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tt0378793 | Speak | 14-year-old Melinda Sordino (Kristen Stewart) starts out her freshman year in high school and struggles on the first day. She doesn't have any friends to hang out with and appears awkward and uncomfortable when speaking to others. Throughout the day, she is made fun of by several students, repeatedly called a "squealer". A series of flashbacks reveal that she called the police at a house party during the previous summer. Her real reason for calling 9-1-1 was that she was raped at the party by a senior student, Andy Evans (Eric Lively), but while on the phone, she was unable to talk to the police about what happened, and when the police arrived, she did not report the rape and went home instead. The party was crashed, causing mayhem and everyone to flee from the police.
When her parents see her report card, they prompt her to see Mr. Neck (Robert John Burke), who tells her to write an essay on any history topic. After refusing to read her paper aloud to her class, she gets sent to the office of the school principal. Melinda is nice to a new student named Heather Billings (Allison Siko), who claims to be Melinda's "friend", but Heather soon abandons Melinda when the chance for social advancement arises. The only other student with whom Melinda has a positive experience is her lab partner, Dave Petrakis (Michael Angarano), who has successfully managed to avoid affiliating himself with a clique.
As the year progresses, Melinda begins a painfully slow recapture of her confidence, with some help from Dave and her art teacher, Mr. Freeman (Steve Zahn). Her former best friend, Rachel Bruin (Hallee Hirsh), starts dating Andy, and as the only other person who knows about the event, Melinda fears that Rachel will suffer the same fate. Melinda finds Rachel at the library and tells her the truth about what happened at the party by writing it on paper. At first, Rachel refuses to believe her, thinking that Melinda is lying out of jealousy, and calls her "sick", but comes to realize the truth by confronting Andy. After Rachel begins to tell other people what happened, Andy threatens and begins to attack Melinda. He corners her in the art room and tries to force her to tell everybody at school that the incident is false, and she struggles to get free, eventually overpowering him. They are found by one of her old friends and a group of girls who help Melinda and trap Andy. Mr. Neck sees Melinda walking away from the scene and asks what was going on, but Melinda doesn't respond.
On the way back from the hospital after being treated for her injuries, Melinda rolls down the window of the car, breathing in deeply. She finally finds the strength to tell her mother the truth about what happened at the party. Although it is clear that Melinda will still need time to fully recover from her ordeals, this is a significant and empowering event in her life, as she finally finds the courage to speak. | flashback | train | wikipedia | Anyone who has been to high school should get a big kick from some of the send-ups in "Speak." And for anyone who has doubted the talents of Steve Zahn, just look for the scene where he sees what Melinda (Stewart) has done in the supply closet.I hope to see this movie in theaters soon, and I give it my highest recommendation.
This finally aired on Lifetime yesterday, and since I was such a big fan of Laurie Halse Anderson's novel, I might as well wanted to see the movie to compare them.The first few minutes of the movie turned out to be exactly pages from the book, as well as some emotional moments that almost reduced me to tears, showed exactly the way she was feeling, and how she was connected from the moment to the school year in such depressive, mute fashion that she manages to handle so well.
She would, only that her mom (Elizabeth Perkins) and dad (D.B. Sweeney) are almost never home so that way they can talk to her about anything.As the movie goes on, Melinda (Kirsten Stewart) begins to lighten up around the surroundings.
The teenager Melinda Sordino (Kristen Stewart) joins the high-school with a great feeling of rejection and becomes practically mute.
She finds a great support with her arts teacher Mr. Freeman (Steve Zahn) and her school friend David Petrakis (Michael Angarano), and recalls her traumatic experience in the summer school, when she was raped, learning how to deal with the situation and reborn mature."Speak" is a very simple and linear story, and even in the trailer the predictable trauma of Melinda is disclosed; therefore there are no surprises, plot point or mystery to have a twist in the story.
What makes "Speak" a little gem and so special are the realistic story, the excellent direction and the stunning performances, mainly of Kristen Stewart in the role of the traumatized Melinda, learning how to deal with her rape and later rejection by the mates by herself.
On the other hand, Kristen Stewart's performance in the lead role of Melinda was excellent, although the rest of the acting left me flat.
(Even Steve Zahn, who I normally love, seemed a bit miscast.) And while the writing didn't grab me, there were enough light-hearted moments to make Melinda's personal anguish bearable for the audience.Beyond cinema as therapy, the film contained meaningful insights into the potential of artistic expression in healing, the general alienation of being a freshman in high school, or the critical relationship of an individual's will and determination with the healing process.
The movie slowly unfolds and tells us the story of Melinda (Stewart) and a traumatic event during her summer causes her to lose all her confidence and become alienated from society.Her fellow classmates and her "ex best friends" bully her and parents don't understand her problem because she cannot talk or even imagine the event that caused her confidence to falter.
The direction of the film is steady and knows where it wants to head and finish and shows the harsh reality of highschool where cliques form and bullying thrives but i felt that Angarano and Zahn deserved more screen time because they were great.Positives: Great acting, good story and really pulls you into the film Negatives: Should've had more from the secondary characters Overall: Should definitely watch this film!!.
Speak is the movie that gave the illusion Kristen Stewart was a good actress.
It is a poignant and look at a traumatized girl with elective mutism.Melinda Sordino (Kristen Stewart) is a normal, happy fourteen-year-old about to start high school.
Through her year long assignment of drawing trees, Melinda tries to heal from what happened and speak again, while slowly revealing to the audience what changed her life.The story is solid, and it was a very good adaption of the novel.
It might be the effect of watching a lot of bad films in a row but the truth remains: sometimes there just comes a great movie.
Where "The virgin suicides" was seen through the eyes of boys and "Thirteen" was a whole new (extreme at times) experience for a high school girl, "Speak" takes a step back.
It's a humbler movie; neither entirely poetic nor filled with the emotions its main character is desperate to express.Melinda (Kristen Stewart) has done something terrible and is starting the new school year without friends.
Art plays a big part in "Speak", but it's not due to the art teacher's words
It's simply because of the direct relationship Melinda experiences with art and how it widely affects her; a relationship mainly generated by the art teacher.Kristen Stewart is amazing.
I literally only seen it last night and i was completely blown away, it is so grown up and i am so surprised it didn't win an Oscar or anything, i should have because Kristen Stewart and well everybody was amazing in it.I can really relate to Melaney's character minus the rape in the story line, i mean like i fell out with my best friends when i was 14 and i got really depressed and didn't talk to anybody and this movie completely reminds me of that in a good way i mean, its hard to explain but the movie is very touching and inspiring to all girls i think and i am giving the cast a round of appaulase because they were great.Sorry for all the miss-spelling I'm not the best ha xx Thanks for reading this and please go and watch the film it is really great..
I read the synopsis and it seemed like something I might enjoy, story-wise and cast-wise (big fan of Steve Zahn as well and was fairly impressed with Stewart's role in Panic Room).
I decided to give it a shot and was glad I did, as it has given me quite a memorable movie experience.Melinda Sordino (Stewart) is a high school freshman, who was once a bright, happy student.
She tries to regain the confidence to open back up and ultimately break free of the shell she has created for herself.This movie is definitely not a feel-good flick, but the screenplay (adapted from the same-titled book) affords some light moments (usually from Melinda's observations through her inner monologue and rare interactions in the classroom).
I loved the characters because I felt I could relate every one of them to a person I know in real life.The plot of the movie revolves around a young girl, Melinda, struggling to find her place in high school.After being raped during the summer and not telling anyone, she enters high school.
And this movie is one of her right choices.I think everyone can relate to the story of withdrawal and rejection, relationship with family and friends, and how expressing yourself can set you free.I almost cry at the end but no tears so I gave a 9..
Speak tells the story of Melinda Sordino, a freshman in high-school with a feeling of rejection.
On top of that she's constantly teased by the other students and her relationship with her parents lacks communication.To make the situation even worst she butts heads with the social studies professor.She does find some support in her arts teacher Mr. Freeman but her life, her existence, seems to be quite painful.As the movie progresses, the pieces of the puzzle start to come together as we learn trough flashbacks what happen to Melinda in summer school and the trauma she went trough.Speak is a fantastic film,beautiful, even though the story is sad and tragic.The film is extremely well directed,beautifully shot and the soundtrack is superb contributing to the melancholic tone of the movie.
Everything just comes together so nicely.I'm sure some will think the movie is slow paced but for me the story flows just perfectly.I was completely caught off guard by Kristin Stewart's portrayal of Melinda, and the film owes a lot to her subtle yet extremely powerful performance.Her performance really sets this film apart from other dramas.
This image reflects the entire subject matter of the film - silence, repressed feelings and the inability to express emotions following a tragedy.One thing that is unique about Speak is that while most films about high school rape are about seniors, this is about freshmen, with the assault taking place in grade 8.
Not Bad. SPEAK is an interesting character drama starring Kristen Stewart as a young girl with selective mutism.
We all know of the bashing Kristen Stewart gets from people for her stoic acting (and to be honest I myself have commented on it), but it works great for her character.
I really loved the scenes with the art teacher, especially the last one.The range of emotion Kristen showed in this movie were so varied, and very believable.
love love the movie, storyline is realistic and moving and scarily real,hoping this movie not only highlights the real issues addressed but maybe helps those who feel they cant speak.the reason i watched the movie is of course KRISTIN STEWART ,who portrays the character believably and emotionally, there is just something intriguing about her.But did anyone notice the voice over is not Kristen's voice, maybe it's just me but i think hearing her voice in a lot of movies, especially TWILIGHT, just didn't believe the voice over was her.who cares great movie!.
the characters are so real...Hats off to Kristen Stewart and the Director...One of the best teen movies i ever saw....
However, if you think you could be inspired by the unnervingly real story of a drowning teenage girl trying to find her way to the surface again, Speak is the movie for you.
It is amazing that someone could have been able to write a story that so throughly showed teenage social groups and their relationships that I could connect with them as if they were real.But the best part of this movie to me is Kristen Stewart's portrayal of Melinda.
Essentially everyone in the film is a stereotype--the art teacher, the English teacher, the History Teacher, Melinda's friends, Melinda's parents, the principal, and the counselor.Kristen Stewart was the best thing about this movie.
The movie is about a teen who was assaulted in a party and kept the fact with her, leading her into a state of loneliness and lack of confidence to share her views with anyone.The subject was very hard to be dealt with but credit should be given to the director Jessica sharzer and of course to Kristen Stewart for a performance that will be remembered throughout her career.Kristen did a fantabulous portrayal of a traumatized teen with an ease.Its very difficult to let the other person know your feelings when you have few words to say but Kristen's expressions and body language did it all effortlessly.
Melinda Sordino is perfectly portrayed by Kristen Stewart.This is a film about a young girl who enters high school after 8th grade ended poorly.
This movie has been in my list of movies i wanted to watch and i finally got the chance and i must say i am extremely happy.This movie tells a strong story and i think it was told in a very good way for it keeps your emotions flowing while following Kristen Stewert' character and even though she barley says anything it keeps you effected the whole movie by what happened to her.As a Showtime independent film it isn't very known which in my opinion is a shame.Jessica Sharzer while not a very experienced director did a marvelous job telling such a delicate story.Kristen Stewert(Panic Room, Twilight) truly showed how good she is and i must say at such a young age predicts a bright future, She alongside Abigail Breslin(Little Miss Sunshine, My Sister's Keeper) and Dakota Fanning(Man On Fire, War of the Worlds) are heading in a good direction and show great talent since the beginning.
It's a sad film but not as depressing as I had thought: Sometimes the Melinda's narration and the music lifts you.This movie has a message about the rape, its effects on a girl and why is so important to talk, but there is another message also: There are so much people immersed in their own worlds who just ignore others or never have a friendly word and only say "He/She is a freak" while actually that "freak" is the person who needs help so badly.
Adaptations are all about economy and efficiency as they try to tell the same essential story visually and often symbolically.In the case of "Speak", I think the movie is more powerful than the book as you feel Melinda's trauma more, even if you don't understand it as precisely.
Speak tells the story of a girl starting her first year in high school.
With having (in 2002) just recovered from a pretty bad cold,I had a strong feeling that one of the things which I wanted to do first was to hang out with my friend again.With (at last) feeling well enough to go out,one of my friends suggested that we could go and watch a film.When we got to the box office,we found out that the cinema had just one more showing for the night,of a film called Panic Room.Due to that being the only option available,me and my friend decided to go for the film.Whilst watching the film (which now,seems to have sadly been mostly forgotten) I was very intrigued by the actress who played the daughter to Jodie Fosters lead character.Ocasionaly,every so often,I would check my local DVD rental store,to see if the girl (whose name I later found out is Kristen Stewart) had appeared in any other movies...Suddenly at some point in 2007 I began to hear that Stewart was going to make a bit of a come back that year by,co-starring in the Sean Penn film Into the Wild,and also having the lead role in an adaptation of a book which I had been hearing called Twilight.After Twilightmania had turned her into one of the main stars of a mega-hit franchise,I was interested in seeing how she would perform as Joan Jett in the Rock N Roll film The Runaways.From about the first five minutes of the very entertaining film ,I was very impressed with how good Stewarts performance was,and how well she captured the look of Jett.Around two or three weeks ago,I was chatting to a friend about how much I had enjoyed Runaways,and I was given a surprising reply,that if I enjoyed her work in that,then I really needed to see an indie film she had made,which has never come out in the UK.The Plot:With her parents and teachers hoping that Melinda Sordino can continue to keep getting the grades which she has been achieving,Melinda knows that everyone is expecting her to achieve "big things" in her Freshman year.
The movie is about a girl who was raped at a summer party and enters high school, while living with this she tells no one and realizes as the film goes on that it happened and she has to face it.
This movie was so moving,I was in tears.In the end, I wished I was her in the closet beating the crap out of that boy.It really makes you look at yourself and say "Why did I let that pass?".I read the book a year or two ago and it made me think the character was a strange little goth girl who just got raped at an innocent house party gone wrong.But Melinda's character proved different.I loved her in Panic Room, and I adored her in this movie.Such an amazing story that really points out to us that no matter who you are,this could happen to you.This movie really inspired me and probably everyone who has seen it to be you and to not let just anything pass by without standing up for what you believe in.Overall an amazing movie..
It is for this that many schoolmates are "former friends".Kristen Stewart was 13 or 14 during filming and perfect for the part of Melinda Sordino.
I honestly have always thought that Foster's performance in that movie was heavily overrated and it is a hard film to watch, but for all the wrong reasons with it's by-the-numbers storyline of the victim fighting back, predictable courtroom scenes, and that overdone climactic flashback of the rape itself.SPEAK goes for the less-is-more approach and instead of Stewart's character Melinda Sordino going the histrionic route, she instead hides the fact that she was sexually assaulted and goes into a shell for the better part of a year, only speaking when spoken to (and sometimes not even then!).
I really love this movie and have watched it numerous times.The actress Kristen Stewart shines in it.The main character is a young teenage girl named Melinda Sordino.
I really love this movie and have watched it numerous times.The actress Kristen Stewart shines in it.The main character is a young teenage girl named Melinda Sordino.
I loved the book, and I love the movie just as much, if not more.Very powerful story, with just as powerful an actress playing lead.I think one of my most favorite scenes in this movie has to be the part where Melinda shows Mr. Freeman her closet in the school.The look on his face is so real, so understanding.Of everything I've seen Kristen Stewert in, this is my favorite movie of hers!If you haven't seen this yet, I recommend it :) Have a few Kleenex handy though, as it's really emotional..
An outstanding film featuring a remarkable performance by Kristen Stewart as a sullen, very depressed young lady in a high school.
I particularly liked the way the movie was done with flashbacks so the story of Melinda's rape unfolds and you don't know why she's so depressed at first.
On her way home from school she has the talk with her mother, and you see her finally accepting herself.This movie was absolutely amazing, and Kristen Stewart did an excellent job. |
tt0111333 | The Swan Princess | King William (Dakin Matthews), widowed father of newborn Princess Odette, and Queen Uberta (Sandy Duncan), widowed mother of young Prince Derek, decide to betroth their children in the hopes of uniting their kingdoms. Rothbart (Jack Palance) is an evil sorcerer who wishes to take William's kingdom for himself, by mastering a type of dark magic known as The Forbidden Arts. But before he can make his move, he is attacked by William's men. Although banished from the kingdom, Rothbart vows to get his revenge.
William and Uberta have Odette and Derek meet every summer, hoping they'll fall in love. As children, this fails miserably, but when the years pass and the two reach adulthood, they do fall in love. Derek (Howard McGillin) declares that the wedding preparations begins, but when he expresses his wish to marry Odette (Michelle Nicastro) only for her beauty, she rejects him. Odette and William leave, but they are ambushed by Rothbart, who transforms into a "Great Animal", kidnaps Odette, and fatally injures William. Upon being tipped off by the arrival of King William's captain, Derek arrives on the scene, where William tells him with his dying breath that they were attacked by a "Great Animal", and that Odette is "gone". Believing that Odette is dead, Uberta encourages her son to find another princess. But Derek is determined to find Odette, believing that she can still be alive. He and his best friend Bromley (Joel McKinnon Miller) practice hunting every day in preparation for facing the Great Animal.
Elsewhere, Rothbart is keeping Odette at his castle lair at Swan Lake. He has cast a powerful spell that turns Odette into a swan during the day, and she is able to temporarily turn human at night if she is on the lake under moonlight. Every night Rothbart asks Odette to marry him so he can rule William's kingdom, but she refuses. During her captivity, she befriends a turtle named Speed (Steven Wright), a French frog named Jean-Bob (John Cleese), who dreams of being human, and an Irish puffin (Steve Vinovich).
Puffin and Odette, in her swan form, fly together to find Derek. By chance they stumble upon Derek in the woods, for he is searching for the Great Animal. Derek mistakes Odette for the Great Animal, (Derek having deduced that the creature is a shapeshifter), and tries to kill her. The ensuing chase leads Derek to Swan Lake, where he witnesses Odette's change from swan to human when the moon rises. The two share a loving reunion, and Odette tells Derek that the spell can only be broken by a vow of everlasting love. Derek invites Odette to his mother's ball the following night, hoping to declare to the world of his love for her. Derek leaves just as Rothbart arrives. The enchanter has heard the whole conversation and imprisons Odette as a swan in the castle dungeon, along with Bromley, whom he had found in the woods. Furthermore, because there is a new moon on the night of the ball, Odette remains a swan that night.
Fearing that Derek's vow would ruin his plans, Rothbart sends Bridget, his hag sidekick, to the ball disguised as Odette. Odette's friends manage to free her from the dungeon and she flies to Uberta's castle, but she is unable to warn Derek in time. Derek makes the vow of everlasting love to the wrong girl. Rothbart enters and shows Derek the fake Odette's true form, Bridget. Upon realizing his mistake, Derek races after Odette back to Swan Lake, where Odette transforms back into a princess. Odette dies in Derek's arms, but not before telling him that she loves him. A furious Derek confronts Rothbart, ordering him to revive Odette. Rothbart transforms into the Great Animal. A battle ensues with Rothbart overpowering Derek. Odette's animal friends return Derek's bow to him, and Bromley, who has escaped the dungeon, provides Derek with a single arrow. Derek catches and fires the arrow into the Great Animal's heart, destroying him.
Derek confesses to Odette that he loves her for her kindness and courage, and Odette returns to life; the spell on her is broken. The two are married and they moved into Rothbart's former castle, and they lived happily ever after. | psychedelic, fantasy | train | wikipedia | Compared to previous attempts by competing studios to break Disney's stranglehold on the animated film market, The Swan Princess really is a good movie.
The songs, though not particularly memorable and vaguely cheesy in the manner of much older animated flicks, did not bring the movie to a grinding halt and actually managed to, in general, help it along.
The titular lead, Princess Odette, is a flat failure as a heroine--she never *does* anything except lead her one true love, Prince Derrick, to her--and even then, she only does that because her animal friends, Puffin, Speed the turtle, and Jean-Bob the frog, cook up the plan for her.Derrick is much more likeable, and though throughout most of the movie he is a flaming idiot, he is a likeable and sympathetic flaming idiot--and he does learn.
His mistakes are, as a rule, human and understandable, and in the end it is he who saves the day and finally learns the movie's apparent lesson--that beauty is not all there is in matters of love or anything else.The development of their relationship is refreshing--rather than falling in love at first sight, they start out hating each other with a passion, and it takes them years--spanned capably over the course of one amusing if sugary song--to realize that they do love each other.
This movie tells the timeless tale of two lovers who are drawn apart by one shallow prince who eventually learns that there is more to love than looks and beauty.
I'd always enjoyed it before, so I decided to watch it again - for the most part, it still holds up.Of course, it's a children's tale, so some slack must be given; it's not going to be as well-rounded (entertainment-wise) as a movie like "Toy Story," but it does contain its fair share of adult-oriented jokes along with silly physical humor that will amuse children.The story is pretty basic - a lovely princess is destined to marry a prince, but an evil sorcerer (voiced by the diabolical Jack Palance) has other plans and kills the princess' father, locks the daughter away and casts a spell on her so that she turns into a swan at night.It's predictable, but it's got a great vocal cast, and the animation is pretty good.
After Disney released "The Lion King" which has been met with critical praise and became a success at the box office for the company, Disney animator Richard Rich (known for directing "The Fox and the Hound" and "The Black Cauldron") teams up with New Line Cinema to make their very first animated feature, "The Swan Princess", based on the Swan Lake ballet.It tells the story about two kids named Derek & Odette who started to hate each other for about a long time until one day, as young adults, they finally realize that they do love each other, but Derek ruins the wedding by saying "What else is there?" and they will never see each other again.
As Derek tries to find Odette by learning from his mistake, Odette and her animal friends Jean-Bob, a frog, Speed, a turtle, and Puffin, a bird attempts to bring her back to Derek.I first saw this film when I was a child and it has been stuck with me ever since even as a young adult (I'm turning 19 soon, by the way).
The battle between Derek and Rothbart is the best highlight of the movie because it represents some of the past-Disney films with a style and tone to it.Overall, The Swan Princess isn't a masterpiece, but it's by no means a cult classic that has been stuck with me since my childhood.
Also its not the typical old animated films where the guy and girl fall in love straight away since they kinda dislike each other when they were young.
Tons of funny characters - Jean Bob the frog, Puffin and Speed who are Odette's animal friends are hilarious as well as Prince Derek's adviser and his friend.
I have the VHS for this which is 16 years old and I always watch it whenever there is nothing on TV.The film is about a beautiful princess named Odette who falls in love with a handsome prince named Derek whom she met as a kid and the two of them don't get along at first but as they are brought together every summer they fall in love with each other.Of course when Odette gets older an evil warlock wants her from himself and when she refuses to marry him as he is taking over her kingdom every time the moon goes she is magically transformed into a swan and when the moon comes back the next day she is turned back into a human again.Although its kinda silly in a way and a bit old-fashioned but I like this film for a very long time as it was fun,cute,romantic and sweet.
The characters were colorful,the plot was nice and cheerful,the ending was nice.If you like transformation movies like Beauty & the Beast,Brother Bear,The Little Mermaid then check it out.8/10.
The voice cast is highly commendable- Jack Palance came alive in a positively booming way with the character of Lord Rothbart, who is a great villain and John Clesse is sidesplittingly funny as Jean Bob. There are some really funny lines "You should write a book...How to offend women in 5 syllables or less."(Jean Bob and Rodgers get the best of them) Can I also say, that this is one of the few animations that makes excellent use of the evil-sorcerer-back-for-revenge formula?
The animation is actually not as bad as most people say, a bit deflated at times, but very nice mostly with some pretty colours and the songs are sweet and memorable especially Far Longer Than Forever.
This is My Idea is a long song but also catchy and is a good look at how Derek and Odette went to hating each other to loving.
Prince Derek and Princess Odette are forced to spend their summers together by their widowed parents hoping for them to fall in love.
I can't pretend it's a masterpiece, but I just love it.Our main characters, Derek and Odette, are set to spent every summer together from their childhood up to their young adulthood and that is not easy, because they despise each other!
It was spot on.But Derek is really bad at expressing his feelings to Odette, and Derek must then prove his love for her while the villainous Rothbart has abducted her and tries to force her to marry him to get to the throne without using more destructive methods.
Quite original actually, a villain despicably trying legal methods.Therefore he turns her into a swan and asks her every night to marry him if she wants to become fully human again, but she only wants her true love, Derek.
But Odette stands up to him and with her wonderful animal friends try to escape his grip when he is not around.And with that conflict set up we get all sorts of things you'd expect from this kind of fairy tale.I think I like it so much, because it is so down to the basics of what I know as a fairy tale with princess and princesses, magic and of course a happy ending where good triumphs over evil.
And the end is perfect, gets me every time!The Swan Princess is an enjoyable fairy tale mostly for kids with good songs, colourful animation, entertaining characters and a creepy villain.
Ten years later, he directed "The Swan Princess" even after Disney tried to convince him to stop production as they were planning to release a version of their own, but when he wouldn't scrap his, they scrapped theirs, and in 1994, Disney had it's biggest box office gross ever with the Lion King, The Swan Princess brought in about 9 Million in the US (Disney re-releasing The Lion King at the same time was a little dirty on Disney's part- but it may have saved a lot of parents from having to sit through a bland Disney Wannabe)The Animation is the films best asset, Brightly colored, smooth, no gimmicks or massive special effects.
True, the Prince's response isn't exactly, well good doesn't begin to cover it, the Princess is being hypocritical.The story isn't the worst, but has a few plot holes, one of which would make the ending completely unnecessary, but would leave out the generic fairy tale battle between the prince and a large creature.The only other saving grace are Odette's Animal friends - Speed the Turtle, Jean Bob the Frog (John Cleese with a cheesy French Accent), and Puffin- the Puffin(?).
Jean bob's ongoing attempts to get a kiss form Odette to break his spell (he believes he is actually a Prince that was turned into a frog) are actually interesting- too bad the rest of the movie isn't.The saddest thing about the whole movie is it's blatant ripping off of a Disney Score.
The only decent piece of Music is the love song "Far Longer Than Forever" sung by Prince Derrick and Odette (whose singing voice is also that of Anastasia's, Kiara in Disney's Lion King II, and Princess Jasmine in the 2nd and 3rd Aladdin Films) but even it doesn't compare to anything from the Disney Songbook- the Title of the song itself has a cheeseboard romance sound to it.
This one would've been much better as a straight to video release, and compared to some of Disney's Straight to Video flicks does help it look slightly better, but only slightlyOverall, kids will enjoy it, the Animation is Beautiful and Lush, but Parents may want to leave the room.My recommendation, pop in Beauty and the Beast or the Little Mermaid- Head strong Princesses, people under magic spells that change their appearance, great music that you don't mind getting stuck in your head, Well Developed Stories, Well Developed Characters..
Odette wants to know what Derek likes about her besides her beauty and he can't think of anything.
This movie came out when I was two, and no matter how much time passes nor how many times I rewatch it throughout the years, I still love The Swan Princess.
Yes!The animation is not as great as Disney, but it isn't hard to overlook because the film is good overall.
You've got wings, baby -- use them!Derek isn't the smartest person in the movie, but you gotta love him for his drive and his self-awareness, knowing he was an idiot who said the wrong thing.
This is one of those films that should've been part of Disney as a good help and part of the Walt Disney Animation Cannon.I believed that Odette can be part of the Official Disney Princesses since she had a great role in the film.
The Swan Princess (1994) Richard Rich's most watched and most popular animation family film ever made!.
*sigh* There really isn't a story here, because most of the sequences feel like padding, particularly the scene where the royal orchestra dresses up as animals and let Prince Derek shoot arrows at them.
That ballet is more recently recognizable as the subject of "Black Swan" (which I haven't seen).Anyway, the movie's nothing particularly special.Michelle Nicastro, who provided the voice of Odette, was an opera singer (she died of cancer last year).
The film involves a vengeful wizard who curses a princess to exist as a swan by day until her prince declares his undying love, which is the blandest story line I've ever heard of.
Recently, I had been trying to recall the song unsuccessfully, and when I found it on Netflix, I jumped in for old time's sake and because I wanted to hear the song.Watching it 12 years later resulted in disappointment regarding the plot line, character development, animation, voice acting and lyrics.
And like I said: this might seem strange to you guys, but I put her on a list I have made of my favorite movie princesses either animated or live action.
Of course when I was younger I loved anything animated, so the real question is "Will I still like this when I'm older?" Well it had been a long time since I watched it but I did end up remembering it and wanted to see it again.
Seems like the only animated songs that I still like come from the Disney movies, don't know why.
The beginning song was very lively, a lot of fun, and then went into a very cute love scene...I was gushing like a little girl.
The story is basically about a princess called Odette who is kidnapped by an evil sorcerer, Lord Rothbart who puts a spell on her that turns her into a swan and the only way the spell can be broken is if Prince Derek declares his love for Odette.Jack Palance plays Rothbart as a pantomime villain.I like the love story between Odette and Derek especially when they start of not liking one another.It has some very funny scenes and lines.
Another is Jean-Bob, a frog voiced by John Cleese who is convinced he is a prince and that if he kisses Odette he will become one.The songs are very memorable and catchy, I especially liked the songs "Practice, practice, practice," "No fear," and "This is my idea." The animation is just amazing, the movement is so realistic and the scene at the end is awesome as it is at night, you can see the shadows of the water, the moon sparkling and the swans flying by.This film has it all- romance, humour, magic, action, brilliant animation and a moral story where good triumphs over evil..
It's still better than most Disney movies that I've seen (but then again, that's just my personal opinion).I agree with those who say that the sidekicks are the best; but Derek's sidekicks are just as amusing as Odette's.
OK, she finds Derek and gets him to come to the lake, but she couldn't have even done that without Puffin, Speed and Jean-Bob. No offense, but when Derek said, "What else is there?" He was kind of on to something.And contrary to what most people say, I loved all the music- even "No More Mr. Nice Guy." My favorite song is "This is My Idea," simply because it's funny, and I don't mind it getting stuck in my head (which it tends to do a lot).I just think that there's something in the Swan Princess for every age (though keep in mind that I can only attest to 15).
The story is the beautiful princess, Odette, is kidnapped by a powerful sorcerer (a plot we have seen dozens of other times), but here is the twist.
Derek is the prince of another kingdom who blows the two kingdoms chances of being allies when he says the wrong words to their princess, but he is still in deep love for her and is looking for the creature known as the "Great Animal", who kills Odette's father.
While Derek is searching for the identity of the Great Animal, Odette, as a swan, meets three characters definitely meant for small children.
You have Jean Bob, the frog who thinks he is a prince, Speed, a turtle that sounds and feels way too close to Winnie the Pooh's Eeyore, and General Puffin, a puffin bird.After the opening song "This is my Idea" which was the closest the movie got to being anywhere as good as Disney's orchestra, the movie seems to fall apart.
The whole "princess being kidnapped, and prince rushing to save her" sounds like a dozen of Disney's movies, and the characters in the Swan Princess aren't any different.
Honestly, The Swan Princess is a movie that feels far too much like a would-be Disney clone and has too many clichés for me to actually recommend it..
Contains Spoilers This film may have its flaws - only two good songs (Far Longer Than Forever, No Fear), a few not so interesting sequences but whenever Jean-bob, Puffin & Speed are on I love every minute.
The Swan Princess is a lively and entertaining animated film for children and the occasional teenager (like me)..
"Swan Princess" is one of those films that you kept on your movie shelf from when you were six, rediscover it when you're 16, and find new things to love about it.
In this case though it really is just like a cheap cartoon which in turn makes me feel like I'm watching something aimed solely at little children rather than an animated movie for all ages (such as Disney movies or indeed Anastasia, which I feel I'm starting to gush about).The songs are awful.
In the end Rothbart in the form of the Great Creature is defeated by Derek firing the one arrow through his heart, the swan curse of Odette is lifted, and the couple finally embrace their true love for each other, marry, unite the kingdom and the two families and they all live happily ever after.
Derek and Odette may not be the most memorable protagonists in a animated feature, but are likable and engaging enough and portrays at least more personality than the Disney Princes and Princesses from Walt's films (pre-90's).
Even the minor characters as Queen Uberta, the conductor Lord Rogers and Prince Derek's friend, Bromley, are quite likable.The animation may not live up to Disney standards, but it's still nice-looking.
Otherwise, if there should be any complains about "The Swan Princess", it would be that the film lacks overall the depth that the Disney movies usually have.
So if you want to see a enjoyable non Disney-cartoon, "Swan Princess" is definitely worth a watch..
It has been years since the last time I've watched this movie and I could still name almost every character and their story.
The animation is quite good, the songs are decent, and the characters likable (though Odette is not given much to do). |
tt0054195 | Pollyanna | The title character is named Pollyanna Whittier, a young orphan who goes to live in the fictional town of Beldingsville, Vermont, with her wealthy but stern and cold spinster Aunt Polly, who does not want to take in Pollyanna but feels it is her duty to her late sister. Pollyanna's philosophy of life centers on what she calls "The Glad Game," an optimistic and positive attitude she learned from her father. The game consists of finding something to be glad about in every situation, no matter how bleak it may be. It originated in an incident one Christmas when Pollyanna, who was hoping for a doll in the missionary barrel, found only a pair of crutches inside. Making the game up on the spot, Pollyanna's father taught her to look at the good side of things—in this case, to be glad about the crutches because they didn't need to use them.
With this philosophy, and her own sunny personality and sincere, sympathetic soul, Pollyanna brings so much gladness to her aunt's dispirited New England town that she transforms it into a pleasant place to live. The Glad Game shields her from her aunt's stern attitude: when Aunt Polly puts her in a stuffy attic room without carpets or pictures, she exults at the beautiful view from the high window; when she tries to "punish" her niece for being late to dinner by sentencing her to a meal of bread and milk in the kitchen with the servant Nancy, Pollyanna thanks her rapturously because she likes bread and milk, and she likes Nancy.
Soon Pollyanna teaches some of Beldingsville's most troubled inhabitants to "play the game" as well, from a querulous invalid named Mrs. Snow to a miserly bachelor, Mr. Pendleton, who lives all alone in a cluttered mansion. Aunt Polly, too—finding herself helpless before Pollyanna's buoyant refusal to be downcast—gradually begins to thaw, although she resists the glad game longer than anyone else.
Eventually, however, even Pollyanna's robust optimism is put to the test when she is struck by a car and loses the use of her legs. At first she doesn't realize the seriousness of her situation, but her spirits plummet when she is told what happened to her. After that, she lies in bed, unable to find anything to be glad about. Then the townspeople begin calling at Aunt Polly's house, eager to let Pollyanna know how much her encouragement has improved their lives; and Pollyanna decides she can still be glad that she at least has had her legs. The novel ends with Aunt Polly marrying her former lover Dr. Chilton and Pollyanna being sent to a hospital where she learns to walk again and is able to appreciate the use of her legs far more as a result of being temporarily disabled and unable to walk well. | romantic | train | wikipedia | This Pollyanna does not spend all her time chatting her mouth off and misinterpreting every cold act of her aunt's as an expression of love, which made her very annoying in the book, but rather, she really gets to know people and very subtly brings out the best in them.
This is an absolutely remarkable film.It is uplifting,life-affirming,and painfully truthful about human ways.Even though it is set in the early 1900's, its message is still very applicable in the modern world.I was blown away by the genuine power of Hayley Mill's performance.The supporting cast is also excellent,especially Karl Malden and Agnes Moorehead.If you want to see a nearly flawless and absolutely charming fim,than this is the one to see.Far and away Hayley's best performance..
But in an impressive American screen debut, Hayley Mills launched her career in a most impressive way as Pollyanna.Pollyanna, who is now an orphan, comes to live with her aunt Polly played by Jane Wyman who is one reserved New Englander.
But when the eternally optimistic Hayley Mills comes to live in that town, her infectious spirit seems to effect everyone and everything around her.Pollyanna is one of Disney's best live action films, Mills and the rest of the cast make it believable without being maudlin.
Disney gave Mills and Wyman an impressive roster of players in support that include, Donald Crisp, Leora Dana, Karl Malden, Nancy Olson, James Drury, Reta Shaw, Mary Grace Canfield, and Kevin Corcoran as Mills's partner in juvenile hijinks.Two people deserve special mention.
Her scene at the end with Hayley Mills is the most touching of all in the film.Pollyanna like George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life both never realizes all the good she's done in that town and like Jimmy Stewart's character faces a crisis.
But all her friends rally to her in an It's A Wonderful Life type climax.Walt Disney does a wonderful job in recreating that era before World War I in small town America, very much like The Music Man. Pollyanna is what they mean by fine family entertainment, as good now as it was when I first saw it in theaters in 1960.In fact it might just make one curious enough to check out the Mary Pickford silent version..
We see archival TV footage of Walt Disney commenting on the movie, what Haley Mills thought at the time, what she went through, what her dad (famed actor Sir John Mills) said, and what she thinks NOW, etc.
This movie ,,Pollyanna'' is quite fascinating especially the leading actress makes a wonderful atmosphere while watching the actual film.
It may be thanks to a beautiful cast of experienced actors such as Jane Wyman (as the strict aunt), Karl Malden (as the flaming priest), Adolphe Menjou (as the recluse Mr Pendergast) or Agnes Moorehead (as the hypochondriac Mrs Snow).
People who carp that this is a syrupy sweet film and moan about Disney saccharine movies are missing the point.
POLLYANNA is a sly film about misuse of power, loneliness, bullying and meanness using a good natured teen to counterpoint a town of adults who have lost their way in their own lives.
Aunt Polly's sexual frustration is pointed out several times because, in a family film as sharp as this you can have very adult situations wrapped in gauze and acceptable as a character flaw.
Disney was making many quality family movies during the '60s, including "Pollyanna," which I found to be not as great as some other films from the studio.
With a great cast that includes Richard Egan, Carl Malden, and Hayley Mills, this is a great movie, particularly in the summer, for kids and adults..
Another comment accused the film as being "another one of those Disney feel-good movies." What's wrong with that?
As most films today "try" to say all too often that only bad things happen, this movie gives one the hope that things can turn out for the better, all we need to do is try our best.
Disney continues its fine work into the 60s with the 1960 favorite "Pollyanna." This would be one of many movies that had Hayley Mills taking the center stage in Disney fare.What's so good about her?: She, like, ran the whole Disney thing throughout the 1960s, baby!!!!!
I'd pick Hayley over Raven any other day!!!!!This shows how good old movies like "Pollyanna" really are.
Despite a curious penchant for licking her lips, young Hayley Mills (in only her second film) is a pleasant and lovely presence on the screen.
Wise beyond her years little girl, played to perfection by Hayley Mills, brings a breath of new life and happiness to a town long kept under the thumb of a haughty, unhappy, domineering and wealthy woman.
A little orphan named Pollyanna (Hayley Mills with her English accent intact) goes to live with her strict (but sweet) Aunt Polly (Jane Wyman).
The film is a reminder of life during childhood, and trying to have a good time in a world with so much that one does not understand.The Technicolor processing gives the material an appropriately vibrant feel with sharp, intense colours.
I wasn't around in 1900 to be able to comment properly on the costumes, however the detailed interior and exterior decoration is excellent, providing a real sense of the time.The film has a lot going in its favour, and for that reason it makes fairly good entertainment.
The characters are not much, the storyline is not much, and the film hammers the message home, but most of what it has to say about being happy in life, looking on the bright side, the charm of children and the joy of experiencing childhood, does come across well..
'Pollyanna' is a film about a young girl that goes around making people happy and finding happiness in life.
It's an inspiring little Disney film, and I enjoyed it when I was a child; I have not seen it since then, so it may not be as good from an adult's eyes as it was from the eyes of a child.
My final flaw is that twenty minutes or so before the end, the tone changes and this change was somewhat jarring.Nonetheless, Pollyanna is exquisitely filmed with stunning cinematography, costumes and scenery, and the music is lovely.
Hayley Mills gives a spirited performance in the title role, while Agnes Moorehead comes very close to stealing the film.
Karl Malden, Jane Wyman and Adolphe Menjou also do great turns as the cheerless citizens whose lives are transformed by Pollyanna.Overall, has its faults but it is a solid and charming film.
POLLYANNA succeeds as a wonderful vehicle for HAYLEY MILLS, who was rightly awarded a special juvenile Oscar for her role as the sunshine girl who spreads cheer and good will to a town that really needs some cheering.
JANE WYMAN is fine as her stern and wealthy aunt and the rest of the cast is equally impressive in a variety of supporting roles.Disney has given the tale a wholesome flavor with sets and costumes entirely in keeping with the early 1900s era and spared no expense in hiring the best players for the interesting supporting characters.KARL MALDEN has a fine time with the role of a hellfire and brimstone preacher talking about unconverted souls.
ADOLPHE MENJOU is the misunderstood "meanest man in the world," according to little Kevin Corcoran.And AGNES MOOREHEAD does her usual scene-stealing turn as a crotchety hypochondriac.Although the tale itself might be too syrupy and too commonplace for some folks, it moves along at a brisk pace under David Swift's direction but could have used some tighter editing, with a running time of 2 hours and 14 minutes..
Eleanor Porter's novel about a young orphaned girl who brightens the lives of a whole town with her sunny disposition makes for charming film entertainment.
The film could easily have become sappy and saccharine, but is saved by the sincerity of the performances by an impressive cast- Jane Wyman, Richard Egan, Karl Malden ("DEATH COMES UNEXPECTEDLY!"), Agnes Moorehead, Donald Crisp, Adolphe Menjou, Nancy Olson, to name a few.
Mills is natural and unaffected in the role, and makes Pollyanna feel like a real girl.
The film is a bit on the long side, but the running time is used well, allowing Pollyanna's relationships with the townsfolk to fully develop, and to allow the audience to see just how much her presence contributes to the town.
Pollyanna comes to live with her aunt, who practically owns the town because of her immense wealth, and spreads good cheer everywhere she goes.
Mills is cute in the title role and she is surrounded by a fine cast of familiar faces, including Wyman as the domineering aunt, Egan as an earnest doctor, Malden as a fiery preacher, Olson as love-sick maid, Menjou as a disgruntled old man, and Moorehead as a cantankerous old woman.
"Pollyanna" should appeal to adults who have kept their child's soul.Today's brats may find it slow-moving,overlong (2 hours +) and not exactly action-packed.But they would certainly be scared by Karl Malden's interminable sermon as we were when the movie was theatrically released .Anyway,which director (in a film aimed at the young audience) would devote five (you read well) minutes to a minister ranting about the perils of disbelief?
David Swift succeeded in creating the atmosphere of a small town circa 1900.The setting are sumptuous ,particularly Jane Wyman's desirable mansion.The supporting cast (Agnes Moorehead,Adolphe Manjou,Malden)gives the story (full of finer felings) substance.With its sparkling colors,its cousin Fred,its "America the Beautiful " sung by cute photogenic Hayley Mills wrapped in the flag ,its mini-rainbows,its large slices of cake,its attacks against bigotry and the power of money,its plea for tolerance,love and the pursuit of happiness for everyone,its all-my-friend-are-here finale and its joie de vivre ,"Pollyanna" remains a nice Disney production.Like this?try this"Nell" 1994 Michael Apted.
Hayley Mills is adorable and so talented, and in the story, as Pollyanna, she is an old soul and wiser that the many snooty people in the town.
Hayley Mills is great as the glad girl who brightens up the town and the rest of the cast is also wonderful.They just don't make movies like this anymore, wholesome and perfect for the entire family.Try watching it when your down, you might be singing a different song by the end..
Hayley Mills gives the performance of her childhood as the optimistic twelve-year-old who charms her aunt's entire town and learns to be happy even when she runs into a tragedy of her own.
The all-star supporting cast is first rate as well: Oscar winner Jane Wyman ("Johnny Belinda") is Pollyanna's stern Aunt Polly, Richard Egan ("A Summer Place") is her former love interest, Oscar winner Karl Malden ("A Streetcar Named Desire") is the town pastor, Nancy Olsen ("Sunset Boulevard") is Nancy, Polly's housekeeper, Agnes Moorehead (tv's "Bewitched") is hilarious as the crotchety invalid Mrs. Snow and Adolph Menjou ("Golden Boy") is the reclusive Mr. Pendergast.
I watched this as part of my ongoing Oscar marathon, since it landed child actress Hayley Mills in her U.S. debut (and only second official role) an "Outstanding Juvenile Performance" Honorary Award; incidentally, it was the last time such recognition was bestowed by the Academy and in all, there had been 11 such occasions and 12 recipients – oddly enough, in only a handful of cases (as here) were specific movies cited, namely Margaret O'Brien for MEET ME IN ST.
The film has been issued as a 2-Disc "Vault Edition" DVD, but I only acquired the main feature from ulterior sources.All that remains for me now is to talk about the stellar cast: Mills herself (a very pleasing and natural performance as the titular orphan girl who literally enlivens the fabric of the morose town she visits), Jane Wyman (her embittered matriarchal aunt), Richard Egan (the rebellious doctor and prodigal son of the community who is in love with the latter), Karl Malden (the hellfire-and-brimstone preacher who eventually softens his Bible-thumping grip on the townspeople), Nancy Olson (Wyman's liberal maid and Pollyanna's confidante), Adolphe Menjou (his last film role, as the proverbial hermetical town ogre with a heart of gold), Agnes Moorehead (an inveterate hypochondriac and the feminine counterpart of the latter), Donald Crisp (Egan's uncle and the ineffectual mayor), Kevin Corcoran (a freespirited orphan who befriends Pollyanna and is ultimately adopted by Menjou), Edward Platt (the typical henpecked husband who gradually finds his spine) and Ian Wolfe (an elderly citizen).It is worth noting that, apart from setting off Mills on a brief run of Disney movies – THE PARENT TRAP (1961; a dual role), IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS (1962; one of the studio's best efforts), SUMMER MAGIC (1963), THE MOON SPINNERS (1964) and THAT DARN CAT!
Pollyanna (and young Hayley Mills) tame a Tough Town!.
This film represents...Walt Disney at his best...with quality actors (wow...just put the top 10 actors' names into IMDb and see how IMPRESSIVE each actor is!!!) The story's essence is captured well in a quality script...and a believable young "Pollyanna" in Hayley Mills.
She deserved it.So Pollyanna wins over her town...and young "tween" Hayley Mills tames Aunt Polly (Jane Wyman), as well as Karl Malden, Adolphe Menjou, Donald Crisp, and many, many other fine actors..
It's surprising how long this epic actually runs - almost two and a half hours - given it doesn't feel like an endurance to watch Hayley Mills as the blissfully naive Pollyanna, barely tolerated by her childless Aunt Polly (Wyman), going on to win the hearts of her adopted community after life-changing encounters and a terrible accident.Steve Corcoran is memorable as the rosy-cheeked little rascal whom Pollyanna befriends, as is Agnes Moorhead as the 'cantankerous' bed-bound spinster with an apparent heart of ice, slowly and surely melted by the unassuming youngster.
Richard Egan plays Wyman's love interest, frustrated by her obstinate and negative attitude for which, Pollyanna is just the antidote she privately craves but publicly rejects.It's a typical feel good movie, although the climax is quite confronting if you're ten years old.
based on the book of the same name, it stars mills as the effervescent Pollyanna as she brings joy and happiness to a small town ruled by her seemingly cold and indifferent aunt played by jane Wyman.
there is a lot to like here as the films touches on the many different lives of the towns habitants and how Pollyanna changed them through her charm and presence.
Hayley Mills stars as an orphaned little girl who brings warmth to the hearts of everyone she meets in a town that BADLY needs it.I remember seeing this movie years ago when I was in the firth grade, which would put me at about 10 or 11 years old.
I wish I could track down more titles like these that I saw as a kid.As far as the film, itself, Jane Wyman did a great job playing the rich old spinster and Karl Malden plays a rare role in which he's someone who always tries to show a smile on his face.8 out of 10 stars!.
Toothy Hayley Mills portrays an orphan girl who comes to stay with her stand-offish aunt (Jane Wyman) in a small 1912 town and manages to change almost everybody's life.
Mills plays Pollyanna, an orphan child who comes to a small town to live with her Aunt Polly and ends up reforming and changing the lives of the people of the town.
So many of the scenes in this film are so well done, including Pollyanna bringing joy to a crabby old woman dying in bed, causing the local reverend (Karl Malden) to look for the good in people, and changing the attitudes of the servants in her own household.
One of Disney's all-time best live action movies.***1/2 out of ****.
It is a great story that is full of meaning and nostalgia (which I love).Now before you sit down to watch this film, remember that the book, "Pollyanna,' was a smash hit in the early 1900s.
The film is set in the picturesque town of Harrington where all politics and decision-making are controlled by the wealthiest resident, Polly Harrington (Pollyanna's adopted aunt).
Other notable characters that I loved were Jane Wyman as the prim and proper Aunt Polly, Karl Malden as the fire and brimstone Minister, Adolphe Menjou as the town hermit Mr. Pendergast, Reta Shaw as the cake-baking Mrs. Lagerlof and Agnes Moorehead as the hypochondriacal Mrs. Snow.
All of these characters had great moments of dialogue which made the story seem so real.The one thing I love about Walt-era Disney films is the attention-to-detail.
A Disney's vintage live action mounted with magnificent Technicolor treatment, running more than 2 hours, POLLYANNA is a life-affirming fairytale directed by old-hand writer David Swift as his feature debut, while accidental tragedy sweeps under its carpet.A young girl named Pollyanna (Mills), who has lost her parents and is adopted by her aunt Polly (Wyman) in Harrington's Town, where she is not just a prim wealthy matriarch, but also the mighty decision-maker of the whole town, yes, she is the sole heiress of Harrington family.
There may be spoilers ahead, so if you have not seen the film, you may wish to watch it first--you won't be disappointed.This is the first of a number of films Hayley Mills did for Walt Disney, and probably the best of the lot.
A powerful story, from the Eleanor Porter novel of the same name (which, by the was is a hoot to read), well acted with beautiful cinematography, sets and costuming.Pollyanna (Miss Mills), is the orphaned niece of Miss Polly Harrington (Jane Wyman), an old maid, who is the Grand Dame of the town bearing her family name.
The grand turn-around is best embodied in the character of Reverend Ford (Karl Malden), the pastor of the town's Community Church, when he literally has a "come to Jesus" moment when Pollyanna brings him a note from her Aunt. |
tt0058249 | Le journal d'une femme de chambre | In Normandy at the end of the 19th Century, a beautiful and ambitious young chambermaid named Célestine (Lea Seydoux) enters the service of her new employers, the Lanlaire family, which consists of a bitter wife and her perverted husband. Monsieur Lanlaire has a reputation for molesting and impregnating his chambermaids, while Madame Lanlaire is known for her domineering attitude over her servants and often fires her chambermaids. She also meets the other servants: Marianne, the overweight and homely cook and the mysterious, older Joseph (Vincent Lindon), the groom, who shares a mutual attraction with Célestine.
Throughout the film, Célestine reflects on her past positions, such as to a middle-aged woman with an elderly husband who was humiliated at a train customs stop after being forced to open a box revealing her dildo. Another significant post was her satisfying employment with the sickly young Georges and his kindly grandmother. Georges became infatuated with Célestine as she took care of him and after resisting his advances at first, Célestine has sex with him, only for him to succumb to his illness and die during the act, horrifying her. Numb from the experience, she leaves the position.
In the Lanlaire household, Célestine chafes under the demanding and often unreasonable Madame Lanlaire, who frequently derides Célestine for any delay or error and refuses to let her attend the funeral of her mother. Monsieur Lanlaire quickly sets his sights on Célestine, who rebuffs his advances while secretly plotting to manipulate him. The neighbor, Captain Mauger (Patrick d'Assumçao), who has apparently bequeathed his estate to the servant, Rose after his wife left him for sleeping with her, is also interested in her. Célestine also plots to use Capt Mauger for her own ambitions, but Rose becomes jealous after Capt Mauger kills his obedient pet ferret named Kleber after a comment Célestine makes about the pet.
Célestine finds respite in gossip at the house of the village abortionist and in commiserating with Marianne. In one conversation with Marianne, she learns that Marianne was attracted to one of her old masters, but was kicked out after becoming pregnant by him and was forced to kill her baby; later, she reveals that Monsieur Lanlaire has been raping her regularly and she must get an abortion done. One night, after talking with Marianne, Célestine hears agonized screams coming from the forest, which unsettle her.
The next day, she visits Joseph and learns that he is a rabid anti-Semite and propagates anti-Dreyfus propaganda on behalf of local priests. He dreams of owning a business where he can provide a rendezvous for militant right-wing nationalists and acknowledges that he needs a woman like Célestine to make his plan a success. Later, while gossiping with the other women, Célestine learns that a local prepubescent peasant girl was violently raped, disemboweled and murdered, explaining the screams Célestine had heard at night. Célestine suspects that Joseph is the murderer, as he could be placed at the scene of the crime, but this only makes her more fascinated with him.
Rose dies and Capt Mauger admits to Célestine that Rose had disappointed him after getting a servant of her own and failed to keep up the chores she had when she was a servant. He had hoped to die before her, as he had secretly made a second will nullifying the first, ensuring that Rose would inherit nothing. Capt Mauger offers for Célestine to work for him in the same work and sexual arrangement than Rose had with him, but Célestine only promises to think about it, satisfied with her manipulation of him.
Ultimately, she professes her attraction to Joseph and begs to join him. After having sex with her, he has Célestine assist him in the theft of the Lanlaire's silverware that would fund his plan, a theft which is blamed on a pair of famous French thieves. Joseph shoots dead both the dogs. Police start the probe into the dacoity. The police ask Lanlaires whether they suspected anyone from the household , especially Joseph but they give him a clean chit saying that he had been with them for 15 years and he is very devoted and trustworthy. The police get no clues even after several days of investigation. The case is closed unsolved. Joseph quits his position later and Célestine bides her time waiting for him, befriending Madame Lanlaire to get in her good graces before telling her that she is engaged to be married and must soon quit. One night, she sees Joseph's signal through her window and joins him, ruminating that she has been out-manipulated, acknowledging that he is a devil, but he has her completely in his grasp. They leave for Cherbourg and the carriage disappears into the darkness. | satire, revenge, psychedelic, murder, sadist | train | wikipedia | In the 30's, the witty, literate and quite sophisticated chambermaid Céléstine (Jeanne Moreau) comes from Paris to work for the dysfunctional Monteil family in the country, more specifically for the fetishist on shoes and maniac for cleaning Monsieur Rabour (Jean Ozenne).
He is an incipient Nazi, a xenophobic anti-Semitic man who worships brute force, an ignorant man that every French movie-goer knows will be a Nazi-collaborator once France is under the occupation.The story is seen from the point of view of Celestine, a chambermaid of some sophistication (and an abiding, but understandable duplicity), a Parisian who has come to work for the family in the country.
Luis Buñuel, the man considered Spain's finest filmmaker and revered master of surrealism by both critics and film historians, made a surprising change of style in the first of the series of masterpiece she did in France during his last years.
However, this does not mean the movie is bad as many may believe; quite the opposite, "Le Journal d'eune Femme de Chambre" is a perfect showcase of Buñuel's finest film-making style, ambiguous and stylish, like the master's own vision of life.The plot follows Celestine (Jeanne Moreau), an urban young woman moving to country in 30s France to work as a chambermaid for the Monteils, a rich family with a few dark secrets.
Between the constant advances of sexually insatiable Monsieur Monteil (Michel Piccoli), the always vigilant eye of his materialist wife (Françoise Lugagne) and the shoe fetish of old Monsieur Rabour (Jean Ozenne); Celestine makes her way through this collection of living portraits of the most bizarre human nature.With a plot like this it would easy to believe this is a movie where the high class is demonized and the poor sanctified, but this is not the case here.
Buñuel and his cast manage to create believable and realistic characters.Jeanne Moreau gives a brilliant performance as Celestine.
The rest of the cast is also very good and together with the witty script complete a superb character-driven movie.Buñuel's masterful direction creates a film that, while completely focused on the characters, is still filled with his usual symbolism.
Jean Moreau, the beautiful star of Truffaut's 'Jules And Jim' and countless other Euro art film favourites, gives a brilliant performance as the enigmatic Celestine, maid to The Monteils, a very odd family living in pre-War France.
Having said all this, however, I think that LE JOURNAL D'UNE FEMME DA CHAMBRE aka DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID (1964) is the weakest of the final ten feature films Bunuel made during the most fruitful period of his career (between 1961 and 1977) if such a choice were to be made, that is.Don't get me wrong; I do think that LE JOURNAL is an excellent film and would probably be considered a bona-fide masterpiece if it were made by a lesser director.
There is much to enjoy in the film: Jeanne Moreau's superb central performance as the opportunistic Celestine stricken by an unexpected sense of moral duty prompting her to nail the killer of the child even if she has to marry him to do so; Michel Piccoli's hilarious turn as the eternally insatiable but perennially unsatisfied master of the household who, when his sexual advances towards Celestine are turned down by the latter, has to make do with the ugly-looking house-maid; the aged father-in-law who invites Celestine into his room to read for him, all the while indulging in his foot fetish; the sadistic manservant who thinks nothing of violating and murdering innocent little girls while nurturing dreams of sealing his independence with the purchase of a pub all his own and with Celestine as his partner; the eccentric neighbour who sabotages their garden at every turn and yet yearns for Celestine's companionship, etc.
In fact, as was also the case with the later Bunuel adaptation, the performances here are all first-rate: Hurd Hatfield as the idealistic young son who falls hopelessly in love with Celestine; Judith Anderson as the lady of the house firmly in control of every situation but with some strange alliances of her own; Irene Ryan as a timid scullery maid; Reginald Owen as the weak-willed master of the house perpetually harassed by his wife's demands; and particularly Burgess Meredith (who also wrote the screenplay!) as the half-crazed and shell-shocked retired Army Captain who is their neighbor; but especially Francis Lederer whose portrayal of the devilish manservant Joseph lusting after Celestine while scheming behind the back of his oppressive masters is quite chilling.
Doing some more reading on this film after watching it a couple of times, I found out that there are those who think more highly of Renoir's DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID than I was previously led to believe.
As a matter of fact, I think a similarly fascinating comparison could be made between (incidentally, another favorite director of mine) Josef von Sternberg's final film with Marlene Dietrich, THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN (1935) and Luis Bunuel's cinematic swan song, CET OBSCUR OBJET DU DESIR aka THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE (1977) both of which were adapted from the same source material: Pierre Louys' 'La Femme Et Le Pantin'..
They are always going on about the republicans, ours would fit right in with the anti-semitism and xenophobia.Among all this is the classic acting of Jeanne Moreau, a classy chambermaid, who is even willing to marry a fascist to prove him guilty of murder and rape.
L'ange exterminateur",Bunuel's precedent work had puzzled the audience.The director himself said:"the best explanation for this movie is that there is none.""Le journal d'une femme de chambre" is a return to a more accessible style.It depicts a rotten microcosm where Jeanne Moreau might come as an ange exterminateur.Bunuel's favorite subjects are all here:the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie,here represented by a ludicrous threesome : a husband (Piccoli) whose only pastime is sex,his holier-than-thou wife who tells the priest her husband is so lecherous he wants to make "it" twice a...week!,and the old father,fetishist to the core who enjoys the shiny boots of leather.In parallel,Bunuel shows a sinister gamekeeper(probably Georges Géret's best part),a little girl's assassin.This character , a right wing diehard, is not a man from a distant past,he's still going on in today's France where some people keep on screaming " death to the scum" In his room full of"long live the army" posters,he still thinks he's got God on his side as he wants to relieve the world of "inferior " races such as the Jews.This character is one of the most obnoxious in the whole Bunuel canon.Bunuel's sexual symbols are always here :snails on the raped girl's thighs ;the old man,dead in his bed,clutching his dear boots.The two scenes pack a real wallop for they are placed side by side.Jeanne Moreau does not look like a chamber maid (a character tells her so).She 's not like the mighty ones and the poor ones around her,her almost deadpan attitude -and the way she reads the old man's book- speaks volumes .And even if the sinners escape unharmed, the last picture heralds the coming of the exterminating angel..
The Diary of a Chambermaid is one of Bunuel's most perverse films, in the sense that it deals with decadent behaviors and assorted execrations.
A double-bill of two films transmuting Octave Mirbeau's source novel LE JOURNAL D'UNE FEMME DE CHAMBRE onto the celluloid, made by two cinematic titans: Jean Renoir and Luis Buñuel, 18 years apart.
Renoir's version is made in 1946 during his Hollywood spell, starring Paulette Goddard as our heroine Celestine, a Parisian girl arrives in the rural Lanlaire mansion to work as the chambermaid in 1885, barely alighting from the train, Celestine has already been rebuffed by the haughty valet Joseph (an excellently surly Lederer), and confides to the also newly arrived scullery maid Louise (a mousy and dowdy Irene Ryan) that she will do whatever in her power to advancing her social position and firmly proclaims that love is absolutely off limits, and the film uses the literal diary- writing sequences as a recurrent motif to trace Celestine's inner thoughts.
The same adjective "comedic", "vibrant" certainly doesn't pertain to Buñuel's version, here the time-line has been relocated to the mid-1930s, Celestine (played by Jeanne Moreau with toothsome reticence and ambivalence) more often than not, keeps her own counsel, we don't even once see her writing on the titular diary, she works for Mr. and Mrs Monteil (Piccoli and Lugagne), who are childless but live with Madame's father Mr. Rabour (Ozenne, decorous in his condescending aloofness), an aristo secretly revels in boots fetish in spite of his dotage.
Here the bourgeois combo is composed of a frigid and niggardly wife, a sexed-up and henpecked husband (Mr. Piccoli makes for a particularly farcical womanizer, armed with the same pick-up line), a seemingly genteel but kinky father, and Captain Mauger (Ivernel), here is less cartoonish but no less uppity, objectionable and erratic; whereas Joseph (Géret), is a rightist, anti-Semitic groom whose perversion is to a great extent much more obscene (rape, mutilation and pedophilia are not for those fainted hearts).
Amongst those anathemas, Celestine must put on her poker face, or sometimes even a bored face to be pliant (she even acquiesces to be called as Marie which Goddard thinks better of in Renoir's movie), she is apparently stand-offish but covertly rebellious, and when a heinous crime occurs (a Red Riding Hood tale garnished with snails), she instinctively decides to seek justice and tries insinuating her way into a confession from the suspect through her corporeal submission, only the perpetrator is not a dolt either, unlike Renoir's Joseph, he knows what is at stakes and knows when to jettison his prey and start anew, that is a quite disturbing finale if one is not familiar with an ending where a murderer gets away with his grisly crime.
This movie is more rubbish from the perverted mind of Bunuel, who like most men of the left, is great a criticizing western society and the things that made it strong and workable but never offers solutions that might better it weak points.
Classes differences and human weaknesses have been nicely portrayed by director Luis Buñuel in 'Diary of a Chambermaid'..
French writer Octave Mirbeau's novel 'The diary of a Chambermaid' had achieved immense success due to its association with Dreyfuss affair.It was director Luis Buñuel's natural choice for a film where he could talk in detail about sexual perversity,class differences and human weaknesses.It can be said with certainty that Buñuel has succeeded as his film gives viewers plenty of opportunities to learn more about rich as well as poor people and their idiosyncrasies especially strange circumstances which enable them to behave in given situations.From a cinematographic point of view,this film's fantastic cast has made a lot of difference in the way its message got conveyed.Actor Georges Géret is able to do enormous justice to his role of Joseph as he has villainous looks.
As she was already hailed as a 'sex symbol', actress Jeanne Moreau did not have to work too hard to portray the role of Célestine,a woman who makes good use of her sexual charm to win men around her.Actor Michel Piccoli didn't waste any chances to excel himself as the sympathetic representative of a corrupt,bourgeois society..
This wonderful film seems deceptively simple at first, as Jeanne Moreau plays an attractive maid, coming from Paris to work for an eccentric family in the country, and begins to interact with the various family members and other servants.
The first time I saw Diary of a Chambermaid I did like it, but I didn't find it as fulfilling as some of Luis Bunuel's other later films made in France.
Like more than a few other Bunuel films, some of them in France and others in Mexico, the style Bunuel uses for Diary of a Chambermaid is very controlled, not static but rather formal and, in its paradoxical way to Bunuel's intentions, restrained.
There isn't really a specific story as much as a series of events leading Celestine (the always beautiful Jeanne Moreau) through her time as maid for the Monteils and up to finally breaking free of their own repressive ways.This isn't made really clear until later in the film, including what must have been a 'hot' scene in 1964 for French and other audiences as Moreau is in some kinky maid-wear (it's one of my favorite scenes from the film).
The goods that come with Diary of a Chambermaid, as envisioned by Bunuel, is really in him seeing through the conventional- which he puts forward almost TOO well- and finding enough to criticize and have little bits of fun with.
It's not a surreal-style movie in the Bunuel mode, but he still makes some time to not let anyone off the hook; Celestine does do an about-face from how she previously acted, though so much has happened with the other characters that it's not too much of a surprise.In fact, it's on a very subtle level nearly reaches the gleeful vulgarity and near moral decay of Bunuel's masterwork Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.
The film makes an unusual and perceptive study of human morality the situations depicted in the film may be exaggerated and set in another era, but Luis Bruñel manages to strike an easy resonance with us-the viewers.Although the film spends a lot of time showing the bourgeois and their entourage, the film is mainly concerned with the morally ambiguous chambermaid, Célestine (played by Jeanne Moreau) and the strange servant Joseph.
A maid (Jeanne Moreau) goes to stay with new people, which include a bitch wife, her cheating husband and her father who has a boot fetish.
It's got everything I love Bunuel's films for sinister atmosphere, darker than dark humor, the strange characters living lives of sexual, religious, and social repressions.
Jeanne Moreau, one of the greatest actresses France ever produced, as a titular chambermaid, Celestine adds to the film's many pleasures.
There is also a neighbor, an ex-officer who hates Monteils and loves damaging and breaking his neighbors' things and property."Diary of a Chambermaid" (among many things) was able to show the absolute evil on the raise in the character of Joseph, the farm-laborer, who is sexually attracted to Celestine, a cruel, cold-blooded rapist-murderer and the fascist in such subtle yet scary way that Bertolucci should have watched and studied it for his "1900"..
Working with his collaborator, Jean-Claude Carriere, Bunuel adapted Octave Mirbeau's novel, which by the way, had already been brought to the screen by Jean Renoir, years before this film went into production.
This is what could be considered Luis Bunuel's most realistic work, as he tells a straight forward story with only slight detours into the realm of his beloved surrealism."Diary of a Chambermaid", which takes place at the end of the XIX century in the novel, is set in rural France in the early thirties.
Luis Bunuel's Diary of a Chambermaid places a stone-faced Jeanne Moreau in a country house filled with perverts and watches as she drops her moral standards to inconceivable lows.
Luis Buñuel's stunning film stars Jeanne Moreau & Georges Géret in a clever battle of wills.
Diary of a Chambermaid opened the later French period of Luis Bunuel (1964-1977) during which he made his most well known films such as Belle de Jour, That Obscure Object of Desire and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.
It's a film about fight of the classes, fascism and a satire of the decay of the French society.Set in early 1930's; a new chambermaid, Céléstine (Jeanne Moreau) arrives to the Monteil mansion.
Soon she gets to know the bizarre family full of odd characters; Madame Monteil who seems to be more interested in taking care of their family's furniture than her husband, Monsier Monteil who isn't interested in anything but hunting and Madame's father who is a shoe-fetishist.Céléstine is in between of two worlds; the city and the country, the working class and the bourgeoisie.
On the contrary, the woods symbolize the wild side of man where one's desires and passions run wild, where rules and standards are cut off and, where the rabbits, wild boars and snails are out of control.It's a very clever film - attack on the bourgeoisie, a common subject for Bunuel but he was never as cruel, ruthless and pessimist about it as in Diary of a Chambermaid.
There's not a single character in Luis Bunuel' "Diary of a Chambermaid" that exudes sympathy.
She's the newly hired chambermaid from Paris and working for a rich aristocratic family, the Monteils, she's the unlikely revealer of the mentalities that poisoned France in the mid-30's and that only waited for a catalysis to burst out, the worst way, foreshadowing the worst that was still to happen in the next decade.The gallery of characters who occupy the film is depressing indeed, the wife, Madame Monteil, is a dry, childless and frigid woman who's not keen on sex because of pelvic pain, her husband played by Michel Piccoli is a frustrated man who can only satisfy his sexual urges on any woman that comes at range.
Bunuel beautifully conveyed that feeling."Diary of a Chambermaid" is perhaps a less colorful version of the same world Renoir showed in "The Rules of the Game", as there's no game in the film, unless you mean the game of hypocrisy, frivolity disguised under respectability and unhappiness, the only person who might end up happy after all is the veteran who married Célestine, he was old, she was young and plain, together they deserve each other.
Our main character, the decent chambermaid (played by Jeanne Moreau) tries to do the right thing although by the end of the film the utter futility of this is revealed.When I watched the film, I tried to ignore the fact that I do not share the director's world view.
There may be those who would describe this as Rules Of The Game Lite dealing as it does with the mores of French society in the 1930s but one crucial difference is that Renoir made his film AT THE TIME whereas Bunuel was working a quarter of a century later. |
tt0089945 | Rustlers' Rhapsody | The concept of the movie is explained in a voiceover intro by G. W. Bailey, who wonders what it would be like if one of the 1930s/1940s Rex O'Herlihan movies were to be made today. At that point, in a scene reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz, the cinematography shifts from black & white to color and the soundtrack changes from mono to surround sound.
As a consequence of this paradigm shift, Rex O'Herlihan (Berenger), a "singing cowboy," is the only character aware of the plot outline. He explains that he "knows the future" inasmuch as "these Western towns are all the same" and that it's his "karma" to "ride into a town, help the good guys, who are usually poor for some reason, against the bad guys, who are usually rich for some reason, and ride out again." Rex's knowledge is also connected to the unspecified "root" vegetables he digs up and eats.
On his high-stepping horse Wildfire, Rex rides into the town of Oakwood Estates, walks into a saloon and meets Peter, the Town Drunk (Bailey). In exchange for a free drink, Peter explains the background: the town, and especially the sheep herders ("nice enough, but they smell God-awful"), are being terrorized by the cattle ranchers, headed by Colonel Ticonderoga (Andy Griffith). Also there is Miss Tracy (Marilu Henner), the traditional Prostitute with a Heart of Gold. A local sheriff is "a corrupt old coward who takes his orders from the Colonel."
Blackie, the foreman at Rancho Ticonderoga, swaggers into the bar with two of his henchmen and shoots one of the sheep herders. Miss Tracy objects, hot words are exchanged, and Blackie is accidentally shot in the back by his henchmen. Rex then shoots the guns out of their hands.
Peter exchanges his drunk suit for a sidekick outfit, catches up with Rex, and is reluctantly accepted. (Rex has sworn off sidekicks as they keep dying.) At the singing cowboy's campsite, Peter finds not one but two women there eager to get to know Rex a little better, Miss Tracy and the Colonel's daughter (Sela Ward).
The Colonel goes to the boss of the railroad men (Fernando Rey) – who wear dusters and have theme music like characters in spaghetti westerns – for help. "We should stick together. Look what we have in common: we're both rich, we're both power-mad, and we're both Colonels — that's got to count for something!"
Rex outwits the Bad Guys because he knows their every move before they do. But then the Colonels import "Wrangler" Bob Barber (Patrick Wayne), apparently another Good Guy. Bob psychs out Rex in their first meeting by attacking Rex's claim to be the "most good Good Guy" and pointing out that a Good Guy has to be "a confident heterosexual." "I thought it was just a heterosexual", Rex objects. "No, it's a confident heterosexual," responds Bob.
Rex backs down from the shootout. On his way out of town, while preparing to change roles to that of a sidekick, Rex explains to Peter that he rides into town, kisses the girls and rides out again. "That's all: I just kiss 'em. I mean, this is the 1880s. You gotta date and date and date and date and sometimes marry 'em before they, you know ..."
Bob reports that Rex is finished as a Good Guy. Nevertheless, the Colonels, over Bob's objection, arrange for Peter to be bushwhacked. This rouses Rex to round up the sheep herders and face down Bob and the rancher/railroad combine. Bob is revealed as not a Good Guy at all because, after all, "I'm a lawyer!" Rex shoots him.
Colonel Ticonderoga makes the peace. He apologizes to Rex and throws a party at Rancho Ticonderoga, after which Rex and Peter (who survived because Rex had him wear a bulletproof vest) ride off together into the sunset. | western, satire | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0479008 | Dante's Inferno | The exhumation of Lizzie Siddal's desiccated body is seen, followed by a shot of Rossetti dancing among the flames of a bonfire of paintings by Reynolds and Gainsborough. A voice-over informs us that Rossetti is a founder of a revolutionary group of artists called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The figure of the young Lizzie dressed as Joan of Arc appears above the flames.
Lizzie is seen modelling for Millais' Ophelia and for a painting of Joan by Rossetti. The voice-over states that she eats little and often throws it up. She and Rossetti spend several years together while he paints and draws her, but she spurns his sexual advances, even slashing him with a needle when he presses himself on her. Rossetti turns to the more accommodating Fanny Cornforth.
Lizzie is introduced to laudanum by Emma Brown to alleviate her stomach pain. She is advised by Christina Rossetti that Dante Gabriel needs a patron. Christina's voice-over speaks her poem In an Artist's Studio, about Lizzie. She tells Lizzie she looks ill. Rossetti and Christina visit William Holman Hunt, who is painting The Light of the World. Hunt asks Rossetti to look after his girlfriend Annie Miller while he is away in the Holy Land painting The Scapegoat, but Rossetti has an affair with her and Hunt spurns her on his return. John Ruskin visits Rossetti's studio and shows an interest in Lizzie's art.
Rossetti meets Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris in Oxford and encounters the beautiful Jane Burden. They paint the Oxford Union murals. Jane marries Morris and Rossetti marries Lizzie. Lizzie becomes increasingly hysterical due to her laudanum use and Rossetti's philandering. She dies from an overdose. Rossetti buries his unpublished poems with her.
Some years later, Charles Augustus Howell persuades him to dig the poems up, but Rossetti is haunted by the image of the dead Lizzie and becomes addicted to chloral. Fanny Cornforth rescues him from a suicide attempt, but Rossetti is now increasingly obsessed with Morris' wife Jane. He sleeps with her when Morris is away in Iceland, but she remains distant. Isolated, with only the loyal Fanny to care for him, Rossetti sinks further into addiction. | good versus evil, allegory, violence, satire | train | wikipedia | Innovative take on a literary classic.
I saw this film at the Huntington Beach Film Festival in April 2007, and I loved it!
Sandow Birk has an amazing ability to modernize classics, and his adaptation of the Divine Comedy is a prime example.
I was delighted to see that he still isn't afraid to use popular culture in his work (as evidenced by the many food chains displayed blatantly in the background sets).
Anyone could have made a half-decent film adaptation of the Inferno, but Birk and his crew went above and beyond to display innovation and creativity.
I've never seen a puppet show on film, but this film manages to employ humor with a modern twist, without sacrificing the details of Dante's work.
Granted, this film will not please all audiences and I would be surprised to see it anywhere other than indie-theaters or film fests, but if you have an opportunity to see this, take it!.
A wonderfully fun, unique spin on a literary masterpiece.
If you haven't read Dante's INFERNO (part 1 of THE DIVINE COMEDY), you should.
And once you have, you should check on this delightfully innovative spin on that classic tale.This isn't the INFERNO as Dante wrote it.
Dante has been completely modernized; Hell resembles Los Angeles, the punishments aren't quite what you remember, and the people populating Hell are now familiar faces (Ronald Reagan, Strom Thurmond, Condoleeza Rice).
There's also a good dose of Monty Python and Mike Judge in the black humor that drenches every scene.And while the take has its own novelty, what really elevates the film from good to great is the consistently enjoyable animation.
The use of hand-operated paper cut-out puppets is wonderful.
The care that has gone into crafting the sets and characters themselves is quite impressive indeed.Highly recommended..
I just finished watching this on DVD and have to say it was an interesting experience.
I have been a watcher of animation and a reader of classic books, but to see the two combined in such an unusual manner was well...
refreshing.
I love the fact that the movie was an updated telling of Inferno.
I think that the retelling of the original would be lost to most moviegoers, heck unless you happen to be a historian specializing in the day and age of Dante, you would probably be scratching your head at obscure Italian politicos of the 13th century.
That's why footnotes are lovely in books.
The film seemed to carry the same spirit of the book, in that it was a rousing social and political poem.
But it does carry a strong leftist theme that most conservatives would rather not endure.
The look of the film is, to me, very fresh and amazing.
The amount of work and care in the puppetry is spectacular.
If you are open to a new experience of an old tale give it a try..
Enjoyable tribute to Dante.
You never know what you're going to get with an independent film...Even one that's "won awards." I'm pleased to say that this film both entertained and impressed me visually.
The art style had me nervous at first, but as the film progressed it was clear that these filmmakers put a lot of effort into the look of the film.Of course, you should know this film has no insights to speak of.
This gives a very surface-level account of the inferno...which I read once 8 years ago, and still remember details this film left out.
The film basically defines each level, provides one or two examples, and moves on.
History and philosophy aside, the film does well to keep things low-key, and uses that to their comedic advantage wisely.
The film is never laugh-out-loud funny, but it definitely aims to be a comedy.I wasn't watching this movie for a thought-provoking film, I was just looking for a visually entertaining movie, and it was.8/10.
Great adaptation!.
Yes, this is a puppet show.
Yes, the puppets are kind of cheesy, hand-drawn paper animated with visible sticks.
You know what?
It fits.
The art design is really interesting.
Seeing Hell represented as an allegory of a crowded urban city is very interesting.
They do a very good job of mapping (mostly) outdated "sins" to modern ones.
If you liked the original poem, or even better Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell's novel "Inferno" than you'll enjoy this movie.
To those that say it mocks Dante's beliefs, well, most of the people he populated hell with were political enemies, either contemporaneous or historical, and in those terms the source material could be seen as less about his vision of the afterlife and more a book of schadenfreude celebrating his enemies downfall.
Funny how his allies with similar flaws as his enemies mostly wound up in Purgatory.
I hope they consider making both Purgatorio and Paradiso..
I loved this movie!.
I had been flipping through the channels and I saw a preview for this movie and I thought it looked very interesting so I watched it and fell in love with it.
I went out and bought the modern version of the book.
I loved the art work in the book and being an artist myself I decided to draw a few pieces based on the art in the book.
I latter went back to watch the movie again and found that almost all of the sets (backgrounds) were almost identical to the artwork in the book and the banter between Dante and Virgil was about the same also (although the movie is MUCH more humorous) I think it's a great modern spin on the old classic..
Nothing especially noteworthy.
A group of young filmmakers with virtually no budget set out to make something clever and original -- and while there is a bit of originality and some skilled drawing in this slacker puppet show take on "Dante's Inferno," there is nothing especially clever.
Dante's "Divine Comedy" was a brilliant piece of social commentary.
This film is a vaguely moralistic student film with pretensions to High Art.I suspect those who loved this film were those readily amused by the sophomoric pokes at some icons of the political and/or religious right, and that those who hated it took offense at seeing their favored icons poked.
Be that as it may, few of those pokes actually rose to the level of satire.The high point of the movie is a sudden outbreak of "Schoolhouse Rock" on the subject of lobbying and the "revolving door." It's really a shame that the entire film couldn't have been a musical.
That would have stripped away a great deal of the annoying film school pretentiousness and added a far stronger element of fun..
I spelled Allegeri correct the first time!.
It's been around 10 years since my last run in with anything related to Dante Allegeri.
Junior year of high school we had a project where we had to make our own circle of hell.
Ya know, cut outs, drawings etc.
My circle of hell was dedicated to Pedophiles and Rapists, and it turned out pretty good.
Though I was frowned upon by the nudity.
So getting back on track, I enjoyed Dante's Inferno back then, and when I had the opportunity to watch this version of Dante's Inferno I became pretty excited.
And when it was all said and done, I was pretty impressed with this unique little flick.Present day Dante Allegeri is brought by Virgil (Roman someone) to the 9 circles of hell.
From circles that have places chosen out for Money-Launderers, the angry, and even plain old fashion murderers.
They go from the beginning right to the end, being circle 9.
A linear story, but still a fun one with plenty of creativity.Sometimes the film does feel like it's sole purpose is to be creative in the sense that they're just trying to throw certain celebrities in the circle of hell where they belong.
Like you'd find Marilyn Monroe in the circle where you'll find suicides, and you'll find Cleopatra with all the whores.
Eh, see what I'm saying?
Actually trying to think of people that they mentioned is kinda tough.
They used a ton of well-known people from history and it just kind of mashes together by the end.
But that's not a complaint perse, since the movie showed intelligence and again, creativity.With a witty, and intelligent approach to telling this story, and to the detailed art style it had, the film is definitely recommendable to the right viewer.
Anyone who can appreciate films that clearly are labors of love, like let's say City of Rott or Blood, Tea and Red String, or hell, any film by Jan Svankmajer should find this film to be a welcome addition to their well-rounded viewings..
Darkly humorous with a unique presentation.
Having read the Inferno of Dante's works, it can become a bit stale with all of the adaptations and re-adaptations.
The video game based on the works was okay but limited only to the horror/action genre that it had set itself up to be.
I find this take on the classic to be NOT watered down, but a modern interpretation that a layman can view and perhaps be inspired to look more into it.All of the snobs that say that it's dumbed down apparently don't realize that very old classic literature--especially ones with heavy religious themes--don't click with everyone and can appear on the surface as holier-than-thou to a modern reader.
With this film the basics of not only the horrors of Hell and Dante's enduring love for Beatrice (which would probably seem obsessive and maudlin for today's audience) are presented in a digestible way.
I was already acquainted with the Circles of Hell even before watching this film, but making parallels and connections to what I knew and the "updated" version of it proved to be just as entertaining as if I came knowing little about the source material..
Unfortunately cannot find any more.
It was a good modern take on "Inferno" and delivered well.
Often movies of Inferno are tedious, but this kept me interested without straying from the text too much.
You've got a Dante walking around in a hoodie in a big city through the levels of hell.
He and Virgil meander through airport security, strip malls and less desirable parts of a modern city.
The punished souls of presidents, politicians, popes and pop-culture icons are sentenced to eternal suffering of the most unusual kind.
The two dimensional paper characters tell the story in a simplistic yet imaginative way.
The artistry matches the level of entertainment in the storyline.I am disappointed that I cannot find it for sale or anywhere to stream..
this is a disgrace to Dante's inferno.
Dante would of been mortified, if he knew that his masterpiece was being ACTED OUT PUPPETS!!!
Also the actors who played the puppets are sell outs.
Due to the fact that playing a puppet is not acting it is just basically doing nothing.
No one really will care who the puppet was.
people only care who played a major role in like an actual movie.
this is just annoying how you could mock such an amazing man and his belief, by this dumb little movie.
This should be a crime and....
I cant believe you would ruin a book like that.
I thought the movie was absolutely ridiculous and should be destroyed!!!!
It totally ruins what your suppose to be getting from reading it.
Your just making it a big joke..
They are talking about a new movie..
Warner Bros.'s is talking about making a movie of Dante's Inferno.
I'm hoping that they don't screw it up like 90% of the movies that come out of Hollywood.
Lets try not to be cutting edge about it.
Stay from the video game version of it.
This was one of the best film version that was ever done.
It had a modern twist yet kept the spirit of the book.
As of right now all I can see is over bloated CGs and some bad acting.
Tim Bruton would be able to pull it off.
Please Please no more M Night Shyamalan.
That one trick pony died years ago.
Side note: NO MORE SPIDERMAN MOVIE!!
Uncle Ben was the lucky one, He got to die in the beginning and did not have to watch any of them..
Warning: Anti-conservative propaganda piece..
I was surprised to discover Michael Moore or Bill Maher wasn't involved with this "movie".
An American leftist laundry list of axes to grind, with a distinct sparseness of democrats in Hell.
Mao Zedong and Karl Marx didn't make an appearance in Hell, but Ronald Reagan is in the same room with Hitler?
Perhaps we'll have to wait for these California spin doctors to butcher Paradiso for them to show all of their pet ideologue political figures.Cheap shots at religion, right-wing politicians, corporations and their lobbyists, Fox News, even SUVs. All the radical leftist talking points were too completely covered - while conspicuously omitting references to wrongdoing from the "other side of the aisle" - to not have been a conscious effort.
The singular exception I noticed, in the hour and a half, is JFK has to have sex with Marilyn Monroe for eternity: The token inclusion in these propaganda pieces in a pathetic attempt at appearing non-partisan..
A Contemptible Counterfeit.
This demented left-wing wipe-out trivializes Dante's great work, distorts the genius of the author out of all recognition, inserts hateful ideology, incompetent satire and moronic political commentary in every imaginable place, and itself deserves a place in the Eighth Circle, Tenth Bolgia with the rest of the falsifiers.
Sandow Birk has reserved himself a spot next to it.Stocking Hell with Republican political figures, Fox News helicopters and Christian conservatives is a work of literary sacrilege, to say nothing of extreme liberal bias.
It is, however, unoriginal, tedious and trite.
Nothing in Birk's unworthy and heretical revision is in the least relevant to the original text or is in any way entertaining, humorous or enlightening, despite his smug pretension to the contrary.
I could have eaten a reel of video tape and PUKED a better movie.
I regret the two hours of my life that I lost watching this insult to the very concept of poetry.
Calliope will weep forever. |
tt0827545 | Captain Barbell | In every version of the story, major changes in the story plot are applied, but the core story remains the same. Enteng, a poor, wimpy and skinny but kindhearted boy always gets bullied by other people because he is undersized and easy to pick on. He tries to practice weight training and exercise to improve his physique, but his poor status prevents him to do it properly. He ends up buying (or finding in other versions) an old, secondhand and rusty barbell for him to practice on. He later discovers that the Barbell contains hidden powers, when he lifts it in one hand and shouts the name "Captain Barbell", he transforms to Captain Barbell, a superhero possessing invulnerability, super strength, x-ray vision, incredible speed and the power of flight. With his newfound powers, he fights evil forces and protects the weak and helpless.
In the 2006 TV series, Captain Barbell is shown to have a weakness: Exposure to the element, Askobar.
The movie versions of Captain Barbell had to be redesigned from the comic's original because they're not as muscle bound as the comics version and were not body builders but actors. That's why they have the yellow top and now carry the "CB" symbol on their chest as opposed to the belt buckle logo-and-shirtless-look of 1963.
During times of great upheavals, nature finds a way to expel the magic rock to restore the balance between good and evil and seeks out a host to wield its great power and champion its cause. (There seems to be a possibility that this power source may be the same as Darna's and Lastikman's, both of whom's origins also involved magic "falling stars"). The champions it chooses are usually those who have been victims of society's evils, the disenfranchised, and the meek ones. This is why the power found four social outcast individuals to wield its abilities. But there is a condition: the wielder must only use the power for unselfish purposes and the good of humanity. The abuse of this power holds dire consequences. Unfortunately, when the rock first hit the Earth and got absorbed into the ground, fragments of the rock broke off and in the wrong hands could be very destructive. This is exactly what happened when (in addition to Enteng) extra fragments homed in on the beings that eventually became "Lagablab", "Freezy", and "Dagampatay". | sci-fi | train | wikipedia | Clark should kill this Teng....
