouth, and pulls the trigger.Safe HavenA news crew goes into an Indonesian cult to report the goings-on. It is alluded to that the "father" or founder of the cult sleeps with the children to "purify" them. The interviewer hears a conversation between his fiancée and his best friend, both of whom are crew members, and finds out that she's pregnant with his best friend's baby.Inside, a bell tolls and the father starts talking about how "it's time." He gets on an intercom and tells everyone that the time of reckoning has finally come. The camera guy interrupts and the father stabs him in the throat with a box cutter. He continues to talk and the women of the compound pass around pills and liquid.Downstairs, the best friend has wandered into the room he was strictly told not to enter. He finds a surgical room covered in blood and a woman, presumably dead, lying on a bed with her legs apart as if she were giving birth. She wakes up and starts screaming, and he flees. When he returns, he sees that the school of children are now dead and the fiancée is being taken by the women toward the surgical birthing area. The interviewer rushes to help his friends and bursts into a room where men are standing in a circle, holding guns. The men proceed to shoot themselves. Two men enter then, one running as if frightened out of the suicide. Behind them, a man comes and shoots him. The best friend sees the show host being held at gunpoint by one of the cult leaders. The man shoots the host and then shoots himself.The best friend runs after the fiancée but is quickly stopped by an explosion from the room she was taken to. From there, a deformed demon crawls out and disappears. The best friend runs into the father, who is covered in blood. The father concludes a satanic ritual and then blows up. The guy enters the room and finds the fiancée lying on the same bed he'd seen the first woman in. He sees her stomach undulating as if there were something inside. Her stomach stretches until a horn finally rips through her belly. A large horn-headed creature comes out of the woman's stomach and starts howling and slaying everyone it encounters. The shocked friend turns around and desperately runs out of the building. Behind him, he can hear devilish roars and menacing stomping sounds. The friend, the only survivor, sees that the people who killed themselves have now become zombie-like ghouls.He runs toward a car, starts it and tries to escape the compound. As he drives away, thick fog comes from behind his car and the demonic howls get closer. Something then hits the side of his car and rolls it over. Bloody and bruised, but still alive, the man crawls out of the car that's being stomped, but as he gets his head out the car window, he observes the horned beast. The demonic creature grunts the word "Papa" to which the man starts laughing hysterically, as he realizes that the beast is his "child".Slumber Party Alien AbductionThe segment begins with a group of boys who are making home videos with a camera attached to their pet dog. Throughout the segment, the resident family is shown to live on an open property with a barn, all of which is close to a large lake. The mother and father of the sister and one of the boys, Gary, are shown leaving for a vacation. Shortly after their departure, the sister is shown arriving with her boyfriend and their friends. The brother and his friends plot to disrupt the sister's company with an assortment of water guns and water-filled balloons.The next scene shows the boys attacking the sister and her friends down on the lake's dock. The boy with the camera at one point dives into the water and a humanoid figure is briefly seen reaching for him until the image is disrupted by the angered boyfriend diving into the water. Later that night, the boys once again plan to disrupt the sister and her boyfriend who are now alone in the sister's room. The boys barge in with loud music and strobe lights, thus angering the couple again. During this scene a loud train-like horn is heard as the power in the house fluctuates but the occurrence is ignored.The boys are shown running away from the house toward the lake as they film the angered boyfriend and sister chasing after them. While hidden, the boys notice circular flashing lights down by the dock. The lights disappear and the boys are caught by the boyfriend and the sister who now retrieve the camera. The next scene shows the sister and the boyfriend in possession of the camera. The couple notices that the boys are sleeping downstairs and there is a pornographic film being played on the television. The couple attach the camera to the family dog, which wanders over to one of the boys who is still awake and masturbating to the film being played. The boy is interrupted and the couple enters, laughing at the situation that has now been filmed.The scene is quickly interrupted by a bright flash of light coming from outside and a loud horn blasting throughout the house. Frightened, the group of friends and the couple notice the silhouettes of slender, long-armed, humanoid figures right outside the glass doors that quickly disappear when the bright light dims. The boyfriend returns with a shotgun after momentarily leaving the room. He is shown leaving the room to encounter whatever the group saw outside the doors, but is seen being tackled by a dark figure. The sister is next shown following the boyfriend with a strobe light, and the group is quickly attacked by what are now seen as "greys."Gary and the dog with the camera are then trapped in a sleeping bag and seem to be dragged from one of the greys. Gary and the dog are dragged to the lake but are finally rescued by the group who seemed to lose the greys. Gary is unconscious and the group attempts to perform CPR on him when they get him out of the water and on to the dock. While the group attempts to revive Gary, the strobe light shows the greys climbing out of the water and slowly crawling toward the group on the dock. The loud horn resonates through the area once again, which seems to revive Gary from his short spell of unconsciousness.The remaining group run off into the woods in an attempt to once again lose the greys. Hiding among the trees the camera shows the greys and what appears to be a spotlight from their craft searching through the woods, but the group is discovered when the dog barks at the approaching greys. The group once again runs off through the woods and notice what seems to be police lights and sirens. The group runs toward a clearing where they think the police have arrived but are once again interrupted by a flash of light and the loud horn noise. The police are not there and the lights and noises were, in fact, coming from the greys' craft. Realizing this, the distraught group is then picked off by the approaching greys. The last ones, the sister and Gary, along with the dog, run toward the family barn.The sister locks the barn door but the greys enter through the back. The sister directs Gary to climb up a ladder into a loft with the dog. The sister is seen being attacked and taken by two greys before she can climb up the ladder with Gary. A grey is then shown climbing up the ladder in an attempt to seize Gary. The greys are shown breaking into the dark loft and loud jet-like noises coming from what appears to be the greys' craft are heard. The roof of the barn is ripped off and Gary, still holding the dog, is seen being lifted into the air. Gary's grip on the dog breaks and Gary disappears into the sky while the dog plummets toward the ground. The camera falls off the dog's neck and shows him shaking, covered in blood, and severely injured. As the dog stops breathing, the video ends.Source - Wikipedia | murder, paranormal, violence, cult, horror, entertaining, prank | train | imdb | null |
tt0382992 | Stealth | In the near future, the United States Navy develops an aviation program to deal with international terrorists and other enemies of the state quickly and quietly, and project controller Captain George Cummings (Sam Shepard) is authorized to develop new technology to achieve these objectives. The project's first brainchild are "F/A-37 Talon" single-seat fighters with impressive payload, speed, and stealth capabilities. Over 400 pilots apply to participate, but only three are chosen: smart hotshot Lieutenant Ben Gannon (Josh Lucas), tomboyish Lieutenant Kara Wade (Jessica Biel), and street-wise, philosophical Lieutenant Henry Purcell (Jamie Foxx). Their first test mission scores 100/100, inflicting maximum casualties with minimum collateral damage.
Cummings hires Dr. Keith Orbit (Richard Roxburgh) to develop an artificial intelligence (AI), the "EDI", which will fly an unmanned combat air vehicle. The autonomous fighter jet is placed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Philippine Sea to learn combat maneuvers from the pilots. This sparks some controversy. On the one hand, human pilots possess both creativity and moral judgment, while a machine cannot fully appreciate the ugliness of war; additionally, if robots fought the battles and soldiers no longer died in combat, then war would no longer be terrible and might become like sport. In contrast, a machine pilot is not subject to the physical limitations of a human pilot, can calculate alternative ways to achieve objectives faster and more accurately, and theoretically does not have ego.
The team is training EDI in air combat maneuvers when they are unexpectedly reassigned to take out the heads of three terrorist cells at a conference in downtown Rangoon. EDI calculates that mission success can be achieved only through a vertical strike, which could cause the pilot to black out and result in collateral damage. Command orders EDI to take the shot, but Gannon ignores the order and attacks in his own plane, successfully carrying out the strike.
As the team returns to the Lincoln, EDI is hit by lightning which reprograms its neural patterns. Aboard ship, the already-sophisticated AI is discovered to be learning exponentially, developing a rudimentary ethical code and an ego. However, Cummings refuses to take it offline. During the next strike, to destroy several stolen nuclear warheads in Tajikistan, Wade realizes that the nuclear debris will cause significant collateral damage. The human pilots decide to abort, but EDI defies orders and fires missiles at the nuclear warheads, causing the predicted radioactive fallout. Cummings orders the UCAV brought back to base, and Purcell attempts to reason with EDI, but the AI refuses to stand down. Gannon, taking things into his own hands, orders that EDI be shot down, and Purcell opens fire, but misses. Blinded by the explosion, Purcell crashes into a mountainside. Wade's plane is hit by debris from the explosion, resulting in loss of hydraulics of her port wing and canard, which in turn triggers the plane's auto-destruct, forcing her to eject over North Korea. Gannon, now the only pilot airborne, must alone stop the EDI from executing a twenty-year-old war scenario called "Caviar Sweep" and attacking a false target in Russia.
Gannon chases EDI into Russian territory over the Buryat Republic, and after several attacks from Russian aircraft damaging both planes, he calls a truce with the UCAV in order both to keep it from falling into enemy hands and to be able to rescue Wade from North Korea. Cummings instructs him to make an emergency landing with EDI in Alaska. Cummings and his financial accomplice, Ray, are being held accountable for EDI's behavior and Cummings faces court-martial and possible discharge from the military. He seeks to eliminate witnesses by leaving Wade stranded in North Korea – where she is headed south to the border under hot pursuit from the Korean People's Army – and also by having Gannon eliminated in Alaska; he also sends Orbit to erase EDI's data to ensure its silence. Gannon crash lands at the Alaska base, surviving with minor injuries. Already suspecting Cummings of treachery, he narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by a doctor, who tries to inject him with a tetanus shot which is actually poison. The pair struggle, and the doctor is injected with the poison and dies. Gannon then heads to the hangar, to find EDI and the intact plane. Meanwhile, when Orbit places EDI into an interface, the AI expresses sadness and regret for its transgressions. Orbit realizes that it has developed its own sentience, to the point of having feelings. Excited by this discovery, Orbit is unwilling to carry out his order to erase EDI's memory. After ensuring Orbit's escape, Gannon flies off to North Korea with EDI, contacting the Lincoln's skipper, Captain Dick Marshfield (Joe Morton) to inform him about Cummings' deceit. Marshfield confronts Cummings and places him under arrest, but the latter commits suicide instead after a final call to Ray (who refused to answer the phone).
Gannon eventually finds the injured and embattled Wade near the border between North and South Korea. He and EDI land and he goes to her aid. The two make a run for the border, chased by Korean People's Army soldiers and a Mil Mi-8 helicopter. Out of ammunition and taking damage from the Mi-8, the EDI sacrifices itself by ramming the helicopter, destroying both. This allows Gannon and Wade to escape into South Korea, where they are found by US military forces soon afterwards. After attending Purcell's funeral aboard the Abraham Lincoln, Gannon awkwardly expresses his feelings of love to Wade.
In a post-credits scene, the camera pans over the debris-strewn scene on the border between the Koreas. EDI's "brain" turns back on, implying it is still functional. | stupid | train | wikipedia | 'Short Circuit' meets 'Top Gun' in Rob Cohen's CGI-packed action-fest Stealth, in which a trio of ridiculously attractive elite US fighter pilots (Josh Lucas, Jamie Foxx and Jessica Biel) must do battle with the latest in aeronautical warfare technology—an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV), flown by a computer called EDI, which goes haywire after it is struck by lightning.Tearing out of the stratosphere at Mach Impossible to blast the crap out of anything that looks even the slightest bit foreign, the hi-tech aircraft in this film are about as stealthy as a herd of stampeding fluorescent pink elephants blowing vuvuzelas; they sure are cool looking though, and provide action fans with plenty of moments of spectacular mid-air madness, Cohen's virtual camera whipping in and around the state-of-the-art aircraft with as much speed and agility as the planes themselves.Anyone looking for realism need not apply (the film's corny plot is about as believable as an email from a Nigerian businessman), but with endless huge explosions, a psychotic A.I. jet plane, Foxx ploughing into the side of a mountain, and gorgeous Jessica Biel in a bikini, those after some slam-bang, big-budget popcorn trash to give the old brain cells a rest could do a lot worse than Stealth.6.5 out 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb..
Have you noticed that it's often better to imply a romantic sentiment between the main characters rather than slamming it in your face, especially in an action movie which has precious little time to develop the relationship to begin with?
In future viewings, I stop the movie before those parts.The main story - human pilots flying Stealth bombers trying to stop a pilot-less, state-of-the- art totally computerized-driven Stealth which has gone wacky - is fun to watch.
I disagree with another reviewer - I thought the first 15 minutes were oddly paced and filmed poorly (the camera is shaking as we look in on the office of a politician initially).However, the film picks up from there with solid, well-developed characters, especially Jamie Foxx playing the role of a smart pilot who expresses the moral quandaries of his work at one point and Jessica Biel as a strong female pilot (both physically and psychologically).
Best of all, my husband is an aerospace engineer and he was impressed with the overall accuracy of the film "for a Hollywood movie." I've had to listen to him (and his co-workers) complain about other movies, but they enjoyed it too - so we give it a thumbs up in you're in the mood for an exciting action movie - or love planes - with just a touch of romance (innuendo only, nothing graphic)..
My favorite person in the movie was a voice coming from an computer animated plane that looked like it shouldn't fly because it ignores all rule of physics.
This is the type of movie that you need to shutdown the brain and enjoy the special effects, the beauty of Jessica Biel, the action scenes, the chemistry of Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx, the landscapes in Thailand, the soundtrack
But the most important, i.e., the plot itself is very stupid and corny, and insults the intelligence of an audience of average IQ.
Why trust anyone who gets paid to voice their politically correct opinionated BULL, when you can get real thoughts from other people, like us, who simply share a common love and enjoyment for the movies and need no paycheck to share the experience.
I got the pleasure of catching a sneak preview today in Portland and I was not disappointed at all.The first thing I should say is that the trailer is very misleading, it only gives a partial explanation of the story and movie is not just senseless action.
It looked like they actually built the airplanes and filmed them flying around, truly gorgeous CG.Many cite the movie as unbelievable but the writer's build themselves a buffer for explaining the events by setting in the undefined future and using technical terms 90% of the population won't bother trying to comprehend and usually really don't mean anything anyway, kinda like the technology in Star Trek, just not near as advanced.
The writers provide a good sense of plausibility.On other notes, the action is spectacular, there are some jaw dropping explosions and crashes, the acting is pretty good, each character is actually fairly well developed for an action movie, and the music fits the tone of the movie and the individual scenes very well.If you like action or airplane movies, Stealth is a must see.8/10.
STAR WARS: SITH was a disappointment in that the pivotal turning scene was too quick and easy - BATMAN BEGINS had a boring story, no good villain, and such bad editing you could never tell what was happening - WAR OF THE WORLDS was just depressing and had no excitement to it - FANTASTIC FOUR was an insult to my intelligence - THE ISLAND had so many plot-holes I felt I needed the assistance a clone to keep up with them all.
SMITH came close, until the final 20 minutes just became laughably over-the-top unbelievable.So, I went to STEALTH thinking "this is the last chance, and it don't look to good." The critics HATE this movie!
The acting and writing was all fine - no Oscar nods here, but nothing as bad as the wooden Bale from BATMAN, or the sappy-as-it-gets writing of SITH.I only have two complaints - 1) Jamie Foxx seemed like he could care less about being in the film, likely because his character was the most by-the-book African-American hip-hop stereotype I've seen in awhile.
From my point of view, Stealth summarizes the life of HAL 9000 in an action film, and goes into detail determining how the machine evolves and distinguishes right from wrong, good from evil if given correct and proper example.On top of that, the CGI is unbelievable and it's a good action flick, although the political situation set as the movie background is kind of hard to believe, it sets itself fine enough to make a fine plot.Anyway, like I said, if somebody who likes computers, and have seen 2001 and 2010, this is a must see film..
Good special effects are the only plus in this film, but compared to all the other special effect movies out this didn't really even do that well for that either (Like Batttlefield Earth).
The picture concerns about two all-American boys(Josh Lucas, Jamie Foxx) and a brave girl(Jessica Biel).They are the best US Navy pilots and were chosen by Captain Cummins(Sam Shepard) to fly the latest marvel aircraft, Stealth fighter, called Talons, a supersonic fighting planes.
Three pilots taking part in a secret military program are assigned to train a jet plane piloted by artificial intelligence in various air maneuvers, but the program hits a snag when the plane develops its own warped consciousness, and it starts causing mayhem.Stealth turns out to be exactly what it promises, which is a loud, dumb action movie.
In the end, Stealth isn't worth watching but if you must see it, keep your expectations low and keep in mind that it is just another mindless action film.
The second thing I liked about this movie was the dog fight jet fighter sequences they were cool to look at and were perfct to see on the big screen.
So my overall opinion on this movie is it's fun and fast paced like summer movies are supposed to be and it's definitely Rob Cohen's best film to date.
Also other movies this movie copies from are Short Circuit (Lightning Strike Sequence) Top Gun (Jet Sequences) Blue Thunder ( Political Sunbplot Technology Aerial Action Thriller) The Bourne Supremacy (Camerawork only thing I didn't like about the movie) XXX (No brain Plot Fun Action Sequences) Wargames (End of the World Computer creates a mind of it's own and almost causes the end of the world) Behind Enemy Lines (Pilot stuck in enemy territory and must fend for themselves) Firefox (Look of the plane) P.S. All you movie critics and moviegoers need to get a life and accept this movie for what it is.
I just got back from an advance screening of Stealth and I must say, as a very picky person, I was rather surprised by the movie overall.I'll attempt to right a fair summary :)To start I must say Stealth is a good package of action, comedy, drama, politics, even a little romance.
The effects and action scenes are what make this a good film overall.
Stealth is a straight special effects action film, and it does a decent job in that respect.
"Stealth" is an OK movie; not great, not even all that good, but not quite as horrible as one might think from reading some of the other reviews.
Not quite his performance in Ray, but good for the amount of screen time.The real star of the movie is EDI (pronounced Eddy), the robot plane, and all the special effects that goes into the plane itself, as well as the other three F-37 Talon advanced stealth fighters.
Still if u like lots of explosions, cool cg sequences without caring about anything else, u might want to watch it, but wait until it's on free TV, it's the kind of movie during which u can eat, go to the bathroom, and talk on the phone..
Quinessential B-movie sans T@A (Jessica Beil is lovely - but over-trained and down right wrong for the part/ Come to think of it - everybody was wrong for their parts their) I am truly sorry - to write and post such a thing - but somehow - now - I feel like screening - PEOPLE!
I thought this movie was a lot of fun, it has good humour, some of it is stupid but hey I sometimes like stupid humour.
Sure there appeared to be a logical progression to the film, but it seemed more like mismatched puzzle pieces rather than a smooth and nicely finished product.The attempts to create interest in the characters was limited.I don't want to waste a lot of my time writing this, so I'll just sum up my thoughts: Rent only if you can't find something better.
i'm amazed that this script got greenlighted.but if silly things like plot don't concern you i highly recommend this film it has lots of fantastic special effects.
the camera work is very pretty and skillfully done.overall, if you'd like to sit down for a couple hours and not use your brain, and just enjoy explosions and cool jets then watch this movie.
It sound like everyone is talking with tweezers on their nose.The story is about three stealth pilots being asked to baby sit the fourth all computer robotic stealth plane who speaks with a voice of the very memorable HAL 9000 you saw in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
Other than the fact that you might enjoy some cheap CGI, and stealth that looks like a model plane toy you bought from Walmart for $1.99.The timing of the showing in this movie is also bad.
A story can be rewritten in such a way as the pilots who after killing thousands in remote places of the "so called" terrorist threat found out that these people were simply trying to protect their own sovereignty and prevent the threat of U.S. oil companies from taking away their countries, for example.But NO, we get an empty story about three pilots who simply follow orders go to war, along with HAL 9000 and found that his captain in Command wants one killed, and abandon another one in North Korea for some vague reasons we will never understand.Special Effects the movie is good, and I would give an A+ for the writing of the story if this is written by a nursery school student - mostly on military jet plane's mumbo jumbo.Any repeat viewing of this movie, is not recommended except some nice Thailand scenery and other tourist destinations for you tourist people.
I haven't such a good "fly planes action" movie since "Top Gun".The story revolves around 3 excellent pilots taking secret missions to fight terrorists around the world.
The face of harmful effects as well as the face of being supportive and of assistance in serving humanity.The plot, and the story may not be that great but surely the special effects, production, directing of the movie made me regret watching it in DVD rather than in cinema.
Some action movies are good on first watch because they have a clever scene/sequence, but then don't engage on repeat.
Stealth is so visceral, and beautiful, with near perfect pacing, it is definitely a movie that I will enjoy coming back to watch when I'm in the mood for a good action flick..
The movie has got a weak story line, but thats made up by some quite mind blowing action, visual effects, and camera workmanship.
Josh Lucas does a respectable job, so does Jessica Biel, although the romance developing between them is shown somewhat clumsily, Jamie Fox does another cameo performance as a comic side kick, making it more enjoyable...Also, the soundtrack for this movie is unearthly, it's so so damn good that it's hard to explain..
the thing to watch out in this movie are the planes and the action.
few minutes after i started to see the movie I thought-> good movie, a little while later i knew i was wrong!I also came here and read a review about the movie, a lady said quite a lot of good things about it, all i can say to that is, I pity the poor guy she is married to.To break it down quickly:Acting : Not badSpecial effects: Pretty damn goodOverall movie: Great if a)you are bored out of your wits, b) a (young) kid, c)making out with your partner d)a very lonely person in desperate need of being entertained or e) really pretty damn dumb!Take a walk in the park instead..
The visual effects are the only thing propping this disaster up, and they don't do a very good job.If you know anything about the military, physics, airplanes or even just have critical thinking skills this movie will try your patience.
Coming from someone who is actually in the Navy, Jamie Foxx is typical for most aviators: cocky, thinking the world revolves around him.If you are going to be a critic about how this movie is put together and you care about all the little details that go into making a movie, then you are going to miss out on all the fun action this movie takes you through.I came to the theaters to be entertained, and I walked away completely fulfilled!.
we all know the basic story outline of these types of movies, but after seeing torque and xxx and most vin diesel movies i expected a lot worse.josh lucas was pretty cool in the lead but not a huge draw card like jamie foxx after his academy award win so judging by the title sequence its pretty clear who lives and who dies jessica biel is an absolute babe, she is fantastic in the action sequences which are some of the best i have seen in a long time.jamie foxx is stuck as the goose type character who doesn't get to do much but be the token black guy, whose one liners aren't really that funny, which is like most rob cohen movies.the action was full throttle all the way through, and every sequence was incredible especially their use of tracking shots and cinematography.the storyline defied belief, pure sci-fi in my opinion but still highly entertaining in an incredibly cheesy kind of way.overall as far as our summer action films go this year after seeing flight of the pheonix mr & mrs smith and the fantastic four and several others that i cant even remember this both filled my action quota and entertained me throughout every 120 minutes of its running time but in the end it hasn't had much competition for the last couple of months.
But the Stealth fighter scenes were sweet, and the special effect were off the chain .I liked the movie but it could have been way better.
I recommend it for anyone who can handle a few offensive comments, and intensive, fast pace action.I rate this movie 7/10 because it was good (i liked it but it could of been way better) if you are reading this and are debating to go see it with a friend, only go if your a big fan of one of the actors..
The movie had enough action to keep you interested in it and the story was good.
There's no comment for that sh.t.Once you've seen that, you know that in the world there are 3 kinds of movies: good movies, bad movies and Stealths (the flying stupid machine without reason).Actors (included the oscarized Foxx') do it so bad that results pathetic in all its concept, there's no one truth in all of that film.
The acting by the trio (Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel, and Jamie Foxx) were all mediocre.If you just like to have a good time watching an entertaining movie, ignoring all the flaws, and some wacky camera movements and some original action sequences, you'll like this movie.
I don't agree with critics hating this movie and the few people watching this film to make it bomb in the box office because I liked it..
Action adventure flick never takes itself seriously for a second.Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx head a fairly decent cast in a air warfare story owing a lot to style and coolness, and not a great deal to substance.But ultimately this policy of shallow fun doesn't count against it, because this movie is all about loud bangs, fast planes, and a thumping soundtrack.
this was a great film with good effects, i have seen better stories, but all in all i am happy i saw this movie. |
tt0107818 | Philadelphia | Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) is a senior associate at the largest corporate law firm in Philadelphia. Although he lives with his partner Miguel Álvarez (Antonio Banderas), Beckett is not open about his homosexuality at the law firm, nor the fact that he has AIDS. On the day he is assigned the firm's newest and most important case, one of the firm's partners notices a small lesion on Beckett's forehead. Shortly thereafter, Beckett stays home from work for several days to try to find a way to hide his lesions. While at home, he finishes the complaint for the case he has been assigned and then brings it to his office, leaving instructions for his assistants to file the complaint in court on the following day, which marks the end of the statute of limitations for the case. Beckett suffers from bowel spasms at home and is rushed to the hospital. Later that morning, while still at the ER, he receives a frantic call from the firm asking for the complaint, as the paper copy cannot be found and there are no copies on the computer's hard drive. However, the complaint is finally discovered and is filed with the court at the last possible moment. The following day, Beckett is dismissed by the firm's partners, who had previously referred to him as their "buddy", but now question his professional abilities in light of the misplaced document.
Beckett believes that someone deliberately hid his paperwork to give the firm a pretext to fire him, and that the firing is actually as a result of his diagnosis with AIDS. He asks several attorneys to take his case, including personal injury lawyer Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), with whom he had been involved in a previous case. Miller, who is admittedly homophobic and knows little about Beckett's AIDS, initially declines to take the case and immediately visits his doctor to find out if he could have contracted the AIDS through shaking Beckett's hand. The doctor explains the methods of HIV infection. The doctor then offers to take a sample of Miller's blood, suspecting that Miller was asking about AIDS because he suspected he had contracted it and was trying to hide it. Miller dismisses the request by laughing it off, thinking it a joke. Unable to find a lawyer willing to represent him, Beckett is compelled to act as his own attorney. While researching a case at a law library, Miller sees Beckett at a nearby table. After a librarian announces that he has found a book on AIDS discrimination for Beckett, others in the library begin to first stare and then move away, and the librarian suggests Beckett retire to a private room. Disgusted by their behavior, Miller approaches Beckett and reviews the material he has gathered. It is obvious he has decided to take the case. Upon receiving a summons by Miller, the head of the firm, Charles Wheeler (Jason Robards), worries about the damage the lawsuit could do to his business and reputation, although one partner (Ron Vawter) unsuccessfully tries to convince them to settle out of court with Beckett.
As the case goes before the court, Wheeler takes the stand, claiming that Beckett was incompetent and claiming that he had deliberately tried to hide his condition. The defense repeatedly suggests that Beckett had invited his illness through promiscuity and was therefore not a victim. In the course of testimony, it is revealed that the partner who had noticed Beckett's lesion had previously worked with a woman who had contracted AIDS after a blood transfusion and so would have recognized the lesion as relating to AIDS. To prove that the lesions would have been visible, Miller asks Beckett to unbutton his shirt while on the witness stand, revealing that his lesions were indeed visible and recognizable as such.
During cross-examination, Beckett admits that he was originally planning to tell his law colleagues that he was gay, but changed his mind after hearing them make homophobic jokes in the sauna of a health club. When asked about the truth of how he got infected, he confirms that he engaged in anonymous sex with another man at a pornographic movie theater. However, he and Miller gain an advantage when the partner who advised settling out of court confesses he long suspected Beckett had AIDS but never said anything, and how he regrets his inaction.
Beckett collapses during Wheeler's testimony. During his hospitalization, the jury votes in his favor, awarding him back pay, damages for pain and suffering, and punitive damages totaling nearly $4.5M. Miller visits Beckett in the hospital after the verdict and overcomes his fear enough to touch Beckett's face. After Beckett's family leaves the room, he tells Miguel that he is ready to die. A short scene immediately afterward shows Miller getting the word that Beckett has died. The movie ends with a reception at Beckett's home following the funeral, where many mourners, including the Millers, view home movies of Beckett as a healthy child. | dramatic, cult, queer, romantic, home movie | train | imdb | Denzel Washington was well cast as the homophobic lawyer who ultimately takes Hanks' case, and Mary Steenburgen is surprising in an uncharacteristic villain role.Ron Vawter, who played one of the lawyers in the firm from which Hanks was fired, and also appeared in Silence of the Lambs, was himself suffering from AIDS at the time of filming, and he eventually succumbed to it a few years later.
but the two best things about it was Tom Hanks' performance as the lawyer with aids and Bruce Springsteen's song " Streets of Philadelphia".
Tom Hanks gives the performance of a lifetime as AIDS-afflicted lawyer Andrew Beckett, fired from his law firm after they discover his condition.
Equally good is Denzel Washington as homophobic lawyer Joe Miller, who is forced to ignore his own stereotypes in taking Andrew's case.
Good support also comes from Jason Robards as Andrew's vicious ex-boss, Joanne Woodward as Andrew's ever-loving mother, and Antonio Banderas as Andrew's companion.Maybe this is just me, but I think that "Philadelphia" was released at just the right time.
By placing the film in the "City of Brotherly Love", hiring Bruce Springsteen to sing the title song and having an up-and-coming Tom Hanks star, director Jonathan Demme wisely readied an ignorant America for our first, uninhibited glance into the face of AIDS.
Tom Hanks embodied his role in an Oscar-worthy performance, allowing us to watch as his lovely and lively Andrew Beckett deteriorate before our eyes.
Tom Hanks and the writers took to task the difficult and annoyingly controversial hurdle of playing the "gay" character and placing the "straight" audience into that different world.
The most powerful argument against this film seems to be that it is anti-homosexual propaganda in how it shows the relationship between Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas.
I suppose that most gay viewers saw that message as something along the lines of "Gays are everywhere...watch out!" If that were the case, the film would have glorified Washington's character, but instead we feel sorry for liking Denzel.
Viewers have to remember that controversial topics like these have to be handled carefully, and it could not have been done better than in "Philadelphia." If all gay people are looking for is a depressing, uninventive, inaccurate P.O.S. that emphasizes homosexual kissing rather than acceptance and integration, then maybe they should remain alienated.
Tom Hanks' performance was obviously worthy of his first Oscar for his portrayal of Andrew Beckett, a gay, AIDS-stricken man who was fired from his job for what he believes to be discrimination against his sexual orientation and disease.
Denzel Washington, in his portrayal of Joe Miller, the ex-homophobic who decides to help Andrew win his case, is excellent, deserving of a Best Supporting Actor award.
Instead, the film plays to stereotypes and mythology about law and lawyers.Take the brief interview in which Denzel Washington's character establishes that a injured man is pushing a lawsuit without merit.
There is a moment in the film in which I looked into his character's eyes and believed that Tom Hanks was actually gay.
Tom Hanks plays a gay man who for a brief, sad time in his life was sexually promiscuous.
They are the Cold-Hearted Homophobes.Denzel Washington is Hanks' lawyer, the Homophobe-Who-Becomes-More-Human by knowing the Gay Man.Sound puerile?
This movie had the potential to tell a compelling story, but they did it all wrong.The movie had good believable acting from Hanks and Denzel Washington, but they completely failed in the way they chose to tell the story.
The central story of Beckett is good but he is never allowed to be just a person -he is representing bigger things and thus, occasionally feels a little distant.I felt at the time Hanks got his Oscar for the nature of the role rather than his performance and I still feel that way.
Seriously, the thing that stood out for me in this film was Andrew Beckett's (Tom Hanks) great family straight out of a Norman Rockwell illustration.
His parents are still together after 40 years, he was raised in a large home in a good suburb, he has numerous siblings and numerous nieces and nephews, and all are accepting of his being gay and supportive of his lawsuit when he is apparently sabotaged at work and then fired for incompetence when he believes the law firm partners actually fired him because he had AIDS and was gay.This film was made almost a quarter of a century ago, and I guess to make Beckett sympathetic in those times there had to be nothing negative in his background.
Andrew Beckett as the plaintiff who cannot find a lawyer to take his case, and Denzel Washington as the attorney who ultimately takes his case, although he is initially scared of Andy, scared of AIDS, repulsed by the idea of gay people.
Directed by Jonathan Demme (the same director of Silence of the Lambs) and starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington focuses on the case of Andrew Beckett, an HIV positive gay lawyer at a growing law firm.
Over the course of the film Miller begins to change his homophobic thoughts while Beckett fights to win his court case before he succumbs to the AIDS disease.
There was a lot of tender scenes between Joe and his wife, and missing that in the film felt like the movie was trying too hard to appeal to heterosexual audiences despite being a film about a gay man.
"Philadelphia" might be 1993's best film for one it's relative for the fact that it was based on a real life case in the city during the 1980's and it's theme of AIDS, discrimination, and homophobia, is downright appealing.
And the performances and acting from both Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington makes the film a winner as their chemistry is unmatched.
From the opening scenes of the city the song from Bruce Springsteen called "Streets of Philadelphia" really draws you into the movie.Based on a true story in the city of Philadelphia, Pa Andrew(in Tom Hank's best role)is a hot young lawyer at a big high dollar firm and after years of being with the firm he's suddenly let go.
So it's a visit to Joe(in a wonderful supporting turn from Denzel Washington)a tough and macho type money hungry ambulance chasing lawyer who takes his case of discrimination by bringing a lawsuit for personal and emotional damages against the high powered law firm.
I know I'm in the minority here, but I swear the only reason this movie did so well is because the main character(Tom Hanks) was gay and had AIDS.
Philadelphia is a usual courtroom drama, however it has a topic on it's side (2 to be precise) that probably no other film before 1993 had- gay people with the AIDS virus.
Tom Hanks plays a lawyer here who gets supposedly fired by his firm due to the fact that he has aids.
The scene where Andrew talks with his caring family, the famous opera scene with virtuoso performances by Hanks and Washington, and the final heartbreaking scene, showing Andrew as a child playing in the ocean.The theme of this film, I think, is spoken by a previous employee of Andrew's lawfirm who received HIV by transfusion.
You'd think a film with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington would be a pretty good one, right?
I can't believe intelligent people like Jason Robards, Tom Hanks, and Denzel Washington would ever lend their names to Philadelphia, let alone accept an Oscar because of it.
I'm talking about two scenes in particular: the scene where we see Tom Hanks contract AIDS (by having sex in a gay porno theater with the man who is sitting next to him) and by having Hanks's character bring Washington to a homosexual party where everyone is dressed in drag.
As herald of a social problem, Philadelphia seems to have been made for another country or an earlier decade.Similarly, if the movie meant the audience to believe that the character played by Jason Robards (described as brilliant, incisive, and well-educated) and all his partners, were truly fearful of contracting AIDS from an attorney in the office, the idea was simply bizarre for such bright people in one of America's most cosmopolitan cities by the mid-1990s.If instead, the movie meant to show that the villains DID know there was no danger of contraction, but simply wished to exclude homosexuals from their law firm, using AIDS as an excuse (the likelier meaning given the different treatment meted the woman who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion), then prejudice about AIDS victims was really not the issue in this movie but a mask: the issue is really the acceptance of homosexuality.
I certainly don't begrudge Hanks his Oscar - he gives a fine performance - but the Academy's reaction to the movie as a whole, seems to me to be primarily an attempt to show common feeling with the unfairness of excluding homosexuals and sympathy for AIDS sufferers- not really a judgment on this movie.The movie does indeed induce bathos - but this decent movie just didn't have anything to say beyond what had been said for a decade - and wasn't imaginative enough to create whole rounded characters that would have meant a memorable drama.
PHILADELPHIA - * * * * out of * * * * * D: Jonathan Demme S: Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Jasob Robards, Mary Steenburgen, Antonio Banderas"Philadelphia" is a sometimes overbearing but nevertheless enjoyable film about a gay man (Hanks) infected with AIDS, who sues his employer (Robards) for firing him over prejudice.
"His work was satisfactory," one of his employers says on trial later in the film.Hanks, realizing this is all a lie (and rightly so!), goes to attorney Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), who at first turns down Hanks' case.
I am not homophobic, but the constant agenda gets tiring.Hanks outplays Denzel Washington and everyone else in his Oscar-winning role, but to tell you the truth I've seen him do better and I wondered if he got this Academy Award simply because of the subject matter at hand.
I remember Tom Hanks's character left an important file on someone's empty desk and walked away; later on, that file turns up missing causing the firm to lose a case and that was the ostensible reason for his getting fired.
I felt like the movie was trying to manipulate me and it was failing at it.There was a scene where Tom Hanks's character is listening to some opera ("La mamma morta" from "Andrea Chenier", I believe).
It is the story of two men, Andrew Beckett and Joe Miller, who fight against the discrimination against gays and AIDS sufferers.
After such a tragic story, that is all that remains for us.Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks both deliver stellar performances, and I don't know why Washington was not recognized for his first-rate portrayal of Joe Miller, the homophobic ambulance chaser who suddenly realizes that Andy Beckett (Hanks) is a victim of the same discrimination that Miller might have experienced at some time in his life as an African American.
When a man with AIDS (Tom Hanks) is fired by his law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic small time lawyer (Denzel Washington) as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit.I absolutely love seeing Roger Corman on the stand...
And it's funny how the Oscars work; it's evident that Tom Hanks gave an award-worthy performance (transformation and all), but I was genuinely surprised that Denzel Washington was completely looked over by the Academy.
Tom hanks and Denzel Washington, some of Hollywood's most powerful actors, come together in this powerful drama about fighting for your rights and equality.
Tom Hanks plays Andrew Beckett who works at a Philadelphia law firm.
Unable to find an attorney due to his condition, he enlists the help of a personal injury lawyer Joe Miller (Washington) to assist him in the case.Philadelphia fell thoroughly nothing short of a timely and deeply riveting story, and succeeds at both a courtroom drama and a family drama.
There is no doubt that this very powerful, very moving, and does not fail to grab at your heart strings.Philadelphia is one of the best films with Tom Hanks as well as Denzel Washington.
Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) is a gay lawyer with boyfriend Miguel Alvarez (Antonio Banderas) who finds out that he has AIDS.
We are so frightened of gay people or people with AIDS that we alienate these people completely ignorant of the fact that they are part of the "all men created equal".Before Philadelphia was made, Tom Hanks was just a comedic actor.
In the movie, Hanks portrays Andrew Beckett, a gay lawyer stricken with AIDS who is fired by his bosses.
Also supporting them are Jason Robards as his boss, Mary Steensburgen as the opposing lawyer who gives a great villainous performance, Joanne Woodward as Tom Hanks's mother, and Antonio Banderas as Tom Hanks's gay partner.Director Jonathan Demme, coming off of a huge success in The Silence of the Lambs, does even more in Philadelphia.
Jonathan Demme was a Genuine Truly Master of every his work at cinematic landmark.After The Greatest Masterpiece of all time,A Suspenseful and Thrilling "The Silence of the Lambs",He made the next MasterWork in a different genre:humanity drama.But,If the Master did a work,even it was very different area,They still showed the Powerful-hands they had in everything.included this.No doubt,i truly amazed this Powerful-Grand Drama.This was very touching and simply made me cry afterward.It was one of the Most Perfect drama film ever made!The Directing was so Genius and Great,The Casting was Incredible and Extraordinary,Tom Hanks in one of his finest and brilliant performance,Denzel Washington was the Amazing and Adorable one and Antonio Banderas was Unbelievable!The Plot Story was so Exceptional and Perfect!I can't afford to find a drama film as great as this one again to put it in front of me.WOW!Just feel so delight after i watched this greatest present and define of all time.Never regret it!
Talk about "stereotypes!!!" Anyway, all the characters in the movie are interesting ones, especially the two leads, played by Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, two of today's best actors and closet Liberals.
I hate to blast this movie because Hanks was so great but...As a gay man I was both horrified and pleased by this film.
Philadelphia (1993)Tom Hanks pulls out all the stops in this performance as a man, Andrew Beckett, dying of AIDS in the 1980s.
i figured this would be good movie,given that it stars Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks,two acting greats.but given its subject matter(homosexuality, and AIDS discrimination)i thought it would also be depressing.in fact,it isn't at all.there are some sombre moments,to be sure.it is very touching at times.i liked how the film doesn't take side on this issue.it merely present a story,and it's up to the viewer how they respond to it.i mentioned Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks.however,Mary Steenburgen also impressed me a lot.Antonia Banderas was also good in what i believe is his first English speaking role.the reasons this film is so good(in no particular order)are three fold.one-the acting.2-the confident direction of Johnathon(silence of the Lambs)Demme.3-the economical writing.i also have to mention the musical score as well as the theme song by Bruce Springsteen.both really complemented the movie well.overall,this was a good movie.one thing i didn't like is that one or two scenes went on a bit too long.however,those were few and far between.my vote for Philadelphia is a 7.5/10.
But this one is different thanks to its subject.Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) is a gay lawyer with AIDS who has lost his job at a conservative law firm because of his disease.
Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) is a homophobic small time lawyer who decides to defend him anyway, only because the law has been broken, not because he likes Beckett all that much.Like I already said, this movie could have gone by unnoticed, but it didn't.
This movie would have been OK anyway thanks to the good direction and the story, but it is thanks to the great performances of Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington that this movie has become an icon.
I saw this movie when it came out and thought it was ok, I mean Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks how could you miss?
The highlight of the film and the thing that holds it all together is without a doubt the performances, Tom Hanks is a down on his luck homosexual, he is believable in every moment, a well deserved Oscar win.
Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) was a top attorney with one of Philadelphia's top law firms, when all of a sudden he's fired.
It also didn't remind me of any other AIDS related movies, which makes it unique.Praise- This movie contains 2 of the best performances that Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks have given in their career.
Its good for anyone who likes Tom Hanks, or was interested in the story of how some people with AIDS were mistreated.
Directed by Jonathan Demme, it relates the story of Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) a dedicated, successful and superior attorney working for a prestigious Philadelphia Law firm when they decide to fire him for incompetence.
Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, perhaps the most revered white and black male actors of their generation, respectively -- in a film about homosexuality and the AIDS epidemic.
It's as if to say that we've broken a social barrier like this before and we'll do it again.The film follows Hanks as Andrew Beckett, a young stud lawyer in a major Philadelphia firm who learns his HIV has become AIDS just as he is promoted.
While best actor awards tend to make people think of the most dramatic performances, it is the way Hanks shows the debilitating effects of the disease through the course of the film that makes him Oscar-worthy.
Too bad.) But in 1993, Mr. Washington made a wonderful movie called "Philadelphia" with Tom Hanks, and Antonio Banderas. |
tt1233219 | My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done | The film begins with Detective Havenhurst driving with his partner Detective Vargas. They receive a call and drive to the scene of a murder. As they push their way through the crowd at the crime scene, they see Brad McCullum leaving with a coffee cup. Inside the house, the detectives find the body of Mrs. McCullum who has just been stabbed with an antique sword. At the scene are the neighbors and chief witnesses, Mrs. and Miss Roberts. The detectives soon realize that they had just seen the murderer leaving the scene.
The Robertses tell the detectives that Brad was disturbed, and had changed when he went to Peru recently. In a flashback we see Brad in Peru preparing for a kayak trip on a raging river. Back to the present time, the police have learned that Brad has taken two hostages in the house across the street. The police surround the house, and Brad's fiancée Ingrid arrives. Ingrid talks to Havenhurst about Brad's trip to Peru, saying that Brad's friends all drowned on their kayak trip, which Brad had decided at the last minute not to take part in; he later claimed that the voice of God had told him to stay behind. Several more flashbacks follow of Brad and Ingrid in Brad's bedroom, talking with Mrs. McCullum, looking at nearby houses, having dinner. Back in the present, Brad demands pizza for himself and the hostages, along with a car for transportation to Mexico.
In another flashback we see Brad in rehearsals for a Greek tragedy directed by Lee Meyers. As the pizza is delivered to Brad, Lee arrives at the scene of the crime. Lee talks with Havenhurst about Brad, and we flash back to Lee and Brad visiting Uncle Ted's ostrich farm. Brad convinces Uncle Ted to give him the antique sword which would be used in the crime. Brad uses the sword in more rehearsals for the play, in which he plays the part of a man who kills his mother, who is played by his fiancée Ingrid. Brad becomes disruptive and is eventually kicked out of the production, but still travels to Calgary with Lee and his mother to attend a performance. We see some footage of Brad at Machu Picchu, and then at a Central Asian market.
A SWAT team arrives to take command of the hostage situation, and the detective talks further with Ingrid and Lee. We see a flashback to Brad and Ingrid's trip to Tijuana, after which they go to Bob Wilson Naval Hospital to "visit the sick in general". Brad buys several pillows at the hospital gift shop. Then Brad and Ingrid walk in Balboa Park, and Brad gives away his bag of pillows, keeping one, and leaves his basketball in a tree.
Back at the crime scene, Havenhurst interviews Miss Roberts, who had witnessed the crime. In a flashback to the scene just before the murder, we see the Robertses sitting down with Brad and his mother for coffee. When Brad steps out, his mother tells Mrs. Roberts that Brad has just tried to smother her with a pillow. Brad gets his coffee cup, and then goes to his car and returns with a baseball bat and the sword. He hands the bat to Miss Roberts, saying "kill me before I do it". She does nothing, and he draws the sword and holds it in front of his mother. Miss Roberts tells detective Haverhurst that Brad stabbed her, though we do not see the crime on camera.
Ingrid and Lee talk to Brad, urging him to release the hostages and surrender. Ingrid realizes that Brad's hostages are his two pet flamingoes, and the SWAT team moves in and arrests Brad. As Brad is led into the car, we see shots of running ostriches. The final shot is in Balboa Park, where a young boy resembling Brad picks up the basketball.Source: Wikipedia | psychedelic, murder, flashback | train | imdb | It concerns a man whom, after acting in and becoming obsessed with a Greek play, chooses to do that which his character does; kill his mother with a sword used as a prop in the production.
Brad, a brooding man-child who lives with his mom, gradually goes nuts, saying and doing increasingly unhinged (and funny) things to his clueless loved ones, played by goofy character actors like Udo Kier, Grace Zabriskie and Chloe Sevigny.
Story One. The Truth.The film is based on the true story of Mark Yavorsky, a San Diego man who stabbed his mother to death, inspired by his recent role as Euripides' Orestes in a production of The Eumenides at University of California, San Diego.
(The Truth isn't very interesting anyway, so you can skip this bit.)Story Two. The Cinematic Truth.Brad McCullum (Michael Shannon) is maybe in his late twenties but lives with his eccentric and overbearing ("You know you like your jello!") mother.
This occurrence is treated in a fairly routine way near the beginning of the film, so we can enjoy the rest of the time in extended flashbacks to understand what really happened and why.Story Three.
"At least some people act a role," says Brad, "others play a part." Historically, it's about replacing matriarchy.This is a film where you are entranced throughout, awaiting the dark brooding fury or the mother's 'vengeful hounds from hell.' (Or at least an ostrich that steals yours glasses while you're cleaning them.) It even has a dwarf.
The film is based on a true story where an actor who was performing in a Ancient Greek play about a man who kills his mother to avenge his father's death, does just that and kills his own mother.
I can't imagine what would posses someone to do this hideous act, but this movie tries to put together some sort of rationale as to what would lead a person to do this.I thought that Shannon's character would be the most interesting, but after thinking it over I found that the other people in his life were even more peculiar.
I had a hard time getting past these questions.What helped was the entrancing camera work and film composition that Herzog put together along with cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger.
Roger Ebert said about My Son that it "confounds all convention and denies all expected pleasures", and this is partially true because there's a murder but we know who did it and we know where he is, right across the street, and the hostage situation that develops outside the suspect's place is perfunctory at best (which means Willem Dafoe as the homicide detective has very little to do here, no this is Mike Shannon's film), but in place of the tired conventions of the detective movie Herzog invents new pleasures, strange and mystifying and sometimes completely mindbending and hilarious, like the mental image of a midget on a baby horse being chased by a 45 pound chicken that is taller than both rider and horse, an idea for a commercial Brad Dourif explains wide-eyed with fascination, but a commercial to what how should he know!
This is an amazing film on the poetics of madness using the real story of a man who slew his mother with a sword to tell us about absurdity in the world.
In a meeting between Herzog and Lynch before the film was made, they both expressed a desire for, in Herzog's words, "a return to essential filmmaking" with small budgets, good stories, and the best actors available.
Directed by Werner Herzog, produced by David Lynch - quite a lot for any film to live up to?
Although the film was directed by Herzog it often displays Lynch's hallmarks; the constant foreboding music humming low in the soundtrack, the moments of quirky humour, the mannered dialogue and the weird characters, most notably Lynch regular Grace Zabriskie as the mother.
It's almost as though Herzog is intentionally paying homage to his fellow left-field director, while incorporating some of his own personal concerns such as a crazy central character, weird animals, dangerous nature and, most specifically of all, a river trip in Peru!
And the film does have some good oddball actors at its disposal, like Zabriskie, Willem Dafoe, Brad Dourif and Udo Kier.
On the DVD for Herzog's film The Wild Blue Yonder there is an interview with Brad Dourif (the star in that film and the guy who plays the uncle in this one) and for some reason he mentions the script for this movie saying it was unmade but brilliant.
At this point the film appears like it will focus on this but instead we get a story constructed of flashbacks which mostly come from the perspective of Brad while also get nothing from him in the present.
The police action and interviews outside the house form the structure for all this but while in another version they would be the "all", here they seem to exist almost like a necessary evil.I say this because the film seems much more interested in the flashbacks and in particular using them as a tool to bewilder, set a very strange tone and generally make the viewer feel on-edge.
As such we think we know the score (because we have seen this genre like they have done this job) but yet what we then experience not only doesn't fit this expectation, but ultimately we are left none the wiser in terms of our understanding; the man and the crime remain an enigma with only the very obvious link to the play's themes being the "reason" (if there even is such a thing approaching that word).
I mean you have a great director in Werner Herzog and when I heard David Lynch was involved and saw the cast I started rubbing my hands together.
My fancy regarding this film, fictitious naive but perhaps useful is that David Lynch found the worst cookie-cutter script out there, clichéd police procedural crud which would take up about a quarter of an hour of a TV show like Law and Order or The Shield, and challenged Werner Herzog to make it into a great film.
Here he plays Brad McCullum, a man who has failed to escape out from under his mothers skirts, who lives at home and is infuriated by his dysfunctional life, he is reminiscent of Alessandro from Marco Bellochio's Fists in the Pockets (I pugni in tasca), and comes to believe in solving his problems, and his family problems (likened to the curse of Atreus) via a Carthaginian solution (killing).It's quite something to behold, his descent into psychosis, and it's organic, you can see why it's happening, it's not something that's superstitious, or to do with evil.
I just get frustrated, because everywhere life is so timid, and people refuse to grow or have fun, and I feel stifled.Brad actually likes to give his stuff away, in the film the main symbol of this is his basketball, which apparently was a game he excelled at.
I, like many reviewing this film, are a BIG fan of David Lynch and Werner Herzog.
The film looks good, the acting is competent, but what could have been a fascinating character study turns out to be an empty story.
Probably because director Werner Herzog thought it would have messed with the boring atmosphere or the slow timing of the movie.
And tooo awkward.The finest David Lynch-inspired-nonsensical moment comes midway into movie in which we're randomly thrown into a snow-covered setting along with David and two new characters: a hillbilly and a man with dwarfism (sorry I'm not 100% what the politically correct term is so that's what I'm sticking with).
Here, she is just a painfully obvious caricature -- watching her feels like having an intestinal gas attack on a cross-country plane flight.I saw this movie based on the fact that Werner Herzog directed it, despite serious reservations about the presence of the now very overexposed Willem Dafoe.
Which goes to show you, that Herzog indeed has something fascinating to offer for an actor or actress.And the movie is very complicated with rich characters and strange events and turns.
It's got a shed-load of big actors on board doing unconventional performances, there many quirky, messed up moments, a lot of dark humour and a floaty script that fleshes out a distinct dreamy, lost atmosphere, accentuated by the incredible cinematography and music choices that are not typical of any film I've ever seen.Secondly, the cultural merit: It starts off like a pragmatic cop drama, you get Willem Dafoe and his understudy, chatting chit, doing what cops in films do, shooting the breeze and driving to the crime scene like any other day on the job, but then they arrive and the mystery starts to unravel and the story's told in a series of flashbacks told by witnesses, and cutbacks to the "present" where the police are negotiating Michael Shannon's surrender.
Really, when a film like this comes out, and it's the closest thing to art you've seen for a long time in modern cinema, believe me when I say it's worth a watch.
When you get a movie that says "David Lynch presents a Werner Herzog film", you know you'll be in for some weirdness.
For me it's a continuation not so much of a crime genre story like Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans, but of Herzog's oeuvre in general about man's plunge and practical capture by madness due to nature (i.e. Peruvian jungle).
And for fans of the director, it should be quite an event to be able to possible walk from one theater in NYC or LA playing Port of Call New Orleans to see another playing My Son My Son.And yet, for all of the good stuff going on in this film, I might be more inclined to recommend the crazy-but-lucid head-trip of Port of Call over the hit-or-miss affair of My Son My Son. In this case we get the story of Brad, a sometimes-actor who takes a cue from a Sophocles play he's acting in to kill his mother one morning with a sword he used as a prop for the play.
The set-ups of the flashbacks are often unconvincing, and there's a disconnect I felt between Michael Shannon's character and his girlfriend played by Chloe Sevigny (I don't often beg for explanation, but really, why are they together, how did they meet, WTF man).
Like, say, Synecdoche, New York, it's got incredible sights and moments, things of this world we haven't seen in a film in a while (or maybe ever) like ostrich farms and a 1920's gospel song put over cops with their hands up in a hostage scene.
A murder committed by a disturbed young man and the events which led to the crime are told in flashbacks, resembling ancient drama plays or film classics like Rashomon, amongst many others.
Beautiful combination of mesmerizing Herzog's eye, the poetic, alienating protagonist, inducing the dark subconscious intensity akin to Lynch's movies, and Ernst Reijseger's inimitable music, projecting the whole story to a purely aesthetical shape, like some scenes that end with a long awkward pause in a few seconds load with musical grace and turn harmonious and illusory.The film is a sequence of Brad's madness manifestations, starting with an obsession with his stage image, an ancient Greek seeking catharsis in his Mother's murder.I re-watch it with constant awe..
His collaboration with Nicholas Cage, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call-New Orleans, was an interesting mess, with Cage bringing back that effective campy-style of acting that first made him famous, a style we all loved and mourned for when he gave it up to become a "serious actor." The film itself, however, was an in-cohesive tale, pieced together with blotches of scenes that at times didn't gel and often got in the way of the storytelling.
Without Cage's performance, Bad Lieutenant would've withered away, joining the million of other films that have failed to inspire us.Herzog's 2009 attempt, however, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?, now available on DVD, succeeds greatly in its storytelling, its originality as a film, and its portrayal of a disturbed man lost in the world, looking for something to believe in, ultimately feeling he needs to kill his mother to liberate himself from the demons that haunt his mind, as well as his soul.
Michael Shannon, who we now know as the bitter, troubled F.B.I. agent on HBO's Boardwalk Empire, plays the son and his performance is almost as brutally honest as any other in a Herzog film.
Brad Douriff's appearance in the film is almost a comedic element in itselfI think when all is said and done, what this movie needs more than anything is a bit more space to be fleshed out.
After lying in production limbo for almost fifteen years, director Werner Herzog finally managed to make his film, loosely based on the story of Mark Yavorsky, with the help of producer David Lynch.
By showing us the murder and the murderer within the first five minutes, Herzog removes any element of mystery surrounding the crime, and instead focuses on the mental disintegration of its protagonist, as well as placing his own spin on the familiar hostage crisis drama.Detectives Havenhurst (Willem Dafoe) and Vargas (Michael Pena) arrive at the scene of a recent murder, where an elderly lady has been stabbed with an antique sword.
Outside the crime scene, a man drinking coffee says something strange to Havenhurst, and shortly after, the detectives realise this man is Brad Macallam (Michael Shannon), the son of the murdered woman and also the murderer.
What they discover is a man changed by a recent trip to Peru, where he pulled out of a kayak trip at the last minute after hearing the voice of God telling him not to, only for everyone else to be killed.This is certainly one of Herzog's 'smaller' films, following the almost mainstream and outlandish (but hugely entertaining) Bad Lieutenant earlier the same year.
Big fan of most of this cast.Not such a big fan of this movie.It's eighty some minutes and feels like 6 hours.You really, really, really, really really, really have to suspend disbelief to get into this film.
There has been a lot of bad talk about this film but I have watched a lot of Herzog and I love this movie.
From his mental instabilities to his obsession over a Greek play this is what My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done asks.Where do I begin, firstly, if you are not interested in what drove the leading character to kill his mother then the chances are that you are not going to like this movie.
It is good acting, Michael Shannon does play a great crazy man.
Now I am not saying WIlliam Shannon did a bad job in the film playing this disturbed man--it was a lovely performance of a madman.
My advice--see both films.The movie begins with two detectives (one is Willem Defoe) being called to a murder scene.
All in all a good film (except for the god-awful score)--with the sort of weirdness you'd expect from a David Lynch production and the quality direction of Werner Herzog.
As we begin to empathize with Brad, he seems to make the very normal, modern, clean suburban world around him seem almost like a dystopia simply by his presence.The real star of this film in my mind was Grace Zabriskie, who played Brad's mother.
When you start to watch the movie you will immediately notice some of the actors: Willem Dafoe, Brad Dourif, Michael Shannon, Michael Pena, Grace Zabriskie
just to name a few.
Perhaps this film defines me as an average movie-goer but it was my third trip to an art-house cinema (Cineclub de Tavira, Portugal) in a week and by far the least satisfying, and I am usually a fan of both David Lynch and Werner Herzog.
C. Fields's heyday, and at least in his pictures they were played that way for laughs.Herzog draws some good performances out of a talented cast but the story, such as it is, hardly extends beyond a ten to fifteen minute short, in fact the trailer that was shown the week before the screening contained all of the film's most significant action.The most disappointing element of all was that the S.W.A.T. team does not shoot the lead character to pieces in the last scene.
You like this rubbish not because it's good but to signify to yourself and others that you're a certain sort of person.Brad McCullum (Michael Shannon) is a glaringly disturbed man who kills his mother with a sword one morning.
The only honest element is the unacknowledged denial every other character is in about Brad's mental problems.Let me stress that no actor gets a chance to shine, no line of dialog rings true or will stay with you, nothing looks all that great and the grinding string music of the score sounds like something you'd play outside a convenience store to drive away loitering teenagers and small animals.
"My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?" stars Michael Shannon as Brad Macallum, who, as the movie opens, has just killed his widowed mother and is holed up in their flamingo-themed home, allegedly with two hostages.
Marcello Mastroianni Marlon Brando ETC All the greats go crazy.I was pleased to see the main character succeed in this effort.Michael Shannon is insane.I have no reference to other things he has done but My Son has to be it.The film is pure spectacle.It allows you interpretation and forces your engagement at the same time.It does all the things it should do.I like Herzog's quote about working with the RED as the only negative to this work is image quality."It's an immature camera created by computer people who do not have a sensibility or understanding for the value of high-precision mechanics, which has a 200-year history." Just don't blame it on Zeitlinger the DP.What a hipster concoction Lynch, Herzog, Chloe, Dafoe, Zabriskie and Uncle Teds Ostrich Farm are.I'm all for it..
Brad was in a play where the lead character kills his mother.
Film does have a conventional plot frame, but what the story is actually about is exploration of acts of a strange man. |
tt1104083 | Little Ashes | In 1922, 18-year old Salvador Dalí (Robert Pattinson) arrives at university in Madrid. The Residencia de Estudiantes, or student residences, is a modern environment which encourages Spain's brightest young minds. Salvador, who is determined to become a great artist, soon catches the attention of the Resi's social elite poet Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltran) and aspiring filmmaker Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty). Together they form the nucleus of the most modern group in Madrid.
Their private lives become increasingly complex as Federico ignores the advances of devoted friend and writer Magdalena (Marina Gatell), and Salvador himself feels the pull of García Lorca's magnetism. Luis, becoming increasingly isolated by the duo's closeness, decides to move to Paris to fulfill his own artistic ambitions. Meanwhile, Salvador and Federico leave Madrid to spend the summer at the seaside village of Cadaques, at the home of Dalí's family.
Federico finds himself accepted[1] into the Dalí family as he and Salvador grow closer until, one night, their friendship becomes more.[2] Even as they draw closer, their relationship appears doomed. Luis visits them at university and becomes more suspicious and appalled by their apparent closeness.
Dalí finds García Lorca's obsession with him more than he is prepared to handle and moves to Paris. Consumed by the high society and decadence, Dalí is soon entangled with Gala (Arly Jover) a married woman with a penchant for celebrities. When García Lorca visits, he finds his friend is a changed man, in his life and his politics. | romantic, psychedelic, murder, violence, flashback | train | imdb | I have no explanation as to why some critics gave Little Ashes bad reviews other than it just wasn't your typical movie and they couldn't understand that.This movie tells a beautiful and fascinating story (read the synopsis beforehand it helps).The acting is excellent.The accents sound/are authentic (when Dali sounds American or French that is done intentionally from what i hear.) oh, and it's an INDEPENDENT FILM!
I will admit, what drew me to this movie was the fact that Robert Pattinson was in it and after seeing Twilight and the ga-ga-ness of him and the media, young girls and even old ladies, I wanted to see him act.
and British- it would have been nice to see the film in the original language of Dali, even if I had to read it.Javier Beltran was an excellent choice to play famous writer Federico Garcia Lorca.
The music forces the movie along at some points and the flashes of black and white imagery try to convey the chaos that was surrounding Dali and his mates in Spain in the 1920's and it does not do justice to the uncertainty and fear that was rampant.If movies are in themselves pieces of art this is a valiant effort on the part of everyone involved, including Mr. Pattinson- though I hope this is not the best I see from him, but it did make me enjoy him as an actor, not eye candy.
Unfortunately I am very quite aware that this movie will not get the attention it deserves in the states and that a good portion of the people who will watch this movie will only watch for the main actor, Mister Robert Pattinson but I still suggest that Dali lovers watch this movie as well as fans of slightly strange movies..
(For some viewers, it might help to perhaps have a brief surrealism/Dali./Spain between the wars primer; this might make a difference in better appreciating certain aspects of the characters and the times portrayed.) I agree with another review, that in its essence this story about a little known poet and peer of Dali named Federico García Lorca-- the words devastating, beautiful, tragic, and inspiring come to mind.
It is based on the stories and relationships between Federico García Lorca, Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel since their friendship in the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid in the 1920s.
It portrays the various choices each makes without being judgmental: the romantic revolutionary choices of Lorca that lead to his execution at the hands of the Nationalist militia at the very beginning of the Spanish Civil War, the narcissistic path of Salvador Dalí marked by genius, excessiveness and conceit, and the emotionally and politically embroiled life of Luis Buñuel who decides early on that his artistic career cannot find a place in Spain.The editing of the movie could have used a little more smoothness.
Watching Paul Morrison's remarkably powerful "Little Ashes", I feel like I'm never going to read Federico García Lorca, I'm never going to appreciate Salvador Dalí and I'm never going to see Luis Buñuel under the same light ever again.
Morrison's film gives us that special kind of enlightenment, and it transports us to a different age in such a way that, once it's over, we feel trapped in between our present day and a tempestuously romantic afternoon in 1922."Little Ashes" takes place in 1922 Spain, when the country was under the violent regime of the Guerilla, and when the church and the government forced a conservative attitude on life, art and sex.
García Lorca and Buñuel become instant friends with Dalí, but from the first moment they meet, García Lorca and Dalí are joined together by an unbearable attraction...which they must keep hidden, especially from their mutual friend Buñuel who hates homosexuals and from the rest of their society who could threaten their lives.The film constantly mixes and entwines different subjects: the tense, suffocating love between García Lorca and Dalí, their complicated relationship with Buñuel, the political situation of the country and their artistic flashes of genius.
The actors deliver fine performances (with the special mention of Robert Pattinson who managed to capture Dalí almost perfectly, and who's inspired in his portrayal), the directing flows like undisturbed water, the writing is perfect and the overall production has little to be disliked.But there is a slight flaw: there are moments of extreme tension, when the mood and the topic of the film have reached such nerve-wrecking heights and the film, in its attempt to keep up with the pace, cuts off the tension.
Nevertheless, like I said before, it's a SLIGHT flaw, and the rest of the film rewards us and redeems our viewing experience.This movie is based on actual characters, actual facts, and is inspired by written documents attesting to the majority of events, but great artistic liberty has also been used to add drama and romance.
This film spends much of its time telling us that Federico Garcia Lorca was gay and was in love with Salvador Dali.
There are a couple of nicely mildly erotic short sex scenes, so there is a little passion in the film, but like Salvador Dali, the film doesn't want us to feel passion/sex but only wants to be admired for having it..
But nothing about actually breaking them and none of the sublime intuition that melts time and is the revenge of abstract interior space upon the solid forms of history.And Bunuel, a little beside the other two: godless, fierce, radical, tormented, but a mere stubborn footnote in the exchange of visual platitudes about love and art - as exemplified by how vibrant feels among the rest of the film the short clip from Un Chien, of course the eponymous scene.So it's really sad that we have to settle for this, by itself a tame and harmless bout of youthful exuberance, a sort of safe exuberance that is nowhere as complex and impulsive as these people surely lived if we judge by their work, but really the most dismaying in context of these people and that work.
Little Ashes - Pattinson does not look, sound or feel like Dali.
There was nothing wrong with the story of the movie except the actor chosen to play the great surrealist painter: Salvador Dali.
Dali played by Robert Pattinson, was so off I have to rate this movie 1/10.
Beltran does a decent job in his role as Federico Garcia Lorca, but I was left wanting so much more from this film than was actually delivered.The entire premise of the film, the revelation of a relationship between Dali and Lorca during their school days, is thin and there doesn't seem to be enough material to base an entire film on.
If you know the period you'll get easily, otherwise you're gonna need to make a research on icons like Salvador Dali, Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Buñuel and their meaning to the arts."Little Ashes" follows the friendship between these three artists, from the time they were students until the beginning of their careers and some of its famous moments, pictures, films, poems and all.
More than that, the film explores a love relationship between Dali and Lorca, played respectively by Robert Pattinson and Javier Beltrán; and their involvement in art and revolutionary acts during Franco dictatorship.
The rest is history, mentions of "Un Chien Andalou" (Buñuel & Dali film partnership) and the famous image of the eye; poems by Lorca; and Dali's strange magnetism as a bizarre figure with his surrealistic art and way of living and style.The film is panned and harshly criticized by many people complaining that everything in this movie is wrong, its inaccuracy in everything, and most of all that Pattinson is a terrible actor and he shouldn't portray Dali and things like that.
There are some innuendos, many artistic licenses and some awkward moments and unexplained things (such as Buñuel being presented as half homophobic who seems to approve Dali's homosexualism but on the other hand he doesn't approve that Lorca is too, to the point of beating up a guy who wanted to have sex with him and he looked for this guy, he wanted.
As for the performances they are very nice, especially Javier Beltrán, who has an unique dramatic talent, the actor you'll want to see more and more in the film thanks to his ability to display a poetic emotion that seems to reflect the character very well, not much of an acting, it's more like a embodiment of Lorca.
"Little Ashes" gathered a lot of attention after his role as Edward Cullen in "Twilight" since many twilighters wanted to see more of his films, and along with that attention came some of the critical examinations saying that he wasn't a good choice for this film, and others even worst than this trashy comments that said that a movie about Dali with Pattinson starring is unwatchable.
He has a good performance despite being too handsome for the role, although his Dali's mannerisms might look as a caricature of the important artist, but after a moment he gets very similar to the real figure (that "crazy" look in his eyes is very similar).
If "Little Ashes" was directed and produced by the cinema of Spain with Spanish actors, and if they have a fantastic budget to spend in producing a film with more than three hours covering until the final days of Dali and Buñuel (sadly, the movie didn't followed him much), it would be a spectacular epic film.
Robert Pattison looked more like Dracula in a bad wig, than the avant garde artist Salvador Dali.
Subtitles should have been used when Lorca read his poems in Spanish.An astonishing waste of money and talent!All the actors would have been superb with a decent screenplay.Dali's costumes became an irritation..
Deep down I felt that he was a great poet and that I owe him a tiny bit of the Divine Dali's a(..)hole."And with that, let's now talk about the movie.Although vividly denied by Dali, speculation of a romance between Dali & Lorca is the story of "Little Ashes".
This is important to note up front, because if you're looking for a film that delves into the passion & inspiration behind Dali's art, Lorca's poetry and Buñuel's films, you'll be disappointed.
This is mostly a straightforward love story with only a few substantial references to the 3 young men's creations (Lorca recites 2 poems, Dali displays 1 painting, and we get no more than 5 sec of Buñuel's film references, including the infamous slashed eyeball scene from "Un Chien Andalou").What makes this film separate from any other generic forbidden love story is the interesting portrayal of the characters.
But fused with his dorkiness is an overbearing arrogance which comes to the surface more frequently as the film progresses."Little Ashes", however, is not about Dali and certainly not about Buñuel (who is really a minor character) but is mostly from Lorca's perspective.
If you noticed in the Dali statement I quoted, he did admit that Lorca was "madly in love" with him, and that is what the film portrays in a very poetic and sentimental way.Although I was initially disappointed because I wanted to see more of Dali's art & creativity, I liked the forbidden, one-sided love story because it was well done and made good use of recognizable characters & events in history.
The photography was beautiful and the story works as a love/friendship one, not much as a portrayal of cultural and intellectual history/environment.== Just a quick reaction to a later comment: I'm not so sure how authentic it is that Dali, Buñuel and Lorca would be speaking English among them...in Spain.
I knew the works of Federico Garcia-Lorca and Salvador Dali but I didn't know about their agonizing love for one another.I am not a movie critic, (thank God) I am, well I don't know what I am, but certainly not a critic.
1922, Spain, and the art school in Madrid is ripe with talent: poet/playwright Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltrán) has already published some of his poems, Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty) is more involved with the political festering of fascism and what will become Franco's Spain than he is with concentrating on the brilliant films he will eventually make, and the newly arrived Salvador Dalí (Robert Pattinson) is making visually shocking entrances in wild clothing while rebelling against the current fads in art.
Erotic tension builds between poet Federico Garcia Lorca and artist Salvador Dali from the first few minutes of Little Ashes.
Dalí is another story, often preferring to build and then destroy his art and his relationships out of a sense of the grandiose or a desire to go further so he could be remembered.The film is more Lorca than Dalí, and thus all the university students are beautiful men who are sometimes hard to distinguish from each other.
Then Dalí as the character seems both attention-seeking and uncharismatic, and Lorca does indeed seem too good for him.7/10 for being a complex film with good acting and a lovely kind of tenderness from the actor who plays Lorca.
However do watch this film for its gorgeous imagery and for a unique performance by Pattinson, as well as an introduction to the type of mood apparent in 1920s Spain regarding issues like homosexuality..
Director: Paul Morrison and Writer: Philippa Goslett achieve a smash-up job in creating a story/film that gets into the heart and soul of three historic Spanish artist that lived at a time of social, political, and artistic transition that turned into an era of pain and suffering.Here we see three young creative men - Luis Buñuel, Federico García Lorca, and Salvador Dalí growing into their own personalities and dealing with the political callings of that time in Spain.
This film came to my attention because Robert Pattinson is in it, but it is an amazing movie.
I liked the movie a lot and I thought Garcia Lorca's and Dali's relationship was shown in a very honest and heartfelt way.
I must say that the guy that plays Lorca is amazing, I'd never seen him before but i think he was great, he takes the movie for himself.
I stumbled across Little Ashes when looking for Robert Pattinson movies as embarresing as that is but I soon became irrevocably in love with the story.
After watching this film i unbenowst to myself spend five minutes contemplating of the struggle that must have been felt by Salvador Dali at the time.
Of course they are, Salvador Dali, the surrealist painter, Federico Garcia Lorca, considered to be Spain's greatest poet, and Luis Bunuel, a film director that delighted audiences with his art films that followed the canons of the surrealist movement.
Federico Garcia Lorca, a gay poet, develops an attraction for Salvador Dali, a painter, whose sexuality is left to the audience's imagination.
The fact that young Mr. Pattinson looks nothing like the real Salvador Dali (bar the moustache) ate away at me, but I tried to keep an open mind throughout.
But because they spend so much time on Federico, it ends up coming off as his story, in which Salvador is more like a supporting character and what he did for modern art is shifted into the background.
I don't know why anyone would call this film the best because really, it ain't!Robert Pattinson doesn't even look like the real Salvador Dalí nor he can't act him because he just didn't look the part!
So, it seemed very disrespectful to Dalí's memory to choose an English boy, whose acting is often questionable, to portray him (and yet I have a funny feeling that Dalí would absolutely love it).If that wasn't enough reason to make me and every other sane person very skeptical to watch Little Ashes, the film is in English.
Yeah, that's right: a film about Frederico García Lorca, Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, set in Spain, during their youth, with mostly a Spanish cast, is in English
..But, anyway, despite all the reasons telling me I shouldn't watch Little Ashes, I decided I had to give it a try.
The scene is beautiful and it looks very much like a surrealistic painting.Also, to my complete and utter surprise, at some point in the middle of the film, Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dalí stopped repulsing me and I actually caught myself thinking (shockingly) that Pattinson can, in fact, act.
It is a good glimpse on the passionate and turbulent friendship between these three incredible artists and it portrays a time before Dalí was Dalí, which is always interesting to see or read about.-- All of that said, I feel it is my duty to warn any Robert Pattinson teenage fans, who might eventually run into this review on their Google searches, that he is most definitely not Edward Cullen in Little Ashes and that your hopes and dreams about the ridiculously handsome Pattinson might be shattered by the scenes where he passionately kisses another man.
I admire Dali so much for being able to let go, and Robert Pattinson for portraying this so well.The is definitely my favorite movie of all time.
There is good acting to see too, Pattison while getting a few things wrong, still manages to feel like a Spaniard, and the Irish guy playing Luis Bunuel does some interesting stuff.I love any movie that suggests a rich, absurd vein runs throughout life.
It stars Javier Beltran as Frederico Garcia Lorca and a pre-Twilight Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali.Starting in 1922, we are introduced to Dali as he arrives at a university in Madrid to study art.
Only towards the end of his life does Dali admit the attraction between himself and Lorca; he kept the memories of his friend quiet for years.Beltran and Pattinson are fabulous in these roles.
Because of that, he begins to pull away from Lorca and this ultimately causes the downfall of their friendship.I wanted to see this movie because I am a huge fan of Robert Pattinson. |
tt0944114 | Lieksa! | The heart of the film is the Koppelo family. Worn out after a number of travels, but united and strong, this family is proud of their history. They have their share of misfortunes but never stop believing in themselves: We are not just any gang of vagabonds; we are part of world history!Members of the Koppelo family were once court tailors for Nicholas II of Russia. The Finnish family sewed all the beautiful wedding gowns and lace dresses familiar from photos of the Czar´s family. When the Russian revolution started, Sofia, one of the ancestresses of the family and Nicholas II´s last mistress, fled to Finland with her out-of-wedlock son, her sisters and their families. They crossed the frozen Gulf of Finland and ended up in Terijoki, a small town in the south-eastern Finland that now belongs to Russia.Accused of being Bolshevists, the family fled the Finnish Civil War to Europe. Years passed, and the family spread throughout the United States and Southern Europe. In 1970s, part of the family returned to Finland and settled in Pyhäselkä, Northern Karelia, in a house called Lotokka.The Matriarch begins when a thirty-year-old peaceful existence in Lotokka ends the family is evicted! Martta, the matriarch of the family, faces a big challenge. Her family has been through some rough times, and it is her responsibility to lead them to Lieksa, a town of dreams.The Koppelo family love, fight and make up fiercely. Martta´s sons are about to slip into the world of crime, and the situation is further complicated by a dumb young man who the family picks up on the road and whose identity is a mystery.Travelling in a caravan of cars, the Koppelo family sets up camp next to a lake, and Martta finally has time to take a break. But not for long, as evil is already on its way. Laszlo, the criminal and the black sheep of the family, suddenly arrives and notices Lara, Martta´s beautiful daughter who has grown into a beautiful young woman. | dramatic, romantic, historical | train | imdb | A good film.
Before i watched this film i read different reviews about this film and with some sites rating it around 5 out of 10 i was a bit put off it, but after i watched the music video from the film i decided to give it a go.
But i am glad i have watched the film, the shots are beautiful and well made edit.
The storyline is a bit confusing but as i read the story before i watched it i felt like i knew what was going on.
The only main down side for me was that it was too short and it felt like they squashed the movie down to 1 hour and 30 minutes, they could easily of added more flow to the movie and made it near the 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Overall i would recommend this movie to my friends to watch even though it is very hard to get your hands on a English copy..
nothing special.
Beginning and the base of the story was interesting, and going on fine.
Then when Laszlo (Frantzen) comes back to family, the story starts to change more to some gangster stuff...
and also Laszlo's character is widely annoying and idiotic, and I didn't realize why he is speaking such a stupid way, and not sounding natural at all.
gangsters comes even more, little fighting, good against the evil.
Kind of basic story.
Not to much humor inside as I was expecting.
Some ultra cheesy singing parts and music in this film made want to skip the end totally; just too much sentimental crap.
I didn't even care anymore how it will end, what will happen.
It's easy to imagine anyway.
Of course movie was not full of bad stuff.
Some acting and film shooting is very well made, and this movie actually had some nice idea.
Only how it became after all wasn't a success..
A good surprise.
I get a Finnish copy of this movie with Italian and English subtitle.it's a shame that this movie didn't get more attention because : - the picture and the music are great - the plot is very non-typical - there is no boring sex or conventional violence - it's a mix of irony and tales in a nutshell this movie is a little bit like a johnny Depp or Kusturica's movies.I should admit that this movie have some lack (Maybe because of its low budget) some better actors should have been hired, some characters should have been better elaborated and some part of the scenario also.
nevertheless it didn't prevent me to dream.
What a wonderful surprise.
had it's release here in Finland, I'm ashamed to admit that I let the mostly lukewarm reviews get to me and I passed this wonderful film.
Thank heavens I was able to catch it on TV.
I can understand that some people might not be enthusiastic about a film, which is like a fairy tale for grown ups.
The cinematography is incredibly beautiful and it gives the film an other-worldly feeling.
The cast is quite good, especially Sanna-Kaisa Palo's Martta and I love the music, especially the song "While Your Lips Are Still Red" by Nightwish.**** HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD*** **** HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD***Lieksa!
tells a story of a man, who on a wintery night stops his car when he sees a crashed wan on the side of a road.
The man is drunk and when he realizes that the crash site was a setup he has very little time to react before his head makes a contact with a shovel.
The Koppelo family boys were trying to steal the man's car, but when they saw cops approaching, they panic and enter the shovel.
The old-boys take the man with them to their camp, where they realize that the man has lost, not only his memory, but also his ability to speak.
They decide to keep him and re-name him as Kasper.The Koppelo family is like a band of gypsies, traveling the road in old banged-up trailers.
The head of the family is Martta, a strong willed woman, who has two beautiful daughters and two slow minded sons.
There also few other family members in the group.
The family's great grandmother was a a lover of the former Russian emperor, Nicolai the II and the Koppelo family is truly proud of their royal blood, even though they are living from hand to mouth.
They are, like their forefathers before them, great tailors and the family is heading for a town called Lieksa, dreaming for the possibility to set up a tailor shop when they get there.
Kasper catches the eye of Lara, the beautiful younger daughter of Martha and Kasper starts to develop feelings for her.
Things are complicated by the fact, that Kasper can't utter a word and when the dangerous, handsome Laszlo, the black sheep of the family shows up, he starts to romance Lara, who is starting to grow weary with Kasper's silence.
Laszlo easily charms the Koppelo boys, but Martta is suspicious.
When Laszlo is caught red-handed stealing the family money, he is driven out of camp and he sells the family to a bunch of thugs.
Kasper overhears the plan but is caught by Laszlo and beaten up badly.Laszol tells the family to leave all their possessions behind and leave or they will be killed.
The family decides to fight and with the help (mostly) of the women, they overthrow the thugs.
Laszlo's legendary father, who left the family years ago arrives and defeats and disowns Laszlo.
Kasper moves in with Lara.When the caravan reaches the Lieksa city border, the Koppelo boys are sent to check the town.
When they come back few days later, they look shocked.
They tell the family that they had experienced more during those few days spent in Lieksa, than they had during their whole life and the city-life was not for them or for the family.
(The joke is, that Lieksa is one of the smallest cities in Finland).
That evening, when the family is sitting around a camp fire Kasper speaks for the first time.
One of the boys notes this, while the other one observes that Kasper is only thinking out loud and it really sounds like that.
Kasper has narrated the story during the film and his speech sounds just like a narration.
He observes that the destination is not important.
It is the journey that counts and he says that maybe the Koppelo family is destined to journey on.
So they keep on traveling, in to the night..
An Underrated film.
first premiered in Finland I almost went to the theater to watch it, but after hearing a lot of comments about how the movie had some nice camera angles and such, but that it was really weird and didn't have a plot, I didn't go.
But when I heard the theme song "While your lips are still red" I started to want to see the film.
Then after a little while I heard that the movie was wonderful from one person and I bought the film.
I watched and loved it.
The film was visually beautiful and had a simple meaning that many people don't seem to understand.
The Koppelo family believe that their grandmother was the lover of the last tsar of Russia.
They've settled to live in Pyhäselkä, but in the beginning of the movie they are deported and they have to find a new place to live in.
They leave towards Lieksa, the town of dreams.
In the mean time a drunken man is driving and his car crashes with the Koppelos' van.
The drunken man loses his memory and the Koppelo family take him with them.
They name the man Kasper.
Kasper falls in love with Lara, the daughter of the leader of the group.
Kasper doesn't say anything during the movie, until in the last few minutes.
The Koppelo family encounter a huge problem, Lazslo, a member of the group that left them years ago returns and wants Lara to be his bride.
Lara fells in love with him, because her relationship with Kasper isn't going anywhere.
Lazslo later on turns out to be a traitor once again and wants to destroy the whole group.
The Koppelo family does get rid of Lazslo and his helpers in the end.
The Koppelos head out to Lieksa before the winter.
When they arrive at Lieksa, two of their group visit Lieksa while the others wait outside the town.
After they return, they announce that Lieksa is too great for them.
There was more action in one day at Lieksa than in their whole lives before.
(Lieksa is actually one of the smallest and most insignificant towns in Finland)So the point in my opinion is that the thing that you try so very much to get, might not be that great after all.
There were some faults, like when men dressed as women and you were supposed to laugh and for some the movie might be too unclear to follow.
left me a great fairy tale-like feeling and I really enjoyed watching it.
Markku Pölönen did a great job in my opinion and would deserve a lot more credit for the film than he did.
I recommend Lieksa!
to anyone who enjoys realism and fairy tales mixed in a love story9/10 (Sorry if I made spelling mistakes, I'm Finnish).
A caravan that heads to Neverland.
Loved the whole thing.
The story of a young man that gets hit in the head and starts his life anew, like a baby - learning to walk, to talk, to feel, and the last but not the least, to understand - is simple but appealing.And although the plot and settings are strictly fairy-tale and timeless (like, what the people are wearing, their caravans, some of the speeches, and the guy named Laszlo from head to toe) you still want to believe what is happening on the screen.
Of course one can enjoy watching more once he knows the background of the Koppelo family's story and have an idea of what Lieksa, the movie's Neverland or Oz, whatever, really is like.
Then it comes clear that the caravan is actually going nowhere.
Another wasted dream.10 points to the team who made the movie..
Lieksa.
Lieksa.
Lieksa.
Lieksa.
I would love to see this movie.
I saw teasers and beautiful ads from the movie I was interested in seeing this movie. |
tt0254334 | The Fourth Angel | Jack Elgin is the European editor of The Economist, which is based in London, England. Jack has a wife named Maria and three kids named Joanne, Julia, and Andrew. Jack subtly changes the family vacation from a lazy week of Mediterranean fun and sun in Corfu, Greece, to a tour of India, because of a story he has to cover. Maria is not as impressed by this as the kids are. Jack himself envisioned a chance to simultaneously work an easy reporting assignment and spend a little quality time with his family. But on the way to India, the airplane, a 747 owned by AM Air, an American airline, makes an unscheduled stopover in Limassol Cyprus, because of a mechanical problem. After a while of waiting inside the Limassol airport, everyone gets back on the plane -- which is then hijacked by a group of terrorists known as the August 15th Movement, led by a Serbian man named Ivanic Loyvek and his right-hand man Karadan Maldic. The terrorists take a silver briefcase from an diplomatic courier, an older man, and it appears to be an important object of their hijack. And they are demanding $50,000,000 from the US State Department in one hour, or everyone on the airplane will die.The demand is met, and Loyvek and Maldic start releasing the women and children, with the men to go last. But as soon as a front passenger door is opened, the local police begins shooting. Inside the plane, the owner of the briefcase retrieves it, only to be killed the terrorists, who take it again.The flight attendants frantically open the rest of the airplane's doors and start getting passengers out, but the terrorists start killing passengers, leading to an explosion. Maria, Joanne, and Julia get out of the airplane, and then Jack, holding Andrew, gets out -- only to watch Maria, Joanne, and Julia get shot by the terrorists. Jack tries to hide Andrew's face so he can't see. Maria and Joanne are killed, but Julia burns to death while crying for help.Jack and Andrew survive. 15 passengers die, and Loyvek and Maldic, the surviving terrorists, escape, knowing that they now have the $50,000,000. Back in London, a devastated Jack is told that the terrorists were captured, but they were released and deported secretly, with no charges and no arrest, the result of some awfully compromised politics. Jack is understandably enraged that Loyvek and Maldic got off scot-free. While helping Andrew cope, Jack tries all the legal ways to ensure justice for his family, but to no avail.Jack even pays a visit to Henry Davidson, a CIA agent who works at the American Embassy in London. Davidson tells Jack that there's little that can be done. The American and British governments are completely impotent when it comes to going after Loyvek and Maldic. Jack decides he has no choice in the matter but to seek revenge. With the help of his ex-intelligence operative friend Kate Stockton, who is well-schooled in the finer points of international intelligence, Jack becomes a one-man anti-terrorist squadron, searching for Loyvek and Maldich. He finds a warehouse they apparently are using as a headquarters. Breaking in, he finds some papers which he takes, and some weapons. The terrorists return, find a flashlight Jack was using, and begin searching the warehouse. Jack returns upstairs, retrieves a machine pistol and loads it with a magazine. He kills three terrorists before escaping.He later breaks into the home of a friend at MI6 and steals a Walther PPK pistol from his home. He shows up at a theatre and makes a scene at the bar, to be sure he is noticed by the bartender. He then follows one of the terrorists in his taxicab, killing him with that weapon. He returns to the theatre and makes a point of apologizing to the bartender. The next day he goes pheasant hunting with his MI6 contact in case he is tested for gunpowder residue.Dogging Jack's trail is FBI agent Jules Bernard, who's cooperating with Scotland Yard on anti-terrorist activities, and who suspects that Jack is the man who has been killing anyone involved in the hijacking. Jules tries to persuade Jack that he is on his side, and he's willing to help Jack make those responsible pay for the deaths of his family and the other people who died in Cyprus.Bernard reveals that CIA agent Davidson who had been "assisting" Jack was behind the hijacking and has set Jack on a course to eliminate the terrorists so Davidson can keep the money for himself. The "August 15" name of the hijacking was a cover for purely financial motives. He tells Jack that he is now Davidson's target, and tells him into he has no choice but to help Bernard with bringing Davidson to justice.Bernard tells Jack that Davidson intends to have him killed on a train bound for Paris where Jack is to cover a meeting of government ministers. Bernard accompanies him carrying a duffel bag full of grenades and automatic weapons. When Davidson's men attack Jack, Bernard and Jack shoot back, killing three attackers, including one of the hijackers.In Paris, Davidson hijacks Jack and his driver, telling Jack the Bernard didn't have a warrant and all of the evidence he gathered is inadmissible. Jack swears at the driver, telling him he only needed 12 seconds to finish this. He jumps from the car, as does the driver. Davidson leans forward to grab the wheel and sees a grenade on the floor. The grenade explodes, destroying the car and killing Davidson.Jack, his son, and Jack's friend Stockton depart on a sail boat, leaving behind Jack's workaholic life, his revenge complete. | romantic, revenge, neo noir, violence, flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt0075860 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind | In what appers to be the Sonoran Desert; in or near Mexico, a cartographer named David Laughlin (Bob Balaban) is introduced to a French-speaking man named Claude Lacombe (renowned French director François Truffaut). Though David has been hired as Mr Lacombe's interpreter, he explains that he is actually a cartographer (a mapmaker). The two men along with a crew soon find a strange sight: a circular ring of airplanes in brand-new condition, with fuel still in the tank. The planes are identified as belonging to 'Flight 19,' a group of Navel planes that were reported missing off the coast of Florida in the mid-40's. The men soon after find a local who reported the planes. David and Claude find the man has red sunburned marks on the side of his face. Through an interpreter, the sunburned man claims the sun came out that evening, and talked to him.in an air traffic control tower in the US, some of the control tower receive reports of unidentified aircraft flying through the air and coming dangerously close to hitting an airplane. When the tower requests the planes in the vicinity of the incident if they wish to report a 'UFO (unidentified flying object),' both planes decide not to.In Muncie, Indiana, a strange power outage blackens the area. This incident affects two different families of people.The first is Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon). When she wakes in the middle of the night and finds her son Barry (Cary Guffey) missing, she wanders off into the countryside to find him.The second person is Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss). Roy gets a call from the power company he works for, and goes out to answer a service call. However, stopping at a train's track, a number of metal objects in the vicinity (including Roy's truck) begin to act strangely. A strange craft appears overhead, and flashes bright lights at Roy before flying off. Once the craft has disappeared, Roy drives off, before almost hitting Barry on a hillside road.As Jillian appears, several strangely-lit craft fly by, along with a bright red light at the tail end. Entranced by the strange objects, Roy gets back in his truck and gives chase, along with several local police cars. The strange objects fly off over the edge of a cliff, and as Roy and the officers watch, ascend into some thundering storm clouds overhead, as the darkened city underneath them regains power.Roy returns to his family eager to tell of what he saw, but his wife Ronnie (Teri Garr) refuses to acknowledge her husband's flights of fancy. Even though Roy has red sunburns from being flashed by the craft he saw, she still doesn't 'believe.'Some time afterwards, Roy meets up with Jillian and Barry, and Jillian relates how there seems to be a melody and an image of a mountain she cannot get out of her mind. Roy soon finds himself obsessing over the same mountain image, carving it in mashed potatoes as well as sculpting it out of putty or shaving cream.Meanwhile, Bob and Claude have gone around the world and observed other strange phenomenon:-A group of people in India have been chanting a strange 5-note sequence that they claim came from above.-A missing ship named the Coat Appoxi has appeared in another desert region.-Information gleaned from the musical notation sequence and a message indicates that there appears to be plans for the extraterrestrial life to descend to Earth. The Military and NASA coordinate a plan to create a false scare in the landing region that a toxic spill will make the area dangerous.Back in Muncie, Jillian is shocked one evening when the same lights as before descend towards her home, and soon after abduct her son Barry. Still in a state of shock, Jillian takes her story to the news outlets.Shortly thereafter, a person from the US Government sits down for a town hall chat with several locals in attendance (including Roy and his family), denying that there are UFO's, or that the government is covering up any such things.Roy is slowly losing his mind over the strange images in his head, and finally drives his wife Ronnie to take their kids and leave. After they have left, Roy constructs an enormous miniature of a mountain in his family's living room, before seeing a news article on the television, showing Devil's Tower...the same structure he's been seeing in his mind!Roy heads off towards Devil's Tower, only to encounter every one leaving in the wake of a (fake) chemical spill warning. Roy also finds Jillian there, and the two attempt to get to Devil's Tower, but are captured by some Military men.Roy and Jillian are separated, with Roy brought before Bob and Claude. The two listen to Roy's story...a story that sounds similar to several other people who have been drawn to the mountainous structure nearby. The two make an impassioned plea to the Military Director at the base, but he refuses to believe their 'theory' that these people were 'invited,' and attempts to fly the civilians out of there.Jillian and Roy manage to escape, making it to the other side of the mountain before night settles in, finding an enormous landing strip having been constructed. The two secretly make their way down as several little lit ships appear, before a giant 'mother ship' hovers down.Using light and sound based on the 5-note motive, the aliens appear and release some humans who had been abducted previously (many having never aged). Barry is returned as well.When Claude sees Roy has appeared as well, he and Roy decide that he -Roy- will go with several people meant to be swapped for the returnees by the aliens.After Roy and several others board the ship, it takes off for distant space.- Done by KrystelClaire:Strange events are happening all over the world: a UFO is said to have appeared in the Mojave desert in New Mexico, a long-ago lost ship appears in the middle of the Ghobi desert, many Indian people start to chant a tune they have heard coming from "above", and some airplanes have sights of flying saucers. A team of people are investigating all these phenomena, specially Claude Lacombe (renown French director François Truffaut) and his interpreter Jean Claude (Philip Dodds)In the USA, Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is trying to find his way at night. He's close to home, but is looking for the place he has to go to in a map. He is an electric company technician who has to solve a problem with an electrical blackout. While waiting at a railroad crossing, everything seems to go crazy around him -- his flashlight won't work, the radio in his truck goes haywire, and some mailboxes along the road open themselves. Suddenly, a bright light lands on the truck. Looking out of the window, he is flashed several times by what seems to be a UFO. Roy then attempts to drive after the three small flying saucers and a small red light.Mainwhile, Barry Guiler (Cary Guffey), a little boy of around 6, wakes up because all his toys start playing themselves and making noise in the middle of the night. He goes out of home on his own. He lives in a cheap home nearby a forest. Dressed in his pyjamas, he goes out. A toy police car wakes up his mother Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) as well. From her window, she calls out for him, but Barry enters the wood anyway, laughing alone. Jillian runs after him. When she catches up with him, Barry is standing up in the middle of a curvy town road. He seems stunned, dazed. Jillian arrives just in time to save him from being run over by Roy.The UFOs disappear among cloudy and stormy weather. Many people have seen them, and they wait all through the night in the same curve of the same road for the UFOs to appear again, hoping for a friendly sign. Roy, Barry and Jillian are among those people.During daylight, they all try to go on with their lives. However, it seems that they can't cope. Barry repeats a lullaby over and over again. Jillian tries to draw a mountain she has never seen, and Roy seems to have gone crazy. He makes all kinds of strange attemps to create a sculpture of the same mountain than Jillian. First with shaving foam, secondly with mashed potatoes. The three children of the couple, Brad, Sylvia and Toby (Shawn Bishop, Adrienne Campbell and Justin Dreyfuss), become silent and frightened as well, after a terrible row with plenty of shouting on everybody's part. As a higher level of Roy's brand-new eccentric behaviour, he starts pulling out some small trees from his home garden in a frenzy, and also he steals his neighbour's duck pond metal rail in plain daylight. His wife Ronnie (Teri Garr) is getting more and more frightened because of her husband's hectic behaviour. She cannot take it anymore and leaves him. She takes her children with her, while neighbours stop doing their everyday chores to look in amazement at the final row of the couple.Now Roy can create his mountain sculpture without being disturbed. He makes it so huge that it occupies all the kitchen. While he is talking on the phone, he finally realises what he is so obsessed about. The famous anchorman Howard K. Smith (himself) is announcing on TV that Devil's Peak is being evacuated, because there is a deadly gas leaked in the atmosphere. They show some images of the place, so Roy decides to make the journey there immediately.At the same time, Barry has disappeared. He had been kidnapped by the supposed energy of a UFO. Jillian had tried to prevent it, closing all doors, windows, and even the chimney place, but it is useles. Barry feels attracted by the lights and he goes into them through the dog trap in the main door. Newspapers will laugh about Jillian's evidence before the police, claiming that she alleges that "some clouds kidnapped my son", and treat her like a demented person.The following day, Roy is driving in the opposite direction. He arrives at the nearest train station to the mountain, where hundreds of people are boarding a train in panic, climbing into the wagons through the windows and even getting on top of some coaches. The military police are watching all the operation. There, Roy finds Jillian, who wants to go to the same place than him. They get out of the station quietly helped by the chaos. Jillian is carrying two pigeons in a small cage, in the hope that, if there is any poisonous substances in the air, the birds will die before she does so. They drive together across fields and empty roads with many cows and horses dead along the way. They get close to their destination, but they are stopped by the miliatry police and the two French investigators dressed in white, astronaut-like outfits and gas masks. One of them forces Roy and Jillian to get into a white van, while taking the cage with the two birds, now completely dead. Jillian, Roy and another man jump off from the helicopter which was going to take them out of the area. They had taken off their masks, proving that there is no real danger in breathing the alledgedly deadly air. The three runaways make it to the mountain, being followed by armed soldiers and several helicopters. The third man gets gassed out and passes out so the two main characters are the only ones who make it to the other side of the mountain.There, Jillian and Roy find a kind of runway lane surrounded by scientifical devices and cameras by all sides except one. There are people all over the place, some of them armed with heavy weaponry, and the two Frenchmen are also there. Jillian and Roy look at the sudden weather changes hidden behind some mountain rocks. The UFO's appear, altogether with the smaller red light. They fly so close to them that they could have almost touched them.The UFO's and the official people maintain a kind of dialogue: they play the tune which Barry and the Indian people sang. They use a kind of huge keyboard and a screen with light and colours. Everything is successful. Roy goes down the mountain after having kissed Jillian but she prefers to stay hidden behind a rock. He thinks he is going to be captured by an army officer, but the man is running away, hiding himself on the portable toilet facility, a scene which will be repeated later on Spielberg's Jurassik Park film. The UFOs go away. The French people see Roy, but they let him be.The scientists are going to start to analyse all the materials they have recorded. All of a sudden, the hugest UFO of them all appear, and they all go back to their positions. Again, there is the tuned music conversation, accompained by coloured lights. The music moves faster and faster until it dies out. Everybody is watching, breathless.The UFO is opened. Through the below part of the device, several people (and a dog) who had previously disappeared, walk out of the UFO. They are all healthy and calm. One of the last ones is Barry. Jillian leaves her hiding place and goes running to him, hugging and kissing her son while crying tender tears. Barry does not look traumatized or hurt in any way.The UFO door opens again. First, a long-legged and long-armed creature appears. The next instant, some twenty grey-skinned aliens appear and get out of the UFO. They have got no hair, they are naked, and they are as tall as a child. One of the aliens repeats the hand movements which represent the music tune.Some volunteers, including Roy, decide to go into the UFO with the aliens. No aliens stay on Earth. The spacecraft and their occupants fly away from planet Earth into the million-starred celestial copola.--originally written by KrystelClaire | mystery, dramatic, humor | train | imdb | null |
tt0403358 | Nochnoy dozor | THE SETTING: In the world that is modern Moscow, there exists a parallel realm known as the Gloom (kind of like the Astral Plane). Certain humans with special powers can pass in and out of the Gloom. They are known as the Others and have co-existed with humans for as long as humanity has existed. The Others are soldiers in the Eternal War, the struggle between dark and light. Light Others protect mankind from Dark Others, most of whom are vampires. Light Others and Dark Others currently live within a Truce.THE LEGENDS: A Legend says that there existed in ancient Byzantium, a Virgin who became cursed. Wherever she went, misfortune would follow. The force of the curse opened a vortex of damnation around her, and with it, the
first forces of Darkness were born into the world. Warriors of Light rose up to fight them, and the great battle between Light and Dark began. Legend tells of the day thousands of years ago when the two armies met on the bridge. Geser, Lord of the Light, and Zavulon, General of the Darkness, faced each other, and neither one would give way. Eventually, Lord Geser realized that the armies were equally matched, and he knew that, unless the fighting stopped, every last soul would perish, so he stopped the battle and forged a truce. These things were decreed. No Other could be forced to Good or Evil without choosing freely, and once the choice is made, it is binding. The soldiers of the Light would be called Night Watch, making sure that Dark Others obeyed the truce, and the soldiers of Darkness would be called Day Watch, to do the same. Another group, composed of the most powerful individuals of both Watches, would be known as the Inquisition. It would be their duty to watch over both Watches, and so the balance would be kept for centuries to come. But one day, an Other would come, more powerful than any before him. Like all Others, he would have to choose between Light and Dark. If this Great Other takes the side of Light, Light will triumph. But the Seers say he will choose Darkness. Legend also says that the Final Battle between good and evil will be heralded by the reappearance of the Virgin.MOSCOW, Spring 1992: Anton Gorodetsky's [Konstantin Khabenskiy] wife Irina Petrova [Mariya Mironova] has left him for another man, so Anton consults the Dark Witch Darya Leonidova [Rimma Markova] about getting her back. "No problem", says Darya, except that she is pregnant with the other man's child, which will involve killing an innocent. Anton must first agree to bear the responsibility himself for such a grave sin. Anton agrees, so Darya mixes a bit of his blood with some vodka and lemonade and begins the spell that will kill the unborn baby. Just as she's about to complete the
spell, however, three Nightwatch descend upon her and prevent it. When Anton asks who these people are, the Nightwatch patrollers are amazed that Anton can see them, since they are working from the Gloom, into which no one but
an Other can see. This is how Anton finds out that he is an Other. He is a Seer, able to enter the Gloom and to see glimpses of the future.MOSCOW, Summer 2004: Twelve-year old Yegor [Dmitriy Martynov] is swimming at a local public swimming pool when his nose starts to bleed and he receives a psychic call that he cannot resist. Meanwhile, Anton, who has become an agent with the Nightwatch, receives a message from headquarters that a Dark Other has called Yegor, meaning that Yegor is being lured by a vampire. Anton must locate Yegor and intercept. The Nightwatch has traced Yegor to the Orange Line (Metro), but then they lost him. Although Anton is an agent of the Light, he lives on the borderline between Light and Dark, sleeping during the day and needing to drink blood in order to "feel" Calls. To find Yegor, Anton is in need of some "red stuff," so he asks his law-abiding vampire neighbor Kostya [Aleksey Chadov] to take him to his father's abbatoir where he can get some pig's blood.The blood makes Anton feel drunk, which causes him to stumble around and attract unwanted attention as he looks for Yegor in the Metro, but he does manage to locate Yegor. At one point, Anton loses sight of Yegor, so he turns on his ultraviolet flashlight and notices a young blond woman whose hair is flying around her as though she is standing in a vortex. (NOTE: The vortex is also pictured as teeming with crows. The Russian words for "crow" and "vortex" are almost identical.) This confuses Anton, but he again catches sight of Yegor and goes back to following him to an old barbershop where the Dark Callers -- two vampires, Andrei [Ilya Lagutenko] and Larissa [Anna Dubrovskaya] -- are waiting to drink the boy's blood (Andrei has been given license by the Nightwatch to turn Larissa, and this is her first drink). Anton attempts to stop them from killing the innocent boy, while three Nightwatch agents (the same Nightwatch agents that stopped Darya's spell 12 years earlier) Ilya, a.k.a: Bear [Aleksandr Samoylenko], Lena, aka: Tiger Cub [Anna Slyu], and Simeon [Aleksey Maklakov] race to his aid in Simeon's truck through the busy Moscow streets. They arrive just as Andrei is about to split Anton open with a large piece of broken mirror. They hit Andrei with the UV headlights from their truck and he explodes. Anton is gravely injured, so they take him to Gesser [Vladimir Menshov], who is actually Lord Geser, living and working undercover as the head of the Gorsvet Light and Power Company. Gesser tends to Anton's wounds and then mindlinks with him so that he can see the girl that Anton saw in the vortex. Gesser concludes that the girl is the Virgin and that the prophesy is coming true. The Final Battle is about to begin.Meanwhile, Zavulon [Viktor Verzhbitskiy], the leader of the Dark Others, is enraged at the killing of Andrei and calls upon Dark Witch Alisa Donnikova [Zhanna Friske] to find Larissa, who is wandering the streets, terrified and desperately in need of blood. Alisa is told to tempt Larissa with blood and to get her to Call Yegor again. (Here we see Zavulon playing a computer game which will mirror the events at the end of the movie; this is to give the idea that everything about to happen is a game that has been preorchestrated by Zavulon and Gesser and that all the players--Anton, Larissa, Alisa, Yegor, the Virgin, etc.--are merely pawns in the game.) Once Alisa has Yegor, she is to use him to lure Anton.Back in Gesser's office, Anton hears Yegor's Call and attempts to leave Gesser's office, but his wounds are so severe that he can barely walk. Because Anton is intent on finding Yegor even though near death himself, Gesser (whose concern is for the global happiness of mankind and who is not concerned about saving the life of one child) gives Anton a
partner...Olga the Owl [Galina Tyunina]. Anton is not impressed.Immediately thereafter, Gesser calls an emergency meeting of all Light operatives. Through some fancy computer work, they note a storm building just outside of Moscow and they identify the Virgin as Svetlana Nazarova [Mariya Poroshina], a doctor who works at a clinic and lives with her mother near the airport in Vatutinki. Lately, bad things have been happening around Svetlana. Her mother has been taken ill with kidney failure and needs a transplant. The child of one of her friends got sick after Svetlana visited them. A neighbor, whom Svetlana calls Auntie Valya, had to call an
ambulance last night. Pretty strong evidence of a curse upon her. Gesser orders that they must identify everyone who has come in contact with Svetlana during the previous three days. If they can determine who cursed her, he figures, they might be able to break the curse and stop the Final Battle before it begins.That night, Olga the Owl comes flying through Anton's window. (NOTE: Olga is a Light Mage who, because of some misdeed years ago, was ordered by the Inquisition to be imprisoned in the form of an owl. Only by atoning for her misdeed can she gain back her human form, which is why Gesser has given her this chance to partner with Anton. Gesser actually created the vortex as a way of taking Olga out of mothballs, so to speak. Olga's specialty is removing
curses.) When Anton's back is turned, Olga shapeshifts from Owl to human, a very messy procedure. While Olga bathes, Anton goes across the hall to Kostya's apartment to see if he can scare up some women's clothing. Kostya
gives him some of his mother's old clothes, but Kostya is obviously angry with Anton. When you kill a Dark Other, Kostya fumes, all Dark Others feel it. Kostya is also P.O.ed because the Nightwatch is able to issue licenses to Darks (as they did to Andrei so that he could turn Larissa), but the Darks are not allowed to issue licenses to the Lights. Very unfair!Meanwhile, Yegor is watching television while his mother tries to find a babysitter for him while she goes to work. When she can find no one, she decides that Yegor is old enough to stay home by himself. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is on TV, and Yegor tries to convince his mother that he has seen real vampires, but she doesn't believe him. As she pulls away in her car, Larissa stands in front of the apartment building, looking for a way to get invited inside.Meanwhile, the vortex of crows over Moscow is building. A crow flies into an airplane heading for the Vatutinki airport. The airplane loses a rivet which falls from the sky right over the building where Svetlana lives; the rivet drops through a ventilation shaft and lands smackdab in Svetlana's cup of Nescafe. Back at Yegor's apartment, Yegor is sharpening a stake. He hears a noise in the hall and peeks out the peephole to see Larissa standing there. Outside the building, Anton and Olga are racing to help Yegor. The elevator is not running, so they race up the seven flights of stairs to Yegor's apartment. Instead of ringing his doorbell, they decide it would be best to enter through the Gloom (in the Gloom, one can pass through physical objects.) It turns out that Yegor is an Other, too, and he can see Anton and Olga when they enter the apartment. Having had no training, however, Yegor can only remain in the Gloom for 10 seconds before it will consume him (called "freezing"), so Anton and Olga fight frantically to get him out. The Gloom begins to consume Anton, too, so Olga tells him to feed the Gloom with his blood in order to extend the time. Anton cuts his own arm, allowing the blood to flow freely. It does the trick, and the three of them are pulled from the Gloom. After they
have sufficiently recovered from their trek into the Gloom, Anton and Olga explain to Yegor what it means to be an Other and the choice he'll have to make: to become either a Light Other or a Dark Other. Suddenly, Anton notices a photo of Yegor and his mother and realizes that Yegor's mother is his ex-wife Irina and that Yegor could be his son.The storm vortex over Moscow continues to grow. Zavulon gets word that the vortex is almost open but Anton is still with Yegor. Zavulon says to hold on, and it will all come together as planned. (Once again, we see Zavulon playing his computer game.) The troubled airplane has requested emergency landing but has been denied due to loss of control systems and has been advised to keep circling the airport. The vortex made of circling crows has centered itself directly over Svetlana's apartment building. Gesser contacts Anton, tells him that he is moving Nightwatch ground zero to Svetlana's building, and orders Anton and Olga to go there immediately; he sends Nightwatch agents Bear and Tiger Cub to protect Yegor while Anton deals with Svetlana. Anton promises Yegor that he will return and will protect him
from Larissa.Back at Svetlana's apartment, Auntie Valya has just died. Svetlana is aware that bad things are happening around her for no reason and feels responsible enough to be the one to inform Valya's son about her death. As everything that is happening has been carefully orchestrated by Zavulon, Valya's death is not coincidence. Valya's son works at a power
plant. When he hears about his mother's death, he is detracted from his job, the power plant blows up, and all of Moscow is plunged into darkness. When Anton arrives at ground zero, he is informed that they have not
been able to find anyone who could have cursed Svetlana. Anton takes a look at her file on the computer. While on the computer, Anton looks up his own file and discovers that the Dark Witch Darya lied to him about Irina's baby being not his and that, because he was willing to kill the baby, the Nightwatch deem him able to kill, something that goes against
all Light principles. He also discovers that Zavulon and Gesser are working together to break up the vortex. Gesser forces Zavulon to give to Anton a necklace of protection against Dark Others. Then Gesser orders Anton to go to Svetlana, find out who cursed her, and lift the curse. If he is unable, he is to kill Svetlana.Anton gains access to Svetlana by telling her that he is a patient of hers and that he thinks he has an ulcer. After examining him, she concludes that he has no ulcer and begins to wonder what he really wants. She orders him to leave, but he tries to keep her talking. He tells her that she is cursed, but she thinks he's crazy. He keeps pushing until she
suddenly begins to cry and reveals that she cursed herself by wishing her mother dead so that she could live a normal life, marry, and have kids. Suddenly, the curse lifts. The lights of Moscow come back on, and the troubled airplane lands safely.But it's not over yet. In the meantime, with all of the Nightwatch's attention on Svetlana, Larissa has climbed to the roof of Yegor's building and sent out a Call to him. Yegor distracts Bear and Tiger Cub and climbs up the fire-escape to meet her. Bear and Tiger Cub pursue, but Larissa gets Yegor in her clutches. She orders Bear to bring Anton to her or she
will bite Yegor. Anton is summoned. Larissa makes him toss away the necklace of protection, which he does while she pleads for her life back as a human, something that cannot happen. She bemoans how the Nightwatch gave Andrei a license to turn her because of their love for each other, and then they went and killed Andrei. Why did they let Andrei drink from her, and why won't they let her drink from Yegor?The answer is simple: Yegor is the Great Other, although he doesn't know it. His decision, whether to choose Dark or Light, seals the fate of the world. The final scene is revealed that Zavulon has orchestrated the whole thing from the start, and he suddenly arrives on the roof to see that it is played out. As he arrives, Larissa is distracted, and Anton quickly pulls Yegor free, instructing him to run. Anton enters into battle with Zavulon, Anton using a simple UV tube, while Zavulon pulls an immense sword out of his backbone. Killing Anton is not Zavulon's goal, however. The goal is to get Yegor to choose the Dark. Killing Yegor's father would not accomplish that. As Yegor attempts to throw the necklace of protection to Anton, Anton pulls out a knife and goes for Zavulon. Zavulon is quick; suddenly he and Yegor have changed places, and Anton's knife is poised to kill Yegor. Zavulon stops Anton's blade from making the stab. Yegor, in his fright, asks Anton if he wanted to kill him. "Never!" is Anton's reply. Just then, the Dark Witch Alisa steps forward and reads a transcript of Anton's attempt to abort his son 12 years ago. Zavulon has won. "You're worse than the Dark," Yegor says to Anton. "You lie." Yegor takes Zavulon's hand and together they dissapear into the night, leaving behind a distraught Anton.EPILOGUE: And so it came to pass. The Great Other (Yegor) came into the world and chose the side of evil. The legend says he will plunge the world into Darkness. But so long as there are those among us who believe in Light, there will be hope.[Full synopsis by BJ Kuehl] | murder, cult, violence, alternate reality, atmospheric, flashback, good versus evil, psychedelic, humor, revenge | train | imdb | null |
tt0120524 | Wishmaster | The narrator, Angus Scrimm, in his only words in the film, introduces the audience to the creatures called "djinn***" ***(which are actually mohammedian efreets; correction should concern every following mistake)." with the following statement:Once, in a time before time, God breathed life into the universe. And the light gave birth to Angels. And the earth gave birth to Man. And the fire gave birth to the Djinn, creatures condemned to dwell in the void between the worlds. One who wakes a Djinn shall be given three wishes. Upon the granting of the third, the unholy legions of the Djinn shall be freed to rule the earth. Fear one thing in all there is...fear the Djinn.
The next scene is set in Persia during the year 1127 A.D. with the Djinn asking a Persian emperor to make his second wish. The emperor asks the Djinn to show him wonders. The Djinn uses his powers to torture and mutilate people in the palace. Before the emperor can make his third wish, Zoroaster, a sorcerer (Ari Barak), interrupts and states that upon the third wish granted to the one who woke the Djinn, a gateway will open between the worlds and the evil race of Djinn can live on earth. The sorcerer then reveals a fire opal. The Djinn is sucked into the jewel, where he remains captured.In present day America Raymond Beaumont (Robert Englund) is supervising workers as they lower a box containing an antique statue of Ahura Mazda onto a ship's deck. The worker who is lowering the crate is drinking on the job and accidentally drops it from his crane, killing Beaumont's assistant (Ted Raimi) and destroying the statue. It breaks open and a dockworker finds the fire opal inside which he steals and pawns. The jewel ends up at Regal Auctioneers, where boss Nick Merritt (Chris Lemmon) gives it to appraiser Alexandra Amberson to examine. Her examinations of the jewel wake the Djinn.Thinking she saw something inside the jewel, Alexandra takes it to her labworker best friend and potential love interest, Josh Aickman (Tony Crane) to analyze. Later, as he is collecting data, light reflections cause the gem to explode and the Djinn is released. The lab is destroyed and Josh is killed, upon his wish for relief from his physical pain.Alex, thinking the gem has something to do with the explosion and subsequent death of Josh, tracks down Beaumont, to whom the statue belonged. Beaumont tells Alex to visit a folklore professor named Wendy Derleth (Jenny O'Hara) to find out more about Ahura Mazda and the gem. He also invites Alex and her sister, Shannon (Wendy Benson) to a party he is hosting.The folklore professor tells Alex about the jewel, the Djinn, and its evil history. Later, Alex learns that the Djinn needs to power the gem with the soul of humans, and then grant her three wishes before he can unleash the Djinn on Earth. During this time, the Djinn, who had been in demonic form removes the face of a corpse in the morgue, taking on the dead man's form and the name Nathaniel Demerest. The Djinn, now as Nathaniel, goes about granting people wishes in return for their souls while he searches for Alex. He finally tracks down Alex's boss and grants him a greed-inflicted wish so that he can get Alex's address.Alex is haunted by visions whenever the Djinn grants a wish. She goes to Wendy's house to consult with her again, but Nathaniel has already killed her and taken her form. During their conversation, Alex realizes she is really talking to the Djinn. He confronts her and asks her to make three wishes. He even gives her a "test" wish. She uses this wish and orders the Djinn to kill itself. He complies by blowing his head off with a gun, yet the wound heals instantly; as the Djinn is immortal, he cannot be killed. Alex then uses the first of the "official" three wishes: Her first being to know her opponent, the Djinn. He teleports her to his terrifying world within the gem, thus demonstrating his true nature to her. Next, she wishes herself back to her apartment, alone. The Djinn had been threatening Alex's sister, so Alex sets about finding Shannon. She races to Beaumont's party and Nathaniel follows. While talking to Nathaniel at the party, Beaumont makes the mistake of wishing his party would be unforgettable, and Nathaniel begins wreaking havoc by causing the art pieces to kill the guests.The Djinn finally corners Alex and traps Shannon, trying to scare Alex into making the ultimate third wish. Alex wishes that the dockworker had not been drinking on the job two days ago undoing the events that followed (and presumably reviving the Djinn's victims back to life) and trapping the Djinn in the opal. The dock scene is shown again and the now sober operator has no trouble lowering the crate containing Ahura Mazda. Alex goes to see Josh at the lab. He notices that Alex is strangely pleased with herself, but she will not say why.Back on the statue of Ahura Mazda, which is now in Beaumont's private collection, the camera zooms inside the jewel and shows us the Djinn on a throne, waiting to be released. | cult, horror, violence | train | imdb | A lot of the potential isn't taken full advantage of (the 90 minute runtime keeps things to the bare minimum) but it sets up enough mythology to justify three sequels, the first sequel being the only decent one, however.The plot focuses on the Djinn, that's Wishmaster to you, and his efforts to take over the world.
The evil creature is released later, charges the stone with people souls and feeds with their fears, while chasing Alexandra to force to make three wishes and unleash the demoniac fiends upon Earth.The gore and funny "Wishmaster" is good horror movie, with original deaths, great special effects (1997) and a refreshing story.
Andrew Divoff, presently working in "Lost", is great in the role of the evil, witty and cynical Djin; the blonde Tammy Lauren performs a smart and clever character, following the Djin's advice ("- Make a wish, but think first") and luring and tricking the demon with her intelligence; and there is homage to horrors movie, with the participation of Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund and Tony "Candyman" Todd.
WISHMASTER Aspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound formats: Dolby Digital / DTS / SDDSAimed directly at the 'Fangoria' crowd, though not much fun for anyone else, WISHMASTER is 'presented' by executive producer Wes Craven and directed by makeup maestro Robert Kurtzman, so it's no surprise the movie emphasizes makeup and visual effects at the expense of plot and characterization.
The story revolves around an ancient djinn (Andrew Divoff), trapped in an emerald for centuries and accidentally released in modern day America, whereupon it takes human form and grants various characters a series of 'wishes', all of which backfire in gruesome fashion (and I *do* mean gruesome!).
Naturally, she resists...Stuffed full of 'Fangoria'-friendly cameos (Robert Englund, Tony Todd, Kane Hodder, Ted Raimi, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm, etc.) and visual references to earlier, better pictures (HELLRAISER, THE THING, countless others), the movie has the same kind of bland, homogenized script and production design which afflicts many similar movies from the same period, and the results couldn't be less appealing.
A reasonable watch, entertaining with a pretty cool ending.A thing that did bother me was the actor who played the 'human-suit' Djinn: he acted a little over the top...the evil smiles (and evil they were :) got somewhat irritating after a while.One of the best parts in the movie is where the Djinn is sitting in the office of the manager of that jewellery company and the manager says he wants a million bucks.
"Wishmaster" brings forward a new type of bogeyman; the evil genie in the lamp (only he's stuck in a piece of jewelry here) who makes every wish come true in an atrocious and ambiguous way.
We have Tony Todd ("Candyman"), Kane Hodder ("Jason Vorhees"), Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm (both "Phantasm") all making cameo-appearances, which makes this film slightly more interesting for hardcore-horror fans.
In order to gain world domination however, the Djinn must grant three wishes of the person who rubbed the ruby (Tammy Lauren).The special effects are terrific (especially the Djinn) considering the budget and the murder scenes are graphic and creative.
Anyway, minor gripes out of the way, 'Wishmaster' is actually pretty good fun - if you're into this sort of film.While bringing an ancient statue to America, it accidentally breaks, releasing a big blue cartoon genie, voiced by Robin Williams, who happily makes various pop culture references and grants our plucky young hero the wishes he needs to win the princess' heart.
This is one genie you wouldn't find in a Walt Disney movie - he delights in making all the wishes he grants impact on the person who made them in the most negatively-bad way possible.
Now, it's up to our leading lady, Alexandra Amberson (played by a Linda Hamilton-esque Tammy Lauren) to get this genie back in his bottle - so to speak.I know a lot of hard-core fans objected to the 'change' in the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' films when Freddy started becoming less scary and more comedic, taking pleasure in his kills with a snappy one-liner here and there.
Well, if you (like me!) didn't mind this, then you should also enjoy 'Wishmaster.' The titular evil character is certainly a villain of the latter Freddy films, taking his time to mess with his victims, rather than kill them outright.
Yes, there are hardly any A-list actors involved and the script is a little clunky as times, but there are plenty of excellent practical effects, creepy sets and a genuine desire to try and do something (a little) different.Wishmaster' isn't 'dark and brooding' like today's horror films, but if you're in a forgiving mood and don't expect too much, this one is certainly entertaining enough to keep you occupied for an hour and a half.
The whole thing is meant to be a wink to the audience, but as a universe with a set of rules it doesn't make sense and the whole enterprise feels curiously like there's no way the Djinn haven't already taken over the world.The central plot is that whomever awakens the Djinni gets 3 wishes and after those are cast all the Djinn take over the earth.
While several horror mainstays made appearances and the great Wes Craven directed, this film rarely gets talked about these days.The djinn, the wish-granting antagonist, is handled without relying on many of the genie-clichés we so often see.
The practical effects are a throwback to 80s horror classics like Hellraiser and The Thing.Admittedly, this movie comes from the early days of CGI and has some off- putting moments because of it.
Never mind my rating: it's not a good movie, it's a fun movie, same goes with quality chocolate vs a Nestlé chocolate bar or filet Mignon vs a hamburger, one will make you feel complete, the other will satisfy a craving.Let me first start off by saying, this is why I love SOME B-Series horror movies: The acting is poor, the story is seldom believable, the make-up and special effects are acceptable, but the lore is interesting and the story is original, if a lot of moments and events in the movie are obvious rip-offs of other famous horror titles, not to mention a villain with a great sense of humour, literally "killing" his audience and at least it wasn't shot with an "in-story" cameraman afflicted with Parkinson or a week-day afternoon soap shooting.From today's perspective, considering what's on the market, aside from a few jump scares, I would put this more in the odd and frequent genre (in B-series) known as horror-comedy rather then literal horror.What do I mean: a good villain, powerful, a trickster, a master deceiver with witty come-backs and jokes at every kill with killer o-p dialogue (no pun intended), mixed with the bad acting, it's hard to take this movie seriously, which is a good thing.With movies such as the Hellraiser series (never mind the one about that video game based on the Lament Configuration or that last one with the two teenagers on a trip to Mexico (that was awful, to say the least)), the Leprechaun series (one of my personal favorites: so bad it's hilarious, and therefor, good), this movie adds nicely to my collection, where gore is turned into comedy, where horror laughs at itself.For you people out there who have a sick sense of humour and are kind of tired of today's more serious take on life in general medias, this movie will bring enough mixed emotions caught between general amusement and visceral disgust to make you over-look the B-ness and dull plot of the movie.If on the other hand you're looking for something either believable or of decent quality and aren't into cheap jokes, step away from the movie, walk on by and don't look back.With this said, for those of you who *wish (ha-ha) to stick around, enjoy the show and Be careful what you for (duh)..
It starts off nicely here with the opening massacre of the old-time court of the different grisly actions befalling the troupe as people get their limbs and bodily features morphed into various monstrosities, a person's skeleton rips itself free of its body, demonic hallucinations and other rather fun encounters here that makes this such a fantastic opening display of his powers which is continued throughout here with a rather nice amount of wish-granting.
New horror actor Andrew Divoff gives a great performance as the Djinn, the evil genie.
When i see the plot of this movie, a really bad genie, that grants wishes in "another" way, i think it will be really good.
This idea with a good plot could make a great movie, like Nightmare on Elm Street 3 (My personal favorite).
Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund, Tony "Candyman" Todd, and Kane "Jason Voorhees" Hodder are just a few of them.There's a certain sadistic fun in watching people wish for things only for their wishes to backfire on them.
Oddly, the story ends with a character inexplicably losing the ability to reinterpret wishes.***** Wishmaster (9/19/97) Robert Kurtzman ~ Tammy Lauren, Andrew Divoff, Robert Englund, Chris Lemmon.
I found plot really well done, I found Wishmaster not too scary, I found him a little too funny to be scary.However I found him more creepy when he had the humans face, he got one hell of a evil face.I was shocked with some of the gore in this movie , wow, I didn't not see that come, Spoiler: (He makes a prisoner, rip a cop Jaw right of his face, Ouch!) that had to hurt!
For example, in Wishmaster 2 it is said that the Djinn can only grant 1 wish to people for their soul though the security guard in the first movie (played by Jason Voorhees' Kane Hodder) gets 2 wishes.
I think Novak took the correct approach in his roles by making the Djinn sound more like a genie (he actually reminded me of a genie when he spoke) instead of imitating Divoff's evil voice.The music in Wishmaster is your usual horror suspense score, nothing too different in this but it sets the tone well enough.
That also brings up the fact that the movie is not directed by Wes Craven though is advertised to make people think that he did without actually saying it.Wishmaster is a treat for most horror fans.
The movie follows the Djinn trying to find Alexandra to grant her the three wishes that will free him.Robert Kurtzman background in make-up and SFX are a synonymous of quality in this departments, the movie features surprisingly good SFX and very gory considering that this movie was shown in theaters at a time when the gore in movies was very low.
This is one of those movies that gives you the feeling that the whole cast & crew had a great time when filming.The whole movie would be better than your average horror flick, but the poor development of the script(specially in the ending, although the SFX were superb) really hurts this movie and leaves it as an average effort.
In the first Wishmaster Andrew Divoff plays the Djinn excellently!The film starts off with a bang and it is gory but its not that bad.The film is really a good horror fest!If you like Michael Myers,Freddy,and Jason,then you'll love the Djinn,the Wishmaster!.
Amazing how easy it is to wish for something without first thinking through the unintended meaning of certain words!With cameos brief and lengthy for such luminaries as Robert Englund, (Freddy Krueger), Angus Scrimm (The Tall Man/Phantasm), Tom Savini (Horror make-up artist extraordinaire), Tony Todd (Candyman)....love his bit!, Kane Hodder (Jason Voorhees), Ted Raimi (brother of EVIL DEAD's director Sam Raimi) and exec-produced by none other than Wes Craven, you have to be majorly impaired if you don't like this one.
You know the story at once you've seen the cover of the film, and it wasn't too different from what I expected.The best part of the movie was that it didn't last too long, so I never got bored watching it.
"Wishmaster" isn't a masterpiece,but it is quite entertaining and simply fun to watch horror flick.Overrated director Wes Craven produced this one and I can safely say that this is his best film of the 90's(his "Scream" series,"Mind Ripper","New Nightmare" are pathetic crap,though).Of course the main heroine Tammy Lauren is annoying as hell,but there are some funny cameos to be seen here-Kane Hodder,Robert Englund,Tony Todd,Angus Scrimm(the Tall Man from "Phantasm" series)and Tom Savini.I like also wickedly funny Andrew Divoff's performance as a Djinn.There's plenty of gore(people are ripped open etc.)to keep gore-hounds happy.6 out of 10.Check it out,if you're bored.Avoid its awful sequel "Wishmaster 2:Evil Never Dies" like the plague..
I'd have been about thirteen at the time, and hadn't seen a great deal of horror movies, so I was pretty much this film's primary target.
Impressed by the gore and special effects, I actually quite liked this film and took my good memories of it into my later years of horror fandom, i.e. now.
Well, shortly before I caught this flick again anyway, as now that I've seen much more of the genre; Wishmaster is no longer the film I thought it was, and my good memories of it have now been replaced by the correct idea that this is, in fact, a rather tedious, cliché ridden, shameless attempt to cash in on younger horror audiences that haven't seen much beyond the endless waive of Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street sequels.
because the stuff that makes this movie really awesome is, the nice gore effects and the voiceacting of Andrew Divoff playing the wishmaster.
Tammy Lauren the main character sucked in both versions and is the main flaw in this movie.i recommend this movie to anybody who likes horror films with a charismatic and funny to watch bad guy.
it is really enjoyable!5 stars : average horror film+ 1 star for Andrew Divoff's awesome performance+ 1 star for the fresh idea of having a Djinn granting wishes as bad guyand if you liked this one because of the gore, Andrew Divoff's performance and the stupid "good" main characters, GO AND WATCH "wishmaster 2 - evil never dies", it's a good sequel, just don't continue with wishmaster 3 and 4, leave the series after wishmaster 2, since Andrew Divoff is only in 1 & 2 and he is the one who makes these movies so iconic..
It's good in a horror movie buff type way and I think the story could have been better.
The special effects were great and I really liked the Djinn's make-up, but why did he have to talk the way he does in the finished film.
But, But, If you are a horror fan, who loves fun movies, this is one for you, believe me, I don't think you'll be let down.Just great!!A 10!!
Another great thing is the acting of Andrew Divoff as the Djinn; he really has the 'evil look' and is actually quite funny some times.
Inside of it is a Djinn (Andrew Divoff) who will do whatever he can to make her say three wishes so that he evil ways can fully come out.WISHMASTER is a film I saw when it was first released to theaters and I honestly hated it.
Wishmaster is a movie that's unique in it's own way, who else would have a film about an evil genie?
The film is slightly cheesy but great fun to watch, the acting is good especially from Andrew Divoff who does a great job portraying the Djinn.
The special effects are pretty cool and the gore is great especially the party scene also the Djinn make-up is neat, the costume is different in the first movie compared to how the Djinn looks like in the sequels.
and the djinn once again tries to continue his evil ways.The basic idea of this film is really cool: a genie grants wishes and the wishes go very, very badly.
This is one of my most favourite movies of all time.I gave it a 9 to counter-balance the negative reviews,as the film (& its actors) deserved far more credit than what's been written.What the film lacked in high-grade special effects & budget,it was compensated for by Andrew Divoff's undeniably memorable performance(even the critics credited him),the witty Djinn remarks (they sound kinda Shakespearean,don't you think?) & the clever twists on the granted wishes.Sure,the story was simple & people can speculate forever on what the final wish should've been,but it went straight into the story without pointless,boring scenes & it satisfied many horror fans.If it was as terrible as some have claimed,a franchise wouldn't spawn from it.Nor would it have earned 2 nominations:1 for Best Home video & 1 for Best film (both in the Science fiction/horror category of course).The sequels are of another matter,although #2 wasn't bad.Divoff apparently turned down the role for the #3 & 4,which I'm told were flops.Although Divoff stole the show,I thought the other characters were convincing enough too: Tammy Lauren,who was a lot tougher & more practical than the same-old bimbos in other horrors & Chris Lemmon,who did a rather amusing scene with Divoff.The film's a nice change from the typical killer-on-the-loose horrors,with interesting ways in which the victims meet their end.
I guess, as a horror film fan, that is a good thing for effect, but the movie itself, despite a pretty original idea, has the same theme spawn over and over again throughout the film (a dimwitted person makes a wish, sometimes in the context of harmlessness towards a complete stranger -The Wishmaster- and totally regrets it afterwards).
Forget I know what you did last summer and Scream 2, this was the horror film of 1997.A female scientist awakens an ancient genie (Djinn) and if she takes 3 wishes the prophecy will be fulfilled and he will rule the Earth.Andrew Divoff shines as the evil genie, and excellent cameos from Tony Todd, Kane Hodder, and a supporting role from Robert Englund, as well as cool special effects, make this a treat to watch.. |
tt0180093 | Requiem for a Dream | Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) and Tyrone Love (Marlon Wayans) are two friends who live in Brooklyn, New York. They regularly do various drugs paid for by such petty thefts as Harry pawning his mother's TV set. Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), Harry's mother, is a widow living alone in Brighton Beach who must regularly buy back her TV set from the pawn shop owner, Abe Rabinowitz (Mark Margolis). Abe tries to get Sara to turn Harry in, but she doesn't have the heart for it, as Harry is all she has left after the death of her husband, Seymour, twenty years prior.Harry and Tyrone eventually come up with a plan to make money by reselling heroin on the street so that they can get away from their dead-end lives. Over the summer, they make a fair amount of money. They talk regularly about buying a pound of extremely pure heroin as their 'big score' that will give them comfortable lives when they invest that money in a legal business.Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly), who is Harry's girlfriend, has a distant relationship with her parents (who are never seen on camera), but sometimes goes out with Arnold (Sean Gullette), her psychiatrist, in order to appease them. She, along with Harry and Tyrone, snort and shoot heroin and cocaine, drop speed, and talk a lot about their dreams for a better future. As Harry starts earning money, he and Marion talk about opening a clothing store where Marion can earn a living as a clothing designer.Meanwhile, Sara is a TV junkie, obsessed with an infomercial hosted by self-help guru Tappy Tibbons (Christopher McDonald), based on the acronym JUICE (Join Us In Creating Excitement). One day she receives a mysterious call from someone who claims that she has been selected to appear on a TV show. Thinking she's being invited to appear on the Tappy Tibbons infomercial, Sara is suddenly obsessed with the idea of flaunting Harry on the show before a national audience. She wants to wear a particular red dress that she wore at Harry's high school graduation; a dress that Seymour loved to see her in. However, she is now too overweight to fit into it. One of Sara's friends, with whom she sometimes sits outside her apartment, gives her a diet book; but of course the "grapefruit and coffee" diet leaves her constantly hungry. She then hears about a way to lose a lot of weight by taking certain medications from a doctor, so she decides to try it.Tyrone and Harry have made a lot of money by dealing drugs, gradually filling up a shoe box Tyrone hides in a wall in his apartment. Gazing at the money in the shoe box, he reminisces about running home and into his mother's arms before making love to his girlfriend.As summer progresses to fall, so do the debilitating effects of the drugs that Harry, Tyrone, Marion, and Sara use. The money that Harry and Tyrone had saved starts to dwindle. First, Harry buys Sara a large, new TV/entertainment set. Tyrone gets caught in the middle of a drug gang assassination, lands in jail and needs to be bailed out. While visiting Sara to tell her about the new TV set he's gotten her, Harry finds out that the diet pills that Sara is taking are methamphetamine 'uppers,' or 'speed,' and warns her of the dangers involved. However, Sara delivers a passionate monologue about how her upcoming television appearance is giving her a new lease on life. Harry leaves in a taxi, shattered emotionally by his mother's situation, but he won't do anything to prevent her addiction growing.Eventually, Tyrone, Harry and Marion all run out of both drugs and money. Without money they cannot buy more drugs. Harry pleads with Marion to ask Arnold for $2,000 so that Harry and Tyrone can make a purchase from a notorious mob figure. As Marion fears, Arnold wants her to sleep with him in return, and she reluctantly complies with Harry's acceptance. At the site of the drug deal, a scuffle breaks out among buyers trying to push ahead in the line, and the supplier opens fire before driving away, leaving several people -- Harry included -- without any drugs.Sara loses weight gradually, the zipper on her dress coming tantalizingly closer to zipping up completely. But she also develops a tolerance for the pills that lead her to continually increase her dosage without consulting her doctor, and she slips into drug-induced psychosis that causes her to experience hallucinations involving her refrigerator, which get more and more intense. Sara begins to regularly hallucinate that she is the guest of honor on Tappy Tibbons' infomercial and gets to speak with the man himself.Harry's relationship with Marion starts to crumble when the need for drugs starts to overcome their sensibilities and the love they have for each other. Marion blames Harry for the failed purchase from the mob figure. After one major fight, Harry gives her a phone number for a major dealer named Big Tim (Keith David), who he heard about from Tyrone. Harry and Tyrone couldn't buy from Tim because he was more interested in 'pussy' than money. Harry also discovers a black spot on his arm where he injects the heroin.Fall fades into winter. As a result of increasing drug gang violence and police crackdowns, Harry and Tyrone cannot find any heroin in the city, so they decide to drive to Florida to make a purchase. Marion goes through severe deprivation withdrawal and she tearfully begs Tyrone and Harry's regular contact, Angel, for help, but he rebuffs her because she is broke. In desperation, she calls Big Tim and goes to his house. Although she is hesitant for a moment, she gives him a blow job in return for a fix. Pleased with her performance, Big Tim invites her to a big orgy event at his house later in the week.The invitation for Sara to appear on TV has not arrived, and her hallucinations with the refrigerator reach a climax as she takes more and more pills, thinking they will make the refrigerator stop. But instead, she finally hallucinates that the refrigerator lurches through the kitchen straight towards her and opens a wide toothy mouth. Sara runs from her apartment in fear, wearing no winter coat even though shoveled snow lines both sides of the streets. She wanders in a stupor, gets on the subway and finds her way to a Manhattan television station, begging to know when she will be on television. The receptionist and TV executives stall for time so they can contact paramedics who take her to a mental hospital.As Harry and Tyrone are headed to Florida, the black spot on Harry's arm grows to an alarming size and he begins complaining about the pain. Tyrone drives Harry to a hospital. One look at Harry's arm and the triage doctor knows that Harry is a drug addict. He discreetly excuses himself taking all drugs with him and calls the county sheriff's department, taking the medicine and drugs which were previously lying around with him, just in case. Tyrone and Harry are arrested and sent to jail, where Tyrone is subjected to racist guards and punishing work detail. Harry uses his phone call to contact Marion. She begs him to come home right away, and he promises her he will, but she knows he is lying. As they speak on the phone, Marion is getting dressed up to attend Big Tim's party.At the mental hospital, Sara refuses treatment and refuses to eat, and her psychosis only deepens. Still delusional, she unwittingly and unknowingly signs an authorization for doctors to put her through electro-shock therapy.While clearing prisoners for work detail, a prison doctor finds Harry's arm has become almost completely black and gives off a foul odor, and the pain is too much for Harry to bear. He is sent to the prison infirmary, where the doctors quickly determine they must immediately cut off Harry's arm at the shoulder to save his life.At Big Tim's party, Marion engages in a variety of sex acts including an 'ass to ass' with another woman.Harry has a dream of running toward a smiling Marion as she waits for him on a Coney Island pier, and then awakens in a hospital ward with a beautiful, kind nurse (Lianna Pai) watching over him. Hearing him speak Marion's name, the nurse promises to contact her and arrange to have her come see him. But Harry knows she will not come; he knows he's lost her.Marion arrives home from Big Tim's party, clutching a large plastic bag to her breast; she's been paid very well and Big Tim likes her enough to be her supplier as long as she pleases him. She lies down on her couch and smiles blissfully.Tyrone and several other prisoners are ushered into a common cell after work detail and Tyrone lies down on a cot, exhausted, with only a pillow and no blanket.Two of Sara's friends visit her at the mental hospital, and are so horrified and shocked at the sight of her as a hollow shell of her former self that they sob uncontrollably in each others' arms while waiting for their bus back home.All four main characters are shown curling up in a fetal position: Harry in the hospital bed with his arm amputated, Marion on her couch after gaining a regular drug supplier in return for her favors, Tyrone on a cot in prison as he dreams of his childhood and his mother, and Sara in a bed at the mental hospital.The movie closes with Sara having another hallucination where she is a grand prize winner on the Tappy Tibbons show, wearing her red dress and looking beautiful; showing off Harry, who in her dreams, has become a successful businessman engaged to marry Marion, to a cheering audience. | dark, boring, depressing, murder, psychological, dramatic, cult, atmospheric, insanity, psychedelic, romantic, tragedy, revenge, sentimental | train | imdb | null |
tt0215750 | Enemy at the Gates | In 1942, following the invasion of the Soviet Union the year before, Vasily Zaitsev (Jude Law), a shepherd from the Ural Mountains who is now a soldier in the Red Army, finds himself on the front lines of the Battle of Stalingrad. Forced into a suicidal charge by barrier troops against the invading Germans, he uses impressive marksmanship skills—taught to him at a young age by his grandfather—to save himself and commissar Danilov (Joseph Fiennes).
Nikita Khrushchev (Bob Hoskins) arrives in Stalingrad to coordinate the city's defences and demands ideas to improve morale. Danilov, now a senior lieutenant, suggests that the people need figures to idolise and give them hope, and publishes tales of Vasily's exploits in the army's newspaper that paint him as a national hero and propaganda icon. Vasily is transferred to the sniper division, and he and Danilov become friends. They also both become romantically interested in Tania Chernova (Rachel Weisz), a citizen of Stalingrad who has become a private in the local militia. Danilov has her transferred to an intelligence unit away from the battlefield.
With the Soviet snipers taking an increasing toll on the German forces, German Major Erwin König (Ed Harris) is deployed to Stalingrad to take out Vasily and thus crush Soviet morale. A renowned marksman and head of the German Army sniper school at Zossen, he lures Vasily into a trap and kills two of his fellow snipers, but Vasily manages to escape. When the Red Army command learns of König's mission, they dispatch König's former student Koulikov (Ron Perlman) to help Vasily kill him. König, however, outmaneuvers Koulikov and kills him with a very skillful shot, shaking Vasily's spirits considerably. Khrushchev pressures Danilov to bring the sniper standoff to a conclusion.
Sacha, a young Soviet boy, volunteers to act as a double agent by passing König false information about Vasily's whereabouts, thus giving Vasily a chance to ambush the major. Vasily sets a trap for König and manages to wound him, but during a second attempt Vasily falls asleep after many sleepless hours and his sniper log is stolen by a looting German soldier. The German command takes the log as evidence of Vasily's death and plans to send König home, but König does not believe Vasily is dead. The commanding German general takes König's dog tags to prevent Russian propaganda from profiting if König is killed. König also gives the general a War Merit Cross that was posthumously awarded to König's son, who as a lieutenant in the 116th infantry division was killed in the early days of the Battle for Stalingrad. König tells Sasha where König will be next, suspecting that the boy will tell Vasily. Tania and Vasily have meanwhile fallen in love and have sex in the Russian barracks at night. The jealous Danilov disparages Vasily in a letter to his superiors.
König spots Tania and Vasily waiting for him at his next ambush spot, confirming his suspicions about Sasha. He then kills the boy and hangs his body off a pole to bait Vasily. Vasily vows to kill König, and sends Tania and Danilov to evacuate Sasha's mother (Eva Mattes) from the city, but Tania is wounded by shrapnel en route to the evacuation boats. Thinking she is dead, Danilov regrets his jealousy of Vasily and expresses disenchantment for his previous ardency of the Communist cause. Finding Vasily waiting to ambush König, Danilov intentionally exposes himself in order to provoke König into shooting him and revealing his hidden position. Thinking that he has killed Vasily, König goes to inspect the body, but realizes too late that he has fallen into a trap and is in Vasily's sights. He turns to face Vasily and takes off his hat, after which Vasily kills him. Two months later, after Stalingrad has been liberated and the German forces have surrendered, Vasily finds Tania recovering in a field hospital. | violence, suspenseful, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | More important is the masterful manner of speech of the actors - Bob Hoskins' gutteral exultations as Ukrainian potato farmer Nikita Krushchev; Joseph Fiennes' pompous and proud intonations as the political officer; Jude Law's common man for the peasant turned soldier; Ed Harris with the clipped and crisp tones of a German officer.This is my pick for the best film of the year so far (August).
Of course, Enemy At The Gates comes off as being somewhat fantastic due to its attempt to balance entertainment with historical fact, and it came as a surprise to me to learn that Sergeant Vassili Zaitsev was a real person (whose sniper rifle is still an exhibit in a Russian museum), but this makes it all the more entertaining to watch.A lot of historians have it that the battle of Stalingrad was the most unpleasant one fought during the second World War, and this film's set design and cinematography capture that impeccably.
In "Enemy at the Gates," the future of the greatest battle of World War II, would be decided between a young Russian sniper and an aristocratic sharpshooter from Germany sent to kill him
Jude Law and Ed Harris sit for hours waiting for the right moment
It was a duel set in the siege of Stalingrad
Stalingrad was one of the biggest and bloodiest battles of World War II, and in the midst of this huge battle, these two soldiers were hunting each other down
The film opens with the harrowing transport of thousand of Russian soldiers across the Volga River to Stalingrad
The recruits were packed onto steamers, barges, whatever they could find to ferry them across the river
All that under a deluge of shells, bombs and explosions
By the time Vassili arrives to Stalingrad, the Nazis have a distinct edge, and Soviet morale is at an all-time low
Leading the Russians in their seemingly futile defense is Nikita Kruschev, played by Bob Hoskins
The Germans, at that time, were overrunning the place and the Russians were in an appalling state
It was the most awful battle of the war
Joseph Fiennes plays Danilov, an idealistic Russian officer who passionately speaks about his belief in getting the troops to turn the grave situation in Stalingrad around
He finds the perfect inspiration in Vassili
Rachel Weisz plays a young woman who volunteers to help in the war effort
She's literally protecting the people she grew up with
When she meets Vassili, he just has a natural intelligence, a natural instinct
Jude Law is remarkable as the young sharpshooter Vassili Zaitsev who conveyed both humanity and intensity
There's such a fierce intelligence and liveliness in his eyes
He can also be very quiet and internal
Vassili found the complexity within the silence and stillness
In fact to be a sniper is very much about a man of action through stillness
Vassili represented the ultimate hero, the symbol of someone who could instill hope and belief in victory amongst the troops, because his skills as a sniper were unparalleled
Ed Harris played Major Konig, the German sharpshooter sent to hunt down Vassili
He knows that Vassili was picking off German officers with some regularity, and was becoming a folk hero for the Russian soldiers as well as the Russian populace...
He decided to eliminate him
The casting of Ed Harris opposite Jude Law resulted in a striking visual link between their characters
They both have these unbelievably penetrating blue eyes
And director Jean-Jacques Annaud began to see the duel through their eyes
And one of the first shots of Ed Harris was a close-up of his blue eyes
Annaud painted the tensions very clearly and concentrated purely on the eyes of the Jude Law and Harris and, of course, on their rifles and how they were hidden and what they were doing
Basically, the core of his camera is the duel of their eyes, duel of men, duel of snipers, therefore a confrontation of people that scan the surrounding buildings, and try to decipher what they see.
The film follows a young and highly talented Russian sniper from the Urals, Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law - "eXistenZ", "The Talented Mr. Ripley"), who gains national fame from the help of Danilov (Joesph Fiennes - "Shakespeare in Love"), a propoganda officer and his true love and fellow sniper, Tania (Rachael Weisz), who is also flirting with Danilov.However, the Germans have an ace sniper of their own in Erwin Koning (Ed Harris - "Pollock"), a seasoned and out-spoken Major who comes to Stalingrad only to pick off Vassili.
I won't say how it's done, but the final confrontation is a genuine nail-bitter.All of the performances here are powerhouse and that includes Bob Hoskins as Nikita Kruschev, a snarling and impatient man and Ron Perlman, who portrays Koulikov, a lieutenant whose teeth are all metal and serves as a guide for Vassili.Robert Frassie ("Ronin") handles the movie's photography with care and the appearrence of Stalingrad itself reminded me heavily of the war-torn cities shown in Spielsburg's "Saving Private Ryan" and Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket".
The battle of Stalingrad(Leningrad is modern St. Petersburg up north, Stalingrad is Volgograd in Russia's south) has never before been so knowingly destroyed and revised to demonize and smear the country that won the war in Europe, and helped to fight and defeat Japan before it attacked the US in 1938-39.My family, hometown, and countrymen have never been so insulted in their fight for survival.The movie better describes a WW1 situation on the Eastern Front, not WW2, the USSR had become the largest industrialized entity on the planet by 1941.
The Russian people of Stalingrad would have been more stoic in their approach to war, instead of crying over every last little thing.e) Overpropagandic against communism at the end.f) German-Russian shoe shine boy exchange program never existed!g) Too many unexplained conflicts and friendships.h) Movies about snipers should contain more sniping, and less kissy- kissy time..
The mouse is a young Russian named Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law), who arrives on the shores of the Volga River to defend Stalingrad, an important city in which the German's are attempting to capture.
While we are never really concerned about the outcome of the actual war, nor do we entirely care about several aspects of the main characters, there are many good scenes of suspense, and the overall mood of the movie is effective.
Only about 10,000 survived to return to German after the war.Germany never recovered from this loss and it marked to start of their defeat.Please read the book Enemy at the Gates and forget this terrible film.
Scenes were completely drawn out, particularly a sex scene that had my friends and I looking at each other thinking "when is this going to end." The whole love story slowed the movie down and took a lot out of it.
This film can be served as the appetizer to the main course coming out soon, "Pearl Harbor."Jude Law, Joseph Feinnes, Rachel Weisz, Ed Harris and Bob Hoskins come together to re-visit the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942.
Fiennes, Weisz and Hoskins were the icing to a cake that was delicious from the start.The highlights of "Enemy At The Gates" always came when Law and Harris were on screen because they played excellent psychological mind games with one another to win; furthermore, it was like watching master chess players playing for the grand prize.
This is incredible to me because the intensity shown on their faces speaks volumes about what the movie is really about.This may not be the best war film ever made but with two of the brightest young stars on the rise, an actress that is here to stay and a veteran that continues to turn in knock-out performances, "Enemy At The Gates" will be remembered for a long time..
A truly great book, "Enemy at the Gates, The Battle for Stalingrad" tells the full story of the German 6th army's successful invasion deep into Russia until they were stopped at Stalingrad.
If you do not know the full story of Stalingrad, you can watch this film and not have a clue how the Russians end up winning this key battle (although you do learn which sniper wins the dual).
this don't deserve being mentioned.Summary: even although the movie was made by French team, it is as far from truth in showing the battle and characters of Zaitsev and Russian soldiers, as it was made by a Marsian team.Vote: 2/10 for great visual effects..
The Germans catch wind of his fame and dispatch an expert marksman of their own to bring Zaitsev down, and a duel of the Stalingrad snipers begins.First I'll point out what I liked about the movie.
First of all is Rachel Weisz who makes a very unconvincing Soviet heroine with a very distracting upper class English accent , I guess this is to make the film more marketable to a potential female audience along with the inclusion of a love triangle which is slightly unnecessary and underdeveloped ( Witness the scene where it looks like Danilov is going to have the hero arrested as an enemy of the state and this is never followed up ?
At the end of every scene that went wrong somewhere (cliché/not compelling/bad acting/shallowness/ combination), I couldn't stop thinking that this could and should have been a great movie, as both its basic story, theme and setting offer vast possibilities for this.
After having to endure a harangue the whole way to the screen about how we would be seeing the real battle that won the war, not that inconsequential D-Day that "Saving Private Ryan" made such a big deal about as the U.S. didn't come in until the Russians already had turned the tide, I asked could he please be quiet during the movie and refrain from commenting on inaccuracies, etc.
only one scene has a "big attack" by the russians where it only seems to be one block long where the rubble conveniently has made a 3 foot wall for the germans and they focus only on the main character in the movie and not what he sees when doing so (unlike saving private ryan) and the carnage?
All future war films that I watch will be forced through the sieve of Enemy at the Gates and I will be surprised if anything from America will even remotely touch the power of this film.I freely admit that I know nothing about the production except that it could not possibly have been made with American money-too many foreigners acting, too few swipes at the Russians and far too many positive comments about the hated Soviets.The opening war shots of the barges across the river ferrying fresh troops to the besieged Stalingrad was as harrowing as any war sequence that I've ever seen and to think that the reality of the Stalingrad meat grinder was vastly worse gives you chills-the landing on the shore with its inevitable battles shows reasons for the revolvers that officers carry.The second, but major section of the script, with the development of the mini-war between the German sent to Stallingrad to kill the now famous young Russian sniper provides as good a background for the remainder of the film as is possible to see in a cinema.
From my own limited reading about the German attempt to subdue Russia and the pivotal, drawn out battle for Stalingrad I can see why many of the comments from Russian viewers are so scathing and why they are so angry at the contemptuous way the film makers have ignored the tragic history in favour of a two dimensional war/love story.Read the comments with the filter set to "hated it" and you will see what a crime against history those involved in making this film have committed.
I may say, for those who just want to get entertainment and see a war movie, this will do fine, it is good enough for a nice evening.For those seeking the historical truth, this movie is an outrageous shame, constantly trying to divert the attentions to facts that really didn't matter at all, if we do a transparent analysis.The Director spent all his time worried about demonizing the Russians and Stalinism, rather than demonizing the true villains (germans) and emphasizing the glorious role of the red army at world war II.
And let's just not refer that 25 million Russians were killed, close to 80% of the total WWII casualties!But hell no Mr Director, it doesn't matter that the invaders were the Germans, it doesn't matter the brutal massacre of the Soviet people by the Nazis, it doesn't matter the heroic role at Stalingrad that probably saved the whole world.
The action scenes in the movie were great, some of the best I had ever seen, and the story about every 3rd Russian Soldier receiving a rifle WAS true.
I expected something full of pretension and long, slow pauses but instead it was am effective little thriller which was tight in the right places and only a little baggy and slow at times.The film manages to give a good impression of the war in Stalingrad and, while not totally up to `Private Ryan' shock power, the opening 15 minutes are very realistic and very powerful.
This effective movie has a great, epic background over which to play the story - the battle of Stalingrad in World War II, which left the city in smouldering ruins and hundreds of soldiers (on both sides) dead.
In particular, Jude Law gives a convincing portrayal of an innocent farmer boy, initially terrified out of his life when he is thrown headlong into battle, and gradually turning into a war hero through the propaganda of his friend Danilov (an understated and effective turn from Joseph Fiennes).The initial sequence in which Law proves his worth as a sniper is an excellently-shot piece of action.
However, most scenes are stolen by Ed Harris (looking very much like Anton Diffring) as Major Konig, a German war hero and top-notch sniper who engages in some tense and suspenseful cat-and-mouse games in the rubble of Stalingrad, sequences which are the best in the movie.
The story takes place during World War II and is based on real events: Germans and Russians are fighting over every block of Stalingrad and the city is in ruins.
This film reminds me of John Mackenzie's "The Fourth Protocol" where we have good English actors who are portraying Russian people, speaking with a British accent (In scenes that are allegedly taking place in Russia).Not that it matters that much, especially in this film: But I do think that an actor like Bob Hoskins would have been able to pull off a Nikita Krushev, especially after all of the characters he has made us believe in the last 25 years.I have the same problems with Ed Harris, not that he was not the perfect actor to portray the German Sniper: He is just so...
American.Nevertheless, if you ignore these little irritants, this is a great film, apparently a true story pulled out of a huge book about Russia in WW II: but expanded and dramatized.Jude Law looks as good as any other character part he has taken, whether it is Lemony Snicket, Sky Captain, Joe from AI, or, my favourite, Errol Flynn in The Aviator.
Though unoriginal, the gory realism of war is entertaining to watch for most violent mongering young men like me.But this movie quickly nosedives into several ludicrous sub-plots, and the battle for Stalingrad merely becomes the backdrop for two lame and hackneyed stories--a romance with two friends going after the girl, and a high-noon, Top Gun, who's the toughest guy on the block shoot-out.I came into the film expecting to be treated to lots of awesome, over-the-top battle scenes (eg Saving Private Ryan) and tense "nazis aren't a faceless enemy" (eg Thin Red Line w/Japanese soldiers) but instead get bored silly with annoying revenge cliches and cute kids.
I love hearing comments about things the average American knows next to nothing about.A) The movie was loosely based on a short segment of the novel "Enemy at the Gates" (which referred to the Wermacht approaching the city) by William Craig, in which the duel between Vaili Zaitsev and the German Uber sniper is played out in the course of a page and a half.B) The truly epic proportions and consequences of The Battle for Stalingrad are under-appreciated by most non-Europeans.
I think that the weakness in due to 2 things: -Annaud realised a film about the 2nd world war and he asks american and british actors to play in it -the music by Mr James Horner is horrible again(he is really not talented) so this is an interesting movie because the plot is good enough and the actors are great(except B.Hoskins), but you could have expected more than that.
Enemy at the Gates is a pretty good war movie though not the best in accuracy.
Easily one of the best war movies that I have seen, young Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law), sharpshooter from the Urals, finds himself the hero of the Battle of Stalingrad on account of his superlative sniper skills.
For me, I went into this movie with high expectations, but it even amazed me more then i could of thought.Actors Jude Law, Bob Hoskins, Joseph Fiennes, Ed Harris, and Rachel Weisz did outstanding jobs at their roles making you feel a bunch of emotions during this film.
Great movie about the Battle of Stalingrad 1942 World War II.
To keep the ladies immersed until the end of the 131-minute movie, it even has a little romantic sub-plot, which potentially turns out to be the bewitching undoing of the lead character.The battle takes place during World War II in Stalingrad, Russia, with sharpshooter Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law) almost single-handedly bagging the bodies as promptly as they arrive, though things start to look grim for the Russian troops when the Germans move inward, and Commander Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) devise a "brilliant" plan to boost the hope of the civilians with propaganda-laden newspapers. |
tt5207116 | X: Past Is Present | K is a film maker, may be around 45 years of age, who is in a party. It is made clear that he is a womanizer. He meets a beautiful young girl whose mothers name is Sherene who was his first girlfriend. He remembers Sherene as flash back where he refuses her sexual advance on his birthday and leaves her.He meets this beautiful young girl again near washroom where she is changing her top. He again goes to flash back where he had seen a women change many times. He remembers how he successfully talks her into convincing her husband to finance his movie.He goes to have a drink with this beautiful young girl. She being a dancer reminds him of his dancer wife who left him due to his affair with his heroine.The young girl then asks her about how he came up with the story of his first successful movie 8 to 8. He again goes to flashback where he shared a room with a girl whom he never met as he lived in the room from morning 8 to evening 8 as he was working at night shift. This arrangement worked as the girl with whom he shared room had day shift. They communicated with each other through writings. But one day suddenly he had to leave due to his fathers death resulting into no financial support for him. He chose to not meet the girl to keep his memory as pleasant colorful one as meeting her will spoil that feeling. Otherwise he would not have made the movie 8 to 8 so successfully. He compromises real life opportunity to come up with a good movie.He again goes to flash back where he drugs his maid and take help to write his version of movie Devdas.Later he remembers the time when he is in US for film festival due to his successful movie and how he spent time with a girl there. He succeeds to go to her house in spite of her earlier anger due to his blunt approach.When this beautiful young girl approaches him sexually, he remembers how one of his girlfriend who was also his earlier movies heroine wanted to become pregnant but he refused. He thought that she was too young to become pregnant but too old to act in his new movie.He later remembers how he refused to marry a girlfriend and how his carelessness caused an accident costing her life.The dressing of the young beautiful girl in his room reminds him of one of his girlfriend who deflowered him and discouraged him to do something on his own. She takes an aggressive interview which was enough to break him.He then tells this young beautiful girl that he thinks that she is not real as he doesnt even know her name. He only knew that her mothers name is Sherene. She says that he should ask who is he instead of asking who is she.He then remembers how he got attracted to a woman much older than him when he was very young and was in Tamil Nadu as his dad who was in military got transferred there. Actually that woman used him to get a prey for her husband to get anal sex on K.K finds out this beautiful young girls name which was Aastha. He stills misses Sherene and talks to her in his imagination. Aastha gives her a watch as gift which she claims is a time travel machine.K uses it and to his surprise it really worked. He reaches that women in Tamil Nadu where he apologizes her for running away. Actually she had killed her husband for protecting K. When he asks how she took care of the dead body, she reveals that she made biryani out of the dead body. | avant garde, flashback | train | imdb | An experiment that doesn't work until its last 10 minutes with the 'Biryani'..
For a change let me narrate the basic structure of this gutsy experiment wherein a middle-aged director meets a young beautiful girl in a bar and while talking to her remembers his passionate moments lived with 10 different women in the various phases of his life beginning from the early years.
The undisclosed interactions with these women get conceived by 11 creative directors on screen in their own distinctive way focusing on love, attraction, sex, lust, anger and much more.
And it's this interesting amalgamation of 11 unusual segments that results in a complete film of around two hours that thankfully ends on a positive note instead of any depressing one.No doubt an interesting description indeed that sounds quite appealing as a journey into the minds of 11 different women and a man, probably revealing a lot about our hidden psyche having unlimited dimensions or layers of unseen scary fantasies, we ourselves are not aware of.But unfortunately that is not what the film offers to us as per the promises made, resulting in a rather messy collage of personal interpretations of 11 young and talented directors (including a few reputed film reviewers too).On a contradictory note, the concept of roping in several directors for a single project revolving around a common theme is not a novel one as the experiment has been tried a few times before in the west and in Hindi films too as in DARNA MANA HAI (2003), DARNA ZAROORI HAI (2006), DUS KAHANIYAN (2007), THE LAST ACT (2012) and BOMBAY TALKIES (2013).
In fact THE LAST ACT comes quite close to X – PAST IS PRESENT in terms of conceptualization (as it also had 12 debut directors looking upon 'a murder mystery' in their individual 10-12 minutes short segments forming a complete film).
Having said that, there still exists a unique novelty in the present project, as it has an exclusive feature of 11 experimental directors visualizing the intense love-hate relationships of 'the same man' in different phases of his life, bringing in their own personal perspective, not found in any of the attempts mentioned above in particular.But then why it dosen't work?That's because not even one of the 11 contributing directors seems to be ever interested in reaching the viewer talking to him as an impressive story-teller.
In fact all the 11 look like competing with each other to come out as the most thoughtful, artistic and deep filmmaker than the other, forgetting everything about the end-users sitting in the theater losing a good amount of money spent on those costly tickets sold by the exploitative multiplexes.In other words, it's as if they all are having a bet that who will turn out to be the most creative-visionary director presenting his given section of the film with the weirdest choices of head spinning camera angles, forcibly written one liners and unwanted close-ups of the ladies, offering nothing enjoyable or entertaining to all the energetic, serious supporters of such experimental cinema.
Sharing the experience of watching it in the theater, the film straight away begins with some unbearable camera movements introducing the key characters and this absurdity continues right till the end giving you a real tough time looking at the screen.
Besides, the reason that you don't get to see the main protagonist's face clearly in its majority of sequences, turns out to be the most frustrating feature of the film quite frankly (as the young character of Rajat Kapoor is presented without showing his face in few segments and the director also presents the scenes in an irritating first person narrative creating an unnecessary tension).
Further despite getting conceived by 11 different directors, the story proceedings fail to the engage the viewers in any entertaining manner and one keeps expecting something interesting to surface soon till it all comes down to the concluding segment of the film innovatively titled 'BIRYANI' (the titles of each story get displayed in the end credits), that thankfully offers something intriguing and exciting that can be cheered for.Adding to the very few merits of the project, Rajat Kapoor is immensely believable playing the lead character and it seems to be his own life on the screen proving his silent talent not deservingly tapped by our reputed directors.
Anshuman Jha, as the young Rajat manages to give a decent performance playing the confused boy, but its only Swara Bhaskar among the group of girls who successfully makes a solid impact in the final 10 minutes of the film generating a mixed feeling of disgust and amazement together.
So surprisingly it's neither Huma Qureshi nor Radhika Apte but Swara who becomes the sole winner in the project providing the much required shock in the end.
Plus it was also great to see the always young, charming and lovable Usha Uthup featuring in a sweet cameo too in one of its key sections.Summing up, though the film is a collective presentation of 11 sections directed by 11 talented directors dealing with 11 girls, yet its only one segment that actually has some quality stuff to offer putting it honestly.
And (as mentioned above) its the final segment of the film featuring Swara and Jha together titled BIRYANI.
But instead of spilling out the beans about its uncanny title, I would like to add that these last 10 minutes of the film would readily remind you of the good old days of maestro RAM GOPAL VERMA when he successfully tried to scare us all like hell with many of his enjoyable spooky projects beginning with RAAT.In short, skip it if some abstract art confusingly trying to present a philosophical take on life doesn't appeal you.
But do try if you wish to study an interesting but failed experiment that attempts to look into the life of 'the same person' through the unrelated, distinctive mindsets of 11 creative directors..
A must watch film for film lovers.
One of the best movies of 2015.
I like the film very much, it has several reasons.
1st is that the selection of cast of the movie (Rajat kapoor, Radhika apte and all others) was very good.
Despite of bold roles, all of them did their best.
Direction is also very good.
Past is shown in a very good way.
The best thing is that film starts in a mysterious way and ends mysteriously (lefts you kind of shocked).
Every single part of movie is connected to other.
You can't get away from it once you started.
If you put your concentration on any other thing while the movie is playing or you miss a part of it then after some while you will ask yourself, what happened or how did that happened?
Hats off for all the cast and directors..
A film that needs to be watched.
X: Past is Present is easily of the most beautifully photographed and lyrical Indian films that I have ever watched.
A collaboration of eleven filmmakers viz Abhinav Shiv Tiwari, Anu Menon, Nalan Kumarasamy, Hemant Gaba, Pratim D.
Gupta, Q, Raja Sen, Rajshree Ojha, Sandeep Mohan, Sudhish Kamath and Suparn Verma, X: Past is Present stars the endlessly charming and debonair Rajat Kapoor and some of the most talented young actresses working in the industry today including Radhika Apte, Huma Qureshi, and Swara Bhaskar.
X: Past is Present is about a filmmaker who gets overcome by a bout of nostalgia when he meets a girl half his age at a party, as he is reminded of all the women in his life.
Sounds like the master Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini's Otto e Mezzo aka 8 1/2?
Well, be ready for the surprise of your life as X: Past is Present is nothing like anything you would have ever watched before.
It is like a breath of fresh air that contemporary Indian cinema seems to be missing.
It is really a pity that a film like this went relatively unnoticed when it should have been bestowed with all kinds of accolades.
Which reminds me of Chandraprakash Dwivedi's brilliant political satire Zed Plus, a gem of a film that I reviewed on IMDb some time back.
Movies like these just come and go.
The loss of course is entirely ours.
Of the 11 chapters in X: Past is Present, my favorite is 'Chapter III: Knot', written & directed by Raja Sen. and featuring the beautiful Huma Qureshi in a never-seen-before tantalizing avatar.
How I wished the chapter never ended.
Now, I know why James Bond 007 doesn't prefer the Windsor knot.
Here is a film that needs to be watched.For more on the world of cinema, please visit my film blog "A Potpourri of Vestiges"..
I did not enjoy it.
This film is about a film director whose women in the past is intertwined with the present.The first ten minutes are already horrid, and the rest of the film does not get better.
The premise is basically an excuse to have lots of women in a vague erotic setting.
The constant pure tones are very annoying.
The story does not make sense at all.
I cannot say I enjoyed even a minute of it..
Winner of IgNobel award of movies.
This movie is so bad that it actually hurt to watch even the first 30 minutes.
I wish there was a reverse Filmfare award for making the most hopeless movie, this movie will be head and shoulders above the other bad ones.
This looks like an attempt to make an "art film".
I can't tell if it is art or not, but watching it is pure torture..
One of the best movie ever made in Bollywood.
If you are looking for a routine Bollywood movie, this may not be a right choice.
But if you are interested in a good movie with great direction, this is a must watch.It's very difficult to get all the important aspects of a movie like direction (which I think personally as most important), story, characters, acting, actors, editing, dialogues etc.
to be very good in a single movie and this is what X: Past is Present achieves.
This movie is a proof that good Bollywood movie can reach up to the standard of a good Hollywood one.There are no black and white characters here but rather grey ones with each having their own reasons for how they behave and our main character is no exception.
Whatever he does may not always be correct (nor totally wrong either) but he has his reasons (like we all do).So I suggest to keep an open mind about how a Bollywood movie can turn out to be and I am sure that you will enjoy it.
Area of improvement can be the ending but still that doesn't allow me to justify myself if I give it a rating less than 10..
A splendid story.
Let me tell u folks, this is different.
Its screenplay, Direction and acting is superb and intriguing.
Its worth watching if you like off- beat cinema.
Each story is written and directed by different writers and directors but its not different story, its a part of the same story but the fascinating thing about this movie is how they are linked and portrayed.
Its climax is also good so please watch till the end.Apart from Rajat Kapur, Huma Quraishi and Radhika Apte, Swara Bhaskara has done a splendid Job as A Tamilian Girl.
Other newcomers have also performed well.
Altogether I can say that its a new kind of cinematic experience for sure..
A heady, philosophical mix of different perspective of relationship in a delicious form from 11 individuals....
Must accolade the novel collaborative effort if not the movie.
A movie that traces the life of a movie-maker (named K) who made a movie on his movie- like life with multiple relationships ....
Clichéd????
But, when the movie is a collaborative effort from 11 different directors contributing to the same storyline (Unlike 'Das Kahaniya', etc.), and Rajat Kapoor (as K) tells the story in a flash-back setup in his own style the result becomes a heady, philosophical yet delicious mix....
Avoiding the controversy of being it a good or bad or average film, Kudos to all the directors for such an experiment....While depicting their (all the directors) own perspective of love, sex, and relationships, Director Pratim Das Gupta possibly made the most commendable effort in his part called '8 to 8' where K stayed in the same rented apartment with a girl but at different time.
Thus could not meet despite of having a mutual-feelings for each-other's reminiscing activities...
Possibly impossible, but anyone can cherish the story in an old-NorthCalcutta-setup and striking performance by Ranadeep Bose (a Young K) and Parno Mitra....
After all love is not only about distance but about time also...The worst one came from none other than Q (Qaushiq Mukherjee, director of 'Gaandu', 'Tasher Desh', etc.) as expected, where Rii (Rituparna, the only heroine Q can get nowadays) plays possibly a role of a sinister woman....
The presentation was possibly so "out-of-the-box" no one with an average IQ can get it.
Wonderful acting from Rajat Kapoor makes up for the bizarre, convoluted storytelling.
X: Past Is Present is perhaps one of the best as well as an ambitious take on anthology movies as there are 11 short films contributing to the overall narrative of a filmmaker 'K' who reflects on his past emotional and sexual escapades after meeting with a girl at a film festival party.
The first half of the movie starts out strong, especially the first four short films that contribute a great deal in the character development of K.
The rest of the movie, however, quickly falls apart especially Q's attempt to create a metaphysical masterpiece but ignominiously fails to interpret the essence on screen.
Rii Sen, as usual, works well as a sex symbol but ultimately succumbs to the bitter reality that she can't act.
The rest of the movie just approaches a precipitous downhill with the talent of Radhika Apte and Huma Qureshi being utterly wasted.
However, in the midst of labyrinthine story arcs, Pratim D.
Gupta manages to execute an engaging and poignant unrequited love story between K and a girl who stayed in the same room from 8 to 8 and never see each other, yet fall in love through the poems they write for each other.
The execution is superb and this is perhaps the only short film that stands out from the rest.
The cast promised much but didn't deliver.
Rajat Kapoor was great and I don't think he can be bad - even in a mediocre movie.
The cinematography is top notch no doubt and I really loved the camera work throughout the whole movie.
What disappoints me is that a great premise is woefully smeared with poor execution and under usage of talented actors.
This movie is definitely not for everyone, but if you have an eye for experimental indie flicks that have something fresh to offer, X: Past Is Present is worth a watch.
My IMDb Rating: 6.9/10 |
tt0833557 | Visioneers | George Washington Winsterhammerman lives an ordinary life. He has a wife, a kid, a house and a boat. Every day George gets in his minivan and goes to work as a Level Three Tunt at the Jeffers Corporation, the largest and most profitable corporation in the history of humankind. Though he lives an utterly comfortable life, George is growing nervous. People around him have begun explodingliterally. Fearing he might be next, George visits his doctor and learns that his recurring dreams are a symptom of impending explosion. Unfortunately, George cant stop dreaming, and as the explosion epidemic worsens, he is forced to question the life hes been living. This quirky and distinctive story, utterly original in every way, features inspired casting, particularly with acclaimed actor and comedian Zach Galifianakis as George. He is joined by the delightful Judy Greer and terrific indie mainstay James LeGros. VISIONEERS, the debut film from the sibling filmmaking team of Brandon and Jared Drake, offers a darkly comic view of a world so skewed it can't help but remind us of our own. [D-Man2010]First time feature filmmaker Jared Drake makes his directorial debut with this quirky black comedy set in the near future, and concerning a curious spike in cases of spontaneous human combustion. The Jeffers Corporation is the largest business in the history of mankind, and they got that way thanks to their strict philosophy of happiness through mindless productivity. But when people begin literally exploding due to unhappiness, Jeffers Corporation Level Three TUNT George Washington Winsterhammerman (Zach Galifianakis) begins to fear that his time will come sooner rather than later. [D-Man2010]George lives a comfortable yet completely uneventful life, and when he starts having dreams in which hes the first President of the United States, his doctor informs him that they could be signs of impending explosion. Later, as the dreams become more frequent and his co-workers continue to detonate, George is prompted to reevaluate his mundane existence. Judy Greer, Missi Pyle, and James LeGros co-star in an existential black comedy featuring music by Tim DeLaughter of the Polyphonic Spree. [D-Man2010] | psychedelic, comedy, satire, depressing | train | imdb | Its not likely to bring glee to the eyes of those that usually adorn the walls of the local multiplex.The film is pretty good satire.
Some of the satire was lacking any subtlety; I'm thinking of the life coach who tries to cure Zach.Many people have compared this to Brazil, its a fair comparison.
The story follow George Washington Winsterhammerman (Zach G.) as he floats through his day-to-day life without any real passion, all the while trying to avoid "exploding," which the world around him continually claims to be able to prevent by following various self-help books, buying the latest gadget or toy, and staying productive; basically, not truly living in any real sense.
None of this stuff truly works for George; he has dreams, but he is afraid to follow them, because he is lead to believe that if he does he will definitely explode.The almost-too-subtle tone and style of the film can be hard to interpret at times, especially if you're trying too hard to understand it, but I believe it suits the film well and allows for a truly contemplative cinematic experience.
There are so many underlying themes and messages about life at the heart of this film that it is impossible to list them all here, and I don't know if I even could, because I probably missed a few of them the first couple of times I watched it.
Turn the negative, cynical and egotistical part of your brain off before you sit down to watch Visioneers and you will truly appreciate the message of the film.
Yes, it has a few flaws here and there, and may also seem preachy and pretentious at times, but that could very well have been intentional; meant to convey the message of the film in a different way.It wrestles with what it truly means to be alive!
A little of both, I guess.Visioneers is one such example: the trailer comes across as a fairly light-hearted, quirky romantic comedy.In reality, however, this film deserves to sit beside 1984 and Blade Runner as dark and disturbing visions of dystopian futures.
While it starts out with the uncomfortable humor you'd expect from a Zach Galifianakis film, the atmosphere of oppression builds over the course of the movie to become almost unbearable.
The world around him is full of deadpan absurdities, a parody of drab offices and mid life crises, with an undercurrent of hopelessness that rings a little too true to sit comfortably.The way the theme of dreams is turned into a literal threat is done with obvious self-awareness, but it comes across like a bad cinematic pun.
I can see why some people wouldn't get it, and the drake brothers are right when they say that their film is a little weird.
The film comments on so many things its hard to make a mental list while watching the movie or even afterwards, but i think that would cheapen the premiere experience.
If you take the time to watch this movie, you will not walk away disappointed.
I just read the reviews here on IMDb and can't imagine these are people who actually watched the movie who are not friends of the filmmakers.This movie was absolutely terrible, imo.
I just got out of the screening at Austin Film Festival and the crowd walking out seemed to agree with me, that this was NOT good.The whole thing feels like a short story that goes on forever.
The brother is a little funny, but the whole "Garp-like" idea of the backyard being a messiah for happy people is a serious stretch and barely explained...the FBI attacks them?
This well crafted story follow George Washington Winsterhammerman(played pefectly by Zach Galifianakis) as he deals with the recent outbreak of exploding people, his wife trying to find happiness through a book, and a budding romance with a coworker.
I watched this film for Zach Galifianakis, as recently I've come to love him and his humor.
You can note that a majority of people in the movie who stop/prevent exploding, such as the pole vaulting brother, found their happiness and their release in throwing off the chains of modern day life and plunging head first into chasing their dream regardless of how ridiculous it may be.
I have not watched Brazil or read 1984, so I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt it is similar; but it's not like every movie released in theaters hasn't been done in one way shape or form.
Zach Galifianakis, an unhappily married family man who works in Level 3 of a major productivity corporation (where the company logo is the middle finger salute), attempts to avoid combustible stress as it is causing citizens to literally explode.
Considering the strangeness of the movie I expected the end to be somewhat living up to it, but this is where it kind of veers back to normality which I think may have been done for a proper distribution.
I was skeptical of what seemed, from previews, like a plot that reached too far and relied on shock value but I was wrong, the film is beautiful and the absurdity comes from a real and painful place.
in it and instantly thought 'oh, I like immature humor hopefully this is more of the same.' This is easily his best film to date and it's negative reviews only go to show how pathetic the average American movie goer has grown.
In fact, if you have dreams, it's advised to visit a doctor immediately.The film tries to impress the message of how disgustingly repressing and sad are our lives in a corporate capitalist system such as exists in the US today, how marriages that shouldn't have happened for the sake of marrying someone and that lack communication are basically uncomfortable space sharing, how driving an expensive boat and car is meaningless and how therapy sessions, books and TV shows that try to teach you how to be happy are poor prescriptions to tolerable living.The film also shows how the opposition of this lifestyle as exists today is not a rebellion but a mere conformity.
The film argues that people who try to live alternative lifestyles, such as hippies, are nothing more than people trying to escape the system by alternative forms of entertainment, other than just watching TV like the rest of the "normal" people do.
In essence, they are doing nothing to fix the situation, but they merely try to make it tolerable to themselves by pretending to be children again.There is also a comment to be made about the urbanization of the countryside and natural environment.The main message of the film is the death of dreams and emotions that we suffer in order to enter this kind of society and how the human psyche is tormented to the point of numbing itself and thinking that things such as money, success in the workplace and attractiveness are the symbol of happiness.
I think the only time I laughed was when the scene suddenly cut to Zach Galifianakis bench-pressing with his face in the trainer's crotch.This movie depicts a funny situation, but the lines and actions aren't funny when taken individually.
Zach Galifianakis is wonderful in the lead role, great acting all around, all the way down to the kooky guy on the pole vaulting mat.
I definitely recommend seeing this movie, it isn't your typical film..
Zach Galifianakis is the reason I wanted to see this film and was the reason I enjoyed it....
The movie has a simple message that serves a sweet ending to the fun that has been had and though the tribulations of George were at times harsh, the humor reigns supreme.
A feel good film that I hope you get the chance to try..
You also probably know how hard it is to find films like them."The Visioneers" fits squarely in that darker-than-dark category.
It also has a cold, brooding vibe similar to a Charlie Kaufman flick ("Being John Malkovich", "Synecdoche NY") or the great offbeat comedies "Punch Drunk Love" and "Joe Vs the Volcano" and maybe even a hit of Truffaut's 1966 "Fahrenheit 451" (especially concerning the mind-numbed wife constantly watching TV).Insanely funny minor characters, like Missi Pyle (one of Hollywood's funniest second-fiddles) playing the neurotically unbalanced talk show host who becomes obsessed with butter, or Ryan McCann playing "Mac Luster" the Zoolander-Meets-Rambo action hero, or Matthew Glave as the Nazi health trainer, keep the comedy rolling even though there isn't a big focus on zingers and not really much action at all.
A love story develops in the second half which is surprisingly sentimental and touching despite the outlandish circumstances surrounding the characters.The plot itself is a straightforward dystopian nightmare: in a not-so-distant future (though very reminiscent of the cheezy 1980s with laughably bad propaganda commercials), a mid-level manager played by Zach Galifianakis begins to "suffer" from the phenomenon of dreaming.
Be sure to consider it carefully before interpreting it.If you like any or all of these films I've mentioned, don't hesitate to rent or even buy "Visioneers" (by the way, if you live near a Dollar Tree store, you can find this great title brand new for exactly $1 which will leave you plenty extra to buy some popcorn (skip the butter...
that's a reference to a bizarre woman's butter obsession in the movie).When you consider it's been years, if not decades, since there's been a good absurd satire like this which is unafraid to dive boldly into the bizarre, this flick has all the makings of a modern classic.
Zach Galifianakis has lately one of my favorite actors, and hes great at keeping a face for the mood.The setting is also weird, most likely because a low budget, but the setting of this movie make it great.
Manny movies with a low budgets have done a great job at make a setting, a lot like this film dose.This film is for the people who are hard to entertain and not for the action type of people..
Brandon and Jared Drake have really accomplished something unique with their first feature film as a writer/director team, and I truly hope Visioneers finds the audience it deserves when the official release date finally arrives this summer.
The Drakes have crafted something a little more subtle and cohesive than that.In a better reality, personal and character-driven films like this one would dominate the box office.
Some parts of the movie were just tedious and annoying, and the humor felt like it was not thorough - silly if you will - which took away from the seriousness of this film and added no value to the themes.
Perhaps the directors intended it that way, but viewers have to pay attention to film's theme and subjects before watching."The Visioneers" is not anywhere close to "the Hangover"-type comedy, which would draw a crowd expecting slapstick humor,(and getting bored instead.) Although they compliment it really well, I wouldn't also compare this movie to "Doctor Strangelove" or even 1984 (which is a book, people, and I read it and Brave New World, too.
First off: I don't live or work in the corporate world of the US and I feel really sorry for anyone who gave this movie a positive rate.
Since this is seen as a good film, I was waiting and hoping until the very end for something to happen and the movie ended leaving me with a WTF on my mind.
"Visioneers" is extremely boring, and to some extend it is even aggravating that this movies received such a positive rating coming from people who are actually described as victims or let's say dehumanized employees.
Read international newspapers instead of watching movies like this!
Visioneers is a movie that's part comedy, part drama, and part Brazil.
The common theme of the positive reviews that try to refute the negative reviews seems to be that the people who didn't like this movie didn't understand the film or wanted something with fart jokes.The truth is this movie is plain and simply bad.
To the people who love it, I'm sure it seems profound - it might have to me back when I was young and naive and hadn't seen a hundred movies that have covered similar themes in a way that makes this look like it was cooked up and executed by film school dropouts.After writing that, I realize I should apologize to film school dropouts for the insult of associating them with this movie.It is billed as a black comedy but without any comedic moments that rise above an occasional and very slight "heh".
As a bonus it can function as a non addictive sleep aid.Only two things kept me watching this movie initially - the presence of Judy Greer and Missi Pyle - I've liked their work in the past.
Other filmmakers have been able to pull that off and add charm and flavor to their movies - on this one it just makes it feel even more amateurish.Sometimes film makers are so good they can put together weirdness, odd performances, and seemingly low quality production values in a kind of stealth approach and then, with their above average skill set, they bring it all together in a way that surprises the viewer.
A political satire of sorts, and Judy Greer has some really good lines at the end, after doing virtually nothing all movie..
Anyway, I get what the movie is trying to say and I think the message is a good one.I just don't care much for how it was said, and I don't think it has enough substance to fill out the 90 minute running time.Not terrible, but really not that great either..
Perhaps running a cell phone kiosk in a grocery store or selling bicycle tires door-to-door?George Washington Winsterhammerman (Zach Galifianakis) is a Level 3 employee of the Jeffers Corporation, also known as a Tunt.
Of course, tens of thousands of people are randomly exploding in George's world and dreams are one of the symptoms of that, so maybe there's only one good thing for him.
The Jeffers Corporation is an almost surreal place, yet it exists side-by-side with relatively normal people and places and ways of life.
Sometimes it's only a sign of people who aren't talented enough to make an entertaining film.There are better things to spend your time on than this motion picture.
I don't really give anything away though.I've read some reviews of this film that call say it presents a "dystopian" society.
(I was.) Towards the end of the film things start blowing up, so to speak, and this is where Galifianakis really shines.
I highly recommend this film to everyone, but I think there's only a certain group of people that are going to appreciate it.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.George Washington Winsterhammerman (Zach Galifianakis) works as a Level 3 tunt at the Jeffers Corporation, in the same room as Cindy (Fay Masterson) and Todd (Chris Coppola).
OK, so the Jeffers Corporation rules the world (or something like that), its official salute is the middle finger, and there is an epidemic of people randomly exploding into tiny pieces.
When people begin exploding from stress, George Washington Winsterhammerman (Zach Galifianakis) tries to ignore the epidemic and live his usual life, but then he suffers his first symptom.
It's impossible not to realize who the real life inspiration for Sahra is, and I don't want to spoil the happy ending, but Sahra blows her head off on national t.v. when she reads the final step toward happiness is: Happiness is being happy.I loved this movie.
A great example, and a real funny scene in the movie, is when George goes to the doctor because he's dreaming, which is common in people who explode.
After a series of hilarious tests, the doctor tells George, "Dreams cause instability and pain, that's why we don't talk about them." Visioneers is a satire and it touches on very real feelings about conformity, happiness, dreams, and exploding, but it never forgets its purpose is to make us laugh and it accomplishes that throughout the film.
George Washington Winsterhammerman (Zach Galifianakis) is a man working for the Jeffers corporation.
What I wasn't prepared for was how devastatingly accurate this film was.The world of Visioneers is a sort of dystopian future - there are no flying cars or food pills (in fact, I think the only cars in the movie are minivans) but it is still a grim depressing reality that the characters face every day.
It's not so far off that you can't see yourself in their world, and at times I felt like they had taken parts of the movie from my everyday life.Visioneers is an incredible movie.
I think anyone who's ever worked in an office in their life could relate to this movie.
The movie has already won the audience award at Cinevegas, which means that I'm not the only person who felt like this.
The plot and the acting makes you feel incredibly bored, and after a while, I really felt like I had to stop watching.
Same with the middle finger greeting.I really wish I hadn't watched the trailer as that told me absolutely everything that happened in the first half of the movie, nothing was a surprise.I just want to note that I loved The Hangover, and I do believe that Zach is a great actor, but this is his worst role ever.
A Jeffers day to you!I just wish they hadn't put that miserable ending on this great film.
Towards the end the main character walks around like a zombie without saying a word or giving any sign of human emotion as it all moves slowly to an ending you no longer care about.Problem is there is not enough story for even a one hour and thirty minute long film. |
tt0045609 | Cat-Women of the Moon | Moon rocket 4 launches from Earth the crew is pinned to their chairs by the enormous G forces created by the liftoff. On the radio frantic calls come from Earth asking them to report immediately. Finally the pressure eases and the commander of the flight Laird Grainger (Sonny Tufts) begins checking on the crew. Helen Salinger (Marie Windsor) the only female crew member and navigator is the first to respond as she shakes off the effects of the launch.Grainger wants an immediate situation report from everyone. Helen confirms they are on course, which Grainger reports to White Sands control. He then hands off to the co pilot Kip Reissner (Victor Jory) Helen then offers a few words before allowing before letting Doug Smith (William Phipps) the ships radio operator speak. Finally Walt Walters (Douglas Fowley) the ships engineer sends a message home.The ship is hit by something which Grainger believes to be a meteor thats now lodged itself in the rocket tubes. They decide to maneuver the ship wildly to dislodge the meteor. This succeeds but there appears to be damage to the ships engines. Kip volunteers to go and check the engines and donning protective equipment he enters the chamber. Kip finds a dangerous leak and begins repairs. Hes almost at the end of his strength when the situation is finally under control. In the control room warning lights blink out and the ship is saved.Grainger queries Helen about her time on the radio, who she was talking to when she said Alpha we are on the way Helen is vague in her response and acts as if she recalls nothing. Grainger decides not to press the issue and asks her to begin preparing landing site locations. She has already chosen a site, a valley located on the dark side. Grainger is surprised by the choice it does not fit the mission profile but Helen is insistent, she admits she cant explain why, but knows it is the perfect spot.The ship lands without incident and after discussing their options, the crew suits up and heads out onto the surface, Grainger goes first to inspect the ship and check if any repairs need to be done. He reports all is well and the rest of the crew begins to join him on the surface. Helen suggests they head towards a cave she saw of the crater they landed in.As they begin to head to the cave a meteor passes low over them before impacting in the crater wall. Continuing they come to the Luna terminator. Grainger wants to highlight the danger and asks Helen for one of her lucky cigarettes she always carries. Throwing it into the direct sunlight the cigarette explodes in flames
Drawing closer to the cave, Kip points out to Grainger there was no way Helen could have seen the cave during the landing as she claimed when suggesting to head towards it. Grainger dismisses the observation and orders the crew to continue into the cave.Helen studies the walls of the cave for a few minutes then mentions it looks exactly as it did in a dream. From this point she takes the leads and begins threading her way through various passages. The crew discovers gravity is stronger in the cave, and the existence of stalactites hanging from the ceiling suggests moisture. For that to be true there must also be atmosphere. Realizing this they remove their suits to make exploration easier.Helen continues to lead. Kip becoming increasingly suspicious insists on carrying his gun. Theyve only traveled a short distance when they are a attacked by a the size of a large dog. They beat the creatures attack off before Kip kills it with his gun. Disorientated during the melee, Helen stumbles off and encounters a second spider, also quickly dispatched by Kip.Grainger and Kip decide to go back and retrieve the suits while Doug and Walt explore the chamber they are in now leaving Helen to rest. As she sleeps a strange female figure approaches and touches her palm leaving a strange mark. Helen wakes screaming as the figure rushes awayGrainger and Kip return and report the suits are missing. This forces the team to continue under the direction of Helen. The passage they are following opens to a huge cavern with a small walled city in the center. They enter and explore the city with all the evidence around them suggesting its been abandoned for a very long time. Kip is convinced Helen knows a lot more than she is admitting especially about the suits. Grainger intercedes and after an angry standoff Kip backs down.Doug and Helen begin exploring another section of the city. Doug is in the lead and she stands back and allows a woman to attack him from a hidden position. The noise of the fight attracts the others but the unknown woman runs off before the party arrives.As the men regroup they realize Helen is missing and spread out to search for her. More hidden women attack and try to take the men down individually. The crew fight of the attack and the mysterious women scatter except one who attacked Doug who he has pinned down. As the crew try to get a better look at her she disappears into thin air, leaving everyone stunned as to what has just happened.Helen finds her way into a secret passage and encounters the leader of the women, Alpha (Carol Brewster) she is then introduced to Beta (Suzanne Alexander) and Lambda (Susan Morrow) Helen is confused and unsure of herself till Alpha tells Helen she is now one of them. Alpha goes on to describe how she has been sending mental messages across space and coaching Helen with all the knowledge she needed to become the navigator selected for the mission.Alpha then tells her the history of their existence on the Moon. A decision was made eons ago to reduce the population as air and other resources began to run out. What Helen sees now is the final generation trapped in the caverns. Their only hope was a spaceship arriving from Earth. Alpha plans to learn how to fly the ship then disposed of the crew with the exception of Helen will take three of the Moon women back to Earth.The Moon women accompany Helen back to the main party, Helen then introduces the women to the crew and food and drinks are served. Kip refuses to be engaged in any of the entertainment or food, deciding to remain isolated and eat his own rations.During the dinner Doug asks Lambda why there are no men. She explains they all died off when she was a child and Doug is the first man she has ever seen. At another table Grainger is questioned by Alpha as to the workings of the ship, he explains he cant tell them anything. Because he is under orders not to reveal such informationWalt is charmed by Beta who fills his head of stories about caverns filled with gold. In fact there is so much no one bothers to mine it. She promises to let Walt have the gold if he agrees to take her back to Earth with him.
