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tt0144528 | Nutty Professor II: The Klumps | After finding success with a DNA restructuring formula in the first film, Sherman Klump has created another formula which enables those who take it to find the Fountain of Youth. He has also met and fallen in love with a colleague, Denise Gaines, who has developed a method to isolate genetic material and later becomes his fiancée. Together, their work has enabled Wellman College to receive a $150 million award from a pharmaceutical firm to the excitement of Dean Richmond. Despite his good fortune, Sherman has a major problem: the personality of his vanquished alter ego, Buddy Love, is still ingrained inside him and causes him to act out in the same crass manner Buddy does.
After a few particularly unpleasant incidents, from Buddy kicking in, when Sherman sexually insults his own therapist trying to help him with it, then does the same thing to a woman walking a dog, and later during a toast turns around and reveals that his father was fired rather than retired, and then when Sherman intended on proposing to Denise, but then Buddy kicks in and makes it a perverted sex request, causing Denise to become mortified against him. Sherman heads to his lab where he uses Denise's methodology to isolate and remove the gene in Sherman's DNA where Buddy has manifested.
Determined to be rid of Buddy permanently, and despite of Jason warning him of potentially catastrophic consequences for his health, Sherman extracts the gene with from inside his body. However, he does not dispose of the genetic material and as a result, Buddy becomes a sentient being when a hair from a Basset Hound who was Sherman's test subject finds its way into it and causes such a reaction. To make matters worse, Jason's suspicions prove correct when Sherman discovers that, due to the extraction, his brain cells are beginning to deteriorate.
Realizing he needs to keep the youth formula out of Buddy's hands, Sherman stashes it at his parents' house. Buddy, who is trying to sell the formula to a different company, quickly realizes where it is and steals some of it. Buddy also doctors the remainder with fertilizer, which causes chaos at a demonstration the next day when a hamster Sherman uses to demonstrate the youth finding effects instead mutates and becomes an aggressive monster who violates Dean Richmond in front of a live television audience. The humiliated Dean fires Sherman, who learns that his brain's deterioration has worsened from Jason. Sherman then decides to end his engagement and break up with Denise.
In a last-ditch effort to secure the money, Sherman quickly works on a newer, much more potent formula while his mental faculties allow him to. While he is doing this, Richmond confronts him about Buddy's actions believing the two are working together. He leaves with Richmond and a tennis ball and head to the competing firm. Meanwhile, a worried Denise discovers what has happened and that Sherman's brain damage has progressed to almost eighty percent. Enlisting the help of Sherman's father Cletus, Denise heads for the firm Buddy is selling the formula to.
There, Sherman sets his plan into motion. Taking advantage of the canine DNA that crossed with Buddy's, Sherman uses the tennis ball to play fetch. The ball is covered with the new formula, which takes Buddy back to an infantile state and eventually to a glowing mass of genetic material. The idea is for Sherman to suck the genetic material back into his body through a straw, thus putting his DNA back together and returning him to normal. However, as Sherman is chasing what is left of Buddy, the glowing mass evaporates and thus Sherman cannot restore his intelligence.
Denise and Cletus arrive too late to save him, and seeing what has happened to Sherman, Denise breaks into tears. As they go to leave, Sherman takes a look at a fountain in the lobby of the building and remarks that it is "pretty". Seeing that the water is glowing, Denise realizes that the genetic material has reconstituted and that if Sherman drinks the water before it dissipates, he will be restored to normal. Although reluctant at first, Sherman drinks two handfuls of the water from Denise's hand then Cletus dunks Sherman's head under the water to drink, and thus he is able to get his genetic makeup back in proper order.
The film closes with Denise and Sherman's wedding reception, with Buddy nowhere to be found, Dean rehires Sherman with a wedding present and the hamster is back to normal and Dean decides to love the hamster. | whimsical, humor, flashback | train | wikipedia | How much one likes `The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps' depends on how much Eddie Murphy you can stand.
Review the number of characters Eddie Murphy plays : Sherman Klump, Buddy Love, Granny Klump, Mama Klump, Papa Klump, Young Papa Klump, Ernie Klump, and Lance Perkinscan.
Ahhh, how fair am I to admit that this movie had something that could sound like "good" after all !At any rate I detest (Nutty Professor II: The Klumps).
Basically I thought this film had some funny moments, Eddie Murphy is amazing, Janet looked great, but the story was weak, and overall it wasn't nearly as funny as the first..
Anyway, while the movie still focuses on Sherman and his quest for love and scientific goals (this time making people younger), the rest of the family gets involved in the story lines.
Title: Nutty Professor II, The: The KlumpsRating: **1/2 (out of 4)Review: I've never been a die-hard Eddie Murphy fan, but that's of course not to say that he isn't funny or endearing, either.
NUTTY II, however, is taken to extremes with the bathroom humor, everywhere from Grandma Klump giving Buddy Love oral sex in a hot tub to a hamster growing to epic proportions giving anal sex to Klump's boss, this film revels in bad taste way too much.
Playing no less than 8 roles (this might be some kind of record), his main character is Sherman Klump, a charmingly overweight professor who, in the original wanted to get rid of all the weight and became a stud in Buddy Love to make a beautiful co-ed (Jada Pinkett, whose missing prescence in the sequel is annoyingly unexplained) and eventually learns in the end that you should be yourself and that personality is way more important about looks.
As I've said before, Murphy is terrific, and he's well worth watching in his eight roles, but this film will turn off a lot of viewers because all the sick humor, which I must say is more silly than funny, yet you find yourself for some reason still laughing to it (or rather, at it).
Eddie Murphy who has starred in movies such as "Coming To America" and "Beverly Hills Cop" which were both hilarious, has struck out here in the poorest fashion possible."The Nutty Professor" (1996) was okay because of the use of the Klump family who appeared throughout the movie every so often breaking it up with some humorous scenes.
I really thought that most of those characters were separate, and very talented, actors!During this wonderful new "Nutty Professor" movie, Murphy propels the multi character thing a bit further.
There is no redeeming feature to this film which wastes the once funny talent of Eddie Murphy by spreading it thin over a plethora of characters, the Klumpp family, some of whom are almost unintelligible.
Eddie Murphy's talent holds this movie together with his acting of the Klumps; but the story suffers miserably.
I think they are trying to klump our brains with vulgar jokes which are pretty stupid to say the least.I can't believe this movie is number one.I did not laugh once and preferred The Nutty Professor 1 over this movie.
Unfortunatly the jokes weren't any good so his talent in playing multiple charactors didn't really matter.Despite Eddie Murphy's fine acting skills, I really disliked this movie.
Altogether, "Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps" is very good - in fact it is one of the best sequels that I have seen.Overall rating: 7 out of 10..
Reprising all of the first movie's characters and even much of the formula with body noises, hallucinations and jokes intact, the sequel actually has very little to tell it apart from the first other than the wonderful presence of Janet Jackson.
No one was expecting much when Eddie Murphy remade the Jerry Lewis movie "The Nutty Professor," so the touching, funny result was a surprise.
(There's one element about Buddy, regarding a dog, that's actually quite funny, and semi-original).As Sherman Klump, Murphy is occasionally quite moving, but this is rare here; instead, most of the time this sequel robs him of the most surprising and worthwhile aspect of the Nutty Professor the first Murphy time around: his dignity.
With a drug company offering $150,000000 for proof of the youth serum, Buddy plans to get hold of the only serum available.This is a sequel to the Nutty Professor and has the promise to be better because it has a greater focus on one of the funniest elements of the first film - the Klump family (all played by Murphy).
Eddie Murphy is great in all his roles (although Love and Granny both seem more over the top and forced), Miller is funny as the unfortunate Dean but Janet Jackson is a real weak link as the love interest.
It makes you realise how good (and sexy) Jada Pinkett was in the first movie.This had the potential to be funny - by merely repeating the first film with a slightly different plot.
Although this movie does have the now obligatory gross-out humor that has become a fad thanks to the Farrelly brothers, it doesn't assail the audience with it; it uses it sporadically, thankfully, because this is the lowest point of the film.Nutty Professor II: The Klumps brings back Eddie Murphy's sweet, likeable Professor Klump, who must somehow find a way to rid himself of his alter-ego Buddy Love, who threatens to ruin his relationship with beautiful fellow professor Jackson.
If audiences thought Eddie Murphy's comedic flare was waning, this will certainly prove to them he is a genius at his craft.Surprisingly sweet and honest at times, Nutty II is a sequel that does what many sequels do not: it completely lives up to the first in its hilarious jokes, and packs in brilliant characterizations of the Klump family, thanks to magical makeup work and Murphy's brilliance.
As I was rediscovering Eddie Murphy's "Nutty Professor" saga, the movies grew on me in a way I didn't expect.
It seems crazy but the suspension of disbelief does work, you know it's Eddie Murphy all right but there comes a point where you identify each member of the family and take them as separate persons.He can be a boorish father with a good heart, a loving Big Mama, a depraved grandma and a boorish big brother yet be believable in each of these disguises.
A lesser film would have made "conquering her heart" the big issue while it's more about getting back the "brain" and even more about conquering your self-esteem.Take the way Sherman Klump feels overshadowed by the loud and extraverted personality of Buddy Love.
It's not just that the characters behave differently but they also look differently in a credible way, even the unexpected young version of Papa Klump.Apparently, the film is worth less than a five on IMDb, well, I think it deserves a second chance, it's better than that, it's funny, gentle and provide some touching emotional moments.
Continuing my plan to watch every Eddie Murphy movie in order, I come to The Nutty Professor 2: The KlumpsPlot In A Paragraph: Buddy Love returns just as everything is going great for Sherman Klump.I didn't enjoy this at all.
Professor Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) is stressed by his impending marriage to Denise (Janet Jackson) and his alter-ego Buddy Love's threatened reemergence.
I expected to see lots of variations of the humor that The Nutty Professor (the Murphy version) used in the classic scene of the Klumps at the dinner table.
I expected to see lots of variations of the humor that The Nutty Professor (the Murphy version) used in the classic scene of the Klumps at the dinner table.
In truth, switching Jada Pinkett-Smith for Janet Jackson is like in 2000, we stopped using Pentium PC's (used in 1996, at time of the first film), and go back to use 486 PC's (used mostly in 1990, at Ms. Jackson's peak of her music career).I suppose it would be appropriate to say how well done the make up is as Murphy plays his half-dozen or so characters.
Now he is a human cartoon.P.S.: I recommend this movie if you're a die hard Eddie Murphy or Janet Jackson fan..
Released in 2000 and directed by Peter Segal, "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" brings back Eddie Murphy as Sherman Klump, grossly overweight professor with a good heart, who's dating a new girl (Janet Jackson) and still battling with his thin, charismatic alter ego, Buddy Love (also Murphy), although the way Buddy manifests is different.
Like the first movie, Murphy plays all the adult Klump members (Granny, Mama, Papa and Ernie).Janet is a superb replacement for Jada Pinkett Smith as Sherman's girlfriend and, like the first film, Sherman is a sympathetic character while Buddy Love is charismatic.
I might be in the minority, but I wasn't a fan of the two Klump dinner table scenes in the 1996 movie, which explains why I feel this sequel is a drop in quality: There are too many tasteless scenes with the Klumps – not to mention unnecessarily crude scenes in general – and not enough with the best characters, Sherman and Buddy Love.
Buddy in particular is mysteriously absent much of the time, which is inexplicable in that he was one of the comedic highlights of the earlier movie.The way Eddie plays all the different characters is genius and well-executed, but the film's simply not as funny as the first one, unless you favor flatulence jokes and vulgar humor in general.
Eddie Murphy is very good in this movie and it's still very entertaining to see him portray so many different characters that are nothing like the other, but sadly it just dosen't work out like the first one did, it isn't as funny, it was very rare that I genuinely laughed during this.
The storyline is ridiculous, the first one was as well, but it embraced that fact, however, with this it almost seems to think it's clever, using different science formulas to create substances and inventions that would never work in real life, the way in which Buddy Love comes back is stupid, I know these movies don't aim to be scientifically accurate, but this was just pure stupidity.
I could tolerate the films dumb, far fetched storyline if it was a good comedy, but it's not at all, every joke is lame and, for the most part, really disgusting, it seemed to rely on being gross, even hard to watch at times, instead of trying to be funny.
The Nutty Professor remake allowed Eddie Murphy to target the family audience market and was a big box office success as well.With a revitalised Murphy going family friendly, a sequel was a given and this time the fat suit is in overdrive as Murphy plays eight roles.This time Sherman is convinced that Buddy is inside him and trying to take over his personality, at the same time he has found a formula to make people young and found love with a fellow professor (Janet Jackson).
This is Murphy's film though as he plays the various members of the Klumps both male and female as well as Buddy Love.Only Larry Miller can keep up with Murphy with the comedy as the slimy college Dean who gets attacked by a giant hamster.However the film is uneven, some of it feels like long sketches and some of the scenes seemed to be rehashed from the first film such as the dinner table scene..
Apart from the main characters Sherman and Buddy, Eddie Murphy reprises his multiple roles as each of the family members of the Klump family with the exception of the youngest son, and proves his versatility in playing different characters.
Eddie Murphy is a talented comedic actor, but I hope there is not going to be another sequel to this movie.
***Starring: Eddie Murphy (x 7), Janet Jackson, and Larry Miller.Everyone's favorite obese professor is back, this time creating a youth formula.
I watched this film the other night on video wondering beforehand if it would live up to the previous "Nutty Professor" film which I think is Eddie Murphy best film since the underrated "Coming to America".Boy was I disappointed to see that this lame sequel is pretty much more of the same from the previous film.Nothing but toilet humor throughout and it adds nothing original as far as humor whatsoever.I realize that low brow humor is "in" nowadays thanks to films likes "There's Something About Mary" and "American Pie"(both superior films),but if it is'nt funny or clever it just sits there like a lump with nothing but the sounds of crickets in the background.With sucsess of this film there will certianly be another sequal made.
Like I said, I thought the first Eddie Murphy: Nutty Professor was a classic.
Eddie Murphy really plays the whole Klump family, as Sherman develops a youth serum and asks his girlfriend Denise Gains (Janet Jackson) to marry him.
Interspersed is more of the Klump family than previously seen (in more ways than one), and it is here that perhaps the movie is most rewarding: while Sherman is the gently-lovable center of the film, the bulk (for lack of a better term) of their scenes, deftly played for maximum laughs by Murphy and brilliantly edited for boffo impact, is provided by Mama & Papa Klump (touching and hysterical) and Granny, whose character neatly and efficiently steals every scene (particularly memorable is the portion of her Buddy Love dream sequence where she joyously frolics in a sea of wildflowers).
As for the performances, this is, naturally, Eddie Murphy's film and he is obviously having a ball; at slower points in the movie, one is able to take a breath and admire the man for what seems like boundless energy.
**********NUTTY PROFESSOR II**********The Plot: Professor Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) is living unhappily as a scientist genius at a university.
Well `Doesn't Really Matter' is the theme tune to the new Eddie Murphy movie - Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps.
If you think your way back to the 1996 re-make of the Jerry Lewis Nutty Professor, then you'll remember Buddy Love, Sherman's alter-ego.
From the beginning I knew that it was going to be a laughter packed movie because judging by the first scene, Eddie's performances as Sherman, Mama, Papa, Ernie and last but not least Grandma Klump are so believable, that it is as if they are five different people.
BOWFINGER, the original NUTTY PROFESSOR, and this film are all funny since Murphy plays a variety of characters that shows the great talent that Murphy has.
The professor Klump/Buddy love alter-ego theme could have been good, but this film seemed to want to focus on gross out humor such as having a giant rodent sodomize a man.
But when a little dog hair touches it, Buddy comes to life and starts to cause trouble with everyone.And now since Sherman got rid of Buddy in his body, his intelligence starts to drop dramatically and he has to now find out how he's going to go through with a speech about his youth formula that could earn him 150,000,000 and stop Buddy from causing any more trouble.The movie has a couple of funny moments but I just didn't laugh as much as I did in the first "Nutty Professor".
Eddie Murphy is a real treat as usual and Janet Kackson is pretty good as Sherman's girlfriend.So the film's main problems is lack of really funny scenes and it sometimes doesn't know where to go.
But most of the problems is made up by Eddie Murphy and so "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" is an entertaining but disappointing sequel.
Throw 1, maybe 2, farts into the picture, let Eddie Murphy do some writing and actually expand the characters a little bit, and I think you'd have a funny movie.
This movie is better than the original Nutty Professor with Eddie Murphy, but it is much nastier.
Professor Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) discovers a sort of fountain of youth potion, but discovers in the process that Buddy Love (also Murphy) is back and trying to steal the potion and ruin his engagement to beautiful Janet Jackson.Sequel manges to outdo the original with twice the special effects, twice the humor, and twice the heart.
I've always liked Eddie Murphy, but I did expect more from the first Nutty Professor movie.
Freed from the burden of living up to the 1963 film, Murphy built on the strengths of his original Nutty Professor movie.
Janet Jackson was good as Buddy's love interest but I thought her voice seemed a little too young for the character she was supposedly playing.6.
I think this movie did more with character development and did not focus on Sherman and Buddy Love like the original.
Quick Take: Definitely `nutty' but lacking much of a story.2 out of 5In Eddie Murphy's first Nutty Professor remake, the Klump family dinner was one of the most entertaining segments in the film.
But his alter ego, Buddy Love (Murphy's most annoying character), decides to steal it for himself creating problems for Sherman and the entire Klump family.
I think we all have relatives, in-laws and family members that we could identify with in `The Nutty Professor 2'
although they may not be as extreme as some of these characters.This movie is basically the `Eddie Murphy Show' as he plays the entire Klump family.
Everything from a swiss cheese plot (again with the scientific formula and Buddy Love) and wasted characters (Janet Jackson) to pushing the bounds of good taste (How would you like your 37 fart jokes?) is packed into this comedy-drama that's neither funny enough to be a comedy and not touching enough to be a drama.Eddie Murphy got jipped when he was only paid once for this film as he DOES deserve credit for playing every other role but his fiancee (Janet Jackson) and young Jason Klump (John Ales). |
tt0032338 | Christmas in July | Dr. Maxford (Raymond Walburn) is thoroughly exasperated. He is supposed to announce on national radio the winners of a slogan contest for his Maxford House Coffee; the first prize is $25,000. Maxford's jury is deadlocked by the stubborn Mr. Bildocker (William Demarest). As a result, the program ends without an announcement.
One of millions of contestants, office worker Jimmy MacDonald (Dick Powell) dreams of winning, hoping to validate his faith in himself, provide some luxuries for his mother (Georgia Caine), and marry his girlfriend Betty Casey (Ellen Drew). Betty, among others, does not understand his slogan: "If you can't sleep at night, it's not the coffee, it's the bunk."
As a joke, three of his co-workers place a fake telegram on Jimmy's desk informing him that he has won. Jimmy's boss, J. B. Baxter (Ernest Truex), is so impressed, he promotes Jimmy on the spot to advertising executive, with his own office, a private secretary (Betty), and a raise. Tom Darcy, one of the pranksters, tries to clear things up before they go too far, but loses his nerve.
When Jimmy arrives to collect the check, Dr. Maxford assumes his committee finally reached a decision without informing him, and writes a check to Jimmy. Jimmy and Betty go on a shopping spree at Shindel's department store. After telephoning Maxford to confirm the check is good, Mr. Shindel gives Jimmy credit to buy an engagement ring for Betty, a luxury sofa-bed for his mother, and presents for all of their neighbors.
When the truth comes out, Shindel descends on Jimmy's street to try to repossess his merchandise. Maxford follows them and confirms Jimmy did not win. In the commotion, Shindel learns that Maxford's signature is genuine; instead of reclaiming the merchandise, he tries to force Maxford to pay for it. Tom and the other two pranksters admit they are to blame.
That night, Jimmy and Betty confess to Baxter. Betty's heartfelt plea persuades Baxter to let Jimmy try to prove himself and keep his promotion, although on a very short probationary period and with no raise. Meanwhile, Bildocker bursts into Maxford's office to announce that the other jury members have finally given in and accepted his choice for the grand prize winner: Jimmy. | prank | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0035689 | Bombardier | In 1941, at a staff meeting in Washington, D.C., two officers of the U.S. Army Air Corps (and old friends) debate the importance of bombardiers. Major "Chick" Davis (Pat O'Brien) argues that a bombardier, using the top secret American bombsight will be the "spearhead of our striking force." After a year of observing the Royal Air Force fight the German Luftwaffe, Capt. "Buck" Oliver (Randolph Scott) is not convinced a bomber can get "so close that a bomb can't miss" and that new pilots are the priority. Davis challenges Oliver to a "bombing duel" to test their respective points of view. Oliver, using a dive bomber, misses the stationary target with all his bombs, while Davis, bombing from 20,000 feet in a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, succeeds in hitting his target with his first bomb.
Later, Oliver recommends that "Hughes Field", in "Almansor", New Mexico, the civilian flying school of a friend, be leased as a new Bombardier Training School. As the school's first class nears graduation, Major Davis arrives, with right-hand man, M/Sgt. Archie Dixon (Barton MacLane), to take command. Davis is discomfited by the presence of so many civilian women clerks, including the field's former owner, Burton "Burt" Hughes (Anne Shirley), the daughter of a respected Air Corps general and now a secretary under terms of the lease. Davis is brusque with Burt and she observes he could use some training in manners.
Buck Oliver arrives with the next cadet class, that includes Tom Hughes (Eddie Albert), Burt's brother. Davis is mildly disturbed to learn that Oliver and Burt have a romantic history, and the two friendly rivals continue to butt heads over the importance of bombardiers. Oliver, who heads the group of pilots flying bombers for cadet training, refuses to take them seriously because they will become sergeants upon graduation, not commissioned officers. Davis attempts to make up with Burt, and solicits the War Department to commission the bombardiers. Preflight ground school is intensive and with practice bombing, reveals many shortcomings: Tom Hughes has trouble with fear-induced air sickness, Joe Connors (Robert Ryan) with commitment issues, and "Chito" Rafferty (Richard Martin) with the lack of women on the base. Cadet Pete Jordan is not up to the complexity of the training and soon washes out.
Connors reveals to Davis that a spy wants to buy information from him about the secret bombsight, and helps Davis lure the spy into a trap where he is arrested. Cadet Paul Harris, brilliant in ground school and a hero for saving his bomber from destruction when a flare goes awry, is conscience stricken that his mother thinks he will be a murderer of innocent civilians. Davis reassures him with a patriotic pep talk. When a bomber develops mechanical problems and the crew is ordered to bail out, Tom Hughes panics in fear and refuses to jump. His friend (and another suitor of Burt Hughes), Cadet Jim Carter (Walter Reed), crash- lands the aircraft, claiming that he is the one who panicked, but Hughes confesses afterward. Facing an elimination board, he successfully persuades Davis and receives a second chance.
On a subsequent flight, Buck Oliver passes out from anoxia, nearly tossing Carter out of the opened bomb bay without a parachute. Tom Hughes falls to his death saving Carter's life. Oliver is subjected to a board of investigation but exonerated because his actions resulted from the failure of his oxygen equipment. Guilt-stricken and unable to face Burt, Oliver transfers out of the school. Shortly after, America is drawn into the war by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Davis, promoted to colonel, becomes a B-17 group commander, and awkwardly proposes marriage to Burt who turns him down. The group (and new bombardiers Carter, Connors, Rafferty, and Harris) leaves for a secret island base in the Pacific, and Burt passionately kisses Jim Carter goodbye, revealing her choice.
At the base, Buck Oliver, now a major, joins the group just as it is about to fly a night mission to bomb an aircraft factory in Nagoya, Japan. Oliver's assignment is bomb with incendiaries to set the target on fire a half hour before the arrival of the group, which Davis will lead at high altitude. Joe Connors is Oliver's bombardier and Sgt. Dixon his tailgunner. Flying low, Oliver's bomber is shot down before he can drop his bombs, and Connors remains at his post, sacrificing his life to destroy the bombsight, fulfilling an oath he took upon entry into Bombardier School.
Oliver and the remainder of his crew, including Dixon, are captured. Their Japanese captors execute the other crew members to coerce Oliver and Dixon into revealing the location of their base, but Dixon overwhelms his guard and attempts to escape. The stretchers used to carry the dead Americans are stamped "USA Earthquake Relief 1923". He is machine gunned in the attempt, but the shots also set fire to a truck carrying barrels of gasoline. Oliver drives the burning truck throughout the factory, setting fire to its camouflage netting and fulfills his mission, knowing he will be killed by his own men. The B-17 group fights off Japanese fighters, is riddled by flak, but overcomes the reluctance of the bombardiers to bomb their compatriots and successfully destroys the target. | romantic | train | wikipedia | There were a lot of films made by Hollywood during the war years that were designed to drum up support for our troops from the public.
This film is a pretty effective and entertaining example of the genre--having a pretty realistic script and good production values.
Pat O'Brien plays pretty much the same character he played in MANY other films (you know, the tough-talking, hard-driven but "swell guy").
Randolph Scott is, as always, competent and entertaining and the rest of the extras are excellent (look for a young Robert Ryan as one of the bombardiers in training).
While the story is reminiscent of several other movies about our pilots and crews, the film is well-crafted enough to make it interesting and not too far-fetched.
About the only serious negative, and this is mostly for nitpickers, is that some of the stock footage is somewhat sloppily integrated in the film and "nuts" like me who are both history teachers and airplane lovers will probably notice this--all others probably won't notice..
There is no question as to who is in command of the training of cadets in this film: Major Chick Davis (Pat O'Brien).
O'Brien plays an officer who adheres to military discipline in the creation of a new kind of soldier from his cadets--the bombardier.
He's tough when he has to be, yet at other times he is a clear mix of coach and pastor, roles he perfected in other films.
Two things help this movie: O'Brien's performance and the spectacular special effects ending..
I wasn't sure at first if I was watching a documentary, propaganda film or dramatic presentation.
But you had a sense that there would be some interesting scenes as the movie went on.
We were able to witness what appeared to be realistic training regimens and equipment.Where this movie came together for me was closer to the end.
This was mixed in with the usual problems of portraying passable Japanese soldiers at a time when you might think real Japanese actors would be somewhat scarce.The movie is excellent as a source of the state of the American mindset in 1943 as the war waged with Japan.
The scene that stands out vividly is when Robert Ryan walks into the church and yells, "The Japs just bombed Pearl Harbor".
Another interesting thing is the movie never uses the word Norton Bombsight.
I did like the picture because it shows the training the men received.
The part of the movie seems right in that the plane, pilot, ground crew, and everything else is there just to take the Bombardier to the target so he can push a button.
The Pilot and Bombardier is like playing golf.
This 1943 film by RKO is among several that Hollywood and/or the War Department put out during the early months and years of World War II.
The war action comes at the end.
A docu-drama style tells the story of the bombardier school and training.
Propaganda surely had its place in WWII – to help sustain public morale, build support for the U.S. cause and efforts, and give the public a picture of some of the troops, training, and campaigns.
"Bombardier" tells and shows us the early days of training for this new position in the Army Air Forces – precursor of the U.S. Air Force.
This film shows very well that detail, study and science that went into the training of bombardiers.
These men indeed played a critical role in destroying enemy armament production, fuel depots and major supplies – and in so doing, helped end the war much earlier than it would have otherwise concluded.
But films such as "Bombardier" add another value in educating and informing the public of what went into the readying of our nation for war, and our ability to win and end it as soon as possible.
People who approach war movies in a similar frame of mind will be much more likely to enjoy them.
I highly recommend "Bombardier" as an informative, action-filled and historical war movie..
Richard Martin first played Chito Rafferty in this movie World War 2 movie.
One wonders how a character that first appeared in a modern war flick ended up being a longtime sidekick in Westerns.
Interestingly, the second time Martin played his famous character was not with Tim Holt, but with Robert Mitchum in Nevada.
Pat O'Brien takes his Knute Rockne character and joins the Army Air Corps in Bombardier and he and Randolph Scott have a disagreement as far as air tactics go.
Fly in low and drop bombs and avoid being shot at.O'Brien is more interested in technology.
Develop and learn how to use an accurate bombsight so you can be up around 20,000 feet and only have to worry about enemy planes which presumably your fighter escort has to deal with.But since these guys are friends it's a good natured fight as both are in the business of training bombardiers.
Among the familiar faces they train are Eddie Albert and Robert Ryan before both went in the service themselves.
Film buffs who are air historians might like it though..
OK, if somewhat heavy handed, WW2 recruitment film disguised as entertainment.
Made in 1942, before the allies had the upper-hand in Europe, 'Bombardier' is part entertainment, part propaganda, and part recruiting film.
The film follows the establishment of a Bombardier Training School, championed by Major "Chick" Davis (Pat O'Brien), a firm believer in high-altitude precision bombing and criticized by his buddy, Capt.
"Buck" Oliver (Randolph Scott), a pilot-oriented proponent of low-level drops and dive-bombing.
Eubank extolling the critical role of the bombardier in the ongoing war, there is little doubt which of the two offensive strategies is going to win out.
Typical of the genre, the film follows a diverse group of trainees, from their arrival at the school to their baptisms in fire, with some romantic filler and dated comic-relief thrown in.
There is a particularly egregious sequence in which a trainee admits that he is uncomfortable with dropping high-explosives on targets where there may be non-combatants (including women) and that his mother had written him a letter expressing her concerns that he was training to be a murderer.
The chaplain explains to him (and indirectly to the audience, which might include people of similar opinions to the fictional mother), that the bombardier is doing God's will by bombing the German military-industrial infrastructure.
During the war Americans celebrated "Rosie the Riveter", who represented the women who worked in the factories thereby freeing-up men to fight, and as there would be no reason to believe that women in the Axis powers weren't doing the same, people must have accepted the fact that women could be killed when the factories were bombed (as were, as was later discovered, forced laborers).
The rest of the special effects are hit and miss, there are some good pyrotechnic scenes as the bombs bullseye Japanese targets but the earlier B18 model work is substandard, even for the times.
The cast is fine in what is essentially a propaganda picture, there are lots of gorgeous, soldier-loving, dames to entice young men in the audience to sign-up, and a thrilling but typically far-fetched heroic climax.
OK for an unsubtle WW2 morale-booster/recruitment film (especially if you like planes) but not in the same league as the excellent "30 Seconds over Tokyo" (1944)..
Typical WWII propaganda film.
Basically a typical propaganda film for the last good war.
In two cases the Scott character mouths one, once at the beginning when he drops his bomb off target during the bomb-off ("dammit") and once when he is trying to sway a bombardier into being a pilot ("s*%t").
Given what we know about the LeMay's later strategy of firebombing Japanese cities into oblivion this scene plays with not a little irony.
terrible excuse for a movie, even considering the war.
We could start by pointing out that the premise of the story is wrong, namely, that bombardiers are about to become the most crucial people in the war and that with their wonderful, new, super-top-secret bombsite they will be able to hit their targets right on the nose from 20,000 feet.
Here is a good example of wildly inaccurate bombing was right to the end of the war, from the article on precision bombing in Wikipedia: "In the summer of 1944, 47 B- 29's raided the Yawata steel works from bases in China; only one plane actually hit the target area, and only with one of its bombs.
It took 108 B-17 bombers, crewed by 1,080 airmen, dropping 648 bombs to guarantee a 96 percent chance of getting just two hits inside a 400 x 500 ft (150 m) German power-generation plant." Early in the movie a cadet has moral scruples about bombing women and children.
Oh, but that's what the wicked enemy does, he's told; our side bombs only military targets and does it with wonderful precision.
Total nonsense again, on both counts.As for entertainment value, "Bombardier" has just about none.
There's a little bit of information about how bombing crews are trained and a few interesting shots of Flying Fortresses——on the ground——but nothing else.
As the film ends, a final shot is supposed to show a sky crowded with bombers in formation, but the artist who drew the scene has the sky so full of them, so jam-packed together that they're just about overlapping each other, like a flock of starlings.Or how about this for crappy writing?
Near the beginning, the air force brass are talking about Hitler's Stuka attacks in Europe and how the U.S. had better get prepared in case one day it has to fight him.
At the end our bombardiers are bombing Nagoya.
But at no moment in between do we hear about Pearl Harbor or the start of the war for the U.S. Forgot to mention that, I guess.Don't waste your time.
This war drama from RKO Radio can't help but appear dated, but is evocative of the mindset in the early '40s.
An entertaining piece of propaganda with just enough war action and actually features some good acting.
The two primary stars Pat O'Brien and Randolph Scott argue over methods of training for the war effort.
Buck Oliver, who is adamant about recruiting pilots; O'Brien stars as Major Chick Davis pushing the training of pilots in high altitude precision bombing.
Davis is surprised when Oliver arrives as a flight instructor and insists he complies with the program of bombing training.
Passable World War II propaganda film with a all-star cast.
Directed by Richard Wallace, with writing credits for Martin Rackin (story) and John Twist (story and screenplay), this World War II propaganda film focuses on the technical role of the title job.
It features an all star cast including: Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, Anne Shirley, Eddie Albert, Walter Reed, Robert Ryan, Barton MacLane, and Russell Wade, who played a similar role in The Bamboo Blonde (1946).The film begins with a monologue (by Brigadier-General Eugene L.
Eubanks himself) emphasizing the importance of the bombardier, and the vision it took to create, train, and staff the job prior to World War II so that we were prepared to join the fight.
Major Chick Davis (O'Brien), with his "golden goose" sighting equipment, challenges dive bomber Captain Buck Oliver (Scott) to see whose method will be most effective in the conflict, should the United States choose to enter the war.
Though Buck misses the target, Chick hits it from 20,000 feet, convincing his critics to fund a training school (actually in Kirtland Field, Albuquerque) in New Mexico.The mythical site is reported to be an airfield owned by a former, and now deceased, dive bomber named Hughes, whose daughter Burton (Shirley) and son Tom (Albert) still work there.
Gruff Chick arrives to find an environment too cozy for the Army Air Force, because of Burton's woman's touch, and has Sgt. Dixon (MacLane) rough it up a bit.
Buck arrives to help, as one of the pilots for the bombardiers, and is greeted by Burton, who he evidently has been dating.
Apparently Tom has enlisted as a bombardier too, based on the fact that his best friend, a star football player, Jim Carter (Reed) had joined.The film then spends quite a bit of time giving an overview of the education, which begins with extensive classroom and other ground training before the students are ever taken up in a plane.
Besides Tom and Carter, some of the other recruits include Joe Connors (Ryan), Chito Rafferty (Richard Martin), and Paul Harris (Wade).
Scott's character Buck serves the function of the skeptical pilot trying to "steal" the best of Chick's recruits and as one who must be convinced of the bombardier's value.Shirley's character, as the lone credited female in the film, is not only a romantic interest for the competing Buck and Carter (and even to the smallest degree, Chick) but also serves to "soften up" the tough Chick a bit, acting as his sounding board, loyal employee, and voice of reason.
The most dramatic, and character revealing moments in the film, revolve around Arnold's character, who must justify why Chick and the Army board should keep him given his fear of jumping out of a disabled plane AND later is doomed to a tragic fate.The final phase of the film is the realization of all the extensive training, after it is learned that the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor.Though this film received an Academy Award nomination for Special Effects, they are vastly inferior to those in another film nominated film that same year, Air Force (1943).There is, of course, a moment late in the film when Buck sees the light and appreciates the role of the titled soldier.
The film ends, oddly enough for the time, with its credits..
This time by training and later blasting the enemy-Japanese-to kingdom come with their loads of bombs from their B-25 bombers flying into the teeth of massive Jap anti aircraft fire.
We also have the women that they left behind at the airbase or home rooting them on but because of restrictions against women in combat, which have since been lifted, back then in 1943 unable to join them on their combat missions against the Japanese Empire.There's also a bit of a conflict between fly boys Major Chick Davis, Pat O'Brian, and his good friend Captain Buck Oliver, Randolph Scott, not just how to drop the bombs at either low or high altitude but over the girl Burton "Burt" Hughes, Anne Shirley,who because of her late hero in WWI father is in charge of the airfield-Hughes Field-as well as of her two suitors.
We also have a number of side stories here with the afraid of bailing out of a falling plane Tom Hughes, Eddie Albert, Burton's brother later saving a fellow airman hanging on to the planes cargo door and them falling to his death 12,000 feet below without a parachute!***SPOILERS*** The big scene in the movie after almost 3/4 of it having nothing to do whet we, the audience, came to see we finally get to see the boys in action bombing-as Donald Trump likes to say-the sh*t out of the Japs by blasting the Japanese city of Urgoya as as Captain now Major Buck Oliver is captured by the hated and sadistic Japs and threatened with death or ever worse if he doesn't talk!
Setting fires all over the city's industrial district Buck makes it possible for his friend Major Chick Davis and his crewmen to bomb the Japanese war making factories out of existence!
P.S Buck never lived to see the end of the movie since he was killed by Chick's planes bombardment but as a final note got to read a letter, that the evil Japs stole from him, from the girl Burton that he and Chick were both fighting over that it was him that she really was in love with!.
This semi-documentary war drama is a face paced look at the lives of the pilots whose job it is to measure distance from the air to make sure the bombs they drop hit their targets.
It even starts off like a documentary with no real credits (those are held off until the end) and explains in good detail of what these extremely brave men do, at great risk to their lives, but at even greater risk to their country if they didn't.
That sequence had me riveted to my television in total awe to the technical impressiveness of it all and the horror of these men's situation.But no matter how much their own lives are in peril, they get the goods on the enemy, never once giving into the tortures and utilizing a popular children's story in giving away American "secrets".
The cast is superb, and includes Pat O'Brien (as the trainer), Anne Shirley (well utilized as the only major female character in a men's story), Robert Ryan, Randolph Scott (who gets a great final moment) and Eddie Albert as a trainee who meets a most horrifying destiny in the most shocking moment of the film.
Flag-waver about the training and tsuris of bombardiers during World War II.
It's kind of interesting to hear about the motives of these cadets and informative to learn about their training program.
The movie seems a slapdash affair with some miscasting and a weak script.Pat O'Brian is not a hard-nosed disciplinarian of a commanding officer.
It's made manifest at the beginning of the film that most of the office staff will be women because "they're more efficient at it than men." But everybody's after this one babe.
Before the board, he explains that he keeps thinking of the people who will be under his bombs.
Something very much like that, no kidding.One of the more exhilarating moments is near the end.
I've watched it two or three times now and find much of it enjoyable, particularly the scenes of action aloft and training below.
For effective propaganda from our side, delicately blending training, romance, and action, see "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo." Still, as I say, the kids may enjoy "Bombardier" from beginning to end. |
tt0119879 | Perdita Durango | Rosie Perez plays Perdita Durango, a woman who goes to Mexico to scatter the ashes of her dead sister.
In Mexico she is picked up by bank robbing drug dealer Romeo Dolorosa, played by Javier Bardem. He robbed the bank to pay off his debt to loan shark Catalina (Demián Bichir). Romeo also engages in various scams pretending to be a magical Santeria priest, hacking up corpses while snorting cocaine.
Romeo’s latest scam is working for gangster Mr. Santos (Don Stroud) transporting refrigerated human fetuses to Las Vegas where they will be used to make cosmetic skin cream.
Perdita devises a plan that they should capture a gringo and eat him as part of Romeo’s ceremonies. They randomly kidnap geeky college student Dwayne and his girlfriend Estelle. First Perdita rapes Dwayne while Romeo rapes Estelle. They hold a ceremony to sacrifice Estelle while they force Dwayne to watch. Before the girl can be killed the sacrifice is interrupted by a gang of men led by a Shorty Dee (Santiago Segura), a betrayed former partner of Romeo.
Romeo and Perdita escape with Dwayne and Estelle still their captives. The four proceed to go to the meeting with Santos’ people to pick up the truckload of fetuses. Unfortunately, the hand-off is interrupted by Drug Enforcement Agent Woody Dumas, played by James Gandolfini. All of Santos’ men are killed but Romeo escapes, driving to Vegas with Dwayne, while Perdita follows with Estelle.
On the trip Romeo finds out his grandmother's house was raided by some of Catalina's men as punishment for Romeo's unpaid debt. Romeo visits Catalina in a club, pretending to offer Estelle as payment. When he gets Catalina alone Romeo kills the loan shark.
Finally Romeo, Perdita, Dwayne, and Estelle get to Vegas. But they’ve been followed the whole way by Dumas. More, the drop has become a trap for Romeo -- Santos is upset about all the dead men at the pick up so he has hired Romeo’s cousin Reggie (Carlos Bardem) to kill Romeo at the drop off.
Romeo and his one-armed ex-marine buddy Doug go to the drop, tipped off about the double-cross. Romeo leaves Perdita to watch the hostages, but Perdita's nervousness overcomes her. She lets Estelle and Dwayne go so she can check on her lover.
Reggie kills Doug and Perdita arrives just in time to see Reggie shoot Romeo in the back, killing him. Perdita shoots and kills Reggie and then flees as the cops bust in, led by Woody, intending to arrest the men but instead finding them all dead.
Alone now Perdita walks the Vegas strip, mourning Romeo. | psychedelic, comedy, cruelty, violence, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0275468 | The Last Minute | The film darkly lampoons success, failure, and show business.
Billy Byrne is famous, the new big thing, yet the film doesn't say what's the great idea that got him there, he is just suddenly on top, everywhere and adored. Women, money, fame, then everything changes and Billy finds himself being rejected, a failure, he is not so good anymore. He turns to friends but they are busy on their own thing. Goes from enjoying luxuries to living in the streets, consuming drugs and finding homeless people giving him some sort of shelter underground, and beyond that: emotional shelter, a tribe. A new woman, a new life underground.
Pay close attention to the black dog appearing on the film when something bad is about to happen, and pay close attention to Billy abilities to affect public lighting due to his "own energy". Billy totally losses his magic and can't even make one single light blink.
Still obsessed with fame and success, tries hard to come up with some magic plan, strategies, communication campaigns (again not clear what's his line of work), and finds friends doing nothing while discovering the one who betrayed his trust. Billy discovers there is more than the idea, the plan, and finds himself talking about semantics, messages and content beyond the words. Seems like a clue on a personal discovery on what path to take.
Here things begin to appear cryptic. Why? because the movie goes on a mission no showing you the protagonist along with more than enough metaphors that can be applied to almost anyone.
Deep in drugs, dirty, stinky and a total disaster finally makes it to the big president of the company to present his great ideas (written on dirty paper) only to find out his old friend now already working with them. Billy argues, and even warns them about the danger and them being dangerous in many ways, but his friend answers "I already know", and claiming it doesn't affects him because he is aware they are using him, just like he is using them (in front of the president).
Billy seems to open his eyes and being unable to explain his idea, gain attention and appearing as a dirty unhealthy drug addict goes to the bathroom to put some more drugs in. In frustration he seems to see the light. He finally comes with the plan of closing a deal with the drugs he gained access to, the deal is accepted and asks for tickets to Greenland so he can leave his dirty life behind and begin a new one on a natural paradise.
The complex metaphors (but clear on screen) present a new Billy willing to give up his world for a new one, includes his new girlfriend on the plan but she appears unable to grasp the concept of freedom and fails to go on with him. Finally opens his eyes leaving everything and everyone behind as a message up to the viewer to elaborate. His new girlfriend rejects the tickets and wants drugs, he leaves on a limousine and begins to take his piercings off. Billy doesn't know, but he is back (as a human being) and while the car drives on the road: all the lights don't blink, but they shut down immediately as a message that he is way better and above from any place he has ever been in life as a person.
The movie ends with him on Greenland, the place of the initial take on the film where hi gives this speech on time, and what would you do on your last minute. Clues were left on different sites on the web about interviews, comments and director hints for better understanding of the movie, difficult to find all that info in just one site. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | Stephen Norrington's "Blade" is undoubtedly a highlight of recent American cinema.
"The Last Minute" is scatterbrained, indecisive and consequently confusing and also too derivative of other hip directors (Danny Boyle, Guy Ritchie)."The Last Minute" is semi-autobiographical of Norrington's experience with the entertainment industry.
While it's confusing as to just what kind of "artist" the protagonist Billy Byrne is, it is clear that his exploits mirror that of Norrington's.
In this dilemma, Norrington asks some very good existential questions about the true worth of an artist.
This shows that the true value of art is not determined by things like mass-appeal and critical praise.
A better film would have stayed with these questions.Norrington's account of a bought, sold and rejected artist is too complex, because its personal nature interferes with the larger themes and messages.
First, Norrington shows a throw away entertainment industry that is fickle and disloyal, meaning many artists are bound to get stepped on.
It is a nice set-up for a satire, but then the film takes a misstep by having Byrne realize that he had little life experience in the first place.
The movie is then suddenly about Byrne's quest for personal experience and redemption, losing the satirical edge the film starts off wanting.
"The Last Minute" is too personal for its own good.The story then takes another step in the wrong direction by suddenly morphing into an Oliver Twist-inspired story about the underbelly of London.
The Christopher Guest movie "The Big Picture" was a similarly satirical look at a young Hollywood director.
Both movies use humor and absurdity to poke fun at and criticize the entertainment business, but "Big Picture" works so much better because it is consistent and concise.
That's not to say Norrington's film is uninspired or dull.
He again uses stylish techniques like time lapse, jump-cut editing and extreme mood lighting to show the frantic atmosphere of big cities that leads to large-scale marginalization of many citizens.
There are bombastic musical sequences and over the top characters which feel way too similar to trends started by Danny Boyle, Guy Ritchie and Baz Lurhman.
Norrington proved in "Blade" to be highly original and trend-setting himself, and has no need to borrow the quirks of other filmmakers.
Let's not forget that this is one of the first guys to use pre-"Matrix" bullet-time.It's a shame Norrington has claimed to have given up on motion pictures.
to compare this to any guy ritchie film is foolish and plain out bad reviewing.
many would simply class it in the same school because it is british, it features "hip" newcomers, and the direction is very flashy and effects rich.....well except for the british part this describes most every film coming out now.
the last minute is as far from guy ritchie as one can get.
one forever feels that around the next corner will be the demon awaiting to devour the souls of the main characters, but lemarchand's box is not quite so literal as it is in a film like hellraiser.
it is true that the plot balances on the old carpe diem type thing, but unlike every hollywood dungheap to tread this ground in the last 20 years, this film manages to do it with some grace, some originality, and with a large dash of realism amongst the severe surrealism.
The impression I received watching this film, which at times teeters on the brink of unbelievable intensity, is Stephen Norrington's experience making "Blade".
Jason Isaacs will wow you in a way you've never seen him before, I thought "James Bond!" right away.
The film almost loses its way with the Oliver Twist second act (and I know people who love the film only because of that...
The Last Minute is one of those truly rare motion pictures that deserves far wider recognition than it will ever get.
Visually, The Last Minute is as impressive a looking picture as I've ever seen.
One caveat: Director Norrington wisely employs a terrific device by which we never know what our protagonist does to earn then lose his fame (director and star are on record as being at odds as to what Billy actually does).
Personally, I laughed (in horror, but laughed) at this scene but I know others who were put off of the movie altogether because of these few seconds.Every other aspect of the truly most bizarre club "Prosthetic" is genius (as, actually is the moment in question, just too off-putting for most people).
It is in this long scene at "Prosthetic" where perhaps the films most brilliant moment occurs which is, of course, Percy "Sledge" breaking into the Sinatra classic "I've got you under my skin" while wreaking a gleeful malevolent stream of violence that is about as close to movie magic as we've ever seen.
Norrington has a cast that, quite simply, could not have been improved upon with Max Beesley giving a stand out performance as Billy to watch the youthful energy of his clubby dance moves and the enthusiasm with which he embraces his burgeoning fame slip into confused despair, hopelessness and attempt at self redemption.
As the aforementioned Percy "Sledge" Jason Isaacs is nothing short of terrifying, executing his violence with a Fred Astaire like grace and precision which is utterly disarming.
Don't waste your time, except Now. A really weird, unknown and rare film that attacks you out of no where and strikes you to the bottom of the unpredictable downer pit.Long story short, it is about a guy who is the new and hip guy, until he isnt and falls down to obscurity, including becoming a Junky.
As you might already have written a couple of times about this film, there isnt much to read about it out there, it seems to be a semi autobiographical piece of work about its director Stephen Norrington (Blade, Death Machine, League of....), which even though i hope he didnt became an addict, who left directing & directing right after "League of...
Its themes of Fame, celebrety cult, creativity, ego centrecism, exploitation and much more couldn't be more relevant today, in the age of social media reality tv and talent shows where most of the western and eastern world seems to seek fame and attention like heroin addicts to an absurd extreme.
We live in an age of people becoming famous for the sake of it without having any talents whatsoever and others for having video channels with millions of followers without doing anything more than reacting to other videos infront of the camera, people watching other people play video games and so on.
What surprised me about this film was its sheer nihilistic madness and chaotic nature that until the very end doesnt quite seem to match up, by the end you'll understand and as only a few movies do this flick gets better the more you watch it.Be warned this film ain't for the faint heart and especially is not for the traditional moviegoer, at times it reminded me of the spontaneous chaotic nature of Godard' s Breathless (make no mistake it is not near as good as Breathless).
This film surely deserves more attention and a cult following, not many people have seen or do even know about that film, so i say spread the word for this bizzare and unique experiment called film.
Stephen directed 2 movies before this one and wrote one of those.
He seeks to shock the audience by subjecting us to a barrage of images and keeping the film moving at a lightning quick pace (aside from a few slow spots) It might have been enough to get by 20 years ago, but to today's much more jaded viewers it doesn't resonate nearly as much.
Not to say the film is a total loss as Beesley provides a pretty good, if not especially engaging, performance and I was rarely bored with it.
For a film that argues you shouldn't waste even a second of life, why would one choose to kiss 120 minutes away on this?
My Grade: C-DVD Extras: Director's commentary; Max Beesley commentary; Producing of TLM, Style of TLM, Character Tree video; Cast and Crew Bios; Crafting Prosthesis; SN Connection; What Billy does; 3 music videos that did nothing for me; 4 faux TV show snippets; Production Notes; a game to determine how many weeks you have left until your 90th birthday and you get short clips of interviews or behind the scene footage (I had to F'n clue how to work this); Theatrical Trailer; Trailers for "Sex and Lucia", "The Believer", and "Scratch" (Honestly there may be a bit more but the extras menu is akin to the one found on the bonus disc of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" collection in as far as how you have to navigate through it).
As a ex-Brit who is of a similar age and born in the same place as Norrington, but I am wondering what went wrong with him.
I had never heard of this film until I saw it advertised on STARZ movie channel.
I thought "oh good, fellow Brit, sounds like a good movie".
Oh dear was I wrong....Parts I liked (no spoilers)...the camera work, Max Beesley's character, comic touches....Parts I didn't like....Tom Bell's character (totally unbelievable) as to was Jason Issacs, the end, the middle and about 90% of the story.
Some of the scenes with Jason Issacs (Percy) actually were so gross and unbelievable that two of the people I was watching this with asked me to turn it off.
The atypical gritty Guy Ritchie British school of modern film class has reared a muddled mess of a movie.
So wicked that I immediately started to hunt the internet for it.I was impressed by the very fine acting of Max Beesley, very convincing character transformations throughout the film.
Not since discovering Christian Bale did I feel like wanting to see more films from someone.Even though this movie centered around London's Underground, I felt like this could've been any city...reminding me of it's inhabitants running about half-asleep, forgetting (ignorance is bliss) about existence and valuing life.The movie made me feel guilty for feeling guilty about wanting to indulge and live a little in life.I recommend this movie anyone who likes movies that give you that feeling of "there's a message here for me"..
The synopsis of the film cited other titles such as "Fight Club" and "Trainspotting" yet I failed to make a connection.
The only thing I found to even be remotely like Fight Club was the main menu on the DVD.
It's almost as if the director wanted you to compare his movie to those.
Those movies have huge cult followings so even if The Last Minute was a decent movie, the fact that the director was so hell-bent on drawing the Tarantino/Ritchie/Lynch crowd he in reality just drew a crowd of critics.
outside of seeing this as auto-biographical for Norrington I can see it deals with his traumatic experiences with Blade.
One of the best scenes in a film I've seen in the last years is Jason Issacs doing his "I got you under my skin".
And I am not sure Dickens would have liked the Oliver Twist bit...
As for this being put in the same category with Trainspotting, Clockwork Orange and Fight Club, I can't see why people are bother, try to describe a film using normal words.
///// as for latest rumors that Norrington quit making movies, hey Steve, don't get mad, get even !
Although certainly not for the faint-hearted - there is some very confronting content - I have no hesitation in rating this as one of the best movies I've seen in a long time, and a must-see for any serious cinema fan.I watched this for the first time last night and as you can tell, I was hugely impressed.
I have long admired Norrington's fine work on 'Blade', and he undoubtedly transformed what might otherwise have been a real corn-fest into the keystone of a very successful franchise.
I was sad to read that Norrington famously had such a bad time making LXG that he swore he'd never make another film, and to date he still hasn't - which is a terrible waste of a great talent.
It's a real pity that such an obviously gifted writer-director has only been able to make four movies in 20 years - but I'm very glad he got to make this one!I'm also sorry that other viewers didn't enjoy it as much as I did ...
As mentioned, it is quite confronting in some parts and creates a powerful sense of unease, so I can understand why some won't appreciate its many virtues - but mega-kudos to Chris Blackwell and his colleagues for getting behind Norrington and letting him do this, because I have no doubt will come to be seen as his masterpiece, and I hope it will eventually be recognised a very fine and original film that deserved to reach a far wider audience.
I loved how he lets the audience go through so much of the film without showing what Billy actually makes/does - and the scene in which this is revealed is an absolute tour de force - Frank Harper as the ultimate cabbie from hell should get an Oscar - an astounding performance.
I love its cool and freaky visual style, the great music tracks, the wonderful locations, but I especially have to take my hat off to Norrington and his audio team for the soundtrack.
It's not just the music that's great - the entire sound design on this film is just *superb* - there is so much happening on the audio track in every scene, so many subtle touches, that you really MUST watch it with headphones on and get fully immersed, or you'll miss a big part of what makes it so cool and so weird.The performances were uniformly great but the underground kids are really amazing, Tom Bell is TERRIFYING, and Jason Isaacs is wonderful too - a big, juicy, scenery-chewing role if ever there was one, and he plays it to the hilt!
I really think is is a very potent film - profound, funny, edgy and one that leaves a very powerful impression on the viewer.
Stephen Norrington, What Have You Done???.
"The Last Minute" is an abysmal film.
I have seen some rather hideous films in my life, but frankly this one qualifies as one of the all time worst, particularly in light of the immense talent of writer & director Stephen Norrington, an otherwise fine cast, and some incredibly gifted technical people such as the editor and the cinematographer.
I sat through this ambitious film in its entirety because some very dear, close friends of mine loaned me the DVD and I made a commitment to them to watch it.
Furthermore, I have enjoyed Norrington's other films: "Blade," "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," and "Death Machine." "Blade" was a masterpiece, and I truly loved "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." Even "Death Machine" surpassed this depressing drivel.
Generally, I love all things British, but this dreadful film proved to be an exception to the rule.
I look forward to future Norrington films, and I envy anybody who can find anything remotely redeeming about this balderdash..
I was blown away by the style of Blade, directed by Stephen Norrington.
Something happened to the director between these two movies, as Blade had an incredible sense of style, and LXG was a complete mess of a movie.
In between these two movies, Stephen Norrington wrote and directed "The Last Minute."The less you know, the better, but the basics are:** Start Minor Spoilers **Billy Byrne is the next big thing.
He doesn't become a drug addicted homeless thief over night, and Mr. Norrington properly plays up the romanticism of that lifestyle.
We only see what we want to see.The movie skips ahead a year, and we see the reality of the situation.
Will he?** End Minor Spoilers **This movie moves slowly sometimes, and I wish there were sub titles, since I had some trouble with the accents in some scenes, but it's also got scenes that look like poetry.
Mr. Norrington has quite an eye.
I love watching Jason Isaacs.
I don't know if it's a British thing but it seems that British actors just have an incredible knack for playing villains and making them extremely sexy and appealing.
That said, The Last Minute is one of the most bizarre movies I have EVER seen.
Perhaps it's because I'm American, I really don't know, but I found this movie hard to follow (much like Clockwork Orange, another movie I never understood) and I really could have done without the drug scenes and violent fight scenes.As stated previously, Jason Isaacs was this movie's ONLY saving grace, and unfortunately even with him in it, I cannot really recommend this movie.However, if you are a Jason Isaacs fan and you just HAVE to watch every movie he's ever made (like me), then go ahead and watch it.
Gritty, dark, poetic, and funny-- with a cast of very talented actors by and large unknown to the American audience (one possible exception may be Jason Isaacs, who played Percy).
While there are elements in this movie that do remind me of other Brit classics such as: Snatch, Loch Stock, and perhaps, 24 Hours in London, it does stand on its own as a feature worthy of viewing.Billy Byrne, played by Max Beesely, is a starving artist who has a lot of hype behind his latest art project, the nature of which I'll omit here.
When critics and the public turn on him, Billy falls on hard times.
Drawn into a life of drug abuse and general mayhem, Billy takes another crack at the big time with his next great idea.
We end the movie with an implied flight to Greenland which neatly ties in with the opening scene of the movie.A very smart, existential film with wonderfully-colored characters. |
tt0101797 | Edge of Honor | The film begins with an account of impoverished families living on the North-West coast of the United States having taken up arms smuggling to support themselves and their families. A group of said smugglers have just received a shipment of high tech weapons, including one-man portable rocket launchers, but are intercepted and slaughtered by a rival group who take the weapons for themselves. One member of the first group escapes, but is tracked down and killed, along with his wife; only their daughter Alex survives.
A group of scouts on a camping trip in the rainforest stumble upon a cache of the aforementioned rocket launchers hidden in a shack. Taking some of the weapons for fun, they accidentally drop a map showing their base camp. The arms smugglers arrive at the shack soon after the boys leave. Using the map the boys dropped, the smugglers arrive at the scout camp to retrieve the weapons. When the scouts react with non-understanding, violence ensues and several of the scouts are killed. The frightened boys flee into the woods, with the smugglers hot on their tracks.
The scouts are joined in their fight for survival by Alex, who has taken up arms against her family's slayers. In their final stand, the scouts construct an elaborate trap to defeat their pursuers once and for all. | revenge, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | Excellent B movie.
I enjoyed the hell out of this movie.
I first saw it when I was eleven years old.
I was a boy scout then and I really thought it was cool.
I'm twenty now and I still like to watch it.
Corey Feldman is cool in it and I love the atmosphere the movie gives off.
It is very violent, but it in an inventive way.
The skills that the kids use to reek revenge are very neat and creative.
Patrick Swayze's brother is in this one and he is downright awful.
Aside from that, the movie is ver good.
I love the gunfights and there is a very dark tone.
It's very reminiscent to Red Dawn.
It's VERY unrealistic but a LOT of fun.
Check it out and watch it one night with a few beers and you'll have a blast..
Neat little time waster..
Interesting action film for teenagers, about a group of campers who stumble onto a gun-running operation in the woods.
The people in charge of the smuggling find out that the kids know about them, and then hunt them through the forest to kill them.
The bad guys are all zombie-like psychopaths straight out of a John Carpenter movie, with no scruples against shooting innocent children.
Taut little thriller, with overtones of Walter Hill's own 80's "survival in the wilderness" flick "Southern Comfort".
A true guilty pleasure movie for sure, but you will be strangely drawn to root for the teenagers during the final action scene where they reek violent revenge on their pursuers.
I watched this film along time ago, but I still remember it because it was a good movie considering what it was about..
One of the better hunted in the woods films ...........
While "Edge of Honor" certainly is no "Deliverance", it is one of the better hunted in the woods films.
I would put this on a par with something like "Hunter's Blood".
The movie benefits from Don Swaze playing an excellent villain.
The plot is simple and easy to follow, with the Scouts trying to survive using their survival skills.
Although the climax is somewhat of a stretch, what precedes it is totally acceptable outdoor entertainment.
The photography in "Edge of Honor" is another huge plus.
Seek this one out if you are a fan of this type.
You will not be disappointed.
..........................................- MERK.
Salenger: Emotional vigilante.
This time it's scouts/kids vs.
gun-runners/killers.
The plot is exchangeable, the faces are exchangeable, the fights are exchangeable.Nothing new here or so it seems...
But there's something very odd and it's got to do with the character played by Meredith Salenger who seeks revenge on the crooks who've killed her family right before her eyes.
Salenger's traumatic conversion from happy and likeable country girl into gun-tooting, vengeful vigilante doesn't help the whole movie (which rapidly goes downhill afterwards) but it remains a very impressive sequence.
>. Corey Feldman rules in this great action movie..
Edge of Honor (1991).This movie is about how some boy scouts find some weapons in a house in the forest.And they take them out side so they can take them to the cops to be hero's.But they decided to hide them outside the house and come back and get them at night.And the bad guys that owned the weapons came to the house to get them but they are gone and they do not know who took them.But the bad guys find a map on the floor of the house that one of the scouts dropped and the scouts camp is marked on the map.So the bad guys went to the camp to find out where there weapons are and then they start to kill the scouts and the scouts leaders.And some scouts manage to escape including the scouts who hid the weapons.Now the scouts have to escape the bad guys by trying to find there way out of the forest and get help.Before i rented this movie i thought that this movie would be OK but it turned out to be a fun,action packed,never boring movie and i really enjoyed watching it so much.I am not sure if this movie is out on DVD yet but i think that it would come out on DVD soon enough.And i am going to bye it if see it on DVD and you should bye this movie it would make a great addition to your DVD collection.Over all this movie is really good and Corey Feldman is so great in this movie and if u liked him in this movie you should watch him in this movie The Goonies (1985).My rating for this movie is 7 out of 10..
Surprisingly amazing..
I bought this movie for a quid at a cheap book shop a year or so ago, purely because of Feldman as his other films from the 80's were glorious- and I was utterly shocked at just how good this film was.Something about it made it a step beyond the other appaulingly low budgeted redneck thrillers.
There was no pretence of horror or anything along those lines- it was all very easy to follow, and the setting was well chosen as in any other place it would've failed to impress so much of an image.
Must be all those trees.Anyway, since when has there ever been another film about scouts, lead by Feldman, saving the day?
Or for that matter- any film about scouts.The plots all tied together nicely, and him-off-Scrubs seems to be permanently, well type-cast as 'the mean guy who it goes wrong for every darn time'.The one thing I'd change, is the dodgy yet mysterious- and possibly English- guy-in-shades, who's hired by the bad guys to rectify the situation and recover their stolen weaponry.
It's not always necessary to have some bad-ass cool guy to make a film decent; Feldman filled that role anyway.
I found the little boy who got shot more bad ass.If you can find it anywhere, it's definitely worth a go.
You'll be surprised at how good it is..
Its well-written, serious-intentioned, and competently-directed..
A group of teenaged Boy Scouts exploring the Washington State wilderness come upon an abandoned shack.
The boys, led by Butler (Feldman) discover some heavy-duty weaponry in the shack, namely rocket launchers and bazookas stolen from the U.S. government.
Now that the scouts know about the weapons, they come under attack by a team of gun totin' rednecks led by the emotionless Ritchie (Swayze).
But as the movie itself notes at one point, the boys are the small fish, the rednecks are the middle fish, and the big fish is the Shakespeare-quoting Blade (Neame).
Now surrounded by baddies on all sides, the scouts end up teaming up with a local girl who shares their cause, Alex (Salenger), and they all use whatever booby trap-making knowledge they have to outwit and defend themselves against the onslaught of people that want their heads.
Will they get their merit badge in REVENGE?
Find out today!
When most people think of Corey Feldman, they don't often think of Edge of Honor.
They probably just assume that he's off somewhere, doing a Michael Jackson-like dance.
That's a shame and an oversight, because this movie is among his best work.
Viewers that get a chance to see Edge of Honor will likely be pleasantly surprised at how engaging and watchable the movie is.
We're not really sure why someone would be surprised, except for the fact that video stores were filled with wilderness slogs at the time like Endangered (1994), and patrons had no reason to believe, at first, that this was any different.
But it has a lot of fun, interesting touches that make it worthwhile.
And the glasses-wearing Corey gets to do his best Jack Nicholson/Christian Slater/William Devane-like drawl.
So you can't say he does the same thing in every movie.
He wouldn't be this good again until A Dangerous Place (1995).That's not to say all wilderness movies are slogs, there are definite winners such as this one and Hunter's Blood (1986), and though Edge of Honor seems to be leaning towards the younger end of the R-rated demographic, its well-written, serious-intentioned, and competently-directed overall feel isn't insulting to audiences of any age.
Bringing Don Swayze on board as the amoral backwoods murderer is always a good move, and this movie is among Don's best that we've seen, up there with Driving Force (1989), where he plays a similar character.
Heck, he plays this character most of the time.
It must be something in the bone structure of his face that make casting directors angling for a countrified killer to go, "Oh, get Don Swayze!" Besides Corey and Don, who are the faces we're most familiar with, the rest of the cast is very good as well, and we were also familiar with Christopher Neame from his appearances as similar baddies to this one in Diplomatic Immunity (1991) and Irresistible Force (1993) - as well as appearances in Street Knight (1993) and Hellbound (1994).
So he pops up more than we realized.
But all told, Edge of Honor is like a DTV counterpart to Red Dawn (1984) - and a pleasant romp in the woods at that.
The Academy VHS is worth picking up if you can find it. |
tt2616880 | The Blue Umbrella | A city scene is brought to life by a rainstorm. Many objects along the street – signs, lights, awnings, mailboxes, buildings, drains, drain pipes, rain gutters, windows, doors – appear to come to life and develop faces and expressions of their own, enjoying the shower. People pass on the street under their umbrellas, all of which are seemly black, except for a singular blue umbrella. As his owner stops at a street corner, the blue umbrella sees a pretty red umbrella next to him. The two exchange nervous glances, and soon become smitten with each other, but their owners' paths diverge.
Seeing this, the objects along the street begin to work with each other to bring the owners together. As the blue umbrella is about to be taken into the subway, a sign allows the wind to blow the umbrella from his owner's hands. The umbrella is floating through the air toward his destination when a sudden gust of wind caused by a passing bus veers him off course and he lands in the street. With the umbrella in danger from the traffic, the objects attempt to protect him from oncoming cars: a construction sign lights up to redirect an oncoming vehicle, a gurgling drain pipe spews water to push him out of the way, another construction sign falls on him to fling him away from another car, and a drain blasts him into the air, but he is hit by a truck, visibly upsetting the objects that have tried to help him.
Battered and bruised, the umbrella is found by his owner who straightens him out just as the owner of the red umbrella approaches, reuniting the two of them. The objects of the city silently celebrate their reunion as the umbrellas' owners sit down together at a local cafe, allowing the two umbrellas to be together after all. | cute, sentimental | train | wikipedia | The Blue Umbrella is yet another charming Disney/Pixar short.
This is yet another Disney/Pixar computer-animated short shown before their main feature which in this case is Monsters University.
This one has a different look as initially, it looks like real live action with the depiction of city streets in the rain.
But then, the title character comes to life-complete with eyes and a smile-and as the score starts playing, so do many of the city's inanimate objects also come to life.
And then, this blue umbrella sees a red one and...well, watch the short if you want to know.
In summary, The Blue Umbrella has a wonderful charming atmosphere that permeates throughout the brief running time and should leave a long enough smile on your face as you wait for the main feature to begin....
The Blue Umbrella (2013) *** (out of 4) Fun short from Pixar, which was shown before their feature MONSTERS UNIVERSITY.
This film here deals with a blue umbrella who sees a red umbrella and quickly falls in love.
The rest of the film pretty much as the blue umbrella going through a wide range of events trying to make its way over to the red one.
The most amazing thing about this short is how real all the animation looks.
There were times when we see a large number of umbrellas from the top that you'll actually think you're looking at something real and not just a piece of animation.
There's also some funny moments where various items "come to life" to try and prevent the blue umbrella from being hurt.
I'm not sure how much kids are going to enjoy this one but parents should be fascinated by the animation and the style, which really looks like some avant garde stuff from the 1920s..
I do think this was a great animated short.
PIXAR really outdid themselves with the hyper-realistic CGI in here, and the simple story of a blue umbrella falling for a red umbrella in a sea of indifferent, monochromatic umbrellas.
The subtle expressions of their surrounding environment can really captivate future animators who're looking for something to build off of.Unfortunately, it's slightly awkward to watch in a theater, as it comes before Monsters University, and it makes me feel as though some people may have walked into the wrong movie.
I really want them to enjoy it, but because of its placement, it's hard to do so.I'm sure PIXAR had good intentions placing it before Monsters University started, but with a bunch of kids coming in to watch MU, I don't think it will garner much positive attention.
This simple story is about two umbrellas who meet in the city one rainy night.
As far as the story for "The Blue Umbrella" goes, it's good
.but that's NOT the reason to watch the film—especially since the story is incredibly simple and lacks complexity.
Instead, it's like Pixar's showing off to the world just how good they can do CGI, as the film often looks like it was filmed live---it's THAT good.
In fact, it's so well done it makes you wonder just how much longer it will be until they create films where you simply cannot tell it's not filmed live and with real live actors!UPDATE: Since I reviewed this film many months ago, the list of Oscar nominated animated shorts was released and I went to a special showing of the nominees today.
"The Blue Umbrella" was not nominated and I assume this is because another Disney short, "Get a Horse!" was nominated (and I think each studio can submit only one short--though I could be wrong here).
"Get a Horse!", in my opinion, is by far the best of the films I saw today--but "The Blue Umbrella" was awfully close.
Well, in the last few years, in addition to showing the five nominees, the show also present a few so-called 'Commended Films'--ones that weren't nominated but which are awfully good--and "The Blue Umbrella" was one of them.
Sadly, "The Blue Umbrella" was better than any of the nominees other than "Get a Horse!" and will probably be overshadowed by it.
Very Sweet and Different Short From Pixar,.
The Blue Umbrella is yet again a brilliant and heartwarming short film that Pixar pulled off very well.When it first came on before Monsters University I thought it seemed really stupid,i said to myself,'how am I suppose to feel any love for an umbrella?',but they did it and I actually enjoyed this short even more than some previous shorts Pixar did (La Luna,Lifted,One Man Band,etc.) and I was so surprised that I cared so much about this male umbrella reuniting with the female umbrella,and the animation was just beautiful.Its not Pixar's best short,but anyone who's a fan of their previous shorts will definitely appreciate this.A blue umbrella meets a red umbrella that he falls in love with,when the two separate,the blue umbrella escapes from his owners hands to find the female umbrella..
A very sweet, simple story about a blue umbrella falling in love with a red umbrella.
The animation is gorgeous and the soundtrack is fittingly charming.Though giving the red umbrella (and the red umbrella alone, in a sea of umbrellas) extra long eyelashes and her human rain boots with 3" heels felt a bit unnecessary.
I didn't think that you can actually capture the vibration of a city through umbrellas.
Maybe not one of Pixar's absolute best short films in the same way Geri's Game, One Man Band, Presto and Knick-Knack are, but that can be ignored because The Blue Umbrella doesn't disappoint at all.
The story, effective in its simplicity, keeps ones attention even with the brief(perhaps too brief?) running time and never feels too obvious, it has a lot of whimsy and heart, as well being very touching.
That is not to say though that The Blue Umbrella isn't without funny moments, there are some but done subtly and gently without being in-your-face.
The characters are simple but really sweet, carrying the story beautifully.
Overall, beautiful and heartfelt, not one of the best Pixar short films but it didn't need to be to be good.
9/10 Bethany Cox. A very moving short film.
That's the goal, I think, of this kind of animation work, this advancement and it was so advanced beyond what we've come to expect I said YES and went along with it.
but my 7-year old nephew who watched it with me did not think it was animation.
So I watched from his perspective and it was marvelous.I hope this kind of work continues and becomes so accepted that audiences will stop talking about the technical and come back to the story.
I wonder if people are assuming male/female because of the colors of the umbrellas and boots?
Or because the umbrellas' faces have been rendered with choice of male/female?
And that's not necessarily so!As far as the idea of coupling it with MONSTERS UNIVERSITY, I think it's a great idea.
As I said, I watched it with my nephew and he has watched it over and over and over again, making my purchase of the DVD even more worth its value than if he was just watching an obviously animated movie.
'THE BLUE UMBRELLA': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five) Another magical Disney/Pixar computer animated short; this one tells the story of two umbrellas that fall in love in a rainy/singing city.
The blue umbrella must brave all sorts of harsh weather conditions in order to unite with the object of his affection (a red umbrella).
The film was directed by Saschka Unseld, who's worked in the animation department on such popular Pixar animated features as 'TOY STORY 3', 'CARS 2' and 'BRAVE'.
It's a seven minute short that debuted in theaters before 'MONSTERS UNIVERSITY' and it features a new rendering technique for lighting, shading and compositing called global illumination.
It's not quite as inspiring and emotionally moving as Disney's greatest animated short film ('PAPERMAN', from last year) but it's still an enormously impressive animated work of art that is far superior to the feature it accompanied, once again (in my opinion).
My favorite part of seeing Disney and Pixar films in the theater is getting to see the animated shorts that often precede them.
My favorite part of seeing Disney and Pixar films in the theater is getting to see the animated shorts that often precede them.
Amidst a sea of black umbrellas, a blue umbrella falls for a red umbrella and risks everything to be with her.Holy cow, just looking at the almost unanimously glowing reviews here you would think that The Blue Umbrella was a work of both pure genius and originality, revolutionary in terms of storytelling and in technical execution.
It's an overly twee short blessed with excellent CGI animation that frequently verges on realism but saddled with a predictable narrative and a saccharine sweet ending.I'm also rather surprised that no-one has mentioned just how weird it is to see umbrellas—inanimate objects with zero control over where they go—fall in love; it's a bizarre concept that just doesn't work for me (and one that raises too many questions in my mind about how they might take their relationship to the next level).5/10, largely for the technical skill that went into creating such photo-realistic animation..
This short animation tells the story of a happy blue umbrella in the crowd of unhappy umbrellas.
He meets a red umbrella by chance, and they fall in love.I cannot quite believe that a film that is only seven minutes can still be far too long.
The only time when things get a little exciting is when the umbrella gets blown over.
The only good point is that no human faces are shown, even though the film is actually related to the owners of the umbrellas..
Without any spoilers I can say it is incredible, with photo-realistic animation; yet with a Disney-like touch, cartoony faces that look almost super-imposed onto the umbrellas.
With a classical touch and beautiful musical score, this short deserves to win an Oscar.
With a charming cast of characters, and a familiar setting, I found it an excellent short, and set the mood for the proceeding film.
And very well may go down in history as one of Pixar's best short subjects..
Pixar continues its tradition of airing entertaining shorts prior to its main feature with "The Blue Umbrella" prior to "Monsters University." From the short film's beginning, I immediately noticed that the scene didn't feel cartoony or animated at all.
Pixar continues its tradition of airing entertaining shorts prior to its main feature with "The Blue Umbrella" prior to "Monsters University." From the short film's beginning, I immediately noticed that the scene didn't feel cartoony or animated at all.
Simply beautiful is its mood and execution.The plot quickly becomes unveiled as an unknown man's blue umbrella catches sight (and is smitten with) an unknown woman's red umbrella amidst the multitude of black umbrellas.
Simply beautiful is its mood and execution.The plot quickly becomes unveiled as an unknown man's blue umbrella catches sight (and is smitten with) an unknown woman's red umbrella amidst the multitude of black umbrellas.
As the whole city's mechanical, architectural and functional denizens observe and participate in the love affair, the blue umbrella maneuvers his way to the one that could be his perfect mate for rain and life.Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the film's warming plot, breath-holding twists, realistic graphics, well-matched musical score and heartwarming ending..
As the whole city's mechanical, architectural and functional denizens observe and participate in the love affair, the blue umbrella maneuvers his way to the one that could be his perfect mate for rain and life.Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the film's warming plot, breath-holding twists, realistic graphics, well-matched musical score and heartwarming ending..
Our hero, the title character, meets a red umbrella and it's love at first sight.
I quite liked the use of colors in this one and it was also sweet how they used his owner and the woman as human equivalents of the umbrellas.
He worked on several high-profile Pixar films already and I hope he gets to make his own at some point.
In my opinion, this is one of the best short films from 2013 and people should definitely watch it.
A sweet, funny and simple Pixar short.
I saw this short at the cinema with my mum today before 'Monster's University' and while it's not as good as 'Knick Knack' and 'Day and Night,' it's better than 'Partly Cloudy' and has intelligent ideas.The plot is straightforward yet effective, which is helped by the realistic street, the simple yet cute facial expressions on the red and blue umbrellas and the humanistic features on the buildings, traffic lights, water spout and the manhole cover to name just a few - they made me laugh and reminded me of the Toyota Yaris Hybrid commercials where objects in the street come to life and the Zoopla adverts where the houses actually talk like human beings.
I also liked how the first raindrops moved in time with the quirky yet harmonious music and the clever ending where the owners of the blue and red umbrellas are sitting outside a café called La Parapluie (French for umbrella).
To conclude, this isn't Pixar's best short but it is still sweet, simple and amusing.
Another winner from Pixar's short films dept.
The Blue Umbrella is the short Pixar film which accompanies the cinema release of Monsters University.
Like all Pixar shorts, it is highly accomplished, very entertaining, and completely distinctive.
And, apart from animated features, it appears to be completely live action.
Of course, it is not, but Pixar's strengths are such that what they put on screen can be indistinguishable from reality: it may well be that all this film is animated.Whatever.
This is just rumination from an animation fan, and consideration of technicalities should not spoil the enjoyment of this simple but effective movie which makes excellent use of 3D..
A typically touching Pixar short, The Blue Umbrella is not Pixar at its best yet it's heartfelt story shall move you.
Grade: BB / 60%My screening for Monsters University began with Pixar short called 'The Blue Umbrella'.
Not surprising as Pixar is known for screening a short film before its main features, but Indian theaters never played one perhaps, until today.A typically touching Pixar short on a blue colored umbrella (with little eyes) enamored with a red colored umbrella-ina (also with little eyes) one rainy night, The Blue Umbrella is a familiar tale yet Pixar livens up this film with its little magical moments.
Its not just about to umbrellas here, but about two people - the owners of these umbrellas - who meet for the first time, after the blue umbrella chases after it's or rather his lady love, using the wind to move.And the entire street -the drain pipes, the traffic signal, the street lights, the building windows - witnesses this incident with their little eyes.
When a car threatens to mangle the blue umbrella that's helplessly lying in the middle of the road, the drain it's lying on blows out steam so it can avert the accident.It's not Pixar at its best; for that you'll need to catch 'Geri's Game', 'Knicks Knack', 'Lifted', 'For The Birds' and ''Presto'.
But you'd surely shed a tear or two at the very end because you'd find 'The Blue Umbrella' simple yet very heartfelt..
A delightful and whimsical animated short.
What I like about this animated short is the photorealistic animation and lighting.
I like the way various objects in this film have faces with expressions.
These objects include street signs, street lights, awnings, mailboxes, windows, drain pipes, rain gutters, etc.
All these objects come to life during a rain storm.
Umbrellas also have faces during this rainstorm including a blue umbrella and a red umbrella who meet and fall in love.
There is no dialogue in this animated short only facial expressions.
I think it is very artistic the way a story is told with just imagery and facial expressions This animated short also includes a pleasant musical score.
So I find 'The Blue Umbrella' delightful..
This is a Pixar animated film short, not quite 7 minutes long.
It is contained as an "extra" on the DVD of the Pixar movie, "Monsters University." The animated setting is any large city, in the early evening, probably in winter as it is already dark and the crowds are off work and headed to their homes or other evening destinations.
It starts to rain.In a sea of black umbrellas we see a bright blue one, masculine with eyes and a smile.
Soon it notices a bright red umbrella, feminine and also with eyes and a bit more glamour.
They make eye contact, they are attracted to each other.As the sea of umbrellas movie, and the man carrying the blue umbrella enters an underground station, a gust of updraft strips the umbrella away, and it is carried aloft, some distance.
With the help of gutters gushing water at the right time, or a street construction sign directing traffic away, the blue umbrella survives the traffic, barely.
But as he is carried to a nearby café, he finds that the man is meeting a lady, the one with the red umbrella.
But maybe not, because "Parapluie" is simply the French word for "Umbrella."A clever and entertaining short film..
and say just because the Pixar imprint is on BLUE UMBRELLA, it must be rated a "10" out of 10, and acclaimed as the best thing ever to come out since bug spray was invented.
The fact of the matter is that THE BLUE UMBRELLA cannot hold a candle to last year's winning inanimate object cartoon short, PAPER AIRPLANE.
Based on my experience with other reviews, someone from Pixar will soon read this, feel it is not 1000% worshipful of BLUE UMBRELLA, and have it deleted from this site. |
tt0040536 | Letter from an Unknown Woman | A rich and well-known writer, returning home to Vienna from one of many holidays, finds a long letter from an unknown woman. As a teenager she had lived with her poor widowed mother in the same building and had fallen totally in love with both the opulent cultured lifestyle of her neighbour and the handsome charming man himself. This passion was not lessened by the flow of attractive women spending the night with him or by her being removed to Innsbruck when her mother remarried. At age 18 she returned to Vienna, took a job and tried to meet the writer. He did not recognise her and, without revealing her name, she succeeded in spending three nights with him before he disappeared on a holiday. Pregnant, she lost her job and had to give birth in a refuge for the indigent. Resolved that their child should have a good life, she spent nights with or became mistress of various rich men but would never marry because her heart belonged always to the writer. Out with a current lover, she saw the writer in a night club and went home with him instead. To him, she was just an agreeable companion for that night, as he again did not recognise her. In the 1918 flu pandemic, the child died and she, ill herself, wrote this letter to be posted after her death. | melodrama, flashback | train | wikipedia | In the real world ,trains are ominous messengers of death and despair:it's a train which takes Stefan away after their affair,a train which takes the young boy to his death.Stefan (Jourdan)lives his selfish life without seeing anything.Ophuls(spelled Opuls in the cast and credits) shows him as a handsome nice young man,but if you look with care,you'll notice it's always Liza(Fontaine)who's looking at him with love.Jourdan seems to care but actually he knows so many women that he acts as if he's in a play:Liza's admiration means nothing to him who is a ladykiller-see the scene when Liza comes back from the station- and a celebrated musician adulated by the crowds.Liza is the romantic woman,with a zest of touch of Madame Bovary thrown in -it's not a coincidence if Minnelli chose Jourdan as Madame Bovary's lover in his eponymous movie the very same year-For her,there must be only one love ,and she's prepared to give it all.Joan Fontaine had perhaps never been so good as here.Her whole life ,as she writes her letter (the movie is a flashback ) could have been written in the past conditional.Main influence is certainly that of John Stahl and his "only yesterday" (1933)in which Margaret Sullavan wrote John Boles such a letter.Even the young boy is present in both movies.The last page of the letter,ink-stained (or tear-stained?)takes the audience to a peak of emotion.The final predates the ending of Ophuls's "Madame de" (1953),and the scene on the "train" ,an imitation of life ,the big circus of "Lola Montes" (1955)This is probably Louis Jourdan's best part as well.A French actor,he was never that much popular in his native country ,and he found his best parts in the US ,be it artistically (Ophuls ,Hitchcock and Minnelli) or commercially (Octopussy) speaking..
It is the intoxicatingly bittersweet tale of the obsessive love a young girl (Joan Fontaine) develops for a rougish pianist (Louis Jordan) that remains throughout each charcters life, long after most school-girl crushes have faded away.
From the (strangely neglected) master of romantic period confections- Max Ophuls-, an exquisitely beautiful and poignant tale of a teenage girl (played by Joan Fontaine) in late 19th century Vienna who falls in unrequited love with a concert pianist (Louis Jourdain)...The sets, lighting, smooth gliding camera, costumes, subtly matched musical accompaniment and delicate but aching emotion make for something quite wonderful; it's a film of supreme elegance and extraordinary luminous fragility, a tiny hidden jewel box filled with moonlight..
This movie is really great in how it conjures up so much tasteful melodrama through its structure and the unique way in that the main characters spend less time on screen together interacting than they do just being painfully tragic.I really enjoy the structure of the piece, through the title letter which gives a sense of dated urgency if that makes any sense.
The very handsome Louis Jourdan, and the Vienna setting are turned into props by the director to exaggerate Lisa's vulnerability.It is within Lisa's vulnerability that the audience can see how the concept of romantic love has been used to make women emotionally needy, which can then be taken advantage of by the likes of Jourdan's character Stefan.
1919) is Stefan Brand, a concert pianist, who's leaving Vienna to avoid a duel.Before he leaves his servant gives him a letter from an unknown woman.The letter is from Lisa Berndl, played by Joan Fontaine (b.
1917).In that letter Lisa tells how deeply in love she's been with Stefan for many years.It all started when she was living as his neighbor as a schoolgirl.Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) is a movie that Max Ophüls directed.I started watching the movie after about five minutes and I was too captivated by it so I couldn't stop watching it.It's a different kind of love story.Fontaine and Jourdan are perfect people for their parts.Joan Fontaine is amazing going from a teenager to a mature woman.The whole movie has a great casting.This movie is a true classic.A movie that will make you shed a few tears..
Under Ophüls' impeccable aesthetics, the film evinces great melancholy from its fin-de-siècle setting and punctilious guidelines, the swooning camera-work at hand swirls with its own propulsive vitality and takes no side-on glance at the periphery, homing in on its subjects, crystallizing every emotional pulsating to the fore of plenary niceties.Joan Fontaine, scarcely credible to pass off as a teenager in the start (she was roughly 30 at that time), bides her time when her Lisa reaches adulthood, and buckles down henceforth, no matter what, she never loses her glamour and moderation, even in those pulverizing scenes of that twice- happened "two weeks curses", she is Hollywood Golden Age's screen goddess of profound implosion, an effort none-too elemental but totally falls in with Ophüls' soft-centred temperament.
Deeply moving story from one of cinema's great stylists, Max Ophuls (Le Ronde, Earrings of Madam De
, Lola Montes), stars Jane Fonatain as Lisa, a young woman hopelessly in love with dashing but callous piano player Stefan (Louis Jordan).
Max Ophuls' who had worked in many European countries and "gave camera movement its finest hours in the history of the cinema" made romantic and elegant "The Letter from an Unknown Woman" in Hollywood and it is regarded as his best American movie..
There is a famous scene in an amusement park where Stefan and Lisa have a conversation on a virtual train ride which pretty much succinctly summarises the theme of the film which is how love can be an illusion just like the illusion of visiting different cities and countries that they were enjoying with the ride.Joan Fontaine is brilliant.
Although she plays a simple woman who pretty much thinks about nothing but catching the attention of Stefan, but she is so sweet, that one can't help but like her in spite of the thin nature of character at the beginning of the film.
He reads the letter written by his former neighbor Lisa Berndle (Joan Fontaine) where she tells that she was a teenager when she develops a platonic love for Stefan, who is a promising pianist compared to Mozart.
She leaves her husband to stay with Stefan, but her doomed love has a tragic end."Letter from an Unknown Woman" is one of the most beautiful romances ever.
Lisa (Joan Fontaine) recounts her life story in a letter to Stefan (Louis Jordan) who is scheduled to fight a duel in a few hours as a result of their acquaintance.
Stefan Brand, a concert pianist played by Louis Jourdan in a role that perfectly suits his smooth good looks, receives a letter from a dying woman, Lisa Berndle, played by Joan Fontaine in a remarkable performance.In the letter, she pours out her love for him, which started when she was a young girl living in the same apartment building.
Shot in black and white on mostly studio sets, it has a dreamlike quality that location shooting could never have achieved.The screenplay was by Howard Koch, and he deserves credit on two counts - he not only wrote the brilliant script, but also suggested Max Ophuls (spelt Opuls in the film's titles) for director.This may seem like sacrilege to some, but I think the movie has improved on Zweig's work.
Taken from Stefan Zweig's story, LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN tells the sad tale of Lisa Berndle's (Joan Fontaine's) unrequited love for concert pianist Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdain), that begins during her teenage years and continues right up to her death, when she writes him a letter about her life.
The story of course will come across with immense force, thanks to the brilliant performances from Louis Jourdan (never better), Joan Fontaine (likewise), Mady Christians (likewise again), Art Smith (again) and an absolutely first-class character cast.
Letter From an Unknown Woman is the story of Lisa Berndle (Joan Fontaine) who, as an adolescent, becomes enthralled with suave up-and-coming concert pianist Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan) when he moves into the building where she lives with her parents.
It is a work of precision and beauty by one of the greatest of all filmmakers, Max Ophuls.With Letter From an Unknown Woman, Ophuls' cinematic artistry, highlighted by his signature use of bold, graceful camera movement and extended takes, sweeps the viewer into the sinuous rhythm of a world both enchanting and bittersweet.As the film weaves lyrically from present to past to present again, it becomes clear that both Lisa and Stefan have lived lives steeped in unreality.
Every person out there who wants a beautiful love story should watch "Letter from an Unknown Woman".
Like another classic film from around the same time "Portrait Of Jennie" the mistake is made in initially having the female lead attempt to carry herself off as a much younger version of herself, but once she matures into adult-hood, Fontaine is effective as the quietly enigmatic woman forever drawn to Jourdain's debonair charms.I found it equally hard to believe that Jourdain's character could forget his previous encounters with Fontaine, especially the way that Max Ophuls directs the telling scenes, never mind that she eventually goes on to father his child.
Such a plot could only end in death and tragedy and while I couldn't believe a word of it, still it was wonderfully entertaining along the way.The costumes and sets are excellent and Jourdain and Fontaine are to be commended too for their fine performances, but doyens of film-making will particularly enjoy the skill with which director Ophuls employs his camera-work, so fluidly at times that the action appears to float in front of the viewer's eyes.In a way, this film reminded me of grand opera, a wholly unbelievable story brought to life by the skill of its creator..
This is a fabulous but painfully sad movie.It concerns the (mostly) unrequited romance between Lisa (Fontaine) and Stefan (Jourdan), the latter being a concert pianist who comes to take a room with her family when she's younger.
And yet I don't feel like the technique is there just to please Ophuls demands for a crane shot here or there or most places; the high style is there for the high emotions, that this is a woman expressing how she felt through much of her adult life, and the fact that this guy seemed to be caring for her but on a totally superficial level, and never for very long.Letter from an Unknown Woman is a tragedy of taking things for granted, of believing love at a certain level will be reciprocated, and the fluidity of style matches the fluidity of intense emotions that, when broken, become all the more gut-wrenching..
The legendary baroque romantic tragedian Ophuls, working for Hollywood in his forties phase, doubles back to old Europe for this tale of a truly neurotic young lady (Joan Fontaine) who falls in love at first sight with jaded concert pianist Louis Jourdan, and stays there through endless sufferments and death.
Louis Jourdan is a pianist who receives "A Letter from an Unknown Woman" in this 1948 film also starring Joan Fontaine.
However, he receives a letter that changes everything.Set in Austria in the 19th Century, Fontaine is Lisa, who as a young girl falls madly in love with the brilliant pianist Stefan Brand - so much so, that although she doesn't really know him, when she receives a proposal a marriage, she claims to be spoken for.
As tragedy strikes Lisa's life, she writes a letter to him, revealing everything.This is a beautiful story, well cast and directed by Max Ophuls, but the ending may leave one scratching his or her head.
As such, my first Ophuls film, Letter From An Unknown Woman is beautiful for its sweeping camera-work.
I personally like "Letter From An Unknown Woman" more than "Le Ronde" and "Lola Montez", but I feel that both of the others are certainly worth watching and watching again.The film follows Louis Jourdan's last night alive.
No doubt, when it was released, and even today, many women (and some men) would unquestioningly identify with Lisa Berndl (Joan Fontaine), who maintains a deep love, from girlhood through to early middle age, for the handsome pianist Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan), who increasingly shows himself to be a shallow, selfish philanderer; like her, they would fantasise about how they could change his ways, and help him return to the concert stage; and they would weep at the tragic end to Lisa's and their dreams.
But one of the brilliant aspects of this film lies in the way Ophuls maintains enough distance from his characters and situations to allow us, if we wish, to view the movie with a more sardonic eye; to see Lisa - whether due to mental or moral weakness - as failing to grow up; to have no illusions about Stefan's failings as a man or a pianist; and to see his impending death in the duel as a joke played on him by Lisa from her grave - because had her letter not been so long he would have had time to flee Vienna as he originally intended!.
Joan Fontaine, a favourite actress of mine, is as delicate as a flower, a quality that Hitchcock notably exploited twice in both 'Rebecca (1940)' and 'Suspicion (1941).' Her love for the dashing French pianist Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan) is so incredibly passive that you already know that she's going to lose him.Throughout the film, Lisa Berndle watches her lover from afar; she listens to his music through the physical barrier of a door; she quickly comes to know him, but only later comes to meet him.
"Letter from an Unknown Woman" is another tragic love story by director Max Ophuls.
Lisa (Joan Fontaine) falls in love with Stefan (Louis Jourdan), a famous concert pianist.
Max Ophuls's classic Letter From An Unknown Woman,is a film experience that cannot easily be described.Every frame is painstakingly detailed,the performances tear at your heart and it's all so deeply beautiful.Based on the story by Stefan Zweig and brought to the screen successfully with a screenplay by Howard Koch.Letter From An Unknown Woman begins with the elegant gentleman musician,Stefan Brand(Louis Jourdan)returning to his apartment in turn of the century Vienna.His endlessly loyal mute manservant John(Art Smith)hands him a letter.The first line of which stuns him "by the time you read this I may be dead".He pours himself a drink and begins to read.As he does so voice-over narration from Joan Fontaine takes us back several years as we experience the intense joy and agony of the secret love for Stefan that is held by the young Lisa Berndle(Joan Fontaine).Over the years the two have many encounters one of which ends in a one night stand which leaves Lisa pregnant and abandoned(Stefan leaves on a concert tour but never seeks her out again when he returns home).Stefan is a ladies man and has had so many women he soon forgets Lisa.She marries the kindly Baron Johann Stauffer(Marcel Journet)who raises her son(also named Stefan)as his own.Incidentally Johann is the the one who demands a duel with Stefan at the pictures beginning-to which he was planning to flee from but forgets about after starting to read the long letter.The duel is also inferred to be about Lisa.Joan Fontaine is just breathtaking as Lisa and convinces as both naive and smitten teenager and wiser society lady and kind hearted mother.Her face becomes a kaleidoscope of emotions as we follow a doomed love story that was always destined to fail.Louis is equally impressive as the outgoing and charming young man who becomes embittered and tired of life in later years never knowing how much he hurt this young woman.Words cannot fully do this film justice you have to see it for yourself and when you do be prepared to experience heartbreak..
At the start of the movie, her lover opens a missive that reveals all and which begins, "By the time you read this letter, I may be dead." A grand romance like the operas of which director Max Ophuls was so fond.
Memories of LETTER will forever be burned into your mind after just one viewing.Joan Fontaine gives one of her best performances as the hopelessly romantic young Lisa Berndl, who begins a lifelong passion for a pianist (Louis Jordan, in perhaps his best American role) as 14 year-old girl, when he lives near her quarters.
She is a woman who would sacrifice her own son, and eventually her life, for this man's love, and Fontaine's acting is so powerful and haunting that we believe Lisa all the way, and never once doubt her.Essentiallly Ophuls focuses on the myths and ideals of romantic passion, stripping away the facade of self-sacrifice being the ultimate romantic gesture.
I particularly like how the story is slowly revealed through the letter of a possibly dead woman (you don't find out for sure until the movie's conclusion) as well as the way Louis Jourdan's character is written.
While indubitably romantic and admirable in her persistence as a girl and young woman, Lisa seemed pathetic by the end of the film when she leaves a loving husband and child for a man who has never loved, valued or respected her enough to even remember having met her in the past.
Lastly, the film is a frame story that begins and ends with Stephan reading Lisa's letter in his apartment.
Max Ophüls' film, Letter from an Unknown Woman, is tragic love story about a woman who becomes completely enchanted by her neighbor.
Fontaine is really lovable as the woman who is never able to find true romance that she feels for her secret love, and Jourdan is charming as the man who never truly notices her enough, this is a really good insight into how sometimes love never goes all the way, and even chance meetings can create those kind of feelings, an interesting artistic style romantic melodrama.
In Vienna in 1900, Lisa is a young woman captivated by Stefan, the concert pianist who lives in her building, but is unable to express her love.
While Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophüls might have been a revolutionary movie in 1948 now it is a rather generic love story. |
tt0048339 | Man with the Gun | Clint Tollinger arrives in town, and is recognized as the "man in grey", a gun for hire who had a reputation for cleaning up other towns. After 14 killings in a year are followed by a night shooting and the burning of a house under construction, and the town marshal tells the town council he's not sure what can be done, the council hires Tollinger as their new "town tamer". The marshal deputizes Tollinger, then tells him he is on his own. Tollinger begins by warning two known gunmen to leave town. He then begins to disarm everyone in the town. Then in an unseen confrontation he kills the two gunmen he'd previously warned to leave town.
A group of gunmen shoots up a poster warning of the gun ordnance at the edge of town. As they ride in, they yell that they are looking for Tollinger. Forewarned by the shots, he gets the drop on them from the loft of the town stable with a shotgun. He orders them to drop their guns and they do so. One trades small talk with him while reaching for a derringer in his hat, but Tollinger shoots him.
At a social event, one of the town women advises Tollinger that his job won't be finished until the dance hall girls also leave town. She criticizes them for dancing and carrying on, unaware that Tollinger is an old friend to the madam who manages them. But not all is well in their relationship. When Tollinger warns Nelly Bain that her girls also have a curfew, she replies that she knows what happens in a "Tollinger-tamed town". She tells him she and the girls will be moving on further west, and asks him for suggestions. She asks for the name of any town where he won't be. But there's a hidden history between the two of them, and everything isn't what it seems.
Two gunmen from a large cattle spread ride into town to tell Tollinger that they've detained Jeff Castle for trying to build a house on disputed land. They appear to have set a trap, inviting Tollinger to the ranch to pick him up, where they will have the advantage. Tollinger arrests the two for carrying guns in town. Some of the town's citizens suddenly have second thoughts, worrying that others from the ranch will come in and shoot up the town. But the arrest proves a good tactical move; the other ranch hands deliver Castle into town, trading him for the two prisoners.
Nelly Bain tells Tollinger something she's kept from him since he arrived in town, that their daughter had died, and Tollinger takes it badly. His patience and calm demeanor suddenly gone, he resolves to clean up the town the quick and dirty way; he burns the saloon, which is owned by Dade Holman, the cattleman who had sent the gunmen.
Holman sets up a trap for Tollinger, and rides into town in a surrey to see that it works. Tollinger kills his assailant but is shot by Holman. Castle shoots Holman, and at the end Nelly and Tollinger (who apparently survives) kiss and are reconciled. | revenge | train | wikipedia | Clint Tollinger arrives in a small western town looking for his estranged wife, who left him and now runs the local show saloon.
The solution may be just as bad as the problem but they take the risk.With a nice dark character with a lot of anger and pain in the front of the film this western is enjoyable tough.
We meet Tollinger as a gentle, quiet man but gradually we see him to be violent, heartless and full of bitterness; it is solid development that is at the heart of the film's dark tone.
Of course it still follows the genre traditions and will appeal to fans of such while also having enough else going on to make it differ from the Technicolor westerns of the same period.Wilson is responsible for the dark tone as both writer and director; shot is stark black and white he frames some interesting shots and is not afraid to be aggressive or shocking considering the period.
Support behind these two is roundly good but the film is very much Mitchum's and he knows it.Overall it is a solid western that gradually gets down to just going where you expect it to.
A famous ¨town tamer¨ named Clit Tollinger(Robert Mitchum) comes hired by the citizens to rid the gunslingers ( Leo Genn, Claude Atkins, among others), Baronland's hoodlums.
There he meets the blacksmith (Emile Meyer) , his daughter (Karen Sharpe), her boyfriend(John Lupton), the marshal(Henry Hull) and the Saloon owner (Ted De Corsia).
Clint as lawman is appointed deputy to bring peace and puts some cartels saying the following : ¨ Warning , wearing of guns or other weapons in town is banned.
Clint finds his ex-girlfriend, a local madame (Jan Sterling) in charge of the Saloon girls( Angie Dickinson, Barbara Lawrence, among them).
At the end the kingpin landowner appears and attempts to murder Tollinger with his own hands.This is a tremendously exciting story of a sheriff-for-hire who had only one more killing to go.
It begins as a slow-moving Western but follows to surprise us with dark characters and solid plot.
Mitchum's brilliant, idiosyncratic, usually undervalued Westerns import his film noir persona to etch some compellingly dark character sketches, and bring an elegiac world-weariness more familiar from the films of Sam Peckinpah.
Directed by Orson Welles protege Richard Wilson, it is a stark, monochrome beauty, full of chilling silhouettes and terrifying outbursts of savage violence, as Mitchum comes to tame a town terrorised by a monopolist with a private army.
Clint Tollinger arrives in a small town looking for his estranged wife and news of his daughter, tho he finds her, the chance of any sort of reconciliation is very slim.
As they are living in fear of a mysterious landowner who is stripping the town from them bit by bit, they hold a meeting that chooses to hire Tollinger to rid the town of it's unsavoury elements.Man With The Gun seems to be either a forgotten piece or a vastly under seen one, for at the time of me writing this, it has just over 200 votes and a paltry 9 user comments written for it on IMDb. It's a shame on either score because although the production values scream out that this is a "B" movie Western, this is a fine entry in the Western genre.
That the piece takes on a rather standard plot theme of an harangued town turning to an avenging dark angel, probably hasn't done the film any favours over the years, I myself read the synopsis and thought it's just another in the line of similarly themed pictures.
Yet I was pleasantly surprised to find a darkly dramatic picture boasting many enjoyable moments, both technically and as a functioning story.Robert Mitchum is in the lead as Tollinger, perfectly cast, he strides thru the picture like some brooding menace.
The rest of the cast are very much in Mitchum's shadow, so really it's solely with the big man that the films acting credentials are high.
but Man With The Gun's minor failings are with its villains, and sadly de Corsia is lacking any sort of villainesque menace.The score from Alex North is excellently layered (fans of Spartacus will certainly be pricking their ears up) and the cinematography from Lee Garmes is highly impressive when one realises that the majority of this picture was shot on the studio lot.
Directed and co-written by first time director Richard Wilson, Man With The Gun holds few surprises for the genre, but it's dark in tone, violent and above all else, highly watchable.
Man With The Gun. There are westerns and there are westerns with many actors and then there is a Robert Mitchum western....in this film Mitchum plays a no nonsense, hard as nails character as a so called "town tamer"....he follows his estranged wife played coldly by Jan Sterling as she is the madame of a group of dance hall girls...Mitchum wants to make amends with his ex-wife Sterling but she is cold as ice toward him.
Mitchum accepts the job as a combo sheriff and "town tamer" and then manages to shoot up the whole place and fight with anyone who gets in his way....he does not believe in taking any so called prisoners.
Along the way Mitchum defends a local young man and his wife who are being terrorized by the local hoodlum who runs the town from his distant ranch.
In the end a good gun fighting scene with a set up dance hall girl and a town misfit played by Leo Gordon who along with the local kingpin rancher tries to wipe out Mitchum.
Very good western.This was the first time writer Richard Wilson directed a film, also this was a first for Samuel Goldwyn Junior as a producer.
Robert Mitchum comes to this town dominated by outlaws and is hired as a town tamer, but people are worried that he will go too far, also about the harm that he will do to the town´s businesses.
In Man With the Gun Robert Mitchum plays Clint Tollinger, a man who hires his gun out to clean out lawless towns in the west of which there seems to be a never ending supply.
But he comes to this particular town in search of his estranged wife, Jan Sterling who since she left him has taken up the occupation as Madam of the local bordello.
Of course the girls which include Barbara Lawrence and the still unknown Angie Dickinson are still called dance hall girls, but the Code was slowly cracking.It's by chance he gets drawn into the town politics involving a big cattle baron who runs roughshod over every thing and every one in the general vicinity.
The town council hires him to clean out the place of gunmen and sheriff Henry Hull makes it official by making him his deputy and giving him a free hand as per Mitchum's terms.
The results ain't pretty.Mitchum's a grim, bitter man heading the cast of a grim and bitter western.
There's quite a history behind it as the movie shows.Man With a Gun is a good western, but I have to say I was let down by the climatic gunfight at the end.
If Mitchum didn't suspect he was being set up before he did with gunman Leo Gordon following him, he was not the smart guy we'd been led to believe.Of course if you want to see what I'm talking about then by all means see Man With a Gun..
But it is a well crafted b Western, with an interestingly brooding storyline complemented by acting veering from the good to corny.Robert Mitchum slopes into wide open town looking for his wife and news of their daughter, and stays for a time as town-tamer.
What's fascinating about this film is Mitchum's cynically intense portrayal in going about cleaning the town of baddies, and the townsfolk's acceptance that his violent methods were the only ones.
Robert Mitchum, 'The Town Tamer', is as effective as always.
A western that makes many contemporary film directors blush with envy: perfect setting, intelligent dialogues, socio-psychological soundness in the script, good acting, camera direction and music without errors.
With lots of intricate subordinate plot in the overall probably familiar tale of a tough town tamer, this script by N.B. Stone, Jr., and Richard Wilson is very well served by an excellent cast, led by Robert Mitchum.Jan Sterling, a superlative actress not often enough given a character to show her talent, is second billed as a strong and tough woman who chaperones her female charges, who only dance and entertain, but who are seen by the blue-nosed women of the town as something worse.Karen Sharpe, who has never looked prettier, very girl-next-door-ish, plays the daughter of the town blacksmith who is also the town leader.The daughter is conflicted but her father, played beautifully by Emile Meyer, is not.One of the glories of this excellent motion picture is the number of other characters -- I hesitate to say "minor" because they all figure in the story -- whose lives and actions are pivotal.By one of those coincidences, I just finished a novel by Louis L'Amour with a very similar plot, except the town tamer in "The Empty Land" really doesn't want his role while Mitchum's Clint Tollinger does.This might be the best script for a movie I've ever watched about a town tamer.
If I would have to describe "Man with the Gun" in a word, I would sadly have to choose 'mundane.' I say 'sadly' because not only does the movie star the great Robert Mitchum, but because it does boast a good setup, a dark tone, and some good initiative-packed promise.
This is a setup that was done many other times, sometimes worse, sometimes better such as in Clint Eastwood's classic "High Plains Drifter." There are some really good elements to "Man with the Gun" and some really mundane and pall parts as well.
The good: the performances not only by Robert Mitchum, but also by the lovely, unsung actress Karen Sharpe.
The tone is dark and a little nihilistic, and I appreciated the tactic of hiding the bad guy for the majority of the picture and to avoid the typical clichés of when the Western rancher runs in with the iron-figured gunslinger.
This is yet another film based upon one of the classic Western plots, the one about the fearless lawman or gunman who helps the inhabitants of a town or a group of homesteaders stand up against a gang of lawless desperadoes, often in the pay of a corrupt local rancher or other powerful business interests.
It is set in a nameless Western town which is being terrorised by a gang of gunmen hired by Dade Holman, a wealthy and powerful cattleman who hopes to force the local people out so he can acquire their property cheaply, and opens with a striking image of one of the bad guys shooting a little boy's dog in front of the child.
The townspeople decide that enough is enough, and call in Clint Tollinger, a gun for hire with a reputation as a "town tamer".
Robert Mitchum made a number of Westerns throughout his career, although they were not always among his best films; he tended to be at his best in film noir, playing characters who were, if not outright villains like his Max Cady in "Cape Fear", at least morally ambiguous.
Although he has been deputised by the town marshal, this is one film where the dividing line between an officially appointed lawman and a hired gun is a thin one.
The film ends with the town well and truly tamed and the audience are left to conclude that peace and justice do indeed grow out of the barrel of a gun.
In 1955 the "strong man with a gun" theme might have seemed slightly fresher than it does nowadays, but even then this film might have struck many people as an inferior imitation of "High Noon".
If you like those movies, you'll probably see much better than Man with a Gun. And, coming from a huge Robert Mitchum fan, you'd better believe me.Bob's ex-wife, Karen Sharpe, is avoiding him every time he tries to see her, and while most of the town is weary of his presence, Jan Sterling thinks he's pretty cute.
Whether he's playing a Film Noir tough-guy, or a no-nonsense, shoot-em-up cowboy - Robert Mitchum is, without question, my #1 favourite actor from Hollywood's golden years (the 40s & 50s), bar none.And, with that said - I'll tell you this - Had Mitchum not been the star of this somewhat run-of-the-mill Western-vehicle (from 1955) - Then I probably would've only given "Man With The Gun" a lower rating of 4 stars.(Anyway) - As the story goes - In this 80-minute, b&w Western - Mitchum plays Clint Tollinger a "shoot-first-ask-questions-later"-type of gunslinger, who arrives in the slutty/lawless town of Sheridan on personal business only to find himself cleaning up this filthy rats-hole 'cause nobody else has the guts to stand up to that mean, cussing hombre, Ed Pinchot, and his band of belligerent bad boys, who rule all at the point of a gun..
Robert Mitchum plays a 'town tamer' and the way things are played out we don't see the main bad guy till the very end.
Mitchum is fine in a good solid performance as the aforementioned, 'town tamer' but nobody else really seems up to the task, either in the town to be tamed or on the celluloid before us.
How Wilson managed to make 'the beautiful', Jan Sterling look so awful throughout is incredible but it is probably due to the fact she was told to play 'hard' and her features went that way.
Robert Mitchum is excellent in this film...so much so you wish he'd made more westerns.
Apart from Mitchum's character, most of the rest of the folks in the movie simply make little sense.When the story begins, a town is being controlled by a guy intent on having his own way.
None of it makes sense and it's a darn shame since Mitchum is great in this one.By the way, keep a close eye on the 'ladies of ill repute' in the film.
When a troubled stranger (Robert Mitchum) arrives in a western town looking for his estranged wife (Jan Sterling), he is made the sheriff to try and clean it up, finding out that his wife is involved in the local corruption.
This film strikes interest when it deals with the human elements of Mitchum's strong but quiet surgeon, but it seems to have a different mood each of its characters, particularly Karen Sharpe's who sometimes brays her lines.
The conflict between Mitchum and one villain in the Palace is the most memorable scene as Mitchum deals with the said villain in a most unique and unforgettable way.While this has the standard western look with sleepy town and dirt roads, the camera uses angles to traipse through it that gives it an interesting, almost 3D look.
The town's set is little better than that for TV westerns like Lawman, and the script works mostly by saying as little as possible, forcing the cinematography and direction to show rather than tell.
The familiar stock character actors (including some familiar faces like Emile Meyer who rise to their extended screen-time) all support Mitchum, whose pained charisma and cobra-quick violence are essential to the film's success.Other reviewers are right that the basic plot is formulaic, but a few variations maintained interest.
Mitchum's character warns of no formulaic redemption when he repeatedly asserts that he's nothing but a gunman and only guns can tame a town—contrasting ominously with formula western heroes who proclaim they don't want to fight, that they're really peace-loving men.
"Town tamer" Mitchum at one point runs amok in a saloon.
It also has a pretty good, if brief, "catharsis" moment at the end.Terrific supporting cast- bombastic Henry Hull (Jesse James '39, Return of Frank James '50), excellent but underused Maidie Norman, and an early Claude Akins bad-guy performance.
You are guaranteed to notice a very young Angie Dickinson (and her long legs).Mitchum manages to somehow humanize a wooden character but its just a thankless role.
Notice when he brilliantly overlays one theme over the other as Mitchum's character seems to be cracking up.This is a black-and-white set-bound psychological Western, which in other movies can be a formula for dullsville.
Robert Mitchum is a gunfighter named Clint Tollinger who rides into the Western town of Sheridan looking for his estranged wife and daughter.
Emile Meyer (Riker in "Shane") is carried over, and so is the meeting of community leaders in which they argue about hiring Clint Tollinger.Some notable features of the movie.
Howard Hawks' Western ambiance was functional as well, but the towns look lived in.
"The Night of the Hunter" actor Robert Mitchum plays a tough town taming gunfighter in "Al Capone" director Richard Wilson's modest, but deceptive black & white, 83-minute western "Man with the Gun." Just about everything about this Sam Goldwyn Jr. production looks thoroughly ordinary, but the screenplay by N.B. Stone and Wilson contains layers of subtext that aren't immediately discernible with an initial viewing.
Nobody gives a bad performance and the burly Mitchum is agreeably gruff and credible as Clint Tollinger.
Westerns about town taming heroes were a dime-a-dozen when "Man with the Gun" came out in 1955.
Later, a stranger in gray, Clint Tollinger (Robert Mitchum), appears in town on a horse with a loose shoe.
After the town council agrees to hire Tollinger for $500, our hero establishes a midnight curfew for the saloons and prohibits the wearing firearms in the city limits.
Tollinger prefers to act alone and act fast because he feels that time is not on his side.The problem with Richard Wilson's "Man with a Gun" is that there is really nothing new, but he stages everything smoothly enough. |
tt0123351 | The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling | The novel's events occupy eighteen books.
The book opens with the narrator stating that the purpose of the novel will be to explore "human nature."
The kindly and wealthy Squire Allworthy and his sister Bridget are introduced in their wealthy estate in Somerset. Allworthy returns from London after an extended business trip and finds an abandoned baby sleeping in his bed. He summons his housekeeper, Mrs Deborah Wilkins, to take care of the child. After searching the nearby village, Mrs Wilkins is told about a young woman called Jenny Jones, servant of a schoolmaster and his wife, as the most likely person to have committed the deed. Jenny is brought before them and admits being the baby's mother but refuses to reveal the father's identity. Mr Allworthy mercifully removes Jenny to a place where her reputation will be unknown. Furthermore, he promises his sister to raise the boy, whom he names Thomas, in his household.
Two brothers, Dr Blifil and Captain Blifil, regularly visit the Allworthy estate. The doctor introduces the captain to Bridget in hopes of marrying into Allworthy's wealth. The couple soon marry. After the marriage, Captain Blifil begins to show a coldness to his brother, who eventually feels obliged to leave the house for London where he soon dies "of a broken heart". Captain Blifil and his wife start to grow cool towards one another, and the former is found dead from apoplexy one evening after taking his customary evening stroll prior to dinner. By then he has fathered a boy, who grows up with the bastard Tom. Captain Blifil's son, known as Master Blifil, is a miserable and jealous boy who conspires against Tom.
Tom grows into a vigorous and lusty, yet honest and kind-hearted, youth. Tom tends to be closer friends with the servants and gamekeepers. He is close friends with Black George, who is the gamekeeper. His first love is Molly, gamekeeper Black George's second daughter and a local beauty. She throws herself at Tom; he gets her pregnant and then feels obliged to offer her his protection. After some time, however, Tom finds out that Molly is somewhat promiscuous. He then falls in love with a neighbouring squire's lovely daughter, Sophia Western. Tom and Sophia confess their love for each other after Tom breaks his arm rescuing Sophia. Tom's status as a bastard causes Sophia's father and Allworthy to oppose their love; this criticism of class friction in society acted as a biting social commentary. The inclusion of prostitution and sexual promiscuity in the plot was also original for its time, and the foundation for criticism of the book's "lowness".
Sophia's father, Squire Western, is intent on making Sophia marry the hypocritical Master Blifil, but she refuses, and tries to escape from her father's influence. Tom, on the other hand, is expelled from Allworthy's estate for his many misdemeanours. Allworthy had become ill and was convinced he was dying. The servants of his estate and family members gather around his bed as he disposes his wealth. He gives a favorable amount of his wealth to Tom Jones which displeases Blifil. Tom doesn't care about what he has been given, his only concern is Allworth's health. Allworthy's health improves and we learn that he will live. Tom Jones is so excited that he begins to get drunk and gets into a fight with Blifil. Sophia wants to conceal her love for Tom so she gives a majority of her attention to Blifil when the three of them are together. This leads to Sophia's aunt, Mrs. Western, believing that Sophia and Blifil are in love. Mr. Western wants Sophia to marry Blifil in order to gain property from the Allworthy estate. Blifil learns Sophia's true affection for Tom Jones and is angry. Blifil tells Allworthy that the day he almost died, Tom was out drinking and singing and celebrating his death. This is what lead him to be banished. He starts his adventures across Britain, eventually ending up in London. Along his journey, he meets up with a barber we learn is Partridge who was actually banished from town because he was thought to be the father of Tom Jones. He becomes Tom's faithful companion in hopes of gaining his name back. During their journey they end up at an Inn where a lady and her maid arrive. An angry man arrives and the chambermaid points him in the direction she thinks he needs to go. He bust in on Mrs. Waters, a women Tom rescued along his journey, and Tom Jones in bed together. The man was looking for Mrs. Fitzpatrick and leaves. Sophia and her maid arrive at the same Inn where Partridge unknowingly reveals the relationship between Tom and Mrs. Waters. Sophia leaves, with Mrs. Fitzpatrick who is her cousin, and heads for London. They arrive at the home of Lady Bellaston and are being followed by Tom and Partridge. Eventually, Tom is able to tell Sophia that his true love is for her and no one else. Tom ends up getting into a duel with Mr. Fitzpatrick which leads to his imprisonment.
Eventually the secret of Tom's birth is revealed, after a short scare that Mrs Waters (who is really Jenny Jones) is his birth mother, and that he has committed incest. Tom's real mother is Bridget, who conceived him after an affair with a schoolmaster — hence he is the true nephew of Squire Allworthy himself. After finding out about Tom's half-brother Master Blifil's intrigues, Allworthy decides to bestow the majority of his inheritance to Tom. Tom and Sophia Western marry, after this revelation of his true parentage, as Squire Western no longer harbours any misgivings over Tom marrying his daughter. Sophia bears Tom a son and a daughter, and the couple live on happily with the blessings of Squire Western and Squire Allworthy. | romantic, historical fiction | train | wikipedia | null |
tt3704352 | Bessie | Bessie Smith (Queen Latifah) is a young singer from Chattanooga, Tennessee. She and her siblings are orphaned when their parents, William and Laura, die, leaving their oldest sister, Viola (Khandi Alexander), to raise them. Viola is stern and Bessie's childhood is unhappy. She along with her brother Clarence (Tory Kittles) scrape by working for local vaudeville shows. Her stage ambitions are frustrated by producers unwilling to feature dark-skinned black women in their shows. Bessie sneaks onto traveling performer Ma Rainey's (Mo'Nique) train compartment and asks to join her show. Ma Rainey takes Bessie under her wing and helps her develop her abilities until Bessie's popularity causes a schism between the two women. Bessie leaves with Clarence to start her own show.
In addition to her lover Lucille (Tika Sumpter), Bessie begins a tumultuous relationship with Jack Gee (Michael K. Williams), a security guard who later becomes her husband and manager. After a humiliating rejection from the newly formed Black Swan Records, Jack manages to get Bessie a record deal with Columbia Records. Immense success follows, though Bessie encounters difficulties, including a stabbing attack after a show in her hometown, racism from white guests during an affluent party, and an attack during her show by the Ku Klux Klan, whom she courageously chases off. Eventually, Bessie reconciles with Viola, and moves her and all of her siblings into a mansion to live with her. The move causes additional tension with Jack, and Bessie pushes him further by adopting a young boy, whom she names Jack Jr., as their son. Eventually, Lucille leaves Bessie in order to have her own life. Despite her own affair with bootlegger Richard Morgan (Mike Epps), Bessie is infuriated upon discovering that Jack is bankrolling his mistress, up and coming performer Gertrude Saunders. After a violent quarrel, Jack leaves her. Bessie spirals into depression and alcohol. Jack returns, kidnapping Jack Jr. with the assistance of Viola, and takes him to live with him, contending that Bessie is an unfit mother.
During the Great Depression, Bessie's fortune dissolves, and she and Clarence move into a small apartment. Bessie reconciles with Ma Rainey and takes some time to recuperate from her personal losses. Eventually, she accepts Richard's love for her and the two begin a relationship. After hearing Lucille Bogan's licentious hit song "Til the Cows Come Home", Bessie performs once again and meets a young John Hammond who wishes to produce her comeback tour. Bessie's comeback is a success and she later reflects on her life while discussing the future with Richard. | depressing, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0395770 | SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom | === Home console versions ===
The game revolves around the theme of robots invading Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob's hometown. Plankton, the evil genius owner of the Chum Bucket, has built a new machine called the Duplicatotron 3000 to produce an army of robots to use to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula. After creating them, he realizes that the switch on the Duplicatotron has accidentally been set to "Don't Obey" and the robots quickly kick him out of the Chum Bucket before taking it over and then wreaking havoc all over Bikini Bottom.
Meanwhile, SpongeBob and Patrick are playing with toy robots. SpongeBob is bored with the toys and wishes he could play with real robots. Patrick uses his "magic wishing shell", believing it will make their wish come true the following morning. SpongeBob wakes to find that his house has been trashed by real robots. He receives a fax from Mr. Krabs, stating that he would give SpongeBob a Golden Spatula for every certain amount of Shiny Objects he collects for him. Shiny Objects must be collected to open or activate various tolls throughout the game. Outside, SpongeBob finds a disappointed Plankton, who lies and claims that the robots appeared suddenly and kicked him out. Fooled by the diminutive villain, SpongeBob promises to help Plankton back into the Chum Bucket by embarking on a perilous quest to find golden spatulas and get rid of the robots.
SpongeBob travels to Jellyfish Fields, where he finds that Squidward has been stung by jellyfish. SpongeBob defeats King Jellyfish in a battle and obtains some of his jelly for Squidward's stings. SpongeBob also helps Mrs. Puff by locating stolen steering wheels in Downtown Bikini Bottom, stolen paintings in Rock Bottom, and missing students/campers in the Kelp Forest. King Neptune calls SpongeBob and Patrick to the Poseidome to defeat Robot Sandy. He then goes to the Mermalair, where he fights Prawn, one of Mermaid Man's archenemies. He also helps Mermaidman and Barnacle Boy several other times throughout the game, as well as Larry the lobster, his pet snail Gary and the Flying Dutchman, in other areas like Goo Lagoon, Sand Mountain, and the Dutchman's Graveyard, where Sandy beats the Dutchman in a fight. Later, SpongeBob and Sandy save Squidward from Robot Patrick.
SpongeBob then falls asleep, allowing him to enter his friends' dream worlds to search for more golden spatulas. After SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, and Squidward gain access to the Chum Bucket, they discover Robot SpongeBob and Robot Plankton, and learn that Plankton was responsible for making the robots. Before the battle starts, Robot Plankton is frustrated because SpongeBob has interfered with his plans once again. SpongeBob must destroy all the green weak points to get in his brain to finish him off once and for all. After defeating the giant robots, SpongeBob hopes that Plankton learned his "lesson". The Duplicatotron produces several more Robot Planktons, which begin arguing among themselves. The game ends after SpongeBob says that their work is not done, as there are still many robots running amok in the city.
The game then cuts to The Spongeball Arena, where the player rolls around in ball form in a large arena, while the credits roll on the screen. If the player collects all 100 golden spatulas, the game ends with a special surprise cutscene of all the game's characters singing the theme song.
=== Game Boy Advance and PC versions ===
In the Game Boy Advance version, Mr. Krabs thinks the robot invasion is putting him out of business, so his assignment for SpongeBob is to fight the robots to get into the Chum Bucket to shut down Plankton's Duplicatron with the help of Mystery the Seahorse.
At the end of the PC version, SpongeBob and Patrick discover that Plankton was the one behind the robot invasion. Plankton admits that it was his fault and that the robots are not listening to him and the only way to control the robots is to set the switch to "obey" mode. Instead, Patrick fools around with the machine, accidentally pulling its obey switch off, which turns off the machine and deprograms the robots. After SpongeBob and Patrick leave, Plankton tries to tell them that he will be back with another plan. | violence, comic | train | wikipedia | Awesome!. 75 thumbs Up! 10000000000000000000000000000000000 out of 5 stars! Best game i have ever played! hard and boring in the middle but it pays off extra! once you reach the end it is frustrating not recommended for people who get easily frustrated, but still very awesome! Thank youim blackjacker And I hate boring games and spongebob aint one of 'em. The best SpongeBob game ever made!. I solomnly stand by the belief that this is not only the best SpongeBob SquarePants video game, but it is one of the best 3-D platformers ever. Everything about this game is fantastic, the music, the controls, and the way this game truly captures the essence of the show.. Great Game for SB Fans. Battle for Bikinni Bottom (not to be confused with the episode "Battle of Bikinni Bottom") is a video game based on the Nickelodeon TV show SpongeBob SqaurePants. Plankton unveils his latest scheme to steal the formula; creating evil robots. Everything would have worked out fine for him if he didn't set the machine of "Don't Obey." (Villians often call themselves "genuises." How can a genius do something stupid like that). SpongeBob believes that he might have caused the robots and Plankton uses SpongeBob to stop the robots, along with Sandy and Patrick. The story, characters and humor will get you playing until you win. Believe it or not, this is actually a pretty complicated and-sometimes even addictive- video game. I can only speak for the GameCube and GameBoy Advanced versions, but I thought both of them are great games. If you're a SB fan, then you'll love this game. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer copies of games like this with the 3DS and the Wii and everything. My Rating: 8/10 |
tt0083908 | Evil Under the Sun | A quiet holiday at a secluded hotel in Devon is all that Hercule Poirot wants. Inevitably, he connects with the others on holiday. Arlena Marshall is a beautiful actress and a flirtatious young woman with many men attracted to her. She goes to the Jolly Roger Hotel with her husband and stepdaughter, Kenneth and Linda Marshall. Linda Marshall (aged 16) hates her step-mother. Arlena flirts with handsome Patrick Redfern, to the evident fury of his wife, Christine, a former schoolteacher. Also staying at the hotel are Hercule Poirot; Sir Horace Blatt, a braggart; Major Barry, a retired Anglo-Indian military officer with an endless series of stories to tell; Rosamund Darnley, an exclusive fashionable dressmaker, who had formerly been Kenneth's sweetheart; Carrie Gardener, a garrulous American tourist, and her husband, Odell; Reverend Stephen Lane; and Miss Emily Brewster, a quite athletic spinster.
Early on the morning of the murder of Arlena, alibis collect. Linda drops a parcel of candles when Christine asks her to Gull Cove. Arlena paddles to Pixy Cove obviously for a rendezvous; Poirot disbelieves her request for solitude. But both Kenneth and Patrick seek her. Finally Patrick asks Emily to join her daily row. He finds a body lying arms outstretched, face hidden by a hat, but red curls peeking out. Good at managing heights, he stays, while Emily gets the doctor, who diagnoses strangulation by powerful hands, therefore male.
Poirot and the police question the suspects. Kenneth was heard typing letters specifically responding to figures in previous mail. Linda falsely claims she was fond of her stepmother. By her watch, she and Christine went to Gull Cove at 10:30 and returned at 11:45, giving them an alibi. The Gardeners were with Poirot the entire time. Rosamund was seen reading at Sunny Ledge (above Pixy Cove) by Emily and Patrick. Rev. Lane and Major Barry went out, and Sir Horace Blatt went sailing. Christine, Rosamund, Kenneth and Mr Gardener all went to play tennis at noon. Earlier in the day, Miss Brewster was nearly hit on the head by an empty bottle tossed from one of the bedroom windows, so Poirot asks the chambermaid if she has observed a bottle missing. The chambermaid cannot tell, but did note another odd occurrence: somebody ran a bath at noon but everyone denies having done so.
At Pixy Cove, Poirot and police find a pair of new scissors, a fragment of pipe that could belong to many smokers, and heroin. Inside the cave, Poirot also sniffs a delicate exclusive perfume only used by Arlena and Rosamund. Poirot invites everyone on a picnic to test their vertigo. Christine and Emily both claimed fear of heights (acrophobia), but Christine easily traversed the bridge – thus she lied. After the picnic, Linda is found overdosed on six of Christine's sleeping pills, and almost dies. She has written a confession, but Poirot found her library book about magic, melted wax and a pin, and realised she mistook piercing a voodoo image for murder. Christine made sure her tablets were handy, provoking the guilt-ridden Linda to take them.
Poirot asks for similar recent nearby cases of strangulation. Alice Corrigan was found by a local school teacher, while her husband Edward was supposedly too far away to have committed the murder. But a photograph from Surrey police identify Patrick Redfern as Edward Corrigan and the teacher, a games mistress, as Christine Redfern, then known as Christine Deverill, Patrick's true love and accomplice. Patrick was not Arlena's victim, but vice versa. Patrick pretended to be smitten and bilked her of most of her inherited fifty thousand pounds for "fabulous opportunities".
Arlena was unsuspecting, but if Kenneth knew that she had nearly emptied the account, he would become suspicious and Patrick would find himself in a difficult predicament. So Patrick and Christine decided to get rid of her. Arlena went on that fatal day to meet Patrick, as Poirot had surmised. Patrick instructed her to remain hidden in the cave if anyone came around. Meanwhile, Christine set Linda's watch 20 minutes forward. When she asked Linda to check the time, her alibi was set. Later, she adjusted the watch back. Christine went to her room, applied suntan makeup then wore large-sleeved clothes to hide her fake tan, sneaked out of the hotel to the Cove, and pretended to be the supposedly dead Arlena. Emily, who, with Patrick, "found" her was easily fooled. Christine then returned to her hotel room and took a bath to wash off the tan; the bath that everyone denied taking. She then threw the empty makeup bottle out a window, which nearly hit Miss Brewster. Meanwhile, Patrick called an unsuspecting Arlena out of the cave and strangled her. Poirot needles Patrick into a near violent fury despite the cold-blooded Christine telling him to "be quiet".
Poirot tells Linda she is innocent, and confesses she will not hate her "next step-mother". In the final conversation, Rosamund agrees to give up her career for marriage to Kenneth, "I've wanted to live in the country with you all my life". | mystery, murder | train | wikipedia | He also plays the definitive Hercule Poirot, the Agatha Christie creation.Evil Under The Sun is done almost like a play, but a good play.
The sun in question, under which this evil takes place, shines down on a privately owned island in the Mediterranean, giving us a warm and exotic location.There isn't one bad performance among the cast, several of whom have appeared before in at least one other Poirot story.
Entertainment Under The Sun. With its humor, great scenery, stylized period clothes, wonderful music, complex whodunit puzzle, and deliciously hammy acting from Peter Ustinov, James Mason, Sylvia Miles, Diana Rigg, and Maggie Smith, "Evil Under The Sun" is an absolute delight.There are a couple of different ways to watch this film.
on 'zee' beach"; "Incidentally, I accept your 'hallie-by'"; "If you would care to confide in me, I should be most 'honn-erd'".The bitching between vain Arlena Marshall (Diana Rigg), a prima donna actress, and the resort's hostess, Daphne Castle (Maggie Smith) is also amusing and fun.
I've read about 50 other Agatha Christie's books since then, Death on the Nile being the second, and hey Peter Ustinov played Poirot in that movie too!
Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot is at his best in this movie that is worth the time for the soundtrack of Cole Porter classics or the magnificent cinematography alone.
What can I say, this is an excellent film, only equal to The Suchet Poirot Murder On the Links, it's the most enjoyable Agatha Christie That Ustinov has ever made!!!!
One of the film's highlights was the song Arlena(marvellously played by Diana Rigg) sings, it somewhat reminded me of Marlene Dietrich.The film also benefits from a very clever plot, that is definitely among Agatha Christie's best.
Of course there is a nasty bit of murder and our detective just happens to be around to solve the apparently unsolvable case, Ustinov has made character his own and will always be the definitive Piorot.Throughout the film there is a dry wit which a delight and a very clever twist in the end.
This is a first rate film.Rarely are so many top actors seen together in one production.What the director did was to take an Agatha Christy murder mystery and sparkle it with humour and dry wit.
In one of the only times I can recall, Hercule Poirot does not fall into a murder mystery in Evil Under the Sun. Instead he's hired by an insurance company that is suspicious about the death of a young girl whose body was found on the moors in Great Britain.
His journey continues on to an Aegean island where the former mistress of a Balkan king, Maggie Smith now runs an exclusive resort for the rich and famous.The woman who jilted Blakely is a Gertrude Lawrence like musical comedy star played by Diana Rigg.
In fact we're let in on the joke when in a shot of the hotel register, you'll see the autograph of Cole Porter prominently displayed.With really stunning scenery from Mallorca, ably substituting for the Aegean, Ustinov is aided by a great cast that also includes Sylvia Miles and James Mason.
While the plots are somewhat similar, (and some of the actors), the film is an excellent and high-spirited intermingling of murder, murder, bloody murder (actually no blood - the crime was strangulation of Diana Rigg's glamorous (what else?) Mrs. Arlena Marshall, the actress and vamp) and humour - Maggie Smith's Daphne Castle is brimming over the top with multiple solutions for the murder (her nut-cracker theory is best).
Ustinov is a warmly funny Poirot and takes second place only to Albert Finney in "Express" The real show though, is in the over the top performances by Maggie Smith and Dianna Rigg.
Evil Under the Sun. Fun adaptation of another Agatha Christie murder mystery with Ustinov doing another fine job as master sleuth Hercule Poirot.
This one, set on an island in the Mediterranean (actually filmed in Majorca) has Peter Ustinov in his second outing as Poirot investigating the murder of a self-interested actor (Diana Rigg), with a gang of suspects including hotel-keeper Maggie Smith, cuckolded husband Denis Quilley, camp journalist Roddy McDowall, theatrical producer James Mason and his domineering wife Sylvia Miles, and would-be gigolo Nicholas Clay and his mousy spouse Jane Birkin.
Whereas David Suchet in the television version tended to be low-key in his characterization, referring to his "little gray cells" and how they solved cases on more than one occasion, Ustinov turns in a flamboyant performance, full of little details: the sequence where he overhears Clay and Birkin arguing in their hotel room ends with a shot of Poirot twitching his mustache, as if he doesn't quite believe what they are saying (he is eventually proved right).
Evil Under The Sun. I have watched another two notoriously famous works of Agatha Christie, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1974) and DEATH ON THE NILE (1978), despite of three in a row, I could still enjoy this one to a great extent.The distinction of a star-studded cast and an isolated milieu is too overt to be surprising, luckily enough the island itself compensates a mind-distracting delightfulness.
Also it has been the third time around, so as that I am lucidly familiar with its plot design-pattern, the obvious target is farcically recognizable and the murderer is not so perplexing to guess, in addition that all the cartoonish characters attenuate the tone of the headlining murder, which I will recommend to those who usually are shunned by the murder/crime genre.Speaking of its cast, I adore Maggie Smth, I am thoroughly enjoy her a touch over-the-top performance here, also Jane Birkin is magnificently multi-faceted (I couldn't recall her roll in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS though).
Entertainment Under the Sun. This is one of the Agatha Christie big screen adaptations that sometimes gets unfairly derided as being boring or not up to snuff with others like "Murder on the Orient Express" or "Death on the Nile".
Acceptable rendition based on Agatha Christie novel , shot in Majorca and being second of six appearances playing Detective Hercule Poirot by Peter Ustinov.
He investigates the tourists and numerous suspects , all support cast (Jane Birkin , Nicholas Clay , Maggie Smith , Roddy McDowall , Sylvia Miles , James Mason , Denis Quilley , Diana Rigg) .
At one point this movie was mooted as being the follow-up Agatha Christie film to Murder on Orient Express but the picture eventually arrived fourth in the Brabourne-Goodwin series after Death on the Nile (1978) and The crack mirror (1980) .
¨Evil under the sun¨ was made and released about forty-one years after Agatha Christie's source novel of the same name was first published in 1941 , being selected to be the 1982 Royal Film Performance ; this movie was the first ever filmed version of this story, it being remade with Poirot: Evil Under the Sun (2001) with David Suchet .
This expensive all-star Agatha Christie film, with Peter Ustinov once again as Poirot, is a better film than its predecessor which was made by the same production team, DEATH ON THE NILE (1978, see my review).
As someone else here mentioned, Peter Ustinov is not the Hercule Poirot of the Agatha Christie books as David Suchet is, but he's the most colorful and fun.
The superior cast includes Maggie Smith, Diana Rigg, James Mason, Roddy McDowall, Sylvia Miles, Jane Birkin, and Nicholas Clay.
Mostly for Poirot completest and admirers of then-trendy, all-star ensemble casts from the 1970s and early '80s, Evil Under the Sun finds Peter Ustinov in his second outing as Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective (three years after 1978's Death on the Nile).
As the title promises, the action this time takes place on an Adriatic island (though Christie fans will surely balk at the switch from the novel's setting on the English coast), where a famous stage star (Diana Rigg) is murdered, and the list of likely suspects is unusually high.
Depicting the inner-inner circle of Hollywood and their sycophants, this installment of Agatha Christie's film adaptations finds our favorite Poirot afoot a posh island resort run by the inimitable Maggie Smith, but as usual instead of determining who dunnit, it's more a matter of who didn't.Filmed in Majorca, Spain, directed by Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger and Christie's The Mirror Crack'd) and replete with Cole Porter songs, you can't fail with this all star cast and Peter Ustinov.All in all?
Ustinov is good as the beguiling Belgian, though his somewhat dodgy accent takes a little getting used to, and the kind of stuck-up, no-good-in-a-fight feel he has is perfect for this quick-talking character, as is the rest of the eclectic cast who turn in grandiose and stage-suited performances of the innuendo-laden adaptation of Agatha Christie's source novel.
Following the huge success of Peter Ustinov's first appearance as Hercule Poirot in "Death on the Nile" (whose artistic value certainly is equally high), the producers ventured into yet another big-scale, all-star movie adaptation of one of Agatha Christie's most famous novels: "Evil Under the Sun".
Again, the cast list almost sounds like a 'Who's Who' of the most popular and brilliant actors of the time: Diana Rigg, James Mason, Maggie Smith, Jane Birkin (who both had also been with Ustinov in "Death on the Nile"), Roddy McDowall, and Colin Blakely and Denis Quilley, who both had been among the cast members of the first, and perhaps greatest, all-star Poirot movie of the 70s, "Murder on the Orient Express", with Albert Finney in the title role.But, although not exactly responding to Poirot's appearance as Agatha Christie had always described him (a short, stocky man with pitch black hair and mustache, both smoothened with brilliantine), by now it was hugely versatile polyglot Peter Ustinov, who not only delivered a perfect French accent (no, of course Poirot is NOT French, he's Belgian, as he has got to underline constantly here as well; but his mother language IS French...), but also put his own personal stamp on the role - which would last through four more movies starring him as Poirot, until the audience had almost identified him with the Belgian sleuth.So we must simply take "Evil Under the Sun" as it is - anyway, the 'different' Poirot is not the only change made in comparison with Agatha Christie's novel: the story was originally set on an island off the coast of Devon, and not on the obscure Mediterranean island of "Tyrania"...
Besides that, a wonderful musical score filled with Cole Porter's greatest hits further enhances the carefully recreated late 30s' atmosphere - and contributes to the overall feeling of lightness and entertainment despite the dark and deadly goings-on...Needless to say that there NEVER is a dull moment throughout the whole movie (actually, it's one of those movies you can just watch over and over again without getting tired of it!); and it's LITERALLY a murder hunt, not only for Poirot, but also for the audience: very cleverly presenting a 'jigsaw puzzle' of evidence and testimonies, it gives you the chance until the last moment to find out the murderer - if you can...So, considering all those elements that so magnificently complement one another, from cast to screenplay and directing to settings and musical score, "Evil Under the Sun" undoubtedly ranks among the VERY best movie adaptations ever of the great works of Agatha Christie!.
Peter Ustinov literally merges with his Poirot character and many of the great names in the supportive cast clearly had an excellent time appearing in this grotesque whodunit.
The 1945 film "And Then There Were None" inarguably remains the greatest Agatha Christie adaptation, and personally I was more blown away by "Murder on the Orient Express" as well, but "Evil under the Sun" nevertheless comes highly recommended in case you're looking for something to watch on a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon..
Maggie Smith, James Mason, Sylvia Miles, Diana Rigg, Roddy McDowall, Jane Birkin, Colin Blakely, Nicholas Clay, Denis Quilley, and Emily Hone are all staying at the beautiful hotel where a terrible crime might be committed.
When a woman turns up murdered on an isolated island resort, it is up to a vacationing Hercule Poirot to work out who did it when all present have iron-clad alibis in this Agatha Christie murder mystery adaptation.
The film is notable as Peter Ustinov's second turn as Hercule Poirot following 'Death on the Nile' in 1978 and with a Cole Porter soundtrack used just as effectively as Nino Rota's score to the 1978 film and with equally good performances, 'Evil Under the Sun' is likely to go down well with most who enjoyed the 1978 film.
Of his three feature film turns as the famed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, Evil Under the Sun is Peter Ustinov's best performance.
Once again Poirot travels to an exotic local to observe a star studded cast (in this case Maggie Smith, Diana Rigg, and James Mason) of upper crust British snobs and waits for one of them to be murdered.
It stars Peter Ustinov, James Mason, Maggie Smith, Nicholas Clay, Jane Birkin, Colin Blakely, Sylvia Miles, Denis Quilley, Roddy McDowall, Diana Rigg and Emily Hone.
Music is scored by Cole Porter and cinematography by Christopher Challis.When a flighty lady is found murdered on a Mediterranean island, famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot takes up the case
Coming late in the day as part of the big star ensemble Christie adaptations to screen that were very popular in the 70s and 80s, Evil Under the Sun doesn't break the mould.
Hooray!There's not much to dislike here, it's a splendid cast list headed by the wonderful Ustinov as the mercurial Poirot, visually it's pretty, almost as pretty as the rather delectable Diana Rigg in fact, and it's great fun to try and do your own bit of detective work; which morphs into annoyance when failing to see what Poirot did!Minor irks are that it goes on for too long before the murder occurs, and there's an over reliance on humour, that whilst fun, tends to detract from the suspenseful mystery waiting to be unravelled in the latter stages of the piece.Far from perfect but its faults are unassuming, it's safe and enjoyable entertainment for a rainy day.
Evil Under the Sun is based on an Agatha Christie novel and features one of her most celebrated creations, Hercule Poirot.
The rest of the film follows Ustinov as he investigates the whereabouts at the time of the crime of each character one by one, and by a process of elimination figures out who committed the killing.James Mason, Maggie Smith, Dennis Quilley, Nicholas Clay and Jane Birkin are all among the suspects in the stellar cast.
The acting is very professionally done, which is not surprising when one considers that the film stars two theatrical dames (Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg), one knight (Ustinov) and at least one (James Mason) who was unlucky never to achieve that honour.
Peter Ustinov returns to the role of detective Hercule Poirot in this curiously lax Agatha Christie mystery with camp asides.
The makers seem to have thought "Death on the Nile was a hit - Christie, Ustinov, star cast, jokes - we'll do it again." The "hilariously catty dialogue" between Rigg and Smith is vulgar, unfunny smut, as is James Mason's dialogue.
Guy Hamilton took over directing duties on this third cinematic Hercule Poirot film, adapted from the Agatha Christie novel.
Its all tremendous fun though with some wonderfully witty dialogue, fabulous costumes and a great soundtrack featuring the tunes of Cole Porter.In my opinion there are no bad turns in this film but I do have a particular fondness for Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg.
This is one of those rare cases where the character as adapted and performed has replaced the book one in my mind.In this murder mystery set on a Mediterranean island (a departure from the novel, which took place in Devon), Ustinov is surrounded by a first-rate cast, featuring, among others, Maggie Smith, James Mason and Diana Rigg.
Nicholas Clay and Jane Birkin are fantastic also, her transformation is sensational, what a beauty!It is a lavish looking film, the locations are sensational, and the costumes are superb, they really add a glamorous note to it, Rigg looks sensational in many scenes.Overall 9/10 Great story, brilliantly acted, but the characters are just magical, entertaining!.