And they are calling this as "The ORIGINAL Superhero"???
Who are they kidding.
For those who've seen Smallville should know what I'm talking about.
A lot of elements or should I say situation and characters are strangely copied from Smallville.
Teng is obviously copied from Clark Kent's persona.
His friends Kit and Ryan Yllana's character are what a reminisce of Chloe and Pete.
Yup, I should say Kit is Chloe.
Complete with the hidden feelings for Teng.
And the intuitiveness of Chloe..
I guess it must be safe to say that she too have a "Wall of the Weirds" researching about some fragments or something...
And that Leah, Teng's ultimate crush is no less than Lana Lang...
Levi and Veil Villain (what a lousy name) are the Luthers.
God, even the pilot strongly resembles Smallville.
Well, I do hope that Warner Bros.
should sue GMA networks for this...
Original...
"Ah Clark Kent?
Can you kill Teng?
he's copying you".
This show should NOT be called Captain Barbel, it should be "Scream 2".
The storyline of Scream 2 is about a COPY CAT of the killer, and that's what this show is: TENG IS A CHEAP Imitation OF CLARK KENT IN SMALLVILLE.
The original story of Captain Barbel was interesting and enjoyable, but this one, well...
just plain crap.
The whole story that Mars Ravelo made become a pathetic imitation.
The costumes are terrible.
1 million peso budget?
Oh come on...
its like five centavo!
The script?
God bless the writers and I hope someone with a mind-problem will get them for another show.
The acting was descent, but the leading man was terrible, even Paris Hilton was far better than him.If Mars Ravelo was still alive and if he is watching this show, he might didn't want his name to be credited, and thanks to GMA-7, the heart of crapness.1/10 stars.
the Most Embarrassing Show to come out of Philippine TV.
First & foremost, the original Capt.
Barbell already has an existing storyline which is already a very smart, very witty, and very interesting storyline of a skinny kid known as "Tengteng" who, whenever he lifts the mystic barbell given to him by a strange hermit, transforms into the muscle-bound hero known as Capt.
Only a few of the elements from the original storyline created by Mars Ravelo were altered and improved in the adaptation of the Bob Soler-Dolphy and Herbert Bautista-Edu Manzano movies of Captain Barbell.
Among them was a funny emphasis on Tengteng's love interest, who, before knowing of Captain Barbell, was still in love with Tengteng, but when she met Capt.
Barbell, immediately diverted her attention onto the muscle-bound hero.
In addition, there is the dramatic contrast of Tengteng's skinny features with his alter-ego, the musclebound, evil-crushing Capt.
Barbell.
Barbell.
I am tempted to imagine that there is some kind of influence that has put Richard Gutierez on both roles because, if he plays only one role of either Tengteng or Capt.
Barbell, he would have a very minor screen time.
And of course, he wouldn't take a minor role.
Even though, in my opinion, the Imaw the puppet in Encantadia is a better actor than he is.
In this act of actor-worship committed by the producers of the show, they have destroyed the one element that has made Capt.
Barbell unique among any other local superheroes, also eliminated the chances to make great story lines out of this comedic scenario that CB has with his skinny alter-ego Teng-teng.In furtherance of what appears to be superstar-worship on the part of the producers, their version of Teng-teng is named in a seemingly pop idol nickname "Teng" whose only distinct feature apart from his Capt Barbell persona is a silly little facial scar.
It borderlines itself to hilarious comedy that what hides another's secret identity is a lack of cosmetics that will take off facial blemishes.
Maybe it is superstar-worship at work that the scar is made so small and the Teng-"look" so non-pathetic that it still qualifies as "teen flick protagonist look".
I can imagine the actor telling the producers "Please, don't make me too ugly...
I still want to look gwapo" If the producers only had some manner of artistic sense and less of that stereotype tacky-minded and narrow-minded factor, they should've cast people who indeed fit the roles of Tengteng and Captain Barbell; Maybe some skinny comedian like Pekto or Rainier Castillo for Tengteng, and they should've had auditions for bodybuilders who are fitting enough for the role and have the talent to act.GROSS LACK OF ORIGINALITY A single afternoon episode of the radio drama CONDORILLA has MORE originality than the entire 2 or more weeks of the Capt.
Barbell series since its start, up till the present episode.
Each and every detail of the characters and incidents in the Captain Barbell series has been unmistakably similar to the sequences in the Superman movies (both in Smallville and in Superman the movie).
Unmistakably similar to a point that it would be unbelievable to qualify it as something coincidental.
The gross lack of originality that surrounds this project is so severe that one would jump to the conclusion that the show's pool of writers are a bunch of talentless hacks.
Even the character's names are hilariously un-original; In the show, Cabtain Barbell's parents are named Capt.
B and his wife, Mrs. B.
Their enemy is simply known as General.
And his henchman that killed Capt.
B is Commander X (to make things worse, his appearance & costume design looks exactly like Peque Gallaga's "Batang X" which makes the character a grown-up version of Batang X).
Are their writers so untalented that they can't even give decent believable character names?
They all sound like characters from a laundry soap commercial.Captain Barbell is laced with numerous ridiculous sequences too.
Some of the heroes would face off against Robotic foot soldiers clearly armed with laser rifles yet, when they fight each other, they often end up resorting to mere fisticuff & martial arts.
Instead of utilizing what already is an established and original storyline of a Pinoy superhero, the producers of the show tarnished that Pinoy superhero reputation by making their own version, which is a mere copycat of the obviously popular Superman storyline.
Before Superman's parents would die, they sent their son to Earth via a space pod; before CB's parents died, they sent their son to present-day Earth via Time pod.
Even though time pods travel through time, we see the time pod on the CB show zooming like a falling meteor, apparently traveling from outer space instead of from another time dimension.The Captain Barbell TV series insults the reputation of the Filipino talent in the field of TV & movies.
Instead of cleaning the reputation, it makes the local industry look worse.
Sure, the masses may love it; their ratings may soar; but history will remember it to be an embarrassing project that makes the local industry look bad.
These big production and network companies have the power to influence the taste of the masses.
Look at ENCANTADIA.
It was smart, refreshing and inventive, and it did not stop the masses from loving it..
Hit and miss.
Rarely do I give positive reactions to prime time soaps nowadays, and one of those lucky TV programs that gets some sort of praise is "Captain Barbell", the latest superhero soap to hit GMA prime time after the highly-embarrassing "Darna" (whose creators spawned another moronic fantasy soap opera entitled "Majika", but that is another article).Surprisingly, the lead character of Teng is effectively portrayed by Richard Gutierrez, the current network's prime time superstar.
This is in contrast to his previous work in "Sugo" wherein he plays enigmatic but uninteresting characters.CB is the creation of the Philippines' top comic book creator Mars Ravelo, the same guy who made "Darna" and "Dyesebel".
Captain Barbell's original story was about Tengteng, the urban poor boy who transforms into a superhero to save the day.
CB's soap TV reincarnation gets a highly science-fictionalized face-lift by inserting various Marvel and DC Comics story lines into the picture; and this is where the show goes horribly wrong.Firstly, it was perfectly obvious that certain story elements were shamelessly copied from well-known comic book/movie stories such as Superman, Spider-man, and even the time-traveling elements of the "Terminator" movies.
The reason for this is that the writers probably thought that the kids who watch the show might relate to the story better if they find some of the story elements familiar; however, to us adults we find this laughable.As the story goes along, we find ourselves immersed into the trials and tribulations of Clark...
Er, Teng, the boy who would eventually become the country's greatest superhero.
However, later on, as if adjusting to amazing powers were not enough, fate (or the writers) decided to add the stereotypical soap opera antagonist in the person of Sunshine Dizon, the greedy and jealous relative.Afterwards, we root for the hero again as the writers use the characterizations to effectiveness.
The entrance of wildly fun villains such as Rufa Mae Quinto make the story delightful to watch.
This writing creativity, in turn , is contradictory to CB past enemies in the show such as Bubog (who is the Filipino version of a villainous Wolverine) and Adobe (who is an obvious amalgam of Absorbing Man and Colossus) who were stereotypical and tiring.All in all, CB is a hit and miss show; sometimes it is effective and entertaining, most times it is tedious and laughable.
So far, it is still in its enjoyable phase; and I'm still keeping my expectations low that it will get better anytime soon.Please visit www.innocentyears.blogspot.com for more commentaries and for you recations..
an entirely NEW Captain Barbell.
SMALLVILLE-INSPIRED It was very disappointing that the series was nevertheless inspired by "Smallville".
The original Filipino superhero was already dubbed as a "Smallville copycat".
Smallville is Marravelos.
Clark Kent is Teng.
Kit is Chloe.
Leah is Lana.
Bobby is Pete.
The Villains are the Luthers.
Krypton is Askobar.
VERY DISAPPOINTING in the sense that they changed the entire story and history of Captain Barbell.
I was wondering why do they have to do that when in fact, CB has already its original premise, original story, original characters and villains.
I wonder how Mars Ravelo would react if he was still alive.
FAKE-MUSCLES Another thing subject to criticism is the superhero's costume.
It was hyped as being made by Miles Teves, a renowned Filipino-American costume maker in Hollywood.
Teves is credited for the Batman, Spiderman, Robocop and Superman costumes.
However, it is also disgusting.
Richard Gutierrez has a very gorgeous hunky body and he would look more regal if he wears a body-hugging CB costume (like the original CBs did) His hyped "million-dollar" costume (according to press release) is disappointing.
Who would love seeing CB battling with his foes with his fake muscles accentuated?
Furthermore, the suit's yellow color irritates the audience.RICHARD AS BOTH TENG & CB In previous incarnations, Teng and CB are two characters.
Teng is often played by a skinny comedian and CB by a hunky Filipino actor.
Obviously, for publicity reasons, the tradition was not followed.
In this case, Richard plays both Teng and CB.ON THE LIGHTER SIDE Despite all those issues and criticisms, CB has managed to soar high on Philippine TV by consistently topping the ratings.
Setting aside the its Smallville plot, I myself enjoyed the run of the series.
One thing commendable is the true-to-life acting of Camille Prats.
This former-child star proved her acting prowess in the series.
It can also be noted that Richard Gutierrez had improved his craft.
This is his best performance as an actor as of the moment.
Richard and Camille has undeniable chemistry as Teng and Kit and I was hoping that their characters would end up together.
Newcomer Rhian Denise Ramos is promising.
The supporting cast is powerhouse.
The effects is awesome.
The best super villain that made a cameo in the series for me is Aerobika, played by Rufa Mae Quinto.
Her comic antics added excitement and humor to the show. |
tt0115674 | Big Bad Beetleborgs | === Season 1 ===
Set in the fictional town of Charterville, three "typical average kids"—two siblings, Drew (Wesley Barker) and Jo (Shannon Chandler/Brittany Konarzewski), and their friend Roland (Herbie Baez)--enter the supposedly haunted Hillhurst Mansion after accepting a dare from rich snobs Van and Trip. The house is revealed to be the home of real monsters when the kids accidentally bump a pipe organ, releasing a phantasm named Flabber (Billy Forester). He proves to be friendly, and in return for releasing him, offers to grant them one wish. They wish to become their comic book heroes, the Big Bad Beetleborgs. However, this also brings the Beetleborgs' sworn enemies to life: the Magnavores, led by the evil Vexor, who would summon monsters from the comic books to battle the Beetleborgs. Roland's mom and dad run the comic book shop along with his grandmother Nano. In a 6-parter, Vexor created his own Beetleborg, Shadowborg, which was a match for the Beetleborgs and briefly took their powers. They had to call a temporary Beetleborg (White Blaster Beetleborg) Josh, and after Shadowborg was destroyed, Josh lost his powers. The Beetleborgs would meet the Beetleborgs comic creator, Art Fortunes, during this six-part story in order for him to create the White Blaster Beetleborg and the Mega Blue Beetleborg.
In the penultimate episode of the first season, the Magnavores steal a picture of a new villain named Nukus from Art Fortunes' office. They bring him to life to enlist his help in destroying the Beetleborgs. Nukus assists them by planning devastating attacks on the city and creating Borgslayer, a hybrid of all the Magnavore monsters. Unbeknownst to the Magnavores, Nukus was actually plotting to get rid of them. Nukus tells Van and Trip (who were fleeing Charterville during Borgslayer's attack to their father's country estate) how to defeat Borgslayer, and orders them to take the information to the Beetleborgs. They succeed in destroying Borgslayer, causing the Magnavores to be swept back into the comics.
=== Season 2 ===
At the start of Season 2, Nukus has challenged the Beetleborgs. Despite Art's warning that Nukus is too powerful, they face him anyway. Nukus quickly wipes them out, destroying their Beetleborgs armor, weapons, and powers in one fell swoop.
These events lead directly into the second season Beetleborgs Metallix. In it, the Crustaceans have replaced the Magnavores as the Beetleborgs' new arch-enemy. Nukus discovers that his creator is actually Art's incarcerated brother Les Fortunes. Nukus busts Les out of prison. Les now serves him by creating new villains to serve him and monsters for him to use. In response, Art creates new powers, armor, vehicles, and weapons, which Flabber then brings to life again for the kids, who rechristen themselves as Beetleborgs Metallix, hence the title. They are later assisted by the Astralborgs, four Beetleborgs created by Art Fortunes as a child when he and Les worked together on their only collaboration, the Lost Comic.
Nukus formed his own evil group named the Crustaceans. He would later recruit more faithful followers from the Lost Comic in the form of the Mantrons. Nukus and Vilor eventually gained upgraded Mega forms. To counteract this, the Beetleborgs were given an upgrade by Roboborg who fused their Metallix powers with their original powers creating the Mega Spectra Beetleborgs. Vilor's "mega" form did not last long and he quietly returned to his original look without explanation. However, Mega Nukus retained his upgraded look.
The series concluded with the Beetleborgs gaining the enemy Boron as an ally, stripping Nukus of his greatest weapon during the fight against Repgillian. Les Fortunes makes the decision to return willingly to Charterville Prison, disabling Nukus' ability to create new monsters out of illustrations. With no known way of returning the Crustaceans to the comic world, the Beetleborgs were left with an unresolved final battle with what was left of their foes. | good versus evil | train | wikipedia | Okay, I guess....
This show had a rather interesting premise.
The main stuff of a story was a lot like Power Rangers, but sub stories dealt with the these goofy monsters that lived in a haunted house.
They had some interesting stories and was a lot better than the other stuff on the Fox line up..
This was my favorite show when I was in 3rd grade.
It was better than Power Rangers because the heroes are usually younger kids that work at a comic book shop who are less taller and their costumes are based on an insect just like the kamen riders.
They fight monsters that were brought to live from comic books.
My favorite character was The Blue Stinger, I even had the action figure of this guy but I threw it away a long time ago.
It was first aired on Fox Kids then in a few short years later, it was re-running on UPN United Paramount Pictures.
It was a good show..
One of my joys as a kid..
Aside from Power Rangers, Big Bad Beetleborgs was one of my many favorite television shows to look forward to.
It had a lot of stuff that Power Rangers had, which was enough for me to watch it.
But it was a bit different though.Three kids who love comic books are given one wish by a friendly ghost, Flabber.
The kids wish they were their favorite comic book characters, the Beetleborgs!
Drew McCormick becomes the Blue Stinger Beetleborg, and the leader of the team.
He gains the power of telekenesis.
His sister, Jo, becomes the Red Striker Beetleborg.
She gains the power of super strength.
Their friend, Roland Williams, becomes the Green Hunter Beetleborg.
He gains the power of super speed.
After fighting several monsters made by the bad guys, the Magnavors, they create their own Beetleborg, the evil Shadowborg.
Shadowborg easily decimates them, causing the team to make a 4th member.
An artist creates the White Blaster Beetleborg, and gives the powers to a classmate of theirs, Josh Baldwin.
Josh defeats Shadowborg, but loses his powers as well.Score: ***.5/*****.
Beetleborgs Metallix Rule!!!.
I thought that the Big Bad Beetleborgs Movie kicked major butt!!!
Exspecially Nukus (he's sooooo hot)!
I like watch that movie 24-7, and I never get tired of it.
Go Beetleborgs!!!
I think that the whole series of Beetleborgs were cool mainly the Metallix series (cause Nukus was in it); I like it because they didn't repeat the episode plots.
Like power rangers it was the same thing all the time with the vilains, but in Beetleborgs it was different.
They had more to it, it was funny, and the people in them acted better it didn't seem fake like in power rangers..
Now that I look back at this, I think it was a pretty good show.
It was something like Power Rangers, but not as good.
especailly the Power Rangers series today.
They are 10 times better than this.
But I was never happy when a show had a kid as a hero, but this show pulled it off with 3 kids as superheroes.
I think if the japanese version "Metal Heroes" continued in Japan, Beetleborgs would probably have gotten better just like Power Rangers..
Something positive.
This show was okay.
It had some neat stories and some effects which were not all that bad.
It had a more serious aspect to it than early Power Rangers.
The biggest problem with this show was how it tried to fit in too much, with all weapons, allies and villains.
They should of tried to space it out.
Otherwise, this was a pretty good show..
Otherwise, this was a pretty good show..
Big Bad Beetleborgs was the best.
The actors were talented , they were very young but great.
If they want , they can have a long career.
It was better than Powers Rangers !
It was better than Powers Rangers !
I never missed Beetleborgs.
In Belgium and France, Beetleborgs was the best show.
It was great !!!!.
I enjoyed this more than the Power Rangers.
This show was actually really good: I found it to be really entertaining.
The show is underrated.
I remember watching this as a child on Fox Kids, and I just fell in love with it; in fact, it was one of my favourite shows out there.
I never ever wanted to miss an episode of BeetleBorgs.
It's very similar to the Power Rangers if you ask me or anybody.
Unlike the Power Rangers, which had several seasons, BeetleBorgs ran for short time and delivered from start to finish.
Even season one was just as good as season two.
What I enjoyed the most about BeetleBorgs were the characters.
I like the name of the show "BeetleBorgs", and I like the idea where monsters came out of comic books..
Beetle Blast!.
I have had a fascinations with insects, robots, monsters, and drawing and this season was the perfect marriage of those things.
I only saw this season but is was good enough.
I liked how the heroes were able to think and use their powers outside of battle creatively, especially with their "Bug-out" power which transforms them into insects.
The armor, weapons, vehicles and monsters were very cool, especially head villain Nukus (played with utter glee by Christopher Cho).
Do I have a favorite Beetleborg?
One particular episode with a Piranha monster proved that.
It was good mindless relief for a time and the other factor was that the show ended rather abruptly due to lack of stock footage.
Otherwise it was a good, less violent and equally enjoyable experience..
yes, something obviously went wrong, sometimes we see horrible and awful things sometimes we can't control but this this was obviously a tradegy I do not know what in the world these creators were thinking how huh what?
Were they thinking you know?
Fox kids really makes some of the most worse and annoying shows for kids now I admit I got sucked into crap like the power rangers, and this show but the power rangers wasn't as retarded as this show,It makes absolutely no sense i don't know how I (I was young and didn't know any better and I was 8) and millions of other kids thought this was cool but now as I look back on it were we all on crack back then?
for advice if this show gets back on air for your sake Do Not Watch This Show!!!.
This Show is the best.
This Show is the best.
I woke up one saturday morning and found this show on Fox.
It was one of the coolest shows I've ever seen!
Wait, I'm wrong, it is THE best show I've ever seen!
It was at least 10 times better than Power Rangers and at least 5 times better than the original "Big Bad Beetleborgs" This one had cooler suits, cooler weapons, and cooler enemies.
The Robot Saga was the best, where they had to fight robots.
This show is fantastic!
Where Can I Buy it?.
I would really like to buy the series of Beetleborgss if anyone knows where I could find it pleasee tell me!
a guy down there told us that this show was not for adults but i believe it is no matter how old u r i think it would be fun to recall my on Beetleborgs...I would really like to buy the series of Beetleborgss if anyone knows where I could find it pleasee tell me!
a guy down there told us that this show was not for adults but i believe it is no matter how old u r i think it would be fun to recall my on Beetleborgs...I would really like to buy the series of Beetleborgss if anyone knows where I could find it pleasee tell me!
i really liked this show and need to see it!
i really liked this show and need to see it!
i really liked this show and need to see it!
a guy down there told us that this show was not for adults but i believe it is no matter how old u r i think it would be fun to recall my on Beetleborgs |
tt0013014 | Cinderella | Villains: In some versions, her father plays an active role in the humiliation of his daughter; in others, he is secondary to his new wife, Cinderella's stepmother; in some versions, especially the popular Disney film, Cinderella's father has died and Cinderella's mother has died also.
Although many variants of Cinderella feature the wicked stepmother, the defining trait of type 510A is a female persecutor: in Fair, Brown and Trembling and Finette Cendron, the stepmother does not appear at all, and it is the older sisters who confine her to the kitchen. In other fairy tales featuring the ball, she was driven from home by the persecutions of her father, usually because he wished to marry her. Of this type (510B) are Cap O' Rushes, Catskin, All-Kinds-of-Fur, and Allerleirauh, and she slaves in the kitchen because she found a job there. In Katie Woodencloak, the stepmother drives her from home, and she likewise finds such a job.
In La Cenerentola, Gioachino Rossini inverted the sex roles: Cenerentola is oppressed by her stepfather. (This makes the opera Aarne-Thompson type 510B.) He also made the economic basis for such hostility unusually clear, in that Don Magnifico wishes to make his own daughters' dowries larger, to attract a grander match, which is impossible if he must provide a third dowry. Folklorists often interpret the hostility between the stepmother and stepdaughter as just such a competition for resources, but seldom does the tale make it clear.
Ball, Ballgown, and Curfew: The number of balls varies, sometimes one, sometimes two, and sometimes three. The fairy godmother is Perrault's own addition to the tale. The person who aided Cinderella (Aschenputtel) in the Grimms's version is her dead mother. Aschenputtel requests her aid by praying at her grave, on which a tree is growing. Helpful doves roosting in the tree shake down the clothing she needs for the ball. This motif is found in other variants of the tale as well, such as The Cinder Maid, collected by Joseph Jacobs, and the Finnish The Wonderful Birch. Playwright James Lapine incorporated this motif into the Cinderella plotline of the musical Into the Woods. Giambattista Basile's Cenerentola combined them; the Cinderella figure, Zezolla, asks her father to commend her to the Dove of Fairies and ask her to send her something, and she receives a tree that will provide her clothing. Other variants have her helped by talking animals, as in Katie Woodencloak, Rushen Coatie, Bawang Putih Bawang Merah, The Story of Tam and Cam, or The Sharp Grey Sheep—these animals often having some connection with her dead mother; in The Golden Slipper, a fish aids her after she puts it in water. In "The Anklet", it's a magical alabaster pot the girl purchased with her own money that brings her the gowns and the anklets she wears to the ball. Gioachino Rossini, having agreed to do an opera based on Cinderella if he could omit all magical elements, wrote La Cenerentola, in which she was aided by Alidoro, a philosopher and formerly the Prince's tutor.
The midnight curfew is also absent in many versions; Cinderella leaves the ball to get home before her stepmother and stepsisters, or she is simply tired. In the Grimms' version, Aschenputtel slips away when she is tired, hiding on her father's estate in a tree, and then the pigeon coop, to elude her pursuers; her father tries to catch her by chopping them down, but she escapes.
Furthermore, the gathering need not be a ball; several variants on Cinderella, such as Katie Woodencloak and The Golden Slipper have her attend church.
In the three-ball version, Cinderella keeps a close watch on the time the first two nights and is able to leave without difficulty. However, on the third (or only) night, she loses track of the time and must flee the castle before her disguise vanishes. In her haste, she loses a glass slipper which the prince finds—or else the prince has carefully had her exit tarred, so as to catch her, and the slipper is caught in it.
The identifying item: The glass slipper is unique to Charles Perrault's version and its derivatives; in other versions of the tale it may be made of other materials (in the version recorded by the Brothers Grimm, German: Aschenbroedel and Aschenputtel, for instance, it is gold) and in still other tellings, it is not a slipper but an anklet, a ring, or a bracelet that gives the prince the key to Cinderella's identity. In Rossini's opera "La Cenerentola" ("Cinderella"), the slipper is replaced by twin bracelets to prove her identity. In the Finnish variant The Wonderful Birch the prince uses tar to gain something every ball, and so has a ring, a circlet, and a pair of slippers. Interpreters unaware of the value attached to glass in 17th century France and perhaps troubled by sartorial impracticalities, have suggested that Perrault's "glass slipper" (pantoufle de verre) had been a "squirrel fur slipper" (pantoufle de vair) in some unidentified earlier version of the tale, and that Perrault or one of his sources confused the words; however, most scholars believe the glass slipper was a deliberate piece of poetic invention on Perrault's part. The 1950 Disney adaptation takes advantage of the slipper being made of glass to add a twist whereby the slipper is shattered just before Cinderella has the chance to try it on, leaving her with only the matching slipper with which to prove her identity.
Another interpretation of verre/vair (glass/fur) suggested a sexual element—the Prince was 'trying on' the 'fur slipper' (vagina) of the maidens in the kingdom, as a 'Droit du seigneur' right of sexual possession of his subjects. The disguised Cinderella's 'fur slipper' was of unique appeal to the Prince who sought her thereafter through sexual congress (a variety of sources including Joan Gould).
The translation of the story into cultures with different standards of beauty has left the significance of Cinderella's shoe size unclear, and resulted in the implausibility of Cinderella's feet being of a unique size for no particular reason. Humorous retellings of the story sometimes use the twist of having the shoes turn out to also fit somebody completely unsuitable, such as an amorous old crone. In Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad, the witches accuse another witch of manipulating the events because it was a common shoe size, and she could only ensure that the right woman put it on if she already knew where she was and went straight to her. In "When the Clock Strikes" (from Red As Blood), Tanith Lee had the sorcerous shoe alter shape whenever a woman tried to put it on, so it would not fit.
The Revelation: Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters (in some versions just the stepsisters and, in some other versions, a stepfather and stepsisters) conspire to win the prince's hand for one of them. In the German telling, the first stepsister fits into the slipper by cutting off a toe, but the doves in the hazel tree alert the prince to the blood dripping from the slipper, and he returns the false bride to her mother. The second stepsister fits into the slipper by cutting off her heel, but the same doves give her away.
In many variants of the tale, the prince is told that Cinderella can not possibly be the one, as she is too dirty and ragged. Often, this is said by the stepmother or stepsisters. In the Grimms' version, both the stepmother and the father urge it. The prince nevertheless insists on her trying. Cinderella arrives and proves her identity by fitting into the slipper or other item (in some cases she has kept the other).
The Conclusion: In the German version of the story, the evil stepsisters are punished for their deception by having their eyes pecked out by birds. In other versions, they are forgiven, and made ladies-in-waiting with marriages to lesser lords.
In The Thousand Nights and A Night, in a tale called "The Anklet", the stepsisters make a comeback by using twelve magical hairpins to turn the bride into a dove on her wedding night. In The Wonderful Birch, the stepmother, a witch, manages to substitute her daughter for the true bride after she has given birth. Such tales continue the fairy tale into what is in effect a second episode.
In an episode of Jim Henson's The Storyteller, writer Anthony Minghella merged the old folk tale Donkeyskin (also written by Perrault) with Cinderella to tell the tale of Sapsorrow, a girl both cursed and blessed by destiny.
Many popular new works based on the story feature one step-sister who is not as cruel to Cinderella as the other. Examples are the film Ever After, Cinderella 3 and the Broadway revival.
=== Revisionist retellings ===
Ever After (known in promotional material as Ever After: A Cinderella Story) is a 1998 American romantic comedy-drama film inspired by the fairy tale Cinderella, directed by Andy Tennant and starring Drew Barrymore, Anjelica Huston, and Dougray Scott. The usual pantomime and comic/supernatural elements are removed and the story is instead treated as historical fiction, set in Renaissance-era France. It is often seen as a modern, post-feminism interpretation of the Cinderella myth.
There is also Gregory Maguire's novel Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, which gives the classic story from the view of one of the ugly stepsisters. In this version, the Cinderella character is unusually beautiful, but also a shy enigma. Her stepsister, though plain, is charming and intelligent. The novel has themes much more adult than the traditional story.
Likewise there is a Marissa Meyer novel Cinder, which is set in a futuristic Beijing. The Cinderella character, named Cinder, is a cyborg mechanic, who meets Prince Kaito.
Gail Carson Levine wrote Ella Enchanted, a story about how "Ella" is under a fairy curse of obedience (she does whatever someone tells her to). A movie also has been made based on this book.
In 1982, Roald Dahl rewrote the story in a more modern and gruesome way in his book Revolting Rhymes.
In his book Dr. Gardner's Fairy Tales for Today's Children, Dr. Richard A. Gardener's story "Cinderelma" has the heroine Cinderelma and the prince re-unite, then mutually decide to separate. Cinderelma then gets a job as a seamstress, later opens her own dress shop, and marries a young printer who owns the shop next door to hers.
In 1995, Richard Conlon's play Anastasia and Drizella was produced at Chicago's Temporary Theatre. In it, Cinderella's step sister Anastasia gets a master's degree in finance, and her step sister Drizella gets a master's degree in chemical engineering. When the prince tries to have Cinderella's step family beheaded, Anastasia buys the kingdom. The prince and Cinderella get married, and spend the rest of their lives working as servants for Cinderella's step family, while the step sisters live happily ever after.
In the 2005 picture book Ella's Big Chance by Shirley Hughes, Ella is a dressmaker in her father's shop, and when the stepsisters arrive they appoint themselves as models. Ella eventually chooses to marry Buttons, an employee in the shop, instead of the prince.
In Emily Short's 2006 interactive fiction short story Glass, it is Cinderella herself who has magical powers, and neither her stepmother nor her stepsisters are malicious. The royal ambitions of the stepmother plays a small part in their attempt to deceive the prince, but more importantly they are trying to protect Cinderella from the law of the land, under which practicing magic is punishable by death.
In 2014, Bad Wolf Press published a musical version called Cinderella: A Modern Makeover, a fractured interpretation of the story featuring a more positive "blended family" home life as well as a heroine trying to get her dream job at the palace instead of a marriage proposal.
Also in 2014, Rae D. Magdon published an unusual retelling of the story in a novel titled The Second Sister, in which the protagonist, Ellie, is somewhat forced into stopping one of her step-sisters from enchanting the Prince and take over the entire Kingdom. In order to do this, she receives the help of a shy maid, a friendly cook, a talking cat, and her mysterious second sister.
Anne Sexton wrote an adaptation as a poem called "Cinderella" in her collection Transformations (1971), a book in which she re-envisions sixteen of the Grimm's Fairy tales.
The Throne of Glass series, written by Sarah J. Maas, is inspired by the story of Cinderella.
Bridget Hodder has written The Rat Prince, a middle grade novel telling the Cinderella story from the point of view of one of Cinderella's rodent friends. FSG/MacMillan is publishing the book August 23, 2016. | fantasy | train | wikipedia | This early Disney version of Cinderella is worth a look for his fans.
Nearly 28 years before making the classic feature-length animated version of Cinderella, Walt Disney made a short 7-minute version for the Laugh-O-Grams studio in Kansas City.
In this one, the title character is doing dishes with her cat while her stepsisters are lying around reading the papers (there is no evil stepmother here).
I better mention that this takes place in the '20s with flappers and cars.
Meanwhile, the prince is out hunting for bears (in this sequence, the bears are dancing just before the prince ties them up in one rope!).
After he sends his cat with the invitations, that cat gets a little injured but when someone asks if he's all right, he hits him with his stilt!
After the stepsisters leave Cinderella and the cat alone in the house, the fairy godmother gets them a car with a flapper dress for the girl.
If you know the story you can probably guess what happens at this point on.
I will also mention that Cinderella and the prince look similar to the characters in the first cartoon Disney made, Little Red Riding Hood.
The animation here is actually an improvement from his first two that I saw on YouTube.
So on that note, I highly recommend this first version of the famous fairy tale made by the legendary Walt Disney..
charming early Disney.
This very basic animation ('Laugh-o-Matic') was one of Walt Disney's first ventures into the world of animation, and into the fairytale of Cinderella, which he would eventually release as a feature cartoon in 1950.Crudely drawn, this cartoon still has the hallmarks of Disney - the characters have personality even within the limits of the drawings, the story is funny as well as sentimental, and all of the story is there including the run away at midnight as the spell is broken (which leads to a nice gag involving the Prince which I won't spoil here).A delight to watch just to see where the seed of the idea for the eventual movie success came from.
It can be found on the DVD of Cinderella, Special Edition, as an extra..
Disney's Early Take.
Cinderella (1922) *** (out of 4) Walt Disney directed this early cartoon from the Laugh-O-Gram.
The story is pretty simple as Cinderella wants to go to the Prince's ball but of course her evil stepsisters won't allow that.
Thankfully her Fairy Godmother shows up just in time.
There's really nothing overly special about this film other than the fact that Disney worked on it.
If you took away that interesting bit of history then it's doubtful too many people would be seeking this version out.
However, it's impossible to get away from who directed it so if you happen to watch this version you'll see it's nothing too special but it remains mildly entertaining.
The animation itself was good for its period but I think the highlight is just seeing how weird it actually is.
The Prince is rather dorky to say the least and the entire story is just told in such a way that you can't help but find it weird but interesting..
About as far removed from the great 1950 version by Disney, but still very good for the time..
One of the Walt Disney Company's most famous full-length cartoons was "Cinderella" back in 1950.
However, few fans today would know that Walt himself made another Cinderella story long before this--back in 1922.
Back then, Walt had just created the Laugh-O-Gram studio.
Unfortunately, his cartoons never really made much money and the studio shut down soon after--and Walt moved from Kansas City to California.
When you watch "Cinderella" (1922), you need to keep a VERY open mind.
Cartoons were all black & white, silent and quite short--and so compared to the average cartoon of the day, "Cinderella" is quite well done and cute.
It's also very watchable today--something that can't be said of most of these older toons.The story is very different from the traditional Perrault story.
Much time is spent on extraneous things meant to entertain as opposed to convey the story--such as showing the young Prince hunting and then writing invitations.
It's also quite different because Disney apparently forgot to include an evil step-mother--or even any step-mother.
Instead, she lives with her two homely sisters who won't let her go the the ball.
And, interestingly, although the Prince later goes looking for Cinderella with the shoe, he never even tries it on her--as, when he sees her he instantly knows who she is (this actually makes A LOT more sense told this way).All in all, a cute little film that fans of the studio might enjoy seeing--just to compare it to the later film and to see how far Disney progressed over the years..
No justice done to the great tale.
"Cinderella" is a 7-minute black-and-white film from 1922 and this is Walt Disney's silent film take on the famous story by French 17th century writer Charles Perrault.
Maybe this tale badly needs sound and color as this one here (without these two) is very difficult to watch.
It is extremely fast to fit in as much action as possible into this short runtime, but it feels also extremely bizarre, especially in the first half.
I am pretty sure that if the story would not be that well-known to anybody, this one here would be perceived even worse than it actually is because nobody would have a clue what was going on here.
I cannot say I enjoyed the watch at all and I was actually glad it was over so quickly.
And yes, this one may be almost 100 years old, but even back then animation was already better than we see in here.
Watch the Betty Boop take on the story instead (with color and sound). |
tt0240890 | Serendipity | Serendipty is a romantic drama about how the hand of fate affects two people who meet by chance at Christmas in New York.
During the Christmas season in New York City, Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) meets Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) trying to buy the same pair of black cashmere gloves at Bloomingdale's. They feel a mutual attraction and despite the fact that each is involved in other relationships, they end up sharing dessert at Serendipity 3 together, where Sara reveals her opinion that fate determines a lot of her decisions in life. They say their goodbyes and leave, but both return to the same restaurant a short while later to retrieve missing things.
Considering this to be a stroke of fate, Jonathan and Sara decide to spend more time together, and at the end of a magical night they start to exchange phone numbers, but Sara's gets blown into the wind, which she takes as a bad sign. However, she comes up with the idea of putting their names and phone numbers out to the universe, his written on the back of a $5 bill, hers written in the front of a used book entitled, Love in the Time of Cholera that will be sold the following day. If they are meant to be together, they will find the items and contact each other.
Several years later, it's revealed that Jonathan is getting engaged to Halley Buchanan. On the same day, Sara (now in San Francisco), comes home to find her boyfriend Lars Hammond (John Corbett), a famous musician, proposing to her. As their respective wedding dates approach, each finds themselves with a case of cold feet resulting in each attempting to find each other again before their respective weddings. Jonathan finds an old receipt for the gloves and uses it to try to find Sara's contact information, and Sara takes a trip to New York with Eve, hoping that fate will bring her to Jonathan.
After Eve convinces her to give up the chase, they visit Serendipity. Eve is handed a $5 bill as change, which the audience sees has Jonathan's name and number on the back. When Sara returns to her hotel room, she finds Lars, who followed her to New York, and realizes marrying him would be a mistake.
The night of the rehearsal, Halley gives Jonathan a copy of Love in the Time of Cholera as a gift, and Jonathan finds Sara's name and number inside. He and Dean fly to San Francisco to find her, but upon arriving, they see Sara's sister, Caroline (who resembles her) through the window fooling around with her boyfriend. Jonathan gives up and realizes that maybe the reason he's chasing ghosts is that he doesn't really want to marry Halley.
On the plane home the next morning after breaking up with Lars, Sara realizes she has mistakenly taken Eve's wallet. But when paying for a headset from it, she discovers the $5 bill with Jonathan's name and number on it. She gets off the plane, tracks down Jonathan's address and goes there. Upon hearing from his neighbors of his wedding, she rushes to the Waldorf Astoria, and she's ecstatic to find out that Jonathan called off the wedding. Eve encourages Sara to find Jonathan.
Jonathan wanders Central Park, and comes upon Sara's jacket on a park bench. He uses it for a pillow while lying in the middle of the rink. He's for some reason brought the one black cashmere glove. As he's gazing up at the falling snow, a cashmere glove falls on his chest.
Realizing he has them both, he looks up to see where it came from and sees Sara, who has come to retrieve the jacket she'd left at the rink. They walk to each other, and introduce themselves to each other formally for the first time. The film concludes with Sara and Jonathan at Bloomingdale's, enjoying champagne on their anniversary at the same spot where they first met. | romantic | train | wikipedia | Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) is shopping for a gift for his girlfriend, and Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) is looking for something for her boyfriend when they reach for the same pair of gloves on a rack at Bloomingdales.
For Jonathan, it's a significant emotional experience, and he realizes something has happened, that something has changed in his life; Sara feels the same, but being a true believer in destiny, she needs a sign that this is meant to be before she'll consider pursuing whatever it is that's just happened between them.
A few years on, Jonathan and Sara are both engaged to other people, but each keeps thinking about whether the other is their true soulmate, and then they start to see signs which they interpret as the fates trying to tell them something
This is a charming romantic comedy a heavy suspension of reality is required, but that's surely part of the point.
Jonathan Tragger (John Cusack) meets Sara Thomas (the gorgeous Kate Beckinsale) by chance in the Christmas eve, in Bloomingdale's, both trying to buy the unique pair of black gloves available for sale.
From this day on, Jonathan will 'chase' Sara's book trying to reach his lost love.I did not know the word 'serendipity'.
The plot premise, in a particularly streamlined nutshell: In holiday-season Manhattan, Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) and Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) meet cute and, although they both have Significant Others, they end up spending a charming and romantic evening on the town (including coffee and dessert at the aptly-named Serendipity III restaurant).
Cusack and Beckinsale are surrounded by a delightful supporting cast, too, particularly Jeremy Piven and Molly Shannon as their respective best friends and the scene-stealing Eugene Levy as an officious, self-serving Bloomingdale's salesman.
Bridget Moynihan and John Corbett (did the casting directors just stroll on over to the set of SEX AND THE CITY one day and say "Who's free to make a movie?" :-) were appealing enough that I could understand what Cusack and Beckinsale saw in them, yet they were just self-absorbed enough and not-quite-on-our-heroes'-wavelength enough that I didn't feel bad when they got dumped.
Kate Beckinsale shows her talent -finally- within the movie by blending right into the act of John Cusack.
The best love stories arent so much about the story as they are about what we wish romance in our lives was.Instantaneous...Tender...Magical...Hearts all a flutter.If you like good chemistry between the likeable Cusack and Beckinsale in a magical setting...prepare to be touched.I was.This is by far one of my favorite love stories,only slightly behind " Somewhere in Time " .If you expect realism dont bother -but if you want what love SHOULD be...hypnotic,mesmerizing,a heart awash a sea of tenderness...then get ready to enjoy yourself.May you all find your true love as well.....
This is a "romance" film about two individuals who, whilst both in perfectly-good-but-not-quite-perfect relationships with other people, take a fancy to a random stranger they meet in a department store one evening and so spend the rest of the night flirting outrageously like a cheap tart with them.This done, off they both go to continue their extant relationships.
Every other character featured in the film is quite laughably two-dimensional and the only deliberately comedic fragment I managed to spot was a quite nicely done best man's speech - made at the weddding subsequently destroyed by our lovably lust-fuelled hero and heroine.I am secretly hoping that the joke is on me, and Mr. Chelsom is treating us to a wonderfully dark satire on morals and romance in modern times.
"Serendipity" is your typical boy-loses-girl story where you know from the beginning how it's going to end (but anything but typical because it's actually romantic and actually funny).
A young man(John Cusack) and a drop dead gorgeous woman(Kate Beckinsale)keep meeting by chance and wonder if they are meant for each other.
It is so much fun watching this special pairing of John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale at their all-time best.This is classic John Cusack - the tortured, intelligent soul who falls for the perfect girl, then watches her disappear by her own "destiny" devices which crushes him.
He's simply believable and sympathetic in his quest to put right what went wrong so many years before.Kate Beckinsale --- With the exception of her character's "destiny-speak" at the opening, she's the most perfect leading lady in which Cusack will drop anything (and actually, everything if you think about it) to finally track down and begin a life together.
Not this one.I remember that I watched this movie on TV a couple of years ago and I was quite excited about it, nice heart-warming story, good acting, the movie had something I like to call "it" that made me watch it from beginning till the end.Let me see...
Thanks mostly to the performances of John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale and the anticipation that was build up along the story and the screwy supporting cast of Eugene Levy, Molly Shannon, and Jeremy Piven.
It is an easy going romantic comedy that will get the girls cooing over the sentiment and the boys drooling over Kate Beckinsale.At times, the movie gives you that feeling of frustration when things just aren't going the way they should for the characters.
John Cusack has been making movies like this (Better Off Dead, Sure Thing, Say Anything, and even Grosse Pointe Blank) for years.
You just have to cut notions like "destiny', "fate" out of your mind because this is no more than the scenery for a movie about a love story and love in its romantic sense.
Sadly, the film fails on the most basic level to entertain, leaving the viewer with nothing but a more-than-mild case of hatred for the protagonists and a sick feeling in their stomachs.In You've Got Mail the idea that Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were developing a relationship behind their respective significant others' backs worked because their significant others were shallow, nasty people that we could muster no love for, who continually let down and abused Tom and Meg.
In the most stomach turning scene in the movie, when his fiancee gives him the key to find Beckinsale, and, incidentally, dump his fiancee and destroy her life, he looks at her, his face blank, thanks her, and leaves to find another woman.The characters in Serendipity are never more than shallow and self-centered, willing to mislead their fiancee's, lie, even cheat, for just one chance to have, not just happiness, but ultimate happiness.If these characters had shown any honesty, any decency towards the jilted parties, perhaps it would have been a different movie.
I love the whole feel of the New York atmosphere in this movie, and Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack were flawless as the leads!!This is a film that I can watch over and over and over again and it will never get old.
The movie intends to send the explicit message that though many things seem to happen by accident, there is destiny involved and every individual is responsible for shaping his or her destiny in life."Serendipity" means good luck by accident which is exactly how Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) and Sara (the ravishing Kate Beckinsale) meet up while shopping for Christmas gifts in a departmental store in New York.
Serendipity is a word that means an aptitude for making fortunate discoveries accidentally and explains perfectly this film because it represents the power of the destiny.One day, Jonathan (John Cusack) and Sara (Kate Beckinsale) met on a shopping center of New York, since this moment he felt that Sara was the woman of his life, but Sara believes in fate so she lets things happened without doing anything, because if they are destined to be together the fate will tell it.It is a romantic comedy and very predictable, but it also makes you laugh with a lot of scenes.
Basically it shows two different and separate lifes that by the fate finish joining together (for the rest of his lifes, I suppose).In my opinion it is a film to see it with your best friend eating an ice-cream and enjoying the role of John Cusack and having fun with him but do not get your hopes up because it is not a film to remember.
"Serendipity" is half-way between "Sweet November" and "You've Got Mail." The plot premise is about as silly as the former, while it has some of the acting charm and New York locales of the latter.John Cusack (as usual) makes the movie worthwhile as he gets so intensely involved in his romantic search.
Not even good actors (John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale and the rest of the cast) can save this movie from the awful script, which does not hang together logically - rather, it is glued together with deus ex machina events, making the story progressively more unbelievable.Characters are shallow, which, unfortunately, makes it impossible to care about them or what happens to them.What a shame.John and Kate must have really needed the money.
John Cusack romantic comedies are almost always good, but occassionally he First off, this movie, except for Eugene Levy as a snotty Bloomingdale's clerk, isn't remotely funny.
I like romantic comedies where the characters spend time with each other instead of running around New York City and San Francisco, almost bumping into each other.
However, for anyone who loves romance, New York City(pre 9/11) or the actors John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale Serendipity is time well spent.
That's the draw and hold of the film.John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale are the two strangers who meet, separate and then spend years wondering about the other person.
Both Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack are in their element in this romantic-comedy.
Implausibility is therefore a given.John Cusack plays Jon Trager, a New Yorker who meets Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) while fighting over the same pair of gloves at Bloomingdales.
Just in Christmas Eve, New York and its lovely well decorated department stores hold thousands of love stories, like the one between Jonathan Trager and Sarah Thomas, complete strangers who meet because of time's requirements and by destiny's caprice.
The whole movie is about one character's desire to wait for time to decide, while the other one rejects the idea of being manipulated by some kind of force out of this world, which they will tend to call it, fate, destiny and even fortune in its most grated cases.Serendipity, or, as some people calls it "Happy Accident" means to make a fortunate discovery by accident.
Also an ice cream flavor, this word represents the message of this film, the attempt to convince us that everything is written and if it is, will happen for sure.Premiered in 2001 this fifteen year old movie is going to definitely heat you up, while you discover at the same time as the characters do, if they are meant to be or not.
best ever seen in the romantic movie with an expectation to meet the loved ones...
Over the course of the evening the two come to realise that they may be each other's destiny, but when they decide to put it to the test, they become separated and Cusack spends the next few years looking for the one that got away.John Cusack is an at times frustrating, neurotic actor who seems to only play varying shades of the same character.
We know how these romantic movies are going to end most of the time, but the important thing is the story and the chemistry between the lead characters; and Serendipity didn't disappoint me.
In my opinion this is by far Peter Chelsom's best film thanks to a great dual performance from John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale who really shine together on screen.It all happens one magical night: Jonathan (John Cusack) is doing some Christmas shopping for his girlfriend and while grabbing the last remaining pair of black gloves he runs into Sara (Kate Beckinsale) who is also thinking of buying them for her lover.
Serendipity is one of those few romantic Hollywood movies that actually works thanks to a great love story, good performances, and memorable dialogues.
We all want to believe in love and how fate can give us a hand when it comes to finding our soul mate; and Serendipity works so well at getting this point across that it can turn the most skeptic person into a believer.
Nevertheless, I cannot deny that I really did enjoy this movie.Jon (John Cusak) and Sara (Kate Beckinsale) were two strangers who met one morning in a crowded department store by accident.
The movie takes place a few years later after their initial meeting and we see both of them trying to find the other desperately.John Cusak and Kate Beckinsale were perfect for the leads.
In the romantic comedy Serendipity, it is a story of two New Yorkers, Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) and Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) who meet by fate in a Bloomingdale's department store over a pair of black cashmere gloves, and spend an odd yet nice night together, then leave it all to chance as they write their phone numbers on a five dollar bill and a used book.
If you don't believe in fate now, you will once you have watched this movie.Serendipity means a fortunate accident.
The lengths that they both endure are so sweet you just want them to find each other and fall madly in love again.John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale have amazing on- screen chemistry, and when put together they make the perfect pair.
He meets her at a mall, they fall in love at first sight, but instead of making plans to see each other again, she writes his number on a $5 and spends it, telling him that when that bill "finds its way back to her", she'll call him.Any normal man would see her as insane and just walk away, but not John Cusack, because this is a movie.
The Jeremy Piven and Molly Shannon best friend parts are good, and the "obit" written by Piven's character for Cusack's character borders on profound.BUT--here's my beef with the movie: perhaps part of the reason why so many marriages fail these days is that we have been seduced by the typical Hollywood romantic fantasy (of which this film is a textbook case), which can be summarized like this: all you need to be happy in love is to find that ONE PERSON meant for you.
The film tells the story of two strangers, Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) and Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale), who meet in Bloomingdale's after grabbing the same pair of gloves as a Christmas gift for their respective partners.
Without spoiling, the movie, too much, I have to say, Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack really do seem like they have the chemistry for each other to make this movie, works, even if they only share a small amount of screen-time, together.
I get what this movie is going for, but maybe, it's wasn't the best thing, to use the book, 'Love in the Time of Cholera', as a way to show that.
From the man that brought you Hannah Montana The Movie,this film stars Kate Beckinsale,John Cusack,Jeremy Riven to name a few and tells the tale of two people named Sara and Johnathan who meet at a department store after stumbling on a pair of black gloves as they were buying them for their significant other.
Can faith run its course and will Sara and John meet each other again in the next few years or less?Yes the film is predicable as we all know that they are going to find each other again by the end of the film and its got the same premise as Sleepless In Seattle which starred Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan but overall it wasn't a bad romantic comedy and I was glad to see it again.Its a nice Christmas Rom Com and if you are like me a fan of Romantic films than check it out.C+.
I like John Cusack in just about everything I've seen him in, and he does fine here as Jonathan Trager, who's obsessing over whether he let Sara (Beckinsale), the woman who could be the love of his life, get away from him by letting her talk him into this stupid idea of leaving their future to chance after fate brought them together in the first place.
I loved the pairing of John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale.
They still can't stop thinking of each-other and go on there own little adventure with each of there best friends in search of one another and to see if they are really meant to be together.The cast in the movie, including, John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, (Who both make a great pair here.), Molly Shannon, Jeremy Piven and the brilliant Eugene Levy who is really funny here, are all great in the movie.*** Spoiler*** Serendipity is a lovely light-hearted comedy which will be enjoyed by everyone, especially if you're into romantic comedies.
Sara is a woman who still believes in special things like love, fate, destiny and soul mate.
It is a good message to those looking for true love and happiness, to never settle for less than someone who absolutely adores you.This is definitely one of my favorite romantic comedies of all time, one that you can just watch over and over.
The leading performers are John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale as two urban-dwellers who meet by default and fall in love.
It is in fact the chemistry between stars John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale that makes this film as watchable as it is.
One of the good movies in romantic genre, Serendipity will inspire the viewer to believe in destiny.
Jonathan (John Cusack) and Sara (Kate Beckinsale) meet in Bloomingdales when they both want to purchase the same pair of gloves.
Jonathan (John Cusack) and Sara (Kate Beckinsale) meet in Bloomingdales when they both want to purchase the same pair of gloves.
Serendipity is a romantic comedy that tackles love-at-first-sight that revolves around fate, destiny, and chance.It features John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. |
tt0861773 | Ghost in a Teeny Bikini | While shooting for a film directed by her boyfriend, Ted Wood, Jr., Muffin Baker learns from a telegram that her rich uncle, Cyrus, has died. Together they travel to the estate of the deceased, where her last will is to be read. The lawyer, Archibald Weisenheimer, and her daughter, Evilyn, put plans together to murder Muffin Baker and claim the inheritance for themselves. Unknown to them, however, the property is haunted by the ghost of Tabitha, who becomes friendly to Muffin Baker and helps her. Weisenheimer tries desperately to kill the heir, leaving Evilyn to sleep with Ted.
In the last testament of the late Uncle Cyrus, it is revealed that a box of his assets and the associated key were hidden in his property. Muffin then returns to her room to take a nap. In her dreams, the ghost of Tabitha appears and seduces her. After her nap, Muffin realizes where she has to look for the chest and the key. However, when Weisenheimer and Evilyn threaten to steal the money, Tabitha reappears and saves Muffin. Weisenheimer confesses that he murdered Muffin's uncle. A policeman, fetched by Ted, arrives to arrest Weisenheimer. Ted and Muffin finally forgive each other. | pornographic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1091909 | Murdoch Mysteries | The series takes place in Toronto starting in 1895 and follows Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) of the Toronto Constabulary, who solves many of his cases using methods of detection that were unusual at the time. These methods include fingerprinting (referred to as "finger marks" in the series), blood testing, surveillance, and trace evidence.
Some episodes feature anachronistic technology whereby Murdoch sometimes uses the existing technology of his time to improvise a crude prototype of a technology that would be more readily recognizable to the show's 21st-century audience. In one episode, for instance, he creates a primitive version of sonar to locate a sunken ship in Lake Ontario. In another, he effectively invents wire-tapping. In still another, a foreign police officer has a photograph that Murdoch needs as evidence, so Murdoch asks the other officer to overlay the photograph with a grid numerically coded for the colour in each square, and to transmit the numerical data to Murdoch via telegraph – with the end result that the foreign officer has essentially sent Murdoch a bitmap image they call a "facsimile" – a telefax.
Detective Murdoch is assisted by the three other main characters: Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig), Doctor Julia Ogden (Hélène Joy), and the inexperienced but eager Constable George Crabtree (Jonny Harris), who aspires to be a mystery-novel writer. Brackenreid, Murdoch's immediate superior, is a blunt and sceptical Yorkshireman with a fondness for whisky, and prefers conventional methods of detection over Murdoch's eccentric methods, though he is typically pleased and proud when Murdoch is successful despite the odds. Crabtree is often unable to grasp the more advanced methods, but his enthusiasm and loyalty make him a good assistant. Like Crabtree, Dr. Ogden is a great supporter of Murdoch's methods. Her skill in pathology usually helps by revealing a great deal of useful evidence to aid Murdoch in solving cases. Throughout the series, Murdoch's growing infatuation with her, and his inability to express his feelings, provide a light subplot. In the fifth season, after Dr. Ogden is married to Dr. Darcy Garland (a colleague she met in Buffalo), a new doctor is introduced, Doctor Emily Grace (Georgina Reilly). She and George Crabtree show some romantic interest in each other.
Real history is an important element in most episodes, and the plots, though fictitious, sometimes involve real people, such as Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, H G Wells, Nikola Tesla, Wilfrid Laurier, Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, Queen Victoria, Oliver Mowat, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Henry Ford, Sir Winston Churchill, Bat Masterson, Alexander Graham Bell, Emma Goldman, Harry Houdini and Thomas Edison. Future events are often foreshadowed. For example, it is implied that secret British-American government co-operation has produced a highly advanced aircraft similar to an airship, and Crabtree and Murdoch allude to the building of a secret government facility in Nevada and New Mexico "at Concession 51" (an allusion to Area 51). Characters also refer to actual inventions of the 19th century and extrapolate from them to future inventions such as microwave ovens, night-vision goggles, computers, the games "Cluedo" (marketed as "Clue" in the U.S.) and "Hangman", the toy Silly Putty, and a silencer for small arms.
Another underlying theme of the series involves the fact that Murdoch is a Roman Catholic in what was at the time a predominantly Protestant city, and the prejudices that he occasionally encounters as a result. | sci-fi | train | wikipedia | Having neither read the books nor seen the original television movies, I come to the series with unbiased (if ignorant) eyes.
We, at least, have been captivated by William Murdoch as portrayed by Yannick Bisson, a character who is a genuinely honest, gentle and quiet man of strength facing ethical, moral, professional and legal challenges in each episode.
Murchoch Mysteries is one of 4 particular shows that I watch regularly - and tape so that I do not miss them.There are three main reasons that I like MM.First, it is such a pleasure to watch something that does not have swearing, sex scenes, and gratuitous violence.
Even though there are the odd (bordering on) romantic interludes the story line remains true to the theme of the title and they do not over-shadow the stories.Second, I quite like viewing shows that depict times gone by and it is interesting to see how detectives'/police duties were (supposedly) undertaken in that time.Third, the acting and story telling - as noted in a previous post - equals that of Midsummer Murders, Poirot (another favourite of mine), Judge John Deed (again, another favourite).I like each character who has a distinct role and adds to the show as well as the enjoyment of watching the show.
With each season the character story lines change as in the case of Helen Joy, Yannick Bisson which is excellent leaving us more curious with what will happen next.
Now that the show is in it's fourth year the plot lines are continually changing which goes to prove that Murdoch Mysteries is a true success.
I'm been watching mysteries for many years and never have enjoyed a series more than Murdoch Mysteries.
The unfulfilled love affair between Doctor Ogden and Murdoch is so well written and performed perfectly by Helene Joy and Yannick Bisson.
'Murdoch Mysteries' stars Yannick Bisson as Inspector William Murdoch who solves crimes in 1890's Toronto, is an exceptionally well made and acted series, which makes a nice change from CSI/NCIS etc.
staple of whiz-bang, FX laden crime showsBisson is likable as the handsome Inspector, with English Actor Thomas Craig suitably sceptical and at times dopey as his by-the-book boss and Johnny Craig is good as his rather naive partner and at times hindrance Constable Crabtree.Helene Joy is suitably understated as the resident Doctor/Pathologist.Now in its Third series, currently being shown on UK Cable channel ALIBI, (It surely deserves a wider audience on a Major British Channel)The writing, set design and Photography is exquisite and convincingFans of well made and intelligent Mystery Series will find much enjoyment in Inspector Murdoch's cases..
Each episode has a strong mystery to be solved, sometimes offering an intriguing moral dilemma to both Murdoch and the viewer.
The Murdoch Mysteries is like; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, with Jeremy Brett meets CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Yannic Bisson had made a master piece in establishing 'Murdoch's" character, which in my opinion, takes the best of William Peterson's role as "Gil Grissom" and Jeremy Brett's as "Sherlock Holmes".
The feel of this show gives me the impression that these characters are believable, I actually care about how their relationships' enfold and in the exploration of the early sciences of crime scene investigation, it shows an appreciation for the intelligence of it's viewers.
For example, the episode: "Still Waters", where Murdock uses his "new fangled lie detector", show us a level of sophistication in helping the viewer, me, see how through science and experimentation these early "machines", might have actually looked like.
Their interpretation of the material is different for one very important reason, the movies of the week were based on novels, the series is based on the characters with the exception of one episode which is an adaptation of Let Loose The Dogs.
My feeling is that you should not rush to judgement or make comparisons until you are able to see the entire series of episodes and witness how the characters unfold.
The series is excellent and I would urge viewers to form an opinion after viewing a number of the episodes and see how the actors nuance their characters as well as the different textures that are shown from story to story, episode to episode..
I have been watching Murdoch Mysteries since the first season and it just keeps getting better and better.
There are many reasons why I love this show so much - it has so many great elements in it - humour, drama, mystery, romance....the writing/story lines are so creative and clever.
The ratings and reviews would lead one to believe that "Murdoch Mysteries" was among the finest series on television today.
I have watched several episodes from different seasons, trying to find some redeeming features and have come to the conclusion that either there is an active campaign to artificially boost the ratings of this poor production or this series suggests a backlash against the complex, highly sophisticated, high production value television available elsewhere.
Whatever the reason, "Murdoch Mysteries" is shockingly under par in writing, acting, and production values, especially glaring in this new "golden age" of television.
And if you read Maureen Jennings site you find out that she likes Yannick Bisson as Murdoch in the TV show as well as Peter in the movies.
If you watch the TV show you will fine that it is wonderful show and that Yannick Bisson is a fine actor and does a great job as Murdoch.
I love detective mysteries, and in particular I enjoy ones set in the Victorian era, so I admit with reluctance that Murdoch Mysteries almost makes me want to swear off both era and genre altogether.
The main character is inarguably the smartest, most effective policeman in his station (regardless of how utterly cliché and guessable a great deal of the "mysteries" are), and yet he simply allows himself to be berated by his hot-headed, moronic boss and every other plot-device naysayer the writers can't seem to do without.
OK - you've asked for it - As we are (me and Wifey) coming close to end of finishing the long marathon of GREAT detective shows such as Poirot, Miss Marple, Morse and most recent one Endeavor, I noticed this show recommended somewhere on the net.
On the acting - Jonny Harris plays the role of Constable George Crabtree is one the worse offenders - he's like the kid which do magic tricks and gets applaud from close family, decides that skills set is sufficient to play at big time TV shows.On the storytelling - nothing prepared me to sheer incompetence of story writers - it's full with ancient clichés and holes in the story line.
In agreement with most of the top responders, I find this Toronto-based detective series at the very TOP of my retirement 'Bucket-list viewing.' Most of the accolades have already been spent, but I'll add a few viewer-stars to the creator, cast, crew, directors, editors - and to Chris Robinson, music supervisor - only shy of Superior.
So, watch a few more episodes; delve into the characters of Murdoch, Ogden and Brackenried and then give us your opinion.
But sadly, having arrived at Season 9, I share many of the criticisms.The most troubling aspect of the show is the character of Julia Ogden, portrayed by Helene Joy. She seems written by a teenage girl fantasizing about an empowered Victorian woman.
In one episode - where an African American band leader is murdered - she is literally cracking jokes and smiling from ear to ear when a man has just died!I'm not sure Helene Joy can be blamed for the frustrating character she portrays, as I have seen her interviewed, and she has a lovely personality.
I have just finished watching the first episode of the new TV Series on Maureen Jennings "Murdoch Mysteries".
In December there were a series of TV Movies starring Peter Outerbridge as Detective William Murdoch that appeared (at least to me) far superior that what I saw on the TV series.
Ms. Jennings makes a comment in her website that Peter Outerbridge is the perfect actor to portray Detective Murdoch (and she ought to know).
There are several things I find not right with the series (which in itself is OK and I would probably have liked if I hadn't seen the other versions and/or read the book).1.
The actor in the TV series is definitely to cocky and over confident and abrupt in his dealings with suspects and the people he works with.The last thing I will say is that in the books that although Murdoch is definitely intelligent and intuitive, he knows that he has bosses to answer to and constables under him that he needs to guide and nurture.
Therefore he is neither top man or low man he is somewhere in the middle and he knows his place quite well.Well, I have droned on enough, but I would urge people to definitely see the Peter Outerbridge versions and see how you like his portrayal of Murdoch or better yet read the books!
A prime example is the episode where Mr. Murdoch wants to abandon his faith (Catholicism) because God condemns homosexuality, wherein also the female coroner defends homosexual behavior with dubious "scientific" data often cited today, but certainly not a part of the scientific ethos of that day, and claims that God "made them that way and put those desires in their hearts, hence how can God judge them," another modern contrivance.The writers seem to try hard to include sexual content both by allusion and by graphic violent scenes, regularly including sexual crimes with full detailed descriptions as part of the story.
We like Yannik Bisson far better as detective constable Murdock and the show is very entertaining.
When you get bored with everything else that is currently on television and you need a guaranteed hour of sheer entertainment that can whisk you away to a simpler time when the world was not as chaotic and confusing as it is now than may I suggest getting hooked on the CBC's (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) television series Murdoch Mysteries which is now entering their ninth season of continued success.This is a very unique crime/mystery series which takes place at the turn of the 20th century in the large bustling city of Toronto Ontario, Canada, which is served by the finest constabularies in the country, that being the Toronto Constabulary.
Thus the series provides some historical significance to many inventions/things we usually take for granted.Detective William Murdoch also is ahead of his time with some of his newly created forensic science approaches to solving crimes, such as his underwater sonar device and his archaic night vision glasses.
Murdoch has a near distant love interest in the city coroner Dr. Julia Ogden played extremely well by Helene Joy. The audience anticipates and is constantly teased that some day maybe they will be together.
Between the two of them they assess the W5 (Who, What, When, Where and Why) of the current episodes latest murder victim(s), serious crime, and/or historical event that actually occurred in documented history and brought to life in this excellent crafted mystery/crime series.Mrs. Shullivan and I have not only watched every single episode of this amazing series but we have also deliberately watched repeated episodes with as much interest if not more than the first time we saw the episodes as we always seem to pick up more interesting tidbits of not only historic events but of the development of the City of Toronto and its urban sprawl during the 20th century.
The success of this excellent series continues into its ninth season with no diminishing return as each episode concludes.
Eleven series and it never lets you down , crime,murder and fun all done with excellent scripts and even better acting ..
Imagine that having good stories, actors, sets, costumes and great writers actually work.
We want to see well-done and engaging shows like Murdoch Mysteries (the Artful Detective here in the States).
Although it had a very amateurish feel to it, I enjoyed the first few seasons of Murdoch Mysteries.
The sombre and at times neurotic feel of the Holmes dramas are absent from this series.Indeed, in spite of the fact that the Murdoch Mysteries is a crime drama, the mood is fundamentally optimistic, capturing the upbeat attitude of the era.
A time of transformative change, driven by rapidly emerging technology.The key character senior detective William Murdoch uses his fascination with technology and talent for invention to devise devices, familiar to us today, to assist him in solving crimes that would otherwise go unsolved.The mysteries presented each week are cleverly designed with enough plot complexity to keep you guessing.
Excellent Historical Mystery Series With Fresh Setting & Characters.
Superbly written, this imaginatively realized series features a wonderful cast of characters and unique stories that are finely acted.
It is very rare that one can say that a television series is very nearly perfect.The Murdoch Mysteries is one such example.
With excellent acting, interesting story lines, strong but not overly preachy social commentary and just enough nonsense and humour to make you laugh, the cast, crew and team that put this together have exceeded all my expectations.Running into its ninth season, I cannot think of an episode I did not like.
I think the acting and casting are good, the introduction of new police techniques and tools is intriguing, the technology of the era is interesting, and the involvement of historic figures adds a nice touch.
I'm enjoying watching the relationship between the doctor and detective evolve.Overall, a very good series and one I would recommend to others..
With over 300 cable channels on Charter, can't seem to find any of these Murdoch Mysteries on any channel.Such a great production from our friends up north, even if the story lines in some episodes leave a bit to be desired, the graphics are amazing.Many websites claim you can watch season five on your computer, but everyone I tried so far is some kind of advertising gimmick.Any help on this would be greatly appreciated and not even expecting to get it for free..
Murdoch mysteries,is an amazing series,that you can watch again and again.
Hopefully someone in the States will see fit to broadcast this on one of the channels in my cable package.Yannick Bisson who has done a few Canadian television series plays the title role of Detective Murdoch.
I settle back and am comfortable and contented.I look forward to hearing William Murdoch say, "What have you, George?" because I know with almost 100% certainty that it will happen, and it will make my heart skip a beat.I started watching Murdoch somewhere in the middle of the series.
For a number of years, they were airing Castle episodes on Saturday night (yeah, I live an exciting life) and then one Saturday it was not Castle, it was Murdoch.I had seen this series referenced as part of readers' lists of good books set in historical periods.
But I did not read any of the novels.As I write this review, the show has been on for ten years -- an achievement in itself.I have been able to go back to episode 1, series 1, and get a feel for the early seasons.
It's interesting to see the main characters development (Detective Murdoch, Constable Crabtree, Inspector Brackenreid and Dr. Ogden), along with the introduction of the multitude of secondary (or recurring?) characters like Meyers -- characters that we will see over and over as the years go by.
In addition, the science is pretty fun: Murdoch is an inventor and you see early versions of inventions like (for example) night-vision goggles.Kudos to Bisson, to be sure, for delivering to us a character that is a decent human being and one who, over the years, has developed and grown into a very good, kind, loyal and dedicated man.The series is not afraid to take on social issues, but it does so in its own fairly non-threatening way.
I suppose that aspect of this show may turn some viewers off, but let's face it -- this series would get pretty boring without it striving to (just like its hero) make the world a better place.I just want to shine a light on Jonny Harris.
I can't help but notice that after ten years these characters are all becoming something like good, old friends to the viewer.Like a few others who have left reviews here, I hope this series continues.
Murdoch talks with doctors and also makes an invention to see clues left with a blue light.We hear all their assumptions and In the end the killer did not give a reason why he killed women and went after them in 8"s so I was kind of disappointed for a good plot but little explanation for the killings..
OH and one more thing, it took me almost 2 seasons to actually get into the show and attached to the characters and there roles, because of how poorly the very first episode was written!!You put detective Murdoch and based him in some strange town, introducing characters that would never been seen again in the show.
If you like historical mysteries, I recommend trying out this series.
I like the acting in this mystery/detective show.
Murdoch is without question, the best Canadian series ever made..
We will be watching this great Canadian series.
and Yannick Bisson had a very different approach to the character of Murdoch; however, I adjusted and enjoyed the tongue in cheek approach the series decided to go off in.
And if you want a sort of definitive episode that captures the spirit of the series I recommend "The Filmed Adventures of Detective William Murdoch" featuring Thomas Alva Edison and the reasons why Canada didn't become the film capital of the world.
Part of the fun in the series is watching the two different ways imagination can go.
Murder is never fun but the series was initially quirky as you were amused at Murdoch's inventive ways to discover who did it. |
tt0287839 | Children of Dune | Nine years after Emperor Paul Muad'Dib walked into the desert, blind, the ecological transformation of Dune has reached the point where some Fremen are living without stillsuits in the less arid climate and have started to move out of the sietches and into the villages and cities. As the old ways erode, more and more pilgrims arrive to experience the planet of Muad'Dib. The Imperial high council has lost its political might and is powerless to control the Jihad.
Paul's young twin children, Leto II and Ghanima, have concluded that their guardian Alia has succumbed to abomination — the possession by one of her ancestors — and fear that a similar fate awaits them. They (and Alia) also realize that the terraforming of Dune will kill all the sandworms, thus destroying the source of the spice, but the thing which has possessed Alia desires this outcome. Leto also fears that, like his father, he will be trapped by his prescience.
Possessed by the persona of her grandfather Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Alia fears that her mother Lady Jessica, about to return to Arrakis, will recognize her abomination. Meanwhile, a new religious figure called "The Preacher" has risen in the desert, railing against the religious government's injustices and the changes among the Fremen. Some Fremen believe he is Paul Atreides. Princess Wensicia of the fallen House Corrino on Salusa Secundus plots to assassinate the twins and regain power.
Jessica returns to Arrakis and recognizes that her daughter has been possessed, but finds no signs of abomination in the twins. Leto arranges for Fremen leader Stilgar to protect his sister if there is an attempt on their lives. The Preacher journeys to Salusa Secundus to meet Wensicia's son Farad'n, and in return pledges Duncan Idaho as an agent of House Corrino. Alia attempts to assassinate Jessica, who escapes into the desert with Duncan's help, precipitating a rebellion among the Fremen. The twins anticipate and survive the Corrino assassination plot. Leto leaves to seek out the Preacher while Ghanima, masking her memory with self-hypnosis, reports falsely that her brother had been murdered. Duncan and Jessica flee to Salusa Secundus where Jessica begins to mentor the Corrino heir. He seizes power from his regent mother Wensicia and allies with the Bene Gesserit, who promise to marry him to Ghanima and support his bid for coronation as Emperor.
A band of Fremen outlaws capture Leto and force him to undergo the spice trance at the suggestion of Gurney, who has infiltrated the group on Jessica's orders. His spice-induced visions show him a myriad of possible futures where humanity has become extinct and only one where humanity survives. He names this future "The Golden Path" and resolves to bring it to fruition which his father, who had already glimpsed this future, refused to do. He escapes his captors and sacrifices his humanity in pursuit of the Golden Path by physically fusing with a school of sandtrout, gaining superhuman strength and near-invulnerability. He travels across the desert and confronts the Preacher who does, in fact, prove to be his father Paul.
Duncan returns to Arrakis and provokes Stilgar into killing him. With Stilgar's neutrality now untenable, he seizes Ghanima and flees. Alia recaptures Ghanima and arranges her marriage to Farad'n, planning to exploit the expected chaos when Ghanima kills him to avenge her brother's murder. The Preacher and Leto return to the capital to confront Alia, who has the Preacher murdered, revealing his true identity. Leto reveals himself in a display of superhuman strength and triggers the return of Ghanima's genuine memories. He confronts Alia and offers to help her overcome her possession, but she is overwhelmed by her ancestral personae and elects to commit suicide.
Leto declares himself Emperor and asserts control over the Fremen. Farad'n enlists in his service and delivers control of the Corrino armies. The seemingly immortal and omnipotent Leto is left as Emperor of the Known Universe, with Ghanima at his side. Leto will wed his own sister, but Farad'n, now renamed Harq al Ada (The Breaking of the Way), will become Ghanima's consort and continue the Atreides line. | sci-fi | train | wikipedia | I think I liked David Lynch's stillsuits better, these ones don't look like they'd do the job very well, but I suppose it was a trade off with seeing some of the wonderfully figured women =)The part that would be the end of <i>Dune Messiah</i> had me nearly in tears.
The screenplay by John Harrison managed to fit in enough of Frank Herbert's vision to remain true to the spirit of the epic Dune saga.The entire cast, Alec Newman [Paul Muad'Dib], Daniela Amavia [Alia Atreides], Julie Cox [Princess Irulan], Barbaroa Kodetova [Chani], James McAvoy [Leto II], Jessica Brooks [Ghanima], Susan Sarandon [Wensicia Corrino], Alice Krige [Reverend Mother Jessica Atreides], Edward Atterton [Duncan Idaho], Ian McNeice [Baron Harkonnen], Steven Berkoff [Stilgar], P.H. Moriarty [Gurney] and Johathan Bruun [Farad'n Corrino] gave me characters I could relate to as well as care about over the course of the miniseries.
The use of lighting during camera pans over actors faces or on shots as characters moved across sets was again vary well used.The music score by Brian Tyler was at times dark and moody, then majestic, adding to the grandeur of many of the key scenes where the score helped lift one's feelings to the level of emotion being presented by the actors as the story unfolded on the screen.
The background soundtrack as the camera followed characters though the zocalo's of Arrakeem or the desert sietche's added a mystical quality where one could almost smell the food cooking or the incense like fragrance of the Spice Melange.Overall *Children of Dune* has to rate with the best mini-series' that have ever been produced over the years and may even set a new standard for work being done for television with it's quality production.
As a long-time Dune book series fan and an owner of the DVD of the Lynch movie and the first Sc-Fi miniseries, I eagerly awaited Children of Dune.The good: Excellent musical score (hopefully available on amazon.com); better acting in general, especially Alice Krige as Lady Jessica and the young actor who played Leto, son of Paul; better special effects (incredible sandworms!); and just the fact that Sci-Fi took time and money to prodice this miniseries (though I will never forgive the cancellation of Farscape).The bad: Susan Sarandon, for an alleged fan of the Dune series, was just terrible, all hammy and goofy like some character out of a 60s sitcom; the actress who played Alia, Paul Atreides sister, was OK but seemed to lack the fire that I always envisioned as Paul's sister went mad; and the story, which was a mixture of the second and third books in the series, was so incredibly dense -- even for a Dune veteran like me -- that I wondered if anyone else could watch the mini-series and even figure out what was going on.Generally speaking, this was a better production than the first miniseries, but the story was harder to tell.
The production design, the special effects, the cinematography are all a distinct improvement over both the original miniseries and the David Lynch disaster.The story picks up twelve years after the conclusion of Dune; war continues to ravage the galaxy, Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides (Alec Newman) is now seen as something of a curse by the people, as his name is now associated with bloodshed and violence.
As a matter of fact, though Dune Messiah's story is naturally a bit weaker than Dune's, the superb execution here makes it superior to any previous adaptations of Dune (it's at least as good as the terrific miniseries, far better than the horrible Lynch film).
After reading the first two of Frank Herbert's Dune books I had to wonder whether the story of the water forsaken planet still had some potential.
Obviously, the moment I laid eyes on "Children of Dune" (the mini-series this time) I felt a terrible urge to acquire it, despite being tempted by more reputed films.
In the end, I didn't have any regrets.That is because the film is not only easy to follow, as long as you've either read the first book (and a bit of the second) or seen the first part of the mini-series (which I haven't), but it's also visually delightful, doing some justice to Frank Herbert's saga.
Satisfying, well-written and superbly acted sequel to the Sci-Fi Channel's DUNE mini-series - which was itself vastly superior to the rampant-phallic-symbolism-held-together-by-stamp-hinges-and-cobwebs David Lynch film version.
F/X maestro Ernest Farino, who won the Emmy for his sterling work on the first DUNE mini-series, will likely make a repeat stroll to the podium when next year's visual effects award is handed out.
Though not as absorbing as the first books in the series, they do have their moments and with some effort could be made into something at least as good as Children of Dune.
They took two of Herbert's books (Dune Messiah, Children of Dune) and combined them into a mini-series that actually takes the material seriously and doesn't try to hard to be different.
There was a lot of good stuff in Children Of Dune, all the great characters and themes from the book, and a lot of talent went into making it.
Although the series follows closely the storyline of the book, I think sometime one has to deviate from the story in order to make a movie a bit more believable.
I have never read any of Frank Herbert's novels and I didn't really like the 1984 film Dune so I am not sure that I am the most authoritative commentator for this mini-series.
The cinematography, the visual and sound effects are great, but there are too many characters without previous development, information and betrayals, plots and subplots for a 93 minutes running time, and in the end I was completely lost of who is who in the story.
So maybe just replacing the director wasn't enough.To be fair, maybe they didn't have the budget to do more than 1 take for each scene or to buy copies of the book for the cast to read before the shoot.The reason people defend the Lynch film is that no matter what other libeties may have been taken the characters were all recognizable!A bland score, uninspired visual design, eye-shatteringly bad costuming and ham-fisted "directing" fill out this latest "Made for TV" "Epic"..
Because, you see just like Peter Jackson's interpretation of Tolkien's books on the silver screen is not really marred by his versions of them, David Lynch has done just the same with his version of the Dune story.
there's a sense in which this and the other Dune movies since 1984 just don't work for me.But, in spite of that, this one was pretty good.Alice Krige (one of my favorite actresses along with Helen Mirren and Naomi Watts) is absolutely perfect as Lady Jessica.
Watching that last scene of her, I found myself thinking of some of the things that the Atreides of Classical Mythology did, because of Ambition, to their children.And, yea, I found myself thinking, too, of Helen Mirren's Morganna from the movie "Excalibur"; and of Krieg's Alma Mobley from "Ghost Story".One of the things that the people who made "Children of Dune" did best was set up in it echoes between father-son, brother-sister, mother-daughter relationships.
Saying that any movie would ever be able to cover Frank Herbert's genius is hard.But this one comes with an amazing cast, epic soundtrack, good adaptation and nice special effects.In an unique in all ever movies made after a book, the "Inama Nushif" montage truly conveys the emotions that deserve the book for the moment when Paul is paying the price for his chosen path - you can truly feel his pain for the sacrifice.
Sarah Sarandon's Wensicia, on the other hand, looks and sounds a bit dry but it's the raspy quality that makes her the Wicked Witch of COD.Lavish production values add some touches to the already acclaimed miniseries: digital backgrounds are now used to convey realism and to blend the surroundings well with the indoor structures (although I personally think the world of COD looks a bit narrower, Storaro's Trans-light concept really makes the first Dune world a larger fantasy scape despite its fakeness), the special effects are exhilarating (e.g. the Guild ship's attempt to capture a sand worm to break monopoly on Spice) and most importantly, the wonderfully composed soundtrack by Brian Tyler which, unlike the first miniseries and the David Lynch version, ables to capture the inner soul of Herbert's works accurately.Overall, Children of Dune is a major improvement over the original and is so far the best miniseries ever adapted from a Herbert novel.
Dune was a great DVD movie, I liked it better in many ways then the first attempt that made it to the film screen.This is a great movie too, but is limited by the story of the rather complicated second novel.
I never read the books, but I saw the videos and played the games of Dune and I must said that this mini-series est outstanding!It's one of few movies where I felt so much emotion!
2. Sometime there are long scene for nothing.Overall, it's a "you must see" mini-series if you like the universe of Dune or Sci-Fi politic movie..
After seeing the original Dune Mini-series and hating it (preferring, unlike most, the David Lynch movie instead) I really wasn't expecting a lot from this.
I never could get on with the books giving up about half way through the first one although I loved the idea and story from what I'd seen in the Lynch movie.Children of Dune was showing one night in it's entirety and I was at a loose end so figured I'd record it and see what it was like since I was keen to find out what happened after the events portrayed in Dune.
Gurney was still crap and can't act although Alice Krige was as good as ever and I even got used to James McAvoy as young Leto, Pauls son, after a while.Aliyah was more human here than the scary-assed kid she was in Lynches movie (although I liked that portrayal of her too).
The movie does a great job adapting Herbert's novels (Messiah and Children of Dune) which have a rather complex, but very intelligent and superbly developed plot to film.
Children of Dune misses the latter because while the adaptation is very good, the plot is still too difficult to follow despite the relatively long playing time.
This miniseries successfully gives us "Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune" in one fell swoop, leaving out the plot elements that would be included in what would become "God Emperor of Dune".A new planet and a new people are introduced:Face Dancers from the planet Bene Teilax, their special talents revealed.We also meet the Duncan Idaho Ghoula that is a major continuing character all the way to "Chapterhouse: Dune".Not only are these things introduced, but depicted perfectly as written in the books.As is the developing madness of the Abomination "Saint Alia of the Knife", the ecology of Dune and the life cycles of the "Makers", from Sandtrout to Sandworms, and of course the Children of Muad'dib, Leto II and Ghanima.This is the first time I have ever seen James McAvoy, who would later become Tumnus in Narnia, professor X in X-Men, and later would have a "Split" that would bring us back to "Unbreakable".Unfortunately, many of the fine actors used in Dune (2000) could not reprise, including Saska Reeves, but Alice Krige can play Lady Jessica as well as play The Borg Queen.Ian McNeice once again is the "Poetic" Baron Harkonnen, and Guerney Halleck is the same.
A good mini-series, the best of the Frank Herbert Dune adaptations.
Children of Dune did have a couple of areas where things could have been improved, Susan Sarandon overacts with an accent that was at home in Thelma and Louise but out of place here, the mini-series does get to a slow start and can drag a little at times and there are occasional moments of cartoonish effects, stilted dialogue and incompleteness.
That of the way, Children of Dune is good, of the three Frank Herbert Dune adaptations- the others being the David Lynch film and the 2000 adaptation- as an adaptation and on its own it's the best one, and that's saying a lot as the other two adaptations had moments but were lacking in too many areas.
Adaptation-wise, Children of Dune does a good job with a complicated book though towards the end at times feeling incomplete.
Long live the Golden Age -- we need more movies based upon the classics.COD is good, better than Soderberg's Solaris (I know, I've got a chip on my shoulder).I did not enjoy the sequel novels as much as the original Dune novel, and so I had no real hopes for this SciFi Channel Production.It was head and shoulders better than the original mini-series for the following reasons:1) Better casting -- in particular James McAvoy, who brought power, emotion, and sensitivity to his role.
2) Stunningly beautiful score -- thanks to Brian Tyler.I'm not going to beat up on the story, original or screenplay, I have no real complaints, it was well paced and well told.The film seemed very sumptuous, although I agree that, at times, COD had a very 'filmed on the set' feel to it, particularly the deep desert scenes, the true character of Arrakis still has yet to be realized on screen, and computer effects still have a long way to go (on any film) to lose the sterile feel.Because of the better casting and score, I found it very easy to suspend disbelief, allow myself to be drawn in, and become emotionally interested, something which science fiction films seem to have trouble doing (Gattaca is an exception).On that note alone I would give COD a very high rating and call it the best science fiction film I have seen in a couple of years..
Where do I start - the acting was great on all fronts (especially Susan Sarandon in a juicy role, as well as James McAvoy and Jessica Brooks who play the children), excellent special and visual effects (considering this was a TV miniseries), a wonderful adaptation of the story and dialogue, and superb music by Brian Tyler (an up-and-coming composer who is destined for great things).
This is a masterpiece and an epic saga, the books by Frank Herbert has for the first time come true in Children Of Dune rivaling even the likes of lotr and gladiator.
Actors like Alec Newman and Barbora Kodetová, who are totally unknown by me does a splendid work of making us readers feel their losses, feeling the weight of their burdens, enjoying their triumph and loving this massive and breathtaking miniseries.If you've read the books, have an opened mind, some things really ARE unfilmable, like the whole Dune political system.
"The Children of Dune" story is somewhere at the middle of Dune series, and without reading the books or at least watching the movie "Dune", which is the first part of series, it may be hard for you to understand all the intrigues.
The actors seem to have finally gotten comfortable with their roles and the story (based on the second and third "Dune" books of Frank Herbert were more on the mark.
Unlike the mini-series prequel, Children of Dune kept much closer to Frank Herbert's stories, with no noticeable plot inventions by the writers.
The commercials for it really intreaged me, and I had seen a little bit of the 1984 movie and the 2000 miniseries, so my mom told me that maybe I should read the first book, Dune.
Hi,Let me start to say that i never read any Frank Herbert book but i love Dune's version of Lynch (i know many people dislike it but i just adore it!), the games based on the saga, and so on...in other words: i love everything based in the Dune universe!
I hope that Sci-fi Channel makes more mini-series based on the Frank Herbert's books...and the new episodes of Star Wars saga should learn from the Dune saga.
Alia's psychosis was particularly well-presented.Unfortunately, Frank Herbert kept going back to the well too many times, and wrote the awful God Emperor book (and another in the series that I never bothered to read).
I went and bought every book in the Dune series, after only reading the first, and after I bought the Special Edition DVD, I probably watched it at least 20 times.
if you haven't read the book there is no possible way you could understand Alia's possession, Duncan's estrangement from Alia, why Duncan and Jessica were on Selusa Secondus, the significance of Seitch Jacurutu, the nature of Leto II's transformation, and the list goes on.Children of Dune is perhaps the second most complex book of the entire series (after the original) and to chop it right in half like that not only shortchanges the plot, but severely diminishes the emotional impact of those events that are portrayed.So I guess what I am saying is, my biggest problem with this second miniseries is that i just wanted more..
David didn't exactly deliver us "Dune", but he sure delivered us "something", and it was great.Sci-Fi deviated from the original stories too, and, worse, the miniseries are tedious and rather boring most of the time.
While I may not have liked Dune all that much when I compared it to David Lynch's masterpiece, this sequel steps out beyond the original movie into unknown territory (particularly for me since I have not read any of the other books beyond Dune) so I was actually very keen in knowing how Frank Herbert extended his original masterpiece, and I must say that he did a very good job in doing so.
I personally would never see to remake the first one (since I am such a fan of Lynch's version, even though the sci-fi series Dune was different enough that I like that one, too), but this thing, being a new tale, a new incarnation, and with 4 hours to work in. |
tt0068583 | La fille de Dracula | Dracula's Daughter begins a few moments after Dracula ends. Count Dracula has just been destroyed by Professor Von Helsing (Edward Van Sloan). Von Helsing is taken by police to Scotland Yard, where he explains that he indeed did destroy Count Dracula, but because he had already been dead for over 500 years, it cannot be considered murder. Instead of hiring a lawyer, he enlists the aid of a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), who was once one of his star students.