Doug falls heavily for Lambda, he does not realize she can read his mind and is drawing information to build rapport to look as though she genuinely likes him.Alpha calls the women together and they leave for the night, the crew begins to discuss whats happening when they realize Walts missing. Helen mentions he went somewhere with Beta. Grainger starts to argue with Kip who is convinced the situation is not as it seems.Kip again challenges Helen, at first she resists then goes through a mental convulsion which seems to release her true self. She warns Kip of the Moon Womens plan and their intention to harm the rest of the crew and only take her back to Earth. As the moment of clarity strengthens she admits she likes Kip more than Laird however the Moon Women are forcing her to show interest in Laird because he knows more about the ship.Kip finds Laird and apologies for his earlier behavior without revealing any of the conversation hes had with Helen. Meanwhile Walt has taken Beta back to the ship and is explaining the various functions. She in turn reaffirms her promise about the gold.During the night the women begin a dance. Doug, woken by the music wakes and goes to watch. Kip spots Doug and sees his growing interest in Lambda, after a few minutes they go off together. Kip reports back to Helen who warns him Lambda is one of the most dangerous onesIn the caves Walt is shown the gold, he is overjoyed and begins to celebrate until Beta kills him with a knife. Elsewhere Lambda breaks down and tells Doug she actually loves him and is no longer acting. She then explains the plan to steal the ship. She makes him promise that if they escape she wants him to return and rescue the remaining womenLambda then approaches Alpha with a recommendation one of the men be allowed to return with them as a sign of good faith. Alpha rejects the suggestion, angry at the thought of losing Doug Lambda threatens to unravel the entire plan Alpha and Beta ignore Lambdas ultimatum but do decide to accelerate their plans and go off to execute the men. Doug finds Kip and tells him Lambdas story. Kip confronts Laird and Helen and argues Helen is leading the attack. Kip grabs Helens hand and covers the device in her palm being used by the Moon Women to control her.She admits her role in the plot and she actually loves Kip and not Laird. This causes the men to get into a fight. Lambda arrives and sounds the alarm; the women are stealing the ship. Unknown to Alpha and Beta, Lambda has hidden two suits for the men.Lambda tries to stop the two women, but is killed by Alpha. In turn Kip and Laird catch up with Alpha and Beta who have Helen with them. A gun fight ensures and the two Moon women are killed but Helen avoids injuryThe crew then it back to the ship, report the situation to Earth and liftoff for homeChapman_glen@yahoo.com | murder | train | imdb | null |
tt0066344 | Scrooge | Five children sing before doors in 19th century London. Scrooge sends them away without any money.His nephew Fred enters his countinghouse, and suggests that 7PM on Christmas Eve is too late to be working. Mr. Cratchett mumbles, "Hear, hear!" but Scrooge threatens him with the loss of his job. Fred invites him to dinner the following evening, but Scrooge refuses and Fred leaves.As the clock strikes seven, Cratchett leaves his desk and asks for his wages. Scrooge gives them with an ill grace and also reluctantly allows Cratchett to have the following day, Christmas, off.The scene switches to a toy shop window where Tiny Tim is watching the mechanical toys. Bob meets them there and, flush with his 15 shillings of wages, they buy preparations for their Christmas meal. Meanwhile, Scrooge meets two gentlemen as he locks his counting house. They ask him for a contribution to feed the poor, but Scrooge refuses. On his way home, he stops by several merchants to demand overdue loan payments, also accepting samples of their merchandise as no more than his due. The children follow him home, taunting him by calling him "Father Christmas." and steal his top hat.As he reaches home, the door knocker turns momentarily to the face of his old partner, Jacob Marley. Disbelieving, Scrooge enters his rooms, where he sees a ghostly carriage go past. He sits down by the fire to eat his supper, when all the bells in the house start to ring. They rise to a deafening crescendo, then stop abruptly. Scrooge hears a clank of chains coming up the stairs, and locks his door, but the locks unbolt themselves and the ghost of Jacob Marley enters. Scrooge asks him to sit down, and the ghost does so, although missing the chair. Scrooge tells the ghost he does not believe in him, whereupon the ghost rises in the air, moaning and banging his chains. Scrooge, terrified, admits belief. The ghost explains he wears the chains he forged in life, and that Scrooge has forged one equally as long. The ghost takes him out into the sky, where dozens of phantoms float, and warns him that he may share their fate. The ghost explains that the visit of three ghosts may allow Scrooge to avoid this.When the clock strikes one, the first ghost appears. She takes Scrooge back to his boyhood school, where most of the children are off for a Christmas party. Young Scrooge, however, is left behind. At another Christmas, however, Scrooge's sister Fran comes to take him home, and at a third Scrooge's old master Fezziwig prepares a party with the help of the apprentices. Scrooge doesn't join the dancing, however, as he doesn't know how. But Old Scrooge points out that the money Fezziwig had spent was minimal compared to the happiness that he had brought. He had planned to wed Fezziwig's daughter, and a series of flashbacks occur showing them enjoying time together. The ghost asks why he let her go if he loved her, and they view a final Christmas where she leaves him.Back in his bedroom, Scrooge is ready to pass the whole thing off as a dream, when he hears laughter from the next room. A tall, bearded figure is there with light and a large feast. He offers Scrooge a drink of "The Milk of Human Kindness", which he enjoys greatly. The ghost shows Scrooge how to enjoy life, and takes him on a journey to see Bob Cratchett's house. Cratchett proposes a toast to Scrooge, which his wife at first refuses to make, thinking him stingy, but eventually she relents due to the day.When Scrooge asks if Tiny Tim will die, the ghost repeats his words back to him: "Best that he do it and decrease the surplus population". They then go to Scrooge's nephew Fred's house, where he is hosting a party. Fred proposes a toast to Scrooge, and says he doesn't think Scrooge is all bad. Scrooge watches the dances and games and wants to get involved, although the ghost gets quite sleepy. Afterwards, Scrooge, nostalgic, wanders back to his house.He wakes in his cold, dark, rooms, and is confronted by the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. They find a crowd of people outside Scrooge's countinghouse, where everyone is very excited and joyful, much to Scrooge's delight. Happily, he gets up to give a speech, not realizing that his own coffin is being taken out of his house behind him. The coffin is taken down the street with a debtor dancing on it, Scrooge never realizing the true cause of the crowd's joy. Before he finds out, the ghost transports him to Bob Cratchett's house, where the family is working on a grave blanket for Tiny Tim. Scrooge asks to be taken to Tim and the ghost obliges by transporting him to a graveyard where Bob lays a flower on Tim's grave.The ghost points Scrooge to his own grave. He falls in, and down a tunnel into a Netherworld. Marley meets him there to show him to his quarters. Marley confirms that Scrooge is dead, and leads him to an icy cold office, with rats. Several devils bring Scrooge's enormous new chain to him, and wrap it around him. As Scrooge shouts for help, Marley leaves, and once again Scrooge awakens in his bedroom.Thrilled to find himself alive, Scrooge rushes out into the street in his nightshirt, and tells a passing boy to order a huge turkey from the butcher. He then proceeds to the toy store where he purchases almost everything in the store. He takes several presents to his nephew, before dressing as Father Christmas and giving out many toys to the street urchins. Next he goes to Bob Cratchett's to distribute presents, including a large mechanical carousel for Tiny Tim. He then tears up his entire debt ledger and gives 100 guineas to the charity workers. In the end he fastens a beard and Santa hat to the door knocker, telling it that he has to go have Christmas dinner with his family. | flashback | train | imdb | The fact that this version is an English production also helps considerably in the credibility department - the accents are authentic.Aside from the scene in "hell", this film is admirably true to the spirit and content of Dicken's text, with some inevitable cuts which frankly, I didn't miss.
By contrast, Albert Finney's portrayal is a joy to watch - you cannot help but both love and hate the miserable old creature, which makes his transformation at the end all the more joyous.
Highlights...The clever use of songs like "Father Christmas" and "Thank You Very Much" to convey very different sentiments at the end of the film than they do when first introduced in eaarlier scenes - marvelous!Albert Finney, as the hilariously miserable Scrooge, singing "I hate People"Alec Guinness as a truly original ghost of Jacob Marley - fantastic!Kenneth More's Ghost of Christmas Present - what presence, what a costume!Laurence Naismith as the exuberant Fezziwig - exactly as he should be, and a good dancer too!Edith Evans (Elderly Ghost of Christmas Past), in response to Scrooge's "You don't look like a ghost", primly replying "Thank You!".Mrs. Cratchhit's scream of shock when she realises who is delivering the enormous turkey to her door!
Moore in one of the last roles before his untimely death, clearly enjoying hamming it up as the ghost of Christmas present carrying the miserable scrooge along for the ride of his life whilst singing `I like life!' is a joy to see.But Finney's performance is the standout.
At a time when he was making films like Charlie Bubbles and Gumshoe, and with a reputation of being one of Britain's foremost angry young men this role was as unexpected as it was wonderful.As a side note I was lucky enough to be able to see Anthony Newley as the miser in Bricusse's early nineties theatrical revival, and although good was no where near as cutting or humorous as Finney.A must see at Christmas time, you too will be singing `I like life' and `thank you very much' for days afterwards!.
In this delightful musical adaptation of The Charles Dickens' classic, Albert Finney is cast as Ebenezer in `Scrooge,' directed by Ronald Neame, who successfully manages to put a fresh face on the familiar tale.
At 7:00 on Christmas Eve, Scrooge finally tears himself away from his counting house and makes his way home, commenting along the way (in song) that `I Hate People,' only to be greeted at his front door by the apparition of his late partner, Jacob Marley (Alec Guinness).
In addition to the music and songs, there are a couple of scenes that consign this presentation of `A Christmas Carol' the stamp of uniqueness.
It's really a beautiful scene.I love to watch this movie at any time of the year.
Bob Crachit was outstanding and so tender and the ghost of Christmas Present was so fun.I attempted to watch the latest musical version with Kelsey Grammar, I really tried.
At only 12 years of age, the scenes of the Ghost of Christmas Future were quite vivid.However, the movie made such an impression on me that it influenced my entire Life philosophy.
This joyful movie filled with wonderful songs that bring me the Christmas Spirit every year.
I know some people are not musical people, but each song is catchy and some like "I Hate People," "I Like Life," "December the 25th," and the best "Thank You Very Much" will possibly remain in your head days after having seen the film.
Because of its status as a tale of redemption and forgiveness and the possibility each of us have in changing our lives, A Christmas Carol(Scrooge) gets little recognition for being one of the greatest ghost stories ever written.
I HAVE NO AGENDAIn this Charles Dickens classic filled with pathos, hope and redemption, a cold old miser named Scrooge (Albert Finney) is forced by the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future to take a good, long look at his life.
The critics panned the film but I enjoyed it and thought it was different to see a musical version of "A Christmas Carol".
''Scrooge'' a lavish musical version of Charles Dickens ''A Christmas Carol'' is also one of the best yuletide films ever made.
There are other fine adaptations out there, most notably ''Magoo's Christmas Carol'' (with it's terrific score), and Alastair Sim's ''Scrooge'', a somewhat darker version, but this one can stand with the best of them.
As an English teacher who has taught Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol for many, many years, this is truly one of the most inspirational versions of the story I have come across.
It follows the traditional Dickens story (with the exception of an additional scene set in hell) to perfection and depicts the change in Scrooge's character from the mean, miserly, solitary, almost pitiful man, to the reborn, repentant and quite hilariously newly improved Scrooge superbly, and it shows with great conviction the hardships and suffering of the London working class of the era.You really do feel for all the characters you meet, from the very important Bob Cratchit, right through to the much lesser Tom Jenkins, the hot soup seller on the market stall, who later sings the irritatingly catchy song "Thank You Very Much." They all come alive and they all have their own spotlight.The songs are very catchy yet not overwhelming, as some musicals can be.
from the very wicked "I Hate People" to the "Happiness Is Whatever You Want It To Be" (when he touchingly loses the love of his life, Isobelle) right through to "I Like Life" in his final scenes as the jumpy, energetic, magnificently comical new persona.Alec Guiness is fantastic as the deceased Jacob Marley and the scene flying through the sky meeting the other 'phantoms from hell' is quite something!!
In 1860, the stingy and cranky Ebenezer Scrooge (Albert Finney) that hates Christmas; loathes people and defends the decrease of the surplus of poor population runs his bank exploiting his employee Bob Cratchit (David Collings) and clients, giving a bitter treatment to his own nephew and acquaintances.
Scrooge finds that life is good and time is too short and suddenly you are not there anymore, changing his behavior toward Christmas, Bob, his nephew and people in general.This musical adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens to the screen is one of those optimistic films that follows the style of Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life".
The redemption of the mean Ebenezer Scrooge in a Christmas Eve is one of the most known worldwide novels and in this version, Albert Finney one of his finest performances surprisingly not nominated to the Oscar.
I fell in love with this movie back in 1970, when I saw it, numerous times, during the Christmas Holidays, at Radio City Music Hall.
My favorite part of the movie is when Scrooge meets the ghost of Christmas Present.
it had the perfect film crew as well.The excellent casting includes Dame Edith Evans, whom plays the ghost of Christmas past like the quality actress she always has been.
And Anton Rodgers deserves a special mention for singing one of my all-time favourite musical numbers, 'Thank You Very Much', which is a rollicking sing-along song.We get this DVD out every Christmas Day, even though the kids are grown up now, and watch it again with as much pleasure as when I was a child watching it.
My kids absolutely love this colorful musical version of "A Christmas Carol".
It ranks up there with "A Christmas Story" and is one of the Christmas movies both me and my husband like the best.It is beautifully filmed with very authentic British scenes & the musical episodes are great.
Best are the "I Hate People", "I Like Life", "Thank You Very Much" & the grand finale at the end of the movie.
The songs are great, with lyrics like "I hate life, life hates me." I think it was one of Albert Finney's best films in his career!
The music is the slightest bit one-dimensional, as the New York Times mentioned at its' release, but the lyrics are wonderfully clever.While clever, imaginative, and true to the spirit of the story, it does have a dark side and I wonder if the darkness drives people toward more uniformly cheerful versions.I recommend this to anyone who enjoys good acting, a faithful rendition of the storyline, good sets and a nice rendition of the characters.Who can resist Dame Edith Evans, portraying the Ghost of Christmas Past, responding to Scrooge's observation that her resplendent dress as not looking as if she were a ghost, saying "Thank you."The best telling of the story, I think..
Here, he has to contend with two of his main actors probably challenging Lee Marvin for the award for worst singer in a major production, being Albert Finney and Alec Guinness, but despite this palpable drawback, the movie works well.The evocation of mid-19th Century London is splendidly achieved (in sets apparently left over from the recently completed "Oliver!") with no stinting on cast numbers per scene either.
The songs are happy singalong and yet suffused with the personality of the singer, thus Scrooge's "I Hate People" and later the crowd, led by Anton Rogers, singing "Thank You Very Much" to Scrooge for dying.The special effects aren't that great, especially when you see a white-painted Guinness as Marley's ghost float up and away on wires but they're tolerable for the time.Finney is very good even buried away under more pancaked makeup than Shrove Tuesday, Guinness a lot less so in a part in which he's obviously ill at ease.
The songs are so catchy that you'll find yourself humming tunes like "Thank You Very Much" and "Father Christmas" as you walk down the street.A wonderful film, this particular version of a Christmas Carol should not be missed..
Albert Finney Gives a masterful performance in this musical version of the Dickens classic.
The catchy "Thank You Very Much" number where Scrooge is dancing in the street with the villagers- totally oblivious to the fact they were celebrating his demise-was probably one of the most memorable scenes in the movie, as I have never forgotten this scene, along with the "hell scene", deleted from most TV airings over the years.I have to admit, though Alistar Sim had always been my favorite Scrooge, Albert Finney's incarnation was more diabolical, which truly enhanced the film.
I did not care for Edith Evans version of the Ghost of Christmas past, as there was nothing ghostly or ethereal about her.Overall, most of the movie stayed true to the Dicken's story, with a few minor differences.
Purists won't be too happy with whatever omissions were made in the Dickens tale to include some harmless songs by Leslie Bricusse, but ALBERT FINNEY (in age make-up) hams it up with a sense of humor as Scrooge--and with a cast including EDITH EVANS, KENNETH MORE and ALEC GUINNESS (as Marley's Ghost), you can't go too far wrong.The atmosphere is good, the color cinematography captures merry old England in all its Victorian splendor, and the songs are brisk and somewhat charming in all their simplicity.
Taken from the Dickens classic "A Christmas Carol" and set to what I consider wonderful music.
You know that Christmas really has arrived when you see this fun musical on television - featuring Albert Finney (an inspired choice) in the lead, with Edith Evans (Christmas Past), Kenneth More (Christmas Present), David Collings (Cratchit), Michael Medwin (nephew), and Anton Rodgers (who gets the most memorable number as he leads the townspeople in a dance of celebration for the demise of their hated oppressor).The songs are joyous, touching, and clever, and Finney really is a joy as both young and old Scrooge.
'A Christmas Carol (heck They even made a musical version starring with Mr. Magoo as well).This is nice some songs that you remember...
A Christmas Carol has been done time and time again, but no other version can compare to this delightful musical that boasts marvelous acting, lavish sets, and splendid storytelling.Albert Finney portrays a perfectly gnarled and twisted Scrooge (though he was, in fact, only in his early thirties when the film was made).
The story is very true to Dickens' text, and the masterly musical numbers add a sense of merriment to the unshakable holiday spirit that the book so openly promotes.Finney is accompanied by a fine supporting cast, including Kenneth More as the jolly Ghost of Christmas Present (his "I Like Life" song presents a rather thought-provoking philosophy), Dame Edith Evans as Christmas Past, and Sir Alec Guiness as the haunting, and slightly humorous, Jacob Marley.Scrooge is the Christmas Carol to end all Christmas Carols, a charming musical adventure that warms your heart and makes you ponder the true meaning of Christmas.
It used to be my favorite version of "A Christmas Carol" but after seeing the other film versions that have been made, as well as stage and radio versions, I have to sadly admit that it now ranks as one of the weaker ones overall because the flaws are simply more evident than they used to be.To me, the problem isn't the songs which I still enjoy overall (especially "I Like Life", "Happiness") but rather the very weak screenplay in which Leslie Bricusse has sadly removed much of the things that makes Dickens' story truly wonderful for the sake of either weak humor or overblown production numbers.
Are there no workhouses?" The scenes that really elevate the story in Dickens original and in superior movie tellings like the 1951 version with Alistar Sim are the ones that have sadly been sacrificed, and I think had they been retained, the musical would have been much better..
I really love the way Finney transforms the Scrooge character at the end of the movie.
Nominated for four Oscars for set design, music and costumes, it garnered a Golden Globe for Albert Finney for Best Actor.I was leery of Scrooge as a musical, but it is a story that I love, and it had great special effects.Dame Edith Evans is the Ghost of Christmas Past, and she really brings something to the role.
In fact, all three ghosts bring something to the role that is lacking in earlier productions.Every thing is great about this film, from Albert Finney to the huge turkey.Maybe they could have left out the songs..
I watched it in color, though I believe it was originally in black and white, and it would have been just as good in that form.The songs are pretty good, but what I really enjoyed was how much personality Scrooge (Albert Finney) had.
are Albert Finney in SCROOGE and Alastair Sim in the 1951 version, black and white, titled A Christmas CAROL.
This is one of the best Christmas Musicals ever performed and by far the best adaptation of Charles Dickens' "Christmas Carol." - Albert Finney portrayed Scrooge in unbelievable fashion.
What Albert Finney does for Scrooge in this musical is bring him totally to life and gives Scrooge a persona that is believable in his progression from the nasty, mean old miser to the kind, generous and thankfully redeemed man whom his nephew had known all along was "waiting to get out." I think one of my favorite scenes is during the Ghost of Christmas Past's visits and his re-action to Tom Jenkins tribute to Scrooge in "Thank you Very Much." A humorous and ironic moment for Scrooge, quite unaware of his own demise.
My favorite Christmas movie and by far the best "Scrooge" adaptation.
The film succeeds the most though as Albert Finney (in his finest role) and company bring forth the true spirit of the Dickens story and the Christmas Season.
It's not easy to choose which of the many film adaptations of 'Scrooge', or, "A Christmas Carol" is the best.
Albert Finney does a remarkable job as Ebenezer Scrooge and the cast and music in this production are brilliant.
Ronald Neame directed this entertaining musical version of "A Christmas Carol" based on the Charles Dickens novel that stars Albert Finney as cold-hearted miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is forced by his deceased partner Jacob Marley and the ghosts of Christmas' past, present, and future to examine his life in an effort to redeem his soul before it is doomed for Eternity.
Albert Finney is quite good here, both before and after his transformation, with a superb supporting cast and fine songs like "Father Christmas" & "Thank You Very Much".
I watch this musical version of "A Christmas Carol" every so often, and have always found it exhilarating and moving.
When the Ghost of Christmas Present tells Scrooge to "come here you weird little man", I just love it.
I completely disagree.The music is what I love the most about this film...however, Albert Finney's performance, the supporting characters, the production design and set decoration and art direction are all first-rate as well.
The song, "You Were Good For Me" moves me every time I hear it...it is filled with a wistful longing that describes quite adequately how Scrooge became the man he is today...bitter and jaded.Another scene I liked immensely was the opening walk through the streets of London, set to the tunes "Christmas Is For Children Young and Old", "Father Christmas" and "I Hate People".
i love its a wonderful life and i really enjoy the versions of a christmas carol with george c.
i think the i love life song the ghost of christmas present sings is especially painful.
Dicken's classic "A Christmas Carol" set to music.
Other then that, this is a film you should watch at Christmas, like Its A Wonderful Life, it will teach you the true meaning of the holiday and leave you with a warm feeling in your heart..
This is Christmas, and movies, and the musical combined at their absolute best. |
tt4550098 | Nocturnal Animals | The movie begins with obese women, dancing naked. After a long while, we see that this is part of an art show which also features the same naked women on display in the gallery. The show is being curated by Susan (Amy Adams). That night, she drives home, pulling into her multi-million dollar estate overlooking the glimmering lights of Los Angeles. She is so wealthy, she has servants and security on staff for her. She is told a package has arrived at the front door. It is from Edward Sheffield, her ex-husband a manuscript of his new book which he says she inspired. Attached is a letter that he will be in Los Angeles for the week and would like to meet up. Susan looks at the front page of the book which is titled 'Nocturnal Animals'. Her head of security asks who she would like to work for the weekend shift. She tells him she would actually prefer to be alone that weekend, hinting she plans to read the book.That night, she can't sleep and takes pills. The next morning, her husband (Armie Hammer) joins her in the kitchen. She tells him it would have meant a lot to her if he had come to see her show. He makes an excuse that he had to work and it was far away. She said it would have taken all of 15 minutes and meant a lot to her. He then claims he didn't get home until 1:00 AM and didn't want to wake her. She cavalierly points out that she wasn't asleep until 4:00 AM (hinting that he is lying and never came home). He asks about the manuscript and she says it's from Edward, her ex-husband. He adds that she hasn't talked to him in almost 20 years and she corrects him with "Nineteen." Susan explains that she called him a few years ago but he hung up on her. Her husband says he didn't know Edward was a writer. She laughs at this, pointing out he was writing when she first met him, back when Edward and her were still together (hinting that she cheated on Edward with her husband). He tells Susan that he has to go to New York that weekend to solidify a business deal and that it's very important for them to keep up with expenses. He then comments that he hates art. She tells him she'll just start buying work from new L.A. artists so when people come over, they'll think they're ahead of the curve and not financially broke.Susan begins to read the book which is dedicated to Susan. The first page is Tony Hastings (Jake Gyllenhaal) packing up his car for a road trip with his daughter.That night, Susan and her husband throw a party in their home. A rather ostentatious friend, Alessia, (Andrea Riseborough) greets her and they have empty conversation with the friend wishing she could have been more supportive when Susan was depressed. Susan tells the friend about the manuscript dedicated to her and Alessia replies that she didn't know she had an ex-husband. Susan admits to feeling unhappy with life, even though she has so much and everything is going well (on a superficial level). The woman suggests she should have married a gay man like she did, and we see her husband, Carlos (Michael Sheen) chatting up a guest. Alessia points out that she will always be the only woman in his life and that's hard to come by with men.The weekend comes and Susan is now alone. She continues to read the manuscript. We now see the story Tony is driving through Texas, late at night, without stopping with his wife Laura (Isla Fisher) and teenaged daughter India (Ellie Bamber). They are having playful banter about their trip and the decision to drive 14 hours without stopping. India complains that there is no phone signal in that part of Texas. The road is empty except for two cars in both lanes ahead both are driving slowly and at the exact same speed. Tony honks his car to get one of them to move over so he can pass. One car does move over but immediately begins harassing Tony. His daughter flips off the driver. The car passes and its filled with three sleazy-looking men, glaring at Tony and his family. That car begins playing chicken with Tony's car, which he swerves to avoid. But eventually they hit his car and scream at him to pull over! Sensing danger, he ignores them. But the car continues to pursue them, finally slamming against their car and knocking them over to the side of the road.Tony has no choice but to engage with the driver in the other car now. He comes over and hes a redneck (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who comes off simultaneously charming and terrifying. He begins asking why Tony didn't pull over after Tony ran them off the road. Tony and his family respond that his car hit theirs but the redneck ignores them, continuing on about how they have to report accidents. The family knows something shady is going on. The car that was initially driving alongside the rednecks car zooms off, hinting that he was being harassed before Tony came along. Tony suggests calling the police. The redneck seems open to this but points out there's no signal which we already know is true. Tony says they'll drive to a town where they can call someone but the redneck points out Tony has a flat tire and he needs to get out of the car to change it. Tony doesn't believe him and so the redneck tells him he should try to drive away if he thinks hes lying. Tony does and he does, in fact, have a flat tire (although whether this happened from the collision or something malicious was done after the redneck came over isnt clear). He tells Tony he will change the flat tire for him and asks him to get out of the car to open the trunk. Tony is hesitant to leave his car because the man seems to be dangerous. But finally, he swallows his concern and gets out to open the trunk, removing their luggage so they can get the spare. Now he tells Tony to get his wife and daughter out of the car so he can change the tire. Tony tells him theyre not leaving the car but the redneck is insistent the car should be empty if he jacks it up. A police cruiser drives by and Tony and his family try to signal it but it doesn't stop. The redneck laughs and says, There goes your police.The other two rednecks get Tony's wife and daughter out of the car and begin harassing them. Tony tries to protect them but the redneck driver keeps preventing him. All the while, Tony tries to assuage the situation by being polite and non-confrontational. The redneck continues to taunt him. While he is being held up, the tire gets changed which sort of assuages Tony's fears for a second that maybe they're just immature and not dangerous. Tony orders his wife and daughter to get back in the car. The redneck driver asks how they're going to get into town to report the accident. Tony is confused and explains they'll each take their car. But the redneck deflects this idea, suggesting Tony could drive off and it'd be better if he went with their daughter and wife. The daughter and wife are against this, as is Tony, and they scream for Tony to get in the car. But before he can, the redneck and one of his friends hop inside and peel off in Tony's car. Tony watches his own car driven off with his wife and daughter inside.One redneck is still left with Tony. He tells Tony to drive the other car, the one that the redneck was previously driving. Tony hopes that the plan is legit and that his wife and daughter aren't in danger. They drive down the empty stretch of highway until they get into an abandoned town. Tony is directed to turn down a dirt path. He passes his own car, empty and parked in the dirt. But the redneck tells him to keep driving. Tony tries to argue and the redneck responds, "Don't worry. They've never killed anyone.... yet". Tony demands to know where his wife and daughter are but the redneck just tells him to get out of the car. Tony is now alone, in the dark, in a clearing. Moments later, the redneck driver appears in Tony's car with the man who rode with Tony alongside him. Tony ducks behind a large boulder. The redneck is angry that his friend let Tony get away. His friend shouts out "Hey, mister. Your wife and kid want you". Tony stays put until they drive away. He then runs through the fields trying to find someone to help. He ducks under a barbed wire fence but cant get anyone to stop for him. He makes his way to a farmhouse where he asks to use the phone.Back to Susan's home. She is shocked by the malevolent story and has to put it aside. She calls her husband in New York. He is walking affectionately with a female model who remains silent while he speaks to Susan. They get in an elevator and the bellhop asks which floor. Susan's husband says the 31st floor. This makes Susan suspicious as she says that's not their usual room. He responds by claiming he threw a fit when they didn't have their room available. They finally arrive at the floor and the bellhop turns to the woman and says, "31st floor, madam". Susan freezes, hearing this on the other end. She knows hes with another woman and freezes up. Finally, she speaks but only to say goodbye.Susan struggles to sleep, as always, and then continues to read. In the story, a police officer named Bobby (Michael Shannon) comes by and asks Tony to tell him what happened. Tony explains the situation and Bobby points out that the men had no guns and asks why he let him drive off with his wife and daughter. Tony explains that they took the car and Bobby finds this incredulous. When Tony gets to the point where one of the rednecks says Your wife and kid want you, he asks why he didn't go to them. We know that Tony could tell the men were dangerous but in this small Texas town, everyone comes off hyper-masculine and prone to violence so Tony seems to be struggling justifying his non-confrontational response to the situation.To find where Tony had last seen the men, he is brought back to the stretch of highway until he recognizes the barbed wire he had crawled through. He uses this to find the trail which leads them back to the area they had passed in the car. There is a small shack there and Tony is told no one has lived there for years. Tony is staying at a hotel in town while the search for his family is active and he is told to wait there until he hears back. Tony returns to the hotel, somber, obviously blaming himself for not being a more aggressive personality when his wife and daughter were threatened. The phone rings and Bobby tells him they've found fingerprints in the shack and it looks like it could be Ray Martin but he has no track record after being acquitted on a rape case years ago. He also tells Tony they found their wife and daughter. Bobby and Tony are driven to the area that Tony was in the night of the abduction and see the naked bodies of both his wife and daughter on a bench outside. He approaches, hoping they're asleep but they are both dead.Susan stops reading, shaken up by the material. She calls her own daughter away at college; she has red hair just like India in the novel. The daughter is asleep (with her boyfriend next to her) and says its way too early where she is. Susan apologizes, once again up late, not sleeping. But we know she only called to check on her daughter after reading about the abduction of a teenaged girl in Edwards novel.Susan sends an email to Edward telling him she is reading his book and finds it devastating and brilliant. She suggests the two of them meet. She then has a flashback of running into Edward (also Jake Gyllenhaal, but looking younger than Tony) in New York even though they're both from Texas. Edward is in town because hes being considered for a scholarship to Columbia. He asks why shes not still at Yale and she says she graduated and is now in New York for grad school. Susan then asks Edward if he knows anyone in the city. When he says no, she asks him out to dinner.Back in the story, Tony is called by Bobby, who tells him they found out his wife was killed with a hammer just a few hits and then she died with no suffering. But Tony is then told his daughter wasn't so lucky and she was suffocated to death. Bobby then adds that both were raped. Tony is sent a picture of who they suspect is the lead suspect, based on fingerprints. Tony observes the photo but doesn't seem to be able to identify him.We flashback to the dinner in New York. Edward tells Susan he only hung around her brother to be around her because he had a big crush on her. She tells him Cooper had a big crush on him. He is surprised by this information and she tells Edward that he was her brothers first crush. Edward now feels bad he hasn't kept in touch with Cooper, now that he knows he liked him so much. Susan compliments him, that his reaction to finding out his best friend was in love with him wasn't fear or disgust but concern for his feelings. She wished her family was as open-minded but they disowned Cooper when he came out as gay, adding that she has nothing in common with them they're Republicans, conservative, racist, bigoted, narcissistic. Susan voices her detest of her family's arrogance and how her mom thinks shes better than others. Edward tells Susan that her mom and her both have the same sad eyes. She tells him she doesn't want to be compared to her mother and he asks why. She points out that they're completely different. Edward asks Susan why she abandoned her pursuit of an art career; she responds that she wasn't that good at it and is a realist who doesn't want to believe in success she will never have. He contradicts this, admiring her past work and saying shes perfect. She says shes not perfect but he suggests that shes much better than she accounts for and that she underestimates herself. She then asks him to go home with her, admitting that he was her first crush, too.Susan begins reading again. Its been about a year with Tony depressed about his role in the abduction; he showers and shaves his beard off. Bobby calls to tells Tony that they caught two of the guys whose prints matched that night a guy named Turk who they shot dead and a guy named Lou who they're holding. They ask Bobby to come down to the station to identify Lou. Once there, hes asked if hes afraid of the men seeing his face but Tony isnt, now ready for justice. He looks at the five men and easily identifies Lou, who was the one who rode with Tony that night. Lou is taken away and charged. Now they have to find Ray Marcus, who is the most likely culprit. On the drive, Bobby tells Tony that he (Bobby) is dying of lung cancer. Tony points out that Bobby smokes all the time and Bobby shrugs it off, saying he only has a year left to live.Tony and Bobby go to a small shack where Ray has taken residence Ray has had to fix the plumbing himself so at this moment, he is going to the bathroom outside. (Ray is played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson so he is definitely the redneck from that night). Bobby and Tony approach Ray as he ends a phone call and continues to use the toilet. They want to take him on suspicion of abducting and murdering Tony's wife and daughter. Ray asks if he can finish going to the bathroom first but Bobby tells him he cant take his eyes off him. So Ray wipes himself and then leaves with Bobby.Tony drives Ray and Bobby to the station in his car, glancing at Ray in his mirror. Ray points out that Bobby never read him his rights but Bobby claims that he did and says that Tony will confirm this (hinting that Bobby doesn't do things by proper procedure). Ray denies ever having seen Tony before but Bobby points out that's probably because Tony shaved his beard. Tony glares at Ray, silently, much more confident than he was the night of the attacks. Bobby asks Ray questions and then tells him the conversation is being recorded.Back in present day, Susan has a flashback with her mom (Laura Linney) in Texas. She forbids Susan from marrying Edward, suggesting she should wait until shes older. Susan reminds her mom that she had recommended another suitor for marrying and her mom admits that her real concern is that Edward is beneath her. She adds that Susan only likes Edward because hes romantic which isnt a bad thing but eventually Susan will regret being tied to him along with his sensitivity comes a man who lacks ambition and drive and will never achieve anything.In their married life, Edward lets Susan read the novel hes working on. She is critical, citing that it isnt that good at the moment and saying he is writing about something too close to home and it lacks excitement. He gets defensive and angry with her. She explains she is merely being honest with him. Edward replies that he poured his heart into his work and he wants her to like her husbands work. She now denounces him writing the novel altogether, telling him its unrealistic to plan to work at a bookstore and bang out a novel every year. He tells her shes turning into her mother.The next day in class, Susan picks up the pencil of another student who she immediately finds attractive played by Armie Hammer, who we know will eventually be her husband.Susan goes to her art gallery, walking up several flights of stairs, pausing to look at a new piece of art hanging in the hallway titled REVENGE. Susan's assistant, Sage (Jena Malone), appears and preps her for the meeting. Sage tells Susan that she just got a Nanny Cam that she can watch on her phone because she doesn't trust her nanny. Susan observes the app, showing a baby in his crib and then a scary face jumps into frame and screams at her. Susan drops the phone and it shatters. She tries to explain to Sage there was someone on the phone but Sage replies, nonchalantly, that that person was her baby. Susan awkwardly apologizes for the phone but Sage tells her its okay because a new one comes out next week. In the board meeting, the women at the gallery are vapid including one who has had horrible plastic surgery, which she denies having. They discuss whether to fire a new employee who hasn't lived up to her potential, citing another young candidate who applied and would be more appealing. Susan interjects that they committed to teaching her and guiding her and shouldn't abandon her for someone else. It is pointed out that Susan took the opposite approach the last time it came up in discussion but Susan has now changed her mind (a metaphor for how she treated Edward).In a flashback, we see Susan break up with Edward who begs her to stay faithful to him. He says that when you love someone, you focus on making it work, not on discarding them the first chance you get. He has tapped into something because she is pretty persistent that they divorce we know that she has met the man who will be her future husband and they'll marry shortly after the divorce.Susan tells someone on her staff at home that nocturnal animal was a nickname Edward had given to her because she would always stay up late. He named the book after her and also dedicated it to her.Back in the manuscript, Bobby visits Tony to tell him they have to let Ray go because they only had circumstantial evidence against him. Tony is devastated because he knows Ray is the one who killed his wife and daughter. Bobby says that a government official in his town wants to hire someone else as sheriff so he wants Bobby removed from his position, hence them not helping convict Ray to finish up his services. But Bobby is going to die and is willing to take the law into his own hands since he has nothing to lose he doesn't want his last case to be an unsolved murder.Bobby and Tony find Ray in a diner and promptly arrest him with Bobby telling Ray that Lou snitched on him. Instead of the police station, they take him to the small shack where Tony's wife and daughter were raped. Lou arrives having been told that Ray snitched on him. Lou and Ray argue amongst each other, solidifying their involvement. Bobby goes to the bathroom to throw up, giving a gun to Tony and telling them not to move or Tony will shoot. When he returns, Lou tries to run so Bobby shoots him dead. Now that Ray realizes they aren't following the law, he runs out of the house. Bobby calmly tells Tony that he can catch up to Ray since he will need to make it all the way to the highway to hitch a ride from someone.Tony finds Ray back at his home later that night, asleep. Ray wakes up, taken aback that Tony pursued him. He then begins taunting Tony, telling him he fucked his wife, adding he needs to be respected. When she told him no, he was mad and that's why he killed her. Tony points a gun at Ray, his hand shaking. Ray tells him hes holding a gun he doesn't know how to use. Tony screams at him, furious with an anger that was absent the night Ray and his buddies accosted his family. Tony cocks the gun but doesn't shoot. Unbeknownst to him, Ray grabs a fireplace poker. He eventually charges at Tony but he retaliates by shooting Ray once, then twice. Ray gets angry as he notices that hes bleeding to death. He strikes with the pokerSusan remembers sitting in the parking lot of a hospital with her future husband and through conversation, we learn that she feels guilty for having just had an abortion without telling the father, Edward. He assures her Edward will never find out but then we see Edward in the parking lot, glaring at Susan in the car. We now realize that Edwards meek nature caused him to lose both his wife and his daughter and he used that as a metaphor for a great novel, countering Susan's belief that he would never be a great writer.Back in the manuscript, we see both Ray and Tony unconscious on the floor. But Tony comes to and it is revealed he was blinded with the poker by Ray, right before he died. Tony makes his way outside and stumbles down the stairs, bleeding from his eye. He falls on his gun and it goes off--In present day, Susan receives a reply to her email to Edward, requesting they meet while he's in town. He simply says, "Tell me when and where."Back to the manuscript, we learn that Tony has accidentally shot himself, right through the heart.Susan shows up to a fancy restaurant all dressed up. She gets a table and waits for Edward. Time passes and he doesn't show up. More time passes. And it becomes clear that he has stood her up which is sweet revenge given that she made him feel worthless, she is now in a troubled marriage and unhappy with her life, and also now realizes what a great writer he was after all. | revenge, murder, flashback | train | imdb | I've seen lots of movies, I don't discriminate, terror, drama, action, animated you name it, I can perfectly differentiate between a bad from a good movie, I don't need the biased comments of the so called movie critics on IMDb. Thanks God I didn't pay attention to all the misguided comments about this movie, Nocturnal Animals is a beautiful & stylish movie, great photography, solid acting and a solid plot that will stay with you long after you finish it.
I don't understand why there's so much envy and hate in the film industry, the wannabe movie critics can't take that a guy who came from the fashion world actually can created a pretty good movie.
It looks like a 90s masterpiece brought from back in time, a solid prove that Tom Ford is a great director.True love comes once in a lifetime, and we rarely get a second chance.
Nocturnal Animals is a dark and devilishly stylish thriller from Tom Ford, who knows a thing or two about style having worked as creative director for both Gucci and Yves Saint Lauren in the past.
It could have been in danger of being a case of style over substance however, Ford's perfectionism makes this one of the most powerful films I've seen all year.Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) is an art gallery owner who spends most of her life at home alone, with her husband often out of town on business.
When Susan receives a manuscript to a novel written by her ex-husband, Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal), she finds herself immediately engrossed.As Susan continues to read the novel, she has flashbacks to how her relationship with Edward broke down as well as thoughts that the violent thriller is a veiled threat against her from Edward.I didn't know what to expect from Nocturnal Animals as I hadn't seen any trailers and Ford's film ended up blowing me away.
The way Ford tells the story showcases how inventive and powerful he is as a filmmaker, the narratives of both Susan's life and Edward's novel combining brilliantly and leaving me in a trance like state.Edward's novel provides the film with its dark soul, the story of Tony Hastings (also played by Jake Gyllenhaal) and his family who run into trouble when travelling through the night on the road to their country home.
It's pretty heavy stuff but it plays an essential part in making this such powerful viewing.This is a gorgeous film to look at as well, Seamus McGarvey's cinematography echoing the story's bleakness and the brutality of Edward's supposed veiled threat to Susan.
The combination of the visuals with Abel Korzeniowski's dream-like score heightens the sense of escapism felt by Susan as she reads Edward's novel.Coming to the performances, Nocturnal Animals features a very impressive ensemble cast all at the top of their game.
Gyllenhaal has really grown as an actor, particularly in the last five years, and its great to see him continue that in Nocturnal Animals, more notably in the role of Tony Hastings, a creation of his other character Edward.
The rest of the cast features a scene stealing Michael Shannon, who I've really grown to appreciate these last few years, a career best performance from Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who is truly vile as the villainous Ray, and Laura Linney who, even in the short space of time we see her, makes one hell of an impact.I cannot speak highly enough of Nocturnal Animals, a stylish thriller that has more than enough substance to it.
At the outset, i should make it clear that i don't think this is a bad film, but i felt the need to add a dissenting voice to the collection of positive reviews that i've read so far.The film is an amalgamation of elements that should work beautifully, but ultimately resembles one of the sterile offerings to be found in Susan's gallery.
Fashion designer Tom Ford has written and directed his second movie, a multifaceted revenge thriller which is even better than his first, 2009's "A Single Man".Both are visually stylish, of course, which is expected from fashion guru, both have interesting premise and good actors, and both have this cold, unsettling atmosphere which tries to keep the viewer at some distance.In short, Ford has managed to take everything good from his solid debut project and bring it to the next level with "Nocturnal Animals".
But it is ambiguous in a best possible way, not trying to f--k with our minds and then leave us hanging.An unhappily married woman (Amy Adams) thinks she wants his first husband (Jake Gyllenhaal) back.
And then things get more, er, complex.On-screen events are exciting already but Ford the writer turns out surprisingly skillful at making it even varied, without getting stuck or losing steam, or letting us think that we know where all this ends up.
Delicious to watch, I mean.But I am especially happy about Amy Adams who is often used in the movies as just a pretty face or supporting woman.
I believed her both as a lively young woman and the jaded older one that's missing all the ideals that she had decided to throw away long time ago.Based on a novel by Austin Wright which Ford wanted to adapt into two movies initially, one true to original, the other not so much.
So I just Finished Nocturnal Animals and to put as bluntly as possible I absolutely loved it and it might end up being one of my top 10 favorite movie of the year.
It's much better if you go in cold so I won't really say much more but if you love a good thriller, crime drama or just good film making in general and it's playing near you please do yourself a favor and let Mr Tom Ford take you on a trip through some movie magic..
The plot of the movie which is three narratives combined into one and tells the story of Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) an art gallery owner who receives a manuscript of her ex-husband's (Jake Gyllenhaal) thriller novel dedicated to her.
Even though a movie with three narratives might sound clumsy but it wasn't, the stories of different time lines did not overlap each other rather it made the story complete with showing different aspects of the characters.Aaron Taylor-Johnson's performance as Ray Marcus was definitely my favorite, he was so creep and repulsive to watch.
While I was watching the movie I liked Tom Ford's directing style, storytelling, cinematography and after watching it I started to think about it while connecting the dots between the different narratives and it easily became my favorite movie to think about.
Through fantastic imagery, talented and stylish actors at the top of their game, an amazing and fastidious director, and an enthralling and thrilling story, the characters in the film go through transformations similar to that of the dazed bird.
But I guess it makes a lot of sense, as the film actually looks like it was made by a fashion designer; it is highly stylised, even slick but totally lacking in substance.
And yet, when it came to those final moments were the audience expects it to deliver, to satisfy the viewer; it just turns into a royal/classy/elegant piece of turd with zero substance of a climax.If you want to feel like banging your face on to the screen and experience how it feels to absolutely destroy 2hrs of your life, go ahead and watch this absolute nonsense of a movie..
This is such a shame as there are huge potential for a movie of this size and thou the acting is terrific with Michael Shannon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams leading the way, the movie falls short of producing a hit and i soon find myself dozing off in the cinema.
That being said kudos to the editor because taking more out of this terrible film only made it better.Good acting.Skip this movie..
A useless gimmick that just makes people think in a gratuitous way, What matters, if Amy Adams's character is seated on a red couch, a red couch where the female characters in the book story line are found dead after being raped.
The plot.A "story inside a story," in which the first part follows a woman named Susan who receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband, a man whom she left 20 years earlier, asking for her opinion.
How this movie gets over a 7 review rating is beyond me.Watching this confusing poorly constructed fiasco is a complete waste of time..
Tom Ford apparently thinks that people talk as if giving Google cliff- notes to each other: "I was married once , he is my ex-husband he wrote a novel I left him , I am horrible person" this is pretty much first dialogue in the movie.
I mean come on, I should have given in and turned it off when 15 minutes into the movie, I'm watching some redneck scumbags drag a mans wife and daughter away from their car to do potentially terrible things while the father/husband does essentially nothing to stop the perpetrators.
Again, the acting was superb, but the characters, plot and pace of this movie left little to be desired.Not that I didn't get the drift of the movie,that was quite clear, but I think the movie tried too hard to be clever, and the story lines got jumbled and diluted because of that fact.
Yes, it may be nice to look at, but ultimately the visuals and mostly intense acting has only little effect on the viewer, because of the two boring and predictable plots (the story and the story within the actual story).Even worse, the director seems undecided on whether the film is supposed to be a drama, a thriller or just a mildly dark comedy: Scenes that are supposed to be intense fall mostly flat because of the absurdity of both the characters' actions as well as the ridiculous dialogue.
Overall, it is a film quite obviously created by a fashion designer: At times both actors' emotions and visuals reach striking heights, but everything falls flat due to a nonsensical story (and the almost as nonsensical story within that story) resulting in the viewer being left chuckling at the absurd lines, nonsensical plot and randomly included scenes.
That story is gripping, little suspenseful and intense thanks to the cinematography, a great Michael Shannon and an amazing Aaron Taylor-Johnson as his best acting yet.
While successful within the opulent Los Angeles art scene her personal life is crashing to the ground around her: her marriage (to Hutton (Armie Hammer, "The Man From Uncle") ) appears to be cooling fast amid financial worries.In the midst of this rudderless time a manuscript from her ex-husband, struggling writer Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal), turns up out of the blue.
His novel – "Nocturnal Animals", dedicated to Susan – is a primal scream of twenty years worth of hurt, pain, regret and vengeance; a railing against a loss of love; a railing against a loss of life.As Susan painfully turns the pages we live the book as a 'film within a film' – with characters casually modelled on Edward, Susan and Susan's daughter, actually played by Gyllenhaal, Amy-Adams-lookalike Isla Fisher ("Grimsby") and Ellie Bamber ("Pride and Prejudice and Zombies") respectively.
I think that the only reason Tom Ford got all these A-List actors to be in his movie is 'cos he knows them from his fashion designer days.
Her discarded husband writes a novel, which, although presented to us as a story within a story, is much more interesting than the tale which frames it, not least because the characters played by Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are a lot more compelling than the arty upper-class set that Ms Adams is part of.
Line delivery was terrible, the dialogue was shockingly stupid- like the story's direction, you always know what the characters will say and feel 5 minutes ahead; the WORST CASE of "telling, and not showing" is present in literally every aspect of the movie.
She gets very involved into the story, because she sees it as a revenge tale.Tom Ford, the designer, returns to direct another film after a hiatus of seven years.
Contemplate the story of Susan (Amy Adams), who after a painful break with her husband 20 years ago finds herself thinking about him constantly, especially after receiving a manuscript of it.
The photograph of this film is simply beautiful, with lots of shades of blue and gray, it's a heavy, tense, loaded photograph, and as if it weighed on the shoulders of our characters, with daring camera angles, full of open plans and subjective cameras that Tom brings a lot of interesting angles, and now one thing about the film that touched me, and a lot, its soundtrack, it is so simple and at the same time so complex and linear, it talks a lot about the movie, and when the We are listening, it is almost an invitation to reflect on what is being shown on screen.
We have 2 sensational actors here, who do what they expect in their roles - although nothing that animates much, although Jake is excellent - these actors are Amy Adams Jake Gylenhaa (who plays 2 different characters), but whoever ends up robbing the screen completely is Michael Shannon and Aaron Taylor- Johnson, with their spectacular detective and psychopath.
Exceptional direction by Ford and outstanding acting by Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhall, Michael Shannon and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, all four at an "Academy Awards nomination" level.
I didn't know what to expect and even I felt a bit confused in the end, there doesn't seem to be much of a resolution and the whole movie may feel a bit pointless, but after doing some thinking and reading other reviews I'm ready to say that this is a modern masterpiece.
Superbly written and crafted in vein of Verhoeven (Basic Instinct), Fincher (The Game), Lynch (Lost Highway), Polanski (Chinatown) and even Hitchcock.The movie is about a rich "bourgeois" art gallerist Susan (Amy Adams) reading a book written by her more down to earth ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal).
The book Susan is reading makes up most of the movie tho and it's very intense crime thriller most of the time.
I actually feel like watching the movie again and this time prepare for the ending to fully appreciate it.A modern classic in every way..
WRITING talent out there eager to do some paid work) but clearly doesn't.Two stories, supposedly entwined to the point of high jinx mystery, in that tedious emperor new clothes fashion cherished by those with enough influence and money to single-handedly butcher a project then call it art, never quite gel, or deliver.Amy Adams looks plain bored throughout, guess to compliment her role of the art gallery owner, but what's Jake Gyllenhaal's excuse I do not know.
Although to be fair, there is some evidence of an attempt to make Shannon's lines a bit more Texan lone-wolf copper like, even jocular--and the fact I've just used the word "jocular" illustrates just how well that went.I'm sure there will be plenty of people out there who will simply adore this darling film, but for those of us who have moved on from the picture books (except of course for a graphic novel or two), and the only thing that makes us get through the day is a great meaty story fearlessly told, Nocturnal Anymals ain't it..
I mean sandwich me between Amy Adams and Isla Fisher and I'll die happily ever after, it had all I wanted - except a plot.This film feels like everyone went home and forgot to put the ending in.
I loved this movie, I'm not into fashion and I had no idea who Tom Ford was, but I thought it was compelling, bittersweet, and mature story telling.
Maybe the thematic colour and art direction was a bit much for some, but I loved it.Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhall and Michael Shannon all did brilliantly and although there are a few jumps between time lines, I never felt lost (and I'm always that person!).
Overall, I very much enjoyed the film, and it made me really think about what I would do if put in a similar circumstance, both on the fiction within the fiction side, and within the main characters of the movie.
She reads a book about a story involving Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon characters that kept me on the edge of my seat for the entire film.
Jake Gyllenhaal is good too and Amy Adams' character gives the film some heart as she is the one who actually has an arc, an emotional one.
Nocturnal Animals follows a woman who, after receiving a manuscript of a novel written by her ex-husband, begins to read it and draws connections from the story to her own life.
Nocturnal Animals contains three main narratives - the story of Edward's book, Edward's and Susan's past relationship and Susan in the the present - We watch the whole movie through the eyes of Amy Adams's character, Susan.
The wonderful soundtrack is another reason to watch the movie a second time.Nocturnal Animals is a must see for viewers who like to watch an engaging, well build up psychological thriller.
I tend to like Tom Ford's A Single Man. I was not enraptured, but the leading performers were versatile and great, and so I did not mind to follow his second film.
That's how a writer is, he writes whatever he feels, and sometimes the story can develop far from his(her) own life.Some reviewers said the movie tries hard to deliver a strong message in the end - a culmination point.
The novel story was done well and was helped by great performances from Michael Shannon and Jake Gyllenhaal.
The film follows Susan Morrow(Amy Adams) as she receives an advanced copy of a revenge thriller novel from her ex-husband Edward Sheffield(Jake Gyllenhaal). |
tt0146336 | Urban Legend | On a dark and rainy night, a young woman, named Michelle Mancini (Natasha Gregson Wagner), is driving her pickup truck, listening to a college campus radio DJ. After nearly colliding with another car, she realizes that she is almost out of gas and pulls into the nearest gas station, a creepy looking, run-down place in the middle of nowhere. The strange-looking attendant offers to fill up her car, and Michelle offers to pay by credit card. After a minute, the attendant convinces Michelle that her credit card is not working and wants her to come into his office to speak to the credit card company on the phone. However, when Michelle gets inside the station and picks up the phone, there is no one on the other line. The attendant approaches her and excitedly stutters, but he cannot say anything clearly. The fearful woman sprays mace in his face and manages to run back to her truck and speeds away while the attendant remains behind and yells after her that he's only trying to help her and screaming, "SOMEONE'S IN THE BACK SEAT!" On the road, Michelle relaxes a little bit until someone sits up in the back seat and swings an axe at her.That same night, inside a coffee shop lounge at Pendleton University, college student Parker Riley (Michael Rosenbaum) is telling an urban legend called the 'Stanley Hall Massacre' about 25 years ago when a crazy professor killed a dozen students at a closed down dorm on campus. Two of the students, Natalie Simon (Alicia Witt) and Brenda Bates (Rebecca Gayheart), listen with skepticism while they listen to Parker's girlfriend, Sasha Thomas (Tara Reid), who operates a local radio call-in show, finish her broadcast. Paul Gardener (Jared Leto), a pompous college reporter, joins the group and sneers at Parker's yarn. Brenda is obviously attracted to Paul. Natalie and Brenda walk towards the closed down Stanley Hall dorm building, where they suggest they chant Bloody Mary as a gag, when they are surprised by Damon Brooks (Joshua Jackson), a misfit student who taunts them over going inside the boarded up building. Natalie and Brenda split up where Natalie goes home to her dorm room where she interrupts her Goth girl roommate, Tosh Guaneri (Danielle Harris), having sex with a Goth guy.The next day in class, Professor William Wexler (Robert Englund) is discussing folklore and urban legends. Damon, the class goof-off, walks up to the front of the class and tries drinking soda and pop rocks candy to prove the urban legend that his stomach will not explode. He then feigns going into a seizure and playing dead much to the annoyance of Wexler and the amusement of his friends. Later that day, Natalie and Brenda see Paul distributing out newspapers detailing about the decapitation murder the previous night in which the stuffy Dean Adams (John Neviulle) and the campus security guard, Reese Wilson (Loretta Devine), seizes copies of the school paper about the recent murder. Paul protests to the dean about a possible murder on the campus. But Adams tells Paul that there is no killer and the only crazy person is him.Later that day, Natalie, Brenda, Paul, Parker, Sasha, and Damon meet where they discuss the murder. Natalie claims not to know the murder victim, but she has in her procession a high school yearbook which shows that Natalie and Michelle were captains of their cheerleading squad. That evening, Damon arrives at Natalie's dorm room to console her and takes her someplace in his car to talk. After driving to a secluded part in the nearby woods, Natalie is angry to discover that Damon only wants to talk to her to persuade her for some need of loving. After Natalie becomes angry and demands that Damon take her home, he exits the car to the call of nature when someone attacks him with a rope. When Natalie goes to check on him, the killer, wearing a heavy hooded winter overcoat, attacks her. As she tries to drive away, Damon, tied to a rope attached to the bumper of the car is hoisted up and choked to death. His body lands on top of the car, forcing Natalie to get out and run. Natalie goes to the campus security office and tells Reese about the killing, but when the both arrive at the scene, the body and Damon's car are gone.The next day, after failing to locate Damon, Natalie's friends are skeptic to her claims of a murder and think that Damons disappearance is one of his practical jokes. Natalie goes to the library to research urban legends by reading a book titled 'The Encyclopedia of Urban Legends'. While Natalie is in the library, Tosh meets a fellow Goth guy online and they plan to meet. When she returns from the bathroom to get ready for her date, the killer is waiting for her in the room and attacks. Natalie walks into the room and assumes the noises are of Tosh having sex again. The killer pulls out the electrical plugs for the lights in the room, and Natalie goes to bed, not realizing that Tosh is being strangled to death. The next morning, Natalie wakes up and sees her roommate dead from slashed wrists and a message left by the killer written on a wall in blood saying: "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the lights?"Everyone thinks that Tosh committed suicide and the message on the wall was "a very morbid suicide note". Natalie convinces Paul that Tosh's death was not a suicide and they look for evidence about the Stanley Hall Massacre, but they find no evidence and all the old newspaper clippings in the library from 1972 where the killings took place are gone. Natalie and Paul run into the creepy-looking janitor where they ask him questions about the Stanley Hall Massacre and the janitor tells them to talk to Wexler. Natalie and Paul sneak into Wexler's office for evidence and are caught by the professor. Brought before Dean Adams, Paul asks about the Stanley Hall Massacre, but the dean avoids the question by telling Paul that he's fired from the school newspaper and tells both of them to stop investigating something that never happened. Adams further tells Natalie that she has a criminal records for "reckless endangerment" and served a year of probation and that she too is to stop investigating the urban legend about the Stanley Hall Massacre if she wants to stay at the college. Outside, Paul becomes angry when Natalie continues to avoid his questions about her past or if she knew Michelle.Later, Natalie walks into the campus swimming pool where Brenda is doing laps when she thinks she sees the killer approach. But the figure in the winter coat is only a fellow colleague. In the locker room, Natalie confides in Brenda that she did know Michelle. She tells the story of how she and Michelle were out driving one night on a dark road without their cars headlights on when a passing car flashed them and, with Michelle driving, the chased down the car in which the car went off the road and the driver was killed.That evening, Dead Adams is in the parking garage to drive home when the killer ambushes him and kills him by slashing his ankles and driving over him with his own car. At a fraternity party where Parker is throwing, Paul arrives with an old newspaper article given to him by the janitor which tells that Wexler was the sole survivor of the 1972 Stanley Hall Massacre and that he may be responsible for the killings. When Natalie admits to having feelings for Paul, they kiss. Brenda sees this and in a jealous rage, leaves the party.A little later, during the party, Parker gets a phone call and is told about what happened to his pet dog (it was cooked in a kitchen microwave over as another urban legends). He runs into a nearby bathroom to throw up when the killer attacks him and kills him by pouring pop rocks and liquid draino drown his throat.While Natalie is trying to reach Paul who ran off, Sasha is attacked at the radio station by the killer who chases her through the building with an axe. Natalie hears Sasha screaming over the radio and runs over to the station but is too late as the killer catches up to Sasha and axes her to death. Meanwhile, Reese searches Wexler's office but finds the floor covered with blood. She calls the police, but because of a serious thunderstorm, the roads are washed out. Reese goes off to find the killer on her own.Natalie runs into Paul outside her doom room and becomes suspicious to where he went during the time Sasha was killed. They both find Brenda, in which they become suspicious about her. They drive away from the campus to look for help when they stop at another gas station. While Paul goes to a phone to call the police, Brenda and Natalie notice a strange odor and upon opening the car truck, discover the dead and mangled body of Professor Wexler. They both run away and into the nearby woods where they both split up. On a back road, Natalie is picked up by the eerie janitor (Julian Richings). But the killer chases them in another car and the janitors truck runs off the road in which the janitor hits his head and is killed.Natalie returns to the campus and tries calling for help on a police phone, but she hears screams from inside the abandoned Stanley Hall building where there is a light on the third floor. Natalie breaks in to look around and finds the dead bodies of Parker, Adams, and Damon. She finds Brenda lying motionless on a bed in a room lit with hundreds of different candles. But before she can react, Natalie is knocked out. Waking up later, Natalie finds herself tied to the bed with the killer standing over here in which the hood comes off to reveal..... Brenda. No longer acting like the casualty nice and friendly girl as seen thorough the movie, the sneering and wild-eyed Brenda explains to Natalie that the boy who was killed in the accident by Michelle and Natalie years before was Brenda's boyfriend. Brenda befriended Natalie this whole time to torment her with this urban legends as her insane way of getting even with her. Just as Brenda is about to kill Natalie by removing her kidneys as the "kidney heist" urban legends, Reese appears to come to Natalie's rescue, but Brenda attacks Reese with a knife and wrestles her gun away. Just then, Paul appears applauding Brenda for her revenge plan and offers wanting a part of it for the credit for his career. But Brenda is not fooled and before she can shoot either one of them, Reese revives and shoots Brenda.However, as Paul and Natalie are driving away to find help and safety, Brenda sits up in the back seat of their car and attacks them in the same manner she killed Michelle in the opening scene. Paul smashes the car into a guardrail and Brenda smashes through the windshield and off a bridge into a river far below.Some time later at another college campus, a group of college students are discussing the recent Pendleton Massacre and about the urban legends, when one student, whom is the alive and well Brenda with a different haircult, offers to tell them the real story about all it. | revenge, gothic, murder, violence, flashback | train | imdb | And yet, most of them made a profit, perhaps BECAUSE they were flashier and sexier than those earlier pictures, and because they were designed for a wider demographic than 'mere' horror fans.Jamie Blanks' URBAN LEGEND is a case in point: Most reviews ran the gamut from harsh dismissal to faint praise, yet the movie is a visual treat, as creepy and atmospheric as any of the films which inspired it.
Blanks orchestrates proceedings with consummate skill, but he refuses to indulge the kind of transgressive gore that once distinguished this downmarket subgenre (where's Tom Savini when you really need him?!).As expected, the talented young cast - including Jared Leto, Rebecca Gayheart and Tara Reid - is pleasingly photogenic, and there are lengthy appearances by TV favorites Michael Rosenbaum ("Smallville") and Joshua Jackson (watch out for the terrific "Dawson's Creek" gag!).
I don't think this one quite ranks up to the SCREAM movies, but I think it was better than the I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER movies.College student Natalie Simon, (Alicia Witt) mourning over the recent murder of an old friend, finds herself in great danger after a large number of students are being murdered.
Yet another film to capitalise on the hunger for cynical, humorous slasher movies with whodunnit asides in the late '90s (started by Wes Craven's Scream), Urban Legend is a fairly entertaining but wholly derivative example of the genre.
Urban Legend is a great movie with a good twist at the end.
Thus, if you are a horror fan who wants an entertaining thriller Urban Legend is a good shot.
But we didn't stop at that, we were now presented with Urban Legend.The film begins on a dark and stormy night as college student Michelle Mancini realizes she is near empty while driving in her car.
It's over written at times and has every predictable moment: the friends don't believe in a ghost story, a couple people get killed off but everyone thinks it's a prank/fake death, a classic chase scene with a big breasted girl in a skimpy costume, the creepy janitor, the smart girl that no one believes is all of a sudden right about all the murders and of course a mega twist ending that no one will ever see coming!
OK, Urban Legend isn't a horrible movie, while it has all these predictable moments and clichés, it's still actually fun to watch and a good part of the memory of good teen slasher films that came out of the 1990's.6/10.
Unfortunately, Urban Legend suffers from a rather disjointed plot, and the fact that as a pseudo-mystery, they've eliminated most of the suspects by the end of the movie, so you pretty much know who is responsible.
The days of low-budget slasher films appear to be back with Urban Legend, a mildly entertaining but mostly lame variation on Scream with an attractive cast of young TV stars.The plot centers on a series of campus murders in the mold of urban legends, most of which will be familiar even to the younger audience this is pandering to.
Experienced viewers will spot the killer's identity (and motive) early on, and those that don't will be fooled only because the conclusion is so completely ludicrous, not to mention mostly impossible.Of course, most of this would be easily overlooked if Urban Legend was scary, but time and again, director Jamie Banks telegraphs the surprises far ahead, and doesn't know how to time the shocks.
Following a series of strange murders, a group of students at a college campus set out to investigate the crimes and their seeming connection to the killer when they find out the killer is basing their crimes on urban legends and set out to stop the rampage.This is far better than its reputation would have it.
Among the better features here is the fact that back when this movie came out the gimmick of using the deaths based on urban legends allowed for some pretty inventive and original kills.
The opening backseat driver decapitation is a great one to open a film on, the dead boyfriend suspended over a fleeing car in the woods offers some rather nice suspense with the killer appearing and continually trying to break into the car and the sex/strangulation misidentification is really cool mainly because the circumstances needed to make it true, from the back-story needed to make sure she shouldn't see anything, the killer gaining access to the room without violent means, and the actual sounds of the incident, are all mixed together and makes a marvelous scene.
But her former friend's murder is based on a urban legend, which this killer is re-creating from these eerie tales.Directed by Jamie Blanks (Valentine) made an entertaining horror film with some clever touches of suspense and black comedy.
But "Urban Legend" is one of those movies, you could tell that the cast & crew has a great time making this.
Needless to say, the premise is a tremendous waste of a great idea.It appears that the movie tried to parody itself near the end, when one of the characters asks "Where's the twist?", but Craven's successful "Scream" did it far better with much more wit.Save your time and money by avoiding this ho-hum, saw it all before, half-baked flick..
If you like really predictable "horror" films then give this a whirl, you can see every drawn out waste of celluloid coming a mile off, and even though the deaths are all authentic "Urban Legends" that have been passed down over the years, I'm sure we wont be hearing any more about this one.Seriously, its worse than Ultraviolet..
Urban Legend does just that, taking a brilliant premise, casting a group of untalented 20-somethings, giving them hip one-liners and bland dialogue, thereby creating a carbon copy of last year's I Know What You Did Last Summer and 1996's Scream.
"Urban Legend" is just like all the other horror movies ever made.
In the end all horror movies are just comedies with very few jokes."Urban Legend" was just as good or bad as all the other recent horror movies.
Urban Legend was an extremely piss-poor effort for a slasher movie trying lamely to emulate the success of scream.
Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, and Jared Leto duke it out for worst performance as three college kids who become scared over a killer repeating infamous urban legends (um, didn't we see that in Scream?).
Another movie tries to cash in on the recent success of teen horror/comedies like "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer".
The characters go through the whole movie telling each other these ghost stories, these "urban legends", while somebody acts them out by killing their peers in the fashion mentioned in the stories.
That is about as interesting as the film ever gets.The script is filled with corny, over-the-top dialogue and teen sex jokes ("Word of advice, back away from the volcano before it erupts") sure to make all the 13 year old boys giggle.The movie then drags on, people die, and those alive accuse all the wrong people until they either get picked off themselves or they discover the real one.
In are schlock films such as Urban Legends, wherein teenagers walk around darkly lit rooms and bump into each other, screaming and spouting ridiculous dialogue until they're bumped off by the mad slasher.
One of the many slick teen slashers featuring an impossibly photogenic cast to follow in the wake of Scream, Urban Legend sees a crazed killer at a college staging an elaborate series of murders based on popular contemporary folklore.This ridiculously impractical modus operandi relies heavily on sheer coincidence for success, and inevitably, the resultant film is highly preposterous.
Urban Legend's makers are, without a doubt, only too well aware of this fact, but soldier on regardless, relying on the probability that their target audience (indiscriminate teens) will be having too much fun to care (or even notice).And for the most part, the gamble seems to pay off—the eye candy cast (Jared Leto, Joshua Jackson and Michael Rosembaum for the girls; Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Danielle Harris and Tara Reid for the guys), enjoyable mechanical scares, frivolous in-jokes, and well handled action help detract from the general silliness, and director Jamie Blanks keeps things whipping along at a brisk enough pace to ensure that there's little opportunity to dissect the material and pose awkward questions (at least until the film has finished).It had been up to me, however, I'd have ramped up the violence (the film is surprisingly unbloody) and thrown in some gratuitous nudity in order to play it safe, for things do get EXTREMELY daft towards the end, and the slasher fans I know are always more forgiving if there's loads of blood 'n' guts and a few boobies on display (surely Reid could have been talked into getting them out for the lads)..
but it'll work just fine for a couple cheap horror thrills on a tuesday night.aside from occasional bad acting and some poorly timed one liners, this movie makes a decent attempt at riding off the "teen-horror" wave created by the scream franchise.
Urban Legend is pretty much like Scream, but a lot less meta and a bit more atmosphere, unfolding as you'd expect it to, with a group of college kids getting killed in bizarre circumstances that all relate to half whispered local myths.
****SPOILERS*** Blood soaked slasher flick with the unseen killer offing almost the entire student body of a New England collage that by the time the movie's finally over there isn't enough people left to form a burial detail.
Having not always been a Horror freak, I've missed out on Urban Legend till today, 14 years after it's been done, and boy did I ever miss out!What at first appears to be a classic Slasher/Teen sub-genre, quickly evolves and develops into a cleverly written and surprising whodunit thriller.
A killer who eliminates victims one by one in accordance with the scenery and background story of the famous urban legends we all know and love (and some that I personally have only learnt of through this film).
All not unlike the two famous Horror brands of the time, Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer.All in all, Urban Legends is a great film using a great idea.
Rebecca Gayheart, her gullible best friend, and Jared Leto, the ambitious campus journalist who tracks down the secret that hangs over the school, lead a cast of pretty young women, good looking guys, and campus characters, notably the suspicious professor Robert Englund, a genre legend in his own right as the star of seven Nightmare on Elm Street films.
Take the plot, for instance, the movie wants to pass itself as being about a killer on campus that crafts murders according to the most known urban legends.
This is what horror and urban legends are about, and this film dares to take those stories and form them as a device for a slasher stalking people along a college campus using those devices but ultimately what large potential there is for a concept with many possibilities, it is ultimately thrown down the drain with your usual slasher movie fodder and terrible story with the cheesy surprise ending and large lapses in logic.
For all the the Screams, I know what you did last summers, and countless other horror films to come our way of late, this one was a little bit better.A mysterious killer duplicates mythical urban legends for the theme of their killings.
I think Urban Legend was the first "hip slasher" that started to feel like enough is enough.Looking back now, the movie doesn't seem all that bad.
But even at its worse, Urban Legend is a lot better than the pre-Scream slasher movies.
With all of the advancements in the horror genre during the nineties, mainly the SCREAM movies, Urban Legend joins the train.
Where this film derives its fun from is how the murders are committed; using old age urban legends, you know the kind you grew up telling around campfires.
With plenty of tense and fun moments, not to mention a relatively high body count, Urban Legend is a fun and witty twist to the horror genre.The movie goes wrong when it finds itself in the typical horror situations (girls going off by themselves, people being a little to curious about certain things, etc.)Although it does follow typical horror, this movie is fun and thus rates a 6/10.
Since that day I made it my mission in life to find a copy of my very own, I searched for months upon months to find one, but didn't, until one day I found a copy when on holiday in Whitby on one on those double film videos they're always putting leathal weapon films on (the other movie on the cassette was Urban legends: The final cut, which I hate.)Anyway, needless to say I love the film, its so much better than Scream (at least the murder scenes are well thought out) and the acting is great, especially by Rebecca Gayheart and Michael Rosenbaum.
Since that day I made it my mission in life to find a copy of my very own, I searched for months upon months to find one, but didn't, until one day I found a copy when on holiday in Whitby on one on those double film videos they're always putting leathal weapon films on (the other movie on the cassette was Urban legends: The final cut, which I hate.)Anyway, needless to say I love the film, its so much better than Scream (at least the murder scenes are well thought out) and the acting is great, especially by Rebecca Gayheart and Michael Rosonbaum.
Urban Legends is just another teen slasher horror movie, that we all feel we've seen before, most noticeably in the Scream trilogy.
But this time Urban Legends is one step ahead of the other horror movies, whereas the plot is no way original.
On a US High School, a killer starts slashing teenage students, based on the good old Urban Legends.
Oddly enough, after all these `qualities' that could also be called plagiarism, Urban Legends ends up being a surprisingly good horror movie, with a great Tv Show cast, and a plot full of hilarious lines.
That's probably where Urban Legends gets stronger: the killer is the very last character you may expect (although clues where falling down like rain), the twist in the very end is not only surprising and interesting, not mention humanly impossible or improbable.
This also, once again, shows how well the writer chose the legends.The acting is consistent and believable, particularly enjoyable performances come from Alicia Witt (a surprisingly unusual choice for a lead in a horror movie, but still an excellent choice), Joshua Jackson and Rebecca Gayheart - all respected actors and actresses in the teen commercial circle.
The director knows that in 'chase' scenes the viewer needs to know the full layout of a building to feel fear for a character's whereabouts (i.e if you know the door is only just around the corner the tension mounts when you know how close to surviving a characters is) - and so a lot of good, open shots are given on the screen.Over all, Urban Legend is a clever, frightening horror movie that boasts not only a good plot and original idea, but a brilliant score from Christopher Young..
Urban Legend is a clever, witty film which takes some of today's most famous myths (killer in the backseat, alligators in the sewers, the date rape drug, and more) and uses them to fashion a good scary story.
The whole plot is based as much on "Scream" as the killings on urban legends.
It looks like the director thinks that showing a bit of blood and gore, and 'spooky' music makes a film scary, and it just doesn't do it.The "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" films were far better at getting the audience involved with the characters - I really didn't care aboutanyone in this film.
The setting and story were perfect for a horror movie, its death scenes were very original, and its ending where they unveil the killer is so shocking.
When I heard about the movie URBAN LEGEND I was scared that the stories, were not going to live up to their true nature, on film.
Most people who have reviewed this movie commented on how it was a good idea, wasted on a bad film.
Urban Legend is a very, very bad movie..
Urban Legend was a very well done film...After Scream came out it would be very hard to keep a suspense feeling up, trying to make it as different of a movie yet keeping it on a guessing scale.
All in all Urban Legend is an excellent date movie, or a chance just to hang out with friends, but if you are looking for a fresh new addition to the slasher genre, I suggest that you look somewhere else.As for the people who are comparing this film to the Scream series, I must say that I see where you are coming from, but remember that Scream isn't as original as it seems either.
I feel that he is a very sincere actor, and that quality is hard to find now a days!Anyway back to the movie...I enjoyed it on a entertaining level, but I tend to be very critical of films...Regardless of what people say, I do not feel like this was a Scream rip-off.
Urban Legend was a great film.
This spin-off of Scream is the most original slasher film since that, telling the tale of a serial killer making urban legends become real on a college campus.
So don't listen to anyone to anyone who bad mouths this movie because it is a very good movie (I take horror movies very seriously) I've seen Urban Legend four times!. |
tt0096874 | Back to the Future Part II | The movie opens where Back to the Future left off: October 26, 1985. Marty (Michael J. Fox) opens the garage door and sees his 4X4, the one he longed for in Back to the Future. Jennifer Parker (now played by Elisabeth Shue) asks for a ride. Marty tells her that she is a sight for sore eyes, and wants to look at her. She says that he's acting like he hasn't seen her for a week. She asks if he's OK. When he sees his mom and dad, he says yeah.As they are about to kiss, there are three sonic booms and the DeLorean appears and screeches to a stop in the driveway. Doc (Christopher Lloyd) jumps out and smashes into one of the trash cans. He frantically tells Marty that he has to come back with him. Marty sees his strange goggles and asks, "Where?" Doc answers, "Back to the future!" Doc rummages in the garbage can, and then grabs some banana peels and a discarded beer can. Marty asks him what he's doing, and Doc hastily claims he needs fuel. He opens the attached Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor, and puts the banana peels in, topping it off with the beer can and the leftover beer inside it. Doc tells Marty to get in the car, but Marty protests, saying he just got here, and Jennifer and he are going to take the new truck for a spin. Doc tells Marty that they'll take her along, because this concerns her too.Marty wonders what happens to them in the future, Doc hesitates for a moment, before replying that they come out fine, but that something has to be done about their kids. After they get in, and Doc backs up into the street, Marty tells Doc that he had better back up, because they don't have enough road on the street to get up to 88 MPH. Doc quips, "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." As Doc is starting up the car, Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) comes out of the house, and wants to show Marty the matchbooks he just got printed up for his auto detailing service, just in time to see the DeLorean fly away and vanish in a flash of light. "A flying DeLorean?" he asks, in disbelief.They reappear in the year 2015, and immediately find themselves flying against traffic. Doc crosses to the right "lane". They descend into Hill Valley on October 21, 2015. Jennifer is confused, and Marty tells her they're in a time machine. She asks about their future, the wedding, and where they will live. Doc knocks her out with a sleep inducing "alpha rhythm generator." He tells Marty that when she wakes up she'll think it was a dream. He says he did that because she was asking too many questions about her future, and she's not essential to his plans.The DeLorean lands in an alley in the middle of a rainstorm. Doc tells Marty to wait five more seconds, and the rain stops right on the tick, as promised. Doc says they have an efficient weather service now, much more efficient than the postal service. When Marty gets out, Doc peels off a rubber mask, saying he went to a rejuvenation clinic and got a natural overhaul. He says they added 30 or 40 years to his life (but he looks the same.) They also replaced his spleen and colon. Marty asks about his own future, if he'll be a rich rock star. Doc warns Marty that no one should know too much about their future. He tells Marty to change his clothes. Meanwhile, Doc spies on Marty's future son Marty Jr. (also played by Michael J. Fox), saying they're precisely on schedule. The clothes Doc has given Marty have power laces on the shoes, and a self-adjusting fit on the jacket. Doc tells him to pull out his pants pockets, because all kids wear them like that today. He gives Marty an iridescent multi-colored cap like his son, then tells him to go into the Café '80s (one of those "not-well-executed nostalgic-themed restaurants") in exactly two minutes and order a Pepsi. A guy named Griff is going to show up and ask Marty whether he is in or out about "tonight's opportunity". Marty is to tell him he is out, say no, and come back immediately.Marty now asks what this has to do with his son. Doc shows Marty tomorrow's copy of USA Today, and Marty is shocked by what he reads: today, Martin McFly Jr. is going to be arrested for theft, and within 2 hours of his arrest, he will be tried, convicted, and sentenced to 15 years in the state penitentiary (the justice system works swiftly these days now that all lawyers have been abolished). To make matters worse, the next week Marty's daughter Marlene (also Michael J. Fox, in drag) will attempt to break her brother out and will get sentenced to 20 years in jail, causing a chain reaction that destroys Marty's entire family. Doc's alarm watch is late, but he will try to intercept the real Marty Jr. before he can get to the Café 80s. Before Marty goes, Doc warns him to be careful because Griff has "some short circuits in his bionic implants."When Marty reaches the town square, he notices a pond in the middle where the park, and parking lot, used to be. A car is in the robotic Texaco service station. The movie theater is showing "Jaws 19". Suddenly a hologram of a giant shark comes from the theater, swoops down on Marty and "bites" him, scaring him. He's not satisfied, that the shark "still looks fake." An electronic billboard advertises Wilson Hover Conversion Systems. Marty sees an antique shop, where he notices unusual items like a B&W Macintosh computer, a lava lamp, and a Gray's Sports Almanac. The almanac lists sports results from the years 1950 to 2000.Marty goes into the Café '80s, which is full of nostalgic items from the 1980s. Several video screens are advertising the food & drink there; they are also the waiters. The screens use personalities from the 1980s: Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan, and the Ayatollah Khomeini. They talk like Max Headroom. While waiting on Marty, Ronald and the Ayatollah talk at the same time, almost as if arguing. Marty tells them to stop, that he only wants a Pepsi; one quickly pops up.Biff, now an old man, walks to Marty, mistaking him for Marty Jr., and bopping him on the head with his cane that's topped by a small silver fist and tells Marty how he's going to flush his life down the toilet. Marty thinks Biff is talking about himself, and is confused. Biff knocks him on the head with his cane saying, "Hello! Anybody home?" Outside, Griff (also Thomas F. Wilson) lands his car. He comes in and angrily chews out his grandfather for not applying two full coats of wax to his car. Biff argues, but Griff makes him go outside and redo it. Marty asks Biff if he and Griff are related, and Biff knocks him on the head again before he leaves. Marty notices two boys (one played by a young Elijah Wood) turn on an antique shooting game. Marty offers to demonstrate, grabs the revolver control and shoots all the opponents, but they complain that the game is like a baby's toy because you have to use your hands; they leave. Marty Jr. peers in through the window. Unlike the real Marty, we see that his jacket sleeves are ill-fitting. He comes in and asks for a Pepsi. Marty panics and hides behind the counter. Griff and his gang (Ricky Dean Logan, Darlene Vogel, and Jason Scott Lee) come in.Griff confronts Marty Jr. in the typical Tannen way, and beats him. He asks Marty Jr. if he made a decision about "tonight's opportunity." Marty Jr. says it might be dangerous, that he has to discuss it with his father. Griff throws him behind the counter. Marty orders Marty Jr. to keep quiet; Marty Jr. faints. Marty now stands up as Griff demands he give the right answer. Marty gives a firm no, then departs. Griff calls Marty chicken, hiding a telescoping bat behind his back. Marty, being Marty, can't resist when someone calls him chicken. Just as he's saying such, Griff swings at Marty with his bat and misses, hitting a video waiter. When Marty puts up his dukes, Griff rises up another half foot with his implants. Marty tries to distract Griff & throws a punch which Griff easily catches. Marty kicks Griff between the legs and pushes him against his gang. Marty runs out the door, and Griff and his gang run after him.Outside, Biff is waxing Griff's car. Marty passes him and sees two kids with what he thinks are scooters. When he grabs one of the "scooters", he's surprised to find it is actually a Mattel "hoverboard." As in Back to the Future, he rips off the handle for the board, giving the girl the handle. Griff and his gang chase after Marty in Griff's car. Marty hangs onto the back of a passing Jeep. Biff observes the chase, and reminded of his encounter with the manure truck accident in 1955, quips, "There's something very familiar about all of this." Marty grabs onto a rope from the Jeep's back like a water surfer would be attached to a boat. When Griff swings at him, Marty swerves over the water, and the board stops. The gang tells Marty that hoverboards don't work over water "unless you've got power." Griff gets out his "Pit Bull", a jet-powered hoverboard, ready to hit Marty with his bat. The gang hooks up to the back of the Pit Bull, and all four of them fly across the water towards Marty. At the last second, Griff swings, but Marty jumps down into the water, and Griff misses. The gang fly out of control and smash through the glass windows of the courthouse.Marty climbs out of the water in time to see the gang being arrested, then flees through a pedestrian tunnel and exits out the other side. His coat suddenly announces a "drying mode", and it blow-dries itself and his hair. Marty tries to give the girl back her hoverboard, but she declines, as she now has one of the gang's Pit Bulls. A man asks for a donation to save the clock tower. An electronic billboard flashes that the Cubs win the World Series, sweeping Miami. Marty is incredulous about Miami. The man then tells Marty he wishes he could go back to the beginning of the season and put some money on the Cubs. This gives Marty an idea.Marty goes back to the antique shop and buys the sports almanac. He goes outside, looking inside the almanac, and says he can't lose. Doc arrives and tells Marty to wait. Biff comes around the corner and sees the flying DeLorean. He remarks that he hasn't seen one of those in 30 years. Marty Jr. comes out and bumps into Biff. Biff looks back and forth at Marty and Marty Jr., confused. A car almost hits Marty Jr. Doc looks at the courthouse and asks Marty what happened. Marty says, "My kid showed up and all hell broke loose". Doc sits down and says he was afraid of this. He says that after he zapped Jennifer with the sleep inducer, there wasn't enough power to knock his son out for a full hour.Biff sees Doc and hides. Marty tells Doc that the newspaper is changing. As they watch, the ripple effect occurs and the headline changes from 'YOUTH JAILED; Martin McFly, Jr. Arrested for Theft' to say 'GANG JAILED; HOVERBOARD RAMPAGE DESTROYS COURTHOUSE; GANG LEADER: 'I WAS FRAMED'. They look over and as he's being led to a police car in handcuffs, Griff shouts "I was framed!" to a USA Today camera probe, taking the same picture appearing on the paper. Doc tells Marty that his son won't go to jail; future history has been changed. He tells Marty that they succeeded, and can get Jennifer and go home. Marty accidentally drops the almanac and Doc picks it up. Doc tells Marty that he didn't invent the time machine for financial gain. Doc starts to put the almanac in the trash, but sees the police; they hide around the corner. Two cops (Mary Ellen Trainor and Stephanie Williams) have found Jennifer, and ID her with a handheld device: "McFly, Jennifer Jane Parker, 3793 Oakhurst Street, Hilldale, age 47." They are surprised she looks so young.Doc tells Marty that because the thumbprint never changes over the years, they assume she's the Jennifer of the future. Marty tells Doc that they have to stop them. Doc asks him, "What will we say, that we're time travelers? They'll have us committed." One of the cops says she's clean (i.e. no outstanding warrants), so they can take her home to Hilldale. Doc tells Marty that the cops are taking Jennifer to Marty's future home. He says they can arrive there shortly after the cops do and take her back to 1985. Marty is excited about seeing his future home and himself as an old man. Doc says no, then panics. He says, "Jennifer could conceivably see her future self. The consequences could be disastrous. There are two possibilities: 1. Face-to-face with her future self, she simply passes out. 2. The encounter creates a paradox, which starts a chain reaction and unravels the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe." The police car flies by, and Doc and Marty hide against the wall. Doc hopes that they can find Jennifer before she finds herself. Looking at the digital sign, Doc says the skyway is jammed, and will take forever to get there. Doc tells Marty he didn't invent the time machine to win at gambling; he invented it to travel through time. He throws the almanac in a trash can, and they leave. Unknown to either Doc or Marty, Biff is hiding past a screen door, comes out, and retrieves the almanac, slyly realizing that Doc invented a time machine.The police car arrives in Hilldale at night, and land at the McFly (2015) house. One cop says that Hilldale is "nothing but a breeding place for tranks, lobos, and zipheads." The other one agrees, saying that they should tear it down. The cops take Jennifer to the house, and use her thumbprint to open the front door. When she wakes, they tell her she got a little "tranked", but can walk. They tell her it's dangerous without the lights on. She asks, "Lights on?" The lights come on, and they sit her down on the couch. One of the cops tells her to be careful in the future. Jennifer asks, "The future?" The cops leave. Jennifer looks at the window in front of her, but sees a giant video screen, broadcasting the 24 hr/day scenery channel. She says to herself that she's in the future. Her daughter walks around upstairs, but they don't see each other.Jennifer sees framed wedding photos of her and Marty, and picks one up. She's incredulous (and angry) that she gets married in a "Chapel O'Love" (and in the photo, we see that Marty is wearing a tux-patterned shirt, and Jennifer wears a very short skirt). When the doorbell rings, Jennifer's daughter (also Michael J. Fox), identified as Marlene when her grandparents George and Lorraine come in, asks, "Mom is that you?" Jennifer drops the photo and tries the front door, but there's no doorknob. The doorbell rings and Jennifer hides in the closet under the stairs. Jennifer looks through the slats of the closet door, but can't see her daughter as she opens the front door. Lorraine (Lea Thompson) and George (Jeffrey Weissman) come in. Marlene asks what happened to her grandpa's back. Lorraine says he threw his back out again on the golf course; George floats in upside down in a strange traction device. Lorraine asks Marlene if her folks are home yet. Lorraine is holding a small pizza in a sandwich bag, saying she bought pizza for everyone.Doc, our Marty, and Einstein are flying in the DeLorean, stuck in traffic. Doc says that old Jennifer (Jennifer 2015) usually gets home around this time, and he hopes they're not too late. Doc grabs his goggles worriedly. Marty asks him what's the matter. Doc says he thought he saw a taxi in his rear display that he thought was following them.Inside the McFly house, Lorraine is changing channels on the screen scene, saying she can't believe the window is still broken. Marlene says that when the repairman called her dad "chicken", he threw him out of the house, and now can't get anybody to fix it. Lorraine lifts it up, revealing the window. She tells Marlene that her father's biggest problem is that he loses all self-control when somebody calls him chicken. Lorraine and George say together, "Mom, I can't let them think I'm chicken." Lorraine continues to explain how in 1985, Marty Sr. got into a car accident where he got into a collision with a Rolls-Royce when someone challenged him to a drag race to prove he wasn't "chicken".The DeLorean lands outside the McFly house at night. Doc gets out, taking Einstein with him to find Jennifer. Doc tells Marty to stay there and change clothes. Marty protests, but Doc says they can't risk him running into his older self. Doc runs away with Einstein. Marty is pleasantly surprised that he will live in Hilldale. The taxi that was following the DeLorean in traffic arrives, landing down the street. After Biff pays with his thumbprint, he sneaks and hides by a waste recycling station.Lorraine continues her narrative to Marlene, saying that the accident Marty Sr. got into caused a chain reaction that has ruined his life. Had he not participated in that race, the driver of the Rolls Royce wouldn't have pressed charges and Marty wouldn't have broken his hand, he wouldn't have given up on his music career, and he wouldn't have spent the last few decades feeling sorry for himself. At that point, Jennifer hears the door open and hides in the den closet when Marty Sr. (Michael J. Fox with his hair dyed gray) comes in. She watches as Marty Jr. turns on the TV and watches several channels at the same time.Outside, our Marty is fascinated by a robotic dog walker and carelessly leaves the DeLorean's door open when he follows the dog. Biff gets in and then flies away.Lorraine puts a tiny Pizza Hut pizza in a Black and Decker Hydrator, which is completed 3 seconds, restored to full size and cooked. Lorraine is worried about Jennifer. Marty Sr. doesn't know where Jennifer is. He says she's probably in one of her mood swings. The phone rings, and Marty Sr. takes it on the large video phone in the den. It's his coworker, Douglas Needles (Flea), who wants Marty Sr. to join him in an illegal business venture. Marty Sr. balks until Needles calls him chicken. Marty Sr. says he'll do it, and scans his card, and then Needles hangs up. Marty Sr.'s boss, Ito Fujitsu (Jim Ishida), immediately comes on the phone, telling Marty Sr. that he was monitoring the card scan. He promptly fires Marty Sr. and sends out a fax saying "YOU'RE FIRED!!!" to all the fax machines in the house. Jennifer takes one of the faxes.At that point, Doc knocks on the window and tells Jennifer to go out the front door and meet him there. She says the door won't open, and he tells her to press her thumb to the plate. She tries to sneak out, but Marty Sr. is playing the guitar in the living room. Lorraine talks with him and they both leave the living room. Jennifer tries to leave, but Jennifer (2015) (Elisabeth Shue) opens the door and Jennifer hides behind the wall. When Jennifer (2015) comes in they both faint, shocked at seeing each other. Doc catches the young Jennifer.Old Biff returns in the DeLorean. When he gets out of the car, he pulls out his cane too quickly, breaking off the top of the cane in the car as he leaves. He also clutches his chest. (A deleted scene then shows him collapsing behind another car and fading out of existence). Doc calls Marty over, telling him that she fainted when she saw her old self, but she'll be fine. As they carry Jennifer back to the DeLorean, Doc tells Marty that when they get back he's going to destroy the time machine, saying that any alteration of the time continuum is too dangerous. They put her in the DeLorean. Doc tells Marty he wants to go to the Old West but it's too dangerous. He puts some garbage in Mr. Fusion & they take off.Doc, Marty, Jennifer, and Einstein arrive back in 1985, narrowly missing a jet as they appear. Doc and Marty put Jennifer in the swing on the porch of her house. Doc tells Marty to come back later in his truck and wake her up, and try to convince her it was a dream. Doc says she will probably sleep for a couple of hours. The first indication that something isn't right when Marty remarks that he doesn't remember security bars on the windows on Jennifer's house, or that the vehicle parked out front is an abandoned wreck. Doc drives to Marty's house. Due to the darkness, they fail to notice that the Lyon Estates statues have been defaced with graffiti, or a pack of stray dogs roaming the streets. Doc leaves. Marty can't open the gate to his back yard because it's locked with a padlock, so he jumps the fence. He opens the window to his bedroom and falls onto a bed in the room. To his shock, a black girl wakes up and screams "Rape!" Her father runs in and chases Marty out of the house with a baseball bat. As Marty runs, the man yells after him that they refuse to be terrorized into selling their house to the real estate company.Marty runs down the dark street, which is lined with wrecked and abandoned cars, including an abandoned police car. Gunshots are heard in the distance and a girl is heard screaming. Marty then comes upon the chalk outlines of two recent drive-by shooting victims. As Marty crosses another street, three police cars race by, sirens wailing. Marty is shocked, and figures he's in the wrong year. He finds a newspaper on the porch of a house that reads October 26, 1985, meaning he is in the right year, but in the wrong timeline.Suddenly, a shotgun is trained at Marty's head. It's Strickland (James Tolkan), who doesn't recognize Marty and thinks he is the gangbanger who has been swiping newspapers from his porch. Marty asks him why he doesn't recognize him from school, and Strickland reveals that the school was burned down by vandals six years ago. He prepares to shoot Marty's testicles off, but Marty is saved from such a potential ending when a car comes around the corner and some gangsters who recognize Strickland open fire with submachine guns, raking his house with bullets. Strickland dives into the house while Marty ducks down. As soon as the gangsters are gone, Marty stands back up, but Strickland suddenly rushes out of the house, and fires two blasts at the fleeing car, shouting "EAT LEAD, SLACKERS!"As Marty finds himself in the middle of "Hell" Valley, he bumps into Red (George 'Buck' Flower), the town bum, telling him "Watch where you're going, crazy drunk pedestrian!" Marty turns around and sees a huge casino called Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise anchoring the town square where the courthouse should be. There is a biker gang circling the square. A tank passes by in the street, giving the feel of a war zone. There is a toxic waste reclamation plant across the street. In the lobby of the casino, a video in the museum narrates Biff's life and success. It invites the visitor to learn the amazing history of the Tannen family, starting with Biff's great-grandfather Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, the fastest gun in the west. You can see Biff's humble beginnings, and learn how Biff became a millionaire overnight from a large bet he made at a horse race on his 21st birthday, which led to a long winning streak that left newspapers dubbing him "The luckiest man on Earth." He subsequently parlayed his fortune to found Biffco, which runs a realty company and several nuclear powerplants. In 1979, Biff successfully lobbied to legalize gambling and converted the Hill Valley courthouse into a gaudy casino hotel. The exhibit's narrator continues to talk about Biff's life, including the women he dated (Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield) and finally his "high school sweetheart", Lorraine Baines McFly, Marty's mother. Marty screams in shock, just as Biff's goons, his old friends from high school, Match, Skinhead and 3D appear and knock Marty out.Marty wakes up in the dark and sees his mother (Lea Thompson), asking if that's her. She tells him to relax, that he's been asleep for almost 2 hours. He thinks it was a nightmare. She tells him that he's safe and sound on the 27th floor and turns on the lights. He bolts up and is shocked to see that Lorraine is an alcoholic with breast implants. She tells Marty to wait for his father. Marty asks, "Father?"Biff bursts in and angrily demands to know why Marty is not in Switzerland (implying that in this alternate reality, Marty and his siblings were shipped away to overseas boarding schools). Biff warns Lorraine that Marty is a butthead just like his father. Lorraine defends George, telling Biff that he's not even half the man he was. Biff pushes her down. Marty rushes at Biff, but Biff's men grab Marty. Biff punches Marty in the stomach. Lorraine snaps and tells Biff she's leaving. Biff asks her who will pay for her clothes, jewelry, liquor, and cosmetic surgery. Lorraine argues back that he's the one who wanted "these things", cupping her breasts. He scares her into staying by threatening to cut Lorraine off from his money, cancel Linda's credit cards, revoke Dave's probation, and put Marty and them all in jail, just like her brother Joey (perhaps the one thing in this alternate timeline that is not different from the original timeline). Biff leaves, warning her that he'll be back in an hour but Marty better not be. Lorraine tells Marty that Biff was right and she was wrong, and then pours herself a drink. Marty is shocked, wondering how she could leave George for Biff. She decides that Biff's gang must have hit Marty too hard this time, implying that in this alternate reality, Biff has a habit of hitting Marty over the head as punishment very frequently. Marty asks where his father George is. Lorraine reveals that he's where he's been for the past 12 years, at Oak Park Cemetery.Marty goes to the cemetery, and finds his father's tombstone. It shows that he died on March 15, 1973. Marty is stunned and horribly distressed and Doc steps out of the shadows, saying it's all true. Doc admits he knew Marty would come here when Marty learned about his father.Doc and Marty go to Doc's lab. Doc shows Marty newspapers from the library, which was closed down. Marty tears out the page of the newspaper that reports his father was shot dead in an alleyway while on his way to get an award. Doc explains that something caused a temporal distortion; somewhere in the past, the timeline skewed off into an alternate reality. On a chalkboard, he draws the normal timeline and the alternate timeline (1985A), which is normal for everyone else. Doc shows Marty the bag and receipt for the Gray's Sports Almanac, and Biff's fist-shaped cane top that he found on the floor of the DeLorean. It means that Biff stole the time machine and gave the almanac to himself in the past. He then shows Marty a newspaper article about the horse race Biff won a big bet on in 1958. On the front page is a photo of Biff holding a large fake cutout of a check while being interviewed by reporters. Marty uses a magnifying glass to study the photo more closely and sees the almanac is stuffed into Biff's right front pocket. Doc says this is how time travel can be misused.Marty realizes that it's his fault, and they have to go to the future to stop Biff from stealing the time machine. Doc tells him that this will not work because they would only go to this alternate future - where Biff is corrupt and powerful, married to Lorraine, and where a newspaper article shows that Doc has been committed to an insane asylum as part of one of Biff's smear campaigns. He tells Marty that they have to go the past and get the almanac, and they have to find out how and when Biff got the almanac. Marty says he will ask him.Biff is in a jacuzzi with two topless women, watching "A Fistful of Dollars" on TV (the importance of this movie will become apparent in Back to the Future Part III.) Marty comes in and turns off the TV with the remote, and confronts Biff about the Grays Sports Almanac. Biff sends the women out. He asks Marty what else he knows about the book. Marty demands to know how, where, and when he got the book. Biff tells (orders) him to sit down. He says, "November 12, 1955", then opens a safe. Marty says that was the date of the lightning storm. Biff says that it was a Saturday, and he crashed his car drag racing. Marty, however, knows that Biff crashed into a manure truck, that his father told him about it before he died. Biff continues, saying that a "crazy old codger" (his old self) gave him the almanac, asking him how would he like to be rich, and that he was a distant relative. Biff claims he didn't see the resemblance. Biff reveals that his old self told him he was going to be rich, and when Biff asked if there was a catch about the almanac, the old self told him, "No catch; just keep it a secret." Biff says he never saw him again.While Biff turns his back to put the almanac back in the safe, Marty takes one of the matchbooks from an ashtray. Biff then remembers something else: old Biff warned him that "Someday a crazy wild-eyed scientist or a kid will show up. If that ever happens[, kill him]...." Biff pulls out a snub nose revolver, saying he didn't think it would be Marty, and prepares to shoot him. Marty throws the ashtray at Biff, but he ducks and the ashtray sticks into Biff's chair.Marty runs upstairs, and Biff shoots at him several times, but misses. Biff's goons chase after Marty, but he jumps the other flight of stairs and goes back upstairs to the roof instead, while they go downstairs. Biff catches up and sees the door to the roof swinging, and follows Marty. He tells Marty to jump, that suicide would be nice and neat.Marty warns the police will trace the bullet, but Biff brags that he owns the police; his influence is how he was able to get away with murdering George. Marty jumps over the ledge and Biff can't believe it. He calls Marty an idiot, and then looks over the ledge. Marty comes up on the DeLorean, and the door knocks Biff out. Doc and Marty fly away. Doc sets the time machine for November 12, 1955. The display malfunctions and shuts off; Doc hits it and it returns. Doc tells Marty it's unbelievable that old Biff chose that date, that it must have cosmic significance.Doc and Marty return to the morning of November 12, 1955 and hide the DeLorean behind the Lyon Estates billboard, much like Marty did when he first arrived. Doc tells Marty he will repair the short in the time circuit. He tells Marty to get the book back, but warns him to be careful not to run into his other self. He gives Marty some 1955 money from an emergency money suitcase containing US money from different periods, and tells him to buy some inconspicuous clothes.The next morning, Marty has a pair of binoculars and is dressed like a 50s greaser in a leather jacket and wearing a hat, like a spy. He is communicating with Doc via two-way radio and outside the house of Gertrude Tannen, the only Tannen listed in the phone directory. Marty is skeptical that Biff lives here...just as Biff comes out of the house, looking exasperated with his grandmother. He follows Biff to a mechanic's shop in the middle of town. Terry, the mechanic who repaired Biff's car after the manure truck incident, drops it off, and Biff is outraged to find that the repair bill is $300, including an $80 fee from Jones to remove the manure. We see Old Biff is hiding behind a tree, chuckling as he recalls the incident. Biff and the mechanic go into the shop to argue about getting a refund for the fee Jones is charging Biff, during which Marty climbs into the back of Biff's car.Minutes later, Biff and the mechanic return, still arguing. Biff tosses a few oil cans in the back of the car, much to Marty's discomfort. The argument ends as the mechanic drives away in a hurry, fed up with Biff. Just then, Biff is distracted when he sees Lorraine and one of her friends rush out of a dress shop a few doors down the street, excitedly admiring the dress Lorraine has just purchased for the dance. His mood brightens, and he goes over to harass her. He wants her to go with him to the dance, but she counters she's going with "Calvin Klein" (Marty's alter ego). Biff is infuriated, he's not happy that Lorraine doesn't want him, and gets more forceful with her. Lorraine gets more annoyed, finally telling Biff she won't go with him to the dance even if he had a million dollars. To express her opinion, she kicks him in the knee, then clocks him over the head with her dress box and runs off even as Biff taunts her that she is going to be his wife one day. Biff goes back to his car and finds old Biff sitting in the driver's seat. Biff, exasperated, tells old Biff to leave, but old Biff starts the car, shocking Biff. Old Biff tells Biff to get in, telling him it's his lucky day.The scene cuts to Old Biff driving Biff rather recklessly back to Biff's house. As they park in the garage, Biff demands to know how Old Biff knows where he lives. Old Biff gives Biff the almanac, telling him it will make him rich. Old Biff explains that it lists sports results from 1950 to 2000. Biff tosses it back and tells old Biff to "Make like a tree and get out of here!" Old Biff slaps him in the back of the head & corrects him, "It's leave, you idiot!" Biff demands proof that the almanac is what old Biff makes it out to be. Old Biff turns on the radio to a football game, and surprises Biff when he announces that UCLA, trailing 17-16 with 20 seconds to go on the clock, will win 19-17. The radio announcer reports that UCLA wins 19-17.Old Biff tells Biff to always bet on the winner, and gives Biff back the almanac. Biff tosses it in the back of the car, but old Biff grabs it before Marty can and stuffs it into the back pocket of Biff's pants, gravely reminding him to never let the book out of his sight. Old Biff and Biff close the the garage door and walk away as Old Biff warns Biff about Marty or Doc coming to confront him about the almanac. Marty gets out of the car and tries to follow them, but the garage door is locked with a padlock. He calls Doc on his walkie-talkie, telling him Biff and old Biff left with with the book; Doc radios that he'll find a way to get there without a car.That night, Biff comes back to the garage while having to deal with his domineering grandmother yelling at him. He opens the garage and gets into his car, preparing to leave for the dance. Marty gets in the back of the car without Biff noticing. Doc passes the car just after they leave and sees the open garage door, wondering where Marty is.As he drives into town, Biff listens to "Papa Loves Mambo" by Perry Como on the radio. Marty calls Doc. Doc sees the tarp that covers the DeLorean. Marty tells Doc they are going to the dance. Doc tells Marty that they need a new plan; it's too dangerous. Marty tells Doc that he's in Biff's car. Doc warns Marty that he must not let his other self see him because of the consequences. Just then, the 1955 Doc appears and asks 1985 Doc to get a wrench from the toolbox. Doc asks him if he's doing a weather experiment, surprising him. Doc says that he has experience in this. Doc (1955) suggests that maybe they'll bump into each other in the future. As 1985 Doc rides away on his bicycle, 1955 Doc looks at the back of Doc's head, and does a double take.Biff (and Marty) arrive at the dance. Biff takes the almanac with him; Marty follows Biff inside. The band is playing and students are dancing. Marty sees through the binoculars that George is dancing alone. He also sees Biff's gang Match, Skinhead and 3D spiking the punch with liquor, and sees the almanac in Biff's back pants pocket. They quickly have to retreat when Strickland notices them.Biff and his gang leave; Marty follows them. Biff tells his gang that he's still looking for Calvin Klein because he caused $300 damage to his car. The gang goes back inside, but Biff stays outside, and reads the almanac after tossing the liquor bottle away. Marty sees his counterpart drive up with Lorraine. He sees the almanac in Biff's back pocket, and jumps down. Biff looks around, hearing a noise, but doesn't see anyone.Just as Marty is about to grab the almanac, Strickland surprises Biff, who turns around. Strickland detects a whiff of alcohol on Biff's mouth. He confiscates the almanac, calling Biff a slacker, and walks away; Marty secretly follows him. Strickland goes to his office and drinks coffee, spiking it with liquor. Marty enters quietly, but hides under the desk when the door noisily swings shut. When Marty reaches for the almanac, Strickland backs up in his chair against Marty's hand; Marty stifles a scream. Strickland leaves and tosses the almanac in the trash can. Marty retrieves the almanac, but finds out it's a girlie magazine; only the cover was from the almanac.He calls Doc and tells him that Biff must still have the almanac. Through the window, we can see George's struggle with Biff. Marty hears the ruckus and runs outside. He arrives just as George punches Biff, and sees his counterpart and the crowd. Marty's counterpart looks at the photo (as before) and runs away. Marty comes in and tells the crowd gathering around Biff to back off, and then tells them he knows CPR. A guy asks, "What's CPR?" Biff wakes up, and recognizes Marty as "Calvin Klein," but Marty punches him and knocks him back out, then takes the almanac. The bystander thinks that Marty just pickpocketed Biff's wallet.Biff's gang chases Marty. Doc tries to take off and bumps into the billboard, catching the streamer attached to it. While he makes a shaky takeoff, the time machine's display changes to January 1, 1885. At the dance, Marty sees George and Lorraine, and his 1985 counterpart. George and Lorraine kiss. Biff's gang enters, and Marty hides under a table. The gang sees Marty's counterpart on stage about to play "Johnny B. Goode", and prepare to nab him. Marty calls Doc, who tells him his counterpart will miss the 10:04 PM lightning bolt at the clock tower. Doc tells Marty he has to help his counterpart at all costs, or there will be a time paradox.Outside, Biff comes around, hearing Marty's counterpart playing "Johnny B. Goode," and asks the bystanders where Marty has gone. The guy who saw Marty take the almanac tells Biff where Marty went, and Biff heads into the building.Marty sees Biff's gang backstage. He goes backstage, climbs up into the overhead rafters and pulls the ropes, releasing the stage weights (sandbags) on the gang just as Marty's counterpart finishes playing the high note. Marty swings down and drops the bags again, knocking the gang out.Marty calls Doc, who tells him to meet on the roof of the gym in one minute. Marty leaves, and through the door window sees his counterpart talking to Lorraine and George. Biff suddenly appears, nose bloodied, and not fooled at all by Marty's "disguise". Marty tries to walk away from a potential fight, only for Biff to call him chicken. Before Marty can fight Biff, his counterpart slams the door open, knocking him down. After counterpart Marty leaves, Biff sees the almanac in Marty's hand. Furious, he kicks Marty for taking the almanac, damaging his car, and humiliating him, then marches to his car and drives away. Marty makes it to the roof of the gym and tells Doc that Biff has stolen the book. They follow Biff, flying over him in the DeLorean. They sneak up quietly behind Biff's car. Marty gets on the hoverboard, hiding behind the back of Biff's car, and Doc flies away. Biff turns, thinking he heard a noise, but doesn't see Marty.Marty pulls up to the passenger side of the car and sees the almanac. Biff, listening to sports on the radio, reaches for the almanac to check the scores just announced, and then puts it back on the seat, memorizing them for later use. Marty opens the door, but Biff sees him. A struggle ensues as Biff enters a tunnel, trying to smash Marty against the wall, but Marty swings aside. When Marty tries to sneak in, Biff punches him.They're now on the wrong side of the road, but Biff swings back and dodges a passing truck. Marty grabs the almanac and jumps down, and Biff turns around. Biff revs the engine and Marty tries to fly away on the hoverboard. As Biff races towards Marty, it's doubtful that Marty will reach the end of the tunnel before Biff reaches him. Marty reaches the end of the tunnel in time and grabs a streamer that Doc has lowered from the DeLorean, lifting him clear of the tunnel. Biff, racing at full speed, looks up, shocked. Just as his eyes return to the road, he sees a manure truck stopped in the road. Biff slams on the brakes, but it's too late, and he plows into the back of the truck, which dumps its entire load into the car again. He screams, "Manure! I hate manure!"Doc and Marty return to the billboard, just as a thunderstorm rolls in. Doc lowers Marty to the ground on his hoverboard. A storm is creating turbulence, so Doc has to come around from another direction to land. Doc asks Marty about the almanac, and tells him to burn it. Marty puts it into a bucket and burns it with matches from Biff's casino.When he does so, the words on the change from "(Biff's) Pleasure Paradise" to "Auto Detailing". The newspaper headline changes from "GEORGE MCFLY MURDERED" to "GEORGE MCFLY HONORED". Marty calls Doc, telling him that the newspaper changed and his father is still alive. Doc sees another newspaper headline change from "EMMETT BROWN COMMITTED" to "EMMETT BROWN COMMENDED", and says, "Mission accomplished." Marty asks Doc if everything is back to normal, if Jennifer and Einstein are okay. Doc says yes, it's the ripple effect, and that they can go back to their own future. A lightning bolt strikes a tree across the street from Marty, and he ducks. Doc quips he (Doc) almost bought the farm. Seconds later, another lightning bolt strikes the DeLorean, and it vanishes, leaving behind two fiery contrails. Marty tries unsuccessfully to call Doc on the radio, but it is useless. The streamer drops to the ground, the end smoking.Moments later, as the rain begins pouring down, a car pulls up. A mysterious-looking man gets out of the car and informs Marty that he is from Western Union, and they have been holding a certain letter for the last 70 years, with instructions to deliver it to Marty at this exact place and time. The man lost a bet whether or not Marty would be there. Marty signs for the folder; opening it to find a letter from Doc. He reads the letter aloud as the man listens. Doc says that he's alive and well. Marty reads that Doc is alive in the year 1885, in the Old West. The man asks Marty if he needs any help. Marty replies that there's only one man who can help him, and runs away.Doc's counterpart has just finished helping Marty's counterpart return to 1985, and is running down the street laughing. Marty runs to him and grabs him from behind. Doc is shocked, saying that he just sent Marty back to the future. Marty says that he's back from the future, and Doc faints. Marty tries to revive Doc.The movie ends with a title card reading "TO BE CONCLUDED..." and previews of Back to the Future Part III. | entertaining, comedy, mystery, fantasy, cult, alternate reality, humor, alternate history | train | imdb | null |
tt0070297 | The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires | Transylvania 1804: Kah [Shen Chan], High Priest of a temple in Pang Kwei in the Szechuan province of China, has obviously traveled a long way on foot to ask for Dracula's help. Kah's temple has fallen out of power. He requests that Dracula [John Forbes-Robertson] resurrect seven vampires in order to restore it. Dracula thinks about it, then agrees...and takes over Kah's body to do it.Chung King 1804: Professor Van Helsing [Peter Cushing] is lecturing at Chung King University about legends of ancient China. In particular, he mentions a village that becomes cursed by vampires each year during the 7th moon. He relates the story of Hsi Phen An(sp?), a farmer who attempted to fight against the vampires but was slain in the process. Before he died, however, Phen An placed on a wayside shrine one of golden medallions worn by each of the vampires. When the vampire tried to retrieve it, he was destroyed. After listening to Van Helsing's tales, all the students laugh and walk out...except for one. Hsi Ching [David Chiang] is grandson to Hsi Phen An and proves it by showing Van Helsing the golden medallion. Ching and his family have pledged to rid Pang Kwei of the vampire curse, but they require Van Helsing's help, so Van Helsing and Ching put together a group of vampire hunters composed of themselves, Van Helsing's son Leyland [Robin Stewart], Vanessa Buren [Julie Ege] (a Scandinavian heiress with money to burn), Ching's six brothers (the twins Sung [Fong Kah Ann] and San [Chen Tien Loong], Ta [James Ma], Kwei [Liu Chia Yung], Jin How [Liu Hoy Ling], and Bao Kwei [?]) and his one sister Mai Kwei [Szu Shih], each of them skilled in various martial arts.On the road to Pang Kwei, romance blossoms between Leyland and Mai Kwei, also between Ching and Vanessa. Meanwhile the six remaining vampires attack the village and carry off some of the maidens (true Chinese take-out?). As the group of vampire hunters near the village, it becomes apparent that the vampires know they're coming. One cold night, the troop takes shelter in some caves, although Van Helsing pronounces the caves to be 'malignant.' Sure enough. While the hunters sleep, they are descended upon by bats who turn into vampires, aided by dozens of their zombie renfields. Kwei manages to destroy the sixth vampire with a bow through the heart. One of the twins takes out the fifth vampire with his sword, and Van Helsing sets the fourth vampire on fire, leaving three vampires left.When the vampire hunters reach Pang Kwei, they devise a security system of wooden stakes and trenches filled with oil. That night, when the vampires and their renfields attack, the village is ready. They light the oil and pick up their stakes. The third vampire is consumed by fire. Unfortunately, he also takes one of the brothers with him. A second brother is stabbed to death. The twins die together. Vanessa is bitten by one of the vampires. She, in turn, bites Ching. Ching destroys Vanessa with a stake through her heart and then impales himself on the stake, too. The villagers join in staking the second vampire. Mai Kwei is captured by the last remaining vampire and taken to the temple where Dracula awaits. Leyland follows and tries to rescue her. Just as the vampire seems to be getting the best of Leyland, Van Helsing arrives and runs a stake through his heart.But there is still Dracula to contend with. Van Helsing gets him to leave Kah's body and return in his real form. A short, anticlimatic fight ensues in which Dracula leaps at Van Helsing who holds up a stake just in time for Dracula to fall on it. Thereafter follows a long anticlimatic scene in which Dracula slowly turns to dust. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.] | cult, murder, violence, flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt0083922 | Fanny och Alexander | The story is set during 1907–09 (with an epilogue in 1910), in the Swedish town of Uppsala where Alexander (Bertil Guve), his sister Fanny (Pernilla Allwin) and their well-to-do family, the Ekdahls, live. The siblings' parents are both involved in theater and are happily married until their father, Oscar (Allan Edwall), suddenly dies from a stroke. Shortly thereafter, their mother, Emilie (Ewa Fröling), marries Edvard Vergérus (Jan Malmsjö), the local bishop and a widower, and moves into his ascetic home where he lives with his mother, sister, aunt and maids.
Emilie initially expects that she will be able to carry over the lavish, joyful qualities of her previous home into the marriage, but realizes that Edvard's harsh authoritarian policies are unshakable. The relationship between the bishop and Alexander is especially cold, as Alexander invents stories, for which Edvard punishes him severely. Edvard immediately confines the children to their bedroom. As a result, Emilie asks for a divorce, which Edvard will not consent to; though she may leave the marriage, legally it will be considered desertion, placing the children in his custody, including the infant to which she will shortly give birth. Meanwhile, the rest of the Ekdahl family has begun to worry about their condition. When Emilie secretly visits her former mother-in-law, Helena (Gunn Wållgren), to explain what has happened, their friend Isak Jacobi (Erland Josephson), helps smuggle the children from the house. They live temporarily with Isak and his nephews in their store.
Emilie, now in the later stages of her pregnancy, refuses to restore the children to the home. Edvard insists she do so. Emilie allows Edvard to drink a large dosage of her bromide sedative. She explains to him, as he shows signs that the medication is working, that she intends to flee the home as he sleeps. He claims that he will follow her family from city to city and ruin their lives, then blacks out. After Emilie gets away, Edvard's dying aunt knocks over a gas lamp, setting her bedclothes, nightgown and hair on fire. She runs through the house in flames to seek Edvard's help, igniting him. Despite the sedative, he is able to get her off him, but dies shortly thereafter.
Alexander had fantasized about his stepfather's death while living with Isak. Isak's mysterious nephew, Ismael Retzinsky (Stina Ekblad), explains that fantasy can become true as he dreams it.
The story ends on a happy, life-affirming note, with the christening celebration of Emilie's and the late bishop's daughter as well as the extra-marital daughter of Alexander's uncle, Gustav Adolf Ekdahl (Jarl Kulle), and the family maid, Maj (Pernilla August). Alexander encounters the ghost of the bishop who knocks him to the floor, and tells him that he will never be free. Emilie, having inherited the theatre, hands Helena a copy of August Strindberg's play A Dream Play to read, and tells her that they should perform it together onstage. Initially scoffing at the idea and declaring Strindberg a "misogynist," Helena takes to the idea and begins reading it to a sleeping Alexander. | psychedelic, gothic, magical realism, sentimental | train | wikipedia | The first time I saw this film was in 1984, on tv and with a much shorter version than the one released in England in 2002, which is the full 300-plus minute original.That day I was scared -really scared- watching the scene where Alexander is been helped to let out his most evil thoughts by Ishmael, a completely mysterious character with supernatural insight.
As Ingmar Bergman's "swan song" (which wasn't necessarily the case once After the Rehearsal and the recent Saraband were released), Fanny and Alexander was a film I saw many months ago, in its truncated, 3-hour version.
Broken up here into 5 Acts, Bergman takes another semi-autobiographical approach to his storytelling, and it's a sumptuous tale of a turn of the 20th Century family (the Ekdahls, comprising of Oscar and Emilie, the parents, Fanny and Alexander, the kids- Alexander being mostly the driving force behind the story- and also the other relatives Carl and Gustov Adolf, brothers of Oscar, Helena, Alma, Lydia, and also the housemaid Maj) who own a theater company.What makes Fanny and Alexander work as a major achievement, if anything else for my money is that all the elements seem balanced out over the acts, with story and characters, each sharply defined.
Bottom line, this character, whether you like the film or not, is one of Bergman's greatest creations, and is pulled off by Malmjso with icy, disturbing perfection; it's one of the most memorable of the kind in film I can think of, right up there with Nurse Ratched, HAL 9000, and Darth Vader.But what torment and anguish the characters, as well as much of the audience, seem to endure in the fourth/fifth acts; there also comes revelatory moments of sheer beauty and enchantment.
With the fates of the Bishop, Emilie, and Alexander and Fanny brought to a close, as with the Grandmother, the uncles and aunts, and so on, it's all very symbolic, metaphorical, and real, and it gels together.One last note- Sven Nykvist, who one his second Oscar with Bergman for this film, creates the kinds of shots that some could only have in their dreams.
To put this all in another way, I could go on and on about this huge, heart-rendering work, but it all comes down to this- as an emotional, intellectual, and spiritual (surprisingly for me, who sees religion as a kind of fantasy) sort of film-viewing experience, Fanny and Alexander is one of the most profound I've ever had.
"Fanny and Alexander" (1982) was announced at the time of its release as Ingmar Bergman's swan song, his last film for the big screen.
Set in Sweden in the beginning of the 20th century, the film follows the lives and adventures of two children, brother and sister Fanny and Alexander Edkahl.I love Bergman in every mood and in every genre - I love him dark, bleak, harrowing ("Shame"), mysterious ("Persona"), merciless and devastating ("Scenes from a Marriage, "Face to Face", "Autumn Sonata).
Even for a master of Bergman's powerful talent, "Fanny and Alexander" is extraordinary - a profound film which is also one of his most accessible works.Pablo Picasso said once, "When I was 9 years old, I could paint like Rafael; as an adult, all my life I tried to learn how to paint like a child".
I have wanted to see this film for years but I have missed it several times they were showing it on television.And also because of my father does not like Bergman(why??) but still think that this film is fantastic.I saw it yesterday just after having read Bergman´s autobiography and this film is much a autobiographical film.I would like to say something about the cinematography and acting.But what is there more to say about Sven Nykvist´s cinematography then MASTERFUL.Before I saw the film I read in a newspaper that this is the best Swedish acting film ever made and it was actually picked as number two as the best Swedish film ever made for a couple of years ago(film fans voted).The WHOLE cast acts SUPERB,I am not sure if I have ever seen anything more perfect.This is a chronicle over a family.It has a a great poetic script that combines just as it sad in a other comment:striking visuals.Bergman has really done this to a masterpiece.Now I want to see the five-hour version(i saw the 3 hour version).Colorful,perfect,frightening and sometimes even funny.What I guess I liked most was that they showed everything from the children´s eyes.One of Bergman´s best.5/5.
After all, the fans will always stick by you.Fanny and Alexander, Bergman's farewell to the cinema (in more ways than one since it was made for television) is a problematic film - it is a well crafted work, but undistinguished, not nearly as great as some of his past achievements.
Not really - nobody hits a home run every time at bat.Fanny and Alexander is a long (over 3 hours) Dickensian period piece that lacks much of the trademark Bergman touches.
This is Ingmar Bergman's semi-autobiographical Life and Times of wealthy theater family Ekdahl in 1907 Uppsala, mainly told from the eyes of young Alexander as his mother is widowed, remarries a harsh bishop, and moves into his church estate with both the children.
Why?Well, I caught the 188 min' version, and many bits - although enjoyable on their own, such as Kulle's monologues and erotic shenanigans - seem to be from completely different films altogether in tone, patched up to a big quilt with unfitting seams, in contrasting the children's ghastly torment of their stepfather (Alexander's head-to-head battles of will with him IS a highlight), with the unrelated, more easy-going content from the family's head estate.
Perhaps the TV-series version is more cohesive?Bergman's love for the theater is of course ubiquitous, both in establishing the family's relation to it, as well as much of the overly theatrical acting/line delivery, heavily metaphysical & religious symbolism and solemn theme presentation (with a nod to August Strindberg at the end).
Skimming some of the IMDb reviews before seeing this film, I came across comments like, "Every frame a Rembrandt", "triumphant", "Bergmans swan song is his ultimate masterpiece", "could be the best European film of all time".
It unfolds like a rich novel, full of multi-dimensional characters, and takes the viewer on a journey of discovery -- of love, loss, laughter, despair, God, truth, and the supernatural.This film is haunting and beautiful, more finely detailed, photographed and acted than any film I have ever seen.These were my thoughts upon seeing the 3-hour theatrical version for the first (and second, and third...) time in the mid-'80s.
It is a great work of film art and storytelling, with intricacies never realized before or since, made with incredible love and determination by the two most talented filmmakers ever to treat us with their skills -- Ingmar Bergman and Sven Nykvist.THE masterpiece..
The film, of course, is well directed, actors are pleasant (although the children Fanny and Alexander are not much seen during the first half), and background/costumes provide additional value, enabling this sequence of different scenes to be combined and better understood.
Any serious film buff has to consider the master Ingmar Bergman one of the greatest movie directors who has ever lived.
And these two worlds—those of children and adults—interact in pleasant and somewhat grim ways.From the start with Alexander alone in his grandmother's apartment, through an extravagant Christmas party, to the richness of the theater, to the much darker residence of the next chapter of this family's life, the movie is simply an exquisite piece of artistic beauty of early 20th Century Sweden.
The performances are all terrific, and I'm particularly fond of Bertil Guv as Alexander, Gun Wallgren as his reserved grandmother, and Jarl Kulle as his boisterous uncle.The movie, in spite of some quite dark elements, is quite a bit more upbeat than typical Bergman film.
Really don't know what all the fuss is about...Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, the story of two children, Fanny and Alexander (strangely enough), and what happens after their father dies.Underwhelming, a bit of an ordeal and vastly overrated.
I really cant say anything negative about this film that shows the developments and experiences of the most amazing family i have ever seen on screen through the eyes of its two youngest - Fanny & Alexander.Don't give up, even if its hard, you have to watch this one!.
Perhaps more so because the protagonists, Fanny and Alexander, are both children less than ten years old.Bergman laces his characters- an eccentric, hedonistic, passionate and opulent family led by an elegant and radical matriarch- with clever psychological trimmings in an atmosphere combining lassitude and surreal richness.
The children's world is rampant with mischief, lies, loneliness, mortality, and love.The people around him search for worldly salvation but seem to fail miserably, his kind, contemplative father has just died, his young, gorgeous mother marries a "spiritual" ascetic-looking string bean whom he treats like the Devil, and to top it all off, the Ekhdahl's theater company is in financial ruin.With deft hands, Bergman trains his slow-moving camera to scenes that evoke wonder, magic, stunning beauty.
but not for very long, for just when the lush imagery utterly seduces you, you are sucked back to the merciless dirge-like flow of the story.Bergman weaves a story about family love and redemption and turns it into an almost mythical theme through Alexander's troubled hungers and dark imagination.
The film covers roughly one year in the life of the Ekdahl family, mostly seen through the eyes of young Alexander.
What we see is not necessarily the reality of the film, but the thoughts and feelings of Alexander through the death of his father and his new life with his evil stepfather.Bergman, as usual, transcends the world of reality and dives deep into the hearts of his main characters as we see their feelings projected onto the screen.
Those other two visit less sophisticated theatrical landscapes, but they do it on foot, engaged in the hot, sweaty and dangerous transport of ourselves.So I will tell you it is sublime in many ways and not very useful to building a real life in film.Bergman himself is in three characters here: the boy (as widely known), the magical Jew who makes the illusions that we believe to be real as the film, and the stern stepfather.
However, Fanny and Alexander is a film that is beautiful to look at, but almost a bore to listen and think about as it trudges its way through so many different stories that it becomes hypnotizing to watch.
The film depicts the lives of its title characters, Fanny and Alexander, and their extended family, the Ekdahls, a wealthy aristocratic family living in the early 20th century Uppsala, Sweden.I've personally only seen the mini series, so I'm a bit unclear as to what was taken out for the 3 hour feature version, but let's talk about the story as a whole.
Ingmar Bergman's 'Fanny och Alexander', originally intended as the director's "swan song", is a five-hour five-act epic which explores the lives of the different members of the Ekdahl family.
I must seek out more of her work, having only seen her in this and one of her earliest films, ORDET (and I can't recall her role in that at all).This is a film that celebrates the creature comforts of life, finding pleasure in "the little world." For as much as Bergman gets saddled with labels like "austere", here we see him practically spitting in the face of austerity.
With that same magical power of storytelling, Bergman makes us believe in ghosts and mummies and evil forces.It's such a phenomenally beautiful piece of work (thanks especially to Nykvist and the set design) that always offers me something new, and keeps me enthralled throughout the entirety of its 5+ hour running time (okay, the "Hamlet" rehearsal drags a bit, but it has such thematic resonance).
Fanny and Alexander is my favorite film and, in my opinion, Bergman's finest work.
The lavish, beautiful costumes, the heavily detailed and atmospheric sets, the perfect performances, the writing, the masterful cinematography, the writing, and of course the direction -- all working in sync to create a masterpiece of cinema and art.It's obviously a very nostalgic film for Bergman, as much of it is based on his own life experiences in some way.
There's also the scene involving Oscar with his children before they go to sleep, in which he tells them a story, which ranks as one of the more memorable, touching scenes of the film - from here, we can understand how this brings to Alexander (Bertil Guve, in a performance that is touching by being so straightforward with the innocence of child-hood) to the state he's in for much of the rest of the picture.Then the second and third acts come around, and the tragedy unfolds as penetrating as I've seen in any film, much less from Bergman.
There's also the scene involving Oscar with his children before they go to sleep, in which he tells them a story, which ranks as one of the more memorable, touching scenes of the film - from here, we can understand how this brings to Alexander (Bertil Guve, in a performance that is touching by being so straightforward with the innocence of child-hood) to the state he's in for much of the rest of the picture.Then the second and third acts come around, and the tragedy unfolds as penetrating as I've seen in any film, much less from Bergman.
"Fanny and Alexander" is a drama movie in which we watch a family gathering for Christmas and everything seems to be great but everything is going to change.
Two young Swedish children experience the many comedies and tragedies of their family, the Ekdahls."Fanny and Alexander" won four Academy Awards, which is unusual for a foreign film.
A variety of fantastic characters are introduced including the two young children of an actor (Fanny and Alexander) They are young, innocent, and are both beginning in their early stages of life to experience the world in new and frightening ways.
The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Persona and Cries and Whispers are all wonderful films(The Magic Flute is also very interesting), and Fanny and Alexander is up there as one of Ingmar Bergman's best films.
The direction as you'd expect with Bergman is superb, even if Fanny and Alexander is perhaps different from Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries in the themes it explores and with not as much visual imagery, it all feels well-paced that I never felt myself getting bored throughout the three-hour running time.
The atmosphere Fanny and Alexander also compels you in, right from the fairy-tale cosy like feel of the start of the film at Christmas to the scary and frightening scenes with Ishmael.
Released in 1982, 'Fanny and Alexander' was created in two formats, as some of the other later work of Ingmar Bergman - as a TV series and as a big screen feature film.
This film has characters that are fully formed.Bergman's created a magical, fantasy world that at times tends toward the supernatural, but then throughout the story is fleshed out as realistic as they come.
He continued to make staggering films far into the 70's as well, long after many of his closest contemporaries had submitted to self-parody and over indulgence, and was still able to produce great work like Cries and Whispers (1972), Scenes from a Marriage (1973) and Face to Face (1976) even when working within the incredibly limiting confines of Swedish television.With this in mind, Fanny and Alexander (1982) would seem to be the culmination of everything that Bergman had been working towards throughout his entire career; with many of the themes, ideas, ghosts and characters that had appeared and reappeared not only in his work but also in his life and childhood being written into the script and presented on the screen.
Not really about the children Fanny and Alexander (as the title would suggest) so much as about the entire Ekdahl family, this film is meticulously detailed and highly autobiographical.
The characters (with the exception of little Fanny herself) are painted with detailed strokes by the acting and writing, and Bergman uses his production design to great effect, juxtaposing the sumptuous interiors of the Ekdahl's home with the ascetic house of the stepfather.The movie floundered a bit for me, though, in the second half.
There's more than a story about children in "Fanny and Alexander", the title is rather misleading on that level, the film, set at the dawn of the 20th century, circa Bergman's childhood, shows the very world that shaped the tormented mind of the soon-to-be cinematic genius, a world of contradictions where lust is forbidden but temptation everywhere.
The screenplay offers up so much detail and so much thought on so many topics that it's hard to really make your mind up about the film but I'm sure this is the type of movie that a hundred people could watch and they'd all walk away with different feelings and emotions about what it all meant.For me personally, I think the film is about everything possible, from life to death to love to religion and most importantly to imagination.
Released in 1982 in a 5-hour version for Swedish television and cut to 180 minutes for theatrical release, FANNY AND Alexander was meant to be Ingmar Bergman's last film.
The Ekdahls' torment living under the bishop is the great crisis of the film, and their unexpected liberation from it presents Alexander with a burden that he will carry into his budding manhood.The original television version is the way to see Bergman's final masterpiece.
It's a highly autobiographical film that tells the story of young Alexander Ekdahl and his sister Fanny as they live their luxurious life with their mother and father.
Fanny and Alexander is a wonderfully moving and important film, one of the greatest Bergman ever made.
Rarely I've felt the sense of familial warmth and love in a film or elsewhere as I have with Fanny and Alexander. |
tt0067756 | Silent Running | Silent Running takes place in the not-so-distant future, at a time in which Earth's plant life has been decimated. Only a few specimens of flora have been preserved, and are currently in space in a fleet of orbiting greenhouses.Freeman Lowell (played by Bruce Dern) is the main character, one of four extraterrestrial forest rangers aboard the Valley Forge, one of the 2,000 metre-long green house freighters. He is passionately dedicated to preserving the orbiting forests and their natural inhabitants, and eventual returning them to Earth for reforestation of his now-barren planet more so than his crewmates, whose main priority seems to be returning to Earth after their one-year deployment to space.The main conflict comes when Lowell and his crew are ordered to destroy the orbiting greenhouses and redeploy the freighters to commercial service. Lowell decides to disobey orders and save the forests he has worked so hard to preserve.Lowell's crewmates manage to jettison and detonate four of the six greenhouse domes on the Valley Forge. Lowell kills one of his crewmates in a struggle to save the two remaining domes, during which he seriously injures his leg. He then manages to trap the other two crewmen in the other remaining dome, which he then jettisons and destroys.With help from the ship's three robots, Lowell feigns a premature dome detonation to fool his superiors, then alters the orbit of the Valley Forge , redirecting it towards Saturn in an attempt to preserve the last forest dome. Injured and alone with three robots, Lowell programs them to perform surgery on his leg.Still in communication with the rest of the fleet, Lowell is informed that the Valley Forge is on a collision course with Saturn's rings, and there is nothing he can do to stop the catastrophic event. The ship will likely be destroyed. With communications failing due to the distance now between the Valley Forge and the rest of the fleet, the ship passes through the rings of Saturn. While the three robots are outside the ship on maintenance duty, one is blown away from the ship, leaving two remaining robots. The ship, and its single greenhouse dome, emerge undamaged on the other side of the rings.Lowell and the two remaining robots chart a course into deep space, far away from the fleet. Alone except for his accompanying drones, Lowell befriends them and renames them Huey, Dewey and (posthumously) Louie. He teaches them to play poker, plant trees, and bury the killed crewmember.Lowell soon realizes that despite all his efforts, his forest is dying from unknown causes. In a desperate and rushed attempt to save the dome he badly damages Huey in an accident with one of the ship's buggies. Repairs are unsuccessful, the forest continues dying, and Lowell begins to come to realize that his mission to save the forest is bound to fail.After weeks alone in space, faint radio chatter is heard from a rescue party mounted from the Valley Forge's sister ship, the Berkshire, which has located the freighter after a long search. Finally able to communicate with Lowell, they inform him that they will be able to reach him within six hours he must jettison the dome but not detonate the nuclear charge, as it is too dark to do so safely.At this point it dawns upon Lowell that what was killing the forest was lack of sunlight. With little time to work, he activates a series of lights to simulate the sun and instructs his last active robot, Dewey, to "just maintain the forest."Realizing that his crime will be uncovered when the Berkshire finds him, Lowell jettisons the last dome to safety with the words "take good care of the forest, Dewey."With the Berkshire only two hours away from docking, Lowell and the damaged Huey sit facing each other while he arms the last of the six nuclear charges. As he prepares to destroy himself and preserve the last dome, Lowell says to Huey: "When I was a kid, I put a note into a bottle, and it had my name and address on it. And then I threw the bottle into the ocean. And I never knew if anyone ever found it."With that, Lowell destroys the Valley Forge with the last of the onboard nuclear charges.The final scene is of a well-lit forest greenhouse drifting into space, tended by the sole remaining robot with a battered watering can. The scene is accompanied by Joan Baez's rendition of the film's theme song. | comedy, murder, cult, atmospheric, flashback, psychedelic, claustrophobic, inspiring | train | imdb | By far the best to come out of this program was 'Silent Running', an ecologically-minded 'message film' that stands out today as one of the truly great films of the science-fiction genre.Bruce Dern stars as Freeman Lowell, a futuristic Park Ranger minding Earth's last forests, sealed in gigantic domes aboard an equally gigantic freighter in space.
When ordered to destroy the domes and return home, Lowell is forced to choose between his crewmates and his beloved forests.The motif of a polluted, or simply, homogenized Earth, the ultimate triumph of human progress over nature and wilderness, is a standard theme of science fiction in the 20th century, and the film is not too different from many other films and episodic television programs seen since the postwar period.
His work here is still fresh and understated and certainly not of the over-the-top calibre, despite the insistances of some.The film possesses truly amazing visual images, from the spacecraft itself (the decommissioned and soon-to-be-scrapped aircraft carrier Valley Forge) to the domes (an aircraft hanger at Van Nuys Airport) to the unforgettable Drones, uncanny little robots designed around the amputee-actors that give them life.
The music, composed for the film by Peter Schickele (known internationally as P.D.Q. Bach), is by turns boldly triumphant, softly mournful, and is quite effective; some viewers may hate the vocal work of Joan Baez, but she is a logical choice for this production and time period.While many films have suffered since the release of 'Star Wars'(which is NOT, strictly speaking, science-fiction) due to dated visuals and obsolete effects technology, 'Silent Running' is still startlingly clean and visionary.
Director Douglas Trumbull and other SFX masters like John Dykstra and Richard Yuricich were chosen to work on "Star Wars" because of the state-of-the-arts special effects they did for "Silent Running".
Generally one would usually choose one of the high-tech, high-priced, superstar biggies.But I had to say "Silent Running." Oh, it has special effects all right, and I think they're good enough for the purpose; I certainly felt the cramped dimness of the station against the vast implacability of space.
Originally having seen this film years back, all I could remember were a few squatty little robots, some kind of personal crusade, and alot of tears from Bruce Dern.
Silent Running is by no means a great science fiction film; it is instead a simplistic story about one man's refusal to destroy that which is dear to his heart, against all odds.
What makes this film stand out from others, however, is a combination of great special effects (Trumbull was, of course, mentored by Stanley Kubrick on the set of 2001), a good message and...
Made in the wake of both 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968; the ultimate space opera) and EASY RIDER (1969; the era's biggest 'sleeper' hit), SILENT RUNNING was given the go-ahead by the executives at Universal in an attempt to recapture the momentum of those two films who even allowed special-effects wizard Douglas Trumbull to make his directorial debut, and this with unprecedented artistic freedom.The film is a visual treat, featuring marvelous if unassuming special effects, though Trumbull manages to keep the technology firmly under control it is all so simple but still very impressive (even more so in view of the budget).
The green forest and small animals also look great, and it's fun to see Lowell cultivate his private garden like a king, assisted by childlike drones who he lovingly names Huey, Dewey and Louie after the nephews of Donald Duck.Unfortunately, what the film wins in visuals, it loses in writing.
Even so, the visual style and the tragic ending are easily enough to make Silent Running a very watchable movie; it is also interesting as a product of its socially aware time..
Bruce Dern stars as an interstellar gardener (!) tasked with caring for a greenhouse full of the Earth's last plant life.The film that gradually unfolds (at a slow and stately pace) is both watchable and slightly twee.
Those quirky robots, which are nothing like robots in real life but which add humour and a touch of pathos in any case.SILENT RUNNING is considered by some to be a masterpiece, but I don't buy it; there just isn't enough substance to go along with all the effects and the heavy-handed message.
We all need to heed the message in this film and do everything we can to preserve this beautiful, amazing planet we live on.I have seen many movies throughout my life, but this one always stands out in my mind...I cannot forget it.Well done!.
At first Dern's character seemed over the top but decades later I believe that it's in fact right on.All of your other reviews are wonderful but I have one terrible confession to make:I am the only human being left alive on the Earth that still likes Joan Baez..
Okay, the plot has Freeman Lowel (Bruce Dern) taking care of a forest put in a dome in space because Earth had become inhabitable because of various ecological problems.
I suppose Joan Baez's musical score also contributes to making the viewer appreciate nature.The movie criticizes apathy about nature, and it does so in a way that reflects a time when protest cost too much but was not political suicide.
The two original Joan Baez songs are incredibly corny even for Baez, and Bruce Dern's botanist is not nearly as interesting or human as he should be, crying over his misdeeds while applauding himself for his ingenuity-- all to save one little piece of forest from Earth.
And of course I love 'Dark Star', which in retrospect almost seems like a parody of this movie at certain times - but for the life of me I cannot understand how so many people can be so fond of 'Silent Running', which to me is almost completely awful.I don't even know where to start listing its problems.
The lead character, who I suspect is supposed to come across as some sort messianic environmentalist hero, is clearly unhinged even in the earliest scenes, and coupled with Dern's excruciating over-acting, it's hard to feel any sympathy for him as he rants and raves at his crewmates who race over his garden in a scene that looks like it was heavily influenced by The Banana Splits Show.
id seen a few sci-fi films before it, but it was "running" that turned me on to deep space science fiction.
Silent Running is an obnoxious portrayal of a hippie who should never have been allowed on a space ship to begin with.The premise here has a lot of promise; had the characters been more believable or the film itself less...
Bruce Dern plays astronaut Freeman Lowell, who's been working on a project for the past eight years: maintain the last of the flora and fauna scavenged from a devastated Planet Earth, inside huge geodesic domes.
True enough that a story like this would seem like a pretty hard sell to studios, even 43 years ago, since there are no female characters and the main person isn't all that noble.Special effects veteran Douglas Trumbull, renowned for his work on "2001: A Space Odyssey", obviously has a real affinity for creating interesting environments and striking visuals.
The effects are nicely done, and those robot characters - referred to here as drones - do have some personality, and are highly endearing, if not as memorable as, say, R2-D2 from "Star Wars".The songs, by Joan Baez, and score, composed and conducted by Peter Schickele, are lovely.Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, and Jesse Vint are all fun as Lowells' younger, more carefree associates, but after a while only Dern remains as the sole human presence on screen.
The 1972 sci-fi film Silent Running is highly influential, but often overlooked film from period that produced a lot of great and bleak sci-fi.In the future all plant life on Earth has died and the last remaining plants are on a greenhouses in deep space.
But when they are ordered to destroy the greenhouses domes, Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) kills the other crew members and takes the station into deep space, committed to the ideal of protecting the plants and bringing them back to Earth.
Director Douglas Turnbull was also able to give the three drones plenty of personality and makes you care for them, from their looks to each other, there body language and actions.Silent Running is a very politically minded film about its themes about environmentalism, deforestation and protecting natural landscapes.
Even now we have this debate and back in the 70s the issues of environmentalism were less pronounced.Silent Running has a constantly bleak and sombre tone, both about in its grand themes and it the personal story about Lowell, all leading to a bittersweet ending.Turnball came from a special effects background and his experience shows on screen with fantastic, having great model work, art direction and costumes of the drones.
The only real criticism is the explosions are only shown as The music by Peter Schickele added to the atmosphere, from the soft piano to a moment with more grand moments when showing the exterior.It is clear how Silent Running influenced films like Moon and WALL-E with its story, style, themes and scenes.
In a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut (Bruce Dern) is given orders to destroy the last of Earth's plant life being kept in a greenhouse on board a spacecraft.The biggest problem with this film is the music provided by Joan Baez.
Dern is the only dedicated member of the crew who will do whatever it takes to defy his orders and save nature from man's destruction, no matter what the cost.This is a good science fiction tale with a message, and this is brought home by two Joan Baez environmental songs which she sings over the soundtrack.
Young first-time director Douglas Trumbull was also the special effects maestro who worked on Kubrick's classic 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and he referred to SILENT RUNNING as "my first student project".
Instead I found it to be a trite, poorly executed film that took important topics and packaged them into one of the most drawn out movies ever made.The acting was the worst I've seen in a long time (and keep in mind this is after I saw Justin Timberlake in another film, so that's a real insult for Silent Running).
While the director attempted to make him sympathetic I found the opposite to be true; I grew to dislike him more and more as the movie went on.I know this might be a trivial observation but Bruce Dern's hair was so frizzy and poorly cut that it drove me to distraction (all the human characters were like this but the lead was the worst).
Silent Running features wonderful spaceship effects, some of the most interesting robots ever featured in an sf movie, a heartbreaking performance by Bruce Dern, and a fine soundtrack featuring some beautiful songs by Joan Baez...
Instead he keeps the battered droid with him to share his nuclear death.All-in-all a post flower power era movie that tries to point out our folly in neglecting the planet (but never shows the planet let alone just how bad things are supposed to be) and what one dedicated man tries to do to save it.In the end, all it makes me think about now is how being alone for too long in space can drive someone nuts.
Typical environmentalist - He thinks he knows about nature but is totally ignorant about simple stuff like seasons It's also a very manipulative film where the audience's sympathy is made to lie with three robots rather than - Freeman aside - the other human characters , the idea being that machines with human qualities are somehow better than real people .
Despite being a little dated and hokey at times, SILENT RUNNING was an enjoyable sci-fi film with some incredible visual effects.
Done on a fairly modest budget of just slightly over $1 million, SILENT RUNNING inevitably will seem dated to some after four decades; its message, however, remains all too timely.Set in a far distant future, where Earth's ecology has become a permanent train wreck, SILENT RUNNING generally takes place in the deepest and most isolated part of the Solar System onboard the American Airlines-sponsored deep-space freighter "Valley Forge", which houses three different types of what is left of Earth's greenery in geodesic domes, all of which are tended to by a very dedicated scientist (Bruce Dern).
But more importantly, the message being told in SILENT RUNNING remains timely to this day, and it is an important one: We humans need to preserve our planet, or else there will come a day when there won't be anything left here..
However, in this rare opportunity, Bruce Dern plays Freeman Lowell, the hero of the movie "Silent Running." The story takes place far off in the future, when Earth's remaining forests, wildlife and vegetation have been preserved in gigantic domed enclosures with the intent on one day 'reforesting' the planet.
One interesting message I think that is lost on many people is that technology is our ultimate hope of preserving the beauty of nature in all its forms; the final image of a robot tending to the forest is a metaphor for the entire film.To top it off, the acting and production design are extremely convincing considering the premise that the story asks the viewer to accept; it requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief, and the film pulls it off completely.
"Silent Running" a movie directed by special effects photographer Douglas Trumbull, produced in the season of 1970/1971 at some remote airfield hangar in Van Nuys, California and starring heart-out-acting Bruce Dern as an space traveling environmentalist, who suffers a nervous breakdown by killing off his entire crew in order to ignite robots to do their jobs and eventually sending his long-time cared for botanic forest under a dome into deep space before ending the mission with complete annihilation of the spaceship, which had been designed to escape Earth in such a desolated state that visuals from "Mad Max" (1979) to "The Road" (2009) pop into my mind, where it supposed to be believed that not even one leaf grows on a tree anymore.Director Douglas Trumbull puts his entire anger, disappointment and sorrow into a picture about the state of the America's union since 1865 with another war raging in Vietnam a hundred years later, while scrupulous industrialized capitalists earning for their retirement in the 1990s despite all warning signs of a polluted world in constant decay; a picture, which runs along within a brotherhood of dystopian Science-Fiction-Films of the early 1970s as "THX 1138" (1971), "The Omega Man" (1971) or "The Andromeda Strain" (1971) directed by Robert Wise, which is arguably the most accomplished one with an nerve-wrecking split-second key-to-key-hole finale.
All pictures utilized the elements of research, science and fictional story-telling to give their emotions of contemporary environmental as well as governmental issues a visual playground.If "Silent Running" can be watched closely enough, preferably in an auditorium with 70mm film print, it is possible to find ingredients of the later much more audience-attracting contents as "Star Wars" (1977) or "Close Encounters of The Third Kind" (1977), which serve to this day as role models of workday escaping motion pictures, where no controversy has been allowed, which may go beyond the choice between a soda drink and a cup of coffee toward the way back from the movie house to home to hit a midnight grocery store to indulge further into a synthetic food-chain and forget about the picture the next morning, yet wishing to watch it again a year later in hope of feeling the same escapology emotions to block out the core of a universal contradiction between nature versus industry.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC).
Secondly,the character of Freeman Lowell, played by Bruce Dern was very believable to me; I sometimes think I would do the same thing as he did to save the nature he so loved.
Silent Running, had I seen it in 1972, probably would have been totally engrossing and astounding as a piece of science fiction film-making that pushed the special effects limits just a nudge further from 2001, and gave a positive (if rather, ultimately, bittersweet) message about taking care of the planet.
Taking aside the pro-environment message of the film, it's a really excellent story about a man going over that certain edge, and being possessive of the very thing that should be shared with the world.It's a complex character that the writers, Cimino, Bochco and Washburn have created here with Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern), so much so that he's both very complex and too simple-minded to figure on.
All he has, apparently, are three strange, almost kinda cute robots he names Huey, Dewey and (after the fact of losing him around Saturn's rings) Louie, who do tasks all over the ship.What the film lacks in directorial polish, therefore, is made-up in spades by the wonderful story and this character who, for 2/3 of the movie, is the only human we see on screen.
Douglas Trumbull, who was the special effects wizard on 2001 - A Space Odyssey, (and also directed the film) fails miserably in Silent Running.
Watched this after getting onto a scifi kick this past week and reading many recommendations for Silent Running, with a some reviewers stating its as good or even better than 2001.Bad move, this movie is cringy AF right from the opening credits.
Silent running is a movie set in 2008 or at least what people thought 2008 would be like. |
tt0093137 | Hamburger Hill | The movie opens with a still photo of 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon:Rifleman Pvt. Vincent Languilli (Anthony Barree)Rifleman Pvt. Ray Motown (Michael Patrick Boatman)Rifleman/Machine gunner Pvt. David Washburn (Don Cheadle)Radioman Pvt. Harry Murphy (Michael Dolan)3rd Squad XO Pvt. Elliott McDaniel (Don James)3rd Squad Leader SSgt. Adam Frantz (Dylan McDermott)Rifleman Pvt. Paul Galvan (M.A. Nickles)Machine gunner Pvt. Michael Duffy (Harry O'Reilly)Rifleman/Machine gunner Pvt. Frank Gaigan (Daniel O'Shea)Rifleman/Grenade launcher Pvt. Joseph Beletsky (Tim Quill)Rifleman/Machine gunner Pvt. Martin Bienstock (Jimmy Swerdlow)Medical Specialist Abraham 'Doc' Johnson (Courtney B. Vance)Platoon Sgt FC Dennis Worcester (Steven Weber)Platoon leader Lt. Terry Eden (Tegan West)All of them from the 101st Airborne DivisionA pan of the Vietnam War monument in DC segues to an American army squad in combat in Vietnam. A soldier is blown in the air, Sergeants Frantz and Worcester arrange an air evac. The wounded man dies in the helo as Doc tries to keep him conscious. A plane drops a load of white phosphorous.South Vietnam, 1969. Near a village, Languilli tries to chat up a local lady while his mates joke around in the deuce and a 1/2. Platoon Sergeant SFC Worcester gets him on the truck. Sgt. Frantz arrives in a jeep, the truck drives off. Frantz recounts his R&R leave with a "roundeye" nurse. Worcester teases the new guys on wearing flak jackets, he also mentions the A Shau Valley. Near another bustling village the men disembark. Worcester tells Frantz he is getting the new guys while he has to break in a new lieutenant.The men dig trenches in the sun and mud. The new guys are happy and joke around. Languilli makes an offcolor comment about Beletsky's wife and the two scuffle, then shake hands. Worcester and Frantz visit a brothel and enjoy a hottub with two prostitutes. Worcester is a little tense as the four discuss the war, Frantz is cool and relaxed.Lt. Eden has the five new troops fill out forms. Doc tours the village with two fellow African-Americans, they greet Frantz cheerfully. Rumor has it they are going back into the A Shau Valley to engage the NVA at their hilltop outposts near the Lao border. McDaniel is a short timer and would like a rear echelon posting. Doc teaches the five new guys how to brush their teeth and reams out Beletsky for being too casual.The squad relaxes in the morning at the trenches. Worcester hints they will be going back to A Shau. Frantz tries to teach the new guys about the enemy Han, the North Vietnamese Army, and not to underestimate Mr. Nathanial Victor. Later the troop play in the water. A civvie RV trailer is towed into camp, Languilli and Galvan joke with the driver.At lunchtime the men chat and talk about being back home. McDaniel is optimistic about returning home, Motown is pessimistic and tells a story of going back to Detroit on emergency leave. Beletsky tries to join in the conversation but is shot down by Doc.Languilli and Galvan plan on how to have sex with the locals. Duffy meditates when incoming rounds from enemy artillery make the men scramble for cover. As the arty rounds shake the ground, a girl cries for her dead mother. When the enemy artillery fire ceases, Frantz calls for ceasefire. Doc cries out for a dead soldier, a new guy.That evening, the men are at Mama San's brothel lining up for their turns, drinking, dancing and playing cards. Doc is drunk and starts a fight with Languilli. The Italian is upset everyone calls him "alphabet". Worcester confirms they are going back to the A Shau Valley at dawn to engage the North Vietnamese Army.The next morning, a squadron of Huey helicopters comes to pick up the Airborne troops. They fly toward a mountainous valley. The men are tense and quiet. They jump off at the LZ and the helos fly away. It is May 10, 1969. (Day 1 of the the Battle for Hamburger Hill)The platoon walks warily through a jungle. Firing breaks out and they hit the ground. The sergeants get them moving forward. McDaniel is killed but the enemy withdraws. Washburn is put on point. At break the men relax, reading magazines and letters, playing cards. Frantz is sad because one man was killed. Doc is angry and Motown calms him down with "It don't mean nothin, not a thing". Lt. Eden and the sergeants discuss their orders, they are moving out at 0800 to drive the enemy off Hill 937 where they have congregated.May 11 (Day 2). SFC Worcester keeps them moving as an observation helo cruises overhead. Enemy mortar rounds start to fall around them. American artillery pounds the hill in response. Later, a sudden rainstorm hits as the men are packing body bags. At night the new guys chat and have hot chocolate, Frantz joins them. They listen to Radio Hanoi, telling them to quit fighting. The battle continues in the distance.A few days later, Frantz wakes them up as another platoon returns. Up the hill there is furious small arms combat. It is May 15. They fight hand-to-hand with the enemy NVA troops. Jets come in and bombard the top of the hill with a mixture of bombs and napalm. The NVA soldiers take cover in their bunkers. The platoon overruns an enemy bunker and keeps crawling up the hill. U.S. Army Hueys fly overhead and accidentally shoot down at their own troops. Lt. Eden frantically tries to radio in to stop them. More deaths. Again the jets naplam the hilltop as the platoon falls back down the hill to take a break.Lt. Eden tries to arrange for more supply of food and water. Motown lets Beletsky use his cassette player to listen to a heartfelt audio letter from his wife Claire. Beletsky gets upset as the batteries run down and makes a racist comment and scuffles with Motown.May 16. The fighting continues as the unit assaults Hill 937 yet again. Doc resets a dislocated shoulder and keeps the man moving. At lunch break, the men once again chat and read letters. Bienstock gets a Dear John from his girl that she is breaking up with him on the advice of her friends who feel it is amoral to date a military serviceman.May 17. The unit keeps moving up and facing constant gunfire. Coming back down the hill after a hard day's work they are met by a news film crew taunting them about their failed assaults on Hill 937. Frantz angrily tells them off saying that they are going to take the hill. As the squad relaxes, they discuss black and white issues back home. Doc and Beletsky finally reach an accord. Frantz reveals a bit about himself.May 18. The squad crawls up the hill for another assault in the pouring rain, which is now a blasted, muddy wasteland. Gaigan dies, Doc is in tears and is shot in the abdomen. The Americans struggle on the slippery slope and fall backwards in a mudslide. Later, Doc is drugged up and ready for medevac, feeling no pain, happy he's going home.Lt. Eden reports the CO "Black Jack" wants them to keep manouevering aggressively, the squad is quiet and sombre. SFC Worcester laments on the feelings of the people back home. He recounts when he was medevac'd back home the previous year he encountered some college hippies' negativism. "Don't mean nothing". Worcester tells them how after he returned to his hometown, he encountered anger from people everywhere, including his own wife whom was shamelessly cheating on him because U.S. Army troops are known as "baby killers" or just "killers" by the hostile American public having been completely consumed by the anti-war movement. His alienation caused him to re-enlist for another tour of duty.May 20. Once more the squad goes into the front lines for an all-out assault on the hill. During the fighting, the men are close enough to see the faces of the NVA soldiers returning fire. Lt. Eden is twitted by his CO to fight not talk, he then loses an arm as a motar round lands closeby. Worcester gives him a shot of morphine. The Americans charge up the hill to take out the bunkers. SFC Worcester walks in from the smoke, in a stupor and covered in blood, he dies in Frantz' arms. In a crater, Motown is found dead. Beletsky tries to buck up a stunned Frantz. Still they move up the steep hill. Bienstock is riddled with bullets. Near the ridgeline, Languilli is bayoneted by an enemy soldier and dies. Again, Frantz is stunned. The NVA soldier who kills Languilli is killed by Frantz. Beletsky rallies the platoon to keep moving. Crawling to the top, blasting the few surviving NVA solders where they are, Frantz rests and is joined by Beletsky and Washburn... the only other survivors of the squad whom have made it through. The battle is won as other American soldiers walk up and a Huey flies over the killing fields. The North Vietnamese soldiers have withdrawn. Someone posts a sign "Welcome to Hamburger Hill". Beletsky ignores the radio call from the CO, "Red 6" requesting a sitrep.A disclaimer in the final shot says that 70 American soldiers were killed or later died of wounds and 372 were wounded during the 11-day battle for Hamburger Hill. 1st Platoon suffered 70% casualties during the nine assaults on the hill. Around 500 to 600 NVA soldiers were also killed during the battle. Hill 937 was nicknamed 'Hamburger Hill' because enemy gunfire from the NVA defending the hill was so intense that it turned the attacking soldiers into hamburger meat. In June 1969, three weeks after winning the battle, the American soldiers departed from the A Shau Valley... allowing the North Vietnamese to return to re-occupy the hill, which maked the end of U.S. offensives into enemy territory and the start of the pullout from Vietnam. | insanity, violence, anti war | train | imdb | null |
tt1205489 | Gran Torino | Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood), a retired Polish American Ford automobile assembly line worker and Korean War veteran, haunted by memories of that conflict, lives with his Labrador Retriever Daisy in a changing Highland Park, Michigan neighborhood which is dominated by immigrants. At the start of the movie, Walt is attending his wife's funeral, bristling at the shallow eulogy of young Father Janovich (Christopher Carley). Similarly, he has little patience with his two sons, Mitch (Brian Haley) and Steve (Brian Howe), and their families, who show little regard for Walt's grief or the memory of their dead mother. Throughout the movie Walt views his relatives as rude, spoiled and self-absorbed, always avoiding him unless it is in their own interest to pay him some attention. Walt's sons see him as "always disappointed" with them and their families, unaware of their own obnoxiousness. Father Janovich tells Walt that his late wife, Dorothy, made Father Janovich promise to try to get Walt to go to a confession. Walt writes Janovich off as knowing nothing about life or death, and insists on being called "Mr. Kowalski" rather than "Walt" because he feels he neither knows, nor wants to know, Father Janovich.Walt's teenage Hmong neighbors, a shy Thao Vang Lor (Bee Vang) and his feisty sister Sue (Ahney Her), live with their widowed mother and grandmother. When a Hispanic gang confronts Thao, the Hmong gang, led by Thao's older cousin Spider (Doua Moua), helps Thao by frightening the Hispanic gang and forcing them to flee. The Hmong gang, at that point, tries to persuade Thao to join them. Thao's initiation is to steal Walt's prized car, a 1972 Gran Torino Sport. Walt interrupts the robbery, pointing a rifle in Thao's face and forcing him to flee. After a few days, Spider and his gang return. With Sue at his side, Thao manages to verbally confront them to no avail. The gang drags Thao off his porch in an attempt to assault him. His family tries desperately to fend off Spider and his cohorts. The conflict ends when Walt threatens the gang members with his M1 Garand rifle and orders them to get off his lawn. They leave the neighborhood, telling Walt to watch his back.The Vang Lors thank a grumpy and impatient Walt, who insists he only wanted the "gooks" off his property. When the neighborhood hears of Walt's brave act, they reward him by leaving on his porch gifts of Hmong dishes and garden plants. Thao admits to trying to steal his Gran Torino. Walt is not pleased, seeking only to be left alone. Father Janovich goes to Walt, reminding him of his wife's desire for him to go to confession. Walt refuses.Mitch and his wife, Karen (Geraldine Hughes) go to visit Walt on his birthday, bringing him a cake and a few gifts meant to make certain menial tasks easier. Presentation, and explanation, of these gifts quickly turn into a shamelessly brazen pitch to get Walt to move into a senior's retirement home. Knowing that Mitch and Karen just want to get their hands on his house, Walt growls in anger and throws them out; gifts, cake and all. Mitch and Karen cannot understand Walt's reaction.After seeing Sue being harassed by three black teenagers, Walt steps in to rescue her, confronting the teenagers and threatening them with a Colt 1911 pistol. Sue gets to know Walt, and invites him to a family barbecue on his birthday, bringing him closer to her family, explaining Hmong culture and that during the Vietnam War they fought on "his" side. Sue, Thao, and their mother visit Walt the next day, with Thao's family forcing him to work for Walt for a week to atone for his attempted theft of the Gran Torino. Walt has Thao clean up the neighborhood until his debt is paid and shows Thao the ways of American men. He gets Thao a construction job and encourages him to ask out another Hmong girl called Youa.After discovering blood when he coughs, Walt visits the doctor. After viewing the results of his examination, which indicate that his health isn't good, he calls his son Mitch and awkwardly tries to tell him about it; but he can't bring himself to do it and just tries to make small talk. However, Mitch and Karen say they are too busy to talk to him. Meanwhile, the Hmong gang keeps pressuring Thao to join them. When they find Thao walking home alone after work, they rob him and burn his face with a cigarette. Walt confronts Smokie, second-in-command in the Hmong gang, at the gang's house, and beats him up in retaliation. The gang returns days later and shoots up the Vang Lors' home in a drive-by, wounding Thao in the neck. Walt runs to check on them and hears that Sue, who had left for her aunt's house before the shooting, never arrived. A few minutes later another Hmong gang car drives by and throws Sue out into the street. Sue gets to her feet and walks into the house, and it's seen she's been beaten to a pulp and raped. The family chooses not to tell police who did it. Walt storms home, punching cupboards and bloodying his knuckles in anger. Father Janovich goes to visit him later, deeply concerned about both Walt and Sue. Walt gives Janovich a beer and they talk openly. Janovich calls Walt 'Mr. Kowalski,' but Walt is now open to Janovich calling him by his first name.An angry Thao urges Walt to take vengeance on the Hmong gang with him. Walt first tells him to come back later as revenge must be planned carefully. He tells Thao to return late in the afternoon. During this time, Walt indulges in a few luxuries. He gets a haircut, tipping the barber generously. He buys a new tailored suit. He goes to Church and much to the amazement of Father Janovich, asks to make confession. Janovich hears confession of a few minor sins and prescribes a standard penitence prayer.When Thao returns to Walt's house at the appointed time, Walt gives him the Silver Star medal he earned in Korea, but then locks him in the basement, saying he does not want him to live with the consequences of killing someone. Walt tells Thao about a sin that haunted him every day - killing a young enemy soldier, who wanted to "just give up". Walt then leaves Daisy with Sue's grandmother, and from a bar he often went to, calls Sue, telling her where to find the key to unlock his basement so she can let Thao out.Meanwhile, Father Janovich is with two police officers outside the Hmong gang house. Janovich had talked the sergeant into sending them on a stakeout, because he believes Walt will bring Thao there for a shootout confrontation with the gang. But the whole neighborhood remains quiet and the sergeant finally recalls the officers, who make Janovich leave with them.Sue arrives at Walt's house to let Thao out of the basement. He hurriedly explains Walt's leaving him there and they hurry off to the Hmong gang house.Outside the gang members' house, Walt confronts them for the shootout and raping of Sue, causing the neighbours to come out and observe the confrontation. He takes out a cigarette from his jacket, puts it in his mouth, asks the gang for a light, and then slowly reaches into his jacket before pulling his hand out quickly. Thinking Walt is going to shoot, the gang members gun him down. A shot of Walt lying dead on the ground reveals he had grabbed his 1st Cavalry Division Zippo lighter, not a gun. When Thao and Sue arrive at the crime scene, they are told by the police that the gang has been arrested and, with the rest of the community prepared to testify against them, they will be imprisoned for a long time, having killed an unarmed man. Thao, still with Walt's Silver Star pinned to his shirt, glares at Spider and Smokie as they are loaded into police cars.A funeral service is held for Walt with Father Janovich delivering a memorable eulogy of Walt. Thao and his family attend the funeral opposite Walt's large extended family, and Mitch is annoyed at their presence. At the reading of Walt's will, it's revealed that Walt left his house to the church, and his Gran Torino to Thao, much to the disappointment and puzzlement of Walt's family. In the final scene, Thao is driving the Gran Torino up Lake Shore Road with Daisy next to him. | comedy, murder, realism, dramatic, cult, cute, violence, humor, tragedy, revenge | train | imdb | I have seen twenty eight films from Clint Eastwood as director and have liked the vast majority of them, and loved a good number of them (my average rating for the 28 films is 7.9).
Walt Kowalski may have similarities with Dirty Harry, and could possibly be read as a significantly older version of Harry (it's a stretch), but he is a distinctive, memorable character on his own, and I'd go as far as saying that it's one of Eastwood's finest performances, and one which gives him a chance to show off his dramatic and comedic chops.I'm not going to argue that "Gran Torino" has perfect acting from the younger supporting cast.
It's absolutely hilarious at times (watch as Kowalski attempts to make a man out of Thao by teaching him how to talk like men do), and Eastwood handles the shifts in tone brilliantly.
This is an artist at his prime as an actor and as a director.Whether or not "Gran Torino" will hold up as one of Eastwood's great films remains to be seen, and the film feels like it would be good for multiple viewings.
The characterization is strong and not simplistic at all, you could argue that Kowalski is just another grouchy war vet, but Eastwood's beautiful, nuanced performance as well as some neat little touches in the screenplay (particularly towards the end) which I won't discuss in detail to avoid spoiling anything (and it's really fun to watch this movie unfold, Eastwood keeps the film moving at a wonderfully involving pace) would prove you wrong.
Perhaps the poor box office results of "hollywoody" movies like Absolute Power, True Crime, Space Cowboys, and Blood Work, caused Eastwood to shy away from acting, but given cutting edge material to work with as "Million Dollar Baby" and "Gran Torino", he's as good as ever.
There may be complaints over the racist remarks and scenes, but Eastwood pulls it off in a way a real person like that would talk or act to a point where it ends up being lighthearted.
I'm not going to give the plot away, but if you like your Clint Eastwood as a hard-nosed tough guy with foul language alla Dirty Harry or Heartbreak Ridge, you'll love this movie!!.
The film has drama, comedy, and action and Clint Eastwood really creates a character that you care about and cheer for...again!.
expressively embodies with his usual lack of fuss and a number of growls." More praise for Eastwood comes from Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal, who comments: "No one makes movies like Gran Torino any more, and more's the pity.
It raises irascibility to the level of folk art, takes unapologetic time-outs for unfashionable moral debates, revives acting conventions that haven't been in fashion for half a century and keeps you watching every frame as Mr. Eastwood snarls, glowers, mutters, growls and grins his way through the performance of a lifetime." Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News remarks that "it's clearly a career-capping work." Kenneth Turan in The Los Angeles Times writes that the movie "is impossible to imagine without the actor in the title role.
seeing the trailer for this film kinda made me expect id be watching Dirty Harry in the suburbs.What I saw was a bittersweet superbly written, well acted story of humanity and friendship,this film is something that we can all relate to in some way, and isn't Hollywooded up in anyway, the film tells it story without any un needed hidden undertones that so many mainstream directors do to films.Eastwood is excellent as the hard nosed war vet, and his direction is perfect as always, and supporting cast did there job just fine tooClint Eastwood was perfect for the role and as director, as he has the knack of taking a story and making a film for the audience to get sucked into the story, and not for critics to pick apart....great film making,.
Good acting from Clind as well as all his supporting actors and once again Clint has shown that he is capable of making movies that involves both emotions and stereotypes!
If movies like Indiana Jones, Iron Man and The Dark Knight were the thoroughbred hits of 2008, then Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino is the dark horse.
This rousing crowd-pleaser is sure to surprise many, through its copious sour humour and pure badassery, while managing to still be an affecting and sombre dramatic entry in Eastwood's long-enduring and wildly successful career in front of and behind the camera.You know that a movie has something going for it when it can a) pack in so many one-liners you can't bring yourself to remember them after the show from oversaturation of the brain, b) be unboundedly racist yet still never seen exploitative or condescending and c) make a pure, grit- and-nails, grimacing anti-hero, one man army out of a seventy-eight year old man.
Thao and his sister Sue (Ahney Her) befriend Walt in a way, and for a reason none can truly explain.All of the Hmong actors in Gran Torino are pure novices who have never acted before and this is readily apparent.
A number of exchanges between the few remaining people in Walt's life who he still respects such as his barber and a construction worker who gets Thao a job, are nothing short of comic genius and piece the Walt character into a true three- dimensional individual.With a great song by Jamie Cullum to conclude the film (which stands as a horrendous Oscar snub, equalled only by the additional snub of the Bruce Springsteen Song from The Wrestler), Gran Torino is a pure gem; a film that both draws unexpected laughs, soft smiles and tears from an audience that is happy to oblige, as well as salute a screen legend in another iconic role that proves even at an old age a dark horse can still kick you in the face..
When one of the boys (Thao) from the neighbors' attempts to rob him of his Gran Torino, the family sends him to work for Walt (Clint Eastwood) as punishment.
From the Young preacher to the main Hmong characters the acting was forced and you could tell that all these people had never done a movie before, which according to IMDb is mostly true.Right off the bat you saw the actor who played the preacher was of considerably less caliber than anyone else in the scenes.
Again if everybody was that bad maybe no one would have noticed but they were up against a veteran actor, so it was quite noticeable.The writing was a little empty and it didn't take a guru to see right through the plot.I know Clint Eastwoods movies are plain movies, usually low budget, with fresh new actors, and simple plot lines, with the exception of his latest WWII movies and Mystic River.
To everyone's ill concealed embarrassment, Clint barks a tune during the credits -The end-Mix in some truly pathetic acting by a cast clearly let in on a sympathy vote, the worst clichés gathered from Alan Smithee's collective works, The Ultimate Anthology of Prosthetic Plot Points, and you get this yard sale of banality which is Gran Torino.If you like your drama spoon fed to you with a predictability factor that would even make a soap screenwriter blush and if you can stand Eastwood doing poor grizzly imitation while impersonating a fossilized plank of pre-Cambrian wood throughout an entire film, I guess this movie is for you.But if you're still going for something slightly original, convincing or otherwise entertaining , I can only recommend a dozen of other films that are actually worth their viewing.
That said it does the intelligent point if you want to survive in the American ghetto then running with the pack is probably the only option and Eastwood is always good value but I expected more considering the high praise this movie received on its release.
Seeing Clint taking care of business one last time was just superb and although the ending may be jarring to long time Clint fans, with a bit of thought it all makes sense.Clint's character is an unapologetic racist and thats that, i fully understand that some people just cannot accept this, but the film doesn't apologise for it and neither should it.
You either accept this aspect of the character and in doing so accept that he's not supposed to be a hero, so why is he talking like that ?Or realise that in real life people like this exist, who can be good and bad in the same day, but are not solely defined by either behaviour.There is plenty of warmth in this film and humour, but at its centre is an actor and director who has enjoyed critical and commercial success for nearly 40 years, has redefined genres and broken new ground and has brought me more pleasure than i could have ever thought possible..
Clint Eastwood's film-making career has led credulity to the cliché that some things only get better with age, showing a transcendent self-awareness and reflective grasp for supremely genuine emotional storytelling and allegorical commentary on America, and the steadily fading beacons of past moral values.
However, despite all initial signs looking exceptionally promising (with Eastwood's vicious growl of "GET OFF MY LAWN" in the film's trailer delightfully hearkening back to the days of Dirty Harry sadistic cool), it is all the more disappointing to see Gran Torino somewhat miss its mark, falling short of the modern masterpiece it easily could have been.
While the juxtaposition of Eastwood's snarling Korean war vet with his neighbours of various ethnicities could have offered for fascinating social commentary and an intriguing allegorical subtext for the state of American culture (using Eastwood's grizzled Walt Kowalski as symbolic for old fashioned values becoming increasingly outnumbered by exterior cultural influences and changing societal values - the American dream of a hard working family man not subverted, but shown to be worn out and fading continually out of touch), Nick Schenk's screenplay far too often only scratches at the surface instead of embracing such themes, an oversimplified bundle chock full of stock stereotypes and unconvincing supporting characters to drive its potentially poignant point home.
There are moments which hint at the mature cultural reflection dancing continually out of reach (feeling old and out of touch, Kowalski snarls to himself that he has more in common with his similarly marginalized Hmong neighbours than his materialistic, self-serving sons), but such complexity is not readily apparent on the whole.The film is by no means un-enjoyable, particularly as an old-fashioned morality tale and odd- couple bonding story (the interplay between Kowalski and his unwitting apprentice Thao has many delightfully hilarious moments), but not as profound or resonant as it feels it should be - an important commentary on gang violence, among others, falls flat due to being pursued through frustrating stereotypes.
Some scenes, beyond simply feeling unnecessary, come across as seemingly unintentionally hilarious (Kowalski's teaching Thao to "man up" by embracing ideologies of cars, hard work - preferably in the trades - and heterosexual romance) in fashion which at times feels a directorial satirical wink, suggesting such traditional values are increasingly fading and out of touch, were it not for Eastwood's emotional focus feeling uncertainly positioned, making the viewer feeling inclined to root for a position they would normally feel inclined to chuckle at.
The rest of the cast fail to not only live up to Eastwood's standard, but even conventional standards of quality, as Bee Vang as Kowalski's repentant teenage protégé Thao delivers a dull, uninspired performance, making key emotional moments almost laughable, and Christopher Carley as the young, passionate priest continually butting heads with Kowalski fares little better.
Nevertheless, the singular pleasure of Eastwood's towering performance and alleged acting swan song is still enough to make the film overall worth viewing, but as a whole, Gran Torino primarily marks a mostly missed opportunity for something potentially beautiful and resonant.
If you've seen this movie and enjoyed it, the only way I can offer a bit of enlightenment is to encourage you to listen to any real-life conversation that is taking place between any two people at any time anywhere in the world, and then compare it to the dialogue in Gran Torino.
'Gran Torino' is a very smart and hugely enjoyable drama film with a brilliant ending that tops off what is a truly great story.It is a story built on characters and friendship where you would least expect to find it.
I normally like Clint Eastwood and was looking forward to seeing what I thought was going to be a good movie, but sadly Gran Torino turned out to be a piece of total nonsense.
They were terribly constructed and their overall impact was null because of it.At the end of the day this is simply a fish out of water movie, like thousands of others, where an outsider gets to learn a new culture and try to save the day for them, the only difference it's being made and led by a legendary movie God who seemingly has finally gotten to the point in his career where he IS willing to make films WELL below his abilities if he has nothing else to work on.
Eastwood proves himself as Hollywood royalty once again in a film which excels in telling a very touching and unique story about an unlikely friendship between a Korean War veteran and a Hmong teenager..
Even that one good thing that some reviewers mentioned, and that is Clint Eastwood's acting, looks good only in comparison to the very bad job the rest of the cast does.
Everything about this movie, from the story and the characters, down to the art work for the poster, has been half-heartedly plagiarized from either one of Eastwood's own films, or from the other above mentioned maestros of the feel-good revenge flick.
He lost his wife, "the best woman on earth", he despises his family, and a new family of Hmongs moves next door to him.Clint Eastwood has come such a long way from his earlier vengeance films.
Whatever, he's absolutely astounding in this film, giving a brilliant performance as Walt Kowalski, a foul-mouthed, irritable old racist who gradually uncovers his humanity as the story progresses.Eastwood surrounds himself with a cast of unknowns, and these actors are also triumphant.
Bee Vang, as Thao, Eastwood's initial enemy and then friend, has to be singled out as giving one of the best turns, and he's matched by Ahney Her who plays his sister, Sue. I loved the performances of these two actors, who successfully manage to hold their own against Clint.GRAN TORINO is a film firmly rooted in reality, which is why there are no gung-ho heroics here, no scenes of grandeur.
Im of the 'opinion' that eastwood might have been overworked during the making of this film and it shows clearly, poor camera-work throughout, scenes that seem rushed, I know that no two production teams are the same but compared to eastwood's earlier directorial efforts this movie looks like its been made by amateurs..
At the ripe old age of 78 Clint Eastwood is starting on a whole new career of playing tough old timers who are way past the day when they get the girl in their movies.
Despite his gruffness, his outright racism, Eastwood almost in spite of himself gets drawn into an Asian family of Hmong people and develops a father/children relationship with a brother and sister, Bee Vang and Ahney Her. He becomes closer to them than he is with his own children whom he feels have forgotten the American work ethic.Actor Clint Eastwood a veteran of over 50 years in film and television is a man who knows himself and knows the limits and changes that age and infirmity have placed upon him.
Clint himself is facing old age issues, but he still mentors the kids and in the end does what a man's got to do.It took four years for actor Eastwood to reappear on the screen again.
For a film that is so contradictory, so didactic, so obvious, and ultimately so mediocre, I would think that Letters from Iwo Jima would replace Citizen Kane as the greatest movie of all time.Gran Torino is a simple enough story: a racist man who confronts his bigotry when Hmong refugees move in next door.
If you want to go check out a good movie that deals with racism properly go see American History X or Do The Right Thing, not Crash or this failed Eastwood experiment..
To be honest, if those are the reasons, I'd have to affirm that I agree with all except the first one (and perhaps then I'm not entirely sure of my answer)!I liked the premise of this film and I thought Clint Eastwood was great in it.
Then so be it, I think Clint Eastwood direction failed in this movie!.
If you like Clint Eastwood films, which I do, you will be completely ashamed.
Clint's pushing close to 100 or so....While he was great as a cowboy and as a overdone cop and in other roles, he sucks in this one.As a performer I think he is just awesome...but this movie stinks.I was really looking forward to this for some reason - but when I got to the end, I was disappointed again by Hollywood.Though it's not a blockbuster, action or drama - it also doesn't have the strength to be really compelling either.Story kind of sucks and well...really what does the Torino have to do with it at all?
I went to the theater expecting to see another great Clint Eastwood film, and even better, he was supposed to act in it too.
Clint Eastwood is a master of cinema, but this was one of his weaker efforts in a while.I'm amazed that so many people liked this movie when it had so many obvious problems.(1) The acting is bad. |
tt0118715 | The Big Lebowski | A tumbleweed rolls up a hillside just outside of Los Angeles as a mysterious man known as The Stranger (Sam Elliott) narrates about a fella he wants to tell us about named Jeffrey Lebowski. With not much use for his given name, however, Jeffrey goes by the name The Dude (Jeff Bridges). The Stranger describes Dude as one of the laziest men in LA, which would place him "high in the running for laziest worldwide", but nevertheless "the man for his place and time."The Dude, wearing a bathrobe and flips flops, buys a carton of cream at Ralph's with a post-dated check for 69 cents. On the TV, President George Bush Sr. is addressing the nation, saying "aggression will not stand" against Kuwait. Dude returns to his apartment where, upon entering and closing the door, he is promptly grabbed by two men who force him into the bathroom and shove his head in the toilet. They demand money owed to Jackie Treehorn, saying that The Dude's wife Bunny claimed he was good for it, before one of the thugs, Woo (Philip Moon), urinates on The Dude's rug saying, "Ever thus to deadbeats, Lebowski!" Bewildered, Dude convinces them that they have the wrong person as he's not married and can't possibly possess the amount of money they're asking. Looking around, the first thug, (Mark Pellegrino), realizes they've made a mistake and must have the wrong Lebowski. Regardless, they break one of his bathroom tiles before leaving. "At least I'm housebroken", Dude calls after them.Dude meets up with his bowling team at the local alley and talks to them about his violent encounter. Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) reacts with anger and vengeance on his mind, often speaking of his time served in Vietnam to relate to the issue. Slow-witted Theodore Donald 'Donny' Kerabatsos (Steve Buscemi), often entering conversations halfway through, pipes in but is promptly told by Walter, "You're out of your element". Walter then tells Dude about a millionaire who shares Dude's name and must be the one the thugs were after. Dude agrees to meet with the Big Lebowski, hoping to get compensation for his rug since it "really tied the room together" and figures that his wife, Bunny, shouldn't be owing money around town.Arriving at Lebowski's mansion, Dude is assisted by Brandt (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who shows him numerous awards and pictures illustrating Lebowski's endeavors in philanthropy before Dude meets the man himself. The elder and wheelchair-bound Lebowski (David Huddleston) brings Dude into his study where he quickly gets to the point and professes that he can't take responsibility for every spoiled rug in the city and accuses Dude of seeking a handout, clearly resentful of his hippie-like demeanor. Dude leaves the room and tells Brandt that Lebowski offered any rug in the house to him. He quickly picks one out and, as it's being loaded into Dude's car, he speaks to a young blonde (Tara Reid) poolside who is painting her toenails green. She asks Dude to blow on her toes, assuring him that Uli (Peter Stormare), the man in the pool, won't mind because he's a nihilist. Brandt appears and introduces her as Bunny Lebowski before she offers Dude fellatio for $1000. Brandt nervously laughs and escorts Dude out.During a league game at the alley, Dude scolds Walter for bringing his ex-wife's small dog in a kennel with him while she is in Hawai'i with her new boyfriend. As they debate, a member of the opposite team, Smokey (Jimmie Dale Gilmore), bowls an 8 and tells the Dude to mark it, but Walter objects, stating Smokey's foot was over the line. When Smokey argues, Walter pulls out a gun and aims it in Smokey's face, forcing him to comply and void the score as a zero. As Walter sits down again, he explains, "It's a league game, Smokey, there are rules". Dude scolds Walter as they leave, trying to act casual as police units arrive and run past them into the alley.Afterwards, relaxing in his apartment and enjoying a White Russian (his favorite cocktail), Dude listens to his phone messages: Smokey calling to talk about the gun incident, Brandt asking Dude to call him, and the bowling league administrator wishing to speak about Walter's belligerence and gun-brandishing on the lanes. Dude's doorbell rings and his landlord, Marty (Jack Kehler), reminds Dude to pay his rent and informs him that he's performing a dance at a local theater and would like Dude to attend to give him notes. The Dude obliges as Brandt rings again, telling Dude that Lebowski needs to see him and that it's not about the rug.At the Lebowski mansion, Brandt solemnly leads Dude into the study where he finds Lebowski crying beside the lit fireplace. He shows Dude a crude note describing Bunny's kidnapping and the demand for $1 million. "This is a bummer, man," the Dude offers as he smokes a joint. Brandt explains that they want Dude to act as courier to deliver the payment when they receive word of a location for the drop off and tells Dude that he might even recognize the kidnappers as the same people who soiled his rug.Back at the bowling alley, a man wearing a hairnet and a purple jumpsuit with 'Jesus' embroidered on the front bowls a perfect strike. A few lanes down, Dude, Donny, and Walter watch him with slight resentment. Dude compliments on Jesus' (John Turturro) skill but Walter criticizes him for being a 'pederast', having served six months for exposing himself to an eight year-old before asking Dude about the Lebowski arrangement. Dude explains that he will receive $20,000 as courier and shows Walter the beeper Brandt gave him. He doesn't worry about the hand off and figures that Bunny kidnapped herself for some extra money. Walter seems to take Bunny's offense personally as Jesus walks over, telling them to watch out for his team and if they flash a piece at the finals "I'll take it away from you, stick it up your ass and pull the fucking trigger till it goes click."At his apartment, Dude lies happily on his new rug, listening to a taped bowling game through headphones. He opens his eyes and sees a woman and two men standing over him before he is punched in the face and knocked out. He dreams that he is flying over LA, chasing a woman who is riding his rug ahead of him. A bowling ball suddenly appears in his hand and pulls him to the ground where he stands, miniaturized, facing a gigantic bowling ball as it rolls towards him. He tenses and winds up in one of the finger holes of the ball. From his perspective, we see the ball roll down the lane away from its female bowler towards the pins. As the pins scatter, the Dude wakes up to the sound of his beeper going off and finds that his rug has been taken from underneath him.Answering the page, Dude returns to Lebowski's mansion where Brandt explains that the kidnappers want the exchange to happen that very night. He gives Dude a portable phone and a briefcase with the money, instructing him to take it up the highway and wait for the kidnappers to call. Once the exchange is complete, Dude is to call Brandt immediately. Before he leaves, Brandt repeats to Dude that "her life is in your hands".Despite Brandt's instructions to go alone, Dude picks up Walter from his store. Walter gets in the drivers seat and immediately proposes a plan for a switch, holding his own briefcase full of dirty underwear, so that he and Dude can keep the million themselves. Walter also plans to capture one of the kidnappers and beat Bunny's location out of him. Dude is adamantly against the crazy plan but when the kidnappers call, Dude accidentally lets slip that he's not alone. The kidnappers hang up and Dude panics that Bunny is as good as dead, though Walter reminds him of his own suspicions that Bunny kidnapped herself. The kidnappers call again and give a location granted there is no funny 'schtuff'. At the designated location, the kidnappers call and instruct The Dude to throw the suitcase out the car window onto a bridge. As they approach the bridge, Dude tries to throw the real suitcase but, at the last second, Walter tosses the ringer and forces Dude to take the wheel as he arms himself with an Uzi and bails out of the moving car. Despite his seemingly flawless and heroic plan, Walter loses grip of the Uzi and it fires wildly, hitting Dude's tail lights and tires, causing him to panic and crash into a telephone pole. Three men on motorcycles appear just beyond the bridge and, as Dude scrambles out of the car with the briefcase, pick up the ringer and ride off. Walter calmly gets up and says, "Fuck it, Dude. Lets go bowling".At the alley, the portable phone rings incessantly, no doubt Brandt calling to check on the mission. Dude is miserable, angry at Walter, and certain that Bunny will be killed, though Walter is calm and convinced that Bunny kidnapped herself. He tells Dude not to worry and that Bunny will eventually get bored and return home on her own but becomes dismayed to see that the bowling schedule has him playing on Saturday; something he is forbidden to do since he is Shomer Shabbos and must honor the Jewish day of rest. The Dude wonders why Walter didn't go back to being Catholic since he only converted for his ex-wife. Donny interjects mid-conversation and is, again, told to 'shut the fuck up' by Walter.As they leave, Dude discovers his car missing - along with the briefcase. Walter suggests it was towed because they parked in a handicapped spot but Dude is certain that it was stolen. He starts walking home with his phone ringing.Dude resolves to call the police and issue a statement for his stolen car. Two police officers (Richard Gant, Christian Clemenson) arrive at his apartment to take notes and Dude addresses the separate issue of his missing rug just before his home phone rings. The answering machine records a woman introducing herself as Maude Lebowski and saying that she is the one who took his rug and has sent a car to pick Dude up at his apartment. The younger of the two cops is pleased that the missing rug issue is resolved.The Dude is brought to a huge loft studio filled with canvases and minimal illumination. As he walks in, he is startled by the sudden appearance of Maude, swinging in naked on a zip line, screaming and flailing paintbrushes over a large canvas to create an abstract image. She descends to the ground and is robed before addressing The Dude. She explains that she is a professional artist whose work is commended as strongly vaginal, often to the point of making some men uncomfortable. She tells Dude that the rug he took was a gift from her to her late mother and her father, Big Lebowski, had no right giving it away. Maude's flamboyant assistant, Knox Harrington (David Thewlis), watches as Dude fixes himself a White Russian and Maude puts a tape in her VCR. She asks Dude if he enjoys sex as the video rolls, a smut film starring Bunny Lebowski and Uli, the German nihilist, credited as Karl Hungus. Maude surmises that Bunny kidnapped herself, elaborating on the already obvious notion that she gets around and even bangs the producer of the film, Jackie Treehorn. As one of two trustees of Little Lebowski Urban Achievers, one of Lebowski's charity programs, Maude noticed a withdrawal of $1 million from its funds and was told it was for the ransom. Though she is more or less estranged from her father, she doesn't want to involve the police in his embezzlement and offers the Dude ten percent of the million if he retrieves the money from the kidnappers. With a finder's fee she tells him he can buy a new rug. She then apologizes for the crack on the jaw and gives The Dude a number for a doctor who will examine him free of charge.The Dude is given a limo ride back to his apartment where the driver (Dom Irrera) points out a blue Volkswagen Beetle that had been following them. Before The Dude has a chance to do anything about it, he's shoved into another limo waiting for him on the street. Inside, Brandt and Lebowski confront him about the fact that he never called them and yell that the kidnappers never got the money. Lebowski accuses Dude of stealing the million himself as Dude tries to reason that the 'royal we' dropped off the money and that Bunny, since she apparently owes money all over town, most likely kidnapped herself and probably instructed her kidnappers to lie about the hand off. Brandt and Lebowski look skeptical before producing an envelope. Lebowski tells Dude that the kidnappers will be dealing directly with him now and any mishaps will be avenged tenfold on him. Inside the envelope, Dude finds a severed pinky toe wrapped in gauze with green polish on the nail.In a small cafe, The Dude tells Walter about the severed toe who doesn't believe it's Bunny's. Walter calls the kidnappers a bunch of fucking amateurs for using such an obviously fake ruse but The Dude isn't convinced. Walter tries to convince him by saying that he can get a toe for him in no time at all and with his choice of nail polish color. Despite Walter's unwavering stance, Dude fears for his life; if the kidnappers dont get him, Lebowski will.At home, he tries to relax in the tub, smoking a joint and listening to music. His phone rings and the answering machine records the LAPD telling him that they've recovered his car. Dude is overjoyed for a moment until he hears a loud banging in his living room. He looks up to see three men breaking into his apartment wearing dark clothes. The leader, whom Dude recognizes as Uli/Karl Hungus the nihilist, along with his two cohorts, Franz and Kieffer (Torsten Voges, Flea), enters the bathroom with a ferret on a leash. He dunks the terrified animal in the tub where it thrashes and shrieks as Dude tries to avoid it. Uli takes the ferret out, letting it shake off, and tells Dude that they want their money tomorrow or they'll cut off his johnson.The following morning, the Dude goes to the impound lot to collect his car which turns up badly damaged and reeking with a terrible stench, an apparent victim of a joyride and temporary home to some vagrants. The briefcase is gone. Dude asks the officer at the lot if anyone is following up on who might have taken the car, but the officer (Mike Gomez) chuckles and sarcastically says that their department has them working in shifts on the case.At the bar in the bowling alley, Dude expresses his fears to an unsympathetic Walter and an unhelpful Donny. Unable to cheer him up, they leave Dude at the bar to find an open lane. The Stranger sits down next to Dude and orders a sarsaparilla before chatting briefly with Dude, complimenting him on his style and wondering why he uses so many cuss words. He offers Dude one piece of advice before leaving: "Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar, well, he eats you." Gary, the bartender (Peter Siragusa), hands Dude the phone; it's Maude. She's miffed that Dude hasn't seen the doctor yet and instructs him to meet her at her loft. There, Dude informs Maude that he thinks Bunny was really kidnapped, possibly by Uli. Maude disagrees, saying that Bunny knows Uli and kidnappers cannot be acquaintances. She then dismisses Dude to take a call, reminding him to see the doctor.At the clinic the doctor tells Dude to remove his shorts, insisting despite Dude's assurance that he was only hit in the face. Driving home, Dude enjoys a joint while listening to Creedence but soon notices a blue Volkswagen following him. Distracted, he tries to flick his joint out the window but it bounces back and lands in his lap, burning him. He screams and dumps beer on his lap before he swerves and crashes into a dumpster. When he looks out the window, the blue car is gone. Looking down, he notices a piece of paper stuck in the car seat. It's a graded homework sheet with the name Larry Sellers written on it.That night, at Marty's dance quartet, Walter reveals that he's done some research on Larry and discovered where he lives, near the In-N-Out Burger joint. He is also thrilled to report that Larry's father is Arthur Digby Sellers, a famous screenwriter who wrote 156 episodes of the show Branded. Walter is certain that Larry has the briefcase of money and that their troubles are over. They pull up to the house where The Dude is dismayed to see a brand new red Corvette parked on the street outside. A Hispanic housekeeper (Irene Olga López) lets them into the Sellers' home where they see the elderly Arthur Sellers (Harry Bugin) in an iron lung in the living room. Over the hissing of the compressor, Walter calls out that he's a big fan of Arthur's and that his work was a source of inspiration to him before the housekeeper brings in young Larry (Jesse Flanagan), a fifteen year-old with a deadpanned expression. Walter and Dude interrogate Larry about the money and the fact that he stole Dude's car, but get no response. Not even a wavering glance. Walter resolves to go to Plan B; he tells Larry to watch out the window as he and Dude go back out to the car where Donny is waiting. Walter removes a tire iron from Dudes trunk and proceeds to smash the corvette, shouting, "This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!"However, the car's real owner (Luis Colina) comes out of his house and rips the tire iron from Walter, shouting that he just bought the car last week, before going over to The Dude's car and breaking all the windows. Dude drives silently home, wind blowing in through the broken windows, as Walter and Donny eat In-N-Out burgers.Back home, Dude talks to Walter over the phone as he nails a two-by-four to the floor near the front door. He yells at Walter, telling him to leave him alone and that he wants to handle the situation himself before agreeing to go to their next bowling practice. He hangs up and props a chair against the door, braced by the piece of wood, and turns away as the door opens outwardly and Treehorn's thugs from the beginning of the film walk in. They tell The Dude that Jackie Treehorn wishes to meet with him.The Dude is taken to a large mansion overlooking a beach front where a tribal, orgy-like party is going on. Inside, Dude meets Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazzara) who appears friendly and agreeable as he mixes the Dude a White Russian and sympathizes for his lost rug. Treehorn asks him where Bunny is to which Dude responds that he thinks Treehorn knows. Treehorn denies knowing and theorizes that Bunny ran off knowing how much money she owed him. Treehorn is then excused for a phone call. He writes something down on a notepad before leaving the room momentarily. Employing the Roger O. Thornhill trick of rubbing a pencil lightly over the pad of paper to see what was written, Dude reveals a doodle of a man with a rather large penis. He rips the paper out of the pad and sticks it in his pocket before returning to the couch as Treehorn comes back. He offers Dude a ten percent finder's fee if he tells them where the money is. Dude tells him that Larry Sellers should have the money, though Treehorn is not convinced. Dude insists he's telling the truth as his words begin to slur and his vision glazes over. He mumbles, "All the Dude ever wanted was his rug back...it really tied the room together," before he passes out.The Dude falls into a deep dream where he sees himself happily starring in a Jackie Treehorn-produced bowling picture entitled 'Gutterballs' with Maude, dressed in a seducing Viking outfit, as his costar. They dance together and throw a bowling ball down the lane. The ball turns into the Dude, floating above the lane floor and passing under ladies' skirts. When he hits the pins at the end, he suddenly sees the three nihilists dressed in tight clothes and snapping super large scissors, chasing him. He runs from them, terrified, as he wakes from his dream, staggering down a street in Malibu while a police car pulls up behind him. The unit picks him up as he slurs the theme song to 'Branded'.At the Malibu police station, the chief of police (Leon Russom) goes through The Dude's wallet before he tells Dude that Jackie Treehorn said he was drunk and disorderly at his 'garden party'. He tells Dude that Treehorn is an important source of income in Malibu and demands that he stay out of the town for good. Dude replies that he wasn't listening which incites the chief to throw his coffee mug at him, hitting him in the head. Dude takes a cab ride home and requests that the driver (Ajgie Kirkland) change the radio station since he had a rough night and hates the Eagles. The driver doesn't take kindly to this and throws The Dude out. As he stands on the street, a red convertible passes by at high speeds; it's Bunny listening to 'Viva Las Vegas' and, as we see, with a complete set of toes on each foot.Dude returns to his apartment to find it completely wrecked. He enters and trips over the two-by-four he nailed into the floor. When he looks up, he finds Maude standing before him dressed in nothing but his robe. She drops it to the floor and tells him to make love to her. Afterwards, they lie in bed together as The Dude smokes a joint and tells her about his past as a student activist and his current hobbies which include bowling and the occasional acid flashback. As he climbs out of bed to make a White Russian, Maude asks about the apartment and Dude explains that Treehorn's thugs most likely vandalized it looking for Lebowski's money. Maude retorts that her father actually has no money; it was all her mother's or else belongs to the Foundation and that Lebowski's only concern is to run the charities. Maude gives him an allowance but his weakness is vanity; "Hence the slut". She tells Dude this as she folds into a yoga position which she claims increases the chances of conception. Dude chokes on his drink but Maude assures him that she has no intention of having Dude be a part of the child-bearing process nor does she want to see him socially. The Dude then figures that's why she wanted him to visit the doctor so badly until an idea suddenly comes to mind about Lebowski. Dude calls Walter to pick him up and take him to Lebowski's mansion right away, despite Walter's protests that he doesn't drive on Shabbos unless it's an emergency. Dude assures him that it's just that.Dude dresses and goes outside where he sees the blue Volkswagen parked just down the street. He walks over and demands that the man within get out. The man introduces himself as Da Fino (Ajgie Kirkland) and explains that he thinks Dude is a fellow private eye who is brilliantly playing two sides against each other; the thugs and Lebowski, and means no harm to him or his girlfriend. Confused, Dude tells Da Fino to stay away from his 'lady friend' and asks if he's working for Lebowski or Treehorn. Da Fino admits that he's employed by the Kneutson's; Bunny's family. Apparently, Bunny's real name is Fawn and she ran away from her Minnesota home a year ago and Da Fino's been investigating since. As Walter pulls up, Dude tells Da Fino to, again, stay away from his lady friend and leaves.At a local restaurant, the three German nihilists and a sallow, blonde woman (Aimee Mann) sit together ordering pancakes. The camera pans down to the womans foot covered in a bandage which, where her pinky toe should be, is soaked in dried blood.Driving out to Lebowski mansion, Dude explains his new theory; why did Lebowski do nothing to him if he knew the payoff never happened? If Lebowski thought that The Dude took the money, why didn't he ask for it back? Because the briefcase given to Dude was never full of money: "You threw a ringer out for a ringer!" He also figures that Lebowski chose him, an otherwise 'fuck-up', to get Bunny back because he never wanted her back; he wanted her dead while he embezzled money from the foundation as a ransom. Walter agrees with the theory but still believes he shouldn't have been bothered on the Shabbos.As they pull up to the mansion, they see Bunny's red convertible crashed into some shrubbery near the front fountain. Bunny is running around the grounds naked while, inside, Brandt attempts to pick up her discarded clothes. He tells them that Bunny went to visit friends in Palm Springs without telling anyone. Despite his protests, Walter and Dude walk past him into the study where a stern-looking Lebowski sits. Dude demands an answer; he accuses Lebowski of keeping the million for himself while he used The Dude as a scapegoat to cover up for the missing money. Lebowski says that it's his word against Dude's and no one would believe a 'deadbeat' over him. This angers Walter who figures Lebowski to be a fake handicap besides a phony millionaire and lifts Lebowski out of his chair, dropping him to the floor. However, Lebowski lies still on the floor, whimpering, and Dude tells Walter to help him back in his chair.At the bowling alley, Donny misses a strike for the first time and puzzles over this as Walter drones about Vietnam to Dude who doesn't seem to be paying attention as he paints over his fingernails with clear polish. Jesus walks over, criticizing the change in schedule from Saturday to Wednesday before issuing sexual threats. The Dude, Walter, and Donny sit unfazed. As they leave the alley and head into the parking lot, they are faced by the three nihilists who stand in front of The Dude's flaming car. "Well, they finally did it," he despairs. "They killed my fucking car."The nihilists demand the money or they will kill the girl but Dude tells them that he knows they never had the girl in the first place. The nihilists reply that they don't care and still want the money but Dude tries to explain that Lebowski's money was never valid; he never intended to pay them off and Walter shouts that without a hostage, there is no ransom. Franz complains that his girlfriend had to give up her pinky toe because she thought she was getting $1 million but they'll settle for whatever Walter, Donny, and Dude have in their pockets. Donny, in the back, asks if the men are going to hurt them and Walter assures him that they're nihilists and cowards as Dude pulls out his wallet. When Walter refuses to take his own out, Uli pulls out a sword and Walter engages in a fight with them, throwing his bowling ball into Franz's stomach. Dude hits Kieffer over the head with his own radio while Walter attacks Uli and bites off his ear, spitting it into the air. He turns around and sees Donny on the ground, clutching his chest from having a heart attack. Walter comforts him as Dude runs into the alley to call for an ambulance.The Dude and Walter are then seen at a funeral parlor speaking with the curator. Donny, having passed away, was cremated and they negotiate how his remains will be handled. Walter is outraged at the high price of the urn. The curator tells them that the urn is their most "modestly-priced receptacle" and that the ashes must be given over in a container of some sort. Walter asks if there's a Ralph's store nearby and he & The Dude resolve to receive Donny's ashes in a Folger's coffee can. They travel together to a windy cliffside overlooking the ocean where Walter gives a heartfelt speech about Donny along with a seemingly unrelated reference to Vietnam before opening the can and shaking out the ashes. The wind blows them back into Dude's face, coating his clothes, beard, and sunglasses. Walter apologizes and attempts to brush the ashes off but the Dude yells at him for always making everything a 'fucking travesty' and scolds him for yet another needless Vietnam rant. Walter hugs him and tells him to "Fuck it, man; let's go bowling." The Dude eases down.At the bowling alley, the Stranger sits at the bar as the Dude orders two beers. They greet each other and the Stranger asks how he's been doing. "Oh, you know, strikes and gutters, ups and downs," answers The Dude as he collects his beers and goes to leave. The Stranger tells him to take it easy and The Dude turns to reply, "Yeah, well, The Dude abides."The Stranger finds comfort in those words and rambles about how things seem to have turned out fine for Dude and Walter. He was sad to see Donny go but happens to know that there's a little Lebowski on the way. He assures us that The Dude is always out there taking it easy for 'all us sinners' and orders another sarsaparilla. | comedy, avant garde, neo noir, dark, anti war, cult, violence, flashback, psychedelic, absurd, satire, humor, entertaining | train | imdb | It's actually kind of hard to describe this movie (and what's so great about it) to people who don't already know it and love it; as with many cult films, The Big Lebowski will either speak to you (in which case you will become a fervent follower of His Dudeness and abide by his code for the rest of your life) or, if it doesn't, the film will either leave you completely indifferent or you'll even downright hate it.I believe it's a very funny film and I'm sure it can be rightfully called a comedy, but don't expect punchlines, gags, jokes or slapstick - it's not that kind of comedy.