But the best example of what makes Evil Under the Sun so much fun is watching Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg go at each other.
Peter Ustinov returns as Hercule Poirot in this sunny Agatha Christie thriller.
Diana Rigg is the bitchy actress/victim and the collection of campy suspects includes Roddy McDowell, James Mason, Sylvia Miles (oddly cast as Mason's wife!), Jane Birkin, and Maggie Smith, who performs a very catty duet of Cole Porter's YOU'RE THE TOP with Rigg.
EVIL UNDER THE SUN marks the second of Peter Ustinov's appearances as the famous Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot and it's very similar to look and feel as his first, DEATH ON THE NILE.
While Shaffer's story isn't bad and makes a fun movie, it's not Christie."Evil Under the Sun" is the third in the series kicked off by "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974) of glamorous, all-star Christies.
This was the second outing for Maggie Smith and Jane Birkin from "Death on the Nile"); and for Denis Quilley and Colin Blakeley (from "Murder on the Orient Express").The biggest problem with "Evil" is Peter Ustinov.
The best we can say is, he's a different detective with the same name.Giving Ustinov's clever but visually dissatisfying Poirot and the radical revamping of both the story and the character, "Evil Under the Sun" put an end to the hitherto promising Brabourne/Goodwin productions of Agatha Christie.
The stellar support cast, including James Mason, Roddy McDowall, Dame Maggie Smith, Diana Rigg and Sylvia Miles, also have great fun playing cat and mouse with each other.The familiar music is from Cole Porter, while the scenery is most picturesque.Thursday, April 15, 1999 - Video |
tt0042324 | Chain Lightning | Lt. Colonel Matt Brennan (Humphrey Bogart), discharged from the military, runs a civilian flying school, where he is reunited with an old US Army Air Force buddy, Major Hinkle (James Brown).
Brennan is offered a job at the Willis Aircraft Company as chief test pilot for an experimental high speed jet fighter known as the JA-3, designed by Carl Troxell (Richard Whorf). Troxell is also a link to Brennan's past, having known him in the war when Brennan was a bomber pilot. A flashback to B-17 missions over Germany reveal Brennan to be a top-notch pilot.
Another connection to his past is his former flame, Jo Holloway (Eleanor Parker), now Willis' secretary. In order to prove the capabilities of the new JA-3, capable of speeds up to 1,400 mph (2,300 km/h), Brennan convinces Willis that a record-breaking flight from Nome, Alaska to Washington D.C., via the North Pole, will impress the government. At the same time, Troxell tries to develop a safer version of the revolutionary aircraft, the JA-4, equipped with an escape pod, but dies during a test flight.
The earlier record flight is a success with Brennan earning a $30,000 paycheck, enough to marry Jo. Then he learns that Troxell has been killed. Despite his earlier reservations about the need for safety systems, Brennan takes another JA-4 out for the official government demonstrations, using the escape pod to prove that the new aircraft is safe. On landing, he falls into the arms of his beloved. | flashback | train | wikipedia | In 1950, jet planes were a relatively recent phenomenon and their emergence offered new possibilities for the long-defunct test-pilot genre of film
In "Chain Lightning," Bogart is a World War H bomber pilot hired as a test-pilot who, after the death of his designer friend (Richard Whorf), successfully tries out a newly designed ejection cockpit
However, there is as little value in a film in which a line like "JA-3 to Fort George.
I am fifty miles North of youooooops, I just passed you!" is fairly commonplace
Eleanor Parker offers the only creative acting in the role of Raymond Massey's secretary and Bogart's love interest.
Humphrey Bogart NEVER took himself too seriously, and LOVED poking fun at any Hollywood types who DID.
Mentioning Errol Flynn in Bogie's presence would usually evoke a sneer.Bogie often said of himself "You're looking at a guy who's made MORE bad movies than anyone else in Hollywood"!Yeah, along with the great ones, Bogie made his share of howlers.
Which brings us to CHAIN LIGHTNING!In a lot of ways, this film's a REAL stinker, but it's a ton of fun just the same.
From an aviation technology standpoint, the film was 10 years ahead of it's time; the mythical JA-3 that Bogie flew had a level of performance that was totally unheard of at the time of the film's release...
Alaska to Washington DC nonstop via the North Pole, at almost Mach 2.At the same time, the film gives us an interesting glimpse into some of the engineering problems attendant to supersonic flight that were just being addressed in the period...
like the JA-4's escape pod.Some of the stuff presented was just plain WRONG, and the film makers KNEW it.
Like Bogie flying thru clouds of meteor dust at 70,000 feet.
the performances here are just plain FUN!Bogie LOVED playing parodies of "tough guys", and those that he viewed as phony heros, and his character Matt Brennan was a broad, overblown sendup of these guys.
the EASY way, or the HARD way?" Bogie growls at his boss, Raymond Massey, over a radio circuit.
Bogie's just BEAUTIFUL to watch with his delivery of a dozen trite clichés all through the film!As Bogie's buddy (and fellow scenery chewer) is James Brown, one of Hollywood's unsung hero character actors.
Brown was apparently a Warner's contract player who, along with another Bogie movie "Tough Guy" staple, Joe Sawyer, would later make their marks on television in in THE ADVENTURES OF RIN TIN TIN; Brown playing Lt.
"Rip" Masters, and Sawyer playing Sgt. O'Hara.Contrasting Bogie's private little joke of a performance was Richard Whorf's role as Carl Troxel, the earnest aeronautical engineer.
After World War II is over, bomber pilot Humphrey Bogart becomes a test pilot who flies the jet planes Raymond Massey's company builds.
I must say right up front that Humphrey Bogart is my favorite film actor of all time.That said, Chain Lightning won't be remembered as one of his best.
In "Chain Lightning," Bogart is a World War H bomber pilot hired as a test-pilot who, after the death of his designer friend (Richard Whorf), successfully tries out a newly designed ejection cockpit...His fans may be able to suspend all disbelief and take some interest in Bogey testing jet planes and romancing the company secretary.
Even so, Chain Lightning gives us the great Bogart one more time.Conclusion - This is not the best Humphrey Bogart movie ever.
From 1950, "Chain Lightning" stars Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor Parker, Raymond Massey, Richard Whorf, and James Brown.
Brown played Lt. Rip Masters on Rin Tin Tin and I believe was my first crush.This is one of those films Bogart probably made to fulfill his contract obligations with Warners, the other one being "The Two Mrs. Carrolls," a scream of a film in which he's really terrible.
He's so rarely bad, and he's certainly not bad in this.Bogart plays Matt Brennan, a pilot, and in the beginning, he's testing a plane.
His girlfriend Joan (Eleanor Parker) rushes up and begs her boss (Raymond Massey) to order him down, as she's afraid for him.The story then goes into flashback, with Matt and Joan during World War II.
He leaves for the states first - they want to get married, but he is unable to find anyone who can give him permission.Once back in the states, after bouncing around for a bit, Matt is hired as a test pilot by Leland Willis (Raymond Massey) an aircraft manufacturer.There, he re-connects with Carl Troxell (Whorf) who is now dating Joan, Willis' secretary.
He felt the life that he could offer her wasn't good enough.Matt takes the new jet JA-4 on a hazardous flight, and that brings us back to the first scene.This is a pretty ordinary film, with Parker looking beautiful and Bogart acting tough - kind of Rick Blaine as a pilot.
I will take issue with what one person on this board said, that Massey was playing Howard Hughes and doing a bad job.
Massey was playing a Howard Hughes type, and he was fine.The aviation part of this film was ahead of its time for sure.
Eleanor Parker, another favorite of mine, gives a lovely performance and is absolutely beautiful..
Presently, test pilot Humphrey Bogart (as Matthew "Matt" Brennan) is on a dangerous flight, which worries pretty Eleanor Parker (as Joan "Jo" Holloway).
During World War II service, bomber pilot Bogart flies dangerous missions from England to Germany, helping the Allies win the war.
On the ground, he romances Parker, who serving as a nurse...After the war, Bogart is hired as chief test pilot for aircraft manufacturer Raymond Massey (as Leland Willis).
He re-encounters Parker, who is being romanced by designer Richard Whorf (as Carl Troxell).
Bogart eventually takes the jet plane "JA-4" on a dangerous flight, which leads us back to the opening scene.
Bogart looks inserted uncomfortably into the stock aviation footage and the romantic triangle never gets off the ground.**** Chain Lightning (2/18/50) Stuart Heisler ~ Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor Parker, Raymond Massey, Richard Whorf.
Bogie's plane could fly up to 60,000 ft and top speed of about 1600 mph.
In the recent film The Aviator, one of the points of Howard Hughes's life that was gone into great detail was his post World War II airplane crash in Beverly Hills while testing a new model.
From what was shown in Leonardo DiCaprio's hauntingly accurate portrayal of Hughes, the casting of Raymond Massey in a paper thin version of the flamboyant aviator/businessman is pretty laughable.
I'm sure Howard must have seen Chain Lightning and didn't like it a bit.Jets were certainly a new phenomenon in those years and had the Germans developed them sooner and additionally had invested in aircraft carriers, the course of history would have been markedly and tragically different.
Humphrey Bogart is not bad as the Chuck Yeager like test pilot, in fact Yeager's historic flight breaking the sound barrier is referenced in the plot.
Richard Whorf is the earnest aircraft engineer who worries that Massey is sacrificing safety for flashy headlines.
Now one thing about Howard Hughes, he certainly did know how to make aerial films exciting.Fairly clichéd subplot about Bogart reuniting with war time love Eleanor Parker who is now Massey's secretary.
The movie aircraft is like the Bell X-1/X-2 rocket planes in that it has no air intakes (inlets) and therefore is not a jet.
This is one of my favorite aviation movies, even though it reflects Hollywood's dramatic idea of how aircraft are designed and developed rather than the actual process..
business conflict designing new jet planes.
A bizarre sort of routine action film that ANYONE could have starred in instead of Bogie..
"Chain Lightning" is one of the strangest Bogart films you can find.
Seeing a 50 year-old guy playing a WWII bomber pilot is patently ridiculous--especially since Humphrey Bogart looks all of 50 in the film.
He also looks a bit tired and lost--mostly because it's just not his sort of film and you wonder what the folks at Warner Brothers were thinking.
Not really--but it IS a badly miscast picture.The film begins in the present (1949) and then looks back at the flying career of Matt Brennan (Bogart).
He's soon recruited to fly experimental aircraft--something that Matt is SO perfect for that it would seem like the welfare of the entire free world depends on him.
But soon Matt's flying all sorts of craft and he's also reunited with his old flame, Jo (Eleanor Parker).
See the film.What follows is a fairly standard Warner Brothers movie--one that Alan Ladd would have done well with (as he was quite nice in "The McConnell Story") and which is modestly entertaining but nothing more.
Admittedly, I'm a technically oriented person by profession but what can you say about a film in which its raison d'etre is an experimental jet aircraft which is portrayed as a caricature rather than an actual airplane capable of flight?
Real jet aircraft from the 1950 era mostly had the air intake located directly in the nose giving the front end of the plane a bulbous shape.Note also that the aircraft is capable of flying at an altitude of 90,000 feet, impossible for any jet aircraft of its day, and maybe still impossible, and only achievable at the time by rocket-powered aircraft such as the experimental Bell X series then undergoing tests.
Finally, mention is made that this magical plane is capable of airspeeds up to 1,400 mph - clearly another impossible feat at the time.While I always enjoy Bogey and certainly think highly of Eleanor Parker, the technical absurdities, the silly dialogue between pilot and ground during flights, and the false heroics lent a cartoonish quality to the film which took away from my usual enjoyment of Bogart's work.I often think that the producers of films such as these have considerable contempt for the movie-going public when they put out this kind of inaccurate work..
This was an interesting film, especially to those with a keen interest on the early development of Jet technology.
Julie Bishop was good as the girl of Bogarts interests and a few tense moments in the air and on the ground hold your interest to the end..
This is a super film about Action, Adventure, Drama, what the Genre tells us but also one of love.Bogart takes the lead here as a Pilot who served in world war two, being a good pilot and one that took risks.
During the war he met and fell in Love with 'Jo' played by the lovely Eleanor Parker.
That love was short lived as Matt (Bogart) is sent back to the USA after the war and things all move along nicely until he is offered a job on the recommendation of a pal named Carl (Richard Whorf).
The job is one of a test pilot testing the new Generation plane, a Jet and the risks are high.Well his old love Jo is back on the scene and very much in the sights of Carl's Gun and this becomes a love battle for him and Matt.
Carl is part way into designing a new escape capsule for the jets and wants Matt to stall a long distant trip in the mark 3.....everything goes wrong but for who?
i will leave you to see for yourself but i will say that it really was all for the girl.as usual a fabulous Performance from Bogart and the others on the cast list were pretty good, i find the classics from that era are always pretty sound as that really was their bread and butter, a shoddy performance meant no more work..
It's an Awkward attempt at Introducing Jet Aircraft and the Aviation Problems/Advantages the "New" Planes Presented.The Aircraft seen seem like Comic Book Versions, as do the Flight Sequences.
Bogart's Flight Suits are certainly Comical and He looks Hilarious and Appears to be Elsewhere in most of His Scenes.The Cast all Seem to be Clueless Ranting and Raving about This and That.
Flight Limitations, Records are Made to be Broken Speeches, and the Romantic elements are Hard to Take in this bit of Clunky Cinema.For Those that Think that The Return of Dr. X (1939) is Bogart's Worst Movie, Check this one out Before You Cast Your Vote.
Apparently it could get worse, I'm almost sorry I didn't see "The Big Sleep" before this, I would have died laughing."Chain Lightning" is another story about test pilots and new air plains, lot of air stunt footage, men talking men talk, sing war songs and the typical boy-loses-girl-boy-gets-girl-back routine.And I really wonder why Boggie made this movie - I thought he was a Hollywood royalty and commended top salary?
With some minor plot revisions, "Chain Lightning" would just about qualify as a remake of Humphrey Bogart's 1936 film, "China Clipper".
In both stories, Bogey's character is a former military pilot who takes on a civilian job as a test pilot for demanding bosses.
Raymond Massey portrays the owner of the Willis Aircraft Company, a role performed in the earlier film by Pat O'Brien.
Both men are hard driving, ruthless individuals who put work and success above having a personal life, whose ambition test the people around them, including the Bogey character.
The minor difference might be in the romantic interest for Bogart; in 'Clipper' there was none, here he's on again, off again with Jo Holloway (Eleanor Parker) in a romance that tests one's patience throughout the film.I don't know when the device was first used, but in this movie, the opening scene serves as the introduction to a flashback narrative that winds up back at the same point later in the film.
Bogey's conflicted character is in it for the money right up to the point he hears his buddy's voice recorder message detailing how he lost his life in a failed test of a 'JA-4' experimental craft.
If it means hurtling back to Earth to be with his one true love Jo, all systems say go.I must say, I was a bit dismayed by Colonel Matt Brennan's (Bogart) post war job prospects.
When a novice crash lands his only plane, it's time to look for more meaningful possibilities.
The good old days swung both ways.Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey worked together once before in the 1943 war adventure "Action in the North Atlantic".
Interestingly, Bogey was top billed in both films, while Massey's character was his boss in both.
Sometimes things just work out that way.As mentioned earlier, the film doesn't elaborate on events portrayed when it comes to accuracy.
Perhaps the film makers couldn't decide between Bogey landing his girl the easy way or the hard way..
Matt Brennan, and his crew, are amazed when they spot a German plane that flies so fast, they consider it a rival that will challenge them in the air.
Alas, the idea of a new prototype of fighting plane ends just as WWII is over.Matt Brennan, in love with the lovely Jo Holloway, figures he wants to marry her.
After the war is over, Matt has to resort to start his own flying academy, a short lived attempt to make a go of his flying knowledge.Always at odds with Max Troxell, Matt is brought over to the Willis manufacturing company, where a new plane with brand new technology is being developed by Max and other friends from his Air Force days.
Matt, an experienced pilot is engaged to put the plane through different tests.
He feels he can fly it in record time, while Max is working in a detachable cockpit that will be separated from the jet in case of trouble.
Matt surprises when he does the feat in record time."Chain Lightning" directed by Stuart Heisler, is almost a documentary, that chronicles the advent of technology that revolutionized the aerospace industry.
Humphrey Bogart appears as Matthew Brennan, the man with a mission.
Eleanor Parker plays Jo, his love interest.
Raymond Massey, and the supporting cast, do their best to make the film work..
After all, Humphrey Bogart reminded Ingrid Bergman that they always had Paris in 1943's "Casablanca." In this 1950 film, he could have reminded Eleanor Parker that they always had London.Bogie is an ace-pilot here.
Parker was the gal he romanced in England while both were in uniform during World War 11 but did not wed.Back in the states, Brennan (Bogart) goes to work for Raymond Massey, an airplane tycoon hellbent on getting his plane off the ground.
Brennan gets the job from a friend, the latter later killed off when the plane he was experimenting with crashes.
The plot becomes should Bogie test the fallen pal's plane.Massey is rather subdued here in his quest for publicity when Brennan tests his plane.
. to make way for the new: this is one of the messages of CHAIN LIGHTNING.
I've had some connections with military people in my life, and from that I can tell you that this under-appreciated Humphrey Bogart vehicle perfectly captures their spirit (no matter how ridiculous the plotting becomes from time to time).
No, dummy, Hollywood will NEVER share the blueprints for our latest secret weapons with everyone bearing the price of a theater ticket, no matter how much you scream and pull out your hair and stomp your feet and turn blue in the face over so-called "goofs!" The one thing that best exemplifies U.S. military thinking is how neither of the main two pilots gives a second thought to ditching a multi-million dollar jet (they're multi-billion each today, with inflation) to prove a point.
I was 13 at the time, and knew nothing about piloting an aircraft.
The next time I saw it, I was 49 years old and owned an aircraft.
The story is simple: a pilot makes an epic flight in an experimental jet and sets a record.Spoilers ahead: One movie critic said that the flying footage was "uninspired." How charitable!
Understand: I like Bogart films. |
tt0122515 | The Acid House | The 1998 film, directed by Paul McGuigan, dramatises three stories from the book:
"The Granton Star Cause" is a comedy, where Boab is having a very bad day indeed. His parents throw him out so they can indulge in sado-masochism and he is sacked from his job, dumped by his girlfriend and dropped from his football team. It has elements of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. One of the characters is a pitiless and profane God, who transforms him into a fly as punishment for wasting his life.
"A Soft Touch": Kevin McKidd plays a cuckolded husband while Gary McCormack is Larry, the ruthless upstairs neighbour who steals his electricity and his wife, played by Michelle Gomez.
"The Acid House": An acid trip and a bolt of lightning result in amiable schemie Coco Brice exchanging bodies with the baby of a middle class couple.
All three sections are independent, but are linked by setting and by the reappearance of incidental characters, in particular Maurice Roëves who appears variously as an inebriated wedding guest, a figure in a dream, and a pub patron. All three of his parts symbolise a human manifestation of God.
The film offended elements of the UK tabloid press with a depiction of a cynical and jaded, foul-mouthed God. In some English-speaking countries (such as Canada and the United States) it has been screened with subtitles because of the heavy Edinburgh accents. | comedy, murder, cult, flashback, psychedelic, romantic, revenge | train | wikipedia | "The Acid House" is a series of three short stories penned by "Trainspotting" novelist Irvine Welsh, and true to his style, it is inspired by a terribly bad acid trip.
Being a huge fan of Irvine Welsh, I had high hopes for this film, but I was also aware that it would most likely not be as good as Trainspotting.
It wasn't, but a good movie all the same.The first story is about a 23 year old soccer player who is booted out by his mates, gets kicked out of his parents house, looses his girlfriend, and looses his job all in the space of a few hours.
Has all the usual Irvine Welsh ingredients - scabby parts of Edinburgh like Pilton, lots of colourful language, plenty of violence, sex/nudity and masses of humour.
I watch a lot of extreme cinema and am always wary of fakery and sensationalism, but I felt that The Acid House had the intelligence and heart needed to back up its shocking stories.
"Trainspotting" is, I think, a better film overall, but this one sure gains points for audacity, intensity, and wit..
What I am having a go at are independant British film makers - None of whom were brought up on sink estates - who think people are going to pay good or bad money to go the cinema to watch sensationalist rubbish like THE ACID HOUSE.
Who in their right mind wants to watch 3 short plotless films about nothing in particuler , full of explicit sex and extreme swearing when they can sit at home and experience similiar things.
There are some very funny scenes including an ingenious answer to a lack of electric power and a stupid argument about the colour cerise.Story 3 is more of a character study of a young man called Coco suffering from a drug over-dose.
Irvine Welsh's follow up to Trainspotting hits the screen as three short stories set in Edinburgh, all with a few of Welsh's trade marks, drug culture, depression, the working class and Hibernian football club.
All three stories are gritty and realistic, but not overly stylised, and this gives the film the feeling of the earlier trainspotting but thankfully with less of the 'cool factor'.
Although the stories are anything but realistic as far as storyline is concerned, the acting, locations and look make the characters feel totally believable.
If you are easily offended then be warned - you will see things that you will not expect, but the great part is that you never feel that anything was cut out - this film goes there and then goes further.Fantastic performances by the actors, a brilliantly well selected soundtrack and truly terrifying storytelling by the master Irvine Welsh, this is a great example of British Filmaking at its best.I am intrigued by the fact that the US version needs subtitles, and i am glad that so many people outside the UK have had the chance to experience some no-holds-barred modern British storytelling.
Set in the urban decay of lower-class areas of Scottish cities, this film has some really funny scenes in it, but also some that make you feel like scum for belonging to the human race.
And there is plenty Coco Bryce's bouncing around as well as the odd Larry looking for trouble.I don't see why people slate this film for not being the 'trainspotting2' the wanted?!
WHERE DOES IT SAY THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE TRAINSPOTTInG2?To be honest I prefer the acid house to train spotting anyway because i feel it is a better likeness to the sort of people named 'lower class' who make up a large part of our population in Edinburgh.
which both films try to explain and i think acid house does a better job!Everyone here who commented from outside Scotland say they are offended by it, its not just a sick twisted movie.
This is an actual account of many peoples experiences and lifes.......think about that next time u slate it.Because I know you wouldn't say that to them personally.Well done a great movie!!!.
Praise the Lord because the product was a much darker, grittier second film called The Acid House, three short stories whose common ground is the Scottish working classes.
In spite of this, director Paul McGuigan, superbly brings Welsh's other two stories to life and it's surely praise indeed when one can exclude a full third of a movie and still class it as one of their all time favourites.
But as if all that wasn't enough laughter for one day the film offers up a riotously funny finale whereby Boab catches his parents in the middle of a kinky sex role-play in the living room accompanied by Barry Adamson's suitably seedy The Vibes Aint Nothing But The Vibes.
Acid House written by Irvine Welsh(the best modern writer)is a brilliant "short stories" novel.The movie however is pretty disappointing.I expected it to be somewhat like Trainspotting,the classic Welsh adaptation and one of the best movies ever made.The stories are not as good as they were written down.The acting makes it up a little and the Scottish dialogues are great.
Although there are some, but not many, funny moments in this movie I couldn't understand more than about 15%(the fancy English couple in the 3rd story included) of what people were saying.
Irvine Welsh's stories are one thing, but no-one can doubt that the phenomenal success of Trainspotting was largely down Boyle's sublime direction and the energetic young cast.
Like Trainspotting a mere year before it, The Acid House adopts the approach of telling a groggy and visually disgusting tale about Scottish people living lives full of drugs, sex and the like in locations that visually repulse you.
The Acid House sees its characters pretty much inhabit locations akin to this one 80% of the time and the characters get up to all sorts of equally repulsive activities like unknowingly eating food covered with essence of dog faeces and being buggered by a woman complete with strap on.
The Acid House grants us outdoor scenes but has the characters spinning round uncontrollably and presents a lot of its shots in close up format complete with odd angles and fast edits - you could be forgiven for feeling sick.The Acid House was penned by Trainspotting writer Irvin Welsh and follows a similarly dank and downbeat style of storytelling and setting.
This time the film is split up into three shorts rather than one continuous narrative alá Trainspotting which some others might tell you felt like two stories given the path involving the drug deal the film decides to go down right nearer the end.
A lot of the ambiguity is missing in The Acid House; whereas when Renton went down the toilet and came home soaking wet, there's no obvious link that he literally went down the toilet in order to get wet whereas when the character of Coco (Bremner) is struck by lightening, he has transformed into someone else's body and that's a clear cut reason for the story to even happen.
It's not so much a criticism as it is a perspective; the ambiguity worked well in Trainspotting and added to the overall tone of the humour whereas The Acid House crosses the line and tells us that this sort of thing is possible in the film's universe.
I have to say that I preffered it when it was ambiguous.The Acid House's first story provides good ammunition for Claire Monk's theory about the British male in crisis in the 1990s.
But a meeting with God (Roëves) in a pub, again giving the film a clear cut surrealistic feel rather than ambiguously so, sees him changed into a fly to wreck revenge.
On the flipside, the film takes a good actor like Bremner and has him lie in a bed screaming for most of the time.
I've seen a lot worse but The Acid House isn't a great film; it's grimy and unpleasant but isn't as brilliant as it might think it is..
"The Acid House" is a reminder of that short period of time when drunk, violent, sexually perverted and/or drug-addicted Scotsmen were the hippest thing in cinema.
"Trainspotting" had established that kind of hipness and "The Acid House" tried to cash in on that success by bringing some lesser short stories by Irvine Welsh to the big screen.
The Acid House is actually a very colorful, sporadically atmospheric, and so totally over-the-top movie experience that it makes Trainspotting look pedestrian.Adapted by Irvine Welsh himself from his own outrageous short story collection the film features three 35-minute stories of depravity, revenge, existentialism, and nihilism.
Larry is one of the funniest, most realistic, characters I've ever seen in any movie and Gary McCormack plays him to absolute perfection.
His impromptu musical number as he sings 'Hot Love' by T-Rex and Marc Bolan is just plain brilliant.The third and final story features Colin 'Coco' Bryce, a Hibs casual who takes an acid tab and has a very, very bad trip, hallucinating his tyrannical father before being actually struck by lightning.
Spend five minutes in a deprived area of this country (and believe me there is a lot of deprivation) and you'll encounter half of the cast of this film.One of my favorite movies, and I am virtually word-perfect.
There are many other stories in Welsh's collection that can be made into short movies.
Rent this film if you love Irvine Welsh.
I think you need to have read and loved (loved is probably too strong a word) some of Walsh's stuff before appreciating any of the content of this film, and i don't mean just watching trainspotting, thats not enough understanding of how this guy works and thinks.A series of short stories with little real point or moral (by modern standards), however they do touch upon some interesting subjects, for example the drunken and swearing depiction of God, challenges the concept of God's identity, but because he is drunk and foul mouthed it is wholly unacceptable to some people, however, if you were the lead character you'd relate to a God like that better than you would to some dude dressed in brilliant white surrounded by angels playing harps!!I enjoyed it for what it was, took it at face value and thought it was a blast.
It not life as most people know it so therefore we might find it hard to relate to, but it it a creative imagination at work.I think that in some way you have missed out on something very special in independent film making if you don't at least try and watch it!.
Come on people did you really expect another trainspotting,the fact that it's not does not make it a bad movie.I thought the three stories were superbly adapted from the book(credit to paul mcguigan).To make the acid house so soon after trainspotting,with expectations so high the director was always on to a loser.This is a film that is funny(in it's own disturbing,sick and wierd way)but also sad and at times totally realistic.As it's character based it does lack plot but the performances by the actors more than make up for that.So for those who have not seen this film,no it is not trainspotting.But keep an open mind and enjoy.
Aside from this, the third vignette is interesting because it effectively creates a metaphor for the use of acid as "rebirth" Also, I was told by a British friend that a lot of the lower class in England/Scotland live a similar depraved life style, but it is not as ridiculous as what is shown.
I'm gonna have to give this film a bad review to balance out the good ones...First of all, I could only understand about 30% of the dialogue.
I needed to watch the subtitled version I guess -- never knew before that I cannot understand Scottish people speaking the english language.
With The Acid House, you get something completely different, which will have you questioning where did the movie go.
Moviong on: Story 2, I guess the real acid house which involves a squabbling young couple.
At the end of this movie, you'll be in wonderment, or stupefaction, a film slightly better enjoyed on the second view, but The Acid House sours, no Trainspotting.
i see it more as a story that Irvine Welsh shares with us that makes us reflect on how life can be that dodgy and unpredictable.
as for the movie, Trainspotting, again, its nowhere as brilliant as the book, though if youre not brit/scot/irish, you might have a hard time understanding the slang or the language.
If you thought "Trainspotting" was good, brace yourself; this is one of the best films I've ever seen.
Irvine Welsh rocks, and you should read the entire book (there are other stories, some of which are as good, if not better than the three that were adapted for the screen).
However, the book is written in Scottish dialect, which means you'll only understand it if you have a Scottish relative.The last story in the film is the most shocking, and also the best.
I really didn't understand anything from the third one, the first was a Metamorphosis like plot that focuses on the opportunities we are given and choose not to use them, while the second was about this guy who takes incredible abuse from his wife, loves and cares for his baby and in the end forgives the wife and they get back together (for more abuse?!).I would say that this is a movie that tried to capitalize on the enormous success of Trainspotting, but even if these are based on Irwing stories, that doesn't mean they are exceptionally good.
The movie comes with subtitles because sometimes the Irish accent makes the characters nearly unintellagable thru parts, which is a nice touch, but it would've also been nice to be able to shut them off after the first viewing.'The Acid House' is a movie based on the Irvine Welsh book of the same title, using 'The Granton Star Cause', 'A Soft Touch', and 'The Acid House' as the basis for the movie.
The third is about Coco Bryce and his experiences on acid and the lightening storm that follows...The movie itself is great.
(I.e. The ending of 'Acid House', the details in 'Granton Star', all of the other crap that the neighbour partook in 'A Soft Touch') I could see in my mind's eye what happend while the movie was running as it happend in the book, but there were parts that my boyfriend was lost in because he hadn't read the book.In conclusion, I gave this film an 8, which isn't as high up as Trainspotting (a perfect 10 is how I would describe it), but by far isn't a waste of time.
While Trainspotting had a definite plot and characters, this one is simply random stories that have come together in the end.
That is why I have added this collection of stories to my list of books that I would like to own, but not the film.
This cheap way of creating this character thoroughly distracted me from the story, but McGuigan was able to redeem himself with the final scene of this film when CoCo comes back to his body.
There were just scenes that stood out that seemed like they were his classic moments.I enjoyed the way these stories all came together.
I loved the subtitles (that were random throughout my version of the film) that allowed me to fully understand what these characters were saying.
I found this enterataining the humour was quite dark, the acting really good, I think a couple of guys from trainspotting are in it, Tommy and Spud, maybe the third story was just a little bit too long.
a great, somewhat psychedelic trio of films based on the stories of Irvine Welsh.
The best of the three, I think, is not even the title story, The Acid House, instead it is "The Granton Star Cause." It has a Kafka-like twist in which the pathetic protagonist turns into a fly.
Irvine Welsh lives in Dunfermline, Scotland which is a stones throw from Edinburgh and as I too have lived there "and seen the man himself" I can only say that he depicts a very scary real life image of some of the more unfortunate parts of Edinburgh.Lots of the cast from Small Faces, Trainspotting and "Looking After Jo Jo"If you liked Trainspotting then you will love this..
Anyway what the film is really about is while out drinking the guy in question meets God, who gets annoyed with the guys moaning and turns him into a fly, the film then shows how this guy comes to terms with being a fly and also how he even manages to get his own back on some of the people that done wrong by him when he was human.The second story "The Soft Touch" is a lot more serious.
It's about a guy who is used by everyone (that's why he is the soft touch).He is played by Kevin McKidd (Tommy in Trainspotting).But its the 3rd part of the movie I'm looking forward to "Acid House" it was really funny to read and hopefully it will be as funny to watch as well it's about a character called Coco (Spud in Trainspotting) who while taking drugs one night swaps places with a new born baby.
This leads to some great situations as Coco a heavy drinking nutter becomes trapped in the body of a tiny baby...I'm really looking forward to this I think it should be as good as if not better than the excellent Trainspotting..
Shown as an standalone film recently, The Granton Star Cause is the story of Boab.
The story of Boab appears to be building up to the meeting with God and, although foulmouthed, I thought at first that this would be the guts of the film and would produce some interesting ideas and dialogue. |
tt0046398 | Take the High Ground! | In May 1953, a new group of Army recruits at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas encounter their drill sergeants, Sgt. Laverne Holt (Karl Malden) and the tough-as-nails Sgt. Thorne Ryan (Richard Widmark). After Ryan's caustic appraisal of the recruits, Holt vows to make soldiers out of them during their sixteen weeks of basic training. Ryan, a combat veteran who resents his stateside duty, repeatedly applies for a transfer back to the Korean front.
One night, the men cross the border to Mexico for recreation. In a bar, Ryan and Holt see a beautiful woman, Julie Mollison (Elaine Stewart), buying drinks for a group of soldiers. Later that evening, the two sergeants escort the inebriated Julie to her apartment, and Ryan finds himself drawn to her.
Training begins. Ryan exposes his men to tear gas to prepare them for the harsh conditions of battle. Ryan and Holt return to the bar one night, and find Julie sitting alone. When the crude Sgt. Vince Opperman (Bert Freed) insults Julie, she runs out of the bar in tears, and Holt comforts her. Ryan and Opperman fight, and Opperman reveals that Julie was married to a soldier who was killed in Korea shortly after she left him.
One day, recruit Lobo Naglaski (Steve Forrest) visits the camp chaplain to confess his murderous feelings toward Ryan, but comes to see that the sergeant has very little time in which to do a tough job. Tensions arise between Ryan and Holt, both over Ryan's callous treatment of the men and Holt's relationship with Julie. Ryan puts his men through increasingly tough drills, and during a bitter confrontation one day, Holt slugs Ryan and walks away.
Later, Ryan calls on Julie at her apartment, and they fall into a passionate embrace. When she resists his further advances, however, Ryan becomes insulting, casting aspersions on Julie's virtue and chiding her for having left her late husband.
One day, during a field exercise, recruit Donald Quentin Dover IV (Robert Arthur) runs away. Ryan tracks him down and gives the young man a second chance, confessing that his own father had been a deserter.
As the training period draws to a close, Ryan returns to Julie's apartment and discovers she has moved out. He finds Julie and Holt at the train station. After Holt leaves, Ryan apologizes for his behavior and asks Julie to marry him, but she sadly replies that he is married to the Army. Outside the train station, Ryan and Holt silently make their peace. The men finish basic training, and as the new soldiers march by during their graduation exercises, Ryan proudly points them out to a fresh group of recruits. | violence | train | wikipedia | An interesting Korean-War era film, starring Richard Widmark and Karl Malden, Take the High Ground depicts sixteen weeks of basic training at Fort Bliss.
The film revolves around the differing personalities of two drill sergeants (Widmark and Malden) as they shape hopeless recruits into combat-ready soldiers.
Widmark's character, Sgt. First Class Thorne Ryan is a battle-hardened veteran, who believes that toughness is the best way to prepare recruits for combat.
Staff Sgt. Laverne Holt (Malden), however, relies on compassion to help his men adjust to army life.
Like most basic training films, this movie offers a few predictable laughs and trivial subplots, but fails to develop a deep plot.
Okay, this is not a great movie when considering it in the war movie genre or side by side with some of the classics that both Richard Widmark and Karl Malden made, but I will always think this as one of my favorites because my father is one of the extras in the movie.
Take the High Ground was filmed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX in 1953 when my dad was in advanced training before being sent to Korea.
There are the five or so "recruits" played by actors, then the rest are real U.S. Army soldiers.
Whenever I watch this with my friends, I'm proud to point out my old man as one of the soldiers marching by, under the watchful eyes of Richard Widmark and Karl Malden.
After the filming was over, Widmark and Malden took several of the soldiers (including my dad) out on the town to thank them for helping with the film.
Both Widmark and Malden were classy men, and right away became my dad's favorite actors/stars.
He just wishes that Elaine Stewart filmed her scenes in El Paso, instead of staying in Hollywood where they were shot at the studio..
The plot is a formulaic coming of age in basic training story, turning boys into men.
The personal interactions and love affairs of Widmark and Malden, the veterans of Korea who are now leading a trainng platoon at Fort Bliss, Texas, next to El Paso are also formulaic.The real value of this picture is as a time capsule.
Nor is it an anachronistic mish mash such or a low budget BW cheapie such as many of that period were.Everything shown here is as it was at the time of filming and the background extras and other military individuals were actually going through infantry training with the real possibility of going to combat in Korea when it was being made.
An opening scene set in the Korean war combat zone leads us ,briefly , to expect a war movie but the picture is actually about the training of a new batch of army recruits at Fort Bliss ,Texas .The drill instructor is teak tough Sergeant Ryan ( Richard Widmark )who bullies , browbeats and cajoles the assorted recruits into effective soldiers.His methods ar harsh but effective and bring him into conflict with the somewhat more avuncular sergeant played by Karl MaldenThe recruits are a mixed bag --the black ,poetry reading intellectual ,the farm boy ,a brash young kid ,a Native American etc .The army as melting pot , in other words ,coming together as a smoothly functioning machine.It is pretty obviously an "approved " movie shot at an actual training camp and this is not the revisionist view of the military that was so prominent in the following decade but a picture that could well be designed as a recruitment vehicle.
Elaine Stewart as the girl who comes between the two sergeants is the only major female star in an otherwise testosterone heavy picture heavy on male bonding and the military virtues .Widmark is as ever excellent ,and he is backed up by the always reliable Malden.A strong genre piece and a reminder that military excellence is not achieved by accident..
In reviewing this film I can only go by my experiences as a weekend warrior doing my basic training in July, August, and September of 1971 in that garden spot of the earth, Fort Polk, Louisiana.
Take the High Ground was not anything like I remember basic training.But one has to remember at the time this was post Korea which ended in a stalemate, but it was a conventional war as we knew them.
The draft at that time was an unwelcome, but accepted as still necessary for the country's defense.Richard Widmark is a veteran of Korea now assigned state side to train the troops to go overseas.
One thing I will praise Take The High Ground for is the fact that MGM recognized our army was now an integrated one with the presence of William Hazard as a black recruit in the platoon.
It was in keeping with the spirit of the times which were a changing.But I will say that a recruit like Russ Tamblyn would have been cured of his smart mouth from day one.
He's have just let the MPs deal with him.Of course being shot in and around Fort Bliss and El Paso, Texas did give Take the High Ground good authenticity.
But view it as an army recruiting film and you can certainly understand why the government so eagerly gave cooperation back in the day.I do remember the drill sergeants having their little conflicts which you could pick up on when you weren't worried about them getting on your case for something which was 95% of the time.
But there ain't no way that Karl Malden would have slugged Widmark out in the open during training in front of several witnesses among the recruits.
Both would have realized that would have undermined authority, something the military just doesn't let happen.I wish I could have said something better about Take The High Ground because I certainly like its talented cast, it's talented director Richard Brooks, even the silly theme by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington, fresh from their Oscar a year before for High Noon.
I say this as an Army veteran.Richard Widmark was on loan to the studio that made this film, but I think he should have remained with his contract studio, for I don't believe "Take the High Ground" was a milestone of his career..
The 1957 Jack Webb classic, "The D.I." bears a close relationship to "Take the High Ground," from its general theme to the presence of an inept recruit, to the main character's romance with a young woman who lives close to the base.In the Jack Webb (Marine) version, Gunnery Sergeant Jim Moore (Webb) takes on a platoon with the usual selection of raw recruits, but one who is particularly troublesome.
In the Richard Widmark (Army) version, the same thing happens, with a troublesome and troubled recruit.
In both versions, the recruit makes an attempt to go over the wall, and in both versions, the tough but compassionate training sergeant stops the escape and molds the recruit into shape.In both versions, the love interest is a woman who has been emotionally scarred by a former romance with a serviceman who had been killed in combat.In both versions, there is a fellow training sergeant that frustrates and annoys the main character into a showdown fistfight.At the end of both movies, the cast is reprised, with their names.
The only difference is that in the MGM version (Take the High Ground), the entire platoon are actors.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~' For those unfamiliar with military lingo, "boot camp" is generally used to refer to Navy recruit training (or Marine training), whereas the Army uses the term "Basic Training." In a similar vein, the Navy refers to combat simulation encampments as "maneuvers," whereas the Army uses the term "bivouac."Both movies are excellent films..
A barracks worth of raw recruits from varying backgrounds arrive at Fort Bliss to go through basic training in the infantry.
Widmark is the sterner of the two drill sergeants, Malden the more human, but both are friends, until .
(The sort of thing, among other things, that positively ruined "Battle Cry.") Of course there has to be a romance, but it is left to Widmark and Malden, the two combat veterans who come to blows over Elaine Stewart, the pride of Montclair, New Jersey, as Julie.
She's clearly more attracted to Widmark who is, after all, the male lead, but he professes to despise her because she hangs around in seedy juke joints, drinks, and makes out with soldiers like him.
His morality is lofty, of the "Nothing you experience in basic training will be as tough as combat," which may be true but which also provides a drill instructor with a license for outright sadism.
The boys shape up and do some close order drill at the train platform before shipping out, leaving a new incoming group of recruits staring in awe.
An utterly routine military film, minus anything that might distinguish it from the many other recruiting posters of the time, e.g. The DI (1957), Battle Cry (1955), et al.
Except for the first few minutes of combat in Korea, the remainder is taken up with Basic Training at Fort Bliss, TX.
Widmark gets the stereotypical role of an emotionally crippled drill sergeant, while Malden is wasted as his straight-arrow assistant.
The movie's one notable feature turns up in the multi-racial ranks of the trainees, a relatively new updating for Hollywood.As a guy who went through Basic (at Ft. Bliss in the 60's), I have to agree with reviewer bkoganbing.
Many of the incidents portrayed in the film would never have occurred in real training, especially Malden slugging Widmark in front of the trainees.
I had to laugh every time Widmark benignly called the recruits "young people".What surprises me is the movie's director, Richard Brooks.
(Contrast Basic Training here with it's more starkly realistic counterpart in Full Metal Jacket {1987}.) All in all, Take The High Ground is little more than a bland period curiosity..
Basic training during Korean war with a stellar performance by Richard Widmark..
This is an overlooked military film about basic training during the Korean War. Although it's far less probing and gut-wrenching than "Full Metal Jacket," it's still an enjoyable movie with a stellar performance by Richard Widmark.
There are also fine performances by Karl Malden, Carleton Carpenter, Robert Arthur, a very athletic Russ Tamblyn, and Elaine Stewart delivers a poignant and tender portrayal as the troubled Julie (God, she is beautiful here!)Most of the scenes were shot at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Yes, it's formula in many ways, but what makes it work is Widmark, surely one of the most underrated actors ever in the movies.
This is without doubt the most Boring Film Ever made about Drill Sergeants and the "Young People" They turn into Soldiers.Richard Widmark, Karl Malden, and Director Richard Brooks Can Not Save this Conservative Piece of Propaganda and elevate it beyond the Mundane.
The Soldiers mostly Overact, especially Russ Tamblyn, and the Film is made in such a Pedestrian way that as Entertainment it Fails Miserably.Unlike the WWII Films of the Forties, This one, Ironically like the Korean Conflict, comes Off as Half Hearted, listless, and Uncommitted.
It is Truly one of the most Unimpressive Movies ever made about the Military, Soldiers, or War. A Failure from Frame One.Note
The Movie does reflect the newly implemented integration of the Army and gives a Black Actor a prominent Role..
At Fort Bliss, Texas in 1953, tough-as-nails drill sergeant Richard Widmark (as Thorne Ryan) prepares the usual motley crew of potential soldiers for service, humphing, "You will never make it!" Assistant sergeant Karl Malden (as Laverne Holt) gives Mr. Widmark a knowing look.
(10/30/53) Richard Brooks ~ Richard Widmark, Karl Malden, Elaine Stewart, Russ Tamblyn.
(1953) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Two years after becoming a hero in Korea, Sgt. Ryan (Richard Widmark) is back in the United States at Ft. Bliss where he must train a new group of men for battle.
His partner, Sgt. Holt (Karl Malden) doesn't agree with his over aggressive manor but soon the two men have another battle, a woman (Elaine Stewart) in town.
The tough-as-nails drill Sergent is a character we've seen from the early silent days to even in more recent films like AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN.
This one here remains entertaining from start to finish even though it offers nothing new or original outside the Korean issue (and each of these films changed that depending on what war the country was in).
We get the typical love-hate relationship between Widmark and Malden, we get the typical "bad girl" they fall for and even the new recruits are the same type we've seen as far back as Lon Chaney's TELL IT TO THE MARINES.
To be fair, you can look at this film and certain points seemed to have inspired AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN as well as Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET but those two films took the basic training concept and did a bit more in terms of story and drama.
Malden plays the supporting part like no one else in the history of film could.
It features a group of raw recruits going through basic training with a tough as nails Sergeant--the same sort of thing you'd see in "Battle Cry", "Sands of Iwo Jima" and even "Full Metal Jacket" and a bazillion other war flicks made by Hollywood.
There are only a few other differences--this was a Korean War-era film (and they didn't make all that many compared to the more 'popular' wars like WWII) and the Sergeant really is a nut-job!
While other Sergeants SEEM like crazy men, Richard Widmark's version really is emotionally disturbed--like the sort of guy you might see on "The Jerry Springer Show" as they slap or get slapped by their woman!
What to like--Karl Malden was very good, as always..
All things considered there's nothing "wrong" with this film, but there isn't much right with it anyway.There are far more engaging films about basic training.
Richard Widmark and Karl Malden portray two US Army drill instructors whose task is to prepare a new group of recruits and draftees to face combat in the Korean War.The real basic training seems to take place off base in the bars.
The men hang out in the bars around Fort Bliss, kind of like the bar scenes in From Here to Eternity, only but these bars are shot in cheap color.
Elaine Stewart as an attractive young widow who hangs out at the bar, is sort of the Donna Reed or Deborah Kerr of this movie.
This was a pretty stand out role for Richard Widmark in a movie that has slipped into obscurity.The use of Ansocolor makes the night time scenes in the bars look even more lurid than they already were..
Straightforward story of one Sergeant's mission to prepare recruits for war..
(No spoilers in this first paragraph.) The movie opens with a scene depicting a 1951 battle in Korea, Sgt. Thorne (Richard Widmark) is leading his men to take a high ridge held by enemy machine guns, when one of his men was shot and killed while stopping for a drink of water.
Cut to 1953, training new Army recruits at Ft. Bliss near El Paso, Texas.
Thorne's attitude is no matter how hard basic training is, war is even harder.
A love interest is thrown in, Julie played by Elain Stewart, but the training of recruits is the thrust of this movie.
Karl Malden also stars as the other Sergeant, Holt, subordinate to Thorne.
Russ Tamblyn was featured as one of the recruits.Some spoilers follow in my miscellaneous observations.Much shown during basic training.
Turns out she had left her Army husband who then was killed.Widmark's hard-ass style pits him against Malden, they scuffle."Darling, you can't try to have fun, you either have it or you don't" (Widmark to Julie)End of training, parade grounds, platoon has been transformed, precision unit, march in front of new recruits in disarray, "You poor miserable people will never make it!", as trained platoon boards the train.
Two Combat Veterans Lead New Recruits Through Basic Training.
The staple of war movies is the Basic Training Movie, where raw recruits are transformed from peace loving civilians into competent and capable fighting men.
Thorne Ryan (Richard Widmark) and subordinate LaVerne Holt (Karl Malden) have returned from combat duty in Korea to Fort Bliss, Texas where they are assigned Drill Sargent duty.
Ryan loathes his seemingly thankless task of running the recruits through uniform issue, close order drill, and rifle cleaning, preferring instead to fight communists in Korea.
The two then proceed to train the cross section of city boys, country boys, educated boys, goof-balls, idiots and klutzes into fighting machines.Two subplots emerge; first the meeting of Julie Mollison (Elaine Stewart), the ex-wife of a combat casualty, who it is suggested to somehow have brought about the soldier's death by her desertion of their marriage after he deployed.
Julie seems to only to like the soldier with the highest rank.The other weaker subplot involves the rivalry between Sargents, pitting Ryan against a Master Sargent who outranks him but does not have the hallowed Infantry Badge (a symbol of combat experience).
The young recruits suffer exhaustion, panic, and rage at their Drill Instructors as they master the craft of soldiering.
The location of the border town of El Paso provides an interesting twist in the off duty experiences of the recruits where they somehow find the only Anglo woman in the bars of Juarez while the Mexican women populate the background shots with barely any attention at all.One of the stars of the movie is the desert background of El Paso, Texas where location filming took place.
The end of the movie is somewhat predictable and comes off as a recruiting tool for the U.S. Army, but as war buddy movies go this one has sufficient tension to keep most viewers entertained. |
tt0043879 | On Dangerous Ground | Bitter, cynical police detective, Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan), is known for beating information out of suspects and witnesses. His violent tendencies are noticed by both his partners and the police chief. After Wilson ignores the Chief's warnings, he is relegated to a case up-state so that he might cool off. He joins a manhunt for a killer—teaming with the father of the victim, Walter Brent (Ward Bond). Wilson and Brent are separated from the others in the manhunt and track the killer to a remote house.
Initially, they do not locate the killer, but, rather, find Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), a blind woman by herself in the house. They learn that she lives with her brother, Danny (Sumner Williams). Wilson is drawn to Malden and her selflessness and, when he learns that the killer is her brother and that he is mentally ill, he offers to protect him from Brent.
Wilson and then Brent locate Danny in a secluded shack. A fight between Wilson and Brent ensues and Danny flees. They chase him up a rugged mountainside where Danny loses his footing and falls to his death. Brent is shocked by Danny's youth. He carries him back to town. Wilson and Mary walk, alone, to her house where they have an intimate conversation. Wilson drives to the city, but he's a changed man. In the end, he returns to Mary. | revenge, murder, melodrama | train | wikipedia | On Dangerous Ground is directed by Nicholas Ray and stars Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan & Ward Bond.
As the two men track down the killer, Wilson sees much of himself in Brent's anger, but once the guys arrive at Mary Malden's isolated cabin, things shift just a little more.Said to be a favourite of Martin Scorsese, and an influence for Taxi Driver, On Dangerous Ground has often been called Nicholas Ray's best film by some of his fans (I'd say In A Lonely Place personally).
They chase the man through the snow, and after a car accident, they reach the isolated house of Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), a blind woman that lives alone in the middle of nowhere with her brother Danny (Sumner Williams) that has mental problem.
The hard-edged squalor of inner-city crime gives way to a liberating expanse of trees and snow, revealing an incidence of crime, certainly, but also, and more importantly, a fresh and cathartic sense of nobility that is not to be found in the urban back-streets.Robert Ryan is terrific as Jim Wilson, a city cop who's been on the Force for eleven years, after which he has become bitter, lonely and completely disillusioned.
Almost immediately, the pair strike out in pursuit of the accused perpetrator, and their frantic chase ends at the home of a lonely blind woman, Mary Malden (Ida Lupino, who also directed a few scenes after Ray fell ill).
This moment illustrated so poignantly, I think, how far from humanity Jim has allowed himself to drift: his reaction to Mary's condition was not borne from any compassion or kindness, but rather from his lack of it; he long ago abandoned the ability to feel pity for another person.Though 82 minutes to perhaps too brief a running time to present such a drastic character turn-around, the mid-film tonal shift is otherwise handled very well.
Nevertheless, I liked that 'On Dangerous Ground' acts as a counterpoint to the inescapable doom in most film-noirs; that a soul as disillusioned as Jim Wilson can ultimately uncover salvation is a reassuring thought in today's crazy world..
Ward Bond, as the vengeful father of the murder victim, is like a caricature of Ryan, and also skeptical of him as a "city cop", as he puts it.There's much to recommend in this film.
Ignored at the time of it's release and still criminally underrated, On Dangerous Ground is a masterpiece from director Nicholas Ray, and maybe his best film {yes, better than Rebel Without A Cause}, a powerful yet poignant study of loneliness, urban alienation and finally redemption.
What I found was an interesting, fairly intense movie for all but the last 10 minutes (but I liked that part, too.) That second half was still a crime story a lot more than any romance as two guys tracked down a killer.To digress, the first part was in the big city and it portrayed Ryan as a too-gung- ho cop who's fast getting burned out on the job.
It has the same otherworldly quality that director Nicholas Ray frequently brought to his films, but ultimately I'm not sure whether it's successful or not.The first half of the film finds brutal cop Robert Ryan stomping around the mean streets of a dark, brooding city, his abusive approach to meting out punishment keeping him only one small step from becoming the kind of criminal he spends his time tracking down.
He cruises around dark streets, the camera placed in the back seat of his car, filming the passing street as he is seeing it, his eyes reflected in the rearview mirror (Martin Scorses borrowed this kind of shot for "Taxi Driver" perhaps?) What emerges is the portrait of an isolated and lonely man barely maintaining a grip on his sanity in the midst of an insane world.But the second half of the film dissipates the claustrophobic tension of the city environment by sending Ryan out into the country to investigate the murder of a young girl.
Yet, as Jim Wilson moves from the seamy, mean streets of the city into the pure, snow-covered landscape of the country, Ray stages it like a compassionate, caring moralist who is unwilling to let any fatalistic excuses usurp society's responsibility to its members.The visual, tonal changes are what's so startling about "On Dangerous Ground".
When he gets there, he teams up with the crazy, rifle-toting father(Ward Bond giving perhaps too zealous a performance) of the girl in a chase for the killer ending up on a small, out-of-the-way farmhouse where a blind woman(Ida Lupino) lives with her mentally challenged brother Danny.
The first half of the film is pure film noir material and features a hard boiled cop trying to clean the streets of filth; while the second half focuses more on characters and features the same detective trying to solve a murder case in a small town, and at the same time falling in love with a blind woman.
We are expected to believe that the hard-bitten, truly obsessed Wilson, suddenly within the spate of 24 hours, finds contentment, affirming what his old colleague warned him was true about engaging with others, in the arms of a blind woman.This dilemma is enhanced not eased by the wintry and isolated environment, which, contrary to Mr. Crawford's views, I found sinister and alienating, especially when seen through the character played by Ward Bond, a hard-bitten man filled with hate.The acting in this film, by the way, is superb.
(The two main ones that are in many top ten lists from this era are "They Live by Night" and "In a Lonely Place.") Robert Ryan is certainly the star, even if Ida Lupino gets first billing--she is only in the second half of the film.
Two pieces of brilliance go by way of co-writer/director Nicholas Ray, however- casting Robert Ryan as the stoic-faced Jim Wilson, and getting Bernard Herrmann for the musical compositions.
Ryan here has a great performance almost by not doing anything spectacular, by just having this very hard-boiled look to him in the early scenes in the urban, film-noir landscapes, and then as it very subtly peels away as he gets a touch of the 'heart' he's been lacking back home.
But overall there just seemed to be some spots in not just her portrayal of the material, but also in the performance of her character's brother (not right in the head, perhaps, but is his work interesting, not really).I would definitely recommend On Dangerous Ground for the crowd of film-noir lovers, and those getting into Nicholas Ray's work (as this will finally be on DVD soon enough).
The most vivid thing about this film is its score by Bernard Hermann, which sounds very much like his sweeping, exciting music in "North by Northwest." It's fitting, too, because in one of the scenes, Robert Ryan and Ward Bond are climbing a rocky, difficult hill, the music comes in - and brings to mind the Mount Rushmore scene.This is a strange, moody movie that, thanks to Nicholas Ray's research, captures the grittiness of police work.
And when it came to this character roaming around inside her cluttered home, she was just too sure-footed of herself without the aid of a cane.And, it really killed me when Mary actually ventured into the outdoors and traipsed across the open country (through shin-deep snow, no less) and she never once lost her balance or needed the help of a walking stick.As far as I'm concerned (when you take all of what I've said above into serious consideration), I think the introduction of Mary into the story completely ruined what started out as a very effective and potentially promising 1950's tough-guy movie.Up until Mary (and her unbelievable challenged vision and her ridiculously manicured looks) stepped into the picture, On Dangerous Ground was sailing along quite nicely.
After a superbly acted scene in which Ryan almost beats a suspect to death (off camera), the movie then explores the profound transformation that takes place when his boss banishes him from the city to to investigate a rural murder.The lovely Ida Lupino is Ryan's angel-of-mercy, a blind beauty who touches and transforms Ryan's tormented soul in the remote farmhouse where the second half of the movie takes place.
The superior cast and great acting by the principals makes the film better than it is.Three cops, Jim Wilsom (Robert Ryan), Pop Daly (Charles Kemper) and Pete Santos (Anthony Ross) work the night shift on the wet streets of a big unnamed city.
There he meets Walter Brent (Ward Bond), the father of the victim, who has become a one man vendetta against his daughter's killer.While chasing the killer across snow covered fields, Wilson and Brent come upon an isolated farm house wherein they meet the blind Mary Malden (Ida Lupino) and learn that the suspected killer is her brother Danny (Sumner Williams).
All Lupino is asking is for an opportunity to get her impaired brother to civilly retreat and be put intact in an institution where he can get the help he needs.The film starts as a prototypical hard-line film noir about the protagonist stuck in a gloom from which he can't flee, but when he gets out of the city and breathes in the apple-pie farmland air and Lupino's patient "view" of life, he is remarkably able now to candidly look within himself for the brutality that boils inside and is suddenly wise enough to know that he can't return to the city with his same antagonistic approach.Robert Ryan's brooding performance is persuasive, as he's able to conclusively sell that he has a genuine moral rebirth.
Helped along greatly by one of the best of Bernard Herrmann's scores, On Dangerous Ground is a terrific noir story, taking place in as diverse settings as the slick, shady city streets and the vast, snow-blanketed countryside landscape.
The woman, portrayed in another terrific performance by Ida Lupino, has a brother who is suspected in the killing of a young girl.Ryan is a hard-bitten officer who strongly believes in beating up criminals to obtain information.Ward Bond is excellent in a supporting role of a father hell-bent on exacting revenge for his daughter's revenge.
ROBERT RYAN has to carry at least forty-five minutes of the first half of ON DANGEROUS GROUND which seems to be establishing the story as a tough crime drama with some interesting looks at the tough as nails cop (Ryan) who is accused of not caring about people other than seeing all thugs as human punching bags.When he's forced to take a change of scene away from the big city, he's sent to a rural farm where the police are on the lookout for a man who has murdered a young woman.
It turns out that she's a blind woman protecting her mentally deficient brother whom she knows did commit the crime--but she makes a pact with Ryan that he won't use brute force on her brother when they do capture him.What happens next would give away too much of the plot, but suffice it to say that from the moment they enter Lupino's home the film veers more into psychological drama than noir, as the puzzle surrounding the murderer and his capturers becomes clear.
Jim Wilson is a tough, cynical cop, who doesn't trust anybody.This gets him in trouble a few times.Then he is sent up north to find the killer of a young girl.The girl's father, Walter Brent, wants to kill the guy.The case leads Jim to a blind woman, Mary Malden, the sister of the fugitive.On Dangerous Ground (1952) is directed by Nicholas Ray.Bernard Hermann is behind the great score.Robert Ryan is a perfect man to play Jim Wilson.Ida Lupino is marvelous as Mary Malden.Ward Bond is superb as Walter Brent.Charles Kemper is terrific as Pop Daly.Anthony Ross is great as Pete Santos.Ed Begley does excellent job as Capt.
There he encounters the rage filled mirror image (Ward Bond) of a grieving father while having to adopt different methodology in questioning a suspect's blind sister (Ida Lupino).On Dangerous Ground offers up the quintessional Ray protagonist in the alienated Wilson played with disturbing menace by Ryan.
Nicholas Ray directed this underrated film noir that stars Robert Ryan as tough cop Jim Wilson, who has grown cynical and brutal in his big city dealings with the criminal elements, and gets too rough with one suspect, so is sent upstate in the snowy winter to investigate the murder of a young woman.
The director boldly underscores this transition with a car crash and this memorable line from Mary, the blind girl, to Ryan: 'You can trust no one, I must trust everyone'.Now compare the plot elements of On Dangerous Ground with North By Northwest: both tell the story of a man who makes a trip from the city to the countryside, meets and falls in love with a woman who has a love relationship with his enemy and then defeats his enemy by tossing him off a cliff.
He is very much like Clint Eastwoods Dirty Harry, though here the film maker and writer of this excellent movie are not siding with his motives as in the later film seen some 20 years later.Robert Ryan who often played villains, is perfectly cast as Jim Wilson due to the nature of this character, whose behavior appears to be due to his disillusionment of life, the environment he lives and works in, and perhaps , a 1940's and 50's attitude, no family, to go home to be loved and to love, as I think is explicitly shown in this film.Some of the film reminds me of "Insomnia", and I think that Trufaut when making "Shoot The Piano Player" remembered the car driving on the road in the snow.
"On Dangerous Ground", Nicholas Ray's short, yet powerful drama of one cop's journey from destruction to redemption, took nearly two years to reach the screen upon completion, was panned by critics and ignored by audiences when released, and still generates discussion to this day (How much is actually Ray's vision, and how much did Howard Hughes change it, prior to release?) Fortunately, time has given perspective to the film, and it is recognized, today, as one of the greater film noir classics of the era, and a showcase of it's star, the unfairly underrated Robert Ryan.The film, based on Gerald Butler's "Mad with Much Heart", of a British policeman finding renewal during a manhunt in the English countryside, was rewritten, by director Ray and screenwriter A.I. Bezzerides, into a three-movement 'symphonic' piece: big city cop (Ryan), sliding toward self-destruction as the corruption and filth he deals with, daily, destroys his soul (1st movement); exiled into the mountains to observe and aid in a manhunt, he meets a blind girl (Ida Lupino) with the purity and innocence he once had, and a local (Ward Bond), whose brutal single-mindedness mirrored the man he had become (2nd movement); and his metamorphosis, falling in love, attempting to save the girl's brother instead of simply crushing him, and rediscovering in himself the 'good' man he had been, and could be, again (3rd movement).
The causes of his emotional state, the damaging effect it has on how he does his job and also the means by which his feelings of isolation and anguish are gradually eased, are all depicted with great skill and intensity and produce a very human story which illustrates the immense value of achieving a successful work/life balance.Whilst involved in a hunt for the killers of another police officer, detective Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) beats up a contact of the suspects and successfully elicits information which leads to the arrests of the culprits.
Nicholas Ray's excellent On Dangerous Ground is, in essence, a brilliant character study of a tortured, hard, combustible and lonely city cop, Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan), who finds something in life worth living for when he falls in love with a sweet, independent yet vulnerable blind woman Mary Malden (Ida Lupino).Aside from a very brief opening shot of who we later find out is Lupino and her brother, the film opens in the city, where morally sick cop Wilson is on the beat.
I was just a little bit disappointed with Nick Ray's "On Dangerous Ground", especially after witnessing the tense and visually exciting build-up where "cop" Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) stalks the night streets of New York, only a thin line separating him from the criminals he beats into submission.
And I never became as interested in Wilson's relationship with the blind home-maker Mary Malden (Ida Lupino) as the director Ray clearly wanted me to.I guess the most interesting thing about the film is the way the structure divides the story into two clean parts, urban and rural.
When he meets Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), he finds her to be isolated by her blindness, living alone with her mentally challenged brother in a remote small town some seventy miles north of the City.If this was going to be about simply catching the killer of an innocent young girl, it could have been handled in the first half of the film when we first see Ryan's character as the hard boiled and cynical street cop.
On Dangerous Ground is not so much a noir as it is a movie of redemption, I can't think of any other actor of Ryan's era who could have performed the role of Jim Wilson half as well.
(Some Spoilers) The movie "On Dangerous Grounds" starts off like your average film-noir crime drama with a tough no nonsense cop Jim Wilson, Robert Ryan, getting the job done by almost putting crime suspects into the hospital after he interrogates them.
Also known as DARK HIGHWAY, this thriller is directed by Nicholas Ray. A bitter and jaded detective, Jim Wilson(Robert Ryan), has roughed up enough suspects in the hard city streets and his boss sends him upstate to investigate the murder of a young girl in the snow-blanketed countryside. |
tt0099611 | Frankenhooker | Jeffrey, a young man who lives in New Jersey, is heartbroken after his fiancée Elizabeth is killed by a lawnmower during a cookout. He decides that the only way to confront her loss is to use his science skills to bring her back to life. As her body has been cut into pieces, Jeffrey must take new parts from other women and he ultimately chooses to harvest them from the bodies of New York City prostitutes he lures back to his house and kills via exploding crack. He uses the body parts to bring Elizabeth back to life; her mind, however, isn't fully restored. The newly revived creation escapes and begins looking for customers, who end up exploding after encountering her. Jeffrey also has problems in the form of the pimp Zorro, who comes looking for the women Jeffrey hired. He threatens Jeffrey and strikes Elizabeth, which causes her to regain her senses. During all of this the spare hooker parts are reanimated into a many limbed monster, which drags Zorro away - but not before he kills Jeffrey. Wanting her lover back, Elizabeth decides to revive Jeffrey via the same procedure he used on her. Since the process only works on female bodies, Elizabeth had to use the hookers' body parts. Jeffrey has a brief moment of clarity before he realizes he only has female body parts. He then beings to groan in shock as Elizabeth says they will be together forever. The film then cuts to black. | cult, comedy, grindhouse film, violence | train | wikipedia | Writer/director Frank Henenlotter had previously made the trash classics 'Basket Case' and 'Brain Damage', both of which are brilliant, and 'Frankenhooker' is just as good.
Frank Henenlotter's Frankenhooker (1990) is a funny horror comedy starring James Lorinz as Jeffrey Franken, a young man who is extremely interested in medical studies and becoming a doctor.
Soon a horrible but incredibly comical accident happens to his girlfriend Elizabeth so Jeffrey takes all the body parts he can in order to re-build his girl.
He gets the parts, but will the new Elizabeth, Frankenhooker, be the same as she used to be?This film is a must for lovers of B cinema and films which mix horror, gore and comedy.
Henenlotter's other films like Brain Damage (1988) and Basket Case (1982) are so fantastic as they mix humor and horror so uniquely.
I like Basket Case and Brain Damage even more, but still Frankenhooker is a little classic by this talented and mad film maker genius.
"Basket Case" and "Brain Damage" are classics that prove creativity and dynamic motivation are actually all that is needed in order to make a fresh-looking horror film.
This movie features several moments of delicious comic brilliance; such as the out of control lawnmower sequence that sees the central character's girlfriend get tragically murdered, to the rather tactless news report detailing said tragedy, to the exploding whores and all the way down to the weather report which details a storm that is coming, "for all you mad scientists out there"; there's plenty to make you laugh in Frankenhooker.The film takes obvious influence from the classic Frankenstein story, and it should appeal to anyone that is a fan of cheesy 80's gorefests.
Anyway, this accident leads our hero to the brink of madness (to which his mother responds to by asking him if he would like a sandwich), and he decides to make his girlfriend a new body from the parts of various prostitutes that he picks up.
A film like this needs an offbeat star; and it has one in Lorinz.Overall, this terrifying tale of sluts and bolts is sheer comic brilliance, and if you're a fan of weird and wonderful cult films, and even if you're not; you won't want to miss Frankenhooker..
Frank Henenlotter's "Frankenhooker" is an excellent horror/comedy filled with gore and tongue-in-cheek humour.James Lorinz plays Jeffrey Franken,a young guy who is obsessed with medical experimentation.After his fiancee Elizabeth Shelley(Patty Mullen)is killed in an accident by a lawnmower,he makes plans to build a new body for her.In order to get the parts for the body he cruises New York's Times Square luring hookers with his explosive super-crack."Frankenhooker" is truly amusing-there are lawnmower mutilations,drills in the head and exploding hookers.So if you liked this one check out two other gems made by Henenlotter-"Basket Case" and "Brain Damage".My highest recommendation..
It´s a brilliant parody on Stuart Gordon´s "Re-Animator", Bill Murray is a huge fan of it and the fans of flicks like "The Toxic Avenger" will surely love this film: the humor is silly but entertaining, the F/X are pretty cheap and there are a lot of naked chicks running over the screen.
Frankenhooker, a lovable piece of Z grade comedy horror fluff that Australian distributors CBS/FOX video would love to forget.The story of Frankenhooker revolves around Jeffrey Franken, a strange wannabe doctor who like to bore holes into his head with a drill when times get tough.
Within two days there is going to be a thunderstorm and to get the finish product done, he needs some body parts and that's where the prostitutes come into the picture and with some help by a super drug that causes a real explosion, he's able to recreate his fiancée from their limbs.
But during the experiment things don't turn out like he thought when she runs amuck in the streets.Gee, this was twisted entertainment, but hey it's a Frank Henenlotter film.
Enough of my ramble on Henenlotter's greatness
back to the film."Frankenhooker" has to be one of the better (and demented) horrors of the 90s, but its trashy and low-brow comedy appeal is probably why its not held in high regards.
This silly, stupid-on-purpose bit of schlock lies somewhere between "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" an episode of "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" and "Bachelor Party." It's a great combination of guts, gore and jiggly naked girls which never ever takes itself seriously and is absolutely hysterical to watch.Amateur doctor Jeffrey Franken watches in horror as his pretty girlfriend is chewed under by a lawnmower run amok at a birthday party.
A few quick stitches and a convenient lightening storm later, we have FRANKENHOOKER!!!Patty Mullen then takes over the screen, delivering a flawless performance as the seriously flawed Elizabeth, staggering through the streets of New York with her purple hair, mismatched limbs, gruesome stitches, facial twitches and her favorite catchphrase: "Wanna date?" The Super Crack poisoned blood of the prostitutes has turned Elizabeth into a lethal, literal crack whore, who kills the men unwise enough to accept her offer of a date.
Well, sort of...With a name like "Frankenhooker" no one in their right mind should sit down to watch this film expecting an Oscar Winning Epic.
Frankenhooker (1990) is yet another classic horror film from Frank Henenlotter, who also directed my fave horror film of all time "Brain Damage".
This movie is about Jeffrey, a young man whos girlfriend Elizabeth dies in a freak accident by a giant sized lawnmower during a family barbecue, she gets chopped into many pieces during this tragic event!!
Writer/director Frank Henenlotter puts the 'ho' into horror with his fourth film Frankenhooker, which sees a group of crack-whores providing the raw materials for medical school dropout Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz), whose latest science project is to build the perfect body for fiancé Elizabeth (Patty Mullen)—killed in a tragic lawnmower accident—and then bring her back to life.Another completely demented dose of biological horror from the genius who gave us the lovable Belial (in the terrific Basket Case) and chatty parasitic worm Elmer (from the sublime Brain Damage), Frankenhooker once again goes to prove that when it comes to pure, unadulterated, trashy, comedy/horror craziness, nobody does it better than Henenlotter.This one might not have the high levels of gore to be found in either of his aforementioned 80s classics, but it's loads of fun nonetheless, featuring such outrageous delights as exploding prostitutes (no blood; just a bang and flying body parts!), a killer pimp named Zorro, self-trepanning via power drill, a reanimated street-walkin' Elizabeth looking for business (with Mullen giving a memorable performance spouting random snippets of hooker dialogue), and a freezer full of freaky creatures formed from leftover bits of sluts..
Frank Henenlotter make some pretty damn wild horror flick from the early 80s to 90s and all of them bring are so much joy to watch that I hardly know which one is my favorite to pick and the same case happen to Frankenhooker a horror comedy that take the classic Frankenstein story and put it into a blender together with crystal meth and hooker.The movie is wacky and entertaining in it's own right but the only original ideal in this movie is the main character ex-wife/Frankenhooker herself but I also love the fact that the main character"Jeffrey" without a doubt is a nod to actor Jeffery Combs in his best movie Re-Animator and the Danny DeVito looking guy in the middle of the movie got me good so check out definitely check out Frankenhooker if you in a mood for a crazy ride.
If they could use Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein" for "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975), among other bizarre iterations, then I don't see why not have a mad scientist re-animate his girlfriend with the leftover parts of prostitutes who exploded from lethal doses of crack cocaine.
Moreover, after seeing fellow Frankenstein exploitation flick "Flesh for Frankenstein" (1975), it's difficult to be shocked by such a premise as that of "Frankenhooker."The mad scientist here is a young man named Jeffrey Franker who lives with his parents and creates his hooker monster in their garage.
From the director that brought you "Brain Damage" and "Basket Case" comes another classic piece of comedy horror.
Frank Henenlotter is famous for directing the Basket Case movies and Brain Damage, which is a fantastic, uncelebrated horror gem from the 1980's.
Plot: the girlfriend of a medical school dropout is killed in a freak lawnmower accident (oh, so it's a comedy) resulting in him resurrecting her by using the assembled body parts of hookers.
I won't spoil anything, but I found it happily creepy, and perhaps even poetic--which are feelings horror fans pursue in their movies like heroin junkies chasing that first, initial high.But there is not one laugh to be had in Frankenhooker.
Frank Henenlotter's Frankenhooker is an enjoyable comedy horror B film.
It is silly and funny with lots of nudity and a plot that is just plain absurd.Bland James Lorinz is Jeffrey Franken, a highly strung young man interested in medical studies and doing strange experiments with body parts in his house.
In short he is a little bit loopy.When his girlfriend Elizabeth (Patty Mullen) dies in a bizarre lawn- mowing incident Jeffrey hits the streets and the hookers looking for body parts so he can rebuild Elizabeth.
After a crack cocaine incident where all the hookers blow up he has all the body parts he needs with a few more to spare.When he rebuilds Elizabeth, she becomes Frankenhooker with the short term memories of all the prostitutes and she hits the streets with her platforms looking for victims.It is cheap looking with some frankly bad acting yet somehow it works.
Any hints of misogyny during the bulk of the film's build-up can be forgiven thanks to an enjoyably daft climax, during which a female creature made up of various prostitutes body parts and the head of its mad creators wife runs rampant around New York taking vengeance on the various scum- bags encountered earlier in the film and any sleazy perverts who fancy a bit of the stitched-together would-be centrefold model (she is played by Penthouse model Patty Mullen).Medical school drop-out and whiny-voiced genius Jeffrey (James Lorinz) is about to marry the woman he loves, Elizabeth, when she is accidentally killed by a lawnmower he built.
He decides to Frankenstein her with a bunch of hooker parts - which he gets by getting a bunch of prostitutes to smoke the super-crack he's invented, which makes them explode.
Fuse her head to a bunch of random hookers' body parts and re-animate her Frankenstein-style, of course!Insanely fun B-movie that is not only filled with twisted laughs but is both acted and filmed well.
The dialogue is always clever and James Lorinz (Jeffrey) is a good actor and his twisted narration delivered in a thick New Jersey accent carries the movie.
After his girlfriend dies in an unusual accident that leaves her in pieces, aspiring mad scientist and med-school drop out Jeffrey Franken comes up with a plan to bring her back to life by reassembling her with parts from dead New York City prostitutes.
This film is far more comedy than horror and is one of cult director Frank Henenlotter's best.
Why not use the body parts of New York hookers to put back together, and bring back to life, your dead girlfriend?
Frankenhooker is a very funny B movie 80's horror/comedy classic.
A man mourning the loss of his fiancé -- who, by the way, lost her life in a tragic lawnmower accident -- decides to bring her back from the dead using body parts from New York City hookers.
Frankhenhooker is probably the worst of Henenlotter's films, though that doesn't mean it isn't a great little movie.
If you don't mind a few chuckles with your gore, then checking out Frankenhooker could prove to be a perfect way to spend an evening.One more thing -- Henenlotter, if you're reading this, there are plenty of people out in the world who'd love to see another film from you.
How can anyone not like a movie containing exploding guinea pigs and people sucking down Super-Crack and then exploding?Sure, it's cheesy, but hey, it's still an extremely amusing (if stupid) film.
A black comedy parody of Frankenstein (1931) in the Re-Animator (1985) vein from the writer-director Frank Henenlotter, coming after Basket Case (1981) and Brain Damage (1987).
Organizing a party in order to choose the specimens (which he nonchalantly ticks with a permanent marker as they parade by him half-undressed!), the girls overdose on his specially-prepared "Supercrack" narcotic – which causes them to explode and mess the place up (hilariously, when their macho pimp smells a rat and goes up to the hero's room, he is knocked out by the flying head of one of the hookers on opening the door)!Interestingly, this is the first Frankenstein movie I have come across where the probability of diverse complexions within the monster's body is addressed – so that parts of it are pale-white and others are dark-toned, or even black!
From the opening scene of an electrician fiddling around with a brain, it went from terrible to atrocious to stick-your-head-into-rotting-roadkill-to-avoid-seeing-the-video bad.I watched this movie because my room-mate was looking for a fun film and when a guy at the video store highly recommended Frankenhooker my room-mate's mind was made.
Unfortunately this lacks the charm and pathos of Frank Henenlotter's earlier films like BASKET CASE or BRAIN DAMAGE or even the sheer fun of Stuart Gordon's RE-ANIMATOR which deals with the same theme of bringing dead people back to life.James Lorenz plays a nerdy idiot named Jeffery Franken (Get it?
There are hundreds of different low-budget horror movies out there but you can always tell when you're watching something from Henenlotter because he can take the most outrageous things and make them seem rather normal in the bizarre universe that he creates.
It has the same sort of morbid and gory horror-type of comedy and if you like these type of movies you'll end up being entertained by this movie as well, guaranteed.It's perfectly silly fun, that is being very simplistic with its story but at the same time also quite creative with all of its events.
At the home of Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz) an accident with a lawnmower leaves his fiancé Elizabeth Shelley (Patty Mullen) in pieces all over the garden.
Medical school dropout Jeffrey steals her head and decides to use his knowledge to bring Elizabeth back to life, by acquiring body parts from local prostitutes, killing them using exploding crack cocaine.
"Frankenhooker" is another brilliant piece of horror genius from the demented mind of Frank Henenlotter ("Basket Case" and "Brain Damage").
The film concerns a young man who loses his girlfriend in a horrific (and hilarious) "lawnmower accident" which sends her body parts scattering all over the place at a family picnic.
After his girlfriend is destroyed by a souped-up lawn mower, Jeffrey Franken devises a plan to rebuild her using the parts of dead hookers who have exploded after smoking highly effective crack rocks.
But when something looks like a hooker, is made up of hooker, it wants to keep on hooking.I loved this film and I think it may be Frank Henenlotter's masterpiece (though most would give that to "Basket Case").
Frankenhooker: 8 out of 10: Any movie featuring both super crack and exploding hookers will have to work pretty hard to disappoint me.Throw in the fact that the director is none other than Basket Case auteur Frank Henenlotter (Where has he been the last ten years?) and the lead is Street Trash scene stealer James Lorinz (Only found in small screen bit parts of late) and I was expecting to be blown away like, well, like an exploding hooker.Frankenhooker alas isn't necessarily that good.
The movie is also genuinely funny and the humor never feels forced.If the thought of exploding hookers and super crack fills you with an irrelevant glee then I highly recommend this film.
'Trash' and 'screwball' describe the knockabout humour on display here as Jeffrey (James Lorinz) brings back to life his decapitated fiancée by 'building her a new body of Manhatten street prostitutes'.A lot of the first part of the film relies on Lorinz, who is required to carry scenes by himself.
In his search for body parts, the good doctor mixes up a batch of super-crack that makes anyone, or thing for that matter, that smokes it explode.
Frankenhooker starts at the New Jersey home of Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz) where at a birthday party a freak accident with a remote controlled lawnmower leaves his fiancé Elizabeth Shelley (Patty Mullen) in pieces all over the garden.
The script is obviously a parody of the classic novel Frankenstein with Henenlotter's brand of bad taste humour & quirkiness the main thing going for it, from lawnmower accidents to exploding prostitutes to electrifying sex Frankenhooker is not the type of film for those with delicate moral sensibilities.
Frankenhooker is quite likable & at only just over 80 minutes long the pace is decent & it doesn't outstay it's welcome but there are better horror comedies out there, watchable enough & positively amazing when compared to many modern day low budget horror films but I didn't love it or anything.There's plenty of female nudity & bare breasts on show even if some of the actresses who play the hookers aren't the best looking, to go with the nudity there's some gore as well including a couple of decapitations, some severed limbs, some blood splatter, some fake looking exploding prostitutes, a brain in a fish tank & a mangled mass of body parts that comes to life at the end.
The acting is alright, no-one seems to be taking things seriously which is just as well although it's the Frankenhooker herself Patty Mullen who gives the most watchable performance here.Frankenhooker is a fun little horror comedy with plenty of sleaze & bad taste humour, it's not amazing or life changing but it is fun for what it is & I liked it well enough.. |
tt0055294 | The Phantom Planet | In 1980 the United States Air Force's Space Exploration Wing has bases on the Moon and is on the eve of a mission to Mars. When another of their two-member crew Pegasus spacecraft mysteriously disappears, rumors begin circulating of "space monsters" and "phantom planets". Mars mission pilot Captain Frank Chapman and his navigator Lt. Ray Makonnen are ordered to investigate.
During the search, their spaceship suffers damage from a meteor shower, requiring that both men go outside to make repairs. A bullet-sized particle, however, pierces the air hose on Chapman's space suit, rendering him unconscious. Makonnen is able to repair the hose, but as he opens the airlock hatch, he is fatally struck by a similar particle. Makonnen's last act before being propelled away into deep space is to push Chapman inside and close the airlock hatch. Chapman comes to and finds Makonnen gone and himself unable to communicate with the lunar base. He records a log entry about the preceding events, noting that he must now make a forced landing on an asteroid, that it is somehow pulling in his Pegasus spaceship.
Exiting his ship but still feeling the effects of his accident, Chapman collapses and sees tiny humanoids about six inches tall approaching. Once his helmet visor is opened, he is able to breathe but shrinks to their size due to the asteroid's atmosphere. He is dragged underground and placed on trial for attacking one of the small aliens.
Sesom, the aged and wise ruler of Rheton (the native name for the rocky and seemingly lifeless planetoid that Chapman has landed on), explains that though his craft was brought safely down by their gravitational tractor beam, they had not been able to do same with the preceding crafts which were destroyed with their crew when they crashed into their surface. He then tells the angry Chapman that although as a result of his sentence he will now have all the rights of a citizen of Rheton, he can never leave and his ship has been sent back into space whilst he slept so that the secret of Rheton's existence and more importantly of the gravity-controlling technology that allows them to fly their wandering world through space will be preserved.
At the trial, Chapman meets two beautiful women, Sesom's smugly spoiled blond daughter Liara and the mute and gentle black-haired Zetha, with the former more than willing to answer his many questions about Rheton, and Sesom informs Chapman that he may later choose one of the women to marry once he has become accustomed to life on Rheton.
Liara, after following and engaging constantly with Chapman, declares her love for him, but Chapman, still eager to return to his own people, rejects her. Herron, a young man who is himself in love with Liara, attempts to win her for himself by telling Sesom that Chapman is unfairly attempting to win the favors of both the women.
Stating that he believes this to be a crime against the people of Rheton, Herron requests a duel to the death with Chapman. Chapman agrees, and the two engage in a form of combat where opponents must push each other onto gravity plates that cause immediate disintegration if touched. Just as Chapman is about to push Herron onto a plate, he lets Herron go, stating that he cannot kill someone for no good reason.
As time goes on, Chapman and Zetha become more acquainted and eventually fall in love. Herron comes to Chapman late one night and tells him that he can help him escape.
Any plans for the future, however, are put on hold when Chapman discovers the real reason for Rheton's erratic course through the cosmos is when the planetoid is once again attacked by the Solarites, a monstrous alien race of "fire people" from an unidentified "sun satellite" who want to destroy Rheton with their flaming fighter craft and steal its secret of gravity control.
With Chapman's help, Sesom and Herron are able to destroy the Solarite fleet with their gravity beam, but a giant seven inch tall Solarite prisoner from a previous raid escapes when the gravity curtain containing him fails during the battle, and stalking the cave corridors, it captures Zetha who had been traumatized into silence by a childhood encounter with its strange and savage species. After Sesom is attacked by the bizarre bug-eyed monster, Chapman and Herron attempt to rescue Zetha, and Chapman defeats the Solarite by pushing it onto a gravity plate.
While kidnapped, Zetha is scared out of her muteness when she sees Chapman about to be attacked by the Solarite and can now speak again, allowing her to confess her love for him. The two kiss, but they are interrupted as it is revealed that a search party from Earth had located Chapman. In order to preserve the secret of his adopted people, Chapman re-dons his spacesuit and, after once more being exposed to normal air, returns to normal size and reluctantly heads back to Earth with the search party, leaving Rheton and Zetha behind. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0065938 | Kelly's Heroes | During a thunderstorm in early September 1944, units of the 35th Infantry Division are nearing the French town of Nancy. One of the division's mechanized reconnaissance platoons is ordered to hold their position when the Germans counterattack. The outnumbered platoon also receives friendly fire from their own mortars.
Private Kelly, a former lieutenant scapegoated for a failed infantry assault, captures Colonel Dankhopf of Wehrmacht Intelligence. Interrogating his prisoner, Kelly notices the officer's briefcase has several gold bars disguised under lead plating. Curious, he gets the colonel drunk and learns that there is a cache of 14,000 gold bars, worth $16,000,000, stored in a bank vault 30 miles behind enemy lines in the town of Clermont. When their position is overrun and the Americans pull back, a Tiger I kills Dankhopf.
Kelly decides to go after the gold. He visits the opportunistic Supply Sergeant "Crapgame" to obtain the supplies and guns that will be needed for the operation. A spaced-out tank platoon commander known as "Oddball" and his three M4 Sherman tanks from the 6th Armored Division invite themselves into the plan. With their commanding officer, Captain Maitland, busy pursuing opportunities to enrich himself and thus severely neglecting the welfare of his troopers, the men of Kelly's platoon are all eager to join Kelly. After much argument, Kelly finally persuades cynical Master Sergeant "Big Joe" to go along.
Kelly decides that his infantrymen and Oddball's tanks will proceed separately and meet near Clermont. Oddball's tanks fight their way through the German lines, managing to destroy a German railway depot, but their route is blocked when the bridge they need to cross is blown up by Allied fighter-bombers. This forces Oddball to bring a bridging unit in on the caper. An American fighter plane mistakes Kelly's group for the enemy, destroying their vehicles and forcing them to continue on foot. They stray into a minefield, and Private Grace is killed. Kelly's troops engage an enemy patrol; Private Mitchell and Corporal Job, still stuck in the minefield, are killed.
The two units rendezvous two nights later. They battle their way across the river to Clermont, losing two of the three tanks and leaving the bridging unit behind. When intercepted radio messages from the private raid are brought to the attention of the gung-ho Major General Colt, he misinterprets them as the efforts of aggressive patrols pushing forward on their own initiative and immediately rushes to the front to exploit the "breakthrough".
Kelly's men find that Clermont is defended by three Tiger tanks of the 1st SS Panzer Division with infantry support. The Americans are able to eliminate the German infantry and two of the Tigers, but the final tank parks itself right in front of the bank and Oddball's Sherman breaks down, leaving them stalemated. At Crapgame’s suggestion, Kelly offers the German tank commander and his crew an equal share of the loot.
After the Tiger blows the bank doors open, the Germans and Americans divide the spoils and go their separate ways, just barely managing to avoid meeting the still-oblivious General Colt, who is blocked from entering Clermont by the French residents who have been deceived by Big Joe into thinking that General Charles de Gaulle is coming. Not long after the freelancers have gone, Captain Maitland enters the bank, to find a Kilroy and the words "Up Yours, Baby" painted by one of Kelly's crew on the wall. | comedy, humor, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0483841 | X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse | === Setting ===
X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse is not set in any particular Marvel Comics universe. The game takes place some time after the events of X-Men Legends. The mutant supervillain Apocalypse, having witnessed the X-Men's defeat of Magneto remotely, declares that the Age of Apocalypse is nigh. Prior to the game's campaign he kidnaps Professor X and Polaris for unknown purposes. Locations include a military prison in Greenland, the fictional mutant sanctuary of Genosha, the Savage Land and Egypt.
=== Plot ===
The game begins with the X-Men and Brotherhood of Mutants uniting forces to save Professor X and Polaris. Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine meet up with Magneto, Mystique, and Sabretooth at a military prison outpost in Greenland to free Professor X. Upon freeing him, the teams relocate to the fictional mutant haven of Genosha. They find the island ravaged by Apocalypse's forces, and work through the wreckage and find out what he was searching for. They learn that Quicksilver was kidnapped by Apocalypse, who also kidnaps Beast from the X-Mansion. Beast manages to point the team in the direction of the Savage Land, a secret prehistoric preserve in Antarctica.
The teams work their way through the Savage Land, temporarily hindering Apocalypse's plans. Apocalypse then travels to conquer New York. The teams work at sabotaging his army and resources, but Emma Frost and Angel are kidnapped as well. Angel is unwillingly transformed by Apocalypse and Mister Sinister into Archangel, a Horsemen of Apocalypse. He is assigned as a sentry to Apocalypse's tower. The teams defeat Archangel and infiltrate the tower where they find Beast, now under the control of Mister Sinister; he kidnaps Sabretooth and escapes with Apocalypse and Mister Sinister to Egypt.
They learn that Apocalypse's plan is to use Polaris, Quicksilver, Emma Frost, and Sabretooth—four mutants with what he refers to as Harmonic DNA—as part of a machine to fuel an experiment to grant him massive amounts of power. The teams then follow Apocalypse to Egypt where they defeat Mister Sinister, freeing Beast from Sinister's control. After besting the final guard, the Living Monolith, the teams battle Apocalypse and defeat him by stealing the powers from his machine. In the final cutscene, Magneto and Professor X part once again as adversaries, noting that Apocalypse was defeated but not destroyed. Beast ponders why the machine did not work properly, wondering if sabotage was a factor. As the X-Jet flies away, Sinister is seen on top of the pyramid, laughing, hinting that he sabotaged the machine.
=== Characters ===
Several playable characters return from X-Men Legends,a and select members of the Brotherhood of Mutants are also playable. Some non-playable X-Men and Brotherhood characters appear during levels. In some instances dialogue throughout the game can be character-to-character specific, depending on the player character's alignment and relationship with the non-player character.
^a Jubilee, Magma, and Psylocke do not appear in X-Men Legends II. Beast and Emma Frost appear, but are not playable.^b Playable in the mobile version of the game^c Only appeared on PSP's extra mission^d Mentioned only | good versus evil | train | wikipedia | I love this game!.
My mother bought me this game for my birthday and I have to say I'm glad she did.
The game was fun and exciting.
I don't think its that tuff like the first one, but the cool thing is the X-Men get to work with one of the Brotherhood.
Especially the all so powerful Magneto.
Whats good about the game is that you face a lot more enemies your probably not used to knowing.
The second best thing about the game is that the further you go along with it, the more powerful you get, which means more killer power moves.
Some original and some really knew and cool.
Its to the point where they have more powers that are so cool that you want to play the game over again just to see what it'll do to your enemies..
Really fun but the leveling up is a pain.
Well, I must be the only X-Men fan to hate on the first X-Men Legends game but this...
is a whole lot better.
No, really - the voice acting is so much better this time round, there is a way to play co-op FROM THE START!
and the Danger Room is easily by far and away the very best thing about this game.Apocalypse is about to wreck havoc which leads The Brotherhood and The X-Men on an alliance to stop Apocalypse as well as do the tasks at hand such as rescuing mutants and other such tasks.Okay, the biggest problem I have with this game is the power you will know the characters for, you have to work to get.
Nightcrawler can't teleport unless you level him up enough times, Rogue can't fly (actually, no-one can at the beginning) nor steal powers (in a beat-em-up, when you get it it's really fun to exploit) and do you think The Juggernaut can run so fast everything he touches gets knocked down?
Well - work your way up to Level 24 to get that power.The Danger Room, is probably so good - I want it to be a separate fighting game, all the character's powers are completely maxed out in this mode and beating up other members of the X-Men is actually much more fun then beating the enemies in the game.
Doing stuff like using Rogue's power to steal Nightcrawler's teleportation to evade for a minute, then using it to get The Juggernaut's power of knocking down things in momentum is one of the things you can do hypothetically.
Oh and speaking of - the combat is pretty much the same as in the original so no comment.At the end of the day - this can be a really fun game - I mean hell, it's no masterpiece but with what you have as the game goes on - is actually very much worth getting to.
I mean I know a lot of people prefer the original and while I only played the first couple of levels to both these games - this one is better of pulling you in.
If you like the idea of making your team of 4 X-Men or making X-Men beat each other up then this is for you..
An amazing game for X-men fans.
Sadly I couldn't play the first game since I don't have a gaming console, but I was absolutely excited when i found out that the second X-men Legends game would also be made for the PC.
Speaking as an X-men fan..this game is great!
About 20 playable characters (X-Men + The Brotherhood), cool powers (tho it did somewhat bother me that some we're not equal to the powers in the comics, for example Wolverine doesn't automatically heal), good voice-work (I really like the fact that they only used Patrick Stewart from the movies in this game), the story in the game is quite good (even tho a bit cliché, but it's obvious that Raven did try and succeed in creating a good comic-book story), the AI is OK i suppose (you only control one x-man at a time, the other 3 that are in your team are controlled by the computer but they really do seem to be able to take care of themselves quite well), the Danger Room (a cool thing, where you get to beat challenges and level up)..This part of the game is very well done and deserves praise.
But speaking as a gamer..The game is fairly easy and soon you get the feeling that it's all just a routine (a fun one tho) when you keep beating up zounds and zounds of enemies, most of the levels are quite well-done, but it's obvious that some parts are only there for you to kill a lot of enemies and Level Up. The graphics make up a good comic-book feel and are good, but nothing really special...I'd give this game a 7/10, it has plenty of action, the story/characters are good, X-men and the Brotherhood team up, fun and exciting boss fights and it's quite long.
Nice sequel with lots of characters to choose from.
I bought this game years ago out of a discount bin.
Played it minimally and then proceeded on to something else.
Well, I decided to play it again and I won it as well.
As far as the two X-men Legends games, I think I have a slight preference for the first one, but I think I like this one a bit more than the second Ultimate Alliance game.
The Marvel Ultimate Alliance games were sort of sequels to these games; however, at the end of this one a sequel is indicated as it showed a villain laughing maniacally, but this did not carry over to the Ultimate Alliance games.
Then again, at the end of the first Ultimate Alliance game it was indicated that Galactus would be the primary villain of the second game and that never materialized either.
That would have been cooler than the crap they did do as the second Alliance game would do the Civil War storyline (which I hated) and have a very weak villain at the end.
This one has a good villain fight at the end which is not usually present in these games.
Dr. Doom was alright, Magneto would have been cool, but he wasn't the true ending boss.
This one on the other hand as a great final fight and a great villain in Apocalypse.The story has the X-men and Brotherhood coming together to take on the evil Apocalypse who believes that only the strong shall survive.
He has kidnapped Polaris and also has his sight set on three other mutants for his scheme.
Along with other powerful mutants his nefarious plans take him to the mutant haven Genosha, the Savage Land, Canadian outposts, New York and finally Egypt.
It will take everything the X-men and the Brotherhood have to defeat this powerful foe.
They will also have to stop themselves from fighting each other.The game play is action based RPG.
You go through a level with a four person team you choose and there a are a lot of characters to choose from.
You control one of them, but you just need to push a button to switch out and control another.
I used Wolverine and Cyclops the entire way, but switched up the other two.
It is a bit annoying leveling up as I just think it began to take too long near the end.
Not to power up the main stats, but rather to power up your abilities.
You get four points to charge up the normal stuff, and only one for abilities so unless you work at it indefinitely, you are not going to charge too many things to max.
The fighting is rather cool, but the level design is kind of uninspired.
Kind of how like in the second UA game, the levels are kind of uninspired and very monotonous.The game is fun, just not anything all that great.
I realize it is PS2, but Final Fantasy X did not take this long to load and it had more voice acting and better graphics so really no excuse for such a long load, especially to just access the menu!
The voice acting here is okay; however, Charles Xavier was awesome as Patrick Stewart did his voice.
Kind of a bummer Ian didn't do Magneto, but pretty much the rest of the voices are very familiar sounding from countless anime cartoons I have watched.
Nice villain here and good story.
Make the levels more varied and this one could have been incredible.
Say more like the New York stage, its level was different and it was also the shortest, all others were like one hallway after another.
Still, the game at least has a nice variety of characters to control..
That ancient, evil dude is in *bad* need of a serious smack-down.
I'd like to, but I haven't played the first one.
This is a third-person action(meaning, not turn-based) role playing game(of which I've hardly played any, so bear with me for this), where you get to play as the X-Men. Apocalypse executes a plan to take over the world, and they reluctantly team up with The Brotherhood to take him to school.
However, of considerably greater importance, we get to utilize their awesome powers, most of them fantastically realized, and usually working out excellently in this.
You can throw enemies around(and without touching them if you use Telekinesis), pick up large objects, fly and even teleport, in this.
Then there are the abilities, and you're looking at a ton of stuff you can do(your opponents can do their share of nifty stuff, and that adds extra spark to beating them).
There are 18 different familiar faces to play as, and each has roughly around ten skills(yup...
The game-play consists of you running around with a team of four(all of them chosen specifically by the player; and co-op multi-player is possible, as well, allowing up to 4 friends at the same time), fighting lackeys and doing basic adventure game stuff, like searching for, and using, items.
Frankly, it can get kinda repetitive; it's clear that a lot of effort went into making that aspect fun(and it is), and thus they wound up with that being all you do.
It is entertaining, and it doesn't run out of steam(actually, it may be a little short for this kind of VG) before you've completed this.
The challenge of Boss battles(a couple of them creative and interesting) climbs at an uneven rate, with odd spikes up and, honestly, at times down.
To its credit, this has a well-done and easy to get into control interface(well, it could do with more commands to issue), that is impossible to get lost in, and keeping it simple to keep track of stuff.
The relatively dynamic camera does get in your way sometimes, so it's good that they made it so flexible, and the turning of it a mere press of the button away.
Conversations with NPC's have the finesse of there being several versions of some of them, and bringing certain mutants along with you trigger them, and apart from that, they're plain(and you'll often find yourself hearing the exact same pieces of information a second time), with the lack of any impact of you choose to say rendering it entirely obvious that they're there solely for the purpose of delivering exposition.
They try(too hard, perhaps?
It does arguably get to be excessive) to give us fans of the Marvel universe a real treat.
You get to visit tons of locations(did someone say Savage Lands?
What about Genosha?), face numerous famous foes(including Morlocks and Sentinels) in combat, and meet quite a few well-known characters.
It's really a shame that last-mentioned mainly act as a sort of stationary library chapter, where you can just ask each of them who they are and what they can do, and regardless of what their relationship is with who you're running around as, they'll spill the beans as if they've been granted a vocal chord that very instant.
The voice acting is fine(and casting can be spot-on), and there are strong and convincing moments here and there, in spite of every single accent and dialect being hideously overdone.
Dialog ranges somewhat, with many silly or otherwise poor ones(with that said, the majority of the taunts are well-done).
The briefings are not really about explaining what you are to do(with that said, you're seldom uncertain what is expected of you to make progress), they're arranged cut-scenes that display interactions between the two groups(I suspect they could think of nowhere else to put them in this; heck, there are impeccable ones between them, when they aren't over the top).
This has a well-done plot, with cool twists.
Among the story-telling tools are utterly, righteously bad-ass fully animated cinematics, one for the end of every act and also an intro one.
The mini-map is helpful enough, without taking away the mystery and fun of exploring.
Levels can at times be linear and/or monotonous; on the plus side, you can largely go wherever you want(whether or not it really makes sense), provided you've already been there, or made it to that area.
You get to visit nifty places, natural and science fiction ones, immediately recognizable ones and brand new ones.
The graphics are well-done, with gorgeous design work, almost always well-done effects, and everything that moves is done in an appropriate style that has them looking like something out of, yup, a comic book.
You can see how many there are of the things, so you'll know if you have it all or not.
There are also bugs and glitches, mainly smaller stuff.
The stability could be better.
I recommend this to all fans of the source material.
This game benefits greatly from an interesting roster and an even greater intro, however the level design alone almost turns this mutant romp into an ordeal.
Unlike the last game, which took us to interesting places like the Shadow King's domain and an arctic base(basically every x-locale you can think of along with the mansion and danger room), this game is a generic tomb/factory/cave fest, an idea that is hammered into your skull before you can even get to the somewhat interesting New York level.
Even though the plot leaves much to be desired(2 betrayals and a whole lot of shut this and that down), the boss fights can be amusing; the battle with the titular baddie lives up to expectations and the early throwdown with abyss is a the show stealer.
Recommended if the 1st game wasn't enough for you..
Good game with fatal glitch.
After a deeply confusing start were the brother hood and x men rescue xavier(didn't even know he'd been kidnapped )we discover apocalypse is to blame and has also kidnapped polaris ,a minor marvel character that we never really meet or care about.
After that we get a training mission and fight to liberate genosha from apocalypse and so on.
The bad guys, the levels and the heroes are quite varied and you'll need a varied team to do all of the puzzles (puzzles-lite) a super strength guy like colossus or rogue to move giant objects,a teleporter like deadpool or nightcrawlwer to take short cuts ,a fly guy like magneto or iron man to reach certain areas etc.
the levels of aggressiveness can be altered so they (AI) don't run about claiming all your kills.This is slightly more difficult with long range attack characters like cyc, gambit or ice man.
Over all the game is well done the in game graphics are the same as the first game.
The cut scenes are a lot better, meaning apocalypse looks completely different from game to game.
The last level and certain other temple based levels can be annoyingly long winded and certain other brilliant levels are relatively short.The only problem with this well done game is a major glitch you'll probably find discussed in message boards all over the net.
When replaying the game using old saves consoles tend to crash.It is entirely down to all the add ons you can attach to characters to boost their abilities.I rectified this by simply deleting them all and relying on gaining xp and boosting character bit by bit.
I would expect this kinda glitch from a PC game but not from a dedicated gaming console.perhaps they were too eager to cash in on their success.I still recommend buying this game the good far out weighs the bad.
Intense story along with incredible characters!.
This is, without a doubt, the best X-MEN game to date.
My favorite characters to use are Wolverine, Magneto, Cyclops, Gambit, Iceman, Juggernaut, and Nightcrawler.
I am still stuck in the Madri Temple, but I will soon find a way out, if I'm lucky.Apocalypse has unleashed a new world threat that will destroy every human on earth.
But this won't happen on the X-MEN's watch.
The X-MEN are teaming up with the Brotherhood, along with Colossus, Sunfire, Scarlet Witch, and Bishop, to stop Apocalypse from unleashing his diabolical plan.
Choose from unimaginable teams including the X-MEN and evil Brotherhood characters.
Go through numerous levels to see what Apocalypse has in store for you on your journey to stop him.Alone, you are mighty!
Every superhero game should be like this.
I got this game for my thirteenth birthday, and it is much better than Spiderman 2 and Hulk.
I am on the second act right now, and it is very challenging.You can pick from 16 characters.
My favourite team is Wo,wolverine, Magneto, Iceman and Collosus.Graphics: 8 Sound: 7.5 Gameplay: 10 Replay value: 9I have not played the multilayer mode yet, but the Danger room mini missions are very good.Get this game, and you will not be disappointed.
I had never played it, and I'm loved every single minute of it.
The bosses are pretty challenging. |
tt0093483 | Malone | A floatplane navigates through the Pacific Northwest, landing in Puget Sound. As the well-dressed passenger emerges, ex-CIA agent Richard Malone targets him in his crosshairs, but he is unable to pull the trigger. He burns his Maryland driver's license and heads inland. His Ford Mustang breaks down in a rural Oregon valley. Malone pushes it to a gas station and garage owned by Paul Barlow, who runs the station with his 17-year-old daughter Jo. Barlow suggests the fastest way to repair the car is to tow it 60 miles to a larger service station. Malone opts to wait for the necessary parts to arrive. Paul invites Malone to stay in the spare room.
Jo snoops through Malone's possessions, finding his gun. Malone helps Paul with his repair work and sizes up the town, which is under the thumb of Charles Delaney, who buys up all the property he can and forces people to sell if they first refuse. A group of Delaney's thugs harass Malone and Jo on a bridge and refuse to let them pass. Malone severely beats the ringleader, Dan Bollard, sending him to the hospital. Dan's brother, Calvin, is goaded into killing Malone by Delaney's main henchman Madrid, but is shot by Malone instead.
While Sheriff Hawkins is holding Malone at the jail, Delaney breezes in to introduce himself. Delaney tells the sheriff to let him go, then orders Madrid to arrange a hit on Malone. The next day, two hitmen come to the service station. Malone kills both, although he is badly wounded. Hawkins instructs a deputy to drive Malone to the hospital. The deputy drives offroad, with Malone bouncing in the back seat. Realizing that the deputy is trying to kill him, Malone grabs the wheel and crashes the car.
In the hospital, Malone's CIA handler Jamie arrives to ferry him to safety. They hole up together in a safe house and rekindle their romance. When Malone goes to pick up his car from the Barlows, Madrid leads an attack on the safe house and kills Jamie with a plastic bag. An angry Malone soon infiltrates Delaney's sprawling compound, killing the henchmen including Madrid to avenge Jamie's death. Delaney retreats to his secret command center, where he tells Malone that he is part of a vast conspiracy of like-minded "patriots" who are buying up land and electing Congressmen to retake the country from "mongrels." Malone proceeds to kill Delaney and blow up his compound, then walks away, burning his Commonwealth of Virginia driver's license. | neo noir, murder, cult, violence, good versus evil, revenge, sadist | train | wikipedia | Even though some people state that this film is awful, but they are forgetting that most 80's action films where and this was one of many that was churned out then forgotten.I vividly remember first watching this on video rental and thought it was brilliant and even though it's very dated I still love the film as an 80's classic like I would watch some old black and white film.I don't feel I should have to wait until the film is 40 or 50 years old to claim it is an classic nor should I go with other persons comments that it is crap just because they are watching the film without growing up in the 80's when the film was made and is set in.with regards jpclarke.
In Malone, Burt Reynolds is a CIA paid assassin who's tired of the life and wants out of the company.
But Reynolds in looking for obscurity finds a place where a mysterious millionaire Cliff Robertson is buying all the land in some obscure valley in Idaho to make it his headquarters for some ill defined right wing conspiracy.
When Robertson's thugs start leaning on them, Reynolds springs into action.Burt Reynolds's style is a whole lot like James Garner, quizzical, cynical and charming.
Malone, a fairly obvious updating of Shane, reaches deeply in to the duffers bag of clichés to pull out; the burnt out assassin, the beautiful former colleague, cute teenage girl and her brave but crippled father and, of course, a nutter who along with his evil henchmen are bent on taking over the government.
Burt Reynolds is actually not a bad actor when he's not trying to be 'a good old boy' all the time.
Never mind, I've added it to my list of films to be watch every time they turn up in the schedule and I guess I'll just continue to enjoy it for what it is, a good bad movie..
"Malone" is a must see for Burt Reynolds fans ............
Burt Reynolds at times can be a really annoying actor, often portraying an enormous ego, that gets in the way of true acting.
I am happy to report that is not the case with"Malone", as a very low key Burt Reynolds is complimented nicely by an always low key Scott Wilson.
"Malone" is a very good action film, and one of Burt's best.
Burt Reynolds and Cliff Robertson star this light and simple spying adventure.Reynolds is Richard Malone,an ex-CIA agent who,tired of his profession as a killer,resolves to leave his past behind and travels through the country,in search of a new beginning.But he ends up in a small city when his car breaks down and,unexpectedly,gets involved with a magnate with megalomania's problems,played with cynicism by Cliff Robertson,who intends to extend his empire's tentacles over the whole country and reach the power,more exactly,the presidency,with the help of his comrades.It's set a well-directed trama,pleasing and without commitments.The movie counts with action scenes and introduces a romance between Reynolds and a killer played by Gator's Lauren Hutton.The character was made with precision for Reynolds qualities,and the film will certainly please his fans!.
Malone was released in May 1987, just a few short months after Reynolds had released his 'comeback' movie Heat.
Heat bombed and so did Malone..and everyother Burt movie after that.
However, do not let that fool you into thinking you should miss Malone..on the contrary, it is vital viewing for any Reynolds or action fan!
Malone is a disillusioned CIA operative, he wants out and he tells his partner that in the opening scene.Malone heads off in his classic car.However,the car breaks down near a small town.Malone befriends the garage owner and his young daughter.However,his stay in the town is far from dull.He finds out that most of the shops/hotels are closed down due to properties being bought by the mysterious Delaney.
This is a good job as she takes care of him after an assassination attempt by the zealots.However,she is then targeted and killed.This means only one thing..Malone is now out for revenge.
Cue the classic 80's style ending.Lots of bad guys chasing after hero in deserted building and getting killed off one and one to leave hero with main villain.
A review of Reynolds other movie 'Heat' suggested you shout the movie title every time some action happened.
I suggest the same here..There is a scene when right-wing assassins come to kill Malone, they naturally fail but in trying to warn him, the young girl screams..all together now..M A L O N E!.
Ex-CIA hit-man running from his past (Richard Malone, played by Burt Reynolds) finds just how difficult it is to retire when he runs across a small town controlled by mercenaries and a family that is resisting their control.Reynolds is a smooth pimp, even kissing a young girl in front of her father.
Burt Reynolds did an awesome job as Malone, I thought he did real well as a CIA-agent; I thought he did well fighting as he did shooting, in that one scene on the bridge where he busted that dude up that was awesome; and unfortunatley for the guy's brother there was something under that newspaper!
I have seen a number of burt reynold movies starting from deliverance, physical evidence, strip tease, mad dog time, hard time etc..
I happen to enjoy Burt Reynolds work in general and will never understand the sudden and irrational scorn heaped upon him in the 80's that led to his starring in this kind of bargain basement dreck and retreating to TV as a result."Malone" commits the greatest sin any film can; it is dreary and bland.
Bad movies don't generally bother me as long as there is some enthusiasm and style, this has neither, it just plods along as if the director couldn't care less and just wanted to get it over with.At least disasters like "Rent a Cop" and "Physical Evidence" were entertaining in how they failed, "Malone" is just DOA.Who are these people giving this thing a 10 rating?
The box-cover of " Malone " tells you all you really need to know about this movie if you're deciding to watch it or not ( at least the one I saw ).
( Combining Burt Reynolds, with a wild action role, and title called " Malone ", I ended up watching it for laughs )..
Yet another formulaic, mediocre vehicle for Burt Reynolds - how could he hope to regain his popularity with films like this?
It's pretty much a routine action drama of the time as well as an okay vehicle for veteran star Burt Reynolds.
Wingate) is awfully familiar stuff: Malone (Reynolds) is a former CIA assassin with no more desire to do his job, so he takes it on the lam.
Malone has arrived in this community just in time to get caught up in the schemes of Delaney (Cliff Robertson), a rich man buying up property like crazy; Delaney turns out to be a right wing zealot hoping to establish a base of operations in the area.Despite receiving a very serious bullet wound at one point, Malone is a tough s.o.b. who takes on all comers.
Reynolds delivers a commendably low key performance in the lead, the ever likable Wilson is excellent as always, Robertson is amusing in a very unsubtle turn, and Gibb (whose character Jo becomes quite attached to Malone) is endearing.
Lauren Hutton co-stars as the CIA agent sent to take care of the Malone problem, Kenneth McMillan is the local sheriff, and Tracey Walter and Dennis Burkley play a troublesome pair of redneck brothers working for Delaney.If nothing else, this obvious "Shane" homage should be a mild diversion for Reynolds fans.Six out of 10..
Appreciative movie by Burt Reynolds.
Burt Reynold's might go low-key and solemn for his performance in "Malone", but when it came to delivering the action
it's a full-on assault.
Still what stood out to me just how closely it followed Clint Eastwood's formula in the 1985 western "Pale Rider", especially the connection the between the young impressionable girl (the delightful Cynthia Gibb) and the ex-CIA hit-man drifter who unwillingly gets caught up a small town drama.
Like that of Hutton's assassin, in what feels like nothing more than to push the plot along and add motivation.Malone was a CIA hit-man who suddenly calls it quits despite the disapproval of his bosses.
Nonetheless some scenes do pack a punch and the striking sequence of Reynold's coming out of the shadows to confront Cliff Robertson's callously patriotic bad-guy is a marvellous touch.
Going back to serious roots, Reynold's "Malone" is sober, tough and mindless action."Are you so important?".
Burt Reynolds star as Malone, an ex CIA agent who comes to small town and helps a family against greedy businessmen led by Cliff Robertson, at first Malone doesn't want to get involved as he is trying to keep a low profile however after an attack in town, he feels obligated to fight back.
The movie is fairly un-credible with Reynolds getting hit by a shotgun and getting better in days, normally plot holes like that don't bother me but when the movie is so low on action and lame in script, you question the movie's decision to be character driven.
Malone Promises Action, Good Acting And Lots Of Fun ...
Like The Classic 1953 Alan Ladd Movie "Shane" Or The 1985 Clint Eastwood Movie "Pale Rider", Burt Reynold As Malone Rides Into A Down Trodden Town Where Good People Are Being Harassed By The Powers That Be, The Movie Is Similar To The Two Mentioned Including The Love Smitten Young Lady ...
It's not the most memorable of returns, but in a way it's kind of cool for someone's of Burt's stature to make a comeback in a film like this, where incidentally, in Adelaide, it only ran a week.
His car breaks down outside this shitty town that is slowly being taken over by land baron (Cliff Robertson who plays good guy that mask's bad underneath, with a restrained professionalism.
Burt who's taken in by a gas station attendant and his daughter gets caught in another feud, instantly making an arch enemy with the local sheriff, who we can't discern if he's good or bad.
I love it at the end when he balks as making a pathetic attempt to arrest Burt, after he's taken down all the bad guys.
However, I watched it two times, as I love Burt Reynolds (as an actor, of course).
Burt Reynolds is ex-cop ex-cia agent Richard Malone and he was never better.
Malone (1987) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Malone (Burt Reynolds) is an ex-CIA agent who was used as a hitman.
It turns out that a man named Delaney (Cliff Robertson) is trying to force people out of this small town so that he can operate some sort of twisted game.
Malone decides to come to the rescue of the people he's been staying with.MALONE is a pretty routine action film but at the same time it's certainly a lot better than the "A" pictures that Reynolds was doing earlier in the decade.
It's funny to think that Reynolds career was booming thanks to films like THE CANNONBALL RUN, its sequel and STROKER ACE even though they were all quite terrible.
The public soon caught up to that fact and before long the actor was making "B" movies.I must say, going through some of these films there's no question that the "B" movies I've watched were a lot more entertaining and that holds true for MALONE.
Cynthia Gibb and Scott Wilson were good as the folks who take in Reynolds' character.There are some decent and rather bloody action scenes and it appears that the filmmakers really wanted a lot of blood when it came to the shooting victims.
Bodies consuming other bodies, this is a Burt Reynolds action movie.
As an 80's action movie Malone is good, classic gun violence and gore mixed with coke-inspired plot/production value.
The script is just so awful, you will want to watch it over and over again just to make sure you heard it right.I can't wait for this to come out on DVD with commentary by Burt Reynolds.
one of the last great Burt Reynolds action flix.
this is one of, if not the last, of the great Reynolds action flix, and shockingly it is not available on DVD, while such horrid Burt movies such as stroker ace and cop and a half are.
although Burt seems to think he is Mr. Majesty is this fine flick, it is just an awesome movie set in the Oregon wilderness where ex-fed Burt has to kick some big bully bad guys such as cliff Robertson's tail.....in terms of pure pimpitude, Burt gets a 10 here, never has his toupee, bad stache, tight jeans, and shades been on such display, and he can still play the ladies, but the bad guys are his real targets in Malone.
someone please bring out that all time classic Malone on DVD, and remind folks of how great action flicks could be pre segal, the rock, and van dam.....when Burt, chuck Bronson, and Clint reigned supreme, with Sly Stallone still trying to escape from clubber lang and thunderfoot.
Once upon a time, in the 1970s, Burt Reynolds vied with Clint Eastwood for Hollywood male movie star domination at the box office.
When Malone's ex partner and lover (Lauren Hutton) ends up with a plastic bag over her head at the hands of Delaney's thugs his aversion to all the killing and stuff, etc, etc, is forgotten and Burt and his trusty toupé embark on a one man wigged-out mission to blow them all away.What can I tell you.
Cliff Robertson has the quizzically stunned expression of a man who once won a best actor Oscar and is now wondering just what the hell happened to his career and just how did he wind up a second stringer in films like MALONE.Yet I don't resent this movie one iota.
As far as I am concerned Burt Reynolds is John Malone.
You realize a movie is bad when it cannot help but under-develop its own story's importance, it's reason for being."Malone" is fun to watch for all the wrong reasons; character motivations do not hold up under scrutiny, a sense of urgency is never established, and ***SPOILER AHEAD*** the last ten minutes or so is Burt Reynolds one-by-one murdering miscellaneous henchmen and then detonating explosives.
MALONE is a typical 1980s-era cheeseball action thriller, starring none other than Burt Reynolds as the tough ex-CIA agent who finds himself involved in small town politics.
The film takes rather a long time to get going, too bogged down in familiar plotting to really stand out, although the presence of such stars as Cliff Robertson and Scott Wilson help to keep it watchable.
Where this does excel is in the action scenes, which are some of the most violent of the era; the blood squibs are bloodier than ever, and there's a sadistic delight taken in watching Reynolds blasting the bad guys with his hand cannon..
"Malone" came at a time when the name of Burt Reynolds was no longer considered a top box office draw.
The above movie does include some effective scenes of action, even though the plot is about as routine as it gets.
Bad guys shouldn't have killed Malone's love interest.
Richard Malone is an ex-CIA agent, who wants to forget his past and maybe start things all over again.Travelling through the United States, Malone has to stop for a few days in a small but beautiful town, after his car breaks down.He soon becomes a friend of a family, and discovers that an eccentric millionaire of the region, Charles Delaney, keeps all the habitants of the town under his power, by fear and coalition.What Delaney really wants is to become the next president and, soon, dominate the world.But Malone decides not to make things so easy for Delaney: using his CIA profit, he will challenge him and all his hired assassins...When Burt did Shane...A typical action movie from Burt an MGM which were rife during the late eighties, but this is noticeable for three things, Burts wonderful wig, Burts increasingly tight trouser and shirt combo, and one of the most strangest bro-mances I have ever seen.To let someone with a moustache of that calibre stay in your house after only meeting them once is strange, but the relationship the two male leads have is beyond the volleyball scene in Top Gun.For the rest of the movie though, it's pretty standard, if very watchable stuff.
Richard Malone (Reynolds) is a former CIA assassin and Special Ops soldier whose car breaks down in the sleepy burg of Comstock, Oregon.
This takes up a good 20-30 percent of the film's running time.
"Black Moon Rising" director Harley Cokeliss and British scenarist Christopher Frank have done neither novelist William Wingate nor actor Burt Reynolds any favors with their pallid cinematic adaptation of the novel "Shotgun." A contemporary remake of "Shane," this interesting actioneer doesn't live up to its promise.
Burt Reynolds is an ex CIA hit man who coincidentally gets caught up in some sort of well-funded, ultra-patriotic plot in a small town in Oregon.
It's a strictly routine action movie put together with all the generic elements -- the car chase, the exploding fireball, the oily hood who never blinks, the villainous smirk, the hero who holds his feelings in check, the ugly guns, the incandescent eyeballs of the man behind the curtain.Burt Reynolds is a likable guy.
I really like this movie i'm a huge Burt Reynolds fan more so his early stuff, i now he,s done some bad movies but name one actor who hasn't.
In this one he is an Ex CIA man on a kind of a self retirement holiday from the Company who,s car happens to breakdown in a small town run by self appointed leader Cliff Robertson. |
tt0040000 | The Woman on the Beach | Scott (Robert Ryan), a mounted Coast Guard officer, suffers from recurring nightmares involving a maritime tragedy. He sees himself immersed in an eerie landscape surrounded by a shipwreck and walking over skeletons at the bottom of the sea while a ghostly blond woman beckons him from afar. He thinks he is going mad. But at the same time, he decides to propose to Eve (Nan Leslie), a young woman working at Geddes, a local shipyard catering to the Coast Guard. She accepts. Eve has a strong resemblance to the ghostly blond of his nightmares.
While riding by the seaside on his horse, Scott meets Peggy (Joan Bennett), a brunette, the mysterious wife of Tod (Charles Bickford), a blind painter. At first, though, he rides by her as she stands near a shipwreck protruding from the sand; she seems like an eerie echo from his nightmares. After a conversation, they discover that they share similar metaphysical anxieties. A bond develops between the two but the situation gets more tangled when Tod tries to befriend Scott. Tod's attitude toward Scott, apart from his friendship, is also ambivalent. The retired painter tries to test Peggy and Scott to gauge how far they could go in their relationship. Outwardly Tod seems confident; he even tells Peggy that he knows she could never leave him and that he finds Scott, a much younger man, virile but banal.
However behind this facade lies a deeply wounded man who cannot come to terms with the fact that because of his blindness, he cannot paint any longer. In one exchange with Scott he tells him that dead painters' works always appreciate in value. Indeed, he expects the value of his paintings to increase, considering he is now 'dead' as a painter.
Initially Scott is suspicious of Tod's motives; he also suspects that Tod is not blind. Scott is also increasingly interested in Peggy, who returns his attentions. During an outing that Scott sets up to test the painter, he moves Tod near the edge of a cliff, but then inadvertently lets him fall, thinking that he will be forced to see and therefore avoid the fall at the last minute. After this mishap, Tod eventually recovers. He at first thinks that Scott would now become his friend since the fall would remove any doubts about his true blindness. But soon after Tod exhibits abusive behavior toward Peggy when he realizes that she has hidden his masterpiece, his portrait of her. Seeing this, Scott tries to protect her.
As Scott grows more attracted to Peggy, he becomes ambivalent toward his earlier relationship with Eve Geddes. Eve in turn, sensing Scott's infatuation with Peggy, becomes distant and asks Scott to delay their marriage plans. The narrative reaches one climax when Scott attempts to drown both Tod and himself during a boat outing with him that started as a fishing trip. By trying to pierce the bottom of the boat, it's apparent that Scott has put himself in danger as well, since he would be swimming helpless in the stormy seas had he been successful at this attempt. This scene illustrates the degree of his desperation, if not madness.
This attempt by Scott to drown Tod reveals the depth of his emotional attachment to Peggy. Scott's plan fails, however, because Peggy, who seemingly went along with his plan, has a change of heart and alerts the authorities. Both Tod and Scott are eventually rescued by the Coast Guard. Eve, part of the rescue team, echoes the metaphysical connection to the blonde of his undersea nightmare who beckoned Scott in his dreams.
In the film's finale, Tod burns all his paintings along with the house he and Peggy lived in. Peggy frantically tries to stop Tod and save the paintings: they are worth a fortune. She fails, as Scott forces her out of the collapsing house. After they have moved safely away, Scott asks Tod why he did it. Tod says the paintings were a symbol of the obsession he had with his previous, sighted life. Now that Tod's obsession with his past has been purged, he is free to go on with his life. He asks Peggy to take him to New York, where they have happy memories of their earlier life together. Afterwards she may "do as she pleases". Peggy embraces Tod. Observing this, Scott leaves them. | intrigue | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0034449 | All Through the Night | Alfred "Gloves" Donahue (Humphrey Bogart), a big-shot Broadway gambler, is alerted by his mother, 'Ma' Donahue (Jane Darwell), that her neighbor, Mr. Miller (Ludwig Stossel), a baker who makes Gloves' favorite cheesecake, is missing. Upon searching the bakery, Gloves finds Miller's dead body. A young singer, Leda Hamilton (Kaaren Verne), quickly leaves the shop upon hearing about Miller's demise. Mrs. Donahue believes that the girl knows something and tracks her down to a night club, where she creates a racket by "crabbing" about Miller's death. Co-partner of the Duchess Club, Marty Callahan (Barton MacLane), calls Gloves, insisting that he come down and take care of the situation. While at the club, Gloves has a drink with Leda that is interrupted by her piano player, Pepi (Peter Lorre), who takes her away to a back room, where he shoots Marty's partner, Joe Denning (Edward Brophy). Lena and Pepi then disappear in a taxi as Gloves stumbles upon Joe. Before dying, Joe raises up five fingers to indicate who took Leda. Gloves quickly leaves to search for Leda, inadvertently leaving one of his gloves at the murder scene.
While being suspected of Joe's murder by Marty and the police, Gloves traces the taxi to an antique/auction house, named I.J. Madison, Inc. Importers and Exporters, operated by Hall Ebbing (Conrad Veidt) and his assistant, Madame (Judith Anderson). While posing as a bidder in the successful acquisition of a desk, Gloves is recognized by Pepi. He subsequently gets knocked-out by Leda, tied up, and left in a storage room with one of his boys, Sunshine (William Demarest), who was earlier captured. Later, Leta visits them, enabling them to break free from their ropes before they are packed up in crates and shipped out. Before escaping, Gloves and Sunshine walk into a room with maps, charts, a short-wave radio, and a portrait of Adolf Hitler, now knowing that their captors are "fivers" or Nazi fifth columnists, which is what Joe was indicating before he died. Gloves finds a notebook and reads Miller's name in it as well as that of "Leda Hamilton", her Jewish name "Uda Hammel", and the death of her father "Ludwig Hammel" at the Dachau concentration camp.
With Leda in tow, they escape the building by climbing down from a balcony. They are chased by Ebbing and his cronies into Central Park. It is here that Leda explains that she is working with Ebbing only to save her father's life at Dachau. While Gloves fights with a Nazi, Leda reads the torn-out page that states her father is already dead. Gloves and Leda go to the police, who search the antique house but find it empty. Disbelieving Glove's story, they attempt to arrest him, but he escapes by diving into the East River. He arrives at his lawyer's (Wallace Ford) apartment, only to have Marty and his mob break in, eager to avenge Joe's murder. After Gloves convinces them of his innocence, the two gangs join forces against the Nazi spies.
Gloves, Sunshine, and Barney (Frank McHugh) go to the police station where Leda is being held. Ebbing, however, has bailed her out, and they arrive as she is being forced into a car. They chase the car to a shop named Madison Novelty Co., where an underground Nazi meeting is being held. Gloves and Sunshine pose as Nazi cronies to get into the meeting, which eventually gets broken up by the combined gangs. Ebbing escapes, shooting Pepi to death, as he refused to take part in a two-man suicide mission. Ebbing intends to proceed on the plan to blow up a battleship in New York harbor. Gloves follows him to the docks, where Ebbing surprises him and forces him into a motorboat containing high explosives. At gunpoint, Ebbing forces Gloves to steer the boat in the direction of the battleship. Gloves suddenly veers the boat off its course, and he jumps into the water, while the boat with Ebbing on board crashes into a barge and explodes.
Back at the police station, Gloves and Leda find out that all charges have been dropped against them and that the mayor is going to honor him at city hall. Ma Donahue enters complaining that the milkman has disappeared, and she is afraid something has happened to him. Gloves asks: "What makes you think that?" Ma states, "Well, son, I've got a feeling", as the movie ends. | murder | train | wikipedia | Humphrey Bogart and a cast of comedians and character actors make it "All Through the Night," a spy story set in New York City.
As propaganda, it goes down easily with a terrific cast and some hilarious moments, particularly when Bogart and Demarest attend a secret meeting posing as Nazis.The plot, of course, is preposterous, and the notes that Bogart finds in Veidt's desk are, for some reason, written in English instead of German, but none of that takes away from the enjoyment of the movie.The performances are all excellent, but Bogart is a wonder.
Ma Donahue comes to ask her son's assistance in trying to solve the murder of her baker neighbor, and the fun and games begin in full force.There are a lot of good moments in the film, but it is dominated by Humphrey Bogart who runs away with the picture.
His crew is also a great asset to the film, Frank McHugh, a fantastic actor, no matter in what picture is excellent, as well as William Demarest, one of the best character actors in the movies of that era.
The chase for the killer(s) is on...You cannot watch this movie without smiling at the antics of Frank McHugh, the character actor who endeared himself to many during the 30s and 40s.Conrad Veidt is phenomenally evil as the Nazi spy and it's important to remember this man actually fled from Germany to reside in England and America, giving all of his monies and salaries to the British Government to fight the Nazi menace.
A search for the murderer of their friendly neighborhood German baker and a nightclub bouncer leads New York City "sports promoter" (read: bookie) Gloves Donahue (Humphrey Bogart in one of his most entertaining roles) and his sidekicks Sunshine (William Demarest) and Barney (Frank McHugh, or as we affectionately call him, "Annabelle's Husband," in honor of the film's running gag about his character's newlywed status) to a nest of Fifth Columnists with sabotage on their minds, right in the middle of Manhattan!
The high concept of this fast, funny, suspenseful Warners adventure is basically "Damon Runyon Meets The Nazis." I especially got a kick out of the breezy, sometimes punny dialogue (like "We'll get them by the seat of their Panzers" and "Hey, there's more here than meets the FBI!") and its delightful euphemisms for Bogie's line of work, such as "man about town and well-known figure in the sporting world." (My late dad was a bookie, so I should know!
;-) Bogart, Demarest, McHugh, and charming leading lady Kaaren Verne are joined by smooth villains Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre, and Judith Anderson, and on the good guys' team, Jane Darwell (as Bogie's mom!), Edward Brophy, Barton MacLane, and even a young Phil Silvers and Jackie (C.) Gleason!
One day, Jack Warner wandered into his studio commissary, noticed all these contract players sitting around drinking coffee and screamed, 'Get 'em all into a movie...NOW!' I submit: Jackie Gleason William Demarest Frank McHugh Wally Ford Peter Lorre Conrad Viedt Judith Anderson James Burke Not enough?
Lorre and Veidt and Dame Judith Anderson are wonderfully villainous, and a couple of future superstars -- Phil Silvers and Jackie Gleason -- make their debuts as members of Bogart's gang.
Kaaren Verne is the heroine who the Nazis are using to entice Bogey, she's working for them because she believes this will save her father still in the fatherland.Bogey has such people working for him as William Demarest, Frank McHugh, Wallace Ford, Jackie Gleason and Phil Silvers.
Minor Gem. A neat little comic thriller out of Warner Brothers with Bogart as Gloves Donahue and a great supporting cast filled with names that run on and on.
You might have seen it in Sam Taylor's screenplay for "North by Northwest.") Great snappy lines -- Bogart to a girl singer: "Sister, I like da way you sling dem obligattos around." While digging around for evidence with his friend Sunshine, "Da police are frequently skeptical." Not as tightly wound as the best comic thrillers, including "North by Northwest" and "The Thirty-Nine Steps," but well worth wasting time on..
All Through the Night is the closest thing to a Hitchcock movie starring Humphrey Bogart in which an ordinary man gets caught up in espionage and becomes a fugitive for a crime he didn't commit with moments in the film such as the auction scene or Bogart deliberately getting arrested by police directly reminded me of North by Northwest; likewise the movie even stars Judith Anderson in the Mrs. Danvers hairstyle from Rebecca while Bogart's exploits against the movie's Nazi villains gives an urban Indiana Jones edge to the film.
All Through the Night features a large selection of character actors at some of their best work and even features a young Jackie Gleason in one of his earliest film roles; what more secrets does this movie hold?
had already long established themselves as an anti-Nazi studio.By the time I watched All Through the Night I had already seen all of Bogart's major movies and figured I was largely finished exploring the actor's filmography, thus it came as such a delight discovering this obscure gem which satisfied me more than many of his more famous movies.
The story is so blah that after an hour, it's tough to stay focused.It's incredible to make those statements when you consider the cast includes Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre, Jane Darwell, Frank McHugh, Jackie Gleason, Judith Anderson, Phil Silvers and William Demarest.The film isn't all that bad, but if you have a collection of films that is of any size, as I do, this wasn't good enough to be a "keeper.".
Comedy bits filter the fisticuffs.Star studded cast helping Bogart includes: Peter Lorre, William Demarest, Jane Darwell, Jackie Gleason, Phil Silvers, Wallace Ford and Judith Anderson.
It's nothing like the great Bogarts, but it really doesn't pretend to be.Bogart plays a New York gambler ("Gloves" Donahue) who has an organization filled with good-natured roughnecks that include the likes of Frank McHugh, William Demarest, Jackie Gleason, and Phil Silvers.
They stumble across an organization of Nazi saboteurs led by a trio of delightful villains played by Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre, and Judith Anderson.The resulting plot developments are wildly implausible, and the dialogue sometimes silly, but it is all good fun as long as you weren't expecting "Casablanca" or "Key Largo".
It's no longer as impressive as it was upon its release nearly 70 years ago, but ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT holds up fairly well as a curious blend of mystery, action, comedy and flag-waving.Humphrey Bogart leads a rag-tag bunch of Manhattan gamblers who take on as their patriotic duty a battle against Nazis who hope to paint the city red with their despicable brand of hate.
Though it boasts an impressive cast (Bogey, Peter Lorre and Conrad Veidt are at the top of their game), lively dialog and good action sequences, the film suffers from some faults.
Jackie Gleason, William Demarest, Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, Phil Silvers in one movie???The story is a great roller coaster ride.
Not only is it a great Fifth Column support the war effort movie, but it is funny, endearing and incredibly well acted.I'm not sure how someone could say Bogart wasn't good at comedy!
Hot on the trail, Bogart meets duplicitous songstress Kaaren Verne (as Leda Hamilton), who leads him to a New York City gang of Nazi sympathizers."All Through the Night" begins as a broad, Damon Runyon-stylized comedy.
The incongruence is amazing, the cast unique.***** All Through the Night (12/2/41) Vincent Sherman ~ Humphrey Bogart, Kaaren Verne, William Demarest, Peter Lorre.
Though made prior to "Casablanca" (1942), this film features Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt and Peter Lorre, who would all have major roles in that film.Humphrey Bogart leads the cast with an excellent performance as Alfred "Gloves" Donahue, indifferent to World War II until drawn into a world of subterfuge.
If you can overlook the silly plot for the sake of enjoying a cast that includes Bogart, Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt and Judith Anderson--and don't expect too much--you might enjoy some of the shenanigans going on here as gambler Bogart and his cronies try to tear the lid off a Nazi spy ring.
Some of the dialogue is amusing and on target, but too much of the humor is on the level of a Bowery Boys movie as are the shootouts with Nazis and gangsters in assorted New York settings that look like leftover sets from old Warner films.
...when you're cheering the Nazis, but any person with discernment will feel more warmly towards Judith Anderson, Conrad Veidt and their sweet little pet dachshund working for the Axis than Humphrey Bogart and his bumbling group of wisecracking slimeballs, supposedly representing the American way of life.
what we have here is a real funny look at a Nazi Invasion into the murky Depths of New York and Bogart aptly named 'Gloves' Donahue' stumbles upon this and along with the fabulous Frank McHugh have a laugh a minute during their pursuance trying to out them and convince the Police that there is an Invasion.
We also have that great actor Peter Lorre who at one point in the film is referred to by Bogart as 'Weasel' and some memorable scenes bring us other stars from the past like Phil Silvers who has an hilarious role during a mass punch up.
You cannot watch this movie without Laughing at the funny scenes played out by Frank McHugh, the character actor who i feel is so so underrated in the film world.
Boggie made great classic movies,but this one certainly is not one of them,the mix of a serious matter with comedy it's too much,unconvincing plot driven the movie to a low degree,some scenes are really great like in Central Park,but the remains is poor saved by Boggie's charisma together with quite often perfection acting of Conrad Veitd and Peter Lorre...silly patriotic in time war!!l'd expected more!!
Plus, for fans like me who love familiar movie extras, this one is jam-packed--with Frank McHugh, William Demarest and a very young Jackie Gleason (among others) as well as Conrad Veidt and Peter Lorre as the "baddies"..
All through the Night, one of Humphrey Bogart's lesser-known films, is an often-funny, tightly written spy caper wherein our antihero, playing "promoter" Gloves Donahue, finds himself in the middle of a nest of Nazis trying to sabotage a battleship in New York City.It seems that local baker Joe has been murdered by persons unknown.
Despite Gloves efforts to alert the police to what's going on he in fact becomes their #1 suspect, in Pepi planting one of Gloves' gloves at the murder scene, in Mr. Miller's murder!As things turn out it's nightclub singer Leda Hamilton, Kaaren Verne, who also works for the Nazi spy and sabotage ring who helps Gloves out in that she finds out that her German born father who was being head hostage by the Nazis in Germany's notorious Dachau concentration camp was murdered by them.
Very glad Turner Classic Movies are bringing these old classics out of the mothballs.While it will probably not be remade due to the period references (although it could theoretically be done replacing Al-Quaeda for the Nazi references) it should be considered a classic.Besides the great combination of comedy with action, it is great to see some favorite character actors (including Uncle Charley from "My Three Sons" and the General from "I Dream of Jeannie") along with younger versions of favorites including the creepy Peter Lorre, a comically toupeed Phil Silvers, and a slightly rotund Jackie Gleason.Central to this story is our hero, Bogie.
Very funny spoof of detective/spy movies starring the king of them all -- Humphrey Bogart -- as a small-time gambler/racketeer who gets involved with a lovely lady and the nazi agents (including the always excellent Veidt) she's caught up with.
The fight sequence at the end also is reminiscent of similar scenes in those films but on a smaller scale.The inner plot about the German spy ring operating in New York would have made a better picture if they had eliminated the so-called "Bogary Boys" comedy sequences.At this stage of his career, Bogey was not very believable trying to be Leo Gorcey, especially after "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon".
Silly Fun. All Through the Night (1941) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Bizarre, silly and over the top picture from Warner has a racketeer (Humphrey Bogart) getting mixed up with a strange woman (Kaaren Verne) who just happens to be involved with a group of Nazis (Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre).
It is no different in ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT, which can proudly boast of names such as: Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre, Ed Brophy, Kaaren Verne, Jane Darwell, Frank Sully, William Demarest, Judith Anderson, Wallace Ford, Barton MacLane and Frank McHugh.
The funnest part is spotting all of the well-known faces like that of Bogie, Peter Lorre, Frank MacHugh, Phil Silvers, Jackie Gleason and the ever cranky William Demarest.This was a typical Hollywood propaganda movie of the time that stirred up patriotic feelings towards the Nazi.
After the attacks on September 11, 2001, films like "All Through the Night" seem much closer to reality, especially this one with its New York City setting.Gloves Donahue (Humphrey Bogart) is about as interested in World War II as Scarlett O'Hara was in the civil war.
Bogart was in good form as a racketeer, who comes up against Nazi spies, headed by Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre, and Judith Anderson, and prefers patriotism to the profits of crime
Several things seriously frightened the film's success
It was released very shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a bad time for portraying a quasi-realistic spy tale in a laughable manner
The film also suffered from an overt case of "cuteness" in its dialog, with such lines as ' Say, there's more here than meets the FBI.,' being uttered all too frequently by Bogart and his comic retinue which included Frank McHugh, William Demarest, Jackie Gleason, and Phil Silvers
Another weak point in the film was completely unbelievable "cliffhanger" ending which found Veidt driving a speedboat loaded with explosives toward a battleship
In spite of these minor irritants, the film did give Bogart a chance to do some very creditable comedy work and on the whole it still entertains.
With it's combination of various genres (Runyonese gangsters,comedy,spy drama,mystery,thriller,Nazi villains,wartime propaganda),ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT could've been an unwieldy and confusing melange of styles;that it is not is a tribute to it's behind the scenes crew (splendidly led by Vincent Sherman) and wonderful cast,with arguably Hollywood's most imperishable star,Humphrey Bogart,at it's epicentre.Genial gangster Gloves Donahue (Bogart) probes into the killing of a friend, Miller (Ludwig Stossel),a baker whose cheesecake Gloves has been eating for years.His investigations lead him onto a nightclub singer (Kaaren Verne) who reveals that like Miller she's under the whim of an organisation of Nazi fifth columnists,led by the urbane but sinister Ebbing (Conrad Veidt).Gloves himself is under suspicion of murder,and exposing the Nazis involved intent on sabotage is the only way to prove his innocence.ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT is a scandalously underrated effort in the Humphrey Bogart catalogue.Perhaps the fact that the story involved is played for laughs rather than grim drama has led critics in the past to feel the tone was overly facetious and jokey,lacking the greater sophistication of the immortal CASABLANCA for example.It is very true on the last point,but overall as a piece of all-round entertainment,this film is very hard to beat.This is a quintessential Hollywood studio product of the early 1940's;Warner Bros'studio back-lots glistening with rain,fog and atmosphere,dark corners,warehouses,swanky nightclubs and docklands,breathlessly unpretentious direction by Vincent Sherman,a witty,exciting,fast-moving script that covers up the implausibilities of the plot,and a quite extraordinary cast of outstanding character actors,such as William Demarest,Peter Lorre,Judith Anderson,Edward Brophy,Barton MacLane,Jane Darwell,Phil Silvers,Jackie Gleason,James Burke and Wallace Ford.The very appealing ingredients above combined make this an irresistibly entertaining brew.There are several minor flaws;Frank McHugh is a little over-strident as a newly-attached bridegroom;Sam MacDaniel's brief role shows that Hollywood still had a long way to go before conquering it's crude Negro stereotyping,and Kaaren Verne is rather colourless and ineffectual as the main female lead.Bogart himself was not always completely assured when just playing straight comedy,yet he still handles it with his usual style and charisma,and works very well in tandem with the ever reliable Demarest and others with the Runyonese-style dialogue and situations.Bogie remember was still in the very early stages of his new-found stardom after years playing a variety of unpleasant hoodlums and gangsters,and he would reunite with Veidt and Lorre soon afterwards in perhaps the most beloved Hollywood production of them all,CASABLANCA.There is a rousing,exciting finale when various friends and cronies of Bogart battle it out with the Nazi villains in their secret headquarters,though this is slightly off-put by a dockland-based sequence involving Bogart and Veidt which goes somewhat over the top and is afflicted by unconvincing model work.Nevertheless,ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT is a hugely enjoyable and entertaining example of wartime Hollywood,when talent,professionalism and actors could paper over the cracks of a story which was often dubious and lacking in credibility.What a shame there are very few indeed in this day and age who can come nowhere near such admirable qualities.RATING:8 out of 10..
It features Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt and Peter Lorre in a war time propaganda film that wasn't called "Casablanca", and goes on to defeat the Germans on home soil.
Imagine his unhappiness when his favorite baker is found murdered - and the cops wonder if he's involved.Bogart and his gang (including right hand man William Demerest, but also the new faces of Phil Silvers and Jackie Gleason are among them) begin to investigate.
Great cast here-Bogie,Lorre, Veidt, Anderson, Phil Silvers(!) Jackie Gleason(!!) in early roles, character guys galore-Demarest, Frank Herbert, Barton Maclane, etc heck even the little bald hotel clerk, the chunky Santa like guy in the Auction audience and the varied Nazis all were in literally 100's of movies back when. |
tt0101898 | Flirting | Danny Embling (Noah Taylor), now an awkward, underdeveloped 17-year-old, has been sent away by his parents to the all-male St. Albans boarding school in rural New South Wales, Australia, in the hopes he won’t become a delinquent. The year is 1965 and it has been some time since Danny has had any romantic relationship with a girl (his former love, Freya, from The Year My Voice Broke, left him at the end of the first film). Danny is the butt of jokes because of his stutter and long nose (for which he is nicknamed "Bird"). His only friend is Gilbert.
At a school rugby game, he meets and slowly becomes interested in Thandiwe Adjewa (Thandie Newton), a Ugandan-Kenyan-British girl (Ugandan father and Kenyan-British mother) attending the all-girls Cirencester Ladies’ College across the lake, while her father, a political activist, is lecturing at university in Canberra. They later meet at a debate between the two schools, and covertly during a school dance. She is punished for leaving the dance without permission and is given chores by the prefect, Nicola Radcliffe (Nicole Kidman). Thandiwe is later befriended by Melissa (Kym Wilson) and Janet (Naomi Watts).