Meanwhile, Dracula's daughter, Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden), with the aid of her manservant, Sandor (Irving Pichel), steals Dracula’s body from Scotland Yard and ritualistically burns it, hoping to break her curse of vampirism. However, Sandor soon begins to discourage her telling her that all that is in her eyes is "death. She soon gives into her thirst for blood. The Countess resumes her hunting, mesmerizing her victims with her exotic jeweled ring. After a chance meeting with Dr. Garth at a society party, the Countess asks him to help her overcome the influence she feels from beyond the grave. The doctor advises her to defeat her cravings by confronting them and the Countess becomes hopeful that her will plus Dr. Garth's science will be strong enough to overcome Dracula's malevolence.
The Countess sends Sandor to fetch her a model to paint; he returns with Lili (Nan Grey). Countess Zaleska initially resists her urges but succumbs and attacks Lili. Although the girl survives the attack, when Dr. Garth tries to hypnotize her to learn what happened, she suffers heart failure and dies. As the Countess totally gives up fighting her urges and that that a cure is not possible and the doctor discovers the truth about her condition she lures him to Transylvania by kidnapping Janet (Marguerite Churchill), the woman he loves. She intends to transform him into a vampire to be her eternal companion. Dr. Garth agrees to exchange his life for Janet's. Before he can be transformed, Countess Zaleska is destroyed when Sandor shoots her through the heart with an arrow as revenge for her breaking her promise to make him immortal. He takes aim at Dr. Garth but is shot dead by a policeman. | pornographic | train | wikipedia | The horror elements of the film are, at best, arbitrary merely a springboard for plot development (or what passes for it) and the overall 'look' of the picture: Howard Vernon, for one, as an amusingly unhealthy-looking Dracula (photographed from odd angles to give some dimension of menace to his part) is horribly misused; just why is he confined to his coffin in the family crypt
especially since he doesn't take advantage of the situation when the door is finally unlocked?!
While Britt Nichols (ostensibly the lead but who's kept off-screen for the longest time!) makes a truly fetching vampire lady, unfortunately she doesn't invest her role with the requisite magnetism that Soledad Miranda brought in spades to VAMPYROS LESBOS (1970) or even a tragic disposition which would have made us care for her fate; Mirek described her performance as 'self-conscious' and 'awkward', and I agree completely.
By the way, does Vernon turn her into a vampire, or is she one all along, as the opening sequence seems to suggest, or am I missing something here?!The giallo references, then, feel almost like an afterthought even if like most other elements in this film, they seem to be direct lifts from the director's own THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS (1962), a film which I'm now more eager than ever to check out, if mainly for the sake of comparison.
My friend Francesco Cesari considers the two main lesbian sequences of this film to be his favorites in the entire Franco canon; well, the two actresses obviously looked great without any clothes on but, for the life of me, I didn't find the scenes to be at all erotic merely very clumsily staged!
What's more, this shouldn't be attributed to how far one could go at the time since LES DEMONS, released the same year, is a lot more explicit; in the end, I'd have to say that I now prefer the frank, no-holds-barred footage to be found in, say, LORNA THE EXORCIST (1974): even if this tended to overwhelm the plot somewhat, at least, here it's genuinely titillating and certainly a lot more gratifying to the viewer
since it's clear that this is what Franco wanted to do all along!As for the numerous investigation scenes, while I agree that they break the mood of the often lyrical scenes at Castle Karnstein, I didn't find them to be overly annoying and certainly not unnecessary.
They tried to give some weight to a virtually non-existent plot and, in any case, Jess Franco's own characterization as the mysterious solicitor/vampire expert Cyril Jefferson contrasted well with the almost boorish Inspector (never actually mentioned by name, as far as I can recall, but is credited as Ptushko, perhaps a nod to Russian fantasy film-maker Aleksandr Ptushko
which I find very amusing!) played by Alberto Dalbes.
Still, the film gets to conclude on a whimper which hurts the overall effort: not only is the climax over in no time (much like the finale of the Browning/Lugosi Dracula [1931], curiously enough) but, to be honest, if I hadn't read on this very board that Britt Nichols was supposed to be occupying that second coffin in the cellar (since we never get to see her in it in the first place), I wouldn't even have noticed that the 'female vampire' had been destroyed too!
Basically, it all boils down to the extremely hurried production and that, given more time, it would undoubtedly have turned out a more substantial offering, possibly among the director's greatest work.However the film does have an intermittent sense of style which, even if not quite reaching the haunting, dream-like quality of A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD (1971), at least it emerges as a very acceptable mood-piece.
Its main fault, to my eyes, is the sluggish pace: I didn't really mind it during the film's first half but, after an hour had gone by and pretty much nothing had changed (or was likely to), I surrendered myself to the fact that THIS was as good as it was going to get!
This trend in Franco's film-making habits, rigorously defended by his supporters as the man's lack-of-respect for cinema conventions, is labeled incompetence by many but I prefer to call it a certain laziness on his part, as though he was concerned with only a few key scenes in any one film while not giving a damn about the rest
no wonder he finds so little satisfaction in his work and, consequently, tends to dismiss it!!Despite its propensity for the zoom (nothing new here), the film's widescreen camera-work is, in fact, workmanlike abetted by attractive Portuguese locations and an effective color scheme especially during the vampire attacks or when prowling the castle interiors.
There seems to be some debate over who really composed the music score: while on a first listen, I can't say that it was particularly memorable, it certainly did its job; I listened to only a few snippets of the newly-recorded score included on the Spanish soundtrack, but I'll make it a point that the next time I watch the film I'll choose this version.To get to the rest of the cast, Anne Libert (who I have so far liked best in A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD and LA MALEDICION DE FRANKENSTEIN [1972/3]), as well, didn't have much of a part: she has been described as Nichols' slave, but that's stretching it a bit, I would say she seems perfectly willing to be 'influenced' by her and, in any case, it's not like she's ordered to do her bidding or anything.
For instance, in the scene where the nosy journalist (whom Libert seems to fancy) tries to get an interview with Max Karlstein (Daniel White) suspected of the vampire killings and is 'received' by a furious Nichols, whereupon she turns on Libert, I didn't feel that she acted in this way out of jealousy but merely to save her own skin.
Daniel White's character is interesting but he, too, is underdeveloped: his relationship with the bartender's wife (well played by Yelena Samarina, whose character grows more important as the story goes along) unfolds in a credible fashion; however, one gets to know next to nothing about his personal feelings regarding the curse that seems to hang over his family!As for the DVD itself, the video quality is far from perfect but not distractingly so.
Also, I'm baffled by how Franco can say that he finds Dracula to be an interesting character when he gives him absolutely nothing to do in this film still, I guess I should reserve judgment until after I've seen Dracula, PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN (1971)
Finally, a word about the large, book-like DVD cover: it does look beautiful, even if being obviously bulky and thus tends to incongruously stick out amidst my collection (the same goes for the LES DEMONS 2-Disc Set)!.
Jess Franco's Dracula's Daughter is a bit of a combination of genre styles that were popular in 1972.
You can't help but think that there's the basis of a decent film here but it ultimately doesn't add up to a great deal.The vampire part of the story is never developed very clearly and there aren't any actual scary horror moments.
In fact poor Howard Vernon plays Count Dracula but never even gets to get out of his coffin.
Sometimes Franco really needs a great leading lady like Soledad Miranda to make this kind of stuff work but he doesn't have anyone of that high calibre here unfortunately.It's not a complete wash out though.
When Luisa arrives, her grandmother tells her of the curse that has haunted the family for generations, revealing that the first Baron Karlstein was a vampire, and gives her the key to the chapel.
Howard Vernon, as a sort of count Dracula, is only here to justify the title of the film.
Fun in a way...Britt Nichols is very beautiful as always, and her lesbian scenes with Anne Libert are the best you can get from LA FILLE DE Dracula.
But, as always with most of Jess Franco films, you must be a bit of a masochist to enjoy these piece of...cinema!.
A very good vampire horror film....
I watched Dracula's Daughter somtime ago and i found it to be a very good film.
The granddaughter decidses to move into the house with her cousin and her uncle.Not long after moving in some of the local village people fall victims to her, the film includes quite a bit of female nudity, lesbianisam, and lesbian sex.
I think that it is a very good made film that also features some good actors including (Howard Vernon) who plays Count Karstien.
Also Jess Franco plays a part in the film.
Daughter of Dracula (1972)** 1/2 (out of 4)Luisa Karlstein (Britt Nichols) is called to the home of her dying mother who finally reveals the family secret.
Soon Luisa is bitten by Count Karlstein (Howard Vernon) and before long more bodies begin to pile up.Jess Franco's LA FILLE DE Dracula (aka Dracula'S DAUGHTER or DAUGHTER OF Dracula among others) isn't the best vampire film that the Spanish director did but there are enough interesting moments to make it worth watching if you're a fan of his.
You either get them or you don't but there are a few that can be enjoyed by the more mainstream crowd but this here isn't one of them.As is the case with a lot of the director's work, LA FILLE DE Dracula contains very little plot.
Another plus is the beautiful Nichols who is very good in her role and we all know that the director knows how to film women.
I also thought Vernon was fun in his part and Franco himself plays a small role.There are several problems with this film including the pacing, which is certainly hit and miss.
Finally, and perhaps most shockingly, the film really isn't as erotic as you'd hope and especially when you consider what VAMPYROS LESBOS was like.
It's honestly a good looking movie and especially all of the sex sequences are filmed very well.
Yes, it's a Jesus Franco movie, so it of course features quite a lot of nudity and sex in it.
I'm actually getting real tired of these lesbian undertones in vampire movies but it's done quite well in this movie, so I have simply nothing to complain about, in this case.The story is being somewhat pleasant and easy to follow, which is not something you could say for every Jesus Franco movie.
But this at least isn't anything too distracting and I don't know, it sort of adds to the charm of these sort of movies a well.I'm not sure about it though that there is plenty for the horror/vampire lovers to enjoy.
Personally, I happen to be a great fan of the prolific Spanish Horror/Exploitation deity Jess Franco.
His arguably most famous film, "Vampyros Lesbos" (1971) is from that time, as are other lesbian vampire/erotic Horror gems, such as "Christina, Princesse De L'Erotisme" (1973), or this film, "La Fille de Dracula" (aka.
This is a rather typical example for Erotic Horror by Franco from the early 70s: Supremely elegant, eerie, wonderfully photographed and full of sleaze, lesbianism and gorgeous naked women, very weird, and not exactly focused on a logical plot.The film begins with a beautiful young woman who strips naked in order to take a bath.
Castle Karlstein: On her deathbed, the old Baroness Karlstein tells a morbid family-secret to her beautifully young daughter Luisa (Britt Nichols)...
Soon thereafter, Luisa starts doing lesbian stuff with her cousin Karine (Anne Libert), while more dead bodies pile up around the castle...The family name 'Karlstein' is obviously a reference to 'Karnstein', the vampire family name in the Sheridan Le Fanu's pioneering lesbian vampire novel "Carmilla" on which countless European Horror productions are based.
Avoiding a close association with the British Hammer Studio's Karnstein trilogy might be the reason; but then, Jess Franco never was afraid to steal names and titles in order to cash in.The ravishing redhead Britt Nichols is a joy to look at, as are the other female cast members.
There is plenty of lesbianism and sleaze, and the cast includes the best of Franco's typical ensemble cast.
Apart from Britt Nichols and Anne Libert, the female cast also includes director Franco's muse and later wife Lina Romay.
The male cast includes Franco-regulars Luis Barboo and Alberto Dalbés, and his favorite actor, the great Howard Vernon, who is wasted in a role with hardly any screen time.
Nonetheless, "La Fille de Dracula" is an overall enjoyable and atmospheric wholesome which is especially recommendable for its gorgeous female cast-members.
Some actresses are able to somewhat save some bad movies with their mesmerizing beauty, but this lesbian soft-porn, clumsily masked as horror about Dracula, is so bad that it couldn't be saved even by sex scene between Jessica Alba and Charlize Theron.
I could get over the fact that vampires in the movie don't have any issues with daylight, but if somebody told me that a scene in which camera slides down the naked body of a beautiful woman could be boring I would think he's crazy.
If you are a fan of horror, Dracula or good soft-porn, avoid this misery in a wide arc, but if you want to watch five minutes of to blur zoomed tongue and a nipple this is the right movie for you.3/10.
But these things are the normal thing in the case of Jess, in that the important thing is the franquiana atmosphere, and where knowing all the references and symbolic apparatus the coarse film director to understand it everything.
In fact this mitotic scene to the Great Voyeur that all we took inside, at least the followers of Jess, that forces to us to enjoy the naked bodies and erotics rites in the dark.
The original argument relates the history of a young person, Luisa Karlstein, that visits its aunt in the deathbed, which between death moans reveals to the young person the curse of the family: the first count was a vampire.
Then he appears in scene incredible Count Howar Vernon, in the paper of Count Karlstein, who in the filmografía of Jess is just like to say Count Drácula.
The feminine protagonists who delight with their lesbians scenes son to us Britt Nichols and Anne Libert, of which good reference in others becomes blogs.
As I gathered up movies to watch by writer/director/actor Jess Franco for an upcoming 'Horror Challenge' being held on IMDb's Horror board,I found myself feeling disappointed that I would be unable to include a Giallo title in my Franco viewings.Catching me completely by surprise,a very kind IMDber revealed to me a Franco film which combined Gothic Horror with Giallo elements,which led to me shaking hands with a black glove wearing Dracula.The plot:Laying on her death bed, Baroness Karlstein decides that this is the perfect time to reveal to Luisa Karlstein that her dad is a vampire called Count Karlstein,and that Luisa is the rightful heir to a hidden family secret.Taken aback by the revelation that her mum delivers with her final breath,Luisa decides to visit a small village,where Count Karlstein appears to be a residence.As Luisa heads to the village, Inspector Ptsuschko begins to investigate a series of murders being committed by a stranger wearing black gloves and walking around with a cane.Holding a firm view that the killer must be within his sights,Ptsuschko dismisses mutterings from locals that the killings have a noticeable vampire appearance.Finding the castle that her dad lives in,Luisa discovers to her horror,that along with her dad,she has also found Count Karlstein's friend:Count Dracula.View on the film:Offering a tantalising combo of Gothic Horror and Giallo,the screenplay by writer/director/co-star Jess Franco is disappointingly unable to fully connect both threads,due to Franco taking a very halfhearted approach to the Gothic elements,and stabbing the Giallo elements with a real lack of focus,which leads to it re- appearing/disappearing from the centre of the title.Whilst Franco shows himself to be a bit too zoom-in happy with his stilted directing,the stunning Britt Nichols gives the film a strong mystique atmosphere,as Luisa opens the tomb to her secret family history..
Despite a less than glowing review in Lucas Balbo's essential book Obsession: The Films of Jess Franco, I consider Le fille de Dracula one of the director's better efforts.
Filmed in widescreen on location in Portugal, Dracula's Daughter looks great, and though Franco can't resist the temptation of zooming in and out on occasion, the overall effect is not nearly as claustrophobic or arty as Obsession suggests.
Jose Climent's cinematography is downright handsome at times, and though the story is quite routine--young woman struggles to come to terms with the vampiric legacy she has inherited--a cast of familiar faces, including Daniel White, Britt Nichols, Alberto Dalbes, Howard Vernon, and of course Franco himself render the proceedings good fun.
Britt Nichols plays Luisa Karlstein who visits her terminally ill mother.
Nubile young women, often in a state of undress, have been spied upon and are then killed by what is clearly a female vampire.As always for Jesus Franco films, such story-line as there is meanders greatly with protracted scenes of women in jeopardy, and is enlivened by ongoing scenes of soft-core sex - here, Karlstein reveals her lesbian tendencies in a number of scenes which have no bearing on the wafer-thin plot-line.
Such visual conflict often works, but not so much here, for what panoramic views we get of Portugal (where this is filmed) are rare and the footage is often used more than once.Back to whatever passes as a story, and it appears that the undead Count Karlstein (Franco regular Howard Vernon, robbed of dialogue here) is in fact Dracula himself.
In fact, his two scenes involve simply rising from his coffin, watched by a horrified Luisa, shortly before she too becomes a vampire. |
tt0013030 | The Cowboy and the Lady | Mary Smith (Merle Oberon), daughter of presidential hopeful Horace Smith (Henry Kolker), has lived a cloistered life free of any scandal. Although she is devoted to her father and supports his political aspirations, she longs for a life of her own. Believing she needs some excitement in her life, Mary's free-spirited Uncle Hannibal (Harry Davenport) takes her dancing at a nightclub, which the police raid for gambling. When Horace learns that press reporters have discovered Mary's name on the police report, he sends his daughter off to the family's Palm Beach, Florida mansion.
For Mary, Palm Beach during the off season is a place of loneliness and boredom. She asks her two housemaids (Patsy Kelly and Mabel Todd) if she can go along with them on a blind date with some cowboys from a visiting rodeo. The two maids reluctantly agree. Feeling sorry for the inexperienced Mary, they coach her on their three-step "system" for getting a man interested: flatter him, get him talking about himself, and play on his sympathy with a hard-luck story.
After the rodeo, the three women meet up with their dates at the Rodeo Cafeteria and pair off. Mary is immediately attracted to the tall, lanky, and unpretentious cowboy Stretch Willoughby (Gary Cooper) and arranges to be with him. After dinner, they continue their evening back at Mary's beachfront estate. Aware that the plain-spoken Stretch is suspicious of high society rich folk, Mary pretends to be a lady's maid whose "boss" is out of town. Mary attempts to get the shy cowboy interested by following the first two steps of the "system" but fails to attract his interest. Determined, she proceeds to the third step, inventing a hard-luck story about her drunken father and four younger sisters whom she alone must support. When she adds a tear or two to embellish her story, Stretch is won over, and the evening ends with the two kissing in the moonlight.
The next morning, an enamoured Stretch appears at the mansion prepared to ask for Mary's hand in marriage. Unprepared for this turn of events, Mary casually dismisses his awkward proposal. Angered at the rejection, Stretch tosses Mary into the swimming pool and storms off. Completely fascinated by this man who is unlike any other she's met, Mary follows Stretch when he boards a ship for Galveston. Determined to apologize, Mary finally succeeds in getting the stubborn cowboy to listen to her, but she is unable to reveal her true identity. The days on board the ship bring the two closer together, and on the last night of the voyage, they are married by the ship's captain.
When the newly married couple arrives at Galveston, they set up temporary home in a tent at a rodeo camp. Mary does her best to adapt to the dusty and primitive conditions, but she is having a difficult time. Stretch senses Mary's unease, but believes it stems from her worrying over her "family"—the fictitious drunken father and four younger sisters she's supporting. He suggests she return to Palm Beach alone to settle her family obligations. Although she is ashamed of her continued deception, Mary fears Stretch will reject her if he learns the truth about her wealthy family. Stretch believes he's married a "work horse" who works hard to support her family, not a "show horse" like her fictitious boss. Confused and miserable, Mary agrees to go back home for a few days and later meet up with Stretch at his ranch in Montana.
Back at her Palm Beach mansion, Mary learns that her father is on his way with all his committee members, plus an important congressman who holds the presidential nomination in his power. Her sympathetic Uncle Hannibal arrives early, and Mary tearfully confides her secret marriage to him. When Mary's father arrives, he assumes his daughter will serve as dutiful hostess and support his political plans. Feeling trapped again, Mary finally confesses to her father that she is married to a cowboy and plans to join him in Montana immediately. When she sees her father's disappointment, however, she agrees to stay until her father secures the presidential nomination.
At his Montana ranch, Stretch is busy preparing for Mary's arrival and building a new house for his bride—but Mary never arrives. Stretch heads back to the Palm Beach mansion and insists on talking to Mary's "employers". He bursts into the dining room, only to see his wife at the head of a dinner party table, surrounded by her father and his distinguished guests, who proceed to have a few laughs at the cowboy's expense. When asked for his opinion about Mary's father running for president, Stretch condemns the whole group for their behavior and leaves in anger. Seeing his daughter's distress, Horace realizes that he has not been a good father, and comforts Mary as they listen to the whistle of the train that is taking her husband out of her life.
Back in Montana, a subdued Stretch arrives home only to find his father-in-law sitting on his front porch, wanting to chat about farming. Horace tells Stretch that he has quit the presidential race because he now knows that Mary's happiness is more important, acknowledging that Mary made sacrifices all her life, thinking only of her father, never herself. Upon entering the ranchhouse, the bewildered Stretch finds a party underway, Uncle Hannibal raiding the kitchen, and Mary herself baking a cake with Ma Hawkins. Soon after, the cowboy and the lady are seen kissing in Ma Hawkins kitchen. | romantic | train | wikipedia | Mary Miles Minter's Third To Last Silent Film. Jessica ( Mary Miles Minter ) after having become fed up by her husband Weston (Robert Schable ) philandering ways, goes to her Wyoming ranch. However, her husband follows and begins flirting with saloon proprietress Molly ( Viora Daniels ) and that consequently angers ranch foreman Ross ( Guy Oliver ). Jessica falls in love with gentleman rancher Teddy North ( Tom Moore )and when Weston is killed, Jessica and Teddy each suspects the other. Teddy gallantly accepts the guilt to protect Jessica. His trial is nearly over when Jessica learns from Molly that Ross committed the murder, and the lovers are finally happily united.The Cowboy and the Lady was based on the Clyde Fitch Broadway stage play of the same name and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse Lasky, it starred the popular Mary Miles Minter in what would become her third to last motion picture. It is now a presumed lost silent film. |
tt0988083 | Killer Movie | Celebrity Jake Tanner (Paul Wesley) travels to a small town to film a reality TV-show about the town's hockey team. However, town local Jaynie (Leighton Meester) is soon murdered, being decapitated by a piece of wire hung up between two trees, but the murder is passed off as an accident. Jake meets with the show's producers, Lee (Cyia Batten) and Phoebe (Torrey DeVitto) who now want to investigate the murder.
As Jake goes to the local high school, he meets Keir (Gloria Votsis), part of the shows crew, who believes Jaynie was murdered and suspects the hockey teams coach, Coach Carhartt (Stephen Pelinski). Jake meets the rest of the crew, including Mike (Jason London), Daphne (Adriana DeMeo), Luke (Al Santos) and Greg (Hal B. Klein) while also meeting the team captain, Vance (Andy Fischer-Price) and head cheerleader Erin (Maitland McConnell). Meanwhile, cheerleading coach Mrs Falls (Jennifer Murphy) is murdered by a masked killer, who drags her into a circular saw. The crew interview Vance, who swears he will get vengeance on whoever murdered Jaynie.
Controversial celebrity Blanca Champion (Kaley Cuoco) soon arrives with her assistant Nik (Robert Buckley) to work on the show. The crew travel to meet Jaynie's father, Coach Hansen (Bruce Bohne), who recently was released from prison for the murder of his wife. Hansen becomes angered however, and forces the crew to leave. While back at the school, Connor (Jackson Bond) tells Jake that Jaynie's death was not an accident. That night, the crew go to a bar, and discover of Mrs Falls death, but again the locals pass the death off as an accident, before Coach Hansen turns up and warns the crew away from the town. The next day, Lee and Phoebe fall out as Lee is changing the show to center around the deaths of the locals. Nick is sent to Coach Hansen's house to retrieve equipment that was left there previously. On arrival, Nik finds a dead Coach Hansen in a plastic wrap with his throat slashed, before the killer butchers Nik with a pickaxe.
After Erin and Blanca have an argument, Blanca attempts to leave the town but realizes there is no signal for mobile phones in the town. After the crew film a hockey match, the crew go to the bar, but Luke remains behind to work out. He is attacked by the killer, who chops off his hand with a meat cleaver before finally hacking him to death. Daphne decides to leave the bar, but while on her way home she discovers Greg's car. She stops and investigates, only to find Greg being horribly decapitated. The killer then turns up and kidnaps her.
The next day, the remaining crew discover of their missing co-workers, causing arguments between the survivors. Lee goes down to the boiler room where she finds the killer is filming the murders using the aid of a lipstick camera. Before she can warn the others though, the killer hangs her with a chain. After more filming, Jake, Blanca and Keir go back to a cabin to find the others. However, they find footage of Daphne being captured. They go back to the school and drop Blanca off so she can contact help on a Cb radio, while Jake and Keir go to where Daphne was captured. Meanwhile, Phoebe is in a local shop when she is attacked by the killer. She hides until Coach Carhart arrives and the pair flee to the coaches car. As they are about to leave, the killer slices open the coaches throat while hiding in the back seat, while Phoebe flees to the school. The killer catches up with her though and strangles her to death.
Jake and Keir discover the killers lair in the forest, but as they are about to leave Jake steps on a bear trap, so Keir leaves for help. Back at the school, Blanca fails to get help from the radio but finds Connor down in the boiler room, who shows Blanca a video the killer has made devoted to her. As the pair are leaving the school, they discover Daphne's dead body. Blanca soon becomes locked in a room, but Connor escapes. Keir arrives, but the killer quickly knocks her out, before finding Blanca. She escapes the room through the vents, but is confronted by the killer who is revealed to be an obsessed Mike, who murdered everyone to be close to her. Keir attempts to save Blanca, but Mike stabs her; Mike then attempts to kill Blanca but Jake shows up and ends up shooting Mike three times in his chest with his shotgun, presumably killing him.
The next morning, the police arrive and put Mike's body in a body bag. Jake finds out Keir survived being stabbed; He tells her that Mike was an escaped mental patient who was obsessed with Blanca from the start, Jake walks up to Mike's body bag and soon finds out that Mike was wearing a bulletproof vest, the film then ends. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0068280 | Black Girl | The plot continually shifts back and forth between Diouana's present life in France where she works a domestic servant, and flashbacks of her previous life in Senegal. During flashbacks of Diouana's life in Senegal, the viewer learns that she comes from a very poor village outside of Dakar. Most people in the village cannot read or write. Every day Diouana would roam around the city in the hopes of finding a job. One day, Madame came to the square, looking for a servant. She selected Diouana from the crowd of unemployed women because she was submissive, and did not crowd forward eagerly demanding a job. She hired Diouana to care for her three children in Dakar. As a gift, Diouana gave her new employers a traditional mask that she had bought from a small boy for 50 guineas. The employers display it in their home. When Dionana is not working for Monsieur and Madame she spends time with her boyfriend, going for walks. It isn't long before Monsieur and Madame offer Diouana a job working for them in France. Diouana is thrilled, and immediately begins dreaming of her new life in France. But in France Diouana is overworked, cooking and cleaning for the rich French couple and their friends. The couple treats her harshly and doesn't allow her to rest. Diouana is confused as to her role in their household. She thought that she would be caring for children, as she did in Senegal. She thought that she would be able to go outside and see something of France. But she is always inside, cooking and cleaning the house. When she works she wears a fancy dress and heels. The mistress of the house tells her to remove them, telling her "don't forget that you are a maid." One night at a dinner party, one of Madame and Monsieur's friends kisses Diouana without her consent, explaining "I've never kissed a negress before!" Diouana receives a letter from her mother in the mail, which Monsieur reads to her. In the letter, Diouana's mother asks why she hasn't heard from her daughter, and pleads for some money. Diouana rips the letter up. Madame refuses to let Diouana sleep, and yells at her to get to work. Diouana attempts to take back the mask she gave to Madame, and a struggle ensues. Madame tells Diouana that if she does not work, she cannot eat. Diouana refuses to work. Then, in an unexpected plot twist that is the climax of the film, Diouana commits suicide by slitting her throat in the bathtub of the family's home. The film ends with Monsieur journeying to Senegal to return Diouana's suitcase and mask to her family. He offers Diouana's mother money, but she is insulted and refuses to take it. As Monsieur leaves the village, the little boy with the mask runs along behind him, symbolizing how Monsieur is haunted by his own memories. | violence, blaxploitation, melodrama | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0376076 | Pithamagan | An anonymous woman dies while giving birth. Her child is found and raised by the caretaker of the graveyard. The child, named Chithan (Vikram), grows up among corpses with minimal human contact is perhaps more feral than autistic. He growls like a wolf, runs like an gorilla has the unkempt appearance of an orangutan but he seems to understand loyalty and is despite his circumstance, a social animal. He ventures into a town in search of food and gets into trouble as he doesn't understand the concept of money. He is rescued by Gomathi (Sangeetha), a petty Ganja seller. She sees his ability to be loyal and enrolls him into the service of her employer, a large scale ganja producer. Chithan is caught during a drug raid and sent to jail.
Shakthi (Suriya) is a conman with a silver tongue.He gets into trouble when he cons Manju (Laila) into losing all her personal effects in a game of dice. Shakthi gets sent to jail thanks to Manju's detective work. Shakthi meets Chithan in jail and starts protecting him out of sympathy and pity. Chithan starts to reciprocate to Shakthi's kindness with the only way he knows, by being as loyal as a dog.
Shakthi serves his term and then butts heads with the Ganja producer to get Chithan out of jail as well. Chithan gets out but commits a crime when he obeys his master's instruction to burn the body of a murder victim. Shakthi, realizing that Chithan is being used as accessory in crimes he cannot comprehend, prevents Chithan from going back to working in the ganja fields. At the same time, a budding romance starts between Shakthi and Manju. Chithan too starts to see a shared spirit in Gomathi.
The Police catch a wind of the murder and arrest Chithan. Shakthi gets Chithan to side with the police and goes against the Ganja producer. The Ganja producer attacks Shakthi when Chithan isn't around. The Ganja producer kills Shakthi and dumps his body in the middle of the road. Chithan doesn't understand that Shakthi is dead and zones out to outer space when everyone surrounds him. Gomathi, Manju and the others are crying and beating their chests in agony. Gomathi sees Chithan's confusion as indifference and she angrily drives Chithan away from Shakthi's body.
Chithan slowly starts to understand that Shakthi is dead as he sees him on the funeral pyre. His realization is complete when he wakes up in the morning next to the burnt remains of Shakthi's corpse. He experiences emotions he has never experienced before: fury, agony, betrayal and emotional pain. His body bears the scars of a million bruises and his violence has always been self-defense and the defense of his masters. The realization of the meaning of death and the pain of losing a loved one breaks the feral chains that had wound up on his psyche.
Chithan sets out like a man intent on destroying the world. He sets fire to the ganja fields, lets the Ganja producer experience the pain of his loss and then sets upon destroying him physically.He drives him through the street, taking his time breaking a few bones at a time till he is done toying with him. Then he kills him and offers his body as a tribute to Manju who now has lost her will to live.
Gomathi realizes what Chithan has been through and tries to get him to stay. However, Chithan turns back to the world of the graveyard among the corpses that cannot hurt him anymore. | romantic, murder | train | wikipedia | A Fabulous Masterpiece.
An absolutely fantastic movie, to say the least!!
This movie is the stand-out proof, if any were required, that Tamil cinema has been there on top with the best in the world when it comes to meaningful n powerful contributions to cinema.It's a simple story about an extraordinary man and his relationships with a perfectly ordinary world.
Sitthan is a child of the graves, born in a cemetery and lived there all his life until one day, as a grown man he is forced to step out into the world.
He is caught in times he does not understand.
He is totally and believably unaware of such concepts as money, the police and dining etiquette.
What he does possess is an animal instinct to survive.A street-side drug seller takes him into her fold and gets him employed in a cannabis farm.
The rest of the story revolves around how he meets Shakthi, a conman who becomes his friend for life and how the two proceed through their collective lives.The movie is commendable in in many ways.
Vikram gives a stellar National Award-winning performance as Sitthan.
Almost dialog-less throughout the movie, he excels in every scene, emoting complex sentiments easily through gestures and grunts.
His body language is compelling, almost prehistoric and carries a hint of an unspoken raw terror.
The scenes where he mauls the policemen are brutal but bloodless.
In one scene where he is hung on a rod like a captured tiger, he sends a growl into the face of a policemen, with such intensity it evokes unpleasant memories of Hannibal Lecter.
Simply superb.The rest of the cast delivers the goods too.
Shakti, played by Surya as the one soul who understands Sitthan is touching and convincing.
The ladies are largely soulful.
The direction by Bala is splendid, taking the story along with effortless ease.
The fight sequences with Vikram butchering everyone are chillingly choreographed to incessant wild grunting.
Though the editing could have been a lot slicker, the camera work is pretty good.The only scenes where the movie goes off track are the scenes with Simran and her hip-shakes.
A totally unnecessary song-dance sequence.
Also, Laila, playing Shakti's love interest, overdoes it at several occasions.
But Vikram drowns it all.On the whole, a fantastic movie that delivers the slow-paced caffeine of a classic..
South Indian movie at its best.
I heard a lot about this movie but watched it probably because sometimes when i heard a lot about any movie i get a little biased towards watching it, as all the talk about it irritates me.
I made a mistake in watching this movie earlier.
'Awesome' is an understatement.
What attracted me towards this movie was the first time combination of two South Indian stars Vikram and Surya(both my favorite) of the three superstars(Vijay, Vikram and Surya).
Vikram as usual gives an outstanding performance as mentally challenged undertaker, on the other hand Surya and Laila leaves no stone unturned to show their own skills and make movie better.
The story in some good movie takes a second place to the characters, Pithamagan is one such movie.Watch it for Surya-Vikram duo, rest is just extra gift to you..
Outstanding, brilliant movie.
Practically everyone of the main characters were brilliant.
I liked the innocent and happy play of Suryan and Laila very much which contrasted nicely with the darker nature of the movie.
Even Simran's dance was very good - no elaborate glamor, just plain and simple dance elements - I found it breathtaking.
The characters were powerful yet realistic and believable.
The police, the jailors, the rich, corrupt guys, the helplessness of poor people caught in these dynamics.
Its such a relief to have a director who is original, strong, secure, no need not to copy from Hollywood.
Bollywood is so bereft of ideas that no movie can survive without some item number, trying to cover up empty movies with technical whizbang - see the movie Race for example.
Absolutely marvelous movie..
agonizing.....
bala delivered movie of lifetime in sethu....but now one would say he hasn't....pithamagan may well take the cake...casting cant be more perfect...music and the bg is out of the world in the true sense....and vikrams performance is outrageous...human relations is conceived in a manner that only bala can....
i would say the story,the plot,the characters and every atom involved in making this film travels along with chittan and they reach their destination or destiny rather abruptly....the scene when chittan breaks down for the first time in his life is so dramatic and real....bala is a genius in conceiving very bizarre stories with conviction and trueness....pithamagan a must watch....
Indias Best.Bala's Masterpiece.
If u guys never seen a Indian movie..better start with this one..Indian movies are generally very superficial with lot of dance and fights...but this movie is very deep....with vikram's national award acting ,,actually surya did equally good..
and the only Indian movie which can be compared to international standards.Though there are lot of bollywood movies which are doing pretty good but the difference between them and Pithamagam is Unique....the B'wood are heavily influenced by other foreign movies but Pithamagan is a genuine material.
somee other movies like nayagan which is a pure rip-off of "godfather" & once upon a time in America has got more credits than this movie..thats very SAD...
the film is said to be based on a short story by jayakanthan.
the story revolves aaround a vetian(who burns dead bodies accord to Indian tradition) who is detached from the society and how he gets close to some superb characters played by Surya.
Laila, SangeetaWhats soo great about director Bala, he creates a world with characters so different and extreme at the same time very realistic.
words really can't describe....its a must see..if u guys could get this movie with subtitles ...grab it..u will cry |
tt0923985 | We Are the Strange | We Are the Strange focuses on "two diametrically opposed outcasts" as they "fight for survival in a sinister fantasy world." These two outcasts are an abused woman named Blue who has a mysterious degenerative disease and a living doll named eMMM.
The two meet in the Forest of Still Life, where Blue follows eMMM to Stopmo City on a search for his ideal ice cream parlor. Upon arriving in Stopmo City, they are caught in the middle of a fierce battle between bizarre monsters, making their progress difficult. Thankfully, a hero named Rain appears and easily destroys every monster that faces him. Blue meets Rain before he partakes in an "impossible battle against the source of all that is evil in Stopmo City." During the battle, Rain, along with Ori are crushed by Him after Rain states he wants to avenge his son. When the outlook seems grim, a fist made of aluminum foil breaks through the ground and starts the final showdown between good and evil. Six alternate soundtracks and author's commentary, including soundtrack by Noise Inc. are available on the DVD. The music used in We Are the Strange Trailer has been made by chiptune artist YERZMYEY/AY-RIDERS (a cover of t.A.T.u.'s "30 Minutes") using ZX Spectrum computer. | cult | train | wikipedia | When M dot Strange was told to think outside the box, he overshot a little.
At the screening at Sundance, M dot Strange said that he pretty much locked himself in his room with a bunch of broken toys, and nine computers.
He stayed there for more than a year with only his frighteningly twisted imagination, and came out with this animation that is a mix between Stop-motion, Computer animation, 8 bit video game animation, and Japanese Anime.
The imagination of M dot Strange is truly dark and wild.
This film is a brilliant combination of different forms of art and digital media.
I never play video games, do not like 8-bit music, do not particularly like any kind of animation, and have watched virtually no anime.
I actually walked into the movie at Sundance about 10 minutes late and had a hard time getting to my seat because of the visual and audio onslaught coming at me from the screen.
I was completely confused for about 3/4 of the movie yet I could not stop watching.
The plot was developed almost entirely outside the realm of dialog and I suggest you read about the story before you begin watching.What I love about this film is that it makes you think.
I HIGHLY recommend seeing this film if you want something different than anything you have ever seen.
Even if you hate the movie, it is still worth watching if you like to expand your perception of what film is.
I walked away from this movie with a much greater appreciation for different kinds of art and the amount of work that went into blending all the mediums used..
Dot Strange."That kind of gives you a hint of what you are going to see - something very "strange."Listen: you'll either think this is super cool and love this film, or you'll get so disgusted you'll yank it off your screen within minutes.
I really tried to like this.The good aspect of this film is the clever animation done on a low budget.
You also have the option of hearing various soundtracks - now that's unique!The bad part of the movie is that it's hard to watch much of it in one sitting.
After a while, I found myself not caring what was happening and just attempted to enjoy the strange visuals and sound- effects.
I'm just trying to give you an idea how different this film is from other animated movies you've seen.Also, it was first released on the Internet instead of movie theaters, I think, but did play in the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 and the following year put out on DVD.For the average movie viewer, this film would be torture to sit through.
For someone who enjoys something different visually, this is a unique film that deserves a look and might prove to be fascinating, especially for some young person interested in becoming a filmmaker.
The two main characters are a young girl with big blue eyes (visually reminiscent of anime) who escapes her pimp and a sad and scared little boy.
There are direct references to multiple things, most notable I would describe as hybrid the 8-bit era of video gaming, stop motion, anime and 3D with a David Lynch logic.
Yes there is a very simple story, but all that surrounds it, truly make the films.
Now when so many independent filmmakers view Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez as their heroes, its is refreshing to see a filmmaker using the digital tools not to emulate formulas and trends created by others, but to experiment all the way and successfully create something new.Now the music is unlike anything I've heard on film.
Being a fan of unusual movies, I decided to go and watch We Are the Strange when it was shown at Leeds Film Festival.
Unfortunately, this movie is not strange in a good or interesting way.
The plot is pretty much non-existent and if it wasn't for the lengthly character description at the beginning of the movie, it would be nothing more than complete confusion in cinematic form.
Although the random mismatch of animation styles used in this movie creates a sense of chaos which is fitting to the world in which the film is based, this does not make for good watching and becomes repetitive very quickly.
Some people praise the mixture of animation styles and lack of a plot as 'thinking out of the box'.
This would be thinking out of the box, but would anyone want to eat it?All this movie achieves, is to portray its creator's (M dot Strange) self-indulgence.
M dot Strange would have saved a lot of time, both for himself and others, if he had simply made the visuals for a five minute music video.
We Are The Strange: A Movie Review..
Dot Strange (His stage name from when he used to do music) came up with an independent masterpiece that appeared on Youtube, an animated film called "We Are The Strange", which was merely only a trailer, but an intriguing trailer, indeed.So, for almost a full year and a half, those that sat at their computers waited for the movie to go through Sundance.
Dot Strange, as he commented on those people who were looking at this movie, criticizing it good, criticizing it badly.
You missed an amazing piece of art.We Are The Strange is a movie with a very simple plot, but presents itself in such a dazzling way that you have to seek to finish it, just to see the art.
No matter how you criticize the film, you cannot deny that the art form, Str8nime, a new style of animation created by Strange himself, combines 8 bit animation (Like the old Mario Games on Nintendo) Anime (This stuff is nothing like what you see on TV.
It's human in it's animated style) and Strangeness, and this movie provides plenty of it.The story revolves around two main characters, Blue and Emm. Blue is an anime girl who worked, who lived in a bordello, whilst under the ownership of HIM (The voice of the Director), who tells her she is ugly, and will never be anything to him or anyone.
Blue, too, feels this way.As the two go to Stopmo City, they find that evil lurks everywhere, and only a strange fighter named Rain appears to fight the darkness around the city.This movie is brilliant.
The art is just dazzling, the visuals are what tell the story, and it's not just a fan's review that's saying this, as a movie goer, it's nothing Pixar has ever done.
Shrek cannot compete to what this movie tries to say.If you need to see a movie that is brimming with genius, has an intelligent way of story telling (This does not have much dialog, and that's good, because instead of clouding your mind with meaningless George Lucas-esquire lingo, you can focus on a bitter and at the same time, sweet movie.I give this movie a 9/10..
We Are The Strange's sub textual meaning coherent and easily identified through M Dot's use of archetypal characterization.M Dots use of mixed animation styles was perplexing and jaw dropping at the same time, all the while being strengthened by an exceptional soundtrack.I was thoroughly spellbound by the whole film from beginning to end.
It stimulated my own imagination so much that it inspired me to use the freedom of animation for telling stories from the deep recesses of my own brain.I raise my goblet to you M Dot Strange.
First off, orthodox people who follow mainstream trends in thinking and who digest politically correct thought with glee will most likely HATE this film.This is a film which is truly free in itself.
The connection the viewer has the potential to make with this film is so different that they may find themselves questioning many hidden assumptions about what they are looking for in a film, or even in life in general.The end result of the experience of viewing this film is truly unique.
Visually mind blowing, conceptually from another planet, with awesome (and often hilarious) sound and music this movie is simply on a different frequency from everything that has gone before it.I am certain this represents a milestone.
To me I see this movie as a rebellion against the aristocracy that exists in the movie business and indeed perhaps a rebellion against capitalism and conventional thought altogether.I know certain types of thinks will hate this, others won't get it at all, but this is without a doubt now one of my favorite films ever..
But the plot isn't the reason to watch this film.
I enjoyed We Are The Strange due to it's imaginative art, music and style, but I still felt lost quite a bit...too much so.
This is a movie for people who are artistic, imaginative and adventurous with their movie watching, everyone else should stay put..
Amazing and Incredible new way of telling a story and animation.
A blend of 3d, stop motion, and 8 bit (first type of video game).The art: The 8 bit clouds were beautiful, the dark colors, and the anime girl Blue were simply amazing.
Not only was it a well done independent animated film.
It was also fascinating on how the director throw in various parodies of video games & anime.
The main heroine Blue is one of the reasons I liked it a lot.This movie is really strange, and it was created by a independent filmmaker who likes to do movies his own way.
In my opinion it's highly watchable if you like movies that have a Gothic/anime/video game theme to them.You're able to watch the entire movie on Youtube, because the director wanted everyone to be able to watch the movie.
If you like the movie, then there's a 2-dsic DVD which includes deleted scenes, alternate soundtracks, making of feature, & a commentary where you get to learn at least one new thing about the movie from the director himself.It's not a well known movie to the public, but I'm sure within time, this movie will gain a large cult following like other movies do..
So at least when i left this film feeling angry and annoyed at how terrible it was, i could at least gain some satisfaction by knowing i hadn't wasted my money completely.This film lacks everything that makes a good film, it has no structure, no plot, no characterisation, no nothing.
The only good point i could give this film is the fact that it was done by one man, that is an achievement i'll admit, but still not worthy enough to make this film any better.
For it felt that M dot Strange had just tried to make as many cool animation scenes as he could, and thought i'll whack this in because it looks cool, when it was just painful.
For i couldn't care less whether any characters died in this film, because we never truly got to know them or really know what was going on, what were the rules to this world, why did this happen or anything else.
M dot Strange spent too much time on his animation and completely forgot everything that is needed to make a good film.Basically i say to anyone who wants to watch this film...don't!
Never have i seen so many people walk out a film than i did with this one.
This is unequivocally the biggest POS I have ever seen (and I've seen some really terrible movies, "the saddest music in the world" was my previous #1) This film defies description, but in a bad way.
If true, I guess I won't be watching any movies in the future.There is absolutely no story.
It evokes no emotion except rage at having wasted over an hour watching the film.M. Strange was at the screening and he has this whole act about how he is different and interesting.
I am appalled anyone wasted all that time making it.More irritating than the visuals is the music and soundtrack.
We Are The Strange.What can I say about this movie.
I can almost guarantee you that within the first ten minutes of the movie your first comment will be "What the ****?!" Looking at the title you'd think this movie was, well, strange.
You just can't.More than anything else, this movie is a statement in visual art.
The fight scenes (if you can call them that) which were most definitely inspired by old school anime, is like watching a kid play with action figures.
Actually the whole movie feels like it come from the deep dark recesses of some ten-year-old's abandoned toy chest.The character designs are...innovative.
The first Characters we meet Blue and HIM are probably the closest to normal anybody's gonna get in this film but that's not saying much.
You take one look and you can easily say "Oh, this is the bad guy" or "Oh, definitely a tragic heroine" and so on.The dialog (there's dialog in this movie?!) is few and far between.
There's probably less than five minutes of speech throughout the entire movie...for all characters combined.
Each sentence spoken has heavy significance to the plot so when someone talks you'll know you should listen.As for the plot (yes, boys and girls, there is a plot in here somewhere) it's hard to find at first, mainly because of the movie trying to visually rape your mind.
But if you concentrate really hard (I mean reeeeeeally hard) there is a coherent plot about two lost tragic characters trying to find their way.eMMM and Blue are the classic tragic heroes, both starting out at the bottom of the dumps then slowly but surely finding their courage within each other.
HIM is the stereotypical villain of the piece who thinks of only himself and thinks nothing of plunging the city into darkness if for nothing more than his own pleasure.All of these character elements come together in a straight-forward plot line typical of most epic stories.
The characters and their motivations are easy to understand once you get into the movie and it's easy cheer for the good guys and hate the bad guys (though HIM's low droning voice make it kinda hard to take him seriously) Watch this movie once to get a hang of the visuals.
Watch it again to truly appreciate the story.In conclusion, I loved this movie.
Sure you'll feel like a weirdo for appreciating it, but maybe that's a good thing.Just for chuckles, you should also watch the 1337 version..
We are the Strange is a unique piece of animated art.
The visuals are very strange but sometimes breathtakingly beautiful.
Everything but the last 20 minutes is too slow and too strange for most people i guess.
Also a lot of scenes in the movie seem to be completely random.
though not an avid follower of the film, i saw the trailer a year or so back and was looking forward to it, i do feel quite let down i must admit, production value is top notch.
i couldn't have expected anything better; the mixture of animation styles and unusual soundtrack create a very original and unique experience.Despite this, every film needs a plot and this film was in serious lacking.
Dialogue was almost non-existent and some parts are very hard to understand.Nevertheless if you watch this with an open mind i think you'll enjoy it.
It's quite amazing for a film made by one man..
as you can no doubt tell by looking at the rating and comments on "we are the strange", the film has a distinctly polarizing effect about it.
these are all fair criticisms.though, to look at a film such as "we are the strange" in terms like this is a disservice.
it is not so much a movie as much as it is an abstract painting or a collage and should be watched thusly.
in fact, the inclusion of typical movie structuring is almost to the detriment of the work - though, the plot is simple, to the point of it being unnecessary.
the room for interpretation is endless."we are the strange" is a vibrant piece of art, but it's not for everyone.
Someone here said not to watch this movie for the plot, but to watch it for the visuals.
This movie is is an amazing, beautiful, stunning, _painting with audio_.
This is an amazing piece of art, but this is far from a "movie".
This is a series of beautiful paintings set to great video game style audio and sound effects.
The movie lacks a plot (at least one I could detect), and between the visuals I was left wondering "is this what people see when they're on acid?".
Most audiences simply could not sit through something like this in a dark room with a big screen.As art, I'd say this film is a success.
I have never seen a film before this that combines such diverse graphic art into a visual whole.
The visual and audio effects are rather hypnotizing, though not in a good way."We Are the Strange" is aptly named, and very hard to like.
I appreciate this as a unique and powerful art film, but I don't find it entertaining..
...unless you are happy with a severely lacking plot and are a big fan of different types of animation being randomly merged together.
I couldn't even watch it the whole way through and had to walk out of the cinema.I imagine it would appeal to nobody but a small minority of film students who might appreciate Mr Strange's use of different media in a 'unique' way.
However, I would like to point out that just because it has never been done before, it doesn't make it creative in the good sense of the word.in conclusion: it is the worst movie i have seen and I disliked it soo much that when i saw its ridiculously inflated rating on this site, I had to join up especially to save people from wasting their time. |
tt2081437 | The Liability | Young and naive 19-year-old slacker, Adam (Jack O'Connell), lives with his mum, Nicky (Kierston Wareing), in the home of her intimidating gangster boyfriend, Peter (Peter Mullan) and is sent to conduct a day of driving for Peter's associate after Adam inadvertently views an incriminating video on Peter's laptop. This takes Adam on the road with aging hitman, Roy (Tim Roth), as he enters a world of murder for 24 hours. Roy tries to force him to kill a mysterious girl (Talulah Riley) in a forest, but he refrains from doing so, giving her the chance to escape and drive away in their vehicle.
Not pleased, Roy uses Adam to hitchhike and they steal a van from an elderly couple. They call the girl on Adam's phone that was left in the car she took, striking a deal to give her £7000 in return for the bag of evidence that was left in the vehicle, even though Roy doesn't actually have the entire amount. Roy robs a diner to make up the rest. He holds the diner employees at gunpoint and uses them as hostages to make sure the deal goes through.
Having redeemed the bag, Roy and Adam plan to switch automobiles and dispose of the evidence. However, Roy knocks Adam unconscious at a quiet roadside area. Before Roy can kill and dismember his body, the girl, who followed them, runs over Roy and kidnaps Adam.
Retreating to an abandoned factory, the girl ties Adam to a rail upstairs. Roy finds his way there and confronts her. She claims her sister was sold in a line of sex trafficking, starting with Peter and ending up last with Roy, and she begins a fight with him. Adam manages to free one of his hands and retrieve Roy's fallen gun. Regaining his memory, Adam realizes Roy attempted to kill him. Irritated, he fires shots off, injuring Roy as the girl flees. Roy pleads with him to stop shooting and tells Adam he was given orders to kill him but no reason, with Adam's death meant to be part of "the job" all along. Adam realizes it must be because he saw the video incriminating Peter of sex-trafficking.
They leave the factory, finding out the girl left behind the car, money and other belongings she had taken. Adam drives Roy in their stolen van to a church for Roy's daughter's wedding. During the ride, Roy reveals he spared Adam's life because of his innocence and tells him he has a second chance at life while Peter believes he's dead. After dropping off Roy at the church, where his fate is left ambiguous, Adam takes the van away to set fire to it and destroy any evidence linking them to the murders done in their travels, but keeps the gun.
Adam returns home, confronting Peter with the gun and alerting his mum Nicky to his double-crossing ways. Adam attacks Peter, who gets a hold of the gun, Peter knocks out Adam's mum and drags him out to the parking lot. There, the girl shows up and shoots Peter for what he did to her sister. Peter starts to strangle her until she stabs and kills him.
To end the film, the girl mounts her pick up truck, opens the passenger door and invites in this way a bewildered Adam. | flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0098936 | Twin Peaks | === Season one ===
In 1989, logger Pete Martell discovers a naked corpse wrapped in plastic on the bank of a river outside the town of Twin Peaks, Washington. When Sheriff Harry S. Truman, his deputies, and Dr. Will Hayward arrive, the body is identified as homecoming queen Laura Palmer. A badly injured second girl, Ronette Pulaski, is discovered in a fugue state.
FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate. Cooper's initial examination of Laura's body reveals a tiny typed letter "R" inserted under her fingernail. Cooper informs the community that Laura's death matches the signature of a killer who murdered another girl in southwestern Washington the previous year, and that evidence indicates the killer lives in Twin Peaks.
The authorities discover that Laura has been living a double life. She was cheating on her boyfriend, football captain Bobby Briggs, with biker James Hurley, and prostituting herself with the help of truck driver Leo Johnson and drug dealer Jacques Renault. Laura was also addicted to cocaine, which she obtained by coercing Bobby into doing business with Jacques.
Laura's father, attorney Leland Palmer, suffers a nervous breakdown. Her best friend, Donna Hayward, begins a relationship with James. With the help of Laura's cousin Maddy Ferguson, Donna and James discover that Laura's psychiatrist, Dr. Lawrence Jacoby, was obsessed with Laura, but he is proven innocent of the murder.
Hotelier Ben Horne, the richest man in Twin Peaks, plans to destroy the town's lumber mill along with its owner Josie Packard, and murder his lover and Josie's sister-in-law, Catherine Martell (Piper Laurie), so that he can purchase the land at a reduced price and complete a development project. Horne's sultry, troubled daughter, Audrey, becomes infatuated with Cooper and spies for clues in an effort to gain his affections.
Cooper has a dream in which he is approached by a one-armed otherworldly being who calls himself Mike. Mike says that Laura's murderer is a similar entity, Killer Bob, a feral, denim-clad man with long gray hair. Cooper finds himself decades older with Laura and a dwarf in a red business suit, who engages in coded dialogue with Cooper. The next morning, Cooper tells Truman that, if he can decipher the dream, he will know who killed Laura.
Cooper and the sheriff's department find the one-armed man from Cooper's dream, a traveling shoe salesman named Phillip Gerard. Gerard knows a Bob, the veterinarian who treats Renault's pet bird. Cooper interprets these events to mean that Renault is the murderer and, with Truman's help, tracks Renault to One-Eyed Jack's, a brothel owned by Horne across the border in Canada. He lures Renault back onto U.S. soil to arrest him, but Renault tries to escape and is shot and hospitalized.
Leland, learning that Renault has been arrested, sneaks into the hospital and murders him. The same night, Horne orders Leo to burn down the lumber mill with Catherine trapped inside and has Leo gunned down by Hank Jennings to ensure Leo's silence. Cooper returns to his room following Jacques's arrest and is shot by a masked gunman.
=== Season two ===
Lying hurt in his room, Cooper has a vision in which a giant appears and reveals three clues: "There is a man in a smiling bag"; "The owls are not what they seem"; and "Without chemicals, he points." He takes Cooper's gold ring and explains that when Cooper understands the three premonitions, his ring will be returned.
Leo Johnson survives his shooting but is brain-damaged. Catherine Martell disappears, presumed to have perished in the mill fire. Leland Palmer, whose hair has turned white overnight, is rejuvenated by Renault's murder and returns to work.
Phillip Gerard is the host for Mike, a demonic "inhabiting spirit" who used to retain the services of Bob, a lesser demonic entity, to help him kill humans. Mike reveals that Bob has been possessing someone in town for decades, but he does not tell Cooper whom Bob has possessed. Donna takes on Laura's old route for the Meals on Wheels program in the hopes of finding more clues to Laura's murder. She befriends a young man named Harold Smith who is in possession of a second diary that Laura kept. She and Maddy attempt to steal it from him, but Harold catches them in the act, loses all faith in humanity, and hangs himself in his orchid greenhouse. The officers take possession of Laura's secret diary, and learn that Bob, a friend of her father's, raped her repeatedly as a child and that she began using drugs to cope. Cooper believes that the killer is Ben Horne, but Leland is revealed to be Bob when he brutally kills Maddy.
Cooper doubts Horne's guilt, so he gathers all of his suspects in the belief that he will receive a sign to help him identify the killer. The Giant appears and confirms that Leland is Bob's host and Laura's and Maddy's killer. Bob assumes total control over Leland's body and confesses to a series of murders, before forcing Leland to commit suicide. Leland, as he dies, free of Bob's influence, tells Cooper that Bob has possessed him ever since molesting him as a child. He begs for forgiveness, sees a vision of Laura welcoming him into the afterlife, and dies in Cooper's arms. The lawmen question whether Leland was truly possessed or mentally ill, and considers the possibility that Bob might still stalk the community of Twin Peaks in search of a new host.
Cooper is set to leave Twin Peaks when he is framed for drug trafficking by the criminal Jean Renault and is suspended from the FBI. Renault holds Cooper responsible for the death of his brother, Jacques. Jean Renault is killed in a shootout with police, and Cooper is cleared of all charges.
Windom Earle, Cooper's former mentor and FBI partner, comes to Twin Peaks seeking revenge because Cooper had an affair with Earle's wife, Caroline, while she had been under his protection as a witness to a federal crime. Earle went mad, killed Caroline, and stabbed Cooper. He was committed to a mental institution but escaped, hiding out in the woods near Twin Peaks. He plays a twisted game of chess with Cooper in which someone dies each time he captures an opponent's piece.
Cooper tries to discover the origin and whereabouts of Bob, and learns more about the mysteries of the dark woods surrounding Twin Peaks. He learns of the existence of the White Lodge and the Black Lodge, two extra-dimensional realms whose gateways reside somewhere in the woods. Cooper learns that Bob, the Giant, and the Man From Another Place all come from one of the two lodges. Meanwhile, Bob restlessly seeks another host. Josie Packard dies mysteriously during Truman and Cooper's attempt to apprehend her for shooting Cooper. At the moment of her death, Bob briefly appears to Cooper, drawn by her fear.
Cooper falls in love with a new girl in town, Annie Blackburn. When Annie wins the Miss Twin Peaks contest, Earle kidnaps her and takes her to the Black Lodge entrance in Glastonbury Grove. Cooper realizes that Earle's real reason for being in Twin Peaks is to gain entrance into the Black Lodge and harness its power for himself, and that his chess game has been an elaborate decoy. With clues from Deputy Andy and the Log Lady, Cooper discovers the entrance to the Lodge, which turns out to be the red-curtained room from his dream. He is greeted by the Man From Another Place, the giant, and the spirit of Laura Palmer, who each give Cooper coded prophecies about his future and demonstrate the properties of the Black Lodge, which defies the laws of time and space. Searching for Annie and Earle, Cooper encounters doppelgängers of various dead people, including Maddy Ferguson and Leland Palmer, who taunt him with strange denials, warnings, and falsehoods. The doppelgängers eventually lead Cooper to Earle, who demands that Cooper give up his soul in exchange for Annie's life. Cooper agrees and Earle stabs him. Seconds later, Killer Bob appears and reverses time in the Lodge. Bob tells Cooper that Earle cannot ask for his soul and then kills Earle and takes his soul. Bob then turns on Cooper, who experiences fear for the first time in the Lodge. Cooper flees, pursued by Bob and a doppelgänger of himself.
Some time after entering the Lodge, Cooper and Annie reappear in the woods. They are discovered by Sheriff Truman, who has been waiting for them since he saw Cooper disappear. Annie is bloodied and hospitalized, but Cooper's injuries are minor enough that Doctor Hayward is able to treat them in Cooper's room at the Great Northern Hotel. Upon waking, Cooper asks about Annie's condition, and then states he needs to brush his teeth. When Cooper enters the bathroom and looks into the mirror, his reflection is Bob, revealing that he is Cooper's doppelgänger from the Black Lodge. He then rams his head into the mirror and, while laughing maniacally, repeatedly mocks his earlier question about Annie's condition. | avant garde, mystery, murder, neo noir, paranormal, cult, violence, magical realism, psychedelic, romantic | train | wikipedia | The initial Laura Palmer murder case is unravelled expertly, by episode 16, with many great surreal and shocking moments, notably the scenes involving Bob. The show's brand of off-the-wall deadpan humour was perhaps at its best in the initial episodes, for example, Cooper's rock-throwing in the woods and Leland's bizarre, impromptu dance with Ben and Jerry Horne.
Twin Peaks is a beautiful series aesthetically, from the wonderful titles sequence, Angelo Badalamenti's stunningly evocative music scores to some wonderfully innovative photography and direction - usually in those episodes helmed by Lynch.
Some of the characters were bland - the spotless Norma Jennings, James Hurley, Audrey's boyfriend in the later episodes - and some failed to really work - Nadine I feel added little to the series.The very final episode is, I would say, as good a series ending as they could have come up with; tantalisingly placed, as the battle between the good and evil forces in Twin Peaks is hotting up.
David Lynch, the shows co-creator, directed a theatrically released film prequel to "Twin Peaks", showing all who missed the shows airings what really happened to Laura the week of her death, and, finally, her killer.
Viewing "Twin Peaks-Fire Walk With Me", along with the television pilot and the entire 29 episode series (about 33 hours all together), is the most fascinating and satisfying viewing experience that the entertainment industry has offered me so far.
Possibly one of the best TV dramas ever, "Twin Peaks" managed to be a challenging and unique (not to mention intelligent) piece of television.Daring and provocative, it shattered the boundaries of most standard soap operas/TV dramas.Terrified of it by a child (and in particular by BOB) I have since returned to it on DVD, only to find myself just as terrified and intrigued by it as I was when I was twelve years old and crouching behind my late grandmother's couch.A piece of groundbreaking television history...
"Twin Peaks" was created by David Lynch (arguably the finest American film-maker, along with Martin Scorsese, living today) and over two very abbreviated seasons (only 29 total episodes) television reached an age that may never be experienced again.
Twenty years ago, on the other hand, such a thing was unthinkable, at least until Twin Peaks aired.Created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, the series takes its name from a small American town where a grisly murder has been committed.
That assignment is given to Special FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Lynch regular Kyle MacLachlan), who quickly earns the trust and friendship of Sheriff Truman (Michael Ontkean) and the rest of Twin Peaks'inhabitants thanks to his extraordinary deductive methods and fascination for the calm and peace around him.
And he is going to need all the help he can get, as Laura's murder is just one of the many odd things causing trouble in the heavenly surroundings: there's Benjamin Horne (Richard Beymer) and his dangerous connection with a casino/brothel known as One-Eyed Jack's; there's his daughter Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn), whose interest in Agent Cooper might put her in a worse situation than she thinks; there's the dispute over the Packard sawmill between Catherine Martell (Piper Laurie) and Josie Packard (Joan Chen); and there are the bizarre creatures who populate Cooper's dreams, people like The Man From Another Place (a backwards-talking dwarf, played by Michael J.
Anderson) or the terrifying Bob (Frank Silva), suggesting that most of the events in Twin Peaks may not have a rational explanation.Back in 1990, a series like this had never been done before, so its success was a little unexpected (sadly, ratings dropped during the second season, leading to the show's premature cancellation).
Now it can be seen as an anticipation of that great TV creation that is HBO: the dead interacting with the living (Six Feet Under), ambiguous characters and even more ambiguous relationships between them (Deadwood), a consistent balance between moving and funny, beautiful and shocking (The Sopranos), the seeds of all those elements can be found in Twin Peaks, a show that didn't hesitate when it came to playing with the format or crossing the line in terms of mature content (death, drug abuse, rape) or on-screen violence (the ending of Episode 8, where one of the villains is shown at the peak of his abilities, is still one of the most audacious scenes ever shown on mainstream television).
Fans of the visionary filmmaker will find plenty of his recurring themes, some a direct reference to his previous works (the ugliness lying underneath the apparent perfection, as seen in Blue Velvet), others a hint of things to come (the duality of Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, here embodied by Lee, who plays both the deceased Laura and her cousin).As always with the Eraserhead director, the acting is exceptional: MacLachlan and Lee are the standouts, the former playing his best role to date, a cunning combination of palpable vulnerability and impeccable wit, the latter shining with a double performance that should have been the beginning of a great career (alas, apart from a minor role in John Carpenter's Vampires, she hasn't done much since).
As for the guest stars, not all of them are well known, but every single one brings something special to the series: the most notable cameos include a then unknown Heather Graham, a pre-X-Files David Duchovny (a quite funny and ironic contrast to Fox Mulder) and Lynch himself as a half-deaf FBI Regional Chief (one of the show's best characters).Those interested in American TV simply have to give Twin Peaks a look: it might be too weird or unsettling for some (but then again, that's always the case with Lynch's work), but it remains a landmark in contemporary television, and played a vital role in making the US small screen what it is today..
It really brought humanity to Laura's death.Can't wait to one day own the whole series on DVD, and one summer night, start watching the episodes one by one.Another amazing aspect of the opening episode is the many types of characters and settings involved, just within the town of Twin Peaks.
Twin Peaks, much like David Lynch's own Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet, among other great works of his, examines the main notion, idea and scope behind what it is meant to conventionally be.
It's one of the rare times that the kind of artful penetration into what is essentially good, essentially evil, and even essentially gray-in-area in human beings that usually presides in cinema is let out, practically in each episode, like some kind of feverish worm that crawls in your mind and won't stop...Maybe it's the owls.But aside from the many, many, many layers to the show, to the dynamics between FBI Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLaughlin in his most recognizable role) and those he relates to everyday as well as in his dreams and Tibetan-inspired visions (the classic being the quintessential dream with the garbled-talking little-person), the teenagers with their own plots of neuroses and dramas and higher ambitions and darker demons, as well as those you'd least expect- the quiet ones- not to mention the ones residing on top in the little crevices we dare not usually seek out in small towns (i.e. the prostitution ring fronted by Mr. Horne), it's just a damn-well entertaining program.
The revelation of Laura Palmer's killer took the wind out of the sails somewhat just nine shows into the second season, but the true theme of Twin Peaks was about the evil in the woods that took the form of the killer and the seamy underbelly of what appeared to be everyday small-town life.
SPOILER: I'd just started watching the 2017 version of Twin Peaks, but realised that I was a little hazy about some of the characters from the old series, so I've just binge-watched all 30 original episodes.
In a bad way.In short, Twin Peaks, while fondly remembered, was actually pretty terrible for almost half it's entire running length and while some of the performances still stand up - MacLachlan, Beymer, Fenn and Wise in particular - it probably would have been a better series if all the other hands on the tiller in season two hadn't flailed around trying to find a series of plot lines, and more importantly a tone - that worked.
"Twin Peaks" must be the best TV series of all time, since even today, 20 years after its first run, there is still nothing like it.
that is simply not a good argument, x files was old too and i loved it, twin peaks is dull and not even remotely scary.this show is consisted of a dull storyline, unfit music and stupid actors who have no idea of how they should act, all these elements and much more that i can't recall right now makes this show a cheap attempt to what i don't know, if their purpose was to make a horror series i have to say they failed big time, throughout the show i felt everything but horror, even laughing occasionally occasionally..
25 years old and as good as ever, probably because this show is a flawless mix of different styles: horror, parody, nostalgia, mystery, humour and more, which makes it completely original.Of course, the storyline isn't perfect and maybe some of the character plots are a bit redundant, especially in the second season, but who cares?
This all wouldn't work if Lynch couldn't manage to weave a unique spell around the viewer that seduces him into a reality permeated by mythical truths that can be taken as profound and lightweight at the same time.Focal point of course is FBI Agent Dale Cooper whose idiosyncratic methods to find a murderer are based more on intuition than logic, but he's just one of the oddball characters that make "Twin Peaks" a real treat: Meet - among others - e.g. Deputy Andy (Stan Laurel inspired), FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole with a hearing problem (Lynch himself), a dwarf, a giant and a shady presence with the common name Bob to name just a few.
After having watched a few episodes from the first season of 'Twin Peaks' it struck me that this is a series that manages what virtually no other has before it, or since.
The attributes of the small town named after its dramatic natural surroundings invites the viewer into a world where secrets are kept, and where information is only available through careful observation and analytical thinking, as well as a keen sensibility to the spiritual, or perhaps emotional aspects of the human psyche.Special Agent Cooper, the man who arrives in 'Twin Peaks' in order to investigate the murder of Laura Palmer seems to possess all of these attributes, enabling him to painstakingly yet elegantly work his way through the layers of understanding and deception before him, and us.
It isn't the question of who killed Laura Palmer that makes the series so fascinating, that gets solved early in the second season; it is discovering little details about the characters as the series progresses and when it ends you will either be tearing your hair out in frustration or thinking you've just seen something great...
But over the course of the past few years I have managed to get my hands on the DVD's, and after watching The second Episode of Season 1, I was glued to the TV, mainly because of the Horror part of the show, The murder of Laura Palmer, Bob, LMFAP, The Giant, Mike, and The Waiting Room were my main interest.
But managed to get back to the point at the last 2 episodes of the series which I was happy with.They simply don't make shows like this anymore, but had David Lynch got the rights to make a season 3 and filled in all the gaps and cleared up all those unanswered questions, Twin Peaks would have got the recognition it deserves.If you've seen this, My advice is watch the movie, "Fire Walk With Me", which was a Prequel to the series which somehow clears up most unanswered questions, but not all.Unpredictable, weird, scary, and some scenes of comedy.
In a time when sitcoms, cop shows and medical dramas culminated, David Lynch and Mark Frost managed to change the face of television forever with their groundbreaking cult TV show Twin Peaks.The recipe was simple.
I've recently started to watch Twin Peaks for the first time and I can say it already found its place among my favorite TV shows.My highlights of the show:The characters are so real.
Twin Peaks appeared as a two season television series, initially to soaring audience interest, and then largely ignored except for the art-house cult that like most Lynch productions.
However, Twin Peaks featured exceptional dialogue, tasteful scenery, beautiful, well written characters and a sense of intrigue and profound suspense, taking place in a quaint, idiosyncratic logging town near Canada, where a senior school girl has been murdered, for unknown reasons.The crime is investigated by Kyle Maclachlan's character Dale Cooper - a clean cut FBI agent surrounded by likely suspects; failed, hateful lovers, corrupt wealth, drug smugglers, small town losers, a wacky psychiatrist and a handful of eccentric, possibly insane people that appear throughout the show, enabling all sorts of symbolism and dramatic experimentation in an otherwise highly conventional genre.
After hearing nothing but great things about Twin Peaks(although there were criticisms of the second season not being as good and some being underwhelmed by the ending) I finally checked out the show and the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me as somebody who appreciates David Lynch hugely and love almost all his films, and it was time well worth spent.
There have been criticisms about the reveal of the final episode being underwhelming, initially it is a head-scratcher but I am with those who considers the episode on the whole one of the scariest episodes seen on television.Twin Peaks looks incredible, quite easily one of the best-looking TV series personally watched; the photography is so good that you have to check that it's for a television show and not a film and the costumes and sets are colourfully surreal and positively eye catching.
Twin Peaks is also one of the best scored television series, the music enhances the atmosphere so well and better than a lot of other shows and it really haunts the mind, again like the visuals it can easily be mistaken for a score written for a film.
The episodes are all compelling and multi-faceted in atmosphere, even the weakest episodes are much better than a lot of TV shows today at their best and worst, while the show tackles a very dark subject with subtle horror, genuinely disturbing scenes like the entire ending, quirky humour that at its best is side-splittingly hilarious and a real emotional wallop.The characters are not only interesting with more than one dimension to them but more than memorable as well, Agent Cooper and Ben Horne being especially so, sure a few appear, disappear and re-appear but you never forget them.
All kind of weird stuff happens to Dale in Twin Peaks.David Lynch created this excellent TV series and it ran in the years 1990-91.I myself saw this show first time in 1991 when I wasn't even ten years old yet.I'm pretty sure I couldn't follow everything that was happening in the show back then.Second time I saw this in 1995 and the third time in 2000 and yesterday I saw the last episode of it.I guess it takes a few times to watch this show to understand it completely.There were many memorable characters in the show.Michael Ontkean played Sheriff Harry S.Truman, Dana Ashbrook was Bobby Briggs, Mädchen Amick was Shelly Johnson, Benjamin Horne was played by Richard Beymer, Sherilyn Fenn his daughter Audrey, Lara Flynn Boyle was Donna Marie Hayward, Harry Goaz was not so bright Deputy Andy Brennan and his sweetheart Lucy Moran was played by Kimmy Robertson, Sheryl Lee played Laura Palmer and her cousin Maddy, Ray Wise was Laura's father Leland and Frank Silva was the scary Bob.Who could forget the log lady and many other special characters.The show kept you interested from episode one to the final episode.This was very surreal and weird show and that's why people liked it so much.Now it's known as a classic television series.
I enjoyed the pilot and the first few episodes (although they weren't groundbreaking or anything) which did a great job at the introduction of this very strange town, but what this WHOLE series needed was time to think things through, it didn't.I think this show was a good change of pace from what the average viewer watched on television during the 90's, but upon scrutinisation, the flaws are just too apparent with the most important things: the writing and development..
Sure, it lasted only two seasons, and had an admittedly weak period during the second season, but without the ominous investigation into the death of Laura Palmer and the ensuing mysteries that Lynch created over the better part of 29 episodes, Television today would be years behind the quirky and original programming that has been implemented with shows like Lost, the X-Files, or even The Sopranos.
So I decided to find time for it now and watch all episodes in sequence - as it is wise with all series with flashbacks and hints to the past.I liked the beginning and the main characters and performances, particularly FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper by Kyle MacLachlan (although I had difficulties to individuate young females at first due to their similar looks), some mysticism and Lynch's features (not too much, as I am not particularly keen on supernatural solving human issues), but then some scenes and events became protracted, and I decided I would confine myself to the Season 1...
The Story is following: The FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper has been sent to the small town of Twin Peaks, where a girl named Laura Palmer has been murdered.
Twin peaks at first is like a lot of David lynch's work. |
tt0093051 | From the Hip | Fresh out of law school, Robin "Stormy" Weathers (Judd Nelson) cannot stand the tedium of case filing and research. Desperately wanting to "practice law" and go to trial, one morning he intentionally withholds the fact that a trial is scheduled to begin that very afternoon to compel his superiors to let him try the case because he is the only one familiar with the facts of the case. During his meeting with the client (the president of a bank who intentionally struck another banker), the banker declares the "simple assault case" to be a no-winner (explaining that he hits people all the time), but wants the one-day trial to somehow be stretched to three days to run up the other banker's court fees.
Weathers prolongs the case by creating a 1st Amendment constitutional challenge as to the admissibility of the word "asshole". Escalating the case into a media frenzy, the senior partners of the law firm are embarrassed by Weathers' behavior and unconventional methods and try to fire him. The client retaliates on Weathers' behalf threatening to take the bank's business elsewhere. Weathers appears to be crafty and intuitive, but in reality, had conspired with the other attorney (a friend of his) to stage a brilliant legal engagement to make themselves look good. Weathers wins the trial and in doing so attracts a plethora of new clients to the firm which skyrockets him to be a junior partner.
In an act of unfair retaliation, Weathers is assigned to be lead defense counsel in a first-degree murder case involving university professor Douglas Benoit (John Hurt) who is almost certainly guilty of bludgeoning a prostitute to death with the claw of a hammer. Benoit wanted Weathers because he saw him in the previous case. Weathers takes the case and his loud and odd courtroom behavior soon amazes the judge, the spectators and sometimes embarrasses his girlfriend Jo Ann (Elizabeth Perkins). Determined to impress his employers by winning a verdict of not guilty, no matter what, his courtroom antics soon visibly gain even the jury's favor and raise the likelihood of acquittal.
Weathers unsuccessfully tries to get Benoit to accept a plea-bargain to manslaughter charges and soon discovers that Benoit is guilty by a veiled confession where Benoit vividly describes to him the "clarity of mind" it takes for a man to be able to split someone's skull open with the claw of a hammer while the person remains alive. Weathers becomes conflicted between his sense of duty and ethics and his moral obligation to see Benoit pay for his crime. Despite the possibility of being disbarred, he decides to antagonize Benoit into a confession on the stand.
Benoit is found guilty. | satire, murder | train | wikipedia | A little known, great great movie.
Quite simply I love this movie, not because I have an affinity to any of the actors but simply because it's a very easy way to pass a couple of hours.For movie which attempts to broach one of the legal systems greatest dilemmas (how to defend the guilty) the screenwriters and director somehow manage to deal with the issue seriously yet without allowing the movie to become heavy and dry.You will laugh as there are many genuinely funny scenes and yet you will also appreciate the very real and serious ethical dilemma "stormy" finds himself in.John Hurt does steal the show somewhat with a performance that is nothing short of chilling, but the movie is not just about John and the supporting cast are pretty good as well.
Criticism of Judd Nelson for this role is certainly unwarranted.If you want a nice easy watch, which you can chose to just enjoy or to actually have a proper think about then this is a very good place to start.Do yourself a favour find the movie in a bargain bin, watch it and wonder why you never bothered to see it before.
Smart - Funny - Clever - Entertaining.
Judd Nelson is terrific in this entertaining movie.
From opening to the end you're interested in the story and colorful well written characters.
The movie keeps you involved and the actors never miss a beat.
Nelson and Perkins have chemistry and let's hope they do another movie some day..
No one looks like they're taking the story seriously except John Hurt, whose performance towers above everyone else's (it's too bad he only occupies the screen for 20 or so minutes).
There are the odd moments of idiocy, and the entire effect is like an above average episode of a television law drama.My favorite scene is where Judd Nelson crouches behind a table full of classic literature, tossing out books at the judge.
Sometimes, Nelson doesn't quite know what his character is doing, but he manages to entertain and keep the focus on him.But the first half of the movie is farce and the second half (Hurt's story) is serious drama.
At one point this is signaled by Dan Monahan, who says, "This isn't fun anymore." There are some good gags throughout and the drama could hold its own if the first part of the movie weren't so long.
It could have been shortened considerably to make the John Hurt story longer and more effective.
I enjoyed watching this movie and would recommend it to anyone who likes television law type shows..
80's Hilarious Courtroom Spoof from "LA Law" Writer.
There is no possible way to make a bad movie with Judd Nelson, Elizabeth Perkins, and David Alan Grier in starring roles.
This film was written by David E.
Kelley, the head writer from LA Law.The film spoofs the legal profession, and courtroom drama specifically.
The film should be watched by all law students and firm associates.
The film has a great story and is extremely funny..
Bob Clark writes/directs this comedy courtroom drama with many screwball antics but also well managed serious elements.
However it's a glowingly clever little concept (falling in two parts), which is brought across by Judd Nelson's bouncy performance.
He plays Robin Weathers a young, brash Boston lawyer that goes about things in a very unconventional manner, but these questionable methods gets the results.
So after his first big win, he joins the firm's partnership and then finds himself dumped with a murder case which he has no hope of winning.
The comical interplay is quite heavy with ballistic energy in the early stages as the courtroom is a show-stopping circus of noisy gags (which has great snappy performance from Ray Walston as the judge of the courtroom), but when it gets to the main case that's when those dramatic aspects mingle in (like its stinging if transparent climax), but never leaving the theatrically colorful zinger and humour behind.
John Hurt is amazing as the intensely cocky defendant that Nelson's character must try to acquit.
There's fine support from the likes of Darren McGavin, Dan Monahan, David Alan Grier, Nancy Marchand and undoubtedly lovable Elizabeth Perkins (whose beautiful smile simply lights up a room).A novel crowd-pleaser that's always thinking on its feet..
A perfect example of why we should continue to ask the question: 'Why did Judd Nelson seemingly fade away to unknown obscurity?'.
Once again we are reminded of the waste of a fantastic actor, and question why it was that Judd Nelson faded so quickly into TV limbo-land.
In 'From the Hip' he might as well be playing John Bender, 5 years on from his Saturday morning detention in 'The Breakfast Club'.
An excellent supporting cast keep the pace going, with John Hurt turning in one of his finest performances.
The only problem I had with this movie is that it doesn't know whether it wants to be a comedy or a grizzly murder mystery.
Despite that, it is a shame that this is one of those movies that not a great deal of people even know exists.
I do admit I'm a big Judd Nelson fan (only please don't ever mention 'Blindfold - Acts of Obsession'!) so maybe I'm biased regarding the quality of this film, although I think there is something here that will appeal to everybody, right down to an obligatory romance (though i found it strange that although Robin's girlfriend tells him she loves him on 4 separate occasions, never once does he utter the words back to her).Know what?
This is Bob Clark's cleverist and best film as a writer/director.
The casting is superb (especially Judd Nelson and John Hurt), the story is incredibly clever in it's construction (I defy anyone to figure out the ending prior to the final scene !), the humour is very-well inter-woven into a very inticate, and challenging drama.
The film really does expose the moral/ethical dilemas faced by a defence attourney, when faced with defending a particularly difficult and vicious murder case.
I won't disclose too many details as it would ruin the film, but if you enjoy a thought-provoking yet very funny and hugely entertaining court-room drama.....
then WATCH THIS FILM IMMEDIATELY !!!!!!!!!.
Hurt shows himself as the force that brought this film it's best area of presentation.
'The Stormy Weathers' part is very amusing with his two side kicks, and his love interest is very predictable.
I found this film to be very entertaining.
This film makes a presentation of values that should matter, but seldom do in real life situations..
John Hurt makes this movie....
I still see Judd Nelson in high-school on detention.
It wasnt made long after BREAKFAST CLUB, but this movie is pretty good.
The first half is a comedy, but the second half is a very serious murder trial with a great performance from John Hurt.
The rest of the movie would garner a 6+ for its 'low budget' supporting cast.
what a great film.
FRom the hip it a great comedy because.
starts goods gets going faster the hummer is so funny at the first half.
starts as a comedy then goes into a drama.
tries to go into a drama then goes back to comedy in the second half .
I think it should have stayed with the comedy it was the best part .
JUDD nelson did a great job on this movie he really got his teeth into it i really thought he was a lawyer.so did the rest of the cast.
i recommend this movie a MUST SEE..
All Judd Nelson all the time.
FROM THE HIP is the story of a young defense lawyer (Nelson) trying his first case, a simple assault.
He grandstands, wins the case, makes headlines and is immediately handed a capital murder case to defend.
How he handles that case is what the movie is about.
He is defending John Hurt in the vicious slayings of two people whose bodies have never been found.
Nelson is in way over his head, and knows it.
In real life, this wouldn't matter, but since this is a movie, he comes down with a bad case of conscience.
Elizabeth Perkins is aboard as Nelson's loyal girlfriend and several veteran actors including Darren McGavin, Ray Walston and Nancy Marchand show up to further the story.
But HIP is really all about Judd Nelson's brash and rash young lawyer, which allows one to overlook some obvious plot holes and bizarre courtroom antics.
At times, Nelson may remind you of Robert Downey Jr..
Funny film that tackles a relevant legal issue.
What should an attorney do when defending a client they know is guilty?
From the hip deals with this legal dilemma in a very amusing format.
Judd Nelson is hilarious as an irreverent attorney who gets results.
I thought this film was hilarious.
Why people, thought this was a "mongrel of a film", makes me wonder, again, if they were actually awake when reviewing this film.
I give this film three out of four stars..
I found this movie to be suspenseful and comedic at the same time.
Definitely a movie I would recommend and would also watch multiple times, which is unusual for a suspense movie.
But the manipulation in the movie is performed so well that you can watch it time and time again..
Robin "Stormy" Weathers is desperate to rise up the ladder at the law firm he is employed by-sooner rather than later.
But just as he thinks he has finally made it, the partners saddle him with a no-win trial...Directed by Bob Clark and starring Judd Nelson (Weathers), Elizabeth Perkins, John Hurt and Darren McGavin, From The Hip is a quintessentially 1980s picture.
Oozing a yuppie law firm vibe and with Brat Packer Nelson leading the way, it's no great shock to proclaim it as such really.
It's also decidedly funny, that is until John Hurt arrives as a pompous suspected murderer and not only steals the film, but also swerves it to a darker place.
Maybe Hurt's preening, borderline psychotic peacock performance only serves to bring to light the deficiencies of the other cast members?
What I do know is that my recent revisit to the film still brought many a chuckle as "Stormy" pulls his bag of tricks in the court room, and yes I was still on the edge of my seat during the gripping finale as Hurt's Douglas Benoit is called to the witness box.Legal satire and conundrums just work for me I guess...
Overall not a bad movie if you can overlook the ridiculous way the judicial system is portrayed.
Everything that happens in this movie pertaining to the law is sensationalized and cliché, but if you can ignore that and just appreciate it for the story about a man who is caught up in his personal sense of right and wrong, then it's a funny and charming film.
This story centers around a young attorney named Robin "Stormy" Weathers who manages to make partner in his law firm after his very first case.
He is immediately handed a high profile capital murder trial and is not sure how to handle it.
Elizabeth Perkins is well cast as Robin Weathers' sweet and perpetually understanding girlfriend.
John Hurt is downright diabolical in his scenes as the defendant on trial for capital murder.
And Judd Nelson, as Weathers, is endearing as an attorney forced to defend a man he's not sure is innocent.
A courtroom comedy dram that's totally hip.
From the Hip was a film I loved the first time I saw it.
Judd Nelson made the film, with his energetic and captivating, non Razzie performance as an unruly and unethical public defendant, who we just love, cause he, well...
shoots from The Hip. In reality it would so great to have lawyers like him, but there is no one in the world, quite like Robin Stormy Weathers.
After setting up his own case, with the help of a friend, playing his warring opposition, he wins it, where he's then thrown his first big one, a defense involving a professor (Hurt) who's been accused of killing a woman in a much brutal manner, where he says he's been set up, where at the end, Judd does what no defendant should do, or should he?
Featuring a very vibrator scene, and a few Porky's stars (I forgot to mention this is a Bob Clark movie) From The Hip is such an engaging comedy, where Clark really impressed me with this.
He's brought to the screen a really colorful courtroom drama comedy, with an truly explosive finale, where Nelson's really rides Hurt, into an all out confession.
If you loved My Cousin Vinny, you'll definite love this one, the magic in Nelson's lovable performance.
An underrated movie, that warrants must see viewing..
This movie was so funny.
"From The Hip" is a hilarious movie.
Judd Nelson was great as the irreverent lawyer Robin "Stormy" Weathers.
He had some great lines and almost every scene he was in was funny.
Robin's girlfriend JoAnn (played by Elizabeth Perkins) was sweet and funny.
William Hurt's character was creepy.
His scenes in this movie were the only non-humorous scenes.
Robin was a good lawyer but very mischeivous.
Judd Nelson was great in this movie (as always) and I think his performance was one of the best in "From The Hip".
Well, I don't have much more to say about this film except I loved it and I'm so glad I own it now.
From the Hip. Unmemorable courtroom comedy with Nelson playing an unorthodox young lawyer whose anything-goes approach to criminal defense turns him into an overnight sensation.
Not funny to begin with, but gets quite serious in the conclusion with client Hurt (doing his best "wacko") being unmasked.
A great mix of drama and humor, it's fun while still maintaining the suspense of a psychological drama.
Judd Nelson gives a great performance as Stormy Weathers (love his name!) and John Hurt is spooky as the crazed Benoit.
The question of ethics for attorneys is a thought-provoking commentary on our justice system, and the hearing on the swear word is such great satire!