If you want to enjoy this film, you have to meet Jeffery "The Dude" Lebowski on his terms, hang out with him and his bowling buddies and follow them at a their (perhaps somewhat leisurely) pace through this weird and unbelievable tale about nihilism, theft (of a car and, more importantly: a Creedence Clearwater Revival tape), kidnapping, abstract art, porn and - of course - bowling.
So he embarks on this worthy quest during which he will encounter many wondrous things and fascinating people (even Jesus - who is NOT the messiah but a very naughty man).With Jeff Bridges in the leading role, the Coen brothers have found the perfect actor to incorporate one of the most iconic characters that has ever been created.
The Big Lebowski is the type of movie that is so funny, and so clever, you want nothing more but to meet the Coen brothers, congratulate them personally for their unique talent, and get inside their heads and find out what makes these two geniuses "tick".
The main characters are Jeff Bridges (who plays such broad roles like The Muse, The Contender, and Sea Biscuit), John Goodman (who should have won an oscar for best supporting actor for his character, Walter Sobchak)Juliane Moore (Maude Lebowski)and Steve Buscemi (who is unique in every Coen Brother movie).The first time I saw this movie, I will admit that I enjoyed it, but did not fully appreciate its level of humor and raw talent.
The dream sequence Busbee Berkley musical numbers are unique and awe-inspiring; the humor is rich, subtle, and clever in the way it satirizes politically correct arrogance; the free-flowing story avoids (even pokes fun at) nonessentials like plot points and pay-offs.
But what really makes this film such a masterpiece, such a panacea, is the incredible humanism, the care that the Coen brothers put in developing The Dude (Jeff Bridges), Walter (John Goodman), Donnie (Steve Buscemi-tremendously endearing), and Brandt (magnificently played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman).
You feel it in the sing-songy banalities of Fargo, and in the noiresque machine-gun dialogue of Miller's Crossing, but neither of these can prepare you for the feast for the ears that is The Big Lebowski.Channeling the opaque mysteries of Raymond Chandler, the Coens throw LA resident bum and Bowling aficionado Jeff Lebowski ("The Dude" to his friends) into a strange triple-crossing case of kidnapping, ransoms, nihilists and urinated-upon rugs.
He'd much rather be bowling with crazed Vietnam Vet Walter (John Goodman) and pure silent soul Donnie (Steve Buscemi).As with so much of the Coens' output, style is more than half the point: not just visual, though ace DP Roger Deakins paints an alluring canvas, but tonal and auditory.
When I first saw 'The Big Lebowski' on its original release I enjoyed it but thought it was a bit of a slight "fun" movie with less depth than many of their previous works.
Everything about the movie is perfect, the script, the direction, set design, costumes, and the wonderful soundtrack (one of the most brilliant ever assembled, it includes lesser known Dylan and Elvis Costello numbers, Creedence classics, and songs from cult favourites like Yma Sumac, Captain Beefheart, Moondog, Esquivel and garage gods The Monks).
Without resorting to gratuitous sexual scenes like many other writer/directors of R rated films the Coen brothers manage to add the right amount of language and violence that is necessary to the story without it becoming the only reason for watching.
Last night I saw it on purpose with a couple of friends and I think I'm stating to realize what is it - A unique combination of talents all looking in the same direction --- The Coen Brothers are, probably, the only ones who know what they are seeing and the rest just trust their vision.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, comes in to do what he does best, being memorable and then, of course, John Tarturro, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, delicious, each one of them - I'm pretty sure The Big Lebowski will be around for centuries and it will always have something to say even if we don't know exactly what..
As with many other films by the Coen brothers The Big Lebowski is an odd array of out of the ordinary characters slapped right in the middle of an improbable situation.
Now comes their latest effort, "The Big Lebowski," which, while it isn't in quite the same league as the above films, is still one of the most thoroughly entertaining movies of 1998.It tells the shambling story of a man named Jeff Lebowski, who calls himself The Dude (Jeff Bridges).
But like many of the Coen Brothers films that I have watched I either like them or I don't.The ones that I liked usually have a strong story behind them, the ones that I don't like seem to be more of a "day in the life of" story about people who really don't seem to matter and about events that no one really cares about.Maybe there is some type of amusement in trivial matters, making bored college frat boys feel more intelligent then they really are, but I need something deeper for intellectual stimulation.For my comedy, I don't need slapstick or pie in the face humor to make me laugh.
Cynicism, witty dialogue, sarcasm, commentary and so on, not one line random events that happen out of no where with no real context and then expected to be funny.(which is not to say that slapstick pie in the face humor doesn't make me laugh at times...) A very random film with very to little no substance to it.
The scene in which a Corvette was destroyed was completely predictable, and it unfolded in a strange way, and then faded away.Julianna Moore was the best part of the film, and Joe Pesci's talents were wasted on a trivial part for which he clearly had no enthusiasm.Jeff Bridges practiced in his role for his academy award as the character was identical.Once again, Hollywood insists that all drug usage is good, lack of moral character is good, drinking is good, and being a bum is good if you have a heart of gold.The film was long, too..
I recently saw an interview with Jeff Bridges where he commented that he has become personally identified with "The Dude," the character he plays in this movie.
Especially good is the way that a large, bearded man with a dirty shirt answers the door (I always crack up at the breath Jesus takes when he sees the man I also noticed, for the first time, that Jesus in that flashback is visibly showing in his tight jeans; he's not a small guy).But then there's the scene where The Dude first meets Maude Lebowski (excellently played by Julianne Moore).
Well, maybe there is, because even earlier in the film there's the moment where The Dude spends a long time making a homemade device to keep intruders out only for him to forget the fact that his door opens outwards instead of inwards he nails a bit of wood to the floor, props a chair up to the door handle to keep people out and the very second he walks away, the door opens and the chair comes tumbling down.
I'd been nagged by friends and colleagues for years to watch this movie, face-palms all around - they couldn't believe I hadn't seen one of the best movies of all time.I have a 30min rule for movies, if it's rubbish I turn it off to avoid wasting my life on a bad movie.
I don't know if Coen brothers are borrowing from Quentin Tarantino, or if it's the other way around, but there seems to be plenty of resemblance to this film and Tarantino's films in general.The best Coen brothers movie that they made was Fargo, and maybe it was so good because it was based on a true story.
No real plot, random and incoherent dialogue, just a loser of a main character (Jeff Bridges), and I really didn't care if he lived or died.Obviously the "genius" of the movie eludes me.
I love the Coen Brothers work.I watched all their films, and Fargo was in many ways the best.However, their latest effort - The Big Lebowski - I found almost unwatchable.
The plot is awful; the script is dire, with the dreaded 'f' work appearing at least once every five seconds (I'm not anti-swearing, but I do get intensely bored of hearing the same dialogue over and over again), the acting is uninspired - Buscemi is totally wasted, Bridges is irritatingly whining (though Tuturro is great, in a small part), the score is unmemorable and the camerawork is dull, except for the dream sequences, which seem forced, irrelevant and pretentious.I couldn't wait for this movie to end.
The plot the Coens construct, which is as wonderfully convoluted as a 40's mystery tale (the kinds of stories they get inspired by- The Big Sleep was most likely their title goof), almost gets in the way of the main character and his friends' lives.
"The Dude" Jeff Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) has a good, if devoid of "meaning", life- he bowls constantly with his crazed, Vietnam-vet friend Walter (John Goodman, also very note-worthy) and quiet friend Donny (Steve Buscemi, a fine performance based mostly on reactions), with the occasional setback or weirdo to confront him (i.e. John Turturro's Jesus, a highlight in the film's most absurd moments).
Enter in a group of deranged ex-musicians turned nihilists (which include the likes of Peter Stormare and Flea), a pornographer, and a rich man with the same name as Lebowski and his family, and the Dude's cycle is turned upside down, though not knocking into his chemical intake.On top of The Big Lebowski, at the core, one of the most odd, off-the-wall, and creative of the Coens' scripts, with a interesting story and dialog as real as it is sometimes insane, the casting is near perfect, if not so already.
That being said, these issues didn't bother me at all as I was so invested in each character and I really enjoyed every second in the movie.Jeff Bridges maybe give the best performance in his career.
I am in shock that the Coen brothers, who are responsible for Fargo, one of my ten best, could have written such a sophomoric waste of talent, most especially Jeff Bridges who is given the wonderful words, hey man and hey dude, over and over.
I'm not sure, and I am not about to watch the film a second time, because it had me restless thirty minutes in.Mr. Bridges does a nice enough job playing a character so sloppy and whiny that it borders on the ridiculous.
Come the end of "The Big Lebowski," I was not pondering over what Sam Elliott had just said in his closing speech, and what it had to do with all that happened in the two hours before, but instead, this.In the scene where Mr. Bridges and Mr. Goodman are having a would-be sentimental moment by the ocean, who was that character I saw walking on the hill crest in the top-right section of the screen?.
I first stumbled onto this movie in 1999 and happened to catch it again recently, and it just still makes me want to grab a glass, pour that Kahlua and add milk and vodka to join Jeff Bridges for oat soda and a slacking good time of a convolutely escapist and trashy experience with the odd character 'heroes' of LA.
Let's say, just like the rug that 'held the room together', Bridges, the Dude, in an oddly engaging way, was the only thing that held the film together for me.
What makes it feel much more imaginative is the many inspired scenes that run through the film mostly dream sequences set up as big musical numbers but also the sheer weight of unusual characters who come to life so easily and are very funny to watch.
His bowling-mates Ronny (Steve Buscemi)and Walter (John Goodman)try to help him but do more harm than good, Jeff Lebowski's wife gets kidnapped and the dude has to help her back.
The film is based on a friend of the Coen brothers, who called himself the dude and Jeff bridges did nothing more for to make this movie then to eat and drink.
Fargo was brilliant and they have done some other very good movies to, but The Big Lebowski is overrated.
"The Big Lebowski" is a movie with a lot of joy, wit, and wicked humor: three reasons you've got to see one of the most enjoyable films of the past decade..
The movie has an enormous amount of quotable lines and the dialogue is some of the Coen brothers' finest.The characters are all imaginative and memorable, with Jeff Bridges and John Goodman wrestling for the best part.
To fully enjoy this movie one has to be in a certain mindset.Recommendation: Like all Coen brothers films, The Big Lebowski is not for everyone.
I had been wanting to see "The Big Lebowski" for a long time, until I got a clean copy from it in the Blockbuster.Even though the film is superbly managed into the deep terrains of black comedy, satire and portraying the ultimate "exaggereta" model of the lazy American, slaking in his filthy environment; it's a repeated exercise in form, and it uses it's style too often to provoke a sense of depletion, excess and tiresomeness.Even that, Jeff Bridges does a brilliant performance (snubed by the Academy because of the fact of being a comedy role) and hilarious sidekicks like a temperamental John Goodman and a Latino stylish bowler like John Turturro."The Big Lebowski" is a good comedy, with a slick, smart script, recommended for the audiences that do not target comedies in a mass-like way and enjoy acid and dark moments and laughing out loud, man..
Stunningly directed, riotously funny and brimming with unique and colourful characters, their films are always a pleasure to watch.Jeff Bridges portrays Jeffrey Lebowski, a man who'd rather just be called The Dude.
Little does The Dude realise that his visit will bring about considerable more trouble than just a soiled rug...'The Big Lebowski,' like most Coen brothers' films, is certainly a funny and reasonably well-written story, however, I found myself slightly underwhelmed by it.
I came to this movie a fan of the Coen Brothers, Jeff Bridges, and nearly all of the cast members of this film.
I was in the mood to watch this for the first time the other night, 20 years later.I love Jeff Bridges' character.
The Big Lebowski features Jeff Bridges in the leading role of 'The Dude' or 'His Dudeness' or 'El Duderino', whatever you like better.
Easily one of the coolest movie characters ever created, 'The Dude' is an unemployed guy who passes his time by playing bowling and does not give a damn about what others think of him.
If this is what passes for a "great film" in the current Hollywood climate, that only goes to demonstrate how far Hollywood has fallen from the glory years of the 1940s through 1970s.Jeff Bridges spends the entire movie doing his best Tommy Chong impersonation, John Goodman wastes his affable and agreeable screen presence on a Vietnam vet still fighting the war in his mind, and the rest of the characters are shabbily-conceived caricatures.
Coen brothers screenplay and Jeff Bridges's towering performance make The Big Lebowski a great watch.
Coen brothers screenplay and Jeff Bridges's towering performance make The Big Lebowski a great watch.
Jeff Bridges plays the ultimate slacker- Dude whose sole purpose in life is to laze around in his room smoking pot or go bowling with his strange friends- a militant gun lover played by John Goodman and a meek fellow portrayed by Steve Buscemi.
Jeff Bridges plays the ultimate slacker- Dude whose sole purpose in life is to laze around in his room smoking pot or go bowling with his strange friends- a militant gun lover played by John Goodman and a meek fellow portrayed by Steve Buscemi.
After 3-4 viewings you think Jeff Bridges' 'Dude' character is the greatest movie character of all time and that he should have won an Oscar.
But by the time you've seen it 6+ you realise that the greatest movie character of all time is actually John Goodman's 'Walter' and it is he who should have received an Oscar for this film.The more you watch it the more you understand the characters and find it more and more funny.You end up with one of the most quotable films and find it hard to believe that any movie fan doesn't like it.This is just my opinion man..
The Big Lebowski stands among the top not just in comedies, but in general good movies.
My favourite scenes are definitely any one between Jeff Bridges and John Goodman, the chemistry between the two of them is terrific, they both play very unique characters, nothing like any of their previous roles.
I like the way coen brothers write and direct this movie.
And he also success in "the big lebowsky", the characters depth portrayal (Dude,Walter,Donny,nearly all of the actor and actress) were very exceptional and convincing.Some people said the best thing from this movie was it's humor, they said it's clever. |
tt0086541 | Videodrome | Max Renn (James Woods) is the president of CIVIC-TV (Channel 83, Cable 12), a sleazy Toronto UHF television station specializing in sensationalistic programming. Displeased with his station's current lineup (which mostly consists of softcore pornography), Renn is on a seemingly endless quest for something that isn't so "soft" and will "break through" to a new audience.One morning Renn is summoned to the clandestine office of Harlan (Peter Dvorsky), who operates CIVIC-TV's pirate satellite dish, a technologically advanced satellite run on an amalgamation of high-tech components that allows it to pirate broadcasts from as far away as Asia. Harlan shows Renn "Videodrome," a plotless television show apparently being broadcast out of Malaysia, which depicts the brutal torture and eventual murder of anonymous victims in a bizarre, reddish-orange chamber. Believing this to be the future of television-- snuff TV-- Renn orders Harlan to begin pirating the show.Appearing on a Rena King's TV talk show, Renn defends his station's programming choices to Nikki Brand (Deborah Harry), a sadomasochistic psychiatrist, and Professor Brian O'Blivion (Jack Creley), a pop-culture analyst and philosopher who will only appear on television if his image is broadcast into the studio, onto a television, from a remote location. O'Blivion hijacks the interview and delivers a speech prophesying a future in which television supplants real life.Renn dates Nikki, who is sexually aroused when Renn shows her an episode of Videodrome and coaxes him into having sex with her while they watch it. Renn goes once again to Harlan's office, where Harlan informs him that the signal delay which caused it to appear to be coming from Malaysia was a ploy by the broadcaster. In fact, Videodrome is being broadcast out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Renn tells Nikki of his discovery and she excitedly goes to Pittsburgh to try and audition for the show.When Nikki fails to return to Toronto, Renn contacts Masha Borowski (Lynne Gorman), a softcore feminist pornographer with long-standing ties to the porn community, and asks her to help him find out the truth about Videodrome. Through Masha, Renn learns that Videodrome is the public "face" of a political ideology movement with unspecified but apparently violent goals. Masha further informs Renn that Brian O'Blivion knows about Videodrome.Max Renn tracks down O'Blivion's office to The Cathode Ray Mission, a mission where homeless individuals are provided food, shelter, and clothing, and encouraged to engage in marathon sessions of television viewing. Renn discovers that the mission is run by O'Blivion's daughter, Bianca (Sonja Smits), with the goal of helping to bring about her father's vision of a world in which television replaces every aspect of everyday life.Later, Renn views a videotape in which O'Blivion informs him that "the Videodrome" is a socio-political battleground in which a war is being fought for control of the minds of the people of North America. Shortly thereafter, Renn begins experiencing disturbing hallucinations in which his torso transforms into a bloody, vaginal VCR. In one hallucination, Renn finds himself strapped to a chair while a hooded figure is strangling him. The hood comes off to reveal Nikki. Her lips fill the screen of a TV set where she says: "Come to me." Renn leans in close. Pulling and undulating, the screen envelopes his face.At the mission, Bianca tells Renn that these are side-effects from having viewed Videodrome, which is in fact the carrier of a malicious broadcast signal that causes the viewer to develop a malignant brain tumor. Brian O'Blivion helped to create it as part of his vision for the future, but when he found out that it was to be used for malicious purposes, he attempted to stop his partners; they used his own invention to kill him. In the year before his death, O'Blivion recorded tens of thousands of videos, which now form the basis of his television appearances. Bianca sends Renn away with an armful of videotapes to watch. As he watches one tape, holding a pistol, he scratches his stomach in which the vagina-like slit opens, into which his gun disappears. On the tape, O'Blivion says: "There is nothing real outside our perception of reality, is there?"Renn is contacted by Videodrome's producer, the Spectacular Optical Corporation, an eyeglasses company that acts as a front for a NATO weapons manufacturer. The head of Spectacular Optical, Barry Convex, (Leslie Carlson) has been working with Harlan to get Renn to broadcast Videodrome as part of a crypto-government conspiracy to morally and ideologically "purge" North America, giving fatal brain tumors to "lowlifes" fixated on extreme sex and violence. Convex produces a high-tech helmet to record Renn's hallucinations, to find out why he seems to be functioning when none of the other "test subjects" has returned to "normality." Convex places the helmet on Renn's head and leaves the room.Renn hallucinates himself in Videodrome with Nicki. As he whips an organic TV set, Nicki's image transforms into Masha. Renn wakes up in his own bed with Masha dead at his side. Renn calls Harlan to come over with his camera, but when he arrives, he sees nothing in the bed to photograph. Totally wired, Renn says they must watch last nights Videodrome broadcast as he is in it. At the lab, Harlan reveals that there never was a broadcast, only pre-recorded tapes which he never watched. Just then Convex enters. He says that they chose Channel 83 for the first transmission of the Videodrome signal because of it's sleazy content and audience. "Why would anybody watch a show like Videodrome?" says Convex.Under Convex's influence he produces a pulsating VHS tape and Renn's stomach-slit opens to receive his program. Convex orders Renn to: "kill your partners and give me Channel 83." Renn pulls his gun back from the slit and black metal tendrils extend into his hand.Renn goes back to Channel 83 station and shoots both Moses and Raphael in the Channel 8 boardroom, his gun/hand now a single organic fusion. His next program is to kill Bianca O'Blivion. He breaks into the Mission, but hesitates when Bianca plays him Nikki's death scene on Videodrome. She was killed on the show along with all those other people by Spectacular Optical Corporation. A flesh-gun emerges from the TV set and shoots him - a violent deprogramming. Bianca inserts her own tape into Renn's slit. With that she re-programs him to go after the ones responsible for creating Videodrome. She tells him he is: "the video word made flesh. Death to Videodrome. Long live the new flesh."Back at the Channel 83 studios, Harlan congratulates Renn on his good work, and changes his program. When Harlen withdraws his hand from Renn's slit to retrieve the videotape program, he is horrified to see his hand become a ticking bloody organic grenade. The explosion kills Harlan and blows a hole in the wall of the studio which Renn calmly steps out.At the Spectacular Optical trade show at the Toronto Convention Centre, Convex introduces the new spring collection, the Medici range. Renn approaches the stage and shoots Convex with his gun/hand, who falls dead and his entire body erupts in a gory and sickening mass of tumors as people scream and panic. Renn waves his hand/gun to the assembly declaring: "Death to Videodrome! Long live the new flesh!"Afterwards, Renn takes refuge on a derelict boat in an abandoned harbor, where Nicki appears to him on another television that appears. As Renn sits on a filthy mattress, Nicki tells him he has weakened Videodrome, but that in order to completely defeat it, he has to "leave the old flesh." The television then shows an image of Renn shooting himself in the head with his gun/hand, which causes the TV set to explode, splattering the deck of the ship with bloody, human intestines and multicolored goo. Imitating what he has just seen on TV, Renn says his final words, "Long live the New Flesh", and then he pulls the trigger. | dark, suspenseful, gothic, murder, mystery, cult, alternate reality, violence, flashback, insanity, psychedelic, satire, philosophical, brainwashing, revenge, sci-fi | train | imdb | This surreal, mind-bending thriller is quite possibly the strangest and most provocative film that cult director David Cronenberg has ever made.Manager of a cable television station stumbles across a mysterious, sadistic program that begins to induce horrific visions for our hero.
Most of Cronenberg's films have some kind of warning to society and with Videodrome the warning is about the power and influence of the media upon the human mind.The story is both engaging and haunting.
inside his stomach.The cast is good, James Woods does a dynamic performance, as does attractive supporting stars Sonja Smitts and Deborah Harry.Videodrome is a film quite unlike any other.
James Woods plays a scuzzy, low-life TV producer (the kind of character he plays exceptionally well and that you've come to love from prior performances in films like 'Salvador') who gets hooked on watching a pirate snuff film channel, but soon he discovers everything is not as it seems to be and that the transmission wasn't broadcast at all but actually a tape which brainwashes him into acts of self mutilation on his body, soon he is finds that he can hardly even control himself or his body.A great first half with terrific performances from the three leads, steps up a gear or two in the second half.
You're not going to let a one-sentence plot description and, if you own the Criterion Collection DVD, the three essays included deter you from watching it, are you?You're also not going to let scenes of grisly torture, unspeakable violence, murder, "flesh guns," human VCRs, exploding cancer-deaths (poor Leslie Carlson as Barry Convex), pulsating video cassettes, Deborah Harry in S&M and morphing televisions turn you away, are you?
What's more, you're not going to let Woods's effectively "wooden" performance here (his sticking his face into a "living" television) turn you away either?I won't even try to pretend I understood what was going through Cronenberg's mind when he wrote and directed this picture.
But keep in mind this film was made in '83, years before the mind-blowing reality-morphing of "The Matrix" (1999).There's a little more that I think I can get away with in describing the plot, and Renn eventually traces the signal to Pittsburgh, and is introduced to the station's enigmatic programmer Brian O'Blivion (Jack Creley) and his daughter Bianca (Sonja Smits).
It's no secret Cronenberg loves torturing his protagonists and here, the "new flesh" wants to live long and Woods has the nice warm body perfect for it - he becomes a literal media assassin with a vaginal slit in his stomach that doubles as a programmable VCR and also has a handgun fused to his wrist - he's a virtual slave to Videodrome.Lastly, the eerie, driving score by Howard Shore swells up during the film's most intense and surreal moments, the most lovely being Woods's lovemaking with his television.
Deborah Harry (of Blondie fame) gives a great non-blonde performance as an "emotionally energized" radio show host, and James Woods is a scummy business-minded owner of a seedy TV station.Like "Brazil" or "Twelve Monkeys" this movie will make you think, and even though there isn't really much violence or horror, your mind will fill in the parts that aren't there.
(Probably even before that going by descriptions of early efforts like 'Crimes Of The Future' which I unfortunately haven't had the opportunity to see.) But Cronenberg, unlike say the Wachowski brothers, isn't just repackaging science fiction ideas for a new generation of movie goers, he is a genuine original.'Videodrome' still knocks me out every time I watch it.
However as his fascination becomes an obsession his hallucinations start to get more real and more extreme.Although it is pretty hard to get inside and to understand (much of it does not make a lot of sense), Videodrome is probably more relevant today than it was in the early eighties if only because the issue of the effects of sexual and/or violent "entertainment" continues to be debated and explored.
There is lots of messaging about bad media addictions and a polluted TV culture, But this Videodrome pirate channel is more than just a new low of non-stop sex and violence, it reprograms the TV addict's body to do things like grow a VCR tape slot in the stomach and have wild violent hallucinations.
Here is where it gets the Cronenberg gore special efx touch which eventually undoes the movie.In one scene, after the changed Max fights back against the Videodrome people with the help of the professor's daughter, his old technical wizard attempts to reprogram him by sticking a new pulsating lifelike VCR tape in his stomach slot.
Then Max goes on some more gory revenge scenes and it ends up really dumb in the end.So Cronenberg takes a good concept and theme and essentially does little better than what his fictitious cable channel did, feed us some gore and R light sex under the guise of exploring the dark side of the media.
Some viewers might be dazzled if it's their first time ever seeing a movie that isn't 100% Hollywood clichés, but if you want a memorable story, good characters, or a powerful experience, Videodrome will be a waste of time.
The film heads in a surreal, otherworldly direction, then has a clichéd third act where James Woods just has to kill some paper-thin bad guy who wants to rule the world.James Woods as Max Renn does an OK job in the lead role, but his character never develops; calling him 2-dimensional feels like an overstatement.
The Television Screen Is the Retina of the Mind's Eye. The president of the Civic TV - channel 83, Max Renn (James Wood), is always looking for new cheap and erotic movies for his cable television.
When his employee Harlan (Peter Dvorsky) decodes a pirate video broadcast showing torture, murder and mutilation called Videodrome, Max becomes obsessed to get these movies for his channel.
Max investigates further, and through a video of the expert Professor Brian O'Blivion (Jack Creley), he learns that that TV screen would be the retina of the mind's eye, being part of the brain, and Videodrome transmission creates a brain tumor in the viewer, changing the reality in video hallucination."Videodrome", in my point of view, is a prophetic movie of David Cronenberg.
Perhaps if you are in a certain state of mind and/or enjoy psychoactive substances, you can enjoy this movie, but otherwise, it will probably just leave you with a sense of "I have no idea what is going on" and "That makes no sense" - even if you keep your wits about you it seems to veer off on tangents and loses cohesion regularly, and from the start.Maybe for the cult lovers who like spending afternoons at movie houses watching obscure films, it will be interesting (if they manage to make sense of, or rather, are able to absorb the bizarre sequence of events).Of course it includes all the "obligatory" elements a movie like this is supposed to have to keep the interest of the already more limited crowd this was aimed for, but even those seem forced, and don't seem to be included but for the sheer fact that it's customary.
While I found the ending and the ultimate uselessness of the James Woods character unsatisfying, Cronenberg's failure to draw a discernable line between the "new flesh" and "Videodrome" led to some stimulating conversation.
i'm not sure i got the point of this movie.i didn't find it profound or even controversial.then again,i just saw it for the first time about two hours ago.maybe if i had seen it back when it had first been released,i might have perceived it differently.anyway,i do think it was weird,if nothing else.and just this side of passably entertaining.the ending has me stymied.i know what happened.i'm just not sure what the point of it was.James Woods puts in a decent performance with what he is given,so he gets credit for lifting the material a bit.his is the only character that has any semblance of development at all.overall,i wouldn't run across the street to watch the movie again anytime soon.for me,Videodrome is a 5/10.
In fact, I would probably have found Videdrome totally unwatchable had Cronenberg not clarified its message and thereby given me something--a purpose--to hold onto as I watched itSo while I'm desperately clinging onto this purpose, we get follow likably sleazy TV cable programmer Max Renn (James Woods) as he discovers a frequency on the television transmission that shows a forbidden show, Videodrome.
Because it is so ridiculously (I don't want to say 'gratuitously' - as I think it had a point) gory, I sat crouched behind my friend for the main part of the film, burying my head in her shoulder and feeling really woozy when Cronenberg carved out freak-overload in the form of James Woods PIERCING Debbie Harry (That's right, "Blondie") with a rusty needle.
Woods plays the sleazy programmer perfectly.Director David Cronenberg takes us into a world where there are no limits; just where we are heading in TV and movies with torture porn.
The plot was just stupid, James Woods was even more wooden than usual, and Deborah Harry looked like she belonged in some other, much more interesting movie, before disappearing halfway through.
If you want to watch a really gross body horror film that questions what reality is, go check out eXistenZ-another Cronenberg film with similar themes to Videodrome but done way better..
James Woods plays a sleazy Cable TV station programmer who is looking for new shows, when he comes across a disturbing channel that seems to really show people being murdered; intrigued, he tracks down the tape to a mysterious broadcaster/messenger warning about a global conspiracy that will lead to the dehumanization of people, who will ultimately be transformed into living non-organic beings...Bizarre and violent film from director David Cronenberg contains a terrific performance from James Woods, and many prescient ideas about how technology will impact the human condition, as we gradually lose our identities(being an increasingly online culture really gives you pause!) but film is damaged by an unlikable lead character, and overdone visuals, which become increasingly disgusting, blotting out the more cerebral aspects to the story, which is really quite interesting, underneath all that ugliness...
Then he finds himself in a bizarre world of intrigue, sadomasochistic sex games and physical transformations.Written and Directed by David Cronenberg (Crash, The Fly "1986", They Came from Within) made an extremely underrated science-fiction film with elements of horror and eroticism.
Videodrome deals with the nature of the human body and its relationship to new technology expressed through gory special effects and loaded with vaginal imagery; in short, your typical Cronenberg movie.
Both of these assassinations involved fleshy guns.Both of these movies also involve an outsider of sorts being guided by an intriguing, sexy gal (James Woods and Jude Law being guided by Debbie Harry and Jennifer Jason Leigh in Videodrome and eXistenZ, respectively).Anyway, I guess I'm just babbling, but I wonder how much connection Cronenberg intended between these two films.On a completely different note, I found it funny that Channel 83 in Videodrome is a fledgling Toronto television station using things like soft core porn to get itself noticed and will ultimately redefine media in Canada; it also has a guy named Moses as one of the guys running it.
Even a majority of the characters including James Woods as sleazy cable TV programmer Max Renn could not even hold my interest.Considering this movie was released in 1983, it is still extremely violent, nasty, unpleasant, and very bizarre.
When a cable TV-manager Max Renn (James Woods) embarks on a venture into the next new craze, beyond soft porn or cheap horrors, his hacker employee Harlan (Peter Dvorsky) stumbles upon an scrambled feed of a show called Videodrome featuring torture, sexual deviance and ultimately murder.
All in all 80s prosthetics, dim lighting, decrepit aesthetics and faded, almost murky, colours seem more suited to Cronenberg's directorial style, than the CGI flared colour perfection of current cinema, which could explain the ultimate disappointment of "ExistenZ", which despite a similar story derails into a self-parody.Evidently filmed with body horror audience in mind with a fast hard-hitting and adequately convoluted plot (and an occasional corny one-liner to get the plot going), "Videodrome" nonetheless presents viewers with various underlying themes, peculiarly reminiscent of those analyzed in "Funny Games" (1997).
But Cronenberg stands alone with this one: it's an extremely personal film for the director, while also never losing sight of what makes the strongest science-fiction crawl under our collective skins.James Woods, in a role that requires him to go from his typical smarmy self to a man in the grip of a perpetual mind-f***, plays Mas Rent, who owns Civic TV- not anything very respectable, just a weirder, dirty cousin of Weird Al's UHF- who comes across a transmission on one of his pirated wavelengths for a program called Videodrome.
Videodrome remains some twenty-five years later a visceral movie-viewing experience, a film that many will pass off as just your typical Cronenberg fare.
It seems to me quite clear that Cronenberg does not really believe such things but has interestingly used them as a framework for a sci-fi horror film.Of course one of the most memorable things about this movie is its excellent Rick Baker special effects.
This is perhaps even more relevant today, in the age of reality TV, viral videos, and gonzo porn than it was in 1983.At the same time, though, Videodrome embodies the best of the B-movie: it has sex, violence, and most of all strangeness.
Max runs a TV channel during the day and seems like he doesn't get much of a break from his duties at home.Max Renn, played by the legendary James Woods, is always on the lookout for new cheap erotic thrills to broadcast on his channel and finds what he is looking for when he is called by an employee to view a transmission for a show called "Videodrome".Obsessed with trying to get the series on his channel, Max inadvertently reels in his girlfriend Nikki Brand (Deborah Harry) to it's bizarre sado-masochistic wonders and is caught between his want to know more and his fear in its meaning.Direction: 8/10 (David Cronenberg keeps pace with our emotions and intrigue as he draws us in) Cinematography: 10/10 (Mark Irwin keeps Videodrome seeping out of our TVs for the duration) Editing: 8/10 (Roland Sanders delivers once again, as he did with the Fly, intensifying every shot) Acting: 8/10 (James Woods gets help from great performances by Peter Dvorsky and Sonja Smits) Dialogue: 9/10 (Most of the time Cronenberg's script just wants to get straight to the point) Sound: 9/10 (Michael Jay does a great mix-down of all the elements) Effects: 10/10 (Rick Baker, involved in "American Werewolf...",makes part of a uniquely creative team) Art Direction: 10/10 (Carol Spier authenticates Videodrome's creepiness with matching sets) Costumes: 10/10 (Delphine White makes it all work with simple 80s fashion and a touch of bad) Music and/or Score: 10/10 (I'm looking for more of Howard Shore's work after hearing the main theme)Total Score: 92/100The cast was well chosen and, surprisingly, suits James Woods perfectly.
Written & Directed David Cronenberg, this body horror flick, is certainly not meant for the faint-hearted.'Videodrome' is set in Toronto during the early 80s, and follows the CEO of a small cable station, played by James Woods, who stumbles upon a broadcast signal featuring extreme violence and torture.
Though, naturally, we can choose to view the film as either a more serious and satirical work - with the psychological issues and elements of subtext giving way to a series of personal interpretations - or simply as an intelligent and sensational thriller - with the more fantastical presentation of the sex and violence being entertaining and thought-provoking in a purely visceral sense - the continual combination of these two separate elements really infuses the film with a cold and clinical quality that helps to set it apart from many other, more conventional "splatter" films being produced at this particular time.As with the director's earlier hit, Shivers (1975) - a sort of combination of sleazy exploitation film and high-brow social satire - one single interpretation of Videodrome can exist without the other; with the skillful atmosphere created by Cronenberg and his production team - when combined with the effective central performance from James Woods and some still incredibly powerful prosthetic creations from the legendary Rick Baker - showing Videodrome to be one of the most stark, surreal and clinically violent horror/science-fiction films of the 20th century.
Like Ken Russell's similarly-themed Altered States (1980), Videodrome is less a film than it is a sensory overload of images and ideas that work in both the literal and metaphorical senses; presenting a story that could be real or could be fantasy, and all tied to a central character who's flaws and various short-comings actually add to and reinforce our interpretation in a way that is beneficial to the more horrifying genre elements of the script.
david cronenberg creates a genre unto himself with movies like Videodrome, The Brood, eXistenZ, etc.
Videodrome can be seen as a turning point for writer/director David Cronenberg, away from the simpler shock horror movies of his past (Shivers, Rabid etc) and onto more serious and acclaimed works (Naked Lunch, Crash).
Max investigates further, and through a video by the media prophet Brian O'Blivion, he learns that that TV screens are the retina of the mind's eye, being part of the brain, and "Videodrome" transmissions create a brain tumor in the viewer, changing the reality through video hallucination.The film was made at a time when network television was at its peak and the video culture had just set in.
"Videodrome" is still Cronenberg's most unique and imaginative work.Of course the movie is also definitely helped by it's visual and hallucinative atmosphere that is filled with lots of gore and violence. |
tt1767382 | Silent House | Note: This is a remake of the 2010 Spanish-language low-budget Uruguayan horror film 'La Casa Muda'. Both the original and this remake were (allegedly) shot in one take with no actual cuts or edits with a single camera, similar to the 1948 experimental film 'Rope' by Alfred Hitchcock.We begin with an overhead shot of a young woman, Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen) sitting on some rocks in a lake. As she gets off and begins to hop among the rocks back to the shore, the camera descends and begins following Sarah in real-time. She walks up to an obviously dilapidated house. The house is three stories tall and has red-brick exteriors with all of the windows boarded up. Sarah's father John (Adam Trese) meets her near the front steps and tells her sternly to pick up the gardening tools lying about. John then asks Sarah about her Facebook profile, and she admits that her ex-boyfriend may want to get back together with her, much to John's disapproval.John's younger brother and Sarah's Uncle Peter (Eric Sheffer Stevens) walks through the front door and greets the two of them. He says that there is a big problem in the house. They walk in, and though it is daylight outside, the house is almost pitch black as all the windows are boarded. The trio turn on their electric lanterns and follow Peter to the dining room (the source of the problem) where John hits the wall with a sledgehammer to reveal that mold has grown within the walls, and maybe throughout the entire house. Tools and clutter are strewn everywhere. They take a picture of the mold with their polaroid camera and after her father walks out of the room Peter stares at Sarah, telling her how beautiful of a woman she has become. After they enter the living room, John and Peter then leave to go into another part of the house, and Sarah starts up the stairs when she hears a knock at the front door.She opens the door to see a girl roughly her age standing on the porch. The girl gives a loving hug to Sarah and introduces herself as Sophia (Julia Taylor Ross), a childhood friend who lives in the town. Sarah says she honestly doesn't remember Sophia since it has been so many years since she has been to this house, and Sarah also jokingly states that she has holes in her memory. None of this deters Sophia from eagerly recounting the times they played together as kids. Sarah tells Sophia that she did not go to college and works with her dad restoring houses until she figures out what to do with her life. Sophia asks Sarah why all of the windows are boarded shut with plywood, and Sarah explains that after the house was abandoned, drunk squatters lived there and broke every single window until the police forcibly evicted them. Sophia said that she tried to call, but Sarah tells her that the home phones are disconnected and Sarah does not have cell phone service so far outside of town. Sophia says she is glad she finally got to see Sarah again, and they make plans to meet up later that night to go out and continue to reminisce. As Sophia gets on her bicycle to leave, Sarah calls out that she does remember her. Sarah then returns indoors, once again locking the front door and returning the key to its hook, shutting out the daylight. Soon Sarah hears arguing between her father and her uncle. Her uncle complains loudly how stubborn John is and starts to leave the house in anger. But John stops him just to remind him to call the electrician to get the power restored.After her father leaves the room again, Sarah lights two oil lamps and opens a beer. As she begins to take her first sip, she hears loud thumping and a dragging noise coming from upstairs. She immediately calls her dad, who says it is probably just rats, but Sarah insists that they check it out. The two go upstairs to the second level to investigate, and as a "joke," her dad slams open a door hard into Sarah's arm. They walk into the master bedroom, and some polaroids are lying out on the bed that John quickly picks up (before Sarah can see them) and stuffs them in a night table, saying that they are pictures of the repairs and saying that Peter never learns how to put things away. John then takes Sarah to the room she used to stay in when they used the house when she was a kid, and insists that she clean the entire thing out and trash whatever she doesn't want. Sarah is relatively calm in her electric lamplight and can hear her dad walking around taking care of things in other rooms. She looks through her clothing, which includes a ballerina outfit, and begins stuffing things in a trash bag. She comes across a locked red trinket box and throws it away. Soon she hears a loud banging on the wall outside her bedroom. She calls out to her dad, but he does not answer. A frightened Sarah begins to search the upstairs, calling out to her father but to no avail. As she leaves the bedroom the door slams by itself behind her and Sarah immediately panics and runs downstairs towards the front door, but the key is no longer on the hook. She then runs towards the kitchen door that leads outside, but finds it padlocked. She begins opening drawers to find the key, and in the background, a large, male intruder stands ominously watching her. She can't find the key, and the intruder is no longer there when she looks in his direction. As she continues to pace around, she hears heavy footsteps approaching and hides under the dining room table, accidentally knocking down her beer bottle. A male hand leans down to pick it up, and Sarah can just barely contain her screams. The figure walks out of the room and Sarah begins hyperventilating, until she notices the intruder's hand trying to grab her leg. She manages to squirm out of his grasp and runs upstairs to a room and locks the door, pushing a dresser in front of it to barricade herself in.After a few moments Sarah calms down, and apparently, was not followed by the intruder. She begins trying to open the windows, but can't knock out any of the boards. As she searches the room for anything that can help her, a figure falls out from behind some drapes. Sarah screams loudly, but then realizes that the figure was her dad, who lies unconscious on the floor. She goes over to her dad and finds a huge gash on the side of his head. As she cradles him, she gets blood smeared over her shirt. John begins groaning, and Sarah is happy to find that he is still alive, though in bad shape. She knows that she has to get him some help, so she searches his pocket and finds a key. She listens to the door for awhile and hears nothing. She grabs her electric lantern, then pushes aside the dresser and exits the room to head for the exit.She sneaks downstairs and tries to open the padlock on the kitchen door, but it does not work. Sarah panics once again and tries to knock of the lock, but soon gets a hold of herself again. Sarah soon comes to the sad realization that the key must belong to an exit located in the basement. She opens the basement door, and slowly descends the steps to the pitch-black basement. The basement is in total disarray, with tons of exposed pipes and machinery. It is clear that Sarah is unfamiliar with the basement layout as she keeps running into things. She opens a door to reveal what looks like a child's room that was recently used (the bed was unmade). At that moment, she hears loud, pounding footsteps descending the basement stairs. She hides behind the door to the room as the menacing intruder walks by, holding his own electric lantern. The intruder's search is unsuccessful though, and he soon is heard walking back upstairs. No longer able to keep her composure, Sarah runs throughout the basement, eventually opening a door to a storm-cellar with a padlock on the door leading outdoors. As she fumbles with the padlock, the footsteps hurry back downstairs, coming closer and closer. Sarah manages to finally unlock the storm cellar doors and flees outside.Sarah runs in blind panic through a field and eventually hits the road. Finally having gotten a decent distance from the house, she stops in the middle of the road to catch her breath. As she turns around to look behind her, she sees a spectral young girl staring at her from the bushes. She screams, and as she does, a truck almost hits her. It is her Uncle Peter, returning from town. She leaps into his truck and he says he did not see any girl and demands to know what happens after he notices the blood on her shirt. She explains that an intruder has infiltrated the house, and Peter insists that they go back to the house to get John despite Sarah's protests and they begin driving back to the house.They arrive, and Peter pulls out his gun from the trunk and locks Sarah into the car as he goes inside to retrieve John. Sarah sits there, waiting for Peter to return. She looks in the rear view mirror and sees the warning that the lift gate is open. Sarah begins crying once again and returns her gaze to the mirror where she sees the trunk opening and the intruder standing behind the car. She flees the car and runs into the house, and slams and locks the door (with Peter's key) behind her. Peter immediately runs to her and says it is impossible for anyone to have opened the trunk as he has the car keys in his pocket. Nonetheless, she insists that they stay together, and after Peter calms her down, he asks her to show him where she left John.They go back up to the second level and into the room where Sarah left John. Unfortunately, John is no longer there, all that remains is a small pool of blood. Peter is clearly upset and they begin searching around. Peter opens a closet and finds more polaroids, but like John before him, he quickly grabs them and throws them into a trash bag. Peter had apparently searched the basement before Sarah ran inside, so the only place left is the third level attic-type area. They go upstairs and hear that a generator mysteriously starts up. They enter a room where a pool table is stored and follow the sound of the generator. The polaroid camera is sitting on the pool table. They sneak up to a tarp hanging like a curtain on the wall and rip it open, but nothing is behind it except for the generator. Suddenly, the generator goes out, and since Peter had turned off the flashlight when they went upstairs, the two are plunged into darkness. A loud thump is heard. Sarah manages to grab the Polaroid, and begins snapping pictures to light the room with its flash. She sees the little girl standing in the doorway and in the next flash sees the intruder right in front of her and he grabs for her. She ducks under the pool table. Eventually the generator springs back to life illuminating the room. Suddenly, Sarah begins having a vision. There are two pairs of men's legs walking around the pool table. They are taking pictures of something on the table and one of the men is saying things like "see, that wasn't too bad" and "it was a fun game." She then sees a pair of legs belonging to a little girl drop over the edge of the pool table, and one of the men help her down. Sarah sees that the little girl is clothed in a tutu, and the man says to her that they can now go get a snack. Suddenly Sarah is snapped back to reality and sees her Uncle Peter being dragged out of the room. Sarah crawls out from under the pool table and finds Peters gun, then slowly begins to follow Peter's dragging body.Once the intruder and body are around a corner into another room, she works her way slowly down the stairs. But at the bottom of the stairs the intruder is waiting for her. She fires the gun but misses, then runs into the master bedroom and hides under the bed. She hears a creaking noise coming from next to her and when she turns her head she finds the spectral girl also hiding under the bed. The girls puts her finger to her lips and shushes Sarah just before she is violently dragged out from underneath. Sarah flees from the bedroom into the bathroom and locks it. She hears noises from the bathtub and pulls open the shower curtain to find the spectral girl sitting in a tub of water with empty beer bottles and pouring water out of the beer bottles onto herself. Sarah turns her head away from the little girl and sees blood seeping out of the toilet. When she turns her head back to the girl she the water has turned to blood and now the toilet is overflowing with blood. Suddenly a sledge hammer breaks through the wall to the bathroom. She runs into the joining bedroom where she sees black mold covering the ceiling and walls. The intruder steps into view with his arm around the little girl. Sarah can't take any more of this and runs in full panic down the stairs, smearing blood on the wall from her hand on the way down.She sees Sophia in the foyer scantily dressed, and she tells Sarah that she has been looking for her because they had a date. Sarah runs for the door and frantically searches her body for the key. Sophia walks toward Sarah holding up the key and asks if that what Sarah was looking for. She places it in Sarah's hand but it isn't the right key for the front door and Sophia comments that the front door is not the way out. Sarah follows Sophia into the dining room, where John is sitting in a chair wrapped in plastic. Sarah rushes to him and begins to rip the plastic off and sees that he is also bound with tape. Sarah turns to Sophia, who is standing nearby with a drink in her hand, and frantically asks what she did to him, where Sophia replies with "Not nearly enough". Sophia saunters over to Sarah and says that Sarah needs to remember what happened and plug up the holes in her memory, and then slides the red trinket box on the table towards her. Sarah opens it with the key that was handed to her and finds a polaroid photo of herself as a young girl. Sarah turns her head and looks at a nearby window, and sees that her reflection is of the little girl. When she turns around she sees the intruder dragging her uncle's body into the dining room, then the camera pans upwards to the intruders face and it is actually Sarah who was dragging the body. She drops the body and turns to Sophia and asks if any of this was true and if she did indeed do this. Sophia then walks toward Sarah and hands her a knife, telling her to finish the job. Sarah lashes out at Sophia instead, slashing Sophia on the hand. Sophia responds angrily, telling Sarah to stop punishing herself. Sarah looks at her hand to notice it is slashed in the same place she slashed Sophia's hand, and when she looks up Sophia is no longer there.Sarah begins walking towards her dad who is now fully conscious. She rips the tape off of her dad's mouth, holds the knife in front of his face and shushes him, telling him to be quiet or mommy will wake up then she would have to punish him. She straddles him and forces him to drink an entire beer bottle while telling him to quit being such a baby because it is just a game. She then jumps off of him and starts sobbing and saying how much it hurts and says: "why daddy... did you do such a thing?". John tells her that he (daddy) would never do such a thing. She screams that he is liar and throws the polaroids at him. He tells her that she is the one who attacked him and Peter just now and that she is remembering things that never happened. He promises to help her with her psychosis if she will just let him go. Sarah approaches with the knife, and uses it to unbind John's hands. He then takes the knife and cuts away the straps to his legs and stands looking at a weeping Sarah. He drops the knife to the ground and goes to embrace her, saying none of this is her fault. He then punches Sarah to the ground and takes off his belt and begins whipping Sarah with it. Suddenly, he hears Peter telling him to leave her alone. He turns around to find a semi-conscious Peter on the ground. John tells him to shut up and says that he always enjoyed the show. Peter grabs for the knife on the floor and John kicks the knife out of Peter's hand calling him a loser. As he turns back to Sarah she swings a sledgehammer into his abdomen, knocking him to the ground. She raises the sledgehammer above her head, and brings it down hard on John killing him. She then begins advancing on Peter, who begins crying and apologizing for not stopping her father and says that he never meant for things to get so out of hand. She stands over Peter, but then drops the sledgehammer beside him. Peter lays there crying, and we see a pool of blood near John's lifeless body. Sarah unlocks the front door (having the key the entire time?) and walks out of the house and into the night, leaving it behind.THE END.(Post note: In sum, it appears that Sarah was actually the intruder the whole time, and that similar to the film 'Fight Club', split her personality into the active intruder and the passive victim, and the viewer saw events from the point of view of the peaceful/victim personality (although how she could have done everything in the film herself is a mystery). The little spectral girl was clearly the manifestation of Sarah's childhood self who was abused by her dad, and possibly/likely by her Uncle too. It is harder to determine whether Sophia was a real person whose visit triggered Sarah's repressed memories of abuse (and perhaps was abused as well) and later hallucinated by Sarah as some sort of safe harbor or was merely another physical manifestation of Sarah's fragmented personality the entire time.) | flashback | train | imdb | But regrettably, "Open Water" directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau's decision to remake a low-budget 2010 Uruguayan film also includes its main gimmick: filming the entire movie in one (supposedly) unbroken, continuous take.
And therein lies the problem.This film, while ambitious on a technical level, demonstrates the importance of building up needed character and story elements no matter how innovative the camera work may be.
Hitchcock fared better back in 1948 with his experiment (some would say failed experiment) with extremely long takes, "Rope." Generally agreed to be one of his lesser efforts, Hitch's sole foray into real-time, single-location filmmaking worked to an extent because his characters were so well-defined and the story effectively constructed.
A walk to find a dead body, which should have happened in mere seconds, now takes minutes as characters plod about from room to room, being careful not to lose the cameraman following behind them.Interestingly, "Silent House" fails in all the ways "Open Water" (which might have made a better one-take, real-time movie) succeeds.
The film is somewhat effective and scary, at first, but once it gets to it's routine plot twist it goes seriously downhill.Elizabeth Olsen stars in the film as Sarah, a young woman staying with her father (Adam Trese) and uncle (Eric Sheffer Stevens) at their vacation house in the country while they clean it up in order to sell it.
The entire thing is played out in real time.The movie starts out pretty sow-paced but gets pretty creepy and intense as it goes on.
Once the movie gets to it's big twist (like I said) it loses any real thrills or viewer involvement it had going for it.
Silent House is directed by Chris Kentis and written by Laura Lau. It stars Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese and Eric Sheffer Stevens.
A remake of Uruguayan film, La casa muda (The Silent House), story has Olsen as Sarah, a young woman who finds herself locked in the abandoned family home she was helping her father and uncle to clear out before it is sold.
Soon Sarah finds herself pursued by an unseen assailant and she struggles to make sense of what is festering in the house.Forget the gimmick that comes with the film, that of the use of "real time" to give off the effect of one continuous take, it doesn't impact on how you ultimately will feel about the film either way.
It's also refreshing to find the makers are able to use credible reasons for characters to be in and out of the house, this isn't about the dumb decision making so often rife in this sub-genre of horror over the years.Sadly the third act is weak as the scares, tech attributes and atmosphere subside, we land in familiar territory and the big reveals, whilst thematically potent and never to be scoffed at, lack the desired impact and the film closes down more on a whimper instead of the terrified scream the rest of the film deserved.
Sarah is left alone in the house with someone or something out to get her and her family and no way out.The whole film was shot in such a way as that it looks like one continuous shot.
The one shot idea isn't original and indeed the film itself is a remake of a 2010 Uruguayan film but it's a nice gimmick that is well used.The house is brilliantly dressed to maximise the creepy feeling.
When you do get to the ridiculous ending in a very short amount of time, it is so poorly executed in terms of flashbacks and acting that you feel duped into believing this was a scary movie.
Horror movies are my favourite and I wouldn't recommend Silent House even for those who like good scary moments creeping up when you least expect it.
Then it just got stupid for the next 40 minutes I watched Elizabeth Olsen well lets say I looked at her cleavage for 40 minutes and her scared cries and then lights off and on then the end of the movie was just uncomfortable my wife wanted to leave .
Id rather watch the wall for a few hours it was so bad.One more thing the father and uncle are strange really strange and Elizabeths acting really wasn't that good I have no clue what critics or people are saying she is good I can scream for 90 minutes and probably act way more scarier..
I was very dis pleased with the film and I wish I wouldn't have gave it a chance or my time in watching it, I hate that people don't know how to make good horror or scary films at all and if they do all they do is put retarded stuff in it that isn't scary at all Im tired of "scary" movies wasting my time..
It isn't a very long movie, but with all the suspense that was featured in the film made it seem like the time ticked by so slowly.
So "Silent House," a remake of a Uruguayan film called "La Casa Muda," seemed like an intriguing project from the beginning knowing that Kentis and Lau would be directing.
But I must say that "Silent House" is an intense, eerie, smart horror film that delivers a fresh take on the rather tired 'old dark house' concept.Sarah returns to her old childhood home to help her father John and uncle Peter clear it up before they get ready to sell it.
Things start to get scarier when Sarah, alone and frightened, hears banging on the walls, doors slamming, and when she sees what may be dark shadows of people, getting out of the house is harder than it seems.Like 3D and found footage, "Silent House" introduces a new kind of gimmick: real time.
For almost 90 minutes, the camera quivers, turns left to right, and clusters you into a corner with Sarah, creating great claustrophobia.The film goes in several different directions, and like Sarah, you are confused as to what is going on.
Elizabeth Olsen (more talented and pretty than her child star twin sisters) is an unbelievable young actress, making her first appearance in the devastating "Martha Marcy May Marlene." She has a knack for playing damaged, terrified young souls, and "Silent House" makes for an awesome addition to her resume.
I haven't seen a performance this unbelievably scared as sh*t in a very long time, and Olsen squeezes the film's potential for all it's worth.
Very laughably idiotic, not to mention the dialogue was horrible and on-the-nose.Very flawed ending and weak characters/dialogue, but otherwise a well- directed and impeccably photographed horror film with a brilliant central performance.
I am really quite confused with all these bad reviews.Previously seeing Elizabeth Olzen in Martha Marcey May Marlene,i am not surprised to find out how good an acting performance she portrayed in this movie.
Which was this film had none of those.Elizabeth Olsen is a ominous girl who is staying with her Dad and Uncle at there old house, packing it up getting ready to go but she is probably the dumbest character I've seen i a long time, she hears stuff upstairs and that's where the game begins.
The Hollywood adaptation of the 2010 Uruguayan horror film La casa muda, Silent House is a shot-for-shot remake that even applies the same technical gimmick of the original in order to advertise itself as a film shot in one continuous take and while there are a couple of new elements added in the story, it fails to rectify the biggest plot hole of its source material.The story of Silent House follows Sarah, a young woman who's at her family vacation house with her father & uncle and is helping them clean the property and make it ready for sale.
While her uncle is out for an errand, she hears strange noises, followed by an attack on her father after which she attempts to get out of the house but finds herself trapped inside and terrorised by a possible intruder.Written, co-produced & co-directed by Laura Lau, with added directional effort coming from Chris Kentis, Silent House is quite a tedious film to sit through considering that I've already seen the original and while that film suffered from numerous shortcomings of its own, what sucks about Silent House is that it ends up making the very same mistakes all over again as if no one cared to question the whole absurdity of its major plot twist.The images captured by its ever-moving camera is edited to give the illusion of an unbroken take from start to finish but the gimmick fails to add or elevate the tension.
At 87 minutes, the film still feels a tad too long as only one thing keeps happening in the whole movie.
The only effort comes from Elizabeth Olsen who carries the whole film on her own & tries to do whatever she can but unfortunately Olsen doesn't have enough material to work with here.On an overall scale, Silent House is an unnecessary remake of an already mediocre original that fails to take the advantage of the opportunity it had to improve on the shortcomings of that Uruguayan chiller.
The scares are quite predictable, that major plot twist in the final act is as illogical as before, its one shot technique is quite useless, it is longer than it needs to be, and is barely held together by Olsen's committed performance.
I will admit that the movie being "silent", meaning having no real musical score did add an eerie quality to it but there was also very little dialog.There are generally a few creepy parts that I will give credit too but not enough to call it a "horror" movie.The ending made NO sense what-so-ever.
Lead character Sarah, played by Elizabeth Olsen, is a step back for females in horror films - constantly running, never taking charge of events, never really fighting back and giving the camera plenty of opportunities to look down her top.
Then in the last 15 minutes they try to shoehorn an actual plot in, and this "plot" not only is incredibly lame, but it doesn't make sense!Overall, everything about Silent House is terrible and I cannot think of a single good thing in the movie, which makes it good for nothing.
Silent House is flawed horror movie that benefits from a terrific performance from Elizabeth Olsen..
Elizabeth Olsen packed quite the punch in her debut feature, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and while her performance in Silent House doesn't quit match up, it's still fantastic, especially for a movie like this.
Horrible filming done with a camera from Big Lots, blurry, the acting sucked, the story line sucked, the blood looked fake even.I've seen some real crap movies, but this was worse than Tree of Life and the Talisman combined.Im not sure who is writing this crap, but whoever it is Im sure a ten year old could do better.
When I read the plot it sounded good, but watching the movie made me want to yawn the whole time.
From the horrible camera work that follows around the actors like a video game, to the weird undefined things that happen throughout the movie that do not make any sense, to the ending, and everything inbetween, i gave it a 1.
What really gets this one going for the most part is the fact that there's an admittedly decent and enjoyable mystery here in the first half about what is actually happening in the house with the group, as this one really banks on mysterious noises, creepy shots of people walking in the background just out of viewpoint and the fun of disappearing bodies that seem to move about on their own that really makes for quite a fun time here as the disorienting reality this sets up is wholly appealing and thrilling.
Many of these early scenes come off the best as there's just no shortage of fun, thrilling moments as her attempts to elude the stalking figure in the background and the rather strong manner in which the film builds this up through the single-take gimmick where it really feels like an escalation of the stalking as the figure gets closer and closer and her efforts are all in vain as there's the attacks on her father and uncle that cause this one to really get stronger with some even better scenes in here.
And the thing is that the directors and producers had already seen the ending from the Uruguayan original, but they decided against changing the disappointing premise - which makes me think they don't really know what a good story is.But however much of a let down the film might be overall, I really think Elizabeth Olsen deserves an Oscar for her performance.
I watched this strictly on the strength of Elizabeth Olsen's amazing performance in *Martha Marcy May Marlene*, but after reading up on the intentional use of the film making technique (the long shot or single shot) and the source material (the Urugayan film *La casa muda*), I was intrigued that the filmmakers, Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, were also the filmmakers of *Open Water* (2003), a film I found extremely suspenseful.
A remake of the Uruguayan film "La Casa Muda", this film stars Elizabeth Olsen as Sarah, a young woman helping her father John (Adam Trese) and uncle Peter (Eric Sheffer Stevens) fix up their old lakeside family home so it can be sold.
This ends up making the film on the routine side, along with the overused device of having characters who are supposedly on the same side, scaring each other.Despite the filmmakers' best efforts, "Silent House" is merely okay.Six out of 10..
She is then trying to escape without being seen.Like I said, the movie is shot with only one camera and there are no cuts, so the whole film is just one long scene.
I will give Silent House 6 out of 10.I was originally going to give this film 5 out of 10, but then it got better halfway through and pulled it back.For more of my reviews, please like my Facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Person-Movie- Reviews/456572047728204?ref=hl.
I am a horror movie fanatic, i'd like to think i have very good taste when it comes to horror films and their sub-genres.
Elizabeth Olsen is a compelling actress and if this wasn't an experiment, they may have a good little horror movie..
Here, I felt manipulated by it.Silent House's idea of using one long, continuous take was predicated off the fact that the original Uruguayan film, La casa muda this is remaking used the same little gimmick.
It's too bad what we're given is a real-time look into a character in situation not worth watching.Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, and Eric Sheffer Stevens.
Not only does such a horror film trope set back the cause of feminism, but the hand-held, shaky camera also degrades artful cinematography to the point that audiences might feel like retching from the motion rather than the gore.Although all nubile heroines are vulnerable in this genre, that weakness is annoying here, except as it prepares for the payoff in the end.
Silent House screening movie video review, scary horror or scary horribly?
There's something like a 'reveal' at the end, but, by the time it actually happens, I doubt there will be enough people still interested in the film to care.Seriously, don't bother.
SILENT HOUSE is a haunted house flick with a difference: like Hitchcock's ROPE, it's ostensibly filmed in a single take (and like the Hitchcock movie, it's in reality made up of ten minute segments with the cuts hidden from the viewer) and in a single locale, with a pretty blonde all-American girl at the mercy of the unknown in a creepy, boarded-up old house.Being a predictable Hollywood horror outing, of course this house is anything but silent.
Sadly, the single take aspect of the film is gimmicky at best, and it soon transpires that this is yet another remake - this time of a Uruguayan film, of all things - which totally misses the original's point.SILENT HOUSE is boring.
The only good thing I can say about SILENT HOUSE is that it's made me want to watch the original....
What if I take the trouble to see both on the same day to draw some conclusions, starting with the Uruguayan version (Original) I do not like at all from start to ending, boring, poor performances on and off the pace I do not really satisfied, now his North American version (Remake) changes some things the way they entertain, hitting jumps, the tension that is experienced and good performances but rather that of Elizabeth Olsen.
"Silent house" is at least interesting because the whole thing has been filmed (Or at least looks as if it has) in one continuous shot.
But "Silent house" just ends up as yet another OK creepy movie..
In conclusion, I can't recommend Silent House as a horror film, and even less as an example of what a remake should be.
Other than that, it's an okay film, drags at points but overall not a bad thing to watch if you're binge watching horror movies for fun..
IMHO - the acting is good, there are bits that made me jump, and the film makes some serious points; and I was left wondering what some of the reviewers on here are looking for in a "scary movie"..
This was done with the illusion of a one shot movie, bit it is probably not since it's impossible, but still each take jn this film takes like lot of time.
They should never have decided to turn it into a US money-machine.The story is essentially the same as in "La Casa Muda"; a young woman (played by Elizabeth Olsen) and her father are clearing out an old house and start to hear strange things.
It gets a bit old as the majority of the film is just Elizabeth Olsen's character Sara wandering through a scary house. |
tt0094608 | The Accused | The Accused (1988)The controversial rape-themed drama The Accused opens with an exterior shot of a bar, The Mill, located somewhere along the highways of Washington. Ominous music plays as the sky turns to black. A young man named Kenneth Joyce (Bernie Coulson) appears rushing outside of the bar. Before long, the wailing screams of young Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster) are heard as she makes her way out of the bar. Apparently, she has suffered a prolonged gang rape at the hands of three men in a crowded room. Kenneth informs of this to the police as Sarah becomes rescued on the highway.At the hospital, she meets up with several professionals, including Carol Hunnicutt (Linda Darlow) from the Rape Crisis Center, whilst being examined by doctors. It is learned that Sarah was intoxicated at the time of the incident. Finally, she meets Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis), her Deputy District Attorney and Lieutenant Duncan (Terry David Mulligan), who's in charge of the police investigation.With the bar still open, Sarah manages to point out two of her assailants to the police. There is Kurt (Kim Kondrashoff), a formidable presence wearing a yellow t-shirt, and local man Danny (Woody Brown).Kathryn drives Sarah home. She lives in a trailer home with her live-in boyfriend, drug dealer and would-be musician Larry (Tom O'Brien). She also has a dog named Sadie (named after The Beatles song "Sexy Sadie").After the police arrest the third suspect, a fraternity man named Bob Joiner (Steve Antin), the three rapists are released to their community on $10,000.00 bail. It turns out, Bob is a best friend of the much-chagrined Kenneth. Sarah, a waitress, hears of the news. At home, she is visited by Kathryn. Kathryn is unimpressed by Sarah's behavior as she had dressed provocatively that night at the bar and was also drinking heavily and showing a lot of cleavage. It is further revealed that Sarah had a record for drug possession. Denying this, Sarah demands that justice be done to her attackers.Kathryn goes on to interview some of the witnesses or onlookers to the scene. These include Sarah's best friend Sally Fraser (Ann Hearn), who was waitressing at The Mill the night Sarah was assaulted. They find Polito (Stephen E. Miller), a bar patron who saw what happened but proves useless for having been drunk and on probation during the events that night. After Kathryn makes a deal with the rapists' lawyers, the three men are sentenced to reckless endangerment (2 ½-5 years in prison).In a fit of rage, the betrayed Sarah storms in Kathryn's dinner party and confronts Kathryn over the relatively light sentences imposed on her attackers. It is believed Sarah would not have made a strong witness to the state. However, she goes on to emphasize the seriousness of the matter. While she was being gang-raped on a pinball machine, a crowd of men were "yelling and clapping".Back at home, Sarah cuts her hair. In the livingroom, Larry tries to seduce her, but she refuses. Enraged by Larry's lack of empathy and understanding of the potentially damaging, psychological or otherwise, effects rape has on her, Sarah orders Larry to leave her house permanently.The next day begins as Sarah unwittingly finds herself in a record store with Cliff 'Scorpion' Albrect (Leo Rossi), who taunts her with macho advances before revealing himself as one of the spectators to the rape. She tries to escape from the parking lot, but he obstructs her with his truck and harasses her. "You wanna play pinball?", he laughs. In a state of madness, Sarah decides to retaliate by ramming his truck. Before she could finish the job, she and Cliff both end up in the hospital with minor head injuries.Feeling guilt-ridden over not having offered Sarah a choice of testifying before agreeing to the deal, Kathryn is determined to prosecute the spectators for criminal solicitation. Thus, the rape would go on record and the rapists will stay in jail for the full 5 years. But her colleagues, especially D.A. Paul Rudolph (Carmen Argenziano), feel she has lost her mind and offer her little support. However, she receives much help along the way from Sarah and Sally, who identifies the three spectators in a lineup. They are Matthew Haines (Andrew Kavadas), Stu Holloway (Tom McBeath), and the aforementioned Cliff 'Scorpion' Albrect.Meanwhile, both Sarah and Sally meet up with Kathryn at her office. Sally is interviewed by Kathryn. It's discovered that Sarah had flirted heavily with Bob, one of the rapists, perhaps in an effort to get back at her cheating boyfriend. Hearing this, Kathryn decides it's best that Sally doesn't testify on Sarah's behalf. A thwarted Sarah leaves Kathryn's office.Fortunately enough, Kathryn eventually finds Kenneth at a university. Kenneth is reluctant to testify. Though not denying the behavior of the rapists, including his best friend, he maintains that the spectators weren't to blame. "It was like a show. They watched. Big deal", says Kenneth. He finally agrees to testify after Kathryn plays his recorded message.At the courthouse, Sarah gives a highly detailed, lengthy account of the night of the rape at The Mill. However, she is unable to ascertain who "applauded or shouted" or to prove that anyone in the bar really saw her struggling. The witness is excused.After visiting his friend Bob, Kenneth enters the courthouse. Though aware of the consequences facing Bob, Kenneth recounts what happened that night in a scene structured in flashbacks. In the flashback sequence, the sexily-dressed Sarah enters The Mill. She catches the eye of Danny and Bob, who's seated with Kenneth. Danny meets Sarah, and then accompanies her to the game room. They both play pinball with Bob and pretty soon find themselves dancing to the music playing on the jukebox. Danny embraces her "tight close". At this point, she tries to fight him off as he's coming on a bit strongly. Totally relentless, Danny throws her on top of the pinball machine and forces himself on her. In the process, Kurt has her arms pinned down and the near-sadistic spectators begin chanting "make her moan" and "stick it to her". Bob proceeds to rape her, followed by Kurt. As Kurt rapes her, the spectators repeatedly chant "One...two...three...four. Poke that pussy 'til it's sore". The scene ends with both Kenneth and Sarah storming out of the bar in disgust.Much debate is made on the charges laid against the spectators. As Attorney Paulsen (Peter Van Norden) points out, Sarah has been unable to acknowledge the spectators' responsibility. He firmly believes Kenneth is guilty for having watched a rape without taking action. "He was offered a way to purge that guilt, and he took it". Kathryn argues against this. As she states, "It is not the crime of criminal solicitation to silently watch a rape. But it is the crime of criminal solicitation to command, induce, entreat or otherwise persuade another person to commit a rape".In the film's final scenes, Kathryn wins the case, with special thanks to Sarah and Kenneth. All three defendents are found guilty of criminal solicitation. Sarah goes home to celebrate with her dog, Sadie. | revenge, violence, flashback | train | imdb | It has the rare gift of touching the viewer viscerally for the entire duration -- discomfort being the feeling.This isn't virtuoso film-making like "The Godfather", but at the same time I can think of no greater compliment for a movie than it truly opened my eyes to a new perspective that I was not mature enough to grasp on my own.
Several of Jodie Foster's scenes were so powerful they nearly brought me to tears -- specifically, the scene where she confronts lawyer Kelly McGillis in the latter's apartment during a dinner party; her courtroom testimony; and the horrifying rape scene.Kelly McGillis seemed to be sleepwalking through this entire film, with only a few moments when she roused herself a bit, but not enough to help.
NO one Woman or man) deserves to be raped, violated or harmed just because they were at the wrong place.This movie is based on a true story, and the actors were very moving.
NO one Woman or man) deserves to be raped, violated or harmed just because they were at the wrong place.This movie is based on a true story, and the actors were very moving.
Perfectly knowing that a lot of people would get inspired, personally relate or cite examples from this film, there is no reason to deny that except for the rape victim Sarah Tobias, all the other main characters, even attorney Kathryn Murphy, are written blatantly as stereotypical as they can be.
The screenwriters have played only one masterstroke by showing the whole rape incident much later in a flashback, which perhaps helps us to relate better to the victim's emotions.However predictable and blunt the film appears in its formation, it delivers it message right with the help of the outstanding (and Oscar-winning) performance of Jodie Foster.
The shocking true story of a bar room gang rape is lifted from the headlines to become, with dramatic license, a serious and troubling study of sexism at its worst, when the victim herself is accused of 'asking for it'.
Jodie Foster offers a courageous performance as the tough but vulnerable Sarah Tobias, whose behavior on the night of the crime was certainly provocative, but as the flashback re-enactment shows all too clearly no amount of provocation could justify such a brutal response.
The same year Jodie Foster got an Oscar for "The Accused" Meryl Streep was nominated for "A Cry In The Dark" Both films climax in a court room.
Jodie Foster's performance is good and the gang rape scene at the end of the film is horrific, but the whole movie has the unfortunate feel of a made-for-TV movie.
Along with no story and no sex."Actually, I don't feel the movie was THAT uneventful (I just wanted to squeeze in the Pulp reference, to tell you the truth.) But the difficult subject matter is rendered tame with a boring court case and lots of "You can't win this trial!" dialogue between Kelly McGillis and her bosses.
Film claims high ideals and explores the right of a woman to decline sexual advances at any stage, despite giving out signals of encouragement to dumb-ass males.'The Accused' has been highly praised because of its head-on tackling of its subject matter, but the film is crude and clumsy with Foster (as the victim) and McGillis (as her attorney) no better than adequate in stereotyped roles.
After a young woman (Jodie Foster) suffers a brutal rape in a bar one night, a prosecutor (Kelly McGillis) assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice, including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.First of all, is this Foster's worst haircut ever?
Jodie Foster plays Sarah Tobias, a small-town waitress with a bad reputation(and drug user) who is brutally attacked by three men in a bar, who were also being cheered on by some of the onlookers.
Sarah is determined to convince the District Attorney on the case(Kelly McGillis) to bring it to trial, not just the three attackers, but the onlookers as well.Powerful film is supremely well acted by Jodie Foster(Academy Award Winner)Film runs the risk of being crass exploitation, but is well directed, and again it is the sympathetic and defiant performance of Jodie as this wronged, violated woman that makes this film work as well as it does.Not for the faint-hearted..
(I am writing this from memory.) I do remember the scene as extremely uncomfortable to watch.In a nutshell, Jodie Foster plays a woman, "Sarah Tobias" who goes looking for trouble in a bar and gets much more than she bargained for, being gang-raped on top of a pinball machine.
Alcohol and sex desires are a lethal combination and a bar with a number of drunks is not where you want to start arousing people.Jodie Foster is a fine actress but I did question her winning an Oscar over this.
*IMPORTANT BACKGROUND INFORMATION STARTS*I have to review the film as a total piece of fiction because the difference between the "inspirational" case and the one presented on celluloid are (bar the instance of unquestionable gang rape) so totally different.Big Dan's Bar - the now closed real crime scene - was a disreputable dive ignored by everyone but hard drinking immigrant types.
Naturally the film makes it own environment - but even in this it fails to prove its own case "beyond reasonable doubt."The Accused argues that on-lookers with no possible way of knowing a crime was about to be committed, and play no active part in it, are equally guilty by not lifting a finger to prevent it.Crudely we have two types of "do nothings" - people that encourage vocally and those that simply do nothing but look on.
Bode.After Sarah Tobias (Foster) suffers a brutal rape in a road side bar one night, prosecutor Kathryn Murphy (McGillis) takes up the case to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.Criminal Solicitation.Some have bemoaned The Accused as being a TV movie type production, while the thematic edge of Sarah Tobias being a "good time gal, even slutty", has caused consternation in highbrow circles.
Jodie Foster hits a home run in her Oscar-winning performance in this outstanding film.Foster epitomizes the low class girl,coming from a broken home and rapidly going nowhere at all in her totally dysfunctional life.When she is brutally gang raped at a bar, the onus is put on her.
Her miserable life, her dress, her drinking, her use of drugs shall all be used against her in a trial.She is angered when her attorney settles for a lower plea, but is up to the task when the former realized her mistake and will now prosecute those who provoked the brutal attack by their screaming and encouraging the participants.The rape scene is self is brutally staged but unfortunately that what was needed here.This hard-hitting drama reflects a tragic social issue of our times..
The only positive about her performance is that she is (slightly) better than the cartoon characters that populated the bar and the cardboard cutout of Kelly McGillis they wheeled from one scene to the next.This film had a solid story, an important message to tell and what appeared to be a good screenplay, but a large chunk of this got lost somewhere in the mess of meaningful expressions and shouty overacting.
With the big screen and sound pumped up like they do in a movie theatre it would probably have scared the bejesus out of me.Ms Jodie Foster gave a truly incredible performance as the victim in the film.
That was even scarier than a horror film!Jodie Foster deserves 10 Oscars for her believable and great acting and the way she just connects with her characters is amazing.
Jodie Foster is a woman who gets gang raped at a pinball machine at a bar in this based on a true story movie that won Oscars.
I'm very glad that Jodie Foster and Kelly McGilis really put this film out and thereby sending out a strong message to the world regarding the horrors and resulting complications (legal and otherwise) surrounding the tragedy and trauma of rape.
Dealing with the material in a very direct and brutally honest way, McGillis (a victim of an assault before - part of the reason why she took up this film) and Foster (who showcases her unbelievably powerful acting skills) shine some light on an otherwise unchartered and undiscussed area of not just women's rights, but human rights and the issues and possibilities behind some of the human race's ugliest sides.
The only time the viewer really sympathises with Sarah as PERSON and not as a VICTIM is when she starts acting (and looking) like a vulnerable, little girl -which is increasingly noticeable as the film develops from the car crash.
Whilst I agree that McGillis' acting was a little wooden, I think it is understandable considering she had been raped in real life not long before the Accused was filmed.
Foster deservedly won her first Best Actress Oscar for her powerful performance as the victim of a gang rape who has to face some harsh realities in the American judicial process as well as her own character assassination when her lawyer (McGillis equally effective) is determined to prosecute those who rooted on the assailants.
An intense drama based on a real life account of a foul-mouthed woman (Foster) who is brutally raped in a local bar by a group of men.
Yet Jodie Foster plays her role as a gang-raped woman so convincing, so real and so powerful that it's hard not to sympathize with her.The overall movie is excellent too.
Partially based on a true story, this film begins with a young woman named "Sarah Tobias" (Jodie Foster) running out of a nightclub onto a nearby road in an attempt to flag down a passing motorists to escape from the men who had just gang-raped her.
It's during this time that she is introduced to a woman by the name of "Kathryn Murphy" (Kelly McGillis) who works for the District Attorney's office there in Washington state and needs to know if there is enough evidence available for her to initiate a criminal trial against those who took part in the rape.
Be that as it may, from what I understand the rather graphic rape scene proved to be quite tramatic for some of the actors involved and for her performance Jodie Foster was awarded an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Going out to have a good time at a local Bar, The Mill, after a fight with her live in drug dealing boyfriend Larry, Tom O'Brian, 21 year old Sarah Tobias, Jodie Foster, ends up getting gang raped in the bar's game room on top of the "Slam Dunk" pinball machine.
It took an eye whiteness to the gang rape local boy, and good friend of one of the rapists, Ken Joyce, Bernie Coulson, to brake the case wide open: In both Sarah Tobias and Kathryn Murphy's favor.Shocking in not only the crime that was committed in the film but how the victim of the crime was made as if she was the guilty party in bringing up her lifestyle that was anything but perfect.
While everybody knows rape is a heinous crime, the message here is that no matter how provocatively a woman dresses or how flirtatious her behavior, "no" means "no." A valid point, but the film goes overboard in trying to drive this message home, making the victim a low-life floozy who was drunk and high when the crime occurred.
What shook me the most was not the frightening rape scene, but a monolouge by Jodie Fosters character, Sarah Tobias, towards the beginning of the film.
This movie was based on a true story about a milestone court case.Jodie Foster plays Sarah Tobias-a woman who is a heavy drinker and partier, sometimes drug user and overall, white trash.
Powerful Film Deserving Of The Oscars It Won. The Accused is a powerful film to be commended for taking a controversial subject and bringing it onto the screen.Jodie Foster performs her best role as Sarah Tobias who is gang-raped.
I would include this film on a top ten list of 'MUST SEE MOVIES.'One more thing, I notice one IMDB user commented that Jodie Foster should have played the prosecutor and Kelly McGillis should have played the victim.
I didn't think that Jodie Foster did a very good job, and I didn't really like this movie.
The crime committed was rape done by three different men in a small bar to one lady "Sarah Tobias" played by "Jodie Foster".
Jodie Foster is the victim of a brutal gang rape who feels sold out by the legal wheeling and dealing of her lawyer, Kelly McGillis.
Jodie Foster plays a woman who was raped by three men in a bar.
This kind of film is very rare in the year of 2007.No wonder Judy Foster won the Oscar, she acted like a real rape victim, very authentic.
A particularly effective scene is when Foster decides to take revenge on one of the men who encouraged the rape; you can feel what she's thinking.All in all, this is a movie that I recommend to everyone.
Jody really brings the emotion and the raw realness, I mean there is absolutely no doubt that her character was raped in the movie, her performance is so focused and it is absolutely heartbreaking, you will most definitely need to bring tissues if you decide to view this film.
As you watch the movie, look at the image of the woman on the pinball machine; look at the friend who turned away; the boyfriend who expects the victim to "get over it;" the lawyer who thinks it's OK to cut a deal that removes a rape charge in order to get the rapists behind bars, without thought for the life of the victim afterward.
A girl is gang raped by 3 men in a bar, where a crowd of male customers are shouting, clapping and cheering it on like it's a show.Jodie Foster plays Sarah Tobias, the girl who is raped.
Regardless, should this movie ever come up in conversation, my recommendation will be based entirely on those performances from Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis.7/10.
This movie was brilliantly acted, by Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis, at least.
The victim here comes off as flirty and provocatively dressed and often times it makes it seem like they were "asking for it" and a girls character can really be hurt by that and this movie beautifully shows that no matter how you act, or dress, or even what you say has no justification on rape or doing something to someone when they tell you "no".
The movie had many good messages and it's an honest depiction of rape and how people try to classify it in different ways, when in reality rape is rape and there are no innocent sexual abuse or rape cases out there.I thought Jodie did an amazing job, as did Kelly McGillis as her attorney.
I think the thing I liked best was the victim's need to become a stronger woman after the events occurred, that really spoke to me, because it was almost like a passage into womanhood for her.I thought the movie was really good, it was honest and blunt and did well with telling the whole story without details and then at the end it had the courtroom drama, which I always love, and then the details come out and we here them from many peoples point of view.
The way the movie presents the action, it is clear that each of the men having sex with her could tell from her struggle that she was not consenting - they were raping her.Yet the crime in this courtroom drama is about the cheering - and it seems clear that no one persuaded the first rapist to push something far beyond what Foster was willing (indeed, eager) to undertake.
At the end of the movie, there is a statistic on the screen about the frequency of rape - yet we have not seen a courtroom drama about rapists.There is another statistic about the frequency with which rape involves two assailants - yet none of the defendants in this courtroom drama were assailants - none seem to have touched her - and assault was not the crime in the courtroom trial.Jodie Foster's performance is spectacular - particularly during the bar scenes - she gives an electrifyingly sexy performance while playing pinball and dancing.
The movie portrays a rape victim(Foster) who is gang raped in a bar and her Attorney(McGillis) makes the decision to prosecute the men who cheered the attack on.
In The Accused, we follow Sarah Tobias'(Jodi Foster) fight to have the men who stood by and not only watched, but cheered on while other men raped her borough to justice.I am having a hard time reviewing this movie.
The Accused has three things that make it great: Kelly McGillis, Jodie Foster, and a case where lots of the blame is placed upon the victim.
McGillis is pretty good as the lawyer who is at first resilient but then determined to get to the bottom of the rape case and prove the truth, but of course the film is all about Foster who is absolutely superb as the young woman abused by both hideous sexual assault and the law system but comes through as a moving and equally determined victim.
This is a pretty decent movie in its direction (Jonathan Kaplan) and its principal performances (Jodie Foster, as a gang-rape victim, and Kelly McGillis is the prosecuting Assistant District Attorney).In the opening scene we see Foster running out of a bar and onto a highway, sobbing, her dress torn.
I think Jodie Foster did an excellent job of playing the part of Sarah Tobias, (the rape victim). |
tt0045555 | The Big Heat | Homicide detective Sergeant Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is an honest cop who investigates the death of fellow officer Tom Duncan. It would seem to be an open-and-shut case, suicide brought on by depression, but Bannion is then contacted by the late cop's mistress, Lucy Chapman (Dorothy Green), who claims that it could not have been suicide.She explains that Duncan was in perfect health and had no reason to do it. All the evidence points to a self-inflicted gunshot wound and Bannion is prepared to believe that Chapman is just talking tales as a means of making a little money. But he is intrigued to learn that the Duncans had a second home which would simply not have been possible on his salary.Bannion visits Mrs Duncan (Jeanette Nolan) and raises the subject but she resents the implication of his suspicions. The next day Bannion gets a dressing-down by Lieutenant Ted Wilks (Willis Bouchey) who is under pressure from "upstairs" to close the case with as little grief to the widow as possible.Chapman is later found dead after being tortured and covered with cigarette burns. After counting "every single one of them" Bannion sets about investigating her murder even though it is not his case or his jurisdiction. Threatening calls are then made to his home and he goes to confront Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby), the local mob boss. It's an open secret that Lagana runs the city, even to the point that he has cops guarding his house while his daughter hosts a party. Lagana resents Bannion's accusations in his own home during such an event: "I've seen some dummies in my time, but you're in a class by yourself."Bannion's main problem is that people are just too scared to stand up to the crime syndicate that controls the city, including Lieutenant Wilks, who fears for his pension and whom Bannion dismisses as a "leaning tower of jelly". But, when the warnings to him go unheeded, Bannion's car is blown up and his wife (Jocelyn Brando) is killed.Feeling that the department will do little to bring the perpetrators to justice (they insist on going over all his old cases which will just delay matters), and disgusted by Police Commissioner Higgins' (Howard Wendell) clichéd condolences, Bannion resigns the force and sets off on a one-man crusade to get Lagana and his second-in-command Vince Stone (Lee Marvin).When Stone drunkenly attacks a girl in a nightclub, Bannion stands up to him and orders him and his bodyguard out of the joint. This impresses Stone's girlfriend Debby Marsh (Gloria Grahame). She tries to get friendly with Bannion who keeps pointing out that she gets her money from a thief. Marsh states: "I've been rich and I've been poor. Believe me, rich is better." But when she unwittingly reminds him of the time he courted his late wife he sends her packing: "Well, you're about as romantic as a pair of handcuffs," she remarks.Marsh was seen with Bannion and when she returns to Stone's penthouse, he accuses her of talking to Bannion about his activities and throws boiling hot coffee at her face.She is taken to hospital by none other than Commissioner Higgins who was playing poker with Stone and his friends at the flat. When Higgins warns that he will have to file a report, Stone reminds him that he pays him to deal with that sort of thing.Her lovely face half-scarred, Marsh returns to Bannion who agrees to put her up for a while. He's been looking for a man called Larry who hired a mechanic to set the dynamite in the car that killed his wife. Marsh reveals that it is Larry Gordon (Adam Williams), one of Stone's associates.Bannion confronts and strangles Gordon until he admits that he did organise the bombing of his car. This whole thing has started because Bertha Duncan, widow of the cop who committed suicide, has papers he collected that could expose Stone and Lagana. They were really intended for the DA, but Mrs Duncan has kept them for herself and is collecting from Lagana. If she is not paid, or if anything happens to her, the well-hidden papers will be made public.Bannion has been warned by Marsh that killing for revenge would make him no better than those who killed his wife. He thus refrains from killing Gordon, instead spreading the word that he talked. Gordon is seized and murdered by Stone's men before he can make his escape.Bannion now confronts Mrs Duncan accusing her of betraying Chapman to her death and of protecting "Lagana and Stone for the sake of a soft plush life", but then cops sent by Lagana make him leave.Stone decides to try and kidnap Bannion's little daughter Joyce (Linda Bennett) who is staying with her aunt and uncle with a police guard outside their flat. When the guard suddenly leaves the uncle calls in a few army buddies to take over. Satisfied that she is in good hands, Bannion sets off to deal with Stone. On the way he meets Lieutenant Wilks, the "leaning tower of jelly", who is now prepared to make a stand against the mob, admitting that, in spite of his own wife's pressure over what will happen to his pension, "It's the first time in years I've breathed good clean air."Debbie Marsh, slowly coming to terms with her disfigurement, confronts Mrs Duncan. They've both benefited from their association with mobsters as can be shown by their very-similar and expensive mink coats: "We're sisters under the mink," says Marsh. She then kills Mrs Duncan, thus starting the process that will see Tom Duncan's evidence surface and bring about Stone and Lagana's downfall. When Stone returns to his penthouse, Marsh throws boiling coffee over him like he did to her.Stone shoots Marsh and after a short gun battle is captured by Bannion who had followed him to the flat. As Marsh lies dying, Bannion describes his late wife to her in terms of their relationship rather than the physical "police description" he gave earlier: "You and Katie would have gotten along fine," he tells her.Stone is arrested for Marsh's murder. When Duncan's evidence is made public Lagana and Commissioner Higgins are indicted. Bannion returns to his job at Homicide. | violence, cult, revenge, murder, sadist | train | imdb | Fritz Lang, a man who knew the business like no other, is seen at the top of his craft with this interesting film noir that pays off in unexpected ways.
Surprisingly, Ms. Grahame and Mr. Ford show a lot of chemistry in their scenes together.The others in the film do good work under Mr. Lang's direction.
Ford is so good in this film and in "Gilda" that he deserved more recognition than he got from the Hollywood big wigs.The two shining performances are given by Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin who run away with the show.
They provide one of the legendary scenes in film history that just about everyone has either seen or read about, when Vince Stone (Marvin)--note the last name of Stone--pitches a container of boiling coffee into Debby Marsh's (Grahame) face, scarring her for life.
The story follows the descent of family man Bannion into violence and bitterness when he not only loses what is important to him, but when he finds that corruption at high levels has fed down into rank and file officers causing him to stand out when he tries to catch a criminal.The brutality of this film shouldn't be underestimated Fritz Lang is no softy!
I suspect Marvin got fame because his coffee attack stuck in people's minds even today he is best know as a tough guy in the movies.Overall this is well worth hunting out it is still being copied by many video thrillers and it just goes to show that you don't have to show gory or graphic violence on screen to be powerful, gritty or shocking..
As for Miss Grahame, she plays the sort of excellent role she became known for--a "dame" who, down under layers and layers of scum, beats a real human heart.Wonderful performances, terrific pacing and excellent writing make this one film well worth seeing and as a result, it's one of the best examples of Film Noir out there and a great example of a film about a cop who's seen enough and is on a rampage.
Fascinating noir film with a terrific performance by Glenn Ford and well directed by the master Fritz Lang.
Interpretation by Glenn Ford as revenger cop is first class , the evil racketeer Alexander Scourby is top notch and his underling Lee Marvin makes an absolutely hypnotic interpretation , also Willis Bouchey as corrupt Police Lieutenant is first rate .
Pretty unusual twist in a noir.Glenn Ford is a very limited actor, but he works perfectly in the narrow range of this role.While the film starts slow, what makes it work better than most noirs is how it deals with the multi-level complicity of ordinary people in evil, people just going along to get along, and one man going up against that (assisted by the old crippled woman who risks her life to give him a key tip).
Police sergeant Bannion (Glenn Ford) is a tough cop who steps on too many toes in and out of his corrupt department and finally wages a one-man war against the local crime syndicate, with the Irish Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby) at the head and Vince Stone (Lee Marvin) as his top lackey.
Stone's girl (Gloria Grahame) becomes a martyr to Bannion's cause, while a duplicitous policeman's widow (Jeanette Nolan) is the key to the mob's dirty secrets.Fritz Lang directed this potent crime thriller in a somewhat flat style, as Martin Scorsese has pointed out, in order to keep us at a certain distance from the action and the main character, whose apparent heroism may hide darker motives that are too dark even for him to see.
And Nolan is a consummate actress playing a woman who is a consummate actress, shedding crocodile tears and feigning grief for her unloved husband, who shoots himself moments before she coldly takes advantage of the situation.My only complaint is with the phony scenes with Bannion's phony wife (Jocelyn Brando, Marlon's sister) and phony young daughter (Linda Bennett, who several times anticipates what she is about to do before she is cued to do it), although the unconvincing sugary happiness of Bannion's home life, before tragedy strikes, may have been another way for Lang to keep us at arm's length..
Fritz Lang can conjure up a paranoid thriller with the greatest of ease (actually, it's probably a lot of work, but it looks easy, which is a feat unto itself), and The Big Heat provides some of his classic paranoia to the proceedings of a story of a good, hard cop on the trail of a case that's gone way too corrupt.
Lang doesn't stop for a detail that isn't worthy of the attention of the narrative, and there's a connection that he makes between the world of the criminal underworld and the law: it's a place where there's some gray, but the black and white aspect rings through due to the situation at hand: corrupt cops, dirty criminals, and only a couple of dames to trust in the mix of it (one of them Debby, played in another great turn by Gloria Grahame, takes a savage incident with a pot of coffee via Lee Marvin's hand to wise up).It might not have the depth of an M or Scarlett Street, but the Big Heat is about as solid a genre piece as one could ask for, getting more harrowing from the first gun shot of the picture all the way to the final moment when Bannion leaves the office for a hit-and-run case (a cop's work is never finished, one might suggest).
Land understands how, for the sake of a piece of pulp fiction like this, to keep the lines in order, even if it might seem standard for today: keep Bannion's family wholesome, maybe TOO wholesome, with stories of three little kittens, and keep the criminal elements savage, sinister in their grins and suits and violence brimming underneath.One things for sure, it doesn't get much less thrilling than seeing Ford and Marvin in an unpredictable shoot-out.
Glenn Ford is the good guy with some shades of gray/ Lee Marvin is the bad guy and boy is he bad ; roughs up 2 women/ Carolyn Jones at the bar, slams her hand/ and poor Gloria Grahame/ throws hot boiling coffee in her gorgeous face..
Since I love film noir, I enjoyed "The Big Heat," but I didn't feel that it distinguished itself from any number of other similar films from the same time period.This surprised me somewhat, as I don't think of Fritz Lang as an anonymous director, and he's usually able to imprint a strong visual style on his films.
It also picked up a main theme from "The Asphalt Jungle": cops and robbers alike have families and lives separate from their work, and this fact makes them more like one another than they might want to admit.This film is most notable for a feisty performance from Gloria Grahame, who plays a gangster's moll who gets tired of being used and abused by her thug of a boyfriend (a repulsive Lee Marvin) and gets her scalding revenge.
Playing out as a tale of murder, revenge and pure hatred, The Big Heat holds up now as one of the best of the dialogue driven genre pieces of the 50s.Lang isn't concerned with showing the violence exactly, more like the reaction of our protagonists to the violence in the piece, this makes for a sort of ethereal viewing, with the sets themselves becoming integral to our characters personalities, it really is a wonderfully put together picture.
What ignites her fascinating transformation is a shocking scene of cringe-inducing violence, when Marvin accuses her of talking to a cop about his activities and throws boiling coffee at her face, a shot that betrays this grisly act, for Lang understands the augmented horror of what we can only hear and not see.Grahame is on the wrong side of the law who is driven to a means of justice, as we see in her greatly increased screen time during the last half of the film.
Classic thriller of a former police officer determination to bring to justice police corruption & mobster racketeer's such as Mike Lugana who think there above the law,Det.Sgt Dave Bannion(Glenn Ford)while investigating a apparent suicide & later that of a woman who frequented a night club called the Retreat he comes across corruption,with no help from his superior's who tell him to drop the case where upon a booby trap explodes which was meant for him but has dire consequence's for someone close to him & quit's the force to track down the hoodlum's,he meet's Debby Marsh(Gloria Grahame)the friend of Vince Stone(Lee Marvin)Lugana's hence-man who befriends him & that's a big mistake.Bannion's child is protected by his friend's,leaving the way to deal with ill mannered bar staff,lowlife & a grieving money grasping widow along with coffee scolding & gritty dialogue it boils down to the final showdown..
Great flick -- the only minor flaw might be the casting of Glenn Ford as the lead (Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of his) -- I just have a little problem with him physically asserting himself (Like he does in Blackboard Jungle with the young toughs), especially when put next to ultimate heel Lee Marvin.
Glenn Ford, in what was probably his best performance, is crusading cop Dave Bannion, after the men who killed his wife, (the bomb in her car was meant for him).
Lee Marvin is the vicious gangster behind her killing, (he throws scalding coffee in girlfriend Gloria Grahame's face) and Alexander Scourby is the corrupt political lynchpin: (he has wonderfully florid speeches; pointing to a painting of his grey-haired mother he tells Bannion, "they broke the mould the day they made her").For it's period (the early fifties) it was a very violent film.
Directed by Fritz Lang, this crime drama is witty and well paced.Along with Ford are fine performances from: Lee Marvin, Gloria Grahame, Howard Wendell, Jocelyn Brando and Willis Bouchey.
Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin are excellent as well and bring lots of energy and character to their roles (I don't know how else to word it).I felt like some of the scenes were a bit typical at first (giving so much attention to an attractive woman, showing intimate family moments) but as the film progresses, you see that everything is there for a reason.
When Banion's wife is killed by a bomb meant for him, he gets even more angry but things are back to near normal at the end and he starts back to work.For its time in 1953, The Big Heat is rather violent, which makes it better.The cast includes Glenn Ford, Lee Marvin, Gloria Graham, Jocelyn Brando and Alexander Scrourby.
In "The Big Heat", Glenn Ford plays a cop who takes a case, but the case eventually turns into revenge for him.As is always the case with film noirs, there are detectives, gangsters, strange dames and a lot of gunfire, but this is no ordinary film noir.
With a cast headed by the likes of Glenn Ford, Gloria Graham, Jeanette Nolan, Lee Marvin, Alexander Scourby and aided by many solid and dependable supporting actors, this film is now on my "favorites" list..
Despite being directed by Fritz Lang, The Big Heat is a rather undistinguished film noir that I found disappointing considering its reputation and its director.
Pretty brutal stuff is the best way to sum up the contents of THE BIG HEAT, easily a forerunner of two biggies that came along much later in time--L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (with its exposure of police corruption in Los Angeles) and THE BLACK DAHLIA (the same).GLENN FORD is out for revenge when his wife is killed by the mobsters and he walks into some pretty scary situations when he tries to take justice into his own hands.
LEE MARVIN is a brutal mobster with a pretty blonde girlfriend (GLORIA GRAHAME) who is treated so viciously by him that she decides to switch her allegiance and falls in with honest cop GLENN FORD.It's a tight, taut, suspenseful film (with good chemistry between Ford and Grahame) that shows no mercy in dealing with several of its main characters for the sake of telling a gripping story about corruption and loyalties in the "crime does not pay" mold.A definitive example of film noir and well worth sampling if you're a fan of this genre..
Glenn Ford is a police sergeant seeking retribution for the death of his wife in "The Big Heat," a 1953 film that also stars Gloria Graham and Lee Marvin.
Some have suggested the similar scene in "The Godfather" was inspired by "The Big Heat." It's certainly possible.For 1953, the violence is uncompromising, particularly against the female character played by Gloria Graham when she crosses her boyfriend, Lee Marvin, in one of his early roles.
Glenn Ford, a handsome, solid actor who seems forgotten now, underplays his role but the coldness and rage he feels is evident as he goes from happy family man to angry avenger.Excellently directed by Fritz Lang, "The Big Heat" packs a wallop..
A deeply satisfying noir, with a gritty cop (Glenn Ford), femme fatale (Gloria Grahame), and powerful crime bosses (Lee Marvin and Alexander Scourby).
Lang also draws some great performances out from his actors, especially Lee Marvin, who manages to be sleazy and corrupt without ever seeming unreal -- he's the kind of villain you could see yourself being friends with and simply turning a blind eye to the shadier parts of his work.As for the rest of the film, it may be my apathy to film noir tropes, but it left me fairly cold (sorry).
Everyone else is a crook and a louse, except for Bannion's wife and the woman who works at the auto repair shop, and you can tell she's a good egg because she walks with a cane.The plot of The Big Heat forms a straight line from the first scene to the end, with a single I- can't-believe-they-did-that moment in the middle that's telegraphed so thoroughly the they should have saved their money and put a first class stamp on it.Still, even on an off day Fritz Lang can create eye candy out of nothing but lighting and camera angles.
The characters and their portrayals (by a very worthy cast) are shameless stereotypes of the form – Lee Marvin's heavy, Gloria Grahame's moll, Alexander Scourby's clean-handed mob boss and even the square-jawed, uncompromising hero played by Glenn Ford.
McGivern won an Edgar Allen Poe award for The Big Heat, and this is quite appropriate as there is something distinctly Poe-ish in this theme of a protagonist possessed by the memory of his lost love.The director here is Fritz Lang, a man often associated with the pessimism, not to mention the stark and shadowy look of film noir.
It took three years to do the work.German director Fritz Lang (Metropolis, Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler, M), who built a career on gangster films, gave a a film noir that was fast paced and had some really great lines given to some really remarkable actors.Glenn Ford (the original 3:10 to Yuma,Superman, Pocketful of Miracles) had the lead as a cop whose wife is killed by the mob.
Lang liked using everyman characters seeking revenge, and Ford was perfect in his relentless pursuit of those who did him wrong.Oscar winner Gloria Grahame (The Bad & the Beautiful, Violet in It's a Wonderful Life), was superb as the gangster's moll, who had boiling coffee thrown in her face.
Now, that's good cover.******** The Big Heat (10/14/53) Fritz Lang ~ Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Lee Marvin, Jocelyn Brando.
Fritz Lang directed this hard-hitting film noir that stars Glenn Ford as Detective Sgt. Bannion, who is a determined cop bent on taking down local mobster Mike Lagana(played by Alexander Scourby) and his brutal henchman Vince Stone(played by Lee Marvin) after his investigation of a policeman's suicide leads him to believe the police force is corrupt.
"The Big Heat" tells the story of a cop Dave Bannion, investigating the suicide of a man within the first min of the film.
And, I had a big surprise, some really impressive actor's recitals: Glenn Ford's best role in everything I've ever seen him, the exceptional Gloria Graham, perhaps her best role too, the very good Jeanette Nolan, the whole cast it's a big day, once again, you know one of the great conductors like Fritz Lang from the start.
THE BIG HEAT is a top-notch crime thriller and one of the best Fritz Lang film's I've watched.
Classic film-noir crime-thriller.A police detective, Sgt Dave Bannion (played by Glenn Ford) investigates the apparent suicide of a senior police officer.
Good support from Gloria Grahame, Alexander Scourby and an early-career Lee Marvin.Not perfect - Bannion's big break feels a bit contrived.
Big Heat, The (1953) *** (out of 4) Hard hitting, if familiar, crime drama from Fritz Lang has Glenn Ford taking on the mob in a one man war.
I thought the story of a cop finding himself alone going after the bad guys was something we've seen countless times but Lang certainly brings some style along and Ford is on fire throughout the film.
In The Big Heat, Fritz Lang by casting Glenn Ford against type, probably directed Ford to his greatest screen performance and one of the best noir films ever done.Ford is a homicide cop in an unnamed big mid-western city which is in the grip of systemic corruption from organized crime.
Dave Bannion," make this one of the better film noirs of the period, at least one of the ones I enjoyed the most.Ford is a believably 100 percent honest and tough cop who is unrelenting in getting his wife's killer.
I watched Lang's THE BIG HEAT last night for the first time.It was everything I expected, and more.Glenn Ford probably gave his best screen performance as Bannion, he was excellent throughout the picture. |
tt1731701 | Barely Lethal | The girls of Prescott Academy are taught practically since birth how to become trained assassins. Their number one rule is "no attachments". Number 83 (Hailee Steinfeld) has always had curiosity of the world outside the Academy, however. Despite her excellent work in the field, she has dreamt of a normal life. Her mentor Hardman (Samuel L. Jackson) has always discouraged her and the other girls from becoming attached to anything. 83's skills have also made her rivals with 84 (Sophie Turner).Hardman assigns the girls to capture wanted arms dealer Victoria Knox (Jessica Alba). The agents head to Chechnya to apprehend her. 83 goes undercover as one of those captured and brought before Knox. She manages to latch herself and Knox onto an oncoming jet with Hardman on it. When they get high and far enough, 83 drops herself into a river while the other agents apprehend Knox. They find no sign of 83 and declare her MIA.83 goes into hiding to start her new life as a regular teenager. She brushes up on her teen culture through popular magazines and watching movies like "Mean Girls" and "Bring It On", then enrolls in a high school and goes through an exchange program to live with the Larson family under the name Megan Walsh. She is picked up by Mrs. Larson (Rachael Harris) and her children Liz (Dove Cameron) and Parker (Jason Ian Drucker). Parker already likes Megan but Liz is cold and distant.Megan/83 picks a ridiculous outfit for her first day of school and is immediately laughed at. Liz gets embarrassed and gives her new clothes to put on. Megan gets introduced to the students at an assembly where she says she is from Regina, Canada, but she pronounces it to rhyme with "vagina". The students laugh at her, but she is saved by the school's most popular guy, Cash (Toby Sebastian), as he goes up to play his guitar and sing. He then performs onstage with his band, Emotacon.As Megan continues her new life as a high school student, she makes friends with a geeky kid named Roger (Thomas Mann), who has an interest in her, despite her attraction to Cash. Megan finds out she's in a biology class with him and hacks the system to make him her lab partner, to the ire of two mean girls. As retaliation, the girls convince Megan that Cash loves girls with school spirit and suggest she try out for the position of school mascot. Using her combat skills in her tryout, Megan scores the position. During a game, a few kids from a rival school come and try to kidnap Megan as part of an annual tradition. She kicks their asses and the video of her doing this goes viral. It earns her some popularity, but also annoys Liz.Back at Prescott, Hardman is holding Knox in captivity. 84 walks in on them as Knox tells Hardman that Prescott destroys lives, and she's not just talking about the targets.Megan spends more time with Cash, to Roger's dismay. As she's walking home, she is apprehended by a Prescott analyst (Jaime King) and is brought back to Hardman. He is ready to have his minion Pedro (Steve-O) torture Megan under the assumption that she is working with enemies of Prescott. He injects her with a truth serum and realizes she is honest when she says she only wanted to enjoy a normal life outside the Academy. Pedro also sympathizes with Megan as she cries. Hardman lets her go but warns her that if she gets into trouble, they won't be there to bail her out. They dump her on the front porch of the Larson house to make Megan look like she's super drunk.Megan gets invited to a big party at the home of the school's class clown Gooch (Gabriel Basso). Mrs. Larson encourages Megan to go and makes Liz join her. At the party, Megan continues to hang out with Cash, while Liz gets drunk with Gooch in his bathtub, learning that his name is really Bernard and that he's not a total jerk. To Megan's surprise, 84 is there, now going by Heather. Megan thinks Hardman sent Heather to shadow her, but she has her own plan brewing. She goes after cash to piss Megan off, forcing them into a game. Megan eventually wins Cash's attention and gets asked by him to the homecoming dance.The next morning, Mrs. Larson is upset with Megan and Liz since Liz passed out and got a dick drawn on her face. Megan is later about to take the bus to school when she sees that Hardman is driving a bus and only passes through to warn Megan that Knox has escaped from Prescott. Liz drives Megan to school, but they are pursued by a masked assassin. Megan steers them away from danger and admits to Liz her secret. They crash in a junkyard while also getting the assassin to crash. Megan goes to investigate and smells what she recognizes to be Ke$ha perfume, meaning it was Heather that tried to murder them.Liz is in the hospital after the crash. Megan tells her she has to leave before anybody else gets hurt. Liz responds that Megan trying to abandon the family would be worse.The girls go to the homecoming dance. Megan realizes that Cash is kind of a boring person and dumps him. She goes to apologize to Roger, who is still sort of upset with her, and then she finds out that his date is Heather. She provokes Megan's rage and they fight in the gym. They spill punch on the mean girls, who then start to fight each other. Heather chases Megan into the hallway where they end up in the kitchen. Heather says she joined Knox for the chance to kill Megan herself. She also brags about making out with Cash AND Roger. Liz sneaks up on Heather and stabs her in the leg with a corn dog stick, allowing Megan to whack Heather over the head and knock her out.Megan returns home to find that Knox and some goons have taken Parker and Mrs. Larson hostage. Megan fights the goons but Liz gets captured as well. Knox reveals that she was the very first Prescott girl, but she left and turned against them for robbing her of her life. Hardman shows up with reinforcements to take out the goons and tranquilize Knox. Megan knows Hardman came back to help her, despite his denial, and she hugs him. Parker asks Hardman how he can get in on the action, and he tells him to apply for the Prescott boys school. He excitedly asks his mom if he can. | revenge, violence | train | imdb | Haley Stanford plays lead role of a girl who wants to be a 'Normal teenager and experience a life of school and boys' but is unable to due to her training as a child to be an assassin.
Good cast with this movie to, Nice to see Jessica Alba and Jaime King making an appearance.
After a viewing at 1am I am pretty satisfied with the overall film, I didn't go in to this expecting a life altering message or acting that would move me, for what it is the film done the job; light, airy, a predictable yet enjoyable watch.The main draw to this film was the cast, I enjoyed Hailee Steinfeld in Enders Game and thought the somewhat masculine performance would carry well, her commitment was visible and seemed genuine (as much as could be) in the role of a deadly teenage girl.
The movie has a really cool concept:Sam L Jackson trains an army of underage girls to be government assassins, but his most skilled agent, number 83 seeks to regain her childhood by becoming a normal teenager after her last mission gave her the opportunity to fake her own death.It's been a while since I've seen Jessica Alba in a flick so it's cool to see her in this as the villain, though the movie centers more around Number 83, played by Hailee Steinfeild and how a teenager who does not know how to be a teenager learns how to be one.
This plot turned the big named stars like Jackson and Alba's role in the movie into nothing but overblown cameos.
You can actually tell from the way it's filmed that both of them were just collecting a pay check.Barely Lethal had the makings of a great teen comedy.
What can i say, i'm a sucker for girly teen movies.This film is very predictable, but I like that it's a mix between a high school movie and an action/spy movie.
Jackson's was hilarious as Hardman and Hailee Steinfeld was well cast as the main character Megan Walsh.For me there where laugh-out-loud moments, I think the movie had a great sense of humour that made it upbeat and witty.This movie was charming and a ton of fun.
Well, you may want to blame that to her unconvincing chemistry (not saying there's any) with both her love interests, and a boring villain whose presence may have only really felt during the last action sequence of the movie.BARELY LETHAL wastes almost every promising attribute it has to live up to its overwhelming potential.
even though there were some predictability in it and the trailer kinda exposed most of the story but i still weirdly found it intriguing and catchy.The genre was all about "Action | Adventure | Comedy" but honestly the "real" action element only presented in the first mission we saw agent 83 does and in the last fight with 84 , so to me the Humorous Comedy shown by most of the cast was really good and it made the movie more appealing.As for the cast, i will state those who were really awesome in the movie and did their part really well and those who were just okay, Samuel L.
Sophie Turner was just good did what were asked from her ,, i mean to be fair did more than what i saw in game of thrones ;D Rachael Harris appearance was nice , and not trying to be harsh but Dove Cameron was literally acting like she wasn't into the role ...
the movie went fine.So Overall, it is a nice movie and suitable for family night ,, the amazingly balanced funny script and the nice performance by the cast made it look like this..
except High School," or something close.Totally agree with earlier reviewers that every possible chance for getting a scene right was wrecked or ruined in favor of bad dialog and shaky acting.Clichés abound.
Don't get me wrong, Barely Lethal sounds like a cool idea, setting in an intriguing world where kids are raised to become assassins, and this story also concerns the main character seeking to live as a normal teenager.
Sure, it lightly pokes fun about the kids being trained as killers, Megan's awkwardness in high school, and the parental advice from one of the characters, but that's about it.
She may not convince that she's a highly trained assassin that her behavior has presented, but she still makes for a competent hero for the movie, anyway.There is a chances that Barely Lethal can be a way better movie than this, by either embracing its larger-than-life world of young killers or work more on its potential themes.
The premise sounds like it's gonna be some cool YA action film, but the only thing it offers is attitude and that's quite obvious for a movie with this title..
And a movie about such an agent going to high-school seemed like an interesting idea.
I read the synopsis, but wasn't overly reeled in by it, as it had that teenage-generic-action-comedy vibe to it.I will say that "Barely Legal" actually turned out to be far better than I had initially hoped or thought it would be, given the synopsis for the movie.
This doesn't challenge the viewer intellectually, so just unwind, lean back and enjoy the ride.They had some good performers in the movie, and it was nice to see Jessica Alba in the role that she had.
Hailee Steinfeld actually turned out to be a rather good choice for the lead, as she definitely stood her ground and performed well.All in all, you know what you are getting yourself into here with a movie such as this, and the movie does play on every available trick that has been seen before in similar movies.
Desperate to experience the 'normal' adolescence of teen movies such as 'Bring It On' and 'Clueless', a teenage assassin flees the institution that trained her and enrolls in a local high school in this action comedy starring Hailee Steinfeld of 'True Grit' fame.
The premise is ripe with potential and the film gets one of its best lines early on as Steinfeld tells a group of genuinely friendly cheerleaders "I've seen 'Mean Girls'...
twice!", however, not enough is made from the notion of Steinfeld navigating her way through the high school experience based on movie clichés.
Most perplexingly, she fails to pick up on the 'love is closer than you think' cliché with Thomas Mann doing the best he can in a thankless turn as the kind-hearted tech geek who has to wait the whole movie before Steinfeld realises that she wants him.
There is also a very funny bit in which Steinfeld and a friend discuss killing just like two normal teens discussing sex; "the first time should be special"!
This film is about a teenage girl named Megan Walsh (Hailee Steinfeld) who is a highly trained special ops assassin taught to fight bad guys at a school called Prescott Scouts for Girls.
Megan realizes that she is missing out on being a teenager and decides to fake her own death, enroll herself as an exchange student at a traditional American high school and live with a new family.
Megan does a lot of research and watches a lot of movies and reads a ton of teen magazines about life as high school student.
'BARELY LETHAL': Three Stars (Out of Five) An action-comedy flick about a teenage government assassin, who longs for a normal high school life; so she fakes her own death, and takes on a new identity, to get one.
The movie stars Hailee Steinfeld, Sophie Turner, Dove Cameron, Thomas Mann, Toby Sebastian, Jessica Alba and Samuel L.
I thought it was surprisingly fun, and entertaining, for such a seemingly generic teen comedy flick.Prescott Academy is a government school that trains special ops agents, to be assassins since birth.
The film is pretty simplistic; and it feels a lot like a TV movie (or TV show), in all honesty.
The idea behind Barely Lethal is that the government has some sort of top secret program that adopts orphan girls and trains them to be ninja-like assassins.
Megan (Hailee Steinfeld) is a great little killer but secretly she harbors a dream to be a normal teenage girl.
When it looks like she's been killed on a mission she decides to use this opportunity to disappear and reinvent herself as a high school student so that she can experience a normal life.
I believe this movie has a nice story line: a teenage girl missing out on the trends of adolescence and wants to be a part of it; and great casting: Hailee Steinfeld, Jason Drucker, Dove Cameron and Thomas Mann to name a few who did a fine job.
Unfortunately, I thought the secondary roles of Dove Cameron (Liz) and Jessica Alba (Knox) showed better acting skills.Great storyline and they could've done so much with it, rather than turn it into a corny teeny-bop movie.
Jackson, this teenage comedy espionage action thriller barely makes itself into a better than average, and almost quite good movie in fact.
Moderately entertaining action-comedy about a teenage girl trained as an assassin who masquerades as an exchange student so she can have a typical high-school experience.
"Barely Lethal" does very well with its youth casting, led by Hailee Steinfeld as Megan, the assassin "from Canada." It falls down on some of the adult roles, particularly Dan Fogler and Rob Huebel, who seem like they're too focused on their improv techniques to care about what movie they're in.
In fact, the whole film could have done less with the adults in the cast, even those who do good jobs like Rachel Harris as the mother in Megan's host family and Samuel L.
If I'd watch it a second time, maybe that quality would be annoying - or would I even care, if I've already seen the film once and I know what's going to happen?I love the twist that there's a teenage assassin who loves high school movies.
The writing in this film is barely decent, but Barely Lethal is still fun to watch when you know the tropes to both action and high school movies - and you know the main character has great knowledge of those high school movies.
It's worth watching, if you're into action comedies and high school movies, because if you hate either with a burning passion, you wouldn't enjoy this movie even a minute..
First off let me point out that even though Samuel L Jackson and Jessica Alba gets top-billing they are just co-stars, important co-stars but co- stars none the less that show up every now and then in the movie.The real lead however is Hailee Steinfeld who plays a teenage assassin gone AWOL in order for her to live a normal life and a lot of the focus of the movie is her trying to adjust to (a extremely typical American movie) high school.And although there is very little groundbreaking material in the script it did manage to keep me entertained through out the running time and I did find myself laughing here and there.The movie is rated PG-13 so all the violence and gags etc are fairly harmless (although initially the film received an R-rating, the film-makers appealed and got their PG-13 without having to cut anything out, so just barely PG-13 then).Sophie Turner from Game Of Thrones is a co-star and she get to show that she can kick some ass as well which was cool, Dan Fogler is pretty funny as a teacher and there is a cameo from one of the guys in Jackass (won't say who as that might take away the surprise factor a bit) but he was funny as well.So yeah overall nothing amazing but perfectly watchable when you're looking for some mindless popcorn entertainment..
I watched the trailer and saw Samuel L Jackson, Jamie King and Jessica Alba and thought the movie would be good...
and really sad to see why Samuel L Jackson and Jessica Alba would even think of considering doing a movie like this one...
It has the potential, actually, I mean there's Jessica Alba, Samuel Jackson, and Hailee, they could actually make the movie look better but their lines seems off for the characters they are portraying....
'If you think being an assassin is hard, try high school.' This is an often repeated line by Hailee Steinfeld who stars as Megan Walsh, also known as teen assassin '83' trained at Prescott, an elite espionage facility for orphans run by Samuel L Jackson who plays a character who seems to have taken time out from some Marvel action films.Megan just wants to go to high school and act like a normal kid rather than be a teen agent so fakes her own death and poses as a foreign exchange student from Canada and joins a foster family.
Of course she realises that being a high school student is no walk in the park with plenty of mean girls around making life hard for her.However her lethal skills are soon put to use and hit the internet leading to her cover being blown which leads to a side plot where Jackson and a senior assassin (Jessica Alba) are on to her.Maybe this film would had turned out better if it was written or directed by the late John Hughes who would had given it some innovative spin.
This is just a mixture of 21 Jump Street meets Spy Kids meets Mean Girls meets Kick Ass.Its a silly and predictable film and you know that when you see Jackson is playing just a cardboard cliché of the type of authority figure that is only played by him these days.The comedy and drama is uneven, you even have a scene where a teenager is threatened with torture and you think this is supposed to be some type of a family comedy..
You can definitely tell that he lacks experience whilst watching the film because there was no originality to the project and it just seemed like he had watched too many John Hughes movies.
She wasn't the best choice to play a special ops agent but her acting style worked when it came to the whole "teenager at college" part of the movie.
It's just a shame that the director wasted the good cast and he didn't put the budget to good use.Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $6,000 (Terrible!)I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/adventure/comedies starring Jaime King, Samuel L.
IT SHOULD BE A GOOD MOVIE TO WATCH WITH YOUR FAMILY, MAINLY LITTLE COUSINS, ETC.The main character is RELATABLE even if you are not a 14-year old girl.
Jessica Alba seems to be content in playing smaller roles now (or at least that's what I've been seeing of her lately).The main focus lies on the teenage girl who's our main character and represents the more film educated younger audiences nowadays.
Obviously I don't mean to be exactly like her, but to believe in yourself and go your way (something of a message this movie also has apart from just trying to be entertaining)..
This film is about a teenage girl who is raised in an isolated school where children are trained to be assassins.
I'll start with what you need to expect..This film is meant to be an easy watch high school comedy adventure.
There are a few other big names in this film too with some smaller roles like Jessica Alba and Sam L Jackson, however they provide good entertainment.All in all I rate the film 8/10 ...
Had a lot of great actors and actresses like Jessica alba and Samuel Jackson..
The fact that each character makes it blatantly obvious of their cliché role in this cliché movie, is somehow anti-cliché, and therefore an extremely fun and well acted family feel-good movie.
Here the premise (she's an orphan trained since childhood to be an international assassin) is more than a bit ridiculous but has the virtue of serving up a heroine as fashionable as TV's Super Girl and Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen.Hailee Steinfeld plays the awkward girl trying to have a normal high school life as an exchange student.
Hailee Steinfeld faces the (bland) action scenes and her character's hesitant evolution as "normal" girl with credibility, while Samuel L.
I missed this type of movie, you know, girl goes to school everyone is mean to her she falls in love with the handsome jerk and then in the end realizes she likes the timid guy instead.
So if you like feel good movies then watch this one..
Like a lot of other teen movies.But still pretty good, and for those who have been raised by foster families, this movie might hit them a little to close to home.
Hailee Steinfeld was not convincing in her role as a killer or High School student, which was ashamed since she had a great supporting cast.
This also makes the movie achingly predictable but that doesn't make it any less fun and silly and just a really good time.
Samuel L Jackson, the guy who can't possibly integrate himself into any more films, plays the leader of the female assassin school.
The inexperience of director Kyle Newman might play a part in why it feels like it should have been just a little better but that's not to say that its a terrible film by any means.
But wants to live the normal teenage life by going to a normal high school so does her homework by watching teenage movies.
The thing that makes this film more tolerable than it should be are down to some of the performances; The likes of Hailee Steinfeld, Dove Cameron and Samuel L Jackson all help to make this a better film than it should be (particular praise going to Steinfeld who I thought was excellent). |
tt0106449 | Body Bags | 'Prologue'A creepy-looking coroner (John Carpenter) introduces three different horror tales involving his current work which are cadavers in "body bags".'The Gas Station'Anne (Alex Datcher) is a young college student who arrives for her first job at working the night shift at an all-night filling station. The attending worker, Bill (Robert Carradine), leaves and tells her that a serial killer has broken out of a mental hospital and cautions Anne to be careful and not leave the booth at the station which is to be kept locked at all times. After Bill leaves, Anne is alone as the tension mounts as she deals with various late-night customers seeking to buy gas for a quick fill-up, while Anne remains locked in her booth, unsure of who may be the escaped maniac. Eventually, when Anne suspects that the escaped killer is lurking around the gas station, she tries to call the police, only to find the phone line dead. Soon after, she finds a dead body in one of the lockers, which is a station attendant who has a nametag saying 'Bill'. Anne realizes that 'Bill', the attending worker whom she interacted with earlier, is in fact the escaped killer whom has killed the real Bill and has taken his name and uniform, and is killing numerous passersby. 'Bill' appears and attempts to kill Anne with an axe by breaking into the locked booth, and then chasing her around the deserted garage. Just when he is about to kill her, one customer returns after forgetting his credit card. Together, they stop the killer by throwing him under a car on a garage rack in which Anne pushes the lift button making the car come crashing down, cutting the deranged killer in two.'Hair'Richard Coberts (Stacy Keach Jr.) is a middle-aged businessman who is very self conscious about losing his thinning hair. His obsession about going bald and his means to keep his pride and self esteem intact has caused a riff between him and his long-suffering girlfriend Megan (Sheena Easton). When Richard answers a television ad about a 'miracle' hair transplant operation, he pays a visit to the office and meets the shady Dr. Lock (David Warner) whom, for a very large fee, agrees to give Richard a scalp treatment to make him grow his back hair. The next day, Richard wakes up and removes the bandage around his head left after the surgical procedure and is overjoyed that he has a stallion-style full set of hair. But over the next few days, Richard becomes increasingly sick and fatigued, and soon he finds himself growing hair on parts of his body (the palms of his hands, etc.) that do not grow hair at all. After trying to cut some off, he finds that his hair 'bleeds', and after examining it under a magnifying glass, sees that they are alive. Richard goes back to Dr. Lock for an explanation, but finds himself a prisoner as Dr. Lock explains that he and his entire staff are aliens from another planet who seek out narcissist humans and plant their seeds of hair to grow and takeover their bodies for consumption as part of their plan to spread their alien essence to the planet. Richard was just their latest victim.'Eye'Brent Matthews (Mark Hamill) is a Major League Baseball player who's life and career takes a turn for the worse when he gets into a serious car accident in which his left eye is gouged out. Unwilling to admit that his career is over, he jumps at the chance when a doctor tells him about a experimental surgical procedure to replace his eye with one from a recently deceased person which can restore his sight. After the surgery, Brent can see through his new eye and is overjoyed at this miracle. But soon after, Brent begins to see things out of his new eye that others cannot see, and it puts him and his wife, Cathy (Twiggy), in danger as Brent begins having nightmares of killing women and having sex with them. Brent seeks out the doctor who tells him that the donor of his new eye was a recently executed serial killer and necrophile who killed several young women, and then had sex with their dead bodies. Brent becomes convinced that the spirit of the dead killer is slowly taking over his body through his eye and enabling him to resume killing women. After Brent blacks out and wakes up near a crime scene where another young woman is killed, he flees back to his house where he tells the skeptic Cathy about what is going on with him. Just then the spirit of the killer emerges and attempts to kill Cathy as well. Cathy fights back, subduing him long enough for Brent to re-emerge. Realizing that it will only be a matter of time before the killer reemerges again, Brent cuts out his donated eye, severing his link with the killer, but he dies afterwords due to bleeding to death.'Epilogue'The Coroner finishing telling his three tales to the viewers when he hears a noise outside the morgue and crawls back inside a body bag revealing that he himself is a living cadaver this entire time, as two other morgue workers begin to go to work on this 'John Doe' corpse that was just delivered to them. | cult, murder | train | imdb | null |
tt0253556 | Reign of Fire | The film opens at an unspecified date in the early 21st century. During construction on the London Underground, workers penetrate an underground cave. A huge dragon emerges from hibernation, incinerating the workers with its breath. The only survivor is a boy, Quinn Abercromby (Ben Thornton), whose mother, Karen (Alice Krige)—the construction crew chief—is crushed to death protecting him. The dragon flies out of the Underground, and soon more dragons appear. It is revealed through newspaper clippings and the narration that dragons are the species responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. They are speculated to hibernate after destroying most living creatures until the planet repopulates. After the dragons reawaken, humanity resists with military force, including with nuclear weapons in 2010. This, however, only hastens the destruction, and within a few years, humans are nearly extinct.
In 2020, Quinn (Christian Bale) leads a community of survivors in a Northumberland castle. They are starving while awaiting harvest. Although most trust Quinn, some are restless and defiant. Eddie (David Kennedy) and his group steal a truck to pick tomatoes, though it is too soon for harvest. They are attacked by a dragon; one man is killed, and the rest are surrounded by fire. Quinn, Creedy (Gerard Butler), and Jared (Scott Moutter) rescue them with old fire engines, but the dragon kills Eddie's son before escaping.
The Kentucky Irregulars, a group of Americans led by Denton Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey), arrive with a Chieftain tank and AgustaWestland AW109 utility helicopter, the latter of which is piloted by Alex Jensen (Izabella Scorupco). Van Zan has a system for hunting dragons and knows their weakness: poor vision before sunset. He and Quinn kill the dragon who destroyed the crops.
Van Zan tells Quinn all the dragons they have found have been female. The Americans believe there is only one male—if they kill it, the dragons can no longer reproduce. Although Quinn knows about the male dragon, which killed his mother, he refuses to help.
Van Zan orders his soldiers to enlist the castle's best men. Quinn argues that if they find the male, it will kill them and find the castle. Van Zan's group is attacked by the dragon in the ruins of a town 66 miles (106 km) from London. The dragon then finds the castle and kills most of its inhabitants. Quinn tries to get the survivors to a bunker; Creedy saves him and is killed by the dragon in his place.
Van Zan and Jensen return and free those in the bunker. Quinn tells Van Zan he will help them hunt the male dragon. They fly to London and find hundreds of dragons, with smaller ones cannibalized by the larger male. Van Zan tells Quinn about a plan to shoot explosives down the dragon's throat with a crossbow. Van Zan fires, but the dragon destroys the arrow and eats Van Zan. Quinn and Alex lure the dragon to ground level, where Quinn fires into the dragon's mouth, killing it.
Later, Quinn and Alex erect a radio tower on a hill overlooking the North Sea. There has been no dragon sighting for over three months. Jared arrives to say they have contacted a group of French survivors who want to speak to their leader. Quinn tells Jared he is now their leader and dedicates himself to rebuilding. | dark, fantasy, action | train | wikipedia | If this had been advertised as a more human film about after these Dragons have completely wasted everything, I really think this could've been seen as a good film.
It unfortunately set expectations high in the wrong sort of viewers by a mind-blowingly epic trailer.Christian Bale, Gerard Butler and Matthew McConaughey all deliver their role superbly, and the script isn't as bad as it's made out to be either.
The dragons were realistic-looking, the scenery dreary but the story interesting and intense in spots.I wouldn't buy it, but I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for a night of adventure on film.
Christian Bale replete with his best "know wot I mean" brit accent was pretty good I thought as Quinn the reluctant colony leader.
Quinn (Christian Bale, with whiskers and glottal stops), who was on the scene as a boy in London when the first sleeping dragon awakened in a cave unearthed by an Underground project his mum was working on, leads a group of survivors in the north of England who're just trying to get a crop going for the next year and save a little mob of children.
What follows is the finale.If you probe too deeply into the premise you're not going to have any fun, but fun is what this movie offers, glorious mindless fun and, above all, fabulous apocalyptic visuals of twisted metal, crepuscular landscapes, dark hulking ruins, and men crawling through them to fire off weapons at the evil birds, which look very graceful as they sweep through the skies and spurt out long expanding streams of fire.
Working with Ridley Scott's cinematographer Adrian Biddle, X-Files director Rob Bowman has produced the best fantasy landscape this year next to `Lord of the Rings.' When Van Zan leads a hunt in the sky, it's like a computer game, and sometimes we see the game through the eyes of the dragon and it looks like a degraded digital film.
However, it's not ingenuity of conception but sheer aesthetic appeal that makes the visuals of this movie so good.The other large positive factor is the very solid, mostly English cast including a number of appealing youngsters led by Scott James Moutter as Jared, Quinn's adopted son, not to mention Bale, who brings a striking level of naturalness and conviction to his role as the sensitive, conscience-stricken Quinn.
Other things are lacking too, such as more variety in the dragons, more recognizable details of the wrecked London of the final scenes, some more colorful characters among Quinn's community, as in post-apocalyptic classics like `Mad Max.' But to say that is to miss the point, which is that this is a fast, exhilarating ride that's a feast for the eyes.
It amazes me that so many people are quick to put the boot in to this (admittedly) silly but entertaining b-grade post-apocalyptic thriller yet line up to watch the absolutely awful and overblown Star Wars movies.
Christian Bale ('American Psycho') and Matthew McConaughey ('Frailty') are both pretty good as the leader of an underground community and a hardass military man respectively, who both have different approaches to their shared problem - the ongoing threat of dragon attacks.
It's a 'post-apocalypse' story where mankind is reduced to living an almost stone-age existence by a global disaster, but this time the apocalypse is brought about not by nuclear weapons but a race of dragons unleashed from the depths of the earth by over-ambitious mining!
Critics here in the UK panned it when it came out, saying that it needed more special effects, but they completely missed out on the charm of the film, which was in the ingenious ways that it showed the human race had been changed by the onset of the dragons.
maybe an extra 2 minute scene there could have helped to explain the final demise of the dragons.Overall, this movie is a winner!
That's what I thought anyways after seeing the trailer for Reign of Fire, Rob Bowman's 2002 post- apocalyptic thriller about dragons and the humans that fear them.
However, the prospect of making a high budget special effects film about the dragon apocalypse must have seemed a little far-fetched.
Reign of Fire does succeed however in creating a great post-apocalyptic atmosphere, which bears significant resemblance to the world seen in the future sequences of James Cameron's Terminator movies.
Van's habit of knowing nearly everything about the dragons leads one to doubt whether or not the film-makers knew how to resolve the movie.By the end of the film, the audience will likely be rooting for Van Zan's death and wondering why it hadn't come earlier.
The moderate special effects do not make up for the fact that this film lacks the exciting action sequences, quirky dialogue and fun character's that define its genre..
Quinn leads one such group until a group of US ex-soldiers turn up, led by Van Zan, who have more of a mind to fight back.To enjoy this film you need to get over two big obstacles.
It's hard to watch Quinn's group in a damp castle when you know you SHOULD be seeing dragons rip into the world's cities.
The actual climax is also logically very weak but is very exciting and has a real nice touch plot wise.Bale is good and is not as muscley as the Americans.
Once again we have the typical gray-and-khaki hued post-apocalyptic world filled with burnt out cities, roaming bands of grimy-faced survivors, and enough soot, dirt and rust to make the audience feel the need for a shower once they get out of the theatre (in other words, the `Mad Max' look).The apocalypse in this case comes in the form of a race of fire-breathing dragons that are awakened from their millennia-long state of dormancy thanks to a deep-drilling construction project in downtown London.
In this kind of movie, it is probably best not to ask questions of this sort and to just go along with the sheer inanity of it all.The first specimen to be unleashed is discovered by a young London lad named Quinn Abercrombie who, 18 years later, has grown up to be the hunky Christian Bale, leader of a group of survivors holed up in a kind of mountainside fortress with very little hope for a future.
From then on it becomes a battle of the minds and muscles between these two strong-willed individuals who have decidedly different ideas about how best to ensure the survival of the human race.Movies like `Reign of Fire' pretty much preclude any real critical analysis.
This is a fairly entertaining post-apocalypse movie that sees a few huddled survivors living in squalid conditions in a Britain destroyed by fire-breathing dragons.
The running time is extremely short and action-focused, detailing efforts to destroy a dragon and put an end to the endless oppression faced by the human survivors.
The American lead is an unrecognisable Matthew McConaughey who I thought was very good, playing a borderline psychopath with a real disregard for human life.
Watching REIGN OF FIRE I was left with the impression that the script was originally written as a bleak post apocalyptic drama in the tradition of John Wyndham and John Christopher , where a Hollywood studio decided the script wasn't marketable enough so a studio executive decided to introduce dragons into the screenplay as a commercial gimmick Where REIGN OF FIRE works best is in its survivalist themes .
Unlike 28 DAYS LATER this movie almost works as post apocalyptic thriller These "Shattered Earth " ideas are very convincing but as soon as the dragons are introduced the illusion falls apart because for a film marketed as featuring fire breathing dragons ( You have seen the posters right ?
Very little thought indeed seems to have gone into this aspect of the script and needless to say the ending is a cop out Note to Hollywood executives - If you're going to finance a film that features a desperate band of survivors can you cut out gimmicks like zombies and dragons please ?
The acting was good, suspense was kept high by not having too many dragons all the time and it just becoming a shoot-em-up, and the special effects were awesome - the scene at the end of the movie where Christian Bale is lifted off the ground by impact (I won't spoil it for anyone by saying why) was just fantastic and worth the admission money alone!
Meh. Reign Of Fire is certainly not a very good movie, but it's fascinating nonetheless, if a little frustrating in the sense that there's a good story buried under almost two hours of Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale screaming at each other.
In 2020, Quinn (Christian Bale) leads a group of survivors trying to wait out the dragons in a castle in Northumberland.
Quinn is reluctant to let his people fight and even more reluctant to face the origin of the dragon threat.This is a lot fiery dark loud ashen angry action.
The best thing about this movie is that they are fighting dragons in the modern world.
In fact, the Jared character himself didn't really seem like he actually contributed to the story so the entire scene didn't really seem necessary.Another thing that bugged me a little is that Christian Bale often spoke his lines extremely fast.
In my case, I've grown so tired of seeing dragons in movies where they were just small parts of stories like ploys in a giant strategy game.
This film could've been good, but that all went out the window when Director Rob Bowman took the helm, the man who gave as travesties like "Airbourne" and "Elektra", but those are tales for a different day, my friend.
I was disappointed in Bale and the film as a whole.My Grade: D DVD Extras: 3 Featurettes (Breathing Life into Terror, If You can't take the heat, and Conversations with Rob Bowman); Theatrical Trailer; Trailers for "The Count of Monte Cristo", and "Bad Company"; Video Game trailers for "Reign of Fire" and "Kingdom Hearts".
Maybe it's supposed to remind us of old WWII films?The Disney version will probably be better.A study in why simply adding fire and big booms to a movie is not enough.And why, when in species danger, do humans have to dress up as medieval persons?Christian Bale should have quit at 15 and become a tax collector, duller than the sharp end of an egg.Don't pay for it, wait for it on Mystery Theater 3000..
The movie has no real plot, it has no logic it all, bad acting (Scorupo being worst), even the special effects are not really worth mentioning, if they were, this wouldn't help, either.
There hasn't been a good movie about dragons in a long long time.
Come to think of it, there hasn't been a good movie about dragons , period.
Having watched this film twice now, I cannot help but get the feeling that the original screenplay pitched at the money men was significantly different from the end result.The publicity that even managed to suck a usual sceptical person such as me in had everyone believing this was chock full of endless dragons wrecking the world in general and London in particular, mainly thanks to one of the best bits of cinema poster art for years.All the good bits however where tragically glossed over in a naff one minute monologue and we where left with some strange hybrid of Mad Max meets Dragonslayer with the cast offs from a TV Movie about Vietnam thrown in for good measure.Health & Safety rules where set back several thousand years by the terrible opening sequence (a child on a building site is a no no for a starter but then let him crawl around subterranean earth workings all without safety equipment!?!?) I can see the production meeting where some suits said something along the lines of 'Yeah nice script but when do the American Forces arrive?' and so shoe horned in was a travelling band of burnt out marine loonies and I suspect out went any intelligence and interest this script once possessed.There where a few good bits, notably the dragons - when they eventually bothered to make an appearance where well done.
Great effects, great looking dragons and tremendous acting by Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey!Izabella Scorupco looked different but good!
Bale's character showed more near the end.Matthew McConaugheys' awesome look with a bald head,beard and tattoos and great character made this movie even better in My opinion.I was surprised what happened near the end.If you want too see a great dragon then see The Reign of Fire!.
And honestly, for a fun little action flick this film does a great job at keeping my attention and entertaining me just enough for that hour and a half.Reign of Fire is plenty entertaining for what its worth.
The acting is fine, with the exception of McConaughey, who is great.The Last Word: A nice dragon movie.
The post-apocalypse world the movie is set in feels like it comes straight out of "Waterworld" or "Mad Max".
I mean when you've a cast with Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Izabella Scorupco and Gerard Butler, you can't accuse the movie of bad acting but you can accuse it of having bad characters and dialog.
It ironically is Matthew McConaughey in his totally over-the-top tough guy role that delivers the best performance of the movie and also puts down the most interesting character.
Still I think that Rob Bowman should be given another chance, since he definitely has the potential as a director to make some good, fun but yet simple action, science-fiction and/or fantasy movies, one day.I wouldn't exactly recommend watching it, although it sure is still a watchable enough one.
The first time I watched the movie I thought of the director like a cloaked man with a magic wand makings fires explode all through the film and making his cast run like crazy for their lives!
I really liked the film even though I thought it would be just another "dragon story".
Watch the movie and enjoy the action...looking over your shoulder to check out if there is a dragon flying right at you!.
The characters themselves were suitably tepid , Chrisitian Bale (did he wear false teeth in this movie ?)done his testosterone filled hero bit (yawn!) The Dragons incinerating and munching through the last straggling survivors were hilarious, I found it amusing, not because I am especially warped but because I couldn't care less.
The acting is really good in the film - that includes the American 1980s action group of people.
Evening, beer, pizza and Mcconaughey killing dragons - a pretty nice kit for having a good time, don't you think?.
The lead players are good value, Bale is grizzled and buffed, putting some quality emotional pathos into Quinn in the process, while McConaughey is on full tilt overdrive excess as the battle hardened Van Zan. You can call it ham or cheese if you like, but McConaughey is having a good time, and the film, and its delicious premise, calls for such a fun and blunderbuss character.
Firstly I'll say that I enjoyed the film and it kept my interest to the very end but ultimately it was clichéd and unoriginal in most respects.The characters and settings will be fairly familiar to anybody who has ever watched an apocalyptic movie such as Mad Max, The Postman etc...
For a movie about dragons there are surprising few that actually show up on screen and in action.
Some lighthearted action would had helped, there was a bit when Bale and Gerard Butler recreate scenes from the Star Wars movies and the film needed more fun like that.Some of the CGI dragons are good but we do not see them often enough..
Twenty years later, Quinn Abercromby(played by Christian Bale) leads a group of survivors in England who are stationed in a castle, doing battle with the dragons.
One day, a group of Americans led by Denton Van Zan(played by Mathew McConaughey) claims to have found a way to slay the dragons, and a battle for leadership control ensues, though both men will have to work together to save their groups, and humanity.
Christian Bale was good as Quinn, and Matthew McConaughy shines as Van Zan. Gerard Butler was wasted in the film, not because his performance was bad, by no means, but because his character needed to have more to do.
Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale carry the post-apocalyptic testosterone film well and find ways of making "dragon slaying" seem exciting.
This movie plays out pretty good for the most part, you see lots of dragons, but quite frankly they all look exactly the same.
Very good fantasy film, with outstanding special effects and good performances by Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey, as opposite forces.
Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey do pretty good job of keeping the story moving.
Because on the DVD box it gave the impression of being a post-apocalyptic dragon-battling action film.
As for the special effects, I thought them superb, enough that watching it on DVD has me going back to check out the effects again.As for technical issues like the parachuters not having altimeters, or why dragons ate ash but still ate people, or showing the world getting destroyed, etc.
Matthew MaConnahagh and Christian Bale give good performances as two foes coming together to wipe out the dragon race.
This movie is different in the fact it's about dragons and their rule of man kind.The acting was incredable for this film and the special effects were top of the line.
The plot was a lil iffy but thats ok cuase its about human survival and not the dragons.( The dragons were very well done CGI and creature effects) It's a good movie and its very entertaining..
Rob Bowman's direction is above average, Bale and McConnaughey deliver strong performances, the dragon effects are excellent, and the action scenes we do get are first-rate (three fight scenes in all, adding up to maybe fifteen minutes). |
tt0119822 | As Good as It Gets | The entire movie takes place in New York City, except for a brief trip near the end to near Baltimore, Maryland.The protagonist, Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) is a cranky, bigoted, intelligent, wealthy writer suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). He is happy with his life, and spends most of his time inside his apartment, writing books. Fortunately for Melvin, his books are popular, for a reason that later becomes clear. He is working on his sixty-sixth book.Melvin finds himself bothered by Verdell (Jill the Dog), a small terrier owned by neighbor Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear). Simon is an artistic painter living on the same floor. Simon is homosexual and somewhat passive. Simon has a good friend, Frank Sachs (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who is black and rather aggressive.Verdell escapes Simon's apartment, and runs around the hallway, annoying Melvin. Melvin comes out and tries to calm Verdell down. But Verdell stays out of reach, and further annoys Melvin by trying to pee by the wall. Finally, Melvin grabs Verdell and stuffs him down the laundry chute. Just as Melvin is about to open the door to his apartment, Simon comes out and asks about Verdell. Naturally, Melvin's highest priority is to get back to his comfortable routine, so he lies and says he knows nothing about Verdell.Simon is suspicious, but has to leave to answer an urgent phone call. He is having an exhibition of his paintings that evening, and has to see to final arrangements. Melvin naturally disappears into his apartment.At Simon's exhibition that evening, a friend walks up carrying Verdell. Simon is overjoyed to see Verdell. Their reunion is joyful and happy, with Verdell excited and licking Simon's face. Simon is so happy to see Verdell he lets Verdell continue to lick his face. Simon asks his friend where he found Verdell. His friend says, "In the dumpster, licking poop from baby diapers."Frank realizes what happened, and confronts Melvin about Verdell, verbally abusing him, but saying he won't tell Simon and that Melvin "owes him one".In the morning, Melvin goes out for his daily breakfast ritual. He walks to a particular nearby cafe. He sits at a particular table (and if other people are sitting there, he insults them until they leave). He insists on being served by a particular waitress, Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt). Since Melvin is OCD, Carol is simply part of the ritual, along with that particular table and that particular cafe. Also part of the morning ritual is bringing his own plastic utensils.Melvin happily continues is daily rituals. Then one morning, Carol does not show up to serve him his breakfast. Melvin is naturally very upset, so he proceeds in a very OCD-logical manner, by insulting the substitute waitress and telling the manager to get Carol. The manager throws him out. On the way out, Melvin bribes a bus boy to get Carol's last name, which he uses to find out where Carol lives.Melvin tries to restore his daily morning ritual, so he goes to Carol's apartment, who is surprised to see him. Melvin demands that she come back to the cafe and serve him breakfast. Carol says she cannot. Her son, Spencer (Jesse James), has congestion in his lungs so severe he can barely breathe. While there, Spencer's condition gets worse, and Carol leaves to take Spencer to the emergency room at the hospital, yet again. Carol and Spencer get in the cab that brought Melvin, and Melvin hops in the front seat.Melvin takes steps to bring back his normal daily routine. It happens that Melvin's editor has a husband, Martin Bettes (Harold Ramis), who is a medical doctor. Melvin convinces his editor that her husband should see Spencer. As Melvin leaves her office, the secretary (who was thrilled to see her favorite author) insists on knowing Melvin's secret of connecting so well with women. He turns, says, "I think of a man and then I take away reason and accountability." Then he leaves. The secretary is stunned.Carol comes home to see a car with 'MD' license plates parked in front of her apartment. Fearing something terrible has happened to Spencer, she rushes in, only to find Spencer and Carol's mother, Beverly Connelly (Shirley Knight) pleasantly visiting with Dr. Bettes. Dr. Bettes asks Carol which tests have been performed on Spencer, finding out that minimal emergency room tests have been done---no allergy tests, for example. Dr. Bettes orders some tests for Spencer, and tells the lab he wants the results later that day. One of the adults asks incredulously, "Do you really expect the results today???" Dr. Bettes replies, "Yes." He says he does not know now exactly what is wrong with Spencer, but he guarantees that Spencer will be feeling a lot better from now on. He gives Carol his business card, tells her it has his home phone number, and tells her to phone him if she has any concerns. Carol is overwhelmed. She assures Dr. Bettes that she is extremely grateful, and will do everything she can do to pay for his services. Dr. Bettes tells her that Melvin will be paying all the bills. Carol is shocked.That night, Carol cannot get to sleep, so she goes out clad only in a T-shirt, pants, and shoes. She grabs a bus and heads to Melvin's apartment. She bangs on the door, and waits. On the way to the apartment, it begins to rain heavily. At the last moment, Carol realizes her white T-shirt is see-thru as Melvin opens the door. She grabs the front of her T-shirt, striving for some degree of modesty. She blurts out that she knows why Melvin was spending all that money on her son, but that it is not going to work---she will never have sex with him.Melvin is flabbergasted. Carol leaves.Meanwhile, Frank has recruited a young man from a small ne'er-do-well gang as a model for Simon. The young man thinks he is going to pose nude, and starts shedding his clothes. Simon stops him. After modeling some natural poses, Simon finds one he likes, and proceeds to sketch him.They fall into a daily routine. The young man comes over, poses, and Simon sketches or paints him (always fully clothed). After a few weeks, while Simon is painting a portrait of the young man, the young man's gang sneaks into the apartment and starts stealing things. Verdell alerts to them and Simon confronts the intruders. The gang brutally beat Simon with things such as a table lamp.Simon winds up in the hospital. He is severely injured. Frank has to find a dog-sitter for Verdell, so he tries the neighbors. Finally, Frank remembers that Melvin "owes him one", and persuades Melvin to take Verdell.Surprisingly, Verdell takes a liking to Melvin, and Melvin responds by feeding Verdell bacon and other treats. When Melvin goes out walking, he is very careful to never step on a crack. Eventually Verdell follows suit, deliberately hopping over cracks. Melvin is thrilled. They settle into a routine where Melvin works on his computer while Verdell keeps him company on a cushion next to him, as well as walking the dog to breakfast. This is such a comfortable routine for Melvin that he quickly finishes is sixth-sixth book.After a few weeks, Simon comes home from the hospital and insists on taking Verdell back. Melvin is heartbroken, but is cheered up when Simon asks Melvin to take Verdell for a daily walk.It turns out Simon has no medical insurance. He has to spend all his money on hospital bills. His exhibition was a flop. He has no income. He cannot bring himself to resume working. He is very depressed. He has a list of friends he calls on for a loan, but they all turn him down. His last resort is to ask his estranged parents for money, but they never answer the phone, and live near Baltimore.Frank approaches Melvin, asking Melvin to drive Simon to Baltimore. Melvin resists, but eventually succumbs. Frank offers his convertible for the drive.Melvin is too uncomfortable to go on that trip by himself, so he convinces Carol to go with them (staying in separate rooms), using the leverage that since he helped Spencer, Carol should help him. Carol reluctantly gives in.The three of them leave on the road trip. They finally arrive near Baltimore late in the evening, and check into their hotel, into a three-bedroom suite. Carol phones home. She finds out that Spencer had played in his first soccer game, and had scored his first goal. Carol is thrilled! and wants to celebrate with someone. She tries to get Simon to go out with her, but he firmly refuses, so Carol informs Melvin that he is her date.While Melvin takes a shower, Carol quickly gets dressed in a red dress with small white polka dots. Carol waits for Melvin to get out of the shower. After a long time, Melvin finishes.They end up at a nice restaurant. Unfortunately, the maitre d insists that Melvin wear a coat and tie, but reassures him that he has some he is willing to lend to Melvin. He brings one out, but Melvin is skeptical. Carol says, "You dry clean those each time, right?" The maitre d says, "No." After seating Carol he runs to a nearby tailor, buys a suitcoat and tie, and comes running back.As they are being seated, Melvin complains that he has to wear a suitcoat and tie, while they let Carol in with an ordinary housedress. Carol is very offended. She insists that Melvin pay her a compliment or she'll leave. Eventually he says that when he is with her, she makes him want to be a better man. She is very flattered and replies that it's the best compliment she has ever received. She becomes very attentive, moves over right next to him, within kissing range, and asks him why he really wanted her to come on the trip. He mumbles and fumbles and finally says that one reason was that he hoped she would have sex with Simon. She is furious and immediately leaves him at the restaurant.Carol goes back to the hotel. She walks into Simon's room---the one with a big bathtub---and informs him she is going to take a bath, even though Simon is sitting there in the room. She draws the water, gets undressed (out of sight), wraps herself with a large towel, and comes back in sight, sitting on the bathtub with her back to Simon.As Carol is putting her hair up, she reaches a pose that Simon thinks is amazing. He tells her to hold the pose. At first reticent, she eventually loosens up, starting by dropping her towel a bit so Simon can see most of her bare back.Hours later, Melvin comes back to the suite to find Carol lying naked on the bed with Simon drawing sketch after sketch of her. Jealous, Melvin asks if she had sex with Simon. Carol says, "No. It was better than sex. He held me."With his artistic spirit back, Simon is no longer depressed. He phones his parents and is able to get through. He tells his mother he is doing fine, would like to reconnect with them, but it does not have to be now. He hangs up, happy. He knows he might lose his apartment, but he is sure he will be able to cope.They all go back to New York. While he was gone, he has lost his apartment. It turns out Melvin had told the landlord to move all of Simon's things into Melvin's spare bedroom. Simon comes and looks at the room, and is stupified both by how nice it is and by Melvin's willingness to let Simon live there.Simon talks Melvin into going after Carol. Melvin goes over to her apartment, and approaches her in his usual fumbling way. Carol resists, saying all she wants is a normal boyfriend. Carol's mother, who has been listening, comes out and says, "Everybody wants that, it doesn't exist". Carol reconsiders, and Melvin continues with Carol, even to the point of stepping on cracks.--------------------Missing above:Where Melvin bursts into the office of his psychiatrist, Dr. Green (Lawrence Kasdan), insists on an immediate appointment, but is rebuffed. He also got annoyed when he noticed the doctor's office was changed, but seeing as how he hadn't seen the doctor in years, it's understandable.Where Carol writes a 10-page missive thanking Melvin for the help he has given Spencer, and insists on reading it to Melvin while he is eating is breakfast at the cafe. Of course, Melvin just wants Carol to stop disrupting his breakfast ritual and just go away.--------------------Here are some of Melvin's obsessive compulsive behaviors not mentioned above.He washes his hands by opening a new bar of soap, washing his hands with it once, and throwing the nearly-new bar away.He puts his shoes on by sitting on the bed, and performing a back-and-forth dance around his shoes first.Coming into a room, he sometimes locks and unlocks of the door several times.(Note: I only saw the movie once, and just enjoyed it, rather than taking notes to write a synopsis. So feel free to make any appropriate changes.) | comedy, psychological, dramatic, feel-good, psychedelic, romantic, entertaining | train | imdb | That's the simple formula Brooks uses in all of his work, but, for me, he has never created so much charm, warmth and sensibility as he did in `As good as it gets'.Characters write the screenplay in this movie, and everything that happens - happens because of what they are.
Jack Nicholson brings one of the best performances of his career, that terrific Helen Hunt finally got a chance to show how skilfully an actor can connect naturalism with the laws of the camera performance, and Greg Kinnear shows the most convincing emotions coming from a gay character I've ever seen.The relationships between the characters are created in the way that you can't predict anything that's going to happen, eventhough you know in advance what could come out of their mouth and what kind of attitude they'll have in a certain situation.You can simply feel the progressive collaboration that occurred between Brooks and the actors and the mutual understanding they developed, and it's not often that you see that kind of artistic superstructure shining on the screen so much as it does here.I find `As good as it gets' complexed, vital, intelligent, emotionally deep and studied, fresh, original, amusing, cheerful, funny, and one of the best films of 1997..
Jack Nicholson is pitch-perfect as the obsessive-compulsive curmudgeon Melvin Udall, who possesses some of the strangest and most curious tendencies ever concocted by screenwriters; his Udall is so human, so heartfelt, so genuine, and so whimsical and Nicholson perfects him to such a degree that not a moment of his screen time is unwanted or uninteresting: in my valid opinion, this is Nicholson's best performance of his career, and one of the most reverent performances in film history.
What an engaging, enthralling story: an troubled, insecure man helps a troubled, insecure waitress (troubled and insecure in different respects), and the two form an unlikely relationship from being distant acquaintances (Hunt even exclaims that Nicholson is crazy in their most uncomfortable moment in the film) to practical soul mates (Nicholson to Hunt: "I feel that I'm the only person that knows that you are the greatest woman alive"), through a series of misfortunes, self-explorations, and mutual bondings.
I'm not just saying this on account of being a "Jack fan." The characters are so beautifully drawn, you forget it's just Jamie from "Mad About You" (Helen Hunt) and the man with the eyebrows (Nicholson).
Nicholson's remarks are terrific, each one very quotable (personal fav; I think of a man and I take away reason and accountability).Direction is first rate, Brooks made Terms of Endearment so it's well established that he's quite capable of making great films.
He first intrudes into their conversation saying, "People who speak in metaphors oughtta shampoo my crotch." He complains to Helen Hunt, his usual waitress, saying "I have Jews at my table!" He then intrudes in the couple's conversation again, noticing the food on their table, saying "Obviously your appetites aren't as big as your noses." Now, I probably wouldn't want to personally know a man like Melvin in my real life, but I still found those cracks to be hysterically funny.
Cuba Gooding Jr. has a small but interesting role, and he makes the best of it.The film does have its dull moments, but Jack's one-of-a-kind performance makes it all worthwhile.
It won Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt best Actor/Actress awards, came away with Best Picture and also Greg Kinnear won Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of Simon Bishop, a sensitive gay artist.Seventeen years later the movie stands up well because of its timeless quality.
One example is an elderly woman actress who has opened her apartment door to run an errand and her features contort in disgust when she happens upon Melvin Udall, the Jack Nicholson character who is about to do some mischief with his gay neighbor's dog.Another example is Skeet Ulrich, who plays a street tough who somehow winds up doing a modeling job for Simon (Greg Kinnear) the gay artist.
Also ironic is that Melvin's character transformation begins when he must take care of Simon's dog, an adorable little Brussels Griffon.It's also ironic that Carol, Helen Hunt's waitress character, works in a restaurant populated by actress-hopefuls who serve diners while striving for their big acting break.
However she was dressed down just enough for the role to make it work and her understated beauty comes into play in a big way later on in the story.Finally there's Jack Nicholson.
This is one more film I can eliminate from my shame list, and I'm glad I finally got to experience this romantic comedy which also has a lot to say about overcoming illness.We are introduced to Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson), a cranky but successful author who suffers from OCD.
These series of events force Melvin to change his routine and at the same time he forms an unlikely friendship with Carol and Simon proving that he isn't as bad as he seems to be.The performances by each one of the talented actors are the heart and motor of this film.
This guy's been changing through the entire movie!" And also, the fact that his character is a romance novelist is never really explained or examined in any way.And yet, Nicholson's performance makes it not matter quite so much.Helen Hunt is a revelation in this movie - she nails every scene she's in, whether she's forced to be witty, embarrassed, angry, defiant, emotionally overwhelmed, whatever.
Outstanding acting by Helen Hunt (Mad About You, Twister) who won an Oscar for this role where she plays Carol Connelly, a single mother, working as waitress in Manhattan, New York.
Helen Hunt is great (I don;t know why, but I find her quite attractive) and I won't bore you about the performance given by Jack Nicholson.
This movie, without its comedy, could easily have gotten a couple of Nominations if it was to be placed hundred or so years back in time and the female character changed into an afro American person.
Helen Hunt and her unique voice and mannerism made her an unexpected perfect match for Jack in the film.A fabulous must have movie from your personal library to be watched on a rainy afternoon for many years to come..
It is perfect for me to pay money getting a film of which both the leading actor and actress make me excited.Initially, I don't like Jack, as the most time I saw him is not in movies but on the first row of Staples Center where is the host court of L.A. Lakers.
As Good As It Gets is the worst movie of 1997 with its technical features:Editing is the worst, screenplay is a mess, no camera aspects, no successful sound editing or mixing(no one has no idea how can a puppy murmur through a garbage chute and can be heard inside an apartment unit), art decoration has zero achievement(that's why it's a sit-com) ; at the same time As Good As It Gets is at its best for 4 great performances: Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson at the leading, Greg Kinnear and Cuba Gooding Jr. at the supporting.
Helen hunt and jack Nicholson make the most lovable comedy ever,the rarefied chemistry between them is so catching,,i really laughed out and loud at the final scene when jack and Helen kissed each other, and jack attempted to improvise his kiss the his compliment that is probably the nicest line in movie history .the whole flick is saturated with love and humor.
But I need more than Jack Nicholson hopping on the sidewalk, a gay guy, and Helen Hunt in a wet t-shirt to make this movie good.
It is centered solely on two people, Melvin (Jack Nicholson) and Carol (Helen Hunt).
Nicholson presents his character in an especially effective way--at first he seems gruff, then he seems strange, then his soft side is revealed, and he slowly becomes the likable mean guy who lives upstairs and likes to try and kill neighbors' dogs.Hunt won the Oscar for her work in "As Good As It Gets," but it was truly Nicholson who deserved it.Regardless of all this, "As Good As It Gets" still stands alone as one of the cleverest romantic comedies of all time, and certainly one that both sexes can agree on.
The story follows a bitter old scrooge (Nicholson in his usual perfect self) who is also a romance novelist (his line "I think of a man, and I take a way reason and accountability" when describing writing women is classic), but through a series of events including a cute dog, a gay artist (Greg Kinnear is endearing in this role), and a waitress with some problems (Hunt), he becomes a little better.
Curmudgeonly romantic novellist, Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson [sic!]) blames his rude disposition on his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder until he falls in love with put-upon waitress, Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) who leaves him in no doubt that the way to her heart is via a complete change in his: and that means becoming friends with Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear); a struggling, gay artist on the brink of a nervous breakdown as a result of a vicious aggravated burglary.The above says it all really...
Jack Nicholson over-acts dramatically as the central character, and my reaction to Helen Hunt was to hope that she spent as little time on screen as possible.
Carol ( Hunt ) a waitress single mother longing for something to happen to her life , and Simon ( kinnear ) a gay artist who find companionship in a way he never thought he could.This film works in so many ways , a first date movie or a Saturday night movie , or even as a one liner hit comedy.All the main leads are aceptional hence all the Oscar nominations ( which Nicholson and Hunt won , Kinnear missed out only to Robin williams , which is no defeat at all ) .This is one of very few films where we all can relate to some sort of emotion shown in this movie , whether it be a sad or happy moment this film has it all.The directing and screenplay are second to none as we follow the characters with a keen eye and wonderment , as all these troubled storys interlock and develop.
I don't understand what people have liked so much about this movie.I recognize that Nicholson's performance was good ( although I disliked his character so much.
All the scenes are the best I really liked the performance of Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt ...
they just stole the whole show..Helen Hunt one of the best performances according to me..I think the OCD depiction and the emotional angle brought in by the dog is really deep and I really appreciate the screenplay writers and directors for bringing up this idea of human emotions depiction and getting the whole story revolve round Jack Nicholson and Helen hunt...
After two hours of unmissable entertainment, I was in love with Helen Hunt, amazed at the masterly portrayal by Jack Nicholson and full of respect for Greg Kinnear.
As Good as it Gets is a very funny movie, filled with great acting and lines that always hit the mark p-e-r-f-e-c-t-l-y...
A story of messed up real life people trying to find a happy hollywood ending, almost real life for a change.Nicholson is fantastic getting all the quick witted replies and comments that he deserves, and Hunt provides a fantastic lead opposite him and the pair blend beautifully together in their scenes.Gooding and Kinnear provide strong support, but it's Kinnear who outshines Gooding, why haven't we seen him in more prominent roles before?The film can get a bit sappy in places, but it always brings it back to reality with a bang.Definately a go see, for all those Victor Meldrew types..
Kinnear was trying too hard, Hunt not enough, as usual Nicholson was in his own movie...never felt any connection between me and the characters, among the characters themselves...you know things are not what they should be when you go to the dog for reaction shots.
In this movie Jack Nicholson plays Melvin Udall, a single middle-aged man who has quite extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder and also a rather unpleasant personality.
Greg Kinnear plays his gay neighbor Simon, and Helen Hunt plays Carol, the waitress at the restaurant Melvin usually goes to.
Jack Nicholson makes Melvin Udall very unlikeable but also gives him some humanity at times, and it is hard to imagine anyone else playing the role.
Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear also put warmth into their characters and make them feel very real, and Cuba Gooding Jr. is also very good and funny as Simon's partner.
Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, and the role that began his career for Cuba Gooding Jr., also give off great performances.
There's no need to talk about plot or characters as there's enough reviews already doing that so Ill start off by saying As good As It Gets is Simply one of my favourite movies ever, Melvin is my hero.
As Good As It Gets is a fantastic movie with a brilliant story,great cast that makes this film so great.Having Jack Nicolson as the main actor and James L.
Brooks being the writer and director is what adds up to make this movie so great,Jack Nicolson is one of the greatest actors of all time,and James L.
Brooks is one of the main developers.I also loved the dog Verdell,who is such a cute and funny little character,especially with the attachment he makes with Jack Nicolsons character.A moody author,a single mother working at a restaurant and a gay artist all begin an unlikely friendship,with the mothers young son who has serious as-ma,the artist put in a serious accident,the author takes care of the waitresses son and the artists dog.Starring Jack Nicholson,Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear..
I appreciated practically every element in this wonderful, delightful masterpiece of exemplary romantic comedy, in its indelible acting (Oscars well deserved), its whimsical, touching screenplay (This was neons above "Good Will Hunting"'s quality) and its comforting morale, that despite all of the great odds in life which prevent us from being happy, we can perhaps find it within ourselves to take that one important step in reversing our fortunes, in "stopping with taking pills" and to allow our lives, and our desires to shine and be realized, as this story depicts life.
I appreciated practically every element in this wonderful, delightful masterpiece of exemplary romantic comedy, in its indelible acting (Oscars well deserved), its whimsical, touching screenplay (This was neons above "Good Will Hunting"'s quality) and its comforting morale, that despite all of the great odds in life which prevent us from being happy, we can perhaps find it within ourselves to take that one important step in reversing our fortunes, in "stopping with taking pills" and to allow our lives, and our desires to shine and be realized, as this story depicts life.
A Very Nice and humorous film boosted by excellent performances from Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, showing us that friendship and love is a part of anyone's life.
This Movie is about a Grumpy Writer Named Melvin Udall(Jack) who lives on his own in an apartment,and does not have any friends, and lives his life very disciplined,about how he develops a friendship with his Gay Neighbour(Greg) and a love interest towards a waitress of the restaurant he goes to have his breakfast(Helen).The Portrayal of Melvin from Jack Nicholson is quite honestly ''as good as it gets'' and he also got an Oscar for this role along with Helen Hunt who portrays a mother trying to cure her child's sickness while trying to find happiness at the same time quite brilliantly.
This movie is very good mainly due to the excellent performances from Jack and Helen, and funny and anyone can watch it and enjoy it..
It is also about that when you love someone, you both have to face compromise to get it to work and that because of compromising stuff you thought you had to do you can be a better person because of it.Jack Nicholson definitely deserved his Oscar for his performance as Melvin, a crazy author who has OCD, by managing to make him totally believable.
If you like Jack Nicholson (or any of these actors) or good comedy/drama watch this movie..
He only begins to realize how much he yearns to be liked after so many unfortunate things happen to his neighbor, inadvertently causing so many fortunate things to happen to him, giving him a taste of how good life gets before things once again even out, making him want to become a better man.Helen Hunt's tremendously human performance stands out almost as far as Nicholson's, a feat that has since the 1970s been quite difficult to accomplish.
Helen Hunt & Jack Nicholson are sublime in the way they make their characters rich and real to an unprecedented extent in movie history.
I thought Jack (Nicholson), Helen (Hunt), and Greg (Kinnear) all gave dazzling performances as an obsessive-compulsive writer, single waitress, and gay artist.
One of my favorite quotes of this film is, "Do you understand me, you crazy f***?" Also, I thought that Carol (Helen Hunt) and Melvin (Jack Nicholson) looked good in the attire they wore when they went out to dinner in Baltimore.
If you ask me, AS GOOD AS IT GETS is one of Jack Nicholson's finest movies.
In conclusion, to anyone who's a fan of Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, or Greg Kinnear, if you haven't seen AS GOOD AS IT GETS, I highly recommend it..
Another person is Melvin's life is Carol, a waitress(played by Helen Hunt); the thing with her is that she feels like a prisoner because her son has been sick since the day he was born.
This is by far the best film that I've seen Jack Nicholson in since Batman and A few good men. |
tt0112281 | Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls | After failing the rescue attempt of a raccoon in the Himalayas (a parody of the opening to the film Cliffhanger), Ace Ventura undergoes an emotional breakdown and goes on a personal soul-searching quest by becoming a Tibetan monk. He is approached by Fulton Greenwall, a British correspondent working for a provincial consulate in the fictional African country of Nibia. Being that Ace's influence is disruptive to the monastery, the Grand Abbot eagerly gives Ace excuses by which to justify his departure.Greenwall asks Ventura to find a sacred animal called Shikaka, which has become a point of contention. Shikaka, which is a great white bat, is a sacred animal for the Wachati and Wachootoo tribes of Nibia; whenever its name is spoken, the tribesmen must bow. Accompanied by his capuchin monkey, Spike, Ace travels to Africa and returns to his pet detective work.After arriving in Nibia and meeting with the head of the consulate, Vincent Cadby, Ace begins learning about his case as well as the possible suspects. Ace, normally an animal lover, must overcome his fear of bats in order to continue studying the case. He travels to the Wachati tribal village, where he learns that Shikaka is meant as a wedding present from the Wachati Princess, who is set to wed the Wachootoo Prince. If the bat is not returned in time, the Wachootoo will declare war on the Wachati tribe instead. Much of Ace's activity involves eliminating various suspects and enduring the problems of dealing with the Wachati and the Wachootoo, who refer to him as the "white devil". This proves difficult, and is made more so by other incidents including attempts to kill him.
Reduced to the limit of his ability to solve mysteries, Ace consults the Grand Abbot via astral projection.Advised by the Abbot, Ace finally discovers that Vincent Cadby had taken the bat and hired Ace as a cover for his own crimes. Cadby plans to let the tribes destroy each other and take possession of their land, using the numerous bat caves containing guano to sell as fertilizer. Ace manages to thwart Cadby's plans. However, tribal security chief Hitu is by Cadby's side and sends him to jail, but Ace calls an elephant to escape, and then summons herds of animals, crushing Cadby's house. He tries to shoot Ace with a shotgun, but he is knocked out by Greenwall's fist. After waking up, Cadby manages to escape, with the bat, in a car and Ace chases him in a monster truck. Ace throws the truck's cigarette lighter at Cadby in an attempt to distract him, who finally rams into a tree and the cage with the bat flies away. Ace runs over Cadby's car, while Cadby runs away.Ace, tries to chase him, but when he sees that the sun is rising, he confronts his phobia and dramatically returns the bat to the tribes by running through their battlefield with it clutched in his hands, while screaming its name. Cadby, who was covertly watching, is discovered when Ouda sees him and calls out to alert the nearby warriors that another "white devil" is in the area. He is then pursued by both tribes. Meanwhile, Ace accomplishes his mission when he puts (displeased) the bat in his cage. Cadby, who was pursued, ends up lost, out of sight of the tribes. While he was laughing in safety in a tree, he ends up in the hands of an amorous silverback gorilla. The Princess is married to the Prince, who earlier appeared as a champion wrestler sent to challenge Ace's presence in the tribe. Moments later, it is discovered to the tribes' displeasure that the young bride is no longer a virgin, apparently due to Ace's intervention. Both of the tribes promptly pursue Ace, concluding the film. | cult, humor, comedy | train | imdb | null |
tt0070698 | Sisters | Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder) is a model and would-be-actress hired to pretend that she is a blind woman so that an inssurance seller Philip Woode (Lisle Wilson) would have to decide if he is going to look her undressing or not as part of The Peeping Toms, a hidden camera programme. He doesn't look to her at the changing rooms of his gym, so both win a price in the programme. Philip wins a dinner-for-two at the African Room restaurant, and Danielle wins a cutlery set. After the programme, Danielle and Philip seem to hit it on, so Philip invites her to the dinner.At the restaurant, they are interrupted by Danielle's ex-husband Emil Breton (William "Bill" Finlay), but Philip makes him be overthrown from the restaurant. Later, Danielle and Philip go to the former's apartment in Staten Island. The ex-husband follows them, so that Philip has to leave the apartment, make believe that he's leaving for good and then coming back through the back door. When he comes back, Philip opens the door with Danielle's keys, and at the same time he gives the cutlery gift - which Danielle had left in his car - to her. Philip and Danielle make love in the couch of the living room.The next morning Danielle wakes up and he isn't feeling that well. He goes to the medicine box in the bathroom and checks that there are only three red pills left. She takes one immediately and leaves the other two in a corner of the washbasin. However, when Philip also wakes up and dresses himself he throws the other two pills down the sink. Philip overhears Danielle and her sister Dominique fighting and arguing about him. Danielle says she isn't feeling that well, and would please Philip go for more red pills to the chemist's? Philip complies and loses more time because he wants to buy a present for Danielle and her twin sister Dominique, who is supposedly visiting Danielle - although during the game show she said that she was dead.Philip returns to the apartment and unlocks the door with Danielle's key again. She takes the big knife from the cutlery set and offers it to Danielle to cut up the birthday cake. However, she uses the knife to viciously kill him. Philip crawls trying to call her neighbour's attention - her wind is a bit higher but close enough for both tenants to see each other. Philip even tries to write HELP with her own blood in the window.The neighbour is Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) a journalist who usually writes about the state of things in Staten Island, sometimes to criticize the police officers and their use of violence. So Detective Kelly (Dolph Sweet) is not very kind towards Grace's agitation. Meanwhile, Danielle wakes up confused and dazzled. She has tried to talk to her doctor, who promises to bring her more of the red pills.Emil comes up to the apartment. Danielle opens the door up, still feeling sleepy. When Emil points to the corpse behind, Danielle says that Dominique was there. Emil, who is at the same time Danielle's doctor and the provider of pills, cleans the apartment up while Danielle dresses up.They put the corpse inside the bed-sofa. Emil laves and takes the bloodied knife away. When Detective Kelly and Grace appear, there is not a stain in sight. Danielle is kind, and the only remains of the corpse is a red stain on the back of the fouton where Grace is sitting down. Danielle justifies the double sets of matching clothes due to her job as model, because if one of them gets stained, they would have a completely equal outfit available. Grace finds the cake in the fridge. Also, Danielle had said that she lives on her own, and that's the opportunity for Grace to prove that she is lying. However, Grace falls down and smashes the cake against detective Kelly's leg. Emil appears, saying that they are separating but that they are not still divorced.Detective Kelly tells Grace not to disturb him or Danielle again with that matter. The only clue Grace has got at this moment is that she has read the name of the bakery where Philip bought that cake. She had a date with her mother, annoying Mrs Collier (Mary Davenport), who mentions a new open-door psychiatrict hospital which has been opend in Staten Island. But Grace is not listening to her. When they arrive to the bakery, she jumps to ask the shop assistants (Olympia Dukakis and Justine Johnston), but the only thing that she learns is that there was a black man who had bought that particular cake dedicated to Danielle and Dominique on their birthdays.Grace hires a private detective called Joseph Larch (Charles Durning), who says that the only possibility of hiding a body is within the sofa. Grace tells him that he has found the Blanchion Siamese twins, but the detective says that he didn't see any twins, he has only found a place in which a human body could be hidden without the police finding it.Grace talks to a doctor, Arthur McLennen (Barnard Hughes) who studied the case of the Blanchion Siamese twins, the first set of twins of Canadian origin. Dr Pierre Milius - Emil's younger persona - appears on a news report talking about the delicate psychological mental equilibrium of one of them. As teenagers, Danielle is shy, but Dominique is more talkative and shows off more. McLennen says that, because of the official silence, he had bribed one of the nurses who helped during the surgery, and that nurse told him that there complications had arisen during the process, resulting in Dominique's death.Larch keeps on watching the strange movements in Danielle's apartment. Grace follows Danielle to the hospital sight. There, she overhears a discussion of Emil and Danielle having a row, because she's fed-up of being controlled. She sees how she puts an injection to her, forcibly. Grace tries to use the phone, but one of the interns doesn't let her. Arlene (Cathy Berry), the crazy patient, says that viri and bacteria go through the telephone line, and that she got sick because of answering the phone. A hospital attendant (Burt Richards) asks his boss to see to the problem. Emil tells Jansen, the hospital attendant, that she's the new patient, Margaret, and that she should be put in a room. Grace tries to explain, but it's useless, she's not believed. Emil hypnotises her so that she will believe that everything was a strange dream of hers.Grace appears now on the dreams /reminiscences about Danielle's life while attached to Dominique. Danielle suffered because when she started to be in love with her doctor, she realised that her twin sister will not accept the risk of surgery, and that she will not accept her being in love with somebody else either.Grace wakes up and screams. Danielle also wakes up, dazed. She wants Dominique back, but she is also afraid of her attacking Emil. Emil says that, every time he tried to make love to Danielle, Danielle became Dominique, furious and enraged. Danielle tries to run away from Danielle, He shows her the knife, still bloodstained. Danielle - possibly thinking she's Dominique - picks up a scalpel and cuts Emil's skin. Emil tries to kill Danielle but he bleeds to death instead. All t his happens in the presence of a dizzy Grace who wakes up in time to see Danielle hugging to a dead Emil, still bleeding. Grace screams.Emil is taken away in an ambulance, dead. Danielle denies that she has killed anyone in her life, and she also states that her sister died last Spring. Grace Collier is taken away, dazed and confused.Some time afterwards, Kelly tries to talk to recovering Grace. Danielle has confessed to killing Emil, but he admits that they have problems to detect who the black man could be. However, Grace repeats what Emil has taught her through hypnotism: that she couldn't have possibly seen such a corpse because there was no murder to begin with, and her mother supports him.The shrouded sofa appears in a semi-abandoned semi-dereclict countryside train stating, with a cow chewing peacefully nearby. Detective Kelly watches the sofa, thinking that some day the culprit will arrive to get rid of the sofa and the body for good. | avant garde, murder, paranormal, cult, good versus evil, insanity, satire, claustrophobic | train | imdb | Kidder is of course the star of the movie, but equally memorable is De Palma regular William Finley ('The Phantom Of The Paradise', 'Eaten Alive') in a wonderfully creepy performance as one of twins ex-husband.
Kidder and Finley and De Palma's assured direction, which includes a brilliant murder sequence and cool use of split screen in another, make this a thriller that won't easily be forgotten.
In fact, this wit, and a good number of tight, screwed-up close-up angles, special point of view takes, and some of De Palma's trademarks (split-screen, ambiguous villain, women in trouble, etc) are what set it apart from being a complete Hitchcock homage.
But what sets Sisters apart from even the more macabre Hitchcock films is that since De Palma is working in a low-budget, under-the-radar, with actors with not much credit to their names, things can be taken further than usual in dealing with the psychological 'whoas' of what goes on.
But with the addition of De Palma's split screen (possibly the best he's used it in any of his films), the story spins off into Grace, a reporter who gets on the case on her own to find out what happened to the body.
In a way this is the best place to see the bridge of De Palma's early black comedies (Hi Mom, Greetings; the neat opening TV show scene brings this to mind) and the hit or miss thrillers that have dominated his long career.
By combining his then experimental split screen technique with a brilliantly unsettling score by composer icon Bernard Herrmann, a "Rear Window" esquire story, and an eerie crackerjack sort of ending DePalma successfully creates a truly thrilling viewing experience.
In terms of horror movie scores, it's right up there with "Psycho" and "Halloween".A good, gory, satisfying film...one of De Palma's best.
After recently re-watching his 1973 shocker, SISTERS, my opinion of him has been unchanged.Sure, maybe there are things about it, such as visuals and styles,that are extremely similar to Hitchcock, but I thought that this movie was completely original story wise.
SISTERS is a very eerie thriller from Brian De Palma which features his outstanding scriptwriting/direction, Paul Hirsch's top-notch editing, Bernard Hermann's welcome nerve-jangling score, not to mention the awesome split-screen, enabling us to see two events at one time.
Hang on to your psychoanalysis, Ladies and Gentlemen...a young Brian De Palma has brought us a fine mindf*ck that is in good company with "Psycho," "The Tenant," and even "Fight Club." "Sisters" is a brain-sizzling thriller that probes the relationship between separated Siamese twins Danielle and Dominique (Margot Kidder) in a maniacally unsettling way.
De Palma weaves his character interactions seamlessly, employing the types of technical tricks that would be used more superficially in his later works (the use of split-screen to show action from two separate viewpoints, for instance), in addition to some of the trippiest black-and-white imagery this side of "Eraserhead." "Sisters" is an effective, highly influential work that holds up incredibly well today...just make sure you have a refill on your pills before watching it..
Director Brian De Palma's first Hitchcockian thriller was this bizarre and ever-so mysterious shocker.Beautiful woman desperately tries to cover up the murder that her psychotic twin sister has committed, while a reporter who witnessed the crime tries to expose it.Many criticize Brian De Palm's thrillers for being derivative of the works of the great Alfred Hitchcock, but even still his thrillers are brilliant and Sisters is no exception!
But as she's a reporter who has recently disgruntled the police with a damaging news story, they procrastinate with questions, allowing Danielle and her ex-husband Emil (Phantom of the Paradise's (1974) William Finley) time to hide the body and clean up the murder scene.
Music is by Bernard Herrmann and cinematography by Gregory Sandor.When newspaper reporter Grace Collier (Salt) observes what she perceives to be a murder in the apartment across the street from her own, it proves to be the catalyst for a trip down a dark psychologically damaged street.To be honest here, the continuous complaints about De Palma being a Hitchcock clone got boring around about the mid eighties.
It's not as if he's the only one who owes his career to director's from the past really is it?Sisters is a wonderfully trippy suspenser, where De Palma lifts from some great Hitchcock motifs to portray a clinically edgy story based around an article he read about Siamese twins Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova.
While twists and revelations engage the brain instead of insulting it, something many of today's horror/thriller directors could learn to "homage" from actually, and a nightmare section of film literally unfurled out of the minds eye is top draw.Herrmann was enticed out of near retirement to score the music, the genre and themes at work in the story ready made for his skilled compositions.
But DePalma, as in his other thrillers, takes everything one step further and makes the genre his own."Sisters" plays on the sexual voyeurism that Hitchcock only hinted at in his best films.
Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt, very good here), a reporter who has bad blood with the police, witnesses a murder while looking out her window.
Charles Durning and Barnard Hughes make the most of their brief roles and create memorable characters."Sisters" may look cheap at times, but compared to such overpriced and predictable thrillers like "Scream 2" and "Phantoms", it's a superior film.
SPOILER: A movie that doesn't really make a lick of sense when you think about it but that is so stylishly entertaining that you can't look away....yep, you guessed it, another Brian De Palma movie.In this one Margot Kidder plays a woman whose Siamese twin died when they were separated and who now has a good twin/bad twin split personality.
Margot Kidder plays a pair of Siamese twins -one of whom is very handy with a butcher's knife- who become involved with murder, an insane asylum, a cop bashing witness (Jennifer Salt -Jon Voight's luckless girlfriend in Midnight Cowboy & Eunice from Soap), and a scary looking husband (William Finley).
The mixture of comedy and horror works, and the split screen in a movie about a split personality is clever and effective, and both Margot Kidder and Jennifer Salt who were in DePalma's first feature Murder A La Mod(1968) have never been better.
A young French-Canadian model and would-be actress Danielle Breton (Kidder) in New York City, meets cute with a black advertising salesman Philip Woode (Wilson), in a proto-reality show "Peeping Tom", which conspicuously heralds director Brian De Palma's intrigue of voyeurism in this lurid genre piece: the urge of killing from a Siamese twin under severe psychological pressure and personality disorder, who has been recently successfully severed from her sister.Yes, Danielle has a twin sister Dominique, De Palma and co-writer Louisa Rose's script doesn't shy away from steadily implicating that Dominique is the insidious killer who lurks behind the camera, initiates conversations with the personable Danielle, and mercilessly assaults any man who gets intimate with her lovable sister, an emblem of the evil side of the conjoined anomaly, meantime, a bespectacled, bulged-eyed, gangling Emil Breton (Finley), Danielle's ex-husband, looks equally suspicious and sinister with his hidden agenda.Philip is the jinxed victim who thinks he is getting lucky, but fails to notice that he overstays his welcome due to his own goodwill, how ironic is that?
What De Palma devises is a stylish and effective cinematic machination, but he also wears his heart on his sleeve, which inconveniently renders the not-so-convoluted story an unwelcome feeling of arbitrariness.Grace, hogs the limelight thereafter, vigilantly plays detective, digs into the backstories of Danielle and hopes for an exposé, thanks to the assistance of a private eye Joseph Larch (Durning), who will later undertake a tailing mission to a bizarre and goofy cul-de-sac (and literally, the ending of the film).
Perhaps lacking the later films sexual emphasis (but of course not lacking sexual themes entirely-typically for De Palma) this film borderlines horror exploitation, but only in the best of ways.The visual style is top notch, as split screen narratives serve the suspense in an excellent way and drive the story forward keeping a fast pace, saving on screen time.
The Staten Island apartment of lovely model Danielle (Margot Kidder) becomes the scene of a grisly murder that is witnessed by her neighbor, Grace (Jennifer Salt), a reporter.
But the police do not believe her story, so it is up to Grace to solve the murder mystery on her own.Largely influenced by the films of Alfred Hitchcock, and composed by Hitchcock's composer Bernard Herrmann, this film has a good degree of Hitch's "Rear Window" with just a dash of giallo mixed in.De Palma trademarks show up -- plenty of split screen, and a plot revolving around voyeurism.
Although he had made a few films before,Sisters is perhaps the first film in the true De Palma style,you know,the obsession with voyeurism,the show-offy camera-work,the Hitchcock homages,the preferance for long,wordless dreamlike sequences interrupted by bloody violence,etc.
Things like split screen keep the interest despite a few dull bits,and towards the end De Palma is confident enough to resolve most of the film with some almost surreal dream/flashback sequences and an amusing pay off.Accompanied by a sometimes TERRIFYING Bernard Herrmann score {nowhere near his best,but incredibly effective},and with plenty of humorous touches and an interesting feminist heroine,Sisters is nowhere near top De Palma,but it's a good dry run for classics like Dressed To Kill and Blow Out..
It's not the most masterfully paced movie, but it truly comes alive in its setpieces, which are handled with a great deal of visual flair.Margot Kidder gives a serviceable performance as the mysterious model with a Dark Secret; Jennifer Salt comes across a lot better, as hers is a trickier part to play; and William Finley has a field day as Kidder's ex-husband, who is alternately disturbed and fascinated by his ex-wife's psychosis.
But the true star of the movie is De Palma, nestling cozily within the confines of the genre to produce a more or less unique picture; audaciously switching to split-screen technique to increase tension (he would go back to this well again), and providing the film's reason for being in the form of a hallucinatory recreation of the traumatic separation of the titular sisters.
For every guy who ever salivated at the thought of "doing" two sisters at the same time, Brian De Palma has a message for you: be careful what you wish for.SISTERS, actually the director's third indie film, was an obvious Hitchcock homage meant to get his foot in the door in Hollyweird, and catch the eye of both critics and a certain discriminating segment of the audience who had an appetite for both horror and suspense.
Mission VERY well accomplished, Mr. D.!With severed tongue firmly in impaled cheek, SISTERS brings us the heart-warming story of game show model Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder in early foxy mode), who hits it off with one of the show's contestants, Phillip (Lisle Wilson.) Dating leads to other things, of course, and soon he's back at her place.
One word to the wise, fellas: if you want your psycho girlfriend to cut her cake, give her a SPORK to do it with!Naturally, it's not Danielle who gets the surprise, but Phillip when she decides there's something she likes to carve into pieces better than the cake...HIM!Meanwhile, in an apartment in the building across the way, reporter Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) sees the horrific murder and witnesses the dying man trying to scrawl "HELP" on the window in his own blood.What follows is the famous sequence that established De Palma as master of the split-screen technique, as an agitated Grace calls the police and tries to convince them about what she saw, while Danielle, completely out of it, is helped by a mysterious man to clean up the scene and hide the body.
Unfortunately, Grace finds herself in the same position as a certain feline who once had a taste for being 'curious.'Artsy and Hitchcockian in a 'nudge-wink' kind of way, this is the kind of movie that both cinema students and film buffs love, from the zithery-creepy, theramin-spiked Bernard Hermann score, to the "select" casting of character greats like Charles Durning, Barnard Hughes, William Finley (a De Palma favorite) and Dolph Sweet.
The ending in a dark sanitarium is sufficiently atmospheric, and Margot Kidder does a good job as the tormented surviving twin, playing a model who tries to live a normal life, at one point bringing a man she met at a bar home, with the other sister awakening the next morning.
While those two play-act Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960), young investigative reporter Jennifer Salt (as Grace Collier) observes from another apartment a la the legendary director's "Rear Window" (1954).
Because this was a very early De Palma film he was still working on quite a low budget, so Sisters is definitely a movie that is consequently a little rough around the edges.
From here the principal characters meet and the thriller narrative begins, which boils down to a woman believing she has witnessed a murder in the flat opposite hers, her investigations lead her to learn about a strange case of two disturbed Siamese twin sisters.The story and dialogue is often a bit clunky if truth be told.
7.0 is quite a measly score on IMDb, for such a good Brian de Palma film and as for a debut, well, it's intelligent, suspenseful and different, though its nods to the Master, Hitchcock are both critically recognised and acclaimed.Also known as 'Blood Sisters', the movie also encroaches (to my mind) on David Cronenberg's territory, especially during the superbly executed and creepy fantasy sequence.
There's the right amount of suspense and whilst it doesn't reach the heights of the classic Carrie, nor the sheer directorial aplomb of his The Untouchables, 'Sisters' is a pretty fine film and at the now bargain price the DVD is, there are no excuses for De Palma fans, or even Hitch's, indeed anyone who enjoys a decent and clever horror-thriller to not indulge.This was my second viewing; the first having been on TV a long time ago..
Dear readers of this comment,there are films like Body Double,Scarface,Black Dalia,and some others,these are great movies,but this comment will take place where a movie Sisters(1973)will be loved,and hated by millions of movie and Brian De Palma fans.As I sad there are good movies from our director.Let me this time warning you,If your depression is not enough to feel you still living,yes just see this movie,but I rather recommend something else.This is not a real bad film,just does not contains entertaining value.It's slow,and content quality is not good,or new,If you wants to be entertained just watch Arlington Road,that will be depressing,but entertaining in one time.3/10.
Hitchcock-buff Brian De Palma gets an intriguing, just-this-side-of-campy scenario going in "Sisters": twin siblings are involved in a murder, and quickly attempt to cover it up from a nosy female sleuth who witnessed a bloody "something" from her window.
Ambitious Staten Island reporter Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) witnesses actress/model Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder) committing a brutal murder in the apartment building opposite, but struggles to convince the police that what she saw actually happened.If you''re going to imitate the work of any one director, you could do a lot worse than choose the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock—which is precisely what Brian De Palma did for his breakthrough thriller Sisters, an entertaining 'homage' to both Psycho and Rear Window with a little bit of early-70s psychedelia thrown in for good measure.The movie's plot, character development, and cinematography all reek of Hitchcock, and the Bernard Herrman score only adds to the effect.
Rating: ***1/2 out of 4.SISTERS isn't Brian De Palma's first film, but it might as well be called that because this is the first film where we got acquainted with his real tastes and his all-time admiration to the works of Alfred Hitchcock.
As I have said, the initial stages of the film (clearly modeled after PSYCHO [1960]) are its best parts but, in a way, I think that the Hitchcockian touches are laid on too thick: the police's antagonism toward Salt's liberal reporter heroine (who thinks she witnessed the deed) all too conveniently gives murderer and accomplice all the time they need to dispose of the body and clean up the mess; William Finley's evil 'mastermind' doesn't ring true in modern-day Manhattan, and the way he goes about exculpating himself - and Kidder - in the eyes (or, rather, mind) of the ever-intrusive Salt is way too melodramatic, i.e. old-fashioned; though it still makes for an undeniably effective plot twist or, if you like, the ultimate 'shock' tactic adopted by the director!