Throughout the course of the school year, they foster a budding romance, despite the overbearing regulations inflicted upon them – specifically racial politics and social conventions (Thandiwe is often regarded by the school authorities as rebellious and overtly sexual). After the performance of the musical, Danny introduces his parents to Thandiwe and her parents. They later decide to return to Uganda in response to the political turmoil there. Soon Thandiwe decides to return too, and lies about her true departure date, in order to spend the night in a motel with Danny. They are discovered, leading to his expulsion. Thandiwe writes him regularly from Uganda, but then the letters stop coming. One day a letter arrives from Nairobi saying she is finally safe there. | romantic, sadist | train | wikipedia | This is the best of all the adolescent/coming of age/high school genre films.
His eventual love is a new student at the girls school, she is from Uganda (British educated) and is different enough to be a target of ridicule from her peers.
It is fun to watch, authentic and original at the same time, a coming of age flick in the English boarding school tradition of "Dead Poet's Society" (1989) and "A Separate Peace" (the novel, not the so-so movie).
Noah Taylor stars as Danny Embling, an outsider who reads Sartre and Camus while satirizing the school's empty traditions.
Across the lake is the girl's school where Thandiwe Adjewa (Thandie Newton), daughter of the Ugandan ambassador, is learning to meld with the Aussie pale faces, including a gifted pre-Hollywood Nicole Kidman.Thandie Newton and Noah Taylor, as beautifully directed by John Duigan, are the reasons this film is so good.
Imagine teenagers as witty and poised as say Eartha Kitt and Gore Vidal, and you get a hint of how it's played.Nicole Kidman as the snobby Nicola Radcliffe (the name says it all) manages a subtle supporting role with a diamond-in-the-rough kind of charm and just the right touch of on-screen growth.
I like Danny Embling's line as he deadpans to a re-robing Thandiwe, "They're all funny, aren't they?" Yes, those adults are a little peculiar.This is not unflawed, however.
There's a limit to how great a coming of age, boarding school movie can be, especially when the adults have only scarecrow parts.
Nonetheless "Flirting" is a confectioner's delight, and one of the best coming of age movies I've ever seen..
The main character is also the narrator, there's an ongoing reference to world events, there are adolescents growing into maturity, and there are some wonderfully rounded and recognisable individuals.Both main characters experience discrimination, including in Thandie Newton's case, racial discrimination both overt and implied - e.g. an Australian lad says to her "Your English is very good", to which she responds "So is yours"!On the surface it's just a coming-of-age school story, but the film continually rises above this to greater heights of poignancy and subtlety.Nicole Kidman is brilliant in the difficult role of the head of school who apparently has it all until, in one of the most moving moments of the film, her true self is revealed..
Taylor's lead role (Danny) is one of the most original I've seen on film -- the school nerd who is really a poet with more character than the rest of the school combined (including the staff).
The only reason I even watched this movie (at first) is because there was nothing else on tv, and I saw from the commercial that Nicole Kidman was in it.
I'd seen Noah Taylor in the Tomb Raider movie and loved his dorky, scatterbrained performance.
I rented the movie on video, and was surprised to find that very little was cut out; just a few slightly racier moments, and a foul word or two, plus one scene at the end was double-shot to have Thandie Newton in a bra and panties rather than naked.
Thandie Newton and Nicole Kidman also do a wonderful job (Plus both are walking dreams) This movie definitely surpasses The Year My Voice Broke.
Of course that's not to say that The Year My Voice Broke wasn't also very good, but this sequel adds much more to the tales that are coming of age stories.
The way Noah Taylor and Thandie Newton react to one another as their characters is exactly the way most of probably wish we could with our own first loves.
Noah Taylor from "Shine" and Thandie Newton from "MI2" and of course Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts.
Film is typical coming of age story but the unique angle is Newton's character as the daughter of an important African statesman and the result that we find out at the end of the film.
Before Nicole Kidman became an international superstar, she starred in this Australian flick about a romance between a white Australian boy (Noah Taylor, who played David Helfgott as a teenager in "Shine") and an African girl (Thandie Newton, of "Crash" fame) in a boarding school in the mid-'60s.
It sounds like something that could easily be a total cliché, but they do it quite well, developing the characters beyond what we anticipate.The main stars of "Flirting" certainly show the talent that they would bring to their later roles.
Nevertheless, it is an original film which is simply and cheaply made.The first strength of the film lies in the exquisite performances from great cast of the then unknown actors, 3 of whom have gone on to great performances in many other films (Taylor, Newton and Kidman).Secondly (assuming you are over 14 years old), the audience will have a strong feeling of resonation with the subject matter (growing up, alienation the school "norm", being allowed to behave differently etc).
The fact that the film is by a British director about an Australian boarding school probably means that the film has a wider appeal to all anglo-saxon nations.Finally, the humour is understated but engaging.I loved this film on release.
The irreverent Australian teen who survived the first advance of puberty in 'The Year My Voice Broke' finds himself enrolled in a strict, boys-only boarding school and attracted to a demure young girl (played by newcomer Thandie Newton, in a remarkably natural performance) from the equally cloistered girl's academy across the river.
He fact that she's a refugee from Uganda isn't an issue (except to indicate how each is an outsider in their respective schools), and their refreshingly colorblind romance lifts the film above the average horny teenage mating ritual.
Despite fine performances by Nicole Kidman and Noah Taylor in particular, Thandie Newton is the standout star of this film.
She is truly delightful; and anyone who has seen her since, and enjoyed her performances, ought to watch this movie because it demonstrates the range of her talents and how lovely she is.When one sees the "innocence" of a "star-in-the-making" like her performance in "Flirting," one hopes that she will display the same wonderful qualities throughout her career, and not become "Hollywood-ized." Hopefully some modicum of her beautiful innocence will remain, always.I have given this film a 9-star rating because of her!.
Well, there's nothing new here, but it turns adult rather quickly toward the end and allows us to leave it without feeling cheap.And isn't that part of the skill of these things, to allow us to visit the insecurities of youth (which we probably still have) and to do so safely and finally to recall the experience fondly (so we will tell our friends to see this movie).Nicole and Naomi aren't any reason to see this.
When I read the plot line, my first reaction was "How many times can they do this plot!" This is the story of a young man and woman who become romantically interested in each other in a prep school in Australia.
Flirting is about a young, interracial couple (African girl and white American boy) experiencing love despite the obstacles placed before them.
Many of the characters are complex and it is interesting watching them go through the experiences of youth as they come to know love and themselves..
In that respect, the film is better because, for once, the youngsters once characterized by Anthony Michael Hall and Shirley Temple suddenly become introspective humans, not cartoons.Danny Embling (Noah Taylor) is a gangly 17-year-old with a stutter to get over.
They've never felt love like this before, and they're going to make it count for the few months they have together.The majority of teen movies believe they have to be self-deprecatingly funny or overly simple to be successful, completely unaware that purity is ultimately more winning than materialistic quotability.
A movie like Flirting vibrates with poignancy; in the process, I connected with its sensitive characters and, eventually, built enough of a relationship with them to a point where I felt the need to compare their hesitations and choices to my very own life.
Duigan watches them move and applies their burgeoning ideals to even the hardest of moments; scenes, like the closing one (in which Danny and Thandiwe spend their last night together in a local hotel in order to properly say goodbye), defy expectations through their mannered receptiveness.A film like Flirting is easy to hold close to the heart because its conflicts have been felt by all.
(It also made stars out of Newton and Nicole Kidman, and kickstarted the careers of Taylor and Naomi Watts.) Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com.
the character of Danny is every mysterious person who is opened to a whole new world by this young African girl.
My cousin also watched it with me and was like, "wow i have a thing for that Danny character!".
Bullying, love, sex and even racism in a film that shows Nicole Kidman in one of her first roles.
Set in boarding schools, one all girls, one all boys, across the lake from each other, Noah Taylor(Tomb Raider), meets and falls in love with the new black girl from the girls school.
Since spending a great year in Australia I always try to watch any Australian movie I find, and I've been nicely surprised with how many good movies come from there.
"Flirting" is a lukewarm sequel and another chapter in the life of writer/director Duigan's character Danny Embling (Taylor) who falls in love with a beautiful African girl (Newton), both residents of his and hers Aussie boarding schools.
A coming of age flick, this restrained and pleasant love story treads softly and with tenderness, ignoring its potential for sexationalism, as it focuses on the young racially mixed couple in and among just so much period and boarding school filler.
It really was as if I was 18 again.It's worth mentioning that Thandie was only 18 when this film was shot in 1990; and her co-star Nicole Kidman wasn't much older than that either.
In this sequel to "The Year My Voice Broke" we find Danny facing adulthood (and it's less than attractive face) at an English boarding school.
Basically, Thandie Newtons character has an unlikely crush on a boy from a boarding school across the lake.
This film takes place in rural Australia in 1965 at an all-male boarding school with a young man named "Danny Embling" (Noah Taylor) recounting what his life was like during this time.
As it so happens, while watching a rugby game with his good friend "Gilby Fryer" (Bartholomew Rose) Danny just happens to meet an attractive African girl named "Thandiwe Adjewa" (Thandie Newton) who attends the all-female boarding school across the lake.
Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a good "coming of age" film which successfully dealt with the emotional attachments of two people for one another against a backdrop of racial prejudice.
That being said, although I liked the performances of both Noah Taylor and Thandie Newton, I must admit that I thought the ending could have used a bit of improvement.
In one school is Danny Embling (Noah Taylor), an introspective young man who reads Camus and Sartre; in the other school is Thandie Newton (Thandiwe Adjewa) the daughter of a Ugandan diplomat.
Noah Taylor and Thandie Newton, very young at the time, are both impressive and the chemistry between them feels right.
Anyway, it has the feel of a book movie, one of those rare films with unique and real characters and real situations.The basic story is of a "forbidden love" between a boy and a girl from different boarding schools "run by former Gestapo officers" as the lead describes their schools.
Basically something like frustrated nuns with no Christian moral are running the schools, forbidding any real display or opportunity for affection.It is a very cute movie, with a young Nicole Kidman in a secondary role.
This is a beautiful coming-of-age movie set in Australia.
Thandie Newton has really done an excellent job with her character, especially considering the fact that this was her first movie.
And Nicole Kidman, ever excellent as a snob is totally at home in her role, making us actually like her by the end of the movie!
What makes it different is the way it has been handled, the relationship between the protagonists(Danny and Thandie N's character), the fact that it is a period movie and its setting.
The characters, particularly Noah Taylor's portrayal of Danny Embling and Thandie Newton's Thandiwe, were extremely appealing and likable.
At the female boarding school across the lake, Thandiwe, as South African girl, finds herself facing similar alienation, but for different reasons.
(-I should add that this character is played by Thandie Newton, who lends an innocence and implied wit to the screen that she regretfully hasn't recreated since this role.) I realize that the "outcast boy meets outcast girl" (-with racial undertones) plot line has been done before.
Nothing great about this film about teen love.Actually preety bland although done with class and talent.But the reason this movie is highly regarded is becouse it is a shining example of what Hollywood must learn to go back to.More down to Earth stories and screenplays.More wine and less soda please.That is the yearning of people with intelligence and taste of a higher level.The U.S. has fer better talent than Australia and other countries and yet those countries can create quality simple movies such as this one due to the producers taking the correct path.Very good coming of age genre film.Tastefully done but could have been much better with better cinematography and a better ending.......
Danny Embling (Noah Taylor) is a student in an all-male boarding school.
Thandiwe Adjewa (Thandie Newton) is the new girl and she's bullied for being black.All the characters are so ugly in this movie.
I didn't really expect to like it all that much, but I must admit that it was a lot better than I first thought.In the 1960's Danny has been sent to a boarding school, where he becomes the target of bullies and sadistic teachers.
The acting by all actors, so not alone by the young Nicole Kidman is good and the story is nice.
Overall this is a nice movie that offers enough of good things like humor, drama, good acting and a nice story, to keep you interested until the end.
Australian college student film, white/black love affair, an early Nicole Kidman film..
He takes a liking to this dark student (Thandie Newton) from Uganda, and the rest of the film has them sneaking off at night to meet and "flirt." One guy to Thandie, "Where you from?
I do hope the best is yet to come from these fine actors and I'm sure their futures are bright.Much has been made of Nicole Kidman in this film but really she's only a secondary character as well as the young Naomi Watts.
I wish Hollywood would stop looking at this film as a Nicole Kidman vehicle when truly Taylor and Newton deserve the attention for this early work.This movie is also beautifully shot, especially the scenes when Danny rows his boat over the river by moonlight or watching the two of them skim rocks over the water surface or Danny at the end, reading Thandie's letter on the windy rocks and the sky suddenly clearing up on him.
At the very end Danny come to the very mature realization on the transcendent nature of true love, something which I don't think he understood in "The Year My Voice Broke".I actually went out and got this film on DVD and never tire of watching it from time to time, a sign of great film.
So it's not really just a "teen" movie, I think just about anyone who has had these experiences can appreciate this gem of a film.Do yourself a favour and try finding a copy, you won't regret it..
The TV guide summarized the plot something like: "Lonely Australian boy falls for Ugandan girl in sequel to, 'The Year My Voice Broke'".
Those films are less likely to wallop their main character because of his own foolishness; Thandiwe warns him against it, as does Gilbert (who has thoughtful advice for all sorts of situations), but Danny is compelled anyway, and is beaten to a pulp.
However, due to the extreme curiosity concerning sexuality and its subsequent hormonal antics, one early relationship manages to develop between the Australian Danny Embling (Noah Taylor) and Thandiwe Adjewa (Thandie Newton), who is born of a Ugandan father and a Kenyan-British mother.
Noah Taylor ('Shine') and Thandie Newton ('Mission: Impossible II', 'Crash', this being her first acting job) already show incredible potential which, like most good, young actors, seems to entice the viewer on a far higher level than a lot of their later, 'adult' work.
The supporting work by, among others, Nicole Kidman (at the age of 24) and a nearly unrecognizable Naomi Watts provide solid reasoners during the unfolding love story.
Coming of age in an austere boarding school must leave lasting impressions since we have so many books and movies about the experience.
Instead of the frivolous hanky panky that one thinks might ensue in such a movie, what we get is some real emotion.In one school is Danny Embling (Noah Taylor), an introspective young man who reads Camus and Sartre; in the other school is Thandie Newton (Thandiwe Adjewa) the daughter of a Ugandan diplomat.
Nicole Kidman plays a snobbish, but ultimately likable, classmate of Thandie with such believability that you wonder what she was like when she was younger.The issue of the mixed race relationship between Danny and Thandie is downplayed.
Nicole Kidman plays a snobbish, but ultimately likable, classmate of Thandie with such believability that you wonder what she was like when she was younger.The issue of the mixed race relationship between Danny and Thandie is downplayed. |
tt4934950 | Talvar | The film starts off with an introduction of Joint Director Ashwin Kumar at the annual function of India's premier police investigating agency, the Central Department of Investigation (CDI). At the function (1 April 2008), his senior officers hand him over a double murder case. The film then goes into a flashback of events leading to the murders.
On the night of 15–16 March 2008, Shruti Tandon (Ayesha Parveen), a 14-year girl is found dead at her home in Sameer Vihar of Noida, by her parents Ramesh (Neeraj Kabi) and Nutan (Konkona Sen Sharma). The local policemen, led by Inspector Dhaniram (Gajraj Rao) are incompetent, and do not know the basics of criminal investigation. Initially, they seek the missing servant Khempal. However, later, Khempal's decomposed body is found on the terrace of the building in which the Tandons live. The police question Khempal's close friend and Tandons' assistant Kanhaiya. Kanhaiya tells the police that Ramesh Tandon might have been involved in an extra-marital affair, and Khempal might have been involved in a relationship with Shruti. The police start suspecting the Tandons, and after sometime, declare the murders as a clear case of honour killing. On 25 March, the Noida police arrest Ramesh Tandon for the two murders. The police chief organizes a press conference in which he declares that Ramesh murdered Shruti and Khempal after finding them in a compromising position. This character assassination of Shruti leads to public outrage, and the case is handed over to the Central Department of Investigation (CDI), the country's elite investigating police agency.
The CDI team is led by Joint Director Ashwin Kumar (Irrfan Khan) and ACP Vedant (Soham Shah). Kumar holds contempt for the sloppy first responders who botched the initial crime-scene investigation. He believes the parents to be innocent, and methodically builds a case against the father's resentful assistant. His team uses narco tests, attempting to prove that the assistant and his two accomplices committed the murders. On 22 June 2008, he officially exonerates the parents, and Ramesh Tandon is released from the jail. The narrative also briefly discusses the dissolution of Kumar's marriage with Reema (Tabu).
Just as Ashwin Kumar is about to conclude his investigation, his senior officer retires and a new CDI chief takes over. ACP Vedant, in his greed to get a promotion, starts working against Kumar. This leads to an altercation between the two officers, resulting in Kumar's suspension. On 9 July 2008, CDI hands over the case to a new probe team led by Kumar's former boss Paul (Atul Kumar), who concludes that the parents committed the murders. In the final act, rival camps (of Kumar and Paul), with opposing hypotheses, make their cases before the CDI chief. On 20 February 2011, CDI files a closure report in Ghaziabad court, naming parents as the prime suspects, but states that the evidence is insufficient to initiate prosecution. On 15 March, the Tandons file a protest plea opposing CDI's report. On 25 March, the judge rejects the closure report and makes the parents an accused in the case. The trial begins on 8 June 2012, and the Tandons are convicted for the murders on 26 November 2013. | murder | train | wikipedia | Vishal Bharadwaj and Meghna Gulzar called Talvar as the fictional representation of the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case but the way it is shot and executed you would believe it's for real.
With the likes of Irrfan Khan, Konkana Sen Sharma, Navin Kabi and others, Gulzar had made sure people don't get disturbed by the histrionics but by the proceedings.
The 2008 murder of Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj Banjade and the subsequent investigations, of which Guilty/Talvar is the fictionalized account, are complex, with multiple official points of view, compromised evidence, and of course breathless media accounts with unnamed sources, rumours and innuendo.
Vishal Bhardwaj and Meghna Guzzal took the time to scrupulously research the case, and present a Rashomon-like telling of the story with multiple viewpoints, allowing the viewer to conclude which case is most compelling.The acting is superb, and despite the many details, the editing it tight so that the movie is gripping from start to finish.
It portrays the Aarushi Murder Case and related facts in such an impacting manner that every bit of the movie is engrossing and intense.
The direction of the movie was superb all credits to Meghna gulzar for giving us such a wonderful film and irrfan khan was as always giving gossebumps with his acting and my favourite Neeraj kabi just stunning..
And while Irrfan Khan fails to bring his A-game to the table, his performance nonetheless is the movie's strongest point (his scenes with Tabu, who makes a guest appearance, are quite solid), especially thanks to his characteristic wry humour and wit that offer some comic relief at crucial moments.
The story is intriguing, the acting is superb, and the depiction of real life is so detail and moving.I like this movie, because I felt like I'm in the middle of the investigation.
I wasn't in India during the famous trigger-happy media frenzy sensationalized Aarushi Talwar-Hemraj 2008 double murder case of Noida India, thus watching Talvar movie was a first time exposure on what actually could have happened.
On the promotional campaign the Director Meghna Gulzar and Vishal Bhardwaj reiterated in every channel interview that they have presented the facts as it is – without taking sides and leaving in the end for audience to decide.
But just use some intelligence and say that the first CBI team led by Ashwini kumar - Irfan Khan (who is shown as a drunkard, emotionally devastated with a broken marriage and divorce, a mobile phone gamester with short-broken attention spans, a violent investigator using beatings and torture, whimsical to the extent of beating the police officer with a stick, attacking a colleague in official premises) – how can he be believed?
Very disturbing when the pseudo – intelligent critics and reviewers applaud such a crafty and bogus manipulation.There are rumors as claimed by a Director Manish Gupta who made another fictional movie 'Rahasya' inspired by Aarushi murder case, that the Talwars had approached him to make a movie showing them as innocent, and when the Director didn't agree – they wanted to ban the release of the movie.The producers & production services is unprecedentedly (never seen ever before) using the print media of a leading national daily to promote sway the readers and audiences with two page paid news-coverage for four continuous day since release of this film.
Honestly I had high expectations from the movie as it casts genuine actors like Irfan Khan and Konkona Sen, that too directed by Meghna Gulzar.
Our county top positioned law personalities has to show a active participation which helps to get the case resolved as soon as possible.I don't know what is the reality but after seeing this movie I will pray to the God please help if someone getting punishment which them didn't.Hope this movie will bring some change in the mind and working level of the laws..
After CDI took over the case, it seemed that now, the story is moving in the right direction but then the scenes from the personal life of an officer didn't make any sense.
I have seen a few Bollywood productions and this one had by far the most coherent plot and cultural differences did not make me feel like I was watching something from another planet which is the case most of the time with Indian pieces.
What intrigues me in the whole time span during watching this movie is it gets more intense as i start comparing what we read in the newspaper and what exactly might have been happened is completely different.
So this is a subjective review.Talvar focuses mostly on three real life investigations into the murder of a teenage girl that shocked India - the first investigation by the police force and two subsequent ones by the CBI (name changed to CDI in this film).
Talvar is brilliantly directed by Gulzar, and manages to tell two stories to the same murder case.
Plus points- + Irrfan Khan + the movie shows that the case has been researched well + conference scene in the end + Screenplay + supporting actorsMinus point- - First half doesn't have as much excitement as the second.
This ranks as one of the best movies I have seen recently, one with a real life incident, and making a bold statement.The script, screenplay , direction , casting and acting were truly exceptional.
Well written (albeit disturbingly closer to the facts reported on the case), the film is an excellent reflection of the bias exhibited by the police forces, media and to some extend the society towards what seems like a double homicide.
We hardly come across an Indian movie that touches real life incidences in such a spectacular manner, such that it challenges the verdict in double murder Talwar's case and exposes the tainted law enforcement body in our country.
What is sad is that so many star studded craps top the box office charts while such an incredible movies don't get the worthy word of mouth.Once again kudos to Meghana Gulzar's amazing direction, Imran khans flawless performance and the real life hero CBI joint director Arun Kumar for taking a stand for justice..
The court cases in India are one of most complicated and tiring drama as it is a never-ending process and to make the matter worst – the murderers might get away free because of the incompetency shown by police officials.
Talvar has its own share of story which has been blunt, hard-hitting and yet hair- raising.Based on the true incident of controversial Aarushi Talwar murder case that shocked the entire country, Talvar tells the detailed story of what really happened on the night of murder with different people offering different versions of that entire event.Based on Avirook Sen's recent book Arushi, Meghna Gulzar deep-dives into the real events behind the gruesome murder that changed the lives of so many people.
Couple of scenes are hair-raising – the scene where Irrfan Khan almost solves the case until he is betrayed by his fellow companion and the best scene is undoubtedly the debate session in the climax when two teams from CBI present their own version of story.
The case had multiple dimensions; that means a great opportunity for the director to leave the spectators puzzled which direction to go; but, the movie strongly depicts the story only from one predefined angle, somewhat neglecting the others, and thus coming to an abrupt end.I feel, complete justice with the scope of the film would have been done if both perceptions towards the story was shown with equal emphasis.
This thriller, directed by Meghna Gulzar, is based on the real-life 2008 Aarushi Talwar murder case that happened near New Delhi.The details of the actual murder case can be gleaned from here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Noida_double_murder_case.
Presenting a sympathetic angle to the parents of the murdered child, the movie tries to portray them as innocent victims of a callous and irresponsible system, a system where the sword (talvar) of the statue of justice has been rusting since past 60 years.
The Direction Of Meghna Gulzar Is stunningly great with the amazing work with actors like Irfan Khan, Neeraj Kabi, Konkona Sen Sharma, and others ..
The film was critically acclaimed for its 'solidly constructed' screenplay leading to National Film Award for the same.Besides effort of the director and the writer, stellar performance by top-notch actor Irrfan Khan(Ashwin Kumar) and other actors like Gajraj Rao(inspector Dhaniram), Neeraj Kabi(Mr. Tandon) and Prakash Belawadi(Ramshankar Pillai, CDI Director) were the reason to its success.
Some other things are noticeably bad (and do not happen in real life) like the officer playing game on his cellphone, the two investigative teams meeting, Judge asking police to start the case on the doctor and his wife, 'funny' interrogation of Kanhaiya, the 'interrogation' of the police officer by the CBI, so on and so forth...The rating of 3 is given exclusively on the demerits of the first half and the silly omissions and commissions in the first half.
It criticized the 'sensationalist' media reports as lacking in "sensitivity, taste and decorum".[169] On 25 July, the Ghaziabad court judge objected to the "inhuman treatment" of Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay by the police."-Wikipedia.***Noida double homicide case'/ Indian knows it more as 'Arushi Talwar Murder Mystery!'.
The roles played by the characters in the movie were extremely precise.Relevant and accurate depiction of the entire case.Most of the audiences are not aware of the happenings of this case which this movie depicts in the best way possible.A must watch for everyone.Brilliant acting by Irrfan Khan and Neeraj Kabi.Each and every character has an important role here and it has been taken care of.Konkana Sen Sharma didn't show enough perfection while playing the character of Shruti's mother.She could have done better.The way in which the entire story has been framed and presented,its really difficult therefore great work by the team.Effective in showing the people the loopholes in Indian administration..
Were they killed by the parents or by the three domestic servants or were they butchered by our flawed legal system, judge mental society and impatient media.According to Arun Kumar, ex CBI officer who probed the case ( Irfan khan's character is based on him)" I think nobody will ever get to know who actually killed both of them."Talvar makes for a gripping and deeply disturbing film largely thanks to the nature of the crime but also because of true to life style of narration.
It systematically takes you to the intricacies of the case using an impressive research done over it.The basic essence of film is portrayed through this dialogue by Irfan Khan "Its better that 10 guilty go scott free than an innocent getting punished."The film is directed by Meghna gulzar, from a script by vishal bharadwaj and is as real as constructed for the camera document.
Resembling in treatment with Akira Kurosawa's 1950 Japanese film Rashomon, Talvar depicts three contradictory accounts of the case, including the parents' version.Vishal Bharadwaj's writing shines throughout the movie(Is there anything this man cant do?).
The table however belongs to one man- Irfan khan is arguably the finest working actor in Hindi cinema today and is in flawless form and gives a stunning performance.A tip of the hat to the director Meghna gulzar for pulling off a fairly objective depiction of true events without being influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing the story.The movie is from the parent's side but focuses more on the procedural irregularities, botched investigation, base level incompetence.In the end I left the cinema hall wondering about the curious case of Arushi Talwar as her parents serve life sentences at Dansa jail in Ghaziabad.
She had a cast comprising of some of the finest actors in Indian cinema at her disposal and she used all of them extremely well.Based on the infamous Noida double murder case, Talvar is the story of how a 14 year old girl and her housekeep are found murdered and the girl's parents are the main accused.
This movie highlights how the first investigative team led by the local police botched up the entire crime scene and contaminated all the evidences, which could have made it a possibly an open and shut case.
The worst part is that it's all true.Of the cast, Irrfan Khan as Ashwin Kumar steals the show, as the reclusive CDI investigator, who's personal life is in a turmoil and is handed over the charge of this infamous case.
It is a great comeback of the director Meghna Gulzar even she did not had good movies in her pocket before.It is a must watch if you are looking for thriller.
Like Most Indians I had heard of the Aarushi Murder Case on the news channels & had believed that The Talwars were guilty But A few days back I read the Book Aarushi by Avirook Sen which left me extremely shocked because the book tells the exact facts related to the case which provides a completely different angle to the case.The Movie Talvar is based upon these exact facts and brings out the case in such a manner that every person watching the movie would feel like entering the movie screens & slapping the policemen and C.B.I officers.
The acting of Irrfan Khan and all other actors is brilliant & in the last 15-20 minutes which is a face off between the two cbi teams, you just feel like clapping for each and every dialogue of Irrfan Khan.This movie is a slap on the face of the Indian Legal System.
All we can hope is that this movie contribute in some way to bring them to justice because as Irrfan Khan said it is better to let 10 criminals go rather than convicting one innocent person .A Must Watch Movie for Every Indian..
This movie is based on true story of what happened in Aarushi Talvar's murder case.
Irfan Khan has time and again showed us how powerful an simple act can be.Now to the story part, All that is needed to know what actually happened in this case is common man's logic and official statements from court, police etc.You know Who is a caged parrot?
The parents in this film feel like they were heavily victimized and the police just blamed them to cover up the botched investigations.
Irrfan Khan is excellent in his role as CBI officer and offers some humor to the film, although I feel like his side romance story with Tabu was not needed in the film.
The film concludes as the original case did with the parents being convicted although in the end of this film it feels like something was amiss and the wrong people were charged with the murders.
Talwar is a great film with does a good job of portraying all the angles on the Noida Murder case on screen.
That's why not always (because i also like to see VB directing movies) but sometimes (mostly in case of real stories) its good to give VB only the writing department and give the director's chair to someone else who can keep a balance between critical and commercial needs of the movies.
Coming back to the movie , as the movie is based on Noida Double murder case which has earlier been portrait in a movie named Rahashya but not much in a detailed manner , i personally will not judge the movie comparing its facts to the real event.
Yes the movie is that good.Direction, Screenplay, Cinematography: It is Meghna Gulzar's best work as a director till date (yes it is better than Raazi).
"Talvar" is based on Noida Double Murder Case of 2008, in which a 14 year old girl (Arushi Talwar) and 45 year old servant Hemraj Banjade) were found murdered for which the parents of the girl were convicted for life time imprisonment.
God left this place a long time ago."The film is so far "the best" by director – Meghna Gulzar who managed to put together a thoroughly researched production with producer-screenwriter-composer Vishal Bhardwaj; an outstanding cast - Irrfan Khan (the righteous lead investigator), Sohum Shah (the associate who 'crosses-the-floor'), Gajraj Rao (the laidback, gossip-filled policeman), Sumit Gulati (the gossip-monging compounder), the most-outstanding ones Konkona Sen Sharma and Neeraj Kabi (the parents) – with enviable cinematography by Pankaj Kumar ("Haider") and editing by A.
For example in the Arushi case as shown in the film cops ruined the whole investigation, the didn't collect any forensic evidence, they let people trample all over the murder scene, and they rushed through the case and blamed the parents for honor killing(like come on seriously).
But works for the film foremost is the way the Director Meghna Gulzar gets into every detail of the case, and the way the investigation proceeding go on it feels like the audience is a part of the case.
The movie shows the real face of Delhi Police and CBI's second team which was handling that case.
Konkana Sen did an amazing job, a wonderful acting by her and Irrfan Khan, well he is a superstar, he does his job perfectly in each and every movie.This movie has shown beautifully the complicated Murder case of 2008.
Amazingly a must watch movie to see the harsh and brutal truth behind the 2008 Double Murder case..
Despite the fact that the film ends up siding the parents right from the time Irfan enters the scene, suddenly there was again a feeling of uncertainty once the new team takes up the case, but the aforementioned discussion of course completely seals the deal.
As Good as a Movie About a Real-Life Legal Case Can Be. Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)Rating: 4.3/5 stars"Talvar" is taut, enthralling, immensely engaging, and one of the best thrillers of Indian cinema ever.
The background score also makes sure to not attract too much attention to it, and keeps the proceedings focused on the story, drama, and revelations on screen.Coming to the performances, if Irrfan is the heart of "Talvar", then Konkona Sen Sharma and Neeraj Kabi are the soul of the film. |
tt0102202 | Kickboxer 2: The Road Back | One year after the events of the first film, it is revealed that kickboxing brothers Kurt and Eric Sloane have been killed by Tong Po in Thailand. David Sloane (Mitchell), the last surviving brother, struggles to keep the family's Los Angeles kickboxing gym afloat. He offers free kickboxing lessons to local kids, often demonstrating a technique he calls the "rock and the river" which allows him to defend against attacks while blindfolded.
Although his will to compete has waned since the loss of his brothers, financial problems eventually force Sloane to fight again in a new organization run by a crooked promoter. His surprising comeback ultimately attracts the attention of Po (Qissi) who, having been defeated by Kurt, seeks to defeat David in the ring and regain his honor. But when Sloane announces his retirement after the bout, Po's manager Sangha (Tagawa) hires a group of thugs to burn down the gym, injuring Sloane and killing one of his young students.
While recovering in the hospital, Sloane is visited by Xian Chow (Chan), who trained his brother Kurt in Thailand. Though David initially wants nothing to do with him, he finally relents and allows Xian to nurse him back to health. Meanwhile, one of Sloane's most promising students, Brian Wagner, has secured a championship bout and invites Sloane to watch the fight. However, the champion is unexpectedly replaced by Po, who brutalizes the young man and kills him in the ring despite Sloane's efforts to talk the young fighter down. Now with no other recourse, Sloane is forced to accept Po's challenge. In a bloody bout reminiscent of the "ancient way" of fighting in Thailand, Sloane is beaten badly and has clouded vision. Utilizing his "rock and the river" technique, however, David ultimately exacts his revenge and defeats his rival. Having lost his honor, Sangha confronts David in the ring at gunpoint, but David is able to disarm and incapacitate him.
The next day, David unsuccessfully teaches Xian to drive a car. When his students introduce him to the new neighborhood bully, David once again demonstrates the "rock and the river", but the lesson is cut short when the ice cream truck arrives and Xian treats everyone. | revenge, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0068370 | Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things | The story focuses on a theatre troupe, led by Alan (Alan Ormsby). He is a mean-spirited director, who travels with the others by boat to a small island that is mainly used as a cemetery for deranged criminals, to have a night of fun and games. Once on the island Alan tells his group, which he refers to as his "children"— numerous stories relating to the island's history and buried inhabitants. he leads them to a cottage where they are supposed to spend the night. He then opens a chest they had brought with them, puts on a mystical robe and says that they are to prepare for the summation at midnight. Alan takes sheer delight in torturing his cast with threats of firing them if they do not do as he pleases which always makes them go along with his plan. At midnight using a grimoire, Alan begins a séance to raise the dead after digging up the body of a man named Orville Dunworth (Seth Sklarey). Though the original intent of the ritual may have been solely as a joke, Alan appears disappointed that nothing happens.
Afterwards the party continues and Alan goes to extremes to degrade the actors, using the corpse of Orville for his own sick jokes. Then, however, animated by the fell ritual, the dead return to life and force the troupe to take refuge in the old house. Unfortunately for the group, the dead get their revenge, and in the movie's closing credits we see the group of corpses boarding Alan's boat with the lights of Miami in the background. | paranormal, cult, good versus evil, violence | train | wikipedia | It went places I knew instinctively most movies did not, and I loved it for that, as well as the fact that I knew others would NOT like it.The story is nothing remarkable--a bunch of hippy actors invade an island, raise the flesh-eating dead, and die horribly.
Bob Clark is an oddity, to be sure--he went from this to another wonderful cheap-o zombie film ("Dead Of Night," aka about 40,000 other titles) and "Black Christmas," to..."A Christmas Story"??
Is It Uncut.There are many bad reviews written about this film that include its bad points, but here I'll focus on some of its merits
Tongue in cheek, little slapstick, creepy cemetery sequences by filmmakers with potential to prolong their careers, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things is a bad film, but a good bad film.
Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things was directed by Bob Clark when he worked with cult icon, Ormsby.
After co-directing Deranged with his co-star of Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, Jeff Gillen, Ormsby went on to screenplay the alluring Cat People ('82) and silly Popcorn ('91).
Before Clark moved on to comedies like A Christmas Story and Porkies, he directed the excellent Black Christmas ('74) and the interesting Murder by Decree ('79).The obnoxious director, Alan (played by Ormsby himself), threatens his group of actors with unemployment unless they accompany him to a deserted island to perform some satanic rituals.
Ormsby himself has said that he's barely able watch Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things anymore as he hates himself acting in it, but admits that it does have some appealing attraction, hence the cult following..
The movie was ghoulishly funny in an adult way that was really beyond a tyke's comprehension, so kids tended to sit there for an hour scratching their chins, understanding only vaguely that the acting troupe performing satanic rituals on the "burial island" (or whatever it is), is doing something monstrously, horribly WRONG.
I remember when I watched it that before the film started, the station (Channel 9 out here in Los Angeles) would show scenes of the "good stuff" to get you jazzed, so, you knew some "zombie consequences" were coming down the pike.
And for all its cheapness and crudity and cheesy performances, this is a very frightening and threatening flick, and no one who's seen it, I am willing to wager, has ever gone to a deserted cemetery to jokingly work Satanic rituals for the purpose of raising the dead.
Either because of the ritual, or that and their disrespect for the dead and Satan, which is never made clear, the dead come back to life in the style of flesh eating shamblers.The first ghoul doesn't make it's appearance until halfway into the movie, and the first-half is packed with long dialog, but there is some really good and creepy cinematography when the zombies do come..
"Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" is a very creepy and atmospheric zombie film about a group of hippie actors who go to a small island to practice satanism and succeed in raising the dead!The only problem is,the dead wants to eat them all.Surely one of my favourite horror flicks this one contains really cool zombies and dark,brooding atmosphere.The acting is surprisingly good,the location sets are spooky and there's also a sprinkle of black humour added for good measure.Only a little bit of gore,so fans of Italian zombie gut-munchers may be disappointed,but if you like scary horror movies this one is perfect for you.Anyway,check this movie out-you'll love this!And the ending is the most edge-of-your-seat ever.A must see!Highly recommended..
It's more 'Night of the Living Dead' inspired than any zombie film I have ever seen.
But anyone expecting Tom Savini-style blood and guts will be sorely disappointed 'Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things' is rated PG for a reason.The hand-held camera-work is a nice touch, and the dark and grainy film stock lends a certain low-fi analogue appeal, but such aesthetic niceties are rendered redundant thanks to Orsmby's incompetence as both a writer and actor.
There are a couple of scenes that are genuinely arresting the sight of the undead scrambling out of their graves to the accompaniment of a raucous ambient industrial soundtrack works well, and one of the final shots, of zombies tumbling in to an upstairs bedroom in slow motion has a certain raw and gritty realism about it.'Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things' is an ultra low-budget, played-for-laughs, light-hearted zombie flick whose great final act is not compensation enough for an hour of risible and tedious nonsense.
I'd heard a lot of bad things about this film before seeing it, but thought all the negative comments were probably down to the film's low budget and poor acting - both of which I can deal with when it comes to zombie films.
I'm quite surprised, because the previous two horror films I've seen from director Bob Clark - Deathdream and Black Christmas - were both highly inventive and entertaining films, but Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things just doesn't cut it.
However, they soon learn that playing with things they don't understand is a really stupid idea when their rituals actually bring the dead back to life and the corpses of the island return to feast on their blood!The plots sounds like it could lead to a decent flick, but what I didn't mention is that the interesting parts don't start until the final twenty minutes; and as this is a ninety minute movie, I'm sure you can guess that this isn't a good thing.
Classic zombie film that ranks with "Night of the Living Dead".
It's not so much that the special effects are good, or that the zombies look like real walking dead, nor that the plot is especially believable.
Originally reviewed rather poorly, and referred to for many decades as campy, cheesy, and low-budget schlock, the recent resurgence of the zombie genre has brought a new generation to Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, and a whole new appreciation.
In 1973, a relative unknown director,named Bob Clark (who would go on to direct such toothsome fare as 'A Christmas Story',the original 'Black Christmas',and to a lesser extent,the Porky's films)directed (and co-wrote the screenplay) a shoe string budget horror/comedy film,which was eventually released as 'Childern Shouldn't Play With Dead Things'(although it did go by other titles in various other places),that for it's time was an obvious homage (of sorts)to George A.
After a while, the fun of the first half of the film turns to a night of horror as the dead do start to rise from the grave.
The film is cast with an ensemble of relative unknowns (but does feature low budget schlock horror Meister,Alan Ormsby,who co wrote the screenplay with Bob Clark, as the male lead).
The dead rise and devour several of the thespian interlopers and force the surviving members to take refuge in an isolated house.Despite some bad attempts at black comedy, this low-budget effort has some good scary moments.
Some hammy acting and hilarious seventies clothes styles may bring some chuckles.Florida-based director Bob Clark would go on to direct other low-budget horror films, including the seminal slasher flick "Black Christmas" as well as the comedy hit series.
"Porky's" But Clark will most likely be best remembered as the director of the ultimate holiday classic "A Christmas Story" Truly a perfect film in just about every since of the word..
i really do like this movie i loved watching the dead come back to kill and eat the actors there should have been more gore but all in all it was great..
Kill 'em all!' The low budget was accommodated by brilliant pacing, condensing all the action into the final moments of the film.The fact nearly everyone who's seen this movie saw it on the little screen, and that so many of them (like me) were scared out of their minds is proof that this movie is a must-see for any fan of the macabre.
Okay, so "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" isn't the scariest movie ever made, and it sure isn't the most technically proficient of films, but it is a creepy, spooky, entertaining 80+ minutes.
It seems that the ritual actually worked, and in a truly breathtaking sequence, the dead rise from their graves and close in on the living.I saw CSPWDT on videotape, alone, as dusk melted into night.
It has a real sense of humor (and surprisingly snappy dialog)and has some wonderfully atmospheric scenes of zombies coming out of the ground.This movie was tailor made for Saturday afternoon TV before it was surrendered to infomercials and is great for preteen and early teen guys that got Famous Monsters magazine.
Why they dress him up, perform a mock wedding ceremony, and basically humiliate him beyond belief, even coming up with some pretty good one liners such as "Keep up a stiff upper lip Orville." Of course, whilst they degrade the dead at the cottage, the spell actually begins to work in the cemetery.
Some of the characters are so obnoxious that the first half may be hard-going for many viewers, but when the zombies make their appearance the film invites comparison with "Night of the Living Dead" - certainly the makeup effects are just as good, if not better, and let's remember that "Night" was not exactly overflowing with likable characters, either.
I first learned about "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" in a movie calendar on a day when the theme was "Gruesome Titles": there was this one along with "Nice Girls Don't Explode", "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" and "8 Heads in a Duffel Bag".
You're sure to love it - assuming that you're the type who takes the time to watch these kinds of flicks.So, in conclusion: Bob Clark, wherever you are, we'll always remember you for this movie, and for "Porky's" and "A Christmas Story"..
My expectations of this movie were a great deal higher than my viewed opinion.Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things is a movie with a good intended plot that trips up too many times to carry it out.
Strange, often effective hippie zombie flick, starring the unforgettable husband/wife team of Alan and Anya Ornsby, this movie isn't as bad as most in its genre, but is still way high on the cheese-factor.
These zombies are more like hell-spawn than mindless reanimated corpses.Had there been more gore, I think this movie would be better received by the horror crowd.
No, it's not Night of the Living Dead, but Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things does manage a creepy oompa loompa vibe with it's characters quite different from Romero's classic...You won't consider them great actors, you won't consider this a great story, but for me, it did manage to entertain, even in the long stretches..
But CSPWDT is part of the fallout that comes when the earth is moved by something like Romero's NOTLD.For me, "Children" took a particularly quirky tangent, quirky enough to make it enjoyable to the point of guilty treasure.Yeah, it rips Romero.But does anyone remember that "Alien", another milestone film, was inspired by its makers to be a "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" set in outer space?Artists rip off one another all the time, it's like a ladder, using another's rung to climb on and up.Do you like spooky graveyards where the gravestones begin to wobble when the music is right?Do you like the idea of the dead climbing out of their graves to...?If you do, then buy or rent Night of the Living Dead or any of its sequels and any of its multitude of rip offs.But don't bother with this one.snicker snicker snicker...Those trashing this film, if one does a little exporation, seem to consider Jason, Freddie and Scream the crux of horror cinema.
Another pre-PORKY'S horror flick by director Bob Clark, this one pays clumsy homage to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD only it's nowhere near as good.
Also, this movie has one of the neatest titles of the genre!It ain't Night of the Living Dead, but it's a good watch that horror fans will enjoy whether they scream or laugh!
CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS is a surprisingly effective low-budget horror movie, w/ a beautiful, slow-building atmosphere of dread and doom.
Remember that it's a COMEDY-Horror when watching - it is not a pure Horror flick.It takes the first hour of the film to build the story and suspense before the zombies arise.
This is the first time in years I've seen this movie and it's great to watch again - even though it's a mess of a film.7/10.
A small time acting crew raises hell on an island then awakens the dead.Alan Ormsby is the lead dude who takes a liking to Orville a corpse.Its creeping and funny with soft gore{standard PG} Its perfect for Halloween viewing due to its mere 70,000 budget.Its my favorite next to Night of the Living Dead and Dawn Of the Dead.Who would of thought that Bob Clark after directing this would go on to direct Porkies.If you are in the mood for a good under rated movie this is it.Alan Ormsby went on to write Cat People which I actually thought it was pretty good.Not as good as the original but hey what is better..right?.
This movie came on one night and it was more real to me then because it was like I was with the actors as they filmed themselves - kind of gives you a Blair Witch Project feeling when you are watching it.
Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972)** 1/2 (out of 4) Absolutely bonkers film from Bob Clark has a group of people being led into a cemetery where their leader Alan (Alan Ormsby) plans to use black magic to bring to life a corpse he has dug up.
Soon the kids begin to have a little party and before they know it they're under attack by the living dead.This film deserves to go down in history for having one of the greatest titles ever to grace a movie.
CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS isn't really a complete success and I must admit that I probably won't ever watch it again but at the same time I can respect Clark and company with what they made..
I have the same problem with this zombie flick from director Bob Clark as I do with his proto-slasher Black Christmas: whilst it may be chock full of atmosphere and effectively creepy visuals, the thoroughly unlikeable characters, a troupe of irritating hippy theatre actors, make it very difficult for me to enjoy.I realise that Clark's intention may have been to make his characters as obnoxious as possible, thus making see them die all the more enjoyable, but when I spend the duration of the film wishing I could reach into my TV screen and throttle them myself then I think he may have gone a tad too far!Alan Ormsby plays theatre director Alan, a tyrannical toss-pot (with dreadful dress sense) who bullies his spineless cast into travelling to a deserted island to take part in a satanic ritual to make the dead come back to life.
Clark's first film (for which he's actually billed "Benjamin") is essentially amateurish but surprisingly engaging; the young cast led by an enjoyably hammy Alan Ormsby (the film's own screenwriter and scribe for DEATHDREAM [1974] itself) and including his then-wife Anya, a lovely but ill-fated heroine in Jane Daly, as well as Jeff Gillen (who would go on to direct DERANGED [1974] with Alan and which I watched the very next day) is likewise agreeable.For the record, the fact that the plot revolves around a group of unemployed actors who get together in a remote and eerie location and end up being 'bumped off' recalls Pete Walker's THE FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW from the same year though, of course, the details are entirely different.
the first time i saw children should'nt play with dead things was in new jersey on wor-TV channel 9.it was shown uncut and this was in the late 70s.i thought it was genuinely scary creepy and funny.the cast of then unknowns is good headed by alan ormsby,and his sister anya is very good.a troupe of young actors travel to an island thats a graveyard and all hell breaks loose,think night of the living dead,same premise.but much more gruesome.its a pg movie but on some DVD boxes its listed as r rated.directed by bob clark who went on to do porkys and a Christmas story.i bought this in the bargain bin at fye!and it also has the undertaker and his pals on it as well,a bargain for $3.99.theres a lot of good lines in the movie,one actor says;id whistle past the graveyard,but my lips are afraid to be separated.i recommend this to all fans of zombie films.8 out of 10..
Director Clark manages to create some eerie atmosphere and, once the zombies finally rise, the film becomes very creepy indeed.The story is relatively simple.
If this isn't the best title for a horror movie you better show me the winner.This is a pretty neat collaboration between Bob Clark & Alan Ormsby.
In the early 70's it was double billed at the drive-in circuit with Night Of The Living Dead.the movie is a lot of fun.The actors do very well in their roles.
The moral of the movie is clear and simple: CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS!
But Satan, better late than never, has finally called the dead from their graves, and the greenish, crusty zombies now stagger freely around the island, eating anyone who is dumb enough to venture outside and working their way to the cabin.The last thirty minutes or so of this film are better than the first hour or more that you have to sit and suffer through.
Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things: great title, bad movie.
Than we get less than half an hour of zombie invading the cabin which looks like a bad parody of Night of the Living Dead. |
tt1216515 | Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue | Like the other fairies, Tinker Bell attends fairy camp on the mainland. When she attempts to go find some lost things, Vidia asks her if she's going to the human house, which isn't far from camp. The question makes Tink curious and eventually sneaks off. Vidia follows behind to watch over her. When she reaches the house, she is amazed by their "horseless carriage". She takes the time to flitter around under the car, while Vidia tries to get her to leave. Eventually they do, but on their way back to camp, Tink and Vidia stumble upon a fairy-sized house made by Lizzy, a human girl who wishes to meet a real fairy. Tink immediately heads in to investigate, despite Vidia's constant warnings. Tink claims it to be perfectly safe, so Vidia slams the door shut in an attempt to scare her but unintentionally locks Tink inside. When Lizzy begins to approach the house, Vidia tries to free Tink to no avail. Lizzy discovers Tink inside and takes her to her home. She prepares to show Tink to her father, Dr. Griffiths, a very busy and serious scientist, but upon seeing all the butterflies he has pinned in display for research, she decides to keep Tink a secret.
Meanwhile, Vidia rallies Rosetta, Iridessa, Fawn, Silvermist, Clank and Bobble to rescue Tink. They try to sail on a stream which would take them straight to the Griffiths' house. When their ship goes over a waterfall, Silvermist manipulates the water to create a mid-air stream. While this does save their lives, the boat is wrecked. They continue on foot but upon crossing a mudbank, Vidia gets stuck waist deep. While Clank and Bobble try to find something to pull her out, the other fairies are nearly run over by a car but are saved when Iridessa blinds the driver, who then vacates the car, giving the girls a chance to get Vidia out by grabbing onto the driver's shoelace.
Back at the human house, Lizzy reveals her fascination of fairies. Tink is flattered by her obsession and since Tink can't leave the house because it's raining outside, she decides to teach her nearly everything about fairies. They record their information in a new research book given to Lizzy by her father. During this time, they have grown a great friendship. After a while, the rain dies down, and Tink is able to return to camp. She gives Lizzy a hug and makes her way out but before she leaves, she watches Lizzy attempt to show her father the research. Unfortunately, Dr. Griffiths is too busy fixing the house's leaks to pay her any mind, so Tink returns and fixes the leaks, saving Lizzy's father from the burden. Afterwards, she makes the choice to release a captive butterfly Dr. Griffiths was planning on showing to a group of scientists. Thinking that his daughter was the one who set free the butterfly free, he sends her to her room.
Meanwhile, Vidia confesses to the rescue team that it was her fault that Tink has been captured. They comfort Vidia about the situation, informing her that it could have been worse without her presence. Once the rescue team finally reaches the human house, they are attacked by Lizzy's pet cat, Mr. Twitches. Despite being an animal fairy, Fawn is unable to immediately tame a cat under pressure. A chase ensues before she is able to find catnip, eventually taming the cat.
Back at the house, Tink shows Lizzy how to fly in her room with pixie dust. Then her father walks in, forcing Tink to hide in the fairy house. He finds footprints on the ceiling and sternly demands the truth. Lizzy tells him about Tink and shows him the research she and the fairy did in the book he gave her. Her father, however, still refuses to believe in fairies, and he and his daughter get into a disagreement. Angered by Dr. Griffiths stubbornness, Tink reveals herself and chides him. The sight of the fairy astonishes the scientist and prompts him to capture Tink so that he could take her to London for research, but Vidia arrives just in time and pushes her out the way. Vidia is instead captured by Dr. Griffiths, but Lizzy and the fairies are able to convince him to think otherwise.
In the end, Dr. Griffiths apologizes to his daughter for not believing her. Vidia is then freed, and she and Tink form a friendship. Lizzy and her father are now closer than ever. | fantasy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0409546 | Dae Jang-geum | The story is set in Korea during the reigns of King Seongjong (1457–1494), King Yeonsan (1494–1506) and King Jungjong (1506–1544). The epilogue also spans through King Injong (1544-1545) and King Myeongjong (1545-1567), with last scene depicts around year 1550s.
=== Executions - Episode 1 ===
At the outset, King Seongjong has ordered the execution by poisoning of his wife Deposed Queen Lady Yun, the mother of the first-born son, the young crown prince (the future Prince Yeonsan). After carrying out the execution, one of the royal guards, Seo Cheon-soo, is haunted by it. On his way home, he suffers an accident and is rescued by a mysterious hermit with a cryptic message—that his life will revolve around three women: the first he has already met; another he will save, but will die because of him; and the third will kill him, but will go on to save many lives. It doesn't become clear until later in the story that the three women are the poisoned Deposed Queen Lady Yun, Park Myeong-yi (Seo's eventual wife and the mother of Jang-geum) and Jang-geum (the main character and Seo's only daughter). Haunted by the curse of the executed deposed queen and his prophesied fate at the hands of the third woman, he abandons his post and also becomes a hermit, refusing to take a wife.
=== Park Myeong-yi - Episodes 1 - 2 ===
After many years, the former king dies and the Crown Prince ascends the throne as the 10th king of Joseon. Park Myeong-yi is a palace girl (or gungnyeo) and apprentice cook of the royal kitchen (soorangan). She witnesses a fellow apprentice, a girl from the powerful Choi clan named Choi Seong-geum, slip poison into the Great Royal Dowager Queen's food. Unaware that the senior kitchen officers are part of a conspiracy against the said Queen, Myeong-yi informs the fragrance kitchen officer Kim sanggong (choi-go sanggung). The officers, fearful that Myeong-yi might reveal their conspiracy, attempt to murder her by framing her committing adultery with a royal guard, then executing her with poison. Myeong-yi's best friend, Han Baek-young, witnesses the crime and manages to secretly save her by secretly diluting the poison with an antidote. She leaves the unconscious Myeong-yi a letter explaining what had happened. As Seo Cheon-soo wanders through the forest in his self-imposed hermitage, he stumbles upon the half-conscious Myeong-yi. He rescues her and the two fall in love and marry. They end up living peacefully in a remote village as lower caste commoners (Seo Cheon-soo posing as a butcher and village weapon smith) and raise a clever daughter named Seo Jang-geum.
=== Jang-geum ===
When Jang-geum was eight years old, king Yeongsangun learned about the murder of his mother and vowed revenge, seeking and killing people who were previously involved. Among them was Jang-geum's father, who so far managed to hide his identity. However, following an incidence, Jang-geum accidentally revealed her father's identity and caused him to be arrested. Jang-geum's mother, rushing on the way to Hanyang to visit her husband, was spotted by Choi's family and eventually killed by an arrow. Jang-geum, now an orphan, was adopted by Kang Duk-gu and Na Joo-daek, a family making a living through selling wine.
=== Entering the palace and becoming kitchen maid ===
Two years later, Jang-geum enters the palace after king Jungjong ascends to the throne. She is committed to be able to enter the middle kitchen (where her mother used to cook) to uncover her mothers letter written for Jang-geum. During this time, she meets Lady Han who then uncovers Jang-geum as Myeong-yi's daughter. They form a mother-daughter bond. The Right Minister Oh Gyeom-ho (the Choi clan's ally within the Royal Cabinet) frame Lady Han and Jang-geum as traitors in league with Jo Gwang-jo, the famous Joseon reformer. In an effort to save Jang-geum, Lady Han declares that she alone is guilty of treason. Nonetheless, both are judged guilty and sent to Jeju Island to work as government slaves. On the way to Jeju, Lady Han dies from her injuries. Lady Choi replaces her as the choi-go sanggung, while Jang-geum vows revenge.
=== In exile at Jeju ===
Min Jeong-ho follows Jang-geum to Jeju Island. He offers to help Jang-geum escape, but she refuses since doing so would mean never being able to return to the palace to not only clear Lady Han's name, but obtain justice for her mother's death. Min Jeong-ho declares he will wait for her and help her out throughout her stay in Jeju.
On Jeju Island, Jang-geum meets a woman named Jang-deok, whom she first mistakes for a fellow slave. She soon discovers that Jang-deok is a famous female doctor. Jang-deok's blunt and forthright manner at first offend her, but as time goes by, she begins to see that the female doctor is dedicated and caring. As the days go by, Jang-geum realizes that her only way back to the palace is to become a female physician (uinyeo). She begs Jang-deok to teach her medicine. Jang-geum's friend, Jeong Woon-baek, an eccentric royal physician, disapproves of her decision to pursue medicine in order to take revenge on the Choi clan. In spite of this, Jang-geum perseveres and earns herself a post as a female doctor-in-training at the palace.
Upon returning to the palace, Jang-geum encounters Choi Geum-young, who, during Jang-geum's absence has been promoted to choi-go sanggung. The ruthlessly ambitious Lady Choi has ousted the former head officer of the palace (jae-jo sanggung; one of their former allies), and now occupies that position herself. Min Jeong-ho is a lieutenant and a member of the King's Royal Cabinet. Jang-geum's childhood best friend, Lee Yeon-saeng, also a gungnyeo, has caught the king's eye, and is now his concubine (sang-gung). Jang-geum endures many trials at the palace, from being forced to wash the feet of Geum-young, to a backstabbing uinyeo named Park Yeol-yi. In spite of this, Jang-geum manages to accomplish great feats, such as halting an epidemic and saving the king's life when the king's own physicians fail.
With Jang-geum's status rising, several events ensue that lead to an investigation of the Choi clan, resulting in the prosecution of Lady Choi, her elder brother and several high-ranking officials, including the Chief State Councillor. Everyone tries to escape, but only Lady Choi manages to evade the guards. Jang-geum finds her and asks if she is willing to sacrifice her niece, Geum-young, to the authorities while she herself escapes. Having abandoned her ethics and conscience for the sake of the Choi clan a long time ago, Lady Choi is unable to respond. Torn between self-preservation and guilt, Lady Choi wanders the countryside hallucinating. She ends up falling off a cliff off Mount Dongin and dies (but not before speaking and paying respects in front of the memorial grave of her former friend Park Myeong-yi, Jang-geum's mother). Choi Geum-young loses her position as choi-go sanggung and is exiled along with the other officials.
Through her dedication, perseverance and medical skills, Jang-geum saves the royal family from re-occurring, seemingly never-ending ill fortune. After giving birth to a stillborn child, Queen Consort Munjeong remains ill. Jang-geum correctly identifies a second stillborn fetus in the Queen Consort's womb and saves her life. She convinces the Dowager Queen Mother to undergo medical treatment at the risk of being beheaded. She also cures Grand Prince Gyeongwon, only son of Queen Consort Munjeong, of smallpox, which earns the permanent gratitude of the Queen Consort.
=== Court physician ===
For her achievements King Jungjong makes Jang-geum a 6th rank official and appoints her to be his personal physician, the first woman to hold such a position. The court is in uproar and the state councillors unanimously oppose the appointment on the grounds that it violates the country's constitution. When the Dowager Queen Mother humiliates herself to express her disapproval, the king revokes his decision. She urges the king to take Jang-geum as one of his concubines. Although the king is in love with Jang-geum, he refrains from making her one of his concubines against her will. Jang-geum contains a small pox epidemic, and the king finally decrees her his personal physician. She is granted the honorific Dae (meaning "The Great"), as well as the position of a 3rd rank official.
Jang-geum fears that accepting this position will endanger her friends and family. However, with Min Jeong-ho's support, she accepts. The ministers and scholars of the court bitterly accept the decree, but demand that the king punish Min Jeong-ho for supporting Jang-geum's appointment. Seeing an opportunity to separate the lovers, the king agrees and Jeong-ho is sentenced to exile.
=== Escape, and fugitives from the law ===
Eventually, the king's previous medical condition re-emerges. Jang-geum attempts to heal him using all the medical equipment and knowledge available at the time. The other doctors offer advice but nothing works; the king is dying. Jang-geum resorts to her last option—an experimental technique using newly "discovered" anesthesia and surgery. However, the king's body is considered sacred and the court unanimously opposes this new procedure, and the king decides not to allow the operation. Knowing Jang-geum's life will be in danger after his death, the repentant king grants her escape to be with Min Jeong-ho. Jang-geum and Jeong-ho live as fugitives.
Eight years later, Jang-geum's daughter, Min So-Hoon, is spotted by her adoptive father, who, following her and seeing Jang Geum, alerts Jang-geum's friends in the palace. By this time King Jungjong has been dead, along with his appointed Crown Prince (who became King Injong, who ruled for less than a year plagued by a life of ill health. The second-in-line to succeed the throne is Grand Prince Gyeongwon, the only child and son of Queen Munjeong, who is now both the Great Royal Dowager Queen and the Regent, wielding enormous power. When she learns that Jang-geum is still in the country, she invites her and Jeong-ho to return to the palace and be reinstated to their previous positions. Jang-geum and Jeong-ho joyfully return, but decide for the sake of their family to live outside the palace. Jang-geum leaves the palace not before seeing her friends, Lee Suk-Won, Queen Consort, and a few others from afar.
As they return to their previous routine, Jang-geum comes across a pregnant woman, and successfully uses her surgical skills to deliver the woman's baby via Caesarean section, thus becoming the first physician in Korea to undertake such a surgical procedure. While Jang-geum celebrates her success, Jeong-ho laments the repressive social climate of Korea, and its inability to accommodate a woman with ambitions. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0112379 | Antonia | Following World War II, the widow Antonia and her daughter Danielle arrive at Antonia's home town where her mother is dying. Antonia turns down an offer of marriage from Farmer Bas, but develops a romance with him anyway. Danielle becomes an artist and expresses interest in raising a child, while rejecting the idea of having a husband. Antonia and Danielle visit the city to find a man to impregnate Danielle, resulting in the birth of Therèse, an unusually intelligent girl. Danielle also develops a lesbian relationship with Therèse's tutor.
Years later, Therèse is raped by a man named Pitte, who had earlier raped his mentally handicapped sister Deedee. Antonia places a curse on him, after which he is drowned. Therèse is unable to find her intellectual match but eventually has a relationship with a childhood friend, resulting in her pregnancy. She decides to keep the baby and gives birth to Sarah, the film's narrator. Antonia later dies of old age, in the company of friends and family. | avant garde, cruelty, murder, fantasy, revenge, flashback, philosophical, romantic, storytelling | train | wikipedia | It is a pleasure to be taken into this kind of world for the 100+ minutes of the film.I strongly disagree with the comments, which the IMDb is currently (as of March 13/04) displaying as being "representative," which states:"If you hold dear the innocence of children, respect God and those who serve Him, and hold dear what is beautiful in a spiritual sense, you will probably dislike this film."That's one seriously narrow-minded opinion the IMDb people have selected as being representative.
I never thought of it this way, but I suppose "Antonia's Line" is not for the polite, ultra-conservative, easily-offendable religious folks out there who, it seems, are more apt to feel threatened by fantastic stories like this than to appreciate them for what they are.
This film is not a picture of the real world, but, like a good fairy tale, provides one an opportunity to reflect on a variety of human conditions and experiences that everyone in some way can relate to.In this regard, "Antonia's Line" is a wonderfully rich and rewarding film, and a beautifully well-told story.It should not be dismissed so easily.
The many relationships portrayed in this movie, most loving, some not, are what give it life and give the lives of these characters its meaning.
The portrayal of women as independent and strong is definitely refreshing, but those who claim this film makes a statement against religion and family aren't necessarily accurate.
Antonia has an opinion on everything, and smiles as she points out the colorful village characters to her cosmopolitan artist daughter who is amused by everyone from the town busy-bodies to the tradition of drunk men peeing on the church wall.
However, Antonia manages to carve out a place for herself by embracing love when she finds it, and opening her arms to the needy outcasts and oddballs that are victimized by cruel villagers.This film also offers a wonderfully refreshing depiction of love in all shapes and sizes-- connections between mentally handicapped loners, romance between women, elderly romance.
But I couldn't help but reflect that during the time span depicted in this movie--five generations in Holland during the twentieth century--Europe experienced some of the most horrific events known to humankind, two world wars, genocide, concentration camps, poison gas, fire bombings, political repression, and the death of millions of people.
"Antonia's Line" is a lovely, deeply moving fairy tale of four generations of strong, gentle women.
The scenes come one after the other, like paintings, time is flying and you feel its wings, the world dies and reborn with every day, technology takes place of the old things, churches become empty, people die, children are born, the fields get green and brown, but above all the table from the garden will be always full with people, because there, at the pink house, some people discovered that the miracle of life is life itself, is love and is acceptance..
Thought provoking and not as lots of people say 'sexist' because i think women have every right to present a point of view, especially though many in the world have been suppressed, subordinated for thousands of years.
My sense is that this film's director intended Antonia and her line of female descendants to represent strong, fearless heroines imbued with the fighting feminist spirit.
The film is only about 110 minutes long but feels much longer.I'm tired of the trend of thinking that propagates the belief that in order to be considered strong, women must prove that they can live entirely without men.
The movie "Antonia's Line" depicts a kind of feminist utopia: a "dynasty" of strong women who come along quite well without more than a minimal interference of males in their lifes.Nevertheless, the movie skillfully avoids every tendency towards dogmatic preaching in favor of the "good cause", and is in fact full of humor.Even a "male chauvinist pig" like Radlov could enjoy it..
This very fine little Dutch film mocks the old adage of 'You can't go back home again' by introducing Antonia and her daughter returning to a village she had abandoned and setting up changes among the odd assortment of townsfolk that initiate a heritage of both wonderful and tragic events, each of which is a parable about family and community.
And throughout the line grows as Antonia's extended family encompasses more and more endearing souls.I was hardly surprised when Antonia won a well-deserved Oscar for Best Foreign Film.Every time I see this film I find I do not tire of it, and every time I see it I come away feeling better..
In point of fact fatherless children have no end of problems throughout the world, and we hardly need more Murphy Brown sugarcoating of single motherhood.As I said, the movie is a delight to watch, and nearly all the characters are delightful.
Men will never like this movie.All the independent women in the movie are the ideals of most women, especially those who are repressed by patriarchy, tradition or religion.Antonia is a free woman who lives according to her own wish and belief after WWII upon returning to her own home town, a small village.
This well-made film is a politically correct fable in support of radical feminism.If you believe that a matriarchal culture will solve all our social ills; If you believe that men are only good for utilitarian purposes; If you believe that nothing good can be found in tradition; If you believe that nothing good can be found in religion, and you want it all neatly presented in a pretty basket, tied up with a lacy bow, and decorated with colorful flowers.....then this movie is for you..
The Motion Picture Academy felt as strongly as I do, as they awarded it an Oscar; a well-deserved Oscar, I might add.It is about the progeny of Antonia (Willeke van Ammelrooy), a woman who returns to her village after WWII and begins life with her daughter Danielle (Els Dottermans).
Men are not bashed, but there is a sense that they are not very useful, except for producing more daughters.Danielle seeks a male to impregnate her and bears a child prodigy, Thérèse (Carolien Spoor, Esther Vriesendorp, and Veerle van Overloop), Thérèse becomes a pupil of the town intellectual Crooked Finger (Mil Seghers) and cannot find a man who can satisfy her intellectually and physically, so she settles for the physical and has a daughter of her own.Men in this movie serve as seed bearers, or teachers, or comfort bearers, or, in one case, messengers of evil, as one manages to rape two women.But the film is not just about feminism, it is also about acceptance.
Antonia and her daughter face joys, tragedies, and outrage while retaining an essential sense of self-regard and a core of strength.This movie is the antithesis of "the Hollywood movie": witness the sex scenes--one a pure definition of making _love_ as love is variously expressed, another depicting sex for convenience, another showing violence expressed as sex--none are lurid or extraneous to the story.
From that we go back to the past, to the moment she arrived back to her hometown with her daughter, and we see how they both grow old there, how their relationship with the other inhabitants develop and how they re-adapt to live in the countryside, in a very small village.The movie has hard moments, but also quite some funny ones, is quite smart and its characters are well developed.
If it seems like a small movie, it may be, but it will grow on the watcher pretty fast, as you will get involved in the life of Antonia and all those that surround her.
The 1995 winner of Best Foreign Language Film tells the story of a woman, her daughter and granddaughter over several years in the Netherlands.
This is the woman the politician's friend takes him to see on Mt. San Michelle; and by this procedure of comparing biographical cinema in the sciences better appreciate its span and gender specification through the traditional underdog in the stereotypically male dominated arenas of math and science.For one thing, the main character isn't portrayed as crazy or mentally ill; if that's important in establishing the sharp contrast repetitively marring American genre in this same category.
'Buyer beware.' Not to bother comparing it with the far inferior movie 'Proof', even in the biographical abundance that would have been available to structure a film about John Nash, "A Beautiful Mind", a wide ranging set of life experiences also caught up in Europe for an extended time, instead a hack biographer is selected to play up the crazy smear in order a distortion in film can be manufactured from that template.
The American audience is dismissed as childish enough to have those sorts of overt propaganda coercions foisted on them without comment or feedback, what are really unqualified abuses of portrayal, demeaning to education and educators and really amount to nothing more than the usual crass bullying of another intellectual that has come to supplant better film and literature development in this country domineered instead by 'Animal House' and high school movies trying to reduce our establishment to zoos and mockeries in terms of international standards.
"Antonia's Line" (also known as "Antonia") won the 1995 Oscar as the best foreign language film, and that's no small honor considering the number and quality of foreign language films now entering the U.S. It is an intergenerational story, played out mostly in a remote Dutch village, to which Antonia and her daughter return some time after the end of World War II.
Antonia's "line" is the list of women and girls who live with her, principally her daughter, her daughter's daughter (born out of wedlock after an intentional sexual encounter with a chosen male), the granddaughter (an intellectual genius from her earliest years) and the granddaughter's daughter (conceived from a relationship with a childhood companion she seems to have married, though that isn't absolutely clear).
Her next two films followed this path, and soon she was known as an interesting director to be taken seriously; although the extremism of her work and the heavy handed way she handled her subjects often diminished the true potential of her movies.
The five years between "The Last Island" and "Antonia" really payed off, as this movie received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film in 1996."Antonia" is the story of well, Antonia (Willeke van Ammelrooy), a widow who returns to her home village after the World War II with her daughter Danielle (Els Dottermans), as she has received news that her mother is dying.
And so Antonia and Danielle's new life begins at the village and, as time goes by, we witness Antonia's line to grow and develop, meeting old friends, finding new friends, and of course, gaining new enemies.
At its core, it is the story of Antonia, her family, and her village, growing and developing from the 50s through the 80s, and the important events in their lives; but it's also way more complex than that.
Of course, being a Marleen Gorris' movie the relationships between male and female are of vital importance, but this time, extreme feminism is out and both genders are given a value (in an interesting change, Antonia herself must learn to love an accept a caring man).
It's a clever character driven story filled with a good sense of humor, and an intelligent humanist theme.As written above, "Antonia" also marks Gorris' evolution to more ambitious and complex films, as while the movie is entirely character driven, the whole setting and overall composition of the movie is wonderful.
An interesting touch is how different the movie becomes according to the characters' points of view: Antonia's scenes have a philosophical calm, while Danielle's world (as an artist) is quirky and suddenly surreal; contrasting sharply with her daughter Thérèse, who sees the world in a cold, distant and overtly scientific way.The many characters of the film are borough to life by an ensemble of both experienced and newcomer actors.
While everyone makes a good job, Marina De Graaf as Deedee and the Carolien Spoor as the young Thérèse are really highlights of the film that deserve to be noticed.With its remarkably well developed screenplay and the warm touch of Gorris' direction, "Antonia" is truly a step forward in the director's career and an improvement over her previous work.
The film is not a story of a person but of a village and a family.Like life, which would be incomplete without others (people) in your life, even this film would be incomplete without the various characters in the film and their bond with each other.
Because it is about the human condition, you probably have to be well over 21 to appreciate this movie.Antonia's line is filled with love and hate, poetry and crudity, life and death, good and bad, beautiful and ugly as life itself, all the ingredients of the human condition..
I left the movie house almost unaware the dialogue was subtitled, it was so smooth and effortless, and complemented the documentary feel and appearance of the film so well.I think Antonia's Line is one of the very best movies ever made.
And bad things too: two rapes, a murder, deaths.The key character is a woman so in control, so much a master of her world, so good and in tune with nature that she chooses what day to die.Its a tough call for those of us who do hold the values celebrated in this movie.
Heavily feministic, probably inspired by a desire for "less men and more women in the world" anti-establishment mentality, this film follows the life (beginning just after the end of World War 2) of Antonia, a woman who returns home to her small town for her mother's death...and just barely in time for that.
"Antonia's Line" follows the life of a robust, rural Dutch matron as it explores the village in which she lives, its sometimes eccentric inhabitants, their relationships, and the trials and triumphs they encounter as the film trudges and leaps gracefully through four generations.
Antonia's Line is one of the best movies that I've ever seen !!
The characters in this film infiltrate your life like characters from no other movie I've ever seen.
Watching Antonia's Line 20 years after it was made (and winning Best Oscar Foreign Film then), it still has its quirky 'life-is-full-of-the-unexpected' charm reminiscent of 'new wave' movies of the 90s, though it does feel dated now.
Antonia tells everyone that this is the last day of her life and she tells her story in flashbacks, starting with her arrival at the family farm with her daughter Danielle, and her intention of raising her as a single mother.
She actually was the first woman to direct a movie that won an Oscar for best foreign film.
Beautiful film, about love, life and death.
The women are the strongest characters in this film which is also about the Life and Times of one particular - and peculiar - woman, Antonia, and her clan.
Well, I may be Dutch, but I am not a particular fan of Dutch movies, as they can be incredibly predictable, and also Dutch male directors/producers/writers seem to think that the best thing to come out of women's lib is that they can display even more titties in a film (think of Paul Verhoeven, a great director, really, but oh so obsessed with the female body and anything randy and horny...).
When I saw this movie the first time at the age of 16, I felt like I've seen one of the best movies ever; It was a small glance in a beautiful world, contending characters that I liked very much, within a story that I wanted to be part of.
The film chronicles her life and family chain, revealing the great humanitarian soul Antonia passes down to her Great Grand Daughter.
This film, "Antonia's Line" needs to be required viewing by all.
my only problem with this film is that it doesn't show much in the way of internal conflict within what Antonia sets up as basically a commune or extended family unit.
I was so appalled by this film the first time I saw it, that I made myself watch the first 42 minutes of it again a few days later before I would commit myself to judging it.I was even more disgusted the second time, and came away convinced that this film accomplishes a kind of tour-de-force in succeeding in being both cute and extremely mean-spirited at the same time.(MILD SPOILER FOLLOWS) The only likable characters in the film are either mentally retarded, suicidal, or, at best, weak-willed and submissive to the smugly arrogant Antonia and her daughter Danielle--two women apparently incapable of human love but adept at domination and manipulation.
This story has a woman named Antonia (Willeke Van Ammelrooy) who along with her daughter Danielle (Els Dottermans) come back to her Dutch village after the war to bury her dead mother.
After that she stays and along the course of time different people come to live with them as it becomes a sort of commune run by Antonia.
The make-up is superb and towards the end of the film we see Antonia when she was younger and then a second later as she is as an 80 year old woman.
Antonia's line is horribly contrived with so much narration it doesn't allow you to think...there's no foreshadowing, connected plot, growing relationships...it's just a movie where stuff happens.All the characters are flat and boring, from the beginning apparently we should have seen this coming ( as they killed off the Mother who seemed to have some issues in about 5 minutes.)There's no feeling and comedy?
The real objective of feminism is for men and women to share power, not make females the sole power.Antonia's Line (a title that makes more sense than the original title of Antonia, because it better captures the focus of the movie), is a fine film that includes colourful, interesting characters, some funny moments and some compelling drama. |
tt1763264 | No One Lives | While traveling cross country, couple Betty (Laura Ramsey) and an unidentified man, referred to as "Driver," (Luke Evans) encounter a gang of robbers led by dedicated criminal Hoag (Lee Tergesen), his daughter Amber (Lindsey Shaw), girlfriend Tamara (America Olivo), Amber's boyfriend Denny (Beau Knapp), and the psychopathic Flynn (Derek Magyar). Suspecting the couple to be wealthy and wanting to redeem himself for a robbery he botched, Flynn has them kidnapped and interrogated about accessing their money by Ethan (Brodus Clay) in a gas station. However, Betty commits suicide by cutting her throat on a knife Ethan had against her neck, which leads to the Driver breaking out of his handcuffs and killing Ethan.
Meanwhile, Flynn, having brought the Driver's car to the group's hideout, finds a girl in the trunk of the vehicle. Amber realizes the girl is Emma Ward (Adelaide Clemens), a wealthy heiress who disappeared after 14 of her friends were murdered at a party, and the kidnapped man is the one responsible for the massacre. Amber attempts to be kind toward Emma; however, Emma angrily spits in her face. Following Hoag's orders, Denny and Tamara head to the gas station to contact Ethan, only to find his and Betty's bodies and the Driver missing. They bring Ethan's corpse back to their hideout and inadvertently bring the Driver along with them, who had been hiding in Ethan's body.
The Driver begins his assault on the robbers by first destroying their van and capturing Hoag, whom he later kills by dropping him into a meat grinder. After the group argues over what to do next, Denny volunteers to get their old jeep working so they can escape. Though he succeeds, the Driver shoves him into the open car engine, badly mangling his face. The Driver then chases and injures Amber, but lets her live when he realizes the surviving gang members are leaving. Nevertheless, Flynn accidentally hits Amber with the jeep when she stumbles onto the road. Emma comments on how the only one of them with a soul was killed.
After dropping Denny off at the hospital, Flynn, Tamara, and Emma head to a motel to stay the night. When Flynn uses the Driver's credit card to pay for a room, he inadvertently causes Harris, the motel owner (Gary Grubbs), to call the police, as the Driver had previously checked himself into the same motel earlier in the day. The Driver himself also arrives at the motel and nearly strangles Tamara to death in the bathroom, but stops when he hears Flynn shoot the sheriff responding to Harris' call. Flynn euthanatizes Tamara when he discovers her, which leads to Emma attempting to escape. Though Flynn manages to stop her, he is promptly run over by the Driver in a police car. Emma tries to shoot the Driver with a gun she got from Tamara but runs out of bullets and flees into a nearby junkyard.
When the Driver confronts Emma, she states she is done running and she beats him with a metal pipe until Flynn appears with a shotgun. The Driver notices the danger and throws Emma out of harms way after which Flynn shoots the Driver in the chest. The Driver survives due to his Kevlar vest and the two engage in a brutal fight. Ultimately, Flynn manages to grab his weapon, but is knocked out by Emma before he can fire it. The Driver states his amazement over this turn but Emma explains she wants to be one who finally kills him and manages to aim the shotgun at him. The Driver then urges her to take the shot. However, because a new shell had not been pumped into the chamber, the firearm fails to operate. Impressed, the Driver cuts out a tracking device he placed inside her stomach and announces that she is free. He then finishes Flynn off with a shotgun blast to the face and also shoots Harris for knowing his real name.
The next day, the Driver murders Denny in his hospital bed with a clipboard while disguised as a doctor. As he leaves, he notices Emma being wheeled into the hospital on a stretcher. He touches her arm before finally departing. | revenge, murder, violence, flashback | train | wikipedia | What more could an avid horror fan want when such a solid cast gets paired up with one of the most interesting horror directors in the biz in Ryûhei Kitamura, known widely for his direction of the 2000 film "Versus" & more recently for his 2008 "The Midnight Meat Train".
The clash turns bloody as the balance of power shifts & the gore begins to rain down.Of course it helps to keep in mind that this is in fact a horror film and that you're not going to witness any award winning performances, but there are some really solid efforts given by Evans as the "Driver" & Adelaide Clemens who plays Emma, a kidnap victim who has been hardened by long lengths of mental & physical torture.
There are a couple of scenes that are sure to please the sickest of fans while at the same time may seem a bit on the gory side to the average viewer, but overall I felt this was a very enjoyable, entertaining vision delivered by Kitamura.
Or in one case to present one heck of a bloody surprise, you'll know what I mean after you see it;] Despite those problems, the film still managed to rise above the average effort, but I believe that it was those weak script points that hurt the film in theaters & the reason it may draw further criticism in the future.So in the end,if you're trying to decide if this will be a good pick for your horror/gore itch then I can definitely recommend this as a top choice, but if you're looking for a smart thriller with a well developed story then this may not be your best choice, but I wouldn't let it stop you from grabbing it from your local DVD kiosk..
i was searching movies that Luke Evans were in i think he's a pretty good actor but nails the roles as an intelligent villain, which he definitely was in this movie and yeah You can say he was a lil crazy too (sarcasm).For a film in this genre where its become hard to find something close to original or decent i was very impressed with this one and was glued in from the jump i loved the cast and the characters i think everybody did a pretty good job.
Yeah it had some some similarities with other movies but definitely had its own spin, not too many movies you find yourself rooting for the bad guy but i found myself doing that in this, i would like to see him play a version of Hannibal Lector.Overall great movie for its genre good ending and twist at the end, deserves a better rating i try to rate movies for their genre but definitely watch this if you're into this genre you shouldn't be disappointed..
Laura Ramsey is pretty good as the other female characters; but Adelaide Clemens disappoints in a complex character far above her acting skills.There is strong violence and gore but it never gets too disgusting (or at least too realistic) and are lots of dark funny moments..
When I am in the mood for a horror movie I usually want something with a non confusing plot, decent acting , and good pacing.
i was glued to the screen for this action packed horror right from the beginning it grabs you into its violent and dark world, good acting even if the blood looks a little fake,its at times quite gory so if this bothers probably not a movie for you, however its highly entertaining and fast paced which i like as sometimes these sorts of movies get a little boring trying to draw out the suspense.
But neither man nor woman are what they seem...Slashers are often quite boring, especially the old school style like Halloween and Friday the 13th which in my view have ruined the genre by too many sequels, unimaginative scripting, lack of good acting and directing.
The movies does this with genuinely shocking gore and also assembling a great cast portraying interesting characters while not pulling any punches to make characters seem more sympathetic or trying to give the film a traditional lead.The movie focuses on a violent gang of thugs led by Lee Tergesen (The Collection, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning) who are just coming off a standard home robbery that went violently awry.
He goes nuclear and the average, everyday bad guys have to band together to survive a really bad guy's wrath.The plot is pretty simple but the films avoid feeling like a standard siege movie by creating interesting, truly unpredictable characters played by talented people like America Olivo (Neighbor, the Friday the 13th redux), Lindsey Shaw (Final Destination 3), Derek Magyer, and Luke Evans, whose villain is one of the best, most interesting psychos in recent memory.
The film does have a few extremely whacked out moment, such as a brutal, MMA style girl-fight and some pretty literally in your face, gratuitous nudity, scenes that work fine on their own but don't really feel like they belong in this movie.
It's cool, and violent, but it didn't quite resolve the story or all its questions as well as I would have liked.In all, I loved No One is Safe and highly recommend it to horror fans and lovers of really dark, violent action stories as well, since this movie really is a cross between the two genres.
The slasher scenes were actually pretty decent, however, there were some tech gadgets that I simply was not buying into, though I guess if one was affluent enough, they could buy nice little toys like that.There definitely is some eye candy in this as well.Take this for what it is worth.......I personally find most horror movies to actually be pretty bad, however, I have always been drawn to movies about serial killers........however, nothing will every surpass the hannibal lecter pentalogy, at least in my mind..
these I suppose are meant to be eye-opening character moments, when in fact they are mind-numbing gibberish perpetuated by a man who's idea of a good time is to rub someone's head against a running engine.What did you expect, from a movie part financed by WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment)?
They had certainly messed with the wrong "mild-mannered" guy.Luke Evans, playing the nameless lead character simply called Driver, was effectively charismatic and creepy.
Director Ryûhei Kitamura spared no expense in giving us the most disgustingly blood- drenched death scenes for most everyone in the cast as they died one after the other.I don't like gory films, but this one was not as bad as I was expecting after seeing the WWE credit.
and it's a good one, though I had figured it out by the second scene.Ryuhei Kitamura does an excellent job of creating tension and suspense at the right times as well as keeping the story tight and moving at a rapid pace.All the actors give good performances, especially Luke Evans as The Driver, Adelaide Clemens as Emma Ward, and Lee Tergeson gives his usual "Bad Boy" as Hoag.It's also nice to NOT see a wrestler anywhere in sight saying WWE had a hand in production.Unfortunately, not to give spoilers I cannot say much more, though I would recommend this to all revenge lovers, out there, to watch at least once...
Luke Evans made the killer character the one who you would enjoy watching whether he is chasing the girl, killing or simply a loving gut.
Luke Evans made the killer character the one who you would enjoy watching whether he is chasing the girl, killing or simply a loving gut.
I didn't even know about this movie until this morning, Saw trailer and looked great.A gang of thugs who end up messing with the wrong person, as the person they kidnapped turn out to be a Psychopath.Wow this movie actually flew by, it really well paced and never gets boring at all, I was actually clued to the screen most of the movie.There one moment in the movie, that stick with me for few hours after the movie, gross but also in away It was kind of funny.I loved some of death scenes in this movie, some of were very gruesomely gory at time.The weakest part of this movie is the acting from most of the cast were not that good and dose effect some scenes in this movie but don't let that get in away.
Luke Evans is very good here, his nameless maniac is a true gem of whole movie, just like Adeliade Clemens's performance.
Realising who Emma is, the gang all plan to hand her in to claim the reward for her safe return, but things don't go so well and they start getting picked off one by one.The trailers for No One Lives makes it look like a really good, suspenseful movie, but in actual fact it's really a very run-of-the-mill slasher flick.
In fact, it actually gets to certain points where you actually WANT something bad to happen to them, and when something does you cheer a little inside.The killings in the movie are very gory too, and while I don't mind gore being used to add to the feel of the movie, I just think that the gore used was way over-the-top.
I want to inform you that this is full of cool brutal scenes not to mention that this is violent horror kind of movie you probably will feel squeamish watching this gory film so you better have a strong gut what distinguish this film is that there are not any heroes in it, interesting characters though, that been played by adroit actors which put you in position to enjoy the ride and root for no one.
This one is a fast-paced, action packed tale of small-time gangsters, kidnappers and serial killers, and the title is an apt one; it's the kind of nihilistic fare where nobody is likely to make it out alive and gruesome death is just around the corner.It's also an incredibly gory movie, where the bloodshed is taken to a gratuitous level.
People are fed into meat chippers and tortured and murdered in increasingly nasty ways, and it's all handled with a certain level of skill and professionalism by Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura, who brings the same level to insanity to this as he did to VERSUS and AZUMI back in the day.British star Luke Evans is very good in the main role while the bad guys are all suitably sleazy and the victims all suitably victimised.
With this film, I most certainly walked into the "gay bar." It's MY tastes that are out of sync, so I'll just say I didn't like it and let the rest of you gore-loving psychopaths enjoy your movie..
I will give it a couple of compliments, visually it's good looking and it has some clever kills and the gore is on point and gruesome, the soundtrack is also not too bad.But that's how far I can go with the compliments, cause frankly it's really hard to care what happens to anyone in this movie because they are all bad people to various degrees.The acting isn't terrible, it's above average for a WWE production that's for sure but it doesn't matter because in the end a movie where you don't care about what happened to the characters is pretty pointless.Knowing that it's a WWE production the characters does have a bit of the same macho testerone that the characters usually have in those movies which makes the characters a bit flat although I believe they hired only real actors this time, no wrestlers from what I know at least.I was pondering whether to give it a 4 or a 3, decided with the latter because I think it's highly over-rated as it is now with a strong 6/10 in average which is pretty good for a horror here..
As can be expected by the film title the bodies will fall, blood will drip and gore will be awaiting us with a vengeance...Bloody and unrelenting with a host of unsympathetic characters filling the screen, "No One Lives" basically fulfils its base promise as a no-holds-bared ordeal for heavy watching.
I must say that this surprised me, i really didn't expect this to be this good, but Kitamura really made this a very good entertaining horror movie.I also watched Kitamura's Azumi and Midnight Meat Train, now this....
The script was pretty good and acting too, but the reason of 8 stars stands on the element of surprise (i thought he bugged the Jeep not Emma) and e few others made me rate it the way i did.Nice job Kitamura..
"You're Next" is the movie I would recommend to watch instead.This horror movie has both pretty bad acting combined with dumb and dull characters, and just feels cheap.
My only complaint is that no one has heard much about this movie and since its release it really didn't have much a solid reception at the box office when it was released on theaters which is a shame to Luke Evans, who's acting has so drawn so many fans and admirers from his years on Broadway to now films (Fast & Furious 6, Immortals and Dracula Untold); The Story/Script was okay but wished for more of a back-story to the criminals that held Emma captive and wished for more scenes with the mysterious "Driver" played by fine Welsh actor Luke Evans.
The bad would be that there's little of character development (with the exception of Emma Ward played by Adelaide Clemens and Luke Evans aka The Driver) and generic performances from the other actors due to the script but with a movie like this you just here to watch and be entertain for all its gory and action sequences and might care less for the acting.
Luke Evans steals the show I have seen him in a few roles and always plays them well.There is the common twists and turns that you will always have in the genre of movie but there is some that do surprise even the hardcore slasher fan.Watch the movie if you want to leave your brain at the door and if you like blood,guts and gore however if you have a tendency to be squeamish best not to view..
Definitely good choice of soundtrack (better than most the films) Luke Evans is not one of my favorite artists but he's %100 match for the lead role in this movie.
The way that the story was written and filmed makes it entertaining while also kind of rooting for the bad guy.
I actually quite liked this, even though it didn't have any particularly well-known actors in it, memorable special effects or was even that original.It borrows elements of various genres, i.e. horror, thriller, home-invasion, stand-off and creates a simple enough story which I won't go into too much detail about, as there are a couple of plot twists/unexpected moment which you might not see coming.
It was a pretty decent and entertaining watch for a slow Saturday afternoon.Why You Might Not Like It: As mentioned, the blood and gore is over the top and unrealistic in many spots, which I would argue takes away from the movie more than it helps it.
Well, I'm a big horror/thriller movies fan, and I saw this film last week with very low expectations, due to the reviews that I've read about this.
Still Luke Evans makes for a sexy, delightful villain and although it falls into a few genre trappings and some failed attempts at low budget action it's a fun little gore flick with a surprising amount on it's mind.
It has action, killing, decent dialogue for a horror movie, a good ending, and a nice soundtrack similar to the Saw theme.
A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."No One Lives" (R - 2012 - US)Sub-Genre: Slasher/Crime My Score: 7.4Cast=6 Acting=8 Plot=9 Ending=8 Story=7 Scare=6 Jump=5 F/X=9 Blood=9 Twist=7A gang of ruthless highway killers kidnap a wealthy couple traveling cross country only to shockingly discover that things are not what they seem.
The thing with WWE movies, is that you know your in some kind of secure place with what you are going to get, namely a load of old cobblers, but lots of fun.12 Rounds, The Marine, See No Evil, and many others are the type of film, that you just put on, switch off and just relax for ninety minutes.Here, its nothing different, but there is a wonderful twist at the beginning if the second act.If you haven't read about the film, and are just enticed with the title, you are either mad, or like me, someone who will watch anything, and after seeing Evans in the DOS, i wondered how he was outside of middle earth.It's pretty gory stuff to be fair, the film opens with a couple who are in the road to get away from it all, but they bump into a gang of criminals, and eventually get kidnapped by the one who's a little bit loopy (there's always one).Up to now, so far, so average.
It has some very interesting elements in it, but it doesn't follow up on some of its ideas and some of the subplots go missing in action or are summarily disposed of.While the concept of having a band of predatory criminals pick the wrong victim has a lot of energy, and the family dynamics are fun to watch,and the films visual style packs a lot of "oomph"...in the end, the whole thing feels like an exercise in pointless nihilism and emotional sadomasochism.I couldn't imagine how Luke Evans thought this movie would advance his career, but he does a good, stoic job with his role, and if I ever get a chance to see some other stuff he has done, i might take it..
So already you can spoil your movie experience by not even looking at the trailer.No one lives is an average gory thriller flick, with Luke Evans. |
tt0370082 | Yeogo goedam 3: Yeowoo gyedan | In an all-female high school in South Korea, the Jookran High School for Girls, teacher Mrs. Park, nicknamed "Old Fox" due to her sadistic method of teaching, circles several points in the students' yearbooks and calls her former student turned new fellow teacher, Hur Eun-young, that "Jin-ju, is definitely dead, but still attending school". Moments later, she is strangled with a noose by an unknown figure, her body later discovered the next day by three new senior students: the talented artist but superstitious Lim Ji-oh; the timid outsider, Yoon Jae-yi; and the weird, sullen, and deeply unpopular Kim Jung-sook. Ji-Oh and Jae-yi arrive early as they are the new class monitors, while Jung-sook has always been a die-hard studious student. Their form teacher position is now held by Mr. Oh, nicknamed "Mad Dog", who likes to give corporal punishments to his students, in particular Ji-oh due to her superstitions, as well as harassing and overly praising the class' top scorer, Park So-young.
The discovery of Mrs. Park's body deeply impacts Ji-oh that she creates a painting of her body, which earns her a horrible punishment by Mr. Oh. Seeing Ji-oh dispirited, Jae-yi, a former artist before she decided to abandon her goals, agrees to teach her painting at the storage room, which used to be an art room before being abandoned and is rumored to be haunted. Ji-oh sees that So-young has been inhabiting the room for quite a while to hide her smoking habit. So-young, in the meantime, befriends Eun-young at the library.
Eun-young suspects that Ji-oh may have been Jin-ju's ghost since she carries bells that Jin-ju, her friend from high school, gave for her, though Ji-oh tells her that they were given by Jae-yi. This is puzzling as Ji-oh occupies Jin-ju's former seat in Form 3-3 and is interested in arts, like Jin-ju. One night, Mr. Oh, while patrolling the school, is terrorized by Jin-ju and killed by stabbing while wrapped in curtain. His post is replaced by a more manageable teacher. The next night, Ji-oh visits the storage room to paint but finds Jung-sook and So-young bickering, ending with So-young storming out after criticizing Jung-sook and calling her jaded. Jung-sook commits suicide in a manner similar to Mrs. Park's: hanging herself by a noose from a bridge.
So-young is tearful and reveals to Eun-young that she is involved in a situation similar to Eun-young and Jin-ju once were: she used to be close to Jung-sook, but the teachers started comparing them and they drifted apart, with Jung-sook growing bitter as time went on and becoming withdrawn. While Ji-oh is painting she notices a floorboard that is broken and coming apart. Ji-oh discovers a statue created by Eun-young for Jin-ju beneath the plank and also discovers Mr. Oh's body when she shifts something in the dirt and finds a hand with a ring which he wears. Jin-ju died in the storeroom while trying to save the statue as it fell she tripped and with it everything came down, including the sculpting knives which ultimately killed her. Eun-young meanwhile learns from the yearbooks that Jin-ju had entered the school from year after year posing as false students and is currently posing as Jae-yi. Eun-young is confronted by Jae-yi/Jin-ju, the latter angry and accusing Eun-young that she is becoming more like Mrs. Park. Eun-young escapes with a cut to her arm as Jin-ju is distracted by Jioh screaming. Eun-young is chased by Jin-ju but is cornered into room 3-3, their homeroom and Jae-yi/Jin-ju's current homeroom.
Before Jin-ju can kill her, Ji-oh comes into the homeroom and asks her to stop her terror and to rest in peace since she is not even human. Jin-ju says that all she wanted was to live a normal high school life and she wanted someone who would love her fearlessly as Eun-young couldn't. Jin-ju disappears after Ji-oh and Eun-young plead with her that they will correct the misgivings that happened to them at a teacher and student level and that they will never forget her. After Jin-ju disappears, the walls and the school all bleed blood while Eun-young and Ji-oh, tired by the ordeals, sit in the room resting. Ji-oh rests her head in Eun-young's lap as she gently strokes her hair.
Eun-young and Ji-oh are still in the classroom when they are visited by a student the next day. The student leaves upon seeing the two and walks down the corridor, and as the student turns around, it is revealed that she is Jung-sook's ghost. | dramatic, horror | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0172543 | He Died with a Felafel in His Hand | === Prologue ===
Danny (Noah Taylor), enters the lounge of his Sydney flat late at night and discovers that his roommate Flip (Brett Stewart) has died in front of the TV holding a felafel sandwich.
=== House #47: Brisbane, Australia ===
Nine months prior, Danny and Flip are sharing a house in Brisbane, with housemates Taylor (Alex Menglet), Milo (Damian Walshe-Howling), Otis (Torquil Neilson), Sam (Emily Hamilton), Jabber (Haskel Daniel), and Derek (Robert Rimmer). Anya (Romane Bohringer), arrives and becomes a new housemate. Later that night, Milo and Otis set the rules for a contest to see which of them can successfully romance Anya. The next day, a pair of thugs (Linal Haft and Nathan Kotzur) show up at the house and threaten them for not paying their rent. Anya asks to invite some friends over for a party. The next morning, Danny types out a horror story about masturbation and posts it to Penthouse. While checking the mail, he is devastated to find an invitation to his ex-girlfriend's wedding. A young Japanese girl, Satomi (Sayuri Tanoue), who speaks little English, comes in, declaring, "I move in now." After Satomi produces a wad of cash, Sam offers to let her stay in a narrow storage closet in the screened veranda surrounding the house. Anya's party turns out to be a pagan ritual, and a drunk Milo gets tied to the pole of the washing line. Taylor also invites over a gang of skinheads to help confront the landlord's thugs. Milo escapes from the neopagans as the skinheads start looting and vandalizing the house with chainsaws. Anya kisses Sam just as the skinheads manage to remove the entire back wall of the house. Danny quickly packs his belongings, leaves his boom box with Flip, and departs.
=== House #48: Melbourne, Australia ===
Three months later, Danny is living in Melbourne with a housemate named Iain (Ian Hughes). Danny attends the outdoor wedding of his ex-girlfriend (Pascal Delair) and best friend (Stuart Nicholls) in the pouring rain. When he arrives back home, Taylor and Flip arrive. Taylor expresses his pleasure at having discovered the joys of hiring prostitutes. Later, Sam also shows up after fleeing from an argument with Anya. Taylor checks the telephone directory for local prostitutes. Sam lies in bed with Danny and asks him to make love. Danny declines on the grounds that "we're mates." Danny is awakened in the middle of the night by loud music. He discovers Sam in the bath with her wrists cut. Danny comforts her, and she kisses him. In the morning, the two are awakened by two policemen (Tim Robertson and Robert Morgan), who drag in an unconscious Taylor and lecture Danny about morality. The policemen line up Danny, Sam, Flip, and Iain in the lounge to interrogate them. The cops threaten them, checking all their arms for heroin needle track marks and declares Flip a "pincushion." Danny asks Flip what's going on, but Flip reveals he has checked into a rehab bootcamp. The policemen reveal that Taylor had stolen Danny's credit card and charged over $8000 to it during a night of drunken mayhem. They also tell Danny that he owes more than $7,000 to the Brisbane landlord. Iain demands a lawyer and one of the cops draws his gun Iain panics and grabs for the gun, and gets shot in the ear. The cop warns Danny to be careful and Danny takes it as a threat, deciding to leave.
=== House #49: Sydney, Australia ===
Three months later, Danny is living in a tidy flat in Sydney with housemates Nina (Sophie Lee), 'Uptight Ivan' (Ivan Tatarovic), Dirk (Francis McMahon), and Taylor. Danny notices a newspaper article saying that Melbourne police have been cleared of responsibility for Iain's shooting. Sam arrives and moves into the spare room. An agent (Clayton Jacobson) from a department store credit bureau arrives, looking for a "Mr. Corcoran." Danny shows the man a drawer full of collection letters addressed to Robert J. Corcoran. Anya arrives, and soon after, so does a policewoman, Sgt. P. O'Neill (Skye Wansey), also looking for Corcoran. Anya and Sam argue about their broken relationship, which quickly escalates into loud sex. Nina urges Danny to get rid of them. Danny tells Anya that he just wants to be left alone, but Anya begins kissing him passionately. Sam appears at the door and sees them. Sam begins angrily packing her things while Danny apologizes. Sam declares Anya a "chaos freak" and heads out the door.
The roommates all complain to themselves about their problems. Dirk enters to declare that he's gay, but is disappointed by the lack of reaction from the roommates, who had all assumed as much. Danny loses his temper with Dirk, urging Dirk to chill out, since he isn't the only one with problems. Danny then locks himself in his bedroom with a telephone sitting on his chest. Taylor slides food to him under the door. Several hours later, Anya slides a cigarette through, and, sitting on the other side of the door, tells Danny a story about lovers, the plot of Solaris. Danny takes the cigarette. Taylor discovers that Penthouse has published Danny's story. As Taylor gives Danny the good news, Flip arrives at the door, and reveals that he has left rehab. Sgt. O'Neill arrives with a partner (Simon Wheeler). She adds up the amount due in Corcoran's bills as $28,000, and issues a summons to Danny to appear in court. At night, Danny tells Flip that he's going to be sent to prison for credit fraud, but Flip says he needs Danny because he's the only friend he has who is not on drugs. Flip leaves Danny's room to get something to eat.
Later that night, Danny starts packing his things in a milk crate. Loud music catches his attention, and he discovers Flip dead in front of the TV. A pair of cops declare Flip a "typical bloody junkie" and cover his body with a sheet, telling Danny not to touch anything. As the sun rises, Danny leaves with his typewriter, catches a ferry, and drops his typewriter into Sydney Harbour. Later, Sam encounters Danny asleep in front of her door, who, after waking him up, tells her that Flip has died. Danny and all of his former roommates hold a memorial service for flip. Each leaves a memento on a charcoal fire in a kettle grill in which Flip's ashes have been dumped. Danny sacrifices his old boombox. Anya gives Danny a cheque, ostensibly from Penthouse, and Nina declares that she and Anya, now a couple, are going to Paris together, where Nina hopes be a successful actor. Danny calls Sgt. O'Neill and identifies the now-deceased Flip as Robert J. Corcoran, and he and Sam set off down the street together. | absurd | train | wikipedia | Noah Taylor plays his part as a washed out and uninspired writer named Danny down to pat even though I think he must have the least amount of dialogue in the film.
I found her performance to be quite convincing and not contrived or overacted like some performances can be in these types of low budget art films.Romane Bohringer plays a spooky role as a pagan who takes her religion very seriously at times (The scene where she convinces one of her brainless flatmates to be a 'sacrificial lamb' upon a burning stake is hilarious) Her performances are also above average and generally tend to give the viewer the impression she is a witch bent on injecting chaos into any given domestic situation.
Also look out for some weird European dude who only says two lines during the film, "They are very, very fit." - Oddball stuff but makes for good humour, especially if you are a person who has been flatting at one time or another.
Ideas and themes of friendship and new beginnings are put across quite seamlessly into the plot as Danny experiences a rite of passage which takes him from being stuck in the past to looking forward to the future and leaving the mess (which follows him from flat to flat during the film) well behind.
Putting John Burningham's best-selling but episodic reminiscences of house-sharing into a watchable feature film was quite a challenge, but a veteran house-sharer, Richard Lowenstein (`Dogs in Space'), succeeds here by having several of the more interesting and bizarre characters follow the narrator (Noah Taylor) from city to city.
The felafel, in fact, a throwaway line in the book, is given centre stage, and the result is a well-focused tale of the horrors of house-sharing it's the `Secret Life of Us' meets `Romper Stomper'.Noah Taylor is one of those actors who cannot fail if given a goofy role, and here he is perfect as Danny, the aspiring writer roughing it with a collection of druggies, minor criminals, aspiring sorceresses and actors, while trying to evade his creditors and write a prize-winning story for `Penthouse'.
Some of the landlord's agents do not lack colour either eg Linal Haft's rent collector as gangster in Brisbane.All these characters are somehow accommodated in the story, though an early peak (the great bikie party in the Brisbane house) is followed by rather a flat period in Melbourne.
Once the circus reaches Sydney, however, things pick up again perhaps it's the more effervescent air.The tropical squalor of the first house, a battered `Queenslander,' reminded me a little of `Praise', a vastly different film in tone, but Danny is not necessarily one of life's defeated, though it seems like that sometimes.
If you have ever lived in a share house then I reckon you'll immediately appreciate this movie.I think Noah Taylor did a brilliant job in this movie, we need more like it.
I have to say I approached this movie with some dubiousness as I had read the book, which had no plot whatsoever, and was unsure how they were going to turn it into a film, but I found myself really enjoying this movie.
Basically this movie is about Danny, an aspiring writer who has lived in 49 different houses with an assortment of dead-beats, moontanners, lesbians, Satan-worshippers, neurotics, etc., etc., their antics and tangled relationships.
Despite the lack of plot this was a very easy and enjoyable movie to watch, although it put me off share-housing for life.
It captures the hopelessness of low-rent youth but remains incredibly hopeful, and explains why Australians always seem to be likable; every character in the film is bizarre in one way or another yet Lowenstein manages to highlight what makes them appealing enough to share a house with in the first place.
As for the note-perfect bit, the soundtrack is surprisingly star-studded and perfect for the film - a mix of sad, reflective pieces by those who are known for them (Moby, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Passengers) and interesting covers and Australian artists (Nick Cave makes it into two categories).
I'm lucky to have stumbled across this film in a convoluted and bizarre-in-itself way, because neither the book nor the movie are available anywhere in Canada (I've checked thoroughly)..
When I first saw this film I have to admit I was quite put out with the character being significantly different to that of Birmingham in the book and also the stories being quite different and most of them being left out altogether.
And although I love the book much more than the film, I have learnt to appreciate and respect the film for what it is.It's a fascinating story and Noah Taylor is just incredible as the main character, Danny.
(For example Sophie Lee from Muriel's Wedding.) There's something about Australian share house living that rings true with so many people.
Sometimes you have the feeling the script has missed out on some of the plot and character development, but otherwise it's an interesting film.
This is a great Australian movie about flat sharing.
whilst having a couple of flaws, all in all this a really good movie....it's style is nothing new and seems to have many similarities to 'occassional course language'(in style, use of music, and share houses) and a handful of other Australian movies, while editing the book comprehensively...some may think it strays from the book to much, but while the book is written messily etc.
After far too long a break, cult Australian director Richard Lowenstein has finally committed himself to film again with He Died with a Felafel In His Hand, a film based on John Birmingham's cult novel of the same name.Funny, philosophical and forthright, He Died with a Felafel In His Hand tracks the life of Danny (Noah Taylor), a terminally unemployed, debt ridden young writer who is in the midst of his 47th chaotic shared household experience in Brisbane, Australia.
The wiles of pagan princesses, neo-fascists and love interests aside, the Brisbane experience isn't even going to be Danny's last shared household experience.At Danny's side in each of the film's shared houses in which he resides are fellow drifters Sam (Emily Hamilton), Flip (Brett Stewart) and Anya (Romane Bohringer).
Brought together by the microcosm that is communal domestic life, these twenty-something's struggle side by side to try and understand the point of love, life and existence as they roam across shared households in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.The games of cane toad golf played in the shared house in Brisbane, the policemen at the door with twitchy trigger fingers in Melbourne and the polished floorboards carpeted with over-inflated egos in Sydney all act as fitting tip-offs to the character of the city's in which the shared houses reside - effectively creating a neo-realism that is heightened by the film's use of on-location shooting.While this film shows that the shared household experience is often a source of comedy and melodrama, it isn't always a bed of roses.
Central character, Danny, describes the dictum that hell is other people well in the film, as he explains, "I've lived in 49 shared households in what seems as many years.
I'm in a psycho-f***ing nightmare from hell and I'm f***ing fed up with it!"Having read John Birmingham's book, I can see how this film may upset die hard fans of the novel through its reduction of scores of shared house escapades to just three, however, I tend to think that Lowenstein's approach is the right one.
I felt that Lowenstein's crystallisation of the book's key scenes, played out through an amalgamation of its most intriguing characters, allowed the novel's most striking elements to intelligently come to the fore on film.Lowenstein's approach effectively brings to the screen a beautiful, brooding character study that's one part dirty realist comedy, one part existential allegory, but more than anything, a maturation of Lowenstein's own directorial style, as evidenced in his last cult hit, Dogs in Space.
This film's fine performances, allegorical dialogue, philosophical themes, use of music and sense of muted melodrama also stands up well alongside the fine tradition of American independent filmmaking propounded by directors such as Hal Hartley and Jim Jarmusch.Much like the cult novel and film versions of Less Than Zero, the story of He Died with a Felafel In His Hand has borne two great texts which stand up well in their own right, whilst also complementing one another.
While I do try to support the Australian film industry (being Australian myself) occasionally an stinker comes along and, I'm afraid, 'He Died With A Felafel In His Hand' is one of them.
Putting these characters to life would have been a difficult task for the director Richard Lowenstein and this is clearly evident as the film isn't as successful as the book.
While Noah Taylor is good as Danny, the tortured writer, the other characters in the film are two dimensional and not worth worrying about or caring for.
He Died With A Felafel In His Hand shows something completely different to all the pointless Australian films that rely on tasteless and crass jokes.
When you compare 'Felafel with American cinema it is clearly better than the Hollywood dreck that is distributed in Australia, very rarely is a movie of this quality released in Australia.Many people have criticized it's lack of story and plot but these elements are not necessary because the film relies on insights and ideas derived from the book.The cinematography is beautiful and there isn't a dull shot or sequence in the entire film, though it still manages to remain under stated.To put it simply this is one of the best Australian films I have seen..
few films leave me in the state which this film did, the first time i saw it was on commercial television and missed the first half hour, didn't really intend on watching the whole movie but by the end i couldn't understand why i felt so moved by this film.
i hired it the next day, after watching it all the way through, at the end i still had the same feeling as i did the night before, i thought Noah Taylor was great as was Emily Hamilton,but also the minor characters, flip and all the other house mates Danny had stayed with added both depth and comic relief to the film.if your thinking of seeing this movie i highly suggest you do, I've recommended this to all my friends, I'm a teenager so to get a group of pubescent teenagers through a movie with no college humor or breasts must mean the film has something going for it which appeals to audiences..
And he generally starts each piece based on a couple of lines on a poster he keeps on his wall (something like "Black is the ultimate").Somehow the people Danny shares these residences seem to all stick together, which is convenient since that means we also get to know them.
I guess the stage play must have been good, it ran for a long time in Aus. You can't really have a stage play with slow, dreary action and dialogue, but you sure can in a film.I've lived in share houses & flats in Aus and London and they were fun, with lots of great people and parties around at other people's flats, weekly tennis bookings, nights out at the pub (like The Lord Dudley in Sydney) etc.
Out of any film i am aware of it accurately depicts share house life in Australia with excellent dialogue and some really great performances.
This film covers a niche that is rarely seen in movies yet such an important social factor in the lives of young Australians, and it does it well.
The book made me wet myself laughing but the movie adds more heart and i can definitely recommend it especially (but not limited) to those who have lived in Australian share houses..
Five years of begging for money, writing umpteen screenplays and casting issues have delayed this adaptation of John Birmingham's cult classic novel.And now that we finally have it here to see it can be described as a big disappointment.First off let me say that if there are any fans of the book out there (and the amount of dog eared copies of Felafel I have seen seem to indicate there is), you will not like the movie.
It is no wonder that Bimingham wanted his name removed from the credits.As a movie totally divorced from the book it just may stand up on its own - but its lack of drama and its reliance on heavy handed character musings will work against it.The book is a series of recollections by the author of his share house experiences.
Now I understand that adapting the novel for the screen would have been a difficult task; when I first heard Lowenstein was undertaking it I said to my friends "that will be a difficult task" - but the screenplay is so removed from the book as to make any comparisons useless, other than to comment that the two are entirely unalike.But Lowenstein's solution - to make up a ficticious central character and artificially create a love triangle with his fellow house mates - is a bizarre and severly misguided one.
Instead of 90 minutes of rollicking fun and mayhem, we are treated to a film that tries to solve 'Life, the Universe and Everything', occasionally throwing in a watered down or totally made up exploit of share house living.There are many stories in it that would be great on the big screen - the exploits with the fish fingers, milk crates and their uses, the radio program and the raid, not to mention the furniture smashing sex session.
That the film employs the use of several upbeat songs to make the fact they are trying to liven things up to cover deathly boring script.The central character played by Noah Taylor is the emotional anchor for the film, and in that respect he does it well.
I have enjoyed many Australian films, and I make it a point to seek them out when I am looking for something new, but this movie would be awful no matter what country produced it.I tried to end the review at this point, but I am required to enter a minimum of ten lines of text to successfully enter this comment.
Well I try to see as many Australian films as I can to support our industry but when I see films like this it makes me wonder why.
Often I'll dislike a movie but still see that some people could like it - but how could anyone give 'felafel' more than two stars!
Sitting 'round Pemberton doing nothing, flicking through the channels, and stopped purely because of one of my (many) favourite tunes was on...Golden Brown by the Stranglers...of course that's the opening sequence to this movie.....Didn't know a thing about it really but just watched it in amazement.I related to the main character quite a bit purely because I travel so much and don't really have any proper roots, and feel that real frustration when people you're living with get so wrapped up in their own little problems when your own seem, at the time, insurmountable.I refer to a particular scene when Danny just blows up at the whining wannabe soap star....I think sometimes I should do the same!!
The film is a comedy, but be warned it also goes very dark at times.....one of the characters tries to commit suicide is one grim example.There's a bit of philosophy going on in there but you'd have to watch it a few times and probably read up a little to understand it....I didn't!
Because Movie Central was repeating this over and over again I ended up watching it a second time and got to understand it a little more...oh and if Emily Hamilton is single and ever in London/Whistler BC then I'd wine and dine her, that girl is hot....and a bloody good actress as well!.
If you would like to make movies in your life but you're not sure , watch "he died with a felafel in his hand" , you can't do worse than that.
Anyone that read the book `He Died With A Felafel In His Hand' - beware.
The movie adaptation is so far removed from John Birmingham's hilarious, original novel it's no wonder he wanted his name removed from the credits.Birmingham's book was a treat because it recollected the experiences of tenants in over 100 share houses across Australia: some outrageous, others painfully dull.
But apart from his short-term motivation to avoid trouble and get his prose into Penthouse, does Danny have a story to tell?It appears not, as he is stuck in a `crazy, uncoordinated and chaotic' world, making his character and his never-ending writing task so frustrating to watch.Like all good philosophy students, Danny is on a search for love, fulfilment and the meaning of existence.Through brooding in his room, strumming the guitar and displaying a general snootiness to everyone, he fails to find it, with his answer to all life's problems simply to pack up stuff and move house.It is difficult to feel any sympathy for Daniel's plight because he's just a dreamer - he is stuck `in a void of existential chaos' and he shuns the first signs of female affection so quickly (through characters Sam and Enya) one has to wonder if he really wants to find what he is looking for.
And his motivations are even harder to believe when these two women chase him all over the country to bed him.The film does pick up at the end when the writer is able to portray a shared house in its most realistic form.
i did however like the fat dude with dreadlocks and the cockney landlord who threatened noah taylor.this film just came across as another series of character viginettes, none of which were convincing or humourous. |
tt0114550 | Stonewall | The drama is a coming-of-age genre film, and centers on fictional Danny Winters, a gay white teenage boy from Indiana, who flees the conservative countryside in the late 1960s and moves to New York City. Shortly before leaving, he is discovered by friends while making love with his boyfriend. His father is upset, and while his mother is ambivalent as she feels for her son, she does not stand up to her husband either. His father then refuses to sign the scholarship application for Columbia University where Danny is supposed to attend.
Danny leaves for New York anyway, leaving behind his supportive younger sister Phoebe. After reaching Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, he is befriended by a multiracial group of young, gay, and genderfluid street kids and drag queens, and witnesses police violence against them. Danny goes into the Stonewall Inn accompanied by his friends, including Ray, and is asked for a dance by an older man Trevor, who is a member of the Mattachine Society. Later that night, the police raids the bar and arrests some customers. Danny, who did not get arrested because he was not cross-dressing, picks up Ray at the police station next day. Danny, destitute, then turns to prostitution and is seen disgraced while being fellated by a middle-aged man. Danny then goes to a meeting of the Mattachine Society, which purports to attain gay rights through conforming to society rather than radicalism. There he finds Trevor, and though they differ in opinion, they end up spending the night together.
Danny soon finds Trevor with another young man, and, heartbroken, he decides to leave the Village. But immediately after, he is abducted and forcibly sent out to a high-class prostitution business, at the direction of Ed Murphy, who runs the Stonewall Inn. Murphy has colluded with corrupt policemen and exploited homeless gay youth to his own advantage. Danny escapes with the help of Ray and the two go to the bar to confront Murphy. Then the police raids the bar and arrests some customers again. Danny is thrown onto the street as well as the rest of the customers, and, despite Trevor's dissuasion, hurls a brick into one of the bar's windows, screaming "Gay power!" This instigates the crowd to attack the policemen, who lock themselves up in the bar in response.
One year later, after finishing the first year at the university, Danny returns to home and tells his sister that he is going to attend the gay liberation march on Christopher Street. The film ends on the day of the parade where he is marching in the street after reuniting with his friends and discovers his mother and sister on the sidewalk. | anti war, violence | train | wikipedia | What an eye opener!.
We are set in the year 1969 where Homosexuality is illegal and dressing in drag is likely to get you arrested, if not beaten!Everybody has their own Stonewall story...
Everyone that lived through it will have a fantastic memory to tell anybody that will listen.
Well this film is La Miranda's story.
La Miranda is a fictional drag queen and this film is all about how her and her friends got through the Stonewall days.I learned a lot from this film.
I never realised how tough it was for gay people living in America at that time.
I never once thought about what those people did to make life so much easier for us now.
As a gay man myself, I felt touched by this film and the reality of what really did happen back then.Stonewall is a brutal film that delivers a very strong message in a very straight forward, no crap, right to the point kind of way.
The characters in the film are all adorable in their own way and you can really feel what they are feeling.You will find yourself staring at the screen in amazement at how strong these people really are.
Every person in this film gives an outstanding performance...
I can not fault any of the actors.
There are no big names in this film either and that is what makes it even more special.No big star actors being in this movie means that you can get really close to the characters and you can relate to them, rather than picture them in another role and another movie.
It is also a very private movie, it wasn't a huge box office smash hit like Titanic or Star Wars.
It's the kind of movie that nobody has really heard of but is always hooked on it once they finally see it.Anybody that knows about Stonewall will know that the people that lived through that riot were fighting for people like myself, my boyfriend and all gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, drag queens and everyone alike.
They sacraficed everything they could to pave the way for us to live with the freedom we deserve.
They deserve to be respected in every way possible and this film does just that.
It portrays them for what they really are....
HEROS!I really loved this film and I seriously recommend everybody sees it...
you will learn something and you will be moved!.
"I Don't Do Tears" - La Miranda.
I love this movie!
The mixture of fact & fiction works very well.
The music of the girl group The Shangri-Las immersed into the storyline is also an asset.
These characters are so appealing & they feel like friends, so you just can't wait to see what happens next.
The acting of Guillermo Diaz as La Miranda is so natural & relaxed it makes him so likable.
Sexy Fred Weller as Maddy Dean is adorable.
His character's faults make him all the more appealing.
I get choked up every time I see him sing & play the guitar, with the others on the bus coming back from their rally, not exactly defeated, but far from being winners either.
Mizz Moxie & Helen Wheels add just the right touch of campy, comic relief.
Duane Boutte as Bostonia is excellent & insightful.
His interaction with his homophobic homosexual lover, the Italian/American Vinny & owner of The Stonewall Inn, is passionate & sparks fly between them when they are confronting each other concerning their relationship issues circa 1969.
The only character I'm not too crazy about is Brandan Corbalis as Ethan.
I found him pretentious & condescending.
Aside from his nice butt in the shower (if in fact that was his butt) there's nothing appealing about him really.
The riot scene is fast & somewhat clumsy, yet it's electrifying & very exciting to view.
All gay people should watch this film & get a feel for what happened on that hot summer night in '69.
It gives you a sense of your history & what others before you endured.
(The premature death of icon Judy Garland adds a bittersweet footnote to the precedings)..
The spirit is right; the details are wrong.
I have a great deal of admiration for this engaging effort to explain the roots of the modern gay rights movement, produced on a shoe-string by a director with an admirable sense of style, pacing, and resourcefulness.
Though filtered through a distinctly British class-consciousness, it does a highly respectable job of catching the main trends in gay America from my not-quite-misspent youth.Furthermore, it is candidly presented as a subjective, fictional account, mooting complaints like "the bus is too old," "no New York apartment is that big" and "the Stonewall bar never looked that clean."Nonetheless, one small detail and one large item are egregiously wrong.
The detail is the rather elementary fact that the Stonewall was never licensed; it was a "private" mob-run club.
It was raided not because all cops are homophobes but because, in the absence of official licensing, gay bars were, in every sense, illegal.
The scenes where Stonewall employees display great care about the liquor laws are ridiculous, since the bar operated outside the law.The larger item is the failure to capture the sense of exhilaration that swept throught the country in 1969.
This was the year men walked on the moon, the year of Woodstock, the year an X-rated gay-themed film ("Midnight Cowboy") won the "Best Picture" Oscar, and (biggest miracle of all to us New Yorkers) the year the Mets, long "lovable losers," won the World Series.
Anything was possible, and gay people joined the party with enthusiasm..
As American as apple pie.
Frederick Weller is the perfect embodiment of the frustrated gay male who is ready for a change, and a revolution to boot.
He arrives in NYC, somewhat naive, and is befriended by a drag queen who introduces him to the city and its many characters.
He is discouraged almost immediately but it starts a feeling in him that makes him uneasy about the way things are.
At the time bars were getting raided constantly and there were other ridiculous laws, too, none of which sit well with him.
He befriends another man who enlightens him about rallies, a peaceful march to Philadelphia, and takes him to Fire Island.
But its all still bad, since he knows he's being treated badly because of who he is.
Climax of the movie is the riot at the end, which wasn't much of one as far as I'm concerned, but the police finally found they were being stood up to, and they didn't like it.All the actors are excellent, especially Weller, who's inexplicably not a major star, and Guillermo Diaz as La Miranda, a not-as-tough-as-she-pretends-to-be drag queen.
Its La Miranda's version of things, and when she says 'we're American as apple pie' as the last line of the movie, you can't help but believe her.
Kudos to all involved.
A film bursting with stories, colour and life..
The night they raided the NYC underground bar Stonewall was the night gay pride exploded into the mainstream.
This film tells the story of that night through a group of characters who each shine with their own unique story.
There's La Miranda and Matty Dean, the central fictional figures of this film, and their struggle to find love, respect and honour in 1969 against numerous odds.
But there are many other important stories told in this beautiful film.
Dazzling, bright, strong and rousing are just four words but they settle easily into any sentence describing Stonewall - the movie.
Its one of the most colourful and well designed films I've seen - so lush and grand in its set design and the musical numbers blaze.
This delicious film is an aching, sweet transport into another time and place and provides a jaunty historical summation of the pride and intensity the name Stonewall still retains in the twentieth century history of the gay experience.
Its a love story, a political tale, a drag odyssey and a wonderful expression of the powerful bonds that dark times promote and cement.
Most of all, its a film to share with people you care about and want to grow through life with - so march to see it now..
Events leading up to the Gay Uprising of 1969--told in connect-the-dots fashion.
A young gay man from the sticks comes to New York City in 1969 hoping for a better life, but finds the homosexual lifestyle just as stifled in the big city under police pressure, corruption and harassment.
The legendary gay riots near the Stonewall Inn take up just five minutes of the film's running-time, the final five minutes.
This low-budget, brightly-colored film is more interested in the lives that would soon be affected by the riots than in the aftermath of the violence--and so we get stock characters like the naive blond cowboy, the underworld group controlling the club, the straight-seeming activists for a Homosexual Alliance, and lots and lots of drag queens.
Director Nigel Finch seems to make a concerted effort to equate homosexuality with drag behavior, and drag behavior with (ultimately) prostitution.
Perhaps this was true of the times, but Finch's presentation (though not campy) has cartoonish leanings and nostalgic overtures that don't express anything more than what most people already realize: the cops were corrupt, the gays were not saints, and they clashed.
There's a good movie to be made about Stonewall, but this one just scratches the surface.
There are some sweet moments (a sing-along on a bus, a dance between a drag queen and a gay conservative), but just as many scenes where the tone intended hasn't a hope in hell of coming through.
There are several thousand Stonewall stories in the Big Apple, this is one of them..
The major value of the film Stonewall is to remind all of us just what gay people dealt with before a big rebellion took place in the last week of June in 1969.
The film is based on a novel by historian Martin Duberman and the director Nigel Finch died before his testament of the Stonewall Rebellion could be seen and appreciated.A couple of love stories are involved here.
Country boy Frederick Weller arrives from Kansas and he's hoping that New York City will be more accepting of him.
Or at least he'll find a community of sorts.
That part of the story hasn't ever changed.
He's caught between young closeted gay lawyer Brendan Corbalis and professional drag queen Guillermo Diaz.The second love story is between the owner of the Stonewall Inn and a drag queen played by Bruce MacVittie and Duane Boutte.
MacVittie has lived all his life with all the insane rules placed on same sex contact by society and its criminal code against sodomy.
Boutte is ready to rebel, but MacVittie counsels go slow it's the way of things in this world.
Still he's having just about enough of it.Weller is a rebellious sort, he gets caught in a bar raid the first night he's in New York.
Apparently the concept of freedom in America doesn't extend to those who love of the same sex.
He finds the Mattachine Society with their button down ways and it ain't for him.
But in a way they do fire his revolutionary ardor.The Mattachine Society comes in for quite a beating in Stonewall.
They were a radical concept in their idea when the mere idea of protesting these laws was radical.
In a scene laced with humor and irony Weller is with a group with accompanying press who challenges the law against serving liquor to known homosexuals.
Yes there indeed was such a law.
The only place that enforces the ordinance is a gay bar because they're afraid of police entrapment.Of course the end of the film is the riot at the Stonewall Inn which sparked a movement.
The unbelievable but true twist on events is the cops including the NYPD's crack tactical police unit equipped for riots retreating into a newly emptied Stonewall Inn for their own safety is truly a sight to behold.This is a fine film which captures the spirit of that night when it wasn't button down businessmen and lawyers, but rebels in high heels who changed America and the world..
a funny, inspiring film....
this is one of the great low-budget "queer cinema" triumphs of the 90s'....contrary to the above commenter, i do think the details are right...
and yes, the cops were homophobic..
they used arcane, outdated laws to close gay bars..
have u read the book "stonewall"?
they make it very clear that lots of bars - gay and str8 - were "illegal"..
only the gay ones were shut down..i was very impressed by the right-on details in the production design...
Good depiction of an historical event.
..but--sadly--we're still dealing with the same issues of hatred, bigotry and inequality more than 35 years after Stonewall.If more people from the so-called Christian right would/could see this movie (among others) with an open mind, maybe they would see that gays are not their enemies, or threats to their children, husbands, wives and marriages.Too bad that won't happen.BUT--maybe if Obama or Hillery become President in 2008...well, then, maybe those who are afraid of homos (and women and blacks) will finally come around and welcome us into this world.End of comment..
Fictional but very inspired and moving.....
"Stonewall" is a fictional but very inspired and moving account of events leading up to and culminating in the famous gay riots in NYC.
Don't be fooled by the packaging...this is in no way a fluffy work in the vein of "Can't Stop the Music." It is deeply moving, very nearly tragic as it depicts the complex stressful lives of several characters.
Fred Weller is marvelous as the genuine and untried hick Matty Dean who can't accept the comforts of compromise when he knows most of his compatriots are unjustly suffering.
Guillermo Diaz as the drag queen La Miranda, who resembles Connie Francis when made-up, is outstanding as Matty's insecure mentor and eventual mate.
Hopefully, the rampant police brutality against LGBT persons will be alleviated after the events depicted.
I have heard several horrifying stories from a few who were arrested and their subsequent brutal treatment in jails.
This film is so well-acted and paced that it should be seen by anyone, gay or straight, who has any interest in basic human rights issues.
It will certainly make you think, and doubtless leave a lasting impression and perhaps not a little enlightenment..
Fictional.
While Stonewall hits upon some facts about the Stonewall Riots, it is pretty much based upon fiction.
Much of this movie is apocryphal.
For example, the who idea that the Stonewall Riots were somehow influenced by Judy Garland's death was suggested by the homophobic police-- as a bigoted joke.
New research shows that the Stonewall Riots were started by what most people would classify as sissies from nearby bars after hearing that police were beating up Stonewall patrons.
There weren't very many drag queens allowed in the Stonewall.The police who conducted the bust were not from the precinct that was in charge of the area; but a separate group dealing with morals violation.
In fact, once barricaded inside the bar, they called for help, but the Sixth Precint wouldn't help, having already been paid off by the mob who owned the bar..
well-meant, but....
It's a well-meant effort with a lot of heart behind it but far less by way of acting, writing and directing prowess.
The leads are competent but flat and the direction is pretty standard issue (with the exception of the riot, which is quite badly staged and directed).
The period pop songs, lip synched by the drag queens, grow tiresome after a while.
I found the Duberman book powerful, passionate and engrossing as any novel - maybe someday someone will feel inspired to do a film adaptation right.
All in all, this movie's a heroic effort but not a success..
A Masterpiece.
Having been the the Village in the 1960's, I can vouch for the accuracy of this film and the depiction of the Village during that era, except for a sort of inaccurate image of the exterior of the Stonewall bar.The characters are representations of real people (the head of the Mattachine Society, the leader of the Daughters of Bilitis, the mafioso and the queen coming out) that I knew in the movement back then.Being gay or trans gender back then was very rough: the scenes of police brutality are frank and graphic, especially the cops' dunking La Miranda's head under water...
The cops did a similar thing to me.If you want to see how far the LGBT movement has progressed, see this film..
Stonewall-Ask Me I Was There.
I have not seen the movie yet.
I am sure that there will be a lot of fiction as well as non-fiction.
If you really want to know the facts, ask me.
I was 17 at the time, dancing the night away in Stonewall.
We had no idea or even a thought we would be making history.
This was not planned nor was it ever in anyway rehearsed.
It was a sad time, a very scary time.
We were always under the threat of the police dept, under the mayors office.
We were never sure if we were going to be taken outside one more time for a shake down.
I read a lot of the reviews here and some were on and off.
I can tell you this though, Judy Garlands death had NOTHING what so ever to do with Stonewall. |
tt0045963 | Kiss Me Kate | Act I
The cast of a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is rehearsing for the opening of the show that evening ("Another Op'nin', Another Show"). Egotistical Fred Graham is the director and producer and is starring as Petruchio, and his movie-star ex-wife, Lilli Vanessi, is playing Katherine. The two seem to be constantly arguing, and Lilli is particularly angry that Fred is pursuing the sexy young actress Lois Lane, who is playing Bianca. After the rehearsal, Lois's boyfriend Bill appears; he is playing Lucentio, but he missed the rehearsal because he was gambling. He tells her that he signed a $10,000 IOU in Fred's name, and Lois reprimands him ("Why Can't You Behave?").
Before the opening, Fred and Lilli meet backstage, and Lilli shows off her engagement ring from Washington insider Harrison Howell, reminding Fred that it's the anniversary of their divorce. They recall the operetta in which they met, which included "Wunderbar", a Viennese waltz; they end up fondly reminiscing and singing and dancing. Two gangsters show up to collect the $10,000 IOU, and Fred replies that he never signed it. The gangsters obligingly say they will give him time to remember it and will return later. In her dressing room, Lilli receives flowers from Fred, and she declares that she is still "So In Love" with him. Fred tries to keep Lilli from reading the card that came with the flowers, which reveals that he really intended them for Lois. However, Lilli takes the card with her onstage, saying she will read it later.
The show begins ("We Open in Venice"). Baptista, Katherine and Bianca's father, will not allow his younger daughter Bianca to marry until his older daughter Katherine is married. However, she is shrewish and ill-tempered, and no man desires to marry her. Three suitors - Lucentio, Hortensio, and Gremio - try to woo Bianca, and she says that she would marry any of them ("Tom, Dick, or Harry"). Petruchio, a friend of Lucentio, expresses a desire to marry into wealth ("I've Come to Wive it Wealthily in Padua"). The suitors hatch a plan for him to marry Kate, as Baptista is rich. Kate, however, has no intentions of getting married ("I Hate Men"). Petruchio attempts to woo her ("Were Thine That Special Face"). Offstage, Lilli has an opportunity to read the card. She walks on stage off-cue and begins hitting Fred, who, along with the other actors, tries to remain in character as Baptista gives Petruchio permission to marry Kate. Lilli continues to strike Fred, and he ends up spanking her. Offstage, Lilli furiously declares she is leaving the show. However, the gangsters have reappeared, and Fred tells them that if Lilli quits, he'll have to close the show and won't be able to pay them the $10,000. The gangsters force her to stay at gunpoint. Back onstage, Bianca and Lucentio dance while the chorus performs "We Sing of Love", covering a scene change. The curtain opens, revealing the exterior of a church; Petruchio and Kate have just been married, and they exit the church; the gangsters, dressed in Shakespearean costume, are onstage to make sure that Lilli stays. Petruchio implores for Kate to kiss him, and she refuses. He lifts her over his shoulder and carries her offstage while she pummels his shoulder with her fists ("Kiss Me Kate").
Act II
During the show's intermission, the cast and crew relax in the alley behind the theater. Paul (Fred's assistant), along with a couple other crew members, lament that it's "Too Darn Hot" to meet their lovers that night. The play continues, and Petruchio tries to 'tame' Katherine and mourns for his now-lost bachelor life ("Where Is the Life That Late I Led?"). Off-stage, Lilli's fiancé Harrison Howell is looking for Lilli. He runs into Lois, and she recognizes him as a former lover but promises not to tell Lilli. Bill is shocked to overhear this, but Lois tells him that even if she is involved with other men, she is faithful to him in her own way ("Always True to You in My Fashion"). Lilli tries to explain to Howell that she is being forced to stay at the theatre by the gangsters, but Howell doesn't believe her and wants to discuss wedding plans. Fred insidiously points out how boring Lilli's life with Howell will be compared to the theatre. Bill sings a love song he has written for Lois ("Bianca").
The gangsters discover that their boss has been killed, so the IOU is no longer valid. Lilli leaves—without Howell—as Fred unsuccessfully tries to convince her to stay ("So in Love" (Reprise)). The gangsters get caught on stage and improvise a tribute to Shakespeare in which they explain that knowing Shakespeare is the key to romance ("Brush Up Your Shakespeare"). The company prepares for the conclusion of the play, the wedding of Bianca and Lucentio, even though they are now missing one of the main characters. However, just in time for Katherine's final speech, Lilli arrives onstage ("I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple"). Fred and Lilli wordlessly reconcile on stage, and the play ends ("Kiss Me Kate" (Finale)) with them, as well as Bill and Lois, kissing passionately. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1275863 | Love Aaj Kal | Jai and Meera are a modern-day couple living in London. They are happy with each other, but do not believe in tying each other down so when career beckons, they have a mutual break-up, but remain friends. Meera goes to India, while Jai stays in London, hoping to be called to San Francisco, where working at the Golden Gate Inc. is his dream job. Jai begins to date a blonde named Jo, while Meera returns the feelings of her boss, Vikram. The couple believes they have moved on.
Running simultaneously, but set in the past, is the tale of Veer Singh. A great believer of love, the Sikh narrates his love story to Jai to try to convince him not to let Meera go from his life. He explains how he fell for a girl named Harleen. Jai ridicules Veer, who vowed to marry Harleen before he had even gotten to talk to her. But, on Veer's insistence, he agrees to pay Meera a surprise visit in India. Meera is stunned, and the two lie to both Jo and Vikram to spend time with each other. They realize how much they still like each other's company. Jai and Jo break up as Jai is unable to reciprocate the deeper feelings that Jo longs for. On the day Jai is to leave, Vikram proposes to Meera. She meets Jai secretly, who tells her she should make a decision. Angry, Meera tells him to leave her life or else she will never be able to really move on. Parallel to this, we find that Harleen has told Veer she was engaged without being told, and he must leave her.
Jai is called to his dream job in San Francisco the same day Meera realizes her marriage is a mistake. She tells Vikram the truth and calls Jai, but he tells her about the Golden Gate. Realizing he is going to San Francisco, she tells him nothing. Meanwhile, Veer declares his intentions of marrying Harleen but is badly beaten by her family.
Jai begins to lose interest in his "dream job," finding that he is not as happy as he thought he would be. He is beaten by some thugs when, while being mugged, he refuses to give them a picture of Meera. He then realizes he still loves her, and goes back to India. He finds Vikram, who informs him that Meera left him. In the past, Veer travels to Harleen's house on the day of her wedding, and convinces her mother that Harleen can only be happy with him. Harleen's mother lets Veer secretly sneak out with her daughter, and the two marry happily. In the present, Jai and Meera have a heart-touching reunion. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0040751 | Ruthless | Act I
Judy Denmark, a bland housewife, is the mother of talented eight-year-old Tina, who declares, "I was born to entertain." At the suggestion that she should postpone her stage ambitions to be a normal child, she replies, "I've had a normal childhood. It's time to move on." Sylvia St. Croix, an overbearing and sleazy agent, encourages Tina to audition for the school play, Pippi in Tahiti, The Musical, feeding her thirst for stardom. Third-grade teacher and frustrated actress, Miss Myrna Thorn, directs Pippi. She casts an untalented (but parentally connected) girl, Louise Lerman, for the lead, making Tina the frustrated understudy. After "begging nicely and saying please," Tina "accidentally" hangs Louise from the catwalk with a jumprope so that she can play Pippi. (In the Los Angeles production, Louise is killed by a falling sandbag dropped from the rafters by Tina.) Lita Encore, Judy's adoptive mother (and Tina's grandmother), a tart-tongued theatre critic who "hates musicals", shows up to review the premiere of Pippi in Tahiti; and, In a series of revelations, we learn that Judy is the daughter of Ruth Del Marco, a Broadway star from the past who was believed to have committed suicide because of bad reviews from Lita Encore. Judy recognizes that she herself is talented. ("I'm talented! God help me, I'm talented!")
Act II
Once Tina's crime is discovered, she is sent away to the Daisy Clover School for Psychopathic Ingenues. Former housewife Judy Denmark is now a success on Broadway as diva Ginger Del Marco, but the world wants to know where she came from. "Modern Thespian" reporter Emily Block directs a pointed interview at Judy and discovers not only her housewife past but that she has a child. Tina is released from serving her time, and comes back to Ginger's fabulous penthouse apartment (and her jealous assistant, Eve). Tina seems to be reformed, but Ginger sees through the act ("you're not that good") and calls her bluff. Mother and daughter face off for the limelight. Sylvia re-enters, wanting nothing more than to take Tina with her. She reveals that she is Ruth Del Marco, and Ginger's mother. She did not commit suicide, as was believed, but instead went into hiding. Suddenly, Eve pulls out a gun and after revealing that she is Louise Lerman's ("Act One?") mother Betty Lerman, in a struggle with Ginger Delmarco, is shot dead. Tina then takes the gun that shot Eve and holds it to her mother, asking to be in cast in her new play. At that moment, Lita Encore bursts in and Sylvia struggles for the gun with Tina and is shot dead. She sings her final song, after which, Lita Encore comments "ah, she could never sing." Sylvia comes back to life one last time and shoots Lita. Ginger then becomes Judy again because of all the extremely stressful events that have taken place. She tells Tina that they'll never set foot on stage again to which Tina responds, "You're right, mother. there's no money in theater...we're moving to L.A....We'll do a sitcom!" Judy, realizing her daughter has not learned a single thing, proceeds to kill herself by electrocution. Tina begins to declare, gun in hand, that there's no money in Broadway, when she is interrupted by Miss Block, who returns looking for her pad and pen. Tina shoots her and finishes explaining that there's no money in Broadway and that she's moving to Hollywood to get a series. | flashback | train | wikipedia | RUTHLESS is a terrific noir/melodrama - sharply written (by the to-be-blacklisted Alvah Bessie and Gordon Kahn), consistently beautifully photographed (by the underrated Bert Glennon), and truly adventurous in its editing and flash forward-flash backward construction.Zachary Scott is the "ruthless" title character, but the title is more a cheap shot than anything else; Scott's Vendig is more an emotionally bankrupt, pathological character than a villain per se.
This technique alone puts RUTHLESS way ahead of any other Poverty Row melodrama of the period and cements Ulmer's reputation as a thoughtful stylist.Louis Hayward plays a sort of Greek chorus, an often acquiescent voice of conscience/best friend/nemesis who keeps the episodic story moving along.
Diana Lynn (in two roles), Martha Vickers and Lucille Bremer each give terrific performances as the various women who appear, disappear, and reappear in the lives of both men.
All are sharply drawn, a testament to the determination of Bessie, Kahn and other blacklisted writers to put strong female characters on screen in defiance of the Production Code, which seemed to encourage either submissive or predatory roles for women.And as if all that isn't enough, Sidney Greenstreet drops in and sets the screen on fire in every sequence he appears in.
Likewise, a later sequence where Bremer drags him in front of the mirror so she can brutally compare him to her new, younger lover is unforgettably painful.RUTHLESS sits comfortably alongside DETOUR, THE MAN FROM PLANET X and THE STRANGE WOMAN, other Ulmer gems of note.
Apparently a brief exchange between the adolescent boy (Bobby Anderson) and his father (Raymond Burr) in which the father tells him that opportunity only comes around once, is the reason why Anderson morphs into the social climbing and ruthless business tycoon played by Zachary Scott.
Though it's difficult to establish a connection between the two, Scott makes a believable social climber, and the story has a pretty good trajectory from his adolescence through dark mansions and well furnished offices with New York skyline views, to a finale gala event where Scott is organizing a philanthropy to unload some of his millions and ease his conscience.
While in a philanthropic meeting promoted by the millionaire Horace Woodruff Vendig (Zachary Scott), the guest Vic Lambdin (Louis Hayward) tells the history of the beginning and end of his friendship with the host to his date Mallory Flagg (Diana Lynn).
When they are boys, Horace is a poor boy from a dysfunctional family and Vic's best friend that saves the wealthy girl Martha Burnside from drowning in a river.
Later he meets the shark Buck Mansfield (Sydney Greenstreet) and seduces his young wife Christa (Lucille Bremer) to profit in business, leading to tragic consequences.I was zapping the cable TV this raining Sunday morning in Rio and I found this rare film-noir by chance, which has never been released on VHS or DVD in Brazil.
Ulmer made a magnificent movie with a timeless plot of merciless ambition of a poor and selfish boy that wishes to climb financially and socially using and disposing wealthy women and friendships.
There is strong work by Diana Lynn, Lucille Bremer, and Martha Vickers as women who get used and discarded along the way.
Sidney Greenstreet shows up mid film as an equally greedy and grasping character, dominating all his scenes.
Ulmer (1904-72) may be best remembered for the pessimistic 1945 film noir Detour, but that is only one of his several directing credits, many of which have fallen out of fame over the past decades.
One of Ulmer's lesser known works is his 1948 drama Ruthless, a character study of a superficially successful but inwardly broken man, in some ways evoking memories of the themes in Orson Welles' legendary debut feature Citizen Kane (1941).Like many noirs, Ruthless utilizes extensive flashbacks in its narrative.
The frame story takes place in a high society party where Vic Lambdin (Louis Hayward) and his lady friend Mallory Flagg (Diana Lynn) have arrived to meet Vic's old friend Horace Vendig (Zachary Scott), a millionaire philanthropist.
He mentions that he is aware of his irresistible urge to strive for success which causes him to knowingly hurt his loved ones by dumping them in favour of business opportunities, but the scenes of him going through numerous financial negotiations and meetings start feeling tiresome soon.