Truly an underrated film .
Engaging comedy/drama with a courtroom background.
Has a sharp shift in tone between the first half and the second which makes sense in the course of the story but it is a quite a detour for the viewer to adjust to.Judd Nelson has a certain charm but is not the most charismatic leading man but he is surrounded by quality performers who contribute excellent performances.
Elizabeth Perkins is fetching as Nelson's fiancée.
Nancy Marchand the wry head of Stormy Weathers law firm providing a calm center when she's on screen.
Darren McGavin and Alan Arbus each have a chance to sprinkle some funny bits to their scenes and Edward Winter has a high old time in a small role as a hot tempered bank president.
First is Ray Walston as the judge in the initial trial whose flummoxed reactions are priceless and particularly John Hurt, exquisite as a seemingly benign college professor whose facade masks the fact that he's a homicidal maniac stealing every one of his scenes.Not a great movie but a good one with a lively pace, just be prepared for that sudden change in the feeling of the film..
The first half of this courtroom story is farcical and much of it is pretty thin, and what's not thin is forced.
An ambitious young lawyer (Judd Nelson) at a Boston firm does everything possible to attract attention, turning his first minor case into a comic First Amendment blockbuster, pivoting on the question of whether the word "A**hole" should be stricken from the record.
Nelson has a couple of friends on his side and a beautiful girl friend (Elizabeth Perkins) who is there to provide support and moral guidance.He needs the moral guidance.
The client in this case is the arrogant self-proclaimed professor, John Hurt, who may or may not have killed his lover and her boyfriend.
Nelson becomes convinced that his client actually did murder the girl, but he can't resign from the case or get Hurt to confess.Two people emerge from this hodge podge with their dignities thoroughly intact -- John Hurt as the likely killer and Nancy Marchand as the head of the law firm that employs and, perforce, promotes Nelson to partner.The dramatic second half is more engaging than the constant snickering and laughter of the first half.
Both of Nelson's parents were attorneys and he generously pointed out errors.
When the milieu was too noisy, Nelson was fond of shouting, "Odor in the court!" Bob Clark was probably one of the least pretentious directors around.
Almost forgotten today, but did you know that Judd Nelson was a big movie star in the 80's?
Judd doesn't really embarrass himself but if the story had been more about his character and not the grisly murder case he is handed, it would have been a little more interesting.
The murder trial is very well staged but so is an episode of The Practice or Boston Legal.
It's funny how he almost gets it all in 10 seconds.
That's when the story turns.
Just because the story takes a more serious tone doesn't make it better, though.
Nelson's performance gets weaker the more serious the story gets.
John Hurt's defendant is well played but you somehow know from your gut that he can't be innocent.
After all, it is John Hurt.The court proceedings are mostly of the dramatic license variety and has very little to do with actual court proceedings.
We know the defendant is guilty and there isn't very much surprise in the outcome.Too bad.
This could have been a good movie, not a great one, but good.
What if the John Hurt character was guilty but was acquitted? |
tt0037306 | Springtime for Pluto | The Spirit of Spring in the form of a faun dances through the countryside playing his panflute and melting the snow, heralding the end of winter and the beginning of spring. When his revitalizing influence reaches Pluto's doghouse, it causes mushrooms to magically sprout up under Pluto's chin, waking him from his winter slumber. The Spirit of Spring coaxes Pluto out of his doghouse; Pluto shakes off his blanket, takes a deep breath of fresh spring air and skips into the forest.
He enjoys the scent of trees before stumbling into a bush, where he hears birdsong, drawing his attention to a couple of bluebirds courting. When the bluebirds kiss, two bird chicks jump up from the nest singing. A couple of playful lambs hop by, spurring Pluto to mimic them by hopping as well. His hopping causes him to hit his head on a low-hanging branch and fall yet again into another bush, scaring out rabbits and quails. As one train of quails flees from him, one quail chick lags behind and Pluto decides to run after it, mimicking its way of running. Pluto and the quail stops abruptly as they both hear a deep, bass voice singing about springtime. The voice is echoing out of a tiny burrow in the ground, to which the quail chick puts its ears to better listen to the singing. Suddenly, a fuzzy green caterpillar pops out of the burrow and continues to sing, though now in a high falsetto. The quail is delighted to see food present itself so easily and opens its mouth in anticipation. The caterpillar, halfway through singing does a double-take as he finally notices the quail eyeing him hungrily. The caterpillar reaches out with two of his hands and daintily closes the quail's beak, smiling at it shyly. Bewildered at having its mouth closed, the quail gives the caterpillar enough time to launch itself out of the burrow only to dive headfirst back inside. Not willing to let its prey escape so easily, the quail thrusts it head into the burrow after the caterpillar, manages to bite onto the caterpillar's tail and starts to slowly pull the caterpillar back out. To continue his mimicry, Pluto clamps his teeth on the quail's tail feathers and also starts pulling, lifting the quail into the air, and stretching the caterpillar to more than three times its original length. The caterpillar continues to keep his head inside the burrow while flailing his legs in desperation even though the sound of stretching can be heard. Finally, the quail's tail feathers give out, causing the tug of war to end with Pluto's head whipping back, red feathers floating everywhere. When Pluto investigates, he can see that the force of the caterpillar snapping back to his original length had pulled the quail halfway into the burrow with its head facing out. Underground, the caterpillar sees the quail's rear plugging up his hole, so in vengeance, he uses his many legs to repeatedly kick the quail's rear until the quail is forced out of the burrow like popping champagne cork.
Above ground, Pluto hears a strange thumping, while behind him, the caterpillar pops out of a new burrow he had just dug. Upon seeing Pluto's long, slender, black tail, the caterpillar who was rather grumpy from having almost been eaten immediately brightens up and starts climbing the tail. Pluto is startled that something was climbing his tail, but when he sees the caterpillar, he is curious what the caterpillar is trying to do. At this point, the caterpillar starts singing in a deep voice again about the urgent transformation that he must undergo. When he reaches the top of Pluto's tail, which is curved horizontally, he reaches behind himself and pulls out a lasso of silk from his own tail. The caterpillar raises the lasso over his head, swings it around, and loops it across the end of Pluto's tail. The caterpillar takes a bungee leap from the tail and dangles upside-down from the silk thread tied to Pluto's tail, while Pluto becomes more confused and apprehensive at what the caterpillar was up to, but lets him continue anyway. Still singing, the caterpillar curves his body in preparation, building momentum, before suddenly twisting and gyrating his tail, creating a spinning blur that travels down towards his head, leaving a silk covering in its wake. Soon the spinning blur covers the caterpillars head, leaving him completely covered in a gray, spiraling spindle-shaped cocoon that swings slightly before hanging still. Unsure what had just happened, Pluto shakes the end of his tail, swinging the cocoon madly about, causing it to shake and rattle like a maraca. Despite all this, the caterpillar manages to finish his song just as Pluto stops shaking it and stares at the cocoon curiously.
The midsection of the cocoon then starts to swing left and right as a bouncy rhumba beat starts playing. After swinging for a bit, the cocoon scrunches up and in a jumping motion, the creature that was uncomfortably trapped inside reveals itself to have the face of a beautiful, sultry Hispanic woman with light brown skin, big hazel eyes, full red lips, long raven black hair, and two long slender antenna poking out of her head. Her appearance comes to Pluto as an immensely pleasant surprise as she, now with her bare arms and big pink and purple butterfly wings exposed, starts to swing her arms around and bounce her hips, which are still trapped within the cocoon, back and forth in a dancing motion. She plays at being coy by giving Pluto a pouty, startled, almost accusatory look, to which he responds in embarrassment, but she immediately drops all pretense and proceeds to pull herself out of her restricting cocoon, showing that she's wearing a short magenta dress with black fuzzy lining and an open back. She flies from the cocoon and flutters wildly about Pluto's face, disorienting him before landing on the tip of his nose. She continues to entertain Pluto by slowly dancing closer and closer to his face, swinging her hips back and forth and waving her hands palm-forward in front of her chest, smiling at him. Pluto tries to shake her off, but she stays on, alternately covering his eyes with her wings playfully. She then uses the eye-spots on her wings to 'wink' at him before flying from his nose and landing on top of a sunflower. There she continues to dance and picks up a hanging dewdrop and uses it as a ball. Pluto shakes his head back and forth to the beat, completely enthralled by her performance. The butterfly flies up with the dewdrop above her head, swings her hips some more, then descends back onto the flower. Pluto tries to mimic her movement by flapping his ears and making his eyes pop left and right. The butterfly then goes into a high speed ballerina spin before stopping abruptly by sticking out her leg and striking a pose.
At this, Pluto decides to try his hand at doing a similar dance so he spins like a tornado until he finds a beehive hanging from a nearby branch. He knocks it down and starts dancing with, balancing it between his feet and bouncing it on his nose. This shakes the bees out who quickly form a black cloud and retaliate, taking on various shapes like a bomber plane or a rocket, firing bees as bullets at Pluto. They continue to chase him until he jumps into a bush. The bees flee, causing Pluto to snicker at his good fortune before he realizes he landed in a bush of poison ivy. While he is scratching himself from the itching, he lands into some goldenrods, which release their pollen, inducing a sneezing fit as his allergies get triggered. Then the sky gets dark as a strong April shower starts coming down with thunder followed by hail, chasing Pluto back to his doghouse. When the storm passes, the Spirit of Spring comes back, frolicking. A bruised and battered Pluto comes out of his doghouse and blames all his misfortune on the unsuspecting fawn and chases him down trying to take revenge. The short ends with Pluto chasing the Spirit into the distance. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0071840 | Milano odia: la polizia non può sparare | A bunch of thieves kidnap a boy in a red hoodie from his mother's arms. This is followed by an action-packed car chase full of breaking boxes, defacing cars, and slim getaways. The chase ends when the kidnappers are saved by an oncoming train, which cuts off the police from their trail. They find this a perfect opportunity to dump the kid and make their getaway. The boy is returned to his family but the kidnappers' gang beat them up for their failure. Following a castration threat, the kidnapper/thief goes home to rape his girlfriend. Following this, he robs a cigarette dispenser and stabs the beat cop who catches him. This leads to a detective to start asking questions. The following day, while the thief is picking up his aforementioned girlfriend from her office, he notices the young brown-haired daughter of his girlfriend's boss, and decides to kidnap her. After a love-making session with his girlfriend in her apartment, the kidnapper leaves to find his friend and convinces him to join his plan. We are shown how tough a cop the detective is through a cut scene. The protagonist (kidnapper) and his gang start stalking the girl while she's playing tennis with her father and his friends. Using his girlfriend's stolen red car, the thieves go buy guns from an old confidant ("Papa") of theirs. The guns are worth a 100 thousand per piece, so if they kill someone, their confidant keeps their deposit. Not wanting to pay their confidant the deposit, they murder Papa and his staff, and make their escape.
They then catch up with their target while she is discussing her future with the boy she wants to marry in his car in the middle of the forest. Her boyfriend shows his reluctance to marry her unless she refuses her inheritance on the basis of principle. The girl refuses and starts making out with her boyfriend against his will. The kidnappers then attack and kidnap her during her lovemaking & murder her boyfriend. But the girls escapes into the forest until she reaches a bungalow, where she is taken in, and the family agree to protect her, but the bad guys break in, murder an old man, humiliate the rest, and run off with the girl (who they stash in an abandoned ship yard). After returning his girlfriend's car to her, he murders her by drowning and disposes of her car.
During all this, the inspector gets a lead when three bad guys make a ransom call and ask for "No Police interference". While posting a ransom letter that they had forced the girl to write, one of the thieves realizes the cops have discovered the murder of the daughter of his girlfriend's boss. The cops conclude all the murders and thefts were done by the same gang. Deducing the kidnappers knew the girlfriend, the cops decide to visit her apartment. The protagonist notices this and follows them back to his own apartment and sees them discover his connection to the whole mess. Scared, he calls his acquaintance (the guy who had beat him up) and asks for a deal. He then goes to the police and acts innocent to throw off suspicion from himself. When he and the detective visit the acquaintance, he covers for his "friend", and then threatens the kidnapper with castration again.
After the cops start closing in on him, the protagonist goes insane and murders the hostage (the girl), a shoot-out ensues, and only the protagonist survives. He runs off to hide, but the detective finds him the next day and shoots him in the head. | violence, cult, neo noir, murder, romantic | train | wikipedia | Although Lenzi's own VIOLENT NAPLES is also a well-made, highly effective genre entry, this one comes close to beating out that one when it comes to sheer brutality and an almost unbelievable barrage of nasty violence.A rarity in most Italian crime thrillers, this film benefits enormously from an intriguing and woefully ambivalent central character, played with tremendous vigour by Tomas Milian, who plays Guillio Sacchi, a violent low life scumbag with no regard for human life at all and with a real penchant for torture and rape.
The other side of the law is represented by stone-faced Henry Silva, who switches to playing a cop this time, instead of his usual turn as the calculating crime kingpin.
An intriguing story, Tomas Milian in a great role and Ennio Morricone contributes another impressive soundtrack what must be one of his most recognizable scores this side from Sergio Leone.
For this one, he focuses mainly on the exploits of Guilio (Tomas Milian), a psychopath out for that one big score, who struggles to keep his insanity in check.Julio's just botched a bank job by getting a bit paranoid and killing a traffic cop, and after receiving a well-deserved kicking from some gangsters, he heads off to his girlfriend's house to mooch some cash.
I recommend this and all the other Lenzi crime movies I've seen: Violent Naples, The Rat, the Cynic, The Fist, and Syndicated Sadists.
Umberto Lenzi's Almost Human is a film that takes in all the best elements of seventies Italian cinema and blends it all into one deliriously entertaining thriller!
The film follows a career criminal known as Giulio Sacci who realises that he's not making a lot of money out of small time crime and so hatches a plot to kidnap a wealthy man's daughter and hold her for ransom.
There are support roles for the likes of Anita Strindberg and Ray Lovelock, and just to top things off; Almost Human is scored by the great Ennio Morricone!
Lenzi does a good job of presenting a dirty and gritty atmosphere for the film, and ensures that the film feels like a police thriller with several car chases and shootouts.
Possibly Umberto Lenzi's best film, Almost Human is a violent and mean-spirited Italian crime-thriller from that golden age of the 70's.
It is clearly a CRIME film, one that focuses first on the malefactors (led by a crazed, sociopathic Tomas Milian) and only second on the pursuing detective (one mightily p****d-off Henry Silva).
Milian's character, a small-time hood named Sacchi who is determined to make it big by kidnapping a rich guy's daughter, is on a hell-bent mission.
A claustrophobic brilliant movie, I think it's more about an italian social class disorder than milian being a criminal,his the regular working class guy pissed of about being poor, and in Milan more than any other region in Italy, the social class is very important, and very very present, when milian kills all those people, you feel bad for them, but on the other hand you can see his mission, and you feel for him, in the end when he pulls it off, you almost feel relieved, anyway this movie is a real movie just like "il Boss/wipeout" and it deserves to be watched, the only problem with this movie and "il boss/wipeout" is that after you see these movies every other movie will seriously bore you, and you'll find no depth in them.
Giulio Sacchi is a violent criminal scumbag who kills several cops in the course of some petty crimes.After being kicked out of his gang for murdering a police officer,Sacchi is forced to scrape out a living by robbing cigarette machines.He decides to kidnap Mary Lou,the daughter of a wealthy businessman.Enlisting the help of two of his friends,the trio not only kidnaps the girl but also massacres a house full of rich people in an unflinchingly brutal scene.It's time for Inspector Walter Grandi to catch this vicious criminal...Violent and sadistic Italian polizioteschi flick with memorable central performances of Henry Silva and Tomas Milian.The pace is relatively slow,but there is enough sleaze and brutal violence to keep fans of Eurocult entertained.9 out of 10..
In "Milano Odia" you can view Tomas Milian at his best and director Umberto Lenzi saw "the light" in this ultra-violent movie.
This is a deadly dull Italian crime film which was billed in the USA as a horror movie.
Played only in one drive-in in Seattle with a small ad, "Almost Human" is a boring kidnapping film that has a sleazy thug (Thomas Milian, who seems to lost his leading man good guys roles in the late 70's) and his two henchmans (one of them played by Ray Lovelock, who looks bored) kidnapping a girl and held her for ransom.
Kind of miss the guy playing the good guy role, but seeing this film, I kind of wish he and Silva did another Umberto Lenzi film instead.
Almost Human (1974) *** (out of 4)Exciting crime picture has psychopath Giulio (Tomas Milian) growing more and more dangerous as he kidnaps the daughter of a rich man and holds her for ransom.
A police inspector (Henry Silva) is following some murders and believes that it is the work of the kidnapper so he sets out to find him.Umberto Lenzi's ALMOST HUMAN is an extremely entertaining mix of EuroCrime as well as something like DIRTY HARRY.
What this film succeeds at is telling a very good story and showing what a psychopath one can be.Lenzi's direction certainly deserves a lot of credit and especially with the flow and style of the picture.
I really liked the character structure of the killer and thought it worked perfectly well against the cop who knows what he's dealing with and wants to handle it himself.Of course, Milian and Silva are both wonderful in their roles and they bring a lot of entertainment value.
Then you've got a terrific score by Ennio Morricone as well as some very good cinematography.ALMOST HUMAN is certainly one of the better crime pictures out there.
I like a good poliziotteschi (Massimo Dallamano's 'What Have You Done To Solange' and 'What Have They Done To Your Daughters' being two of the finest examples of Italian 70s cinema I can think of) and I'm also not adverse to some of Umberto Lenzi's grindhousey campfests either ('Eaten Alive' being a personal fave), but for some reason 'Almost Human' was a bit of a struggle to get through.It's not without its moments of tension and typical giallo style nastiness, but nothing could disguise the strictly amateur hour feel of the whole thing, which smacked of both trying too hard and yet somehow not trying hard enough to engage the viewer.
After having enjoyed Lucio Fulcis entertaining,though slightly muddled Italian Crime film Contraband,I was extremely interested in seeing an Italian Crime film from Umberto Lenzi,who introduced me to the brilliant "Giallo" genre with his very under rated film Spasmo.After having put the DVD on,I realised that I needed to hold on tight,because I was in for an amazing ride...The plot:Having spent most of his life grabbing spare change,petty criminal Giulito Sacchi decides that he should at last fill his deepest desire of becoming one of the most feared,and most wealthiest criminals in the country.When Sacchi goes to pick up his new girlfriend from work,he discovers that his girlfriend works for a very powerful and wealthy man of the city.After finding this out,Giulito starts talking to his friends about the "opertunity" that he sees right in front of their faces that could make them all very rich.The only problem for Giulito is that none of his friends are able to think of an idea that they could use to get a big chunk of cash from the man.Suddenly Sacchi has a brainstorm,when his girlfriend tells him that she has been working with the mans daughter.Although it does take Giulito some time to convince the gang that it is worth taking the risk,the others eventually agree that they should take the risk and kidnap the daughter for a big ransom,which they could live off for the rest of their lives.Just before the kidnapping takes place,Sacchi kills his girlfriend to make sure that no word gets out about the plans.When the gang grab the girl (and kill her boyfriend!)everything seems to be going to plan,and when they find out that her dad is desperate to pay them as much money as they want to get his daughter back,they all start to relax,with the knowledge that this kidnapping is going to be a very smooth and easy operation.Although as they get closer to getting their hands on the cash,the fear of it falling apart starts to get deep inside the minds of some of the kidnappers,whilst the deep and dangerous greed of Giulito Sacchi starts to make all of the gang fear that his desire for money and power might be about to destroy their chance of getting a piece of the ramson money...View on the film: Whilst Lenzi has toned down his excellent scatter-shot jump-cutting that make his brilliant Giallos so distinctive,he has impressively put all of his relentless energy into making Emesto Gastaldis great screenplay move at an unbelievable pace.With the beginning of the film starting with a very intense looking car chase.Along with Tomas Milian entertaining slime-ball performance of Giulito Sacchi,Umberto does an excellent job at making Sacchi a great lead character,which includes turning Giulito into a proto- (Pacino) Scarface character,who instead of being at the bottom of the pile,wants to be the man that has the world,and everything in it.For the violence in the film,Lenzi cleverly has the extremeness of the violence increase,as Sacchi gets more insane (although scenes of Giulito and his gang invading a villa,where the daughter is hiding, at around the 30 minute mark show that Giulito Sacchi has already jumped over the edge,in his mad lust for money and power.When watching the last half an hour of the film,I was very surprise to see Umberto give the film an amazing Film Noir look,with part of the films ending taking place around a river,which allows Lenzi to make the plot fill a lot more intense,by giving the scenes a very stark murky look with Sacchi trying to get away from the foggy area,even though Lenzi shows that even Sacchi,must now be questioning if he has any chance to succeed at all?
Sensational Poliziotteschi from Umberto Lenzi, set in Milan(Italy) stars Tomas Milian, in a terrific(..and terrifying) performance as a sadistic homicidal thug who is the mastermind behind the kidnapping of a politician's daughter for a major ransom.
It is therefore no surprise, that one of the most ultra-violent and tough-minded highlights of Italian Crime cinema, namely "Almost Human" comes from Lenzi.
"Almost Human" of 1973 is a brutal and brilliant Poliziottesco, one of the most uncompromising films of its genre, coming along with an ingenious score by none other than Ennio Morricone.
Apart from the brilliant score, the brutal, uncompromising violence, the raw atmosphere and gripping story it is furthermore two of the greatest stars in Italian 70s cinema that make "Milano Odia" an absolute must-see for lovers of cult cinema.One of my personal all-time favorite actors, Tomas Milian, stars in his most sadistic and despicable role of Giulio Sacchi, a ruthless small-time crook who has no scruples to rape, torture and brutally murder Innocent victims for his own benefit.
His opponent is played by another true great of Italian crime cinema: Henry Silva plays super-tough Inspector Grandi, a man who hates criminals as he hates crime, and who is not afraid to take the law into his own hands once the legal ways have failed to bring a delinquent to justice...
Milian and Silva alone are capable of making a film great, and "Milano Odia" has so much more to offer.
The supporting performances are also great, Laura Belli, Guido Alberti, Luciano Catenacci, who plays a crime boss, and the wonderful Anita Strindberg are especially worth mentioning.Brutal, tough-minded and tantalizing from the beginning, "Almost Human" is definitely not for the sensitive when it comes to violence, but an absolute must-see for every fan of Italian Crime cinema.
Whether it was horror, westerns or as in this case crime thriller, the Italians always surpassed the standards of any other major film-producing country and delivered politically incorrect but hugely entertaining & genre defining movies.
Tomas Milian gives a formidable one man show as a small time crook who desperately wants to climb up Milan's crime-ladder and therefore commits the vilest and most atrocious crimes, like relentlessly shooting people for the spare change in their pockets and buy cigarettes.
The other characters are well played by Henry Silva (the cop who shoots the bad guy at the end of the movie even if he was judged not guilty), Ray Lovelock (the bad guy who falls in love with the kidnapped girl) and Laura Belli (the rich man's daughter).A great movie.P.S.: don't let the children watch this movie: there is too much violence!.
After reliably cranking out Westerns, adventures, and Second World War flicks during the Sixties, Lenzi coasted into the two most popular film genres of 1970s Italy: the giallo, a crime story that forces audiences to watch unseemly behavior from the felon's point of view, and the poliziottescho, Italy's reaction to a justice system that limited police officers while criminals happily roamed free.In competition with directors like Enzo G.
'Almost Human' may certainly rank as Exhibit A in his poliziotteschi output of at least six titles from 1973 to 1979, including 'Rome: armed to the teeth' and 'Violent Naples.' Originally released as 'Milano odia: la polizia non può sparare' (roughly, Odious Milan: the police can't shoot), 'Almost Human' is a true standard of Italian crime, mixing defined characters with a riveting plot and well-crafted action.
The 1974 shocker was also a landmark 'B' performance for actor Tomas Milian, who still regards Giulio Sacchi as one of the best efforts in his lengthy career.Modeled after box office hits like 'Dirty Harry,' 'The French Connection,' and 'Death Wish,' 'Milano odia' is a crime film injected with 1970s Italian truculence.
Giulio is roughed up and fired by the syndicate boss, leaving him without a meal ticket.Cash-desperate Sacchi arranges to kidnap Mary Lou Perrino (Laura Belli), the 20-year-old daughter of a local businessman, and hold her for ransom at 500 million lira with the help of his friends Vittorio (Gino Santercole) and Carmine (Ray Lovelock).
The dead bodies start piling up and police inspector Walter Grandi (Henry Silva) begins to work against the clock, assured that Mary Lou will die next unless law enforcement goes to extremes.Umberto Lenzi is known for his gialli, including 'Orgasmo,' 'A Quiet Place to Kill,' 'Oasis of Fear,' and 'Seven Blood-Stained Orchids,' probably his best effort in the genre.
Technically speaking, editor Eugenio Alabiso keeps things moving at a nice clip, especially in the opening chase scene, and Ennio Morricone's pounding score is very hard to forget.'Milano odia' has been released on DVD by NoShame Films and will satisfy fans of Eurocrime.
The interviews explain how the lead cast of 'Milano odia' came together, including Henry Silva's employment after the death of actor Richard Conte (much to Lenzi's annoyance).
Umberto Lenzi, best known (at least among horror fans) for the ultra-gory/ultra-campy CANNIBAL FEROX - brings us a straight-faced and violent crime story with ALMOST HUMAN.
Tomas Milian begins his topsy turvy relationship with Umberto Lenzi in perhaps the duo's classiest pairing, taking more than a little inspiration from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE with Milian playing just as morally bankrupt of an anti-hero.ALMOST HUMAN (aka MILANO ODIA) really works and contains enough action, violence, nudity, and sharp-witted dialog to keep most B- movie lovers entertained.
Henry Silva's also on-hand as a hard-nosed inspector not-so- hot on Milian's trail, charming in his own way though not enough to make us really root for him.All in all, it's an interesting film and a little smarter and more plot-driven than you'll usually find in a high octane Italian crime film as the cycle tended to gravitate into the mid-70's.
Mistakenly released in the US as a horror film, THE EXECUTIONER (the European title) is one of Umberto Lenzi's first crime flicks, pairing up two of the biggest names in Italian polizia cinema - Henry Silva and Tomas Milian.
This also happens to be Lenzi's most sadistic crime film of all, miles ahead of even the gruesome violence in VIOLENT NAPLES and the cold brutality of THE CYNIC, THE RAT AND THE FIST.
Lenzi concentrates on his political themes of the poor revenging themselves on the rich as a basis for Milian's character and once again we're "treated" to scenes of the upper class being abused, humiliated, and mercilessly killed by lower-class street thugs.This was Milian's first time playing a really nasty bad guy, a slimy, slightly insane criminal, and it was a role he would revisit throughout his "polizia" films, whether playing a crippled hunchback or a slick greasy gangster boss.
Amongst other activities, Milian kills a security guard for what amounts to a couple of pennies; machine-guns a man in cold-blood; turns a mild-mannered robber into a murderous thug through the use of drugs; enters a house party and rapes then violently massacres the inhabitants; and bumps off loads more people by the time the credits role.This is hardly cheerful entertainment, but Lenzi makes it watchable thanks to assembling a large degree of talent both in front of and behind the camera.
Technically, the film is superior with good camera-work and some excellent scenes of action, including the fine opening car chase (footage from this turned up in later Lenzi flicks) and plenty of shootings and what-not.
The film is pretty bloody and gory in places, earning Lenzi's reputation for violence, and the action is bolstered by a strong Morricone score.The familiar Euro-cult cast includes the beautiful Laura Belli playing the unfortunate kidnap victim; giallo regular Anita Strindberg as Milian's girlfriend, and Ray Lovelock as the young, inexperienced gang member. |
tt0071249 | Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia | Teresa, the pregnant teenage daughter of a powerful man known only as "El Jefe" (Spanish for "The Boss"), is summoned before her father and interrogated as to the identity of her unborn child's father. Under torture, she identifies the father as Alfredo Garcia, whom El Jefe had been grooming to be his successor. Infuriated, El Jefe offers a $1 million reward to whoever will "bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia".
The search progresses for two months. In Mexico City, a pair of business suit-clad, dispassionate hit men, Sappensly (Robert Webber) and Quill (Gig Young), enter a saloon and encounter Bennie (Warren Oates), a retired United States Army officer who makes a meager living as a piano player and bar manager. The men ask about Garcia, believing they will have more luck getting answers out of a fellow American. Bennie plays dumb, saying the name is familiar but he doesn't know who Garcia is.
It turns out that everyone in the bar knows who Garcia is; they simply don't know where he is. Bennie goes to meet his girlfriend, Elita (Isela Vega), a maid at a ghetto motel. Elita admits to having cheated on Bennie with Garcia, who had professed his love for her, something Bennie refuses to do. Elita informs him that Garcia died in a drunk-driving accident the previous week.
Bennie is excited by the possibility of making money by simply digging up the body. He goes to Sappensly and Quill, in the hotel room of the man who hired them, El Jefe's business associate Max (Helmut Dantine), and makes a deal for US$10,000 for Garcia's head, plus a US$200 advance for expenses.
Bennie convinces Elita to go on a road trip with him to visit Garcia's grave, claiming that he only wants proof that Garcia is in fact dead and no longer a threat to their relationship. En route, Bennie proposes, promising that their future will soon change, and she can retire from being a cleaning lady. Elita is cautious and warns Bennie against trying to upset their status quo.
While having a picnic, Bennie and Elita are accosted by two bikers (one played by Kris Kristofferson and the other by Donnie Fritts), who pull guns and decide to rape Elita. Bennie seems unsure how to react. Elita agrees to have sex with the bikers if they spare Bennie's life, then goes off with one of the bikers (Kristofferson). He rips off her shirt to look at her breasts, lets her slap him twice, slaps her back, then walks away; she follows. Bennie knocks the second biker (Fritts) unconscious while he's playing Elita's guitar. Bennie takes the gun and finds Elita passionately kissing the biker, ready to make love with him. Bennie shoots him dead and kills the second biker as well, as he approaches them.
Bennie confesses to Elita his plan to decapitate Garcia's corpse and sell the head for money. A disgusted Elita, still shaken from what has just happened, begs Bennie to give up this quest and return to Mexico City, where they can be married and live a modest life of relative peace. Bennie again refuses, although he agrees to marry Elita in the church of the town where Garcia is buried.
They find Garcia's grave, but when he opens the coffin, Bennie is struck from behind with his shovel by an unseen assailant. He wakes up to find himself half-buried in the grave with Elita, who is dead. The corpse of Garcia has been decapitated.
Bennie learns from villagers that his assailants are driving a station wagon. He catches up with the men after they blow out a tire. Bennie shoots them, searches their car, and claims Garcia's head. Stopping at a roadside restaurant, he packs the sack containing the head with ice to preserve it for the journey home. Bennie begins addressing the head as if Garcia were still alive, first blaming Alfredo for Elita's death and then conceding that both of them probably loved her equally.
Bennie is ambushed by members of Garcia's family. They re-claim the head and are about to kill Bennie when they are interrupted by the arrival of Sappensly and Quill. The hitmen pretend to ask for directions. Quill produces a sub-machine gun and murders most of Garcia's family, but is fatally shot by one of them. As Sappensly sorrowfully looks at Quill's corpse, Bennie asks: "Do I get paid?" Sappensly turns to shoot, but Bennie kills him. Bennie returns to Mexico City, "arguing" with Garcia's head all the while.
At his apartment, Bennie gives Garcia's head a shower and then brings it to Max's hotel room. Feigning willingness to surrender the head for his $10,000, Bennie reveals he is no longer motivated by money; he says Alfredo was a friend of his and demands to know why Max and the others want Alfredo's head so badly. He also blames Elita's death on the bounty and intends to kill everyone involved. Several men pull guns, but Bennie manages to evade fire and kill them all. He takes a business card from the desk with El Jefe's address on it.
After attending baptism for his new grandchild, El Jefe greets Bennie as a hero and gives him a briefcase containing the promised million-dollar bounty. Bennie calmly relates how many people died for Garcia's head, including his beloved. El Jefe responds apathetically, telling Bennie to take his money and throw Garcia's head to the pigs on the way out. Infuriated that the object responsible for Elita's death is viewed as nothing more than garbage, Bennie guns down all of El Jefe's bodyguards.
Teresa enters with her newborn son as Bennie points a gun at El Jefe but hesitates to shoot. She tersely urges Bennie to kill her father. Bennie obliges, taking along Garcia's head as he leaves the scene with the words: "You take care of the boy. And I'll take care of the father." Bennie drives away, only to be killed by El Jefe's men, their automatic machine guns tearing him to pieces. | comedy, suspenseful, neo noir, murder, realism, cult, violence, insanity, melodrama, tragedy, revenge | train | wikipedia | On the trail are hit men Quill & Sappensly, Bennie & his prostitute girlfriend Elita, and some other Mexican bandit types, all of them are on a collision course that will bring far more than they all bargained for.This was the one film where director Sam Peckinpah felt he had the most control, the one where we apparently get his own cut and not some chopped up piece of work from interfering executives.
Warren Oates is rewarded by Peckinpah for years of sterling work for him by getting the lead role of Bennie, and he grasps it with both hands to turn in a wonderful performance that splits sadness and vibrancy with deft of ease.Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia has a harsh quality about it, be it the violence, or be it the sadness of the characters, but what isn't in doubt to me is that it's harshness is cloaked in Peckinpah splendour.
I mean, come on, it has everything to be a crime/thriller classic: Peckinpah in the director's chair, Warren Oates at his best, truckloads of attitude and some jet-black comedy in lines such as "you guys are definitely on my s**t list now." A truly brilliant, brilliant film..
Peckinpah dealt with a lot of s*** in the movie business, and one could perhaps make parallels to the gun-toting Mexicans on his trail, or even the men who he's supposed to report to with said head, as producers or studio execs.But without all of this in mind, even as it adds a bit of fascination to how Benny's fate unfolds, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia works on the levels that Peckinpah's work at its best does: it reveals violence and murder as the most unglamorous, frighteningly quick and graphically empty thing known to man.
I'm not going to get exhaustive in analysis, but will highlight some of the most obvious metaphors and references:The first blatant clue is early in the film, after Benny (Warren Oates) gets the contract to bring back Alfredo Garcia's head, he tells his girlfriend `this is our golden fleece, baby.' Orpheus, of course, was one of the Argonauts who accompanied Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece.When Orpheus was killed, his head was torn off, yet it continued to sing.
Could this be a statement on the rotten reality of the materialistic American dream?) Regardless, the head is clearly `singing' to him, although now it may be a bitter song of regret.I don't want to spoil the ending (which is far more true romance than Tarantino's screenplay and the subsequent film of the same name, if one is familiar with the Tristan & Isolde paradigm,) but suffice it to say, at `the gates of the underworld,' home free, Benny, like Orpheus cannot resist `looking back' at his departed lover, and bring about his ruin.The opening to this film is indisputably one of the greatest in cinematic history.
As a parting note, I will elucidate this claim, as most people tend not to get it:Set in Mexico, the film is a modern western and to bring this home, Peckinpah must bridge time.It opens with old time Mexican music and an antique-looking black and white photo, which shifts into color and becomes the opening shot, a pastoral scene by a pond.We see a pregnant girl in a very simple, homespun white gown dangling, her feet in the water.
I'm not sure how this can be described as anything other than genius.It is moments like this, along with great depth of character, emotion and theme, dramatic and symbolic unity, that makes this film an artistic achievement.In my limited sphere of understanding, Peckinpah is as much in the ranks with Kurosawa and Pasolini, as with John Ford, Sam Fuller and other great Western and Action directors.Great art, great entertainment and a quintessential action flick; this is a tremendous film that bears multiple viewings..
This dark and brutal film involves Benny, an American piano player in Mexico (played by Warren Oates) who gets involved with bounty hunters searching for the head of Alfredo Garcia.
The head is worth one million dollars, because Garcia got the daughter of a very wealthy and powerful man, pregnant.The film features plenty of Sam Peckinpah's trademark slow-motion violence in some very well-staged action set pieces.
(i.e., "Warren Oates plays Benny, a drunken blah blah blah.") Everybody wants to be the next Roger Ebert (though God knows why.) "Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia" is a title custom-designed to SAY ALL THAT NEEDS TO BE SAID.
BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA is another great hard-boiled action masterpiece from Sam Peckinpah(THE WILD BUNCH).
It features generous helpings of Peckinpah's famous slow motion gun fights and has great lines like "you guys are definitely on my sh*t list!" I don't know how that sounds to you, but for me it was irresistible.Warren Oats(BADLANDS) stars as the piano player hired to retrieve the head (of Alfredo Garcia), unaware that he'll have competition.
There's a good amount of both action and drama, and they both work.If you like Peckinpah, action, or movies centering on severed head, BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA is for you!.
Also, "Bennie" (Warren Oates), piano player and co-owner of a bar , along with her lover "Elita" Peach Vega (frequently naked Isela Vega), a prostitute and former girlfriend of "Alfredo Garcia" ; all of them are determined to get the reward .
After the catastrophic production of PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, Sam Peckinpah finally got total autonomy from United Artists with the most unusual movie on his filmography.BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA is one hell of an alcohol-soaked, blood-drenched joyride through the beautiful countryside of Mexico.
Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is one the bleakest, most violent, and most depressing movies I have ever seen.
Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia is an excellent,powerful and unforgettable classic that combines terrific direction,a fantastic performance from Warren Oates,thrilling Action and a memorable film score.
All of those elements make Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia an underrated classic,a Cult film that is Sam Peckinpah and Warren Oates at their best.Set in Mexico City,Mexico,Bring The Head Of Alfredo Garcia tells the story of bar manager and piano player Bennie(Warren Oates)who has been hired by hit men to bring the severed head of Alfredo Garcia on a one 1 million dollar bounty.
Bennie,along with his girlfriend Elita(Isela Vega)heads on the road to get the head on a violent and bizarre journey.Released in 1974,Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia is a brilliant film that was a Box Office flop and was hated and panned by the critics at the time.
But years after it's release Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia has been rediscovered by audiences and film critics and has become a Cult classic and is seen as one of Sam Peckinpah's best films and next to The Wild Bunch is seen as Peckinpah's most powerful and infamous film.
Violent,brutal and done with a vicious mean streak Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia is an amazing film that is a combination of an Action-Thriller,Horror film,Western and character study in the highest order and from beginning to end punches viewers in the gut with intensity and power that never stops and never gives viewers any hope or happiness.
With Alfredo Garcia Peckinpah pulls out all the stops and gives viewers a movie that doesn't play by the rules and shows us a world where violence and death is the only way out with an over the top,crazy and bizarre energy that exists in this film and you will be glued to the screen.
Great score,Fielding.In final word,if you love Sam Peckinpah,Warren Oates,Action-Thrillers or Cult films I highly suggest you see Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia,an excellent,powerful,unforgettable and underrated classic that will stay with you after you watch it.
Knowing that the actor was basically playing Peckinpah himself, makes this an especially interesting performance for fans of both mavericks to look at.The fact that most critics hated the film upon release only adds to the movie's legend.
Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia is hailed by some as a masterpiece (I've even seen reviews which claim, absurdly, that it is better than his film The Wild Bunch).
The plan backfires and Bennie finds himself pitted against a whole bunch of unscrupulous and murderous bounty hunters, all of whom want the blood-stained sack that holds Alfredo Garcia's head so that they can hand it over to El Jefe, thus laying their hands on the million dollar purse.During the shoot, Peckinpah was allegedly in a perpetual haze of booze and drugs.
When finally Bennie (Warren Oates) finds the head, the film improves remarkably.There are some action scenes, but not so well-done as it's usual by Sam Peckinpah.
It has no meaning for the remainder of the movie, save perhaps in showing that Bennie is a tough guy who can kill."Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia": interesting work for people who admire Sam Peckinpah..
Putting a bullet on the two corpses apiece, Benny asks himself: "Why?" He has the answer too: "Because it feels goddamn good!"Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia is a violent masterpiece.
It's sort of morbidly funny but more than anything, Warren Oates, who plays Benny, has lived in a performance that is about the total desperation of a man who is obsessed with and in need of finishing the task he's set himself out for.The ensuing shoot-out on the road is brilliantly orchestrated, as you would imagine, with Peckinpah directing it.
The story is more philosophical and nihilistic than "The Wild Bunch", but still adventurous, blood-thirsty and very thrilling.Warren Oates plays a disillusioned piano player in Mexico who wants to get the reward a Mexican landlord will give to the guy who brings him the head of Alfredo Garcia - a poor guy who used to make love to his daughter.Oates finds out that Garcia is already dead and gets his head from the graveyard - with this macabre prey he travels through the Mexican countryside, loses his wife, meets Kris Kristofferson on the graveyard and kills dozens of headhunters, henchmen and finally the landlord before he is killed when he tries to escape.The whole story shows us a cycle of violence, murder and despair, and Oates seems like the hero of a blood-thirsty Shakespeare play or ancient Greek drama.
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia(1974) along with Cross of Iron(1977) are the best films from the late period of Sam Peckinpah.
Violence is a way of life to the people that inhabit the film as they get used to the violent air around them.The direction by Sam Peckinpah is great and the story is very gritty.
He's at his best, as he travels through Mexico to retrieve the head of Alfredo Garcia and receive a big monetary reward.It's non-stop action and mayhem, as Oates fights low life types, gay gangsters and angry locals to deliver the head to "El Jefe" and collect.You have to wonder if his red Chevrolet convertible will finish the trip, and if he'll find enough ice to keep the head in good condition.Kris Kristoffersen appears as a singing rapist Oates has to kill.It's one of those films without heroes.It's Sam Pechinpah at his best!.
"Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia" is the movie that bears all the scars and all the magic of Peckinpah films.
Sure, 'The Wild Bunch' is considered his one masterpiece, and 'Straw Dogs' deserves its rep as the revenge film other revenge films want to be, and even 'Ride The High Country' gets kudos from viewers who didn't think they liked Peckinpah, but 'Alfredo' stands head and shoulders over them all.It takes a little patience, believe me - the first time I watched this film, I wasn't too impressed, and was unsure exactly what to make of it - but so much of it stayed with me that when I gave it a second, more fair chance, I embraced all of it.
Warren Oates plays Bennie, an alcoholic man who goes on a quest (with his girlfriend Elita) to retrieve the head of Alfredo Garcia for $10,000.
Source of inspiration for Walter Hill and William Lustig, the best movie from Sam Peckinpah is about a desperate race again time and moral to bring back the head of a dead person as a proof to be paid the ransom.Undeceived, all the characters start killing each other...
"Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" was one of the few films in which Sam Peckinpah had complete artistic control and is all the better for it.
No Way Out. It wasn't a hit in its day, and its title became a staple of late-show humor soon after, but "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia" is regarded a good deal more seriously today as one of legendary director Sam Peckinpah's signature films, maybe second only to his "Wild Bunch".It's a pretty good film, but likely to resonate more with those who appreciate Sam going in.
In it, a hard-drinking piano man in Mexico with a mysterious Army past named Bennie (Warren Oates) gets wind of the fact a fellow named Alfredo Garcia, who has just taken Bennie's girlfriend Elita (Isela Vega) out for a three-day tryst, has a price on his head and is wanted by some scuzzy killers.
What is it about a Sam Peckinpah movie that scares these critics?Peckinpah had serious things to say about the causes and consequences of violence, and in this film it is social deprivation, financial greed, and male pride that stands accused.As well as containing a moving and tender love story, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is also a remarkable self-portrait of Peckinpah himself.
It is generally accepted that Warren Oates modelled the character of Benny, the burned-out bar pianist, on Peckinpah who was, at the time, slipping slowly into a life of sleaze and self-destruction while trying to hang on to something decent and noble inside himself.Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is a remarkable film and typical of that brief period in American film history when honest and brave cinema could still be bankrolled by a major studio.
But to this film in particular, Peckinpah stock company regular, the great Warren Oates, plays a south of the border lounge piano player who hears about a rancher/underworld figure who is offering a million dollars for the head of Alfredo Garcia for impregnating his daughter.
I saw NC-17 rated The Wild Bunch on VHS, but it's been over a decade since I saw that movie and I don't remember except a prolonged battle sequence towards the ending.Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia may be 32 years old, but it retains the amazing impact that might not be equalized in achieving the mesmerizing effect on the viewer with shock of violence and in-the-character raw emotion by the fantastic actor who plays Benny, Warren Oates -- slow romantic interlude scenes notwithstanding.I see the photos of Sam Peckinpah as a director who wears these unique sunglasses and have a distinct fashion & behavioral style, and Warren Oates seem to have literally embodied Mr. Peckinpah, partly to release the personal demons in venting frustration & despair and partly to achieve the penultimate level of neo-realist acting caliber that is seldomly (perhaps never, not even post-Godfather Marlon Brando) matched nowadays.
This film is quite a feat in achievement in pushing the buttons on the viewer's reactions, pro and con, and not come off as contrivedly manipulative for cynical purposes, owing to Peckinpah, Oates, the diligent supporting cast and the talented production crew's consistent quality styling in providing enough ice cold water & vodka substance and no sugar or syrup.Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is a no-holds-barred movie and it holds up excellent in impact after three decades.
Only it's not, and as you can imagine from a Sam Peckinpah joint chaos ensues.Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is an unpleasant movie by design.
Benny (Warren Oates), an American now living in Mexico, learns that Garcia is already dead, but in order to get the reward he masterminds a plan that brings him "head on" with the Mafia.Critique: If there were an awards category for cinematic art forms, director Sam Peckingpah would've been a sure-fire favorite for 'the most violent".
BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA is Sam Peckinpah's most intimate and underrated film.
Easily the darkest movie of director Sam Peckinpah's career, and one of the bleakest films ever made, period, BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA is, depending on who you read, either a bizarre cult masterpiece or a bizarre piece of trash.
"Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia" is a movie which illustrates some of the reasons why he achieved this reputation and also provides an offbeat piece of entertainment which leaves a lasting impression.Some Peckinpah trademarks such as extreme violence, misogyny and well choreographed action scenes are featured on numerous occasions but the movie's most compelling component is its depiction of the journey taken by a guy whose motivation gradually changes from pure greed to a need to escape to a better life and then ultimately, a need for redemption.When an extremely wealthy Mexican landowner called El Jefe (Emilio Fernadez) discovers that the man who'd deserted his pregnant, unmarried daughter is Alfredo Garcia, he offers a $1,000,000 reward for whoever brings him the head of the man who he'd previously treated like a son.A little time later, in a tourist bar in Mexico City, two well dressed bounty hunters called Quill (Gig Young) and Sappensly (Robert Webber) meet Bennie (Warren Oates) who's the establishment's American piano player.
With BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA, Peckinpah provides Oates with his best ever role...and a rare lead.
The head of Alfredo Garcia, the heart of Warren Oates, the soul of Sam Peckinpah .... |
tt0112174 | Spellbinder | A group of teenagers go on a school camp in the Blue Mountains in Australia. While at the camp, Paul Reynolds accidentally goes into a parallel universe. This other world is inhabited by a more hierarchic and technologically different society, ruled by a group of people known as Spellbinders. Paul meets a girl there named Riana, and they become friends.
The Spellbinders have discovered the power to create and manipulate static electricity. They fly in gigantic copper-coloured machines that utilise large rotating orange crystals, presumably creating some form of magnetic levitation. The Spellbinders often use their power for good, but some abuse this power and use their discoveries for malevolence. One such malevolent Spellbinder is Ashka, who often manages to hide her true nature. Common people are often "banished" for their misdeeds, and sometimes Spellbinders are banished, also, if they are proven to have done wrong.
There is tension from Paul's forays into the land of the Spellbinders and his attempts to return to his own universe, and also from conversations Paul has with his friends across the barrier between the two universes. Paul and Riana's escapes also add tension, as do the interactions between Spellbinders.
Paul is eventually able to travel back home, but he is forced to take Riana with him in order to save her. Later, when Paul is able to take Riana back home, the Spellbinder Ashka follows Paul as he later returns home. Ashka seeks the unwitting help of Paul's father in making her a new high-tech 'flying suit' to replace her power suit in order to make her more powerful than the other Spellbinders.
However, Paul manages to expose her scheme and defeat Ashka, who is returned as an outcast to the Spellbinder world, while Riana becomes the new apprentice to Correon. In order to keep the Spellbinder world safe from the more advanced people from "modern" world, the gateway between the two universes is closed permanently. | alternate history | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0780607 | The Signal | Three MIT students – Jonah, Nic, and Haley – are on a road trip to move Haley to California, a decision that stresses Nic's relationship with her. Haley feels Nic is distancing himself from her and Nic explains he doesn't want his disability to hold her back (Nic walks with forearm crutches, and the possibility of muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, or some other degenerative disease is implied but never specified). During their stay in a hotel, Nic and Jonah discover that a hacker named NOMAD, who nearly got them expelled for breaking into MIT servers, has found their location and is taunting them with strange and ominous emails. They track NOMAD to an abandoned house in the middle of Nevada and decide to go after him. After finding nothing in the house, Nic and Jonah hear Haley scream and run outside, only to see her pulled into the sky before disappearing into a white light themselves.
Nic, now with the number 2.3.5.41 tattooed on his arm, wakes up in a strange and sterile underground research facility where he is questioned by Dr. Wallace Damon, the head of the "transition group" in charge of helping Nic to cope with his strange situation. Damon tells Nic what they encountered near the house was an EBE: an extraterrestrial biological entity. Nic remains in a state of disbelief. Dr. Damon then shows him footage from Nic's own video camera and pauses where an alien face can be seen peering from behind a tree. Nic is taken to his room where he hears Jonah talking to him through a small vent in the wall, saying "(his) body feels weird." Nic also notices that his legs, previously weak but functional, are now completely numb. When Dr. Damon questions him again, Nic tries to get answers about Haley's condition (she is in a coma at the time), but is unsuccessful. Following an unexplained experiment on a cow in another part of the facility, a security alarm goes off and Nic, along with other personnel, finds large dents with scorch marks running across the walls and no sign of Jonah. Nic asks Damon where Jonah went but Damon tells him that Jonah was never recovered from the house. Increasingly agitated, Nic tries to break Haley out but is intercepted. After being restrained, he's shocked to discover that his legs have been amputated and replaced by prostheses made from alien technology. Nic then uses these super-powered limbs to break Haley and himself out of the facility, only to discover they're in the middle of a vast barren desert.
After hitching a ride with an old lady who seems sweet yet oddly troubled, Nic and Haley hijack an 18-wheeler truck to try to find a way around the seemingly endless canyon that extends around the facility and surrounding area. At a visitor's center, they come across Jonah disguised as one of the facility workers dressed in a white HAZMAT suit. Jonah reveals that he too had limbs taken from him, as his forearms and hands have been replaced with the same alien technology as Nic's legs. Jonah speculates that they're all in Area 51 and that this is all a test. After Nic discovers indications of alien technology also implanted in Haley's spine, the trio drive up to a military checkpoint where Jonah tries to hack into their systems, only to be stopped by a hail of gunfire from the facility personnel. Nic and Jonah hug as the fatally wounded Jonah prepares for his final stand that will allow Nic and Haley to escape. Jonah uses his remaining strength and prosthetic alien arms to subdue the group of soldiers. However, Nic and Haley's escape is short-lived; as they approach the only bridge that would take them over the canyon to the outside world, they run into Damon and his military men, who blow out the truck's tires. Haley is evacuated by helicopter beyond the canyon and, knowing that Nic has mastered use of his legs, Damon tells Nic "you can't reach her." After hearing a loud horn coming from the sky, Nic realizes Damon is NOMAD. Damon then explains that it was Nic who came looking for him, that this was his fault, and adding that Nic is "the perfect integration of human will and alien technology. Our finest achievement." Agitated and emotionally compromised, Nic's bionic legs enable him to sprint at supersonic speed across the bridge in the direction of Haley's chopper where he hits an invisible barrier and breaks through.
Nic finds himself inside what appears to be a different facility behind a projected image of the outside world beyond the canyon. Turning back toward the bridge, he sees Damon remove his helmet to reveal he's actually a robotic alien. Nic walks towards a window and realizes he isn't in a facility, but is on an immense alien spacecraft numbered 2.3.5.41 (matching the numerical tattoo on his arm) that is about to dock at their home-world (signaled by the horn). | comedy, violence, cult, flashback, insanity, romantic, entertaining, sadist | train | wikipedia | Even as an avid horror buff, low budget titles like this tend to slip through the net usually simply due to their lack of big name distribution.Let's hope that with "The Signal" however, this doesn't happen.Why?
Because this movie is powerful, thoughtful and downright terrifying in its execution.The movie opens with a young couple, Mya and Ben, in a tryst where it soon becomes apparent that Mya is married but very much not in love with her husband, Lewis.Suddenly the TV is blasted on, transmitting a noisy psychedelic signal which is echoed throughout every other media form from radio to mobile phones.Mya leaves Ben to return home to her husband only to find everyone going crazy...
Thrown into a violent and chaotic world, the story focuses on the three of them and the truth about their intertwining relationship as the city of Terminus literally goes to hell around them.The film's three directors each take on board a different aspect of the overlapping narrative, with the running time evenly divided into 3 parts.
In a society where media has taken over every facet of our lives, technology is rife for abuse, and this movie exploits that paranoia to great dividends.This original chiller is the American equivalent of "28 Days Later" mixed with Romero's "The Crazies" via Stephen King's novel "Cell".Some visual and plot aspects may have suffered due to budgetary constraints, but therein also lies its charm."The Signal" will surprise, thrill and terrify.
Independent films have always been enjoyable to watch for me because they normally show the real side of things, but, that not being the point of emphasis in The Signal (hah) I was nervous about seeing it, especially because I wasn't sure about the three different genres mixed.
There's a decent, if not original, idea at the heart of this movie, but the film makers are trying too hard to be arty and clever for it to ever really work.Telling the story in three parts is a terrible idea.
The acting was all over the place, with some pretty bad examples on show (unfortunately including a character who appears predominantly in all 3 parts)I really did want to like this film, but I just can't do it.
The Signal starts like some bad horror films do: a maniac is torturing two young women.But...wait a minute!...It is a trick!
The maniac belongs to a movie the authentic characters from The Signal are watching, until the transmission is cut.That is the beginning of this excellent film.One of the most interesting things I found in The Signal is that what could have been a simple post-apocalyptic tale has a vein of intense romance and honest emotions which makes the movie more engaging.This film tells three different stories, and each one of them was made by a different director.That was a simultaneously original and risky idea, because dividing the narrative in chapters could have taken cohesion or integrity out to the global story.However, the stories are very interesting, and the sensibility and vision from every filmmaker are perfectly well complemented, bringing as a result a fascinating and highly recommendable film with unusual deepness, ingenuity and dramatic consistency.It is a pity that The Signal went so unnoticed.It has been available in DVD for three years, but even then it had a time of being "in the shelves" (as a proof of that I can mention the CDs reproducer one of the main characters constantly uses...how long has it been that that technology was replaced by the iPod and similar devices?).But its anachronism does not decrease the value of the interesting story, solid performances and even the black humor from the intermediate segment, which brings a very grateful respite after the intensity from the first segment, and which prepares us for the anguish from the conclusion.There are some moments of brutal violence in this movie for the fans of gore, but one of the best things from this movie is not what it shows, but what it omits.That automatically makes us participants of the fear and uncertainty the characters experiment, and we share their mystery about the phenomenon which is happening to their city.The only thing I would criticize about this film is that the final segment is a bit longer than it should have.However, that does not avoid me from giving an enthusiastic recommendation to this hidden gem from horror cinema..
I watched this with no preconceptions, and was totally entertained throughout.It manages to mix Bloodied gruesome horror, dark comedy and savage humour with absolute finesse, and definitely makes you think what you would do if you was in the exact same situation.I will admit that the first two parts of the film were the most entertaining, but it still didn't end with any disappointment.Well worth watching!.
Yet another potentially great horror movie utterly ruined by some really terrible directing choices, mainly the 2nd reel.It was very compelling through the first act and I was really enjoying it, then it suddenly changed into a wacky dark slapstick comedy seemingly out of nowhere in the second act, it's very stilted as it seems to just come out of nowhere and it's very out of place.
Playing out in various acts (i.e. Act I: Transmission and such...) maybe the feeling isn't so much homage as one of trying to be clever and post ironic, but either way the film has the feeling of a particular type of grainy horror flick.The driving force seems to be AJ Bowen's possessive husband, tracking his unfaithful spouse (Anessa Ramsey) after being driven mad by a twisted transmission in the tellys, leading to a whole succession of mad plot twists, until saviour (hopefully) arrives in the form of Justin Welborn's more rational bit on the side.
Too Many Cooks Spoil The Pot. It's terrible to see a movie with a first act this good because I'm absolutely certain that if David Bruckner had been given his Georgian turn as writer-director of an entire feature you'd see a critical and commercial success in The Signal.
As it is what we have is a brilliant third followed by a haphazard tailspin into mediocrity where the other filmmakers treat the source material like the film they ape at the beginning, a bad Horror movie.
It's just too bad the script was poor and the plot wasn't as well played out as others like to portray in their reviews.The only good thing about this movie was the acting.
This movie starts like a terrible cult-like 70's style horror flick, transforms into something that actually on the subconscious level critically comments on today's society with all it's electronically transmitted influences, then slides into comedy, quickly goes back to sheer and utter gore and horror and ends up leaving the viewer really depressed.
That's reserved for movies WITH bloody-violence throughout(like Dead Presidents and Wild Bunch)It's such a a shame for this could have gone a step further against the incredible beginning of "28 Days Later".That's the first disappointment.Now let's talk about the story and lets find out if what was was saying was true.
What could have been a great horror movie with a good story and graphic violence was turned into a low-budget mystery soap opera with violence thats a bit greater than an episode of CSI.and for the last time, Graphic violence isn't bad for a movie.
I realize that "Plan 9 From Outer Space" is considered by many to be the worst movie of all time, but I think "The Signal" is a serious contender for at least the modern record.The acting wasn't that bad -- just stupid.
Or that might have just been the awful acting by the mismatched and talentless cast, it's really hard to tell.I don't know who picked up this script and decided to greenlight this thing; the plot is like a throw-away idea from the corporate habit of sucking dry the popularity of the recent horror trend: Some kind of technology goes awry and causes things to happen that involve lots of blood.Basically, what you'll be seeing when you sit down to watch "The Signal" is the same trash that the horror film-making industry has been throwing at us since 2002, only worse, due largely to the lack of vision or talent from anyone involved.
I haven't seen a good horror movie like this in a really long time.
A lot of people there are now like crazy zombies shouting with rage about "Putin for world President".Movie even offers solution for such zombism - to think with our own independent head and make choice to discern hallucinations from reality.
Had heard good things about this movie before I watched, with comparisons made to Romero's underrated classic 'The Crazies', and while to some degree they are indeed very similar, this movie is a whole different beast and to fresh and original to ever be considered just a re-hash of Romero's film.First thing you should know is that the first couple of minutes are no indication of what's to come, the cheap looking 'Last house on the left' cloned is simply a film within the film, a cheeky red herring before we pull out if the film, into a young couples bedroom, as the film is replaced by the movie's eponymous 'Signal'.From this point on the film is divided into three chapters.
I felt that this chapterwas perhaps the strongest of the three, it's gallows humour a terrific juxtaposition to the intensity of the previous part, with each performer showing great comic touches and bizarre characters emerging from the woodwork at the most inopportune moments ( it had to be said that AJ Bowen, playing the husband, is the clear standout in the movie and acquits himself brilliantly in this section).Chapter three takes much the same approach as the first, llurching back into straight, frightening and suspenseful horror as various characters seek each other out to exact revenge or rescue loved ones, culminatingin a wonderfully acted confrontation in a desolate bus station.The most impressive aspect of this movie was it's vivid depiction of madness and the descent into it.
Whilst some movies are content to simply show characters as nad by making them rant and behave violently, thus movie takes great pains to try and immerse the viewer in the chaos and confusion, swapping out actors and roles to create a truly believable and authentic take on how it might feel to lose your mind.Overall I was incredibly impressed by the quality if every aspect of 'The Signal', from it's terrific performances, taut direction and original takes on stale genre themes, very, very highly recommended.
This one is a very low budget horror flick which went highly unrecognised when it has first released but trust me its one of the best ever to come out of Hollywood in these "infected" genre movies.
Amidst the chaos, a young man searches for his lover, pursued by her jealous husband.For a film that deals with extreme psychosis on a global scale, The Signal is a fittingly schizophrenic movie, one that begins in standard apocalyptic fashion, abruptly turns to black humour midway, and deliberately culminates in confusion and ambiguity, leaving viewers as uncertain about proceedings as the characters on-screen.For many, these marked shifts in style, the result of the film being directed in three parts by three different people, will be too jarring and the cause of much annoyance, whilst others will find the sudden changes in approach refreshingly original—all of which accounts for the polarised opinions here on IMDb.As for me, I'm definitely in the latter camp: I've yet to come to a satisfying conclusion about the ending, but the intriguing manner in which the tone of the film radically altered throughout kept me enthralled for the duration..
However, the way it's done makes it worth a watch if you're into your low-budget horror offerings/B-movies.The titular 'Signal' is in fact a TV broadcast of weird, trippy colours on everyone's TV screen.
What 'budget' this film had attached to it obviously did its best to give us some major (and quite realistically disgusting!) gore splattered here and there, but luckily it never descends into an outright bloodbath.Overall, if you're in the mood for a pretty dark little horror movie that tries to be as realistic as possible, give this one a go.
I stump upon this movie last night when searching for a good horror movie to watch and soon when it over i rush into the IMDb page to write a review about it.This is my review about The Signal (2007) a highly underrated horror movie deserve more love and recognizable for all hardcore horror fan out there seeking to see something new.The movie involving a strange signal that been transmission through all cell phone, radio, and television turned people nearby it into psychopaths with only one intended in mind is killing people and when all hell breaks loose a couple of non related people has to figure out the way to survive this situation when they started to question why they not infected.It sometime part black comedy which some truly hilarious scene and part brutal gory action that lead you go from a somehow normal scene to all out terrifying.Minus point is the movie never explained how and why the signal been broadcast with a confusing final arc but hey this is a cult movie you either love it or hate it to death.
This experiment in a horror film, where three directors direct three "Transmissions" based around the premise of a television/broadcast signal turning the mass populous who watches/hears it turning into crazed killing wackaloons, is consistent with its terrifying mania.
This starts out funny, and then turns incredibly horrific immediately afterward.Which is the tone of the segment later on (this was the moment my friend and I all shut up watching the film, when Lewis really shows his nastier side all based around the mania with his wife, Mya, who is off to "Terminal 13" to get away from this hellhole of a town): dark humor giving way to brutal but recognizably human terror.
OK this movie starts buy introducing the main characters but the film wastes little time throwing them to the "wolves" if you will.
"The Signal" starts off like a straightforward horror film on the order of "Night of the Living Dead" or "28 Days Later," but about a third of the way through, it turns into a tongue-in-cheek parody of the whole apocalyptic-thriller genre.It's New Year's Eve, and a mysterious, hypnotic signal is being broadcast on TVs and radios across the planet, resulting in a mass psychosis that turns ordinary, average citizens into cold-blooded killers.This is a fun, good-natured spoof that is as creepy as it is amusing, at least up to a point.
I cannot understand how people are rating this as good in their reviews...They are probably trolling...SPOILERS*****This movie started very good with a nice idea for a story but after Mya left the car and Rod the movie was a complete failure and waste of time.
Having said this, now and again, a movie comes along which changes your mind about low-budget film-making.
This movie is being hailed as one of the greatest horror films of all time.
It really, really doesn't.Set in a city called Terminus, the basic plot of this film is that all TVs, phones and radios start broadcasting a mysterious signal that drives people violently insane.The first segment of the movie focuses on Mya (Anessa Ramsey), an unhappy woman with a controlling, jealous prick of a husband named Lewis (A J Bowen).
Lewis is introduced as an unlikable dick at the start of movie, then he's forced on us as the main character in the middle of the film and he's even more present in the third segment than Mya. If the story had even attempted to give us some reason to care what happens to Lewis, it might not be so bad.
You can't expect the audience to connect with a character when the film ignores him for such a long stretch of time.The Signal is also a fairly stupid movie.
Although The Signal shows the same 5 actors/characters die multiple times in the movie, they just keep coming back scene after scene to "kill each other" again.
The *only people* seen in the movie are the 3 actors and 2 actresses who they hired to kill each other multiple times for 1 hour and 40 minutes.Many have pointed out that the vehicle a main character drives in The Signal "magically" changes to a *completely different* vehicle from one shot to the next.There is a *good reason* why The Signal disappeared out of all theatres in less than a week and you've *probably* never even heard of it until stumbling upon the title by happenstance.
Problem 2) Halfway through the film, the oh-so clever director tries to trick us into thinking we're watching a zombie movie, if for no other reason then to add an extra excuse to bring on the gore.
There really isn't enough plot or story line in this movie to justify keeping the audience in the dark as to the characters motivationsWithout knowing the meaning behind the signal, this film becomes nothing more then an excuse for glorified violence on film.
The story never interested me & I didn't like the character's either, the way the madness is presented in Crazy in Love with mindless violence & killing seems totally different to the other two segments where it's more of a paranoid madness which sends people over the edge.To add to the confusion, & unfortunately the run time, there's a small pre-credits sequence which has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the film & in fact turns out to be a sequence from The Hap Hapgood Story, whatever that is.
The acting is alright from no-one I have ever heard of before but all of the character's are pretty unlikable.The Signal is a film that I didn't like at all, just because it's different doesn't mean it's any good. |
tt0242508 | Harvard Man | The story concerns Harvard student Alan Jensen, the point guard of the Harvard basketball team. When his parents' house is destroyed by a tornado, Alan is desperate for $100,000 to replace their home. He is approached by his girlfriend Cindy Bandolino, whose father is an organized crime boss. Cindy convinces Alan to throw a game for the money. She tells Alan that her father is behind the deal, but actually she goes to her father's associate, Teddy Carter, and Carter's assistant, Kelly Morgan for funding. What she does not know is that Carter and Morgan are undercover FBI agents.
Alan throws the game, gives his parents the money, and then undergoes a psychedelic experience after he ingests a big dose of LSD, 15,000 micrograms. There follows a long stretch of the film during which morphing special effects demonstrate Alan's altered state as he is pursued by Carter, while Cindy is collared by Morgan.
Just when it looks like a toss-up as to what will prove his downfall first, the bad trip, the FBI, or the mob, Alan's other girlfriend (who is also his philosophy lecturer), Chesney Cort (played by Adams), saves the day. Not only does she get Alan to a doctor who can bring him back to sobriety, she reveals that she is in a sexual threesome with Carter and Morgan. Once he gets some photographic evidence for blackmail, Alan is extricated from his problems. | plot twist, philosophical | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0035885 | Flesh and Fantasy | First segment The setting is New Orleans. Plain and embittered Henrietta (Betty Field) secretly loves law student Michael (Robert Cummings). On Mardi Gras night, a mysterious stranger (Edgar Barrier) gives her a white mask of beauty that she must return at midnight. At a party, Michael falls in love with Henrietta but has yet to see her face under the mask. Henrietta encourages Michael to follow a better life although it may mean losing him forever. Henrietta removes the mask at midnight discovering she is now beautiful and that her old, selfish attitude was really the cause of her ugliness.
Second segment The second story is based on Oscar Wilde's short story Lord Arthur Savile's Crime. A palmist named Podgers (Thomas Mitchell) is making uncannily accurate predictions at a party for the rich and bored. He tells skeptical lawyer Marshall Tyler (Edward G. Robinson) to avoid a certain street intersection on the way home. The palmist also acts as if he sees more in his hand but does not admit it. Tyler eschews the advice and almost gets shot during a police chase at the intersection. Tyler goes to the palmist’s home. Under pressure, the palmist admits that he saw that Tyler is going to kill someone.
The notion obsesses Tyler, who decides that he must kill someone, anyone, just to get it over with. He comes close to killing two people but is unable to do so. He finally meets Podgers by accident on a bridge one night, and blaming Podgers for his problem, strangles him to death in a rage. Trying to escape, Tyler is hit by a car. The accident is witnessed by the Great Gaspar (Charles Boyer), a high-wire artist, and it leads without pause into the third segment of the film.
Third segment High-wire artist the Great Gaspar is haunted by dreams of falling, and in each dream of doom encounters a woman (Barbara Stanwyck) he has never met. These dreams affect his performance as he backs down from the most dangerous stunt, jumping from one wire to another. Eventually he meets his dream girl, who has serious troubles of her own. Gaspar later decides that he will not let his bad dreams affect him and that his life is his own. He performs the stunt successfully, not knowing that the woman that he has now fallen in love with is about to be arrested. | paranormal | train | wikipedia | Flesh and Fantasy is a rare forties Hollywood attempt at an art film, and while I cannot say it's wholly successful, it's a good try.
Directed by the highly esteemed French director Julian Duvivier and produced by the highly esteemed French actor Charles Boyer, it consists of three stories of the supernatural, told to Robert Benchley, in a framing device, in what appears to be a men's club.
The third segment, despite the presence of Charles Boyer and Barbara Stanwyck, is rather mediocre, and concerns predictions in a circus setting.
Of these three tales the middle one, an adaptation of an Oscar Wilde story, is by far the best; it is also visually the most appealing.
Flesh and Fantasy is one of several wartime movies that dealt with the issues of death and fate, which were obviously hanging heavier than unusual on peoples' minds in those days.
Given that there are only 11 reviews, it doesn't appear that it's seen too often.Charles Boyer coproduced this film, and one assumes that Julien Duvivier and he were friends, and he got Duvivier to direct.
Also, Duvivier had directed the successful anthology film, Tales of Manhattan.The film begins with a discussion (by Robert Benchley and another man) about the truth of dreams, fortunetelling, superstition and the like.
The first is a story by Ellis St. Joseph, starring Robert Cummings and Betty Field, about a bitter, mean, ugly woman who dons a mask on Mardi Gras that makes her look beautiful.The second story, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, is by Oscar Wilde, about a fortuneteller (Thomas Mitchell) who tells a man (Edward G.
He then meets her when the circus troupe is sailing abroad.Each story explores some question: can fantasy become reality, can a prediction become a self-fulfilling prophecy, are dreams real warnings?
Even when he is far away from his native France,Julien Duvivier is among the best.He had already tackled the fantasy and horror genre which he broached in the thirties with such works as "le Golem" (1936) and his remake of Sjostrom's "la Charrette fantôme " (1939).But these two works do not compare favorably with his masterpieces such as "Un Carnet de Bal" "Pépé le Moko" (both from 1937)"la Belle Equipe" (1936) or "la Fin du Jour" (1939)."Un Carnet de Bal" was a movie made up of sketches ,although it featured the same female character all along the way."Flesh and fantasy" connects the links of the chain:it is a fantasy and horror movie made up of sketches .Here ,Duvivier creates a dreamlike atmosphere far better than his two thirties attempts:he conjures up pictures like a true magician -who was admired by both Ingmar Bergman and Orson Welles,even if the self-conscious nouvelle vague used to despise him,Like all his old colleagues.The three stories are adapted from Oscar Wilde:the first one recalls sometimes "the picture of Dorian Gray" ;the overture is mind-boggling :the drowned man by the river,the disturbing and almost frightening crowd whose masks create some kind of mardi gras nightmare.
An ugly girl -with stunning use of lights- finds the beauty of the soul that is in everyone ,even in herself.The real meat lies in the second segment which features a sensational EG Robinson whose part predates Fritz Lang's "woman in the window" by one year.A fortune teller predicted a man that he would kill someone:it becomes a maleficent obsession,and Duvivier astonishingly cuts loose all the visual tricks at his command (mirrors,shop windows,spectacles ) and literally mesmerizes both Robinson and the audience.Very very langesque!Duvivier,whose pessimism easily equals the great German director's ,seems to believe that crime is a part of the human nature.(I remember actress Danielle Delorme saying :"when I asked Duvivier why my role in "voici le temps des assassins " (1956) was so evil and what could explain her satanic behavior,he simply answered "evil people are evil,period.")The second segment segues sharply into the third one which takes place in a circus.An acrobat star -Boyer- dreams that he falls from the wire while a woman in the audience (Stanwick) is watching,a woman he's never met before.On a boat he meets her afterwards and they fall in love.Another strange dream puzzles the hero who ,although disturbed and worried,wants to go for broke.Back in France ,Duvivier took the film made up of sketches to its absolute limits while mixing all his subplots in a seamless whole in "sous le ciel de Paris"(1952) The nouvelle vague tried this kind of "movie in segments" but they never surpassed Julien Duvivier,one of the Masters of the FRench cinema whose work ,both French and American is crying to be discovered..
Although not as good as Tales Of Manhattan where some of the anthology episodes leaned toward comedy, Flesh And Fantasy is like three Twilight Zone episodes strung together.
At a party he gets his palm read by spiritualist Thomas Mitchell who says that his future shows he will commit an act of murder.
Plain girl Betty Field gets a mask of beauty to bolster her self esteem as she meets up with Bob Cummings on Mardi Gras night.
A mysterious stranger played by Edgar Barrier in a beard makes it happen for them, but in a most unusual way.Charles Boyer and Barbara Stanwyck star in the third episode where Boyer is bothered by a persistent dream of falling from the high wire where he does his circus act.
But it ends for them in another unusual way and in fact it might not be the end.Club members Robert Benchley and David Hoffman read these stories and discuss the supernatural in between stories.
The inevitability of Fate and the mysterious movements of Destiny control our FLESH AND FANTASY.Director Julien Duvivier, in a follow-up to his previous TALES OF MANHATTAN (1942), crafted this new & intriguing sequential film.
In spite of the film's homilies about the ultimate power of personal responsibility, the movie is in reality about nothing more than providing some suspenseful entertainment for its audience.The three sequences are tied together by Robert Benchley, in his famous character of Doakes, who is shown the stories in a book at his men's club in an attempt to help him get over a case of the jitters.SEQUENCE ONE A bitter, unattractive seamstress (Betty Field) hopes a Mardi Gras mask will help her attract the affections of a young student (Robert Cummings).
Movie mavens will spot Marjorie Lord as a desperate client and Peter Lawford as an inquisitive Pierrot, both unbilled.The most intriguing moments in this sequence happens in the first few seconds, when demons are shown pulling a corpse out of the water, and in the last few, when the viewer sees what is in the mask shop window.
Robinson) is told by a celebrated palmist (Thomas Mitchell) that he will commit a murder.
Doris Lloyd plays a grieved widow, and Ian Wolfe a librarian, both uncredited.Based on a short story by Oscar Wilde, this is the film's most compelling episode.
The acting is especially good, with Robinson topnotch and Mitchell turning in a canny performance.
Aubrey Smith's character as the Dean of Chichester rather than the Dean of Norwalk.SEQUENCE THREE A circus aerialist (Charles Boyer) has a frightening dream in which he sees a beautiful woman (Barbara Stanwyck)-- and then he meets her.
Clarence Muse appears unbilled as Boyer's attendant.The story is slightly silly, but the stars make a fine effort and the high wire scenes, using a double, are indeed suspenseful..
Doakes (Robert Benchley) is read 3 stories to help in his decision as to whether or not to believe in fate or dreams.In the first story, its "Mardi Gras" and everyone is wearing masks and costumes.
However, Michael has followed her......In the second story, a palmist (Thomas Mitchell) is predicting events with astonishing accuracy at a soirée at the house of Lady Pamela (May Witty).
Marshall (Edward G Robinson) sees that the palmist is not being honest with him and goes to his house to insist that he tells him the truth about what he can see.
The rest of the tale is played out with Marshall struggling with his conscience as he picks victims to kill.....In the third story, a tightrope-walker (Charles Boyer) has a dream that during his act he falls from the wire while staring at a woman (Barbara Stanwyck) that he has never met.
In the 2nd tale, Edward G Robinson is very good as he reconciles himself to his fate and delivers some funny lines along the way.
Unusual for the studio, it's an anthology film comprised of three tales about personal responsibility and shaping one's fate, with slight supernatural overtones.
Like 1945's "Dead of Night" and its Amicus offspring, we have a framing story, the delightful Robert Benchley playing off against David Hoffman (the face announcing the 'Inner Sanctum' series).
Story one stars Betty Field as a plain-looking woman whose belief in her own unattractiveness has left her lonely and bitter; a chance encounter with a bearded stranger (Edgar Barrier) offers her a mask to disguise her ugliness from the man she's loved from afar, who now recognizes her beauty during an evening of Mardi Gras.
Robinson as wealthy attorney Marshall Tyler, whose belief in an eccentric palmist (Thomas Mitchell) nets him the woman of his dreams, but an ominous future in discord.
Story three pairs Charles Boyer and Barbara Stanwyck, but its drawn out shipboard romance is a letdown coming after the best segment.
Robinson plays a lawyer haunted by a prediction that he will murder someone, and the always-watchable Thomas Mitchell is the palm-reader.The first, with Robert Cummings and Betty Field in a story set in the Mardi Gras, is appealing in a naive way.
The plots involve a woman who learns about inner-beauty, a man's dramatic experience with a fortune teller, and a circus performer who is hounded by an admirer.
Superficial nonsense has few surprises, but cast players Barbara Stanwyck, Charles Boyer, Robert Benchley and Edward G.
Plus, obviously, their styles of writing are very different.Just a little film history about the second tale:made into a U.S. theatrical movie in 2006 ("First Snow"); made into a Russian TV movie ("Prestuplenie lorda Artura") in 1991; made into a French TV movie in 1968 ("Le Crime de Lord Arthur Saville"); made into a British TV movie in 1960; made into a U.S. TV episode of "Suspicion" in 1958; enfolded into a theatrical movie in the U.S. in 1943 ("Flesh and Fantasy") made into a theatrical movie in France in 1921 or 1922.Enjoy!.
The best is the central one, based on a Noel Coward story, in which Edward G.
Anthology film from Universal with three stories of the bizarre, as told through a framing story with David Hoffman and Robert Benchley.
The first story is about a plain-looking woman (Betty Field) who wears a mask on Mardi Gras that is supposed to make her appear attractive to the man she loves (Robert Cummings).
The second story is about a fortune teller (Thomas Mitchell) who tells Marshal Tyler (Edward G.
The third story is about a circus high-wire artist (Charles Boyer) who has premonitions about falling that involve a woman (Barbara Stanwyck).
A fourth story was originally part of the film but Universal removed it.
Try telling that to Hollywood: Having prevailed upon him to remake his masterpiece Un Carnet de bal as Lydia they next got him to follow it with Tales Of Manhattan and then yet another episodic piece Flesh and Fantasy.
Stuff like this tends to distract from the film which, in this case, is as good as one might suppose with anything to which the name Duvivier is appended.
The first segment reunites Robert Cummings and Betty Field who had starred the year before in a similar multi-storied adaptation King's Row; Field plays the Ugly Duckling who convinces Cummings via a little sleight-of-hand that she is a Swan.
Robinson initially bemused then increasingly terrified by a palmist's prediction that he will commit murder whilst the final segment sees tightrope walker Charles Boyer dreaming of falling from the high wire watched by a Barbara Stanwyck he has yet to meet.
An intriguing movie, more for what it could have been rather than for what it is."Flesh and Fantasy" is made up of three loosely connected segments – from stories by three different authors.
They unfold as tales of the supernatural told by Davis (David Hoffman) to 'humourist' Robert Benchley in a series of linking sequences.The first story is set in New Orleans during Mardi Gras.
A plain young woman, Henrietta (Betty Field) receives a beautiful white mask from a stranger.
After she attracts a young man, Michael (Robert Cummings), she performs an unselfish act, revealing her inner beauty to him without the aid of the mask.
When Marshall Tyler (Edward G Robinson) is told by clairvoyant (Thomas Mitchell) that he will murder someone, he becomes so anxious waiting for it to happen that he attempts to kill two people at random before confronting the clairvoyant again.The third segment has the least connection to the supernatural.
A high wire artist, Paul Gaspar (Charles Boyer), loses his nerve performing a dangerous feat, When he dreams about a strange woman (Barbara Stanwyck) with distinctive earrings, he meets her on board a ship bound for New York.
He falls in love and his confidence returns, but an unexpected problem separates them again.Although the three segments have a definite style, the whole thing is let down by the linking sequences starring Robert Benchley.
They actually make light of the segments we have just seen, and Benchley's brand of humour hasn't really travelled all that well over the decades.When I sought more information about the movie, I found that a fourth segment – much darker in tone – had been filmed, but apparently the studio scrapped it and then added the Benchley touch.Each segment was designed to flow into the next, and although Duvivier turned the deleted segment into another film called "Destiny", "Flesh and Fantasy" would have had an entirely different mood.Back in the day, studios seemed to feel that films with a supernatural theme needed a lot of explaining, and anthology films often had linking sequences.
The first story is overly sentimental and "character-rushed", with Betty Field who we are supposed to think is ugly(!), becoming beautiful after a "Twilight Zone"-like moral lesson.
(I'm surprised they didn't serve us Vivien Leigh or de Havilland as the ugly woman.) The second story is the best and most original one, with a predictable ending but at least it remains interesting throughout.
Robinson is as realistic as Betty Field being ugly.The third story: Boyer is quite sympathetic and Stanwick is good, but the story's ending isn't finite.
An unattractive girl (Betty Field) learns the truth about what real beauty is; a middle aged man (Edward G.
Robinson) discovers that he will kill someone; the third (George Raft) dreams of the lady who will scream at his apparent death, falling off of a trapeze wire.
For Betty Field, there's Robert Cummings, so transfixed by her kind words to him that he ignores the fact that the lips on her realistic looking mask doesn't move.
Thomas Mitchell gives Eddie Robinson his fateful spell, while Dame May Witty, Anna Lee and C.
For Charles Boyer, he has the visions of Barbara Stanwyck who turns up on a cruise, adding to his nightmares and bringing a surprise romance.Three short stories, all tightly told and luxuriously produced, directed with artistic flair by Julien Duvivier who knows a thing or two about artistic flair.
As far as I know, not many movies in the 1940s dealt with topics like dreams, magic, predestination, premonition....the supernatural in general; most horror and / or fantasy films of the era were about monsters, mad scientists, and old dark houses.
"Flesh And Fantasy" is quite different from such movies, which may in large part be attributed to the involvement (as director and co-producer) of the French Julien Duvivier.
It consists of three stories: the first one is both an eerie twist on the classic "Cinderella" fairy tale and a lyrical love story, with a remarkable performance by Betty Field, who has to act a lot with her voice and her amazing eyes, as her face is covered by a mask for most of the running time.
The third story also has a grabber of a premise, a great dream sequence, and two glossy stars (Charles Boyer and Barbara Stanwyck) at their near-peak, but the ending is a bit of a cop-out.
The other thing that hurts this movie is the elimination of a fourth episode which was shot by Duvivier, and which apparently explains the discovery of the drowned body which opens the first (in the film's present form) story.
So perhaps not a great film like it might have been originally, but still a very good one.
Robert Benchley is upset by a dream he's had and it takes three tales of slightly paranormal goings on to get him over the jitters, along with two thirds of a bottle of scotch.
Or, if we compare it to a feature film, the English "Dead of Night" comes to mind.Tale number one is set in New Orleans during Mardi Gras.
(It's always Mardi Gras in New Orleans movies.) Betty Field is a real schlub, dressed in rags, disheveled, mean spirited, and deeply in love with her neighbor, Robert Cummings.
She glows with good-heartedness.The second story is from Oscar Wilde but it seems more like Poe. It's about a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A palmist, Thomas Mitchell, tells Edward G.
So he kills somebody.In the third story, Charles Boyer is a circus tightrope walker.
He has a dream in which he falls during a difficult stunt and the image that sticks with him is Barbara Stanwyck, a stranger, shrieking in the audience.The three stories having been read, Benchley duly exits the scene by turning it all into a joke and squeezing past a step ladder rather than walking under it.Universal Studios wasn't noted for nuance. |
tt1103256 | Red Sands | In 2002, Jeff Keller, who mysteriously survived the slaughter of his troops during a mission, is debriefed by an officer. The facts gathered indicate that he and his soldiers had been ambushed by al-Qaeda fighters who killed them all, leaving Keller for dead.
Two weeks before, in September 2002, Keller's crew gets a mission assignment and is set out to an isolated farmhouse where a family had been slaughtered days before. Their mission is to monitor a road as a sting to catch militants using it to transfer supplies. However, after an unintended stop at a mysterious shrine, a bored member of their group, Chard Davies, fires a few rounds at a stone idol, causing it to shatter. The squad's interpreter Wilcox believes that it was a shrine to a Djinn, a powerful deity made from a smokeless flame, which in mythology matched the legend of a genie. They return to their convoy and go to the farmhouse. While there, a series of bizarre events unfold.
A sandstorm comes up and the group catches an unnamed Afghan woman running in, seeking shelter. Unable to speak her language they are unable to understand what she is saying, though dubious to her arrival, they keep her in case there are more. During the following days, tension begins to mount in the group. Staff Sergeant Howston is unable to reach any of their allies by radio; when Wilcox attempts to, he hears a strange distress call stating that their sergeant has gone AWOL which Howston cannot hear. Paranoia begins to get the better of them when Howston receives word that they missed a car on the road which they cannot see, and their truck's ignition system is destroyed one night. Meanwhile, Howston and Wilcox are being haunted by gruesome images of people they had killed in the past. Wilcox goes missing, and the only witness seems to be team member Tino Hull, who sees another member, Jorge Wardell, giving off a terrifying roar before him. That night, Wilcox's dead body is found with his eyes removed and his face in a frozen expression of terror, and after a series of vivid and bizarre dreams Hull grabs another member Trevor Anderson and holds him at gunpoint as he accuses Wardell of killing Wilcox. Hull opens fire on Wardell and Davies is forced to retaliate, killing Hull. Howston orders them to take the bodies outside, and the next morning, the group is shocked to find that they are missing. Howston, slowly losing his grip on his sanity, orders Keller and Anderson to keep guard outside while he himself watches to make sure nothing else goes missing. While they are gone, Davies attempts to rape the Afghan girl, and in a heated moment calls Howston a "fucking nigger", prompting Howston to hit him. In anger, Davies attempts to attack Howston, and Howston finally cracks, killing Davies and ordering Anderson and Keller to stash his body outside. Afterwards, Howston goes missing, as does the girl as the remaining two attempt to make radio contact, Keller realizes that the voice he heard on the radio was that of Anderson when he makes the same radio call he had heard days prior. The pair plan to make a break for the rest of their group, but the girl appears briefly in the house and Keller goes to find her. Meanwhile, Anderson is confronted by the dead Wilcox who reveals himself to be a hideous creature. Before Anderson can react, however, he is killed by a shot to the head from the stalking Howston. Howston prowls the farm looking for Keller and is shocked when he comes across the same creature that Anderson had seen. His defenses lowered after running, Keller manages to gain the upper hand and slits the Sergeant's throat. Keller then encounters the Afghan girl, who turns out to be the Djinn, and manages to escape by throwing a grenade into the ammo-filled farmhouse. The following morning, Keller is grabbed by something from underneath the sand and pulled down, disappearing under the desert.