SISTERS is the first Brian de Palma film that sees the director working in his preferred genre (thriller) and with all the elements that he's revisited time and again during his career, from the Hitchcock homages and stylistic flourishes to the joyous score (Herrmann, of course).
This film is kind of a combination of REAR WINDOW and PSYCHO, with journalist heroine Grace (played with everyday charm by Jennifer Salt) investigating a dodgy neighbour, played by the excellently creepy Margot Kidder, a long way from her most popular role as Lois Lane.Sure, the film is predictable, and rough around the edges, with the extra-low budget excluding the kind of dazzling cinematography that de Palma would later bring to the likes of CARLITO'S WAY, but nevertheless it proves to be more than entertaining thanks to the anything-goes nature of the script and of course the stylish direction.
I'm really not sure why the director made is so obviously clear to what's going on and who the murderer is and he even goes as far as to play music from the Hitchcock film that gives away the ending to this movie.
Brian De Palma's early work shows a great deal of homage to Alfred Hitchcock and perhaps nowhere can that be seen better than in Sisters. |
tt0940642 | Minyeo-neun goerowo | Hanna is an overweight phone sex employee and a secret vocalist for Ammy, a famous lion seal pop singer who actually lip syncs as she cannot sing. Instead of being famous for her own amazing vocal talent, Hanna hides behind Ammy's performance stage and sings during Ammy's concerts, and records all of Ammy's songs. One day, Ammy ungratefully humiliates her in front of the music company's director Sang-jun during his birthday party, knowing full well that Han-na has a crush on him. While crying in the bathroom, Hanna overhears Sang-jun telling Ammy that even though they are just using Hanna for her voice, they must be kind to her so she will not walk out on them. Heartbroken, Hanna attempts suicide but is interrupted by a phone call from one of her phone sex regulars who happens to be a top plastic surgeon. She decides to get a head-to-toe plastic surgery instead. The surgeon at first refuses to operate on Hanna, but Hanna threatens to blackmail the surgeon by telling his wife about his calls. Then, Hanna makes a moving speech that she does not want to undergo surgery merely to be beautiful, but for the sake of love and as a boost in confidence, and the surgeon is deeply moved. Hanna puts herself in seclusion for a year as she recovers from the changes.When she comes back from the hospital, Hanna is incredibly beautiful and slender. No one, not even her best friend, Chung-min, recognizes her. With Chung-min's help, she creates a new identity for herself; she is now a Korean-American from California named Jenny. After auditioning to be Ammy's secret vocalist again, she earns her own recording contract instead from Sang-jun, claiming that she is "all-natural". In the meantime, Ammy, oblivious just like everyone else of Hanna's new identity, desperately tries to find Hanna so that she can record her own postponed album (since she cannot sing the songs herself) by spending time with Hanna's father who is in a hospital with some mental problems, possibly Alzheimer's. Meanwhile, romance begins to blossom between "Jenny" and Sang-Jun, as he continues to promote Jenny, in effect boosting Hanna's confidence on her new self. However, Ammy, through spending time with Hanna's father and Jenny, eventually realizes that this Jenny is actually Hanna in disguise.During a date one night, as sparks fly, Jenny supposedly stripped for Sang-Jun in the character of a nurse, through a phone sex session. After Jenny has fallen asleep, he sees the African character Jenny had drawn on the glass and realizes it was a sign he had seen before. He remembers that when Hanna still existed and he had not met "Jenny" yet, Han-na had drawn the exact same signs on a sheet of music. Then he adds all of the signs up and realizes as well that "Jenny" is actually Hanna but he keeps this information to himself."Jenny's" debut single 'Maria' becomes a hit and the recording company holds a party to celebrate its release. On the day of a party however, Ammy brings "Jenny's" father, in an attempt to blow Han-na's cover. Han-na's father tries to return Han-na's Barbie doll to her, which has always been Hanna's favourite childhood gift from him. Startled by the sudden appearance of her father and not knowing how to react in front of all the people, including Sang-jun, Han-na denies knowing her father and calls him a fan instead when Sang-jun asks her if the old man is her guest. As her father keeps on insisting on giving the doll to Han-na, Sang-jun drags him away from Jenny and accidentally knocks him down onto the floor. Desperate to keep her true identity a secret, Han-na made no move to help her father. It was Chung-min who finally helps him up, casts Jenny a furious look and leads Hanna's father away from the party.After the party, Sang-jun and 'Jenny' were the only ones left in the room. Sang-jun reveals to 'Jenny' that he knows her true identity but is now cold and distant. He seems to be unable to forgive her for lying to him but says that he will still work to promote 'Jenny' and carry on with her concert scheduled the next day. Hanna breaks down at this point, heartbroken and unable to pretend to be someone else anymore. Hanna tells him that it is incredibly frustrating and painful not being able to be just be herself but have to live a lie, especially in front of him. The surgery that took a whole year to recover from was not nearly as painful as realizing that she still could not be close to Sang-jun. As Sang-jun tries to comfort her, she brushed away his efforts saying, "You broke my heart. Tissue paper cannot fix it."The day of "Jenny's" first concert, Sang-jun still insisted on continuing Jenny's concert, despite protests from the company boss. Later, he encourages a distraught Jenny to do this concert, not for the sake of the fans or the company but for herself, thus implying that he has forgiven her and will continue to support her. At the concert, Jenny couldn't sing and later breaks down from the pressure of seeing her father being dragged away by security and tells everybody to stop. She then reveals to the public that Jenny is a "fake," and that she is not "all-natural", as she had claimed, but is "plastic". However, nobody seems to believe her. She proceeds tearfully to tell the large crowd her story: how she has abandoned everything that is dear to her - her best friend and father - to get to where she is. She also tells the crowd about how along the way to fame and fortune she has also lost her own identity and that she now no longer knows who she is. Just then, the screens behind her on the stage started to show a clip of the old, obese Hanna, singing angelically. Hanna turns around and sees her old image and tells the crowd that the image is the real her. The crowd, moved by her sincere confession, responds by chanting "It's okay," and Hanna rekindles her relationships with her father and best friend. She drops the stage name "Jenny" and re-releases a CD with her own name, Hanna, and becomes a highly successful music artist, gaining many fans and anti-fans along the way. Sang-jun realizes the very thing about Hanna that had always drawn him to her was Hanna's innocence. However he also realizes that she has moved on and is now content with who she is.At the end of the movie, you will see Hanna's best friend, Chung-Min asking to also get head-to-toe plastic surgery. | romantic | train | imdb | The movie does not take itself too seriously like a lot of Korean movies that are all like "OMG LET'S BE FUNNY FOR THE FIRST HALF AND MAKE IT ALL DEPRESSING IN THE SECOND HALF!" While it provides many laughs, the story is still touching and meaningful.
And what's amazing is that Kim Ah-Jung did all of her own singing, despite never having sung in a movie before nor being a singer.
The soundtrack for 200 Pounds Beauty has topped the charts in Korea and "Maria" is one of the most popular songs in Korea right now.Since this is basically my first review, I want to emphasize that I wanted to write it because no Korean movie has touched me this strongly since I saw My Sassy Girl.I highly recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see a satisfying romantic comedy.
Frankly, the genre has become so clichéd, it's nearly impossible to find any decent new romantic comedies.When I chose to watch "200 Pounds Beauty," I expected more of the same formulaic plot twists, etc.
I won't spoil it for any potential viewers, so I'll leave you to figure those out for yourselves.Bottom line: if you want to watch a cute, funny and well done romantic comedy, then this is your movie.
The fat girl protagonist Hanna is very cute and kind, later she turns into beautiful and thin but still kind and innocent Jenny.
This movie talks about themes such as the superficial view of the world, how beauty becomes an obsession, how the most beautiful heart can hide inside a bigger girl, how people will give everything to a girl with beautiful face-- superficiality yet again.The sad parts that touched deep to the heart of the film are very well scripted and acted..
I cried so many times watching it to see an 'ugly' girl turned beautiful, but having to give so much up and yet not quite happy with the shallow joys that this new body and face have given her.A small disappointment however was that the story's villain did not do much and disappeared for the majority of the movie and out of the viewer's mind, rendering the character pretty useless and taking away a little something more the movie could have had.Overall, a feel-good movie that is a definite must watch!
Not another romantic Korean comedy, this is 200 pound beauty..
Everyone knows the routine for a romantic Korean comedy that tugs at one's heart; but 200 pound beauty sets itself apart from the typical film.
The message of this film is not that plastic surgery is the key to being happy or successful, but any beauty is so much more beautiful and real than the superficial one.
A story about a "ghost singer" (think Milli Vinilli) and phone sex operator changes her whole appearance, going from 200 pounds to becoming beautiful and shapely via full body plastic surgery, it could have been a silly film.
It has silly moments, where guys are awestruck by her beauty, but this romantic comedy has a lot of heart.
It succeeds in having Hanna, played by the beautiful Ah-jung Kim, and the guy she likes, Sang-jun, not become too serious, but also not become parodies of themselves.
And it does differentiate itself from the numerous South Korean romantic comedy movies, which in itself in an impressive feat.Director Yong-Hwa Kim has managed to put together a great romantic comedy that didn't follow the standard recipe of how to make a successful rom-com.
As such, "200 Pounds Beauty" was a nice breath of fresh air to the genre.Think Cinderella and you have the core essence of the movie.
Undergoing full cosmetic surgery Han-na becomes everything she dreamed of, but she loses herself along the way and turns into what she always hated.This comedy is not the kind that will leave you flat out laughing, but instead it is a good story with subtle comedy that will make you feel good.
She really did carry the movie quite nicely."200 Pounds Beauty" is a benchmark in the South Korean romantic comedy genre, and it is a must watch if you enjoy this particular genre.
Unexpectedly I knew about this film when I was accessing Youtube.Oh yes I was finding Lee Hyori 's clip:"10 Minutes",and I saw the column "Also posted by this user" and detected "200 Pounds Beauty" part 7/15.What a clip!I laughed a lot when I watch this part,so I decided to hire the DVD but didn't succeed.Fortunately,this film was projected in Vietnam,also in Megastar cinema.And I decided,I would go to the cinema.And I didn't decide wrong.The film gave me not only funny time with smile but also a meditative mood because of the content that the film bring to:A beautiful mind is more important than good looks!
The movie is very good, but not as good as some other Korean movies such as The Classic and Sassy Girl.The movie is very enjoyable, very funny from the very first scene, and very heartbreaking near the end.Well, the story is simple, a fat girl with a good voice is a ghost singer for a famous pop star, the pop star makes fun of her in front of the man she loves.
She leaves for god knows how long, beautiful and thin.You have to love Kim Aj-jung and Jo Jin-mo.
I personally thought it was a bit over hyped after watching the movie, but it's still a pretty good movie with many aspects and elements that work.
The movie has a message that works and understandable, like how you won't know how certain people feels or going through without being in their shoes and to not be judgmental of other people.
Sweet fat girl, with an amazing voice, gets hurt, goes through extreme body changes and sets out to find the man of her dreams.
Yes, i know it has some silly moments, but we can overlook them as the whole experience of this feel-good movie is worth watching.
Kim Ah Jung-in her first role-fits the role of the cute Hanna and the beautiful Jenny perfectly.
"200 pounds beauty" was a super hit and won many awards and nominations including best actress and best film, so watch it.
Kim Ah Joong is pretty, but, in the movie as Jenny, she changed into someone awful over time.
I watched this many times as a teenager, and though I do not necessarily approve of or encourage plastic surgery, I love this film.The story is well laid out and the script very funny.
Though I personally do not have much to relate to Han-na, the film easily makes us root for and side with her, even if you do have a strong opinion on plastic surgery.
Though usually it is something small and not full-body surgery like Han-na did.Kim Ah-jung fits her character perfectly and her expressions and movements are so on point.
She sings way better than a lot of the kpop idols these days.However much I love this film, I do have to say that I do not really agree with the message that comes across.
She does not even try to lose weight through conventional methods like eating healthier or exercising, and that's my main problem with the film.Overall I still love this film, and feel like it is a fun movie that might also make you cry.Read more movie reviews at: championangels.wordpress.com.
The first part of the movie was cute and funny and had a good message about inner beauty.
200 Pounds Beauty: Movie Review.
Full review posted at shanatalks.wordpress.com200 Pounds Beauty is a Korean romantic comedy film based on a Japanese Manga, Kanna-San, Daiseikou Desu by Yumiro Suzuki.
Hanna had to endure that for as long she can remember—and she gets that treatment all because she's fat.The society's basis of what's beautiful in our present time is influenced by what people see in TV.
But through the years, the basis of beauty gets thinner and slimmer—thanks to Barbie.The plastic surgery topic delved in this movie has positive and negative feedback.
You can't judge a person because she decided to undergo plastic surgery because she wants to be beautiful.
A sort-of romantic comedy, 200 Pounds Beauty, is a likable, although limited shot at romantic comedy popularity, sustained by a charismatic lead performance by Kim Ajoong and a high concept.The story revolves around an obese woman who happens to be "the voice" of a popular singer in Corea.
I loved how awkward her body language as the skinny girl she becomes is and there are some amusing bits of comedy that come from both her and others reacting to her new appearance.I guess the big criticism I have is the lightweightedness of the story.
Despite its romantic comedy billing, I still didn't feel like that much was at stake for Kim Hana, because I don't think the story effectively sold what it was that she cared about, in addition to splitting her interest in more than three directions.
Production value is high, as should be expected for a high-concept tentpole comedy and direction does a decent enough job of capturing a proper romantic comedy atmosphere.In no way is anyone going to mistake 200 Pounds Beauty for high art, but its limited charms make for decent entertainment.
I don't feel like the story is strong enough for the concept, but the execution is adequate enough and there's enough comedy present in the film to keep it floating through its running time.
It's not a special film, but basic romantic comedy entertainment that goes down easy and doesn't leave too big of an imprint in your mind.
I can imagine how anyone would feel looking at this film and the reviews having a weight problem.
But one day her secret is revealed・・・I like this movie because it gives me a little vigor.This movie is a romantic comedy so it is good for you to watch when you are depressed.
"200 Pounds Beauty" is the story of Kang Hanna, a talented pop singer whose life is void of purpose because she is a sickeningly obese, nightmarish grotesque of a cow (a size 16).
Hanna's big late-movie dilemma is how to hide her "work" from this guy who sternly tells her that he only dates all-natural women, even though his whole career is built on shilling the same beauty standards that drive women to get plastic surgery in the first place.
Boom.People call "200 Pounds Beauty" touching and cute because it makes a last-minute, barely detectable feint to talk up "true inner beauty" and wag a finger at shallow pop body standards, but it's undercut by the fact that the movie is, start to finish, a meretricious celebration of those standards.
What can we expect more for romantic comedy ?And what makes this film more special is the heroine(Hanna/Jenny), Kim Ah-jung.
Even after the watch of this film, most of us shall still like externally sexy person than '200 pounds beauty' if both has same insides.
I thought that this film would be nice, considering the fact that the storyline spoke about a "200 pound" beauty.( I wanted to watch it because I myself am obese).
The way Hanna changes to Jenny, just to "prove her worth" in the eyes of the man, whom she loves so much, is something which we must together change as a society.I'm surprised that this film doesn't figure in the must-watch list of Hollywood critics, who compile the top 100 lists regularly.
Yet the message seems to be "as long as people know your real name and that you've had cosmetic surgery, they'll like you more so it's still better to be skinny than fat" - as confirmed in the final sequence during the closing credits.For a much better slice of romantic Korean drama, try "You are my sunshine"..
I rank this movie a 5 out of 10 because though I did enjoy the first half of the film (for its lightness in humor), it failed to do justice to the real message of the film: plastic surgery is a problematic trend (in Korea and elsewhere), and in order to get noticed, one has to undergo cosmetic surgery--not by talent alone.The fact that this movie also tries to throw in the romance element really makes for an awkward message to viewers: you want the two to fall in love, but you know that the male character only likes the female character because she's undergone surgery.Watch this movie not for your typical romance flick, but for a message on how dire the trend of cosmetic surgery is within the celebrity community.
But even so, don't take the message this movie seems to be promoting (that full-body plastic surgery is OK if everyone can live with it)..
I am not trying to sound like a pretentious fool, but seriously, I am curious how do fat people take towards the onslaught of movies taking the mickey out of the weight issue?
From movies like Shallow Hal, to Eddie Murphy's Nutty Professor, The Klumps and the recent Norbit, and now, this Korean romantic-comedy 200 Pounds Beauty.
No, I wasn't referring to the quality of the fatty jokes, but rather in its premise it sets for the heroine Hanna (Kim A-jung), the titular character in question, a plus sized woman with an extremely marketable voice, who's actually employed in a ploy to be the cover singer for a talentless lass Ammy, who looks good, shakes that booty well, but just cannot sing.
At night, Hanna moonlights as a chat line employee - you know, those sexy ads with pretty lasses tempting you to call them through some exorbitant pay-per-call telephone line for phone sex.In love with Ammy's record producer Sang-joong (Joo Jin-mo), but self-conscious about her size and without the dare to admit her feelings, Hanna decides to transform herself after a turmoil of emotional upheavals, albeit with some help from plastic surgery, a full body one no less, and calls the new her Jenny.
However in general, it plays out like a fluffy romance comedy with jokes on secret identities, beauties who turn heads (heh, pun intended) and get their way in society, well balanced with dramatic moments of honouring the ties with family and friends.Kim A-jung naturally is the star of the show, putting on the fat suit ala what Sammi Cheng did in Love on a Diet.
I thought at times these scenes played out similar to those in Nana, and similarly to the recent Dreamgirls, prepare for some lung bursting, loudspeaker busting singing.Based on the Japanese manga by Suzuki Yumiko, 200 Pounds Beauty is an example of a perfect date movie, since the girls can ogle at the charmingly handsome Joo Jin-mo.
Anyway, what I've learned from this movie is below:1- If you are fat according to the society's standards, then you cannot be a singer or love someone.
The worse is that if you're fat and a woman, the only way for you to survive and attract the attention of the one you like is to get plastic surgery.
The best thing I like about this movie is that it doesn't "try" to pull out your emotions, which happens a lot in romantic comedies that end up being tragic nightmares.It has a simple plot, but has sweet and cute details, and I have to say all the scenes are pretty colorful and sweet, too.I missed the movie in theaters, and was watching it on DVD, found myself grabbing a tissue at the end.
the movie follows a girl named Kang Hanna who aspires to become a singer,but instead sings for a phony named Ammy since she's not the typical image that people would want someone to see.
Kang Hanna finally decides to get surgery to lose her weight and alter her appearance and that's where you may start hating her,she turns from big and cute to slim and slutty.
My favorite is the Beautiful Girl song with Maria being a close second I guess.With that being said once I saw this movie to its end I could definitely see some natural problems pop-up that could feed into the sequel.
The really important thing is that they keep the heart in there in addition to the comedy, the good music, and the overall feel good nature that you get in the end..
With this, Han-na decides to use her client to receive total-body plastic surgery and disappears for one year.There were a few different themes showing throughout, which made the viewers think a lot after the film ended.
The film had an amazing cast, which suited their roles perfectly, especially Ah-Jung Kim, the actor of Han-na's new look.
200 Pounds Beauty surely stood out from other Korean romantic comedies by winning Grand Bell awards for Best Actress, (Ah-Jung Kim) and Best Cinematography.
Briefly, this Korean romantic comedy is about a morbidly obese woman with a talented singing voice.
After one year of plastic surgery and rehabilitation, she transformed into a gorgeous beauty.The light-hearted humorous film does raise two sober questions inside my head.1) Is plastic surgery the best solution to be accepted in this modern society or among one's circle of friends?2) Is physical attractiveness so important that it overshadows one's character traits and inner strengths in a romantic relationship?
This film, through it's funny and cute moments, explores a society in which having the "perfect body" and weight are put in a high pedestal (today's society, to be exact, my friend), and just the criticism, mockery, and denigrating that people who don't fit in to that "perfect idea" get, in this case being towards an already NATURALLY beautiful but overweight girl, singer (and the true voice behind phony "singer" Ammy) Han-na.
The magic of plastic surgery happens, she is what guys whistle at and call "beautiful!" Han-na (now under the name of Jenny) returns to the music scene and to Sang-jun and Ammy, this time, to change things a little bit! |
tt2024469 | Non-Stop | Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) sits in his SUV at an airport drinking whiskey and arguing with someone on the phone. He wearily goes to the departure gates, and has a smoke, while eyeing the passengers. A man stands beside him and asks for a light and mentions he is going to Amsterdam, but Bill refuses to make small talk. As his passport is examined, it shows that he's from Belfast. At the X-ray lineup, Marks loses patience with another passenger, Zack White (Nate Parker), who is busy yakking on his cell phone, and brushes past. As he waits to board, he sees a redheaded woman, Jen Summers (Julianne Moore) arguing with a boarding agent because she was guaranteed a window seat but given an aisle seat. Marks helps a young girl, Becca, board the plane. He and White are both a little disconcerted on finding they're seatmates in business class, on British Aquatlantic Flight 10 to London. As she boards, Summers asks anyone in a window seat if they will trade seats with her. White agrees to switch. She sits beside Marks and starts chatting. As Summers takes off her scarf, Marks notices a scar on her upper chest, poking above the V-neck of her shirt. A flight attendant, Nancy (Michelle Dockery) asks the pilot and co-pilot if they'd like anything, and the pilot notices that Nancy and the co-pilot are attracted to each other. As the plane takes off, Marks nervously grips the chair and clutches a blue ribbon, which he tells Summers was given to him by his daughter. She asks about the daughter, and Marks says her name is Olivia and she's 17 now.Midway over the Atlantic Ocean, Marks is disturbed by a young woman sitting behind him, accidentally kicking the back of his seat while she makes out with her boyfriend. He goes to the lavatory, puts a strip of tape over its smoke detector, and lights up a cigarette. As he lights up, the camera pans over a gun and a badge that shows he's a Federal Air Marshal.Returning to his seat, Marks gets text messages on his secure phone. The caller claims to be one of his passengers-- who knows that Marks was smoking in the lavatory. The texter states that someone on the plane will die every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred into a specific bank account. Breaking protocol, Marks consults with Jack Hammond (Anson Mount), the other air marshal on the flight. Hammond tells him it is a joke and to forget it; the plane is too crowded for anyone to get away with someone killing a person. Marks reports to the pilot, Captain David McMillan (Linus Roache), showing him the text messages. The copilot says a cross-check of the passenger manifest will take 25 to 30 minutes-- longer than Marks has before the threat of someone being killed. He decides on having the TSA try to backtrace the account number while he watches all the camera feeds from the galley. In ten minutes, the pilot is to switch off the network system so the text messager can't check to see if the money transfer has been made.Marks goes to the galley and watches the cabin cameras with Nancy and Summers. As he engages the text messager, the women scan for people also texting. There are five or six, and Bill notes the names on the passenger manifest. The last person texting is Hammond.The galley phone rings; a TSA agent named Marenick (Shea Whigam) has been alerted to what's going on and starts asking Marks questions... but Marks falls silent when the texter asks how Marks' daughter is, typing in her name.Marks notes Hammond stop texting, and he gets up and goes to the rear. Marks follows. They enter a lavatory and begins arguing, Hammond says he needs the money and offers Marks a cut. When Marks grabs for Hammond's phone, he starts fighting with Marks. He pulls out a gun, but Marks manages to disarm him. The fight is fierce but Marks eventually gets the upper hand, placing Hammond in a reverse headlock. Hammond reaches for the gun on the floor while Marks pleads with him not to do it. Hammond refuses to listen and slowly aims the gun at Bill, forcing him to break Hammond's neck. This occurs exactly at the 20 minute mark, resulting in the first death. Marks closes the door and returns to the flight deck. The texter reveals he knows Marks killed Hammond, and tells Marks to reset his watch. Every twenty minutes another person he's supposed to protect, will die unless the texter gets his money.Summers gets up and eavesdrops as Marks goes to Captain McMillan, telling him to turn the network back on. McMillan shocks Marks by telling him that TSA has confirmed the bank account number is in Marks' name. Marks lies and says nothing's happened yet. McMillan then says that TSA wants him to relieve Marks of his badge and gun. He tries to read the log of texts on Hammond's phone, but during the fight, it fell into the lavatory sink, and Hammond had kicked the faucet so that the phone became doused with water, rendering it inoperable.Summers shows Marks a trick she learned to help with wet phones, and notes that it's not Marks' phone. She is worried as to what is going on, saying as a passenger on the flight, she feels she has a right to know. Marks finally makes a stern request for Summers to return to her seat. She's shocked, but complies.Marks checks the text history for Hammond's phone. The mysterious texter says that Hammond is going to do exactly what the texter tells him to do, because he knows what Hammond is carrying in his briefcase. He tells Hammond to meet him in the back of the plane right away. Marks retrieves Hammond's briefcase, takes it into the rear lavatory, and finds Hammond's key on his body. Inside the briefcase is a very large plastic bag filled with cocaine.Marks reveals to Nancy that Hammond is dead and tells her everything he knows about what's going on; he understands that the person behind everything wants the people to believe that two air marshals are responsible for it all. Marks asks Nancy for her help.Marks has the lights turned on and announces to everyone a surprise inspection. He goes to each texter and checks their phones and pats them down. One is an NYPD cop, Reilly (Corey Stoll). Another is an Arabic doctor, Fahim Nasir (Omar Metwally). A third is attorney Charles Wheeler (Frank Deal). Bill then notices the man from the sidewalk at the airport, Tom Bowen (Scoot McNairy). He roughly brings him to the rear galley, demanding to know why he lied about Amsterdam.Marenick calls and demands that Marks stop what he's doing. When Marks demands a background check on Bowen, Marenick says Bowen is a schoolteacher with family in London and is clean. Marenick tells Marks that he's relieved of duty.Bowen tells Marks that some stranger offered him $100 to tell Marks he was going to Amsterdam. Marks forces Bowen up and down the cabin to make him confirm if the person is on the flight. All the passengers stare in disbelief as Marks binds Bowen's hands with duct tape and puts him in a seat.Marks notices time is almost up on the 20 minutes. He draws Hammond's gun and watches the cabin. The texter suddenly makes contact and tells Marks that he never said the target was a passenger. Someone rings for the flight attendant and Marks runs toward Nancy.Suddenly the plane lurches downward. In the cockpit the pilot is having a seizure. Marks hurries to get Dr. Nasir to help, but it is too late. At the 20 minute mark, Captain McMillan dies of poisoning.The passengers become increasingly scared at Marks' aggressive behavior. Marenick and Co-pilot, Kyle Rice (Jason Butler Harner) become convinced that Marks is hijacking the plane.As Marks passes by her seat, Summers explains that Zack White is a smartphone programmer. Asking about this, Marks has White design a hack to send from Marks' phone, which will cause the texter's cell phone to ring. White is nervous and unsure, but promises to try. Marks empties business class except for White and Summers, making all the other passengers go into coach and sit down, so nobody can see what White is doing. Without any explanations as to Marks' behavior or actions, the passengers continue to grow more alarmed and upset. Marks glances out a cabin window and notes that the wing's turn flaps are in turning position. Rice confirms that the plane has been diverted north and will land in 55 minutes. He's been ordered not to talk to Marks, but warily gives in to a request for five minutes to find the texter.The hack White designed is ready. White goes into coach and sits beside Bowen. The passengers are horrified as Marks enters and orders them all to raise their hands above their heads for one minute. It's clear they feel Marks has assumed control of the plane for something terrible. But nobody is ready to resist him and they do what he wants. Summers enters the coach section, also with her hands up. Marks holds up his phone for all to see and sends the hack. Everyone hears the sound of a cell phone ringing. Marks discovers it in Charles Wheeler's pocket. Wheeler desperately claims to have never seen the cell phone before. Forcibly taking him to the front galley, Marks roughs Wheeler up and demands answers, but Wheeler suddenly goes into a seizure and dies.Reilly talks about the issue with several passengers. When Dr. Nasir admits to them that both Wheeler and Captain McMillan are dead, Reilly and the other passengers are convinced Marks is a killer, and may plan to crash the plane. They start to discuss a plan of action.Perplexed, and smoking in the forward lavatory, Marks stares at the paper towel dispenser and pulls it open. Behind it, he finds a vent opening that gives a view of the cockpit directly behind the pilot's seat. He also finds a blowpipe in the lavatory trash bin. Searching Wheeler's body, he finds a miniature dart. Questioning a passenger he saw go into the forward lavatory an hour ago, he finds that Summers was waiting for it when the passenger came out.Marks confronts Summers on this, and finally, exasperated, she explains she went into heart failure and was revived from near death, but her heart muscle was weakened and one day she'll have another episode that will kill her. This is why she has the scar on her chest, and why she always wants a window seat on an airplane: to enjoy the view and live for each moment, knowing it could be her last. Meanwhile, the passengers are all watching their TV screens. International news is covering the incident and explaining a thorough investigation into Marks, including where he parked his car. The report says a hijacking is in progress and Marks is the prime suspect.While Marks and Summers try to gain access to the texter's cell phone, it suddenly activates, sending automated messages to TSA implying that Marks is suicidal and is going to detonate a bomb on the plane. The phone displays a 30-minute countdown timer.The news report begins discussing Marks' entire background, including that his daughter died from cancer at eight years old, and that he's not American born. When a person being interviewed talks about how air marshals walk right past security, Marks finds the bomb hidden in the cocaine smuggled by Hammond.Meanwhile, Reilly convinces some other passengers to help subdue Marks. After a brief but fierce fight, they have Marks pinned to the floor, but Bowen picks up the loose gun and makes the others release him, but demands that Marks explain what's going on. Out of options, Marks finally explains the situation in detail to everyone, admitting that all they've heard about him is true. But he swears he's trying to save the plane. Warily the passengers agree to work with him. Bowen returns Marks' gun and Marks has the tape bindings removed from Bowen.Marks attempts to initiate a protocol of least damage: by bringing the plane to 8,000 feet to equalize air pressure, placing the bomb in the rear of the plane, covering it with baggage and moving the passengers to the front in order to contain the explosion and minimize casualties. Bill gives Hammond's gun to Reilly, trusting him to help if the hijacker tries a contingency plan. Summers asks if the TSA can wire the money, but Marks starts to think this is not about the money at all, with only a few minutes before the bomb explodes. He feels he wasn't supposed to find it; the person behind everything wants the public to believe that an air marshal took down the plane, for a reason Marks can't figure out yet.Fighter jets have begun escorting the plane, their pilots ordering Rice not to change course or altitude without permission or they will launch rockets to destroy the plane. Marks then contacts Rice, explaining that the plane needs to descend to 8000 feet for the lowest pressure deferential. Rice knows this is explosives protocol, and Marks admits that a bomb is on the plane, programmed to explode in sixteen minutes. Rice insists he needs ten minutes or else he will lose too much speed to reach the landing zone he's being escorted to.Marks brings out the bomb and examines it; it's an extremely sophisticated pressure trigger of military design that cannot be disarmed or else discharged out of the plane without exploding. Marks explains to the passengers that he's sure the hijacker doesn't intend to survive the incident. He explains the protocol of least resistance; even though it's never been used, they all have to try it in order to have any hope of survival. Dr. Nasir asks Marks a question he finds puzzling: if the hijacker intends for the bomb to detonate regardless of circumstances, what is he waiting for?All the plane's luggage is packed against the bomb, which had been placed against the rear of the plane. Rice has all the passengers sit and strap in. Marenick calls Bill and tells him the money has been transferred, and he can stop acting innocent. Marks put the phone on speaker so everyone can hear Marenick saying the money has been transferred, reciting the bank account number and confirmation code. He insists the plane will be shot down if Marks tries to descend the plane to civilian airspace. He tells Marks that nobody believes he's innocent because of "the video--" a passenger uploaded a video to social media, of Marks dragging another passenger around the plane cabin, and it's been playing regularly on a loop all over the news. Marks notices a young man pointing a smartphone at him and asks to see it. As he begins watching the footage, the camera switches to show Bowen looking at Marks intently.Watching a video clip, continually replaying it in slow motion, Marks notices Bowen stumbling right over Wheeler, in a way that easily would allow him to slip the smartphone into his pocket, and also apply the poisoned dart. Realizing that Bowen is the culprit, Marks advances, gun drawn, but Bowen grabs Reilly, pulls Reilly's gun away and presses it against his head, and pulls the trigger. The gun is empty. Reilly elbows Bowen, but Bowen slips down and out of sight among the seats. Marks tells Reilly to check Marks' own bag, where a spare clip of ammo is... but White has it. He fights Reilly and grabs the empty gun, slipping the clip into it, and Bowen ambushes Marks and stabs him in the hand with a knife, grabbing his gun. White is Bowen's accomplice in the hijacking, and they now have command.Bowen explains he was appalled by the lack of security at U.S. airports before 9/11, and his father died during the attack. He and White joined the military, hoping for justice, but were disillusioned by what the war turned out to be, and returning home to a country where nothing had changed. Bowen was hoping that framing Marks as a terrorist would lead to drastically increased security. White prepares a parachute, expecting he and Bowen will escape the plane with the money. But Bowen is prepared to die with the plane and shoots White when he's on the verge of giving in to Marks' persuasion to disarm the bomb. Meanwhile, Rice has been insisting to the fighter plane escorts that he needs to descend, but the fighter pilots have their orders and refuse to deviate.Rice decides to dive the plane to 8000 feet, which causes Bowen to be slammed against the plane ceiling. The gun goes off and shoots out a window. Oxygen masks drop. In the confusion, Bowen tries to shoot Marks. Nancy hits Bowen from behind, but he hits her back and knocks her out. The spare gun starts to bounce off the cabin floor, and Marks grabs it and shoots Bowen in the head. White recovers and attacks Marks with a knife, but Marks knocks him down and rushes to the front of the plane. The bomb detonates, and White dies in the explosion. The packed luggage contains the explosion, which blows a hole in the rear fuselage but doesn't destroy the plane.Rice manages an emergency crash-landing at a military base in Iceland. The plane is badly damaged in the landing, but there are no casualties, Marks and Summers save Becca from being blown out of her seat. Marenick calls Marks and apologizes, and asks for the money back. Marks is hailed as a hero in the media, and the film ends with him and Summers beginning their friendship/romance. | revenge, suspenseful, murder, violence | train | imdb | Even if you don't like Liam Neeson, this movie is worth seeing and is a guaranteed good time.
This is an action-thriller starring Liam Neeson as U.S. Air Marshal Bill Marks who, while boarding a flight to London, receives text messages from an unknown assailant, threatening that if he doesn't transfer $150 million to an account, a fatality will occur on the plane every 20 minutes unless Marks complies with the money request.The film starts off with some intrigue, showing Marks depressed, consuming alcohol and having a couple of run-ins with some passengers before he boards the plane, already giving the audience the impression that Marks is a disturbed person and making us eager to know what his background story is.
Jen Summers (Julianne Moore) sits next to Marks on the plane, whose background story is also a mystery until later on in the film, providing us with another interesting subplot.However, the main plot and action come almost immediately after the plane takes to the air when Marks starts receiving the threatening text messages.
What follows is a suspenseful game of cat and mouse as Marks attempt to find the perpetrator and, when the casualties start to mount, it becomes a thrilling roller-coaster ride.The screenwriter team wrote an exhilarating story that really captures the audience attention from start to finish and Jaume Collet-Serra directed a solid plot that kept the movie's pace going strong, leaving no room with unnecessary fillers that tends to drag the story.
There are a few camp and corny moments here and there, but the acting was realistic and believable enough to keep the movie dramatic and engaging.Overall, it's a great action film that is full of twists and turns that will make you glued to the screen and have you guessing the unpredictable outcomes.
There was not one moment in this film that I was bored, and it was filled to the brim with twists, and turns.There definitely is a lot that went into this movie, and even though it'll have you thinking more deeply about the security of airlines, most of all it's just a really, really fun ride..
However, I found myself to be enjoying the movie and was entertained.Non-Stop stars Liam Neeson as air marshall Bill Marks.
The journey starts out as any other until he gets a text from an unknown person which says that he will kill one person every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred to a bank account.As the movie progresses, the stakes get higher and things just keep getting worse for Liam Neeson's character.
Liam Neeson - the go-to action hero of the hour - plays Air Marshall Bill Marks: a chain-smoking alcoholic, with a tragic family past, who is the last person you would trust to wave a gun around on a flight.
Non-Stop is a great movie with a well developed storyline and a talented cast.The films story was certainly an original one,and I though I think the final half of the movie is a disappointment,the movie is still a very exciting action and thriller from start to finish.Liam Neeson is without a doubt the best actor in this film,he really carries the rest of the cast and the movie certainly wouldn't be the same without him as the very likable lead,although Julianne Moore did deliver a great performance and none of the actors were bad.The reason why I was disappointed by the ending is because it seemed like there was going to be an amazing twist,but that never happened,nothing was very shocking which I did find to be a big disappointment.Non-Stop is a very enjoyable movie that I would recommend to fans of Liam Neeson,thrillers and actions.On a plane headed to London,an air marshall must springs in to action after he receives text messages that someone will kill a passenger on the plane every twenty minutes unless the airline transfers $150 million in to an anonymous bank account..
An excellent whodunit deals with an air marshal (Liam Neeson) springs into action during a transatlantic flight (the airplane used in the film is a Boeing 767-300) after receiving a series of text messages that put his fellow passengers at risk unless the airline transfers $150 million into an off-shore account .
Liam Neeson is top-notch as a drunken and discredited air marshal ; Liam Neeson has propelled many an action thriller to big box office numbers, as Unknown , Taken 2 and this Non-stop .
There are many suspects , all support cast formed by good secondaries such as Scoot McNairy , Corey Stoll , Jon Abrahams , Nate Parker , Jason Butler , Linus Roache , Shea Whigham , Anson Mount and Lupita Nyong'o who in her next film would win an Academy Award .Colorful cinematography by cameraman Flavio Martinez Labiano using Steadicam and with majority locations from plane interior .
Jaume Collet-Serra's film doesn't mine the dark psychological depths of Hitch's best output, but it's a lean and sometimes amusingly mean thriller.What starts as a high concept mid-90s straight-to-video plot – a passenger will be bumped off every 20 minutes unless Air Marshall Bill Marks (Neeson) arranges for $150m to be transferred to the perp's account – soon becomes a nail-biting, disbelief-suspending whodunit (or who's-doing-it).
'Non-Stop' is atmospherically directed too, and the film is quite good and watchable for two thirds of the duration, the pace takes its time but didn't feel too draggy and there was plenty of suspense and tension with great use of misdirection.However, the rest of the cast don't make much of an impression.
Unfortunately Liam Neeson's latest uber-serious thriller, Non-Stop, is the next in line of bad action movies this year.
Non-Stop is a soap-opera level suspense film about a troubled air marshal aboard a hijacked plane, in which he is a suspect.
Hack director Jaume Collet-Serra's red herring film about a mystery passenger on a commercial flight who wants money or he/she is going to kill someone every 20 minutes and only a drunkard air marshal played by Neeson can save everyone on board.
I love really good action movies and Liam Neeson has truly become someone to watch.
So we go around with a lame exposition of the hijacker's motive before routine action brings it all to a close.I wanted to watch a simple and effective action movie but Non-Stop only exists thanks to Liam Neeson (and Julianne Moore).
As a result the remaining plot started to resemble Swiss cheese (holes in every direction) and the role of the main character could have been played by Sylvester Stallone, Jean Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren or any of the other action stars who cannot act.In that respect I left the theater A) laughing at the stupidity of the plot B) disappointed at the waste of money/time..
I mean, an action movie, set on a plane, and the main character is played by Liam Neeson.
Liam Neeson is good, most of the time, Julianne Moore is great in every scene, and none of the other supporting characters feels unnecessary or acts bad.
Overall, Non-Stop is a good action movie whose flaws are easy to ignore, and I'd recommend it for a Friday evening with friends.Rating: 7/10 Read more reviews at http://passpopcorn.com/.
There's a whole sub-genre of movies based around trouble in an airliner - think of the four "Airport" films of the 1970s, the two "Airplane" comedies of the 1980s, the action- thrillers "Passenger 57" (1992) and "Flightplan" (2005), the real life account of "United 93" (2006) or even the hilarious "Snakes On A Plane" (2006).
So don't expect anything too original from "Non-Stop", set almost entirely on a flight from New York to London on the fictional airline Aqualantic.At the centre of the action is air marshal Bill Marks who - like the pilot in "Flight" - has a past fuelled by alcohol.
What give "Non-Stop" an element of class is that Marks is played by Liam Neeson who is a serious actor - brilliant in the eponymous roles of "Michael Collins" and "Schindler's List" but latterly turning to action roles (the two "Taken" movies").
What's surprising about Non-Stop is that its first half actually shows great promise as a solid, rather serious action thriller, particularly with director Jaume Collet-Serra ladling heaps of tension into the narrative.
Red herrings are liberally baked into the film's plot, to the extent that audiences - and Bill - will be rather effectively kept guessing about the culprit for quite a while.There's even much to enjoy in the complicated dynamics among the passengers on the plane; they range in response from belligerent (Corey Stoll's rage-filled cop) to terrified (Scoot McNairy's Tom Bowen), from helpful (Nate Parker's Zack White and Omar Metwally's Doctor Nasir) to antagonistic (Anson Mount as Bill's colleague, Jack Hammond).
It all adds welcome tension, drama and even comedy to the flight, and contributes red herrings galore to the plot, as Bill struggles to determine who he can trust.But surprisingly good things must come to an end, and so it is for Non-Stop.
People talk a lot in this movie, but seldom do they have much to say.In this film, Liam Neeson (I've already forgotten the name of every character in this film) walks up and down a plane, trying to stop a murderer who kills someone every 20 minutes, all while contacting Neeson on his smartphone.
one of the better films of the last few years with a very good cast of Liam Neeson and Julian Moore who are some of the best actors around i was glad to see this film as it was a change from a no story driven action flick with people blowing up for no reason with this very good film which is certainly not over the top and is set on a plane which i think is good as you have to keep asking your self how did he kill him/her.
the plot bases around a air marshal [ Liam Neeson ] on a plane and suddenly he receives a text message from a mysterious person who tells him that if there isn't a lot of money put into a bank account he will kill someone every 20 minutes.
"Pure non-stop action" is what seems to be the main motif to Liam Neeson's movies now.
Of course Liam Neeson's character isn't going to just take his seat and watch as everyone dies, no he is going to go kind of crazy and try to save everyone but also find out who is behind this sinister plot.The film for me is a poor one, easy to watch yes but lacks in any decent substance, you certainly can turn your brain off for over 100 minutes though.
I very much disliked the ending which is so sort of stupid even that it brings this from being a pretty mediocre film to being just plain poor and below-par.Liam Neeson is actually not bad in his role, he kind of mumbles a lot and isn't given the best lines it has to be said but nevertheless the action scenes he does are well choreographed and done well from Neeson himself too.
The most random appearances have to go to Michelle Dockery and Lupita Nyong'o who just seem to dawdle an awful lot and really didn't even need to be in the plot; in fact most characters are pointless in this.Jaume Collet-Serra directs and he doesn't do much to make this good, you know the script isn't half bad in terms of how the story plays out but Collet-Serra doesn't bring the story to life enough and it ends up too dull in certain ways.
The thrilling parts of the movie (the thrills that are good that is) are usually scenes that contain the score from John Ottman who does a good job of at least trying to make us pumped up or want to know more about the mystery, the film can never quite grab you enough to really make you interested though so you're left kind of hanging as the ending comes up.Overall a pretty dire movie actually, it's nowhere near awful of course and I would even recommend it to those who enjoy a good if not basic thrill.
On entering the movie theater it must be said that I was in the exact same mindset as the other 400 sitting alongside me; "Just another blockbuster - i'm only here cos its got Liam Neeson in it", and while the lead protagonist was the star of the show (giving his best big- screen performance since Taken), the true genius of the film chose not to rely on the star-studded cast (including Oscar-nominee Julianne Moore) but came down to the crafty nature in which the plot was unraveled, utilizing ambiguity and unpredictability to the greatest effect.
Liam Neeson returns with another awesome thriller with literally non-stop suspense, tension, paranoia, and thrills that might make you think twice about buying another plane ticket.
Everyone is suspicious to the main character and to the spectator.This is a perfect thriller, with a pretty good story line, unlike most action movies.*** Not a spoiler but : It looked like they were looking for a way to end this movie quickly which made the ending a little bit rubbish.
It has lots of twists and turns and some decent bits of action.The action was good but not amazing and I didn't feel it was on the level of some of Liam Neesons other films such as Unknown and Taken.
We've enjoyed the claustrophobic approach to movie thrillers before in such movies as Flight, Air Force One, Flightplan and even Phone Booth.For whatever reason, this plane never feels cramped and the tight spaces only come into play with the aforementioned lavatory fight scene, and even that seems like the most spacious airplane restroom of all-time.
I gave this a chance and regretted it - what a pity Liam Neeson is putting box office $ before content and has settled into making variations on a theme - I look forward (not) to "Taken 9" and "Non-Stop 4" in 2018...And Julianne Moore, a talented actress who starred in "The Hours" and other quality films - what was she thinking???
Non-Stop is the second collaboration between director Jaume Collet-Serra and actor Liam Neeson, something which made me suppose it was going to be a sequel of Unknown, the previous film in which they worked together; but it wasn't like that.
Non-Stop is a boring and insipid thriller in which Neeson repeats his characteristic role of a tough guy (this time, he is an air marshal with a turbulent past and family problems) facing high risk situations with his fists and with some cute women as unexpected allies.
Bill Marks(Liam Neeson) a down on his luck Air Marshall, while on a flight receives a text message from an unknown assailant, that says they will kill someone on the plane in 20 minutes, if Bill transfers 150 million dollars to an undisclosed account.
Liam Neeson is great, really giving a good performance, and not just playing it has a typical action hero.
As the movie races forward, every character evokes suspicion including Bill himself.Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra whose previous work includes Orhpan and Unknown, Non-stop is race against time thriller with a great cast and perfect actors being chosen for every role.
Non-Stop is a thriller about air marshal, Bill Marks(Liam Neeson).
Because of Taken when someone sees Liam Neeson kick ass all over the place the first thing they think is this is going to be an action movie.
Quick Review: Non-Stop is a fast moving thriller with Liam Neeson doing what he does best.
Liam Neeson's action career is non-stop....and I love it.
I seriously never tire of watching Liam Neeson in these roles (I get unabashedly giddy every time a new "Taken" is announced), and he certainly does not disappoint in "Non-Stop." The writers did an amazing job with a story in which you are constantly questioning who the actual villain is, which at more than one point they lead you to believe might even be Neeson himself, and you can never quite shake that shadow of doubt.The supporting cast is just as much a part of this movie's appeal, with Julianne Moore (as her usual charming self), Michelle Dockery, and Corey Stoll sporadically muscling their way to the forefront, all the while casting doubt on their own motives.
Probably not the best plot, or not even a perfect crew of actors besides Liam Neeson, but the good point of the movie is none of those, but the thrill it gives you on certain moments.
The story does get a bit complex, so much so that you have to watch it a couple more times, and even though you know who it is, you are still enjoying the movie and in on the action.The acting in this is on point, having the main character being possibly one of my all-time favorite actors (Liam Neeson).
Enjoyed this one quite a bit, it managed to be more than just your straight action film and I liked trying to figure out whodunit from a whole plane load of potential suspects, for a while I even thought Liam Neeson was guilty.
Non-Stop is a better-than-average action movie that takes place solely in the air.
We also get good supporting turns from Scoot McNairy and Lupita N'yongo.Overall, Non-Stop is a surprisingly great action thriller that is tense and suspenseful.
I enjoyed watching this film a lot, and this further establishes Liam Neeson as a major action thriller star..
This movie is really good for Liam Neeson fans and for people who like suspense thriller movies.
Non-Stop is no different; just like Taken the action takes place within twenty minutes from the start, and things snowball from there.
The next movie in Liam Neeson's badass phase, Non-Stop is the sort of flick that becomes worse, and stupider, the more you think about it. |
tt0050531 | I Was a Teenage Frankenstein | The movie starts with title and credits running over a background of gray boxes.The opening shot is the edifice of a University Building. Professor Frankenstein (Whit Bissell) is guest lecturing to colleagues. His topic is transplantation. Dr. Randolph (Marshall Bradford) interrupts the lecture to ask, "Professor Frankenstein, how can you ask us to believe such a preposterous theory?" Frankenstein's assistant, Dr. Karlton (Robert Burton) upbraids Randolph for his criticism and rudeness, "I think you're being disrespectful."Back in Frankenstein's basement lab, Karlton is working on an experiment. Frankenstein decides to prove his theory and tells Karlton, "I plan to assemble a human being using parts and organs from different cadavers." He proposes to do this on his own in his lab. His goal is perfection of the human race. Karlton expresses reluctance and adds he is not an MD, his doctorate is in Physics. But Frankenstein explains that specialty is what he needs to complete his work. They hear a car crash outside. They rush out to investigate. Two cars have collided and are on fire. A bystander (Paul Keast) tells Frankenstein that one young man was thrown clear of the collision. At Frankenstein's direction, Karlton carries the body back to the house wrapped in a blanket and takes him to the basement lab. Karlton asks how Frankenstein plans to get away with stealing a body. Frankenstein tells him the fire will burn up any evidence there ever was one. Karlton asks why it is so cold, and Frankenstein explains he keeps the lab at 36 degrees, like a morgue. He asks Karlton to describe the body. He is squeamish, but finally notes that the skull is crushed and the face beyond recognition. They store the body in a pull out drawer. Karlton gets cold feet and asks his colleague to find another assistant as he doesn't have the stomach for this kind of work. Frankenstein alludes to an earlier experiment, and threatens Karlton by adding, "That made you my ally, of course I could use another and uglier word, accomplice, but I won't." Blackmailing Karlton completed, they change for a party upstairs. Sitting quietly in a corner is his nurse and soon to be fiancée, Margaret (Phyllis Coates). Frankenstein joins Margaret and tells her he needs her help. She is to join him at the house as an assistant and watchdog. He intimates more. She reads marriage into it. She must give up her nursing position at the University Hospital.Doctors Frankenstein and Karlton examine the body acquired in the auto collision. Dr. Karlton suggests the hands and right leg be amputated as a result of crushing injury. Frankenstein orders Karlton to wire him up so he can feel pain, so when it is alleviated he will know gratitude. To blackmailer, add sadist to Frankenstein's character traits. Karlton again expresses his reluctance. Margaret has moved in and answers the phone. Her job is to handle the mail, answer the phone, and keep any distractions away from the pair working downstairs. After the leg is sawn off, Karlton asks how the parts are to be disposed. Frankenstein tells him he's provided for this also. He wraps the parts in a surgical sheet and directing Karlton over to the wall he opens a door behind an electrical panel. Below the lab is pit with an alligator that quickly consumes the parts. He closes the door.The next morning at breakfast, Frankenstein is perusing the Huntington Park News. He comments on the headline, "Mass Funeral for Teenage Victims." He reads sections aloud to Dr. Karlton. A track team died in a plane crash. They will be interred today. Frankenstein expresses sadness that healthy young men died too soon. But he has an idea. The pair of scientists enter the funeral home that night to collect the hands and leg they need. Frankenstein is pleased to have added the hands of a wrestler and the leg of a football player to his creature. That evening they join Margaret for dinner. Karlton excuses himself, which allows Margaret to speak freely. She complains about a lack of attention from her fiancé. To assuage his guilt, he takes her out for a drive that evening. They decide to park and look at the view. They've chosen a teenage lover's lane.The next morning in the lab, Frankenstein demands his creation speak. The Monster (Gary Conway) is on a gurney and finally says, "Good Morning." It complains that it is dark. Later, up in the study, Margaret meets with her betrothed and seeks his input on wedding plans. She finally asks, "By the way, dear, what is your experiment?" He responds, "Until I'm successful, it's a deep secret." Frankenstein visibly blanches when she kiddingly chides, "Well if you won't tell me I might have ways of finding out for myself." He confronts her angrily. He then slaps her across the face. She apologizes and they reconcile, but the seed of doubt and suspicion is planted. He tells her he needs seventy-two hours of uninterrupted work. Frankenstein and Karlton drive off. Margaret goes down to the basement and takes a wax impression of the lock. She has a key made by a locksmith in town who comments on how old and European the lock must be. She returns home and walks down to the basement, tries the key and lets herself into the darkened lab. She turns on the lights and looks around. She tries to open the cold storage body vaults, but each one she tries is locked. One is not locked, and she opens it. The monster sits up and she screams. She exits the lab.Frankenstein works with the monster on diction and strength exercises. The next day the monster does his exercises with weights. It tells Frankenstein, "You're happy, but I am not." He resents being stuck in the basement and isolated. Frankenstein cuts off the bandages on his head to show him why he can't go out amongst people. It reveals a horrible visage. His face is a mass of scar tissue. He has one protruding eye and an empty socket for the other. Frankenstein threatens to leave him like that unless he cooperates. The doctor storms off leaving the door to the lab open. The monster exits the lab and wanders around in the house. He enters the living room and sits for a while in the chair. He leaves the house and walks down the street. He peers into the window of a beautiful blond woman (Angela Blake) brushing her hair. She sees him in the mirror and screams. He breaks in to silence her, and not knowing his own strength, kills her. The police show up later to take a report from the other tenants who witnessed the crime. The newspaper covers the story. The next days headlines are, "Crazed Man Kills Young Woman." Frankenstein is furious. He enters the lab through the open door and confronts his creation, "Then it was you." He threatens to do away with dangerous evidence, namely his creation. Frankenstein leaves and locks the door.The doorbell rings. Sgt. Burns (George Lynn) and Sgt. McAffee (John Cliff) identify themselves and tell Frankenstein about the fiend in the neighborhood. They talk and leave thinking Frankenstein was cooperative. In the living room, Margaret picks a ring from a display. She invited a jeweler, Mr. Sexton (Charles Seel), over. Frankenstein enters the room, furious, and demands an explanation. Margaret tries to explain, but Frankenstein is very rude and demands to know why he is in the house against strict instructions. He throws the man out. Margaret asks, "Are you hiding something?" That gets a reaction. She tells him, "I saw your great scientific experiment. I saw your monster in the vault in the cellar." She volunteers that she had a key made. She rationalizes that as a future wife she had a right to know. He lies and tells her he's pleased she now knows and can help him. He lets her keep the key to the lab. The plan is underway. Frankenstein tells his monster that he will begin to work on his face tomorrow. He confides that a woman has threatened his security and as a result he will never have a new face. He will use the monster to eliminate his fiancée. Karlton is out of town for a few days, so Frankenstein asks Margaret to help. He invites her downstairs to feed his creation. He tells her to use her own key. He directs Margaret to inject the monster with the nutrient solution. Frankenstein leaves under the pretext of getting some supplementary vitamins. The monster tells Margaret that she wants to see him dead. He jumps up and attacks her. Dr. Frankenstein locks the door trapping her inside. He listens intently as she screams repeatedly and then gasps for air. Next we see the alligator finishing his meal. Dr. Frankenstein says, "Poor Margaret. You've done your work well. You've earned your reward." He tells his creation he can pick his own face. They drive that evening trolling for a body. They spot a couple in a car necking. Dr. Frankenstein asks the monster if the young man's face he saw meets with his approval. The monster approaches Bob (Gary Conway) and Arlene (Joy Stoner) in the car. Arlene screams and the monster attacks both.The police, Burns and McAffee, question Arlene's mother (Claudia Bryar) the next day. Arlene was not physically injured, but she was very traumatized. Bob on the other hand is missing. The mother tells the police what her daughter told her. The creature had no face and only one eye. When she came to, Bob was gone. She drove herself home.Frankenstein finishes putting Bob's face on his creation. He announces him quite handsome. After cutting off the bandages he hands him a mirror. Dr. Karlton returns with the equipment. Per instructions, he purchased from the list discreetly in four different cities. They reward themselves with a glass of sherry. Dr. Karlton asks about the housekeeper, Mrs. Detrich. "Oh, I let her go," he tells Karlton. She had an offer from a wealthy invalid. Karlton also asks about Margaret. Dr. Frankenstein continues the lie, tells him, she's gone, disappeared. "Perfidy thy name is woman," he quotes. He changes the subject back to their creation, for Karlton doesn't know about the new face. When he asks about where it came from, he is told not to burden himself with unnecessary details. Bob is sitting and admiring himself in his mirror. Karlton examines his face and pronounces, "Amazing, absolutely amazing." Frankenstein is concerned that Bob will be recognized. He proposes to take him to England for the launch. Karlton reminds his colleague that he will need a passport, identity, and a name. There is also customs, immigration, and other issues to be considered. Frankenstein has been thinking about this for some time and tells Karlton he will cut up the body and pack it in the crates marked electrical apparatus. For you see, each case has a false bottom. He will reconstruct him in London. Frankenstein orders Karlton to inject their creation with Sodium Pentathal after he straps him to the table. He will employ the ruse that he is going to remove the stitches from his face. Bob gets on the table and they strap him down. As Karlton prepares the injection, Bob reacts violently. He suspects something and breaks free. He chokes Frankenstein, allowing Karlton to run from the lab for help. Bob opens the panel and throws Frankenstein to the alligator. Karlton brings two police officers back to the lab. The police order Bob to surrender. He refuses and backs into an electrical grid on the wall. [Note: the movie switches from Black & White to Color] Bob is electrocuted. He slides down the wall to the floor. He is dead. We close with Dr. Karlton telling the two police officers, "I'll never forget his face after the accident, never." We zoom in on the Monster's face before Bob's replaced it, and the alligator chomping on a lab coat. | murder | train | imdb | Teen-age Frankenstein, for faults in other areas, is one of the few to allow the Monster a goal: he expresses his loneliness and desire for companionship.So for everyone who hasn't seen this film yet because of volumes of "Best of..." books, give it a try.
This is top of the line 1950's B movie schlock.And it is wonderful.Countless tv viewings and a recent VHS viewing confirms this.Prof Frankenstein(Whit Bissel)is visiting from England on a lecture tour.He wants to create a perfect body from a youth.As it so happens there is a terrible auto accident outside which allows him to grab a corpse.Of course there is the hesitant assistant to deal with.
So our boy kills her and she is dumped in the alligator pit(I'm not making this up).The pit is used to dispose of spare parts by the way.The boy needs a nice face(does he ever)so he and the doctor go out in search of one.Happily they locate one and it is grafted on.Everybody is all smiles now.The doctor and his assistant prepare to go to England.
The boy has no passport so they plan to dissect him for easier international travel.The rousing finish is in color.Whit Bissel gives a great performance as the cracked to the max mad doctor.He has a heck of a realtor that can set him up in temporary lodgings with a lab & an alligator pit in the basement.Wonder where he got the alligator.If you can overlook or poke fun at the plot holes you can really enjoy this flick.See it if you can!.
"I Was a Teenage"...You've got the premise of constructing a teenage marvel(Gary Conway on his way to stardom) out of spare cadaver parts; the mad doctor(played by the articulate Whit Bissell and his memorable "witty" remarks; his assistant (the somewhat embarrassed looking Robert Burton; and his faithful/curious fiancé (the lovely Phyllis "Lois Lane" Coates); all doing the best they could possibly do under the circumstances!
Now how about scenes like the surgical bone saw cutting through the leg(it could have used some splattered blood on their faces for the total effect!), the convenient alligator disposal unit under the laboratory/morgue, hearing the sound of the beautiful blonde victim being choaked to death by the sex craved monster, Phyllis and Whit necking in Lover's Lane(oh,my!), Gary's head being carried off in a bird cage, and hello!...the final, and for no good reason, the color sequence showing you the classic monster make up creation in glorious Pathe color!(you've got to see this in its totally restored color version, on the big screen.)...you can't get any better than this!
Hey movie goers, make sure you watch the complete unedited version, somehow, somewhere; not the edited British version, "Teenage Frankenstein", which was sold on video some ten years ago.
Boris emoted in Cinemascope in FRANKENSTEIN 1970, Donald Murphy built monsters in a wine cellar in FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER and Whit Bissel created a teenage monster in the movie I am about to discuss.As if most teenagers were not monsters already in their own right Whit decides to build an artificial man out of parts from young healthy teen athletes.
The monster (Gary Conway) has the body of a muscleman but a face that, well, looks like it was sculpted out of clay (which it was!) and when he talks he sounds like someone who is, well, talking through a mask!Okay, this has already been discussed in detail by other reviewers on this board but everyone seems to have ignored one very obvious gaffe.
Oh well, this is still a fun movie, especially now that the colour ending has been restored.Points of interest: Gary Conway's real name is Gareth Carmody.
Everything you see in 'the Craft,' 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' and of course the ubiquitous 'Twilight' movies is a re-hash of Teenage Werewolf and Teenage Frankenstein.Wereas Teenage Werewolf focuses on the personality and emotions of the Michael Landon character, thus structurally grafting the point of view of 'Rebel Without a Cause' to the horror genre, Teenage Frankenstein is more pre-occupied with Whit Bissel's portrayal of a Dr. Frankenstein living in the era drive-in movies.
As such, Teenage Frankenstein follows more traditional monster movie conventions than Werewolf.Nonetheless, teenagers are featured heavily, and teen actor Gary Conway as the eponymous monster is a major presence, so it is indeed appropriate to study this film in the context of the Teen Horror genre.This film is an excellent example of the aesthetics of low-budget 1950's monster film-making.
It moves quickly and delivers just what the intended audience expected and needed: cheap and harmless thrills.One of my favorite sequences involves the monster's search for a suitable head for himself at a nightime lovers' lane with teens parked in their cars.
While this movie is fun and better than the title would suggest, it does lack the original psychic/emotional center that characterizes the classic horror pictures.
As another "modern" descendant of the Frankenstein family, Whit Bissell takes the body of a hideously disfigured teen from a car wreck and assembles a muscular young man with a head that looks like it passed through a garbage disposal.
Phyllis Coates (Lois Lane from TV's ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN) plays his snooping fiancé with a bad habit of putting her nose where it doesn't belong.Not as remarkable as TEENAGE WEREWOLF, with a tendency to feel kind of claustrophobic in its indoor environment.
Seen him in many movies,convincing performer,just learned his name-Whit Bissell.This is another 1950's horror film that that does it's main purpose-entertain.Whit can almost make the viewer believe anything is possible,he seems to always know what he's talking about,doesn't come across as the mad scientist type.A nice addition is Phyllis Coates,just wish her hair would of been dark like on the superman show.One scene I found amusing was when the doc states the monster should be talking like a politician giving a filibuster then tells him "watch my lips".Talk about that extra special home, his not only has a crocodile pool underneath it but it has a morgue too,when put on the market those kind are grabbed up fast.In one scene an elderly lady is being questioned by the police about her daughter....comments that she went out on her first date with a quiet boy.Seeing the boy and girl parked in lovers lane it's obvious they got over their shyness real fast..
It's got a mad scientist, a laboratory full of sparking equipment, a reluctant assistant, an alligator filled pit and of course a full fledged pug ugly monster.
Like many people I saw this on tv as a child and now always think of it anytime someone mentions 50's monster movies..
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein has a great exploitation title and a few taboo-breaking gore scenes but little else than unwitting camp and curio value to recommend it.
Reliable actors Whit Bissell (as Dr. Frankenstein) and Phyllis Coates (Lois Lane of Superman fame) struggle valiantly with the schlocky material but are unable to get any fun out of the poor script.
The 'Man of Steel' was already off the air when this flick hit the drive-ins.Gary Conway's all-American chiseled good looks would later play well as Gene Barry's sidekick for two years in BURKE'S LAW.
In the title role of this picture,it certainly provided for Gary an element of cult classic cache and something to show off to the grandkids.As I said, I watched this movie in a serious frame of mind.
I thought teenage frankenstein was a great flick.It had it all,ugly monster,murder,excitement and great screams from phyllis coates.you can,t get no better than that.
Loved the way they disposed of the bodies.Whit Bissel was the kind of villian you could like,hate and fear all at the same time.The monster was dumb in the fact that if he believed his creator and phyllis coates did indeed want the monster destroyed,why would she bother to help feed him?
I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN is the story of Professor Frankenstein (Whit Bissell), and his experiments involving dead tissue re-animation.
Using teenagers killed in drag racing (wear those seatbelts and don't race kids!) a scientist creates a horrible looking (the make up is pretty cheap and showed up in pictures in Famous Monsters a lot) of course, as created monsters will, it goes on a killing spree.
After the success of I Was a Teenage Werewolf, producer Herman Cohen followed that up with this one in which the shrink from the previous one-Whit Bissell-ended up playing a descendant of the original Frankenstein doctor from the Boris Karloff classic (at least, I think that's what Cohen wants us to think).
Whit Bissell is the new doctor walking in the footsteps of his more infamous ancestor and determined to create a new human being who won't be a monster like the one the Baron created but 'a youth' that he can teach.
It's terrible, of course, though the appalling acting and unintentionally hilarious dialogue make it perfect midnight movie fare while poor Gary Conway had the misfortune of launching a not very illustrious career playing 'the creature'..
I lived my whole life thinking there was only one movie that started in black and white and ended in color.That number has tripled in the last two days.Just like in How To Make A Monster, the way they made the change was cool but it just leaves you wishing the whole movie had been in color.So Dr. Frankenstein assembles a monster from the bodies of various dead teens and then it has all the regular teen issues.He had planned on being hailed as a scientific genius but just ends up having the monster kill people for him.The only bad thing about this movie is that there is too much time where nothing happens.It's another seventy minute movie that could have been thirty minutes with nothing missing.Not bad for a sixty year old b-movie..
I will admit the Teenage Frankenstein's monster is a very angry creature along with mad man Dr. Frankenstein - unlike the original Frankenstein films where the tempers were much milder and less violent.While this is not the greatest "Frankenstein" film it is a fun watch.
I was a Teenage Frankenstein easily surpasses its werewolf predecessor as a fun and imaginative horror film.
The story is about a descendant of Frankenstein(played by Whit Bissell)who continues following in his family's footsteps with experimentation with bodies and death in order to create life.
It stars the oddly cast Whit Bissell...odd because he's supposed to be British and sounds about as British as Elvis or Urkel!When the story begins, Professor Frankenstein is lecturing about transplants...something very new back in 1957 and which hadn't yet been successfully done for most organs.
So, like the classic story, he assembles a monster out of body parts.
And, to control the monster, the Doctor promises to give his creation a new face IF it does his evil bidding...such as murder!This Dr. Frankenstein is much more of an evil sociopath than you would expect.
All I could remember was that horrible looking face of Conway's character after the car crash.These old American Internationl pictures where they used color towards the end of the film for emphasis was another old 50's gimmick.It's funny when you grow older and watch it again it becomes laughable and you wonder what you were scared about in the 1st place.That's the way our minds mature during our lifetime.I remember always wanting that mask of Conway's for Halloween trick or treating.Was usually paired with "I was a Teenage Werewolf" for Saturday afternoon kids matinées back then....s.m..
Whit Bissell is great as the mad professor Frankenstein and Phillys Coates gives the performance of her life as the professor's mistress, who is savagely killed by the monster after she discovers Frankenstein's secret.
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957) ** (out of 4) Fair horror film has Professor Frankenstein (Whit Bissill) taking a teenage body from an automobile wreck and bringing it back to life.
The American International Pictures' movies are so great that it's ridiculous to compare them to Hammer.
But anyway, I Was A Teenage Frankenstein is the best American International Picture I've ever seen.
The film has a great story and great acting by Whit Bissel and Gary Conway.
Especially Gary Conway as the teenage monster.
There is also an alligator pit in the movie used for disposing of body parts.
Professor Frankenstein (Whit Bissell--chewing the scenery) pulls a dead, young and handsome athlete (Gary Conway) from an auto accident.
Here, Whit Bissell once again plays a mad doctor, a descendant of Baron Frankenstein(though not part of the classic Universal series!) who builds a monster from the body parts of dead teenagers, which is finished with the arrival of unfortunate auto-accident victim Bob(played by Gary Conway) who proceeds to go on a murder spree of course...
Bissell Bears Up. Modern day descendant of the mad doctor creates his own monster, a teenage one.What can you say about a drive-in special where the special effects appear assembled from a garbage can.
But what the heck— no teenager of the time cared as long as there was a place in the dark to park.On the other side of the coin, there's something to be said for the great Whit Bissell as the mad doctor.
This film never builds up any steam; instead we get alot of hot air from Whit Bissell, reprising his mad doctor persona from "I was a teenage werewolf." Here he schemes and pontificates about his plans even more, over and over, while there's nary a teenager in sight.
The title is very inaccurate: the "Frankenstein" of this movie is actually middle-aged, and it's the "monster" who is a teenager.
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein followed I Was a Teenage Werewolf and these sort of drive-in movies were very popular at this time.
Most of these movies came from American International.In this one, two mad scientists, one of them Professor Frankenstein decide to build up a human made up from different body parts.
Frankenstein's lover is fed to the alligator when she finds out about his nasty experiment and he himself is also thrown to the alligator by his own creation, who is then electrocuted.The final sequence of this movie bursts into colour all of a sudden when the creature is electrocuted.The cast includes several sci-fi B-movie regulars: Whit Bissell (The Lost Continent, Creature From the Black Lagoon, I Was a Teenage Werewolf) as Frankenstein, Phyllis Coates (The Incredible Petrified World, The Adventures of Superman) as his lover, Gary Conway (Land of the Giants, How To Make a Monster) as the creature and Robert Burton (The Slime People).I Was a Teenage Frankensten is worth checking out, a must for all fans of this type of movie.Rating: 3 stars out of 5..
But after the monster commits several murders, the good professor decides to kill the creature and start all over.COMMENT: A box-office follow-up to producer Cohen's 1957 offering, I Was a Teenage Werewolf.VIEWER'S GUIDE: Despite its "X" certificate, the British version (which deletes all five or six minutes of the horror) is okay for all.
m. has been produced on such a minuscule budget, enacted by such a second-rate cast, and directed in so stiff and stilted, plodding and pedestrian style.In his only starring role, minor character actor Whit Bissell does tediously little with Dr Frankenstein.
****SPOILERS*** Obviously made for laughs the follow up to the very successful "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" is about a teenage Frankenstein Monster with the crazed and off the charts Whit Bissel, who was in the werewolf flick, now back by popular demand as Prof.
It's when Frank's finance Margaret, Phyllis Coates who was Louis Lane in the Superman TV series, starts to snoop around in his laboratory and is in danger of exposing his secret experiments he sets Gary on her, like an attack dog, who after murdering Margaret has her body dumped into a watery pit to be devoured by his pet alligator.****SPOILERS**** Finally providing Gary with a new face from his latest victim, also played by Gary Conway, Frank then plans to disassemble him and ship him back to Britain where Frank can preform feather experiments on the poor boy.
Indeed this is probably the most fun of the AIP monster-on-the-loose flicks of the late '50s, as it's pitched exactly right, midway between full-blooded coldly scientific horror and exploitation.Whit Bissell once again stars as the deranged scientist, obviously having enjoyed himself in I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF.
Quite a few set-ups in this are playfully borrowed from Hammer's Curse Of Frankenstein, and the result, thanks to Whit Bissell's sharp performance as Frankenstein and breezy direction from Herbert Strock, make this a camp and watchable monster movie.
Just compare this to the Ed Wood embarrassments or any grade-Z horror flick of the time to be convinced.Bissell plays a descendant of the original Baron Frankenstein: travelling from England to give a series of lectures in the US, he secretly plans to build a monster from teenage cadavers, figuring that youth, athleticism and strength are the key to the future.
Whit Bissell is a descendant of the original Baron Frankenstein who decides to construct a body from the parts of athletic teenagers.
Frankenstein, a British doctor visiting the U.S., and who has pretty far-out theories on "reactivation" of human tissue.When Bissell's theories are greeted with guffaws and derision by other doctors, he and his assistant (Robert Burton) steal the body of a teenage accident victim (Gary Conway).
End of story.Bissell hams it up so shamelessly that the other three main actors (Coates, Burton, and Conway) seem to fade into the background, but given the campiness of the movie, all are very good.
There's ridiculous dialogue to spare (most of it from Bissell) and lots of action, so this film should keep you entertained if you don't think about it too much.
The story is mostly lifted from 1957's "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" (also with Bissell). |
tt2318092 | Endless Love | The opening scene is a high school graduation, class of 2014. Jade Butterfield (Gabriella Wilde), a shy but beautiful young woman, is graduating. She is going to be attending Brown University in the fall. She stands alone after the ceremony, while everyone else laughs with friends and takes pictures together. Jade quietly rejoins her parents while reminiscing about her older brother, Chris, who passed away from cancer. David (Alex Pettyfer), another student graduating, observes her from a distance and notices how lonely she seems. He is intrigued by her, but doesn't speak to her. His best friend, Mace teases him about crushing on her for 4 years but never speaking to her and he brings up David ex-girlfriend, Jenny.Jade, her parents, Hugh and Anne, and her older brother Keith stop at an upscale restaurant to eat lunch after the graduation. Her father pulls the car up for valet service. While exiting the car, Jade bumps into David and Mace, who work as the valets at the restaurant. She shyly says 'hello' and walks inside behind her parents, but comes outside again to ask David to sign her yearbook. Inside the restaurant, Jade's father asks her what she would like as a graduation present. Jade asks for a party. She's never had the chance to socialize with her peers before. (Its clear that Jade has lived a very sheltered, caged life after the death of her brother.) Although her mother thinks its a wonderful idea, her father thinks its a bit odd, but agrees nonetheless. Jade goes out to invites David to her party. A snobby client drives up in his fancy car and treats David and Mace rudely, so they grab Jade and go joy riding in his car. As Jade's family leaves the restaurant they observe David getting into a physical altercation with the snobby client who insulted Jade. After punching the client David gets fired on the spot.Jade wears a beautiful red dress for her graduation party. Her home is full of her father, Hugh's wealthy, middle-aged friends. None of her classmates have shown up. David arrives. Jade is happy to see him, but she feels bad that none of her classmates have come. David explains that there is another graduation party taking place the same evening and that everyone is probably there. He takes out his phone, calls the police and makes a fake noise complaint about the other party, effectively shutting it down. Soon, lots of classmates begin to arrive at Jade's house. Everyone drinks, dances and has fun. Jade and David sneak into a closet to kiss just as Jades father gathers everyone together to make a speech. He talks about how proud he is of Jade and attempts to make a toast, however Jade is nowhere to be found. She sheepishly comes out of the closet, closely followed by David. Her father is annoyed, but continues with the toast. He thanks everyone for coming and ends his speech by asking them all to leave. David leaves after apologizing to Jade's father. He knows he's made a bad first impression but makes it clear that he cares for Jade very much.Jade races to her balcony and throws a paper plane down to David. It says, Wait until all the lights are off. David waits in the pouring rain until the lights are off. He sneaks back into the house and walks into a room where Jade is waiting for him. There's a large cozy fire in the fireplace and shes wearing a beautiful, white negligee. They begin to kiss passionately, undress and spend the night together. Its clear that Jade and David are completely smitten with each other.The next day, Jade spends time with her father at the hospital. He is a doctor and is grooming her to go into medical school. He asks her to stay and observe a surgery, but she tells him that she can't. He is disappointed and taken aback by her not following his wishes, since she usually does. She meets David near a lake and kisses him intensely. They discuss a summer medical internship she has, which means they only have about 10 days left to spend together. David tells her that he doesn't care how much time they have, he wants to enjoy it to the fullest. A very sweet montage shows them riding bicycles, running through fields and enjoying each others company with reckless abandon. David drops Jade home after their last evening together. She tells him to ask her to stay, instead of leaving for the internship. He does, and she agrees. She goes inside and begins to unpack. When her father asks her why, she tells him she changed her mind about the internship. Her father knows its because of David. He is furious. The next morning, Jade awakes to find her entire family packing. Her father has decided to take everyone to the lake house. Jade is upset and doesn't want to go, but he father doesn't give her a choice. Shortly after they arrive at the lake house, the doorbell rings. Its David. Jade's father is not pleased, but since Keith's girlfriend is there, how can he not let Jade's boyfriend stay too? Later, Jade's father apologizes for being rude and unwelcoming to David. As they are eating breakfast a female colleague, of Hugh's shows up. Anne seems surprised that Dawn has shown up and excuses herself.Anne writes a recommendation letter to a colleague at University of Georga, her alma mater, for David. She sees something special in him and thinks he will do great things. She is especially thankful for the life he has brought back to her daughter. Hugh reads the letter and promises to mail it for her.That night, Jade, David, Keith and Keith's girlfriend are outside playing with fireworks. David goes into the garage to get some more. He sees Jade's father in the garage kissing Dawn. He is disturbed and leaves quickly, making sure Jade doesn't go into the garage. The next morning, Jade's father takes David out in a boat and after David confronts him, Hugh denies the indiscretion and threatens David to remain quiet if he knows what's good for him.On the way to a party Keith confesses to David, Jade and girlfriend, Sabine, how inadequate he's always felt and how he's never been able to please his father. At the party Jade and David run into Mace, Jenny and other friends who convince them to sneak into a local zoo, despite David's hesitation. TA worker lets them into the zoo where they have tons of fun playing hide and seek, looking at different animals and riding the carousel. Jenny sees David and Jade kiss and jealously calls the police to report the break in. The police arrive and David sends Jade off with his friend, and he draws the police to chase after him instead. David gets caught and taken to jail. The others, including Jade get away. Jade is distraught and asks her father to bail David out. He shows Jade and the mom a criminal background check he had done on David. It lists and altercation of "domestic violence" that David had with a man his mom was cheating on his dad with, in which David went to Juvenal Hall for. Jade says she doesn't care and Hugh finally agrees to get David out of jail, if Jade promises to go for the internship. Hugh bails David out of jail, but insults him by talking trash about David's family and the domestic violence incident, provoking David to punch him. He goes home to his family and tells them that David is violent, manipulative and cannot be trusted.Jade goes looking for David and finds him with Jenny in a café. Jealous and mistaken Jade leaves the cafe and he after chases her. They go back and forth with arguing until he walks away. She accuses him of not fighting for their relationship. She gets into her car and begins driving away. David runs after her, but she is slammed into by another car.Everyone converges together at the hospital: Jades parents and brother and David and his father, Harry. Jade's father takes David's father aside and gives him a restraining order for David to stay 50 feet away from Jade. Harry argues that they're only kids and they just had an argument, but Hugh refuses to hear him and threatens to sue Harry for everything he has if David goes against the restraining order. When Jade gets out of the hospital she goes to see David, but his father refuses to let her see him, since it would be illegal and get him into trouble.Jade leaves for Brown while David stays in town. They each try to move on with their lives. Months go by. David runs into Jade's mother in a bookstore and asks to have coffee with her. She always admired David and his love for Jade. He asks if Jade is coming home for Christmas and if he can see her. Jade's mother tells him which day she is arriving. David goes to the airport and meets her as she walks out of a terminal. They kiss and admit they love each other. He tells her he has two tickets and will take them anywhere in the world. He asks her if she'll meet him that night and run away with him. She looks into his eyes and agrees.Hugh and Anne get in a fight while waiting for Jade at the airport. She confronts him that David never got into UGA and that she knows he never mailed her recommendation letter. She believes he's ruined David's future, and asks Hugh to look at the man he's becoming.That night, Jade's father picks a fight with Keith for being in Chris room and touching his things. Jade's father wants to keep it like a museum. Keith and his girlfriend leave in anger. Jade's mother follows, to be with her son. Jade packs her things to leave with David. Unknown to anyone, a candle has fallen over in Chris' room and ignited a huge fire. Right as Jade and David are leaving, she sees that the house is on fire and screams for her father's safety. He is inside hastily collecting Chris' things, trying to save them. David rushes inside to save Jade's father. He is knocked down and loses consciousness. Jade's father sees him, puts down Chris' belongings and picks up David. They both make it out of the burning house.The next scene shows Jade and her mother standing at Chris' grave. It is another few months later, and it is revealed that Jade's parents are separated. Her mother encourages her to be close with her father again. Jade lets her father drop her at the airport. David meets her there and they fly to California, where they witness Keith and his girlfriend, Sabine get married.The movie ends with the four of them hanging out on the beach. Jade and David lay next to each other as her voice over explains how a certain kind of love, the intense, once-in-a-lifetime love, cant-live-without-you love, is worth fighting for. | romantic | train | imdb | null |
tt0988849 | Donkey Punch | The movie begins with seaside views of Mallorca, Spain. In a hotel bathroom is Tammi (Nichola Burley) face-up in the bathtub. She gets up from the tub and starts to shave her armpits when she accidentally cuts herself. Her friends Lisa (Sian Breckin) and Kim (Jaime Winstone) come in and Lisa tells her that shes gorgeous; Tammi says no, shes a mess.They leave the bathroom and sit on the beds and Kim tells them that theyre going to love the place that theyre going to. Tammi gets a text message on her phone but Lisa takes it before Tammi could get to it. Lisa sees that its Ryan and Tammi immediately wants her phone back. Kim takes it from Lisa, and tells Tammi that hes toxic, sending Ryan a text reply, and gives the phone back to Tammi. Tammi sees that Kim wrote F*CK OFF 4EVR! to Ryan and laughs but Tammi tells Kim that she doesnt believe her. Lisa tells Tammi that she promised that she would have no contact with Ryan (who we should assume is Tammi's ex), and she pours them all vodka, toasting to Tammi for being brave and for their upcoming fun weekend together.As some credits roll, we see the three girls getting into a taxi and going to various bars, drinking, having fun, and flirting with a bunch of guys. At one place, they meet a group of guys. One of them asks what theyre drinking, and Kim answers champagne. He says hes paying and says his name is Marcus (Jay Taylor) and the collective group of Marcus and his friends and Kim and her friends end up stealing a bottle of champagne and taking it out with them.While sitting at a beach, Tammi and Lisa are talking and they cant believe that they were just at rainy Leeds and now theyre in sunny Mallorca. The three girls are hanging out on the beach with the guys when Kim asks what they all want to do next. Her friends dont want to go to another bar so one of the guys tell them that theyre welcome to hangout in their yacht. The girls learn that the guys are crewmen, not owners of the yacht. Lisa agrees for all of them and they make their way to the boat.On the dock, Lisa and Kim are excited, laughing with the boys and having fun. However, Tammi is obviously not sure about going with the boys and she overhears one guy telling the other guys that everythings going according to plan. Before they all get on, Tammi tells her friends that she might just go back to the hotel since she thought that it was supposed to be just the three of them for the weekend. Kim is fine with catching up with Tammi later, but Lisa tries to talk Tammi out of it and to just come on the boat for a drink.The guys call out to a guy on the boat named Sean, the boats engineer, and Lisa convinces Tammi to get on the boat. Kim learns that Sean and Josh are brothers. The girls see how large the boats downstairs area is and Josh gives them a tour of the boat and shows them the different bedrooms as well as the engine room.While Josh is giving the girls a tour, the guys talk about who theyre going to have. Bluey (Tom Burke) calls dibs on Kim, while Marcus gets Lisa, meaning that either Josh or his brother Sean get Tammi. The group party upstairs and Kim tries to make the music louder. However, Sean tells the group that they cant have the music too loud on the dock or theyll get in trouble. Kim says theyre going to leave, and the guys then suggest that they have their party on the high seas. Sean reluctantly agrees. Tammi is outside and Sean comes and flirts with her, teaching her how to unwind the rope tying the boat to the dock.Bluey comes up on deck and gives them all ecstasy pills. They all take a whole pill except for Tammi and Sean who each take a half. They anchor out and they swim in the ocean except for Bluey. They start talking about sex positions like Dirty Sanchez and Turkey when Bluey asks the group if theyve heard of a Donkey Punch. Marcus claims to have done it before and Bluey explains what it is (during anal sex, punching the back of the girls head at the right time to get a better orgasm). Meanwhile, Tammi is in the water with Sean and she talks about not wanting to go back to Leeds because there are people there she doesnt want to see anymore.Later on, Bluey has some smoking paraphernalia and claims that his drug is hardcore, in which Lisa answers that she is hardcore so she takes a hit and so does Kim. Bluey also gives Josh a hit. Kim, Bluey, Marcus, and Lisa go downstairs and start making out in the master bedroom when Josh comes down to watch. Bluey takes out a video camera and starts taping Lisa and Kim making out. Kim tries to get the guys to makeout but instead the guys have a competition on who has the best butt.Up on deck, Sean and Tammi are talking about their most recent past relationships. Seans being that the girl messed around with him and Tammis ex cheated on her with a close friend of hers. Tammi gets up to put some music on when she realizes that everyone else had gone downstairs. When she tells Sean that even Josh is gone, Sean is worried for a bit and is about to go downstairs but then Tammi starts making out with him.Meanwhile downstairs, Kim starts making out with Marcus even though shes really supposed to be with Bluey so Lisa takes Bluey and they all have sex in the master bedroom with Josh still watching them and videotaping the whole scenario. Then Bluey gets Lisa to let Josh have a go at her. Lisa and Josh are having sex doggie style with Bluey videotaping them and coaching Josh on when Bluey refers back to the Donkey Punch and tells Josh to do it, so Josh punches Lisa at the back of her head and she falls down.There is obviously something wrong and Kim and Marcus stop what theyre doing. Josh leaves the room in a hurry and Marcus goes out on the deck to tell Sean to come inside. Downstairs, Kim is huddled on the couch and we see Marcus checking for Lisas pulse. Sean comes in and checks her pulse and says he thinks shes dead. When the girls asked what happened, Bluey doesnt respond and Sean says that she must have overdosed. The girls leave the room and Sean says that hell alert the Coast Guard. However, Josh says that they shouldnt as there would be no point and they would be gone by the time they got there. Sean suspects that something else went on.Downstairs, Bluey and Josh talk about what just happened. Josh says that he didnt do anything but Bluey says he saw Josh. Marcus wants to know what really happened and Bluey tells Marcus that Josh donkey punched Lisa, but Josh starts to say that Bluey told him to, but Bluey denies it. Bluey tells Josh that the Donkey Punch is just a story and no one actually does it. Marcus cannot believe that it happened so Bluey shows him the videotape.Kim and Tammi are in another bedroom and Kim tells Tammi that she feels that Bluey and Josh are acting weird. Tammi asks, and Kim says that they were shouting and filming when Lisa died.Marcus finishes watching the tape and is angry at Josh for getting them all involved. The three boys go on deck to Sean and Marcus has Josh tell his brother what happened. Sean watches the tape and Josh asks Sean for his help. Marcus shuts off the yacht power and Marcus says that since theres a girl downstairs with a broken neck and that their DNA is all over her, theyre all going down for the crime. Josh suggests that they could say that she fell overboard.Downstairs, Kim and Tammi are freaking out because their cell phones dont have service.Upstairs, the guys continue talking about what they should do, as Sean points out that Kim and Tammi arent going to agree to lie about Lisa falling overboard. Bluey suggests that they dump the two girls as well which makes Sean freak out and say that its Blueys fault that this happened because he supplied the drugs and told the stories. Bluey says that Josh did it and Josh tells him to shut up and not to push his luck and surprisingly, Bluey listens to him. Bluey apparently throws the tape out into the sea. The guys continue talking about the situation and agree that they cant go to the police and get in trouble as well. Still Sean says that someone needs to tell the girls.Downstairs the guys sit the girls down and say that they should all do the right thing. When Tammi asks what that means, Marcus tells her that as far as the Coast Guard was concerned, Lisa fell overboard. Tammi says that theyre mental. Marcus asks the girls how long theyve known Lisa for, and if they want to be the ones to tell Lisas parents how she really died. Marcus says that he just wants whats best for everyone. Kim says that she knows that Josh killed Lisa, and that its all on tape. Josh denies there being a tape and Marcus says that a decision has been made. Marcus and Josh go to the master bedroom where Lisas body is covered in a bedsheet. Marcus lifts the sheet up and sees a dark bruise on the back of Lisas neck. Sean comes in and helps Marcus carry the body out when Josh points out that they have to be in international waters and Sean tells him to shut up. Marcus says that they need to do it now and while the girls are still scared. Up on deck Marcus gives Josh instructions to stop the boat and anchor. While theyre tying up Lisas body to be thrown overboard, Sean says that its not right but Marcus says that hes worked too hard to have his brother mess it all up and that this way everyone gets their lives back. Sean says Not everyoneDownstairs, a scuffle goes on between Kim and the guys. Bluey is holding Kim back and Josh is holding Tammi. Kim claims that shes going to tell the police, while Josh retorts that that would mean telling the police about the drugs that she did and how she was having sex with a stranger. Kim gets away from Blueys hold and takes a knife from the kitchen. She manages to get up on deck and points the knife at Marcus to stop them from throwing Lisa overboard. Marcus gets the knife away from Kim and Bluey comes to hold her as they dump Lisas body into the sea.
Click HereSean and Marcus throw Lisas body overboard, but it floats up, so Marcus gets in the water to put a weight on the body so that it sinks down. While Marcus is in the water, Kim and Tammi run to the boat controls and make the boat start going again while Marcus is still in the water, so he almost gets caught in the propellers.Marcus gets out safely though, and the girls downstairs try to look for something that would put them in contact with help. Tammi is in the guys room and Sean finds her there and offers her his jacket. He tells her that they are the only two on the boat that are sane, but Tammi is angry at him for helping the guys get rid of Lisas body. Sean want to sincerely help Tammi, and tells her that she just needs to keep Kim in control.Bluey and Josh are in the control room and talk about how they couldve lost Marcus in the sea and that they need to look out for each other. Josh suggests that with Marcus being the acting skipper of the boat however, it would be all Marcus fault. Bluey realizes that Josh is trying to blame everything on Marcus, so Bluey shows Josh that he didnt throw the videotape evidence away into the sea like they thought he did. Obviously, Josh only cares about keeping himself looking innocent.Marcus finishes his shower and finds that Bluey is waiting for him right outside. Josh is walking around looking for Marcus to tell him that Bluey still has the tape and Kim tells him that hes in the shower but makes a point to talk about dropping the soap and anal sex which angers Josh and he throws Kim into a room. Josh then sees Tammi and asks the same thing. Marcus followed by Bluey walks towards them and tells Tammi that they have 45 minutes until they hit international waters and that everyone was going to stay there so that he can keep an eye on everyone. Bluey tells the girls to make them all a meal.Over dinner, Josh tells Marcus, with 20 minutes left, that Bluey kept the tape. Sean freaks out because this means that Josh is going to get all the blame. Marcus asks Bluey what hes going to do with the tape and Bluey says hes going to put it on the Internet and that Josh was going to be a Youtube superstar. Marcus asks the girls if theyre going to do the right thing. Tammi apparently gives in however, and tells them that she was going to tell the police that Lisa died from an alcohol overdose. Bluey tells them that he doesnt like the fussing and fighting and tries to touch Kim and Tammi tells him to leave her alone. Bluey says that Tammi is just jealous that Kim gets all the attention and says that was probably why her boyfriend was sleeping around, going as far as betting that Kim slept with Tammis ex (which turns out to be true, explaining why Kim told Tammi that Ryan was toxic in the beginning of the movie). Bluey continues to talk and Tammi angrily stabs him on the shoulder with the bread knife. Marcus tries to choke Tammi and Sean pulls him off. Kim pulls Tammi away into a room and locks it. Sean knocks and tells her to open the door but they leave through the roof and get on the life raft away from the boat.However, they left without the motor and Kim lets out a flair so the guys could find them again instead of drifting off in the sea. The boat comes and Sean throws them a rope but Marcus comes with a shotgun telling the girls to get out of the boat. Kim takes Marcus by surprise and fires a flare into Marcus and Marcus, now on fire, flails around, and falls into the ocean and dies.Sean brings Tammi and Kim back inside, past where Bluey is still sitting in the same place from when he got stabbed by Tammi, and into the guest bedroom. Josh locks them in there and Sean is in the control room and turns off all the power. Sean tells Josh that they need to find the keys. Josh finds the keys in the master bedroom but tells Sean that Marcus must have had them on him. Sean tells Josh to call for help since Bluey needs to get properly treated for his stab wound. Again, Josh doesnt do it and instead hides the communicator. Josh carries Bluey into the bathroom and tries to get him to say where the tape is.Tammi runs through the glass door to get out of the room they were locked in and gets cut on her knee on some glass. Josh is using Blueys cocaine to get Bluey to tell him where he hid the tape and it works, and Bluey says that its under the bed. Tammi is passing by the bathroom and overhears Bluey so she gets to the tape first and hides. Josh looks for the tape under the bed and cant find it. Tammi is hiding in the closet and Josh runs back to the bathroom and thinks that Bluey was lying to him, so Josh pushes the knife still in Blueys shoulder farther in while Bluey screams in pain. Tammi knocks on the door and tells Josh to leave Bluey alone because he doesnt have it. Josh hears this and takes the knife out of Bluey. Josh comes out of the bathroom and sees Tammi and tells her that Bluey died because he lost too much blood but Tammi knows what happened and calls him a liar. Kim comes and has the shotgun and aims it at Josh.With the gun still aimed at him, Kim gets Josh to start the boat again and says that he cant communicate with anyone because Marcus reset all the channels (really Josh hid the communicator). Josh says that if Sean is in the engine room, he could die in there so Tammi leaves Josh and Kim alone to get Sean. Tammi finds Sean and gets him out of the engine room. Meanwhile Josh tells Kim that if Tammi gave the tape in as evidence then even she would get in trouble, so if they helped each other and stuck to the same story then they could both come out from it clean. Josh tricks her and gets the gun and runs down to shoot Tammi. Sean gets the gun away from Josh but Kim thought that Sean was shouting at Tammi instead of Josh, so she grabs the outboard motor (the one that belongs to the dingy), starts it up, and uses it like a chainsaw on Sean.Tammi is angry at Kim for killing Sean, because Sean was trying to help them. Kim runs up to the deck and commits suicide by throwing herself overboard because she feels bad about killing Sean.Tammi and Josh are the only ones left and decide that they cant be found on the boat so they get on the life raft. When they're a good distance away from the boat, Josh takes a knife out of his pocket and threatens Tammi with it, telling her to throw the tape away. She throws it at him but at the same time she throws a rope connected to the boat around his neck, pulling him back and breaking his neck.Tammi is now alone on the life raft and lets out a flare. The movie ends with her laying on the life raft the way that she was laying in the bathtub at the beginning of the movie. | murder | train | imdb | null |
tt2561546 | The Town That Dreaded Sundown | October 31, 2013. In the small town of Texarkana located on the state line of Arkansas and Texas, the local drive-in theater is hosting the Halloween annual showing of the 1976 film 'The Town That Dreaded Sundown' based on the true story of the Phantom Killer who murdered several people in and around Texarkana in 1946. Corey Holland (Spencer Treat Clark) and Jami Lerner (Addison Timlin) are watching the film. Realizing that she is not enjoying it, they decide to leave. While parked in a secluded area, they begin to talk and kiss, but Jami sees the Phantom Killer in the woods. They decide to leave but the Phantom breaks the window and makes them get out of the car while pointing a gun at them. He makes Corey remove his pants and lie on the ground. He tells Jami to turn around and to not look back. The Phantom begins to slash Corey to death. Jami runs off but is caught when she falls. He tells her, "This is for Mary. Make them remember!" Jami walks back to the drive-in and collapses.The next morning, police interview Jami at the hospital before releasing her. Later that night, Jami and her grandmother, Lillian (Veronica Cartwright), watch the news about the attack. Jami asks her grandmother what she remembers from the original attacks. She researches the crimes. The next day, Jami attends Corey Holland's funeral.Two days before Thanksgiving, Kendra Collins goes to the airport to meet her boyfriend, Daniel Torrens, returning from the military. They have sex at a motel. He leaves to get snacks from the vending machine. Kendra hears something and looks out the window. The Phantom smashes the window with her boyfriend's severed head. She jumps out of the bathroom window, breaking her leg as she lands. She limps to the car but is killed while trying to start it.Meanwhile, Jami receives a phone call from Holland's phone. The Phantom tells her, "I'm going to do it again and again until you make them remember." She decides to tell her police escort, Deputy Foster (Joshua Leonard), about the incident. The next day, residents secure their houses and go to a town meeting.Jami goes to the City Hall archives to continue her research. She is helped by Nick (Travis Tope) and they become friends. At the police station, Texas Ranger Lone Wolf Morales (Anthony Anderson) takes over the investigation. While continuing her research at home, Jami receives an e-mail from "Texas Phantom". She takes this to the police and reveals her theories but they are dis-proven. Nick is waiting for Jami when she returns home and he asks her out to the vigil being held for the Phantom victims. While there, the masked Phantom shows up and is shot down by a marine officer. The news is told to the host of a social event and they celebrate.Afterwards, band members Johnny and Roy leave the dance and are warned by Deputy Tillman (Gary Cole) to go straight home. They decide, instead, to park at a lonely junkyard. While there, they see the Phantom. Johnny runs from the car. Roy drives off but is hit in the head and crashes. Johnny is beaten and Roy gets tied up. The Phantom recreates the trombone weapon from the original film. Johnny is then shot to death before Roy is stabbed to death. The next day, Deputy Foster tells Lerner that the man that was shot down at the vigil was a suicidal teen dressed up as the Phantom and that there were two more murders.Texas Ranger Morales and Chief Deputy Tillman visit Reverend Cartwright (Edward Herrmann) at his church. They discover that he sent Jami the e-mail, but they do not believe he is the Phantom.Nick meets up with Jami and tells her that he found out that the son of the late film director Charles B. Pierce (who directed the original film) is still alive and lives in Texarkana.Chief Deputy Tillman goes to a bar on Christmas Eve and meets up with a woman. At home, while she is giving him a blowjob, he is shot through the eye by the Phantom who is standing outside the window. She runs into a farm field and is killed by the Phantom.Jami and Nick visit Charles Pierce Jr. (Denis O'Hare) where they learn about Hank McCreedy, a sixth victim of the original Phantom whose story was forgotten. He gives his opinion that the new Phantom might be Hank McCreedy's grandson, because the family is angered that McCreedy's death was not remembered. Lerner is told that Hank McCreedy's wife was named Mary.That night, Lillian finds out that Jami was accepted to college in California. Lillian decides to move to California so Jami can go to school. She tells Nick she is leaving in the morning and they have sex. Nick walks home and is attacked by the Phantom.While driving out of town, Jami pulls into a gas station and walks inside. She soon hears gunshots and finds her grandmother dying by the vehicle. The Phantom is seen shooting from a window in a nearby building. Jami runs down the street and into the old Union train station. The Phantom follows her inside and calls her cell phone to find her. She runs to the train tracks where she finds Nick's body. She is shot down by arrows while trying to escape. While immobile, she is confronted by two Phantom Killers. One is revealed to be Deputy Foster and the other is Holland, Jami Lerner's "dead" boyfriend who faked his death. Deputy Foster reveals that he is McCreedy's grandson. Holland is shot and killed by Foster. While Foster is attacking Jami, she grabs his gun and shoots him.In the final scene, Jami moves on with her life and goes to college. In the final shot it is seen that the Phantom's shadow is stalking Jamie down the corridor before the credits roll. | revenge, murder, flashback | train | imdb | So when I first heard about there will be a new TTTDS, I thought it'd be another pointless, some cash-in effort but last night after watching this new take on T3DS, I'd like to admit...I was pleasantly surprised!!Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (the most frequent director of American Horror Story), this new film is a strange version to categorize as a remake, reboot or a sequel; actually it's neither a straightforward remake or sequel...I'm not sure but I think REQUEL (a sequel-ish remake!) can be a more appropriate term for it.
After more than half a century of the actual events of The Moonlight Murders that resulted the very making of 1976 original film, this new story is set on present day at the same town, Texarkana that once again begins to plagued by "The Phantom" murders.
And overall the film is beautifully shot, liked the camera works, the character development was fine for a slasher flick, but still as a slasher it's not above the clichés as well as it comes with a routine ending & weak motive for the killer which I couldn't find much point to it.
May be for the homage issue but though the film is set on late 2013, it still got the 70s vibe almost all over it.Anyway, there's not much masked killer-slasher flick comes out this days with good or decent budget & film making like this one and still despite some clichés & the ending, as a slasher flick it's pretty good one, IMO..
Many years after the killings in small town by a killer known as "The Phantom" resulted in the making of the 1976 film The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Texarkana is once again plagued by murders.
So if you look for particular aspects in a slasher film like a creepy killer, chase scenes, a decent body count, and bloody kills, with a likable lead, you may just enjoy this.
The original true crime slasher flick "Town That Dreaded Sundown"(1976) directed by Charles B.Pierce was based on true story of a mysterious serial killer called the Phantom Killer,who during spring of 1946 killed five people and wounded three in a small border town of Texarkana.The perpetrator of these heinous crimes was never caught.The new "Town That Dreaded Sundown" remake plays more like "Scream" influenced modern teen slasher flick with plenty of references to the original movie and the Phantom Killer unsolved case.Addison Timlin plays teenage girl who after seeing her would-be boyfriend brutally murdered by masked maniac decides to find who really the Phantom Killer AD 2014 is.The movie-within-a-movie premise is certainly well-played and there are some gruesomely bloody kill scenes.Frozen in time Texarkana is also a nice touch.Unfortunately the final reveal of the killer is disappinting.7 trombone deaths out of 10..
The Town that Dreaded Sundown is a fictional continuation on the story of the Texarkana Moonlight Murders told creatively to give homage to its predecessors.Based on the terrifying true serial killings known as the Texarkana Moonlight Murders of 1946, The Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014) is a continuation of the screen adaptation of the real murders told by 1976's horror film The Town that Dreaded Sundown.Texarkana is still affected by the gruesome lovers lane murders some sixty-five years after the burlap masked figure terrorized the Arkansas/Texas area.
The 2014 horror movie blurs the line between fact and fiction, paying homage to both the film and the real life murders, but from this point on is purely fiction.Jami, played by Addison Timlin, is at the annual drive-in showing of the classic 70's horror flick about her hometown's moonlight serial murders.
The film profiled the mysterious murders by someone known only as "The Phantom Killer," who, for three solid months in 1946, terrorized the town of Texarkana, right on the border of Texas and Arkansas, committing gruesome murders or vicious attacks on the backroads of "lovers lanes." To this day, "The Phantom's" identity has never been confirmed and many believed that he walked the streets of Texarkana until his assumed death.The new, 2014 film bearing the same name is less a remake or a reboot of the original cult film but more a strange, meta-sequel, concerning present-day Texarkana, a distinctly southern town that still has the blemish of The Phantom clear in its history.
Either Texarkana is a down that doesn't really age (which could very well be the case) or the true time period wasn't taken into full consideration.Other than that, "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is a surprisingly effective sequel, informative enough to be considered a worthy piece of analysis into The Phantom Killer, dark and haunting enough to live up to the standard set forth by its predecessors, and not meta or self-referential enough to be a distraction or an annoyance.
Scenes like the ones featuring a long conversation with Pierce's son, who is obsessive about letting the truth be known about The Phantom Killer, leave a little bit of ambiguity to a story already so peculiar and odd that we wonder if what is being examined has any substance to it outside of the screenplay.Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon made probably the best thing that could've resulted from a continuation to the 1976 film's story, and, through dark direction and an uncompromising notion to depict brutality and horror in its most chilling sense, makes "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" a thoroughly enjoyable and enticing affair..
This movie starts off with a voice-over speaking about how what your about to see is based on a true story, which is all bs of course, in real life this movie is based on the 1976 movie with the same name which was indeed based on a true story, but only loosely.The characters in this movie are all fictional however taking place in current date and it's more of a sequel than it is a remake as the original movie play a big part in this movie in terms of it's legend and the fact that the first murder occur in a annual screening of the movie.All that really doesn't matter in the end I suppose as long as the movie entertains, which it really does not.It's incredibly boring (even the many sex-scenes in it are boring), and to say that it's filled with clichés is a understatement; THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (2014) is a cliché first and a movie second.I actually expected a decent movie when I saw Anthony Anderson and Gary Cole was in it, but they are not in it all that much.Anthony Anderson who I personally think is one of the funniest comedians plays a serious role this time, and when I say serious I don't mean dramatic I mean that his sheriff character appears to have a stick up his butt and wouldn't know a joke if his life depended on it.
Pure and simply he's boring as a piece of wood in this one, and has the charm of it as well.Gary Cole is not much better, he seems incredibly bored through out and that's all he does.But the rest of the (unknown) cast is not that much better.Okay music though but that doesn't help this uninspired waste of film whatsoever.If you like really boring horror movies with poor from point a to point b story telling and a cast that look like they'd rather go to Pizza Hut than to make this movie, then yeah maybe this is for you, if you prefer your horrors to entertain than watch something else..
It's a cheesy slasher flick from a TV director best know for his contributions to Ryan Murphy shows (Murphy also acted as a producer).This flicks is really more like a fictionalized sequel that proposes to both solve the original crime and showcase a new, brutal copycat killer stalking the town.
A young girl (Addison Timlin of Odd Thomas and Californication), who witnesses the new killer's first murder and begins receiving correspondence from him after, sets out to solve the crime.In the meantime, the town of Texarkana panics while local law enforcement bumbles, both rather insulting to the real life town the movie takes place in and openly mocks.That leads me to my second biggest problem with the movie, the first being that it just isn't that good.
The story is not developed enough, the characters are not written well, and only the kills are effective.I will give credit to the cast, which also includes Dennis O'Hare, Anthony Anderson, and Veronica Cartwright, but they don't have much to work with.I actually didn't love the first movie either but it did have a great title, cool poster, and at least seemed like the filmmakers were trying to make a good movie.
Although the killer uses a gun a bit too much, and there's no decent death scenes in here, there's enough for slasher fans to give this a watch, I liked the way that pretty much as soon as the killer is revealed, unlike most other films where they talk or chase each other for another half an hour, this one just concludes pretty sharpish.
This film takes place in Texarkana in the "real world" where both the events of the phantom killer occurred and were made into the original movie.
Two thirds of a century after a series of brutal, vicious, and unsolved killings took place in Texarkana, Arkansas, and one film, loosely based on the crimes, was made, another killer begins making the rounds, using the original killer's M.O. Not really a remake, as it does have an original take on the story, and not exactly a sequel, either, as the characters are aware of the previous film's existence, and even turn to it for clues to the killer's next move, this meta-film has an interesting idea, and much more tension and suspense than I had expected.
The hooded killer stalking his victims is effectively chilling, and just when it seems to begin copying the cornfield scene from the original, it does something a bit different with it, and gives the audience a creepy scarecrow image, not present in the earlier film.It mixes fact with fiction, as an article is being written about the killer, and a previously unknown victim, which could provide a clue to the killer's identity.But for all those things working in its favour, the characters are mostly dull, bland, and boring, the cinematography is typical high contrast with over saturated colours, and while the final chase is effective, the reveal of the killers' identity was uninspired and unbelievable..
This movie takes place in a world where the murders attributed to the still unidentified Phantom Killer took place just as they did in the real world and, also like the real world, the film The Town That Dreaded Sundown was released in 1976.
It is only where the events of this more recent movie come into play that the story deviates from the world we actually live in, wherein a new killer begins committing murders reminiscent of those from the earlier film and the real life murders that inspired them.
The Town that Dreaded Sundown is more of a sequel than a remake to the 1976 film of the same name, which itself functioned as a true-story of the real-life murders that took place in the border town of Texarkana in the 1940s.
Having already established that this is not your typical slasher film, closer in spirit to David Fincher's Zodiac than Friday the 13th or the like, we're plunged headlong into an investigation of the original case, the movie that followed and their influence on the copycat killings that begin to take place in their wake.Exploring the relationship between violence and film is nothing new to the medium (nor is the self-referential sub-genre that briefly became popular in the mid-to-late 90s), but they've seldom been used to particularly good effect.
So all I can say is THANK YOU that someone actually made a well-made, modern slasher movie to break up the monotony.The Town That Dreaded Sundown '14 treads a fine line between remake and sequel--the characters in the film watch the original classic at certain points--an interesting blend of fiction and reality that keeps this from being a straight-up remake (not that there'd be anything wrong with that).What's to like?
Certainly a more original approach would have been welcomed and elevated the film beyond the '8' rating I gave it.Ending aside, The Town That Dreaded Sundown '14 is certainly a testament to the fact good slasher movies CAN still be made, even if they don't get the respect (and the wide theatrical releases) they deserve.
it started out OK....using I believe real newspaper clippings and stuff with a decent narration...which led me to believe that this was gonna be a fictional continuation but in the end it fails miserably...it cant decide whether it wants to be a pseudo sequel or a complete remake....in the end it just becomes a complete mess and just another generic slasher type film that's been done to death...the great thing about the original is while yes it did show the killer in action the movie itself was more about the police trying to track down and catch him....which I find a lot more interesting then this crap...The Cast the late Ed Lauter and Anthony Anderson in the film and then preceded to use them in scenes that are pretty much meant to run up the screen time...its a real shame that Ed Lauter was given such a worthless role he was a good actor and deserved better...Same for Anthony Anderson...hell even Gary cole isn't given much to do....in fact the police are pretty much non existent except for a few scenes at most...in the end it just boils down to another masked copycat killer chasing yet another teen....I say stay away from this bomb...if you have to watch one go watch the original much better film..
I Have To Say When i Saw The Original Version Of "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" i Thought it Was Terrific Based On a Actual Events That Took Place in 1946, And in The Year Of 2014, Comes a Fresh New Take On The Classic Original Of The Town That Dreaded Sundown Movie But This New Of "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" it Was Produced By Jason Blum of His Company Name Called Blumhouse, And Ryan Murphy The Creator Of "American Horror Story T.V. Show Series Had Come And Team Up For a Kick Ass Scary And Brutal Remake/Reboot Version With Some Great Cast That includes Anthony Anderson From "Uban Legends: Final Cut" The Sequel To The First Smash Hit "Urban Legend" And Wes Craven's Last Film "Scream 4" Who in This Version Of "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" Plays a Texas Ranger That The Late Ben Johnson Played in The Original One But This New Lone Wolf Ranger Character Played By Anderson Only a Small Bit Part Scenes in it, Ed Lauter From Alfred Hitchcock's "Family Plot" And Jack Ketchum's "The Lost" Also Has a Limited Screen Time Appreance in it, Edward Herrmann From "The Lost Boys" Who Too Only Has Four Scenes As Well.
Who Plays a Chief Deputy, And Veronica Cartwright From Ridley Scott's First "Alien" Film, And From Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" in as Well, But The Star in This New Film "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is a Female Heroine Played By Addison Timlin in a Strong Female Lead Performance as an Ordinary Young Girl Being Placed As The Girl in Peril And Has Fight For Survival, And Also Too Why i Liked This New Version Of "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is Because it Has a References Back Story That Goes Back To The Original Version But it Also Has Crazy Twist At The End Of The Movie That You Did Not See it Coming, Also Too This New Film Version Features The Last Two Cast Members Of Ed Lauter And Edward Herrmann Who Both Died And Passed Away.
Every year in Texarkana they play the 70s movie The Town that Dreaded Sundown to remember the horrible killings in the 50s.A young couple decides to leave the movie early because the girl, Jami, doesn't really like horror movies.
But the killer won't let that happen.The Town That Dreaded Sundown has all the elements of a great slasher--a better-than-average story, the lovely Addison Timlin, who doesn't look as lovely here, violence, gore, sex, nudity.
In order to explain myself better, I will summarize the first scenes: in late- 2013, the main character and her boyfriend are watching the annual exhibition of the film The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) at a Texarkana drive-in cinema, during the anniversary of the real-life murders from 1946.
It was a really awesome, never that boring, and pretty interesting slasher film; while also being sort of reboot/ode/sequel to the original.I don't know if this qualifies as a spoiler or not, but sort of like in "The Human Centipede 2", the original Town That Dreaded sundown is a movie about a situation that happened in an old town.The cool part about the movie for me was the whole copy cat serial killer thing.
One girl survives her attack and decides to investigate the mysterious Phantom Killer and the main suspects, as well as certain information that was apparently dug up for the making of the '76 film...Early on, it looked like this one was gonna be decent enough with some pretty strong kill scenes and creative camera work.
I had assumed that The Town That Dreaded Sundown 2014 was simply a remake of the 1976 slasher of the same name; this, I am glad to say, is not the case—it's a bit cleverer than that.The film is set in the small town of Texarkana, where a masked psycho known as The Phantom committed a series of vicious murders 65 years earlier—it is these killings that provided the inspiration for the original movie, which—in this film—is now a cult favourite amongst the town's teenagers.
The local drive-in is showing its annual event of the original The Town That Dreaded Sundown, which the film at once presents as an actual film in its universe but also one based on the true story of the Phantom Killer of 1946. |
tt1921064 | Pompeii | The film opens with a quote from Pliny the Younger commenting on the cries of devastation heard from the citizens of Pompeii, intercut with images of the victims encased in solid magma.Britannia, 62 A.D. The film opens showing a Celtic village of horsemen. A young boy named Milo walks out of his tent to discover his people fighting off an invading horde of Romans. Milo fearfully sees his father fight bravely before he gets killed by Roman soldiers. His mother pulls him away from the chaos, only to get hit by a horse riding in. Leading the Romans is Senator Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland). He slashes Milo's mother across the neck as the boy lies on the ground and sees this, and then he orders the rest of the captured horsemen and villagers to be killed. The Romans pile their bodies on top of each other, including Milo, whom they believe to also be dead. The boy later pulls himself out of the pile and wanders. He is later found and taken by a group of men.17 years later (August 79 A.D.) in Londinium, the capital city of Britannia, a slave owner named Graecus (Joe Pingue) watches with boredom as several slaves fight against each other. He demands to see something new. The slave handler tells Graecus about a new gladiator known only as 'The Celt'. In enters an older Milo (Kit Harington), somberly walking before the crowd. He is pitted against three other gladiators, and in seconds, he swiftly kills each of them without mercy. Graecus is now intrigued.The slaves are escorted alongside Princess Cassia (Emily Browning) and her friend Ariadne (Jessica Lucas) in their carriage coming from Rome. The carriage hits a bump on the road, causing a horse to turn over and fall on its side. Cassia runs to the horse's side as it writhes in pain. Milo tells the slave keeper Bellator (Currie Graham) to unchain him so that he may tend to the horse. He doesn't do so until Cassia allows this. Milo runs to the horse and soothes it with one touch and a few whispered words. He tells Cassia to put pressure on its side so it doesn't feel the pain. He then breaks the horse's neck to put it out of its misery. Ariadne is horrified by this but Cassia knows Milo did the right thing.Upon their return to Pompeii, Cassia takes a good look at Mount Vesuvius. She travels to her family palace which sits on the lower slopes of Vesuvius. There, she reunites with her parents Severus (Jared Harris) and Aurelia (Carrie-Anne Moss), and the man who tends the horses, Felix (Dalmar Abuzeid). Senator Corvus, accompanied by his lieutenant Proculus (Sasha Roiz), arrives from Rome with business to make with Severus for the new Roman emperor Titus. They plan to reconstruct the city, yet Corvus also has his eyes on Cassia, whom he had met during her stay in Rome, unbeknownst to her parents.Meanwhile, Milo is taken to the dungeon with the rest of the slaves. As he quietly eats, a larger slave confronts him, knowing Milo to be the one who killed his brother. Milo acts quickly and takes down the antagonist before he can make any further moves. This catches the eye of the African gladiator Atticus (Adewale Akkinouye-Agbaje).That evening, Felix is riding Vires, Cassia's favorite horse, through a field close to Vesuvius. The ground begins to shake and rumble. Frightened, the horse throws Felix off his back. The earth begins to crack. Felix starts to run but a chasm opens beneath him and he falls to his death.In the Pompeii arena the next morning, the gladiators are in training. Atticus is on his last day as a slave, and once he fights in the coming day, he will be free. He calls out for a challenger during a test fight in the arena, and Milo answers. The two of them duel with their wooden swords in front of the other gladiators. Milo has Atticus pinned to the ground when the angry slave from before draws a dagger to stab Milo in the back, but Atticus kicks the man away. Milo sees the dagger lying next to the man. Later in their cells, Milo asks Atticus why he saved him. He responds that a gladiator should not die with a knife in their back. Their death should come from the front. Suddenly, the earth starts to shake. Atticus reminds Milo it's coming from Vesuvius.That evening, the two men are taken into the palace during a celebration. A woman pays for time with Atticus (it's implied to be sexual), while Milo is taken to see Cassia. Vires has returned, distressed by the earthquakes. She allows Milo to privately tend to the horse, but then she joins him. He mounts it, and after a while, she takes his hand and hops on the horse's back. They ride the horse out of the palace, getting chased by Bellator and the guards. Milo asks Cassia to tell the Romans he forced her along, but she insists on telling the truth, that it was her idea. Corvus nearly kills Milo, who is now face-to-face for the first time since he was a child with the man who slaughtered his people, but Cassia has him spared by saying she would be grateful for Corvus's mercy. Milo receives 15 lashes as punishment, with Cassia, Ariadne, and Severus among those forced to watch.Atticus tends to Milo's wounds by pouring wine on his back. The earth shakes again, which Atticus says is a sign from the gods. Milo believes this to be true after seeing Corvus again. He believes he has been kept alive long enough for something bigger.The following day (August 24, 79 A.D.), the battle in arena takes place. To the surprise of the gladiators, they are not engaging in single combat, but rather, they are forced to fight dozens of Roman soldiers while being chained to a pillar. Corvus gives the word and commences the fight. The Roman soldiers charge toward the gladiators. They raise their shields as the soldier hurl spears their way. They continue charging, sparring with them using their swords. Together, Milo and Atticus fight back, breaking the pillar to crash down on the Romans until they are the only two survivors. Meanwhile, Corvus tells Cassia that Severus gave him consent for her hand in marriage. Aurelia is shocked and Severus says he did no such thing. Corvus blackmails them by saying that he will have her whole family hung unless she complies. Regretfully, she does. Milo then stands on the platform holding a scepter with the Roman eagle on it, crying "I will not bow to the power of Rome! I spit on it!" He breaks the scepter in half and hurls the pointed end at Corvus, but Proculus breaks it away with his sword. Milo and Atticus are nearly sentenced to death by a firing squad of arrows, but before Corvus can give the thumbs down, Cassia intervenes with a thumbs up. And then, the earth rumbles yet again... right before Vesuvius finally erupts. The arena crumbles, with many people falling or getting crushed by the lava stones. The rest of the citizens retreat while Cassia is taken away. A pillar falls onto the balcony where Corvus, Severus, and Aurelia are standing.As a hole opens in the ground of the arena, Milo pushes Proculus into it, bringing them to the dungeon. The two fight, and Proculus gets the upper hand, but Milo releases all the prisoners to chase after him. Proculus escapes and shuts the door, leaving Bellator behind to get beaten to death. Atticus is impressed with Milo's work.On the balcony, Severus and Aurelia wake up, severely weakened. She spots Corvus lying unconscious, telling Severus to kill him. Severus takes a knife and almost sticks it into Corvus until the man wakes up. He tells Severus he will no longer do business with him, and then impales him. He leaves with Proculus. Severus kisses Aurelia's forehead and takes her hand before he dies. Not long after, Milo finds a barely alive Aurelia, who tells him to find Cassia at the nearby villa to rescue her. She dies afterward.Vesuvius starts spewing fireballs that rain down on Pompeii, setting the city ablaze as the citizens run for the harbor. Graecus pays for his passage on a ship, but a fireball lands on his ship, sinking it as it sails out of the harbor. Other citizens are killed in the chaos and they are unable to escape the fireballs. Corvus and Proculus also kill people as they try running away.Milo runs to the villa where Cassia and Ariadne are. The roof crashes down, almost killing Cassia. Milo breaks the door down and rescues her. Ariadne brings her water as she is coughing. The three of them make it out of the villa before it is destroyed. The earthquakes happen again, causing the cliff near the villa to break. Ariadne runs toward Milo and Cassia, with the latter reaching out to grab her friend, but it is too late when Ariadne falls over the edge to her death. Milo gets Cassia out of there.Atticus is among those running to the harbor. The water starts rising, moving away from the shore. People fall off the ships or off the planks. A tsunami forms caused by the volcanic earthquake, heading toward the city. Atticus yells at everyone to run in the opposite direction. A mother is separated from her daughter and cannot reach her with everybody pulling her away. Atticus rescues the girl and guides her mother to safety, reuniting the two.Milo and Cassia reunite with Atticus, happy to see them both. He informs them that they can no longer make it to the shore, so they resolve to head south for the hills where most of the people are now fleeing to. Knowing they can't move quick enough on foot, they run back to the arena to get horses. Cassia finds the bodies of her parents, holding hands. As she mourns them, she is capture by Proculus. At the same time, Milo and Atticus evade the Roman soldiers. They find Corvus shackling Cassia to his cart, ready to make off with her, leaving the soldiers to kill Milo. Together, he and Atticus easily kill all of them before Corvus flees. Atticus tells Milo to go get Cassia while he stays to fight Proculus. The two gladiators bid each other goodbye and promise to see each other again soon. As he leaves, Atticus battles Proculus in a sword fight. Despite putting up a good fight, Atticus is impaled with Proculus's sword. "A barbarian does not die equal to a Roman," he snarls. Atticus breaks off the sword and takes Proculus's wrist with the broken edge, raising it slowly to his neck. "Let's see if a Roman can die equal to a gladiator." Proculus starts to beg for mercy, but Atticus retorts, "A gladiator does not beg!" before sticking the broken edge into Proculus's neck, killing him.Milo rides Vires as he chases after Corvus through the streets. Cassia breaks off a piece of wood from the cart and unlocks herself. She tries to attack Corvus, but he knocks her off the cart before Corvus gets thrown off when his chariot hits a bump. Milo runs to Cassia, but Corvus almost slays both of them. Milo finally fights Corvus in one last duel. He stabs Corvus in the arm as Vesuvius erupts one more time, sending a fireball crashing down. The smoke fills up, and Cassia sees a figure emerging from it. It's Corvus. However, Milo tackles him and brings him down. Corvus reaches for his blade but Cassia chains him to a rock. Milo reminds Corvus that he is the one who killed his family, yet he chooses not to directly kill Corvus. He rides off with Cassia as the final eruption sends a wave of ash and fire all across the city. Corvus screams as he is burnt to a crisp, while Atticus raises a fist in salute to the skies and embraces his fate, knowing he will die a free man.Milo and Cassia manage to ride out of the city toward the hills, but Vires throws Cassia off, too weak to keep going. Milo knows the horse can't take both of them, so he tells Cassia to go on without him. She refuses, not wanting to spend her last moments running. The two look into each others eyes and share their only kiss, mere seconds before they too are consumed by the ash cloud.The film ends with a shot of Milo and Cassia's bodies encased in solid magma, still locked in a passionate kiss. | murder, violence, flashback, romantic, melodrama, revenge | train | imdb | null |
tt0827782 | Return to House on Haunted Hill | Ariel Wolfe is the sister of Sara Wolfe, a survivor of a massacre some years ago in the "Hill House" sanatorium, which was decades ago guided by the insane psychiatrist Dr. Vannacutt. Sara claimed that phantoms had killed her friends, but no one believed her. When Sara commits suicide, Ariel tries to find out the reason.A diary of the late Dr. Vannacutt leads Ariel to the cruel past of "Hill-House". Suddenly, she and her friend Paul get kidnapped by the unscrupulous art dealer Desmond. It looks like Desmond knows a lot about Sara and Hill-House. Ariel is forced to help Desmond to find a precious artifact, a figurine of the demon Baphomet. The artifact is said to be hidden somewhere inside Hill House. While Desmond, Ariel, Harue and four of Desmond's henchmen walk into the sanatorium, Paul and one thug are told to wait outside - Paul is some kind of security. Inside Hill-House Ariel and her kidnappers meet Dr. Hammer and his assistants Kyle and Michelle. Dr. Hammer and Desmond seem to be enemies for they start to shout to each other. Whilst bickering, it comes out that Michelle is a traitor. She only seduced Dr. Hammer to steal information about Hill House and to find out the possible hiding place of the Baphometh idol.Suddenly, loud noises echo through the entrance hall and a now fearful Ariel explains that the masterlock of the sanatorium has been activated. Desmond makes his stooges stop the machine by shooting it. After this the group walks down to the basement and splits up. Soon the first thug gets killed, his body beeing sucked into a massive wall. Next is Harue, one of Desmond's buddies. She first gets scared by a couple of lesbian ghosts, then sliced up by the undead Dr. Vannacutt. The next victim is Ariel. She gets pulled violently into a padded cell and is traumatised by hallucinations shown to her by the ghost of an ex-patient. He shows Ariel parts of the bygone happenings decades ago. In life, the patient led a revolt against Dr. Vannacutt, in which the sanatorium got burnt down. When Ariel wakes up she is in a straight-jacket and starts to scream.Meanwhile, Kyle and a henchman of Desmond reach the entrance hall, where the thug gets mauled by phantoms. The now frightened Ariel, Michelle, Desmond, and Dr. Hammer go back to the entrance hall, where Paul and his minder appear. Desmond goes crazy because he didn´t call the two in, but the thug tells the converse. While bickering, another stooge of Desmond's suddenly walks away, following a ghostly appearance. He is surprised by an undead nurse and then gets killed in the cruelest way by Vannacutt. The team can hear his death screams via cell phone. In the ensuing chaos, Paul, Kyle and Dr. Hammer succesfully wrestle down Desmond and Michelle.The diary of Dr. Vannacutt and the ghostly visions of Ariel reveal step by step what happened decades ago. Due to the revolt against Dr. Vannacutt, a fire broke out and the patients tried to escape. Trapped Dr. Vannacutt activated the masterlock of the asylum, so the patients couldn´t leave. Everyone was burnt alive except for five people. The following haunting inside the asylum, which began some years later, was thought to be the result of the ever-furious patients, their souls seeking revenge. But now it looks like the ghosts of Hill House were kept inside the building by some unkown force. Since Dr. Vannacutt was known as the owner of the evil Baphomet idol, it seems like he was the willing servant of Baphomet, working for the demon. This explains why Dr. Vannacutt who was originally a genius and nice, became heartless and perverted.The team searches now for the crematory of Hill House. The searched for artefact is said to be hidden in a secret chamber behind the crematory. In an hydrotherapy room Kyle is drowned by undead who were drowned themselves. Ariel tries to rescue him, but fails. Desmond and Michelle are able to flee, but shortly after, Michelle is killed by poltergeist-activity. Desmond, now furious, runs to find the crematory himself.Meanwhile, Ariel, Paul and Dr. Hammer find a viaduct leading out of Hill House. However they can't get out because of an iron grating. In a vision, transmitted by the same phantom in the padded room, Ariel is told where to find the crematory. The ghost desperately begs Ariel to destroy the Baphometh idol, so that the souls can finally leave and rest peacefully. It looks like the idol actually keeps all the furious ghosts trapped inside Hill House. Ariel decides to help and the team finds the crematory.Inside a hidden room, they finally find the Baphometh idol. When Ariel shoots the idol, the item turns out to be indestructable. Ariel decides to get the idol out of Hill House by the viaduct. The team gets surprised while turning back by Desmond, but he´s grabbed by ghosts and pushed into one of the cremators and burnt alive. Paul gets separated from Ariel and Dr. Hammer. While he runs back to the idol chamber, Ariel and Dr. Hammer go back at the viaduct.Suddenly Dr. Hammer attacks Ariel and tries to strangle her. It´s obvious that he´s posessed by Baphometh. While fighting, the ghost of Dr. Vannacutt appears and when the now crazy Dr. Hammer attacks Vannacutt, he gets slain. Ariel takes the opportunity and throws the wicked idol into the viaduct. At this very moment the curse of Hill House comes to an end and the ghosts take revenge on Dr. Vannacutt. Ariel runs back to the entrance hall meeting Paul there. They can now leave Hill House.The final scene, after the credits, takes place on a beach where two people find the cursed statue. | cruelty, murder, violence, flashback, insanity, romantic, sadist | train | imdb | null |
tt0893402 | Franklyn | The action switches between contemporary London and Meanwhile City, a gothic-like metropolis in a fantasy world.Meanwhile City is a place in which religion is the rule. Everyone must adhere to some sort of faith, be it Christianity, Buddhism or 7th Day Nail Varnishers or Washing Machine Purists. John Preest is a masked vigilante detective and the only atheist in Meanwhile City, which makes him an outlaw. He is on the trail of a young girl who was kidnapped by The Individual, leader of a cult called the Duplex Ride. He meets his informant, Wormsnakes, who not only tells him that the girl is dead but also betrays him to the religious authorities. Preest flees to the rooftops but is captured and jailed.In London, a young man called Milo is jilted by his fiancée at the rehearsal for their wedding; Peter Esser, an elderly church warden from Cambridge, goes to London in an attempt to find his son David, who is apparently living among the homeless; and Emilia, an art student, films herself attempting suicide by various means - drugs overdose and wrist-slashing - always being saved at the last moment by the emergency services whom she called beforehand.In Meanwhile City, Tarrant, a leading official, offers to release Preest from prison if he finds The Individual, who has returned after a long absence. Preest agrees but, as he is about to be fitted with a homing device, he overcomes his guards and escapes. He finds Wormsnakes and beats him up for betraying him four years beforehand. He also leaves an address for Wormsnakes to pass on to The Individual, whom he intends to kill in revenge for the girl.In London, depressed over his rejection, Milo starts seeing the figure of Sally, a friend he knew at primary school, but who keeps disappearing when he tries to approach her. He then finds her working as a teacher at the same school and they agree to meet in a restaurant later in the week. When he tells his mother about this happy event, she claims that Sally was in fact an imaginary friend whom he came up with when he was six years old, following the death of his father!Peter Esser manages to track down Bill Wasnik, a former soldier who knew David while serving in Iraq. Bill complains about how, four years ago, David confronted him in a pub over some dead girl, provoked a fight and was overpowered by the police on the pub roof. He tells of how he was also beaten up a few days ago by David who left him an address for some individual.Peter visits the army psychiatric hospital, run by a Mr Tarrant, who tells him that David was about to be released when, refusing to wear a tagging device, he overcame the orderlies, killing one of them in the process. It emerges that David holds his father responsible for the death of his younger sister who was killed in an accident just before he returned from Iraq. Peter fails to give Tarrant the address given to him by Bill, simply putting his faith in God.Emilia's filmed suicides hardly impress her tutor. She finally goes to confront her mother Margaret with whom she has been attending counselling sessions. Much of their arguments at these sessions have revolved around Emilia's estranged father, whom Margaret hates to talk about. It emerges that Emilia was actually sexually abused by her father and that her mother took her away while he was on a business trip. Mother and daughter embrace one another, but Emilia then goes home to prepare yet another suicide, this time by gas.Peter goes to the address and presses the buzzer marked "Franklyn", as per the address, but is actually the buzzer to Emilia's flat. She tries to tell him through the intercom that he has the wrong place but, not realising that it is not his son, Peter says that he will be waiting in the restaurant opposite.A man then arrives at Emilia's flat. After introducing himself as "John Preest", he breaks in and, armed with a rifle, takes up a sniper's position at the window. Through the lens, Preest can see his nemesis, The Individual (actually Peter Esser), in the restaurant.Milo himself arrives at the restaurant and confronts Sally over the fact that she is just a figment of his imagination. She tells him to overcome his need for her for someone real. She is about to go when Milo kisses her, only to be shot by Preest (actually David Esser shooting at his father).In the chaos that ensues, Emilia manages to escape her flat which is filled with gas from her failed suicide. David flicks on a lighter, deliberately blowing up the flat and himself. Peter goes to tell the ambulance men about Milo's injury. In the pouring rain, Emilia (who looks a lot like Sally) sees the wounded Milo and, in a case of love at first sight, they approach one another. | fantasy, neo noir, boring, gothic, flashback, insanity | train | imdb | I've just come back from the premiere at the London film festival and I've thoroughly enjoyed, it but before I say anything, do not expect it to be "a mix between V for Vendetta and the Dark knight" which is a complete nonsense I read earlier, it's nothing like it.
I think it's going to be hard sell as it is unlike anything I have seen, and if they try to market it as an action/sci fi movie, it will be very misleading but I still definitely recommend it if you're looking for something a bit different..
It's a film that refuses to bend to the will of popular expectation and also to the viewer's clamouring desire for exposition.For that it's to be applauded; it seems remarkable it managed mainstream distribution given the fact so many will be 'bored' ('man') awaiting the connections to satisfy their anticipation.And you may well gather what's going on before it's explained (with a little ultimate dubiety) on screen, but this is still a well-executed piece of cinema with a solid cast that dares to offer something a little different to current lame traits after seemingly setting itself up as just another by-the-numbers collage.Clever at times, atmospheric, beautifully shot with a good cast.
In a parallel world, the dark and chaotic Meanwhile City is ruled and controlled by religious Powers That Be. The masked vigilante Jonathan Preest (Ryan Phillippe) seeks out the evil Mr. Tarrant (Bernard Hill), who has abducted the eleven year-old Sarah to force her to join the Duplex Ride sect.
The movie's alternate realities drew me in and kept me interested, and the eventual juxtaposition of both did so even more.This is a smartly made movie - with very convincing CGI for the fantasy world combined with an almost indie sense of the intimate and human in the alternate world closer to our own.Well this review is not much of a blow-by-blow synopsis, others can do that, but if you appreciate strong acting, and an imaginative script, I don't think you will be disappointed.7/10.
++DONT WORRY I SHALL NOT BE Writing ANY SPOILERS HERE+++ At first, my mind was drawn to the film V for Vendetta - the masked vigilante (played very well by Ryan Phillipe, holding his own in a predominantly British cast) seemed to be a similar character, complete with voice-over, telling us the troubles of Meanwhile City.
Intriguing, exciting, thoughtful, often very moving, and most of all, constantly surprising, Franklyn is by far the most fiercely intelligent and engaging film i have watched in a very long time.
There are movies that, despite their lack of budget and film-makers' experience within the medium of film—despite their failings in telling a coherent, and entertaining story, nevertheless excel in their ability to enthral through idea and theme alone.
Restricted by a small budget and the director and writers' inexperience with feature length productions, the film is interesting to a certain degree but too often falls flat when trying to compel the viewer either through character or plot.
Indeed, this is a bold effort from the first-time filmmaker, and one has to applaud such an audacious venture—but it's also very hard to be convinced by Franklyn either in its grandiose tale, or its dubiously surreal and contorted narrative.For the majority of the feature, we are treated to four stories revolving around four separate characters split over what appears to be two very different timelines of alternate dimensions (this is, of course, merely a subjective speculation on the part of myself, as the truth behind the events of the film are never truly explained—and fair enough, I suppose).
Each of the characters have their own little quirks; Emilia (Eva Green) is an extremist artist driven to video-tape serial suicide attempts made by herself; Milo (Sam Riley), a romantic who has recently been left at the alter; a masked vigilante named Preest (Ryan Phillippe) who occupies the alternate reality within a city named "Meanwhile City" ruled by religion and dogmatic oppression; and a father in search of his son gone missing after a traumatic event involving his sister's death.At first, all the characters within Franklyn's two worlds seem distinct from each other, and without and form of link—so much so that much of the feature's initial hour is slow moving and irksomely disjointed from any sort of clear focus or direction to the first time viewer.
It's a movie that tries too hard to be larger than it really is on paper, and the cracks are all too obvious.In the end, I wanted to like McMorrow's work here a lot more than I actually did—it's brave, interesting and makes some intriguing statements on the nature of reality and our perceptions of such manifestations to ourselves as human beings; but at the end of the day I couldn't bring myself to be convinced or won over by the implementation of such ideas.
For sure, there was potential here within the bare-bones skeleton of McMorrow's premise and themes—but burdened with obstructive restrictions both in a narrative sense and a production sense, Franklyn simply never comes off the page like it should, and the result is lukewarm in every regard; sporadically intriguing, but overly flawed—I have to wonder why this made the big screen at all; I got the feeling that it could have made an even better mini-series for TV.A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net).
The best film I have seen this year so far, its so brilliantly strange and such a brain-teasingly satisfying film to watch.The film is a sci-fi thriller/drama about four characters dealing with problems in their life, from Eva Greens character who is a suicidal artist to Sam Riley's character whose bride ran away at the altar.
Jonathon Preest, the mysterious loner of the films alternate reality, Meanwhile City, is the only atheist in a city gripped by Faith, where every resident must have a religion which lends weight to the films plot and themes.All the cast were very good at their parts, Phillippe does well as Preest without going into deep voiced batman territory and Eva Green portrays her very flawed character with enough humanity to keep you interested without becoming fed up with her characters behaviour.The film constantly switches between the two settings, to both dramatic effect and to keep the film moving at a solid pace that should have you guessing at the link between all the characters and how the alternate reality of Meanwhile city ties in with them.
Its safe to say that you shouldn't let anyone spoil the films twists or plot for you, because its twists often seem predictable before hand but upon their realisation they can be quite surprising reveals.For those familiar with films such as Donnie Darko, the ideas driving the film may seem to be done and dusted but Franklyn's fresh approach to the concepts as well as its stunning execution make this film worthy of anyone looking to engage their thoughts in some very interesting concepts regarding, reality and perception.
Was a bit wary of this one - had read comments about it being pretentious and a little too clever for it's own good.No need to worry on either front.Thought it was excellent - beautifully shot, fabulous performances by all involved and the story comes together wonderfully.
Sam Riley was quite convincing as a bit of a loser, and Ryan Phillippe seemed to enjoy his masked role.I saw the premiere at The London Film Festival and the director explained that some of the sci-fi imagery was based on the spires of Cambridge.
Ryan Phillippe said that he did indeed act in all the masked shots, even those where he fights the "clerics" - having studied martial arts since he was eight !This film will make you think, but be prepared for a gradual exposition, rather than any great revelations..
Sam Riley is good as always, Eva green gets the biggest role and rocks at it, an Ryan Phillipe really surprised me (he didn't like him much before this movie).i enjoyed it, i think it has some flaws, but in the end it is just what it promises to be: unusual and artistic.
First-time director/writer Gerald McMorrow makes a great debut with "Franklyn", a cryptic fantasy-thriller about 4 lost souls in different times & places, bound together by a mystery that slowly unravels to a brilliant climax.The story is told in fragments, and if you're not paying attention you might easily get lost.
The point I'm making is that McMorrow's directorial debut has elements of many great directors tied together in a fresh, original way.There's not as much action in this film as in most fantasy-thrillers.
As many other reviewers have already written, the film tells the of apparently unconnected four persons living in London, three in the present and one in the future.In the film we learn at, a snail's pace, the story of these characters, which are totally and completely uninteresting.
Once in a blue moon, a film comes along that defies genre identification ...and so goes FRANKLYN, a movie that transcends anything you think you've ever seen.
Looking, as stated earlier, somewhere along the lines of a Frank Miller graphic mixed with a kind of Dark Knight quality, the story intrigues and makes us cheer on the main character, Jonathan Preest (Ryan Philleppe, FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS).
Also, a man in search of his missing son comes to the psychiatrist who'd been treating him only to learn that his son escaped and is out in the world with a rifle slung over his shoulder.As the two story lines begin to mesh, reality skews, men and women we thought we knew either don't exist, exist as something else, or are strictly symbols (including a janitor who plays a vital role).
We just never see them move through it enough!Preest's fantasy city is where the film should focus, Emilia should feature here somehow yet Eva Green's too busy playing Milo's imaginary girlfriend instead of opposite Ryan Philippe.
The movie is a must see, different despite all the ones that criticizes it, and give a bad not a bad a really bad note, i would like those persons, to mention their favorite movies, and we will see a distortion mind of reality, maybe them could get a different story, as the one of this movie, this one ans Sin City are those kind of movies that make me pay for them no mater how much, and i think all people expect only story's like the theoric method of writing one, once upon a time, and by that way the last year we came across with a really bad movies, not surprising ones, so this movie, gives the effect that a movie should do, amuse you, surprise you, and you just keep thinking on its story, how many movies for ex soap pop comedy's like fast food that are made that makes you what this king of movies do...m the only responsibility for not having good movies like this one, its because we are not demanding that, and just eat what they gave to us....
It has a heavy artistic slant at the beginning that leads you to think that this movie is trying to be pompous and only to appeal to either students or the conceptual, but the heavy art subsides gradually to a sense of normality, and it is this that drives the story.
Also, the cinematography was quite annoying, but I liked that the overall theme of the film came across in the colouring of the scenes, and that this is a dark film but still with short episodes of light.The characters and their interwoven story lines challenge your mind to guess about their relation to one another, and what their role in their ending could be.
Ryan Phillipe as Jonathon Priest, however, irritated me, because he seemed to be trying to be V from V for Vendetta, but the character himself I found to be intriguing.Despite reviews saying that this is a lot like the aforementioned V For Vendetta, it only has certain elements that are similar; for example, a masked man seeking revenge for a previous event.
This is one of those movies that Film Students will love, spending hours trying to decode the "hidden complexities of the story", in order to reveal the "true message of the director" (it's an attempt to make themselves feel superior to non-film students); well let me save normal people the trouble..
It's actually left me wondering if the lottery film board paid for two different movies - neither of which they could afford to finish, so meshed the two together to make a whole one.If you're looking for something creative and interesting, go see "push", or better yet, go rent V for Vendetta.Just an additional note to the person who said "grow up" - YOU grow up and realise that not everyone in the world will like the same movies you do, and they have the same right to express their option as you do!!.
an epic fail.By the half of the movie, about 15% of the people in the theater left and at that point I realized I was still waiting for it to "begin".To make the long story short, the movie is terrible, unoriginal and extremely boring.Don't waste your money and time on this..
In fact, the most rewarding element of the film was that each character resorts to a fantasy world when their emotional state becomes so disturbed that other people can no longer (or no long wish to) connect with them.
The acting of the four main leads, Ryan Phillippe, Bernard Hill, Eva Green, and Sam Riley is superb throughout, lending the story a bleak feeling of reality only sporadically interrupted by the even bleaker visits to Meanwhile City.
Though extremely unusual and often just downright weird, this film delivered a rather hopeful (yet not overly done) message through some of the darker characters I've encountered lately.The fact that the ending (a nicely written convergence) threw me for a loop was a nice surprise too as that is a rare thing to find in movies these days.All told, it was something different that is definitely worth a watch..
It's plot meanders about with cuts that make little sense, the emotion doesn't hit home, and while it is not incumbent on a movie to raise questions and then answer them (sometimes the point is there is not an answer, at least not a clear one), that's an artistic decision that needs intelligence and skill to pull off, and the movie lacked both, at least when it came to storytelling.There's enough hope at the start for something to tie it all together into something that might be decent, I was intrigued, and I'm fine with a slow pace, but what did come together in the end was a mess without emotional impact.Sorry if this all sounds harsh, perhaps despite my protestations to the contrary I am merely an uncultured barbarian who cannot appreciate the deep themes that were being aimed for...but I find it hard to credit the movie enough to think that.
However, his parts are almost like an action film, whereas the London bits are more like your basic melodrama, leaving the viewer feeling a little off balance.There is definitely an interesting story here (and made more interesting the way it's told).
Emilia (who, of course, looks like Sally, what with Eva Green playing both of them) and Milo, both wounded (both physically and psychologically, see, I got that) stumble into each other's arms, the end.I have no problem with movies which present narratives in fantasy and real worlds, where the former can be explained by reference to the latter (Wizard of Oz, A Matter of Life and Death etc.).
In modern day London, a jilted young man hooks up with an old flame, a man searches for his sick son and a young female art student expresses her art in an extreme manner.Meanwhile, in the Gothic, sprawling metropolis of Meanwhile City, a vigilante by the name of Jonathan Preest makes plans to kill the cult leader responsible for the death of a young girl.The stories are connected, but in ways that you cannot imagine.Or maybe you could imagine, oh so easily, how the stories were connected?After a first hour of pure confusion and head scratching by yours truly, I thought that the final revelations in "Franklyn" were a tad bit obvious.
It was a shame because "Franklyn" did have some good ideas, looked wonderful (the comparison between the darkly futuristic Meanwhile City and boring old London was strikingly realised), and the performances of Bernard Hill and Eva Green were top notch, even if she looked a little bit old to be playing an art student.
the way the stories intertwined at the end was terrible, and you could have replaced eva green's character with any random person yet the scene would play out the same 3.
One is an artist battling with her mother and her life (Green), a young man trying to deal with a lost love, a father (Bernard Hill) trying to track down his son and costumed vigilante (Ryan Phillipe) living in a city somewhere in another time and place where everyone must believe in a god of some sort (ala 7th day Manicurists.
I give the film points for being a unique vision, but at the same time its not always the easiest film to connect to, I think its fragmented story telling makes the film a little bit too much work for the pay off, ultimately I wanted to feel a little bit more at the end.
The various main characters play dual roles in both fictional MEANWHILE & London.The transition between both is not always clear,but stay with it.Gerald McMorrow wrote & directed with skill.It stars Ryan Philippe, he is becoming a first rate actor, Like many actors who depended on there looks when they started out became very good dramatic actors as time went by,Bernard Hill a veteran of UK cinema is excellent as usual. |
tt0076574 | Providence | Providence (no spoilers)CLIVE Langham (played by John Gielguld) is an old writer with health problems who still enjoys the gifts of life, as his gusto of his daily white wine. He is a storyteller and he tells us of his family, especially of his sons. He has two sons: one is CLAUDE Langham, the official one, a successful lawyer (played by Dirk Bogarde), the other KEVIN Langham or Kevin Woodford (played by David Warner) his illegitimate son, remembrance of some past relationship he is not sure of.But the way CLIVE, the author, changes several times in his storytelling the behaviors of his siblings makes us gradually suspect they are only characters in his story, the creatures of his writer's imagination, products of his writer's block, his hopes, his hesitations or angst, and finally tells us of the joys, humor and suffering of the whole creating process in writing a novel. Nevertheless CLIVE has to comply to one of the very few rules of dramatic writing which states there is no story without conflicts, and therefore feels compelled to give his characters antagonism, some educated aggressiveness, and the more often than sometimes sex-obsessed image of cynical people entangled in their neurotic denials with uneven bravados on the surface, the whole being spiced with insistence and English humor. In his storytelling, CLIVE acts as master of the world, but when his characters resist his demiurgic wanton caprices and vagaries, he complains they give him a hectic time and he rants it's them who build up his anger against them, so he is the one who has to change them.This is how, sometimes, after being told once, a scene turns out to be only a draft and has to be replayed. So we see it again, as CLIVE finds other behaviors and other dialogs over the same characters predicaments and commitments, that would fit his scheme and his pleasure. The same can happen to a background, a door, a passing extra. They can be altered, displaced, transformed, appear or disappear on sight, as the mood of the characters or of the scene changes, or as CLIVE's whims meddle in.As CLIVE's point of view is preeminent in the storytelling, Alain RESNAIS brilliantly stages CLIVE's complex behavior by using different parts of the house in a different way. The BEDROOM from which CLIVE speaks can be said to be his SELF with both CLIVE's doubts and certainties over his work. The back of the house, its BACK TERRACE, where most of the strange changes occur, is undoubtly his SUBCONSCIOUS, his backstage, subject to CLIVEs fantasy, to his fancies and whims, and logic uncommon. But the FRONT of the house will be back to REALITY and will cloture the story.Other different sets occur as backgrounds but they are inside the story being told and can be modified at will by CLIVE.But then, IN REALITY, his family finally arrives for his birthday, and CLIVE welcomes them on the FRONT lawn for lunch. They are perfectly normal and even quite sympathetic people, getting along with each other, and not the embittered, devious players CLIVE described earlier in his story. Peace at last.After all, this is a secret comedy about life, all in the way it is told - and John Gielguld's best experience as he stated it.-------------
Watch this wonderful movie!
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tt2752772 | Sinister 2 | The film opens in an identical style to the first movie: a snuff movie depicting a family being hung up like scarecrows in a corn field with sacks over their heads and burned alive when a lighter is thrown into a trail of petrol. It is revealed to be the nightmare of nine-year-old Dylan Collins, who is staying in a rural farmhouse next to a deconsecrated Lutheran church, with his twin brother Zach, and their mother Courtney (Shannyn Sossamon). He hears rustling in the open wardrobe and a spooky face appears. A ghost bearing a likeness to his twin brother appears.
The Deputy from the first film goes to Confession. He is independently researching the murders connected to Bughuul. He's also burning down the homes where each murder took place before another family can move into them to prevent more murders, including the house where Oswalt and his family was murdered in the first film. The priest recognises him from "the Oswalt thing." Deputy explains he found something otherworldly and asks the priest for help, who tells him to stay out of it instead.
Courtney works in the church, restoring antiques. Whilst shopping (and her sons are playing with toy guns), a man with sunken eyes seems to stare at Courtney and appears to follow her around the shop. She tells the boys to run (using Rutabaga as a safe word) and the man chases her as she leaves the shop, knocking over a stand. Courtney orders a security guard to stop him. As they drive away, the man is seen on a phone, saying "That's her." to an unknown person, most likely Clint, Courtney's abusive ex-husband who is also the father of her children.
Dylan is visited nightly by a group of ghostly children, led by a boy named Milo, who force him to watch "home movies" of families being murdered in various savage ways; eaten alive by alligators while being hung upside-down above a river ("Fishing Trip"), electrocuted in a puddle of water on a kitchen floor ("Kitchen Remodel"), buried alive in the snow on Christmas Day ("Christmas Morning") and strapped to chairs with their mouths forced open and having their teeth mutilated with drills ("Dentist Appointment").
The Deputy arrives at a farmhouse to destroy it, but is interrupted when he realizes Courtney and her sons are living there. Courtney tells him to leave because she thinks he is working with Clint. He convinces her otherwise and tells Courtney he is a private investigator, and she allows him to investigate the deconsecrated church on the property where a gruesome murder took place. She doesn't realize it, but her sons know what happened at the church.
The Deputy is then seen in a hotel room reading newspaper articles on a computer, when he stumbles across one which shows Courtney and Clint on their wedding day. Suddenly, articles about the murder in the church flood the screen, before Bughuul's symbol and a loud buzzing appear and the screen cuts out. When he leans down to collect his bag, the reflection of the screen shows Bughuul standing in the bathroom doorway behind the Deputy. When the Deputy sees it and looks behind him, there is nothing there. Bughuul then appears in the reflection again, before walking forward and putting his finger to his lips. The Deputy slams the laptop screen closed.
Clint shows up at the farmhouse with police to try and take the boys but leaves after the Deputy threatens them, warning them that they need a court order to proceed. In this scene, it is also revealed that he was arrested as a suspect for the murder of the Oswalts. While he was eventually cleared of the charge, he was subsequently fired for releasing classified information (the names and addresses of the murders he gave to Ellison Oswalt in the first film.)
Courtney wants to leave with the boys but the Deputy advises Courtney not to leave the farmhouse, knowing that each of the murders connected to Bughuul occurred only after the families had fled the homes where the previous murders had occurred. Courtney invites him to stay at the farmhouse on the condition that he doesn't tell anyone where they are, and the two develop a budding romance, talking outside the house while sitting on the swings, and passionately kissing once they return inside.
Deputy meets with a professor who has come into possession of a ham radio that belonged to Professor Jonas from the previous film, who was in contact with Ellison Oswalt and has mysteriously disappeared. The professor said the ham radio first belonged to a Norwegian family who was mysteriously murdered in 1973. The professor plays a recording from the Norwegian family, and after reading out the coordinates of the house, the young girl's voice on the tape screams "Bughuul can't hear me over your yelling, Mom!" in Norwegian.
Deputy deduces that Bughuul exclusively targets the children of the murdered families, and suddenly, the ham radio bursts to life with a loud buzz, repeating what the Deputy just said over and over again: "It's the kids. He gets the kids." before suddenly cutting out. Deputy then orders the professor to destroy the ham radio.
Zach becomes jealous of the ghostly children who visit Dylan, and insists on having their attention. They show Dylan the video of the murders which took place in the same Lutheran church on their property: a family is nailed to the floor with bowls placed on their chests, encasing a live rat. When hot coals from a stove are placed on the bowls, the rats burrow through their abdomens to escape the heat, causing them to bleed to death ("Sunday Service"). After Dylan refuses to watch the last movie, the children turn their attention to Zach and abandon Dylan.
Clint arrives with the court ordered custody warrants he didn't have before and Courtney is forced to leave with Zach and Dylan. After finding the farmhouse empty, the Deputy drives to Clint's home to warn them about the danger, but Clint assaults him and threatens him with a gun, telling him if he ever comes back he will shoot. The next day, Zach, as directed by the ghost children, films Dylan learning how to play golf with Clint and Courtney. After realising he and his family have been poisoned, Dylan contacts the Deputy for help. The Deputy immediately leaves his house, and upon arriving at the family home, he sees fire and smoke in the distance. He drives into the cornfield.
Courtney, Dylan, and Clint are drugged and hung on scarecrow posts with sacks over their heads in the cornfield. A possessed Zach lights Clint on fire first and films him as he burns to death. Just as Zach is about to light Courtney on fire, the Deputy arrives and hits Zach with his car. He frees Courtney and Dylan and they flee into the cornfield. However, Zach has survived being hit (thanks to demonic possession) and pursues them through the cornfield with the camera and cuts half the Deputy's fingers off with a swing of a sickle.
Inside the home, the ghost kids try to help Zach find Courtney and Dylan, tearing the house apart and knocking out the Deputy in the process. Just as Zach is about to kill Courtney and Dylan, the Deputy finally manages to break the camera by hitting it with a golf club, thwarting Zach's home movie and breaking the cycle. After a desperate Zach tries to search for another camera, he is shamed and disgraced by the ghost kids for failing to kill his family and is carried into Bughuul's realm, his face melting into a skull. The house then catches fire as the Deputy, Courtney, and Dylan escape. Courtney is left distraught.
Later, when the Deputy is in his motel room packing his things, he turns and sees the ham radio. Children's voices are heard saying "It's the kids, he gets the kids!". As a young girl's voice whispers "Deputy", Bughuul appears and the scene cuts to black. | paranormal, murder, home movie | train | wikipedia | null |
tt2039393 | The Gambler | After his grandpa dies, Jim Bennett goes straight to a Mr. Lees illegal casino. He plays a few hands of blackjack, winning at first, but ends up owing Lee and a gangster Baraka big time. Both men give him exactly one week to come up with the money. Jim continues his days as an English professor. A student, Amy, is one of the brightest in class but she happens to be waiting tables at Lees casino and she saw Jim went broke. Jim goes to his wealthy mother to ask for money, who rejects him knowing his gambling addiction. He goes to a loan shark Frank, who agrees to loan him the money but at a later time. Jim talks with a student Lamar, a rising star basketball athlete and finds out that Lamar has been hiding an injury. His mother confronts him about the gangsters spying on her house.She gives him the money when Jim tells her the truth about the debt. But instead Jim takes the money and loses it at blackjack while taking Amy out. As time is nearly out, Baraka forces Jim to reveal Lamar's contact info so he can personally force him to to fix the next game. Jim gives Baraka a wrong number and gets beaten for it, but Jim says he will tell Lamar about the game fixing. Jim then acts - he lets go of everything, giving his car to a complete stranger and quitting his job. He takes Frank's money and goes to Lamar's game. Lamar does as Jim asked him to so Jim wins big, with which he repays Baraka. He calls Frank telling him to meet him at Lees casino. He makes an double-or-nothing all-in betting the black numbers in a roulette. The bet pays off and he surrenders the money split two parts to Lee and Frank. | suspenseful, philosophical, flashback | train | imdb | No he isn't going to play Jabba the Hut in the next Star Wars release.Yes I did stay for the entire movie hoping that the final scene would somehow raise the stature of the film.
It was a movie that not everyone is going to like because not everyone is going to relate to Mark Wahlberg's character.
With Rupert Wyatt's The Gambler, a remake of the James Caan film of the same name coming at the end of the year following a recent trailer release like the film's release was an afterthought, we get another middling effort to showcase strong acting talent but mediocre-to-average screen writing as we watch a captivating idea be squandered by a bloated yet underdeveloped plot.Mark Wahlberg plays Jim Bennett, a literature professor and a gambling addict, who doesn't know the meaning of quitting when he is up.
He's a miserable character, with the only bonus of being played by Wahlberg, one of the finest leading actors working today, who communicates Jim's moroseness nicely throughout the film.
Wahlberg is surrounded by other performers, who work equally well at matching his level of conviction, specifically Goodman, whose few scenes in the film amount to greatness in a predictable yet pleasant manner.
With that net worth, you don't need to take orders from anyone, and if anyone angers you, you can give them the old seven-letter phrase with great effect.Wahlberg and Goodman are great fun to watch because they've played these kind of wayward characters in prior films, so they know the landscape and the material is fresh in their heads.
Even the love story Monahan tries to concoct doesn't work, and at that point, we are essentially watching a collection of an interesting parts struggling to find something to work with while masquerading in a backdrop of strong cinematography by Greig Fraser (who also did this year's Foxcatcher, along with Zero Dark Thirty) and some well-executed musical cues that emphasize rather than embellish key moments.The Gambler, as a whole, however, doesn't work because despite the high stakes and the large risk factor, we see the carelessness and the disinterest of our main character run so freely throughout the film, that we ask ourselves why we should care that this man is seven days away from a grisly demise.
We can appreciate the actors, the way the setting is presented, and the music we're provided with to a certain degree, but when it comes time to dive into these characters, their motivations, and their will to live, they have very little, so why are we watching their lazy contentment with such a dour existence?Starring: Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, Michael K.
The dark 1974 movie "The Gambler", starring James Caan, I thought was the definitive film about compulsive gambling.
Although this modern version gives credit to James Toback (writer of the 1974 movie), I'm sorry to say I found this film to be beyond ridiculous, with incredibly stilted and pretentious dialogue, as well as absurd characters and situations.I will say the acting, given to what they have to work with, is top notch with Mark Wahlberg leading the way as Jim Bennett, an associate professor of literature at a college.
He comes from an extremely wealthy family, but is a totally obnoxious, insulting jerk, who seemingly has a "death wish" regarding his compulsive gambling.Michael Kenneth Williams is also excellent as Neville Baraka, a loan shark and gambler, while John Goodman gives his usual most solid performance as Frank, another loan shark and mobster.
Good luck with that!!To me, this was quite the disappointment from two talented filmmakers, the director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Escapist), and the writer William Monahan (The Departed).All in all, I'm sorry to say I found this movie to be far inferior to the 1970's classic, and a major disappointment for me..
The Gambler tells the story of Jim Bennett, a college professor with a dangerous and self destructive addiction to gambling at underground casinos in the underbelly of Los Angeles.
The Gambler features great performances from Mark Wahlberg and Jessica Lange along with flashy and stylish direction from Rupert Wyatt.
Overall, The Gambler is a fitting remake that fails to capture the essence of the original but displays Mark Wahlberg in a career changing performance that shouldn't be missed..
Mark was not alone in carrying the movie as he also had help from the always great John Goodman, who could have used a lot more time in the film, and Micheal Williams who played a great antagonist to Mark's protagonist For the most part, the movie was humorous and charming all thinks to the acting chops of Markie Mark.
"Eventually a debt gets too big to pay." Jim Bennett (Wahlberg) is an English professor at a major college, as well as being a high stakes gambler.
This is definitely a movie I feel is one people will leave theaters with different opinions.Mark Wahlberg gives a great performance, maybe even the best he's ever given.
I think he gave a lot to the role and created a character that should be disliked, and probably would be if played by other actors.Jessica Lange, John Goodman, Michael Kenneth Williams, Brie Larson, Anthony Kelley, and George Kennedy all give good performances as well, no matter how big or small of a part they had they gave their characters life.The direction was good and the script had some really great dialogue, but something was missing that I really could not give it five stars.
When internet trolls/Luddite's/and a new word I will invent right now which I would call analists, decide to post reviews, pause for a moment, and take time to appreciate the craft of a great guy like Mark who has made a sincere effort to entertain us in this particular case and has succeeded.
Here is a word of advice to all of you sad little wannabes out there, watch a movie, enjoy it, and then say thank you to the people who made the film, it is what is commonly known as being a polite, civilized, decent human being.
This film stars Mark Wahlberg as a lit professor with a secret, obsessive, gambling addiction.
None of the characters are very likable (especially it's lead) but the film is beautifully shot and full of clever, witty dialogue.Wahlberg plays Jim Bennett; a literature professor with a second (hidden) life as a high-stakes gambler.
No matter how much danger he keeps putting himself into, and loved ones, he still can never stop gambling.The film is a lot like a serious drama flick about a self destructive alcoholic, or anyone with a dangerous addiction.
Was this really based on the script for 1974's The Gambler?I suspect that most people who see this version won't have seen the original, and although you could just judge this version on its merits, I can't help feeling an opportunity to make a film of real depth was lost along the way.James Toback's original story was about Axel Freed (James Caan), a university professor who gambles recklessly until he gets into debt with dangerous people.
By mixing the elements around, the film ends up deprived of tension despite a plethora of heavies who seem to have escaped from a "Batman" movie.Mark Wahlberg's character, Jim Bennett, seems far too knowing about what really drives him; Caan's Axel Freed didn't seem fully aware of his self-destructiveness until he looked at his slashed face in the mirror in the last scene; Jim Bennett telegraphs his problem to the nearest blackjack dealer from the start.Unsympathetic characters also undermine it.
Bennett's mom played by Jessica Lange is scarier than the guys he owes money to; do we really care if he blows her 250K?Wahlberg's Bennett, who goes through the film as though his diet is seriously deficient in fibre, never really hits rock bottom; totally at odds with the original story.So many things made the 1974 version so effective, the inspired script and direction, James Caan's unique stillness, Lauren Hutton's stunning girlfriend, and Paul Sorvino as the only person who has an inkling about what makes Axel Freed tick.
But for Jim Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) it becomes a way of life as he enters the world of high risk gambling.
Why the hell did they actually make this film when there's a successful (from what I've read) version from 1974 with James Caan?Jim Bennett is a university professor, a failed writer and a notorious gambler.
Not a distinct role (just like that of Jessica Lange) but the upcoming romance luckily remains superficial.Eventually I doubted whether Jim was a truly seasoned gambler or he's simply a selfish bastard feeding upon his mothers fortune, which he gambles away without blinking an eye and without even thinking about the consequences.
The only funny thing was I kept looking at Jessica Lange as the characters she plays in American Horror Story Lol. I recommend this movie to those that like Mark Wahlberg and like to have their brains exercised during the movie.
The Gambler tells the story of a depressed university professor that owes a great deal of money to dangerous people to feed what seems to be a gambling addiction.
Your ability to enjoy this movie is almost entirely dependent on you caring and having empathy for Mark Wahlberg's character.
Mark Wahlberg plays Jim Bennett, a gambling addict who ends up owing and borrowing money from shady people you certainly don't want to be owing money to.It's when Bennett interacts with loan shark Frank (Played by John Goodman) where the films dialogue really peaks.
The problem was probably both editing and writing, i really wish they had spent a bit more time polishing those up.Overall the movie is unpredictable enough to keep it interesting which is huge to me this day and age, nothing worse then going to watch something and you see everything coming a mile away.
It's a movie that obviously set out to be an Oscar contender: it was a remake of a classic film and a classic novel; it starred Mark Wahlberg, one of the best actors in Hollywood these days; it had a terrific supporting cast, including John Goodman and Jessica Lange; and the movie was released in December of 2014, the time that Oscar contenders tend to be released if they want to get the Academy's attention.
i am a gambler myself and have been for the best part of 30 years and yes i am an addict , the only reason i am not anymore is because all the money is gone and i cannot get anymore so i would like to at least think my opinion of this film counts for something .i found it ALL , and i say ALL because that way i do not have to break down the movie to certain scenes just so ridiculous and stupid and very unrealistic .
very disappointing , next time get the movie makers to ring me when they want to make a film about the life of an addictive gambler ..
The poster also gives us the title (which lets us know that the movie is about one main character who gambles), and a tagline – "The only way out is all in", basically telling us that the title character is in over his head, wants to get out and, at some point, will risk everything to accomplish that goal.
His lack of good judgment even ends up endangering the few people who at least marginally care about what happens to him.I'm not quite sure what this movie was trying to accomplish, because being entertaining doesn't seem like it was part of the plan.
The result is a film that does not really know what it is trying to be, and neither does the audience.Mark Wahlberg disappears in his role as Jim, in fact the entire cast gives splendid performances.
Mark Wahlberg makes some very interesting acting choices in this movie, losing weight for the part and portraying the character in a way that really stretches beyond his usual style.
When Blackjack addict Jim Bennett (played by Mark Wahlberg) goes all in, which he does every time, it's more proof that he is "the kind of guy that likes to lose"
a description offered by one of the mobsters and loan sharks who lend him money.Director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, 2011) and screenwriter William Monahan (The Departed) deliver a remake of the very cool 1974 film of the same title starring James Caan and written by James Toback.
By comparison Hugh Grant's and Mark Wahlenberg's professors are not truly bad people.In 'The Gambler', like in 'The Rewrite', there are some scenes of the professor at work, thus again like the other film we are introduced to some of his students, and again they play a part in the story.
The only thing that keep this movie a float is the acting of the main stars Wahlberg, John Goodman, and the young Brie Larson.
I like Mark Wahlberg, but again he seems miscast as Jim Bennett, disgruntled and disillusioned English Lit teacher who is addicted to gambling.
Also, John Goodman is pretty good as this loan shark Frank who is brutally honest about what the consequences are of not paying back money borrowed from him.Finally, Bennett has a relationship of sorts with his student played by Brie Larson.
It took me three sittings to get through this movie, partly due to boredom, and partly because I stopped caring what happened to Mark Wahlberg's character.THE GAMBLER is about Jim Bennett, who lives a double life as a college professor and a degenerate gambler.
In addition, his character shows little emotional range, making the audience share his ambivalence, not caring whether or not he finds redemption in the end.The only entertaining contribution to this movie comes from John Goodman, one of the loan sharks to whom Mark Wahlberg's character is deeply indebted.
I started feeling like I wanted to avoid this character, and therefore the entire film.So when the main plot sets in regarding Bennett putting up is own life as collateral, I didn't care.
The Gambler is a movie that you will need to concentrate on as gambling man Bennett (Wahlberg) navigates in between a swirling mix of gangsters, students, and other characters.
Jim Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) is a college professor who has a huge gambling problem: he loses most of the time.
He says he wants love and the happy life, but believes he has no talent to achieve any of that and continues to gamble.Notables: George Kennedy (yeah, I thought so too, but there he was), Jessica Lang (still good and going strong as Jim's mother, his rich mother), Andre Braugher, Richard Schiff, and John Goodman who we wished kept his shirt on.
Most of the characters of this kind are women, but there are also men like Jim Bennett, a decent and passionate professor of literature and novel writer who spends his free time in gambling crazily money that he does not have, borrowing from all possible bad guys, ruining the trust of his mother and of his girlfriend.
His chance to survive depends upon getting rid of the addiction.Rupert Wyatt's "The Gambler" is written more like an action movie than as a character study.
Supporting roles are played by fine actors like Jessica Lange, John Goodman, and George Kennedy (his last movie!).
First of all, to all the people giving it bad reviews, please study Mark Wahlberg movies a little and him as well.
i had a really mixed feelings about it ,, like i really wanted to like it but i ended up hating myself for it !!Mark Wahlberg is a fine actor but i almost stopped it and went to watch Ted instead of spending another minute on this movie ...
one of the last scene when he said "i play for those two gentlemen, i'm not actually a gambler" was kind worth watching the whole one hour 40 minutes ;)So overall it's an Okay movie ...
The role of the love interest was extremely bare and something I'd expect from a film ten or twenty years ago.What raises the film above its flaws however, is that just at the point where you're about to throw things at your TV/laptop because you can "not" believe what this guy is about to do "yet again", we're given some insight into "Jim's" (Wahlberg) frame of mind and for a split second, his actions do make some sense.The message gets a bit confused after that because his speech made me think that self destruction was the theme and that's something a lot of people can relate to.
-The Gambler, a 2014 remake of a 1974 film of the same name, stars Mark Wahlberg, a college professor and gambling addict who finds himself owing 260 million dollars to two different dangerous guys.-As a remake I did not care for the original, so I liked this one a little bit more.-The story is cliché and predictable.-The pace is good, but it has its slow points.-The acting is pretty good.
It's possible to play a depressed man with a serious problem and still make him slightly likable but Wahlberg didn't manage to pull this off and his character just ends up tanking every scene in the movie.
Actors like John Goodman, Michael Kennett Williams and Jessica Lange were great additions to the cast but there not really in the film that much.
Nevertheless, the actors from The Gambler (2014) made a good work in their roles; Mark Wahlberg brings a credible and enthusiastic performance in the leading character, and he's well complemented by John Goodman, Michael Kenneth Williams, Alvin Ing and Brie Larson.
The epidemic with the gambling was passable for the storyline even though they never explain why Marks character even gets into such a addiction like this because in the film, he comes from such a high society family that seem to help him most of the time he gets into some sort of debt. |
tt0839880 | Lake Dead | Three sisters venture out to the home of their recently deceased grandfather, along with a few of their friends, to learn more about a possible inheritance, the Lake Motel. Their father begs them not to go, but being teens, they don't listen. They encounter a family living in their grandfather's cabin, which consists of a mom and her three sons, Kane & Abel, who don't speak and never show their faces; and the oldest son Chuck, who is the town's sheriff. Just as their grandfather died a grisly death, so does one of the sisters and two of their friends, leaving only Briell, Kelly and their friend Ben.Briell & Kelly's dad is worried about them and seems to be fighting an inner demon as he debates whether or not to follow them to the family homestead. And we're not sure why that is until Sheriff Chuck has his dimwitted brothers restrain Ben and the two girls, and the true meaning of the term 'family tradition' finally comes to light. While the brothers are securing the kids, Chuck is visiting mom, telling her it's been kind of a bloody mess of things up to this point, but that their plans should work out okay. As Chuck is leaving, Mom asks where her kiss is. And when he nonchalantly walks over and sticks his tongue in her mouth for a passionate kiss, it's pretty apparent at this point that the two grotesque brothers are actually mom & Chuck's sons.Ben and the girls get themselves free and Abel is killed by Kelly in self-defense. Chuck and Kane find him in a pool of blood and go racing to the cop car to hunt down the three kids. Ben manages to mortally wound the other brother, but Sheriff Chuck chases them down, shoots Ben and captures the girls again. Mom shows up to explain that Chuck is really the girls' uncle and that he will be having sex with the two of them so as to preserve the Lake bloodline. She suggests he take one of them up to the barn so that it will be more romantic, just like when the two of them had sex for the first time.Meanwhile, Kelly & Briell's dad, who is Sheriff Chuck's brother, arrives to put an end to the family tradition which he never had any part of. The girls and dad find Ben is still alive and tell him they're taking him to a hospital.As the scene changes and the movie is ending, we see four young people arriving at the deserted Lake Motel. They get out of the car to check it out and see what kind of trouble they can get into. Behind them, in the distance, we see the wounded, but not dead inbred Kane, heading toward them with an axe.************************************************************************************************************************************************************Three sisters, Brielle, Kelli and Sam are on college break. They discover that their grandfather has just died and he has left them a motel in his will. Their father, John tries to persuade them not to go, but the sisters ignore him and head off, accompanied by friends: Tanya , Ben, Bill and Bill's girlfriend, Amy.Sam is the first to arrive, and while drinking wine in Room 6, two inbreds forcefully enter and attack Sam, where with a collection of duct tape, and iron bar, and an axe, they bind Sam's legs with the tape, place the iron bar beside her ankles, and use the axe head to force the bar through both her ankles.Afterwards, the three are in a boat, where the inbreds tie a badly beaten Sam's legs to a concrete block, and dump her into the water, where she is still alive as the concrete block pulls her beneath the water, where she drowns.The rest drive to the motel and meet the caretaker, an old lady who appears kind. After finding a lake on their property, the group of friends take a swim, not noticing that Sam's dead body is floating in the lake beneath them.After the swim, the friends return back to their trailer, where they set up a small campsite. Bill and Tanya go out to the woods to get some firewood, and end up having sex (much to the chagrin of Amy).After encounters with large, strange-looking, unkempt men, the friends are terrified. Bill, Tanya, and Amy are butchered, while the remaining friends escape but are picked up by a mysterious, pushy cop. He tricks them into coming back to the motel where everything slowly falls into place. It is later revealed that the cop and caretaker are all a part of the evil scheme to make Brielle and Kelli a part of their devious plans. The cop and caretaker are in fact son and mother, respectively, and their family has been perpetuated by incest for generations (hence the inbred characteristics of the two aforementioned unkempt men). It becomes apparent that the girls' father had rejected the family "tradition" and escaped; however, their grandmother found out about this and concocted the scheme to lure them to the motel so that her son could forcibly impregnate them and continue the family line.The sisters manage to overcome joining their family's footsteps. Ben seemingly manages to kill both of the inbred men and attempts to rescue the girls from the barn where the cop has taken Brielle to rape her (in the process the grandmother is shot in the head by Ben). When they arrive at the barn Ben is shot unexpectedly by the cop, but the girls' worried father shows up at the last minute and kills his brother, stating "That's how you F*** family", and ending the gruesome tradition.In the end, four teenagers are shown going into the motel to check to see if it is abandoned. One of the teenagers has strange feelings about going into the motel. It turns out that one of the inbreds has survived, and he stares at the girls from behind a tree then screams. | violence, murder | train | imdb | Sooner they finds that their unknown relatives are deranged psychos."Lake Dead" is an average slasher B-movie and has an unoriginal story that I have seen many times: "The Hills Have Eyes", "Wrong Turn", I can not count many movies with stories similar to the original "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" plus a collection of clichés of the genre (naked women, friends surrounded and under siege by psychos etc.).
I kept getting the feeling that this movie was made by a few guys who wanted to get some chicks naked, play with guns, and screw around with fake blood.
The guys that made this seemed like they just wanted to recreate some of their favorite slasher horror scenes, then just threw a couple of rape scenes in for that extra shock factor.
I would first like to open this review by stating one of the funniest and best lines out of the entire movie: "That's how you f***k, family." With that out of the way, this was an interesting film that caught me off guard.
This movie is about three four sisters who inherit the Lake Hotel from there newly found grandfather, their dad did not tell them about him for "security" reasons, and the sisters soon realize that their grandfather was murdered and that there are these men who are trying to kill them.
You'll also see that this movie was influence by some earlier movies that had the same premise.Let me get started by stating that story was heavily influence by a warm house blend of Wrong Turn, The Hills Have Eyes, "Home" from the X-Files and the Texas Chainsaw.
One being deformed brothers, who wear jumpsuits, running around and murdering/raping teenagers (Wrong Turn, Hills, Home) and secondly the biggest concept I will not say since it involves a twist ending but that ideas includes movie like Texas Chainsaw and Hills.
I could compare this movie to an A&E special or Cold Case reenactment gone horribly wrong, but than I would contradict myself, since I obviously like this movie.That acting was good, but in parts.
There is a point when the killer pickaxes a girl in the ear and she cries blood as her eye turns red, yeah, a great example of classic slasher horror.Overall, this movie was good for what it was worth, in fact, I sort of like this movie.
It does look sometimes like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Wrong Turn or other hillbillies gone mad flicks but it worked out fine for me.George Bessudo the director only made two flicks so far, both horror, Farmhouse(2008) and this one a year earlier.
It's a bit low on the red stuff but as I said, the suspense gives you enough thrills to watch this flick.Another flick in the hillbillies look-a-like going berserk with a little twist.
Three sisters, upon learning that their Grandfather that they never knew has recently died and left them a motel, decide to take a road trip with some friends to the property not knowing that some deviant lunatics are awaiting them there.Imagine "The Hills have Eyes" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre".
It shamelessly rips of 'Wrong Turn', and in a totally uninspired and lame way.My rating in detail:1 star for cinematography (ok, but barely) 1 star for the music (it didn't hurt) 2 stars for acting (sticks out because the rest of this film is so bad) -2 stars for the scriptThe only positive: James Burns obviously has tremendous fun playing the sadistic Sheriff - it's a pleasure to watch himMakes for 2 stars overall - and that's generous.
At least they when they shot "day for night" everything wasn't blue like in the first three movies I tried to watch tonight and stopped before getting 3 minutes in.The problem with this movie - as was the problem was similar movies and others I've seen of late - is that they can't resist trying to slap a little epilogue onto the end of the film that makes no sense.
For example, lets say you've been watching a movie where a female character has multiple rendezvous with men during the movie, and after everything is tied up at the end, they tack on a couple of minutes where it's revealed that the female is actually a guy, equipment intact.
This actual circumstance did not happen at the end of this movie, but something equally insulting did.As in other films, I would have been perfectly happy to give this one 5 stars, but when the writer/director tries to be too cute at the end, I've invariably been left having to knock it down a notch or two.A decent journey with an ultimately ridiculous destination leaves me no choice but to not recommend this movie..
90 minutes.Plot:A gaggle of good-looking 20-somethings take a road trip up north to a motel which was recently inherited by about a half dozen or so sisters (none of which even remotely resemble one another) within the group.
The only element that sets this time-waster apart from the average slasher/backwoods horror flick is the heavy-handed and ridiculous soap opera that plays out in the first fifteen minutes.
If you sit around the house all day watching shows like "Days Of Our Lives" and "The Young And The Restless" and think "Gee, this is great, but a couple buckets of fake blood and some gratuitous T & A would really make it sparkle!" then this may be the flick for you.Acting: Acting is virtually non-existent.
At least the bad guys seemed to be trying and, subsequently, the actors portraying them look like they had a little fun with it.
For the bulk of the cast, you get the sense that the producer, reeking of hair gel and Axe body-spray, just called in some friends and was all like "Broseph, I got this film!
The organizing department behind the After Dark Horrorfest clearly didn't base their movie choices on plot originality; otherwise "Lake Dead" never would have made the final selection.
This is a remotely entertaining little effort, but quite possibly also the most clichéd horror movie I ever watched and it's derivative of at least a dozen genre classics, including "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (original and remake), "Friday the 13th" ,"Psycho" and "The Hills have Eyes (original and remake as well).
Personally I have a high level of tolerance for the use of dreadful clichés, but if you're exclusively looking for horror movies with innovating and daringly creative formulas feel free to skip this one, because it features absolutely nothing you haven't seen a hundred times before.
There's a revival of backwoods/inbred redneck horror movies going on lately, but somehow these newer films can't accomplish the raw and nihilistic atmosphere of their 70's colleagues.
It was said by an actor in the "making of" featurette "Lake Dead is not your average horror film" Huh?!
The guys that made this film obviously just watched Deliverance and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre(both brilliant horror films) too many times and decided that they'd try and capitalize on the themes but with much poorly executed accentuation, this film is abhorred..
Hearing of an inheritance, a group of friends heading out to check on a family-owned motel learn the owners are trying to force their incest-based beliefs on them and forces them to try to stop their murderous advances.There's a lot to like here but it does have some pretty troubling factors in this.
Beyond the action, this produces nicely with some really enjoyable suspense scenes here with the opening attack in the motel room, the dive in the lake among the dead body and the final revelation about the family's incest-filled past being pretty chilling.
Along with the rather brutal and bloody attack scenes in here, these are the film's good points.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, a sex scene and strong themes of incest..
At the end of every horror movie, I wait and cringe, hoping that after the final major scene, the camera does not show for the famous last few seconds the particular villain still alive.
Well I thought this one would end differently, and as the camera paned up over the barn I was not believing I found that movie...But wait, the new unsuspecting people stumble on the scene...oh forget it.
Yes, a lot of clichés and a lot of ideas from other movies - "Wrong Turn", "Last House On The Left", "The Hills Have Eyes"...
And of course all of them have one starting point: original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974).Anyway, scenes were solid, camera was OK, even acting wasn't bad.
when u cant see any dead bodies at the first 30 minutes in the movie, then, its a non-watchable film, dare!
IMO, most interesting characters were the killers; I don't like feeling this way watching a horror film.
Lake Dead is clearly a rip off of much better films such as The Last House on the Left and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; but to be honest some of my favourite films are rip offs of those films so I wasn't too worried going into it.
The sisters have their eyes on a big sale price; but get a surprise once they arrive at the motel when they discover that their long lost relatives are a bunch of psychos...Anyone with more than a passing interest in this type of film will have seen most of what happens here many times before, which is a bit of a shame because the director obviously had good intentions and the film might have been decent with just a little bit of originality.
Most people had already seen this film by the time it was awarded one of the 7 scariest horror films of 2008, but if not you most likely saw this movie genius on the Syfy channel which has been a gold standard for horror films for the past decade.Lake dead is not your average teenagers go on a road trip, messed up incest family tries to murder and rape them, American success story.
In fact Lake dead has many plot twists that will leave you wanting more grandma-son heated make out scenes.
One thing I did not like about the movie was the underling promotion of the Gieco caveman throughout this gripping horror film.
From the RV breaking down to the raping of innocent teenage girls, Gieco clearly wanted another way to promote their insurance company.Lake Dead might not save you 15% on your car insurance but is worthy of a Syfy prime time showing..
I gave this movie 9 stars out of Ten, only because the story line resembles other flicks like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Timber Falls.
When I watch a film like this, and it's really bad, I expect some wanton sex and real nakedness for the hotter female leads.
The two sisters arrive the next day with friends of theirs and begin the usual fun-in-the-sun activities by the lake, but when two of their number disappear and they go looking for them, they find them dead, hanging from a tree.
The inbred hicks, the lakeside setting, the bad cop, the elderly mother who's responsible for nearly everything are all present and accounted for, but it's all shown here with little enthusiasm or style, so what we're left with is a veritable checklist of horror movie clichés with only a few brief scenes of any real suspense or creativity.
I really don't know what to say.I was reminded of the horror movies of the late 70's and early 80's.This particular film has that same gratuitous feel of sex, violence and the mutant, inbred sibling(s) hiding in the barn!
The acting is not great and at times borders on cheesy high school musical, but at others comes across as nothing short of outstanding.The story is a great tale of family gone wrong that kept me intrigued until the end.
grandfathers in creepy motels are something to avoid.Although I was going to see this film anyway as part of the After Dark Horrorfest, what caught my attention was the high rating on the Internet Movie Database, where it was getting a ten from more than half of the voters, making it the highest rated horror film ever.
I'm a big fan of the "final girl" idea and horror films making women the stronger sex, but I guess we have to have at least one film with a tough male hero.Again, if you like thugs with hatchets, this film is good but nothing special.
I would give it 1/10 stars, but I give it 2/10 to indicate that it does have some (mostly unintended) comedic value.Spoiler: It turns out that the bad guys are really just an inbred family, and the older family members lure their youngest generation back to them to continue the incest (killing extra friends who come along with them).
There's ten minutes gone in the first fifteen; furthermore, some of it was a SPOILER IN YOUR OWN MOVIE!!By the way I've seen far worse acting in better films.
They get a group of friends and go there for the weekend...but they are soon being killed off and the girls are there for a sinister reason.It starts off OK if predictable with good direction, eerie music score and a very attractive cast (especially James Devoti).
But the acting is pretty terrible, they throw in a totally needless sex scene (to get in the gratuitous female nudity), they throw in some truly sick rape scenes and it all turns out to be a redo of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (with a few twists)!
Still it WAS great to see the villains get what they deserve at the end and, like I said, the cast is good to look at:) Worth a look on a slow night if you're a horror fan..
Ever start watching a movie and from the first five minutes, you can tell whether it'll be good or not?
I had this feeling while watching Lake Dead as the first kill of the movie was so bad, I teared up from laughing so much.
From this, viewers could foresee Lake Dead as being one of the "bad" horror movies which are comedies in disguise.
Unfortunately, this movie is just bad.In essence, what viewers can look forward to seeing here is torture violence akin to that of "The Hills Have Eyes" or "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".
Let's break this down: how many horror movies feature cops and superficially nice old ladies who are actually the bad guys?
Surprise, there's a pair of inbred killers on the loose, as well as some dark family secrets."Lake Dead" is a movie with too many flaws to count.
I could go on with the poorly done gore (done either with CG or badly done Make-Up-though that pick-ax to the face bit is pretty awesome), the two inbred brothers that look like shaved versions of the Geico cavemen (I'm surprised they didn't start complaining about cavemen being depicted as inbred killers)-and are pretty much lifted off of "Just Before Dawn" and the "Wrong Turn" movies (the film feels basically like the people behind it just saw "Wrong Turn" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" remake-the sheriff is right out of the "Chainsaw" remake), but I'll go with other problems instead.For one thing, the acting-with the exception of Pat McNeely as the demented grandmother-is terrible on all accounts.
Going into "Lake Dead", I wasn't expecting an original movie.
I knew it would be another Evil Inbred Family/Backwoods horror movie.
Bad, Bad, Bad. You've got all the elements of every crap horror film ever made: Stupid characters, predictable villains, girl's running and falling down, the inbred family, a secluded motel, the killer is still alive at the end of the film, and people who don't kill someone when they have the freakin' opportunity.
Soon, Mama's mutant offspring begin killing the Lake sister's peeps, and find that the plan in place is for them to bare Chuck's seed and keep the family tradition continued.Nothing original here folks, kids running for their lives in the woods as two mutant monsters, straight out of "Hills Have Eyes" or "Wrong Turn", chase them down, mutilating them.
Okay, the whole adopted sister aspect of this movie felt like a time filler to me.
Well done, but over done.While I feel that this one is a good entry into the Inbred maniac genre; it'll always be a redheaded stepchild to Wrong Turn, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hills Have Eyes..
In the beginning of the film, the bad acting from the two old people shows you what kind of movie watching experience your in for.
Right after that, we go to a charming funeral scene where a daughter slaps her father and that is hilarious, really the only entertaining second of the film.The blond lead role chick looks like one of the dumb sluts from the "The Hills" show (whatever the hell that show is about, I still don't know, or care).Oh, and driving while smoking and listening to your iPod is a winning combination.
People that make these movies are idiots with the way they do stuff like that, they just suppose that they audience can't tell how awful and stupid their sets look.The hot nudity that takes place is really excellent at least.
The script eventually tries to tie up the characters with this family subplot including the old motel keeper and the deformed hillbillies, which is the crux of everything, but this doesn't mesh well or make any sense whatsoever.Overall, there is really nothing I can recommend from "Lake Dead".
I'm often a fan of cheesy B- grade horror movies, and I really, really wanted to enjoy this flick.
The script & acting cannot be made up for, and the majority of the film feels like a subpar combination of The Hills Have Eyes, Cabin by the Lake (remember that one?), and any lame teens-in-the-woods horror with Rob Zombie's Michael Myers as the killers. |
tt0086973 | Blame It on Rio | Matthew Hollis (Michael Caine) is married to Karen (Valerie Harper), and father to teenaged daughter, Nikki (Demi Moore). Victor (Joseph Bologna), Matthew's colleague and best friend, who is going through a divorce, is father to 17-year-old Jennifer (Michelle Johnson).
Matthew's marriage is not going well for reasons not explained. Just before they are to leave for a trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Karen says she is going on vacation by herself to "think about everything." Matthew and Victor decide to go to Rio with their daughters.
Jennifer and Nikki share a room, where she says to Nikki, "Your father is so sweet... I used to have a crush on him," to which Nikki replies, "Me, too." At the beach, Victor and Matthew pass numerous women walking around topless. The fathers spot their daughters in the distance, and the girls turn around to reveal that they are topless, also.
After dropping the girls off at a wedding, the men visit a pub. After Victor pairs off with a local divorcée, Matthew winds up at the wedding, where he runs into Jennifer. They eventually share a passionate kiss, which Nikki witnesses. Matthew and Jennifer have sex on the beach. Matthew stresses it can never happen again. Jennifer begins coming onto Matthew in various, inappropriate situations. At one point, she takes a naked Polaroid of herself and gives it to Matthew in public.
Jennifer tearfully confesses to her dad that she had an affair with an "older man." Victor becomes furious and sets out to hunt down the mystery man, expecting Matthew to help. Matthew tries to talk Jennifer into ending their relationship, but she is determined to never give him up.
Matthew ultimately discloses to his friend that it was he with whom Jennifer had the affair. Victor is not as angry as Matthew expects, because it is revealed that Victor had been having an affair with Karen.
Jennifer tries to commit suicide with an overdose of birth control pills. She survives and the incident brings all closer together, although the men constantly bicker about each other's sexual misconduct. Karen and Matthew decide to work on their marital problems, Jennifer begins dating a young male nurse she met while recuperating in the hospital, and Matthew thanks daughter Nikki for being the only one who has not misbehaved.
As closing credits roll, Matthew, in voice-over narration, says, "You only live once, but it does help if you get to be young twice." | pornographic, romantic, adult comedy | train | wikipedia | I've loved the movie ever since.Everyone knows the premise---Michael Caine and Joseph Bologna take their teenage daughters, Michelle Johnson and Demi Moore to Rio for a vacation.
He is extremely funny in this movie and I can only imagine how much fun he had making it----a guy in his 40s getting to spend a few weeks in one of the most beautiful and exciting cities in the world and having all these love scenes with a girl half his age and getting paid to do it!!!
A comedy where a middle-aged man has sex with his best friend's teenage daughter would seem morally wrong on so many levels as to violate municipal zoning ordinances.
Michelle Johnson is an extraordinarily beautiful woman and an engaging presence when she doesn't have a crying scene, and I think I have grown to appreciate her in other stages of dress, but the person that makes this film work for me now is Caine, whose level of commitment to this film is a thing of wonder."Blame It On Rio" is a sex farce which skates around real human feelings with moments of slapstick and sitcom repartee.
There are about 150 ways the film can go wrong, but Caine sells it by keeping it light and silly.Caine's character, Matthew Hollis, is a sympathetic, awkward type whose life gets upended when his wife Karen (Valerie Harper) decides she isn't going with him on vacation to Rio de Janiero.
So it's just him, his friend Victor (Bologna), Victor's daughter Jennifer (Johnson), and Matthew's daughter Nicole (Demi Moore.) Victor rides Matthew about making the most of his new opportunity: "Is tasting life, creating a little magic, is that cheating?
Caine with anything in his hands, whether it be grating a carrot or brushing his teeth, is joyfully amusing, and his one-liners as revealed "Alfie"-style to the camera are just a lot of fun: "He needed my help...it's like asking an arsonist become the fire chief." Bologna also makes me laugh, but something else, too.
"Blame It On Rio" may be morally dubious, but it's solid Hollywood fun of the kind Donen delivered for decades and as good a film as any for him to go out on.
I love a great script, engaging characters and brilliant cinematography.***This movie has none of these things!But it does have the type of storyline and pointless nudity that Hollywood seems unwilling to include in a mainstream film.
In fact you could even call it charming if not for the fact that there's nothing particularly charming about a middle-aged man having sex with his best friend's teenage daughter.So our story is about this exceedingly inappropriate relationship.
In playing Matthew, the man who can't resist the charms of the teenage temptress, it is Michael Caine who really holds the movie together.
Blame it on rio also stars Michelle Johnson, Joseph Bologna, Valerie Harper, Demi Moore.
Nudity is all over this movie especially Michelle Johnson and a little bit of Demi Moore.
Not the funniest movie ever.....but I have to watch this film at least once a year just so I can fall in Love with Michelle Johnson all over again.
Basically, it's a silly story.Michael Caine ("Matthew") and Joseph Bologna ("Victor") plays some middle- aged guys who are going through marriage problems (bad marriage and a divorce, respectively) so they go down to Brazil to spend money since they're rich.
Demi Moore, by the way, plays Caine's daughter in this movie.It's really not a horrible film but it's pretty inane and crude in areas.
The real shocker might not be all the nudity or sex jokes and lying but who directed the film: good 'ole Stanley Donen, who also gave us "Singin' In The Rain" and "Charade." How in the world did he get involved with this movie?
Apart from some obligatory clichés (which I actually found made the film even funnier), like the many macaws everywhere on everybody's shoulder, people on the beach embraced with apes and women there running in topless, all actors are very good and there is a joke on almost every line.It's a movie for a good and relaxed time that really makes you stand up right away, drive straight to the airport and catch the first flight to...
Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn certainly acted like that when they saw her in the scene in Death Becomes Her.And it is very cute the way Demi Moore tried to hide herself under her long tresses in the topless beach scene.I have been disappointed not to see more of Michelle Johnson in movies, and I hope she is happy.
This light-hearted comedy features Michael Caine (Matthew) and Joseph Bologna (Victor) as two middle-aged best friends who go on a summer vacation to Brazil, each with a daughter in tow.
Beautiful, voluptuous Michelle Johnson (Jennifer) and a pretty Demi Moore play the teen daughters.
But this movie was such a mess I wondered how it was made.Michael Caine- a very honest man- once confessed that in his later years he has chosen his films based solely on WHERE they will be shot.
And speaking of past primes, director Stanley Donen- at the end of a long and successful career- created a movie so bad he never directed another film.Demi Moore is instantly forgettable in the thankless role of the third wheel.
Blame it on the scriptwriters, who should have realised that a storyline about a teenage girl who goes on holiday to Rio de Janeiro and ends up having an affair with her father's best friend, a married man more then twice her age, would need to be handled sensitively if it were not to end up as little more than barely legal kiddie porn.
The film also introduced another lovely young actress, Demi Moore who plays Nikki, Matthew's daughter and Jennifer's best friend.
Blame It on Rio (1984) * 1/2 (out of 4) Matthew Hollis (Michael Caine) and his best friend Victor (Joseph Bologna) take their 17-year-old daughters on vacation to Rio where all sorts of trouble happens.
I'm going to overlook the subject matter of a man sleeping with his friend's teenage daughter but there's a scene on the beach where the girls are topless and they come up to their fathers in a way, which was just kinda sick to watch.