For one thing, the acting is generally good throughout; especially the women are at home in their roles, from the beautiful Diana Lynn in a double role as Martha and Mallory to Lucille Bremer as the frustrated Christa Mansfield and Martha Vickers as Vendig's fiancée Susan.
Sydney Greenstreet also delivers a great performance as Bremer's on-screen husband Buck Mansfield, an aging businessman who has to face his limitations due to Vendig's schemes.
On the other hand though, the kid actors in the first flashback are not as impressive as the adults, but Ruthless is hardly the first (or last) movie with kids as the weakest link.
Zachary Scott's "old" makeup could have been more convincing too; a small moustache is hardly enough to convey the feel of an older man.
Other than that, the melancholic-looking Scott suits the lead role somewhat comfortably.Some of the shadowy photography in the exterior scenes and low camera angles looks pretty nice, even though the visuals are not really as starkly contrasted as in many proper noirs.
In the end, with more fleshed out character development Ruthless could have been a very enjoyable film, but I think it is easily watchable as it is now as well, flawed or not..
That's the lesson learned too late by all the good souls who help ruthless Zachry Scott in this movie.
Scott is appropriately hard and tough in the unsympathetic lead role, and Diana Lynn, Sydney Greenstreet, and Raymond Burr head up a marvelous supporting cast.
Ulmers attempt to film a story similar to CITIZEN KANE.
Like CITIZEN KANE, RUTHLESS is the story of the rise and fall of man from a humble background who rises to the top, destroying several people along the way, only to end up having his past catch up with him at the end.
RUTHLESS also has CITIZEN KANE's flashback structure and both characters come from quaint small towns.
Unlike Charles Kane, Horace Wooddruff Vendig is a far more ruthless character and- unlike Charles Kane- evokes little sympathy.
He destroys his first love, first by stealing her from his best friend, then dumping her for another woman when he meets another girl whose family can provide him with better connections to move the economic ladder.
Overall, RUTHLESS is a not bad imitation of a much better film, but when viewing it, the viewer can't help think something is lacking..
I felt like i was watching the sequel to Citizen Kane episode two, loved the movie kept me on the edge of my seat but it needed Orson Wells!
Diana Lynn disappointed me playing a duel role as MarthaBurnside/ Mallory Flagg she shows the same personality for both characters.
But great supporting role up against Zachary Scott.
The movie is slow at spots but sustains its plot throughout.Sydney Greenstreet plays the villain no surprise there but would we want to see him in film in any other way think not!
I give it a ten Raymond Burr gets a small scene in the beginning of the film as the father to Zachary Scott's character well acted scene though he doesn't have much of a part too short i think he should've stayed in the movie longer.
The director, though, is a favorite noir director of mine, Edgar Ulmer, who had a string of great films in the late 1940s.
So this is one of them, though not quite a noir.In fact, this is a kind of financiers movie, which isn't actually a genre thank God. But the weakest part of the film (at least for a non-Wall Street viewer) is a lot of talk about business deals.
And of course there are women involved (compelling ones like Diana Lynn), and memories of a childhood girlfriend, so we feel something for the good friend of the leading capitalist male, and even for Sydney Greenstreet, who plays an aging businessman, even amusing.The whole enterprise gets fairly involved and makes you pay attention, which is good, and leads to a pretty spectacular last scene off the pier..
Ulmer (of "Detour" notoriety), Zachary Scott, Sidney Greenstreet, Raymond Burr and Martha Vickers, under the title "Ruthless," promises a fairly robust slice of film noir.
Alas, what one gets is a faintly Citizen-Kaneish look back over the life of a heartless tycoon (Zachary Scott, who, whatever his strengths, was no Orson Welles).
Scott was a poor child (Burr briefly plays his dad, dressed up to look like a carnival barker) who saved the life of a wealthy girl, whose family then took him under its wing.
I am sure that Zachary Scott was cast in the lead role in Ruthless after the folks at Eagle-Lion remembered his debut in The Mask Of Dimitrios.
As proof of that I'm sure that every effort was also made to acquire the services of Sydney Greenstreet who was also part of the cast of that film.Under Edgar Ulmer's direction, Scott paints a careful and calculated portrait of a driven and Ruthless man going back to his childhood.
Some elements of Citizen Kane are present here as in several flashback sequences we see what has made Scott what he is today.What he's trying to do now is cover up what he's been in much the same manner as the robber barons of old by donating his vast sums of money.
Scott's invited a whole lot of people from his past including his oldest friend Louis Hayward who really knows him from way back when.And it's back in his childhood just as we were introduced to Charles Foster Kane and the events that shaped we are likewise meeting Zachary Scott, Louis Hayward, and Diana Lynn as the characters they are before they are adults.
He goes to live with Dennis Hoey and his rich and genteel family which includes the daughter who grows up to be Diana Lynn and they give him a Harvard education.But what makes this a real Zachary Scott role is that it's not just business he's in, it's business mixed with bedroom pleasure.
Some of the observations made by Bessie's characters could hold true for Lillian Hellman's Little Foxes as well as in Citizen Kane.A real crackerjack film and a fascinating portrayal by Zachary Scott in the lead makes Ruthless a must see..
I call this Wall Street Noir as a way of simple classification, but it's a odd film from Britain's Eagle Lion, directed by the usually "B" director of Bluebeard and Detour, this dark film detailing the rise to financial power of a man who lacks ethics, certainly mirroring many of the financial scandals surrounding us today.
Ulmer had considerable talent, and here is given a literate script, a popular leading man in Zachary Scott, and lots of outstanding support, namely Sidney Greenstreet, Diana Lynn, Martha Vickers, and in a small,unrecognizable role Raymond Burr.
Zachary Scott plays Horace Vendig--a young man from a very troubled home.
This same pattern continued throughout the film--using others (especially women) to work his way towards greater and greater wealth.
While the outside world sees him as a great and philanthropic man, he is a soul-less jerk--and this film shows the steps he took to become that man.In many ways, this film is a lot like the later film "Wallsteet" except that Vendig gets ahead not just through business acumen but by using women.
Yes, as Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford's Oscar winning role of 1945) was so compelling and the character of Monty Baragon (Zachary Scott) her eventual ill fated screen husband; I found it hard to separate the two roles ZS played in that role & "Ruthless" (1948).Whereas "Monty" only "loafed", Horace is obsessed by work and making money to the detriment of his personal life.I found it hard to accept ZS playing a young university student at Harvard.The inter varsity swimming competition I found unconvincing since when they swam the freestyle event, none of the undergraduates did a tumble turn when they reached the end of the pool.Peversly I missed not seeing ZS helping an undergraduate with his economic notes as it would have added depth to the character of Horace.Equally I found it hard to believe he would give up studying at Harvard and hence obtaining an economics degree, by being seduced by the offer of an assistant manager post at a New York firm of stockbrokers.Sydney Greenstreet played his usual "heavy" role a la "THE Maltese Falcon".The female leads in pre-sexual equality days were only interested in love & marriage and were just adequate.Passable 6/10.
Zachary Scott makes the tycoon who from a humble start builds an empire but at the cost of everything human on the way.
He simply refuses to take any no or objection to his ambitions seriously but grabs everything he fancies for his own and gets it - until there is Sydney Greenstreet, who turns the film into a very interesting drama, the finale towering into a frantic settlement with the inhumanity of ruthlessness.Among the others Lucille Bremer as Christa makes an intelligent impression, and Louis Hayward as the friend who sees Zachary through and tries to follow but fails to save him, makes a credible enough figure of a real best friend who fails for no fault of his, while Diana Lynn as Martha and Mallory becomes something of an enigma - it's actually she who brings Vendig's ruin but unintentionally, as her only power over him is that she resembles his first love, whom he deserted - it's not her fault.It's a very interesting story of opportunism, but like in so many of Ulmer's always most interesting films, the characters never really come alive.
Burr is great in minor role, explaining Scott's character.
Wholesome Lynn and promiscuous Bremer are among the women Scott becomes romantically entangled with..
Greenfield and wife need thick Southern accents--Zachary Scott miscast as womanizer.
This movie also fails as it tries to copy Citizen Kane cinematography with long black and white shadows etc...the items filmed that way were things like fake chandlers--almost like a parody.With more money...and some tuning and recasting this could have been a great classic.Still RECOMMEND--.
This film is the life story of mega-wealthy Horace Vendig, as told in flashbacks at a party he's throwing in his own honor at his palatial estate.
He views the women in his life as trophies or stepping stones, and the general public as sheep to be fleeced.For once, director Ulmer had enough money for some production values.
Zachary Scott as Vendig is properly cold-blooded, Louis Hayward stalwart as the one friend finally disgusted and betrayed, and the rest of the cast, including bigger names than Ulmer usually could afford, is excellent,.
On Your Way Up, Be Careful Who You Step On. With a name like "Vendig" and an actor like Zachary Scott, you know who's ruthless without seeing the movie.
It's a heckuva climb up the proverbial ladder, told in occasional flashback that fills in the personal stories and motivations.It's also a great cast, Scott at his most arrogant, Lynn at her sweetest, Hayward at his most likable, and of course Greenstreet at his most Greenstreet.
Likely, the movie's message would resonate with today's audiences who've also been taught a lesson by Wall Street's destructive side.Anyway, it's a darkly riveting morality tale that gets the most out of its modest budget thanks to a shrewd cast and expert direction from cult director Edgar Ulmer.
At the same time, the deserving Lambdin finally ends up with his beloved Martha, even if it's through her look-alike Mallory (which is why Lynn plays both parts).
Director Edgar Ulmer wants RUTHLESS to put himself up there with the bigger directors.
Horace Vendig(Zachary Scott)is the product of a broken home; not having any of the luxuries his friends had.
Other players: Diana Lynn, Martha Vickers, Sydney Greenstreet, Lucille Bremer and Raymond Burr.
There is no way that cheerful, caring George Baily (Robert J Anderson) can grow up to become preening, effete villain Zachary Scott.
It's too bad the film's message ends up being the homily: "Stay home, have no ambition & lead a trite life!".
The inevitable comparison to "Citizen Kane" is shared with other reviewers of this high grade Eagle Lion film directed by the masterful Edgar J.
The two films share a story told in flashbacks of how the childhood struggles of a young boy lead him to become a ruthless businessman who seemed eager to destroy everything he touched.
Rather than Orson Welles, the grown man is Zachary Scott, even more amoral than his rogue from "Mildred Pierce", and like Charles Foster Kane, his childhood issues stemmed from his parents, divorced for many years.
His cold-hearted mother (Joyce Arling) wants him to have nothing to do with his father (played in a nice cameo by Raymond Burr whose movie career prior to TV immortality in "Perry Mason" and Ironside" consisted mostly of villains) but the young boy can't help but look him up.
He breaks up marriages, drives one business associate to suicide, and even schemes to take away the woman loved by his childhood best friend (Louis Hayward).One of the key moments is when he sets his sights on the young wife of the much older Sydney Greenstreet.
She's played by Lucille Bremer, the older sister in "Meet Me in St. Louis", who is playing a variation of characters played in film noir by Gloria Grahame and Jane Greer.
When Greenstreet comes to her room to tenderly offer his love to her, the disgust erupts, much like Mildred from "Of Human Bondage", and the film briefly touches on something very profound.
The other women played by Diana Lynn and Martha Vickers never strike a cord of interest for me, only adding a soap opera element to the "Citizen Kane"/"Dallas"/"Dynasty" feeling.The story is told surrounding an event where Scott is being honored, for what never convincingly felt worthy of him receiving. |
tt0074312 | Chinesisches Roulette | Ariane and Gerhard Christ, a wealthy Munich couple, are packing before going off for the weekend, which each intends to spend abroad. While they are away their twelve-year-old daughter Angela, who is disabled and walks with crutches, has to remain home under the care of her governess, Traunitz. Actually, the couple have lied about their travel intentions. Convinced that his wife and daughter will be elsewhere, Gerhard takes his longtime mistress Irene Cartis — a French hairdresser — on a weekend tryst to the family's country house.
The Christ family's rural estate is run by a sinister housekeeper named Kast and her sexually ambiguous son, Gabriel. While Kast, a cruel and cranky old woman, is irritated by the visit of her employers, her son Gabriel, a pretentious aspiring writer, is hoping to exploit Gerhard's connections to get his work published. Upon entering the house with his lover Irene, Gerhard runs to the living room only to find Ariane on the floor with her lover Kolbe, Gerhard's assistant. The two couples try to overcome the uncomfortable situation and are able to laugh about the absurdity of it. They all have dinner together and, over coffee, Gabriel is allowed to read from the philosophical book he has written. He is interrupted by the arrival of Angela — who secretly planned this encounter out of hate for her parents' lack of affection — along with her mute governess, Traunitz, and a small army of grotesque dolls. Ariane is furious with the antics of her daughter and tries to hit her but Gerhard does not allow her. Angela is defiant and on their part the two adulterous couples decide to continue as planned.
Angela tells Gabriel that her disability originated with her parents' infidelities. Eleven years ago, when her father started her relationship with his mistress, Angela's illness appeared. When her mother began an affair with Kolbe, the doctors declared Angela's condition as hopeless. However, Kast dismisses the child's allegation as nonsense. The next morning Angela goes from room to room to say good morning to her parents, and finds them naked with their respective lovers. During the day, as the adulterous Christs come to terms with their respective infidelities, Angela tries to play them and their lovers off each other.
The stage is set for a night of suspenseful revelation when Angela suggests playing Chinese Roulette, a psychological guessing game, over dinner. In Chinese Roulette, one team tries to guess which one of them the other team is thinking of by asking questions. Angela selects the members of each team. On one side are Gerhardt, Angela, Gabriel and Traunitz; on the other are Ariane, Kast, Irene and Kolbe. Ariane's team asks the questions and Angela's team gives the answers. The game has an edge of cruelty and the results involve everyone in the chateau.
The deadliest and final question posed is "What would this person have been in the Third Reich?" Angela's response is that she would have been the commandant of a concentration camp. Kast suggests that the subject of the questions is herself, and the others uncertainly agree with her. Angela contradicts this, saying that they are trying to bully Kast; the subject is in fact her own mother, Ariane. Enraged by this and by Angela's hysterical laughter, Ariane points her husband's pistol at Angela, then turns and shoots Traunitz. However this turns out to be only a superficial flesh wound. Irritated by Gabriel, Angela tells him that for the last two years she has known that he has plagiarized every word he has written.
The film ends in mystery as a second shot is heard in the darkened house, but the identity of the shooter and the victim is left to the viewer's imagination. | dramatic, psychological, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0145393 | Pizza, birra, faso | This story takes place in an impoverished district outside Buenos Aires. It tells about a corrupt group of teenage misfits: the not-so-bright Megabom (Alejandro Pous), the asthmatic Pablo (Jorge Sesan), the nerdy Frula (Walter Diaz), and Sandra (Pamela Jordan), the pregnant girlfriend of El Cordobes (Héctor Anglada). All are squatters living together in the same house. The group wanders the city and steal in order to survive. After letting go of their former employer, a crooked taxi driver who paid them a cut of what they could steal from his passengers, Pablo and Cordobes steal from a crippled street vendor, which ultimately leads to Sandra being arrested.
Sandra, because of her pregnancy, starts to think about her future and the life she can make for her expected baby. When she is released from jail after a short time inside, she makes Cordobes promise he'll straighten up and find a decent job instead of stealing again. In the meantime, she stays with her abusive father. Aided by his friends, Cordobés starts looking for more profitable scores, so he can move to Uruguay with Sandra.
Frula arranges a job with his contact, Rubén which involves stealing a fancy restaurant with unreliable guns. Rubén drives them to the spot which turns out to be an ordinary place. The stickup goes sloppily and the alarm goes off, urging the five robbers to escape. Rubén cuts ties with the others after paying Cordobes a misery for his job.
Running out of time, the group decides to rob a local nightclub. Pablo and Cordobes get back in touch with the cab driver, only to beat him up and steal both his money and his guns. However, they grow fond of the passenger, a middle aged woman from Cordoba, and let her arrive to her destination safely. Immediately after being let out of the car, the woman discreetly calls the police, who begins tracking the stolen cab. Back at the nightclub, Pablo, Frula and Cordobes get past the bouncer and proceed to hold the ticket workers at gunpoint while Pablo acts as a diversion, with Megabom as lookout outside the club. The bouncer, however, barely manages to notice Pablo and Megabom switching guns, so he begins acting more suspiciously. While the others start taking the money, Megabom notices a policeman following them, and proceeds to bother him and damage his motorbike in order to create a distraction. When Cordobes gets out of the ticket office, gun in hand, he is shot in the chest by the bouncer, who is then killed by Pablo. Hearing the screams and gunshots inside, the policeman attempts to enter the nightclub, but begins to beat down Megabom after he hits him in the back. When Frula, Cordobes and Pablo get to the cab, Frula catches a glimpse of the bloody and bruised Megabom. Enraged, he draws his gun at the officer, but is quickly shot down. Pablo manages to escape carrying a badly wounded Cordobes and steals another car. He drives him to the docks and gives him the money, so he can leave with Sandra, while staying behind to turn himself in.
Crawling, Cordobes manages to get to the docks, where he realizes he won't make it to the boat. Reunited with Sandra, he is forced to confess he didn't make good on his promise, and tells Sandra she should go alone, for the kid's sake. They kiss farewell, and a dying Cordobes manages to get a final look at Sandra while the boat departs. When the police arrive, they find his dead body and inform the station via radio. | murder | train | wikipedia | One of the best low budget Argentine movies ever. This film illustrates a reality that almost all South American countries are living. The story is about four teenagers that have to steal to live, doing whatever they can to obtain some "pesos" . This film features lots of decadent scenes, that show the way of acting of these boys that can't get out of their sad reality even if they wanted so. Despite some technical problems in the film (due to low budget) this is one of the greatest Argentine titles released in the 90s. There's a curious thing, this film was almost not shown in cinemas due to a money problem that led to release complications. The international film festivals that Pizza, Birra, Faso won and the great numbers it did in the box office showed what an error that would have been. Really good. 8.5/10 .-. Some light in the darkness. Pizza, Birra, Faso is a simple movie about a group of men who are broke and make their money by robbing people on the street. The two leaders of the group, Cordoba and Pablo, soon after the start of the film decide that they need to do bigger jobs with their crew in order to change their lifestyle. The movie as a whole gives off a dark vibe as it displays several situations of people being taken advantage of and suffering because of desperate people. Whilst Argentines can quite easily relate with the story and the events which take place, I believe a movie should try to take people away, at least for a short period of time, from that reality which is around them. The movie does however display a theme o hope to the audience through the actions of Cordoba as he looks out for his girlfriend and future baby. Not only this, but the character of Pablo also is a symbol of a caring and loving friend who will do all that is in his power to look out for his friend and his family. |
tt0058653 | The Thrill Killers | The story takes place in 1964 in Hollywood, California.
Joe Saxon (Joe Bardo) is an aspiring actor whose outlandish parties and spending worry his wife, Liz (Liz Renay). As per the narrator, he is "trapped in the world of non-reality".
In another scene, we see a young, Greek immigrant named Dennis Kesdekian (Atlas King) kisses his wife and family good-bye as he leaves for another day at work. Kesdeckian sees a hitchhiker (Steckler) and offers to give him a ride. The hitchhiker shoots the man and steals his car.
That night, Joe throws a party at his house. He and Liz do not know most of the people who attend, but it is part of Joe's plan to wine and dine producer George Morgan (himself), whose next picture Joe desperately wants a part in.
On the other side of town, the hitchhiker has picked up a nightclub dancer/prostitute (Erina Enyo) and takes her back to her apartment, where he brutally murders her with a pair of scissors.
While Joe and Liz are arguing, they hear of the murders over the radio, and learn that the assailant was Mort "Mad Dog" Click, long wanted by the police for similar crimes. Also on the loose are three mental patients who have escaped from the local asylum.
The next day, Liz decides to leave Joe and drives out to her cousin Linda's restaurant up in the hills. At the restaurant, Linda (Laura Benedict) congratulates her friends Ron (Ron Burr) and Carol (Carolyn Brandt) on their marriage and purchase of a nearby house. Liz pulls in just after the couple leave.
Ron and Carol get to their new house and look around. When they find their handyman missing, they look out back at a smaller house on the property, where they find him decapitated by the escaped mental patients—the axe-wielding Keith (Keith O'Brien), Herbie (Herb Robbins) and Gary (Gary Kent). Ron is decapitated in front of Carol, and then after some amount of chasing around the property, Carol is disposed of in a similar fashion.
Joe and Morgan show up at Linda's restaurant, as do the three killers. Herbie calls his friend, who turns out to be Click, to come by and get rid of the two others. When Liz and Joe realize who the three are, the killers hold them hostage. Linda poisons Herbie's coffee and kills him, while Gary chases Liz outside up in the hills.
While Linda and Morgan phone for the police, Joe follows the Gary and Liz up into the hills and a battle between Gary and Joe takes place on a mountain-top. Liz goes to get help, but is picked up and kidnapped by Click, who is now on the scene. Gary is pushed off a cliff and falls to his death. Joe, from afar, sees Liz get into Click's car, unaware that the man driving her is also a madman.
Liz escapes Click's clutches as the police arrive and take chase. Click shoots a camper and steals his horse, and heads further up to the hills on horseback, chased after by a motor patrolman. After a furious gun battle, Click is shot to death.
Sometime after the events have taken place, Joe has sworn off acting, until he gets a call from Morgan that he wants him (at $2,500 a week) to star in his picture opposite his newest discovery, Miss Transylvania—Linda! | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0069467 | Viskningar och rop | Cries and Whispers takes place in a lavish mansion in the 19th century, filled with red carpets and white statuary. It depicts the final days of Agnes (Harriet Andersson), who is near death due to cancer. Her sisters Maria (Liv Ullmann) and Karin (Ingrid Thulin) have returned to the family home to be with her. However the two women remain distant and awkward, struggling to comfort their sister while dealing with the shock and the fear of mortality Agnes' death may bring. The deeply religious maid Anna (Kari Sylwan), whose own daughter died at an early age, is the only person in the house able to comfort the dying woman.
At length Agnes dies, and during her wake the priest (Anders Ek) declares Agnes' faith was stronger than his own. In a dream-like sequence that follows, Agnes seemingly returns to life for a short moment and asks her sisters one last time for the love and care denied to her during her lifetime. For a moment Karin, Maria and Agnes grow closer to each other, but this is short-lived when the two sisters realize that Agnes is actually dead, with Karin declaring such acts "morbid" and "disgusting." Once again only Anna is able to embrace and comfort Agnes.
The film is characterized by flashbacks that visit the characters' lives and their memories, tracing each woman's personality to the childhood they spent together. Maria remembers her affair with a handsome doctor juxtaposed with her failed marriage to her ineffectual husband; Agnes remembers her unrequited devotion to their distant mother; and Karin struggles with self-harm, self-mutilating her sexual organs to drive her husband away. The last flashback, from the deceased Agnes' point of view, is narrated via her diary and shows her sisters descending upon the house clad in white, like angels. The last words are Agnes whispering, "Come what may, this is happiness. I cannot wish for anything better. Now, for a few minutes, I can experience perfection. And I feel profoundly grateful to my life, which gives me so much..." | insanity, psychedelic, depressing, romantic, flashback | train | wikipedia | The Sounds Of Cries And Whispers Or A Study In Red. The idea of this film that is considered by many as Bergman's crown achievement came to him in his house at Faro where he lived by himself for sometime in a melancholy state of mind after a rather painful breakup.
Bergman talked with affection and gratitude about his friend and long time collaborator Swen Nykwist who spent many days creating the passionate haunting red world of "Cries and Whispers.
Bergman films are not often for casual viewing, and I certainly won't be taking this one home to watch with my mother.Like a great classical composer, Bergman uses contrast to enormous effect.
One of these flashbacks confronts the audience with one of the most disturbing image in cinema, a repressed Karin cutting her vagina with glass to avoid sex with her husband.Only a director of Bergman's calibre could make such a film riveting.
I think I've yet to see another film that depicts the pain, suffering and despair of dying to such vividness that like the characters, one almost feels the need to look away.
The story itself is fairly simple - a woman is in the final stages of cancer/tuberculosis and her two sisters and maid take care of her in her final days - but Bergman's unique narrative style and the complexity and depth of his script turn what at first seems a horror show into a profound meditation on faith, love and mortality.
All four actresses give spectacular performances: Harriet Andersson (Agnes) is searing physical pain personified, Liv Ullmann (Maria) is so nuanced and real in her flight sensuality (one extended scene that is a close-up to her face is astonishing in the incredible nuances of expressiveness and what the character is trying to conceal but can't), Ingrid Thulin (Karin) is chilling to the bone (and that one scene that is about mutilation in a very sensitive place is for sure one I'll never forget) and Kari Sylwan (Anna) is pure warmth, dedication and love.
Yes, Bergman suggests that the world can a horrible place and the human experience is full of pain, loneliness and cruelty, but he also suggests that if we extend our love to one another and let ourselves be loved, the burden won't be as hard to bare, and that there will be moments that will bring us love, happiness and grace, as Agnes says in her beautiful and haunting soliloquy.
And in many respects it offers an extremely good introduction to Bergman's work.Like many of Bergman's films, CRIES AND WHISPERS shows the director's preoccupations with memory, communication, time, community, and death.
The story is bleak: Agnes is dying and her sisters Karin and Maria have come to attend her during this final illness--but they prove unable to communicate in a meaningful way with either Agnes or each other, and Agnes' emotional care is left largely to her long-time maid, the devoted Anna.As the film unwinds, we are bought into the memories of each woman in turn.
Only the maid Anna (Kari Sylwan), with a peasant's directness, actually works to be of comfort, even going so far as to cradle Agnes' head on her naked breast and dreaming of comforting Agnes while her sisters fail.The film is ever so delicately tinged with subtle elements of lesbianism, sadomasochism, and incest, and the emotional problems experienced by Maria and Karin are at least partly sexual in nature--but these are not the focus of the film so much as they are surface indications of a deeper internal turmoil.
Combining the characters' body language with Bergman's masterful use of color to convey the personalities of the characters as well as their environment in general is something that (1) I've scarcely, if ever, seen used in a film before and (2) could not stop marvelling at its brilliance.
Sure, the film is depressing and certainly is not for those who think that "The Italian Job" is the best film of the year, however, for those who can just watch the relationships of the sisters unfold in all its splendor and anguish, this is truly a work of art rivalling those of any medium.MY RATING: 10/10 (and I don't give tens lightly)HIGHLIGHTS: Liv Ullmann, Harriet Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Kari Sylwan, Sven Nykvist's cinematography, Bergman's use of color and his direction in general.
To see Liv Ullmann, whose nature is so warm and natural, play a role in which her warmth is superficial and fraudulent, is a little offsetting; yet, great actress that she is, she pulls it off, so that if I had never seen her before, I would believe she was that way."Cries and Whispers," much ballyhooed, I recall, when it appeared, seems too psychoanalytically intense today; dark and mysterious, beautifully filmed in an intense red-yes, very striking against the northern cold, but somehow not entirely convincing.
Bergman himself of course was already a legend by the time this film was made, a great master who did what he wanted and what he felt, yet never lost sight of the audience.
Cries and Whispers is a film that will strike at least one chord with any viewer on its emotional placement, the almost unflinching (and absolutely masterful) camera technique by Sven Nykvist, and with the characterizations from the four female leads, in-particular the dying Harriet Andersson.
Ullman plays Agnes, marked with Tuberculosis, she lays on her death bed like a zombie writhing in pain for the eventual end, with her two sisters, Maria and Karin, and the servant Anna, at her bedside, though seeming at a distance (except for Anna).
There's only one aspect of the film that I can criticize: many times in the film Bergman uses a red screen to fade in and fade out, and then again a few seconds later, and this seems to have not much purpose to the symbolic impact since the inside of the house conveys enough that these people are in a metaphorical house of hell already, and the fadings don't add any weight to it.
Agnes (Harriet Andersson) is dying of cancer, and her two sisters Karin (Ingrid Thulin) and Maria (Liv Ullmann) come to comfort her in her final days.
Hopefully there is some great lesson here and I'm just too ignorant to have seen it; otherwise, all those people who hold this movie in high regard must have fallen prey to Art Student Pitfall Number 1: "If you don't like it, understand it, or think it skillful, but it is held in reverent awe by the art establishment, keep discussing it in late night bull sessions with your friends and you're bound to justify it to some vague degree eventually".
Pain, hate, and judgement serve as the premise for this film, which happens to be my first Bergman experience so I had no real idea of what to expect.
It's just too simple and too slow for my liking, but hell this is a movie about the human condition and when you're following three depressed souls like these you can't exactly go in a different direction than the way this film went..
Paint a house red, put 3 or 4 women in a room talking nonsense all the time, focus the camera in front of a woman's face for 10 minutes, ....and the result is this cinematic monstrosity "directed" by the "genius" Bergman.
Ingmar Bergman's Cries & Whispers is a story of death, real death and the walking dead, as epitomized by three sisters: Agnes (Harriet Andersson), Maria (Liv Ullmann) and Karin (Ingrid Thulin).
At the turn of the century in Sweden, Maria and Karin come to visit their dying sister Agnes, who is in terrible pain from what is probably cancer.
(Evidently he lives, though.) Karin hates her cold husband and what she does to keep him away from her is one of the most shocking scenes in the history of film.We're not told what childhood trauma, what "tissue of lies" of which Karin speaks that has driven these women to lack compassion or empathy; we know only that Maria was her mother's favorite.
There is a homoerotic undertone to Karin's relationship with Maria, which Karin seems to both want and reject.The cinematography in Cries & Whispers in glorious, from the vivid red that is used to punctuate scenes, to the women's surrounds.
Bergman's films on the most part have superb direction and thought-provoking screenplays and Cries and Whispers is no exception on both counts, in fact it is one of the finer cases of being so.
What really distinguishes Cries and Whispers aside from the production values, Bergman's direction and Andersson's performance is the story, which focuses on the failure of love and agony of loss.
Perhaps not and yet it remains one of the towering masterpieces of world cinema which should tell you exactly where Bergman stands.His extraordinary use of colour, (mostly reds and whites; Sven Nykvist won the Oscar for his cinematography), goes some way in alleviating the almost unwatchable horror of the films central situation of a woman dying in agony while those around her are powerless to help her or lessen her pain.
When a woman (Harriet Andersson) dying of cancer in early twentieth-century Sweden is visited by her two sisters, long-repressed feelings between the siblings rise to the surface.It was for the saturated color and light scheme that cinematographer Sven Nykvist was awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
Among the greatest of Bergman's works, this film fully marries mind, heart and soul.Intensely beautiful to look at, with red - the color of blood, of death, of passion -everywhere.The performances are astounding.
Up to this point in Bergman's career there was often a theatricality even to the truly great Bergman performances, but here the actors always feel exquisitely, heartbreakingly real."Cries and Whispers" also made me realize that Bergman is a director in general experienced as much in the aftershocks and later absorption of seeing his films as in the moment of watching them.
It's not the way I'm used to film working, but I've had that experience too many times with Bergman's work for it to be mere coincidence.The exploration of the effects the slow painful death of a 19th century woman on her two sisters and long time maid (and lover?) is the subject, but it is experienced more like a poem than like a story.
It is emotionally honest, yes, but it doesn't ask the big questions about God, death, life, or love – it just shows us how sad our little existences can be, even when living in luxury as the three sisters do, and how pitiful dying is.It was great to see Harriett Andersson again, 20 years after her first Bergman film, 'Summer with Monika', and she has the movie's best line in the final memory, a happy (and profound) moment on a swing with her sisters: "I wanted to cling to that moment, and I thought
Come what may, this is happiness.
"Cries and Whispers" definitely kept my stomach in a knot the entire time and it was a relief to see some light at the end of the tunnel with the closing scene of the sisters outside and enjoying one another's company..
The color of red is apparent throughout the film, but at times when it isn't shown, there's this relief from the intensity of it all.This film is definitely intense, and though it felt like watching a nightmare, you can't help but take in the few rare loving emotions that are revealed.
We had learned in mu film class that Bergman wanted his actors to understand his characters' feelings, not show what they thought the character would look like from what they felt.
Great film, although about the death of a sibling, there is hope in Agnes the maid who overall seems to be the most sane and transparent character..
Well, the relation between the sisters--Karin (Ingrid Thullin), Maria (Liv Ullmann), and Agnes (Harriet Andersson) in this film is distant.
"Cries & Whispers" is one of my first viewing of Bergman's many films.
Such as, Karins flashback where she self mutilates herself in order to share intimate time with old and husband.I think the art of the film is watching these characters in this complex web of emotions which cripple them into this state of not sure to be happy or cry..
As a result, reality and dream, present and past, and red and white represent the title 'Cries and Whispers.' The director shows the audiences characters' individual emotion and lack of communication through close-up angle, lights, and colors.
Don't be surprised if, by the end of the movie, you feel yourself experiencing emotions as the film's characters do.
Filled with many close-ups, stagnant in pose, focused to attention and lead the viewer into their own sense of agony, Igmar Bergman's film follows tragic emotion with such perfect skill.Agnes, dying of cancer, lays still in her bed while her two sisters, Karin and Maria, watch over her to be of aid until her final breath.
I understand that Bergman's take on this film is not only to show how sad the movie is, he also showed us the unconditional love that Anna had for Agnes.
I think it's a way Bergman showing the audience how Agnes suffered by having similarity to the suffering of Christ.---This film is not for everyone, but you will appreciate it when you watch it with open mind..
Yes of course there were other wonders...The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Virgin Spring, Smiles on a Summer Night but none of these have haunted me as Cries and Whispers still does 20 years after my first viewing..confined within an austere womb this painfully re cognitive dream piece has moments of devastating power...The acting by the women is of course sublime...Has any other director demanded so much self revelation as Bergman does here and elsewhere through his distinctive oeuvre...enjoy the pain.
Unlike most of Ingmar Bergman's films, Cries and Whispers uses saturated colour, the turn-of-the-century rural Swedish mansion being primarily crimson, a symbol of guilt, sin and anger, blood and sex, as well as the characters' struggle with courage and sacrifice.
The only comfort and solace comes from her maid, played with a crushing tenderness by Kari Sylwan.As is a telling characteristic of Bergman's, logic of symbolism is applied to emotional pain, and though we look at some scenes such as the sisters retreating from their dying sister as she grasps for their hands, each repelling in their own ways, in a more detached and intellectual way, there are scenes such as the final one, which shows Harriet Andersson's face, juxtaposed with her voices, juxtaposed with all that has happened, which draw deep feelings from us as the final taste left in one's mouth as the film closes..
So one shouldn't think that I found this film bad, only that it wasn't among my favorites ever.The camera work of this film is excellent and the cinematography looks like something from a late Kubrick film.Highly recommended for fans of art films that have a plot, characters and drama (which some Bergman films lack, such as The Seventh Seal)..
This film is certainly a classic as it incorporates different themes of love, the power of touch, pain, life, death and how we as humans deal with our emotions.
Like many of Bergman's films, death takes place in this picture both physically and metaphorically.
This brings us to the first most striking feature of Cries and Whispers; the incredible use of colour.The continual image of white-clad figures against a backdrop of piercing deep red is near iconic within Bergman's career, with the film even fading to red during key moments to further stress the idea of characters being swallowed up by this thick, acrid stench of death, which clings to the walls of this house that traps secrets with no sense of escape.
Swedish actress Harriet Anderson gives the performance of her life as the dying Agnes and in the flashback-scenes Ingmar Bergman shows the viewers a cheerfulness and warmth that stands in contrast to the films present time.
I place Cries and Whispers near the bottom of the dozen or so Bergman films that I watch from time to time.
It depicts quite a devastating picture of a family situation in crises because people just can't communicate with each other.The story tells of a dying woman, in terrible pain, who lives in a house with her two sisters (neither of whom seem to like her much) and her maid (who seems to be the only one who cares about her).The film is very visually stylish, with bright reds and whites predominating.
Between these four characters (magnificent interpreted by Liv Ullman (Maria), Ingrid Thullin (Karin), Harriet Andersson (Agnes) and Kari Sylwan (Anna, the woman that appears in the front page of the movie)) the film present shocking scenes where reality and imagination are confused with dreams, desires and passions.Besides the excellent direction and performance of these four actresses, another element is the extraordinary photograph of Sven Nykvist and the choreography (including costume design).
Cries and Whispers the 1974 movie that won the Oscar for Best Cinematography by Ingmar Bergman is a beautifully filmed movie that tackles the ever so difficult question of death.
Bergman creates scenes to evoke emotion from you, and at the same time, really understand where the characters are coming from in their mind, and understand why they are they way they are.
Given these plot elements, I am AMAZED that so many see Bergman as one of our greatest directors!So, if painful deaths from cancer, deep depression, bizarre fantasies and a VERY emotionally blunted script is your idea of fun, give this film a try.
If you think the previous Bergmans were drenched in depression and hatred of life, you will be surprised by the cheerful nature of this very red film.This wonderfully red movie is about a woman who is dying (surprisingly, not from a suicide attempt) and her sisters and their husbands. |
tt1509732 | Aisha | Aisha (Sonam Kapoor) is a young, rich, upper class woman who believes that she is perfectly suited for match-making – amongst her friends in particular. Her superficial lifestyle and match-making schemes are constantly criticized by her friend/neighbor Arjun (Abhay Deol), who advises her to stop meddling with the lives of other people. Soon, she has a new project - trying to make a match between her middle class, small town friend Shefali (Amrita Puri) and a rich business owner, Randhir (Cyrus Sahukar). Aisha creates various circumstances to make Shefali and Randhir fall in love. During one such occasion, she meets her aunt's step-son Dhruv Singh (Arunoday Singh), whom she becomes attracted to. In the mean-time, Arjun introduces Aisha to one of his colleagues, Aarti Menon (Lisa Haydon), who is from New York. Aisha feels threatened by Aarthi's presence and is very antagonistic towards her.
Randhir organizes a river rafting camp for everyone, and Aisha used this as a chance to get Randhir and Shefali to spend more time together. One night during the camp, Randhir takes Aisha for a walk and then professes his love for her. Confused and taken aback by Randhir's feelings for her, Aisha starts to doubt her match making skills. Arjun comes to know of the incident and gets angry at Aisha, criticizing her for once again meddling in the lives of others, and playing with Shefali's feelings. Aisha tries to console a heart broken Shefali, who had previously turned down a marriage proposal in order to be with Randhir, on Aisha's advice. As time passes, Pinky (Ira Dubey), Aisha's best friend, starts to develop feelings for Randhir and eventually they are engaged. This causes a problem between Pinky and Aisha, and they stop speaking to each other.
Disheartened with her previous failed match making attempt, Aisha tries to match up Shefali with Dhruv. Shefali comes to know of Aisha's plan and confronts her, telling Aisha that she never viewed her as a friend, rather as a project, someone who she tried to mold and fix. Shefali then declares that she has feelings for Arjun. This greatly confuses and hurts Aisha, since she realises that she has been in love with Arjun all this time. Aisha realises that she has been selfish and arrogant all along, playing with the emotions and feelings of her friends. She goes back to her best friend, Pinky, and apologizes for her actions. Dhruv and Aarthi get engaged, but Aisha chooses not to attend since she thinks that Arjun will be there with Shefali. After a late night conversation with her father, Aisha decides spontaneously to go to the engagement and declare her feelings to Arjun. She meets Shefali, who tells her that love cannot be forced or planned, and also reveals that she has found her love in Saurabh, her childhood friend whose proposal she had previously turned down. Later that night, Arjun and Aisha meet and reminisce about their childhood and friendship, and ultimately declare their love for each other. The movie ends one year later, at Dhruv and Aarthi's wedding, where Aisha states that love is spontaneous and never goes according to plan. | romantic | train | wikipedia | Sonam Kapoor plays Aisha, who is some sort of a cross between Sex and The City's Carrie (in her quintessential fashion sense) and Cher from Clueless (in her adorable snobbishness).
She's into social services such as protecting animal rights, appreciating and creating arts, and not to forget her newly found talent, match making.Teamed with her best friend Pinky, Aisha tries to match make a plain-Haryana-Jane (named Shefali) with her friend Randhir, whom she thinks is perfect for Shefali, but Randhir in fact is in love with Aisha herself.
Her only obstacle is Arjun (Abhay Deol), or so she thinks.In a nut shell, Aisha is a feel good movie, with cute and lovely characters, who each leave their mark with their roles and acting, although I felt Abhay Deol was shortchanged for the amount of potential he has.
Sonam is also very lovable in the snobbish role of a high society snob whom we'd love to hate.One downside of the movie is that I felt the movie was really pretentious with the amount of super high flying luxurious life shown, especially with the polo match and unreal river rafting getaway in a well-equipped camp house for the vain people.
Now I'm personally not into this kind of movies, but I still wanted to see it for Abhay Deol, whom I consider to be one of the most talented actors in India today, and most of whose films and performances I highly appreciated.
It actually is supposed to be a fairy tale, but it mostly looks like a wannabe rather than a good movie on its own.
She does manage to carry the film on her shoulders, but despite being pretty and vivacious, she somehow seems to lack the charm her character requires, and at points she gets a bit annoyingly unnatural.
Nobody other than Arjun ever says no to her.Because this film is about a very wealthy girl and her matchmaking pursuits, which do often come across as very superficial and celebrating monetary pleasures, and the characters are very shallow at times (their problems are hardly anything, compared to the very real struggles other Indians face) I can see how some people might not like it- my dad thought it was absolutely ridiculous (his exact quotes were "I can't believe filmmakers would waste celluloid on this trash").However, the essence of the film is to show how silly Aisha's attempts are at forcing what cannot be forced, regardless of how much she tries to manipulate the situation or how much money she throws at it.
The music was terrific, and the supporting cast did a wonderful job- especially Amrita Puri, who played the character of Shefali.
And Ira Dubey played Aisha's sarcastic friend Pinky (Dion in Clueless) to a T, and Abhay Deol and Cyrus Shankar were great as Arjun and Randhir.I personally highly recommend this film if you're looking for a fun, escapist Jane Austen adaptation with great clothes and danceable music..
A good adaptation of the Best Selling "Emma"...The movie has got its own pluses and minuses...
The biggest Plus point of the movie is its Music and Sonam Kapoor, Amrita Puri and Ira Dubey's Performance, Sonam has carried the role of Aisha with true sincerity and with elegance, She looked so stunning and her styling was just awesome..
i watched the flick today and i din' find it convincing...i was expecting a bit more from it..it did not even had the level of entertainment value one would expect watching the trailers of this movie..i went to watch the movie to enjoy to the fullest...thinking of it as one of the urban comedies that would make me laugh..and get involved with the movie...and i came back from the cinema hall reluctantly..Talking about performances..well they were just average...Abhay Deol's expressions were nice...but he was not able to carry himself with the story and the plot of the movie..Sonam was as disgusting as ever when it comes to act...though she looked cute in it..Ira Dubey was much better on CHICKS ON FLICKS rather than wasting her time here and even smooching Cyrus Sahukar...m.k. Raina was just jumping along with the lead actors trying hard as if he is turned 25 again...Cyrus Sahukar was as he is..and others also gave just average performances...yupp..the only girl i can praise is Amrita Puri...being her debut movie...she did a great job..acted better than Sonam Kapoor and many other experienced actors...she was really convincing..the music was very cool..specially the song "GAL MITTHI MITTHI BOL" is already my one of the favorite of recent times..and the title track "AISHA" is also nice...the direction was somehow fresh..but was again just an average direction..cinematography was good...screenplay was okish except in few scenes when it became ultra-slow..all in all...the movie was just average..with a below average story and content..i would rate it 4 / 10 this week...go for DESPICABLE ME..instead of AISHA..at least you would enjoy much more than watching AISHA..!!.
The lead characters (Aisha) acting makes you cringe every time she opens her mouth.
There is a scene in the movie where Abhay Deol looks at Sonam and accuses her of being shallow.
Fighting with her childhood friend and acting like a bitchy teenager when another hot girl comes into the picture (a totally irrelevant addition) is really not a show of character.
What keeps it together are some good punch lines and very good performances from Abhay Deol (who basically carries the film on his shoulders), Ira Dubey (plays her part to perfection) and Amrita Puri (who puts heart into the girl from Bahadurgarh).
Revolving around the story of a funky, fashionable girl who loves to be a match-maker for her friends, AISHA surely manages to impress the audience in its first hour with some good sequences and fine performances.
Though the movie is not too long in its duration but still it drags a lot in its second hour and has got nothing new in the name of content to sustain the impact generated by its initial reels.Actually the fact is that AISHA heavily relies on its treatment and therefore comes out as only a partially good product as far as its story content is concerned.
In other words if the makers would had given more stress on its content than on its styling, the film could have been a milestone in the career of Sonam Kapoor.Based on Jane Austen's novel EMMA, and also inspired from "CLUELESS" (1995), the movie has all the colours in the right tone, but the real problem is that the colours are not many.
Actually the movie should have ended right there, but the director deliberately inserts another love proposal scene which is not enjoyable at all towards the end.On a brighter note AISHA has a refreshing first half and that's because of some brilliant performances by its supporting cast which mostly has debutants making their presence felt.Both Ira Dubey and Amrita Puri as Sonam's fast friends are really a treat to watch.
Anand Tiwari as a middle class boy is lovable but Lisa Haydon as the foreign returned only stands in her scenes without any expression.Taking about the main lead, there is good news for the fans of Sonam Kapoor, since the girl is there in her full form and style.
She has always managed to do full justice to her roles in the past but for some reasons all her films till date are only partially good and same is the case with AISHA.
The whole movie is like you have seen that hundred times before.Watch Clueless again even after Two Decades its much much better..
AISHA – CATCH IT ( B- ) Aisha is inspired by international Best seller Emma and the scenes of the movie are ditto copy of Alicia Silverstone's Clueless.
The movie is really stylized and Sonam Kapoor looks really Hip. She acted really well and looked like an elite gal.
I'm not saying to completely traditionalize it as it's important to show Aisha as an arrogant spoiled brat who loves modern fashion but there's no need to make the film look like a fashion show of western outfits.
I didn't have high expectations but the movie disappointed me in terms of the screenplay and the acting (by Sonam Kapoor).
Amrita Puri and Ira Dubey did way better job than Sonam.
Aisha is just a feel good movie, and I would not recommend it to anyone who loved Emma..
This is not a tabloid so I'll stay hands off on the on-off romance between these two, but somehow Sonam Kapoor has got off the blocks rather slower than her peers, and seem to be making up for it just recently.Thanks to dad Anil Kapoor and sister Rhea as producers, I suppose a project like this will only befit one of their own in taking on the starring role as the titular Aisha, or shall you say the Hindi version of Jane Austen's Emma, directed by Rajshree Ojha.
With best friend Pinky (Ira Dubey), Aisha takes it upon herself to transform plain Jane Sheali (Amrita Puri) into an air-head femme fatale, and just about as confused as Aisha herself is.I suppose if you know the story of Emma, then you'd know the story of Aisha as well, although it's more like Clueless starring Alicia Silverstone than Austen's literary epic for the more modern, upbeat feel to it.
However, every spoilt brat deserves a break, and in comes the indecisive (as well) hero Arjun (Abhay Deol) who drapes a New York based colleague Aarti (Lisa Haydon) around, to invoke the natural bitchy comparison by any pretty lass when another prettier, more popular lass is in their midst.
A modern day adaption of the 1815 British novel, Emma by Jane Austen, 'Aisha' is a confused and mainly boring film, that holds very less appeal.Rajshree Ojha's 'Aisha' is a tale about a few confused youngsters, of whom, all, are in the search to find the "Right" one.
Well, Aisha is a modern day adaptation of the classic Jane Austen's novel Emma.
Actually I wasn't planning to see the movie , but then I saw this review where this movie was compared to Peepli live .........the writer was whining about how Aisha lives in a different world where no dirt or beggars are seen on the street ,how unrealistic it is , blah blah blah............and how the real world is shown in Peepli etc.........Then I decided to see the movie for one reason --- We go to movies to escape from reality , not to encounter it .........I mean ,what is the point in seeing movies if the same dreariness of real life is shown in them , the same poverty ,injustice .........we go to indulge in our dreams ( which are never going to turn to reality ) ,like marrying beautiful women or rich men ( depending on the gender you belong to -- sorry for being presemptous ,but here I am taking the liberty of thinking that all women want rich men )..........thats why the old movies many a times showed rich people marrying poor people breaching the rich poor gap and all that ........they allowed the poor to indulge in such dreams for three hours..........Coming to the movie , it shows Sonam kapoor as a scatterbrained rich girl who is forever into matchmaking ,but without ever achieving any results........Who cares anyway.........life powered by money is good ,there are lots of parties ,vacations to attend ,polo matches to watch and cheer, shopping malls to visit and run expensive bills , handsome hunks are around to escort you .........above all ,time to play around with.........Her fave project is to fix the marriage of a small town cousin of hers to some rich guy ........here too she fails ,and a small complication develops as the girl ,after other guys have rejected her for precisely her small-townness , falls for the guy Sonam is angling for..........oh poor little Sonam No problems however ,Sonam's father proclaims that this guy will also reject the girl on the same grounds of smalltownness.........and so he does !!!Who cares anyway , Sonam gets to wear fancy clothes , act like a fashion model ,play beach-volleyball in skimpy clothes .........and we get to watch all that........One nice point though .......the parents are non-interfering in the whole movie........a welcome change from other movies where where fighting against the parents' opposition about the marriage takes up half the time ........i was tired and sick of this ( seen too much of it in real life again )...........rest of the movie is all okay........
Featuring a pitch perfect ensemble cast led by the winsome and pretty Sonam Kapoor, Aisha is a tribute to Jane Austen's Emma, but twenty-first century affluent Indians' style.There's little nouveau about the tale, but the performances, screenplay, dialogues, cinematography, music, editing, direction and choreography all weave together in perfect tandem.
Unfortunately that one character - which is Aisha's best friend - has been borrowed from 'Clueless', one of many adaptations of the movie made on screen.
Having said that, 'Clueless' is a different movie since the writer did bother to alter the storyline.Aisha is a girl who likes making matches and she believes she does it best.
When she finds a new friend Shefali (Amrita Puri), who gets into her city just to find the right guy to get married to, Aisha decides to get the perfect match for her.
She goes about converting Shefali from a shy small town girl to someone befitting the high society and also tries setting her up with a childhood friend Randhir Gambhir (Cyrus Sahukar) who is in love with Aisha instead.
And by the time Aisha realizes her love the film hardly managed to create any attention.
Sonam is good and so is Ira Dubey who plays the best friends.
New guy Arunoday Singh impresses and some potential for quite some time in the industry, Lisa Haydon didn't got enough Screen space, but looked ravishing, even Anand Tiwari punched in a cute performance in a peek-a-boo.Technically the film has been shot well.
I watched the movie on the second day and was greeted by a full house.The movie is an indianised version of Jane Austen's Emma, and yet Aisha doesn't fail to impress.Unfortunately termed as a "chick flick" even before it's release, Aisha is actually an insight into the world of relationships and high profile life in Delhi.The movie tracks the life of Aisha played by Sonam kapoor who tries to hitch her new not-so-modern friend Shefalli(Amrita Puri) with her friend Radhir(Cyrus Sahukar) despite being told not to do so by her other childhood friend Arjun played brilliantly by Abhay Deol.With the supporting cast Ira Dubey, Lisa Haydon and Arunoday Singh also confused about relationships chaos is bound to follow!
The role of Aisha is almost tailor made for Sonam Kapoor and she does a good job.
Abhay Deol as I mentioned earlier is brilliant in the role, he proves himself once again after movies like oye lucky and dev D, as one of the most talented actors in Hindi film industry today.
Lisa Haydon and Arunoday Singh add to the glamour.Then there is Anand Tiwari, who has starred with Ira Dubey earlier in The president is Coming, in a small role, he too does a decent job.Overall the acting is great and natural, making it believable for the audience, which is supported by good directing.
I recommend you make time for it and I do hope that other bollywood movies take inspiration from movies like Aisha, and make simple, short and yet meaningful films.3 to 3 and a half stars out of 5 for me..
I was still curious to see just how pathetic it could get ;) Despite all my fangirl-ism for Sonam K, louv for Abhay D and huge expectations from the film, it did turn out 'p.' A shallow storyline with cardboard characters (save a few), Aisha will only be remembered until your next movie on the theatre.
Lakme face and supermodel Lisa Haydon (Angelina Jolie look alike?) who plays Abhay Deol's NY-returned friend, is to watch out for (all reasons besides acting ;) All in all, if not anything, the movie will at least make you want to liven up your wardrobes ;)Find me on http://eatpraylovemovies.blogspot.com/2010/08/visual-delight- and-thats-it.html.
The character of Aisha (Sonam Kapoor) is a free-spirited, narcissistic and arrogant girl who fits in like a glove with the elite society.
What I liked about this movie is that in the form of Aisha, the filmmakers have tried to show a real person.
Ira Dubey and Amrita Puri play their parts well as Aisha's friends but I wish both their characters had more depth to them.
In the end...there seems no logic for a mature, reasonable Arjun to actually fall in love with superficial airhead like Aisha....this again, happens abruptly.I'm sure the writer and director can come up with a good product....next time, they should focus less on clothes and more on the plot and its execution ;).
Like Emma and Cher, Aisha is a spoiled rich girl who means well but is really clueless.
These characters behave very much like rich Westerners would (I've read criticisms that it was trying too hard to be American, even) and there are even a couple kissing scenes.I thought this was a good movie, but not great.
New face- Amrita Puri played a nice middle class Shefali with a naive, gullible character, and believe me she looked more beautiful than fashionable AISHA.Thanks to the guys for the rescue
Randhir gambhir was humorous but expressionless as he was a MTV Bakra himself.
Only one person really stood out to me and that was the girl who played Shefali (the Brittany Murphy character from Clueless), she just stole the show from right underneath our so-called filmy kid lead actress Sonam Kapoor who is becoming more and more repetitive with each new film. |
tt0109034 | Above Suspicion | In the spring of 1939 in England, Oxford University Professor Richard Myles (Fred MacMurray) and his new bride Frances (Joan Crawford) decide to honeymoon on the continent. Because they are American tourists and therefore "above suspicion," they find themselves commissioned by the British secret service to find an apparently missing scientist who has developed a countermeasure against a new Nazi secret weapon, a magnetic sea mine. Without knowing his name, what he looks like, or where to find him, the couple look upon the search as adventurous and cross Europe seeking clues from clandestine contacts.
In Paris, Frances is given a hat decorated with a rose as a signal for their first contact, who silently instructs them to go to a café in Montmartre, where an unseen contact plants a tourist guidebook to southern Germany in Richard's coat. The couple notice a series of ink dots on a map in the book that linked together form a musical staff with the opening notes to the song "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose," which they deduce is their password. Three pinpricks in the same map direct them to the book's seller, A. Werner (Felix Bressart), in Salzburg. Werner informs them they must go to a certain museum where a man named Count Hassert Seidel (Conrad Veidt), calling himself a "guide," suggests that they check into a guest house run by Frau Kleist (Johanna Hofer). She provides them with a book on Franz Liszt with annotations that reveal their next stop should be the village of Pertisau in the Tyrol, where they should inquire about a doctor who collects chess pieces.
Some days later, the couple intends to go to a performance of Liszt but are advised against it by Thornley (Bruce Lester), a fellow houseguest and recent graduate of Oxford. They go anyway; and, during the same loud passage that Thornley had been practicing earlier in the night, a Nazi Colonel, the Commandant of Dachau concentration camp, is shot and killed. Officials insist on questioning the entire audience, but Richard and Frances are rescued by Gestapo Chief Count Sig von Aschenhausen (Basil Rathbone), a former Oxford schoolmate of Richard's. Thornley later admits to Richard that he killed the Nazi as revenge for torturing and killing his Austrian fiancée. He also warns Richard that Thornley and his fiancée had once also been "above suspicion."
Frances and Richard go to the home of the chess collector, Dr. Mespelbrunn (Reginald Owen); but, while he does not seem to be present, Count von Aschenhausen is. They notice sheet music for "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose" on his piano, but Sig does not respond to an identification signal that Richard gives him, and the couple becomes suspicious. They hear thumping noises upstairs and discover that Sig is holding Mespelbrunn prisoner. Mespelbrunn tells them to run and that the Gestapo is coming after them. The couple leaves the house just in time, and Hassert appears to help them free Mespelbrunn, who is the missing scientist "Dr. Smith". All four head for Innsbruck, and Mespelbrunn gives Richard the plans for the countermeasure.
The couple obtain counterfeit passports from an elderly couple named Schultz. Richard and Frances are to catch the train to Milan at separate stations; but, when the Schultzes are arrested by the Gestapo, the police are on the lookout for them in disguise. Frances is detained and questioned by the Gestapo; but Thornley, in Innsbruck as well to catch the same train, is able to find Richard. Richard, Thornley, and Hassert sneak in to where Frances is being held and kill all her captors, including Sig; but Thornley is also killed. After fooling the Nazi border guards, Hassert and the newlyweds finally find freedom in Italy. | neo noir | train | wikipedia | Christopher Reeve in an excellent TV thriller.
Christopher Reeve ironically plays a homicide detective who's paralyzed from the waist down after a bust goes bad.
His family life isn't all that great either; his wife is cheating on him with his own brother.
One day Reeve asks the two of them to help him end his life...that's when things get interesting.This is an exceptionally well made TV thriller.
Boasting excellent performances from Cattrall, Mantegna and especially Reeve, in his last role before his horrible accident.
Also has a very satisfying conclusion, not all TV movies follow the same formula.I'll miss Christopher Reeve.
Here, as in other movies, he shows just what a quality actor he truly was when given good roles..
***SPOILERS*** Being highly successful in everything that he did, from the top of his class in collage a top Jet pilot and law enforcement officer, Dempsey Cain, Christopher Reeve,is the exact opposite of his younger brother Nick, Edward Kerr.
Nick also a member of the San Sebastian police department like Dempsey is a total failure when compared to his older brother.One evening at a police shooting, the cop ended up dead, Dempsey calls Nick on his personal beeper and gets no answer.
It turned that Nick was at Dempsey's house having an sexual tryst with his cheating and unfaithful wife Gail, Kim Cattrail.
The resulting shootout ends with Dempsey getting shot in the spine and ending up crippled from the waist down.At the inquest following the shooting Dempsey covered up the fact that his brother's incompetence, leaving his beeper on, was responsible for the shootout.
Taking the blame himself for it saying that the noisy beeper was his not Nick's Dempsey forgave his brother for his career ending injuries but not for his sleeping with his wife.
Dempsey realized that Nick was having an affair with his wife at the time that the young cop was shot and killed and that illicit affair had been going on for some time.Putting on an act that he was despondent with his life as a paraplegic Dempsey get's both Nick and Gail to go along with a plan where he's killed, by them, in a burglary and having insured himself for $1,000,000.00 with a double indemnity clause, excluding suicide.
Getting everything ready for the big night, Friday July 15, 1994,when Dempsey is supposed to be killed Nick & Gail get the surprise of their life.
The second half of the movie "Above Suspicion" has to do with Dempsey's fellow police detective Alan Rhinehart, Joe Mantegna,who realized that Dempsey was guilty,trying to convince his superior Capt Lindsey, Ron Canada, and the internal affairs department to have him arrested and tried for his bother and wife's deaths.The movie ends on a very disturbing note with Det. Rhinehart finally getting Dempsey to stand trial for his brothers and wife's murder but the results shocked even him in how brilliant and, for the loss of a better word, evil Dempsey's plan was.
Christopher Reeve was a very good actor - a talented man.
In this telemovie he plays a (super)cop shafted by his brother and his wife.
Kim Cattrell is not sexy to my eyes but she shows good acting chops and isn't afraid to get down on screen.
In the end, Reeve is the star and shows extreme skill in the way he develops Cain (it's all in the eyes!).
Christopher Reeve is totally convincing in his role, but Kim Cattrall just about steals it as his deliciously sexy, cheating vixen of a wife..
A Surprisingly Good, Unknown and Underrated Film Noir.
Dempsey Cain (Christopher Reeve) is a perfectionist and accurate detective, married with Gail (Kim Cattrall), having a son and living in a comfortable house.
His brother Nick (Edward Kerr) is a reckless policeman and is having an affair with Gail.
Dempsey's colleague Rhinehart (Joe Mantegna) disputes with him who is the best detective in their district.
One day, in a bust in a hotel, trying to arrest five Mexicans who killed two policemen, Dempsey is shot and become paralyzed below his waist.
Then, he proposes his brother and his wife to kill him, simulating a robbery in his house, in order to get his life insurance paid and for them to raise his son.
What happens next makes this movie an excellent film noir.
The story and the screenplay are great, having many plot points, and the performance of the cast is perfect.
The irony is that Christopher Reeves became paralyzed after this movie in an accident.
This is a pretty interesting crime movie that has been overshadowed by the irony of it: Christopher Reeve playing a man in a wheelchair, and he himself being paralyzed not long after this movie.This story concerns a cop who gets paralyzed and then gets revenge on his wife and brother, both of whom were having an affair behind his back which he knew about.
Joe Mantegna's role, I thought, was the best, as the pursuing cop on the case, although Reeve is very good, too.
Kim Cattrall's garbage-mouth helps make her a convincing villain as the cheating wife.There is one major credibility problem, however, with this film that might have you shaking your head.
The tension in the end is so high that when I watched the movie I couldn't help myself jumping from my sofa, and this is never happened to me before.
Christopher Reeve and Joe Mantenga delivered us their best.Very strong movie.It's a shame that a movie like The Blair Witch Project went to the cinemas after you see Above Suspicion that went only to TV..
Christopher Reeve had starred in some good thrillers when he wasn't flying around as Superman.
Reeve plays a top detective Dempsey Cain who is paralyzed after a drugs operation.
Also, Dempsey's brother and wife have been having an affair and now that he is paralyzed, he may just notice what has been going on...I cannot say any more.
The film has such twists that if I say anything more I will end up giving it away.
If you like thrillers that involve murder and adultery, then this is the one for you.This was Reeve's last film before he became paralyzed in the riding accident he had.
Joe Mantegna gives a Columbo-like performance as the relentless detective who thinks the obvious in a murderer investigation is not how it happened.
Unfortunately, in this case, his adversary, Christopher Reeve always seems to be one step ahead of Mantegna.
A while ago I read in places that Above Suspicion was a sleeper hit in it's time and was a great film with twists and turns.
Of course reeve's in Superman, Kim Cattrall in Big Trouble in Little China and Joe Mantega in The Godfather Part 3 so to have them all together in one film was great and it worked on so many levels.
It all begins with Reeve as a cop who goes out on a drug bust or something along those lines and he get's shot during it.
He ends up paralysed from the waist down, becomes very depressed and decides that suicide is the only way out to cure his long and tiring depression, in steps his brother and wife played by Cattrall.
He knows that killing himself will leave no insurance on his life to leave to his young son so he pleads with his wife and brother to shoot him in a staged robbery.
I still am very shocked to have seen how good it was considering it wasn't backed up by a big film studio so this is what we have to remember from now on.
We may have to put up with some terrible B movies that are straight to video but there are some if not a lot of surprisingly good films out there with powerful stories.
As a TV Movie, I think Reeve should have won an Emmy or Golden Globe for his best portrayal I've seen him in.
Reeve lights the screen on fire, making this the most exciting movie of the year.Reeve plays a well-respected and talented cop who is shot during a drug bust leaving him a paraplegic.
Reeve suspects his wife is cheating on him with his brother and vows revenge by any means, not caring about his condition.There's only a few actors who are capable of giving a real evil stare that's truly scary.
I do not consider myself as a movie critic by any means,but above suspicion with Christopher Reeves is probably one of the BEST films I have ever seen.Not only is the story so intense so is the characters.Setting aside the fact that Christopher really became a wheelchair bound person shortly after this film was made,Above Suspicion is a movie about a situation that could have really happened.A man paralized with a young boy loses hope.His wife is cheating on him with his own brother.Sounds like a simple story,but watch how Christopher deals with the sistuation.It is so intense,it is hard to look away...I give it 5 stars!*****.
Dempsey "Demp" Cain (belated now, Christopher Reeve) was one of those law officers that did everything by the book.
His brother, Nick Cain (Edward Kerr) was a police officer as well.
Nick and his wife, Gail Cain (Kim Cattrall), had been having an affair for some time now.
But using his paralysis, along with a little sympathy, and time to think, was just what he needed to come up with the ultimate pay back.There was just one problem in this plot of revenge though; his name was Alan Rhinehart (Joe Mantegna), another fellow cop on the force.
And does Demp get away with his revenge against his brother and wife?
That's left to be seen when you watch the movie!"Above Suspicion," is a very good TV movie; it's kind of short, but it gets its point across!
It also leaves you missing Christopher Reeve.
There is much to admire about the twists and turns of the plot of this movie.
What makes them so real is the skill of the script in showing that they are the result not of plot contrivance but the mind of a genius at work.Dempsey is brilliant.
At the beginning of the film he is asked by a superior to go over a cop kill crime scene that his resentful colleague Rhinehart had already gone over.
As Rhinehart fumes at the captain's lack of confidence in his work, Dempsey notes that the dead cops badge was taken by the killer as a trophy and asks forensic to dust the spot on the ground where the killer would have had to rest his left hand to bend over the body and take the badge with his right.
Once again Dempsey has shown him up.Throughout the film he is like that, one step ahead of everyone else.
Dempsey gently asks whether his brother Nick hates him.
Nick, who is frankly an incompetent failure whose every action reeks of carelessness (Dempsey was shot in the first place because his brother screwed up the bust), confesses his envy.
It was a good scene of how love can be tried by a stark difference in life lots, even when those outcomes are as just as excellence rewarded and incompetence punished.Another point.
We saw in the very beginning how the captain openly preferred Dempsey's work to Rhinehart's and we saw that he had good cause to.
There are many things that make this film good for me.
One is the actor who plays the leading role- I haven't seen Christopher Reeve in much and to see him playing a totally different character of which I'm accustomed to is really appealing.
This can be said for Sean Connery, who was no doubt a good Bond, but he just enthuses entertainment even if the film is not rated so well, such as The Russia House, or Outland).I also like the subtle music and the subtle character play in the script, such as Reeve's character being resented as a know it all college boy, who gets favoured by the Lieutenant.
Above Suspicion is a very different film that has a unique cast which includes Christopher Reeve, Joe Mantegna, Kim Cattrall, Edward Kerr, Geoffrey Rivas, Finola Hughes, and William H.
Christopher Reeve is excellent in this film.
The film is quite exciting and the movie really keeps you going until the end.
If you like Christopher Reeve, Joe Mantegna, Kim Cattrall, Edward Kerr, William H.
It`s a poignant fact that only days after this film was released Christopher Reeve suffered a tragic accident and the headlines were about his last role as a paralysed cop which means it`s impossible to watch ABOVE SUSPICION without being reminded of Reeve`s real life situation so I`ll try and review this movie on its own merits While not being the greatest actor in the world the one thing I have noticed about Christopher Reeve on-screen is that he comes across as being Mr nice guy so it`s somewhat surprising to see him starring in a thriller featuring sex , violence and strong language .
The plot itself is intriguing enough to hold the attention and revolves around a cop maimed in the line of duty wanting to set himself up for a murder so that his wife will cash in on his life insurance .
Another thing too - we see at the very beginning that Dempsey is a very 'detailed" person, with the business about the rookie cop's badge being missing.
That in mind, i think they should have left out the part where Dempsey stood up to shoot his brother.
All in all, its a very good movie and the sex scenes really "riled me up" - especially when they were in the shower while Dempsey was at the hospital, paralyzed.
At least Nick DID have respect for his brother, to some degree, but everything Gail said and did was self-centered.
Poor Demps was paralyzed and all she could think about is her having to "push a wheelchair the rest of her life." Boy, I hope I never marry someone like that!.
Reeves Delivers Good Suspense.
In a generally formulaic suspense drama, Christopher Reeves gives a surprisingly chilling performance as crippled, Machiavellian cop who seeks revenge against his brother and wife for having an affair.
All other performances in this movie, with the exception of Kim Cattrall, are pretty mediocre, but Reeves fortunately carries the movie with his understated (and underrated) showing..
strong suspense film, with twists and turns.
Interesting script, filled with suspense, perhaps because of the nature of the film and Christopher Reeve's part, the film is more poignant now then ever.
Acting all around is good, direction excellent, a film not to be missed..
An efficient, highly respected cop, Chris Reeves, must cover for his inept younger brother on the same police force.
He's retired from the force and is cared for at home by his wife.Reeves passes through various stages of depression and becomes suicidal.
He calls his wife (Cattrall) and his brother Nick (Kerr) together for a talk and tells them that he's concocted a plan to fake his own murder.
He's taken out mucho life insurance with his wife, his brother, and his son as beneficiaries.
Kerr is a shallow guy, a total failure at everything he's tried, despite his brother's help -- self absorbed and naive, and he's been boffing Reeve's wife for some time.
So instead of their shooting him, he kills them and claims self defense.Everyone believes him except another cop, Joe Montegna, who can't quite shake the suspicion that Reeves has done exactly what he has in fact done.
And there is that pretty next-door neighbor.It's a pretty good movie.
Reeve's wife may be unfaithful to him, but she has a decent job, does what she can to help him, and apparently loves their son.
And the movie itself ends with a murderer getting away with it.
Not only that, but Montegna, the only detective who sees through Reeves, must leave in disgrace.Some effort has gone into the plot, and into the dialog as well.
Above Suspicion stars Christopher Reeve as a paralyzed police officer who plots to murder his unfaithful wife and her lover.
Just two days after the film was released, Reeve suffered the infamous horse riding accident that left him paralyzed below the neck for the rest of his life.The film stars Reeve together with Kim Cattrall,Edward Kerr and Joe Mantegna.It is a suspense thriller written by actor William H.
In this high-tension thriller,Dempsey Cain, a paralyzed detective whose arrogance and penchant for perfectionism has alienated his family to the point that his wife Gail turns to his brother Nick for love.
Nick is also a cop, but unlike Dempsey, he tends to be irresponsible and sloppy.
Dempsey knows that Nick and Gail are having an affair.
Wanting to end his life, but knowing that his million-dollar life insurance policy will not cover his suicide, he approaches Nick and Gail with the perfect solution -- to murder him and make it look like a burglary.
Unfortunately, despite his careful scheming, Dempsey makes one fatal flaw -- he did not include his suspicious, resentful and jealous colleague Allan Rhinehart into the equation and things go horribly awry.The movie is a surprising turn for Christopher Reeve as he portray a dark character.Also,he was subdued in a paralyzed policeman.Aside from him,others did well in their roles such as Cattrall's in the adulteress practicing for her upcoming Sex and the City role during her sexy and hot scenes in bed and the shower while Kerr is a hunky villain.It ends in an unpredictable manner but nevertheless,it was satisfying all throughout..
*** MAJOR SPOILER WARNING ***It's difficult to criticise this movie as it's iconic (and grimly ironic) as Reeve's last film before his accident.
As a thriller, it is generally very clever and well done, and it was good to see Reeve showing his adaptability as an actor by playing against his usual nice guy persona.
Fairly routine thriller made more poignant by actor's real life.. |
tt0201580 | The Dying Detective | The picture begins with Moriarty and Holmes verbally sparring on the steps outside the Old Bailey where Moriarty has just been acquitted on a charge of murder due to lack of evidence. Holmes remarks, "You've a magnificent brain, Moriarty. I admire it. I admire it so much I'd like to present it, pickled in alcohol, to the London Medical Society." "It would make an impressive exhibit," replies Moriarty.
Holmes and Watson are visited at 221B Baker Street by Ann Brandon (Ida Lupino). She tells him that her brother Lloyd has received a strange note: a drawing of a man with an albatross hanging around his neck, identical to one received by her father just before his brutal murder ten years before. Holmes deduces that the note is a warning and rushes to find Lloyd Brandon. He is too late, as Lloyd has been murdered by being strangled and having his skull crushed.
Holmes, disguised as a music-hall entertainer, attends a garden party, where he correctly believes an attempt will be made on Ann's life. Hearing her cries from a nearby park, he captures her assailant, who turns out to be Gabriel Mateo, out for revenge on the Brandons for the murder of his father by Ann's father in a dispute over ownership of their South American mine. His murder weapon was a bolas. Mateo also reveals that it was Moriarty who urged him to seek revenge.
Holmes realises that Moriarty is using the case as a distraction from his real crime, a crime that will stir the British Empire: an attempt to steal the Crown Jewels. Holmes rushes to the Tower of London, where, during a struggle, Moriarty falls, presumably to his death. In the end, Ann is married and Holmes tries to shoo a fly by playing his violin, only to have Watson swat it with his newspaper remarking, "Elementary, my dear Holmes, elementary." | murder | train | wikipedia | 3 Early Holmes. Dying Detective, The (1921) ** (out of 4) Sherlock Holmes (Eille Norwood) knows that a man has killed a former partner but he can't prove it unless he finds a dying detective who knows what really happened. Norwood would play Holmes in over thirty films and he's quite good in the role bring an intelligent looking character but that's about the only good thing here. The story is somewhat hard to follow and again, Holmes isn't given much to do.Devil's Foot, The (1921) *** (out of 4) Sherlock Holmes (Eille Norwood) is on vacation when he stumbles into a house and discovers two bodies. Both have been dead for hours but there aren't any visible signs of violence and soon other bodies start to pile up. Here's one I actually enjoyed since we get to see Holmes investigating the murders. As with the other film, Norwood turns in a good performance and the mystery works nice as well.Man with the Twisted Lip, The (1921) *** (out of 4) Sherlock Holmes (Eille Norwood) begins an investigation into a dead man but clues make him think there might not be a body at all. Once again the mystery here is pretty good and Norwood delivers another good performance.. A Half-Hearted Effort. IMDb lists 48 titles in this British series, made between 1920 and 1923. I suppose that output makes consistent quality difficult, and of the three I have seen this is definitely the worst. But, it's still a lot of fun. It reminds me of Yo-Yo Ma's comment about his cello, made in the time of Bach: it is a link with a beloved past. To think that Sir Arthur probably saw this movie--the rumor is he approved of Eille Norwood for the role--and that the stories were still being written when this series was made: well, that's neat.So, I can be kind with my criticism and enjoy it for its own sake. But, I sure hope The Hound of the Baskervilles turns up some day.. Lifeless. Literal version of one of the lesser Holmes stories does not translate well to the silent screen. Although this team made a couple of dozen short Holmes movies in the early 1920s, they fail to demonstrate any real grasp of the character -- far too cerebral, alas, for so few words, and so not very good. |
tt0339579 | Ritânâ | Milly (Anne Suzuki) is a soldier from 2084, where humanity is on the verge of extinction because of the "Daggra", an alien race. In mankind's final stronghold in Tibet, Milly leaps into a newly built time portal just before the fortress is overrun. The portal sends her to 2002, where her mission is to kill the first Daggra, who faked a crash landing, and stop him from signaling his invasion fleet.
Milly lands in the aftermath of a shootout in Tokyo Bay, Yokohama, Japan, where a hitman named Miyamoto (Takeshi Kaneshiro) holds the murderous Triad mobster Mizoguchi (Goro Kishitani) at gunpoint. Her arrival allows the mobster to escape and Miyamoto takes Milly, who he thinks he accidentally shot, back to his place. She was saved by a plate of metal in her coat. She tapes a tiny bomb to his neck and threatens him into helping her on her mission. Miyamoto has a personal score to settle with Mizoguchi, who killed his childhood friend by kidnapping him and selling off his organs.
That night, Miyamoto sees Milly cleaning up his trenchcoat on a coat hanger, so he tells her to go back to sleep. The next morning he discovers photos of himself and a newspaper article on his death. He shows these to his weapons supplier Shi (Kirin Kiki), who tells him it's an elaborate trick the Triads wouldn't waste their time on.
With Shi's help, they track down where the alien spaceship crashed, but it was taken away to the National Institute of Space Science. They try to get to the spaceship to kill the alien, but Mizoguchi arrives and tries to take the facility over. Milly is surprised at the alien, it is not what she expected. She hesitates to kill it as Mizoguchi advances on the lab.
Using Miyamoto as its mouthpiece, the alien says it wants to go home. Milly realizes that she has been lied to. The humans and not the aliens, started the war which has been destroying the human race. They started it when they captured and killed the alien. She now knows they have to stop Mizoguchi as he wants the alien technology to take over the world. Following the destruction of the Space Science lab, Mizoguchi and his goons take the alien and its ship. Meanwhile, Miyamoto and Milly regroup for the next part of her mission.
The duo again confronts Mizoguchi at an abandoned oil rig, where they rescue the alien. Surviving a huge explosion, a bloodied Mizoguchi threatens to kill them all for ruining his plans. However, his bullets hit an invisible force field. Miyamoto quickly grabs the gun and kills Mizoguchi. Before they can figure out where the force field came from a Daggra craft, disguised as a Boeing 747-400 airliner arrives, having received the alien's distress signal. The Daggra take their wounded comrade and leave Earth. As the future war has ceased to exist, Milly slowly disappears.
Shortly after the incident, Miyamoto decides to give up his life of violence and hands in his guns to Shi. While walking home, he is confronted by a thug whose life he had spared earlier at Tokyo Bay. Realizing that he is weaponless, Miyamoto is helpless as the thug shoots him. The thug walks away, assuming that Miyamoto is dead. A little later, Miyamoto staggers up and finds his life was saved by a plate of metal similar to Milly's. The plate has a written message by Milly, telling him she has repaid him. Miyamoto recalls the night Milly messed around with his trenchcoat. While Miyamoto and Milly were asleep, a second, future Milly traveled from the future and slipped the metal plate into his trenchcoat before returning to her timeline. On her way out, she accidentally drops the newspaper article on Miyamoto's death. | neo noir, murder, cult, violence, flashback, action, revenge, entertaining, sci-fi | train | wikipedia | The day was set to end, I had two videos in my hands I had just rented an hour before, one of them was "Lost in Translation" and the other one was "The Returner".To make a long story short, my attitude turned pretty sour after viewing the more anticipated "Lost in Translation" and turned on "The Returner" thinking it would be pretty cheesy....turns out, I was completely wrong.The Returner, even though it obviously borrows a lot of ideas from other films, is incredibly entertaining.
The main characters Miyamoto and Milly were incredibly engaging, the bad guy (with his "Vash the Stampede" look and gun) was pretty cool, the storyline (filled with some comedy, drama, action, and a science fiction twist of course) was not that bad (some parts were a lot more enjoyable than others), the execution of the directing was what caught my attention, and the overall impression I got from it was completely passable and whole-fully entertaining.Even the ending and the soundtrack was superb.
The movie's plot is a rip-off of countless American blockbusters (just on first viewing I see E.T., The Terminator, Back to the Future, ID4, Stargate, Dune, The Matrix, MI:2, and even a little bit of The X-Files) and there's nothing really all that special in the way the story is executed but in general most Asian action flicks don't have much plot so I at least count it a blessing that ripping off all the aforementioned films gives the film enough story to sustain interest.Takeshi Kineshiro stars as Miyamoto, a mercenary who has an agenda against Yakuza boss Mizoguchi (Goro Kishitani).
As the hilariously laconic and irredeemably evil Mizoguchi, Goro Kishitani is fun to watch, his villainous performance evoking a mix of past work from Alan Rickman and Gary Oldman.Returner boasts numerous terrific action sequences, rousing gun battles that employ fluid camera-work and stylish slow motion.
Admittedly, the movie runs a bit long after all the action, but there's a nice post-climactic plot twist that should please most sci-fi fans.(Major spoiler warning) I gather that the filmmakers were assuming that once Miri returned to the future, she'd still have the same memories of the former timeline (a la Back to the Future, Frequency), thus enabling her to save Miyamoto.
Never saw something that refreshing since Fifth Element.Of course a lot of people are going to say it is a Matrix rip-off, that the script looks like Terminator or Independence Day, blah blah...
Milly (Anne Suzuki), a young woman from the Earth resistance, uses a time machine and returns to October, 2002, trying to avoid the beginning of alien invasion and the war.
"The Returner" is a good surprise: the story uses many elements of "The Matrix" (the shootings, the costume of Miyamoto), "Clockstoppers" (the apparatus that makes time stand quite still), "The Terminator" (the traveling back in time to save the human race) and even "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (an alien that wants to return home).
True, some of the special effects resembled those in The Matrix, but they helped advance this movie instead of being a way to try to make the movie seem more "cool."The character of Mizoguchi, played by Goro Kishitani, resembled Gary Oldman's parts in a number of films including Fifth Element, The (1997) and Léon (1994).
The acting by Takeshi Kaneshiro as Miyamoto was good, but the standout of the movie was the cute-as-a-button Ann Suzuki as the serious, fun, energetic, and rebellious Miri.The CG of aliens disguised as terran aircraft transforming into their true forms was impressive, resembling the work done in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) and Independence Day (1996).
If, like me, you are easily impressed by explosions and have not yet seen 'Returner', you should stop reading and go watch it right now.'Returner' is little more than a stylish action movie.
It is, however, all about entertainment.The story is very cute with a happy ending, the actors do the job pretty good, and especially the villain.Special effects in Yamazaki films are some of the best I've ever seen and surpass Hollywood sci-fi movies easily.This is a must for all sci-fi lovers.I work in a DVD rental store, and ever since I brought this movie on DVD (Zone 3), my customers just love the movie, not to mention the DTS sound.Highly reccomended..
The movie rolls along at an acceptable clip, there are some neat action scenes, and the special effects are often pretty good for what must have been a limited budget.
Minor virtues: the lead actress was cute and looked like a live action anime character and the surprise ending would have been moving and clever in the service of a better movie, but all in all unless you're twelve years old I would probably avoid this one..
With the strong lead characters, and eye opening special effects and CG including a variation of the famous "Bullet Time", "Returner" is not a film you will be disappointed with..
Plot didn't offer anything special but it didn't disturb me like in Terminator 3.Movie is quite well shot and actors are cool even if their acting is a bit Japanese.
This might be due to the fact that they are exactly same kind that in thousand other sci-fi / action movie.Also it puzzles me how humans first of all managed to build a time machine - but maybe we don't want to get too much in to that..
I saw this movie with some mates the day after i saw it the first time and its clear that "Returner" deserves its place in my dvd-collection among classics like "The Matrix", "Equilibrium", "Aliens", "Terminator" and "Terminator 2" to name a few.
And yet, the whole thing is built from a poor script that lacks coherence, logic, and most of all, fails on every conceivable level.It's bad enough that there are so many awful movies out there nowadays, but you really hate to see a film like RETURNER, which has so much going for it, failing so badly.
The effects are poor but do the job - they look OK in isolation, the problem is they don't fit in with their surroundings.The cast are fairly average and none really stand out; they don't really have any screen presence although Suzuki (Milly) is quite fun in a relaxed way and Kaneshiro is kind of cool, but outside of these two the rest of the cast is pretty poor - Kishitani in particular is a bad villain and comes across as a clichéd Japanese triad type.
It's 90% fast-forward-inducing lameness and cheesy action-movie clichés (a LOT of close-range shooting that inexplicably doesn't hit the main character) and 10% incredibly AWESOME special effects.
In fact, it is entertaining to watch the movie if you really like spotting elements stolen from other films; I identified the Quick and the Dead, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and ET, among others..
Returner is one of those, however looks and style does not a good movie make.In the future humanity is waging war against an Alien species called "Daggra" by the humans.
Some of the action scenes have a bit of flash to them and the two main characters are enjoyable, especially Milly (Anne Suzuki), who's delightfully capable and resourceful for an early turn of the century action heroine.Still, the fact remains that Returner has perilously little to show for itself.
There are some similarities to the "Terminator" movie though."Returner" (aka "Ritânâ") is about Milly (played by Anne Suzuki) who is living in a war-torn future, the year is 2084 and aliens are waging war on mankind, and mankind is losing.
The dialogue is good and the characters are alive and colorful.The effects were good and passes as believable, although I was puzzled at how the driver and gunman disappeared from inside an exploding car as it came crashing down on the road.Fun and action-filled entertainment, "Returner" is well worth watching, regardless if you like Japanese movies or not..
Kishitani over acts entertainingly as the evil villain and is interesting to watch whenever he is on screen.The style and effects are excellent with some great set pieces and neat special effects running at a reasonable pace although hard edge of the seat stuff.The problem is that there is not a single original thought in this film.
The main plot is obviously taken from Terminator but that is only the start with bits from The Matrix, E.T. and Transformers being the most obvious inserts but there are other films used liberally.This is more a homage to American sci-fi films than a film in its own right and although the few humorous touches are well timed and delivered the film would have been better if it had been play more for laughs.Its watchable if you have nothing else to do but I certainly wouldn't seek it out..
Returner has excellent actors (Takeshi Kaneshiro, from House of Flying Daggers; Anne Suzuki, from Moon Child; Goro Kishitani, plays one of the best movie 'bad guys'; and Kirin Kiki the supplier (of weapons/information) with attitude) Returner has beautiful photography, flawless animation, and really cool action scenes.
I am going to quote a previous reviewer, mats_carcass, who put the problem with this film most succinctly:"Ingredients: 2 Parts E.T. 1 Part The Terminator 1 Part Indepedance Day Rind of The Matrix pretty much every action movie cliché" all true; and add as well an actress with a face that would look great in a manga cartoon and a popular young Chinese actor doing what popular young Chinese actors do in action films these days.Yet while I respect the perceptions of the reviewer I quote, I must disagree as to the entertainment value of the film; I liked the characters enough that I found their story entertaining, and the pacing was good, with a enough plot twists to allow me to ignore the derivative nature of the whole project.
If it moves as well as the films it imitates, then I don't mind wasting a little time with it.I also warn the viewer not to turn the movie off at the point the main plot seems resolved.
He's a great actor who can pull off playing a villain as well as a hero.Special effects aren't extraordinary but well done and they blend in well with the scenes.Overall an enjoyable movie that I wouldn't mind re-watching.
RETURNER is a film that goes for quantity over quality, delivering a quite frankly bonkers plot that riffs on such movies as THE MATRIX (in the look, style and action), THE TERMINATOR (with the main character having travelled from the future to save the present) and STAR WARS (dodgy looking aliens are the enemy in this instance).
This is definitely worth seeing if you're into Japanese action/sci-fi films, there are a lot of cool CGI moments and some pretty slick fighting/gun-play as well.
One of the main drawbacks is that the overall style of Returner almost feels like a culminated homage to many of America's popular action/sci-fi films (there are scenes in here that almost seem to be pulled right out of The Matrix, Mission Impossible 2, etc.) and at times, this factor comes off as kinda "hokey" and leaves you unimpressed due to a lack of originality.
But, with the subject of "original style" aside, it does carry a pretty entertaining storyline and even completes with a cool shock ending.(Note: I rented it on DVD and personally decided that it was way more fitting to view it in Japanese with the English subtitles on because the English voice-over track was just a little too annoying and badly timed in spots.).
Now in 2002 she teams up with Miyamoto (Takeshi Kaneshiro), vigilante to help in her mission.This kinetic cross between Independence Day, The Terminator and The Matrix plays like a live-action anime film.
I like the appearances, voices, and presentation of the main actors: Milly, Miyamoto, the Chinese Lady, and the gray-haired bad guy (the one Miyamoto was determined to kill).Yes, I noticed a few points in the plot that I had seen in other movies.
The script also lacked some depth for each of the lead characters, the idea of the movie could actually have been a lot better.To sum it all up a tad, a quite enjoyable and driven movie that lives on some good action scenes and one of the coolest bad guys I've seen in a very long time.
Let's give a quick rundown: people were using P-90s and Harriers 80 years in the future; the Fallacy of the Talking Killer reared its ugly head more than once; the authorities' response (or lack of response) to the events in this movie shatters the boundaries of reality; homage or not, seeing ET in a serious action movie was kinda jarring; and a certain scene toward the end of the film will give you tooth cavities.Now that we've gotten the major faults out of the way...All the people who were calling this movie a Terminator rip-off missed the point, the point being, namely, that "this is what Terminator 3 should have been like!" The reason T2 is the best action movie ever made isn't because it had great action, but because by the time it ended, you felt that the characters were real people, and that you had been on a long and perilous journey with them, you felt their inner and outer struggles like they were your own.
It is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time (other than Lord of the Rings.)Because the world is being destroyed by aliens, a young girl (Milly) is sent back to try and kill whoever or whatever started the war.
It was a kind of "mad hatter" in places, but I found the cross references between the terminator, e.t., the matrix and "yakuza bad guys with some crazy kung fu" highly entertaining.In particular I liked the special effects, the time travel, the aliens in their fight suits, the boeing airplane which turns out to be a disguised alien mothership and the cameradery that eventually occurs between the main two hero characters.Anne Suzuki really shined on in "Snow Falling of Cedars" and this film was a result of me seeing that film and wanting to see more of her work.
A sci fi movie with a good plot, good action, a great mix of stuff in this film.
this was my first time seeing takeshi kaneshiro in a movie as the lead actor, but i had heard of him before, i will check out more of his films because of this.
What this film does have over other sci-fi efforts last year is lots of high-octane action, plucky acting and style in abundance.The production crew certainly made excellent use of the tools they had available, as I mentioned before the bullet-time in Returner is not as impressive as the Matrix films but the sight of Miyamoto in his long trenchcoat dodging bullets then launching into some all out kung fu action is just as good as anything Keanu ever did.
I can highly recommend this to everyone who likes good action movies, who can overlook plot holes and a rather cheap story (Though it's laid out extremely nice, especially at the end).9/10.
What is good about Japanese anime is good about "The Returner." It is hardcore, sci-fi action peppered with style and just enough substance.I admit I was slightly surprised after renting this movie at my local video store...
Many scenes where our hero was chatting, walking, etc., had some great dirty, rough, textured places which gave the movie a signature of interesting style.The characters are driven as you might expect in an action film.
The hero (Takeshi Kaneshiro) was handsome and the heroine (Anne Suzuki) was cute, and they both had a good raptor together, although not in a sexual way like you would expect from an American movie.
I have to say this - the scene where Millie tosses a mug of water into the air, freezes time and catches the falling water in the mug is still one of the most impressive special effects I've ever seen in my life.In the end, if you want an action/sci-fi movie that's mainstream, but offbeat enough to keep a unique identity, then go with "Returner".
I think that "Returner" is one of the best Japanese action movie i ever seen.
Why can't people just take time and relax over a simple too good action movie like Returner..
The western actors in this movie are just horrible and some CGI looks a bit cheesy (but nothing as cheesy as the awful looking Burly Brawl scene in Matrix Reloaded), but the movie is still very well made and most of the time it really looks like a big budget movie.Takeshi Kaneshiro is cool (didn't really surprise me), the main villain of the movie is fantastic (reminds me of Gary Oldman in Leon) and Ms. Suzuki is quite good too.
I liked Returner, it's not the best film I've seen but it's definately an o.k. movie, the three main characters I think were thought out pretty well and the special effects were damn cool..
The action revisits the feel of 'The Matrix' (It's certainly no coincidence that Miyamoto is wearing a long leather trench coat and looks like a Japanese Keanu Reeves with a bleach job) and a fun technological plot device justifies the use of bullet-time camera effects.
However, I was genuinely surprised when I really liked the movie.Takeshi Kaneshiro is definitely very good as the gun slinging Miyamoto but Anne Suzuki as Milly was more than a match in talent.
*END BIG SPOILER* People say that it takes from a lot of other American action films but I saw this as more of a homage than anything.The only warning is, if you watching it in English the first time, watch it again in Japanese (with subtitles if you want).
It does rip a lot off elements from The Matrix, Terminator and other various action movies but who cares?! |
tt0284837 | Ali G Indahouse | Ali G is the leader of Da West Staines Massiv, a fictional gang composed of wannabe gangsters from Staines; their chief rivals are Da East Staines Massiv. Da West Staines Massiv are heartbroken to learn that their beloved local leisure centre will be demolished by the local council, so they decide to protest. After he goes on a hunger strike and is spotted chained to some railings by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Deputy Prime Minister David Carlton, he is drawn into a world of political intrigue, as the Deputy Prime Minister tries to use Ali as a tool to destroy the Prime Minister's credibility. Ali is put forward as a candidate to be the next MP for Staines and manages to alienate most who cross his path. During a debate with his rival candidate, Ali tries to insult his rival by claiming that he "sucked off a horse," but the rival did do it and Ali wins.
Out of his depth as a Member of Parliament, Ali's bizarre behaviour and solutions seem to work. He visits a customs checkpoint in Dover, as a delegate compiling a report. Through ideas such as making more relatable education and ensuring the immigration of attractive women into the UK, Ali becomes incredibly popular, meeting the Prime Minister's intentions and bringing his percentage lead in the polls up twenty two percent. With this the Prime Minister offers to save Ali's leisure centre. Ali accompanies the Prime Minister to a United Nations peace conference to avert war between the French-speaking African nations of Chad and Burkina Faso. The United States and Russia back opposite countries and both threaten nuclear attacks. Ali sneaks into the catering area and puts a bag of marijuana into the delegates' tea. A side-effect is that the two opposing presidents become allies. The Prime Minister says that Ali has saved the world. Carlton's secretary Kate Hedges figures out what Ali has done and retrieves the empty bag, which she mails to the press. Upon his return to the UK, Ali is forced to leave parliament.
Before the Leisure Centre can be saved, a video emerges of Ali and his girlfriend having sex in the Prime Minister's bedroom at Chequers. As Ali was wearing items of the Prime Minister's hat and coat at the time, the media believe the video details the Prime Minister with a prostitute, forcing his resignation. This results in Carlton being made Prime Minister. Carlton orders the destruction of the leisure centre. He has bought all available real estate in Staines knowing that the town will be destroyed to make way for a new terminal for Heathrow Airport, which will make him wealthy. The West Staines Massiv race to find the master copy of the CCTV tape proving the former Prime Minister's innocence, extending the olive branch to the gangs of Staines and Berkshire to help them break into the vaults and retrieve the tape. They do this successfully and reinstate the original Prime Minister, save the leisure centre. Staines is saved from destruction, with the Prime Minister declaring that Slough is to be destroyed instead and live happily ever after when Ali is posted as the British ambassador to Jamaica. Carlton is forced to work under Ali in Jamaica and dance in drag during Ali's party. | cult, adult comedy, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | A human side to Ali is revealed during the film, the idea of Ali G running for PM is a brilliant, fresh and funny one - and the incessant stupidity of Staines' gangster man is mixed well with the stern, harsh world that is politics.
Ali G's big screen debut was a success in my belief, and should have got into the 6-7 average rating range on IMDb. But it could have got worse as well, and people are bound to have mixed opinions, especially on a film such as this.On the whole, Ali G Indahouse is hilarious British comedy at its best - and funniest, and most clever.
Ali G Indahouse has got to be one of the funniest films I've seen in a long time, and Cohen's portrayal of a British gangsta is hilarious.
Ali G Indahouse is a good-time party movie that will leave the viewer laughing literally from beginning to end.
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsMovie adaptations of TV shows,books or magazines are rarely very good,but Ali G Indahouse is one of those pleasing exceptions to the rule.The set-up for the comedy has the local authority closing down the community centre where Ali works and him going on hunger strike outside the Houses of Parliament.When Prime Minister Michael Gambon decides he needs someone young and hip to gain a wider appeal to the activites of his party,Ali is just the man for the job.Ali introduces his 'Keep it Real' policy,to the anger of Charles Dance's dastardly right-hand man who's planning to build over Staines.The frank honesty of Sacha Baren Cohen's character and the clever satire enterwine beautifully together.Big up yourself and go see this movie.****.
But my brother bought me the video of this film and watched it on Boxing day and I must confess it was a lot better than I expected ALI G INDAHOUSE is a very funny if you understand the " Wigger " culture of middle class white boys wishing they were black .
I was laughing out loud at the first half of the film as Ali lays down the facts to his posse that wearing the wrong colours in the ghetto could cost you your life , and Ali on the election trail had me in absolute stitches as he drove down Staines high street giving a rap broadcast , but then the film goes slightly downhill as an extremely unlikely political plot takes shape and the jokes slow down So all in all ALI G INDAHOUSE is funny but slightly uneven .
25/25-Physical Comedy: Sacha Baron Cohen is the one who provides nearly all of the funny stuff in this film, but he does it really well.
0/8-Cast: I hadn't heard of Sacha Baron Cohen before seeing this film, but apparently he is better-known in the United Kingdom, having his own series, 'Da Ali G Show'.
It also has lots of women for Ali to ogle although his character is developed enough for us to believe he really does like Julie and is just stuck in character.Sacha Baron Cohen is really good and has added layers to his character to make the leap to film.
The rest of the cast are TV level and suffice special mention goes to the actress who played the Chancellor's secretary (I forget her name)
.how hot is she!Overall it's rude and childish, but if you like that type of thing or are an Ali G fan then you'll laugh really hard plenty of times.
One could say I had very high expectations as he is an extremely funny comedian so it was to my dismay that when it came time to actually watching the film it was complete and utter crap (for lack of a better term).
I have seen a lot worse and I'm thinking I'm only being so hard on it since I went in with such high hopes but there are a handful of laughs, however don't act surprised when you find out it's nowhere near as funny as his TV show!Final Slant:Movies: I would've cried if I blew that much money on this!!DVD Purchase: I was tempted just to buy it first since I figured it'd be so good anyways...thank God I chose against this!Rental: Only if you're a big fan of Sacha's and can't get enough of him..
But while "Borat" was hysterical because it unashamedly tore apart parts of American culture that we'd rather not think about, "Ali G Indahouse" doesn't quite cut it.Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen) is a wannabe gangsta rapper who loves teaching kids at a community center about the gangsta lifestyle, but the center is losing money and is going to close.
Here, Ali G is given a storyline, and maybe the film could have been better if the story was decent (which it isn't), but it closes the walls on the character, and Cohen's characters need as much room to breathe as possible.I've seen a few clips of Ali G, and he's just not as funny as Borat (I haven't seen "Bruno").
It's obviously a satire on the whole rap and hip hop scene and it's still Sacha Baron Cohen most legendary character, despite the successes he has had with Borat and Brüno.The movie has some very childish humor, which mostly is about sex and it has an almost non-existent story.
"Ali G Indahouse" is not the most hilarious movie ever made or the best thing Sacha Baron Cohen has done in his life but it's good enough for a couple of dumb silly laughs.
What was once a cutting attempt at poking fun of those too stupid or embarrassed to say what's literally staring them in the face has become one 'body-part' joke after the next.The supporting cast are there for Ali G to play off, including an underused Martin Freeman (before he was mega famous!) and acting greats Charles Dance and Michael Gambon (playing those dastardly 'suits' in power), but it's Sacha Baron Cohen's show all the way.
Highly funny, vulgar and crass in parts, hey that Cohen's trademark, Ali G Indahouse, is essential viewing for comedy fans, or lovers of Cohen's films, where if they've seen the other ones, and haven't seen this, this one finishes the picture perfectly, and delivers at the same level of laughs.
To his surprise, however, the plan backfires, Ali is embraced by the nation, and Carlton is forced to find other ways to try and guarantee his political future.Puerile, crude, misogynistic, and always outrageous: Ali G Indahouse, the big-screen debut outing for Sascha Baron Cohen's middle-class Berkshire gangsta, is all of these things and much moremeaning it's my kind of film!!Obviously, there are those who are simply not going to get the joke, and there will definitely be people who find risqué jokes about oral sex, homosexuality, recreational drug use, hardcore pornography, and The Queen's nether regions offensive in the extreme (needless to say, they should stay well away!), but if you find such juvenile humour side-splittingly hilarious, are a fan of Baron Cohen in general, or just want to see hottie Rhona Mitra in her underwear (and you shud, cuz she iz well fit!), then I fully recommend spending an hour and a half in the company of Ali G and the West Staines Massive.They iz wicked!.
Anyone who has seen Ali G before, should be well prepared for the full motion picture that is 'Ali G Indahouse' Although I prefer Ali G when he is interviewing the rich and famous, his brand of completely off the wall comedy definitely entertains from start to finish on the big screen too.Ridiculous plot, ridiculous characters and a ridiculous script, that all make this film a riot for fans of Ali G.If you've seen him and didn't like him then avoid this film like the plague, because it's definitely just more of the same; for everybody else - watch it Aiiii!
Jokes for 5-year olds, some good, some terrible.If you want to watch a movie that seems "offensive", but is actually funny, see Tom Green's 'Freddy Got Fingered'.2/10.
I have absolutely no idea why I watched Ali G Indahouse except for the fact that Salon seemed to think a crime was committed by not nominating Sacha Baron Cohen for a Emmy for his work on Da Ali G Show.
Proof positive that TV comedy doesn't necessarily translate successfully to the big screen, the film debut of Sacha Baron Cohen's British TV pop icon Ali G is a big hodgepodge of ideas, some good some not, flimsily attached to a slim fish-out-of-water scenario where Ali G goes into politics as an MP for Staines on a Save-The-John-Nike-Leisure-Centre ticket and unwittingly becomes PM Michael Gambon's saving grace with his "Keep It Real" pronouncements, much to the displeasure of Exchequer Charles Dance who has his sights on becoming PM himself.
This is an extremely funny movie i had a blast of laughters, sacha is one of the few pillars in the comedy world he innovated new kind of comedy, chiefely sarcastic and racist but no hard feelings because people need to understand that this is new genre of comedy that where his originality come from picking up on countries, people and even things, he mastered this character of Ali G you will see how naturally talented he is in this role ..
Great comedy classic sasha kills it every time with crude funny comedy's i originally saw this movie when i was 15 or 16 found it the most funniest thing i have every seen just comedy at its purest ali g is you typical uk gangster wanna be but in the uk we call them chavs so ur typical chav fake gold bling and your hard man attitude but in the most perfect comedy ever only reason this gets a 8 it did not age well gags that today's youth would not understand some jokes but i personally like this movie but u can't watch it more than 10 times over the years.
I know those posh critics will snigger and Laugh , But I honestly think Ali G In Da House and Kevin & Perry go large will one day be regarded as pure British classics like all the Carry On films!
Ali G Indahouse is one of those films which should not be watched by those who don't like silly comedies, because it is certainly one of them.
Ali G Indahouse is a decent movie with a bad storyline but it makes up for it with a ton of very funny scenes and a very likable performance as Ali G from Sacha Baron Cohen.Ali G is definitely not my favourite character Sacha Baron Cohen created,and the brief cameo Borat has in this movie just reminded me that he is much funnier than Ali G.I think that Martin Freeman was a bad decision,I always like him in everything he's in,but he is usually a very calm character,and Ricky C just wasn't the right role for him.Fans of the series Da Ali G Show will probably be disappointed with this movie,but will still enjoy the many laugh out loud scenes,and Ali G is a very likable character.While protesting to save his beloved leisure center,Ali G gets caught up with the Prime Minister and makes the government for liked than they've ever been,but the Chancellor has is own plans set up against the Prime Minister..
After seeing the movie "Borat" and "Brüno" from Mister Sacha Baron Cohen I was looking for more good stuff with the same quality and from the same source and did not get disappointed.As most people I hate the stupid analphabetic low end hip hop monkeys, which are unable to articulate themselves in an understandable way.But here comes the exception to the rule and it is named Ali G!
'Ali G Indahouse' is the first movie of Sacha Baron Cohen's trilogy that was followed by 'Borat' and then 'Bruno'.
(He was also the funniest thing in Madagascar 1 or 2 by far.) But the first character to bring him notoriety was Ali G, the wannabe black gangster-pimp who is actually a middle class white boy from Britain.Perhaps it is because a lot of his comedy comes from shock value but I rarely choose to revisit the Bruno or Borat movies, they are far less cringe-worthy the second time round, and I was pretty surprised to find that this film had aged so poorly as I remembered it as a near classic.Not now Mr G.Aaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiight let's go.Ali G Indahouse opens with the best scene in the film, a dream sequence that sees Ali in his "natural habitat", the Los Angeles mean streets, surrounded by bitches and beset on all sides by hard core playas determined to do him harm.
There are more chuckles in this than many other comedies, the recent Get him to the Greek and Date Night included, but no side-splitting moments of comedic brilliance.There is a funny sms joke near the end and Charles Dance proves himself to be a good sport, but without the "this is real" edge supplied by Borat and Bruno this seems a little too try-hard.I firmly believe though that Sacha Baron Cohen will make two or three truly brilliant comedies in years to come.Final Rating – 6.5 / 10.
His plan works all too well, when Ali's forthright stance on "keeping it real" only skyrockets the PM's popularity.Ali's girlfriend is "Me Julie" (Kellie Bright); his posse mate, Martin Freeman (best known from Ricky Gervais's THE OFFICE), who pulls off some fine jamming for a white boy.Drug gags, sex gags, scat gags, hip hop gags, gags that fall absolutely flat and gags that fly, ALI G INDAHOUSE is an uneven potpourri of throwing everything this character has against the wall and not caring whether it sticks or not; like a British version of POOTIE TANG (2001) - absurdist comedy about a street thug rising to prominence to battle the establishment.The message that politicians are either stupid or crooked is nothing new, and director Mark Mylod, with writers Cohen and Dan Mazer, traverse no new ground imparting that message, which Ali spells out quite literally: "R.E.S.T.E.C.P!
Ali G Indahouse is really the only of the three Baron Cohen character comedies to be an actual movie.
The Ali G character works brilliantly within the confines of a comedy show, but as a movie, it doesn't work in the same way.Don't get me wrong - this is a very funny movie, full of biting, witty dialogue, that caricatures the modern British chav wonderfully well, whilst providing the viewer with a hilarious, if unrealistic story.One problem with this film is that the script and content is either fantastically brilliant, or it's embarrassing to watch.
The way i found out about this movie was when i watched American pie 2, at the start it had a trailer for Ali G indahouse, i watched the trailer and it just forced me to buy the DVD, it looked incredibly funny!
I have yet to watch Da Ali G show, but with my experiences of seeing Borat and Ali G Indahouse, Sacha Baron Cohen is not funny.
What we have in Ali G Indahouse is actually a rather cynical film; a needless and low-brow attempt to cash in on the success of what was a relatively funny television show, a television show that tried to insert a certain energy or 'updating' of interview shows of old; a breath new life into what had essentially become either old men in suits sitting around talking to one another or young adults nattering about on post-modern looking sofas early on Saturday mornings, trying to inform the youth of the time about current music and popular culture - but really just acting as a means to 'tell' the kids what to like.
Sacha Baaron Cohen's alter ego of Ali G is usually just seen in a 5-10 minute sketch where he interviews real life people and half the jokes came from their reactions.
The one saving grace of this movie is that Borak makes an appearance, who is definitely a much better character of Cohen's than Ali G.
The story becomes more sinister and with hilarious consequences.Ali G Indahouse is a great British movie that brings the hugely talented attributes of writing, along with Dan Mazer, executive production and acting of Sacha Baron Cohen.
Not that I don't find the interviews funny.There isn't a whole lot that I can say about this movie other than I enjoyed it and have watched it several times.
Ali G Indahouse is a rare thing these days: a genuinely funny British comedy, unlike recent rubbish like Guest House Paradiso (Bottom was superb but the film just didn't work), East Is East (where were the jokes?) and Bean (awful).
A great film, surprisingly funny all the way through and certainly didn't flop like other British comedy slapstick films like 'Bean'.Worth a watch by anyone, for or against Ali G!
And that joke is old in five minutes.I really enjoy the Ali G show and the Borat movie is one of the best comedies in a long time...
Some people do not like this movie, as they think it's too rude, not funny, and there's too much language, but it's just a comedy, nothing too serious, and when you get past them it's a very well written story, with good actors, funny quotes, hilarious mishaps and a laugh out loud per minute.
Ali G was supposed to be funny, but I thought the jokes he had were just awfully bad, maybe I laughed once during the whole movie (most of the time I was really bored, but hoping it would get better towards DA end, but no..) Maybe the humor in Ali G would entertain more kids in puberty, but for me it was just tasteless..
In the movie Ali G becomes Prime Minister to help save his town, Staines with strange and funny things happening along the way. |
tt0063256 | Madigan | In New York City's Spanish Harlem, police detectives Dan Madigan and Rocco Bonaro break into a sleazy apartment and arrest Barney Benesch, a hoodlum wanted for questioning by a Brooklyn precinct. Momentarily distracted by the suspect's nude girl friend, the two detectives are outwitted by Benesch, who escapes with their guns.
When it is discovered that Benesch was wanted for homicide, Madigan and Bonaro are reprimanded by Police Commissioner Anthony X. Russell. Aside from this new problem, Russell is troubled by other matters: his married mistress, Tricia Bentley, has decided to end their relationship; a black minister, Dr. Taylor, is claiming that his teenaged son was subjected to brutality by racist policemen; and proof has been established that Russell's longtime friend and associate, Chief Inspector Kane, has accepted a bribe to protect a hangout for prostitutes.
Irritated by the fact that Madigan and Bonaro broke the rules by working for another precinct, Russell gives the two men 72 hours to arrest Benesch. Despite the deadline, Madigan tries to spend some time with his wife, Julia, who is socially and sexually frustrated as a result of her husband's dangerous and time-consuming job, though unknown to her he has a mistress on the side, Jonesy.
The commissioner confronts Kane with the bribe evidence. The inspector was trying to help his son out of a jam. He offers to turn in his badge but resents Russell's outrage at how he could have done such a thing, asking the commissioner what he would know about being a father.
Benesch shoots two policemen with Madigan's gun. The detectives finally get a lead through bookie Midget Castiglione, who puts them in touch with Hughie, one of Benesch's pimps. Tracing the fugitive to a Spanish Harlem apartment, Madigan and Bonaro bring in a police cordon and order the killer to surrender. When he refuses, the two detectives rush the building and break down the door. In the exchange of gunfire, Madigan is fatally wounded before Bonaro can kill Benesch.
Russell tries to comfort Julia, but she accuses him of being a heartless administrator. As the commissioner leaves with Chief Inspector Kane, he is asked about Dr. Taylor's situation and other pressing matters at hand. Russell tells him that these are things they can address tomorrow. | neo noir, murder | train | wikipedia | Detective Daniel Madigan (Richard Widmark) and Detective Rocco Bonaro (Harry Guardino) enter a squalid Manhattan apartment building to pick up Barney Benesch (Steve Ihnat), who is wanted for questioning on a case in Brooklyn.
When Benesch manages to take Madigan and Bonaro's guns away and escape, Police Commissioner Anthony X Russell (Henry Fonda) tells them that they have 72 hours to get Benesch back, or else.Out of all of the Don Siegel-directed films I've seen to date, this was the biggest disappointment.
The film begins and ends with fantastic action sequences--well directed, well shot, with a nice, gritty feel, but in between the film felt overlong, overly complex, and far too soap-opera-like for my tastes.It could be due to Madigan being adapted from a novel, but Abraham Polonsky and Howard Rodman's ("Henri Simoun" here) script includes so many different threads, most of them inconsequential to the outcome of the film, that it almost begins to lose coherence in the middle.
It's a bad sign when the major arc of the story is completed, but characters still have to engage in a number of "But what about so and so?" verbal tags at the end of the film to try to satisfy the audience.It feels almost as if Madigan is made for two entirely different crowds--one, fans of gritty crime action films, and the other, fans of realist dramas cum soap operas.
It stars Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, Susan Clark, Harry Guardino and James Whitmore.
Music is scored by Don Costa and cinematography by Russell Metty.Plot finds Widmark as Detective Daniel Madigan, who along with his partner Rocco Bonaro (Guardino), loses a suspected murderer who also makes off with their guns.
Causing embarrassment to Police Commissioner Anthony Russell (Fonda), who is hardly a fan of Madigan's methods, they are given 72 hours in which to locate the escapee and bring him in.
Last thing he needs is a volatile Madigan screwing things up...Based on a book called The Commissioner, a film originally titled the same, and the most interesting story thread in the picture is that of Henry Fonda's Commissioner!
It is one of the odd and frustrating things about the piece, the story is complex enough without being unsure who to focus on, a shame because Widmark, Clark, Fonda and Whitmore are doing sterling work for their under pressure director (Siegel was constantly fighting with producer Frank P.
Film looks terrific at day time, though, where Metty's bold Technicolor photography really gives the New York locations a sense of 70s wonder (I know it's a 60s movie but it feels very 70s, and in a good way as well), though Costa's score is far too blunderbuss for narrative themes.It's a mixed bag, a film you just know should be better considering the talent in front of and behind the cameras.
Richard Widmark and Harry Guardino are a pair of veteran NYPD detectives who get the tables turned on them by a suspected killer they were trying to bring in.
The way Ihnat gets the better of them in the movie has to be seen to be believed and I won't say more.Widmark and Guardino are both good in their parts, but the acting honors have to go to Steve Ihnat in this film.
Besides this film, Ihnat is probably best known for another maniacal portrayal on a Star Trek episode where he's a convict who takes over a futuristic prison and wants to use the Enterprise as a getaway vehicle.The film is based on a novel entitled The Commissioner and that title part goes to Henry Fonda.
Didn't turn out that way, but Fonda stuck it out, partially because he admired Widmark as a player having worked with him previously in Warlock.Madigan being directed by Don Siegel is a forerunner of the more famous Harry Callahan character that Siegel directed Clint Eastwood in the first of the Dirty Harry films.The action doesn't slow for a second even in the scenes not involving the pursuit of Ihnat because of the tension Siegel creates.
The film runs into problems, however, with the subplot involving police commissioner Henry Fonda, as well as Madigan's difficulties on the homefront with wife Inger Stevens.
In the present days, this movie is politically incorrect: Madigan has no ethics, most of the characters have affair with lovers, smoking is `in', the interrogation is rough without human rights, and this is one of the greatest points of this film, since it is very real.
Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda are both wonderful actors in the movie and their stories run parallel during most of the film--having almost no interaction in the film.
However, the tension between Widmark and his wife, Stevens, did work pretty well, as you could certainly see how being a detective could really be tough on a marriage.All in all, this was a very good film that seemed a little like DRAGNET, the TV show POLICE STORY and a soap opera all rolled into one.
(This comparison actually sheds less favorable light on "Airport" since IT came later and was clearly inspired in it's direction and format by this film.) Widmark plays the title role, a detective who, with his partner Guardino, allows an unbalanced killer to steal his gun and break free from custody.
(In a less authentic moment, the film asks the audience to believe that a woman pushing 30, and in bed with the suspect, is really jailbait.) Things quickly get bogged down when Widmark comes home and has to deal with the lovely, but shrewy Stevens.
I enjoyed Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda, of course, but also James Whitmore who around 25 years later also excelled in Frank Darabont's "The Shawshank Redemption".
So many classic cop movie tropes are there; the one officer who is determined to play by the book, police corruption, guys in suits who show off their identification, one-liners galore and aided by the aura of cool Richard Widmark brings to the screen.
Many of the men in the film wear suits and fedoras with this being the late 60's and the final days in which it was common for working men to do so; although there is a sense of New Hollywood creeping in with the criminals in the movie appearing in that 1970's archetype.
One is Madigan, a tough no-nonsense detective played by Richard Widmark trying to catch a killer, and the other is the straight-arrow police commissioner, Henry Fonda, who's balancing justice, politics, and an extra-marital affair.
The film was based on a book titled "The Commissioner" and Fonda's character was the original focus of the story, but the producers instead changed the focus to Widmark's Madigan character, so the film unfortunately ends up a an odd combination of two different stories.
Watching Widmark and Guardino push the boundaries of acceptable law enforcement in their investigation makes this film an interesting bridge to director Don Siegel's controversial and highly influential vigilante cop film "Dirty Harry" he'd make a few years later.
Siegel also makes great use of NYC locations that give ether film added grit and realism, much like we'd later see in William Friedkin's "The French Connection" and Siegel's use of San Francisco in "Dirty Harry." Siegel also skillfully demonstrates his own directional action sequences chops with a memorable showdown in the film's finale, which features with three characters in tight quarters, all with John Woo-style double-fisted pistols in each hand.
Overall, "Madigan" features an old style police detective story (with a nice plot nod to Kurosawa's "Stray Dog") that abandons the stylistic German Expressionist roots of American film noir and instead takes the genre into new more realistic and gritty of territory, even if those stronger elements get somewhat undone by dull and unoriginal subplots involving the marital lives of Madigan and the commissioner..
Two excellent portrayed cops played by Richard Widmark and Harry Guardino make this movie a gratifying use of time, because of the adventure they are living through.
My expectations were high,but this movie exceeded them.First,it must be said that this is not a crime film, or anything of the sort,but a movie about a few days of Detective Madigan's life.It is,indeed,the surprising portrait of a man.The concreteness,the vigor,the sobriety,the directness of this extremely well-done and fast-paced movie are amazing.A director who does such a film really respects his public.It is a fact that,directing his "Madigan",Siegel made not even one single mistake.Everything fits.The pace is maintained powerfully ("Year of the Dragon" does not bear comparison with "Madigan").Widmark is a standout as Madigan,a brutal and lively detective.Widmark's performance has a shocking intensity and strength.This role is a CREATION,and shows again the astonishing qualities Widmark had.He looks as cold,tough and sinister as usually.(I'm glad this movie was made,because Widmark deserved it so much!)I grant Fonda's character needed to be developed,enlarged,explained.For one reason or another,"Madigan" is not a very famous movie.But this means nothing,the vast majority of the great movies aren't famous nor awarded."Russell"'s mistress has a fine line:"Adultery is a lonely business".This movie is unconventional,intelligent and precise;it is thrilling as Balzac is,as life is..
A fine, harshly realistic Don Siegel film from the late 60's with Richard Widmark superb as Madigan.
A fine, harshly realistic Don Siegel film from the late 60's with Richard Widmark superb as Madigan.
With the late great Richard Widmark leading this police story and with a supporting cast led by Henry Fonda, how could this action-oriented vehicle not be exciting.
Richard Widmark plays Det. Daniel Madigan, a veteran of the police force and his equally experienced partner Det. Rocco Bonaro,(Harry Guardino) set out to apprehend a crafty, skillful and extremely dangerous murderer named Barney Benesch (Steve Ihnat).
Both movies augment tough, realistic, location-shot police procedural material with stagy drama from their cops' personal lives, and both attempt to deal with adult sexual issues in a frank & forthright manner.
This little bit of the movie is truly great.So yeah, it's a flawed film, but die-hard fans of crime & police drama, Siegel, and/or Widmark should check this out anyway..
Henry Fonda was doing his thing, gliding around the set with a great toupee and a look on his face of lethal dyspepsia, Inger Stevens was scrumptious, Harry Guardino was very honest and blue-collar, Steve Inhat (sp?) was criminally underused, and Widmark was just wonderfully foolish as an empty man who's going to lose his wife and his life if he doesn't walk away from his precious job.
Was this about the trials and tribulations of being a big city police commissioner?; was this about the troubled relationship between Madigan and his wife?; was this a detective story about the search for a criminal?
The movie kept changing gears, trying to capture these three story threads, and ended up giving us unsatisfying portrayals of all three.Then, there were story lines which seemed to come out of nowhere, and never were explained adequately: the tense relationship between the commissioner and Madigan, the potential scandal involving the Chief Inspector.Reminded me of "The Detective", but not nearly as engaging.
The police commissioners adulterous affair, his top deputy's son being busted, and a civil rights leader trying to keep the lid on a possible summer race-riot gives more depth and dimension to the movie instead of confusing it.Super cast with Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, James Whitmore and the beautiful and tragic Ingar Stevens in one of her last acting roles before her death in 1970 makes "Madigan" better with every new viewing.
"Madigan" possibly inspired Siegel's later Clint Eastwood big city movies "Coogan's Bluff" and "Dirty Harry".
Henry Fonda,(Commissioner Anthony X Russell),"On Golden Pond",'81, gave an outstanding performance as Police Commissioner and gave Madigan and his boss a hard time.
Both Don Siegel and Henry Fonda have made better films while Don Costa`s melodramatic score certainly belongs in another movie.
Fonda's role as a lace-curtain Irish police commissioner is an odd one for him; he's usually the top star, but in this case he plays second fiddle to Widmark.
Inger Stevens is strong as Ms. Madigan but just seems like one more conflict for an overworked cop to resolve, ultimately two-dimensional, woman wants romance from duty-bound man...ending is exciting and dramatic but almost seems de rigeur for 1968...In Siegel's defense, he made the best (favorite) horror film of all time (in 1956 of course).
Richard Widmark is great in the title character as the cop who is given 72 hours to find a known killer who is loose on the streets of New York.
Richard Widmark(Madigan) & Harry Guardino play two police officers who lose their gun to a murder suspect(Steve Inhat).
Madigan must also deal with his home problems involving his bored and neglected wife(played by the beautiful Inger Stevens) Henry Fonda plays the police commissioner who must deal with the hard-headed Madigan, and other issues that threaten the safety and reputation of the city.Moderately interesting yarn has good performances and direction, though a somewhat tedious and familiar story, though the ending is a surprise.
Siegel creates a gritty atmosphere in this companion piece to "Dirty Harry," with Widmark's title character having a lot in common with Clint Eastwood's maverick cop.
It really tries to make both ends meet the middle, but falls a bit short.The story seemingly centers around tough NYC Det. Madigan (Richard Widmark) and his partner losing a murder suspect and their efforts to find and capture him (again) within a 72 hr.
It doesn't help matters that the mean streets of New York sometimes appear to be more like a dirtied-up studio lot than the real deal.In the end, "Madigan" plays more like a well made TV movie than the theatrical release it actually was.
He attempts to manage parallel plots between hard-bitten detective Widmark (and always watchable Harry Guardino), and straight-arrow police commissioner Fonda (with the excellent James Whitmore as his sidekick).
I've read the now out-of-print novel this film was based on and curiously the commissioner, played by Henry Fonda, is really the focal character, but the movie has more leftist themes which had to have resulted from Polonsky's screenplay.
There are two main stories in the narrative, one involving a team of detectives and the other about the police commissioner who finds himself in a dilemma as he finds out his best friend in the force has been involved in a shady deal.The detectives Madigan and Bonaro come to pick up Barney Benesch, a criminal, who is being sought in Brooklyn as a witness for a crime.
Kane, on the other hand, was just a good police officer whose whole family had been involved in the force in several positions.Richard Widmark does a wonderful job as Madigan, a man who has problems of his own, with an unsatisfied wife who is more interested in having fun, which her husband was not able to provide.
A good, solid cop story made believable by the solid performances of Widmark and Fonda.
Maybe more significantly though, it also shows how the events that take place over a single weekend in June, lead a Police Commissioner to rethink the whole set of values and principles that he'd previously adhered to throughout his long and distinguished career.Tough NYPD detectives Daniel Madigan (Richard Widmark) and Rocco Bonaro (Harry Guardino) break into a tenement apartment in Upper Manhattan to apprehend a suspect who's wanted for questioning and find Barney Benesch (Steve Ihnat) in bed with a naked young woman.
What he learns about himself and others during the course of this drama easily makes him the story's best written and most fascinating character by a considerable distance.The quality of the acting is particularly good in this movie with Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda both outstanding in their lead roles and some fine supporting performances, especially from Inger Stevens and Don Stroud..
Boys you can tell that the French Connection was right around the corner from this--gritty location filming, low key drama, guys in suits and office politics kinda getting in the way of the action.I liked the period detail-late fedoras, boat-like cars, bad attempts at 'youth culture', all the smoking, it just is a time-capsule.Some of it doesn't work well-slow pace, Fonda's role not well fleshed out, Inger Stevens has a Sharon Stone-like shrill role, and you know Widmark wasn't thrilled to be there either.Best part-besides the final shoot-out?
Despite being slightly unbalanced - it was based on a novel entitled The Commissioner in which the detective Madigan was a subsidiary character - this is still an excellent police drama deftly handled by Don Siegel, who managed to find roles for two of his favourites, Susan Clark and Don Stroud, both of whom appeared that same year in Sigel's Coogan's bluff.
One thing the screenplay needed to get around was the story of Henry Fonda's Commissioner Anthony X Russell, whom the novel had revolved around, and who scarcely came into contact with Madigan.
The main thing is that Madigan (Richard Widmark) and his partner (Harry Guardino) are humiliated on a routing arrest when the suspect grabs his gun and escapes.
Maverick veteran detective Daniel Madigan (a superb and credible performance by Richard Widmark) and his equally seasoned partner Rocco Bonaro (well played by Harry Guardino) have to catch maniacal psycho Barney Benesch (a memorably edgy turn by Steve Ihnat) with 72 hours.
Add in a heavy dose of soap opera and glacial pacing and the result is a film that isn't technically bad, but is so dated as to be halfway to unwatchable.The story focuses on three days in the lives of two men; New York City police lieutenant Dan Madigan (an intermittently jowly Richard Widmark) and the city's police commissioner Anthony X.
When I saw Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda as the stars with Don Siegel directing, I expected at least a half decent movie.
Richard Widmark as Detective Dan Madigan and Harry Guardino as Detective Rocco Bonaro are not exactly in their chief's good books. |
tt0104550 | Jersey Girl | Ollie Trinké (Ben Affleck) is a powerful media publicist in New York City whose wife, Gertie (Jennifer Lopez), dies during childbirth with an aneurysm. To avoid his grief, he buries himself in his work and ignores his new daughter, Gertie, while his father, Bart (George Carlin), takes a month off from work to care for her, but returns so that Ollie is forced to live up to his responsibility as a parent. Under the stress of a botched diaper change and a baby who will not stop crying, he trashes his client, Will Smith, for his soon-to-be released film, Independence Day, in front of assembled reporters. That costs him his job, so he moves in with Bart in New Jersey. He eventually apologizes for ignoring Gertie, and attributes his public outburst to his grief.
Blacklisted by all of New York City's public relations firms, Ollie has to work as a civil servant in the borough where he now lives with Bart. Seven years later, Gertie (Raquel Castro), now in elementary school, often coaxes him to rent films to watch. At the video store, they meet Maya (Liv Tyler), a graduate student and one of the clerks, whose uninhibited probing into Ollie's love life almost leads to them having casual sex. She soon becomes a part of their lives.
As part of his job in the borough, Ollie speaks to a group of outraged citizens to win over their approval for a major public works project that will temporarily close a street in the neighborhood. His successful and enjoyable interaction with them leads him to realize how much he misses the public relations work. He contacts Arthur (Jason Biggs), his one-time protégé, who sets up a promising interview.
The prospect of moving back to New York City creates tension among Ollie, Gertie, Bart, and Maya, especially when he says that his interview is on the same day as Gertie's school talent show. She yells at him, saying she hates him and that she wishes he had died instead of her mother. He claims he hates her right back, and says she and Gertie took his life away and he just wants it back. He immediately regrets it and tries to apologize, but the damage is done and she pushes him away and runs to her room, crying. A few days later they finally patch things up, and she accepts the fact that they will be moving to New York City. While waiting to be interviewed, he has a chance encounter with Will Smith (playing himself), who he trashed at his public outburst years before. Smith has no idea who Ollie is, but they have a conversation about work and children that persuades Ollie to skip the interview and leave.
Ollie rushes to make it to Gertie's Sweeney Todd performance at the last moment. The film ends with him, Gertie, Bart, Maya, and the rest celebrating at the bar. He and Maya hint at possible feelings for each other before being interrupted by Gertie. He holds her and says that they are staying in New Jersey because he did not take the job. She asks why he did so if he loved it so much. He says that he thought he did, but he loved his new life more because being a father to her was the only thing that he was ever really good at. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0065134 | Two Mules for Sister Sara | A gunslinger named Hogan spots and saves a naked woman from being gang-raped by several bandits whom he shoots and kills. He later learns that the woman, Sara, is a nun working with a group of Mexican revolutionaries who are fighting the French. When Sara requests that Hogan takes her to a Mexican camp, he agrees because he had previously arranged to help the Mexican revolutionaries attack the French garrison in exchange for a portion of the garrison's strongbox, if they are successful.
As the duo heads towards the camp, Hogan is surprised that the nun smokes his cigars and drinks his whiskey. Before he attempts to detonate a charge to destroy a French ammunition train, he is shot with an arrow in the shoulder. Sara is able to bandage him, but he is still unable to shoot the charge to disable the train himself. Sara assists him in aiming his rifle, and the two succeed in destroying the train together. Eventually the two reach Juarista commander Col. Beltran's camp and Sara reveals the layout of the French garrison. She then reveals to Hogan that she is not a nun but a prostitute posing as a nun. Although Hogan is shocked the two team up, infiltrate the fortress and open the gates for the Mexican revolutionary forces to swarm through.
A battle ensues. Hogan singlehandedly guns down several French soldiers. The French retreat and the Mexicans capture the fort. As promised, Hogan receives a large portion of the riches. Now wealthy and his job completed, Hogan sets off with Sara, whom he has fallen in love with, for further adventures. | cult, avant garde, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | Don Siegel's "Two Mules For Sister Sara" starring Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine is certainly not one of the brilliant Westerns with Eastwood, but it is a very well directed, greatly acted and very amusing little Western comedy with good wit that highly entertains.
Eastwood, who is cool as always, and the lovable MacLaine match perfectly, and the plot has some nice twists (although it should be said that some of the 'twists' are not really too surprising).After gunsling Hogan (Eastwood) saves a nun named Sara (MacLaine) from a bunch of guys who wanted to rape her in the middle of the desert by shooting them, he now has to take care of her, which annoys him.
It's a time of revolution against the French in Mexico, and while Hogan, who is interested in quick money, will fight for whichever side pays well (which happens to be the revolutionaries), his new traveling companion Sara is very obviously an idealistic supporter of the revolutionary Juaristas...As mentioned above, "Two Mules For Sister Sara" can in no way come up to the brilliance of Eastwood movies such as Leone's Dollar Trilogy (few movies can) or Eastwood's very own "High Plains Drifter" of 1973.
Clint Eastwood has always been the epitome of coolness, especially in his Westerns, and MacLaine is great in her role of the feisty sister Sara.
While in some ways Clint's character isn't that much different from some of his previous cowboys (he's great with a gun and is motivated by greed....until the end...just like in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE), the chemistry of adding Shirley MacLaine really changes the film.
This, combined with a somewhat restrained score by Ennio Morricone, make this movie look in many ways like a "Spaghetti Western", though it was financed and directed by Americans.
With the intervention of Napoleon III of France, Archduque Maximilian was installed as emperor in Mexico but Mexican countrymen known as Juaristas (Juarez' resistance) were fighting to demonstrate that their country could act independently, that - as the reform contended - all men were equal under law, and that foreign monarchical adventures in Mexico were futile...Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine), presumably a nun, has adopted their cause and is being pursued by the French army for raising money to the Juaristas...
She smokes cigars, she drinks whiskey and her language comes to be every day more profane...Hogan's fascination with her arrives at its peak when she removes an Indian arrow from his shoulder, having rendering him half insensible by intoxicating him with shots of Whiskey...After joining her to blow up a French supply train, he is persuaded to help a group of Juaristas led by Colonel Beltran (Manolo Fabregas) in a final attack on a French garrison...The climax of "Two Mules for Sister Sara" displays the differences between Leone's conclusion which the 'Stranger' merely disappears into the mists of time...
The Professionals, is one favorite, another is, "Two Mules for Sister Sara." In this story we have an American mercenary (Clint Eastwood) named Hogan who has bitter memories of the Civil War and decides to try for a quick Gold fortune in Mexico.
Along the way, Hogan is joined by a traveling Catholic Nun, named Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine) who has more secrets than just fear of being captured by the French.
It deals with a nun called Sara (Shirley MacLaine) and two mules (second mule was actually a burro) , as she is attacked by three outlaws , being rescued by a drifter named Hogan (Clint Eastwood) , who is on his way across Mexican desert and becoming wary of her religious nature .
¨Two mules and sister Sara¨ is an enjoyable film for Clint Eastwood and Donald Siegel enthusiasts , including their usual trademarks , it's full of which made their films so memorable, others might find it a bit long but no one can deny its sense of style what achieved a great burst of world-wide popularity ..
Profane Sister Sara recruits a drifter to help Mexican rebels attack a French fort.This is Clint in the prime of his B Western career, and ultimately one of his very best films, western or not.
Shirley MacLaine kicks in a convincing performance as the Profane Sister Sara, who conducts business like a wrangler.Fraught with intrigue, some great performances, and an interesting story line, this well executed western makes for a fine rainy Saturday afternoon.
To tell you the truth, I expected 'Two Mules for Sister Sara' to be a mediocre movie, only trying to take advantage of Eastwood's success with Sergio Leone's film.
Also, many goofs were present, including the dynamite usage, downgrading the overall result.I definitely recommend 'Two Mules for Sister Sara' to Eastwood and western fans.
While, Two Mules For Sister Sara is not one of Clint's absolute best westerns, it is a solid film in its own right and has a lot of the same look and feel that resembles his Italian westerns.
She had pretty good chemistry with Clint and Two Mules For Sister Sara is a solid and entertaining western..
While traveling from the United States into Mexico a cowboy by the name of "Hogan" (Clint Eastwood) comes across a scene in which a nun named "Sister Sara" (Shirley MacLaine) is about to be raped by three outlaws.
In many respects this movie shares a similarity with Clint Eastwood's previous "Spaghetti Westerns" except that the addition of Shirley MacLaine adds another dimension to this film which was lacking from the others.
Shirley MacLaine (Sara) is on the verge of being raped when Clint Eastwood (Hogan) arrives on the scene.
From then on we have a buddy-buddy film as both Shirley and Clint work towards the same goal of kicking some French butt in Mexico some time in the 1800s.This is an easy-to-watch Western that doesn't assault our ears with relentless shooting until the last 15 minutes or so.
While it is not a great film, it does a very good job of fitting actors, actresses & roles together.This film is about the only time Shirley & Clint Eastwood work together.
Two Mules For Sister Sara (1970)Plot In A Paragraph: Nun Sara (Shirley MacLaine) is saved from certain rape from cowboys by Hogan (Clint Eastwood) who is preparing for a future mission to capture a French fort.
Shirley MacLaine gets top billing in the film's credits (though my DVD and all the art work bills Clint top) This was the last time Clint Eastwood received second billing (or anything less than first) until A Perfect World, and the only time his leading lady was played by an A-list star until The Bridges of Madison County.
After a nun named Sara (Shirley MacLaine) is rescued from three rowdy rapists by a loner named Hogan (Clint Eastwood), the pair team-up and develop a working friendship as they assist the Juaristas in their fight to free Mexico from French rule.
A Panavision/Technicolor production, the music is scored by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa.Set during the reign of Emperor Maximilian in Mexico, plot finds Eastwood as a reconnaissance drifter for hire who saves a nun (MacLaine) from being gang-raped by three cowboys.
The film pairs Eastwood (as a mysterious drifter of course) and Shirley Maclaine (posing as a nun) in an attempt to destroy a French Army garrison located in Mexico.
Meanwhile, Sara can be feisty, but MacLaine never makes her abrasive in any way and creates a very appealing character.Filmed entirely on location in Mexico, this features mostly unfamiliar supporting actors, save for guys like Manolo Fabregas as the passionate Colonel Beltran, Alberto Morin as the hearty French general LeClaire, and Armando Sylvestre as one of the American creeps at the outset.The film is extremely well shot in widescreen, and is a great looking picture, brought further to colourful life by a wonderful Ennio Morricone score that this viewer can still hear in his head as he types this.Overall, this is great fun, with endearing give-and-take between the unlikely star duo, and a fairly straightforward script (written by Albert Maltz, based on a story by filmmaker Budd Boetticher) that leads to a very rousing action climax that features the occasional burst of surprising gore.
While not as memorable as Eastwood's work with Sergio Leone, director Don Siegel's "Two Mules for Sister Sara" is an entertaining, light-hearted (despite the body count) western adventure that makes good use of its two stars.
Briefly, soldier-of-fortune Hogan (Eastwood) rescues nun-on-the-run Sara (Shirley MacLaine) from a (surprisingly genial) fate-worse-than-death only to discover that she is familiar with the French military base that he and a group of Mexican rebels are planning on attacking (needless to say: they for freedom, him for gold).
Clint Eastwood is rugged and rough (duh) as his usual cowboy self, and in Two Mules for Sister Sara, he rescues the cutest little nun in the desert, Shirley MacLaine!
In the beginning of the movie Clint Eastwood does a heroic act: he saves a woman from some brutal men.And next you see that woman wearing an outfit of a nun.Eastwood's character is named Hogan and Shirley MacLaine plays sister Sara.The movie is set in Mexico, where these two are in a mission of capturing a French fort.For that you need a fistful of dynamite.Don Siegel is the director of Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) and Ennio Morricone is behind the music.This is mighty fine western comedy.The chemistry between MacLaine and Eastwood really works.It's always great to see Clint Eastwood portraying a quiet hero in a western.He always does it with style.Shirley MacLaine is very good at portraying those strong female characters.In this one she's very good as the nun with a dirty little secret.There are many fine moments in this picture.At one point Hogan gets an arrow on his chest.Indians!
Nun Sara (Shirley MacLaine) is being attacked by cowboys and is ultimately saved by Hogan (Clint Eastwood).
Having seen Eastwood play so many cool characters, it was nice to see a different side to him and the chemistry between himself and Shirley MacLaine is the main driving force in this film - it really is just as well that they are both really good as the plot in itself is not all that strong on its own.With the film mostly being anchored by two performers, Two Mules For Sister Sara feels more character driven than anything else and due to the strong chemistry between MacLaine and Eastwood this results in the film mostly working.
Two Mules for Sister Sara is a star vehicle for Clint Eastwood- in his usual Western movie-star swagger and ultra-cool sense of humor a1nd style- and for Shirley MacLaine as a nun (in clever, convincing disguise) along for the ride.
It's got some of those good elements for a genre picture of this kind, some scenes with amusing, typically Eastwood-character-with-a-woman conversation, a surprising start to the story as well as revelatory moment later on in the film, and the inimitable Ennio Morricone score.
Looking at how Eastwood acts this scene, it's really one of the best I've seen him do in any western, as he carefully balances it out to not be too over-the-top, while keeping a certain crude charm as sister Sara lets her guard down (MacLaine, too, is quite good in the scene).
Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood's second collaboration jocousely teams Eastwood's Leone-sque soldier-of-fortune Hogan (scarcely changing his apparel and paraphernalia from Leone's Dollars Trilogy) with Shirley MacLaine's sister Sara against an extensive western landscape, to fight for a good cause, aiding Mexico's Juarista rebels to assail the colonial French army during 1860s.
Considering the pedigree that Two Mules For Sister Sara has, script by Budd Boetticher, directed by Don Siegal, and starring Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine we should have gotten a classic out of all this talent.
Maybe if Eastwood, Siegel, or Boetticher had more creative control all around Two Mules For Sister Sara would have fared a lot better.Clint plays a character not unlike the group of soldiers of fortune who drifted on down to Mexico after our Civil War to work for anyone who would pay them as in the Gary Cooper-Burt Lancaster film, Vera Cruz.
Eastwood's second collaboration with director Don Siegel, Two Mules for Sister Sara* was next in line to be viewed.En route to a rendezvous with Mexican freedom fighters whom he has been hired to help, a mercenary known as Hogan encounters a woman about to be raped by a group of men.
There are two thirds of a movie here before the urge to blast, bomb, and bludgeon a fortressful of French soldiers in 1860's Mexico overwhelms the good work of director Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood (he actually acts this time; he must of learned something from Coogan's Bluff!) and Shirley MacLaine (who is lovely and sexy as she hides something under all that piety).Until the third reel arrives, Siegel has a dandy little chase mystery going, with Eastwood as a mercenary in occupied Mexico saving Roman Catholic Nun MacLaine from rape and murder (but not those ridiculous fake eyelashes) before teaming up to help out his wallet and her vocation.Unfortunately, Siegel has to reveal something definitive by the last third of the flick, and that's when the wheels come off.
"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" director Don Siegel and blacklisted Hollywood scenarist Albert Maltz appropriated an old Budd Boetticher scrip and turned it into a lively little shoot'em up called "Two Mules for Sister Sara." Earlier, Eastwood and Siegel had collaborated as star and director on "Coogan's Bluff," and this film, set against the French Revolution, marked their second collaboration.
This blood-splattered but amusing western comedy/drama teams Eastwood's gimlet-eyed mercenary up with an impious Catholic nun, Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine of "Sweet Charity"),in Mexico during the late 1860s when the Mexicans were throwing off the yoke of French oppression.
Clint Eastwood is at his stone faced best in this film along side Shirley Maclaine's sister Sara.
Close also in identifying the character of Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine), I don't think Hooker Sara would have cut it.All in all though, this one's a fairly entertaining Western, made so by the banter between the good sister and Clint Eastwood's character Hogan.
Clint Eastwood plays another wandering loner in Don Siegel's "Two Mules For Sister Sara".
Great flick.The director used an ingenious combination of Clint Eastwood's `Man with no name' character and Shirley MacLaine's charm to make a funny and entertaining movie.POSSIBLE SPOILER: `Every man's got a right to be a sucker once', as Hogan says.
He is teamed up with Shirley MacClain who plays the eponymous Sister Sara, a nun hiding from the French army who were occupying Mexico at the time.The film opens with Hogan (Eastwood) rescuing Sara from a group of murderous rapists in the Mexican desert, it isn't until she puts her clothes back on that he realises that she is in fact a nun.
In fact, she seems less comfortable kissing Clint than she does pulling an arrow from his shoulder.MacLaine plays Sara, a woman Eastwood's Hogan rescues from a truly lethargic rape scene, only to discover when she puts her clothes on that she is Sister Sara, a nun who needs Hogan's help escaping some French troops chasing her through Mexico.The presence of French troops in a Western is not the only deliberately incongruous thing about "Sister Sara." For starters, there's a score by Ennio Morricone, clearly mimicking his work on Leone films, only this time slapping on odd electronic noise in the melody meant to sound like mule whinnying, though more resembling an annoying truck-backing-up alarm.
Eastwood seems to be playing in one film, MacLaine in another.Director Don Siegel works hard to get us to buy MacLaine as a nun that sets Hogan's heart afire, leading to awkward dialogue like this, as she helps him ride his horse after he's been wounded:Him: "I like being in the arms of a good-looking nun.
Two Mules For Sister Sara is just as my title says, a great movie, it has a decent plot (With an excellent plot twist) and great acting from all the stars (One of the few movies that has Clint Eastwood hurt and that shows him vulnerable).In terms of effects they are good (For their time) but lacks some credibility (The Mexicans falling out of the church in the final scene is just dumb and the fight scene with the machetes just seems slow and exaggerated).
An imitation spaghetti Western directed by Don Siegel, written by Budd Boettiger, with music by Ennio Morricone, starring Clint Eastwood (he's the guy with the little cigar and the poncho) and Shirley MacLaine as a fake nun.Well, they all know their business so it should be pretty good and, in fact, it's not terrible.
It is part of a seven movie set of discs of Clint Eastwood movies.In this story Shirley MacLaine is sister Sara.
Despite what others might think I thought the pairing worked rather well with Eastwood in a snug role as the stubbornly, bitter mercenary Hogan and MacLaine was good as the vaguely, faithful Sister Sara.
Another minus is that lead actors Shirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood have no chemistry!However, it does have it's share of great lines and good moments, just not as much as there should have been.
Basically in Mexico, drifter Hogan (Clint Eastwood) saves nun Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine) from being raped by three cowboy thugs, who he shoots and kills, and he finds out she is working for a group of Mexican revolutionaries fighting the French.
"Two Mules for Sister Sara" is one of a number of collaborations between Clint Eastwood and director Don Siegel, who also worked together in "Coogan's Bluff", "Dirty Harry", "The Beguiled" and "Escape from Alcatraz".
Eastwood plays an American drifter named Hogan who while in Mexico saves a nun named Sister Sara from being gang-raped.