The first scene then recaps, and after the commanding officer tells him that he will be returned to the United States, he leaves. Keller then looks toward the camera, his eyes turning black revealing he is in fact the Djinn. As the screen pans out to the desert again it is revealed to the audience that Keller is dead, half buried in the sand, his eyes removed and his mouth open wide in terror. The screen then goes dark, and the credits roll. | insanity, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | i wish there were more army/horror films it makes a good genre.
i have read bad reviews all over the net for this film ,but i enjoyed this movie .
While patrolling the desert, they find a millenary temple with a stone carved idol; their translator Gregory Wilcox (Callum Blue) explains that worshippers come to that place to idolize Djinn, a race that have hatred for humans and was made by Allah from the smokeless flame in the beginning of the times in accordance with the Islam and pre-Islamic Arabian folklore.
The group stranded in the middle of nowhere gets mad and they are consumed by their sins and guilty."Red Sands" is a claustrophobic and tense psychological horror movie, with a great surrealistic story that can be interpreted as a madness process of a group of soldiers stranded in a place that they do not understand the culture and the language.
RED SANDS follows a group of soldiers stationed in the Iraqi desert, during their stay strange things begin to happen when a mysterious woman stumbles into their camp.The film has a very slow pace, something one of my friends found extremely frustrating about this film, during the first act it seemed that the storyline was almost non existent up until the strange woman stumbles into the soldiers hideout, then after that the film started to build this very unsettling tension that has you thinking there's something out there but you just don't know what it is, and it also sets an unnerving mood with the soldiers slowly but surely beginning to lose it, the acting is good considering the minimal character development, the cast clearly didn't have much to work with but they pulled of a decent job.Overall, a good movie if you're the patient kind, but I can say that a lot of people will find the slow pace rather frustrating, because most of the time it will feel like there's no storyline, but its there, like I said if you're the patient kind..
Before seeing this movie, I expected something better from the director of 'Dead Birds' which was a very decent movie (not breath-taking, but interesting and worth-seeing in the horror genre).
I got disappointed very early on, but I continued to watch it, maybe hoping for an interesting turn or at least something that would compensate me for the 90 minutes spent seeing it.
OK, the story setting is good, a group of American soldiers stationed in the Afghanistan's desert waking up a djinn.
It could be a nice movie but the result was boring, dull, not at least frightening, and the end is totally predictable.
The actors were rather mediocre, the dialogs poor, the characters stereotypical, the special effects very cheap, the attempt to describe the American view of the Muslim religion childish and lacking, and the overall plot had a lot of holes in it.
there was nothing that jumped out at me, from the comments made i decided to watch this movie and from the beginning it was boring and no plot!!
it was slow, no action, or anything else as i continue to sit through it, my suggestion, don't waste your precious time on this ridiculous movie!
i tried very hard to give this movie a chance and give it the benefit of the doubt, but honestly, watching as many movies as i have this one was so bad, i wish i could give it a better rating but i don't want to have someone like myself to waste there time and energy as trust me it was in fact one of the worst movies i have seen and i have seen some pretty bad ones, please don't waste your time!!!!!.
Alex Turner, the director behind the small-scale demonic ghost feature 'Dead Birds', goes once again at the supernatural market (teaming up with 'Dead Birds' writer Sam Barrett), in his second feature with the based horror involving American soldiers encountering something otherworldly in the harsh, bone-dry deserts of Afghanistan (and has there been some Sci-fi presentations using that backdrop in the very terrible 'Monster Ark' and 'Manticore').
It throws up the usual plight that we see themed in these types of genre films in the last decade (Deathwatch, The Bunker and Outpost).In-present day Afghanistan a small unit of American soldiers are positioned at an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere to control a strategic road that the Taliban are using.
Unknowingly to them it unleashes a vengeful Djinn, who decides to take out its fury on them.The main problem with Turner's 'Red Sands' is that it was all build-up, for nothing.
This made the script poorly conceived, as not much depth is taken out and there's plenty of time to do so since is has the soldiers pretty much sitting around.
It's not weird, creepy or relentless.Not helping also is the plodding pace and repetitive nature of the actions with the lack of anything really threatening to construct an ounce of suspense, despite there always being a lurking menace (in the Taliban, Djinn or their own sanity's).
The Sound Effects were dull and used.The Thumbs up for this movie are, Interesting and Unique Story, Cool Music and Creepy moments.(no jumpers) The Thumbs Down for this movie are, Dull Sound Effects, Not very Scary for a Thriller, Gets boring in the middle.
The worst film I've seen in a long time.
Well, chiefly there is no narrative, the main protagonist looks like an old blanket and the characters, i.e. the soldiers are too stereotypical to take seriously.I'm actually thinking of prosecuting the filmmakers for the mental anguish I've just gone through.
Decent war/horror movie crossover.
I basically like any horror movie crossover but I believe this one is superior to most out there.
Of course, don't bother to watch this if you expect a non-stop action flick filled with expensive special effects or if you belong to any US military fan club - you will be disappointed.
For the rest of us however, this movie packs some solid acting, beautiful photography, chilling atmospheric music/audio and creeping slow paranoia that got my attention and wholly entertained me until the credits rolled on.
I am a two decade horror movie expert and I must say Red Sands is a low budget jewel that impressed me...
although he ending was predictable but still very efficient and true to the spirit of the movie..
I just watch this movie and i thought its not bad much underrated movie but worth watch.Its mixture of horror plus thriller sequences.If you are fan of military movies with ghostly touch then i think it is treat for you.Writer came with fresh and new idea direction is also good.I think actors do their job well.
A military mission sent, to set base camp in the heart of desert went horribly wrong when a young girl visits them.I think you must give it try on Saturday night.If you are bore of b grade movies then just give it a try.Its not based on afghan or Iraq war like so many other movies in the market but a story with fresh and new idea.The cgi techniques are good it could be better but i think with the budget director have.he make worth of it and came with the movie which i must say not bad,like many other low budget b grade movies.If you are free on Saturday night then give it a try..
Red Sands is reminiscent of supernatural terrors like John Carpenter's The Thing.
The abandoned war-torn stone house serves as an interesting choice of backdrop for a group of US soldiers sent to monitor a strategic Afghanistan road.
What they encounter is more than they can handle...While Alex Turner's cinematic action is superb, the only thing I find lacking is scale throughout the film.
(Some things they got wrong for dramatic effect, but it's forgivable.) The film had a good budget, but followed the rule of not revealing your monster until the end of the film.
You may think the enemy is Al Qaeda, but you better be careful what you do while watching for them.A group of soldiers make the mistake of unleashing the Djinn, who exist alongside humans and angels, and make up the triumvirate of God's creation.
Not a good idea with six horny GIs who have nothing to do.One of the group starts having some strange dreams in this film that is more a psychological thriller than horror.
This movie is about a few soldiers alone in the desert who either kill each other or die mysteriously.
The end.This movie lacks the cause then effect that a horror movie needs in order to create tension and suspense.
If you didn't read the press release, you'd never geddit.The continuity of the movie is so bad you can snip it up and watch the scenes in any sequence.
The story doesn't develop at all.No new facts come to light as the movie progresses.
At the end, we are in the same position as at the beginning, so it's kinda pointless that the director puts the last scene at the beginning.There is no realization, no new understanding, no process of discovery.
This film was a complete waste of time and probably the worst supposedly horror movie I have ever sat through, the whole idea was a complete nonsense from start to finish and I had to see it though just to see if it would make an impact on me at the end, well I was not disappointed, it was rubbish.
The acting was bad, the story was bad, and in total the film was the worst I've seen in years.
This will end up being in the top 100 list for bad movies of 2009.
The first thing that brought to my attention that this was gonna be a loser was the imagery of the helicopters that were obviously done by computers,e normally this is a good sign that a film was cheap, and believe me, it was.
Red Sands is a (cheap) remake of a French movie called Djinns.
Both remind me of The R Point (without reaching it) : horror/psycho/thriller war moviesIf you have not watched Djinns, then you will like Red Sands or find it OK (that's if you like this sort of horror/psycho/thriller war movies).
So if you like Red Sands, i strongly recommend you watch Djinns (taking place in the 60's during Algeria War)But if you have watched Djinns fist (like me), you will be disappointed by Red Sands : it is too cheap, the plot is not as developed, not as tense as in Djinns, well in 3 words : not as good..
the acting is unbelievably good, the plot is brilliant, I do admit at times it dragged on for a few minutes but just put yourself in the position of being stranded in the desert with people being slaughtered left right and centre, your friends and your brothers in arms, hell you cannot trust next to nobody.
A great horror movie but a bit too sophisticated for average Americans.
The movie is actually quite disturbing but demands an alert mind (with longer attention span than 3 minutes) and even some knowledge about middle eastern countries and an insight into Islam.
There are numerous Iranian truly magnificent horror movies covering the same topic as Red sands out there.
Knowing how it ends does not stop me from watching it again as the overall feel and weirdness in the movie what makes it great..
I really enjoyed this director's last movie, Dead Birds, so I had high expectations for this one.
Hollywood lives to disappoint though and Red Sands is a complete letdown.The setting is intriguing, the situation (a released djinn) promising, but the director doesn't deliver.
Like a wounded snake the film drags its slow length along to an utterly predictable ending.
When a US soldier uses an ancient stone idol as a target for shooting practise, he releases the evil djinn that was imprisoned within.
As his platoon carry out orders to keep a desert road under surveillance, the malevolent spirit summons a sand storm and infiltrates the group in the form of an Afghan woman, and one by one the men fall victim to its power.It might boast some impressive cinematography and a couple of fairly bloody effects, but with nary a decent scare during the whole film, a raft of stereotypical characters, dull dialogue, cheap-ass CGI effects, and an unexciting and uneventful plot that moves slower than a shifting dune, Red Sands is a dry and lifeless experience, just like the Afghanistani desert in which it is set.As with his first horror flick Dead Birds, director Alex Turner takes the atmospheric, slow-burn, psychological route for much of the running time, his djinn using each victim's sins against them to terrify before killing; but whereas Dead Birds managed to deliver a modicum of atmosphere and a few effective frights between the less interesting bits, Red Sands manages neither and, given the choice, I'd rather count every grain of sand in Afghanistan than sit through this dreary film again..
I gave it a 6 because it had all the makings of a good horror film.
It used a very unique set and setting.The actors were OK but with a good story even they would come alive.
And there is some pretty good action happening.
As you watch put yourself in these soldiers place.
Better spend your time snoozing, and this so-called movie will help you in that direction.
Apparently a remake of an Islamic horror film, RED SANDS turns out to be an entirely defunct horror yarn and indistinguishable from many, many others over the years.
The idea of a squad of soldiers stumbling upon a nameless and ancient evil has been explored in everything from THE KEEP to OUTPOST to DEATHWATCH, along with R-POINT, THE GUARD POST and many Hollywood B-movies besides.I don't mind familiar plots in films but they do have their work cut out in terms of delivering decent entertainment, i.e. making up for the lack of originality by offering good scripting and direction.
The writing is clichéd, the direction is sub-par and the movie resorts to cheesy CGI effects time and again.I admire the efforts of the unknown cast (and it is really unknown when SPIDERMAN's J.
In the past ,"Wish Master" was also a djinn story but mostly a teenage movie.
Effects are very good.To tell the truth I didn't expected such a movie when I touched play button of my player.
'Red Sands' is the story of seven soldiers, stranded in the desert, guarding a road that doesn't exist.
The calculated way the soldiers descend to primeval actions is mixed brilliantly with the surreal atmosphere of the desert.
Although the effects get slightly unbelievable towards the end, the psychological tension in some of the sequences makes up for anything.
Despite its failings the film affected me, and is definitely worth a watch.For me, 'Red Sands' answered that fundamental question of 'what would the US army do if faced with a jinn in the middle of the desert with no communications?' 'Go Crazy, Sir'....
I don't really understand the many negative criticism of this movie, I think it was pretty good.
I don't watch horror movies often, perhaps one a month, so maybe I haven't been "buffed up" enough, but this movie make me feel awkward for a few nights after watching it.To be honest I started watching from the moment they broke that statue, so looks like I missed that part about the djinn.
I thought this movie is about some aliens, but looks like it's about djinns...
oh well, it's still a The Thing clone.But it's pretty scary at the same time.
The Thing wasn't scary for me, it was more like an adventure movie.
If you've been watching horror movies since the 80's as I have I don't see how you can possibly enjoy this movie.A group of dysfunctional soldiers manages to release a Djinn by shooting a statue....
The movie never bothers to show you where the thing came from.
Mostly the Djinn spends the whole movie as an Arabic woman crouched in the corner...
If this is how Djinn kill people we may as well free them all, we manage to kill ourselves ten times faster than they ever could.When we finally see "the monster" it's just more of the computer generated garbage you see in all low budget horror flicks nowadays.This movie is so bad it's on the level of being a SciFi original..
It takes place in Afghanistan and features a group of soldiers in a remote outpost, deep in the desert.
That would make this movie better..
A group of US soldiers stationed in the Middle East come across an ancient statue and one of them decides to shoot it up.
This was a bad idea as it was containing a Djinn and now it's free to bore us to death.
This in fact released the Genie that was to eventually turn the rangers on each other until they all did themselves in.The film "Red Sands" moves at a snails pace with the troopers slowly going wacko as they, without communication to the outside world, start to realize that they've got themselves lost in the desert.
It's when they find this Afghan woman, Marcedes Manson, hidden inside a deserted house that things really start to pick up in the movie.***MAJOR SPOILER*** As it turns out the Afghan woman is the evil spirit, or Dijnni, that Cpl. Davies released when he destroyed the ancient monument and she, or it, would soon turns the screws on the unsuspecting US soldiers.
It takes a while for the soldiers to realize what's happening but by the time they do it will be too late for them.
And that by the way includes Spc.Keller who as we see when the movie ends is not who we, as well as Lt. Col. |
tt0137338 | 200 Cigarettes | The film follows various plot arcs all occurring on New Year's Eve of 1981. Monica (Plimpton) is throwing a big New Year's bash and is desperately afraid no one will attend. Early on the only person to have arrived is her friend Hillary (Catherine Kellner). As she tries to convince Hillary to stay, we learn about various other groupings of individuals who are all on their way.
The film follows several characters as they spend New Year's Eve in New York City before eventually showing up at Monica's party. The characters are: Val (Ricci) and Stephie (Hoffmann), teens from Ronkonkoma who get lost in the seedy Alphabet City section of the borough and wander into a punk club where they meet Dave (Diaz) and Tom (Casey Affleck), who have a "package" they need to deliver; ditsy and awkward Cindy (Hudson) who is on a dinner date with the paranoid Jack (Mohr); Lucy (Love) and her best friend Kevin (Rudd) who are struggling with the sexual tension between them; Kevin's feminist ex-girlfriend Ellie (Garofalo), who walks in on Kevin and Lucy making out in a restroom stall; a dim-witted and flirtatious bartender (Ben Affleck); competitive friends Bridget (Nicole Ari Parker) and Caitlyn (Featherstone) who attempt to ditch Bridget's boyfriend Eric (Brian McCardie) (who is also Monica's ex-boyfriend); and the eccentric cab driver (Chappelle) who takes them all around town throughout the evening in his disco themed taxi.
Eventually, all the characters find their way to the party, although in the meantime Monica has passed out after drowning her sorrows in alcohol. She wakes up the next morning to find many unrecognizable people on her floor, including Stephie who tells her what a big hit her party was. Monica is thrilled (even though she missed it all), especially when she finds out that Elvis Costello showed up. The final montage shows Polaroids of the party, narrated by the disco cabbie, mostly featuring the unlikely romances from the party and the unconscious Monica being propped up by her party guests. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0036189 | Mystery of the 13th Guest | When Marie Morgan (Helen Parrish) was eight years old, she attended a banquet held by her dying grandfather, who disliked everyone in his family except for her. That day he instructed her to return to his house upon her twenty-first birthday to read his will alone. Marie arrives at the house, and although it has been vacant for 13 years, the lights and telephone both appear to be working. Marie thinks back to the day her grandfather told her about his will and recalls the seating arrangement. There were twelve guests in attendance, but a thirteenth place to her grandfather's right was empty. Marie presently decides to open the envelope containing the will. Inside is a sheet of paper with the numbers 13-13-13 written with nothing else. Someone suddenly enters the house and a gunshot is heard, and Marie screams.
She next finds herself sitting at the dinner table in the same place as when she was eight, but the doctor pronounces her dead. Police Lt. Burke (Tim Ryan) and Private Investigator Johnny Smith (Dick Purcell) are put on the case, but it is soon revealed that Marie is still alive. Barksdale (Cyril Ring), Marie's attorney who sat to the left of her at the banquet, is found dead in the exact chair he sat in 13 years ago. The detectives conclude that the killer is targeting the guests by where they sat, and therefore the murderer must have been one of the 13 guests. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1156466 | Undisputed III: Redemption | Years have passed since Yuri Boyka suffered a humiliating defeat and a broken knee at the hands of George "Iceman" Chambers. Humbled by his injury, he has relegated to becoming the prison janitor. Meanwhile, mob boss Gaga has expanded his prison tournament enterprise into an inter-prison tournament called the Prison Spetz Competition (PSC), which gathers the best prison fighters from around the globe to compete for a chance at a cleared record and early release. As Boyka hears the preliminaries taking place within his prison, as well as failing in his parole, he begins training privately to bring his knee back into fighting shape. Just after current champion Vladimir Sykov defeats his opponent in the final round of the prison's tournament, Boyka challenges him on the spot and swiftly defeats him, thus becoming the Russian representative for the PSC.
Boyka is transferred to Gorgon prison in the Republic of Georgia where he is joined by a diverse group of eight international prison fighters. Though the fighters are allowed one hour each day for training, they are still grouped into the general population for hard labor while Colombian fighter and local inmate Raul "Dolor" Quiñones is given private sparring sessions and a regimen of performance-enhancing drugs. During his stay, Boyka gets into odds with an American boxer Jericho "Turbo" Jones who is shown to be disrespectful, insubordinate, and a loudmouth. He also reminds Boyka of Chambers. Boyka, Turbo, Dolor, and Brazilian fighter Andriago Silva advance to the second round of the tournament while the losing fighters are sent home, only to be shot dead by waiting guards.
The next day, Turbo instigates a fight with Boyka before both men are thrown into solitary confinement. They are eventually released due to some manipulations by their managers Gaga and Mafia Don Gio Farnatti, who are old friends and rivals. Upon hearing of the prison's treatment of their fighters, the two mob bosses confront Warden Kuss, but PSC mastermind Rezo explains to them that the tournament has always been fixed to ensure the "highest profit at the lowest risk". He advises them to liquefy their assets and place their bets on Dolor to ensure their profit. Realizing that the loyalty to their fighters only extend to their payout, Gaga and Farnatti agree to this arrangement. Meanwhile, Boyka and Turbo slowly develop a trust in each other and focus their attention at beating Dolor in the tournament. They both start using the hard labor as part of their training. With Turbo's attitude eroding, he starts showing signs that his ego evolved from a highly disciplined past as a U.S. Marine. In addition to reciting, "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome" as part of his training, he recommends some holistic medicine for Boyka to soothe his knee.
In the semi-finals, Boyka defeats Silva by making him tap out to a triangle choke; he helps his opponent up and commends him for a good fight. Realizing that Boyka and Turbo are stronger than predicted, Rezo and Warden Kuss arrange to have the guards beat Turbo to a bloody pulp. When the prisoners are taken for the next round of hard labor, Boyka tries to convince Turbo into escaping rather than face Dolor wounded. Knowing that Turbo used to be in the military, the plan is to escape to the forest where the security is lightest and survive long enough to eventually get in touch with the black market. Turbo initially disagrees, until another prisoner reveals that the losers are executed. Caught trying to break their chain, the two fight off the guards long enough to get a key. Freed, Turbo makes a run for the forest.
Boyka is returned to the prison where he is confronted by Rezo, Warden Kuss, and Gaga. Knowing he has lost all support, he commits himself to ruining their wagers by defeating Dolor in the newly improvised final round. Dolor takes an early lead with his exceptionally quick hand blocks and strikes, as well as exacerbating the problems with Boyka's weak knee by using a submission hold on it. Deprived of his kicking ability and agility, Boyka recovers first by relying on his endurance and pain tolerance, persevering past some devastating hits. It looks like the fight is over when he is kicked out of the ring, but when he catches a glimpse of the mop and bucket used for sopping up blood after the bouts, which bears a striking resemblance to the ones he used during his training, he returns into the ring before the ten-count. Remembering Turbo's mantra, "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome," he takes the blood-soaked pad off the mop and ties it around his knee. Forced to adapt, he begins using a new style mixing in elements of grappling, dirty boxing head-butts and elbows, wrestling, and wu-shu. Dolor, in a final moment of rage, breaks his shin against Boyka's knee block, ending the match.
Desperate and despondent, Farnatti confronts Warden Kuss and shoots Rezo over the money that he's lost before being shot by the warden himself. Despite winning the tournament, Boyka is not allowed to go free because the guards have not found Turbo. Because Boyka was responsible for his escape, the arrangement is that Turbo will remain free while Boyka will be transferred back to his original prison, to which Boyka responds that he does not care — he has proven his point. Like the other prisoners, Boyka is instead taken out to be shot, but he is rescued at the last minute by Turbo. The duo retreat to a waiting car where Gaga sits inside with a suitcase of money. He reveals that he always knew Boyka was the best fighter in the world, especially when he was angry, so he bet all of his money on him all along and deceived the other managers — even going so far as to rescue and hide Turbo when he escaped. Boyka decides to part ways, finally revealing his first name, Yuri, to Turbo. In turn, Turbo confesses that his real name is "Jericho," not realizing that Boyka has a special appreciation for religious references. In gratitude, he thanks Turbo for "bringing down the walls" and setting him free. Turbo then requests a match with Boyka in future and Boyka accepts. As the car leaves, Boyka happily walks with the money filled briefcase toward freedom laughing joyfully. | cult, violence | train | wikipedia | Strong fighting movie with predictable plot but still good..
You will enjoy him and supporting actors; Mykel Shannon Jenkins aka Turbo and Mark Ivanir as Gaga.For once, not the average crap of usual action movie "alone against the world".
This is a packed with action movie about an international prison mma tournament.Fighting scenes are superb done for a low budged movie made in post communist industrial bankruptcy of Eastern Europe.All in all a good movie, good script , decent acting and again superb fights.
I am not going to say too much about the movie because I don't want to present any "spoilers," but I have to say this is one of the top action movies out, although very under the radar.I first watched Undisputed I without ever knowing what it was, just saw it lying around at my friends house and watched it.
It seems like as far as the plots and action sequences go, they keep getting better.
But I have to say I was more than pleased that they brought Boyka back to fight, since he lost in the last movie.Overall, very good movie if you are into movies like Bloodsport, or Kickboxer.
Didn't take a ton of special effects and sex scenes to make it a great movie, the fighting was just phenomenal..
With a movie from direct-to-DVD kings Nu Image/Millennium Pictures, you know that you'll at least get good production values.
When one of their movies has Isaac Florentine as the director, you know you are going to get some spectacular action sequences.
I will admit that the script is pretty standard for this kind of thing - we never really get into the head of the protagonist and learn what is driving him, the bad guys also have no real personality, and how a couple of the characters managed to get together in the last few minutes of the movie is never explained.
We watch them because we want some good action, and this movie without doubt has that.
I've enjoyed all the "Undisputed" movies, and if they make a fourth entry in the series, I'll definitely be there..
Yes, it's not your typical drama with an extraordinary plot or character development but for a movie that had a low budget and was so under the radar it delivered, and delivered really really really good.Scott Adkins deserves more credit and more film deals, because not only he's an amazing fighter/stuntman, he's also a pretty damn good actor as opposed to other "fighters" making movies (I won't point fingers, but there's a guy always whispers in movies)..Bottom line is : Choreography is great, fight scenes are great, plot is really good, acting is really good..
This has got to be one of the greatest fighting movies of all time!
That's just awesome and original!I would recommend this movie to anyone who loves to watch fights such as boxing, ufc, mma, strikeforce, etc..
I didn't expect much from this movie being the third one and classed as a B movie, but i have to say if you like one and two and you love action/fighting movies this is top notch.
The acting isn't the best in the world, but action movies never are, Boyka is awesome and this is my favourite action movie for a while by far.I know he was the bad guy type in number 2, but you soon warm to him here, it is a bit predictable.
I think there will be a 4th installment too and ill be waiting for it.A good fun action movie with quality fighting scenes, blood, corruption and a mean Russian :).
Russian prison, Yuri Boyka, Scott Adkins, Undisputed 3, redemption.
Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) is a disgraced, disabled former champion prison fighter, having had his right leg broken by George 'Iceman' Chambers (Michael Jai White) in a Russian prison.
Boyka learns of an international prison tournament (SPC) and enters to regain his honor and prove himself as the 'most complete fighter'.Adkins once again animates the character with his energetic, acrobatic martial art stunts.
Fans of the trilogy will surely tell you that Undisputed II and III are far better films than the first.
Scott Adkins returns as Uri Boyka and his martial arts moves are top notch.
Look out for Scott Adkins because he's definitely got some talent and he looks a little like Ben Affleck only with acting skills.
Make sure you watch Undisputed II first for the full experience and to see Michael Jai White kick butt..
Action movies usually don't get good ratings, but Undisputed 3: Redemption is surprisingly inspiring.
It's an action move, it's all about fighting.And i must stay I've never seen anything like that, it's a truly masterpiece, the choreography and skilled athletes really pulled it off..It's the entrance towards contemporary action films as it takes evertyhing to the next level..
It's one of these films, that's unheard of and not very known out there, therefore you kind of hesitate to watch it because you don't want to waste your time on some crap, but it's certainly not the case.
Even the story itself was quite inspiring and interesting, definitely it wasn't just dry fights in the ring, obviously there was a meaning beyond that, which makes it even more interesting to watch.Scott Adkins has delivered an incredible performerance and has the potential to be next huge thing out there, it was spectacualar to witness elaborated stunts in such a way..
Scott Adkins once again nailed this new installment in the Undisputed series with his convincing martial arts skills and scary persona!Everything about this film was top notch, the action, suspense, directing, writing, and of course the outstanding martial arts choreography.
It's refreshing to finally have true martial arts films that are realistic and have a real story to tell with substance.Undisputed 3 is a great successor to Undisputed 2 and cant wait for the next one!"Boyka!
As Boyka hears the preliminaries taking place within his prison, as well as failing in his parole, he begins training privately to bring his knee back into fighting shape.
Here we follow Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins of Barakapool and "Ninja" fame), the ultimate loser of the Undisputed final bout.
Amongst them talkative American Turbo (Mykel Shannon Jenkins) and Colombian bad-ass Dolor (Marko Zaror, best known from the exquisite "Mirageman" movie).Personally I'm not a big fan of such testosterone-charged tournament fight movies.
Admitedly it didn't turn out to be my flavour of fights, but the gritty high-octane brutality coupled with some immensely sound acting forced me to hand out a decent grade to this movie.
The action and fighting is top notch, although some may flinch given every hit and crack sends shivers down the spine given its realism.Both Jenkins and Adkins do great as the leads of the movie (the latter benefiting from playing a semi-illiterate introverted tough-guy), while supporting cast (including Mark Ivanir and Roberto Costanzo) never cause any hindrance to the story (however rudimentary it may be).
After being severely defeated in the second film and utterly broken Yuri Boyka has been resorted to cleaning toilets and less than a man.
I walked in not having much faith in a 3rd film but they delivered with the action and fight sequences.
this movie is the only best martial artist tournament film in the Undisputed film series.
So the third film in the Undisputed film series is the best martial arts film flick in my opinion that was released in the last years.
This is the only Undisputed film I have because of Scott Adkins I am a hug fan of the actor and I think Yuri Boyka is his best role.
The reason I did not get Undisputed II: Last Man Standing on Blu-ray was because I did not like Scott Adkins a bad guy and he lost a fight on the end but still the second one was a really good movie.Undisputed III: Redemption is the best sequel, better story, the fights scene's are practical well done.
This movie is f***** awesome it kicks the sh** out of Bloodsport III, Bloodsport III sucked Undisputed III: Redemption is the best of the best martial arts tournament movie in the last years.This series goes with lower and lower budget, but it gets (a lot) better and better.
The fight scenes are unbelievable, the story is good as well.
The fight scenes are unbelievable, the story is good as well.
Action movies usually don't get good ratings, but Undisputed III: Redemption is surprisingly inspiring.
The characteristic of Boyka is quite impressive.There was also the reason I just didn't like Boyka: Undisputed IV, because this film ended perfectly and it really did not need another sequel.Russian inmate Boyka, now severely hobbled by the knee injury suffered at the end of Undisputed 2.
But when a new prison fight tournament begins - an international affair, matching the best fighters from prisons around the globe, enticing them with the promise of freedom for the winner - Boyka must reclaim his dignity and fight for his position in the tournament.The fights are awesome they are well done well choreographed there aren't any slow motions in this real practical effects and real fights, real stunts are all well done.
This movie in the series is my favorite film of all time I love it.
This is Scott Adkins film and not Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, Hard Target 2 or the next Undisputed sequel this movie kicks ass.
Mykel Shannon Jenkins was also good as Turbo, Boyka's friend and a cell mate I love the chemistry between them.The rating get's 10/10 my favorite personal martial arts flick.Undisputed III: Redemption is the third installment in franchise started by the 2002 action film Undisputed.10/10 Grade: Bad Ass Seal Of Approval Studio: Nu Image Starring: Scott Adkins, Mykel Shannon Jenkins, Mark Ivanir, Hristo Shopov, Robert Costanzo, Marko Zaror Director: Isaac Florentine Producer: Israel Ringel Writter: David N.
By the time I finished seeing Undisputed 2, I was shocked to find out that Boyka was portrayed by an English actor.....that was the level of enactment he did to bring the stereotypical Russian prisoner we all have in mind.I was absolutely blown away by the tribute montage ( using the song can't be touched by Roy JOnes Jr.) posted on Youtube and knew that I definitely needed to see this.I had gone to the barbershop three times to get the Boyka haircut...which he eventually used as the poster to his shop.This movie is a must watch for martial arts fans and Scott Adkins deserves more meatier roles in the future.
Adkins returns as Boyka, the prisoner who is an ace mixed martial arts fighter.
Watch it for Adkins and the action scenes.
Cult favourite Yuri Boyka is back and still "the most complete fighter in the world".
The reason this one is the best is because we get to see more Yuri plus the plot is better than the other films.
Yuri is in the first ever inter-prison fight tournament in which the winner gets his freedom.
So with this plot we get a lot more colorful characters and more great fight scenes.
Martial arts movie fans, this is a must watch.7/10.
Martial Arts fans: Should definitely give this movie a try !!.
So, having watched the trailers and pics I was expecting some Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) action and after watching it, I can just say that the movie just swept me off my feet.
The movie does have some really good fights.
The plot is predictable but the great MMA fights simply overshadow them.
Kudos to Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins).
Excellent work by him on this one.Prison fights and Mixed Martial arts fans, you guys cannot afford to miss this one !!.
cant say i am very impressed with undisputed 3.it is like those 100s of badly directed Hollywood MMA action films.
wont recommend this film!The Chinese ,korean and Thailand's are still the best in action genre.Hollywood will continue to be a wannabe just like MMA is a wannabe Muay Thai..
Great action movie.
Then my brother told me that I must watch Undisputed movies, which I've never heard until now.
Like the second part, Undisputed 3 has great fighting scenes, great actors, with fantastic Sccot Adkins (the greatest movie fighter today).
I am the world's most complete fighter.This movie was a complete entertainer; I haven't seen the first two parts but this part was surely something!
No doubt the MMA fighting skills of the characters were real time and no strings attached; yes I mean no strings attached.The story may be considered on the lines of "condemned", but with noteworthy differences and twists, I would say the director "Isaac Florentine" and his special effects team has done a marvelous job with the fight sequences, story line and characters in hand.I would suggest everyone should give this movie a try and I am sure everybody would like it, even if you are not into combat and sparring.
No doubt the MMA fighting skills of the characters were real time and no strings attached; yes I mean no strings attached.The story may be considered on the lines of "condemned", but with noteworthy differences and twists, I would say the director "Isaac Florentine" and his special effects team has done a marvelous job with the fight sequences, story line and characters in hand.I would suggest everyone should give this movie a try and I am sure everybody would like it, even if you are not into combat and sparring.
Best martial arts movie of the time..
Scott Adkins is by far the best martial arts actor of the time, and also is the most underrated.
Also I'll like to see Marko Zaror ("Dolor", Chilean actor) in other action movies like this, he has the potential to do more, like a protagonic role.
The storyline is pretty weak, but it's compensated with the awesome fights and the bad-ass actors.
Because like I said before, the storyline is weak and some characters are one-dimensional, without the fights the movie would be a 4 or 5..
Although I didn't like the first movie, after watching part 2 I thought this franchise might have potential.
Yuri Boyka(Scott Adkins) who was the main villain in the second movie is back and this time he is the main character.
Unlike the previous movie, this time it's more like a tournament where bunch of convicts must fight each other in the ring and be the winner in order to get freedom.
I really liked how Yuri Boyka's amazing fighting skills and choreography is more explored in this one.
In fact this movie sort of does make Boyka seem like the most complete fighter in the world.
People who seen the previous Undisputed movies know that this franchise is about fighting and you will get good amounts of it and pretty good ones at that.
This movie has a good story too.
The only thing that stands out in this movie is the fighting scene.
All the fighting scene in this movies are amazing.
I watched the fighting scene more than 10 times.
"Undisputed III: Redemption" is just as well made as the 2nd one.Boyka (Adkins) is still in jail after the fight with Chambers (played by Michael Jai White).
All Boyka wants to do is fight again.
The best parts of the movie are the fighting sequences.
They are excellently choreographed and brutal.You can almost feel every punch and kick, because this is a punch-fighting movie, the plot is basically predictable and some of the acting is amateurish.Scott Adkins' fighting skills are amazing in this.
He executes one kick towards the end that is just devastating."Undisputed III" is one of the best DTV fighting movies in a long time and i definitely recommend it.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com.
For the record I was pretty hesitant to watch this film because of the involvement of Scott Adkins whom I still remember from the horrible ninja movie.
The action scenes are fantastically shot and are far better than those big budget movies, ie rocky balboa, etc.
The pace of the movie actually keeps one following the plot and the lead guy goes on to face tougher and tougher opponents, all when tingling you about how bad the knee could bother him.
I just felt pretty good watch the guys in this movie kicking ass and doing stunts, a straightforward movie that is well paced and well made..
One of, if not the best martial arts/action movie.
Undisputed 3 is exactly what you want from a martial arts movie.
No Hollywood style choppy/shaky cam, just good clean choreographed fights with actors who know what they're doing and put together to create non- stop epic fight scenes throughout the entire movie.Scott Adkins delivers yet again on his performance as Yuri Boyka, "the most complete fighter in the world" with this beautifully choreographed film as well as giving us a compelling character.
There's really nothing more to say other than if you want an amazing action movie that will leave you hyped then this is for you..
REDEMPTION is the third of the UNDISPUTED franchise and a straight-to-video martial arts flick that excels at what it does.
The genius move is to have Scott Adkins return as Boyka, not as the villain (although he's as tough as ever), but as the hero this time around.
Chief part is Boyka(Scott Adkins).
I'm a big fan of Boyka.Turbo is a good fighter too.
He is very strong and muscular.He is American.Turbo and Boyka are good friends.I think it was a good movie.
I guess they had to do something to make it more exciting, because the story and the acting just isn't capable.Also, I loved how the main character "cures" his knee injury - you know the one that looked and sounded like ripped tendons?
In the last fight, Boyka gets the beating of his life with healthy knee, and then miracle occurs and with bad knee he beats Dolor. |
tt0071391 | Dark Places | Libby Day, the novel's narrator and protagonist, is the sole survivor of a massacre in Kinnakee, Kansas, a fictional rural town. After witnessing the murders of her two sisters and mother, in what appears to be a Satanic cult ritual, she escapes through a window and later testifies in court against her teenage brother.
Twenty-five years after the massacre, Libby, in need of money, meets with a group of amateur investigators who believe that her brother is innocent of the crime. At their coaxing, she meets her brother, Ben for the first time, but is not convinced that he didn't do it. She also meets with her father, now homeless, but is not convinced he played a part in it either. Through her investigation, she learns of her brother's secret girlfriend, as well as accusations against him for child molestation.
Interspersed with the modern day investigation are flashbacks to the day of the massacre. These flashbacks are told from the points of view of Libby's mother, Patty, and her convicted brother, Ben. Patty's viewpoints discuss the difficulties of trying to keep the family farm while raising four children alone; Ben tells the story of a troubled teenager as he falls in with a bad crowd. These viewpoints paint a picture of a grim life of desperate poverty, marital abuse and abandonment that characterize life on the farm prior to the murder. | paranormal, insanity, murder | train | wikipedia | "Dark Places" tells of a man who inherits a house that is reputed to contain a stash of money hidden somewhere by the original owner.
The new owner moves in, despite warnings from local people that the house is cursed, and enthusiastically begins hunting for the loot.
Unfortunately for him, there are other people trying to get to the cash before he does, but worse still, the house really is haunted."Dark Places" is a moderately successful film that does a good job of weaving a mystery with it's storyline.
The acting is also all pretty good, and with such star names as Christopher Lee and Joan Collins, it's amazing that this isn't one of the major British horror films of the 1970's, but once it gets going you'll soon realise that, as with a lot of other UK horror films of this period, the chances of something significantly exciting happening are pretty slim.What doesn't help is having the lead character played by Robert Hardy, who, while being an excellent actor and playing the character well, just does not have the "leading man" quality required to carry the entire focus of the film.
Joan Collinsd and Christopher Lee look great in their supporting roles, but then again, they always do.
What does work well is the way the film starts to move between present day and flashback as Hardy starts to uncover more of the truth about what went on in the house before it's original owner died, and what the truth is behind all the stories of murder.
The flashback scenes are great, and they reminded me the great things some 1970's films from the UK could do with a period setting.
Look out for a fantastic cameo from Jean Marsh as the wife in the flashbacks, although many men may be more entranced by the young Jane Birkin as the governess, even though she doesn't do very much.Sadly there's no real meat on this bony story, but it does have a couple of mildly grisly scenes and a kind of surprise ending, so it's fairly enjoyable..
Dark Places is not a very well known seventies British horror movie; probably owing to the fact that it's not a Hammer movie, but it features an interesting story and a great cast, and overall this is certainly a very decent little thriller!
The story has some fairly strong horror themes running throughout, but personally I wouldn't say this is a horror flick; Dark Places is a thriller, and the main focus is on the thing that makes the world go round - money, and a huge stash of it.
At the centre of the film is a spooky old house, once owned by a mental patient who died.
This is bad news for a few different people in the village - mostly notably scheming couple Dr Mandevile and Sarah.
The reason being that before he died, the owner of the house hid a huge sum of money somewhere within the walls and the pair have been on the trail of it ever since.
Not wanting to risk losing their cash, Sarah and the doctor hatch a plan to turn the situation to their advantage...The key thing about this film is the old house at the centre, and therefore the chilling atmosphere stemming from it.
Director Don Sharp has a history in horror, with a handful of films made for Hammer, as well as the excellent cult trash classic 'Psychomania' to his name, so it's quite unsurprising that this film has a horror atmosphere.
The plot is well done also, with many different characters having a stake in the money at the centre of the story, and thus ensuring that the film remains interesting and varied.
Dark Places features a very good cast, which makes it even more surprising that this film isn't better known.
The great Christopher Lee is the biggest standout in his role as the doctor with an ulterior motive, while Joan Collins gives good support and provides some nice eye candy as his accomplice.
The film also features performances from fellow British stars Robert Hardy and Herbert Lom, who also do well.
Overall, this might not be a masterpiece; but it's certainly a good film and comes recommended to fans of British horror!.
It surprised me, i didn't expected much from it, but it's very skillfully done, the way the flashbacks (or dimensional passages) start and stop are a masterwork.It's a sort of a cheesy film but somehow, at the same time, is an excellent piece of cinema.
Here's the scariest scene of all my investigation: the one where our hero is knocking on the house's walls to find the place where the money is hidden, as he is tortured by the children voices, and they go "no, no ,no, no , no..."You should see it if you didn't.
DARK PLACES (Don Sharp, 1974) **1/2.
This 'haunted house' movie is not very well-known (and, whenever mentioned, it is generally dismissed) despite the star cast and name director it attracted: both of these have ties to Hammer Horror (Don Sharp having helmed, among others, KISS OF THE VAMPIRE {1963}, and the former including Christopher Lee, Joan Collins, Herbert Lom and Robert Hardy) but the style is not necessarily reminiscent of their output (especially since the company never actually dabbled in this particular subgenre).Anyway, I quite liked the film if ultimately emerging as nothing special: that said, the plot does provide some novelty to the formula of ghosts haunting the current owner of some old mansion in order to expose some long-ago crime.
In fact, here we not only have the protagonist (played by Hardy, from Hammer's DEMONS OF THE MIND {1972}) being a dead-ringer for the man who previously lived there (though the probability of both being, concurrently, in the same mental asylum is very unlikely) and who gradually has his personality overtaken by him, but his actual goal in possessing the property concerned is to find the old man's fortune hidden behind one of the walls!
The handful of people who make it a point to befriend him (doctor Lee, his sister{!} Collins and solicitor Lom) all know about the money and are understandably miffed that the house was ultimately bequeathed by the dying former occupant (not played by Hardy in this guise!) to a casual acquaintance.
Collins, typically playing a man-eater, actually decides to seduce the stout Hardy (by first volunteering to clean up the place for him) in order to 'follow' the search for the loot first-hand – which displeases Lee, who constantly berates his sister for her loose morals (incidentally, he and Collins do not look favorably upon Lom either, whose interest in the 'financial' matter is more subtly deployed).Eventually, as already intimated, Hardy starts to re-live his predecessor's experiences within the household: it transpires that he was unhappily married, with a couple of apparently fiendish children in tow, but he finds solace in the arms of the latter's much-younger nanny (Jane Birkin).
This, of course, sends the poor man off the deep end and he takes to his family with a pick-axe, though none of the bodies were actually found.
Towards the end, as the modern-day Hardy identifies more and more with his 'doppelganger', he begins to see the obstacles to his contentedness everywhere so that, during a country stroll with Lee and Lom, he physically assaults (leaving his companions perplexed) a couple of children he takes for the ones tormenting his love Birkin!
Later still, when Collins turns up ostensibly to comfort him, he sees her in the image of the wife the previous owner loathed and strangles her to death – just then, Lee himself happens along and, rather bloodlessly, ends up on the wrong end of Hardy's pick-axe!
When Lom turns up there too and is about to meet the same fate, a couple of cops he had called arrive just in time to take the deranged Hardy away.
The double twist here involves Hardy being not an employer of the asylum as he had let on but really a patient, and that his attempts to unearth the cache' of money by tearing down the walls also reveals the resting-place of the former murdered victims.
Lom being responsible for the house offers to take charge of a couple of bags the cops come upon, conscious of course as to their actual contents, but the latter insist they be checked first and, once they are, these are naturally confiscated
so that, predictably, nobody gets anything after all!
For the record, this is the third and last film genre icons Lee and Lom appeared in together after the ludicrous 'female Tarzan' adventure THE FACE OF EVE (1968) and Jess Franco's interesting but unsatisfactory COUNT Dracula (1969)..
I have been looking a long time on the internet for this one and the only copy available is a DVD-r made of a video rip so I guess this is probably as good as it gets.
Wonderful Hammer-style gem, creepy deserted house, hidden money and a tragedy from long ago that lies hidden in the walls.
Robert Hardy (also active in similar flicks like Psychomania) lives up to his name of being an actor of versatility and depth.
As if Joan Collins as femme fatale (and Jane Birkin!) isn't enough to make this a top notch cast, Christopher Lee plays her untrustworthy brother.
I always love they way how Joan Collins manages to make being strangled look to sensual, it makes you think she has done it before - which she did in Tales From The Crypt but there it was Santa.
It would be great if this movie became more widely available on DVD in good quality..
This 1973 UK thriller sees Robert Hardy (who had previously starred in Hammer's "Demons of the Mind") play Edward Foster, the former Head of an Asylum who gets called to a patient's - Andrew Marr's - death bed, and ends up inheriting his house where a significant amount of money is hidden.
This prompts certain interested parties to become part of Foster's life, namely a scheming brother and sister and the estate's solicitor; however, the house's murderous past comes back to haunt them all....Despite some clichéd elements to the script (cynical townsfolk; noises reverberating around the house etc.) this is a film which clearly had a lot of potential on paper but it really doesn't get out of first gear until the last half hour when the central themes of the plot become clearer.
The interweaving of past and present with Hardy interchanging between both Foster (present) and Marr (from the past) in certain sequences is hardly seamless and is patchily handled.On reflection, the supporting cast don't really get that much to do considering that the 3 of them (played by Christopher Lee, Joan Collins and Herbert Lom) are all hell-bent on finding the money.
Lee in particular seems to be more of peripheral figure than you would have expected.Perhaps another thing to undermine it's psychologically thrilling aspirations is the script-writers' under-appreciation and under-usage of the story's more substantial "horror" or "thriller" elements occurring at night.
It clearly dilutes the central thrills of the film.Hardy does a decent job of portraying the gradual decline in sanity of his characterisation; and due to its little-known status this film might well be worth a look at, but to my mind, it could have been handled and executed a lot better..
Plot Summary : A former mental patient inherits the old house of a man who had killed his wife (Jean Marsh) and children and died nut .
As he (Robert Hardy) lives in the mansion , but the insane spirit (also Robert Hardy playing a double role) of its previous owner seems to overcome him with a need to repeat the murders .
Meanwhile, a scheming couple of brothers (Joan Collins , Christopher Lee) and the manor administrator (Herbert Lom) plot to rob a hidden cache of stolen money from its rightful owner .
The only problem is that the house they plan to hide it in is haunted .
There is more than death waiting for you in Dark Places.This is a thrilling film including horror elements taken from Edgar Allan Poe and with plenty of chills , familiar drama , suspense and grisly killings .
Filmed in low-budget though starred by an all-star-cast ; it's acceptable but no memorable picture and generally chilly clutch .
Director Don Sharp has got other horror films for which has achieved a certain cult following .
Good acting by Robert Hardy as a man who masquerading as a hospital administrator inherits a ruined mansion and nice support cast , such as Joan Collins as intriguing as well as seductive woman , Christopher Lee as astute brother ,he worked six times for director Don Sharp , Herbert Lom as a mean business attendant , Jane Marsh as wife and Jane Birkin as a young lover .
The motion picture was professionally adapted and directed by Don Sharp , though with no originality .
He became a filmmaker in the mid-1950s and turned out some low- and medium-budget musicals, such as the Tommy Steele vehicle ¨It's All Happening¨ (1963).
In the mid-1960s he was hired by horror specialist Hammer Films and turned out some well-received thrillers, including ¨Kiss of the vampire¨ (1963), his first for Hammer , this one along with ¨Witchcraft¨ and ¨Psychomania¨ are the best-regarded .
He worked on a few films as second-unit director, most notably ¨The Fast Lady¨(1962) and ¨Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris¨ (1965), before returning to directing again, and turned out a string of thrillers such as ¨Callan¨, ¨Hennessy¨, and his version of ¨The thirty nine steps¨ , although much inferior to Hitchcock ; in addition , horror films and comedies .
Ho Hum, A Haunted House...Right, Then.
Unmemorable by-the-numbers haunted house flick with a great cast (Joan Collins, Christopher Lee, Herbert Lom, Jean Marsh, Jane Birkin) and decent story that could and should have been better.
But unfortunately it is bogged down by its less than stellar direction, uncharismatic camera work and lame main actor Robert Hardy, who is about as interesting as a Saltine cracker...without the salt, of course.
Lee & Collins play an unscrupulous couple trying to manipulate their hands onto the money that is hidden somewhere inside of the Marr Estate mansion which has just been willed to Robert Foster (played by Hardy) by its original tenant Andrew Marr (also played by Hardy) whose family was killed inside of the house and now is haunting it.
Herbert Lom is the next door neighbor who is sort of helpful, but also wouldn't mind getting the cash into his pockets.
If you didn't know better, you'd think this was a made-for-TV film, virtually wasting its great locations by filming the goings on as you would a family reunion.
And again, there is too much Hardy and not enough Lee, Collins or Lom. But if you are a fan of haunted house films or British horror, there are certainly worse options out there.
This film is rather entertaining but the chills are pretty weak.
However, it has strong leads by Robert Hardy and Christopher Lee. I bought this video for five bucks at the Reject Shop, so what was I expecting?
A man searches for a hidden fortune in the house of a deceased maniac.
As he does so, images from the house's past begin to haunt him, and his own personality is slowly overshadowed by that of the former, homicidal occupant.
It is to the credit of Robert Hardy that he carries off the central role well (and, indeed, holds the film together) but indifferent direction ensures that the rest of a talented cast is largely wasted.
Still, worth seeing for the original story line..
(Small SPOILERS) It's such a shame that this film wasn't produced by the Hammer studios (or Amicus
or maybe Tigon), because if that were the case, it probably wouldn't be so underrated and overlooked as it is now.
Dark Places has suspense, a professional director, a great cast and especially a truly cool plot.
Asylum administrator Edward (Robert Hardy) 'inherits' the large mansion of a deceased patient.
The legend says he hid a fortune somewhere in the walls of this house but he also went mad there after the murder on his wife, his two children and the governess.
The town's doctor (Christopher Lee) and his ravishing sister (Joan Collins) constantly try to intrude the house and even the seemly honest notary (Herbert Lom) becomes greedy
but then, the house itself becomes the biggest threat.
As you can read, this film offers great excitement.
Asylums, treasure-hunting and haunted houses!
The tense climax is terrifically built up and the film features quite a lot gore considering the time it was shot.
'Dark Places' was directed by Don Sharp, who previously made the Hammer classic 'Rasputin: the Mad Monk' and several other great horror titles, such as 'Psychomania' (very underrated as well), 'The Brides of Fu Manchu' and 'Kiss of the Vampire'.
Robert Hardy plays an excellent double-role, while Lee and Lom look as ghoulish as ever.
The nearly perfect cast is completed by two stunningly beautiful actresses: Joan Collins and Jane Birkin.
In case you're a devoted Hammer fan, or just an admirer of ghostly 70's stories, Dark Places is the ideal film for you.
Despite a plot line that is not only obvious and predictable, but somewhat slow-moving and even worse - overburdened with dialogue and directed in a multitudes of TV-style close-ups by Don Sharp - this is a film that is still worth viewing.
And although he is not called upon to be outrageously villainous, audience favorite Christopher Lee has a fairly meaty role - of which, needless to say, he takes full advantage.
Also to be applauded are Robert Hardy, Herbert Rudley and most especially, Joan Collins! |
tt0387522 | Puff the Magic Dragon in the Land of the Living Lies | The film begins with Puff acting out the lies of a girl named Sandy, who has developed a persistent habit of making up absurd lies on most occasions, and shows how this has alienated most of her friends and leaving only her dog as a companion. Puff moves to intervene when she causes a household accident and falsely blames her innocent dog who is sent away as punishment.
The dragon meets Sandy and forcibly takes her to the Land of Living Lies, leaving her claiming that she preferred to be there anyway because her house is "broken." Once there, she encounters famous liars like The Boy who Cried Wolf, and Baron Munchausen and various representations of metaphors of imagination. Along the way, Puff explains to Sandy the difference between purposefully deceptive lies and the harmless description of figments of imagination.
Unfortunately, the impossibility of living in a such a world where nothing expressed can be believed is reinforced when Sandy is presented with strange laws about no eating the flowers or picking the apples; which are not around. She is then maneuvered by two talking rocks that each claim to be a flower and an apple, only for them to accuse her for breaking the laws, leading her to being arrested by Pinocchio. She is then subjected to a bizarre trial in the Caverns in the Living Lies by the denizens of the land, where she panics and falsely blaming Puff for her crime.
Afterward, she visits him as he sits chained, pleading for him to use his magic to send them back to the real world. Puff tells her that would be impossible unless she tells the truth, which causes the natives to growl in pain. Regardless of the situation, Sandy confesses that she can't truly go home, but can't bring herself to explain how her home is truly "broken." At Puff's urging, she confesses that she makes up her lies because she doesn't want to live with her perceived truth that she considers herself responsible for her parents' divorce. At that statement, the natives chortle with delight at what Puff explains is a self-deceptive lie and makes her realize that she had nothing to do with her parents' break-up and they still love her.
At this liberating truth, Puff and Sandy are freed, bring the walls of the cavern down with their celebratory song and return to the real world. At that, Puff prepares to leave, but not before suggesting to Sandy she can see him again in spirit by using her vibrant imagination in more productive ways like writing fiction. Sandy immediately takes that advice after reconciling with her parents and begins her first story, which Puff confidently notes is sure to be a classic. | fantasy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0168794 | The Five Senses | The Five Senses is about interconnected stories linked by a building which examine situations involving the five senses. Touch is represented by Ruth Seraph, a massage therapist who is treating Anna Miller. Ruth's daughter Rachel accidentally loses Anna's pre-school daughter, Amy Lee, in the park, when Rachel is distracted by the sight of a couple making love in the woods. Rachel meets a voyeur named Rupert (vision), and they become friends as fellow outsiders while he teaches her the pleasure of observing others. They eventually go to one of Rachel's hiding places, where she has him dress like a woman.
Meanwhile, Ruth tries to help Anna cope with the disappearance of Amy Lee and stays the night at her home. Robert, a professional housecleaner, has an acute sense of smell, and seeks out the people he used to see to absorb their scents and see if he can smell any feeling for him or why they stopped caring for him. His professional clients include his friends Raymond and Rebecca, who makes perfume. Robert's friend Rona, a cake maker, has lost her sense of taste, and has romantic problems after Roberto, whom she met on a vacation in Italy, arrives. Dr. Richard Jacob, an older optometrist, is losing his hearing and wants to remember all the sounds before he goes deaf. He had separated from his wife Sylvie, but later connects to a woman named Gail (Pascale Bussières) who helps him to cope and feel better about himself. In the end, Amy Lee is found, and Ruth and Rachel are reconciled. | romantic, home movie | train | wikipedia | This year, "The Five Senses" deserves equal success by being merely natural -being able to tell a human story intelligently.
The film is a collection of love vignettes with each character cleverly highlighting one of the human senses.
Writer and director Jeremy Podeswa has intertwined a human drama of finding a missing little girl with each player contributing an intriguing and equal share of the story, crisscrossing each other's lives in near perfect structure and execution.
Mary Louise Parker heads a powerful cast, each member with an absorbing tangent that you merrily want to follow: Robert (Daniel MacIvor) the gay house cleaner who pursues true love by trying to find that distinct scent, Rona (Parker) the hopelessly unlucky lover who only sees what she wants to see in a relationship, Roberto (Mario Leonardi) her amorous counterpart too wrapped up in Italian cuisine to understand American courtship, Richard (Philippe Volter) the French doctor so consumed with his ominous deafness until he is rescued by an unexpected consort, Ruth (Gabrielle Rose) the massage therapist who tries to consummate her love for her deceased husband every time she touches a client, and finally Rachel (Nadia Litz), a composite of all the senses, a young woman blinded by guilt both past and present and yet using her senses to strive for forgiveness.
Writer/director Jeremy Podeswa has fashioned a work of great poetic form and insight centered around a group of people who share the universal need to find true love and acceptance in a world where wounded and shattered relationships all too often result in magnified loneliness and despair.
Like all of us, each of these characters gropes towards the dual goals of intimacy with others and acceptance of oneself that are essential for human happiness.
Some succeed, while others fail just as in life but none of the characters is left unchanged by the experience.`The Five Senses,' though it has a plot, is more of an emotional mood piece than a narrative-driven drama.
In fact, one of the strongest themes running through the film is its examination of the part our senses play in defining our world and character.
The quiet, hushed tone, the muted autumnal colors, the slowly moving camera, the haunting musical score all combine to create an atmosphere in which the audience can become conscious of every sight and sound that comes our way.
In our effort to establish meaningful intimacy with other human beings, we most typically rely on the sense of touch yet, this can serve, Podeswa shows us, as much to trap us into a false intimacy as to lead us into one that is genuine and lasting.
One of the most moving moments in the film occurs when a gay man most probably an AIDS patient breaks down in tears during a massage session, his heart broken because no one has dared to touch him in so long a time.
In a similar way, the film explores the beauty of sound, as one of the characters ironically, an eye doctor, a man dedicated to preserving the organ of one sense faces the prospect of impending deafness and yearns to create a mental catalogue of all the exquisite sounds of everyday life that he will soon no longer be able to hear and that we so routinely take for granted.
Yet, like all the other characters, it is his spiritual emptiness and inability to make a meaningful connection with another human being that bring him his greatest obstacles to happiness.
Podeswa also examines the part smell plays in making that vital human connection, as one of the characters a lonely gay man revisits his former lovers to take a whiff of their scent in an effort to discover if he can smell `true love.'Yet `The Five Senses' is not merely a movie built on a clever `gimmick.' On the contrary, it breathes with the fullness of humanity because each of its many characters emerges as a fully developed, instantly recognizable human being.
There are mothers terrified of losing their children, in one case, literally, as her young girl wanders off and disappears and, in another case, figuratively, as her adolescent daughter seems to be slipping away into inexplicable `strangeness.' There are adults unable to comprehend a life filled with failed relationships who strike out in desperation for that one last opportunity for happiness, often with the result that they end up further away from that universally desired goal than ever.
One of the most daring aspects of `The Five Senses' is that it does not succumb to the temptation to provide either a `happy' ending or even a conclusive one for all of its characters.
The film acknowledges that life is a messy, never ending process of changing fortunes and personal growth and it stays true to that theme all the way to the end.This brave, haunting and mesmerizing film definitely stands as one of the true movie finds of recent years a true work of art!.
The promise Jeremy Podeswa gave with his first film "Eclipse" is really fulfilled now in his second "Five Senses".
Authentic atmosphere and the various aspects of a little bit neurotic life-feeling of metropolitain people is again in his new film.
Chosen as the film to start the Perspective Canada series for the 1999 Toronto Film Festival, "The Five Senses" explores numerous lives in turmoil that are also intertwined in many ways.Shot in Toronto, the story revolves around the disappearance of a little girl and how it affects the lives of those who knew her and those who feel responsible.
Scenes with Molly Parker and Mary Louise Parker are tightly edited and executed nicely, while some other scenes just seem to be drawn out a bit too much, the pace is a slow one, with numerous subplots that attempt to liven the drama.But for art's sake and support of Canadian filmmaking, I would prefer not to draw negative attention to this film.
The five senses is a truly lovely film.
It takes a look into the lives of several people, most of whom are somehow the embodiment of a sense.
Yet the fact that they are so involved in a particular sense prevents them from experiencing life fully.Sight is embodied in a young woman who bakes designer cakes.
Sight is also the sense of a young man who voyeuristically watches men hook up in a park, but doesn't himself experience physical fulfilment.Hearing is embodied in the bittersweet story of a doctor who is losing his hearing, and is concerned with hearing this favorite sounds one last time.
And finally, taste is embodied by the Italian lover of the cake baker who is constantly cooking, because it is his only real way of communicating with her.These people's lives occasionally intersect because they all live work, or otherwise have ties to the same building.
In the end, not all of the stories are resolved, which is actually good because it keeps us thinking and allows us to revisit the characters and imagine a number of plausible endings.The film has a beautifully austere formality about it.
We see very profound emotions before us, but experience them intellectually.I can see that this film is not for everyone, but is great for those interested in a well crafted, thought-provoking experience..
But it is beautiful to see a film which show so many senses only by showing five of them..
I kept thinking this character is this sense and this one is that sense which distracted me from the unfolding stories.
I think a more generic title like "Sense" would have been better.
The Five Senses does that, from the beginning to the end, in a way where you know leaving your seat will cause you to miss a vital part of the movie.
It's as simple as that and by not watching The Five Senses, you are missing out on a touching film..
And that is the quality that I found most appealing and more like real life.There are gentle stories here woven around the central premise of a young child's disappearance and the reaction to this event is seen as background in many of the scenes which is a technique very cleverly done.There is also the haunting singing of someone in an apartment in the building where all the interaction and often non-interaction of the other characters takes place.
I did not know what the earthy Roberto saw in her.I liked very much the character of Raymond searching for the scent of love in all his ex lovers.
I feel they are more reflective of reality, no Hollywood quick fix endings just a slice of life beautifully acted and photographed that just stays with you a little longer than the A-B plot lines of most movies.8 out of 10..
The beautiful subdued lighting and lovely slow music prepare you for a film closer in approach, sensibility and human interaction to European fare such as "Tous Les Matins du Monde".
"The Five Senses" does not miss this obvious dramatic opportunity, nor does it unduly harp on it.The predominant theme throughout the film is the difficulty of human communication and the essential loneliness of the individual.
Roger Ebert made a point once that you can always tell when you're watching a film made in Canada because they take their time telling the story.
Some quiet surprises are sprinkled throughout that make complete sense to the characters but perhaps not as well by the viewer.
Whenever you see Mary Louise Parker in any movie, you know you're in for something interesting.
"Five Senses" is a Robert Altman-like large ensemble meeting "All About My Mother."It has a didactic theme as there's an eye dr.
going deaf, a baker constructing tasteless, attractive looking cakes, a lover whose cooking tastes delicious but because of foreign language is perceived as not speaking at all, a cleaner whose job it is to eliminate odors seeking the smell of love, and no shortage of voyeurs of the 5 senses, including a massage therapist.And it all comes down to that in matters of the heart and intimacy you cannot trust your senses.
The loose ends are mostly tied up to some satisfaction, though not all happy endings.It was nice to pick out Canadian actors from various little movies and TV shows.
Makes you think about how much you actually need ALL your senses to live.
These are interconnected stories with the individual senses as the theme.
This movie's central idea feels more like a gimmick.
However there are some characters that feel like unwanted interruptions in the flow of the movie.
There were a couple of characters that were somewhat interesting, however, the storyline never delved deeper into their personalities the way I had hoped...and left them being empty shells of people with no real backgrounds or insights into what made them tick or why they were the way they were.
The ending was a HUGE disappointment with with one of the major characters...(I won't say who or how, so as not to ruin it for someone else who might be into this kind of film)...but I was left feeling like I totally wasted my time watching this movie!!
This film very accurately shows how people endure life's struggles.
`The five senses' is a very interesting movie from beginning to end; I like it since it shows the way people behave, communicate, and feel.
It's the true side of human nature, that's why I think it's worth watching.
We can see the way this represents the five senses of people.
The main character Rona (Mary Louise Parker) was utterly outstanding as well as the Italian man Roberto.
I liked Mary Louise Parker's performance in `the portrait of a lady', so I think she was appropriate to play the friendly and strange Rona.
The supporting actors also carried out their roles admirably.This movie shows us the way those complicated characters are involved in their senses.
We see the 5 senses in this movie.
The sense of hearing is personified by a doctor, who is getting deaf and wants to hear his favorite sounds one last time.
Finally the Italian man carries out the sense of taste, since he cooks and always tastes his food.This is a pretty interesting movie, because it could cause many interesting discussions; since many people have different views, everybody is capable of seeing the five senses in a different way.
This is an original and interesting film, which shows us the human perceptions.
I myself am a countertenor like Daniel Taylor, and I know that my sense of hearing is very important for me!Likewise, I want to say *BRAVO* for the inclusion of Daniel Taylor in the film!
--Only the movie Farinelli features one (though, playing a castrato!) I think that film is a great way to open the public to this new (though very old!) way of sining.Perhaps the goal of this film, and the reason why it is so good, is the challenge to thye audience to look at what they value, and insert with that philosophic questiing, new horizions on every front.~Carson.
Finally, the (subject of)five senses were nicely interwoven throughout the films -- nothing too heavy-handed.
I just don't understand why people like this film.
It sounded wonderful: An exploration of the five senses through the lives of five people that interconnect.
Well done, and the acting was fantastic :) It's a very interesting movie and well worth your time if you have nothing else to do on a Saturday morning, he-he!!
There is a massage therapist who cannot touch her daughter, an eye doctor who is going deaf, a prostitute with a deaf daughter, a baker with little sense of taste whose boyfriend cannot talk English, a gay man who is obsessed with odours and who believes that he can smell love.
After just viewing this film, I found myself appreciative of the attempt, but the sad fact remains: the film leaves you with so many loose ends, you have to wonder why Jeremy Podeswa started so many plot lines to begin with.
Most of the characters in the film end up in the same place they were where they began, but with not a gain in wisdom or understanding.
Numerous characters searching for intimacy and human connections.
It feels like a film made by aliens who've been observing human emotions but have never experienced them first hand.
Still, it has a good cast and a well structured story that doesn't tie all the loose ends up too tightly..
This film even has an event, which has been done over and over in film but, just because you are not attached to a plot it seems like the most original event in the movie.
Our sense, specially sight and sound are over stimulated by this beautiful movie.
An enjoyable quiet movie that examines people's perceptions of the world
An enjoyable quiet movie that examines people's perceptions of the world
kept thinking this character is this sense and this one is that sense which
It's much like it tries too hard, too hard to wanted to fall in 5 senses in order to speak the film's name.
anyway, I love art films like life, this one, really is a well intentions and ideas but so poor in flavor and style..
This is one of those films that must have looked very good in concept but fails in execution.
I saw this movie five times and for those among you who missed it, be sure you can get your hands on a video or dvd.It will stimulate al least three of your five senses....
So, why not make a movie about five people each having an issue with one of the senses?
Getting goose bumps yet?Such is the shallow nature of "Five Senses", another in a fad of boring "Magnolia" type wannabee flicks which doggedly hammers at its story of loosely interconnected characters in a futile attempt to make it fit its lame premise.
Plot a bit too constructed, gives a feeling of watching a French movie where everything has a message or meaning which, if you don't understand, you're stupid.
Each character is dedicated to one and they present it under a magnifier which could make you see these senses from a different angle.Acting above average and screen composition pretty nice..
Visually rich, somewhat slow paced, and hung together by varied amounts and quality of connection between the characters and a slight plot, the film manages to hold audience attention and intrigues the viewer.
Many fascinating new faces to watch, moderate amount of tension, excellent acting, and an interesting-enough story line make this Canadian film worth seeing..
This is not a complicated movie, its a film about love, trust, desires, lost, suffering, in other words, of every day contemporary life.It so easy to watch that you feel part of the film because you can easily relate to one or more of the characters which go from a "freak" teen girl to a mature homosexual.Jeremy Podeswa made a beautiful film about life that makes you think about your own life and how are you living it.
Of course, they create the atmosphere so good, together with the story and the characters.
we can see 5 different story's in the film, which connected by technical things (live in the same building, work together or for each other) and the fact that they're all telling us story's about- family relationships, love, and craving for warmness.
Films like these are in vogue - a well thought out plot involving an interesting cast of characters that are connected in some way.
But the film is not really in need of anything like that and in no way does it fall short of maintaining viewer amusement.Well acted, well scripted and well shot.
Now, an interesting question is how many people think that Egoyan is just about the lives of the characters, that it is constrained to the story? |
tt0073092 | Hard Times | The novel follows a classical tripartite structure, and the titles of each book are related to Galatians 6:7, "For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Book I is entitled "Sowing", Book II is entitled "Reaping", and the third is "Garnering."
=== Book I: Sowing ===
Superintendent Mr. Gradgrind opens the novel at his school in Coketown stating, "Now, what I want is, Facts", and interrogates one of his pupils, Sissy, whose father works at a circus. Because her father works with horses, Gradgrind demands the definition of 'horse'. When she is scolded for her inability to factually define a horse, her classmate Bitzer gives a zoological profile; and Sissy is censured for suggesting that she would carpet a floor with pictures of flowers.
Louisa and Thomas, two of Mr. Gradgrind's children, go after school to see the touring circus run by Mr. Sleary, only to meet their father, who orders them home. Mr. Gradgrind has three younger children: Adam Smith, (after the famous theorist of laissez-faire policy), Malthus (after Rev. Thomas Malthus, who wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population, warning of the dangers of future overpopulation), and Jane.
Josiah Bounderby, "a man perfectly devoid of sentiment", is revealed as Gradgrind's close friend. Bounderby is a manufacturer and mill owner who is affluent as a result of his enterprise and capital. He often gives dramatic and falsified accounts of his childhood, which terrify Mr. Gradgrind's wife.
As they consider her a bad influence on the other children, Gradgrind and Bounderby dismiss Sissy from the school; but the three soon discover her father has abandoned her thereto, in hope that she will lead a better life without him. At this point members of the circus appear, led by their manager, Mr. Sleary. Mr. Gradgrind gives Sissy a choice: to return to the circus and forfeit her education, or to continue her education and work for Mrs. Gradgrind, never returning to the circus. Sissy accepts the latter, hoping to be reunited with her father. At the Gradgrind house, Tom and Louisa are discontented by their education.
Amongst the mill workers, known as "hands", is a "man of perfect integrity" named Stephen Blackpool, called "Old Stephen": another of the story's protagonists. When introduced, he has ended his day's work and meets his close friend Rachael. On entering his house he finds that his drunken wife, who has been living apart from him, has made an unwelcome return. Stephen is greatly perturbed, and visits Bounderby to ask how he can legally end his marriage. Mrs. Sparsit, Mr. Bounderby's paid companion, disapproves of Stephen's query and Bounderby explains that ending a marriage would be complex and prohibitively costly. Leaving the house, Stephen meets an old woman who seems interested in Bounderby and says she visits Coketown once a year.
Gradgrind tells Louisa that Josiah Bounderby, 30 years her senior, has proposed marriage to her, and quotes statistics to prove that an age difference does not make a marriage unhappy or short. Louisa passively accepts the offer, and the newlyweds set out to Lyons (Lyon), where Bounderby wants to observe how labour is used in the factories there. Tom, her brother, elatedly bids her farewell.
=== Book 2: Reaping ===
Book Two opens on Bounderby's new bank in Coketown, over which the "light porter", Sissy's old classmate Bitzer, and the austere Mrs. Sparsit keep watch at night. A well-dressed gentleman asks for directions to Bounderby's house, as Gradgrind has sent him from London with a letter of introduction. It is James Harthouse, who has tried several occupations and been bored by all of them.
Harthouse is introduced to Bounderby, who regales him with improbable stories of his childhood. Harthouse is utterly bored by him, but enamoured of the now melancholy Louisa. Louisa's brother Tom works for Bounderby, and has become reckless and wayward in his conduct. Tom admires Harthouse, who holds him in some contempt, and Tom discloses contempt for Bounderby in the presence of Harthouse, who notes Louisa's affection for Tom and later learns that Tom has money problems - and that Tom persuaded Louisa to marry Bounderby to make his own life easier.
At a crowded union meeting, the agitator Slackridge accuses Stephen Blackpool of treachery because he will not join the union, and Stephen learns he is to be 'sent to Coventry' - shunned by all his fellow workers. Summoned by Bounderby, he is asked what the men are complaining of; and when Stephen tries to explain, Bounderby accuses Stephen of being a troublemaker and sacks him. Later Louisa and Tom visit Stephen, expressing regret, and Louisa gives him some money. Privately, Tom tells him to wait outside the bank after work.
When a robbery takes place at the bank, Stephen is suspected of the crime. Mrs. Sparsit observes the advancing relationship between James Harthouse and Louisa and suspects an adulterous liaison. Unable to hear their dialogue, she assumes the affair is progressing. When Harthouse confesses his love for Louisa, Louisa refuses him. They leave separately and Mrs. Sparsit follows Louisa to the station, where Louisa boards a train to her father's house and Mrs Sparsit loses her. When Louisa arrives, she is in an extreme state of distress. Having argued that her rigorous education has stifled her ability to express her emotions, Louisa collapses at her father's feet in a dead faint.
=== Book 3: Garnering ===
At Bounderby's London hotel Mrs. Sparsit gives him the news her surveillance has brought. Bounderby takes her back to Coketown and to Stone Lodge, where Louisa is resting. Gradgrind tells Bounderby that Louisa resisted Harthouse's advances but has experienced a crisis and needs time to recover. Bounderby is immensely indignant and ill-mannered, especially towards Mrs. Sparsit for misleading him. Ignoring Gradgrind's pleas, he announces that unless Louisa returns to him the next day, the marriage will terminate. She does not come back.
Harthouse leaves Coketown after Sissy tells him never to return. Rachael goes to the bank to say she knows where Stephen Blackpool is (he has left town to seek work elsewhere) and that she will write asking him to return to Coketown to clear his name. Bounderby is suspicious when she tells him Stephen was visited by Louisa and Tom the night he was dismissed, and brings her to Gradgrind's house where Louisa confirms Rachael's account.
With information from Rachael, Mrs. Sparsit tracks down Mrs. Pegler, the old woman who makes a mysterious annual visit to see Bounderby's house, and brings her to the house where she is revealed as Bounderby's mother. Far from having abandoned him to a life of hardship, she gave him a good upbringing and, when he became successful, allowed herself to be persuaded never to visit him. Bounderby is now publicly exposed as a ridiculous "Humbug".
On a Sunday outing, Rachael and Sissy find Stephen, who has fallen down an abandoned pit shaft while walking back to Coketown. He is rescued by villagers; but after professing his innocence and speaking to Rachael for the last time, he dies. Louisa and Sissy now suspect that Tom has committed the bank robbery, and told Stephen to loiter outside the bank in order to incriminate him. Sissy has already helped Tom escape by sending him to join Mr. Sleary's circus. Louisa and Sissy find Tom there, disguised in blackface. Gradgrind arrives and a plan is hatched with Sleary's co-operation to get Tom to Liverpool where he can escape abroad. The plan is temporarily foiled by the arrival of Bitzer, who hopes to obtain promotion from Bounderby by bringing Tom to justice; but Sleary arranges an ambush and Tom is taken to Liverpool where he boards ship.
Bounderby punishes Mrs Sparsit for his humiliation by turning her out. Five years later (says the narration), he will die of a fit in the street, while Mr. Gradgrind, having abandoned his Utilitarian ideas, will suffer the contempt of his fellow M.P.s. Tom will die in the Americas, having expressed penitence in a half-written letter to Louisa. Louisa herself will grow old and never remarries. Rachael will continue her life of honest hard work. Louisa, showing kindness to the less fortunate and being loved by Sissy's children, will spend her life encouraging imagination and fancy in all she encounters. | violence, depressing | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0011647 | The Round-Up | Following the quelling of Lajos Kossuth's 1848 revolution against Habsburg rule in Hungary, prison camps were set up for people suspected of being Kossuth's supporters. Around 20 years later, some members of highwayman Sándor Rózsa's guerrilla band, believed to be some of Kossuth's last supporters, are known to be interned among the prisoners in a camp. The prison staff try to identify the rebels and find out if Sándor is among them using various means of mental and physical torture and trickery. When one of the guerrillas, János Gajdar, is identified as a murderer by an old woman, he starts aiding his captors by acting as an informant. Gajdar is told that if he can show his captors a man who has killed more people than himself, he will be spared. Fearing for his life, he turns in several people his captors had been looking for by name, but could not identify among the prisoners.
Eventually Gajdar becomes an outcast among the prisoners, and is murdered at night by some of his fellow inmates while in solitary confinement. The prison guards easily discover suspects, people whose cells had been left unlocked for the night, and start interrogating them with hope of finding Sándor himself. The suspects are tricked into revealing the remaining guerrillas when they are given a chance to form a new military unit out of former bandits and informed that Sándor, who was not among the prisoners, has been pardoned. However, the celebrating guerrillas are then told that those who previously fought under him, will still face execution. | murder | train | wikipedia | Moving Into Features. So Joe Schenck cut a great deal with Paramount to get Arbuckle into features. And as long as they were paying him an amazing sum of money, they gave him a role in this western until they could get a comedy vehicle ready for him. Paramount got its money's worth out of its stars by putting them in a LOT of movies.Roscoe is pretty good in a largely straight role here. It's a supporting role in the midst of eight or nine major plots, but built up a bit because Arbuckle is the biggest star here. He gets to do his signature cigarette-rolling gag. If you've never seen it, look for it.But what makes this movie a joy is that director George Melford was a great stylist and knew where to tell his cameramen to point the camera: keep the mountains in the picture, that's an amazing bunch of rocks, and so on. And, frankly, the print I saw, from the Library of Congress, is a wonderful print: plenty of silver in the print, no scratches and just enough granularity to make the stars shimmer. It's the most beautiful black-and-white print I've seen in at least 15 years. If you get a chance to see it, take it. When someone says "they don't make 'em like that anymore" sometimes they're referring to the actual piece of film.. Surprising Arbuckle? Surprisingly good!. As I have said often before, anyone who is a good cowboy is at the top of the movie profession. And Roscoe Arbuckle was a very good cowboy. Even if he was a sheriff, not a cowboy.He knew how to mount his horse and seemed to be a good rider.In fact, his acting was much better than would be expected by someone who knew only his knock-about and frequently hokey and silly comedies.(When TCM presented "The Round-Up" on 18 October 2015, it was followed immediately by another example of good acting in "Life of the Party," a probably unfortunate title considering his acting career was ended by an incident at a party in his hotel room in San Francisco shortly afterward.) All the actors, most of whom today are unknown, were excellent, and the directing included some great moving camera work."The Round-Up" is a wonderful surprise because Arbuckle, known entirely for comedy, played a (granted mild) dramatic role, but he pulled it off and reportedly audiences bought tickets.So, it's a western and I'd buy a ticket, but it's such a good role for and by Roscoe Arbuckle I'd buy another ticket to see it again. And I highly recommend "The Round-Up" both for what it is, a very well-done movie, and for what most people wouldn't expect, a very good (sort of) dramatic performance by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.. Roscoe plays it straight, impressively.. After starring in a very successful and popular series of short comedies released by Paramount, 'The Round-Up' was Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle's first feature film. And it's a surprising choice ... because 'The Round-Up' is a straightforward Western, not a comedy. Arbuckle supplies a small amount of comedy relief -- he falls off a horse, and does his rolling-papers gag -- and Buster Keaton (unbilled) does one spectacular pratfall that's more astonishing than funny ... and that's it. This film is not a comedy; it's unlike anything Arbuckle had done previously, although he still retains his "Fatty" sobriquet in the opening credits.Paramount's decision to cast Roscoe Arbuckle in this vehicle may have been influenced by the fact that 'The Round-Up' had formerly been a popular stage play, starring the actor Maclyn Arbuckle ... no relation to Roscoe.I was horrified to discover that the title of this film refers to human beings. The critters being "rounded up" are Red Indians: 'renegades' who were supposed to get off this particular parcel of Arizona land because white men want it. Buck McKee (Wallace Beery) is scorned as a 'half-breed' -- half white, half Red Indian -- and everyone assumes that he's just automatically no good. As played brilliantly by Beery (surprisingly slim and virile at this point), McKee is indeed a rotten piece of work, guilty of murder and grand larceny ... but perhaps he turned evil because everyone treated him that way to begin with.I have a very low threshold for Westerns: I tend to enjoy the epics such as 'High Noon' but I tend to dislike the routine oaters. Matters are not helped in 'The Round-Up' by its dialogue: everyone speaks (in the intertitles) in that horrible cowpoke dialect, with generic situations expressed in cowhand metaphors. Two characters who want to marry are "aimin' to get hitched". Another character notes: "I'm powerful hungry. Can you rustle me some grub?" And nobody can just do something: they have to "reckon" they'll do it. The narrative intertitles are nearly as bad as the dialogue intertitles, with lots of sub-Zane Grey purple sage.Arbuckle, to his credit, gives a strong dramatic performance in the lead role. He's the sheriff, and because of his girth the local varmints regard him as a joke. Even his name suggests a punchline: Arbuckle's character is cried William Henry Harrison Hoover, nicknamed 'Slim'. And yet Slim Hoover repeatedly demonstrates that he can out-bluff, out-fight and out-shoot anyone who makes trouble. Arbuckle is absolutely and stunningly believable in this straight hero role.The real problem here is the script. There are something like eight different subplots, most of which are deeply uninteresting. For a Western, this movie has very little roping or riding or shooting. This film offers many spectacular desert vistas, but I suspect that some of these were glass shots or mattes rather than actual tableaux. Some of the landscapes in 'The Round-Up' resemble Monument Valley.Arbuckle brings a great deal of pathos to his character. Time and again, Slim Hoover has fallen in love with some woman who has moved into his frontier settlement, only to see some other man win her affection. The movie ends with massive Arbuckle heaving a massive sigh as he turns his back to the camera and comments rhetorically: 'Aw, what's the use. Nobody loves a fat man.''The Round-Up' was in release in 1921 when the scandal broke that destroyed Arbuckle's career, amid false rumours that he had raped an actress and caused her death. During a screening of 'The Round-Up' at the Maverick Theatre in Thermopollis, Wyoming, cowboys arrived on horseback and shot up the screen, declaring that Arbuckle wasn't "fittin'" to be allowed near American womanhood. They then seized the film from the production booth and burnt it in the street! This incident turned out to be a stunt cooked up by that cinema's manager, but the damage was done. Public opinion swiftly turned against Arbuckle. Nobody loves a fat man, indeed.I'll rate 'The Round-Up' 6 out of 10. I'm tempted to rate it higher, but that's probably just a pity vote for what happened to Arbuckle afterward.. Good western, bad comedy.. I just finished watching "The Round-Up" and I must say this film really surprised me. As it was Fatty Arbuckle's first full-length movie, I expected that it would star him and it would be a comedy. Neither was the case!The film is set in the American west...in Arizona. Arbuckle plays the sheriff, Slim, but as I said, he's not the main character. The main story is about Dick and his friend, Jack. Dick is in the desert when he's attacked by renegade Indians led by Buck (Wallace Beery). They torture Dick to try to get information out of him but fortunately Dick is saved by the Mexican army. For months, Dick is convalescing, as he was on the brink of death. In the meantime, Jack and others from the town go looking for Dick and he's assumed to be dead. During this time, Jack falls in love with Dick's fiancé and they plan to marry.Shortly before the wedding, Jack receives a letter from Dick. Selfishly, Jack destroys the letter. Later, on the day of the wedding, Dick arrives in town--only to find his girl is about to marry! He gives Jack the $3000 he owes him and leaves...vowing never to return. However, when the baddie Buck robs the express office and kills the guy working there, suspicion turns towards Jack. After all, where did he just get all that money? Slim and the posse go looking for Jack. What's next? See the film and find out yourself.As a western, this is actually darned good for the time. The story is complicated but very interesting...as well as unique. And, the cinematography is exceptional--with a gorgeous setting. So, if you JUST go into the film looking for a nice western, it's a good bet. Arbuckle isn't bad in the film...but his part is clearly NOT comedic. And, the final line of the film will rip your guts out!! |
tt0078902 | Breaking Away | Dave, Mike, Cyril, and Moocher are working-class friends living in the college town of Bloomington, Indiana. Now turning 19, they all graduated from high school the year before and are not sure what to do with their lives. They spend much of their time together swimming in an old abandoned water-filled quarry, but also often clash with the more affluent Indiana University students in their hometown, who habitually refer to them as "cutters", a derogatory term for locals stemming from the local Indiana Limestone industry and the stonecutters who worked the quarries.
Dave is obsessed with competitive bicycle racing, and Italian racers in particular, because he recently won a Masi bicycle. His down-to-earth father Ray, a former stonecutter who now operates his own used car business (sometimes unethically), is puzzled and exasperated by his son's love of Italian music and culture, which Dave associates with cycling. However, his mother Evelyn is more understanding.
Dave develops a crush on a university student named Katherine and masquerades as an Italian exchange student in order to romance her. One evening, he serenades "Katerina" outside her sorority house (Friedrich von Flotow's aria "M' Apparì Tutt' Amor"), with Cyril providing guitar accompaniment. When her boyfriend Rod finds out, he and some of his fraternity brothers beat Cyril up, mistaking him for Dave. Though Cyril wants no trouble, Mike insists on tracking down Rod and starting a brawl. The university president (real-life then President Dr. John W. Ryan) reprimands the students for their arrogance toward the "cutters" and, over their objections, invites the latter to participate in the annual Indiana University Little 500 race.
When a professional Italian cycling team comes to town for a race, Dave is thrilled to be competing with them. However, the Italians become irked when Dave is able to keep up with them. One of them jams a tire pump in Dave's wheel, causing him to crash, which leaves him disillusioned and depressed upon realizing that the reason the Italians were winning races was because they were cheating. He subsequently confesses his deception to Katherine, who tearfully slaps him before storming off.
Dave's friends persuade him to join them in forming a cycling team for the Little 500. Dave's parents provide T-shirts with the name "Cutters" on them. Ray privately tells his son how, when he was a young stonecutter, he was proud to help provide the material to construct the university, yet he never felt comfortable on campus. Later, Dave runs into Katherine, who's going to be leaving for a job in Chicago; they patch things up, and she wishes him luck in the race.
Dave is so much better than the other competitors in the Little 500 that while the college teams switch cyclists every few laps, he rides without a break and builds up a sizable lead. However, he is injured in a crash and has to stop. After some hesitation, Moocher, Cyril, and Mike take turns pedaling, but soon the Cutters' lead vanishes. Finally Dave has them tape his feet to the pedals and starts to make up lost ground; he overtakes Rod, the current rider for the favored fraternity team, on the last lap and wins for the jubilant Cutters.
Ray is proud of his son's accomplishment and takes to riding a bicycle himself. Dave later enrolls at the university, where he meets a pretty French student. Soon, he is extolling to her the virtues of the Tour de France and French cyclists. | inspiring, prank | train | wikipedia | My wild enthusiasm after leaving the theatre was similar at the time to my previous reaction to 'Star Wars', a fact that I attribute to the natural electrical charge of the endings of both films.Of course, a nine-year-old lacks the world experience to empirically understand the central messages of this film, and at the time my primary devotion to it was centered around Dave Stoller's orange Masi racing bike, a thing that I coveted with the passions of a kid on Christmas Eve. The movie made me mad with bicycle lust, and I frowned on every Huffy I saw at school.
Ultimately, I was propelled into the worship of Eddy Merckx while all my classmates were digging into their Terry Bradshaw Topps cards, unaware - as I'm positive they still are - of who the hell Eddy Merckx even is.BUT...'Breaking Away' is not just a bicycle film - not by a long-shot, and I knew it then too, but that just wasn't very important to me at a time when bicycles were all-important.Despite my youthful energies, I never did pursue bicycle racing,(although I am definitely a touring enthusiast whose passion for Italian-made bicycles has finally seen fruition) but 'Breaking Away' never left me.
In short, this film explores many strands: the aimlessness of youth colliding with the responsibilities of adulthood; the often heartbreaking romantic fantasies of people who wish they could be something else; lying and cheating and the false nature of gains made through them; the importance of strong family relations and friendships; and life in small-town America - and it does all this with extraordinary craft, honesty and sensitivity.