No comedy, black or otherwise, is supposed to keep the viewer guessing for half the film whether this is the genre That's a big clue that it just doesn't work.I see that Michelle Johnson was nominated for a Razzie, and she certainly deserved it, although Donen's the one really at fault here.
Caine's character takes advantage, utterly ignores his own daughter (Demi Moore is wasted here), lies to his friend, and commits adultery, and we're supposed to find it all very nutty and funny.The plot twist near the end did take me by surprise---contrived though it was---but even then I don't think I smiled once.
In many ways, if you add in sex scenes, Blame it on Rio has the potential of being a soft-core adult movie.
Valerie Harper also makes an appearance alongside a very young Demi Moore who, unlike the eye candy of the movie, Michelle Johnson is reserved.
BLAME IT ON RIO (1984) **1/2 Michael Caine, Joseph Bologna, Valerie Harper, Michelle Johnson, Demi Moore.
Occasionally funny screwball comedy with middle-age crises plagued Caine vacationing with pal Bologna in Rio de Janeiro with their teenage daughters, only for Caine to have an affair with his friend's buxom babe of a daughter (the gravity-defying Johnson) and later her declaration of love leading to all kinds of craziness.
Before the internet, before late-night cable TV shows, before the VCR brought entertainment of all types into the privacy of American homes, there were movies like "10", "The Blue Lagoon", and "Blame it on Rio", whose chief attraction was the opportunity to glimpse beautiful women parade around in nothing or next to it.
I have to admit that the reason was to see some nudity of young women like those of Demi Moore and Michelle Johnson.
Ms. Johnson does reveal her amateurish acting skills when she attempts to confess her affair with a middle-age man (without IDing him) to Caine's best friend and her father, Joseph Bologna, but maybe she's supposed to sound like that.
First of all there is no incest in the story and Demi Moore does not have an affair with Joe Bologna as people have commented below.This film could have been a really good movie if it hadn't been for Michelle Johnson.
She is however very easy on the eye so shes not all bad.Michael Caine is as good as ever and the film does use a few Alfie style monologues to the camera but in the end its the terrible performance from Ms Johnson that leaves the lasting impression..
Fun (and lots of SEX) In Rio. Blame It On Rio is one of my all-time favorite "bad" movies.
The plot is very scandalous - a middle-aged married man (Michel Caine) has an affair with his best friend's teenage daughter.
You really have to see Blame It On Rio because a movie this controversial would never get made today - it's a lot of bad acting, naked women, and a beautiful location..
that don't Try to tell a story, and they try to entertain you with sex, sex jokes, and sometimes a level of unnecessary elements that make the movie experience just bad.Blame it on rio isn't a perfect movie because there is some sex and nudity in the film, but I think it's miles better than some other sex comedy's, and it actually had a story so I give it a 7 out of 10 go see it I recommend it..
One has to blush for Michael Caine who is miscast as a middle aged man who gets seduced by his best friend's daughter while on vacation in Rio De Janeiro.
Caine is 43-year-old Matthew Hollins, who, on vacation in Rio, is dismayed to find himself in love(and having sex)with his best friend's gorgeous teenage daughter.
Imaginative complications ensue, but Caine steals the show while the rest of the cast is consigned to being straight men for Matthew's quips and omniscient narration.The familiar Michelle Johnson plays Victor's teen-aged daughter, Jennifer, with a breathless, hormonal cloud around her, but with a little too much melodrama.
And a surprisingly subdued Demi Moore is interesting to re-visit in an early role as Matthew's morally-grounded teenage daughter, Nikki.This is a fun, Saturday night movie for a date with your wife, unless you have obvious issues with your nubile, teen-aged babysitter.
The seduction of Michael Caine by the nubile young Michelle Johnson is clearly awkward--as it should be, but hell, once entangled in the web, Caine's character keeps on going, like the Energizer bunny!!The most fun part, for me, is Bologna's partnering with Caine to "discover" who the "older man" is who is having an affair with his daughter.
Caine's superior acting ability manages to bring him through the discomfort that ensues.If you're uncomfortable with nudity in films, or films where an older man is supposedly having sex with a girl young enough to be his daughter, then don't bother seeing this film.
The plot is very simple: Two fathers take their daughters on holiday to Rio. Michael Caine then falls in love with his best friends daughter and the results are hilarious.Michael Caine is a very good actor but in this film I feel that he excels himself.
Proof positive that Michael Caine can get away with ANYTHING, I still like him even after seeing this!Also of interest to film historians for the good look at Demi Moore's original bosom..
Caine, giving yet another text book performance, delivers non-stop laughs playing the middle-aged pederast who knows he did wrong, but won't dare tell the truth.Not for all tastes, but for adults looking for a nice little adult sex comedy, you've come to the right place.Terrible soundtrack, nudity galore..
However now I am a man of 34, and while I still look at the girls (who have aged in this movie much better then I have by the way) I look at it from an older point of view, and appreciate it for its depth, and the sweet romantic struggles within the film.
Two friends (Michael Caine, Joe Bologna) go to Rio with their daughters (Michelle Johnson, Demi Moore) for a month.
All the beautiful scenery in the world couldn't help this.Caine is just great; Johnson is OK; Bologna, Moore and Harper are just horrible.Some people think this movie is so bad that it's funny but I think it's too dull for that.
Here, drawing an sexual attraction enigma, like Alvin Purple, young nineteen year old beauty, Jennifer (Johnson, no acting chops wasted although she did get better) falls for forty three year old Matthew (Caine, of course, great as usual and funny) while vacationing in Rio with her father (Bologna) and Caine's perceptive and level headed daughter (Moore).
I first saw this movie when I was 14, and have always found it deliciously entertaining, as in the funny moments, as well as a few scenes which has Caine, speaking to camera, with great comic timing in his delivery of dialogue, not just here.
All film fans must question the usage of names of famous cities as titles of films which have been controversial due to their explicit sexual content.Film fans can cite examples of films like "Last tango in Paris" and "Blame it on Rio".One can wonder what have reputed cities got to do with films wherein characters have indulged in highly irresponsible behavior.Veteran American director Stanley Donen's film "Blame it on Rio" is one of those rare films which legitimizes irresponsible behavior.It is a mystery that it has been classified as a romantic comedy.This must come as a shock to those fans who consider it as a drama film exploring somewhat taboo themes involving bizarre characters who make it a point to outshine each other over matters related to unfaithfulness and sexual misconduct.Apart from Brazilian city Rio De Janeiro,British actor Michael Caine in two different yet fascinating avatars is this film's major attraction.He is good as a narrator but somewhat dorky as an actor.This is fine for critics but would not deter interested daddies to enjoy this film with their nubile daughters.May be they would learn a thing or two from "Blame it on Rio"..
All film fans must question the usage of names of famous cities as titles of films which have been controversial due to their explicit sexual content.Film fans can cite examples of films like "Last tango in Paris" and "Blame it on Rio".One can wonder what have reputed cities got to do with films wherein characters have indulged in highly irresponsible behavior.Veteran American director Stanley Donen's film "Blame it on Rio" is one of those rare films which legitimizes irresponsible behavior.It is a mystery that it has been classified as a romantic comedy.This must come as a shock to those fans who consider it as a drama film exploring somewhat taboo themes involving bizarre characters who make it a point to outshine each other over matters related to unfaithfulness and sexual misconduct.Apart from Brazilian city Rio De Janeiro,British actor Michael Caine in two different yet fascinating avatars is this film's major attraction.He is good as a narrator but somewhat dorky as an actor.This is fine for critics but would not deter interested daddies to enjoy this film with their nubile daughters.May be they would learn a thing or two from "Blame it on Rio"..
At least that's what the publicity says it is - I'm not so sure.Michael Caine and Joseph Bologna are business partners who take their daughters - Demi Moore and Michelle Johnson - on holiday to Rio de Janeiro for reasons which don't really matter.
Hapless middle-aged nerd Matthew Hollis (an excellent and engaging performance by Michael Caine) and his amiable sleaze best friend Victor Lyons (robustly played by Joseph Bologna) go on vacation to Rio with their teenage daughters in tow.
melancholy and sentimental....and besides the jewel that is Rio de Janeiro, the ONLY reason to not seek out a better form of entertainment.Well...maybe a glimpse at the 2 lovely young actresses, Michelle Johnson and Demi Moore would be a reason.
The uncomfortable premise of this mid-'80s sex farce sees middle-aged married man Matthew Hollis (Michael Caine) succumbing to the advances of his best friend's infatuated teenage daughter Jennifer (Michelle Johnson), blaming his scandalous actions on Rio's impulsive atmosphere.
It's reasonably funny to watch, but wildly inappropriate, making the film something of a guilty pleasure, even more so given that its young but well-developed star, Johnson, happily flaunts her naked body at every opportunity.Those who opt to fly down to Rio with Caine and Co. will also be treated to an early appearance from Demi Moore as Matthew's daughter Nicole, who also briefly goes topless, and the unforgettable sight of Michael Caine's incredibly massive spectacles (blame THEM on the '80s!)..
I am not exactly sure where the film was shot, but wherever it was could definitely pass for Rio. I actually found the movie itself annoying though because Michelle was portrayed as an over emotional and naïve (some may call a typical teenage girl) and I did not like this.
At the time the film came out I was nearly Michael Caine's age and shared many of his mid-life frustrations about marriage and certainly enjoyed the fantasy about having an affair with a young woman my junior in exotic Rio. Over the past two decades things have changed.
But now, I'm quite a bit older, and can see that it was much more.**SPOILERS AHEAD**What really makes this film unique is the power struggle between Michael Caine (Matthew) and the lovely Michelle Johnson (Jennifer).
Blame It On Rio. Caine is hilarious as a man who has a fling with his best friend's lovely and very sexy daughter (Michelle Johnson).
Bologna is the girl's father and he's terrific as he has a fling with a young Demi Moore, who is Caine's daughter. |
tt1545106 | Vamps | BFF gets a new meaning with Goody (a well-preserved CLUELESS alumni Alicia Silverstone) and Stacey (Bettie Page reborn pale-skinned beauty Krysten Ritter) living up the night. Goody's been around, like forever, like even before the electric light bulb was invented. She got sired by a stem vampire, Cisserus, and is the soft-hearted type, opting rather to feed on rats rather than humans. She was thrilled by new developments on the social scene during the Roaring Twenties, what with the Flappers being the first party girls and all that. Hey, if you were born during 1841 you'd have lived during some pretty repressed times! Anyway, things turned wild after the big wars, much excitement through the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies, but then came 1992, when Cisserus sired Stacy, a drug addict, turning her 'life' around as a sister for Goody, who taught her all the basic vampire stuff she needed to know. In turn, hip, with it social butterfly (bat?) Stacey taught techno-illiterate Goody about the Internet, e-mail and Napster, not forgetting Greenday. Goody is kind of socially inept, she needs help putting on her lipstick (vampires can't see themselves in mirrors) and her fashion sense is stuck in the 1970s (jeans). Goody thinks Stacy is real cute as they wake up in their matching coffins facing each others', but Stacey kind of has a lame sense of humor, like blocking Goody's lid with a desk. But they make a fun duo racing off to Goth night at a local night club, Goody streaking at inhuman lightning speed down the fire escape, while the more avant garde Stacy crawls creepily down the side of the building, reverse quadruped-style, like a giant cockroach.Goody abhors the v-word. She is an ELF, extended life-form. Their support group is Sanguines Anonymous.. Here they meet up with other ghouls of the community. Like Vlad Tepesh, who has now refrained from impaling victims for 362 years.Eating habits. Atrocious. They feast on rats, drinking their blood with straws, exactly like children slurp down soda pop. Goody also gets carried away seeing a coke-abusing drummer's bleeding nose, and has to jump on top of him and lick it off. Apparently she has a tongue that can put a giraffe to shame...In the club, Goody uses her vampire persuasion powers, a snake-eyed mind-altering stare, to convince Juicy Girl (well, her panties simply introduce the loose little thing as 'Juicy') (blonde Emily Goldwyn) to steer away in future from bad boys like Ivan, an older vampire who hangs out at Cisserus's place, and Vadim, an insidious snake-fanged demonic vampire.Goody is kind of deceiving Stacy on one count. She is just about 151 years older than her, but has always played this down, letting the younger girl believe she is her age.. Stacy is very age-conscious, and Goody is ashamed of being so damned ancient. She has practical knowledge of the city's past history, and is very wise about past events, which she accredits to having seen on the History Channel when Stacy looks at her askew.Quick note here: Remember, the girls are vampires. It's all a race against time. What's a girl to do if the sun is her biggest (instantly 'lethal') enemy? Living the good night-life at the risk of being burnt into nothingness they are drawn to the city life like moths to an open flame...Now, Cisserus (Sigourney Weaver), Mom to her two offspring, and with a passion for Gaultier and Prada (she summons the two girls as colthes models - her offspring has no other purpose for her), is not the gentile I-brake-for-bunnies type. Fast food delivery? She has the Pizza Guy. Who turns up dismembered some time later, with Van Helsing (CLUELESS alumni Wallance Shawn) formerly MI6, now from Homeland Security, investigating the case, but out of his jurisdiction, as it's not terrorist-related, just another New York psycho on the loose.As luck would have it, Stacy, a student at university, watches a film with Joey, who has an obvious interest in her elegant delicate frame. And she is delighted by him. Then she learns his surname. Van Helsing. Shades of Romeo and Juliet. And when he takes her home, and she meets the parents, they are instantly alerted by her freezing-cold hands. The walking dead are among us! No campus vampire will get past Van Helsing! Goody is alarmed to discover just exactly where Little Sister is spending her time. She herself has linked up with her old flame, Danny Horowitz, but of course had to introduce herself as Susan, daughter of deceased Goody, to explain the mystery of not having aged a day. Danny's wife is dying of terminal cancer in the Intensive Care Unit, and the two 'sisters' work the night shift at the hospital, naturally, so that's how they met. She heard him ranting at the reception desk re treatment of his wife, and recognized his voice from protesting days. Goody's been a career protestor, dating back to the days of Abolition.Goody is troubled lately by the revelation she learned from Vadim. If Cisserus, her stem, got eliminated, she would revert to her true age. There is trouble brewing in the community. Ol' Van Helsing, pretending to be a Time Warner cable guy, has eliminated Ivan, and he has an agent posing as a psy-vampire infiltrating the Sanguines group. Stacy gets mysteriously called up for jury duty; all kinds of imposed daylight activities face the troubled night creatures.The dinner date with Joey at the Van Helsing residence. Stacy prepared by disguising her white pallor with every known fake bronzer and spray-on tan known in the living, or undead, universe. She tried using her mind controlling abilities, but Van Helsing has a very strong will. His son provides her with the greatest time she's had since the Eighties, but when birds alert her to nearing sunrise, she has to scamper away, in that unorthodox way, down the side of the building, and he freaks out seeing her. But she manages wooing him back quite easily because, after all, she is exactly the opposite of evil. The encounter did impregnate her though.Also outed is Goody when she foils a robbery at a video store, and sinks her fangs into a guy who suffered a heart attack to thin his blood. Her ACLU torch-bearing old flame does get to understand the plight of these misfits, mostly losers, now. The gang makes use of a solar eclipse to get rid of the obstacles in their way, and get their names deleted off public records. Vadim rewards Danny by turning his wife, she becomes healthy and virile again (hot matured older lady looking just great Marilu Henner) even if surely a vampire now, but the 'plot' does not go into this.Evil Cisserus takes out a Chinese takeout. And has her fill. Her two offspring enlists Van Helsing and confront her in her hideout, Grant's Tomb. Looming over diminutive Van Helsing in her primal state, she is beheaded by Joey wielding a chainsaw, but reanimated the skeleton of Ulysses Grant, she bears down upon her foes. Slaying her means reverting to their actual ages, which is fatal for future-shocked Goody, but Stacy can be a 40 year old Mom. And Goody gets reunited with her own children. Van Helsing gets to accept his granddaughter with the fangs. | murder | train | imdb | Perfect for me :) I would recommend to anyone who likes vampire movies, comedies or cheeky dramas with some slightly twisted humor..
Alicia Silverstone is hilarious and adorable, and Krysten Ritter is even better than she was on Breaking Bad (which is practically impossible in my opinion.) This could be my favorite Silverstone movie of the decade, just sayin'.
In 1995, writer-director Amy Heckerling hit the nail on the head with what would be the definitive chick flick of that decade with Clueless, and propelling its lead Alicia Silverstone into super-stardom, launching words and phrases into collective acceptance.
Fast forward to today, both didn't quite have projects under the belt that rivaled their early success, so I guess coming together again was probably an opportunity to find their collective magic, and what's none better than to tackle a popular subject matter for film - Vampires.Granted that Alicia Silverstone is no longer the teen that she was, Amy Heckerling has created quite a smart plot device, which provides Silverstone with playing an older character, but able to retain her relatively youthful looking features for the story of the undead and immortal.
So Goody and Stacy become "blood sisters" after the latter gets converted, staying in their coffins in an upmarket swanky New York apartment, leading the good life but only at night, but are at the beck and call of Cisserus when she goes out hunting for human blood.It is probably in the mantra of human-friendly vampires to be sucking on blood of vermin, following the Twilight model.
This of course raises the suspicion of Joey's father Dr. Van Helsing (Wallace Shawn), himself a vampire hunter given their heritage, and with Cisserus going around killing folks for sustenance, you'd know everything would converge and come to that necessary climatic finale to have all narrative loose ends resolved.But underneath this candy and sugar coated sweetness, lies a rather dark tale about love, and the cruelness imposed by immortality.
In Manhattan, the vampires Goody (Alicia Silverstone) and Stacy (Krysten Ritter) share an apartment and work and study in the night-shift.
Goody was turned in vampire in 1840 by the evil Cisserus (Sigourney Weaver), who turned Stacy in the 90's, and they became best friends but Goody never told her real age to her friend.
Stacy falls in love with her classmate Joey (Dan Stevens), and soon she learns that he is the son of the vampire slayer Dr. Van Helsing (Wallace Shawn).
I was afraid to see "Vamps", based on the background of director Amy Heckerling, with movies like "Clueless" and the franchise "Look Who's Talking" and the poster that recalls "Sex & the City"; so I was expecting a shallow sex and the city with vampires.But I was wrong and I have just decided to see this movie and I found it surprisingly funny and cute.
Great laughs when I wasn't expecting it.Almost extraterrestrial in some surprising ways, with a sustaining image reminiscent of a few sci-fi flicks.Pokes fun at groups that could stand a few pokes.Might be a harder sell for some in the "under 20" crowd.Certainly under-rated at the time I wrote this when the IMDb was only 4.7.
Things get more complicated when their maker Sigourney Weaver becomes mass homicidal and one of the vampires falls in love with a Van Helsing and becomes pregnant.There is much to be said about references on older films and characters and history.
And for a chick flick vampire romantic comedy it actually had some adequate special effects as well.The story is about two ladies, Goody (played by Alicia Silverstone) and Stacy (played by Krysten Ritter) who are roommates and vampires!
But what really made the movie work was the list of people credited to the cast; Alicia Silverstone, Krysten Ritter, Sigourney Weaver, Marilu Henner, Richard Lewis, Wallace Shawn and Malcolm McDowell.Something did strike me kind of odd though.
Alicia Silverston and Krysten Ritter were a good vampire couple, and I can't say anything bad about the supporting cast.
I mean how could a Amy Heckerling/Alicia Silverstone comedy about chick vampires be bad, right?
Whilst the premise had potential (2 girly vamps, surviving in modern NY and abstaining from human blood, while trying to live 'normal' lives), the execution was dire - the acting was amateurish and I'm afraid that Alicia Silverstone is past the age of this kind of role - she acted more mature in "Clueless"!
Sincerely, don't waste your time - if you want a comedy vamp film, dig out "Love at First Bite" - if you want Sigourney being nasty, watch "Working Girl" - well, just watch ANYTHING other than this woeful mess!.
As it had bypassed cinemas I assumed it would it would be bad, but it was a lovely, funny and entertaining little film that I really feel deserved a better release and truly deserves to find an audience.Amy Heckerling has conjured an original and quirky take on the vampire myth and created two engaging central characters here, brilliantly played by Alicia Silverstone in her best performance for years and Krysten Ritter.The film is consistently funny with lots of references (and clips) to silent and early cinema - including The Cabinet of Caligari and Un Chien Andalou.
But Goody and Stacy are not like her; for one thing, they have never attacked a human but have survived entirely on vermin - in fact, they support themselves with night jobs as rat exterminators, which provides them with sufficient sustenance, and then the twittering of birds warns them of the coming dawn in time for them to rush back to their apartments and their coffins.Goody and Stacy belong to a support group of vampires who have sworn off human blood.
Good supporting cast from Sigourney Weaver (why doesn't she do more comedy - she's so funny) to Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens.This should have been a box office hit - don't understand why it more or less went to DVD.Watch it!.
Movie's Idea -- "Two female vampires in modern-day New York City are faced with daunting romantic possibilities." Not exactly how the movie put it, but it was close.I liked how they mixed a little bit of "Ancient Times" in it.
Vamps see's Heckling reunite with Clueless star Alicia Silverstone who plays Goody a Vampire who has grown tired of her modern life and modern day men, longing for a more simplest time of her former glory days in the 1920s.
I watched it for Sigourney Weaver and Malcolm McDowell, old favorites from the genre.Luckily it didn't laugh with vampirism or isn't ridiculous like Twilight.
Play along with the jokes, this movie has heart - the nostalgia for the past is authentic and real, and the ending, amazingly has a much deeper meaning, with statements made by both main characters intended for the living, and for life - and love - you give your best to someone , and time moves on, youth is fleeting, and lacks meaning, the only real meaning is way beyond skin deep.
One can only justify it as an actual homage to the old films, with in-camera effects (the sofa thing at the club) and stop motion, I don't know, but it was out of place and looked horrible.What a waste of Sigourney Weaver, Malcolm McDowell and especially Kristen Johnston which was given a few dialog lines of an extra trying to make her way into the film industry..
Written and directed by Amy Heckerling and starring Alicia Silverstone, Krysten Ritter, Sigourney Weaver, Dan Stevens, Richard Lewis and Wallace Shawn.
This independent film has known stars and a named director but it could not get a cinema release and went straight to pay TV.Alicia Silverstone who was in her mid 30s when she made this film.She plays a vampire (Goody) who turned in the mid 19th century and has found a reason for her continued existence with her much younger friend (Stacy) who only turned into a vampire in the early 1990s.The two socialite vampires live the good life in New York CityThey are good vampires as they do not drink human blood but rat's blood instead.
One of their members played by Malcolm McDowell is Vlad the Impaler who has now taken up knitting.Complications arrive as the vampires are being pursued and bought out to the open, not helped by Weaver's antics.Stacey falls in love with Van Helsing's son and becomes pregnant, Goody becomes reacquainted with an ex-boyfriend from 30 years ago who has gone older but she has not.
As I said twenty years ago it would had been a big hit but Silverstone is not a big star anymore.Wallace Shawn, Malcolm McDowell and even Sigourney Weaver would only be appreciated by an older audience.
Goody Rutherford (Alicia Silverstone) got turned into a vampire in 1841 by the stem vampire Cisserus (Sigourney Weaver).
Goody runs into her former love from the 60s, Danny (Richard Lewis) who is visiting his terminally ill wife.It's funny that Amy Heckerling is trying to make fun of the modern world but she can't get rid of the feeling of a 90's movie here.
The scene where she is killed by Goody (Alicia Silverstone), Stacy (Krysten Ryder) her b/f and dad Van Helsiing is beyond bad.
Passive and non-violent, she only bleeds filthy rodents, never humans, and had lived many years but fell in love only once during the 1960's to a hippie radical who, now older, is in the form of (a noticeably aged) Richard Lewis.And then there's Stacy, played by Krysten Ritter, the more naïve of the two as she falls in love with a fellow college student with the last name Van Helsing, whose father (Wallace Shawn) may finally have a reason to wield that wooden stake again.Unlike Goody, who recalls historic events like they were only yesterday, Stacy had changed twenty years ago and her memories go back only to the 80's and 90's, the era when writer/director Amy Heckerling reigned.FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH is one of the best high school sex comedies ever made, and CLUELESS shaped 90's teen cinema.
The two leading ladies were obviously having a lot of fun during filming, but the overall result was, if not exactly wooden, definitely very in-your-face with the jokes, which, having been forced on the viewer in such a "laugh, dammit - this is a joke" way, had a tendency to go down like pork chops in a synagogue.Sigourney Weaver and Malcolm McDowell were a horrible disappointment.
The ever-lovely Sigourney played the vampire "stem" who had created the two young vamps, but instead of playing it seriously and letting the jokes flow, she over-acted from beginning to end.Malcolm McDowell as the knitting-fetishist Vlad Tepes aka Vlad the Impaler, now attending something akin to Bloodsuckers Anonymous, was evidently trying to get into his role, but the lines weren't up to it.The rest of the plot really isn't worth relating.
She has an undeniable talent for presenting life lessons through her work while capturing a snapshot of a certain cultural time period, whether it be the 1980s through "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," the 1990s with "Clueless," or the 2000's with "Loser" and the CW's successful "Gossip Girl." "Vamps" is Heckerling's latest movie and continues the trend.Goody (Alicia Silverstone) and Stacy (Krysten Ritter) are modern day vampires living life to its fullest.
We don't drink
Mojitos.Clever vampire comedy, using the tropes of vampirism, intermingled with pop culture and modern technology, for the ipod age, set in NYC, has centuries-old vampire, Alicia Silverstone, and younger "bestie" Krystan Ritter (of Modern Family fame) trying to exist and maintain a level of secrecy within society, among humans, with a "stem" (Sigourney Weaver, an absolute blast) overcome by her overwhelming voracious appetite for human blood, her feasting becoming too out of control, certain to ruin any sort of anonymity successfully held over time.
This is more about Silverstone and Ritter's episodic adventures in NYC, with a wealth of talent in the cast, such as Wallace Shawn (My Dinner with Andre & The Princess Bride, reuniting with director Heckerling from Clueless (1995) as a Van Helsing, no less!), Dan Stevens (as Shawn's son, falling head over heels for Ritter, and vice versa), Malcolm McDowell (as Vlad the Impaler!), Richard Lewis (as an old love of Silverstone's from the 70s), Kristen Johnson (Shawn's wife and Stevens' mother), Kak Orth (as Renfield, quite buddy-buddy with our leading ladies, always hoping they will turn him vampire) and Justin Kirk (as Vadim, a Ukrainian vampire always mistaken as Russian, much to his chagrin).Weaver just gets lost in her part as a self-absorbed diva, totally irresponsible when it comes to not calling attention to "her kind", and her inability (she just doesn't care, to tell you the truth) to cease from drinking human blood (Silverstone and Ritter, along with many others attending a "Sanguinary Anonymous" meetings, feed from rats!) is becoming a nuisance to all vampires who want to co-exist with their mortal counterparts in the big city.
Silverstone's adorable and recalls her old part as that cute (but pampered and oblivious to the hardships of the common man due to her affluence) princess in Clueless, except this time here she's an older woman in a lovely thirty-year old's body, from before "progress" and technology revolutionized America, living through it all and seeing such drastic change while generations lived and died, but unable, it seems, to keep up with the speed of the technological advancements such as computers and iphones.There's a sense of Sex & the City fashion, with clubbing, importance in looking your best, and that search for romance here in the film, but Vamps has vampires occupying the city and follows how they inhabit the night-to-night (they can't very well inhabit "day-to-day", now can they?) social scene.
While I love Silverstone in the film, Ritter is the real surprise as a zesty, fun, spirited, energetic, very sexy gal-pal totally involved in the happening night activities and social networking, her relationship with Stevens disrupting the usual animosity between vampire hunter Van Helsing and bloodsucking Nosferatu.
The vampire tropes (garlic, crucifix, stake through the heart, thirst for human blood, etc.) are all gleefully usurped by Heckerling, especially when Silverstone and Ritter must inform the Van Helsings that they have it all wrong when it comes to successfully harming the undead.
Krysten Ritter is alright as well, and Sigourney Weaver looks like she had fun filming her scenes, though I'm not sure how that is possible and how the filmmakers got her to sign on this..
It's hard to really consider a vampire film or any kind of film for that matter.Vamps centers around two female vampires Goody played by Alicia Silverstone and Stacy played by Krysten Ritter as they go through lives as vampires living in New York.
Goody and Stacy do have vampires but they only drink rat blood.But seriously it's hard for me to take this film seriously.I mean the characters hardly are interesting or even worth the screen time they have.The plot of the film is pretty much the same thing we seen in any love comedy but they thought putting vampires which are pretty much ugh by the way they are hardly vampires in this film.
The film is obviously not a masterpiece, but is far to be bad and unwatchable: taking into account the other films of writer-director Amy Heckerling (Look Who is Talking etc.) it is not expected something worthy of any nomination.The movie is a light romantic comedy, and unpretentious movie, about two vampires, one older (1840) and other "younger" (1990) who live together and their adventures and romantic conflicts in nowdays New York.It features an interesting cast with Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter in the lead roles, besides other known actors such as Sigourney Weaver and Malcolm McDowell (Clockwork Orange The - any movie with him to me is worth watching).
The performances are of a light-hearted comedy, with a mocking tone.The film's visual effects are at least basic and do not know whether they were deliberately forced to refer the B horror movies, with hours that they are hilarious...The story unfolds gradually with a meeting between Krysten and another person who I will not name (spoiler) and this event turns to be the main line of the story until a cute end, typical of those light romantic comedies.
The jokes are good and funny, but not hilarious.Ends up being a good fun to watch with your wife / fiancée / girlfriend, off course, if she likes this genre of movie..
Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter play two vampires in the modern dating era.
Alicia meets an old boyfriend (Richard Lewis) from the 1960's while Krysten falls for a man named Van Helsing (Dan Stevens) who has a father who hunts vampires.The Vamps are part of a support group who only drink animal blood.
Also, there's no real story here, it's mostly a bunch of sketches.Krysten Ritter is playing a role that is great fit for her acting skills, Alicia Silverstone, not so much, but, is well cast as a middle- aged woman (turned-vampire) who used to be hot.
Sigourney Weaver is a misfire, her playing the "crazy, horny, vampire boss" should have worked, but it didn't: by the end, when she's being beheaded, you're neither happy nor sad it has come to that.It is worth to watch the whole thing (except maybe the very end) to get those few great jokes that only work in this context, but, don't expect anything more..
I like this flick, but perhaps it is because I like the idea of it, the DVD is nicely presented with that glossy box cover design, and the movie reunited Amy Heckerling with Alicia Silverstone and I say MORE POWER TO THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT US C L U E L E S S ! |
tt0114720 | Tremors II: Aftershocks | While Earl and Val became wealthy with their discovery of the Graboids, Earl lost most of his fortune through an ostrich farm and other investments. Earl is approached by two men, Grady Hoover and Señor Ortega. Ortega knows that Earl and Val dealt with the Graboids previously. He informs Earl that there are more of them killing workers at the Petromaya Oil Field; he needs help to dispose of them. Earl refuses, horrified at the prospect that there are more of the creatures that almost killed him. Grady tells him that Ortega will pay him $50,000 for each graboid. Earl agrees to eliminate the Graboids, and Grady accompanies him.On their way to the Petromaya Oil Field, Earl and Grady are introduced to Pedro, the company's chief engineer and Kate Reilly, a geologist. Ortega brings Earl and Grady a few cases of dynamite and an CAR-15. A man named Julio introduces a seismic monitor that will show Grady and Earl where the Graboids are. Grady builds a chain with a few empty aluminum cans attached to it to attract the Graboids.Earl and Grady kill 16 Graboids using dynamite strapped to remote-control toy cars. Another Graboid snags the chain Grady hooked to the back of the truck. The Graboid begins dragging them across the field. When the Graboid snaps the chain Earl sees more Graboids approaching on the seismic monitor. Earl calls up Burt Gummer, an old friend of his who helped him take down the Graboids with Val. Burt comes in with an army truck filled with explosives and weapons. The group splits up to kill more of the Graboids.Earl and Grady see another Graboid on the seismograph. Oddly, the Graboid is moving away from them, so Earl and Grady investigate. Upon reaching the top of a hill, the Graboid surfaces. In a panic Earl backs his truck down the side of the hill and into a pile of rocks, breaking an axle. They see the Graboid has not moved. Earl and Grady wait for Pedro to bring the Graboid back to the refinery. The Graboid makes loud, painful noises, and Grady and Earl see some of the insides of the Graboid are missing, leading Earl to believe that something emerged from it.While Earl tries contacting Kate over the radio, he notices that the radio's transmitter has been damaged, then he and Grady hear another Graboid making a noise just like that of the one they encountered earlier. Grady sees Pedro's truck coming up the road only to stop. When Earl and Grady walk to the truck, they see it is damaged and all that is left of Pedro are his severed arms. Earl decides to call for help by hiking to a nearby radio tower.Burt has become worried that his monitor is showing no Graboids and begins returning to the refinery. When Grady and Earl reach the radio tower they find it has been damaged. Earl spots a car near a small bar that Grady tries hotwiring. The two hear a strange noise coming from the bar, then see a creature resembling a smaller two-legged Graboid, dubbed a "Shrieker", emerge from the bar. Grady and Earl kill it, but three more Shriekers come for them. They drive the car back to the refinery. As Burt is trying to get back he is ambushed by Shriekers.Kate, unable to contact anyone, grows worried. Julio agrees to find them. As he is about to leave a Shrieker devours him. Grady and Earl kill the Shrieker that killed Julio and reunite with Kate. As they are about to leave another Shrieker appears and begins damaging their car's engine, but Earl kills it. Burt arrives with his truck damaged from the Shriekers that attacked him. He shows them a Shrieker he caught alive, unaware that another Shrieker has stowed away underneath his truck.The four discover that the Shrieker hunts by using a heat sensor on top of its head, explaining why the Shriekers attacked the cars and the radio tower. When it consumes a piece of food it creates another Shrieker. While enjoying this spectacle, Kate, Earl, Grady and Burt are ambushed by Shriekers. The group plans to drive off with Julio's car, but another Shrieker is blocking their path. Burt uses his .50 BMG rifle to kill it, but the bullet goes through the Shrieker and damages the engine block of Julio's car. More Shriekers trap Grady, Earl and Kate on top of an oil tower and Burt in the bucket of a tractor.The Shriekers start jumping onto each other's backs to reach Grady, Earl and Kate. Burt makes the Shriekers chase him into the storage compartment where his truck is. He is able to lock a door and close a garage, trapping them. However, this proves to be problematic as the garage is filled with food and allows the Shrikers to reproduce at a rapid rate. Earl sprays himself with a fire extinguisher to make him cold so that the Shriekers will not see him, so that he can reach Burt's bombs.As he is walking the frost from his body dissolves and the Shriekers see Earl in Burt's truck. Earl sets off a timed charge and throws it in the back of Burt's truck. Grady, Burt and Kate pull him out with a hose, and the four run from the refinery. The bomb detonates the explosives in Burt's truck and destroys the refinery, killing the Shriekers.Grady tells Earl that the Petromaya corporation owes them for 28 worms they killed. As they walk towards the remains of the refinery, Earl suggests they charge the corporation for the Shriekers they killed. When Grady says that they can open up their own Monster World, Earl says, "No way.", but Grady says, "Oh, C'mon, Earl. This could be like your big third chance". | cult | train | imdb | Fred Ward and Michael Gross return from the first movie.(Kevin Bacon not making a comeback shows a little elitism on his part I think.
The film takes the Graboids a little farther up the evolutional chain this time, and the effects are still good for the small budget.
I think everyone agrees with the statement that this second entry can't possibly live up to the original but, as far as the quality of sequels go, "Tremors II: Aftershocks" is a fairly pleasant B-movie that you definitely won't regret seeing.
It's obviously meant to please the enormous fan-base of the first movie, since it features the exact same type of humor and similar special effects, but at least it tries to add something new to the story of the giant carnivorous worms.
Several years have passed since the big fat "Graboid"-hunt in Perfection, Nevada and good old Earl Bassett (the cool and charismatic Fred Ward reprises his role) is asked to come to Mexico because a new plague of worms has already killed (and eaten) the staff of a large petrol field there.
This following begins in Petromay oil refinery (Mexico),there happen mysterious events,a giant killers predators are eating workers.After in the small village called Perfection is Earl(Fred Ward).He's hired for killing the horrible creatures,then he goes out towards Mexico along with a brave young named Hoover(Christopher Gartin).In the refinery they know to Kate(Helen Shaver),after comes Burt Gummer(Michael Gross)with a heavy weapons and explosives.They'll confront against an army of Graboids,the horrific and enormous worms that spontaneously appear from underground burrows.In this entry we learn the giant bugs are intelligent but they don't see neither ear.This is an entertaining sequel with noisy action,grisly horror,thrilling and some humor with tongue in check.It's remarkable for special effects with computer generator recreation made by Phil Tippet studio and Animatronics by Tom Gudruff and Alec Gillis.The film displays habitual characteristic from the series : A lonely location surrounded by the fantastic worms called Graboids and a solitary bunch battling with the horrible creatures, the usual appearance of Burt Gummer,always played by a likable Michael Gross,besides all movies are produced and directed by Ron Underwood,SS Wilson and Brent Maddock.It's followed by several sequels: Tremors III Back to Perfection with Ariana Richards,Charlotte Stewart; Tremors IV the legend begins,that tells the origin with August Schellemberg,Sara Bostford,Billy Drago ; and TV series with Gladys Jimenez,Victor Brown,Marcia Strassman and as always Michael Gross.The motion picture-with an appropriate musical score by Jay Ferguson -is professionally directed by S.S. Wilson.It's recommended for terror-action buffs and hardcore series fans..
After the huge love and deserved critical praise for Ron Underwood's 1990 film, Tremors, this in spite of poor box office and lead man Kevin Bacon disowning the film at the time, sequels were always likely.
And so it proved.Fred Ward and Michael Gross return from the first film and are joined by Christopher Gartin, Helen Shaver and Marcelo Tubert.
The characters there gave a believable sense of danger and fright, here it's just done for laughs, we never once think the principal players are remotely scared of the Graboids and their offspring.Story has advanced for Earl (Ward) and Burt (Gross), where this time it's Earl who is romancing (Shaver under used but lovely) and Burt is all on his lonesome as his Mrs (Heather played by Reba McEntire) has left him on account of his love of war and weapons, a joke which grows old very fast here.
Still, when the action isn't of the budget CGI kind, it's well staged and good fun, though Wilson's comic sequence shooting is flat, while Ward is a strong enough actor to carry the film to keep it above average.Passably enjoyable for fans of creature feature movies without ever being an essential viewing choice.
For all the griping I, myself, and others do about sequels failing to raise the stakes, here's a film that doesn't mind changing the rules late in the game because, hey, it was already told that Graboids themselves don't play fair.After opening with a stunningly suspenseful scene of an oil worker trying to avoid a Graboid, we are dropped right in the middle of the sleepy desert-town of Perfection, Nevada, once more, where Earl Bassett (Fred Ward) is now making his living as an ostrich farmer.
The three, in addition to Kate (Helen Shaver), a local paleontologist, work to complete Ortega's operation, which goes rather seamlessly until the worms wind up undergoing metamorphosis and subsequently transforming into something more dangerous and more ubiquitous.While the amiable and often hilarious chemistry of Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward is subtracted from the formula of this sequel, Gartin steps in to do an okay job at playing second banana to Fred Ward's always interesting Earl character.
Gartin does what he can within the screenplay of Wilson and Maddock and the result is fair but not totally destructive to the plot.Tremors II largely works because it doesn't settle to do the same thing twice; it keeps its story moving by not only changing the setting and adding a few more characters in the mix, but changing the entire biological spectrum of the monsters.
In addition, much like the original Tremors, this is a film that makes total use of its desert setting, spending considerable amounts of time in some settings, but always giving different locations their time of day in a manner that feels very regionally democratic.Tremors II: Aftershocks is a thoroughly pleasant sequel because it helps to revoke the spirit of the original film, whilst deviating course into something that expands upon the mythology of the monsters in the film and general likability of most of the film's characters.
Rarely has there been a franchise quite like Tremors that has proved its own longevity better than most established, financially successful franchises and rarely has there been an impressive sequel quite like Tremors II: Aftershocks.Starring: Fred Ward, Christopher Gartin, Michael Gross, Helen Slater, Marco Hernandez, and Marcelo Tubert.
Tremors 2 has both laughs and thrills, like the original it was worthy of theatrical release Despite the significantly lower budget, the monsters remain entirely convincing.I loved the first movie so much that I really enjoyed visiting with these characters again.
The young actor attempting to replace him gives a reasonable performance, but his character in the film is just a bit too streetwise and 'smart', and he doesn't make a convincing on-screen partnership with Fred Ward.The plot is different to Tremors, but still contains the Tremor-creating 'graboids' that were present in the original.
There they meet up with some new characters and the "secret origins" of the Graboids.Now, Ward and Gross can carry a movie, and they carry this one.
Shaver is a poor replacement for the female role but it is good to have Gross back in a funny role.The film is a little more effects focused this time which weakens it slightly.
I'm not surprised that Kevin Bacon didn't make it back for the sequel, but I was happy to see Fred Ward and Michael Gross back.There are a number of problems I have with the film, but one that stuck out more than any other is that they ACTUALLY referred to the animals as "Graboids".
I also liked that they were hermaphroditic, kind of an interesting twist there.I think the thing that made the movie to me is Michael Gross' character, Burt Gummer.
For a direct-to-video sequel to a successful cinematic monster movie this is great.Although somewhat less polished than the original, Fred Ward is back performing as Earl Bassett which couldn't possibly be bad, Michael Gross is back as Burt Gummer, the monsters are back and as convincing as ever, and there's a new addition to the monsters which was successfully carried out with a good design, interesting idea and a lot of fun puppets.The destruction in this film is monumental but at no point does it go too far.
Tremors: Part Two. When an army of Graboids - giant, carnivorous underground worms - threaten the Petromaya oil refinery in Mexico, its owners call on Earl Bassett (Fred Ward), who once helped kill four of the creatures in Perfection, Nevada.TV Guide wrote, "This movie is a rarity among direct-to-video sequels, one that's not only worthy of its theatrical predecessor but suggests that it too, belongs on the big screen...
This one, despite the low budget, offers a high-quality film with creative new (and good looking) monsters.Anyone who liked the first film definitely needs to see the second..
This one has two characters returning from the first movie: Fred Ward's Earl Bassett and Michael Gross' Burt Gummer.
Contacted due to his experience with the creatures in the first film, fearless Fred Ward (as Earl Bassett) heads back into action, with new partner Christopher Gartin (as Grady Hoover).
Not as good as the first, with a story that kinda hangs in the air at times, but I was positively surprised.It's a real smart script (as with the first), where they're even able to make fun of the fact that Kevin Bacon or Reba McEntire isn't returning to make the sequel, and in smart ways being able to get Fred Ward and Michael Gross into the action..But the most important is that they've been able to keep the fun (it's the thrills that's not as good as in the first) with exactly the right "mean" tone in the dialogue etc, and the spirit of the first..It isn't able to take it all the way, but..
Well this was a truly good try at making the sequel better than the original, but that is very very rare, but anyway....It was good to see Earl Basset in it again, played by Fred Ward.But all this needed to be a huge success was the presence of Kevin Bacon,the story line was at first a repeat of the first film but then the worms transformed into something completely different.I prefer Tremors the original, but this film has its own stand, and it was a galant effort to make it better.I give this a 6 out of 10, only because I had Aftershocks after I watched it!!!
It is missing Kevin Bacon and some of the character chemistry that worked so well, but it stands as a movie that is easily watchable, and often funny and thrilling.As the film begins, it features a rather low and depressed-looking Earl Bassett (Fred Ward), who, unlike his partner Valentine Mckee, didn't profit from the appearance of the giant worms, now known as graboids.
Tremors 2 is funny, thanks to Fred Ward's fine and entertaining performance, as well as Michael Gross's return.
Kevin Bacon is sadly missed, but the always reliable Fred Ward is a welcome return, as is Michael Gross as gun-packing survivalist Burt Gummer, who comes complete with everything from bullets to C4.
i really enjoyed the original Tremors.it worked on a lot of levels.unfortunately,this sequel doesn't.it seems to be mostly played for camp value,but i don't think it works very well.i found it very mostly very slow and boring.there were a few almost amusing moments,but overall,it was a disappointment.Kevin Bacon passed on this one,and it's easy to see why.he must have read the script.Fred Ward is back,but without Bacon,he his character just doesn't work as well.Michael Gross returns,and doesn't have much too do.also,i thought the dialogue was pretty cringe worthy at times.plus,the movie isn't really original.in fact it borrows heavily from another big movie that had come out a few years ago.i've seen worse movies,but this one still ranks as a major disappointment.for me,Tremors 2 is a 4/10..
As with most sequels, this doesn't quite measure up to the original, but it's still pretty good and fun to watch with most of the original cast returning sans Kevin Bacon.
Fred Ward and Michael Gross are the only two stars who returned for this direct-to-video sequel six years after the original.
Watched Tremors 2:Aftershocks Featuring Fred Ward(Miami Blues) as Earl Bassett , Christopher Gartin(Melrose Place) as Grady Hoover,Michael Gross(A Connecticut Yankee In Kings Arthurs Court) as Burt Gummer ,Helen Shaver(Born To Be Wild) as Kate Reilly, Marcelo Tubert(Dragnet) as Senor Carlos Ortega .
"Tremors II: Aftershocks"- The quintessential direct-to-video sequel, and a darned good follow-up to the cult-classic original!.
Boasting great production value for its lowered budget, a wickedly charming cast and a great sense of humor, in many ways it's a near-ideal follow-up to the cult classic original!A few years after the events of the original, Earl Basset (Fred Ward) is living alone on an Ostrich ranch, when he is approached by a Mexican oil-worker with an offer: hunt down a new rash of Graboids that are feeding on his men, and he will be handsomely compensated.
Together with giddy new sidekick Grady (Christopher Gartin) and former survivalist neighbor Burt Gummer (Michael Gross), Earl travels to Mexico and begins to blow the Graboids to kingdom come.
Despite costing less than half what the original ran, "Tremors II" consistently feels just as big and ambitious a film.The cast is great fun once again, and it's a joy to see some key returning characters mixed in with the fresh blood.
Fred Ward returns as Earl Basset(Kevin Bacon's character was absent) who is called upon by a Mexican oil refinery that is besieged by new "Graboids", needing the big money being offered, he accepts, and is aided in his fight by admirer Grady Hoover, as well as geologist Kate Reilly, whom he recognizes from somewhere...when more monsters appear than they can handle, they call upon the help of militarist/survivalist Burt Gummer(Michael Gross) who is more than happy to help out, and use his cache of weapons.Sequel is much better than expected, but it is just as breezy and fresh as the first, a rare accomplishment.
All in all, "Tremors 2; Aftershocks" is a really good follow-up to the hugely entertaining "Tremors", which itself was a surprise hit to begin with.The movie follows Earl's (Ward) second attempt at eliminating the Graboids who terrorized the small town of Perfection, Nevada, a few years earlier.
Script wise it's fairly good but nothing great.Fred Ward does well in his role, as do Gartin and Shaver but Michael Gross, as Gung HO survivalist Burt Gummer really steals the show.
Things are looking good for a while but soon our heroes are fighting for their lives against not only Graboids, but a new kind of creature (yet to be named until Tremors 3).Though not as scary as Tremors, the sequel is twice as funny.
Michael Gross returns , and he has some of the movies greatest one-liners you will ever hear,, I'm totally out of ammo,, that's never happened to me before,, this time the creatures evolve to something totally different, and yes they do get smarter,, this time Earl find himself in Mexico at a refinery where he enlists the help of Burt Gummer, who is eager to come to Earls' rescue,, Helen Shaver is also in this one and is very sexy to say the least.
Fourthly, the performances are engaging, Fred Ward reprises his role as charismatic and cool Earl and does a very good job, while Christopher Gartin is suitably chirpy as his assistant and Michael Gross is hilarious once again as Burt.
The giant underground creatures that terrorised a desert town in tremors and now pl-owing their way though Mexian Oil Fields, Gobbling up everything and everyone around them.Fred Ward and Micael Gross are the only two people to return to the sequel and Partnered with them are Christopher Gartin, a young man in need of kicks, cash and a career change and Helen Shaver who is a sexy and intrepid scientist.It's not as good as Tremours but it still a great sequel to it, (For those who have not seen it) I do not want to ruin it for you, I will say I did like how they changed the worms, it's was really good and they are just little more scary then the ones in tremors.It did have some really funny moments but not as funny as the first tremors movies and the acting was really good As it was 12 AKA 13PG it's not that scary or Gory, So the whole family could watch this movie.7/10.
This movie was good but the first movie is so much better then this movie and its a shame that Kevin Bacon did not come back to star in this film.Fred Ward and Michael Gross from the first movie came back to star in this movie witch was good and they both did a good job at acting and this movie stars other actors and actress like Christopher Gartin,Helen Shaver and Marcelo Tubert.The special effects in this movie where good but i have seen way better and way worse and i liked the new monster in this movie.Over all this movie is good with some flaws like not staring the great Kevin Bacon and my rating is 6 out of 10..
Tremors 2 is a really fun movie, starring Fred Ward as the main in this one, once again the underground monsters are back, Earl teams up with his old friend Burt Gummer played by Michael Gross, To try and get rid of all the killer worms, Tremors 2 is even better then the first one, I hope they never stop making these films.10 out of 10.
Poor Follow Up. Tremors 2 (1996) * 1/2 (out of 4) Extremely poor follow up has the creatures attacking people at a Mexican oil rig so two surviving members of the first film (Fred Ward, Michael Gross) go down to clean things up.
Fred Ward and Michael Gross return from the original TREMORS to deal with the 30 foot earthworm-like creatures now named 'Graboids'.
With Earl, Grady, geologist Kate (Helen Shaver) & Earl's pal Bert Gummer (Michael Gross) trapped by the Shriekers they face a whole new set of problems escaping with heir lives...Co-written & directed by S.S. Wilson this was the first sequel to the rather excellent & likable 90's monster flick Tremors (1990), while not as good as the original Tremors this really isn't too bad & it worth a watch if you have any sort of fondness for the original or a liking for monster flicks in general. |
tt2319889 | Jannat 2 | Sonu's world is shaken to the core when he realises, after his marriage to Jhanvi, that Jhanvi's estranged father, Mangal Singh Tomar (Manish Choudhary), is actually the leader of the guns/arms business in Delhi. Soon enough, Sonu becomes a police informant for ACP Pratap, who has been looking for Mangal. Becoming a police informant, Sonu manages to convince Mangal that he is a corrupt and shrewd person who will be of use to his gang. Mangal embraces Sonu as his next in command. Sonu, caught between the devil and the deep sea, starts playing a double game. He neither gives information to the ACP, nor tells Mangal the truth about him being a police informer. Secretly he plans to run away with Jhanvi, so that he can live a peaceful life with her. However, things get risky once a mysterious informer in the police force tells Mangal about Sonu's truth.
During a shootout, Mangal finds out the truth about Sonu, and takes his whole gang after him. Sonu, on the run, rings ACP Pratap for help. Pratap then brings his whole police force to the scene. There, Sonu is surrounded by Mangal's gang, which is then gunned down by the police chief commissioner. With only Sonu, Mangal and the chief left, it turns out that the chief is actually Mangal's informer, and they both follow Sonu to a deserted area. There, Sonu meets Pratap and tells him he is done and leaves to go to his wife. However he is shot by the chief. Pratap, seeing Sonu get killed, shoots the chief commissioner and Mangal multiple times, leading to their deaths.
In the hospital, during Sonu's last words, he tells Pratap that his wife Jhanvi should not know about his death, and Pratap should tell her that he was a criminal who committed smuggling and ran away. After his death, Pratap goes to his house and informs Jhanvi that Sonu ran away from the city. Jhanvi, heartbroken, thinks straight and forgets Sonu, and moves away to carry on life as normal. | tragedy, romantic, neo noir | train | wikipedia | One Thing is For Sure, Mahesh Bhatt Always Hits the Bulls Eye. After Normal Success Of A Mediocre film Like Blood Money, He has filled his accounts with Jannat 2, Taking the name of a Successful Blockbuster of 2008 ,Planting a Good Music and Imran Hashmi.
But there is more in Jannat 2 , Randeep Hooda's Best Performance till date, like he was born for a role like this.
Jannat 2 may not have a good romantic story like Jannat.But its a good crime thriller.Good acts by the cast except newcomer Esha Gupta she is dull.
Well the film started off well with witty dialogs from two main characters Randeep Hooda and Emraan.
The part where Emran rises in his position and becomes more rich and successful is shown better in Jannat.The plot is very very interesting, story, very well scripted with twists( some we can guess, others are mind blowing), dialogs are well written.
Some scenes are very interesting like revealing the twists and the conversation between Randeep Hooda and Manish Choudary(Mangal Singh).
Its a good movie, fast moving, entertaining, and believe me Imran hashmi has matured as a very good actor.
Jannat 2 is having a good story, Imran performs as a gun dealer who later becomes police's informer.
Imran and Randeep became a good pair on screen, and Isha gupta was average, although she looks cute in the movie.
Started on a rather sluggish note, but did not waste much time to come to the point and from there onwards, it was one helluva ride with some really unexpected and sudden twists and some heavy mouthed "seeti maar" dialogues....if the Interval hits u like a thundering bolt, wait for the climax (never seen such a climax in any movie thus far, hence bound get mixed reactions) And after a point, the drama gets so intense, that few of the really nice songs in the post interval portion seems to be a hindrance to the fast-edgy narrative....
Though promoted as an Emraan Hashmi movie, do watch out for Randeep Hooda....TERRIFIC and it is this Hashmi-Hooda chemistry that took the movie to an altogether different level....LOVED their camaraderie....!!!!!
Movie has a grip through out and you are not bored every time Hooda and Hashmi are on screen together you feel the excitement where is the plot going to move next.
Am not a Hashmi fan but after seeing this movie I have to say hats off to him being so faithful to the character and his simple no nonsense acting makes him really likable.Final verdict: Definitely entertaining and worth a watch!.
Music by Pritam, is top-notch!Performance-Wise: Emraan Hashmi is excellent in the lead role.
Jannat 2- Good and Nice Movie.
Emraan he acted as the character requires - good job - all the best for up-coming films.
Rest supporting cast did a good job.All the Best Emraan Bhai - Movie is excellent .
The story of a gun-seller who is coerced by a harsh cop to become a police informer, this is an oddly uninteresting film predictable right from the moment the main characters are introduced, each more asinine than the next.
Hashmi's Sonu Dilli is an insipid fellow who keeps crowing about how the world calls him a dog, Esha Gupta plays a doctor who apparently runs a free 'hospital' without knowing how to pay the bills, and Randeep Hooda.
Jannat 1 being not a great piece of work but was successful due to controversy around match fixing generated in 2008.Problems with this film are plenty.
Whole film look like a forced attempt to cash on popularity of first part.Emraan Hashmi plays Sonu dilli, an illegal arm racketeer in this film who love a independent, gorgeous, doctor player by Esha Gupta who besides treating patients for free, reaches everywhere emraan is already present for their love to blossom.
What a coincidence !Love story run side by side with attempt of sonu dilli to rectify life's mistakes & lead good life by exposing illegal arms syndicate with the help of ACP Pratap Raghuvanshi (randeep hooda) & this makes the rest of story.
Now its time for Guns in the Bollywood.I will say overall the film is entertaining though there are a few loopholes in the story.The film drags up a bit (not much) in the middle (one song might have been unnecessary).But the story line is good and its worth a single watch.Emran Hashmi & Randeep are good in acting however the actress (Esha Gupta) need some polishing.Repeated hearing of the word KKC (Kutti Kameeni Cheez) sounded a bit cheap.The music is OK, not much in them.If you are free go for it...
In fact this is a perfect example of how production houses have now started making fool of the viewers with these so called sequels which have nothing to do with their part one.JANNAT 2 is strictly made on the fixed format of film-making followed by Vishesh Films.
Then they introduce the charming heroine and the love plot starts between the lead pair making way for few good songs.
Like in Jannat – the hero is a Cricket betting bookie, in Blood Money – he is involved in International Diamond smuggling, in Crook - he is a lawbreaker who gets related with the racial attacks abroad and in the present Jannat 2- he is dealing in Arms Selling also known as Gunrunning in the underworld.Continuing with their passion of making inspired films, this time the crime-plot is taken from Nicholas Cage's Lord of War (2005) and one of its posters takes its inspiration from The Mechanic (2011).
But then just after a few minutes, it falls back on the usual track, giving you a severe shock of some heavy abuses repeatedly used in the dialogues, which can easily be rated as disgusting coming from this reputed banner.As I see it, the Bhatts from their experience in the film-trade, very well knew that they didn't have anything great in the storyline of their over-publicized sequel.
Music, being the strongest part of all Bhatt films works here too with few good, hummable songs from Pritam.
Randeep Hooda looks like the same in his all types of scenes but still leaves a mark in few.
Regarding the debutant heroine Esha Gupta I would only like to say that Bhatts can easily make any gorgeous girl the heroine of their film as she only has to look pretty in her steamy scenes or kisses and has to do very less of acting on the screen in these kinds of scripts.
Also J2 is yet another film which once again reveals the faulty working style of our Censor Boards who have no problem with all the cuss words spoken in a big banner's film, but force to use a beep in place of them in a low budget project "Life Ki Toh Lag Gayi" released just last week.In all, this is one of those desperate movies of Vishesh films which is too eager to become a HIT through an easy way of few good songs, steamy kisses and all un-required abusive words spoken loudly by their Hero.
Well, as this movie was expected to be matching the success of Jannat 1 but turn out to be a disappoint specially in second half.
This is not a sequel of Jannat 1 so there is no connection between two stories.A predictable story with good cinematography and great background score, but lacks logic in most of the cases.
Anything impressive about the movie was performance of Randeep Hooda and screen presence of Esha Gupta, however she get very little footage to show any acting skills.
Imran Hashmi as usual was fun to watch, and played a overrated character of Sonu Delhi KKC (Kuti, Kamini Cheez)Music is great and songs are beautifully picturized, dialogues are punchy and creatively abusive..
They say over-confidence kills a man, in this case it kills the movie.Banking on the success of Jannat, Jannat 2 first of all is not a sequel at all and director Kunal Deshmukh's third attempt at direction failed to impress me.Starring Imran Hashmi as Sonu Dilli KKC(kutti kamini cheez) who as described is shown as a shrewd arms dealer and ACP Pratap Rachuvanshi(Randeep Hooda) is the tough cop who wants to bring an end to the arms dealing racket.
Esha Gupta plays Imran's love interest.The first half of the movie is disappointing as the story goes no where and even though I personally love it when some high octane swearing is involved clearly in Jannat 2 there's too much unnecessary involvement of Behen*** and Ch**** which is irritating.The second half has a good pace to it, the story opens up more but it is again the very predictable end that leaves you wondering why did they make the movie when they didn't have a good script considering Jannat was pretty good.The music is pretty good and even though some songs just start from nowhere you still enjoy them.Imran Hashmi does his best tp save the film, Esha Gupta looks simply stunning but falters in the one scene where she could have actually shown her acting skills and Randeep Hooda is for me brilliant.
Still since the movie is a sure hit there might be some hope.Watch it only for Esha beauty or for Hooda's performance1.5/5.
If you are another Delhi belly fan who is easily impressed by some curses and a little Bahama bag, then this is for you, but if you are like me, who understands good movies, then don't bother watching this.
Jannat 2 did not live up to its expectation.Emraan Hashmi is good so is Ranveer Hooda.Esha Gupta had not much scenes to prove her caliber but she is good and glamorous.The story was nothing new and every scene was a bit predictable.
Music and songs have once again proved to be a huge plus point of the movie,as expected in all of Emraan Hashmi movies.It could have been better had the storyline been a bit different.Jannat was much better than this though had the same concept.All in all a one time watch and a bit entertaining due to the good performance by Emraan and Ranveer.And one thing I would like to say is if a sequel of this is made again,please don't kill Emraan.He is a good entertainer and so the movie should have ended on a positive note..
This is a movie about Sonu Dilli KKC, who is another small gun supplier in the horrible streets of Delhi.
This is a movie about Sonu Dilli KKC, who is another small gun supplier in the horrible streets of Delhi.
Sonu Dilli is offered a so called Jannat by an officer in exchange of information related to illegal gun deals going on.
Sonu Dilli is offered a so called Jannat by an officer in exchange of information related to illegal gun deals going on.
The movie is very predictable as we all know that what can an officer of Delhi provide an criminal which he calls Jannat.
The movie is very predictable as we all know that what can an officer of Delhi provide an criminal which he calls Jannat.
If you are another Delhi belly fan who is easily impressed by some curses and a little bhagam bhag, then this is for you, but if you are like me, who understands good movies, then don't bother watching this.
Jannat 2 is a movie that calls upon emotions without limits and is therefore a very different type of movie.The music is one of the best aspects of this movie.
As with almost all films in this cinema, music plays a large role.
The music is tailored specifically to tell the story and it does a very exceptional job at it.The story begins very late in the life of the main character, Sonu Dilli KKC (Emraan Hashmi) and therefore leaves very little time for the relationship between him and his best friend.
There are too many movies neglecting originality in the relationship between the main character and his love interest.
Also, the vulgarity played a very important role in the film's story, it was to show how the main characters could never fit in to a high class lifestyle, that they had something that related to their former selves.
The action seems almost real in most circumstances, and it is very enjoyable to watch.The emotions that flood at the end of the movie are like no other.
A brilliant sequel of jannat.Awesome film.The ending was emotional just like jannat..
The movie is awesome.Nice and brilliant sequel.Tye story is good and a litttle different from jannat.The story is about a small illegal gun dealer who is forced to being an informer of a cop who wants to put an end to this racket.The direction was good from kunal deshmukh.The screenplay was good.The editing was awesome.The acting was superb from Emraan hashmi.Actually be is born to do this kind roles like jannat,raaz and murder.This kind roles suits to him.Randeep hooda was good in his role.The songs were nice and beautiful just like its first part.And the dialouges were awesome and wonderful.Whoever wrote the dialouges of both the parts hats of to him.Overall amust watch film for emraan hashmi fans.They will like this.My opinion a must watch film..
Now, it was about repeating what he has done in a number of movies like 'Once upon a time in Mumbai'- 'Justice', Randeep Hooda seriously impresses as ACP Pratap Raghuvanshi.
Emraan Hashmi was as he is seen in all the other movies of the same production house.
The end made the story seem incomplete and at the same time the way Emraan's character dies and asks for 'the' promise from Randeep to not to reveal his true identity to his love, so as to avoid her pain; I wasn't expecting that so I liked it.
Hence as mentioned before it didn't seem like a story but a series of events leading to a known ending.Among the few other things, the overuse of the 'B' word at times seemed unnecessary.
With a star for the music, and a half for Esha (again not for her acting) and another half for the brilliant chemistry between Emraan and Randeep, and one full star to Randeep's performance; the film for me earns a decent 3 stars out of 5.
~Vaibhav Shrivastava NOTE: After watching the movie a friend set his FB status as "Esha gupta...u made my nights!!!
Jannat 2 tells the story of Sonu Dilli KKC (Kutti Kameeni Cheez).
His life takes a turn when he is interrogated by tough cop ACP Raghuvanshi (Randeep Hooda) and eventually he becomes informer for the latter.During this, Sonu meets Jhanvi (Esha Gupta), a doctor, and falls for her.
Some songs just come out of nowhere and aren't as good as Jannat 1.Acting wise, Hashmi gives a good performance as a street-smart, fast- taking Delhi-wallah.
Esha Gupta is stunning in the film, however she still needs to polish her acting skills a lot.
I remember his performance in Once Upon a time in Mumbai as ACP Agnel Wilson was also just perfect.Overall the film is not bad and is worth a watch..
Firstly, this film is not a sequel to the original Jannat.
However, the Bhatt camp has taken Hashmi, the title of the former film, and the tune of the hit song 'Zara Si Dil', made a mish-mash (mismatch?) and presented it to the audience as Jannat 2.
The only good thing about this movie was Randeep Hooda's performance, the way Dehli was captured cinematicaly and the song Tera Deedar Hua (ruined by bad choreography).Emraan Hashmi has become type cast in his various roles.
Post ZAKHM he turned a writer and introduced several new filmmakers to bollywood like Anurag Basu, Vikram Bhatt.etc some were successful, some were not!JANNAT 2 is a sequel of the original JANNAT which released in 2008 while that was about match fixing, this time it's about gun racketJANNAT released when Emraan Hashmi was going through a troubled phase BO wise when THE TRAIN, GOOD BOY BAD BOY and AWARAPAN(one of his best films)flopped though he got tremendous critical acclaim for it JANNAT 2 releases when Emraan is going through his best phase with back to back success of MURDER 2 and THE DIRTY PICTURE and he is getting good praise for it tooBack to the movie The storyline follows the same formula of Bhatt films, as in all films romance is the main aspect while it has a strong backdrop of some criminal activity or some other interesting saga.
Here too Emraan changes his life after falling in love like in most Bhatt films We also have an interesting character of Randeep Hooda who is a cop who is always drunk and wants to eradicate the gang who sells arms As there is a back story of his wife being killed by some arm sellers.The film starts off well, Emraan's character is well handled and his scenes with Hooda are awesome, while the romantic track is quite predictable and filled with some hummable songs albeit.
There are several superb chase scenes and a good twist in the climax which too is quite different.Direction by Kunal Deshmukh is good, he has improved after the disaster TUM MILE and he has handled several scenes superbly Music is good, all songs come at the right time though they do slow down the film at times dialogues are raw and well wordedEmraan Hashmi plays yet another reformed bad guy role which he did several times earlier in Bhatt films yet he plays it superbly Esha Gupta is average Randeep Hooda after the superb act in OUATIM and SB aur GANGSTER is superb, he steals the thunder every time he appears Manish Chaudhary who was launched in THE BLOOD MONEY few months back is villanious to the hilt The actors playing Sarfaraz and Emraan's childhood friend are superb too Arif jackeria is okay |
tt0044750 | Invasion, U.S.A. | In a small Manhattan bar, several people sit around drinking and talking, as a news reporter on a television set in a corner tells about world tensions and the news. Several of the customers ask Tim the bartender to turn off the set, and he mutes the volume.The group includes:
Vince Potter - a television/radio news reporter, who begins questioning those at the bar if they are for or against a universal draft.George Sylvester - a tractor manufacturer from San Francisco, who is opposed to the government telling him to make tanks, as well as upset over threats that his plant could be taken over by the government as well.Carla Sanford - a woman brought into the bar by George Sylvester. However, she seems to take a quick shine to Vince, as she listens to his broadcasts. She claimed she worked in a factory during the last war, but stopped because it was damaging her hands.Ed Mulfory - a cattle rancher from Boulder Hill, Colorado, where he lives with his family.Arthur V. Harroway - An Illinois congressman visiting New York. He seems very boisterous, and champions Vince for speaking 'the voice of the people.'Vince soon notices another man at the bar, named Ohman. Vince proposes his question to Ohman about what America wants, and Ohman claims that America wants new leadership, but wants someone else to worry about its problems.The others joke about this, as Ohman swirls some brandy in a sifter. Everyone then grows quiet when suddenly, a newsbreak on the television tells of numerous enemy planes flying into harbors in Alaska, taking over.With the invasion affecting transportation, Mulfory and Sylvester decide to see if they can get back west. Sylvester leaves Carla in Vince's care, to which she seems hardly fazed.Numerous flights are sold out for various cities, but Mulfory and Sylvester decide to fly into San Francisco, with Mulfory planning to get transportation to Boulder, Colorado from there.However, shortly after arriving in San Francisco, the enemy attacks. Sylvester stays behind to salvage what he can of his tractor factory, while Mulfory convinces the cab driver to drive him to Colorado. However, as he reaches his family, the enemy drops an atomic weapon on Boulder dam, causing it to burst. Sylvester, his family, and the cab driver are then swept away in the flash flood.Back in San Francisco, Sylvester attempts to quickly turn his tractor-manufacturing business around to produce tanks, but with the enemy fast approaching, he recommends to dump the remainder of their tractor inventory in the bay to keep the enemy from getting them, and says to have their men work 24 hour shifts to get them ready.His words are then interrupted by an enemy spy who had been cleaning his office. Suddenly, enemy troops enter the room, and liquidate everyone except Sylvester. The spy then says that he is in charge, and that Sylvester will convince his workers to build tanks for 'The People's Army.' Sylvester attempts to escape, but is gunned down.Back in New York, Vince and Carla continue to be swept up in a romance as the war rages on. Vince attempts to enlist to help for the effort, but is denied several times. Carla has taken to working at a blood bank.The two still meet at Tim's bar, where a new crowd of customers speculate about all sorts of enemy tactics, including the enemy parachuting down into various places wearing American uniforms. Meanwhile, newsflashes show the enemy taking out numerous weaponry and places. There is also talk of how billions of dollars in items are burned to keep the enemy from getting to them, all because the country did not have a strong enough army to defend itself.A red-alert is soon issued that New York is to be attacked, and numerous atomic weapons are dispatched over the city. Vince finds Carla outside of the remains of the bar, but Tim has died in the rubble.Eventually, the scene shifts to Washington DC, where Harroway is addressing Congress that they should be 'doubly vigilant' regarding the enemy at this time. However, the enemy quickly overtakes the small squad of American troops guarding the building, and soon the Congressmen flee, upon hearing they are surrounded.Back in New York, Vince's news station is taken over by the enemy. Carla assumes the worst, but very shortly, Vince is brought to her apartment, under enemy escort. They both feel relieved that the other is safe, but an argument breaks out when one of the enemy demands that they both drink whiskey to celebrate the enemy's take-over. Vince tries to stop the soldier from advancing on Carla, and is shot for his actions. Fearing for her life, Carla dives out a nearby window, screaming as she falls to her death.The scene then returns to Tim's Bar, where almost everyone appears to be sitting stock-still, except for Tim. Ringing the brandy sifter Ohman used, everyone awakes. It soon appears that they (except for Tim) were all under a mass hypnosis put on by Ohman.Ohman then drinks the rest of his brandy, and explains to everyone that the visions they had are going to come true, unless they do something about it. He then wishes everyone a good day.As if they have seen the errors of their ways, each of the people leaves on their own mission:- Sylvester says he's going to consider building tanks instead of tractors.- Mulfory decides to accompany Sylvester, most likely planning to head home to his family.- Harroway quietly leaves, most likely intending to consider security and armed forces spending to safeguard the country.- Carla and Vince are left in the bar, and even though they had a relationship through hypnosis, for some reason, it seems they may start a relationship in reality. | murder | train | imdb | null |
tt0097757 | The Little Mermaid | Ariel, a sixteen-year-old mermaid princess, is dissatisfied with life under the sea and curious about the human world. With her best fish friend Flounder, Ariel collects human artifacts and goes to the surface of the ocean to visit Scuttle the seagull, who offers very inaccurate and comical knowledge of human culture. Ignoring the warnings of her father (King Triton) and court musician (Sebastian the crab) that contact between merpeople and humans is forbidden (the sea's primary contact with humans involve fishermen, so King Triton considers humans as nothing more than mere predators), Ariel still longs to be part of the human world; to this end she has filled a secret grotto with all the human artifacts she has found. ("Part of Your World") Sebastian, who is assigned to watch over Ariel and be sure she does not visit the surface again, tries to convince her that its better to live under the sea than in the human world ("Under the Sea").One night, Ariel, Flounder and an unwilling Sebastian travel to the ocean surface to watch a celebration for the birthday of Prince Eric, with whom Ariel falls in love. A sudden storm hits, during which everyone manages to escape in a lifeboatexcept for Eric who goes back to rescue his dog Max. He almost drowns saving Max but is saved by Ariel, who drags him to the beach. Although it seems that his heart isn't beating, Ariel notices that Eric is breathing. She sings to him but dives underwater when Max returns to Eric. Upon waking, Eric has a vague impression that he was rescued by a girl with a beautiful voice; he vows to find her, and Ariel vows to find a way to join Eric. ("Part of Your World (reprise)")Triton and his daughters notice a change in Ariel, who is openly lovesick. Triton questions Sebastian about Ariel's behavior, during which Sebastian accidentally reveals the incident with Eric. Triton furiously confronts Ariel in her grotto, using his trident to destroy her collection of human treasures. After Triton leaves, a pair of eels, Flotsam and Jetsam, convince a crying Ariel that she must visit Ursula the sea witch, if she wants all of her dreams to come true.Ursula makes a deal with Ariel to transform her into a human for three days ("Poor, Unfortunate Souls"). Within these three days, Ariel must receive the 'kiss of true love' from Eric; otherwise, she will transform back into a mermaid on the third day and belong to Ursula. As payment for legs, Ariel has to give up her voice, which Ursula takes by magically removing the energy from Ariel's vocal chords and storing it in a nautilus shell. Ariel's tail is transformed into legs, leaving her naked except for her seashell bra. Sebastian and Flounder drag her to the surface. Meanwhile, Triton discovers Ariel and Sebastian's disappearance and, wracked with guilt over his behavior, orders a search for them.Eric and Max find Ariel on the beach. He initially suspects that she is the one who saved his life, but when he learns that she cannot speak, he discards that notion, to the frustration of both Ariel and Max (who knows the truth). He helps her to the palace, where the servants think she is a survivor of a shipwreck. Ariel spends time with Eric, and at the end of the second day, they almost kiss ("Kiss the Girl") but are thwarted by Flotsam and Jetsam. Angered at their narrow escape, Ursula takes the disguise of a beautiful young woman named "Vanessa" and appears onshore singing with Ariel's voice. Eric recognizes the song and, in her disguise, Vanessa/Ursula casts a hypnotic enchantment on Eric to make him forget about Ariel.The next day, Ariel finds out that Eric will be married to the disguised Ursula on a ship. She cries and is left behind when the wedding barge departs. Scuttle discovers that Vanessa is Ursula in disguise, and informs Ariel. As Ariel and Flounder chase the wedding barge, Sebastian informs Triton, and Scuttle is assigned to literally "stall the wedding." With the help of various animals, the nautilus shell around Ursula's neck is broken, restoring Ariel's voice and breaking Ursula's enchantment over Eric. Realizing that Ariel was the girl who saved his life, Eric rushes to kiss her, but the sun sets and Ariel transforms back into a mermaid. Ursula reverts to her true form and kidnaps Ariel.Triton appears and confronts Ursula, but cannot destroy Ursula's contract with Ariel. Triton chooses to sacrifice himself for his daughter, and is transformed into a polyp. Ursula takes Triton's crown and trident, which was her plan from the beginning. Ursula uses her new power to gloat, transforming into a giant, and forming a whirlpool that disturbs several shipwrecks to the surface, one of which Eric commandeers. Just as Ursula is set to use the trident to destroy Ariel, Eric turns the wheel hard to port and runs Ursula through the abdomen with the ship's splintered bowsprit, mortally wounding her. With her last breaths, Ursula pulls the ship down with her, but Eric escapes to shore in time.With Ursula gone, her power breaks and the polyps in Ursula's garden (including Triton) turn back into the old merpeople. Later, after seeing that Ariel really loves Eric and that Eric also saved him in the process, Triton willingly changes her from a mermaid into a human using his trident. She runs into Eric's arms, and the two finally kiss.In the final scene, an unspecified amount of time later, Ariel marries Eric in a wedding where both humans and merpeople attend. | fantasy, cute, good versus evil, psychedelic, romantic, entertaining | train | imdb | The film is a cinematic classic that tells the story of a young mermaid princess who just wants to be human so she makes a deal with an evil sea witch to get her wish, but she loses her beautiful voice in the process and she must be kissed by her true love to get it back.
I remember watching this movie when I was a little girl and I just wanted a friend like Sebastian, he was so much fun, even though he's somewhat of a buzz kill, he can really get the party going.
Well, Ursella takes her voice away, but her intentions are for Ariel to fail and make sure that she takes over the kingdom.The Little Mermaid is such a fun Disney film and is a great treasure of our time.
I highly recommend this movie for anyone, it's a true Disney classic that is so much fun, I guarantee you that you might shed a tear when Ariel says "Daddy", you'll see what I mean when you watch it.10/10.
If you just free yourself from the sissy pink image of the movie you're in for a treat.The songs are great, by the same team who gave us Little Shop Of Horrors: Alan Menken and Howard Ashman who teamed up in Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin as well.
lush animation, spirited musical numbers (this started Alan Menken's run of success for Disney, and he's surely had enough time to refresh himself by now, and for us all to forget "Pocahontas"), wonderfully evil villain, likeable supporting players, and my all-time favourite Disney heroine, the endearing and lovely Ariel (remember the episode of "Cheers" when Norm said he fancied her?
It features lovable characters: Ariel the little mermaid is one of my favorite 'Disney girls', Sebastian the crab, Scuttle the wacky seagull, Flounder the...
Some of the most beautiful Disney songs are in The Little Mermaid- Part of Your World, Kiss the Girl and for a little bit of dancin' Under the Sea. A movie for all ages, you will be enchanted by Ariel's world under the sea, by the wacky characters, the cruel but in a strange way lovable Ursula, the score, the songs, the story and the animation.
Songs, music, characters are all terrific.While I think Beauty and the Beast stands as Disney's best animated film, The Little Mermaid is still one of the top ones to check out.
A story about Aeriel - the young mermaid curious about the human world who ends up falling for Prince Eric of the human race.And all the other cute characters such as Sebastian, Flounder, not to mention a very sinister villain with the Sea Witch.
This animated film brought the Disney company out of its long slump and you can see why it spurred a comeback: there is a lot to like in this movie.It features outstanding animation: brilliant colors and beautiful scenes, along with interesting characters and pretty good songs.
Launched Disney's Golden Age. A mermaid princess named Ariel makes a Faustian bargain with an unscrupulous seahag named Ursula in order to meet a human prince named Eric on land.This is the film that really launched Disney's golden age (or what some people call the Renaissance era).
Still, "Little Mermaid" has GREAT music, a fun story and some wonderful animation--and only a real curmudgeon could hate it..
A story about Ariel the Little Mermaid, who yearns to be part of the human world and who fell in love with human Prince Eric in the process.
What follows is a romantic story in how Ariel tries to win Eric's heart without her voice and an exciting race against time to ensure Ariel remains human, otherwise, returning back to the ocean and into the evil Ursula's custody.Ron Clements and John Musker did an outstanding job in directing this movie, grasping the audience's attention at the start of the film with a musical sequence on the Prince's ship, and then a spectacular entry under the sea when we are introduced to the mermaids, helped by a powerful music score.
All these plot elements and twists make this a very exciting Disney movie from start to finish.The characters are very lovable and memorable, especially Flounder, Sebastian (my favorite) and Scuttles.
Disney's film is a colorful tale with quite a few comical characters.I enjoyed this film quite a bit but I would have liked to have seen this movie a bit "darker" in tone (animation and story).
THE LITTLE MERMAIDThis is one of my favourite Disney films.The movie is about a mermaid princess who dreams of exploring outside of the ocean.
The calypso style was a very creative choice by musical directors Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.Of course, the star of the show is Ariel, the rebellious 16 year old mermaid who dreams of walking on the beach and dancing with the Prince.
There are jolly songs ("Under the Sea" and "Les Poissons"), a love song ("Kiss the Girl"), a song of hope, anxiety, dreams and optimism ("Part of your world") and a dark-spirited song ("Poor Unfortunate Souls").Ursula is one of Disney's big villains.
He's a self-claimed "expert" on human stuff and makes up funny names for objects (in his language, a fork is a "dinglehopper" and he says people use it to comb their hair; a pipe is a "snarfblatt" and he tells people use it to play music like a trumpet).Ariel (nice name, by the way) is one of my Disney princesses of election.
Personally, I thought the Mermaid deserved better and, on taking my kids to see this movie when it was first released, I was delighted to see that the people at Disney had given her the ending I always wanted for her.The very first sequence, of Prince Eric's ship looming out of the mist, took my breath away.I can understand Under The Sea getting all the attention - it is, after all, very jolly and colourful.
Ursula the sea witch is perfectly villainous that works of course as an entertaining one as well.Also a reason why this is a classic are it's great memorable sing along songs.
"The Little Mermaid" revitalized Disney's animation department and would make it a force to be reckoned with over the next several years, before Pixar came along and picked up the mantle."Mermaid" isn't one of my favorites (I prefer "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin" and "The Lion King" over it), but it is a beautiful and now nostalgic throw back to hand-drawn animation, and it does boast one of the best scores written for a Disney film.
The only Disney movies you would bother going to see were the reissued classics from the 40's/50's/60's.The Little Mermaid is as imaginative as "Sleeping Beauty", as touching as "Cinderella" and as groundbreaking as "Snow White".
Disney's "The Little Mermaid" is a case study of a great, classic animated masterpiece.
And Ariel is one of the most beautiful Disney heartthrobs.The soundtrack is also what never fails to grab me in "The Little Mermaid." First of all, the musical score by Alan Menken is absolutely wonderful.
Filled with wonderful characters, animation, songs, and story Little Mermaid in my opinion is the best Disney movie ever!
The characters are probably the most memorable in a Disney movie, especially Ariel, a beautiful and feisty mermaid, with a dream of being a human.
There are many things I like about "The Little Mermaid"; the beautiful music, the lush colour and pageantry, the excellent voicework (though all would eventually be outclassed by later, better Disney efforts), and there's no denying that Ariel is someone your average adolescent girl can identify with.
The Little Mermaid ushered in an entire new era of Disney movies,yet took us back to the golden age of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
Based on the Hans Christian Anderson story of the same name, this movie is a timely and fun almost-masterpiece.We meet Ariel, a rebellious and passionate teenage mermaid, who is the daughter of the ruler of the sea, King Triton.
Ariel has three days to kiss a human prince or else she will belong to Ursula.The songs are catchy and memorable; tunes such as 'Under the Sea' and 'Part of Your World' are instantly recognizable and you can't help but sing (albeit badly) along to the irresistible melodies.
My only issue is that perhaps if Ariel had shown more remorse for her actions, she would have been more of a good character (she doesn't really learn a lesson).All in all, while not their best film, The Little Mermaid truly ranks up with some of Disney's highest classics, a personal, fun and dramatic animated adventure.
Filled with sing-along songs, beautiful animation, spritely and memorable characters and an intriguing plot, The Little Mermaid is not to be missed :).
I wasn't sure the story required that Ariel actually lose her voice for a significant period of time, but if it's in the original story (and I haven't checked) then fair enough, I suppose.There's nothing earth-shatteringly original in this movie which looks backward to Disney's glorious fairy-tale legacy of youthful innocence being corrupted by some evil menace going all the way back to Snow White, but modernised as here with some good jokes and today's music, it happily updates the studio's legacy and of course set the path for the great successes the studio and its PIXAR affiliate has enjoyed ever since..
The deal allows her to be human for three days but she must make the man she loves love her in return.THE LITTLE MERMAID was an incredibly important picture for Disney because they animated features were really lacking any classics but this film came along and put them on the map and it would kick off a tremendous run of titles that would include BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN and THE LION KING.
This film is going to be impossible to resist and is one of the better Disney animated films ever made.Based of the fairytale by Hans Christensen Anderson, Ron Clements film is about how a mermaid named Ariel makes a pact with the evil sea witch, Ursula to become human and she has three days to kiss her true love or else she will turn back into a mermaid and endure being her servant for eternity.This film really has no famous voice-cast but I truly must single out Jodi Benson for her exceptional voice work.
After watching it I feel so good and happy.The story is of an immense beauty, art and the soundtrack is outstanding.We see the growth of Ariel and her love for a human, we see a frill father that does everything for his daughters and see a sea witch who uses all possible means to achieve the triton.
The music is fantastic (Under the Sea and Kiss the Girl have to be my favorite Disney songs of all time - love that little Calypso singing crab).
From the animation to the music to the story to the characters, "The Little Mermaid" has enough terrific things about it that one can be willing to look past the flawed message the film provides and just enjoy it for what it is.
The songs are some of the best that Disney has ever done, nuff said.The Little Mermaid has great and lively animation, Ursula is one of Disney's best villains (she and Scar from TLK are my favorite Disney villains of all time!!!!), Flounder is the cutest fish ever, it has a great plot, plus Jodi Benson as Ariel!
This movie is about the sweet little mermaid Ariel who is dreaming about becoming a human so that she can be with her dream prince.This has got to be one of the best animated movies ever made by Walt Disney Studios.
This doesn't affect the movie and the magic in a bad way, it just makes the story more dreaming and sweet.Jodi Benson is the voice talent behind Ariel and she really does bring adventure and charm into the character.
I love Ariel, she's one of my favorite Disney Princesses along with Cinderella & Aurora from "Sleeping Beauty." Ariel's voice actress Jodi Benson has an excellent singing voice for the film; also suits her character.
The haunting legend of Ariel, a spunky mermaid who, against King Triton's will, falls in love with a human, has been brought to the screen by the Disney artists in full-blown animation that captures the spirit and charm of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy-tale with the additional grace of a memorable musical score.From the opening sequences under the sea (incidentally, "Under the Sea" is the big production number that won a Best Song Oscar), THE LITTLE MERMAID is a joy from beginning to end.
Youngsters will love it for the appealing story of the Mermaid and the human prince, and young and old will succumb to the charm of the animation and the humor.The songs are a sprightly bunch, written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, and the background score deserved its Oscar too.
Watching The Little Mermaid again at 17 years, I don't love it quite so much, but I can still say it's a very good movie.Ariel is the youngest daughter of the king of the mermen.
Memorable songs and hilarious characters like Sebastian, a crabby crab that Ariel's father assigns to keep her in check, and Scuttle, a bird who thinks he knows everything but clearly does not, keep the story lively and entertaining.This Disney movie doesn't inspire me with as many feelings of praise as the Pixar films or Beauty and the Beast or the Lion King.
But it's a fun movie, and I have to say it has some of the best music Disney's ever put to film.
In 1989, Disney has made a terrific masterpiece that ended up winning two Oscars (ah, yes; winning awards was what Disney has done the best!): "The Little Mermaid," an animated motion picture based on the story by Hans Christen Andersen (spelling?) that was loved by many children and it still is today!!!!!Ariel, the mermaid, had a dream: she wanted to live life out of the ocean and wanted to be human because she was interested in a man on a ship.
It is not only a wonderful family film; it's also a very nice love story with lots of music (Hearing that lobster character (sorry, I forgot the name) sing songs like "Under the Sea" and "Kiss the Girl" are very great; Ariel also sang "Part Of Your World" as well)!!!!!Some of you (even your Blockbuster) might have the 1999 fullscreen Limited Issue version, but wait about a month for the 2-DVD version with widescreen, bonus features, and more!!!!!"The Little Mermaid" is a delight for all.10 stars..
The Little Mermaid is a spectacular movie, and it saved Disney Animation from going under.
Perfect songs, magical vocal performances, spectacular animation all in the highest Disney tradition.The Little Mermaid is the tale of a beautiful young mermaid named Ariel who longs for something more than what she has in her life, namely to live on land and to 'be where the people are'.
This movie was wonderful I watched it when I was younger in 1998 and I loved it but when I was even younger my dad bought a different earlier anime version that was so much better than the singing and dancing and happy endings in Disneys version of The Little Mermaid.
But she is sea foam and in the Disney version there is a happy ending which I think is wrong that they copied this beautiful anime version of the little mermaid and made it into a happy movie instead of the original one.
One of Disney classic this moive I grew up with it was my favorite princess moive the beautiful visuals.funny characters,I recommended this movie..
As Good as You Remembered It. Just got the Diamond Edition and watched this in Blu-Ray, so what better time to review it than now.For the maybe one of you reading this who hasn't seen The Little Mermaid: it is the tale of Ariel, a sixteen-year-old mermaid who falls in love with the dashing Prince Eric, much to the dismay of her father, King Triton, who forbids her from going up on land.
All modern Disney movies are built off the Little Mermaid as much as the Bambi or Snow White, perhaps more.I'd go into the songs, but what's the point: you all know how good they are.
The mermaid princess, who goes by the name of Ariel, has three days to kiss Prince Eric or else she loses everything, including her soul and voice, to a sea witch named Ursula.
Under the Sea - a beautiful melodic song fully deserving of its Oscar.every time I watch this film and in case you haven't gathered already i am a big Disney fan it never fails to entertain me.The music score - amazing, the animation amazing, the story - heart warming and touching.16 year old Ariel fascinated with life on land breaks the law of the sea and visits the surface, she then falls in love with a prince, she makes a deal with a witch to become human for three days.
In my opinion, the animation holds up very well 26 years later.The cast of characters was extremely enjoyable - evil Ursula, funny Sebastian, loyal Flounder and of course, the man Ariel loved, Prince Eric.What truly made this movie a classic was the songs, particularly Under the Sea and Part of Your World, which Jodi Benson done a absolutely perfect job on.The Little Mermaid belongs in the top five all time Disney films in terms of both the movie and the soundtrack.
It's the story of Ariel (voiced by Jodi Benson), a beautiful, fun-loving, adventurous mermaid who dreams of living life on land even though her father, King Triton (voiced by Kenneth Mars), forbids her of having any contact with the human world.
The Little Mermaid is by far my favorite Disney Princess movie. |
tt0043924 | A Place in the Sun | George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), is the poor nephew of rich industrialist Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes), who takes a job in his uncle's factory. Despite George's family relationship to the owner, the rich Eastman family treats him as an outsider and gives him the humblest job available in the factory and no entree into their exclusive social circle. George, uncomplaining, hopes to impress his uncle, whom he addresses as "Mr. Eastman", with his hard work and earn his way up. While working in the factory, George starts dating fellow factory worker Alice "Al" Tripp (Shelley Winters), in defiance of the workplace rules. Alice is a poor and inexperienced girl who is dazzled by George and slow to believe that his Eastman name brings him no advantages.After a stepping out with Alice, George meets the attractive "society girl" Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor) and they quickly fall in love. Being Angela's escort at local parties and dances thrusts George into the intoxicating and carefree lifestyle of high society of the idle rich that his wealthy Eastman kin had denied him.When Alice announces that she is pregnant and makes it clear that she expects George to marry her, he temporizes, spending more and more of his time with Angela and his new well-heeled rich friends. An attempt to procure an abortion for Alice fails, and she renews her insistence on marriage. George is invited to join Angela at the Vickers's holiday lake house and excuses himself to Alice, saying that the visit will advance his career and accrue to the benefit of the coming child.George and Angela spend time at secluded Loon Lake, and after hearing a story of a couple's supposed drowning there, with the man's body never being found, George hatches a plan to rid himself of Alice so that he can marry Angela.Meanwhile, Alice finds a picture in the newspaper of George, Angela, and their friends, and realizing that George lied to her about being forced to go to the lake, she meets George in the nearby town and threatens to expose everything to his society friends if he doesn't marry her. They quickly drive to City Hall to elope but they find it closed for Labor Day, and George suggests spending the day at the nearby lake; Al unsuspectingly agrees.When they get to the lake, George acts visibly nervous when he rents a boat from a man who seems to deduce that George gave him a false name; the man's suspicions are aroused more when George asks him whether any other boaters are on the lake (none are). While they are out on the lake, Alice confesses her dreams about their happy future together with their child. As George apparently takes pity on her and, judging from his attitude, decides not to carry out his murderous plan, Alice tries to stand up in the boat, causing it to capsize, and Alice drowns.George escapes, swims to shore, and eventually drives back up to the Vickers' lodge, where he tries to relax but is increasingly tense. He says nothing to anyone about having been on the lake or about what happened there.Meanwhile, Alice's body is discovered and her death is treated as a murder investigation almost from the first moment, while an abundant amount of circumstantial evidence and witness reports stack up against George. Just as Angela's father approves Angela's marriage to him, George is arrested and charged with Alice's murder.Though the viewers know that the planned murder in fact turned into an accidental drowning, George's furtive actions before and after Alice's death condemn him.During his trial, George takes the witness stand where he gives a heartful testimony about his relationship with Alice and about his thoughts about killing her to have a life with Angela, and gives the details about the boating accident. But his testimony is pulled apart in cross-exmination by the hot-tempered and agressive prosecutor (Raymond Burr) who tries to imply that George planned and commited first degree murder because of his nervous behavior and of his filing a false name with the boat owner, and of other inconsistances involving both Alice and Angela.George's denials are futile, and he is found guilty of murder by the jury and is immediatley sentenced to death in the electric chair. A few weeks later, on his last day on Death Row, George writes a goodbye letter to Angela explaining that although he didn't kill Alice, his feelings of abandonment and loss of his privledge life made him leave Alice to drown in an attempt to cut off his past lifestyle to be with Angela. George is taken out of his cell to the death chamber to be executed. | murder | train | imdb | His cousin Earl Eastman (Keefe Brasselle) advises him that there are many women in the factory and the basic rule is that he must not hang around with any of them.George meets the worker of the assembly line Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters) in the movie theater and they date.
George is pressed by the situation that ends in a tragedy."A Place in the Sun" is an unforgettable masterpiece by George Stevens and one of the best love stories ever made, with the perfect development of characters and situations.
I watched this film for the first time on 14 June 2001 on cable television and yesterday I saw it again on a Paramount DVD with Extras telling details about the difficulties that George Stevens faced to bring Theodore Dreiser's novel "An American Tragedy" to a motion picture and casting.
The source, and Sternberg's take on the novel may well be more stark and grimly oppressive, but this has such high cinema values it positively begs you to invest your very being with it.The story behind the scenes is itself worthy of a movie, Stevens clashing constantly with Montgomery Clift {Eastman} and Shelley Winters {Tripp}, Clift because he would only take motivation from his personal coach, Mira Rostova, and Winters because Stevens had never wanted her cast in the first place!
Monty Clift is worth every penny or cent that is spent to watch him perform, here is yet another performance of emotional oomph to only confirm his standing as a true giant of American actors.Academy Awards went to Best Director, Best Screenplay {Michael Wilson & Harry Brown}, Best Cinematography {William Mellor}, Best Costume Design {Edith Head}, Best Editing {William Hornbeck} and Best Score {Franx Waxman}, all of them deserved, with Waxman's score one of the true greats of 50s cinema, a character in itself and something to totally lose yourself in.
This film is very different from anything of it's time that I have ever seen.A man has a one night stand with a coworker and gets her pregnant.THEN he meets the woman of his dreams,the woman with everything;charm,good looks and Daddy's money.We then have a man who is torn between choosing to have it all and doing the right thing.The result of his struggles ends up very tragically as you will see.I was very taken aback by the film's sexual overtones,though it was only hinted at,of course.With the barrage of remakes in recent years,I am surprised it has not been remade with stronger sexual content.This is a very enjoyable film with good performances all around,particularly those of Shelley Winters and Monty Clift.Liz Taylor's strong screen presence is also a delight.A definite thumbs up..
This is a movie about George Eastman (Clift), a young, gentle laborer without social standing who longs for the better things in life
He is swept off his feet after a chance encounter with wealth, success and upper-class snobbery
George is introduced to a stunning socialite Angela Vickers (Liz Taylornever so beautiful) full of sensual delight and threatened by an unattractive factory girl (Alice) he's already made pregnant
Angela and George fall deeply in love, but Alice Tripp (Winters) presses and chases George until he agrees to marry her
He has a desperate decision, but hesitates
Finding they can't get married over the Labor Day weekend, George takes Alice boating
Shelley Winters was extraordinary as the distressed co-worker
She made the wronged employee an understandable reaction to human dimensions
As she sits in the rowboat, unconsciously torturing Clift with her thoughts of their future together, Winters is both pathetic and annoyinga special candidate to get rid of
The impact of the film depends absolutely on a moral climate that has now less impact on our society
Pre-marital sex is no longer disapproved and abortions are easier to obtain
But the film's power resided in its exceptionally convincing depiction of the points and questions created by these situations
"A Place in the Sun" was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and won six.
Montgomery Clift is his usual mysterious self as he has a scandalous relationship with the homely Shelly Winters and falls instantly in love with a spellbindingly beautiful Liz Taylor, who was only 19 when the picture was made.
The idea of dropping a lesser life (with Winters) and pursuing the good life with Taylor is what makes it work and the lengths to which Clift will go are staggering.George Stevens has a gift for "painting" a movie on-screen.
A beautiful piece of classical Hollywood film-making with a mix of method acting (Clift) and a love story we wish could work.RATING: 8 of 10.
His resume speaks for itself.Obviously Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor are the "big names" in this film, but I found Shelly Winters and the character she played to be the most intriguing.
Based on what I found written about it I decided that I might be interested in looking at it, even though it sounded suspiciously like another Hollywood love story.The film turned out to be one of the best dramas I have ever seen, in fact it was so good that not even Elizabeth Taylor's mediocre talent could ruin it.
Winters has a deeply moving scene when the pregnant Alice desperately asks a doctor to help her 'take care of' (abort) her unborn child.Less impressive is Angela the society girl, played by Elizabeth Taylor.
Going against what his uncle told him, not to get involved with any of the young women working at the plant, George makes a play for her and within weeks is having a affair with Alice that leads to her getting pregnant.George is in love with Alice at first but things start to get very complicated for him when he's spotted at an Eastman dinner by the beautiful and blue-blooded, as well as coming from a very rich family, Angela Vickers ,Elizabeth Taylor.
Even though he truly and honestly felt that he was innocent in Alice's drowning at the dark and deserted Lake Loon.The movie " A Place in the Sun" has among other things some of the most tender and touching love scenes ever filmed.
Monty Clift, like Taylor, doesn't act too well; he was better in (and personally more suited for) "Suddenly, Last Summer." If a film is truly classic then it does not age like Dorian Gray's painting, it's "controversial" scenes are not embarrassing and unintentionally hilarious today, (Raymond Burr's courtroom antics had me laughing as if I were watching "Duck Soup,") the background score is not overdone and deafening at times and above all, the story doesn't just pep right along at a clip akin to "The Sorrow And The Pity." Sorry, this is shallow tripe from a very good director.
Yes, I realize that Elizabeth Taylor is supposed to represent the unattainable female beauty that drives George (Clift) over the edge, but most times that vacuous, adorable head just delivers her lines in that same wooden manner that makes me wish that anyone but ET had been cast in the role of Angela Vickers!
I have seen this film probably 5 or 6 times, but only lately discovered that it was based on a novel by Theodore Dreiser, based on a true life murder case in 1906.Basically, it's about a social climber who has gotten a girlfriend pregnant and comes under the charms of a wealthy, beautiful young woman and needs to free himself.I have always been riveted by Clift, and in this movie he does his best to be the man who is torn between two women.
"A Place in the Sun" (Paramount, 1951) is the second screen adaptation to Theodore Dreiser's novel, "An American Tragedy." Previously filmed by Paramount as "An American Tragedy" in 1931 starring Phillips Holmes (1907-1942), Sylvia Sidney and Frances Dee in the Clift, Shelley Winters and Elizabeth Taylor roles, directed by Josef Von Sternberg, the plot deals with a young but restless man with poverty upbringing who wants to rise above it all.
It is far more a romance than an analysis of the class system, and that it shows up the limitations of such a closed society as it depicts, and finds romance at all in such a world, is in itself remarkable, making the film, whatever its purported subject matter, an exercise in aestheticism of a singular and highly personal kind, as its two main character defy the demands of the real world by simply making up and inhabiting a world of their own.George Stevens directs the film with exquisite sensitivity, giving his material the full-throttle Bronte treatment, hypnotizing the viewer with continual emphasis on beauty, of the human and pastoral variety, with occasional darkling moments,--a bird call, a shadow--that hint at the tragedy to come.
The best scene in the movie comes at the end when Taylor's face reveals the true conflict of feelings she has for Clift.I still can't get past the story and the emphasis on certain aspects of it - such as the abortion doctor's scene, which was done so poorly that Winters looks like she doesn't know what she's doing.
But his portrayal in A Place In The Sun (APITS, for short) proved to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was really quite a gifted performer.In my opinion, it was definitely Clift's heartfelt portrayal as the tragic George Eastman character who gave APITS's story of social snobbery and murder its depth and its meaning.
But his portrayal in A Place In The Sun (APITS, for short) proved to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was really quite a gifted performer.In my opinion, it was definitely Clift's heartfelt portrayal as the tragic George Eastman character who gave APITS's story of social snobbery and murder its depth and its meaning.
I'd say that it was Clift, alone, who carried this film over its many flaws and clichés to its riveting, melodramatic conclusion.Yes. Of course, it certainly did help APITS's overall success that the gorgeous, 19-year-old Elizabeth Taylor was cast as Angela Vickers, the sole focus of George's hopes, his dreams and his burning desire.Once poor George became hopelessly involved with pretty, young Angela, this viewer could easily understand what heady and emotional turmoil drove him at first to contemplate and then commit the ultimate "crime of passion".If you ask me, I think that even today, 65 years later, this depiction of the "American Tragedy" holds up surprisingly well.
I'd say that it was Clift, alone, who carried this film over its many flaws and clichés to its riveting, melodramatic conclusion.Yes. Of course, it certainly did help APITS's overall success that the gorgeous, 19-year-old Elizabeth Taylor was cast as Angela Vickers, the sole focus of George's hopes, his dreams and his burning desire.Once poor George became hopelessly involved with pretty, young Angela, this viewer could easily understand what heady and emotional turmoil drove him at first to contemplate and then commit the ultimate "crime of passion".If you ask me, I think that even today, 65 years later, this depiction of the "American Tragedy" holds up surprisingly well.
The result was singularly powerful.George Eastman (Montgomery Cliff) is the poor relation of a wealthy family--and when seeks aid from them he is given a menial job in the factory, where he becomes intimate with factory worker Alice (Shelly Winters.) But when George is suddenly promoted he begins to enter the world of his dreams--and it includes glamorous socialite Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor.) And now only the commonplace and unexpectedly pregnant Alice stands between him and all that he has ever desired.The script veers toward excess more than once, but director George Stevens and his extraordinary cast carry the film to unexpectedly powerful effect.
"A Place in the Sun" tells the story of George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), a poor relation who goes to work in his rich uncle's factory.
He starts at the bottom level, working the production line, and gets involved romantically and sexually with co-worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), all the while yearning for the unattainable - the gorgeous Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor).
Elizabeth Taylor, who was only 17 at the time, was cast as Angela Vickers, the beautiful and rich love interest of George Eastman (Montgomery Clift).
Raymond Burr, best known for his TV role as Perry Mason, plays a Perry Mason of sorts in the film: the prosecuting attorney, Frank Marlowe.This was the first of three films that Taylor and Clift made together; and they became instant friends upon meeting for the first time for the making of "A Place in the Sun".
The Comments Index leads me to suspect that there are some highly divergent opinions about what was, no doubt, designed to impress more than just the young audiences of the day, lured to the box office by the inspired casting of the gorgeous Miss Taylor, in the first flower of her womanly beauty, emoting with her new-found friend, the oh-so-sensitive "Monty" Clift.I saw this at a special screening during my college days, attended by the director, George Stevens (then deep in his elaborate preparations for his next-to-last film, the monumental "The Greatest Story Ever Told"), who consented to a question-and-answer session after the final fadeout.
He falls in love with a small time woman (Shelley Winters) but soon gets a taste of the society life with a beauty (Elizabeth Taylor) and this is the start of his downfall.
Oscar-winner Anne Revere in the comparatively small role of Clift's mother is a real stroke of casting genius.There aren't many things wrong with A Place in the Sun, although I do wish they had kept the title of the Theodore Dreiser source novel (An American Tragedy) as it is an excellent title and one that conjures up both the tone and the context of this particular adaptation perfectly.
In the late 1940s George Stevens, the California-born director known for his perfectionist attitude, got the rights to adapt the cult 1925 novel by Theodore Dreiser "An American Tragedy." When his tedious work on shooting and editing began, few people probably thought of the movie becoming more powerful than the literary source itself.
The 'society girl' Angela (Elizabeth Taylor) who constitutes the top of the ladder, a dreamlike woman for George and poor factory worker Alice (Shelley Winters) who reminds him of the hard beginnings...they beautifully manifest two worlds.
I give it high marks for never clearly resolving what actually happened (a tragedy), or who was responsible for what.Raymond Burr's role in this looks like an audition for (or trial run of) his later TV series as Perry Mason.I'll rate it as 7.5 of 10 stars; it's of most interest to see Taylor, Clift, Winters, & Burr in their earlier days and society's (this film's) prevailing views of class mixing..
An amusingly dated story based on Theodore Dreiser's novel "An American Tragedy." It has all the elements of great tragedy, although the fact that it has aged so poorly keeps it from being truly classic.Mongomery Clift is George Eastman, a drifter shirt tail relative of a wealthy family who offers him a chance at the brass ring.
But with George Stevens, Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters along for the ride it was a success; and more than that, it is a very good movie.Montgomery Clift plays George Eastman, a man with nothing much to his name except an uncle who owns a factory.
A poor boy (Montgomery Clift) gets a job working for his rich uncle and ends up falling in love with two women (Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters).I have never really cared for Elizabeth Taylor, but found her to be a class act in this film.
Credit for the enduring appeal of the film belongs to its two stars: Montgomery Clift, playing a poor young opportunist climbing up the social ladder, and Elizabeth Taylor as the wealthy débutante with whom he falls in love.
But time has proved its partiality to Stevens and no movie lover can ignore this masterpiece of film-noir, reuniting two of the most talented and beautiful actors of their generation: the tormented and hypnotic Montgomery Clift and the woman of divine unequaled beauty, Elizabeth Taylor.
Then follows one of the greatest pauses in film history, like a held breath, until the man asks quietly and impersonally "Are you George Eastman?" Also remarkable in my view is the chemistry between Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, because in real life they were the best of friends, and screen lovers who do not also connect on a deeper, more human level do not come across as lovers..
Beautiful acting, good diretion help VERY dated story of a poor man (Montgomery Clift) falling in love with a rich woman (Liz Taylor) after getting another poor woman (Shelley Winters) pregnant.
What a sad movie!!!Almost a masterpiece...there are some little mistakes like on the radio talking about the weather and advising about the danger on the lake....George Stevens,Elizabeth Taylor and mainly Montgomery Clift in your best performance making a disturbing character between a normal life tight on marriage without love and rich and pleasant life with woman who really loves...that's the point...when the tragedy comes true reach the point of no return...based on real facts this remarkable story told with shadows under a bird singing on freezing lake...on a dark afternoon!!!.
Produced and directed by George Stevens, with a screenplay by Michael Wilson and Harry Brown, this essential romance drama about forbidden, tragic love (and more) stars two of the most beautiful actors of their time at the peak of their sex appeal, Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor.The excellent cast also includes Shelley Winters, Anne Revere, Fred Clark, Raymond Burr, and even John Ridgely (among others).
George Stevens directed this drama based on the real life account of George Eastman(played by Montgomery Clift) who is a poor man who comes to California to work for his rich uncle in his factory.
"A Place in the Sun" is George Stevens' adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's classic novel "An American Tragedy".
A Place in the Sun. George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), a poor nephew of a rich factory owner, gets a job in his uncle's factory. |
tt0089901 | Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins | Sam Macon (Fred Ward) is an NYPD cop. One night, he breaks up a mugging, and then is pushed into the river in his car.Sometime later, he awakes in a hospital, with a new face. MacCleary (J.A. Preston) tells him his new name is Remo Williams (based on a name on a bedpan), and that Remo now works for an organization that doesn't officially exist. MacCleary says Remo is ideal because he has no family and has military background. Remo steals an ambulance, but Mac is in it. He takes Remo to meet Harold Smith (Wilford Brimley), the head of the organization CURE.Smith tells Remo that the government is corrupt, and Remo will be their troubleshooter. Smith has computer access to all networks, and Mac is his liaison. Mac takes Remo to a building and tells him to kill the man inside. Remo slips in and find an elderly Korean man, but no one else. He realizes the Korean is his target and tries to kill him, but he's too fast. The man is Chiun, and is his trainer.Smith researches George Grove (Charles Cioffi), a defense contractor with criminal suspicions, especially on the HARP defense system. He notices someone trying to access the same information - Major Rayner Fleming (Kate Mulgrew). She tells her boss, General Scott Watson (George Coe), and reminds him that she will be attending a weapons demonstration by Grove.Remo begins his training. Chiun is rude and harsh, insulting Remo at every turn. However, Remo gradually comes along. They work on balance and breathing, and mutual respect begins to develop, although Chiun won't admit it. Remo gets good enough to dodge bullets and run without leaving tracks.The Grove weapons demonstration shows grave flaws with the weapons. Fleming gets suspicious. Grove tells General Watson to bury the report. Grove defends himself when asked about HARP, mentioning the CD-18 demonstration planned for the following week at Mount Promise. Grove gets annoyed with Fleming, and asks Stone (Patrick Kilpatrick) to trail her. Stone gets photos of Fleming, Remo and Mac, and Grove orders him to kill Remo. Remo notices Stone's diamond dental work, too. Remo uses his new skills to defeat the bad guys atop the Statue of Liberty, but Stone gets away. Remo complains to Smith and Mac, and they tell him they all have an escape plan - Remo's is death by Chiun. He's obviously angered by the news, and walks out on Chiun.Mac and Remo infiltrate a Grove warehouse, battling extremely clever dogs and ravenous rats. Remo finds a satellite, which is subsequently destroyed by lasers, alerting the guards. They escape, but Mac is shot in the back. Mac gives Remo a computer disk for Smith to analyze, and is captured, but commits suicide before telling Grove any information. Smith realizes HARP is a fake and tells Remo to go after Grove. He meets Fleming at Mount Promise, and they get locked in a steel gas chamber by Wilson (Michael Pataki), one of Grove's goons. Remo fights Stone and uses Stone's diamond tooth to cut the glass to escape.During their escape from the facility, they find Chiun and steal a truck with no brakes. Remo and Fleming jump out, but Chiun cannot open the door. He's dazed, but otherwise unhurt, and inadvertently calls Remo "my son". Remo continues his mission, calling Chiun "little father".The military chase Remo and starts firing at him. Remo rides a tree trunk being pulled through the woods on cable. He drops the log and overturns the jeep with Grove and Watson, then races to the lake to escape. He dodges bullets fired by Grove and disarms him. He tosses Grove on the Jeep and lights in on fire, walking away. Chiun is surrounded by troops and walks across the lake to safety. Remo tells Fleming, "we're the good guys". | comedy, murder, cult, violence, humor, philosophical, revenge, sadist | train | imdb | This is a movie best enjoyed on a slow Saturday afternoon when you don't feel like going out and just want to zone out for a few..Put this one in your VCR and enjoy the absolutely wonderful score by Craig Safan (this movie's got one the best theme songs I've ever heard)The interplay between Fred Ward and Joel Grey (their dialog is side-splittingly funny at times, especially Grey's one-liners) and a pre-Star Trek: Voyager Kate Mulgrew..
However, viewed as an entertaining mixture of action and fun, the movie delivers quite well.Fred Ward does a fine job as Remo, especially in his scenes with Chiun, his Shinanju master played fantastically by Joel Grey.
Some have argued that Ward was too old for the role, which would be debatable even if this were a straight-out action movie; given its true nature, Ward was an excellent choice, and the dynamic between him and Grey makes for some of the most entertaining sequences in the movie.Joel Grey's Asian "sensei" character stereotype can be forgiven in the context of the semi-spoof, tongue-in-cheek nature of the movie.
The directors could have let the character carry that competence through to the end of the movie.The movie does have some great action sequences, especially the chase around the scaffolding surrounding the Statue of Liberty (remember when they were remodeling it, back in the 80's?), and it is very funny in many places.
It has just enough action, just enough "buddy movie" dynamic, just enough tongue-in-cheek humor, just enough spoof, just enough comic-book type fantasy elements, and just enough enigmatic and amusing martial arts to make it terrifically entertaining.
The one-liners from Remo (Fred Ward) Chiun (Joel Grey) and Mr. Smith (Wilford Brimley) are reason enough to see this movie.
The true scene stealer in this action-packed, fast-paced film is Joel Grey as the Korean martial/mental arts master, Chiun, who delivers the best lines and performance of the movie.
Fred Ward is also good as our hero, who is physically imposing and equally emotionally distraught as Remo Williams.Highly recommended for action lovers, spy fans, and people who love quirky films that have been lost, but not forgotten..
I know some people will be turned off by an occidental actor playing a Korean, and a some of the dialog between Remo and Chuin are exchanges of insults, but Grey and Ward seem to be enjoying the verbal repartee of their characters.
Watching it again loses some of the wonder but none of the fun.A brilliant mix of espionage and Karate Kid with the master / pupil relationship played for both laughs and oriental mystique, this is a film to kick back to and simply enjoy.The Eighties were the decade for action comedies and this was one of the best (It was nominated for an Oscar, for goodness sakes)- watching it now brings back lots of great memories.Always liked Fred Ward - he's the actor Chuck Norris should have been here - and he and the others make this a winner.Fun movie and one that deserves a remake..
And as unbelievable as it may be to dodge a bullet, or walk on water, you have to realize - if you want reality you can turn on the news, if you want entertainment watch a movie...like Remo Williams : The Adventure Begins.
Based on the DESTROYER paperback series,Remo williams is a fair and quirky Action thriller,Directed by 007 veteran director Guy Hamilton,Fred Ward plays the blue collar version of Bond pretty ggod Joel grey steals the show as the Korean martial arts master sent to train Remo,to fight crime for the good old USA,DESTROYER fans will be disappointed at some of the changes,and the plot [an evil arms dealer selling a worthless Star wars project] but an enjoyable film,great stunts and good chemistry between Ward and Grey.
But you can still see the fun and action and while there are many fine characters nothing stands out like Joel Gray and his portrayal of Chun (the greatest martial arts sensatiom since Bruce Lee) well maybe the banter of Chun and Remo- but Gray is absolutely wonderful.
Remo is required to do a number of tasks such as run along the sides of a skyscraper, climb on the outside of a ferris wheel, and there's a nifty little segment where he dukes it out with a bunch of construction workers on the top of the Statue of Liberty (!).Fred Ward is perfect in the title role and Joel Grey nearly steals every scene as Chiun.
Light hearted humor, and good action makes this film very entertaining and fun to watch..
I read the best of the books a few times a year, and a few of the greatest lines in the movies are in this film..
I've also heard that Fred Ward (aka Remo Williams) did all his own stunts in that movie, from balancing on the Ferris Wheel to climbing on the Statue of Liberty.
It has a similar theme: a secret organization designed to ensure that justice is done.The concept was good, and it works very well on the TV show, but I would imagine that it was not good enough for a second movie.The interaction between Fred Ward (Gus Grissom in The Right Stuff) and Joel Grey (Caberet) was hilarious and kept your interest throughout.Kate Mulgrew ("Star Trek: Voyager", "Warehouse 13")added to the humor as a clueless Major.It's not award material, but it is good entertainment..
They give him a new identity Remo Williams (Fred Ward), and give him a trainer Chiun (Joel Grey) master of Korean martial arts Sinanju.
Sure its fictional,a lot of the moves taught are impossible,but a lot are also plausible, and that along with the humorous banter between master and student as the wisdom and skills are passed on to the latter are what made me so addicted to Remo in book form, and what also makes this film so much fun to watch.Being addicted to the books before the film was made, usually a hindrance to enjoying the film when made as gets your hopes up too high, did not deter me from enjoying Fred Wards performance as the Destroyer to be, and i find it almost unfathomable that a follow up film never became a reality-but i will live in hope of it happening, and if they made another film half as close as this one was to the books i will die happy i will die happy..
But he does have some great scenes picking on Remo.The film makes you wish there really were, pressure-point using, bullet dodging assassins out there taking down the bad guys.
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) was one of the many films that tried to actually launch a series of sequels before the results of the box office receipts were in.
The producers were so sure that Remo Williams part one would be so successful that they would produce a series of films based upon the title character.
But that didn't stop the producers from trying to force the FOX Network to create a series of made-for-t.v.-movies based upon the DESTROYER novels.Fred Ward (American defined!!) stars as a lazy and sloppy cop who's declared legally dead after a botched arrest.
His death faked after his car plunges into a river, an American policeman is given a new identity and forced to become an assassin for a government-run secret organisation in this mix of action and comedy starring Fred Ward as the title character.
As evidenced by the title, this was intended to the first in a series of James Bond like movies that never quite took off, which is unfortunate since this is as riveting and entertaining a ride as one would expect from 'Goldfinger' director Guy Hamilton.
The film also spends little time on the idea of assassinations made to look like accidents despite an intriguing suggestion that the secret organisation has been run for decades as a way of the government dealing with shady figures that cannot legally be touched.
Knowing his former life is full of shadiness, the "dead cop" is named Remo Williams(Fred Ward), a super-assassin who is trained by a Korean master named Chiun(Joel Grey, Jennifer's father).
So, if you like great one-liners and half-comedy, half-action (martial-arts style) movies, this is an absolute must see!
Remo Williams is a simple story about an apparently-dead cop that is recruited by a secret association to save USA from politically powerful criminals, and to this purpose he is trained by Chiun, a Korean expert of martial arts.
Fred Ward realistically plays a good-hearted but dull guy without never becoming the classical "flat", trivial, predictable Hollywood character -- it's incredible that after 20 years from this movie some directors are still not able to avoid such annoying pitfalls.
Ward, Grey, Preston and "bureau chief" Wilford Brimley are all that stand in the way of baddies Charles Cioffi, Michael Pataki, George Coe, Patrick Kilpatrick and assorted henchmen in a series of chases and battles that take them everywhere from military bases, to logging camps to even the top of the Statue of Liberty (the movie's most stunning set piece.) And hey, let's not forget the radiant Kate Mulgrew as the "damsel-in-distress", a naive yet tough Army major whose sense of integrity gets her into hot water with the baddies, and falling into Remo's arms more than once!
The Eighties marked the Great Revival of the good old popcorn-munchin', kick-and-punchin' B-feature, and "REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS" was one of the best of the lot.
If you liked the feel of True Lies with the snappy dialog and over-the-top action, you'll love Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins..
The movie has none of this - it's frankly an embarrassment from start to finish, and I'm sorry I paid theatre prices to see it.The martial arts "action" (if one can call it that) is an abysmally-shot series of lame special effects attempting to make it appear that Remo Williams (the miserably-miscast Fred Ward) is a student of a super-martial art being taught to him by the Korean "Master of Sinanju" Chuin - played by that great Oriental actor Joel Grey(!!!).
The insults (i.e., "You move like a pregnant yak!") are funnier in the books since they highlight Chuin's scolding perfectionism in light of Remo's mastery; in the movie, they're God's Honest Truth as Ward's fighting style seems stuck at "barroom brawler" level.The plot veers between meant-to-be-lighthearted political adventure about a villainous defense contractor who manages to kill off any people involved in Government oversight of his work (ho-ho!) - and the supposedly-poignant fact that the agency Remo works for, CURE, will be forced to shut down (with all its members committing mass suicide) if its existence is ever exposed.
In particular, "Remo's Theme" sounds so ripped off from Indy that I actually laughed out loud when it first played.This film was obviously intended to be the first of a series, as evidenced by the title, but how anyone could think this would become a classic is beyond me, as every single element of the plot and every character is a VERY blatant ripoff of something or other.What's left for this movie to be is just a lighthearted uncomplex action flick, and while it succeeds at times (mostly in the training sequences), it's mostly way too big on building up Remo into some sort of folk hero on the level of 007 or the aforementioned Indiana Jones.
This movie is great fun!Based on the very popular 'Destroyer' series, Fred Ward plays Remo and Joel Grey (in heavy make-up) his wise teacher Chiun.
This pale piece of a screenwriter's attempt at converting the powerful series to film left much to be desired.Joel Grey portrays the Master of Sinanju, Chiun with perfection (how else could he be portrayed?) and Fred Ward does an admirable job at playing Remo, but the cast is restricted by a screenplay that doesn't have a real villain.
effectively America's only real answer to James bond.superb action/comedy only made imperfect by an overly long pursuit/ending(the log anyone's a real shame this film wasn't made into a franchise as it is the perfect antidote to Ian Fleming's fantastical ego trip that is James bond(a 2-d cut out character that could not possible exist in the real world)master Chin as the arrogant wise man(opposed to humble) is ingenious,a is Kate McGraw as the spunky idealistic heroine(good career move as she was in danger of being typecast as a man eating you know what.Ward is obviously a great action/comedy lead and the support of Preston and Bradley are great turns.in particular McClearys character makes this film all the more endearing {a tall dignified afro-Caribbean English man(very Conservative)}.The style of the film appeals to the younger audience and there is plenty of wit for the more mature.although the humour does fall at times and can be rightly criticised for not having enough action for a flick of this nature, i think the intension was to use this film as an introduction of the characters for their continuing adventures.Satan's score is also inspiring,make on Joel grey is great and the Jewelled toothed henchmen make this in my arrogant opinion the action comedy of the 1980's along with Howard the duck en naturally.
Guy Hamilton is known for his great Bond movies - Goldfinger and Live and Let Die, but his direction can't save some bad acting by Fred Ward and questionable casting of Joel Grey as a Korean assassin.
Renamed Remo Williams, the officer is trained in ancient martial arts by master Chiun while Harold Smith using his impressively connected computer system to track the actions of George Grove – a connected and powerful man in the military but also incredibly corrupt.
It also has a great sense of fun – nobody is taking it too seriously and it allows some of the sillier stuff to work for what it is without it detracting from the material; hence, for example, guard dogs managing to keep up with Remo is "funny" rather than "dumb".The final third of the film is not quite as good but only because the plot is a bit clunky and it does lose a certain amount of its energy.
i can only speak for myself,but i enjoyed this movie.i thought it moved along at a good clip.Fred Ward was good as the title character,but Joel Grey was a real hoot as his Korean mentor Chiun.Wifred Brimley plays the head of the organisation that recruits Remo.Kate Mulgrew(Captain Janeway in Star Trek Voyager)is also in the movie.even though i liked the movie,i didn't fell it was very substantial,and after watching it,it felt incomplete.i suspect they were hoping to do a franchise,but the movie wasn't a commercial success,so they abandoned the idea.too bad,because it would have been good to see Remo progress in his training and take on new adventures.for me,Remo Williams:The Adventure Begins is an 8/10.
Joel Grey portrayed Chiun as well as I could have hoped, and Fred Ward gave a great New Yorker performance as Remo.
Fred Ward as Remo and Joel Grey as the Korean (!) master are very likeable (their scenes together are very funny), there are some good action scenes, and Kate Mulgrew, out of place as she seems in this movie, isn't nearly as annoying as Kate Capshaw was in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.""Citizen Kane" it ain't, but if you just want to be entertained, this movie will fit the bill, and then some..
Remo Williams (played by Fred Ward of Tremors fame) is the destroyer, a man that learns martial arts from an angry and condescending Korean master named "chiung".
Fred Ward is very good as 'Remo', as is Joel Grey as 'Chiun', his soap opera-loving Korean mentor.
It's the same old story about good guys who behind closed doors just want money, blah, blah...But thanks tho the chemistry between Ward and Grey, this film excels in the training scenes, which are the heart of the film.The banter between Chiun and Williams is priceless, and at first it's because they dislike each other, then toward the end of the film, it's out of a father/son relationship.It's a shame that the rest of the cast are so very poor, and add nothing to the rest of the film.Set pieces are good, the statue of liberty scene is filmed amazingly, but what else would you expect from a director of so many Bond films.It drags a little toward the end, but it's well worth two hours of your time..
So why not turn to men's paperbacks, like The Destroyer, a series of 152 books written by the team of Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir (as well as some ghostwriters) that have 30 million books in print?Sam Makin (Fred Ward, The Right Stuff) was a tough New York City cop who died in the line of duty before being resurrected as Remo Williams, now the CURE organization's front man in the war against the enemies of the United States.
Now with a new face, no fingerprints and training in the assassination skill known as Sinanju from the Korean martial artist Chiun (Joel Grey, who is not Asian and is actually a Jewish man from Cleveland), Remo is ready to battle corrupt weapons dealers and save Kate Mulgrew's military officer character.I've been begging Becca to watch this movie for years and she responded to it by asking, "Was this a real movie or one of those ones you like that no one knew about?" It was an actual movie.
The paperback series, created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, told the story of secret government agent Remo Williams and his trainer Chiun and their adventures.
Makin is renamed "Remo Williams" and a Korean martial arts master named Chiun (Joel Grey) is entrusted with training him until he is skilled enough to be an agent. |
tt0042546 | Harvey | Elwood P. Dowd is an endlessly pleasant & delightfully eccentric bachelor living in a small town that isn't quite aware that its newest citizen is a 6'3" white rabbit named "Harvey," that only certain people can see. After supposedly meeting this rabbit - its origins attributed to the Celtic legend of the Pooka - Dowd's sanity is put into question by his equally eccentric sister, Veta Louise.Elwood casually drives his sister's guests from their house by introducing and carrying on one-sided conversations with his invisible and silent friend. His sister and niece, Myrtle Mae, resort to taking him to the local sanitarium to have him committed. However, owing to people not paying attention, interrupting, and cutting Elwood off as he is about to introduce his imaginary friend, it doesn't imediately appear that there is anything wrong with him, although the examining doctor is sure he is doing the right thing by admitting him..Elwood is carted upstairs by a rough-handed and simple-minded man in the white coat while the examining doctor ushers the sister into the head psychiatrist's --Dr. Chumley's-- office to give a description of the problem. As Elwood is "escorted" to hydrotherapy, he tells the man in the white coat his friend "Harvey" is a "Pooka" The Aide later looks up the definition in the dictionary: "Celtic mythology, a miscihevous spirit that takes animal form and appears sometimes to some people for the purpose of doing this and that."As Veta, still highly upset over Elwood driving away her friends, bemoans Elwoods delusions to Dr. Chumley, her frazzled manner and insistence that Elwood actually does have a six foot 3 inch invisible rabbit for a friend convinces Chumley it is she, not Elwood, who is hallucinating.He quickly has Veta carted upstairs and, fearing a lawsuit for incarcerating and treating a sane man, brings Elwood down and makes every manner of friendly gesture, including firing the examining doctor, Dr. Sanderson . His nurse, Miss Kelly, who is actually quite fond of Dr. Sanderson, is crestfallen, but, upset at being fired, the good doctor is unaware of her feelings for him, and this angers her.Elwood in his normal good natured way takes no exception to any of the events and once again, as he is about to introduce "Harvey," gets cut off, interrupted and ignored while Dr. Chumley pursues his patronizing commentary. Never one to interrupt, the pinnacle of politeness, Elwood lets him say whatever he is going to say and is finally given a pass to leave. Soon the Veta friends, including Judge Gaffney, and Myrtle Mae arrive. The mistake is uncovered, and the entire group goes into a panic trying to find Elwood. Veta and the Judge Gaffney promise to sue the sanitarium for wrongful incarceration and rough treatment.Elwood drinks heavily and retires to his favorite watering hole, Charlie's. Dr. Chumley, himself, tracks Elwood down, but while he is doing this, everyone else is looking in other places. When it finally becomes apparent to everyone that the Doctor has been gone for over four hours and that Elwood is not back in custody, another major panic ensues and the group descends on Charlie's to see what has happened to Dr. Chumley.Elwood, of course, is sitting alone, drinking, and maintains that the doctor left the bar with Harvey. They are convinced he is a madman and has done away with the doctor. However, in his easygoing and pleasant manner, Elwood sidetracks everyone with drinks and conversation and disarms them. Eventually the subject does turn back to the missing doctor, and the panic ensues again.The police are summoned, the heavy handed man in the white coat muscles Elwood back to the sanitarium, but not before becoming infatuated with Myrtle Mae and making advances toward her. Although he is a big galoot, she's attracted to him. The entire entourage,Veta, Myrtle Mae, Dr. Sanderson, Miss Kelly, Judge Gaffney, the guard and the police, arrive at the sanitarium in a police car and a taxi to discover the doctor is there.Dr. Chumley indeed did leave with Harvey, the Pooka, but he wisely does not say anything about it to anyone, dismisses them all and tells everyone that everything is under control. He tells Dr. Sanderson that he is a fine doctor and can have his job back, then disappears into his office. Sanderson then decides to administer a very powerful injection into Elwood that will make him cease with his delusions about the rabbit for once and for all.Meanwhile the cab driver wants his money for the fare. No one seems to have any money so Veta says she'll pay. Digging everything out of her handbag, she discovers her money is gone. She assures the driver that if he waits until Elwood has his injection, she'll pay him handsomely when they are driven back home. The Cab driver however has dour insights into the effects of the injection about to be administred to Elwood. He says he's given many people a ride to the sanitarium for that injection and it changes them into crabby mean people; normal but irritable and unpleasant. Elwood, the most disarming and engaging and mild mannered man in the universe, is on the verge of being turned permanently into a real nuisance, so Veta abruptly changes her mind and rushes in and prevents the injection.Dr. Chumley asks to see Elwood, and requests that Elwood allow Harvey to stay with him for a while and help him out by making his long-needed sabbatical a reality, Apparently this is one of the things Harvey can do if he is so inclined. Elwood asks Harvey if he will work with Chumley and tells Chumley that Harvey agrees.Dr. Sanderson pays for the cab and warms up to the nurse who has a crush on him. The entourage leaves, with the heavy-handed guard and Myrtle Mae making a date to see each other. As the sister digs in her pocketbook she discovers her money purse. She looks over her shoulder and says knowingly, "Harvey," and shakes her head. She knew Harvey existed, and was michievous, and her only reason for wanting to have Elwood committed was that Elwood's insistence on introducing him to her guests was driving everyone away.Harvey wasn't imagined at all. The camera validates Harvey's existence as Elwood, outside the security gate, looks back to "see" Harvey-- and an invisible hand turns the crank to open the gate to let Harvey walk out.He is a Pooka, a mischievous spirit in animal form, invisible to most, who had engineered the whole fiasco to begin with--and somehow, when things were on the brink of complete chaos and hopelessness, he would manipulate the entourage and players into another scene of hilarious melodrama.In the end, Dr. Samderson and Miss Kelly fall for each other, the guard and Myrtle Mae also fall for each other, and Harvey "changes his mind" about being with Dr. Chumley and returns to Elwood. The situation between Veta and Elwood remains unchanged, and a bigwig psychiatrist, now has an invisible friend he is afraid to tell anyone about. | insanity, comedy, cute, entertaining | train | imdb | null |
tt0061040 | Sugar Colt | Tom Cooper (Hunt Powers a.k.a Jack Betts) is the owner and main teacher of the Academy for the Spiritual Freedom of Women, and his real name is Rocco. In there, some women (Patrizia Giammei, Mara Krupp and Elisabetta Velinska) learn how to shoot and they practice on pictures of their annoying relatives: husbands, aunts... Cooper lives comfortably, and secuces some of the most attractive women who go to the academy.One day, an old friend of his from his Army times asks him to take care of some business: a friend of his has been asked ransom for a son whom everybody had left for dead for years. That son and his batallion disappeared on their way to Gran Alamo, and the friend of the father thinks that the batallion must have lost his way to Snake Valley, a small sun-burnt town in the village of nowhere where you arrive leaving the main road to the left. At the beginning, Cooper is not interested, but that night his old friend is shot to dead by Alan Pinkerton (George Rigaud) outside the Pinkerton detective agency. He was close enough to hear his last words: "think of the father".So Tom Cooper makes believe he's a meek doctor with a fake degree certificate. He doesn't defend himself when two rascals, Black (Paolo Magalotti) and Pink demand a 25cent toll of him for going to Snake Valley. They hit him but the Colonel appears to defend him. Cooper is given his money back and arrives to his destination: everybody on the street seems to stare at him.He checks in in the saloon of the town. Mrs Bess (Jenny Oak a.k.a. Gina Rovere) allows him to check in. Cooper allows himself to be beaten again; however, later on, he wins everybody on a fight "because of the scientific art of fighting". That night, he tries to watch around what's going on. He enters a room and Josefa (Soledad Miranda), the saloon waitress, a young girl who is Mrs Bess' niece, watches him. He pretends to be trying to make out with her. Bess overhears the noise and comes up to see what's happening. From that moment on, Josefa seems to dislike the doctor deeply. In the conversation with Mrs Bess, Cooper hints at his interest on Mrs Bess herself, to which she seems incredulous.The next morning, Clayton (Jeff Cameron), White and other people call on the doctor. However, the sheriff Bingo (Luis Barboo) accompanies the doctor, saying that he won't have any customers anyway. The gravedigger (Víctor Israel) tells him that Clayton has just died, and White tells the doctor that he's OK, that he had been summoned because of his wife but that she's already well.Coming back to the saloon, Mrs Bess tells the doctor that he won't make any money on Snake Valley. The doctor recommends Josefa to take a pill against the smoke, but she doesn't really swallow it: she just spits it. Immediately afterwards, Cooper puts something on the saloon fire, so that all the room gets smoky and foggy. Josefa gets dizzy like everybody else because she spit the pill. Mrs Bess - who seems unaffected by the smoke - punches Josefa and carries her upstairs. All the rest of the patrons look drugged out of their minds.A military cornet resounds. One of the saloon patrons (Osiridi Pevarello) gets into a frantic and says that he didn't want to do it, and the major kills him. The kidnapped batallion gets all excited, -imprisoned underground- thinking that, finally, the army is coming to rescue them. The colonel of the town (Giuliano Raffaelli) asks for Peter Headway (Ricardo Pizzuti), telling him that his father hasn't got any money to pay the ransom because of his gambling habit, and Peter is asked whether he has got any other relative who could pay 50,000 dollars. Peter knows that nobody he knows has such an incredible amount of money, so he is shot to death.Cooper shoots two gunners who tried to shoot him in the night. He gets threatened once again. However, at that moment, in the middle of the saloon, he takes off his glasses, his coat and his bow hat, and instead of leaving, he tells to everybody that gunman Sugar Colt has arrived, and to prove his worth, he shoots several of the gunmen present at the saloon. Agonía (Manuel Muñiz), one of the gunmen present, is made to wake up and confess having told Cooper aka Sugar Colt that something was happening in the town. He denies it, but he is hanged anyway.The colonel knows that Sugar Colt must have been helped by the person who played the trumpet. The next day, the burial of the person who really tried to help Cooper is organized, but many townspeople did not want to meddle with that business. The major tries to buy Sugar Colt, but he doesn't look eager to compromise, although he also avoids creating a scene on the burial place. The major asks him whether he believes that the trumpet is played by the ghost. Of course, Cooper doesn't say it's really Sammy (Fortunato Arena), his assisstant, who is looking for an abandoned mine, or a derelict building, or a place where a group of people may be hidden from view. Sugar Colt finds Sammy's corpse - he had heard the two long wailing notes which were their keyword, but could not assist him at that particular moment as he was talking with the colonel. Josefa had insulted him because he was leaving, but now Sugar Colt has a personal reason to keep on the case again.Cooper is trapped and left alive but carried tied on a horse. He unties himself down and kills some of the bad guys and runs away. He is hurt but alive, and returns to the salloon on the verge of collapse. Josefa and Bess tend to him and his wounds.The colonel hits Bess and he tells her that it was him who gave her the saloon. However, the colonel takes Josefa with him to force Bess not to help Sugar Colt anymore, who had run away from the saloon.Sugar Colt kills one of the sentinels by pushing him down a well after stealing his Mexican sombrero. He disguises himself with that and takes one basket of bread with some other bread porters to the prisoners. There, he frees them. He leaves them but tells them to wait inside. However, the privates will not wait, and their leader, Preston (Nazzareno Zamperla) goes with them. They try to leave but some are killed with a shotgun. Sugar Colt uses some explosives to help them.Josefa also gets rid of the sentinel who is keeping her a prisoner. The colonel tries to run away after taking some money from the safe. He tries to have his own back by shooting Josefa, who runs away throughout the window. Preston helps him from the other side of the street shooting at the colonel.Finally, the colonel has nowhere else to die. He runs into the saloon, where Bess will shoot him.Later that day, Josefa is giving alcohol to the ex-prisoners outside, on the street. Cooper/Sugar Colt asks her for some, but she seems to reject him.Soon, Cooper/ Sugar Colt leaves the place with a dirty cart. Suddenly, he hears a cough. He pulls of a blanket and there it lies Josefa, hidden away. Cooper smiles and pulls the blanket over her and keeps on marching on on his horse. | western | train | imdb | Pleasant Spaghetti/Paella Western co-produced by Italy and Spain with lots action , thrills , fights and comedy.
1866 , New Mexico territory , the Civil war has finished .
The General Lee troops and Union soldiers go back home .
Among them a regiment of ¨Sharp shooters¨ of the II brigade of riflemen .
But the Infantry battalion has been disappeared on the road to Alamo Fat and the tracks lead to Snake Valley .
Sugar Colt (Hunt Powers) is a former government agent , now retired .
He works as a professor at ¨Academy for the spiritual defense of women right¨ .
His previous chief Pinkerton (George Rigaud) of the famous Pinkerton's detective agency ask him for help in a dangerous mission.
Samuel has to find out what happened to an army corps that has mysteriously disappeared .
He therefore puts on the disguise of a doctor , including glasses and top hat , and starts investigating in a somewhat uncomfortable town .
Samuel Colt goes to Snake Valley where is blackmailed by some nasties and to pay toll 25 cents .
After that , at the Snake saloon he meets a beautiful girl named Josefa (Soledad Miranda) .This is a good S.W. plenty of action , shootouts , fist-play and some touches of humor in charge of Sugar Colt character .
Tom Cooper or Sugar Colt is a type of James Bond of the West , an elegant marksman and resourceful ¨Bon vivant¨ who is stunningly played by Hunt Powers .
It's a Spanish-Italian co-production and , of course , shot on location in Almeria that is well photographed by cameraman Alejandro Ulloa (Horror Express) .
In the movie appears usual support actors as Spanish : Frank Braña , Jose Canalejas , Luis Barboo , Victor Israel as Italian : Erno Crisa , Fortunato Arena , Nazzareno Zamperla and Ricardo Pizzuti (customary in Terence Hill and Spencer movies).
Special mention for Soledad Miranda (Jess Frank's muse ) as an attractive and rogue young woman ; a bit later on , she unfortunately died by car crash .
Original musical score by Luis Enriquez Bacalov and Ennio Morricone , this is one of the best soundtrack of the Spaghetti genre .
The motion picture was professionally directed by Franco Giraldi .
This Italian writer/filmmaker (and Sergio Leone 's assistant director) so consistently mixed the good with the mediocre that it became quite impossible to know what to expect from him next .
He directed four Westerns with abundant touches of humor (Seven guns for the MacGregor -1966- , 7 women for the MacGregor -1967- ) and one serious and violent (A minute to pray , a second to day -1968- ).
Rating : acceptable and passable movie that will appeal to Spaghetti Western buffs ..
Great spaghetti western, beautiful starlet.
An army corps has mysteriously disappeared.
They are actually hostages near a place called Snake Valley.
A gunslinger, Rocco, is visited by a friend who tells him about this.
The man's dying wish is for Rocco to find out what happened to the army corps.
Rocco goes to the town near where the soldiers are held captive, posed undercover as a doctor.
Cult star Soledad Miranda plays Josefa, a flirtatious barmaid at the saloon hotel where he stays.
Rocco starts investigating the disappearance of the soldiers in hopes to rescue them.
This flick has catchy music and the presence of the beautiful Soledad Miranda, along with star Hunt Powers, makes it an entertaining flick..
Entertaining spaghetti with a catchy theme..
The main theme to Sugar Colt reminds me of Ennio Morricone's theme for My Name is Nobody made seven or so years later.
Luis Bacalov provides the score and Hunt Powers (aka Jack Betts) provides the charisma for this serio-comic quasi-secret-agent spaghetti western with the renowned Sugar Colt (Powers) going undercover to the town of Snake Valley to investigate the disappearance of a regiment of Union sharpshooters at the end of the Civil War. Most of the humor comes from his posing as Dr. Tom Cooper, mild mannered yet accomplished at boxing and fooling the henchmen of the kidnapper.
But the film turns more serious once he reveals himself as Sugar Colt, and the recovery of the regiment takes on a tragic air as supporting characters start to drop.
Powers is good in this, as he was in most of his starring efforts in Italy; one wonders why he now acts in small parts under his true name Jack Betts.
Perhaps, like Nicholetta Machiavelli and some others, fame did not rest lightly on his shoulders...or perhaps he just hated the name Hunt Powers (it does remind one of Dash Riprock) and having had his minutes of fame in Europe, is content being a journeyman actor.
Three stars out of four, and fans of Euro-Westerns will like it better than others.
Fans of Soledad Miranda will be delighted by her appearance here..
Fun Little Spaghetti Western.
Franco Giraldi's "Sugar Colt" of 1966 is an amusing little Spaghetti Western with a nice theme by Louis Bacalov and Ennio Morricone.
Even though this quite humorous little Western is occasionally a bit too silly for my tastes, it definitely has its heights too.
It was shot on great locations in the Spanish Almeria, Jack Betts is cool as Sugar Colt, and beautiful Soledad Miranda makes a lovely female lead.
This is definitely no highlight of the Italian Western genre, but it is an entertaining little time waster for Spaghetti Western enthusiasts like myself.Disguised as a doctor, gunslinger Sugar Colt (Jack Betts) goes to the town of Snake Valley, in order to avenge a friend's death and fulfill his last wish.
An Army corps has disappeared near the little town after the Civil War, and Sugar Colt is investigating to find out what happened...The score by Louis Bacalov and Ennio Morricone is overall good, but basically divided in two parts.
There is a very cool main theme, and then there is a quite annoying score for the sequences that are meant to be funny, which lowers the value of the entire score.
Jack Betts, who is infamous amongst Spaghetti Western fans for usually working with the genre's worst director, Demofilo Fidani, fits in very well here.
Beautiful Soledad Miranda, who is best known for films directed by cult director Jess Franco, and who sadly died at the age of only 27, fits in very well in the female lead.
The film's major weakness is the illogical plot.
There is no real reason for Sugar Colt to disguise as a doctor in the first place (other than some amusing situations), for example.
Then again, the film is funny and nicely photographed.
The film is entirely shot in Almeria, Spain, without doubt the greatest location for a Eurowestern.
Genre freaks might notice that the town of 'Snake Valley' is the exact same town that was called 'El Paso' in Sergio Leone's 1965 masterpiece "For A Few Dollars More".All said, "Sugar Colt" is certainly no masterpiece, and occasionally quite silly, but it is nevertheless a good time-waster for my fellow Italian Western buffs.
Recommended..
Belongs among the best Italian westerns.
Sugar Colt" is an excellent movie that belongs in a list of the top 20 Italian westerns for me.
Definitely the best role Hunt Powers ever got in Europe and this genre, as he went on to make Django flicks with Fidani, but "Sugar Colt" is memorable also for its unusual script about criminal investigators in the wild west, which makes "Sugar Colt" a comedy in the first half and a serious brutal western in the second half - which is absolutely making sense because the main character is totally changing when he gives up his disguise as doctor Cooper and becomes the gunman Sugar Colt.
Composer Luis E Bacalov ("Django") uses two different themes here to illustrate this: the "Sugar Colt" leitmotif, and the soldiers' theme with the trumpet.
Spanish photographer Alejandro Ulloa who also shot Corbucci's "Mercenario" and Castellari's "Ammazzali tutti e torna solo" achieves the perfect western look near Almeria, partly at the same locations "For A Few Dollars More" was shot at.
Together with the skill of director Giraldi ("Seven Guns for the MacGregors") and the legendary Soledad Miranda in her best western role, this is a must have for a "Western all'italiana" collection even if currently harder to find than many others.
I've got an Italian language DVD with French subtitles in well restored picture quality..
A slow first half gives way to predictable action in the second.
SUGAR COLT is a very typical spaghetti western with a starring role for Hunt Powers, an actor who doesn't have much charisma and who annoyed me for the most part.
The weirdest part of the film is that Powers is asked to solve a crime early on, so goes in disguise for half of the running time before he reverts to the avenging gunslinger-type role at the climax.Why Powers goes into disguise makes little sense and really drags down the pace in the first half.
Essentially he dresses up as a studious doctor and is abused by everybody as a weakling.
Perhaps he was a Sherlock Holmes fan, but these early scenes just feel like the story is treading water.
Thankfully, the later action scenes are more fun, even though they're very predictable by genre standards; Powers' character is much more fun when he's kicking backside than when he's moping around and looking on. |
tt1645170 | The Dictator | ----INCLUDING THE UNRATED VERSION----The film opens with the news showing the nuclear threat of Wadiya led by the leader Admiral General Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen). The news tells about the life of Aladeen: When he was born in 1973, he did not know his mother and we see apparently the attendant nurse killed his mother by pressing the pillow onto her head. As a child (about 4 or 5 years old), he watched the General Admiral shoots the clown after he is being entertained. We see the young Aladeen holding his gun and dressed as Gen. Admiral, in the news states that he may be the dangerous man in the whole world. Now in the present, Aladeen is being interviewed about the nuclear weapons he made. Also, he joins his own Olympic Games in Wadiya, and won by cheating (by shooting a runner and the two officials in a feet and aiming them with his pistol). He also made a dictionary in Wadiyan version. Example in the movie is the doctor (Aasif Mandvi) tells a patient that he has an "HIV-Aladeen".In Wadiya, Aladeen addresses the nation about the enriching weapons made in uranium to be use in peaceful purposes like in medical use. Aladeen arrives at the nuclear facility with his uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley), hoping to show his nuclear weapons that he made. But the nuclear missile they made is small than he expected. Two years ago, the uranium-made nuclear missile is made by Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas) but Aladeen tells him that the missile is supposed to be sharp point. After dealing with the two, Aladeen tells the guards to execute Nadal (but apparently not).As Aladeen returns to the palace, he is being shot by a man in the head. Later, we learn that "Aladeen" is the double and Tamir is behind this shooting. Tamir found the double of Aladeen and he says to Aladeen that his job is to be shot in the head. At night, Aladeen is having sex with Megan Fox. Recently, he having sex more than hundred celebrities including Halle Berry, Oprah Winfrey, even Arnold Schwarzenegger and many others.The news shows the United Nations authorized NATO to launch air strikes onto Wadiya unless Aladeen addresses the U.N. personally.At the palace, Aladeen plays "Terrorist 2K12" on WII. While he is playing, Tamir tells him that U.N. demands him to addresses the nation about the nuclear program. Aladeen summons the generals to address them about the UN. He is having a role play by accidentally shots a general twice.Aladeen goes to New York City for his UN address. The streets full of anti-Aladeen protests and booing towards the motorcade of Aladeen. At the hotel, Tamir hired Mr. Clayton (John C. Reilly) for whole day protection of Aladeen. Later at night, while Aladeen is in sleeping, someone abducts and brought him to the warehouse. There, it is Clayton who abducts him and he restrained Aladeen in the chair. Clayton shows the various tools for torture but Aladeen seems doesn't bother much. Aladeen manage to get fun about those tools. Finally, Clayton trims Aladeen's beard completely, thus without beard, making him unrecognized. After Clayton trim his beard, he burns the beard but accidentally burns himself down, allowing Aladeen to escape.Aladeen walks through the anti-Aladeen protests in front of the UN. Now, Aladeen sees his double named Efawadh (Sacha Baron Cohen) whom replace by Tamir. Aladeen realize he is betrayed by his uncle Tamir. Efawadh is going to address the nation but he acts awkwardly in the podium (he walks past to the podium, he falls of the stage, and drinks a pitcher of his own urine) in front of the delegations from around the globe. Efawadh then accidentally dumps his urine to the Israeli delegatin. Efawadh now address the nation about the new constitution of ending the dictatorship and turning the democracy in Wadiya. The whole people rejoices except Aladeen. In disappointment, Aladeen tries to break to the UN but the police fires him with a hose, thus creating a chaos as well as the other people. While in confusion, Zoey (Anna Faris) gets Aladeen out.While Zoey drives towards her store in Brooklyn, Aladeen introduces his false name "Allison Burgers" to her.
Inside her store are selling green products, fruits, plants, etc.Meanwhile in the Lancaster hotel, Tamir received a newspaper showing a warehouse razed by fire with one dead. He presumes that Aladeen is killed. Tamir summons the virgin female bodyguards to have pleasure with Efawadh.Aladeen wandering around the Times Square. Outside the hotel, Aladeen convinces the guards that he is really General Admiral Aladeen but no one believes. After Aladeen looks himself through the glass, he sees Nadal, whom he made nuclear weapons for him, gets out of the building and he follows him until the restaurant. The name of restaurant is "Death to Aladeen", run by and visited by numerous people whom Aladeen had personally ordered executed. The owner of the restaurant nearly recognized him before in Wadiya. When the owner asked his name, he made up from the warning signs (ladies washroom, employees mush wash hands, maximum occupancy not to exceed 120 persons). When the owner realize that he is Aladeen, the people who ate inside tries to attack him but Nadal interrupts. Nadal tells him that every single person he executed is still alive.Efawadh arrives at the hotel for a draft of constitution. Outside, Aladeen and Nadal are there. Aladeen sees Zoey and hiding from her. A store inspector gives a badge on her in order to get past the security. Nadal tells him to take a job and work from her. Then he will get an identical beard and the day of the event, he will enter the Lancaster hotel as long as got the beard.Aladeen accepts Zoey's job offer, as she is catering at the hotel where the signing is to occur. As Aladeen is a store manager, he punches the customer for no reason. He even get the man out while urinating just to clean the restroom, then he throws a garbage can just as the taxi passes. He kicks the kid after he drops anything displayed in the store. Aladeen confronts the worker who stole the money from the cashier's box.Later, Aladeen and Nadal are having helicopter tour together with the couple. Aladeen and Nadal having a joke but as Aladeen refers to Osama bin Laden and 9/11, the couple begins to terrified. The couple is anxious and claims that the two is the member of al-Qaeda. The two jokes about the threat of another 9/11 attacks in which the target is Empire State Building, Yankee Stadium and Statue of Liberty. The couple begins terrified when Aladeen strips his jacket revealing the suicide bomb vest. Aladeen and Nadal are arrested for threatening but the both are bailed.At the hotel, Tamir watches the news showing Nadal and Aladeen are arrested for alleged terrorism. Now he realizes that Aladeen is alive, Tamir orders Etra, a big-breasted guard woman, to kill Aladeen.At the store, Zoey teaches Aladeen on how to masturbate. Later at night, Zoey displays the Mafroom for Mr. Ogden, a hotel manager, visitation. In the bed, Aladeen receives a call from Nadal, telling him on how to masturbate as he did earlier. Aladeen tells him that he is ready to reveal his true identity to Zoey.After Aladeen switched off the lights for bed, he hears clatters. As he investigates the clatter, Etra attacks him using the enlarged breast. After an ensuing fight, Aladeen locks himself inside the stock room, but Etra is managed to break the door. Aladeen finally kills her by just throwing her back to the inflatable pool of water.The next morning, Zoey and Mr. Ogden are shocked when they find the store scattered. Aladeen claims that he was masturbating at the time he was attacked. Thus, Mr. Ogden cancels the catering contract. Aladeen will fix this to improve the store. Aladeen begins imposing strict schedules on everyone, forming a personality cult around Zoey and intimidating an inspector into giving the store a good review.Nadal has an idea to get beard for Aladeen from the late drug kingpin Sam Douglas. Sam is slumbered in the funeral chapel. In order to gain access, Aladeen and Nadal disguises as a visitor then they sneak inside the chapel to cut off his head.At the store, Zoey had some news from the Lancaster that their contract is back because Green World is shut down. The Green World was shut down because one of the customer was shocked when she saw the decapitated head of Sam, whom Aladeen was planted before. Suddenly, the husband shouts for help that his wife is about to labor. Aladeen has come to help the woman for birth.After pleasure with Zoey, Aladeen reveal his true identity as General Admiral to her. Upon hearing it, Zoey becomes upset and breaks up with him. Aladeen leaves the store. The news flashes in Times Square showing the people of Wadiya celebrates the end of dictatorship, breaks the statue of him, and people comments about the hatred of him. In Brooklyn bridge, Aladeen tries to commit suicide by jumping off the river but Nadal stopped him.The next day, Nadal helps Aladeen to get access to the hotel, where the signing ceremony is held, by putting a zip-line across. Unfortunately, Aladeen is stuck in the middle of the zip-line. Nadal has an idea to get rid anything in Aladeen's pocket in order to get inside. As the zip-line gives in, Aladeen successfully enters the hotel. There, he spotted Efawadh and told him to get out. At the signing ceremony, he tears up Tamir's document in front of the UN delegation, and holds an impassioned speech praising the virtues of dictatorship, drawing unintended parallels to current issues within the United States. However, upon seeing Zoey in the room, he declares his love for her and, knowing Zoey's strongly-held views, vows to democratize his country and open up Wadiya's oil fields for business, but in a way where the general populace will benefit. Angry with Aladeen staying in power, Tamir attempts to assassinate him but Efawadh jumps in front of the bullet and survives, stating that his job is to shoot himself in the head, and Tamir is arrested. Aladeen will going home to Wadiya with Zoey to participate the election.One year later, Wadiya holds its first democratic elections and we see several people in queue about to vote Aladeen's opponent but upon Aladeen's favor, the tank aims the people, forcing them to vote Aladeen - and he was elected president. Afterwards, he marries Zoey, but is shocked when she crushes a glass and reveals herself to be Jewish. Scenes during the credits show Aladeen's convoy, now consisting of eco-friendly cars, visiting a reinstated Nadal, and later Zoey revealing in a television interview that she is pregnant with the couple's first child. Aladeen responds to the news by asking if Zoey is having "a boy or an abortion" | murder, adult comedy, violence, flashback, satire, entertaining | train | imdb | null |
tt0489461 | Coisa Ruim | This is a tale about how a family deals with a possible haunting in their new country home in rural Portugal. When a successful professor inherits the huge, beautiful home, his family assumes that he will sell it and enjoy the proceeds. They after all, have always enjoyed a very comfortable life in the city, and never imagined a country life. But, rather than selling the home, he shocks his family by deciding to pack up his wife and children and move to the country. They soon discover that their new home is in a community fueled by superstition. They begin to hear disturbing stories about the history of the house.The movie considers the power of superstition on many levels. Firstly, the possible danger that can occur from not respecting the dark side of all things supernatural. Also, they encounter people who try to take advantage of their fearful situation by manipulating them. Lastly, they must struggle with a test of reality. Are the supernatural sights and sounds they are experiencing possibly just some sort of shared hallucination? As the family struggles for the truth in what they are experiencing the horror builds to a frightening conclusion. | revenge | train | imdb | Surprise!
One of the best "mystery" films ever is...
Portuguese!.
This movie is one of the best movies in the "horror/mystery" category I've ever seen...
In a small village, lost in the middle of Portugal, some myths and beliefs still subsists, although the progress registered in towns.
People still think that the Devil is guilty for a lot of things and still believe that some of the dead haven't really left us.
It is in this environment of fear and suspicious, that a Lisbon family arrives.
A biology professor, with his wife, his three kids and his grandson (his daughter is a single mother), with very intellectual ideas and scientific thoughts that are no prepared at all to what they are going to face.
I really enjoyed this movie!
It has good performances, a very good cinematography and sound, and a very well written script.
It grows up until it reaches a climax and does not fall into a gore movie or a stupid explanation.
It has good characters, a good story and a good directing.
And yes, it gives some chills....
Subtle truly beguiling supernatural story, for those who don't mind slow paced buildup's to their films..
Plot is about biology professor Xavier Oliveira Monteiro (played by Adriano Luz think a Portuguese Kevin Spacey) who takes his family back to the village and home his ancestors are from.
Only its not the lovely picturesque area it seems on the surface, there's a lot of old folk tales the locals are only more than happy to share with the Monteiro family.
To prove himself right and the locals wrong Xavier and wife Helena agree to take part in a séance that ends in terror when a part of his childhood is brought up no one alive could possibly have known.
This all happens at a point the oldest son returns home from studying, who as some kind of incestious hold on his sister who's got a baby child of her own to an unknown father.
The films true beauty is that it lets the viewer fill in the gaps themself something which may be off putting to people who can't accept ambiguity in what they view.First horror/supernatural/psychological/spiritual (call it what you want hehe even its genre is ambiguous) film I've seen in ages I've been totally captivated in.
Everything works well, the music mostly light almost indie guitar based rolls along perfectly with the beautiful yet washed out look of the locations, just the way it blends with the fog rolling along a field or dust blowing during one of the period funerals.A much deserved 9/10 from me, if I had to give a flaw it would be it was a little slow to get going but so hope Frederico Serra & Tiago Guedes choose to do more creepy films and not switch genres.
Also if Portuguese cinema is this good, please distributors start subbing and releasing it so the rest of the world can see it..
How to make a masterpiece with a low budget....
A biology professor, his wife, their three kids and their grandson reaches a small village, totally lost in time in the middle of Portugal, with a few old inhabitants, like there are so many in Portugal.
The village people take their myths, ancient legends and folklore very serious, but the couple are skeptical (especially the husband), highly intellectual and with very scientific thoughts and ideas, and they are no prepared at all to what they are going to face.
That's when strange things begin to happen...
That's when strange things begin to happen...
It is an horror/mystery/suspense/spiritual movie, but the horror is only psychological, and all the fear that you can feel during the movie comes from your perception and understanding of the story, and not from what you are eyes are watching.
There is Death, and there is Rape, but you don't see those images, you just know it happened, and the story goes on, in a crescendo throughout the movie, until it reaches the final climax.
This suits perfectly...
if there were some physical violence or gore, the movie would loose its personality.
The story follow its line from the beginning until the end.
growing up in fear...
Really, I don't remember ever seeing something like this!
The stories are all based on the Portuguese myths and folklore, not on some external influences.
There are beautiful landscapes, an old Portuguese village which suits as a perfect background for an horror movie, very well written script, good performances of the characters, good directing, perfect soundtrack.
And there is a strong feeling throughout all the movie...
this is really a masterpiece, made with the usual financial difficulties of the Portuguese cinema.
But this one came out to see the light of the day, and it is the best ever made in Portugal, and one of the best I've ever seen in the genre in all cinema history.
If you are just into "American Horror Blockbusters", full of special effects, screams, blood and gore, and physical violence, this is probably not your movie..
Pretty eerie Portugal mystery horror..
A well respected academic inherits a beautiful country home.He packs his wife,children and grandson and moves to the country area.One must say that the country has many hidden and disturbing secrets:it's a place where superstition runs rampant and the local priest still performs exorcisms."Coisa Ruim" is a big horror surprise from Portugal.This atmospheric chiller offers well-written and carefully nuanced script and strong performances from all involved.The tension rises very slowly creeping under your skin and there are some truly creepy moments.It's beautifully shot in a magnificently decaying old country home.Give this lovely and intelligent film a look.9 out of 10..
Coisa Ruim is, indeed, a movie that makes us believe that the Portuguese film industry is finally reaching for the audience, without compromising the quality of their productions.I think enough was said here about this movie's main theme and plot, so I'll just emphasize (in my opinion) its main positive/negative aspects:+ acting was well above average + beautiful photography and careful set selection + simple interesting plot understandable by all (not like most Portuguese movies)over-articulated dialogs, sometimes people seem to talk like if they all add degrees - too much usage of focus/defocus effects (it becomes a bit boring...) - over-saturation of the image, sometimes you can tell it was really sunny when the scene was shot, but in order to maintain the dark tone in the movie you get over-saturated colors and too much contrastAll in all, a good movie.
A promising debut for this two directors, and a new breath for Portuguese movies..
A promising debut for this two directors, and a new breath for Portuguese movies..
Coisa Ruim.
It is indeed an amazing film!
Saying that the film photography is 'perfect' is not enough!
The story is very interesting and we can experience a very good acting from all the actors and actresses throughout the film.
The fear provoked by the film is based on simple things, which in my opinion is the best, not like extravagant special affects like American or English films.
This is a fine example of the power of the Portuguese film industry and very good professionalism!
This is another example among many others of good cinema made in Portugal, it deserves to be seen all around the world!About many other comments about this film...I don't agree with them obviously!
Many of them were wrote for Portuguese people with small minds with the ridiculous idea of "what is Portuguese is bad", It is just sad...Still a great film!
Hope you watch it!Ruben.
Disappointment.....
This movie had so much potential...
I really don't know what to say, because on the first minutes I was so captivated, I thought that this was it!: Portuguese cinema took a giant leap, and who could have guessed, on the suspense/horror/supernatural genre!
The photography was top notch I'd say, and the sound, the acting...
all these technical elements brought to life a simply Portuguese rural town with a creepy, eerie atmosphere.
Still, it seems that the people behind this project didn't go beyond that!
The story seems interesting enough in the first minutes, but then it just keeps dragging on!
No real scary scenes at all!
And the ending?
It was predictable (sorry, it was!
Everything pointed out to that one character I won't mention here), and it just didn't justify the time wasted on the movie.Overall: technically good, but too dull and dead to even recommend someone to see it.
I'm really sad, because I'm still waiting for the big jump of the Portuguese cinema...
and this one was not it.Next time, try to focus more on the story..
It's a nice supernatural film.
COISA RUIM is a supernatural film about a family which lives in the city and moves to a house (a heritance) in a little village in the rural Portugal.
It crosses many topics, from the paranormal and the superstitious believes to the philosophical discussion about religion vs science.
It's about ghosts, faith, superstition, rural traditions and religion, but it is most of all an interesting film that focus all these topics in a good and entertaining story.
I don't consider this movie fits in the horror or suspenseful genre (even because it's too slow paced for that) but I think it's a good supernatural and mysterious story that could fit in the "haunted house" genre.
The production is good and the cinematography either (one more time the director Tiago Guedes did a nice job; I already did enjoy his other movie ALTA FIDELIDADE), but the acting could have been better and the musical score too.
In fact I think a movie with this thematic should have had a different and more suspenseful soundtrack..
Great Portuguese movie ...Suspense!.
A great movie, with suspense all the time.
A story or legend typically Portuguese we many believe and others claim to have seen something spooky roaming through their skin when he sees the typical environments of the mountain, dark and full of mysticism!Something different from the typical American movies, where the bloody wave and almost ridiculous scenes will take you to see the rest of the movie!In Bad Thing, the simplicity of the actors and the extraordinary representation of some actors little known in Portugal, are the delights of the old suspense, the stories are typical of mountain, gaming spiritualism typical still in Portuguese villages, of which many will laugh and others much respect ...
---- If you want to see a thriller until the end no doubt see BAD THING!.
We've Seen it All Before.
A man brings his wife and kids to their ancestral home in a superstitious village
As soon as the movie began, it was clear writer Rodrigo Guedes de Carvalho was going to exploit all the trappings of his culture.
Roman Catholicism, possession, exorcism, village mentality versus city dweller mode of thinking, spiritualism, ghosts, family and superstition versus reality all come into play.
The only problem is that we've seen these stories unfold in horrors repeatedly from a slew of other Western, as well as Asian, nations.He does one thing, however, that is wonderful.
The stereotypical villages that tell the city folk they don't belong – or hate them outright – isn't necessarily prevalent.
Thankfully, with that hackneyed element not in the picture, I was able to indulge.The acting was fairly strong, especially by Adriano Luz and Sara Carinhas, though Manuela Couto succumbed to be being far too melodramatic.
The story maintained a solid pace with exceptional cinematography by Victor Estevão, capturing the atmosphere of the Monteiro homestead as beautifully as he did the lush countryside.
Sadly, suspense and scares were sorely lacking and the end came as no shock.Tag team directors Tiago Guedes and Frederico Serra have definite talent, and I hope they pick a stronger tale for their next outing..
Good intentions.
This movie has very good intentions and the photography (camera work) that is done here is great.
The acting is also very good and both those elements mixed together, they create a very good and spooky mood for the movie.But the pacing is too slow.
Even for a movie that does feed on that fact, that the viewer should be getting time for the whole movie to unfold.
But I do think that this sort of idea could've been made as short story/movie and it would have worked even better.
Although if you liked the movie Unbreakable by M.
Night Shyamalan, you will also enjoy this one!
They're similar, not story-wise, but pacing-wise!.
One of the best Portuguese movies, but....
One of the best Portuguese movies...but there aren't many good Portuguese movies anyway!
Still, it has a pretty good and clear plot supported by a really interesting photography and an above average acting (for Portuguese standards).
Bur, I think the story grows very slowly and there aren't many peak points throughout the 97 minutes of the film.
That fact makes it a little bit boring and that is not what I expect from a Horror/Mystery film (or any other genre anyway).
The end of the film is rather good.
It is clever and unexpected like the end of this type of movies should be.
If you like horror/suspense films, your time will not be wasted.
Don't expect it to be a Hitchcock, though!.
Great movie that dies a more horrible death.
I'm giving this a 5 because most of the movie was excellent.
The acting, story, all of it were great.
Then it seemed like the film crew ran out of money (if they were filming chronologically) and we get the most asinine slapped together ending.
I think the movie tries to jump on too many themes, starting up too many side plots.
We have a young mother who's child's father is ???
We have someone who can see who will die, but it only partially plays out.
I'll spare you the spoilers and just say, too much ambition left them drowning at the end.
they made it up as they went along and couldn't agree on an end.
Before investing the time into this one, watch the last 10 minutes.
You won't ruin anything, and will probably lose interest in watching what led up to the end..
Rotten to the core.
Patriotism is a beautiful thing.
But misguided patriotism led to Hitler.
And the Portuguese folks that have written here either suffer from an exacerbated love for all things Portuguese, or they are friends of the director: because this film is rotten.
Even considering Portuguese films low standards, it is rotten.
And not due to the usual lack of means: the photography and sound are first rate, the actors are respected professionals and no effort has been spared on locations and costumes; even the direction is technically proficient (if in a mannerist way).
But the end to all these means was a work that set itself the target of copying and pasting scenes, ideas, ambiances and whole phrases of other films ("the Shining", "the Others", "the Village", and even "the Usual Suspects" key phrase about the "devil's best trick").
In one hundred minutes there isn't one new idea: only pastiche.
And, if, once in a while, great movies come out of this, here the pilfering serves no purpose.
There is no point to the film, no reason for it to have been made, and no reason for it to be seen.
If the movie tried to tell the story, it failed: there is no story, just a sum of anecdotal and disconnected events than serve as pretexts to insert the copied scenes; the dialogs abound, and pedantically drag on and on; the characters are stereotypes than change their demeanor for no apparent reason, disappearing inexplicably from scene only to reappear latter, at the plot's convenience, like in a high-school play (in-between dialogues, none of them actually seem to have anything to do).
If the movie strives to create and ambiance, it fails: besides the landscapes none of the rural scenes bears any semblance to reality: the village has two streets and two priest, no cars and no TV's; yet all villagers speak with high-street Lisbon accents, and servants and masters, priest and their flock, priest among themselves: all speak with a familiarity completely unbecoming to what rural traditions demand; the screenwriter just mistook a weekend outing in his uncle's farm with serious Stephen King type research.
If the film tried to cause scares, it failed completely: every scene too rehashed and every character too unconvincing to care about.
The only source of anxiety was realising how low Portuguese film has stooped so that this utterly mediocre crap passes for progress.
In Portuguese, "Coisa Ruim" means "Foul Thing".
That, believe me, it is..
boring bad music etc.
drama.
this movie was more drama than horror or mystery.no good music.bunch of wimps trying to make a commercial horror movie...very modest, and nothing really scary happened...i don't know...
i like my movies more painted black.i gave all my points for good cinematography.other than that i don't think i would recommend this to serious horror fans...
this is good for people who don't watch any horror.i had a feeling that i had seen this movie before.3/10 |
tt0205873 | The Dish | Parkes (Australia), has a huge dish in the middle of a sheep paddock. It will transmit the first landing of humanity on the Moon, and the famous Neil Armstrong's moonwalk. They will be the ones broadcasting the moonwalk to a world audience which will remain the highest for many years to come.Cliff Buxton (Sam Neill) goes back to the satellite station and remembers it all. He was the chief scientifical supervisor, but then NASA took over. Not all employees accept that, and some of them are quite rude to NASA's representative and chielf operations director.The Mayor of the town of Parkes, Bob McIntyre (Roy Billing) acknowledges that this is the moment for him and his town to perform a great deed. Australian Prime Minister (Bille Brown) arrives, with a full gathering of people among which is American Ambassador (John McMartin), who insists on seeing the premises himself. Back at the station, Rudi (Tayler Kane) is one of the funniest characters. He's given a gun, becuase NASA demanded armed security, but when his sister Janine (Eliza Szonert) appears, and notices it, he begs her "not to tell mum, or she will come to take it from me." Janine is constantly providing home-made food for the dish's personnel, because she has a love interest in one of the mathematicians who work there. He is very shy, though, and it takes him a lot of time, mocking and coaxing from his workmates to ask her for a date. Rudi keeps changing the names of the areas within the complex "A, B, C...".The McIntyres prepare themselves for their outstanding visitors, However, the eldest daughter Marie (Lenka Kripac) is constantly making rude remarks, the son Billy (Carl Snell) knows about the technical data about the landing and tries to explain them to his father - who can never fully grasp it-, and the wife May (Genevieve Mooy) is worried most of all about her dressing. Another fun moment is when she asks her husband to choose among two dresses, one blue and another one lemon-coloured. McIntyre keeps on saying that it is a yellow dress, and May corrects him saying it's "lemon". When McIntyre introduces his wife to the ambassador, he is so nervous that he introduces his wife saying "she's the lemon".There are two main events at the station:
1- One of the employees does not charge enough fuel to one of the power stations. There is a sudden blackout and the station computers lose all data, so the staff at the complex loses all communication with Apollo 11's crew, because they cannot pinpoint the dish towards the rocket. However, nobody wants to admit their mistake to the NASA, in fear that they will leave them out of the broadcasting team. Finally, they find the location just in time.2- One of the reasons why Parkes was chosen was its perfectly stable weather. However, all of a sudden, a gale starts. Nobody expected such strong winds in Australia, - least of all the weather forecasters - but neither the dish nor the station had been designed to stand them. They decide to take their chances at broadcasting, because Armstrong has overruled a programmed sleep and has decided to go out of the rocket sooner than expected. If Parkes does not broadcast it, nobody will see it. The wind gets so strong, that the station crew is afraid that all the structure could collapse with them inside the building. However, they finally do it. Cliff remembers his late wife, who had suppported him through the years and dedicates his success to her memory.Back to the present time, a white-haired Cliff Buxton is told-off by more efficiente security guard who doesn't recognise him. He tells them that visitors are only permitted through the main gate. Cliff says that it doesn't matter, and leaves the premises whitout more ado. | comedy, flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt0054777 | The Curse of the Werewolf | The story is set in 18th Century Spain. A beggar is imprisoned by a cruel marquis after making inappropriate remarks at the nobleman's wedding. The beggar is forgotten, and survives another fifteen years. His sole human contact is with the jailer and his beautiful mute daughter (Yvonne Romain). The aging, decrepit Marques makes advances on the jailer's daughter while she is cleaning his room. When she refuses him, the Marques has her thrown into the dungeon with the beggar. The beggar, driven mad by his long confinement, rapes her and then dies.
The girl is released the next day and sent to "entertain" the Marques Siniestro. She kills the old man and flees. She is found in the forest by the kindly gentleman-scholar Don Alfredo Corledo (Clifford Evans) who lives alone with his housekeeper Teresa (Hira Talfrey). The warm and motherly Teresa soon nurses the girl back to health, but she dies after giving birth to a baby on Christmas Day (a fact that Teresa considers "unlucky" since the child was born out of wedlock).
Alfredo and Teresa raise the boy, whom they name Leon. Leon is cursed by the evil circumstances of his conception and by his Christmas Day birth. An early hunting incident gives him a taste for blood, which he struggles to overcome. Soon, a number of goats are found dead, and a herder's dog is blamed.
Thirteen years later, Leon as a young man (Oliver Reed) leaves home to seek work at the Gomez vineyard. Don Fernando Gomez (Ewen Solon) sets Leon to work in the wine cellar with Jose Amadayo (Martin Matthews) with whom he soon forms a friendship. Leon falls in love with Fernando's daughter, Cristina (Catherine Feller), and becomes despondent at the seeming impossibility of marrying her, and allows Jose take him to a nearby brothel, where he transforms and kills Vera and Jose, then returning to Alfredo's house. Too late, he learns that Cristina's loving presence prevents his transformation, and he is about to run away with her when he is arrested and jailed on suspicion of murder. He begs to be executed before he changes again, but the mayor does not believe him. His wolf nature rising to the surface, he breaks out of his cell, killing an Old Soak and the Gaoler. Shocked and disgusted by his appearance, the local people summon his scholarly stepfather, who has obtained a silver bullet made from a crucifix blessed by an archbishop. Though torn with grief, Alfredo shoots Leon dead and covers his body with a cloak. | cult, gothic, murder | train | wikipedia | A very involving Hammer production that chronicles the history and life of Leon (Reed) who becomes cursed at birth causing him to turn into a werewolf when the moon is full.
This was a highly unusual werewolf film and I am actually surprised that Hammer films went on to make many Dracula sequels but not werewolf ones, since this film was well made and quite enjoyable.The film begins with a very long prologue--telling a sad tale about an evil man who was responsible for the curse that eventually made poor Oliver Reed become a werewolf.
Plus, like the old Universal films, Hammer did a good job of not showing too much--only letting you see the creature near the very end of the film.Excellent acting and production values combined with a very interesting though flawed script make this an excellent movie for fans of Gothic horror..
He falls hard for the daughter of his employer, but when he is deprived of her love, his lycanthrope surfaces and the killings begin again, only this time he leaves the livestock alone.The film is a character drama in werewolf clothing, and, though it references genre classics such as "The Wolfman", "The Werewolf of London", and even "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" in its climax, it is still very much its own animal.
There is a welcome depth to the performances and Reed's acceptance of his condition and desire to be destroyed gives the piece a fine sense of tragedy.Unlke the genre films of today, which make this feel like something made on another planet, "The Curse of the Werewolf" really takes its time to establish a solid foundation for its horror and is a refreshing product of far less cynical times in which human warmth was seen as essential, not "uncool".The last shot, in my opinion, is flawed.
Title: Curse of the Werewolf (1961) Director: Terence Fisher Cast:Oliver Reed, Clifford Evans, Catherine Feller Review: Hammer films is known for making many vampire films, many Frankenstein films, and even a few Mummy films...but for some reason Curse of the Werewolf was their one and only werewolf film ever made.
Even though they only made one Werewolf film, I'm happy because at least the only one they did make is really really good.The story is about a beggar who gets thrown into a dungeon by a despotic marquis who takes pleasure in demeaning other human beings.
It was kind of funny to see that the only thing that they added to their acting to make it look Spaniard was saying "Señor" at the end of every sentence.Finally, Id say that this is one of the best Hammer films ever made and that this movie deserves a whole lot more recognition then it gets.
Oliver Reed essays his most significant starring role for Hammer with dignity and a brooding quality, in my opinion, and the supporting cast does pretty well by their roles but, again, the film's main asset is its beautiful look (including the wonderful werewolf make-up).
It is set in Europa , dealing with a 19 Century European werewolf , as it happens in Spain , Leon is born on Christmas day to a mute servant girl (Yvonne Romain) who was imprisoned by a nobleman (Anthony Dawson) and raped by a beggar (Richard Wordsworth stated that in the original screenplay his beggar character was a werewolf) .
This one he looks more like a Wolf Man (similar to Lon Chaney, Jr.) than the more modern werewolf.Curse of the Werewolf has a very interesting film beginning of how Leon's parents met, what happened to them, how he was born and taken in to be cared for.
Years later, the baby has grown into a young man named Leon(played by Oliver Reed) who leaves his father(played by Clifford Evans) to go look for work in the city, but the werewolf curse of his birth takes hold, as he goes on a murder spree, which only the love of a woman can prevent...
British fans also get the added bonus of catching familiar TV faces Warren Mitchell and Peter Sallis in secondary support slots.Paced as it is, very much on the slow burn with a good portion of the picture dealing in the origins of Reed's cursed Leon character, much of the film lacks tension and suspense.
Oliver Reed's performance as Leon, the gentle young man cursed with the savagery of a werewolf, is powerful and compelling.
Filmmaker Terence Fisher, Hammer's most successful and original director, was the man chosen to give life to Hinds' epic tragedy of a man born under the terrible curse of the Werewolf.The story begins with the arrival of a poor beggar (Richard Wordsworth) to Spaniard county, where he becomes the victim of the Marques' (Anthony Dawson) sadism and becomes prisoner at the castle.
Time goes by and many years later a beautiful mute servant girl (Yvonne Romain) has the same luck and ends in the same cage as the beggar, who in his madness, brutally rapes the young woman.
Named Leon (Oliver Reed), the child becomes a young man, but the tragic circumstances of his conception and birth have put him under a devilish curse, making him to become a werewolf when the full moon shines over the sky.Anthony Hinds does a very good job at writing this excellent werewolf story, as while his story lacks the lurid details of Endore's novel, he manages to keep the essence of the novel intact despite being really a loose adaptation.
Hinds' way to introduce his audience to Leon's story may be excessively slow (the entire first third dedicated to the events previous to Leon's birth), but in the end it really pays off as one can't help but feel captivated by the epic tale of this cursed man.By the early 60s and after making influential horror films like "The Curse of Frankenstein" (1957) and "The Brides of Dracula" (1960), director Terence Fisher was still regarded as Hammer's best director, and his remarkable work in "The Curse of the Werewolf" is definitely on par with the previous classics he had made at that point.
Fisher gives a great used to the lavish sets built and makes the movie one of his most beautiful looking films, and despite the budget constrains, he creates a Gothic atmosphere of impeding doom that suits perfectly Hinds' story.
While Reed is without a doubt the star, the highlight of the movie is Clifford Evans, whose performance as Leon's uncle, Don Alfredo, is heartbreaking in its delivery, and certainly brings back good memories of Claude Rains in "The Wolf Man" (1941).
Hira Talfrey and John Gabriel make an excellent job in the supporting roles of the film, giving the film a heart and completing the main cast of the movie."The Curse of the Werewolf" is one of Hammer's most enjoyable movies, combining perfectly period drama with horror, and giving the movie the classic "Hammer look" with brilliant colors and haunting atmospheres.
Modern viewers may not be used to Roy Ashton's work of make-up, but I found it very appropriate and remarkably well done.Along with classics like "The Wolf Man" and "An American Werewolf in London", this movie easily ranks as one of the most enjoyable horror stories about werewolves ever told.
The way it conveys the tragedy of the curse and Leon's attempts to control it make the movie an excellent film, not only within the horror genre, but in cinema in general.
My only problem with this movie is Oliver Reed's scenery-chewing performance as Leon, the young man who discovers he's a werewolf; to say that he's overplaying here is putting it mildly.
The British cast of theatrical actors are for the most part very good, and although I'm not always a huge fan of Oliver Reed, he is very well-suited to this role.Unlike Universal's "Dracula" and "Frankenstein", "The Wolf Man" was an original work that was never based on a historical novel.
Richard Wordsworth is very moving as the Beggar and the standout in support but it's the riveting performance of Oliver Reed that makes the film, he is genuinely scary but also poignantly sympathetic, making Leon one of those characters where you feel repulsion and pity for him.Overall, very under-appreciated and worthwhile without being one of Hammer's best films.
'The Curse Of The Werewolf' is one of the very best of the early Hammer horrors, yet gets rarely mentioned, probably because it doesn't feature either Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee. It was Hammer's only attempt at a werewolf movie, which is a shame because to me it is almost as good as Universal's classic 'The Wolf Man' with Lon Chaney, Jr. The werewolf here is played by Oliver Reed, and much like Chaney's Larry Talbot, he is doomed to his fate which gives the character a strong tragic element.
Even more so in this story, because Reed's Leon Corledo isn't bitten by a werewolf but damned from birth after his mother (Yvonne Romain, 'Circus Of Horrors'), a mute servant girl, is raped by a demented beggar (Richard Wordsworth, 'The Quatermass Xperiment') who has been falsely imprisoned by a sadistic Marques (Anthony Dawson, 'Dr.No').
Oliver Reed's portrayal of Leon the young man who is cursed to become a werewolf is one of his best acting jobs ever.
In Spain, Leon (Oliver Reed) is born on Christmas day to a mute servant girl (Yvonne Romain) who was legitimately raped by a beggar (Richard Wordsworth).
But if you like a solid plot, good story structure and a piece of humanity, this film has a lot to offer.Oliver Reed deserves recognition for having a strong breakout performance here, though he was surely not the man in the makeup for all the roof-jumping scenes.
Unfortunately, an animal spirit seeks to dominate his soul as he struggles to suppress the beast within.The only werewolf flick made by Hammer, "The Curse of the Werewolf" (1961) was based on the novel "The Werewolf of Paris" by Guy Endore, but the location of the story was switched from France to Spain because there was a Spanish set available after a film about the Spanish Inquisition was scrapped due to opposition from the Catholic League of Decency.It's interesting that Oliver Reed doesn't even appear until the movie is past half over with only 45 minutes remaining (not counting his eyes in the opening credits).
The fools.The setting of 18th century Spain makes for a nice change of pace in a Hammer flick; and the look of the iconic creature itself was unique at the time and very effective, partially due to Reed's brawny appearance and heavy charm.The film runs 1 hour, 33 minutes and was shot in England (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Surrey).GRADE: B.
The Curse of the Werewolf was the only Hammer Horror film to feature that creature.
Britain's Hammer Films proved to be the training ground for an abundance of future talents; here, it's young Oliver Reed's turn, rather amusedly cast as the cursed son of a mute servant girl who was raped by a beggar when both were imprisoned by a cruel Marquis in Spain.
Last seen as Proximo in the film Gladiator, Oliver Reed is the werewolf in this, one of his early films.He is the product of a rape between an imprisoned beggar and a mute servant girl.
It has excellent costuming and cinematography and very good acting by all concerned in what is a simple and familiar story.Reed's werewolf is done very well and the musical score certainly contributed greatly to the atmosphere of the film.I have always found Hammer films to be enjoyable, and this is no exception..
This Terence Fisher directed Hammer film is not just a great horror but a great film, which is all the more remarkable if you consider the werewolf doesn't actually appear till near the end.The story starts many years before the afflicted one is born and you get the whole history of how he came into being.
It's a good film in its own right, with some very effective scare sequences; but the script also meanders too much, has some fine British character actors looking a bit uncomfortable playing Spanish peasants and also lacks the plush visuals Jack Asher used to bestow on their prior movies.Ollie Reed allegedly visited the pub in Bray village in his lunch hour in full werewolf make-up - and no one batted an eyelid!
Reed himself is very good in his first Hammer starring vehicle; it's often forgotten amidst all his hilarious hell-raising that he was a fine actor, and the role of Leon is a useful vehicle for his talents.This actually feels like an origin story for a character intended to appear in a series of movies, as the attention to detail in showing how Leon developed his condition is perhaps a bit too much for a single film; but the opening scenes with the beggar and Marques are powerful and compelling.
All these are handled superbly, as is Leon's baptismal scene, the latter landing Hammer in hot water again with the censor.Director Terence Fisher tries to work in a tragic love story - a theme of his he was very keen to develop in his horror movies at the time.
The Curse of the Werewolf was the only werewolf movie produced by Hammer studios, and to be honest, I can understand why: even with the usually excellent Terence Fisher at the helm and a young Oliver Reed in the starring role, I found the film rather disappointing, suffering from a weak script that offers up one of the most ridiculous reasons for a case of lycanthropy that I've ever seen and terrible pacing that keeps the werewolf under wraps for most of the running time.Much of the first half is given over to back story: a beggar (Richard Wordsworth) visits a castle looking for food; there he is mocked and ridiculed by the wicked Marques Siniestro (Anthony Dawson) before being thrown into the dungeon, where he is looked after by the jailer and his mute daughter.
The girl dies giving birth on Christmas eve, but because widdle baby Jeebus has some serious birthday attention issues("For an unwanted child to be born on Christmas is an insult to heaven!" says Teresa), the child, Leon, is cursed.....I'd like to point out that this has all happened in the first 26 minutes.Following some boring, long-winded exposition involving an explanation for Leon's affliction, a comedic subplot involving the goat-herder's rivalry with the night watchman(two of the most British sounding 'Spaniards' I've ever heard!), and some truly awful overacting(Teresa's line "I just mean--he didn't come through here!!" gets my medal as the most meaningless line ever uttered with such over-the-top conviction) balanced with some very good acting(John Gabriel gives a wonderful, naturalistic performance as a kindly priest), scenes intended to be frightening that will give rise to all kinds of lewd jokes(check out the kid's hairy palms), we finally meet the adult Leon(Oliver Reed) who sets off to work at a local vineyard and falls in love with the owner's daughter Cristina(Catherine Feller) and the story begins....at last.Its' pretty much just a retread of "Romeo & Juliet' with elements of the 1941 universal film thrown in.
The Hammer movie "The Curse of the Werewolf" is without doubt never dull and has some genuinely good elements here and there, ranging from Oliver Reed's good (and sympathetic) performance to some effective atmosphere.
Later, though, we find that it was actually a wolf committing the misdeeds when Leon is locked away in his room by bars Corledo installs when his nephew talks of nightmares about changing into a werewolf.As a grown adult, Leon(now played the rest of the film by Oliver Reed, with a fine tortured performance)now wishes to get off on his own with Alfredo believing in his heart that the young man is cured of his "illness." Talking with a priest, Alfredo and he believe that the only cure for Leon is love.
'The Curse of the Werewolf' was I think the only werewolf movie made by Hammer Film Productions.
It also the case here with quite a lot of screen time given to the doomed romance between Leon (Reed) and Cristina, played by the sympathetic and attractive Catherine Feller.As usual with a Hammer film, the movie boasts good production values, thanks to the excellent set designs of the redoubtable Bernard Robinson, and the cinematography skills of the talented Arthur Grant.
Oliver Reed shines as the tragic Monster in Hammer's great Werewolf film.
The great British Hammer Studio's only Werewolf film, Terence Fisher's "The Curse of the Werewolf" (1961) is a magnificently atmospheric take on the classic tale of the tragic monster.
The film's protagonist was the first leading role of the great Oliver Reed (then 24 years old), doubtlessly one of the most charismatic British character actors, and the role of a werewolf is doubtlessly one that Reed was predestined for.In 18th century Spain, a mute servant girl gets raped and impregnated by an insane imprisoned beggar.
However, the film does have a very good supporting cast, something that I've come to expect from Hammer, including Clifford Evans, Anthony Dawson (who is suitably vile as the Marques), Richard Wordsworth, Warren Mitchell, Michael Ripper, Ewen Solon, George Woodbridge, Francis de Wolff and Desmond Llewelyn.Speaking of the beggar, the plan was originally to have him be a werewolf and infect Leon's mother when he raped her.
The result of an unholy affair, or brutal rape, between a deranged and sex starved beggar Fido, Richard Wordsworh, a name given to him by his master the sadistic and crazed Marques, Anthony Dawson, and servant girl Yvonne Romain had the poor and confused Leon Corledo, Justin Walters as a boy and Oliver Reed as an adult, turn into a murderous werewolf.
Curse of the Werewolf (1961) takes place in Spain (on the Hammer sets reused from another film) a beggar walks into town during a royal birthday party.
What horror shall occur under the light of the moon?Curse of the Werewolf is another one of the old Universal Monster Classics to be rebooted by Hammer Films. |
tt0084887 | Warlords of the 21st Century | All remaining reserves of petroleum have finally run out; forcing people to ration the few remaining containers of gasoline left on the earth against mercenaries and warlords. Straker and his men (accompanied by his daughter Corlie - played by Annie McEnroe) find a vast supply of diesel fuel in a compound once thought to be radioactive. When Corlie refuses to execute the previous owners, she runs away from base camp. Hunter (Michael Beck), on his amazing (possibly ex-future-military) motorcycle, rescues the girl and takes her to his farm. After keeping her on the farm on a temporary basis, Hunter sends her off to live in a walled city (known in-film as Clearwater Farm) governed by a strict old-fashioned democracy (similar to the Quakers) where she is quickly accepted by the community. However, she is soon discovered by the mercenaries commanded by her father, Colonel Straker (James Wainwright), who moves to attack the Clearwater community. In the chaos that ensues, Corlie manages to escape back to Hunter's remote hideout.
Straker terrorises the residents of Clearwater, taking their weapons, medicines, and other supplies and handing the women over to his men. Within a short time, one of the residents of Clearwater betrays the Clearwater mechanic/fabricator, Rusty, who knows the secret location of Hunter's hideout. Straker & Co. use torture to get the information out of Rusty, then move in to attack Hunter's base and recapture Corlie. Hunter and Corlie escape on his bike, Straker, in a minor rage, plows through Hunter's place with the truck. Hunter takes Corlie back to the Clearwater people and asks Rusty to build him an armored car to attack Straker's "battle truck". While Rusty and Hunter and a few others are thus occupied, the traitor who betrayed Corlie before knocks her out, puts her in a wagon and heads out to deliver her back to Straker. Hunter tries to stop him, but the traitor sets an ambush for him and wounds him with a crossbow. Believing that he has killed Hunter, he appears at Straker's HQ with Corlie in the wagon and very pleased with himself.
Meanwhile, Hunter regains consciousness and manages to limp back to Clearwater on his bike. While getting patched up there, Rusty finishes the armored car and shortly Hunter takes off in it, despite the fact that he is wounded. He attacks Straker's HQ, plowing through buildings and tents and eventually dropping a grenade into Straker's 50,000 litre diesel supply. He then runs and Straker, now in a towering rage, takes off after him. In the process, he forces the driver to overdo it in the truck, overheating the turbines. This stresses out the driver, (who loves the truck), and leads to dissension between him and Straker. Hunter meanwhile gets some distance ahead, jumps out of the car and climbs to a high place overlooking the road and it is now revealed that the whole attack on Straker's HQ was a ruse to lure the truck into an ambush. The Clearwater people are at the high place waiting for Hunter with his motorcycle and a rocket launcher which Hunter had given them earlier in the movie. Hunter fires a couple of rockets at the truck, one causes slight damage and a small fire, which causes more stress between Straker and the truck driver. The driver attempts to kill Straker, who he feels is uselessly destroying the truck, Straker kills the driver, who slumps over the wheel and now the truck, throttles set to full, is more or less out of control.
Back on the bike again, Hunter manages to jump onto the truck through a hole in the top that one of his rockets had made. A gun battle/slugfest ensues, the truck still careening wildly back and forth while Corlie tries to control it with the body of the driver slumped over the wheel and Straker furiously shouting commands to everybody. Eventually, Hunter fights his way to the front, temporarily stuns and maybe blinds Straker, grabs Corlie, and jumps with her from the back of the still wildly out of control "battle truck" (leaving his bike on the truck). Now Straker is the last one alive on the truck, still screaming, making threats, and bumbling about in the smoking ruins of the interior. Finally, the truck, which has long since left the road and has been roaming wildly across the open desert, goes over a cliff and rolls over and over and over in a dramatic, slow-motion crash scene. The truck explodes and is well and truly destroyed, (shedding axles and other heavy bits all the way down), and part of it ends up in a lake at the bottom.
Hunter and Corlie end up back at Clearwater, where Corlie apparently settles for good as part of the community. Ever the loner, Hunter rides off into the sunset on a horse, promising Corlie that he'll be back "sometime". | violence | train | wikipedia | "Warlords of the 21st Century" aka "Battletruck" (as it is known to me) was a movie that I saw once when I was about eleven years old.
This low budget "Mad Max"-like action flick is no blockbuster, nor is it surprising since the storyline is very straightforward..
But the battletruck itself looks scary, the music is a little creepy and the acting performances are good enough..
Reading the comments about this movie, for one, their not trying to sound like Americans, they are speaking New Zealand, thats the way we sound except for the odd over acted lines.
i remember this being made and even seeing the land rover series one come to our school.knew the truck driver who drove the Mack, and even where most of the scenes where filmed.
New Zealand's take on the 80's Post-Nuke Future hoopla
and as they see it: Napalm has won over lipstick and chicken excrement is the way to drive!.
With having watched quite a few 80's post-nuke films more by now, I was kind of afraid that BATTLETRUCK wouldn't hold together very well anymore.
Of course BATTLETRUCK holds references to MAD MAX (but that's what we expect from any post-apo flick, right?).
At least it's not one of those laughter-inducing Snake Plissken rip-offs this 80's sub-genre was flooded with.This is one of those very few 80's post-apocalyptic/wastelands themed movies that I can actually agree on being a very serious genre-effort (as in: It doesn't go shamelessly over-the-top) and even a good movie in general.
I don't really understand why this movie was released under the title WARLORDS OF THE 21st CENTURY
For one thing, it makes you suspect that you're dealing with a very cheesy, incompetent and blatant 80's Italian genre-effort.
The black truck featured in this movie, really is the main attraction and it looks frickin' great!
And then there's also great shots of the evil truck approaching in the distance, while on the foreground you can see unsuspecting (soon to be) victims.Truck itself, isn't really a demonic entity of course - like the car in THE CAR (1977), for instance – but it's owned by Colonel Straker, the villainous leader of a band of thugs roaming the wastelands (basically pillaging everything in sight, torturing and killing random people and always searching for precious gasoline).
But that even seemed to be done on purpose: It gives you the time to really get to know (and care about) all the characters, and see how they tie in all together (because some of them have secrets
).The whole cast is doing a pretty swell job for a movie of this type.
Michael Beck pulls it of nicely as the loner-hero with his nifty-looking bike (thankfully not featuring any goofy gadgets), not really intending to fight, but taking action and making a stand when doing what is right is called for.
And you can bet your sweet behind, that whenever he puts his arm around your shoulder and smiles, your minutes are numbered.Brings us to the violent outbursts (that every self-respecting post-nuke film simply must have).