"Two Mules for Sister Sara", however, is not a bad film, although it falls a long way short of being a great one. |
tt0260162 | The Mangler 2 | Joanne 'Jo' Newton, a girl desperate for attention from her workaholic father, ends up going to an upper class private boarding school after a break in at her dad's computer company. The school is getting ready to install a new security system. Jo and several others students are to remain behind while the others leave for Spring Break, as punishment from the school's Dean, Headmaster Bradeen (Lance Henriksen). However, Jo, with her knowledge of computers, has hacked into the school's mainframe and unleashed a super virus called "Mangler 2.0" in the security system.
But what nobody knows is that this virus literally has a mind of its own, and it controls everything around the school. At first, everybody thinks it is a blessing, but when the virus starts killing everyone in sight, the remaining students and staff attempt to escape from the building, which proves very difficult, as the virus is watching their every move. Unfortunately, Jo's friend, Bradeen, has been captured by one of the computers, with wires being planted into his head. The virus controls his movements, and turns him into a walking computer. With Bradeen at the virus' bidding, he is forced to go after the students.
Jo finally confronts the monster she unleashed which is now in the school's basement. Jo tricks the virus by distracting Bradeen with a non-violent program on creating new lives, featuring snowflakes. Then, she stabs him and pushes him against the supercomputer that he now no longer controls. The virus himself is destroyed as Bradeen dies. Jo managed to end the carnage and escape with her bodyguard Paul, the chef, and her father.
Jo later went on Spring Break in Europe. The camera shows her getting a call from her father. After her phone call ends, a strange and familiar message appeared on the screen of Jo's cellphone saying "you've been mangled", which means that the virus is still alive. | prank | train | wikipedia | First off, before I start my review, I would like to say that Mangler 2 is the second worst movie of all time (the first movie being Killjoy).
But, what the writers try to do with Mangler 2, is they try to use computers to make the movie at least seem a little smart.
This scene is also example of pathetic choreography: The techno music plays-the girl walks into frame.she walks out of frame.the camera is now in front of some other building.girl walks into frame.and then out of frame, and the repetition of that just makes you laugh at how stupid and witless it is!
Bottom line, the acting is wretched, the script makes you want to throw up, the constant re-playing of techno music makes you laugh and cry, the awful choreography makes you point at laugh at the TV screen, and the lame-ass "chills" makes your heart beat slower, and not faster.
This movie should have been called "The Cables of Death" or whatever, because it has nothing to do with the original "The Mangler" (1995) and all we see is some cables and wires moving around once in a while.
On to the points: One point because this movie makes "The Mangler" look incredibly good (and the original one needs that, in my humble opinion), if not to say excellent!
While most of her peers are away on break, a student genius (Chelse Swain) plans to get revenge on the stern dean of her school (Lance Henriksen) by developing a computer virus that will shut down her high-tech campus long enough to give her and her stupid friends some time to party.
Instead, the plan backfires when the computer system takes on a mind of its own, traps the group inside and starts killing them off by manipulating and controlling the electric wiring.Chelse Swain (THE VIRGIN SUICIDES) fails to convince us she can tie her own shoelaces, let alone is a genius, and the talented Henriksen is sorely wasted as the human heavy, who's eventually transformed into what looks like Plughead from the CIRCUITRY MAN films.Highly implausible plot, amateurish acting, insipid dialogue, painfully annoying characters and offscreen murders mean don't bother with this "sequel," which is completely unrelated to the 1993 Tobe Hopper film..
Okay fine it's true I watched the Mangler franchise a bit wonky, I saw the first which I think was a watchable effort followed by the third which was a total mess and now finally all these years later have gotten to part 2.Now going in my hopes were fairly high, it stars Lance Henriksen so it couldn't possibly be that bad, right?Well The Mangler 2 follows on from the first movie in no shape or form, it's an original tale about a virus that takes over a heavily automated school and starts killing folks off.Devoid of originality, oddly dull, with awful death scenes and instantly forgettable characters The Mangler 2 tops part 3 but just barely.Not entirely sure what they were going for but I can confidently say that it doesn't work, not even slightly.Watch The Mangler (1995) and pretend it doesn't have sequels.The Good:Decent soundtrackThe Chef stole the whole filmLance HenriksenThe Bad:Weak connection to the original filmReally quite boringThings I Learnt From This Movie:I'm left wondering whose idea it was for one of the girls to just wear her bra for near the entire film.
Simply one of the worst movies you could pick out of your video store..Jo Newton uploads the mangler virus into her schools computer which controls the whole school.
Lance Henriksen stars as the headmaster who seems pretty obvious in his face that he cant stand this movie.
Though, why anyone would install an electric fence around a school is beyond me.....All of the characters make the usual horror movie mistakes: splitting up, going back for more, not pulling the plug, etc.
And by the other incriminating evidence (read: non-stop techno, empty stock characters), I declare The Mangler 2 to be in direct violation of movie ethics.
it's just too bad he didn't pull the plug on this movie.Overall very boring and un-entertaining film, now believe me I had very underdoggish hopes for this movie, hopefully like some direct-to-video horrors, (i.e; The Dentist) would have a somewhat convincing story line.
Beware in this movie Lance Henriksen doesn't even give a good performance.Co-starring: Dexter Bell, Daniella Lavengsta, Will Sanderson, Miles Meadows..
A top-notch computer security system installed in a private college becomes deadly when infected with a computer virus called The Mangler 2.0.The virus crawls into the school's mainframe and all sorts of mechanical gadgets,like freezers,washing machines,security locks,and the various cameras all begin to go haywire and kill students/college workers."The Mangler 2" has nothing to do with gory and enjoyable original.The film itself is a tedious bore.The script is filled with holes,the gore is non-existent and the dialogue is rubbish.The techno soundtrack is incredibly annoying and horror regular Lance Henriksen is completely wasted as the strict head master.Stay away from "The Mangler 2".3 out of 10 and that's being kind..
One of the worst sequels I've ever seen, ESPECIALLY with Stephen King as the writer...This movie could be classed as a B- movie, dark, strange camera angles, flashbacks (same flashback 2- 3 times works once, not more, atleast in this movie...)The only character that brings this movie any credits is Lance Henriksen...You'll notice if you see this film.And as always when any electronics is involved, the consultans (If that's the right word..?) are NOT DOING A GOOD WORK.I've never (ever) seen a cable move it self by electricity.
That's what makes a movie ESPECIALLY when computers are involved.Sure you may think "That's what's written in the script.." Hmm...
They speak of firewalls and stuff not really related to what they're doing as they speak of it.I'm only guessing that I might, if I had the chance, I would have made the consulting better...The plot it self is good thou, a computer virus - That's cool and belongs to the age of the new millenniumPetty though it had a lot of gaps in the directingOne thing (Among many) that I thought was quite tacky, the ending scenes...
It was not that bad at all, I've seen plenty horror movies that are way worse than this and several films in other genres that are way worse.
I would have liked them to show more of the "action" when it came to the killings though, seemed to be a kids type of horror movie, no details when it comes to blood and gore.
Or maybe I just had a censored version?Anyways, to sum it up, if one like horror movies, it's worth watching.I give it 4/10..
the only positive element is the young lady in the bikini top...and what makes the film even worse is the audio commentary from the director, producer and actor...usually audio commentaries can be entertaining when the filmmakers hold their egos in check but not this one...self-congrats don't work...other filmmakers please learn from these yokels from the great white north...truly incompetent filmmaking skills on display here...that's two truly bad films for Lance H.
The only good thing about this movie is Chelse Swain.
Althought her acting, at least on this movie, does not compare to that of her sister, her looks are almost as good as those of Dominique Swain.
I haven't seen the original "Mangler," but I know from reading the plot synopsis from that movie that the sequel has virtually no connection.
Believe me, that's all you have to know about the plot.The movie has a few good comic lines and the hot chick (Daniella Evangelista) was VERY nice to look at.
Firstly, I must say that watching The Mangler (first one) with my friend Angela was one of the highlights of my movie-going career.
Especially having read Stephen King's short story, the motion picture was so AWFUL - and in a poignantly hysterical way - that it's become one of my all-time favorite rewatches.The Mangler 2...
Daniella Evangelista is the eye candy for this film, and she's really quite good in it - not to mention stunningly gorgeous - but her character's death is a pathetic attempt at horror.
We have seen many that have been less than classic, even some that are outright bad; but like most horror fans we cut the movie some slack if it contains some good moments or scary concepts.
This film was so inept in every possible way that by the end, rather than feeling entertained or even amused, you feel insulted and almost angry.I really don't have much to say about this stupid, stupid movie - the other comments have covered all that quite well.
We just wanted to add our warning to horror film fans to not waste your time, and certainly not your money, on "The Mangler 2".
Having not seen the first one, I figured I wouldn't be lost by just jumping into this "sequel".Following the film, I thought, how awful.
I'll leave it to others to point out the various plot stupidities and gross technical errors that the filmmakers have included in the plot, but it almost seems that the writer-director is so embarrassed to be making a film around computers that he strove to prove how little he knows about them.
oh for God's sake, you get the idea.The film throws in a few Scream-esque attempts at self referential humour, pretty weak a reference to the black guy not dying first, a spice girls quote and the comment "you are the weakest link, goodbye" which, unfortunately for these losers was already used in scary movie, and no doubt every other p***poor horror movie released this year.The acting is awful across the board, Lance Henriksen, when he read the script, probably thought that this was a spoof of awful teen techno slashers and maybe thought , but unfortunately for him, this is the real deal..
Want to watch a good movie?
The Mangler 2 is the epitome of the direct-to-video teen slasher movie.
Deliciously fun, but incontrovertibly grotesque, Michael-Hamilton Wright's sequel to the little-seen `The Mangler' is as cheesy as a tasty Jaffle, but at times as jagged and novel as the most chiselled of horror films.
Riddled with the kind of idiosyncratic characters we begin to expect from slasher movies and couple that with dialogue as hackneyed as a Voohees how-to manual, The Mangler 2 manages to draw you in with it's completely preposterous but undeniably entertaining plot about a killer computer that takes over a school and slices and dices the students one by one.
Midway through the movie, tensions run high, accusations fly, two female characters nearly get into a scuffle, and then we cut to fingernails dragging across a chalkboard
and they keep dragging, inflicting that irritating screech upon the poor helpless viewer.Gone is the possessed laundry machine from the first film, replaced by an even more ridiculous unrelated premise: a private school receives a new state of the art security system which, in traditional horror fashion, goes haywire and starts killing everyone.
This of course means those darn "'puters" factor heavily into the narrative, which means the script requires the characters to interact with the computers, which translates to scenes of actors standing around monitors, reading information off the screen, and telling the audience what they're typing as they're typing it.Note to filmmakers: while computers may provide fun and exciting direct interactions such as video games and other applications, there's few things as boring as watching someone else interact with them.The protagonist, Jo, is a rich girl outcast who hates even her own little clique of stereotype horror staples, leading her smiley bodyguard to muse aloud, "it's kind of sad that I'm your best friend." Then again, said clique threatens to blame her for a website vandalism prank, prompting Jo to unleash the Mangler 2.0 virus upon them.
Goodbye suspension of disbelief, and goodbye any chance of overlooking premise/character shortcomings.I hesitate to mention this, but clearly director Michael Hamilton Wright intended to pay tribute to the much superior garden sheer scene in William Peter Blatty's Exorcist III (itself, a much superior film, incidentally.) And so goes the long parade of ideas either ill-conceived (synchronized escape from the evil security cameras?
In the case of Mangler 2, it feels like Michael Hamilton Wright is physically molesting the memory of better movies..
As for the plot and script add up to probably the worst horror sequel that makes the original look like a piece of Art. And considering the original was quite awful.
"The Mangler 2" is a decent, if slightly more enjoyable sequel to the original.**SPOILERS**As a form of punishment, troubled teen Jo Newton, (Chelse Swain) is sent to Royal Collegiate College, where Headmaster Bradeen, (Lance Henriksen) introduces a special high-tech campus-wide security system, to the disdain of Dan Channa, (Will Sanderson) Emily Stone, (Daniela Evangelista) Will Walsh, (Dexter Bell) and Corey Banks, (Miles Meadows) her friends and fellow students.
The Mangler Deux was one of the best movies I have ever seen.
I guess it is just a sleeper, maybe in the year 3029 The Mangler Deux will finally be recognized as a film making masterpiece.
I mean, this virus had the ability to control EVERYTHING!But as far as the movie goes, the acting was superb, the plot was simply engaging, and the climax is one I will not soon forget.
The special effects were a far cry from special, the plot was feces, and the acting was, like everything else in this movie, the worst i've ever seen.
No, it has an interesting plot and the acting isnt half bad, and face it people we dont need a freakin gore fest to have a good movie *Helloo Halloween?!* Onto the review...The Plot: A Disturbed girl, Jo Newton, breaks into her father's office and plans to download a virus onto her Father's computer.
Everything you'd ever want from a campy horror film is right here -- it's a sequel, it's "based" on a Stephen King story, there's a girl running around with no shirt for half the film, and Lance Henriksen is in it..
I don't think the other person who commented on this film actually saw the same movie I did.
By the time a character in The Mangler 2 says "useless piece of American garbage" you'll know exactly how he feels, absolutely awful film..
Loaded up on cheap booze and BBQ food, I bunged this in the DVD and killed the bad vibe hung over from the party with it.It's got a budget that'd have trouble funding half an hour of infomercials, a no-name cast (Lance Henriksen aside), and a complete lack of scares, but so help me, Mangler 2 is pretty good fun.
The cast aren't really what you'd call good actors, but they're all pretty amiable, so they make the movie fun to watch.
But despite all this, it's a really easy film to watch, and it's very entertaining.Expect anything more than a cheesy B-movie full of schlock-horror and you're gonna hate it, but watch it to chill out and pass the time and you'll probably enjoy it..
Naturally, I thought this "sequel" would be just as entertaining, if not slightly less.Let me tell you, this had to be the worst movie I've ever seen.
The only horror coming from this movie is the acting; absolutely horrendous in every way possible.
I won't compare the movies for sake of spoilers, but the fact that the Mangler has taken a steep downhill turn of scare-factor from devil-possessed machine to computer virus should be convincing enough that the first-mentioned prevails between the two.A predictable storyline, poor acting, corny jokes, and a plethora of shallow sexual innuendos will have you racing back to your rental store for a refund.Said several times and true, "You can't do a low-budget horror film.".
Much like Wood, the world may never have seen someone get so little out of a decent film cast and budget than with Hamilton-Wright's Mangler 2.I knew the movie would suck when I rented it.
He was competing with Lance Henriksen for least interesting actor in a horror film.
nothing like a horror/teen movie to make a social statement.
*********************** SPOILERS *************************************So I thought any film that had Lance Henriksen in couldn't be THAT bad!!!
Yet all the characters are all over the place - it's obvious they haven't got a clue what their lines even are and Lance makes no attempt to bother acting.If you're gonna do a B-movie well (a la Evil Dead) then it has to be OTT but really scary at the same time.
I actually liked The Mangler 2, it is low budget and doesn't have any connection to the first film but for some reason I still enjoyed it.
One thing I liked was the plot, the whole idea of a school that has a high tech computer security system that controls the whole place malfunctioning because of a virus is pretty interesting.The film sees a girl named Joanne who's an hacker getting caught in her dad's building and being sent to her private school again where a new high tech security system is being installed by her dad's company, after a incident with the headmaster her and a few of other students who are also suspected have to stay in the school while the others go on a trip, after an argument she goes to her computer and downloads The Mangler 2.0 virus to get at everyone, the virus soon goes into the computer system and then things start to happen.
The computer watches the whole school with the cameras and begins to use the various things linked to the computer to kill people.
Soon they discover this and try to escape from the school but The Mangler 2.0 virus watches them and tries to stop them from leaving the school.The Mangler 2 is not that bad and is a pretty good film. |
tt0301322 | From Dusk Till Dawn | Fugitive bank robbers and brothers Seth and Richie Gecko are fleeing the F.B.I. and Texas police. They hold up and destroy a liquor store, killing the clerk and a Texas Ranger. Two witnesses they held hostage in the store escape during the shooting. The Geckos still hold a bank clerk hostage in the trunk of their car, whom Richie later rapes and murders.
The Fuller family—Jacob, the father and a pastor who is experiencing a crisis of faith; his son Scott; and daughter Kate—are on a vacation in their RV. They stop at a motel and are promptly kidnapped by the Geckos, who force the Fullers to smuggle them over the Mexican border. Seth and Jacob make an uneasy truce: if the Geckos can make it past the border, Jacob and his family will come out of the ordeal unharmed. They arrive at the "Titty Twister", a strip club in the middle of a desolate part of Mexico, where the Geckos will be met by their contact, Carlos, at dawn. The Geckos demand that the Fullers have a drink with them before leaving, despite Kate's obvious discomfort.
Soon after entering the club, chaos ensues as the employees and strippers are all revealed to be vampires. Most of the patrons are quickly killed, and Richie is bitten by the star stripper, Santanico Pandemonium, and bleeds to death. Only Seth, Jacob, Kate, Scott, a biker named Sex Machine, and Frost—a Vietnam War veteran—survive the attack. The slain patrons, including Richie, then come back to life as vampires, forcing Seth to kill his own brother.
During this second struggle, one of the vampires bites Sex Machine in the arm. Subsequently, Sex Machine changes into a vampire and bites Frost and Jacob before Frost throws Sex Machine through the door, which allows an army of vampires to enter as bats from the outside. Seth and the Fullers desperately escape to a back storeroom and fashion anti-vampire weapons from items found therein, including a pneumatic drill, crossbow, shotgun, and holy water, which requires Jacob to recover his faith to bless. Jacob, knowing he will soon turn into a vampire, makes a reluctant Scott and Kate promise to kill him when he changes.
The four make their final assault on the undead. Jacob changes, but Scott hesitates to dispatch his father, allowing Jacob to bite Scott. Scott hits Jacob with holy water and shoots him. Scott is captured by several vampires who begin to devour him. Begging for death, Scott is shot by Kate. Only Seth and Kate survive, surrounded by vampires. Just as they contemplate suicide, streams of sunlight shine through new holes in the walls, making the vampires back away. Dawn has come, and Carlos is trying to shoot his way in. On Seth's call, Carlos' bodyguards blast open the door, letting in full sunlight and killing every vampire inside. Carlos admits that he had never entered the club, but that he had thought it looked like "a fun place".
Kate asks Seth if she can go with him to El Rey, Mexico, but he declines, saying, "I may be a bastard, but I'm not a fucking bastard." They go their separate ways after Seth gives Kate some cash. As they leave, it is revealed that the "Titty Twister" structure was actually the top of a partially buried ancient Aztec temple, presumably the home of vampires for centuries, and that hundreds of vehicles have been toppled down the side of the cliff. | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | What a waste. Ok this game was a game that never should have been made in the first place. The mere thought of the plot for this is ridiculous, and the graphics are so crappy that it hurts ones eyes just to watch it. Also, Seth has never sounded so gay in his life. There was a reason Clooney only did one of these, and they should have stayed with it. Why not make a game out of the first film??? THE ONLY GOOD ONE!?!?! I give this game a 1 out of 10. The sound is bad, the enemies are moronic and the graphics are so bad, that every character has a line through there the middle of the face. Also, why the hell did it take this thing so long to come out??? This is something I would expect from Playstation not the PC.This is Marcus saying keep away from this travesty of the PC.. I enjoyed this game and beat it. This was hard?!. OK, so the controls were a bit crappy which made it kinda hard but there were many funny one liners from Seth and some of the other people you met. The head vampires voice was a bit annoying but why should evil sound normal.Would love to see Clooney come back as Seth and finish that group of vampires once and for all and totally raid the temple at the end of the movie but oh well.If you were to continue with another game what kind of story lines do you think you could come up with that might make the next game better? I have some ideas but please feel free to share yours.. The Start To A Franchise.. A good start to a franchise. Exciting with all the requisite gore and sex. The other 2 sequels should not be remade. They were hastily and poorly remade. |
tt1386697 | Suicide Squad | In the aftermath of Superman's death, intelligence officer Amanda Waller assembles Task Force X, a team of dangerous criminals imprisoned at Belle Reve Prison consisting of elite hitman Deadshot, former psychiatrist Harley Quinn, pyrokinetic ex-gangster El Diablo, opportunistic thief Captain Boomerang, genetic mutation Killer Croc, and specialized assassin Slipknot. They are placed under command of Colonel Rick Flag to be used as disposable assets in high-risk missions for the United States government. Each member has a nano bomb implanted in their neck, designed to detonate should any member rebel or try to escape.
One of Waller's intended recruits is Flag's girlfriend Dr. June Moone, an archaeologist possessed by a witch-goddess known as the "Enchantress". Enchantress quickly turns on Waller, deciding to eradicate humankind with a mystical weapon for imprisoning her. She besieges Midway City by transforming its populace into a horde of monsters, and summons her brother Incubus to assist her. Waller then deploys the squad to extract a high-profile mark from Midway, which is reported to be under a terrorist attack.
Harley's homicidal lover, the Joker, finds out about her predicament and tortures Belle Reve Security Officer Griggs into leading him to the facility where the nano bombs are made. There, he blackmails Dr. Van Criss into disabling Harley's bomb. On approach, the squad's helicopter is shot down, forcing them to proceed on foot to their target. Boomerang inaccurately convinces Slipknot that the bombs are a ruse to keep them in check; Slipknot attempts to escape and Flag kills him via his nano bomb, while the squad is attacked by Enchantress' minions. They eventually fight their way through to a safe room, where they learn that their mark is Waller herself, who is attempting to cover up her involvement in Enchantress' siege.
The squad escorts Waller to a rooftop for extraction, but the arriving helicopter has been hijacked by the Joker and his men, who open fire on the squad while Harley climbs aboard upon Dr. Van Criss disarming the bomb. However, Waller's men shoot down the helicopter, and Harley falls out while the Joker is presumed dead, after which Harley rejoins the squad. Alerted to Waller's whereabouts, Enchantress' minions arrive and kidnap her. Deadshot finds Waller's confidential files and learns the truth about Enchantress. Flag is then forced to confess the truth, causing the squad members to abandon him. With Waller compromised, Flag relieves the squad of the mission, but chooses to continue. Realizing they have an opportunity to prove themselves, they soon rejoin him and locate Enchantress at a partially-flooded subway station. Killer Croc and a group of Navy SEALs, led by Lieutenant GQ Edwards, go underwater to plant a bomb underneath Incubus. El Diablo embraces his abilities and distracts Incubus long enough for the bomb to detonate underneath, killing them both as well as Edwards.
The remaining squad members battle Enchantress together, but are ultimately defeated. Enchantress offers to fulfill their deepest desires in exchange for their allegiance, and Harley feigns interest in order to get close enough to cut out Enchantress' heart. Killer Croc then throws explosives into Enchantress' weapon and Deadshot shoots them, destroying the device. Flag takes Enchantress' heart and crushes it, finally freeing June from the curse. Waller, still alive, emerges, and the squad members are returned to Belle Reve with ten years off their sentences. All but Captain Boomerang are allowed special privileges. The Joker, alive and unscathed, breaks into the penitentiary and rescues Harley. In a mid-credits scene, Waller meets with Bruce Wayne, who agrees to protect her from the backlash against her role in Enchantress' rampage in exchange for access to the government's files on the expanding metahuman community. | comedy, murder, violence, flashback, insanity, psychedelic, humor, romantic, revenge, sadist | train | wikipedia | null |
tt2279864 | Clear History | In 2003, bearded, long-haired Nathan Flomm (Larry David) is an opinionated, obnoxious business associate of Will Haney (Jon Hamm), whose company in San Jose, California is about to introduce a new electric car. Flomm objects to the car being named "the Howard" after Haney’s son, who is himself named after Howard Roark, hero of The Fountainhead. After Flomm accepts a severance package to cut ties with the company, he becomes a ridiculed public figure when the Howard is a huge success, costing Flomm what would have been his share — a billion dollars.
Ten years later, a balding, clean-shaven Flomm has changed his name to Rolly DaVore and moved to Martha's Vineyard, beginning a new life and making new acquaintances. They include a new best friend (Frank), a now former lover (Wendy), and a local building contractor (Mr. McKenzie).
Frank takes Flomm (a.k.a. Rolly) to a surprise birthday party where he punches Jaspar, the only African-American, after a loud welcome by Rolly's friends surprises him. Flomm ruins Jaspar's budding romance with Jennifer (Eva Mendes), a formerly heavy-set woman, when he advises her to date other men before settling. Jaspar concludes Flomm is a racist. When learning rock band Chicago is returning to the Vineyard for the first time in 20 years, Flomm hears a rumor that Wendy had sex with multiple members of the band after that concert. He is upset that everyone seems to know about this but him.
Haney, now a wealthy mogul, arrives on the island with wife Rhonda (Kate Hudson) and begins building an ostentatious mansion on the site of "Blue Heron," the former Stumpo family home. Flomm is relieved that Haney doesn't recognize him, but can't bear to remain on the island. However, inspired by the movie The Fountainhead, Flomm becomes determined to gain revenge for his lost billion dollars by blowing up Haney's mansion. Frank introduces him to explosives expert Joe Stumpo (Michael Keaton) and Stumpo's friend Rags (Bill Hader). He then persuades McKenzie, the construction foreman, to let him be part of the crew.
Stumpo needs a detonator. Flomm meets with Tibor, a Chechen criminal, and pays him $1,000. While driving away, Flomm has a fender-bender with Tibor's new car (a Howard). Tibor demands Flomm pay for the damage. Jaspar discovers Flomm's true identity and warns if Jennifer dates another man he will make Flomm's identity known. Jennifer takes up with Tibor. Flomm worms his way into a close friendship with Haney's wife Rhonda, pretending to know about architecture and engineering. Flomm lies to Tibor that Jennifer had performed oral sex on members of the band Chicago.
Flomm concludes from Rhonda's attentions that she is attracted to him, which will now be his revenge, rather than blowing up the Haneys' new house. During a heated argument over who should move their car, Flomm mistakes her passion and kisses her. Rhonda is repulsed, asking: "Are you crazy?"
Flomm proceeds with the plotted destruction of the house, to occur during Chicago's concert performance, when no one will be home. The band tells Flomm that two of them did indeed receive oral sex from Wendy on their previous visit. Jaspar becomes furious at seeing Jennifer with Tibor and informs the local newspaper of Rolly's true identity. Haney turns up at the concert and shocks Flomm by embracing him, saying he's been trying to locate him for years. He wants to pay Flomm the billion dollars, feeling guilty over their falling out. Flomm is elated, but now must stop Stumpo and Rags from destroying the mansion, which, it turns out, is being built for the benefit of sick and underprivileged children. Flomm arrives too late. The house explodes just as a bus filled with children arrives.
The three end up serving three years in prison. Bearded and shaggy-haired again after his release, Flomm returns to Martha's Vineyard, reunites with Frank and runs into Jennifer, who is overweight again. They decide to go on a date. Flomm, after a haircut and shave, is welcomed back by his poker buddies. One refers to Haney and Rhonda having gone back to California. Wendy has inherited millions of dollars from an elderly woman. The friends thank Flomm for destroying the ugly mansion. They say the Chicago concert was great and that everybody had a great time, including the band, as Flomm learns to his horror, Jennifer did perform fellatio on band members this time. | revenge | train | wikipedia | Clear History is like an extended episode of L.D.'s Curb Your Enthusiasm, it has the same spirit, the same jokes, but yet it works.
Clear History centers on Nathan Flomm (L.D.), a marketing executive, who works for and is also a partner with Will Haney (Jon Hamm); they're working on an idea of a revolutionary electric car, but when the name of the car becomes an issue for Nathan, they part their ways.
One day (after 10 years) a well known face shows up in town (Will Haney), and leaves Nathan no option but to plot revenge.Any "Curb Your Enthusiasm" fan won't be disappointed with what "Clear History" has to offers, and anybody else who watches the movie will enjoy it too, cuz the movie is funny, the jokes hit the mark, the story is simple (it's easy to follow it), the ensemble cast dances with L.D's tune and also the soundtrack (mostly supplied by Chicago's discography) make it a "Clear Triumph".
It's very much like an extended episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm with the same sort of quirky observational humor and dependence on Larry's obsessions with the minutia of every day life.
Larry David (unrecognizable at first) plays an obnoxious man involved in a start up electric car company.
Jon Hamm plays the company's boss.Standouts in the cast include the always funny Eva Mendez, the not often seen enough Michael Keaton, and the surprisingly hilarious Liev Schreiber doing a Chechen character.
They are all so good in comedy.Attractive setting in Martha's Vineyard.Hope HBO starts making more excellent movie length comedies like this one..
Despite some funny moments & an ensemble to die for, this Larry David comedy doesn't really bring out the hilarity one might expect from it.'Clear History' Synopsis: A disgraced former marketing executive plots revenge against his former boss, who made billions from the electric car company they started.'Clear History' clearly lacks wit & top humour.
If you are a Curb Your Enthusiasm fan as I am, you will like this movie.
I absolutely love Larry David (hilarious) and Jon Hamm (a feast for your eyes) - and this was definitely an interesting match up.
It is nice to see Jon Hamm outside of Mad Men, and Larry David in movies.
I found the Larry David's character to be very "Curb Your Enthusiasm" - which I find real, honest, and relateable.
If you're looking for a light-hearted laugh fest (and you're a Larry David and Jon Hamm fan)...
Cast was really good, but this would have worked better as a movie version of "Curb." It just doesn't work when Larry plays his "Curb" character, which he clearly did in this movie, without the "Curb" treatment and texture.
If you like Seinfeld & Curb Your Enthusiasm you will love this movie.
Overall, if you like Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm you will love this movie.
Not everyone is a raving fan of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." The show is often like watching a root- canal procedure as Larry David's character plunges himself into one unnecessary, painfully embarrassing situation after another.
You can understand why people like Rolly, the name of the hard-luck case Larry David plays here.
The crush Rolly develops on Kate Hudson's character is also believable and funny, especially the way it (of course) comes crashing down around him.The cast is terrific.
I suppose you could say the show "Clear History" was an extended episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" , but without as many laughs , and you'd be right.
I enjoy "Curb" ' was a big Seinfeld fan , but to watch a Larry David joke go for over 90 minutes , or however long it went was a bit too much.
A fun & entertaining movie with the genius of Larry David.
I will be the first to admit that it shines with the humor of Larry David but I wish people would stop saying it is another episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm".
Of course the humor of Larry David runs from start to finish but that is what makes it entertaining.
Just like every Abbott & Costello movie ran true to their humor so does other projects by Larry David.
"Curb You Enthusiasm" is perhaps the best comedy television show ever made and running neck and neck wit Seinfeld which is also reflecting the genius of Larry David.
Nonetheless, you will get some good chuckles from "Clear History" and come away feeling quite content with both the story and the characters!.
Now, later today, I review Clear History, a terrific comedy of errors that relies completely on dialog and situations that work against its lead character in every possible way.
It's depressing, cruel, and undoubtedly self-deprecating, but you simply can't look away.I've said it several people and have published it many times, but I'll say it reiterate my point that Larry David's program Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is now on hiatus after eight seasons, is a work of television brilliance and quite possibly the funniest comedy ever to hit television.
I can't tell you after how many episodes of the show I argued with myself over what option in a specific situation was better.Clear History has been called the unofficial Curb Your Enthusiasm movie and that is a fair and accurate summation.
It possesses the same tone as the program, which is often self-deprecating and personal, it has some of the same actors, the same naturalistic way of filming, the beautiful Italian score, and the countless number of situations that do not work out in the lead characters' favor.
David stars as Nathan Flomm, a marketing agent for Electron Motors, a renowned car company, who decides to give up his ten-percent share in the company when the owner Will Haney (Jon Hamm) unleashes a new model car he does not agree with.
This allows for "Rolly" to hatch a plan, which is more asinine than anything he has ever come up with.The film works because it relies on its characters and, like Curb Your Enthusiasm, the idea that a character has to partake in something he doesn't want to and winds up being humiliated in every setup.
This irony, combined with David's familiar but instantly lovable character who has to make a comment about trivial things like shampooing once a week, the lack of eye-level outlets, how silverware can not be placed on a table that has just been wiped-down with a rag, and how there can't be a "tat" when there was no "tit" is precisely why the film is so engaging and entertaining.
These ridiculous setups provide for hilarity and nonstop fun, which is what the film is all around.Fueled by a tremendous cast featuring comedy greats such as Danny McBride, Bill Hader, and Curb's underrated but quick-witted J.B. Smoove, this is as close-to-home as an unrelated film on the series you could get.
I was heartbroken at the fact that season nine of Curb Your Enthusiasm was not even in Larry David's sight, but the fact that we got a genuinely entertaining, uproariously funny film in place of the season is more than enough.
This is one of the funniest comedies - and possibly one of the strongest films - of the year.NOTE: Clear History will air throughout the remainder of August and September on HBO.Starring: Larry David, Bill Hader, Philip Baker Hall, Jon Hamm, Kate Hudson, Michael Keaton, Danny McBride, Eva Mendes, Amy Ryan, and J.B. Smoove.
If Larry David wanted to make something EXACTLY like Curb Your Enthusiasm, why not just make another season of Curb Your Enthusiasm?
I was initially upset when I heard that Larry David was going to skip another season of Curb Your Enthusiasm to do a made-for-TV move.
David's decision to take himself and much of his cast out of the familiar Curb Your Enthusiasm environment, and place them into a parody of one of Ayn Rand's best known and most controversial novels, was an excellent one.The casting of this movie is terrific, and each member of the cast has moments of brilliance.
For example, check out Kate Hudson's reaction when Larry David kisses her, or Michael Keaton's just-a-slight-hint-of-Beetlejuice performance as a mad bomber.
I'm no actor, but it looks like it takes a special talent to ad lib, particularly through a Larry David comedy.
And David has assembled an exceptionally talented group of actors who can roll with his punches and make it look easy and fun to watch.Most of the Ayn Rand parodies I've seen have been ham-fisted and humorless, but Clear History's parody is light, intelligent and entertaining.
Oh, come on: I know Ayn Rand wouldn't approve, but...it's funny!) Whether Larry David's develops season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, another made-for-TV movie, or some other project, I'll be eagerly awaiting his next move..
Larry David is back basically playing his character from Curb Your Enthusiam in a new HBO movie.
What he doesn't know is that Will has good intentions.As in Curb, Rolly complains about the simplest of things and JB Smoove is back with Larry.
The PR manager Nathan Flomm (Larry David) refuses to market the car due to the name and sells back his 10% of the company.
Will shows up having bought a large property but he doesn't recognize Nathan.I don't watch Curb although I know Larry David's character.
Kate Hudson is delightful as an upper-class wife not immune to the simpler charms of life on Martha's Vineyard as lived by the year-round residents who make up the bulk of the film's cast of characters.
Those claimming it is an extended "CYE" episode are very wrong in my opinion because whereas "Curb" is absolutely hilarious and guffaw inducing this movie is very much devoid of big laughs.
If you need to watch a better feature film with LD, check out "Whatever Works" directed by Woody Allen.
A lot of people may or will feel like the movie is an extension of another 'Curb Your Enthusiasm.' But with so many more amazing actors & actresses added into the mix and the talent level of all of them along with the the myth himself, Larry the Legend.
And people were doing good parts with their given roles and characters, just a shame that Michael Keaton and Bill Hader weren't given more time on the screen, because their characters really had potential for something funny.While "Clear History" isn't the kind of comedy that will have you laying flat from laughing, then the comedy and humor in the movie was well placed and worked out nicely.
Even so, "Clear History" is a very funny movie.
Basically, Larry David is no great comedian, but he can be funny when he tries.
Yes it is worth watching, but it is basically the same thing as a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode.
If that sounds good to you, then watch it.Danny McBride and Larry David was promising.
This movie did have some funny parts, and good old Larry David is always funny.
But, this movie doesn't deserve a 10 because, just like in Curb, things go a little TOO wrong for Larry.
I really wish Larry David would be in more stories where he can be funny throughout those backfiring moments, but still find some happiness somewhere.
I'm still optimistic that Larry David could deliver one way or another, but the more I watch him perform in anything, the less I expect.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against Jewish-American comedy, because I'm sure some who reads this may think that since I'm mentioning Seinfeld in one sentence with Larry David, is because they're both Jewish-American.
Disappointing, considering how much comedic talent (Bill Hader, Danny McBride, Jon Hamm) and famous people (Michael Keaton, Amy Ryan, Eva Mendes, Kate Hudson) are in this.
Like a longer episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
I do watch Curb Your Enthusiasm and think it's a funny but crazy show.
If I had done that I might have understood that this is a movie very much featuring Larry Davids mind and ideas.
It is like a long episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm with a similar kind of plot.
Just like Larry in Curb Your Enthusiasm.
It is a funny movie but I think some may think it's a bit too much like Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Although he plays an different character, Larry David isn't an actor.
The actors are a mixture of old people who seem like David's real life buddies from his favorite lunchroom and a group of Hollywood's elite like Kate Hudson, Eva Mendes, Jon Hamm, Bill Hader and the always brilliant Philip Baker Hall.
Larry David does what he does best and Constanza style he executes his petty revenge on Jon Hamm.
If Larry David would write an actual movie plot in stead of an TV episode he could be the next Woody Allen..
I looked forward to this movie having watched every episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm and never laughed more.
What a let down, he should have played it as a different character because what makes Larry David funny in CYE is that he is comfortable in the world of wealth and leisure where things annoy him.
This is not a half-hour episode of quick jokes in an imagined environment whose history we well know, such as Curb or Seinfeld....this is a full length movie and the non- sequiturs start to add up very quickly.
Nothing grates like seeing real movie stars giving performances worthy of bad community theater often too serious and too "funny" at the same time.
I am a huge fan of curb your enthusiasm, and have seen all the seasons and episodes, and also Larry David's Sour Grapes which was decent.
This was an attempt of Larry applying the same kind of humor and jokes we see in Curb, to a full length movie, but like others said, the Characters are completely wooden and you could care less what happened to them.
As much as I admire Curb Your Enthusiasm, Clear History is funnier.
For one thing, it moves like lighting, with a season's worth of Curb's big moments, one after the other and all part of a logical plot.
Instead of loose improv, each is a tight comedic scene with sharp dialog (by David, Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer, his old Seinfeld brain trust) delivered by a stellar supporting cast: Jon Hamm, Kate Hudson, Danny McBride, J.B. Smoove, Eva Mendes, Philip Baker Hall, an unrecognizable Michael Keaton as Joe Stumpo, an unbilled Liev Schreiber as a scary Chechen...and an unfortunately underutilized Bill Hader.One classic line comes when Larry's Nathan Flomm tries to undo his rash resignation, arguing that the act of apology is sufficient and whether he really means it is irrelevant.
It makes as much sense as the meta-Larry on Curb having friends.The writing is fiendishly clever; what seem like simple jokes turn out to reveal character and propel the plot: I laughed out loud when The Fountainhead came Rolly's TV halfway through - inspiring Rolly's revenge plot.
It looked like Jon Hamm's naming both his kid and his car after Howard Roark was finally going to bite him in the ass.
A few twists later, we learn Hamm's character has repented his Ayn Rand ways and David's Nathan/Rolly is undone by his own pride -- Clear History is like the farce version of Breaking Bad. But the Fountainhead scene was when I decided this film is Larry David's The Bank Dick.The fight on the road with Kate Hudson, building to a perfect reversal of expectations - and then the most hilariously mean use of a motorcycle accident in any comedy - suffice it to say, I found this the funniest movie of 2013, even though it wasn't in a theater..
Didn't do them justice at all.Clear History was a 50/50 for me as I like watching Larry David because only he can bring a perspective to a character that you can 'get' every now and then, even if his character makes stupid decisions or makes stupid moves.
Nathan (Larry David) works for Electron Motors, an up and coming electric car company.
On screen, Larry David's luck sucks, this is clear.
In "Curb," as many fans call it (myself being one of them), Larry David plays himself.
That is what I thought, at least, until I saw Clear History where David, again, plays a person much like himself who has a knack to get stuck in unfortunate events.Clear History is a story of a disgraced former marketing guru, Nathan, (David) who plots to get revenge on his boss, Will (Jon Hamm).
Will does not recognize Nathan because he is no longer bearded (like above) but looks like classic Larry David.
No one really liked the monstrosity of a house Will had built.Overall, Clear History is worth a watch.
If you have seen any of Curb Your Enthusiam, you know David's character in this film.
How does Larry David come up with this (add Michael Keaton ) expletive here.
Clear History is by far Kate Hudson 's best role ever, Larry David nailed her character on the head.
I love "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and I'm a little disappointed we may never see another season...however, the geniuses behind that series brings us the HBO movie "Clear History." While it's possible it could annoy some viewers as the film very much has the feel of "Curb" and--actually, let's just be honest here, the movie is just a long episode of the show as it even includes the same music and the same humor style; the only thing it lacks is the actors aren't playing characterized versions of themselves.
Actors like Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Bill Hader and Danny McBride are all here and do a great job but ultimately left me wanting more and filled me with a desire to see them make more funny moments."Clear History" isn't blasting into new territory of comedy like "Curb" did when it first started but, despite its problems, I still really enjoyed it and found it amusing. |
tt0189575 | The Hidan of Maukbeiangjow | Kaspar (Ele Grigsby) is partnered with Detective Sam Trowel (Hugh Smith). he locates the hideout of a kidnapping and drug ring that Trowel has been unable to find because he is too focused on procedures. Trowel hires safecracker Frederick Fenzer (David Roster) and his bodyguard, Noname (Harlo Cayse), as phoney suppliers to set up Ruthie (Carla Rueckert) to be kidnapped by the ring. She is supposed to wear a tracking device in her bra, but she's taken before she can put it on. Fortunately, Kaspar already knows where the hideout is.
At the compound, named the 'Hidan of Maukbeiangjow', Ruthie is killed and replaced with a confused alien. This is supervised by the sorcerer Aph (Charles Rubin), who is a slave to an evil alien named Utaya (McCain Jeeves). Aph accidentally led Utaya to Earth. Another human looking alien (Pepper Thurston), teaches the replacement Ruthie how to function in her new body. She also kidnaps Trowel so his body could to be used by Utaya.
Freddie's brother "Junior" (Paul Lenzi) shows up to deliver his brother's stash of marijuana and give Aph's apprentice, Prudence (Elizabeth Rush), a hard time. Prudence and Kaspar end up bound together by the alien Ruthie.
Utaya wants Fenzer's help in stealing a billion dollars. He also wants Kaspar's body ready as a back-up vessel, since the dead are usually vapid and confused or become zombies. Junior attempts to catch and rape Prudence, but she shoots him after a lengthy chase. Freddie complains that Utaya is simply Trowel high on junk, and puffing his joint complains, "I don't work with nobody (puff) who ain't straight!" Trowel/Utaya is killed in battle, as are most of the kidnapping ring. Meanwhile, romance has blossomed between Prudence and Kaspar, so Aph gives the couple a ride in his convertible. | cult | train | wikipedia | (On the surface it looks more like Arthur Penn.) Still, it's a shame we don't see Elizabeth Rush, Ele Grigsby, or David Roster in anything else.A discussion of this film would not be complete without mentioning James DeWitt's score, although some of the suspense scenes rely on library music that tends to punch up the humor rather than suspense.
If you want to understand the work of Lee Jones, "Invasion of the Girl Snatchers" is widely considered the best place to start your studies.
Jones, with a little help from his friend Don Davison, also brought us "Shanty Town Honeymoon," "Moonshiner's Woman," and "Supervan."Incidentally, some of Jones' alternate titles are quite worthy of Drive-In Academy Awards, such as "Hillbilly Hookers," "Little Whorehouse On The Prairie," et al."Invasion" was made around the same time as William Girdler's "Three on a Meathook." In fact, "Invasion" borrows some of the "Meathook's" sets and locations.
Many members of the Louisville-based crew on "Invasion" were Girdler alumni, including Hugh Smith and Bub Asman."Invasion of the Girl Snatchers" hasn't been available on video since the late 80's, which is a crime.
_The Hidan of Maukbeiangjow_ is a fascinating film.
_The Hidan of Maukbeiangjow_ is a fascinating film.
Given the lurid title _Invasion of the Girl Snatchers_ nobody expects much, but I had the fortune of seeing the trailer, which has two guys trying to come up with a title that encompasses everything that is in the film.
Given the lurid title _Invasion of the Girl Snatchers_ nobody expects much, but I had the fortune of seeing the trailer, which has two guys trying to come up with a title that encompasses everything that is in the film.
_The Hidan of Maukbeiangjow_, which is the name of Aph's compound has an appropriate air of mystery that seems more fitting than the title we get, that never appears on the film itself.
_The Hidan of Maukbeiangjow_, which is the name of Aph's compound has an appropriate air of mystery that seems more fitting than the title we get, that never appears on the film itself.
I have seen to versions, one that I rented that had it chyroned in over synth music and cutting off the end credits, and one with the end credits and no opening title (and it wasn't cut off--it still has FBI warnings and the like), which I bought in an eBay auction.Set in a rural forested area that is simply gorgeous to behold in its natural wonder, on top of it we are given Aph's weirdly decorated mansion, which is a highlight of the film.
I have seen to versions, one that I rented that had it chyroned in over synth music and cutting off the end credits, and one with the end credits and no opening title (and it wasn't cut off--it still has FBI warnings and the like), which I bought in an eBay auction.Set in a rural forested area that is simply gorgeous to behold in its natural wonder, on top of it we are given Aph's weirdly decorated mansion, which is a highlight of the film.
Something about it is both very surreal and very seventies at the same time.The two central characters, Kaspar and Prudence, are unusually written and don't seem like halves of a couple but rather individuals.
Something about it is both very surreal and very seventies at the same time.The two central characters, Kaspar and Prudence, are unusually written and don't seem like halves of a couple but rather individuals.
She is a forthright character with an interesting fashion sense, and practices new-thought Christianity with smatterings of the occult, while Kaspar is a hippie working for a private investigator.
She is a forthright character with an interesting fashion sense, and practices new-thought Christianity with smatterings of the occult, while Kaspar is a hippie working for a private investigator.
Elizabeth Rush effortlessly imbues her character with wisdom and compassion (although the fact that she never does find help for Junior after her very strange chase scene seems a bit out of character), while Kaspar is a lovable dolt.
Elizabeth Rush effortlessly imbues her character with wisdom and compassion (although the fact that she never does find help for Junior after her very strange chase scene seems a bit out of character), while Kaspar is a lovable dolt.
You don't tend to think of hippies with redneck accents, but here one is.As you might expect simply form my descriptions of these characters, aside from the title assigned to it in 1985, nothing in this film is handled conventionally.
You don't tend to think of hippies with redneck accents, but here one is.As you might expect simply form my descriptions of these characters, aside from the title assigned to it in 1985, nothing in this film is handled conventionally.
The Prospero-like Aph rarely uses his powers on screen, and often sits bottom center in the camera frame looking on at the cockeyed plans of the two Juniors and the alien he mistakenly brought forth into the world.
The Prospero-like Aph rarely uses his powers on screen, and often sits bottom center in the camera frame looking on at the cockeyed plans of the two Juniors and the alien he mistakenly brought forth into the world.
Charles Rubin gives a deadpan, nearly emotionless performance, but actually substantially different from the totally emotionless performance of the possessed girls.Ellen Tripp as Ruthie and Ruth Horn as Rosebush give remarkably deadened performances, like that of true (Haitian) zombies rather than the movie zombies like the one played by James Rueckert in this movie that has everything.
Charles Rubin gives a deadpan, nearly emotionless performance, but actually substantially different from the totally emotionless performance of the possessed girls.Ellen Tripp as Ruthie and Ruth Horn as Rosebush give remarkably deadened performances, like that of true (Haitian) zombies rather than the movie zombies like the one played by James Rueckert in this movie that has everything.
Some of the humor with these characters is wonderful, but some goes on too long.
Some of the humor with these characters is wonderful, but some goes on too long.
The major problem is that the cramp jokes go on too long, as most of the other humor works quite well.Hugh Smith as Sam Trowel is appropriately serious, but he really doesn't change enough when he becomes Utaya, or else I'd give higher marks for his performance.
The major problem is that the cramp jokes go on too long, as most of the other humor works quite well.Hugh Smith as Sam Trowel is appropriately serious, but he really doesn't change enough when he becomes Utaya, or else I'd give higher marks for his performance.
It is certainly a serviceable one, but that aspect does not do much to impress, though Smith does have an impressive stage voice.The real dynamism comes from David Roster as Freddie, who is dumb enough to be funny but not dumb enough to be dull, like his brother, who is basically there to be his foil, as they're both juniors after all.The camerawork in the film is sometimes stiff, and the camera, except during the chase scenes is often used in a way that is too "stagy" to be effective, although many of the compositions are still impressive.
It is certainly a serviceable one, but that aspect does not do much to impress, though Smith does have an impressive stage voice.The real dynamism comes from David Roster as Freddie, who is dumb enough to be funny but not dumb enough to be dull, like his brother, who is basically there to be his foil, as they're both juniors after all.The camerawork in the film is sometimes stiff, and the camera, except during the chase scenes is often used in a way that is too "stagy" to be effective, although many of the compositions are still impressive.
Lee Jones and his crew obviously had access to a wonderful property which they often use very effectively, particularly in chase scenes.
Lee Jones and his crew obviously had access to a wonderful property which they often use very effectively, particularly in chase scenes.
The scene in which Prudence and Kaspar are in the circle of protection has one camera angle for which the film was very badly overexposed, and fortunately, this angle is used only sparingly, since they Jones did not try for any Laughton-esque uses of ill-matching lighting to demonstrate the characters being in psychologically separate worlds, which they certainly are, particularly at this point.The film is one that constantly throws out ridiculous ideas and makes them work, from the abandoned bra causing a quick circulation to the constant spoofery.
The scene in which Prudence and Kaspar are in the circle of protection has one camera angle for which the film was very badly overexposed, and fortunately, this angle is used only sparingly, since they Jones did not try for any Laughton-esque uses of ill-matching lighting to demonstrate the characters being in psychologically separate worlds, which they certainly are, particularly at this point.The film is one that constantly throws out ridiculous ideas and makes them work, from the abandoned bra causing a quick circulation to the constant spoofery.
Aside from running jokes not working, most of the off-the-wall additions to the plot are what make the film so interesting.
Aside from running jokes not working, most of the off-the-wall additions to the plot are what make the film so interesting.
"Invasion of the Girl Snatchers" just suggests a much simpler film than it is.
"Invasion of the Girl Snatchers" just suggests a much simpler film than it is.
In fact, aside from Utaya, who wants money, none of the other aliens have motivations for being there, other than simply that they were brought by either Aph or Utaya.
In fact, aside from Utaya, who wants money, none of the other aliens have motivations for being there, other than simply that they were brought by either Aph or Utaya.
They are just like people in the way they think; we never see what there bodies are truly like, nor do we care to as they aren't very interesting people as it is.
They are just like people in the way they think; we never see what there bodies are truly like, nor do we care to as they aren't very interesting people as it is.
All we need to know is they don't really know why they are here and do what Utaya says because they are hopelessly out of their environment.Little additions make the film interesting, too.
All we need to know is they don't really know why they are here and do what Utaya says because they are hopelessly out of their environment.Little additions make the film interesting, too.
A nine chambered revolver throwing off a count, an exploding tape that won't explode when it's supposed to, Rosebush drinking nitro, all go into a film that makes you wonder what the meaning of it all really is.
A nine chambered revolver throwing off a count, an exploding tape that won't explode when it's supposed to, Rosebush drinking nitro, all go into a film that makes you wonder what the meaning of it all really is.
(On the surface it looks more like Arthur Penn.) Still, it's a shame we don't see Elizabeth Rush, Ele Grigsby, or David Roster in anything else.
Apparently Lee Jones has other credits, but the IMDb doesn't list them, even if it lists films like _Supervan_ he apparently had something to do with.A discussion of this film would not be complete without mentioning James DeWitt's score, although some of the suspense scenes rely on library music that tends to punch up the humor rather than suspense.
DeWitt, who also plays the pimp in the green jacket, has clever, rapid fire lyrics that comment on the action as well as the Leonard Cohen songs in Altman's _McCabe & Mrs. Miller_, and as a result it results with odd language use and a lot of internal rhyme.
DeWitt, who also plays the pimp in the green jacket, has clever, rapid fire lyrics that comment on the action as well as the Leonard Cohen songs in Altman's _McCabe & Mrs. Miller_, and as a result it results with odd language use and a lot of internal rhyme.
The songs are a strong part of the character of the film, and question what's going on as often as they describe it "Freedom" is the main theme of a song in which a character breaks free, for example, but the opening song, which is repeated several times, could be said to represent the aliens' confusion as much as anything else.
The songs are a strong part of the character of the film, and question what's going on as often as they describe it "Freedom" is the main theme of a song in which a character breaks free, for example, but the opening song, which is repeated several times, could be said to represent the aliens' confusion as much as anything else.
It mentions such things as struggling to stay out of trouble, dealing with confusion that spreads like cancer, and the impossibility that everything can ever makes sense.
It mentions such things as struggling to stay out of trouble, dealing with confusion that spreads like cancer, and the impossibility that everything can ever makes sense.
It's certainly apt as this film's principal theme, which again makes me think of Buñuel in his deliberate attempt to make nonsensical films.
It's certainly apt as this film's principal theme, which again makes me think of Buñuel in his deliberate attempt to make nonsensical films.
It suggests the filmmakers, despite the technical glitches, more aware of what they were doing than what viewers might expect, or that they intended viewers to expect.View this film with an open mind.
It suggests the filmmakers, despite the technical glitches, more aware of what they were doing than what viewers might expect, or that they intended viewers to expect.View this film with an open mind.
You are not going to be seeing the usual fare when you sit down to watch this, neither are you seeing something truly pretentious, but you are seeing a fascinating film that does not ask you to think about it, merely to laugh, but when you do think on it, it becomes all the more interesting..
You are not going to be seeing the usual fare when you sit down to watch this, neither are you seeing something truly pretentious, but you are seeing a fascinating film that does not ask you to think about it, merely to laugh, but when you do think on it, it becomes all the more interesting..
Maybe it's erratic editing, crummy dubbing, pretentious or unintentionally stupid dialogue("This is where the fish live," from THE TOUCH OF SATAN springs to mind), cheap special effects, or (especially)overacting.
INVASION OF THE GIRL SNATCHERS really has none of these.
This low budget exercise in tedium concerns the employees of some government agency trying to run a sting operation to catch some crooks and instead running into some extraterrestrials who want to possess people's minds ala INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS .
As this film nears its conclusion(mercifully)the head E.T. guy performs some sort of Black Mass/alien induction ceremony, pausing to lift up his ceremonial robe and take a key out of his jeans pocket--one of the few unintentional flubs in the movie I could spot.
Oh, there is something to watch in lieu of a coherent plot: a blonde chick the fed guys were going to use as a decoy for the crooks gets possessed by the E.T.s about a third of the way through her time on screen.
The outer space being gets curious about the earth body it has inhabited, and for the rest of her time on screen the actress runs around topless!
The Hidan of Maukbeiangjow (1973)1/2 (out of 4) This here has one of the worst titles in film history and it's easy to see why it was changed to INVASION OF THE GIRL SNATCHERS for its VHS release, which to date is the only release it's had on home video.
The film is, I think, a spoof of various types of films from the drive-in era.
This group then runs into some female alien cult leaders (or something to that effect.
THE HIDAN OF MAUKBEIANGJOW is a really, really bad film but apparently it's gained a cult following over the years, which means you're either going to hate it or fall for it.
I will admit that it does have a certain Southern charm going for it but sadly the thing just drags on way too long and has way too many long dialogue scenes that are just downright boring and slow.
Director Lee Jones is probably best remembered for working as a producer for several films by William Girdler.
Apparently this film was shot using the same equipment and some of the same locations as Girdler's 3 ON A MEAT HOOK.
Either way, this film here just never overcomes it's low-budget nature and even a funny opening song can't save it.
In all reality the performances aren't too bad and I think Jones could have directed something.
This wonderfully wiggy, shot-in-Arkansas tongue-in-cheek regional low-budget oddity serves as a breezy, irreverent send-up of both chintzy indie Southern-fried 70's drive-in swill in general and equally cheeseball 50's sci-fi alien invasion tales in particular.
The plot itself is an elaborate deadpan put-on: Two scuzzy hoods kidnap nice-looking chicks for a gibbering religious kook magician who uses the lovely ladies' bodies as vessels for a race of evil extraterrestrials he has come in contact with.
It's as if director Lee Jones (who also handled the shaky cinematography and produced William Girdler's abysmal backwoods psycho pic "Three On A Meathook") and screenwriter Phineas T. |
tt1487118 | Chalet Girl | Kim Mathews (Felicity Jones) is introduced by a television presenter (Miquita Oliver) as a former skateboarding champion whose mother was killed in a car accident. Kim gives up skateboarding and begins working in a fast food burger bar to pay household bills to help her father (Bill Bailey).
When she and her father need more money to pay the bills, Kim goes looking for a job with better pay. Her friend recommends a job choice as a chalet girl, working in the Alps for rich clients. As she is turned down, there is a call to say that the current chalet girl broke her leg and Kim is accepted for the job at the last minute. Chalet Girl Georgie (Tamsin Egerton) is sent to help Kim out but doesn't seem to like her as she is anything but posh or glamorous and she can't ski or snowboard as she has never been to the Alps. Kim is instantly attracted to Johnny (Ed Westwick) the rich son of Richard (Bill Nighy) and Caroline (Brooke Shields), although he is in a relationship with girlfriend Chloe (Sophia Bush).
As Kim is living next to the mountains she tries to teach herself to snowboard although she finds this difficult. Mikki (Ken Duken), seeing her struggle, helps her out and teaches her to snowboard. He notices that she has a natural talent. He persuades her to try out to win a snowboarding competition to win $25,000.
Georgie begins to become friends with Kim and later finds out it is her birthday. She takes Kim to a club, where they get drunk. She persuades Kim to take the party back to where they are staying, as the family are out. Georgie, Kim, Mikki and Georgie's friend, Jules (Georgia King) are in the hot tub and they are naked. Georgie and Mikki continue to hook up.
When Kim gets out of the tub to shovel snow on herself, the family return home and see her naked. Georgie and Kim then proceed to clean the house and pay back for any damage that was done to the house. Kim continues to work on her snowboarding skills and tries to conquer her fear of the high jumps as it brings back the memory of the car crash.
Kim and Johnny become closer and at the end of a business trip with his father and some potential investors he decides to stay behind, presumably to spend more time with Kim. Johnny pays her to teach him how to snowboard, which brings them closer and after a day in the snow they kiss briefly and end up sleeping together. Bernhard (Gregor Bloéb) had spotted them earlier and had alerted Johnny's mother. The morning after their one night stand, Caroline (Johnny's mother) catches them and gives away the fact that Johnny is engaged to Chloe. Kim packs her stuff and leaves the house upset and angry that Johnny lied to her and slept with her even though he was engaged.
As she is going to leave for home, her father persuades her to stay and try and win the competition as it would have been what her mother wanted. In London, at his and Chloe's engagement party, Johnny breaks up with Chloe in front of the guests. Chloe, piecing together the facts, asks if he is in love with Kim, which he admits to. After hearing the news of their break up, Kim appears to not care about Johnny anymore.
Mikki and Kim enter the competition. Mikki fails to make the high jump and ends up breaking his arm, which takes him out of the chance of winning. Kim does well on all obstacles until she gets to the high jump; she stops as she remembers the car accident again. Although she doesn't make a place in the top 20 to be in the final, she is the first reserve having come 21st. When the finals come, world champion Tara (Tara Dakides, as herself) pulls out and gives up her chances of winning to Kim.
Kim makes all obstacles and jumps, visualizing her mother cheering her on from the crowd; she lands the jump perfectly and wins. Johnny, having come back after breaking up with Chloe, appears behind Kim and apologises; a playful conversation follows and they kiss. It then shows Johnny's mother and father are watching the show on TV and see Johnny and Kim kiss. Johnny's mother, seeing how happy her son is, gives in and agrees to accept Kim. | comedy, romantic, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0218141 | Deeply | Claire McKay (Julia Brendler)—having suffered the death of her boyfriend—is brought by her mother to Ironbound Island in the hopes that time away from the city will allow her to recover emotionally. On the island where her mother was born, Claire meets an eccentric writer, Celia (Lynn Redgrave), who in flashbacks, relates her own story as a grief-stricken teenager in 1949. Celia—Silly (Kirsten Dunst) in the flashbacks—is the next chosen victim of a Viking curse which was placed on the island centuries ago when their longship sank in the bay.
The nature of the curse is such that a "chosen one" is born every fifty years, and they are destined to die at sea in order for the fish the island depends on to continue to return. During the flashbacks Silly discovers a list of past victims, and that she is the next. However, in the end Silly is not claimed by the sea, which instead takes her lover. The narrator says something to the effect of what better alternative to taking the chosen one than to take her lover instead, leaving her to bear the pain. As Celia tells her own story of love and loss, Claire eventually undergoes a catharsis and again plays the violin that she has not touched since her own loss. The final clips of the movie show a shoal of fish, which points to the fact that the fish do indeed return to the island.
=== List of curse victims ===
The following list is found by Silly in the "fish logs" of Ironbound Island, and noted again by Claire as she finds their gravestones.
1609 January, William Fleming, 17 years, lost at sea
1659 May, Anne Bell, aged 16, drowned
1701 August, John Dunsworth, aged 16 yrs., drowned
1750 March, Eliza Coolen, aged 18 yrs., lost at sea
1799 December, Ezekiel Dempsey, 16 years, lost at sea
1849 June, James M. Kay, age 18, lost at sea
1905 October, Asaph Young, 17 years, drowned
1949 ... | suicidal, fantasy, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1439572 | Perfect Sense | An epidemic begins to spread throughout the globe, causing humankind to lose their sensory perceptions one by one. The story focuses on two people: Susan, one of a team of epidemiologists who are trying to find the causes of the disease, and Michael, a chef who works at a busy restaurant located next to Susan's flat. The two meet and get to know each other as the epidemic progresses, a relationship which soon turns to love.
Humans begin to lose their senses one at a time. Each loss is preceded by an outburst of an intense feeling or urge. First, people begin suffering uncontrollable bouts of crying and this is soon followed by the loss of their sense of smell. An outbreak of irrational panic and anxiety, closely followed by a bout of frenzied gluttony, precedes the loss of the sense of taste. The film depicts people trying to adapt to each loss and trying to carry on living as best they can, rediscovering their remaining senses as they do so. Michael and his co-workers do their best to cook food for people who cannot smell nor taste.
The loss of hearing comes next and is accompanied by an outbreak of extreme anger and rage. Michael experiences it first and is verbally abusive at Susan who flees in fear, losing her own hearing shortly afterwards. Despite her knowledge that it was the disease that caused the outburst, Susan cannot face Michael again. People struggle to adjust and to go on living. One day, every person on Earth suddenly experiences a feeling of joyful euphoria. Susan realizes she both forgives and still loves Michael and rushes to his job. The two find each other and embrace just as they, and the rest of the world, become blind. | violence | train | wikipedia | The shared affliction of this story is poetic metaphor; however, like most good art, this film is about its characters, not its literary devices.The cast's performances are not only authentic, they are illuminating; particularly Ewan McGregor's and Eva Green's central couple.
By those prerequisites, we would also be forced to give _Hamlet_ or _Citizen Kane_ one out of ten stars._Perfect Sense_ is a film whose "point" is not to make its audience comfortable or to provide the adrenaline buzz of a "thriller." Its purpose is to portray authentic human experience in an impossible situation.
Maybe that's what the movie is all about, love is the only thing that makes sense in our lives.
Wonderful idea of a world taking revenge on its inhabitants, and this movie could have been following the same theme, but it's done differently.I love the progress of the character development, especially when Michael experiences the same selfish narcissistic tendencies (or so he thinks) in his new love interest that he has portrayed in the past.
The blatant exposure of self when the loss of sensory perception shows how transparent and weak we actually are really brings a perfect sense of reality to those watching.True, the character acting is superfluous, but with the actors available, what else would you expect (I was completely ready for Eva Green to die of consumption whilst Ewan MacGregor sings an Elton John tune at the top of his lungs...
Because first, it is usually at the age of 14/15 that authors try to reveal the ultimate light of truth to humankind (as this project does), and it is again at that age that the longing to feel each other's bodies (the "perfect sense" as we realize at the end of the show after complete sensory darkness obliterates everything else) is most pungent and dismissive of anything else human experience might have brought.
i am a great fan of science fiction/fantasy/apocalyptic movie types ,even if there is a love theme running through the script, but this was just a complete waste of time and money.I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone and i know personally i will never sit down to watch it again.I even heard other cinema goers on the night i seen it verbally abusing it as they left...
It's about a virus that takes senses away, but it's not about it at all, it's about making sense of why we exist, love, feelings, emotions, connections.Believe me, it will change you, change the way you live life, it will make you think, it will definitely make an impact.
She's a very talented actress and I have yet seen her in something I disliked..this movie was very artistic and poetic in its picture and frightening in the sense that what if something like this was to ever happen..although it was a complicated love story it was beautifully portrayed in the mist of a horrifying epidemic and chaos..the plot was intriguing and left you questioning life in itself and how we take the simplest things for granted..
The main idea is the same, though, and just as lacking satisfaction for people like me, who want to see themselves in the characters and actually be able to change something.Bottom line: my wife liked the movie, she resonated with the deep feelings evoked in the film; I saw no point in watching some folks doing nothing but floating in the current until they crashed, doing nothing but admiring the water and feeling alive for some reason.
Perfect Sense (2011)Take a whole new end of the world idea, one that's preposterous and chilling, and layer a naturally "perfect" romance into it, and you have this ambitious, lovely movie.
That is, he's not doing indie movies (yet), but he sometimes moves through a less obvious zone of really compelling projects with high production values, like "Trainspotting," "Moulin Rouge!," and "Cassandra's Dream." So he has a likable (some would say lovable) quality here as a regular guy, a serious chef who's selfish in relationships.Until he meets, by chance, the other lead, Eva Green, who is distant and reluctant and gradually won over by this sweetness of this man.
Perfect Sense is another global pandemic movie, coming in on the heels of Contagion, and tries to set itself apart by presenting the pandemic as a backdrop for a romance between Ewan McGregor and Eva Green.
As such, it obviously requires us to gather a stake in their relationship or at least them individually, so that we care about them in order to care about the state of the world.The film overall presents some interesting themes about what can happen to mankind when they start to lose their basic senses (as each shuts off one at a time, for some reason), but the problem for me was that I couldn't care about these two characters at the front of it all.
Of all the global outbreak and/or apocalyptic movies out there, "Perfect Sense" takes the cake for most unique premise: an epidemic with seemingly no scientific basis begins to rob people of their senses one sense at a time.
He's terrific at lapping up the chemistry between stars Ewan McGregor and Eva Green and creating some stirring moments in what's an otherwise quiet film, but the odd nature of the epidemic is almost too much to overcome.The loss of each sense is preceded by some kind of an emotional episode, which is unusually and maybe even refreshingly poetic considering other sci-fi films centered on epidemics, but it takes awhile to get comfortable with the idea.
Considering the soft, string- dominated tone of almost the entire film, this is like a scene out of a ridiculous B horror movie.As you might be able to deduce, "Perfect Sense" is at its best when it focuses on McGregor and Green.
An epidemiologist and a chef who discover each other in the early days of the epidemic, their lives are personally and professionally impacted by the loss of the senses (and in Green's character Susan's case, that there appears to be no way of understanding or stopping it).
The arc of their relationship feels abbreviated and considering the complexity displayed in McGregor and Green's chemistry, their highs and lows should probably be a bit more developed and complete.Even if an entire movie wasn't necessarily needed to make the point, "Perfect Sense" still deserves credit for raising the question of how essential our sense are in leading happy lives and feeling love.
It's a great discussion topic and one you can't blame Aakeson for wanting to discover.So even though the sci-fi context ends up being distracting and is a bit mishandled in certain instances when it comes to preserving the film's tone, there's enough to merit the attempt at this genre-hybrid exercise, if for nothing else than a couple moving romantic performances and some food ...
In the middle of this unusual pandemic is Susan (Eva Green), a scientist researching it to find a cure and Michael (Ewan McGregor), a chef in Glasgow who cannot cook effectively without his sense of smell.
Both of them have their own baggage and they start to fall in love, all while humanity begins losing more senses—the characteristics that make us human.Perfect Sense is a terrifically acted movie and has a wonderful, haunting score.
It is easily one of the best performances of McGregor's career.Perfect Sense is a love story set in the foreground of the end of the world, but it is also about humanity's need to seek an equilibrium, to develop a new balance when something has changed.
Some people would give up life and just run amok, but most want to carry on with their lives and adapt to changing circumstances.There is a simple but clever idea behind Perfect Sense: how would we react to the loss of something we all take for granted?
But there are moments of artistic flair when deafness hits and all that can be heard is an unpleasant ringing sound—the world did feel like it had descended into silence.Perfect Sense is certainly worthy viewing, but because of its more intimate tone and approach, it is more fitting for the small screen.Please visit www.playeraffinity.com.
As they lose each sense, people experience an emotional outburst of some kind.This movie is trying to take the apocalyptic scenario to a more poetic landscape.
David Mackenzie, who I knew only for his quite unpretentious half-drama- half-comedy "Spread" with Ashton Kutcher, directed a wonderful movie showing apocalyptic world and how each of us would act if we started to lose that nature's invaluable gift – five senses.
The main attraction for me to this film was Eva Green, I'm always curious to see what projects she takes on, she always seems to go for strange, offbeat and slightly strange roles, and this is no exception, she's one of those actresses that will always be one step away from the a list because of her role choices, but that's the thing u like about her, she's not a sellout, and also we have Ewan Mcgregor, who is also basically the male counterpart of Ms Green, he's an effortless actor who always impresses.
The film itself is a strange one, it's kins of got two story lines, one is the story of the world losing all the senses, one by one the epidemic overtakes the world, combined with this is the love story between a chef and a medical researcher and the way their romance copes with this epidemic.
The acting is great, Ewan and Eva are the main part of the film, you don't really notice anyone else as they are in every scene, the cold and almost apocalyptic feel of the world crumbling is also a great feel to have for this kind of story.
Also worth mentioning are the scenes when mass amounts of people lose a sense, they react in a feral like way which is highly effective in the message its trying to put across.All in all I would say that Perfect Sense is a good film, albeit far from amazing, it's still better than a lot of other films out there.
Soap apparently tastes delicious, but it will still burn like hell when it gets in your eyes.The movie was entertaining, even If Eva Green let the world know she is not shy about her body at all..
A research scientist (Eva Green) and a chef (Ewan McGregor) meet, fall in love and are then faced with the dire adversity of the world's situation.
Having only just recently watched the thematically similar, brilliant 'Blindness', I was not expecting Perfect Sense to have any sort of impact on me but good Zeus, it truly left me in jaw-dropping awe.The bleak premise, the harrowing fear, the scorching anger are all eggshells on humanity's rotting floor -- but they don't come alone.
In delicate balance, there is always hope tiptoeing around them, hope and the drive to move forward, maybe on instinct or feigned ignorance perhaps, but it's there, the need to not just survive but experience and live until life is no more.An eroding world which could have surrendered in anarchy chooses to keep up the fight in structure, instead striving to clad itself with some semblance of normalcy through a bull- willed grip to the familiarity of old habits.Ultimately, humanity ends in comfort.Bearing in mind I don't usually go for melodrama -and through the emotive use of music and sound/color play this often borders on beautiful depression- it somehow connected to my every point, and to my every level Perfect Sense made just that; perfect sense..
I've become so used to Hollywood showing us disaster movies on epic proportions and utilising millions of dollars worth of special effects, that I seriously doubted a film about the end of the world using absolutely no shots of the Golden Gate bridge collapsing on itself or the White House being blown up by mutants could actually worked.I was wrong.Perfect Sense gives us an apocalyptic vision through the eyes of a pretty ordinary couple (if Ewan McGregor and Eva Green are your average Glasgow residents) and through the use of montages.
He and Eva Green do an excellent job together with the material -which I would think would require some serious trust in your director as they suddenly lose each of their 5 senses and eat lipstick, mustard, soap and whole raw fish between moments of violence, sadness and several love scenes.
In 2008, Blindness succeeded in showing what will happen when a destructive virus (or bacterium) causes global blindness rapidly.Perfect Sense, however, with Ewan McGregor as Michael and Eva Green as Susan (and an excellent supporting cast), provides a more complete picture (no pun intended), showing what would happen if humanity gradually lost all of its senses: smell, taste, hearing, speaking, seeing and, finally, feeling/touching.
This film is about a chef and an epidemiologist in Scotland, amidst a backdrop of a mysterious disease that robs people of their senses."Perfect Sense" tells the story of a strange disease that makes people sad, then losing the sense of smell.
They start to lose their senses.I like this movie.
Yes nicely made with filming and cast all that but absolutely awful film With all the rest no logic no sense and disturbing , the writer must have tried so hard not to shoot himself making this make believe end of the world but seemingly wannabe we can do better even if we lost something original concept.
If you want to see her boob go see the film Yes nicely made with filming and cast all that but absolutely awful film With all the rest no logic no sense and disturbing , the writer must have tried so hard not to shoot himself making this make believe end of the world but seemingly wannabe we can do better even if we lost something original concept.
It even gave the movie a sense of realism, which is also thanks to its well written characters and actors playing them.Ewan McGregor and Eva Green are a convincing young couple and they play well off each other.
As the story mainly focuses on these two there aren't a whole lot of periphery characters (Connie Britton and Stephen Dillane offer some support) to take plot-time away from McGregor and Green -- which is a good thing.As the title works on many different levels, I think there are a few ways at looking at this film -- I look at it positively with the beauty the story offers (its may be grim at times ...
Perfect Sense – CATCH IT (B-) A Perfect Sense is a very unusual human apocalyptic British movie about a chef and scientist falling in love when the whole world becomes a victim of epidemic, in which they start losing their sensory sense one by one.
While the movie does make some interesting points about the importance of our senses, and maybe lack of importance in terms of relationships, the main theme is purely a basic love story, and I believe that's been done before...Good performances by Ewan McGregor and Eva Green in the lead roles.
Reading the description of this movie, I felt like it would be a boring traditional end of the world romance.
Disaster movies, being such formatted, are rarely convincing, however Perfect Sense arouse curiosity at first glance with its high potential premise.If seeing the population adapt to the problem that's been put it front of it is interesting — sparkled with some well thought-out touches of quirky humour —, one doesn't feel a lot of emotions towards the developing romance despite the obvious chemistry between Ewan McGregor and Eva Green, who by the way are excellent.The story is too linear and ultimately the movie doesn't stand out from other productions of the same genre.
The ending of the movie is aptly tragic, yet terrifyingly beautiful, with humanity in perfect sense with what really matters..
Oh my god, what did i just see?, best of the best i have seen this year, even though i thought nothing could surpass my number one this year "the skin i live in", anyway, this movie is incredibly awesome, it has all, from the drama, to terror, throughout sci-fi and all that tied by romance between the two main characters, i mean i just finished watching it and rush here to let you know that its 110% worth watching, as for the plot you may already have read what is it about, people around the globe start losing senses , one by one, and that happens through a pretty intense rampage of emotions.
I don't, for one minute, actually believe she's an epidemiologist.The central conceit of the film is, of course, absolutely ridiculous -- an inexplicable epidemic is gradually depriving humanity of its senses, starting with smell and taste, then going straight for hearing and sight.
Workaholic scientist Susan (a wonderfully radiant portrayal by Eva Green) meets and falls in love with womanizing chef Michael (a fine and charming performance by Ewan McGregor) around the same time that a mysterious worldwide epidemic breaks out that causes everyone to lose their sensory perceptions.
I have always been drawn to apocalyptic or end-of-the-world movies, but I did not find "Perfect Sense" meaningful or entertaining.
Basically, however, the movie takes place in a few locations in Glasgow.The scope of the film is even narrower than that, however, because the meat of the story is the relationship between two people, an epidemiologist and a chef, who discover each other, have lots of sex, have a falling out, and reconcile just as the last sense goes.
All I can say is that this movie sure got me thinking about the simple things of life I normally take for granted and I thanked God a lot for having all my perfect senses..
Jeez, I don't want to live in a world where people lose ALL of their senses. |
tt0787216 | The Three Musketeers | In Venice, the musketeers Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, with the help of Milady de Winter, steal airship blueprints made by Leonardo da Vinci. However, they are betrayed by Milady, who incapacitates them and sells the blueprints to the Duke of Buckingham.
A year later, d'Artagnan leaves his village in Gascony for Paris in hopes of becoming a musketeer as his father was, only to learn that they were disbanded. At a rural bar, he challenges Captain Rochefort, leader of Cardinal Richelieu's guard, to a duel after being offended by him, but Rochefort merely shoots him while he's distracted. Once in Paris, d'Artagnan separately encounters Athos, Porthos and Aramis and, accidentally offending all three, schedules duels with each. Athos brings Porthos and Aramis to the duel as his seconds and d'Artagnan realizes who they are. Richelieu's guards arrive to arrest them, but, inspired by d'Artagnan, the musketeers fight together and win. All four are summoned before the young King Louis XIII and Richelieu urges him to execute them, but Queen Anne is impressed by their bravery and the king condecorates them instead.
Richelieu instructs Milady, now his accomplice, to plant false love letters among Queen Anne's possessions, steal her diamond necklace, and take it to the Tower of London in order to frame her as having an affair with Buckingham, which would force King Louis to execute her and declare war on England. At this point, the people would demand a more experienced leader: Richelieu himself. In order to secure her own position, Milady demands that Richelieu declare in a written authorization that she is working on behalf of France.
The false letters are found and given to King Louis, who is advised by Richelieu to set up a ball at which Queen Anne would be forced to wear the necklace. If she doesn't, then her affair is real, and there will be war. Queen Anne's lady-in-waiting Constance Bonacieux discovers Richelieu's plan and pleads with the musketeers to stop him. They follow Milady and Buckingham to London, while Constance is captured by Rochefort for helping the musketeers to escape from him.
In London, Milady tells Buckingham the musketeers have arrived to take revenge on him and teaches him all their tendencies in battle. D'Artagnan is captured, but turns out to be a decoy, allowing his associates to steal Buckingham's airship and rescue him. Milady's getaway coachman reveals himself as the musketeers' manservant Planchet and delivers her to his masters, who retrieve the necklace from her. Athos prepares to execute Milady for her treachery, but she leaps off the airship, apparently dying on her own terms.
The musketeers depart back to Paris, only to be intercepted by Rochefort in another airship, as Milady had given Richelieu copies of da Vinci's blueprints. Rochefort offers to exchange Constance for the necklace, but captures d'Artagnan and orders an attack as soon as he retrieves the jewels. His superior airship has the upper hand and severely damages the opposing ship, but the musketeers manage to crash both onto Notre Dame. On the roof, d'Artagnan duels and ultimately kills Rochefort. Constance is sent ahead to quietly return the necklace to Queen Anne.
The musketeers arrive at the ball and, for the sake of King Louis and his people, lie by claiming that Rochefort tried to sabotage an airship that Richelieu built for them, and that they executed him for his treason on Richelieu's permission. To convince the king, Athos presents Milady's authorization, which the former accepts. Richelieu, satisfied, offers the musketeers a place in his army, but they refuse, and Richelieu vows they will come to regret their decision.
Meanwhile, Milady is found alive at the English Channel by Buckingham, who declares his intention to exact revenge. He is then revealed to be advancing towards France with a massive fleet of battleships and airships. | murder, historical fiction | train | wikipedia | Well at least the Musketeers themselves were enjoyable. Just for the record I do like Burbank Films Australia animations. Wind in the Willows and Peter Pan especially of the ones I've seen on my "low-budget-animation-re-visiting" phase are wonderful. I wanted to like The Three Musketeers, I really did. Before I say why I didn't like this much, I was not expecting it to be a to-the-letter adaptation of the Dumas classic, seeing as there are adult themes of sex, adultery and murder in the book, and that this is 49-50 minutes and low-budget. But I was expecting it to be decent enough on its own terms. Sadly I didn't think it was. I just didn't care for the characters, the three musketeers themselves are actually very enjoyable, charismatic and fun and other than the rousing music are the redeeming values of this adaptation of The Three Musketeers. But I cannot say the same for Constance and D'Artagnan. Constance is pretty useless here, and incredibly vapid, while D'Artagnan doesn't seem to have any flaws at all. Duke of Buckingham and Milady don't fare much better, okay I was not expecting Milady to be completely haunting and seductive, but she could've been much sexier instead of a slightly prettier clone of for example Cruella DeVil. The animation is lacking here, Wind in the Willows and Peter Pan had colourful backgrounds especially, but everything here looks too sketchy with the colours lacking vibrancy. The script feels childish and lacking in wit and the story feels rushed.(and for anybody wondering how much resemblance it bears to the story, just in case you are fussy about changes- I actually try not to be- pretty much only the title and characters' names are intact) The ballet sequence was unneeded to me, it does nothing to enhance the story and the animation here actually looks little more than a rough sketch. The voice acting didn't enthuse me either, especially Constance whose voice is annoyingly high-pitched. In a nutshell, at least the Musketeers and music were enjoyable. Sadly, when it comes to enjoyment, this entry from Burbank Films Australia ends there. 2/10 Bethany Cox. Tries to be different and succeeds!. This is not your run of the mill version of The Three Musketeers! What did the producer and director want to achieve? To introduce the classic novel to a young teenage audience(13-17)and tell it in a way that hasn't been done before. And if the movie sparks an interest in the source material, then the objective has been achieved. So is this the greatest adaption ever made? No, but it should spark some interest! The basic plot line is kept intact, but the entire introduction of D'Artagnan has been cut. That certainly helped to speed things up in a movie that doesn't even run one hour in length! The story generally involves romance(here only hinted at), lots of swordplay(very little this time), court intrigue and power struggles(both in evidence). Novelty ideas include Milady as Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmations fame! The characters speaking to the audience, as in the Bob Hope, Bing Crosby Road movies. Add to that an artsy ballet sequence, not unlike what was done to the 1950's French version of the Little Matchgirl. If you really like the novel and have watched many of the film versions, this one is so different that you might just want to watch it twice! It has the makings of being very repeatable. On the negative side, D'Artagnan comes off as a cardboard character. The one who really shines is Milady! The women in this animated tale actually have good roles which is in direct opposition of so many male dominated classics! Their costumes are a real plus! Not really much humor, with the exception of the King, who is supposed to provide some laughs. The stylistic art work is not too elaborate, not too simple. It works. The music creates the proper mood. As for the ending, ... a bit too abrupt. |
tt0181536 | Finding Forrester | Sixteen-year-old Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown) plays basketball with his friends in New York. A recluse, William Forrester (Sean Connery), lives on the top floor of the building across from the court. The kids regularly notice him watching them. One of the boys dares Jamal to sneak into the apartment and retrieve an item. Jamal takes a letter opener only to be surprised by Forrester and inadvertently leaves his backpack behind. Forrester later drops Jamal's backpack onto the street. Jamal returns home to find that Forrester wrote notes in Jamal's journals. Jamal returns to Forrester's apartment and asks him to read more of his writing. Forrester tells him to begin with 5,000 words on why Jamal should "stay the fuck out of my home," which he completes and leaves on the doorstep the following day.
Jamal returns the next day, and is invited inside. Forrester knows that a representative from Mailor-Callow, a prestigious private school, offered Jamal a full academic scholarship, partly for his skill on the basketball court and partly for his test scores. Jamal learns that Forrester is the author of a famous book, Avalon Landing, and that he has never published another. Forrester agrees to help Jamal with his writing as long as Jamal does not ask about his personal life or tell others of his whearabouts.
Jamal's writing improves, which causes Robert Crawford (F. Murray Abraham), a professor at Mailor-Callow, to suspect plagiarism.
Jamal convinces Forrester to attend a game at Madison Square Garden, but Forrester cannot handle the crowds and has an anxiety attack. Jamal takes him instead to see Yankee Stadium late at night after everyone has gone where Forrester tells Jamal details about his family, which explains the basis of his book, specifically his brother's post-war trauma, alcoholism and Forrester's indirect role in his death. He also explains how the subsequent deaths of his parents soon after affected him and led to his becoming a recluse.
Forrester gives Jamal some of his own private essays to rewrite, with the condition that Jamal is not to take them from the apartment.
Meanwhile, there is a school writing contest coming up, and Crawford forces Jamal to stay after school so he can watch him produce an essay. Jamal can not write under such conditions and running out of time, he submits one of Forrester's exercises to the contest.
Jamal is then called in by Crawford and the school board who reveal that Forrester indeed published the article that Jamal's essay is based on. Crawford finds the parallels between the two pieces and brings Jamal up on plagiarism charges.
Jamal must either cite Forrester's work or prove he had Forrester's permission to use the material. He refuses to do either to keep his promise to Forrester. Crawford demands that Jamal write an apology letter to his classmates and read it in front of the class which Jamal also refuses which may lead to his expulsion.
Jamal tells Forrester what he has done and asks him to defend him, but Forrester is angry at Jamal for breaking his promise about taking the paper. Jamal accuses Forrester of being scared and selfish for not helping him.
Jamal is told by the school that they will drop the plagiarism charges if he wins them the state championship. Jamal does well in the game but ambiguously misses two free throw shots at the end of the game, costing the team the championship. Jamal writes an essay to Forrester that discusses the gift of friendship. Jamal's brother, Terrell (Busta Rhymes), finds the essay sealed in an envelope and gives it to Forrester.
Jamal attends the school contest. During the readings by other students, Forrester appears, announces himself and receives permission to read an essay that draws overwhelming applause from the students. As Crawford is praising the work, Forrester acknowledges his friendship with Jamal and reveals that the essay he had just read was written by Jamal. He also explains that Jamal had written the contest essay using the published title and first paragraph with permission. Crawford adamantly states that this will not change any of the board's decisions. The board overrules him and drops the plagiarism charges, readmitting Jamal's entry to the competition. After the competition, Forrester thanks Jamal for his friendship and tells him of his desire to visit his native land of Scotland.
A year later, Forrester's attorney (Matt Damon) meets with Jamal and tells him that Forrester died of cancer, with which he had been diagnosed before he met Jamal. The lawyer gives Jamal the keys to Forrester's apartment, a package, and a letter in which Forrester thanks Jamal for helping him rekindle his desire to live. The package contains the manuscript of Forrester's second novel, for which Jamal is expected to write the foreword. | inspiring, boring | train | wikipedia | A reclusive author, whose only published novel won the Pulitzer Prize, becomes the mentor of an underprivileged and talented sixteen-year-old in `Finding Forrester,' directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Sean Connery and newcomer Rob Brown.
As a person who enjoys good movies, as well as reading and writing, I loved this film, and would see it again.
I would hope that the apparent similarities to the director, Gus Van Sant's earlier work, Good Will Hunting, do not dissuade anyone from seeing the film.
Also, although there are several humorous lines in the movie, they do not rely on cheap puns or slap stick humor.William Forester once wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning book, but now is a recluse, hiding from his fame, who never leaves his book-filled apartment in the Bronx, but spends his time reading and bird watching, as well as watching the teenagers of the neighborhood play basketball in the park outside his window.
Symbolism is important in this film, and it makes many good points about people, how we relate to each other, and how we deal with the difficulties of life.The movie stays away from any violence and sex.
The acting is wonderful, particularly from the experienced Sean Connery, playing the title character, and from newcomer Robert Brown, as Jamal.
Other than that, I had no inclination what the story was about so there was surprise from the outset seeing that the movie was starring Busta Rhymes and was set in the Bronx.How surprised I was as this gentle and perfectly paced tale brings together two people who share a common love for writing, one is a faded writer who once had success, and the other is a new talent who faces so many obstacles in his path to let his talent shine.There are similarities to other films such as Dead Poets Society, but what captures the viewer and their imagination is the restraint and the simplicity.
Choices and actions are small, compassionate, and you can relate them to real life.The relationship between Forrester (Connery) and Jamal (Rob Brown) is superbly played with Brown holding back perfectly until the scene where his restraint fails, and Connery giving one of the most emotive and complex performances I have ever seen.
Director Gus Van Sant also directed `Good Will Hunting' and this film has essentially the same plot.
They are such close cousins that Van Sant felt compelled to bring in Matt Damon for a cameo.Regardless of the familiar plot, `Finding Forrester' succeeds because of an excellent screenplay and outstanding acting performances by Sean Connery, Rob Brown and F.
Van Sant gives Forrester's apartment a dark and dreary look from a color and lighting perspective, which is particularly effective.Sean Connery is in top form and continues to make the case for being one of our best and most treasured actors.
(Note that the movie did not seem nearly that long to me.) Perhaps the plot and story could have been tighter, but it's really a remarkable job for first-time screenwriter Mike Rich.The acting, while not always remarkable, was quite good.
The other characters were well-acted though not generally well-developed (hence much criticism of this movie).Others have compared Finding Forrester to Goodwill Hunting (also directed by Gus Van Sant) and to Scent of a Woman, suggesting that it is just a ripoff of the plot in those two.
However, it's just as likely that Rich had no particular person in mind when he crafted Forrester (since, after all, the First Novel Syndrome is a well known plot theme).All in all, while not The Great American Movie, it's a very good movie and well worth watching..
Eventhough the general idea of two different people bonding is here, everything else is as different as it comes.The story is about Jamal Wallace(Rob Brown, making his bigscreen debut), an allstar basketball player who's only 16 but has a passion for writing and reading.
After revisiting the man, Wallace finds out that "The Window" is none other than reclusive author William Forrester(Sean Connery), who has been hiding for 40 years.
Murray Abraham), his new girlfriend(Anna Paquin), his brother(rapper Busta Rhymes) and everyone else in his life.The acting in this film is universally excellent, and no matter how it is billed Brown is the real star of this movie.
And after seeing this movie three weeks after the Academy Awards it makes it all the more shocking that 'Gladiator' won as I can't see how, in any way, it is better than this great film.
Like a great book 'Finding Forrester' gets better every viewing and i'm sure it will stand the test of time.
He goes back to the flat and tries to get the man to help him further with his writing.Has it been so many years since Good Will Hunting that Van Sant felt the need to remake it with elements changed?
Connery is equally as good in a role that he could have slummed off his famous voice and natural presence; but instead he works with a vulnerability that is convincing and makes his character and the story so much more interesting.
Support from Abraham is by-the-numbers but effective (although his final scene is unconvincing); I didn't understand why Paquin bothered (or why they bothered to have her character in the story) while Rhymes is just what you expect and only looks weak at the end when he is asked to emote.Overall this is a solid and enjoyable film despite the fact that it seems determined to do just what you expect it to do.
Director Gus Van Sant took the best parts of his own Good Will Hunting and Scent Of A Woman and fashioned Finding Forrester.
Rob Brown who was a newcomer played the kid who has gotten a basketball scholarship, from a posh prep school, but has dazzled many with his abilities as a writer.Finding Forrester has an interesting commentary on our stereotypes.
In an obvious return to Good Will Hunting territory, Gus Van Sant gives us another story of a gifted young student (this time played by Rob Brown) and his aged mentor (Sean Connery).Student Jamal Wallace (Brown) meets reclusive writer William Forrester (Connery) who wrote one successful novel decades ago, but has refused to write another, and now lives in self-enforced obscurity.
Connery can be a good actor, but he's given nothing to really work with and the story and character development in Finding Forrester are strictly by the numbers.
Jamal approaches the apartment, this time using the front door, and asks "the window" if he would read more of his writing.I truly love this movie.
"The Window", played by Sean Connery, is a very sympathetic character and, as he takes on the role of mentor to Brown's character, the audience is given the opportunity to see it change both of their lives for the better.
People might remember director Gus Van Sant's earlier work in Good Will Hunting (equally good) more famously, but Finding Forrester never seizes to amaze me on every single viewing.
Finding Forrester is a film with great potential, a fine cast, and some of the worst pacing I have ever seen in a movie.
Busta turns a surprisingly dramatic performance as Jamal's content older brother, and Connery, Abraham, and Brown all demonstrate their polished acting skills, albeit hampered at times by an unwieldly script.
This one shows how Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown) discovered his own strength by helping William Forrester (Sean Connery), and managed to challenge the dictatorial professor (F.
GUS VAN SANT & SEAN CONNERY doing what they are best at !I was so drawn into the characters and story of this movie that I ended up searching for the author and his book to see if they were crafted from inspiration and true life incidents.
William Forrester (Sean Connery) is a reclusive writer living in an old building in a black neighborhood.
This film centers around a young boy named Jamal Wallace and an introverted older man named William Forrester.
While managing his surroundings, girls and new teammates on the basketball team, Forrester teaches Jamal how to use his words and let his inner thoughts flow in his writing at his new school.
With championship basketball games, a potential girlfriend, a pompous professor, and Forrester's expectations floating around in Jamal's mind, the struggle of writing the story of Jamal Wallace rests on Jamal's pen and paper.Finding Forrester easily identifies itself as a highly intelligent film which draws on its ability to make the audience differentiate between their passions and careers.
Although the plot could be more original, the underlying details make the story unique when compared to films such as Good Will Hunting (also directed by Gus Van Sant).
Perhaps appropriately for a film in which allegations of plagiarism play an important role in the plot, "Finding Forrester" is a good example of Hollywood's propensity for self-cannibalisation.
And the character of Jamal, another academically gifted but troubled young man from a working-class background, recalls Gus Van Sant's own "Good Will Hunting".
The film, in fact, can be seen as the story of how Forrester helps Jamal to define his own identity, free from the preconceptions of Crawford and of white society in general.
Towards the end of the film Jamal misses two free throw shots in a vital basketball game, and the possibility is raised that he may have done so deliberately in order to confound the perception that black men are good at sport and not much else.
When I saw "Finding Forrester" on television recently, however, I was glad that I resisted my initial impulse to switch channels as soon as I saw the director's name in the opening credits, because this was the first Van Sant film I actually enjoyed.
The movie is about a young writer, Jamal who is talented as basket ball player and gifted in his high school academic work.
Had the film tried to develop everything else, it would have lost this principal focus, and much of its impact.Sean Connery does a masterful job, as always, and Rob Brown as Jamal is a natural.
Anna Paquin is charming, as is the chemistry between her character and Jamal.A bit less sentimental than "Good Will Hunting," if you liked that film, you will like this one.
When I first heard about the story I was like 'oh I gotta see it!' but when I heard it was Sean Connery who played one of the main characters I was as good as in the movie theater =)It really is an amazing movie and it does not only have one message!
Van Sant made the hugely successful, horribly overrated and totally spurious "Good Will Hunting".There's a scene in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" in which Van Sant plays himself, ignoring the movie he is supposed to be directing while he counts the money he's making.
No matter, it's infuriating to witness the prostitution of a film maker of his caliber.Both "Good Will Hunting" and "Finding Forrester" are movies designed to make audiences feel good and to this end Van Sant uses every manipulative trick in the book.
Black kids all live in the Bronx, have single mothers, live in poverty, don't really speak understandable English, their only chance to get an education is through sports, when they meet their match on a team they're bound to fight to try to resolve the conflict, white professors hate talent in black kids, black kids can only learn if taught by a literary genious but not in a class, white girls love black boys, white girls' fathers always live in huge mansions, white girls' fathers don't like black kids seeing their daughters, and so on, ad nauseaum.This could have been a good film.Worth watching mostly because it's always good to see Sean Connery..
This person is Forrester (played by Sean Connery in one of his more unbelievable roles) who is found, by accident of course, by a brilliant though pretty much unknown writer named Jamal (Rob Brown in a good breakthrough).
I've been told that it's very similar to an earlier Gus Van Sant movie, Good Will Hunting; I'll have to check that out, to find out if it's better than this.
After striking out big time remaking "Psycho," director Gus Van Sant turns to making a TV movie version of his previous hit "Goodwill Hunting" but without one fully developed character.
I appreciated that."Finding Forrester" is most notable for one of Connery's best performances ever, but it's overall a good film.
We wait till all the movies we are interested in, come out on DVD.I like all of Sean Connery's roles except the James Bond one or two or??
Continuing my plan to watch every Sean Connery movie in order, I come to the penultimate movie in his filmography Finding Forrester (2000)Plot In A Paragraph: A young writing protégé (Rob Brown), finds help with a reclusive author (Connery) The last REALLY good movie Connery made.
Sean Connery does a wonderful job, as does his young co-star, who I believe was a first-time actor when this film was made.
So when he writes his big paper and steals the title of one of forrester's previous works, jamal finds himself about to be kicked out of the private school even though he wrote that paper.
A very unlikely friendship develops between two people, Jamal Wallace( Rob Brown) A 16 Year old kid who lives in the Bronx and William Forrester( Sean Connery), a reclusive old man who lives on the top floor of the building across the street from where Jamal plays basketball.
A mother's role in any movie is very important ,because whether they play a good or bad role that can have an effect on how you see the main character( the assumptions you first make of them).Janice Wallace plays a part in helping him reach his full potential by giving him the choice to go to this school.
Jamal decides to go back to the apartment room and find out who it is, and after a little confrontation he is surprised to find out that the "creepy old man" is none other than the one and only William Forrester, played by Sean Connery.
With his new friend William Forrester helping him through it all, which to me makes him an archetypal hero, he starts doing great until a confrontation with Prof.
John Russum 4th Period Finding Forrester Movie AnalysisThe film Finding Forrester is an interesting story about a boy from the Bronx named Jamal.
This journey will not only benefit Jamal but also William Forester as he learns about friendship.This film was very well developed and organized, I truly believe that there are not many people who will dislike watching this movie, however I do believe it takes an educated mind to be able to truly understand the point that the movie writer in trying to make.
They called Forrester "the man in the window", that lead to a turning point in the life of Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown).
They end up having a strange relationship between them.One archetype in this movie is the mentor (Mr. Forrester), who continues to help Jamal, not just on his writing but with his own life, his purpose in life.
(WARNING, SPOILERS) In the film, Finding Forrester, sixteen-year-old Jamal Wallace at first appears to be a typical young African American growing up in the Bronx.
Later in the film, Jamal faces many trails at his new school from his professor Robert Crawford, who accuses Jamal of plagiarizing his work, which Forrester disproves when he reads Jamal's work in front of the class and gives Jamal credit for the writing.
Jamal, Forrester, and Crawford drive the film forward in such an interesting way that the audience can't help but be intrigued.
At the same time, it isn't a feel good movie either.A reclusive author whose only book won a Pulitzer Prize becomes the mentor of an underprivileged yet extremely talented sixteen year-old, starring Sean Connery and Rob Brown.
A prep school offers Jamal a scholarship due to his high test scores and their need to win the basketball championship.Although it is shown that Forrester is Jamal's mentor, Forrester learns things from Jamal as well, such as not being afraid of leaving his house and also that friendship is more than just being there.The acting is wonderful, especially from Sean Connery, playing the title character, and from Rob Brown, as Jamal.
A great film about writing, Finding Forrester centers around a young black writing and basketball prodigy from the Bronx who meets a reclusive classic writer by chance.
I would certainly like to find more movies with writing as a central theme.In the acting department, Sean Connery is as brilliant as ever.
The difference between the two movies is that "Good Will Hunting" was first, and as such, more original with better characters and not so much pandering to the audience.
Sean Connery's characters name is WILLIAM Forrester.
It is a great movie about a young boy named Jamal Wallace (played by Rob Brown, an unknown) who receives help from William Forrester (Sean Connery), the man that wrote "the great 20th century novel." Forrester's life is surrounded by mystery, and his and Jamal's relationship goes through many ups and downs before the end of the movie.
Finding Forrester really is the most inspiring movie ever!When I first heard about the story I was like 'oh I gotta see it!' but when I heard it was Sean Connery who played one of the main characters I was as good as in the movie theater =)It really is an amazing movie and it does not only have one message!
Sean Connery plays Forrester, a hidden author of a book that can possibly help out Jamal Wallace.
The name Gus Van Sant seemed familiar as the film began, and the plot of the mentor student relationship, did during the film remind me of Good Will Hunting, but this film was clearly not the same.On a personal level my thrill of watching Sean Connery doing something this deep and relevant, really touched me. |
tt0082054 | Beau-père | Rémi is a struggling pianist with a wife named Martine, a model who is getting too old to find desirable work, and a 14-year-old stepdaughter Marion. When Martine is killed in a car crash, Marion expresses her desire to stay with Rémi in their apartment, but is taken away by her father Charly, an alcoholic who dislikes Rémi. Marion comes back, much to her father's disapproval, and takes up babysitting to help make ends meet while Rémi gives piano lessons. Soon, Marion tells Rémi she is physically attracted to him, but he resists her advances because of her young age.
When Marion proves to be anemic, she is sent to the mountains with her father while Rémi loses his apartment and moves in with friends. A broken man, he meets with Marion and they have sex in a hotel. She comes back to live with him in a run-down and condemned house, and although he first resists any more sex, gradually gives in. While visiting, Marion's father at one point sees the two embrace. He asks them if they are having an affair, but when Rémi objects, Charly apologizes and leaves. Eventually Rémi takes interest in an older woman, Charlotte, who is also a more skilled piano player, while Marion also seeks out a substitute for him and moves back in with her father. | melodrama | train | wikipedia | I love films such as this..
I really love films such as Beau Pere.
When you read the description of the film (a man in his 30's has a love affair with his 14-yr.
old stepdaughter after his wife dies), you kinda think that it's going to be a study about some middle-aged pervert engaging in immoral acts of both incest and pedophilia and that in the end the movie will be some kind of moral tale about the evils of such behavior.But surprisingly, the film engages you, and paralyzes your initial judgements.
It pulls you into its world and somehow you become fascinated by the 14-year old girl and slowly begin to sympathize with the stepfather.
She has a matter-of-fact way of dealing with the world, in love, sex, relationships, etc..
As the movie progresses, she seems to have aged before your eyes, (though physically she remains 14).
I've often read that in the artistic tradition of the French, the concept of morality does not deal specifically with what is right and wrong, persay..
I wish Bertrand Blier would make more movies.
The subjects in his movies such as this and others made over 20 years ago (Les Valseuses, Get out you Handkerchiefs, Too Beautiful for you, etc..) would shock people even by today's standards.
But because he gives so much humanity to his characters, these taboo subjects can be seen in a different slant...
I was up late watching HBO when this movie came on.
I love this movie as much today as I did at 14, which at that time I did not know that he had just died.
With the advent of the Internet I was able to find out much more about this man who's performance haunted me and learned where that sadness came from..
Yes, I am aware of the fact the rather vulgar and tasteless subject line entirely misfits the overall tone of this film, but when else am I going to have the chance to use this clichéd saying in a review?
"Stepfather" is a provocative and mildly controversial "Lolita"-themed drama, but with a healthy sense of humor and extremely likable characters.
Britney Spears provided the best one-line plot description imaginable for this film: Not a Girl, Not yet a Woman.
After the sudden and accidental death of her mother, beautiful 14-year-old Marion insists on staying with her manic depressed stepfather instead of returning to her natural father.
The girl soon openly confesses Rémi she has romantic feelings for him and doesn't really make it a secret that she wants to sleep with him.
The narrative, for example, is ingenious as several characters (including Rémi) explain the story whilst facing the camera.
A truly ravishing and often barely dressed minor literally offers herself at this potent, thirty-something guy, and yet there are no explicit sex sequences or gratuitous insinuations being made.
Ariel Besse (16 at the time and a terrific actress) strips fully naked a couple of times, but all the sex & nudity sequences are elegantly presented and not the least bit offensive.
Patrick Dewaere is great as well and it was quite a shock to discover he committed suicide shortly after the release of this film.
The only consolation he had was that his own mental condition gave an even deeper dimension to his character in "Stepfather".
Yes, it's about a very taboo topic, to say the least - the sexual relationship between a 40-ish piano player and his 14-year-old stepdaughter - but the great Bertrand Blier, who explored similar territory in "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs" eases the unease by doing the unthinkable and turning the movie into a screwball comedy.Well, that's what we think, at first.
Remi (played magnificently by Blier favorite Patrick Dewaere), not unlike Humbert in Nabokov's "Lolita" tells us of his tragic plight; after his wife dies tragically, he is left with his stepdaughter, Marion (Ariel Besse).
Uncomfortable with the new rift in the household, Marion childishly assumes the "mother" role and takes on all motherly duties - including seducing her stepfather.
Not realizing this danger, he eventually gives in.Of course, giving into his stepdaughter is a mistake that plunges both Remi and Marion deeper and deeper into misery.
Even Marion's real father suspects a mutual sexuality between them and, in one of the film's more heartbreaking moments, completely dissolves his obligation as a father and OKs the incestuous affair.
Remi and Marion, then, are not so much connected by their sexual bond, but by the fact that they've both been abandoned by the people they love.
There's no real question about where the affair is going, but the tragedy lies in who gets hurt the most.
The final image of the movie may haunt me forever.The movie is obviously not for all tastes, but it should be said that the sex is never gratuitous.
In fact, it seems almost distracting when compared to what Blier really wants to get across - the divide between adolescence and adulthood and how seemingly frivolous sexual encounters can ruin lives forever.
And, like "Hankerchiefs", the movie somehow provides some truly funny moments.
"Beau-Père" is Bertrand Blier's masterpiece and a film that should be seen by all connaisseurs of intelligent, challenging cinema.
Separated from his stepdaughter, raised for eight years as his own, after the girl's mother dies in a car crash, a pianist begins to mistake his fatherly affection towards her for romantic love, which causes a problem since the girl feels the same way and is set on taking her mother's place in this controversial Bertrand Blier film.
The movie is actually far less sleazy than it might sound from the outset; there is relatively little in the way of nudity and lovemaking with the film instead focused on the mental dynamics between the pair, neither quite sure how properly express their strong feelings for one another.
Things seem to get even more interesting as the girl's birth father catches on to how intimate the pair have become since the mother's death, and yet the film's meandering second half does the material no justice.
There is so much build-up and tension leading up to the pair taking things too far that the film has trouble refocusing afterwards.
That said, the movie ends on a pitch perfect suggestive final note.
Blier additionally uses an interesting technique of having a handful of characters talk to the camera to provide narration, though the inconsistency of the narration is a tad jarring..
When a woman is killed in a car wreck, she leaves behind a husband and a daughter by an exhusband who become the center of gravity of the film.
As the step father and beautiful 14 year old nymphet share their grief under the same roof, the girl reveals an uncommon maturity as she insinuates herself into the step father's life by taking on her mother's responsibilities and demanding her place in his bed.
What follows is an unemotional, matter of fact, tastefully presented tale of two people whose familial love morphs into something more as they grapple with all the issues which come with their extraordinary and taboo relationship.
Not "Lolita" and not a film about pedophilia or seduction, this flick should be an interesting watch for anyone into films about atypical romantic relationships.
A gorgeously photographed and steamy tale of forbidden passion.Boasting a superb lead performance by Patrick DeWaere as a young Frenchman battling to stifle the seductive advances of his breathtakingly beautiful step-daughter, it is grounded by fascinating character detail and an intelligent, focused script that is deeply interested in the complexities of love and desire.Ariel Besse is the step-daughter and she is a bubbling, nubile cauldron of curiosity and mischief.Sacha Vierny's moody photography is worthy of a coffee table hardcover and Philip Sarde's score is perfection.A delicious, provocative, mature tale of sexual politics..
Blier is not my favorite French director.
Too much irony and too much Godard-a-like in his films.
It's written with great intelligence and, like in most of the French Cinema, it had a wonderful sense of reality.
The subject is touchy : a man falls in love with a young teenager (14 years old).
The young girl looks realistic, and so is her feelings.
A superior work that takes itself seriously, but avoids the tiresome moralizing so often accompnaying American films of the same subject matter.
There is no doubt Ariel Besse is a pretty woman.
I should say "girl," because she's supposed to be a 14-year-old in here who is having an affair with her 30- year-old stepfather.
With that for a theme, I'm afraid this film is an allurement to perverts looking for some cheap thrills.
Fortunately, it doesn't play as sleazy as it sounds and there is no actual sex shown.
However, I still couldn't help but feel uncomfortable watching this, especially since Besse was about that age when she made the film and appears bare-breasted several times.
Allowing their 15-year old daughter to be nude and passionately kissing an older man in a movie like this is a sad comment about Besse's parents.
Anyway, looking at this strictly from a film standpoint, it was a well-made movie, which was photographed decently, too.
The French do make nice-looking movies, and it's not a boring story despite an abundance of nothing but talk.
It's a decent story but......but this whole thing is wrong so I can't recommend this film..
Patrick Dewaere was a wonderful comic actor (see him in Les Valseuses), while Ariel Besse was rather, er, young.
I'd have liked this film even better if I hadn't had to endure the horrible dubbing into English (especially for Ariel Besse's character)..
This film is not erotic.
It had to be made by 10-year-olds.
Spot on, a twisted love story.
Beau Pere is a film that works on a variety of levels- comedy, drama, tragedy, romance.
Unsurprisingly, as a story about a 30-year-old man who has an affair with his 14-year-old stepdaughter- played by an underage actress with nude scenes- Beau Pere has been derided in North America as exploitation.
A deeper look of the film suggests the reverse.
The stepfather Remi and stepdaughter Marion are both sick people.
Remi is faced with blow after blow, a struggling career, threatened poverty, a failing marriage, death of a loved one, loss of a home.
Marion gets an appalling shock when her mother is killed in a car crash.
The relationship may be sick, the love may be twisted, but these characters are always sympathetic.
Remi knows the affair is wrong and in the end tries to move towards an adult woman, but the shift to normalcy may be gradual, and there is a sinister hint that history can repeat itself.Both of the main characters are portrayed well (Dewaere has sad eyes) and the film doesn't have many flaws apart from the car accident scene in the beginning which is a little too goofy.
The movie has a lot of similarities to Lolita, but enough differences to make it worthwhile.
In fact, I prefer it to Kubrick's film (and I'm a Kubrick fan).
Beau Pere worked with me as a sorrowful drama the first time I watched it, and on second viewing I could appreciate how funny it is as well.
I don't think that "Beau Pere" (1981) by Bertrand Blier is so much about what Marion says: "I am a woman.
A woman of 14 years (...).
One should not let oneself cheat about how much this is a movie about the definition or role of morality in French society, either.
Therefore, I see in the center of this movie rather the poor Stepfather, Rémy, whose eternal faith it seems to be to never overcome his status as a stepfather.
While her real father answers by yes, Rémy says: I am rather her mother.
Marion wishes children from Rémy for the future telling him explicitly that he should transcend one day his role of stepfather.
But before he gets there, he jumps off their relationship in order to join Charlotte, a single mother of a little daughter (whose stepfather he soon will become, since Charlotte says to him: Tu Vas Guérir (you will be healed)).
At that point at the end of the movie, it can be no doubt that Rémy will never become a real father but always remain in the substitutive function: Not a father, but a stepfather, not the original lover, but a step-lover, not with the mother of his child, but with the mother of his stepchild..
I just happen to own the VHS version of this film.
Quite sad, actually) and Sikel and Ebert's review of this.The well-older guy falling in love with his 14 year old step-daughter theme began as a very disturbing theme to me before watching this.
So...why did I view this film?
In watching, the film didn't go where I thought it would.
This film does take into account many sensibilities, and the unveiling of feelings that are quite into the "You can't help who you fall in love with" bit.
Is it the young step daughter?
That's what makes it adult-oriented, it's the subject matter, and trying to address the subject matter and not necessarily (potential) sexual encounters.This is an adult oriented themed foreign film somewhat playing on the 'Lolita' theme, but with more of a twist.
Hits everything, makes you wonder and provides a story...maybe not one for everyone, but one that has many sides and allows you to be the judge of it..
Pathetically Weak Man. The Patrick Dewaere character is so spineless, shallow and pathetic, that it hard to engage much sympathy for the awkwardness of his position.His wife, Martine, was clearly the dominant member of the original relationship, and Remy seemed no more than a parasite as far as contributing to support the family.Spoiler Warning!
After Martine's death, it seemed clear that Remy lacked the strength of character to step up to the responsibilities thrust upon him to provide for and nurture the step-daughter in a positive manner.His allowing himself to be seduced by the step daughter was so predictable because he was portrayed as such a weak cipher of man.
In every way, Ariel Besse's Marion is portrayed as both the stronger willed, and more mature character.Remy even gives up his career in a cowardly way when he latches on to a newer lover, who also is a superior talent as a pianist.The way his character, Remy, is portrayed, one feels relieved when Marion discards him...it would be impossible for her not to be able to be able to improve on the spineless clod.
So she invites the parasite into her life, much to this viewer's horror, and the cycle begins again, as a new step-daughter eavesdrops on the sound of her mother's "passion" for this unworthy man..
Music as Sex. Spoilers herein.Nabokov's "Lolita" is a milestone in literature -- the narrator is obsessed to the point where anything he says is at least synthesized out of that obsession and at worse fabricated.
It is only about sex in so far as giving a focus to the obsession of being.Here we have a very clever converse.
Yes we have the stepdaughter, the "artistic" stepfather widowed by a car wreck and the copulation between the two.
Performance permeates.The difference between that message in the book and this film mirrors the difference between the perspective of the two.
Here it comes immediately after and is.The story this time is from the girl's perspective.
Just this depth of understanding of such a radical experiment in narrative colors this film as something worth watching.
(The designated watcher in this version is the redheaded wife of a fellow musician.)But otherwise, the film is a pedestrian affair.
In other words, it carries all the baggage of a normal French film.
It is bereft of, say, the lepidopteran -- or similar -- metaphors, the constant shifts in narrative layers (by this time, 1981, by no means experimental) and the references outside the film.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 4: Worth watching..
An Interesting Story, Which Should Remain Just That.
"Beau Pere" was banned in Ontario when it first came out (the ban has since been lifted).In Canada, the age of consent is 14 years for both men and women, and sex between a step-father and step-daughter is not considered incest.
Remi would be in trouble for the fact that his step-daughter is only 15.
A step-brother and step-sister can marry, so can two first cousins (now people of the same sex can marry), but not a step-parent and child.
I really don't think Canada is worse off for this.If you want smut, you should look somewhere else.
The plot ideas suggest smut, but this is a movie where the sex gets between the plot.
In smut, the plot gets between the sex.Children sometimes are sexually attracted to parents or step-parents, and parents to children, as in this movie.
Marion is the one attracted to Remi.
It looks like he thinks he is doing her a favour when he yields to her and has sex with her.
It seems to be a twisted way to love (more on that later).
It's the desire to be close which leads them to have sex.
Its' not really lust for Marion, just a desire to be close to Remi.
She wants someone to be close with her, including in the sexual way.
She turns down the chance to have sex with boys her age.Marion seems none the worse for her sexual experiences.
She breaks the relationship, and seems to be thinking that she should move on and moves in with her father, who she does not see in a sexual way.
I think in reality, a parent or step-parent who has sex with a child, even if it's the childs' idea, risks opening a door which should remain closed.
Relationships like this belong in the movies.Interestingly, at the end, Remys' possible future step-daughter sees him and her mother making love. |
tt0117468 | Retroactive | Karen hitches a ride in Frank's car after hers breaks down. Frank is travelling with his abused wife, Rayanne, on his way to sell stolen computer chips. He discovers Rayanne has been unfaithful to him, leading him to kill her. Karen gets into a shooting match with Frank but escapes, ending up at a laboratory where a scientist, Brian, has invented a time machine. Using the machine, Karen returns to a point in time just a few minutes before the violent events. She succeeds in altering the course of events, but not for the better. Going back in time again, things become worse still, with the deaths not only of Rayanne, but also Rayanne's lover, a police officer and a vacationing family. Eventually Karen uses the machine to go back in time far enough that she can avoid getting involved with Frank in the first place. This causes events to unfold without her interference. In this final outcome, Frank kills his accomplice and Rayanne's lover, but is killed by Rayanne. | dark, suspenseful, cruelty, murder, violence, alternate reality, flashback, psychedelic, revenge, alternate history | train | wikipedia | Rating: *** out of ****A word of warning before the review: I highly recommend Retroactive and suggest you go out of your way to see it in widescreen because the numerous action scenes and breathtaking desert cinematography are cramped and a pain to watch in pan-and-scan.Relegated to a straight-to-video release, Retroactive is a smart and entertaining thriller that deserves a wider audience.
The film features a relatively simple but clever premise: Superhottie Kylie Travis stars as Karen Warren, a police negotiator who's on vacation in Texas.
There, he accidentally activates the time travel device he was working on, sending Karen back twenty minutes, just as she's been picked up by Frank.
The film still has its flaws, none of them surprisingly having to do with a sense of repetition, considering each action setpiece has the same basic setting and situation (car chase on a lonely desert highway, shootout at a gas station).
Plot holes and leaps of logic are expected in this kind of film, but the number of shots fired from a gun shouldn't be that hard to keep track of.As the film's tough heroine, the absolutely gorgeous Kylie Travis is refreshingly intelligent and strong-willed.
Frank Whaley is quite good as the young scientist, hampered only by a single scene that requires him to forget the logic of his own device which Travis corrects him on.With blistering, fast-paced action and a fun story, Retroactive proves to be a highly enjoyable way to spend ninety minutes.
Most of the running time features a tight tank-top and pants wearing Kylie Travis kicking ass, so that alone is enough to recommend the film..
Like the Alien movies.Of course, it didn't hurt that Kylie's good looking too.
If you are looking for a good film at the video story, Retroactive is an excellent rental title.
The title suggests that you are about to watch every bad sci-fi movie you have ever seen, but what lies behind the title is an entertaining time travel film which is actually quite good.James Belushi is quite good as the bad guy and Kylie Travis plays the feisty female cop well.There is great pleasure in watching the main characters failing miserably at changing their situation as they travel back again and again to fix things, when it seems all manage to do is make a bad situation worse.
The ending is surprisingly downbeat and refreshingly rewarding, which makes a change for Hollywood these days.All in all not the best of films ever made, but if you just leave you critical faculties and high expectations at home you will be pleasantly surprised..
In this movie, we learn that right away, but it goes even farther to show how even when we redo the trip back in time, even good intentions by supposedly intelligent people, can make things even worse the 2nd (or 3rd) time around.
Would it make things better, or worse?Some of Jim Belushi's best acting is in this film- his "stream of consciousness" comments are a riot, and also horrifying, given their context.
I've heard that he had just gotten out of a tough divorce, and the director let him ad lib at length, to really show the anger and madness in the character of Frank.Of course, the lingering camera shots of Kylie Travis flying through the air in her black tank top and tight pants do nothing to detract from the overall watchability of this action/psychodrama thriller.I'd give this one 8/10..
A Chicago cop has car trouble on a remote Texas highway, but is picked up by a murderous man (James Belushi) and his tormented wife.
Unfortunately, her first trips back in time cause more murders, not less.James Belushi shamelessly chews up the scenery in this one (or should I say shoots up), but Kylie Travis is wonderful in her role as the troubled policewoman.
The film has an interesting time-travel premise which is similar to GROUNDHOG DAY and a certain STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION episode.
They've all been interesting but this one sticks in my mind as the one I like the most.I think it's because James Belushi's character is completely unpredictable and Kylie Travis' character becomes increasingly desperate as a result.
I guess it's also because I like the idea that even if you have the ability to travel in time, that doesn't mean you'll automatically be able to change the outcome.I guess I also like the idea of having female lead characters in science fiction movies.
How many times can one watch minor permutations on the exact scene before slumber ensues, and the brain glazes over.This could have been so much more, but a promising cast, and a promising premise have been totally wasted in a sea of car stunts and shoot-em-up.
Thoroughly entertaining film that should bring to mind concepts that have been explored in such films as Groundhog Day (1993) and Lola Rennt (1998) (This movie came out (US release) about a year before Lola Rennt, so it's not fair to claim that this movie stole any ideas from that German film...)Great action photography (glad the Sci-Fi channel showed it in wide screen, letter-box format), multiple car explosions, maximum gunplay
perhaps an alternate title for this film could be "All Blowed Up" or some such.
This is truly a fun film, though I couldn't help but snicker at a few things like, for example, the part where the heroine jumps the chain link fence and gets over to the Texas Accelerator Laboratory, and wouldn't you know it, this multi-gazillion dollar research facility is staffed by a total of ONE person (played excellently by Frank Whaley).
(Wow, just think of the money they saved by not having to hire a cast of extras!!)I also liked looking at the heroine, played by Kylie Travis.
Ever find yourself watching a really bad movie with no script or character development, that deteriorates to nothing more than shootings, car chases and explosions?
If on the other hand you like endless shootings, car chases, and explosions, then "Retroactive" is your movie.
I'll give this a 10/10..Unfortunately,people nowadays could not create good movies like this anymore.For all of u guyz out there, give this movie a chance, and u'll find that this would be far much2 more satisfying than watching other stupid sci-fi movies (blade runner, transformer, the matrix...) Watch Retroactive!!!
Director Louis Morneau who also directed another classic flick, Road Kill 2: Dead Ahead 2008 has created another gem in Retroactive.Starring James Belushi who has also been other classic flick , Salvador 1986 and Made Men 1999.Also starring Kylie Travis.Also starring Shannon Whirry who has also been in other classic flicks, Animal Instincts II 1994, Animal Instincts 1992, Mirror Images II 1993 and Out for Justice 1991.Also starring M.Emmet Walsh who has also been in other classic flicks, Romeo + Juliet 1996, Narrow Margin 1990, Blood Simple 1984 and Blade Runner 1982.I enjoyed the shootouts and car chases.If you enjoyed this as much as I did then check out other classic time travel flicks, The Butterfly Effect 2004, Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey 1988, Planet of the Apes 1968, Primer 2004, Returner 2002, Slaughterhouse-Five 1972, Timecop 1994, The Caller 2011, Triangle 2009, Edge of Tomorrow 2014 and Timecrimes 2007..
A hostage negotiator with a glitch in her past is in the middle of nowhere (actually, a lost Texas road) when her car crashes and James Belushi and his wife pick her up.
Belushi then murders the wife in front of her, and she makes her way to Frank Whaley, who plays a scientist who is conducting an experiment sending lab rats twenty minutes or so back in time.
Having quit the force, she's traveling through rural Texas when she has car trouble and is then picked up by jovial sleaze bag Frank (James Belushi).
While Karen runs from Frank, she comes across an isolated government complex where lonely young scientist Brian (Frank Whaley) has been conducting time travel experiments.
And so it goes while she stubbornly tries, each time, to make better decisions.Yeah...this does indeed sound like a serious sci-fi version of "Groundhog Day", much like an an earlier TV movie titled '12:01', starring Jonathan Silverman.
Many movies have featured this but not as many manage to do it with as much action, suspense, and good writing as 1997's "Retroactive".This nice, little film was released as a direct to video piece but don't let that fool you; as you soon discover while watching this, not all direct to video movies belong on the direct to video docket.
In the beginning, we are introduced to Brian (played by the great character actor Frank Whaley) who is desperately trying to save a top secret time traveling project from being cut by the pentagon.
While stranded, she's picked up by a seemly jovial man named Frank (played by the always delightful James Belushi) and his wife Rayanne (played by Shannon Whirry in a very convincing performance).
One thing leads to another and before she knows what's happening, Karen finds herself back in the car with Frank twenty minutes in the past.
She then goes back in time again but makes things even more terrible than she did during the first attempt of changing the past.And that's what makes the movie as suspenseful and entertaining as it is: can Karen change the past for the better or is she doomed to an eternity of time traveling folly?
The effects that are used for the time traveling scenes are very good while at the same time the filmmakers are careful in not allowing them to be the drive of the picture like you see in some films.
I must also emphasize that James Belushi is pure entertainment in the role of bigger than life Texas psychopath Frank.
Strangely enough, I see a few 8s, 9s, and 10s here on the IMDb, which is heartening, but I've still yet to find a real-life person who can recognize the brilliance of casting James Belushi as a time-traveling, chauvinist psychopath.
I liked how cynical this movie was and how the protagonist's well-meaning idealism causes no end of problems, though, to be honest, it was never really her fault -- James Belushi's psychopath is an over-the-top, chilling villain that I really enjoyed.
Reading the plot's movie can't see a original story, because the time's travel is already used for many flick , but never in this way till to the story involve in car chase, gun fire and pursuit.
The lead character of the maniac Frank Lloyd is played to ever good James Belushi, that twisting his likely and coarse character of his beginner for show the worse late where the funny become aggressiveness and his beating is the mirror of his arrogance and ignorance till to prevail the madness.
Belushi is very natural in this role and he give a wonderful performance, while the good character is player by Kylie Travis as the psychiatrist cop Karen Warren enough credible the role but her excess use to the movement for express his feeling penalize the player that can be a good player.
Anyway for the people that wait a reflective and engaged work, this movie doesn't for you all of this is based to the action, but for anyone would spend 87 minutes with funny and exciting feeling, without too thinks.
Having said all that, if you enjoy time travel movies, "Retroactive" is certainly worth a look..
You might find this movie entertaining if you are under the age of 12 or one of the two people on the planet that think that Jim Belushi is the best actors ever.
The fine people who made this movie probably had a few hundred dollars, a borrowed camera and a weekend to kill in the desert after they showed up a week late to Burning Man. I personally am a fan of sci-fi and "shoot-em-up" action John Woo style movies, but this took the plot to Waterworld, the action of TankGirl, and the dialogue of New York Minuite.
A cross between "time machine"(at a small range) "the groundhog day" and a road movie,"Retroactive " is not to be taken seriously(!).Belushi's acting verges on a cartoon villain:he looks like Tweety Pie's Sylvester.There's some black humor,mainly in the first part;it tends to become repetitive after a while.
Anyway the place where Brian works is two-bit sci-fi and the scientist's dumb-founded looks are priceless.So is Belushi's big bad wolf swagger.But the prize goes to M.Emmet Walsh's Sam:"don't do it here ,please,take'em to the desert!" "Retroactive" has a couldn't-care- less side which is quite entertaining.But if one seeks meaning and brain stuff,one must move on..
Brian (Frank Whaley) is a lone scientist working on short term time travel back 20 minutes in a government super collider in Texas.
With its elaborate situations, intricately choreographed, prolonged and absolutely thrilling action scenes, and a thought-provoking script full of twists, "Retroactive" is a movie that creates a true sense of vertigo - in a good way.
Kylie Travis is a model action heroine and James Belushi is surprisingly good as the heavy (both literally and figuratively).
The sheer fact that time traveling on macro human-level can't be done according to what we know today would also dismiss great movies like Back to the Future, Terminator series, etc.
It is left as an exercise for the viewer to decide if the machine survives the movie.6/10 of interest to undiscriminating sci-fi fans or people who like to think they are being exposed to novel ideas!.
Any film that includes a situation where a day/event repeats itself over and over again will always be likened to 'Groundhog Day.' Retroactive isn't really like that at all, but it does borrow the idea of an event happening again and again.A woman, on her way through the deserts of Texas, breaks down.
Oh well, never mind...) can transport her twenty minutes back in time.The good news is that she's no longer pursued by James Belushi.
So, time and time again, she has to figure out the best way to stop his violent rampage while getting as few people shot by him as possible.Kylie Travis plays our heroine.
If they did, the film would only be about twenty-five minutes long.So, if you can suspend your disbelief long enough to get over than minor gripe, you'll actually find a solid enough little action movie.
It's nothing new and it would probably never make your top ten films of all time, but it'll certainly fill just under an hour and a half of your time if you're looking for some sci-fi action fun in the desert..
This is an entertaining B-Movie.It's about a cruel maniac (played by James Belushi) who tries to kill his wife and a woman who is trapped in his car.
I didn't knew that you could use Visual Basic to build a time-machine.But apart from that, it is an entertaining, exciting and interesting movie and therefore i give a rating of 7 from 10..
Save the beauty of (Shannon Whirry), who played (Rayanne), some catchy yet absurd action, and some good yet wasted direction from (Louis Morneau), this is frantic B movie from pedant hell.
I enjoyed it much but thank god there is Belushi in this movie the story is quite good even we have seen it before and more often SPOILER: going back in time.
but it is the Belushi who makes this film worth watching who gives actually everything to this movie of course together with the director I also love the desert scene and middle of nowhere big things but I mostly enjoyed like everyone else who liked this movie I think is psychopathic skills of Belushi and every time the time goes back it becomes more and more psychopathic and you can clearly see this going each time deeper and deeper into the madness just AWESOME.
Karen escapes and eventually winds up fleeing from Frank on foot and wouldn't you know it, she happens upon a conveniently located secret facility that turns out to be a time-travel machine.
James Belushi plays great the role of the bad guy, a mean-looking texan, thief and murderer.
Just like in many movies i've seen lately: the lack of originality.Having the chance of re-living a period of time, to be able to change something, is not at all something new.
Karen goes back twenty minutes in time and attempts to stop Frank from killing Rayanne with even more disastrous results.
Frank Whaley as the neurotic scientist plays the part just as well as the polar end of James Belushi as the loud-mouthed hired courier.If you want to see a few new faces and go on a ride back in time, rent Retroactive..
Really, one of the best time-travel movies you'll ever see.
On her way across country, her car breaks down on the desert highway and she is picked up by a bickering couple Frank (James Belushi in the best role he's ever had!) and Rayanne (played with heartbreaking solemnity by Shannon Whirry).
Turns out the facility is overseen by a brilliant scientist named Brian (solidly played by Frank Whaley), who has discovered time travel.
RETROACTIVE is a lost gem in the sci-fi/action/time-travel genre...Highly recommended viewing!.
Still, this is Kylie Travis's movie.I am not certain that it all comes to much, but I admire how the film seems coherent, at least until near the end.
AND besides, how is it that EVERY SINGLE TIME FRANK hits what he aims at, but NO ONE ELSE DOES?It reminds me of how awful The Butterfly Effect was with the same sort of time travel idea but everything that can go wrong does so and stupidly so.And at what point in time are we going to stop showing cars blowing up like this?
I think it is so funny because of the way Belushi's face looks during these intense moments of the movie.
In this film, the actions of Karen, the heroine of the piece, just keep making things worse and worse. |
tt0486731 | U | After sinking a merchant ship from an Allied convoy, German U-boat U-571 has her engines badly damaged by depth charges from a British destroyer. U-571's skipper Kapitänleutnant Gunther Wassner makes a distress call that is intercepted by American intelligence, so the US Navy has submarine S-33 modified to resemble a German resupply U-boat to steal the Enigma coding device and sink the U-571. As the crew of S-33 receive their assignment, the submarine's executive officer Lieutenant Tyler is unhappy about his promotion being blocked by commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Dahlgren.
During a storm, S-33's boarding party surprises and overwhelms the crew of U-571. After securing U-571, the American S-33 is torpedoed by the German resupply sub that was sent to aid U-571. Lieutenant Commander Dahlgren is blown off the deck of S-33 and seriously wounded, while struggling to stay afloat he refuses rescue and orders the boarding party on the captured U-boat to submerge. Lieutenant Tyler takes command of U-571 and dives below the surface where they engage and sink the resupply sub in an underwater battle.
After making repairs and restoring power Tyler decides to route the disabled submarine to Land's End in Cornwall, England. They are spotted by a German reconnaissance plane which is unaware that U-571 has been commandeered by Americans; a nearby German destroyer sends over a small contingent but right before boarders arrive, Tyler gives orders to fire a shot from the deck gun, destroying the German destroyer's radio room, and preventing it from reporting the capture of a German sub and its Enigma machine and code books. The sub dives underneath the German destroyer, which then begins to drop depth charges to sink U-571. U-571's original master Kapitänleutnant Wassner escapes captivity and kills one of Tyler's crew but he is subdued before he can sabotage the boat's engines.
Tyler attempts to trick the destroyer into stopping its attack by ejecting debris and a corpse out of a torpedo tube, faking their own destruction, however the German destroyer continues dropping depth charges. The crew then realizes that Kapitänleutnant Wassner, despite being shackled, is using Morse Code tapping to signal to the destroyer that the submarine was captured and knock him out. U-571, hiding at below 600 feet (180 m), is damaged by the high water pressure. Control of the main ballast tanks is lost and the ship ascends uncontrollably. Tyler orders crewman Trigger to submerse himself in the bilge underwater to repressurize the torpedo tubes.
Trigger uses an air hose to enter the flooded compartment. He closes the air valve to the torpedo tubes, but a second leak and broken valve are found, which Trigger can't reach. U-571 surfaces heavily damaged and begins to flood, unable to fire its last torpedo from its stern tubes. The destroyer gives chase and fires upon U-571 with its main guns; the first hit causes pipes to collapse, pinning Trigger's leg, after he has left the air hose behind. Unable to turn back, he reaches for the valve and closes it before he dies. The second the pressure is available, Tyler orders Tank to fire the final torpedo. The German destroyer is unable to take evasive action and is sunk. As the crew sigh in relief, Tank reports Trigger's death. U-571 has taken severe damage and will not remain afloat for long. The crew abandons the submarine with the Enigma in their possession. The crew watch U-571 as she slips beneath the waves. Floating aboard an inflatable lifeboat, they are eventually rescued by a US Navy PBY Catalina flying boat. | psychedelic, romantic | train | wikipedia | filled with wonder. How good it is to wake up and remember that animation does not mean Hollywood only. In the last years, we had Japanese Ghibli studios (soon under Disney's control apparently?!), Sylvain Chomet's Belleville triplettes and MICHEL OSLO (loved Azur & Asmar !!). I'm now discovering U by GRÉGOIRE SOLOTAREFF & SERGE ELISSALDE and falling in love with U. What a wonderful story ! After a couple of minutes you are not looking at a film anymore, you feel part of this colorful family, listening to their welcoming, friendly and warm-hearted chat. Little story, no showing-off but what a major film at the end. You can look find a lot of different things in this movie but even if you are just waiting for a bit of entertainment you will love it too. I know that you are probably struggling to keep a different animation style alive (this water-color is so vivid and full of life) and I wanted to thank you for keep trying. I'm not saying Pixar or Dreamworks are crap, but just that need something else too to keep being filled with wonder. Cheers guys !. Walt Disney on Acid: U. Anyone who complains about a lack of creativity in or an actual lack of 2D animation has but to go to France. Two of the films I have seen from the French animation scene in the last few years, The Triplets of Belleville and this film, U, are about as unconventional as you can get. And by "unconventional" I mean "really freaking trippy".U is not as good as The Triplets of Belleville, but it's quite a touching tale of loneliness, acceptance, and growing up. U, a little unicorn, becomes a part of Mona's life when she's very young. Mona is a mouse, by the way. She lives with her father and grand-mother (who is mean, as many kids sitting around me were generous enough to point out about a hundred times). Their existence is shaken up with the arrival of the Ouais-Ouais (Yeah-Yeahs, if translated literally), who are
I don't what the hell they are, actually. One of a lizard, another is a cat, that I know.In a way, U represents Mona's innocence, which is taken away by one of the new arrivals. I was surprised to see surprisingly frank and almost sexy scenes in a film for young kids, but then I remember that it's from France. Here in Geneva the film is rated 0, which means anyone can come see it. I don't quite agree with that. A neighboring state has it rated 7 and up, which is more correct. There isn't much of a story, but most of it is metaphoric anyway, I guess. The grand-mother's intolerance of the new arrivals can be considered a good analogy for conservative Europeans who reject any new cultures coming into their countries.It's all good and well, but it still made the film slightly unpleasant to watch at times. And the fact that the grand-mother has to DIE for everyone to finally be happy and be able to do what they want is
a little disturbing, but often very much true. I've known and heard about many parents who were strict to the point that their death elicited a few tears, sure, but mostly a sigh of relief.There's a certain complexity behind the film's gorgeous imagery and narrative simplicity, and in the end the good outweighs the bad. So if you're looking for something different in animation, or are just tired of your kids watching The Little Mermaid for the 50th time, take a look The Triplets of Belleville and U. Any kind of mind-altering substance beforehand is also recommended.7/10 |
tt0054890 | The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse | Madariaga "The Centaur" (Pomeroy Cannon), a harsh but popular Argentine landowner, has a German son-in-law whom he dislikes and a French one whose family he openly favors. He is particularly fond of his grandson Julio (Rudolph Valentino), with whom he often carouses at seedy dives in the Boca district of Buenos Aires. In one of these bars, the movie's famous tango sequence occurs. A man and a woman (Beatrice Dominguez) are dancing the tango. Julio strides up and asks to cut in. The woman stares at Julio alluringly. The man brushes him off, and they resume dancing. Julio then challenges the man and strikes him, knocking him into some tables and out of the scene. Julio and the woman then dance a dramatic version of the tango that brings cheers from the people in the establishment. Following the dance, the woman sits on Julio's lap. Madariaga then slides to the floor, drunk. The woman laughs at Madariaga. Julio casts her aside in scorn and helps his grandfather home.
Sometime later, Madariaga dies. The extended family breaks up, one half returning to Germany and the other to France.
In Paris, Julio enjoys a somewhat shiftless life as a would-be artist and sensation at the local tea dances. He falls in love with Marguerite Laurier (Alice Terry), the unhappy and much younger wife (by an arranged marriage) of Etienne Laurier, a friend of Julio's father. The affair is discovered, and Marguerite's husband agrees to give her a divorce to avoid a scandal. It seems as though Julio and Marguerite will be able to marry, but both end up getting caught up in the start of the Great War.
Marguerite becomes a nurse in Lourdes. The bravery of Etienne is reported, and he is blinded in battle. Etienne happens to end up at the hospital where she is working, and Marguerite attends to him there. Julio travels to Lourdes to see Marguerite and instead sees her taking care of Etienne. Julio, ashamed of his wastrel life, enlists in the French Army.
In the meantime, the German Army overruns Julio's father Marcelo's Marne Valley castle in the First Battle of the Marne. Marcelo is forced to host a German general and staff in the castle. One of Marcelo's three German nephews is amongst the staff and tries to protect him, but Marcelo is arrested after a melee involving an officer's assault of a woman. Marcello is to be executed in the morning, but his life is spared when the French Army counterattacks in the "Miracle of the Marne". The castle is destroyed by the French counterattack.
Four years later Julio has survived and become renowned for his bravery in the trenches at the front. During a mission in no man's land, he encounters his last surviving German cousin. Moments later, they are both killed by a shell. Back in Paris, Marguerite considers abandoning the blinded Etienne, but Julio's ghost guides her to continue her care for him.
The ending scene shows Marcelo Desnoyers mourning over his son's grave. The man who lived upstairs from Julio watches over him. Marcelo asks him, "did you know my son?" The man, with a remorseful expression, lifts his arms, forming the shape of a cross with his body, and says "I knew them all!" He then points to the sky and shows Marcelo the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding away into the clouds. With this, the man assures him that "Peace has come—but the Four Horsemen will still ravage humanity—stirring unrest in the world—until all hatred is dead and only love reigns in the heart of mankind." | romantic, murder | train | wikipedia | Most take exception to the casting of Glenn Ford and classify the film as one of Minnelli's lesser efforts.
It's not that I'm Glenn Ford's greatest fan, but I think he gives one of his finest performances here and is one of the movie's strengths.
The new version tries to be 'more' than a war or anti-war film...The quality of the Argentinean family with its members fighting on both sides (French and German), revealed great nationalism in their habits of thought and expression...
They put everything at the stake, specifically two important talents, Julio (Glenn Ford) and Heinrich (Karl Boehm), trapped in this entertaining remake of "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."Karl Boehm, the ambitious Colonel Heinrich, member of the S.S. envies his cousin's independence...
Awakening in Times of War. In Argentina, the family man Julio Madariaga (Lee J.
One of his daughters, Luisa Desnoyers (Harriet MacGibbon), has married the Frenchman immigrant Marcelo Desnoyers (Charles Boyer) and they have one son, the playboy Julio (Glenn Ford), and one daughter, the gorgeous student of Sorbonne Chi Chi (Yvette Mimieux).
His other daughter, Elena von Hartrott (Kathryn Givney), has married the German Karl von Hartrott (Paul Lukas), and they have three sons: Heinrich (Karl Boehm), Gustav and Franz.In 1938, Heinrich returns from Germany for a family reunion and when he tells that he has joined the SS, the displeased Julio Madariaga has a heart attack and dies.
Did anyone at MGM screen that before signing him up for this expensive remake of the silent classic The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse?Whatever else Glenn Ford was and I'm a big fan, he just doesn't cut it as the second Rudolph Valentino.
Best performance in the film is that of Paul Henreid who plays Thulin's husband who while he's off to war and a POW camp, she's fooling around in Paris with Ford.Now you can believe she'd have found Valentino irresistible, but not Glenn Ford..
I'll rather think most of the viewers haven't had the opportunity to watch this movie and the few who had, have not been able to appreciate the admirable qualities of this film.
Vincente Minnelli's updating of Vicente Blasco Ibanez's novel is an absorbing melodrama which, as another viewer has noted, must have been watched by Visconti before he made his film The Damned a few years later.The film begins with the Desnoyers family gathering for dinner following the return of Heinrich (Karl Boehm) from a spell in Germany where, to the disgust of grandfather Julio, he has been indoctrinated into the ideology of the Nazi party.
Despite this, the lines are clearly drawn between the two sides of the family: Heinrich and his father Karl (Paul Lukas) on one side, Julio No' 2 (Glenn Ford) and little sister Chi Chi (Yvette Mimieux) on the other.Julio is a playboy with no interest in the war; he prowls swish parties for available women, sidling between arguments of the impending war as he closes in on his prey.
In fact, he is so badly miscast that he seems to be adrift throughout the film, as if trying to figure out how he was ever chosen for the role (Minnelli wanted Alain Delon, apparently, and we can only imagine what an altogether different interpretation he would have given to the part).The predicament in which the Desnoyer family find themselves is wholly absorbing as the war slowly tears its members apart.
Most imaginable sea-changes in personal opinions are explored during the course of the story, from the discovery of a hidden integrity on Julio's part, to disillusion on the part of Karl, the WW1 veteran who allows himself to be swept up in the triumphalism of the Nazi's rise only to find his son becoming irrevocably morally corrupted by the same experiences.The movie never won any awards, which is probably how it should be, but it provides an intelligent and literary exploration of a fascinating subject that makes it easy to watch despite its bloated running time..
A film that's always been held in a great deal of affection here in Spain (and not just because it's a Blasco Ibañez story, nor because hearing it dubbed into Spanish relieves us of Angela Lansbury).
The "four horsemen" vision manages to stay just this side of Monty Python (with the aid of swirling clouds), but doesn't save the opening scenes of the film from lurching full-pelt into overplayed melodrama (the death of the patriarch Madariaga: one too many thunderclaps for a start), and doesn't tie in too well with what was eventually left in from Blasco Ibañez's tale (pestilence?
The plot is 100% predictable, and the rest of the acting is competent without being memorable.I must admit, though, I was impressed by the very Minnelli-esque sequence which took Ford's eyes staring at a scene of dancing and frivolity between Nazi officers and collaborationist women, superimposing the two and mixing in newsreel-style war footage; likewise, Henreid's heartstopping portrayal, in one scene, of a man almost broken by torture, emerging from a Gestapo jail; and the finely judged acceleration at the end towards the story's predictable but satisfying climax.
I recall enjoying it, nevertheless, and much of my pleasure was due to Minnelli's always inventive visual style, the expensive mounting in CinemaScope and Metrocolor, the interesting cast (not all of them well-chosen, especially the deadly-dull Glenn Ford, who was being assigned to what seemed like every other big budget M-G-M picture during that period), the astute use of Angela Lansbury to dub Ingrid Thulin's lines (though I'm sure that Miss Thulin's own voice, even if she had learned her lines phonetically, would have been preferable), and Andre Previn's very expressive score.
A student riot looks like a dance number minus the jazz, and there's a crucial scene with Paul Lukas trapped behind his desk and Charles Boyer at loose ends in the rest of the room that is as clumsy a piece of film-making as any major director has ever taken responsibility for.The film is too long, too slow, too ham-fisted, too under-energized.