The rest of the cast was likewise fine, each actor doing the best they could with what were sometimes stock roles (the college kids, for example, including Robyn Douglas, the female romantic role)The direction, story and, most especially, the dialogue were great as well.I also picked up a love of Mendelssohn and Rossini when I was just a kid after seeing this - the film score was superb, all the while taking the Stanley Kubrick/Woody Allen approach by choosing some choice compositions of a time long past, rather than belabor the audience with the refried horrors so typical of modern film-score composition.I hope this movie doesn't become a relic - it seems its own sleeper status has kept it shelved over the years.
It is the story of four young men in their late teens, who are staring adulthood in the face after a year of leisure in the "small town" of Bloomington, Indiana, and how they deal with watching successful college kids pass them by.
There is no movie that captures this time, the transition from teenager to adulthood, quite as well as Peter Yates' superb film Breaking Away.The story takes place in Bloomington, Indiana, (home to Indiana University) one of the bigger college towns in America.
It concerns the rivalry between the rich, snobbish college kids and the local townies (called cutters because there fathers cut limestone in the local quarries to build the college, among other things.) The cutters are played superbly by Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and Jackie Earle Haley.
The romance seems to be going somewhere, and Dave feels he's finally breaking away.While Dave is conducting his fraudulent personal life he also has an opportunity to race with the Italian bike racers he had worshiped from afar.
Dave will never be a "cutter", he says, meaning a man of accomplishment, unless he finds something equally real to do with his own life.The Indiana Little 500 is a bike race the university holds that is taken very seriously by the groups that participate.
"Breaking Away" is the story of kids who had let their own self-image degrade to the point that a fantasy world, and a life of bitter resentment, seemed like their best option..
He even pretends to be an Italian exchange student in order to impress a pretty sorority girl named Katherine, whom he calls Caterina and feels would otherwise be beyond his reach.Dave makes an appealing hero, wonderfully portrayed by Dennis Christopher, vulnerable but with an amazing joie de vivre.
I was also bowled over by his endearing enthusiasm when he discovers "The Italians are coming!", that his racing heroes will soon be arriving in his hometown of Bloomington, Indiana where the entire tale is set, culminating in the Indiana Little 500 cycling race.Dave is a kid who doesn't think he is good enough for college, lives in a fantasy world of Italian cycling, and wants to break away from his own aimless, mundane life.
This is a typical coming of age movie in that he learns a lot about himself and the realities of life, especially from the behaviour of his heroes, the Cinzano racing team.
Through competing against the college crowd in the Little 500, they learn lessons in self esteem and team spirit, believing in yourself and striving toward reachable goals.Breaking Away is a movie with obvious social class themes.
Both the marital relationship between Dave's parents and the bond between father and son are captured with poignancy as well as humour.When I first saw this movie after its original release, the thing that remained with me besides the charming joie de vivre of its hero was the wonderful Italian music, from Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony and a Rossini opera.
If there was one film I've been dying to watch for many years, it is the fifth Best Picture nominee of 1979, the 8th most inspiring American movie from AFI's Top 100, the 8th sports movie from AFI's Top 10, the gem that has been impossible to find in my usual DVD stores: "Breaking Away".
The first of the many satisfactions the film provided me was the magical moment where I finally found it
and God, I wasn't disappointed."Breaking Away" opens in a small town of Indiana, with four friends and as many personalities to identify with.
The portrayal of Dave's parents is far from the stereotypical detachment, the mother (Oscar-nominated Barbara Barries) cares too much while the father believes a 19-year old shaving his legs, listening to opera must have some serious issues
While watching Dooley, I kept wondering what happened to his Oscar nomination, he's hilarious to a Walter Matthau-level.The story goes on, Moocher gets a job but finally leaves it after one 'shorty' too many, Mike keeps clashing and competing with the rich college boys who call him 'cutter', a reference to the working-class that built the college and Cyril is the eternal victim of his helpful nature.
And while I loved watching Dave's adventure, I kept wondering what exactly made "Breaking Away" in the AFI's Top 100, let alone Top 10 most inspiring films
was Dave going to win over the Italians?
That's the kind of stuff great stories are made on, and it earned "Breaking Away" a well-deserved award for Best Original Screenplay.As a screenwriter myself, I was fascinated by the film's narrative and the way it rode back and forth from comedy to poignant drama, as a screenwriter it reminded me how happy I was to work with an author, putting all my sweat and blood into a six-month promising project before he would dismiss me after receiving the first draft.
Dennis Christopher (It's My Party, The Profiler (Jack)) plays Dave, who likes to pretend to be Italian, calls his mother Barbara Barrie ("Suddenly Susan") "mama", and his dad "papa", shaves his legs because bicyclists in Italy are supposed to do that, and his friend Mike says: "weird country, the men shave their legs but the women don't".
Give credit to writer Steve Tesich whose script takes viewers on a humorous and believable adventure in this wonderful small-budget movie.Add in three friends who just graduated from high school, and this story is a fascinating jaunt with coming of age.
Each of the supporting actors does a great job in helping to convey the story, but you can really see Daniel Stern's strength in comic acting in his first major movie role.The sports rivalry is actually established by the city kids called Cutters, competing for dates against the college male students.
The story of four high school graduates, devoted friends who reinforce each others' self-doubt while dealing with the presence in town of a major university (which serves to remind them of their lack of motivation), makes for a very touching movie.
Even if a person sees himself more in the college students, pursuing professional endeavors as they enjoy the first experiences of independence from parents, s/he would have to possess a very limited capacity for empathy not to feel affected by the fears and regrets of the four boys whose working class heritage has conditioned them to feel unworthy of attending college.Breaking Away will probably move too slowly for some, who may expect to see fast-paced and high-risk bicycling from the start.
For the person who enjoys feeling his interest and tension build as situations and relationships between characters develop, however, Breaking Away will not bore him.Besides the stigma felt by the four friends for having fathers who spent much of their working lives cutting stones at the town's rock quarry, predestining the boys to underachieve, each contends with his own personal struggle.
I saw this film in 1979 with my three best friends from high school, probably right after we went swimming at the quarry and before cruising Marymount College for girls and getting into fights with their West Point boyfriends.
Though it was a virtual reproduction of our lives, we were serious movie buffs and were able to distance ourselves and give it an objective review: a damn fine "coming of age" film with a smart script and solid acting all around.As I watched it again recently, I noticed more funny bits than I had previously, especially in the scene when Dave's parents get romantic: she plucks the flower from her hair as she drops into bed, and he sheds his pocket protector full of pens...
I also appreciated more the nuances of the relationship between Dave and his dad, and the scene with them after Dave's race with the Italian team wasn't as mushy this time around.Not quite an 8 out of 10, but I think the current 7.6 rating is well-deserved, and would have given it a 7.5 myself if I could have.Whether still young or now old, many small-town and college-town guys who grew up with a tight circle of best friends will relate to this movie, but it's not so much a "guy-flick" that their girlfriends and wives won't enjoy a look into the lives and emotions of young men that women rarely see..
The movie has a lot of heart, the friendship between the guys is portrayed with realism, and the relationship of the main character of Dave Stoller, an amateur bicycle racer and dreamer, with his parents, is something special.
Breaking away is an inspirational sports film, but also a coming of age story or four young men trying to find their way in life.
The friends have graduated high school but are unsure of what to do when considering college, jobs, parental expectations, social pressures, and being looked down upon for being "cutters." The plot mainly focuses on Dave who is obsessed with cycling and everything Italian.
This movie is about growing up, about class divisions between the college-educated and the blue-collar (Bloomington is the home of Indiana University, which plays a big role in the film), and about coming to grips with who you are and what's important in life.
To compete as a cyclist is his ambition;and when the opportunity for a local off campus team of local boys is allowed to enter the Big Annual 4 Man Cycle Team relay, Sponsored by and held on the Campus of Indiana University.Dave enlists his 3 buddies in a Local "Cutters"Team.("Cutters" being a derogatory term for the locals used by some of the University Crowd, the snobbish ones.) So he is joined by Former High School Jock Mike(Dennis Quaid), Future College Boy Cyril(Daniel Stern) and Newlywed Moocher(Jackie Earle Haley).
The one thing that keeps them together is their competition with the towns college kids, and Daves'(Dennis Christopher) obsession with bicycling.Eventually a bicycle race gives the group a chance to prove their worth.The sub-plot involving Daves father is unusual.Raymond Stoller(Paul Dooley) is having doubts about his own life as his son struggles to find his way."Breaking Away" is an excellent movie about growing up, without the mindless sex and profanity that saturates most movies directed at young people..
It has held surprisingly well, which I cannot say about many of the movies from my youth.The writing & story are top notch, the acting, especially by Paul Dooley and Barbara Barrie, are on the mark.I won't recount the plot, but, in a nutshell, this is a movie about choices and sticking to what you believe, and in the end, the consequences that you reap from those choices.No grand special effects, and no epic implications, just a movie about everyday people told in an engaging way that allows the viewer to be drawn into the story, which is laced with humor, drama and some fine music.UPDATE (July 2013) Interesting to note that my older children, especially my older sons, have watched this movie repeatedly and have found elements of humor and reflection that I either missed or forgot over the years.In my mind, this film and story make the case that by early 21st century standards (over the top special effects, highly stylized musical scores and trendy movie genres), this movie still merits viewing, which proves that a good story and acting will always find an audience, regardless of when and by whom it was produced..
This movie is truly an underrated classic and very deserving of 4 stars, it has a great cast, Daniel Christopher as Dave, who really did think he was Italian and someone we can all relate to when it comes to accomplishing out dreams but having something that holds you back, and his friends, a group of charming misfits, the kind've guys who seem nice but most people just pre- judge them as a bunch of freaks.
And Dennis Quaid as Mike, he was a bit of an ass, but you can't help but feel sorry for him and all the mistakes he's made.There are supposed coming of age stories all the time now, but this is a true one, there at the time where everyone is most confused, after graduation, the first big step in life.
Though its other teen stars went on to more fame and glory, (Dennis Quaid and Daniel Stern) you'll never forget Dennis Christopher's performance in the lead role of Dave Stoller, an innocent, humble, fantasy-prone kid who dreams of becoming an Italian bicycle racer.
He also adopts an Italian accent, speaks in "pigeon Italian", sings opera and shaves his legs (to decrease wind resistance) - much to the disgust of his blustery father and the amusement of his reserved but kindred-soul mother (Paul Dooley and Barbara Barrie, in a moving performance.)The plot focuses on four working class teens, residents of college town Bloomington, Indiana, who face a bleak,uncertain future after graduating from high school.
Bad feelings escalate, finally culminating in a somewhat contrived bicycle race between the college students and the townies.But the conventional plot is made palpable by gentle humor, good acting and an unusual underlying theme.It's the opposite of a coming of age flick.
It's about four guys, the 'cutters', who have to face their rivals, their parents, and each other, over the summer before they have to become adults.The rivalry between the rich university students and the cutters is entertaining, but the heart of the film is Dave's (Dennis Christopher) relationship with his Dad (Dooley, in a great performance), which provide the biggest laughs of the film.
The plot is simple - four working-class nineteen-year-olds, unemployed in a college town that their fathers helped build, decide to participate in a bike race for students - but the themes are universal..
Now, over 30 years later, I decided to watch the film for a second time--mostly because I barely remember it and because it's an important film from this era.The film is about a group of young high school graduates who are not going to college, aren't particularly interested in working and are afraid of growing up.
Paul Dooley and Barbara Barrie are hilarious as Dave's parents, really adding to the film.Basically this movie, with its beautiful scenery (all filmed in Indiana) and wonderful bike races is about breaking away from the pack in more ways than one - making a decision not just about a career, but how you will tackle life mentally and emotionally.
I loved Dave Stoller's character played by Dennis Christopher, and Raymond Stoller (Paul Dooley) was great as the unintentionally funny father.It was a classic tale of the haves and the have-nots with the have-nots being the "Cutters".
Perhaps this movie came about at the exact time in my life when I was breaking away, I don't know, but the script and the portrayal are brilliant.
He always has a wink at the audience to let them know there is humor and warmth under each line.The film is best summed up, I think, when Dennis Christopher is spurred by events in the movie (no spoilers) to expiate his "sins" and embrace his own heritage (in a scene that shows American working class WASP social roles defined by their jobs).
Best friends Dave (Dennis Christopher), Mike (Dennis Quaid), Cyril (Daniel Stern) and Moocher (Jackie Earle Haley) are aimless working class recent high school graduates in the college town of Bloomington, Indiana.
#8 on AFI's 100 Most Inspiring Movies list.It's a coming of age story about Dave Stoller (Christopher), an awkward teen who yearns to be a world class cyclist like the Italians he idolizes.
Mike (Quaid), Cyril (Stern), and Moocher (Haley) are Dave's best friends, all just out of high school with no college or other life plans, sons of blue collar workers that live in Bloomington, Indiana. |
tt0004099 | His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz | King Krewl (Raymond Russell) is a cruel dictator in the Emerald City in the Land of Oz. He wishes to marry his daughter, Princess Gloria (Vivian Reed), to an old courtier named Googly-Goo (Arthur Smollett), but she is in love with Pon, the Gardener's boy (Todd Wright). Krewl employs the Wicked Witch named Mombi (Mai Wells), to freeze the heart of Gloria so she will not love Pon any longer. This she does by pulling out her heart (which looks somewhere between a valentine and a bland representation of a heart without any vessels) and coating it with ice. Meanwhile, a lost little girl from Kansas named Dorothy Gale (Violet MacMillan), is captured by Mombi and imprisoned in her castle. However, Dorothy runs away with the now heartless Gloria, accompanied by Pon and eventually meet the Scarecrow (Frank Moore). Mombi catches up with the travelers and removes the Scarecrow's stuffing, but Dorothy and Pon are able to re-stuff him; Gloria abandons them and wanders off.
In an effective use of deep focus photography, they meet the lost little boy, Button-Bright (Mildred Harris). The party travels to the Winkie Country next and arrives at the Tin Castle of the Tin Woodman (Pierre Couderc), who has rusted solid. (The Tin Woodman resides in a Tin Castle in later Oz novels, beginning in The Emerald City of Oz'' (1910). Mombi reaches the Tin Castle, and the Tin Woodman chops off her head; however, this merely slows her down as she hunts for it and places it back on. (The Wicked Witch of the East in The Tin Woodman of Oz is later described as having done a similar thing to him when he was still human.) Having replaced her head, Mombi encounters Pon and turns him into a kangaroo.
Dorothy, Button-Bright, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman escape from Mombi by crossing a river on a raft. As in the original novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), the Scarecrow's barge-pole gets stuck in the river bed and leaves him stranded, until he is rescued by a bird. At one point in this sequence, the Scarecrow slides down the pole into the river, resulting a brief "underwater" sequence featuring puppet fish and a mermaid; throughout, the Scarecrow makes asides to the camera, mostly without intertitles. (At another point, the frozen Gloria even makes a malevolent stare directly into the camera.)
The party encounters the Wizard (J. Charles Haydon), who tricks Mombi by letting the group hide in the Red Wagon, pulled by the sawhorse; when Mombi attempts to follow them, the group escape out the back of the wagon. The four companions meet the Cowardly Lion, who joins them. The Wizard traps Mombi in a container of "Preserved Sandwitches" and paints out the "sand" and the plural, carrying her away in his pocket. The Scarecrow, taking a barrage of arrows, tosses Krewl's soldiers over the battlements to deal with the Cowardly Lion, who cannot climb the rope ladder over the city wall. With the support of the people, the Scarecrow is easily able to depose King Krewl. The Wizard releases Mombi, and compels her to restore Pon to his normal form and unfreeze Gloria's heart. | romantic | train | wikipedia | Often Unrefined, But Enjoyable & Creative.
There are times when the rather unrefined nature of this Oz fantasy feature stands out, but any rough edges are smoothed out by the enjoyable and creative nature of the story and the characters.
It's one of an unfortunately small number of Oz features made by L.
Frank Baum's own production company, and it is easy to see his influence, in the way that the story and characters are brought to life with such energy and imagination.The story of "His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz" includes several of the characters who are familiar from the much better known "The Wizard of Oz", plus some added characters, but it is a much different story, and pretty interesting in its own right.
The cast all do a solid job with the characters, and the cast includes several performers who were regulars in the short-lived series.
Fred Woodward also performs several of his costume animal characters.The old-fashioned style would probably keep this and the other movies in the series from enjoying a wide popularity now, but it's of good quality for its era.
The special effects are sometimes rough, but imaginative, and several of them come off pretty well.
There are times when the editing seems pretty odd, but that could well be a result of physical defects that have occurred over time.
The movie has its occasional flaws, but it was obviously made with care, good humor, and enthusiasm, and it is certainly worth seeing for silent movie fans..
Old Mombi Steals the Show.
When his daughter Princess Gloria refuses to marry the courtier Googly-Goo he selected for her because she's in love with the Gardener's Boy Pon, wicked King Krewl takes the Princess to the evil witch Mombi in hopes the witch can cast a spell and destroy his daughter's love for Pon, a boy he considers beneath her station.
Well, the Wicked Witch does eventually succeed in freezing the Princess's heart to all potential suitors.
In the meantime, the Gardener's Boy Pon having followed the King's trail to Mombi's hut meets and befriends Dorothy (Violet MacMillan), a little Kansas girl taken prisoner by Mombi, helping her escape.
Eventually the two, in their continued effort to escape and elude the Wicked Witch, meet up with the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and eventually the Wizard of Oz. Together they try and devise a plan to deal with the Wicked Witch and remove King Krewl from power.While it's truly fun to see so many of the most familiar Oz characters participating in a new story, this one feels all over the place it's so lacking in terms of good direction.
In fact, this often feels as though they were deciding what was going to happen next as they were doing it.
It's way too hard to keep track of all the different characters and there's way too many unnecessary sub-plots.
The best and funniest scenes in this one tend to revolve around Old Mombi the Witch (as played by Mai Wells) and her continual pursuit of our heroes.
How's she dealt with time and time again proves more and more creative each time around..
The best of the best!.
"His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz" is the best of L.
Frank Baum's Oz movies!
The plot is easily understandable without being boring and the characters are wonderfully acted, given their limitations.
The special effects are marvelous, and some of the better ones rival even the technical marvels of the 1939 Movie, particularly the hilarious undersea bit with the Scarecrow and a swordfish and a mermaid!
Violet MacMillan is an absolute delight as Dorothy.
Despite her charming looks and thoroughly enchanting demeanor, the girlish actress was generally confined to roles as frank boys in Baum's films.
She brings a great sparkle to the role as Dorothy, however.
Another standout - or group of standouts, rather - is Mombi's whole cohort of witches.
Funny and spooky at the same time, it seems as if they may have been the greatest inspiration for the way in which MGM chose to portray the Witch of the West in their take on Baum's first history of Oz. Either way, this movie is a can't miss, which I give a solid 9, a rating I am more than glad to give!.
Strangely sensual.
This was, of course, one of the early movies, and special effects were not an issue, for which we may be thankful in this day and age when many movies look more like video arcade games.The plot is bizarre, to say the least.
It borders between dream state and LSD trip.
It would be interesting to know what early twentieth century audiences thought when they viewed this.There a motley group of characters, and really, no one takes center stage all the time.
People traipse aimlessly, meeting strange characters, and unique situations.
Indeed, the wall of water would be a fresh idea as of the day of this critique.There is a strange sexuality to this one.
Super sexy witches dance around very sensually, and would be the envy of the scantily clad girls in today's movies.
They are quite beautiful and striking.
Again, audiences in this day must have been affected some way.
It is too bad that the sexuality seems to be equated with witches, though.
Sort of false advertising.The music is probably too lame for today, and you may want to play your own while watching.
Viewable mostly from an artistic perspective or in a social situation, and not as a sit down and watch movie..
Good Version.
His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914) *** (out of 4)An evil King takes over and wants his daughter to make a no good but when the Scarecrow comes to life he has his eyes on the daughter as well.
Here's a very interesting film written and directed by L.
Frank Baum who was also the writer of the Oz stories.
The visual effects are very effective especially one scene where the evil witch removes the heart of the Princess and then freezes it before putting it back in her body.
Another great scene is one that the kiddies shouldn't see but the Scarecrow cuts off a head.
This effect is done very well and effective.
This is certainly the most "adult" version of Oz I've seen, which makes it quite interesting..
follow the unpaved road.
When you think of the land of Oz, you probably think of Toto, a tornado, ruby slippers, a yellow brick road and flying monkeys.
But if you look back before the 1939 movie, you find something more eye-popping.
There was a movie made in 1925 starring Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man; it was the sort of movie that makes you think "What in the name of anything holy were they smoking when they came up with this?".
In fact, it contained no Munchkins or yellow brick road.Go back even further and you find "His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz".
This is an equally bizarre one.
Although we have the Munchkins, Dorothy is a supporting character.
The emphasis is on Princess Gloria of the Emerald City, whose autocratic father wants to marry her off to a buffoon while she has her eye on someone else.
The wizard, scarecrow, tin man and lion have their roles in the story, while there are multiple witches.
Yeah, this is some weird stuff.
The movie will probably be of interest more as a historical reference, but it's impressive what they were able to pull off.
Worth seeing.One interesting piece of trivia is that Button-Bright is played by Mildred Harris, who later married Charlie Chaplin; Milla Jovovich played her in Richard Attenborough's "Chaplin"..
Better then the Wizard of OZ (1939).
It is better then The Wizard of Oz (1939) It is a great movie.
A girl from Kansas find a magical land.
The 1939 remake is good.
But this is better.
5 is underrating it.
It a lot better.
This is one of the best fantasy movies of all time.
It one of the best version of The Wizard of Oz that I have seen.
See this movie.
See this movie.
Violet MacMilian was great actress.
Frank Moore was a great actor.
Pierre Couderc was a great actor.
Fred Woodward was a great actor.
Mai Wells was great actor.
This a great movie.
This a great movie.
This a great movie.
This a great movie.
This a great movie.
Great movie great movie great movie.
Inept.
Baum's inept adaptation of a couple of his Oz books is a sad sight indeed.
Shots are poorly framed, often excluding some of the actor's faces from view.
The plot is moronic and the acting stale.
The cast is much too large and he seems to throw in characters just to throw them in.
The special effects are cheesy, especially when the Tin Woodsman chops off the Witch's head.However, this silent film does feature an excellent performance by the man playing the Wizard and the young woman playing the Princess Ozma.
There's a good, melodramatic concept, this young woman walking around with everyone left and right falling in love with her, and she being incapable of loving them back-- it makes for a good visual.
But the rest of the film is just so incompetent that's it obscures its good points..
Birth of Children's Movies.
This is the third and final film in Baum's personally produced Oz trilogy of 1914.
The three pictures are all essentially the same childishness--with magic, a journey and animal costumes.
The camera-work and pacing are static and primitive even by 1914 standards, while the performers are quite the opposite--both of which can get annoying and boring.
We get poor framing, from a generally stationary position, and the shots linger on much longer than they should, while the performers, except for the literally cold-hearted princess, are in constant motion, mostly broadly gesticulating and doing some knockabout nonsense.
Most of it has nothing to do with anything imaginative or with adventure, and I don't see how it could be humorous to anyone but a child.
There is some trick photography, but nothing new; in fact, these tricks (superimpositions, stop substitutions, a fish tank between characters and the camera to represent being under the sea, a tilted camera to make them appear to be going up and down stream) had been in use for near a decade or more even by then.
At least, the makers of this Oz trilogy put some care and energy, albeit a nauseating excess of it, in front of the camera although not behind it.I wonder how popular these films were, although, apparently, they weren't popular enough, because Baum's production company was short lived.
There doesn't seem to have been many movies back then which were so specifically targeted at children.
The industry at the time, which was even before "The Birth of a Nation" (1915), was still struggling even to attract middle and upper class women to theatres.
Times have certainly changed..
Who needs Judy Whatsername?.
As his books about Oz became increasingly popular, L.
Frank Baum tried to branch out into other media.
His novel "Tik-Tok in Oz" was originally a grandiose stage musical.
Eventually, Baum (never a good businessman) used the profits from his novels to finance a low-budget film studio which turned out several silent films, nearly all of them fantasies.
"His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz" is the best of Baum's films.
His Oz book "The Scarecrow of Oz" (still in print) is actually a novelisation of this silent fantasy film, which was produced before the novel was written.Although crudely staged, with some low-budget special effects that were laughably obvious even for 1914, "His Majesty" is an action-filled and imaginative movie that should still appeal to viewers (including children) even today.
There are some flaws: the actress playing "little girl" Dorothy is clearly an adult woman; worse luck, the "little boy" Button-Bright is obviously played by a teenage girl (who became Mrs Charlie Chaplin!).The plot of this film is almost identical to the main plot of the novel (which contains several subplots not found here ...
including one about creatures named Orks, long before Tolkien invented Orcs).
Princess Gloria is in love with Pon, a lowly gardener's boy, and he loves her.
Because Pon is far beneath Gloria's station, King Krewl and Googly-Goo decide to break up the romance by engaging Mombi the witch to freeze Pon's heart.
There are some interesting Georges Melies-type special effects here: crudely done yet imaginative.
Mombi holds her hands in front of Pon's chest.
In a slow dissolve, his (valentine-shaped) heart appears in her hands.
In another slow dissolve, icicles appear on his heart.
Then another dissolve as the heart (now frozen) is replaced within his chest.There is one bizarre scene in which the Tin Woodman uses his axe to chop off a witch's head ...
but fear not, parents!
Your kiddies will probably laugh when they see how it's done.
The special-effects trickery in the decapitation sequence is blatantly obvious to even the most unsophisticated viewer.SPOILERS COMING.
Eventually the Wizard of Oz arrives.
(Looking a great deal like the Wizard in the Oz books ...
which is more than I can say of Frank Morgan in that overrated MGM movie.) The Wizard takes out a tin can with a misspelt label reading "CANNED SANDWITCHES".
A wave of his hands, and the can grows giant-sized.
Another wave of his hand, and Mombi the witch is trapped inside the tin can, which the Wizard then shrinks back to its original size.
He takes a paintbrush and carefully paints out certain letters on the label, so that it now reads "CANNED WITCH".
This sort of humour is actually quite effective here.An amazing performance (or group of performances) is given by Fred Woodward, who plays a large number of animals in this movie ...
including a human-sized jackdaw.
For most of his roles, Woodward walks on all fours, holding short stilts in his hands to lengthen his arms so that they become forelegs.AMAZING TRIVIA NOTE: L.
Frank Baum had been involved in amateur theatricals ever since his adolescence, and he owned a large number of costumes.
After his death, his widow sold these to a Los Angeles costume jobber.
One particular item -- a shabby frock coat which had seen better days -- was later worn by Frank Morgan in his role as Professor Marvel in "The Wizard of Oz".
Supposedly, the coat was chosen utterly at random because it fit Morgan and its shabbiness suited the character ...
and it wasn't recognised as Baum's coat until his widow saw the film in a preview.
True story!I thoroughly enjoyed "His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz", and I continue to enjoy it after repeated viewings.
I wish that a certain overrated MGM musical (starring Judy Whatsername) were less popular, and that L.
Frank Baum's short films were better-known. |
tt0258967 | The Unsaid | "A seemingly-untroubled adolescent carries disturbing secrets that compel a psychiatrist to unearth the patient's gruesome past."
Psychiatrist Michael Hunter (Andy García) and his wife are watching their daughter Shelly's school play. Their son Kyle, who is suffering from depression, stays at home, because he can not stand being among people as he says. While the parents are applauding Shelly, Kyle commits suicide in family's garage.
Several years later the family has fallen apart because of their loss. Michael retreats, writes books, holds speeches for University students, but he no longer treats patients. When his former student Barbara Wagner approaches him asking for help with a case he initially refuses, but then gives in to taking over the case of 17-year-old Thomas "Tommy" Caffey (Vincent Kartheiser), who had had to watch his father murder his mother. It is Michael's job to decide if the teenager can leave the psychiatric facility when he turns 18. But while working with Tommy, Michael realizes how much the boy reminds him of his own son Kyle and feelings of guilt arise in the psychologist.
In flashbacks and conversations, the viewer receives background information of Kyle's suicide. Michael had his son see a therapist -- an old university friend named Harry Quinlan -- instead of taking medication. In his son's suicide letter, Michael finds out that Kyle was sexually abused by Quinlan. When Michael tries to confront Quinlan, the therapist won't unlock the front door. Michael goes to the glass back door, through which he sees Quinlan pull a gun out of a drawer. As Quinlan places the barrel in his mouth, Michael angrily yells at him to shoot himself, which the therapist does.
Tommy kills a girl at a party because she wanted to have sex with him. At the same party, Tommy befriends Shelly and they become closer. Shelly tells Tommy about Kyle. From then on, Tommy uses the information in therapy sessions and manipulates Michael, who more and more sees his own son in him.
When Michael visits Tommy's father in prison he finds out that Tommy's mother misused the boy as a lover and slept with him regularly. This is the reason why the father, who came home early one day, bludgeoned the mother to death.
In the last part of the movie, Tommy tries to make Barbara release him to an independent life. When she refuses, he pushes her through a glass window. After she crawls to a telephone and attempts to call police, Tommy beats her with the handset. He flees in a stolen car and, armed with a weapon, picks up Shelly from her mother's house and speeds away. Michael finds the severely wounded Barbara in her apartment. As she is being treated, Barbara warns Michael about Tommy's plan. Michael races to his ex-wife's house, narrowly missing the boy, whom he chases. The boy's flight comes to an end near train tracks, where he holds Shelly at gunpoint. Michael confronts Tommy with what his mother did and Tommy surrenders the girl and the gun. When a train approaches, Tommy tears loose from Michael's embrace and runs onto the tracks. At the last second, Tommy stops on the tracks, throws up his arms, and awaits impact. Michael grabs Tommy and they fall away from the locomotive.
In the closing scene, Michael and Tommy light-heartedly play handball at the institution. | revenge, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0104139 | Dr. Giggles | In the town of Moorehigh in 1957, the patients of Dr. Evan Rendell kept disappearing. After some investigation, the citizens of Moorehigh found that he and his son Evan Jr. (nicknamed "Dr. Giggles" for his hideous laugh), were ripping out patients' hearts—in an attempt to bring back the doctor's dead wife. The townspeople stone Dr. Rendell to death, but Evan Jr. disappeared.
Thirty-five years later, Giggles escapes from a mental asylum, killing everyone in his path. In Moorehigh, 19-year-old Jennifer Campbell, her boyfriend Max Anderson, and their friends are planning their spring break. Jennifer, upset that her father is dating again shortly after her mother's death, is further angered when she is diagnosed with a heart condition and is forced to wear a heart monitor to determine if she needs surgery. Meanwhile, Dr. Giggles breaks into his father's abandoned office and starts going through the doctor's old files, gathering a list of names. He begins to stalk and kill several of the town's residents, including Jennifer's friends.
Jennifer comes home from a party, and deciding that she's had enough of her heart monitor, dumps it in a fish tank. Jennifer's father finds her heart monitor and goes to look for her, leaving his girlfriend Tamara behind to also be killed by Giggles. Jennifer returns to the party and sees Max kissing another girl. Distraught, she runs into a house of mirrors. Giggles sees Jennifer and notices that she has the same heart condition as his mother and goes after her. He follows and kills the girl, but Jennifer sees him coming and manages to escape. Officers Magruder and Reitz find her and take her to the police station.
Giggles makes his way to Jennifer's house and attacks her father. Officer Magruder goes to investigate Jennifer's house and finds her father there, lying in a pool of blood. Giggles attacks and kills Magruder, but not before Magruder seriously wounds him in the side with a bullet. Reitz arrives soon after, finding his partner dead and Jennifer's father wounded but alive. Meanwhile, Giggles returns to his hideout, performing surgery on himself to remove the bullet. He then kidnaps Jennifer and tells her that he plans to replace her "broken" heart with one of those he took from the bodies of her friends. Reitz and Max arrive to save her. Max and Jennifer escape, but Reitz is killed when Giggles' hideout is destroyed.
Jennifer is taken to the hospital, where she is told that the traumatic events of the evening have damaged one of her heart valves, and she is going to need surgery to replace it. While she is being prepped, Dr. Giggles reappears, having survived the explosion, and is cutting a bloody path through the hospital staff to get to Jennifer. He chases her to a janitor's closet where she spills a bottle of cleaning fluid onto the floor and hits him with a pair of defibrillator paddles, electrocuting him. She finally kills him by stabbing him through the chest with two of his own instruments. Dr. Giggles then breaks the fourth wall, staring at the camera and asking, "Is there a doctor in the house?" before dying.
Recovering in the hospital, Jennifer is visited by Max and her also-recovering father. | revenge, murder, violence, flashback | train | wikipedia | A Surprise: 'Dr. Giggles" Is A Funny Guy. This was a surprisingly entertaining B-type film with a lot of good lines by "Dr. Giggles" (Larry Drake).
Dr Evan Rendell or Dr Giggles from the title wonderfully played by Larry Drake is,along with officer Joe Vickers(Bobby Ray Shafer)from "Psycho Cop" series,one of the funniest psycho killers ever created on film."Dr Giggles" is an enjoyable slasher film filled with gore and black humour.The film is well-directed and acted and is simply fun to watch.It's quite suspenseful at times,and some of the killings are rather unpleasant(like when he castrates one guy)and grotesque.Recommended for horror fans..
I expected it to be really lame, and boring, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually quite good.A mental patient who believes that he is a doctor escapes the psych- ward, and returns to wreak murderous havoc on the town that he escaped from as a child after the "townsfolk" stoned his demented physician father to death.Typical of the horror genre, there is the young, innocent heroine, who saves the day, and her not-so-innocent friends who aren't so lucky.What sets this film apart is that it is original and creative, considering it came out before the Scream flicks.
Holly Marie Combs is very good in this movie, and you actually care what happens to her character.Bottom Line: A fun, humorous, creepy film to watch..
Larry Drake,(Dr. Evan Rendell ),"Spun",'02, gave a great performance and looked more like your local butcher than the role of doctor.
Dr. Giggles is a movie which stars Larry Drake who plays a 42 year old psychopatic Doctor by the name of Doctor Evan Rendell.
Still wrapped in the grip of Freddy Krueger, this one has a wise-cracking killer cracking jokes throughout after each kill, a practice that in theory could grow old quickly but here is actually far more enjoyable than expected due to the high quality use of genuinely funny lines, the black humor ringing true quite often and has some extra enjoyment to the scene it's featured in.
If you're expecting to gain something out of a movie then this probably isn't for you but if you're looking for a slightly comical flick with some scary instances this'll certainly be a good way to kill some time.
Its about This doctor who escapes this mental hospital to go back to his home town where his father was a doctor until the town killed him off but he goes back there to follow in his fathers footsteps and he starts killing people off and taking thier hearts out and he finds Jenny Campbell (Holly Marie Combs)who has a heart condition and needs her valve replaced and he starts stalking her and trying to perform heart surgery while her b/f (Glenn Quinn from the tv series Angel) and a local cop try to help her and catch him.
Now bringing his own style of justice to town, our mad, Evan Rendell (Drake) is about to cause havoc on many unsuspecting townsfolk, with some unique ways of killing, some of those old doctors sayings attached, a little altered for the amusement of the viewer, and for Drake's own self gratification.
When taken as a serious horror, it will fall down badly however, with very few scares, gore that simply cannot be believed, and few 'inventive' deaths considering the main protagonist is a wannabe surgeon!Other offerings such as 'The Dentist' benefit from a more serious plot and more threatening central character (not to mention tapping a general fear in most people!), but if Dr.Giggles is seen for what it is; a very black comedy with OTT gore to match, it's worth a look.
This tongue in cheek thriller stars Larry Drake who plays a mental patient (who thinks he's a doctor) that escapes a mental hospital and heads to the small town of Moorehigh,where his father was killed, to get revenge on the townspeople.
He kills many people in ghoulish and somewhat odd ways before finding out about Jennifer (played by the lovely Holly Marie Combs)who has a heart condition.
The characters one-liners are funny and the house of mirrors scene is scary.I really recommend this movie for fans of "Child's Play" and "Nightmare on Elm Street." Funny horror movie!.
I was worried it was going to be really bad and ide be dissapointed but i actaully really enjoyed it and if i didnt have it now i would go out of my way to get it and pay upt to $10 dollars for it, go take a look if u like old cheesy horror movies, if u want a deep and well though plot that keeps you guessing the whole way then stay away from this and see identity its awesome :).
this is a great horror movie Larry Drake steals the show but everyone puts in good performances like Darin Heames who played Stu and unfortunitly is killed of soon but the movie is about a doctors son who escapes from a looney bin and escapes killing workers.
Dr. Giggles (1992) ** (out of 4) The psychopath Dr. Giggles (Larry Drake) escapes from a mental hospital and heads towards his hometown where years earlier the town people killed his father.
We also have Giggles taking a few points from Freddy as he also goes for the various one-liners but most of them are pretty stupid but at the same time some of them are the type of jokes you'd expect to hear from an unfunny doctor.
He even stalks a beautiful girl who has a weak heart as he wants her for a sick and twisted experiment he's gonna conduct.Gory, funny and well made splatter slasher horror comedy flick from Dark Horse Comics production who gave us the films like "The Mask", "Sin City" and "Hellboy 1 & 2".
I also like the pitch black humor presented in this movie to give it a more different flavor then the usual slasher pic just like "Scream" did 5 years later.Fans of slasher, horror comedies and splatter should seek out this cult gem that is one of the most overlooked horror gems of the 90's.Also recommended: "Halloween Saga plus Rob Zombie's Halloween", "Scream Trilogy", "Inside", "The Untold Story", "American Psycho", "Hostel 1 & 2", "Saw Series", "My Bloody Valentine (1981 and 3D 2009)", "House of 1000 Corpses", "The Devil's Rejects", "Maniac (1980)", "The Burning", "The Prowler", "Friday The 13th Saga plus 2009 version", "A Nightmare on Elm Street Saga", "Freddy vs.
Larry Drake is perfect in the lead role but he's the only one who seems to be doing much acting here - the rest of the movie is dedicated solely to coming up with new (and often disturbing) ways to dispatch nubile teenagers, with the movie finishing its ninety-minute running time with a striking body count.
Nevertheless there's a weirdness that works here: Borrowing its structure from 1978's "Halloween" and its first sequel, "Dr. Giggles" often plays like a semi-serious parody of its own genre, and while director Manny Coto doesn't manage to solidify his own thesis he nevertheless manages to deliver a medium slasher entry that has enough stand-out moments to make it worth a shot for horror fans..
Why can't we have more movies where every single line is a cliche (literally, "the Doctor is In!") or a pun (take your pick) and is acted by one or those "oh THAT guy!" actors -Larry Drake (you know, from Darkman?) and features so many many grisly kills involving all manner of medical equipment and so on?Well...
It may have some very typical problems but this is made up for in other areas.The movie title is about an insane doctor (Larry Drake) who enjoys performing malpractice on live patients and finds it comical, thus giving us his nickname Dr. Giggles.
there are not too many good things about this horror movie.one good thing is the performance of Larry drake as the psycho.he really puts his heart into the performance.you can tell he really has fun with the role.the only other good thing is that in the last 25 minutes or so,the movie starts to get good.the last 15 minutes in particular are really good,and there is one scene near the end which is priceless.unfortunately the first 70+ minutes are pretty lame.there really aren't enough positives are enough to make the movie worth watching.that's my opinion.
If so, I recommend making an appointment with Dr. Giggles, an enjoyable slice of early-90s comedy/horror silliness that delivers a controlled dose of fun that'll have you back on your feet, right as rain in no time.Larry Drake plays escaped lunatic Doctor Evan Rendell, nicknamed Dr. Giggles because of his incessant high-pitched laugh.
Returning to his childhood home, where his equally loopy father was stoned to death by locals for removing the hearts of several unwilling patients (in an bid to find a suitable replacement for his wife's dodgy ticker), Rendell sets about resuming his father's work.With a villain that spouts numerous corny one-liners whilst butchering his victims, an ageing policeman hiding a life-long secret, and the action taking place in such clichéd locales as a funfair, a lunatic asylum, and a deserted old house, this film mercilessly lampoons the slasher genre, taking the craziness to the next degree, including death via thermometer, giant sticking plaster, blood pressure gauge and stomach pump.Director Manny Coto keeps things moving at a brisk pace and his film looks marvellous throughout, with great use of vibrant colours and innovative use of camera placement.
Doug, Cliff De Young and Michelle Johnson—deliver equally measured performances, their seriousness in the face of such absurdity being most admirable.The other stars of the film are the excellent effects by the KNB group: although several of the murders are free of gore, the scenes that do get messy are satisfyingly graphic, with the most memorable moment being the 'rebirth' of the young Evan from the corpse of his mother, the child having been sewn inside her body as a means of escape!
When I first rented this movie I expected it to be another slasher movie like so many others.However while I was watching I realized it couldn't be a slasher movie because of one thing...it had a plot.The movie is very cool we get tons of very graphic murders and some funny one liners at each one.The film uses tons of gore and is very funny.The acting is pretty good which is another reason it couldn't be a slasher movie.The story line is really cool and believable and builds up a lot of suspense towards the end.The music is also very good.If your looking for a gory and funny horror movie rent this one today!!!.
There is no scary stuff, no intelligent plot, nothing that really horrifies but you can see this guy killing teenagers with one-liners to it.Good things with this movie is a) some of the actors is good (Larry Drake in the lead role is pretty good) b) it is Brian Eno that has made the sound.
The script was great (especially the doc's one-liners were hilarious), the directing was magnificent, the art direction was great (especially the scenes in the Doc's house and basement), Larry Drake did a great job, and (last, but not least) an awesome music score by composer Brian May that pays tribute to classic B&W horror films.The main titles sequence was creative and well done.
Loaded with clichés and "can see it coming a mile away" blood and guts, Dr. Giggles is a complete waste of time.Sure, the creators may have wanted to do "a genre piece", but this is the same rehashed garbage, a date movie for the stereotypical guy who laughs at the violence on screen and the girl who squeals and clings to her boyfriend.
Here is a movie who's use of graffiti on set walls is even obnoxious, self-aware and -- in the eyes of the filmmakers -- as equally worthy of the viewer's attention as what the main characters have to say.It's a great concept for a film: Nutzo sick maniac doctor escapes from the local sanatorium and promptly sets up a home practice & starts killing people in various inventive ways.
The town that he has decided to take his revenge on is the same town that caught and murdered his doctor father several years ago.The lead role goes to Larry Drake, who may look like a doctor; but doesn't manage to be at all believable in his irritating giggling role.
This movie sucked and Holly Marie Combs well I'm a big fan of her's and I was like why would you do this movie.it sucked really really badly Me and my sister always make fun of it.watch it if you want something to mock but don't watch it if your looking for a good movie then don't watch this one.Also you can tell it's a bad movie cause it's only on t.v. and no movie store has it or at least the ones i've been to don't have it.This is such a bad movie that your going to laugh your head off at it and it's supposed to be a scary movie which of course it's not even close to scary.One more thing if anything this movie might make you scared of doctors for a while cause you don't want them to laugh or something at least that's what happened to me..
(** out of *****)Larry Drake (from "Darkman") plays the title character -- the deranged, vengeful son of a town doctor who was lynched for performing unorthodox open-heart surgery on unwilling patients years ago.
Holly Marie Combs (from the TV show "Charmed") plays the young heroine, who gets on the doc's good side by having heart problems.Lowlight: Dr. Giggles, as a boy, sneaks out of his house while his father is being lynched by hiding inside of his mother's sewn-up corpse, and, in a grisly flashback, he slices his way out with a scalpel.
He then turns his attention to Jennifer's family, killing Tamara and attacking Tom. Two police officers, (Keith Diamond) (Richard Bradford) on the case, discover Rendell's operation for removing the hearts of his victims after their dead and race to his house to stop him before he harms the abducted Jennifer and her boyfriend.The Good News: In the late 80s, horror movies were becoming increasingly more formulaic and almost no originality was used in creating them.
When he discovers that a potential victim, Jennifer Campbell (Holly Marie Combs of 'Charmed'), has a heart condition, he takes pity on her, and because he does consider himself a doctor, changes the theme of his murder spree to supposedly help her out.Nicely shot (by Robert Draper) and effectively paced, "Dr. Giggles" (so named because of Evan Jr.'s nervous habit) makes the most out of its medical theme with its merry antagonist utilizing all sorts of doctors' tools to off his mostly unsympathetic, typical slasher movie type victims.
Never before have I ever seen or heard of a horror-comedy film whose main villain is an insane doctor who wants to preform open heart surgery on a girl so that he can finish where his father had started.
It's unusual for two reasons, for one it is hard to make that subject both scary and funny at the same time, and two,it's humor comes mainly from his insanity (usually horror-comedies get their humor from the theme of family values.) It is not what you expect it to be at all, looking at the cover, it looks like your average crappy B-movie, but it is actually filled with clever dialogue, decent acting (with a few exceptions), and a very well done job on the presentation of the film (with it's direction, photography, and editing.)The only problem I had was the ending.
The psychopathic son of a mass-murdering doctor, escapes from his mental institution to seek revenge on the town where his father was caught.The giggling doctor kills his victims with a surgical theme.His goal being to give one of the town folk a heart transplant....Let's be honest, this is a silly movie full of bad acting and worse dialogue from the supporting actors, but thanks to Larry Drake and some every cheesy one liners, this is an above average slasher movie.The titular character walks around a town in a Doctors outfit, pulls out a tool, and kills someone whilst saying a line connecting with the said tool.It's cheap and cheerful stuff, harking back to the slasher movies of the eighties that no one really remembers (Sleepaway camp, The Burning)but with a nineties twist.The teens in this are nothing out of the ordinary, which all have traits which will see them get there demise.It's all by the numbers stuff, and most will not like the film or narrative, but it has some kooky charm to its story.Worth watching for Drake and the one liners..
I watched the movie in full the next time it aired
and honestly, I wasn't sure if I should've been completely horrified or entirely amused.Dr. Evan Rendell (Larry Drake) is a seriously disturbed mental patient who intends to exact revenge on the town that 'murdered' his doctor father.
They had killed the doctor, but never found his son.Years later, in an institution for the mentally insane, a patient known only as Dr. Giggles escapes, killing many doctors along the way.He flees back to his hometown to avenge his fathers death with the help of his "doctored" medical tools.This movie also features Holly Marie Combs as Jennifer Cambell, a typical teen with a heart condition, who quickly attracts the attention of the not-so-good doctor.
The acting is alright, Larry Drake stands-out as the crazy Dr. Giggles who has an unnerving laugh & Holly Marie Combs is very pretty while Doug E.
Doug has a small role.Dr. Giggles is a fun little comedy horror slasher that plays on the genre clichés & conventions & has fun with them but to be honest apart from some amusing one-liners & the odd bit of gore there's not that much else here to get that excited about. |
tt0179566 | Double Dare | The film begins with Bell finishing her work on Xena and Epper searching for continuing work in Hollywood despite her age, even considering liposuction before forgoing cosmetic surgery. Xena ends its run and Bell struggles with what to do next in her career. Meanwhile, Epper negotiates to have a women's category included in the Taurus World Stunt Awards (also called the World Stunt Awards). Bell is invited to the United States for a Xena convention. There she meets Epper and, obtaining a ticket with the help of the documentary crew, attends the stunt awards. Though initially receiving an offer to work on a series starring Victoria Pratt, Bell ultimately does not get the job and returns home to New Zealand.
The film resumes one year later with Bell still training, though unemployed, and planning a move to America. She stays with Epper, who is attempting to get a job working on 2 Fast 2 Furious with Terry Leonard. Epper helps Bell assemble the necessary elements for her to start her career in America, such as a CV and head shots. She also warns Bell about the deceptive nature of Hollywood, instructing her to list her weight as 130 lbs when Bell actually judges herself to weigh 145. Epper takes her to a training session, where they encounter Quentin Tarantino's stunt scout Kenny Lesco, who is looking for someone to double Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. Lesco arranges for an audition on the same day as the training session. Epper and Bell drive to Tarantino's Culver City training center for the audition, there meeting Tarantino himself as he evaluates Bell. Much to her delight, she earns the job doubling Thurman and is sent to train in Beijing with Yuen Wo Ping.
Eventually Bell begins filming for Kill Bill Vol. 1; the documentary shows her working on the fight between Beatrix Kiddo (Thurman) and O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) and her bodyguards, as well as several other fight scenes. The film ends with Epper being honored by the Stuntmen's Association and Bell speaking optimistically about her future as an adult. | non fiction | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0452592 | Borderland | The action begins with Mexico City policemen banging on the door of what seems to be an abandoned house. Ulises (Damian Alcazar) and his partner enter the house and find gruesome remnants of animal sacrifices and human remains. The two are ambushed by the occupants and Ulises is forced to watch them torture and mutilate his partner until he is decapitated. Ulises is shot in the leg and is allowed to live to warn other law enforcement officials to stay out of their way.
One year later, Ed (Brian Presley), Henry (Jake Muxworthy) and Phil (Rider Strong), three recent Texas college grads, are enjoying a college beach bonfire in Galveston, Texas. They decide to head down to Mexico for the week to hit up the strip clubs and take advantage of a lack of law enforcement.
Ed meets a bartender named Valeria (Martha Higareda) after being stabbed defending her in a barfight and falls in love with her, while Henry sets Phil up for his first sexual encounter with a prostitute, who is "barely 17". Phil immediately falls in love with the prostitute, who he quickly finds out has a baby. The boys, Valeria and her cousin Lupe (Francesca Guillen) indulge in some hallucinogenic mushrooms before going to a carnival. Phil leaves early to give the prostitute's baby a teddy bear, and as he walks from the carnival alone, Phil reluctantly gets into a car with a couple of men who proceed to abduct him when he tries to leave.
The next morning, Henry and Ed notice that Phil did not come back, and the two begin to investigate, eventually teaming up with Ulises, after Henry gets shot and they find the local authorities and the townspeople utterly terrified of Phil's captors. Phil is revealed to be kept in a shack on a ranch under the watch of an American serial killer affiliated with the cult named Randall (Sean Astin), who wounds Phil after he tries to escape. The captors explain that they follow "some African voodoo" called Palo Myombe and are preparing a human sacrifice (a "gringo", as opposed to the regular Mexican citizens they have been sacrificing) to get the power of Nganga for their drugs to be invisible to the border guards while smuggling them into the US.
Henry is later hacked to death by several men with machetes on the roof of their hotel, and Ed and Valeria decide to go with Ulises to go kill the men who abducted Phil. By then, it is too late to save Phil, however that doesn't stop Ulises from shooting the leader of the cult to death after being shot himself.
Ed, Valeria, and Ulises travel down the road to a house inhabited by an old man, where Ulises bleeds to death. The cult members followed Ed and Valeria to the house, and the two risk their lives to kill the remaining members, eventually deciding to swim across the Rio Grande, two kilometers north of their location.
The movie ends with a caption explaining that several kilos of cocaine were found in containers along with human hair, over fifty bodies were exhumed from a mass grave at the ranch, Ed and Valeria were questioned after being caught swimming across the river, and that several suspects remain at large. | revenge, cult, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0039545 | Lady in the Lake | Tired of the low pay of his profession, hard-boiled private detective Phillip Marlowe (Robert Montgomery) submits a murder story to Kingsby Publications. He is invited to the publishers’ offices to discuss his work but soon realizes it is merely a ploy. A few days before Christmas, publishing executive Adrienne Fromsett (Audrey Totter) hires him to locate the wife of her boss, Derace Kingsby (Leon Ames).
One month earlier, Kingsby’s wife, Chrystal, had sent her husband a telegram saying she was heading to Mexico to divorce him and marry a man named Chris Lavery (Dick Simmons). But, according to Fromsett, Lavery says he hasn't seen Chrystal for two months; she's missing, and the telegram appears to be a fake.
It quickly becomes obvious to Marlowe that Fromsett wants her boss for herself (for his money - as she later admits).
When Marlowe goes to see Lavery, the Southerner claims to be unaware of any trip to Mexico. And he has a slip of the tongue and says Mrs. Kingsby WAS a beautiful woman, then revises it to an "is". Then Lavery sucker punches the detective. Marlowe wakes up in jail, where he is questioned by Captain Kane (Tom Tully) and a belligerent Lieutenant DeGarmot (Lloyd Nolan). When Marlowe refuses to divulge anything about his case, Kane warns him not to cause trouble in his district and releases him.
Marlowe learns that the body of a woman has been recovered from a lake owned by Kingsby and Kingsby's caretaker there charged with the murder of his wife Muriel. Fromsett suspects that Chrystal is the real killer, as she and Muriel hated each other. Little Fawn Lake was also where Chrystal was last seen. Marlowe investigates and reports to Fromsett that Muriel was an alias for a woman named Mildred Havelend and that she was hiding from a tough cop – whose description fits DeGarmot.
Marlowe goes to call on Lavery again. Inside the unlocked house, he instead encounters Lavery's landlady, Mrs. Falbrook, holding a gun she claims to have just found. Upstairs, he finds Lavery dead in the shower, shot several times. He also finds a handkerchief with the monogram "A F".
Before calling the police, he interrupts a Christmas party at the publishing house to confront Fromsett. In private, she denies killing Lavery. Kingsby comes in and, after learning that Fromsett hired Marlowe to find Chrystal, tells her theirs will be strictly a business relationship from now on. A furious Fromsett fires the private eye. Marlowe immediately gets another job; Kingsby hires him to find his wife.
Marlowe then informs the police of Lavery's death. At the scene, he suggests that Muriel was hiding from DeGarmot. The two men scuffle, before Kane separates them and sends Marlowe on his way.
Marlowe obtains more information on Muriel from a newspaper contact. It turns out that Muriel had been a suspect in the suspicious death of her previous employer's wife - a woman named Florence. The investigating detective, DeGarmot, ruled that death a suicide; but the victim's parents strongly disagreed.
When Marlowe goes to question them, he finds they have been intimidated into keeping silent. Afterwards, he is run off the road by DeGarmot. Regaining consciousness after the crash, he manages to get to a telephone and call Fromsett for help. She takes him back to her apartment, where she tells him that they have much in common and that she has fallen in love with him. They spend Christmas Day together while he recovers from his injuries.
Kingsby shows up and informs Marlowe he has received a telegram from his wife, asking for money. Marlowe agrees to drop it off, as Kingsby is being followed by police detectives. Placing his life in Fromsett's hands, Marlowe instructs her to have the police follow him after ten minutes, following a trail of rice he will leave behind.
The woman Marlowe meets (and who had asked for money from Kingsby) turns out to be Mildred Havelend, alias Mrs. Falbrook, alias Muriel and is the one who killed Chrystal (the "lady in the lake"), Florence (her former employer's wife), and Lavery.
DeGarmot was in love with Havelend and helped her cover up the first murder, but she fled from him and married Kingsby's caretaker, Mr. Chess.
DeGarmot tracks down Marlowe and Havelend (having overheard Fromsett speaking to Captain Kane and following Marlowe's trail of rice grains). DeGarmot plans to kill Marlowe and Havelend with Havelend's gun and stage it to look like they shot each other. DeGarmot murders Mildred, but Captain Kane gets there just in time to gun down his own crooked cop. Marlowe and Fromsett leave for New York to start a life together. | cult, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0066079 | Das Millionenspiel | Das Millionenspiel ("The Game of Millions") is a successful TV show from the private station TETV. To win the grand prize of one million German marks, a candidate has to survive seven days on the run while being hunted by the Köhler gang. Of the first 14 candidates, 8 were killed during the course of the game.
Bernhard Lotz from Leverkusen is the show's 15th candidate. After almost a week without sleep and little food, he is full of agony and on the verge of physical collapse; Lotz could drop out, but there is the prospect of the grand prize of one million marks, and he knows the fate of one of his predecessors: when he forfeited the game, he was so derided as a coward that he eventually committed suicide.
The whole country watches the manhunt on TV, some fascinated, some disgusted. Lotz tries hiding, but he is always recognized. Some want to deliver him to the Köhler gang, but some help him. Throughout the game, the Köhler gang is always hot on his heels.
The action is interspersed with scenes from the studio, where the jovial Thilo Uhlenhorst moderates and shows documentation of Lotz's life. Reporters deliver latest developments, interrupted by sexualized commercials by the (fictional) "Stabil-Elite Group". Behind the scenes, game-makers manipulate the game by helping or harming Lotz.
In the grand finale, Lotz has to pass through the "death spiral" – a 28.40-meter-long tube of bulletproof glass with three openings through which the Köhler gang can shoot him. Lotz, who is on the verge of collapse and had been treated by doctors shortly before, is slightly wounded but reaches the goal and receives the million. But according to a doctor he is in a serious state of shock, and is taken from the studio to a hospital on a stretcher. Moderator Uhlenhorst declares the 15th edition of the game over and announces the next episode three weeks later. | cult, satire | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0158653 | Coming Home | The story is adapted from the novel, The Criminal Lu Yanshi (陆犯焉识; 陸犯焉識) written by novelist Geling Yan.
Lu Yanshi (陆焉识; 陸焉識, "Yanshi" literally means "how to recognize") was a professor before being sent to the labor camp (laogai, literally "reform through labor") during the Cultural Revolution. He escaped from the labor camp in Xining to meet his long-missed wife Feng Wanyu (冯婉瑜; 馮婉瑜) and daughter Dandan (Chinese: 丹丹). However, the police were already waiting outside the house to arrest him.
Dandan, who was then a teenage ballerina, could not play the leading role in Red Detachment of Women due to her father's outlaw status. Under the temptation of regaining the leading role, Dandan revealed her parents' secret meeting plan to the police. The meeting ended with the capture of Lu but Dandan still didn't get the leading role. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Lu came home only to find his broken family, his wife suffering from amnesia and his daughter working as textile worker. Under the shock of a former official's sexual harassment, his wife sometimes recognized him as Officer "Fang" instead of being her husband.
To reawaken his wife's memory, Lu played out as a total stranger just to be near with his wife. Although she recognized him as a letter reader or a piano tuner, he never could be able to be close enough to live with his chaste wife. During these years, Lu continued to write to his wife as a way of communicating with her, and to convince his wife to forgive their daughter.
The movie ended with Feng waiting to receive her husband outside the railway station and Lu standing with her on a snowy day, pretending to be pedicab driver. | romantic | train | wikipedia | A disappointment for fans of the book.
"Coming Home" could make a very engrossing 6-8 hour mini-series; unfortunately this production is all surface fairy-tale gloss with none of the depth and intent of the book.
Vast and important chunks of the original story are missing; most of the remnants are turned upside-down and inside-out, and given a relentlessly sentimental greeting-card treatment.
The author's serious attempt to portray life as she knew it as a young woman before, during, and after WWII is almost completely lost.
A group of very interesting and capable actors is pretty much wasted.
Its difficult to understand why the producers took the approach they did; one gets the impression that they must not have liked the original book much..
From lovely book to slightly tacky TV drama!.
Like so many things this was not as good as the book.
It was simply unrealistic to hope to fit a thousand page book into a three hour drama, and the story that they tell here in this TV drama suffers as a result.
The cutting of large chunks of the story and other small alterations make for an average script.On the acting front there is a mishmash of performances.
Peter O'Toole and Joanna Lumley are well casted, even if the latter does at points over do it a bit.
There are also early promising performances for Kiera Knightley and Paul Bettany, but the pivotal roles of the Judith and Loveday characters just don't work.In the spirit of fairness it is worth mentioning some of the lovely scenery shown, and the good attempt on the period costume and props.
However what annoyed me the most was that they partially changed the ending from the book to allow for the sequel.If you haven't read the book this will appear as slightly dated average world war two drama with some familiar faces in it.
But if you are a fan of the Pilcher novel then I'm afraid this slightly tacky adaptation does not live up to the book, and paints a more simpler and cruder picture of what is a truly lovely story..
Enjoyable mini.
British to its backbone this mini is entertaining even if the goings on are a bit cliché.
The settings are the beautiful especially the main house of Nancherrow.
Chock full of extraordinary actors, Peter O'Toole, Joanna Lumley and Susan Hampshire just for starters, in support where this suffers is in the main roles.
The actress playing Loveday is unmemorable but that can be ignored.
The real problem is Emily Mortimer, it isn't even all her fault for she is a decent actress but having someone with as much charisma as Keira Knightley play the character as a young girl and than switching to someone who doesn't hold the screen in the same way for the bulk of the story is bound to cause a something of a letdown..
Love...Exciting and new...Come aboard...it's World War 2....
A 4-hour romance novel set in Britain before during and after WWII.
The heroine falls into a fortune near the beginning and nothing much worse happens to her after that.
I hoped for a couple more plot twists, but even so, it has its charms, and I looked forward to finishing all 4 episodes.
Good acting.
Fair-Poor direction.
Horrible soundtrack reminiscent of an oatmeal commercial.American viewers will be surprised (well, I was) by the partial female nudity that pops up every hour or so just as interest starts to flag..
Lacks Depth.
Despite her small role Penelope Keith steals the show in this adaptation of a period drama that tells the story of the upheavals of war on the home front.
She is the ultimate educated and feminist aunt whose character is only spoilt by an idiotic ignorance of David McCallum's advances on Keira Knightly.Unfortunately, Keith's character dies early on in this 199 minute drama and the key concept of the changes of war barely touch the social realities of this story's very privileged characters.Emily Mortimer is an excellent actor but is badly miscast as an elder version of Knightly whose talents could easily have allowed her to continue in the role to at least the age of 18.
Lumley's heartache is barely given a glance in the story and there is virtually no opportunity for O'Toole to demonstrate his acting talents.
The adult Loveday Carey-Lewis, played by Katie Ryder Richardson changes little from her childhood counterpart with the result that her character has mo more maturity than that of a ten year old!
Moreover, the aftermath of the sex scene between Paul Bettany and Mortimer does not create the desired effect of rendering Bettany's character as an uncaring rogue.
Instead Mortimer's inflated romantic notions only fuel a dislike for a character that is utterly inept and badly in need of a lesson on life!Bettany, while brilliant, commits an unconvincing suicide but at the very least we catch a glimpse of the brutality of war on a generation of young men.I found myself wishing that the story had been told from the point of view of Mortimer's sister and the young artist, Gus, played by Heikko Deutschmann, but this is on account of my personal preference for a dark story lines.Overall the drama is entertaining but if you are looking for a more profound experience, look elsewhere..
Poorly done.
With Knightly and O'Tool as the leads, this film had good possibilities, and with McCallum as the bad guy after Knightly, maybe some tension.
But they threw it all away on silly evening frill and then later on with maudlin war remnants.
It was of course totally superficial, beautiful English country and seaside or not.The number one mistake was dumping Knightly so early on in the film, when she could easily have played someone a couple of years older, instead of choosing someone ten years older to play the part.
They missed all the chances to have great conflict among the cast, and instead stupidly pulled at the easy and low-cost heartstring elements..
OMG Keira.
I only watched this for Keira and boy she didn't disappoint.
She looks incredible in this and you knew right from the first minute what a star she would become.
Beauty like Keira's is so rare, you just have to acknowledge and enjoy it while it lasts.
However, i had to laugh when Keiras time was up and they replaced her with someone as ugly as Emily Mortimer!
Were they drunk when they came up with that bit of casting?
What a joke.
I actually stopped watching 2 minutes into Mortimers stint i was that appalled..
Enjoyable if superficial look at grand family during wartime.
I quite disliked this for some time - it struck me as a soap opera not meant for the likes of this 50 year old male lawyer -- but it grew on me as the series went on.Are there stereotyped characters?
You bet.
Is there as great a reverence for a grand home as you'll ever see outside Scarlett O'Hara's Tara?
Yup.But the acting nevertheless raises the level of this - and because of them, the characters' tragedies and their loves -- the sort of thing that many grand families did indeed go through in the Second World War -- do move us.The story is of two girls who become friends at boarding school in 1937 and their lives from that time to 1947.
One of the two is a sweet rather naive middle to upper middle class girl, the older of two sisters, whose family lives in Singapore (father's an executive with a shipping company).
The other friend is a deliberately anti-conventional youngest of three children of a grand family from Cornwall.With only two aunts and an uncle still in England (one of whom dies her first year at school and the other pair posted to Gibraltar within six months of her beginning school) the sweet girl (played by now superstar Keira Knightley and as an older girl played by the fine actress Emily Mortimer) is more or less made part of the grand family by her friend.From that point and throughout the War, this romantic tale is of separations, mistaken loves, deaths, love affairs.
The end of the War brings both mystery and sadness about the sweet girl's family in Singapore.As head of that grand family, Peter O'Toole is (characteristically) mysterious -- and Joanna Lumley playing his much younger wife, does a very nice job of making us care.
All concerned - particularly including Peter Batty as the only son of the grand family - are quite effective.The acting, as well as the fine costumes, sets, props, lift this above the category of mere soap opera that I originally thought it to be.Incidentally, ignore eye's comments below -- he wrongly describes much of the plot!.
A Travesty.
Quite what the producers of this appalling adaptation were trying to do is impossible to fathom.A group of top quality actors, in the main well cast (with a couple of notable exceptions), who give pretty good performances.
Penelope Keith is perfect as Aunt Louise and equally good is Joanna Lumley as Diana.
All do well with the scripts they were given.So much for the good.
The average would include the sets.
Nancherrow is nothing like the house described in the book, although bizarrely the house they use for the Dower House looks remarkably like it.
It is clear then that the Dower House is far too big.
In the later parts, the writers decided to bring the entire story back to the UK, presumably to save money, although with a little imagination I have no doubt they could have recreated Ceylon.Now to the bad.
The screenplay.
This is such an appallingly bad adaptation is hard to find words to condemn it.
Edward does not die in the battle of Britain but survives, blinded.
He makes a brief appearance then commits suicide - why??
Loveday has changed from the young woman totally in love with Gus to a sensible farmer's wife who can give up the love her life with barely a tear (less emotional than Brief Encounter).
Gus, a man besotted and passionately in love, is prepared to give up his love without complaint.
Walter (Mudge in the book) turns from a shallow unfaithful husband to a devoted family man.
Jess is made into a psychologically disturbed young woman who won't speak.
Aunt Biddy still has a drink problem but now without any justification.
The Dower House is occupied by the army for no obvious reason other than a very short scene with Jess who has a fear of armed soldiers.
Whilst Miss Mortimer's breasts are utterly delightful, I could not see how their display on several occasions moved the plot forward.
The delightfully named Nettlebed becomes the mundane Dobson.
The word limit prevents me from continuing the list.There is a sequel (which I lost all interest in watching after this nonsense) and I wonder if the changes were made to create the follow on story.
It is difficult to image that Rosamunde Pilcher would have approved this grotesque perversion of her book; presumably she lost her control when the rights were purchased..
Oh, to be in England, now that something is going on there, I'm told..
Okay, you have:Penelope Keith as Miss Herringbone-Tweed, B.B.E.
(Backbone of England.) She's killed off in the first scene - that's right, folks; this show has no backbone!Peter O'Toole as Ol' Colonel Cricket from The First War and now the emblazered Lord of the Manor.Joanna Lumley as the ensweatered Lady of the Manor, 20 years younger than the colonel and 20 years past her own prime but still glamourous (Brit spelling, not mine) enough to have a toy-boy on the side.
It's alright, they have Col. Cricket's full knowledge and consent (they guy even comes 'round for Christmas!) Still, she's considerate of the colonel enough to have said toy-boy her own age (what a gal!)David McCallum as said toy-boy, equally as pointlessly glamourous as his squeeze.
Pilcher couldn't come up with any cover for him within the story, so she gave him a hush-hush job at the Circus.and finally:Susan Hampshire as Miss Polonia Teacups, Venerable Headmistress of the Venerable Girls' Boarding-School, serving tea in her office with a dash of deep, poignant advice for life in the outside world just before graduation.
Her best bit of advice: "I've only been to Nancherrow (the local Stately Home of England) once.
I thought it was very beautiful but, somehow, not part of the real world." Well, we can't say they didn't warn us.Ah, Susan - time was, your character would have been running the whole show.
They don't write 'em like that any more.
Our loss, not yours.So - with a cast and setting like this, you have the re-makings of "Brideshead Revisited," right?Wrong!
They took these 1-dimensional supporting roles because they paid so well.
After all, acting is one of the oldest temp-jobs there is (YOU name another!)First warning sign: lots and lots of backlighting.
They get around it by shooting outdoors - "hey, it's just the sunlight!"Second warning sign: Leading Lady cries a lot.
When not crying, her eyes are moist.
That's the law of romance novels: Leading Lady is "dewy-eyed."Henceforth, Leading Lady shall be known as L.L.Third warning sign: L.L. actually has stars in her eyes when she's in love.
Still, I'll give Emily Mortimer an award just for having to act with that spotlight in her eyes (I wonder .
did they use contacts?)And lastly, fourth warning sign: no on-screen female character is "Mrs." She's either "Miss" or "Lady."When all was said and done, I still couldn't tell you who was pursuing whom and why.
I couldn't even tell you what was said and done.To sum up: they all live through World War II without anything happening to them at all.OK, at the end, L.L. finds she's lost her parents to the Japanese prison camps and baby sis comes home catatonic.
Meanwhile (there's always a "meanwhile,") some young guy L.L. had a crush on (when, I don't know) comes home from some wartime tough spot and is found living on the street by Lady of the Manor (must be some street if SHE's going to find him there.) Both war casualties are whisked away to recover at Nancherrow (SOMEBODY has to be "whisked away" SOMEWHERE in these romance stories!)Great drama. |
tt0050874 | The Quiet Gun | Doug Sadler (Lee Van Cleef), a cattle rustler comes to town. He’s in a secret partnership with saloon owner John Reilly (Tom Brown). They plan to run the stolen cattle into Hell’s Canyon, located on land belonging to Ralph Carpenter (Jim Davis). Carpenter and his wife Teresa (Kathleen Crowley) are separated, so Reilly has sent Native American beauty Irene (Mara Corday) to seduce Carpenter. Then Reilly put a flea in the ear of Steven Hardy (Lewis Martin), the town’s Eastern born city attorney about “immorality”. When Hardy tries to serve a warrant for his arrest, in the resulting confrontation Hardy is killed. Sheriff Brandon (Forrest Tucker), who was in love with. Teresa before her marriage and was friends with Ralph Carpenter, sets out to arrest Carpenter. However, a lynch mob knocks out the sheriff and hangs Carpenter. Brandon arrests the mob and tricks the city council into stopping another mob that demands the release of the arrested men. Meanwhile, Irene returns to the Carpenter house where she is discovered by Reilly and Sadler, who assault her. At the trial the members of the lynch mob are sentenced to three years in jail. Then Mrs. Carpenter arrives with the news that Reilly and Sadler have killed Irene. In a gunfight Sadler and Reilly are killed. Sheriff Brandon is only wounded and reunited with Teresa. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0360348 | All Cheerleaders Die | The film opens with Maddy Killian (Caitlin Stasey) recording footage of her childhood friend Alexis (Felisha Cooper) as she prepares for the final days of school before summer break and for cheerleading practice. She discusses how important it is to remain fit and how dangerous cheerleading can be, pointing out how easy it is for some of the more advanced cheerleader moves to end with severe or deadly injuries. This proves to be the case when Alexis is thrown into the air and her teammates fail to catch her in time, resulting in her death.
Once school resumes Maddy decides that she will try out for the cheerleading team and manages to impress the entire team with her acrobatic skills. After being accepted, Maddy notes that Tracy (Brooke Butler) has begun dating Terry (Tom Williamson), a star football player who had been dating Alexis prior to her death. She begins to get along with the other cheerleaders, the overly religious and prissy Martha (Reanin Johannink) and her shy sister Hanna (Amanda Grace Cooper), who serves as the cheerleading mascot. This provokes Maddy's ex-girlfriend Leena (Sianoa Smit-McPhee), who can't understand why Maddy would want to hang out with the cheerleaders. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Maddy has actually joined the cheerleading squad to take revenge on Terry for as yet unspecified reasons.
Maddy begins taking her revenge by convincing Tracy that Terry had cheated on her during the summer and even manages to successfully seduce her at a group gathering of cheerleaders and football players. This greatly hurts Leena (who had been watching the gathering from afar) and angers Terry, who starts a fight, and bans the "dogs" (football players) from dating the "bitches" (cheerleaders).
He then punches Tracy in a fit of anger. The cheerleaders all try to escape the raging football players, only for Terry to cause an accident that claims the lives of all of the cheerleaders. Horrified at what she's seen, Leena manages to revive all of the dead cheerleaders using Wicca magic and magic stones. The following day the girls are all disoriented and scared, especially Martha and Hanna, as they have also somehow swapped bodies.
None of them recollect exactly what happened until Leena reveals to them what occurred the night before. They're also very hungry, which prompts them to attack one of Leena's neighbors and suck out all of his blood. The girls then go to school, where the football players all watch them with disbelief, as they'd thought them all dead. During the day the cheerleaders pick off the football players one by one, either out of hunger or, in the case of Martha, out of anger when she realizes that her sister slept with her boyfriend, Manny (Leigh Parker), using her body.
While the girls were all initially willing to work together, their solidarity unravels due to the day's deaths and the discovery from Maddy's video diaries that she had joined the squad out of revenge. She tries to explain her cruel criticism of them, but none of the others will listen to her, especially not Tracy, as she had genuinely begun to fall in love with Maddy.
The only person who will listen is Leena and Maddy tells her that she had been raped by Terry while attempting to film a memorial video for Alexis and that up until that point, she had not wanted revenge. The girls are then picked off one by one by Terry, who has figured out what is going on and manages to defeat them by cutting out the magic stones (which reside in the girls' bodies) and swallowing them.
Terry manages to corner Maddy and Leena in a graveyard where he tries to force Leena to show him how to use her magic for his benefit, only for him to die after Maddy attacks him and Leena's magic somehow manages to force the stones out of him. Maddy dies again as a result of this but Leena manages to revive her through her own grief, the same thing that caused the original resurrection. The two embrace and kiss, only to find that a bloody Alexis is tearing her way out of Terry's corpse (as he had landed on her grave) and screaming Leena's name. The film then cuts to the title card, which reveals that the film is part one in a series and that there will be a sequel. | cult | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0119948 | Il principe di Homburg | The Prince of Homburg, a young officer of the Great Elector (Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg), is exhausted after a long campaign. Walking in his sleep, he puts on a laurel wreath. Several noblemen notice this, and the Great Elector plays a trick on the Prince, which leads him to declare his love for the Elector's niece, Natalie. He is able to take one of her gloves. After waking from his dream the Prince is puzzled by the glove in his hand. When at the next council of war the plans for the next battle are being discussed, and duties are being handed out, the Prince is thrown into confusion by the appearance of Princess Natalie, who reveals herself as the owner of the glove, and he is distracted to the extent that he fails to take on board his orders, which are not to engage the enemy without a direct order to do so. Contrary to his instructions he attacks the enemy at the Battle of Fehrbellin – and wins.
The Elector however is concerned above all with discipline. Regardless of the victory, he has the Prince arrested for disobeying an order and tried at a court martial, where the Prince is condemned to death. He fails initially to grasp the seriousness of the situation, and starts to be truly concerned only when he hears that the Elector has signed his death warrant. The reality of his situation only hits home when he is shown the grave that has been dug for him. In the famous and controversial "fear of death scene" (Todesfurchtszene) the Prince begs for his life, prepared to give up all that is dear to him in return. When the Elector hears of the Prince's reaction, he too is confused, possibly astonished, but claims to have the greatest respect for the Prince's feeling. Instead of simply pardoning him, however, he sets a condition: if the Prince can genuinely call his condemnation unjust, he will be pardoned. The question raises the Prince to a state of enlightenment: he conquers his fear of death and is prepared to "glorify" the sentence by a suicide. It remains debatable whether he really considers his sentence justified. Nor does it ever come to light to what extent the Elector may have planned all this to teach him a lesson.
Meanwhile, Natalie, without a legitimate order, has recalled Kottwitz's regiment to obtain support for Homburg's pardon. In the face of the general pressure now put on him, the Elector now listens to his officers. Kottwitz is of the opinion that what counts on the field of battle is victory, and that there is nothing with which to reproach the Prince. Hohenzollern goes further and attributes the guilt to the Elector, as he caused the Prince's confusion and consequent insubordination by the trick he played on him, and therefore bears the responsibility himself. Finally the Elector asks the officers if they are happy to continue to trust themselves to the Prince's leadership – to which all say yes.
The Prince learns nothing of his pardon, but is led blindfold into the open air, in the belief that he is about to be executed. But there is no bullet: instead, the niece of the Elector crowns him with a laurel wreath. To his question whether this is a dream, Kottwitz replies, "A dream, what else" ("Ein Traum, was sonst"). The Prince faints. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt5810762 | Resident Evil: Biohazard | In 2017, Ethan Winters, a civilian with an unknown background, is drawn to a derelict plantation in Dulvey, Louisiana, by a message from his wife Mia, who has been missing for the past three years. Exploring a seemingly abandoned house, Ethan finds Mia imprisoned in the basement. During their escape, Mia suddenly becomes extremely violent and attacks Ethan, forcing him to kill her. After receiving a call from a woman named Zoe offering assistance, Ethan is attacked again by a revived Mia, cutting his left arm off, and then subdued by Jack Baker, patriarch of the Baker family. He is then dragged to another house where Zoe sows his hand back on. Ethan is held captive by Jack, his wife Marguerite, their son Lucas, and an elderly wheelchair-bound woman. Although Ethan escapes his captors, he is repeatedly confronted by Jack, who demonstrates the ability to regenerate from fatal wounds and dismemberment.
Zoe again contacts Ethan, revealing she is the Bakers' daughter. Zoe informs Ethan that she, her family, and Mia are all infected with the same ailment, but can be cured with a special serum. Ethan makes his way to an old house to retrieve the serum ingredients, where he manages to kill Marguerite. After recovering the ingredients, Ethan experiences visions of an unknown young girl. Lucas captures Zoe and Mia before Ethan's return, and forces him to navigate a booby-trapped barn to find them. Ethan outwits Lucas, causing him to flee, and frees Zoe and Mia. Zoe then develops two serum doses, but Jack, now heavily mutated, attacks Ethan, who uses one dose to permanently kill him. Ethan must then choose to cure either Mia or Zoe. Choosing Zoe leaves Mia heartbroken, despite Ethan's promise to send help. As he and Zoe escape on a boat, Zoe reveals that the Bakers were infected after Mia arrived with a young girl named Eveline when the wreck of a tanker ship washed ashore. To prevent their escape, Eveline psychically kills Zoe, and Ethan is knocked from the boat by a creature. If Ethan chooses Mia, Zoe gives a bitter farewell to him and Mia. As he and Mia escape on a boat, they come across the crashed tanker where they are attacked by the creature and knocked from the boat. Following either choice, Mia ends up on the wrecked ship and searches for Ethan while experiencing visions of Eveline, who refers to Mia as her mother. Eventually, Mia's memory is restored, revealing that she was a covert operative for an unnamed corporation that developed Eveline as a bioweapon. Mia and another agent were to escort Eveline as she was being transported aboard the tanker when Eveline escaped containment and sank the ship. She then infected Mia in an effort to force her to be her mother. After finding Ethan, Mia gives him a vial of Eveline's genetic material. If Ethan cured Zoe, Mia succumbs to Eveline's control and attacks Ethan, forcing him to permanently kill her. If Ethan cured Mia, she resists her control long enough to seal Ethan out of the ship to save him.
After leaving the shipwreck, Ethan discovers a hidden laboratory inside an abandoned salt mine. There, he learns that Eveline is a bio-organic weapon capable of infecting people with a psychotropic mold that gives her control over her victims' minds, resulting in their insanity, superhuman regenerative abilities, and various mutations. Eveline grew up obsessed with having a family, influencing her to infect Mia and the Bakers, and lure Ethan to the Bakers' home. Lucas is also revealed to have been immunized against Eveline's control by the organization in exchange for providing observations on her. Using the lab equipment and Eveline's genetic material, Ethan synthesizes a toxin to kill her, and proceeds through a series of tunnels that lead back to the Baker house. Eveline assaults Ethan with hallucinations, but he overcomes them and injects Eveline with the toxin, which doesn't kill her, but reveals she is the elderly woman in a wheelchair, who has been rapidly aging since her escape. Eveline then mutates into a large monster but, aided by the arrival of a military squad, Ethan is able to kill her. With Eveline dead, the squad and their leader, who identifies himself as "Redfield", extracts Ethan by helicopter. If Ethan did not cure Mia, he throws his phone containing her last message to him from the helicopter, saying "goodbye". If Mia was cured, she is found alive aboard Redfield's helicopter. As the helicopter flies away, it is revealed to be branded with a variation of the Umbrella Corporation logo. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0097940 | Mystery Train | The film consists of three stories that take place on the same night in downtown Memphis. The three stories are linked together by the Arcade Hotel, a run-down flophouse presided over by the night clerk (Screamin' Jay Hawkins) and bellboy (Cinqué Lee), where the principal characters in each story spend a part of the night. Every room in the hotel is adorned with a portrait of Elvis Presley.
The first story, "Far From Yokohama", features Mitsuko (Youki Kudoh) and Jun (Masatoshi Nagase), a teenage couple from Yokohama making a pilgrimage to Memphis during a trip across America. Mitsuko is obsessed with Elvis to the point where she believes that there is a mystical connection between Elvis, Madonna and the Statue of Liberty. The film follows the couple as they travel from the train station, through downtown Memphis and an exhausting tour of Sun Records, to the Arcade hotel.
The second story, "A Ghost", is about an Italian widow, Luisa (Nicoletta Braschi), who is stranded in Memphis while escorting her husband's coffin back to Italy. Luisa, who has been conned twice and stuck with armfuls of magazines, is forced to share a room at the hotel with Dee Dee (Elizabeth Bracco), a young woman who has just left her boyfriend (Johnny from the final story) and who plans to leave the city in the morning. Luisa is kept awake by Dee Dee's constant talking, and when the young woman finally does go to sleep, she is visited by an apparition of Memphis' most famous icon – Elvis Presley.
The final story, "Lost in Space", introduces Johnny (Joe Strummer). Upset after losing his job and his girlfriend (Dee Dee), Johnny – known, much to his chagrin, as Elvis – drunkenly brandishes a gun in a bar before leaving with his friend Will Robinson (Rick Aviles) and his ex-girlfriend's brother Charlie (Steve Buscemi), who believes Johnny to be his brother-in-law. They stop at a liquor store, which Johnny robs using the gun and severely wounds the owner in the process. Fearing the consequences of the incident, Johnny, Will and Charlie retire to the hotel to hide out for the night; there, Johnny gets drunker. Charlie realizes that Will shares the same name as the character Will Robinson from the television show Lost in Space, which Johnny has never heard of. Charlie and Will proceed to tell him about the show, and Will comments that that is how he feels then with Charlie and Johnny: lost in space. The next morning, Charlie discovers that Johnny isn't really his brother-in-law, which angers him because of what they've been through. Johnny attempts to shoot himself, and while struggling to prevent him, Charlie is shot in the leg. Leaving the hotel, the three rush to escape a police car that isn't even looking for them. The closing credits show the train, the airport and the final views of the characters from the first two stories. | murder, cult, atmospheric, psychedelic, humor, storytelling | train | wikipedia | 'Mystery Train' is probably the most entertaining, interesting and understated of indie-fave Jim Jarmusch's early work (i haven't seen 'Coffee and Cigarettes' yet).
The films portrayal of Elvis' birthplace of Memphis, possibly one of the most featureless, gritty and desolate representations of urban America ever committed to film, is a deceptively clever and substantial take on American subcultures.Without doubt, it is the first of the films three vignettes that makes the film stand out a little more than Jarmusch's other quirky offerings.
Jim Jarmusch's follow-up to 1986's "Down By Law" is an engrossing trio of stories revolving around one night in a run-down Memphis hotel.
The cast includes cult performers like Tom Noonan (the serial killer in Michael Mann's "Manhunter"), Steve Buscemi, and singer Tom Waits (heard on the radio), and it is directed by one of America's leading independent directors.
"Mystery Train" is possibly Jim Jarmusch's most immaculate film, and though the movie gets steadily darker in its comic tone, it is his least bleak work to date.
Robbie Muller, the great Dutch cameraman who shot Alex Cox's "Repo Man" and Wim Wenders' "Paris, Texas", once more brings an outsider's perspective to the American landscape, giving the night scenes and hotel interiors a Hopperesque look and endowing a dilapidated section of Memphis with an elegaic sadness..
While all of them (even Dead Man and Year of the Horse, movies that boggled my mind with how strange they were) carry a level of off-beat, original, and fresh kind of film-making prowess, I think my favorite (hard to say 'best' with this director) is with this film, Mystery Train.
The idea behind both films is very similar, but of course executed in entirely different trajectories - one person or place has a level of importance for what will happen to the characters in the film (with 'Pulp' it was Marsellus Wallace; with 'Mystery' it's the Hotel run by Screaming' Jay Hawkins, and the song Blue Moon on radio).
On its own terms, Mystery Train comes out entertaining if one doesn't want to think about the timing of the plot, even if that is carefully, almost architecturally constructed.Although the second and third stories are linked by character associations, the first is a stand-alone segment that looks like if it was just on paper could make for a calm, witty short story.
As it is in the film, the Japanese couple "Far from Yokohama" featuring actors Masatoshi Nagase and Yôki Kudô, is an inviting first part of the film, almost entirely in Japanese subtitles, and playing off of the lady's love of Elvis, and the guy's quiet love for Carl Perkins (a name I didn't really know until I asked around).
Interesting still is how he sets up other little bits with supporting characters as the leads unfurls- this being an occasional couple of lines between Hawkins and down-beat bellboy Cinque Lee (there are also very quick shots of Steve Buscemi as a barber, the only small connection to the other two stories, and Rufus Thomas at the station).
Nicoletta Braschi (Roberto Benigni's wife in most films as in life) is astray in Memphis on a flight, and instead of seeking out Elvis gets it delivered to her in a vision while in a hotel room with a talky Jersey Girl (Elizabeth Bracco).
It's a complete kind of surreal scene that acts as the fine top-off to a set of odder circumstances that bring her to the hotel (in particular Tom Noonan in one of the funniest small roles I've seen in any Jarmusch film).
His scenes are lit sometimes with all the realism and fantasy of a European fantasy film, but also with a careful eye in composition and getting unusual angles on things a simple as photographing two people in bed or a person walking alone with Memphis in the backdrop.
Mystery Train may be one of the quintessential 80's indie films (which can be said of Stinger than Paradise and Down by Law as well), that welcomes anyone who might be interested to watch, and if you don't like it, it's not at the worst offensive to taste.
Memphis is the setting, and the specter of Elvis pervades a trio of stories in `Mystery Train,' written and directed by Jim Jarmusch.
To tell his tale, Jarmusch has assembled a talented, eclectic cast of actors, including Masatoshi Nagase (Jun) and the charismatic Youki Kudoh (Mitsuko), the couple from Japan with opposing perspectives of Memphis; Nicoletta Braschi (Luisa), the widow awaiting a flight back to Rome; Elizabeth Bracco (Dee Dee), a young woman whose life is in transition; Tom Noonan (Man in Diner), a man with a menacing presence and a strange tale to tell; Steve Buscemi (Charlie), a regular guy led astray by trusting indifference, along with Rick Aviles (Will Robinson) and Lowell Roberts (Lester); Stephen Jones, a dead-ringer for Elvis who is extremely effective here as his ghost; and the two whose characters are pivotal to the story, Screamin' Jay Hawkins (Hotel Night Clerk), and Cinque Lee (The Bellboy).