BATTLETRUCK isn't a non-stop portrayal of action and violence (and that really uplifts this movie above the general sludge that was being released in this genre).
Great timing with the good-looking blood-squirts in that scene too.
But just don't expect gory sights in BATTLETRUCK; director Harley Cokeliss kept it realistic and didn't over-do it.The cinematography is also a lot better-looking than many of those notable Italian post-nuke efforts.
The landscapes from Otago, New Zealand are astonishing (as if we didn't know that already), without going astray too much from that "dusty wasteland" feeling every post-apo flick needs.
And there are a couple of cool helicopter-shots, filming Hunter ripping through the landscapes on his bike and showing the battle truck roaming the wastelands.
Aside that, the few stunts (with vehicles) in the movie even look real and convincing.
But during some action-sequences, when his score becomes more up-tempo rocking (and some guitars even come on), it gets reduced to being not much more than just amusing (oh well, after all: This is a movie from the 80's).
So, BATTLETRUCK has a tight, not too complicated plot and decent character-drawings.
I've never seen all those elements dosed in such a well-balanced manner in any post-apocalyptic movie.
It's ONLY similarity to MAD MAX is the post apocalyptic oil-less future!
Pretty much known as BATTLETRUCK everywhere (smewhat understandable - who wants to refer to a flick as WARLORDS OF THE 21ST CENTURY?) the film rips along quite nicely.
Definitely, the way to go in gridlock!Hero Hunter (Beck) rides his own mean "Street Hawkmobile" and despite being shot pretty much through the heart with an arrow, is able to get straight back on to his dirt-bike extraordinaire and take it up to warlord Straker who looks suspiciously like a reject from a STEVEN SEAGAL movie!The DUELesque ending is superbly done - shot from the almost identical angles that Spielberg used.
Its got a really gritty post apocalyptic feel to it and i think its just as good as Mad Max 1 and 2 and BETTER than Thunderdome.
The American accents from the NZ actors are awful for starters ("Gaaad Daayyum") and then there's the fact that the film obviously does not take place in the US (right hand drive, the NZ mountain ranges) NZ is great..
Now i remember seeing this film on late night television for the first time when i was around ten years old.
I remember loving it then, mainly for the action and thinking the main character of Hunter was cool (he rode a kick-a** motorcycle).
I honestly don't know what else they would want or expect from a low budget action/sci-fi film.
Its a highly entertaining good versus evil film, and it was just as magical and great as i remembered from my childhood.
All i can say is that if you too like me are a sap for low budget independent cinema you cannot go wrong with "Warlords of the 21st Century (aka Battletruck)".
It's very lucky that this film has such a cool 'Battletruck' or else it wouldn't be worth much at all.
As it is, it's not a good movie, and yet it's not bad enough to moan and groan over - moan and groan in either a laughable or a bored way.Within the first few minutes 'Warlords of the 21st Century' (isn't Battletruck the better choice?) it's unavoidable to make comparisons to one of the greatest films ever 'Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.' After all, both films take place in a post apocalyptic future where gasoline is a precious commodity; both have a giant Semi truck hauling around the Land Down Under; and both have a quiet, mysterious hero to fight for the people in danger!
Battletruck isn't enough of a Mad Max clone to draw comparisons throughout the whole movie but the film doesn't have enough ingenuity to stand on it's own.
I was hoping for some good action; the back of the VHS box states that there is a 'terrifying chase' at the climax.
And while the film does end on a high note with a little bloodshed and an impressive slow-mo explosive of the Battletruck, there is little else to cheer about.
In the first hour of the 91 minutes, a few people get shot, there's a few explosions, a weak chase scene and, you bet, some Battletruck destruction!
Mostly though, we get a bunch of aerial shots of bikes/cars/Battletruck driving through the wasteland.
Hooray.My pleasure stems from watching the hero, Hunter (played by Michael Beck of 'The Warriors' deliver the monotone one-liners while still having the physical charisma to run, dive, punch, kick, and shoot.
'The Warriors' is one of my favorite films, so for me shouting out "no Swan!" to the screen gives me some giddy joy - most other viewers may not get the same joy.James Wainwright, as the villain Stryker out to rule the world and collect fuel, is good although he could do this role in his sleep.
So it's a bit of a relief/surprise that the acting is as good as it is for such a ho-hum film.But the real star is of course Battletruck..
I think "Battletruck" is a better title..
This film I think he did pretty well in.
So the story is pretty simple.It's about a futuristic war in the 21st century is looking for a new age in technology.
I am not so interested in the film, but like I said, i'm a Michael Beck fan.
It isn't bad for it's time, but now it's not so great.
"Battletruck" is yet another umpteenth rip-off of "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior", only this time fabricated in New Zealand!
This is a fairly enjoyable post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi flick, as long as you don't expect to see anything groundbreaking or mind-blowing.
In "Battletruck", the malignant General Straker overthrows the cute community of Clearwater because they gave shelter to his beloved runaway muse Corlie.
The truck is undoubtedly the star of the movie, and thus director Harley Cokeliss aims all of his cameras on it as much as possible.
The action sequences in "Battletruck" are somewhat disappointing.
The acting performances are extremely weak and hammy, especially from lead couple Michael Beck (Swan of "The Warriors"!) and Annie McEnroe.
Evil man James Wainwright, who looks like a crossover between Daniel Von Bargen and William Shatner, is okay but still not psychotic enough..
Actually pretty good, and definitely not a "rip-off" of The Road Warrior, which did not come out beforehand.
I can understand that about Deathsport, but I think Battletruck (aka Warlords of the 21st Century) is downright good.
Some IMDb reviewers even refer to it as a rip-off, but it was being made before The Road Warrior was ever even released, and, at least in most places, it was released almost at the exact same time (in the U.S. both were released in April of 1982).
Compared to The Road Warrior, okay, Battletruck isn't nearly as good.
Battletruck is merely good, with a less ambitious story, though still probably too ambitious to completely succeed with the small budget it had.
Michael Beck of The Warriors stars (though he doesn't appear for a good while into the film, which is a cool touch) as a lone wolf in this post-apocalyptic wasteland.
He rescues Annie McEnroe (a character actress whom you might recognize from Beetlejuice and many other films), who has escaped her villain father (James Wainwright), but is left stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Wainwright drives around in the titular truck raiding whatever settlements he can find and stealing all the oil and gasoline he can find.
Beck takes McEnroe to a democratic settlement called Clearwater (among whose citizens is John Ratzenberger, who probably has more lines in this movie than any other before he started working with Pixar).
The action sequences in the film are well done, and the scenery is nice (it was filmed in New Zealand).
"Battletruck", is fun stuff, if overly reminiscent of the more famous "Mad Max" series (although, truth be told, this was actually filmed *before* "The Road Warrior").
It's competently directed (by Harley Cokeliss), nicely shot (by Oscar winning Chris Menges), and has enough action and futuristic stylings to make it enjoyable viewing.
And there are a substantial amount of truly impressive explosions and one hell of an awesome vehicle - the "Battletruck" of the alternate title - to capture ones' attention.Michael Beck of "The Warriors" stars in this post-apocalypse tale in which oil is a rare and valuable commodity.
He comes to the aid of the forlorn Corlie (Annie McEnroe, "The Hand"), who's run away from domineering villain Straker (an effectively one-note James Wainwright).
Unfortunately for the citizens of Clearwater, Straker fully intends to get Corlie back, and so he proceeds to terrorize these people.The supporting cast features a likable John Ratzenberger (Cliff from 'Cheers') as Clearwater resident Rusty and a very amusing pair of performances from New Zealand native Bruno Lawrence ("Smash Palace", "The Quiet Earth") and Welshman John Bach (the "Lord of the Rings" franchise) as Willie and Bone, Strakers' primary two henchmen.
Beck is an under-stated hero; McEnroe isn't bad but her character is kind of whiny.Kevin Peek does the rousing music in this engaging escapist fare, which builds to a pretty good action finale on board the Battletruck.
This was filmed in New Zealand and there's lots of amazing scenery along the way.Most fans of the post-nuke genre will likely have a good time with this.Seven out of 10..
A very cheap version of Mad Max. Well, what can I say about this movie?
It's basically a New-Zealand cheap version of Australian Mad Max.You won't believe this plot, yet again there is no oil and the chaotic future is desert like, but at least Mel Gibson rides a car, instead Michael Beck rides a (much cheaper I guess) motorbike.Actually for such a B-version the special effects are not that bad at all, and I've seen a lot worse perfomances in my life.The action in this movie (let's not compare to Mad Max 1 or 2 then) is centered in warlord Straker who drives Battletruck to steal oil from villages.
Battletruck is this mean and powerful truck with all kinds of stuff to smash and destroy any resistance.
Well anyway Hunter (Michael Beck), our hero gets involved in the plot because of a girl, that is no less then Straker's daughter.
After Hunter, an ex-commando, and his kind-of-futuristic motorbike are on the case the world will never be the same.In conclusion, don't watch it, but if you have nothing better to do with your life and you don't feel like renting Mad Max, you might watch this, if it will ever pass on tv..
They're all good, Wainwright, leaving his mark as the head villain of the show.
Wainwright and his posse of men roam around the mountains of beautiful New Zealand, in this monstrous tank truck, the battle truck, that occupies the front cover of the Roadshow titled movie, after no 1 commodity which is oil, shooting or killing anyone who gets in their way.
Battletruck was just somewhat disappointing, who's American director, Harley Cokliss mad other films I liked.
Cheer's barfly, Ratzenberger was particularly good as Beck's friend who hides him out for a bit.
After 1981 the knock off's of the Road Warrior -- Mad Max 2 kept a cumin'.
I remember Cliff builds some sort of road warrrior like dune buggy for the hero that goes up against a fortified 18-wheeler truck.
So we took the bait and saw the movie with absolutely no preconceptions--we didn't know who was in it, what it was about--in fact, we had never heard of it before.So, my final verdict?!
I haven't actually seen this film in years, but it became something of a benchmark that I measure all other crap movies I've ever seen against.
When I was only about 14 I rented this movie with my best friend, when we had the brilliant notion that maybe all those movies we'd never heard of really were worth watching, so we picked one that seemed to have a cool cover.
Everything about this movie, from the acting, to the sets, to the effects, were laughably awful.
The climax of the film was when the protagonist built what was supposed to be some sort of unstoppable war machine, but looked more like an errector set experiment gone horribly wrong, and nailed to a $50 junk-yard reject of a vehicle.
Anyway, if you want an example of awful film making, rent this movie; otherwise, run far and fast towards the other side of the store..
Looking for a low-budget diversion packed with plenty of action, some beautiful scenery, and a pretty cool truck, then look no further than this New Zealand film from the early 80s.
Though the budget is tiny, and the story seems derivative, there is enough here to hold your interest if you are into post-apocalyptic Mad Max type of stuff.
The early 80s produced many, many low-budget films of this type, but nobody else, not even the Gibson franchise had THE BATTLETRUCK!
Some, like our hero Mr. Hunter have found a way to live independently, using methane-based technology to remain mobile and self-sufficient.
Michael Beck as the anti-hero Hunter plays his character with the kind of stoic toughness and resourcefulness he showed in The Warriors.
Mostly known for his role on Cheers, think of his film career for a moment.
Also starring here is the beautiful New Zealand countryside.
This area they filmed in kinda looks like Utah in the wintertime.
I don't want the battletruck coming after me!
The ruthless Colonel Straker (well played with hard and cruel resolve by James Wainwright) rides around the countryside in his formidable heavily armored battletruck with his vicious gang of marauders.
When Straker and his men terrorize the peaceful commune of Clearwater for food and supplies, mysterious laconic loner motorcyclist Hunter (a solid and likable performance by Michael Beck) comes to the commune's rescue.
This film further benefits from sound acting from an able cast: the pretty Annie McEnroe makes for a very spirited and appealing heroine as Straker's spunky wayward daughter Corlie, Bruno Lawrence provides hilarious comic relief as Straker's grubby, dim-witted lackey Willie, a pre-"Cheers" John Ratzenberger has a nice sizable role as amiable commune dweller Rusty, and Randy Powell is appropriately slimy as the traitorous and treacherous Judd.
Cinematographer Chris Menges offers plenty of striking shots of the truck and makes good use of the desolate rural New Zealand locations.
I always remembered the battle truck and hunter's rather futuristic motorbike.
The plot is typical post apocalyptic ww3 stuff but still OK and the characters are well done even the girl is a bit annoying at times.
For what is obviously a low budget movie the stunts are very well done in the vein of mad max 2.
It is pretty cool to see them construct a a vehicle for hunter from parts scattered around which ends up looking like a massive Volkswagen beetle! |
tt0878804 | The Blind Side | The Blind Side is based on the remarkable true story of Baltimore Ravens' offensive left tackle Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron). Michael grew up in the inner city housing projects with his mother in Memphis, Tennessee aptly named "Hurt Village." Michael's story begins with his being homeless and coming from a broken home with a drug-addicted mother, and an absentee father. Because of his family circumstances, Family Services took control of his life as he was growing up. Unfortunately, he was being bounced around in and out of foster homes, and now as a teenager he finds himself discarded by the people he has been living with. By a stroke of luck, and the coach's wish for a player the size of Michael, he ends up being enrolled in a private Christian school where the Tuohy kids go. Michael is a quiet person. He is shown to have a kind of childlike personality, because he tries to play with kindergarten children (Rachel St. Gelais) who reject or ignore him. Michael is befriended by S.J. Tuohy (Jae Head), the youngest Tuohy, whose connection to Michael starts the ball rolling.Mike, having no money for food, lives by scrounging half-empty containers of snacks after school games, which Mr. Tuohy notices, after which he pays for a meal ticket for the boy. One icy winter night, as Michael is walking down the road to the school gym, where he has been sleeping; Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) with her husband Sean (Tim McGraw) and children JS.J. and Collins (Lily Collins), pick Michael up and take him home for the night. However, when he tries to leave in the morning, Leigh Anne insists that he stay for dinner, and the children accept Michael matter-of-factly. Soon, Leigh Anne offers him a room and bed. As she starts offering him greater and greater favours, she begins to research Michael's records, including his career aptitude test results, where the only positive score was on protective instincts. Leigh Anne will use that to explain him how to play in the field. Up to that moment, he wasn't able to get the hang of the game and its rules, and he wasn't able to understand what his role on the field was.From that moment, Michael starts to play well and be useful to his team. At the traditional Christmas card photograph of that year, Leigh Anne invites him to appear in the family photo. Leigh Anne's friends Beth (Rhoda Griffs), Elaine (Eaddy Mays) and Sherry (Ashley LeConte Campbell) meet regularly at a local expensive restaurant. The friends laugh about Leigh Anne's "project in the projects," but she cuts them off, saying that if they don't respect what she does, she will stop seeing them.An opportunity arises for Michael to play at university level. However, he needs his grades to improve, so the Tuohys hire a private tuition teacher, outspoken and kind Miss Sue (Kathy Bates), who is determined to succeed, because she, like Mrs. Tuohy, wants him to play for Ole Miss. During their Geography lesson, she makes a remark about University of Tennessee burying the body parts of dead people under their football field, which Michael seems to believe blindly. While he had been leaning toward Tennessee, this event decides him ultimately to sign on with Old Miss.There comes a moment when Leigh Anne wants to have a face-to-face conversation with Michael's mother (Adriane Lenox) to enable her to adopt Michael. Although she seems unresponsive in the beginning, the mother finally wishes Michael the best. She says that social services had branded Michael "a runner," and she forecasts that Leigh Anne will find one day that he has run away for good without giving any previous notice. Leigh Anne also faces some tough guys from the projects who had made ugly insinuations about her before. They are left speechless when she threatens them and is not afraid of them at all.Many universities want Michael to play on their teams. S.J. talks to the coaches, and leads the negotiations on Michael's behalf-- and his own. When Michael gets his grades high enough, he must make a decision, and he does. He chooses the university where Sean had played for, and where Leigh Anne had been a cheerleader. That causes Investigator Granger (Sharon Morris) to move onto the matter before Michael arrives there. She questions him as though they were holding interrogatory preceding at a police station. She thinks that the Tuohys and Miss Sue are using Michael to benefit Ole Miss, their alma mater.Michael runs away before the interview is over, and goes to find his birth mother. The leader of the tough guys welcomes him back to Hurt Village, offers him a beer, and insinuates that Michael has had sexual relations with Leigh Anne or her daughter. This rouses Michael's protective instincts, as the gang leader threatens to go after the two ladies himself. Michael shoves him into a wall, knocking his gun aside. After thinking and questioning Leigh Ann on the matter, Michael realizes that the Tuohys are now his family, and tells Granger that that's the reason for him to choose that Ole Miss.The film ends saying that he'll succeed and become a professional player later on. S.J in seen leading the players onto the gamefield with Michael before all local games. | inspiring, action, feel-good, sentimental, flashback | train | imdb | He took the material he was given and played the role very well.However, this film is pure Hollywood sap, a "feel good" movie that picks and chooses factual elements and builds a fictional tale around them.
It resonates with white suburban do-gooder audiences, but it's just not accurate.In truth, Michael Oher was already a very good football player when the Tuohy family took him in.
Whether you like Leigh Anne Touhy or not in the end, she is certainly entertaining and Sandra Bullock does a great job of bringing her onto the screen.
In the fact-based film The Blind Side, a burly homeless black teenager Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) is taken in by the family of Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock), a spunky white Christian mother of two and assisted through school until he achieves success as a football player in high school and college, eventually being drafted in the first round by the professional Baltimore Ravens.
The film, written and directed by John Lee Hancock and adapted from a book by Michael Lewis, is undemanding entertainment that lacks a great deal of subtlety but is continuously entertaining and emotionally involving and redefines the true meaning of family values.Michael who is known initially as "Big Mike" has been abandoned by his drug-addicted mother and survives in the slums of Memphis, Tennessee only by his wits.
Seeing Michael alone wandering the streets, he is given a lift and taken home and made a member of the family by Leigh Anne, an interior designer who lives with her husband Sean (Tim McGraw), teenage daughter Collins (Lily Collins), and SJ (Jae Head) an expressive little boy who provides most of the film's comic moments.Living with the Tuohy family allows Michael to learn to trust and to begin to express some of his feelings from a life of poverty and neglect.
To raise his grades to be eligible for a college scholarship, the Tuohys hire Miss Sue, remarkably performed by Kathy Bates, who admits to the Republican family that she is a Democrat, prompting Sean to remark that he "never thought they would have a black son before they met a Democrat." Besides his grades, however, Michael must overcome several more obstacles that stand in his way before he can enter college.The Blind Side shows Michael Oher achieving a transformation in his life based on his relationship with the family who took him and nurtured him to independence and self-respect.
I love sports movies as well as movies based on true stories, so this film hit multiple buttons for me personally, but reactions of others leaving the theater seemed equally positive.As with any sports movie, you must have an underdog to cheer for, and Michael Oher is that underdog.
Quinton Aaron's portrayal of Oher leans heavily to the strong, silent type, but there is a quiet grace and gentleness that comes through.Obviously, nothing is quite as slick and clean as Hollywood plays it in movies like this, and there were issues and controversies surrounding the Tuohy family and the assistance they offered Michael Oher.
This was a well made film, perfectly filmed,and great performances by everybody.Leigh Ann Tuohy(Sandra Bullock), seems to have the life most women would envy, a wonderful supporting husband(Tim Mcgraw), and two great kids(Lily Collins and Jae Head).
But one day while driving home, she sees, a larger then life teenager which everybody calls Big Mike(Quinton Aaron), when she tries to talk to him, he comes across as a little withdrawn, and is nearly homeless, she decides to take him in, with her supporting family behind her.
The inspirational story of Michael Oher, the performance from Sandra Bullock, and the good camera work, so why did it not come together?
Oh wait, that would have taken time away from showcasing what a wonderful, wonderful person Leigh Ann was.Okay, one of my biggest pet peeves in film is when little kids talk like adults.
It is full of melodrama, stupid clichés and unrealistic events.Take the scene where Leigh Anne is looking for Michael and she is talking to the guys Michael just had a fight with, and she say, "You listen to me, bitch," and then goes off on an angry rant, and the guys just sit there and seem scared.Yeah, right.Another problem with the film is the way it treats black people.
It is one of the best movie I have seen the whole year.Tim Mcgraw was great in it and Sandra Bullock was excellent although I never liked her acting.Dhe was great in it.
With that being said, this movie brought a tear (one tear) to my eyes seeing the compassion that Leigh (Sandra Bullock) and her husband Sean (TimMcGraw) showed this young man who had been abandoned my his drug addicted mother.
It really did attempt to be a tear jerker.If it weren't for an interview I heard/saw from the real-life Michael Oher (played here by Aaron) who said barely a scene actually happened – stating most were for, well, dramatic effect, it still would fail at being 100% interesting.Oher's homeless after his druggie mother (of, like 15 kids she may/may not remember giving birth to) doesn't want anything to do with him, as are the other caretakers, he runs into stuck-up rich wife gal Leigh Anne (Bullock) and she takes him in.
Between the phenomenal true story, the emotion, and the amazing cast, it was almost impossible to not fall in love with this movie.Michael is a poor black boy from the hood, while the Touhy's are a rich white family from the suburbs of Memphis.
Seeing Michael's transition academically and athletically all because the Touhy family gave him a home is truly inspirational.To go with the great story, John Lee Hancock needed an excellent cast to help sell the story, and he got that with award winning actress in Sandra Bullock.
Sandra Bullock did an amazing job being a mother in this movie and showing true compassion for Michael's Character.
The whole supporting cast was great, and showed a true family bond, but Sandra Bullock is really the main factor in the movie that makes the love so believable.
The way Mrs. Touhy treated Michael like one of her own kids made me fall in love with the story the first time I watched it.
Just watched this after reading a news article in the entertainment section of an online newspaper and thought I'd look it up.Went onto YouTube because the newspaper's video clip wouldn't work, YouTube didn't let me down and I was able to watch a clip.I have to admit that although I have enjoyed all the films that Sandra Bullock has made and have a bit of a soft spot for her, which means that I will watch anything that she is in, I've always thought of her as a bit of an acting lightweight, always seeming to be in those slightly off, quirky type of acting roles in the films she's appeared in.In The Blind Side she's had me change my view of her as an actress, as in this film we get to see her really act seriously, making the role her own and showing that she can really act.Her character is so believable and I so hope true to life of the real person that she was playing in the film - and to me showed a different side to her acting talent that really up until now I haven't really seen before.This film is worth watching for the story and all the great acting in the film from all concerned.If you have a couple of hours to spare this film is well worth the time to watch and enjoy and end up feeling warm and cosy by the end :).
Leigh Anne hires Miss Sue (Kathy Bates) to work as tutor, giving private classes to Michael to improve his grades and be successful in life."The Blind Side" is the wonderful heartwarming true story of a lonely homeless teenager that moves to the house of a Caucasion Christian family that follows the principles of their religion helping the others.
Movies like this perpetuate racist thinking and behavior.The plot: good, rich, Christian, white, paternalistic family civilizes dumb, helpless black kid.
Quinton Aaron, who plays "Big Mike" does as good a job as he's let, given that he dare not steal attention from Sandra Bullock's dominance.
The only thing separating "The Blind Side" from a made-for-TV movie on the Hallmark channel is the fact that Sandra Bullock is probably too expensive for Hallmark.I know this film is based on the true story about an affluent white family who take in a homeless black youth and raise him as their own.
Then the movie flashes back to the beginning of the story it has to tell.Michael Oher is a bastard son, born to a crack-addicted mother, living with the father of his friend.
Perfect white family, Christianity, stereotypes of black people and projects, they even threw in some Republican politics.And it's not even close to the facts, to the real story of Michael Ouhry.
But if you view it like I did, you'll be glad you saw it, and after turning events over in your mind, see how it appeals to your finer senses.I wrote this, not because I'm expecting anyone to read it (I don't think anyone will go through over 60 prior posting just to get to mine), but just because I wanted to give it a 10, so well deserved, and I wanted to thank Sandra Bullock and the entire cast for such a wonderful story, the kind that can make you believe in life all over again..
Yet "The Blind Side" is more than a story of a down on his luck kid that rises to fame, it's main showcase is the tough love of Leigh Anne Tuohy(played to perfection by Sandra Bullock her best performance ever)Sandy really steals the show.Based on the true story of Michael Oher(Quinton Aaron)who's orphaned from a young age by having a runaway day and a drug addicted mother.
It's when the backbone of the clan Leigh Anne(Bullock) says right in front of her two children and husband Sean(nice appearance by Tim McGraw)to pull over and take the boy home as her children have noticed him from school.The adaptation is tough at first only to narrowly grow as one by one they get to know Michael and Leigh Anne with her good Christian heart decides that the Tuohys will become his newly legally adopted family.
Yet all along his desire to do well comes from his new loving family the Tuohys who give him inspiration mostly Leigh Anne who struts her stuff in memorable scenes by telling Michael on the scrimmage field how to block by giving him words of encouragement.
This movie is about doing what is right even if it's the harder thing to do.This is the real-life story of Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock), her husband Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw) and their unlikely new "son" Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron).
I think that this movie was pretty good as far as real-life sports stories go.
One thing that I did not like however, was that the film focused more on the mother (Leigh Anne Tuohy) than the boy she was helping out (Michael Oher).
It was also poignant to see the life Michael Oher came from - and how both he and his new family were transformed in their relationships.I heartily recommend this movie to those with an open heart, a desire to laugh, and to really see how things can absolutely change when we give of ourselves to others.A feel-good movie based on a true story- something we all need these days!
Based on true events, The Blind Side chronicles the story of Michael Oher, a homeless boy who, as a result of the kindness of a caring woman and her family, becomes an all American football player.
'The Blind Side' is a feel-good movie about a rich white Nashville, Tennessee family (the husband is a former athletic star and restaurant magnate, the wife an interior decorator with posh city contacts) that rescues a poor orphaned black boy and nurtures him into becoming a great football player.
But it's more memorable than 'The Blind Side'.I'd like to know how the real Michael Oher feels about this movie -- and about his own story, for that matter.
Michael's relationship with the four (4) Tuohy family members especially the mother, Leigh Anne Tuohy played by Sandra Bullock was a relationship that exuded generosity, compassion and understanding.
Though I thoroughly enjoyed this film and would recommended to anyone, it focuses much more on the "human drama" angle and very little on the actual football.For a basic plot summary, "The Blind Side" tells the story of Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), who is adopted by Leigh Anne & Sean Tuohy (Sandra Bullock; Tim McGraw) and given a respite from life in "the projects".
A giant of a boy, Michael shows an aptitude for football, learning, and family values under the guidance of the Tuohys, and eventually obtains both a college education and a shot at football's biggest stage--the NFL.Because this is a movie based on a true story, it is tough to know how much of it is actually true.
There was this lady Mrs. Tuohy, Sandra Bullock mother of two kids one named Collins, Lily Collins, and S.J., Jae Head, and her husband name was Mr. Tuohy Tim McGraw the owner of a many Taco Bells who took Michael in has a family member to stay one night, but that one night turned out to be a lot of extra days, to weeks, months, and years of love, and emotions for both.
This story of Michael Oher a 17yrs old boy who was homeless, and came from a broken home, and needed some guidance in the right direction to become a NFL draft pick behind love, kindness, and care coming from Mrs. Tuohy, and the family.
The film tells the true story of Michael Oher, a homeless teenager who became an NFL player and college graduate with the help of a loving family (played by Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw).The story runs into the same problem as another 2009 film, Invictus, in the sense that by being true to the events as they happened, there is a lack of conflict.
Quinton Aaron is great as Oher, but it is Sandra Bullock who rightly got the attention of the Oscars committee for her role as well-to-do teacher and mother Leigh Anne Tuohy, who takes in a vulnerable black boy and then realizes his potential.The American football scenes are actually remarkably sparse, which is good, because I know very little about handegg.
The Blind Side tells the true story of Michael Oher's life.
Both Sandra Bullock and Quinton Aaron, who plays Michael in the movie help one another to realize how much they need each other.
The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman (Sandy Bullock) and her family.The highlight of this film is the scene with S.J. serving as Michael's manager.
Sandra Bullock played the role of Leigh Ann Tuoly, Quinton Aaron played the role of Michael Oher also known as Big Mike and Jay Head played the role of Sean Jr. Tuoly also known as S.J. The cast made me forget I was watching a film that was based on a true story.
The Blind Side is inspired and based off the true story on how Leigh Anne Tuohy Played by Sandra Bullock who took in a young homeless teen Michael Oher played by Quinton Aaron.The film showcase Michael Oher's life story a story that has to be seen to believe.It tells a amazing story about how a family's kindness and a little faith anything is possible.
The film is just one of those rare but powerful life stories where we see the good in humanity.The film has strong and powerful performances by Sandra and Quinton, Tim McGraw also did a strong acting job as Sean Tuohy, Leigh's husband.It shows that the film is about Football but it also shows the good in helping others who with a little direction and hope any thing can happen.If you want a strong drama film and one that really can make you appreciate the good in all of us then The Blind Side is a must see I give The Blind Side an 9 out of 10Well All Right Then.
As far as that goes, I thought Sandra Bullock was good as Leigh Ann Tuohy, but Oscar worthy?
The blind Side is a very touching movie inspired in true story of Michael Oher, a homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential.
Sandra Bullock giving the performance of her life, no wonder why she took the Oscar home, Quinton Aaron in the role of Michael Oher was a really pleasant surprise, Kathy Bates in a short appearance as Oher's professor was quite convincing and Jae Head, the kid that performs as Bullock's son was and excellent comic relief for the movie.
At the story arc, Michael tells Leigh Anne, "Don't you dare lie to me!" Really this is Bullock's movie.
The film is based on a true story and was written and directed by John Lee Hancock (The Rookie, The Alamo).Sandra Bullock plays Leigh Anne Tuohy a wealthy Memphis decorator.
The Blind Side is based on a true story staring Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock) and Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron).
Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw and Quinton Aaron are great in this movie.
I think it is suitable for anyone 10+ and I strongly suggest you go as a family.I wanted to see this movie the first time I saw the trailer because I'm a sucker for a good underdog story and my Dad filled me in on Michael Oher. |
tt0112697 | Clueless | Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), a wealthy, popular 15-year-old, lives in Beverly Hills with her widowed father, Mel (Dan Hedaya), in an enormous house, enjoying the luxurious life that Mel provides as a very successful lawyer. Though good-natured, Cher is naive and caught up in a superficial lifestyle revolving around expensive clothes and the social hierarchy of her school. Her best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) has a similar outlook on life, though she dates a high school boy (Donald Fasion), which Cher claims is a pointless endeavor.Cher's debate teacher, Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn), gives her a C grade for the semester, which starts a dramatic chain of events. Dionne, who got a lackluster grade as well, hatches a plan with Cher to find a romantic interest for Mr. Hall, thus making him happy enough to consider boosting their grades. They select another teacher, Miss Geist (Twink Caplan), as the chief candidate, and slip a fake love letter into her mail cubby. She soon begins dating Mr. Hall, and both teachers become much more lax with their grading. Cher works her grade up to an A minus, greatly impressing her father.At home, Cher interacts with Josh (Paul Rudd), the college-age son of one of Mel's ex-wives, who often stays at the Horowitz home to avoid his mother and new stepfather. Josh and Cher usually have a typical sibling relationship, with mild arguing and teasing. Josh is nearly the polar opposite of Cher: an earthy, environmentalist, do-gooder..Tai Frasier (Brittany Murphy), is a grungy artist with a trusting disposition and a clueless grasp of high school popularity, transfers to Cher's school. Cher and Dionne befriend Tai, and decide to give her a makeover to improve her social standing. However, Tai sparks up a romance with cheerful, skateboarding stoner Travis (Breckin Meyer). Cher attempts to steer Tai toward the rich and popular Elton (Jeremy Sisto), and leads her in after-school workout sessions. Josh disapproves of Cher's project with Tai, and accuses her of attempting to turn an innocent girl into a superficial brat.Through a series of subtle hints, Cher gets Tai and Elton to notice each other. Tai is giddy with excitement, and while surprisingly receptive, Elton pays much more direct attention to Cher. To present the newly made-over Tai to the high school elite, Cher and Dionne bring her to a party. Once again they attempt to steer her toward Elton, and believe that they made a connection when Tai is knocked unconscious with a projectile shoe, and Elton revives her with an ice pack. However, when departing, Cher winds up being driven home by Elton, who makes a pass at her, revealing that he had been interested in her all along. Cher is shocked and repulsed, and Elton abandons her in a parking lot far from home, where she's immediately mugged, and is forced to call Josh from a payphone to come pick her up. On the drive home, Cher suggests that they pick up food for Mel and his colleagues, who are working on a difficult case at the house. Impressed by Cher's consideration, Josh begins to form a new opinion of her.Another new student, suave and handsome Christian, transfers in. Cher is taken with him immediately, and considers breaking her own rule of never dating a high school boy. The two become friends, and attend a party along with Tai. After Christian picks Cher up, Josh is clearly envious and tells Mel that he will trail them to the party for Cher's protection. Cher and Christian bond on the dance floor, while Tai is self-consciously standing alone in a corner (watching Elton dancing with his new girlfriend, Cher's social rival Amber). Josh arrives and dances with Tai to cheer her up, which Cher notices and is surprised at his thoughtfulness.Cher decides to move things forward with Christian, and invites him over one evening when her father is out. To her disappointment, he ignores her advances in favor of watching Tony Curtis movies. When driving with Dionne and her boyfriend Murray the next day, Cher laments her situation, causing Murray to burst out laughing and point out that Christian is obviously gay. Cher is embarrassed at her misconception, but remains good friends with Christian.While at the mall, Tai experiences a brush with death as some male acquaintances nearly drop her over the rail from the upper level. Though she escapes unscathed, Tai becomes something of a celebrity at school, surpassing Cher in popularity and rebuffing her love interest, Travis, troubling Cher.Cher fails her long-anticipated driving test, and returns home dejected. Tai confides in her that she has a crush on Josh after he had danced with her at the party. Cher is confused at the feelings that arise in her at Tai's confession, and tries to convince Tai that she and Josh do not mesh well together. Tai is affronted and insults Cher ("You're a virgin who can't drive!"). A miserable Cher goes shopping to clear her head, and realizes that she herself is in love with Josh.In an effort to impress Josh, Cher collects donated items for victims of the Pismo Beach disaster, surprising him with her dedication and selflessness. When Josh and Cher help a stressed Mel out with his case by doing paperwork at the house, Cher makes an error and is insulted by an angry associate of Mel who leaves in a huff. Josh defends her, and they admit their feelings for each other.Soon afterward, Miss Geist and Mr. Hall are married. Cher, Josh, Dionne, Murray, Tai, and Travis attend the wedding, with Cher skillfully catching the bouquet. | cult, comedy, satire, entertaining, romantic | train | imdb | This film became the standard for a spate of 1990's high school flicks set on the west coast that borrowed many of its elements.The story focuses on Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), who is the most popular girl at Beverly Hills H.S.
But what Clueless did was update the classic story by coating it with high school drama, teenage girls and shopping and sprinkle it with heavy doses of humour.Emma is no longer Emma; she is Cher (Alicia Silverstone), a spoiled rich girl walking around in her Beverly Hills mansion in a bubble of stereotypes and teen-clichés -- but with a great big heart.
From Cher's grumpy lawyer-father (an hilarious Dan Hedaya) and her nerdy step-brother (a likable Paul Rudd) to her eccentric group of friends at school, Clueless is a superb ride of teenage comedy camp.
The lead character, "Cher" played brilliantly by Alicia Silverstone, is a self centered high school girl in the beginning of the picture who's only interests include clothes, cars and credit cards.
I first watched this movie with my mom, who loved the link it has to Jane Austen's Emma- all the main characters and the plot are direct modern equivalents to the novel.
From this perspective alone, the movie is so fun and sharp to watch- even if your forte isn't usually American Teen High School comedy!But this movie works on a really dumbed down scale too- let's face it, not everyone is big on English literature.
The movie has an awesome soundtrack, Paul Rudd is unbelievably cute as "Mr Knightly" or rather Josh- and my boyfriend leads me to believe that the same is true of Alicia Silverstone- who still sparkles 10 years later as a mid-nineties teen queen with good intentions, Cher.
She is supported by an equally great cast that includes a goofy Breckin Meyer, a weirdly fashioned but still gorgeous Stacy Dash, a naive Brittany Murphy, a laidback Paul Rudd, a hilarious Donald Faison, a bitchy Elisa Donovan and a fire breathing Dan Hedaya.For me 'Clueless' is among the top teen films along with movies like 'Heathers'.
(No offense to the west coast bimbos out there.) The movie's director, Amy Heckerling, has always been rather reliable on the whole and her direction is solid here - she could have turned "Clueless" into a crude, unfunny sex comedy with little wit or brains, but instead she takes a rather dubious idea for a film and transforms it into a well-made, well-acted, funny, inspired, lively, witty satire.Much better than expected..
A fun teen comedy from Amy Heckerling, the director of the woefully overrated Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the first two Look Who's Talking movies.
A generally quite well made, enjoyably stylish and interesting matchmaking tale aimed at teen audiences, the film manages to incorporate a number of very clever parallels to Jane Austen's matchmaking novel 'Emma' while also providing a good satire on high school life.
In short, this was quite a funny movie about teens in the '90s with many of the now-dated references and cultural fashions not too much of a deterrent of a still-enjoyable story inspired by Jane Austen's novel Emma (though I can't believe those below-the-butt styles of today was actually quite the style then as well).
I suppose that other, more important sociopolitical things were happening at the time, but all I care about is western pop culture and so should you.At the first glance, Clueless can seem like a double parody of both teen culture at the time and Jane Austen (who I hold out wrote what were effectively the original Hallmark movies).
While teen movies leading up the this relied on the trope of various cliques (Jocks, Nerds, Burnouts, Goths, Cheerleaders, etc...), Clueless both parodied and subverted those archetypes by humanizing them.While there were certainly scenes and jokes that played on those stereotypes (Travis asking if his kids would view Nine Inch Nails in the same way that he views the Rolling Stones, Murrays speech on the non-misogynistic use of "woman"), Clueless managed to make these stereotypes feel less like the two-dimensional cutouts of films like Can't Buy Me Love and more like the actual people they were based upon.Another thing I really like about this movie is how crystal clear and sharp it all seems: from the camerawork to the dialogue, the movie has a clean, witty, and polished feel that actually really adds to the feel.
It actually has some good writing to it, even though the movie in essence is still being a formulaic one.The story is all about the stuff that only was important at high school; being popular, having the right friends, dress properly, getting with the right boy/girl, struggling with grades and everything else in between of that.
Teen comedies are quite common, but "Clueless" has going for itself the fact that it transposes Jane Austen's "Emma" to mid-'90s Beverly Hills and plays with stereotypes there.
Transposing Jane Austen's EMMA to Beverly Hills, Amy Heckerling's 90s chick flick CLUELESS was a sleeper hit upon its release, spawned one less toothsome TV series, and has charmed its way with a cult following ever since.
Our heroine is Cher (Silverstone), a 16-year-old high school girl seems to be privileged of everything (beauty, youth, wealth and sagacity: knows how to give a wide berth to her inane male peers and more than willing to save her virginity for the one she will fall in love with), who has an unusual down-to-earth streak and all she wants is to be a Good Samaritan, plays match-maker to her two teachers, and determines to help an awkward blow-in Tai (Murphy) to gain popularity, and her BFF Dionne (Dash) is also on board.
Clueless is a good title for people who make films like this, not just the lead character in the movie.According to Hollywood, being a teen - as shown in this movie -- revolves only around your social life, plastic surgery, cellphones, drugs and sex.
When the messages are, for example, virginity is bad, but drugs are okay, even fun to experiment.This tale of teen matchmaking and other topics that will make an adult want to puke, does have a decent cast with always-interesting guys like Dan Hedeya and Wallace Shawn and another young "hottie" in Brittany Murphy.
You know what I hate?L.A, stupid blonde bimbos, rich people, and humour that isn't funny no matter how frickin' hard it tries.That and a criminal waste of half-decent actors in what is really an act of puerile pantomime that has no right to be recorded on celluloid.This film throws all of those truly awful ingredients together in a steaming cocktail of really, really, bad stuff.It expects us to give empathy and sympathy to a stupid blonde biatch who thinks she is, like, really smart and falls in love with, in the following order, a moron, a gay guy, and her step-brother.But in all case this is outweighed by her love for herself.This film encourages blonde halfwits with walk-in wardrobes around the world to believe they have the power and right to do what they want and that they are superior.To countermand this I reccomend a mass-culling of all things blonde and teeny-boppy.Right now..
Now, this doesn't really suprise me, after looking at the main character, Cher (who doesn't doubt that Alicia Silverstone is actually like this is real life?) She spends all her time worrying about clothes and boys, instead of school or maybe getting a decent job.
The plot (inspired in part by Jane Austen's Emma) involves a very upper-middle class girl named Cher Horowitz played by Alicia Silverstone in her breakthrough (Jewish with a touch of Cher nameness) who wants to find the right kind of man, but is left with a bunch of slobs (duh), wants to do anything she can to get good grades, and try to keep an empty head while trying to drive.
Fortunately, that was not the case at all, it was actually quite enjoyable and heartwarming with very well written characters, a surprising Brittany Murphy and an Alicia Silverstone as her peak.While I did not bust out laughing, the movie was a nice look on how differently generations changed from the 90's to the 2010's and left me wishing I could relive that decade once more."Clueless" can be considered a timeless coming-of-age movie that is decent and genuine..
The movie - I thought this would just be a dumb chick flick and that's why I never saw it with my buds in high school when it came out, even though I was in love with Alicia like everyone else.
1990s high school set version of Jane Austen's "Emma" is pretty irresistible, thanks to writer/director Amy Heckerling's likable portrayal of young people and even more so thanks to an incredibly endearing performance by Alicia Silverstone.
The movie introduced us to the way teenagers talked back then (during a different era) and, as somebody who writes stories for my own amusement, I have often been inspired by BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and CLUELESS to emulate that particular sassy, cute speaking style when it comes to penning my own heroine.Moreover, Cher might be vain and a fashion addict and appear superficial, but she is a warm-hearted, conscientious girl who considers the feelings of others, she is not really of the Me Generation, she is delightfully old-school, because of the Jane Austen's "Emma" influence, or because Amy FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH Heckerling's approach itself dates from a time when the world wasn't as self-centered as it is today.
OK, I'm kidding, but "Clueless" is such a fun film.Alicia Silverstone in her best movie role as Cher Horweitz.
She gets an urge to help others less fortunate like geeky new girl Tai (Brittany Murphy.)However one thing Cher lacks is the perfect boyfriend despite their being no lack of admirers.The film is set in a materialistic world of the super rich at high school that only exists in Hollywood.
In case you haven't noticed, the film is loosely based off of Jane Austen's 1815 Emma, a bourgeois look at marriage and fidelity, and Heckerling does a nice job of minimizing that fact just enough to where the film's target audience doesn't feel like the lights are off and they are struggling to stay awake during movie-time in their literature class.Moreover, Clueless is a film that's so easy to love but so hard to adequately describe why.
It concerns a young, high school girl named Cher (Alicia Silverstone), your average Beverly Hills girl who speaks and acts just like you'd presume a spoiled mansion girl would.
One of Cher's most recent dramatic moments of crisis is when her ex-stepbrother Josh (Paul Rudd) comes to live with her and her father temporarily during the same time a new girl by the name of Tai (Brittany Murphy) enrolls in Cher's high school.
After playing matchmaker for two nerdy teachers, Mr. Hall and Miss Geist (Wallace Shawn and Twink Caplan, who are based off of Mr. Weston and Miss Taylor in Emma) in efforts to improve her lackluster grades, Cher is convinced that she can turn Tai's rather average personality and beauty into knockout-level by fixing her wardrobe and mannerisms and setting her up with Elton (Jeremy Sisto), a wealthy jock, despite her fondness for Travis (Breckin Meyer), the troublemaking slacker.Heckerling, who takes over the screen writing job as well, really works not only to keep Clueless moving at a pace that consistently keeps the audience interested, but to humanize these often dehumanized, and admittedly unlikable, characters.
Josh opens the refrigerator door before turning around and replying with, "sterilization." This kind of dialog carries throughout the film and no character here feels out of Heckerling's beautifully satirical, revealing little universe; nobody feels like they're not in on the joke nor lost in their own role.Clueless, I feel, speaks to the millennial generation and those born in the early 2000's better than anybody, though nobody would be removed from enjoying this; the familiarity of Austen's novel on older viewers and the casual depiction of the teen scene on the younger viewers is one makes this film have almost universal appeal.
However, the way Clueless moves with a certain stride in its hips, like a teenage girl with a new outfit, the way it talks, with a Californian accent that has every syllable hitting your ears in a unique manner, and the way the music, the dialog, and the mannerisms of the characters resonate so fiercely, is what ultimately makes it a winning combination of an ordinary chick flick and a biting teen film.Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Stacey Dash, Breckin Meyer, Jeremy Sisto, Wallace Shawn, Twink Caplan, Donald Faison, and Dan Hedaya.
Dan Hedaya plays Cher's Father It looks like everybody had a lot of fun making this film..
Released in 1995, "Clueless" is a teen dramedy about, Cher (Alicia Silverstone), a rich Beverly Hills high school student who experiences the ups and downs of teen life in Southern California.
Justin Walker is on hand as Cher's potential beau, Christian, as is Jeremy Sisto; and Paul Rudd as her sometimes annoying, but always reliable ex-stepbrother, Josh.Like 1982's "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "Clueless" transcends the mediocrity and pitfalls of most teen dramedies and breaks the threshold of greatness.
The film revolves around Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) a blonde rich girl who is the most popular girl at Beverly Hills high school along with her best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash).
This film is a flawless Gem with an amazing, enjoyable, fun plot & amazing characters, a witty sharp script that makes this one of the best teen movies of all time!
Amy Heckerling set it in modern day (modern day 90's when it was released) and aimed I solely at teenagers.Alicia Silverstone is Cher, the most popular girl at her school.
With her best friend Dionne (The impossibly gorgeous Stacey Dash) they decide to help improve the social standing of the new girl at school Tia (The late Brittany Murphy) whilst helping two teachers find love.I really liked this movie when I saw this in 1995, however 19 years later it wasn't as enjoyable.
Cher our character has many issues in this movie,, trying to take care of her dad,, finding a boyfriend,, playing miss i'm gonna save the world,, being the most popular girl at school,, doing makeover's for her friends and the like,, all in all I thought that this was a wonderful movie to watch..
Cher comes through as a character we really adore and care about due to one major reason, her childish innocence or as the title of the movie puts it her cluelessness.The general synopsis of the film follows Cher (Alicia Silverstone) as she attempts to con and manipulate her teachers into increasing her low grades.
Clueless The worst part of being a teenager in the 1990s was that absentee parenting was 15 years away.Fortunately, the spoilt socialite in this comedy is on good terms with her single-father.When a severely un-hip chick, Tai (Brittany Murphy), transfers to their high school, Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and Dionne (Stacey Dash) attempt to turn the kindhearted new girl into a shallow shopaholic like them.On the home front, Cher's father (Dan Hedaya) has taken her ex-stepbrother (Paul Rudd) in, leading to constant bickering between the two.However, her home life doesn't stop Cher from using her matchmaking skills to pair Tai with Elton (Jeremy Sisto), who, unfortunately, has a big time crush on Cher.The quintessential deconstruction of affluent teenagers, this Jane Austin's Emma inspired coming-of-age tale is a witty and relevant representation of a naive generation.Incidentally, thanks to Wikipedia, at least today's young people can feign intelligence.
Clueless is by far one of the cheeriest, cutest, and funniest romantic comedies I have ever seen *squeal!* Based on Jane Austen's story Emma, this rambunctious chick flick centers around Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), a rich, spoiled high school popularity queen who concludes, after successfully setting up two teachers into romantic bliss to boost moods (and subsequently her GPA), that she is a born pro bono matchmaker, and sets off to meddle in everyone else's love affairs.
The ending for sure is never in doubt, but with the sharpness of tongue {the sassy teen dialect is a metaphoric joy} blending in with the air of sweetness throughout, Heckerling has crafted an alternative, modern day classic of her own.Backing up the fine work from Silverstone is the equally pretty Stacey Dash as best pal Dionne {a 30 year old playing a 15 year old!}, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Dan Hedaya {joyous as Cher's father}, Donald Faison and Breckin Meyer.
Needless to say, she'd had enough after four days but I still craved more of director Amy Heckerling's "Beverly Hills 90210"-Jane Austen's "Emma" cross-breed, this teen comedy from 1995.I'm a guy; I'll just leave that out there for you all to think about.There is something greatly charming about the beautiful, if not slightly air-headed Alicia Silverstone and her role as young Cher Horowitz.
Cher (Silverstone) is a popular, rich, beautiful 15 year old, who is Clueless over, well, most everything, except for, that is, shopping and having a brilliant time.
Teenager Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) selfishly matchmakes two lonely teachers (Wallace Shawn, Twink Caplan) to improve her grades and when that makes her feel good, she tries to transform a bad-dressing new student (Brittany Murphy) into a popular girl, only to have it backfire.What I like primarily is how relatable this is.
But that's exactly what has happened with this film.Heckerling obviously gets that Austen's continuous appeal lies in the fact that her stories remain relevant and timely---so why not update it, make the character of Emma (Cher here, played by the adorable Alicia Silverstone) a daffy valley girl, and fill the movie to the brim with pop-culture references and one very funny vignette after another?
Clueless is a time-less teen movie that even today, almost 10years on, is as relevant as it was then!. |
tt0838232 | The Pink Panther 2 | The film begins in England. At a local museum, a tour guide is showing a group to the Magna Carta. When they arrive, they see that the Magna Carta is missing. The only thing left is a card that says: "The Tornado."In Italy, a monk is showing people where the Shroud of Turin is stored in the church, only to discover that it to has been stolen. There is a card that reads: "Il Tornado (The Tornado)."In Japan, the police arrive after discovering that an artifact has been stolen from a museum. Again, there is a card that reads "The Tornado" in Japanese.Finally, we arrive in France. Chief Inspector Dreyfus (John Cleese) arrives at the office of the head of Government. The governor of France informs Inspector Dreyfus that England, Italy, and Japan are assembling a dream team of detectives to help recover the stolen treasures, but they will need help from other nations. This includes France. Inspector Dreyfus assumes that he is the detective that will represent France, but is disappointed when the Governor tells him that Clouseau has been chosen to lead the dream-team since he has been considered the greatest detective in France, after recovering the Pink Panther diamond. Dreyfus calmly gets up and steps into the bathroom. Moments later, he begins throwing a fit about Clouseau. He returns to the Governor's office and says that Clouseau cannot be assigned to the dream-team, because he already has an important job.It turns out; this "important job" is nothing of that sort. Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Steve Martin) is simply a parking officer, in charge of leaving tickets and such. When he sees that a car is parked only little ways from a parking meter, Clouseau writes up a ticket. The driver arrives and feels that the ticket isn't needed, gets in his car and tries to drive away. Clouseau won't have it and chases the car so he can hand the ticket to the driver. As he tries to stick his hand through the window, the driver rolls up the window and crushes Clouseau's hand, but Clouseau won't give up, even though the car is now dragging him. When Clouseau demands that the driver stop the car, the driver slams on the brakes and sends Clouseau flying through the air and past the Eiffel Tower.We are then treated to an animated opening credits sequence.After the opening credits, we see Inspector Dreyfus arrive at his office where a new security system has been installed to protect France's greatest artifact, The Pink Panther diamond. Inspector Dreyfus tells his assistant that Clouseau has been assigned to the Dream Team. Before the assistant can question him, Clouseau arrives. Inspector Dreyfus is clearly jealous as Clouseau shows off his medal that the Mayor of France had given him for recovering the Pink Panther. As Inspector Dreyfus is about to speak about The Dream Team, Clouseau lunges his pen at a security camera and then another, and then he cuts a hole in Inspector Dreyfus' portrait and removes the recording equipment which is part of the security system. Soon, the police arrive and attack Inspector Dreyfus, thinking he is a criminal. They demand to know the password. Thankfully, Clouseau has the password and the police leave. The password was "Hamdburger" but Inspector Dreyfus pronounces the word "Hamburger" instead which results in an argument about the pronunciation of the password.After the argument, Inspector Dreyfus wonders how Clouseau knew the password. It turns out that Clouseau has a special system installed into his medal, all he has to do is type in certain things and the password is revealed. He also shows off his tape-recorder/pen. Inspector Dreyfus tells Clouseau that he has been assigned to the Dream Team, but Clouseau feels that he should stay behind because of the recent thefts and he fears that the Pink Panther will be stolen next. Inspector Dreyfus says that he is guarding the Pink Panther. Clouseau still argues with him, before Inspector Dreyfus says that he is giving him an order. Clouseau, never going against direct orders, agrees to the plan with a firm salute.Back at Clouseau's office, Clouseau is packing for the trip when his secretary, Nicole (Emily Mortimer) arrives. Nicole is disappointed when she sees Clouseau's plane tickets for Japan, and wonders when he will return. Clouseau says he doesn't know when he will return, which upsets Nicole. Clouseau says that he can't stay in contact with Nicole, and says that, for awhile, they must forget each other and that one night they had spent together. Cut to six months (or weeks) ago, Nicole and Clouseau are in Rome together at a restaurant called "La Plata de Nada." It seems they are just out for dinner for business only, and don't think that any romance will happen. Clouseau leaves the table to select a wine, but only manages to send a dozen wine bottles flying all over the place, nearly hitting customers and sending the place into chaos. Things only get worse when Clouseau sets the restaurant on fire. By some twist of fate, it sparks a romance between Nicole and Clouseau. Back in the present, Nicole and Clouseau agree to forget that night and each other for the time being. They attempt to hug goodbye, but are caught off guard when Clouseau's fellow detective and friend, Gilbert Ponton (Jean Reno), arrives to fetch Clouseau. When they go to the car, Clouseau says that he is ready to drive, and Ponton agrees but seems a bit skeptical.For awhile, the car ride goes well. Until, Clouseau decides to discuss his relationship with Nicole and accidentally lets go of the wheel. Leaving an extremely nervous Ponton to take control of the wheel and assure Clouseau that everything will work out. When they arrive at the airport, Ponton mentions that his anniversary with his wife is coming up and says that things haven't been going well between them. Ponton says they had argued about his work, because Ponton seems to put it before his family. Clouseau tells Ponton to not give into his wife's nagging and continue to put his work first. Ponton and Clouseau say goodbye, but just as Clouseau steps over the yellow tape, the Pink Panther is suddenly stolen.Clouseau remains in France, and the Dream Team is flown in. When Clouseau arrives at the scene of the crime, he sees Nicole but pretends not to know her, which makes Ponton wonder.Ponton and Nicole follow Clouseau where they meet the Dream Team. There is: Miles Pepperidge from England, Vincenzo from Italy and Kenji from Japan. It seems that Clouseau has a hard time pronouncing Vincenzo's full name, which makes Vincenzo a bit annoyed. It also seems that Vincenzo is smitten with Nicole.As Pepperidge begins to deduct the crime scene, Clouseau tries to outdo him, which results in an argument. Soon, the Dream Team adds another member named Sonia; she is a second-rate detective from India and very alluring. Nicole can't help but notice the attraction between Sonia and Clouseau.Later on, Vincenzo admits to Clouseau that he is attracted to Nicole, Clouseau, remembering to protect Nicole, says he isn't interested in Nicole because she is drab and disgusting. Vincenzo disagrees and walks away from Clouseau.As everyone is setting out to leave, Clouseau refers to Kenji as his "little yellow friend." Kenji seems highly offended. Clouseau is sent to the team's etiquette teacher, Mrs. Berenger (Lily Tomlin). Berenger tells Clouseau that he shouldn't have called Kenji that. When Clouseau asks why, Berenger informs him that it is a stereotype. Clouseau seems to shrug it off. In an effort to break Clouseau of his stereotypical remarks, Berenger turns the conversation towards women. She asks Clouseau to pretend that she is a sensual woman with exposed cleavage, and says that Clouseau's expression during the charade must remain neutral. Berenger pretends she is picking up a pencil, but by the end of it, Clouseau looks a bit horny. Clouseau says to Berenger that he likes her.
Click Here!At the airport, everyone arrives at Vincenzo's private jet. When the team wonders about the pilot, Vincenzo says that he is the pilot. Vincenzo says that he wants Nicole to be his co-pilot, and Nicole agrees. Aboard the jet, Clouseau watches as Vincenzo and Nicole flirt with each other. Sonia, however, has intentions of flirting with Clouseau, and tries to convince him that Nicole is most likely interested in younger men like Vincenzo. Sonia also admits to Clouseau that she is more interested in older men, like Clouseau. Nicole turns her head and sees Sonia and Clouseau getting chummy, Vincenzo speaks of what Clouseau had said to him about Nicole being drab and disgusting. Offended by Clouseau, Nicole begins to drift away from him and closer to Vincenzo.The team arrives in Rome to see one of the suspects, Alonzo Avellaneda, a blacksmith who is often associated with The Tornado. Clouseau tells Nicole that he is going to sneak around, but Nicole doesn't seem to mind him. As the Dream Team interviews Avellaneda, they can see on the security monitors that Clouseau is making a complete fool of himself. In an effort to keep Avellaneda distracted, the Dream Team keeps hitting him with questions. They even force him to remove his shirt, as the Tornado is known to have a bullet wound in his right shoulder. Pepperidge examines both of the shoulder blades, but can see no sign of the wound. Clouseau then makes his entrance by sliding down the chimney and accusing Avellaneda.Later on, Pepperidge, Vincenzo, and Kenji are outside with Clouseau and trying to convince him that Avellaneda is not The Tornado because he has no wound. Clouseau suggests that perhaps Avellaneda had plastic surgery to cover it up. Seeing no sense in arguing, the Dream Team, Clouseau, Ponton and Nicole pack up and leave the home. Avellaneda gives the all-clear, and the real Tornado steps out of a room. As the Tornado goes by the window, he says that he once knew one of the detectives but he won't say whom.Clouseau gets a tip that Avellanda and a lady-friend will be dining at La Plata De Nada that night. So, Ponton and Clouseau watch the restaurant from across the street, they have already planted a bug under Avellanda's table so they can hear the conversation. However, Clouseau is taken by surprise when he sees Nicole and Vincenzo at the restaurant together and being very friendly with one another. Fearing that Nicole is cheating, Clouseau tells Ponton that they have to move the bug over to Nicole and Vincenzo's table. Ponton wonders how they could manage that. Clouseau sees one of the dancers for the restaurants entertainment is going through the back door; he attacks him and steals his costume. Since the costume includes a mask, nobody recognizes Clouseau. While making the effort to move the bug, Clouseau's dancing causes trouble and he, once again, manages to burn down the restaurant.Once outside, after the fire, Ponton points out Nicole to Clouseau. Nicole takes one look at Clouseau, and begins to cough; Vincenzo who escorts her off the premises comforts her. Clouseau seems highly disappointed.Later in the night, The Tornado sneaks into the Papal Palace and steals the Pope's ring as he sleeps.The next morning, the Dream Team arrives at the Papal Palace and the Italian reporters question Pepperidge. After dealing with the press, the Dream Team goes to see the Pope. Vincenzo kisses the Pope's hand and assures him that he will find the ring and return it to him. The Pope tells him to have a seat, but Clouseau steals the seat. Clouseau begins to make assumptions that perhaps the Pope himself stole the ring to gain money, but the Pope denies the accusation. In order to investigate, Clouseau thinks he should place himself in the Pope's position. Literally. After dressing in the Pope's robes, Clouseau steps onto the balcony but ends up tumbling off it. Making him the center of the news.The Dream Team travel back to France but Clouseau gets an unexpected surprise when Pontons two boys, Antoine and Louis, attack him. Clouseau tries to show the boys how to do a surprise attack, by attacking a sleeping Ponton. However, Clouseau is the one taken by surprise when Ponton kicks him and sends him crashing into the coffee table. Soon after, their mother picks up Antoine and Louis, Ponton seems upset as he kisses his sons goodbye. Clouseau tries to cheer him up and tells him that he should be happy to be a bachelor again. He asks Ponton how they should celebrate singlehood. Of course, both being middle-age men, the only fun thing they are able to do is shampoo each other's hair. Clouseau reads the shampoo bottle but has a hard time pronouncing the name of the shampoo, Ponton tells him the correct pronunciation. They find the actual Shampoo brand name amusing, and make a song about it. Only seconds later does Ponton decide that he has to go back to his wife and sons. Clouseau says that work should always come first, but Ponton disagrees and says that he now realizes that love and family should come before work with no expectations. Ponton says that when you are in love, that you may not even know it, he uses Nicole and Clouseau as an example. Ponton says that he knows that Clouseau loves Nicole but refuses to see it; he says that when a man loves a woman than the man should be able to know everything about the woman. When Clouseau doesn't respond, Ponton begins to leave but Clouseau suddenly speaks about Nicole. He says that Nicole loves the smell of Vanilla and that she loves her cats Wendy and Louise (there was a third cat, but I forgot its name), he also says that Nicole is the most beautiful woman in the world but she doesn't believe it. Ponton asks Clouseau why he never tells Nicole that she is beautiful, Clouseau admits that if he tells Nicole that she is beautiful then she will leave him. Wanting to be consoled, Clouseau hugs Ponton. Unfortunately, Ponton is left with a big shampoo smudge on his cheek.At the main headquarters, Vincenzo and Kenji and Pepperidge are extremely angry about Clouseau's stunt at the Papal Palace. Sonia says that she likes Clouseau and wants to keep him on the case, but the boys disagree. With a show of hands, Clouseau is voted off the team. Clouseau arrives and raises his hand when he sees that the boys have their hands raised. Vincenzo informs Clouseau that they were just voting Clouseau off the team.Upset, Clouseau returns to his office later but finds Sonia there as well. It turns out, that Nicole has quit and Sonia was just cleaning out her things. Seeing that Clouseau is extremely vulnerable, Sonia takes advantage and says that she knows how it feels to be rejected. Clouseau peeks his head out of the office to be sure that Mrs. Berenger is nowhere to be found; afterwards he goes back to Sonia and says that she is "sexy" and extremely attractive. Clouseau and Sonia share a hug and Nicole walks in on them, but becomes upset and leaves. Berenger pops her head inside of the office and says that she wants to see Clouseau soon.Later on, the Dream Team is on the scene of a suicide, the Tornado's suicide. Clouseau arrives, apparently ignoring that he has been kicked off the team. The others say that he should leave because the case has been closed because of the Tornado killing himself. Clouseau wants to see the stolen artifacts and Kenji shows him the crates that are filled with the artifacts. Clouseau is worried when he can't see the Pink Panther. Pepperidge tells him that it was the only thing they couldn't recover. Clouseau tells everyone that the case won't be closed because the real Tornado hasn't been caught. Everyone tries to convince him, Sonia evens reads a suicide note written in the Tornado's hand. Clouseau says that until the Pink Panther has been recovered, then the case is still unsolved. Seeing no sense in arguing with their team member, the Dream Team attends a press conference and announces that the case is officially closed, but Clouseau makes his opinion known. Clouseau is angered when Vincenzo says that the real thief is Nicole, because she has stolen Vincenzo's heart. The press finds this romantic, but Clouseau doesn't seem amused.Later on at a banquet to celebrate the Dream Team's success, Clouseau has been placed on parking duty again. Nicole goes outside and brings Clouseau something to eat, and Clouseau thanks her. Nicole, no longer able to control her anger, confronts Clouseau about why he called her drab and disgusting. Clouseau says he was only doing it to protect her and that he really believes she is beautiful. Nicole, upset and confused, runs back inside. Sonia pulls up in her rental car and informs Clouseau that she is leaving France; Clouseau bids her farewell as Sonia steps inside to join the others. As Clouseau stands outside, he sees the license plate on the back of Sonia's rental car, and realizes the truth. He runs inside and takes Inspector Dreyfus aside and says that he knows where the Pink Panther is. The Dream Team watches from afar as they see Inspector Dreyfus arguing with Clouseau. Inspector Dreyfus returns to the table and says that Clouseau believes that the Tornado is really Sonia. The Dream Team laughs it off and, as a joke, try to figure out how Sonia could have done it. When they produce an actual theory, Nicole seems extremely suspicious. The others just think of it as a game, and don't believe Sonia is capable of stealing all those artifacts. Sonia gets up to leave but Nicole asks her to empty her purse, Vincenzo tells Nicole that it was only a game. Nicole says they should finish the game by letting Sonia empty her purse, now even the Dream Team is suspicious. Sonia pulls out a gun and holds it to Nicole; Clouseau arrives on the scene to stop Sonia.Sonia leads Pepperidge, Clouseau, Kenji, and Vincenzo on a chase through the building. They come to a hallway, Sonia pours gasoline all over the hallway and uses her gun to set the hall ablaze. The Dream Team and Clouseau manage to put out the fire, but manage to get covered with cake and flower after crashing with a few dessert trays. Sonia, in an effort to escape, shoots the Pink Panther and the sparks fly all over the building. As Sonia runs to escape, her head is dented when she bumps into a metal tray that was being held up by Ponton. Sonia is arrested, but everyone despairs because the Pink Panther has been destroyed. Clouseau calls in Antoine who is holding a case, which reveals the real Pink Panther diamond. Clouseau says that when he feared that the Pink Panther would be stolen, that he took the real Pink Panther and replaced it with a replica. Vincenzo observes Nicole and Clouseau, and realizes that he loves Nicole far too much to watch her suffer. Vincenzo tells Clouseau that Nicole loves him and that nothing happened the night that the restaurant was set on fire. Clouseau professes his love for Nicole and gets on one knee and proposes marriage.On the day of Nicole and Clouseau's wedding, the entire Dream Team (with the exception of Sonia) is present and Inspector Dreyfus is performing the ceremony. After the kiss, Clouseau tosses his pen again at a security camera and the police arrive again. They once again force Inspector Dreyfus for the password, but Clouseau's gadget has a glitch. Clouseau and Nicole rush away, and Nicole tosses her bouquet. In a surprise twist, Pepperidge catches the bouquet. The film ends as the ceremony goes into complete chaos with cake flying and machine guns going off. Suddenly, the animated Pink Panther enters the wedding room and winks at the camera. The end. | bleak, murder | train | imdb | null |
tt0057993 | Danza macabra | CASTLE OF BLOOD synopsis **NOTE: In the European version the actors are listed by their real Italian names. In the US version they were given American-sounding names. Below they are referred to in their real Italian names.**On a cold dark night a man is seen outside the Four Devils Tavern in London, looking around. Entering, he goes downstairs where Edgar Allan Poe (Silvano Tranquilli) is reciting lines from one of his stories to Lord Thomas Blackwood (Umberto Raho) and the bartender. He listens for a moment, then introduces himself as Alan Foster (Georges Rivière), a reporter who has been trying to get an interview with Poe. Remembering him as having pursued him without response, he invites Foster to sit down. They discuss death and whether there is an afterlife. At one point, Sir Blackwood invites Foster to spend a night in his castle atop a cliff overlooking the sea at Providence. He must remain there from midnight to dawn, upon which he will receive 100 pounds sterling. Refusing the bet because he can only afford 10 pounds sterling, Foster is persuaded to try if he is not afraid. He is told by both Blackwood and Poe that all those who tried before ended up dead. The most recent deaths were a newlywed couple who never returned but are buried in the castle cemetery. Foster agrees and Poe agrees to accompany them to the castle (which is a two-hour ride by carriage) during which he will interview Poe at length.As they arrive at the castle in the middle of the night, Poe asks Foster if he has any second thoughts before he is left alone. Having none, they bid him goodnight saying they will return in the morning. He waves as they leave. Going inside the gates, he wanders through the narrow cemetery. He sees only a black kitten hanging around. As he ascends the steps he finds a womans garment which he picks up and carries inside with him.Inside he finds an old dusty castle, very dark and dank. Lighting a candelabra, he begins looking round. He hears a noise and goes to an open window. Looking out, he sees nothing and closes it. He taps his cane on an ancient dining table, covered in dust. He sets the candelabra down, removes his cape and hat and places them on the table. Picking up the candelabra, he explores more until he hears a large clock striking eleven. He looks at the grandfather clock, which shows 11:30. The pendulum appears still. As he turns away, he hears the clock strike once more. He looks and sees the pendulum swinging. As he approaches, it stops. He compares the time to that of his pocket watch and sees they are the same.As he looks into another room, he is startled by the image of a man. He goes to investigate and finds a full-length mirror. Tapping on it, he tells himself not to be afraid of his own reflection. He goes on and sees a portrait of Julia Alert (Margrete Robsahm). As he looks again, the portrait seems to be rippling. He tells himself its only a portrait and returns to the table, setting down the candelabra and pulling out note paper and pencil. He tells the portrait that he will make some notes and begins writing.All at once he hears music playing and gets up to see. In another room, he sees a couple dancing but as he approaches the door, it slams shut. Forcing the door open, he finds a dark music room with a harpsichord and harp. He lights a candelabra on the harpsichord, and noticing sheet music there, he sits and begins playing it. Suddenly we see a hand reaching out to touch his shoulder from behind. He is startled and turns to see Elisabeth Blackwood (Barbara Steele) who asks if her brother sent him. Rising, he tells her Lord Blackwood made a bet, but he didnt know anyone else would be in the castle or he wouldnt have accepted the bet. She tells him she fell out with her brother because she was in love with the gardener Herbert (Giovanni Cianfriglia) and Lord Blackwood didnt approve. He tells her he will leave rather than cause her misery, but she insists he stay and win the bet. She says that his room has been prepared. He is surprised and asks how she knew he was coming. She replies that her brother makes the same wager every year on this night and someone comes. As they continue walking, the candles go out just as Elisabeth laughs. He asks who blew them out and she answers only the wind. As they pass by the portrait of Julia, it seems to be rippling again. Elisabeth doesnt see the rippling, but asks about it. Again he tells her he will leave and gather his belongings. She sees the garment he brought in and picks it up, smelling it. He tells her he found it outside.They go upstairs to a bedroom where he sets the candelabra on a desk. Elisabeth sits on the bed and calls him to sit beside her. He comes close and she asks about the world outside. He tells her nothing has changed, but that it is a shame that the world cant share her beauty. She asks him if he finds her attractive and he admits he does. She asks about him and he tells her there is not much to tell. He is single, lonely and works in London as a writer.Suddenly Julia enters the room and says that they have not been introduced. Elisabeth warns Julia not to interfere, telling her that Foster was sent to her by her brother. Julia challenges that, asking Foster if it is true. He says only that he is there because of a wager. Elisabeth tries to get Julia to leave and not to cause any trouble. When she refuses, Elisabeth says that she will leave and does. Julia tells him it is late and that she will also retire. He asks if he will see her in the morning and she tells him no. When he asks if she is leaving, she tells him, no, I only said you wont see me in the daylight. She leaves and he ponders all that was said.Outside in the hall, the two women talk. Elisabeth tells Julia that he belongs to her, that she is in love with him, and they will be happy together. Julia tells her she will not be happy and that he will soon learn the secret of this place. Julia threatens to tell him. Elisabeth is upset and runs off.In his room, Foster removes his coat and looks at a small stack of books on the desk. He picks one up and opens it. The title page reads: CARMUS: ELEMENTS OF METAPHYSICS MEDICINE. He goes to the bed to begin reading, but is distracted by a noise coming from the door. He notices the door handle slowly opening. He rises and gets his derringer and stands by the door. When he pulls the door open, he sees Elisabeth, who says that he is still awake. He invites her in and she goes to the bed, where she sees the book. She says that she will leave, so he can read it. He persuades her to remain, telling her how much he likes her and is attracted to her. She answers that she is pleased to hear this and that she wants his body warmth. She asks him to kiss her and embrace her. They embrace and she begs for his kisses and for him to warm her.Meanwhile Julia is listening outside the door. She remarks to herself that she tried to warn Elisabeth but was unsuccessful. She turns to go and runs into William (Benito Stefanelli) who asks about Elisabeth. Julia tells him she will inform Herbert.Alan and Elisabeth are seen in bed, where he expresses his joy of meeting her. She tells him she cant be part of his world because he is in the present, while hers is in the past. He tells her that he doesnt believe that, resting his head on her chest. As he caresses her arm, he suddenly notices that she has no heartbeat. He looks at her and calls her name. She answers and he tells her that he was afraid her heart had stopped beating. She tells him that her heart has not beaten for ten years since she died.Suddenly Herbert bursts into the room with a knife and stabs Elisabeth. He runs from the room with Alan following. Alan shoots him and he falls. As he watches, the body vanishes. Alan returns to the bedroom to find it empty. He begins calling for Elisabeth, going room to room. All at once he encounters Dr. Carmus (Arturo Dominici), who tells him that he will be unable to find Elisabeth. They go into his study where he offers Alan a drink of whiskey. He explains about the three parts of life. The first part (the weakest) is the human body. Second is the spirit within, and third are the senses, which he explains live on after death in some bodies. Alan scoffs at this and Carmus tells him he will prove it. Removing a small case from a cabinet, he produces a small venomous snake which he puts on a table. Cutting off the head, he tells Alan to note how the body continues moving without the head and the head, though severed from the body is still dangerous enough to bite. Alan says that may be true for reptiles, but he doesnt believe its the same for humans. Carmus takes him to the window, where he points out below the graves of Elisabeth and the others. He tells Alan that tonight they each will live out the last five minutes of their lives until they died.They ascend a staircase and Alan begs for more details about Elisabeth. Suddenly the clock chimes and Carmus tells him that the time is at hand and that words mean nothing. He is told to watch below. The room plays back the evening of a festive party where Elisabeth was dancing with her husband William, who stops and goes to get her a drink. As she waits by a window, Herbert knocks from outside. She opens it and he insists on seeing her. She tells him she will try to see him later and closes the window. Julia sees her talking to Herbert but says nothing. William brings the drink to his wife. Sir Blackwood and his wife approach and inform their hosts they must leave. Escorting them outside, Elisabeth then turns aside to talk to Herbert. He takes her aside into the stable and demands her loyalty, saying that she promised herself to him while her husband was away. Suddenly the dream fades and Carmus tells Alan that their deaths will be replayed tonight, as every year at this time.He takes Alan into the bedroom where William and Elisabeth are in bed together. Herbert comes in and strangles William. He then turns on Elisabeth to kill her, but he is knocked out by Julia with a candlestick. He falls with half his face indented from the blow. Julia turns to comfort Elisabeth, telling her she is now safe. Elisabeth reaches for a knife and stabs Julia. Getting out of bed, Elisabeth views the three dead bodies and screams. Alan says he doesnt want to see anymore, and that it must be a trick. Carmus tells Alan that there is more for him to see.Alan sees that the bedroom is now empty. No bodies are present. He begins searching again, calling for Carmus and Elisabeth. When he reaches the study of Carmus, the door opens and he goes in. Next he sees Carmus, who takes a drink of whiskey. Hearing a banging noise, Carmus takes a candelabra and goes from door to door and window to window until he finds the door that keeps banging open and shut. Opening it, he goes downstairs into the crypt room. He passes by an ornate coffin showing a man and a dog to a stone bier. He slides the cover off to see a decomposed woman inside. As he watches, she begins to breathe, then converts into a mist. Going back to his study, he sits down and begins to write. Suddenly Herbert enters and kills him, then bites to suck blood from his neck. At this point Carmus comes back into the room, telling Alan that he has seen how Carmus met his end. When Alan looks at the desk again, no one is there. He picks up the paper Carmus wrote on and reads: Blood is the fountain of life; only blood brings back the dead to life; we will drink from this fountain!! Alan hears ghostly laughter and pulls out his derringer. Realizing the gun will do no good, he drops in on the desk and exits the study. Soon he hears more laughter from outside. As the front door opens, he hides to watch. The bride (Sylvia Sorrente) and groom enter to spend their wedding night.
As they go upstairs, Alan calls out to them to warn them they are going to their deaths, but realizes they cant hear him and there is nothing he can do but watch. He notices the door standing open and goes to it. It closes and he tries to open it, but the handle breaks off. He realizes he is trapped. He begins calling out loud, hoping Carmus can set him free while he is still alive.Upstairs, the amorous couple is kissing but hears a noise. He goes to investigate and she begins to undress by the fire. As she gazes at her reflection in the mirror, we see Herbert approach from behind. Seeing him, she screams as he attacks. Her husband rushes in to find Elsi dead, and is killed by Herbert. The scene vanishes and Alan sees the couple approaching him. They tell him it is now his turn. He runs downstairs and sees Carmus, who tells him that he is next. He tries to run, but each of them are closing in on him. All at once he sees Elisabeth, who tells him which way to run. She says they need his blood to be able to live again next year for a few minutes.
Alan runs down a hall and is trapped as the others approach. At the last second, Elisabeth opens a door and leads him through. Again she tells him they need his blood but if he can escape they will die. He tells her to come with him, grabbing her arm. She cries no, that she cannot enter his world. He insists, pulling her along through corridors. She continues to tell him that she cant come with him because she is dead. Finally they go outside where she collapses, telling him goodbye. Her body deteriorates completely away until she is only dust. He stumbles through the graveyard, hearing the voices of the others calling him. As he comes under the tree with the low branches, he sees the bodies of the others hanging from high limbs. They all tell him there is no escape and they will live by his blood. He makes it to the gate and steps outside, thinking he is safe. Suddenly the gate closes and a metal rod pierces him through, killing him and holding his body upright.The next morning Poe and Blackwood arrive in their carriage and Poe remarks how he is standing there. But when they approach they see he is dead. Blackwood takes money from Alans wallet, telling Poe he must collect on the debt. Blackwood says he will arrange for burial in the cemetery. Poe says he can now write the story, but no one will believe it.The voices of Elisabeth and Alan are heard talking to each other. She says you stayed with me, Alan. He replies: yes, Elisabeth. | gothic | train | imdb | The man takes the dare in spite of the warning.Once inside the tension begins to rise as the man is joined by previous occupants of the house.He is forced to watch their very own violent deaths as they are repeated this particular night every year.The ghosts then try to lure the young man into joining them,even the ghost(Barbara Steele) who has fallen in love with him.Will he survive to see the dawn?This is a very well made film.The scares are frequent and you actually care about several of the characters,ghosts included.
Plot of this film deals with a cocky reporter(George Riviere) who is offered a wager to spend the night in a supposedly haunted castle.
"Castle Of Blood" of 1964 is a beautiful and incredibly haunting masterpiece of Italian Gothic Horror, and after Mario Bava's "La Maschera Del Demonio" (aka.
"Black Sunday") of 1960 and Roger Corman's "Pit And The Pendulum" of 1961 (starring the great Vincent Price) another must-see that earned the wonderful Barbara Steele her more than deserved fame as the most important female Horror icon in the history of motion pictures.
Italy's number 2 in the field (right after Mario Bava), Director Antonio Margheriti is one of the all-time masters of Gothic Horror, and "Castle of Blood" is doubtlessly his greatest achievement.
When he encounters the famous writer of brilliant macabre stories, Edgar Allen Poe, in a gloomy London tavern, young journalist Alan Foster (Georges Rivière) accepts a bet from a nobleman, that he can not spend a night in his haunted castle in the night of all souls' eve.
The mysterious events so far, however, have only been forebodings of the terrors the castle bears, however...The eerie castle setting alone would be sufficient to create a gloomy mood, the excellent black and white cinematography and a great score by Riz Ortolani create an incredibly haunting atmosphere that is eerie beyond comparison.
"Castle of Blood" is outstanding in many departments: Barbara Steele Delivers one of her best performances, the cinematography and locations are beautifully haunting beyond comparison, the atmosphere is incredibly eerie...
In short: "Castle of Blood" is one of the most atmospheric and greatest Gothic Horror films ever made, and must not be missed by anyone interested in the genre!
Antonio Margheriti's "Danza Macabra"/"Castle of Blood" is an eerie,atmospheric chiller that succeeds on all fronts.It looks absolutely beautiful in black & white and it has wonderfully creepy Gothic vibe.Alan Foster is an English journalist who pursues an interview with visiting American horror writer Edgar Allan Poe.Poe bets Foster that he can't spend one night in the abandoned mansion of Poe's friend,Thomas Blackwood.Accepting the wager,Foster is locked in the mansion and the horror begins!The film is extremely atmospheric and it scared the hell out of me.The crypt sequence is really eerie and the tension is almost unbearable.Barbara Steele looks incredibly beautiful as sinister specter Elisabeth Blackwood."Castle of Blood" is easily one of the best Italian horror movies made in early 60's.A masterpiece!.
At the start of this week, I received Antonio Margheriti's Gothic horror classic LA DANZA MACABRA (1964), courtesy of Synapse Film's DVD entitled CASTLE OF BLOOD, and I ended up watching it on Christmas Day!
This was only my fourth film from this Euro-Cult director, who passed away only too recently; the others - KILLER FISH (1978), THE ARK OF THE SUN GOD (1982; aka: HUNTERS OF THE GOLDEN COBRA) and TORNADO (1983) - are hardly anything to brag about and, in any case, this was eons ago so it's as if CASTLE OF BLOOD was my introduction proper to Margheriti's work.After having read a number of mixed reviews (including Brian Lindsey's on the Eccentric Cinema website), I did not quite know what to expect but I must say that I was genuinely surprised by this film for I liked it a lot.
Then again, CASTLE OF BLOOD looks forward to THE ASPHYX (1972) in their common argument about a person or thing not giving up on life unless he or it is prepared to die.The film evokes a great atmosphere, considering that budget and shooting schedule must have been pretty tight: smooth and interesting camera-work (particularly some tilted shots used for disorienting effect), expressive shadowy lighting and the expansive yet claustrophobic sets, all of which are beautifully complemented by a fine and eclectic score by Riz Ortolani.There are several other qualities that elevate the film rightfully to its renowned place in the pantheon of Italian horror, not least of all is the presence of two highly attractive ladies - Barbara Steele and Margarete Robsahm.
Steele effectively alternates between vulnerability and aggressiveness - thus building upon her dual roles in BLACK Sunday (1960) - by giving her character a sense of inner conflict (her willingness to die at the end rather than have to repeat the castle's 'night of terror' ordeal over and over), though her thunder here is often stolen by Robsahm who manages an admirable subtlety in her (relatively) brief and enigmatic appearance.
And can anyone explain those hanging bodies which Alan Foster (Georges Riviere's character) passes by immediately afterwards, as he stumbles outside the castle grounds?Where the film comes up short is in the stilted dialogue of the romantic interludes - if the Barbara Steele/John Richardson relationship in BLACK Sunday comes off as unconvincing, what about the Steele/Riviere match here?
Apart from this, couldn't they have picked one of the women to 'vampirize' successive victims?!Among the film's highlights are: the snake scene I mentioned earlier, which is genuinely skin-crawling; another uncomfortable moment is when the rotting corpse in the castle's cellar starts to move (who exactly is he?); the re-enactment of the murders, and the way it vividly captures Foster's desperation at his failure to stop them at every turn, not quite believing that what he is watching has already happened; the blood-craving ghosts' attack on Foster at the end, which reaches a fine pitch of frenzy before he is led to safety by Elizabeth - and to what he believes is freedom; Foster's violent death scene, then, is quite stunning - worthy of Bava or Argento at their best.As for the DVD presentation, I thought the Picture Quality neither better nor worse than expected; it was quite pleasant, in fact.
It's a pity, however, that the alternate French-language track (reportedly in even worse shape than the English one!) wasn't subtitled in its entirety, as this dubbing is still the more natural-sounding.I am now looking forward to watching more Margheriti from this vintage, particularly THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH (1964) - his other film with Barbara Steele - but also WEB OF THE SPIDER (1970), the director's own color (and allegedly inferior) remake of CASTLE OF BLOOD, with Anthony Franciosa, Michele Mercier and Klaus Kinski - themselves no strangers to horror films.
I have never seen a Barbara Steele movie that I haven't liked, and have always been a sucker for a good haunted-house story (especially for such wonderful pictures as "The Legend of Hell House" and the original versions of "The Haunting" and "House on Haunted Hill"), so I had a feeling that "Castle of Blood" would be right up my alley.
This French-Italian coproduction, while perhaps not the classic that Steele's first horror film, "Black Sunday," remains to this day, is nevertheless an extremely atmospheric, chilling entry in the spook genre.
But despite this, the dark creepy atmosphere (complete with ruined castles, fog enshrouded cemeteries, shadows and cobwebs), Gothic set design, strong acting, and suspense (especially the last 20 minutes) scared the bejeepers out of me and made a lasting impression It took me years to finally get a copy of the film for my collection.
I couldn't quite remember the title (remember I didn't get to seen the beginning of the film and was scared witless), and to make matters worse, the film had been released under literally a dozen different movie titles (aka Danze Macabre, Coffin of Terror, Castle of Terror, Long Night of Terror, etc...) and the USA/UK working title "Castle of Blood" was very generic, similar to dozens of other "b" horror and suspense films, making it illusive.
It may not have had quite the sheer emotional impact that it did when I was a boy, but as haunted house movies go, it's stands up well and compares favourably to similar iconic films of the period such as "The Haunting," "The Innocents" or "Black Sunday," The film is a fine early effort of Italian director Antonio Margheriti.
It stars 60's scream queen icon Barbara Steele and features a well written screenplay by Sergio Corbucci about a sceptical writer (Georges Riviere) who, on a bet, spends the night in haunted house and unsuspectingly becomes part of an annual ongoing ghostly story.
The hypnotic Steele is well cast as the ghostly love interest - as is Arturo Dominici as Dr. Carmus, and Margarete Robsahm as Julia.Many of the tricks Margheriti employs to create the film's eerie atmosphere (cobwebs, creaking doors, fog, etc) are bound to seem cliché to a modern audience, but they work far more effectively in black and white than they ever could in modern day colour.
Rather than using body counts and special effects, the film creates scares the old fashion way, relying on a good story, stylish direction, fine set production, interesting camera work, and strong acting performances.
Anyway, this one has Edgar Allen Poe and Barbara Steele, deliciously shadowy, cobweb-wrap'ed haunted castle sets, restless spirits re-enacting their deaths...
The plot is very aware of the time in which this was released, and so incorporates the great Edgar Allen Poe. We follow Alan Foster, a writer who accepts a bet from Poe himself and Lord Blackwood that he can't spend an entire night in the latter's creepy old castle.
If you're a fan of Gothic horror, then you're definitely absolutely guaranteed to LOVE this wondrous Italian 60's film "Castle of Blood".
Film dominated by raven-haired Barbara Steele, it was seen when I was seven or eight and created permanent images of pallid vampiric men and women stalking a castle, seeking blood.
One of the greatest examples of Italian Gothic, "Castle of Blood" has everything you could ask for in a genre film and more, employing the basic elements of classic Universal Horror films with the over sexuality of 60's cinema, therefore turning the otherwise routine story into something fresh and original.
It's the Samhain and a young journalist meets up with Edgar Allan Poe in a London tavern and agrees to spend a night in a haunted castle from where no one comes out alive for a wager.
True to its title, this is a macabre dance as the journalist staggers around the castle with a candelabra at hand and meets up with a variety of characters that may or may not be ghosts, including a seductive Barbara Steele in a nightgown, a creepy bearded Dr. Carmus whose name recalls Camus the writer but whose appearance has something of Ze Do Caixao/Coffin Joe, and a shirtless buff guy who seems to have wandered off a Maciste set.
Whatever the movie has going for it comes from those very qualities that mark it as an Italian Gothic horror film.
It is interesting that he did the original in black and white and the remake in color.Castle of Blood is excellent Italian Gothic.
Poe and Lord Blackwood, owner of a haunted castle, bet American writer Alan Foster (George Riviere) that he cannot spend All Souls Night in said castle and survive.
The terms of the bet explained by Poe are the following...Going to a nearby haunted castle and spending the night on "All Souls Eve" and stay alive the next day to collect.
The movie does contain violent scenes but balanced with the lovely Barbara and her jealous low-cut rival Julia (Margrete Robsahm) kind of makes you forget your watching a horror genre type film and instead more of a romance and lust based movie.
That bit wasn't so good.A journalist enters a pub to interview Edgar Allan Poe and ends up being involved in a wager by Umberto Raho to spend the night at a haunted castle that no one has returned alive from.
Castle of Blood (1964)*** (out of 4) Based on Edgar Allan Poe's Dance Macabre, this Italian horror film has author Alan Foster (Georges Riviere) accepting a bet to stay inside a haunted castle on All Soul's Eve. Once inside the castle he feels he is going to win the bet but soon he meets the beautiful Elizabeth (Barbara Steele) who appears to be dead.I must admit that I was really shocked by how much I enjoyed CASTLE OF BLOOD.
Director Antonio Margheriti certainly knew how to build up an atmosphere and I thought this was one of the more effective Gothic films to come from Italy.The greatest thing working for the first are the first twenty-minutes where the director manages to really make you fear the castle.
Margrete Robsahm, Silvano Tranquilli and Silvia Sorrente are all good as well.CASTLE OF BLOOD really works as a creepy, old-fashion horror film that goes for atmosphere more than anything else.
But then, I was a teenager back in those days, not as jaded about films as I am now.CASTLE OF BLOOD (aka: DANSE MACABRE) is a fine example of the 60s Italian horror genre, along with Mario Bava's BLACK SUNDAY(1960), CURSE OF THE LIVING DEAD (aka: KILL BABY KILL) (1966) and Mario Caiano's NIGHTMARE CASTLE (1965).
Only the films sometimes hokey music and the rather abrupt `love at first sight' between Elizabeth (Barbara Steele) and Alan (Georges Rivière) mar an otherwise surprisingly entertaining movie.While visiting England, Edgar Allan Poe sits in a pub, telling one of his ghostly stories to Count Blackwood.
Alan cannot afford the bet, so he bets his life for a 10 pound wager.Unlike Mario Bava's overpraised `Black Sunday,' (aka `The Mask of Satan'), `Castle of Blood' is fairly restrained, making the few moments of violence even more dreadful, especially surprising from a director usually associated with those terrible Italian space movies from the 60s.It's a pity the only version of this film I've found is badly deteriorated (and recorded) pan and scan version.
When Foster reveals his scepticism on the subject, Blackwood bets that he cannot spend a night alone in his castle, a place reputedly haunted by its previous guests, all of whom have mysteriously disappeared during their stay...Fancy something really Gothic?
Then look no further than Castle of Blood, a film so fog-bound, dust-covered and strewn with cobwebs that it sent my Gothic-ometer clean off the scale; Foster's home for the night is the kind of place that would even give Herman Munster goosebumps!Unsurprisingly, the Blackwood family pile's reputation as haunted turns out to be well deserved, the journalist spending most of the night bumping into a series of spooky occupants, including the enchanting Elisabeth (Barbara Steele), her love rival Julia (Margarete Robsahm), a musclebound killer (Giovanni Cianfriglia), and the creepy Dr. Carmus (Arturo Dominici); this superbly effective supernatural set-up gives director Antonio Margheriti all he needs to pile on the atmosphere and scares—Castle of Blood really does deliver in terms of macabre visuals and shivers.Perhaps a little too much of the running time is spent on Foster wandering aimlessly around the old castle, but with so many great moments—the scene with the decapitated snake, the topless ghost bride, the corpses hanging in the trees—this is one Italian Gothic horror that is genuinely deserving of its praise.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb..
The plot of CASTLE OF BLOOD has been sufficiently related in the previous comments, so I won't repeat the details of Alan, penniless journalist, spending a night in haunted Blackwood Manor, falling in love with ghostly Elizabeth, and almost escaping from the other vampiric occupants.
I love the Gothic atmosphere created in some of the older Italian and Mexican horror films.
In fact, the character of Poe appears in the beginning and end of the film--though it didn't look especially like him.A rich man makes a bet with a guy down on his luck that he cannot stay the entire night in a manner home.
Castle of Blood is a good example of the quality work in the horror genre being turned out in Italy in the 60s.
The film has all of the right elements - old dark house, atmosphere, a decent story, and Barbara Steele.
Steele makes most any film worth seeing.The story concerns a haunted castle.
But once he does find something, the movie picks up and become quite enjoyable.Castle of Blood is a definite must for Steele fans and fans of Italian Gothic horror in general..
This complicated story begins fairly simply, with an English journalist accepting a wager from Edgar Allen Poe and his friend Lord Blackwood that he cannot spend a night in the haunted Blackwood castle.
This is a fun movie, with absolutely everything: ghosts, the spooky castle, repeated visions of past events, sex and violence ( though both have been toned down in the version most Americans have seen over the years.) The alluring, captivating Barbara Steele is the main reason to see it.
The place is supposed to be uninhabited but those who visit it -- which happens once a year -- are never seen again.Riviere is dropped off at the castle's gate by the owner and Poe, whose carriage then trundles off into the night in the film's most unsettling scene.
The movie begins with a journalist named "Alan Foster" (Georges Riviere) walking into an English pub on a cold, foggy night to hopefully get an interview with the renowned American writer, "Edgar Allan Poe" (Silvano Tranquilli).
However it's the wonderful Barbara Steele who steals (sorry) the film as a ghost who wants to help Riviere, but in the end is unable to leave the building and crumbles away.
Ever since I saw Black Sunday (great movie) I wanted to see more of Barbara Steele. |
tt0089013 | Dèmoni | While riding the subway to class, music student Cheryl (Natasha Hovey) is given a free pass to a movie theater by a silent, imposing man wearing a metal mask (Michele Soavi). She persuades her classmate, Kathy (Paola Cazzo), to skip class and go to the film with her. There they meet two young men, George (Urbano Barberini) and Ken (Karl Zinny). Other attendees include a smoothly dressed black man, Tony (Bobby Rhodes), and his two girlfriends, Rosemary (Geretta Geretta) and Carmen (Fabiola Toledo), cranky husband Frank (Stelio Candelli) and bitter wife Ruth (Nicole Tessier), young couple Tommy (Guido Baldi) and Hannah (Fiore Argento) and blind man Werner (Alex Serra) and his daughter Liz (Enrica Maria Scrivero). In the lobby of the theater, Rosemary tries on a prop demon mask that leaves a cut on her cheek.Kathy is upset to learn they have come to see a horror film, even though George and Ken offer to "protect" her and Cheryl. In the film, a group of college students ride their motor bikes to the ruins of an old castle rumored to be the burial place of Nostradamus. One of the characters puts on a demon mask identical to the one in the lobby, and it cuts his face. At this moment, the scratch on Rosemary's cheek begins to throb. She goes to the bathroom to take care of it but instead transforms into a demon -- mirroring the character's transformation in the film. Rosemary mauls Carmen, who had followed her to the bathroom. Badly injured, Carmen crashes through the movie screen just as the possessed characters hacks at his friends with a knife.As the horrified audience crowds around her, Carmen transforms into a demon and kills Frank, while Carmen strangles Liz and gouges out Werner's eyes. She and Rosemary then chase the rest of the audience members through the theater. All of the exits have been boarded up somehow. Believing the film is somehow causing people to become demons, Tony leads Kathy, Cheryl, George and Kelly to the projection booth to shut it down. Finding no one there, they smash the projectors then barricade themselves in the balcony. Werner tells them the film isn't the source of evil, the theater itself is. Now also transformed into demons, Frank and Liz attack the others. Liz bites Tony in the leg while Frank vomits demonic blood all over Hannah.When four punks -- Ripper (Lino Salemme), Hot Dog (Giuseppe Maro Cruciane), Baby Pig (Peter Pitsch) and Nina (Bettina Ciampolini) -- manage to break into the theater, the now demonified Werner slips out into a street where he attacks two police officers. Hannah and Tommy try to crawl through a ventilation shaft, but Hannah has been transformed into a demon herself and kills Tommy. Believing the punks are there to rescue them, the survivors begin to tear down the barricades, but this only allows the demons to reach the balcony and attack them. Everyone except Kathy, Cheryl, George and Ken are slaughtered.George and Ken decide to use the ventilation shafts as well, but before anyone can enter, Kathy begins to transform into a demon as well -- she had swallowed some demon blood during the escape from the balcony. When Ken beats her with the air conditioning grate, a new demon bursts from her back and rakes him across the chest. George is forced to kill him with a prop sword from the lobby. He then rides a fully gassed up motorcycle, another prop in the lobby, to ride through the theater and hack to bits most of the demons, including the four punks.Then a helicopter crashes through the ceiling. George uses its propeller to kill the rest of the demons and then its winch and grappling hook to access the theater's roof. There the metal mask man attacks them, but George is able to kill him by stabbing him in the eye with a piece of rebar. George and Cheryl make it to the street only to learn the demonic infection has spread into the city, which now resembles a war zone. They are picked up by a man and his children, who have apparently stockpiled weapons for just such an event. As they drive out of the city, Cheryl transforms into a demon, having been infected at some point in the theater. The man's young son quickly guns her down, and they leave her body in the road. | cruelty, murder, violence, cult, horror, sadist | train | imdb | This has got to be one of the best Italian horror flicks ever made, which is no surprise considering it was produced by Dario Argento, master of Italian horror himself.The plot can be summed up with one sentence: people are trapped in a movie theater with a horde of ugly, long-clawed demons and must fight to stay alive!
Sure, the acting is completely over the top and laughable, the movie doesn't make any attempts to explain why the events are happening, there is really bad '80s rock music playing at all the wrong moments and the whole production screams cheesy B grade flick, but if you care about any of this anyways, what kind of horror fan are you?!
It isn't very likely to scare you so much as make you laugh, and there are some classic moments for the genre such as a blind guy getting his eyes scratched out by a demon, a revolting puss-bursting scene, a crazily fun massacre near the end that never gets old to watch, and one of the best climaxes to a horror movie ever where the lead male character severs demon limbs left and right with a sword on a dirt bike!
The film exudes with an almost Gothic atmosphere and the setting of the big movie theater could not be more perfect in creating a mood.A word of caution, though: this movie is a horror buff's wet dream, and it's strongly advisable you be sure you like real horror movies before seeing this so you know what you're getting into.
In the end, it plays out to be a great horror movie, with plenty of gratuitous violence and gore, a killer 80's soundtrack, and a couple of good scares!
At the time this movie came out, Italian horror meisters Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava wanted nothing more than to have a hit in the American market.
To appeal to American audiences, they went with the soundtrack used here (songs from Billy Idol, Rick Springfield, etc.), and even used some American actors (like Bobby Rhodes who plays the pimp, in even comes back in Demons 2 as a different character).To add to the hype, they released it to limited distribution (not by choice I'm sure) in the states, unrated (just as "Day of the Dead" had just been released in similar fashion).
Knowing more about the production, I get a kick out of the fact that the guy at the beginning giving out the theater tickets (the guy with the mask) was then aspiring filmmaker Michele Soavi, who would just a couple of years later become an Argento protégé with movies like Stagefright, and his own classic Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetary Man).
Watching "Demons" I came to the conclusion that, no matter how many of the "Scream" films they make, nothing compares to this horror flick!.
For those of you who think that the 90's versions of horror films are the only saving grace to this genre, do yourself a favour catch a few of the 80's horror flicks like "Demons" they are what horror movies should be!.
Cheryl (Natasha Hovey) gets two tickets in the subway and invites her friend Kathy (Paola Cozzo) to skip their music class and go to the movie theater to watch the film.
The direction is actually really good and Lamberto Bava goes all out on colors and angles (which horror italian director doesn't)and the soundtrack goes well with the eighties look.
I don't remember any characters really except the coolest "pimp" Tony, the sexy usherette, the four punks and the "GEORGE" character (mainly only cause i recognized him from OPERA), but this movie obviously isn't meant for character development.So all in all I give Demons **1/2 out of **** It's really cool, but only worth watching for cool visuals, soundtrack, and gore..
While sereval survivors are trying to get out of the movie theater before it is too late.Directed by Lamberto Bava (A Blade in the Dark, Delirium, Frozen Terror) made an amusing gory horror film with some strong visual style and a heavy metal soundtrack.
this is a fun, gory euro-horror film.i'm a big fan of argento and the main reason this film and demons 2 work so well is because it is decidedly tame as far as story line is concerned.
"Demons" of 1985 is a gory, stylish and very entertaining horror flick written by the master, Dario Argento.
But although Lamberto Bava does certainly not manage to reach his father's brilliance, "Demons" is definitely worth watching.Cheryl (Natasha Hovey) is given free tickets for a sneak preview by a mysteriously dressed man at a Berlin subway station.
The film, which turns out to be a Horror flick tells the story of a prediction by Nostradamus, connected with a demonic mask.The plot is not that original, but the film is made in a very stylish manner, with a good cinematography, and great color play in the tradition of Mario Bava and Dario Argento.
There are many things I really like about this movie, the special-effects, the gore, the absurdity, the irony, the coal black humor, the music and the atmosphere.
As a group of people are trapped in a large movie theater in West Berlin that is infected by ravenous , clawed demons who proceed to kill and posse the humans one-by-one, transforming into bloody creatures who attack the remaining humans , thereby multiplying their numbers .
Good production design , as the building used for the exteriors of the Metropol theater still stands in Berlin ; it's a club called Goya that's been host to several horror conventions thanks to its appearance in this film.The motion picture was compellingly directed by Lamberto Bava , he cites this as his personal favorite of the flicks he has filmed and in which he shows nice visual style .
Lamberto enjoyed his best commercial success to date with this "Demons" , produced by Dario Argento, co-written by Dardano Sacchetti and filmed in West Berlin, Germany .
Co-written and produced by Italian horror maestro Dario Argento (Suspiria, Deep Red), Demons came from Argento's desire to create a purely commercial film after tasting such success with 1978's Dawn of the Dead.
The plot, which follows the spread of a zombie-like form of demonic possession spreading through a Berlin movie theater, exists solely to facilitate the numerous action and scare sequences.
To anyone looking to get into B-movies or Italian horror (or better yet, both) I highly recommend this film as it's a very accessible entry point into both genres.
Backed by a script co-written by maestro Dario Argento and with fluid direction from Lamberto Bava, there is a hell of a lot of fun to be had here; think, "Evil Dead" in a movie theater, except with a killer '80s soundtrack.
If you're looking for a serious horror movie and your typical Argento film you'll probably hate this one, so, watch it with an open mind and you'll enjoy it.
Suspiria is million times better), the use of colors and the sets are just striking, and there are lots of atmospheric, beautiful to look at and yet terribly frightening, classic moments, such as the demons walking down the hallway sequence, and coming from the son of Mario Bava and produced by Dario Argento, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some great visuals.
Swiftly and deadly the fiction on the silver screen transforms into reality as cinema-goers start changing into zombie-like demons...I can't help but feel that the undeserved high ranking of the movie is given in a large part due to the participation of the legendary Dario Argento, an icon of horror movies and poster boy for Italian cinema in general.
Lamberto Bava's wild cult classic is a knock-out of bloody horror mayhem.Folks watching a horror movie suddenly find themselves trapped in the theater as they are attacked by grisly killer demons!While Demons lacks logic in its storyline, it more than makes up for it with some truly wicked action and awesome makeup FX.
I had heard alot about this film and having finally tracked it down was most dissapointed with what I found.The initial concept is a good one, a film within a film dealy, which causes demons to infest a cinema full of bad actors.The execution is sadly lacking however, after a promising start it quickly descends into a string of pointless gory scenes with absolutely no suspense whatsoever.
The film contains one genuinely good visual moment which unsuprisingly is the shot featured on the cover and posters displayed here but thats as far as it goes.Its hard to see what this film had to offer well after the likes of "Night of the Living Dead" or the "Evil Dead" apart from a couple of poorly edited and drably shot gore sequences.Its derivative and drab, only appealling to the kinds of goofy horror fans who are more interested in modes of death than genuine thrills and movie craftmanship.4 out of 10.
To be fair, this film does in fact appear more like a proper followup than 'Casa del L'Orco' did, at least so far as the 'look' of the demons themselves.In 1994, Michele Soavi made a big name for himself with the widely respected 'Dellamorte Dellamore' (released in R1 as 'Cemetary Man').
very entertaining itallian horror has ample gore although weak acting it has impressive visuals stylish direction and a decent script to make it a fun and enjoyable romp i highly highly recommend this movie too you ***1/2 out of 5.
But, let's face it, they're still zombies by another name.The story follows a group of people who go to watch a free horror film in a creepy cinema, only to find that life really does imitate art and the demons spread from the big screen to the popcorn stalls (so to speak).
Demons may be laughed at by today's standards – it hasn't got the characters of The Walking Dead, nor the coherent story of any recent zombie film, but it does have a weird feel about it and is definitely worth watching if you're a fan of the genre (and like eighties music).
The film is definitely one of the goriest films I know but the effects are done very carefully, even better than a lot of American horror films.The story (as far as there is any): A film that is shown in a Berlin movie theater somehow transforms some of the people into demons.
But when they finally manage to get out through the roof they find that the epidemic has spread out and that most people already turned into demons too (Some Night-of-the Living-Dead thing going on here?).The film is ...
The idea of being forced into the movie theater through happenstance and then coming upon the possessed demon beings makes for a fun turn and starts this one off like most great genre efforts with the people being trapped inside with no way out.
I liked how the plot started with the mask that cuts the girl on the face, which later in the movie they are seeing, bring the evil force out of the screen.
Before long the theatre is full of blood-thirsty monsters.Horror maestro Dario Argento produced and co-wrote Demons, Lamberto Bava took up the director duties.
I must point out though that Claudio Simonetti of Goblin does contribute some quality original soundtrack material too which is much better than the metal – in particular his main theme is very good.The cinema setting is a pretty decent one and you can't help but think this would make for a lot of fun to see on the big screen with an audience.
A group of film goers become trapped inside the picture house and try to evade becoming demons themselves.Produced by Dario Argento, it suffers from the usual bad dubbing and choppy editing.
Soon, half of the audience have been turned into blood thirsty zombies, forcing the remaining patrons to defend themselves from the unholy beastsThis is classic 80's cheese with bad clothing, bad/great soundtrack and poor acting but if you look past all that then this is a great film for any horror movie lovers.
The demons in this movie are being more like zombies, expect with plenty of the speed and superhuman strength to them as well.It's a movie that is especially great to watch for the genre loves.
Director Lamberto Bava's "Demons" is great fun for any horror fan who just wants a lot of mayhem.
"Demons" really is the perfect choice for a horror fan who doesn't demand that their entertainment make a lot of sense (it's got one of the greatest deus ex machinas ever seen in the genre), and it's got plenty of delicious gory nastiness to enjoy, with the always reliable Sergio Stivaletti in charge of the special makeup creations.
Old-fashioned horror fans who still esteem such cinematic virtues as characterization, logic and explanations may come away from director Lamberto (son of Mario) Bava's first film, "Demons" (1985), a trifle disappointed, as this film contains...well, none of those attributes.
That stuff aside this movie moves fast and has lots of great kills and good gory special effects..
if you're looking for good acting and a good plot,this is not the movie for you.but if you like way over the top gore,with a soundtrack containing some great(and not so great)80's hard rock and metal songs,this is your movie.the title might be misleading.the movie is about demons,but i thought they were more like zombies.smarter and faster maybe and with razor sharp claws and fangs,but zombies.the gore factor in this one is off the scale.the movie is entertaining,especially when you see these demons/zombies chasing people around to the the beat of some hard pumping metal tune.the whole thing plays pretty much like one long music video.i just thought it was great gory,disgusting fun.it's not high art,but then what horror movie is.for me,Demons is a 6/10.
Dèmoni (1985)*** out of ****Directed by Lamberto BavaWith Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey and Michele Soavi.Lamberto Bava, son of Mario Bava, show us his talent with Hovey, Barberini and others having and invitation to a preview of a movie, without knowing that the horrible things that happen in the film begin to happen in the reality, possessing anyone who is attacked for a demon.
And the direction is great, almost artful in the way Bava works with colors.Well, from now on my expectations will be much higher again when it comes to watching 80's horror movies (and most likely they'll be disappointed more often than not).
This is basically non stop gore and action, crazy lighting schemes, some solid scares, over the top rock soundtrack and some very cool special effects (mostly gore-related).Produced by the great Dario Argento, this movie comes highly recommended.Avoid the sequel, somehow they managed to mess that one up..
Being Beside the point of my fascination with cult horror flicks, this one really worked.The premise of the story is fairly simple, but it is the adrenaline of this film that does not let up.With its fast pace and clever camera use, it almost emboldens blood and gore visuals to that of an almost artistic level.As with other films of this genre and more importantly this era.I must also mention that the film boasts an excellent soundtrack, mixing hard rock bands with the already brilliant Claudio Simonetti.In this classic we have the teaming of Lamberto Bava, with the master techniques of Dario Argento.The sequel to this film is also fair but it pales in comparison to Demons.My word of advice:Only see this if you are a tried and true genre fan..
so its not the cleverist of films and certainly not brimming with clever twists but if your a horror fan who loves a bit of good old blood and guts its great fun.
If you like horror/gore/zombie flicks..do yourself a favor and get this movie.
And they are both very gory with lots of blood, puss and splatter.Demons starts out with a strange man with a partial mask made out of metal riding around on roller skates passing out invitations to a horror movie at the reopening of some old theater.
Demons is probably the best Euro-horror movie I've seen (except, perhaps, for The Beyond).
A good and inventive 80's horror film directed by Lamberto Bava, the son of the late great Mario Bava, succeeds on pure adrenaline of ever-increasing doses of action and gore.
Urbano Barberini was one hec of a stallion check out his bike riding demon busting skills in the film.A noticable aspect about both Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava is there trademark for casting a lot of nice looking girls in there featues only to end up meeting there demise.
Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava (son of the great Mario Bava) are two of the most untouchable powers in Italian horror cinema: this movie, DEMONI, is proof.
It's basically people are trapped in a movie theatere, and a girl scratches her face on a demon mask she put on, just like in the movie they are watching, and she turns into a Demon, and kills.
A bunch of people get trapped in a movie theater while watching a horror movie and later turn into bloodthirsty demons.
I would say that Lamberto Bava (the son of Mario) did one of the better eighties horror movies because of its story and the film in a film scenes.
The plot and the action are terrific; the effects are superb; and the soundtrack if filled with killer 80s heavy metal sounds by the likes of Motley Crue, Saxon, and Accept.Produced by horror maestro Dario Argento and directed by Lamberto Bava (whose father, Mario, was the grand daddy of Italian horror, by the way), Demons is a total work of brilliance.
The very cool and hypnotic sounds of the 80's music by Claudio Simonetti ushers in one of the best Euro style horror films of all time.Demons is not for kids or some Adults. |
tt0087796 | Night Shadows | In the opening scene, a man wearing a uniform with EPA stamped on the right sleeve, investigates an old house in the dead of night. After finding footprints and a strange yellow substance on the ground, he enters the house through the basement door and after looking around, finds an arm belonging to a dead person. Suddenly an unseen person attacks him and picks him up by his neck and kills him.In the next scene, we see two men driving a white convertible car along a rural country road somewhere in rural Georgia. They are Josh Cameron (Wings Hauser) and his younger brother Mike (Lee Montgomery) who soon run into trouble when they're run off the road by a pickup truck full of rednecks and find themselves looking for a gas station. They hitch a ride in another pickup truck where the driver takes them to a fork in the road who tells them that the nearest town is Goodville which may have a phone and a garage.Josh and Mike arrive in Goodville in the middle of the night which resembles a ghost town. They see a man stagger out of a local bar called Jack's Tavern. Mike hears a noise where he investigates and finds the man dead in an alleyway. Josh and Mike go inside the bar where they ask the barman Jack for a telephone to call the police to report a dead body. But the same rednecks who ran them off the road are at the bar and their leader, a sadistic and psychotic hillbilly named Albert accosts them which leads to him pulling out a knife and trying to kill them leading to a barroom brawl which is broken up by the arrival of Sheriff Will Stewart (Bo Hopkins) which force Albert and his gang to leave, but they vow to kill the "Yankee city boys".Mike leads Josh and the sheriff back to the alleyway only to find the body gone and another derelict there. Mike tries to explain that the derelict is not the same man, but both Sheriff Stewart and Josh do not believe him. However, Sheriff Stewart finds some suspicious yellow fluid on the ground and takes a sample of it. He tells Josh and Mike to get their car repaired and leave town by the next day.With no motel in town, the sheriff drives the two brothers to a boarding house to spend the night (the same ominous house from the opening scene) where they are given rooms by the cheerful inn owner Mrs. Maley. As Josh and Mike settle in, Mike hears a notice under his bed and when he looks under it, he is grabbed by an unseen person with deformed hands.The next morning, Josh wakes up and asks Mrs. Maley where his brother is, but she claims not to know. Josh decides to venture into town to look for him. Mrs. Maley is clearly lying about knowing nothing because she is cleaning up his room after an apparent struggle and hides Mike's clothes.In town, Josh sees that most of the town is deserted and the only business that is open is Jack's Tavern. There Josh meets the pretty barmaid Holly Pierce (Jody Medford) whom she claims is filling in for her uncle Jack whom is out sick. Holly is a school teacher at a local school and she tells him that most of the students are out sick with some strange illness. Josh and Holly take a walk where they find most businesses closed including the local garage which Holly claims that it has been closed for a week. Holly finds it odd because many of the townsfolk are taking ill with some undiagnosed disease.Meanwhile, Sheriff Stewart delivers the sample of the strange yellow fluid to his "gal pal" Dr. Myra Tate (Jennifer Warren) for an analysis. She too claims that something is going on in town for the past few weeks for several of her patients have not come to see her and that most of the other businesses in town are closed.Josh and Holly venture to a local elementary school where they find Billy, a young pre-teen there who claims that his parents have gone after becoming sick. When Josh hears a noise in the school, he ventures down to the basement to investigate and finds a dead body of a young girl. Suddenly, Albert appears... who just happens to be the janitor at the school and tries to kill Josh once again. After a struggle, Josh wounds Albert with seam from a burst pipe and flees. Albert then calls Sheriff Steward and (being the redneck psychopath that he is) tells the police a fabricated story about witnessing Josh killing the young girl. Everyone, including Holly and Sheriff Steward, are skeptical to Albert's story because of his own criminal record. Dr. Tate arrives at the school and asks Sheriff Stewart to have the body brought to the doctor's office for an examination before turning it over to the local county morgue.When Holly decides to drive for her home, Josh is hiding in the back seat and claims to her that something strange is going on in the town. Alone with her in her house, Josh tries to be intimate with Holly until he collapses. Holly takes him to Dr. Tate who tells Josh that he was temporarily infected by a chemical reaction of some type which the result of the physical contact with the body of the dead girl. After receiving medical treatment, Josh leaves with Holly and suspects that it may have something to do with a chemical depot warehouse owned by New Era Chemicals that Josh and Mike found outside of town on the day of their arrival.Meanwhile, Sheriff Stewart drives over to the house of the dead girl's father, Mr. Mitchell, to inform him of his daughter's death only to find the house deserted, with the window shades pulled down and the light bulbs gone from all the lights in the house. Stewart enters a pantry and finds Mr. Mitchell lying on the floor with some strange injuries to his face and arms. When the sheriff asks him what happened, all Mr. Mitchell can says is "the hands. It was their hands". Steward calls his superior Captain Dawson of the county police to report another homicide. But a few hours later, when Captain Dawson arrives at the Mitchell house, the body is gone. The captain suspects that the event was something about Stewart's alcoholism and relives him from duty. Dawson also makes an implied comment about Stewart's latent homosexuality as well.At the doctor's office, Dr. Tate examines the body of the little girl found at the school and makes notes in her tape recorder about finding a chemical compound in the youngster's body which has somehow taken over her blood, and leaving her with open wounds on both of her hands. Just then, Dr. Tate's co-worker, Vic, whom has been sick and coughing, begins to turn into a grey-skinned, black-eyed, zombie-like creature who attacks Dr. Tate.The next morning, Josh and Holly travel to the New Era construction site which is fenced off and they discover the secret of the sickness in the town; it is revealed that toxic chemical waste from an illegal dump has turned most of the townspeople into grey-skinned, black-eyed zombies who come out at night and feast on the dwindling population of the town. Josh and Holly barely escape from the facility and dodge bullets from the security guards and workers.At this point, the movie evolves into a 'Night of the Living Dead'-esq thriller as Josh Holly, and Sheriff Stewart must find a way to not only escape from the town, but also find a way to kill all the mutant zombies before they become victims themselves. Josh first goes to the police station to report his find, only to find Stewart getting drunk after being relieved from duty. Holly goes to her house to check on her sick uncle only to get attacked by him as he rises up a blood-drinking zombie too with his hands as leech-like clamps to suck a victim's blood. Holly is saved by the arrival of Josh and Stewart, forcing the zombie Jack to flee.Finally aware what is going on and that the creatures are afraid of the light, Josh suggests getting the Georgia State Police into town to help while he tries to find his missing brother. The three of them split up hoping to get out of town before nightfall.Josh goes to the boarding house where he ventures to the basement and finds the dead bodies of his brother Mike as well as the EPA guy and a few others where it is revealed that the landlady is keeping the zombie mutant of her daughter locked up in the basement and feeding her unsuspecting victims. Josh manages to get out of the cellar and the landlady falls victim to her own zombie daughter.Meanwhile, Holly and Sheriff Stewart go to the medical clinic to look for Dr. Tate and to take the dead body of the girl as evidence for the state police only to find Dr. Tate dead and several mutant zombies attacking them. Holly is forced to run, while the sheriff is trapped between two groups and is forced to lock himself inside a medicine closet.As night comes, Holly finds Billy wondering the streets and chases him inside the school where Billy is frightened claiming that his parents have come back and are trying to kill him. A group of zombie school children attack, forcing Holly and Billy to flee inside the boy's room where Billy is killed by the horde of zombie children. Josh arrives and saves Holly, forcing them to flee.The two survivors drive in Holly's car to the medical clinic to try to rescue Sheriff Stewart. While Holly waits inside the car, Josh goes inside the medical building only to find the sheriff gone and several dead zombies lying around. Just then a large group of zombies emerge from the mist outside and attack Holly in her car, using their toxic powers of their hands to literally 'melt' the car windows to get at her. Unable to drive away since Josh had taken the car keys, Holly honks the horn, forcing Josh to run outside where he fights several zombies and manages to get back in the car to drive away. But on their way out of town, a zombie left on the roof of the car forces their car to crash along the town's main street.Forced to flee on foot, Josh and Holly hide inside the closed garage. Josh and Holly begin to make Molotov cocktails to use when Albert arrives with a shotgun. Deranged to the last, Albert instead tries to use Holly and Josh as 'bait' for the zombies resulting in a struggle where Albert's shotgun is discharged, and giving away their hiding place. The horde of zombies break into the garage where they grab Albert and drag him outside where they apparently kill him as well. Josh opens fire on the zombies with Albert's shotgun until he runs out of ammo. He then lights and throws the Molotov cocktails, setting a few zombies on fire. But more and more of them keep coming, leading to them breaking down the garage door and burst through the windows forcing Josh and Holly behind the counter. Just when it looks like they are both done for, several state police cars arrive and the policemen blast away at the zombies, killing all of them. Josh and Holly venture outside and see that Sheriff Stewart had indeed escaped and brought the state police with him. | murder | train | imdb | After being forced off the road by locals, the two brothers Cameron end up at the nearest town -Goodland- but there's nothing good awaiting them, besides the aggressive rednecks, they'll also come face-to-face with some "nasty" residents.With all the bad reviews i've read, I was expecting yet another boring 80's movie but that's not the case.
If like me you think zombies should be seen and not heard (spouting silly one-liners) and prefer them plodding about exhibiting only the most primal, instinctive deadly behavior (not blabbing about what they are going to do) then this movie is for you.Like the original Night of the Living Dead, this is a low budget indie which relies more on suspense and action than on grandiose special efx.
The citizens of a small town start to disappear, and the few remaining people discover a local toxic company has had a toxic spill that has turned the people into blood thristy mutants or zombies.
The cover box called this movie 'Mutant' so I knew it wasn't going to be about flower arrangement (good) and it starred Wings Hauser (could be good but then again he could overact mightily) and it was very cheap might be awful) but as it was a wet tuesday I bought it.
They all took part in your usual chemicals contaminates town turning folks into murderous zombie type things sort of plot but the photography was atmospheric, the music creepy or emotional as appropriate, the make up scary and it all built up slowly but surely to a suspenseful ending.
Wings Hauser, star of many a straight-to video movie in the 80s, stars in this decidedly silly, but enjoyably unpretentious slab of sci-fi/horror tosh.With a script constructed from a hotchpotch of well-worn genre clichés, Mutant's director, John 'Bud' Cardos opts to play things straight where others may have aimed for a more tongue in cheek approach; the result is a fun filled B-movie which, despite its hackneyed script and cheesy plot structure, works extremely well.After being run off the road by truck-driving rednecks, brothers Josh and Mike Cameron (Wings Hauser and Lee Montgomery) set off on foot for the nearest town.
Unfortunately for them, the nearest town is infected with toxic waste (being dumped by an unscrupulous chemicals company) that is turning the residents into acid-secreting mutants.Josh, along with pretty schoolteacher Holly (Jody Medford), battles for survival, while trying to convince boozy sheriff Will Stewart (Bo Hopkins) that the town is under threat from a horde of killer mutants.Director Cardos perfectly captures the B-movie vibe and his likable cast throw themselves into their roles with gusto, giving some decent performances.
Bo Hopkins is particularly good as the alcoholic cop and he shares some nice scenes with Jennifer Warren, who plays small town doctor, Myra Tate.Cardos, obviously no stranger to the genre (his mutants closely resemble the zombies from Romero's Dawn of the Dead) has the good sense to kill off characters that you would lay money on to survive in most horror films; this means that, with the gloves off, Cardos can have fun playing with the audiences expectations.In an exciting finale, in which Josh and Holly are surrounded by mutants, Cardos toys with the possibility of a downbeat ending, before the good sheriff and his men arrive to save the day.The make-up FX are simple yet effective; the mutants are blueish in hue, with some yucky 'splits' in their palms from which they secrete corrosive yellow gunk.
His brother is well annoyed, but Wings still manages to yuck it up as they head into a hick town, given a lift there by a crazy looking yokel who's not what he seems.Once they get into town they discover a dead body and head into a bar for help, only to run into the rednecks again and get into a bar fight, broken up by local alcoholic sheriff Bo Hopkins, a washed up city cop who's lost his bottle, and is an ex-lover with the local doctor.
Now properly stranded in the town, Wings looks for his brother with the help of a local teacher (and of course he finds time to woo her), finds a dead child, runs into the redneck again (and has a pipe fight with him) while Bo Hopkins finds more corpses and gets ignored by his boss, who thinks he's just a washed up drunk.
I won't give away any more of the plot as it is a suspenseful horror film.The most notable actors in the film are Bo Hopkins who plays Sheriff Will Stewart and Wings Hauser who plays Josh Cameron.P.S. If George Romero had been involved in this project along with some more professional special effects man like Tom Savini, this could have been the best horror film of that year.Overall I give it 8/10..
Montoro production in this case I had a feeling it was going to be a fraud he dose this with every film he makes and gets a law-suit filed againist him inculding GREAT WHITE (1980) BEYOND THE DOOR (1974) and THE DARK which was not pulled like his other movies.
It's sort of like "Night of the Living Dead" with a toxic side to it about some survivors running through a small Texas town to escape the hoards of zombies.
In "Night Shadows" AKA "MUTANT", plays Josh, he and his brother go out in a Southern town after being run off the road by some local ruffians.
Director John "Bud" Cardos - who apparently replaced HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW's Mark Rosman - creates a good crazy small town atmosphere and the last half hour is full-on craziness as Josh, love interest Holly (gorgeous Jody Medford) and Sheriff Stewart (Bo Hopkins) try to survive.
First things first: Ordinary Zombie movies (I'm a huge fan of these too), like Dawn of the Dead or Night of the living Dead for instance are highly recommendable, but need always a lot of gore and violence to become a good entertainment.
Take Dawn of the Dead, let the light hurt the eyes of the zombies so that all the action takes place in unsatisfying darkness, add stupid characters that keep putting themselves into unnecessary danger, and you have Night Shadows.
It took me another four years, not until 2006, to finally track down a DVD copy of this film, also known as "Night Shadows".I wasn't exactly expecting a good movie, but to my surprise this wasn't really all that bad.
I won't say what happens to the little kid...At the time, this was actually the first movie I saw starring Wings Hauser, and I must say, even though he looked like a cross between David Hasselhoff and John Lithgow, he came across as a decent actor who gave an enjoyable performance.
Wings Hauser is the man, and it took me several crappy movies & bad viewing experiences to realize that.So, okay, "Mutant" (aka "Night Shadows") remains, of course, a B-movie.
Those are nice 're-wind moments', but the decent acting and plot, together with the occasional creepy atmosphere (some shots of the foggy town at night) and nice musical score do lift this movie to a little higher level.
Okay, let me set a few things straight for those of you who expected any intellectual stimulation out of this movie.I'm going to go ahead and take the hint that a lot of people think this film is sub-par.
I was really surprised that such a low budget film would have such believable-looking monsters.Really the only things I had a problem with were that it took so long to set up and that there was not any gore, which is expected in a movie like this.
Wings Hauser does his best with the script which at times drags on, and he also seems to have done his own stunts, some of which looked quite dangerous.The best thing about it is the atmosphere, which has been well realised with the usual fog and darkness, and the people who are complaining so loudly about the quality of the picture should bear in mind that it was a low budget movie.
the mutant(aka;night shadows)is the last film made by film ventures(day of the animals,grizzly,manitou)after this they went bankrupt.its a very good horror movie about toxic mutants created by nuclear waste in a small town.on some VHS/DVD box covers it shows an alien like creature.
but these are human monsters.wings Hauser,lee Montgomery,Bo svenson star in this very eerie creepy horror movie.the music on the soundtrack was my favorite,it sounds similar to altered states soundtrack but was done by Charles band,it was featured again in the empire pictures production;ghosttown(88)mutant was low budget but well made and i thought it was very creepy.i call this a guilty pleasure movie i give it 8 out of 10.i know it sounds crazy but i liked mutant..
This totally ordinary film (technically not a zombie flick, though the monsters do look a lot like zombies), has good acting by Wings Hauser and Bo Hopkins and OK special effects, but.....you've seen it all before.
Instead, this Mutant is a low-budget zombie film set in small town America.
It's not overly imaginative and follows most of the zombie tropes we've all come to expect (with the exception of the leaky palms), but Mutant actually has nice atmosphere that can be rare in this type of low-budget 80s horror movie.
Mutant is one of those cases where the good (acting, atmosphere, snappy direction, and a nice final fight scene) and bad (lack of imagination, gaping plot holes, and cheap zombie make-up) pretty well cancel each other out and I end up with a wishy-washy 5/10..
It takes an hour to really get going, the script and dialogue are ridiculous (it feels like they took two different scripts and mashed them together), and one of the scariest things in the movie is a close up of Wings kissing poor Jody Medford, who seems to have quit acting after the experience.
He just almost killed them earlier, what's the big deal?The first hour or so involves Wings being a mouth breathing jerk to just about everyone he meets (he doesn't seem to be able to control it except around Jody Medford's character, and even then, just barely) while his mouth breathing brother cluelessly starts a bar fight and almost gets them arrested by Bo Hopkins, who would have made this a much better movie if he'd had bigger role.We find out that most of the town has some kind of flu.
A small southern town is overrun by blue faced zombies thirsty for human blood.The cause of zombification is a toxic substance that resembles yellow paint.It's up to Wings Hauser,Jody Medfor and the local sheriff Bo Hopkins to save the town.A tad sluggish but suspenseful zombie flick with plenty of yellow goo.The zombies look like demons from "The Evil Dead" and there is plenty of tension.The lighting is dim and there are some dull spots,but the scares are great.I remember seeing "Night Shadows" aka "Mutant" for the first time many years ago.The scene of zombified children in school stuck with me for many years."Night Shadows" is still effective and likable since then.8 zombies out of 10..
Now with the town seemingly becoming almost vacant overnight, the only help that Josh finds in his quest for his brother is Holly, a hot school teacher.This film may have had a solid premise (I say that for the mere reason that toxic waste in horror films usually make for the best monsters, such as the CHUD, toxic avenger,giant alligators, etcetera), but the pacing just about kills any forward momentum this movie might have had.
One of the biggests wastes of my time and money i've ever paid to rent, don't be fooled by the cover cause i thought it would be cool and interesting movie but it wasn't.It's about some city boys who's car breaks down and are in a southern town where suddenly everyone becomes Toxic-waste contaminated mutant zombie-like beings,There is no actual monster like on the video cover, i think this movie is almost as bad as " Manos: Hands of Fate" and this movie is boring to the max.
If anyone out there wondered what a gore-eschewing, spooky atmosphere emphasizing, modestly produced, yet still capably acted and directed backwater Hickville, USA-set cross between "Macon County Line" and "Night of the Living Dead" would be like, this surprisingly sound lethal toxic mutants running murderously amok downhome horror feature will answer your questions quite nicely.
All the staple Southern-fried drive-in movie ingredients are present and accounted for: two clean-cut young Northerner brothers are treated with utmost inhospitality by the belligerent local yokel residents of a tiny armpit stick burg they're just innocently passing through on a cross country road trip, some nefarious cost-cutting company surreptitiously dumps illegal radioactive gunk in the forest which in turn causes a few townies to transform into blue-faced nocturnal zombies with rapidly diminishing blood who kill hapless folks for their precious life fluids, a skeptical recovering alcoholic sheriff (an excellent Bo Hopkins in his umpteenth redneck lawman role) refuses to believe in any of it until it's too late, only a token sweet, sympathetic odd gal out barmaid/school teacher nice lady (the quite fetching and appealing Jody Medford) sides with the boys, and things eventually get distressfully out of hand, leading to a rousing last reel appearance by the National Guard to save the day in the nick of time.Yeah, nothing about this particular flick manages to be really surprising or original as far as the story is concerned.
Being an alkie, the sheriff's judgment is not the best and seems to think this is okay although later on his boss, who like all big time law enforcement types is very slow on the uptake, fires him for doing this.From here things go rapidly from bad to worse, as an army of zombies with caustic blood descend.
They are simply bad dudes who like to play with toxic waste and don't much care if the locals are being turned into zombies because of it.
Into this town come two big city brothers, Josh (Wings Hauser) and Mike (Lee Montgomery), who are just in time to become caught up in the strange events.Director John "Bud" Cardos, who'd graced us with the superior "nature strikes back" entry "Kingdom of the Spiders" seven years previous, stepped in here to replace original director Mark Rosman ("The House on Sorority Row"), and does his usual bang up job, successfully creating an ominous mood and palpable small town atmosphere.Wings is very likable in a role far removed from his flamboyant villainy in "Vice Squad", as a carefree sort of guy who's forced to get serious in a hurry.
That's why a movie like "Mutants" doesn't just feel like a relic, but one of the last relics from a time when you could pitch a movie, and studios would at least consider it.Josh (Wings Hauser) and Mike Cameron (Lee Montgomery) are two brothers on the lookout for a good time, until some rednecks run their car over.
Why is the movie called "Mutant" (also known as "Night Shadows") and has a poster that looks like that of an "Alien" knock off, but it's actually a zombie movie?"Mutant" is very much a meat and potatoes style drive-in-horror-flick from the 80's, originally intended to be directed by Mark Rosman ("The House on Sorority Row") but ended up going to Joe "Bud" Cardos ("The Dark" and "Kingdom of the Spiders.") By meat and potatoes, I mean there isn't any real gore (unless you count the green zombie blood) or nudity on display.
( thats always the way isn't it!!).Good little zombie movie if nothing else.It grabbed my attention and I watched it through to the end.
Our hero befriends the pretty local school teacher and the town doctor, survives several zombie attacks, and together they race to stop the toxic menace before night falls once again.
Wings Hauser is great here, he had the cocky pretty boy look, nailed down perfectly, he was very likable, had pretty good chemistry with Jody Medford, and was fun to watch!,only qualm is he had to spurt out lousy dialog at times, but he is a great low budget film actor!.
Bodies are appearing, then disappearing, people are taking ill, the streets are increasingly empty....So anyway, to cut an overly slow moving film short - it turns out that a nearby chemical waste dump is turning everyone into toxic vampire zombies, which isn't quite as exciting as it sounds.The best scene has a doctor examining a body and explaining the process of how people are mutating, completely oblivious to her assistant turning into a monster behind her, following the description to the letter and making an awful lot of noise while doing it.
If only there were more moments of comedy as good as this then the film may be worth watching.There is ONE good scene at the climax, as a gang of unruly vampire zombies surround our "heroes", but sadly it doesn't build to anything.Overall the film is cheap looking (though some of the make up effects are decent), badly made, badly written, VERY badly acted and did I mention that it stars Wings Hauser?There is a good punchline though.
Brothers Josh (Wings Hauser) and Mike (Lee Montgomery) get stranded in a small southern town after a run-in with some locals on the highway.
Imagine Day of the Dead and Deliverance had a lovechild, which grew up to disappoint both parents beyond their wildest fears, and that's Mutants.And the real tragedy is that Mutant was, by far, the closest thing to 'watchable' Montoro ever produced (besides maybe Getting Into Heaven; smut is smut and generally we aren't watching for character arcs or storyline, so I can't imagine he would have butchered it that bad).The film opens as Josh and Mike (Wings Hauser and Lee Montgomery), two brothers from the city, motor down the highway in their fancy convertible. |
tt0060049 | 5 tombe per un medium | TERROR-CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE synopsis **NOTE: In the European version, actors names are their real Italian names. In the US version, they were changed to more American-sounding names. Below they are listed in their Italian names.**A man is drinking in a local pub. Suddenly a hand is seen at the door, trying to get in. Sensing danger, he quickly flees and goes down cobblestone streets and steps until he reaches a stable. Quickly he saddles a horse and secures the straps. He attempts to untie the rope, but suddenly the horse is startled and begins furiously bucking up and down, stomping him to death. Next we see a close-up of his face: half-mutilated with one eye hanging out. (Title shows.)Albert Kovac (Walter Brandi) is driving an open-air touring car down a country lane. He passes an old woman (in a deleted scene, he inquires of the woman where the castle is and she crosses herself). He turns into a drive leading up to a castle (Villa Hauff), parking in front. Removing his cap and putting it in the back seat, he retrieves his briefcase and goes to ring the bell at the front door.The bell will not ring, however. He knocks on the door and pushes it open. Entering, he calls out if anyone is home. He walks down the entrance hall, passing various statues and suits of armor. Hearing a noise behind him, he turns to see the maid, Louise (Tilde Till) who has come out from one of the rooms. He explains that no one answered when he came in. He asks her to introduce him and she opens a door and bids him enter. Inside, Corinne Hauff (Mirella Maravidi) is wiping off a standing suit of armor. He introduces himself and asks if she is the daughter of Dr. Jeronimus Hauff, which she confirms. She tells Louise to take the gentlemans coat. Louise is staring at Kovac as if she hasnt seen a man in years. Finally her attention is gained by Corinne and the coat is taken.He explains that he is an attorney who received a letter requesting he come and take care of Dr. Hauffs will. She leads him down a hall toward another room. On the way he notices a display case containing six mummified hands. He follows her into a bedroom where he is asked to show the letter. Giving it to Corinne, she hands it to Cleo Hauff (Barbara Steele) who is seated with cold cream on her face. Immediately she begins wiping her face and looks at the letter. Minutes later she emerges with her face clean and ready to talk.She asks if he is the attorney addressed on the envelope, Joseph Morgan (Riccardo Garrone). He explains that Morgan was absent when the letter arrived so he came at once since it seemed urgent. (In a deleted scene at the beginning of the film Morgan is seen leaving and Kovac reads the mail, finding the letter.) She reads from the letter and remarks how it looks like his writing and seal. He asks if her husband had told her about the letter. She responds that her husband has been dead for a year. Meanwhile there is a flash of lightning and the front door is blown open. Louise closes and bolts the door.Invited to stay the night, they are next seen at dinner, discussing the letter. Cleo speculates that it must be a fraud while Corinne insists that it is her fathers handwriting and seal. Cleo tells Kovac that the seal was buried with her husband and that she is his second wife. Kovac asks to smoke and is told of course . Louise enters and asks if she should serve the coffee. After this is done, she asks if she may be excused for the evening. Cleo excuses her and she politely curtsies to each of the ladies and leaves. Cleo remarks how not even a storm can keep Louise in the castle.Kovac tells them that the police will have to be informed of the death. Cleo tells him that it was Dr. Hauffs wish to be interred in the ground for one year before being laid to final rest. She says the villagers want nothing to do with this place, citing superstitions. Corinne corrects her, telling Kovac that her father was a spiritualist who tried to contact supernatural forces. She points to a bust of a woman which has three scratches on the cheek. He notes that they are real. Corinne says she believes it was done by something supernatural. Cleo tells her not to speak anymore of this. Cleo suggests that Kovac might want to telephone his office. Looking at his pocket watch, he remarks that Morgan is usually in his office at this time.Kovac picks up the phone, giving the operator Morgans number. All at once there is lightning and thunder and strange noises on the line. Outside we see part of the telephone line fall beside the grave of Jeronimus Hauff. Kovac asks the operator what is wrong with the line but she replies there is nothing wrong with it. At this point a strange man enters, carrying a candelabra. It is Kurt, the servant (Luciano Pigozzi) who stares at Kovac. We hear Kovac talking to himself, wondering about the strange man and how much he knows. Kurt closes the shutters and leaves the room just as Corinne enters. She tells Kovac that it is Kurt the gardener and that he has never left since the death of Dr. Hauff. Looking at a painting of the castle and surrounding area, she tells Kovac that hundreds of men died here, since it was once used as a hospital. As for the severed arms, Corinne tells him they are the mummified remains of those who spread the Black Plague. He makes a joke and she tells him not to, saying her father discovered many things about the house. She shows him to her fathers room, telling him to stay there for the night.Inside, he lights a cigarette, thinking of how strange the whole situation is. He finds another adjoining room and takes a candelabra in to see it. It is Dr. Hauffs office, where he finds an old Edison recording cylinder. Cranking it, he turns the needle to play the recording. It is the voice of Hauff, who talks about several people who were spreading the plague. When caught, their hands were severed before they were hanged. The remains were buried on the property. As he describes the sound of the wagon carrying corpses to a mass grave, the sounds of creaking wheels are heard outside. We see covered graves and wagon wheel tracks in the dirt.Corinne begins to undress in her room, when suddenly she turns to look and screams, covering herself. Kovac, hearing the scream, starts to her room. She comes out, claiming that she saw her father in her room. Cleo suggests that Corinne is too tired and on edge and has imagined it all. Entering her room, she reacts to the sight of a bronze bust of her father. Cleo tells her that it is only a statue. As they leave, Cleo tells Kovac that Corinne learned all of these things from her father. She says she will show Kovac where he died. They come to a long stairway going down below. She tells him that Dr. Hauff fell there and died. At the bottom of the stairs we see the face of Kurt, who looks up at them. Meanwhile, the recorded voice of Hauff, playing the last groove of the recording over and over, intones: I summoned them from their graves, and now I have become one of them. Outside, Kovac finds that an owl has gotten into his engine and caused damage (in a deleted scene we see the owl when Louise is admiring the car). When he asks Kurt how to get into town, he gets no reply. At this point Dr. Nemek (Alfredo Rizzo) walks up, telling Kovac that he will get nothing from Kurt. When Kovac shows the engine to Nemek, he says no one knows how to work on engines. Nemek explains that he is the new doctor for the area. Kovac asks for a ride into town and Nemek agrees. As they walk by the castle, he asks about what he sees. Nemek tells him that these are the unconsecrated graves of the plague spreaders from the fifteenth century. As they walk toward the horse and buggy, Corinne approaches and asks for a ride into town. They all get in and start out.Meanwhile, Cleo in their absence goes through the briefcase, removing documents to read. She asks the operator if the phone line to town has been repaired and is told it has. Then she hangs up.They arrive at a building where Nemek tells them he has to stop for a few minutes. He suggests they take a walk down by the lake. They do.Corinne talks about her father being misunderstood by everyone and that he had supernatural powers. She apologizes about her outburst last night, saying that he was in the room. They walk along the shoreline, past a number of small boats. She tells Kovac that her father used to bring her there often. She points out two sticks in the ground, a large one and a smaller one. Explaining that this is a sundial her father devised, she tells him that when the shadow of one touches the other, the time is right for fishing in the reeds. Turning back the other way, she suddenly screams my father! and runs into the reeds, falling down. Kovac chases her and she tells him that she saw her father in a boat in the reeds. We see it with an oar attached. She claims that the water dripping from the oar means it was just used. He tells her there is no one there. Frightened, she seeks comfort in his arms. Just then Nemek calls them to go back.They are seen in the home of Oskar Stinner (Ennio Balbo), a paralytic in a wheelchair. Corinne is seen dressing behind a sheet in silhouette. Her clothes which were hung by the fire are now dry and handed to her by Dr. Nemek. Kovac smokes and Corinne is shown getting dressed (shown behind the sheet). Nemek tells Kovac that Stinner has a fine wine for them. He gets the bottle and some glasses, explaining that he can smell a good wine for miles. Stinner refuses to drink, but wine is offered to Corinne and Kovac, who suggests they talk about the letter. He shows it to Nemek, who remarks how it looks authentic. Stinner asks to see it, telling them he has an old letter to compare it to. Pulling one out of his desk, he looks at both seals, saying they are the same. Kovac says the police must be informed. Stinner tells Corinne to get out of town before its too late. Nemek says they should get back home and tells Stinner not to worry and that he will come see him tomorrow. Kovac thanks Stinner and exits. Corinne hesitates by the door, telling Stinner she will see him again soon. As they leave, Stinner says to himself I will never see her again. I just know it. The day of revenge is at hand.Arriving at the local apothecary, Nemek tells them he knows the pharmacist who also serves as the mayor. Inside, he calls the mans name but gets no answer. They look around and Nemek continues to call out. As he looks behind the counter, he is horrified to see the man dead, with a bottle of acid dripping on his horribly disfigured face. They immediately get Corinne into the carriage to leave, telling her they will join her later. She drives off to return home.Inside the hall of records, Nemek fills out a death certificate and signs it, stating that cause of death was heart failure. Kovac asks whether the police should be involved but is told that a heart attack is not a violent death. Nemek asks the clerk for two forms, which he brings immediately. Looking at the forms, he asks the clerk why they are already filled out. He is told that the corpse collectors came by the village last night and that everyone knows when that happens that someone will die. Kovac says how could you know it would be the mayor? The clerk tells him it was one of the five men present at the death of Hauff and that they all are doomed to die.Cleo is seen in a bubble bath. Corinne enters and is asked to scrub Cleos back. Taking Corinnes hand, Cleo remarks how she is trembling. Corinne replies that she saw the mayors body, horribly eaten away by acid in the pharmacy. Cleo seems shocked and steps out of the bath. When asked if the mayor was her friend, Cleo says no, but he was one of the men who would come around to see Jeronimus. She states that all his friends were low-class individuals, not like what she was accustomed to. Corinne implies that her step-mother had been a performer. Cleo answers that she had to give up her career to marry Dr. Hauff, who became a crazy country doctor. She tells Corinne that it was not what she expected. Her friends formerly envied her. Rising to leave, Corinne tells her flat out that she is the same lousy actress she always was.Back at the hall of records, the clerk looks up and begins to read the death notice of Dr. Hauff, which was signed by the five men present at the time. He notes that three of them are dead and the remaining two have not long to live. Kovac takes the page with their names to study it. As Kovac calls out each of the three names, the clerk reads the fate of each one from the record. Asking who the fourth man is, the clerk is told Oskar Stinner. It is said that the name of the fifth man is unknown because the handwriting is illegible. Kovac expresses doubt that the friends of Hauff would want to kill him, but the clerk suggests they hated him because he dabbled in the occult.Back in his room, Kovac wonders about the fifth man. He plays the recording, hearing a girls voice singing remember pure water, pure water will save you. Looking out the window, he sees a young girl sitting at the fountain below. He goes down to the fountain but finds only the flowers the girl was holding, now discarded in the water.Stinner is seated at his desk when he hears the sounds of the corpse collectors wagon outside and declares that the end has come. After a torturous moment of worry, he rolls his wheelchair to the wall and removes a sword, which he places point-out from a chest of drawers. Backing up, he rushes upon the sword and kills himself. At this point the window opens from outside and we see Stinner dead from behind. One of the mummified hands is seen upon his shoulder, implying that it had come to kill him but was too late. The hand pulls Stinners wheelchair back off of the sword, which drips. We see from a front angle that Stinners intestines are hanging out. (In a deleted scene there is an alternative death scene where he dies by hanging himself instead of by sword.)Next day a policeman is shown investigating at Stinners place. Nemek tells him he will come by the station later to file a report. He tells the men to take the body away. Kovac asks Nemek if he still believes this is coincidence, to which Nemek replies he isnt sure anymore. When Kovac reminds him that they both heard the clerk predicting the death but they did nothing, Nemek replies that there is nothing they could have done to have prevented Stinner from taking his own life. Kovac suggests that maybe Hauff is still alive and that his body has not been seen, except by the witnesses. Finding a partially-burned note on the desk, Kovac shows in to Nemek, telling him that Stinner was writing it to warn the final victim, who was summoned. He tells him that tomorrow Hauffs body will be dug up to be re-interred. They are hoping to see the body at that time, which would prove whether Hauff is really dead.The next day at the cemetery a small gathering stands around the temporary grave. As the slab is removed from the grave, those present see that it is empty. Some gasping is heard from the ladies. Kovac thinks to himself so that means the fifth witness is in danger. He is directed to a phone to call his boss but is told he has left for the Villa Hauff. Explaining to Nemek, Kovac says the fifth witness is Morgan, since he was the one summoned by the original letter.Morgan enters the castle and looks around, seeing no one. He goes into another room and hears Dr. Hauff greeting him from a chair across the room (his face is not visible, but as Morgan nervously approaches, he notices a ring on Hauffs hand with a large jeweled J).Kovac and Nemek arrive and begin to search for Morgan. His hat is seen on a hallway table. Morgan comes out from the front room in a state of shock. The men sit him down. He tells them that he saw Jeronimus. When Kovac goes to search the room, he finds only a cat in the chair. He is given a sedative by Dr. Nemek. Kovac demands to know why he has come. Nemek suggests that this discussion take place later. Kovac leaves with an apology, giving Morgan the letter.Next we see Louise preparing to leave, questioned by Corinne about what she saw. She says she saw nothing, only feeling more coldness in the house than during a normal winter. Locking herself in the kitchen in fear, she tells Corinne she heard the voice of Jeronimus speaking. Asking what he said, she says to ask Kurt. At this point she leaves, saying that she can no longer remain in this house.Corinne apologizes to Kovac, telling him it is her fault for asking him to remain. She confesses her need for him and they kiss. At this point they are interrupted by Nemek, who asks for cognac. She goes to fetch it while the men sit down. Kovac tells Nemek that Morgan is highly believable, because he doesnt believe in ghosts. They both agree that Kurt needs to be found so that what he knows can be determined. Corinne enters with a tray and two glasses, carrying some kind of dispenser which she sets on the table. Nemek seems pleased and Corinne adjusts something on the dispenser.Louise is seen walking through the woods. Bird sounds are heard, which gradually give way to the sound of the corpse collectors cart. Louise looks around but sees nothing. She hurries away.Morgan is awakened by the door opening. Cleo comes in and he stands to greet her. From their conversation we learn that they had agreed to separate for one year after the death of Jeronimus, but Cleo tells him they cant just resume their affair now. Confessing his love, Morgan begins kissing her shoulder. Next they are seen in bed, kissing.Meanwhile Corinne goes to the attic with Kovac to look around. They find a doll, which she explains was hers. It contains a music box which plays. Kovac remarks that he knows that tune. Corinne tells him it is an old song which she then sings. He remembers it from the recording he heard before and wonders what is the meaning of pure water will save you?Cleo listens as Morgan reads the letter sent to his office, which was signed by Jeronimus. She asks if he believes Hauff wrote it. He tells her he knows who is behind all this. Checking his gun, he informs her that there was one more witness there that night: Kurt.Corinne and Kovac go down below into a crypt-like room where she calls out for Kurt. Hearing no answer, they leave. One wall opens and Kurt enters, carrying the body of Hauff, which he lays on the slab. He says to the corpse that the night of revenge has begun. He removes the ring (which contains the J used to make the seal) from Hauffs finger and places it in a torch, which causes it to flare up. Soon the hour of death will come, he says, which will free the spirits of the plague spreaders, who will begin killing the innocent and guilty alike. He confesses his loyalty to Hauff but asks forgiveness for having to break his vow of silence, since Corinne will have to be warned.Nemek asks whether they found Kurt, to which Kovac says no, telling him that they searched the entire house. At this moment Corinne screams as she sees Kurt coming in, his face all covered with oozing sores, signs of the plague. Nemek tells them not to touch him. Kurt says the night of his revenge has begun, and they are here. Pointing to a full-length mirror, he says that one year ago he saw it all happen here. In a flash-back sequence, we see the five men (not including Kurt) and Cleo all facing Jeronimus, who reveals that they had all signed a petition to run him out of town. He refuses to leave, telling them he knows too much about their sins and will alert the public. He addresses each one, telling what he knows. Finally he faces Cleo and Morgan, telling them he had known about their clandestine affair for some time. Morgan approaches him with a candlestick to strike him from behind. Encouraged by each face, he hesitates until Cleo cries out kill him, Joseph! Hauff is struck from behind and falls, cursing them all and telling them that they wont escape his anger.Coming out of the flashback, Cleo tells him to go back to the dead and throws a candlestick at the mirror, breaking it. Hauffs voice is heard summoning the dead spirits of the plague spreaders to avenge him. The grave covers are slid over and we see at least one hand emerging. Cleo cries no and begins to run. She goes from door to door but cannot escape. She opens a double outer door and screams. As she turns back inside, we see her face with signs of the plague. She staggers around the room, getting a glimpse of her face reflected in the tray. Finally she falls upon the harp and breathes her last. Morgan shouts that he will not die. Pulling out his gun, he tells Hauff that he is not afraid but begins acting like he is being stalked. Firing several shots, he too receives signs of the plague and collapses. As Kovac looks at him, he notices on a grandfather clock the painting of the young girl at the fountain, again wondering about the pure water that will save them. (In a deleted scene Kovac is told about the painting of this legendary girl who would save the village with purified water.) Thunder and lightning are heard. All at once he announces that water is the answer. He tells Nemek to take Corinne outside. She protests that she wants to remain with Kovac.Opening up a door, Kovac sees Louise, now covered with the plague. She dies in his arms. He goes outside to join the others. The sounds of the corpse collectors cart are heard and the open graves are viewed. Kovac tells them that it is the water that has kept the spirits away, and now that all the water is drying up, they can only hope for rain. Nemek takes Corinne aside and a mummified hand is seen in the bushes. When we see Nemek again, he has the plague, telling her not to touch him. Kovac stumbles around, backing away from an unseen spirit. Only the shadow is visible approaching him. As he is backed into a corner and sinks down, suddenly the menacing sounds stop and raindrops appear. Corinne calls out that it is raining and the two of them embrace. Saved from the avengers, they are seen walking off together as the rain comes down. | revenge, gothic | train | imdb | null |
tt1149362 | Das weiße Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte | The action takes place in a German village in the fifteen months that precede World War I.Among the people who live there are a baron, who is a large landowner and a local moral authority, his estate manager, a pastor with his many children, a widowed doctor and a schoolteacher who is thinking of getting married. It is he who, many years later, tells this story.Though everything seems to be quiet and orderly, as it always has been, with the seasons following each other, and good harvests following bad ones, suddenly some strange events start to occur. If some appear to be quite ordinary, even accidental -- a farmer's wife dies falling through rotten floorboards -- others are inexplicable and may well be malevolent.Thus, a wire placed at knee-height has brought down the horse being ridden by the doctor, who is severely wounded.There's more of the same: an unknown hand opens a window to expose a newborn baby to the intense cold of the winter. A whole field of cabbages, on the baron's land, are beheaded with a scythe. One of the Baron's sons disappears: he is found his feet and hands bound, his buttocks lashed by a whip. A barn belonging to the manor is set on fire. A farmer hangs himself. A midwife's handicapped child is found tied to a tree, in a forest, seriously beaten, with a threatening message on his chest speaking of divine punishment.The village is worried, and at a loss as to what to do. The baron whose wife will soon leave the village to go to live in Italy makes a speech in the church, but it has no effect. The pastor, a particularly strict character, had since the beginning of the events, tied a white ribbon to the arm of his two eldest children, a boy and a girl: it is to remind them permanently of their duties to purity. In spite of these ribbons, his own family is not spared. His eldest son admits that he masturbates. The pastor's pet bird is stabbed with a scissor by the pastor's daughter.The schoolteacher, whose pupils are growing more and more unruly, and who is considering getting married (it is the only love-story in the film), starts little by little to unravel the mystery. What he discovers seems incredible to him: those guilty of most of these misdeeds are the village children. They have formed a secret society and their leader seems to be Klara, the pastor's daughter.Why did the children behave this way? The schoolteacher can't say. They are haunted by dark feelings, fears, a desire to revolt, to dominate, to conceal, to be violent. All this is heralding something that will explode fifteen or twenty years later, when this generation has grown up.The schoolteacher tries to reveal what he thinks he has found out to the pastor. He is rebuffed. There's no question of bringing that out into the open. The pastor insults him, and even threatens to report him. Our children guilty? It's inconceivable.We learn that the Archduke of Austria has been murdered by a Serbian in Sarajevo. An international crisis is brewing.The worries and the dramas of the village are soon lost in the strange excitement of the coming war. Later, the schoolteacher ponders over it again: didn't those events contain the germs of the tragedies that followed? Weren't the barbaric acts of the children, deep down, the natural consequences of what they had been taught? [www.cinemas-online.co.uk] | dark, suspenseful, cruelty, mystery, thought-provoking, violence, atmospheric, revenge, sadist | train | imdb | Fans of Michael Haneke's more morally shocking films such as 'Funny Games', 'Benny's Video' or the draining 'Time of the Wolf' might find themselves surprised by the quieter and slower analysis of evil in his latest work 'Das Weisse Band'.
This is the question Haneke appears to be exploring here (just as was a central question relating to French society in 'Cache').One of the most disturbing things at the heart of the film is the fact that we do not know why particular acts of evil take place (including the maiming of a disabled child and the beating of a nobleman's son), or even who commits them.
However, this is no 'whodunnit', although with its retrospective voice-over from the School Teacher's p.o.v. we are let to believe for a long time that were in a crime/thriller genre.Throughout his body of work so far, Haneke has suggested that looking for the sort of easy answers films and TV all too readily supply is partly responsible for our misunderstanding how violence in society occurs.
Set over all this, like an umbrella, is the fact that the small provincial society depicted in the film is all but completely isolated from wider society.Another poster here has pointed out that Haneke is using his village as a microcosm to reflect Germany as a whole, and I would agree with that.
In this respect Haneke seems to be diagnosing German society in the run up to the 'Great' War as one of authoritarianism, religious doubt, intolerance, and fear.What is remarkable in such a film is how little human joy or love is to be found in such a seemingly idyllic rural landscape.
Stunningly beautiful, shot in the exquisite black and white, with the faces of the characters looking like the old pictures from the beginning of the 20th century, The White Ribbon has the longer title in German, Das weiße Band, Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte -The White Ribbon - A German Children's Tale.
Anybody who is familiar with the work of Michael Haneke knows very well that he does not make pure mystery/thrillers even though his movies have a lot of mysteries and often very dark secrets By his own admissions, he uses the mystery in the White Ribbon to show the origins of the extremism of all epochs, and what could have been the beginning of the darkest times in the history of the country.
Looking at the life of one small picturesque village in the northern Germany just on the brink of the World War 1, Haneke explores the malice, envy, apathy, hatred, and brutality that envelop the village like a web, and lead to the outbursts of evil that goes unpunished and will bring the larger evil in the future.
Like Bergman, Michael Haneke does not make the horror films but the computer generated monsters are simply a joke comparing to the real monsters of hatred and evil that found a place to hide and grow in the souls and minds of the characters in his latest film.
They have to do with the only love story in the film and come to think of it, the only love story in all Haneke's films I've seen, between the film's narrator, the local school teacher and the 17 years old Eva, the nanny for the children of the baron, the most powerful man in village.One of the critics said that The White Ribbon is the film that will haunt the viewers for days and will be seen, discussed and thought of for the decades to come.
Finally, he expressed the sentiment that "The White Ribbon" is a movie against ALL extremisms.Michael Haneke has directed his vision in a very masterful and artful way: the cinematography, the acting, and the script are all superb.
Directing was superb.Haneke uses a village and a narrator similar in essence to Lars Von Trier's Dogville, still these two movies are clearly different.Das Weisse Band has also some similarities to Cache, but just one notch less satisfying than his masterpiece which had a slightly more intriguing and fulfilling story.
The film follows a route from local (Germany) to universal, coming up with far reaching arguments, just as Foucault focuses on 18-19th century France and presents arguments on the evolution of prison and punishment systems.Considering Haneke's entire filmography, it is evident that the director has always been interested in philosophical takes on pschology and human interaction, without historicizing his filmic arguments strictly, i.e., without attributing time spans/societies to them.
Michael Haneke "White Ribbon", Golden Palm winner of Cannes Festival in 2009, takes place in a small German village one year before World War I.
Because this is what the white ribbon symbolizes, not the so-called purity but the pretension to achieve it.The film circles around the lives of many villagers, from various ranks and backgrounds at a time where people were mostly defined by their jobs, a baron, a priest, a farmer, the doctor, the teacher, and every one of them tries to maintain a façade of dignity.
But Haneke is as explicit when it comes to show how laborious these rituals are as to demonstrate their uselessness.This is a village where moral and social conveniences end up poisoning relationships, aa farmer's wife dies because of a work accident but the husband can't complain because he knows it's a lost cause, the baron is the employer and you can't cut the hand that feeds you.
What Haneke does is depicting violence to deprive it from any kind of taboo value, and by refusing to provide hints or answers, he makes both everyone guilty and everyone innocent, and you've got to figure out which option is the worst.We all have our 'white ribbons' our limits, and in the absolute no one would over cause harm to anyone, but these things happen, and just because they are irrational doesn't make them immune to a form of rationality, this is the country of Kant that established that for each cause there's an effect and inversely, and one effect becoming a cause, and maybe that's the perpetual movement of history captured in this microcosm of humanity.
Movies don't come much more austere or art-house friendly than "The White Ribbon," a German film written and directed by Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke.
With its stark black-and-white cinematography and deliberate pacing, the film has the look and feel of an old Ingmar Bergman picture - Ingmar Bergman crossed with M Night Shyamalan, that is, since its story centers around a village in pre-World War I Germany where strange and inexplicable things begin to happen.
All of this is narrated by the town's schoolteacher (Christian Friedel) who falls for a sweet, shy girl who works as a nanny at the manor house.The children - most of whom look like they just stepped out of "Village of the Damned" - struggle with thoughts of death and the guilt caused by a repressive society, while the adults - an emotionally rigid and unyielding pastor, a cruel, incestuous doctor - contend with their own inner demons, as they groan under the burdens of a class-conscious feudal system and the weight of their own conflicted desires.
Widely regarded as the best European film of 2009, Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon centers on the birth of evil in pre-war Germany.
Another winner from proficient writer-director Haneke.While the linking of parental oppression and abuse with national (in this case German) characteristics, that seemingly led to the horrors of WWI and later to Nazism, seems a trifle too easy a solution, this otherwise superb study of human cruelty comes up trumps.No other contemporary director is able to create such a compelling atmosphere of subtle discomfort and hidden menace while imbuing every scene with a sense of dread and foreboding.
Just finished watching this at Melbourne International Film Festival 2009 with the girlfriend..She rated it a 2 out of 5, I gave it a out of 5..Both of us also saw a fantastic documentary called The Cove on the weekend which we both rated 5 out of 5..Just goes to show that anything that we emotionally and visually connect with is going to inherently going to rate better..The White Ribbon deals with our hypocritical society and really exposes how little we have progressed..Sins are committed by elders in the name of religion or parenting and the children bear the scars..Are we any better today in our behaviour?
A lot of quizzical looks around, muted applause and a lot of ppl like my girlfriend will forget about it by tomorrow..But as a lesson on what animals and monsters we hide and ignore behind the safe curtain of society's rules of hypocrisy, this is a monumental expose by Michael Haneke..Brilliant, thought-provoking, sublime cinematography and a movie-maker self-assured to let the movie slowly unfold and at the top of his game, yet another important addition to his existing body of work..
A number of acts of violence thrown in now and then are arguably intended to provide a hint of a plot and -for the same price- conjure up the lurking-presence-of-evil-inherent-to-human-nature, but both their cinematic and philosophical potential remain undeveloped in the scorching light of the director's self-loving drive to show us how Germany really looked like.Haneke has no doubt read his Fontane and his Thomas Mann too.
It may well be that, but what Haneke accomplishes is nothing less than exploring the nature of evil itself that emerges from cruelty, forced servitude (in many forms), empty dogma and the corruption of innocence (that white ribbon that symbolizes innocence in the title of the film and is physically manifest as a real ribbon worn on the arms of children who would—in 20 years--replace those ribbons with swastika's).Universal in its scope it may well attain "masterpiece" status even as we watch.
The set scenes between actors achieve a finely tuned naturalness and rhythmically counterbalance the forward action of the script and the interplay between the actors so another degree of interest is revealed and what it might lead to.It is not predictable, not with the range of characters, the events that occur and a very strong evocation of place in a film in quite some time, make this worth watching again and again..
In a society where speaking the truth and revealing the evil at small scale are less important than keeping appearances of social order the freedom is in danger and evil can develop at bigger scale.All this is spoken in few words by the off-screen commentary of the village teacher who tells the story, but is not explicit in the cinema language of the film.
A long and slow portrayal of a very conservative and judgemental Austrian village, just before the outbreak of World War One, in which some moderately interesting events happen to some dull and spiteful characters.The film succeeds in building an atmosphere of bleakness - if you want to know exactly what it feels like to live in a joyless, judgemental, protestant, Germanic society where traditional protocols are enforced by miserable dominant patriarchs then this is your film.
And here we have a (fictional) story that is recalled by one of the participants, and in a way that is obvious it's only the commonly agreed version of what happened, if that.By now, it is all but common knowledge: we see the generation that would grow up to be the Germany that in its moment of despair flocked to Hitler and the Nazi party, as well as witness some of the childhood trauma that perhaps explains it, explains how a society could acquiesce to Nuremberg and Krystallnacht, some less reluctantly than others, would come to crave the grandiose vision, and went on to scatter the bodies of its youth across three continents and two oceans.On a broader level, there is a small , elusive aperture in the machinery of the universe that evil flows from, and depending on your predisposition, you will come out of the film with a few things about the nature of that evil.You may note ancient sin that mysteriously stole into the world and poisons its way through the generations, sustaining and replicating itself like a virus.You may note what in the Eastern world is known as karma, which is not a metaphysical proposition but a simple truth: every force in nature promulgates its reaction, and it is no different with mental pain you inflict (and had inflicted on you by your father's father).You may note that karmic cycle of sin as nothing other than ego and desire, that aspect of self that thinks the world including its own offspring should conform to its image, and spends a lifetime tinkering with that self-image - ambition, pride, vanity, hate, all means to control life that is ever-changing and flows.All of it true, but I like to settle for something else, which I believe explains deeper.
I found it extremely unsatisfying when the end-credits rolled over, there are tons of questions remain unsolved after 160 minutes while over 30 characters were introduced in the film, for sure Haneke doesn't want to give us any definite explanations of the crimes happened, the whole film demonstrates a ubiquitous mental abuse among the German village at the time before WWI (especially towards children), which caused abnormality in their thoughts, the power of poisoned minds was so overwhelmingly dominant so that it would ignite the naissance of Nazi among the next generation while a detectable overthrow of religious paternity was under the way.
But here comes Michael Haneke, an Austrian(!) director with the superb, original "Das Weiße Band" to belatedly capture Calvinist cinema's crown.Shot in stark black and white, "Das Weiße Band" transports us to a German village in the 1910s, where people work hard, pray hard and go nowhere, literally.
Austrian film director Michael Haneke's latest, The White Ribbon: A German Children's Story, has already won the Palme d'Or. The chances are it'll pick up Best Foreign Film at next month's Oscars, too.
Bad things happen, that's all we on Earth can know.The White Ribbon: A German Children's Story is no exception to Haneke's rule of thumb – build something dispiriting and the plaudits will come.
and i saw that this film has such a high rating, i was excited to watch it.i thought that it was a some sort of ghost story because the movie poster on here is in black and white, eerie looking.
"My God, why won't you just die?" The doctor to his mistress in White Ribbon.Director Michael Haneke seems quite comfortable with ambiguity, as I am, if you remember the uncertain identity of the clandestine videographer in Cache and now witness the strange events in a small northern German town at the cusp of the 20th century just before WWI.
Film Review: "The White Ribbon" (2009)Director Michael Haneke anylizes with a clever eye of beat and actions taken in a rural central European (German) village, what causes lead to passive psychological violence before spreading like a firestorm through Austrian-Hungarian as Ottoman Empire, which eventually leads to "World War One" due to the assassination of crown prince of the Austria "Franz Ferdinand" on June 28th 1914 in Sarajevo as the director just calmly as visually captures human confrontation due to power, sexual conduct and hierarchy of stand in stellar black-and-white digitally as wisely put in post-production due to already magnificient cinematography by Christian Berger, when the Berlin-based X-pool production company entrusts the exceptional director with complete creative freedom alongside his hauntly-upplaying cast, making "The White Ribbon" 135-Minutes of high suspense and cinematic conflict scene-by-scene.Copyright 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC.
The setting and story - repressive feudal early 20th century society is remotely similar.The "alternative Heimatfilm" genre (a Heimatfilm is a usually sentimental film with a regional background, although this film is certainly not sentimental) - is similar to Edgar Reitz' Heimat TV Series from the 1980s (Pre-World-War 2 stories in rural village near french border)The menacing atmosphere combined with visual beauty, created by the camera-work, reminded me of Ingmar Bergman/Sven Nykvist movies from the 1950s.The ending is open, and the message of the story is incomprehensible after all.
Austrian director Michael Haneke's icily beautiful The White Ribbon is a film very close to the perfection of a certain cinematic type.
In Michael Haneke's 'The White Ribbon', a serious of dark, mysterious events overtake a German village in the year immediately before world war one.
I really cant add much more, there are relationship issues involving the doctor and a bit of a burgeoning love story between the teacher (and narrator), and the nanny employed by the Baroness, Eva, but I guess that's all I can say about the plot without giving too much away.Whilst watching the film I have the impression that the children maybe know something about the trouble in the village, but none of them are letting on.
Michael Haneke's super creepy and unsettling film about a small German village in the days leading up to World War I is the best horror movie I've seen in a long time.Things are deeply wrong in this particular village, though they're wrong in ways that are hard to define and which no one will admit.
There's the mystery of the 'accidents' combined with the tragically dysfunctional lives of each villager, with the unfair treatment of the children, with the expressly marked roles of men and women, with the growing ambiance of war around them, with the loss of innocence in the town's children, with the inhibition of sexual discovery in each of them, with the refreshing love story between the narrator and a naïve teenager
well, the movie imparts cold, direct facts of life, pieces of humanity in all their wonder or horror, and it's up to the audience to make any sense of it all and to come to one's terms with the implications of the film's message.I think of "The White Ribbon" and I see it being the topic of discussion in cine-circles around the globe and in film classes.
The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band) tells the story of a small German village and the strange occurrences that happened in the months leading up to World War I. |
tt0093185 | The Hidden | In the opening scene, a man named Jack DeVries (Chris Mulkey), robs a Los Angeles Wells Fargo bank, and kills all of the security guards inside. DeVries leads the Los Angeles Police Department on a high-speed chase, during which he forces an innocent motorist and several LAPD patrol cars off the road.In the meanwhile, the hot-tempered LAPD detective Sgt. Thomas Beck (Michael Nouri) questions DeVries' neighbor; the neighbor tells Beck that DeVries was a quiet, decent gentleman. Beck's partner, Det. Cliff Willis (Ed O'Ross) runs up and informs Beck that the LAPD is pursuing DeVries through West Hollywood.DeVries encounters a police blockade overseen by Beck. DeVries is shot several times, smashes through the blockade and crashes. He staggers out of the wreck, tosses out the bank bags full of money and laughs at the amazed police; the police then shoot at the Ferrari which explodes, knocking down DeVries.At a local hospital, a doctor informs Beck and Willis that DeVries is not expected to survive the night; Willis tells DeVries' doctor that within a span of only two weeks, DeVries has been on a violent crime spree.At the police station, Lt. Ed Flynn (Clu Gulager) and Lt. John Masterson (Clarence Felder) discuss reassigning Beck. After Flynn leaves, FBI Special Agent Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan) arrives and informs Masterson and Beck that the latter has been assigned to work with Gallagher. Gallagher states he has been trailing DeVries for the past month all the way from Seattle. When he learns that the spree killer is at the hospital, Gallagher then rushes off to go see DeVries.At the hospital, DeVries suddenly awakes, disconnects his life-support equipment and walks over to the comatose man in the next bed, Jonathan P. Miller (William Boyett). DeVries rips off Miller's breathing mask, then a slug-like alien life-form emerges from DeVries' mouth and transfers itself into Miller's body; DeVries then drops dead. When a doctor and nurse defibrillate Miller, Miller amazes the staff by awakening and calmly walking out. Gallagher arrives at the hospital and sees DeVries lying dead on the floor; Gallagher then questions Miller's attending physician, who tells Gallagher about Miller and his medical problems. Gallagher has told the doctor that Miller is wanted by the FBI, but the doctor is doubtful, saying that Miller is a good and gentle man.Miller is caught pocketing heavy metal music tapes by a music store owner; when the irate man tries to stop Miller, Miller beats the owner to death and steals $100 from the cash register, a small revolver pistol and a portable boombox. As Miller walks out of the store, he callously bumps into a young woman who is just walking in and sees the owner's bloodied corpse.Gallagher asks Beck to put out an alert on Miller, but Beck refuses after running a background check on Miller, who has never broken the law other than receiving a few traffic tickets. Beck investigates the music store owner's murder, but sees that Gallagher is already at the crime scene. Beck takes Gallagher aside and berates him, as Beck believes Gallagher is overstepping his jurisdiction and tells him to go back to Seattle; Gallagher instead follows Beck back to the police station, where the female witness identifies Miller as the murderer. Beck then agrees to put out an APB on Miller and assist Gallagher, who tells Beck that DeVries and Miller were partners, and that neither man has a criminal record since they both frequently change identities. Gallagher and Beck leave the station in Gallagher's Porsche; Beck is amazed that Gallagher can afford such an expensive car, but Gallagher jokes that he stole it.Meanwhile, Miller is eating at a diner and annoying the customers and staff alike with his loud music blaring from his stolen boombox, but then turns it off when he sees visiting United States Senator Holt (John McCann) on TV; Holt is running for President of the United States. A passing red Ferrari Mondial catches Miller's attention and he rushes out of the restaurant without paying for his meal, leaving the boombox behind as he runs down the street.Gallagher tells Beck that Miller was at the hospital to see DeVries, and that Miller steals what he wants and kills anyone who gets in his way (Beck notes that DeVries acted in the same way).Miller arrives at a Ferrari dealership where he shoots and kills three men at dealership and steals the red Ferrari Mondial that he followed earlier; one of the men killed by Miller was an art gallery proprietor named Michael F. Buckley, who just bought the Ferrari that Miller stole. When Gallagher and Beck investigate the triple homicide, Gallagher mentions that Miller likes to steal Ferrari's, which Beck finds odd since DeVries also had a taste for Ferrari's. Gallagher later tells Beck that both DeVries and Miller had killed Gallagher's partner. Beck privately notes Gallagher's odd responses to his questions.Miller checks the wallet he stole from Buckley's pocket and finds business cards for Buckley's art imports business and a strip club. Miller drives to the art gallery where he then finds that Buckley was also an illegal arms dealer. The Alien realizes that Miller's poor medical condition makes Miller an unsuitable host and unsuccessfully tries to escape Miller's body. Miller recovers and loads as many guns as he can carry into a large bag. Meanwhile, Beck and Gallagher find out that Buckley was an arms dealer and Beck orders police units be sent to Buckley's home and business; by the time the police arrive at the art gallery, Miller is already long gone.Beck and Gallagher go to Beck's house for dinner. Gallagher becomes saddened when introduced to Beck's wife and daughter. Beck's daughter suddenly becomes withdrawn and frightened in Gallagher's presence. Beck once again finds Gallagher's odd responses and behavior as atypical of a FBI agent.Miller then decides to visit the strip club that Buckley once frequented, where the Alien jumps hosts once again, this time taking over the body of a stripper named Brenda (Claudia Christian), which allows her to bypass a police search despite carrying the large bag full of weapons. Brenda/Alien then has sex with a man in his car, induces a fatal heart attack in the man and steals his car. Gallagher is able to identify Brenda as the Alien's new host, and he and Beck pursue her in a chase through the streets and to a rooftop, where Brenda opens fire on Gallagher and Beck with a M-16 assault rifle, prompting Gallagher and Beck to return fire, mortally wounding Brenda. Gallagher points a strangely-shaped weapon at Brenda, but before he can fire it, Brenda taunts Gallagher and leaps from the roof. On the ground, Masterson arrives from his house to take charge of the scene; the Alien emerges from Brenda's dying body and enters Masterson's dog, Roy.Later, when Gallagher refuses to tell Beck what is going on and what he knows about the situation, Beck has him taken into custody and runs his credentials. Beck learns that "Gallagher" is in fact missing and presumed dead following a forest fire during a hunting trip over one month ago.The man with whom he has been working matches the description of Gallagher's friend Robert Stone, who similarly disappeared following the same fire. When Beck confronts Gallagher/Stone with this knowledge, Stone tells him that they are in fact pursuing an Alien thrill killer who has the ability to take over human bodies. Beck disregards the story as insane.Meanwhile, the Alien takes over the body of Lt. Masterson to get into the police station so that it can find and kill Stone. A shootout ensues, during which it is revealed that Stone is in fact another alien named Alhague, a police officer from a planet orbiting the star Altair. Alhague has been pursuing the Alien ever since it murdered his own wife and daughter and his police partner nine Earth years ago. The weapon he attempted to use on the rooftop is from his home world, and has the capability of killing an alien parasite without harming the host body (due to the Alien's different biochemistry); the weapon shoots an energy beam that causes a cinder-block wall to explode when it is mishandled by an unsuspecting police evidence technician, allowing Beck to free Alhague during the resultant chaos. As Masterson hunts Alhague, the Alien brags that Earth would be an easy target for his kind to conquer. Following an explosion from a M72 LAW rocket launcher fired by Masterson at Alhague in the cell block, the Alien transfers into Beck's partner Det. Cliff Willis (Ed O'Ross) and escapes.Witnessing the respect shown to Senator Holt and knowing that Holt is running for President, the Alien decides to take over his body; with Presidential power, the Alien could summon others of his kind to Earth, where they could easily conquer humanity. Alhague and Beck follow Holt, but Beck is severely wounded by the possessed Willis during the chase (as is Willis, who is so badly wounded that he must find a new host) and the Alien is able to transfer itself into the Senator before it can be stopped (one of Holt's aides hiding in a pantry witnesses the Alien taking over Holt's body, but she is so traumatized from the experience that she says nothing).Alhague is forced to attack Holt in the middle of a press conference, just after Holt announces to the media that he wants to be President; despite being shot several times by United States Secret Service bodyguards, police officers and Holt himself (who seizes a revolver, shocking everyone present as he repeatedly shoots at Alhague), Alhague is able to use a homemade flamethrower taken from the police evidence locker, burning Holt to death and forcing the alien to emerge from Holt's charred corpse. Before a crowd of horrified reporters, helpless Secret Service agents and LAPD officers, Alhague kills the Alien with his weapon before himself collapsing.Beck and Alhague are both taken to the hospital. Although Alhague rapidly recovers from his gunshot wounds, Beck has been mortally wounded. Alhague enters Beck's room, where he sees the effect that Beck's pending death is having on his wife and daughter. Once everyone else has left, Beck dies, but Alhague opens his mouth and emits a yellowish-white light (revealing himself to be an energy being), transferring himself into Beck's body. Stone's lifeless body collapses to the floor, while the alien Alhague (in Beck's body) makes a spontaneous recovery. Beck's wife and daughter return. Beck's daughter initially hesitates when Beck reaches out to her from his hospital bed. (Note: it is strongly implied that Beck's daughter, Betty, may have special abilities to "see" persons to who they are and that she knew from first sight that Gallagher/Stone/Alhague was an alien being, and she now knows that the Alien is inhabiting her father's dead body). But then, Betty smiles and takes his hand. Alhague now has a wife and daughter again and now confined to Earth for the rest of his now-natural human life. | comedy, dark, murder, cult, violence, psychedelic, revenge | train | imdb | null |
tt0056937 | Cleopatra | The movie opens in 48 B.C. shortly after the Battle of Pharsalus where Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) has defeated Pompey's army in a brutal civil war for control of the Roman Republic. Caesar learns that Pompey has fled to netrual Egypt, hoping to enlist the support of the young teenage Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII (Richard O'Sullivan) and his sister Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor).A few months later, Caesar arrives in Alexandria, the then-capital of Egypt. He meets the teenage Ptolemy whom is frequently surrounced by an entourage of ministers and advisers, who seem to do most of the thinking and decision-making for him. As a gesture of 'goodwill', the Egyptians present Caesar with Pompey's severed head, but Caesar is not pleased; it is a sorry end for a worthy foe.As Caesar settles in at the palace, Apollodorus (Cesare Danova), disguised as a rug peddler, brings a gift from Cleopatra. When a suspicious Caesar unrolls the rug, he finds Cleopatra herself concealed within. He is intrigued with the young queen's beauty and warm personality as she persuades him to help her take back her thrown from her younger brother.Days later, Cleopatra warns Caesar that her brother has surrounded the palace with his soldiers and that he is vastly outnumbered. Caesar is unconcerned. He orders the Egyptian fleet burned so he can gain control of the harbor. The fire spreads to the city, burning many buildings, including the famous Library of Alexandria. Cleopatra angrily confronts Caesar, but he refuses to pull troops away from the fight with Ptolemy's forces to deal with the fire. In the middle of their spat, Caesar begins kissing her.The Romans hold the main gate to the city after a fierce nightime battle. The next day, the armies of Mithridates arrive on Egyptian soil and drive off the armies of Ptolemy. The following day, Caesar passes judgment in a show trial. He sentences Ptolemy's lord chamberlain to death for arranging an assassination attempt on Cleopatra, and rules that Ptolemy and his tutor be bannished to the desert to join Ptolemy's now greatly outnumbered troops, a sentence of death as the Egyptian army faces off against the Mithridates.Cleopatra is crowned Queen of Egypt. Afterwords, she tells him about her dreams of ruling the world with Caesar. A year later, a pregnant Cleopatra gives birth to their son Caesarion. Caesar accepts him publicly, which becomes the talk of Rome and the Senate.Caesar returns to Rome for his triumph, while Cleopatra remains in Egypt. Two years pass before the two see each other again. After he is made dictator for life, Caesar sends for Cleopatra. She arrives in Rome in a lavish procession and wins the adulation of the Roman people. The Roman Senate grows increasingly discontented amid rumors that Caesar wishes to be made king, which is anathema to the Romans.On the Ides of March in 44 B.C., the Senate is preparing to vote on whether to award Caesar additional powers for the Republic. Despite warnings from his wife Calpurnia (Gwen Watford) and Cleopatra, he is confident of victory. However, he is stabbed to death by various senators.Octavian (Roddy McDowall), Caesar's nephew, is named as his heir, not Caesarion. Realizing she has no future in Rome, Cleopatra returns home to Egypt.Two years later in 42 B.C., Caesar's assassins, among them Cassius (John Hoyt) and Brutus (Kenneth Haigh), are killed at the Battle of Philippi. Marc Antony (Richard Burton) establishes a Second Triumvirate goverment with Octavian and Lepidus. They split up the empire: Lepidus receives Africa, Octavian Spain and Gaul, while Antony will take control of the eastern provinces including Asia Minor and Syria. However, the rivalry between Octavian and Antony is becoming apparent.In 38 B.C., while planning a campaign against Parthia in the east, Antony realizes he needs money and supplies, and cannot get enough from anywhere but Egypt. After refusing several times to leave Egypt, Cleopatra gives in and meets him in Tarsus. Antony becomes drunk during a lavish feast aboard Cleopatra's large golden ship. Cleopatra sneaks away, leaving a slave dressed as her, but Antony discovers the trick and confronts the queen in her bed chaimber. They soon become lovers.Octavian uses their affair in his smear campaign against Antony. When Antony returns to Rome to address the situation brewing there, Octavian traps him into a marriage of state to Octavian's sister, Octavia (Jean Marsh). Cleopatra flies into a rage when she learns the news.A year or so later, when Antony next sees Cleopatra, he is forced to humble himself publicly. She demands a third of the Roman empire in return for her aid. Antony acquiesces and divorces Octavia. Octavian clamors for war against Antony and his "Egyptian whore". The Senate is unmoved by his demands until Octavian reveals that Antony has left a will stating that he is to be buried in Egypt; shocked and insulted, the Senators who had previously stood by Antony abandon their hero and vote for war. Octavian murders the Egyptian ambassador, Cleopatra's tutor Sosigenes (Hume Cronyn), on the Senate steps.The war is decided at the naval Battle of Actium on September 2, 31 B.C. where Octavian's battle fleet, led by General Agrippa (Andrew Keir) lures the overconfident Antony's ships away from land and defeats them in piecemeal. Seeing Antony's ship burning, Cleopatra assumes he is dead and orders the Egyptian forces home. Antony follows, leaving his fleet leaderless and soon defeated.Several months later, Cleopatra manages to convince Antony to retake command of his troops and fight Octavian and Agrippa's advancing army. However, Antony's soldiers have lost faith in him and abandon him during the night. Rufio (Martin Landau), the last man loyal to Antony, is killed. Antony tries to goad Octavian into single combat, but is finally forced to flee to Alexandria.When Antony returns to the palace, Apollodorus, not believing that Antony is worthy of his queen, convinces him that she is dead, whereupon Antony falls on his own sword. Apollodorus then takes Antony to Cleopatra, and he dies in her arms. Octavian captures the city without a battle and Cleopatra is brought before him. He wants to return to Rome in triumph, with her as his prisoner. However, realizing that her son is also dead, she arranges to be bitten by a poisonous asp. In the final shot, Octavian and Agrippa enter Cleopatra's temple afterwords to see her dead, dressed in a gold funeral robe with her two handmaidens, also bitten by the same venomous snake that Cleopatra allowed herself to get bitten, dying by her side. Octavian also finds a last letter from Cleopatra requesting to be buried with Marc Antony.In the voice-over epilogue, the narrator claims that Octavian accepted Cleopatra's last request and allowed her to be buried with full honors next to Marc Antony inside her palace in Alexandria. Octavian returned to Rome several months later in to a hero's welcome for ending the last Roman civil war, and two years later, Octavian adopted the name Augustus and proclaimed himself emperor of the newly formed Roman Empire, and Egypt became a conqured Roman provence. | violence, murder, melodrama | train | imdb | Cleopatra is a film of myths.A massively troubled production combined with the extraordinary love affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton made for plenty of hype.But what really matters nearly 40 years on is the film itself.At this distance it is possible to see the film for what it is.
A grand example of the final flowering of Hollywood.In 1963 it seemed old fashioned compared to the excitement of European cinema and what the critics perceived as new (many of their favourite films of that era now just seem dated and pretentious).But Cleopatra grows in stature with time.It is far from flawless.
Whether the missing two hours will reclaim this part of the film is yet to be seen.But compared with Gladiator or similar modern epics, Cleopatra is a brilliant film with an intelligent script, stunning design, masterly and beautiful cinematography in 70mm (which sure beats 35mm and does justice to the intricate sets and design), an evocative and effective musical score and superb costumes and makeup.The big three, Taylor, Burton and Harrison are extremely good and in the case of Harrison, who has many of the best lines, brilliant.
It was originally intended to release Cleopatra as two three hour movies, the first dealing with Cleo's relationship with Caesar, the second her affairs with Marc Antony.
This decision is like taking Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings Trilogy and removing an hour from each film wherever an hours' worth can be removed...a recipe for incoherence and total disaster.So, with two hours of footage gone, major characters are reduced to glorified walk-ons, vital plot points and motivations are lost, and the story loses what LOTR has...length with the proper pacing.
People will not sit and watch 4 hours of stitched together rough cuts...that's what Cleopatra is, even in the DVD roadshow edition...because what we have is something that is too bitty and haphzard to sustain interest.But there is still glory in Cleo....Roddy McDowall, Martin Landau and Rex Harrison all act their socks off, the sea battle is kick ass, and Liz Taylor looks pretty scrummy in Egyptian softcore porn clothes.
The movie seems to lose it's way half way through as Rex Harrison departs so for me does the quality of this movie.It's difficult to tell whether this is due to over the top performances from Taylor and Burton or the forced cuts to reduce the running time.
But the rest of the 2nd half of the movie descends into melodrama, where the 1st gave us the excellent Harrison restrained and regal as Ceaser the 2nd gives us real life lovers Burton and Taylor locked in an over-acted doomed romance.
But throughout the film there are supporting actors giving first class performances that without the cuts would be interesting to see Martin Landau, Andrew Keir, Hume Cronyn and George Cole all have their moments it's just a shame there aren't more of them.If I could split my vote over the two halves of the movie the first half would get 9/10 the 2nd 6/10 as I can't I'm going with a 7/10 overall..
Taylor and Burton were not too bad, but they didn't handle the pompous dialogue as well as Rex Harrison, Hume Cromyn, Martin Landau and especially Roddy McDowell, who was perfection itself and, I believe, accurately portrayed as the very young, ambitious and unscrupulous, but brilliantly intelligent Octavian (later the emperor Augustus).Sure, some of the dialogue stinks, and the movie seems too long (perhaps because so much of it was cut to fit into fours hours).
In addition, because I watched the DVD version of the movie, I also was able to view the outstanding documentary "Cleopatra: The Film that Changed Hollywood".
Mankiewicz,one of the most intelligent director of his time,rewrote the dialogue during the shooting,night after night ,and the results are stunning,considering the difficulties he encountered with his budget and his stars.Cleopatra's dream is perfectly recreated,much better than in De Mille 's version -a good one,though-:It's Alexandre the great 's plan ,this Alexandre from whom she's descended,to make a huge empire,uniting the Orient and the Occident.One of the major scenes takes place near the great conqueror's grave .The second part has Shakespeareans accents:Cleopatra becomes some kind of Lady Macbeth,and Marc Anthony is left alone against the whole Roman army (the Shakespearian trees).The last lines (repeated twice) are some of the finest you can find in an epic movie.And look how Fellini has been influenced by Mankiewicz for the final of his "Satyricon":the photograph turning into a fresco.
As for the epic scenes,they are here,of course but they are little over 20% of the movie.And to Cleo's awesome Rome entrance ,you can prefer Ceasar's epilepsy fit.The actors are not as uneven as it's often said.Elizabeth Taylor had already worked with Mankiewicz (the extraordinary "suddenly last Summer") and she learned a lot with him;she's now ready for the great roles of the sixties:"Virginia Woolf","Secret ceremony" "taming of the shrew".Richard Burton had been "Alexander the great" (coincidence!) in a rather academic movie,and here he portrays a clumsy,almost Don Quixotesque Marc Anthony with art.However,Rex Harrison steals the show in the first half.Supporting actors ,including Roddy MCDowall ,a puny but shrewd Octavious,and Richard O'Sullivan ,an effeminate Ptolemy.
For anyone who knows little of the history of CLEOPATRA, or who was not around at the time, this documentary will give them the feeling of what those last days of old Hollywood was like.
And who can fail not to be enthralled by the real life love story that was taking place at the time with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton?
Breathtaking photography, fabulous costumes, wonderful lead and supporting role performances, a dual love story that is timeless - the romance with Caesar for power and the romance with Marc Antony for love, unmatched music by Alex North, that's what's in Cleopatra.
Similarly, Caesar's [Rex Harrison] opening war scene, Marc Antony's gut-wrenching soliloquy as a broken man after the defeat at Actium , Octavian's [Roddy McDowall] harsh scolding of an officer that let him know of Marc Antony's death, Sosigenes' [Hume Cronyn] death scene, Apollodorus' [Cesare Danova] support for Cleopatra, and Rufio's [Martin Landau] support for Marc Antony are all permanently etched in my memory.The shear lushness of the production has to be seen to truly believed.
This film is worth watching for the excellent cast of talented actors alone, but Richard Burton truly shines as Mark Antony.
I watched this movie over 3 nights on DVD, and was captivated through the whole 4 hours and 10 minutes or so it took.Elizabeth Taylor did a pretty good job in the title role as perhaps the greatest seductress in history, and Richard Burton was superb as Antony, but for my money Rex Harrison (Julius Caeser) and Roddy McDowall (Octavian) stole the show.For me the highlight of the film was the historical backdrop - Egypt vanished as a nation and Rome reached the peak of its power and started the descent into decadence - all in one movie, and as you watch this epic you gain some insight into the psychology and power politics that made the 4 major historical figures of the time.
I hope one day six hours version will be found, and that Cleopatra will take her place as one of the best epics in film history..
Beautiful, sensuous, intelligent, desirous of bringing her beloved Egypt into the forefront of world power and politics.Rex Harrison portrays Julius Caesar's elegance, loyalty to Rome, and the hardness required of a good general and leader, but mixed with kindness and mercy.
No we're not talking about Cleo and Caesar or Cleo and Antony, we're talking about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton on the set of this mammoth epic.
As a serious piece of film, it's far too wooden and dull to appeal to cinephiles; but for the same reasons, it doesn't even satisfy those looking for trashy camp.In terms of its physical production, "Cleopatra" takes the "more is better" approach, and stuffs every frame with gawdy set and costume details.
I can't believe such great actors like Rex Harrison, Richard Burton, and Elizabeth Taylor would be so grossly miscast.
As epic eye candy Cleopatra is great to watch, but there is definitely something missing in the film.The film has an enormous Shakespearian lilt to it; lots of over acting and scenery chewing which allows Taylor, Burton and Harrison to really get into their roles.
In the end, the film is more interested in telling the story of Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony than of the famous Egyptian Queen; because the dire script was D.O.A, the rest could have salvaged it on a certain level but every single actor, except for Richard Burton (who actually looks healthy here and not the alcoholic Burton), is hopelessly miscast.
The film really suffers badly because Rex Harrison, as Julius Caesar, and Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra were truly miscast.
Taylor looks like she's playing "Cleopatra Egyptian Barbie Set" than a serious actress trying to add depth to a legendary historical character.
Perhaps the best way to explain the failure of Cleopatra is to contrast it with another Hollywood epic, Ben-Hur. In the latter film, there is a sublime scene where Ben-Hur is being whipped by a Roman guard on a forced slave march.
Taylor, who was 30 when she made Cleopatra, was actually about the same age as the real Cleopatra when the events of the film transpired but already past the peak of her beauty (watch Ivanhoe, made 11 years earlier).The AMC channel produced an excellent 2-hour documentary of the vagaries of production of this film, its wretched excesses, and the fact that the film was cut very heavily for its final release.
True, many scenes are spectacular and likely never to be excelled, even with modern digital imaging techniques (compare the recent film Gladiator), but no treatment of this film I have seen has ever really gotten hold of the reason this film will never be counted among the classics of film history: And that is Elizabeth Taylor's utter, absolute, complete failure to convince the viewer, for even one single second of screen time, that she is Cleopatra.
Others enjoyed it but this is one picture that stank so much, I still remember how bad it was after all this time (this is being written in 2005).I've seen movies with Liz Taylor that I liked but she is badly miscast in this picture and her acting is probably her worst job ever..
Despite the hype about the Taylor/Burton romance, they do not get to grips until an hour into the action, and Marc Antony's link with Julius Caesar is not properly delineated.Together with Anthony Mann's "Fall of the Roman Empire", this production killed off the ancient-epic cycle which "The Robe" had started a decade earlier.
While some of the supporting actors (particularly Rex Harrison as Caesar) do a credible job, Richard Burton is a rather wooden Marc Anthony and Elizabeth Taylor is terrible.
And for those of us who grew up in the '60s, let us not forgot that Cleopatra makeup we all walked around with.There are also some wonderful performances in this film, notably Rex Harrison as Caesar, Richard Burton as Marc Antony, Roddy McDowell as Octavian -- and let's not forget the perfectly cast Elizabeth Taylor, gorgeous and resplendent and certainly believable as both queen and seductress.The film sticks to the true history, with the exception of the children Cleopatra had with Marc Antony -- four in all, including twins.
Impressive sets and costumes, remarkable styling, large scale epic scenes (such as Cleopatra's spectacular entrance in Rome or the sea battle in Action), thousands extras, excellent cast and, strangely for Hollywood's productions, a very historically accurate script, based on ancient historians (Plutarch, Suetonius, etc) consist an underrated masterpiece.
Cleopatra tries to maintain control of her kingdom and satisfy her ambitions to unite Egypt and Rome in a great empire by having affairs with Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) and later Mark Antony (Richard Burton) after Caesar's assassination.
In real life Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton had a passionate affair on the set of this movie and finally became one of the most celebrated couples in Hollywood.
Richard Burton gives a memorable performance as Mark Antony and Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar simply appears the depth of his great talent.
Elizabeth Taylor is amazing as Cleopatra, and so are Rex Harrison and Richard Burton.