When you're watching Minnelli's work today you cannot help but thinking that he had a strong influence on Luchino Visconti's "la caditi dei degli" (1969)Actually the two movies begin the same way:a family whose members are tearing each other part because some of them go nazi.It does not matter if the scene takes place in Argentina in Minnelli's work:we find the same madness,the same baroque side and similarities abound:the old man's death echoes to that of the patriarch of the Essenbeck family in " la caduit dei degli" .Karl Boehm's character inspired Helmut Griem's one.And Ingrid Thulin is featured in both films,although she does not appear in the first thirty minutes,the best..The dinner scene remains impressive today:if it certainly inspired Visconti later ,itself takes probably its roots in Frank Borzague's masterwork "mortal storm" (1940),which tackled long before his two peers the subject of the family and nazism.But Minnelli added gaudy colors ,typical of the fifties melodrama ,and special effects -the four horsemen who will come back ,particularly later when chic people are dancing while war is raging outside.Actually this scene is so strong as the rest of the movie seems like a let-down afterward .All that takes place in Paris does not rise above average.The film never recaptures the intensity of its beginning,except for its very last minutes,with the final confrontation between the two cousins -it's difficult to admit,though ,that Glenn Ford and Karl Boehm are relatives.If a strong beginning and an effective ending make a good film ,you can say that Minnelli's extravaganza is worth a watch.It's not among his best works ,but if critic Georges Sadoul said "the first sequence is sheer aggressive bad taste" ,do not forget that "good taste" does not necessarily make great works..
If Vincente Minnelli is to be praised in this film, it his decision to film Ibanez' novel and to cast the fascinating Ingrid Thulin--who has contributed substantially to Bergman's early work and to Swedish theatre.
It is a matter of historical tragedy that Thulin's own voice was not used and Angela Lansbury's voice was used instead.Lee J Cobb as the patriarch and Glenn Ford as Julio were avoidable decisions.
Although this lavish production of a Hemmingwayesque story tried very hard, the casting of the over 45 year old Glenn Ford was a big mistake.
Cobb) who reunites his diverse members as French (Charles Boyer and his sons Glenn Ford and Yvette Mimieux) as well as German (Paul Lukas , Karl Boehn) but with the Nazi outbreak the events get worse .
Meanwhile , in the city of lovers , the day the clocks stopped turning and the world stood still , the protagonist (Glenn Ford) falls in love with the resistance leader's (Paul Henreid) wife (Ingrid Thulin , allegedly dubbed by Angela Lansbury)This dramatic film is packed with an excellent cast , thrills , suspense , emotion , betrayal , a loving triangle and historical events .
Employing first-class MGM technicians , including Erich Von Stroheim , Minnelli continued directing musicals as ¨The band wagon¨ (1953) , ¨Kismet¨, ¨The pirate¨ , ¨ An American in Paris¨ , ¨Brigadoon¨ as well as melodramas as ¨Some came running¨ (1958) , ¨Madame Bovary¨, ¨The sandpiper¨ and urban comedies like ¨Designing woman¨ (1957), occasionally even working on two films simultaneously .
The problem with this is that by knowing how the war ended and what happened twenty years later when one reads the book one comes to the conclusion that if the Germans had learnt the lesson the tragedy of World War II could have been avoided.
Andre Previn's musical score one of his best.Studio troubles, politics seemed to interfere with the production.I wanted it the film to be better, but still give it a 10.Boyer is great and so is Tuilin, in the role of the war wife.
I don't have advantage of viewing the original "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" in its entirety with Valentino but this one was a disaster because of the miscasting, most notably Glenn Ford playing the part of Julio Desnoyers.The movie follows the twists and turns of an Argentinian family with the patriarch Julio Madariaga being played by Lee J Cobb as they wend their way through World War II.
Other than Cobb's performance at the start, Andre Previn's music and the ending it reminds me of sitting down to a sumptuous dinner created by a chef only to discover that the food wasn't nearly as good as it looked.
Not having seen the infamous Valentino starring silent movie, nor read the novel, my hope for a dark brooding epic remains somewhat dashed.The quality on TV was fairly soft, maybe not relevant with the DVD here but it didn't help my viewing, nor the over 3 hour running time, with ads.What does strike one is that it's a movie that's trying to get out from its limitations; Cinemascope at the cinema at the time, with its stereo soundtrack and Metrocolour (very washy on TCM), score by Andre Previn and the best part, the lush, majestic and often attractive globe- trotting location cinematography by Milton R.
Krasner, it must have been a very different beast on release.I mention this TV version so much as the DVD is expensive and there aren't many alternative sellers and so for many people, it may well remain their only method of viewing.The odd and poorly cast set of stars is well known; Glenn Ford rarely shines or engages however and one feels that there is a great story somewhere - there's also an epic and expensive feel - director Vincente Minnelli has made some fabulous films - but one has to try just too hard to glean anything from it.To me, this means that it just floats by and one doesn't give it the attention it deserves.
A listless Glenn Ford in an anachronistic hat looks bewildered much of the time, as if he stepped onto the set of a different movie.
The book and silent movie tell the story of family members from neutral Argentina who get drawn into this maw of hell.
At some point, it looks like everyone just wants to quit and go home.The film tries to tell a story which is out of sync with the time and situation in which it is located.
Actually this movie wasn't enough understood by audiences and also have a low ratings from IMDb's reviewers,there some weak points to discuss as the age of Julio around forty years old,that's a problem really,but the main message is about peace,still...the four horseman are the Ghosts of the war bringing suffering,looses,and pain...breaking families whose are the key reason the entire production,another good point is about french's pride,when Julio saw a lot of young french women surrounded of German officers he realize that make something to do and accept to struggles against the invaders,more when your father beg for Chi Chi's life is quite touching...and finally the final clash between two cousins on a long frozen friendship due they are in opposites sides shown how world gone wild!!!
After a shaky start, this movie gains momentum and delivers a powerful second half.The story starts just before World War 2.
The German side become confirmed Nazis, while the French connection supports the Resistance.One hurdle the film struggles to overcome is Cobb's over-the-top performance as The Old One.The movie opens as The Old One demonstrates his love of life.
However, just as the crew of a ship in danger of capsizing can often save the situation by jettisoning excess cargo, twenty minutes into the film, The Old One throws a tantrum, staggers out into the rain and collapses face down in the "rich, dark soil of Argentina", exiting the movie.Glenn Ford plays Julio Desnoyers, the favourite grandson of The Old One. Ford was cast against type, he was such a solid screen presence that he seems awkward in the earlier scenes as the feckless, politically neutral playboy, but he eventually gives the film a degree of substance as his character gains a conscience and takes a stance.This must have been just about the last hurrah for actors such as Charles Boyer and Paul Lukas.
One thing I remember reading at the time was that Parisians were taken aback with the recreation of the Germans marching past the Arc de Triomphe - the war had been over for 17 years, but memories were still raw.Although the film is based on a novel and a silent film, the story in both those cases involved World War 1.
Can you imagine Glenn Ford playing the role of a college age student just flitting about Argentina and Europe during the start of WWII?
On the other hand, Glenn Ford, who was also forced onto Minnelli by MGM, is far better than critics would have you believe.
It's true that seeing Ford as an Argentine is a bit much to swallow, but he was a decent actor and had a likable screen persona that was the essence of his Julio character in "Four Horsemen." Julio, as a man who intends to stay neutral throughout WWII, and is someone who does not alter his position until far into the film, needs something to keep the audience interested.
Although he doesn't do the tango or blow smoke through his nose like Valentino did in the original silent film, Glenn Ford managed to convey the masculine charm but shallow life choices Julio's character demanded and keeps us interested in him until his political conscience awakens.I have only seen parts of the silent version, and never read Vicente Blasco Ibanez' novel, so I was not comparing the film to anything it could have been but wasn't.
I just saw a story that effectively portrayed how war and the Nazi party in particular, destroyed two families and ripped to shreds the love lives of three passionate people.
This story was told well by film and players, with the machinations of the Nazi party, life in occupied Paris, and long held family grudges all intertwining in believable and dramatic ways.Equally impressive were the performances of Lee J.
Cobb as Julio's Argentine grandfather, who has a very strong scene at the beginning of the film, but whose presence and legacy is felt all the way to the end; Charles Boyer, absolutely heart breaking as Julio's father; Paul Lukas, as Julio's uncle whose dedication to family or Nazi party is given the ultimate test; and Paul Henreid, as the husband of Marguerite (Ingrid Thulin's character), whose dedication to the resistance becomes not only his undoing, but that of Julio's, his rival for the love of Marguerite.
Cobb's grandfather character describes the figures, which we initially see as brass figurines - from the book of revelations, Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death - that stand before the mouth of a large fireplace in the family's Argentine home.
Maybe not in the direct combat, but it affects the whole of humanity.In this film, the family patriarch, Julio Madariaga, had tried to do just that – isolate his family from war.
Cobb as Madariaga, and Glenn Ford as Julio Desnoyers – all were excellent.
He wanted it to be set during World War I, as was the original story and the 1921 silent film based on the book.
This film is quite different than the 1921 movie in characters and plot, especially with the love interest of Julio.
Is it impossible to show the horror of the Four Horsemen if Glenn Ford is 46 (Conquest, War, Famine, and Death)?
I usually find Glenn Ford an asset to almost any film, and this is one of his better performances as one of the sons of Argentina who gets caught up in a world at war.
Ingrid Thulin's performance as the wife of a member of the French resistance...and lover to Glenn Ford's character...was superb; wish she had done more American films in her career. |
tt0113540 | Kids | The film opens with Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick) and a 12-year-old girl making out on a bed. With no adults around, Telly, who is slightly older, persuades the girl, who is a virgin, to have sex with him. Afterwards, he meets his friend, Casper (Justin Pierce), and they talk about his sexual experience very crudely. Telly has taken to only having sex with virgins. They go inside a local store, where Casper shoplifts a bottle of malt liquor as Telly distracts the cashier. Looking for drugs, food and a place to hang out, they head to their friend Paul's (Sajan Bhagat) apartment, though they express dislike of him on the way there. They arrive at Paul's house, talk about sex and smoke marijuana while watching a skate video (Video Days). Casper inhales nitrous oxide out of balloons, which Telly considers dangerous. The scene intercuts with a group of girls, among them Ruby (Rosario Dawson) and Jennie (Chloë Sevigny), talking about sex—each gender contradicting what the other gender says, especially about oral sex.
Ruby and Jennie mention that they were recently tested for STDs at Ruby's request, though Jennie only got tested to keep Ruby company. Ruby's test is negative, though she has had multiple sexual encounters, many of them unprotected. Jennie tests positive for HIV. She says she has had sex only once, with Telly. Jennie spends the rest of the film trying to find Telly, to prevent him from unknowingly passing it on. Telly and Casper walk to Telly's house and steal money from Telly's mother, who is preoccupied with taking care of her new baby. They go to Washington Square Park and buy a dime bag of marijuana from a Rastafari. They then meet up with a few friends to talk and smoke, one of whom gives a blunt-rolling tutorial. As they do, Casper and many others taunt a gay couple passing through the park. On the side, Telly briefly talks to Misha, a girl who strongly dislikes Casper, calling him a jerk. As Casper rides on a skateboard, he carelessly bumps into a man, who furiously threatens him. He pushes Casper, but is struck in the back of the head with a skateboard by Harold (Harold Hunter), a friend of Telly and Casper's, causing him to collapse. A number of other skaters join in, beating, stomping, and hitting the man with their skateboards until he is rendered unconscious by a final blow to the head by Casper; Telly then spits on the man.
While discussing whether or not they killed the man at the park, Telly and some of the group from the park pick up a 13-year-old girl named Darcy (Yakira Peguero), the virginal younger sister of an acquaintance, whom Telly wants to have sex with next. He convinces her to go with them to a pool. The other girls engage in pseudo-lesbian kissing and flirtation, but Darcy is restrained, though not shocked by the others' behavior. Telly and the group go to an unsupervised party at the house of another friend, Steven (Jon Abrahams). Meanwhile, Jennie makes her way to Washington Square Park. Here, she talks to Misha, who tells her about Telly's possible whereabouts. Jennie goes to a rave club called NASA trying to find Telly. She runs into a raver boy, Fidget (Harmony Korine credit as Avi, his brother), who shoves a pill in her mouth, which he refers to as "a euphoric blockbuster drug that's supposed to make special K look weak". It turns out to be a depressant (similar to Valium or Xanax). The pill kicks in and Jennie eventually finds out that Telly is at the party at Steven's house.
Jennie arrives at the party only to learn she is too late, as she discovers Telly having sex with Darcy, thus exposing Darcy to HIV. Emotionally drained and the drug still affecting her, Jennie cries and passes out on a couch among the other sleeping partygoers. A drunken Casper proceeds to rape Jennie unprotected as she sleeps, unknowingly exposing himself to HIV as well. The film ends with a poignant look at several early-morning junkies on the streets of New York City, as well as a soliloquy by Telly about how without sex he would have nothing to live for. The final shot features Casper drinking liquor first thing in the morning and looking at the camera and saying "Jesus Christ, what happened?" | tragedy, cult, violence | train | wikipedia | I do believe that Larry Clark has a strage obsession with teenage nudity, in every film I've seen of his there has been tons of teenagers having sex, sometimes it spoils the film.Overall the film is powerful and moving, watch it..
This is not a super super film, but it stays with you, which was sort of the point - especially if you saw it at the time it was released, before the onslaught of "dark" teen movies over the decade following.
There are two highly, and deservedly, controversial movies dealing with the issues of drug and alcohol abuse, underage sex, lack of control, and the preteen and teenage minority of urban America.
And I can fairly say now that as a reviewer and film-goer, I can forgive Mr. Clark."Kids" is set in the drug-riddled streets of New York.
He balances the explicit and implicit with professional craftsmanship."Kids" is a very tough movie to watch and tough to enjoy, but I must confess that it is, to my mind, a truly great film.
He's also got some very strong performances from his cast which include Leo Fitzpatrick, a very young Rosario Dawson, Chloe Sevingy, and the late Justin Pierce whose brilliant performance reminds me so much of the scumbags that I had the displeasure to know in my adolescent years.
The film doesn't have much of a direct screenplay (mostly dialogue you would hear while around friends) which is good for the type of movie being made here.
The movie makes me want to lock any future kids I end up having in a box, and not let them out until they are 30.
When I saw this movie I was 13 years old, and back then I manage to understand the message that the movie was trying to send.Sometimes it doesn't have to be a "why" or a "how" for people get in this kinda life, you just have to grow up in the middle of it...This movie is all about life, the feeling of emptiness you get near the end credits, and you start to think how did the world become so messed up.
Yes some (many?) young people like sex and drugs but how many live like this?But the film wants to over-blow things simply because the shock value adds value to the subject.
So we have rape, beatings, AIDS being spread, children barely 10 smoking weed etc and the film has a mix of shock but also a sort of sensationalisation about it like Clarke is rubbing his hands behind the camera ad directing, saying `worse, worse, more, more etc'.
The rest are just all there to `shock' us `oh, look' says Larry Clark `they're doing drugs, there's girls kissing girls, there's fights and shocking sex isn't it all lovely and terrible!!!?'.Overall it's worth a watch maybe once simply because this is a lost world that I'll hopefully never see.
The sex scenes are rather drawn out and some of the situations are very disturbing and very graphic, but there really is kids like this in real life.
The crux of the story, an HIV infected teenager intending to deflower two thirteen-year-old virgins in the space of one day, is rendered difficult to believe by the casting of Leo Fitzpatrick.
Consider that his subsequent films are very hard to defend artistically, and you will struggle to derive real depth from KIDS.Other less charitable critics have called him "pedophilic" in his sustained exploitation of good looking youth.
I'm really surprised that people find this shocking.Content aside, the film is badly directed with lousy sound and has virtually no plot--just a bunch of teens wandering around getting high, drinking etc etc.
Yet other than the shock value of having a character, infected with AIDS, who lives to deflower virgins, much of "Kids" comes across as shallow and tedious..
Just when you think it can't get worse, it does.The only reason Kids was thought of as Disturbing was because adults do not like admitting that their children have sex.
I didn't get that wrong?If you are a real-life version of one of these kids, I understand how you might like the movie, but I doubt it's going to change your lifestyle.
This movie was unreal.And even the breast feeding scene was silly -- like most welfare mothers sit around for hours waiting for a people to be there to watch before she whips out her milk jug...
Director: Larry Clark, Script:Harmony Korine, Cast: Chole Sevigny and others I almost bought this movie because I have Bully so I was curious about this because I have heard a lot about it.
Just when I think I've seen the worst movie ever made, along comes a new contender called KidsKids makes Reefer Madness look like a Ken Burns documentary, except that Reefer Madness was watchable.
I can only imagine the magnitude of buyer's regret worldwide that has been caused by this one film alone.The formula for creating a movie like Kids is embarrassingly simple (and simple-minded): Don't bother to hire a screenwriter, gather a huge cast of the most foul, unattractive young people you can find, tell them to do and say the most shocking, degenerate things their warped imaginations can come up with, film their actions while drunk with no steadycam anywhere to be found, and insert some credits at the beginning and end.
Oh, and throw in a bunch of children smoking pot and having sex to appeal to the niche market that really, really enjoys watching five year old girls prance around in beauty contests.Then create a doosie of a PR campaign that would make any performance artist proud--one that convinces even the critics that the film is so profound, if you don't like it, that's only because you're just not clever enough to "get" it.The sad thing is, I'm not trying to be funny.
After all, Siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs up, and Siskel and Ebert are honorable men.As for me, I'm going to keep looking for a real filmmaker, one who bothers to film real kids who are experiencing real troubled lives, so that we might really learn something, even if it means no one makes a great deal of money or manufactures a career out of stale, rancid, thin air..
I feel if the parents would take their kids to see this film, then maybe thing would be better in the world, but we'll never know, cause parents are to scared to reveal that kind of information to their children.
Director Larry Clark created the most cruel and sad film about kids being pushed into things they shouldn't do.
He just doing films that are probably based on his experiences and what he's heard and seen.THE PLOTPowerful and passionate, colorful and compelling, Larry Clark's "Kids" is 24 frenetic hours in the life of a group of teenagers, and like most teenagers, they think their invincible.This is a great film, I give it ****(out of 4 stars)..
I think "KIDS" should be shown and be a requirement in every school across the nation since it's simply the best, most realistic film ever made about teenagers' attitudes and behavior about sex.
Larry Clark might think he's made a movie that will get people all over the world talking .
But to be fair to Clark there's no such thing as bad publicity so any movie that sickens an audience with AIDS , rape , drug taking and violence all involving characters in their early teens can only be a good thing .
Clark might also think he's making a naturalistic movie by using a cast of total unknowns many of whom have no acting experience but the performances aren't natural - They're simply awful .
Fitzpatrick does deserve some faint praise since he's the most outstanding non actor in a movie overwhelmed by outstanding non actors I have tried to appreciate Clark's later works like TEENAGE CAVEMAN but this director always goes out of his way to shock his audience usually with 15 years old saying " I want to f*ck you so much baby " and then getting down to the dirty deed while taking drugs .
I thought the little kids doing drugs and all of the sex were just there because it was a movie.
Now that I have grown up and i see all of this stuff happening, the movie truly shows how scary life is for stupid-ass kids like us.
I'm working on my PhD in clinical psychology and the professor had some crazy notion that watching this stupid movie would be an insightful way to learn about kids.
*If you haven't seen it and don't want it spoiled, stop reading here.*At the end, I don't know about you, but I was almost relieved that all the one-dimensional characters (everyone in the movie) weren't gonna make it.
Yes, I know everything that goes on in this movie happens in real life, but the plot didn't seem believable in any way.Bottom Line: Stay away from this movie..
And so it is a culture, in your face, of adolescent ignorance and need, with music and camaraderie and drugs filtering through the movie start to finish.On the one hand, it's disturbing to see these young people so callous and so ignorant, and yet so willing to go down or be consumed, through best friend pressure and peer pressure.
I don't need to like the characters in a movie to enjoy it, but give them some personality- most of the characters in "Kids" were completely forgettable.
Without a real plot it gets boring fast, and is it just me or do movies like this get made only for the shock value?
Instead of trying to tell a good story it shows the lives of a group of kids living in New York City who find nothing better to do but have sex, get stoned and beat people up.
Kinda scary when you think about.This movie is clearly an attempt to accurately portray teen life in the big city.
That simply didn't worked for me.Would this movie stop teenagers from having unprotected-sex, drinking alcohol and taking drugs?
He hasn't got the right look and talent for his role, so his character doesn't quite work and is not believable enough.In short, it works well as a view on the life of teenagers but when it comes to being powerful, controversial, making a statement and leaving a message it isn't good enough.
I realize that violence is a part of life, especially in downtown New York City, but the violence as well as the excessive partying scenes and the gruesome sex was drawn out much more than necessary, and this took a lot away from the film.
While not a completely worthless film, Kids just has so few redeeming values that it is hardly worth the time to watch it.
I've always thought that the closer films are to reality, the better they are, but the thing that really ruined Kids was that it focused so hard on the drugs and the sex and the violent elements of reality, while virtually ignoring every other part of these kids' lives.
It is so real that it will probably be offensive to some people but the point the movie tries to make is that the real lives of a lot of teenagers are full of some shocking experiences.
This movie hits you immediately with the very first scene being the 16 year old guy who is the main character making out, then having sex with a 12 year old girl.
The movie tries to depict a typical day in the life of some screwed up teens but there is no real point other than to maybe make you angry or concerned.
Older viewers would probably not like this movie but some teenagers would probably watch it and say, "Yeah, whats the big deal?".
The movie tended to glorify these "kids", and paint a picture that all teens are like this.
I'm just glad I saw "Bully" before "Kids",because if it had been the other way around,I would have ended up missing one of the most intense movie-going experiences of 2000.Larry Clark's first feature is a foul mess,populated by a group of foul-mouthed little punks,who could all probably benefit from a good long stretch in the Reformatory.Don't waste your time.Life's too short..
The Movie is Entertaining Beginning to End. At the start it looks like a little bit of underage kids doing adult things.
The film's script, written by (at the time) eighteen year old Harmony Kormine, is a real treat, however there's not much else great about the movie other than that.Kids follows three teenagers in New York City during one average day over the summer.
Rosario Dawson also can be seen in her first acting role as one of Jennie's friends.Kormine's script is the one thing that saves Kids from being totally bad.
The acting is mediocre from the male performances, however it is not really all that hard to see why Chloe Sevigny and Rosario Dawson became famous for this movie.Recent realist films have definitely borrowed a lot from Kids.
The plot of "Kids" is such that you need to care about the characters if this movie is to be successful on any level.
Secondly, we follow Jennie (Chloe Sevigny) on her quest to find Telly and inform him that he has given her AIDS before he can spread the disease even farther.These events are for the most part seen without judgment and without comment, and this gives them a greater power than so many films which feel the need to moralize.
I just feel that the film don't give good reason for kids to behave this way.
Kids is one of those films whose every scene, every line of dialogue, every moment on screen is entirely there to shock the viewer.It doesn't serve any sort of worthwhile purpose, not even as entertainment which is what movies should be.
This is one of those movies that sets out to paint a "real" picture of what it's like for kids today.
We spent most of the movie sarcastically yelping, "This is SO like our lives!" You want to know what real teenagers do?
Of course Fitzpatrick and best friend Justin Pierce (about as rotten a kid as his pal) move all around the city and are near impossible to track down as we see teenagers on an endless ride of sex, drugs, parties and general mischief.
Those people that are talkin bad about this movie must really have not have a real teenage life.
I have to say that if you think that this movie is bad because 1)kids don't act like this, 2) the language is foul, or 3) the characters are shallow, you really are uninformed or missed the point.
The characters in this film feel two-dimensional, never acting believably like teenagers.
"Do you know what your kids do when you're not around?" No you don't because you aren't ever around, you are being a bad parent, maybe if you raised your child normally and taught him/her whats right and wrong, acted as a guide and a loving parent, that wouldn't happen.I bought this movie for seven bucks thinking it would be more along the lines of requiem for a dream.
This film is depressing to watch,seeing these kids drink,smoking weed,and having unsafe sex.
Hopefully,parents can watch this film,then have one hell of a serious talk with their children about the dangers of unprotected sex and drug use.
At the same time, Fitzpatrick is on a mission to deflower nubile young Yakira Peguero (as Darcy)
"Kids" is an incredibly rich drama from virgin (i.e. first time) director Larry Clark.Handling this kind of material well isn't easy, and usually results in a stupid, offensive movie - though, probably, many still found it offensive.
'K.********* Kids (5/22/95) Larry Clark ~ Leo Fitzpatrick, Justin Pierce, Chloe Sevigny, Rosario Dawson.
Kids is not a movie for everyone it is dark and at times uncomfortable to watch especially the opening scene and the last scene.
Kids today are curious, and this film exploits the innocence of adolescence to a the underground world of drugs and unprotected sex.
It might seem dated when watched almost 20 years after it came out, but it was showing a side of Kids that many movies were ignoring.
You can look at the film Kids in a lot of different ways.
A difficult film with an uncomfortable subject but that is why it works.Directed by controversial director Larry Clark, Kids from 1995 was originally given an NC-17 rating but was then released unrated.
The plot tells the controversial story of a group of poor teens who's life consists of mostly drugs, alcohol, sex and AIDS.The movie has a thin plot and even thinner character development.
The setting is very effective and helps makes the story.Kids is an interesting movie that depicts the dangers of our world and is a wake-up call to parents.
I saw this movie many years ago, I was probably 18 at the time and I never forgot Talie's face, the disgusting kid, nor the last scene.
I guess director Larry Clark wanted to show what kids do, but I think that this depiction of young people is particularly helpful.
I didn't know what to expect from this movie - all I'd heard about it was it was controversial and dealt with teens, sex, and drugs.I was quite pleasantly surprised, as Kids is poignant, realistic, and to the point in its portrayal of the extreme culture that some people are born into.
It feels like you are watching actual footage from a documentary on troubled youth thats what make this movie so great.
Kids, one of the most controversial and unsettling movies of the 1990s, introduces two new names to the world of underground and independent cinema: director Larry Clark and writer Harmony Korine. |
tt0096037 | Satisfaction | Jennie Lee (Justine Bateman) is the lead singer of an all-girl rock band in Baltimore named The Mystery. At her high school graduation, Jennie gives her valedictorian speech at the ceremony while fellow band member, bass guitarist Daryle (Julia Roberts) is accepting a marriage proposal from her high school sweetheart Frankie. Jennie and the band are planning to go to Florida to audition for a gig at the beach for the summer. However problems seem to plague their plans when, first Jennie’s older brother (and caretaker) doesn’t want to let Jennie go because he feels it will dissuade her from continuing her college plans; second, the band’s keyboardist has unexpectedly left the band, and third, Mooch (the drummer) insulted a gang member who then in turn destroyed the band's van. Mooch (Trini Alvarado) tells the band that she borrowed another van from her friend but in fact, assisted by the help of guitarist Billy (Britta Phillips), stole the gang member's personal van. After recruiting a male keyboard player Nickie (Scott Coffey), the band heads south to audition for the gig. Arriving at the nightclub after closing hours, the band fears they have missed their audition. Not wanting to have to return, the band finds the owner Martin Falcon’s (Liam Neeson) home address and decide to make him listen to them play. However, when they arrive at his beach house, they let themselves in and find Falcon is not home. They do find Hamlet, Falcon’s pet Doberman Pincher dog, who, after Billy sings him a song, becomes fast friends with the band. Falcon arrives, drunk and assumes the band are thieves. Explaining who they are, Jennie pleads with Falcon to listen to their music, but Falcon informs them that they are in fact a day early, the auditions for the gig isn’t until the next night. Having very little money and no place to stay, Falcon offers them the room that the winners are supposed to be staying at for the summer. The “room” turns out to be a tool shack with room enough for 5 beds. The next night, the band auditions and the overwhelming applauding crowd response convinces Falcon to hire the band for the summer.
The band members stick out like a sore thumb in the preppy beach side area they temporarily reside in, especially Mooch, who refuses to take off her black leather jacket, although the weather is hot. Daryle (who has broken up with Frankie) started dating a local rich boy and tried to get the band invited to his parties. Billy, outside her comfort zone, started taking more pills than usual to cope with her depression. Jennie encouraged Mooch to spend time with Nicky, who seemed to have a crush on her and Jennie began a romantic relationship with the older Falcon. Falcon tells Jennie he has a music agent friend who books bands for gigs all over Europe, and is going to be coming to the club to watch the band perform. Falcon, after learning from Jennie that she is considering moving in with him, breaks up with Jennie because he doesn’t want her to give up any opportunities because of him. Billy nearly overdoses and Frankie causes a small riot when he goes to the club and sees Daryle on stage being ogled by the local guys.
On the night the music agent goes to the club, Jennie runs out just after performing a song written by Falcon especially for the band and the street gang finally catches up with Mooch for stealing their van. The band all help out Mooch as she fights off the leader and finally Hamlet the dog chases the gang from the club, who are then arrested. When asked about what the music agent said, Jennie implies that the agent loved their music but she turned down his offer for the band to play in European clubs. Upset with Jennie that she would turn down such a huge opportunity, Nicky explains to the rest of the band that the music agent did not want the band, he only wanted Jennie to stand in front of studio musicians. But Jennie decides that it wouldn’t have been any fun without them. Jennie says goodbye to Falcon and the band heads home with Hamlet now a part of the band. | romantic | train | wikipedia | DVD picture quality isn't the greatest but all that teen angst is awesome and Justine Bateman still rocks.
Was a bit surprised to see Julia Roberts who I had no recollection of but Liam Neeson is probably the reason I ended up living in Europe.
Watch some big 80s hair and funny girl band stuff.
Couldn't get over Julia Roberts in this movie dressed similarly to the way she was dressed in Pretty Woman.I loved it and definitely recommend it for feel good flash backs..
This movie is fun to go back and watch now, with all of its cast who have gone on to further their careers..
It's a really fun film about a girl band trying to "make it" and facing all the dilemmas that can pop up when a bands just starting to get a feel for themselves and their music.
However, seeing Julia Roberts and Liam Neeson in early roles before they were big stars makes it worthwhile.
So this is not one of the best movies from the '80s, but it made a big impact on me because of Julia Roberts.
I thought she was so cool, and I copied a lot of my fashion styles after her character in the movie (big hair and all).
It has some really good moments and good one-liners, like when Julia Roberts' character, Daryle is told by one of the preppy guys she's seeing "You're different from the other girls", she responds "I can work really hard to be the same", or when Daryle is explaining to Billy that getting married is a natural thing, Billy responds "Dying is natural too, but you don't see people rushing to do that".
So if you want to take a trip back to the '80s or if you're a Julia Roberts fan, this movie is for you..
A bubblegum movie that makes bubblegum seem like a bad idea.
The rock-loving teens in this movie don't seem to know anything about making music.
The movie wants to have it both ways: be a modern look at streetwise teens and yet also be an old-fashioned musical.
Justine Bateman works hard in the leading role, but she seems to suffocate under the plastic handling; newcomer Julia Roberts shows off a nice sense of sarcastic humor, but the movie is an underachiever, with oldies-rock tunes given '80s makeovers that wouldn't pass muster on Star Search.
I left not really wanting to know about what happens too the band, or their love interest.
One thing I would like to do before I die is find out who it was that told Justine Bateman she could sing and slap that person into a coma.
And what Hollywood studio cretin thought Liam Neeson and Justine Bateman would be a good romantic pair?
I've seen more sparks coming from a thoroughly wet sparkler!Lets see, in "Satisfaction" we've got the usual group of teen girl stereotypes with Julia Roberts in her first credited roll as Daryle, (the Loose Girl), Trini Alvarado as Mooch (the Tough Girl) and Britta Phillips as Billy (the Crazy Girl).
Throw them into a retreaded plot from "Where The Boys Are" and set it all on the ugliest beach on either coast and you've got a good idea what this mess is like.Or better yet, just hit yourself in the face with a cookie sheet for 92 minutes.
I was pretty sure, when I saw that Liam, Julia and Justine Bateman in a movie together, it was going to be somewhat decent.
This movie was like a two way portal, ala some violent mirror in which I saw myself poking my eyes out with icepicks through the television screen to stop the pain.Justine was just awful at singing, the Benny Hill, fast forward scene at the beach just made me cringe from head to toe and every concert scene was just.....well, can you guess the remorseful, disgusting feelings I have towards this movie.I sat through this, I climbed this treacherous journey from the base camp to the pinnacle on a mountain from hell, so you don't have too.
You have to like rock music to enjoy this flick.
It's too bad that this movie was considered a failure because it didn't catapult Bateman to (fellow Family Ties) Fox's level of fame.
After graduation and a fast escape from city life a rock and roll band of friends: Jennie Lee, Mooch, Nickie, Billy, and Daryle(Julia Roberts) visit the coast for the summer.
The Girls fall in and out of love, The music rocks but the singing never dies it just moves on!
Think of everything that could be wrong with a film, triple these things, cover them with a coat of raw sewage then set them on fire and you will have a piece of charbroiled pigslop called "Satisfaction".
If you've always suspected that combining elements from "Times Square" (1980), "Josie and the Pussycats" (2001), and "Summer of '42" (1971) would be an extremely bad idea, look no further than "Satisfaction" for confirmation.
Although "Times Square" fans (the film from which "Satisfaction" steals the most) will frequently cringe during the viewing experience, the fusion of these three films is not a totally bad idea.
It did give Trini Alvarado, eight years later, a chance to play the tough girl Nicky Marotta part, the character she played against in "Times Square".
A much better idea that might have saved the film would have been for her and co-star Justin Bateman to switch parts.
Bateman is capable of looking mean and is really too limited as an actress for a part with the degree of dimensionality of Jennie Lee. I've never quite grasped the popularity of Julia Roberts but for her mega-fans "Satisfaction" is a must see.
Of course there is some retrospective perverse amusement to be had at the idea of Roberts and Liam Neeson playing second banana's to the talent challenged Bateman, Britta Phillips' career rocketed forward from this film with 65 episodes as the voice of the title character in "Jem and the Holograms".
Although full of terrible music (covers of classic rock tunes performed slightly worse than when arranged for your high school band's halftime show) the film did connect with its primary target audience, discontented teenage girls who were not so disillusioned that they could not still get off on an identification jag with a group of squeaky clean girl rockers.
The music, the situations the girls get themselves into make it a movie that will cheer you up if you are feeling down.
I gave this '80s classic an 8, just because of the sheer fun of the movie and the cool characters within it..
Recent graduate Jennie Lee (Justine Bateman) is the lead singer of her band Mystery.
It's amazing to see Roberts and Neeson as well as 80's stars Bateman and Alvarado.
WHAT A GIRL ROCK BAND SHOULD BE!.
SATISFACTION is quite possibly the best "girl band makes it big" film ever.
The Spice Girls could definitly take a lesson or two from the girls of Mystery, which includes Family Ties starlet Justine Bateman and Academy Award Winner Julia Roberts.
These girls have it all, and Bateman sure can play a mean cowbell in their cover of Knock On Wood.
The music is great (again maintain perspective here, it is a fun, not serious, 80s movie) and I wish they had a soundtrack.
Seeing Malory from Family ties (lead singer) and Julia Roberts as a younger actress brings back so many memories!Great movie to watch with girlfriends on a Friday night or with your big/little sister to go back in time for an hour and a half..
Fox's successful jump from "Family Ties" to the big screen made Justine Bateman a marketable commodity as well in this small and really totally unimpressive quick-flick.
Bateman is the head of a small rock band that gets a gig in a bar in California and naturally Bateman falls in love with a then-unknown Liam Neeson.
Julia Roberts is also along for the ride as one of the girls in Bateman's band.
Watching Neeson and Roberts in this mess is really interesting, but they were not stars yet and in the end "Satisfaction" cannot boost past the dreaded bomb status.
It's just about leaning back, enjoying some good music and Liam Neeson's Irish accent.
I enjoyed watching it more than I would have expected from IMDb's average rating, and I got to like all of the main characters.
After all, the quality of this movie is still much higher than more recent teenage comedies in the likes of American Pie which only make jokes about sex or disgusting things.
It's not the kind of movie I would watch many times, but I recommend everyone to watch it once who likes to see a teenage comedy without American Pie humour..
Justine Bateman, Julia Roberts and Liam Neeson star in this undemanding, feel-good frolic about an (almost) all-girl rock band 'Mystery' band and their adventures and heartbreak.
Bateman's character Jennie Lee fronts a rock band, playing lots of well-known cover versions, including the rolling stones song of the film's title...
They spend a summer by the sea, playing at a club owned by Liam Neeson's songwriter-fallen-on-hard-times.
Bateman and Neeson's characters get briefly romantically entwined and Julia Roberts' character is looking for a man with some money!
Fun Music Movie.
I'm a sucker for all music/group oriented movies since I played in a band since I was 14.
This one is definitely not in the class of "The Commitments" but it is MUSIC and it is FUN.My wife did not believe me that that was Julia Roberts in the movie but I checked IMDb and proved it.
Justine Bateman may have been a ditz in Family Ties but does a credible job as the band leader in this movie.The other attraction is the beach venue.
Come a long way since Family Ties to this movie where her abilities in winning a crowd with her musical motion that rivals that of almost any in the rock/wiggle world today.The rest of the cast is excellent, Julia Roberts is a ray of sunshine, and Liam is superior as usual, but the Big Ticket is Justine.
If you are debating which coming of age girl movie, which music movie, which overcoming love flick to view .
Well, a rock'n'roll movie rarely has a viable plot, and this one is no exception.
But who watches a rock movie for the plot?
The band members in Satisfaction are great looking, to be sure.
The movie itself is worth seeing just to enjoy Justine Bateman's performance as the lead singer.
Additionally, Britta Phillips does a great job with "Mr. Big Stuff." It's rock'n'roll..
Mainly watched to see Liam Neeson before Schindlers List and Rob Roy, and Julia Roberts before everything she ever did.
They're good, in a mediocre film about a girl band and the trials and tribulations within it.
Would I have watched this film without Liam and Julia?
SatisfactionThe difference between male and female rock-stars is that women form meaningful relationships with their groupies.However, the songstress in this drama has developed feelings for a nightclub owner.The minute high school is over Jennie (Justine Bateman) and her band The Mystery (Julia Roberts, Britta Phillips, Trini Alvarado) head to Florida in a stolen van to audition for Martin Falcon (Liam Neeson), a bar owner in need of performers for the summer.While they get the position, over the summer the band starts to drift apart as some members fall in love with locals and others overdose on drugs.Everything calumniates when the owners of the stole van show up.Produced by Aaron Spelling, Satisfaction has all of the earmarks of the successful television show creator but for some reason those elements do not elevate this mediocre musical misadventure.Interestingly enough, all-girl house bands boast the lowest bar tabs.Red Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca.
SATISFACTION is not a great movie by any shakes, but taken for what it was meant to be - a slightly naive tale of a girls' band that has a summer of adventure, love and opportunity for the big time nut opts instead to become just a group of life-long friends - it is a well done bit of pastiche.
The band consists of leader Justine Bateman with Trini Alvarado, Britta Phillips, Scott Coffey as the token male, Deborah Harry and yes, the movie debut of Julia Roberts!
Liam Neeson serves as the love interest for Justine Bateman's character and Michael DeLorenzo has a small part, too.
The music is fun and the cast commits to the idea of the film well.
Trini Alvadrado's and Britta Phillip's performances really impressed me, Scott Coffey was just plain adorable, Liam Neeson was a great casting choice (very dry and sarcastic in his opening scenes, he really should keep making comedies), and personally, I found Julia Roberts far more amusing in this film than anything else she's famous for!
Justine Bateman's acting was a bit melodramatic at times, but it's an otherwise small flaw in this hidden gem.
I used to perform quite a bit growing up, and no other movie has allowed me to indulge in my "adolescent rock and roll fantasies" quite like this one.
Let's not forget that this is one of the few 80s movies where the characters are seem to be singing and not have the songs in the background.
I think Satisfaction is a good movie.
(The fact Aaron Spelling produced the movie probably explains a lot of this.) The script is terrible - I'm not sure if there is footage missing, but it sure feels like it with subjects being brought up then abandoned.
I can't picture worse covers to classic rock tunes as those showcased in this movie.
Julia being in this movie makes it worth watching,but if are not a fan of one of the main actors/actresses then don't bother.
Satisfaction is a movie about five teenagers who have a band called Mystery.Justine Bateman plays the leading singer of the band called Jennie Lee.Justine is best known as Mallory from Family Ties.Satisfaction from 1988 doesn't make any movie history, it's just an enjoyable movie.And there's a great opportunity to see what Liam Neeson did before Schindler's List and what Julia Roberts did before Pretty Woman..
This definitely won't win any prizes for plot or acting, but it's a nice fun little movie that's good for a night when you don't want to have to think too much.
I'm a girl who plays guitar, so I spent most of the movie trying to figure out what kind of guitar Billie was playing (Jenny had a Fender Telemaster...choice!) One of the best things is seeing Julia Roberts before she made it...it's very amusing.
Watching Girls of Summer (Satisfaction) brought back those feelings and that excitement.
If you've ever dreamed of getting a band together, you'll like this movie.
Not Bad Like Mean People Say. This movie is fantastic.
It features the Eighties' bad taste, bad ass Justine Bateman, the rest of Julia Roberts and horrible classic rock songs.
How much do you really need to know about what people think about a movie?
The band is slightly better than terrible, but it was hard to take my eyes off Justine.Two things I liked about this movie, the relationship the girl had with the dog, and the love story between Justine and Liam Neeson.Probably the only movie that will ever be made where Justine Bateman gets higher billing and a bigger role than Julia Roberts, but she deserved it, and Julia was horrible.
But because of Justine Bateman's smile, I gave two more stars than I would otherwise, 6/10..
Julia Roberts made her first credited film appearance in this late 80's girl band movie.
Four girls and a token guy, a geeky one at that, travel to a beach coast roadhouse to be the summer house band.
The girl band is headed by Family Ties girl: Justine Bateman on lead vocals; Britta Phillips is on lead guitar; Julia Roberts is on bass; Trini Alvarado is on drums.
He plays the club owner where the girls stay for the summer, and he is far too old for someone of Bateman's ilk, as portrayed in this movie.
Watch it only if you have nothing better to do, like washing your big hair.
Only some very powerful psychotropics could possibly convince anyone that Justine Bateman's Liam Neeson accompanied rendition of Dedicated to the One I Love is the future of rock and roll.
I guess it's nice that Elvis Costello collects a royalty check every time Satisfaction plays on TV (the girls butcher Mystery Dance mid-movie), but that's not much compensation for what is otherwise a thoroughly awful film.
It just feels like there are whole scenes missing, scenes that would have fleshed out the characters and given us more time to get to know and care about them.
The best part of this awful film is when the ending credits are rolling and you hear the band playing and singing the title song.Trouble is that the film is anything but good.
4 teenage girls and a young guy embark on a summer of fun when they land a job playing as a band at a beach resort.
They just hop in a van and go.We have what could fall into a beach blanket movie with singing,gaiety, an attempted suicide and a romance between Justine Bateman and Liam Neeson, a widowed song writer who shall we say has a lot on his mind.Of course, Neeson likes the band so much that he wants them to defer school and go rock in Europe.I added the extra 1/2 star since the film did end correctly, that is, that school comes first.
Liam Neeson does his usual decent job, Justine Bateman is actually very good, the rest of the band members do a nice job within their characters and are fairly talented.
Julia Roberts appears in what I believe is her third movie and is okay. |
tt0086145 | The Prodigal Planet | During the final years of the Antichrist's reign, a nuclear war has devastated the earth. The Antichrist and his world government find their grip on power slowly slipping away as Christ's return draws near. One of the lead characters from the previous film, David Michaels (played by William Wellman Jr.), is now part of a growing underground movement of Christian believers trying to stay out of the government's hands and thus escape execution. The government is using underground agents to infiltrate this movement. David's mission is to travel across a nuclear-devastated landscape to Albuquerque, where he will meet with other underground believers to await Christ's final return. The earth by this time is populated by doomsday people, mutants as a result of the nuclear exchanges. After rescuing one of them, Jimmy, David leads him to Christ. Jimmy later bravely dies to save the others from Jerry, and leaves Jerry their temporary captive.
Connie Wright (played by Terri Lynn Hall) is a government agent pretending to be a Christian. She rescues David from his internment at UNITE, then tries to get David to reveal the believers' secret hideout. Along the way, they rescue Linda and her daughter, Jody. Linda is a scientific researcher, brilliant, but terrified. Jody is a spoiled brat who, after being told off by Jimmy, begins to change. She even starts to slowly accept David's preaching. The same cannot be said of Linda, who is too rational a scientist to accept David's faith. But Linda is actually evidence of divine providence, because her scientific specialty is radiation. So as they travel through the war-ravaged nation, Linda's knowledge keeps them alive and provides crucial guidance. She feels guilty, though, because she was part of the team that helped create the mutant doomsday people.
David suspects Linda of being a spy, since it seems that government agents always know where they are. But Linda is the only trustworthy one: Jody is discovered to have been transmitting their position inadvertently, and Connie did so deliberately. Connie is later picked up by a senior UNITE officer (dubbed "General Goon" by David in Image of the Beast). They are soon killed as their van goes out of control and runs into a train. At the end of the movie, Jody accepts Christ as her Savior, while Linda still thinks about the matter, or at least she does not yet openly receive Christ on camera. Meanwhile, a badly wounded and sobbing Jerry is shown in the ruins of the UNITE military base, which is then destroyed by explosions, but not before he rips off his UNITE armband in disgust. | christian film | train | wikipedia | Best film in the series.
THE PRODIGAL PLANET has some flaws but overcomes them and sizes up to be a great family adventure film.
The film, designed for church and youth group viewership has many visual homages to films such as the OMEGA MAN which spice up the film visually.
Visually interesting and well made, this film proves to be the best in the series technically.
Targeted for a family and church audience the film does not let down it's target viewers..
Good series, slow movie.
I love the "Thief in the night" series.
These are the only Christian movies that really show the view point of a believer's underground movement with out revolving around an anti-christ like the Omega Code and other new films.
If your looking for a good movie based on the end-times this is a really good place to start.However, "Prodigal Plant" is a slow movie.
It hits home but doesn't seem to go far in story telling.
Some point of the film you may either feel tired or un-interested, but once seeing the film, you still can admire it's place within the series.Don't expect to see this film on the IFC channel since they are not Christian friendly, but you can buy these films (now on DVD) online or rent them in your local Christian book store (if they rent movies).
These films are a must see for either bible study or entertainment..
the U.N. tightens it's grasp on worldwide freedom.
To understand the right wing mindset you have to view these films; and ones like them.
There is a level of U.N. hatred and fear that comes across.
This hatred is embraced by many organizations like the JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY and other groups.
The core reason for this hate is the belief by the screenwriters that a one world military and government will form to enslave mankind.
This government is preseumed to be the now ineffectual U.N. On forming this government a mark will be enforced on a persons right hand or forehead.
Many theologians debate what this mark will; be but the current belief is it will be a biochip implant.
Think I'm talking trash talk...millions believe this stuff.
This film is credited with starting a scare campaign with people who viewed it.
To the films credit, nothing like it had been made before it's release in 1972..
Omaha survives a nuke!?!.
SPOILERS!!!
Here comes David, hero from Image of the Beast, and ready to go all the way to destroy the UNITE government!
He even upgrades from calculators to computers in this one!
So, yeah, what we have here basically is the quest for David, a religious snob/guerilla crusader, to get to some cave where the new Christians will be safe from the second coming of Christ.
Along the way, he picks up some women--but he doesn't hit on them, no way, he's asexual or something--and tells a girl she could drop dead in front of him by having a brain clot--and dodges bullets by dancing in front of two helicopters.
Oh, and they have to get from Nebraska to New Mexico (after David cracks a code in three seconds) and on the way they go through Omaha.
Now, supposedly Omaha was nuked two days before, but now it's totally safe to walk around and all the residual radiation has subsided.
The trees are all green.
Grass grows happily between cracks in the sidewalks.
Buildings and streets are completely intact--even the glass in storefront windows isn't broken.
The only signs that a nuke may have hit two days before are some skeletons in the street.
I love it!
And what's better?
Jerry is back!
Diane is gone, sadly, but Jerry is around and doing well--this time with a normal moustache--and some radiation boils, to boot.
I dunno, this one is a bit long, coming in over the two-hour mark.
And there's some cool stuff like water turning to blood, and the sun getting super hot.
But I think this one was the final in the series for a reason--the cool characters from the first two, and the first ten minutes of the third, are totally missing...
Still, rumors persist that a fifth film is in the works!
What they'd do after having ceased the series for twenty years, and after the popularization of the Left Behind series, would be very interesting to see.
I personally hope that I will live to see the day we get another one.
This is a unique and bizarre series that deserves a bit more attention--too bad MST3K never picked it up....
It's just your average, everyday road trip movie....with zombies and 70's mustaches.
Just when you thought this film series couldn't make LESS sense, here comes "The Prodigal Planet" to show us how very wrong we are.The great awfulness starts in the beginning, where preacher man from the last movie has SOMEHOW gone back in time and is now not on the guillotine where he ended movie #3 but is walking down a passageway to the guillotine.
A blonde woman saves him as she's dressed up in a fake military outfit with a fake mark.
So....they bust out of the base (preacher man doesn't really find it odd that she was able to smuggle herself onto a military base presided over by a GLOBAL force but....anywho).
No mention is ever really made of the preacher man's dead friends from the last film...he kinda just forgets them and moves on to our next bunch of misfits.Other than blonde woman, preacher man starts a road trip with some women and her bratty teenage daughter who they run into in a nuclear disaster zone brimming with zombie mutants.
Apparently our main characters are immune to radiation as they just walk around in the contaminated air.
One of the zombies ISN'T evil and he's a teenage boy so he hooks up with the girl.
By 'hooks up' I mean they hold hands or something, this being a Christian movie, so we never figure out if his parts still work.
Lots of driving and stuff happens as they're going to some caves where all the Christians live now waiting for Jesus.
Oh, evil hippie man whose wife got killed by a giant bee last movie is hunting them too.
It's kind of like "Wild at Heart" without the sex.
La dee da....zombie boy takes a bullet for the girl or something (I'm still pretty sure she doesn't even give him a kiss as thanks or anything), it turns out blondie actually DOES have the mark and she was just pretending to be a Chrisitan pretending to have the mark (?).
Not that we have to worry about her for very long cause Jesus takes her out with a train collision.
Anyway, preacher man and the mom and her daughter get to the Christ caves and evil hippie dies during an earthquake.Amen.
The Fourth Movie in the Series.
This is the fourth movie in the series that began with "A Thief in the Night" back in 1972.
This particular film essentially follows up where its predecessor "Image of the Beast" left off with "David Michaels" (William Wellman Jr.) having been captured by the one-world organization known as "UNITE".
Just prior to his execution he is rescued by an attractive woman named "Connie Wright" (Terri Lynn Hall) who is a member of the opposition going by the name of the"Believer's Underground".
The reason he is rescued is because of his knowledge of the main computer system that UNITE uses and it is hoped that he will be able to somehow disable it.
In order to do that he has to go to a secret location which has a computer that is connected to the mainframe.
On the way there, he and Connie pick up some fellow refugees.
Unfortunately, it turns out that one of the people in their stolen vehicle is a spy who is feeding information to UNITE in order to discover the secret location.
Meanwhile, the fugitives not only have the enemy to contend with but they also have to try to survive the elements unleashed in the great "Bowl Judgements" as well.
In any case, this film encompasses quite a bit of Biblical material and unless a person is acquainted with the Book of Revelation or has seen the other three films in the series I'm afraid new viewers may not fully understand what transpires in this movie.
That's not to say that this film is necessarily bad.
However, it is somewhat dated and other than William Wellman Jr. and possibly Lynda Beatie (as "Linda") the acting could have used some improvement.
Likewise,having all the mutants wearing monk attire was kind of ridiculous.
In short, this movie could have been better.
As it is I rate it as slightly below average. |
tt0384814 | Ask the Dust | Arturo Bandini is a struggling writer living in a residential hotel in Bunker Hill, a rundown section of Downtown Los Angeles. Living off the zest of oranges, he unconsciously creates a picture of Los Angeles as a modern dystopia during the Great Depression era. His published short story "The Little Dog Laughed" impresses no one in his seedy boarding house except for one 14-year-old girl, Judy. Destitute, he wanders into the Columbia Buffet where he meets Camilla Lopez, a waitress.
Bandini falls in love with Lopez, who is herself in love with co-worker Sam. Sam despises Camilla, telling Bandini if he wants to win over Camilla, he has to treat her poorly. Bandini struggles with his own poverty, his Catholic guilt, and with his love for an unstable and deteriorating Camilla. Camilla is eventually admitted to a mental hospital, and moved to a second one, before escaping. Bandini looks for her, only finding her as she awaits for him in his apartment. He decides to take her away from Los Angeles, and arranges to live in a house on the beach. He buys her a little dog and they go to the new place. He leaves her there, to get his belongings from his Los Angeles hotel room. When he returns, she's gone. He tracks her down to the desert home of Sam, who is ill and dying. Before Bandini arrives, Sam has thrown Camilla out and she wanders into the desert. Bandini looks for her with an agonizing fear that he won't find the woman he loves, and he doesn't. He returns to Sam's shack, looks over the empty desert land. He takes a copy of the novel he had recently published, dedicates it to Camilla, and throws it into the desert. | romantic, depressing, flashback | train | wikipedia | Set in the new-get-rich town of failed dreams (Los Angeles), the writer is an inexperienced and virginal Colin Farrell, who gradually falls for the uncompromising immigrant waitress Salma Hayek.
This is a movie which, like its hero, has great ambitions but fails pitifully in many of them, yet one which can be treasured for its moments of pure beauty and shining rapture in its laboured attempt to become a classic.Colin Farrell's career to this point, after a spectacular rise with the gripping and slightly manic role in Phone Booth, attempted to scale heights which were out of reach (in Alexander, for instance), and then now seems to be developing more methodically with admirable performances such as The New World.
She has been quoted as saying (in one of her less political or feminist moments), "I keep waiting to meet a man who has more balls than I do," and in our story Farrell has his work cut out to dominate her in true Mexican latino fashion.Farrell and Hayek both being considered among top cinema sex icons, it will come as no disappointment to fans of both that they get into the buff on more than one occasion.
happiness is that you can be in a place where you are secure, and fall in love with whoever you want to, and not feel ashamed of it) is not backed up with any clarity of thought in the script (Farrell justifies his American-ness by youth and love of his country, throwing ageism in to replace racism); and the pot-shots at marijuana (if you will excuse the pun), which Hayek uses partly, we suspect, to ease her illness, are so politically incorrect as to be laughable outside of the 'great United States'.
His portraits of the city are indelible, and one of the chief pleasures of Ask the Dust is the way in which the depression-era City of Angels becomes a character in the film.
The scene where Arturo Bandini and Camilla Lopez first meet is pure cinema and one of the more remarkable bits of mainstream film making I've seen in some time.
Perhaps the best compliment I can pay Ask the Dust is that it reminded me why Chinatown is such a great film (and the comparisons will be inevitable); while I don't think Ask the Dust is in the same league, it does herald the welcome return of Robert Towne as an artist who understands L.A. by instinct, knows how to tap into Hollywood's rich history, and can deliver a human-scale film with the power to reward and possibly even change its audience..
"Ask the Dust" has excellent elements that almost come together as a whole.Like "End of the Affair" and "The White Countess", it surrounds a fraught love affair with exquisite looking period recreation that almost sucks the life out of it.
(As with those films, the senior citizens at my matinée really enjoyed the period aspect.) Set in a sepia-tinged Depression-era Los Angeles of polluted palm trees, it is populated equally by youthful blond California girls and boys and old people at the end of the continent and their lines, as symbolized by Donald Sutherland's begging boarding house neighbor, like a ghost from his role in "The Day of the Locust".
What saves the film is the frank dialog and odd sparks between Colin Farrell, as repressed Italian-American writer from Colorado, novelist John Fante's alter ego with the even more ethnically redolent name of "Arturo Bandini", and Salma Hayak as a non-stereotyped Mexican spitfire "Camilla Lopez".
The non-narrated scenes are a relief and are beautiful to look at, as the cinematography of Caleb Deschanel (dad of actresses Zoey and Emily) is consistently lovely.But then Farrell is surrounded by eccentric characters who are all hiding emotional or physical scars until he can face up to his own to find his real writer's voice.
From Chinatown to Personal Best to The Firm, he spouted off anecdotes and insights into Hollywood and the screen writing process in general.Then the audience was treated to a special preview screening of "Ask the Dust." It would seem that this has been a labour of love for Mr. Towne; one that has been several decades in the making.
Robert Towne's obvious love affair with John Fante's Depression Era novel, ASK THE DUST, is evident throughout this somewhat over-long film.
While the story is a bit clumsy and self-indulgent with so many sidebars that the momentum of the movie gets bogged down in the telling, there are enough fine attributes to make it a recommended evening of reminiscence about Los Angeles, the City of the Angels in the 1930s.Arturo Bandini (Colin Farrell) narrates the tale of a lad from Colorado with one published story in a magazine edited by H.L. Mencken who moves to Los Angeles' Bunker Hill apartments to write his big novel.
Arturo quickly becomes penniless, is pestered for rent by landlady Mrs. Hargraves (Dame Eileen Atkins) and for handouts by drunkard Hellfrick (Donald Sutherland), and still a virgin he plies his vision as a writer in a local café where he encounters the beautiful Camilla (way too much of a play on the character of Dumas' 'Camille'...).
The two play a battle of wits and insults to cover their apparent infatuation with each other: Mexican Camilla is looking for a wealthy 'white man' to raise her out of her illiterate station and Arturo is looking for a sexual encounter to spur his writing.During their extended 'courting' Arturo is vamped by Vera Rivkin (Idina Menzel), a Jewish housekeeper with grossly deformed legs who dreams of a man who will call her beautiful, and in a touching encounter Arturo displays the kind vulnerability lying under his rather callous and naive exterior.Arturo and Camilla at last connect, and in a Laguna beach house they fall under the spell of love, a state that ends tragically, like the dust from the desert winds burying all hopes of the people of Southern California.The story is a bit clunky and the dialogue feels forced at times but it is always a pleasure to see the work of Farrell, Hayek, Atkins, and Sutherland.
Salma Hayek also scores in her sniping early scenes with Farrell and portrays well her character's fears and insecurities at a time when being Mexican was so obviously looked down upon (a very neat selection by Towne for the film excerpt in the cinema scene).
Both characters- the writer with more aspirations than experiences to actually write about (Colin Farrel) and the beautiful yet grieving Mexican beauty (Salma Hayek) - wander through the sad streets of L.A, fighting each other and mostly themselves.
However, I was fairly impressed with Colin Farrell as Arturo Bandini and thought Salma Hayek pulled off a good Camilla.
Arturo and Camilla - beautifully played by Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek - are young and intelligent but victims of clearly outspoken prejudice against their family heritages; his being Italian and hers being Mexican.
Unfortunately, she falls for Arturo - an Italian and definitely not "respectable" in the United States of that time.Ask the Dust is more than just a delicious love story of two beautiful, passionate people.
I couldn't understand why many critics attacked this movie, I thought it was so gripping and heartbreaking.Idina Menzel, Colin Farrell and mainly Salma Hayek give so strong and convincing performances that the minor flaws in the film can be overlooked.
The cinematography, so talked on the reviews is indeed beautiful and also are the art direction and costumes.The beach scene is so intense and sexy that I'm sure it will become in of those scenes people talk for years.Arturo Bandini never looked more handsome with Colin Farrell playing it with restrain and wit.
He may be the cause why some people are bashing the film but he shows how much of a great actor he is.Salma Hayek brings a touching performance, one so powerful that sticks with you when the film is over.Donald Sutherland, Justin Kirk and Eileen Atkins get little to do but they do it as best as they can.
She makes you believe in her Camilla Lopez.Towne has given a great feel to his film with an exceptionally constructed Set of thirties Los Angeles and some beautifully put together and lit scenes and an accurate wardrobe of the time.
It has been ages since Robert Towne directed a new film, and Ask the Dust did not fail the anticipation of fans who love and appreciate his previous production, such as Tequila Sunrise and Without Limits.Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek makes up the new pair of silver screen couple, with the background set in the Depression Era of US in the 30's.
Farrell takes up the role of Arturo Bandini, an Italian author living in a cheap motel in Los Angeles, while Hayek plays a Mexican waitress, Camilla, who wants to marry an rich American for a better life.
Arturo was inspired by Camilla, which leads him to wrote more stories, and at the same time, making him realize who he loves eventually.Towne brought out the lives and problems of Arturo and Camilla well, where a young author will never spare much thought on how will he survive tomorrow by spending lots of money on luxury after he gotten his pay, while she will do anything to get herself married to an American for a better life.Ask the Dust also brought out one point faced in the previous century: racism.
While playing a bisexual trapped in between the love of his homosexual best friend and his best friend's female roommate in A Home At the End of the World (2004), Ask the Dust gives Farrell a greater chance of exploration of a romantic and sentimental man.
Keep a look out for the scene where both Farrell and Hayek swims in the beach nude, which is one of the attraction of the film, where this scene starts their romance.Veteran actor Donald Sutherland appears as a special appearance rather than a supporting role, where he plays Hellfrick, Arturo's neighbour.
Not much room was given to Sutherland, for his role was too redundant, where he appears less than 15 minutes in the whole film.In all, Ask the Dust has not failed that badly, and it was definitely worth the 8 years wait from Towne..
John Fante wrote a great book called ask the dust and Hollywood Screenwriter Robert Towne managed to make an efficient translation of The eclectic novel into the big screen.Relying on the powerful performances of his cast, the film depends mostly on the background of Los Angeles as the magnificent city of Dreams and ambition where lonely souls collide day after day.I particularly loved the way racism is portrayed on the film, not in The melodramatic way of last year's crash but as disease.Salma Hayek is terrific as the smoldering Camilla Lopez, a temptress Decided to rise above her status by marrying a blond American.
Ask the Dust does not get everything right, but it works nicely for a romantic drama with Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell at the top of their game.If I am going to ask the dust one question, it would be regarding secondary characters.
A film starring Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell, two respected and talented actors, sounds like a great idea.
No one is given a proper back story, so we don't ever know why the characters act the way they do.Explanations for physical and emotional scars are left to our imagination, if you still have one left at the end of this movie.I told a friend that I went to see this film, and that I thought it was awful.Her question: "Not even Colin Farrell could save it?" My response: "Not even Colin Farrell's ass could save it.".
The only entertaining aspect for me was Colin Farrell's character is an insecure writer and this screenplay, despite tackling the juicy subject of racism, approaches the audience in the fashion of an ABC Afterschool Special.The only person who didn't sound like he was "acting' was Sutherland, and his minutes were few.Stale approach to a tired plot..
It's clear throughout the film that this is an adaptation of a book and although most movies like it try to hide the fact, this one incorporates it willingly and in long moments of silence I missed Colin Farrell's soothing, low voice telling me what to feel.
Not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination but there are much worse ways to spend two hours.The film is set in Depression era Los Angeles and the attention to period detail is exceptional, 1930s L.A. brought brilliantly to life.
Colin Farrell plays writer Arturo Bandini who is struggling to find inspiration that will allow him to sell some stories for some desperately needed cash.
I share the hope that either this is a VERY rough cut and extensive repairs can be made, or that this will quietly come and go.Ask the Dust by John Fante, in my view at least, IS the Great American Novel, which makes for an all the more difficult task of adaptation.
I'm usually a person who watches a movie (or reads a book) all the way to the end, no matter how bad simply because I invested my time into it.
The best thing about 'Ask The Dust' is Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek.
Their scenes are a delight to watch.The film could have easily ended up being like a telenovella or soap opera but the two actors play their parts naturally and writer/ director Robert Towne manages to avoid romantic clichés as he lets the relationship flourish on screen.
I cannot believe that this amazing book is being turned into a movie starring Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell.
For all those who will see (or have seen) the movie but HAVE NOT read the book, you need to know: this is one of the great novels of American literature.
Hayek did well, she is a natural beauty and played the Camilla character they way I imagined her, with strength, charm and humility.I liked the LA scenery very much, the feel, the sand grains "from the Mojave" brought Ask The Dust alive, although -- and I've never seen 1939 LA -- the set did seem kind of sparse.One thing I did not like too much was the script, using as a base of comparison the novel.
Robert Towne, the acclaimed director of the classic, "Chinatown" brings us into the story of Arturo Bandini, an American writer who moves to write a beloved tale of love.
To make matters worse, the "Ask the Dust" movie set didn't even depict the Bunker Hill neighborhood--a real character in the book--but rather showed it only in the background as a distorted Third Street tunnel and the adjacent funicular, Angels Flight.
I really enjoyed the first half of this movie, I enjoyed the characters; Justin Kirk as Sammy felt as the right move, Salmha Hayek wasn't exactly depicting the picture I head of Camilla in my head after reading the novel, but overall, it is a good cast.
I don't like this film, but then I didn't think much of the book either which, although lauded by many as a "masterpiece", I found lacking in character development and disjointed and illogical in plot, although it was far more readable than Fante's dreadful first effort "Road to Los Angeles" not published until Fante became fashionable in the mid 80s.I was intrigued to see what sort of soup Towne would make with such meager ingredients.
Is it likely that their romance takes an unlucky turn?It is very surprising to find out that the chemistry between the two main characters, performed by Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell, does not work.
I have it on good authority that the movie has a more feel-good, "Hollywood" ending than the book, but aside from that factoid I know little of the original work.I do know that Fante wrote autobiographically, though, and that Colin Farrell's character in this movie - Arturo Bandidi - is basically him.
By filtering the story through the eyes of a writer named Bandini (one of Colin Farrell's best performances), Towne is able to give poetry and insight-fullness to the character and the events without coming off as overly pretentious.
Towne has been sculpted "Ask the Dusk" into a deliberate, five-way romance: a distillation of Towne's long-time love for Fante, Towne's adoration of noir (and its assorted signs, trinkets and decor), Towne and Fante's love for early Los Angeles (its history, its characters, locales and heartbeat), Towne's idealisation of the Romantic image of the struggling artist, and the in-film love affair between an artist (played by Colin Farrell) and a Mexican waitress (Salma Hayek).The film can't touch Nicholas Ray's "In A Lonely Place", but to those attuned to Towne's very specific yearnings it's a very good film.
Ask the Dust is a film based on the book of the same title by John Fante.
It stars Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek together with Donald Sutherland and Idina Menzel.The movie was written and directed by Robert Towne.Arturo Bandini is a young writer who comes to Los Angeles during the Great Depression in order to write a novel.
The themes are all there and Colin Farrell together with costar Salma Hayek have rarely been so affecting, or so effective, as self-hating ethnics who find love.We simply do care for their characters.Although thinking is required to fully appreciate this film,watching it is definitely a rewarding experience..
We knew something bad would happen - we just weren't sure what.If you like movies about interesting and unusual people, who overcome their flaws to bring out the best in themselves and each other, and who say some of the best lines Robert Towne has ever written - and believe me, I know his awesome body of work - see "Ask the Dust." You will not be disappointed.. |
tt1273241 | Brotherhood | Frank (Jon Foster) is an active member of fictional fraternity Sigma Zeta Chi, and hazes pledges for initiation by forcing them to believe they are going to rob convenience stores. Adam (Trevor Morgan) and Kevin (Lou Taylor Pucci) are pledges who go with Frank to rob the stores. Before they enter the store, another active brother gives them the money and reveals it was a break designed to test their bravery. However, due to confusion over which stores to stop pledges, Kevin is not stopped and actually tries to rob the store; Kevin is shot in the shoulder as a result. Frank finds out of the mix-up and attempts to stop Kevin but is too late. With Adam's help, he subdues the store clerk, Mike (Arlen Escarpeta), who is a high school friend of Adam. They return to the fraternity house and clear a party to take care of Kevin's wounds, but Frank orders Adam and Graham (Luke Sexton) to go back to the store, recover the security tape, and check on Mike. When returning to the store, they find that the security camera does not work, but Mike is reluctant to tell the police a lie to cover their tracks.
Scared by Mike's attitude, Adam and Graham kidnap him and take him back to the house. Frank refuses taking Kevin to the hospital, fearful that the police will learn about the night's actions, and instead calls Bean's (Jesse Steccato) medical professor to take care of Kevin. Adam tries to blackmail Mike by secretly recording an elicited confession, but Mike stops talking once he discovers the recorder. Kevin's sister Emily (Jennifer Sipes) appears and angrily threatens to call the police over an unrelated prank. As she leaves, she is involved in a car accident with Bean's professor, who suffers a concussion and is rendered unable to help Kevin. With time running out and Kevin losing blood, Frank orders Mike's torturing to ensure his cooperation. At the same time, Officer Jennings (Jeff Gibbs), who is a former member, discovers Kevin but decides to stay quiet. Adam becomes insistent in taking Kevin to the hospital and tells Frank he can get leverage on Mike after hearing money is missing from the store. Adam is able to get Mike to admit he stole the money, but Mike will only cooperate if they return the stolen money and clear his name. After a tense standoff with a nervous clerk, Adam and Frank succeed in returning the money, and Frank allows them to drop off Kevin in the hospital; they claim it is a hunting accident.
Frank says the night is a victory but Adam sees otherwise and decides to leave the fraternity, angry at their arrogance and callousness. After Adam punches Frank, the other members catch Adam and begin to beat him harshly, as Frank claims that their brotherhood and loyalty helped them get out of trouble. Another fraternity member, Jackson (Chad Halbrook), returns to the house and remembers that a pledge was locked into the trunk during the party; when they open the trunk, they discover the pledge has died from alcohol poisoning. Adam finally calls the police and tells them everything, which leads to the arrest of Frank and others. | prank | train | wikipedia | One doesn't need a PhD to predict negative consequences when some college frat boys pressurize a fraternity applicant to carry out a convenience store robbery as part of their induction process.
Needless to say, the hold-up is less than a complete success, and "Brotherhood" finds itself in similar territory to "Very Bad Things" as the fall-out from this reckless prank spirals disastrously out of control during the course of a long night.
As a depiction of the absurdity of fraternity life and the misguided "brotherhood" that often dominates the thinking of fraternity members, this film paints a grim picture of the multiple ways that hazing can go wrong.
What begins as an absolutely ridiculous prank leads to an unlikely series of poor judgments and unfortunate events—arrogance and racism seem to be the principles that guide the fraternity members' sense of "brotherhood." One of the brothers (whose name I couldn't tell you, since the characters are all so flat and indistinct) actually has a sense of morality and fights his peers in an effort to do the right thing, but he is—of course—over-ruled.
The film "Brotherhood" is actually a litmus test for your ability to connect with today's college experience.
If you are in touch with today's typical college fraternity/sorority lifestyle, you will likely think this film is excellent.
Originally I rated this film 8 out of ten, but I changed it to 9 out of 10, simply because of the performances given by this film's rising stars, but I will get into that later.If you consider yourself "middle of the road" when it comes to understanding college social scenes, see how you feel about this movie - it may help you decide how well you understand college life today, if you were asked this same question.From what I can tell, the story is indeed fictional but based on real experiences and 'folk lore' or 'urban legends' of college life.
If you see this film on the big screen, you will see Pucci dominate Morgan in scenes that the two are in (from a purely acting perspective).
Once again, I think Trevor Morgan had a tough job in this film, thus making it more difficult to perform with a short shooting cycle.
You might see a few things coming or not, but the fact, that the movie does set a mood and never steers away from it, is good thing in my book.Of course you could argue, that the characters are not really likable and there might not be someone in here with whom you can identify.
It popped up on Netflix one night, and grabbed my attention because it was a "frat movie." I'm not in the Greek system myself, but I have many good friends who are, so the subject is of interest to me (also because they are so often misrepresented in the media, but that's a discussion for another day).
I prepared myself for another overblown party movie, and ended up being served something completely different and far more impressive.What I ended up watching (instead of a fluff-piece on partying and sex) was a gripping, well-paced, superbly-acted and well-executed drama.
Brotherhood is about more than "frat boys": it is about human motivation and decision making, it is about loyalty, and it shows how just one simple turn of events can change everything you had ever planned or expected.I know the plot description for this sounds cliché and awful.
It's troubling to see this movie get so high of a rating, and to think that it won an award at a legitimate film festival truly blows my mind.
If you find yourself in a similar situation to me, randomly tuning into this movie at 3 AM, do yourself a favor and turn the TV off immediately, those two hours of sleep are infinitely more valuable than this piece of trash film..
I was in a fraternity in college, so I enjoy watching movies about Greek life.
The acting from the unknown cast is excellent was well- Jon Foster is especially good as the head of the fraternity.And the twist at the end of the film was a great touch.
The nice thing about the twist is that it's not easy to predict, but also did not feel forced.I wouldn't necessarily call this a movie about Greek life, but it's a terrific indie drama/thriller set in the world of fraternities..
If you enjoy watching the most unbelievably idiotic people, storyline, and sequence of events this movie is for you.
Viewed at the Festival de Cannes 2010The fraternity (and sorority) system is something very peculiar to US colleges, but thanks to films such as Animal House people in other countries now have a very good idea how things work: all beer, parties and panty raids right?
Because Brotherhood takes the concept of initiation rites and works it into a very taut thriller about power and abuse and how far would you be willing to go to protect your fellows as opposed to doing the right thing.Not wishing to give anything away (I don't write spoilers, even intentionally), what starts out as a prank, robbing a convenience store, spirals out of control as every attempt to put right the wrong just makes things worse.
A surprisingly good movie about a frat initiation that goes bad, and just keeps getting worse and worse.
After a initiation prank goes wrong and a pledge gets shot they are worried that he will end up in jail.
your average Hollywood movie is mostly unbelievable, these guys were young at time stupid and way out of their depth, and nothing goes as planned.
The film is about fraternity ideas gone all wrong, and the following bad choices made.
There's a shootout, and much more I'm not willing to say.Directed by Will Canon, the film sets up an interesting premise, and quite effective acting by the youngsters, though the whole are put to some kind of extreme, it's interesting and exciting to watch.
Of course it's far fetched, and there's so many insane decisions, but still it makes out an interesting premise, when bad leadership and idiots mix up.It's a film high on tension and action, and there's a nest fun coming up all the time.
When a fraternity decides to play a prank on several of their pledges, something goes wrong, leading to a chaotic night, but can they work together to fix their problems, or will they just make it worse?
It's a short film that cuts through the bull and gets right to it's point, that part was a real change of pace, but personally I could have done without unbelievable Hollywood element that was added to it in certain places.
The movie begins with one prank, which goes way off.
Do watch it , it's a good movie..
They decide to rob a convenient store but end up entered in the wrong store and it's all downhill from here for this guys who'll try to do anything to not go to jail and save a wounded friend (Lou Taylor Pucci in the best performance of a wounded guy that I ever seen) shot by the guy behind the counter.Jon Foster and Trevor Morgan play the main characters in the film, and the ones who clash against each other to decide what's best for them while trying to get out of this situation; one is very heated about everything, and the other is a little bit naive but with some smartness when needed.
A robbery, the kidnapped cashier, a car accident, angered girls, and of course the wounded fella, and the police, who might show up at any time in the fraternity house are the major problems by this group who simply wanted to make a prank and join new members.Fast and with thrills here and there, "Brotherhood" is an okay film, very easy to follow but with some accidents here and there that might become annoying if you're clever enough to find solutions where the writers and the characters didn't found.
The whole part of returning the money was bad, very annoying and the way turned out the story (for this characters) could've ended worse than they thought.
The whole battle between Foster and Morgan as the strong guy versus the weak and intelligent guy was very clever, a cliché that was well developed and it works.Since being in a college here is a different experience than it is in the U.S. this film will pass unnoticed here.
By that I mean that this whole fraternity thing doesn't exist (and if it does it is more invisible than anything), people go to college and keep locked up in their own little worlds, keeping a distance from everything, and throwing their intelligence to others like vanity or an excuse to be pretentious kinds, they don't care about real friendship and things like that.
If you need to escape from things, just for a hour and half yet have some ethical thoughts, figure out what would you do in a situation like the one presented in "Brotherhood" go see this film right away.
When a character in the film has been shot, and is taken to somebody's student accommodation so as to be treated, one of the tenants demands an onlooker heavily involved in the situation urgently do something – demands he rapidly rejects out of not wanting to look small; inferior, nor as if he takes orders, whilst in front of a handful of first-year kids he desires to look authoritarian in front of.
Here is a film with a fair number of robbery sequences; characters charging around an intimate urban locale wielding guns as well as young men verbally clashing with one another over heated issues - and yet in spite of this, is actually about something: neither manifesting into an exploitative crime film nor descending into the doldrums of being a lecturous chore.The film follows that of Adam, a fresher (or freshman in the set-world of America) played by Trevor Morgan, whose on the cusp of starting at a university and must undergo an immediate process in these, the dying embers of summer before the academic year begins, that'll see him inducted into the realms of a domestic fraternity.
But it is a sham, and where the frat-leader Frank's (Foster) excessive use of profanity in both questioning and challenging that of the other's masculinity has us question the competence of the screenwriter/director in their ability to broaden dialogue, we are swiftly put in our place thereafter when it's revealed the whole thing is a scare mongering act for the others yet to 'rob' somewhere.Disaster strikes when one of the fraternity hopefuls does indeed hold up a store, when the collecting of a bag of money from an insider already there is what should have happened.
In waiting outside the incorrect store, a fraternity member dooms Kevin (Taylor-Pucci) to being the hapless kid shot by a clerk, an event which kicks off all manner of strife for those involved and causes some serious headaches for these people early on in their scholarly life before term has even begun.
In the panic, Kevin is taken the a proverbial fraternity headquarters; the large party unfolding cut short when a spiteful, narcissistic, evil individual suddenly finds himself hosting a GSW victim after having previously been limited to meticulously organising ill-judged pranks on that of people not wanting to drink the amounts of alcohol forced upon them and not wanting to have an act of sex go wrong which has been wholly planned to.In feeding off an approach to its thesis more broadly reminiscent of Scorsese's After Hours or a vastly underrated crime thriller from a few years ago in the form of Running Scared, the film plunges its characters into a causality driven Hell where the rejection of proper authorities as well as professional medical attention forces those involved through a series of bleak night-set altercations and interactions, all the while our anchor in Adam gluing proceedings as this first-year kid daring to challenging the patriarchy.
Canon does a great job in moving things along, allowing the bluntness of the opening sequences on how the fraternity operate dissolve into this unglamorous procession of lies and amorality wholly brought about by their own egomaniacal agenda; using the item of the individual bleeding to death as a wonderful device to keep tensions and deadlines heightened.In feeding off the above approaches, the piece harks back to an era of twenty-or-so years ago when films such as Reservoir Dogs dominated the independent crime scene.
Unfortunately for Kevin and his peers a set of circumstances end up with Kevin being seriously injured and the rest of the group facing serious problems An independent thriller and one that often hits the target - until you stop to think about things of course .
But I guess that's the same thing with a massive number of films where the audience aren't supposed to examine the unseen events leading up to the opening scene of a movie .
It also seems a bit extreme for armed robbery to part of frat high jinx but very quickly before the opening credits appear this is explained as being a prank from then on we've got a RESERVOIR DOGS type of story with a wounded man and his friends wondering how they're going to escape from their self inflicted predicament Thankfully the audience are spared any type of Tarantino post modernist homage and the narrative is full of tense moments but BROTHERHOOD isn't entirely successful due to contrived storytelling .
For example it just happens to be revealed that someone recognises the counter assistant in the robbed store and the rest of the film continues in the same way .
So, with limited preparation (I had no idea what the film was about) I set about this American fraternity thriller.
It quickly transpires that the initiation ceremony is a fake and, before each individual gets to the door of their respective stores, they are stopped by a fellow frat man who gives them the cash they have been instructed to rob, to make it look as if they have been successful.
The pledges are told they must commit a convenience store robbery to become members, but that by doing so does not grant them the opportunity in the fraternity.
I have been shot before, right in the bladder, so I can presume to appreciate the importance of quick medical attention.The idea for the movie was alright, I just wish the frat guys had some common sense, I honestly don't understand how they are even in college, or how they made it out of high school.
I must say it was funny to watch how things unfolded, but I kept reading my book and turning away from my laptop because it is just one ludicrous decision after another, over and over.The movie has to be a joke to my intelligence because this is nowhere near good, nowhere near worthwhile.
Although depressing, I quite like films like this where one action taken leads to a downward spiral of doom as a situation continues to get worse - ala Very Bad Things or Before The Devil Knows You're Dead.Brotherhood is in the same vein as the aforementioned films (though not as harsh) as we follow the exploits of a group of frat house students and pledges who's night takes a turn for the worse when a convenience store hold up prank goes wrong.The story unfolds and the viewer watches as the characters continue to make bad decisions, digging a deeper hole for the situation they are in.
If done right, this type of film can take you on a ride where you feel involved as you think to yourself 'but I'd do that', 'If only they'd done....'.
Plausability always plays a big part and although some of the decisions made by Adam and the others are just plain stupid, it plays out well without going silly.There were some believable performances and good acting all round.
If you enjoy clever fast-paced films which showcase characters who are not overly developed, which have an excellent script and you are allured by an uncomplicated plot line, then this is an ideal movie for you to watch.The movie commences with a group of young men being driven around in the back a red van, most of whom look petrified.
One of the characters states, "Alright like I said before I wouldn't ask you pussies to do anything I wouldn't do first." The audience is then drawn into the film, wondering who these people are and what they are doing.
The plan, however, falls apart when one of the pledges actually goes through with pointing a gun at the shop assistant, Mike, and gets shot.The movie is clever and it kept me intrigued.
As the movie went on, my attention was captivated because I truly wanted to know what was going to happen.
For example, at the end of the movie, we find out what happens to the boy that who was left locked in the car during the party scene at the frat house.
Not to mention, if someone decides to take their friend to the hospital they can get in a lot of trouble, and that comes up all the time, fraternity or not.Yes, most of the situations that came up in the movie were completely ridiculous and you would have to be stupid to actually allow them in your chapter.
Just a few years ago, a local fraternity got kicked off campus, disbanded, and people involved arrested because a pledge drank too much and passed out.
To sum it up, a lot of people will see this as just an OK thriller, but I think the last scene adds a lot of worth to this film.
A few random things though: The pledges, and some of the members, looked way too old, although they did a decent job of looking like they had no idea what was going on. |
tt1842347 | Damarukam | The protagonist of the movie is born with a divine grace of Lord Shiva (Prakash Raj) and the boy's parents are advised to name him as Mallikarjuna as he is destined to accomplish a great work. During his childhood, Mallikarjuna faces a great tragedy as his parents and grandparents are killed by a huge feline creature when they are returning from Kashi. This incident leaves his younger sister, Sailu (Abhinaya) paralyzed from the waist and hence renders her lame (Sailu had a talent for dancing before this incident). Malli then develops strong hatred towards Lord Shiva.
Meanwhile, the scene shifts to the focus of a demon named Andhakasura (Ravi Shankar). We see him performing a severe penance to obtain the boon of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva blesses the demon that he will not interfere in the latter's attempt to sacrifice a virgin girl in order to obtain complete rulership over the 3 worlds. The demon is advised by his aged friend Maayi (Jeeva) that the sacrifice must be made in a month having 2 solar eclipses, in such a way that he has to marry the girl and sacrifice her before the solar eclipse ends. This will render the demon matchless and a master over all the 5 elements.
The story then shifts to Malli (Nagarjuna), now an adult whose motive is to help people and take care of his bedridden sister. He falls in love with Dr. Maheshwari (Anushka Shetty) on a visit to the hospital where his sister is being treated. There are many scenes where the atheist Malli forces the people of his colony who include Rudraksha (Brahmanandam), Ringu Raja (Raghu Babu), President (Krishna Bhagavaan) and others, not to worship, on account of his childhood tragedy. Then, on one occasion, Malli questions Lord Shiva for his condition and drives away in his car, only to meet with an accident. Lord Shiva comes and saves him. Lord Shiva calls himself as Saambayya, befriends Malli and goes to his home.
The demon chooses Dr. Maheshwari as his target for the sacrifice and prevents the Kaapaalikas (who arrive at the temple) from having access to Mahi, on the first solar eclipse day. Malli rescues Mahi from the Kaapaalikas and Mahi's parents entrust Malli to take care of Mahi. Then, Mahi's parents decide to get Mahi married to a relative, Rahul (Ganesh Venkatraman), who is to arrive from the US. This advice is given by saint known to Mahi's family. On his arrival to the airport, Andhakaasura kills Rahul in the washroom and takes his form. The demon, now in Rahul's form, enters Mahi's home and kills 3 dogs who guard Mahi. The demon also paralyzes Mahi's father, when he comes to know the truth about him. He also tries to kill Malli and Mahi, on their way to a temple, but Lord Shiva intervenes by sending his divine vehicle, Nandi who saves Malli. This infuriates the demon, who feels that Lord Shiva has not kept his promise. He challenges the Lord, to which he replies that it was his duty to protect his devotee. The demon then decides to oppose Lord Shiva, so he kills the saint known to Mahi's family, impersonates him and convinces Malli, Mahi and others that Saambayya is not a good person by faking his death at the hands to Saambayya. This makes Malli angry on Saambayya and he returns the ring of friendship given to him by Saambayya.
Finally, Malli convinces Mahi's family that Rahul is actually Andhakaasura. Then, the demon carries Mahi to the spot of sacrifice and prepares for the ritual. Meanwhile, Malli is advised by the Kaapalika chief (Avinash) to worship Lord Shiva, he tells Malli about his purpose of birth to destroy the demon and the means to do it, as he was the reason of the tragedy in Malli's childhood and Lord Shiva saved him as Saambayya. Malli confronts the demon, is initially defeated, but he heads skyward to get a blessing from Lord Shiva and finally destroys Andhakaasura by piercing the Trident given by Lord Shiva. | good versus evil | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0449573 | California Dreamin' (Nesfarsit) | I'm in Romania, I guess
The plot is based on a true story: in 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, a train containing American radar equipment required in Kosovo, guarded by a small troop of American and Romanian soldiers, went through Romania and was stopped for four days in a small village on the Bărăgan Plain because some customs papers were missing, even though the train had been authorised to pass through Romania by its Prime Minister.
In the movie, the train is stopped several days in the village of Căpâlniţa by the chief of the train station, Doiaru, who is corrupt and routinely steals goods from the trains which go through his station. He forces the train to move onto a siding until the paperwork is produced. The Americans try in vain to get the Romanian government to sort out the paperwork, but the responsibility is passed from one ministry to the other and as a result, their departure is delayed.
Periodic flashbacks take the audience back to Doiaru's childhood, when his parents, who were factory owners, awaited the coming of the Americans at the end of World War 2. As his father was considered a German supporter, Doiaru's family dreaded the arrival of the Russians. However, the Russians arrived first and they took away Doiaru's parents and he never saw them again. The first Americans to arrive in the village after the war are the very soldiers on the train in 1999.
The mayor of the village tries to make the Americans' stay enjoyable and invites them to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the village, even though such a feast was celebrated only a few months before. Doiaru's daughter, Monica, develops a crush on an American soldier, but as she knows no English, she uses the help of a local geek, Andrei, who is in love with her.
The mayor and the rest of the villagers are incited into revolting against Doiaru and start a riot, during the course of which the train leaves and Doiaru dies.
An ending note says that the radar was installed two hours after the ceasefire with Yugoslavia was signed, and the final scene shows Monica and Andrei meeting in Bucharest in 2004. | comedy, flashback | train | wikipedia | Cristian Nemescu's California Dreamin' (Unfinished) is furiously funny, outrageously cruel, infinitely critical of Romanians..
"California Dreamin' (Nesfarsit)" is one of the finest movies Romanian cinema has ever produced.
While the unfortunate death of young director Cristian Nemescu left the film unfinished, the movie has been put together according to Mr. Nemescu's plans.
There are many layers of discourse in this movie that develop as main lines of the narrative - on one hand, there is a sad, cynical, and auto-meditative look at the Romanian society in its purest, unaltered form; on the other hand, the movie speaks of the obsession of a generation of Romanians, that have been waiting for the Americans to liberate them ever since the Second World War; when those two lines meet, incredible things happen; and last, but not least, it shows the personal development of a few characters that are very relevant for Romanians today.Being a Romanian, I don't usually like Romanian films - many of them are irrelevant, are exorcising demons that have no relevance for us today (like "12:08 Bucharest"); but Cristian Nemescu's California Dreamin' (Unfinished) is furiously funny, outrageously cruel, infinitely critical of Romania and Romanians, and it manages that by simply showing the facts, and not making one personal interpretation.A brilliant movie done by a great movie maker.
Westerners and Americans, not very accustomed to the history and the society of the Eastern Europe might reduce them to this narrow view: gypsies, easy and shallow girls, the general poverty and corruption and a scene populated by low-lifes and scums.
The humor and general spirit of this movie reminds me a lot of Emir Kusturica's talent.Too sad the director died a year ago in a car crash, 28 year old only.Obviously, the best flicks don't come from Hollywood lately.
Yet, in watching "California Dreamin'" I cannot but accept the fact that this may not have been the director's final vision, while still going on to comment on the things I saw and felt.
We have to enjoy "California Dreamin'" for what it is and judge it accordingly.The story of Capalnita is a sad one, as it is the story of many parts of Romania, a country in desperate need to be seen and heard.
While the movie takes place on a more personal level, the allusion is inescapable, as are quite a few other things about life around here.The main plot revolves around a NATO transport sent to Kosovo by train, which is stopped in - literally - the middle of nowhere, by a station conductor who claims he wants to see the transit papers for whatever is being transported.
There is something subtle, something beyond the obvious realm of the film that quietly unfolds, a story of immense sadness, a story that reflects exactly how diseased modern society is, with an emphasis on Romanian problems that have shaped the late 20th century for all the people living there.
All in all though, the underlying message is clear and sensible: there will be no Americans (or any "others") to come and save us, we need to find the resources ourselves to deal with life as it as and as we've made it be.Armand Assante plays it straight all the way, the tough guy trying hard to keep calm in a situation which defies his notions of bureaucracy and efficiency.
The lack of response from Romanian authorities was - to my mind - completely unimaginable to a foreign army man, yet the usual resourcefulness of American imagination clears the way for a solution.
Well, it is a film which could have been good - even very good - had Nemescu had time to round it all off, but as such it is more of a long and unsatisfactory ride through the mysterious world of a tiny town at the outskirts of Bucharest.
There's a lot of stuff there you can enjoy, a lot of sad truths and a great central character in the person of Doiaru, but the final impression is weak and underplays the film's potential.
No matter what good or wrong you you'll see in the recent Romanian society, there are certain people living in this country who can make genuine art.
Many excellent Romanian film directors tend to have a keen sense for the dynamism of the short takes by "wearing" the camera like a peer of glasses.
And this is the main purpose of the 7-th art.Yes, it's a great movie, even if it's unfortunately unfinished; like an unexploded bomb in the Romanian consciousness...
Things like that MIGHT happen in the future, maybe this movie should be watched by our politicians, as I consider it as a satire.
I think this movie expresses very well the mixture of feeling the Romanians always had for Americans: "hatred" because they didn't save us in the WW2 (topic presented in the movie as a "remember", for which full understanding i recommend that previously you read a bit of WW2 history), "fascination" - from the Romanian girls, because American soldiers are considered handsome, and as being a way for escape from a possibly unhappy life, "business interest" - from officials, because they could invest money and help the local communities to develop.
All these aspects are presented wonderfully by Nemescu, telling our story as Romanians, to the entire world.
Cristian Nemescu's Cannes award wining movie, California Dreaming manages to exceptionally underline the issue of globalization, bureaucracy, the international image of the United States and it's actions, opportunism; also some of the bitter realities of Romanian administration, politics, mentality and the servility regarding foreigners that is found in this country way of thinking; everything is spinning around an old local obsession from 1944 when all of Romania was waiting for the US Forces to arrive and liberate it from the occupants; the viewer is surprised several times by different cues(lines) that are more or less subtle and what is impressive is that with only one phrase some of the characters manage to create powerful images and scenes.
The arrival of the Americans in the Capalnita Village it is seen by locals as a unique chance to live a better life and in their attempt to distinguish themselves, the villagers become capable to give rise to amazing actions never seen before in the community even though in the end all becomes so very ridiculous and ironically for both of the sides(the US Marines and the Romanians)but for different reasons: the Americans because of their unstoppable urge to leave and being stuck in the middle of nowhere and the villagers for their desire to lure and impress the new arrived guests.
Another thing to remind is the brilliant black and white scenes mixed in the movie, which present a story from The Second World War, aspects which are essential for the viewer to understand the mentality of one of the most important character named Doianu, the one who actually starts the main plot.
Even like this, movie was brilliantly directed making me remember of Antonioni's Blow-Out. Lots of people would not like it because it shows too much poverty or does not show all aspects of Balkan's life or just because is not a Hollywood movie.
..yes i'm talking about "12 Angry Men" , so "California Dreamin'" based on (i consider) a good plot with low amount of money it deserve to be watched.Fugitive brief: *Action is placed in Romania, in a small village,year 1999.
*Americans were passing through Romania to deliver NATO equipment *In a small village they were stopped by the Railway chief because they were not having any travel papers.(Alltough the railway chief was having orders to let them pass) *They remain in that village for a couple of days until the papers problem was solved (Railway chief explaining the Americans that they ain't better than the rest and need to follow Romanian law)PS: excuse my English!.
A genius of the romanian cinematography, and one of the world's best movie directors.
Cristian Nemescu's work of art brilliantly succeeds in capturing the pitoresque rural life of the Romania's villages, today, a country that is supposed to be an European one, but the mentality of the country people still remains one of the communist era.
Too bad, that such a talented director like Cristian Nemescu passed away in such a short notice, at only 27 years old, leaving only a small part of his brilliant work behind him.
(Fortunately, now we are okay again.) To get to the point, I should say that my official review of the movie is pretty detailed, and any Romanian-reading user can read it on Cinemagia or Liternet (unfortunately, I can't post the links here, since the IMDb rules forbid it; but you know what I'm speaking about).
The important thing is that "California Dreamin' (Unfinished)" is indeed one of these golden movies of Romanian's present day's generation.
It expresses an unmistakable Romanian note, in style, content and feeling, and also a definitory trait of its sadly departed author, the talented an exceptionally rigorous Cristian Nemescu (here comes the THIRD piece of trivia: we fought like mad on the Cinemagia Forum - but, thank God, we made up one year before his tragic demise).A very important piece of info: Cristi Nemescu had the habit to shoot much more than it was meant to get into the movie, and then to ruthlessly re-organize and cut short his footage, while editing.
This is why the movie remained so long and somewhat dissipated in the last quarter.The good news is that even those scenes are well done, precise and compelling, so the fault belongs only to the structural principles, not also to the pictures as such.
Putting together all the good and bad points, "California Dreamin' (Unfinished)" remains one of the best Romanian movies of all times - and, more than that: as an East European movie in the widest sense.
In the case of Cristian Nemescu's film 'California Dreamin'', there's a sadder story: the director died in a car crash while the film was in edit.
What he left behind was a story (about American soldiers marooned in a Romanian backwater) that is arguably overlong and unfinished (indeed, the film even has a subtitle to this effect), with some unlikely cuts and juxtapositions (that may or may not have been intended).
And yet, I did wonder why a Romanian director should have wanted to make a film that shows such a picture of his country.
But then I was reminded of another film about a local community (this time in Scotland) visited by an American, Bill Forsyth's 'Local Hero'; and there are aspects of both films that are similar, not least in the ambiguous relationship of the movie to the people it depicts (superficially, in both cases, our initial sympathies are with the outsiders).
Interesting and typical subject for the Romanian society (all the villagers becoming really excited, seeing that they are "visited" by Americans), regarding profound problems of eastern-European mentality but at the same time funny and commercial, "California Dreamin'" has everything what a movie needs to be a great success for the public but also a valuable movie that will be for long time actual.
And this is also why the movie was so well received by both film critics and viewers.RIP Cristian Nemescu..
Not that these elements can't be combined in one movie, but it needs to fit together and feel like one story, (or be deliberately presented as separate stories.) Instead, everything is just mashed together in weird way where it felt like each scene had a different director in charge.
Perhaps half of the scenes in the movie helped build up to the ending, but the other half didn't seem to fit with that story line at all.There was some good acting, though most of it was not top caliber.At the film festival where I saw it, they billed it as a comedy.
Nemescu manages to poke gentle fun at all sides; no-one finally emerges intact with both the Americans and the Romanians coming off equally badly and he does a wonderful job in evoking the boredom of village life.
To define this movie I would focus on realism, characters that do represent stereotypes, black Romanian humor, teenage Balkan sexuality and between the lines harsh criticism of world politics.
One should look beyond the situational humor and invest some time to read between the lines of one of the best movies produced by the Eastern European cinema in the past two decades.
That is precisely what this Romanian movie does: look how many bizarre and corrupted characters we have in our country, our girls are easy for US dollars, everything is dirty and cheap.
And when it comes to plot and other dramatic qualities of this movie, it is nothing but confused - the motivation for the provincial railway station manager to stop and hold the train for days is totally vague, and when possible causes for his behavior appear, we still don't know for certain which one is the real one: does he want a bribe?
If you lived here you would understand why people tend to criticize Americans and their politics.As long as Romanian people deal with Americans and are involved in their political movements, they are also allowed to state their opinion in every available way.
Its a nice movie regarding the plot, but taking in consideration that the movie had a "small allowance's budget " per totally it was a relaxing movie on a rainy summer day, when ...have nothing else to do.The cast was mediocre, on the both sides, the scenery was ambiguous at the beginning, but was deflated, until the final scene, with a lot's of details who are hard to follow .As always, i admire the will of the great US "masters" actors, who try to encourage the movie production company in the Eastern Europe, but,,,, better don't do this type of movies, 'cause it's bad for your image.....Personal message for Mr Assante:You can do better movies than this one ......
This was a debut big screen film but unfortunately also an and of career film, as director Cristian Nemescu died in a car accident last year.The story based on real events happens in the Wild East landscape of 1998 Romania, the period of transition, a time when everything can happen even in places where usually nothing happens.
The result is that the American soldiers and their commanding officer captain Jones which had over-passed until then at modern vehicles speed all the horse-driven carriages of the Romanian peasants find themselves suddenly stuck as a situation that resembles some spaceship having landed on an unknown planet.We know from flashback scenes run in parallel with the main action that Doiaru is the son in a family of the enemies of the former Communist rule, the type of guys who had been waiting for decades as most of the Romanian people for the West and especially from the Americans to come to their rescue.
In one of the key scenes in the movie Doiaru tells Jones something like: 'We have been waiting for you since War War II.
Maybe to save the Romanian from themselves seems to say the authors of the movie who are extremely critical about the state of the Romanian society represented by the village in the middle of nowhere.
The best was for me Razvan Vasilescu, a genial actor who already made a few roles that describe best the character of the villains of the Romanian transition.Cristian Nemescu could not finish the film, and the title bears a sign - 'nesfarsit' means literally 'not terminated' and 'endless' speaking figuratively.
Scenes in movies like "No Country For Old Men" are able to utilize this properly and to great effect.
I just have to say I was disappointed by this movie, as I had pretty high expectations (no, I was not expecting an Oscar-winning movie, and my expectations were definitely in tune with what Romanian movie-making is capable of).It was very sad to see the movie exploiting a known formula for good reviews and perhaps an award or two - politically involved plot + movie revealing all the negative aspects of Romania + exploiting the political circumstances = movie with great reviews that "tells it like it is".I was very sorry to hear about the death of the director, however I found it very distasteful to inform the audience of his death at the beginning of the movie, in what was clearly an attempt to gain the sympathy of the viewers.
If they really wanted to account for the fact that the movie was unfinished, they could have said it at the end, so as not to have people watching the whole movie thinking of how sad it was that he died.Overall, I rate this movie a 5/10, for all the reasons stated above, and find it to be a step up from a lot of other Romanian movies out there (of which I consider Filantropica to be one of the best if not the single best)..
The film, California Dreamin', shows the love hate relationship that much of the world has with the United States.
His heroes had let him down and now he hates them.Dolaru is able to get away with stopping the train for several days because the Romanian government doesn't function very efficiently in this movie.
Captain Jones expected the Romanian government to let him cross the country without following proper railway protocol, and Dolaru expected the American government to expend resources to specifically save the Romanians during a World War encompassed several nations.
"You mince the meat and you get a paste." - than electricity ïs cut off, - after a break he continues shocking "That's probably what those people in Yugoslavia look like"So Doiaru didn't let the Americans go (with all costs) because he hated them for what they are doing in Yugoslavia (beside the fact that he waited them in vain for a life). |
tt0068290 | Blood from the Mummy's Tomb | An expedition led by Professor Fuchs (Keir) locates the unmarked tomb of Tera (Leon) an evil Egyptian queen. A cabal of priests drugged her into a state of suspended animation and buried all of her evil relics with her. Fuchs is obsessed with Tera and takes her mummy and sarcophagus back to England, where he secretly recreates her tomb under his house. For days "before her birthday," his daughter Margaret (also Leon) - who bears an uncanny resemblance to Tera and was born at the instant they recited her name - has recurring nightmares. Fuchs gives her the old queen's ring and tells her to "wear it always." Of course, this only makes matters worse. Queen Tera's evil power begins to tempt Margaret, as she learns how she's feared by her father's former colleagues.
Margaret notices a man lurking in the vacant building across the street. He is Corbeck (Villiers), an expedition member who's now her father's rival. Corbeck wants to restore Tera to life and he persuades Margaret to help him gather the missing relics. The problem is, each time one is given up the person who'd held it dies. When they have all the relics, Corbeck, Margaret and Fuchs begin the ancient ritual to reawaken Tera. At the last moment Fuchs learns that the queen's revival will mean Margaret's death. Together Fuchs and Margaret overpower and kill Corbeck, as the house quakes above them. Queen Tera awakens and kills Fuchs, but not before Margaret stabs her. Margaret and Tera are grappling over an ancient dagger when the house finally collapses on them.
Later in the hospital, we see a woman whose face is wrapped in bandages. We're told she's the sole survivor, and that all the others in the Professor's basement were "crushed beyond recognition." The bandaged woman slowly opens her eyes and struggles to speak. But who is she, exactly - Margaret Fuchs or Queen Tera? | insanity, violence, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0061780 | The Honey Pot | Struggling actor William McFly (Cliff Robertson) is hired by wealthy Cecil Fox (Rex Harrison) to play his personal secretary for a practical joke. Pretending to be on his deathbed, Fox invites three former lovers to his Venetian palazzo for a final visit: penniless Princess Dominique (Capucine), fading movie star Merle McGill (Edie Adams), and Texas millionairess Mrs. Lone Star Crockett Sheridan (Susan Hayward). Accompanying Mrs. Sheridan is her spinster nurse, Sarah Watkins (Maggie Smith). By chance, each of the women brings Fox a timepiece as a present.
The three women warily size each other up. Mrs. Sheridan boldly announces that the others might as well go home, as she is Fox's common-law wife, and they can expect to inherit nothing. However, when Sarah returns from a late-night date with McFly, she finds her employer dead of an overdose of sleeping pills, an apparent suicide. Police Inspector Rizzi (Adolfo Celi) investigates.
Sarah knows that the pills Mrs. Sheridan had been taking are harmless fakes. McFly has already revealed to Sarah that Fox is perpetrating a charade, and that the final joke is to be the reading of the will, empowering McFly to choose the heir. She therefore suspects him not only of being the murderer, but also plotting to kill Fox. When she confronts McFly, he locks her in her room, telling her it is for her own safety. She manages to escape via a dumbwaiter and warns Fox. However, his displeased reaction puzzles her. He sends her back to her room.
The next morning, Fox is found dead. McFly reveals that Fox was the killer of Sarah's employer. He was broke and wanted Mrs. Sheridan's fortune. Once McFly had figured it out (and more importantly, told Sarah), Fox realized it was all up and committed suicide.
Sarah asks McFly to write her name down in the will as the heir of Fox's worthless estate as a souvenir, with Rizzi signing as a witness. After McFly complies, an amused Rizzi compliments him on his "generosity"—while Fox may have been deeply in debt, Mrs. Sheridan's estate is so vast, Sarah will still emerge an extremely wealthy woman. She informs McFly that she will marry him and hand over the money once he resumes his law studies and becomes a lawyer. | romantic, mystery, murder | train | wikipedia | Coming at the end of a prosperous string of all-star mystery films, THE HONEY POT suffered more from a lame title and timing than anything on screen when first released (an even worse title, "Up Pops Murder" didn't help when the film was first released to television).The typically superb script and direction from Joseph L.
Mankiewicz, from a play by mystery writer Frederick Knott, inspired in turn by Ben Johnson's classic play, VOLPONE, THE HONEY POT could not have had a better cast with Rex Harrison (at the top of his game) as the supposedly super-wealthy Cecil Fox mentally tilting with his secretary, Cliff Robertson, and a nosy nurse/love interest for Robertson, a very young Maggie Smith (younger viewers may be interested to see this very different performance from HARRY POTTER's Professor McGonagall - as well as her amazing Desdemona opposite Olivier's OTHELLO) and a trio of ex-loves, Edie Adams, Cappucine and Susan Hayward all in Fox's beautiful Venetian palatzo (the exterior shots are as gorgeous and the interiors).A death happens (accident?
perhaps murder?) and a Venetian police inspector, Adolfo Celi, enters the picture (lovely side note as his family at home is enraptured with PERRY MASON on American TV more than his real-life work) and the film starts to leave Ben Johnson's Volpone behind and delve into more complex games.To be frank, this film has long been among my favorites - I have been accused of teaching an entire university course on Mystery Writers just to develop an audience for it.
Showing the film at the conclusion of the course, after considering the progression of great mystery writing from Poe to Conan Doyle to Christie, Hammett and beyond, this marvelous under-appreciated work from Knott & Mankiewicz never fails to grab them.
It's well worth a look for anyone interested in good literate fun, great performances and writing that don't depend on splatter gore, special effects or CGI.While the ongoing box-office clout of stars Harrison and Hayward got the film a limited VHS release, it's hard to a copy today - but well worth the search.Wonderful film...if only it had a better title..
This film is pretty good, but it was a flop in 1967 despite having some good performances by Rex Harrison, Clift Robertson, Susan Hayward, Capucine, Edie Adams, and Maggie Smith.
The script and direction of Joseph Mankiewicz were perfect.
But it flopped, possibly because the times did not call for a literate murder mystery film.It's lineage is impeccable since it begins with Ben Jonson's classic Jacobean comedy "Volpone".
Sterling's novel brings together three would-be heirs too, but two are men, and one is Fox's wife (as in the movie - Susan Hayward's role).
But the same plot switches go on in the novel as in this film.I enjoyed the movie, in particular one moment that was rare to see in any film of that period.
While they are talking to Harrison and Robertson, both Adams and Capucine show up at the doorway.
In Venice, the millionaire benefactor Cecil Fox (Rex Harrison) watches the Seventeenth Century play Volpone and plots a practical joke to his three former greedy mistresses.
He hires the unemployed actor William McFly (Cliff Robertson) to act as his butler and stage manager and sends letters telling that he is terminal to the decadent Hollywood star Merle McGill (Edie Adams); to the broken Princess Dominique (Capucine); and to the sick Lone Star Crockett (Susan Hayward), who was married with him and arrives in his palace bringing the nurse Sarah Watkins (Maggie Smith) as her companion.
The prime intention of Rex is to see the reaction of the women after the reading of his will declaring McFly as the only heir of his fortune and then laugh up them.
"The Money Pot" is a delightfully witty film of the great director Joseph L.
The sophisticated and theatrical screenplay has wonderful lines and many plot points that surprises many times and a mystery that recalls the novels of Agatha Christie.
The direction and the performances are superb, highlighting Rex Harrison, Cliff Robertson, Maggie Smith and Adolfo Celi, the Venetian inspector that watches Perry Mason at home.
Taking an inspiration from his favorite Jacobean play, Ben Jonson's Volpone, fabulously wealthy Rex Harrison hires an out of work actor Cliff Robertson to play an elaborate practical joke on three women who've been part of his life.
Robertson's to play his confidential secretary and assistant and to send them letters inviting them to Venice where Harrison is pretending to be dying in his palazzo.To be sure these are three women to die for indeed.
Then there's movie star Edie Adams originally from the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn whose best days as a film star are behind here and not enough money is coming in to keep up with her lifestyle spending.
Finally there is the mysterious and earthy Susan Hayward.
She's also a hypochondriac and travels with nurse/companion Maggie Smith.The joke's proceeding great until Hayward winds up dead and the police in the person of Inspector Adolfo Celi is brought in.
Joseph Mankiewica's literate script glides ever so gently from comedy of manners to murder mystery.
Just see the film and you'll know what I mean.Sad that The Honey Pot failed to find an audience.
In regard to that read Hayward's comments on their lives together and the dialog exchanges between Harrison and Robertson.In fact The Honey Pot does turn out to be an elaborate joke, but you have to see who winds up winners and losers in this very intelligent and witty film..
Rex Harrison in his finest.
Maggie Smith as Nurse (Moth brain) almost stole the show and Cliff Robertson was especially convincing as an actor and a lawyer.
I've always enjoyed Susan Hayward, she gave them movie some spark and gave it life and as Cecil commented after she was gone that things would be dull from now on.
If you want to see the late ,great Sir Rex Harrison at his finest rent this film.
the movie proves to the film-goer just how great Harrison must have been on stage.
Cliff Robertson & Edie Adams are also good in this sly update of Volpone.With "Honey Pot",Director Mankewicz shows that he was as skilled at small cast fare with brittle humor as he was at larger full scaled epics or shady drama.The combination of Harrison,Mank,Smith and Robertson made a fine film indeed..
(Just peruse a few of the reviews, and then tell me that I'm wrongly slinging hash.) This film is as witty and urbane as anything that issued from Hollywood during its era.
The Honey Pot (1967)An odd film historically--it falls in the year of the New Hollywood breakouts like "The Graduate" and "Bonnie and Clyde" yet it is made in the style of those earlier 1960s slick and effete capers like "The Pink Panther." The movie can't be seen in quite contemporary terms, because it's just too slick and clever, and yet it doesn't have the panache and glorious success of the best of the earlier color films, glamour besides.Technically this is an American production, though it's thoroughly British in feel (and the production company also handled the embarrassing "Casino Royale" which is equally British at its core).
The story is basically a romanticized version of Ben Jonson's "Volpone," a play from the same year (1606) as Shakespeare's MacBeth.
There is a small part of "Volpone" performed in the movie (for the indulgence of the filthy rich scheming main character).
Its drama depends on a sequence of events rather than cinematic, visual elements.If you are looking for a Susan Hayward performance, there isn't much to watch for--it's quirky and brief.
Rex Harrison as the lead is forceful and uncomplicated.
Even the camera-work, ever smooth and perfectly balanced, gives a sense of well made, if slightly too well lit (television again) movie-making.
So all the back and forth, all the hiding of secrets and playing of parts, even the voice-over from the dead at the end, is slim entertainment..
Susan Hayward, Rex Harrison, in a fine Joe Mankiewicz Film.
Sure enough the back story of this film is that United Artists -then an independent film company that was a haven for great independent film makers such as Stanley Kramer, Robert Wise, Billy Wilder, William Wyler made serious cuts to the finished film that reportedly upset both Joseph Mankiewicz and star Susan Hayward.
I do not know if Susan's long absences from Production tending to her dying husband in the USA resulted in her role being cut or what.
Years later Joseph Mankiewicz restored all of his cuts and it is said to be a brilliant film.
However the DVD version is the UA version not the Mankiewicz version.Susan Hayward- always an exciting woman to watch on the screen has little to do, but makes every scene she is in worth watching, however Hawyard's character "Lone Star" ends up dead early in the movie.
Capucine, Edie Adams, Maggie Smith and Cliff Robertson give fine support to Rex Harrison and Ms. Hayward.
This movie has 4 Oscar winners Hayward, Harrison, Smith and Robertson.This is the last Susan Hayward movie that allowed Hayward to be considered a superstar, what would follow would be cameos in Valley Of The Dolls and The Revengers,, and two TV movies Heat of Anger and Say Goodbye Maggie Cole before dying of brain cancer at a relatively early age of 57.
Years later Rex Harrison would be quoted as saying He and the rest of the Company respected Ms. Hayward who dealt with the loss of her hsuband and carried on so professionally in her role..
A Sly Fox. Loosely based on "Volpone," a play by Ben Johnson, Joseph L.
Mankiewicz's literate, yet complex film, "The Honey Pot," is an often overlooked gem from the 1960's.
Ensconced in his lavish Venetian palazzo, Cecil Fox devises an elaborately staged game to play on three of his former paramours.
Needless to say, each arrives in Venice with an expensive gift and a desire to rekindle the fire with Fox. Each woman brings a time piece, and the theme of passing time is woven throughout the film.The film was the second successful collaboration between Mankiewicz and Rex Harrison, the first producing Harrison's Oscar-nominated performance in "Cleopatra." Harrison is a sly delight as Fox, a devious, manipulative schemer, whose dreams of being a dancer send him flitting flamboyantly around his bed chamber; in keeping with the film's theme, he even cavorts to "The Dance of the Hours." Cliff Robertson is McFly, a man with a checkered past, who stages the deception with ambiguous motives of his own.
The three objects of Fox's deceit are played by Susan Hayward, Capucine, and Edie Adams.
Hayward's Mrs. Lone Star Crockett Sheridan is the most colorful, and her tough-talking Texan character is missed when she is off-screen.
In a role that resembles her work in "The V.I.P's," Maggie Smith is the under-estimated brains among the group; as Sarah Watkins, nurse-companion to Mrs. Sheridan, Smith is described by Fox as "the bouncy one," and she is indeed."The Honey Pot" may be too slow and wordy for those nursed on Marvel Comics super heroes, but patient viewers have much to relish.
Mankiewicz won Oscars for his biting screenplays for "All About Eve" and "A Letter to Three Wives," and also won nominations for writing "Skippy," "No Way Out," and "The Barefoot Contessa." His sharp and witty dialog is deliciously delivered by Harrison and Hayward in particular, who have the best lines; however, the entire cast, which includes four Oscar winners, does well, and each has his or her moments.
Boasting excellent technical credits, a sterling cast, and a script and direction by Joseph L.
Mankiewicz, "The Honey Pot" offers solid entertainment for discerning viewers and a few twists and surprises to keep everyone attentive until the end..
Maggie Smith's astute performance as Susan Hayward's maid elevates this rather stiff and boring drawing-room comedy, a remake of the 1939 film "Volpone", in which Rex Harrison portrays a millionaire who fakes a fatal illness to test the reactions of his former girlfriends.
Hayward plays one of the ex-flames who winds up dead for real.
The story, whose origins lie in both the popular play "Mr. Fox of Venice" and the successful novel "The Evil of the Day", quickly tires one's patience.
Reissued under the title "It Comes Up Murder", though audiences weren't fooled--the film flopped.
Like two entirely different films crammed together..
The first half is a clever comedy but midway through the film, it abruptly becomes a murder mystery.
The end result is a film that seems like two different films chopped apart and glued together.
For me, I wish it had stuck with the comedy throughout--it would have been a better film.The film is about a very rich man (Rex Harrison) who has decided to enact his own real-life version of the Ben Johnson play "Valpone".
Like "Valpone" (which literally means 'the fox'), Harrison's name is Fox. However, in this case, Fox has invited his three ex-wives to his home--telling them through his secretary (Cliff Robertson) that he's dying.
The film has a nice cast.
In addition to Harrison and Robertson, there are the wives (Capucine, Edie Adams and Susan Hayward--who is quite entertaining).
Also, Adolfo Celi and Maggie Smith are along for support.
However, despite the story being directed by the brilliant Joseph L.
For me, despite some nice performances, it just didn't work..
I expected the film to be stagy, as it was adapted from a stage play.
I must, here, admit that I do not enjoy Rex Harrison in anything.
All these women are interested in Rex Harrison?.
As unlikable as ever, Rex Harrison stars in The Honey Pot as a wealthy, despicable cad who basically doesn't like women.
This time around, he recruits Cliff Robertson into his master plan: he's going to pretend he's dying to see which of the many women in his circle really care about him.
The women: Susan Hayward, Capucine, Edie Adams, and Maggie Smith.
It's supposed to be a comedy akin to Unfaithfully Yours, but Rex Harrison ruins it for me, just as he did in the 1948 film.
Rex just isn't likable, and his ego oozes off the screen in every film I've seen him in.
From the opening scene, with Rex Harrison's lead character watching a private performance of Ben Jonson's "Volpone"in the elegant, neoclassical surrounds of Venice's La Fenice, to the final scene amid the acqua alta in the Piazza San Marco, this sly murder mystery is pretty much note perfect.
The script is drily witty, delivered by principally Harrison, Cliff Robertson, with Maggie Smith demonstrating that she was a first-rate comic actress even four decades ago, all played in the matchless surrounds of Venice.
Capucine as the Princess, and Adolfo Celi as the police inspector are excellent in their smaller, supporting roles..
This film centers on an extremely wealthy man named "Cecil Sheridan Fox" (Rex Harrison) who is living in Venice and wants to play a joke on three attractive women: "Lone Star Sheridan" (Susan Hayward), "Princess Dominique" (Capucine) and "Merle McGill" (Edie Adams).
So he sends them letters telling them he is dying and that he has a huge fortune to pass on to one of them--just to see how far each of them will go to prove their love for him.
He enlists the aid of "William McFly" (Cliff Robertson) to assist him.
At any rate, rather than disclose any of the secrets that unfold I will just say that this film turns out to be both a comedy and a mystery.
Now, while I thought both Cliff Robertson and Rex Harrison performed well enough, I must say that I especially liked Adolfo Celi as "Inspector Rizzi".
I also didn't mind having such beautiful and talented actresses like the aforementioned Capucine, Susan Hayward and Edie Adams either.
At any rate, this is an enjoyable comedy but be warned—there are a lot of twists and turns along the way..
An over-talkative comedy-drama-murder mystery, disappointingly directed in a rather bland style by Joseph L.
Solid performances from just about everyone in the cast – particularly Rex Harrison, Susan Hayward, Maggie Smith, Edie Adams and Capucine – plus the movie's A- 1 technical credits certainly help, but the movie seems far too ponderous and slow-moving – mostly because Mankiewicz has unwisely chosen to add dialogue of his own invention to that of Frederick Knott's stage play, "Mr. Fox of Venice", which was itself based on a novel by Thomas Sterling based on a play by Ben Jonson.
If this were not off-putting enough, Mankiewicz has chosen to direct the movie mostly in super-boring, TV-style close-ups.
watch Rex Harrison jump around to "Dance of the Hours".
This movie is both a comedy and a mystery thriller.
Hidden doorways and secret passages !) There are also some nice performances to enjoy, especially by the three actresses who play the respective partners and lovers of our protagonist.Still, there is something which keeps the movie from soaring : it is enjoyable, but not outstanding.
Perhaps this has something to do with the constant references to Ben Jonson's "Volpone".
Mank of course is almost always good value and if he never really equalled let alone eclipsed A Letter To Three Wives and All About Eve he certainly gave it the old college try and this late entry is streets ahead of the disappointing swanner There Was A Crooked Man. Rex Harrison actually contrives to appear vulpine in the quasi dance steps he affects at a couple of points in the action and it's interesting that no attempt is made to portray Venice in a seductive light, rather the sombre, muted tones add a distinctive flavour to the proceedings.
The casting tends towards the bizarre and I can't think off hand of any one let alone any casting director who who automatically throw such diverse performers as Harrison, Hayward, Robertson, Smith, Capucine and Adams into the same project. |
tt0047233 | Mice Follies | Jerry and Nibbles flood the kitchen and freeze the water, turning the room into an skating rink. The two mice go about their own business, skating and sliding across the frozen floor - until Tom is woken up and peeps through the wall. and while nibbles slips through the ice, he accidentally he pulls off half of Tom's whiskers. nibbles fixes it but the whiskers fall off and nibbles brushes them under the mat. Tom pursues the two mice, but is not as mobile on ice as he thought. As he skids across the "rink", he crashes into a closet and comes across a pair of ice skates. Equally matching the skating prowess of the mice, the chase resumes as Tom crashes, bangs and stumbles across many kitchen obstacles, including an ironing board, a door and some stools, before sliding up a table-come-ramp and falling down into the cellar.
Tom emerges from the cellar and just as he is about to catch Jerry, Nibbles wisely defrosts the ice, causing Tom to slip over on the watery floor. Jerry climbs to higher ground as the soaking wet cat searches for him. Ready to squirt Jerry, who Tom has spotted hiding on a shelf, Nibbles sets the freezer to 'Quick Freeze', re-freezing the floor, with Tom frozen and just standing on the floor. Jerry and Nibbles resume their ice dancing, skating around the frozen cat who can do nothing but move his eyes around as the mice skate across the floor. | comic | train | wikipedia | Entertaining Tom and Jerry cartoon.
'Mice Follies' is an entertaining short with Tom, Jerry and a second mouse.
Jerry floods the kitchen together with another mouse.
After this they use the freezer to change the flooded kitchen into an ice skating rink.
When Jerry and the other mouse want to do some ice dancing Tom finds out what they are doing and is causing them some trouble.
He even finds some ice skates to catch both the mice.This short is animated pretty well and never bored me.
In fact, I found myself smiling constantly and there is one very big laugh.
Tom on his ice skates knows how to pass a lot of furniture without hitting them, is very happy about that, but misses one little thing.
This gag plays with perfect timing.
The ending, although predictable, is quite good as well.
Worth watching..
Home-made Ice Follies.
Jerry and some little baby mouse (with diapers) floods the kitchen at Tom's house by turning on all the faucets, making a pool and then freezing it with a couple of tubes from the refrigerator.
They now have their ice-skating pond in which they can slide and skate and have a merry old time.
They even rig up a spotlight and pretend they are in the ice follies.Tom hears noise coming from the kitchen, goes to investigate and sees the situation.
He goes after the mice but, of course, is sliding all over the place.
That part isn't too funny but when Tom dons skates, there are some clever scenes.Overall, a "fair" short - seen better, seen worse..
Tom and Jerry on Ice.
"Mice Follies" is probably one of the more original shorts in the Tom and Jerry series.
In this film, Jerry and another mouse flood the kitchen with water, then freeze it to create a winter wonderland.
This allows for some new twists on the old cat chases mouse theme.
The gags still aren't on a par with say a Bugs Bunny short, but it's certainly a clever vehicle for the cat and mouse..
the repair bill must have been awful.
Jerry the Mouse and the little orphan Nibbles flood the kitchen to make a ghetto ice skating rink.
Cue Tom and wacky ice cat and mouse hijinx.I don't know why, but this Tom and Jerry short didn't really do anything for me.
It wasn't bad or anything like that, I just didn't laugh as much as I find myself doing while watching other Tom and Jerry cartoons.
Sure some of the gags were kinda amusing and all.
Maybe being a fairly new property owner myself I was thinking of how much the repair job would cost for something like that, coincidentally "the Amittyville Horror" affected me in pretty much the same way.
Heh. This animated short can be found on disc 2 of Warner Brother's 2-DVD Spotlight Collection set.My Grade: C+.
I love this!!!.
I love many Tom and Jerry cartoons and fortunately Mice Follies is one of them as it is quite special to me for several reasons.
It is funny, puts a smile on my face, never bores me, it is original and it is somewhat cute as well.
The animation is really beautiful and lush, and the music is a genuine delight.
Jerry and Tuffy dancing on ice to Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Waltz is one of my favourite moments ever in the history of Tom and Jerry.
The characters are still endearing, Tom is crafty, Jerry is caring and cunning and Tuffy is adorable.
The sight gags are all really funny and pleasant, the story is beautifully constructed and the pacing is just right.
Overall, I love Mice Follies, it is special to me.
10/10 Bethany Cox. Mice on ice..
Jerry and Tuffy flood the kitchen and use the freezer to turn the floor into a massive ice-rink.
Tom discovers the pair of rodents sliding effortlessly around the room and tries to catch them, but isn't as steady on his feet—at least until he finds a pair of ice skates in a cupboard.The problem with watching a lot of Tom and Jerry cartoons in quick succession is that the action can all become a bit 'samey'; the benefit of watching a lot of Tom and Jerry cartoons in a row is that when you get a particularly good one it really stands out from the crowd.Mice Follies is a great example, the frozen setting making a welcome change from the usual housebound chaos and allowing for some superb gags.
What also makes this one sparkle is the quality of the artwork and animation, with great attention to detail in the ice and the reflections of the characters as they skate along..
Two mice on the ice, is twice as nice for Tom who they entice and who gives in to vice and rolls the dice, making it a trice, and the results more than suffice!!!.
I know it's probably just a plain old take on "ice follies", but that title also sounds suspiciously like ice lollies to me!(They go by popsicles in the USA!) This is one of my all-time favourite offerings to feature the beloved duo.
It may not have the destructive madcap action of "The Mouse Who Came to Dinner", or the distinctive fantasy weirdness of "The Cat and the Mermouse", but I've always just really loved it, it gives me an especially strong case of the warm and fuzzies inside that's quite different from all the other episodes that I love.
Whenever I used to watch the shows as a kid, I'd always hope they'd show this one.
It was always the ice, I always found it so utterly magical and enchanting when the flooded kitchen is instantly transformed into a sparkling frosty wonderland...
What an ingenious idea for an episode.
Now the cynical side of me can't help but think for a second that that's gotta be one powerful freezer(!) Wow, the ice looks so beautiful, the way it glitters, and that cool thing with the jelly they use to create the illusion of coloured lights.
That's all the stuff I love about this one the best.
I love the bit when Tom can't find his feet and the drum beats match his stumblings.
What I find funny about that scene is the way Jerry and Nibbles stand to watch the spectacle!
The sight gags in this one are pretty few and far between, but what there is is good.
I love the impossibly cute 'lil snow-mice!
I get a kick out of the comical way Tom daintily flicks off the snow!
Again, more amazing animation with the snow when Tom manages to freeze himself at the end.
And then the charming final scene that draws things to a close with the two dancing around a Tom ice sculpture to the delightful music, who can only glare out at them with his eyes!
It would have been that much better if they'd have had him do a sighing motion with them eyes.
I still get such a strong feeling when I watch this that goes way beyond nostalgia...
What a sweet little lovely ice-dream-give it a whirl!!! |
tt0068934 | Melinda | Frankie J. Parker is a Los Angeles radio disc jockey. In his spare time, Frankie takes karate lessons at a school run by his friend Charles Atkins. A woman in a rental car, newly arrived from Chicago, listens to Frankie's radio program. They meet at a nightclub owned by another of Frankie's friends, former football player Tank Robertson, where she introduces herself as Melinda. He invites her to a party on Tank's yacht, making girlfriend Terry Davis jealous. Frankie takes Melinda to his apartment, unaware that they are being followed by a thug. They make love and, the next morning, Melinda tells the womanizing, easy-going Frankie that he has the makings of a more serious, substantial man. After she leaves, Frankie realizes he has is developing feelings for Melinda, but when he returns home, he finds the apartment ransacked and Melinda murdered.
It turns out her real name is Audrey Miller and she is the former mistress of a Chicago gangster named Mitch, who is trying to recover a mysterious item Melinda took with her to LA. A junkie, Marcia, tries to take Frankie at gunpoint, but he overpowers her. Frankie is attacked by two men, but manages to fight them off, helped by his karate training, although Marcia ends up dead. Frankie finds out that his friend Tank is a business associate of Mitch and owes him money. The item Melinda took is in a safe-deposit box at the bank, the key to which Melinda mailed to Frankie before she died. Unable to gain entry himself, Frankie permits girlfriend Terry to impersonate Melinda and retrieve the item, which turns out to be a gold cigarette case.
Inside the case is a tape recording that incriminates Mitch in a crime. Terry is taken prisoner, forcing Frankie to agree to come to Mitch's mansion to work out a trade. He takes the precaution of asking Atkins and his karate students to come along. When they find Terry is being held in a snake-filled cage, Frankie, Atkins and the others come to her rescue. | violence, murder, blaxploitation, melodrama | train | wikipedia | Melinda.
of all the blaxplotation films in the 70's, Melinda ranks on my list with Shaft, Superfly, Trouble Man, Cotton comes to Harlem, and such like.
i had'nt seen it since 1974 maybe, and have been looking for it for more than 30 years.
finally, i found it in San Francisco.
the DVD was a good print although you knew it was as old as it is/was.
Calvin Lockhart was brilliant as the narcissistic Frankie J Parker, and Rosiland Cash's role of Terry, displayed the strength and resolve of a strong Black woman of the time.
violent and dark, with a hint of mystery and overloaded with the rage of revenge, Melinda was a thriller.
as i watched again, for the first time, the lines all came back and i can remember how many of Lockhart's lines, i began using.
incredible how influential movies can be to a 20year old African-American in the 70's..
A blaxploitaion classic.
That super-ego brilliant Mutha Frankie J.
Parker played by Calvin Lockhart is a ghetto disc jockey who smooth talks and womanizes until he meets a sultry gal named Melinda played by Vonetta McGee. Things go smoothly until Melinda winds up dead in Frankie's apartment.
The mob is behind the hit since Melinda had one of their audio tapes concealed in a cigarette box.
Frankie cant take on the mob all by himself so he rounds up a few buddies and struggling businessman and karate instructor Charlie Atkins played by Jim Kelly and together form a small army and go into combat.
Kelly, who is responsible for the violence and Lockhart take on thugs, steal their cars and drive up to the mob boss's mob to "clear things up" and "close the deal".
In the end Frankie rekindles a lost love interest and Kelly and his crew go back to the real world and leave Frankie and his old time gal to reconcile and understand each other throughout the end of the film.
Through this violent action film I saw a lot of the characters emotions, the fear,the struggle,the anger,the courage, and the love and romance.
At the end I felt good inside.
I could Identify with the characters who went through all that.
To me this film has been overlooked and underrated.
"Melinda" should be digitally remastered and recorded on DVD.
I strongly recommend this film to anyone.
Look past the color and the genre.
This is your kind of Black Film..
Not The Usual Blackploitation Flick.
A smooth DJ falls for a woman he's just met.
When he finds her dead a short time later, he discovers that she had been killed because of her ties to organized crime.
The DJ decides to avenge her death, receiving the help of a woman (the late, great Rosalind Cash) whom he had scorned.
This film doesn't exactly follow the bullets and blood formula of many other Blackploitation action films.
It does a little better on characterization, especially of the DJ and his scorned gal pal.
However, it doesn't get as deep as it promises to be..
Calvin Lockheart is great.
I enjoyed this movie and Calvin Lockheart is a great actor and he is good on the eyes.
I love his voice I have been looking for this movie Melinda for years I can not find it anywhere.All of the actors and actresses did good the plot was good and I enjoyed the action.
I have seen Calvin Lockheart in other movies and he did good an all of them as well I would like to see him in something now, I know he is much older now but there are movies for older men also THERE ARE TV shows that he could be on he helped to make the way for actors and actresses of today.He could appear on shows like Girlfriends also The Parkers.
That is only a couple of suggestions.I would like to see him in a movie about his life.If anyone know where I can get the movie please post it..
Just too Sweeet!.
This is one in a long line of blaxploitation films made during the 70's that were designed as money making vehicles.
Most of them are simply terrible, but Melinda is actually a cool one.Its basically a revenge tale, but it is chock full of melodrama and excitement.
The story is an overdone one, but the films' cheapness actually benefits it.
The settings seem authentic and the movie actually manages to capture some street life in it.Admittedly, the acting is not excellent, but somehow the film manages to be entertaining in a "ghetto" way.
Don't go out of your way to see it, though..
Frankie is a very pretty man...and he knows it.
But he's also a very angry man as well!.
Apart from being Jim Kelly's first film, this is a rather ordinary blackspoitation film.
It's neither an over the top bad but enjoyable film of the genre nor is it one of the outstanding ones...but lies somewhere in the middle.When the film begins, Frankie (Calvin Lockhart) is a handsome and successful DJ...and he seems to know just how pretty he is.
In fact, when he meets Melinda, he struts his stuff and impresses her so much she does the nasty with him...and they both are then inexplicably in love.
However, after Frankie leaves, some unknown fiends come in and trash his pad...and kill Melinda.
When Frankie returns, jerks cops arrest him but they cannot hold him...and Frankie decides to work his way up the chain of command in the black and white mobs until he finds Mr. Big and makes him play.
And, wisely, for the big showdown, Frankie brings along his kung fu buddies and they have a hellacious smackdown.If you are looking for pimps and the like, you won't find it in this one.
Instead, it's much like a normal drama merged with a blacksploitation film...watchable and enjoyable but not especially memorable.By the way, like many films in this genre, there is nudity, violence and rough language...which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone!.
Drab blaxploitation effort.
The idea of Metro Goldwyn Mayer dipping its toe into the blaxploitation genre may at first sound strange, but actually MGM did this several times, most notably with the "Shaft" films.
But while the "Shaft" films are well know to this day, "Melinda" has been all but forgotten today.
It doesn't take long upon watching it to figure out why.
The first third of the movie is incredibly slow and dull.
The next two-thirds has a bit more speed and action, but too little and too late.
Director Hugh A.
Robertson was obviously hampered by a poor screenplay, but he was also obviously restricted with a limited amount of money, since the movie looks more like an effort for television than for the silver screen.
But that's not to say that Robertson should be totally absolved of fault.
There are some very poorly directed sequences, and his instructions to the movie's star Calvin Lockhart make the talented actor's character come across as selfish, obnoxious, and cruel.
I have a feeling that even the target audience at the time found this a sub par effort, though I'll admit I have seen much worse 1970s blaxploitation films..
bad frankie j takes on the mob.
one of the few black films overlooked by the same studios that were saved by these so called blackploitation films.bad genre title,the only thing exploited were the actors who were not paid the money they deserved.lot of action,and dramatic acting.the late great miss cash should have won an Oscar for performance for her dual role in this film.
a great introduction for Jim Kelley who should have had a great action film career as the great chuck Norris.these films in the early 1970s were just plain great fun and escapism.studios be aware there are millions to be made on forgotten films such as black belt Jones, three the hard way,trouble man,Melinda,abbey,hit-man,Gordon's war,sparkle and others that should be remastered to DVD.just check out the profits to already released titlessuch as the mack,super fly,foxy brown and Corly high.please surprise us fans of a bygone and special era.great action career as the great chuck Norris.
Melinda Showcases Smoldering Chemistry Between Calvin Lockhart & Vonetta McGee. Though their on-screen time together is short, the dashing Calvin Lockhart and the mesmerizing Vonetta McGee made quite a delicious pair in "Melinda." His mocha complexion and swiftly-melting-heart against her café au lait luminescence and wariness-turning-to-warmth are bewitching to behold in the early seduction scenes of this R-rated, '70s Black cast rarity.
From their first encounter in a funky supper club to "back at Frankie's place" and the few days they get to spend together, there is an intoxicating mix of mental chess play, crackling sexuality, sweet humor and soul-baring communicated by veteran Lockhart and then-budding starlet McGee - both wonderful actors.My frustration with this set up is that because the love scene between "Frankie" and "Melinda" is so potentially erotic (remember there were very few full-on lovemaking scenes between Black actors on the big screen in '72 - especially between two this attractive), someone at MGM deemed it necessary to mute that eroticism by having a henchman follow the first-time lovers home, stand outside the door eavesdropping, become aroused and bring himself to a simultaneous orgasm along with the pair inside.
It's truly a travesty.
"Melinda" is a mob boss thriller, not "Flip Wilson Sends Up Shaft!" The music and vibe senselessly switch from seductive to comedic as the bad guy outside is making goofy faces while the gorgeous people inside are getting it on all over the living room floor.
The lovin' is low-lit by the fireplace which adds an air of mystery yet is ultimately ruined because the editors keep cutting back and forth between the sex-down inside and the brightly lit bulls**t outside.
Without the cold shower of "comic relief," this could have gone down as among the era's most arousing love scenes - Black and beyond.It feels like another case of Hollywood being uncomfortable with and/or afraid of Black sexuality.
I wish Mr. Robertson or Mr. Lockhart were still here to reflect on this.
Perhaps Ms. McGee could answer me.
Did some cigar-chomper at MGM or in the MPAA, after reading the script or seeing the dailies, say, "O.K., we can only keep the sex hot-n-heavy if we break it up every few seconds with some completely out of character (for a thug) stupidity, or just call it a wrap with a fade-to-black at the foreplay stage on the sofa." The "guidelines" for such things were, and still are, just that whimsical...administered on an impossible to pin down case-by-case basis.
Beyond Lockhart & McGee, "Melinda" is a cool slice of diverting entertainment.
The controllers of the MGM film library should make this title available in a high quality DVD.
As another commenter expressed, even though the budget for "Melinda" was obviously low, director Hugh A.
Robertson and the cast created an earthy snapshot of Black Los Angeles better than most from the 70's so-called "blaxploitation" flicks.
"Melinda" also boasts one of the first screen appearances by Black karate champion Jim Kelly (who later co-starred in "Enter the Dragon" with Bruce Lee, and his own star vehicle "Black Belt Jones").
Plus, there is a righteous score by African American composer/arranger Jerry Peters featuring R&B singing great Jerry Butler.
If you ever come across a copy of the rare soundtrack Lp (on Pride Records), grab it.If "Melinda" is ever respectfully released on DVD, the sorely underrated Calvin Lockhart will flash one of his dazzling pearly white smiles from Heaven above - boasting enough wattage to illuminate a month of soulful Sundays. |
tt0077497 | Goodbye Emmanuelle | Emmanuelle (played by Monique Gabrielle) is a free-spirited woman who makes erotic arthouse films and runs a dance studio out of her loft in Paris.
The movie opens with a "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" style montage of Cannes, with a documentary-like narration giving us an overview of the famous film festival held there every year. A film within a film, the sequence shows Emmanuelle premiering her latest film, Love Express, in Cannes, causing a scandal in the process. Later, she defends her film at a press conference to reporters who accuse her of creating pornography.
After the Q&A, Emmanuelle's producer introduces her to Prince Rajid, a wealthy despot who owns the fictional Arab country of Benglagistan. He is apparently obsessed with Emmanuelle and wants to premiere the film in his homeland.
Outside, a throng of male fans awaits Emmanuelle, all desperate for a touch of the famed beauty. Things quickly escalate and the mob strips her of every last article of clothing, sending her jumping onto a stranger's departing boat for safety. Her unwitting saviour is Charles D. Foster, a young millionaire who disapproves of Emmanuelle's erotic films. The couple quickly fall in love after a night of exciting sex on his yacht.
After an argument with the concerned Foster, Emmanuelle travels to Benglagistan to promote her film, and meets Eddie, an Indiana Jones style danger-seeker who befriends her. Prince Rajid kidnaps her for his harem and decides to make her one of his 50 wives. Eddie helps her escape, and together they run into the jungle. Charles send an army helicopter to help Emmanuelle. Eddie dies in the shootout but she escapes with the helicopter.
Emmanuelle joins Charles D. Foster on a midnight plane ride where they drink champagne and make love. The plane quickly falters and crashes into the mountains near Las Vegas. After being rescued and returning home to mourn her dead lover, she receives a note and flowers and realizes Foster is alive and loves only her. | pornographic | train | wikipedia | On the other hand.
This movie is probably the most unpopular of 1970's French "Emmanuelle" series because it is definitely the least erotic.
The sex scenes are all pretty brief and tame (especially compared to its immediate predecessor "Emmanuelle 2").
After actually looking attractive in the first sequel, Sylvia Kristel is back to her tomboy, uber-European look.
The supporting female cast meanwhile doesn't begin to compare to the likes of Laura Gemser and Catherine Rivet (the voluptuous Charlotte Alexandra from "Immoral Tales" is featured but is pretty much wasted in a few throwaway scenes).
Frankly, the sexiest thing about this movie is actress/singer Jane Birkin's voice in the catchy theme song (dueting with husband Serg Gainsbourg), but she is not actually in the movie.On the other hand, this is the only "Emmanuelle" movie ever to approach what some might call reality.
In this movie the Emmanuelle character actually tires of her boorish, jaded husband and all the menage a trois and swinging affairs with other men that he pushes her into, more for his pleasure than hers.
She is taken aback when she sees a young black girl, who they earlier had a threesome with, after she has been beaten by her clueless but jealous husband, and she finds her own husband's latest would-be blonde conquest vapid and unappealing.
She begins an affair with a young film director and actually falls in love.
Jealously then rears its ugly head, as her husband finds out and tries to sabotage the relationship.
I won't give away the ending, but you could probably guess it from the title.It's rare (and some would say foolhardy)to make a sex film that realistically deals with real-life, and potentially depressing, issues like this.
In a way this film kind of marked the end of the "free love" era of the 60's and 70's.
That is not to say that this is a good or serious film compared to say "Last Tango in Paris", but for this series.
. .well, it's worth seeing if you don't mind trading some of sex for a little bit of reality..
This girl knows what she wants..
After the titillatingly groovy sexy title song "Emmanuelle, Emmanuelle, Emmanuelle goodbye" sung by a husky-voiced Jane Birkin, along with Serge Gainsbourg it simply stays in your head long after the credits have rolled.
Oh it's a hard one to shake off.
The third feature of the official French "Emmanuelle" series is a step-down from the previous two entries starring Sylvia Kristel as Emmanuelle, mainly on its concentration for the story dramatics than the sexual context.
That's not a bad thing, because is a perfectly realized story.
Much more grounded, but quite reflective and still adventurous in more ways than one.
The erotica is tastefully done, as the sex scenes are watered-down and briskly concluded, but it still has Emmanuelle with her swinging husband openly experimenting with their sexual desires.
However how this one changes, is now Emmanuelle begins to question/or have second thoughts about this free-spirited lifestyle her husband encouraged when the arrival of a film director gains her interest.
What starts off as a curiosity with the stranger becomes a lot more, where Emmanuelle and her husband rock-solid relationship of keeping no secrets begins to show cracks --- and jealously rears its ugly head.Director Francois Letterier beautifully scenic direction of a pristine Seychelle is elegantly captured and presents a strikingly lush local flavour.
The exotic music score is melodic, fitting the mellow tone.
The performances are perfectly etched as the enticingly stunning Sylvia Kristel (a true goddess) shows not only she has a seductress pull, but can carry a film with a strong liberated performance.
Umberto Orsini and Jean-Pierre Bouvier are solid too..
Endless holidays.
Welcome to Fantasy Island!
The 3rd part of the Emmanuelle stories with Sylvia Kristel plays on the Seychelles Islands, and it has less to do with the real world than any other part of the series.
True, everybody has a job (not at an insurance or bank, but typically something like movie director, novelist, doctor etc.) but you never actually see someone working.
Nobody has any worries about money, it seems to grow on trees - for everybody with a white skin, that is...
Well, Emmanuelle makes the best of her dubious endless holidays in the third world and chases Gregory for a love affair.
Her husband becomes jealous and hides Gregory's messages to her.
The whole movie has an air of luxurious boredom somehow, but it's a nice way to escape from your daily troubles when you watch this (and watch it in widescreen to let the beauty unfold).
I voted 7/8/6/4/6/7 for the six cinema films of the series..
No Franchise Without Failure.
I have always treasured fond memories of the EMMANUELLE series (offical entries and otherwise) from my movie-going days before hardcore pornography became legally available in my native country of Belgium.
Unfortunately, this third installment is by far the weakest of the lot.