Thoroughly engrossing and highly entertaining, `Mystery Train' is vintage Jarmusch; a director whose minimalist techniques and style make for a satisfying and rewarding movie-going experience.
He will not dazzle you with ILM F/X or feed you endless lines of witty dialogue; instead, he gives you more: A film that is artistically and cleverly rendered, with an engaging story and characters that are `real.' An independent filmmaker who stays true to his personal `vision,' Jarmusch gives you that which is rarely found in Hollywood.
Jim Jarmusch (Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Broken Flowers) delivers films that are true indy's.
Steve Buscemi is fun to watch as always, and I really liked the Japanese teen, Youki Kudoh, and, of course Robby Müller's (Paris, Texas) cinematography is always good.Jarmusch fans will love it..
"Mystery Train" moves along at a pace identical to that of "Night on Earth." It has those usual Jarmusch trademarks: characters from a foreign country, culture clashes, episodic rhythm, etc.
You can never watch a Jarmusch film and say to yourself, "Man, people don't talk like that in real life!" Though highly identical to "Night on Earth," I found that film much more engaging in comparison, and I could've help but ponder that while watching this movie.
Jarmusch makes good use of the camera, preventing us from feeling like we're watching a photographed play--even though many scenes fixate on one location.
Elvis, Screaming Jay Hawkins, a seedy hotel, an endless steamy night, the desolation, the Guide at the Sun Studios, the Japanese tourists: I don't want to say any more.
Released in 1989, MYSTERY TRAIN was Jim Jarmusch's third film.
The film consists of three independent but interlocking vignettes which take place in a Memphis hotel run by Screamin' Jay Hawkins with the help of bellboy Cinque Lee.In the first scene, young Japanese tourists Mitsuko (Youki Kudoh) and Jun (Matsatoshi Nagase) pass through Memphis to see the monuments of 1950s rock 'n' roll.
MYSTERY TRAIN was Jarmusch's first film in colour and he chose a lovely cool palette that jars with Screamin' Jay Hawkins' electric red suit..
In "Mystery Train", Jim Jarmusch does with Memphis what he would later do with taxis in "Night on Earth".
A really good scene shows a woman walking through this ghetto, while the affluent downtown appears in the background.It is true that Jim Jarmusch is an acquired taste, but "Mystery Train" will probably appeal to more people if only because of the soundtrack.
Masatoshi Nagase, Youki Kudoh, Steve Buscemi, Rick Aviles, Joe Strummer, Nicoletta Braschi, Elizabeth Bracco and Screamin' Jay Hawkins all put on some great performances, with Tom Waits as the radio announcer.
Buscemi turns in what has become his signature performance, Strummer acts (or maybe is) drunk and Nagase doesn't really have very much to do or say as Jun.Mystery Train is not a bad movie but, by the same token, it's not a great movie.
I can't help thinking that the film might have been more interesting if the three threads had been inter-cut, but not intersecting, to give the illusion of a more complex plot - but, hey, I'm not a director.Mystery Train is watchable, but it fails to live up to the reputation of Jarmusch's Down By Law which is far superior in nearly every respect.
This means that unless you are fluent in these two languages or Japanese or Italian, you are not going to understand 33% of the dialogue in this movie.Which, all things considered, isn't that big of a deal since Mystery Train can be enjoyed even with the sound off....
Three stories are connected by a Memphis hotel and the spirit of Elvis Presley.I love how this film takes for granted the universality of Elvis -- he is not only synonymous with Memphis, but is well known to both Americans and foreigners (Italians and Japanese, in this film).Indeed, director Jarmusch points out that with our crumbling American culture (his words, not mine) all that our culture ever offered was musicians and movie stars.
American culture is not opera, painting or theater (though we may have these things) -- it is Elvis and Hollywood.Throw in Steve Buscemi to an already great film, and you have gold.
Director Jim Jarmusch continues to indulge his fascination with America's cultural residue, this time going directly to one of the more reliable sources: Memphis, Tennessee, home of the Once and Future King himself, Elvis Presley.
Like other Jarmusch films it's a deadpan, deadbeat sampling of offbeat Americana, seen by outsiders on the inside looking out: an Elvis-idolizing Japanese tourist and her cool, catatonic boyfriend; a young Italian widow who receives a ghostly visitation from the King; and an expatriate English drop-out bearing an unfortunate resemblance to the Man From Memphis.
This is the third film by Jarmusch that I watch(the others being Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and Night on Earth).
The opening shots of Jim Jarmusch's new film show two young Japanese tourists in a faded Amtrak coach, listening to their Walkmans as the train pulls through the edge of Memphis.
But, though he is a natural at dry goofiness, Jarmusch is not quite as much a comedian as an idealist, who sees America as an immigrant might, as a bizarre, nostalgic country where the urban landscapes are painted by Robert Henri and the all-night blues stations supply a soundtrack for life.The tourists arrive in Memphis and haul their luggage through the yawning train station, and walk to the Sun studios, where a guide babbles on with her pitch about Presley and Perkins faster than an auctioneer could.
Other people will check into this hotel during the movie's lasting night of intricacy.The soundtrack is from a local radio station, and Elvis' version of Blue Moon is heard at some point during all three segments of the narrative, supplying a collective bond, as does an offscreen gunshot.
Mystery train is a clever and funny film in full Jarmush style; in my opinion it is an enjoyable and light hearted film constructed in such a way that as the plot proceeds, the audience begins to pay attention to various details used as a way to connect the three stories together.
I enjoyed particularly the first story which depicted the Japanese couple on a discovery tour of Memphis, here Jarmush's interest for the human's behaviour is evident as the couple relationship, although it might seem to be almost comical, is in fact a quite realistic stereotyipical representation of a Japanese relationship.Definitely worth watching it if you are into independent "no mainstream" films..
A bad pizza, bad sex, or a bad movie with Steve Buscemi in it.This typically quirky Jim Jarmusch film consists of four overlapping stories whose characters, for better or for worse, all end up one night in a rundown Memphis hotel.
A young Japanese couple making the rock and roll fan's obligatory pilgrimage; a recently widowed young Italian woman; a New Jersey transplant who's run out on her lover and is making her way back home; and three friends, including the latter's brother and her drunken, depressed ex, who have gotten themselves into a "situation".It's not just Buscemi - all members of this extraordinary cast, which includes Joe Strummer, Elizabeth Bracco, Rick Aviles, and two wonderful Japanese actors whom I've never heard of - plus the laugh out loud script, make this film a treat..
During the first twenty minutes or so of this film one is overwhelmed with the notion that writer director Jim Jarmusch is a genius: a pair of young Japanese rock and roll lovers travel to Memphis, Tennessee to visit the formative sights of legendary star Elvis Presley.
"Mystery Train' is the third film by director Jim Jarmusch and as he describes it: "its the third film of a trilogy." The other two films were "Stranger then Paradise" and "Down by Law".
The film is set up like a journey on a train divided into three separate stories that find their way in the same location.
The last story "Lost in Space" is about the boyfriend Elvis and two other friends who drive around drunk and later get in trouble with the law.As with all of Jarmusch's films, the plot is never as important as the details and nuances.
This sounds much like the same disc jockey Tom Waits played in Down By Law. And Screamin Jay Hawkins's put a spell on Jarmusch's first film "Stranger the Paradise" as his presence does here.
Plus there is a double dose of the title song "Mystery Train" by both Junior Parker and Elvis.This quirky Jim Jarmusch project features Masatoshi Nagase, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Elizabeth Bracco, Steve Buscemi, Rick Aviles, Cinque Lee, Rufus Thomas and the voice of Tom Waits.
In "Mystery Train" we have three different stories that happen at the same time in the same place to three diferent groups of people without crossing with each other much.
And the place is Memphis, the city where Elvis Presley was born and rose to stardom and where his ghost is still wondering according to one of the stories shown in the film.
Among the cast are easily recognasible Nicoletta Braschi (Life is Beautiful) as Italian tourist, who also appeared in Jim Jarmush previous film "Down by Law", and Steve Buscemi best known from Coen brothers movies.
I really don't like art movies but this one is very interesting,in a bucolic and already decadent Memphis three stories happen in same time with different an unusual characters crossing their destiny in a cheap hotel,each one didn't are connected but all them acting so close like a parallel world,just Dee Dee has a little link with some them,the music score is fabulous as opening "Mistery Train" the best,Memphis is a kind of Rock'n Roll's Meca,survives from their past idols that addressed mainly to Elvis due cause he lived there,fantastic Jarmush picture!!Resume:First watch: 1991 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 8.25.
The movie has all the recognizable characteristics of Jim Jarmusch, which make him one of my favorite directors, but this time the story left me totally indifferent.
The film plays 3 stories, skeletally interwoven in time (the radio dj sequences), space (the hotel), and by relationships (a couple recently broken-up).
This is just as good as Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise but better then Down By Law. The movie starts out with a young Japanese couple on a train going to Memphis,Tennessee to see Elvis's hometown.
This film is an original, funny and well acted story of three connected stories revolving around a Memphis hotel which is a personal shrine to Elvis.
I'm not much of a fan of Jim Jarmusch, but 1989's Mystery Train (his fourth film and first one in color) is quite engaging in they way it tells three minimalist stories occurring in what is presumably the seedier side of Memphis.
"Mystery Train" is a peculiar little piece of film-making and very true to Jim Jarmusch's unpredictable style.
Don't get me wrong, there are some wonderful things about Mystery Train, and, overall, I liked it more than I did Stranger Than Paradise and Down by Law. But I always felt like I should be liking it a lot more, and I just never felt much more than a nice affection for the movie.
The movie is about three different stories which are taking place in the same place at the same time (at night in some cheap motel).
Jim Jarmusch is really good in telling different stories who are connected one to each other and also in this case he's doing a great job.
Mystery train is another movie which shows the life of common people, but I think this is his funniest movie, just before Night on earth.
The movie consists of three different stories: Far from Yokohama - the first story of a young Japanese couple, obsessed with Elvis Presley.
Overall, Mystery Train is a funny movie, with a lot of drama, comedy and memorable scenes.
Marvelous movie in Jarmusch style; several storylines only touching each other slightly, bringing an ode to both Memphis-style America and Elvis Presley.Jarmusch is a master in bringing odd characters together, including Japanese tourists, a lost Italian woman, some freaked out hotel-personnel (including Screamin' Jay Hawkins) and a couple of small-time crooks.** minor spoilers ahead!
With the ghosts of Elvis both figuratively and literally appearing in every frame, and the seedy run down side of Memphis on display, the film certainly has a unique character.
Looking at the critics of Jarmusch's films, it seems that there are people who think that his movies are slow, boring and tedious.
The third segment made me wish the movie would end soon.The music, which is essential in other Jarmusch films, is not as impressive in this one.
What is great is the fact that Jarmusch can balance all three stories and make them all work.Far From Yokohama- A good segment. |
tt1566648 | Waiting for 'Superman' | Geoffrey Canada describes his journey as an educator and his surprise when he realizes upon entering adulthood that Superman is a fictional character and that no one is powerful enough to save us all.
Throughout the documentary, different aspects of the American public education system are examined. Things such as the ease in which a public school teacher achieves tenure, the inability to fire a teacher who is tenured, and how the system attempts to reprimand poorly performing teachers are shown to affect the educational environment. Teaching standards are called into question as there is often conflicting bureaucracy between teaching expectations at the school, state, or federal level.
The film also examines teacher's unions. Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public schools (the district with some of the worst-performing students at the time), is shown attempting to take on the union agreements that teachers are bound to, but suffers a backlash from the unions and the teachers themselves.
Statistical comparisons are made between the different types of primary or secondary educational institutions available: state school, private school, and charter school. There are also comparisons made between schools in affluent neighborhoods versus schools in poorer ones. Since charter schools do not operate with the same restrictions as public institutions, they are depicted as having a more experimental approach to educating students.
Since many charter schools are not large enough to accept all of their applicants, the selection of students is done by lottery. The film follows several families as they attempt to gain access to prominent charter schools for their children. | depressing, sentimental | train | wikipedia | The system should reward the teachers, parents and children who do want to teach and learn.Regardless of your politics or personal involvement in education, I commend Mr. Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth") and Mr. Gates and Ms. Rhee for rocking the boat ...
I can't remember the last time I got so caught up in a documentary.This movie seeks to do two things, 1) to show how bad bad public education in this country is and to suggest some of the reasons (the two teachers unions, the administrative bureaucracy, etc.); 2) to suggest a solution.It does 1) in a devastatingly powerful fashion.
yey we're #1!) David Guggenheim's documentary shifts between personal stories of (mostly) inner-city kids whose parents want their kids to do well but are doubtful for good reason about whether their kids will get the fair chance, and try ultimately to get them into charter-school systems that rely on a lottery system of picking who gets in and who doesn't.This makes up the emotional core of the picture, and it's a good one.
Where things get both interesting and tricky is when Guggenheim gets into the main issue at hand: what's wrong with our countries schools, especially in inner-city/urban ones like in Harlem and DC where there are "Drop-Out Factories" created in part by students in bad neighborhoods but more-so by teachers who just don't give a good-damn about teaching.
They show how the teachers do give a damn about the students, and the better attention paid - and as we see teaching is a kind of art form that one can master - the better the students.But doing a little research before or after the film shows that Guggenheim, for all of his good (and they are good) intentions, omits or shallowly covers certain things, such as the Kipp charter schools (it's mentioned only briefly in the doc but 1 out of 5 Charter schools really work best at what they do, and not mentioned is how kids that don't keep up in the first couple of years just get kicked out, period), and about the nature of public school teachers.
To me it would appear to be a vicious cycle where both sides need reform for true change.But Waiting for Superman, a film meant to rile up the audience into attention like Guggenheim's previous doc An Inconvenient Truth, is useful as a way to get people who have no idea what's going on what is going on, at least the cliff-notes version of it.
The doc could go even further with being an activist-style position trying to affect change, or give clearer facts; there's a lot of cute-quirky animation to bring along the information, though the interviewees selected are kind of cherry-picked for its ultimate effect.It is, in short, a good documentary but not quite a great one, and will be a big upper or a big downer depending on who you are in the audience, if you have kids, if you're a teacher, or if you're in the "rubber room" in one of the NYC schools..
The documentary focuses on five public school children who represent inner-city kids with broken families and day-to-day financial struggles (except for a student of middle-class parents in the Silicon Valley).
I would like to see the teacher's unions come up with their own documentary - then let's see the OTHER side of the story.Viewers beware of this movie, but most of you won't will you, because you have bought into the system, you have allowed the programers to delude you into thinking the education system should all be about reading, writing and maths..
Wow. This ranks as one of the most heavy-handed, one-sided, emotionally manipulative pieces of propaganda masquerading as a "documentary" that I've ever seen.For all the things that are wrong with the American education system that desperately need to be addressed, this movie's sole intent is to bash overworked, underpaid teachers by calling them out as "bad" and to vilify unions as self-interested organizations of malicious intent.Are there "bad" apathetic teachers?
But I am very sensitive to things that are created to harm Children, and that is the intent of "Waiting for Superman." As a former Chicago Public School teacher, I can tell you exactly why you should not believe the views propagated in this film.1) Private schools do not teach anywhere near the amount of students that public schools teach.
4) Because of the events listed in points 3 & 2, a formerly passing public school becomes both over crowded & underfunded, not able to accommodate the extra students nor hire more teachers due to lack of funding, as a result this passing school fails & is eventually closed, causing the opening of yet another charter school & the overcrowding & closing of another public school.5) This entire system violates federal law, specifically the Homestead Act, which guarantees one section of the community (lot 32 if I recall correctly) to be set aside for free public education.6) When you bus students to overcrowded schools, you tend to mix gangs.
They are teaching there because they care & think they can make a difference, "Waiting for Superman" turns people against those teachers & throws them in bed with a system that makes it even harder for people like me to educate the people that most of America wants to ignore.Don't blame the teachers nor the public school system.
It begins with every cliché of the US education documentary: the brilliant black educator who thought he could change the schools in a few years and finds out how hard it is; a black-and-white film clip from the Fifties of stuffy white men looking like idiots (really, what's that supposed to tell us?); and cute, earnest inner-city kids with great Moms who are just having a hard time in this economy.
Maybe he examines them later in the film, but 75% of the problems of American public education would be solved if we closed the private schools and forced the children of the upper-middle- class to go to school with inner-city kids.
Waiting for 'Superman' is a documentary from Davis Guggenheim, the director of 2006's An Inconvenient Truth, that examines the faults and labyrinthine bureaucratics of America's educational government, a government more interested in protecting the jobs and pay salaries of lazy educators in public schools, rather than properly educating the average child.The film isn't all that shocking.
At times it even feels like he's stating the obvious, and even repetitious in regards to sub-par school houses he points fingers at.But the film's strongest impact comes from the case studies of five children, who show strong potential, but their parents struggle to set them up with the necessary education, placing them at the mercy of lotteries that determines the lucky few who get to attend successful charter schools.
And have vouchers so these poor inner city moms have a chance to get their kids into Catholic Schools that do a much better job for much less money per child, not because of religion (I have never had the gift of faith myself), but because of parent support and a wonderful lack of political correctness.I am a public school teacher, my students rock the house (we beat our school and all of the other schools in our district) with their STAR scores (California's across the board testing system that the Unions of course, hate), which makes me a "good" teacher, I guess.
Waiting for "Superman" To avoid waiting for Superman, simply destroy train tracks spanning a ravine minutes before a trainload of school kids are scheduled to cross it.And while the school children in this documentary are not on a doomed locomotive, they are headed for disaster.By following five fledgling students (Daisy, Bianca, Emily, Francisco and Anthony) as they attempt to win admittance into an innovative school headed by a new breed of educator, Geoffrey Canada, filmmaker Davis Guggenheim puts the dysfunctional American school system under the microscope, exposing its pitfalls, prejudices and apathetic faculty that does little to inspire, let alone, educate.While it takes direct aim at the teacher's union, this sad, shocking snapshot of inner-city schools is not against instructors, but the ineptitude of an antiquated system.In fact, if it isn't fixed soon, the only career open to these lazy, uneducated students will be that of public school teacher.
We've had 8 years of a presidency which strove to destroy the Dept of Education, and which stiffed state requests for funds.The either-or nonsense of bad neighborhoods being caused by bad schools OR bad neighborhoods causing bad schools prevents people from seeing the other--real--causes of bad neighborhoods: outsourced jobs, decrease in jobs available since deregulation of banks and corporations, red lining, removal of work places to suburbs, decaying infrastructure, politicians too cowardly to call voters' resistance to school taxes for what it is.The scapegoating of the Teachers' Union, and the idolization of a Bush-appointed school superintendent who saved money by closing many schools, are equally ridiculous.
Of course, the impoverishment of the public schools due to not having money to reduce class size, or to hire teachers who are dedicated, went unmentioned.And who emerges as the major contributor to educational philosophy in the US--Bill Gates, richer than God and as sanctimonious as he is devious.Finally, just how are the students at the charter schools chosen?
And most touching is seeing how this doc follows the actual lives of five students who are trying to leave the public education system for a better life.We all know why that many schools fail in the public system as shown in the film many kids are wrongly labeled as public schools don't teach any culture.
And director Davis Guggenheim really proves these points with his footage of the kids and yet many times it's not the problems of society and broken homes much of it could be blamed on a broken and crooked system of the public school board systems.Telling is how bad teachers are kept employed all over the country because of tenure and the big bad baby is teacher unions who refuse to fire them, and also sickening is how much importance that schools place on national test as it does not actually measure kids abilities and talents.
However the downside to this is many charter schools are expensive as many kids have parents who can't afford them and as shown in the film their only hope is a draft lottery to get into these schools for a better education.Like it or not "Waiting for Superman" is telling and revealing it proves the public education system needs change as it's time for bad teachers to go test them fire them and cut teacher unions!
Director Davis Guggenheim shows and makes a strong statement that even though different the best way to go is private charter schools, even though it's not possible for many of the poor still it provides a change for hope in this ever changing high tech world of technology as a little change to the education system may just be the only hope.
Now it is possible that the answers in this film are wrong...but people getting angry because it questions the status quo (which is broken) is just inexplicable.This documentary is effective because it takes on one aspect of the problems with the system and illustrates it by showing poor families that want better.
Particularly dishonest is the fact that Guggenheim never mentions the tens of millions of dollars of private money that has poured into the Harlem Children's Zone, the model and superman we are relentlessly instructed to aspire to." — Rick Ayers, Adjunct Professor in Education at the University of San Francisco[23]Author and academic Rick Ayers lambasted the accuracy of the film, describing it as "a slick marketing piece full of half-truths and distortions."[23] In Ayers' view, the "corporate powerhouses and the ideological opponents of all things public" have employed the film to "break the teacher's unions and to privatize education", while driving teachers' wages even lower and running "schools like little corporations."[23] The film does, however, note that since 1971, inflation-adjusted per-student spending has more than doubled, "from $4,300 to more than $9,000 per student," but that over the same period, test scores have "flatlined." Ayers also critiqued the film's promotion of a greater focus on "top-down instruction driven by test scores", positing that extensive research has demonstrated that standardized testing "dumbs down the curriculum" and "reproduces inequities", while marginalizing "English language learners and those who do not grow up speaking a middle class vernacular."[23] Lastly, Ayers contends that "schools are more segregated today than before Brown v.
Ravitch writes that many charter schools also perform badly, are involved in "unsavory real estate deals" and expel low-performing students before testing days to ensure high test scores.[24] The most substantial distortion in the film, according to Ravitch, is the film's claim that "70 percent of eighth-grade students cannot read at grade level", a misrepresentation of data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.[24] Ravitch served as a board member with the NAEP and notes that "the NAEP doesn't measure performance in terms of grade-level achievement", as claimed in the film, but only as "advanced", "proficient", and "basic".
To be certain, college professor Rick Ayers complained that the documentary essentially calls for breaking the teachers' union - which it blames for allowing teachers to keep their jobs no matter how poorly they do - and replacing public education with charter schools.Like I said, the documentary's main achievement is raising the issues..
The message of the movie is frighteningly undeniable: the American education system is failing, and it's largely due to two things: 1) a generation of kids being raised by their drop-out parents or stressed-out grandparents (who now value what they missed); and 2) bad teachers who CANNOT be fired due to union regulations and tenure.
Such tactics that leave out strong opposing arguments compromise every time, but documentary makers just can't seem to understand that even powerful counter arguments can help any just cause.WFS's real strength is showing parents and children fighting to get a good education, still one of the riches of modern civilization that needs no superman, just a committed populace that knows good teachers are the salvation of any school system..
In the documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim , "Waiting For Superman," the question who is to blame and what can be done is raised as they follow the course of a couple of children who are trying to enter a charter school via a lottery.
According the film, in order to begin the process of restoring the public education system there is a need for, "quality teacher, more class time, world class standards, high expectations, real accountability
" (Guggenheim, "Waiting for 'Superman' (2010)") It all boils down to teacher have to be the very best, people have to be willing for change, communities have to commit to the schools, and the people must be willing to act.The documentary, "Waiting For Superman," told a very the very compelling stories of a group of students attempting to escape the flawed public education system while also underlining the issues in the system and why it is not succeeding.
We get to see how some dedicated parents try to get their children into charter schools, so that they might escape an education system that would probably lead them to a very dark future.I think that the movie mostly remains unbiased, giving you statistics and facts to support all claims and opinions, which makes it a very good learning experience.
The movie looks at the problems with out public school system and the creation of charter schools to provide better education for many students in our country.
Directed by Davis Guggenheim, the film analyzes the failures of the American public education system by following several students as they strive to be accepted into a charter school.
Sorry that my previous review was removed because I told the truth.The film was terribly distorted as one comes away with the idea that all children are eager learners ready to soak up the knowledge that teachers are trying to impart.Our urban school centers are in complete disarray because of the complete lack of discipline.Why aren't Michelle Rhee, Arnie Duncan, Randi Weingarten and other supposed educators in the know teaching?
Meaning, these kids still went on to be successful in the public schools...just as successful as their Charter School counterparts.Lastly, the one thing the movie absolutely ignores is that the United States is the only country in the world that gives students the ability to find their educational stride at any stage of their life.
The film primarily focuses on the issues regarding the obstacles presented by the teacher union, the progression of the education system in America, and emphasizes the capabilities of a charter school.
The filmmakers did not show a few important things: * The large number of successful public schools * The large number of charter schools with low test scores (they gloss over this stat in the film) * The charter schools that kick out low performing students to maintain good school averages * The countries with better test scores that don't fire teachers or privatize education * The research about how a student's home life has more to do with their test scores than his or her teachersWhile the movie points at a broken system that definitely requires action, we need the whole truth.
Microsoft Propaganda Ruins "Waiting for Superman"(http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/)The education documentary "Waiting for Superman" starts off decently enough, and its message of highly paid public school teachers who cannot teach is a pretty good explanation of what everyone has long suspected, yet the film takes a wrong turn somewhere that makes you realize that the viewer has been set up.
Davis Guggenheim, documentary filmmaker of Waiting for 'Superman', investigates the ways in which the American public education system is failing our children. |
tt0252381 | Dino Crisis 2 | On May 10, 2010, TRAT is selected to investigate the disappearance of Edward City and its surrounding countryside. Their mission is to travel through the Time Gate, locate 1300 survivors and collect data on what happened to the Third Energy project. Intelligence operative Regina is brought along as an adviser due to her past experiences. After arriving by patrol ship, the team's camp is attacked by a pack of Velociraptors. Dylan, Regina and David are the only survivors. The velociraptors flee when a Tyrannosaurus rex attacks the group. David damages the tyrannosaur's eye with an rocket-propelled grenade. The enraged dinosaur then chases Dylan and Regina off a cliff; having survived, they argue about how to proceed before going their separate ways. Regina returns to the ship while Dylan heads into the jungle, spotting a mysterious helmeted figure on his way to a military facility. Upon arrival, he is confronted by the one-eyed T. rex. While escaping to the barracks, he is shot at by unknown helmeted attackers. Later, he attempts to retrieve a key card, triggering a security alert that imprisons him.
Regina receives Dylan's distress call and sets out on a rescue. Along the way, Regina catches one of the mysterious attackers. She removes the helmet, revealing a blonde teenage girl who is unable to speak. Regina leaves her handcuffed and goes to save Dylan. When they return to the ship, they find the engine room ransacked - apparently by the helmeted attackers. They are now stranded in the past. Dylan resolves to find parts to get the ship moving so they can search for information on how to reactivate the Time Gate. Before leaving, he tends to the teenage girl, who acts as if she recognizes Dylan.
At the Research Facility, Dylan discovers human containment chambers and a starter battery for the ship. Dylan returns to find the girl has escaped, and discusses the possibility that the helmeted attackers could be from a different time period. Regina dismisses this, saying they should focus on locating survivors and the Third Energy data. They use the repaired ship to reach the offshore Third Energy facility, repelling an assault from pterosaurs and Plesiosaurus.
Regina uses a diving suit at the facility to investigate the underwater reactor, while evading attacks from Mosasaurus and a large Plesiosaurus. Once topside, she and Dylan receive a distress call from David who has found survivors at Edward City. They use a Jeep to evade a herd of Triceratops, before crashing into a field infested with velociraptors. David rescues them with a helicopter. They discover the city is under siege by raptors, with no survivors left. The team splits up to find the Third Energy data. Dylan engages the T. rex with a tank before being jumped by another helmeted figure. The blonde girl appears to save him. She runs away, but Dylan recovers something she dropped: a necklace belonging to his deceased sister. Dylan relates his past to Regina, explaining that he used to be in a street gang, but joined the military after a rival gang killed his mother and sister. Deciding they have no business at Edward City anymore, Regina heads to a missile silo in the jungle.
Regina discovers the Third Energy data at the silo, but is confronted by the persistent Tyrannosaurus. Her savior is a massive Giganotosaurus that defeats the T. rex in a brief fight. It follows Regina inside the missile silo, causing damage that triggers a countdown to launch. Regina ignites gas vents to incinerate the Giganotosaur's head, rendering it comatose. Regina stops the countdown, but the beast awakens and smashes the missile to the ground. Regina escapes the resulting explosion and flees through the burning facility to reach the ship outside. Regina, Dylan and David use the ship to escape further detonations from the silo. Dylan is attacked by an Allosaurus, but is saved by David, who pushes him into the river. Dylan is swept away by the current, watching as David is devoured by the Allosaurus.
Dylan awakes in an unknown area. The blonde girl returns, leading him into a large base complex deep in the jungle. Inside, she plays a hologram of an army colonel who explains the truth of the disaster. In the future, it is discovered that the first overload in 2009 had consequently caused time alterations to the Cretaceous period that would lead to disastrous results. The space-time skew would alter the Earth's history dramatically and change the human race from ever existing. To fix this, an international organization enacted the "Noah's Ark Plan": utilizing the Timegate technology, they would transport the living organisms of the Cretaceous to a different time with similar environments, where they could thrive unaffected by the alterations: three million years ahead. With the distortions prevented, the organisms would then be returned to their original time. However, there was an accident when the Noah's Ark team tried to return. The gate overloaded and was destroyed, stranding both the dinosaurs and humans far in the future. The helmeted attackers are revealed to be the only remaining children of the survivors, who were brought to the safety of a facility and placed in special life support chambers. These allowed for growth and learning, but were intended for use by the dinosaurs. The colonel explains that because of this, the children lost the ability to speak and were taught to co-exist with the dinosaurs, attacking anyone who threatened the animals. Finally, the hologram reveals himself to be Colonel Dylan Morton, speaking in 2055. Dylan realizes that he has been talking to a future version of himself, and that the blonde girl is his daughter, Paula. The hologram instructs Dylan there is a basic gate they can use to go home, but it will work only once. He pleads for Dylan to take Paula through the gate as well.
The facility suddenly announces that its self-destruct sequence has been activated. Dylan is attacked by the helmeted figure that triggered the self-destruct. Their fight is interrupted as the Giganotosaurus stomps inside. The helmeted figure is killed, while Dylan activates an orbiting laser cannon that blasts the Giganotosaurus out of existence. Regina returns and they activate the gate, but a sudden earth tremor leaves Paula trapped by falling equipment. Unable to free her and with the building ready to explode, Dylan decides to stay with his daughter. He begs Regina to go back alone and find a way to save them with the Third Energy data. Regina promises to return and dashes through the gate moments before the facility explodes.
The game features three post-rating epilogue scenes showing the main characters in happier settings. One features Dylan driving a sports car through a city, another has Regina standing in front of a window in her bedroom, and a third shows Paula lying in a grassy field, wearing her necklace and smiling as bubbles float by. Which image is shown changes depending on how many times the player has beaten the game. | violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0214841 | Karz | Ravi Verma wins a legal battle against Sir Judah, his dead father's business partner. Shantaprasad Verma, Ravi's dead father, was a rich man in Coonoor, whose property was unjustly usurped by Sir Judah after his death. Ravi gives the good news to his mother without realizing that Judah has already set contrary plans in action. Ravi has fallen in love with Kamini, a gold-digger working covertly for Judah. Here, Ravi tells his mother that he is going to get married & coming back to get her blessings for him & Kamini. On their way to Coonoor, Kamini throws Ravi off the cliff near a small temple of Goddess Kali.Two decades later, Monty, an orphan raised by G.G.Oberoi, is a twenty-one-year-old singer fond of a tune Ravi liked, which activates some of Ravi's memories subconsciously present in Monty.
Monty soon falls in love with a girl identified later as Tina. While singing a song in his show Monty suffers a nervous breakdown, & is advised a vacation in some remote place. He chooses Ooty (near Coonoor), partly because Tina lives there. There, his inherited memories become intense when he sees all the locations of these memories. Tina tells him that she was brought up by her Rani Sahiba at behest of her uncle Kabira. In truth, Kabira was sentenced to life imprisonment and is about to be released, whereafter Monty wins his permission to court Tina, but learns that Rani Sahiba is Kamini. Kabira later reveals to Monty that Tina's father learnt some deadly secret about the Kali temple, Kamini and Ravi Verma, for which Kamini's brother killed him. In retaliation, Kabira killed Kamini's brother & blackmailed her to raise Tina with proper education, by pretending to know the secret. Monty has also learnt previously that Ravi's mother & his sister were ousted unjustly from their house by Kamini & her brother. He tells the whole story to Kabira, who offers to find Ravi's estranged family, with whom Monty is united. Realizing that Kamini is a puppet of Sir Judah, Monty gradually convinces that Ravi's ghost seeks revenge. Slowly, a rift is caused between her & Sir Judah. Finally, in the local school opened by the Verma family, an inauguration of a hall in the memory of Ravi is planned by the school. Kamini Devi has to do the inauguration. Monty & Tina perform at the function, where they dramatise Ravi's story.
Kamini is horrified to see Ravi's mother & sister, and flees. When Monty confronts her, Kamini confesses to Ravi's murder, which the police record; whereupon Judah captures Ravi's relatives and agrees to release Tina in exchange for Kamini. Just as the exchange is about to take place, Tina attacks Kamini. In the melêe, Kabira & Monty gain an upper hand. Judah tries to burn down Monty's family, but Monty saves them and kills him in a fire. Kamini escapes through the jeep. Pursued by Monty, she attacks him at the temple, but falls to her own death. In the end, Monty marries Tina. | good versus evil, revenge, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0189584 | The Big Kahuna | Larry Mann (Kevin Spacey) and Phil Cooper (Danny DeVito), who are both experienced marketing representatives working for an industrial lubricants company, attend a trade convention in Wichita in the American Midwest. They are joined in their hospitality suite by Bob Walker (Peter Facinelli), a young man from the company's research department. Larry and Phil are close friends with a long history together. Larry faces urgent financial difficulties that he alludes to only obliquely; Phil has recently come through a recovery program for alcoholism. Bob, an earnest young Baptist, has few if any regrets. Larry explains that their single goal is to arrange a meeting with Dick Fuller, the CEO of a large company ("the Big Kahuna").
While the three wait in their suite for the convention downstairs to finish, Larry and Phil explain to Bob how to develop and discern character. They also make Bob the bartender for the evening even though he drinks infrequently. Larry remarks that as he has quit smoking, Phil has quit drinking and Bob is religious, it makes them "practically Jesus".
Even though he makes a poor bartender, Bob spends the evening talking to people. In doing so, he inadvertently chats with the Big Kahuna, who invites him over to a private party at another hotel. Larry and Phil excitedly coach Bob through their pitch on industrial lubricants down to an amount of information Bob can handle and supply him with their business cards.
As the pair wait for Bob, they reflect on the nature of human life. However, Bob returns to drop a bombshell: he used the time to discuss religion rather than pitch the company's product. Larry, dumbfounded, challenges Bob and leaves the room devastated. Phil explains to Bob that proselytizing is just another kind of sales pitch. He explains that making real human-to-human contact requires honesty and a genuine interest in other people. Phil gives his reason why he and Larry have a friendship: trust. He then tells Bob that until he can recognize what he should regret, he will not grow in character.
The next morning Phil packs his things. As Larry checks out, he sees Bob talking again to the "Big Kahuna" in the lobby. They exchange a knowing smile suggesting Bob is using his time with the Big Kahuna more judiciously. The soundtrack during the credits is "Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)", a setting of an essay by Mary Schmich. | philosophical | train | wikipedia | Bottom line is, I'll long remember Danny DeVito's touching, understated performance.He and Kevin Spacey (Phil and Larry, respectively) play experienced industrial lubricant salesman who've been sent to a convention in Wichita.
Facinelli is devout, Spacey is not, DeVito rides in the middle lane and tries to keep the peace.Whether or not they actually make the big deal plays second fiddle to the give-and-take relationship of the 3 very different men.
The writer and director (Roger Rueff and John Swanbeck, who've never made another film) know how to give Spacey his big scenes and they REALLY know how to let DeVito play everything in expressions and tone.
Based on a stage play called 'Hospitality suite', The Big Kahuna contains only 3 main actors in this movie who all give powerful performances.Spacey as the no nonsense take no prisoners step on em when he's down salesman, DeVito as his colleague who's had enough and thinks he's wasted his life going from nameless towns, and boring hotel rooms, and the young up and coming Peter Facinelli as the 6 month newcomer who is like a babe in the woods, but has a strong spiritual side and stronger convictions than anyone else.Spacey is great as always, and Facinelli is very believable as the devout Baptist.
Kahuna scores high!This movie has just great dialogue, and some incredibly memorable lines most of it coming from Spacey who keeps hitting Facinelli over his head with his sharp brute and dirty yet smart mouth.
Though essentially little more than a stage bound version of the play, `Hospitality Suite,' the film entitled `The Big Kahuna' earns distinction for its sharply delineated characters and the finely wrought performances of its three main actors.
In fact, the stage origins of the film are evident in the fact that the action rarely extends beyond a single set a hotel suite in Wichita, Kansas in which three salesman are gathered for a convention and the fact that only four people are even assigned speaking parts (and even the fourth is a mere walk-on bellboy).
All the other people we see serve as a kind of silent backdrop before which the three principal players enact their complex personal drama.Kevin Spacey, in a truly brilliant performance, plays Larry, a middle-aged, sardonic salesman who sees life strictly from the perspective of a hardcore cynic and who, consequently, runs roughshod over his two business associates with his acerbic wit and hardnosed bluntness.
This three-character movie, based on the play by Roger Rueff, deals with salesmen who are somewhat impatiently waiting for a very important business client - a.k.a. The Big Kahuna - on whom the fortunes of their company rests.
If they don't land the contract, of course, then they're all sunk.Larry (Kevin Spacey) and Phil (Danny DeVito) are the salesmen, and Bob (Peter Facinelli) is the marketing guy.
Only the other night whilst watching an episode of Taxi did I remember seeing a film with Kevin Spacey and Danny Devito about six years ago, there was just one problem, I couldn't remember what it was called, hours turned into days, sleepless nights became more sleepless and I still couldn't remember, but I did remember thinking it was rather great.
Well imagine my surprise upon venturing into my local poundland and finding a movie called Big Kahuna featuring, you guessed it Kevin Spacey and Danny Devito, with the biggest grin on my face, the feeling that I'd achieved a minor accomplishment, a 12 pack of Dorito's and some scented bin liners I approached the checkout, paid and promptly headed home.
A pound, one whole English pound for a movie I would gladly pay twenty for any day, because this is truly a great little movie, granted not much really happens and settings nothing new, but when you've got such fantastic performances from a fantastic cast there can be no complaints, Dany Devito has rarely been better, this disaffected soul is genuinely someone you can feel for and completely side with, Kevin Spacey is, well Kevin Spacey and lets face it that has never been a bad thing, every time he talks you listen, Peter Facinelli gives a very subtle but no less engrossing performance, but on the whole the real star is Roger Rueff, the script is just beautiful with great line after great line flowing from the mouths of a great cast, it really makes you want to see it on the stage.
And the combination of a lively script and a heavyweight cast delivers the goods, Danny de Vito is strong and (in the most interesting role) Kevin Spacey is excellent; Peter Facinelli is OK, but his part offers less scope to the actor.
They just talk, although the Christian guy does shove one of them into a food tray."Kind of hard to see how this got made, but if you get a pair of actors like Spacey and DeVito for the 2/3 of the cast, maybe you can sell it.
THE BIG KAHUNA (2000) **1/2 Kevin Spacey, Danny De Vito, Peter Facinelli.
(Dir: John Swanback)Kevin Spacey, arguably one of our finest actors performing today and with a recent Oscar win as Best Actor in the Best Picture of the Year, `American Beauty', has talent to burn and in his current display of subtle, nuanced brio he takes a step down in this indie satire that he produced, as a pet project.Spacey stars as Larry Mann, a fast-talking, smug and perhaps too sharp for his own good marketing salesman for a midWestern industrial lubricant manufacturer who is one of three fellow travelers setting up a much anticipated greet/meet with an important client (the eponymous moniker he uses as a mantra to signify the underlining of its significance) in the unlikely hotel suite in Wichita, Kansas.Also on board are his best friend and longtime associate Phil Cooper (De Vito in a wonderfully low-keyed, yet bluntly hewned turn) and green recruit Bob Walker (Facinelli, who I am hard pressed to keep from comparing him to a Tom Cruise manque, and proved wrong I might add by his performance that requires full concentration and total believeablilty for his task at hand), who contradict the self-assured Larry, who has convened the trio on their cramped luxury accomodations, by being there for one sole purpose: land the grand account.What makes the story intriguing is the cutting dialogue lobbed with perfection by its players that manage to raise it above a watered down David Mamet parable about men bonding (and unbonding as the case remains) and the cunning skill it takes to be a businessman and shirking one's individuality for the almighty buck.
That's when the film on itself nearly capsizes.Basically the storyline unfolds like `Waiting For Godot', the three salesman have set up a cocktail party for their meeting with this red herring of sorts, and what ultimately comes down the pike is he shows but unknowingly to Larry and Phil, has had a heart to heart with the young Bob.
Realizing they only have one shot when Bob casually describes a warm conversation leading to an invitation to an exclusive gathering late in the evening, Larry and Phil persuade their cohort to ingratiate himself into the good graces of their client-to-be which results in an unlikely turn of events: namely the subject of one's self-beliefs (i.e. what one considers important and in this case it is Bob's straight-arrow image and his strong will in being a faithful, God-fearing man who loves his wife and believes there's more to life than this account).Spacey and De Vito, reunited from `L.A. Confidential' make a nice comic team as they try to make sense of their lives, particularly the latter's downward spiral since his pending divorce and sudden sense of getting out of the business, leaving the former flummoxed and later, to a fault, self-discovery that it may have been too late.There are some comparisons to a Billy Wilder sense of responsiblities here and the stagy direction by theatrical trained Swanback (the piece was performed onstage as well) but that only enhances the nicely conveyed characters on screen.
Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and Peter Facinelli star are three industrial lubricant salesmen at a convention in Wichita.
DeVito, Facinelli and Spacey did an excellent job acting in the movie.
Three lubricant salesman are staying at a hotel in Wichita to lure the most powerful man in the district (The Big Kahuna)...The three men are Kevin Spacey; a slightly beaten man who is seemingly flippant about failure...Danny DeVito; an exhausted individual who is seeking some kind of spirituality in his life, and Peter Facinelli; a young and maverick salesman who lives by the straight and narrow and turns to Jesus for answers!!
The acting skill and technique of Danny deVito and Kevin Spacey stand out loud and clear in every frame and word of the puzzling dull character study of people no one cares about.
It's a deep movie containing only three actors and filmed entirely in a hotel room.However, Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito prove what truly great actors they are.
The film is almost entirely confined to the room, played over the course of a day and night.Liking it means you're going to be able to find Spacey's ironic patter to be more than empty flourish, the greenhorn not to be unbelievable and annoying as a character (a religious idealist in sales must be like finding a puritan call-girl), while preferably getting something out of the philosophical discussion pitched to us as deep.
This movie, which I enjoyed largely because of the amazing performance given by Danny DeVito, talks about how if you find yourself leading in a conversation, then you're not learning about the other person, you're marketing.Well, the author does just that in the unusual speech Phil gives Bob in the last 15 minutes of the movie.
Watching Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito banter back and forth through a room may sound like a good single scene in a film but when that one thing is expected to carry an entire film, it loses steam quickly.
That's the excuse for this "character study" of a film in which Spacey and DeVito portray salesmen and Peter Facinelli portrays a newly hired research engineer.
The three of them spend the entire night (but thankfully for the viewer, just an hour and a half) in a hotel suite discussing a possible big sales deal with a potential client who's known only as "The Big Kahuna." With these people discussing the same subject in the same setting throughout the film, it's obvious that this film is probably trying to be another "Twelve Angry Men" but it doesn't come within spitting distance of that film's success..
"The Big Kahuna" is based on a play, but without being told, you'd probably know; the movie has all of three actors and one set.
Danny Devito, Kevin Spacey, and newcomer Peter Facinelli do excellent acting work, but in the end their talents are wasted on a play that should never have been brought to the screen.
Danny DeVito, Kevin Spacey and Peter Facinelli puts in mind- and trouser-blowingly good performances, that will make any actor think twice before they take on this script (it being based on Hospitality Suite, by Roger Rueff).And speaking of which, you will not often see Kevin Spacey be out- acted by anyone, but DeVito puts in a performance that would shake gods to their foundations (fittingly, as you may come to understand).
Danny DeVito is really good but truly great is Kevin Spacey, though his character in the movie is still the least well developed one.
Along with Spacey, as fine (and versatile) an actor as there perhaps ever has been seen, the two are a throughly interesting duo.This filmed "stage play," (set in Wichita yet), features two salesman, Danny's "Phil" and Kervin's "Larry," tired, disillusioned, not very happy - examining their lives.
The story, with young Peter Facinelli as "Bob," their young "apprentice, provides the kind of dialog as found in work by Pinter, Williams,etc., and films like the harsher "Glengary Glen Ross" and the gentler "My Dinner with Andre." Bob is a naive, simple, born-again Christian, in counterpoint to the thoroughly cynical and brash Larry, and the more thoughtful, but equally droll, Phil.They are scrabbling at the convention to effectuate a "make-or-break" type of deal (industrical lubricants are their wares), but this is secondary to the interaction among the three, and the interesting view of the many dimensions to the relationship between long-time colleague played by Danny and Kevin.Interesting to note, that although scenes are mostly within the hotel suite, filming actually was done in Wichita, as portrayed.This is a good 9* representation of this genre, and if your type of entertainment, well worth the viewing..
He is disgusting about hard comments of Larry to Bob.The movie is purely constructed with the dialogs.A couple of lessons supposedly can be extracted of the film about how a young man must affront the usual problems ( professional and personal ones) in the life.
The importance to acknowledge the errors committed in order to improve the character and just listening to other people's points of view, the difference between a real dialog and just propaganda.A good work of Spacey and DeVito, linking in the end credits with the famous (during 1999) "wear sunscreen" speech/song..
Many of us aren't aware of it, we don't know it but we all have something to sell; be it lubricants, religion,teachings, opinions, our views, our politics, in summary: ourselves.The Big Kahuna crosses three characters who represent three generation age gaps namely: The first a young man starting out his professional life full of hopes, dreams and principles exactly the way many of us started out.
This makes all of the difference.And this is not a fatal problem, if this wouldn't necessarily occur to the character in the film, but the born again new guy stands toe to toe (rhetorically) with Kevin Spacey's war hardened sales veteran throughout the entire movie.
To sum up this short independent film, which is about an hour and fifty minutes, three salesmen; Larry Mann (Kevin Spacey), Phil Cooper (Danny DeVito), and Bob Walker (Peter Facinelli) are at a convention in Wichita, Kansas.
Their main objective is to find "The Big Kahuna" to endorse their industrial lubricant products, which will be by far their #1 sale.I'll be frank, this movie has absolutely no action or any suspense at all.
Kevin Spacey's character is a salesmen that seems to have much knowledge about business with his friend of many years Danny DeVito.
Their objective is to find the most lucrative client who, in the business, is referred to as the "Grand Kahuna" or "Big Kahuna" Screenplay is built around three main characters Larry (Danny Devito), Phil (Kevin Spacey) and Bob (Peter Facinelli).
It is only these three characters that ever appear in the big screen throughout the entire movie and the whole thing takes place in one hotel room.
I can honestly say I wouldn't have seen this play, which must be great, so I'm glad they did make it into a film."Hospitality Suite" is, I imagine, one set-the hotel room-and only needs the three characters: Larry (Spacey), Phil (DeVito), and Bob (Peter Facinelli).
We all know how great Kevin Spacey is but what really impressed me was that I saw Danny Devito act like an adult for the first time.
Since this film is base on a stage play, 90% of the movie takes place in one room.
Well, because The Big Kahuna still looks like a play and not a movie, for it all takes place in a single hospitality suite, you see.
I hadn't noticed this in Spacey movies before, but I think The Big Kahuna will probably affect anything I see him in in the future and probably not in a good way!
If u like theater, character dramas, or just great dialogue pure and simple, then this film is a must-see.The "memorable quotes" listed on this site doesn't even quantify how many good one-liners, scenes, or 'pearls of wisdom' this movie has.
De Vito gives the best performance of his life, Facinelli gives nice understated delivery and, well, Kevin Spacey does what he does best and he IS the man.So if you want to watch a superb story of true character and human emotions among men, watch "The Big Kahuna." If you just want to watch Spacey get angry (and, believe me, that is equally entertaining) this is also for you, but there's also the best film of 1999, "American Beauty." And "Swimming with Sharks.".
The end is stunning with Bob, the religious young man outmanoeuvring the experienced Larry (Kevin Spacey) and Phil (Danny de Vito).
The movie really does act like a play, in fact the whole thing pretty much takes place in the hotel room.
He claims Jesus is more important than either Dick Fuller or lubricants...It ends with a "Desiderata"-like rap, which further distances us from the interesting and well-acted trio.***** The Big Kahuna (9/16/99) John Swanbeck ~ Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito, Peter Facinelli, Paul Dawson.
Following his Oscar win for "American Beauty", Kevin Spacey starred in the semi-cynical "Big Kahuna", about three businessmen (Spacey, Danny DeVito, Peter Facinelli) trapped in a Wichita hotel room expecting an important client.
"The Big Kahuna" gave me the feeling that the movie really resembled a stage play.The film is about two veteran salesman, Larry (Kevin Spacey), who is determined to make the sale of his career and Phil (Danny DeVito), who takes things not as seriously as Larry does.
They refer to the man that Bob spoke with as "The Big Kahuna"This is the first film that Danny DeVito and Kevin Spacey have done together since the classic crime noir "L.A. Confidential".
Spacey and DeVito give very good performances, but Facinelli is great as Bob.
Set in a single hotel room, Danny Devito, Christian Bale, and Kevin Spacey, discuss aging, faith, and what it means to be a salesman. |
tt0156413 | The Clown at Midnight | Years ago, opera singer Lorraine Sedgewick (Vicki Marentette) was killed in her dressing room at an opera house, supposedly by Lorenzo Orsini (Jonathan Barrett), one of the lead actors in a performance of Pagliacci. When Orsini was thought to have fled to Europe afterwards, the opera house closed down.
Years later, high school student Kate (Sarah Lassez) is plagued with nightmares after discovering she is Lorraine's daughter. Kate's best friend Monica (Tatyana Ali) convinces Kate to help restore the opera house, and when they arrive they meet the rest of the group including nerdy Cheryl "Walnut" Webber (Melissa Galianos), flamboyant Marty (J. P. Grimard), rebel George (James Duvall), vindictive Ashley (Liz Crawford) and her jock boyfriend Taylor (Ryan Bittle). The group are lectured by their teacher Ms. Gibby (Margot Kidder), however a stage light falls and nearly hits her, drawing the attention of the owner of the opera house Mr. Caruthers (Christopher Plummer). The group deduces it was an accident, however Mr. Caruthers insists the opera house is haunted by Lorraine, upsetting Kate who is comforted by Ms. Gibby. Soon after, Ms. Gibby leaves, allowing the teenagers to lock up, who instead engage in pizza and beers, before investigating Lorraine's murder scene. They find a patch of fresh blood, that causes Kate to have a vivid vision of her mother's death. While everyone else leaves, Monica consoles Kate, before the pair discover Lorenzo is Kate's father.
Ms. Gibby arrives the following morning, but is swiftly murdered with an axe by the killer, who is dressed like the clown that killed Lorraine. When the group arrive they begin cleaning, despite Ms. Gibby's absence. Ashley and Taylor sneak off to have sex, however Taylor ditches Ashley when they get into an argument, before the killer attacks Ashley and strangles her to death. Hearing the attack, Monica begins to investigate, only to find the clown who chases her until she reaches the rest of the group, where it is revealed that George dressed up as the clown to scare her. The group decide to try to locate the missing Ashley and Ms. Gibby, but while in the basement Monica is attacked by the clown who chases her and finally stabs her with a spear. Meanwhile, Kate attempts to phone the school but the phone is cut dead before she discovers they have become locked in the opera house. The group begin to panic and soon after find Ashley hung on the stage. Marty falls through a stage door, and Kate and George rush to save him, however he is electrocuted to death. Meanwhile, Taylor and Cheryl reach the roof to escape, but the clown grabs Taylor and throws him off the roof, killing him while Cheryl flees, however she is soon decapitated.
Kate and George decide Lorenzo is not the killer, before they are split up. Kate runs to the auditorium and is chased by the clown onto a catwalk where she runs into Mr. Caruthers. Mr. Caruthers sends the clown over the catwalk, killing him, but Mr. Caruthers then turns on Kate and knocks her out. Kate awakes tied up in the auditorium with the victims bodies propped up on the seats. It is revealed Mr. Caruthers killed Lorraine because she denied him love, before another clown arrives and attacks him. In the panic, the clown is knocked out, but Kate breaks free and manages to kill Mr. Caruthers. The clown is revealed to be George, who was told by Kate's father, who had been living in the opera house, all about Mr. Caruthers before he had been killed on the catwalk. Kate and George then break free from the opera house. | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | the clown at midnight is a story about a teenage girl that is going to help clean up an old opera house with her 7 friends even though her mother was murdered in that same opera house 15 years ago once a couple of the student drop the ones left get suspicious and try to escape the masked killer and some of them are murdered in the most slaughteress way, they then try to open the doors and get out alive, this movie is filled with some of todays actors like (sarah lassez),(elizabeth crawford), (ryan bittle), and ( tatyana ali) this movie is a movie not to miss and will have u wondering who will get slaughtered in the most gruesome way.
Like all horror movies it did include a pointless sex scene, but who's complaining?
Ms. Kidder returns in this flick, a rather undistinguished slasher flick concerning a group of college students conscripted by drama teacher Kidder to clean up a previously long-closed theater, owned by Christopher Plummer.
The kids are the usual stock cliches(jock, tramp, gay guy, plain fat girl, loner), and their presence angers a pyscho in a clown costume who lives in the theater.
Lots of killings in creative ways, which is about all you can say about this movie, except that Margot Kidder and Chris Plummer are in it..
A good slasher movies for horror fans..
All the performances are exceptional for a made for video film and the directing is just plain creepy; especially on the dream sequences.
The opening to this film is exceptional...It delivers a very creepy atmosphere, that continues through the first death scene...The thought of a film set in an old theater, of course, gives this the Phantom of the Opera feel, but It really doesn't feel that way when watching it.
The stalking scenes, are at times, silly and predictable...and should be able to be avoided by the character, but nonetheless, people got to die in horror movies.Written by Kenneth J.
However, it really delivers more than one would expect from a DTV (direct to video) horror film.My big Gripe!
The use of the standard Horror movie characters: The Jock, The bitchy Princess, The black girl, The gay Guy, the creepy guy no one can figure out, the weird lesbo-type girl into the paranormal, and a dim-witted teacher....and of course the basket-case main character...They follow all the stereotypes for their characters, and it tends to sway from the story, and make utter nonesense.Tatayan Ali, in my opinion is best performer in the film...Her death scene, however, leaves much to be desired (the girl just didn't Die well).
Corny, predicatable Dialouge, slow, but creepy paced...the film really isn't that bad...but I disagree with one review saying this is a HOrror film for true horror fans...It is a decent slasher, but nothing we haven't seen before....The end, was no big surprise...but I didn't quite figure out everything until almost the very end....Enjoyable watch....I plan on watching it again...7 out of 10.
Occasionally, in the 90's, a worthy horror film would pop up, but with the release of 1996's blockbuster "SCREAM", the genre got the well deserved regain in popularity that it needed.
The charm and effect of the 80's slasher was lost in the huge Hollywood budgets and hip young casts that have become fixtures of recent horror films.
With a relatively unknown cast of teens (the exception is "French Prince of Bel-Air) actress Tatayani Ali) and a foreboding setup, it manages to develop into a well crafted, well acted, creepy horror film that evokes the atmosphere and effectiveness of some of the best slashers of the 80's.
Well, needless to say, an unpleasant time awaits each of them as a killer dressed as a clown locks them in the downright creepy building and kills them in very grim ways.The Good: The film looks great.
Better yet, they are actually teenagers and not thirty year olds trying to act like teenagers.
It really is one of the better post-"Scream" slasher films that actually is extremely competent and enjoyable.The Bad: Very little, actually.
Last horror films Don´t scary me but this it do it.I watch the film after the midnight with my friends and when the film finish we have fright.This strange but films like SCREAM or I KNOW WHAT...
SENTENCE FOR THE CLOWN AT MIDNIGHT:Excellent Horror Film.
Ok, we all know this is direct-to-video, but it is actually pretty good considering.
At times I even think that the direct-to-video flicks are better than some horror films that manage to go to theaters.
"The Clown At Midnight" is a slasher film that brings you back to the 80s, when horror movies were trying to be fun, and occasionally scary.
First off, unlike some direct-to-video slasher films, this movie has some potential.
We are actually given actors that we might have heard of somewhere out of the horror realm: Margot Kidder (well...), Christopher Plummer, Tatyana Ali, James Duvall, etc.Second, the story is reasonably good.
Maybe it's just my general paranoia of clowns, but I actually found the movie creepy.
At times, the movie actually delivers some pretty good scares.
30," characters in horror movies were just meant to show up, have sex, and get killed.
we're in a creepy old theater house where people were murdered before and, as far as we know, the killer was never found.
Some teens work to clean up an old theater that has been closed for about fourteen years, ever since an opera star was killed there.
What isn't explained is why two characters who are not the murderer are wearing the clown costume in the final events of the film, and why one of them is there at all.
One character comes across one of the people dressed as the clown, who runs at her, and she runs away screaming.
Competent, simple Clown Slasher film; Nothing special, but entertaining and fairly well done....
If you can put up with the usual personality types in a 'Teen' Slasher film like this, then you should enjoy it somewhat.
You have your common character types that you would expect in a classic Slasher film; the dialog is pretty lame in many parts, but grading it on the very common curve of the Retro Slasher film, it's certainly average and not as awful as many of them where the acting literally makes you want to kill them yourself.Another reviewer scornfully criticized this film saying that it took itself 'too seriously'.
Well, if you are like me, you pretty much have had your fill of 'cute', self-referential Slasher films; I sure have.
And when a simple, obviously low-budget effort like this opts to 'take itself seriously' I find it a HELL of a lot more entertaining because it is frigg'n TRYING to be a true Slasher film.
Now, that is not to say that I don't like a well made Comedy / Horror movie; those can be great!
I feel that the mood and atmosphere picked up quite a bit as you progress through the film and as others have said here, the director did a pretty decent job considering what he had to work with.
Nothing stunning, but decent...So, I would say that if you like simple Killer Clown movies, and your expectations are appropriate, and you can be forgiving of some of the REALLY Cheeeeeezy lines, you should find this movie fairly entertaining..
For some people (or even a lot of people - including me) clowns are scary, full stop.One of the better lines in the movie explains that "a clown in a circus setting is normal, but imagine if your doorbell rang at midnight and you opened it to find a clown standing there in full costume" - it would scare the bejeezus out of you.
There's a revelation at the end which totally confused me (I understood it, but it doesn't make any practical sense), but by then you don't care.This film passes the time, and there are small a handful of shots/dialogue which are actually quite clever.
A group of kids are methodically stalked by a killer in clown makeup while they are cleaning up an old opera house.
Group of college students restoring an old run down theater fall victim to a killer dressed in a clown costume from an old opera production.
Spooky, creepy slasher flick isn't as cliched as usual and features a very appealing cast, but some of the gruesome death scenes that emphasize torture are a bit tough to sit through.Rated R; Torture, Extreme Violence, Profanity, Nudity, and Sexual Situations..
When I saw the cover of the video of "The Clown at Midnight", I decided to give myself a chance to look at the film.
The young cast stars James Duvall, Tatyana Ali (who portrayed Will Smith's cousin on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) as one of the students who are trapped trying fight off a psychopath dressed up as a clown.
"The Clown at Midnight" is an enjoyable slasher,which owes a lot to Michele Soavi's brilliant "Deliria"(1987).It has some genuinely creepy moments,a scary looking clown killer plus a pretty gruesome death scenes.It's well-acted and competently made,unfortunately any traces of originality are completely gone.There's also not enough gore for my liking.The mystery element isn't spectacular either!All in all,I still enjoyed this one-it's certainly better than such crap like "I Know What You Did Last Summer","School's Out" or "Urban Legend",but I wouldn't go so far to call this one a masterpiece.It's a solid piece of horror-nothing more,nothing less!6 out of 10..
What a bizarre movie...With a simple plot and standard horror shocks, it still manages at times to be genuinely scary...Or maybe its just the clown that kills people...A mismatched group of schoolkids get bumped off, in a variety of amusing ways, and Lois Lane from the Superman movies gets an axe in her head.
Someone is dressed like a clown and is ready to strike...it's almost midnight.Audio/Video: Quality is excellent.Extras: Nothing.Fianl Thoughts: This is a pretty average late 90's slasher flick.
Once again video-store top shelves were filled with endless low budget knock-offs, so many so in fact that Blockbuster Video reported that it was receiving four times the amount of Horror films from 1998 to 2004 that it had since the organisation's birth in 1985.
Never have I watched a slasher film and disliked the entire cast, which proved to be short-sighted character development from the script-writers.
The young lady I was dating at the time was a huge fan of 'Scream' and was the kind of girl that would flinch at every jolt in the soundtrack of a scary movie.
After watching her reaction, I remember feeling that The Clown at Midnight must have been good to have that kind of effect on her, even if she was something of a vulnerable viewer.
Unfortunately after watching the film again seven years later, I was disappointed with not only its mediocre quality, but also with my ability at that time to judge a decent performance.
But a huge amount of gore would not subtract from the poor level of performances on display in The Clown at Midnight and with the finances that Pellerin had at his disposal, this really should have been better.
I agree, there are not enough killer clown movies in existence, but the excellent 'The House on Sorority Row' deserves to be seen over this..
Let me explain.I have a history of renting terrible horror movies simply to make up for the terrible scheduling of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
I nearly did, or wish I might have.In case this is confusing those who actually liked this movie (I mean this with the least spite possible), let me summarize my position: This is among the worst films ever made.
The plot = A group of teenagers spends they're time after school fixing up an old theatre, where years ago a young woman got murdered by a clown and now the teenagers start to get picked off one by one.One of the better straight to video slashers to come out of the post scream boom of the late nineties and strangely enough never been released on DVD but yet crap like (Do You Wanna Know A Secret and Lover's Lane) has, odd in my opinion.
Okay it's not perfect it does have a few flaws like the acting is a bit ropey and the plot is rather thin and rather muddled at times especially when multiple characters tries on the clown outfit, but however though fun characters the film has ability to win the audience.
There is almost a sense of sadness when a majority of the likable teens die.Mainly a cast of unknowns apart from screen veterans Christopher Plummer and Margot Kidder neither has enough screen time, especially Margot Kidder, her character I rather like but every time she's in a horror she dies (Black Christmas and Someone's Watching Me) and this one's no different, but she dies way too soon in this.
But sadly the ending was a bit of a disappointment, it didn't go off with bang like I hoped for more of a whimper.All in all a fun entertaining little movie that won't turn anyone in this into big stars, I mean where are they all now, but never the less still a fun waste of time and should be released on DVD..
"The Clown at Midnight" is a pretty bad movie; plain and simple.
It had potential to be a relatively decent horror film, especially if you're someone like me that finds clowns to be creepy and unnerving.
In fact, the ONE good part about this film is that the Clown is actually scary looking and menacing.
And I'm afraid that all of the other young actors and actresses that portray the teenagers in this film fall along the same lines as James Duval; they're not convincing one bit, and they give some of the poorest acting performances out there.
But the worst part has to be the fact that Margot Kidder and Chris Plummer are in "The Clown at Midnight".
The sad part is seeing two people that we widely loved in other roles (Margot Kidder in the "Superman" movies and of course Plummer in "The Sound of Music") at a point in their careers where they're stuck doing cheap horror flicks.
Yes, it is a common horror-movie lover's ability to be able to predict the upcoming death of a character, but "The Clown at Midnight" makes it too easy.
Seven college students including Kate have signed up to help clean up the old Walker Theatre which the head of drama Ms. Gibby (Margot Kidder) has had a grant to reopen, it's not long before Kate is getting freaked out because the Walker is the very theatre where her mom was murdered by a psychotic in a clown costume & he's on the prowl again as he locks the theatre up & begins to kill the teens off one-by-one...This Canadian production was directed by Jean Pellerin & guess what?
There is a distinct lack of gore, in fact this is one of the driest slashers I've seen & considering it was made in 1998 when special effects were very advanced there's no excuse, it wouldn't be so bad if the character's made up for it but they don't because their all rubbish & the dialogue is poor too.
You know it's over 40 minutes before the clown kills someone, that's 40 minutes of dullsville I'd rather be doing something fun like watching paint dry.
For a start why did George go back & get dressed like the clown when he could have been saving Kate?
You know slasher films have moved on since 1978 when Halloween came out but you'd never have guessed it watching Clown at Midnight.
The violence & gore is tame with no imagination to the kills, someone gets a spear through the stomach, someone is strangled, someone is thrown off the roof, someone is electrocuted, someone is impaled on what looks like spikes although I don't know why someone would keep a load of spikes under a trap door on a theatre stage & someone is decapitated, seen it all before & done better as well.Technically the film is pretty good actually & the best thing that can be said about it overall is that it's well made with decent production values.
I take it Chirstopher Plummer & Margot Kidder need the money to agree to appear in this.Clown at Midnight is a dull slasher film with a low body count, next to no gore, annoying teen character's & a very predictable twist ending which I predicted within 30 minutes, poor all round then really.
The Clown at Midnight is a horror film which came out in the late 1990's and it is better than your average slasher film.*Spoliers Ahead* What i enjoyed most about this film was that it did not just have a horror element to it yet there was suspense in a dark,atmospheric opera house and some comedy in it as well, with the range of personalities.Several of the films characters are immediately recognisable which included Tatyana Ali and Margot Kidder,both of there roles were good and fun although the characters could have got a little more screen time before there gruesome demises.The character of Ashley added some bitchiness to the film, her character was insensitive to Kate and had an attitude towards others,it would have been good to see her get a slap although when she finally meets the grim reaper it is with little sympathy.*End of spoilers* This film is only independently available but if you can get hold of a copy then i would recommend that you go and see it, 6 out of 10..
By the end none of this makes sense, least of all how they figured out that a clown was killing people.
If you're a fan of bad horror movies, check it out. |
tt0458480 | Simon Says | In the forest, Leanne and Clay are making out. Their friends Sam, Sarah, Lani, Will and Jenny are watching them and giggling. Leanne and Clay discover them and get angry. Leanne and Clay leave the campsite in the group's van. The others begin drinking and laughing around a campfire. An unseen attacker axes Will while he is urinating and impales Sam and Sarah while they are having sex. Lani and Jenny find the bodies and flee the camp. They find Leanne dead and Clay dying in the van. The killer then shoots Lani in the head with an arrow. Jenny hides in the van with Clay, but the film cuts to the title sequence before their fates are revealed.
Five teenagers — Kate (Margo Harshman), Zack (Greg Cipes), Vicky, Riff, and Ashley — are on their way to pan for gold during Spring Break when they make a wrong turn. They encounter two strange men, Pig and Garth, who warn them to return home, saying there have been murders in the area. Making their way into town, four of the teens head inside a store, where they meet brothers Simon (Crispin Glover) and Stanley.
Simon is unhelpful, denying the teens requests to buy anything. Frustrated, the group leaves and finds a campsite. Unbeknownst to them, there is someone observing the teens, dressed in a ghillie suit. He chases Ashley through the woods before realizing that she is not 'dream girl' and murders her. The attacker - revealed to be Stanley - begins to cut up her body, saying that he will make her into a present for 'dream girl'.
Back at the store, Zack arrives to find it closed and empty. He lets himself in and discovers numerous bodies hanging from the ceiling, including those of Pig, Garth and Clay, as well as a still-living Jenny tied up. Zack frees Jenny and pulls several newspaper articles off the bodies. Zack and Jenny attempt to leave, but Jenny is killed when she accidentally triggers a spike trap. Zack then flees the store, using Jenny's corpse as a bridge over a pit. After dark, Simon arrives and tells the teens Stanley is missing. At this moment, a terrified Zack arrives and manages to convince Simon to leave. The teens find their van's tires punctured, stranding them.
The group heads into the forest to look for Ashley and discover that Stanley has made a 'doll' out of Ashley's head, hands, and feet. They are watched by Stanley, who kills Riff, while Simon kills Vicky. Kate is stopped by Simon in his truck, who lies and tells her that the others are safe at his store. Zack sneaks up and climbs into the truck bed as Kate gets into the truck. While they are driving, Simon explains that he and Stanley have lived in the area their entire lives with their parents Quinn and Carrie, and took over the gas station when Quinn and Carrie died. Simon takes Kate to an old campsite where two long-decayed bodies are sitting at a picnic table. He ties her to the table when Stanley appears in his ghillie suit. Suspicious, Simon chops off several of Stanley's fingers with a cleaver, and it's revealed that it is actually Zack in the suit, trying to masquerade as Stanley.
Simon ties Zack to a tree and tortures him. Zack confesses his love to Kate calling her his 'Dream Girl.' This angers Simon and he burns Zack alive. Turning back to Kate, Simon announces that he is also Stanley, having taken over his brother's identity after murdering Quinn and Carrie while the real Stanley is in a coma. Kate seduces Simon, distracting him; he accidentally frees her in the ensuing struggle, allowing her to flee.
Returning to Zack's charred body, Kate promises to kill Simon. Moments later, Simon also approaches the body, vowing to kill her. Kate bursts from Zack's corpse where she was hiding, bringing the cleaver down on Simon's head. He falls to the ground, but when she looks down at where his corpse should be, he is gone. A hand reaches for her just before the film cuts to black.
The film ends with another group of youths arriving at the store. One of the girls, who is pregnant, asks Simon if he has any toys for babies. Simon goes into the back room and opens a trapdoor, revealing Kate tied up with infant twins. He then takes a rattle out of the compartment and gives it to the girl. After the kids leave, Simon returns to the back room and Kate suddenly axes him in the head before the screen cuts to black. | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0023686 | What Price Hollywood? | Brown Derby waitress Mary Evans (Constance Bennett) is an aspiring actress who has an opportunity to meet film director Maximillan Carey (Lowell Sherman) when she serves him one night. He is very drunk but is charmed by the young girl, and he invites her to a premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Adhering to his policy of living life with a sense of humor, he picks her up in a jalopy rather than a limousine and then gives the parking valet the car as a tip.
Max takes Mary home with him after the event, but the next morning remembers nothing about the previous night. She reminds him he promised her a screen test and expresses concern about his excessive drinking and flippant attitude, but he tells her not to worry.
Mary's first screen test reveals she has far more ambition than talent, and she begs for another chance. After extensive rehearsals, she shoots the scene again, and producer Julius Saxe (Gregory Ratoff) is pleased with the result and signs her to a contract. Just as quickly as Mary achieves stardom, Max finds his career on the decline, and he avoids a romantic relationship with her for fear she will be caught up in his downward spiral.
Mary meets polo player Lonny Borden (Neil Hamilton). He genuinely loves her and, although he is jealous of the demands made on her by her career, he convinces her to marry him, against Julius and Max's better judgment. Lonny becomes increasingly annoyed by the dedication of his movie star wife to her work, and finally walks out on her. After their divorce is finalized, Mary discovers she is pregnant.
Mary wins the Academy Award for Best Actress, but her moment of glory is disrupted when she's called upon to post bail for Max after he's arrested for drunk driving. She takes him to her home, where he wallows in self-pity despite her encouragement. Later, alone in Mary's dressing room, he stares at his dissolute image in the mirror and compares it to a photograph of himself in earlier days. Finding a gun in a drawer, he kills himself with a bullet to the chest.
Mary becomes the center of gossip focusing on Max's suicide. Hoping to heal her emotional wounds, she flees to Paris with her son and reunites with Lonny, who begs her to forgive him and give their marriage another chance. | satire | train | wikipedia | Another film that deserves a wider viewership and a DVD release, "What Price Hollywood?" looks at the toll Hollywood takes on the people who make it possible.Adela Rogers St John wrote the Oscar-nominated story of a fading genius of a director, destroyed by drink, who launches one last discovery into the world.
Lowell Sherman, himself both a director and an alcoholic, played the sad role that had been modeled, in part, on his own life.
(Sherman's brother-in-law, John Barrymore, was also a model, as was the silent film director Marshall Neilan.) The divinely beautiful Constance Bennett plays the ambitious Brown Derby waitress who grabs her chance.
Neil Hamilton, paired to great effect with Bennett that same year in "Two Against the World," plays the east-coast polo-playing millionaire who captures Bennett's heart without ever understanding her world.George Cukor directed the film for RKO, and already the seeds of his directorial genius can be seen.
Wonderful montages and double exposures chart Bennett's rise and fall as "America's Pal," and I've rarely seen anything as moving as the way Cukor presented Sherman's death scene, using quick shot editing, exaggerated sound effects and a slow motion shot.
As startling as it looks today, one can only imagine the reaction it must have caused over 70 years earlier, before audiences had become accustomed to such techniques.While the romantic leads are solid--Bennett, as always, especially so--and Gregory Ratoff is mesmerizing as the producer, hats must be doffed to Lowell Sherman for his Oscar-calibre performance.
The later movie never credited Adela Rogers St John or any of the source material of "What Price Hollywood?" for its own screenplay, which was written by Dorothy Parker from, supposedly, an idea of Selznick's."What Price Hollywood?" is a great source for behind-the-scenes tidbits--Cukor fills the screen with images of on-set action (or inaction), with various crew waiting about as they watch the film-in-a-film action being filmed.
A zestier pre-Code version of the familiar "A Star is Born" story.
It's fun to compare "What Price Hollywood," made in 1932, to the more familiar 1937 version of "A Star is Born" (as well as its two later remakes).
Mary, the unknown knockout in in the 1932 version, is a saucy waitress at the legendary Brown Derby restaurant trying to catch the eye of a movie big shot.
She catches the eye of a famous (but fading and highly alcoholic) actor when she waitresses at a party.There is one major plot difference: in the 1932 version, Mary marries a rich polo playing socialite who divorces her (while she's pregnant) because he is fed up with movie people.
The declining fortunes of the director (in "What Price Hollywood") and the actor (in "A Star is Born") are quite fascinating.
With loads of drama, glamour to spare, and some romance too, this movie is one of the best behind-the-scenes looks at the old Hollywood studio system that was ever made.
This movie was the basis for "A Star is Born." All in all, one great film..
The performance of Lowell Sherman only adds to the wonderful script, and only the innocence of Constance Bennett is able to carry the role of an aspiring starlet that makes it so believable.
From the appearance of Eddie "Rochester" Anderson to the Brown Derby to the scenes of the night life of the early days of Hollywood, "What Price Hollywood?" will always be a memorable film for me..
Wonderful Cukor-directed, precode film starring Constance Bennett.
Constance Bennett was at the height of her beauty in "What Price Hollywood?" an excellent 1932 film directed by George Cukor.
The story is a familiar one, but in 1932, probably less so: A good-looking, vivacious waitress catches the eye of a drunken director, who helps make her a star.
A surprisingly modern-looking, very handsome Neil Hamilton plays Bennett's husband, who later divorces her before she gives birth to their child.Like "The Bad and the Beautiful," "What Price Hollywood?" shows some inner workings of a Hollywood studio in those years.
Besides Bennett, who is marvelous (and does her own singing), Sherman, and Hamilton, there is the multitalented Gregory Ratoff on board.I've seen many Constance Bennett films, as she is a favorite of mine, and I would have to put this as her best..
Great performances by Constance Bennett and Lowell Sherman, both of whose work I had very little knowledge of.
Lowell Sherman is excellent as the tippling director who discovers waitress Bennett and becomes a heavier drinker.
One of George Cukor's better films, featuring Lowell Sherman, as an alcoholic director, Gregory Ratoff as a Sam Goldwyn like producer, and Constance Bennett playing the starstruck waitress at the Brown Derby.
Alcoholic director Max Carey (Lowell Sherman) discovers waitress Mary Evans (Constance Bennett).
She becomes a big star and marries handsome Lonny Borden (Neil Hamilton)...but Carey's alcoholism starts to kill him and Lonny can't deal with his wife's stardom....Very predictable but good.
This movie moves VERY quickly; is well-directed by George Cukor; has some sharp pre-Code dialogue and has a good script that gives an interesting look at Hollywood in the 1930s.
It gets a little overly silly at the end but it still works.Bennett is just great--beautiful and believable; Sherman was good also; Hamilton is just so-so but he's unbelievably handsome so that helps.
Gregory Ratoff also gets some laughs as a VERY excitable studio head.This was (pretty obviously) the inspiration for the later "A Star Is Born" movies but stands on its own merit.
Pre-Code insider's look at Hollywood, a precursor to all those STAR IS BORN films.Constance Bennett is a waitress at Hollywood's famed Brown Derby restaurant specifically for the chance of meeting the right contact to help her break into films.
She has everything she ever wanted and marries a stuffy rich boy (Neil Hamilton) who never fits in.Eventually Bennett loses the husband and also loses Sherman as his career slips away because of his drinking.
She takes him home and cleans him up, but it's too late.Hard-hitting story stunned a lot of viewers who wanted to believe that the lives of the Hollywood stars was a bed of roses.
Also good are Gregory Ratoff as the producer and Louise Beavers as the devoted maid.There were insider Hollywood stories before this.
The following STAR IS BORN films borrowed heavily from this one but the heroines in these (Janet Gaynor, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, and the 2018 version) were all married to the tragic figure.Perhaps a bigger studio than RKO could have secured the Oscar nominations Lowell Sherman and Constance Bennett deserved for this film..
This early effort by director George Cukor had such resonance that it was remade three times as A STAR IS BORN, so it lives on to satisfy the curiosity of those who admire one or more of the later productions.
What holds it up after all these years are a strong and realistic performance by Lowell Sherman as a successful Hollywood film director whose alcoholism is destroying his career, decent and sometimes brilliant work by ever-stylish Constance Bennett as the ambitious waitress who becomes an overnight star, beautiful and poetic montages by Slavko Vorkapich, a generally witty and clever script by a team of about eight writers including Adela Rogers St. John and Gene Fowler, and some beautifully directed intimate scenes including the opening in which Bennett dresses for work, copying the beauty tips advertised in the fan magazine she is reading.
Done at RKO it's the story of three star crossed people and that's literal for one of them.Constance Bennett plays Mary Evans who is discovered by drunken director Lowell Sherman while working as a waitress at the famous Brown Derby in Hollywood.
Including those like Sherman who liked their cuisine strictly liquid and at that time illegal.You might think that playing a movie star was no stretch for Connie Bennett.
She was as far removed from Mary Evans in real life as you can get, still Bennett got deep inside the part.Sherman might have modeled his character on any number of distinguished Hollywood lushes.
And of course we can't forget A Star Is Born in its original and remakes.What Price Hollywood got an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Constance Bennett plays a waitress working at The Brown Derby who gets a break when she meets a hot director (Lowell Sherman).
Sherman steals the film as the drunken director who really gets to shine in terms of drama and comedy.
While this is Bennett's film, and she shimmers in her pre-code couture, Lowell Sherman puts in an equally excellent performance.
He plays the role of the alcoholic director with such grace that is almost makes me cry.This is by far the best version of this story.
Clever scenes help the tale of a young woman (Constance Bennett) who becomes a success in the film capital.
Selznick would rework the concept five years later with director William Wellman for A Star Is Born, with Janet Gaynor taking over Miss Bennett's role.
I might also recommend watching this movie, because of the excellent acting by Constance Bennett, Neil Hamilton, and Gregory Ratoff.
I am definitely recommending watching this movie, because of the excellent performance by Lowell Sherman!
For those of you not familiar with Lowell Sherman, he was not only a distinguished motion picture and stage actor, he was also a director who directed Mae West in "She Done Him Wrong" and Katharine Hepburn in her Academy Award winning role in "Morning Glory".
A great actress was Constance Bennett, a first class star in the eyes of 1930's movie goers.
He does have a great funny scene involving his drinking his boss' (Lowell Sherman as an about-to-be-washed up director) liquor!
Louise Beavers, in contrast, eventually applies the double negative as movie star Mary Evans' (Constance Bennett) maid when confronted by reporters at her boss' house.
I also liked Gregory Ratoff as the studio boss as well as Neil Hamilton-yes, Commissioner Gordon on the later "Batman" TV series-as Ms. Bennett's husband especially when he insults a gossip columnist at his and Mary's home!
I can see why the writers of this movie initially wanted to sue the makers of the original A Star is Born years later.
Lowell Sherman, in the role of an alcoholic director, turns in a great performance, and scenes with him towards the end are excellent, though I won't spoil them.
I'm not a huge fan of movies depicting the inner workings of filmmaking and the difficulties those in the industry face, including early version of the paparazzi here, and the concept of the 'waitress who is discovered' in Hollywood is pretty cliché.
The simple story, of an unknown beauty being discovered by a male star and her career taking off as his goes into alcoholic decline, is rendered with great delicacy--helped by the lambent beauty of Constance Bennett and the subtle acting of the principals.
Well done movie in the hooray-for-Hollywood mode which has been done many times since, and as everyone has noted done best in "A Star Is Born".
I have seen and appreciated Constance Bennett, Neil Hamilton and Lowell Sherman in many other movies.
Constance Bennett is lovely and Lowell Sherman is excellent as the alcoholic director, and the behind-the-scenes glimpses of Hollywood studio life were very interesting.
There is also a scene of Bennett and Hamilton in the same bed kissing one another good night, which must have roiled the sensibilities of contemporary morality police in pre-code times.As another reviewer noted, "What Price Hollywood" is a women's picture, with a heroine beset by a woman's concerns and which makes for a picture which is not for all tastes, one which is by definition uncompelling and with bland overtones.
An excellent specimen of the subgenre of movies about movie-making, featuring the spectacular Constance Bennett as Marie Evans, a waitress discovered at the Brown Derby by an endearingly inebriated genius director, Max Carey (Lowell Sherman).
In 1932 critics were congratulating her on her best performance in years in "Lady With a Past" and then she was offered the role of Mary Evans in the movie which would cement her reputation for all time - "What Price Hollywood?".Originally entitled "The Truth About Hollywood" and planned by Selznick as a "sensational comeback" film for Clara Bow, Adela Rogers St. John wrote the script but on visiting Clara, she told Selznick that she was too contented with married life to bother returning to films, so Constance was offered the part (Clara would have been fantastic in it).
Another film dealing with the "real" Hollywood (about the influx of vocal coaches and teachers when movies first began to talk) "Once in a Lifetime" was released the same year but was not so well received.Mary Evans (Bennett), a waitress at the Brown Derby, dreams of going into the movies (the opening scene where she uses all the products the movie stars swear by and swoons over Clark Gable is one of the best).
She is given plenty of encouragement by the patrons and she finally gets a lucky break when one of her customers, alcoholic director Max Carey (Lowell Sherman) takes her to a movie premiere.
and she is terrible but, in another excellent scene, she goes home and rehearses her lines until she is perfect, and a star is born - America's Pal!!!She meets and marries high society polo player, Lonnie Borden (handsome Neil Hamilton) but their wedding turns into a Hollywood circus with zealous fans tearing her gown and veil.
Really Lowell Sherman gives the best performance in the film, initially carefree, whose antics provide a lot of mirth then in a splendid scene when he talks about "there is nothing inside me anymore"!!
Mary has gone to France to live reclusively with her little son but Lonnie follows her and they kiss passionately at the fadeout!!!"What Price Hollywood" was later revamped as the classic "A Star is Born" and the story went that it was purported to be the story of John Bowers, who committed suicide because he couldn't find work and felt his career was eclipsed by his wife's, Margueritte De La Motte.
Director/Actor Lowell Sherman was a major star in the early 1930's, but yet he is mostly forgotten today, perhaps because he appears to be a "poor man's John Barrymore".
In the case of "What Price Hollywood?", however, he gives his best performance, and is certainly comparable to Fredric March and James Mason in the film's two unofficial (and much better well known) remakes.George Cukor, directing Barrymore and Katharine Hepburn the very same year in the outstanding "A Bill of Divorcement", is at the helm here, and just like he would later do with the Judy Garland/James Mason 1954 version of "A Star is Born", the focus is on the emotions charged up by the relationship of the star who is born (in this case the beautiful Constance Bennett) and the man who discovers her (Sherman) and makes her a big star after simply spotting her on the set of one of his films.
The romantic lead here is Neil Hamilton, later Commissioner Gordon on "Batman", who loves Bennett but isn't willing to simply be known as the husband of a star.
A shocking twist has her fighting to save her career, and Bennett must rise above her pride and sudden success to figure out what the important things to her really are.Unique enough to stand out on its own, this is still considered by film historians the first unofficial version of "A Star is Born", and it ranks as truly powerful drama.
Gregory Ratoff plays the studio head who is devoted to both director and star but is in a powerless position to help them after some bad publicity.
Clearly the makers of "A Star is Born" had first seen "What Price Hollywood?".
When you see this film, it sure reminds you of the 1937 film "A Star is Born"--so much that you assume that "What Price Hollywood?" was reworked into this later screen success.
So much is similar--too much is similar for it to be a coincidence.The film begins with Constance Bennett working as a waitress at the Brown Derby restaurant (it's really cool seeing this building).
Sherman is a very happy drunk and gets Bennett to quit her job and go to a big Hollywood premier with him.
A very good film--one of Bennett's best..
Mary meets polo player Lonny Borden (Batman's Neil Hamilton), who genuinely loves her, he is jealous of the demands made on her by her career, but he convinces her to marry him, against Julius and Max's better judgement.
Basically in California, Mary Evans (Constance Bennett) works as a waitress at Brown Derby, she is an aspiring actress, one night she gets the opportunity to serve and meet film director Maximillan Carey (Lowell Sherman).
Basically in California, Mary Evans (Constance Bennett) works as a waitress at Brown Derby, she is an aspiring actress, one night she gets the opportunity to serve and meet film director Maximillan Carey (Lowell Sherman).
Bennett is likeable as the young woman who dreams of stardom, and Sherman is interesting as her alcoholic discoverer and mentor, the cast-iron storyline, recycled into A Star Is Born four times, is well crafted, and the atmosphere and authentic portrayal of old Hollywood works well, overall it is a satisfactory classic drama.
Bennett is likeable as the young woman who dreams of stardom, and Sherman is interesting as her alcoholic discoverer and mentor, the cast-iron storyline, recycled into A Star Is Born four times, is well crafted, and the atmosphere and authentic portrayal of old Hollywood works well, overall it is a satisfactory classic drama.
In this account, the story not only moves at an inexorable pace towards its tragic climax, but it is studded with truly memorable characters, all of them superbly played by the likes of the wonderfully svelte Constance Bennett, the dapper, vainly self- centered Lowell Sherman, and the line-tossing Gregory Ratoff. |
tt0337711 | Rugrats Go Wild | The Rugrats go on an adventure through the safari. Tommy impersonates Nigel Thornberry, who is his role model and spoofs his nature show. However, the babies' broadcast is cut short when they come across a tiger and then a crocodile, both of which threaten them. Just as they begin sinking in quicksand and are nearly attacked, this is revealed as only imagination; the babies and their families are about to go on vacation on the Lipschitz cruise ship.