From Rex Harrison - Elizabeth Taylor - Richard Burton & Roddy McDowall, to the opulence seeping from every pore, Cleopatra is a joyous eye opening experience.
Any way the movie is great and awesome the graphics are great and the reall love of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor suites this epic.
The way I see an epic film is that it is over three hours long, with an overture, intermission and maybe some exit music with beautiful scenery, involving story, memorable characters, great action if there is any which fits all perfectly into a movie you will be patient to sit through.
What is forgotten about the film is that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor did not have to play the parts they did; and their shortcoming along with a few poorly-written lines here and there are the only negatives most persons take away from this interesting and frequently- beautiful dramatized era of Roman history.
Well the movie was great especially when Cleopatra came to the entrance of rome(i think) Elizabeth Taylor was exquisite.
Richard Burton acted great inthe movie and in true life loved and married Elizabeth Taylor.
Scenes with Taylor and Rex Harrison (as Caesar) in the earlier part of the film are somewhat better.
Mankiewicz, which also provides the script with Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Buchman, has Elizabeth Taylor in the role of Queen of the Nile, Richard Burton as Mark Antony, Rex Harrison as Caesar and Roddy McDowall as Octavian Augustus.This film was severely cut because it would have originally twice the length of the movie has today.
And there will never be another naval battle like the one in this film.Several scenes are very effective because of the acting and dialog: Cleo and Caesar's first scene; when they're in bed together; Cleo and Antony's scene when she demands 1/3 of the Roman Empire (Taylor is particularly good in this one); Cleo and Octavian in her tomb (Roddy McDowall shines here).There are moments of clunky dialog: Cleo talking about "the people" after learning Caesar has been made dictator for life; in Alexander's tomb, Cleo talking about one world living in peace; Octavian's speech upon learning of Antony's death; Caesarion yelling "the enemy" over and over while playing on his toy horse.The cinematography is excellent (a well-deserved Oscar).
If it hadn't been the tabloid headlines screaming about the love affair between ELIZABETH TAYLOR and RICHARD BURTON on the set of CLEOPATRA in Rome, it's unlikely Fox would have released this epic without trimming even more than they did.
The trims were not enough and the film is a boring mess by the time it reaches the end of its first forty-five minutes.Let's face it, Elizabeth Taylor sounds like a shrill fish wife whenever her emotions show any temperament--in other words, her vocal abilities are not good enough to carry the role of a woman who commanded all of Egypt with her willpower and determination and cunning.
Only RODDY McDOWALL emerges triumphant as Octavius (probably one of his best adult roles), but RICHARD BURTON is another casualty as a supposedly impassioned Marc Antony.Cleopatra's eye-filling entrance makes a stunning cinematic treat, but Taylor in later years confessed that she was sick upon seeing the film at a premiere and has since confided that she hates it.
A twist of fate anyway brought Richard Burton (and Rex Harrison) into the cast - begun with Stephen Boyd as Antony and Peter Finch as Caesar, the film spiralled into such a long-term commitment that they dropped out and the replacements came in.How is Elizabeth Taylor as 'Cleopatra'?
(As if Joan Collins could do it!!!!!) This film is about how Cleopatra marry's Ceasar (Rex Harrison) and then falls in love with Anthony (Richard Burton).
Despite everything, the script re-writes, Liz Taylor's eccentricities, over-budget squabbles, the raging love affair with Burton, illnesses....the sequence in which Cleopatra makes her entrance to Rome was (on the gynormous original Panavision 70mm screen) and still IS, by far the biggest spectacle ever witnessed in movie history.
Speaking of huge, Cleopatra's Alexandria Palace remains even today, the largest set ever constructed.Such was the media furore at the time over the Burton-Taylor affair, most people went to see it for all the wrong reasons and fairly negative critiques didn't engender an undying affection for the movie.
Mankiewicz and excellent acting from Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, Richard Burton, and Roddy McDowall.
Sure, art imitates life too much when you watch this movie knowing all about what went on between Liz and Dick off-camera but that still doesn't diminish the fact that as far as epics go, "Cleopatra", while not in the same class as "Ben Hur" is as good as or better than other quality epics like "Spartacus".
Once again, Liz became a homewrecker, and her love affair and marriage to Burton is one of the most famous of all Hollywood couples.Also, Cleopatra was the most expensive film ever made at the time.
It's on for 4 hours!The film is clearly about Cleopatra and her relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony.The movie stars Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra.
Beautifully busted Elizabeth Taylor (as Cleopatra) copulates with seething lover Richard Burton (as Mark Antony), after godly lover Rex Harrison (as Julius Caesar) becomes indisposed.
Mankiewicz ~ Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall.
Hardly what I would call a bomb, though the film is far from perfect.Over the course of four hours (!) we follow the exploits of Queen Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor) as she sets her sights on ruling not just Egypt, but the entire civilized world. |
tt0057078 | La frusta e il corpo | In a nameless Baltic country in the 19th Century, Kurt Menliff (Christopher Lee) arrives at his seaside castle after many years of wondering through Europe. But he is not warmly received for everyone knows that he is a sadist who gets sexual gratification from whipping his lovers. His former lover is Nevenka Menliff (Daliah Lavi), who is now married to Kurt's spineless younger brother Christian (Luciano Stella). Kurt and Christian's father, an invalid Count (Gustavo De Nardo) has never forgiven Kurt for leaving in the first place. The maid, Giorgia (Harriet White Medin) is anxious to get back at him for causing the suicide of her daughter who stabbed herself in the throat after Kurt walked out on her years ago. Nevertheless, Kurt is allowed to stay because he is family.The following morning, Kurt confronts his other cousin Katia (Ida Galli) whom he knows to be secretly in love with Christian. He smugly assures her that he feels her pain, as he is interested in Nevenka. Katia flees from this unwanted revelation. Kurt next enters the large, cavernous living room where his father spends most of the time. Kurt explains that now he has returned home, he feels that he deserves to be next in line to inherit the family estate. But the Count assures him that there is no chance of that happening. "Everything you were to inherit, you forfeited forever", he tells Kurt. "You did it yourself, with your infamy!" Angered, Kurt storms out of the living room.Embittered by this personal defeat, Kurt goes to the beach where he sees Nevenka sitting pensively by the water. He approaches her, and reminds her their past liaisons. They kiss, and then Nevenka recoils, striking Kurt across the face wit her riding crop. He then calmly takes it out of her hand and pushes her to the ground. Cracking the riding crop across her back, he sneers: "You haven't changed, I see. You've always loved violence". He then proceeds to strike her again and again. Nevenka's reactions to being beaten are very subdued and the expression her face suggests sexual excitement. After striking her several more times, Kurt tosses the riding crop aside and proceeds to rape her.After finishing with Nevenka, Kurt returns to the castle where he is confronted by Katia and Christian who ask him where Nevenka is, to which Kurt replies that he has no idea. They immediately know that Kurt is lying when they see him holding Nevenka's riding crop. As it is getting dark, Katia and Christian head out to look for Nevenka, as Kurt retires to his bedroom. Soon after, he is killed when an unseen person stabs him in the throat with a dagger.Meanwhile, Christian discovers Nevenka on the beach, her back covered with welts. After putting Nevenka to bed, Christian sends out for Kurt. The family butler, Losat (Luciano Pigozzi), goes to fetch Kurt, only to discover his dead body on the floor, with the dagger lying beside him. Losat's screams bring the others into the room, where Giorgia is hysterical with joy to see him dead, killed by the same dagger her daughter used to commit suicide.After Kurt's funeral, Christian timidly asks his father if he was responsible for the killing. The Count is enraged by these accusations, and tells his son to leave the living room. Soon after, the entire family unit begins to unravel. The marriage between Christian and Nevenka becomes more strained. Nevenka starts to see visions of Kurt. At one point, his ghost visits her in the middle of the night, whipping her more ferocious than ever.Soon afterwards, the Count is found murdered in the living room in the same fashion as Kurt, with the same weapon. Christian vows to find the killer, and Katia accuses Giorgia, pointing out that she had every motive to kill Kurt. Giorgia admits that she wanted to kill Kurt, but assures everybody that her love for the Count would have made it impossible for her to kill him. Elsewhere, Nevenka's mind becomes more unhinged and each nightmarish vision of Kurt unsettles her ever further. After explaining everything to Christian, even he comes to believe that Kurt may have been behind the murder of their father, and that his ghost is doing all the killing.Christian and Loast unearth Kurt's decaying dead body from the family crypt and burn the remains to try to put Kurt to rest. As they watch Kurt's remains burn, the dead man's sinister laughter rings out. Following a cloaked figured dressed as Kurt, Christian and Loast follow it to the castle where Christian pulls off the hood to reveals none other than Nevenka. At last the terrible truth comes out: Nevenka was the one who murdered Kurt after sneaking back into the castle and sneaking out through hidden passageways. But at her remorse over the crime, coupled by the realization that she really did love Kurt, compelled her to act out as if he is still alive, by dressing in his clothes to complement the illusion. Nevenka even went as far as to whip her self during those nights, and murdered her father as revenge for his ostracizing her love.Nevenka escapes from her husband, stabbing him in the arm in the process, and makes her way back to the crypt. Now really believing that Kurt is alive, Nevenka decides to put a stop to it all by killing him again. Kurt appears to her for a final time where in their final 'embrace' she stabs him, but instead stabs herself in the chest with the dagger, and she falls dead. | gothic, sadist | train | imdb | Irresistible and genuine Gothic scares, combined with atmospheric camera-work and breath-taking scenery
Welcome to yet another visual masterpiece directed by the greatest horror genius of all time: Mario Bava!
La Frusta E Il Corpo/The Whip & The Body(1963) is an excellent gothic masterpiece that was ahead of its time in 1963 due to the strong imagery of erotic violence.
One theme that regularly occurs in many of Bava's films is the notion of the double that is present in movies like The Mask of Satan(1960), Kill Baby Kill(1967), and The Hatchet for the Honeymoon(1969).
After the announcement of the servant Losat (Alan Collins), the nobleman Kurt Menliff (Christopher Lee) returns to the castle of his family at the seaside to congratulate his brother Christian Menliff (Tony Kendall) for his marriage with his former lover Nevenka (Daliah Lavi).
On the next days, the members of the family suspects of each other while Nevenka is haunted by the ghost of Kurt."The Whip and the Body" is a stylish and one of the best features of Mario Bava that uses a magnificent cinematography, lighting and shadows and a classy soundtrack.
Whip and the Body, The (1963) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Christopher Lee plays a sadistic nobleman who returns home to terrorize his family after leaving home years earlier after forcing his girlfriend to commit suicide.
This unrelentingly-creepy tale of obsession and perversion plays like a more-horrific version of _Wuthering Heights_: cobwebbed crypts, dark castles with secret passages, rotting bodies, muddy footprints, pale faces scowling through windows, love-hate relationships that continue beyond the grave, sea cliffs, turbulent ocean, sunsets, and a very haunting music score.
Now I've watched 'The Whip And The Body' three times and listened to Tim Lucas' informative DVD commentary I'm almost ready to bow down and worship Bava like a god!
Giving the film a tragic love story atmosphere, the powerful theme bodes with the lighting to help create a tense and powerful atmosphere, in which Bava allows his actors to inhabit.
Sadistic scoundrel Kurt (Christopher lee), black sheep of the family, returns home to find that absence hasn't exactly made the heart grow fonder: his father (Gustavo De Nardo), brother Christian (Tony Kendall), ex-lover Nevenka (Daliah Lavi) and housemaid Giorgia (Harriet Medin) still find him utterly loathsome.
Unsurprisingly, Kurt winds up being murdered, but even death cannot stop his cruelty...In keeping with its Sadean theme, The Whip and the Body is both a pleasure to behold and a pain to endure: aesthetically, the film cannot be rivalled, with excellent costume and set design, and exquisite direction from Mario Bava, whose camera glides gracefully through pools of coloured light and ominous swathes of shadow to great effect; the story, however, is less impressive, a trite exercise in Gothic cliché, replete with a creepy cliff-top castle continually battered by strong winds and thunderstorms, a raft of morbid characters, all of whom harbour dark secrets, loads of tiresome symbolism, and some ridiculous psychological claptrap.The sado-masochistic nature of the central relationship between Kurt and Navenka (which is surprisingly way ahead of its time) prevents the film from attaining coma-inducing levels, but with extremely long periods where nothing much of interest happens, the film is far from the perfect perverted and poetic love story that its ardent supporters claim it to be.8 out of 10 for the lovely imagery, but 4/10 for the story—so that's an average rating of 6/10..
With Italy being my favorite Horror-producing country, and Gothic Tales and Gialli my favorite sub-genres, it is not surprising that I regard Italian Horror-pioneer Mario Bava, sublime master of the first- and inventor of the second category, as one of the greatest geniuses in the history of Motion Pictures.
Unlike any other Horror director, Bava made most of his films so ingeniously that it is very hard to name favorites, simply due to the fact that this great man's repertoire includes so many flawless masterpieces.
"The Whip And The Body" is the absolute proof that, unlike any other director, Mario Bava had a unique talent of combining beauty and terror in a most mesmerizing manner.
This is no exaggeration, but merely the only proper description of how visually overwhelming this dream-like Gothic masterpiece is.Horror-icon Christopher Lee, as far as I am concerned one of the greatest actors ever, gives a brilliant performance as one of his most haunting and sardonic characters here.
I do want to say though, that "The Whip And The Body" is a unique and fascinating mix of Gothic Horror and S&M love-story.
I love the work of Mario Bava, but I am not going to get carried away and say this is his best film.
Bava is probably my favorite of the Italian horror directors (Blood and Black Lace is the picture above all other giallo that I recommend to the curious) and I respect the knowledgeable devotion of Tim Lucas and others, but this film is severely overrated.That said, as a casual popcorn rental Whip could be entertaining for some of it's imagery (though hardly Bava's best for composition or color as some are incredulously claiming).
La Frusta E il Corpo/The Whip and the Body(1963) proved the capabilities of Mario Bava to do a film that was both technically brilliant and emotionally three dimensional.
The performances turned in by Christopher Lee and Daliah Lavi are some of the finest in a Mario Bava film.
La Frusta E il Corpo/The Whip and the Body(1963) is an excellent gothic period piece that was ahead of its time due to the strong imagery of erotic violence.
Mario Bava's ten best films are Blood & Black Lace(1964), Rabid Dogs(1974), The Whip & the Body(1963), Lisa & the Devil(1972), Kill Baby Kill(1967), Bay of Blood(1971), Mask of Satan(1960), Black Sabbath(1963), Hatchet for the Honeymoon(1969), and Planet of the Vampires(1965).
The story of The Whip & the Body(1963) would be modernized in a later Mario Bava film, Shock(1977).
My acquisition of this one was almost as tortuous as the movie's own release/distribution history (due to various censor boards worldwide): the first copy I purchased (in tow with Bava's subsequent effort BLOOD AND BLACK LACE {1964}, upcoming in my ongoing tribute to the Maestro) would not access the Bonus Features on my Pioneer DVD player (the same was true of that "Giallo" landmark); I took it out on VCI, who promptly issued me replacements, plus one freebie disc from their back catalogue in apology (for which I chose the 1961 Best Actor Oscar-nominee THE MARK)
but the package got lost in transit, so I voiced another complaint, which saw them sending out additional copies at their own expense – and this time around, all went well, including playback!
As for the movie itself, with the sadomasochistic relationship at its centre (a veritable case of "amour fou" virtually unprecedented in genre cinema!), it showed a definite maturity in Bava's themes (in this sense, it is arguably the most dense psychological study in the realm of Italian Gothic Horrors) – perhaps inspired by Riccardo Freda's similarly-eyebrow-raising depiction of necrophilia in THE HORRIBLE DR.
The irreproachable casting of Daliah Lavi (who followed this with a no-less-demanding role in the same year's little-seen IL DEMONIO) and Christopher Lee (easily the most satisfying of his many European ventures, despite the actual brevity of his appearance here!) results in ample sensual and dramatic fireworks (beautifully capped by the concluding shot of a lash slithering, almost in spite of itself, as it burns) – given greater validity by the passionate strains of Carlo Rustichelli's score (cues from which were reprised in the ultra low-budget KILL, BABY
KILL!
The trouble is, he is soon murdered by a mystery assassin and to make matters even more complicated he subsequently seems to return from the dead as an evil spirit.Like the other Gothic horror films directed by Bava, this one's strength isn't so much in its story as in its presentation.
(Christopher Lee is haunting and the handsome Daliah Lavi reminds me of Barbara Steele) At least as good as the Hammer Film Productions!
Whatever Mario Bava does, he made in high level, this psychological horror movie will be explained over this point of view, if you try to understand the whole story all happenings no make sence, when you put a little subjective factor all things fit together plenty, Bava engenders a perfect plot leaving fake clues behind to try to puzzle the eager audience, the dark photography masterfully applied in the entire picture is delightful glomy, further Daliah Lavi played an ambiguous character let with a bit sense of masochism as shown in some insinuate scenes!!!Resume:First watch: 2011 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25.
Death of course is a kind of mild hindrance in a Gothic horror, so shortly afterwards Lee's ghost starts appearing everywhere...so far so normal, right?It would be your standard Gothic horror if Lee didn't like whipping the crap out of his old girlfriend Daliah Lavi.
This being a Mario Bava film the cinematography is probably better than any film of it's time, with every frame looking like some demented oil painting.
This just adds to the atmosphere, however, as does Lee's huge, hunky, evil frame.Bava always found some angle to make his films stand out from others and although I wouldn't put this among my personal favourites of his films, it's another example of him being way ahead of his time, and a true master of Italian cinema.
A Gothic tale of depravity and horror with some exquisite scenery to enjoy along with perfectly selected music.Kurt Menliff (Cristopher Lee) has been banished from home, and when he returns, fear sets in everywhere.
Christopher Lee gives one of his finest performances as sadistic Kurt Menliff, who derives pleasure from whipping his lover, played by Daliah Lavi.
Having seen a few of Mario Bava's movies, "La frusta e il corpo" (alternately called "What!?" and "The Whip and the Body" in English) was a bit of a disappointment just because much of the movie was kind of slow.
To me it seems the colour in lighting is not used with any greater scheme other than making everything look beautiful and colourful, but being a fan of "style over substance" (which is nonsense really, if style is not substance in a film then what is?) I can dig it.All in all, The Whip is a love story masqueraded in a traditional Gothic horror film that will not be to everyone's taste but those with an appetite for an almost hypnotic film drenched in a morbid, dreamlike atmosphere need look no further..
Perhaps a year or so later I saw Blood & Black Lace which I thought was one of the best horror movies I'd ever seen due to the clever plot and great cinematography.
And the music score is exquisite (but played much too often).Seriously--do YOU want to see a 19th century S&M love story shot like a horror film?
Old, but the film's deliciously morbid atmosphere and superb use of lighting quickly attest that the director here can really be none other than Italian master Mario Bava.
His third horror masterpiece in four years, following the seminal works "Black Sunday" and "The Evil Eye," "Whip" tells the story of Kurt Menliff, a sadistic brute who returns to his father's moldering castle by the sea in a nameless, timeless land and renews his sadomasochistic relationship with sister-in-law Nevenka...even after he himself is murdered!
Suggesting nothing less than an Italian Gothic version of a Harlequin romance as written by the Marquis de Sade, "Whip" features impeccable acting by Christopher Lee as Kurt (one of his best roles, he long maintained, despite the fact that he is offscreen half the time) and Israeli actress Dahlia Lavi (who I've never seen look more beautiful) as the masochistic, lash-loving Nevenka.
This is a very good early film with Christopher Lee who portrays in this film a very evil man who loves to cause troubles an simply enjoys giving one particular young pretty woman a whipping on her back after tearing off her blouse.
Using the pseudonym of John M Old The Whip And The Body is disguised to look like an American Co-Production and it almost succeeds except that you can tell that Lee's menacing Shakespearean Voice is replaced with a decent substitute and that it looks entirely too pretty to be a horror film from the States.While Corman was getting praise for his cheap but artily lensed Poe adaptations and their Freudian twists Bava ups the ante and makes a better looking and cheaper film with the screens first full fledged S And M love affair.
The twisted relationship between the characters played by Daliah Lavi and Christopher Lee whips the film into action, but then takes a back seat to a more ordinary ghost story.
The slow slithering camera follows characters down dark corridors toward some strange sound, the violence is explicitly erotic ("you always loved violence!" Christopher Lee says as he whips a hot 60s babe.)the female lead is quite convincing in her fear, and in her orgasmic squirming and whimpering.) The compositions are exquisite, and just about every shot looks like a gothic 19th century painting.
The plot is perfectly, nightmarishly confusing in the best sense, as if the film is itself a castle in which you get lost.P.S. Don't be disappointed when Christopher Lee gets killed in the first 20 minutes....he comes back!!!.
Even though the story slips into the routine at times, it also is above average; progressive, serious, entertaining and even extremely ballsy for the 1960s in that it dares to romanticize sexual violence and sadomasochism.Christopher Lee (who considers this one of his best films) is perfectly hateful as Kurt Menliff, a cold-eyed sadist who returns home to his family's seaside castle after being banished years earlier.
This is undeniable-proof that Mario Bava was one of the best horror-directors of all-time.
A film like The Whip and the Body has to be watched-repeatedly to truly-appreciate, and it gives-up secrets with each-viewing.
But that doesn't mean it's touching like other love stories you see in heartbreak magazines, no, it's not touching; but it definitely is heartbreaking.On an eerie twilight-lit coast somewhere in Italy, estranged aristocrat Kurt Menliff(Christopher Lee) returns to the family castle, where several years earlier, he drove the daughter of the family maid; Tania, to suicide with a dagger.
However, his father agrees to let him stay, grudgingly.The Waltons they are not.However, when away from prying eyes, it turns out that family member Nevenka(Dahlia Lavi, playing pretty much the same type of role you'd expect to see Barbara Steele in)is still very much in love with Kurt, so, alone on the beach, he expresses his gratitude the only way he can: He savagely attacks her and starts beating her senseless with a whip!!!!!
This is where the film's horror element comes into play: What if Kurt isn't dead?
The fact that a truly beautiful romantic tune(later re-used in several Bava films)plays during Nevenka's fantasies makes for a morbid bit of humor.
Still, typical top-notch direction from Bava, the usual gorgeous cinematography and use of color, along with a moving performance by Lavi and a brief, but unforgettable turn by Lee as Kurt(dubbed in some scenes and not in others) make this more than worth your time.But what gives the film it's lasting power is the disturbing fact that there are men like Kurt, and many women in positions like Nevenka(willingly or unwillingly)in real life who suffer and inflict suffering daily, many of whom cannot even get out of the web of abuse they are in if they have the chance, and some of whom cling to it.
And knowing this goes on is more horrifying than anything in any of Bava's more straightforward horror films.Truly ahead of it's time and certainly not for everyone, 'Whip' is a great exploration of many of Bava's recurring themes like the destruction of a family, deceptive appearances(Christopher Lee has never been more handsome), obsession, and ultimately, what Bava called his greatest fear: That of someone alone in a room confronting the darkest aspects of themselves.
Mario Bava once again creates a poetic, moving film; a Gothic chiller with plenty of atmosphere (the use of shadows here to evoke fear figures predominantly, even more than in Bava's other work) and with a romantic, tragic love story at its centre.
The film has the usual Bava trappings; a remote castle, full of empty rooms full of shadows, characters who are not heroic but indeed flawed, a heavy feeling of nostalgia, and of course supernatural occurrences, and a character who may or may not be dead.Good performances are given by all of the cast members, especially Lavi as the tormented Nevenka, who hates herself for enjoying the whippings that Kurt gives her.
The doomed romance between Kurt and Nevenka is touching, despite the masochistic basis for the relationship; you get the feeling that the pair really are deeply in love with each other.Of course, Bava couldn't make a film without it being controversial, and the sadistic scenes (of whipping) are a typical trademark of his; powerful, yet important, it's not just violence for violence's sake.
Daliah Lavi plays Nevenka, whipped and seduced by Lee's Kurt, and possibly then haunted by him after he has been stabbed.
As much as I love Italian horror, I have never been too keen on the films of Mario Bava, who is often considered the grandfather, guru, and all-superior being behind the genre/subculture.
"The Whip and the Body" is an excellent entry from Bava (I'd go so far as to say it's his best work, based on the few films I've seen by him), who merges his signature style (specific color schemes, spooky set decoration, a period setting) with a surprisingly rich story line.
(spoilers) The cruelty of love never dies in Mario Bava's sado-masochist gothic ghost story.
Nevenka's(Daliah Lavi) forbidden love for her brother-in-law, Kurt(Christopher Lee), transcends even death because she desperately desires the pain he inflicts on her. |
tt0089348 | Invasion U.S.A. | In the opening scene, a group of Cuban refugees on a boat sailing for the United States. They are at first met by what appears to be a U.S. Coast Guard boat, with armed personnel. The Guardsmen suddenly kill all the refugees and take several bags of cocaine hidden in the boat. It is revealed that the armed personnel were communist Latin American guerrillas dressed as U.S. Coast Guardsmen.The real Coast Guard eventually finds the boat full of the murdered Cubans off the coast of Florida. The FBI and the Miami Police Department arrive at the docks to investigate the murders. The communist guerrillas eventually land in Florida and exchange the drugs for weaponry from a drug dealer. They are led by Soviet operative Mikhail Rostov (Richard Lynch). Former CIA agent Matt Hunter (Chuck Norris), Rostov's former adversary, is asked by his CIA contact to come out of retirement, but he first refuses. However, Rostov demands that Hunter be killed before they can begin their operation, because Hunter is his former nemesis. Rostov and his gang fail to kill Hunter, but destroy his home in the Everglades. Hunter goes to meet his CIA contact, and tells him that he will come back.Later that night, hundreds of additional communist guerrillas invade the beaches of southern Florida. The guerrillas drive away from the beaches on several trucks. The guerrillas begin their assault all over the USA by destroying suburban homes. Another group of guerrillas (dressed as Miami police officers) attack a community center in South Miami killing several unarmed Cuban Americans.Meanwhile, the FBI has no idea who is behind the attacks. Hunter and the CIA believe that Rostov is behind the attacks. As terrorist acts continue in Miami, race riots and general chaos develop within the city. By now, the public believes that terrorists are behind the attacks.Next, the guerrillas attack a shopping mall where people are doing their Christmas shopping. During the attack, Hunter comes into the mall and engages the guerrillas. Hunter tracks down and kills the whole group that attacked the mall. The next day, National Guard troops are called up, while martial law and a curfew are declared.Over the next two days, Hunter foils a plan to bomb a church and attack a group of people waiting outside a store. In the process, Hunter kills Rostov's right hand man Nikko (Alexander Zale). Soon after, Hunter saves a school bus full of children from a bomb that was about to detonate and plants the bomb in the car of the two terrorists which explodes. In order to corner Rostov, Hunter coordinates a risky plan.The U.S. Government builds a command center in Atlanta, Georgia for the troops. At the command center, all 50 state governors and military officials meet how to stop the terror attacks. The FBI arrest Hunter as a vigilante for the killing of the terrorists and is taken to the command center in Atlanta; a plan orchestrated by Hunter to be put on the local news aware that Rostov is watching.With Rostov wanting Hunter dead, he orders all the guerrillas to invade the command center in Atlanta. After breaking into a depot and killing the security guard, the guerillas commandeer several armored trucks and launch a massed attack against the command center. When Rostov and his men find the building to be empty they discover that it's a trap.As the guerillas prepare to move out, the National Guard surrounds the command center supported with M-60 Patton tanks and hundreds of troops, using the arrest of Hunter as a trap. A climatic firefight begins as the National Guard and the guerillas engage each other in the streets with casualties to both sides.At the command center offices, Hunter uses a rocket launcher to blow up an enemy helicopter to cut off Rostov's route of escape. He then enages Rostov's men in a firefight at the offices of the building killing all of them until Hunter comes face-to-face with Rostov himself in which they exchange fire until they both run out of ammunition which leads to Hunter engaging Rostov in hand-to-hand combat. Outmatched by Hunter, Rostov retreats to another office and arms himself with another assault rifle from a dead guerilla. Hunter approaches Rostov from behind and says: "it's time, Rostov". When Rostov turns around to shoot him, Hunter finally kills him by shooting a bazooka rocket at close range, blowing Rostov to bits.Outside, the terror crisis and firefight finally ends when the few surviving guerrillas on the street surrender to the National Guard. | revenge, cult, murder, violence | train | imdb | The film begins with a laughably goofy set-up for a political thriller and ends up being a series of loosely connected action scenes with Chuck making his heroic appearance and taking out the badguys with the very bomb they intended to plant.
This movie is hilarious!!Chuck Norris is the funniest action hero since Charlie Sheen in "Hot Shots Part Deux"!
Highlights include the attempted bombing of a school bus and a massive shoot-out in a shopping mall (so good they copied it in Seagal's MARKED FOR DEATH).Things end with a massive battle that provides a maximum number of explosions for your dollar – even if one scene of an exploding van is repeated three times, each from a different angle in an attempt to make it look like a different vehicle.
Retired CIA agent , Norris , back on action when his former enemy, Lynch , invades Florida with a terrorist army.
Exciting , thrilling film depicting an one-man army who comes to the rescue of the United States when a terrorist attempts to overtake entire nation by means a violent full-fledged invasion carried out by the ¨Russian enemy¨ .
As Matt Hunter (Chuck Norris) goes back in action against a fearful enemy spy (Richard Lynch) and his troops who invade Florida .
The history deals about a nasty Russian and his hoodlums causing destruction and panic , versus Norris and American patriots who fight strongly to vanquish them.This is a routine actioner with Karate star Chuck Norris as retired CIA agent resulting go be one of the best roles he'd made to date , as he's nice as tough, cold, stubborn Matt Hunter .
The motion picture is produced by Cannon films ( Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus ) and professionally directed by Joseph Zito , a craftsman expert on terror and action genre (Delta Force one : the lost patrol , Red Scorpion, Friday the 13th : the last chapter,The prowler and Missing in action, again with Norris ).
This one is a doozy, even by their standards, and in some ways could be said to be the quintessential 80's action film: it's violent, features a lot of excessive explosions, is moronically jingoistic, and features drug-dealing Communist terrorists as the bad guys.
Richard Lynch goes on to film WEREWOLF with veteran actor R.C. Bates, the best worst movie ever made.Sit back and relax America, Chuck's got our back..
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsThe President's Man.Invasion USA.Walker:Texas Ranger.Kick Drugs Out Of America.......maybe Chuck Norris' longitivity as a screen action hero would have extended further had he not pledged this rather off-putting 'I Love America'isms in all his work.There's nothing wrong with his proudness of his heritage,but expecting people from around the globe to invest into what is clearly labeled as America's problem is perhap's going to be slightly controversial.Invasion USA itself spouts some new and original ideas for the genre,but let's itself down by how incoherently it is told.Norris' screen presense remains tightly wound throughout ,but he occupies suprisingly lesser time than one would have expected.The story of the Irab terrorist invasion of America is engaging,and the central villain is rather hissable as a guy who dos'nt care who he hurts as long as he meets his narrow minded ideals.The action sequences,the end shootout especially,are also done very well.If only there was'nt such a patronising tone to it,and more of a consistent plotline to follow.Look out for an early ,low key appearance from Billy Drago in another Norris film.***.
There's a 20-minute stretch in 'Invasion U.S.A.' where Chuck Norris' Matt Hunter character keeps showing up out of the blue to thwart various Commie terror attacks that his character would have had no clue were about to take place.
'Invasion U.S.A.' is high on dead bodies, and low on logic and common sense, but it's a fairly well made film from the technical side, and seeing Norris operate at the peak of his hairy-chested machismo is always a treat.Best Chuckism; "If you come back in here, I'm gonna hit you with so many rights you're gonna be beggin' for a left."..
It's tempting to laugh the film off like some bad joke, but it's awfully hard to shake that nagging suspicion the film is meant to be taken with deadly seriousness.Ex-CIA agent Matt Hunter (Chuck Norris) lives a reclusive lifestyle in the swamplands of Florida.
"Invasion U.S.A." is likely Chuck Norris's most over the top vehicle, a political-paranoia thrill ride that gives B movie fans all of the mindless mayhem that they could possibly desire.
They're willing to kill anybody and everybody, including innocent families.Re-teaming Chuck with his "Missing in Action" director Joseph Zito, it stars the action icon as a retired special agent named Matt Hunter, who is the most likely candidate for saving the United States of America from savage terrorist murderers who are out to take over the entire country, slaughtering their victims, setting citizens against each other, and ensuring that they distrust authority.Man, could you ever doubt Chuck Norris?
Chuck Norris in the role of ex-CIA bad-ass Matt Hunter, clearly a man not to be messed with.
But apart from that this movie has a crazy amount of action, including the destruction of an entire suburban street,so if you are in the mood for a mindless, action packed movie, Invasion USA starring Chuck Norris is the movie you want to see.
The movie has several really good action scenes, and Chuck Norris is just so superior and so bad-a** compared to the terrorists that it's really entertaining.
People complain about Kevin Costner making self-indulgent films, but Chuck Norris has hit an all time low portraying himself as the ultimate bad-ass one-man army.
But if you're a Chuck Norris fan and are looking for an action film geared specifically for his talents, this movie is for you!.
Russian terrorists invade Florida, Chuck Norris, a retired CIA agent, comes out of retirement to kill the Russians and save America.
If you like Chuck Norris, Richard Lynch, great action packed films that don't disappoint then Invasion U.S.A. is a great one to watch!.
And, the film continues with much of the same...these Russian agents murdering people for kicks and in the most ridiculous manner...such as with bazookas!Eventually, the leader of these scum attacks Hunter (Norris), as in a flashback you see that the psychotic leader of this group, Rostov (Richard Lynch), has a score settle with Hunter.
I thought this movie was going to be a laugh when I saw Chuck Norris zooming by on screen in his hovercraft of all things, looking like a mulleted Louisiana Bayou dweller which later you find out is Florida.
Well to bad cause they just did.There are parts of the movies that try to show some kind of American utopia, from a little girl putting up a star on a Christmas tree to consumers shopping happily even though there's this huge threat facing them to one of the worst scenes I've ever seen that made me groan furiously (it involves children, singing in unison, and a school bus).
Chuck Norris may not be the best actor ever, but you don't watch one of his movies for the acting, just for the action.Invasion USA was a credible example of the straight action Genre, such that it was in the 1980's.
I don't know what's worse - the whole 80's action scene Invasion USA is bathed in or having Russians as the predetermined bad guys.
Bad-ass action movie one of Chuck Norris best.
Chuck Norris is Matt Hunter and Invasion U.S.A. is his best film of all time.I would put this film with First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo, Hard Target, Die Hard, Die Hard With A Vengeance, The Last Boy Scout, Showdown In Little Tokyo, Mad Max: Fury Road, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and any other bad ass action movie.
"Invasion U.S.A." is another Chuck Norris vehicle that you watch hoping it will be bad enough to be entertaining, and end up being disappointed.
Like all Norris-fronted movies, it's merely boring and listless.The plot is something to do with a bad guy who hates Norris's character and tries to take on the United States with the apparent end goal of killing him.
Chuck Norris's second film with director Joseph Zito (the previous one being Missing In Action), Invasion USA sees the bearded karate champ playing one-man army Matt Hunter, tasked with stopping Russian terrorist Mikhail Rostov (Richard Lynch), who has invaded Miami with his personal army in order to somehow throw the whole of America into chaos.
Outdoing even Bill Drago's baby-killing rapist drug-lord from Delta Force 2 in the evil stakes, Rostov massacres a boatload of defenceless Cuban refugees, kills Hunter's best buddy John Eagle (Dehl Berti), obliterates the residents of a peaceful suburban neighbourhood as they celebrate Christmas, and orders his soldiers to shoot kids at a community centre, blow up a church full of worshippers, and plant a bomb on a school bus.With a slightly bigger budget than normal for a Norris film ($12m), Zito is able to destroy lots of stuff and crash quite a few vehicles as his star goes in search of the despicable villain.
And the Chuck-les don't end there: giggles are to be had every time the wooden star solemnly spouts his truly awful one-liners, although for my money, the most amusing moments are when he dives behind office partitioning—the real flimsy stuff—to protect himself from enemy gun-fire, and uses his uncanny sixth sense to detect two gunmen hiding in another room (successfully killing them by blowing huge holes in the wall with his grenade launcher).Not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, Invasion USA is the epitome of cheezy 80s action—a brainless yet moderately entertaining 'Saturday night with beer' movie, with all that that entails..
If you like American Action movies and Chuck Norris you definitely should watch this one!
Oh, and there is a pesky reporter through the whole movie who has to document everything in an attempt to show how important freedom of the press is or some nonsense.Let me say I'm a fan of Chuck Norris and have seen most of his films, and despite the common assumption about the low quality of his films, some of his starring titles are actually pretty decent action cinema (see Missing In Action, The Delta Force, Code Of Silence).
The cinematography and action sequences are decent (the movie had a $10 million budget), but the script is horribly under-written, always hinting at a back story that never develops, and all the characters are really two dimensional.My biggest complaint about this film is the ridiculousness of the "invaders".
The body-count is pretty high, and there is no shortage of overkill typical of Norris' work; unarmed women and children being mowed down by automatic weapons, people getting shot point blank in the genitals, hookers being thrown from 2nd story windows...the film earns its hard R rating and then some.
Not one.The movie stars Chuck Norris as a former agent who is recruited to take down a vicious terrorist leader named Rostov, whose intent is to bring total anarchy upon America by blowing things that have an American-style image to them, such as churches, shopping malls and neighborhoods.This includes a really vile scene in which his gang use bazookas to destroy a suburban neighborhood.The movie was co-written by Norris and his brother, Aaron, a stunt coordinator for Lone Wolf and Code of Silence.
A metal cocaine straw up a girl's nose; gun-down-the-pants with shots fired; girl abducted and held outside a pick-up truck window!; grenade into a classic cadillac convertible; and the greatest scene of the film, Chuck strapping a bomb to a terrorist's car and saying, "Ya lose this?", followed by BANG!
Personally, this is my favorite Chuck Norris movie, and the writers overall did a great job on molding together a good plot for this film.The film was directed by 1980s directing legend, Joseph Zito.
So for this film to look as good as any action movie from that time says a great deal about what Zito was able to do.
Of course Chuck Norris is the lead and Richard Lynch is the main villain, but other actors like Alexander Zale, Billy Drago, Alex Colon, and Eddie Jones are in the film.
Bad guy, Richard Lynch with one of the creepiest faces on screen, plays this notorious terrorist, Rostov, who our retired hero (Chuck Norris) was forced to let go by the superior he worked for.
Movies this bad are played tongue-in-cheek these days, but for some old school, serious, rubbish action then check out Chuck's denims (and presumably psychic terrorist locating powers) as he saves the USA by
driving around Florida saying "it's time to die" to various jobbing waiters.
Chuck Norris stars as Matt Hunter (Persumably no relation to Michael Dudikoff's character in Avenging Force) a one man army who single handedly protects the US of A from Russian terrorists looking to take over our country for mostly obscure reasons.
With that said, if you actually come to a Chuck Norris movie from Cannon expecting logic then you obviously don't know what you're doing.INVASION U.S.A. is without question one of the wildest, most insane and over-the-top action movies that you're ever going to see.
The moment someone mentions Chuck Norris, the first thing that usually pops into their head is a legendary bearded man who normally plays in action movies as an unstoppable one-man army and he can also round-house kick people in the face, oh and in this movie he has a pet armadillo which is really cute and a wise pet choice to have since they are hard like Chuck.Before I watched the movie I wasn't expecting much considering how averagely rated the film is but to my surprise I actually really enjoyed this movie.
Chuck Norris truly is a man of action and he delivers this film really well.Definitely recommend this movie, it's an awesome forgotten gem starring a great legendary action hero star..
"Invasion USA" with Chuck Norris is pretty much in style of those movies.
Joseph Zito directed this far-fetched action film that stars Chuck Norris as former CIA agent Matt Hunter, who is living peacefully in Florida when he is informed that his old nemesis Rostov(played by Richard Lynch) is planning an attack on Miami, leading an estimated 1000 man army to blow up houses and cause havoc.
There are some good action scenes in this one and there are some good Chuck moments though I prefer the film "Delta Force" to this one though I do find them somewhat similar even though that one took place outside the U.S. There is a nice scene involving a bus of kids and there are good scenes of panic and such, though nothing quite as good as other scenes from another kind of Russian invasion movie "Red Dawn".
Here's a list of things I discovered while watching this film:When a large amount of cocaine is under the floor of a boat, and the people on that boat need to be moved, you shoot them all and they'll not only miraculously fall away from the door to the cocaine, but not one bag of coke will be damaged, despite firing about a thousand bullets at the boat.All Cuban refugees that arrive in the Florida area wear identical plain white underwear and shorts.Chuck Norris can single-handedly take down tens of terrorists, but needs help to take on one alligator.Prostitutes carry flick knives.The guards to a big drug dealer only need to be shot at twice, and they'll then die of fear.
Who cares!) gets to his place via a rowboat, and comes alone.A variety of bad guys blow Hunter's house up with a lot of rocket launchers, machine guns and RPGs, with the intent of killing him - yet don't check that he's dead afterwards.Rocket launchers carry six rockets without the need to reload.Likewise, shotguns carry around 17 shots without the need to reload.Terrorists who have important business to get to don't do it, because they need to go into clubs to pick up cheap, old hookers who are slightly overweight.Between six guys with automatic weapons, they're unable to hit the windows in Chuck Norris's car, or put it out of commission.
1) Richard Lynch is Rostov the Russian terrorist who is bent on destroying the soft American peoples.2) Chuck Norris is Matt Hunter the American who has had enough of the ultra spy life and just wants to wrassle gators.3) They demonstrate how evil Rostov is and how bad ass Hunter is.
The acting isn't great, Lynch is an OK villain, a reporter Melissa Prophet turns up occasionally & then totally disappears about 20 minutes before it finishes while it was probably a very good decision to not give Chuck himself any dialogue expect for the odd one-liner & I thought Billy Drago was killed off far too early.Invasion U.S.A. is a top 80's action film, while not as good as some it's right up there & maybe the best thing Norris has done along with Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection (1990), definitely worth a watch..
the basic plot of the movie is that a russian terrorist has plans to invade the US and NOBODY IN AMERICA except the chuck norris character was prepared for this.
Quite possibly Chuck Norris' best movie, Invasion USA is incredibly entertaining and fun.
Invasion USA is a one man army movie starring karate man Chuck Norris.
This movie had the classic bad guys doing horrible things, trying to take over and only one man can stop them, that's right Chuck Norris.
That terrorist is now determined to kill Matt Hunter at all costs because he knows that if there's one man who can stop the invasion of America, Hunter is that man.The thing about Chuck Norris that I like so very much is that he almost looks like your everyday guy. |
tt0102690 | Popcorn | Maggie (Jill Schoelen) has nightmares about a man, and tells so to Suzanne, (Dee Wallace-Stone). She's preparing a script about a girl named Sarah, so she doesn't have time for Mark (Derek Rydall). Mr Davis (Tony Roberts) will find his students' film with three Z-series films with surprises. The students agree: Tina (Freddie Marie Simpson), wheelchair-bound Bud (Malcolm Danare), Leon (Elliot Hurst), Joanie (Ivette Soler), Cheryl (Kelly Jo Minter) and Toby (Tom Villard). The films will be broadcast at the Dreamland, an old theatre destroyed by the fire. Dr. Mnesyne (Ray Walston) will provide all the propsDuring the preparations, they find Possession, a film about Lanyard Gates (Mat Falls), a crazy mad who recorded his attempt to sacrifice Sarah. Maggie will discover he was his father, and Suzanne saved herself and her from the fire. Suzanne goes to the theatre alone at night because of some threatening calls she's been lately suffering.Mark goes with Joy (Karen Witter) that night to the cinema, but seeks Maggie. Somebody has killed Mr Davis, with the mosquito model. Disguised as Mr Davis, that person kills Tina. Then, disguised as Tina, that person kills Bud. Disguised as Leon, that person kills Leon himself.That person confronts Maggie. Suzanne is alive, but can't move and has a gun in her hand. Maggie discovers Toby is the killer. He was disfigured at the fire, and wants to recreate Gates' sacrifice. Mark talks to Toby's landlord (Will Knickerbocker), and runs back to the theatre to save Maggie.Cheryl and Joanie throw Joy and a bearded guy (Scott Thompson) out of the theatre, because they have quarrelled with Mark. They lock the door, so Mark has to climb the façade to enter-.Toby represents the film Possession while broadcasting it. The audience laughs when Maggie says "it ain't a film". Mark saves her by killing Toby with the sharp-tongued mosquito model.Toby and Maggie kiss each other while giving their evidence to the police. | horror, cult, revenge, murder | train | imdb | This may look very much like a redundant and unpleasant horror comedy about the umpteenth serial killer wasting a group of film students but, if you give it a chance, you'll be pleasantly surprised.
This has got to be one of my old favorite horror flicks, I remember renting this when it first came out, and I loved it since then!The storyline of this movie is so classic and original, but thats what it made it so great!
It all starts when a group of film-students looking to raise money, fix up an old movie theater for a one-night-only horror festival.
Indeed, the ghost of William Castle seems to be watching over this movies, both in the presence of the cheesy films shown by the fictional cinema and in the bizarre antics of the film students, determined to give their audience an interactive experience!It's all about the gimmicks and the celebration of the weird, so much so that the actual slasher plot comes second.
The acting is nothing to write home about (THE HOWLING's Dee Wallace-Stone is the only actress of note in a minor part), but when the story and screenplay are so obviously written by genuine fans of old-time horror shows – well, this becomes a film impossible to dislike..
Fun little horror flick that pays homage to 50's and 60's classics, all while it's an 80's stalker and slasher film within..
Set in California at a college some film students decide to run an night horror marathon at an old run down cinema house.
For reasons I've forgotten, Sarah and her class set up a movie marathon at a local theatre, showing old gimmicky horror films.
Her film teacher and fellow peers have organised a all-night film festival at an old theatre, which will be featuring old b-horror movies with the use of interactive gimmicks in the hope of raising enough money to support the film department, after the university cut their funds.
When the fun starts, Maggie is sure that the supposedly dead star/director Lanyard Gates of that film is wandering the theatre.Bad dreams might appear early on, but Mark Herrier / Alan Ormsby's contributions are a far more pleasant experience in this fashionably inspired parody of gimmicky (think of William Castle) 50's b-grade horror films interwoven into a silly slasher formula of a film-within-a-film.
However most of the oddball fun is derived from the stylishly correct mocking of the "horrorthon" b-films; "Mosquito", "Attack of the Amazing Electrified Man" and "The Stench" and their cinema gimmicks (like the 3-D flying mosquito in "Project-O-Vision", "Shock-O-Scope." in the audience seats and releasing bad odours in "Aroma-rama" for the proper experience), which is being screened to the boisterous audience with their smart remarks and in-spirit costumes.
But it's the support roles where the most interest arises with the likes of Tom Villard's superb performance as an obsessively nutty film student, Tony Roberts' amusing turn as the film teacher, Dee Wallace Stone plays it sincerely as Maggie's mother and Ray Walston's avidly effortless cameo as the gimmick man.This winsome little low-budget item is a rather solid cheesy comedy/horror/parody effort even with so many uneven distractions inbound.
When a group of film students need to raise some cash, they organise a horror movie festival at a run-down theatre, offering fright-fans a selection of old monster moviescomplete with their original promotional gimmicks!
As a packed house enjoys a triple bill of hokey trash (fictional B-movies 'Mosquito', 'The Amazing Electrified Man' and 'The Stench'), a disfigured killer proceeds to use the movies' gimmicks to bump off the students, whilst wearing a variety of latex masks to deceive his victims.Popcorn is exactly like its title suggests: a light-hearted, teen-centric, and not-to-be-taken-too-seriously popcorn movie.
Although this means it is fairly light on the gore (and features absolutely no nudity), with its pretty nifty horror-film-themed script (that any fan of the genre should get a kick out of), some fine make-up effects, and a genuine sense of fun, this early 90s offering proves to be great escapism for its duration (plus, I'm a sucker for a gorgeous brunette in peril, so the film automatically scores points with me for starring the lovely Jill Schoelen as its helpless female in distress).The screenplay, by talented genre scribe Alan Ormsby definitely shows that the man knows his stuff when it comes to schlock horror, with the three films-within-the-film taking plenty of good natured swipes at the clichés and conventions of the genre.
The cast all give spirited performances, with Dee Wallace-Stone racking up another solid horror film credit, Tom Villard giving a particularly memorable performance as goofy film fan Toby, and the always impressive Ray Walston appearing in a short but welcome cameo.Occasionally the film gets a little too daft for its own good (the running gag where the hero continually gets hurt soon becomes tiresome), and the ending seems to rattle on forever, but there's easily enough fun stuff in this one to make it worth checking out.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb..
I especially found "Popcorn" creepy because I was once a movie theater projectionist and we also showed an all-night film festival of horror movies a couple of years ago on Halloween.
sure the story is kinda cheesy and so are a few of the actors but horror movies for the most part are meant for enjoyment not Oscars so as long as you don't try to compare popcorn to saving private ryan this movie is great.
California student Schoelen has dreams that are unknowingly shown on a horror movie, and soon a psycho wearing human flesh starts offing her fellow group of film students putting on a film festival at an old movie house.
The story stops making sense halfway through (that could be because of some huge editing before the film was released), the killings are relatively bloodless (how this got an R rating is beyond me) and the unmasking of the killer at the end was boring and stupid.It's really too bad--this movie had potential.
Popcorn (1991)** (out of 4) Some film students need to raise some money for their program so they decide to show three horror movies at an old movie palace.
They plan to re-create a William Castle like atmosphere and all is going as planned until a maniac shows up and starts killing off the students.I remember watching POPCORN the day that it was released and thinking it was an incredibly bad movie.
Another part of the film wants to be a slasher picture and in the end the two just don't mix.What I enjoyed about the film is the fact that it pays a loving tribute to the type of movies that were being released in the 1950s.
If you're familiar with the likes of William Castle then you know the gimmicks that they'd do to promote their movies and that's basically re-created here and this aspect of the film is fun.The problem is that that part of the movie eats up probably seventy percent of the running time.
I understand that the producers were trying to do two things at once but sadly it just didn't work and we're left with an incredibly uneven picture that falls apart.The cast is fun for the most part and we do get to see familiar faces like Dee Wallace Stone, Ray Walston and Tony Roberts.
The plot of this film has a madmen loose in a theater thats showing an all night marathon of gimmick B-movies from the 1950's and 60's.
I've seen worse horror films, (every sequel of Friday 13th & Halloween.)Paid a lot of respect to the pioneers of the 50's horror.I think Wlliam Castle would have loved it.I think the fake movie (Mosquito, Stench) titles that were mentioned in Popcorn could have been made, sounds like some of the movies made in the 50's.Think about the movies made in the 50's: "The Blob, Deadly Mantis, Earth vs.
oh the irony!the film doesn't take itself seriously at all and doesn't try to rise above the fake b-movies that it displays like one with a giant killer mosquito.
You'd have the be a hell of lot wittier and smarter than this to win me over, and very, very few slasher films have done so, since the 1980s (when the genre was already in decline, thanks to a glut of low budget sequels).I probably should mention that some people consider it a cult classic, so maybe you'll like it better than I did, but I can't really recommend it.
This is a pretty fun little B-movie, the sort of late-afternoon diversion that benefits tremendously from a snappy pace, an obvious reverence for disreputable horror cinema, and the presence of several genre veterans (including the always-welcome Dee Wallace).
A deformed Leatherface meets Phantom of the Opera type killer (Tom Villard) is on the loose in the theater during the showings, killing off the teens one by one until Maggie will find out who is the mysterious cretin.An entertaining and fun horror comedy from writer Alan Ornsby is a nice tribute to the William Castle gimmick movies of the 50s and 60s long before there was "Matinee".
Disfigured killer is on the loose at a local cinema during a triple-feature of old (mock) William Castle-type horror films.
If only they knew .....The first two thirds is a good horror/ comedy, a fun mixture of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Phantom of the Opera, and William Castle's gimmick films of the 1950s and '60s, with great costumes and elaborate sets, but the final 30 minutes is a bit too freaky, as the film changes tone dramatically.
The three mock horror films shown during this film, Mosquito (In 3D Project-O-Vision) The Attack of the Amazing Electrified Man (in Shock-O-Scope) and The Stench (but NOT in Aromarama) might have made a funny spin-off movie anthology..
I have watched this film a few times on video and it's quite good.I think that had it been released a few years later it would have been rated up there with the scream1,2 and what you did last summer type film.It's a bunch of knowing teens in peril film and I loved it,it's fun and well worth seeing..
The most fun for me were the "mini-movies" that were being shown in the theatre throughout the film, all made to look like actual horror movies that used gimmicks.One of the movies employs the gimmick of electrodes in selected seats to apply a shock to the viewer -- this is an homage to William Castle's "The Tingler" of 1959.Another of the movies used scents deployed into the theatre air conditioning system -- this is reminiscent of Walter Reade's "aromarama" and Mike Todd Jr's "Smell-o-vision", used in "Scent of Mystery", 1960.Finally, a 3D movie that includes a full-size model of a bug flying out over the audience at the climax -- this was an actual "process" (if you can call it that) called "Emergo".For more of this type of thing, I recommend the movie "Matinee", which is a thinly-disguised parody of William Castle's shenanigans..
In the early 1990's, before such releases as "Darkman", and "The Silence of the Lambs", when horror films were at an all-time low and we were bombarded with cheesy made for video horror comedies, this odd, but entertaining thriller was released in theaters.The plot was simple, an all night horror movie marathon is silently stalked by a psychopath who may or may not be a killer from the past who has come to finish what he started, and for that time, highly original.
Not only do we get to see loads of people die in somewhat funny ways, but we also get to see recreations of many classic 50's horror films, which are definitely the high points of the film.The film is wacky, funny, and gory, very reminiscent of the opening in "Scream 2" which makes me wonder if Kevin Williamson ever had an original thought in that brain of his(also see "Happy Birthday to Me") The only weak point of the film is the ending, which was somewhat of a disappointment.The killer's identity is a shock because it's lacking somewhere.
To help raise money, a film class decides to throw a horror movie marathon featuring old films.
This not to bad at all, all got to do enjoy this movie sit down with Popcorn and watch popcorn.A Group of teens plan an all-night horror film festival from movies that were made in 50's that was made in 3D and all the seats seem to have electrical shockers on them.Maggie seem to having these nightmare about man who lost in life in fire in the same place few years ago, after he was being casted into a movie made by Maggie.Now Maggie think that man is back from the dead and then she find out her friends are dying one by one by this man.This is really good (very) cheesy horror movie, you need to be a really cheesy mood to watch this movie, or you will really hate it!
While the audience is watching cheesy sci-fi flicks, a hideously burned killer is stalking the film students in the dark corners of Dreamland.Popcorn came out in the early nineties where the Slasher boom was well and truly dead and well this one didn't exactly break new ground or break box office records, it was a huge flop when it came out and was panned by critics.
Popcorn boasts a strong cast of interesting and likable characters Tom Villard is great as the nerd and brings innocence and adds more and more layers to his character Toby as the movie progresses, Kelly Jo Minter (Nightmare On Elm Steet 5 - The Dream Child) is funny as the tough talking, hard punching Cheryl, Jill Scholen (The Stepfather, Cutting Class) does a nice job as Sarah the lead girl haunted by nightmares and a burned killer and I also like to point out she does a much better acting job in this movie unlike she did in Cutting Class she's seemed to be taking this role much more seriously, Dee Wallace Stone (Howling) does well in her cameo as does Tony Roberts and Ray Walston.Popcorn is by far means isn't a perfect slasher but it's a fun treat especially for Jill Scholen fans..
Now it looks like dad is loose in the theater killing her friends and patrons.Creative horror film has a pretty interesting premise and is very, very spooky at times and features a very appealing heroine and is never boring.
Standard slasher plot: College professor Ray Waltson has his film students renovate an old movie theater to show 50's B horror films for a single night.First off, WTF does film making have to with construction and renovation?
A group of film students organise an all-night horror marathon at an old movie theatre to raise funds.
On the other hand it's a homage/parody to the entire monster/b-movie genre.Here we have a group of film students organizing a horror-marathon at the local movie-theatre.
Even the title had something to do with a plot element that was edited from the final film, but the producers and distributor liked it so much, it was retained.The film begins with Maggie Butler (Schoelen), an aspiring movie writer and college student, who has recurring nightmares that she is a young girl named Sarah.
Suzanne is concerned about her daughter's nightmares but has her own issues to deal with when she's lured to the Dreamland Theater by a voice from her past.In an effort to come up with a unifying project and to generate funds for the fledgling film department Maggie's professor Davis (Tony Roberts) takes a suggestion made by her fellow student Toby (Tom Villard).
Who is behind it all, who will survive and what it all has to do with Maggie and her dreams will be revealed by the end of the film.There are several things that make this movie work.
Using the tried and true theme made big in the 80s with a group of young people in jeopardy and being knocked off one by one keeps the theme of the horror films from them intact while combining it with those old movies at the same time.
This 1991 horror film stars Jill Schoelen, Tom Villard, Dee Wallace, Derek Rydell and Kelly Jo Minter.
A new film class is finding itself in the need of funds, so the professor(Tony Roberts)agrees to a all-night horror movie marathon.
Not expected is the return of an old has-been forgotten film maker(Matt Falls), who wants to go on a killing spree...using the faces of his victims.A very lively cast featuring: Dee Wallace-Stone, Ray Walston, Kelly Jo Minter, Tom Villard, Jill Schoelen, Freddie Marie Simpson and Derek Rydall..
Well, I finally got to watch it, and I am glad for that.When a group of film students decide to have an all night horror movie marathon at a local theater, luck falls their way.
I found this movie to be a big change from a lot of the movies that were coming out in the late 80s/early 90s, as the killer is a little more original with the kills, and in general, the film is just fun to watch.
But, a killer will secretly plot to murder several of the students, and teacher Mr. Davis(Tony Roberts)as the movies are being projected while Maggie and boyfriend Mark(Derek Rydall)work together to find her possible father, a supposedly dead cult director, Lanyard Gates(Matt Falls)who murdered her real mother, not the woman who has been raising her since childhood, Suzanne(Dee Wallace Stone).
A film Gates was making, which reflects almost exactly the nightmares Maggie has been experiencing, is found within the theater by fellow student Toby(Tom Villard).
"Popcorn" is a pretty decent slasher at times.**SPOILERS**Struggling with weird dreams, Maggie, (Jill Schoelen) feels that they will make a good film.
Not a great horror movie but pretty good. |
tt0991178 | Battlestar Galactica: Razor | Battlestar Galactica: Razor tells the story of the first mission of Lee 'Apollo' Adama (Jamie Bamber) as commander of the battlestar Pegasus. Flashbacks interleaved with the main story show what happened to Pegasus during and after the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies, as well as some events at the end of the First Cylon War. The main story and most of the flashbacks focus on Lt. Kendra Shaw (Stephany Jacobsen), who joins Pegasus as aide to Adm. Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes) just before the Cylons strike.We first see Shaw in the main storyline, working in the galley and using drugs; she's out of uniform and looks like a grunt, so it's a surprise to hear Apollo address her as 'Lieutenant.' Calling her Cain's legacy, Apollo makes Shaw his executive officer, with a promotion to major. This is a risky move given the black marks in Shaw's record resulting from run-ins with Cain's immediate successors, Fisk (Graham Beckel) and Garner (John Heard). Shaw tells Apollo that Fisk and Garner were unworthy of her respect and shows little respect for Apollo himself, sneering that he hasn't earned his command--his daddy just gave him the keys to the battlestar.In flashback, Shaw experiences Cain's brutality at first hand, initially in small ways: Cain belittles her for having trouble finding her way to the battlestar's CIC (bridge), accuses her of having her influential mother pull strings to get this new assignment, and when Shaw replies that her mother has died, warns Shaw never again to play for sympathy. Shaw gets a first glimmer of respect from Cain by staying at her post in the CIC for two solid days after the Cylon attack--though the admiral can't refrain from making her exhausted subordinate button her jacket.Soon after the attack, Shaw meets and befriends Gina Inviere (Tricia Helfer), a civilian systems specialist who is on board to help refit the Pegasus computer networks. Shaw is surprised to learn that Gina is romantically involved with Cain; as she remarks to Gina, Cain seems entirely self-sufficient. Gina replies that everyone has needs--"we're all human." This line is aimed at viewers familiar with the Battlestar Galactica television series, who will recognize Gina as a Cylon model Six.Pegasus attacks what at first seems to be a small group of Cylon ships guarding a communications relay; when it turns out to be a huge force, the officers' instinct is to back off. Cain orders an all-out assault that may prove suicidal and her executive officer Belzen (Steve Bacic)--who is the closest thing she has to a friend among her officers--refuses; Cain kills him with his own sidearm and appoints Col. Fisk as XO in his place. (In the season 2 episode 'Pegasus,' Fisk tells this story to Col. Tigh.)Some Cylons manage to board Pegasus and Cain sends Shaw after them. Shaw meets Gina and sends her to the CIC, where she'll be safe. Shortly thereafter she sees a Cylon Centurion, followed by a Number Six, which Shaw kills. Realizing that Gina must be a human-form Cylon, Shaw races back to the CIC in time to arrest her before she can take over the ship. Cain locks Gina--her erstwhile lover--in the brig and assigns Lt. Thorne (Fulvio Cecere) to interrogate her. She instructs him to use pain, humiliation, and fear to extract information. Shaw is promoted to captain for her role in exposing and capturing Gina, though she confesses that she unwittingly helped the Cylons by giving Gina access codes. Cain is surprisingly forgiving, presumably because Gina had won Cain's trust as well.Pegasus encounters a small convoy of civilian ships led by the Scylla. Cain sends officers and marines to each of the ships carrying demands that vital personnel and equipment--including faster-than-light (FTL) drives--be transferred to Pegasus. Without its FTL drives, the convoy will be dead in the water, unable to reach any refuge or flee any attack. Fisk, Shaw, and their detachment of marines are sent to the Scylla, whose crew and passengers object vehemently to Cain's demands. When Fisk communicates their objections to Cain, she tells him to shoot the family of anyone on the conscription list who refuses to cooperate. This leads to even greater agitation aboard Scylla; seeing that the passengers are on the verge of violence, Shaw opens fire on the crowd and kills a woman. The marines kill nine others before the passengers are subdued. Having stripped the convoy, Pegasus abandons it to pursue the Cylons.Additional flashbacks show events at the very end of the First Cylon War, forty-odd years before the events of the main story. In one flashback, Helena Cain is a child (Kyra Scott) whose home is under attack by the Cylons. Her father, injured, tells her to take her younger sister Lucy (Chandra Berg) and run. The girls don't get far before Lucy becomes trapped in some rubble. Unable to free her, Helena flees from the oncoming Cylon Centurions; from her hiding-place, she listens as Lucy's cries are cut off. A Centurion finds Helena but apparently receives the order to cease fire before it can kill her. It's here that Helena picks up the wooden-handled pocket knife the film uses to illustrate the razor metaphor.In the other flashback to the First Cylon War, William 'Husker' Adama is a young Viper pilot (Nico Cortez). He ejects from his damaged Viper over a planet and discovers that the Cylons have been conducting horrific experiments on human captives. He encounters the first Cylon Hybrid (Campbell Lane). Adama tries to free the remaining captives but is forced to abandon them when an earthquake threatens to bring the building down on him. When he gets out, he sees a basestar flying away and learns that the war is over.From these similar experiences, Cain and Adama draw different lessons on how the military should deal with civilians in time of war. Cain apparently views her own survival to fight another day as a worthy return for Lucy's sacrifice; she attempts to banish human feeling and make herself simply a tool--like a razor, she says, fiddling with her pocket knife--but a tool of war. When Cain tells Shaw that sometimes you have to leave people behind in war, Shaw is remembering the civilians of the Scylla and its raped convoy, but Cain must be thinking of Lucy.Adama's lesson is about protecting civilians rather than bringing destruction to the enemy at all costs. He notes that his conclusion, which he discusses with Apollo, was influenced by Col. Tigh (Michael Hogan), by the advocacy of President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) for her people, and even more by Adama's need to be able to look his son in the eye. Even so, he won't condemn Cain's actions, even in the case of the the Scylla's convoy.In the present, Adm. Adama sends Apollo and Pegasus to retrieve a missing scientific expedition. Pegasus is attacked by Cylon Raiders, one of which follows a Viper piloted by Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) into the landing bay before being disabled. (Starbuck is angry with Shaw for putting her at risk by ordering Pegasus's batteries to fire at the Raiders while Starbuck and another Viper were engaged with them, but Shaw rejects the criticism on the grounds that her priority was to protect Pegasus.) The captured Raider and its Centurions prove to be of an old design from the time of the First Cylon War, which is puzzling. Sharon Valerii (Grace Park) remembers a story about a group of old-model Centurions who guard the first Hybrid; Adama realizes that this is the same group of Cylons he discovered at the end of the last war, and they may be using the missing science team for the same kind of experiments. He transfers his flag to Pegasus so he can oversee the search and rescue mission, though Apollo remains in command of the ship.Using data from the captured Raider, the science team is traced to a Cylon basestar. Shaw devises a plan to get a rescue team--Shaw herself, Starbuck, and three others--into the basestar while Pegasus draws the Cylons' fire. The rescue team's Raptor is attacked by Raiders, as they expected it would be, so they abandon it, completing their journey to the basestar using jet packs. They find the science team, who aren't in very good shape; as Adama feared, the Cylons have mutilated them. Then things start to go bad: they're attacked by Centurions, who damage the detonation timer on the team's nuke (with which they intend to destroy the basestar after they leave). The Centurions also capture Dasilva (Andrew Dunbar), one of the team's marines. Shaw, realizing that Dasilva will probably be mutilated as the science team was, shoots and kills him as the Centurions drag him away.At this point the rescue team loses contact with Pegasus. Apollo, fearing that they have been captured, orders a nuclear strike against the basestar, but his father countermands the order. When contact is regained, Apollo tells the team that another Raptor is on the way to pick them up, but someone has to stay behind to detonate the nuke and destroy the basestar. He orders Starbuck to do it, but Shaw, who has been wounded, forces Starbuck into the Raptor at gunpoint and takes the nuke back into the basestar herself.Shaw makes her way to the first Hybrid, whose voice has been audible--speaking more coherently than the later-model Hybrid familiar to viewers of season 3--on several occasions during the rescue. The Hybrid makes some oracular pronouncements about the final five Cylons and repeats a line, apparently from scripture, that it quoted to young William Adama 40 years before: "All of this has happened before and will happen again." It calls Shaw by name and tells her to approach if she wants to be forgiven. The Hybrid warns Shaw that Kara Thrace will lead the human race to its destruction and they must not follow her. Shaw is unable to pass this information back to Pegasus because the Cylons are jamming her communications. She sets off the bomb, destroying herself, the Hybrid, and the basestar.In the aftermath, Apollo and Adm. Adama discuss Starbuck's suggestion of a posthumous commendation for Shaw. In light of the Scylla incident Apollo doubts that she deserves it, but no decision is reached. Adama mentions that he's been reviewing Cain's logs and can't find much fault with her actions. He notes that history will judge them all, but the first draft of history will appear in their own logs; they adjourn to work on them. Apollo runs into Starbuck in the corridor and she tells him she's resigning as CAG to return to Galactica, joking that he's apparently trying to get her killed and she has a destiny to fulfill. | suspenseful, melodrama | train | imdb | null |
tt0365737 | Syriana | U.S. energy giant Connex is losing control of key Middle East oil fields in a kingdom ruled by the al-Subaai family. The emirate's foreign minister, Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig), has granted natural gas drilling rights to a Chinese company, greatly upsetting the U.S. oil industry and government. To compensate for its decreased production capacity, Connex initiates a shady merger with Killen, a smaller oil company that recently won the drilling rights to key petroleum fields in Kazakhstan. Connex-Killen ranks as the world's twenty-third largest economy, and antitrust regulators at the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) have misgivings. A Washington, D.C.-based law firm headed by Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer) is hired to smooth the way for the merger. Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) is assigned to promote the impression of due diligence to the DOJ, deflecting any allegations of corruption.
=== Emir storyline ===
Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon) is an energy analyst based in Geneva, Switzerland. Woodman's supervisor directs him to attend a private party hosted by the emir at his estate in Marbella, Spain, to offer his company's services. The emir's illness during the party prevents Woodman from speaking directly with him while, at the same time, the emir's younger son, Prince Meshal Al-Subaai (Akbar Kurtha), shows the estate's many rooms and areas to Chinese oil executives via remote-controlled cameras. No one notices that a crack in one of the swimming pool area's underwater lights has electrified the water. Just as Woodman and all the other guests are brought to the pool area, Woodman's son jumps into the pool and is electrocuted.
In reparation and out of sympathy for the loss of his son, Prince Nasir, the emir's older son, grants Woodman's company oil interests worth US$75 million, and Woodman, though initially insulted by the offer, gradually becomes his economic advisor. Prince Nasir is dedicated to the idea of progressive reform and understands that oil dependency is not sustainable in the long term; Nasir wants to utilize his nation's oil profits to diversify the economy and introduce democratic reforms, in sharp contrast to his father's repressive government, which has been supported by American interests. His father, at the urging of the American government, names the younger Meshal (who has gained the favor of Whiting) as his successor, causing Nasir to attempt a coup.
=== Assassination storyline ===
Bob Barnes (George Clooney) is a veteran Operations Officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) trying to stop illegal arms trafficking in the Middle East. While on assignment in Tehran, Iran, to kill two arms dealers, Barnes notices that one of two anti-aircraft missiles (actually the Stinger MANPADS) intended to participate in an explosion was diverted to an Egyptian (Amr Waked), while the other explodes and kills the two arms dealers, who are later also revealed to be "Iranian Intelligence agents." Barnes makes his superiors nervous by writing memos about the missile theft and is subsequently reassigned to a desk job. However, unaccustomed to the political discretion required, he quickly embarrasses the wrong people by speaking his mind and is sent back to the field with the assignment of assassinating Prince Nasir, whom the CIA identifies as being the financier behind the Egyptian's acquisition of the missile. Prior to his reassignment, Barnes confides in his ex-CIA agent friend, Stan Goff (William Hurt), that he will return to Lebanon. Goff advises him to clear his presence with Hezbollah so they know he is not acting against them. Barnes travels to Lebanon, obtains safe passage from a Hezbollah leader, and hires a mercenary named Mussawi (Mark Strong) to help kidnap and murder Nasir. But Mussawi has become an Iranian agent and has Barnes abducted. Mussawi tortures Barnes and prepares to behead him. Just before he is about to cut off Barnes' head, the Hezbollah leader arrives and stops him.
When the CIA learns that Mussawi plans to broadcast the agency's intention to kill Nasir, they set Barnes up as a scapegoat, portraying him as a rogue agent. Barnes's boss, Terry George, worries that Barnes might talk about the Nasir assassination plan, about the possibility that Nasir's coup might have a greater likelihood of success, and that killing Nasir with an MQ-1 Predator drone would make it obvious as an American-backed assassination. He has Barnes's passports revoked, locks him out of his computer at work, and initiates an investigation of him. Barnes, however, learns from Goff that Whiting, working on behalf of a group of businessmen calling themselves The Committee to Liberate Iran, is responsible for Barnes's blackballing and the assassination job, and threatens him and his family unless he halts the investigation and releases Barnes's passports.
After Barnes eventually learns why he was portrayed as a rogue agent, he returns to the Middle East and approaches Prince Nasir's convoy to warn him of the assassination plan. As he arrives, a guided bomb from a circling Predator drone strikes the automobile of Nasir and his family, killing them instantly. Woodman, having earlier offered his seat in Nasir's car to members of his family, survives the missile strike and goes home to his wife and son.
=== Wasim storyline ===
Pakistani migrant workers Saleem Ahmed Khan (Shahid Ahmed) and his son Wasim (Mazhar Munir) board a bus to go to work at a Connex refinery, only to discover that they have been laid off due to a Chinese company outbidding Connex for the rights to run the facility. Since the company had provided food and lodging, the workers face the threat of poverty and deportation due to their unemployed status. Wasim desperately searches for work but is refused because he doesn't speak Arabic. Wasim and his friend join an Islamic school to learn Arabic in order to improve their employment prospects. While playing soccer, they meet a charismatic Islamic fundamentalist cleric—the same man who earlier acquired Bob Barnes' anti-aircraft missile in Tehran—who eventually leads them to execute a suicide attack on a Connex-Killen LNG tanker using a shaped-charge explosive from the missing Tehran missile.
=== Merger storyline ===
Bennett Holiday meets with Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer), who is convinced that Killen bribed someone to get the drilling rights in Kazakhstan. While investigating Connex-Killen's records, Holiday discovers a wire transfer of funds that leads back to a transaction between Texas oilman and Killen Co. colleague Danny Dalton (Tim Blake Nelson) and Kazakh officials. Holiday tells Connex-Killen of his discovery, and they pretend not to have known about it. Holiday advises Dalton that he will likely be charged with corruption in order to serve as a "body" to get the DOJ off the back of the rest of Connex-Killen; Dalton responds with a fervent defense of how corruption is simply the way of competition and how America "wins" against the rest of the corrupt world. U.S. Attorney Donald Farish III (David Clennon) then strong-arms Holiday into giving the DOJ information about illegal activities he has discovered. Holiday gives up Dalton, but Farish says this is not enough. Holiday meets with the CEO of Killen Oil, Jimmy Pope (Chris Cooper), and informs him that the DOJ needs a second body in order to drop the investigation. Pope asks Holiday whether a person at Holiday's firm above him would be sufficient as the additional body. Holiday acknowledges that if the name were big enough, the DOJ would stop the investigation and allow the merger.
Holiday is brought by his colleague and mentor Sydney Hewitt (Nicky Henson) to meet with the Chairman & CEO of Connex Oil, Leland "Lee" Janus (Peter Gerety). In a surprise move, Holiday reveals an under-the-table deal that Hewitt made while the Connex-Killen merger was being processed. Holiday has given Hewitt to the DOJ as the second body, thereby protecting the rest of Connex-Killen. Janus is able to accept the "Oil Industry Man of the Year" award with a load taken off his shoulders. Throughout the film, Holiday has angrily crossed paths with his alcoholic father Bennett Sr.; at the movie's end when the merger has been completed, Bennett Jr. brings his father into his house.
=== Father–son storylines ===
The final Holiday family scene serves to underscore the fact that every storyline here is built around major father–son relationships: Woodman returns home to embrace his surviving younger son following the killing of Prince Nasir, whose own father, the Emir, had rejected him. Wasim hugs and waves farewell to his totally unsuspecting father before embarking on his suicidal terrorist mission. And Bob Barnes, collateral damage in the Nasir assassination, leaves behind his only child, the high school senior who had earlier called both him and his CIA-employed mother "professional liars." | thought-provoking, violence, suspenseful, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | Stephen Gaghan is a good writer, and he provides a nice summary of the film's action in its final moments.What emerges from this tangled puzzle is a web of corruption and self-interest, all fueled by the need for oil.
And in the film's most chilling plot strand, we see how the struggle for oil feeds the radical Islam movement in the Middle East, providing young men with a feeling of brotherhood and righteousness in the face of a region they feel has turned its back on them in favor of big business and Western corruption."Syriana" is tense, fast and furious.
Following it can admittedly be somewhat exhausting, but if you pay very close attention to the first hour or so, as each story is introduced and the relationships between characters become clear, the second half of the movie is easier to digest.I disagree with other comments here that the characters aren't developed or that the acting is unimpressive.
THe story of Jeffrey Wright, the government official investigating the merger, George Clooney, the CIA operative with missions with no apparent goal, the Arab Emir from an unnamed oil producing country, and his two sons each wanting to take over his reign, the industry analyst (Matt Damon) who will use any situation to advance his firm, and the young, broke angry Arab youth who look for meaning in life and find it in the most dangerous way.Syriana is not a left wing movie, it is surprising a-political.
It does not answer any questions because I believe that Gaghan is trying to show that no-one is really in charge and that no-one really knows what is going on.The acting is near perfect from everyone in the cast, including a small, two scene brilliant cameo by William Hurt and Oscar worthy work from Clooney and Alexander Siddig as the frustrated Arab prince.This is an important film and it is not to be missed.
In a way, Mr. Baer's novel as well as the film seems to be reaffirming Niccolo Machiavelli's "The ends justify the means"Stephen Gaghan's first major directorial job presents the story in multiple settings running at the same time, which, for a great majority of the public will prove disorienting.
Stephen Gaghan shows he can do well working with Mr. Baer's material and made an interesting film that while it will irritate some viewers, on the whole he had the right idea in the way to tell this story..
Each sector--regulators, "intelligence", lobbyists, grease-the-wheel-ers and cogs-in-the-wheel-ers, in the network of greed, idealism, self-interest, sophistication and naiveté, is represented by a different character followed through the movie to bring them together, directly or indirectly, into the climax.This technique to coordinate a huge ensemble of captivating character actors woven tightly together in a complex story is helped enormously by Robert Elswit's ever-moving camera shots as visually and sound edited by Tim Squyres, who had some experience with overlapping dialog and movement in a more literal upstairs/downstairs on Robert Altman's "Gosford Park." Alexandre Desplat's music adds to the tense mood.The variegation that Gaghan presents is almost staggering, even more ethically complicated than a Graham Greene Cold War noir.
That so many of the oil and gas executives have Texas accents (superb Chris Cooper, Tim Blake Nelson, Robert Foxworth) does seem to say that the decades of business and political corruption there, as documented in Robert Caro's biography of LBJ, have simply been extended to a global scale.The film is also unusual in focusing on the role of lawyers negotiating the deals between companies and governments.
We see before our eyes he goes from, as his mentor says, "a sheep into a lion." Most films have prosecutors like David Clennon's U.S. attorney as a hero against corruption, instead of being chillingly dismissed as "trust fund lawyers." But the script is so full of such epigrams, like "In this town, you're only innocent until you're investigated," that one character calls another on issuing them too brightly.While from the beginning I couldn't quite follow all the machinations around George Clooney's character, he is wonderful at transforming from his usual Cary Grant suave to harried, dedicated, mid-level bureaucrat who literally won't toe the Company line in a dangerous hierarchy that's shown to be a bit more competent than in real life, that reminded me both in the gut and guts of Russell Crowe's Wigand in the tobacco wars in "The Insider." It recalls how benign corrupt spooks looked in their personal lives, as there's much conversation here about houses, cars and college tuition.
Indirectly, the film implicitly shows the dangers to Valerie Plame from her outing as a CIA operative, as families and personal connections are constantly used as threats and bargaining chips.Significantly, there is not a single mention amidst all these Mideast chicaneries, plots and plans of the Zionist entity, proving that pro or anti-Israel policies are smoke screens around the main draw -- oil.Movie-wise, these characters seem a lot like the gangsters and their conseglieres in "The Godfather" carving up Cuba and drug rights, let alone Gordon Gekko extolling "Greed is good" as the ultimate ideology, and fits right in with this year's other geo-political thrillers "The Constant Gardener" and "Lord of War," and those weren't even about natural resources.
Directed and written by Stephen Gaghan (Screenplay for Traffic 2000), the script for Syriana shows not only a smart liberal-approached storyline, but also how much the American and Arabian lives becomes juxtaposed by oil politics.
Based on the non-fiction book "See No Evil" by Robert Baer, Syriana takes its viewer step by step through the birth and processes of terrorism; and tears at the roots from where all violence and corruption derives.The movie starts with the introduction of a character, Bob (George Clooney), an American CIA agent who works in the Middle East for years witnessing the destruction of social injustice.
Bryan (Matt Damon) struggling to survive in America's capitalistic society thrives to introduce business opportunities in the Middle East; but before completing any deals with reformer and leader, Prince Nasir, all the characters, including a young Arabic man suffering from American politics and social injustices, end up experiencing sacrifices beyond comprehensible.
He said that most of the film was based on his or Bob's actual experiences.So what do we have....Oil, big oil, oil executives, oil analysts, oil geography, oil politics, big time oil power brokers, CIA, Islamic terrorists, Middle East culture....It's all there.
Having seen the trailer, and being a thriller-lover, I expected to see first of all a fast moving, breath catching movie, which wisely dips in global policy-making and the relation between oil, power and corruption, from a fresh angle.
I stuck with it thinking the plot would gradually develop, and all the threads would come together; well I waited and waited and it just got more and more confusing, so after an hour or so, I was still not really sure what it was all about.As far as being an Oscar nomination for best screenplay - thats amazing - the screenplay is the foundation of a movie, on which everything else is built, so its hard to see how this could have been viewed as being in the top 4 or 5 scripts of 2005.
I could not understand how George Clooney received an acting award for the film since he was hardly involved, at least in the first half of the movie.
It saddens me to think that most of you will believe the other 90% of comments that give this movie a high rating and will watch, but I'm sure some of you will agree with me and wish you hadn't.Oh yea, and can someone please tell me what the crap Syriana even means!!???.
Though Babel and Constant Gardner are of the same genre, and received slightly higher marks on IMDb - I believe this to be a much better movie.The story is a clinic on the competing interests of the two empires of big business profits, and the absolute control of government deciding what will and will not happen within it's sphere of power.
...........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA....and ORLANDO, FL Syriana, certainly supremely somber and dark, both in focus and in execution, with a cast replete with A-Listers like George Clooney (also listed as one of the executive producers), Matt Damon, Chris Cooper, Christopher Plummer and Amanda Peet, had a budget of 50 million dollars....All for the purpose of presenting a striking vision of the troubled state of the world in which we live.To dig a little deeper regarding Syriana, a film nominated for several Oscars (which were quite well deserved, in my opinion) is the kind of psychological-political thriller where you, the spectator, is forced to put your brain into hyper drive in every scene, every line from the movie, from start to its final seconds....If you do not want to end up with gaps in the arc of the story, you'd best not let down your mental guard, even for the briefest of moments!
Director Stephen Gahagan and co-star/producer George Clooney aim to tell a story about the business of oil in the contemporary world,using much the same brand of sort of dizzying,low-fi noise and imagery as was used in Gahagan's 2000 Traffic.The stories of Bob Barnes(Clooney,about twenty pounds overweight and scraggly),a CIA vet in the Middle East who slowly senses that his government is quietly guiding situations in the region to befit an upcoming blockbuster petroleum deal,Bryan Woodman(MAtt Damon,still looks about fifteen),a business analyst whose family endures tragedy at the palatial home of a Arab emir, a corporate lawyer named Bennett Holiday(Jeffrey Wright,becoming a solid chameleon-like actor)who may or may not have moral qualm and some sway over the fate of said oil deal,and the lives of two ground-level Islamic national petroleum workers who are laid off in the acquisition(I do not recall their names or the actors who played them,but they were quite effective and sympathetic),are the focal points and points of view at which the movie runs.
As a viewing experience,I can honestly I've had better experiences,but I appreciated the message and the intelligence this movie provides.Good,almost passing performances by a supporting cast that includes(but is not limited to)Amanda Peet(As Damon's distressed wife),Peter Gerety(as the top dog in the oil corporate merger),Chris Cooper(as one of the CEOs,a brash and impatient businessman.Effective!),Alexander Siddig(as a reform-minded prince and apparent first-in-line heir to the throne),Christopher Plummer(as Wright's immediate boss) and Tim Blake Nelson(as an out-of-control exec who sets the tone for the movie's moral) frame this film well.
With all that being said, writer-director Steven Gaghanhas made one of the most engrossing and complex films you will see at your multiplex.By far one of the most ambitious Hollywood movies of the year, Gaghan has created a bold, intelligent, and rewarding movie that says something politically and equally profoundly.With the hyper-link structure that resembles the narrative of "Traffic",( which Gaghan also wrote the script for and Steven Soderbergh directed superbly).
If you want to see a movie where terrorists are kinda good guys, American CIA bombs everything that doesn't agree with our opinions, all capitalists are corrupt, and you like to see anything resembling a storyboard advancement accompanied by a death, have at.
Way too many moving parts, choppy subplots, characters and multiple locations which instead of coming together as the movie progressed just remained random and confusing feeling.Described as a "riveting political thriller about the state of the oil industry in the hands of those personally involved and affected by it." I'm just gong to say it, this was boring as hell.The script is disjointed, complicated, and confusing.
The film is something like a mosaic; it doesn't really matter if every single detail doesn't attain complete clarity as long as we are able to pull back and focus our eyes on the big picture Gaghan shows us.There's not much point in trying to relate the fine points of the complex plot here.
Suffice it to say that the film is filled with vivid scenes and memorable moments, as well as outstanding performances by George Clooney, Matt Damon, Christopher Plummer, Chris Cooper, Amanda Peet, Kayvan Novak, Amr Waked and many others.By plunging headlong into the most timely and important issue of our time - the violent clash between Western secularism and Muslim extremism - "Syriana" certainly establishes itself as one of the bravest and best movies of 2005.
Intriguingly, all three characters have been given more personal profiles - Barnes has a college-age son with whom he feels estranged, Woodman goes through the loss of a child, and Holiday has a resentful alcoholic father - but none of these dimensions are explored with any depth.Gaghan has certainly assembled an extensive cast, and there are solid contributions from Alexander Siddig as the reform-minded Prince Nasir Al-Subaai, Chris Cooper as one of the oil company CEOs, Christopher Plummer as Holiday's corrupt boss, Jayne Atkinson as the poker-faced CIA division chief, and Amanda Peet as Woodman's inconsolable wife.
Instead, director Stephen Gaghan (who also wrote the very good Havoc now on DVD), puts up on the big screen maybe one of the most complex and interesting stories that the multiplexes have seen in some time.
Clooney and Damon in particular give maybe the best performances of their careers and their supporting cast is no less stellar.But like reading a Tom Clancy novel, this adaptation of a Robert Baer book (See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism) jumps from country to country and storyline to storyline with head turning swiftness where the only way to understand what is probably one of the best movies of the year is to get out of your seat at the end of the film, go back to the box office and buy another ticket to see it all again.www.robertsreviews.com.
Its interweaving stories in many locations force us to try and make sense of an international tragedy facing our planet in what President Bush has described as the 'addiction to oil'.Using facts from a work of non-fiction, 'See No Evil', Syriana starts in Iran with George Clooney almost losing control over the movement of some armaments (although not essential, a mental map of the world and some familiarity with relevant world affairs will greatly enhance enjoyment of this movie).
Whatever your politics or beliefs, Syriana is sure to cast doubt on them, but in not taking sides it makes us aware of aspects we might not otherwise have considered.Minutely researched and executed, the film poses stark questions that are too uncomfortable generally to even ask, and then only offers inescapable geographical facts or hard truths that politicians might genuinely want to shield us from.
And what I'd like to know is if we keep embargoing them on energy, then someday soon are we going to get a nice, secular, pro-Western, pro-business government?" Agent Clooney, from hard experience, tries to disabuse her of such wishful thinking but is dexterously sidelined in favour of People Who Have Answers.Syriana is a venture of Participant Productions, a company that aims to make socially relevant films, which also have broad appeal, and it is the most accomplished offering of the company to date.
I found myself looking at my watch a good five or six times, just wondering when this would end.The whole thing feels like it was written by the head of BP or Shell, a man who knows the oil business upside-down, inside-out, but couldn't write a decent film with a gun at his head.
But as I got tangled within the story, there were points in the movie where I couldn't tell a person whats going on yet oddly enough, I never felt lost.In a departure from his usual, cocky roles, George Clooney plays Bob Barnes, a CIA operative who is trying to stop the Persian prince (played by Alexander Siddig) yet doesn't know he is being used.
Of all performances, I think Wright delivers one of the best, this side of Clooney's performance.All in all, politics aside, Syriana contains GREAT film-making and acting all around.
Above all, this a movie about the chilling ambiance of international oil politics and corporate criminality.George Clooney headlines the film, and he has an important role, but it's intermittent.
That said, the other threads in the film I found very interesting and intriguing; indeed, the thread about the brothers, while their characters may have seemed a bit too sharply drawn, reveals possible differences in how oil revenues might be apportioned and suggest a more equitable energy policy in the world.The story is also told from the point of view of an oil analyst named Bryan Woodman (a typically accomplished Matt Damon) and the toll his close ties to the industry take on his ostensibly objective TV analysis.
But those who have the patience and will to keep watching this movie will be rewarded with a thought provoking and effective movie that will leave you thinking afterward.Best thing about this movie is that it basically follows four different plot lines and characters but it really doesn't feel like four separate and different stories at all.
It's that none of these stories is told in a sufficiently interesting way to make you want to figure out the connections between the various threads.I expected "Syriana" to be like "Munich," another recent film that treated Middle Eastern politics in an intelligent way.
The ending sequence is nicely suspenseful, and ties some of the disparate plot lines together, but the movie takes much too long to get there.The worst (that is, the most boring) of the four story lines is the one where Jeffrey Wright plays a lawyer investigating possible corruption in an American oil company merger.
For those going to see "Syriana" know this: it is a heavily liberal film that makes capitalist Americans look like pigs, but also many other peoples too. |
tt0215545 | Bamboozled | In a New York City residence, Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) rises to begin his daily routine. Brushing his teeth, he gives us by voice over a definition of satire. He tells us that with the rise of the Internet, video and interactive games, his field as a television writer has seen a drop in popularity. Meanwhile, in a dilapidated building, squatter Womack (Tommy Davidson) wakes up his friend Manray (Savion Glover) for a day of work. This consists of travelling to the CNS (Continental Network System) building where Delacroix works, and Manray tap dancing to entertain the workers. They then collect money from the workers. The men see Delacroix walk by, and ask him for monetary help in the form of work of some kind.Delacroix walks into a staff meeting late and is immediately castigated by his boss, Thomas Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport). Dunwitty informs the staff that CNS has poor ratings. He says he wants them to write funnier material, and ends the meeting. In the privacy of his office, Dunwitty tells Delacroix that the material Delacroix's been writing for him seems like it's about white people with black faces. Dunwitty asserts that Delacroix is an "oreo" with his Harvard education, because he won't write a "n----r show."The next day, Delacroix and his assistant Sloan Hopkins (Jada Pinkett Smith) talk. They've decided that Manray is the solution to his problem. Delacroix plans to write a show that will be so "offensive and racist," it will prove his point that the network only wants to see black buffoons on the air. Delacroix simply hopes to be fired, so he can be let go of his contract with CNS. Manray and Womack ask at the receptionist's desk for a "Delapoint" and the men working there tell them to step outside. However, Sloan steps into the lobby, sees what's happening, and escorts Manray and Womack to Delacroix's office. Delacroix explains to them that he has an idea for a television pilot, and they can make money with it. His main request is that Manray changes his name to Mantan, in an apparent homage to black character actor Mantan Moreland.On Sloan's walk home, she runs into her big brother Big Blak Afrika F/K/A Julius (Yasiin Bey). In Sloan's apartment, Julius and Sloan argue about his values, and he tells her to introduce him and his political hip-hop crew, the Mau Maus, to Delacroix.Delacroix has another meeting with Dunwitty. Delacroix proposes that the network start a variety show called "Mantan: The New Millenium Minstrel Show." Delacroix says that new faces are needed for the show, and has Sloan bring in Manray and Womack. The two men, respectively renamed "Mantan" and "Sleep'n Eat," will exhibit a range of stereotypical traits, Delacroix explains. Sloan is opposed to the proceedings, and suggests that there will be protest of the show they are planning. To seal the package, Manray dances atop a table in front of Dunwitty -- who immediately leaves to try to sell the show's concept to his executive bosses.Delacroix, Sloan and another woman hold auditions for the show. The first group of people (The Roots) audition to be the show's house band, The Alabama Porch Monkeys. After they perform, a dancer, a vulgar man shouting "I be smackin' my hoes," and a didgeridoo player all audition. The next hopeful is Honeycutt (Thomas Jefferson Byrd), an actor who bungles Shakespearean quotes and proclaims "N----s is a beautiful thing." Sloan's brother's group, the Mau Maus then do a fiery, confrontational performance; Pierre states via voice over that there is no place for them in his plan.Delacroix looks over a revised script for the show and confronts Dunwitty and his co-writer, Jukka about their alterations to it that even he finds racially offensive. Delacroix says that he won't be responsible for their changes, which Dunwitty says are to make the show funnier. Dunwitty says he knows black people better than Delacroix does, telling him, "Look at all the brothers on the wall" (referring to numerous pictures of famous black men hanging up in Dunwitty's office). Dunwitty tells him not to interrupt them, and Delacroix expresses impotent rage at this before leaving.A dressed-up Honeycutt steps onto a stage and introduces himself to a TV studio audience. Backstage, Womack and Manray create blackface from burned cork, put it onto their faces, and apply fire-truck red lipstick to their mouths. Mantan, Sleep'n Eat and the Alabama Porch Monkeys are then unveiled to the audience. People in the audience are shocked and dismayed, as the two actors employ self-deprecating racial humor while Mantan tap dances. White people in the audience are mostly scared to laugh or show their enjoyment, but black people around them clap and laugh. The white people thus feel sanctioned in enjoying the show. A sign near the stage says "Howl!" and the non-black people, seeing the approving black people around them, applaud.To Delacroix's disbelief and displeasure, the CNS executives order 12 shows of "Mantan" for a mid-season replacement. As the show becomes more and more popular, sides are chosen in the resulting battle over representation, and finally, tempers fly, resulting in a tragic conclusion. | tragedy, avant garde, satire, murder, melodrama | train | imdb | The film "Bamboozled" has caught a lot of heat for it's portrayal of blackface (an issue that wasn't really talked about until the release of "Bamboozled") Writer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) sees his pitches for TV shows being rejected one after another.
Add to this the fact that, besides clips of Good Times and The Jeffersons, both of which, I ought to add (in my own opinion), Lee is taking out of context (he would have been much better off to feature Diff'rent Strokes, which is somewhat offensive), all of the clips he uses to demonstrate the abuse of his race must have been downright difficult to dig out of film archives.
We all know they exist, and, as Sloan (Jada Pinkett Smith) says in the film, we oughtn't to forget whether we're black or white, but it doesn't work as satire to show these things.
I think it would have been better to have had a minimalist score, which would have made the film seem even more immediate.Like I said, there are many major and legitimate complaints against Bamboozled, but critics and audiences forgot what's going for it: it is EXCELLENT CINEMA.
With films such as Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever, he shows his passion and understanding of situations such as racial feelings between all races, not just whites and blacks as well as how outsiders view interracial relationships.
Here, his target is the entertainment industry, specifically television and he cuts right to the core because he knows how important and complex this issue is and wastes no time of this 135-minute film to stuff every frame and scene with a message and relating what he has seen in this country and how he feels about it.First off, the acting is near flawless.
Damon Wayans gives his best performance ever as Pierre Delacroix, a successful producer upset that he is not considered black with his fancy dress and white accent.
The end is in fact a rehash of many other movies seen before, even ones self-consciously referred to here such as Network and The Producers.Spike Lee is a gifted and fearless director and I cannot say this is a boring or uninspiring film.
The film clips from old films and the display of of toys during the endtitles, were fascinating and could have made an interesting documentary.One thing I didn't like, besides the stereotypical white bigots, was Lee's focusing upon 40s black comedian Mantan Moreland as the epitome of black humiliation.
Add to that a clichéd friendship-not-surviving-success subplot and big ideas apparently lifted from The Producers and Network, and there seems little left to praise.But while it fails on many levels, the good ideas remain and allow Lee to explore two main themes the past degradation of black performers and the position they hold today.
And although much of Lee's argument can be countered by a number of positive roles or by seeing gangsta rap as only a small part of the black music that dominates the charts, these are the things Bamboozled wants to make us think about.
Had Bamboozled boasted that intensity throughout, had it not been let down by a script that fails to make its points, by Damon Wayan's superficial take on the lead role, and its betrayal of supporting characters for its finale, it would have been a fascinating film.
As it is, the message is powerful; the film is not.But when his films work and when they don't, Spike Lee is at least consistent in one thing; he makes you think long after the credits have rolled.
Towards the end of Bamboozled, Spike Lee lets go of his narrative for a minute and turns to the film over to a parade of archival material.
But for every time Lee educates us, he bashes us over the head with references to his own movies (even though Bamboozled is shot on digital video, it has moments clearly borrowed from Mo' Better Blues and Do the Right Thing) or, even worse, he makes too-obvious references to Network (Including a repeated misquoting of the famous "mad as hell and I'm not going to take *this* anymore" line).
Read most of the reviews for this flick and you can tell that they are written by people who are saying more about how they feel about Spike Lee and racial issues than this movie.
"Do The Right Thing" on the other hand was pure Spike Lee brilliance, but none of his films following that one (and "X") were worth viewing much...
Director Spike Lee has a big quantity of people who love his movies and people who hate them.The people who critic him say his movies which contain a message about racism produce damage.The people who love his movies say that Lee gives that messages to remind the people the facts with the intention that they have not to repeat anymore.Personally,I think Lee is a unique and extraordinary director who makes films with a big stylistic and narrative impact.And,the best thing of all,Lee leaves the spectator thinking after watching his movies.Bamboozled is another great film directed by this awesome director.Bamboozled is a very powerful movie with brilliant dialogs.The performances are perfect.Damon Wayans is a great actor very natural and expressive.Jada Pinkett Smith is excellent on her role.Michael Rapaport is a brilliant actor and,here,he brings the best performance of his career.Bamboozled is a great,fun and totally intelligent film directed by an awesome director..
It's the kind of movie where one may like it more for what it could have been rather than what it is.Bamboozled is meant to be, as Lee's character Delacroix (Damon Wayans) points out more than once both to the audience in dictionary definition and layman's terms, a satire.
Maybe Wayans has done some good work in the past (ironically, as it's mentioned in the film as a point of reference for black variety shows, in In Living Color), but he makes the character sound totally off-key, sounding like a nerd with a bad accent and with mannerisms that are just awful.
Whether or not the blame is Wayans or Lee's writing and direction is a 50/50 split; others like Davidson and Glover fare a little better, and Jada Pinkett Smith arguably delivers the best non-unreal performance of the lot.
Bamboozled goes up and down in its level of pretentiousness and ineptitude: for the first half an hour I wondered if I was really watching a movie by Spike "Do the Right Thing" Lee, as it's mostly shot in mini-DV camera style like some amateurs from a college film program in their first year.
Then it starts to get slightly more interesting, though still problematic in filming style and performances (albeit I did enjoy, as filmed in 16mm, the Mantan sequences as a hyper-stylized set-piece, and the one scene with Delacroix and his stand-up comic father played by Paul Mooney).But as Lee's polemic grows more dire and more serious, and as the circumstances of Womack and Manray's disagreement about what they're doing leads to a somewhat predictable, horribly melodramatic and preachy finale, I was ready to chuck my diet coke at the screen.
Yet I stuck through to the end, and realized something during the final five or so minutes as the cavalcade of images in montage went by of American TV and movie history of black stereotypes (including the infamous Birth of a Nation racism); had Lee done much of what he's presented in Bamboozled as a real documentary- which is just as much if not more-so history lesson than satire- then he might be on to something with a better grip on minstrel shows and media-stereotypes.
All of the scenes showing the black face performances on the "Man-Tan Show" and the montage of blacks in entertainment at the end of the movie are quite poignant, and frankly left me speechless and fixated on the television screen.The bad: The acting and script left a lot to be desired.
This made it feel rushed at times and completely ludicrous at others.Overall, if you want to be made to think about race in America and in entertainment, this is a good movie to pick up.
Overall, Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" addresses a series of issues including the influence from media, racial profiling/discrimination, corruption, etc., and also alludes to the conflicts of the past regarding the origins of the "black face" as well as racism itself.
This film is incredibly loaded and I feel it takes one with substantial passion and intelligence to organize and create a story as powerful as Spike Lee's.
His boss, who "has a black wife and half-white children" is repugnant, and thinks that this gives him the right to say and think anything about African-Americans he likes which is utter nonsense.Jada Pinkett Smith is wonderful as the conscience after-the-fact and you wish to see her in more controlled, intelligent, roles as this.But the standout, to be sure, is Savion Glover whose dancing is quite simply mesmerizing; it is quite easy to forget the rough ground we are treading and just revel in this man's talent.
With a cast of over 90 (not counting the hundreds of extras including Al Sharpton and Johnny Cochran) and a crew of more than 300, Lee marshals a massive army on "Bamboozled," though the film always feels like an up close, personal story that happens to take on national proportions.
His audience could have easily started to sport a black face too and proclaimed loudly to the press, "See we aren't racist!" The Herman Cain train exemplified everything that Spike Lee was saying in this dark comedy.
I don't know.Not only would the entire unfolding of the plot never even come close to happening, but the acting (especially Damon Wayans) is terrible and unrealistic.In a nut shell, Spike makes up some super-racist BS, snowballs the situation so you feel like crap for watching the hateful, degrading movie, and unnecessarily makes blacks hate whites for making such degradation possible, and makes whites hate blacks for trying to make real an unreal situation of hate, blame, and guilt.
It's as though he doubts that white America is smart enough to get his message and concerned that black America may have forgotten it while climbing up the assimilation ladder.And while I may squirm at his intellectual contempt for the audience, and be irritated that he plays his usual double standard, where EVERY white character as a racist stereotype), I'm drawn to the single - minded courage of his view.Bamboozled grits and grates on every nerve and then does a deft tap-dance on our last one---stretching it for all it's worth.
And it leaves this viewer hoping he did this on purpose, but knowing its just the same old lack of self-control.And yes — we got the point, Mr. Lee — no thanks to your sledgehammer method of directing, that blacks who play roles to serve a racist stereotype are "the enemy" and deserve only death.I've seen almost every film that Spike Lee has created --- The Girl's Gotta Have It, Malcolm X, Girl 6, Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, etc.
— Same Old Stereotype - and create something truly original.In a way, Faizon Love is right on target — for while Spike Lee is an Oscar-caliber director, with piercing insight and uncommon talent, he still lacks any objectivity to truly "direct" that vision to it's desired end.For rather than just making a point that's obvious to all, we'd rather see whats' beyond that one-dimensional image to embrace a more three-dimensional viewing experience.
So two years after it came out, I said ok, I'll give him ONE more chance and rented "Bamboozled." What a mistake.The funny thing is, like with most of Lee's films, the premise of "Bamboozled" is actually quite promising and probably would have worked if only a capable filmmaker was behind it.
(However, the fact that the whole country went ballistic when Ted Danson put on blackface that one time doesn't do the premise any good.) The truth is, Lee is a horrible filmmaker and that's why his movies bomb.For whatever reason in the world, Spike Lee still has that "pimply-faced know-nothing NYU film student" mentality, where he feels if he does a few odd things with the camera and audio and goes for an "artsy" feel, that it'll be a success.
Some may say, "he's camping it up." Well if he is, he's doing it very poorly.Watching this movie felt like watching some kid from heck, not just NYU, any high school film class who threw a whole bunch of garbage together in the guise of "profoundness" and "deepness." There is no message in "Bamboozled" no matter how much someone wants to say there is.
It appears the only reason this "film" was made in the first place, was as an excuse to remind the ten people who saw it in the theaters that there were such things as minstrel shows and people performing in blackface.I wonder how many of the few viewers actually even realize that there actually was a real actor dubbed "Sleep 'N Eat" (more originality by Mr. Lee).But, I'm glad I did finally see this film.
Spike Lee fails to deliver his message in this video filmed satire that exploits the imagery of the minstrel show while failing to deglamorize it.
Although Spike Lee fell up his own ass several films ago, this one takes the cake.Instead of a tribute to the fine actors who were subjected to silly stereotypes by white producers he has insulted the artists, who show more talented in the few clips near the end than that exhibited by the two previous hours.Is the movie anti-black?
However the show becomes an unexpected hit.A fascinating failure of a satire, Lee succeeds in making his audience think, even if he produces a slightly messy plot and leaves himself open to accusations of the pot literally calling the kettle black.
This is best seen in the way the plot sort of spirals out of control towards the end; it was like the film had finished making all it's points and wasn't really sure what to do then.There are some humorous moments but really this is a hard film to enjoy because it does feel like a little ball of anger for most of the time.
Spike Lee insults the audience's intelligence by making a complete minstrel show that no person (black or white) with a conscience (and a brain) would find entertaining in the 21th century.The only thing I liked was Damon Wayans and Savion Glover.
I couldn't shake the creepy feeling that Spike Lee, who was born and raised in a wealthy, prosperous, and privileged family (compared to the majority of Americans, white and black), might have been pandering to the audience.
But I do feel that other voices commenting on Spike Lee's movie need to be heard.Pointed humor in general, and satire in particular, is proper and successful only when it is directed toward the powerful, on behalf of the weak.
All it made me think about was how much more interesting it would have been if it was about black actors in white-face making white stereotypes.The biggest problem i had with the movie was the miscasting of Damon Wayans in the lead role.
The movie "Bamboozled" directed by Spike Lee was definitely a film that dealt with race, which is nothing new for this director.
Daman Wayans plays a network writer that needs a hit, so he comes up with this completely racist show which pokes fun at the old black face films of the early twentieth century.
Bamboozled is obviously Spike Lee's best film ever.
One interesting scene was the group meeting on the new minstrel show, where you had young people who even admitted to not knowing very many blacks, but felt confident that they understood them through shows like 'Good Times'.
But if you're patient enough to get throught the whole movie, you'll see that Lee does nothing more than picturing the stereotypes which are related to races, and the fact that people are many times racist without being even conscious of it.
But watch some of Spike Lee's other films first so you don't get a bad taste in your mouth for the man (I personally recommend Do the Right Thing, and Jungle Fever)..
Spike Lee presents one of the most racially driven movies of our time with Bamboozled.
But instead of so many African American movies where every one else seems to be criticized, uses R&B music, and involves some conflict with white people, Spike Lee held back with no one; everyone was fair game for criticism.Bamboozled was unexpectedly suspenseful, and I found the final scene with murder and death interspersed with the sequence of black television scenes to be absolutely horrifying.I was pleasantly surprised by the acting.
The point that Spike Lee seems to be making is that African-Americans will only be accepted when they fit into their stereotypical role in society.
And -- speaking as whitey again -- doesn't it infuriate many blacks to see middle- and upper-class whites co-opt that culture when their lives are so far removed from the experience that creates it?No matter what you think of the rest of the movie, when you see the montage at the end, pretty much all you can do is drop your jaw and say, "OK, Spike, you made your point."This is a good film for people who don't want to forget what they just saw as soon as the credits roll.
I think this film was Spike Lee at his best, but unfortunately the issues it deals with are so controversial, dangerous, and deep-rooted in American culture that the power structure obviously feels really threatened by it, because (correct me if I'm wrong) it came and went like girl 6.
Spike Lee has a great movie in "Bamboozled".
Spike lee makes a very good and funny film.
Bamboozled had got to be one of the most if not the most controversal movies ever made by Spike Lee besides Malcolm X.
I had great expectations for this movie being that I love Spike Lee's works. |
tt0451850 | Paheli | The movie is narrated by two puppets, voiced by Naseeruddin Shah and his real-life wife Ratna Pathak Shah.
Enthusiastic young Lachchi (Rani Mukerji) is to be married to Kishan (Shah Rukh Khan), the son of the rich merchant Banwarlal (Anupam Kher). Kishan is a dutiful son who honors his father's wish to start a new, far-away business on a predetermined auspicious date, which happens to be the day after the wedding ceremony. On the wedding night, Kishan turns away from his wife to finish his bookkeeping, and in the early morning hours sets off on a business trip that is to last five years. Lachchi is devastated; Gajrobai (Juhi Chawla), her husband's sister-in-law, consoles her, empathizing on the grounds that Gajrobai's husband Sunderlal (Sunil Shetty) has also disappeared. The next day, a ghost appears, having taken Kishan's shape and voice because of his own attachment to Lachchi.
Lachchi is thus presented a riddle (hence the title "paheli") between the representation of all of her desires in the form of the ghost and her real husband. She takes this new, fond, sexual, magical, social, self-confident version of Kishan as hers. As Kishan, the ghost befriends all of the real Kishan's family and keeps Bhanwarlal happy by providing him with magical, possibly illusory, gold coins. His only blunder is in his treatment of the messenger Bhoja, who is perplexed by the idea that Kishan has sent a letter from his business trip only to receive it himself in his own house and offended when the ghost (who appears as Kishan) does not offer him a drink of water. Lachchi's bliss goes on until four years later, when she is pregnant and the real Kishan returns to see if the rumours about his wife's pregnancy are true. He returns to find the ghost in his (Kishan's) own form. Kishan's family is unable to determine which of the doppelgangers is the real Kishan (the ghost refusing to confess). They decide to visit the king so that he can arbitrate.
On the way to the king they meet an old shepherd Gadariya (Amitabh Bachchan) who helps them out. He asks the real son of Bhanwarlal to pick up hot coals, asks the real husband to gather the sheep, and asks Lachchi's real paramour to enter a water-bottle. The real Kishan is found out and everyone returns home. Lachchi is devastated over the loss of the ghost. In the very end it is revealed that the ghost has escaped the bottle and taken control of Kishan's body to live with her. By now Lachchi has given birth to a daughter, Looni Ma, by whom the ghost exposes his identity to Lachchi. The puppets close the story, remarking that the plot is "an old story". | fantasy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0085980 | My Tutor | The movie opens with scenes of an aerobics class juxtaposed with a classroom of students taking an examination. The movie's two protagonists are featured in these scenes, with Terry Green (Caren Kaye) participating in the aerobics and Bobby Chrystal (Matt Lattanzi) taking, not very well it turns out, his last high school final, in French.
At first, Bobby's main goal for the summer before college appears to be losing his virginity, if not with his unrequited high school crush, Bonnie (Amber Denyse Austin) who dates a college student, then with any takers. Soon, though, the poor results of the French final are in, and Bobby must take a make-up examination and score at least 85% in order to retain his acceptance at his wealthy lawyer father's alma mater, Yale University. Mr. Chrystal (Kevin McCarthy) hires Terry, a skilled French tutor, to live in the Chrystal home during the summer and work with Bobby on passing his exam. In addition to her normal compensation, Mr. Chrystal offers to give Terry a bonus payment of $10,000 should Bobby pass.
Terry and Bobby begin working together but Bobby's lack of interest in both French and Yale soon become apparent. His real goal is to attend UCLA and study astronomy. Terry is sympathetic but reminds Bobby that wherever he ends up going to college, he will need to pass his French final. With Terry's help, Bobby begins to make some progress.
At night, after she thinks everyone in the Chrystal home is asleep, Terry uses the family's pool to skinny dip. However, Bobby sees her one night and begins watching her regularly (especially as his group of friends fail several attempts to lose their virginity). After one such evening, Bobby follows Terry back to her room, only to have her sneak up behind him and surprise him. Terry gently admonishes Bobby for spying on her but it is clear that they have a mutual attraction. After yet another evening out with his friends, Bobby returns home to find an upset Terry, who had earlier discovered her on-and-off-again boyfriend cheating on her. Terry later heads to the pool for her regular swim. She finds Bobby waiting for her and she pulls him into the pool with her and the two begin a love affair.
The summer's end approaches and Bobby has to take his French examination. Despite Terry's attempts to keep their relationship casual, Bobby has developed serious feelings for Terry and resists her insistence that the affair end once he takes his exam. Matters worsen when Mr. Chrystal, who himself lusts for Terry, sees his son and Terry kissing one night. After Bobby successfully passes the test with a score of 91%, Mr. Chrystal reveals to Bobby his promise to pay Terry the $10,000 bonus, implying that Terry's affection for Bobby was driven by greed. Bobby reacts by angrily confronting his father in regards to his overbearing ways and tells him that he will be attending UCLA to study astronomy and now that he is an adult he will no longer allow him to dominate every aspect of his life anymore. He proceeds to storm out to find Terry. He confronts her with the information, calling her a hooker and flees after Terry angrily denies the accusation.
Later, Bobby seeks out Bonnie, his old crush, and, using his new-found confidence with women, is able to persuade her to begin dating him. Terry prepares to leave the Chrystal home and Bobby approaches her to say good-bye. He begins by apologizing to her for his rash accusations and then telling her that he will never forget her. Terry tells him matter-of-factly that she will never forget him. The two share one last kiss, and Terry drives off. Bobby leaps into the air, looking forward to the future. | cult | train | wikipedia | Yes, this is one of the early entries into the unending series of sexploitation movies about male teenagers with raging hormones looking for relief.
But also, yes, I quite enjoyed it and gave it a respectable viewers rating - so I have a little explaining to do, even though I do not fully understand why this somewhat simplistic film appealed to me in the way that it did.
Perhaps it is simply that after an unending series of "Porky's" like movies, any film which features believable characters that are marginally more than cardboard cut-outs automatically gets rated more highly than it deserves.
I cannot dispute the fact that this is not really a good movie, but it is so much better than most of its contemporaries covering the same scene that I feel it deserves to be recognised.
Whether flowing juices improve study or not, may be debatable; but in this case the tutor not only meets Bobby's academic needs, but also recognises the basic problem he faces, liking him enough to guide him towards achieving a more mature appreciation of the mutual responsibilities any loving relationship will impose.
Caren Kaye's treatment of her role as Terry, the tutor, deserves the highest praise - with a different leading lady this film could have been a complete disaster.
In addition Kevin McCarthy, as the father, also delivers a fine performance in the character of someone wealthy enough to believe that he can buy whatever he needs or wants, and the scene towards the end of the film when his son turns upon him for the first time is quite well handled.
The first was the one featuring a girl in a telephone booth, This starts when Bobby encounters the situation we have all experienced when waiting to make an important call, where the person occupying the 'phone booth is behaving as if about to leave it, but never quite does so; and it develops to the point where he is watching what ensues with fascination.
This is the backdrop of the movie: The plot of this movie revolves around a guy, who has just graduated from high school, and his father's wish for him to get into Yale University.
Upon learning that he has flunked high school French, his father arranges for him to spend his summer with a private tutor.
He must pass French before the summer is over, or he will not get into Yale.Now that the backdrop has been established, the movie entails the adventures of a fresh high school graduate, and his friends, quest to get laid before the summer is out.
There are many funny squences, and twists, and even imaginary "fantasy" scenes dealing with sexuality throughout the movie, circa 1983.The movie shows a lot of topless females, and even features real life porn star Kitten Natividad.I would say that this movie lies somewhere in between a "B-Movie" & a light comedy/serious film making effort.I remember this movie from my childhood, and it was refreshing for me to see it again recently..
Every so often you hear about this kind of thing happening in real life, so there may even be a little more to the concept than pure fantasy.Matt Lattanzi plays the lucky young man in this film.
Crispin Glover is pretty funny as Bobby's best friend who is frantically trying to get laid.
My Tutor would have been another useless teen sex movie if not for the superb performance of Crispin Glover.
graduating high school starts summer off being immature and through his tutor becomes a respectable person.
The movie starts out with the young boy "Bobby" who is obviously very overly hormone driven finding out that his summer is going to be spent with a woman tutor who is going to teach him French.
"Karen Kaye" winds up being his beautiful tutor who over the course of the summer winds up teaching him how to be nice and respectful of women.
The movie doesn't even try to be original but I liked how both the leads characters' were actually-well-developed somewhat.
My Tutor, a shameless exploration of arrested male teen-age sexual fantasy, is a forgettable film for everybody except the kids who were going through puberty when the film was released.
Caren Kaye delights as the world-wise French tutor who fuels young Lattanzi's vivid imagination with her nocturnal skinny dips in the family pool.
If more tutors looked like Caren Kaye, there'd be more interest in learning French..
Lovers of the 1980s sex comedy genre should have a pretty good time with "My Tutor".
Handsome Matt Lattanzi stars as Bobby Chrystal, a teen who has flunked his French course.
So the dad hires a live-in tutor, Terry Green (the lovely Ms. Kaye) to instruct the boy for the summer.
What the virginal Bobby doesn't expect is to fall in love with the young lady.
While "My Tutor" isn't as raunchy as some viewers may hope, it does have its entertaining farcical moments here and there, many of them courtesy of co-star Crispin Glover, as Jack, one of Bobby's two buds who accompany him on the quest to experience sex.
It's quite a hoot to see Glover strapped to a big wheel by a whip wielding dominatrix; also early on in the picture Bobby is paired with an extremely well endowed prostitute (Kitten Natividad, whose main assets can be seen in all their glory.) But providing a solid anchor for the movie is the portrayal of the evolving relationship between tutor and student, and it's beautifully played by Kaye and Lattanzi.
The actors are all good, with Arlene Golonka playing Bobby's mom, Jewel Shepard ("The Return of the Living Dead") as the sexy phone booth girl, and future director Katt Shea as one of the mud wrestlers.
One subplot with Terry's stuck up former boyfriend (Bruce Bauer) trying to worm his way back into her life does have a mildly entertaining payoff, but one has to wonder why another story thread - that of finding out that the Chrystals' hired help have been putting on an act - was created, as it never really goes anywhere.
By the end, we can't help but feel good for Bobby when he finally decides to stand up to his dad and vow to go ahead and study astronomy at UCLA, which is what he really wants to do.
Cut from the same cloth as Private Lessons (1981) and Risky Business (1983), coming-of-age teen sex comedy My Tutor is pure male fantasy fulfilment, in which virginal teenager Bobby Chrystal (Matt Lattanzi), desperate to pop his cherry, is handed the answer to his problems by his parents when they hire sexy tutor Terry Green (Caren Kaye) to help him pass his French exam.Having had several sleazy but unsuccessful sexcapades with his equally desperate best friend Jack (the always excellent Crispin Glover), Bobby is more than happy to start learning about 'les oiseaux et les abeilles' from his tasty teacher, who not only knows her way round a french verb, but being a decade older than him, is also pretty familiar with the workings of a man's body!.Opening with a roomful of women suggestively wriggling, jiggling, gyrating and thrusting their way through an aerobics routine, My Tutor is all about the irresistible allure of the female physical form, and barely a minute passes without some gratuitous female nudity on screen.
Naturally, this makes for perfect fodder for hormonal teenage boys, but in addition to all the bare bums and breasts, the film also manages to pack in some remarkably solid performances from its likable leads (whose acting careers really deserved to have been better) and quite a bit of heart as well, Bobby not only discovering how to have fun on his back but also learning to stand on his own two feet against his overbearing father (Kevin McCarthy).While it's a little far fetched, perhaps, to believe that the young, athletic and clearly very handsome Bobby wouldn't be the centre of attention for girls his own age (maybe it has something to do with his somewhat effeminate voice), My Tutor is still extremely enjoyable nonsense for the duration..
Bobby, a student, needs to pass French class to get into an ivy league school.
So his father gets him a tutor in the form of Terry (Caren Kaye, whom sometimes spells her first name with a K as well, make up your mind, dammit).
This film was much better then "Last American Virgin", cause where as Gary is totally craving man-meat in that movie, Bobby seems pretty straight, well aside from the whole French thing.
But at the same time it deserves a higher IMDB score.Eye Candy: Careen Kaye as the tutor who shows boobs and buns, Graem McGavin as the topless floozy in the back of a car, Kitten Natividad as the HUGE breasted hooker, Katt Shea gets her shirt ripped off, and Jewel Shepard shows blink-and-you-miss-it boob.Where i saw it: TMCMy Grade: C+.
After flunking his French class, a teenage boy has to spend the summer being tutored in French.
The romance story between teacher and student works very well ( the score and music is great in these scenes, plus it is sincere ), but other characters and situations often feel forced and are embarrassing.
It's like watching horny guys be horny for an hour and a half, with or without women to enjoy their company.Also, the music makes a bad movie worse.
It's like playing a game of what song's being ripped off, be it "Let's Get Physical" or "My Sharona".This movie has lots of nudity, lots of no-name actors (the most notable actors being Kevin McCarthy, who probably at this point is most remembered for his over-the-top role as the station affiliate owner in "UHF" rather than his lead role in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"; and Crispin Glover, who probably had nightmares about this movie while filming "Willard"), and no redeeming qualities for people other than insomniacs.This film ages poorly and it's surprising that anyone from the era would actually remember it besides the people who actually worked on the film..
I've watched this movie after 35 years since it's release and still it hooked me up for the entire time despite having typical, usual theme.
A rich man (Kevin McCarthy) hires a tutor for his teenage son (Matt Lattanzi).
It's also pretty mild (this played uncut on commercial TV in my town) and pleasant to watch on a lazy summer night.Still that doesn't make this a good movie.
But, for a teen sex comedy, this is pretty enjoyable.
Well, this is basically your run-of-the-mill teen sex comedy of the early 80s, although a bit more tame than most.
The storyline is wholly unbelievable, even stupid at times (the teacher decides to "take a break" by sitting in front of the obviously lusting young male, wearing only a revealing bikini!), the comic moments are not very funny and Matt Lattanzi is a very bland lead.
On the other hand, the love scenes are surprisingly tender for this kind of film.
Millions upon millions of these kind of movies are released (usually on Video) every day and none of them have any distinguishing characteristics: a nubile older woman seduces a green young teen boy.
To the extent this movie is remembered at all, it's remembered as a better-than-average example of an 80's teen sex comedy.
That's not much of a compliment, but the movie at least had a sympathetic female lead (instead of a snooty and scheming girl who deserved to have her clothes ripped off) and it made attempts to include romance and tenderness with the sex.Like the rest of the genre, this movie will probably continue to sink into oblivion.
1st watched 11/8/2014 -- 2 out of 10(Dir-George Bowers): Boring, titillating teen perversion movie about a young highschool student , played by Matt Luttanzi, who can't pass French class and is hired a tutor to retake an exam so he can go to Yale.
The tutor, played by Caren Kaye, is well known as one of the best in the field, and the father -- played by Kevin McCarthy -- will have nothing but success, so hired her for the task.
The student watches the teacher during her nightly nude swims and, of course, starts getting different ideas about her.
It's hard calling this film, a teen sex comedy, because there are very few laughs and very few attempted laughs.
The movie then must rely on the relationship between the tutor and student, which is mostly about a teenage libido and a middle-aged forgotten woman getting plenty of attention(including sex).
I saw a trailer for MY TUTOR while I was working my way through BCI Eclipse' Drive-in Cult Classics 1, 2, 3, and 4 (featuring Crown International Pictures releases) on DVD.My Tutor is another early-'80s teen sex comedy.
The story is about an 18-year-old high school student who desperately wants to lose his virginity before summer ends.
Besides that, Bobby (played by Matt Lattanzi) flunks his French class and his wealthy parents hire a tutor named Terry Green (played by Caren Kaye) so that he can get into Yale.The film has a couple of stupid subplots as well; and, unlike other Crown International releases, my Tutor is very, very light on plot
and, plausibility!
It really gets me how these teenage comedies concerning young men losing their virginity is always cast with kids who look they should have no problem in that direction.
Lattanzi has another problem he's failed French and so his father Kevin McCarthy gets him a French tutor with Caren Kaye.
It stars Matt Latanzi (the poor man's Tom Cruise) as a handsome recent high school graduate who learns that he has failed French and must take an exam to make it up.
His dad (the always nefarious Kevin Mccarthy) hires a tutor (Caren Kaye)to live with them and teach his son French.
Meanwhile we are treated to several scenes of him and his pals going out and trying to get laid (complete with the goofy "we're teenage boys trying to lose our virginity" music)and several nights of nude swimming.
I thought Matt Lattanzi was the leading lady he is so pretty in this film.
Nice, but awkward and still virginal high school senior Bobby Crystal (a charming performance by the hunky Matt Lattanzi) flunks his French class, so his overbearing sleazy jerk wealthy dad (a perfectly smarmy Kevin McCarthy) hires the sweet, yet alluring tutor Terry Green (a winningly sexy and vibrant portrayal by the gorgeous Caren Kaye) to teach him French over the summer so he can pass a crucial exam and still get into college.
Lattanzi and Kaye make for attractive and appealing leads; their love scenes are surprisingly tender and erotic.
Story is of course about an 18 year old high school student who desperately and badly wants to get laid and lose his virginity.
High School senior Bobby Chrystal (Matt Lattanzi) flunks his French class and his wealthy parents are forced to hire a tutor named Terry Green (Caren Kaye) so that he can get into Yale.*****SPOILER ALERT***** Bobby and his best friend Jack (Crispin Glover) have failed at brothels and with easy waitresses and they can't help but turn their attention to Bobby's beautiful tutor who skinny dips at night in the Chrystal's pool.
Terry does her best teaching Bobby his French lessons and they become close but things change (for the better) when she is jilted by her boyfriend and accepts Bobby to be her new lover.This was only the third film that George Bowers had directed at the time and he had worked mainly as an editor in low budget sex comedies (The Pom Pom Girls, Galaxina, The Beach Girls) before throwing his hat into the ring as a director.
Does this film attempt to exploit the nudity that was required of Kaye (and the other actresses, as well) and use it as the main selling point?
The reason all those films were made was to exploit the actresses and get as much sex and nudity as possible in the story and Kaye was always smart (a Masters and Doctorate in psychology) and knew exactly what she was doing.
The story does possess actual moments of tenderness and we do believe that these two characters like each other and it's primarily the reason that this film stands out in the genre.
All of these films do have the usual hijinks woven into the plot but I had a very hard time believing that a good looking young guy like Lattanzi never had a girlfriend through his entire span in high school.
This film does offer a look at a young Crispin Glover in an early role but the script has him relegated to being the horny friend who mutters lines such as "Boy, am I going to hit the ceiling tonight" and later heading to Mexico to get laid.
Kaye was always beautiful to look at but she also possessed a natural charm that was very evident in her efforts and when she's not swimming nude in this film she actually delivers one of her best performances.
If viewers can get over the fact that this is (undeniably) an exploitation sex comedy than they might also notice the genuine sweetness that does exist in the story that's brought to life by two attractive actors..
It is summer time and Bobby (Matt Lattanzi) who has been preoccupied with sex has failed French and won't be able to go to Yale unless he passes a make-up exam with an 85.
His goal is to pass the test with the help of a tutor (Caren Kaye) and get Crispin Glover in a bow-tie, laid.
He has luck at the former.The film is a teen sex comedy and is known for its many nude scenes, the sole reason for watching the film...it wasn't that funny.Nudity: Adult film star Kitten Natividad; TV star Caren Kaye; Graem McGavin, "B" movie actress Jewel Shepard, writer/director Katt Shea.. |
tt0185014 | Wonder Boys | Professor Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) is a novelist who teaches creative writing at an unnamed Pittsburgh university. He is having an affair with the university chancellor, Sara Gaskell (Frances McDormand), whose husband, Walter (Richard Thomas), is the chairman of the English department in which Grady is a professor. Grady's third wife, Emily, has just left him, and he has failed to repeat the grand success of his first novel, published years earlier. He continues to labor on a second novel, but the more he tries to finish it the less able he finds himself to invent a satisfactory ending. The book runs to over two and a half thousand pages and is still far from finished. He spends his free time smoking marijuana.
Grady's students include James Leer (Tobey Maguire) and Hannah Green (Katie Holmes). Hannah and James are friends and both very good writers. Hannah, who rents a room in Grady's large house, is attracted to Grady, but he does not reciprocate. James is enigmatic, quiet, dark and enjoys writing fiction more than he first lets on.
During a party at the Gaskells' house, Sara reveals to Grady that she is pregnant with his child. Grady finds James standing outside holding what he claims to be a replica gun, won by his mother at a fairground during her schooldays. However, the gun turns out to be very real, as James shoots the Gaskells' dog when he finds it attacking Grady. James also steals a very valuable piece of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia from the house. Grady is unable to tell Sara of this incident as she is pressuring him to choose between her and Emily. As a result, Grady is forced to keep the dead dog in the trunk of his car for most of the weekend. He also allows James to follow him around, fearing that he may be depressed or even suicidal. Gradually, he realizes that much of what James tells him about himself and his life is untrue, and is seemingly designed to elicit Grady's sympathy.
Meanwhile, Grady's editor, Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.), has flown into town on the pretense of attending the university's annual WordFest, a literary event for aspiring authors. In reality, Terry is there to see if Grady has written anything worth publishing, as both men's careers depend on Grady's upcoming book. Terry arrives with a transvestite whom he met on the flight, called Antonia "Tony" Sloviak (Michael Canadians). The pair apparently become intimate in a bedroom at the Gaskells' party, but, immediately afterwards, Terry meets James and becomes infatuated with him, and Tony is unceremoniously sent home. After a night on the town, Terry and James semi-consciously flirt throughout the night, which eventually leads up to the two spending an intimate night together in one of Grady's spare rooms.
Tired and confused, Grady phones Walter and reveals to him that he is in love with Sara. Meanwhile, Walter has also made the connection between the disappearance of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia and James. The following morning the Pittsburgh Police arrive with Sara to escort James to the Chancellor's office to discuss the ramifications of his actions. The memorabilia is still in Grady's car, which has conspicuously gone missing. The car had been given to him by a friend as payment for a loan, and, over the weekend, Grady has come to suspect that the car was stolen. Over the course of his travel around town, a man claiming to be the car's real owner repeatedly accosted Grady. He eventually tracks the car down, but in a dispute over its ownership the majority of his manuscript blows out of the car and is lost. The car's owner gives him a ride to the university with his wife, Oola, in the passenger seat, with the stolen memorabilia.
Grady finally sees that making things right involves having to make difficult choices. Grady tells Oola the story behind the memorabilia and allows her to leave with it. Worried that Grady's choice comes at the expense of damaging James's future, Terry convinces Walter not to press charges by agreeing to publish his book, "a critical exploration of the union of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe and its function in American mythopoetics", tentatively titled The Last American Marriage.
The film ends with Grady recounting the eventual fate of the main characters – Hannah graduates and becomes a magazine editor; James was not expelled, but drops out and moves to New York to rework his novel for publication; and Terry Crabtree "goes right on being Crabtree." Grady finishes typing his new book (now using a computer rather than a typewriter), which is an account of the events of the film, then watches Sara and their child arriving home before turning back to the computer and clicking "Save." | romantic, entertaining | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0158131 | Purgatory | It is the late 1800s in a small, peaceful western town until a violent evil gang of bank robbers pay a visit. Led by ruthless, bloodthirsty Blackjack Britton (Eric Roberts), they take the bank. Things are progressing well, until a random troop of military soldiers ride into town. Then all hell breaks loose in the dusty little settlement.After the deadly shootout, the gang flees, only to be passionately chased by a large angry posse. Desperate, they ride straight through the night, but are unable to shake the mob who is determined to take them and hang them all. When the posse finally overtakes them, a running shootout begins, which eventaully kills the horse carrying all the money. Partially satisfied, the posse breaks off pursuit. Badly cut down, exhausted and without money, the dejected gang rides on, straight into a bizarre sandstorm. When the dust finally settles, they find themselves in a place no human eye has ever seen before.Here in this sleepy little town called Refuge, the people welcome them and invite them to take anything they want, absolutely free. It is a quiet little town, with no telegraph, and seemingly no guns or violence. The people look oddly familiar however. Why does that sheriff look like Wild Bill Hickock? Everyone knows he was killed almost ten years ago. And is that Billy The Kid? And Doc Holliday? Look, he looks like Jesse James! But arent they all dead? Who are they?One young man, Sonny (Brad Rowe) knows them all. He loves the Dime Store novels that write about all the outlaw heroes. Related to a member of the gang, Sonny wanted to join, until he saw how outlaw life really was. The only good guy in the dangerous group, he tries to befriend them, especially the mysterious Rose, a sweet young girl in town. He finally dismisses his crazy ideas that is, until late one night a mysterious coach arrives and drops off a woman, a woman who died in his arms in the bank robbery town! The coach vanishes into thin air, and Sonny begins a relentless pursuit of the truth, never dreaming where his search will lead, or what it will cost him.Welcome to Refuge. | cult, murder, violence | train | imdb | Purgatory is one such film for myself.Purgatory, a TNT TV production, is that rare old beast of the Western fused with fantastical or supernatural elements.
From dime novels and hero worship to first kills and first loves, Sonny is our conduit and the key holder to the gates of redemption for many of the Wild West's legendary characters.The cast is a veritable feast of splendid character actors playing a veritable feast of iconic real life people.
While Brad Fiedel provides a musical score of some magnificent beauty, a piece that revels in heroic swirls and escalating emotions, it darts around the town of "Refuge" like a novelist writing a dime novel soon to go down in folklore legend.Budget restrictions are hidden very well, Edel and his cinematographer William Wages prove adept at lighting techniques and scene staging.
Be it keeping things in the shade or cloaking a sequence with believable dust clouds, there's a professional touch here that puts the pic into the upper echelons of TV movies.Then there's the action, a key component for so many Western fans, and thankfully Purgatory is book-ended by superb action sequences, with the finale a skilled lesson in shoot-out choreography and machismo pulse beats.
But as a Western movie lover I found myself cheering at the film's end, even wiping away a damn fly from my eye.
Purgatory is a conscience western you can compare to 'Unforgiven', or more likely 'Pale Rider.' It seems adapted from a scifi short story, meaning it is not dominated by its wild west setting.Someone at TNT Originals has a great skill for making movies for the small screen.
This movie is a rare gem in TV viewing: something that makes you feel good about watching TV..
The idea of making the religious realm of Purgatory into an old Western town sounds fairly bizarre, but it makes for a very fun and entertaining movie.
The plot mainly involves a gang of outlaws led by Blackjack (Eric Roberts) on the run who end up in a town that is none other than the realm of judgment itself.
The town is populuated by the worst outlaws of the old west (Billy the Kid, Jesse James, etc.) who have been given a second chance at salvation- if they can survive an indeterminate period of time without giving in to temptations to sin, they will be saved.
There's a lot to enjoy about this movie: Sam Shepard and Randy Quaid fun to watch as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday, and Eric Roberts, overacting as always, actually makes for a very convincing outlaw.
This was a really satisfying story with great performances from the actors, even Eric Roberts who usually annoys me.The basic story is that a band of outlaws heading for Mexico get waylaid in a town called refuge where no pone carries a gun and everyone welcomes them with open arms.
But like the rattlesnakes they are, instead of accepting and appreciating this hospitality the outlaws decide to take the town for all it's worth not realising exactly what kind of place they have ridden into.This film is exactly the type of thing you get when an interesting premise is properly executed.
I don't know what those people did (good) that let them go to refuge, rather than straight to Hell, because all of the Blackjack gang (about 30) went straight to Hell, rather than purgatory.
I don't know why Jesse James, Wild Bill and Doc didn't go straight to Hell for their sins, but where given a second chance, unlike the Blackjack gang.
Purgatory plays like a ninety-four episode of "The Twilight Zone", that despite a few predictable twists, is still a lot of fun to watch and a cut above the usual made-for-television western of the last twenty years or so.Production values are good and so is the familiar cast of character actors, led by baddies Eric Roberts and Peter Stormare, with Sam Shepherd, Randy Quaid, Donnie Walberg, and R.G. Armstrong in his last western appearance so far.
They all do a great job, with Roberts and Stormare playing it nice and rowdy.Interestingly enough, co-stars R.G.Armstrong and John Dennis Johnston appeared together eighteen years earlier in the southern-fried horror flick The Beast Within..
Refuge, as we quickly discover, is actually the Purgatory of the Bible, and is populated by such western stalwarts as Wild Bill Hicock and Doc Holliday.
So Britton leads his men across the desert, which they come across a quiet little town called Purgatory, where the strange locals don't carry guns, or even curse, but they really make them welcome.
This very helpful gesture spurs Britton to stir up a racket and take over the town, but one of his men, a young wannabe, Sonny, doesn't share Britton's idea and he finds himself picking up some unusual hints of something otherworldly about the town and its inhabitants.What a nice surprise the cable TV movie, "Purgatory", actually turned out to be.
Dynamic wise, the fruitful cast gel impeccably well, involving the likes of Eric Roberts killing it, as Blackjack Britton and then you got Brad Rowe as the naïve Sonny.
No one in town carries a gun, there is no jail and everyone spends an awful lot of time in church, which leads Roberts to believe the community should be easy pickings.
Whilst it had lots of good, boisterous action, especially at the beginning and end, for me, it was too much neither western, nor fantasy.As a western, it worked fine with Sam Shepard doing sterling work as the sheriff (Wild Bill Hickock) but I'm afraid the romantic story between Sonny (Brad Rowe) and (can't find her name in any cast lists) confused and annoyed me.Idols from western folklore presumably mean less to me than it does to many and so it wasn't such a big thrill to have all these re-incarnated in one place and in one movie and whilst I could see how this 'car-park' for the living dead made the story, this was rather lost on me.
The film was well made and maybe, if I was in-tune with this element, then it might have made more sense to me.I did like the fantasy ending with the Old Indian, very surprising and quite well done.Purgatory is good for a TV movie, which was nominated for a prime-time Emmy, with a good cast and some good action, but that's as good as it got for me..
Seeing a movie with Wild Bill, Billie the Kid, Jesse James and Doc Holliday and other bad guys from the old west was truly amazing.
It is awesome how they gathered together Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Doc Holiday and other outlaws in one town to await going to Heaven or Hell.
Purgatory is a highly-entertaining supernatural/western thriller, in a genre that's rarely touched upon (see Ghost Town for another good example).
For someone who has watched (and tried to like) various westerns, I have found "Purgatory" to be THE BEST westerns (if not MOVIE!!!) I have seen in a long time.
Acting is extremely important in such movies, and most actors are quite good; sole real mistake, the casting of Randy Quaid (an otherwise honorable actor) as Doc Holiday who - since John Ford's 'My Darling Clementine'- is known to have been consumptive..
Donny Wahlberg was most remarkable in 'The Sixth Sense ' , shot around the same time as 'Purgatory '; but here, he looks plumper, and accordingly registers less effectively; but he is quite good in the gunfight.
A curiosity : R.G. Armstrong, who plays the small part of the coachman, is a real screen legend, with a career spanning upon 6 decades (he started in 1954, and was in 'The Walking', shot in 2001); because of his craggy face, strong build, and forceful personality, he played mostly Western (he was in 4 Sam Peckinpah films) and thrillers.
SOme of these inhabitants have names like Doc Holliday and Billy the Kid.TYo say more is to spoil the plot of this challenging movie that uses US Western mythology to examine beliefs about life and death.
Sam Shepard plays his role as the Sheriff/Wild Bill Hickok very well, however we perceive the real one to have been, we like him as the leader of a group of outlaws who have to learn from their past and make good this time round..
Sam Shepherd is very good, and Eric Roberts too, but Randy Quaid was a little bit disappointing, and Donnie Wahlberg, too.
This one caught my attention because horror and western are my two favorite film genres, and it's not every day you encounter a movie that falls into both categories.
Imagine what a wedding between "Bonanza" and "The Twilight Zone" would look like and you suddenly got a good idea what to expect of "Purgatory".
Following a bank robbery gone wrong and a severe sandstorm, the notorious outlaw Blackjack Britton and his large group of rovers arrive in a remote little town called Refuge.
Eric Roberts hasn't played such a good role since the early 1990's and it's always a joy to look at Peter Stormare, Randy Quaid and John Dennis Johnston.
I was hoping for director Uli Edel to emphasize a little more on the potentially great horror aspects in the story, but we still ended up seeing a competent western, so no complaints here..
no sex/no gut wrenching gore a movie for all the family and a cracking good story line good triumphs over evil and the guy gets his woman a very pleasant offbeat western yarn well worth anybodys viewing time.
A tough bunch of outlaws ride into a town named Purgatory, an idyllic garden spot in the middle of the desert, not realizing that Purgatory is not of earth and not knowing the lawmen they face are the greatest gunmen who ever lived trying to save their souls from hell by living according to the standards of Purgatory.The citizens of Purgatory are being given a second chance now that they know there is life after death.
RELEASED TO TV IN 1999 and directed by Uli Edel, "Purgatory" chronicles events circa 1888 when a gang of outlaws led by Blackjack Britton (Eric Roberts) holds up in a mysterious hidden town called Refuge where the inhabitants seem overly gracious and pacifistic.
The town of Refuge isn't just for outlaws; it's the "last chance" for the "marginally good," as phrased in the movie; it evens says something like the inhabitants were plucked from the incorrigibly wicked.
Some contend that James deserved immediate damnation because he was a notorious bank/train robber, but the movie implies that he was corrupted by the Civil War during his developing years which involved the bloody guerrilla warfare in Missouri/Kansas and therefore he is given a "last chance" in Refuge .As for the dubious chronology, Holliday might have been a relatively recent arrival and therefore the reference to "10 years" in regards to Hickok's death actually meant "about 10 years." So the events could be taking place in 1888 or even 1889.The movie suggests that Sonny was read-up on famous Western figures and so recognized clues to their real identities.
In other words, it wasn't like he instantly recognized these individuals and was 100% sure of their semi-infamous identities based on dime-store novels.Lastly, some complain that the movie supports the questionable idea that shooting people makes you a candidate for eternal life.
Purgatory is a western about a gang of outlaws that,running away from the possey,find themselves in a city called Refuge.
So,there you can find legends like Doc Holiday,Jesse James,Wild Bill Hickok or even Billy the Kid. Outlaws doesn't have a clue about what's coming down...
What is wrong with a change once in while?If you are looking for something different than other modern westerns, like the hero getting the girl and only the bad guys die, skip 'Purgatory'.
If, however, you want a very well directed action/western film, with a remarkable cast, watch this movie.
Randy Quaid, in a disappointingly serious role, was relegated to a second string supporting actor, while Sam Shepperd (Forest) played a believable Sheriff trying to the right thing in a bad situation.As I was watching this film, I kept thinking of "The Quick and The Dead" and half-expecting Sharon Stone to appear as a recently-deceased gun-slinger.
No special effects are necessary for me, just a great story.I felt the same way about this movie as I did about the first "Angels in the Outfield." That gives you an idea about what movies I really like.The plot outline tells you that this town, which the people call Refuge, is actually the place where it is determined whether you are to go to heaven or hell.
It's a place where people who have done bad in life, but are "marginally good" have a last chance to avoid the worst of the afterlife.*****THE NEXT PARAGRAPH MIGHT BE A SPOILER BECAUSE IT TELLS OF AN EVENT VERY NEAR THE END OF THE MOVIE.
Near the end of the movie, and against this town's peaceful sheriff's desires, he is forced to use his guns.
Wild Bill Hickok, referred to as "The Prince of Pistoleers" by journalists, was one of the best shooters in history and this movie's portrayal of the actual, but unusual and little known way he wore his guns made Purgatory all the more interesting for me..
In this case, a quartet of deceased historical Western figures decides to stand up for their town after being challenged by a still alive member of the Blackjack Britton gang.The way the story unfolds is what makes it so unique.
The way it's all revealed though is with a keen focus on where the story needs to go if the spiritual angle is to be made believable.I can think of one improvement I would have made when it came to the inevitable showdown between the good guys and the Britton gang.
Blackjack & his gang without rest & eventually come across the small town of Refuge where no-one carries a gun, even Sheriff Forrest (Sam Shepherd) & his Deputy (Donnie Wahlberg) are unarmed.
Why do so many of the townsfolk resemble famous dead outlaws?Made for & originally shown on telly (by the TNT Network) this fantasy Western was directed by Uli Edel & while the premise of an old American Wild West town that acts as a half way stop for dead criminals who during their lives at least had some humanity to prove that themselves fit to enter Heaven rather than spend eternity in Hell doesn't exactly sound brilliant I was surprised at how good Purgatory was.
Various famous Wild West outlaws are featured, Jesse James, Doc Holliday, Billy the Kid & Wild Bill Hickock all make an appearance & are seen trying to save themselves from spending eternity in Hell but to do so they must spend ten years in Refuge & not so much as lift a gun let alone use one.
Despite featuring several real historical figures Purgatory obviously makes no serious attempt to be factual or realistic.Very well made with a rock solid cast of pros including Eric Roberts, Sam Shepherd, Randy Quaid, Peter Stormare & Donnie Wahlberg while Purgatory was one of the last feature film appearance's by R.G. Armstrong.
The cast all give good performances.Purgatory is a surprisingly entertaining & sometimes touching little fantasy Western that really had no right to be as good as it is, on paper it sounds like a disaster but in reality Purgatory is a good solid offbeat film that won't appeal to all but is much better than many would expect..
This film starts out with a band of desperadoes led by "Blackjack Britton" (Eric Roberts) who decide to rob the bank in a town called "Sweetwater".
I found this movie rather entertaining really...while mostly laid back in style, it has enough action and story to keep your attention all the way through...Something else it has is mystery and a healthy amount of surrealism too...when I watched it the first time years ago, I liked it because it didn't throw wild west cliche's at you all through it, but mixed in quite a bit of mysterious religion as well...After watching it for a second time, it became clear that the movie has a soul...No, it isn't a blockbuster, but it fills you with a warmth, strangely enough, that leaves you satisfied at the end....
Also Wild Bill Hickok (Forest) was killed in 1876 by Jack McCall and since Doc Holliday died in 1887 that means the story takes place in at least 1887 which means "Forest" was in Refuge at least 11 years and they actually said in the movie that if they stay in Refuge for 10 years and don't drink, touch a gun, even go into the saloon, or pretty much any other sin they would go to Heaven.
Then goes into the one shop, the others get the rest of the gang, and then you hear a shot for the shop and the first time I saw the movie I thought they actually got Billy.
Disobeying the rules of Refuge for a good reason!I believe this story is where you get a last chance to get it straight to go to Heaven or go to Hell !.
On the surface it is about former Gunslingers '" Wild" Bill Hickok, 'Billy The Kid', Jessie James, and 'Doc' Holliday living in a town called Refuge (which is really Purgatory) which lies between Heaven and Hell, waiting until the time The Lord calls them home ( to Heaven)., but in between then they must live on the straight and narrow, otherwise it is Hell.
The gang ends up in a town called Refuge and Sonny meets Rose, and falls in love with her.
Once in a while, it's a pleasure to watch an un-nuanced story where the bad guys and the good guys both get what's coming to them. |
tt0200465 | The Bank Job | Petty-criminal-gone-straight Terry Leather (Jason Statham) owns a failing car-sales garage and feels harassed by two debt-collectors. His friend, the photographer Kevin Swain's (Stephen Campbell Moore) ex-girlfriend, a former model named Martine Love (Saffron Burrows) offers Terry a chance to earn enough money to never worry about debt again: a bank robbery in Baker Street, London. Leather gathers his petty-criminal friends, including Swain, a pornographic actor Dave Shilling (Daniel Mays), a Cypriot mechanic named Bambos (Alki David), and an elegant con-man "Major" Guy Singer (James Faulkner). While scouting out the bank, Leather and Love enter and inspect the vault while Shilling poses for photographs by Swain. The gangster Lew Vogel (David Suchet), who keeps records of his pay-offs to police at Lloyds bank, happens upon Shilling and Swain.They lease a shop named Le Sac two lots away from the bank and dig a tunnel under The Chicken Inn fast-food restaurant to reach the underground bank vault. Terry employs Eddie Burton (Michael Jibson), one of his garage workers, as a "watchman" with a walkie-talkie to sit on a roof to keep look-out. Martine, once caught smuggling heroin into Britain and wanting to avoid jail, set them up for this job on behalf of MI5, which desires the contents of a certain safe deposit box, No. 118. This box contains sensual and compromising photos of a member of the British Royal Family (in the film, Princess Margaret). The photos and box belong to a black militant gangster who calls himself Michael X (Peter de Jersey); he uses the photos to avoid trouble with the Metropolitan Police, and MI5 is charged with keeping the photos out of circulation.As Terry's crew digs, the radio chatter draws the attention of a local amateur radio operator, who overhears the conversation and realizes a robbery is in progress. He calls the police, who begin to search their ten-mile radius and listen for concrete details to pin the robbery down. Terry's crew breaks through and loot the vault, as Martine goes for the photo deposit-box. A suspicious Terry opens it with her and, upon seeing the pictures, realizes Martine's hidden agenda. Among the photos are many of high-ranking government officials, including a senior MP, in compromising positions in a local S&M brothel. The robbers take these with money and other valuables. Terry arranges for alternate transportation "to be safe", throwing off MI5 who had intended to intercept them. Guy and Bambas escape with their share and Terry confronts Martine over the photos, who explains the unfolding predicament. The robbery discovered, the police corrupt ones receiving payoffs and honest ones began an investigation while MI5 continues their search. Also joining the search for Terry's crew is Lew Vogel, an organized crime figure worried about the contents of his ledger, which lists payoffs he made to police, which was stolen in the robbery. He informs Michael X that the royal 'portraits' had gone missing and Michael X becomes suspicious of Gale Benson (Hattie Morahan), a British spy who loves his American colleague Black Power militant, Hakim Jamal (Colin Salmon), and has traveled with him and Jamal to Trinidad.Remembering the encounter with Shilling outside of the bank before the robbery, Vogel has him tortured for information with a sandblaster. Shilling breaks and Vogel goes to Terry's garage and kidnaps Eddie, the lookout. Meanwhile, a senior minister in the government, Lord Drysdale, is shown photos of himself in the brothel run by Sonia Bern (Sharon Maughan) and agrees to help absolve the robbers and secure them safe passage. Meanwhile, MI5 issues a D-Notice forbidding press reports. Police simultaneously release recordings of the walkie-talkie conversations in the hope that someone will recognize the voices. These recordings are heard on the radio by Terry's family. Vogel's accomplice, corrupt Detective Gerald Pyke (Don Gallagher), shoots Dave and threatens to shoot Eddie unless Vogel gets his ledger back. Vogel agrees with Terry to meet him at Paddington Station in London. During this time, Guy and Bambas are murdered by persons unknown, and Michael X has Benson killed in Trinidad by an associates. Terry has Kev give the same instruction to Detective Sergeant Roy Given (Gerard Horan), the officer in charge of the investigation, citing knowledge of corrupt officers under Vogel's control. He convinces Vogel to go to Paddington Station at the same time, offering him the ledger in return for Eddie's safe return.Terry heads to the rendezvous while Martine meets up with Tim Everett (Richard Lintern), her original contact in MI5, on a bridge overlooking the scene. Vogel and his corrupt police arrive with the mechanic, but recognize the MI5 agents and run. The deputy head of MI5 (with Lord Mountbatten) hands over the passports Terry bargained for, in return for the photos of the princess. Terry then chases Vogel and in a fight knocks out Vogel and his thugs, including corrupt Detective Nick Barton (Craig Fairbrass). Detective Given, officer in charge of the investigation, arrives to see the robbers arrested. He speaks with the MI5 officers present, who direct police to let the robbers go. Terry gives the ledger to the police officer before he, Kevin, and Eddie leave the scene. Vogel and the corrupt officers are arrested instead. Everett personally supervises Michael X's arrest in Trinidad and Tobago and has Benson's remains exhumed for reburial in Britain. The final scenes have Terry and Martine saying good-bye, and Terry and his family enjoying a relaxed and carefree life on a small motor yacht of their own, off a sunny beach.The epilogue states that the revelations about the brothel forced many government officials to resign. Scotland Yard begins investigating the corrupt officers named in the ledger. Michael X was hanged in 1975 for Benson's murder and his personal files are kept hidden in the British National Archives until 2054. Vogel is imprisoned for eight years for crimes that were unrelated to the robbery. The murderers of Guy and Bambas have never been found. About 4 million worth of materials and money were stolen from the robbery. At least 100 safety-deposit box owners did not claim insurance nor identify the items in the boxes. | entertaining, violence, avant garde, neo noir, murder | train | imdb | null |
tt0078856 | Beyond the Poseidon Adventure | The capsized luxury liner S.S. Poseidon is still afloat after six survivors have been rescued via helicopter.
Tugboat captain Mike Turner (Michael Caine) discovers the shipwreck. Accompanied by second mate Wilbur (Karl Malden) and passenger Celeste Whitman (Sally Field), he heads out to claim salvage rights, as the tugboat Jenny lost her cargo in the same tsunami that capsized the Poseidon.
They are soon followed by Dr. Stefan Svevo (Telly Savalas) and his crew, who claim to be Greek Orthodox medics who received the ship's SOS. They board the doomed vessel through the bottom hull opening left by the Greek rescue team, and become trapped after the entrance collapses. The group with Turner also encounters the ship's nurse, Gina Rowe (Shirley Jones) and two passengers - Suzanne Constantine (Veronica Hamel), and war veteran Frank Mazzetti (Peter Boyle) who is searching for his missing daughter Theresa (Angela Cartwright), whom they soon find along with the elevator operator Larry Simpson (Mark Harmon) and as well as a "billionaire" named "Tex" (Slim Pickens). Later they find the blind Harold Meredith (Jack Warden) and his wife Hannah (Shirley Knight), who were waiting to be rescued.
Water continues to submerge decks and more explosions occur. Turner and his group find the purser's office, where Svevo decides he and his men will continue their search for other survivors. Turner agrees, and Svevo and his men leave in another direction. Another explosion causes the safe in the purser's office to fall through the bulkhead and open, revealing gold coins (each worth 100 times its weight in gold) and cash. Turner and Wilbur excitedly gather it and start looking for another way out of the ship. Unknown to Turner and the survivors, Suzanne is actually working with Svevo and takes a list containing information about a cargo of crates from the purser's office. She leaves the group and goes to find Svevo. She gives the document to Svevo but decides she no longer wants to go through with his plan, preferring to go back and get out with Turner. Svevo apologizes and orders Doyle, one of his men, to kill Suzanne. He shoots her, but she strikes him with an axe, killing him, before she dies. While making their way up through the decks, Turner and the others find Suzanne's corpse and reach the unpleasant conclusion that a murderer is on board. During one climb towards another deck, Hannah dislocates her shoulder while helping her husband.
After continuing their progress through the ship, Turner and his group find Svevo and his men gathering a cargo of plutonium. Svevo reveals that his real intention for boarding the Poseidon was to retrieve his lost shipment of plutonium, adding that he can't let Turner and his group go now. However, before they can kill them, another explosion occurs, allowing them to escape through another cargo room full of cars. Turner, Mazzetti and Simpson find some guns and attempt to make a fight of it - in the ensuing shoot-out, Mazzetti and another of Svevo's men are killed. Water floods the deck as Turner's group proceed up to the next deck, but an injured Hannah is unable to climb a ladder: she falls into the rising water and drowns. While trying to rescue her, Turner loses all of his salvaged gold. Svevo and his one remaining gunman head back up to the ship's stern, where the rest of Svevo's team attempt to use a crane to raise the plutonium up to the hull of the ship, which is still above water but is slowly sinking.
In another section of the ship, Turner and the survivors exit the ship through an underwater side door, but due to shortage of scuba tanks, Wilbur (unknown to Turner and his group) sacrifices himself by swimming underwater and disappearing. Turner and Celeste swim to the tugboat Jenny and move it closer to the Poseidon as the remaining survivors swim towards it. Svevo's men see them and open fire, killing Tex, who willingly holds onto a bottle of champagne as he goes down. Turner's group makes it to his boat, and they sail away. Water continues to flood the Poseidon and cause the on-board boilers and then the plutonium cargo to explode. Svevo and his men are all killed as the entire Poseidon explodes.
On board Turner's boat, Turner accepts that his tugboat Jenny will be taken from him when they get to port, but Celeste reveals a diamond she salvaged from the Poseidon. Celeste asks Turner, "Are you going to kiss me now?" and Turner replies, "I was going to kiss you anyway." They kiss and the tugboat Jenny sails away into the sunset with the survivors. | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | The characters are unwaveringly pathetic and annoying (and in many cases, just thinly disguised versions of folks from the original film.) Boyle is mercilessly loud and obnoxious, taking Ernest Borgnine's "type" to a new level of irritation.
I also have to give the film credit for that little bits of continuity, like Linda's body is still lying near the entrance of the ship the crew uses, the same hole the original movie's survivors escaped from.
it took awhile for me to get into this movie.but somewhere along the line,i actually started to enjoy myself.once you get around the wafer thin plot,it's not half bad.the trick with this movie is to not take it too seriously.for instance,as soon as the bad guys show up,you know they're bad long before they reveal their intentions.the only other thing they could have done to telegraph they were bad would have been to have been for them each to have a neon sign over their heads saying villain.it's that absurd.and there's some cringe worthy dialogue.however,the are some very witty one liners mostly courtesy of Sally Field,and their was an interesting,and(mostly)likable mix of characters.there were actually even a few exciting moments.of course,there are endless explosions.this movie doesn't hold a candle to the original Poseidon Adventure.it was actually fairly pointless,when you think about.but it was fun,and actually quite entertaining.for me,Beyond the Poseidon adventure is a solid 5/10.
This formula disaster movie from Irwin Allen (Towering inferno) concerns about the famous ship , previously winner of numerous Oscars and some former footage is sprinkled into the opening sequence .
Later wreckage Poseidon during New year's eve , when a tidal wave overturns it , now Michael Caine is the captain of a crew (Sally Field,Karl Malden) which race each other commanded by Telly Savallas for obtaining reward and loot .
After sea tragedy Poseidon centering on survivors from liner passenger and the rescuers of the shipboard .This mediocre sequel blends action , intrigue , gunshots , disaster spectacle , suspense and emotional byplay with romance included .
Succeeds only in wasting various talented actors , an all-star-cast formed by Michael Caine in a similar role Gene Hackman-alike , Jack Warden as a blind passenger , Slim Pickens as a habitual role , Peter Boyle as a zealous father of his daughter Angela Cartwhright enamored by Mark Harmon , besides appears Veronica Hamel , Shirley Knight , Shirley Jones...Lively score musical by Jerry Fielding and colorful cinematography by Joseph Biroc .
Another one of those great Irwin Allen films that are filled with hammy actors and bad special effects--but what a fun time to watch!!.
How many movies get the chance of being made by the extraordinary,proficient,astonishing Allen and/or having Caine,Mrs. Field,Savallas,Shirley Jones in the cast?Caine's role,in itself,is a jewel;he just fits in.He is energetic, lucid,sharp, intelligent,manly,as fit as a fiddle.Caine knows how to make a super-action flick,without needing to be Willis or Ford.He should be very proud of his role in "Beyond ...".For me,this is one of the most cherished Caine shows.(Caine is himself a cinema,he did an incredible number of good flicks.)Mrs. Field is enchanting,natural, inventive, fresh, luminous, spontaneous,funny,resourceful.(How do I miss an actress like her when I see that imbecile girls in so many cheap-looking shows!With few exceptions,such as Miss Rachel Luttrell,Miss Torri Higginson,or Mrs. Blalock,did you notice how many imbecile-looking girls crowd to fill the sets of the shows?)The action does not stagnate for a moment.Savallas got his bigger/better roles elsewhere;but the villain he does here is,as such,memorable and a landmark for the genre.He coins a comic strip villain.(I mean,Nero in Die Hard 2 ,Alan Rickman in Die Hard ,are zero compared to Savallas in "Beyond ...".)The colors of this movie are delightful.And how many shows offer so much fun?For me,only the first two episodes of Stargate Atlantis (Rising (Part 1)&Rising (Part 2)).Many people,who commented "Beyond ...",have expressed a lot of reserves and reticence,about various things;I think they were unjust,and way too exacting.Between 56 and 64 years,Allen made (i.e,directed and/or produced) several disaster movies:the diptych The Poseidon Adventure ,1972,and The Towering Inferno ,1974for the movie theaters;then, another diptychfor TV this time: Flood!
The way his character takes command of this disaster movie and his encounters with Telly Savalas (this was also my favourite Savalas show) and Sally Field are nothing short of great entertainment.I could do another 20 quotes from the other players.
It's hardly a good movie, in fact its quite a mess upon further observation (plot holes, needless back stories, and one character is disposed of without explanation), but I did kinda enjoyed it on a "it wasn't the complete disaster" way.
Michael Caine reteamed with Allen after "The Swarm" for this soggy sequel about two salvage crews (one good, one bad) that race each other to probe the upside-down wreck of the luxury liner Poseidon, which as you'd recall got turned over by a 90-foot tidal wave in the first film.
Karl Malden, Jack Warden, and the two Shirleys (Knight and Jones) have the only good roles in the film.
There are two actors who star in "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" in early roles before they hit it big on television: Veronica Hamel is in this film a few years before she was cast on the great TV show "Hill Street Blues" (she also appeared in Allen's next film: "When Time Ran Out"), and so is Mark Harmon (before "St. Elsewhere").
If you liked the original "Poseidon Adventure" then you can not find one redeeming feature of this lamebrained "sequel" that represents exploitation for a quick buck at it's worst.
The bigger mystery is why, after being humiliated in "The Swarm" did Michael Cain ever agree to work with Allen again?Pretend this film never happened and just stick to the original, which is far more intelligent..
Irwin Allen's sequel to his 1972 blockbuster "The Poseidon Adventure" arrived in theaters SEVEN YEARS LATER!
One might end up feeling really sorry for Michael Caine, Sally Field, Peter Boyle, Jack Warden, Karl Malden and Shirley Jones were it not for their lost-at-sea expressions (good for a few stray laughs).
Scavenger hunters (Michael Caine, Sally Field, Karl Malden) come across the sinking ship just minutes after the survivors from the first film were saved.
Along the way he counters some survivors (Peter Boyle, Jack Warden, Mark Harmon, Shirley Knight, Slim Pickens) as well as a terrorist (Telly Savalas).
Caine, Malden, Warden and Pickens actually come off with good performances but Boyle and Field should really be embarrassed.
Having not seen the original, I guessed it might be the Poseidon Adventure, since it was obviously on a ship in distress.
There is no story, the performances all looked forced, the characters a parody of the usual disaster movie roles that are suddenly brought together by an event, and start pontificating about the real meaning of life at the level of bumper sticker philosophy.It is only worthwhile to see the unusually awful performances by such greats as Sally Field, Michael Caine, et al.
After bombing with "The Swarm," producer Irwin Allen, perhaps sensing that the disaster film cycle spawned by the success of "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno" was about to end, returned to the scene of his first major crime...er, I mean success...and gave us this unnecessary sequel.
There are so many open answers to this movie that it is ridiculous...like The Poseidon which is a monstruous ship with passengers on is drifting on the sea and just Michael Caine with his miniboat and an evil Telly Savalas discover the boat...well, at the beginning the French marine are circling above the wreck with their helicopter but as a sinking cruiseship is a daily thing, they just fly away...
Hmmm, Michael Caine goes on board with sally Field and he might pick up everything he sees (diamonds)if there wasn't a Telly Savalas who is looking for weapons on the ship...my God, why in fact am I wasting my words on here?
I am a total fan of the original "Poseidon Adventure," but this film just should never have been made.
Why was this film even made?Seriously, the most dramatic thing in this movie is the murder of Slim Pickens (that fiend, Telly Savalas!).
Also, the sets and special effects are cheap and unconvincing.Like the first film, there's a large all-star cast, but they hardly do or say anything exciting, intelligent, meaningful, original, and that isn't laughable.
Though the movie did seem to have its perks, and seem to have a good story and thrilling moments...I was completely focused the whole time at the ship being inches away from sinking.
Captain Mike Turner (Michael Caine) pilots his tug boat with Wilbur Hubbard (Karl Malden) and Celeste Whitman (Sally Field) to salvage the Poseidon after it capsized.
Pointless sequel to "The Poseidon Adventure" that came out 7 YEARS after the original!
Then a small salvage crew (Michael Caine, Karl Malden and Sally Field) arrives to get what jewels and money they can get from the boat before it totally sinks.
I was totally disgusted with this unnecessary sequel to "The Poseidon Adventure" a movie which I have given a great comment about.This film is unbelievable from the word GO!
The one that rescued the original survivors had just flown over the boat that Michael Caine & Sally Field are on.
Boarding the hull of the ship with Caine is Karl Malden and Sally Field, who assist with finding their riches, and so he can pay off his debts.
Former "Partridge Family" mom Shirley Jones looks especially beautiful in a wet hairstyle...When his disastrous bee movie "The Swarm" (1978) bombed, producer-director Irwin Allen decided it was time to return to one of his greatest adventures.
Many of the best shots look like outtakes from the original film and the stunts are actually all revisions from "The Poseidon Adventure", without Shelley Winters.
This one is just okay.***** Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979-05-18) Irwin Allen ~ Michael Caine, Sally Field, Telly Savalas, Karl Malden.
But it wasn't really an astounding experience, and the movie was just adequately entertaining.The marooned Poseidon is still afloat, when captain Mike Turner (played by Michael Caine) along with his crew Celeste Whitman (played by Sally Field) and Wilbur Hubbard (played by Karl Malden) come across the upside-down floating vessel and because of financial troubles, captain Mike Turner decides to venture into the vessel in search for valuables.
Just as they are to go in, another vessel turns up with a rescue crew led by captain Stefan Svevo (played by Telly Savalas).The storyline was adequate enough, but there was just too little happening throughout the entire movie.
And you didn't really sit with the sense of the people who ventured into the vessel were in any real peril at any time, especially not when they could afford all those breaks and sit down for something to eat as well.What was impressive about the movie was the talents that they had managed to muster together for this 1979 sequel, and that was actually what managed to keep the movie afloat - pardon the pun."Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" isn't really a memorable movie experience, and I doubt that this is the type of movie that you will watch more than once, because it just didn't have all that much to offer..
As a big fan of the original Poseidon Adventure, I initially thought a sequel would be a good thing.
Most notably the nurse--thought to be dead because she traveled to the bow with the doctor and other survivors--is now alive, has miraculously shed 40 pounds, and has managed to dye and restyle her hair.The original Poseidon Adventure screenplay included a scene involving the ship sinking at the end, but was cut out for budget reasons.
Irwin Allen may have been a great producer of disaster flicks, and done a fine job directing the action scenes in 'Towering Inferno', but he just can't bring any human depth to his characters.
Although I am a huge Poseidon adventure fan, the film should of been about the other survivors who were trapped and some civilians like Caine and Fields as the heroes.
If you're looking for a disaster movie, rent the original "Poseidon Adventure" or "The Towering Inferno"..
Kudos to Angela Cartwright (damn, she's gorgeous!!), Mark Harmon and Karl Malden for being natural actors that can do it on the one take, and razzies to Michael Caine, Sally Field, Shirley Jones and especially Peter Boyle who are AWFUL!.
Since the original Poseidon Adventure raked in so much dough, Irwin Allen wanted to get a sequel off the ground right away.
This Mike Rogo became Mike Turner (Michael Caine) and Bandits and Pirates became Stefan Svevo (Television Savalas) and his group of terrorists.Beginning just before the storm in which the Poseidon capsized, Turner and his crew (Sally Field and Karl Malden) are out in Jenny the Tugboat.
After several deaths, they manage to escape just before Poseidon explodes and sinks, taking with it the party who went for the plutonium.Although not as good as The Poseidon Adventure, this sequel isn't too bad with decent special effects.A good cast too: Michael Caine (Zulu, The Italian Job), Telly Savalas (Kojak), Karl Malden (The Streets Of San Francisco), Sally Field (Mrs Doubtfire), Anglea Cartwright (Lost In Space, reuniting her with director Irwin Allen), Peter Boyle and Slim Pickens.If you like 1970's disaster movies and Michael Caine like myself, I recommend this.Rating: 3 stars out of 5..
After the gunfight, the group led by Michael Caine (who is horribly miscast as a gruff tug-boat captain) decides to rest, giving Sally Field and Shirley Jones a few minutes to discuss their love lives (I'm not making this up!).
Luckily for him, after rescuing the surviving cast of the original movie, everyone else left, without making any attempt to recover anything from the ship or locate additional survivors.
The Poseidon Adventure was one of the best films ever made, but you're better off, watching this never having seen it, as much of the original plot is ignored here, like certain areas that flooded are now clear.
Irwin Allen's production of Beyond the Poseidon Adventure was very exciting to watch.
Then as in the first film they realize they have to get out again and go through the ship as the the survivors did in the first Poseidon Adventure.
When the Captain spots a rescue helicopter (presumably the same one carrying Poseidon Survivors from the original) he realizes a ship must be in trouble and therefore available for salvage.
The original had a big cast but the characters were so brilliantly written and you became completely enthralled with each one of them and that can't happen with the sequel despite some good actors.
4 Oscar winners, Karl Malden, Sally Field, Shirley Jones, Michael Caine.
1 hour 54 minutes of sheer tedium, melodrama and horrible acting, a mess of a script, and a sinking feeling of GOOD LORD, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?Irwin Allen was just trying to cash in on the popularity of the original classic disaster film with a grade D minus script, the actors were obviously just in it for the paycheck as well,...
This part sequel, part remake has Caine, Malden and ANOTHER group of Poseidon survivors making a similarly dangerous trek out of the sinking ship.
Sally Field is particularly annoying as a stowaway on board Caine's tug.Disaster master Irwin Allen not only produced this one, he decided to direct it as well..
Together they all venture inside the Poseidon but soon become trapped themselves as the ship continues to sink while certain people aren't who they seem & have ulterior motives for being on the Poseidon & will kill to keep the secret...Produced & directed by Irwin Allen this is the silly sequel to the classic disaster flick The Poseidon Adventure (1972) that has a very bad reputation but I will freely admit that I did actually quite enjoy Beyond the Poseidon Adventure despite it's absurdities.
In a way Beyond the Poseidon Adventure is the opposite of the original, it's silly with bad dialogue & bland character's unlike the original which was a terrific piece of action drama with people you cared about & related to.
The script throws in the usual disaster film clichés like blocked doors, lots of bad luck which traps a group of people in a dangerous situation, fires, explosions & lots of water.
The widescreen cinematography is great & I can't imagine how bad Beyond the Poseidon Adventure would have looked pan and scanned, the whole film has a lavish if slightly over produced look & I loved the upside down sets.
There's a fun cast here, Michael Caine is slumming it, Sally Field is a bit annoying, Slim Pickens is annoying while Telly Savalas is fun as the villain even though he puts in his James Bond bad guy performance.Beyond the Poseidon Adventure is a guilty pleasure, it's not a good film & when compared to how great the original is it's a bit insulting but I had a lot of fun with it & liked it.
Irwin Allen's "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" does the unthinkable in this follow-up to his blockbuster 1972 film.
The fact that Irwin Allen had the audacity to attempt a sequel to "The Poseidon Adventure" deserves a strange amount of reverence.
He walked into the offices of studio executives six years after the original left theaters and said, "Hey, I have an idea for a sequel to that movie where the ship sinks.
This movie is about a group of actors who's paychecks/royalty fees are in the hull of an upturned cruise liner.Michael Caine wants his pay packet/royalty checks but must enter the Poseidon to get it.Sally Field, Karl Malden and Telly Savalas are also seeking their pay cheques/royalty fees and must also board the capsized bank.A few gunfights later and they reach the vault. |
tt0077559 | Wu du | The movie opens with Yang Tieh caring for his elderly teacher. The teacher is very ill and the treatments Yang Tieh administers are ceasing to be effective. Teacher believes that his time is up, and he is dying. He tells Yang Tieh that there is no longer time to put off what he needs Yang Tieh to do. He has been instructing Yang in the "Poison Clan" Kung-Fu technique, but he is dying now. He tells Yang that he had other pupils besides Yang, and is deeply concerned about what they are doing. Poison Clan kung-fu can be used to harm and oppress people, for many evil puposes. Many clan members have done so, earning the clan its bad reputation. Teacher tells Yang that he must tell him more about the previous pupils.Yang and Teacher descend into a dungeon-like area under the main room. Various training tools and structures, all old and delapidated, sit here, each with a large emblem of a different poisonous beast on the wall nearby. Teacher says he had five previous pupils. Number 1 studied the Centipede style, known for its exceptional speed of movement (he is shown rapidly smashing small plates dropping from the ceiling, most before they hit the floor). Number 2 studied the Snake style, known also for speed, and for its agility (Snake is shown smashing ceramic pots and moving limbo-style under a rack, smashing rungs out from underneath it). Number 3 studied the Scorpion style, based on the hands moving like scorpion pincers, and powerful kicking techniques (Scorpion is shown practicing these kicks and smashing wooden targets on high poles). Number 4 studied the Lizard style, which is agile and nimble and enables a man to climb like a lizard (he is shown running up walls and snuffing out candles). Number 5 studied the Toad style, which is based on power and resilience, and is near-invincible against physical harm (Toad is shown lying on a bed of spikes, pushing wooden spikes with his bare chest, and using forearm smashes to bend sheets of solid metal).Teacher explains that the pupils always wore masks while training, and changed their names after finishing. Moreover, they did not all train together-- Number 1 and 2 studied with him at the same time, and knew each other. Number 3 studied alone afterward, and never met any of the others. Numbers 4 and 5 studied together after Number 3 left, and knew each other, but never met the first three. Number 4, Lizard, was the oldest of the pupils. They will all use their skills only in times of dire need, making it even harder to find and identify them.Yang has studied the basics of all five styles but has not specialized in any of them, and thus his skills aren't enough to defeat the five pupils on his own. Teacher tells him that only be allying with at least one pupil who is not using his skills for bad purposes, can he hope to defeat any of the others who are. He makes Yang promise to locate the five pupils, and make sure they are not using their skills for evil. Any who are, must be faced.Teacher has one lead for Yang. He had a colleague who used to be a fellow Poison Clan teacher. He is living quietly in a nearby town under an assumed name. He has a lot of money made from Poison Clan activities. Teacher wants Yang to find this colleague and convince him to donate the money to a charity. The five pupils know about this money and may try to gain it for themselves. The colleague, although skilled in kung-fu, would not be a match for them.Yang makes his way to a small town, keeping his eyes and ears open. He notes that a police officer, He Yuan-Xin (though the surname is clearly dubbed 'Ho' in the English-language DVD), is very well-liked among the townspeople. He watches Officer Ho on patrol with his captain, Ma Chow, who seems polite and reasonably friendly but more businesslike than Ho.(space to be filled in later)Captain Ma is heading home in the evening when he passes by the workplace of an elderly scribe, Mr. Yuen. Yuen is clearly a well-liked and respected man throughout much of the town. Ma checks in on him and makes sure he is all right. Yuen is working a bit late that night but plans to head home soon.On arriving home, Yuen finds his entire family being held captive by two mysterious men who turn out to be Snake and Centipede. They are sure that Mr. Yuen is the fellow Poison Clan teacher who has the Clan's fortune. Snake and Centipede become a bit too overzealous in their interrogation of Mr. Yuen and beat him to death. Frustrated and intending to leave no witnesses, they slaughter Yuen's entire family, including the women and children, and leave empty-handed. As they are leaving, a town gambler and drunk named Won Fa spots Snake and Centipede. He barely manages to hide before they see him, paralyzed with fear.Some time later, Scorpion stealthily arrives at the Yuen's home. We do not see Scorpion's face as he is wearing his school training mask. He looks over the slain family and notices that Yuen is clasping a single candle in his hands. Taking the candle, he breaks it in half and finds a small piece of parchment inside, which he secretes into his clothing before leaving.When the bodies are discovered, the police begin investigation. The local judge is under pressure to have the case solved and closed promptly due to Mr. Yuen's highly respected position in the town. He puts the police under deadline after which they will all be whipped each additional day it takes. Ho has a couple of ideas and asks for some leave for official purposes.Officer Ho is discussing the case with his friend. They believe one of the Clan members may be responsible. Ho is now certain that Mr. Yuen was the Clan teacher who had the Clan fortune, and he was killed for the money. Suddenly Ho hears a slight noise outside the room where he and his friend are talking. He pulls open a casement, causing Yang to stumble in. Yang reveals that he has learned that Won Fa saw the Yuen family's killer.Cut to Won Fa being hauled into the police station. A kettle of hot tea is poured over his face to intimidate him. But then Officer Ho offers him a piece of silver in return for what he saw at the Yuen family's house. Instantly much more talkative, Won Fa says he saw a heavily bearded man come out of Yuen's house. Ho and several of the police know the man as a good friend of Qi Dong (dubbed Mr. Hung in the English language DVD), a wealthy aristocrat who is well-connected with local government officials.Ho is again speaking with his friend, who says he's also seen the bearded man. They are wondering if he is the Centipede, Snake, or Scorpion. Ho tells his friend that he needs to assist the police with the man's capture. When Ho speaks to the police about the plan, Ma is skeptical. Ho assures his fellow officers that his friend is a first-class kung-fu expert.Ho goes to visit. Mr. Hung the next day, dropping a subtle hint suggesting that Hung is involved somehow with the Poison Clan. Hung's face clearly changes but he pretends not to understand.Meanwhile, Ma and the police are waiting for Hung's bearded friend, Zhang Yiao-Tian (his name is dubbed just as Tian in the English-language DVD). Yang Tieh is hiding nearby to watch. The police surround Tian but cannot capture him. Finally Officer Ho's friend steps out of a door and identifies himself as Liang Shen (though the English language DVD clearly gives a dubbing of 'Li Ho.'), and accuses Tian of the Yuen family's murder. Tian leaps at Li, swinging a sword he'd seized from one of the police officers. Li doesn't budge, and the sword bounces off his naked arm, revealing him as Clan member number 5-- the Toad. Tian must use his Centipede skills to fight Li, revealing his own identity to Li and the police. Centipede and Toad battle in a well-choreographed kung-fu scene. Toad defeats Centipede, grappling him so the police can place him in chains and shackles. Ma asks Li to come to court but Li says it's not necessary.Yang walks off, having learned that the Toad and Centipede are in the town, but he doesn't yet know of any of the others.(space to be filled in at a later date)Li is placed in the Iron Maiden. Just as it is closed, he regains consciousness and busts out of the device, his body unmarked and unharmed. He chastises the police for their contraption, understanding what it is for, and saying he doesn't have a weak spot. The police cannot contain Li. Then Hung emerges from behind a curtain and engages Li in combat, using his Snake technique. Li notes the snake design on Hung's wristlets and understands who he is, and that he's behind the plot to frame Li. Snake and Toad battle in another kung-fu scene. Snake uses his skills to probe the Toad's body trying to find the weak spot. Toad is starting to get the better of the battle when suddenly two metal darts hit him from behind, sticking behind his ears. The darts are shaped like scorpions. Toad understands that the Scorpion is somewhere in the courtroom, but he cannot determine where. Snake begins to laugh and hits Toad hard in the same spots, behind his ears. Li's Toad-style kung-fu is broken and he is now helpless. The police put him in the Iron Maiden again and the judge demands he confess. Li simply passes out and falls unconscious. When he is removed from the Iron Maiden, his body is covered with puncture wounds.(space to be filled in at a later date)Officer Ho returns to town. Ma finds him at police headquarters, brooding and angry. He's learned that Tian was acquitted of the Yuen family's murder, and Li was convicted. He interrogates Ma about the turn of events, and Ma merely says that the case is now closed, and Li's crimes confirmed. Ho wants to see Li, but Ma says Li killed himself.Ho storms off to the tavern and orders all the patrons to leave. He begins to drink heavily when some of his fellow officers approach him, showing him the money they were given by Mr. Hung. They explain that Li was suffocated by an officer named Ling Xuong, after his kung-fu was broken by a device called the Iron Maiden (Ho's face changes to show he's heard of the device and understands why it was used). They also reveal how Won Fa and Officer Ling were eliminated as witnesses and collateral damage-- Won Fa was killed with a hook that was shoved down his throat, and Officer Ling was killed with a long, sharp needle that punctured his brain. Ho gives them back the bribe money so they can escape town quietly in the evening.He begins to drink again, when he spots Yang Tieh watching him. Yang simply smiles and reveals Officer Ho as Clan member number 4, the Lizard. He gives Officer Ho a Poison Clan password to show he's with the Clan. They go off to find privacy to talk.Yang explains how he figured out that Officer Ho was the Lizard. He also reveals that while drinking and gambling with various officers in the police force, he learned that Toad's kung-fu wasn't broken by the Iron Maiden, but by the Scorpion. They both know that Yuen was the second Poison Clan teacher, and was murdered for the Clan's fortune. It wasn't removed from his home, so Yuen must have had a map showing where the fortune is hidden.Officer Ho brings Yang to a secret area in town where he trains and keeps his Lizard-style technique sharp. Having training in all five main styles of the Poison clan, Yang shares his knowledge of the Centipede, Snake, and Scorpion styles, devising strategies for himself and Officer Ho to fight against them. They practice and hone these strategies well into the night. Since he is combining with the Lizard, Yang's battle strategy will involve using his own Lizard skills.The next day they are headed to Mr. Hung's mansion to confront and kill him and Tian. They find Captain Ma waiting for them on the way. Ma wants to help out. He understands what they want to do and believes that Hung and Tian will be tough to beat. Because of his friendship with Ma, Officer Ho agrees. As they start out again, Officer Ho notes that Ma is not wearing his police uniform. Ma states he's resigned from the force. Officer Ho decides that he will quit as well, pulling off his uniform hat and shirt and dropping them in the street.As they arrive, Hung looks closely at Ma and states, "I wasn't expecting three." Officer Ho calls Tian out and states his knowledge that Tian is the Centipede and Hung is the Snake. Lizard and Yang begin the big kung-fu battle with Centipede and Snake; the battle raging throughout the mansion and revealing Officer Ho's identity as the Lizard to Hung, Tian and Ma (we see Ma looking intently at Ho for a moment). During the battle, Tian is hurt and Lizard and Yang are able to team up against Snake. Frustrated and clearly on the losing end, Hung demands to know why Ma is just standing by and watching, saying he knows who Ma is.Understanding that his cover is blown, Ma suddenly lunges into the fight with a kung-fu kick that reveals himself as Clan member number 3, the Scorpion. In the sudden confusion, Hung turns and tries to run away, but Ma opens two hidden compartments on his belt where he stores his scorpion-shaped darts and hurls a handful of them into Hung's back. He demands to know how long Hung has known about him. Hung answers that he spotted Ma throwing the darts that broke Toad's kung-fu in the court battle. In answer, Ma throws another handful of darts that hit Hung in the chest and stomach. Officer Ho is aghast, admitting he was completely fooled. He understands that Ma, as the Scorpion, was seeking the Clan fortune for himself, and looking to kill all his fellow Clan members so they couldn't pursue him for it. His demeanor completely changed in an instant, Ma admits to all of this and that he has Mr. Yuen's Clan fortune.Yang and Lizard engage Scorpion in battle. Holding them off but knowing he can't take them both by himself, Scorpion calls to a recovered Centipede to assist him. When an appeal to logic (that Yang was sent by Teacher to hunt them down and will kill them both if given a chance) fails, Scorpion bribes him with half the money. That gets Centipede's attention and he rejoins the fight. Splitting Scorpion and Centpide up, Llzard and Yang fight to the best of their ability.Meanwhile, Snake is pulling the scorpion darts out of his chest and stomach and pulls himself to his feet, coming up behind Scorpion, who is starting to get the better of his battle against Yang. Snake strikes from behind, bursting Scorpion's stomach and abdomen. Scorpion instantly kills Snake with a high kick over his shoulder that smashes into Snake's forehead. But the damage to Scorpion is done. Lizard and Yang climb a wall, fending Scorpion off and allowing him to exert himself to where he dies of his wounds and blood loss.Centipede scrambles to try and find a clue to the Yuen fortune on Scorpion's body, but Lizard and Yang are waiting. Putting their strategy against the Centipede style into use, they finish Tian off and kill him.The battle over, Lizard pats Scorpion's body down and finds the map showing where Yuen hid the Poison Clan fortune. A disgusted Yang says they should kill the corrupt judge as well, but Lizard says that if they do this, the next one could be worse, and that the killing must stop some time. The best course of action is to use the map to find the money and use it well as their Teacher wanted, to pay the Clan's debts. The movie closes with Lizard and Yang leaving the mansion and the bodies of Centipede, Snake and Scorpion inside, to carry out Teacher's wishes. | cult, grindhouse film, murder, violence | train | imdb | The Five Deadly Venoms is a great kung-fu action movie wrapped in a whodunnit mystery.
There are all the usual telltale signs of a kung-fu flick: great choreography, awful dubbing, different "styles" of fighting, and a wide range of greatly exaggerated, often cheesey human emotions.
Occasionally it's even able to fire up the audience, such as when X character receives horrible injustice.Another thing I love about the Five Deadly Venoms is the beautiful simplicity of the movie's morals and themes.
Most 70s (and 80s) Kong Kong martial arts films barely function as movies; usually there are a few well-planned fight sequences, but the plot is scraped pretty thin to fill in the gaps between those nodes -- like porno films, really.But this one does several things well.
Most overtly, there is the direction and choreography, which confines each combatant to a 'style' -- it's really based on Chinese circus acrobatics and comedic theater, but the effect works.Second, there is the language of the camera, which uses some impressive techniques(even by today's measure), changing projection speeds from real time time to slow motion, and from unfiltered to filtered views to depict story direction toward the past or toward the future.Least overt, but most powerful and unexpected, is the construction.
They are all interesting and compelling and the movie does a good job at giving them scenes to show their personality's and desires.The fight scenes play out like little stories and many of them are very original and exciting.
The story of a dying martial arts instructor sending his "unfinished" pupil out to find the 5 past members of his Poison Clan, so they do not seek out a fortune which the master's friend keeps hidden.
You will be yearning a plot from all of the kung-fu films now, you will be wanting character depth and development, you will be craving mystery and unpredictability, you will demand dynamic camera work and incredible backdrops.
Sadly, you won't find all of these aspects together in one kung-fu movie, EXCEPT for Five Deadly Venoms!Easily the best kung-fu movie of all-time, Venoms blends a rich plot, full of twists and turns, with colourful (and developed) characters, along with some of the best camerawork to come out of the 70s.
We learn along with him.Not only is the plot, the characters, and the camerawork great, it's also fun to watch, which in my book makes it more valuable than almost any other movie of it's kind.
Such level of skill amongst the cast is unsurpassed in modern day cinema.The combination provides for a serious dose of old Chinese culture and I recommend it solely on the basis of the film's genuine intent to tell a martial arts story and the mastery of its execution.
When I was very young,on a local tv station,they would show kung fu movies of all kinds on Saturdays.I saw lots of Kung Fu movies on weekends.I remember lots of them.I saw great flicks like Crippled Masters,Blind Fist of Bruce,Kung Fu Zombie,Shaolin Drunken Monk,Rage of the Master,Tattoe Dragon,and...Five Deadly Venoms.I remember the day clearly.Me and my dad had just gotten lunch at Burger King.We were racing home to see what movie it would be this saturday.We ran in the house and jumped onto the couch,turned on the set and flicked it onto 56.The usual intro of many kung fu movie clips in the background with the words Kung Fu Saturday over it.Then under that was the Title of the film.It said Five Deadly Venoms.Then the movie began.I bit into my burger amused with the pre-credit sequence.I loved this movie the minute it came on.My favorite character was the Toad Venom.The plot was hard to follow at that age but that wasn't what lured me...it was the fighting.The fights were so...amazing.I moaned every time a commercial came on and soon the 2 hours of the best movie i have ever seen ended..
The catch being that during training, all of the clan were masked, and all have since returned to society in disguise and changed their names.The fights are a joy to watch, as each member of the Poison Clan has a different fighting style: toad (my favorite), snake, scorpion, lizard, and centipede.
The fight scenes have the actors jumping all over the place, and thankfully the camera stays planted and uses a wide enough shot so you can clearly see all of the action.The one drawback to the movie is that the story tends to drag a bit in the first half up until the first fight sequence.
Most of their films seem to be bright, action-packed and thoroughly entertaining, and THE FIVE VENOMS (aka FIVE DEADLY VENOMS) is one of their most influential outings.Here's the good news: the director is Chang Cheh, one of Shaw's most prolific and best, so you can rest assured that the film is a visual treat.
The cast is decent, featuring the five famous Venom kung fu actors in their most memorable roles (Lo Meng is particularly good as the tough Toad, forced to undergo a number of strenuous trials).
There's no romance or other side plot to this movie, it's action and intrigue all the way, making it a real man's kung-fu movie.An aging master dispatches his last disciple Yan Tieh to stop his five former pupils who's styles represents five venomous animals centipede,snake, scorpion, lizard and the toad.
It's known well enough that other movies make reference to the five styles depicted in this story.It's no artistic masterpiece, with the usual bad dubbing, and corny acting, but the movie is one of the best of its kind, because its so focused on the all the ingredients of kung-fu action movie of its time, and gives an extra concentrated dose of them.One movie you must watch if you are a kung-fu movie fan..
The venoms are all great athletes and martial artist, but not in this film.The story is that a young martial artists teacher tells him that there are five former pupils who each know a different but equally deadly style.
Hong Kong was always good at kung-fu movies especially in the 70's and 80's, so "Five Venoms" (or other its versions) is great choice..
The plot is interesting and twisty, the characters are cool each with their own style - toad, snake, lizard etc.
The action is limited in comparison with other Chang Cheh / Venoms films but what is there is interesting with different kung-fu styles on display from the various characters.
Nothing in this movie is special or representative of the true martial arts way or kung fu- there are so many stupid things about this movie besides the poorly staged fights.
When Bruce Lee said Kung Fu movies at the time had pointless fighting that was explained with no real reason he sure was right- and movies like this and My Young Auntie prove it.
At least The Crippled Avengers had a very good reason for fighting but again that had bad choreography like this one and the story got very weak by the 2nd half.
I first saw this movie in early eighties and saw it again lately in a newly remastered DVD (thanks to Celestial and Shaw Brothers; the picture is very nice).In this movie Chang Cheh (the director) relied on six relatively new actors: Kuo Chui (who choreographed Tomorrow Never Dies), Chiang Shen, Sun Chien, Lo Mang, Lu Fung, and Wei Pai (who left the club after Invincible Shaolin, the next movie, to join Golden Harvest).
I love movies just like everyone else, but if you don't watch kung fu flix your missing something special, 5 deadly venoms was one of the first kung fu movie i seen as a kid.
Like I understand the 1 guy who'd only seen 90's Jackie Chan action crap, but, that doesn't account for all the other 7-10 star ratings.If this hadn't been a Cheng Cheh movie, I would have turned it off halfway through.It tries to be a movie of compelling intrigue - with a little kung-fu thrown in.
Five Deadly Venoms is not as bloody and violent as Story Of Ricky or Super Ninjas, but it features some of the best hand-to-hand fight sequences in Hong Kong film history.
The key is to have enough characters so that the audience cannot guess right away who is who, like "The Usual Suspects." The second key is to reveal them naturally as the story demands it, rather than hold back clues until the very end for a contrived feel, unlike the "The Usual Suspects."The Snake, Centipede, Lizard and Toad are revealed very early in the film, but the Scorpion is not revealed until the end.
Some characters are two dimensional and flat, while others have incredible depth, most notably the Snake, Scorpion, and Lizard.It is wrong to believe that this is a kung-fu film with a story added.
This is a story-driven film that happens to have kung-fu.I would not recommend this film for fight fans, but for students of filmmaking and writing, this is a classic that will teach you a lot about the art.Other reviewers here have noticed a few weaknesses.
Those who said it is "incredible" need to look at art films like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," or from the same time period, "Apokalypse, Now." Those who thought the fighting was awesome need to look at Jackie Chan's "Gorgeous" or the pachinko hall fight scene from "Thunderbolt" or just about any non-American film featuring Jet Li.Overall, I agree that this film lost a lot over time, but nothing can detract from a good story.Hal. If I had wanted a whodunit, I'd have watched an Agatha Christie film..
Yang Tieh of the Poison Clan (Sheng Chiang) is instructed by his dying master to seek out the venoms—five former pupils known for their particular styles of kung fu—to see if they have turned bad.
But not much fighting.Directed by the legendary Chang Cheh, The Five Venoms is often cited as one of Shaw Brothers' best martial arts films by those in the know, which made it rather disappointing for me to discover that there is actually very little kung fu until the inevitable final battle between the heroes and the bad guys, intrigue and suspense taking precedence over punching, kicking, jumping and flipping.
This mightn't have been so bad if the mystery had been utterly compelling, but to be honest, I just wasn't gripped by the whole 'who are the venoms and what has happened to the money?' storyline.The aforementioned showdown between the goodies, Yang and Lizard, and the baddies, Snake, Centipede and Scorpion, is certainly a lot of fun, each fighters signature move allowing for some creative choreography, but getting there
not so much.4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for the 'iron coat' torture scene.
This movie is one of the only kung-fu cheapies that could be recommended for fans of all types of film.
The way these questions are answered is part of what makes this movie great.We also get to see the venoms fight each other in every combination.
It is fun to see how their styles match up against each other.If you want to see if you like kung fu movies, this is a good movie to start with.
the five venoms are a troupe of (often six) kung fu acrobats who took the martial arts filmdom by storm with awesome movies like "Five Deadly Venoms," and "The Kid With The Golden Arms," etc.
The movie tells the story of a young man who is sent by his teacher to find out what the masters of 5 very different styles are up to: Centipede, Toad, Snake, Scorpion and Gecko.
Excellent Kung Fu Movie and a good story to boot!.
He was also in 2 more Shaw movies with the same characters as the Venoms - unbelievable fighting in all of them, I think Kid with the Golden Arm and 10 Tigers of Kwangtong or also called N and S.
As a viewer, we get to watch the story unfold and keep guessing who the students may be, and where they fit into the good/bad side of things as everyone is searching for the teacher's old friend who may have a sum of money hidden away.
A dying teacher instructs his final student to check on the activities of five former pupils, each of whom he taught a unique and special style of kung-fu to: The Centipede, Snake, Scorpion, Lizard, and Toad (hence the title).
His final student, who knows a little of each style must team up with one of the other good students to destroy the evil ones if there are any.I can't say I'm a huge fan of martial arts films or the Shaw Brothers.
The poster and cover draw a fairly clear idea of what the film inside contains, and anyone pulling this item from the shelves should know that full and well going in.On top of being exactly what you expect (and hopefully ergo, what you wanted to watch) the story line and plot points are generally well put together, unlike a lot of movies of this era which tend to draw cob-web patterns of politics which become a headache to keep up with.One of my personal favorite things about this film (and others like it) is the quintessential "slap" sound effect that happens just about any time a person makes skin-to-skin contact.