The story is tired and largely devoid of interest, picking up lazily where part 2 left off with yet more trials and tribulations from the open marriage shared by Emmanuelle and Jean.
Pretty pictures of the Seychelles will make you long for your next summer holiday but Serge Gainsbourg's repetitive soundtrack, consisting of two (count 'em!) endlessly rehashed theme tunes, will have you throwing any object within immediate reach at the telly by the halfway point.Thankfully, Dutch goddess Sylvia Kristel was still around to essay the title character, dropping her already skimpy wardrobe at the slightest urging.
She's the main reason why I still watch whenever this one pops up on late night TV, along with the pleasingly undraped appearances by the late Olga Georges-Picot – who, sadly, chose to end her own life as years progressed and fading beauty presumably left her unemployed – and Charlotte Alexandra who played the title role in Catherine Breillat's sulfurous UNE VRAIE JEUNE FILLE.Unless you're a completist (in which case you may need professional help as much as, well, I do), stick to the original and its glossy first sequel or parts 4 (featuring hymen restoration in Brazil long before this became a medical possibility), 6 (scripted by Jean Rollin, so you know proceedings are going to get pretty screwy) or the elusive virtual reality themed 7 with Kristel returning and even dressing up as a nun – perhaps inspired by BLACK EMANUELLE Laura Gemser's similar travesty in Giuseppe Vari's SISTER EMANUELLE ?
– for the film's unforgettable final scene !.
the dong goodbye.
This is a surprisingly moving last edition of the original Emmanuelle trilogy, with the title character becoming tired of her complaisant husband and the endless rounds of meaningless swinger sex she is expected to engage in whilst living in their paradise home in the Seychelles.
A hunky young film director comes to the Island to scout locations, and one look into his eyes (whilst she is being schtupped by some random shag) reminds Emmanuelle what it is really like to be desired by and to desire an individual.
Much to the chagrin of her husband, Emmanuelle embarks on a sexual romance with the director and finds that he stirs emotional feelings and needs which she thought her years of swinging had deadened.
By the end of the film, she is ready to put all of that behind her and head for the new pastures of a monogamous, committed relationship.Compared to the low smut and tasteless hardcore of much erotic cinema, Goodbye, Emmanuelle is undoubtedly high-class product.
The film, shot in luscious 'scope and finely showing the travelogue beauty of the Seychelles, is gorgeous to look at and beautifully composed.
Moreover, the performances of Kristel and Umberto Orsini as Emmanuelle and her husband have real depth and emotional truth.
He especially well conveys the dumb incomprehension of a complaisant roué whose free love slogans are a mask for old fashioned chauvinism and ownership values and who feels the tug of jealousy for the last time, too late in fact as his smug indifference catches up with him and he loses the person he shares his life with.
His final gambit - lying to Emmanuelle about phone calls and letters from her lover - is the nearest the Emmanuelle series gets to gripping drama, and it's satisfying to see the ropey old swinger get dumped as he fully deserves.This is an odd, resigned, bitter-sweet end to the original Kristel trilogy.
It could be said that the series makers are rather having their cake and eating it - that, having made a fortune from promoting lubricious excess and preaching sexual freedom, to have their heroine reject these values and plump for monogamy is rather rich coming from them.
But the seventies were an age in which people realised that the sexual revolution got people high but had its come-down; that endless freedom to shag whoever you want is a prison cell not a freedom road.
Even more intriguing are the subtle glimpses of the colonialism which allows the wealthy Emmanuelle and partner to indulge their jaded desires - a native caddie revealed at the far side of the frame, a garage with a Shell sign, a mention of the spice trade and pirates with black slaves.
The characters live in a paradise which a snake had long ago poisoned.
This is poignant social history, and feels the right kind of end to a dream in silk sheets..
Goodbye, sweet lady....
"Goodbye Emmanuelle" is considered by many to be the last "official" entry in the "Emmanuelle" series.
This time around, the action shifts to the beautiful and exotic Seychilles Islands, where the lovely and sexually liberated Emmanuelle finds herself questioning her beliefs about sex, and about love.
This elegantly filmed third installment begins like the others, with the architect's wife meeting and having sexual encounters with the attractive cast of men and women on the island.
Before long however, the film shifts gears, when a young and extremely handsome film director enters the picture, and awakens in Emmanuelle, some feelings that she thought had long ago been buried.
"Goodbye Emmanuelle" is the perfect final chapter in the series, wrapping everything up in a smart, believable way.
This moral fable makes the point that open relationships, complete with anonymous sex, can become a very lonely and sad way to live.
Emmanuelle begins to realize that her husband's guise of carefree sexuality, is merely a way to hide his own insecurities.
When put to the test, he fails miserably, by resorting to petty lies and games to hold onto the woman, that he realizes too late, really loves and depends on.
If this does not sound like the storyline for an erotic film, it is because this is not really an erotic film.
The sex scenes are kept to a minimum, and when there is an erotic scene, the camera does not linger for long.
In fact, these scenes appear to have been a mere after-thought, taking a back seat to the more serious drama at hand.Viewed as a stand-alone feature, "Goodbye Emmanuelle" plays like a slightly above-average melodrama, it's gorgeous cinematography elevating it a cut above the rest.
But when viewed in context with the other two films in the series, this becomes something very special indeed.
For during these three very different films, we see this character "Emmanuelle" evolve continually.
In the first chapter, Emmanuelle is a young and innocent girl, with somewhat traditional views on sexuality and marriage.
She is taught, by various friends about open marriage, and carnal desire.
In part 2, Emmanulle has traded her short, severe hairstyle, for a long, flowing mane of red hair, indicating her newfound "freedom." Viewing these two films back to back, it is amazing how different she is in the second installment.
By the time she settles down in the Seychilles with her husband, she has changed yet again, and she no longer carries herself with the same air of self confidence.
Rather, she appears to be uncertain about the direction of her life.
Perhaps Sylvia Kristel was not given enough credit for her acting abilities.
She carries these films alone, and does an unforgettable job lending this fictional character an authenticity seldom seen in film.
For fans of the series, "Goodbye Emmanuelle" is a must-see.
Of the three films, (or four if you include Emmanuelle IV) is the most understated, and most elegantly-filmed of the series.
For a change, many will notice that the men are attractive here as well as the women.
The whole cast is in fact quite beautiful.
It is a somewhat rare title, but the DVD from the Netherlands is the highest quality edition available, presented in a gorgeous 2;35 aspect ratio, and featuring the original French audio.
It is the only way to watch these special films..
Excellent erotica.
Erotic and exotic film set in the Seychelles starring gorgeous Sylvia Kristel as 'Emmanuelle', the sexual adventuress.When Emmanuelle's open marriage allows her to meet and fall in love with island visitor 'Peter' (Jean-Pierre Bouvier), she begins drifting away from her husband and into her new lover's arms.
Things get complicated when Emmanuelle's husband objects and tries to separate the two causing them to fall deeper in love.
Very pretty film with breath-taking scenery and nice tropical music is one of the better 'Emmanuelle' offerings.Beautifully directed by Francois Letterier. |
tt0113133 | Funny Bones | Tommy Fawkes is the son of comedy legend George Fawkes. After his own Las Vegas comedy act flops with his beloved father in the audience, Tommy returns to Blackpool, England, where he spent the summers of his childhood.
Disguised with a new identity, Tommy intends to seek out unique performers and purchase their acts. During this time, Tommy encounters his father's old comedy partners, Bruno and Thomas Parker. Once great performers, they now work as ghouls on a ghost train at Blackpool Pleasure Beach Circus.
Bruno's son Jack is a brilliant comic, but psychologically troubled. He has also been manipulated by a corrupt policeman known as Sharkey into stealing valuable wax eggs from smugglers. Tommy meets Jack's mother Katie, and even though Tommy is in disguise, she suspects that he is somehow connected to the family.
Tommy eventually realises that his father stole his original act from the Parker brothers. He then reveals himself to be Tommy Fawkes and Katie tells him that Jack is his half-brother. Tommy phones his father about the revelation and George gets on the next plane to Blackpool.
As part of their reconciliation, George arranges for the Parkers to top the bill at a Blackpool Tower Circus event. However, Jack is still hounded by Sharkey and cannot perform. During an elaborate Egyptian act, Katie gets rid of Sharkey via a sarcophagus, which is then kidnapped by the smugglers. The wax eggs (Chinese inscription on egg is read "Eight Immortals") contained a mystical, ancient Chinese rejuvenating powder. Jack had previously placed the powder within a makeup tin, which Bruno and Thomas accidentally use, helping them to perform brilliantly.
Toward the end of the show, Jack is seen climbing a giant pole chased by a policeman. Jack smacks the policeman in the face with a glass bottle and the policeman begins to fall. When the identity of the policeman is revealed to be Tommy, the slow motion filming prolongs the feeling of dread in seeing Tommy's struggle to not fall.
In the agonising last moments, Jack clasps Tommy's hand and saves him. The circus audience clasps wildly with relief. Jack then says to Tommy, "They're beginning to like you." Jack laughs and Tommy, suddenly no longer afraid, gazes at the audience and finds the feeling he was searching for all his life. | violence, comedy, flashback | train | wikipedia | Not really a comedy - more a surreal, sometimes weirdly comic piece about comedians, about families, about the awfulness of having a famous father, about genius, about the problem of what makes a comic funny, about the sublime sadness of failure.
Leslie Caron is heart-rending as his mother, a brave, faded French beauty stranded for ever singing mildly risque songs in Blackpool pubs, and their tender scenes together are for me the best thing in the whole film.The whole cast is incredible...right down to Oliver Reed camping it up gloriously in a bizarre sub-plot which at first I thought might be part of the Evans' character's fevered imagination.
It is a movie absolutely crammed with magic but in one of my favourite scenes, Oliver Platt arrives in Blackpool and instantly sees it peopled with characters from Donald McGill postcards - fat ladies, saucy girls with flouncy skirts, burly men.
This film works as a dark comedy about talent, those that have it and those that dont and yes, Jerry lewis gives a strong performance (right up there with King Of Comedy)and Lee Evans is a marvel as a talented comedian and Oliver Platt gives one ofhis best performances as an untalented offspring of a legend.
When this movie came out, I gave it a miss because of Jerry Lewis (King of Comedy notwithstanding -- he gives me the creeps, man), but I caught it on Sundance the other night and was bowled over.
Maybe "node," but other than that, "showbiz" is just such a bad word!!!), and then all of a sudden you are in Blackpool, England, being treated to (a) some amazing vaudeville performers from an era sadly gone by, and (b) some amazing performances by clowny guys (not the creepy kind), and (c) Leslie Caron singing a torch song in a man-tailored shirt, and (d) a beautiful story of lost dreams, redemption, and wax eggs.
Lee Evans was also unbelievably riveting in his portrayal as the mentally disturbed young man.This film is very representative of the small town in Britain with it's quiet undisturbed population that seems to be frozen in time, in contrast to Fawkes's father's life in America, which is busy and ever-changing, where the most important thing in life is money, as opposed to memories being just as important back in the small British town.The best part of the film is watching (in small parts) the unravelling of the horrific event that had happened so many years before and turned the young man (played by Lee Evans) into the person he is today.A riveting watch.
Elegantly surreal, Funny Bones is filled with wonderful visuals and a timeless quality.At the center of this story stands Tommy Fawkes, a reluctant young comedian struggling in his famous father's (Jerry Lewis) shadow.
This offered many of us our first glimpse of Lee Evans, a brilliant young UK actor/comedian with an astonishing penchant for physical comedy.
If Fate is kind, we should have the good fortune of seeing a great deal more of him.As for the rest of this stellar cast, Leslie Caron is charming as ever, George Carl and Freddie Davies are pure energy, and Jerry Lewis is, well, Jerry Lewis (there is no higher compliment I can pay him).Essentially, this film is a requisite for anyone who enjoys surreal, dark comedy with a philosophical edge and an often slapstick pace.
It's just an odd mix, but I find it very, very interesting and I've seen it three times, equally fascinated each time.The movie goes back and forth between drama and comedy which makes unsettling for some viewers, but not me.
The comedy is really provided by others, most notably the most tragic figure in the film: "Jack Parker," effectively played by Lee Evans.There is really is no way to adequately explain this strange film in a few paragraphs.
I had seen the standard shots of this film when it came out and thought that the comedy seemed pretty bad - which put me off seeing it in the cinema.However, now that it's been on TV I would like to recommend it to anyone who wants to see a film which has an original story, interesting characters, unusual settings, great acting, great photography....
This is a story of a broken family and hidden secrets - Tommy Fawkes goes to Blackpool, once one of the world's showbiz capitals, to learn how to be funny; once there he finds a duo (played by veteran British comics Freddie Davies and George Carl) who he thinks have stolen his famous dad's act - but are things really as they seem?
Jack Parker is a Blackpool born lad with the innate ability to be creatively humorous (Lee Evans is excellent in this role) while lacking in the social skills to survive in the real world.Against this backdrop is something about mysterious eggs which hold some mystical secret or other (giving Oliver Reed yet another strange role as the oddball Dolly).
The really interesting aspects of the story are the skeletons in the closet that bring Jack's mother (Leslie Caron) and Tommy's father (Jerry Lewis) together again.
The strongest scenes though are the ones which truly shock - the flashback outlining the tragedy that has affected Jack's life, and the final few sequences in the show arena.'Funny Bones' may be hard to fathom but I think it repays attention by giving its audience something a bit unexpected - plus some great performances along the way..
He plays a failed comic son of a famous comic father (Jerry Lewis) exploring the roots of comedy--his own personal family roots, the roots in his home town's vaudeville, and ultimately its roots in the human psyche.
The people that Tommy meets there are strangely fascinating, and Lee Evans delivers a particularly interesting performance as Jack Parker, the high energy comedian who is on the run from the law and is also George Fawkes' bastard son.
His one full length comedy act is absolutely amazing to watch.As Tommy is holding auditions trying to find something funny to include in his own act back in the States, he learns more and more about the people living in Blackpool and about their history as well as some dishonorable actions of his own father, and he learns an important lesson from it all.
He ultimately finds his place in the world of live acting, and the transformation from who he was at the beginning of the film to who he is at the end is incredible.Funny Bones is an excellent but very different comedy that is ultimately very rewarding and satisfying.
In the second half of the movie, Leslie Caron and especially Lee Evans as the puzzling Jack Parker, steal the show with some fine performances.
This film chronicles the odyssey of an unhappy man, Tommy Fawkes (Oliver Platt), son of world famous comic George Fawkes (Jerry Lewis).
No wonder audiences were baffled.The fact that it is a drama and was marketed as a comedy was a major mistake, but understandable given that Hollywood Pictures didn't know what to do with this.At the same time, it is a curiosity that does not deserve to be totally forgotten, particularly because of the strong acting.
Despite the film being titled "Funny Bones" and having Jerry Lewis in the cast, this really isn't a comedy.
I think you should be prepared for the type of film you are about to see."Funny Bones" begins with some sort of deal going bad on the water off of Blackpool, England.
Funny Bones is a quite remarkable film, it manages to blend the unlikely pairing of slap-stick comedy and beautiful cinematography.
Spectacular physical comedy, great script, wonderful acting (even by Jerry Lewis, who plays a straight role--an aging himself).
Tommy Fawkes is a privileged son living an extremely comfortable life yet is not inherently funny despite all the money and effort thrown into his act; his step brother (Lee Evans) has a life of almost unbearable tragedy and yet exudes comedy from every pore - he has Funny Bones.This film is beautifully set, acted and conceived.
Everything from the astonishing ensemble performances, the exceptional script, the sublime choice of music through to the totally bizarre (and yet perfect) choice of cinematic angles all help portray the tragedy and comedy in their natural state; as two sides of one whole.Brilliant film..
A friend who watched it with me one time over here (here being the UK) from California asked me at the end "what the hell was that all about?"However those after something different with masterful performances by fine actors creating a sometimes bizarre and yes, sometimes very funny story, that gels together seamlessly to produce an immense feeling of having watched something quite magical, will be in for a treat such as comes around far to seldom in the movie World.Featuring a great mix of music, it's also visually a screenplay par excellence'.
But if you want depth of character and dark personal histories folded into your genuine laughs, please check it out.I try to tell everyone I know about this movie, a tragedian's comedy.
Oliver Platt is at his best, Jerry Lewis is himself (!) and Lee Evans is nothing less than sublime.
When his comedy act bombs, he sneaks off to Blackpool, England, to hook up with some old acquaintances and possibly assemble a better act.Despite the presence of Jerry Lewis*, this isn't any kind of silly movie at all.
It's too bad that Peter Chelsom went on to direct "Town & Country" and "Hannah Montana: The Movie".Also starring Lee Evans (Tucker in "There's Something About Mary"), Leslie Caron, Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter movies), Oliver Reed and Ian McNeice.*Other serious movies in which Jerry Lewis starred are "The King of Comedy" by Martin Scorsese and "Arizona Dream" by Emir Kusturica..
Not having seen this film, or even remembering if it ever played locally, it was with amazement we stumbled into this brilliant comedy directed by Peter Chelsom.
The screen play is by Mr. Chelsom and Peter Fannery.The opening scenes are disorienting because we aren't prepared for what will follow in any way, but in retrospect, it makes sense because it ties in with the story in ways that a casual viewer might overlook.The biggest thing going for this film is the wonderful Lee Evans who gives a performance bigger than life and ends up stealing the film and making it his own.
Oliver Platt, as Tommy, wins our sympathy because he bombs as a comedian in front of a Las Vegas audience.The real stars of the film are George Carl and Freddie Davies, genuine comedians, doing what they do best.
It has its standard plot, Tommy Fawkes (Oliver Platt) isn't funny, despite having a famously funny father (Jerry Lewis).
Chelsem then weaves incredible magic through and around the plot with the secretive and brilliant Jack (Lee Evans) who gave up living his life to save his life; his aged uncles, The Parker Brothers (George Carl and Freddie Davies), brilliant vaudevillians in their time; and his mother Katie Parker (Leslie Caron) who links the three to reality.
Many people will assume that a film called Funny Bones staring Jerry Lewis will be a comedy but it is not.
Funny Bones shows a brilliant portrayal of comedy in the seaside resort of Blackpool.
The cast list for this film is as intriguing as the movie itself uniting the U.S. with the U.K, music hall with stand up and the audience with some of the funniest people in the history of comedy.
The film follows failed American comedian Oliver Platt searching for inspiration in Blackpool, England and his relationship with his father, Jerry Lewis, whose career began there as a child.
This very dark movie features a host of exceptional performances, most notably Lee Evans, but George Carl and Freddie Davies steal it for me.For anyone with knowledge of this world, it is both comfortable and discomfiting, and gives a very acute feel of the business behind the show, with the obvious codicil that the demands of drama for a popular audience require more of an emphasis on the extreme elements of any story to hold the interest.
That said, there is pathos, no bathos, wit in abundance in the informed and sensitive writing, a close-up style of cinematography which draws you in to the performances, an exceptional understanding of the material from the cast who were clearly picked with that in mind (Evans father is Dave Evans, a stand-up club comic who played the circuit, as Lee himself did), Carl and Davies, and finally, of course, Jerry Lewis in another fine serious role, if reminiscent of his performance in the King of Comedy.Now...Oliver Platt.
Lee Evans is FABULOUS in this film and Oliver Platt also gives a great performance but Jerry Lewis is AWESOME!
Oliver Platt plays the unfunny son (Tommy) of an enormously successful comedian played by Jerry Lewis (George).
Oddly, or aptly, Jerry Lewis plays one of the most serious characters in the film because he has to confront and admit the source of his own comedy.
Tommy Fawkes (Oliver Platt) wants to be a successful comedian like his father George (Jerry Lewis) but he fails in his Las Vegas debut so he goes to Blackpool, UK where he spent his childhood summers.His job is to seek out unique performers in comedy.There he meets Katie Parker (Leslie Caron), the Parker brothers Thomas (George Carl) and Bruno (Freddie Davies) and his step brother Jack Parker (Lee Evans).Thomas and Bruno are old Vaudevilleans who are now scaring people at the funhouse.Thomas hasn't said a word in twelve years.Jack is the most tragic character.He's also a talented comedian, but he has a quasi-autism and he once killed a man on stage.Peter Chelsom's Funny Bones (1995) is a movie with great actors and a brilliant story.Oliver Platt is terrific as Tommy Fawkes, the comedian wanting to get out of his father's shadow.The king of comedy Jerry Lewis does another great performance as George Fawkes.
He's a man who can do both comedic rolesand serious roles, and in this one he gets to do them both.Lee Evans in the role of Jack Parker is something else.He has the funny bones, as he proves with his one-man radio-riffing.But yet he's the most tragical character of the movie, bringing the whole laughter and tears aspect.George Carl and Freddie Davies are brilliant as Thomas and Bruno Parker.Leslie Caron is wonderful as Katie Parker.And so is Ruta Lee as Laura Fawkes.Richard Griffiths is marvelous as Jim Minty.Oliver Reed is great as Dolly Hopkins.Ian McNeice is very good as Stanley Sharkey.Sadie Corre is fantastic as Poodle Woman.Harold Nicholas of the Nicholas brothers is seen there portraying himself.This movie works as a dramatic feature, just like it works as a comedy.It's most enjoyable to watch Jerry Lewis doing his stand-up routine, with the funny facial expressions and the verbal stuff.I also enjoyed very much the deadpan comedy done by Carl and Davies.When they are scaring people of the ghost train, or doing their wild clown act with the food serving and all.And it offers some offbeat comedy at the morgue, when Jack is with the dead body, and Tommy faints.This is a somewhat eccentric ride to the world of comedy..
It's a strange movie with very interesting and unusual characters, not the least interesting of which was that of Jack Parker, played masterfully by Lee Evans.
The role lee played in this movie illustrates what a brilliant and underrated performer/comedian he is.
Oliver Platt as failed comic Tommy Fawkes looking for the special something that will make him funny looks unnervingly like Orson Welles in some scenes.
My one quibble with 'Funny Bones' is that throughout the film we're told how great the Parkers were, yet when they are finally on stage all we get are snippets of what looks like a terrific slapstick routine.Finally there's Lee Evans whose energy (cliche coming up) threatens to burst right off the screen.
"Funny Bones" is that rare movie that immerses the viewer completely in the lives of its protaganists whose convincing and compelling reality at times seems to offer a glimpse of universal truths.(1 or 2 spoilers follow)The ostensible main character is Tommy Fawkes, a young and very troubled comedian who has lived his whole life in the shadow of his famous comedic father, played by Jerry Lewis.
Jack's father and uncle are two of the saddest and deeply moving characters of any film,the actors playing them rendering brilliant performances.
Adding to it there is no small criticism about today's comedy and entertainment culture and how our modern society treats people not fitting in so well.All this is wrapped in a more than bizarre story about some mystic elixir hidden in wax eggs,french mariners, American comedians, family secrets, a long lost glamorous time of vaudevillian entertainment and two guys on the search of their role in life.One is Tommy Fawkes (Oliver Platt) the rising star of stand up comedy, son of a comedy great.
Look at his Radioman performance and tell me you did not laugh...i call you a liar.Both actors are surrounded by a more than strong supporting cast including Jerry Lewis, Leslie Caron and Oliver Reed.Together with its almost hauntingly sublime and beautiful cinematography this film becomes a very clever and deep movie about character development.My advice: Rent it, see it and make your own opinion.
I actually didn't think Lee Evans would even act in a movie like this before since he always does stand-up a lot!
I can hardly remember the meaning of the story, apart from the fact that Oliver Platt as Tommy Fawkes wanted to make a comedy show.
I think we only wanted to see it for the quite funny performance by Lee Evans as Jack Parker.
Oliver Pratt is Tommy Lewis in this tale of a child of a successful comedian, who after bombing in Vegas jets off to Blackpool, England to find the funny. |
tt0080645 | Don't Answer the Phone! | Former Vietnam vet, amateur bodybuilder, and talented porno-photographer Kirk Smith is a crazed killer who stalks the streets of Los Angeles, picking up young women, strangling them in lurid fashion, and sexually abusing their dead bodies. Between murders, he carries out twisted religious ceremonies, has imaginary conversations with his dead father, and weeps like a baby. He repeatedly contacts Dr. Lindsay Gale, a psychologist with a radio show as well as a private therapy practice. He calls her show, speaking with an assumed Spanish accent and complaining of chronic headaches and blackouts. He follows one of Dr. Gale's female patients home from her therapy session, and tortures her (the patient) to death. He also murders a prostitute while on the phone to Dr. Gale's show, forcing Dr. Gale to listen to the victim's cries.
Two goofy detectives named Hatcher and McCabe are charged with the task of tracking him down. When McCabe first questions Dr. Gale, his manner is brusque and unsympathetic. She develops a strong dislike for him. However, he later prevents one of her patients from committing suicide, after which Dr. Gale becomes fond of McCabe and they have a brief love affair.
Hatcher and McCabe visit a whore-and-drug-house in search of a witness who has seen the strangler leaving the scene of one of his murders, but the witness (who is a pimp and a drug dealer) attacks them and they shoot him to death without being able to question him.
Kirk Smith is interrupted at the scene of his next murder by the victim's landlady, and he leaves a portfolio of photographs behind as he flees the scene. Hatcher and McCabe show the photographs to the local pornography dealer (played by Chuck Mitchell, who would later star in Porky's); he identifies them as the work of Kirk Smith, who has provided him with high-quality pornographic pictures in the past. When the detectives search Smith's apartment, they find his pictures of Dr. Gale and realize that he has selected her to be his next victim. During this time, Smith invades Dr. Gale's home, ties her up, and terrorizes her for hours, ranting about his childhood, grabbing her breast and shouting "Shut up or I'll tear your tit off!"
McCabe goes to Dr. Gale's home just in time to rescue her. At the end of a protracted struggle, McCabe shoots Smith many times, including several times in the back. The film ends with a shot of Smith's bullet-ridden body floating in Dr. Gale's garden pool, while McCabe snarls: "Adios, creep!" | violence, cult, murder, sadist | train | wikipedia | This was obviously meant to be a standard late-70s total-waste-of-time movie, an excuse to show topless women squirming and thrashing while being strangled, but Nicholas Worth turns it into a must-see.
Don't Answer the Phone is yet another film from the late 70s and early 80s about a psychotic, demented, socially awkward killer who brutalizes women because of his "problems" - whatever those problems might be.
The police detectives who are looking for Worth - one which falls in love with the pretty radio psychiatrist that can shed light on the killer's identity - were particularly bad.
Writer / producer / director Robert Hammer builds no suspense, since we know who the killer is.He shows virtually no gore, as so much of the violence is off-screen.Yet he still manages to deliver a powerful, creepy, sleazy and disturbing movie.Nicholas Worth makes this movie as the depraved Vietnam veteran / "The Strangler."' Every scene with him is incredible to watch as he runs the emotional gamut.
Nevertheless, it also works when he shows us his "soft side" as a seemingly trustworthy Kurt Smith, photographer.The electronic music is spot-on, for the times (remember, this is the late 70s early 80s); and, the pacing and tempo is perfect for moving the story forward.Others may offer their vote for "Worst Performance" to James Westmoreland; but the fight scene at the end is brilliant; and, believable.
Another thing to note is the soundtrack, which sounds like it was lifted from a B-grade porno flick, complete with wah-wah synthesizers and the "bow-chicka-bow-bow" reprisal.Nicholas Worth, listed in the credits as "The Killer", or "The Strangler"' depending on which set you look at, delivers one of the most unintentionally hilarious performances as a deranged Vietnam veteran who likes killing young, beautiful women and then hovering over their bodies while laughing with his trademark wheezing...the guy is brilliant!
James Westmoreland does a serviceable job in the lead as a composed detective hunting a certified nut-job who's strangling (and then some) vulnerable women and phoning in his conquests to a local psychiatrist's (Gerrish) radio programme.Worth is hyper-maniacal in the antagonist role, his hulking appearance fulfilling the intimidation quotient well, whilst a few familiar faces (Haze, Frank et al) round out a capable cast.
Contrary to other reviewer's remarks, I personally didn't have a problem with Westmoreland's performance nor did I think Worth was especially remarkable in his characterisation; they and the rest of the cast manage with some fairly drab dialogue padding out what is essentially, a paper thin plot (if you excised the pointless scene fillers, DATP would barely make theatrical length).
DATP just seems like a run of the mill slasher pic with all the typical elements, including nudity, sadism, nurse stalking, PTSD, some occasional light humour (check out the brothel scene which was a laugh) and every other cliché you've ever seen in films of the ilk.
With the '07 passing of Nicholas Worth, we lost an actor whose work on Don't Answer the Phone (DATP) informed a generation of the dangerous psychological effects of war and the horrifying results of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in American troops.Still as intense as when it was first released on the gritty 42nd street trash houses of the day, DATP, though dated in respects to its treatment of women and psychology, still delivers some hardcore death scenes, not to mention a "killer" (if not repetitive) soundtrack.James Westmoreland (of "Undertaker" fame) leads a cast in what ultimately is the most scene stealing of his career (in that he has the most scenes, by number, than any other movie of his career).
Snickering Vietnam vet Kirk Smith (Nicholas Worth) is one hell of a sicko: for a living, he shoots obscene pornographic photos, and in his spare time, he strangles pretty young women BEFORE raping them.
LA detectives Lt. Chris McCabe (James Westmoreland) and Sgt. Hatcher (Ben Frank) are hot on the maniac's heels, but can they catch him before he kills his latest target, radio psychologist Dr. Lindsay Gale (Flo Lawrence)?With such a sleazy premise, Don't Answer The Phone looks set to be a classic slice of extremely offensive exploitation, but with director Robert Hammer reluctant to go that extra mile to offend, the film falls short of the high (or should that be low?) standards set by his contemporary William Lustig, whose similarly themed film, Maniac, goes all out to shock the viewer.Worth's character, Kirk Smith, is an undeniably repugnant fellow, and what he gets up to certainly ain't nice, but Hammer's approach to his patently sensationalist material is surprisingly cautious: whilst he doesn't mind showing the audience a little nudity (for example, all of the victims have their tops torn off before being choked to death), he doesn't quite seem to possess the cojonas necessary to present his sex and violence in the no-nonsense manner the genre demands.Instead, his characters simply fill us in on the salacious details through conversation: a psychic gives a graphic account of the murder and rape of one girl, offering lurid tidbits of info about Kirk's modus operandi, and several characters pass comment on the particularly explicit nature of his photography.
A few throttlings and some tits only qualify this as exploitation lite!To be fair, Don't Answer The Phone does manage to deliver a couple of scenes that almost make the grade—Kirk strangles a junkie hooker whilst she is live on air with Dr. Gale, and one topless victim is subjected to scalding by melted candle wax— but with too many other scenes pulling their punches, this film is most likely going to disappoint fans of degenerate cinema.5.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 6 for IMDb..
Inspired by the real-life Hillside Strangler murders, it stars James Westmoreland ("Stacey") and Ben Frank ("Death Wish II") as two police detectives searching for a maniacal rapist-murderer, played to the hilt by the late, great character actor Nicholas Worth.
Worth plays Kirk Smith, a photographer by trade who in between his depraved killings likes to phone a radio psychologist named Lindsay Gale (Flo Gerrish).
Filmed largely guerrilla style in approximately 18 days, "Don't Answer the Phone" gets off to a great start; we're introduced to Smith right away, and then witness him knocking off a young nurse.
In a nutshell, this film's "plot" revolves around mentally deranged Vietnam veteran and porno photographer Kirk Smith (Nicholas Worth), who likes to ritualistically torture, rape, and strangle to death hapless young women.
For some odd reason, he becomes obsessed with radio psychiatrist Dr. Lindsay Gale (Flo Gerrish), and he soon starts knocking off her patients until he comes to her.Although it is classified as a horror film, DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE should not be compared to FRIDAY THE 13TH or HALLOWEEN.
Don't be fooled by the title: the classic slasher movie theme of phone stalking plays almost no role in the film.
At the same time, this isn't a "so bad it's good" movie, because its nasty themes (torture, rape, misogyny) are just not things that should be laughed at.
You know a movie is bad when the only halfway decent performance comes from the guy playing the killer.
The creep in "Don't Answer the Phone!", Kirk Smith, works as a pornography photographer in Hollywood, so he has easy access to credulous victims whom he stalks or picks up and then subsequently strangles and rapes post-mortem whilst performing an awkward religious ritual involving candles.
"Don't Answer the Phone" is a poor film, but it nevertheless remains endurable thanks to Nicolas Worth's oddball performance as the deranged killer.
It too much feels like writer/director Robert Hammer deliberately wants to provoke people with his almost prehistoric views on psychiatry, the LA modeling business, primitive police work and of course violence against women.
He likes to call in to a radio psychologist, faking a latino accent and calling himself Ramon, complaining of a headache.At least half of the movie seems devoted to the cops trying to learn who he is and stop him.
Meanwhile, psychologist Lindsay Gale receives phone calls from him under a fake accent, and works to help detectives catch the criminal.With a hokey exploitation title like "Don't Answer the Phone!," which has essentially nothing to do with the film, expectations of what this movie could offer are barred to a certain level.
Awful horror film about a Vietnam veteran (Nicholas Worth) posing as a photographer who stalks Los Angeles by strangling (and sometimes raping) young women and taunting a radio psychologist (Flo Gerrish) afterwards.
What separates this movie from the rest is the totally gonzo performance by Nicholas Worth as Kirk Smith the Hollywood strangler.
This feels like a less-exploitive version of "The Toolbox Murders", but its still pretty sleazy and ridiculous and contains within it perhaps the most deranged psycho killer performance in history.
In "Don't Answer the Phone" sleazy and fat photographer masked behind pantyhose rapes and strangles women in a various state of undress.The action takes place in the city of sin Hollywood.He lures some of his victims to his photography studio.In his spare time he enjoys lifting weights and calling in to a radio show hosted by Lindsay Gale.Sleazy and sordid serial killer movie with truly demented central performance of Nicholas Worth.The police procedural section of "Don't Answer the Phone" is deadly dull,but the stalking scenes are great and the misogyny is rampant.The film is not as gruesome as "Maniac","Don't Go in the House" or "Nightmare in a Damaged Brain",however if you like them sleazy and nasty you can't miss it.8 out of 10 because the rating should be higher..
There were a lot of horror films with the word "Don't" in the title made in the eighties, and Don't Answer the Phone is surely one of the worst of them.
The title, 'Don't Answer the Phone', doesn't really make much sense; and the only real connection between the plot and the title comes in the form of the killer's phone calls to his intended victim who works on a radio call-in show.
In "Don't Answer The Phone", just say, "You have been warned!" Kirk Smith(Nicholas Worth,"Darkman,1990" 1937-2007) is a former Vietnam War veteran who also does pornographic photography is also a strangler.
This is one of the most interesting films to be released by low budget purveyors Crown International Pictures, and it's the first one I've watched from the studio that has real power.It's reasonable to expect DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE!
If you don't get this joke right away, then go to the movie page of "The Boston Strangler" (1968) and check out the cast.It's for little things like this that "Don't Answer The Phone" gains points all over the place.
One of the movies of this era that almost joins the ranks of these movies is Robert Hammer's nasty but all around flawed 1980 film "Don't Answer the Phone!" A deeply disturbed Vietnam veteran named Kirk Smith (Nicholas Worth) has taken a shining to strangling scantily clad women in Los Angeles, all while taunting a young psychologist named Lindsey Gale (Flo Lawrence) on the radio.
This just feels like a jumbled mess from a director whose unsure of himself.In the end, "Don't Answer the Phone" is a movie caught between two worlds: it wants to be a grim psychological study, but it doesn't seem very sure of itself.
It can get quite harrowing, especially in scenes where the killer pours hot wax over a pleading naked victim.After a sudden name change to cash in on the Don't cycle (Don't Ride on Late Night Trains, Don't Look in the Basement, Don't Open the Window, Don't Go in the Woods, Don't Go Near the Park, Don't Go in the House
etc.) The Hollywood Strangler became Don't Answer the Phone.
Killing women he believes are in need of a moral lesson, playing a cat and mouse game with an agony-aunt-type DJ after tuning into her radio station and screaming at himself in the mirror, this is one psychopath you won't forget.The lead performance by, Worth (Darkman, Dark Angel: The Accent
etc.) goes so OTT in his role as Kirk Smith it makes this film worth seeking out, although Don't Answer the Phone certainly is not for all sensibilities.
Beefy, plug-ugly character actor Nicholas ("Swamp Thing," "Darkman") Worth hits marvelously messed-up maniacal mondo disgusto wacko paydirt with his juicy starring role as Kirk Smith, an impotent, psychotic, misogynistic, schizophrenic and utterly unhinged 'Nam vet rapist/strangler photographer who viciously murders assorted luckless lovely young ladies in this terrifically tawdry'n'trashy low-budget Los Angeles-set exploitation psycho horror howler.
The film follows this nasty psychopath, and his methods for finding and killing women & the detectives, McCabe & Hatcher(James Westmoreland & Ben Frank)trying to catch him.
Inept cops Lieutenant Chris McCabe (James Westmoreland) & his partner Sgt. Hatcher (Ben Frank) are on the case but going nowhere fast, when Kirk murders a prostitute on-air during psychiatrist Dr. Lindsay Gale's (Flo Gerrish) radio show she teams up with the two cops to track the killer down before he strikes again...Originally shot under the title 'The Hollywood Strangler' only for the distribution company Crown International to change it to Don't Answer the Phone!
(IE if you own a DVD player, but a DVD copy) 2) COme to IMDb.com and COme to this Page for "DONT ANSWER THE PHONE!" 3) While the movie is playing, read the comments and reviews made by people who have watched this film.Seriously, it is one of the Funniest things in the world(Especially with shots of whiskey).
Talking to a family friend about Horror movies that they were searching for on DVD,I was surprised to hear them give details about a film,which sounded like a more extreme take on an under rated Slasher Thriller called Eyes of a Stranger.Searching round on Amazon UK,I was pleased to find,that along with the cut UK edition of the movie,a completely uncut version of the film had also come out on DVD in the US,which lead to me deciding that this would be a call worth listening in to.The plot:Hearing on the news about the police discovering his 5th rape/murder victim,serial killer Kirk Smith decides to celebrate by phoning up a local radio station,and talk to the host of a psychologist program called Dr.Lindsay Gale.Putting on a fake voice and using the name "Ramone",Smith is thrilled to hear Gale give him a nervous reaction,until Lindsay begins to ask "Ramone" if he has taken the medical advice that she gave him,when "Ramone" last phoned up the show.Angered over Gale ruining his fun,Smith decides that is time for him to start searching for a new victim.Being placed by their chief officer as the investigators of the mysterious serial killer's spree,Lt. Chris McCabe and Sgt.Hatcher find themselves completely out of their dept in predicting the killer's next move.Focusing on doing extensive evidence gathering at the murder scenes,and also knocking down a number of doors,McCabe and Hatcher begin to suspect that the killer might be a fan of a local radio show
View on the film:Before getting to the movie itself,I first have to give a special mention to the Scorpion Releasing DVD,which along with offering a terrific,clean uncut print of the film,also fill the DVD with a number of very informative extras,which include a great commentary by Co- producer/Co-writer/ (along with Michael Castle and actor Nicolas Worth) director Robert Hammer-who sounds like one of the most mild mannered directors of the last 20 years!.Shooting his first,and only film in 18 days,Hammer impressively overcomes the tired,misogynistic Slasher elements of the movie,by turning the second half of the film into a GrindHouse Slasher!,with Hammer and Castle giving McCabe and Hatcher's search for the killer an unexpected comedic edge,whilst also making sure that the blood of Smith's victim's solely runs in the gutter,thanks to Hammer illegal filming on the dirty,grime-covered streets of Las Angeles,which lead to this phone call being one that you wont forget for a good while..
I guess there was one time he was planning on killing, er, strangling, a woman and he had her telephone the on-air doctor, but that was her job: to answer the phone.Other than the odd and no-reason for film's title, The Strangler kinda wanders aimlessly around town looking for his next female victim – even though he claimed to had done "a lot of research (on his victims.)" All the while, two cops run around, also randomly, to catch this bad man, but in the process they mouth off the most hideously bad and intentional jokes.
I'm guessing in 1980, it was okay to make light of and joke about a man who rapes and kills women – sometimes the other way around.Now, if I didn't have such a odd thing for the mostly shirtless "the Killer/Stranger" actor, Nicholas Worth and the surprisingly good acting and depth from the obvious final victim, Flo Lawrence's Dr. Gale, this movie would be a solid 1/5 Stars.Okay, beyond my attraction, this horrible throwaway movie shan't be seen by anyone for it has no real redeeming qualities.
i didn't mind this movie.it's no classic or anything but in my opinion,it is worth watching.the acting is surprisingly good for this genre.the killer is pretty wacko.the 2 main cops are kind of humorous at times.this movie did not feel like a horror movie to me.it wasn't really graphic enough for that designation,in my opinion.but it was a good suspense movie.it's a lot better than many movies of the genre and certainly was well worth my time.it won't win any awards for originality(even for being made in 1980)but what horror movie would?i wouldn't call it a classic,though it may have that designation from some critics and viewers.one thing i will say,and I'm not sure if this is a spoiler but the movie has nothing to do with the title.for me, "Don't Answer the Phone" is a 7/10.
I also liked James Westmoreland as Detective Chris McCabe, the lead officer in the investigation, and Flo Gerrish as the beleaguered Dr. Lindsay Gale.By today's standards, DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE! |
tt0418195 | Star Wars: Republic Commando | The game is set during the events of the Clone Wars that started at the climax of the movie Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. In the game, the player takes command of a Clone commando team, made up of elite Clone troopers. These Clone commandos have been specially bred at the clone factories on Kamino. The commando team travels to various locations in the Star Wars universe, including Kashyyyk, Geonosis, and the derelict spacecraft Prosecutor. About two years pass from Delta Squad's first mission to the end of the game.
At the beginning of the game, Delta Squad is deployed from the RAS Prosecutor individually into the front lines of the battle of Geonosis. There, Delta RC-1138 ("Boss", the player character) meets up with Deltas RC-1262, RC-1140, and RC-1207 ("Scorch", "Fixer", and "Sev" respectively). Delta-38 has been selected to lead this unit and guides them on their mission to assassinate the Geonosian leader Sun Fac, chief lieutenant to Geonosian Archduke Poggle the Lesser. After accomplishing this objective, Delta Squad sabotaged the droid factory underneath Sun Fac's headquarters, disabled an anti-aircraft bunker that was wreaking havoc on the Republic Army's air forces, and then sneaked onto a disabled Confederacy Core Ship, stealing important launch codes to prevent the Separatist fleet from retreating, escaping seconds before the ship is destroyed.
A year into the war, the now veteran Delta Squad is sent to investigate the derelict Acclamator-class Republic Assault Ship (RAS) Prosecutor, their former home before being deployed to active duty. The team splits up to investigate, when they begin to lose contact with each other one by one aboard the ship. When he first enters the ship, Delta-38 ponders why the interior of the Prosecutor remains deserted and eerily quiet, when he is suddenly ambushed by droids known as Scavengers, which are responsible for the communications disruptions between the squad members. Delta-38 continues fighting off Scavenger Droids and comes across Trandoshan Slavers and Mercenaries. He single-handedly fights his way through the ship, collecting information from the ship and reviving fallen teammates. Once his team is together again, they destroy a jamming device in order to restore communication. Delta Squad then destroys the Trandoshan dropship in a hangar blowing up its shield regulator by accident. Immediately afterward, a Confederate Trade Federation Battleship drops out of hyperspace nearby, as the Trandoshans were about to sell the vessel to the CIS in exchange for droid support. As Republic reinforcements are en route, Delta Squad defends the vessel against hordes of battle droids, destroying the docking shield stabilizers, allowing nothing to pass through. They then proceed to the gunnery deck to activate the fire control computers, a lengthy process that they have to perform while under heavy droid attack. Successfully enabling the computers enables the Prosecutor's turbolaser cannon batteries to open fire on the enemy battleship, saving the vessel and working in conjunction with the timely arrival of a second Republic ship, the RAS Arrestor, to ultimately destroy the Trade Federation battleship.
As the war drags onward, Delta Squad participates in increasingly dangerous missions. A plea for help is heard by the Republic from the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk. Delta Squad is sent to rescue General Tarfful from Trandoshan slavers and mercenaries. After spotting General Grievous himself in one of the compounds and fighting off his elite guards, they learn of the full ramifications of a Confederacy/Trandoshan alliance. Delta Squad sabotages a vital Trandoshan supply depot and proceeds to the key battle of Kachirho, the beginning of the Battle of Kashyyyk. There, they move through the Wookiee tree city, securing important objectives and battling against hordes of advanced battle droids. They destroy a large bridge span at Kachirho, strategically splitting the droid army and cutting a large part off from its reinforcements, and proceed to secure the Citadel. Soldiering through the most elite CIS forces and weaponry, Delta Squad once again splits up to man four Heavy Anti-Aircraft turrets in order to assist in the destruction of the Separatist destroyer hovering over the city. Once the ship is destroyed, Advisor orders the Deltas to regroup at 38's position. However, Sev does not make the rendezvous and the squad manages to grab a last transmission from him, in which it's clear that he is under heavy attack and is possibly injured or killed. Delta Squad prepares to rescue Sev, but the commander orders them to pull back. As they head out on the gunship, devastated by the loss of their comrade, they are debriefed by Jedi Master Yoda. A huge Republic fleet is seen deploying outside the gunship, as Delta Squad prepares for another assignment in the battle. | violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0067975 | What's the Matter with Helen? | Leonard Hill and Wesley Bruckner are seen being loaded into a paddywagon to face life sentences in prison for the Iowa murder of Ellie Banner. Their mothers, Helen Hill (Shelley Winters) and Adelle Bruckner (Debbie Reynolds) fight a crowd to their car.
In the car, Helen reveals that someone in the crowd cut the palm of her left hand. Soon at home and tending to her wound, Helen receives an anonymous phone call from a man, "I'm the one who cut you.... I wanted to see you bleed." This caller threatens to make the mothers pay for the sins of their sons. Helen and Adelle change their names, leave Iowa, and head to Hollywood, where they open a dance academy for little girls who want to be the next Shirley Temple.
Soon after arriving, Hamilton Starr (Micheál MacLiammóir), an elocution teacher, offers his services to Helen and Adelle's school, and Adelle takes him up on his offer, much to Helen's chagrin, as Helen is frightened of the menacing man. Soon, the phone calls resume and Helen believes a strange man is watching their home. She has hallucinations, especially at a show where she think she sees Starr with a knife.
Adelle falls in love with Lincoln Palmer (Dennis Weaver), the father of a student (Sammee Lee Jones), and Helen grows jealous of the budding relationship. Helen takes solace in her faith, listening to a radio show hosted by evangelist Sister Alma (Agnes Moorehead).
Helen's jealousy of Adelle's romance with Lincoln leads to a fight, at which point Adelle demands that Helen move out. Adelle then heads for her date with Linc. As Helen readies herself to move out, a mysterious intruder enters the house, walks up the staircase, and calls her real name. Helen reacts by pushing him down the stairs. When he lands at the bottom, his head is gashed open, blood is seeping onto the floor, and Helen envisions her late husband, who was mutilated by a plow, and the dead Ellie Banner.
Adelle arrives home to find the dead stranger and, fearing publicity, decides to dispose of the body. As the rain pours, she and Helen drag the dead man into the street and dump his body into an open hole, adjacent to their home, where crews had been doing construction. The body is discovered the next morning and it is presumed that the man fell into the hole to his death.
Helen's guilt builds and she visits the church to see Sister Alma and to atone for her sins. Sister Alma offers her forgiveness, but an irrational Helen creates a spectacle and is dragged away by Adelle. Helen is later ordered to take bed rest by her doctor.
Adelle goes to a miniature golf course with Linc, where he proposes. He drives her home to make preparations to elope that evening. Arriving home, Adelle notices that Helen is not in her room and follows a trail of blood out the back door and down to a rabbit cage, where she finds Helen's pet rabbits slaughtered. Helen steps out of the shadows and reveals that she killed them and that she pushed her husband off a plow to his death. Adelle leads Helen into the house and is phoning Sister Alma when she lets it slip that she plans to wed Lincoln. Helen then pulls a knife from her robe and stabs Adelle in the back. As Adelle falls dead, the doorbell chimes.
Helen answers the door, finding a detective who shows her a photo of the man she pushed down the staircase. When she claims not to recognize him, the detective reveals that the man was Ellie Banner's boyfriend, who came to California with plans to murder the ladies.
Later, Lincoln arrives, expecting to whisk Adelle away. From the street, he can hear someone pounding "Goody Goody" on the piano. He enters the house, calling Adelle's name, and follows the sound of the piano up to the rehearsal hall. There, he finds Helen giddily playing the song with Adelle's body, dressed in her signature dance costume, tied to a ladder on stage.
Helen laughs, unhinged. | revenge, murder, violence, flashback | train | wikipedia | The most bizarre of the cinematic sub-genres is the so called "The Great Ladies of the Grand Guignol": camp horror films which combined over-the-top melodrama with gothic thrills and always starred by seasoned and almost forgotten actress from hollywood golden age in unflattering roles of either long suffering victims or screeching evil harpies.
This genre provided them with an unusual acting showcase that allowed strut their stuff on the screen once again and win new generations of fans at expense of their glamorous images from yesterday."What's the matter with Helen" is the last drop of this sub-genre with stunning performances of both Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters as the troubled mothers of two convicted criminals who run away from their past to the sunny California in the 1930s to open a talent school to milk out the eagerly mothers who want their daughters to be the next Shirley Temple.
In California, Debbie gets happiness, clients, tango, tap dancing and a new love interest (Dennis Weaver meanwhile Shelley gets wacko with horrible flashbacks, menacing anonymous calls, menacing strangers, menacing Agnes Moorehead as a radio evangelist, cute little rabbits (!) and an unfortunate encounter with an electric fan (ouch!).The sloppy script (penned by Henry Farrell, the man who started all this genre with "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" along with master director Robert Aldrich, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis) is full of plot holes, red herrings and wasted opportunities that could had made this movie great: the underlying themes of twisted motherhood (with Debbie and Shelley's characters as "failed mothers" and the overbearing mommies of the child stars) and obsessive female bonding (Debbie and Shelley relationship and the fact that the few male characters of this movie are either sinister or sleazy even Dennis Weaver dream boat Texan) are wasted.
Instead we get Debbie Reynolds musicals interludes and dancing tots, although fun to watch take too much screen time of what is supposedly to be a psychological chiller.
And seeing an increasingly mad Shelley Winters screw every one of Debbie Reynolds' chances at happiness is a hoot to watch!8 out of 10..
The movie takes place in the 1930s--The mothers (Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters) of two murdering sons run away to Hollywood after their sons are convicted.
Reynolds and Winters are mothers of young convicted murderers (a nod to 'Compulsion') who run away to hide in Hollywood.
Debbie Reynolds perfects that 1930's platinum blonde/Jean Harlow image, and Shelley Winters gives what is possibly her all-time best performance as the maniacal Helen.
Fearing for their safety in their small town in 1930s America, star-obsessed Adelle (Debbie Reynolds) decides to get a fresh new start in Hollywood, and convinces the quiet and religious Helen (Shelley Winters) to join her.
Debbie Reynolds looks like a classic Hollywood starlet (fantastic costumes and makeup), and it is hilarious and sickening fun watching Shelley Winters in a downward spiral.
Recommended to fans of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and anyone who entertained by Shelley Winters going crazy.
DEBBIE REYNOLDS and SHELLEY WINTERS try to escape their sordid past (their sons were convicted of a brutal killing), so they flee to Hollywood in the 1930s and open a talent school for kiddies who want to become the next Shirley Temple.It's a fun idea for a black comedy, and director Curtis Harrington makes the most of a story by Henry Farrell that pretty much adapts some of the same material he used in other thrillers written exclusively to give aging divas the chance to do some melodramatic emoting.
While this doesn't reach the heights (or depths) of BABY JANE or CHARLOTTE, it does provide a lot of camp fun for film addicts familiar with the '30s scene.DENNIS WEAVER has the only interesting male role, but the film belongs to Debbie (she sings and dances, too) and Shelley (who has a madcap time going insane) and there's even a shocking ending to keep the horror fans happy.If you enjoy this sort of thing, done previously in similar films like WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE?, this one is easy to take..
In the hands of any other movie crew, this certainly would have become a nasty and gritty exploitation tale, but with director Curtis Harrington ("Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?") and scriptwriter Henry Farrell ("Hush
Hush
Sweet Charlotte") in charge, it became a beautiful and almost enchanting mixture of themes and genres.
Following the long and exhausting trial that sentenced their sons to life-imprisonment for murder, Adelle (Debbie Reynolds) and Helen (Shelley Winters) flee to California and attempt to start a new life running a dance school for young talented girls.
Two ladies, brought together when their sons commit a murder, try starting their lives over by running a tap-dance school for tots in Hollywood.
Good Fun. Two middle-aged women move to Hollywood, California after their sons are convicted of a notorious murder and open a dance school for children eager to tap their way to stardom.Curtis Harrington and George Edwards approached writer Henry Farrell soon after "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" was a hit, hoping to get a screenplay.
It was their idea to change the setting to a 1930s dance academy for little girls.I think this works great, and although the horror aspects are minimal compared to the weird kid acting and dancing scenes, it is an effective story.
She frumps out in 12 directions as once as the put-upon, mentally unstable sidekick to Debbie Reynold's kicky, trashy, B-Movie-Greta-Garbo impersonation.The whole thing lacks production value in any form, yet is presented so earnestly and 'seriously' by Reynolds and Winters that your pity for their careers is heightened with every plot point.The movie is worth watching if only for the final shot of Shelly's face as she bangs out "Goody Goody" on the piano--the only song she seems to know--and, well, I won't give any more away.
I had watched (and recorded) this a few years back on local TV and, having been underwhelmed by it, I subsequently erased the tape; however, when it was released by MGM as part of a "Midnite Movie" double-feature DVD of Curtis Harrington/Shelley Winters films for a very affordable price, I couldn't resist giving it a second look (this has since gone out-of-print).
Shelley Winters, Debbie Reynolds and Michael MacLiammoir deliver excellent performances; the latter is especially impressive as the larger-than-life and vaguely sinister diction coach (though he ultimately proves a mere red herring!).
Also featured are Dennis Weaver and Agnes Moorehead (hers is only a cameo, really, as the evangelist she plays is mostly heard over the radio).Many seemed to regret the inclusion of musical numbers by the kids (including an amusing Mae West imitation), but I personally wasn't bothered by them; the film does slightly overstay its welcome due to an unhurried pace and (perhaps needlessly) convoluted plot.
Reynolds - a musical star herself - is ideally cast as the dancing-school owner and, despite their on-set rivalry, she and Winters work well together.
There's enough psycho-sexual undercurrent here to keep a psychology student occupied for a full semester, but what really makes the film work are the central performances by Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters.
A lowish-budget thriller, it combines the talents of Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds and puts forth yet another story in the genre of older ladies' horror shows.
True, her character is the perky one in contrast to Shelley Winters's disturbed one, but when was the last time that you saw Debbie Reynolds in a movie dealing with murder?
As unlikely a pair of co-stars you will ever find, Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters, team up for What's The Matter With Helen.
It's a film that borrows a lot from Whatever Happened To Baby Jane.Reynolds and Winters play the notorious mothers of a pair of thrill kill teen age homicide perpetrators who murdered the richest woman in their small Ohio town.
She's giving Reynolds lots of second thoughts about going into a partnership with her in a dance studio for children all of whose mothers see their little darling as the new Shirley Temple.Reynolds has an interesting if understated role here.
After a sensational 1930s murder trial sends their sons to prison, middle-aged mothers Debbie Reynolds (as Adelle Bruckner) and Shelley Winters (as Helen Hill) decide to escape the glare of photographers and nosy reporters.
Possessing an obvious skill in dance, Ms. Reynolds decides she and Ms. Winters should start a school for mothers who think their little girls have what it takes to be the next Shirley Temple.
Reynolds inexplicably tells Winters she looks like Marion Davies...Both women reveal more in their past than murderous sons.
This cycle began with "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962) and Winters went directly into "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" (1972).****** What's the Matter with Helen?
(6/30/71) Curtis Harrington ~ Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters, Dennis Weaver, Micheal MacLiammoir.
This movie looks back to "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane," and forward to "Carrie." It is nowhere near as good as either of them, but does manage to keep the viewer involved and caring what happens.Debbie Reynolds looks great as a cheap Jean Harlow imitator.
It is really sad that Hollywood musicals were over by the time this movie was made because Debbie Reynolds was just made for them and manages to make even this material sweet and tasty.
The viewer is not quite sure whose side to be on a good portion of the movie.Dennis Weaver does a great job as Reynold's boyfriend who brings out Winters' insecurity.
Director Curtis Harrington and actress Shelley Winters collaborated on two movies in 1971 - this one, and Whoever Slew Auntie Roo; both are disappointing.
Shelley Winters delivers a rather good performance in the lead role, however and manages to give the film a little bit of credibility.
Classy, elegant Adele (marvelously played with dignified resolve by Debbie Reynolds) and batty, frumpy Helen (the magnificent Shelley Winters going full-tilt wacko with her customary histrionic panache) are the mothers of two killers.
On the other hand, religious fanatic Helen soon sinks into despair and madness.Director Curtis ("Night Tide," "Ruby") Harrington, working from a crafty script by Henry Farrell (who wrote the book "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" was based on and co-wrote the screenplay for "Hush ...
there is also a real sense of believable timing here like in the suddenness of Helen's homicidal rage.as with Harrington's 'Auntie Roo', i feel like i'm giving short change by only rating this with eight stars.
After their sons are sentenced to life in prison, Adelle (Debbie Reynolds) and Helen (Shirley Winters) begin receiving threatening phone calls because someone fells their sons got off easy.
It may take a good deal of the movie's running time, but once she snaps, Helen is one Bad Mad Mutha.
I'm not going to spoil the movie, but the things Helen is capable of are totally over-the-top.As good as Winters is, Reynolds is totally ridiculous in her role as the gold-digging tap dancer.
Hey, Debbie, don't you realize that you're main purpose is to be a victim of Winters' insanity.I just love these former-female-stars-in-the-twilight-of-their-career horror movies.
Then, we see their mothers - played by Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds - as they bravely face an angry mob and drive away.
He's rich as it gets, rich enough to pay for gigolos to dance with her while he watches in yet another one of those moments that would get explored in a modern movie and are just another creepy aside in this one.Between Helen murdering people who break into their house, then trying to be forgiven by Sister Alma all while having flashbacks to her husband being run over by a plow, her madness soon overtakes the film and things proceed to a rather sudden and shocking conclusion.
There's also an extended miniature golf sequence and numerous rabbit murders, as well as the reveal that Helen may have been right to kill at least one of the intruders.This movie happened when director Curtis Harrington (Night Tide, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?) and producer George Edwards approached writer Henry Farrell (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?) became a hit.
Hagsploitation was in, baby, and these dudes wanted in on the action!According to Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters's psychiatrist had warned her not to take this movie, as she was about to play a woman having a nervous breakdown while she was actually having one.
She claims that Winters became her character to the point that the studio considered replacing her with Geraldine Page, who had plenty of hagsploitation cred after starring in Robert Aldrich's What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?Winters also totally caught the lesbian undercurrents - well, they're not so well hidden, so let's say overcurrents - in the movie, but the scenes where she really played it up were left on the cutting room floor.It's worth noting that this was an Oscar-nominated film - for Reynolds outfits, that is.
It's written by Henry Farrell, who'd concocted an earlier story that was the basis for "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters star as Adelle and Helen, two women who flee unhappy lives during the Great Depression (their sons were convicted of a brutal murder) to open a dance school in Hollywood.
Things go fine for a while, as Adelle is romanced by a nice-guy rich Texan (the amiable Dennis Weaver), but feelings of guilt start weighing rather heavily on Helen.The story doesn't always stay quite on track, with musical numbers for Debbies' students as well as herself, but Harrington does have a masterful way with period recreation and Gothic atmosphere, and he does get effective performances out of his two leads.
The excellent cast also includes other familiar faces like Micheal MacLiammoir ("The Kremlin Letter"), in his last film role, Agnes Moorehead ('Bewitched'), Helene Winston ("A Boy and His Dog"), Peggy Rea ('The Dukes of Hazzard'), Logan Ramsey ("Walking Tall"), Yvette Vickers ("Attack of the 50 Foot Woman"), Robbi Morgan ("Friday the 13th" - 1980), Timothy Carey ("The Worlds' Greatest Sinner"), and Pamelyn Ferdin ("The Toolbox Murders" - 1978).The macabre visuals certainly are something to behold, but the studio would have done better to not put them on the poster.
There may be animal crackers in the little girl's soup, but there's madness in the mind of Shelley Winters as dance teacher Debbie Reynolds' partner in this sometimes silly, always entertaining entry of the hags in horror series that started with "Baby Jane" and was still going on a decade later.
Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds moved to California to escape from the scandal of their boys who killed a girl and went to prison for it, and all the gossip.
The film is almost laughable with Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters teaming up as the mothers of convicted murderers.
With the horrible notoriety after the trial, the two women team up and leave N.Y. for California in order to open and song and dance studio for Shirley Temple-like girls.From the beginning, it becomes apparent that Reynolds has made a mistake in taking Winters with her to California.
Reynolds, who puts on a blond wig, is soon romanced by the wealthy father of one of her students, nicely played by Dennis Weaver.Agnes Moorehead, in one of her last films, briefly is seen as Sister Alma, who Winters is a faithful listener of.The film really belongs to Shelley Winters.
One person in the crowd apparently slashes Winters' hand as they make their way to a waiting car.Soon after they arrive home, they begin getting threatening phone calls, so Reynolds suggests they both move to the West Coast together and open a dance school.
Winters is great as a fragile and demented lady and Reynolds plays one of the sexiest 39 year-olds I've ever seen--plus she can really, really dance.My only concern about all this is that some might find Winters' hyper-religiosity in the film a bit tacky--like a cheap attack on Christianity.
Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds are excellent, and the characters are well-realized and interesting.
Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds play mothers of a pair of Leopold & Loeb like killers who move from the mid-west to Hollywood to escape their past.
One of the more curious subcategories of the horror field, the genre known as hagsploitation (sometimes called psycho-biddy films, Grande Dame Guignol and, as my buddy Rob calls it, aging-gargoyle movies) got its jump start with the release of the seminal "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?," starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, in 1962.
Case in point: "What's the Matter With Helen?," which opened in June '71 and starred yet two more former beauties, Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds, going hysterically bonkers for the audience's delectation.Unlike "Baby Jane," which had begun in the 1930s and flashed forward to modern times, the film in question transpires entirely in the '30s.
As the film opens, the viewer sees, on a news reel, footage of the distraught Adelle Bruckner (Reynolds) and Helen Hill (Winters), whose sons have just been sentenced to life in prison for the thrill killing of a woman in the town of Braddock, Iowa.
The two women, after receiving death threats from a mysterious stranger on the phone, decide to change their names and move to Hollywood, where Adelle opens a dance school for young Shirley Temple wannabes, with Helen acting as her assistant.
Although the film is an unqualified addition to the hagsploitation genre, Debbie Reynolds' Adelle surely does not look anything like an old crone here; in fact, she is quite gorgeous, especially after moving to Hollywood and assuming a Jean Harlow-like blonde hairdo.
"What's the Matter With Helen?" has been well directed by Curtis Harrington and offers up a winning script from Henry Farrell, who had written the original "Baby Jane" novel in 1960, as well as the screenplay for "Hush...Hush." The film's theme music by David Raksin, sadly, is fairly unmemorable; at least, as compared to his gorgeous and classic theme for 1944's "Laura," admittedly one of the finest of all time. |
tt0085862 | Lone Wolf McQuade | The main character, J.J. McQuade (Norris), is a former Marine and a Texas Ranger who prefers to work alone. He lives in an old, run-down house in the middle of nowhere with a pet wolf.
The film opens with McQuade involved in an intense battle with Mexican bandits and a gang of horse thieves from which he emerges unscathed (saving several Texas State Troopers). Shaking off the dust, McQuade returns to El Paso, Texas to attend the retirement ceremony of his fellow Ranger and close friend Dakota (Jones). After the party, his commander attempts to curb his "lone wolf" attitude by insisting he work with local Texas State Trooper Kayo Ramos (Beltran), a tough but clean-cut and polite Latino.
Although divorced, McQuade is on very good terms with his ex-wife, and loves his teenage daughter Sally. McQuade also seems to like Sally's boyfriend Bobby, who is enlisted in the US Army and is respectful of McQuade being a retired Marine.
While out horseback riding with his daughter, his daughter's horse runs wild and she is saved by Lola Richardson (Carrera). She invites them to a party where Rawley Wilkes (Carradine) displays his prowess in martial arts and some of his thugs get into a fight with Ramos. After settling the fight, Richardson and McQuade leave the party and apparently have a romantic encounter. She shows up at his house and cleans it. Despite McQuade's annoyance that he does not need a woman to take care of him, Richardson seems to start breaking through his rough exterior within the couple of days they are together.
Meanwhile, Sally and Bobby witness the hijacking of a U.S. Army convoy. Bobby is shot and killed by the hijackers, who then cause Sally to be hospitalized when they shove her car into a ravine. McQuade more readily works with Kayo to find out who did this to his daughter and her boyfriend. Kayo's computer skills allow him to track the errant convoy. At an illegal garment factory, they pick up a young delinquent named Snow (William Sanderson), who is reluctant to talk until Dakota points a Mac-10 in his general direction and empties the magazine.
In retaliation for disrupting his operations, Wilkes asphyxiates Dakota in his house and also has Snow killed. Dakota's murder attracts the attention of FBI Special Agent Jackson (Kennedy) who works with Ramos and McQuade. The trail leads them to Wilkes, revealed as an arms merchant who is hijacking U.S. arms shipments for his illicit weapons deals.
The three eventually find the arms trading headquarters in the desert. Agents Burnside and Núñez are killed when they attack the headquarters. McQuade and Ramos had tried to stop them, but ended up in the gunfight as well. McQuade is caught and sadistically beaten by Wilkes, who then orders that McQuade be placed in his truck and buried under a truckload of dirt, ignoring Richardson's pleas for mercy for the three men. Using his homemade supercharger system, McQuade charges his truck through the dirt - miraculously breaking himself free - and then rescues Ramos and Jackson. All three men are weakened due to being shot and beaten.
McQuade finds that Sally has been taken by Wilkes to Mexico. A rival arms dealer known as Falcon, who has been disguising his illegal business as a pinball machine dealer supplies McQuade with this intelligence, claiming Wilkes has double-crossed him and he would like his competition eliminated. Falcon gives McQuade the exact location in Mexico where Wilkes and his daughter are.
Though McQuade is intent and tries to head to the location on his own, both Ramos and Jackson have followed him and the three head into the base for the attack. After an intense battle, with Jackson being shot again, and Sally and Richardson escaping, Sally is shot in the leg and both women are sidelined.
Finally McQuade and Wilkes engage a hand-to-hand fight with the fight leaning in Wilkes' favor, until he strikes Sally (who ran to her father's aide), provoking McQuade into a frenzy of hits and kicks that defeats Wilkes. McQuade is reunited with his daughter, only to be fired upon by an injured Wilkes. Richardson steps into the line of fire to save McQuade and is fatally wounded. Her dying words to McQuade are that Wilkes killed her husband, forced her to be his arm candy, and that she loved McQuade.
Meanwhile, Wilkes and his remaining thug run into a building. Jackson provides McQuade with a grenade, and McQuade throws it into the building, killing Wilkes and the other man. Falcon then arrives in his helicopter. McQuade, Sally, Ramos and Jackson take it, leaving Falcon to deal with the Mexican "federales".
McQuade's ex-wife and daughter are at a ceremony where McQuade's commander presents him (as well as Ramos and Jackson) with the Texas Award of Valor, and McQuade congratulates his ex-wife for getting an excellent job in New Mexico. The following day, McQuade has rented a U-Haul and is helping Sally and his ex-wife move. As they are getting ready to leave, Ramos shows up telling McQuade he is needed as a gunman has held up a bank. Figuring he has had enough adventure and wanting to spend more time with his family, McQuade politely declines. However, when Ramos also warns that the robber has taken hostages, McQuade is spurred into action. As the squad car speeds off, his ex-wife bellows "J.J. McQuade, you will never change!" | revenge, cult, comedy, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1480658 | Eddie | The New York Knicks are also-rans in the NBA, their roster filled with players who either lack talent or are too distracted by off-the-court issues. Nonetheless, limousine driver and rabid fan Edwina "Eddie" Franklin (Whoopi Goldberg) attends every Knicks game in the nosebleed section of Madison Square Garden.
During halftime of a game, Eddie wins a contest to be honorary coach of the Knicks for the second half. She quickly gets on the nerves of head coach John Bailey (Dennis Farina), whom she had heckled earlier. Eddie's popularity piques the interest of the new Knicks owner, "Wild Bill" Burgess (Frank Langella). After he forces Bailey to quit, Burgess names Eddie the new head coach.
At first, she is treated with skepticism and derision. However, she understands that the Knicks have the talent to win, but the players' individual problems have caused the team to underperform. Center Ivan Radmonovich, from Georgia (sometimes referred to as a "Russian"), focuses only on scoring, and his lack of defensive technique leads him to frequently commit unnecessary blocking fouls. Superstar forward Stacey Patton's me-first approach causes him to force low percentage shots because he is unwilling to pass, and his poor attitude hurts the team's morale - for example, he keeps referring to himself in the third person. Rookie Jamal Duncan's occupation with being a rap star keeps him from focusing on his game, especially his free throws. Power Forward Terry Hastings' pending divorce from his wife due to an extramarital affair in Phoenix has a negative effect on his play on the court. At a pivotal moment in practice, Eddie earns the team's respect by taking a hard foul from Patton in order to demonstrate proper defense to Ivan. Eddie also begins to bench Patton in favor of veteran Nate Wilson, who was generally considered washed up because of chronic knee injuries. Wilson experiences a late career resurgence, the Knicks begin to win, and New York City embraces the team and Eddie's colorful personality.
The team's winning streak eclipses their abysmal start, and as the season winds down, the Knicks are within reach of the playoffs. In order to qualify, they will need to beat the Charlotte Hornets, now coached by John Bailey, in the last game of the season.
The night before the game, Burgess tells Eddie that if the Knicks win, he will sell the team to a group that intends to relocate the team to St. Louis, Missouri (this is a veiled reference to Georgia Frontiere's similar move of the Los Angeles Rams to St. Louis upon her assumption of the Rams ownership in 1995). A conflicted Eddie doesn't show to the game until right before tip-off.
During the game, Hornets forward Larry Johnson proves difficult to contain, but strong play from Wilson keeps the score close. Bailey responds by telling Johnson to foul Wilson hard in the hopes of knocking him out of the game. Johnson makes an unsuccessful attempt right before halftime: Wilson is hurt, but he is able to hit both foul shots and continue playing. In the fourth quarter Johnson blows out Wilson's knee, forcing him out of the game. Stacey Patton enters the game and shows a new team-first attitude, particularly on the Knicks' last offensive possession. Eddie begins to diagram a play to get Patton the ball for a final shot, but assistant coach Carl Zimmer instead suggests that Bailey, remembering Patton's tendency to force low percentage shots, will swarm him with defenders. The Knicks instead inbound to Patton, who passes to an open teammate after three defenders come to him. The Knicks take a one-point lead with seconds left in the game.
Now, with the Knicks on the cusp of winning, Eddie realizes that a victory will cause the team to be relocated to St. Louis. She decides to get on the Garden's PA system and reveal the entire plan to the world. The fans react with shock and anger, and a frustrated Burgess is forced to promise the crowd he won't sell the team or move them out of New York City.
When play resumes, the Hornets have one last chance to win. Bailey tells his team to get the ball to Johnson and have him drive the lane, expecting Ivan to commit a blocking foul. Instead, Ivan remains set in his defensive position and Johnson is called for charging, which nullifies the basket, giving the Knicks the win and the playoff berth.
The film ends without explaining what happens to the Knicks in the playoffs that year. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0210413 | Clerks | Dante Hicks, a 22-year-old retail clerk at the Quick Stop convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey, is called into work on his day off by his boss to cover a few hours for another employee who is sick. Arriving at the store, he finds that the locks to the security shutters are jammed closed with chewing gum, so he hangs a sheet over them with a message written in shoe polish: "I ASSURE YOU; WE'RE OPEN."
Dante's day is spent in the purgatory of serving a succession of customers while repeating the fact that he is "not even supposed to be here today". Stressed with the demands of his job, Dante passes time in wide-ranging conversations with his best friend, Randal Graves. Randal is an irresponsible slacker who works in the next-door video store, RST Video, although he spends most of the day at the Quick Stop, neglecting the video store's customers. They converse about many things to pass time, such as whether or not the contractors working on the second Death Star when it was destroyed at the end of Return of the Jedi were innocent victims. Other events of the day include the discovery that Dante's high school girlfriend, Caitlin Bree, whom he has been having early morning phone conversations with, is engaged to be married. Dante's current girlfriend, Veronica Loughran, also stops in to bring him homemade lasagne. The two talk about Dante's stuck-in-a-rut lifestyle with no motivation to change before having an argument about her past sexual partners.
Learning that he is stuck working the store all day, as his boss went to Vermont, Dante convinces his friends to play hockey on the store roof, though the game is short; twelve minutes in, an enraged customer shoots their only ball off the roof and into a sewer. Reopening the store, Dante finds another of his ex-girlfriends has died and her wake is today. Randal talks him into closing the store again and going to the wake. The visit is catastrophic, with Randal and Dante running out to escape in their car. What happened inside the funeral home is not shown, but a subsequent conversation between the two reveals that Randal accidentally knocked over the casket by leaning on it.
That night, Caitlin surprises Dante with a visit. After she assures Dante that the engagement announcement was premature and arranged by her mother, the two trade banter and Dante becomes torn between her and Veronica. He finally decides to take Caitlin on a date and goes home to change. He returns to discover that Caitlin had sex with a dead man in the unlit bathroom, having mistaken the man for Dante (the man had earlier entered the bathroom with a pornographic magazine and had suffered a fatal heart attack while masturbating). An ambulance takes a catatonic Caitlin away along with the man's body.
Jay and Silent Bob, a pair of slackers who have spent all day loitering (and dealing marijuana) outside RST Video, enter the Quick Stop to shoplift. Dante turns down Jay's offer to party with them. Aware of Dante's problem, Silent Bob pauses before following Jay outside and offers the following wisdom: "You know, there's a million fine-looking women in the world, dude. But they don't all bring you lasagna at work. Most of 'em just cheat on you." Dante then realizes that he loves Veronica. When she returns to the Quick Stop, however, Randal complicates things by revealing that Dante asked Caitlin out. Veronica angrily breaks up with Dante, telling him that Randal informed her of the planned date with Caitlin.
When Randal enters the Quick Stop after closing RST, Dante attacks him and the two fight, making a mess of the store. Afterward, they lie on the floor exhausted. Dante claims that Randal does nothing for him but make his life miserable by getting him fined, offending his customers, and ruining his relationship. Randal loses his temper and verbally explodes, saying that Dante deserves the blame, as Dante, closed the store to play hockey, closed it again to go to the wake, and closed it yet again to try to hook up with his ex-girlfriend, cheating on his current one in the process. He then says that Dante came to work of his own free will and "overcompensates for having a monkey's job". He claims Dante thinks he is more advanced than the customers and storms off with "if we're so fucking advanced, what are we doing working here?" leaving Dante speechless on the floor.
They reconcile and Dante says he will try to talk to Veronica, visit Caitlin, and possibly get some direction in his life. The film ends with Randal walking out of the store, popping back in briefly to toss Dante's sign at him stating, "You're closed!" | comedy, satire, adult comedy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0047879 | Big House, U.S.A. | In a Colorado national park, a boy having an asthma attack is approached by a nurse, Emily Evans, with a syringe. Frightened of needles, the boy flees into the woods, where Jerry Barker finds him.
Park ranger Erickson tries to calm wealthy Robertson Lambert, the missing boy's frantic father. Barker demands a $200,000 ransom for the kid's safe return. But while collecting the money, Barker leaves behind the boy, who accidentally falls to his death. Barker coldly disposes of the body and buries most of the money.
Caught by agent Madden of the FBI, Barker is convicted of extortion, but not murder because no corpse is found. He is sent to prison, where the warden hopes to intimidate Barker by throwing the child killer together with four of the most hardened convicts in stir, bank robber Rollo Lamar, smuggler Alamo Smith, and cold-blooded killers Mason and Kelly.
Barker becomes known as the "ice man" because of his cold, icy persona in court when he was convicted. He also gains the prisoners' trust after discovering their escape plan and not informing. But when they take him along on the breakout, it is not out of friendship but because they're after the hidden ransom money.
Madden is in hot pursuit. He has discovered that Emily, the nurse, had been in on Barker's scheme from the start. Back in the park, the fugitives turn on one another until only two are left. Mason is gunned down, and Lamar begs for his life. The money is recovered, Barker is going back to prison, and Emily's given a sentence behind bars of her own. | murder | train | wikipedia | Juicy Slice of Thick Ear. The early 1950's witnessed a number of high profile kidnappings of wealthy offspring, the most notorious being the Greenlease grab in Kansas City for which the perpetrators were executed and the arresting detectives jailed for stealing the ransom money!
And a good little kidnapping and prison film this is.Big House USA benefits greatly from on-location photography in the scenic foothills of south-central Colorado, near the state penitentiary in Canon City where the prison scenes were filmed.
( The only real drawback-- the underwater scenes of the prison escape, which appear to have been shot in a neighbor's backyard pool.
Where was quality control on this one.)The producers also hired an outstanding cast of has-beens (Crawford and Chaney), up & comers (Bronson, Meeker, and Farr), along with the stentorian voiced Reed Hadley as the long arm of the law, and Peter Votrian, an appropriately sickly looking kid whose whiney demeanor could make you think twice about becoming a parent.
The film begins with a little boy getting lost while at summer camp.
Ralph Meeker finds the boy and pretends to be helping him, but actually is intent on kidnapping him and holding him for a huge ransom.
However, the cold and calculating killer is caught and sent to prison--but unfortunately, all they can prove is that he extorted the money--not that he had anything to do with the boy's disappearance.This is sort of like a prison movie merged with a Film Noir flick.
That's because much of the beginning and ending of the film is set outside prison and its style throughout was rather Noir inspired--with a format much like an episode of DRAGNET (the bloodier 1950s version, not the late 60s incarnation).
Now I hate violent and bloody films, but this one was a bit more restrained but still very shocking for a 1950s audience--featuring some of the most brutal plot elements of the decade (tossing a child's body off a cliff, burning a corpse with a blowtorch to confuse in the identification of another corpse and the scene with the escaped prisoner who is scalded to death).
Because of all this, the film was above all else, realistic and shocking--much of it due to the excellent script, straight-forward acting and a few excellent and unexpected plot twists.By the way, this is one of the earliest films in which Charles Bronson appears with this name (previously, he'd been billed as "Charlie Buchinsky").
Rugged mid-fifties prison break flick with great cast,--Broderick Crawford, Ralph Meeker, Lon Chaney, Jr., Charles Bronson, Reed Hadley, Bill Bouchey and Roy Roberts--it oozes violence and cruelty, and is even today one tough, convincing little movie.
Ralph Meeker is excellent as a cold-blooded killer known as 'the iceman", but Crawford has the film's best line when Meeker joins his prison cell: "The iceman cometh".
Very watchable and outdoorsy, with fine work by a virile cast, it rather resembles stylistically Crawford's TV series Highway Patrol in its plain, police procedural take on the American western landscape of the fifties, with killers, like Commies, lurking behind every rock and tree.
The story begins with a lost boy, a kidnapping, a ransom as extortionist RALPH MEEKER takes advantage of a situation which led to the death of the boy.
Meeker is sent to an island prison to serve a sentence as an extortionist who has $200,000 hidden somewhere.He's thrown in with some hardened criminal types--CHARLES BRONSON, BRODERICK CRAWFORD, LON CHANEY, JR.--labeled "the Iceman" because of his cool demeanor and icy gaze.
Crawford has one of the film's best lines: "Well, the iceman cometh." Since no prison drama would be complete without an escape plan being hatched, BIG HOUSE U.S.A. is no exception.
The suspense lies mainly in the survival of Meeker who is known as the most hated man in prison because he harmed a boy.
Crawford devises an escape plan that includes Meeker, "the goose that laid the golden egg", so he can share the hidden loot with them.
Of course, it's a crime doesn't pay melodrama, so in the end all their best laid plans go awry.Nice outdoor photography in Royal Gorge Park, Colorado, for the rugged scenes in the finale.Summing up: Well worth your time--interesting and gritty..
It stars Broderick Crawford, Ralph Meeker, Reed Hadley, William Talman, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles Bronson and Felicia Farr.
Music is by Paul Dunlap and cinematography by Gordon Avil.A Kidnap, A Ransom and A Prison Break = Powder Keg.Out of Bel-Air Productions, Big House, U.S.A. is a relentlessly tough and gritty picture.
Beginning with the kidnapping of a young boy from a country camp, Howard Koch's film has no intentions of making you feel good about things.
Deaths do occur and we feel the impact wholesale, tactics and actions perpetrated by the bad guys in the play punch the gut, while the finale, if somewhat expected in the scheme of good versus bad classic movies, still leaves a chill that is hard to shake off.Split into two halves, we first observe the kidnap and ransom part of the story, then for the second part we enter prison where we become cell mates with five tough muthas.
Crawford, Chaney, Meeker, Bronson and Talman, it's a roll call of macho nastiness unfurled by character actors worthy of the Big House surroundings.
The locations play a big part in the pervading sense of doom that hangs over proceedings, Cascabel Island Prison (really McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary) is every bit as grim as you would expect it to be, and the stunning vistas of Royal Gorge in Colorado proves to be a foreboding backdrop for much of the picture.Although it sadly lacks chiaroscuro photography, something which would have been perfect for this movie and elevated it to the standard of Brute Force and Riot in Cell Block 11, Avil's photography still has the requisite starkness about it.
Not all the performances are top draw, more so on the good guy side of the fence, and some characters such as Chaney's Alamo Smith don't get nearly enough lines to spit, but this is still one bad boy of an experience and recommended to fans of old black and white crims and coppers movies.
at the time when a call came in for extras for a summer camp scene.This movie was filmed in and around the Cannon City area,Westcliffe and Royal Gorge.
Broderick Crawford had a popular TV series at the time called Highway Patrol.This was one of Charles Bronson's earliest movies, he had just done House of Wax a year or two before.Reed Hadley also had a popular detective TV series at the time..
Per the Lindbergh Law. Big House USA sounds like a prison picture, but only in part of the film is the setting a maximum security prison.
There is the part how Ralph Meeker got there and the last part about his escape with several other solid citizens, residents of Big House USA.A young boy with one rich father is kidnapped by Meeker and dies while in his custody.
Father Willis Bouchey pays the ransom, but gets no child back.Meeker is arrested, but all he's charged with is extortion, without a body dead or alive, the authorities can do no more.
But with the reputation as a child killer, Meeker's not going to be a popular guy even in the maximum security federal penitentiary he's sent.But cell-mate Broderick Crawford has other ideas about the ransom money never recovered and buried in a national park.
He and confederates Lon Chaney, Jr., William Talman, and Charles Bronson escape with Meeker.
They had an escape plan in the works already, a quite ingenious one which costs another prisoner his life during a dry run.A chance to see all these guys in a film is never to be passed up.
Big House USA spends more time in the wide open spaces than in a maximum security prison.
Still it's a tight little noir film with a fine cast of players..
The cast is something else.Broderirck Crawford, William Talman, a young Charles Bronson, & Lon Chaney Jr make interesting cell mates in a maximum security island prison.
When the Ice Man joins them, they hatch an escape plot involving his ransom money.
Crawford, Chaney, Bronson, and Talman -- Cell-Mates!.
The film begins with an accidental (convenient?) kidnapping, which leads to one thing, and another - which doesn't really indicate the main story, which is a "Big House, U.S.A." prison break story.
Picture this: Ralph Meeker is sent to prison; his cell-mates are the following criminals: Broderick Crawford, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles Bronson (reading a "Muscle" magazine!), and William Talman (reading a "Detective" magazine!).
Koch ~ Broderick Crawford, Ralph Meeker, Reed Hadley.
Unintentional riot about a stony-faced extortionist (Ralph Meeker) arrested and copping a plea bargain with the courts, ending up in an impenetrable prison.
Meeker's link to the kidnapping/disappearance of a child makes him quite unpopular with his cell-mates (including Charles Bronson, pumped up and perusing muscle magazines); fortunately for Ralph, this cell-block gang--led by a wily but not quite brutish Broderick Crawford--already have a break-out plan in the works.
It's about a man, Jerry Barker, that kidnaps a sick child, holds him hostage and asks the father for ransom money for the safe return of the child.
Barker gets his money but the boy ends up dead and Barker in prison.
He became known as The Ice Man in the news papers and well hated in prison for killing a child.
A worthwhile crime-prison film to watch.
NOT a typical prison picture--an amazing cast, a major twist, great locations....
At first you are lulled into thinking we're in an ordinary crime drama: a rich kid is kidnapped from a Colorado mountain summer camp.
All of this takes awhile to happen and is pretty interesting, especially set out in the big landscape and bright air of the Rockies.But then our main character finds himself in a jail cell with some hardened thugs.
Broderick Crawford, who plays loud and brash characters as good as anyone, and who is sharp as a whip here, the gangleader and intellectual.Ralph Meeker, the man who played Mike Hammer in the following year's "Kiss Me Deadly" and is a good hardened criminal.William Talman, most memorable in Ida Lupino's "The Hitchhiker" as the sinister kidnapper with one eye which stayed open even when he slept, and here plays an equally cold and brutal type.Lon Chaney (this would be Lon Chaney Jr. of course) who continued his career are "Wolfman" in roles demanding his broad nice guy quality that here gets twisted since he's also a thug.Charles Bronson, yes, whose big fame was still ahead ("Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape") and who appears here without his shirt on, of course (he's ripped).The rest of the movie follows these men as they escape, audaciously, and begin to rip into each other in an effort to find the hidden ransom money.There are a few stumbles and improbable turns here, but it's all done with such high stakes energy it really works.
Loosely inspired by a real life case, this gritty little film documents the fate of a ne'er do well drifter who seizes the opportunity to make money off the disappearance of a wealthy child.
Meeker plays the stoic (and uncomfortably good-looking) extortionist who locates a missing boy only to hole him up in a condemned ranger station while he attempts to milk $200,000 from the boy's panicked father Bouchey.
Meeker is convicted of extortion (not kidnapping!) and sent to the Big House where he's confronted with some unfriendly cellmates.
Crawford is the burly ringleader, Chaney is the more sensitive, lunkheaded one, Bronson is an antagonistic muscle man and Talman is a skittish follower.
All of them wish to escape and when they find out that Meeker has some ransom money hidden on the outside, they decide to drag him along with them so they can split it up!
Crawford, top-billed though he takes quite a while to show up, is savvy and ruthless (and, unfortunately, shows off far more chest that Meeker does!) Talman, infamous as the constant nemesis of "Perry Mason", and Chaney don't get a lot of screen time, but handle what they get effectively.
It's a startlingly brutal piece of movie-making for its time with a couple of really rough deaths including a bad fall, a broiling in a steam tank and a hammer to the head, followed by a face-roasting via a flame gun!
One great thing is the use of outdoor locations and the assemblage of interesting cast members.
He gets caught and sent to a BIG HOUSE on a fakey looking island in the USA.
His cell-mates are: Broderick Crawford, chess playing chief mastermind, Lon Chaney Jr., lovable loony who reads romance magazines, Charles Bronson, ever shirtless and bulging with greased up muscles(reading muscle magazines) and William Talman (Perry Masons own D.A., Hamilton Burger) They are about to escape.
They kidnap the kidnapper to make him take them to the ransom money.
After the escape Crawford makes Talman bash Bronson's brains in and blow torch his body.
Then Crawford shoots Chaney Jr. This leaves Meeker to lead Crawford & Talman to the ransom loot.
Talman get shot about twenty seven times by the F.B.I guy and Crawford gives himself up, sniveling like a baby.
Voice-over says Crawford & Meeker get nuked in the BIG HOUSE.
This independent film simply adds "USA" to the title (minus "The") of the 1930 prison movie that was way ahead of its time in its depiction of prison violence.
It is, however, the genesis of a crime, here a kidnapping gone wrong, that results in the criminal (Ralph Meeker) gaining the nickname "Ice Man" in prison for his cold demeanor in the way he denies having seen the victim, sadly an 8 year old boy he kept hidden while trying to extort money from his wealthy father.Like child molesters, kidnappers of children in prison are considered the lowest of the low, and in this case, Meeker's cell-mates (Broderick Crawford, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles Bronson) ostracize him immediately.
But knowing he has ransom money stashed away, they decide to include him in on their escape plans, with the intention of killing him once he leads them to it.
The prison scenes don't begin until half way through the film even though Crawford is top-billed.
This case history of a crime begins in the great outdoors.
A sick young boy with asthma runs away from camp after being scared by the nurse at the camp (a young Felicia Farr who made her feature debut with this film as Randy Farr) The boy is 'helped' by a strange man (Ralph Meeker) who then kidnaps him and proceeds to blackmail the boy's wealthy father.But then the the boy accidentally dies in a fall from a condemned forest lookout tower where the man had put him.
And because the body id never found, Meeker can only be convicted on a extortion charge.The story then shifts gears entirely turning to prison drama which was filmed at the Cascabel Island facility.
The plot now focuses on four cutthroat convicts: Broderick Crawford, William Talman, Lon Chaney Jr., and a young, super ripped muscle bound Charles Bronson.
A breakout is planned, of course, with their target the hidden $200,000 ransom money Meeker hid away before being arrested.
A gun battle ensues with the remaining gang and one more is killed and the remaining are arrested once again.All in all not a great film but what a great cast of convicts!
Higgins gave him the short end of the stick by killing Bronson off once the prison escape had been effected.
Crawford orders Talman to use a blowtorch on Bronson's face and fingers to obliterate any means of identification in a effort to distract the police.
Meeker did a great job as a cold-blooded crook nicknamed "The Iceman" by Crawford.
Talman , Chaney and especially Bronson made great members of Crawford's gang..
***SPOILERS*** Even though the movie "Big House U.S.A" runs for a scant 83 minutes it seems like well over two hours watching it and all the side plots that's in it.
In fact we never get to see the big man or top star Braderick Crawford, the psycho as well as wimpy sadist killer Rollo Lamar, until almost halfway into the film.The story starts with good natured fisherman Jerry Baker, Ralph Meeker, giving a hand to this runaway boy Danny Lambert, Peter J.
Trying to escape Danny falls to his death and with that Baker if caught faces the death penalty for, a federal charge, kidnap/murder.Caught by the FBI lead by Special Agent James Madden, Reed Hadley, Baker being a step ahead of the law had disposed of Danny's body and hid the ransom money where he only faced and got a one to five year sentence at the top security Cascaville prison.
Headed by the brains of the outfit Rollo Lamar Baker is forced to break out of jail with Rollo and his fellow cell-mates the worst bunch of convicts in the entire prison system.
It's not that Rollo liked Baker but the fact that Baker knew where he stashed the $200,000.00 ransom money was worth saving his life; That's until Rollo got his hands on that cash and then he's history!Worth watching just to see future action star Charles Bronson all pumped up, the guy would give Arnold Schwartznegger a run for his money in a body building contest, and crazy with future District Attorney Berger, William Talman, in the Perry Mason TV show as, this really takes the cake, William "Machine Gun" Mason!
In fact three years later Charles Bronson would get the lead role as the real, whom Talman's character was obviously based on, Machine Gun Kelly.P.S There's also horror star Lon Cheney Jr. as the dim witted and lovable convicted murderer Lenny Alamo Smith.
It fact it was Lenny that Lon Chaney played in the 1939 film "Of Mice & Men" that made him a star. |
tt0066065 | Medea | The first half sums up the story of Jason and the Argonauts as they travel to Medea's barbarian land in search of the golden fleece. In fitting with the soundtrack (which features Iranian classic music, Japanese traditional music and other folklore pieces), Pasolini depicts Medea's people as a tribal people who perform rituals and sacrifices to secure their harvests. Their costumes and dances are based on those of Eastern European Mummers such as the Romanian Calusari ceremonies and their counterparts in the Balkans.
A young man is offered up as a human sacrifice and his organs and blood are sprinkled over the crops in a ritual sparagmos. The victim is bound to a wooden structure and killed and dismembered, and the villagers fertilize crops with his body and blood.
Meanwhile, Jason and his comrades have arrived and are shown pillaging the locals. Medea awakens her brother Absyrtus to help her steal the Golden Fleece, which they then deliver to Jason. The Argonauts hastily depart from Colchis, with horsemen from her village in hot pursuit. When the Colchians begin closing in, Medea kills her brother and dismembers his body, in a manner similar to the sacrificial victim of the sparagmos ritual earlier. Her father's men are then forced to halt and retrieve the scattered pieces of his son's body, enabling Jason and Medea to escape.
When they return to Jason's homeland as husband and wife, Medea is stripped of her ornate barbarian garb and dressed in the garments of a traditional Greek housewife. The film generally follows the plot of the play by Euripides from this point onward, though it takes some liberties with the chronology of events.
Jason has two sons by Medea, but he later decides to opt out of his union with her in favor of a marriage to the Corinthian princess Glauce. Enraged, Medea plots revenge against Jason and his new bride and sends Glauce a robe bewitched with magic herbs.
Here Pasolini introduces two versions of the destruction of Glauce and her father. The first follows the traditional legend and is possibly a vision of how Medea would like Glauce to die, as her face is superimposed over several shots. When the princess puts on the robe, the garment catches fire and burns her alive, along with her father Creon, who attempts to douse the flames.
The second version Glauce put on the robe that Medea wore when she served as High Priestess. Glauce, looking in the mirror, cries out and runs to the walls and leaps to her death. Her father follows her, and jumps to his death also.
Medea then proceeds to kill her own sons by Jason and sets fire to their house. She refuses to give Jason the bodies of their children for burial. Instead she keeps them from him, while he is held back by the fire she has lit, telling him that nothing can be done anymore. | tragedy, cult, murder, romantic | train | wikipedia | I first saw Medea in college and was highly critical of it, finding it disappointing on almost all counts: terrible sound editing, cheap film stock, over bright lighting, bizarre, amateurish acting styles, inadequately edited, etc.
Did someone get the wrong reel into the house?Another ten years went by before I watched it again and after the second viewing, found myself emotionally drained, my jaw on the floor with the realization that I'd just finished a film that alternately horrified, fascinated and astonished me.Medea is a grim, violent, film, minimally processed which only adds to its gruesome, wild rawness.
This is Pasolini's Medea, not Euripedes and it is not easy viewing.
Medea doesn't easily compare to films of any other style or genre; not even with some of Pasolini's other work.
Granted, not everyone wants that experience.As Medea, Callas is simply amazing.
The more I watch this film (which is probably several times a year for well over a decade), the more amazed I am by her performance in it.
I've come to be riveted to her painfully expressive mask as she completely inhabits this character who is, quite literally, capable of everything (yes - everything is the right word here).Where I was once critical of the lighting, I've grown up to realize what Pasolini did; why he chose to film at the times of day he chose, and the resulting, fascinatingly brutal and surreal luminosity that bathes the entire film and the almost palpable sense of its visual texture.
The landscapes Pasolini chose to film in are as brutal and as vital as the characters of the tale.
There is a bit of conventional Medea in the latter stages of the film, but most of it is filmed in hugely elliptical swathes, so the concrete despair and drama all but evaporate in the air.It is a marvelously flawed piece to be sure, an appealing quality to me; that is not the same as being sloppy as a result of ignorance, on the contrary it shows an openness to imperfection, adventure and discovery.
A significant point behind the exercise, revealed in the opening scene where the centaur lectures a young Jason on the purpose of myth, is that we have forgotten what is vital in the stories we tell, the rituals we enact.
Though it takes place in strange, different times, a film like Ben Hur is filmed as static affirmation of visual and narrative norms; never more apparent than in the scenes with Jesus, presenting the passions in a stagy, painterly way we associate as real because the same images have been repeated for so long—say, the Crucifixion.
We see the mundaneness of the sacred, and not the opposite which is the spiritual essence—if we can't see transience in the traffic of Saturday night party-goers and can only read it from a Zen book, we've wasted our time.It seems this was in part why Pasolini undertook his Gospel film in the first place, show a world we know from fixed images with a real gravity that will invigorate a sense of intense, spiritual curiosity—the storylessons were the same, what changed was the air around the story.This is carried here.
The point is that myth (by extension: the narrative and cinematic ritual) can only matter, be truly ecstatic, when it is really 'real' (not the same as realistic), which is to say something can only be vital when it escapes the routine of mind, and becomes 'alive' in the moment of watching.
But within this world, Pasolini creates an experience of intense 'being there'—in his camera, in his chosen places and fabrics, in the textures of light, it feels like we are present.
Oh it is still an abstract ritual, but one that has sense, and that sense is carried entirely in the air of the film, not in any spoken conflict.Further within the ritual, we have Medea's own magical timeflow of conflicting urges and dreams, channeled by Callas channeling her own anxieties with fame and husband, inseparable from all else.
In the sequence in which we are introduced to Medea, we witness the mesmeric nature of a human sacrifice, which changes from the ecstatic to the horrific within the same sequence.
Filmed with a mixture of professional and non-professional actors, Medea is a challenging and refreshing change from the usual, as it builds up to a frightening climax in an unconventional way.
This version of Medea, overall quite excellent, captures interesting aspects of the original piece.
He runs through a stream of largely non-verbal sequences that establish a strong sense of place and emotional element that carry through the film.
Pasolini began his revisiting of the old myths with "gospel according to St Matthews" ,perhaps the best rendition of Christ's life on the screen,then tackled the Greek legends ,first "Edipe Re" then "Medea"."Edipe Re" was framed by a prologue and an epilogue which took place in this day and age."Medea" displays two worlds colliding:Jason's one,a rational world where science begins to surface,and Medea's one,which is that of superstition,magic, a world that is to disappear.The legendary Golden Fleece is nothing but an old rag.And Pasolini does not show the ending of the legend when Medea flies away on her chariot;it's neither a Hollywoodian film ,nor one of those peplums Italian directors used to make by the dozen ten years before.The centaur -played by earnest thespian Laurent Terzieff- ,the only concession to some kind of show,looks like an ordinary character.Some users pointed out the primitive side of the background.But let's not forget that there are two degrees:Medea's world is primitive to the core;Jason's one is attaining what we call civilization..
Others will turn their head the other way or simply hate it...Well I like weird art & films, I like Pasolini, and I liked Medea in various interesting aspects.
I suppose one should at least know the basics of Euripedes story to comprehend the story - Pasolini doesn't focus in the story so much, important facts are assumed by the viewer and the dialogues are scarce within the film.
No narration exists.I think Pasolini here was more interested in presenting the cultural / ethnological / theological / religious stigma of the era - his usual interest on god and religion is also here, despite text is given few opportunities to breed context in this film.
Needless to say one has to like to think while watching this one, not be spoon-fed.Last but not least, the soundtrack enhances this strongly visual experience a lot.
A set of strange but intense folk/ethnic/avant guard/experimental songs make the viewing a unique experience for those who like 'hard' films.....
'Medea' is the prove that film can, or might, be art.
In a gallant way.Pasolini's MEDEA deserves, on a scale from 1 to 10, a 1001.This film, even if the viewer MIGHT not be completely satisfied after watching this picture (rumour has it that there actually are 4 to 6 of them somewhere on our planet), will linger on in the mind forever.
Having cinematographer Guarnieri, designer Ferretti and costume designer Tosi in your team means one knows that only the best were good enough.There are others though, the nameless of the production team must have done an impossible good job to get this movie shot in those sensational but extremely difficult places.And then of course, there is Callas.No no, you Filistines, La Divina is not singing here.
She did use her bottomless brown eyes and enormous presence for MEDEA though.Many claim that MATTHEW'S PASSION is the ultimate PASOLINI Movie.
They might be right; that one is as beautiful and as haunting as MEDEA.But MEDEA has the truly unique locations.And can boast that it has Maria Callas in her only movie-role....
Being familiar with the story and Maria Callas, on the opera stage unrivalled as a singing-actress, were my main interests into watching Medea, having never seen a Passolini film before.
I don't think Medea is a flawless film, some of the anachronisms did go over my head, the film due to some sluggish pacing can get dull at times, the centaur's monologue- though much of Medea is dialogue-free- goes on forever and gets tedious quickly and the way Jason's role is written and performed is too simplistic and rather amateurish.
However, I did think it looked great, the locations are really unique and beautiful to look at and the cinematography gives a grim and surreal feel that actually suits the story.
The main merit of Medea is Maria Callas' titular role performance, like she did on the opera stage with an intelligent, sensual and quite menacing presence she completely dominates every scene she appears in and is incredibly magnetic.
Overall, more a film I appreciate but worth watching for Callas, the visuals and the score.
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" describes Medea, whose hubris and amour fou for the bold and beautiful Jason leads to her downfall.
The primitive settings and human sacrifice of Medea's people helped to establish her dark, powerful and exotic barbarian character.
It's a shame that this movie will most likely attract an audience that looks it up for the novelty-value of seeing La Divina Callas 'play' at movie-actress.
Add to this one of Pasolini's most assuredly directed films, and stunning scenery (the locations indicated by the original play), and it seems as though you had never even heard about the play (let alone seen or read it).
I love Pasolini, and Medea is easily the weakest of his works that I've seen.
It retains most of Pasolini's beautiful settings, but the script is a poor adaptation of Euripides' play.
The film's as slow as they come, and to me it seemed like a way to cover up the lack of ideas.
Maria Callas is excellent as Medea, but she really doesn't have that much screen time, if you measure it.
Most of the film is made up of people performing weird rituals, and the characters of Jason and Medea don't do all that much.
I don't like Pasolini's interpretation of Jason as a chauvanist, egotistical jerk.
Medea's depth is sapped, as well, and her motivation in the film is sketchy at best.
Medea, accused of its formalistic aestheticism and set in ancient Greece, is actually a pretty modern film, an experiment in ethnologic cinema.
The pain and the fear for their existence of the characters have priority and that's why this film finds another level of understanding in the viewer, on a merely emotional base - in a swell of emotions which is experienced through Medea's visionary look, where love and death, regret and revenge follow each other without respite.
With her natural dignity and those striking features, her penetrative eyes, her harshness, with the real human psychic trauma and angst inside of her she is the authentic, inspiring muse of the film and impersonates perfectly the complexity of Medea: The archaic world of the Greek peasants where indications of a progressing cultural and social stratification is already perceivable..
Pasolini's visual and musical work about the myth its ambiguity, its deep powers creates the background in which Maria Callas realizes her masterpiece of acting.
Pasolini's stark, primitive take on MEDEA offers a callous Callas a captivating avant-garde music backdrop..
Maria Callas is both stoic and expressive as Pasolini's Medea, while Jason is depicted as playfully self-obsessed.
this film sticks in my mind as one of the greatest by far i've ever seen, for the drive and weirdity is beyond estimation; most peculiar, plus divinely inspired and escatalogically rendered, so potent grand!the section where medea doubles the murder in two different ways flipt me, and so drove me crazy, and caused the most excited response to a movie i've encountered.
including those devastating images from ikuru while the old bureaucrat is snubbed and proclaims no time for anger, and the harp of burma when the musician soldier finds the bodies on the beach, and thru the glass darkly when the daughter in the boat wrecked on the shore resigns in the flash it's terrible to understand your own insanity; those can't quite measure up, tho all those films are so brutally exquisite, carrying image and emotion and realization solid.when pasolini hits that scene again, i rose out of my seat and yelled!.
Jason needs Medea, repository of occult knowledge and superstitious practise, to help establish his rule; when he gets there, she is side-lined, and takes a terrible revenge.
The storytelling here is oblique and elliptical, full of gorgeous images, sensual locations and sounds the like of which human ears rarely get to hear, full of ululations and Dionysian frenzy.The most intriguing segments involve Jason's relationship with his mentor, the centaur, who appeared in his childhood as a horse-man and his adulthood in normal human form, but the horse-form remains as a mythic trace once childhood is departed.The athlete Pasolini casts as Jason does well, physically scrumptious as he is and with the requisite banal arrogance; the casting of Maria Callas as Medea is more problematic - she's so obviously the product of the higher echelons of civilised culture that it is impossible to see her as a primitive force - her presence threatens to turn the film into a jaded millionairess' arty home movie.
the only role in a film of Maria Callas.
To win the kingdom his uncle took from his father, Jason must steal the golden fleece from the land of barbarians...When the film opened up and we had the glimpse of a filthy centaur, I was pretty much sold that this film was going to be good, or at least unforgettable.
Knock yourself out, if you like movies with a glacial pace, precious little plot, cryptic dialogue, idiotic costumes, and camera work worthy of (maybe) a high school project.
Possibly good for making you vow to never watch a Pasolini film again.
other then the two main actors who play Jason and Medea made no other movies.
The answer is that while 300 played out like a cartoon, Medea was firmly grounded in a reality that may seem foreign to modern sensibilities but nonetheless plausible.Let's take Jason's voyage.
Medea's hacking her brother to pieces to slow down her pursuers made sense in view of the sacrificial ceremony in the earlier part of the film.
Pier must have been a bit tame with this considering his later work.Anyway, I just had to say that Maria Callas is gorgeous in this film.If you needed proof that intense, emotional women are intoxicating, then this shows it.
It's worth watching the film just to see her, and the photography that makes that so captivating.Pier is a new discovery for me.
Now that I think about it, this sense of repression is present in other Pasolini films too.It is also about how the repression breaks into a revolt.
Pasolini's MEDEA, boosting the household name Maria Callas' one-off celluloid bash, mesmerically sinks its teeth into the fecund soil of ancient Greek myth, story-wise, it welds together Jason and the Argonauts' quest of golden fleece with the play of Euripides, and takes liberty with Pasolini's trenchant interpretation about possession, betrayal and revenge.
Exhibiting the sui-generis topography of Göreme in Turkey's Cappadocia Region, an immemorial mountainous area grandly preserved with its ancient architecture (caves, churches etc.) and scraggy outlook, the place itself is a marvel to behold, nevertheless, Pasolini makes great play of his unfettered imagination to limn the mythical tribe of Medea (Callas), a pageantry of madcap costumes and primitive implements, topping off by a head-rolling, blood-drinking human-sacrifice ritual in supplication of harvest, savagery and sanctity, like conjoined twins, forever mediating mankind's self-seeking turpitude.
Medea feels like one of Pier Pasolini's more obscure and lesser known works.
The film explores fascinating themes like jealousy, betrayal, relationships, etc.
Especially for a 1969 audience (which is the film I saw of the story), seeing a woman with that much drive and ability to excel probably felt invigorating.
I think this is where the story flips when this unfair misunderstanding makes things too unbearable for Medea.
As she is tossed aside for another wife for Jason, she's seen as a tool or a means to an end and this is where I think, she takes it too far and removes herself from the title of "heroin."Her almost ruthless nature unravels when she kills her own children which is not only extreme but there is fundamentally something psychopathic when we imagine a mother killing her own child for selfish reasons.
Maybe he was attempting to suggest women will be the death of us if they are not "kept in check." Honestly I would like to think the first option but knowing Pasolini's other works and his seeming disregard for many good qualities of humanity in his films, I don't know how much I'd bet on it.
When Jason arrives in Kolchis, he meets Medea who immediately falls in love with him and helps him to get the Golden Fleece.
She kills her children, minces Jason's father and poisons Glauke's children.However, Pasolini would not be Pasolini if he would just film an ancient Greek myth that belongs since centuries to the common knowledge of any learned European.
Pasolini himself wrote: "The film deals with the conflict between the old religion and the atheist modern world".
By changing not only the original meaning of the Medea-parable, but by transferring the area of the play to the black continent, Pasolini also gave as a further interpretation of the Medea-parable the abyss between the Third World and the colonialist West..
"Medea" reflects (some of) Pasolini's ideas about religion.
We, the viewers, are looking at the kind of ancient cultures - far older, even, than Euripides' own time period - whose practices, beliefs and rites may have inspired the various elements behind the Medea legend.
(Watch out for the scene where the young Medea kills and then dismembers her brother : it's like watching a lioness systematically destroy her prey.) The actor playing Jason seemed inferior in talent, although he did succeed in capturing something of the infuriating opportunism and myopia of the character. |
tt1572491 | Balada triste de trompeta | In 1937, Republican Militia force a circus troupe to fight on their side in the Spanish Civil War. The Funny Clown (Santiago Segura) slaughters dozens of Nationalist troops, armed only with a machete, before being shot and disarmed. While his fellow troupe members are executed, the Funny Clown is sentenced to work as a slave laborer, at the monument of the Valle de los Caídos. His son, Javier (Sasha Di Bendetto) tries to free him by setting off dynamite where he was working. But Colonel Salcedo (Sancho Gracia) tramples the Funny Clown to death with his horse. Javier knocks him down, gouging out his eye in the process. Salcedo vows to remember Javier for this insult.
In 1973, Javier (Carlos Areces) joins a circus as its sad clown, as he has never been able to make children laugh. His counterpart as funny clown is Sergio (Antonio de la Torre), an arrogant, crude, violent man who admits that were he not a clown, he would probably be a murderer. Javier begins to fall in love with Sergio's girlfriend, the trapeze artist Natalia (Carolina Bang). After Sergio becomes enraged when Javier refuses to laugh at his jokes at dinner one night, Sergio beats Natalia unconscious then storms out. Javier encourages Natalia to leave Sergio, but when Sergio returns she engages in rough anal sex against a window while Javier cowers below. She later tells Javier that she is sexually and emotionally attracted to Sergio's violent nature.
Sergio admits that Javier is an excellent sad clown but grows suspicious about his attention to Natalia. In fact, Natalia has encouraged Javier to develop feelings for her, as she was impressed by his refusal to laugh when Sergio told him to. They begin to see one another behind Sergio's back. One night, at an amusement park, Natalia admits she has begun to love Javier as well and kisses him tenderly. Sergio suddenly appears and beats them both savagely; Javier's wounds land him in the hospital. Natalia tells Javier they must never see one another again for his sake. After having a dream in which Sergio foils his repeated attempts to rescue Natalia from various situations, Javier escapes from the hospital and returns to the circus. Despite the efforts of the other troupe members to stop him, Javier finds Sergio and Natalia having sex. Now insane, Javier beats Sergio mercilessly in the face with a trumpet, leaving him mauled and near death. As Javier escapes through the sewers, the circus troupe takes Sergio to the closest doctor – a veterinarian – for medical care. The doctor is able to save Sergio, but his face is horribly scarred with a glasgow smile. The circus is forced to close down. Natalia and several of the other troupe members become performers in a nightclub.
Javier lives in the forest, naked and covered in filth. He survives on wild animals that fall into his cave. One day he is captured by hunters – including Salcedo, who recognizes him. Salcedo forces him to behave as a hunting dog but ultimately intends to kill him. At one point Javier viciously bites none other than Generalísimo Francisco Franco, one of Salcedo's guests. As a consequence he is locked in a room while Salcedo plans exactly how to kill him. Javier has a vision of Natalia, as the Virgin Mary, ordering him to become her Angel of Death. He scars his face with sodium hydroxide and a clothes iron to make it look permanently like that of a clown, then dons a clown's costume patterned after a bishop's vestments. He then kills Salcedo and escapes into the city.
Afraid that Sergio intends to harm her, Natalia prepares to leave the nightclub. But Sergio and Javier both arrive at the same time, Javier armed with machine guns. Forced to choose between them, Natalia chooses Sergio, and they drive away together. Police try to arrest Javier, but some of the remaining troupe members help him escape. Repulsed by Sergio's mauled face and crude ways, Natalia leaves him again. Javier steals an ice cream truck and stalks her through the city. He uses the occasion of ETA's successful attempt on Admiral Carrero Blanco (Franco's heir apparent) to kidnap Natalia. He takes her to the Valle de los Caídos, hewn from rock, where the circus has kept its animals since going out of business. There he pleads with her to love him for his mind and body as much as she loved Sergio for his. At first she refuses but admits she no longer loves Sergio.
Sergio, meanwhile, has learned of Javier's hideout. He informs the military police, which has been looking for Javier in connection with the terrorist bombing, and accompanies them on their attempt to arrest him. Sergio puts on his clown make up and chases Javier and Natalia through the Monumental Cross at the Valle de los Caídos where they climb to its highest point, several hundred feet off the ground. Natalia admits her love for Javier and suggests they escape by wrapping lengths of drapery around their waists and lowering themselves to the ground. Before this can be accomplished, Sergio arrives and fights with Javier. Distraught over the continued violence, Natalia leaps from the ledge; rather than getting to the ground safely, she is killed instantly when the drapery draws taut around her waist and snaps her spine.
The military police place Sergio and Javier in custody. As they sit opposite one another, the Funny Clown and the Sad Clown crying so hard as to appear they are laughing. | revenge, comedy, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0025948 | Viva Villa! | After seeing his poor father lose his land and be whipped to death for protesting, young Pancho Villa stabs one of the killers, then heads off into the hills of Chihuahua, Mexico during the 1880s. As a grown man, Villa and a band of rebel bandits, including his trusted ally Sierra, kill wealthy landowners and become heroes to their fellow "peons."
A wealthy aristocrat, Don Felipe, arranges an introduction for Villa to the distinguished and eloquent Francisco Madero, who resents what has become of Mexico under the rule of president Porfirio Díaz and persuades Villa to help him fight for liberty, not just for personal gain. The coarse and illiterate Villa is humbled in the presence of Madero and agrees to fight for his cause. He also is attracted to Don Felipe's beautiful sister Teresa, although there are many women in Villa's life, including one he is married to, Rosita.
Villa's exploits are made even more colorful by an American newspaper reporter, Johnny Sykes, to whom Villa has taken a great liking. While drunk, Sykes is misinformed and reports that Villa has already overtaken the village of Santa Rosalia in a great victory for his men. Disobeying the orders of Madero and the arrogant General Pascal, simply to help his newspaper friend, Villa stages a raid on Santa Rosalia, as well as on Juarez.
Madero ultimately assumes office in Mexico City, then commands Villa to disband his personal army. Villa agrees, but when Sierra kills a bank teller just so Villa can withdraw his money, Villa himself ends up sentenced to death. A gloating General Pascal mocks the way Villa pleads for his life, then reads a telegram from Madero, ordering that Villa instead be exiled from the country.
Alone and drunk in El Paso, Texas, feeling forsaken by his homeland, Villa is visited by Sykes, who informs him that Madero has been assassinated by the power-mad Pascal and his men. Villa returns to Mexico and rebuilds his own army, recruiting tens of thousands to ride by his side. Together they storm the capital, where Pascal is subjected to a particularly gruesome death. Villa takes what he wants, but when Teresa resists and he physically assaults her, she draws a gun that her brother Don Felipe has given her for protection. Sierra intervenes and murders her.
Villa appoints himself president but is ineffectual, unable to restore Madero's dream of land reform for Mexico's poor. He ultimately agrees to step aside and go back to where he belongs, including to his wife. Before he can, with Sykes by his side, Villa is gunned down by Don Felipe out of revenge for his sister. Sykes vows to keep Villa's memory alive, telling his dying friend that he is no longer news, but history. | revenge, murder, historical fiction | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0027630 | Follow the Fleet | Seaman "Bake" Baker (Fred Astaire) and Sherry (Ginger Rogers) are former dance partners, now separated, with Baker in the Navy and Sherry working as a dance hostess in a San Francisco ballroom, Paradise.
Bake visits the ballroom with his Navy buddy "Bilge" (Randolph Scott) during a period of liberty, reuniting with Sherry (but costing her job), while Bilge is initially attracted to Sherry's sister Connie (Harriet Hilliard). When Connie begins to talk about marriage, Bilge quickly diverts his attention towards a friend of Sherry's, Iris (Astrid Allwyn), a divorced socialite.
The sailors return to sea while Connie seeks to raise money to salvage her deceased sea-captain father's sailing ship. When the boys return to San Francisco, Bake attempts to get Sherry a job in a Broadway show, but fails amidst a flurry of mistaken identities and misunderstandings. He redeems himself by staging a benefit show which raises the final seven hundred dollars needed to refurbish the ship – although he has to jump ship in order to do so. Bilge, now a Chief Petty Officer, is ordered to locate and arrest him, but allows Bake to complete the show.
After the concert, Bake and Sherry are offered a show on Broadway, which A.W.O.L. Bake accepts on the proviso that Sherry asks him to marry her. Of course, he first has to be sent to the Brig and take his punishment. | romantic | train | wikipedia | Although in this case like that Jerome Kern confection Roberta that they were in, Follow the Fleet retained Randolph Scott with another singer, this time Harriet Hilliard.Randolph Scott is a career Navy CPO and Fred Astaire is an ex-vaudevillian who enlisted in the Navy to forget Ginger Rogers his former partner.
This film is nice because there are two love stories-- something of a plot departure, and the second couple (Randolph Scott and Harriet Hilliard Nelson) are given the bulk of the dramatics, which allow our stars to be looser, more comical.
But wouldn't they better resemble sisters if they were both blonds?) The Irving Berlin numbers are quite good, ranging from light and airy ("Let Yourself Go," "I'd Rather Lead A Band") to elegant ("Let's Face The Music And Dance").
FOLLOW THE FLEET (RKO Radio, 1936), directed by Mark Sandrich, marks the fifth pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and one of their top musicals of the era with a bright score by Irving Berlin, the composer of their last outing, TOP HAT (1935).
Unlike ROBERTA, Astaire and Rogers have equal status with the other couple in question, played by Randolph Scott (of ROBERTA) and Harriet Hilliard (making her screen debut).
In the basic plot, Bake Baker (Fred Astaire) and Bilge Smith (Randolph Scott) are shipmates in the U.S. Navy who go on shore leave.
During the course of the story, lovesick Connie, who has salvaged her late father's ship for Bilge, falls victim of his neglect while Sherry has troubles of her own with Bake.The motion picture soundtrack is as follows: "We Saw the Sea" (sung by Fred Astaire and sailors); "Let Yourself Go" (sung by Ginger Rogers, with a singing trio, one of them being Betty Grable); "Get Thee Behind Me, Satan" (sung by Harriet Hilliard); "Let Yourself Go" (danced by Astaire and Rogers); "I'd Rather Lead the Band" (sung by Astaire); "Let Yourself Go" (reprise by Rogers); "But Where Are You?" (sung by Hilliard); "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket" (sung and danced by Astaire and Rogers); "Let's Face the Music and Dance" (sung by Astaire/ danced by Astaire and Rogers) and "We Saw the Sea" (finale, sung by sailors).
Solid support from Randolph Scott, Harriet Nelson, Lucille Ball, Betty Grable, Frank Jenks, and Astrid Allwyn.Terrific songs include "Let Yourself Go," "Let's Face the Music," and "Putting All My Eggs in One Basket." The last song is introduced by Astaire playing a jazzy piano and then a cute dance with Rogers.
The dancer Bake Baker (Fred Astaire) has joined the navy to forget his former partner and love Sherry Martin (Ginger Rogers) that has declined to marry him, but he misses her.
Now his ship is anchored in San Francisco and he goes with his pal, the sergeant Bilge Smith (Randolph Scott), to the Paradise nightclub.Meanwhile at Paradise, the intellectual teacher Connie Martin (Harriet Hilliard), who has just come from Bellport, visits her sister Sherry that is working there and she stumbles with Bilge at the entrance.
But sooner their misunderstandings resolve and they dance together again.Like most of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films, "Follow the Fleet" is sappy, naive and delightful.
Not to mention this film contains some of the best songs recorded by the two; like I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket and Let's Face the Music and Dance.
Once again, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers showcase their talents and chemistry in Mark Sandrich's musical comedy, Follow the Fleet.
The two also have the task of playing Cupid to Bake's buddy Bilge (Randolph Scott before his cowboy days) and Sherry's sister, Connie (Harriet Hilliard).My advise: Skip the story, sit back, and enjoy the dance numbers and music by Irving Berlin.
Despite being a huge fan of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' movies, it wasn't until about 6 years ago that I first saw 'Follow the Fleet'.
His character doesn't have the usual humour and elan of the other films' Astaire characters.Worth watching for the songs and a great solo tap routine by Ginger Rogers..
While I am not a big fan of musicals, I have loved the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers because they are just so much fun.
As it is, it's a fine movie but overly long with a tedious subplot, i.e., Randolph Scott romancing Rogers' sister, played by Harriet Hilliard (that's Ozzie Nelson's wife to you baby boomers).Astaire and Scott are two Navy men.
Scott meets Hilliard the first time when she looks like a stereotypical librarian, and later on after Ginger Rogers has asked her friend (a blond but unmistakable Lucille Ball) to glamor her up.
The result is some wonderful dance numbers, with Astaire and Rogers as a team as well as separately: "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket," "Let Yourself Go," and "I'd Rather Lead the Band." Hilliard is sweet but a little lethargic as a plain Jane turned glamor girl, although she sings her two songs well, "But Where Are You?" and "Get Thee Behind Me, Satan" - one poster didn't care for that song, but I love the title.
Harriet Hilliard, who is more famous as Harriet Nelson of Ozzie and Harriet fame, plays Ginger Rogers' unglamorous, music teacher sister who decides to play hooky from her loneliness, gets a make-over to become a bombshell, and begins a rocky romance with Fred Astaire's navy buddy, Randolph Scott.
By the way, notice the cameo roles for Betty Grable and a glamorous Lucile Ball.A load of Irving Berlin songs, including the famous "Let's Face the Music and Dance".
In the silly plot, she is given a makeover by a young, bleached blonde Lucille Ball, and there is s classic three-way shot of Hilliard, Ball and a kewpie-doll adorable Betty Grable in front of a mirror.Speaking of the story, what there is of one is credited to Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor and goes something like this...Bake and Bilge are on shore leave in San Francisco where they end up in a dance hall with their rowdy shipmates.
It's about as silly as it sounds, but it does provide a good excuse for some memorable Irving Berlin tunes and a trio of Astaire-Rogers dances.The first two are casual in tone - a dance contest set to the percolating "Let Yourself Go" where they show off mercilessly to win and a physical shipboard comedy routine set to the toe-tapping "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket".
"Follow the Fleet" is not one of the dancing duo's very best, mainly because of the clunky plot and long intervals between their numbers - there's a parallel storyline between Harriet Hiliyard (as Ginger's sister) and Randolph Scott which drags on a bit.
Plot is never the strong point of a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie, but "Follow the Fleet"'s screenplay is exceptionally mediocre.
Astaire gets two good solos with "We Saw the Sea" and "I'd Rather Lead a Band." He sings expressively and, of course, dances electrifyingly--and the sailor suit makes him look a little more boyish and athletic than usual.
Another worthy entry in the Astaire - Rogers series of hit movies in the mid 30's "Follow The Fleet" as ever finds Fred chasing Ginger this time over love's crashing waves with him as a U.S. Navy ensign and her as his ex-fiancée who ditched him to try and make it as a dancer.
Wouldn't you know it, but Fred's ship comes into port in Ginger's backyard and wouldn't you know it again that the sailors' furlough sees them all end up in the club where Ginger's berthed and wouldn't you know it just one more time that Ginger has a dowdy sister named Connie visiting her, who runs into Fred's best mate "Bilge" (terrible name) Smith played by Randolph Scott at the same club but who transforms swan-like into a pretty and stylish young woman when she gets a makeover from Ginger's show-girl pals.Of course the course of true love never runs smoothly in one of these films with both couples riding the waves of uncertainty and misunderstanding before the inevitable conciliatory ending at a "let's do the show right here" finale as Fred puts on a fund-raiser to provide the funds to buy Ginger and Connie's dad's old boat.This movie is quite long by 30's musical standards and occasionally shows it with the overlong played-out sub-plot between Bilge, Connie and a gay divorcée "other woman", in fact the way Bilge treats Connie, it's a wonder she takes him back at all.
The superb score, by the great Irving Berlin boasts songs like "We Saw The Sea", "Let Yourself Go", "I'm Putting All My Eggs In One Basket" and for the big finish, the classic "Let's Face The Music And Dance".There are some pithy, humorous lines in the script but equally there are also some clichéd, drawn-out scenes which are rather tiresome.
Since 1935's "Top Hat" is, quite simply, one of the finest musicals ever made, it was perhaps inevitable that Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' follow-up picture, as a team, should fall somewhat short of that miraculously high mark.
In this one, Fred doesn't play his typical debonair sophisticate, but rather a gum-chewing Navy gob named Bake Baker, who, back in San Francisco on leave, with his shipmate Bilge Smith (played by Randolph Scott, who had costarred in F&G's 3rd outing, "Roberta"), sets out to romance sisters Sherry (our Ginger) and Connie Martin (Harriet Hilliard, who many baby boomers will recall from the old "Ozzie & Harriet" TV show).
Fred Astaire plays a navy man called Bake Baker who tries to get together with Sherry Martin (Ginger Rogers).Sherry and Bake used to go out with each other.Sherry's sister Connie Martin (Harriet Hilliard) tries to find romance with Bake's buddy Bilge Smith (Randolph Scott).
Follow the Fleet from 1936 is a very entertaining romantic musical comedy.The chemistry really worked between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.They both were great entertainers and great dancers.It is impossible to get bored with these two singing and dancing.Randolph Scott and Harriet Hilliard are also amazing in their roles.
About one hour and thirty minutes into "Follow the Fleet", there's a musical sequence that deserves attention: first Fred Astaire plays "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket" on the piano, then he sings it, then Ginger Rogers sings it, and finally, they dance to it, including some comedic dance moves.
This is fifth film pairing of Astaire and Rogers and they are wonderful together, to the final dance.Not to be missed by those who like A&R or anyone who enjoys musicals.
They have three wonderful dance numbers -- "Let Yourself Go," "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket," and "Let's Face the Music and Dance." Randolph Scott is fun, especially in his scenes with Astaire.
Likewise, here Sandrich deliberately forgets that the life of a Naval officer is difficult and draining, and instead substitutes the duties of a sailor with an assortment of catchy lightweight musical numbers."Bake" Baker (Astaire) and Sherry Martin (Rogers) are two former dance partners whose romantic relationship fell apart after the latter rejected a marriage proposal.
Particularly amusing is the scene in which Bake sabotages a performer's audition in order to create a window for his estranged girl; unluckily for both of them, it is an unfortunate Sherry who drinks the bicarbonate of soda and loses her ability to sing.'Follow the Fleet (1936)' was the fifth winning collaboration between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and the third (of five) in which Sandrich directed the pair.
Irving Berlin provided the film's music and lyrics, and each musical number is enjoyably lighthearted and entertaining, even if they aren't quite as memorable as those in 'Top Hat (1935),' 'Swing Time (1936)' or 'Shall We Dance (1937).' Astaire attempts to break free from his typical rich-man-about-town persona, without much success, but it's hard to imagine the performer without the boyish carefree charm that could only accompany being considerably wealthy.
The side-plot of the romance between Connie and Bilge works well with the antics of the two main stars, and Harriet Hilliard (wearing a brunette wig to avoid clashing with Ginger's blonde hair) has a couple of emotional solo numbers, including "Get Thee Behind Me Satan," which was originally written for 'Top Hat.'.
The most disappointing element for me is the fact that the second female lead is HARRIET HILLIARD who, to put it mildly, has almost zero screen presence and is involved in a dull sub-plot with RANDOLPH SCOTT as the kind of girl who becomes attractive to men only when she removes her glasses.But, of course, the film belongs to FRED ASTAIRE and GINGER ROGERS who fail to disappoint.
Best of their numbers is "Let's Face the Music and Dance" which gets a real workout from the dancing duo.Fred and Randolph are sailors on shore leave with Fred trying to reunite with a former flame and Scott just looking for a little luck with a pretty gal.
While FOLLOW THE FLEET contains ingredients familiar to the Astaire/Rogers canon (comic by-play between the two protagonists, a romantic subplot involving Bake Baker's (Astaire's) best buddy Bilge Smith (Randolph Scott) and Connie Martin (Harriet Hilliard), and the inevitable misunderstandings (for example, a neat episode involving a tin of bicarbonate of soda), the film makes some important points about friendship and love.
The film ends with the four protagonists brought together - even though Bake and Sherry have to be apart for just a little longer, as Bake has to spend some time in custody for going AWOL.FOLLOW THE FLEET achieves the unique feat of integrating the songs with the plot; all of them sum up how the characters are feeling, from the serio-comic "We Saw the Sea" (summing up the loneliness of the sailors' life), to "But Where are You?" (sung by Connie as she believes that Bilge will never come back to her), to "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket" (where Bake declares his everlasting love for Sherry).
Irving Berlin's tunes are all pedigree again here, including 'Let's Face the Music and Dance', the scene paid tribute in Fellini's Ginger and Fred.
The dancing is lively and inventive, and it's good value at 110 minutes.To draw the story out, the subplot follows another couple, Randolph Scott and Harriet Hilliard - the latter even gets a couple of songs.
After what I consider a most disappointing storyline to the previous Astaire/Rogers film 'Top Hat' a more pallet able story was cooked up for the next in the series entitled 'Follow The Fleet' about two sisters played by Ginger Rogers and Harriet Nelson (Nee Hilliard)and their love and lives as they focus around two sailors played by Fred Astaire and Randolph Scott.Fred and Ginger play Sherry and Bake, one-time lovers and showbiz dance act before he left to join the Navy after his marriage proposal was spurned.
Yet when Bilge realises Connie has more than just playful fun on her mind he soon ditches her for a wealthy socialite.I suppose the story is styled very much like 'Roberta' as it basically two plots running consecutively the Scott/Hilliard love story, and the Astaire/Rogers routines.However whereas in 'Roberta' Astaire and Rogers were pretty much demoted to support players with the majority of the action devoted to the Randolph Scott storyline, In 'Follow the Fleet' Astaire and Rogers are given top billing and equal, if not more screen time than Scott and Hilliard.Some great routines and songs here but none really surpass the great 'Lets Face the Music and Dance' number, added with the sole intention that Fred be allowed to ditch the sailor outfit and the gum chewing, and become Mr. Top Hat, White Tie and Tails once more.It was also great to see Fred play piano as he was a really good pianist.Although everyone knows and looks out for young cameo appearances from Betty Grable and Lucille Ball, even less people know, that a 24 year old Tony Martin made his screen debut in this film as an uncredited sailor, who can be seen over Fred's shoulder as he purchases dance tickets in the Paradise club scene.
Another fun, witty, frothy RKO musical with Astaire and Rogers, FOLLOW THE FLEET is a charming film.
As a kind of a footnote, I must mention that Randolph Scott was rumored to be bisexual by Hollywood gossips who needed some nonsense to chew on, and it's kind of amusing that he has the following line in this film when he's putting homely Hilliard off -- "Women don't interest me, sister." The movie probably gives more quality time to Ginger Rogers than any of her other films with Astaire.
Once again with these films, the plot is of a minor consequence - Astaire plays a rather unlikely sailor (who happens to be a brilliant former hoofer (of course!)) and Rogers an aspiring performer in a seedy dime-a-dance music hall.
Basically it follows a similar theme as On the Town, all the sailors of a Navy ship are on shore leave and spending time in San Francisco, and it is there that former dance partners, sailor Bake Baker (Fred Astaire) and ballroom dance hostess Sherry Martin (Ginger Rogers) reunite.
Follow the Fleet, an RKO production in 1936, stars Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in a complex romantic comedy.
The narrative of Follow the Fleet relies heavily on the use of layered story lines between the two sets of main characters to create a satisfying romantic comedy.The general plot of the movie revolves around Bake Baker, a Sailor in the U.S. Navy played by Fred Astaire, and Sherry Martin, Bake's former love and dance partner who is now a singer and dancer played by Ginger Rogers.
Although Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers have countless films together that incorporate romance, comedy, song, and dance, Follow the Fleet is a unique film for the two actors that successfully use the technique of subplots to aid the narrative between the two main characters..
Just when you're ready to call it a day for the romantic tales of two sailors (Astaire and Randolph Scott), in comes "Let's Face the Music and Dance". |
tt0084133 | Incubus | In a lake at a rock quarry, a young woman named Mandy and her boyfriend, Ray, are swimming. The two spend the night at the lake camping, but are attacked by an unseen figure; Ray is killed, and Mandy is taken to the hospital with a ruptured uterus and serious trauma. As the attack occurs, teenager Tim Galen experiences a recurring nightmare he has in which a woman is tortured by a monstrous figure; his grandmother, Agatha Galen, tries to dissuade him of his suspicions about the premonitory dream. At the hospital, Mandy is treated by Sam Cordell (John Cassavetes), a surgeon and physician in the small community of Galen.
Sam's teenaged daughter, Jenny, is dating Tim, but he disapproves of their relationship. At the hospital, Sheriff Hank Walden (John Ireland) questions Sam about Mandy's injuries, and a nosy local reporter, Laura Kincaid, arrives to question Walden, who forces her to leave. That night at the local library and museum, a librarian named Carolyn Davies is brutally raped and murdered while closing the building. During her autopsy, Sam finds she suffered similar wounds as Mandy, and finds an inexplicable amount of semen in her vagina.
Attempts to question the comatose Mandy about her attacker are futile. Sam shows Laura pictures of his deceased 2nd wife and their amazing resemblance to each other. The following day, local farmer Ernie Barnes and his two daughters are brutally slain at their farmhouse. Tim again is tormented by his vision, and runs into a local movie theater in an attempt to distract himself. While there, a young woman is raped and murdered in the downstairs bathroom of the theater, and the metal stall door is found nearly bent in half. Sheriff Walden and Sam arrive at the crime scene shortly before Laura, who insists she may be able to help the investigation. She confides in Sam that she discovered historical records detailing Satanism and similar crimes occurring throughout the town's history.
Tim confronts Jenny at her home, hysterical, and says he believes his dreams are responsible for the crimes. Sam gets a sample of Tim's semen to compare against that which was found inside the victims, but they do not match. Tim and Agatha meet with Sam, Jenny, Laura, and Sheriff Walden at the library that night, where Laura reads a passage from a book detailing the shapeshifter known as the incubus, which manifests through dreams and can appear in human form. Agatha reveals that Tim's mother had died before his birth and had been accused of witchcraft due to psychic powers she possessed; Agatha claims that the Galen family has a legacy of witch hunters, and that his dreams are a result of this.
Laura and Tim return with Sam and Jenny to their home. As Laura takes Jenny upstairs to go to bed, Sam attempts to induce Tim's dream to prove its connection to the murders. Tim goes into a seizure-like state and runs upstairs into Jenny's room where he tries to attack Laura with a dagger given to him by Agatha, but Sam intervenes and stabs him to death. Laura then approaches Sam, and her face briefly shifts into that of the monstrous incubus; it is revealed that Laura has in fact been the incubus all along, manifesting in female form. As Laura embraces Sam, he looks over her shoulder to see Jenny's dead body lying on her bed, blood pouring out from between her legs. | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | Shocking, well-made chiller is an undervalued tale of atrocious murder and evil forces.Small town doctor tries to discover who, or what, is committing a series of violent sexual murders.Incubus is a tight mystery, with some horrific murder sequences, that builds to an off-beat and eerie climatic twist.
The direction of John Hough, along with a bizarre music score, combine to create a dark atmosphere of dread that runs through out the film.
The great John Cassavetes does a solid performance as the new doctor in town.
Also good are the performances of Kerrie Keane as the local reporter, Helen Hughes as the town historian, and Duncan McIntosh as a tormented psychic teen.All around Incubus is a forgotten horror film that needs to be re-discovered and re-evaluated.*** out of ****.
That works to make the movie more eerie -- we aren't distracted by the gross-out effect.Cassavetes shows his talent -- he can make the worst dialogue sound believable.
On the other hand, there were a number of interesting scenes where you expected someone to break out in positively bad, cliched dialogue and instead -- nothing was said.Others have commented on the creepiness of the doctor's quasi-incestuous relation with his daughter.
That kind of behavior is something that almost never gets shown.Summary: good if you want to see a creepy movie with a great actor and lots of strange things going on.
John Hough's horror films are a mixed bunch, but this one is far more interesting than its horrendous critical reception would suggest.
It is ostensibly a detective story of a small town policeman (John Cassavetes) investigating a series of unusually vicious rape homicides.
Undeterred, Hough would treat similar themes in his equally maligned "American Gothic".Graphic, contemplative and unrelenting in its bleakly oppressive visual style, this is a disturbing film experience: one of the more confrontational of taboo-breakers dealing with the always problematic theme of sexual homicide.Intriguingly enough, the film has some elements in common with Wes Craven's "Deadly Blessing" released around the same time, and dealing with sex crime, isolated communities, deceptive innocence, female independence and role expectations, and the other-worldly demon, the Incubus..
John Cassavetes stars as a surgeon in a small New England town where a series of bizarre rapes-turned-murders are occurring left and right against the area's female residents.
Thrown into the mix is his teenager daughter whose boyfriend claims to be witnessing the crimes as they are occurring within nightmares he experiences.As far as I'm concerned, John Hough is one of horror's unsung heroes when it comes to mood and atmosphere— if "The Legend of Hell House" or the marginal Disney thriller "The Watcher in the Woods" aren't enough proof of that, "The Incubus" is.
A somewhat withered Cassavetes is still on his game here, with John Ireland supporting as the miffed sheriff and Kerri Keane as a nosy local reporter.The chilly, Gothic autumnal environment in which the film takes place is entirely disrupted by its explicit sexual violence, and it features some of the most disturbing and visceral assault scenes I've ever seen in a horror film (the library sequence near the beginning especially stands out).
The script's medley of violence and female sexuality under attack is fascinating in its repulsive representation, and even more bizarre are the incestuous undertones and gender-bending revelation at the film's twisted conclusion.
While the finale is irrefutably shocking (and the monster makeup surprisingly scary, even by today's standards), I can say that the narrative build-up could have been a tad better handled as it all does seem to come crashing down rather awkwardly; a bit more finesse in script and editing could have remedied this, but the film still works in spite of it.Overall, I found "The Incubus" to be a formidable and disturbing film; Hough's handling of the rural New England locale is fantastic in atmosphere and tone, and effective, moody cinematography really establishes a menacing and inauspicious feel.
The film's one major flaw is the hackneyed pacing in its last act, but I personally found this a forgivable sin amidst the movie's audacious presentation of sexual violence and generally grim demeanor.
Seriously, I can easily stomach a lot of on screen blood, gore and repulsiveness, but what really makes this film disturbing & uncomfortable to watch is how the doctor character keeps on rambling about the physical damage done to raped women.
The aforementioned doctor has an odd interpretation of daughter-love and continuously behaves like he's a suspect himself, the town's sheriff (John Ireland) appears to be in a constant state of drunkenness and doesn't even seem to care about who keeps raping & killing the women in his district, the female reporter is even too weird for words and the Galens (an old witch and her grandson) are just plain spooky.
Basically these are very positive factors in a horror film, but the narrative structure is too incoherent and the characters are too unsympathetic for "Incubus" to be a really good film.
The story itself is not a bad one but a better director could not have hurt.I have to admit I was drawn back to this film after years of searching because the Library/Museum in the story, with it's Gothic look that might have come straight out of Lovecraft has always stuck in my mind.
Based on Ray Russell's dark bestseller, this John (WATCHER IN THE WOODS) Hough-directed bust has little going for it.Though it does not lack gory violence, it lack narrative sensibility and "characters".The "Incubus" of the title is a demon endowed with a mammoth penis that shoots red sperm into vaginas during intercourse -- or, to be more precise, rape.John Cassavetes, moonlighting from his successful directing career, is convincing as a doctor who questions the circumstances of the bizarre attacks on young women.Horrific possibilities of the victims spawning demonic offspring are not considered -- and neither is the audience's tolerance for slow moving garbage.The script's reluctance to explore the dramatic repercussions of a fertile premise exemplifies the major problems with this vapid Big-Schlong-On-The-Loose exercise..
The demonic spirit; The Incubus is mostly kept off screen when it attacks its victims, until it finally shows in a couple of frames in the final few minutes of the film.
Meanwhile the young Tim Galen (Duncan McIntosh), who dates Sam's daughter Jenny Cordell (Erin Flannery), discloses that he has premonitory visions of the deaths, but his grandmother Agatha Galen (Helen Hughes) tries to convince him that he has nothing to do with the murders.
But when Jenny learns about his dreams, she summons her father and Laura and they discover a supernatural secret about the Galen's family."Incubus" is a horror movie with an intriguing story, good cast including John Cassavetes and beautiful cinematography.
You know you're in trouble when John Cassavetes is operating at half-speed instead of full-throttle in a movie, and "The Incubus" is a dreadful, worst-case scenario of a great actor going through the motions to pay the bills.
The movie has something to do with a series of rape-murders going on in a small town, with a lot of supernatural hokum mixed in.
THE INCUBUS is strictly by-the-number horror film: unseen killer/monster is raping and murdering women in a small town.
It's a stand-out scene not necessarily because it's good but because it's so funny and pointless: the movie playing on the big screen shows a rock video-like moment with a guy in red leather pants getting his obviously fake long hair cut, all of this edited with scenes of a girl who is being attacked in the movie theater's washroom by the incubus.
The incubus has none.I actually contemplated NOT making a comment on this "piece" for fear that someone may watch it out of curiosity, but I am compelled to warn anyone who appreciates film to skip this movie..
To say that The Incubus is underrated is quite the understatement.From start till finish (even with a somewhat flawed script) it keeps you interested.There is a very good build up in suspense and it is gory when needed.Not everything is what it seems and there are a few red herrings thrown it to keep the viewer guessing.Now there are some sexual themes touched perhaps to deepen the intrigue which do work to a degree but overall distract the viewer a little.It looked like they realised this in the latter part of the film where events have been opened up and defined more and sort of let go these sexual themes.Not that it becomes clearer.Because some oft the raised questions are left unanswered.Which surprisingly works in favour of the ending.The acting is pretty darn good and it is nice to see these fine actors take the main plot seriously.John Cassavettes brings in that extra sophistication and is able to be interesting because of the underlying sexual themes I was talking about earlier and a little sub plot that could be seen as an explanation to his behaviour.But also could be a red herring as well.For the build up of tension and suspense it is extremely effective but I can understand that it could lead to some disappointment for viewers who wanted to see his story explained.Maybe the minimalistic approach of the plot is not for everyone.And normally I don't like that either.But in this case I did.For ones who still aren't convinced I think it is best to view this as a slasher with Gothic elements.Definitely worth your time..
but to me the ending alone is worth the price of admission(rental).Good acting in horror movies never hurt anyone,Sometimes when people make horror movies they forget that they can be clever and still supply some gore and surprises but not be too scared to show us a little more than they do.
"The Incubus" is a mix of the good (an interesting murder mystery), the bad (a disconnected script, a sloppy resolution, badly made attack scenes) and the weird (strong incestuous overtones, a strangely sleepy and stiff performance by John Cassavetes - was that character really meant to be so "wacko"?).
In the small town of Galen, a young lad, Tim (Duncan McIntosh), suffers from recurring nightmares that he believes are somehow connected to a spate of local rapes/murders.
Doctor Sam Cordell (John Cassavetes) and cop Hank Walden (John Ireland) investigate, the evidence (lashings of red sperm) leading Sam to believe that the terrible events are the work of an incubus: a sex demon borne by a witch.With its rapey monster and the suggestion of incestuous desire (Sam seems little too close to his daughter Jenny, played by Erin Noble), this could have been a jaw-dropping shocker, but director John Hough decides to play it safe, keeping the apparently well-endowed, semen spurting monster hidden from view, and leaving the daddy/daughter relationship to one's imagination: instead, the film is largely content to be a routine mystery, with Tim and Sam presented as most likely to be the monster in human guise.
Actually, both are red herrings, the real creature eventually revealed to be reporter Laura Kincaid (Kerrie Keane), which means that the title of this film is highly misleading/totally confusing: she would be a succubus, not an incubus, and would attack men, not women.Hough provides a little gore along the way (bloodiest moment: a farmer gets a shovel in his neck and accidentally blows the end of his foot off with a shotgun), plus some gratuitous female nudity (Noble is seen naked by her possibly pervy father, we get a shower scene with a sexy blonde, and for those who like 'em dead, there's a corpse on the slab), and a hilariously dated scene in a movie theatre that is showing a heavy rock film starring Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden fame.
The film's director, John Hough, is the same man responsible for bringing you titles like 1973's The Legend of Hell House, American Gothic from 1987, and the 4th installment in the Howling franchise, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare released in 1988.
We're not here to talk about other films, though, so let's discuss what I've discovered about The Incubus.The premise involves Dr. Sam Cordell (John Cassavetes - 1968's Rosemary's Baby), who along with his daughter Jenny, recently moved to a small New England town by the name of Galen.
John Cassavetes does a great job performing the role of a doctor looking for answers.
In almost every scene poor John C looks like he's trying to think of a way to get out of his contract.
The dialogue between John C, the Sheriff, and the Mayor makes you think what great fodder this film would have been for Mystery Science Theatre 3000.
Years ago a movie going friend and I went to see a horror film that we thought would be good because it starred John Cassavetes.
For the uninitiated, John Cassavettes was an actor, screen writer and director (married to actress Gena Rowlands), nominated for Oscars three times, who wrote and directed a variety of good low-budget films using his income as an actor to keep himself afloat.
Up until seeing The Incubus, we did not understand that John Cassavetes income was made from any movie that was offered to him.
A brutal rapist is on the loose in a small Wisconsin town,and Dr.Sam Cordell(John Cassavetes)suspects his daughter's boyfriend,until the horrible truth is discovered-the rapes and killings are committed by a mysterious demon."The Incubus" is an above average horror film that has slick production values and nice-looking professional actors.There are some gory scenes like wonderful moment where one guy has a shovel shoved into his neck.There is also a gratuitous shower scene,so fans of nudity won't be disappointed.The film is truly creepy,unfortunately the action is rather slow.The film's director John Hough,has had uneven career at best,but he is primarily known for having helmed "The Legend of Hell House",a very creepy horror film that has to be seen to be believed.Anyway,give this one a look if you're a real horror buff.Highly recommended..
This may sound like a completely asinine reason to discredit the film, but believe me, anyone who has seen the film is almost sure to agree with me.John Cassevetes plays Dr. Sam Cordell.
It is a very tense moment and it starts the film off on the correct note.Also introduced into the tangled wed of a story is a young man named Tim that seems to be having strange dreams of a faceless woman that is bound in a torture chamber surrounded by men with cloaks covering their faces.
Toss in a quiet and turbid grandmother, a meretricious female reporter and a strong yet venal local sheriff and you have all the ingredients necessary to create the makings of an imbroglio in the small town of Galen.Throughout the film more people are massacred but most of the time, the males are slaughtered with extreme prejudice and the females are raped.
Dr. Sam Cordell (John Cassavetes) and his daughter Jenny (Erin Flannery) are both new to Galen after the death of Sam's wife.
A local journalist named Laura Kincaid (Kerrie Keane) reports the events and suggests to Sam that a similar string of rapes and murders occurred in the town 30 years earlier.
Tim's story and digging into the towns past makes Sam become convinced of the existence of a creature known as an Incubus - a shape-shifting demonic entity that exists only to reproduce!
Directed by John Hough this is one seriously dull horror film.
"Incubus" is one hell of a bizarre and trashy horror film.
The story is about brutal rapes & murders being committed in a small New England town named Galen.
A relative newcomer to the town, doctor Sam Cordell (a slumming John Cassavetes) tries hard to help the befuddled local police chief, Hank Walden (John Ireland) by working the clues.
The movie is really more interested in the mental health of the doctor, who makes eyes at his daughter and worries a little too much about which guy she's dating.
The actors (read: people who owed the director money) couldn't act for their worthless lives, and the story was not one of the best I've ever seen.SPOILERS: When the father tells the girl that she shouldn't get too close to the townspeople in the beginning of the film, what the crap was he talking about?
I can't imagine what the writer of the original novel feels about this film, but I'd be scared to find out.Avoid this movie.
I know it sounds like I'm being overly negative, but if you feel that way, go ahead and watch the movie.
A vicious demonic monster rapes and murders various women in the heretofore sleepy small town of Galen.
Based on Ray Russell's novel of the same title, Incubus is all about demon rape.
And hey, John Cassavetes is in it!The film opens in a rock quarry where Mandy and her boyfriend are swimming.
While all this is going on, Tim Galen, a local teen, dreams of hooded men tying a woman down and torturing her.Dr. Sam Cordell (Cassavetes) is treating the girl and we soon learn a lot about his life.
Oh yeah - and she's also dating Tim.Sheriff Hank Walden (John Ireland, whose career stretches from classics like All the King's Men and I Saw What You Did to Satan's Cheerleaders) and reporter Laura Kincaid are on the case too, which expands when a librarian is killed and murdered.
If you're thinking this is a totally scummy storyline, well, buckle up.The rapes and murders continue and every single time, young Tim is having the dream while they happen, including an attack at a movie theater where he's gone to try and distract himself.
I warned you that this film was rough, didn't I?Incubus was directed by John Hough, who was behind one of my favorite movies of all time, Twins of Evil.
The film's plot follows several characters investigating horrendous rapes that are occurring in a small New England town. |
tt1519931 | Haven | A corrupt and greedy businessman, Carl Ridley (Bill Paxton), is running from the government, with his 18-year-old daughter Pippa (Agnes Bruckner) in tow. Pippa is not happy to leave her friends and comfortable life in Miami for the Cayman Islands.
Arriving in the islands, Ridley is preoccupied. Banks are rapidly closing and he must find a clean place to store his stolen money. Meanwhile, Pippa finds native Caymanian Fritz (Victor Rasuk) sleeping off a late night in her bed. He flees out the window, leaving his wallet behind. She later finds Fritz on the beach to return his wallet and befriends him, in spite of his ridiculous come-on attempts.
Fritz is yearning to show her the island, including its wild parties. But he owes money to island gang leader Richie Ritch (Raz Adoti), and when he peeks in on Pippa's father unwrapping a massive amount of cash that he had taped around his torso, Fritz begins scheming. Pippa is completely unaware that she's leading her father into even more trouble than he had in the United States.
A parallel storyline involves Shy (Orlando Bloom), a Cayman native. He is in love with Andrea (Zoë Saldaña), the daughter of his boss, Mr. Sterling, a very influential person in the island. But for an unknown reason, Andrea's brother Hammer (Anthony Mackie) despises Shy. To protect their secret affair, whenever Shy would visit Andrea at home his good friend Kimo would watch the house in case Andrea's father were to arrive. On Andrea's birthday Shy visits her house and has sex with her, but Kimo falls asleep and fails to warn Shy of Sterling's arrival. Shy escapes out the window, but not without being identified by Hammer. Later on, to avenge his sister's lost womanhood, Hammer attacks Shy with acid which leaves a permanent scar on Shy's face. Hammer is sent to jail for four months.
Physically and emotionally scarred, Shy becomes a recluse. Andrea is emotionally broken and gives in to drugs and sex. Shy has his friend Patrick, the son of Mr. Allen (Ridley's lawyer), take him to Richie's birthday party to find Andrea. Finding her in the bathroom having sex with a stranger, he runs into the front yard and vomits. She runs after him but he pushes her away knowing that she is high. Hammer sees Shy and begins to beat him up with help from his friends. Shy finally breaks free and runs down the street as Hammer curses at him, telling him to stay away.
Meanwhile, at the same party, Fritz gets pulled in to see Richie while Pippa talks to a few other white girls doing drugs. Upset after smoking some pot, she finds Fritz and demands that he take her home. Having just told Richie to go to her home to steal the cash, he instead takes her to Mr. Sterling's yacht. As they sit down inside, they find that the alarm has been set off; the police arrive shortly and arrest both of them. Pippa is taken to the police station, while Fritz is transported to a laundromat where a local cop who knows him delivers a lecture and a beating for acting disobediently throughout his life.
After his own beating, Shy obtains a gun and returns to the party to find Hammer. After firing the gun to clear out the party, he corners Hammer and explains what a mess Hammer has made of his own sister's life. He says that he will spare Hammer's life so that he can watch the trouble that he has caused in Andrea's life. Hammer replies that he would rather see Andrea become a whore than be with Shy. Enraged, Shy pulls the trigger. Shocked by what he has done, he apologizes and runs off.
Over the next few hours, Andrea asks Patrick to take her to find Shy. He is disgusted with her and kicks her out of his car, but tells her that Shy is at the docks. When she finds him, she expresses her desire to be with him, regardless of others' feelings. When he confesses to killing her brother, however, she leaves him in disgust, forgetting her shoes in her hurry.
When Allen and Ridley go to the police station the next morning, Ridley soon realizes that he has been betrayed and is taken into custody by the FBI. When Allen goes home to retrieve the money that he believes he tricked Ridley into leaving in his safe, he discovers that the bag contains only sand and a conch shell. At her own condo, Pippa discovers the million dollars under her mattress.
In the final scenes, Andrea prepares for Hammer's funeral with her father, Kimo comforts Shy's mother, and Shy sits on the dock where Andrea left him. He then gets into his boat, cuts the rope and motors away, throwing the gun into the water. | paranormal | train | wikipedia | For any individual who loved the good old classic Twilight Zone episodes, or spent hours before Marathons of X-Files, for every kid who grew up on those wonderfully imaginative Sci-Fi comic books, or embroiled themselves in an unfolding mystery - Haven is for you.
I don't have cable, so I'm not really familiar with a lot of the new shows, but after seeing this is based on the Colorado Kid story by Stephen King, and by being a fan of his work, I decided to check out the show.I came into the show late; the first episode I saw was the third episode 'Consumed' but that was enough to get me interested.
The show takes on some very interesting supernatural elements (with a lot of Stephen King references within them) and it makes for a very entertaining show.The acting is great, the writing is fun and the two leads, Emily Rose (Audrey Parker) and Lucas Bryant (Nathan Wournos) have great chemistry, while Eric Balfour (Duke) always brings a fun element to the show.
And the small harbour town, again, makes for a "small town feel" amongst the great cast of characters but also allows room for the outside to come in which can be good at the right time.
e) Having a link to Stephen King and his novel "The Colorado Kid" definitely draws in even more viewers.All in all, we need more shows like Haven!.
Emily Rose, who I really enjoyed in 'Jericho' (a show that ended before its time), performs the role of a temporarily displaced FBI agent who just might get some answers about her own unknown past from this strange little town, should she stay.
Between the mysterious tale of a small town with an otherworldly aura and the possibility that Agent Audrey Parker has discovered nuggets of her own obscure history, 'Haven' is the premise for some sort of a 'Twilight Zone' hued hit for the muggy months of summer and each episode just gets hotter!.
Because it gets better and ends in a scene that makes you want to watch more.But the best thing is the wonderful chemistry among the characters, but specially between Emily Rose and Lucas Bryant, whose characters have grown closer and definitely need each other.I'm happy SyFy gave this show a second season because I'm sure it could last more than this..
I finally pulled the Haven Disks off the Netflix queue after waiting for something else to watch now that I've finally managed to shake the 'Fringe' Hangover off.Now I wasn't expecting anything stellar-- just entertaining with a dash of the Weird & Supernatural.It started off Okay in the beginning of Season 1.
Problem 3-- No Empathy whatsoever on the part of the FBI gal for ANYONE...except herself and the half-romantic interest in her partner.Problem 4-- By episode 8, I feel like I'm watching a show about a grown-up High School Clique where the Popular Girl gets to walk around and solve problems with her rather weak, unempathetic smirk and we're supposed to cheer.Unfortunately, I was forced back into a mental comparison with Fringe.
Yes, it is beautifully set (which is why I didn't give it a 1) but the main characters are stone-like - it was impossible for me to engage with them on any level - and the stories are just silly.You get a lot of scope with SciFi so you'd think it would be hard to muck it up, but muck it up they did.
I've watched several episodes of Haven to give it time to develop.
After watching this show, every episode i might add, i have found it to be a true masterpiece of American TV drivel.The not so original plot involves a town, full of special people being accidentally found by FBi agent, (ripoff of eureka from the beginning) The plot looks like such a copy of eureka that at the beginning it even have said agent crash her car, just as jack in eureka ep1 did...They have made the story so dull by spoon feeding the plot to the audience, its might as well me a Jerry springer show, you know what going to happen, you know whose fault it probably is etc.Not to mention the actors are well, shoddy to say the least, especially when cgi is involved, they just flail around and sort of look in the general direction of things, and when driving, apparently they are driving through an obstacle coarse as the steering-wheel get practically spun half the time, and when they car is being controlled by a mystical force, they continue to steer even though they supposedly have no control?Then there is how ridiculous the story can be, such as the FBI agent going around blurting out things that no one in their real mind would say if they wanted to keep their jobs.Overall i truly cannot believe that a show like "a town called eureka" gets canceled because its not bringing in a high enough budget to line the top peoples pockets and instead we get something like this with the cheapest actors and temp writers copying other shows and spoon feeding the audience with their lack of creativity..
The premise is based on a small town in Maine called Haven, where some people get supernatural powers for unknown reasons.
When I watch most 70's and 80's TV I see wooden acting and hokey production- not as bad as 50's and 60's TV/movies, but not that much better.I wanted to like this series.
I love supernatural themes and I think the main actress, Emily Rose, is a great lead character, her fresh and sincere and yet slightly tough face compelled me to give the series another chance after the ridiculous pilot, but even watching two more episodes, nothing changed for the better.There's no character development of these extraordinary sci-fi events, so far it's been people who don't even know they're wielding some super power, and the emotional investment I have, other than in the lead character, is zilch.The premise has promise, but the execution and directing are just poorly done TV..
I started to watch Haven mostly because of the fact that it is based on a Stephen King story, and at first it's what it actually did look like.
At the moment I'm watching season 3 and wondering where it went, because it is now so much like any other TV show where the plot is not important as much as the relationship between the characters-four main characters at the moment.The plot has gone through the roof and not in a good direction,and too far, and actually, all that's keeping me watch it is the gorgeous scenery, this beautiful, splendid little town where they are filming the show, and to be honest, I am fond of the characters, so I find myself watching the show to look at the people and the set, because,like I said, it hardly makes any sense anymore, although it seems like it develops further on, it is simply going beyond believable even for a King fan.
The first three seasons defined the show well but once the fourth started everything turned a little sour and it lost the spark it once had.As a general concept Haven is new and fresh with a nice mystery thriller tone and a supernatural edge.
The fact that the town is cut off from the rest of America and most of the action is in Haven, actually enhances the appeal of the show as it gives it a personal feel and that you begin to 'know' the town and its characters.
It will be interesting to see how the second season develops, as you would hope that the series continues in the same vein and does not go too far 'out there'..Overall, a great show and watch more than just the first episode...
The first episode in the third season looks great,the visuals are very good and the acting of the entire cast looks believable.
I like the idea of Haven, it's a good premise but I've found the stories a bit uninspired.
Emily Rose's acting would be a little flat for other shows but as a character coming to Maine, and with the hints in the story about Audrey's mother, I'm guessing--the character is actually FROM Maine, so the frank talk and cool delivery is right on the money for a Maine story.
Overall, I like the characters, I find myself a little surprised and entertained by the nuances, clever jokes and dark humor--all true of Maine people.
Most of the characters remind me of people I know in this state (even though it was filmed in Nova Scotia for budgetary reasons, and does this weird thing of panning over different Maine & NS coastal villages--I've recognized a few of my hometowns--which gives the false impression that it's a bigger town than is characterized in the storyline.) For example, if crumpling a drawing of the "whole town" could destroy everyone in it, then it's not as big a town as implied by the camera angles (showing different sets of buildings and homes each time it pans over the village).
The stories stupid, the characters not interesting, poor acting and so on SInce then I wacthed an episode here and there when it appeared on Sci Fi channel.....
To understand Haven, you really have to watch and after a couple of episodes (if you're a Sci-fi fan) one is pretty much hooked.
The characters are great, the story line draws you into each episode, and the show has heart.
FBI agent Audrey Parker shows up in the small town of Haven, Maine, to discover it's not the sleepy little burg it appears at first glance.
The supernatural runs rampant, with people's uncontrollable abilities causing havoc on a weekly basis.Many episodes have the feel of a procedural cop show with a supernatural twist, although the averarching theme is that of Audrey and her companions trying to find a way to end the "Troubles."The show is based on Stephen King's short story, "The Colorado Kid," and there is a plethora of Stephen King references.
FBI agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) is sent to Haven, Maine on a case of a prison escapee.
When the show started it's 1st season, it was somewhat slow and mostly asked to be referred to IMO as 'cute' with this premise of some little town in Maine plagued with supernatural Troubles.
In 2010, the Syfy channel had an interesting idea, to take one of Stephen King's lesser known works, a rare dramatic mystery, The Colorado Kid, and turn it into a Science Fiction story.
While there are similarities to the book and other King works are referenced, the show is surprisingly original.Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) is an FBI agent, who gets a tip that one of her fugitives has been spotted in the small town of Haven Maine.
These brother show Parker some old stories from a unsolved case 25 years earlier, the murder of the Colorado Kid. Why would Audry care about it you ask, well there is a photo in the paper, showing a woman at the crime scene who could pass for her twin.With the chance to discover who she is and where she came from Parker takes a leave of absence from the FBI and joins the Haven P.D. only to discover that the town and it's people are afflicted with something known as the troubles.
These troubled people, for some unknown reason, have ailments that allow them to do the seemingly impossible, such as shape-shifting, destruction with a thought, murder by shadow, the ability to star fires, even an artist who control things simply by drawing them.Parker is paired with the towns only Detective, Nathan Wuornos (Lucas Bryant) who himself is a troubled person.
Together Parker and Wuornos investigate these troubles, trying to find out what's causing them, while at the same time, Audry tries to solve the Colorado Kid case in the hopes that she might one day find out who she is and where she comes from.This show is fantastic and it's not just about the Science Fiction mystery that I love so much.
She has always had bit parts in TV series here and there, but she's never been a star before, but when it comes to Haven she is truly the perfect one to play Audrey Parker.
She brings such a different personality to a sci-fi/cop show and the way the mystery and troubles follow her really draws the audience in.Lucas Bryant is just as interesting as we try to figure out what draws this man into this work.
Balfour plays Duke Crocker, a petty criminal and smuggler, with a terrific sense of humor, who always seems to get caught up in these troubles cases.Haven is amazing, it's just one of these addictive shows that draws you in right from the very first episode.
Season 2 was amazing though and everyone was really into their characters and the overall story had become more interesting and intense.The show is filmed in Nova Scotia, Canada but takes place storywise in Maine (they are both on the east coast and look very similar).
A friend recommended this series and I only watched the first episode of the first season.
Every episode is mostly the same with two cops solving mysteries the exact same way as before with just a pint of information about the main story line.
In fact I stayed with the series for six episodes due to I wanted to know more about the backstory but I don't know if we ever will get the answers to the questions the main character have..
Haven breathes new life into the fantasy genre with its unique blend of investigative/cop drama, mystery/suspense, and sometimes even a touch of horror.
Some people who enjoy cop dramas might like this as well, though this definitely does lean toward the supernatural/fantasy end of things it does involve a lot of problem solving via examination of crime scene evidence etc..
Maybe it was just because I haven't read the book behind this story but I think now they did pretty good job.
I'll just jump right in and say SyFy has a good series with "Haven." The main characters of FBI Agent Audrey Parker and Haven Deputy Nathan Wournos have their own quirks.
UPDATE: I've watched all the episodes in the Second Season, and so far...so good..
Episode 1 starts with the main character driving through a podunk town, and due to a freak accident, she has a run in with a local police officer.
At first glance, Haven seems like a potentially good new series from Syfy.
Whether it is a tidbit of information about Audrey's mother, a strained interaction between Nathan and his father, the mysteriously combative relationship between Duke and Nathan (possibly my favorite) or "the troubles", every episode has offered some small insight.
It hints at "the troubles" being so ingrained into this small towns history that while disturbing to the residents, they are not outside of the realm of possibilities.So far there have been 7 episodes which undoubtedly follow the monster of the week formula, but this is not uncommon in a first season while a series is setting up long term story arcs, and I must admit, while the formula may be well worn, the writers have been pretty creative with the monsters :) I can think of so many other Syfy series that followed a similar path while setting up their worlds.
There was never that "down" or "filler" episode.If you like shows such as the X-files, Supernatural, and Fringe, then you will love Haven..
Fortunately for us the small town of Haven is filled with strange and interesting people, at least one of whom is endowed with a strange power - watch on for the denouement of episode 1!
Haven is not the new Supernatural (which might be a good thing, considering the last two seasons), but as things are now, it doesn't try to be..
I just don't like Nathan and Audrey's chemistry and wish that they never had those 2 characters fall in love.
I think he is a great character and almost want to keep watching the show just to see where his storyline goes.
I don't know though....I think Season 4 of Haven is a mistake so far and almost wish that it ended at season 3.By the way....why has no one mentioned the Colorado Kid yet?
All three characters have their own issues and each one has their own trouble.What makes this show interesting and continually entertaining for me is it doesn't rely on the overall mystery to keep things moving.
Sometimes those take multiple episodes but they don't wait a full season to tell you who is who, but they may withhold why or what a particular person is doing in Haven but they try and provide a little info.
During this time, we - the fandom - fought over who was the hero and who was better for Audrey, if Nathan or Duke, about who and how would end the troubles...
Some episodes were interesting, but the overall story arch takes wayyyyy too long to manifest and the direction it goes was just boring.The series is based on "the troubles", or inherited supernatural abilities that are difficult for people to control and often dangerous.
You hope against hope for Audrey to return to Nathan for good and instead they had her come back as a different personality with the lame excuse given by the character Vincent that she wanted her and Nathan to fall in love all over again.
If they keep the focus on the troubles, the supporting characters and Duke and avoid the disgusting, most annoying couple Audrey-Nathan i think the rest of the season will run smoothly.
Great plot concept, bad protagonists, interesting supporting characters and awful romance(audrey-nathan), thus a 7.. |
tt0316188 | Raising Victor Vargas | Victor is a teenager growing up in the Lower East Side of New York City. He is a cocky young man, very sure of himself in his love life. He lives in a small apartment with his strict grandmother, bratty sister Vicki, and his younger brother Nino, who is just coming into his own sexuality and looks up to his girl-crazy brother highly.
At the beginning of the film, Victor is found in the bedroom of Fat Donna, a girl that many in the neighborhood consider overweight. Word quickly spreads throughout the community amongst his friends, although Victor continuously denies it happened. As this is a huge threat to his reputation, he sets his sights on the beautiful girl of the neighborhood, Judy.
Judy is a good-looking young woman who is continuously hit on by men in her neighborhood, which makes her very cautious in who she chooses in terms of her love life. When Victor comes on to her, she lies, telling him she has a man. When Victor finds out this isn't true, he enlists the help of Judy's little brother Carlos, on the condition that Victor introduce him to Victor's sister Vicki, who Carlos is attracted to. Judy ultimately says yes to Victor's advances to keep her safe from the other boys that harass and follow her constantly.
During this time, Carlos has a crush on Vicki. We also see Judy's friend Melonie and her romantic dealings with Harold, Victor's friend. Their romance ultimately results in their sleeping together, and Melonie reveals to Harold the real reasons why Judy agreed to go out with Victor. Harold tells Victor, who goes to confront Judy. When Victor invites her over to dinner at his house, she believes he's doing so to impress his family and better his reputation. Things go wrong when Victor's grandmother recognizes the lipstick on the glass from Judy's earlier visit to their apartment, and becomes irate. Judy leaves, the grandmother tells Victor if he goes after the girl that she will change the locks. He goes after her, of course. Ultimately, they decide to stay together, with Victor saying that he invited her to see his family to see who he really is. When Victor returns to his apartment, the grandmother has not kicked him out. He makes peace with her, and the family is able to come together with a greater understanding of each other as individuals, and as a family unit. | romantic, humor, realism | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0025458 | The Man on the Flying Trapeze | Ambrose Wolfinger works as a "memory expert" for a manufacturing company's president; he keeps files of details about all the people President Malloy (Oscar Apfel) meets with, so that Malloy will never be embarrassed about not remembering things when meeting with them. Ambrose supports himself, his shrewish wife Leona (Kathleen Howard), his loving daughter Hope (from a previous marriage; played by Mary Brian), his freeloading brother-in-law Claude (Grady Sutton), and his abusive mother-in-law Cordelia (Vera Lewis).
At the start of the film, two burglars, played by Tammany Young and Walter Brennan, break into Ambrose's cellar late at night, get drunk on his homemade applejack, and start singing "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away"; Ambrose is forced to handle the situation, and he winds up being arrested for distilling liquor without a license. This is done on the order of the night court judge hearing the case. He forgets about dealing with the burglars. While on the way to the night court Ambrose talks about the wrestling match scheduled for that day and demonstrates an "unbreakable" hold on the neighborhood watch policeman who arrested the burglars. The policeman throws him into the street. When he asks Ambrose if he hurt him, Ambrose asks him how someone could be hurt by being dropped on his head.
The next day, Ambrose falsely tells Malloy that Cordelia had died from drinking poisoned liquor, and asks for the afternoon off to attend the funeral; in fact, he wants to go to see the big wrestling match. Malloy, touched by Ambrose's tale, lets him go for the day, and Ambrose's immediate supervisor, Mr. Peabody (Lucien Littlefield), tells all the other employees the tragic news so they can pay their respects to the family. In fact, Ambrose does not explicitly say that his mother-in-law died from poisoned liquor. Rather, when his employer asks him how she died, he begins to improvise a story. He says she was taken with a "chill" and that he poured her a drink. Then Malloy interrupts him and, assuming it was the liquor that killed her, says excitedly that he has read in the paper recently of many instances of people dying from poisoned liquor. Ambrose is too timid to contradict him.
Throughout that day, Ambrose has one problem after another: He has encounters with ticket-writing policemen and cars that are parked too close to his; he finds himself chasing a tire along railroad tracks and narrowly avoids getting hit by an electric interurban car; and while trying to get into the wrestling arena (Claude had stolen his ticket earlier), he gets knocked down by a wrestler who is thrown out of the building by his opponent.
Later that day, Ambrose comes home to find that Cordelia and Leona are furious about seeing Cordelia's obituary in the newspaper and receiving a huge amount of flowers, sympathy cards, and funeral wreaths. Claude sees Ambrose sprawled on the sidewalk after he is knocked over by a wrestler. Ambrose's secretary, who had been in the wrestling match audience (she said her mother is a friend of the contender, a Turk named Hookalaka Meshobbab) is bent over him expressing her concern over his injury. When Claude returns home ahead of Ambrose, he falsely tell his mother and his sister that he saw Ambrose and the secretary "drunk in the gutter". Furthermore, Peabody calls to say that Ambrose is fired because of his deception. Ambrose, who has been meek and mild through the entire film, finally has had enough, and in a rare moment of overt violence for Fields' characters, knocks Claude unconscious, and frightens his wife and mother-in-law into hiding. The angry Ambrose wants to beat them also ("I'll knock 'em for a row of lib-labs"), but soon he and his daughter leave the house to go live elsewhere.
Later, Malloy demands that Peabody rehire Ambrose because no one else can figure out Wolfinger's filing system; Hope answers the telephone, and says (falsely) that Ambrose has a better offer from another company. After some bargaining, Ambrose is rehired with a huge raise in pay and four weeks' vacation. Meanwhile, Leona realizes that she still loves Ambrose, scolds Claude for his laziness, and stands up to her disagreeable mother.
The film ends with Ambrose taking the family for a ride in his new car. Hope and Leona ride inside the car with him, while Claude and Cordelia ride in the rumble seat during a heavy rain. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | A Singing Popeye Cartoon.
This is an unusual Popeye cartoon in that 98 percent of the dialog is sung - and all of it one song: "The Daring Young Man On The Flying Trepeze." It gets to be a little much after awhile and I'm glad this sort of thing wasn't the normal fare.
In fact, I don't if it ever was done again in a Popeye animated short.
You can't use any verbal jokes or add to the story when all you are doing is repeating verses of the same song over and over.However, the sight gags are very good in the beginning before the "trapeze song" took over, as Popeye sails an ocean liner through the dock and down the main street of a big city, right to Olive's house.
We also see something else unique (at least, I've never seen her): what looks to be Olive Oyl's mom.
It's a shorter, fatter and older version of Olive.
She sings to Popeye that Olive has run off with the "man in the flying...."Fortunately, the circus is right across the street so Popeye takes a bunch of nearby street kids to the tent, watches the big musclebound guy on the trapeze swing a terrified Oliver around like a wet towel, and then goes to get his girl.
The ending is funny and unexpected.
Olive really took her lumps in this episode!.
Popeye at the circus.
Dave Fleischer was responsible for many gems.
Ones that were amusing and charming, though over-cuteness did come through in some efforts and the stories were always pretty thin, with appealing characters, outstanding music and visuals that were inventive and with innovative animation techniques.'The Man on the Flying Trapeze' is not quite one of the best Popeye cartoons to me.
It is extremely well done though and has a lot going for it.
Have always enjoyed many of the Popeye cartoons a good deal and like Popeye very much, Fleischer's efforts were always well animated and scored with lots of entertainment value and great chemistry between the characters.
'The Man on the Flying Trapeze' has much of what makes the Popeye series so appealing in its prime era and does nothing to waste the three main characters or make them less interesting.
Bluto is missed but Wimpy works well here.The story is an interesting and beautifully paced one, never being dull, if formulaic (not uncommon with the Popeye cartoons).
The material make it even more entertaining, 'The Man on the Flying Trapeze' is non-stop fast-paced fun, avoiding the trap of repetition.
It has to be said though that the titular character is a bland one and the one exception to the animation being good, unappealingly and hastily drawn.The characters are great generally, apart from the titular character.
There is a lot of energy here and the danger and excitement of the circus setting is well realised.
Popeye is always amusing and likeable and Wimpy is great support and the best character here.
The circus is like its own character too.Furthermore, the animation is beautifully drawn and with enough visual detail to not make it cluttered or static and lively and smooth movement.
The music is also outstanding, lots of merry energy and lush orchestration, adding a lot to the action and making the impact even better without being too cartoonish.
Fleischer's direction is always accomplished and his style is all over it.Voice acting is dynamic and of very good quality, Mae Questel is a good fit for Olive Oyl, the voice that most sticks in my mind for the character and who voiced her the best, but William Costello is even better.Overall, very good.
8/10 Bethany Cox. A bit of a letdown.
While "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" features a villain other than Bluto, it is a substandard cartoon of the day.
Much of this is because the title character is poorly animated and creepy looking.
Additionally, I am not a huge fan of singing in cartoons--and there's a bit too much of it for my taste.The story itself features perhaps the grandest entrance by Popeye ever.
However, after all that, he finds that Olive Oyl isn't home--she's joined the circus.
Popeye goes to investigate and finds her boss, the trapeze artist, is a bit of a Bluto-like character--so Popeye does his usual routing--taking spinach and delivering a huge butt-whipping.
All in all, a decent cartoon but just not as well made as you'd expect..
Good Short.
Man on the Flying Trapeze, The (1934) *** (out of 4) Unusual Popeye cartoon has him sailing in to ask Olive Oyl out but she's left him for the title character.
Popeye then goes to the circus to see the man and gets into a battle.
This is a rather unusual short because the majority of the dialogue comes from singing.
The songs in the film are very good and most of the charm comes from them.
There's your typical nice animation and some very good direction in the storytelling and that includes some very good fight scenes in the air.
There's also a funny sequence with a woman whom I'm guessing is Olive's mother.
we also get Wimpy as the announcer at the circus.
This isn't the best Popeye short I've seen but the strange musical numbers make it work watching..
One of the best in the series!.
William Costello (Popeye), Mae Questel (Olive Oyl).
Other characters include Wimpy, the man on the flying trapeze, three urchins, and a cat.Director: DAVE FLEISCHER.
Based on characters created by Segar.
Animators: Willard Bowsky, Dave Tendlar.
Title song revised (from an 1868 tune) by Walter O'Keefe.Copyright 29 March 1934 by Paramount Productions, Inc. A "Popeye the Sailor" cartoon.
1 reel.NOTES: One of the few Popeyes in which Bluto does not appear, his usual villainous place being here usurped by the title character.COMMENT: A delightful musical entry in the series, with Jack Mercer and company in fine voice as they reprise the title song amidst the perils of the big top.
We love the three youngsters (and the cat) whom Popeye helps into the circus.
Some wonderful sight gags ensue from this confrontation, in which Wimpy figures as ringmaster, alternately blowing a whistle (in his left hand) and eating a hamburger (in his right).This entry also provides a rousing rendition of the title song - nicely orchestrated and vocalized - which occupies just about all the film's running time, which makes this entry one of the most pleasing and must-sees of the whole series.
As usual, Olive gets the thin end of the stick.
Not only is she stretched and booted from trapeze bar to horizontal, but Popeye misses her as she plummets from the high wire.
But on the other hand, he does catch her on first bounce. |
tt0836682 | Nocturna | In the aging orphanage, the days pass very uneventfully, but the nights are something quite different; at least for Tim they are. The light reflected from the stars is the only cure for his fear of the dark.
The other kids get mad at Tim after he refuses to retrieve a ball that fell into the basement, due to the darkness. One night, the other kids steal the doorknob to the doors to the window that he has been keeping, forcing Tim to travel to the rooftop to see his favorite star. Once there, he manages to spot it, when suddenly it disappears. Unfortunately, it's not going to be the last one.
Tim also discovers a peculiar character that goes by the name of the Cat Shepherd together with his faithful cat Tobermory, the latter to become Tim's personal guardian. The Shepherd is in charge of making children sleep peacefully, but Tim is not about to go to bed. He needs his star more than anything in the world, and will do what it takes to see it shine in the night sky once again.
Tim convinces the Shepherd to take him to see Moka, the guardian of the night within the Night World and pleads for him to return the stars to the night sky. Moka pays scarce attention to the boy's pleas, so Tim asks the Cat Shepherd to take him to the Lighthouse of the Stars, where he thinks he may find the answer to the strange phenomena. Tim, the Shepherd, and Tobermory race against the clock through the streets of Nocturna, a world in which hundreds of the most diverse creatures work to create the night as we all know it. Little by little our friends will discover something strange is happening. An ominous threat, known as "The Darkness", is putting the night and the inhabitants of Nocturna in danger. In the end, it turns out that The Darkness was created through Tim's fear of the dark. After tricking the Darkness into approaching him, Tim manages to overcome his fear, defeat The Darkness, and save Nocturna. The next day, Tim surprises his friends by retrieving the ball from the basement. Impressed, they decide to play with him again. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | The stars at night are big and bright....
It's always nice to accidentally stumble upon a movie that didn't get the praise and recognition it rightly deserved in the first place.
It's even nicer when it's animated.The story starts with Tim, a night-time fearing orphan who takes great refuge with mother nature's night-lights, the stars.
After a prank by some of his fellow orphan brothers, he scrambles up onto the roof so the dark doesn't envelope him.
And this is when he notices that the stars are beginning to disappear.
But luckily for him he then meets the Cat Herder, his new found friend and ally to figuring out the mystery of the missing stars.The story itself isn't strong enough to carry you alone, but thanks to a creative world and unique artistic style that reminded me of a Tim Schafer game in ways, the movie combines all aspects of film-making to create something worth-while and memorable.At the movie's core is Nocturna; the name of the magical land that controls the night and sleep for all the little boys and girls of the world.
In this land there's a Cat Herder that is in charge of all the cats that purr you to sleep.
There's a trio of hair-dressers that give you 'bed head'.
There's even a bothersome little man who with a tiny whisper, will have you wetting your bed.
And that's just for starters.With a tried and true, but rather simple story about courage, and not being afraid of the dark at it's center, you're not really blown away by any story arc.
The delivery of it's message through imagination is the real saving grace.
Because of the art style and professional voice work, the movie will eventually rise above it's unfounded place in that big well of under-appreciated films..
Courage vs.
Dark.
After downloading this movie I am going out to buy it on DVD.
I was very pleased with it.A Spanish - french production that portrays the more than typical story of the little boy afraid of the dark.
But after you watch it you can be sure to be submerged into a childs world of spookiness and pure visual poetry.
The story unfolds as stars start disappearing.
So the boy meets the cats shepherd, whose purpose you will learn during watching this delightfull film, who will help little Tim (the boy) to go on a journey throughout the night.
As the world is being devoured by what Tim fears most.
He must struggle together to save the night.
I wouldn't say a touch of Tim Burton, but definitely this typical french and Spanish touch of Gothic visual in which nothing is straight but curvy and angled.
A very pleasant eye catcher is the architecture of buildings in this little piece of art.
It is what makes the whole ambiance plus the different light scalings and brightnesses.
This movie is mostly in a blue tone which emphasizes more the suspense of darkness.In the end it unfolds to be very predictable somehow but still a Wow for the lovers of old visual poetry as I use to call it.Reminds me of summer nights looking up in the sky and staring at the stars with a full moon and some nice mellowy clouds..
Completely entranced by Nocturna....
Nocturna is one of the best animated films I've seen, not just recently but ever.
The animation is some of the most beautiful-looking I've seen from any animated film in a while, and I say this as a huge animation fan, with colours especially that have a perfect mix of Gothic atmosphere, surrealism and warmth.
The music score is enchanting too, sparkling and adventurous, while the story is original in concept and very creative and simple with an appreciative message, the writing is is dynamic and never cheesy or stilted and the characters are both memorable and appealing, Tim is cute but never in a cloying sense, you actually do root for him.
The voice work is wonderfully professional.So all in all, a gem of a film, not just animated but of film in general.
This movie is amazing!
Animation is perfect!
You cant get enough of high quality traditional animation these days (low quality would be like Marvel animations, nick animation, most Disney sequels).
And the concept is very original!
It kind of has that dark and Gothic Burtonesque feel and style to it.
The background art is very awesomely surreal in a non to weird of a way.
Crooked alleyways, twisted buildings, curling street poles, and a beautifully colorful moonlit sky.
Wish is more well know, perhaps Disney could release it in the states.
For such an amazing movie there isn't really much about it on IMDb no pics or posters or anything.
I makes me very sad because its just an amazing movie.
T. Spanish/French cartoon movie with notable animation showing a fantastic story full of surrealist and magic elements.
Acceptable cartoon movie with enjoyable original screenplay by Adrià García, Víctor Maldonado , Teresa Vilardell and inspired by Japanese tales and Miyazaki movies .
This is an attractive and entertaining adventure in traditional animation , no ordinary computer generator .
In the aging orphanage the days pass very uneventfully , but the nights are something quite different ; at least for Tim they are .
Tim is a boy who lives at an orphanage and afraid of dark but he will have several adventures .
However , when the stars start going out in the sky he finds himself exploring the world of the night along with a new friend .
As the light reflected from the stars is the only cure for his fear of the dark .
As Tim to be aware that his favorite star has vanished , and unfortunately it's not going to be the last one and he will do what it takes to see it shine in the night sky once again .
One night his fear leads him to the rooftop , then , Tim falls off the roof but he is rescued by a weird being .
As Tim meets a particular role that goes by the name of the Cat Shepherd (voice by Imanol Arias) ; together with his sympathetic cat Tobermory , that will become Tim's personal guardian , the Shepherd is in charge of cats that watch over children , making kiddies sleep peacefully .
As Tim needs his star more than anything in the world , and he will stop at nothing to accomplish it .
Tim convinces the Shepherd to take him to see Moka , the guardian of the night , and pleads for him to return the stars to the night sky but Moka pays scarce attention to the boys pleas .
Later on , Tim asks the Cat Shepherd to take him to the Lighthouse of the stars , where he thinks he may find the answer to the strange phenomena .
Step by step our friends will discover something strange is happening and Tim is unknowingly the one behind it all .
Agreeable and charming fairy tale starred by Tim , his fellow the Cat Sheperd , Tim's best friend , and a likable cat , all of them race against the clock through the streets and jumping rooftops pursuing the rare phenomena that have made to disappear the star as well as light and to find out why .
The movie is a bizarre animation film in which our little hero , an enthusiast , passionate orphan , takes on ominous threats that are putting in danger the night and the inhabitants of Nocturna as well as encounter the vanished star .
The film shows a strange and fantastic world called ¨Nocturna¨ , plenty of Gothic and high buildings and where live hundreds of the most diverse creatures and they work to create the night as we all know it .
The film is quite amusing with emphasis on cartoon spectacle and influenced by Ghibli Studios and especially ¨Spirited away¨ by Ayao Miyazaki .
Animation production by Jose Pozo is nice , Nicolas Errera's musical score is first-rate and very spectacular .
Production by Julio Fernandez , ruling of Filmax Productions and Fantastic Factory is fine .
He has become one of the most important producers of the country .
Actually, the position of his organization responds fully to the opportunities of the European and international markets in the leisure sector, emphasizing on the fantastic genre, through Fantastic Factory and animation with Filmax Animation , to the global market on home video, television and also theatrically .
He has produced successful cartoon films as ¨El Raton Perez I and II¨ or "The Hairy Tooth Fairy", ¨Gisaku¨ , ¨El Cid : the legend¨ also directed by Jose Pozo and ¨Goomer¨, among others .
The motion picture was well directed by Adrià García and Víctor Maldonado .
The film got a great number of prizes and nominations , such as : Barcelona Film Awards 2007 Won Barcelona Film Award Best Animated Feature Adrià García Víctor Maldonado ; Goya Awards 2008 Won Goya Best Animation Film Adrià García ; and nominated Annecy International Animated Cristal Best Feature Adrià García , Víctor Maldonado ..
An underrated magical Spanish tale..
I can't believe I just discovered this movie a few days ago.
It was also hard to look for it because there was also another movie named "Nocturna." Not much is also posted about this movie in the internet but I hope this will be more known soon because it's a fantastic tale.I would disagree with one of the earlier comments which said that it's the Spanish version of Monsters Inc. because this one is quite different and is an unusual tale.
There are also some scenes in the movie which reminded me of some movies of Studio Ghibli but I would say these things that reminded me are the style of the art and the feeling you get when watching a great movie.Thus, this will definitely be in my favorite movies list and I will probably recommend this to other people because this is not what the negative comments speak of..
Mediocre, derivative, mechanistic; nothing magical or mystical about it.
This is the kind of children's movie I particularly dislike.
I can't write any spoilers, as I quite watching about about half an hour.The first 10 minutes or so make it seem as if this is going to be a very atmospheric, magical, mystical experience, but then it replaces all of that in favor of a mechanistic bureaucracy filled with clichéd characters.
Most of the characters are some version of the lovable curmudgeon -- grouchy, impatient, irritable, with a heart of gold -- or the inept, incompetent stooge.
The dialogue is trite and predictable.As some one else wrote, it is not Miyazaki.
It is, however, the Spanish version of "Monsters, Inc.".
I watched this movie last night and I didn't know anything about the movie, I was really pleasantly surprised.
The story of a young boy afraid of the dark, that lives in an orphanage and mapped the stars on the roof of the building.
He has a personal star and one night this star vanishes, in the process of finding out what the cause is of the disappearance he meets all sorts of interesting people, including the North Star.
There are plenty of laughs, at some points even an ah so that's how it works.
Our little hero is on his way to a lighthouse with the cat shepherd and ends up on a roof with a conductor, this person is responsible for all the strange noises you hear in the night.I am going to save this one for my son to watch when he is a bit older..
Great magical film that improves with each viewing and needs to be seen by anyone looking for a good film not just a good animated one.
Tim is a little boy who is afraid of the dark, but loves the stars.
Every night he drags his bed to the window so he can be watched over by his star.
One night unable to sleep he climbs to the roof of the orphanage and looks out over the city and notices that the stars, including his star, are going out.
In his frenzy to do something he falls off the roof, but is rescued by the Cat Shepherd.
The Cat Shepherd is in charge of the cats that watch over all of the children and help put them to sleep at night.
When Tim refuses to go to sleep The Cat Shepherd agrees to help Tim get to see the head of Nocturna the world of the night, who might be able to help him solve the problem of the missing stars.
This in turn becomes a journey across the night world as Tim tries to find the source of the darkness.I've seen Nocturna twice in two days and while I really liked it after the first viewing I fell even more under its spell upon the second.
This is quite simply a magical movie that improves with each viewing (I'm planning yet another viewing in the next day or so).
Trust me this is a great film.
If you've ever wondered why your hair is messed up in the morning, or who makes the noises at night, or who steal your socks this movie is for you.
As Tim goes through the night world he discovers the answers to these and other questions (which are referenced through out the movie and seeing how they are is what makes the film so much fun on multiple viewings) Its magic.Watching the film I was reminded of other films, Monsters Inc, Spirited Away, Moongirl, and a few others, but seconds after I thought that the film was like one thing I almost instantly realized that I was wrong, it maybe like these films for a moment, but in the end they are nothing like them, this is a film that creates its own unique world (which is clearly evident in its design, music and witty dialog).
This is a film that ultimately is a unique masterpiece.(If nothing else the familiarity that flashes up makes the film more special in that it makes it easier to believe that what we see happening in the film is really what happens in our world after we fall asleep).This film needs to be seen, by anyone who wants to see a good movie- not just an animated film or a kids film- just a good film.
Search this one out.And why doesn't this film appear to have a US distributor?
I had to see this as an imported region 2 DVD(Which has a super English voice cast.) This is an animated film that deserves to be seen as big as possible.
I regret not seeing it at the New York Children's Film Festival when I had the chance because the thought of seeing Tim moving through the city on the big screen is just too amazing to contemplate (It looks great on a big screen TV but on a big movie screen its probably even better)..
European Socialistc Horror Fairy Tale.
What happens when you expose hundreds of years of fairy tale storytelling to one hundred years of Socialism and 30 years of Euro Bureaucracy?
Nocturna happens, that is.
This is definitely no Studio Ghimli story, no Neverending Story, no Strings or no City of Lost Children, even if the authors do try to rip off from these movies massively.
But the sum of all these parts is way worse than any of these parts.You may also think the movie rips off from Woody Allen or Kafka, but there is great difference: The authors DO LOVE bureaucracy.
The whole Nocturna seems to work as European Union bureaucracy machinery, nothing happens by random chance, there is well respected hierarchy and little interest of solving the issues of "other departments".
No one seems to give a damn about the problems that have not been entitled to him by order from higher ranks.
In contrast to dystopia movies like Brazil this machinery is displayed as positive.
It is even more OK to have bossy boss of this machinery, who actually rules it more like a king than the CEO.
Everything is planned, even the individual revolt of Down-syndrome ugly boy is according to the plan.
(He is particularly ugly, he has not only huge hole between upper front teeth, but his upper jaw seems to be also broken, because left and right part of it seems to be animated independently.
Yuck!) There is no "evil" there, no enemy, only misunderstanding of Down-syndrome boy who created mess basically by not believing in the power of Nocturna bureaucratic machinery.
He simply has to comply, he has to find his proper place and all then goes well, the ranks of the bureaucrats may go to sleep, because after busy well managed night there must be good rest for the hordes of bureaucrats.
The next night might be horrible without their ever loving care!
Or there might be revolt of some Nocturna work union that would lead to the chaos.
We would be lost forever without The Socialist - Bureaucratic Management.I do not see why someone can see such story as amusing.
What is even more creepy is the fact that this Kafkaresque machinery is presented to the children as something positive, even if it does nothing to the solution of the problem.
We should love The System anyways!
The message is horrible and the characters are ugly.
What a piece of junk!
I'm sorry for the children that will be forced to see this grisliness.
I would definitely throw it to the garbage bin and give them almost anything from Studio Ghimli instead.
These Japanese movies are not only far superior in animation, but they do have really good and powerful stories.
Nocturna has no such qualities at all. |
tt0051383 | Auntie Mame | Patrick Dennis (Jan Handzlik), orphaned in 1928 when his father unexpectedly dies, is placed in the care of Mame Dennis (Rosalind Russell), his father's sister in Manhattan. Mame is a flamboyant, exuberant woman, who hosts frequent parties with eclectic, bohemian guests. Patrick is quickly introduced to his aunt's free-spirited and eccentric lifestyle, including Vera Charles (Coral Browne), a Broadway actress, who spends many of her nights passed out drunk in Mame's guest room, and Lindsay Woolsey (Patric Knowles), a book publisher. Mame's frequently repeated motto is "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!"
Since Patrick's father was a wealthy man at the time of his death, Patrick's inheritance comes with a trustee, Mr. Dwight Babcock (Fred Clark). Mr. Babcock disapproves of Mame's lifestyle (as did her brother, Edwin) and wants to interject decorum and discipline in Patrick's life. Mame has Patrick enrolled at a progressive school run by a friend of hers, Acacius Page (Henry Brandon). Mr. Babcock insists that Patrick be enrolled at Bixby's, a nearby boy's prep school. When he learns that Mame has not enrolled Patrick at Bixby's and then finds him at Page's school, he issues an order: Patrick is to go to St. Boniface boarding school and Mame will only see him at the holidays and during the summer, which is what his father wanted in the first place.
When Mame's investments are lost in the stock market crash of 1929, she takes a series of jobs—stage acting, telephone operator, sales girl at Macy's—that all end disastrously. At her sales job at Macy's, she meets a man named Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside (Forrest Tucker), a rich oil man from the South. He's immediately smitten with her and she falls in love with him as well, and he proposes to her on the spot in front of his family at their estate in Georgia. For their honeymoon, Beau and Mame travel around the world. Though Mame is sad about leaving Patrick, they keep in touch through letters and frequent visits during holidays. Through their correspondence, Mame gets a sense that the now-grown Patrick (Roger Smith) is growing into a stuffy, conventional man, and she worries for him. After Beau dies while they are climbing the Matterhorn, Mame comes home. Patrick surprises her by installing a dictating machine and a secretary, Agnes Gooch (Peggy Cass), for her convenience. He and her friends persuade her to write her autobiography.
Patrick and Lindsay arrange for a collaborator (and ghost writer) for Mame, Brian O'Bannion (Robin Hughes). He is initially charming and Mame is smitten; however, it soon becomes clear that O'Bannion is a hack and using Mame as a meal ticket. Mame dictates her life to Agnes and both of them are hard at work on her autobiography, while O'Bannion does nothing but eat and take advantage of Mame's generosity. One day, as he attempts to become romantic with Mame (who wants nothing to do with him at this point), Patrick walks in on them and disapproves of what he incorrectly presumes is their romantic involvement. He announces that he has a girlfriend, Gloria Upson (Joanna Barnes), and wants to bring her over to meet Mame, but he cautions Mame to act responsibly while Gloria is there. She calls him beastly and he almost leaves, but at the last minute Mame says she will do whatever he wants to make him and Gloria happy.
Patrick thanks her for agreeing to behave and leaves to bring Gloria. Meanwhile, O'Bannion insists Mame accompany him to a party to meet movie producers interested in Mame's autobiography. Mame instead dresses up the dowdy Agnes and tells O'Bannion that Agnes is an heiress merely doing secretarial work for "literary experience." O'Bannion's greed kicks in and he escorts Agnes to the party in Mame's place. When Agnes returns the next day, she is disheveled and remembers very little of her night with O'Bannion—only that she drank heavily and thinks she saw a movie with a wedding scene in it.
Patrick brings Gloria over, but Mame is horrified to see she is nothing more than a spoiled rich girl, pretentious and completely lacking in substance. Against Patrick's wishes, she goes to visit Gloria's family in a Connecticut exclusive and "restricted" community, where they express anti-Semitic views. Her parents (Lee Patrick and Willard Waterman), although outwardly friendly, are just like Gloria, and Mame finds them repulsive.
Mame arranges a dinner party at her apartment and she invites Gloria, her parents, and a few of her own eccentric friends. On the night of the party, Patrick meets Pegeen (Pippa Scott), Mame's new secretary; Agnes is now several months pregnant due to her night with O'Bannion and staying with Mame in "her friendless condition." Everything about the evening is a carefully planned disaster: the food, the drink, the furniture, and the company. Lindsay surprises the attendees with the galleys from Mame's autobiography; the ribald content leads Gloria to insult the other attendees. Patrick defends them, attacking Gloria's friends instead. In a bizarre twist, the release of the book prompts a telegram from O'Bannion demanding his collaborative efforts be rewarded and declaring that his wife, Agnes, and can substantiate his claims. The evening ends with Babcock insulting and demeaning Mame, but Mame is unfazed and responds in her typical witty manner.
Cut to several years later, where Patrick and Pegeen are now married. Patrick and Pegeen's son, Michael, wants to travel with Mame on her trip to India. The two of them wear down Patrick and Pegeen's objections, and the movie fades away as Mame tells Michael of all the wondrous sights they will see. | queer | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0072867 | I Don't Want to Be Born | Lucy (Collins) is working as a dancer in a sleazy strip joint. Her stage act includes a routine with a dwarf named Hercules (George Claydon). One night after the show, she invites Hercules into her dressing-room for a drink. He declines the drink but starts to rub Lucy's neck and shoulders. Lucy feels uncomfortable but tries to pretend nothing is happening, until Hercules makes a sudden lunge for her breasts, causing her to scream out in shock. This alerts the stage manager Tommy (John Steiner), who rushes into the dressing-room and sends Hercules unceremoniously on his way, then proceeds to make love to Lucy. Later as Lucy leaves the club she is confronted by the spurned and humiliated Hercules, who curses her with the words "You will have a baby...a monster! An evil monster conceived inside your womb! As big as I am small and possessed by the devil himself!"
Months pass and Lucy has left her stripping days behind, having moved up in the world via marriage to the wealthy Italian Gino Carlesi (Bates) and now comfortably settled in a grand Kensington townhouse. Lucy goes into hospital to give birth to the baby she is expecting. It proves to be a protracted, dangerous and painful delivery as the baby is a hefty 12-pounder. The newborn infant is handed to Lucy, and seconds later she is sporting a slashed and bleeding cheek. "He scratched me! With his sharp nails!" she exclaims in horror to her obstetrician Dr. Finch (Pleasence), who calmly explains that the baby must have been alarmed at being held too tightly.
Lucy and Gino bring the baby home and are welcomed by their efficient, no-nonsense housekeeper Mrs. Hyde (Hilary Mason). Things get off to a bad start when Mrs. Hyde goes to chuck the baby's chin, only to regret it. "The little devil bit me!" she says as she displays her crushed finger. She takes an instant dislike to the child, and is later rewarded with a dead mouse in her cup of tea. Lucy's attempts at maternal bonding are fraught with problems. She is visited by her friend Mandy (Caroline Munro) and is voicing her concerns when they are interrupted by a series of crashings from upstairs. To their horror, they find the baby in his cot but the nursery practically demolished.
Gino's sister Albana (Atkins), a nun, arrives from her convent in Italy to visit her new nephew. Immediately aware that all is not well, she invites Gino to pray with her for the baby, which results in agonising screams from the nursery. Dr. Finch is consulted, and agrees to carry out a series of tests. Lucy meanwhile finds the burdens of motherhood too much to bear alone, and employs a nurse (Janet Key) to look after the baby. After a near-miss when the nurse's head is pulled underwater while bathing the baby, matters take a deadly turn when she takes him for a walk in the park. Reaching out from his pram, he pushes her with such force that she falls, cracks her head on a lakeside rock, falls unconscious into the water and is drowned.
Lucy pays a visit Tommy at the strip club. She intimates that, given the timing of the birth, there is a chance the baby could be his. "Just ’cause you’ve got some freaky offspring you wanna pin it on me?" he asks. However his curiosity is aroused and he asks to see the "spooky kid". Once at the house he leans over to peer into the baby's cot, only to reel back with a smashed and bloody nose for his trouble. This temporarily pushes the baby up in Lucy's estimation and she gazes lovingly at him, until the face in the cot turns into that of Hercules.
One evening Gino plans a romantic night-in to take Lucy's mind off her woes. At the end of a successful evening, he goes to check on the baby, only to find the nursery empty, the window open and odd noises coming from the garden. Going out to investigate, he looks up into a tree, whereupon a noose is thrust around his neck and he is hauled into the air and hanged. His body is stuffed down a drain. The following day Lucy criss-crosses London in a frenzy trying to find her missing husband. Dr. Finch is summoned and pays an evening call to check on the baby and the distraught Lucy. After administering a powerful sedative to Lucy, he too hears strange noises. He unwisely steps out into the garden, and is decapitated with a spade(while still standing up). The trail of death continues as Lucy stumbles through the house in a groggy haze, pleading for her life to no avail as she is stabbed through the heart with a pair of scissors.
Finally galvanised into action, Albana decides that she must perform an exorcism on the baby. Brandishing a crucifix at him and incanting in Latin, she bravely persists as the room shakes and the baby tears at her vestments. Meanwhile, at the strip club Hercules is on stage, and begins to stagger around in pain. Albana finally touches the crucifix to the baby's head, and his demons are cast out at the same time as Hercules falls over dead in front of a stunned audience. | paranormal, revenge | train | wikipedia | Joan Collins (?!) plays a woman (good show) who's given birth to an "evil" child, who spends the film apparently viciously assaulting people whilst those of the religious faith find it all terribly intriguing.
The scenes of the aforementioned child attacking people are usually quite laughable, usually comprising of somebody leaning close to it, recoiling in horror clutching their cheek and moaning "It bit me!", followed by a shot of a not particularly frightening little child looking frankly bewildered at the fact that he's in a film.
And then there's Pleasence with "I thought today was going to be normal routine, I didn't think I'd be discussing mysticism with an Italian nun." And then there's the laughably bad bits, including the rather shaky ground surrounding the "Midgets are evil" thing, the most unconvincing birth scene ever, in which Joan looks more as though she's being orally pleasured than having a child, and the gratuitous stripper scenes peppered about every so often which don't serve to do anything much at all ("Am I boring you?") In fact, various scenes of steamy romance and general sauciness seem to be chucked in just to give the film a higher rating - that's the only reason I can think of for a rather touching courting scene between Joan and blank-faced husband Ralph Bates (nice accent, Ralph) being followed up by the two of them having sweaty, fumbling sex whilst the melodious seedy music that we've been subjected to throughout the entire duration reaches a new low.
Good things about this picture:Joan Collins at the height of her sexiness (confusingly playing a stripper who only disrobes in the dressing room, not on stage).Caroline Munro, ditto (here 'amusingly' dubbed by Liz Fraser).Ralph Bates as an Italian (says "Scusi" a lot).Eileen Atkins, ditto ("He is possessed by a Day-ville").Donald Pleasance ('Nuff said).The appearance of Floella Benjamin as a nurse who helps deliver the possessed tyke.Interesting music score by 'Dr.Who/Steptoe and Son' man Ron Grainer (Hawaiian guitars, synths and assorted percussion!).John Steiner as a grinning Cocker-nee club owner who manages to bed both Joan and Caroline whilst exhibiting a mouthful of the most off-putting fangs this side of Austin Powers.Lots of lovely shots of London landmarks with Capris and Minis whizzing round 'em.'Shocking' flash-cuts of a scary dwarf in a crib.Mr. Pleasance charming Eileen by demonstrating his bedside manner.A complete lack of any 'subtext' whatsoever.Bad thing: It only last 90 minutes..
Joan Collins is an ex-stripper who is cursed by a horny dwalf (little people are in league with the devil presumably) and goes on to have a baby with her Italian husband.
Unless seeing Joan Collins groped by a dwalf is high on your must-see list then this film offers nothing other than a headache and a laugh at some totally inept scripting and a nun with all the Italian authenticity of the Mario brothers..
I DON'T WANT TO BE BORN (USA: The Devil Within Her) Aspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound format: MonoA nightclub stripper (Joan Collins) is cursed by a dwarf (George Claydon) whose attentions she spurned, and she later gives birth to a murderous baby possessed by a demonic spirit.Clearly inspired by the contemporary vogue for satanic shockers, this slapdash concoction - memorably dismissed by UK journalist Nigel Burrell as a 'crapulous farrago'!
Here, his contempt for the material is obvious in the weak storyline, feeble horror scenes and lackluster staging, and his concessions to the exploitation marketplace (strippers at work, a gory decapitation, etc.) are shoehorned into proceedings with reckless abandon.Quite apart from its ridiculous premise (unlike the mutant creature in Larry Cohen's similarly-styled IT'S ALIVE, sweet little babies simply aren't frightening, no matter how much filmmakers try to make them seem otherwise!), the movie is further stymied by indifferent performances and half-baked characterizations: Collins runs the gamut from A to B and back again, Donald Pleasence provides little more than marquee value as Collins' doctor, and Ralph Bates (playing the heroine's husband) is a blank slate throughout.
Hilary Mason - the blind lady in DON'T LOOK NOW (1973) - plays the wary housekeeper, and Eileen Atkins is Bates' sister, a nun who performs the commercially-dictated climactic exorcism.
How can you not love Joan Collins as the new mom of a baby boy possessed by the demonic spirit of a dancing dwarf?
A really bad basic idea, for starters, handling about Joan Collins giving birth to an (unusually big) baby possessed by evil and controlled by a dwarf Collins once spurned.
It's funny how Joan Collins has obtained a certain amount of respectability after having starred in MANY terrible films, such as The Bitch, Empire of the Ants and I Don't Want to Be Born.
Also, the film is relatively bloodless until the last 15 minutes which throws in a couple of nice gory murders--but it's too little too late.All that's left about this movie is some very good acting and a VERY cute-looking baby.
The script is abysmal with a vigilante nun and sundry other characters screaming " He's tha DEV-ILL " at every opportunity , some really crap acting with Ralph Bates playing an Italian with a Yiddish accent , and some dire directing with a dwarf lying in a pram .
Poor old Ralph Bates looks miserable in this movie and it's not hard to see why, it really stinks.Joan Collins plays a stripper and proves she dances as well as she acts.
Correctly deciding that she isn't cut out for being a stripper she leaves to marry her Italian lover played with a comedy accent by long-suffering Ralph.Before she goes though she gets cursed by a dwarf who she spurns.
It's almost worth it to hear Ralph Bates trying to be Italian though, it really is the worst accent I've ever heard in a movie.Dreadful from start to finish and with a supporting cast that are just ludicrous thrown in for good measure.
But then it's back to the ludicrous action with a demented dwarf, a cute but killer baby, sexy Joan Collins, Donald Pleasance maintaining his dignity, sexy but dubbed Caroline Munro, Ralph Bates with a pidgeon Italian accent, and best of all, Eileen Atkins intoning for the ages, "Your beh-bee az been pozessed by dee day-ville." This film should be a prescription for clinical depression.
Collins, a former stripper, tells her stripper friend Caroline Munro (who sadly does not strip in this film), how a midget whose sexual advances she spurned cursed her to have a monster baby.
With this crazy plot, a cast that also includes Donald Pleasence as Collins' doctor and John Steiner as a strip club owner, and a director who made a couple of smashing Hammer films, I really wanted to like this film.
Starring Joan Collins, Ralph Bates, Donald Pleasence and Eileen Atkins.
Sex, scandal, strippers and more mix in this unintentionally funny horror flick that's an absolute must for people who treasure bad genre movies.This one is in the vein of "Rosemary's Baby" and "It's Alive".
Collins does a remarkably sincere job, and is well supported by Ralph Bates, as her husband Gino, Donald Pleasence, as Dr. Finch, Caroline Munro as her sister Mandy, Eileen Atkins, as her sister-in-law Albana, Hilary Mason, as the grumpy Mrs. Hyde, John Steiner, as sleazy Tommy Morris, and George Claydon, as malevolent dwarf Hercules.
As Lucy,Joan Collins, is giving birth at the beginning of the movie to her son Nicholas Dr. Finch, Donald Pleasence, who is handling the delivery turns to one of the nurses and says in astonishment " He doesn't want to be born!".
Pretty good Exorcist/Rosemary's Baby clone with a much better cast then you would expect in a movie like this.I don't know if it was supposed to be some kind of in-joke by those making the movie or that she just couldn't pronounce the words correctly but it was really hilarious to hear Eileen Atkins, Sister Albana, who was Lucie's sister-in-law as well as the heroine in the film pronounce the words devil and baby sounding like davel and bibbie..
Story is about a woman named Lucy Carlesi (Joan Collins) who has a difficult birth to a boy and even Dr. Finch (Donald Pleasence) exclaims that "This baby doesn't want to be born".
Gino's sister is a nun named Sister Albana (Eileen Atkins) and she has a suspicion that her nephew is possessed by the devil but she keeps it quiet until its too late.This film was directed by Peter Sasdy who directed some pretty good Hammer films and made an impact as a reliable television director as well.
Sexy Caroline Munro is in the film and serves no purpose what so ever and Donald Pleasence has a very easy role where he mumbles things about everything being okay and in one scene he appears to flirt with Sister Albana!
The Devil Within Her (1975)* (out of 4)Lucy (Joan Collins) and her husband Gino (Ralph Bates) welcome a new baby boy but right from the start they can tell there's something not quite right with him.
Their doctor (Donald Pleasence) isn't sure what's the cause of his super strength and violent outbursts but before long Lucy fears it might have something to do with the dwarf that put a curse on her.THE DEVIL WITHIN HER was the AIP title given to this film, which was originally made as I DON'T WANT TO BE BORN.
Making the mother believe that the baby is possessed by the devil, which a dwarf she used to work with - had cursed this evil spawn onto her.This newborn has the strength of a thousand man, although looking at it; it probably doesn't know that.
Combination "Rosemary's Baby"/"The Exorcist"/"It's Alive" rubbish from the UK, released there as "I Don't Want To Be Born", is an absolutely ridiculous occult thriller without one single redeeming attribute (apart from the camp factor, as well as a devilish dwarf who pops up dressed like a court jester).
Since the film utilizes the services of several Hammer veterans (Sasdy, Joan Collins, Ralph Bates, Caroline Munro), it can be mistaken for one of their productions; genre regulars Donald Pleasence and John Steiner (in a rare appearance in a non-Italian film) are also featured but the acting honors are stolen from 'newcomer' Eileen Atkins (as the exorcising nun!).
The seedy atmosphere of British night-life is well-captured as Collins – playing an ex-stripper who marries Italian businessman Bates(!) – is cursed when she rejects the sexual advances of the dwarf who performs with her in the cabaret shows!!; frankly, it was quite disappointing to find that it was his evil spirit that possessed Collins' child as opposed to Satan (or one of his minions)...especially since the sinful dwarf is still alive at the time!
It was a nice surprise to see Donald Pleasance as the Doctor.This could actually be re-done and made quiet scary given a good director and better actors.It's definitely worth a late night watch on cable.There was a lot of nudity (including Joan Collins) and bad wigs throughout.
Sure enough, nine months after her marriage to Italian businessman Gino Carlesi (Ralph Bates), Lucy becomes the frightened mother of a 12lb terror called Nicholas, who proceeds to menace those around him.Let's be honest, if the man delivering your baby is creepy horror legend Donald Pleasance, something sinister is bound to happen, and it sure does for Mr & Mrs Carlesi: their new arrival wrecks his nursery, bumps off his nurse, and then sets his wicked sights on parents and doctor.
And, yes, this British cross between The Exorcist and It's Alive is as hilariously bad as it sounds, director Peter Sasdy bringing us one uproariously daft moment after another, making it a delight for fans of bad movies.Here's a quick rundown of some of the treats in store for viewers of this trash:Play School's Floella Benjamin as a nurse in the hilarious opening scene in which it looks like Collins is having an orgasm, not a baby.Bates' terrible Italian accent, which incredibly, is still better than that of Eileen Atkins, who plays his sister, Sister Albana ("Lucy believes that baby is possessed by the day-vil").Some lousy parallel parking by Gino and strip club manager Tommy (John Steiner).The attempted drowning of the nurse in the bath and her eventual demise in a lake.The wide eyed gurgling baby transforming into the evil dwarf before Lucy's very eyes (poor George Claydon wearing a yellow baby-grow and grinning maniacally).Grumpy housekeeper Mrs. Hyde (Hilary Mason) finding a dead mouse in her cup of tea.The baby snickering like cartoon dog Muttley before dropping a noose around Gino's neck (hey, the kid can tie knots as well-not bad for a newborn).Tommy getting a bunch of fives in the face from the baby.Nicky lopping off Donald Pleasance's head with a spade.And as if that wasn't enough to keep you entertained, we also get a considerable amount of T&A to help pass the time, with brief flashes of boobs and butt from Joan (who also sports sexy underwear), Hammer babe Caroline Munro in a basque, stockings and suspenders, and full frontal from a stripper auditioning for sleazebag Tommy.7/10.
Yet here it is - screaming in your face, full of bad accents and horrible sex scenes, so earnest that it makes you want to believe that you can't help but hold it tight and tell it that yes, everything will be OK.Directed by Peter Sasdy, who also brought us Taste the Blood of Dracula, the Ingrid Pitt starring Countess Dracula, Hands of the Ripper, Welcome to Blood City and, of course, The Lonely Lady, this is probably the only film you'll ever witness where Joan Collins and a little person engage in occult warfare.Lucy (the lovely Ms. Collins) is a dancer and not the kind that does modern or ballet.
As big as I am small and possessed by the devil himself!"If you didn't say, "Holy William Peter Blatty, I am all in," after the above paragraph, you have no soul and no sense of what makes a horrible movie worth watching.Months pass and Lucy has given up the exotic dancing lifestyle, settling down with wealthy Gino (Ralph Bates, The Horror of Frankenstein and Lust for a Vampire), who has set her up in a fancy townhouse.
Tell that to housekeeper Mrs. Hyde (Hilary Mason, Don't Look Now and Dolls) when the baby almost bites off her finger!The baby just won't get along with anyone, a fact that Lucy relates to her galpal Mandy (Caroline Munro, livening up the proceedings) and Gino's sister Albana (Eileen Atkins, a British stage star who deserves way better), a nun.
A popular (or at least ubiquitous) title on home video, The Devil Within Her (also known as I Don't Want to Be Born and, less commonly, Sharon's Baby) stars Joan Collins as Lucy, a new mother who soon discovers that her sprog is
not normal.
Considering the film was directed by Peter Sasdy (also responsible for superior Hammer chiller Hands of the Ripper, as well as sci-fi classic Doomwatch), this should be a better film than it actually is, but with Collins headlining and Ralph Bates, Caroline Munro, and Donald Pleasence co-starring, horror fans will still want to scope it out.
It kicks off with Lucy (Joan Collins) sweating and rolling her eyes as she gives birth to a baby that, as Donald Pleasance mumbles in his usual coasting fashion, doesn't want to be born.
Add endless travelogue footage of London shopping streets, a little gratuitous T&A in the strip club, Caroline Munro, plenty of absent-minded mumbling from Donald Pleasance and ***ARGUABLY A SPOILER*** a shot of Ralph Bates with green make-up and rolled-back eyes wearing a nun's habit and you have a film every bit as compelling as, say, Tower of Evil.
Joan Collins, a nun, a dwarf, and a very angry baby....
Joan Collins (as Lucy) is an erotic dancer who rebuffs the advances of her dwarf co-star and is cursed to have the Devil's baby.
There's a lot scratched faces, a lot of shrieking music that promises more scares than the movie delivers, a lot of bad car parking by Ralph Bates, a nun played by the great Elieen Atkins, and a poorly utilized Donald Pleasence.
Lying uncomfortably between barely watchable and so-bad-it's-good comes The Monster aka I Don't Want To Be Born aka The Devil Within Her. A British rip-off of Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist and many others.
This has a good cast with (a still looking good at 42) Joan Collins, Ralph Bates, Donald Pleasance and horror-eye-candy stalwart Caroline Munro.
Collins plays an ex-stripper, now married to Italian Ralph Bates and the film starts with Collins going through a difficult child birth, or so we're meant to think.
Anyway Ralph Bates' nun sister arrives, sporting silly accent and working at an animal testing laboratory (!), and thinks Collins' suspicions of possession is probably right.
"I Don't Want to Be Born" (aka "The Devil Within Her"), clearly shows the influence of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist", although the film to which it bears the greatest resemblance, in terms of its story, is "The Omen".
The said dwarf is employed by the nightclub to prance around on stage while the girls are performing, although it is never explained why the club owner assumed that this bizarre diversion would increase the erotic allure of their performances.Although the film contains some well-known British actors of the period, including Donald Pleasence, Eileen Atkins, Caroline Munro and Ralph Bates, none of them bring much conviction to their roles.
I don't want to born opens in a hospital delivery room where mum to be Lucy Carlesi (Joan Collins) is giving birth.
Add Ginos sister, a nun from Italy sister Albana (Eileen Atkins), extremely worried babysitters, Dr Finch constantly trying to explain the baby's problems through medical reasoning, bizarre deaths, an exorcism and we have the mid 70's horror I don't want to be born! |
tt0077525 | Like Father, Like Son | Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman who is focused so much on work that he neglects his wife, Midori, and son, Keita. Upon his return home one day, Midori tells him that the hospital where Keita was born needs to speak to them urgently, and Ryota senses trouble. After arriving at the hospital, the couple learns that their biological son Ryusei was switched with Keita after birth, and after DNA tests prove the error, they must now make a life-changing decision to either keep Keita, the boy they raised as their own son, or switch him for their biological son.
Ryota and Midori soon meet with the other couple, Yukari and Yudai Saiki, small town folks who lack the money and drive that Ryota possess, but have a better understanding of the importance of child and parent bonds. They share photos, and for the first time, Ryota and Midori see their biological son, Ryusei. After several meetings, they decide to switch children for one Saturday, which goes relatively well for both considering the tense situation. After several more meetings, they finally decide to exchange children. All four parents have difficulty accepting the loss of their previous sons, and the absence of the parents they used to know causes both boys to shut down emotionally, culminating in Ryusei running away from the Nonomiya's home and returning to the Saiki's. Ryota picks up Ryusei and brings him back home.
Ryota and Midori begin to bond with Ryusei, who is also warming up to them. However, while going through the photos on his camera, Ryota discovers a cache of photos of him, mostly sleeping, that Keita took, and he breaks down crying. The three return to the Saiki family so Ryota, who has now understood the errors of his ways, can see Keita, but Keita runs away from him. While following him, he apologizes to Keita, and the two make amends. The film ends with the two returning to the Saiki's, and both families entering the home. | cruelty, murder, violence, cult, flashback, romantic, tragedy, revenge, sadist | train | wikipedia | Three minutes of non-stop violence, no dialog (not that it needs any), the infamous "urinal scene" and all accompanied by a VERY catchy little song about being in love?!
Finally I get to see The Executioner, on a Danish-subtitled bootleg of all things (and FYI I guess certain bad words don't translate well into Danish; ha ha) and I'm just blown away.
Not that it matters, I was still very very entertained and find Duke Mitchell completely fascinating.
He's gotta be THE sleaziest non-porno person I've EVER seen on screen and was apparently a lounge singer prior to making the film; he contributes some unbelievably schmaltzy tunes to the soundtrack too.
And while you're at it maybe write a biography of Duke Mitchell too!.
Much time is spent on dinner conversation, wherein gut-busting hilarious dialog is delivered with little motivation(one memorably clamarous censure involving an old lady's hands is a howler of awkwardly earnest sentiment).
Add to that a heaping helping of very nasty gun violence, and you've got yourself one totally screwball, and, despite itself, extremely entertaining schlock film(with a few genuinely poignant moments).Spectacularly awful in the all best ways, and presented with out-and-out seriousness, this sacrosanct spectacle is well worth a hunt...capice?
Just saw this movie and I gotta say it was a pretty fun hour and a half of goomba gore and senseless mafia shananagins.
And although it's a little incoherent at times, overall it's not a bad B movie.
If you're looking for an Oscar winning mafia film like the "Godfather", "Casino" or "Goodfellas" then "Fah git about it" but if you enjoy movies that inspired writers and directors like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez to make their own films then you'll dig this one.
After all who doesn't enjoy a senselessly violent B movie with questionable acting and naked broads once in a while...I know I do..
We gave her dishonor!" So says the hero, actor/writer/director/producer Duke Mitchell of his sainted paisan grandma in MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE, the greatest of all forgotten American grindhouse movies of the nineties.
Let's just say that the movie opens with a paraplegic being electrocuted using a desk lamp and an office urinal; soars ahead to a scene where a black pimp is crucified while the L.A. Philharmonic plays Handel's Messiah at the Hollywood Bowl; and climaxes with the remorseful hero saying, "The Italian wasn't disgraced, Chucky--we disgraced it!" Somewhere, Jade Stallone, son of the great man and proprietor of Grindhouse Releasing, has Duke Mitchell's final masterwork, GONE WITH THE POPE, discovered in Duke's bedroom closet after his demise.
And, God be prasied, some day bring MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE--a bootleg favorite--to the public's eye.
You Certainly Won't Forget This One. Massacre Mafia Style (1978) ** (out of 4)Duke Mitchell's middle finger to THE GODFATHER has him playing a mafia guy who goes to America to get in on all the action but soon realizes that things have changed since his father was running the business.
MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE has become a cult classic over the years and it's very easy to see why.
The movie opens up with a couple mafia guys walking through a packed office and just blasting people away.
There's a part where four or five men are just lined up and the mafia guys go through them one at a time.
This entire sequence is without question one of the funniest moments you're ever going to witness in a film that isn't a comedy.
With that said, the entire message that Mitchell is trying to give off is rather ridiculous and especially towards the end when he goes on a "sad" rant to his father about how the times have changed.
The performances are all pretty bad and that includes Mitchell but you've still got to love his work because he's trying so hard.
Here recently a lot of movies are purposely made bad so that they can try and gain some cult attention.
I think the key to great cult movies like this, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and even THE ROOM is that the filmmakers really did try to do something "serious" but it just didn't work.
From the laughable dialogue to the questionable screenplay to the wild violence, nothing here works except for those who love bad movies..
Duke Mitchell's THE EXECUTIONER looks like it was shot for fifty bucks over a long weekend.
Required viewing for lovers of truly bad movies.
long time no see," "Cut another slice," and "Makin' these jive-ass superhuman movies, super human this, super human that" voiced by people who are clearly not actors.
Hopefully, someone will release it on DVD so I can watch Duke Mitchell and his buddy Vic Caesar in all their glory..
The Executioner is quite possibly the greatest film to be put out in the last 100 years.
This movie tour-de-force was directed, produced, and starring Duke Mitchell.
The opening sequence of "Massacre Mafia Style" is truly unforgettable.Two cold-blooded mafia executioners stroll into a Los Angeles office and after electrocuting some poor chap in the bathroom urinal they shoot to death everybody in sight.The film follows the exploits of Mini(Duke Mitchell),son of a once great Sicilian mobster,who returns to America after his fathers exile to reclaim his families name as a top crime enforcer.What follows is a mafioso rise and fall awashed with blood and suffering.Mini never actually rises.He is just a mechanical killer,who has enough balls to start mob war.This sleazy and extremely violent mafia thriller truly deserves to be called a cult classic.9 out of 10..
The story takes into account the rise of XXX pornography, as the main character in The Executioner considers entering into the porn industry as its taking off with the success of Deep Throat, which kind of connects the film's violent content to sex, both prime exploitation ingredients.
As a 70s exploitation film, The Executioner has too much of the downside and not enough of the upside that that term carries with it.
Still, for fans of borderline bad movies, it may not be a total disappointment..
Breaking Bread With Duke Mitchell.
A truly Personalized, Visionary Style emanates from the Id of Writer/Director/Producer/Actor/Singer/Lounge Performer, Duke Mitchell.
This Movie one of two He helm-ed, the other Gone With the Pope (that was shot but not edited before His death) finished by Fans and Friends and finally released.The Thing is, like Ed Wood, Duke Mitchell had much more Energy and Aspirations than Talent.
Performing as a Martin and Lewis Rip-Off with Sammy Partillo that was stopped by a Lawsuit before it could cause much Damage, singing at a Lounge in Palm Springs, and making Movies.This one is a sight to behold and Fans of Grindhouse, Bad Movies, and Inept over the top Fun Films, have touted this very Personal Film as an Underground Masterpiece.
If any movie ever made Italians look bad, this is it.Duke Mitchell - what an A--HOLE.
Duke Mitchell, I s--t on your grave.
Seeing as practically every person gunned down in this film by the cowardly Mimi is either black or of some other racial or ethnic minority, it's hard not to become convinced that the guy ultimately owes his allegiance to the Ku Klux Klan or skinheads.
Awww, but he doesn't shoot the little black kid in the elevator in the opening sequence, so that means he can't be all bad, right?
Typical softheaded sentimental tripe.While I do understand why some people might be struck by and even, to a certain extent, admire the film's audacious, totally un-PC verve (it's certainly unashamed of its own hatefulness and sense of self-involvement), this doesn't change the fact that the main character, Mimi (and, by extension, Duke Mitchell), is thoroughly loathsome human being who earns not one iota of empathy or interest, especially given that Duke Mitchell is such a COMPLETE BORE as a performer.
But what do you expect from a guy whose main claim to fame (apart from this dog t--d of a movie) was being a second rate Dean Martin imitator?.
This mega cheapo budget film has all of the plot devices of The Godfather and none of the acting, directing, writing, cinematography, special effects, choreography, camera work, or general feeling.
The only black man in the film is called Super Spook!!!!!
When a mob boss is kidnapped his finger his cut off and mailed home with a ransom note, a friend upon reading the note and seeing the thumb utters the stupid line "That's Chucky's thumb all right, I've seen it on him a million times" A THUMB!!!!!
Massacre Mafia Style- Better than The Godfather -even today.
More than living up to both its name and reputation, Massacre Mafia Style opens with two tough guys played by Vic Caesar and the film's director Duke Mitchell electrocuting a wheelchair bound mob boss in a urinal.
Just for the hell of it they also shoot everyone who happens to be in the same building at the time, and I do mean everyone, office workers, secretaries, even the cleaners, all of which is scored to a Dean Martin-like song about being in love.It transpires that Mitchell's character, nicknamed 'Mimi', is the son of a mob boss who wants revenge on the American Mafia for exiling his old man 16 years earlier.
Teaming up with buddy Vic to form "a small army of guts, balls and trust", in order to raise cash they kidnap a mobster and demand a ransom, sending his thumb through the post to show they mean business ("That's Chucky's thumb all right, I've seen it on him a million times").
The pair also make money by shooting porno films on a boat, a subplot that seems to be a sly reference to a certain Italian family's involvement in porno smash hit Deep Throat.
To say that Vic n' Duke's exploits are action filled is putting it mildly, they go on to impale a gangster on a meat hook (which comes out of his eye!), crucify a black pimp on Easter Sunday, as well as numerous reprises of the 'Vic and Duke shoot everyone and their barber' opening.
A particularly hilarious moment occurs when during a montage of people being gunned down we cut to someone minding their own business reading a newspaper (headline "13 LA Bookmakers and Procurers slain!") who is then also shot, presumably making it 14 LA Bookmakers and Procurers slain.To give a bit of background on Director/Lead man Mitchell, he had began his career as a singer, Americanizing his real name Dominic Miceli to Duke Mitchell, then teamed up with comedian Sammy Petrillo to form an act that was errr not dissimilar to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis'.
The duo were immortalized on screen in the career end Lugosi vehicle "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla", though by the time he made Massacre Mafia Style, Mitchell looked less like Dean Martin and instead bears a curious resemblance to the notorious Porn/Broadway actor Zebedy Colt.
Mitchell wasn't a bad actor actually, and equally shifty and violent on screen one of the films main strengths is his no nonsense persona.
Suffice to say, after seeing the film, you probably wouldn't want to spill Duke Mitchell's drink.Making up for its lack of professionalism (as well as a sneaky sense of family members/buddies being passed off as cast members), with admirable low budget energy.
There are even moments that take Massacre Mafia Style from simply being a blood and guts B-Movie into something more personal.
We gave her dishonor!" and the back story about his father's impoverished beginnings in America in which he even lends his own Miceli/Mitchell names to the character.
Mitchell also made a follow up called Gone with the Pope, which has never been released though a trailer for it has surfaced on the internet.
Do try and watch it, given the premise (Duke kidnaps the Pope), a scene where Duke gets it on with massively obese woman, and THAT opening line of the trailer its looks as if may even outdo Massacre Mafia Style for outrageousness..
First off, this movie has the greatest opening ever!
Duke Mitchell's wrote, directed and starred in this mafia classic.
Mitchell is mostly know for his pairing in comedy group where he was the Dean Martinish character.
He appeared as this character in the horrible B-film Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla.
A must see for those who love films so bad, they're good.But The Executioner (aka.
Massacre Mafia Style) isn't a horrible film that is good.
And ultimately, the story is a tragedy.The son of a mafia boss (Who was exiled from America) returns to California, to reclaim his family's honor and position in America.
"The Executioner" a.k.a "Massacre Mafia Style" – which obviously is a much more apt title – was promoted to me by fellow genre fanatics as THE ultimate must-see cult exploitation classic of the seventies.
Not because this is such a great movie, quite the contrary in fact, but the least you can say is that "Massacre Mafia Style" is truly a unique accomplishment and definitely unequaled in terms of ineptitude and entertainment value.
This is somewhat the one man project of a good old pal named Duke Mitchell.
Duke produced, wrote the screenplay, composed the soundtrack, sat in the director's chair and depicted the anti-heroic lead character in this unsung grindhouse variation on the immensely popular "The Godfather".
Duke Mitchell was a godfather, all right
The godfather of absurdity and sheer incompetence!
The film is a non-stop series of pointless shotgun assassinations (the craziest you'll ever see), altered with incredibly overlong and wannabe philosophical monologues about how traditional Italian families in America are dishonored by the mafia's vicious reputation ("you see this old woman's hands?
Mitchell's character Mimi Miceli returns to the US, many years after his father got exiled.
The opening sequences of "Massacre Mafia Style" are legendary, with Duke Mitchell and his buddy Vic Caesar strolling around an office building and liquidating everyone in sight (including secretaries, black guys with immense Afros and a crippled man in a wheelchair) to the tunes of a cheerful Italian party song.
This scene as well as all the other massacres in the film, are supposed to be extremely violent and nihilistic, but they're actually downright hilarious and the complete opposite of shocking.
The poor people who volunteered to appear in this mess of a movie are just standing around, not looking the least bit surprised by the sounds of screaming and heavy shotgun fire, waiting to be killed next to the elevator or behind their desk, and the next shot shows their exaggeratedly bloodied body.
I have a lot of admiration and respect for Duke Mitchell, because he made this movie even though he probably realized himself that it is spectacularly awful in all possible departments, but I can only recommend this to a very limited number of people.
Just like Godfather minus the cast, writing, acting, cinematography, or plot..
It took me a long time to track this film down, but boy oh boy was the end result worth it.
The all around best part about this cinematic journey would have to be the fact that you can second guess every even in the movie right before it happens.
Duke Mitchell's uniquely crazed virtual one man cinematic show celebrates Italian life, culture, honor, and tradition pertaining to that legendary organized crime institution the Mafia with a joyously crude micro-budget vigor and vulgarity that's truly something to behold.
Sure, this tale of ruthless mobster Mimi Miceli's rise to power through the most brutish means possible might be incredibly inept, but star/writer/director/producer Mitchell tackles the whole thing with a genuine heartfelt sincerity that's perversely admirable in its sheer giddy audacity.
Moreover, the unapologetically upfront elements of virulent racism and misogyny give this movie's depiction of the inner workings of the Mafia a certain coarse authenticity more sanitized mainstream takes on the same subject tend to lack.Mitchell truly puts his proverbial all into the juicy lead role of a dangerous loose cannon and delivers several priceless philosophical monologues with lip-smacking gusto (the one about the Italian woman in particular is a real doozy!).
The excessive bloody violence comes through with the gory goods: An opening office building massacre sequence set to an infectiously jaunty Italian tune, a vicious pimp named Super Spook (!) gets crucified on Easter Sunday, and a guy winds up being impaled through the eye on a meat hook.
Duke Mitchell Takes on the Mob - Boredom Ensues.
Not worst in the sense of so-bad-it's-good...it's more like the least entertaining, most drawn out bore ever put to film.
In the highlight (cough) of Brooklyn Gorilla, Duke Mitchell (who, like in the Executioner, plays himself) is turned into a singing gorilla.
So, when I heard about a film which starred (and was directed by) that titular Gorilla of days gone by, and which was obviously made to cash in on the success of "The Godfather" (1972), I believed that I was in for a really hilarious evening when I finally located "The Executioner." Boy, did I ever get a wrong number.
This film is stale, stale, stale, made up almost entirely of LONG, boring conversations about how tough Duke has had it, punctuated every now and then by fake and unconvincing violence.
I guess it is a lot cheaper to have Duke drone on about his life experiences than to actually, I don't know, film them.
One major liability of the film is Duke Mitchell's acting.
If Mitchell wasn't credited on the imdb with the screenplay, I would have guessed that he was reading them for the first time from a big cue card somewhere off camera.
To give just one example, Duke has to get to the top by eliminating the "number one" Mafia leader.
Are the Mafia leader's guards vampires, or is there some more plausible reason they would not follow him into church?In short, this is an extremely dull film that is no fun at all. |
tt0031514 | Le jour se lève | Foundry worker François (Jean Gabin) shoots and kills Valentin (Jules Berry). François then locks himself in his apartment. He is soon besieged by the police, who fail in an attempt to shoot their way into the room. As they regroup to decide how to apprehend him, François begins to reminisce on how he came to be in this predicament.
Several months earlier, he had begun to date Françoise (Jacqueline Laurent), a florist's assistant. They bond over the similarities in their names and the fact that they both were orphans. François fell in love with her and hoped to marry her, but she turned him down in order to have a relationship with the older Valentin, a narcissistic, manipulative dog trainer. Embittered, François began a relationship with Clara (Arletty), Valentin's former assistant in his dog show. Over the next few weeks, Clara fell in love with François, but he preferred to have only a casual relationship with her; she knew it was because he had continued to see Françoise, with whom he was still in love. One day, Valentin told François that he was in fact Françoise's father; she was the product of a youthful dalliance. Later that afternoon, François asked Françoise if Valentin was telling the truth. She denied it, saying that Valentin habitually made up stories. But she also confessed that she was falling in love with François and wanted to be with him.
Valentin confronted François in his apartment. He admitted to having lied about being Françoise's father and brandished a gun with which he had intended to shoot François. Instead, he taunted François with allusions to his sexual encounters with Françoise. Enraged, François picked up the gun and shot Valentin.
Alone in his room and out of cigarettes, François realized he had no hope of escape. He does not know that Françoise, delirious with guilt, was now being tended to by Clara. The police decide to throw tear gas into François's room in an attempt to subdue him. But just before they do, François commits suicide by shooting himself in the heart. | tragedy, melodrama, murder, sadist, flashback | train | wikipedia | Marcel Carné movies often were visually a real pleasure to watch and this movie forms no exception on this.It's also a movie that quite heavily relies on its actors to tell its story and to deliver its great dialog, that got specially written by poet scenarist and songwriter Jacques Prévert.
There is something so lyrical about the tale of the doomed François portrayed by the great Jean Gabin that even in its hardest luck moments you feel you are watching poetry in motion.In addition, Le Jour se Leve is a character study with all the contradictions that tend to go with pained souls like François' - except that there is a further depth that renders the film quite universal, a depth made of little moments in human relationships and the flaws that gently emerge but only renders the humans involved more endearing.Still, all that glitters is not gold: the apparently pure Françoise has actually been bedded by M.
Valentin (Berry); and the police are more interested in getting their man than in saving him.The direction is precise and inspired, resorting to the then much used flashback technique but never allowing it to dominate the film.The photography - well, it is gorgeous and it gives the film its expressionistic ambiance.
Need one say more?The ending can be predicted from the moment François kills a visitor in his apartment but that aside it is a film full of cinematographic treasures, acting to gape at, and a quality of direction that is seldom seen these days.
the film opens with Jean Gabin character Francois - a factory worker- killing a dog trainer named Valentin who we find out (as the story unravels itself) was "involved" with his girl.
Francois then barricades himself from the police, and the reason for the death of Valentin is told in simple sets of flashbacks that Gabin remembers between cigarettes as he decides what his next move will be.
The story then proceeds in flashback.Marcel Carné directs this famous French film starring Jean Gabin.
A tough guy who's actually a good guy.Now, a soft-hearted tough guy who's surrounded by police -- that could also describe Bogart's breakthrough film, "High Sierra", from 1941, and perhaps there is some superficial similarity.However, this story is mostly a tale of love affairs and working class life -- that's really where its interest lies.
From the very beginning,the hero,a good guy (Gabin) is doomed,his fate is already sealed,because the tragedy has already happened .That's why the movie is a long flashback.The memories are brought back on the screen with an astounding virtuosity by some elements of the set (the teddy bear for instance).Only three main characters outside that of Gabin,the evil one (Berry who was to play the devil in "les visiteurs du soir "1942),the lucid one (Arletty) and the ambiguous one (Jacqueline Laurent).The latter providesthe only flaw of the movie:Laurent acts Françoise as the innocent pure girl,however Carné leaves no doubt about her relations with Berry.
Ideas of freedom, entrapment, isolation and realism wound into a great film which is carried by Gabin from the opening scene of the murder, through flashbacks he has remembered to the amazingly brutal final shot.
The earlier French film was made just as the war was about to start, and the man (Gabin) is suffering from a more universal problem of being a working class man putting in long hours, cheerfully, with little hope for a future for himself.
This French film is a great film from 1939 starring Jean Gabin, (Francois) the French Humphrey Bogart who is a factory worker and meets up with a sweet innocent young girl named also Francoise,(Jacqueline Laurent) who sees Francois working in the factory and has a hand full of flowers to deliver.
The story gets quite involved with Arletty,(Clara) another gal and there are many flashbacks which was rather new for film goers in 1939.
Finally, nowlang ("A French Masterpiece about the Tragedy of a Simple Man's Life", nowlang (lancelot1953@msn.com) from Small Town, New England, USA, 12 September 2006) adds interesting insight.***"Le jour se lève (Daybreak; 1939, Marcel Carné, France) is another superlative film from Carné.
With the arrival of the Second World War looming, the participants involved in this project still manage to leave behind a story filled with understanding about the human condition.The film is very brave, as it is not hard to argue that "Daybreak" is a veiled protest against the increasingly repressive government.
(An example of how Valentine torments François is by repeatedly calling him "simple." BTW, "Daybreak" sure has a lot more awareness about the plight of animals than does the "Wizard of Oz," also made in 1939.)It is a trademark of the collaboration between Carné (direction) and Jacques Prévert's (dialog) that a sense of balance is felt with the entire cast.
The film stars Jean Gabin, Arletty, Jules Berry and Jacqueline Laurent.It's not difficult to see why the Vichy government during World War Two hated this film and had it censored.
Francois has no escape from his building when he is surrounded but he can escape into his mind and as we see at the end he can decide his own fate.The film begins inside a French apartment building.
This film was one of the first to use flashbacks and the film explains this at the beginning, this was done so audiences at the time would understand what was going on.Francois falls in love with the beautiful and gentle Francoise (Jacqueline Laurent).
All that changes when Francoise falls in love with charming dog trainer Valentin(Jules Berry).
Valentin's assistant and lover Clara (Arletty)begins a relationship with Francois to get back at Valentin but soon realises that she is nothing to either man.Gabin gives a strong lead performance, he makes Francois tough and vulnerable at the same time.
Arletty is excellent as the frank and sexy woman who finds she is not wanted by either of the men she loves.The relationship between Francois, Francoise and Clara is interesting because both women represent (in my opinion)the two different types of love.
And the recurring apparitions of the blind man (a cliché feature introduced with second-degree humour) tell us truth is not what we see.Characters also are antagonised: François (simple, frank, honest) versus Valentin (intelligent, manipulative, sleazy); Françoise (young, shy, apparently chaste) versus Clara (experienced, outspoken, flirty).
François is a strong character but denied a proper existence: he dresses like a monster without a body and a face in the factory; he is dominated by Valentin's rhetoric; he lives isolated at the top of the town's tallest building; the police do not negotiate with him, they simply shoot; he shouts at the end, in a memorable monologue, "There is no François any more!"As a result, the movie manages to be both symbolic and realistic: working conditions, living conditions, social context just before WWII, close shots on important details (brooch, gun, burning cigarette).
The three main actors (Jean Gabin, Jules Berry, Arletty) are among the greatest ever in French cinema and it is their only common appearance.
Notably, it is the only movie featuring all-famous Gabin and Berry together, which makes the contrast between their styles even more striking.Dialogues by Jacques Prévert (a major French poet) are simple, powerful and somewhat poetic.
In the late '30s and early '40s, the films of Marcel Carné gave eloquent voice to a mood of fatalistic, romantic pessimism
After the war, however, his career was a sad shadow of its former self
Central to Carné and Prévert's conception of doomed love was Jean Gabin's proletarian antihero, trapped in darkened rooms and foggy streets while awaiting retribution for crimes he barely knew he might commit: in "Quai des Brumes," Gabin's deserter comes violently up against local gangsters in a battle over the girl with whom he has fallen suddenly, passionately in love; in "Le jour se Léve," surrounded by police but unable to contemplate surrender, he recalls the events leading to his shooting of a girlfriend's seducer
Widely described as poetic realism, Carné's style is in fact anything but realist; the squalor, shadows, and smoky bars all externalize the hero's melancholy resignation to an unjust Destiny
Without Carné's expert control of atmosphere, the effect might seem merely picturesque, for rarely have solitude, alienation and death been imbued with such elegance and beauty.
After talking to a number of fellow IMDbers about French cinema during The Occupation of France in WWII,I decided to watch 5 films which would show the effect that the beginning of the invasion in France,the Occupation itself, and the ending of the Occupation had on French cinema.Whilst struggling to find a title that could act as a starting point,I picked up an old dusty copy of a UK film mag called Empire,and I spotted a DVD review for a 1939 French Film Noir which had been banned by the Vichy gov, (which also cut some scenes from the film,that thankfully survive)due to it being "demoralizing" which led to me getting ready to see the sun go up.The plot:Walking up the stairs of a 5-story guest-house,a blind man stumbles upon the dead body of M.
Surrounding the guest-house,the police attempt to interview all of the residence of the building,but find that one room is locked.Hearing the cops knock, François starts shooting at the door,and telling the police to leave him alone.As the police start making plans to arrest the killer, François begins to think about the events that led him here.A few weeks earlier:Whilst working at a foundry factory, François meets a floral shop worker called Françoise.Spending time with Françoise, François finds himself falling for her,but feels that Françoise is holding something back from him.Secretly following Françoise one night, François discovers her attending a magic show being performed by Clara & M.
Rumbaing behind the stark background of the opening credits,the score by Maurice Jaubert creates a superb undercurrent mood for the title,as Jaubert keeps the score light & breezy during François's blossoming romance,which transforms into a bellowing shriek,as François sinks into a Film Noir dead end.Made just before the country fell to Hitler,the screenplay by Jacques Viot and Jacques Prévert brilliantly displays the impending darkness that France was about to enter,as the writers show the police to be faceless figures who attempt to "gas" François out of the building,and stop anyone from criticising the government.Along with the ruthless shots at the police and government,the writers smartly take a Film Noir route to reveal the unease that France was experiencing,as François and Valentin spy/listen in on those nearest to them,whilst the Film Noir loner François becomes a hero to the crowds standing outside the guest-house,as François yells that he wants to be left alone in his flat,where he can lock his door to the despair taking place outside.Showing Valentin's stairway to death with a hard stare which makes the viewer feel every thud that his dying body makes on the steps,director Marcel Carné unleashes a chilling Film Noir atmosphere,as long,winding shots around the guest-house,and tightly coiled whip-pans in François flat show the doom-laden mind-set that François has entered.
Delicately using flashbacks, Carné creates a contrasting feel to the bleak Film Noir world that François is now locked in,by giving the scenes with Clara & Françoise a stark,shining lightness which represents the relax mood that François feels around them,which slowly transforms into a brittle darkness,as Valentin starts attempting to wipe François from his two dream girls.Sharing a mutual desire for François's love,the gorgeous Arletty (who destroyed her career by having an affair with a high-ranking Nazi,and spending most of the Occupation going to fancy dinners held by the Nazis) and Jacqueline Laurent (who in a banned scene appears topless!) each give beautiful performances as Françoise and Clara,with Laurent showing a genuine sweetness in Françoise's desire for her past with Valentin to be left in the dark mists of time,whilst Arletty lights up the screen as striking Femme Fatale Clara,whose mask of acceptance over François fight for his "true love" Françoise breaks,as Clara finds herself being pushed to the wilderness by Valentin & François.With Carné sealing his fate by filling him with bullets in the tense opening, Jules Berry gives a wonderful performance as Valentin,thanks to Berry turning Valentin's charm into sharp manipulation ,as Valentin finds François trying to take all that is his.Sealed in his prison cell/flat, Jean Gabin gives an explosive performance as François,with Gabin hitting a light touch with an expert eye in François's blossoming romance with Françoise,which is haunted by the bleak, burning rage that François's fate is now trapped in,as François looks out of the window in his flat,for hope that daybreak will appear from the darkness..
As the movie progresses you can see potential motives develop, but it is not until the actual murder takes place that the mystery is resolved.The appeal of this film for me was in trying to understand the four main characters: François, a blue-collar worker who loves Françoise; M.
This is where a novel may be superior to a movie - a novel could tell us just what François was thinking in his time of being holed up in his room.Françoise is played with seeming innocent sweetness by Jacqueline Laurent, but her character is also hard to figure.
But looking at it objectively, the story not only plods along but fails to pay off.The film begins with Francois, a factory worker, who has barricaded himself in his rooming house after shooting a man.
The rest of the film involves flashbacks which explain how the situation arose as well as flash forwards to the present, with Francois holed up in his apartment as the police take various actions to try and get him out.It seems that Francois has fallen for a young waif, a floral shop worker by the name of Francoise and courts her assiduously.
Francois follows Francoise to a nightclub where Valentin, an older man, is performing a dog training act.
Meanwhile, Francois runs into Clara (played by Arletty who was blacklisted for awhile in the French film industry after having an affair with a German Officer during the Occupation in World War II).
But Clara's screen time is limited and seems to be the odd woman out in the drama.Le Jour is certainly well-acted and Jean Gabin is particularly good as the smooth-talking Lothario who seduces both women.
It's because of this that for a 1939 film that Le Jour Se Lève excels as a film--unlike the traditional Warner "baddies", the lead, Jean Gabin is neither good nor bad--and his story of how a normal guy can feel forced to kill that makes this film stand out from the crowd.The film begins with a murder and within moments you know that Gabin shot the victim--there is no mystery about this at all.
Jean Gabin was an amazing actor and while I didn't always like all of his films, I definitely admire his casual acting style.
This is a truly great movie - films like this have everything to do with why I fell in love with the idea of living in France.
An honest plain-speaking working man, Francois, is in love with a fresh-faced young Francoise, but she begins hanging around with an older man burdened with a diabolically sinister face, Valentin.
You might watch it once to get the overall picture, then a second time to really appreciate the existential poetry of Jacques Prévert's script, which operates like the raw and penetrating lyrics of a tragicomic symphony speaking the deepest truths about life and rejection, and you can watch it a third time, to appreciate the fiery and haunting performance of Jean Gabin as François, a simple foundry worker becoming despite himself the immediate instrument then the collateral victim of an unexpected killing.And unexpected is the word since its from gunshots that the film opens, a murder just happens off-screen, we only see someone getting off the apartment, his hand on his belly and then tumbling down the stairs until landing on the feet of a blind resident, of all the witnesses.
Time is all he's got and it works like the countdown of a ticking bomb.Not only Gabin but Arletty and Jules Berry are many reasons to appreciate the film, but it is Gabin who steals every scene, Gabin as the subject and the object, he's the one who starts the plot by killing, and enriches our experience by telling us why he did.
It is a tense moment for Francois, a quiet man, otherwise.The story of Francois involvement with the beautiful Francoise, a young woman who grew up like him in an orphanage, brings them together for they feel the need for one another.
It is indeed a complex story in many levels, but Carne delivers an intense drama that keeps his audience glued to what is happening on the screen.Jean Gabin, at the height of his film career made a perfect Francois.
The great Arletty appears as Clara, the woman who loving Francois, stays out of his way since she realizes she cannot have him.
I don't know, but I feel it would have been a much better catalyst for François shooting Valentin than the somewhat unconvincing showdown in the final film.
And François, he also do it with Clara, but I don't know, its different, the man is in love and suffering.
Basically factory worker François (Jean Gabin) has shot and killed M.
Valentin (Jules Berry), and following this he has locked himself in his guest house room on the top floor of the building with many flights of stairs, the police soon arrive to arrest him, they fail to shoot their way into the room as François has barricaded the door.
In a series of flashbacks, occasionally returning to the present to see his attempts to avoid being caught, it is revealed François had been having a relationship with both naive floral shop worker Françoise (Jacqueline Laurent) and more experienced performing assistant Clara (Arletty), who until meeting him was working with Valentin for his performing dog act. |
tt0011742 | Sumurun | A company of travelling performers arrive at a fictional oriental city. It includes the beautiful dancer Janaia, the hunchback clown Yeggar who is lovesick for Janaia and the Old Lady who loves Yeggar. The Slave Trader Achmed wants to sell Janaia to the Sheik for his harem. At the Palace, the Sheik finds out that his favourite, Sumurun, is in love with Nur al Din, the handsome clothes merchant. He wants to condemn her to death but his son obtains her pardon. After seeing Janaia dancing, the Sheik is keen to buy her. Yeggar is desperate and takes a magic pill which make him look dead. His body is hidden in a chest. The women from the harem come to Nur al Din's shop and hide him in a chest so that he can be brought into the Palace. The chest containing Yeggar's body is also brought to the Palace and the Old Lady manages to revive him. The Sheik finds Janaia making love to his son and kills both of them. He then finds Sumurun making love to Nur al Din and wants to kill them but he is stabbed in the back by Yagger. | revenge, murder | train | wikipedia | In the Orient, a troupe arrives in a village and the hunchback Yeggar (Ernst Lubitsch) is in love with the dancer Yannaia (Pola Negri), who is desired by every men.
However, Yannaia has been invited by the slave trader Achmed (Paul Biensfeldt) and is enthusiastic to join the harem of the cruel and tyrannical Old Sheik (Paul Wegener).
But when the Young Sheik (Carl Clewing) sees Yannaia, he also desires her and allows the troupe to exhibit in the streets of his village.Meanwhile, the favorite concubine of the Old Sheik, Sumurun (Jenny Hasseqvist), and the cloth merchant Nur-al Din (Harry Liedtke) are in love with each other.
However, the Old Sheik mistakenly believes that the Young Sheik desires her and he decides to punish Sumurun.
"Sumurun" is one Arabian Night tale divided in six acts with a story of passion, desire, love and jealousy.
The story blends drama and romance and fans like me of silent movies will certainly enjoy this film like I did.
My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Sumurun".
Lavish and entertaining but cold; Pola Negri steals the film.
The favorite slave girl of a tyrannical sheik (the memorable Paul Wegener) falls in love with a cloth merchant, which puts her life in terrible danger.
Luckily, she is beloved of the rest of the harem, which conspires to bring the true lovers together, while distracting the prying eyes of the eunuchs who serve as palace guards.
Meanwhile, a traveling dancer (Pola Negri) is eager to become part of the harem, much to the despair of the hunchback clown who is in love with her.Ernst Lubitsch directed this lavish production, which is entertaining but cold.
Everything about the film keeps us at arm's length - the forgettable lovers, the unaffecting pathos (compare Lubitsch as the clown to the sympathetic Lon Chaney in similar roles) and the strident comedy.
The extravagant sets and costumes, and the bold and energetic way in which the film is shot and put together, make the film enjoyable nevertheless.Jenny Hasselqvist in the title role barely makes an impression.
The revelation for me was Pola Negri, whom I was seeing for the first time when I watched this movie.
Her mixture of naturalness and affected silent-era mannerisms, her blend of girlishness and vampish womanly sexiness, make it clear why she became a star..
Today, in the UK at least, the word "pantomime" means songs, dances, dames, villains to be booed, out of work actors, "He's behind you", and generally a good time to be had by all.
Sumurun, a German pantomime with which renowned theatre producer Max Reinhardt had great success in the mid-1910s, is not a familiar story, but the wild and wonderful tone with which it is played bears some similarities to how we understand the genre today.Funnily enough, in the US the term pantomime is often used as synonym for "mime", in the Marcel Marceau sense, and indeed highly expressive acting in silent cinema is often referred to as "pantomime".
Looking at the film version of Sumurun, it seems this is perhaps not entirely coincidental.
Like the majority of Ernst Lubitsch pictures from this period, it takes place in a gloriously hammy world where actors grimace and gesticulate with shameless glee.
Thank goodness for Lubitsch's sense of humour.
By peppering Sumurun with touches of his absurd genius, he prevents it from being over-earnest and unintentionally funny.
The Lubitsch style of comedy is nowhere near as pronounced as it was in all-out farces such as The Oyster Princess or The Wildcat, but it serves to soften the silliness of the melodrama with which it coexists.
The comedy and melodrama do not interfere with each other, because the situations in themselves are not funny.
Incidentally, the occasional moments where the line blurs and the comedy figures get swept into the tragedy are among the most poignant I have seen in all of Lubitsch's work.You see, Lubitsch was not just a master of screen comedy, he was a real craftsman of screen drama.
Often when characters look at each other, we are shown reverse angles in which they are virtually staring into the lens.
It's almost a kind of audience participation (think pantomimes again!), in that we are made to feel we share the space of the film's world rather than that we look in on it.
Conversely however Lubitsch sometimes frames the more dramatic events deep in the background, giving us a kind of panicky feel of separation.
At this moment we should take time to consider the exquisite and elaborate set design of Kurt Richter, which here establishes contrasting tones for the different environments – a stark and barren outdoors, the squalid clutter of the poor district, and the rich opulence of the palace.This was the last appearance of Lubitsch himself as an actor, and one of the few examples of his acting that is easily available today.
His eccentric performance lies at the hammy heart of Sumurun.
It is a very Germanic style of theatrical comic acting, exaggerated to the point of being almost grotesque, but something great fun to watch in the right kind of setting, as those familiar with the best of Emil Jannings or Rudolph Klein-Rogge will know.
However Lubitsch is outshone by his opposite number, the old hag played by Margarete Kupfer, who is again very overstated but in a manner that is entertaining, especially in her lurching drunk act.
Paul Wegener is marvellous as the old sheikh, treading the line between pomposity and genuine menace, and thus very much in tune with the picture as a whole.
Finally an honourable mention goes to the handful of black supporting actors, who appear in a number of Lubitsch pictures and whose names I have never been able to find.
None of these guys especially stands out, but they are all clearly adept at the Lubitsch comedy form of sudden reactions and surprise expressions.Sumurun is not without its detractors.
Also I accept that the acting styles may seem a little inappropriate and jarring to some.
But I also feel that those who would demand comprehensibility or naturalism from a picture like this are really missing the point.
In fact, people who don't like Sumurun are probably the same sort of people who would not enjoy shouting "Oh no it isn't!" at a bunch of out-of-work actors in tights.
A happy result of Lubitsch homage to Reinhardt.
The richness of Max Reinhardt's stage direction of Friedrich Feska's play, THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, is transferred and adapted to the screen by Reinhardt's protege Ernst Lubitsch who, in his final acting performance, as the hunchback clown Buckliger, heads a sterling internationally flavored cast which he directs with his customary vigor in this German production, one of the last films made by Lubitsch in Europe.
Upon the stage a masque, SUMURUN is remedied by Lubitsch of its static quality as he prescribes a non-stop folly of exuberance which the polyglot players are quite capable of providing, in particular Paul Wegener (Germany), Pola Negri (Poland), Aud Egede Nissen (Norway) and Jenny Hasselqvist (Sweden), each of whom performs strongly and adds lagniappes of interpretation to the scenario of Hans Kraly.
Lubitsch, a veteran of the Yiddish stage, generally as Meyer the Jew, is a clear guide to his actors in this melodramatic tale of a sheikh (Wegener) who desires to add an itinerant dancing girl (Negri) to his harem because of his dissatisfaction with his principal houri (Hasselqvist) who in turn desires a young wandering merchant with whom she shares a strong physical attraction.
Buckliger is in love with the gypsy dancer, but the mulatta role portrayed by the diminuitive Negri is one who has learned to trust only the adornments of wealth and is therefore most willing to become a harem resident, a prospect which she finds most cordial although, of course, many complications come about involving, among others, the son of the sheikh.
Lubitsch's unique style, which incorporates the frequent use of innuendo, found favor in Hollywood, principally with Mary Pickford who, because of her viewing of SUMURUN, was able to entice the director to the United States, bringing Negri with him, as they had shared many Continental successes, and after her career was macerated by her emotional excess and strong accent, the director continued on to great acclaim, praised for his "Lubitsch touch".
This touch is in evidence in this silent German film as it continued to be in his subsequent English language efforts and is essentially the conjugating of the lashes of one eye..
A Lot of Lubitsch Goes a Long Way Astray!.
His exaggerated, hammy acting is one that Lubitsch the director would never have permitted any of his players.
All the characters are one-dimensional and the story tends to drag, especially in the comedy relief sequences provided by camera-hoggers Kronert and Graetz, who are just awful.
Margarete Kupfer's repulsive old hag is also over- indulged.On the other hand, the film does provide an almost equal number of pleasures.
not only in its exotic sets and cinematography, but in the alluring presence of Pola Negri, who receives excellent support from Paul Wegener who cleverly underplays his ruthless, self-indulgent sheik and thus makes him a really terrifying figure.And for lessons in how to play comic relief with style, I nominate Jakob Tiedtke and Paul Biensfeldt, who both do amusing wonders with seemingly impossible characters.
A slave trader, a comic figure?
But that's how Biensfeldt plays this despicable little heap of slime-- and it works!This film is now available on a somewhat odd Alpha Video DVD.
Someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to replace the original (presumably German) inter-titles.
These new English titles look very swanky indeed, but unfortunately they make the movie itself look just awful, thanks to its rather muddy and extremely well-worn print..
"Sumurun" is characteristic of the type of films Ernst Lubitsch made in Germany after he stopped making exuberant, although (from what I've seen) hit or miss, comedies and started making vehicles for Pola Negri.
There's sexual intrigue set in a fictional past with decent production values in the surroundings.
The multiple story lines in this one coalesce rather well, especially Negri replacing Jenny Hasselqvist as the sexual possession of a sheik played by Paul Wegener (who, in addition to working for Lubitsch, took part in two important early German films: "The Student of Prague" (1913) and "The Golem" (1920)).
But, the film is forgettable and mostly just fluffy.
Some of the staging is awkward, as well, perhaps due to the source and director's theatrical traditions.
Lubitsch was very successful with these types of pictures, though--paving the way for the exportation of German cinema and the emigration of himself to Hollywood..
SUMURUN proves that German films during the post-WWI era were as beautiful as American films.
This film features tons of elaborate sets, lots and lots of costumed extras and a large scope.
In that sense, the film really looks nice.However, when it came to the story, I was curiously bored by the whole thing, as the film was, at times, stagy.
I just didn't find the characters that interesting and unlike later films by director Ernst Lubitsch, this one lacked that "Lubitsch touch"--the artistry and brilliance in the interactions of the cast.I also was left a bit cold by many of the performances.
Lubitsch himself starred in the film in the male lead and he was practically lost under all the fake hair and costuming.
Ultra-famous Pola Negri plays a part that is pretty dull as well--she plays an alluring dancer.
This is the type of role in which she excelled in the 1920s, but today you can't understand the sort of sex appeal she was supposed to have.
She dances, gyrates and acts coy--but that's about all.Overall, it's a nice film to look at but that's really about all..
During the silent film history, there were famous and important pairs who worked together in varying degrees in their film careers: Herr Stiller and Dame Garbo, Herr Pabst and Dame Brooks, Herr Griffith and Dame Gish or Herr Ego and Dame Swanson.
One of these remarkable silent open marriages was Herr Ernst Lubitsch and Dame Pola Negri, who worked together in many important silent productions, especially during the German period of the Teutonic director."Sumurun" (1920) was one of those early lavish UFA productions, based on a Herr Max Reinhard's 1910 stage pantomime, which gave prestige to Germany's greatest film company and provided the chance to decisively open the world film markets to the German productions, specially in Amerika, a distant and perilous country where afterwards, as many longhaired youngsters know, Herr Lubitsch will continue his successful career, becoming one of the most important directors in film history.
In this same country Dame Pola will also make some films but with uneven results; for her, it was a short lapse in her career that she will afterwards resume in old Europe.This German count mentioned that "Sumurun" was a lavish, opulent major budget film production as can be seen in the superb and astonishing décors and art direction due to the pair of hands, two for each one, of Herr Ernö Metzner und Kurt Richter.
Such Teutonic magnificence and exuberance is just what the story demands; a tale involving a tangled love triangle set in an archetypical and fascinating East.This German count also must mention that in addition to Dame Negri the film also features Herr Paul Wegener, Dame Aud Agede Nissen and Herr Lubitsch himself.
Pola has a role that's perfect for her: sensual, adventuresome, defiant and full of untameable spirit.
The film's parallel stories sometimes are confusing or digressive although it makes for a comprehensible mess since the various love conflicts in the film include unrequited passion, Eastern vengeance and unrestrained desires, all transpiring in an exotic landscape and making for a delicious extravagant film fantasy where the talent of the German director shines more that the Eastern sun.And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count has an exotic appointment in East Germany..
All one can remember from the complex plot of this movie which is yet another "Arabian" fantasy is the presence of Pola Negri.
She plays a dancer in a traveling troupe that is forced to get the attention of the local sheik to protect her fellow performers, and allow the troupe to work the streets of the city.
She plays the role of the dancer-courtesan to the hilt and her wild and frenzied dance sequence alone is already worth the price of admission.
The settings and costumes are clearly influenced by the aesthetics of Diaghelev's Ballet Russes that were still the hot ticket in Paris when this film was made.
Particularly it reminded me of "Scheherazade" choreographed by Mikhail Fokine with Ida Rubenstein and Vaslav Nijinski in the title roles, which I have seen produced by the Marinski Ballet and has similar costumes,(Leon Bakst designed the original costumes and his designs have been preserved) particularly for the eunuch, as the ones in the film.
The ballet caused a great sensation when it premiered in 1910 as it turned out to have one of Nijinsky's most memorable roles as the slave.
In this film Pola Negri is exquisite in her sultry, sensuous persona and one understands her star status from watching her go for it in this film.
She is the seductress-gypsy par excellence and it is only when we see her that the movie really comes alive..
An average film by Lubitsch.
Don't expect to see a masterpiece of the silent era nor one of the finest works directed by Ernst Lubitsch when you'll watch "Sumurun".
This film is very far from wonders such as "The shop around the corner" or "To be or not be".
It is one of those oriental fantasies that would blossom in those days, with a story which is everything but believable and with an international cast which is everything but exotic.
the film has its charm, for it was filmed with taste (the sets are amazing, obviously inspired by Moorish architecture like the Alhambra of Granada and the mosque of Córdoba) and nevertheless well directed.
Pola Negri was then at the height of her beauty and her performance is truly an erotic one.
The rather complex narrative is about a pair of lovers (Zuleika/Sumurun, one of the numerous concubines of a sheik, and Nur-al-Din, a handsome merchant) and also two sheiks (Sumurun's master and his son) who both covet the same young dancer (played by Pola Negri).
There are moments of pure comedy and the (partly) dramatic end comes with a surprise, as for during more than an hour and a half, all the mix-ups and unlikely situations don't prepare the viewer for a sad ending..
Forgettable early Lubitsch.
"Sumurun" or "One Arabian Knight" is a German black-and-white silent film from the year 1920, so this one will have its 100th anniversary soon.
The director is Ernst Lubitsch and he also is credited as one of the writers (alongside his longtime collaborator Ernst Kräly) and he is also the lead actor in here.
This film was obviously made a long time before Lubitsch's breakthrough in Hollywood and also quite a while before the Nazis took over.
Lubitsch himself was still in his 20s at this point and still it is far from his first world as a filmmaker as he had already directed a whole lot of movies in the 5 years before that by 1920.
There exist many German silent films that focus on different countries and cultures and this is just another as you already see from the sheikh on the film's poster.
And also many other contents were nothing new at this point already: (unrequited) love, jealousy, foreign culture, competition and just generally dramatic situations from start to finish.
I cannot say I enjoyed the watch a lot and for me the film dragged on several occasions during its almost 2 hours.
Then again, I am not the greatest silent film in general. |
tt0079963 | Suhaag | The story is about Raj (Akshay Kumar) & Ajay (Ajay Devgan) who are best friends studying in the same college. Madhu (Nagma) & Pooja (Karisma Kapoor) are their respective girlfriends. Raj is from a rich family. He stays with his uncle (Gufi Paintal) as his father (Dalip Tahil) lives in another town. Ajay Sharma was born on 2 April 1967 and lives in Bombay with his widowed mother Asha (Aruna Irani). Raj treats Ajay's mother as his own mother & they share a brotherly relationship. After graduating from college, Raj's maternal uncle asks Ajay to bring his birth certificate so that he can make his passport and find work for him in Canada. Ajay goes home to look for his birth certificate and finds out that his real name is Ajay Malhotra and his father, Dr. Ravi Malhotra (Romesh Sharma), is still alive, serving a life sentence in prison for stealing a patient's organs. Ajay questions his mother and finds out that his father was framed by the hospital owner, Rai Bahadur (Suresh Oberoi). Upon discovering the truth, Raj and Ajay go to fight Rai Bahadur & release his father. In the course of their investigation it is revealed that Raj's father whose name is Dr. Sinha (Dalip Tahil) also a key member of the Rai Bahadur's hospital & was involved in framing Ajay's father. Rai bahadur counterattacks by killing Raj's father before he could go to court. Then Raj and Ajay bring the corpse of Dr.Sinha in courtroom just before the deadline of time of case. They create an illusion that Dr. Sinha is still alive and by that they made corpse pointing finger at Rai bahadur. Angry Rai tries to shoots at him into the court. Then in the chase of police he got killed. | good versus evil, romantic | train | wikipedia | Amitabh-Shashi-manmohan Desai create magic. Do u know that all twins born are not identical? But if one follows Hindi movies he/she is expected to believe that all twins born are identical.So it is quite surprising to see a film-maker actually showing the concept of non-identical twins in a hindi movie and when u come to know that the filmmaker is none other than the masala King-Manmohan Desai you are bound to be baffled. Amitabh Bachchan-Manmohan Desai were an invincible combination in 70-80's.If u add Shashi Kapoor-Bachchan chemistry to it it becomes even bigger.And to top it if u have Parveen Babi and Rekha opposite them the expectations are sky-high.Fortunately,Suhaag satisfies all expectations and much more. The movie starts with Nirupa roy giving birth to twins(as already mentioned,they r non-identical).However,her husband Vikram(Amjad Khan)who is a drunkard and womaniser,does not a accept his sons and his wife(something which Amjad repeated in Laawaris).Now the mother moves from one place to another with her twins and due to some incidents one of the twins get separated(I told u it is a Manmohan Desai film).The separated son is taken care of a wicked lame man(Jeevan) who makes the boy a drunkard and a street side goon Amit(naturally Amitabh Bachchan).The son who lives with the mother grows up into an honest police officer Kishan(Shashi Kapoor).Circumstances bring both the brothers together and they become close pals. While Amit loves a dancer (Rekha),Kishan falls for her younger sister(Parveen Babi).Now their father Vikram has become a big time criminal and his rival is Jaggi(Kadar Khan).Jaggi and his son(Ranjeet) want to eliminate Vikram.However after a series of action packed sequences,some twists to the plot and some songs later the brothers unite to eliminate Jaggi and his son.Vikram gives himself to police custody and both the brothers get married to both the sisters(Two brides For Two Grooms ANYONE). Manmohan Desai was considered the Master of Entertainment and he never believed in LOGIC in his movies.Suhaag has the typical stamp of Desai.He is very well aided by his permanent team of Prayag Raaj-story writer,K.K.Shukla-Screenplay and Kadar Khan-dailogues in making Suhaag an out and out entertainer.The script is very faced pace and does not give time for the audience to think.The story although has shades of Sholay(the scene where Amitabh threatens to jump from the top of temple),Deewar(Amitabh as goon and Shashi as cop and brothers with Nirupa Roy as their mother) and ofcourse Desai's own Parvarish(In Parvarish Amitabh acts that he is blind,here Shashi actually gets blind.Infact the names of the 2 hero Amit and Kishan are straight from Parvarish)and Dharam Veer(their also Dharamendra and Jeetu played non identical twins),still the story in its totality is quite good.Kadar Khan's dialogues gives the film the necessary mass value it demands.The dialogues he wrote for Amitabh became very popular.The dialogue ''Yeh Kya Hai-Chappal, Kaun si-Kohlapurie,No-6...''became a rage. Suhaag's music is another high point of the movie. Laxmikant Pyarelal were always part of Desai camp and in this movie they again give a knockout score.All the songs ''Ek Daal Se...'',''Satra Baras ki..'',''main to beghar hoon'' are excellent.The songs have a unique thing about it. After a succesful team of Kishore-Amitabh in Desai's earlier hits Parvarish and Amar Akbar Anthony,Laxmikant Pyarelal make Mohd.Rafi the voice of Amitabh in Suhaag.Rafi sings excellently for Bachchan in songs like ''Teri Rab Ne...'', ''Hey Naam Re..''(in which Rafi proves yet again that noone could sing a bhajan as amazingly as him).Infact,Desai and Laxmikant-Pyarelal used Rafi's voice for Amitabh in their next blockbuster Naseeb as well.The usage of Shailendra Singh,who was the singing voice of Rishi Kapoor, for Shashi Kapoor(Rishi's real life Chacha) also produces excellent results.Suhaag's music is very melodious and its impact is visible from the fact that the number''Hey Naam Re...'' is still played at all Dandia nights.Add ''Teri Rab ne Bana Di Jodi..''which is one of the most popular bhangra number and u have a great soundtrack. The film although a great entertainer but has some sequences which are not great.The picturisation of the song''Imtehaan Hai...'' on Amitabh-Rekha looks like a pale version of ''Salaam-E-ishq..' from Muqaddar Ka Sikandar.The climax where Amitabh and Shashi(whos blind) hangs on a helicopter in mid-air also looks a bit too much even by Desai's standard. The film's editing is quite good.The photography is also good.The action sequences are excellent. After rather classy stuff Parvarish and Amar,Akbar Anthony Suhaag was the first movie of Amitabh-Desai team which was much more on the mass,like the character of Amitabh which is even crude at times and street-smart(In Anthony Gonsalves role Bachchan was much more classy),the hard core action and the formation of Amitabh-the complete entertainer is from Suhaag.This tendency was followed in some more super hits of the actor-director team like Naseeb,Desh Premee,Coolie and finally Mard.Infact if u observe closely even the character Amitabh plays in Laawaris has strong influence of his character in Suhaag.The street smart guy, the plot of him being brought up by a drunkard reappeared in Laawaris. The film naturally has a big ace in the form o Amitabh.. Excellent, Fantastic and Superb. Suhaag is a fantastic film from Manmohan Desai that entertains big time. He has made great films like Amar Akhbar Anthony, Naseeb, Mard, Coolie and other classics. Suhaag has an amazing beginning where the 2 baby's get separated in a unfortunate way. One gets raised by his mum in poverty while the other gets raised the hard way in the slums. Amitabh delivers a super performance yet again and again. Shashi Kapoor is lovable as Amitabhs co star in all his movies. Nirupa Roy is probably the best on screen mother I've ever seen. Amjad Khan and Kader Khan are perfect fine actors of the past and play their parts great. This is a movie that has it all action, comedy, romance, adventure a true Indian masala. |
tt0123122 | It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown | It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown takes the form of a musical, presenting a series of different songs. The program does not have a strong unifying plot.
The program begins with Snoopy defeating Peppermint Patty at football, followed by an opening credits sequence in which the dog takes out a boom box and dances to the title song as the opening credits roll.
The next segment shows Peppermint Patty and Marcie at school, followed by a gym class, in which Peppermint Patty leads the other characters in a workout while she sings "I'm in Shape". The part of the song where she sings "Hey Linus...!" is clearly inspired by Toni Basil's 1982 hit song "Mickey".
The scene changes to a party at the home of Sally and Charlie Brown. The children begin playing a game of "Simon Says" before Lucy takes over the game and sings "Lucy Says". Later, the children dance to a song about "Pig-Pen", "The Pig-Pen Hoedown".
The song "Flashbeagle" is repeated two more times. Snoopy is first seen selecting outfits, finally deciding on an old T-shirt which he rips part of to form a headband and legwarmers, then heading to a discothèque with Franklin and dancing to the tune there, where the first two verses of the song are played, and Snoopy wins applause from the club-goers to the background of multicolored lights. The next morning, Snoopy is sleeping atop his doghouse exhausted from the night before, to which Charlie Brown berates him for oversleeping while others work. Sally Brown takes a groggy Snoopy to school for Show and Tell. After one boy talks about his pet chameleon, Sally is up, but Snoopy lies there motionless. However, when the owner of the chameleon plays his boom box which has the third and final verse of "Flashbeagle" Snoopy gets up and starts dancing, and all the children gradually join in.
The special ends with Charlie Brown saying to his sister that he thinks he should do something about his dog's behavior. Sally disagrees with him because, thanks to Snoopy, she got an "A" (for the first time) for Show and Tell. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | Oh my goodness....
...did I ever love this Peanuts special (I was 2-3, what more could you expect?).
I remember renting it God only knows how many times on video with 'She's A Good Skate, Charlie Brown' after it.
I was the biggest Snoopy fan on earth (still love him dearly)!
I remember wearing my spandex Snoopy exercise clothes and dancing around all over the place to this special.
There was really nothing to it other than the singing, but I wasn't old enough to care.
I sang along with it, and had a blast while doing so.I still remember the songs, particularly the main 'Flashbeagle' song ("He's a champion!
He's the best!" "You should hear the sound of his naaaaa-me!
They call him Flash- flash- flash- flaaash-beagle!").
I think this is pretty much the only Peanuts special that's actually dated, the rest are timeless.
'Flashbeagle' has the '80s written all over it, while most of the others hold up very well today.
This is why the Peanuts have stayed so popular for so many years.
I think they took a note of that after 'Flashbeagle'.But I do have many wonderful childhood memories from 'Flashbeagle', so it has a special place in my heart..
I completely disagree with the other comment.
While the special may not have fit in with all of the other Peanuts specials, that doesn't mean it's not good.
I thought it was a really funny idea.
And the music is awesome!
If your image of Snoopy is "ruined" by seeing him in sweats, then you have a problem.
It's just moving the character with the time, without changing what everyone loves about him.
It's still good old Snoopy, he's just wearing orange sweats.
If you haven't seen this movie, rent it, you will like it!.
I loved this special.
I thought this was one of the Peanuts best specials!
I love the music and the dancing.
Snoopy looks great in torn up sweats!
The breakdancing scene on the street is my favorite.
And whoever sang the title track should have gotten a grammy because I love that song.
Snoopy's night out.
Call me strange, but for some reason I've always had a tiny soft spot for those musical episodes that most popular cartoon shows tend to tackle at one point or another.
You know, the ones which always revolve around the familiar characters breaking into random song and dance routines.
A lot of it's just the novelty factor involved, I suppose - the type of music they usually feature is never anything you'll find me rushing out to buy on vinyl or CD after all.
'It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown', the 'Peanuts' special equivalent of such an episode, is one such example.What really tends to divide 'Peanuts' fans over this particular addition to the 'Charlie Brown' cannon, so far as I can see, is the underlying lack of substantial story or moral message.
Whereas most 'Peanuts' specials always had something meaningful to say, in a melancholic tone that could punch through to all ages, all 'Flashbeagle' really consists of is a foursome of thinly strung-together music videos with very little of the beloved Charles Schulz dialogue filling in between.
It's also very much influenced by the sounds of the decade from which it hails, and, as you could probably decipher from the title, was out for a ride on the 'Flashdance' bandwagon at the time.
How enjoyable you're likely to find it will essentially rest upon how tolerant you are of 80s music in general.
If nostalgia's your thing then the more 'Flashdance'-y sequences won't disappoint - the title song 'Flashbeagle' is surprisingly agreeable and not a track which I'd especially object to have blurting out from my own stereo system (say what you will about the 80s, but it's an era that still holds a lot of warm childhood memories for me).The initial two songs, performed by Peppermint Patty and Lucy, respectively, aren't so much in that 80s music cache as they are in the vein of your typical kiddie-show sing-along fare, with simple tunes and basic lyrics.
Lucy's number is fairly fun and does a good job reflecting her established disposition, but I'm a lot less keen on Patty's - it's too jaunty and childish, and may have older viewers retreating from the living room long before we've really had a chance to get to what we came here to see: Snoopy jamming away in his disco-frequenting persona Flashbeagle.
That sequence alone makes it all worthwhile.Overall the whole affair is bright and lively and will probably find favour amongst nostalgic fans and younger viewers, but it's been looking dated for a long time now, and adults will most likely be left yearning for the usual ingredients in the trusty 'Peanuts' formula.
By no means one of their best, but I think it's safe to say that this was at least one of the more memorable 'Peanuts' specials of the 1980s (their major heyday took place mostly in the 60s and 70s).Grade: B-.
Not as bad as one would think.
I was 13 when this Peanuts special came on, and for me, I was into the breakdancing era, liked all the music from the 80's and always enjoyed musicals.So this special when I first watched became an instant classic to me, the song Flashbeagle was a well written dance hit, it didn't sound like anything from the radio at the time and could've climbed the charts if released.
Now this is 2002 and having bought this special I can see why it was poorly reviewed and never a big hit for long time Peanuts fans.
The story had no plot, just four decent songs and one party, and a small show n tell scene.
So although it brings me back memories and I will always enjoy the film, it doesn't rank as one of the greatest.
Overall: 9 out of 10 just because of childhood memories.
It wasn't all THAT bad!!!.
Being born in 1981 and not really seeing the special until later on in life, this Peanuts fan thinks that it was a fun special.
(Of course, liking the movie and the music from Flashdance might help with that respect).
I think that Snoopys look was a little less from Flashdance, but more of an early eighties fitness, "Physical", Olivia Newton-John headband style.
In fact, the first thing I thought of when I saw Snoopy with the headband was Olivia's "Physical".I won't spoil anything, but if you've never seen it, and if you were a fan of the early 80s fads, I'd give it a whirl.
One of the best!.
Flashbeagle has to be one of the funniest specials - at least as good as the holiday specials, and about a million times better than Bon Voyage.It's basically a bunch of shorts linked together with the common thread of Snoopy sneaking out at night to a disco and returning tired in the morning.
The shorts are hilarious - some great ones with Peppermint Patty and Marcy in class, and a few with Sally as well.Snoopy's killer dance moves were based on a real person dancing - the animators pretty much drew over the frames of the dancer.
The making-of special I saw said that this is one of the first times this method had been employed.
:) The music is catchy, the show is funny - it's all-around Peanuts goodness.
You really can't go wrong with Flashbeagle..
Now, I love the Peanuts specials.
Now, I love the Peanuts specials.
Like most of today's adults, I grew up on them and cherish them.
this is just one man's opinion, and feel free to disagree if you wish, but it's arguably the worst of the bunch.
The whole Flashdance stuff REALLY dates it (most of today's kids wouldn't understand it), and Peppermint Patty's whole "I'm in shape!" routine tends to get really annoying after a while.
Plus, the whole story is kinda weak by the past shows' usually high standards.
Stick with the holiday shows, or if you really want a good non-holiday Peanuts show, track down Someday You'll Find Her, Charlie Brown.As an interesting side note, if you do watch this episode, listen closely to the voice of Sally...
it's none other than Stacy Ferguson, a.k.a. Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas..
I love this Snoopy Special!
Flashbeagle is "totally awesome"!.
I don't care if anyone else liked this or not, I know I will always love this Snoopy Special.
I've had it for years on an LP and I used to play it over and over again.
I memorized every song on the record.
I was so excited recently when I saw a copy on VHS at a local video store.
I bought that right up and I love it!
Snoopy is just too cute in this episode.
He is really happy throughout the whole video unlike some where he is just kind of "blah".
I suggest to anyone who really likes Snoopy and really likes Flashbeagle, you need to find the record(LP) or possibly a cassette tape of the music.
There are a few songs on it such as "Don't give up, Charlie Brown" and a song called "Woodstock" which are not on the VHS, plus a few others.
Anyways, I give this a 10 out of 10 for creativity and for just being a happy little video.
Brings back great memories!.
Probably the most embarrassing Peanuts special made..
I was a huge Peanuts fan as a kid, and ended up video-taping every special as they came on CBS.
I was also a member of the Snoopy Fan Club at the time, and its newsletter, the "Beagle Bugle" would always give advance notice of upcoming Peanuts specials.
So I heard about Flashbeagle, and set the VCR, and waited...
...and got the worst Peanuts special I have ever seen.
Apologies to Mr. Schulz, but this take-off of Flashdance was a bad parody, a bad use of the Peanuts characters, and not entertaining in the least.Flashdance was already out-dated when this show came out, and the music doesn't even come up to the standards set by the movie.
Seeing Snoopy in torn up sweats and wearing a headband also seemed terribly anachronistic.Another blow to the show is the fact that the Peanuts gang is typically seen as being wholesome family entertainment, while Flashdance was a movie that was definitely not for kids; with many people, Flashdance honestly had the same reputation as Showgirls does, and basing a show with a beloved family icon around adult fare is not a good idea.The show doesn't seem to belong to the pantheon of Peanuts specials, with their edifying morals and (occasional) religious values...
Thirty years ago, CBS aired this cartoon.
It was in the wake of the whole dance craze of the 80's.
In fact, "Flashdance" started this trend in my opinion.
Basically, it is Snoopy having a night out and becoming a disco king.
This special is loaded with song and dance numbers just to pass the time.
Charlie Brown gets bothered by the fact that his dog is not normal.
There is character study and songs that express that.
For instance, Peppermint Patty is bad with academics, but good with athletics.
(Peppermint Patty's P.E. Program.) Lucy is dominant and bloats her ego a bit.
(Lucy's the Boss.) There is something about the end of the cartoon.
As soon as Sally takes Snoopy for show and tell, one kid takes out his boom-box and plays the theme song causing all the kids in the class room to dance.
The principal would come in the room and bark stuff like "What's going on here?" "Stop that infernal racket!" I bet he got caught up in the music too.What I like about it, is the songs and the visuals.
While the colors are cool, the theme song, "Flashbeagle" is catchy.
I got a cassette tape of the album back in the day.
I danced to the songs like a little maniac on the floor.
I listen to it all the time over the past 30 years!
What I didn't like about it, that it was cheesy by today's standards and embarrassing.
"Video Movie Guide" bashed that special saying how lame and cheesy it is, saying that Charles Schultz's effort to coincide with the current decade (in this case the 80's), shows that he is an old man trying to be cool and hip.This song/cartoon takes me back to childhood, and when I saw the "Powerpuff Girls" episode, "Boogie Frights", I enjoyed it, because it reminded me of "Flashbeagle".Some of the songs in the album are featured in the special "It's your 20th Television Anniversary Charlie Brown" (1985).
Do I recommend it?
So check it out.
Not The Greatest in the Series, but a Harmless Spoof of the 80's.
This 80's offering from the "Peanuts" shares a love-hate relationship with the fans of the series.
People on the love side enjoy the silly nature of the program as well as the music.
They also enjoy the cultural reference to what were popular trends in the mid 80's.
People on the hate side however disliked the program for its attempt to capitalize of what were considered fads at the time.
Personally, while not one of my favorite specials in the group...it's harmless.
While seeing Snoopy dressed up in leg warmers is a bit rough to take, at least he's not being mauled by a dog sled team or being guilt-ed into moving back with his former owner.
Watch this one after you've watched most of the others in the series..
There's not much of a story in this Peanuts special though the theme of dancing does connect the sketches.
I do find it kinda strange that a kid's TV special is based on a R-rated movie however.None of the Peanuts gang appear to be happy unless they are dancing.
Even Snoopy fancies himself as a Tony Manolo type.
Obviously though old Chuck can't get into the spirit of things.
Though Snoopy's propensity for dancing to funky, old-school 80s beats does earn Sally Brown her first A in show-and-tell.Bizarre really to think that Stacy Ferguson provided the voice of Lucy in this one..
Flash, Flash Flaaaash-Beagle!!.
As a kid growing up in the late 80's and 90's I have always loved Charlie Brown and his gang, even owning a book of comics!
I have two movies (Race for your Life and A Boy named Charlie Brown) and several specials.
I will never tire of Peanuts and even though Shultz is gone I will keep everything I own from him as he has left his mark on pop culture.
I first heard about this special from the documentary You don't look 40 Charlie Brown and tried to find it and finally I managed to see it for myself.
Let me tell you, this one rocks!
Sure it is dated by the 80's feel (taking from a not so good movie) but turning into a spectacular special that you can't help but enjoy.
Now I will hear that song Flashbeagle forever in my head..
The music is good, everything else is forgettable.
"It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown" is an American color cartoon from 1984, so this one's over 30 years old already, almost 35 in fact and the mention of one title character makes it obvious that this is another Peanuts television special by Melendez and Schultz.
It runs for under 24 minutes, but is probably not among the gang's most known because it is not a holiday special of any kind.
But the focus here is also not as much on Snoopy as you might think from the title.
There are major segments without Charlie Brown's dog making an impact on the story at all.
Early on the parts at the gym and classroom were okay, but not memorable either really.
Everything else was completely forgettable with the exception of the audio.
The songs you hear in here are pretty much fun, but there isn't really a reason why you shouldn't just listen to a record and do without the video site entirely.
Anyway, I may be a bit biased as I am not the very greatest Peanuts fan out there, but I like Snoopy more than most of the others, but still his parts aren't too memorable.
And by the way, beagles are among my favorite dogs on the planets and Snoopy looks Nothing like them.
So all in all, I am not impressed and wouldn't really recommend checking this one out.
Maybe BEP lovers can give it a go as you indeed hear the very young Fergie in here before the age of 10.
The Emmys went for the fat cat that year and not for the dog we got here.
Flashbeagle gets a thumbs-down from me.
A real blast from the gnarly 80's past.
At the height of the 80's music and fitness craze Snoopy assumes the cool alter ego of insanely hot and charismatic dance machine Flashbeagle.
Meanwhile, the smitten Sally Brown (voiced by none other than Stacy Ferguson a.k.a. Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas!) pines for Linus and Lucy bosses everyone around.
This Peanuts TV special takes a welcome and refreshing break from the usual big message and/or moral format; instead it's just a nifty series of loosely strung together amusing vignettes that admittedly doesn't add up to much, but manages to be quite funny and entertaining just the same.
For example, the deliciously deadpan exchanges between the brash Peppermit Patty and her nerdy, bespectacled steady gal pal Marcie are as hilarious as ever.
Better still, Snoopy cuts loose with some sweet fresh dope moves when he hits the dance floor (Snoopy's dance double was Marine Jahan, who also was the uncredited double for Jennifer Beals in "Flashdance").
The throbbing discoid songs certainly hit the groovy spot, with the jaunty "I'm in Shape" and the marvelously snotty "Listen to Lucy" rating as the single most tasty and memorable tunes. |
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