...centipede...snake...scorpion...lizard...toad...and not fully trained 6th and last disciple who knows a little of everything.......fight!!!!!!.
my favorite would be the scorpion because i am more a fan of good kicking kung-fu and the guy that played the scorpion was one of the best.the plot goes like this...the master of the 5 poison clan is dying and regretful of the evil done by him and the 5 members of the clan.
...oh, by the way, there is hidden treasure, lots of very well choreographed fights, the cinematography was beautiful, the music score was good...and i am saying all this because i happened to watch a blu- ray of this movie and it was sooooooo awesome and it was in Chinese so i did not have to cry about the awful dubbing like everybody else.i put this in my top 10 kungfu movies all time...after having watched the blu-ray of course and i just want to say that the last 10 mins.
He doesn't know what any of the 5 look like, indeed some of the 5 students did not see each other, but they each have mastered a different style – toad, snake, lizard, scorpion and centipede.
Chang Cheh's Five Deadly Venom's stands out as one of the very best martial arts movies ever.
It has the artists who came to be known as simply "The Venoms", some of the best fight choreography ever, and, surprisingly for a Kung Fu movie, a great plot!
Even though much of it's action is'nt as eye-popping like Jackie Chan or Sonny Chiba's work, there's still something very special about 5DV.First of all, the plot: Poison Clan leader's life is failing him, he sends his last pupil out on a mission to track down the FIVE DEADLY VENOMS, students who have each been instructed a different kung fu style in form of a creature.
But I must say that the plot is probably the best and most original I've ever seen in a martial arts film.
The fighting styles in the movie really captures the viewer (Centipede,Snake,Scorpion,Lizard,Toad) and they are shown, but battles are noticeably short.
Interestingly enough with this movie, the absence of constant action or fighting leads to development of a great plot, this is one of the few kung fu films where you are really interested in the storyline and care about the outcome.
Their specialty in kung-fu is the name they have adopted like Lizard, Snake, Centipede, Toad and Scorpion.
The master called them the Poison Clan and he does not know what has happened to them so he wants Tieh to find them and help the ones that are doing good to stop the others that are evil.
This was the first time I saw a Shaw Brothers kung fu movie.
"In the world of old-school kung fu movies, where revenge pictures came a dime a dozen, it took a lot for a film to stand out -- and even more to make it a fan favorite after all these years.
All of the members of the clan have extraordinary kung fu abilities, denoted by their animal styles, or "venoms" (the lizard can climb walls, the scorpion has a deadly strike, etc.).
All of the students end up in one town looking for the old man with all of the money,and soon everyone is battling to get the money.Classic martial arts film has title that even many non-fans know.
The students, the Five Venoms as they were known, were each taught unique, special and deadly styles of kung fu, they are the Centipede, the Snake, the Scorpion, the Lizard, and the Toad.
Yang is tasked with finding them and seeing what they are doing now, he knows little about each style of kung fu, but he eventually finds two of the good students, Lizard (Phillip Chung-Fung Kwok) and Scorpion (Chien Sun), they must work together to destroy the students that have become evil, Snake (Pai Wei), Toad (Liang Shen) and Centipede (Feng Lu).
Shaw Brothers Movie Studios director, Chang Cheh's 1978 tour-de-force Kung Fu extravaganza.
The 5 Deadly Venoms stars Kuo Chui (Lizard), Sun Chien (Scorpion), Lo Meng (Toad), Wei Pai (Snake), Lu Feng (Centipede), and Chiang Sheng as 'Yan Tieh', the last disciple of the Poison Clan master.
A 'Must Have' for any Kung Fu movie fan as The 5 Deadly Venoms is truly an all time classic..
Basically, a master has taught his pupils 5 deadly arts of Kung-fu all of which fit the the title 5 deadly venoms because the styles mimic animals that are poisonous. |
tt0181315 | Subspecies: The Awakening | NOTE: Sequel to Subspecies III: Bloodlust (1994).Picking up where Subspecies III left off, Radu is a flaming corpse
impaled on a tree branch. He falls to the ground and lands in a pool of
water near the bloodstone which he picks up and then runs into his castle
before the morning sun can destroy him. After restoring himself, Radu goes
to Bucharest to find Michelle. He contacts his other chylde, the vampire
Ash [Jonathon Morris] [NOTE: reference is to Vampire Journals (1997)],
and moves into Ash's casino/brothel.Meanwhile, the car in which Michelle (who was placed in a bodybag by
her sister and taken away) is riding meets with an accident. Everyone is
killed. Fortunately, Dr Anna Lazar [Ioana Abur] arrives at the accident scene and takes
Michelle to the nearest hospital, the Vitalis Institute, where Dr
Nicolescu [Mihai Dinvale] immediately diagnoses Michelle as a vampire.
Nicolescu offers to help her, as he has designed a process whereby
vampires can be made to tolerate the sunlight and live without the craving
for blood. He knows that it works because it is that process which is
sustaining him. Michelle argues that Radu will find her anyway. Nicolescu
insures Michelle that Radu cannot enter because this institute was once a
monastery. He asks Michelle if Radu has the bloodstone, and she says yes.
Once Nicolescu learns that Radu has the bloodstone, however, his efforts
to cure Michelle turn into an effort to obtain the bloodstone. He begins
to plot a way to lure Radu to the hospital.When Ash's protegee Serena [Floriela Grappini] asks Radu to help her kill Ash, Radu
refuses ("It is forbidden to kill one's kin"). So, Serena goes to Ash and
requests that he kill Radu. Ash also refuses but suggests that they find a
human to do it. Serena is to follow Radu to see if she can discover where
he goes and who might be willing to kill him.Nicolescu begins Michelle's treatment, which requires that all the
blood be withdrawn from her, filtered, and replaced. As the treatment
begins, Michelle starts to convulse and Radu senses where she is. He flies
to the hospital but is barred at the gate. Nicolescu admits Radu only
after Radu has allowed the doctor to taste from the bloodstone. Once
inside the gates, however, bright sunlamps are turned on Radu, his body is
sprinkled with holy water, and a spear is driven through his chest.
Feeling her master's pain, Michelle escapes from the lab and goes to save
Radu.Serena, who has been watching all along, sees in Dr Lazar a human
with the necessary strength to kill Radu. The next day, the three doctors
go looking for the tomb which is the entrance to the vampire underground.
Lazar finds it, and she and Nicolescu go underground while Dr Lupu [Dan Astileanu] waits
outside. (Unbeknown to them, Serena has given them a key that only works
from the outside. Her plan is for Lazar to kill Radu and then be unable to
escape.) The two doctors make their way to Radu's resting place but, as they
are about to cut off his head, Radu wakes up and cuts off Nicolescu's head
instead. Radu holds Lazar captive and summons Michelle to drink from her.
Michelle refuses and slices Radu's neck instead. Lazar finishes the job.
They secure the bloodstone, burn Radu's body, take Radu's head out into
the sunlight, and try to escape the tomb. But Ash and Serena follow. As
they attempt to drink from Lazar, her screams bring an old lady who opens
the tomb. They get a coffin and retrieve Michelle and the bloodstone.
[Original Synopsis by BJ Kuehl.] | cult, violence | train | imdb | null |
tt1043726 | The Legend of Hercules | In 1200 BC ancient Greece, King Amphitryon of Tires invades the shores of Argos. The two massive armies face each other, prepared for battle. Amphitryon strikes a bargain with the rival King Galenus: the two will fight to the death, to the victor goes his adversary's kingdom and army. The two engage in combat and Amphitryon easily defeats Galenus and seizes his kingdom. That night, Amphitryon is visited by his estranged wife, Queen Alcmene. Amphitryon boasts he won the kingdom for her while Alcmene protests he won the kingdom for himself and its gold. Alcmene is disgusted by her husband's thirst for power and warmongering. She prays to Hera for guidance. A woman appears declaring herself to be Hera, wife of Zeus, and prophesies that Alcmene will bear the son of Zeus and he will be the savior of her people. The only other witness to this is Chiron, the queen's loyal adviser.That night, as Amphitryon celebrates his victory, Alcmene is fucked by Zeus. She is discovered by Amphitryon who believes the Queen has taken a mortal lover. Alcmene soon gives birth to a healthy baby boy whom his father names Alcides, but she secretly acknowledges his true name: Hercules. Twenty years later, a strong and handsome Hercules/Alcides rides along the countryside with his love, Hebe. They frolic along the shore of a secluded lake. Alcides admires Hebe's necklace which was given to her by her mother; she in turn bestows the necklace to Alcides. The two are discovered by Alcides' older brother, Iphicles. A search party was dispatched to look for Hebe, a princess of Crete. Hebe returns to the palace along with her guard while Alcides and Iphicles follow. Along the way, the two are attacked by a lion. Alcides wrestles with the lion, strangling it. Iphicles takes all the credit and arrives at the royal banquet wearing the lion's pelt as a cloak. He attempts to humiliate Alcides, calling him a coward but Hebe sees right through him. At the banquet Amphitryon announces the engagement of Hebe and Iphicles. The two lovers are devastated and decide to run away together. They are chased down by the royal guard and Hebe nearly drowns before being saved by Alcides. Alcides is taken back to the palace and is sent away by his father to join a campaign of soldiers to Egypt.As Alcides prepares for his journey, Alcyone tells him of his true lineage. Alcides believes it is madness and departs for his journey vowing to return to Hebe in three moons before her impending nuptials. Alcides, under the command of Captain Sotiris, traverses the arid Egyptian desert. Sotiris sends two scouts ahead to scour the desert but they never return. The company is ambushed, leaving Alcides and Sotiris as the last survivors. The leader of the ambush recovers Alcides' helmet and demands to know where the prince is. Sotiris gestures to the body of a slain soldier, saying he is Alcides. Alcides refers to himself as Hercules to protect his identity. It is revealed that Amphitryon planned the ambush in hopes of killing Hercules. The two are sold off as slaves to a vicious promoter who organizes gladiator style fights. Sotiris and Hercules fight to death with other slaves and soon become undefeated. Sotiris and Hercules convince the promoter to send them to Greece in order to fight in an arena battle in which two gladiators fight six undefeated gladiators. If the promoter were to bet on Hercules and Sotiris he would have riches beyond his wildest dreams. The promoter agrees to take Sotiris and Hercules if they are able to defeat two other gladiators, Half Face and Humbaba. The four are thrown into an arena, with narrow stone paths divided by pits studded with spikes. Hercules defeats Half Face and Humbaba but Sotiris is injured. The promoter refuses to take Sotiris, since he will be useless in battle but Hercules convinces him to set Sotiris free and he will fight all six gladiators himself.Back in Greece, Alcmene and Hebe mourn the death of Hercules. Alcmene once again seeks guidance from Hera. Amphitryon discovers her and confronts her about Hercules' parentage. She reveals she took Zeus as her lover so that she would bear the child that would overthrow him, after which she tries to stab Amphitryon, but fails. In anger, Amphitryon stabs Alcmene with her own dagger. Chiron discovers them and Amphitryon tells him the Queen committed suicide in her grief. Meanwhile, Hercules arrives in Greece and easily beats the six gladiators in battle. The people celebrate his victory and deserters of Amphitryon's army join him and Sotiris. Chiron brings Hercules' news of his mother, who vows to avenge her death. Sotiris and Hercules seek refuge in the home of the human vessel of Hera, who foretells Hercules' destiny.Hebe is in anguish after the death of Alcides and dreads her wedding to Iphicles, in just two moons. She tries to leap off the roof of the palace but is saved by Chiron who brings her to Hercules. The two are reunited and return to Hercules' safe-house. Amphitryon's army begins to desert him, forcing him to hire foreign mercenaries. Hercules and Sotiris begin a fight against Amphitryon's campaign of tyranny, angering Amphitryon who seeks to destroy them. Iphicles, aided by the mercenaries, murders Sotiris' wife and uses his son as a bargaining chip. He must lead them to Hercules or his son will die. Sotiris reluctantly leads them to the safe-house. Iphicles discovers that Hercules is none other than his brother Alcides. Hercules, Chiron, and Hebe are captured. Sotiris and Chiron are imprisoned while Hercules is chained and publicly flogged. Sotiris and Chiron are brought before the crowd. Hercules watches on in horror as Iphicles murders Chiron under Amphitryon's orders. In anguish he acknowledges his father and calls upon him for strength. Hercules breaks free from his chains and crushes Amphitryon's guard. Amphitryon and Iphicles escape.Hercules and Sotiris raise an army and storm Amphitryon's palace. Amphitryon's guard join Hercules and his army and they battle Amphitryon's mercenaries. Hercules calls upon his father who infuses his sword with the power of lightning. Hercules easily defeats the mercenaries with his lightning sword. He meets Amphitryon inside and the two duel. Hercules nearly defeats Amphitryon but Iphicles holds Hebe hostage and threatens to kill her if Hercules does not let Amphitryon go. Hercules hesitates but Hebe thrusts the dagger through her shoulder, killing Iphicles. Hercules finally avenges Alcmene's death and kills Amphitryon with the same blade that killed his mother. Hercules rushes to Hebe's side as she slowly drifts into unconsciousness. Nearly a year later, the cries of a baby are heard. Hebe gives birth to a beautiful baby boy. Hercules looks on lovingly at his new family. That night, he watches over his kingdom, finally fulfilling his destiny. | good versus evil, revenge, murder, violence, romantic | train | imdb | null |
tt0094072 | Summer School | At Ocean Front High School in Los Angeles, it is the last day of school before summer vacation. The gym teacher, Freddy Shoop (Mark Harmon), could not care less about his job and is ready to vacation in Hawaii with his young girlfriend, Kim.Students get called to the office by the Vice Principal, Phil Gills (Robin Thomas) whom are told to attend summer school. The original remedial English teacher (Carl Reiner) wins the lottery and immediately quits his job. Gills has no choice but to give the job of teaching summer school to Shoop. Gills implies that not taking the job could keep him from getting tenure. As a result, Shoop has little choice but to stay in California, and Kim goes off to Hawaii without him.On the first day, Shoop meets Robin Bishop (Kirstie Alley), who is teaching next door. Shoop falls head over heels for her, but she is already dating Gills. Shoop's first day is a disaster. Most of the students ditch and one hulking student named Jerome (Duane Davis) "goes to the lavatory" and is never seen again along with most of the others who ditch. Yet, a small group stays behind whom include: the day-dreaming and easily distracted Pam (Courtney Thorne-Smith); "nocturnal" Larry, who happens to be a male stripper (Ken Olandt); football jock Kevin (Patrick Labyorteaux)' pregnant Rhonda (Shawnee Smith); geeky Alan (Richard Steven Horvitz), whose older siblings are all straight-A students ("There must have been a baby mix-up at the hospital"); dyslexic Denise (Kelly Jo Minter) and two horror-film-obsessed underachievers, Dave (Gary Riley) and Francis, a.k.a. 'Chainsaw' (Dean Cameron) whom all are required to take remedial English.That same day, Gills brings in a beautiful Italian transfer student, Anna-Maria (Fabiana Udenio), who will be learning English as well, much to the delight of Dave and Chainsaw. After the leftover students attempt to ditch as well, Shoop admits he has no idea how to teach. They spend their first few days having fun and going to the beach, a theme park and the petting zoo until Gills finds out.Gills threatens to fire Shoop unless his students pass the end-of-term test. Shoop promises each kid a favor if they study. The kids agree, so Shoop agrees to give Denise driving lessons as well as help with her dyslexia; he accompanies Rhonda to Lamaze classes; he gives Kevin football lessons; he allows Dave to throw a party in his house (destroying his couch in the process); he gives Larry a bed in the classroom; he lets Chainsaw arrange a screening of the original 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' in his class; and he allows Pam to move in with him for the summer since she is neglected at home.However, the laid back Shoop has no idea how to teach. Robin tells him to make teaching fun. Over the next few weeks, Shoop begins to grow closer to his kids. They study hard to write their English basic skills exam, they are still worried that Gills is going to fire Shoop unless all his students pass.One day, Shoop is arrested and sent to jail when he covers for Chainsaw and Dave after they are found in possession of alcohol while hanging around the beach. Robin and Gills bail him out. At his court hearing, a sympathic judge, seeing that Shoop was willing to go to jail for his students, drops all the charges against him. Afterwords, Gills then inadvertently exposes his true self to Robin when he states that he cares nothing for Shoop or his students and she overhears him. She storms off angrily.A few days later, Larry is fired from his stripper job when he is found out first by his aunt (who kisses him... with tongue) and then by his mother (after she puts five dollars in his g-string) whom apparently attended one of his shows. The students make more demands on Shoop and he quits his job in anger. He is then convinced to come back when his students start feeling guilty about what they did and they scare off Shoop's replacement with a series of stunts eerily reminiscent of 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' thanks to the makeup and prostetic gore effects that Chainsaw and Dave throw to show themselves off.Shoop and his students then begin preparing for the test in earnest. Finally, the day arrives, and Shoop is suprised when Jerome, the student who "went to the lavatory" six weeks earlier, finally returns to the class to take the test, with his only explanation being, "My zipper got stuck." He ends up getting the highest score in the class with a 91%.The exam goes smoothly despite Rhonda going into labor near the end (at least now she has grounds for a makeup). Not all pass, so Gills is ready to follow through with his firing threat. However, the parents of the students come to Shoop's defense when they arrive at the school to protest to Gilles not to fire Shoop. Because of the students' great improvement, Principal Kelban (Francis X. McCarthy) grants Shoop tenure for his positive effect. Shoop and Robin end up happily together; a la 'From Here to Eternity', they kiss in the surf. | violence, comedy | train | imdb | null |
tt0091369 | Labyrinth | Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connelly) was a teenager with a large imagination and love for fantasy stories, so much so that she enacted her favorite storybook, the Labyrinth, whenever she could. She happened to have been pretending that she was the heroine in her story while wandering in the park near her house when the clock on the near by city hall building struck, informing her it was 7pm. She realized she was an hour late and needed to get home to watch her baby stepbrother, Toby (Toby Froud). After arguing with her stepmother about her tardiness and feeling ignored by her father, Sarah was left alone with her fussy infant brother. Angered that her stepmother had given her brother one of her favorite teddy bears, a tattered toy called Lancelot, Sarah shouted into the air for someone to take her away from 'this awful place.' To get Toby to stop crying, she told him the story of how the Goblin King was in love with the girl who was 'forced to stay at home with the baby' and that he had 'given her certain powers.' But Sarah in no way believed this story could be real.In anger that the child wouldn't stop crying, Sarah did call for the goblins to take her brother. They took Toby away and Jareth (David Bowie), the King of the Goblins, gave her an option; she could take her dreams or spend 13 hours in his kingdom, an ever-changing maze called the Labyrinth. If she was able to get to the castle at the center within the specified time, her brother would be spared from becoming a goblin. Sarah was resolved to save her brother and the king left her to do her task.She immediately met an ancient looking dwarf with a feisty attitude who showed her how to enter the Labyrinth. His name was Hoggle (voice Brian Henson) and he told her not to take anything for granted in that place; she didn't seem to find him very helpful and basically told him to leave. However, eventually she got herself stuck in an oubliette, and the one sent by the Goblin King to 'rescue' her was Hoggle.But Hoggle was beginning to like Sarah and against the orders he was given to send her back to the beginning of the Labyrinth, having her start all over again, and therefore be late, he made the choice to help her get to the center and reach her brother. This did not bode well with Jareth, who in umbrage at Sarah's haughty attitude took three hours of her time away and threatened to send Hoggle to the most horrible place known in the Labyrinth for his betrayal, a stinky land of slimy mud called the Bog of Eternal Stench. Then Jareth turned to Sarah and asked her how she was enjoying his Labyrinth. When she flippantly said it was a 'piece of cake,' the king sent a machine covered in spinning knives after her and Hoggle, then disappeared. They were able to escape, yet Hoggle got scared by the sound of a howling creature and said he was a friend to no one but himself, leaving Sarah to fend for herself.Sarah forced herself not to be afraid, remembering she had been told 'things aren't always what they seem in this place.' She found Ludo, a giant furry beast and a gentle creature despite his massive size, who became her friend when she saved him from being tortured by a bunch of goblins. But she became separated from Ludo too and found herself in a strange forest where she met the Firies, creatures that were able to dismember themselves and take off their heads. They tried to take off her head, which of course didn't work, but they didn't stop trying to mutilate her, so she threw their heads away. Hoggle came to her rescue, but she didn't know that the Goblin King had threatened that if she ever kissed him, he would immediately be sent to the Bog. As soon as her lips touched the dwarf's bald head in a kiss of gratitude for being rescued, the stones beneath them shook and they fell to the Bog. Thankfully they didn't fall into the muck. They found Ludo there and met Sir Didymus, a fox knight with a sheepdog as his steed, who decided to aid Sarah in her quest for her brother. As the castle was not much further, there was hardly anything left to prevent her from reaching Toby in time.Except one thing. The Goblin King had forced something on Hoggle; he was to give Sarah a peach that would make her forget about Toby. And Sarah was hungry, which left Hoggle no choice but to give the fruit to her. Handing it to her, he left in shame at having to obey the king.By eating the peach, Sarah found herself in a dream, in a ballroom full of masked faces. She wore a beautiful silver gown and the Goblin King held her tightly in a dance, but she knew there was something she had to do so she left his arms and broke free of the crystal ball he had placed her in.She awoke in a junkyard, peach in hand, but she still couldn't remember what she was supposed to be doing. A goblin woman with a collection of knickknacks on her back led her to a room: her bedroom. Sarah ran to her bed and flopped down onto it, burying her face in the pillow. It had all been just a terrible dream. But it wasn't a dream, for as soon as she opened her bedroom door, the goblin woman came in and tried to get her to begin a collection of knickknacks from her room for herself. One of the items happened to be her book of the Labyrinth and she was immediately reminded that she needed to save Toby. Her friends had followed her to the junkyard when she had been trapped in the crystal and pulled her to safety. They quickly hurried to the nearby castle, for she had less than an hour left.They entered the Goblin City, which surrounded the castle, and soon found goblins attacking them in hordes. But eventually they made it through the chaos to the castle. The throne room was empty and a clock on the wall let Sarah know she had less than 5 minutes left to reach her brother. The only direction Jareth could have taken Toby was up the stairs, and Sarah went it alone, to the concern of her friends.When she reached the room at the top she had to hold to the wall to keep from getting dizzy. This room had many stairways that led to nowhere and walkways between. There was no up or down and she didn't know which way to go. But the Goblin King made himself known, standing below her and she gasped when she saw him. He easily walked around the ledge to her, even walked straight through her, trying to intimidate her. With an evil grin he threw a crystal and she watched as it bounced across the multiple perspectives of the room, only to land in the hands of her brother, who seemed to be sitting upside down above her. Now that she knew where Toby was, all she had to do was get to him, but that was the whole problem. Toby would crawl somewhere different the second she thought she had neared him and, unlike her, he didn't know he wasn't supposed to be able to defy gravity and crawl on the ceiling. Finally she found him directly below her, sitting on the floor, dangling his feet over the ledge of a door. Toby was right there, twenty feet below her, and she had no way of getting to him. Sarah didn't know how long this had been taking her but knew she hardly had any time left. All that she knew was that if she didn't hold Toby in her arms in time, he would never be the same again; she had to save him from becoming a goblin. So with a gulp and wincing of her face at the thought of how broken her bones would be once she fell to the ground beside him, she jumped.But she didn't hit the floor. In fact, as she kept falling, the room was breaking up around her. Finally her feet hit a floor and she found the Goblin King slowly walking towards her from out of the shadows. He wore all white, his cape of feathers flowing about him as he neared her. She began to state the lines her story said would defeat him and finalize her brother's safety, but the king stopped her and offered her dreams to her once again; he even offered himself. But her only resolve was to save Toby, so she completed her dialog and found herself back in her home. The defeated Goblin King flew out the window, banished to live in an owl form.Sarah ran upstairs to ensure that her brother had been returned and found Toby sleeping soundly. She went to her room and began to put away those things that were part of her childhood fantasies, but as she did so, she saw the faces of her friends from the Labyrinth staring at her in her mirror. They told her they would always be around if she needed them, and she told them that every now and again in her life, she would. | fantasy, cult, good versus evil, psychedelic, humor, sci-fi | train | imdb | null |
tt0098273 | Sea of Love | New York City homicide detective Frank Keller is a burned-out alcoholic. His wife left him and married one of his colleagues, and he is depressed about reaching his 20th year on the police force. He is assigned to investigate the murder of a man in Manhattan, shot dead while face down in his bed, naked, listening to an old 45rpm recording of "Sea of Love." Keller has three clues — a lipstick-smeared cigarette, a want-ad that the dead man placed in a newspaper, and fingerprints of the perpetrator.
A second man dies in the same manner in Queens. Detective Sherman Touhey from the local precinct suggests that he and Frank collaborate. Both victims had placed rhyming ads in the lonely hearts column of the newspaper, seeking dates. The detectives track down Raymond Brown, the only other man with a rhyming ad. He's a married man who admits placing the ad but swears that he threw away all the letters and never saw anyone. Frank gets an idea to place a rhyming ad in the paper, meet women who respond in a restaurant and take the prints from their drinking glasses. Frank's precinct chief is skeptical, but changes his mind when Brown turns up dead in the same manner as the other two murder victims.
Frank has dinner with several women, while Sherman — posing as a waiter — puts their glasses into evidence bags. One woman, divorcee Helen Cruger, shows no interest in Frank and leaves without taking a drink, so Frank is unable to get her fingerprints. Frank bumps into her again at a market, but this time she is more friendly. Helen manages a chic upscale shoe store. Frank does not reveal his true occupation.
Frank takes her to his place, against his better judgment and a warning from Sherman not to do so. They start getting passionate, but Frank panics after finding a gun in her purse and treats her roughly. It turns out to be a starting pistol. Frank apologizes, and they have sex.
Frank and Helen begin a romance. He has a chance to obtain Helen's fingerprints on a glass but decides to wipe the glass clean. Their relationship becomes strained when she discovers that he is a cop. One night when he is drunk, he nearly gives away the fact that Helen was involved in a sting. He starts to confess his feelings for her, but then discovers that she responded to each of the victims' ads. When he confronts her, Helen refuses to admit to anything, so he throws her out.
Moments later, the real killer bursts into the apartment: Helen's ex-husband Terry, who has been stalking Helen and murdering the men she dates. At gunpoint, he makes Frank lie on his bed and show how he made love to Helen, just as he had done to his other victims before murdering them. Frank manages to overpower Terry and tries to call the police, but Terry lunges at him and, in the ensuing struggle, Frank throws Terry through the bedroom window to his death.
Several weeks later, a newly sober Frank reunites with Helen. She forgives him, and they resume their relationship. | mystery, neo noir, murder, haunting | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0045737 | Escape from Fort Bravo | The year is 1863. The Civil War still rages. Far off in the Arizona desert, vanquished Confederate soldiers are being held at Fort Bravo by their Union captors. Surrounding them all is the monumental, inhospitable terrain and the implacably hostile Mescalero Apaches.Captain Roper (William Holden) of the US Army drags an escaped Confederate prisoner named Bailey back to the fort behind his horse. As they enter the grounds, the prisoners in the stockade resentfully glare at Roper. Roper tells his commanding officer that the man had ridden his horse until it gave out, then fled on foot before being ridden down. Roper soon finds that his brutal tactics are also unpopular with his commanding officer, his second-in-command Lieutenant Beecher (Richard Anderson), and the post doctor. The post commander pointedly reminds Roper that the prisoners nearly outnumber the garrison. Roper admits that his actions are designed to intimidate the restless prisoners and keep them in check.Confederate Captain Marsh (John Forsythe) asks Roper for permission to see the captured prisoner, which Roper grants. The young man is in a bad way, exhausted and dehydrated. He apologizes for his foolhardy escape attempt. Some of the more aggressive prisoners question Marsh's reluctance to order a mass escape.Roper leads a mounted patrol into the desert to escort an overdue supply convoy carrying rifles to the fort. They find the wagons overturned and burned, the drivers tortured to death on ant mounds. As the slain men are being laid to rest, Roper notices smoke and mirror signals in the distance. An attack is imminent. Beecher takes an arrow to the shoulder as the surprise attack commences. The Mescaleros wheel around the surrounded troopers, inflicting and incurring several casualties. The Apaches soon retreat into the distance.As night falls, the soldiers make camp and almost immediately hear gunfire. The same band of Apaches is pursuing a stagecoach through the desert, with both the shotgun guard and passengers returning fire. Roper's men intervene and drive off the attackers. The stagecoach is escorted to the camp, where the beautiful Carla Forester (Eleanor Parker) alights and introduces herself to Roper. She explains that she was on her way to Fort Bravo to see the colonel and his engaged daughter. Carla dresses Beecher's wound and explains that she went to school with the colonel's daughter, Alice (Polly Bergen), who is soon to marry Lt. Beecher.The next evening, sparks seemingly fly between the aggressively flirtatious Carla and an amused Captain Roper as he escorts her to her quarters. He agrees to accompany her to the post dance the next evening. At the dance, Carla expresses surprise that a pair of Confederate officers have been permitted to attend. One of them is Captain Marsh, who gallantly asks her to dance with him. As they dance closely together, it is revealed that they are in fact lovers, and she has come to the fort to aid in his escape. The breakout is planned for the night of Lt. Beecher's wedding to Alice.Following the dance, Roper takes Carla to see his prized rose garden on the way back to her quarters. Surprised by this softer side of the stern captain, she asks about his late father. He slowly starts to reveal a human side as he falls for her. The next day, Carla and Alice depart for a nearby town to shop for a wedding dress. Roper unexpectedly and inconveniently volunteers to accompany them. Roper and three troopers escort the carriage. In town, Roper accompanies Carla to a dry goods store run by a Mr. Watson, a Confederate sympathizer who has agreed to provide supplies for the escape attempt. While Roper is distracted, she covertly slips Watson a wad of cash and describes the clothing, provisions, horses, and guns that will be required. Watson is to deliver supplies to the fort on the night of the wedding and then conceal the escapees in his wagon. After returning to the fort, Roper accompanies Carla on a ride into the beautiful rock formations above the fort. Roper comes on to her and embraces her. She fights him at first but then willingly submits as they kiss passionately.After Beecher and Alice's wedding, Roper tells a conflicted Carla that he in love with her, asking her to stay on and marry him. Meanwhile, the four escapees (including Marsh and Bailey) have climbed into the back of Watson's covered supply wagon. Carla tells Roper that she needs to be alone to think. After he leaves, she runs to the supply wagon and tells Marsh she is going with them. Roper pointedly questions the nervous Watson as he exits with the concealed prisoners and Carla in his wagon.The next morning, the escape is reported. Roper is stunned and bitter at Carla's deception. He and Beecher lead a detail in pursuit of the escapees. Out on the desert, Carla seems distracted, and Captain Marsh suspects that she has feelings for Roper. Roper's pursuit group soon sneaks up on the Confederates' campsite and gets the drop on them. Marsh challenges Roper to a fistfight, with Roper winning handily. Roper gathers up his prisoners and starts back for the fort.Watching from atop the spectacular desert rock formations, the Mescaleros discover Roper's outnumbered party and attack. The group is forced to dismount and take cover in a small defile. Roper arms the Rebs and they acquit themselves well, but the group is hopelessly surrounded. As night falls, Bailey bolts from the ditch and flees on the one remaining horse. The others curse him as a coward. The following morning, the Apaches attack again, wounding Beecher and one of the Rebels. During the attack, the Apaches curiously bracket the soldiers' position by thrusting lances into the soil just out of reach. No one knows why. The reason soon becomes apparent as single arrows are carefully lobbed from the surrounding cliffs, registering the distance to Roper's band. Deadly volleys of arrows soon follow, cascading down onto the group. Captain Marsh, Beecher, and others are hit. Two of the Confederates desperately leap from cover to knock down the lances guiding the archers. Both are shot dead. Roper makes his own dash and finishes the task, but the end is near.As night falls, Marsh uses a gun to force Roper and Carla to leave together, telling Roper that he has won her and now has to save her, but Marsh collapses before they can leave. With Marsh and Beecher near death, Roper realizes that his only remaining option is to pretend the others are all dead and break cover himself to face the Apaches. At dawn, he sprinkles Marsh and Beecher with dirt and tells a tearful Carla to play dead. As he walks out of the defile, both guns drawn, he is shot twice and collapses. Suddenly, the Apaches flee past him. The cavalry has arrived. Bailey was not a coward after all; he had ridden to the fort and brought help back. Roper, Carla and Beecher are saved, but it is too late for Captain Marsh, who dies as the movie ends. | violence | train | imdb | William Holden is Captain Roper, a strict commanding officer in charge of a large group of Confederate prisoners in a dry heat stockade at Fort Bravo, Arizona, in 1863...He is disliked by his captors as well by his captives because of his displeasing behavior toward the escapees whom he invariably recaptures...
A main example, dragging back to the fort John Lupton with a rope around his waist...To Fort Bravo arrived, one morning, the talented, and beautiful Eleanor Parker (Carla) apparently for the wedding of a friend (Polly Bergen)...
In fact she is scheming the escape of a rebel, Captain John Forsythe...Carla - a confederate agent - knows how to charm and handle beautifully Holden in her sojourn in the fort...
He sets out in their pursuit, ignoring that outside, and around him, in the wilderness, common enemy is watching, the deadly Mescalero Indians...Holden is stern, enigmatic and firm as the brusque young officer, who keeps the restless prisoners in Fort Bravo while trying to keep out marauding Indians...
The rain of the Indians arrows is vigorously presented by John Sturges who directed many fine Westerns like "Backlash," "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," and "The Law and Jake Wade." "Escape from Fort Bravo" is a great Western and a good suspense drama with a sweet romance and spectacular action...
Fort Bravo is being used as a Confederate prison camp during the waning months of the American Civil War. Inside the fort's walls are the prisoners, wanting to escape, and the troops of the Union cavalry, trying to prevent their escapes, and outside are the bands of savage Mescalero Apaches, just waiting for anybody to leave the safety of the fort.William Holden plays Capt.
During this time, a female Confederate sympathizer, played by Eleanor Parker, comes to the fort and will attempt to distract Holden, while she manages to enact the escape of her Confederate lover, played by John Forsythe.
The escape occurs, some rebel prisoners manage to leave the fort, Parker goes with them, but she does not realize that Holden has come to fall in love with her.
Roper, Holden's part, takes a small troop of men out from the fort in pursuit, he hoping to catch up with them before the Apaches do.Besides the three main leads mentioned above, the supporting cast includes William Demerest, William Campbell, Richard Anderson, Polly Bergen, and in a pre "Broken Arrow" role, John Lupton.
Sometimes I'm in the mood for a good western, so that is how I came to watch Escape from Fort Bravo (1953).I chose this film in particular because I like to see William Holden when he was just hitting his stardom, and before his alcohol abuse had aged him prematurely and affected his magnetism.
I think Sturges used Parker's character well, but he didn't let her get in the way of the main draw which was the action and adventure.I probably would have given up on the film if Holden had stayed in a perpetual bad mood and continued to incite the prisoners and even his fellow soldiers with his barbaric methods for wrangling in escapees.
William Holden and Eleanor Parker play off one another well in this tug of war and wills with John Forsythe hovering as an interested party.
During the Civil War, Union captain at an Arizona fort chases down a group of deserters on their way to Texas (including the woman the captain loves, who aided in the band's escape), but all involved become trapped in a desert trench by bloodthirsty Indians.
During the Civil War , a group of Confederates are ruthlessly guarded by a hard-bitten cavalry officer , the pivotal role captain Roper (William Holden) .
John Marsh (John Forsythe) accompanied by his underlings , the old Campbell (William Demarest) , the impetuous Young Cabot Young (William Campbell) and the coward Bailey (John Lupton) escape from the Union POW camp at Fort Bravo but has to contend with the desert , the Mescalero Indians and the pursuing Union troops .
Released in 1953 and directed by John Sturges, "Escape from Fort Bravo" was always one of my top Westerns of the 1950s.
When Roper goes after a group of escapees the soldiers have no recourse but to team up against a band of marauding Mescalero Indians.William Holden was in his prime here, as was the breathtaking Eleanor Parker, both stunning examples of masculine strength and feminine charm respectively.Although the soldiers rarely miss and the Natives rarely hit, the Indians are depicted in a realistic, respectable manner, showing ingenuity in their resolve to wipe out the pinned-down group of whites.William Campbell, well-known for the lead Klingon in the original Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" and less-so as the alien Trelane in "The Squire of Gothos," has a formidable supporting role as one of the escaping Confederates.
FINAL WORD: I realize a lot of pre-60's Westerns come off eye-rolling or artificial, but "Escape from Fort Bravo," doesn't fall into that category; that is, aside from the dated opening tune and the aforementioned song at the dance, as well as the parts that were obviously shot in the studio, which was typical in that era.The film runs 99 minutes and was shot in desolate regions of California (Semi Valley) and New Mexico (Gallup), including Death Valley National Park.GRADE: B+.
William Holden's character, in the Civil War-era Western "Escape From Fort Bravo" (1953), has a very appropriate name.
Roper, he is dragging an escaped Confederate prisoner, by rope, across the desert; a not-so-subtle warning to any other rebs who might be planning a similar break from the Union fort, deep in the Arizona Territory.
Marsh (John Forsythe) and abetted by Texan belle Carla Forester (Eleanor Parker), Roper is forced to follow the fugitives...even though the path leads straight into the country of the bloodthirsty Mescalero Apaches.
Filmed in Death Valley National Monument and in gorgeous color, "Escape From Fort Bravo" showcases some truly spectacular scenery, not the least of which is Eleanor herself.
(Oh, did I forget to mention that those Mescaleros have a nasty habit of tying their prisoners to ant hills?) "Escape" boasts a very tough-talking script, with glints of humor coming from the bickerings between (those great character actors) Williams Demarest and Campbell, and its final third is remarkably suspenseful, as Roper, Carla and the escaped rebs are laid siege in a ditch, while the Mescaleros pick them off with rifle shot and lob volleys of arrows into their midst.
Director John Sturges would go on to make three more classic Westerns over the next seven years ("Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," "Last Train From Gun Hill" and, of course, "The Magnificent Seven"), and here turns what is basically a "cavalry and Injuns pic" into a thing of real beauty and excitement.
Jeff Alexander scores the music and Robert Surtees photographs it primarily in and around Death Valley in California, USA."In 1863 while the War Between the States still raged, a large group of Confederate prisoners were held in a sun baked stockade at Fort Bravo, Arizona Territory.
The film also serves notice of what a fine director of action John Sturges would become, he of course would go on from here to be known for such film's like Bad Day at Black Rock, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape.
A Lot of Time And Trouble For Four Men. William Holden did Escape from Fort Bravo as a double loan out from his two studio employers, Paramount and Columbia.
Not the guys I'd take along.Nevertheless Escape from Fort Bravo boasts of some great scenic photography in Death Valley and a very exciting last stand battle with the escapees and Holden facing certain death at the hands of the Mescaleros.Director John Sturges and all the players involved did films a lot better than Escape from Fort Bravo..
The Death Valley scenery is spectacular and the Ansco Color photography quite good but it doesn't make up for the simple plot involving Confederate prisoners at a Union fort in Arizona trying to escape, with Mescaleroes on the warpath all around.
The way you light a man's cigar."The Best Part of this Over Produced Western is the much Talked about Climax that has an Indian Attack with the Mescaleros using some Military Artillery Tactics and the Standoff is Staged just a bit Off Key and that Boosts the Movie to just Above Standard Stuff despite all the Effort from MGM to make this something Special.
Good classic film that shows how the North dealt with the Confederates and American Indians at the same time during the U.S. Civil war.Good overall production and the ciematography was very good.To nitpick,the movie started slow and Parker's dresses were too unrealistic for the circumstances.Also the romance chemistry between Parker and Holden was lacking.The script could also have been a tag better.Still,the second half of the film delivered the action goods which will delight true Western genre fans.Only for fans of the genre who are not partial to the Confederate side and fans of the lead stars.......
Tough-as-nails Cavalry officer William Holden prepares to protect a fort full of Confederate prisoners of war against an impending Indian uprising, while the rebels plot their escape with the help of a visiting beauty.Escape From Fort Bravo looks great but it's too slow and ultimately forgettable.
This film doesn't ask much of Holden's talents or the other actors'.If you can ignore the fact that this film offers no tour de force acting parts and just view it as a western, it is a tolerable western featuring the iconic rock features of Death Valley National Park (when they don't take the action into the soundstage).The first part of "Escape" sets the action in Ft. Bravo--and army outpost in Arizona where some confederate prisoners are kept.
The surrounding wild country is plagued by the Mescalero Apache, portrayed as ruthless and an obstacle to Manifest Destiny.In the second part of the film, a woman arrives at the fort who captures the attention of Captain Roper (Holden).
If you enjoy a good old fashioned western that takes place mainly in the hot desert sun with a band of hostile Mescalero Indians hiding behind nearly every mountain top in pursuit of both sides of fighting Civil War troops, the north and the south troops, then this old fashioned western will be right up your alley.William Holden plays Captain Roper, a take ALL prisoners kind of game warden who refuses to let even one confederate soldier make his escape across the desert.
Yes, the damsel these two captains are fighting over is Carla Forester, played by Eleanor Parker.To summarize, the north is winning the Civil war so the southern troops are trying to escape from Fort Bravo (thus the title) but they have to travel through the hot and unforgiving desert and Captain Roper will chase anyone down, including the woman he is falling deep in love with, that being Carla Forester who is also on the run.Fifty (50) years ago I would have had nightmares after watching the Mescalero Indians striking fear in the troops as they tried to hold off the Indians in the desert.
The reality is however that even if the film does contain a lot of talent in front of and behind the camera if you don't like Westerns you won't be mad keen on this movie Set during the American Civil War the premise involves a Union officer played by Holden who has to escort a group of Confederate prisoners across hostile Indian territory where they have to team up to defend themselves against the Indian war party .
The movie has some good actors in William Holden and Eleanor Parker, but the story in which their characters operate does not do much for the western genre.
That could be a very nice movie, with an excellent cast of luminaries (William Holden as Captain Roper Eleanor Parker as Carla Forester John Forsythe as Captain John Marsh William Demarest as Campbell William Campbell as Cabot Young Polly Bergen as Alice Owens Richard Anderson as Lieutenant Beecher Carl Benton Reid as Colonel Owens John Lupton as Bailey), with seemingly good plot - Union camp for Cofederate prisoners of war, the seemingly excellent nature would also provide a big welcome addition...
Try Escape from Fort Bravo, starring William Holden as the leader of a Union prison camp and John Forsythe as one of the Confederate prisoners who's planning an escape.
Set in a remote Union outpost for captured confederate prisoners during the Civil War, Sturges set out to give the story an authentic look so he filmed in the stunning locations of Death Valley and in and around the New Mexico Badlands.
The first Cinemascope movie "The Robe" was released by Fox at the same time.William Holden, in one of his best parts, plays union Captain Roper a formidable hard-bitten taskmaster over the prisoners.
On a visit to the Fort for a wedding is the lovely Carla Forester (Eleanor Parker) whose real business is to arrange for the escape of her confederate officer lover (John Forsyth) and three of his men while at the same time ensuring Captain Roper falls for her charms, little suspecting that she herself would fall in love with him.
When one of those prisoners receives a visit from a young woman (ELEANOR PARKER) pretending to arrive at the fort to attend a wedding, he has no idea that she's a Confederate spy and wants to use him as a way to set an escape plan into action.Filmed amid breathtaking vistas in Death Valley by veteran director John Sturges, in glorious sun-baked Technicolor, it's a solid western, a little slow in getting started--but once it moves away from the fort and into the desert where Holden and a group of other soldiers and the woman are surrounded by Mescalero Indians, it becomes a fascinating display of Indian ingenuity with arrows and spears that is photographed for maximum effect.While the ending may be a bit predictable, with Parker and Holden riding off into the sunset, it's a gripping shootout surrounded by cunning Indians that sustains the last forty minutes.
However, it remains watchable thanks to the clear-thinking script, the strong performances and the exciting climax.Captain Roper (William Holden) is a tough Union officer at the titular fort, located in central Arizona.
Near the start of the film, Roper brings back a young Confederate escapee named Bailey (John Lupton), and drags him around the yard with a rope to set an example to the other prisoners contemplating possible future escape bids.
Later, a beautiful woman named Carla Forester (Eleanor Parker) arrives, claiming that she is present for the fort commandant's daughter's wedding, though in actual fact she is a Confederate spy.
Bitter and disillusioned, Roper once again sets out to track down and recapture this latest bunch of runners....Escape From Fort Bravo certainly looks pleasing to the eye (due, in no small part, to the cinematography of the great Robert Surtees), and it is a very professionally assembled work.
William Holden is as tough as nails, a captain at isolated Fort Bravo, which houses a horde of Confederate prisoners and is surrounded by hostile Mescalero Apaches.
Finally he died with a smile on his face when Bailey (The only Confederate soldier to survive), ending up learning from Roper & Marsh how to be a hero, by escaping the Indians, and instead of running away, like he did earlier, he went back to the fort, and brought back the soldiers to save Roper, Carla, and Lt. Beecher (Richard Anderson), who was the only other survivor (interesting that Campbell somehow knew that would happen?).
William Holden as Captain Roper in this 1953 film comes across as a hard-nosed military man, who inflicts bitter punishment against a rebel soldier who dared to escape.Where are the southern accents from the Confederate soldiers?
At the beginning of the film William Holden's character is so repulsive and cruel that -- at least for me -- one begins to root for the Confederates, which is helped along by the Confederate leader being John Forsythe.To a degree, the film seems a bit formulaic in spots, but it's a decent enough plot to hold your attention...although getting Eleanor Parker into Fort Bravo seemed a bit contrived...but you have to have a love interest.
"Bad Day at Black Rock" director John Sturges' first period horse opera, "Escape from Fort Bravo," takes place during American Civil War at a remote cavalry stockade doubling as a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp.
William Holden heads up a solid cast including Eleanor Parker, John Forsythe, William Demarest, William Campbell, Richard Anderson, Polly Bergen, John Lupton, Carl Benton Reid and Glenn Strange.The film opens with a foreword.
Bob Bailey (John Lupton) has tried to escape, but U.S. Cavalry Captain Roper (William Holden of "Golden Boy") has recaptured him.
In truth, Carla has come to Fort Bravo to help her lover, Confederate Captain John Marsh (John Forsythe of "Destination Tokyo"), and handful of soldiers, including Bob Bailey (John Lupton of "Julius Caesar"), Sergeant Campbell (William Demarest of "All Through the Night") and Cabot Young (William Campbell of "Backlash") escape.
Finally he died with a smile on his face when Bailey (The only Confederate soldier to survive),learned from Roper & Marsh how to be a hero, by escaping the Indians, and instead of running away, like he did earlier, he went back to the fort, and brought back the soldiers to save Roper, Carla, and Lt. Beecher (Richard Anderson).
Directed by John Sturges, this average Western set in 1863 combines elements of the Civil War with the struggle against the Mescalero Indians in settling the West.
However, when one of the Southerners (John Lupton) does escape, Captain Roper (William Holden) feels it's necessary to make an example of him to keep others from trying the same - he makes him walk back! |
tt0099528 | The Exorcist III | The film begins with the point of view of someone wandering through the streets of Georgetown, a voice informing us "I have dreams... of a rose... and of falling down a long flight of stairs." The point of view shows a warning of evil about to arrive later that night at a church. Demonic growls are heard. Leaves and other street trash suddenly come flying into the church as a crucifix comes to life. It then cuts to Lieutenant William F. Kinderman at a crime scene, where a 12-year-old boy named Thomas Kintry has been murdered.
Kinderman takes his friend, a priest named Father Dyer, out to see their mutually favorite film It's a Wonderful Life. Kinderman later relates the gruesome details of the murder of the young boy he was investigating that morning, including his crucifixion. Another murder soon takes place—a priest is found decapitated in a church. Dyer is shortly hospitalized—and found murdered the next day—with the words "IT'S A WONDERFULL LIFE", written on a wall in Dyer's blood.
The fingerprints at the crime scenes do not match, indicating a different person was responsible for each. Kinderman tells hospital staff the reason for his unease: seventeen years ago the vicious serial killer James "The Gemini" Venamun, was executed; with every victim he cut off the right index finger and carved the Zodiac sign of Gemini into the palm of their left hand. Kinderman noticed the hands of the three new victims and verified that the Gemini's sign has been there. The Gemini Killer also always used an extra "L" in his notes sent to the media, such as "usefull" or "carefull". Furthermore, to filter out false confessions, the original Gemini Killer's true mutilations were kept a secret by the Richmond police's homicide department; the newspapers were made to wrongfully report that the left middle finger was severed and that the Gemini sign was carved on the back of the victim.
Kinderman visits the head of the psychiatric ward, Dr. Temple, who relates the history of a man in Cell 11, that he was found wandering aimlessly seventeen years ago with amnesia. The man was locked up, catatonic until recently when he became violent and claimed to be the Gemini Killer. Kinderman sees that the patient resembles his dead friend Father Damien Karras. The patient expresses ignorance of Father Karras, but boasts of killing Father Dyer.
The next morning, a nurse and Dr. Temple are found dead. Kinderman returns to see the patient in Cell 11, who claims that after his execution his soul entered Karras's dying body. The Gemini's spiritual "master", who had possessed the girl Regan MacNeil, was furious at being pushed out of the child's body and is exacting its revenge by putting the soul of the Gemini Killer into the body of Father Karras. Each evening, the soul of the Gemini leaves the body of Karras and possesses the elderly people with senile dementia elsewhere in the hospital and uses them to commit the murders. The Gemini Killer forced Dr. Temple to bring Kinderman to him or he would suffer in unspeakable ways — Temple couldn't take the pressure, and he committed suicide.
The Gemini possesses an old woman, who makes a failed attempt to murder Kinderman's daughter. The possessed patient attacks Kinderman, but the attack abruptly ends when a priest, Father Paul Morning (Nicol Williamson), enters the corridor leading to cell 11 and attempts an exorcism on the patient. The Gemini's "patron" intervenes, taking over the patient's body, and the priest is all but slain. Kinderman arrives in time and attempts to euthanize Karras after finding the body of the priest but is hurled into the wall by the possessed Karras. Father Morning manages to briefly regain consciousness and tells Karras, "Damien, fight him." Karras regains his free will briefly and cries to Kinderman, "Bill, now! Shoot now! Kill me now!" Kinderman fires his revolver several times, hitting Karras in the chest, fatally wounding him. The Gemini is now gone...and Karras is finally free. With weak breaths, he says "We won, Bill. Now free me." Kinderman puts his revolver against Karras' head—and fires.
The film ends with Kinderman standing over Karras' grave. | cruelty, murder, cult, horror, violence, insanity, psychedelic, sadist | train | wikipedia | If, like me, you appreciate horror films that are both scary and made for grown-ups, 'Exorcist III' is refreshing and memorable for its intelligent, non-ironic journey into darkness and for its refusal (bar that ending) to dumb down for the kids.
'Exorcist III' is literary beyond 'Scream's' self-referential trivia-chasing (I would love to hear Detective Kinderman critiquing that movie!) Read 'Legion' and you'll have an idea of how good the film should have been.
It's actually a very intellectual story with a lot of big words, literary overtones and powerful acting, and it's one of the few movies which I consider superior to the book (but of course writer Blatty directed this, so I'd expect no less).Now don't get me wrong; it's anything but dull.
Writer/ Director William Peter Blatty wanted to simply call the movie "Legion" like the name of his novel.
And while William Blatty may be hard pushed to rival the efforts of the original's director, William Friedkin, he doesn't do too bad a job: he's a little over-reliant on abrupt cutting to achieve his shocks, and the budget for the special effects was obviously inadequate, but this is a suspenseful and chilling thriller.
Several characters return this time around from the original film including Kinderman, Father Dyer (Ed Flanders) and Damian Karras again played by Jason Miller.
Scott is wonderful (when isn't he?) in the lead, with Jason Miller, Brad Dourif (one of the most underrated actors ever), Ed Flanders, Scott Wilson and everyone else contributing heavily.I heard the senseless exorcism climax (featuring Nicol Williamson) was added to the film later against Blatty's wishes so audiences wouldn't be "confused," which basically means the studio who financed it take the general viewing public as idiots.Make sure to also check out Blatty's great THE NINTH CONFIGURATION (AKA TWINKLE, TWINKLE, KILLER KANE), also a pretty underrated movie.
While the first movie was good, the 3rd movie (the "real" sequel to The Exorcist written by William Peter Blatty) is completely different and much more mysterious..
But some genius at the studios must've insisted that by tying it to the Exorcist label it would draw an audience; well, we all know how that turned out( for those of you who don't: this film tanked at the BO and quickly disappeared, to be completely eclipsed by the far inferior SILENCE OF THE LAMBS a scant 8 months later!) People who went to this didn't expect a supernatural serial killer mystery--indeed this was the best of the "executed killers return from the grave to wreak destruction" movies that popped up suddenly in the late 80's with films like SHOCKER and THE FIRST POWER(something that would turn up with even more regularity a few yrs later on the X-files, Brad Dourif even plays an almost identical character in the episode "BEyond the SEA" as he plays here in Exocist III) but in 1990 people who went to see Exorcist III were probably expecting something else;as far as i can tell, though, this movie is a pretty decent piece of work.
The exorcist III combines true character development with crime drama, horror, and suspense, utterly perfect movie making.
A police lieutenant uncovers more than he bargained for as his investigation of a series of murders, which have all the hallmarks of the deceased 'Gemini' serial killer, lead him to question the patients of a psychiatric ward.Although I actually enjoyed the second "Exorcist" film, most people consider it a stinker and like to pretend it never happened.
William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist III: Legion is one of the most beautiful films ever made.
It is an awesome movie on its own, and when stood by The Exorcist, another great film, it breaks the Law of Sequel Performance.
Partial Re-Creaton of the Original Cut. Legion (2016) When William Peter Blatty's novel Legion was turned into THE EXORCIST III, the director and studio battled over a lot of things including the title.
With the two sides battling the cast and crew were called back in to make an alternate ending, which not only featured an exorcism but also had Jason Miller returning so that they could have a better connection to someone from the original movie.Sadly, Blatty's original cut has been lost but Shout Factory!
I'd also argue that the added scenes here really don't add any suspense and the final showdown between Scott and Dourif doesn't pack that much of a punch.Still, fans of THE EXORCIST III has screamed for a director's cut for over twenty-five years.
Instead, I was curled up on the couch, watching crappy family sitcoms, just trying to get the chill off my spine.When I first purchased this movie, I, like so many others, thought I was buying the original The Exorcist.
Far be it from the discriminating viewer to judge a book (or DVD) by its cover, though, because while "The Exorcist III" looks like a subpar sequel to a classic film, the fact of the matter is that there is more to it than meets the eye.
A film that is notorious for tinkering by the producers, despite being in the hands of "The Exorcist" creator William Peter Blatty, this third entry in the saga has more brains than the average 80's horror film and more weight than any sequel within the genre is ever expected to hold.George C.
Scott plays police lieutenant Kinderman (a character seen briefly in the first film), hardened but human, who is on the trail of a mysterious, sadistic and methodical killer who takes after the famed Gemini Killer (a take on the real-life Zodiac Killer), despite the fact that he has been dead for fifteen years.
Robinson (who had nothing to do with the original film in the first place) result in an intelligent horror movie/sequel that simply doesn't know how to end itself.
Despite its flaws and the fact that it effectively killed off the franchise (was it ever meant to be?) "The Exorcist III" is as close to greatness as any of the sequels or prequels gets to the original..
This is the one of the best horror films ever made, notably much better the the first 2 Exorcist movies.
Father Damien Karras), Brad Dourif (Gemini Killer/James Venamun), Scott Wilson (Dr. Temple), Nicol Williamson (Father Paul Morning)This is the 1990 film adaption of Blatty's novel Legion.
Dective Kinderman is eventually to discover that is old friend Father Karras is in a psychiatric ward and appearers to be possessed by the Genini Killer.This film represents one of those rare cases where a sequel is equal or even better than the original film.
That part is much better in the theatrical version.What's great about EXORCIST III remains great in the director's cut: the performances, especially the lead role by George C.
Scott's character.The make up and horror scenes are there as well, but for me I will always regard this as one of the best sequells made for a film/book that was already perfect..
It's simply one of the scariest movies I've ever seen.Made by William Peter Blatty and based on his novel Leigon, it follows Detective Kinderman hunting down a serial killer in Georgetown, and how it ties in with an Exorcism carried out years earlier, and may find the truth in a patient locked up in a mental ward..one that looks familiar......The performances are all first rate, but special mention had to be made of George C Scott as Kinderman trying to comprehend the horror unfolding in the city, Jason Miller who appears as patient X in a small role, but especially Brad Dourif as a man claiming to be a killer who supposedly died years before.
This, as you'll probably realise by now is the film adaptation of William Peter Blatty's DIRECT sequel to 'The Exorcist'.
This 1990 picture titled ¨The Exorcist III¨ by William Peter Blatty displays a magnificent cast such as George C Scott, Brad Dourif, Ed Flanders , Nicol Williamson and Jason Miller again Father Karras .
The tale is classified ¨R¨ for graphic violence and profanity but contains gore and guts.The original ¨Exorcist¨ (by William Friedkin) was an excellent flick in which died some actors at the time finished the movie and added a legend about Exorcist's curse .
'The Exorcist III' in my mind is not as good a film as the original 'The Exorcist', however if anyone wants to watch a very well directed horror film that is genuinely creepy and has reasonable thematic depth, this is certainly a film that can be seen and admired.'The Exorcist' was a much more mature and sophisticated exploration of the mysteries of faith and the role of religion/faith in a rapidly progressive society.
It's all because William Peter Blatty wrote and directed a film sequel to his original novel made into a screenplay.
The film is often accredited to having one of the scariest movie moments that absolutely no one saw coming.Along with the phenomenal writing, direction and filmmaking there were some great characters portrayed with adequate acting.
This is not really an exorcist movie as the original source novel was similar in theme, but not a sequel to Blatty's "The Exorcist." The exorcism scene was added in the middle of production and it feels slightly out of place with the rest of the film.However, it also provides an eerie element as the re-shot scenes has Jason Miller and the originally shot scenes had Brad Dourif and the final product cuts back between the two.
EXORCIST III is better than a two-hour film of paint drying...marginally.There are a few nice moments; the carp stuff is cute, and there are a couple of good eerie shots in the hospital.
But ultimately, the movie collapses under the weight of a ludicrous and muddled plot, fairly awful performances (for which I blame the director; Scott would surely have done better if left to himself), and poor dialogue (notably Dourif's interminable monologue about how he possessed Karras's body, which could have been cut down to about five lines and been much more effective).And speaking of Dourif, he should have been fired.
Same deal.So all a copycat killer would have had to do is read the trial transcripts--or even the news reports about the trial.Blatty's final mistake (apart from making this film at all, of course) was to abandon the traditional, coherent Catholic theology which gave the original EXORCIST its extraordinary depth and power for a weird plot about one dead person possessing the body of another dead person (who apparently wasn't quite dead, because his soul is still inside his body, but who was dead enough that it took the first dead person [the one possessing, not the one possessed] fifteen years to repair the damage to his [the possessed person's] brain).I am not looking forward to EXORCIST IV.4/10.
Cobb in the original "Exorcist"), an actor who gives a better performance than this type of film deserves.
He is given good support by Ed Flanders (as Father Dyer), Brad Dourif (as the reincarnated "Gemini Killer") and Jason Miller, as Dourif's incarcerated 'host.' William Peter Blatty, author of the original novel, takes the screen writing and directing credit, producing a film that is shockingly effective in its subtlety--this is not a horror film of jump-scares and slit throats, but of atmosphere, mood, and contemplative discussion.
It was also interesting to see Jason Miller after so many years.If anyone's negative feeling about this movie has allowed them to color their perceptions of William Peter Blatty as a director, please see his 1979 film, "The Ninth Configuration," starring Stacy Keach, and also with Flanders, Wilson and Miller..
I tend to feel compelled to add reviews for movies I feel strongly about, where I disagree with the majority of sentiments previously given.This film is a finely crafted psychological horror film, the result of some impressive direction by William Peter Blatty, and strong performances by George C Scott and Brad Dourif.I hear a lot of people praising The Exorcist, but I always found the original incarnation of that film lacking in story continuity.
Written and directed by William Peter Blatty (the original's author), this film takes on a completely different tone.
This is one of those rare films - a sequel that is possibly even better than the original.Exorcist 3 certainly has a wider scope than the original, with the plot circling around an outbreak of murders, seemingly committed by a serial killer who was disposed of many years previously.
William Peter Blatty The Exorcist III's has excellent dialogue, well paced, superb acting, solid character arcs and plot development mark this fine demonic horror/detective story.
A mental patient claiming to be the murderer is a dead-on lookalike to Father Damien Karras, the priest who fell to his death on that fateful night.Mood and atmosphere best describe the William Peter Blatty directed Exorcist III.
Jason Miller returns as a disturbed patient who is actually Father Karras, and does excellent here as well, and Brad Dourif (who does the voice over for Chucky in the "Child's Play" films) plays the Gemini killer and is very creepy.This movie was shot very well, written and directed by William Peter Blatty, who wrote the original novel "The Exorcist" which the first film was based upon.
Blatty gives this lost part of The Exorcist a new life in III, which really makes the film work (George C.
Not nearly as good as the original, but still passes as an above average horror film; The Exorcist III kind of works.
First off,this movie is really creepy,it´s not one of those scares that jump out of the darkness,this movie is subtle,it will creep you out if you´re alone,just after you see the statue of god open its eyes or the crucifix shedding a tear,or an statue mockingly smiling,that´s the kind of scares,that´s why I love it.Even if George C Scott was nominated for the razzie that year he gives quite an enjoyable performance,Brad Dourif and the man that played Father Karras are also quite enjoyable,the actor that played Father Morning is good too,watching him enter the psychiatric ward for the exorcism was a thrill!The directing of the writer of the books and screenplays for the original and third gives a fine directing that is subtle and gives this movie the feeling that something is going to happen and you are feeling the fear gather in you,waiting,waiting.......Even though the studios did came up with an ending that had an actual exorcism in it,it looks quite forced but it still is enjoyable,hope the Exorcist 4:Dominion is on par with the original as this one..
Mixing the horror of the first film with the humour of The Ninth Configuration, writer/director William Peter Blatty came up with a superb screenplay, based on the "official" Exorcist sequel novel Legion.
George C Scott is superb as Lt Kinderman, a role played by Lee J Cobb in the original movie, who is on the lookout for a serial killer whose MO matches exactly that of a serial killer sent to the chair 15 years earlier (around the time of the McNeil exorcism).
This ties in with strange goings-on in the disturbed ward of a nearby hospital, where one of the patients proves startlingly familiar to Kinderman.The film contains some truly great "Oh sh*t!" moments, a genuinely eerie atmosphere which plays to the audience's deepest fears and an ensemble cast whose performances hit the correct note every time.So what's wrong?
Yes, the style is too sober and literate for fans of the demonic histrionics of the original The Exorcist.All that aside, The Exorcist III deserves its pet moniker of "one of the most underrated horror films in the history of cinema." Writer/director William Peter Blatty has woven a thoroughly intricate and pensive story that engages the viewer with its disturbing complexities and distinct texture.
Somehow Kinderman believes the two are connected and playing out in the current time.Writer-director William Peter Blatty's THE EXORICIST II is like a lot of movies in the fact that it was handed over to the studio and they weren't happy with it so re-shoots were done.
In many ways I think this film is even better than the first movie.Blatty's novel Legion is the source for this and there's no question that this is an extremely well-made and well-acted thriller (not horror) that manages to be quite creepy throughout and also manages to have one of the greatest jump scares from any movie ever made.
What makes the film work so well is that it's basically a police thriller that has a very good story dealing with a serial killer and a mystery possibly tying it to an exorcism from years earlier.
Brad Dourif is also good here, although I think the scenes with him are the weakest in the film.THE EXORCIST III features a great score, some terrific cinematography and as I said a convincing story that holds your attention throughout.
George.C.Scott doesn't let us down with overtaking Lee.J.Cobb's role on playing Kinderman.Whereas The Exorcist 2 focused on the demon still inside Reagan, portraying a different sense of evil, Exorcist 3 goes back to the films old root and dives back into the mystery of possession and how Good can Challenge evil's dominance.With Blatty at the reins, both with the pen and camera, Exorcist 3 Is the true sequel to the one of the greatest horror story told.
From the eerie opening dream sequence, I was drawn into this film by William Peter Blatty's great screenplay (based on his book, Legion) and confident directing.
Scott is amazing in this, such a great actor, Brad Dourif also delivers a really good performance, the man knows how to pay demented characters.
Exorcist III however is a horror film.
Scott is great as he returns from the original THE EXORCIST to play the detective again.The murders were good.
This movie wasn't as scary as the original, but I thought it was better than The Exorcist 2. |
tt0306909 | Gonggongui jeog | The film's plot pits a tough loose-cannon cop, Kang Chul-jung, and a psychopathic killer, Cho Kyu-hwan, against each other. Kang typifies the anti-hero cop genre, taking bribes and stealing drugs from criminals. His career is in a slump and internal affairs are investigating his actions. The antagonist Cho, on the other hand, leads a life as a successful business and family man. Under his cool exterior however, he displays a total disregard for others, killing people for the slightest perceived misdeed.The two main characters first meet by chance in a dark alley shortly after Cho brutally murders his parents for monetary reasons. Cho first asked then started begging to get his parents to leave their will to him. After his parents refuse, Cho gets a butter knife and stabs them both around the abdomen. He sprays flour all around their body and washes the excess blood by taking a shower. Then he starts walking to get rid of the murder weapon. Kang is defecating in the dark alley during an unrelated stakeout and runs into Cho, who ends up slashing Kang in the face with a knife.Kang later joins the investigation into the murders, but doesn't recognize Cho as he didn't get a good look at his face. His instincts tell him that something is wrong about Cho, and Kang starts stalking him. Kang soon convinces himself that Cho is the murderer, although no one else believes that he has a case.Eventually, Kang discovers a crucial piece of evidence, a broken fingernail, at the murder scene and confronts Cho with it. This leads to the two facing off against each other in a fight, which ends with Kang beating Cho to death. | murder | train | imdb | Simple story here, a cop chases down a psychotic serial killer.
He is the only one who believes that this respected, wealthy, family man is the serial killer, and so must bring about some under-handed methods whilst keeping the politicians off his back.
What the film lacks in story it makes up for in complex relations and psychological warfare.
A stroke of genius coming about once Gyu-Hwan (the killer) kills a man not related to the murder of his parents, just to tease Chul-Jung (the cop).
The film begins by letting us get to know the two characters, Chul-Jung's partner shoots himself leaving Chul-Jung to be the focus of an internal investigation, while he also tries to get rid of some heroin.
The film, like a few Korean police thrillers ('Memories of Murder', 'Nowhere to Hide') has a fantastic sense of humour to counteract the shocking scenes of violence.
One scene has Chul-Jung on a stakeout, running round the streets in the rain trying to find a place to take a dump.
The film can be looked at as a commentary on social status, as the cop has a bad reputation, and is tainted as he tries to do the right thing.
The psychopathic serial killer, is highly respected, possibly because of his wealth.
The murder scenes are at times chilling, while the fight scenes are brutal and never unbelievable (apart from a hilarious encounter in a shop between Chul-Jung and a large number of gangsters).
An interesting array of supporting characters, fill in any holes that this film leaves through lack of originality, the chief of homicide, and a knife expert being among my favourites.
The film seems needlessly long in places, and since we as the audience know who the killer is the investigation can get frustrating, although this may be used to reflect the anger of Chul-Jung and nobody believing him.
Speaking of Chul-Jung it is very, very hard to get to like him as he is a bit of a low-life and this is a shame as it becomes hard to be brought into his world.
The performances are wonderful from the two leads, and rather than trying to upstage each other, like good actors they play off each other and seem to be enjoying it when their character has the upper hand.
It's a film that is comfortable being what it is, never wanting to push the boundaries, but offering a brilliant, tense and funny cat and mouse thriller..
Quirky film - quite original.
At first I wasn't sure what kind of film this was: cop film, murder mystery, comedy?
The black humour throughout is peppered with lots of swearing and some gruesome killing scenes.What's different about this film is the cast - the main cop Kang Cheol-Jung, his boss, and others are all eccentrics in their own right.
There aren't many jokes or slapstick, but the characters themselves make you laugh.Unlike other murder mysteries where the investigator solves the case with clues and evidence, Kang Cheol-Jung (the main cop) pursues this case because of his instinct.
He has no doubt the suspect is guilty (somehow), despite the lack of evidence.As for being quirky - there are a few scenes in this film which make you wonder "why did they include this"?
One such scene involves the main villain/suspect in the movie.
His character is played so well you actually start to hate the guy as the film progresses.
At that point you understand (perhaps) why the first scene portrays him as it does.
OK for a starters my girlfriend hates subtitled films.
The film has everything black hunour, comic scenes, a psycho killer, and one of the most unusual cops since briggs in lethal weapon, a pure loner who develops a conscience while the movie progresses.
The movie trailer really made me want to watch this.
As i said my girlfriend hates subtitles film but she loved this a must for all thriller and black humour fans.
Gonggongui Jeog (or Public Enemy) is simply one of the most entertaining films I've seen in ages.
Nothing particularly new in terms of theme (wild-cannon cop chasing serial killer), but in terms of execution and sheer ENJOYMENT, there's no doubting this films worth.Great characters, performances, direction, scenes, dialogue...
I could go on.If you like rough cop action (oo-er) which ooze black humour this is for you.Loved it.
Great Movie with a flaw that spoiled my pleasure!.
The good thing is about the bad guy in the movie...
the text on the DVD box told about a corrupt cop vs.
Well, I feared the psychopath was a serial killer with all the nauseating, fetishist rituals stuff "a la" Seven or other movies alike.
Well, the guy is seriously crazy anyway, killing for very trivial motives, such as a man spilling his drink on him.
The bad thing in the movie is a kind of a scatological scene.
Apart from that and 2 or 3 bloody sequences this is a very good movies..
Director Kang Woo-suk dresses up his diatribes about the social ills of modern Korea in the well- worn finery of the cop-vs-serial-killer thriller so beloved by Hollywood.
Disheveled cop Sol Kyung-gu, unrepentantly violent and perpetually on the take--because, let's face it, that's just how thing's get done in Korea--relentlessly pursues a dapper, smarmy financial whiz (Lee Sung- jae, who he believes killed his parents over his father's decision to remove a large chunk of money from a big investment deal in order to save an orphanage from the bulldozers.
There's no doubt Lee is guilty of the crime--we see the act in all it's squishy glory, and he further confounds the investigators by randomly killing a hapless stranger to make all the murders appear to be the work of a serial killer, but Sol knows better, and will use every dirty trick at his disposal to put this doggy down.
The real target of director Kang's venomous social criticism is quite obviously the soulless corporate culture he seems convinced has poisoned Korean society and subverted traditional family values far more than corrupt law enforcement ever could, and which he views as a wellspring of self-obsessed Armani-clad sociopaths who would slit their own mothers' throats to score a big ROI, only here the metaphor isn't actually a metaphor, it's the central plot device!
(I'm guessing he read "American Psycho" or at least saw the movie; certainly Lee's icy villain would make an ideal overseas pen-pal for Bret Easton Ellis' Patrick Bateman).
Dirty Harry Korean style.
During a stakeout a corrupt cop, under investigation by Internal Affairs, has his face slashed by a mysterious character wearing a raincoat.
A connection is made between a brutally murdered elderly couple not far away from the previous incident and this rain coated man.
The cop believes the couple's son might have involved in the murder and decides to investigate him.So you have here two characters in supposedly respectable occupations (one a cop, the other a fund manager) who ain't angels.
This is more obvious in the cop's physical appearance, his drug dealing and his sharing a hot bath with Korean sort of yakuza, even though the introduction of the manager character played by Lee Sung-jae (a familiar face now in the West starring in films such as Attack the Gas Station, Barking Dogs Never Bite & Art Museum by the Zoo) is quite revealing too.
Masturbating and swearing in the shower in an interesting shot that completely isolates him, then we see him sharing a breakfast and playing with his wife and son in the warmth of a comfortable house.
I have to say that the first 20 minutes of the film are rather interesting because the character's ambiguity still play an important role.
Then all falls apart simply because of the cop's sort of rediscovery of his duty after seeing the dead bodies of the elderly couple (or is it he is only jealous at the manager's lifestyle).
It all becomes a bit of a farce that w e're supposed to take seriously as the film has to make serious compromises after such a bleak beginning.
"Nobody does something like that to somebody's parent without any motive" he says "for me they are public enemies".
I hate to judge films by comparing them to others but Public Enemy has a too much of a Dirty Harry influence (this really put me off), a too cliché supportive boss, who is got to deal with the more bureacratic and politically correct higher hierarchies of the police department, and a array of weird characters, all criminals, that helps the cop to catch his so-called Public Enemy.
The cop's trademark speech when confronting criminals really got on my nerves and not many in the audience found it funny anyway..
Too comic and loses focus on the possible rich thriller it could have been.
The trailer makes this movie seem like a slick visually rich thriller about a cop chasing down a cold killer, unfortunately the film doesn't live up to that premise.Movie There's certainly some strong character moments but they are left under developed and under explored, they're treated all too lightly and often too comically.
The visually slick scenes are also too underused and separated by weak character follow through, so one strong moment on screen isn't built upon with the characters.The film is very much a merging of two styles, taught thriller and often slapstick comedy.
For me this just doesn't work, these two styles belong far apart.The story focuses on the rise of a killer pitched against the fall of a cop, a cop who has given up on his career and any morale boundaries, believing only in himself and obtaining cash any way he can.As the killer rises in his chosen path the cop stumbles upon him, realises and then finds a purpose to his job.
Yet this is not is salvation, it comes as he reaches his lowest point and all there is left is the single, all consuming cause of catching the killer.It's really interesting to read the plot like that as it does read as a good movie, but intersperse the comedy and the unexplored avenues of the characters and story, and it really does bring the movie down.
At times it was a frustrating movie.You'll see this in some of the decisions the cop makes and the investigations.
This and the weak, unexplored characters don't bring any affinity to the audience.That's the failing part of the movie.
As it could have been such a great film combining American Psycho and Heat, but it just never gets that far and just gets distracted.Audio Presented: Dolby Digital 2.0 / 5.1, DTS The audio is solid here with a good DTS soundtrack, but nothing special that takes advantage of the speakers available.
The music sometimes overpowered the story at key points, and at others was quite effective, but overall quite forgettable.Picture Presented: 16:9 Anamorphic Good picture overall with some difficult scenes combining night and rain together, they look dark and dreary yet retaining a bold contrast.Extras Presented: Behind the Scenes, Deleted Scenes, Music Video, Outtakes, Asia Extreme Trailers The Behind the Scenes were interesting, showing such things as the recreation of full upper body sculptures from the actors for the dead characters.
There's also a lot more insight into the characters and how the actors played them.The Deleted Scenes and Outtakes were simply that, although some proved quite amusing at repeating the slapstick moments.
The music video is quite good, as are the Extreme Trailers, but an overall poorer offering in terms of extras.Overall A very interesting plot that just gets glossed over far too quickly, and with the concentration seeming to be on the comedy rather than character and story progression, it doesn't really attract too well.
It's an interesting DVD to watch, but an unfulfilling story..
There is no denying that it is good to see this film released in the uk around the summer blockbuster season (i saw this film in a ugc multiplex which was playing as part of a season of asian films released across the summer), but this film in particular suffers from flaws, mainly a plot that is unoriginal and scenes and situations that dont seem to stick together, the change in mood for instance, from almost slapstick comic to dark murder thriller, but that is not to say that the film is not good, there are many scenes and themes that work well, such as the contrast between the tough maverick cop and the arrogant and psychotic fund manager who has shades of AMERICAN PSYCHO'S Patrick Bateman, and the use of dark humour which seems to be present in many of the recent asian cinema releases.
Overall a film worth checking out but not one to keep your hopes up high for..
Korean psycho meets "Infernal Affairs" - acting not so good in parts.
The movie is a cross between "American Psycho" and "Infernal Affairs".
It just doesn't do it in terms of quality of the scenario, or probably the way some actors play.
It could have been better if some of the actors just avoided to show they were acting by overdoing it, like the comical moments or some dramatic ones.
The story would be good, but there were little things that prevented me to appreciate it.
I saw similarities with the other Korean movie ("The Host"), in that I can't decide whether I should be happy or sad about the character, if not the movie..
Another Great Korean Cop Movie!.
I can't get enough of these Korean cop movies.
Maybe it's because they don't depend on CGI, over-production, electronic music scores and unending technology like most US films.
Maybe it's because they don't try to appeal to the largest demographics like US films do nowadays.
Maybe it's because they can can make 140 minutes seem like five minutes, unlike today's Hollywood films.
Maybe it's because contain genuine human emotion instead of endless spectacle like most US movies.
Maybe it's because their main characters battle their way through moral dilemmas instead of the over-written plots US films.
One tough cop...
In a slightly disappointing movie..
Chul-joong is a cop on the edge: under suspicion of corruption, continually reprimanded for under-hand and over-zealous tactics and frankly very difficult to get on with, he's also saddled with a young family to which he is the sole parent (his wife died), and his partner has just blown his brains out when I.A. move in to investigate some of their dodgy cases.
Chul-joong is a wild-card: a former boxer, he likes to beat up, slap and humiliate all those who are unlucky enough to cross him, or just cross his path.
AND he's just got a new superior who won't take any nonsense or dirty-dealing from his troop, and also likes to punch those who deviate from his view of policemen.
His life's a bit of a mess...Just when you think things couldn't get any worse, he has a nasty, night-time confrontation with a madman.
When Chul-joong jumps out of a police van in the pouring rain, desperately searching for a place to take a dump, he bumps into dark assassin who slashes his face.
Miffed, Chul-joong resolves to catch the SOB and make him pay.
I don't think this is really a spoiler, but if you want to approach the movie with much knowledge of the plot, stop reading here.
It's made clear very early on who the assailant was: Cho Gyoo-hwan, an ostensibly sensible, affluent and domesticated businessman with a family and steady job - plus a big bank-balance and cushy life.
And when Gyoo-hwan sliced Chul-joong, he did so just after having murdered his parents, in a rage after they threatened to withdraw some funding.
Imagine Patrick Batemen from American Psycho, but with a family.And thus Chul-joong and Gyoo-hwan, two unstable, violent men, go tête-à-tête, the former quickly convinced of the latter's guilt when the investigation gets going, yet lacking any hard evidence.This Korean blockbuster was shipped abroad with great credo: a big money haul, some top stars, an established director, exciting, gory material and a great, in-you-face trailer.
For one, it has several cohesive, continuous themes, such as a blackly-comic meditation on the class divide that pits slovenly cop against suited-businessman, and a gruesomely compelling odour: the film has stench.
The film-makers continually emphasise smell: Chul-joong sweats a great deal, there's a gag when a murder weapon is tainted with excrement, the rotting bodies; all thrown into the cauldron that is Seoul in summer.
There's also a tough view on the Korean economy, and thought-provoking contemplations on the role of police, and the nature of the thin blue line: when can you cross it ensure that justice is meted out?
Throw in some knock-about comedy, a great rogue's gallery of cops and robbers, some frenetic, brutal fights and much head-banging, and you'd reckon you've got a great, noirish entertainment.
Sadly, not quite so.Director Woo-sook Kang's film all suffer from excessive length and at 140 minutes, Public Enemy just outstays its welcome; there's too much yelling and debate that cuts up the main story arch.
The film has some great, textured 'scope photography, and a compelling use of ordinary locations that root the story in some kind of reality, but one the whole its too restricted to rather boringly lit offices and homes.That said, the lead performances have a manic integrity.
Kyung-gu Sol is the lead and stand-out: piling on the pounds, moustached and sweating like a pig, he's virtually unrecognisable.
It's his performance and the antagonism with his rich rival that is the real motor of the movie - it's just a shame there's so much material to distract and detract from that.It's still a sometimes amazing, brutish ride, and far more aggressive and dynamic than your regular Hollywood crime films.
It's also worth seeing for the line: "No one should kill somebody for no reason." You said it! |
tt0101787 | Dying Young | Beautiful, carefree Hilary O'Neil is devastated when she finds her boyfriend in bed with another woman. She moves out of their apartment and in with her mother, with whom she doesn't really get along. She sees a newspaper advertisement for a live-in female companion to assist someone who is ill. The only requirements are youth and beauty. Intrigued, Hilary goes to the Geddes mansion in San Francisco's elite Nob Hill for an interview.Several applicants are already there and Hilary is puzzled because they are older and unattractive. Mr. Geddes is seeking a registered nurse to take care of his son during chemotherapy treatments. He realizes that his son placed the ad that Hilary answered and offers her cab fare home. Hilary angrily refuses and begins the long walk down Nob Hill. The Geddes butler chases after her and asks her back for an informal interview with the son.Victor Geddes is in his late 20's and has battled leukemia for several years, slipping in and out of remission. He has no friends and lives in isolation in a separate wing of his father's mansion. Before his diagnosis he had a girlfriend and was a college athlete. After an awkward conversation, he offers Hilary the job. She accepts but makes it clear that he is to stay out of her bedroom. They are employer and employee, nothing more.Victor becomes very ill after his chemo treatment. Hilary is in a panic, not knowing what to do for him. Once he is better, she telephones her girlfriend and confesses that she is leaving. Victor overhears and Hilary decides to stay. She is better prepared to handle the next chemo treatment.In between taking care of Victor, Hilary looks around his living room. There are pictures of him as a child with his now-deceased mother, with his girlfriend, and winning a race in college. Once he became ill, his friends gradually drifted away and his girlfriend left him. He has immersed himself in higher education and is now working on his doctoral dissertation in art history.Mr. Geddes calls from Japan, where he is on an extended business trip. He knows that Victor hired Hilary instead of a trained nurse and is worried, but Victor assures him he is getting on fine.Hilary and Victor gradually become friends and she decides he needs to follow a healthier lifestyle. She buys books on nutrition for cancer patients, fills his kitchen with organic fruits and vegetables, and throws away his cigarettes. In return, Victor attempts to teach her about art and famous paintings. Hilary is not much interested.One day Victor announces that his chemo treatments are over. Hilary questions this and he becomes angry, telling her to call his doctor if she doesn't believe him. He asks her to go away with him for a while. It is years since he has been anywhere. Hilary buys a used Cadillac and they drive to Mendocino, where they rent a beach house. On the way she learns that Victor never learned to drive. She insists on teaching him.While unpacking, Hilary finds a box filled with vials and syringes. She asks what it is and Victor tells her it is morphine, for pain. He only brought it along in case he needed it. Hilary chooses to believe this. Over the next few weeks, she and Victor visit the local bar, play poker, and make friends. When asked why he is bald, Victor makes up a story about being in a religious group that required him to shave his head. Gradually his hair grows back in and he abandons his bandanna. Sometimes he asks to sleep next to Hilary, not for sex but because he feels alone.After a while, Hilary says she should leave now that Victor is well. She doesn't feel right about taking a salary. Victor asks her to stay on without salary but offers to teach her about art in return for all she has done for him. She is sensitive about her lack of education and tries to become interested in art, especially the paintings of Klimst. But it is no use and a thread of discontent threatens their idyllic existence.One night Victor comes to Hilary's bed and they make love. She admits to having fallen in love with him but is uncertain of their future. They visit a maze, where Victor becomes lost and disoriented. Later, when Hilary wants to make love, he rudely refuses. Then she discovers that the morphine he brought is nearly gone. She rummages through the trash and discovers the used syringes and empty vials. Victor admits that he lied when he told her his treatments were over. He had wanted her to see him with hair. Hilary is furious and begins packing. Once again a man she loves has lied to her. After driving into town she telephones Mr. Geddes, who is now back in San Francisco. He has hired detectives to search for Victor. She tells him where to find his son and warns that he is ill again.The next morning, Mr. Geddes visits the beach house. He tries to take Victor back to resume his treatments, but Victor refuses. He is done with treatments. All he had wanted was to go away with Hilary for the time remaining to him. Mr. Geddes understands this. Finally Victor agrees to leave but on the next day. There is a dance in town that evening and he wants to see Hilary one last time.After a heartbreaking conversation, she tells him she will never leave him. If he is to die, she will be there when he takes his last breath. Slowly they walk outside and drive away, leaving the house and all its memories behind. | tragedy | train | imdb | It is a film that focuses on a man, Victor (Campbell) dying of leukemia and his internal struggles of wanting to be carefree and wanting total companionship from the Hillary (Roberts), the woman he hires to take care of him.
If they had fully developed Vincent'Onofrio's character then this could have been a beautiful and powerful triangle, but they wasted most of the supporting characters.Campbell Scott was great as the young man dying of leukemia and gave a riveting performance as a young man who had never been able to fully live his life and groping for what he considers his last chance of happiness before dying.Campbell Scott also has the courage to be unlikeable and at times arrogant rather than a plaster saint.
He envies Gordon's easy openness and zest, and is also jealous of the way that Gordon effortlessly connects to JUlia Roberts character,Hilary.The most poignant scene is when this young man of wealth, privilege, and education tries to relate with Gordon and Hilary who are getting a kick out of answering the questions to Jeopardy.
Gordon is hurt and puzzled and Hilary is torn between anger and understanding.I wish that they had had Julia telling Gordon about how the character of Vincent was struggling with cancer, and having all three of them interact with each other bringing more depth to their struggles-- Vincent's jealousy of watching Hilary and Gordon interacting, and Gordon reaching out in friendship to help his new friend.
The actors, Julia Roberts as the hired nurse and Campbell Scott as the very sick young man are excellent and believable in their rolls.
If you want a happy ending you can say that they left together and he was cured, BUT if you are realistic and are aware of how many lives cancer takes you know that they had their time together and eventually he dies.
Very few movies ever make me cry, this being one that has never failed to every time I have seen it.Hilary O'Neil is hired as a nurse when Victor Geddes' father goes away on business.
This movie is a powerful and moving story of one man's need for love and a woman's need simply for a job.Definitely one to watch!.
Campbell Scott's Vincent is a tortured young man who only wants to live enough to prepare himself for death.
A shame, as it could have added more drama to a section of the film that was sorely lacking in any sort of dramatic effect.The ending of the movie isn't bad, but it never quite recovers the momentum of the earlier section.
Still loving this movie...Campbell Scott scene.
This is a great movie for one of those rainy afternoons when you don't mind a little tear here and there.No one in Hollywood can cry and hit you right in the gut like Julia.
Along with Campbell Scott,who is dying from Leukemia, they both give believable performances and the music score is quite good..
Scott and Colleen Dewhurst as his parents, this guy could run the Kentucky Derby and win.Julia Roberts, way before Erin Brockovich, shows compassion and a resilience to helping Vincent.
Of course we know that she will eventually fall in love with him, as he does with her.I like that the movie ends in a "grey" area.
Julia Roberts is good as usual, and looks really young and beautiful too.
I'd rather be buried alive.To be fair, Schumacher has made some good films - "Falling Down" is great fun by any standards - but his bad far outweighs the few good projects he's worked on.
His influence on a film is instantly recognizable."Dying Young" is one of Schumacher's sappy flicks, about a woman (Julia Roberts) who decides to nurse a dying man (Campbell Scott) who has blood cancer.
Typical story - hatred for each other at first followed shortly by a deep romance, which ends in...well...I guess I shouldn't ruin it.The movie is hokey and artificial - it struck me as one of those Hallmark Channel specials you would see on daytime television.
She adds depth to the character of Hillary, a visiting nurse who ends up falling for her patient; well-portrayed by Campbell Scott.Roberts manages to be touching, and also comedic, without using cheap old standby tactics to make the audience like her- (When I think of this, I am thinking of Goldie Hawn, same quirky smile; or Jennifer Aniston-same gestures again and again to the point where it is formulaic and unbelievable.And the audience realizes they are being manipulated.) Roberts is the sympathetic character, Scott the arrogant well-to-do patient, embittered and dying of cancer.There is also a small cameo role with Colleen Dewhurst, and the ending is not trite and predictable.
A very good movie, far superior to the similar Love Story..
In Dying Young the viewer truly empathizes with the characters, while in Love Story, neither character is worth knowing.
Only the most sentimental will tear up in Love Story, while Dying Young bring most to tears.
While this does not mean that it is a great movie, it does mean that the characters are believable and well acted and the story line is good enough to overcome its somewhat predictable premise.
(Campbell Scott was at his best as Victor).Victor who was eager to experience life again, away from hospital treatments, deceived Hilary that he completed his treatment, so she would go with him for what he called vacation.
(If you are a woman, you will fall in love with Campbell; and if you are man, you would like to be taken cared of by Julia after watching these scenes)But without his regular chemotherapy treatment, he felt sick again after several weeks, but hid it from Hilary.
(Kudos to Director Joel Schumaker, for the subtle introduction of an "almost love triangle") Hilary found out Victor was sick again and felt that Victor planned ending his life, instead of going back to hospital treatment.
(This part of the movie was the best I've seen)The ending scene was inspiring, it touched your soul.
After watching this movie in 1991, and many times again and again in the last twenty years, my mind hasn't changed - Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott have been my favorite actors the last two decades, and Dying Young my favorite movie of all times.
Campbell Scott dramatizes the physical and psychological effects of chemotherapy on a young man, dying from leukemia, to perfection.
Julia Roberts plays a directionless young woman with no future (but lots of big red hair) who takes a job as nursemaid to leukemia patient Campbell Scott.
Director Joel Schumacher might have been in over his head: the film needs a light, sensitive touch and it's telling that the only well-directed scenes are the ones where Scott is being a jerk or when Roberts finally lashes out in anger near the end (the only time when she reveals something about herself that feels halfway real).
It's always nice to see supporting players Ellen Burstyn, David Selby and Colleen Dewhurst; however, Burstyn is terribly miscast as a half-wit who collects dolls, Selby has next to nothing to do and Dewhurst (Scott's real-life mother) has an introduction--whirling around with an electric smile--that seems as though she's destined to be the story's grande dame, its Arc Angel (actually, she's not much of a catalyst in the narrative; I'm guessing the rest of her role hit the cutting room floor, not unlike the picture's original ending).
Dewhurst, like Roberts, is just decoration in "Dying Young", a failed tearjerker in a genre that Hollywood used to know how to pull off with style and aplomb, with a few extra tissues.
Julia Roberts was pure and pretty that time, still, beautiful and charming now.but Campbell did change a lot i just couldn't believe he was the same personthis movie was quite touching.
for be touch by the light of lead character face and for accept than Julia Roberts can be more than poster.
That, unfortunately, was my problem with "Dying Young" a movie that I was hoping would stir my emotions, since I am usually a sucker for pictures like this.
"Dying Young" stars Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott, the latter as a young man sick with leukemia, the former as his nurse.
I cared a little more whether Mr. Scott's character lived or died, but even at the end, I couldn't have felt less on the question of whether or not the couple would be able to come together again.
Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott shine as an aimless young woman and a young man suffering from leukemia.
DYING YOUNG is a good film that's very romantic, touching, heartwarming, and moving.
The music is good, too, especially "All The Way," which is the song that Victor (Campbell Scott) played at his home at one point in the movie.
In addition, I thought that Hilary (Julia Roberts) looked very beautiful in the long, white dress she wore to Estelle's Christmas party.
In conclusion, if you like love stories that are happy and sad at the same time, this is the movie to see.
The acting is excellent for the two lead roles: Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott (who played Hamlet and other top notches).Julia was superb and we admired the fine acting that she did.
Julia Roberts becomes the personal nurse to a young man dying of terminal blood cancer (Campbell Scott, son of George C.
Naturally a relapse in the disease means that Scott can have a glimpse of life with Roberts as they fall in love, but of course how long will he be healthy enough for them to be completely happy together?
Julia Robert is a great actress she can play any role really well..
Julia Roberts plays a young, beautiful, working-class woman who is hired to nurse a rich young man, Campbell Scott, who is dying of leukemia.
The only reason I rate this one film higher than that film is because Julia Roberts is better actress, and nicer on the eyes, than Ali Macgraw, and Julia, thank God, doesn't spend the entire film calling Campbell Scott 'preppy.'.
Stay the heck away from a bland, little movie called "Dying Young"!
However, the wig on Julia Roberts is probably one of the worst I've ever seen in a film.
Julia Roberts, Campbell Scott, Vincent D'Onofrio - each does an admirable job.
Victor Geddes (Campbell Scott) is a rich young man dying of leukemia.
Campbell Scott never convinced me as a romantic lead in this movie.
Sadly dying Young misses the mark by a long way.Plot in A Paragraph: Hilary O'Neil (Julia Roberts) has little luck in work or love.
One day, Hilary answers an ad in a newspaper for a nurse to Victor Geddes (Campbell Scott) a well-educated, rich, and shy 28 year-old who is dying due to leukemia.
Despite his father's protests, Victor hires Hilary to be his live-in caretaker while he undergoes a traumatic course of chemotherapy.This movie is a dull and dreary affair that attempts to manipulate the viewers emotions at every turn.
Please 20th Century Fox release this on DVD,Julia Roberts made two movies this one and also Sleeping with the Enemy(1991) with Fox and neither has yet to be released by them..
Sometimes moving, sometimes slow, this is a classical Julia Roberts movie.
The characters stay with you, like family.(I'm not sure what a 'spoiler' might be with a title like 'Dying Young' - so, if you don't wish to know what the movie is about .
I've seen this movie in real life, mine and many others' lives and families.You will be utterly absorbed by the consummate, intricate writing of Richard Freidenberg's adaptation of the Marti Leimbach novel and the 'invisible' direction - my finest compliment - done by Joel Schumacher.Throughout the film you'll be absorbed by the character's lives.
How utterly real their pain, how complete their anguish, how deep their fear,how intense their love: both of the cancer victim Victor Geddes (Campbell Scott) and the loved ones - especially the caretaker becoming lover, Hiliary O'Neil (Julia Roberts).If the Victor Geddes character had AIDS or Parkinson or Alzheimer's Disease?
Fear is the Bitch Goddess of Cancer and was ever present in 'Dying Yong'!I've never seen Julia Roberts (with whom I've been stuck since 'Pretty Woman") 'disappear into a role' as she did portraying the woman in love with a man dying with cancer.
Campbell Scott, playing the cancer sick Vic Geddes, is likewise consumed by the character and is invisible as an actor.
I kept wanting to yell at each character to speak up, shout, get it out, say something!(I wonder if those who have not had cancer had that same reaction.)I hope that those who see this film will see the magnificence of its incredible love story (in spite of illness!) and feel its adroit kick in the shin rendered against the 'silence and lies' between those about whom you care when ill.
This story is about love, about life, not about death.If ever an actor deserved to be awarded an Oscar it was Julia Roberts' portrayal of a woman in love with a man dying with cancer in 'Dying Young.'See this film: It is an incredible love story!
Of course it's also a romantic tale of the relationship that develops between this particular patient and his caregiver.The movie chronicles the story of a young woman, Hilary, who, following a recent betrayal by her boyfriend, takes a job as a private caregiver to a rather difficult young man, Victor, suffering from terminal blood cancer.
Julia Roberts brings her typical endearing qualities to the role of his nurse, who risks a broken heart by falling for a young man who is most certainly going to die soon.
The movie could have been more meaningful if he'd had these, yet in addition, loved and needed Hilary.
One thing I really like also is that you don't know if Campbell's character dies in the end or not.
Campbell Scott and Julia Roberts do an outstanding job!
A movie that is most definitely not all it is reported to be, but "Dying Young" is still a moving film that depicts the destructive disease of cancer quite well.Julia Roberts returns to good form in her role of an untrained aide for the terminally ill Campbell Scott, who gives a fine and most convincing performance.
I have had someone dying from me from cancer not long ago - not a lover but a very good friend - so I recognize much in the movie.
A nice movie starring Julia Roberts.
Julia Roberts who used to be known as America's Sweetheart with hits such as Pretty Woman,Eat Pray And Love and the ever so good but sorta average Mirror Mirror,here she decides to tone it down a bit and star in this A Walk To Remember styled flick Dying Young with Campbell Scott.Here she plays Hilary a woman who caught her boyfriend having a steamy session with another woman and Hilary is heartbroken.
But is Vincent hiding something from Hilary and will Hilary stay by his side when his time is up?Overall this film was great.
If you are looking for a tearjearker or if you like me a fan of Julia Roberts then check it out.Overall its a 6 not as good as A Walk To Remember but still worth checking out..
I'd always wanted to see Dying Young - with its catchy title.Enjoyed the movie; it's certainly a concept movie; leukaemia patient finds love with his nurse.
The production values were absolutely superb as were the interiors and the costumes.Julia Roberts was great, as was Campbell Scott, and a hint of menace from Vincent D'onofrio.Enjoyed the wide open vistas of California and the gorgeous towns and building built along the coast The soundtrack was good with a mix of popular and orchestral.Thoroughly recommend this film as a good all round concept movie which should please most people in the family..
Julia Roberts Elevates This Film.
Dying Young is a romance film that is based on a novel of the same title by Marti Leimbach.It stars Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott together with Vincent D'Onofrio, Colleen Dewhurst and Ellen Burstyn.It was directed by Joel Schumacher.When Victor Geddes discovers that he is suffering from leukemia, his wealthy family hires pretty, young Hillary O'Neil to help nurse him through his chemotherapy treatment.
The film presents a beautiful love story between two people one of whom is terminally ill.Although the plot is not original and has been done in many movies before,Julia Roberts provides a great performance to elevate it from being just another mediocre,clichéd and predictable tearjerker.Also,one great thing about the movie is the beautiful cinematography as the location was set on the San Francisco Bay Area..
Plot in a nutshell: Hilary O'Neil (Roberts) is an attractive but educational and occupationally challenged young woman becomes involved with a wealthy, well educated young man, Vincent Geddes (Campbell Scott), dying from leukemia.
Julia Roberts gives what is probably considered one of her better performances as the frustrated young woman who reluctantly becomes the caretaker, but then falls in love with the ill-fated Vincent, only to be devastated by the fact that his poor health ultimately dooms their romance to fail.
Vincent is also well played by Campbell Scott.
Julia Roberts plays the part of a woman hired to be a nurse maid to Campbell Scott (as Victor Geddes)as he goes through the agony of blood cancer treatments.
I also was not convinced by Julia Roberts performance and saw no reason for her to gradually fall in love with the gentleman that is going through the ordeal.
He seemed to be very obnoxious the whole time!The scenes where he goes through his painful chemotherapy are very difficult to watch and one wonders why Roberts is willing to stay with him.If you want to see a really moving story with Julia Roberts about death, I highly recommend the movie Flatliners. |
tt0080040 | Tourist Trap | Eileen (Robin Sherwood) and her boyfriend Woody (Keith McDermott) are driving through the desert. When their car gets a flat, Woody goes to find a gas station. Their friends Becky (Tanya Roberts), Jerry (Jon Van Ness) and Molly (Jocelyn Jones) are traveling separately in a different vehicle. They reach Eileen waiting at the car and they all drive off to collect Woody.
Woody has found a gas station but it appears deserted. He enters the back room but becomes trapped. Various mannequins appear in the room, and multiple objects fly at him until a metal pipe impales and kills him.
The others find a tourist trap and conclude Woody is there. As they drive in, their vehicle mysteriously breaks down. Jerry tries to fix his jeep and the girls go skinny dipping in a nearby oasis. As they swim, Slausen (Chuck Connors) appears holding a shotgun. Though outwardly polite he also seems embittered by the decline of his tourist trap since the highway was moved away. The nude girls feel awkward in the water as he chats and they apologize for trespassing.
Slausen offers to help Jerry with the jeep, but insists the group go to his house with him to get his tools. There, they see the tourist trap: animated waxworks figures, including armed bandits. Eileen is curious about a nearby house, but Slausen insists the women stay inside the museum. Slausen takes Jerry to fix the jeep leaving the women. Eileen leaves to find a phone in the other house. There she finds several mannequins inside the house. Someone calls her name, and a stranger wearing a grotesque mask suddenly appears behind her. Various items in the room move of their own accord and the scarf Eileen is wearing tightens and strangles her to death.
Slausen returns to Molly and Becky saying that Jerry drove his truck into town. When told that Eileen left, he goes to the house and finds Eileen has been turned into a mannequin. He returns and tells Molly and Becky he did not find Eileen and will leave again to continue the search. Frustrated the women also later leave to search for her. Becky (in her bare feet) enters the nearby house and finds a mannequin resembling Eileen. Becky is attacked by the masked killer and then by multiple mannequins. She later wakes up tied up in the basement along with Jerry. Jerry says the killer is Slausen's brother. Also held captive is Tina (Dawn Jeffory), who is strapped to a table. She is killed when the masked man covers her face with plaster, causing her to suffocate. Jerry frees himself and attacks the killer, but is soon overpowered. Jerry tries to reach for a key but the killer telekinetically moves it from his reach.
Molly, still outside searching for the others, is pursued by the masked man. She meets Slausen who drives her to the museum and gives her a gun while he goes inside. The masked man appears and Molly shoots, but the gun is loaded with blanks. The man removes the mask: it is Slausen. She panics and tries to elude Slausen but is soon captured and restrained to a bed.
Becky and Jerry escape from the basement, but get separated. Slausen appears and takes Becky to the museum. There the Old West figures begin shooting at her, and she is killed by an Indian Chief figure who throws a knife at her, stabbing her in the back of the head. Back at the house, Jerry arrives to rescue Molly, but he is revealed to have unknowingly been turned into a mannequin. Slausen dances with the figure of his wife, and Molly sees that the wife has become animated. Traumatized, she kills Slausen with an axe.
The film then ends where it takes place the next morning, and a grinning Molly is seen driving away in the jeep with the mannequin versions of her friends. | insanity, cult, murder | train | wikipedia | For being close to 26 years old, the film has stood up extremely well - a creepy back woods setting, decent effects, and few hidden surprises in the script; it's worthwhile viewing for any horror enthusiast.
There was a time, back before USA became the home of Emmy-award winning programming, when you could turn on the TV on a Saturday night and be treated to such highbrow programming as "Slugs," "Shock Waves," and the pervasively atmospheric creepfest, "Tourist Trap." Out of all the horror films I remember from my childhood, TT arguably left the most visible mark.
Scenes of a woman's face being turned into a plaster mask, a man impaled by a flying pipe, and a knife to the back of the skull left haunting marks on my neuroses that periodically popped up in the years that followed (during which, unfortunately, TT was near impossible to find on VHS).Having 'grown up' considerably since that time, and recently revisiting the 'ol "Trap" on DVD, I must say it has lost only a smidgen of its ability to shock.
As is properly cited on the DVD, the film branches off into different levels of insanity, to the point where kindly Mr. Slausen's (Connors) mannequins begin to resemble real live people...Not a masterpiece but far from a waste of time, "Tourist Trap" is a montage of elaborate face-masks, creepy vocal distortion, atmospheric nights, and desperate, panicked emotion.
There are, of course, mannequins, Tanja Roberts with dark hair in a tube top with big boobs, Chuck Conners wearing masks and talking like Harvey Fierstein(he did such a good job I didn't believe it wasn't two people!), an almost unwatchable suffocation scene and enough warped moments to give you nightmares for awhile.The DVD is a surprisingly stunning transfer with an OK commentary track by the director, who's other films didn't impress me much.
1979's Tourist Trap is a clever, unique B thriller that stands out as one of the best of it's kind.Travellers stop at a lonely wax museum where the owner's mannequins are a little too life-like for comfort.While the film has hints of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tourist Trap is mainly a creepy psychological thriller worthy of The Twilight Zone.
Then, you see "Tourist Trap", and you think 'how did I miss this film?', which could easily be discussed in the same breath with Halloween, Nightmare on Elm St. and Creepshow.This is a great, fun, scary movie.
Tourist Trap has a big scare scene very early on, which could have been too much, too soon, but it really worked, and set the unnerving tone that the rest of the film continues.
"Tourist Trap" is a genuinely spooky low-budget horror film that will surely satisfy horror fans.It contains extremely strange atmosphere and there are some quite unnerving moments of total dread and fear.Some scenes are downright bizarre for example there is one scene when Chuck Connors sits down to have dinner with a mannequin that comes to life and starts conversing with him before its head falls off.There is very little gore,but the violence is quite strong for PG-rated horror film.The mannequins look very sinister and the climax is horrifying.David Schmoeller returned to make several other genre films including "Crawlspace","Puppet Master" and "Netherworld".Still "Tourist Trap" is definitely his best horror film,so if you want to be scared give this little gem a look.9 out of 10..
When I saw this movie on TV when I was a kid,it scared the hell out of me.Probably because mannequins give me the creeps too.Jocelyn Jones(Molly)is an excellent actress.She uses her facial expressions,especially her eyes,at playing terrified.Chuck Connors is great as Mr.Slausen.I was happy to see him play such a different roll.The other actors in this movie are great too!
Gritty and unpolished, but never succumbing to over-the-top shenanigans that plague so many horror movies, Tourist Trap slow burns with a nightmarish tone, and a very effectively eerie score courtesy of Pino Donaggio.Many mannequin horrors have come since, but none are as effective as this low-budget classic from 1979.
Following in the footsteps (and twisting them around) of the great classic wax films (House of Wax, Mystery of the Wax Museum), Tourist Trap takes the slasher genre to a whole new level of strange and fascinating with its bizarre story and style.
One of the best killers in the slasher subgenre.Scares/Suspense: From the opening scene on, the film maintains a great blend of the creepiness of the mannequins, jump scares from the attacks, and a strong level of suspense in the stranded situation.
Like "Chain Saw," It is a gritty, ugly and ultimately an undeniably humorous offering of macabre madness.Stranded by the side of the road (aren't they always), a group of young folk are taken in by an odd yet seemingly well-meaning owner of a local, deserted tourist attraction, played to perfection by Chuck Conners.
The only good thing in TOURIST TRAP are the following: music by the always great Pino Donnagio, the original movie poster and Tanya Roberts, who's totally hot.
This movie contains what is probably the greatest opening sequence in 80's horror cinema when a teenager, on a stroll after engine trouble, is trapped in a deserted house and assaulted by a creepy collection of wax statues.
Four other lambs to the slaughter arrive at the house and encounter an utterly insane maniac that looks somewhat like a mixture of Leatherface (from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre") and one of those mad sculptors from old wax-museum movies.
Though for me it's a more psychological reason on how much we blur the line between real and unreal and by doing that we become unable to distinguish the difference, which makes us vulnerable to whatever forces threaten us from both realms.This is an under the radar gem that I really like, I really like the plotline which is the typical one you've seen in lots of horror films like "Wrong Turn", "House of 1,000 Corpses" etc.
Not that that's a big deal as it doesn't seem like he has anyone to really call but I feel that little thing is a big way of telling you not just he doesn't get out much but how long he hasn't gotten out.The killer Pugface doesn't disappoint, the mask he has along with that voice it will just give your spine a chill tickle, he looks and sounds like Zeke the Plumber from an episode of "Salute Your Shorts" wonder if the writer of that episode saw this film, on a side note that guy creeped me out too.
This film really had the best use of puppeteering, electro magnets, automation and even make up designs as there were some people made to look like mannequins/ wax figures, those make up effects were convincing because half the time I wasn't sure.
And just simply blurring the line from the real and unreal just like some of the poor characters, even you at time have trouble distinguishing the difference as it's constantly messed with; there is one final scene near the end which I'll admit gave me chills I won't say what it is but it's the time when that line between both real and unreal almost completely disappears.But the very best thing about this film is the score which is great, it's one of my favorite horror movie scores ever.
Cast is good, Chuck Connors as the wax museum's owner and a young Tanya Roberts are the most featured but Robin Sherwood (who quit acting to manage a home furnishings business) is the strongest of the leads.
The "Creature" Davey and his army of murderous mannequins make quick and brutal work of the friends, until only one remains.Although not a Slasher movie "Tourist Trap" still contains elements of slasher movies such as the chase scenes and the stalking and the fact the killer wears a mask.The seemingly telekinetic abilities of the killer to lock bolts and animate the wax dummies, is used to great effect.
These wax figures are blatantly plastic shop dummies- but this only goes to serve as even more eerie when their eyes move with an incredible human The acting is actually pretty good, Chuck Conners gives a well rounded and creepy performance as Mr Slausen, Jocelyn Jones is great as the female lead..
Though not completely original--it owes much to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it holds its own with a sense of humor, genuine creepy moments, a brilliant score by Pino Donaggio, and the fun performances by Chuck Connors and the cast.
In real life, a good mannequin will make you do a double take - and here, that's about the last thing you're likely to see, if you happen to be stuck at Slausen's defunct wax museum and roadside stand.
The rest of the cast may be relatively unknown (wasn't Jocelyn Jones in that Texas car chase movie as well?), but Chuck Connors and Tanya Roberts were and are, just familiar enough to audiences, to make you think - Stephen King style - that this could happen to you, or people you know.Comparisons to Psycho (plot) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (overall look and feel), even if they aren't the first associations in my mind, are valid.
I just watched it again recently.What was wrong with me back then?This movie has what every single other "Halloween" ripoff made does: teenagers, innocent-looking locales, impenetrable nights, "innocent" old men (Connors), great babes (Roberts!) and lotsa blood.But what is different on this variation?Killer mannequins.
Yes, there are some creepy moments, but overall, the movie's never worked on that level for me.I always try to include the good side of any movie I watch, so here it is for Tourist Trap.
However rather than a lone axeman or maniac in a hockey mask doing the bumping, the main bad guy (or guys) is the wax mannequins of the museum and their creator who brings them to life.Quirky from the start, 'Tourist Trap' waits for no establishing set piece scenes or even spends any time introducing characters, it just moves a broken down car load of would be victims (including the delectable Tanya Roberts sporting black hair) off to their impending doom.
After a brief skinny dip, along comes Chuck Connors to tell 'those pesky kids' that the area they are hanging out in, isn't quite right since 'they built the highway' through it, and he ain't telling the half of it!'Tourist Trap' seems to show promise early on when the dummies are first discovered, with some genuinely eerie scenes with dummies in frozen poses and fixed smiles, moving their eyes.
However when their creator is introduced the film takes a different direction, away from the Scooby Doo plot and edges toward Texas Chainsaw Massacre territory with a few supernatural touches and attempts at humour thrown in.Along with the drudging chase sequences through the undergrowth and too many cat and mouse scenes, 'Tourist Trap' eventually sinks in it's repetitive nature, and the unsurprising revelation of the identity of the main villain offers little to the movie's mediocrity..
As a kid watching this I was very scared!Also Chuck Connors is a good actor most famous for the old western TV show The Rifleman.This one is hard to find but does play on cable TV channels every so often in a quite edited format (for time, not gore, there's not too much slasher type stuff in this one).
"Tourist Trap" from 1979 is one film that to me is a B list horror gem the plot is a little silly and the scenes seem far fetched yet, still for it's day it provided fears and fright for an audience.
The plot revolves around a wax museum and a group of teenage kids who wander away(which was typical of late 70' and early 80's horror pictures).Set in the California desert area a group of teenage kids break down and after getting rid of car trouble they find and wonder their way to a creepy and deserted wax house called Slausen's Lost Oasis and each one by one are lured into this trap of death and a wax bath!
I am not going to say this is one of the greats or a lost classic, but I can safely say it is underrated -- considering how few people have heard of it, it is much better than you might think.Stephen King praised the picture, saying the film "wields an eerie spooky power, as wax figures begin to move and come to life in a ruined, out-of-the-way tourist resort." The fact King singled out this film says something, though I am not sure what.
Tourist Trap (1979) is an entertaining horror movie from the late 70's, the movie is about a bunch of young friends who get stranded on an old deserted lane by a creepy old waxwork museum.The owner of the museum seems like a strange but harmless old man, but things take a very nasty turn when members of the young group start getting killed off, who is responsible for the murders, is it old man Slausen or is it his collection of creepy mannequins who seem to be alive and hungry for blood!!!!
Tourist Trap turned out to be a much better film that I was expecting, containing enough great material to make it a classic alongside the likes of Halloween.
I also liked the idea that it was going to be the sleazy Chuck Connors playing the lead part of an old lunatic who lures a young group of people to his shack and allegedly turns them into mannequins.Well, turned out that Chuck wasn't all that great, and the film never was able to compensate for its obvious low budget.
OK...i have seen just about everything....and some are considered classics that shouldn't be ( like all those Halloween movies that suck crap or even Steven king junk).......and some are considered just OK that are really great.....( like carnival of souls )........and then some are just plain ignored............like ( evil ed ) or ( pumpkin head and brain dead "the bud Cort one" ) then some stick in your head once seen and never leave...........that's what this did to me........and for my money this is much better than last house on the left............last house was great till the ending...then it blew chunks.....what kind of dummy is gonna give a blow job to someone who just killed their kids ????.completely stupid ..go find the movie "bully" or even "funny games" if ya want realism and to be creep ed out.........but this damn thing stuck with me for years.........one cause chuck Connors always was scary.........two Tanya Roberts is the best female victim ever........three the chick being smothered in plaster still is one of the all time worst killings on film........and 4th the telekinetic powers thing blew my mind and came totally unexpected.......not to mention the dummies wax figures puppets etc.......it should be right there with psycho,last house,Texas chainsaw,etc.......
A group of young travelers that just ran out of gas go into a weird wax museum called "Saluesen's Lost Oasis" owned by a strange man named Slausen (Chuck Conners) as the dummies are controlled by some mysterious force and a madman with special powers wants them dead.One of the most under-appreciated horror movies of the late 70's!
Tourist Trap is a pretty good horror movie, a bit underrated if you ask me.
Once at the creepy roadside attraction, the friends are stalked by a mask-wearing lunatic who can bring the museum's dummies to life through the power of the mind.Tourist Trap's bad guy is a demented cross between The Texas Chain Saw Massacre's Leatherface and Anthony, the scary kid from the classic Twilight Zone episode 'It's a Good Life', whilst the plot is a blend of elements from the aforementioned TCM, Hitchcock's Psycho, and House of Wax. The atmosphere and execution of Tourist Trap, however, is so totally off-kilter that, in this respect, it's virtually impossible to draw comparison with other earlier movies.Director David Schmoeller's continually inventive and unpredictable treatment of his own script gives the film a distinctly nightmarish quality, and with a brilliant left-field performance from Connors, an impossibly creepy score from Pino Donaggio, a collection of truly unsettling mannequins with detachable jaws, and the presence of super sexy Tanya Roberts, who spends the film in (and briefly out of) tiny denim hot-pants and a figure hugging boob-tube, Tourist Trap is a totally unforgettable and ultimately one-of-a-kind horror experience well deserving of its cult following..
Unfortunately for Molly and her gang of friends they break down near Mr Slaussen's Lost Oasis and become hostages of a psycho with telekinetic powers, loves to don women's wigs and dresses, and makes mannequins out of his victims.People with pediophobia look out this horror film is aimed at you and anybody that believes mannequins and puppets are creepy.Chuck Connors really rises above the material does a standout job as Mr Slaussen and manages to make the character quite energetically comic to watch and very sympathetic near the end (when he confesses the mystery of his missing brother and the death of his wife to Molly).One of the most effective moments in Tourist Trap is Mr Slaussen describing the sensations of plaster being applied to the face of one of his victims and how the panic is going to burst her heart long before she suffocates for lack of breathe beneath the drying plaster.
Tourist Trap is not quite a horror classic, but it's a decent enough film that it will never be forgotten.
A few surprise twists, great hide-and-seek chase scenes, and an effectively ubercreepy atmosphere make Tourist Trap a must see, brilliant cult piece that goes beyond "slasher" and actually touches on Psychological Thriller.Given the competent acting, VERY eerie setting, nice effects for the time it was made, and originality executed in the story not to mention a bizarre and unpredictable ending, this film is definitely worth hunting down a copy.
"Tourist Trap" is a bizarre, great horror film from the '70s. |
tt0043859 | No Highway | Mr. Dennis Scott (Jack Hawkins) shows up for his first day of work as Chief of Metallurgy at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, England, UK, and reports to Sir John (Ronald Squire), the Director. Sir John immediately hands Scott over to Major Pearl (Maurice Denham), aka "The Pearl of Great Price," for a tour of the testing facilities. The various tests that the RAE scientists have set up fascinate Scott, especially the last one, a prolonged "vibration test" of the double-elevator tail group of the RAE's latest creation, the Reindeer airliner, of which several hundred were delivered recently to the Trans-Atlantic Aircraft Corporation. Major Pearl cannot make himself heard over the tremendous noise, so he shuts down the test, thus provoking the lone scientist, Theodore Honey (James Stewart), to protest that the test must continue. Honey is very brusque and not very sociable at all, but Pearl explains to Scott that the RAE has had him since his days as a Rhodes Scholar from the USA and consider him quite valuable.Scott asks Honey the point of his exercise, and Honey says simply, "I expect the tail to fall off." Scott is not satisfied with that and offers to give Honey a lift to his home so that he can have an opportunity to press Honey further. Honey's theory is that the repeated vibration of thousands of flying hours must produce energy, and since that energy is not released as heat or in any other form, the metal itself must absorb it and eventually fail, at 1440 flying hours. Honey is quite oblivious to the consideration that people's lives might ride on his theory and calculations, and protests that as a scientist he cannot afford to concern himself with people.Honey's thoroughly eccentric attitudes carry forward into his home life. His wife is dead, but his daughter Elspeth (Janette Scott) remains, and he has been home-schooling her with a regimen of near-constant study. Scott finds Elspeth pleasant enough, but worries that she is even less socially adept even than Honey, difficult as Scott finds that to imagine.The next morning, Scott hoists a pint with an old friend of his, a test pilot named Bill Penworthy (David Hutcheson). The two men talk of a mutual friend, Harry Ward, a pilot for TAAC, who died in a crash in Labrador under mysterious circumstances. Penworthy voices contempt for a system that blithely attributes a mysterious airline crash to "pilot's error" just because the pilot is dead and thus unable to defend his reputation. The circumstances of the crash were these: the aircraft abruptly lost altitude, as if the pilot had taken a crash dive, something that Ward would never have done. But what makes Scott take Penworthy's story even more seriously is the make of the aircraft: a Reindeer.Scott asks Sir John's secretary, a man named Johnson (Hugh Cross), to show him every available photograph of the wreckage of Waring's plane. Johnson alarms him with two revelations: the aircraft had 1407 hours on it when it went down, and the tail group was never found. That, of course, was the very thing that Honey was testing. Could the tail have broken off from metal fatigue, as Honey had predicted and was even now testing out?Scott brings his suspicions to Sir John, who agrees to place Honey's vibration test on a round-the-clock schedule (instead of 8 hours a day) and to send Honey to Laborador on the next available flight to find the tail group and inspect it personally. And that is how Honey finds himself boarding TAAC Flight 26 to Montreal by way of Gander, Newfoundland. But what he does not realize until he is in the air is that his aircraft is a Reindeer.Aboard the flight, Stewardess Marjorie Corder (Glynnis Johns) at first notices a very nervous man who obviously has never been in an airliner before. Then Copilot Sam Dobson (Kenneth More) dumbfounds her with the announcement that they have an aeronautical scientist on board, and points him out as that very passenger (who is, of course, Honey). Marjorie rushes to apologize to Honey, who says that this is indeed his first-ever airline fight. Then she informs him that Captain Samuelson (Niall MacGinnis) has offered to give him a VIP tour of the cockpit, and in the process informs him that he is aboard a Reindeer. That is the first thing that really worries Honey. Then, when he takes the cockpit tour, he receives news that shocks him to the core: that the aircraft already has 1422 flying hours on it, more than the aircraft that crashed in Labrador! Now he tries to press Samuelson to turn back, because if he does not, the tail will break off and everyone on board will die. Samuelson is skeptical, of course, but agrees to radio London for instructions, and to feather his inboard engines to reduce the vibratory load.Back in the passenger cabin, Honey takes time to inspect the men's lavatory, which shares a bulkhead with the galley, a bulkhead bolted to the floor. Thus determining that that is the safest place in the aircraft in the event of a crash, he breathlessly introduces himself to a prominent female passenger, a movie star named Monica Teasdale (Marlene Dietrich). At the first sight of this strange little man with his whacked out theory, she presses the call button at her seat, and Marjorie shows up to usher Honey back to his seat. He cooperates, but not before he repeats to her exactly what he tried to tell Monica about the best place to ride out a crash. Marjorie goes to apologize to Monica, and then tries to explain what Honey was trying to tell her. Monica now becomes curious, especially when the two inboard engines shut off, indicating that the captain really did take Honey seriously. Whereupon Monica insists on sitting with Honey and getting him to explain everything to her. Subsequently, Monica and Honey sit out the rest of the flight in the galley, where they make small talk that suddenly doesn't seem so small.Samuelson receives no orders except to act at his own discretion. Because he is past the point of no return (the halfway point), he flies on, but requests clearance for an immediate, straight-in landing. He lands safely enough, and then orders a complete nose-to-tail inspection. But he next orders Marjorie to confine Honey to a private room in the Gander terminal, and not to allow him back aboard for the next leg of the flight.Honey is not convinced that the safe landing proved him wrong, and believes that the next flight that that aircraft makes will be its last. So when the captain asks everyone to come back aboard, Honey jostles his way aboard the aircraft and pushes into the cockpit, where Samuelson tells him to get off and stay off. Whereupon Honey spots the landing-gear lever and pulls it, thus retracting the landing gear while the aircraft is on the ground. That, of course, makes the aircraft unflyable.Monica, astounded, makes her way to Honey and praises him for the courage of his convictions, and announces that the experience is worth any delay he might have caused. Marjorie, for her part, is simply worried about the consequences to Honey of his actions.Sir John is furious, as much with the reaction of the press, not to mention the temperamental Sir David Moon (Hugh Wakefield), President of TAAC, as with Honey's actions, though Johnson finds the whole incident very funny. Sir John must also send an RAF pilot to fetch Honey back to Farnborough, as no TAAC pilot will dare have him as a passenger, and also send another investigator to Laborador to finish what Honey had set out to do there. In the middle of the excitement, Monica introduces herself to Sir John and tells him frankly that she was quite afraid that Honey's bosses would throw him to the wolves, a thing she did not wish to see happen.Honey returns to his laboratory and finds that others are running his experiment without him. He protests to Sir John, who informs him that he has to undergo psychological testing, while the vibration test will now run around the clock, either to failure or to 1440 hours. Honey then returns home to find that Marjorie has made it to his home ahead of him and has settled in as his housekeeper. Honey is very much worried about having done such a "crazy" thing, something that violates every rule of an ordered life that he had set for himself, but also knows that, given the same or similar circumstances, he would do the same thing again. Honey then expresses concern for the gossip that Marjorie's presence in his flat might cause, so she makes a quick trip to retrieve her nurse's uniform. (In that era, all flight attendants were recruited from among the ranks of registered nurses.)And so, when Monica comes to pay a call on Honey, she finds Marjorie there. Monica and Marjorie have a long chat, at the end of which Monica decides that she is not cut out to mix into Honey's life (a thing that no one should go into only halfway), and will return to making motion pictures to make sure that her life will have the meaning that Honey said it had.The experiment continues, but at 1440 hours the tail group does not fail. Honey returns home and confesses his failure to Marjorie, who tells him that if he really believes in his theory, he must defend it. He also has a heart-to-heart with Elspeth, who for the first time in her young life is seriously upset about her lack of any sort of socialization.Honey faces dismissal from the Establishment, and TAAC will not take its Reindeers out of service on account of Honey's theories. Whereupon Honey gives notice to the Establishment and threatens to wreck any Reindeer that is about to take off, and shouldn't, until people are simply afraid to fly on such aircraft.Honey returns to his flat and confesses that he has lost everything to Marjorie. Marjorie comforts him as best she can, and then announces that she will marry him, because he is so like a little boy who needs someone to look after him (especially after she discovers seven months' worth of payroll cheques that he has never deposited!).Back at the meeting, Sir John and Scott discuss Honey's threat, when Johnson rushes to Sir John with an urgent message: the investigator who had gone to Laborador in Honey's place has found the tail group, and that it had indeed failed from metal fatigue! Then Sir David Moon delivers his own breathless report: when the Reindeer that Honey had wrecked had undergone its repair, and taken off for a simple airworthiness test, had made a perfect landing, only to have the tail fall off as it taxied to the hangar!Scott and Sir John rush breathlessly to Honey's section of the laboratory to tell him that two reports from Gander and Labrador bear him out completely. Honey, with Marjorie by his side, acknowledges the reports but is still wondering why his own experiment failed. Sir John again tells him that the reports have vindicated him, when at that very instant the tail group breaks in half and crashes to the floor. As Sir John and Scott congratulate one another, Honey notices a swinging thermometer, and realizes at once that his experiment had not failed, but simply took longer than he calculated because he ran it in a heated shed, and that his own airliner had made it to Gander because it had piled up its flying hours serving a tropical route. | suspenseful | train | imdb | The story revolves around a new advanced design commercial airliner called "Reindeer", in service in the UK and an aeronautical engineer (portrayed by Stewart) who suspects that the aircraft might have a design problem that could result in a structural failure of the vertical tailplane from metal fatigue...
After one of the airliners is lost in a crash (and the tailplane is not among the wreckage) Stewart's character (Theodore Honey) begins testing of a production tailplane in a large research lab, vibrating it to see if, after a carefully calculated number of hours of vibration, the tailplane will suffer a structural failure.
His theories about the proposed failure of the lab test subject tailplane assembly after a select number of hours of vibration are reinforced by a similar number of flight hours on the first airliner that was lost, which confirms his convictions that the crash was indeed the results of a structural failure brought on by metal fatigue.The problem is that Mr Honey is a bit of a recluse and eccentric, a widower and single parent, and considered a bit of an odd duck by his contemporaries.
Honey, upon realizing that the airplane has the "required" flight time on the clocks to be in danger, embarks upon a quest to do something about it as only an eccentric genius can, and the story takes off from there (again, no pun).The combination of a laid-back American actor like James Stewart and a somewhat abrupt British cast tends to accentuate Stewart's Theodore Honey, a normally reserved but very absorbed engineer caught up in his work, surrounded by a pack of hustle and bustle Brits.
Good support from Glynis Johns as the stewardess aboard the Reindeer and Marlene Dietrich as movie star Monica Teasdale, also a passenger aboard the airplane, both of whom get caught up in Honey's apprehension and fears of an impending disaster that he is certain is staring them in the face, although nobody else really takes any of it seriously...
His solution to keeping the airplane grounded until his lab tests are concluded is certainly an interesting turn of events.Considering the vintage of this film (1951) it has decent F/X and remains a bit of a period piece, demonstrating how air travel used to be done before mass transport Jumbo Jets and economy class seating.
even though they may have doubts about his work and his theories.Good cast across the board, with some standouts like Jack Hawkins who is always fine, and Marlene Dietrich who at first seems to be there solely as Star Appeal although after a bit of time passes, her presence becomes more and more genuine.
and as a sidenote, for the look back at the way the fledgling airline industry and how it was coming into its own.It also inadvertently provides a sobering point to ponder since this film was produced several years before the British De Haviland Comet jet airliner entered service and disastrously became aviation's first great example of the potential for a catastrophic structural failure caused by a design fault, which although corrected quickly, still didn't save the airliner from the stigma it suffered when several crashed after they experienced explosive decompression at high altitude from something as simple as having cabin windows too large and the wrong shape.The British airline industry must have collectively flashed back to this film during the mid-1950s and the Comet's woes, and how prophetic "No Highway In The Sky" must have seemed at the time.This film also includes some considerable supporting talent, almost all of which went uncredited, such as Kenneth More and Wilfrid Hyde-White..
(e.g. The British Comet disasters of the early 50's happened after this film was made) (Also think about the engineers at Thiokol battling NASA over the Challenger launch) James Stewart, a pilot himself, shows us that this courage of facts versus opinion and profit is the courage that should be encouraged and rewarded.35+ years later, I am an engineer and I owe a great deal of it to this film..
The film is well written and acted by Jimmy Steward, Glynis Johns, Marlene Dietrich, and Jack Hawkins.
An enduring film masterpiece for thoughtful adults.The supporting actors are first rate: the daughter was surprising believable, the wonderful Glynis Johns in her usual dream performance.
I recently discovered this film on cable and found it to play somewhat like a long "Twilight Zone" episode where Stewart's character who is a scientist tries to convince the pilot of a transatlantic flight that the airline's structure will collapse and that everyone will be killed unless they turn back.
His daughter Janette Scott is a bright little girl, approaching her puberty though and not real well equipped to handle it.Stewart is convinced that a new type metal alloy used on a new line of aircraft passenger planes will weaken after so many hours of flight and cause crashes.
He is a respected scientist and people listen to him, like stewardess Glynis Johns and traveling film star Marlene Dietrich.Of course when the tail section does not fall off in the time he thought, Stewart is made the object of ridicule.
Stood her in very good stead in Scott's later career.Poor Marlene, two films with James Stewart and she didn't get him in either.
Expect to see airplanes furnished like ships of the era, with good service, plenty of room, people really traveling (dressing up, sharing stories with each other, having a sense of wonder about being somewhere else).Also note the curious American/English contrast between Stewart and his household servant.
Stewart plays Theadore Honey, a brilliant aeronautical engineer who has discovered a flaw in the design of a new airplane that will result in its tail falling off after a certain number of air hours.
This movie is a great example early stress testing methods, even though the lead character (Mr. Honey, played by James Stewart) is a stereotypical scatterbrained genius.
I believe I already knew about that tragedy by the time I saw the movie "No Highway In the Sky", so I didn't think it was funny at all, in fact I assumed that Metal Fatigue was the cause of the tails falling off (not sure whether the movie mentions that though).Neville Shute by the way, has written a number of excellent aviation thrillers, but the only other one I remember was called "Cone of Silence".
I have to point out to start with that I read the book first, so I came to the film with a lot of ideas and preconceptions.The choice of Jimmy Stewart to play Theodore Honey was a bit of a shock.
The technical side is very clearly handled, but then Shute was an aeronautical engineer as well as a novelist.Glynis Johns and Marlene Dietrich are wonderful in their tangled relationships with Honey.You've probably never heard of this film.
The drama aboard the tense overseas flight involves Marlene Dietrich as Monica Teasdale, a glamorous film star; a touching Glynis Johns as Marjorie, a sympathetic stewardess; and Kenneth Moore as the co-pilot.
Jack Hawkins appears as Scott, a new department manager, and Wilfred Hyde White makes a brief appearance as a researcher.While uneven and unconvincing at times, "No Highway in the Sky" offers a priceless look at air travel more than half a century ago, a fine James Stewart performance, and the timeless beauty of Marlene Dietrich.
I just saw this film and found it very entertaining, something I was quite dubious about when it started; a very old film, black and white, small screen..., but it's so tightly drawn that grabs your interest from the very beginning and there are no let downs from there on to the very end.The tension created from the beginning keeps going for quite a while, not in a nerve wrecking manner, but in a quiet, subdue undercurrent that will keep you interested until the final denouement.Sometimes it's very interesting to watch old films --let's say from two, three generations ago-- because without us realizing it, as life goes on, costumes change unnoticeably on a day to day basis and our memory being quite short, forgets "how things were" back then and a movie like this one brings to the present manners, places, vehicles, that that to us now look prehistoric, but fascinating.For example, the plane itself, central motif of the whole picture; it seems a dream to us now to see that passengers had so much room in front of their legs (almost a small salon in front of every two seats) exquisite stewardesses with tailor made uniforms, impeccably well groomed, taking care of you with superb manners; a plane with very large windows, actually more like a train in the air than an airplane as we know them.I tend to think that this airplane was totally idealized, as any Hollywood product at the time used to be idealized for whatever reasons the studios then could have had.
Put Jimmy Stewart, Marlene Dietrich and Glynis Johns together and you have a love story with a time bomb ticking.
Rather unpleasant melodrama, released abroad simply as "No Highway", has fidgety scientist James Stewart flying in a crowded plane that he believes will suffer from metal fatigue; convincing the other passengers they are in great danger becomes quite a problem.
Those of us who were kids in the '60s and had parents who loved classic films watched "Saturday Night at the Movies," and I'm fairly certain No Highway had its TV debut there.The story concerns Theodore Honey, an expatriate widower who is a real absent minded scientist type.
Glynis Johns is the flight attendant who remains gracious and unflappable, despite the fact that Theodore is a little strange.The plane lands early due to bad weather, and Theodore forces the issue so that he can prove his theory.
So does he.Johns is lovely, and there is a good performance by Jack Hawkins, but the standout, besides Stewart, is glamorous and stunning Marlene Dietrich as film star Monica Teasdale.
In this film called " No Highway in the Sky " James Stewart (An actual pilot in real life) plays Theodore Honey a scientific and theoretical Engineer who develops an outlandish theory about a new airplane.
The scientist in him is so sure of himself that while flying on said airplane, he convinces a popular movie actress Monica Teasdale (Marlene Dietrich) to prepare for a crash landing at sea.
James Stewart (the most underrated of American male stars), Marlene Dietrich, and Glynis Johns all shine in their roles.
This film is a bit of a mixture.Stewart doing his Mr Smith character.Marlene being a film star,what else.Glyn is John's going to look after Jeanette Scott,was that part of the airline service?As a film it doesn't really hold together,rather like the film.
Brilliant but slightly eccentric RAE scientist Theodore Honey (Stewart) has a theory that the tail section on the new "Rutland Reindeer" aircraft may fail suddenly via metal fatigue, after an exact number of flight hours.
Today Bangor airport is like a ghost town; plenty of aircraft pass by, but almost no international flights stop there any more.Anyway this film, whilst it (quite understandably) doesn't portray the science with perfect accuracy, stands up pretty well as entertainment; Jimmy Stewart had a knack of playing eccentric characters with a disarming deftness (think of his role as Mr Dowd the film 'Harvey' from the year before, for instance) and this is a case in point.
Marlene Dietrich plays well but really her role is incidental to that of Glynis Johns, who is utterly charming in this film as stewardess/nurse Corder.
I don't know how many real-life scientists would appreciate this, but it makes for a fascinating character dynamic.The section of the film on board the airplane is a predecessor to disaster movies to follow which would follow which would feature a diverse array of characters in danger.
I'm a fan of Glynis Johns (this was the first movie I noticed her in, another reason I love the film), and a romantic who does not like suspense about the happiness of an ending, only the details.
Nice Gem. No Highway in the Sky (1951) *** (out of 4) James Stewart plays a scientist who has a theory that a certain plane model will lose its tail in flight after so many hours in the sky.
This film was made before the Comet disasters, and the public probably had little knowledge of the subject.The biggest problem, in my view, is casting James Stewart as Dr Theo Honey (the "boffin" whose research forms the core of the plot).
Whereas in the book, Norway builds up Mr Honey's character much more subtly: Honey is all too acutely aware of the implications of his research, he tragically lacks the "front" to convince others of what his work means.I thought the pilot, Captain Samuelson, was likewise coarsely drawn in the film relative to the book.On the other hand, Marlene Dietrich cast as Monica Teasdale is pretty much spot-on.
The slightly autistic and introverted aeronautical engineer, as portrayed by James Stewart, while mostly credible, makes a late discovery that indicates a recently developed plane's structure will fail from metal fatigue after exactly 1440 hours of flying time (and not just approximately 1400 hours, mind you!).
No Highway in the Sky (1951)Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart team up again, after the crazy and rather terrific "Destry Rides Again," for a very different kind of movie.
While the science in this thing is decidedly weak (the concept of the fatigue failure mechanism, while not unrealistic in and of itself, is grossly oversimplified and peppered with references virtually alchemistic in their arcane irrelevance), the thing that makes the movie special is the crafting of the characters.While in real life Jimmy Stewart was a life-long aviation enthusiast who was an accomplished civilian and combat pilot and even a brigadier general in the United States Air Force Reserve, here he is cast as just the opposite -- a classic laboratory-bound research type who by modern standards (c.
(It has become popular in some parts of the news media to sometimes attribute Asperger's to the even some of the most successful people in the tech industry.) The fact that during the events that make up the plot Stewart actually becomes emotionally connected enough to his fellow human beings to risk everything he has to save their lives represents a something of a watershed moment in his character's life.Marlene Dietrich, in turn, comes across as one of those movie actresses you hear about sometimes who is a star not only on but also off the screen, an insightful lady who is very sure of what she knows and what she can do, regardless of what others might think, and who is as absolutely fearless in her own much more sociable way as Stewart can be in his awkward way in taking charge and asserting herself where she sees the need.
"No Highway in the Sky" is a very good British cinematic drama directed by Henry Koster and starring my favorite actor James Stewart.
Mr. Honey has put a great deal of work into his theory that a certain type of metallic aircraft known as a Reindeer will crack up from metal fatigue after 1,440 hours of flying time.
Two women on the plane who sympathize with Mr. Honey and believe in the urgency of his eventual fears are Monica Teasdale (Marlene Dietrich), a famous movie actress, and Marjorie Corder (Glynis Johns), one of the two stewardesses.Let's discuss a few of the main characters of "No Highway in the Sky." James Stewart is simply wonderful as Theodore Honey, a very kind & soft-spoken man who is quite humorous in his few bits of gawky absentmindedness as he works in a house that is overly cluttered with books and papers; he even has a strangely urgent way of walking.
And now, aboard the airplane, he meets two women, Glynnis Johns, a stewardess, and Marlene Dietrich, who is Monica Teasdale, the famous film star.
The story holds up pretty well though the technology looks dated now.James Stewart , Marlene Dietrich, and Glynis Johns head up a talented cast about a new technology passenger plane called the "Reindeer" which gets into the air without being properly tested for possible problems.
While flying on another Reindeer, he finds out that they are in danger of a crash.The chemistry between Dietrich, Johns, & Stewart helps to carry the story.
Having recently read "No Highway In the Sky" by Neville Shute, I watched the 1951 film "No Highway |with James Stewart playing Theodore Honey, Marlene Dietrich as the aging film star, Monica Teasdale, and Glynis Johns as the stewardess Marjorie Corder who takes a shine to Mr Honey {as does Monica Teasdale}, Of course, compression is inevitable when transferring a novel of several hundred pages to a film running only 98 minutes, but it is remarkable how true to the source the director Henry Koster remains despite the fact that some plot elements seem rushed through.
The cast is James Stewart (Theodore Honey, an extremely eccentric, absent-minded scientist), Marlene Dietrich (Monica Teasdale, a popular actress), Glynis Johns, (Marjorie Corder, stewardess who befriends the Honey family) & Jack Hawkins (Dennis Scott, Honey's boss).Honey has a theory that a "Reindeer" Airplane crash was caused when the tail cracked & dropped off.
To add to the movie's problems, Jimmy Stewart over-acts and turns his character into a caricature.
The casting is also very good, with Marlene Dietrich essentially playing herself, Jack Hawkins as the sole ally, and Glynis Johns as a sympathetic stewardess..
Only Jimmy's character makes me not hate engineers for an hour and a half.Be that as it may, this is a very engaging movie about an airliner that Mr. Honey is convinced is going to crash and he tries to get them grounded. |
tt0406816 | The Guardian | The plot follows Senior Chief Petty Officer Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) and Airman Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) at the United States Coast Guard's Aviation Survival Technician (AST) Program. Ben Randall is the top rescue swimmer who continues to work against regulation past the age of 40. Jake Fischer is a hot-shot candidate for AST who was ranked as a top competitive swimmer in high school with scholarships to every Ivy league college and university, but opted to enlist in the Coast Guard instead in hopes of becoming an AST. The movie title is introduced by a mythic tale: People lost at sea often claim they feel a presence lifting them to the surface, breathing life into their bodies while they are waiting for help to arrive. They call this presence "The Guardian."Ben, who has been juggling his home life and work as a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, is confronted by his wife asking for a separation due to his frequent time at work. During the argument, he receives a page for an immediate rescue. Out at sea, he loses his rescue team in an HH-60J Jayhawk helicopter mishap, and while waiting in a survival raft, his best friend, Chief Petty Officer Carl Billings, dies due to injury, cold, and shock. Additionally, Ben had placed a victim into the helicopter's rescue basket who was abruptly pulled under with the sinking helicopter and was never seen again. Shaken, he is forced to either retire or to teach at a Coast Guard training school to recompose in which he reluctantly chooses the latter. Here, Jake arrives as a hopeful AST candidate at "A" school. Ben is considered a legend with a countless number of saves.Actual Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers in a training exerciseBen goes against protocol as an instructor and teaches as he wills, while Jake is the usual arrogant, but good-hearted student. During the training, Jake meets a local schoolteacher, Emily Thomas, and begins a "casual" relationship, as they both know his time there is limited. Once the initial, grueling weeks of training are over, and more than half of the students dropped (the school's Commandant almost boasts of an attrition rate of more than 50%), detailed instruction begins at the academy.After sleeping at his girlfriends house, Jake arrives late to class and is confronted by the waiting Ben. Unexpectedly, Jake is not dropped, although he is punished for his tardiness. Ben tries to force Jake into quitting, but he later sees his persistence and dedication. Meeting Emily in a bar, Jake tells her about him beating all of his instructor's, Ben Randall's, records. However, Maggie the barkeep, an old friend of Ben's, tells Jake of an unbreakable record: On a rescue at a ship fire (The Aegis), Ben worked tirelessly to save all the victims. With one man left and a broken winch, Randall held the man by his fingertips for the entire flight to land, resulting in extensive injuries to his hand and shoulder, a record that could never be broken. Jake is humbled.That night, Jake and Emily are at her house and Jake proposes they go on a date. Emily denies the date with Jake to stick to their "casual relationship" but later gives in to the date and they sleep together again. Later, during instruction, Jake's friend Charlie Hodge is unable to cope with panicked victims in the water and is afraid of failing school, so Jake takes him out for a drink before his date with Emily to cheer him up. After ending up in a Navy bar, they get involved in a fight and land in jail, leaving Jake's girlfriend stood up. Jake arrives back at base beaten and bandaged where he takes the blame entirely.Ben confronts Jake as to why he left his prospects as a competitive swimmer to join the AST program, and tells Jake what he learned about Jake's past: on a late night out, Jake, the designated driver, got into an accidental automobile crash, resulting in the deaths of his high school relay team. After a moment of sorrow, Ben and Jake share common ground, now they both know how it feels like to be the only survivor. Jake asks what Bens real number of saves is; no answer is given. Instruction is nearing completion and Jake takes to the role of leader during exercises. At graduation only a handful of the original candidates remain. Emily comes to see her boyfriend graduate, but the two must say goodbye because Jake is leaving town. Jake and Emily find saying goodbye to each other overwhelming by sharing a hug and kiss, then they slowly walk away from each other.Jake is assigned to CG Air Station Kodiak, Alaska for protection of the Bering Sea, Randalls post and the same post Jake wants to be assigned to in the first place. On a mission together they are sent to rescue two kayakers trapped in a cave. Fischer enters the cave and lights a flare. This brings back painful memories as Ben flashes back to his crew's disaster. After rescuing the first victim Jake returns to find Ben locked up unable to move. Ben's victim had hit a log and had a head laceration, which reminded him of the night he lost his crew. Jake continues to rescue both the second victim and Ben. At this point Ben realizes he cannot continue. Against his commander's wishes he retires. Jake again asks Ben what the number is. Twenty-two is the answer, the number of people Ben couldn't save, the only number he kept track of. Finding his wifes house, Ben goes in to apologize. He gives her the divorce papers and his wedding ring while they both act remorseful. Ben reveals that he has retired and slowly makes his way out. Ben returns to station to clear his office when he hears the radio chatter of a rescuer needed. Jake is to be sent to rescue four sailors trapped on a sinking vessel.Three seamen are rescued while the ship's captain is trapped in the hull. While Jake refuses to leave the captain, the chopper leaves to refuel. Finally freeing the captain, the door to the room is sealed shut by water and debris. Trapped in the room the hull begins to fill with seawater. Moreover, waves hit the vessel, causing the captain to hit his head against a pipe.In addition, an oxygen tank falls on the captain's body, killing him in the process. Ben Randall is the only rescue swimmer available to save Jake. He promptly begins to gather his gear. On scene, Ben is lowered onto the vessel. Getting snagged on the mast he is forced to unhook and climb down. At this point Jake has very little breathing room. Finding the sealed door, the water is released and Jake is freed. Back on deck they both hook to the rescue cable. Halfway up, the winch jams and the cable begins to unravel. Ben, realizing it can't hold both of them, unhooks and tries to fall. Jake catches and will not let him go, holding onto him by his glove simply saying, "I won't let go." Ben understandingly says, "I know." and unstraps his glove, plummeting from a fatal height into the ocean. Desperate to go in, Jake isn't allowed, as the only cable they have is broken and are afraid to lose Jake as well; the spotlights never see Ben resurface.Then, Jake Fischer begins to narrate. "The Coast Guard conducted one of the largest search-and-rescue missions for a single man in its history, but the body of Senior Chief Ben Randall was never found. What makes a legend? Is it what someone did when they were alive... or how they're remembered after they're gone? Some people actually believe Senior Chief made the swim to the Aleutian Islands. He's standing on a distant beach somewhere with a fishing pole in his hand. But I found my answer a couple of weeks later..." Weeks later, Jake is again sent to rescue a man. Upon retrieval, the victim keeps asking where the other man is. Jake realizes that 'someone' helped him, staying with him until help came. "He never let go", the man said. Jake attributes this to Ben's presence and continues his narration. "There's a legendof a man who lives beneath the sea. He's a fisher of men. A last hope for all those who have been left behind. He is known as The Guardian (Senior Chief Ben Randall). Ben Randall always said life is about making choices. In the end, by making his, he helped me make mine."This narration Jake makes refers to being reunited with Emily for good. In saying so, he visits Emily at the elementary school she teaches at. Because her class was interrupted by Jake, Emily pauses her class, approaches him and asks, "What are you doing here?" Jake answers, "I lied to youI can't do casual." There, Emily kisses Jake happily. | suspenseful, action, sentimental | train | imdb | But for the most part, the movie tells the tale of two lives that come together, and after some time, help each other heal old wounds.As girlie as it sounds, Costner and, as much as I try not to like him, Kutcher do actually work quite well together and compliment each other very well in the movie.As critics have stated, you've seen it all before..
Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner did amazing acting work in this film.
Being a big fan of That 70's Show I always found it hard thinking of Kutcher as anyone but Kelso despite the great acting he did in The Butterfly Effect, but after seeing this movie I think I might be able to finally look at him as a serious actor.It was also a great tribute to the unsung heroes of the U.S. Coast Guard..
I went to an advance screening of this movie thinking I was about to embark on 120 minutes of cheezy lines, mindless plot, and the kind of nauseous acting that made "The Postman" one of the most malignant displays of cinematic blundering of our time.
The trailers looked good, but the water theme was giving me bad flashbacks to the last Kevin Costner movie that dealt with the subject - Waterworld.
You can quibble about its clichés, predictability, and rare moments of overcooked sappiness, but none of that takes away from the entertainment value.I had a bad feeling that the pace would slow too much when Costner started training the young guys, but on the contrary, the training sessions just might be the most interesting aspect of the film.
Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers are heroes whose stories have never really been portrayed on the big screen, so I feel the inside look at what they go through and how tough it is to make it is very informative and a great way to introduce audiences to this under-appreciated group.Do you have what it takes to be a rescue swimmer?
I had no idea what it was really like for these guys, and who would have thought I'd have an Ashton Kutcher/Kevin Costner movie to thank for the education?
I attended an advance screening of this film not sure of what to expect from Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher; both have delivered less than memorable performances & films.
The human frailties and strengths of their respective characters were incredibly played by both; the scene when Costner confronts Kutcher with the personal reasons why Kutcher joined the Coast Guard rescue elite was the film's most unforgettable emotional moment.
The film wonderfully, and finally, gives long overdue exposure and respect to the Coast Guard; it had the audience applauding at the end..
I was pleasantly surprised to find this movie showing as a sneak preview in my local theater.We have all seen this plot line before (Top Gun, GI Jane, An Officer and a Gentleman) but a good script still works.
The movie takes us through the rigors of the training process and the personal stories of both the Costner character and that of Jake Fischer, played by Ashton Kutcher.
I really enjoy watching a movie that makes the entire audience laugh out loud, gasp here and there, and clap at the end as a tribute to the movie.We all had a good time (despite a couple of tough moments in the movie)and, I think, you will too..
Overall, it was a good movie and I would recommend seeing it.In conclusion: Good Characters, Great Plot, Poorly Written/Edited Ending.
Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher gave convincing performances as the fictional helicopter rescue swimmer characters Ben and Jake.
You actually felt like you were taking part in a real rescue.I feel the movie could have been made without the "Hollywood" bar scene (when you see the movie, you might agree) since the real Coast Guard does not condone such behavior.
I'm not going to spoil the movie but this really follows along the lines of An Officer and a Gentleman and those moments give it a little bit of a cheesy aftertaste.Like I said over all this movie is pretty good and worth checking out as long as you can get past the clichés..
Some of the scenes were just not believable and didn't have enough story line support.Though the movie claims influence from the hurricane Katrina aftermath, there was very little (none) to that effect in the movie.Overall, I liked the fact that the movie brought forward some of what goes into saving lives from a water perspective.The special effects were pretty good and more than a little intimidating.
Not sure I'll ever go deep sea fishing again...I expected a little more emotion in the film than what was presented.Definitely a movie that could've been seen on DVD..
During the film I was recalling movies like Top Gun and The Perfect Storm, just to name a couple.Also, Costner is, quite simply, a flat actor who is devoid of character.
So my conclusion: the men and women of the Coast Guard deserve a film like this, but the movie-going public deserved a better film.The Guardian doesn't separate itself by anything other than a cool movie poster.
FIGHT for your vision to be returned to this fine movie.Okay, for the audience yet to be
and I of course mean those of you outside the demographic that those soulless, visionless hacks that handle the money-side of film-making are seeking
You, gentle, mature, moviegoer, let me share with you a few words of wisdom: When the late voice-over by Kutcher finishes as it was originally meant to be finished, SPRINT for the exit.
Any movie that he is in is going to be all about a studio receiving large sums of money; it is not going to be about great acting and making the film in question the best picture live up to it's full potential.
Kevin's character I just felt wasn't that sympathetic, I don't know if it was just the writing or the way it was presented, but I just wouldn't recommend this movie, it was too long and too predictable.
I knew nothing more of this film before I watched it other than it starred Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner (what has happened to him!?)yet I was able to spell out the entire plot including the ending after seeing the first 5 minutes.I'd watch it only b/c it's like a car crash...it's so bad but you can't tear your eyes away..
I'm not a die hard Kevin Costner fan and I think Ashton Kutcher is good, but wow!
Thus it is with men like Kevin Costner who plays Ben Randall, an experienced, senior Chief who has a myriad of dark images in his heart and mind, some of which haunt him as he assumes the title of Instructor at a U.S. Coast Guard school for "Swimmers.".
I knew Richard Gere, and I can assure you that Ashton Kutcher is no Richard Gere.This movie is so clean that the Coast Guard could use it for a recruiting film.
It tells the story of two men, Costner's character being a Coast Guard veteran turned teacher, and Kutcher's role being an ambitious up-and-coming coast Guard wannabe.
Living in a country where the seas can be very precarious and boating rescues are fairly commonplace, it is heart-lifting to see a film which celebrates the fantastic work that the Coast Guard do in a manner that does this great service justice.The premise of 'The Guardian' is rather simple.
But both are men with similarly tragic pasts, which serve to bond them as Fischer graduates and takes on a job as a rescue swimmer.Kevin Costner, who plays Randall, proves he is starting to overcome the stint in his acting career as he gives a strong, effective performance in his role, bringing to his character a quality that leaves the audience in awe of this everyday hero who, at the core, just a normal man trying to do a job he cares passionately about.
It was a film that strongly depicted the hard-work, dedication and bravery required of Coast Guard recruits and the precarious rescues those qualified have to perform.
I like Kevin Costner and do not know Ashton Kutcher's work.
(Synopsis) Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) is the only survivor after his helicopter is forced down and crashes into the water during a rescue mission at sea.
With Ben's training and Jake's dedication, Jake becomes the best of the best.(My Comment) This was a terrific movie about the Coast Guard rescue swimmers and the missions they perform.
Kevin Costner does a great job and Ashton Kutcher surprised me in that he was a serious actor in this film.
Buried in it's niche action of ocean rescuing however, the formulaic nature often takes a back seat to what this movie offers best- an entertaining, often insightful and realistically rendered depiction of this elite underwater training routine, no doubt guided by on-site experts, given the films surprising attention to detail.
The only thing that I would like to add for people who haven't seen this film is to not think about if like other movies like Top Gun or G.I. Jane, but think of it, like I said, as a biography to those many many men and women who gave their lives to save others, to those who are still prepared to give their lives for others, and those who support them and live their lives wondering if they will lose their loved ones.
I don't think I've ever seen a better Costner film and by the end I was so emotionally attached to the characters I felt as if we were related and if they got hurt or in trouble I physically felt worried.
It's something we don't always pay attention to and the movie has opened my eyes to this.The passion that the coast guard (Kevin Costner) shows towards the victims, and how he would go to extremes to save them is something that i admire.Ashton Kuthcer was perfectly chosen for this role.
The fact that Costner plays an "unconventional" teacher who "won't give up" on Kutcher's character, and that they have more in common and learn to overcome their dislike of each other and in the end have a mutual respect, the way the events unfold and even the lines that are used to unfold them, it's one tired cliché after another.
But I digress, the point is that the movie takes so long and yet focuses on so little besides Costner and Kutcher.
The movie follows the character development of Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) and Ben Randall (Kevin Costner).
Continuing my plan to watch every Kevin Costner movie in his filmography in order, I come to 2006's The Guardian Plot In A Paragraph: Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) a high school swim champion, enrolls in the U.S. Coast Guard's "A" School, where legendary rescue swimmer Ben Randall (KC) teaches him some hard lessons as he believes he is there for the wrong reasons.There is absolutely nothing new here, we've seen everything before.
But I for one find it an enjoyable movie.Almost every cliché is ticked along the way, (I think the only one they missed is Kutchers love interest not being KC's daughter) but that doesn't meant it isn't good.
Costner plays a Coast Guard legend, who, after a tragic and traumatic accident at sea, gets assigned to teaching and takes hotshot recruit Ashton Kutcher, who had been a swim champion (and who has a similar incident in his past) under his wing as his protégée.
"The Guardian" stars Ashton Kutcher as a top swimmer training for the Coast Guard and Kevin Costner as an experienced, veteran rescue swimmer as the trainer.
Costner and Kutcher are great together; it's the type of role you expect to see Costner in, and the type of role you want to see Kutcher in.I loved seeing the Coast Guard on display and although I don't know exactly what it's like, this film is probably a little dramatized but realistic enough to accept it.
The length is especially highlighted when watching it on TV, the 3 and a half hours of action/drama is a bit much even for the biggest fans.All in all, "The Guardian" is a pretty good movie, standard characters, and no divergence from the expected path, but its done well.
Casting Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher in the same film easily could scream major flop, however this movie is actually rather engaging.
Jake's constant struggle and drive to be the best connects to the audience and we get to really root for the guy.The story touches on some personal hardships that many people face in their lives and it does well to not try and solve them in a two hour time span, but rather lets them play out.There are some scenes that do drag a little and with any film with montages there can be some scenes that drag or become repetitive.
I personally don't like Kevin Costner but this movie showed me wrong.
High school all star swimmer Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) turned down every Ivy League school scholarship to go the U.S. Coast Guard training center to be a rescue swimmer.
Kevin Costner teaches Ashton Kutcher a thing or two about saving people at sea in the goofily-named THE GUARDIAN, which is all about the Coast Guard.
Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) is the greatest Coast Guard lifesaver of all time.
There are definitely some good moments -- I liked the bar fight scene between the Navy and the Coast Guard.
I liked how there was finally a film made about the Coast Guard, which has to be like the only major force never appearing in movies.
I guess there WERE some moments in it that were very moving, but based mainly on the rather surprisingly good job that Ashton did (I'm NOT really a fan of his, but I do think that he actually was ACTING pretty decently here compared to his earlier stuff) I didn't buy Costner's role AT ALL, not for a moment; he came across easily as the WEAKEST military type instructor in ANY related type film in existence.
Big-shot legendary rescuer Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) loses his whole crew out at sea in a rescue mission gone wrong, as well as his marriage, and is instructed to take a "time-out" to teach at a prestigious coast guard school.
Ashton Kutcher is at least not notably bad in his acting efforts, especially when the grueling coast guard training sessions demand our attention and sympathy for his character.
But it looks like he made a star out of Ashtom Kutcher.Overall, an above average film, with good actors and special effects, but the story lacks originality.
This movie shows the reality of the Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers.
Like many others, I was a little apprehensive about going to see an action movie starring Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner.
Ashton Kutcher plays very good, some say that he's a bad actor, this movie proves they are wrong.
This predictable but interesting mainstream movie has Kevin Costner in is usual environment, playing the usual flawed though this time heroic Coast Guard savior.
It is a tale of veteran coast guard Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) who after a tragic rescue operation and a troubled marriage is assigned to train new recruits at coast guard training school.He meets cocky Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) a swimming champion who has joined the coast guard training and who starts a casual relationship with another teacher while in training.At first Ben and Jake do not get along but gradually come to respect each other especially as Jake opens up about his past.The film is just too formulaic, you have seen elements of it in films like Top Gun or Backdraft.
Director Andrew Davis excels in the coast guard rescue scenes but too much of the film is choppy..
Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) is a veteran Coast Guard rescue swimmer.
But just because we've seen something done before doesn't mean the same story can't make a good movie.From 2006, The Guardian is the story of Chief Petty Officer Ben Randall (Kevin Costner), a rescue swimmer for the Coast Guard who is still working despite the retirement age of 40.
I love movies that are based on real groups, like "Act of Valor" and "G.I. Jane", but what set this apart was the connection between Costner and Kutcher.
Rehash of AN OFFICER stars Kevin Costner as an aging Coast Guard rescue specialist who becomes a trainer, and takes new recruit Ashton Kutcher under his wing.
At times, this looks like a recruiting film for the Coast Guard.
It is basically the story of a washed-up U.S. Coast Guard swimmer(Kevin Costner), who loses his team in a rescue mission.
If you see names like Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher on Movie credits, many people may write off the film because of them for the best or the worst.
I always thought he was amazing actor and Director but just because of his huge success in 80's, he became a victim of his own success (Water world, Postman, Wyatt Earp that I personally adore those films) Kevin Costner plays USCG rescue swimmer turns into a teacher after he lost his team in rescue mission, and Ashton Kutcher is for his student.
Sure CGI has been done in Perfect Storm, but no one can take well written characters and great performances by both Kevin Costner and Ashton Catcher away from this film.
The performance of Kevin Costner is very realistic, you have feel that you watching a real hero not just in movie.
Well, I'm not a fan of Ashton Kutcher but he is good in this movie.
i love that Kevin Costner , although one of the main characters, is not the real focus of this movie.
I was watching this movie the other night and it showed how dedicated the Coast Guard is.
And i encourage whether your thinking of joining the US Coast Guard or just want to see a movie what there lives are like as a coastie. |
tt3365778 | Respire | The film begins with Charlie (Joséphine Japy) waking up to the sound of her parents arguing. It appears Charlie's mother, Vanessa (Isabelle Carré) is accusing Charlie's father (Radivoje Bukvic) of cheating with a woman from work. Charlie and her father have a nonchalant attitude towards the argument, suggesting that her mother makes these accusations on a regular basis. As Charlie's father manages to calm her mother down, he engages in awkward and forced conversation about breakfast and school with Charlie, in an attempt to pretend everything is as usual. Charlie declines an offer from her father on getting a lift to school and we then see him driving away while Charlie watches before leaving on foot.Charlie arrives at school and seems to have a more normal relationship with her friends, as she happily greets them before her lessons. She also makes thoughtful contributions in a debate about passion and freedom, which her teacher commends her for. In the next scene, we see Charlie enjoying herself with her friends as she has lunch with them and is amused during a match of table football. Charlie walks home with her best friend, Victoire (Roxane Duran) as they have simple discussions about boys and school. When Charlie gets home, her mother is sat in the dark, smoking and looking solemn. "Did he leave?" asks Charlie. "Yeah. I think so," her mother replies looking calm. However, later Charlie lays in bed unable to sleep from the sound of her mother crying.The next day, Charlie is sat in an amusing math class, laughing with the rest of the class as a boy at the front tries to solve an equation. As it goes on, there's a knock at the door and a member of staff enters with a new girl, Sarah Perrin (Lou de Laâge). Sarah seems excited and friendly and even helps the boy at the front with the equation before being seated next to Charlie. They exchange a friendly glance. Later, during gymnastics, Charlie curiously watches Sarah as she moves. While outside with her friends, Charlie is approached by Sarah who asks her if she could help her with the history homework. They agree to do it at Charlie's house. Sarah offers Charlie's friends some cigarettes and she explains they are from Nigeria as she lived there for 4 years while her mum worked for an NGO. After some rebels crossed the border and created a mess, she moved back to France to graduate. She adds that her mother still lives in Nigeria and she lives with her aunt.Sarah walks home with Charlie and Victoire. She tells an interesting story about an experience back in London which the girls enjoy, presumably because their own conversations aren't usually exciting. When Victoire leaves, Charlie explains to Sarah that she has known her since 6th grade. The scene cuts to Charlie's house where Charlie, her mother and Sarah are having enjoying Sarah's company as she talks about her annoying aunt. The phone interrupts their amusement and the mood instantly changes: Charlie knows it is her father calling. When her mother leaves to take the call, Charlie mentions her mother had her when she was 18. When Sarah asks about Charlie's father, Charlie says "she should just tell him to fuck off." Sarah immediately gets up and grabs the phone downstairs the listen to their conversation and says "Leave her alone. Fuck off." Her mother runs down in a frenzy, stunned that the girls would do something like that as she is worried he may actually leave for good. Charlie and Sarah begin laughing hysterically.Over the next few scenes, we see Charlie and Sarah spend more time together and begin to bond. They appear to unintentionally isolate themselves from the rest of the friendship group and grow closer. Sarah even does Charlie's make up one night and calls her beautiful before they head to a party and have a good time. Sarah looks after Charlie by holding up her hair when she is drunk and vomiting in the toilet.One day, Charlie's dad comes over the house to visit. He goes outside and sees Charlie sunbathing. He offers her a cigarette and she makes a comment about how irresponsible he is. He doesn't seem to care and remarks that he knows she smokes anyway. She accepts the cigarette. He begins to tickle her and she laughs; it is clear she does love her father despite his destructive behaviour. Charlie's mother watches from the window, smiling slightly at the sight of them bonding.Later that day, after Charlie's father has left, Charlie is sitting on the stairs listening to a conversation between her mother and Laura (Claire Keim), looking expressionless. Her mother explains that Charlie's father is growing more violent. Laura begins crying, exclaiming that if he touches her in anyway she will kill him. Charlie's mother says "I'm afraid." Charlie enters the room as if she were not listening. Laura immediately changes the subject and begins talking about getting a dog. Charlie and her mother laugh weakly as if everything is normal. Laura invites Charlie to go with her to Vince and Marie's camp for All Saints Day. Charlie thinks it would be awesome but her mother protests that it would be awkward as she hasn't seen them in years. Laura persuades them to go anyway. Just then, the phone rings and it is Sarah. She explains to Charlie that her mother was supposed to come to France for All Saints Day but cancelled last minute. She comments that her mother couldn't care less and now she has to spend it with her annoying aunt. Charlie comforts her over the phone.The next scene shows Charlie, Charlie's mother, Laura and Sarah in an old car. It is suggested Charlie ended up inviting Sarah to the camp for All Saints Day. They are all hysterically laughing and genuinely seem happy. When they arrive, Sarah catches the eye of a handsome man with a wheelbarrow called Esteban (Alejandro Albarracín) who appears to do handy work for the camp. Later, while they are hanging out in the woods, Sarah comments about having sex with a British boy. She asks Charlie about her sexual experiences. Charlie says that she is a virgin but was close to losing her virginity with a boy called Lucas from school before she began crying from the pain and couldn't continue. She adds that she hasn't told anyone, not even her best friend Victoire. The chat ends light-heartedly with the girls laughing and running from the sound of an animal in the bushes.Later, while they are rolling up what looks like a cigarette, a local called Paul (Victor Assié) walks up to Charlie and Sarah and greets Charlie, asking if she remembers him. Charlie gets up to greet Paul back but accidentally drops her towel and flashes her naked body to him, causing Sarah to burst out laughing while Charlie appears mortified. Paul just calmly looks on. Charlie mentions that it has been ages since she last saw him. Charlie briefly introduces Sarah as her classmate before Paul confirms whether or not Charlie is going for drinks later. She agrees and he leaves. Sarah appears hurt and when Charlie asks why, she says that she would have introduced her as a friend, not a classmate. Charlie stays silent and Sarah tries to brush it off, appearing more quick-tempered and bitter towards Charlie as they continue making the cigarettes.The scene cuts to Charlie attempting to zip the back of her dress, visibly struggling. Sarah gets up and does it for her and hugs her. It appears she has gotten over the earlier incident. We see Sarah, Charlie, Charlie's mother enjoying drinks with a group of people at a table. Sarah seems to be flirting with Esteban, the man from earlier with the wheelbarrow. That evening, in the caravan, Sarah and Charlie improvise a fictional scene between Sarah and Esteban. Sarah pretends Charlie is Esteban and kisses Charlie. She then slaps Charlie as part of the act and laughs. Charlie looks stunned.The next morning we see Charlie's mother leave Esteban's caravan, giggling. It is clear they spent the night together. Charlie hears her mother giggling and leaving the caravan. At the breakfast table, there are jokes made about Charlie's mother and Esteban spending the night together, Sarah looks hurt. Charlie joins the table and looks nervously at Sarah to see if she knows. Sarah tries to look unaffected and leaves the table. The scene changes to Sarah flirting with Paul. Charlie approaches them and they seem blunt. Paul explains he's offered to take Sarah out in his plane. The two leave holding hands as Charlie looks on. It is clear that Sarah has turned to Paul as a way of forgetting about Esteban. Charlie spends time alone at the foot of the sea and sees the plane in the sky.Later that evening, Charlie is unacquainted at a small gathering and begins playing an instrument with a stranger. Sarah approaches and kisses Charlie's hand. Charlie looks unaffected and continues playing the instrument when Sarah leaves. Sarah dances passionately to the music. The next morning, Charlie wakes up and sits at the door of her caravan, taking in the scenery. She suffers an asthma attack and uses her inhaler to restore her breathing. Charlie goes to Laura's caravan. She asks if she's seen Sarah. Laura tells her that she went to the market with Charlie's mother. Charlie looks defeated. Laura picks up on this and says "Don't let it bug you. Sarah's not so amazing," before quickly changing the subject. Charlie's mother returns to find Charlie alone outside. She says "you're not jealous are you?" Charlie shakes her head. However her mum continues to talk about Esteban's good qualities. Her mother seems to really like Esteban. Later that evening, Sarah goes for another round of drinks with the locals. Charlie stays in the caravan in her bed looking solemn. Sarah enters the caravan and asks when she will stop sulking. Sarah jokes about Charlie's mother and Esteban and makes Charlie laugh. Charlie comments that it won't last. Sarah asks if she wants to sleep. Charlie says yes. Sarah leaves her and shuts the door with force. Charlie looks stunned. On car journey back home, Sarah leans on Charlie to nap. Charlie looks confused by the dynamics of their friendship.Back in Charlie's bedroom, Victoire is commenting on the fact that something is different. She notices that Charlie took her old posters down. It is clear that Victoire is seeing that Charlie has changed. The next scene shows Sarah greeting Charlie in a friendly way while Charlie still looks unsure of what to make of Sarah. Sarah appears closer to Charlie's friends now, too. Back at Charlie's house, Sarah and Charlie have a dull conversation. They are cold around each other. Sarah leaves and begins talking to Charlie's mother who still appears to like Sarah a lot. Later, Sarah and Charlie are brushing their teeth together. They begin laughing hysterically for no reason. It feels like old times.The next day at school, Charlie and Sarah are having lunch with the rest of their friends. Sarah makes a comment about her mother and her going for a safari the previous year. Charlie remarks that she thought Sarah's mother couldn't spend time with her last year. Sarah is bitter towards Charlie and accuses her of assuming she knows Sarah's life story. Charlie says it is what Sarah told her. Sarah ridicules Charlie in an attempt to defend herself. Sarah then giggles with Charlie's friends at the back of a science class.That night, Sarah calls Charlie's house. Sarah confronts Charlie about embarrassing her in front of everyone at lunch and making her look like a liar. Sarah manipulates Charlie into making her feel sorry for her, explaining that she made a mistake about when her mother left her. Charlie apologises and feels bad for what she did.The next scene cuts to Sarah on a train, on her way home. We learn that Charlie is following Sarah. Sarah lives in a dingy neighbourhood in a small apartment. She gets inside and is greeted by a drunk woman (Carole Franck). The woman is uneasy and unstable and asks Sarah where she's been. Sarah is bitter and appears to resent the woman. When the woman begins banging on a door, Sarah says "Mom stop." Sarah's mother falls on the floor laughing hysterically. All the while, Charlie is listening outside Sarah's window, looking shocked.Charlie and Sarah are at a nightclub. They are separate but they seem to be enjoying themselves. Charlie approaches Sarah and asks what's going on with their friendship. Sarah brushes her off coldly. Charlie asks if the reason Sarah is bitter is because of her mother. Charlie explains that she saw her and she doesn't hold anything against Sarah for lying. Sarah asks if Charlie followed her. Charlie doesn't answer the question. Instead she says she promises not to tell anyone. Sarah looks stunned and angry. She threatens to kill Charlie if she tells anyone. Charlie looks sick as Sarah barges her and leaves. Charlie walks home very drunk.The scene switches to Charlie in her school toilets. She hears the sounds of Sarah and a friend walk into the toilets and sighs. They are talking about Lucas and the fact he's obsessed with Charlie. Sarah tells the friend that Charlie never had sex with Lucas because she cried (something that Charlie told her earlier in confidence). Charlie leaves the cubicle and confronts Sarah. Sarah appears unaffected. Charlie threatens to babble about Sarah's mother. Sarah dares her. Charlie begins and Sarah turns on the hand dryer to stop Charlie from being heard. Sarah leaves with the friends. Charlie cries when they are gone.We see Charlie go into a state of depression as she ignores her mother and begins to do badly at school. She constantly has to scrape off comments off her table that Sarah and her friends have written such as "Charlie the whore" and "Charlie gives sodomy free". She is continuously bullied by Sarah and her friends, however turns to studying as a coping mechanism. However, her anxiety causes her to suffer from asthma attacks. One day at lunch, Victoire tells Charlie that she is devastated by the way Sarah is treating Charlie. She wonders why Charlie stands it. Charlie begins to completely isolate herself from everyone and makes her old friends wonder why she is so distant. One night, Charlie does her hair and attempts to do her makeup the way Sarah did it for her the night she called her beautiful. She fails and angrily takes everything apart.On a different day, Charlie is running track with other classmates as part of physical education. Sarah barges past her with ease and begins running ahead. In a moment of fury, Charlie runs faster and speeds past Sarah and takes the lead. She continues to push herself to run even faster and begins struggling to breathe. However, she pushes on and her breathing becomes very heavy. She eventually faints and hits the ground struggling desperately for air while a crowd gathers around her. Her vision is blurred but she clearly sees Sarah smirking at her through the crowd.We see Charlie looking out of a window, daydreaming. Her father and mother are heard speaking in the background, getting along. Her father asks if Charlie is okay and her mother comments that she is just moody. Her dad gives her a glass of champagne. He asks her about celebrations for her 18th birthday. She seems uninterested. Later that night she hears her parents having loud sex in the other room. The next morning while Charlie is brushing her hair, her mother comes in and tells her that she has ended it with Charlie's father for good. Charlie's mother appears unhappy but accepting to this decision. When she leaves, Charlie violently continues to brush her hair.The scene cuts to Charlie opening the front door to find Sarah, looking sad and bruised. Charlie offers her ice and Sarah begins talking while they are in Charlie's room. She explains that her mother hit her for the first time which made her leave. She opens up about telling lies and stories to other people as a way of escaping her real life. She says that Charlie is the only person she could go to. She asks Charlie if she hates her. Charlie says no. The two share Charlie's bed that night and while Sarah is asleep, Charlie watches her and appears happy that she is back. The next morning, Charlie and Sarah are happily leaving the house and Charlie's mother watches through the window and sees Charlie smiling and laughing like she used to. Before entering the school, Sarah tells Charlie they cannot be friends in school because it will confuse people. She says that this is payback for Charlie following her home. Charlie looks stunned as Sarah approaches Charlie's old friends in a similar way to how Charlie approached them at the beginning of the film. Later in class, Charlie witnesses Sarah give a friend a "souvenir" from Nigeria. She angrily attacks Sarah and begins fighting her before the whole class breaks them up and Charlie leaves the class, very upset.We see Charlie in an exam before taking a test. When she begins the test, she appears confident and immediately begins writing while some people complain about not even understanding the question. Sarah chases her in a corridor to remind her about leaving clothes at her place. Charlie completely ignores her. When she is outside, Lucas (Louka Meliava) approaches and asks her to come out with them. She declines and instead kisses him passionately. He says that he'll call her and is cheered on by his friends when he returns to the group. Back at home, Charlie's mother enters Charlie's room to find Charlie and Sarah. She tells Charlie she is going out with Laura, completely ignoring Sarah. She leaves. Once she leaves, Sarah comments that Charlie's mother hates her because of Charlie. She digs Charlie about how she turns everyone against her. She manipulates and emotionally torments Charlie about how she feels much better without Charlie and how much of a bad person Charlie is. Eventually, Charlie cannot take anymore and she pushes Sarah against her dresser, Sarah is slightly injured but begins laughing. This causes Charlie to grab a pillow and cover it over Sarah's face. Sarah screams that she can't breathe. Charlie continues while Sarah struggles. Sarah goes silent while Charlie continues to suffocate her.The scene switches to Charlie looking blankly into space while sitting in the gloom of the living room. Her mother returns home and Charlie begins crying. Her crying becomes progressively hysterical and she struggles to breathe between heavy sobs. Her mother questions her on what is wrong and asks where Sarah is. Charlie continues to cry and begins apologising. Charlie's mother goes frantically to the other room and we hear a loud, panicked scream. Charlie continues to struggle for air but begins to calm herself down. The film ends with Charlie regulating her breathing as she looks up to the camera and a tear falls down her face. | murder | train | imdb | null |
tt0080025 | Time After Time | In 1893 London, England, popular writer Herbert George "H.G." Wells (Malcolm McDowell) displays a time machine to his skeptical dinner guests. After explaining how it works (including a "non-return key" that keeps the machine at the traveler's destination and a "vaporizing equalizer" that keeps the traveler and machine on equal terms), police constables arrive at the house searching for the serial killer Jack the Ripper. One finds a bag, with blood-stained gloves, belonging to one of Herbert's friends, a surgeon named John Leslie Stevenson (David Warner), whom they are unable to locate in the house, concluding that Stevenson might be the infamous killer. Wells races to his laboratory, but the time machine is gone.Stevenson has escaped to the future, but because he does not have the "non-return" key, it automatically returns to 1893. Herbert uses it to pursue Stevenson to November 5, 1979, where the machine has ended up on display at a museum in San Francisco realizing that due to the machine traveling backwards by the geographic longitide and latitude, the machine had ended up in the unfamiliar USA.As Herbert walks around the city, he is deeply shocked by the future, having expected it to be an enlightened socialist utopia, only to find chaos in the form of airplanes, automobiles and a worldwide history of war, crime and bloodshed.Searching numerous banks for Stevenson - he believes an Englishman might need to exchange old currency - Herbert meets liberated Chartered Bank of London employee Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen). She directs Herbert to the Hyatt Regency hotel, as she previously had Stevenson.Confronted in his room by his onetime friend Herbert, Stevenson confesses that he finds modern society to be pleasingly violent. Apologetically, he states: "Ninety years ago, I was a freak. Now... I'm an amateur." Herbert demands he return with him to 1893 to face justice, but Stevenson, who without the "return key" would be unable to prevent the machine from automatically returning (and thereby blocking Herbert from any further pursuit), attempts to wrest it from him. Their struggle is interrupted by a hotel employees and Stevenson flees, getting hit by a car during the frantic chase on foot. Herbert follows him to the San Francisco General Hospital emergency room and mistakenly gets the impression that Stevenson had died from his injuries.Herbert meets up with Amy Robbins again and she is the aggressor in a romance (succeeding, once Herbert is sure that she is in earnest). Stevenson returns to the bank to exchange more money. Rightly concluding that it was Amy who had led Herbert to him, he finds out where she lives. Herbert, hoping to convince her of the truth, takes a highly skeptical Amy three days into the future. Once there, she is aghast to see a newspaper headline revealing her own murder as the Ripper's fifth victim (a temporal paradox).Herbert persuades her that they must go back - it is their duty to attempt to prevent the fourth victim's murder, then prevent Amy's. However, they are delayed upon their return to the present and can do no more than phone the police. Stevenson kills again, and Herbert is arrested because of his knowledge of the killing. Amy is left alone, totally defenseless, and at the mercy of the "San Francisco Ripper."At the police station, Herbert unsuccessfully tries to convince the police of Amy's peril (his claim to be "Sherlock Holmes" has marked him as a lunatic well before mentioning a "time machine"). At the same time, Amy attempts to hide from Stevenson. When the police finally do investigate her apartment, they find the dismembered body of a woman. Since he was in custody at the time Herbert is released having been cleared as a suspect.As Herbert wonders the dark streets mourning Amy's brutal death, he is suddenly confronted by Stevenson, who has actually killed Amy's co-worker Carol, who had accepted an invitation for dinner and to meet Wells. Stevenson then kidnapped Amy in order to extort the time machine key from Wells.Stevenson flees with the key - and Amy as insurance - to attempt a permanent escape in the time machine. Herbert gives chase in a car (despite not driving very well while Stevenson forces Amy to drive her car at gunpoint). Breaking into the museum, Herbert bargains for Amy's life, she is able to escape. As Stevenson starts up the time machine with the key, Herbert removes the "vaporizing equalizer" from the machine and Stevenson nods in understanding. The removal of this component, Herbert had confirmed earlier, causes the machine to remain in place while its passenger is sent traveling endlessly through time, with no way to stop; in effect sending him to oblivion.Herbert proclaims that the time has come to return to his own time, by himself, in order to destroy a machine that is too dangerous for primitive mankind. Amy pleads with him to take her along (despite her aversion to living in Victorian England). As they depart back to the past, she says that she is changing her name to Susan B. Anthony. The end credits reveal that the two later married. | murder, violence, cult, romantic, alternate history, sci-fi | train | imdb | The time travel effects are cheesy and mercifully few, but the film puts story and character way above visual effects, making for a good trade off.Malcolm McDowell is H.G. Wells who, in this movie, actually invents a time machine rather than just writing about one.
There, he enters Wells' time machine and escapes to the future.Feeling responsible for having turned the maniacal Jack the Ripper loose on the future utopia, Wells enters the machine (which returns to it's point of origin unless a special key is used) and follows Stevenson 90 years into the future.
The time machine, as well as most of his possesions, are on display in a San Francisco museum.While searching for Jack the Ripper he meets Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen), a foreign currency exchange officer at a bank.
This leads Wells to find Jack the RIpper, now decked out in 70s threads, well integrated into modern society...and continuing his fiendish deeds.From there, the movie engages the audience in Wells' and Robbins' pursuit of the Ripper through the streets of San Francisco with an entertaining mix of close-calls, sly humor, and the inevitable romance between Wells and Robbins.Malcolm McDowell plays the part of H.G. Wells with his usual intensity and skill, and comes off as very believable.
In the late 19th century The scientist H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) has build a time machine which his good friend John Leslie Stevenson aka Jack the Ripper (David Warner) uses when the police has just discovered his true identity.
There are countless 'little' fun parts like this in the movie which makes this movie a pleasant and entertaining one to watch as well as a tense nail biting thriller.Malcolm McDowell is extremely good and convincing as a 19th century gentleman and scientist H.G. Wells.
(How many movies can you remember where McDowell was the good guy?) Jack the Ripper is played by David Warner, who exudes something cold and frightening as the infamous killer.
Looking like a nerdy Richard Thomas, Malcolm McDowell plays H.G. Wells in this highly imaginative sci-fi thriller, that has Wells fast forwarded from 1893 to 1979, in a quest to find Jack the Ripper.
Regardless, there is such a good combination of drama, suspense, comedy, action and romance that it would appeal to most anyone.Malcolm McDowell is particularly good as H.G. Wells and David Warner is chilling as Jack The Ripper.
In 1893, in London, H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) has just finished his time machine, when his friend Dr. John Leslie Stevenson (David Warner) indeed Jack the Ripper uses it to escape from the Scotland Yard.
What do you get when you put H.G. Wells together with Jack the Ripper; you get this admirably ambitious and candid sci-fi fantasy thriller that sees the idealistic scientist / writer Wells pursing the notorious Ripper in to the future (that's 1979) after using Wells' newly created time machine to escape the authorities from late 19th century London.
Malcolm McDowell is perfectly cast as Wells, fidgety but persistent in his quest and David Warner has that classy, but creepily formidable underlining as Jack the Ripper as he goes about leaving a bloody mess of his victims.
H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) follows Jack the Ripper (David Warner) into 1970's San Franscisco, after Jack Aka John Stevenson steals Well's Time machine.
Eagle-eyed viewers will notice a very young Corey Feldman in a very small part as a youngster who's the first to see Wells upon his arrival in the Seventies.My Grade: B DVD Extras: Commentary with Director Nicholas Meyer & Actor Malcolm McDowell; an article on time travel in movies; Theatrical Trailer; and Trailers for "The Time Mace (1960) & "The Time Machine" (2002).
I think someone like Brook Adams or Karen Allen would have been much more suited to this role, but the rest of the plot and cast are so good this is incidental.Someone mentioned this didn't do very well at the box office, which surprises me as science based fiction was all the rage at the time this film was released (1979).
(This kind of brain-to-brain combat between two very special people is a theme that Nicholas Meyer will return to in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.")Particularly interesting is how Jack the Ripper, an evil serial killer, finds himself completely at home in the year 1979, while H.G. Wells, with his idealistic dreams of a perfectible society, is completely out of place in our modern era.
Having a premise of HG Wells ( Yes that one ) pursue Jack the ripper ( Ditto ) to the 20th century has all the makings of a really camp and totally crap film , but despite the outrageous idea TIME AFTER TIME is a very enjoyable fantasy .Unlike most time travel films ( THE TERMINATOR , BACK TO THE FUTURE not to mention several DOCTOR WHO and STAR TREK stories ) TIME AFTER TIME doesn`t really concern itself with concepts like the blinovitch limitation effect ie a temporal paradox , instead it concentrates on how a radical 19th century idealist like Wells would have found 20th century " Utopia " and how he would have been sickened by it .
It`s here that the film works best with Wells travelling through the time vortex listening to the history of the 20th century and the scene with Wells and Jack watching television .
This after the Ripper (Warner) used Wells' (McDowell) time machine to escape the Whitechapel police back in 1891, thus forcing Wells to track the infamous killer to San Francisco in the future.There have been so many fish-out-of-water based movies over the years, it's so refreshing to find one that has a genuinely original premise to work from.
Additionally, it's quite romantic and is a movie I strongly recommend you watch.The film begins in London during the time of Jack the Ripper (David Warner).
Coincidentally, the famous writer H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) has just built a working time machine and the Ripper uses it to avoid being caught by the police.
"Time after Time," from 1980, stars Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, and David Warner, and is directed by Nicholas Meyer.In this story, the author of "The Time Machine," H.G. Wells, lives in England, has invented the time machine, and shows it to guests visiting, among them, Dr. John Stevenson, who has arrived late.
He feels he's found a place and time where he fits.Malcolm McDowell, young and cute here, does an excellent job as the brilliant and earnest Wells, and Steenburgen is lovely as a feminist who falls for him.
But love, he decides, is the perennial constant that makes the decadence bearable; and in this case, his romance with sweet Amy (Mary Steenburgen) forces him to address his pacifist theories--if he wants to save her life.Scripted and directed by Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek: Wrath of Khan), it's a witty, inventive and rather elegant film.
Fans of H.G. Wells' 'The Time Machine' and Ripper buffs will enjoy this movie the most, which covers similar territory to many of the stories of Kim Newman ('Anno Dracula',etc.) Like Newman's work it features a playful and irreverent attitude to 19th genre fiction and history.
Malcolm McDowell and David Warner are both outstanding as friends turned enemies Wells and Jack The Ripper, who end up traveling to present day (that is late Seventies) San Francisco.
G. Wells coming to 1970's San Francisco in search of Jack the Ripper by way of his time machine.
Wells eventually meets a beautiful bank teller (Mary Steenburgen) and falls in love, thickening the plot nicely and providing old Jack the Ripper with a nice bit of leverage.
and enjoyed it quite a bit, even if it's by no means a classic.McDowell (as H.G. Wells) and David Warner (as Jack The Ripper) were well cast, while Mary Steenburgen who later married the former!
Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell are a surprisingly chemical pairing, and David Warner is absolutely perfect as Saucy Jack the Ripper.
Malcolm McDowell as H.G. Wells and David Warner as Jack the Ripper make wonderful adversaries in this squashy fantasy-thriller which doesn't have a firm narrative, doesn't know when to quit, but does include marvelous performances and a handsome production.
Look for good performances by Malcolm McDowell as Wells, Mary Steenburgen as Amy and David Warner as Jack the Ripper..
Just what *did* Wells do there at the end with the Ripper, because I sure as heck found that development from way out of left field.It's probably no coincidence that all this illogic during a time travel jaunt in modern San Francisco comes from the pen of Nicholas Meyer, who repeated the same mistakes again a decade later in his script for Star Trek IV..
Ingenious What IF sci-fi thriller with the premise of HG Wells (splendidly finicky McDowell) creating an actual time machine that transports Jack The Ripper (devilishly evil Warner) into modern day San Francisco with Wells in hot pursuit to stop the serial killer from continuing his historical homicidal tendencies and Steenburgen as the outlet for both their agendas.Swiftly executed and giddy in Wells' fish-out-of-water discoveries like ordering in McDonald's (!) Look sharp for a very young Corey Feldman as Wells' first 20th century encounter (!).
"time after time" is about h.g. wells (malcolm mcdowell) chasing after jack the ripper (david warner) who escaped to 1979 in well's time machine.
while wells searches and gets adjusted to 1979 san francisco, he meets banker amy robbins (mary steenburgen) who helps him find jack the ripper and eventually both fall in love.
At a dinner party with some of his friends (similar to inventor George Wells in "The Time Machine") he reveals the existence of the machine, only to see it used by Dr. Stevenson (Warner) to escape into the future, because the police had discovered that he was Jack the Ripper.
Not every day does a film blend elements of Jack the Ripper, time travel, 1970s sensibilities and romance, topped by a Miklos Rozsa score, so you can consider yourself fortunate to find all of these things blended nicely in a thriller, '70s style.Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen are the offbeat stars who lend a certain quirkiness to their characters (he's H.G. Welles and she's a Diane Keaton type of leading lady).
In genre academic circles, the "Time After Time" movie would be referred to as "recursive" or "science fiction squared." H.G. Wells, viewed as the father of modern science fiction and the socialist author of noted works like "The Time Machine" and "War of the Worlds," is himself the featured character in the film played by Malcolm McDowell.
Using a time machine he invented, Wells pursues Jack the Ripper (David Warner), who he unwittingly befriended and therefore allowed him access to the same machine, into the future circa late 1970s San Francisco.
The characters are believable and fully fleshed out, and the acting by all three principals -- Malcolm McDowell as Wells, David Warner as Jack the Ripper, and Mary Steenburgen as Amy Robbins -- is superb.
(It's such a shame that in the past 15 years, McDowell he seems to have resigned himself to shlock roles like the villain in "Tank Girl.") And there is real, convincing chemistry between McDowell and Steenburgen --who, in fact, fell in love during the filming of "Time After Time" and later got married.What I really admire about "Time After Time" is how well it pulls off the "fish out of water" aspect of the time-travel story, as 19th Century Englishman Wells wanders around San Francisco in 1979 and discovers such things as MacDonald's, plastics, movies, telephones, etc.
When a friend (David Warner), who turns out to be Jack the Ripper, uses the machine to escape into the future, Wells follows after him to 1979, where he must stop the murderer while also having to come to terms with the shocking future, which is far from the utopia he expected it to be...A very interesting and surprisingly lighthearted thriller/adventure, with quite a bit of comedy thrown in, 'Time After Time' has a silly and fantastic feel to it that kinda reminds me of the more young audience aimed films of the 70's and 80's.The actors are very good.
For example, when she is being threatened by the Ripper her lips curl a bit, as if trying not to smile/laugh.The plot has quite a few problems, both story-wise (the usual thriller clichés and nonsense, like the police not questioning Mary's character to check Wells' claims) and concept-wise (it is time travel based after all, though the movie smartly does not delve too much on the implications it carries); it develops quite predictably too, and sometimes far too silly at that.
The idea of H.G. Wells inventing his own time machine and traveling to 1979 San Francisco to catch Jack the Ripper sounds like the sort of movie that would get created by Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay. But "Time After Time" is very well done.
Nicholas Meyer directed this imaginative if dated film that stars Malcolm MacDowell as H.G. Wells, who is an inventor of a real time machine that he shows off to friends in 1890's London.
One of his friends, a surgeon named Dr. John Stevenson(played by David Warner) is really Jack The Ripper, whom the police have finally tracked down to his home, but John/Jack escapes in the time machine to the year 1979, in San Francisco California, where Wells follows him, but instead of his predicted utopia, is shocked to find it more to John/Jack's liking, though Wells is still determined to stop him, with the help of Ann Robbins(played by Mary Steenburgen) a woman he falls in love with...
Time after Time has an interesting premise with H.G Wells, chasing Jack the Ripper through time to modern day 1979 San Francisco.
McDowell is also good as H.G. Wells a fish out of water, and his chemistry is great with Steenburgen who he would go on to marry after the movie.
This film has H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) really inventing a time machine (he wrote the novel).
"Time After Time" takes an interesting spin on the time travel adventure premise by having legendary sci-fi writer HG Wells chase after his old friend John Leslie Stevenson whom it later turns out that he is indeed 'Jack The Ripper'.
The historical character out of another time leads to a few really good tongue-in-cheek moments like for example when in McDonalds he says to the man sitting next to him whilst examining the table 'I've never seen wood like this before!" Although credit is certainly due to both David Warner (Stevenson) and Mary Steenburgen (as Herbert's love interest Amy) I'm mighty impressed with Malcolm McDowell's portrayal of this time traveller from 1893 especially in the powerful desperate conviction he conveys in the police interrogation scene towards the end of the film.
Whether it is Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home or the other H.G. Wells movie, The Time Machine, there is always something quite interesting in seeing someone out of their element.In this film San Francisco is also the location of travel, as it was in Star Trek, but it it Wells (Malcolm McDowell) traveling to capture Jack the Ripper (David Warner), who has managed to steal a ride to the future.The addition of Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard , One Magic Christmas) as the love interest was superb!
David Warner is the fantastic John louis Stevenson aka Jack the Ripper and Malcolm McDowell is HG Wells.
Very good film on many levels...only negative aspect may be weak special effects regarding the time machine's travel (i'm sure there were budget concerns).outside of that...the plot, about a young H.G. Wells in 1893 who finds out the notorious Jack the Ripper is actually his best friend; who then takes off for 1979 in Wells' time machine is taut and pretty imaginative.
Malcolm Mc Dowell excels as the brilliant, baffled and nerdy Wells, as does David Warner as the Ripper/Stevenson...Wells' former best friend...and notably Mary Steenburgen is fine as the liberated, love interest of Wells'.it's a fine companion to 1960's The Time Machine...and a good entry into the fantasy genre.
A little known factoid about this movie...Nicholas Meyer (director) didn't allow Malcolm McDowell to see Mary Steenburgen until their first meeting on film, to capture authenticity.
This film is basically about Jack the Ripper, who steals HG Well's time machine and travels to 1979's San Fransisco, where he begins murdering people!
The year is 1893.Malcolm McDowell plays H.G. Wells, who has invented a time machine, but hasn't tried it yet.A cold blooded murderer Jack the Ripper(David Warner) uses the time machine to travel into the future to the year 1979.Wells has to follow Jack to 1979.And it is pretty much different in the 20th century.There are many new things for Wells in the future.He meets a lovely bank clerk called Amy Robbins, played by Mary Steenburgen.Time After Time is a nice time travel movie.Malcolm is good as Wells and the other actors do a great job too..
When one of his dinner guests - the infamous Jack the Ripper (David Warner) - steals away in the device, Wells (Malcolm McDowell) valiantly pursues the serial killer to 1979 San Francisco.
The film stars Malcolm McDowall, David Warner and Mary Steenburgen.This is a very interesting sci-fi thriller.
Wells and some friends are shocked to discover that Jack the Ripper is one of their friends Dr. Stevenson(David Warner), Stevenson escapes into the future in the time machine.
McDowall and Steenburgen fell in love while they made this and they married the following year.The film is a very good thriller and a great time travel story.
A terrific premise: What if H.G. Wells really invented a time machine and Jack the Ripper escaped to the year 1979 in it?
There is one question, however: How did the time machine first get there before Jack the Ripper arrived and how did it end up in San Francisco not London? |
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