When the families arrive at the dock, they miss the Lipschitz cruise. Tommy's father, Stu, has rented a ramshackle boat called the S.S. Nancy which he reveals to be their real mode of transportation, and their real vacation. The families are angered that Stu did not consult them on his plans, and soon the boat is flipped over by a wave during a tropical storm. Everyone is forced to abandon the ship and board a life raft as the ship sinks. Everyone blames Stu for causing all of this and lose hope of being saved. Things start looking up when Angelica sings about having hope on the karaoke machine she brought until she drops her Cynthia doll into the ocean and starts crying.
The next morning, they arrive on a small, seemingly uninhabited island (possibly in Southeast Asia). The adults argue about who should be the leader. When it gets out of hand, Betty suggests an unusual test: she draws a circle around the fighting adults and tells everyone to step out of the circle, saying that it is the bad circle. They all step out and say that they all feel better, except Stu, and make Betty the leader, much to Stu's anger.
On the opposite side of the island is the famous globe-trotting family the Thornberrys (out to film a clouded leopard). Tommy, Chuckie, and the rest of the kids, except for Angelica, set off to find them, for they suspect they are somewhere on the island. Along the way, Chuckie gets lost and runs into the Thornberry's Tarzan-like child Donnie, who steals Chuckie's clothes.
Meanwhile, Eliza, the gifted Thornberry, is exploring about the jungle with Darwin, her chimpanzee companion and runs into Spike, the Pickles' dog. Since Eliza can talk to animals, Spike (now voiced by Bruce Willis) talks for the first time; he informs her that his 'babies' are lost somewhere on the island. Under the impression that Spike means he is looking for puppies, Eliza (and a reluctant Darwin) agree to help him find them. Following a close encounter with Siri, an angry clouded leopard whom Spike believes to be just a regular domestic cat, they learn that he meant the human babies.
Simultaneously, Eliza's father, Nigel, finds the lost babies. He heads in their direction but ends up tumbling down a hill and suffers amnesia after a coconut falls on his head. Angelica (going by "Angelitiki, the Island Princess") runs into Debbie, the teenage Thornberry, and takes off with Debbie in the Thornberry's all-purpose mobile communication vehicle (commvee). While not paying attention, the two girls sink the commvee.
With the other parents' help, Marianne Thornberry, the mother of Eliza and Debbie as well as the wife of Nigel, raises the commvee and uses the automatic-retrieval system to rescue Nigel, who has regained his memory, and the babies. Nigel and the kids see a giant squid on the way to the surface. They are reunited with their families and forgive Stu, and everyone finally gets on board the Lipschitz cruise. Spike vows never to lose his babies again. | bleak | train | wikipedia | The end credits for "Rugrats Go Wild!" include a section headed "Klasky Csupo Accounting," which unfortunately figures; this third theatrical outing for the Rugrats and second one for the Wild Thornberrys plays more like a marketing exercise than an actual movie.With this big-screen crossover of two TV shows, you'd think that they'd both get equal time, but due to their show having been more successful and having their full name in the title (it was originally called "Rugrats Meet The Wild Thornberrys" before someone decided that was too obvious), Tommy, Chucky and the rest get more time on screen than the far more appealing Eliza Thornberry and Co; it's not until near the end that they're on anything like equal footing, and by then the movie's been sabotaged by a plot that's too skimpy for words (the Pickles, Finster and DeVille families - plus Susie - get stranded on the same island that the Thornberrys have pitched up on for their latest jaunt, and cue much running around and shrieking), an ounce of actual amusement amongst a ton of shrill and strained gags, too many characters squeezed into too little time, and far too many songs, pop or otherwise (Chrissie Hynde.
Why?).Having Bruce Willis do the voice of Spike doesn't help much, and neither does including some of the most heavy-handed movie references this side of a Leslie Nielsen comedy.
In fact, the movie officially becomes a waste of time when their boat capsizes and it turns into a mini-homage to "The Poseidon Adventure," capped by Angelica singing "The Morning After" in her toy karaoke machine.
I saw this film with my daughter (6 years old) and her friend (7), none of whom are Rugrats fans, mostly because they consider the Rugrat's humor to be too immature and inappropriate.
My daughter and I did, however, mostly enjoy last year's The Wild Thornberrys Movie.The plot is a literal and figurative shipwreck.
The Rugrats and their parents end up on an uninhabited island somewhere in the Pacific, on which the Thornberrys happen to be.
By the time Nigel Thornberry gets knocked on the head and reverts to the mental age of a 3 year-old, I had lost track of who was looking for whom and why.
For example, in The Wild Thornberrys Movie, considerable attention was given to Darwin the monkey, who is one of the more interesting characters in this entire assembly (Darwin is smart and makes very insightful observations of human behavior, but he can only communicate with one person, Eliza - to everyone else, he is a dumb monkey).
So, unless you are already familiar with all the characters, and don't expect much in terms of character development, you'll be disappointed.I think there was a moral to the story (something about leadership and redemption), but I was nodding off by the end of the movie, having lost track of the plot.
On the way home, we listened to the Lilo & Stitch soundtrack, which has much better songs than the few musical numbers in this movie.I'm not giving this movie the worst rating, because it might be enjoyable for a few Rugrat fans.
And the Rugrats' potty humor is not as bad as it could have been, although there are diaper jokes, bird droppings, and Spike the dog raises his leg a few times..
which I really like, all 3 of them.The whole movie is packed up with lots of funny jokes and some good songs.I think talking Spike, was just little two odd for me.Like how they put both Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys together was great idea.A Lots of kids would love this movie, I am 24 years old and I found some of these scenes to be very funny,did make me laugh out loud.
I am 16, and like the Rugrats very much, but I love the Wild Thornberrys.
This was infinitely better than I expected, if not quite as good as anything to do with the Wild Thornberrys or Rugrats.
My favourite characters were Spike, Nigel, Angelica and Debbie.For the first time, we hear Spike talk, and he was brilliantly voiced by Bruce Willis, who put some of his previous films into this, and that was perfectly refreshing.
It was a shame though that Curry was reduced to talking childishly for a good bit of the movie, and don't expect too much from the plot.The humour was also not bad.
And the animation is true to the style of both shows, colourful and crisp, plus the time goes by quickly.As for the songs, they were the weakest category of the film, but they had so many funny lyrics.
Plus, we get to hear Bruce Willis sing, which for me was the biggest surprise of the film, because he can actually sing.In conclusion, a movie that was much better than expected.
The Rugrats and family become stranded on an island after Stu (Voiced by Jack Riley) promises his family and friends a wonderful vacation but instant he rented an old boat ship instead going on a cruise ship.
Spike (Voiced by Bruce Willis) loses his sense of small due to sneezing.Angelica (Voiced by Cheryl Chase) meets an equally but older bratty teen by the name of Debbie Thornberry (Voiced by Danielle Harris).
But an intelligent little girl by the name of Eliza Thornberry (Voiced by Lacey Chabert), who can talk to the animals will try to find the babies before Siri does and adventurer Nigel Thornberry (Voiced by Tim Curry) becomes amnesic after finding the babies and the situation doesn't go well for the Pickles, The Finster's, Thornberry's and De Ville's family.Directed by John Eng and Edmund Fong made an amusing family animated film that is an improvement (For some fans) over the second "Rugrats" film.
This is the last film for the "Rugrats" teamed with the equally popular "The Wild Thornberrys" T.V. Series.
It was really cool seeing the Rugrats meeting The Wild Thornberrys.
Love the voice acting, but the story...garbage.The wild thornburys and rugrats stuck on an island, Angelica singing horribly, the lead thornbury losing his memory, spike talking.This is when I knew, Rugrats died on me (as well as all grown up) I would stop right after Rugrats in Paris.
The movie introduces the babies in a jungle pretending to be like The Wild Thornberrys, which happens to be a fake-out.
Spike runs into Eliza, and Spike starts to speak for the first time (since Eliza is capable of talking to animals) and Nigel Thornberry suffers amnesia and goes on adventures with the toddlers.
Angelica, since she is pretty much a b****, becomes good friends with Debbie, due to them sharing the same type of personality.Nigel and the babies try and find the clouded leopard named Siri.
I have luckily escaped seeing any of the Rugrats movies, and have watched the series now and then with my kids.
Not a great classic kids movie by any means, but okay to watch.
While the adults come to terms with never making it off the island alive the babies are pumped about the whole thing, with Tommy convinced that he can find his idol, Nigel Thornberry somewhere in the rain forest.Having found the other two Rugrats movies to be reasonably colourful and fun I decided to give this franchise amalgamation a try despite my low expectations.
This was an enjoyable ride and equel to the first movie and the sequel to it.In this 3rd rugrats movie, all the rugrats and their families plan to go on a cruise, but end up on a deserted island were they meet the wild thornberries.Ignore all the negative reviews.
This is a sure family favorite and kids who like the show will highly relish this funny Rugrats movie!RUGRATS GO WILD!: 7 out of 10PG; mild crude humor..
I really enjoyed it and so did my sister and our friends.This movie wasn't as good as the previous two, but it was still very funny and well made.
However I was upset when, Lil one of my favorite characters, didn't eat the bug.(What happened?) Overall this was a really good movie and all Rugrats fan should give it a try.
I enjoyed the early seasons of both Rugrats & Thornberries, plus the previous movies.
My concern was that late episodes of Rugrats just did not have room for all the characters, while late Thornberries concentrated more on Eliza growing up, than adventures with animals.
Little Tommy Pickles (Daily) worships plummy explorer Nigel Thornberry (Curry), and wishes he could join him on his adventures - much to the disdain of his sister, the brattish Angelica (Chase): "You're just a backyard baby with a diaper full of dreams." He soon gets his chance when the Rugrats are stranded on a jungle island, where the Thornberrys are tracking a rare and dangerous leopard.Judging by the critical reception heralding Rugrats' arrival, you'd be forgiven for thinking this should join the ranks of that very special genre: films so toxic they ought only to be handled with asbestos mittens.
Comments like "Dull, forgettable tripe" and - Lord save us - "A monstrosity", certainly don't inspire confidence.In fairness, Rugrats Go Wild really isn't that bad; it just doesn't hold a candle to 2002's charming and superior The Wild Thornberrys Movie, possibly accounting for the hysterical sense of betrayal.
As with most post-'The Simpsons' animations, spoofy references abound; everything from The Poseidon Adventure to Taxi Driver and From Here To Eternity is duly - if unimaginatively - sent up.If the rather more interesting Thornberry family have been more or less shunted into second billing, Willis almost redeems this shrill, mismatched affair with his powerhouse turn as Spike, the Rugrats scatologically-minded family dog - particularly when sparring with deadly leopard Siri (Hynde, on sexily malevolent vocals).But if Willis gets the best lines, it's Red Hot Chilli Peppers' bassist Flea, as the pint-sized tornado Donnie Thornberry, whose crazed, unintelligible gibberish leaves the most exhilarating impression..
When I told this to a friend of mind she said why, you're pushing 40...I went because I thought I would laugh....I did for the whole movie.Its great, its wonderful, its not Rugrats in Paris or Wild Thornberry's the Movie, but its a fun 90 minutes thats better for adults who know the references...the Poseidon Adventure song for example.
(And even the filmmakers know this isn't high art when one of them in mid-panic says haven't we don this before- a reference to the first Rugrats movie) Most of the new songs suck, but the use of old ones such as "Atomic Dog" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go" was choice.
I also loved who ever covered "Message in a Bottle".Any movie that lets Bruce Willis and Tim Curry riff wildly can't be all bad.The film was in ordorama--- but no one got the cards.
I would probably look pretty stupid going by myself.With that said, this film filled the bill as far as classic Rugrats `epic' adventures.
As with all Rugrats films, it was laced with `adult' humor that's extremely funny and flies over the heads of the little ones.My favorites were the references to `Titanic', and the `Poseidon Adventure'.A must see for all..
which is the final movie for both the Rugrats and the Wild Thornberrys.
The story is about the Rugrats who have booked a nice holiday at a Cruise Ship, but are instead, stranded on a deserted island and are trying to find their way out somehow.
However, little do they know that the Thornberry family are there too, apparently looking for a Clouded Leopard to film and the Rugrats are desperate to seek for any sort of help.
Maybe people are so negative on this film because with 2 successful children shows which are of course the Rugrats and the Wild Thornberry's, it had a great potential to produce a fantastic movie and yes that's understandable, but like I have said, the Rugrats go wild is pretty decent for what it is.
the Rugrats go wild is not a bad film which unfortunately, many people make out to be..
Rugrats Go Wild is a another stupid crossover film that is barely amusing and excruciating to watch.
The crossover of two franchises is more of an appeal to younger kids seeing possibly two of their favorite shows coming together in one special/movie, but from what this is, no matter which angle it's at it sucks.
When used in Rugrats Go Wild, many complaints derived from the card being defective and not smelling like the said picture.
So I guess it's one more thing another movie did better, have a working marketing item.This movie is the last Rugrats film to be made to date which means probably no more will be made.
this animated offering from Nickelodeon features the Wild Thornberry family and The Rugrats together.now,i know i'm not the target audience,but this is as pretty slow,lame movie.plus,it's so negative.you'd think a movie with these two families together would be pretty decent,but it isn't.i'm pretty certain a lot of kids will find it the same way,at least the older ones.the younger kids might be entertained.anyway,i was very disappointed.for a really great,funny, entertaining animated movie that the whole family will enjoy,try Recess: Schools Out instead and leave this one alone.for me, The Rugrats go Wild is a 4/10.
The reason is, I don't like the The Wild Thornberries animated TV show.
Let me first confess that I'm a Rugrats and Thornberries fan so a vehicle that brings them together has got to attract my attention.The preview for this film (in Turkey) begins with a disembodied Bruce Willis voice complaining how he's never been able to express himself before.
But what the hey, this is a Rugrats movie and the babies can make up any adventure they want.The animation particularly intrigued me.
So, I recommend this movie to children that love the Rugrats and the Wild Thornberrys..
The only downside to the movie was the fact The Thornberries, clearly more interesting than the Rugrats, seemed to take a backseat during much of the film.
However, I will say Bruce Willis' turn as Spike the Dog still proves he is still good at doing voice-overs like when he made the `Look Who's Talking Movies.' This is a decent kids film to say the least, but it clearly looks like the franchise is running out of ideas..
But it's a harmless time filler for tots who enjoy both animated Nickelodeon series, and will enjoy references made to other films and Willis' voice work as talking mutt Spike.
And what will become of THE WILD THORNBERRYS, they will go into an adventure that references such films as THE LOST WORLD, or JOURNEY TO THE BEGINNING OF TIME?
In Nickelodeon's fifth theatrical movie based on their world famous Nicktoons, the Rugrats and the Wild Thornberrys come together.
Rugrats, SpongeBob, Ren and Stimpy and Wild Thornberrys were Nickelodeon's most famous shows, so, that being said, you can see why I think this is a gimmick.
The movie starts like the other two: with the babies believing their in a parody; this time it's a very loose reference to The Wild Thornberrys.
In a completely unrelated plot, Stu takes all the families on a cruise, but they all end up on an island where the Thornberrys picked for their next expedition.
(A bit too coincidental, don't you think?)The adults try to plan ways to get out of their island prison while the babies go off on another weird and somewhat gross adventure, this time they come face-to-face with their amnesiac hero, Angelica is with Debbie and we finally hear what Spike has to say while he talks with Eliza.
Not two babies.I liked the Rugrats in Paris movie and The Wild Thornberrys Movie better than this one.
It made me feel a bit nostalgic.Having said that, I think that both shows are great, but when put together, it didn't make the best movie.
They shouldn't have done a cross-over.If you're a Rugrats and/or The Wild Thornberrys fan, you may consider trying this.
You're better off watching The Rugrats Movie, Rugrats in Paris or The Wild Thornberrys Movie..
A shameless cash in on two franchises 'The Rugrats' and 'The Wild Thornberry's' this film is entertaining enough for kids, but perhaps not as much for their parents who got dragged along to see it.We do get to see (or hear to be precise) Bruce Willis as the voice of Spike the dog, and that adds something to this rather lacklustre affair.It's made for kids, and they enjoyed it, that's the main thing..
Being a huge fan of both Nickelodeon animated 1990s television series, Rugrats and the Wild Thornberrys.
The movie is about the Rugrats families going on a cruise, that Tommy's father, Stu (voiced by Jack Riley) has rented.
Another is the crossover idea, the movie is mostly about the Rugrats as the Thornberrys are pretty much, just shunted into second billing.
Eliza Thornberry (voice by Lacey Colbert) doesn't do much, but babysit Spike, most of the film.
Honestly, the whole Thornberry family really don't play a part in the film, until 15 minutes in.
Most kids will probably think the Rugrats meeting The Wild Thornberrys would be a match made in heaven, and it almost could have been with more effort put in.
While the parents try to find a way off the island, the babies, Tommy Pickles (Elizabeth Daily), Chuckie Finster (The Simpsons' Nancy Cartwright), twins Phil and Lil DeVille (Kath Soucie), Didi Pickles (Melanie Chartoff), Charlotte Pickles (The Simpsons' Tress MacNeille), oh and Angelica (Cheryl Chase) go off to find Mr. Thornberry, or "Mr. Strawberry".
When the Rugrats crash on the island that the Thornberries are filming on, the adults join together to find a way out.
Alizza is out with her chimp, and she runs into Spike, played by the always good acting Bruce Willis, and for the first time, you hear him talk.A deserved 2/10 (because it had the Thornberries, which are better). |
tt0071910 | Il portiere di notte | It is 1957, Maximilian Theo Aldorfer, a former Nazi SS officer who had posed as a doctor in order to take sensational photographs in concentration camps, and Lucia Atherton, a Holocaust survivor, had an ambiguous sadomasochistic relationship. Flashbacks show Max tormenting Lucia, but also acting as her protector.
Lucia, now married to an American orchestra conductor, meets Max again by chance. He is now a night porter at a hotel in Vienna, and a reluctant member of a group of former SS comrades who have been carefully covering up their pasts by destroying documents and eliminating witnesses to their wartime activities. Max has an upcoming mock trial at the hands of the group for his war crimes. The group's leader, Hans Folger, accuses Max of wanting to live 'hidden away like a church mouse'. Max wishes to remain hidden, but he voices support for the group's activities. Memories of the past punctuate Max and Lucia's present with urgent frequency, suggesting that Lucia survived through her relationship with Max - in one such scene, Lucia sings a Marlene Dietrich song, "Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte" ("If I could make a wish"), to the camp guards while wearing pieces of an SS uniform, and Max 'rewards' her with the severed head of a male inmate who had been bullying her, a reference to Salome.
Because she could testify against him, Lucia's existence is a threat to Max. He goes to see a former Nazi, Mario, who knows Lucia is still alive; Max murders him to protect his secret. After Lucia's husband leaves town on business, Max and Lucia renew their past lovemaking in Max's apartment. Max confesses to Countess Stein, another guest at his hotel, that he has found his "little girl" again. The Countess tells him that he is insane; Max replies that they are both 'in the same boat'. Meanwhile, Folger has Max spied on by a youth who works at the hotel.
Max is interviewed by the police about Mario's murder. He spends days with Lucia in his apartment, and sleeps little. Folger, who wants Lucia to testify against Max, visits and informs her that Max is ill. He suggests that Lucia must also be ill to allow herself to be in this position, but Lucia sends him away, claiming to be with Max of her own free will.
The SS officers are infuriated at Max for hiding a key witness. Max refuses to go through with the trial, calling it 'a farce', and admits that he works as a night porter due to his sense of shame in daytime. He returns to Lucia, telling her that the police questioned him and others at the hotel about Lucia being missing, and that no suspicion fell on him. Eventually, Max quits his job, devoting all of his time to Lucia. The SS officers cut off the couple's supply of food from a nearby grocery store. Max barricades the door to the apartment, and he and Lucia begin rationing. Max seeks help by phoning one of his old hotel friends, who refuses, and imploring his neighbor, but she is prevented from providing aid by Adolph, the youth who had spied on Max earlier. Max retreats again to the apartment, where Lucia is almost unconscious from malnutrition. After one of the SS cuts off the electricity in Max's apartment, Max and Lucia, respectively dressed in his Nazi uniform and a negligee resembling the one she had worn in the concentration camp, leave the building and drive away; they are soon followed by a car driven by Max's former colleagues. Max parks his car on a bridge, where he and Lucia walk along the sidewalk as dawn breaks. Two gunshots ring out, and the doomed lovers fall dead. | pornographic, cruelty, murder, bleak, flashback, sadist | train | wikipedia | These aesthetic qualities produce a sense of doom and sadness, yet also show beauty and love amidst the hopelessness.Dirk Bogarde gives a really masterful performance as Max, a former Nazi SS man who bears a huge burden of guilt.
Another character, an Italian who survived awful times, appears like a dog who has been beaten and fears another whipping."The Night Porter" can be slow-moving, yet this is punctuated by some very vivid scenes.
She immediately recognizes Max (Dirk Bogarde), her cruel S&M-master, and he (now a night porter in a hotel) recognizes her (Charlotte Rampling) as well.
Although it is neither violent nor vulgar, the situation is disturbing and violent -actually it's something we DON'T see with our eyes: a psychological violence.Some years after the end of Second World War, a woman meets in a hotel her jailer during her concentration camp period.
Charlotte Rampling also had this totally unhinged quality and the two really work off each other's energy to bring together something genuine and not often captured on film.The Night Porter rocked my world and deeply moved me.
It's very hard to obtain just one feeling towards the film since it has so many layers and creates so many emotions.The lead a night porter who used to be a Nazi officer in charge of a concentration camp encounters his past when one of his previous captives checks into his hotel.
The movie is about what the night porter does to protect his love from danger and might I say it's quite poetic.Fabulous performances from both Dirk Bogarde(my favorite actor of all time) and Charlotte Rampling.
What really struck me about the story was not the sadomasochistic aspect which I actually found to be rather minor, (He slaps her around a bit and there is a scene where she is chained to a bed), but rather the tenderness and love shown by Max. He calls her "his little girl" throughout the movie and indeed that seems to be the most accurate description of his feelings.
Some time after World War 2, a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, Lucia (played by Charlotte Rampling), stumbles across the Nazi officer who tormented her, Max (Dirk Bogarde).
Now you're a lowly night porter for a swanky hotel in West Berlin.Thus starts the story of Maximilian Aldorfer (Dirk Bogarde) a man who lurks in the shadows along with a small cabal of surviving Nazis.
It a film that attempts cultural literacy but makes the fatal mistake of being alienating, unpleasant and ultimately wearisome to watch.The Night Porter (1974) is not so much a movie as it is a forceful invitation into the minds of two severely damaged people.
It was groundbreaking in terms of its examination of sadism/masochism and the Nazi issue works well as a psychological backdrop.I think that by far the most interesting question that the film leaves us with is not what happens at the end, but rather who is the captive in their rather strange relationship.People have said that this film explores the connection between perversion and fascism but I find that a superficial summary.
While this film takes place 12 years after the war, and has frequent flashbacks to life in the concentration camps, it is a psychological study of sadomasochism and the "Stockholm syndrome." Two-time Golden Globe nominee Dirk Bogarde (The Patricia Neal Story, Song Without End) is a former Nazi guard (Max) who is in hiding as a night porter, when he is placed in the proximity of Charlotte Rampling (Swimming Pool), a woman (Lucia) he loved in the camp.Bogarde is magnificent, and can say more with his facial expressions than many actors can say with words.While Max and Lucia are renewing their old relationship, a group of Nazis are trying to eliminate all traces of evidence from the camps.
In my opinion The Night Porter, Liliana Cavani's most original and complex film, is the most intense entry in Italy's nazi/sex-cycle of the seventies.
To begin with, this art-house lunacy about a Nazi commander's S&M relationship with a beautiful Jewish prisoner(Charlotte Rampling, the only worthwhile element in a way-overlong two-hours) that is resumed some 30-years-later when they accidentally meet at an elegant party, and resume their affair (get out the jelly jar, whips & chains, broken glass, etc.) was laughed off the press-screening at Embassy.
"The Night Porter" really isn't as shocking as his reputation suggests,but still there is a good amount of sleaze featured here.I've heard that the main source of inspiration for Liliana Cavani was her interview with a real concentration camp survivor who was forced into a sadistic relationship with one of her captors.Dirk Bogarde is excellent as a Max,a former SS officer!The film is well-made and a little bit disturbing-I'm fairly sure that it influenced an infamous "Ilsa-She Wolf of the SS".Check it out,but be prepared for some rather unpleasant stuff!.
I was expecting to see a dark, artistic movie with strong S/m elements.Instead, I wasted almost 2 hours of my life suffering through mediocre acting, nonsense dialogues and a childish plot.The 2-bit S/m elements are some slapping, some shouting, chaining the woman to the bed and some Nazi camp humiliation flashbacks.
After a chance meeting at a hotel in 1957, a Holocaust survivor (Charlotte Rampling) and the Nazi officer (Dick Bogarde) who tortured her resume their sadomasochistic relationship.This film deals with the psychological condition known as Stockholm Syndrome in the most extreme way possible.
There is a lot of meaning behind the strange behavior and the sexuality, but the film doesn't try to hammer the point, nor does it turn into exploitation.The performances of Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling are outstanding.
Unable to break away and incapable of denying the reality of her past lover, the doomed Lucia repeats her shame with Max in Rampling's exquisite performance that is pathetic and magnetic on screen.Written and directed by women, this unusual film examines topics of victimization, obsession, and guilt as a sick, extreme form of love, a subject a head of its time in 1974.
Instead of hating him, his victim finds herself falling for him, and the two embark on a painful, sadomasochistic relationship years before FIFTY SHADES OF GREY made the whole thing popular.I admit this whole set-up isn't really my cup of tea and I prefer films where the Nazis are being shot at rather than presented as broken, sympathetic people.
Still, THE NIGHT PORTER is undoubtedly a well-shot movie, and Dirk Bogarde (VICTIM) is always fine playing these dark characters with their hidden secrets.
Yet, in this case the setting and characters are even more controversial (and thus more cult-like) : Dirk Bogarde (a former concentration camp guard) who recreates his sexual relationship with the now adult prisoner Lucia (a very convincing Charlotte Rampling).
1974 English/italian drama..Post world war II a group of nazi officers are surviving in Vienna and eliminating the past records of their war sins..Max, a night Porter of a hotel and member of this SS group comes across a Holocaust survivor young girl Lucia he fell in love in the concentration camp.
It seems an idiotic and offensive subject for a movie: a relationship between a concentration camp inmate and a nazi war criminal, revisited ten years after the war, when the criminal is in hiding.In "The Night Porter", the flashbacks to the Holocaust are pretty unconvincing, especially after such painfully realistic films like "Schindler's List" and "Son of Saul".The hotel where most of the movie takes place seems to be run by a cabal of hiding nazis, and people who want to help them stay hidden.A bit past the half way point we get the source of the movie's famous image: Rampling, bare breasted, dressed in Nazi attire: the cap, the long gloves, suspenders and trousers.
Director Liliana Cavani, who also co-wrote the screenplay, managed to incite a mild uproar from the critics by using a Nazi concentration camp as a backdrop for this kinky relationship, yet the irony of emaciated prisoners of war watching passively while the officer flirts with his pretty, wide-eyed captive is intriguing (at first).
Anyway, apart from the film needing some shortening in the last section, it is a perfect tale of a nazi commandant and inmate meeting up years later, remembering their time together in flashbacks and then inevitably, actually re-enacting it and realising that their bond is so profound it might as well be called love.
THE NIGHT PORTER, is a doomed love story in its kernel while being notorious for its sadomasochistic exploitation between not any random two, but Max (Bogarde), a former Nazi SS officer and Lucia (Rampling), his prisoner in the concentration camp.
Dark, depressing, and, at times, deeply disgusting, Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter (1974) is undoubtedly one of the most emphatic examinations of sadomasochistic love in all cinema.Charlotte Rampling plays the challenging part of a sexually depraved Holocaust victim with such remarkable poise and conviction that it never really comes across as a performance.
It's a role that a lesser actor could have made appear vulgar, but, vintage Bogarde, we get to vicariously experience the masochistic pain and suffering that his character goes through every time he abuses his helpless victim.The Night Porter is certainly not a movie for the faint hearted and the only way to appreciate is to watch it with an open mind, by letting go of bigotry, conservatism and prejudice.
A former top Nazi hides out by being a night porter in a hotel, but is recognised by one of the very inmates he has abused, but rather than turn-him-in she decides to continue their abusive master-and-servant relationship.This is the kind of movie which I came to very cold and so much the better for it.
Yet they often are simply strange such as the S.S. man who performs a homo-erotic ballet routine for his fellow Nazis or Lucia's erotic song and dance number replete with Nazi regalia, which is a sequence that really accentuates the Nazi erotica angle which is understandably problematic for some.The film benefits considerably for having Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling in the central roles.
They were sharp,smooth,whatever is necessary for the scene.I recommend people to watch this film because like i sad before, you probably look at the SS the way this movie shows.
*WARNING!* - Don't let this DVD's tantalizingly provocative cover art of a young Charlotte Rampling in leatherette, Nazi gear fool you - 'Cause, believe me, when it comes to the likes of kink and depravity (with a bitter slice of S&M thrown in for good measure), The Night Porter plays it way too safe, and, unfortunately, doesn't deliver the wallop that it most certainly should have.Yes. This train wreck (of a Romeo & Juliet story) did contain some interesting and intriguing moments, but, overall, its unconventional storyline was set (throughout its entire 2-hour running time) at a very low simmer and never once did it reach the boiling point, as far as I'm concerned.Perhaps, now 40 years later, The Night Porter is about due for a remake....
Directed by Liliana Cavani and dealing with some rather esoteric S&M, (the presence of Dirk Bogarde should give you an idea), it's more hothouse than art-house.Bogarde plays a former concentration camp guard now working as the eponymous night porter at a Vienna hotel, (it is set in 1957), and Charlotte Rampling is the former prisoner who stumbles across him again and is not adverse to continuing the sadomasochistic relationship they once shared.
When Lucia Atherton happens to come and stay at the hotel, the pair recognise each other instantly; but this new chapter to their relationship is never going to run smoothly with Max's former Nazi compatriots, who are currently destroying documentation and witnesses to the fact that they were once members of the Nazi party.The first forty minutes are ridiculously boring, as the film pulls its plot together by way of some really boring scenes.
When they meet much later on, and much deeper into their newfound relationship these years later, they enjoy the dynamic that comes with it: one half of the twosome allows themselves to be chained up and spoon fed under these controlled conditions, whereas the other needs to constantly be aware that their identity and history are both at threat of being exposed in an instant.Dirk Bogarde plays Maximilian, or "Max" to most around him; the said character in charge of a group of staff at a Vienna hotel in 1957 whose job it is to meet, greet and help new arrivals of an often affluent nature.
He too is dissatisfied at Max's presence in his own life when Lucia comes along.Issue and controversy will always come with a film such as The Night Porter.
Or with the premise, which just the first part sounds good enough for a movie: an once-Nazi commandant at a camp is a night porter at a hotel in Vienna, and a woman comes with her husband, played by Rampling, and they recognize each other instantly, but neither saying a word.
Control, it would appear, is a supremely powerful instrument, and in sex, oh man.There are good erotic moments, of the raw, rough 70's sort (NOT porno, must make that clear), mostly when Maximilian and Lucia do suddenly get back into their "NO - YES" mode of love-making, particularly in one very long shot where Cavani shows the characters, like uninhibited beasts, on the floor of the hotel room.
Night Porter, The (1974) * (out of 4) Controversial Italian film about a former Nazi (Dick Bogarde) working as a night porter who runs into a former victim (Charlotte Rampling) he knew at a concentration camp.
As for the acting by the two main performers, Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling, it is just top class, no more to say.The movie starts on a bleak day in Vienna in the 1950's.
It focuses right away on the character of Max (Dirk Bogarde), who works as a night porter at a fancy hotel.
Way back in the mists of time, in the early 1970's, there were some directors (both male and female) who made sincere efforts to make films that dealt with themes of fringe-sexuality and dark nihilism, but create them with seriousness, mood, and poignancy: in other words, they tried to raise the fringes up to the level of High Art. Along with films like "Last Tango in Paris", "The Night Porter" is a story about a very implausible encounter between 2 people who willingly descend into self-destructive behavior and death.
When, more than a decade and a half later, Lucia turns up at the hotel where Max now works as a night porter, old pains and pleasures are reignited.Liliana Cavani's film is potent, powerful stuff, a kaleidescope of human observations and ideas.
They reunite by chance in a Vienna hotel, where Maximilian works as a night porter, 13 years after the war.Their lives spiral out of control as they struggle to stay together, blocking out the outside world, along with its moral principles (what is considered normal, acceptable).What Lucia feels for Maximilian could be dismissed as a manifestation of Stockholm syndrome, but I believe one could view it entirely different.
The film is excellently photographed and edited
There is much artistry in the acting, especially by Dirk Bogarde, who is able to genuinely convey strong mixed emotions
An ex-Nazi scientist hides out as a porter in a German hotel after the War...
Dirk Bogarde is Max. The night porter in a seedy hotel who also happens to be a former SS officer.
By the time the film ended, there was no question in my mind that ex-Nazi Max and former prisoner Lucia were in fact hopelessly in love with each other and needed each other in a way that far transcended a more normal relationship.
The problematic role of Max is handled well by Dirk Bogarde, managing to evoke some sort of sympathy for the character, which is certainly not easily earned, considering his background as an SS officer at a concentration camp during the war.This is an odd, thought-provoking movie, that can be both frustrating and fascinating to watch, and is definitely not for everyone.
Liliani Cavani's 1974 film, set in 1957 Vienna, is a puzzling and uncomfortable study of a sado-masochistic relationship, and is worth seeing for the performances of Dirk Bogard as night porter/ex-SS officer Max, and especially Charlotte Rampling as former concentration camp inmate Lucia.
Max by chance gets reunited with concentration camp survivor Lucia (a very strong and fearless performance by Charlotte Rampling) and resumes the dangerous sadomasochistic affair that they started back in the 1940's.Director Liliana Cavani relates the absorbing story at a hypnotically languid pace, ably crafts a hauntingly bleak and melancholy tone, explores the severe emotional and psychological damaged wrought by the Third Reich with unflinching candor and directness, and follows the doomed romance between the deeply troubled main characters to its inevitably grim and tragic conclusion.
A former SS officer Max (Dirke Bogarde) goes into hiding as a night porter at a hotel.
He lives a gloomy, uneventful life until one day he sees a former concentration camp inmate, the beautiful Lucia (Charlotte Rampling), in the hotel lobby.
When I first saw Liliana Cavani's controversial film about sadomasochistic love affair between former Nazi officer Max (Dirk Bogard) and a concentration camp survivor Lucia (Charlotte Rampling)whom he used to abuse sexually and physically during the WWII, it had a shock value.
Well I haven't mention this yet so here it is: Max is a former SS Officer, the film begins when is 1957 and we are in Vienna where Max works as the night porter of a hotel.
While The Night Porter is not very close to be a must-see masterpiece for me it is really interesting, great in parts and with fine performances not only from its protagonists Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling so yes, check it out..
THE NIGHT PORTER is the story of a bizarre relationship between an ex-Nazi, Max,(Dirk Bogarde), and a stunning young woman, Lucia(Charlotte Rampling), whom he sexually abused her entire stay at an SS concentration camp. |
tt0045607 | The Captain's Paradise | In early 1950s North Africa, a man (Alec Guinness) is escorted through an angry, clamouring crowd by a platoon of soldiers. They enter a fort and it is clear that he is to be executed. The commander (Peter Bull) orders the men to line up in two rows and gives the order to fire. As the shots ring out, the scene changes to a ferry ship, the "Golden Fleece" in the docks as the passengers embark for the two days' journey to Gibraltar. Amongst the crew, there is much dismay, and the chief officer, Carlos Ricco (Charles Goldner) takes to his cabin with the clear intention of getting drunk. He is interrupted by an elderly gentleman, Lawrence St. James (Miles Malleson), who had come to speak his nephew, Captain Henry St. James on an unspecified, but urgent, matter. He is profoundly shocked to learn that the grief he had encountered on the ship is due to the death of the man he had travelled from England to see. He begs Ricco, to explain what has led to such an event. He learns that his nephew Henry was the prosperous owner and skipper of this small passenger ship which he captained as it ferried regularly to and fro between Gibraltar and Kalique, a port in North Africa.
In Morocco, he lives with his lover, Nita (Yvonne de Carlo) – a young, hot-blooded, exotic lady. She is 13 years younger than he and refers to him as "her Jimmy". He takes her out every night to expensive, fashionable restaurants and night clubs, where they lead a loud and wild lifestyle. In Gibraltar, he shares his life with Maud (Celia Johnson) – his devoting, domesticated wife, just three years his junior – living a respectable, sober existence, and going to bed every night no later than ten o'clock with their cocoa. St James gives Nita lingerie. He gives Maud a vacuum cleaner. Both are delighted. He has found a perfect existence – his paradise.
Growing perhaps complacent, St. James makes a careless mistake. This leads to Ricco, up till then believing Nita to be the captain's wife, discovering that the true Mrs. St James is living in Gibraltar. Ricco is glad to assist St. James in maintaining the deception and is soon called into action when Maud flies to Kalique and by chance meets Nita. St. James arranges to have Maud arrested before she and Nita realise that they are married to the same man. He convinces Maud that Morocco is a dangerous place and that she should never return there.
The years pass by. Maud has twins. She is thrilled with her two boys, but when they are sent to school in England, Maud is no longer enamoured with her existence. She wants to dance and drink gin. On the other hand, Nita wants to stay home and cook for her man. Henry is dismayed and makes every effort to keep everything just the way it was. His attempts to maintain the status quo result in both women taking lovers. When St James discovers Nita's infidelity, he leaves the flat as she continues the argument with her lover, Absalom. Nita shoots and kills her lover. To spare Nita, Captain St. James claims he was the killer.
The execution is then shown, but the firing squad swing their rifles to the left and shoot their commanding officer. St. James hands them money and walks away. | plot twist, comedy | train | wikipedia | Alec Guinness made a few silly comedies and "The Captain's Paradise" is the best.
Mr. Guinness portrays an international naval captain who is married to two different women at the same time: Celia Johnson as your average housewife and Yvonne De Carlo as your average sexpot.
It is the tale of an English sea Captain (Alec Guiness) who thinks he has devised the perfect arrangement for paradise.
His English wife (Celia Johnson) is the dutiful, domestic wife, whilst his Latin wife (Yvonne De Carlo) provides the excitement which he craves.
All three play their roles well - Alec Guinness is a delight to watch, making you root for him and at times losing sympathy for him.
The Captains Paradise is a charming delightful comedy.Alec Guiness is wonderful as always, this time as a ferry-boat Captain, ferrying between Gibralter & Morrocco,(Kalik in film).
he happens to have a wife in Gibralter (Celia Johnson) & a lover in Morrocco (Yvonne deCarlo).
the film begins with a rich premise: a cruise ship's captain has worked out for himself a paradisical life by keeping two wives, one in gibraltar and one across the bay(?) in ceuta.
the British wife is dull and dutiful, cooking and keeping house, and when he's with her he leads a quiet boring life and goes to bed each night at 10pm.
Amusing film with excellent cast and a rather 'modern' comedy situation of a bigamous sea captain who keeps a wife in each port-racy stuff for 1953.Those puzzled by the Moroccan Spanish-speaking wife should note that the nearest Moroccan port to Gibraltar is Ceuta-which is actually a Spanish territory..
It is difficult to choose among the many comic films put out by the Ealing Studios in the 50's & 60's, but The Captain's Paradise ranks right up there.
Alec Guinness is at the top of his comic form as the smug Captain Saint James, whose deviously constructed 'paradise' comes crashing down around him.
The story, like all the best comedies, is really a morality tale, with the captain getting his comeuppance, but, in the end, still foxily escaping final judgement.
Ship's captain Alec Guinness seems to have a dull life, he's had the same job for years, taking his ship back and forth between Gibraltar and Morocco.
Little does anyone know, that the Captain has worked out his idea of a paradise, he has a wife at either end of the line!
In British Gibraltar Cecia Johnson gives him all the comforts of domesticity and respectability, and in Morocco sexy Yvonne DeCarlo gives him...
Of course, such a life is doomed to complications, and thereby hangs the plot of the film.A subtly wicked comedy, a lesser "Kind Hearts and Coronets".Never really belly-laugh funny, but highly witty and great fun.
He has one wife in Gibraltar (Celia Johnson) and one in Ceuta (Yvonne De Carlo).
Alec Guinness lives "The Captain's Paradise" in this 1953 Ealing light comedy.
Guinness plays the captain of a ferry going from the British colony of Gibraltor to Spanish Morocco, who, according to his chief officer Ricco (Charles Goldner), has found the recipe for true happiness.
Celia Johnson is his British wife, a homemaker and excellent cook.
For one thing, the women become bored with their roles.A very funny film, with an interesting message about roles and how, as people grow older, they want to take on different ones.Guinness is excellent as the happy and then frustrated man in their lives.
And the two wives are perfectly cast.This classic Gunness comedy is included as a bonus film in Anchor Bays boxed set of DVDs, THE GUNNESS COLLECTION, which includes the five Ealing Studio Comedies, "Kind Hearts & Coronets", "The Lavender Hill Mob", The Man in the Whtie Suit" and "The Lady Killers".
Sitting with James' Chief Officer, the man listens to the story behind his execution and hears a tale of an international ferry, a Mrs James in Algeria, a Mrs James in Gibraltar and a man with very different lives depending on his longitude and latitude.With a simple premise this Ealing-style comedy was never going to be a surprise but when it starts with the main character being executed then it at least offers the audience something they didn't expect and it made it more interesting than another version that I had seen involving Jerry Lewis and airhostesses on different flight paths (forget the name).
What is amusing about the subject (James has two wives one domestic the other a party girl) is that it is still relevant today because men (us) still want a woman to be everything we want (as Ludicrous rhymed recently, "a lady in the street but a freak in the bed") and it is this duality that the film establishes in the two ports to good effect.
De Carlo is sassy and sexy as required (even if her accent is a bit off) and conversely Johnson is the typical Englishman's wife; both play their roles well but also change well when the script requires.
Modern viewers may be a little put off by white actors playing Algerians but it didn't bother me at all and I felt that the support cast did well in support of the lead three.Overall this is a lovely little comedy that is consistently amusing with a nice script and good performances from the main actors.
It isn't too surprising or hilarious but fans of Ealing comedies will enjoy it as a light bit of entertainment..
In The Captain's Paradise Alec Guinness is in the title role and this is a man who thinks he has it made.
Of course the women don't know about each other.In Gibraltar is proper wife and mother to two children Celia Johnson.
With her Guinness wants to go out clubbing and one of the highlights of the film is him doing one wild mambo with DeCarlo.I have to say that Guinness's Henry St. James is one of the most chauvinistic characters I've ever seen portrayed on screen.
Guinness, Johnson, and DeCarlo give superb performances and so does Charles Goldner who plays his first mate on his ferryboat and learns his secret, but keeps it as he admires Guinness's romantic adroitness.A great one for Alec Guinness fans..
Alec Coppel received an Oscar nomination for his original story (thin as it is) regarding a married steamship Captain in Gibraltar--intelligent, multi-lingual, work-oriented, and seemingly stuffy or conservative--who keeps a mistress in Algiers, a red-hot mama who can't cook but dances until dawn!
Resting on Alec Guinness' easy lead performance, the film begins very well and has several comic highlights, one of which is Guinness hitting the dance floor with fiery Yvonne De Carlo.
HAVING an uncanny ability to get so immersed in any role he took as to seemingly disappear in the film; Alec Guiness bids fair to demonstrate the really great range that he possessed, be it on stage or in front of the camera.
Whenever the future Sir Alec is on the screen, he commands one's undivided attention.IN today's honoree film, THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE (London Films/British Lion Film Corporation, 1953), he is the Captain in the title.
The cast includes Yvonne DeCarlo, Celia Johnson, Charles Goldner and a young Sebastian Cabot.ADDITIONAL to the studio filmed scenes, extensive location shooting was done in The British Colony of Gibraltar; which makes for as authentic a backdrop as could be found.
Fine use of Black & White Film is in evidence; which also gives an appearance of being real life scenes from a newsreel.AS an overview of THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE and an objective review; we can only say good things about it.
Everything about this delightful comedy starring Alec Guinness cries out "Ealing Studios" – that factory for genial humor of a more innocent (but still wide awake) time.
So it's not a surprise many commenters here mistake "The Captain's Paradise" as an Ealing production.It isn't, but it's about as close to Ealing in spirit as you can get: Enchanting black-and-white photography that doesn't call attention to itself, fun-making at social strictures, a lead performance by Guinness that alternates between tragic and goofy, and a short running time.
It's a lot better than some Ealings I've seen, if not as great as those two studio pillars, "The Ladykillers" and "Kind Hearts And Coronets."Guinness's character in this film is a ferryboat captain who transports people and cargo from the British island colony of Gibraltar to the coastal enclave of Kalik, where steamy nights and ersatz Spanish are the rule.
The captain's life is much enhanced by the fact he has a lady at each port, one a prim British wife (Celia Johnson) who knows him as Capt.
Henry St. James; the other a fiery Latin flamenco dancer (Yvonne De Carlo) who knows him as "Jimmy.""Two women, each with half the qualities necessary for a man, and therefore quite easy to find," is how he explains his approach to the only man who knows his secret, his ship's first mate Ricco (Charles Goldner).
It's a wonderfully efficient performance, centered by a scene where he hoofs a mean two-step with De Carlo, cigarette dangling lazy from his lips."He who enters paradise must have a golden key," the captain says before another rendezvous with his dancing lover.
That's about as blue as this film gets, though De Carlo flashes some legs and Johnson, well, let's just say she's not as proper as we are led to think.People who criticize "The Captain's Paradise" as sexist or celebrating adultery miss the point.
The actual ending of the film is facile rather than clever, though not unpleasant.People also complain that "Paradise" has a bit of a body count, and fails as comedy for that.
"Captain's Paradise" falls a wee bit short of greatness, but it's quite satisfying in the whole of its various parts, especially for those who like their Guinness with a little spice..
Captain St. James (Alec Guiness) is put against a wall to be shot by a firing squad in Morroco.
It's a tale of bigamy - Captain St. James has a wife Maud (Celia Johnson) in Gibralter and a mistress Nita (Yvonne De Carlo) in Morroco and he captains his passenger ship between these two destinations.This film is OK while you're watching it, although it is quite annoying at the beginning when we have to hear "Hello capitane" spoken by everyone that Guiness encounters.
If you are an Alec Guiness fan, you will like the film.
It fizzles out and there is never any real suspense in the film.The film does have some funny moments - watch how Guiness convinces De Carlo that cooking will destroy her and make her fat and ugly, and there is a nice touch with the photo above his bed on the ship which he can switch between mistress and wife depending on who he is sailing to meet.
There is also a funny moment when Goldner is forced to spontaneously play along with the deception when he meets Celia Johnson for the first time and realizes that she is the wife.
To be completely honest here, I found this 1953, British, Comedy (about the captain of an international ferry boat who's juggling 2 wives at different ports) to be mighty low on laughs, for the most part.
Through scenes of extended flashbacks, the viewer quickly learns how "that-swell-guy", Captain Harry James, was able to keep up his bigamist charade for 7 sweet years until, out of sheer carelessness, the 2 wives inevitably meet up, face-to-face, for a less-than-satisfying showdown.
As in so many comedies of this period, Guinness is marvelous as the bigamist who concocts the perfect wife out of the two women - plain Johnson (in a rare comedic role) as the demure, devoted British woman and beautiful De Carlo (incredibly hot) as the voluptuous Latina.
They have Alec Guiness speaking spanish to his crew (and they regularly go back and forth from Gibralter to North Africa.
This is definitely my favorite British Comedy of the Fifties and like a good comfort food I never get tired of it.The Captain has contrived the perfect life with two wives, the one domestic, the other a night club dancer.
Alec Guinness plays a man who believes he has found the secret to happiness - a wife in every port, who each fulfill different needs: the red-blooded good-time girl in North Africa, and the homely matron in Gib. Needless to say, the unraveling starts in the 2nd reel and by the 3rd the cat is well and truly among the pigeons.
And, as long as no one finds out (especially the wives), then is sure seems ideal according to CAPTAIN'S PARADISE.Alec Guinness plays an unusual role.
He's a captain of a small cruise ship that goes between Gibralter (where he has a very British wife, Celia Johnson) and Spanish Morocco (where he has a wild and adventurous wife, Yvonne DeCarlo).
Both women seem like complete opposites and in the process, Guinness is able to enjoy the best of both worlds--a sedate English-style household and a wild life with a Spanish-speaking bombshell.
So many different languages, and while Guinness is not completely fluid in his pronunciation, he's still pretty good and quite a man of the world--with a strong knowledge of history, cultures and women.
It's a charming and low-key film that is truly unique and works thanks to some excellent performances and direction.By the way, although you wouldn't guess, Miss DeCarlo was a Canadian--nothing like the role she played in this film..
*** This review contains significant spoilers ***This movie was supposed to be funny and we were supposed to enjoy the adventures of Captain St. James, the man who "makes everyone happy." I just couldn't help feeling very annoyed at the bigamous captain and sorry for his unsuspecting wives.
I loved it when the women told them just how unhappy they actually were, but shortly thereafter, one of the wives is murdered -- even this is played for laughs, as our hero uses the confusion surrounding the murder to sneak away.I guess I just don't find bigamy and murder funny.
This isn't emphasized in the film, but the Captain has to step over the commander's body in order to pay off the firing squad.
It's just not funny enough.The captain, Alec Guiness, of a ferry that crosses the Straits of Gibralter regularly, from British Gibralter to fictional Kalika, has a wife on each end of the run, ignorant of one another's existence.
The British wife in Gibralter (Cecilia Johnson) is straight laced, domestic, content, and the couple retire at 10 o'clock every night.Some gags, not especially amusing, are worked in around getting presents for each of the wives mixed up.
Guiness pays them off with lots of money, thanks them, and goes on his way.The end.What it reminded me of, more than anything else, were the cheap black-and-white domestic comedies that Hollywood was producing at the time, most of them now deservedly forgotten.
"The Life of Riley." "Bed Time for Bonzo." Hordes of other pre-television examples whose titles I don't want to bother looking up.If you don't expect too much, you won't be disappointed, but God forbid you should compare this to the Ealing comedies of the period, like "The Ladykillers.".
For those of you who are fans of Sir Alec Guiness's work and who have not seen this film, my advice is to skip it.
Needless to say, the ship runs a continuous shuttle service from one port to the other.COMMENT: Takes some time to get under way but emerges as a fairly amusing comedy, thanks to the talents of Alec Guinness and Charles Goldner and despite the lack-luster direction of Anthony Kimmins.
Fortunately, the script has a good, basic comedy idea, which Guinness and Goldner exploit to the hilt.
The man is the captain's uncle, and the ship's first mate (I assume) tells the man that the man being executed is the ship's captain, and the uncle asks why, so the first mate explains.The Golden Fleece is a ferry ship regularly sailing between Gibraltar and this North African city, and its captain was married to two wives: one in the city who is a dancer who always has fun, goes dancing, and eats out all the time, and a British wife in Gibraltar who is a dutiful housewife who stays at home and does domestic chores.
You'd think this British captain was Zorba the Greek by the life he tries to lead, leading on two wives (one actually common-law) of different natures and watching it all crash together when the two somehow meet.
The captain is that master of different faces, Sir Alec Guennis, and once again, he proves himself massively versatile in the art of comedy and sly wit.
The women are temperamental Yvonne de Carlo who would have to go to the library to get a recipe for ice cubes and happy homemaker Celia Johnson who couldn't dance a jig to save her life while looking for a lady's restroom.
From the moment you meet de Carlo, you know his goose will be cooked if all ends up being revealed, and with Johnson, he's sure to get fat from all her good food and have to dance it all off when he returns to Yvonne.
Screenwriter Coppel and director Kimmins seem to take forever in setting up the basic premise that skipper Alec Guiness has apparently stumbled on the formula for male happiness, namely a wife in Gibralter and a mistress in Morocco, each providing one half of his ideal woman.
Whilst it's just about feasible that a man would select two women who were total opposites its unlikely that one man would appeal equally to two different kinds of woman and once it has - at last - been established that Celia Johnson is the home-maker par excellence and Yvonne de Carlo the original good time who was had by all it's just a matter of waiting for the respective worms to turn. |
tt0430431 | One Night with the King | The movie is set in Susa, Persia (now Iran). King Xerxes holds a great feast for all the people to attend. Hadassah (the main protagonist) longs to go to Jerusalem to see the Holy Land and prepares to leave with the caravan along with her friend, Jesse. They stop by the King's feast before he goes marching to war to avenge his father’s death. Hadassah and Jesse witness the King summoning Queen Vashti. Queen Vashti was opposed to the war, desiring King Xerxes to enhance his kingdom instead. She holds her own feast in protest to the war. When the king summons her to his own feast, she refuses to come stating, "I am queen, and I will not lower my dignity. Or shame my crown by wearing it before your drunk, and thinly veiled war council". Because of this, King Xerxes is advised to banish her and select a more worthy queen.
All beautiful virgin women in the stronghold of Susa are brought in so Xerxes could leave behind a queen to keep the kingdom unified. Under the command of her foster-father, "Uncle Mordecai" (who was one of the king’s scribes and worked in the palace), Hadassah does not reveal her nationality or family and changes her name to "Esther" (after the Babylonian goddess Ishtar). She is taken in with the rest of the selected women and given cosmetics, perfumes, and treatments under the care of Hegai, the king’s royal eunuch. Through her quick wit, intelligence, and integrity, she becomes Hegai's favorite contestant.
On their night with the king, each contestant is allowed to bring along whatever she wishes from the harem. She goes in the evening and returns in the morning to a second harem to another royal eunuch who is custodian to the concubines. She will not be able to return to the king unless she pleases him and he summons her by name. During their preparation, Hegai discovers Esther can read and listens to her reading to the other contestants. He admires her bravery. Late into the night, he brings her to King Xerxes to read to him. She starts reading from the assigned scroll and then begins telling the love story of Jacob and Rachel (from the Old Testament). He is amused and intrigued and dismisses her, saying she would read to him again. From this interaction, Esther falls in love with the King. When it is Esther's turn for her 'one night with the king', she only wears what Hegai advises. She wins the king's favor by revealing her heart to him. He chooses her and crowns her queen.
Simultaneously, Haman the Agagite is promoted to the highest-ranking official. He has all the king’s servants at the royal gate to kneel before him. Mordecai refuses, declaring he will only kneel before God and the king. He announces himself before Haman to be a son of Abraham, a Jew. Haman, filled with vengeance and hatred, seeks to destroy Mordecai and all his people because centuries earlier, Jews persecuted his forefathers.
Esther discovers the plot and breaks protocol by going before the king unsummoned, risking her life to plead for her people. The king lowers his scepter to her and spares her life out of his love for her. She invites the king and Haman to a banquet and there reveals her nationality and Haman’s plot to kill the Jews. The king, overwhelmed by her revelation, leaves the banquet. Haman then assaults Esther. The king saves her and, in his fury, commands Haman be hanged on the gallows he had erected to hang Mordecai for revenge. After Haman is taken away, the king goes to Esther's side. Esther asks, "What made you come back"? And the king responds with, "I saw the stars". Then King Xerxes kisses Esther, with the camera pulling away from the small temple.
The ending shows Mordecai being made a Prince of Persia, and issuing a royal decree in his own name, with flashbacks of Esther being made Queen, and the crowd of Jews cheering in the streets. The last scenes show the small temple and Mordecai saying, "Thus dictated, I order this decree sent out under the great seal of Mordecai, Prince of Persia, a Jew". | violence, romantic | train | wikipedia | She definitely matured and grew gracefully into the role of Queen Esther as the movie progressed -- and fortunately her dialog improved as well.I was very drawn into scenes that featured other actors from the beginning however.
It has everything...a beautiful love story, humor, intrigue, great acting, noble characters, dastardly villains.
Despite this, the movie had plot weaknesses, was confusing, pacing was too slow at times, the language was often flowery, and Luke Goss as Xerxes was just awful, his king dithering and weak.
It only added insult to the historic lack of recognition this great man of stage and screen has received from the film industry.Omar Sharif, at least had a role with scenes throughout this boring spectacle.
The story of Esther has great potential, but this film limps along with mediocre acting (especially from Luke Goss as Xerxes) and a sub-par screenplay.
The dialogue can't decide if it's from the King James Bible (using the word "thou") or modern America (using the word "okay.") I know the story well, and I was often confused by pointless scenes about a Greek battle subplot.
Lovely Tiffany Dupont displays charm and fun as Esther, although the performance is uneven.I'm a Christian, and I'm disappointed in most films that deal with faith.
I rented this movie because I love Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole,and John Rhys-Davies so expected a DECENT movie.Instead it was utterly awful, terrible lines, wooden and over acting abounded.
we make it worse by having our leaders shout out to the world about how amazing the film is.Mixed race casting, student-level direction, differing accents on actors, inept acting in key roles and a disjointed story structure kept breaking the reality of the world this film was trying to create.
I enjoyed watching this movie but they took a lot of license with the biblical story.
John Rhys-Davies is always a joy to watch and he doesn't disappoint as Mordecai.Even with that, I would rather see a movie like this than 90% of the stuff put in theaters these days.
I took the movie from a video library seeing the names of some of the great legendary actors like Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif being highlighted on the DVD cover.
I don't feel that the King's deep love for Ester was really portrayed during any part of this movie.
The story line dragged out, accompanied by climatic musical overtures, bad acting, and side-conflicts the screenwriter presents, then leaves unanswered.Though this movie did have some strong aspects: the wonderful wardrobe and makeup of Queen Ester, the monkeys that were quite comical, and three inserted light humored lines, it lacked in everything else.I love the story of Ester, its up there with the story of Rehab.
Sound was OK, but there were many times when I, and others who saw it missed important dialogue because of strange wording and low volume.As a professional actress, and a believer, I have to say that I get very disappointed when we Christians promote a film as a great accomplishment, and then follow up with a project at this level.
You'll be tipsy in 10 minutes and mercifully passed out long before the end.The visual fx were incredible to watch, but thats due more to their design than execution; there's no effect here that wasn't seen in Star Wars years ago.Not to say there weren't some good moments in the film - there certainly were.
I can't blame the actors - Omar Sharif and John Rhys-Davies are hardly B-movie material - so it's rather clear that the fault lies with the director.Still, the acting was...
Just back from seeing "One Night with the King," allegedly the story of the Biblical character Esther.
I am a Bible believing Christian who loves the story of Esther and went into the theater with high expectations.
This movie is amazing for so many reasons, the cast, the scenery, the story-line and that it parallels what we see happening in the world today.
I highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys history, wholesome entertainment, a great love story or compulsive movie goers.
I am glad to have clean, Christian-based movies available for seeing, but I don't want it to be so fictionalized that one almost does not recognize the story.
I was going to give this film just 1 but because of the scenery and the thought of people who had given their effort in this movie made me give it a 2.
The special effects are cheesy.It keeps in line with the book of Esther (with obvious artistic leeway for dramatic purposes), but without previous knowledge of the story it is confusing and hard to follow.The high point of the film, the visuals from the flowers, robes, etc., is severely downplayed and not fully realized..
What's worse, being of the Jewish faith, I had to sit by as the warped story-telling pandered to the small unknowing Jewish audience expecting a broadly Biblical, impartial perspective.Tiffany DuPont downplays Esther as a love-seeking, romantic archetype in the Disney fashion.
I also feel privileged to have co-written the song, "For Such A Time As This",(once again) following a sermon preached back in the mid-1980's.This story transcends the "Top 20" list and it goes beyond an "Inspirational Fad", because it continues to be reborn in anyone who will rise to embrace the Call that leads a person to their Destiny.The cinematography of this motion picture is lavish and the music is luscious.
I have always loved the story of Esther--it does indeed inspire me to live my religion and stand up for what I believe in.
On the up side, the costumes are gorgeous, as are the sets."One night with the king," however, is not how I want to visualize the magnificent story of Esther..
First of all, I am a Christian and was really looking forward to seeing a good movie adaption of one of my favorite stories in the Bible.
This was partly due to terrible directing and poor acting, but the biggest downfall was that it did not follow the true story at all.The movie felt extremely Hollywood-ized, and the many scenes that were added for dramatic affect felt stale, and entirely out of place.
"One Night with the King" showed the Old Testament story of the book of Esther as an epic movie.
The location, the cinematography, the costumes, the music and certainly the acting all worked together to get across this great story of the Jews in Persia who would have been annihilated except for the courageous stance of this Jewish girl - a girl who started out an orphan and became queen of Persia.
Great scenery and costumes in an all time classic story of a(Persian/Iranian) tyrant wanting to kill all the Jews (!) and a courageous woman who stands in the gap to save them.
with actors like Peter O'Toole & Omar Shariff you can't really go wrong and add to that the incredible location in India and a great plot and this movie might actually compete with such greats as Braveheart, Troy, Alexander and other historical dramas.
The movie does a great job of displaying the courage and willpower shown by the main character, Esther.
I don't know what dirt they have on Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, and John Rhys-Davies to make them be in such a horribly scripted movie, but it must be something pretty big.
The story of the biblical queen Esther has the potential to be something truly amazing, however watching the movie you begin to think, maybe it's a different Esther?
One night with the King is like watching jello harden.The cinematography and costumes are beautiful, but it doesn't change a droning plot.
The acting was horrible and the cinematography made me want to submit myself to a mental institution.Christian movies always end up really dumb.If you love TBN and China Cry and all those movies you'll probably like it but if you actually appreciate the arts or any such form it will leave you wishing to God you hadn't wasted your time.Please go watch a good movie.For the love of God..
this movie really captures the heart of Esther--her child-like faith saved her and her people!
Never doubt what TRUE faith can do--and true faith is only found in Jesus Christ---so the movie did an excellent job at displaying--what i believe--would have been Esther's true character--bold, but child-like!!
Also, in the film, Esther prays to "Father" meaning God, whereas Jesus was the first to pray to the "Father" and identify the "Father." The Jews looked to Abraham, their ancestor, as "father" of their people.This film is a highly embellished, dramatic portrayal of a small but important story from the Bible.
But as I watched I was entranced by the true love between King Xerxes and Esther.
I am very happy with the way the movie portrayed their love and Esther's commitment to God. She was a loyal woman, not only to the Lord but to her husband and her people.
Another feature I liked about the movie was the amount of history that it revealed so you understand why the characters acted the way they did.
Her "love" for Xerxes was awkward and unbelievable.More over, it did not come close to actually conveying the true depth and beauty of the biblical Ester story.
I will make this short and simple.This movie being Christian was bound to be bad,but this was exceedingly bad on every level.The acting was just cheesy,the editing leaves you thinking why was that done in that way,why was that slow-mo there and that part of the scene should have been deleted,and what was this film crew thinking,the script writer had no idea how to develop characters and plots,Casting:terrible,clothes:terrible.
I would encourage everyone to go see,this film.The quality was good,the the actors/actresses were wonderful.Also,this is a true story.The producers could not have picked,2 better people to play King & Queen.They looked absolutely wonderful together.This film, and Ester will surely give you HOPE.Please take everyone you know,to see this movie.I am still in AWE..It will BLESS you,and fill you with Humor.I would very much like to Thank the Tenney's and the Crouch family for this awesome Film.
The actor who portrayed the King did such a great job of appearing aloof and royal that he became flat and insipid, in fact it was the complete lack of dimensionality to the main characters that really hurt this film.
Haman could have displayed better adversity other than a mean look on his face and there isn't any of the cunning scheming delivery like the Emperor in Gladiator.Do not be deceived with the star billing of Peter O'Toole, his appearance in the film totals less than two minutes and his character as Samuel the Prophet does not have any significance in the Esther story other than to fill in the origin of Haman's motive for his genocide plans for the jews.
The scenery is awesome, the costumes beautiful, and the acting pretty good (considering the main characters were played by unfamiliar actors).
The story is not so far removed from the events unfolding today before our very eyes: the king of Persia (i.e. Iran/Iraq) and his closest advisers want to destroy the nation of Israel.The PG rating is fair and you can take your whole family to see the movie..
I thought the acting was well done, the costumes fabulous, the music well suited to the story, and the scenes were amazing - especially in the palace.
Or some character that isn't in the biblical account would have a major type role and I had a hard time placing him in the story.
It stayed pretty true to the main story though - nothing that really went against the biblical account.Anyhow, I think the movie is definitely worth seeing - and if you are very familiar with the story - remember that this movie was based on a historical fiction book, so it is one more step removed from the book of Esther in the Bible.
The the story line and the acting were all well done and I believe this movie deserves ten stars and beyond.
without a doubt this will be a movie that will be remembered, i believe that it is the best Christian epic film since the 10 commandments and that is saying something, i honestly wished they made the movie a bit longer though, i was so much drawn into it when it began, all of the actors met my expectations and then some, when i first heard this movie was coming out i wasn't expecting much, to my surprise i saw a work of art here, it is of my opion that it is even better than The Passion of The Christ and i mean that, i love the Passion but there's something about this film that just i dunno how to put it, its just so much more Grander is the word i am looking for, but yes i do believe that this is one that will be remembered for a long time to come..
I was already a big fan of the Bible version of the story (only 10 chapters long and packed with action, I suggest you read it in a modern-language translation...) and I loved the way this movie brought the story to life with details of daily living at that time in history.
The film is inspired by a biblical story in the Old Testament called the Book of Esther.
Tiffany Dupont played the role in the beginning as a bimbo on Ecstasy, but improved as much as the script would allow, but she seemed like she was transported to the period via time machine from the future with her contemporary acting that didn't fit the part.The movie opens at the end of a battle, but they were too cheap to film a battle or even use CGI to fake one.
This occurs throughout the movie where during battle there is no connection to it visually at all.CHEAP is the impression I was left with, not EPIC.The idea that this story is based on a Queen who didn't want to obey her King when beckoned and was replaced because of a break in PROTOCAL was not believable nor was it in the end when ....(won't spoil it).
Great Cinematography!The story of Esther is one of the most inspiring in the Bible, and not very well known; this movie keeps the spirit and truth of the scriptures alive, and yet makes it very appealing to the modern audience.
Having never seen Tiffany Dupont before (or since) I thought she was a great Cinderella-type and played her part very well, considering her character had to mature from teen to adult in a short time.The biggest surprise, however was Xerxes, an actor I had never heard of, Luke Goss - was exceptional in his kingly role.
The real biblical story of Esther was great, but they ruined the story in this movie.
It was excellent.My advice is to watch the movie and give your comment.p.s.For those who haven't read the story, you'll get pretty lost.
Years ago I read the whole Bible through; and when I finished the Old Testament book of Esther I said, 'That should be a movie'.
For "Christians" to create a supposedly Biblical film and then change the story to make it more Hollywood is reprehensible.
This movie added to and took away from the original Book of Esther and yet it did not help the story one iota and in actuality only serves to dilute the Truth and take away from GOD's true message.
Shame shame shame on those who would call lies truth.I recommend this movie as a good story but not as a Biblical one..
The book was fabulous...I didn't know that someone could do such an awesome job, transforming a story into a movie.Even though the book of Esther in the Bible doesn't mention God in it, you can surely see God's favor on Esther's life.
Esther, who becomes queen, needs to somehow find a way to protect her people from genocide, even if it means her life is sacrificed.It's quite the story.
I've read the biblical account several times and this movie does a decent job of fleshing out the characters using dramatic license to fill in the unknown details, without sacrificing the original tale.Michael Sajbel did a fine job directing the film.
I mean the sound, the cinematography, the special effects (what little where needed) didn't have that big studio feel, so the movie had to rely more on story and acting.
Basically, everything that should make a movie good was there including the directing mentioned above.There were a lot of big name actors, including Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole who were both in Lawrence of Arabia.
I ran home and reread the entire book of Esther to see what they changed from the true story and they did a great job.
Hey, we all need a feel good movie that makes us think about life, responsibility, choices and love, don't we?
THe movie really is a great story-- the King was really amazing-- he's a great actor and I look to see more of him in the upcoming years.
Granted--there were some parts of the movie that could've been better-- and I loved the Esther character and at times she was very perfect--but othertimes, she was a little unbelievable.
I don't know what else I can say about this movie except that it is a shame that more people did not see this film-- I would look to turn it into a Broadway production.
But then, so does EVERY movie based on a true story.
I also thought Jyoti Dogra as Vashti was more beautiful and would have been better suited to play Esther.Luke Goss was awful and a total mismatch for a King of a world empire, he had no presence whatsoever.But the main problem was that the story as shown in this movie makes no sense. |
tt0112792 | Dangerous Minds | LouAnne Johnson (Michelle Pfeiffer), a discharged U.S. Marine, applies for a teaching job in high school, and is surprised and pleased to be offered the position with immediate effect. Showing up the next day to begin teaching, however, she finds herself confronted with a classroom of tough, sullen teenagers, all from lower-class and underprivileged backgrounds, involved in gang warfare and drug pushing, flatly refusing to engage with anything. They immediately coin the nickname "White Bread" for LouAnne, due to her race and apparent lack of authority, to which LouAnne responds by returning the next day in a leather jacket and teaching them karate. The students show some interest in such activities, but immediately revert to their former behavior when LouAnne tries to teach the curriculum.
Desperate to reach the students LouAnne devises classroom exercises that teach similar principles to the prescribed work, but using themes and language that appeal to the streetwise students. She also tries to motivate them by giving them all an A grade from the beginning of the year, and arguing that the only thing required of them is that they maintain it. In order to introduce them to poetry, LouAnne uses the lyrics of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" to teach symbolism and metaphor; once this is achieved, she progresses on to Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night". LouAnne rewards the students liberally, using candy bars, reward incentives, and a trip to a theme park. Her methods attract the anger of the school authorities, George Grandey (Courtney B. Vance) and Carla Nichols (Robin Bartlett), who try to force her to remain within the curriculum.
Particular individual students attract LouAnne's attention for their personal problems. Callie Roberts (Bruklin Harris) is an unusually bright girl who excels at English, but is removed from the school halfway through the semester when she becomes pregnant. LouAnne visits her outside of school hours to try to persuade her to continue with further education. Raúl Sanchero (Renoly Santiago) is a well-meaning boy who is frequently involved in gang warfare and street crime. LouAnne tries to encourage him to focus by paying a special visit to his family to congratulate him on his work, and going to dinner with him as a way of instilling confidence and self-respect. Emilio Ramírez (Wade Domínguez) is her most troublesome personal project, as he believes strongly in a sense of personal honor that prevents him from asking for help. When LouAnne discovers that his life is in danger because of a personal grudge held by a recently released thug, she tries to protect him. She advises him to seek help from Principal Grandey. The next day, Emilio visits Grandey, but Grandey (not realizing that Emilio is in serious danger) instantly dismisses him because he neglected to knock on Grandey's door before entering his office. Feeling rejected, Emilio leaves the school and is subsequently killed by his enemy. LouAnne is outraged that his life was lost due to something as trivial as forgetting to knock on a door.
Heartbroken by her failure to protect Emilio and angry at the indifferent school system for contributing to his death, LouAnne announces to the class her intention to leave the school at the end of the academic year. The students immediately break down, begging her not to leave. Overwhelmed by their unbridled display of emotion, she decides to stay. | inspiring | train | wikipedia | So running into this tonight, I finally decided go give in and give it a watch.My final assessment is that although this movie bears comparison to a long list of great-teacher-inspires-kids movies, I now embrace the movie because Michelle's portrayal brings it over the top, also, I was positively impressed with Renoly Santiago's honest and sensitive reading.It is easy, as I am ample testament, to dismiss movies that appear to be clones, but since this was reportedly based on a true story of an ex-military woman, it either demonstrates that the story does not emerge from the minds of banal-thinking writers, but from fact, or that the stories like these repeat themselves daily in the fabric of America and need to be told under as many guises as there are stories.
The fact that so many people are willing to trash the film based on the fact that an Inspirational Teacher Movie just is not real.
This is a heart warming story, and although at times it's quite tragic, it shows a growing bond between a group of socially discarded students and a very special teacher.Michelle Pfeiffer's performance is simply wonderful, she captures the passion and warmth of her character perfectly.
It's basically the story of Raul, Emilio, and Carrie, and how they cope with life as a result of Ms. Johnson.The movie has some really good lines (my favorite: "You asked me how I was gonna save your life.
Well..for me it was very interesting to watch a movie like because it shows how a bright person can change a ''dangerous mind'' and make them active rather than rejecting them and drive them to the streets selling drugs and the likes...the ideas is this movie were very awesome and hitting on the core of the American society in the early 90's,so that it criticizes the whole daily life in an inner city as a prototype...family,relationships,fear,fights,power,those are some of the crucial themes the movie .Actually, the teacher did a good job with the collaboration and curiosity of those students,because they feel that there is something special about the new teacher which they lacked with the previous one and also because she gave them more freedom and behaved toward them as friends not students,,,:) well done teacher!!!.
Dangerous Minds is not a film of which tells teachers how they ought to do their jobs but rather it emphasises the types of issues the students and Lou-Anne embark on in their lives.When Lou-Anne first enters the classroom she is met by a chorus of boos, chaos and anarchy by the students- they don't like her and they all think that she isn't any different from the other teachers in the school.
She also shares with them the personal hurdles, obstacles and difficulties she had to overcome and face, thus she shows herself up to be somebody the kids could relate to, because she has been through exactly the same types of struggles they have gone through and are going through themselves.Personally, Michelle Phieffer gives a good performance in her role as Lou-Anne and whilst it isn't up there with her very best, she is very convincing throughout.
Considering how much this film was trashed by so many people, the truth nevertheless is that there are certain efforts which strike a chord with viewers and touching them in ways that inspire thought, understanding and empathy on their part, and Dangerous Minds is one of them.
The so-called teacher as hero(ine)concept of the movie is approached in an almost realistic, dark and serious matter but not in a way that puts viewers off.All in all, this is a very good movie that is not afraid of portraying the gritty and tough suburban outlooks of inner city school life, as seen through the eyes of the pupils themselves and Louanne Johnston herself.
I really liked the character that Michelle Pfeiffer created.It is a film that shows the importance of teachers and teaching.
Last year I saw this film at our English class which was written by LouAnne Johnson and directed by John Smith.In the film, Michelle Pfeiffer starred LouAnne Joihnson, a teacher who starts working in a high school where students don't listen to their teachers and only do the things that they like.
For all this students start to love her.Dangerous Mind is an excellent and common film which doesn't need special effects to catch our attention, because only with the characters, the simple clothes they wear and the wonderful story, as well as a nice sound track, we can get hooked.I recommend people to see this film because it has things that can happen in our lives and the drama the film has is very convincing.Gisella Villarreal, Cutral Co, Neuquen, Argentina..
As a fictional story about a fictional school, I liked it.Although it *did* get sort of get close to that stereotype of brave white person coming to rescue the poor Latino/African-American kids single-handedly..
This film is about a white teacher who goes to teach in a black dominated school and ends up learning about a lot of life's lessons in which the kids are being taught..
of course, i love any inspirational teachers movies and it's unfortunate/probably not very realistic to have such teacher who can change a group of troubled kids' lives.
this move is great Michelle Pfeiffer is amazing in this film rating by me 10/10 really puts the perspective in it i think it is really good the plot of this film is a ex marine teacher Louanne Johnson (Michelle Pfeiffer) that gets a job at a city high school as a teacher but little does she know that the kids she is teaching are the baddest and the meanest of the school.
I just wished urban high schools had a teacher like Michelle Pfeiffer..
Cheesy Cringe-worthy Punch-in-the-face-worthy soppy acting from Michelle Pfeiffer Stereotypes blown totally out of proportion Poor camera work Diabolical musical overlay Badly scripted Rushed feel No real closureI cannot criticise this movie enough.
While I was expecting a typically dark gangster/student-type movie, addressing the inner-city problems of troubled kids in poverty-stricken areas, and the interesting, inspiring attempts of an admirable teacher to get to the bottom of their various dysfunctions, what I instead got was something so cheesy it would have been better suited to Broadway, if they threw in some hastily written musical numbers.
From the overly dominant soundtrack, to the exaggerated stereotypes, this cheesy 'dangerous high school meets inspirational teacher' flick can be more than cringe worthy at times.The acting was generally poor, the dialogue was abysmal, the script was flawed and somewhat unacceptable, and the characters were over the top and unrealistic.The whole production was one big cliché, and whilst I can respect that this picture was, loosely, based on a true story, the overall presentation was way too generic.
Occasionally, suitable backing music would drop in the right places, with good timing, hence enhancement of the scene.Surprisingly, by what I'd class as some kind of freak of nature, the movie actually managed to, slightly, win me over.As the credits rolled, I decided that I had mildly enjoyed the second half of the film, but my grievances were still strong, and the flaws were unforgivable, in my opinion.I'll give this a generous score of 5/10..
It tells a lot about how to make a difference in people's lives, and how to think outside the box to become an effective teacher.The movie is based on LouAnne Johnson's true story, which is originally a book titled "My Posse Don't Do Homework", written by herself.
A few things for people who saw this film and don't know what I'm talking about when I say "unrealistic", number one rule of teaching is that you do not become that personal with students, such as inviting them to stay in your house because you feel that they are in danger.
Michelle would have been fired on the spot for several things she did in the film.But still, I really liked Dangerous Minds.
I also never really connected with any of the characters, all their personal stories (including the leads) remained superficial, almost as if this was an extended episode of one of these high-school sitcoms, you know, the ones where the students or teachers come up with the moral punchline at the end of every episode..
The plot is overly familiar, having been regurgitated many times since it was introduced in 1955's "The Blackboard Jungle": a sensitive high-school teacher, at a loss as to how to deal with a classroom of inattentive roughnecks, defies the authorities and introduces startling new instructional techniques, and, in the process, wins the students' respect and, yes, love.
Michelle Pfeiffer works very hard as an ex-Marine-turned-inner city schoolteacher who butts heads with the prim school-board over how she should teach her unruly classes; seems Michelle has been resorting to candy bar rewards and Bob Dylan poetry readings to get her students attention.
High school films peaked in the 1990s but Dangerous Minds stands out from the rest, it goes in depth of the struggles faced by students caught in between school and gang life.
Dangerous Minds was a very good movie although the story line was a little predictable.
Dangerous Minds comes from that genre of inspirational (or insipid, depending on how you look at it) school dramas, particularly prevalent in the 90s where the unorthodox new teacher whips a ragtag group of talented, but misguided, behavioral problem students into shape, and instills the importance of self worth through education into them.
I haven't read the source book, "My Posse Don't Do Homework", but, having gone through a public school with plenty of behavioral issues and unruly kids, I can imagine that my experiences with the system are similar enough to anywhere else.Michelle Pfeiffer plays LouAnne Johnson (the real life author of "My Posse"), an ex marine in the midst of marital troubles who takes up a teaching position in a Palo Alto CA public school- a class where the problem children are sent to languish before the inevitable drop out.
"To Sir, with Love" did a much better job with this topic, and both Michelle Pfeiffer and George Dzundza have had far superior roles than "Dangerous Minds".
I love this movie ive seen it loads of times and i dont know what it is its just something about the film thats got like a twist to it, and basically i just love it.
And the soundtrack to the movie "gangsters paradise" is really good aswell and Michelle Pfeiffer was really good in it aswell so all i can say is this film "rocks"..
Plot: A teacher gets a job in a certain high school and hopelessly tries to help a class full of poor students do something with their lives, while they try to survive the streets they were born onto.You'll love Dangerous Minds if: You don't ask too much out of a movie like this and of course if you like Michelle Pfeiffer
it's a movie about a teacher that struggles to teach students that come from broken homes and that are more streetwise than she can handle.
While not a fan of Michelle I gotta agree that see does a good job in here although her character is a bit TOO sensitive for an ex-marine.You'll hate Dangerous Minds if: You want realism or if you hate soap operas.
Rather in the vein of Meryl Streep in `Music of the Heart', not to mention that classic with Sydney Poitier, `To Sir, with Love', Michelle Pfeiffer's acting out the saintly-goodliness in a classful of no-hopers, largely made up by Hispanics, blacks and other minorities in run-down inner city suburbs, does not portray with much reality the true situation which many teachers in likewise situations have to go through.
Maybe that is not the aim of any of the aforementioned films anyway; a more acceptable romantic veneer must be laid on for the resulting product to be commercially viable, and then nobody's feelings are trodden on.Be that as it may, the frail-looking little Michelle Pfeiffer hardly convinces as an ex-marine karate teacher, and even less before a classroom of untameable rebelliousness in Palo Alto, slash The Bronx, slash Tower Hamlets, or any other inner-city suburb densely populated with less fortunate people who do not aspire to being bankers, basketball players, successful rappers, genetic engineers or formula one racing drivers: with just a little luck they might land up in a job filling up people's shopping-bags at the cashier's desk in a gigantic multinational hypermarket....This is what our great politicians conveniently overlook, having inherited the great ideals handed down from the Thatcher-Reagan globalization mentality.
Michelle Pfeiffer plays an ex-Marine (I know...) who teaches a bunch of tough inner-city kids (all of whom seem to be in their early twenties at least) to appreciate poetry through Bob Dylan songs, etc.
And how come not one single teacher has been able to do for those kids what the whimpy (ex-marine) Pfeiffer was?Great ambitions and a good cause - but not the right stuff to bring it home..
This Movie Is One The Best I Have Ever Scene The Theme Music Is Not Heavy Metal But The Acting And Scripts Are Excellent Because It Is Dealing With Issues In The Late 1990s Such As Gang Violence How Drug Use Effect A Person And How Somebody Shot While He Is In High School Can Effect Others Like Friends And Family And Trying As Best You Can Is The Important Thing I Watch This Movie Once In While Because While Some People Think That A Fight Like A WWE Wrestling Match In A School Gym Locker Room Is Entertaining Like WWE Says Don't Try This At Home Some Of The Students In The Classroom When Miss Johnson Comes In The First Time Aren't To Pleased When The See Her But After Like A Month Or So The Accpect Her Because She Found Way To Get The Students The Her Classroom To Listen To Her And The Lessens She Thought Because Learning Is The Important Thing And That School Effects All Of Us In Our Lives.
Now that I've watched this movie again, 8 years later I can see the real Pfeiffer's motives in "acting" in this film.
The main problem is that the script depends too much on dramatic convention, and too often chooses to take the easy way out rather than directly confronting the reality of it's premise and characters.Louanne Johnson (Michelle Pfeiffer) is an ex-marine who begins a teaching career in a tough NYC inner-city school.
But she's well supported by George Dzundza as a fellow teacher, Courtney B.Vance in an underplayed turn as the by-the-book principal, as well as Renoly Santiago and Wade Dominguez as two self-destructive students.A missed opportunity as a movie, "Dangerous Minds" was later turned into a short-lived TV series with Annie Potts taking over from Pfeiffer as Louanne Johnson..
Louanne Johnson (Michelle Pfeiffer) is an ex-marine hired as a teacher in a high-school, where the students are Afro-Americans, Latinos and poor persons.
After a terrible reception from the students, she tries unconventional methods of teaching, using karate, Bob Dylan lyrics, friendship and attention, and gets the trust of the students on her.I like this movie a lot and probably today I have watched it for the fifth or sixth time!
Michelle Pfeiffer shows how adaptable she is, by playing teacher to problem teenagers Louann Johnson.
One reviewer said "unless you lived the life," and others said what they thought, and yet it got a total of 6 among 72 voices.I'm giving it an 8 and I believe it reverberated as "true" and "truth" with one exception: teachers often love their students and give them candy, but the likelihood of a teacher overcoming the system is nil; hence the story portrays truth among students and teacher, but totally fails to address how a teacher who cares, and cares as much as this one did, overcame the bureaucracy and went on teaching.The performances were great across the board and a movie worth seeing more than once..
It's your typical inspirational teacher,gangster\student type of movie very predictable.They all have almost the same story-line kind of repetitive which is why it's not really doing it for me,other than that I've nothing against it.
We have seen these types of films before when a teacher or principle goes into a school that is filled with tough kids and by the end they all love the teacher.
OK so a teacher by the name of Louanne Johnson played by Michelle Pfeiffer inspires kids to learn and love poetry by having them listen to Bob Dylan songs.
But by the end of the movie, the teacher earns the respect of her students through unconventional teaching methods and by showing genuine concern for them.
It's even worse when it contains a hard working performance by a good actress.'Dangerous Minds' comes with the 'true story' tag but looks, to me, like pure fantasy.
Michelle Pfieffer plays LouAnne Johnson an ex-marine who gets a teaching job at The School From Hell, one of those inner-city prison schools where every student is a drug dealing malcontent.
The kids are so standard for The Inspirational Teacher Movie that I sort of started to count down to when one of the girls would end up pregnant.Is there anything to salvage from 'Dangerous Minds'?
Based on a true story, the story sees ex-Marine Louanne Johnson (Michelle Pfeiffer) hired as a teacher at Parkmont High School, for a class of street-wise teens, involved with gangs and drugs.
Pretty realistic inner-city kids, dark and nearly out of control school, pretty teacher.Careful - my sort of spoiler - This is To Sir With Love in modern America.But, it is good, so go ahead and watch it.
When he is detained in school for fighting, The new teacher, Louanne Johnson (Michelle Pfeiffer) attempts to discuss the situation with him. |
tt0119502 | The Last Time I Committed Suicide | Told from Neal Cassady's (Thomas Jane) perspective, in a form of a letter, the film follows his life before and after the suicide attempt by his longtime lover, Joan (Claire Forlani). Demonstrating Neal's active mind and ever changing thoughts, the film jumps back and forth between before and after the attempt.
The story begins the day of Joan's suicide attempt, with Neal sitting in the hall outside Joan’s hospital room. The story then jumps to the day before the suicide attempt, where a rain soaked Neal whisks Joan away from her job. They have an intimate night together. After, she sits on the bed, sad, but Neal keeps professing his love to her. The scene returns to the hospital room, silence between them. Neal is told he has to leave.
The story moves ahead, with Ben (Adrien Brody) visiting Neal. He asks Neal if he has been back to the hospital to which Neal replies no. It cuts ahead to Neal wide awake, drinking coffee and eating bread with Ben. In a manic state, Neal tells Ben about the story he wants to write.
Neal encounters his friend Harry (Keanu Reeves), who suggests the two of them pick up some girls and take them out on a road trip in a stolen car. They all drive out into the country, flying down the roads. Later, at Neal's job at a tire plant, Neal's friend Jerry finds Neal obviously high, and saves him from getting in trouble.
Eventually, Neal makes amends with Joan, and decides to settle down with her. On his way to pick up a suit for their wedding, he runs into a drunk Harry, who asks him to come in for a beer. Neal ends up drunk, and Harry convinces him to call Mary (Gretchen Mol), his teenaged ex-girlfriend. When Mary sneaks out of her house, her mother calls the police, who arrest Neal just as he is about to leave. He is allowed to make a phone call, but he doesn't know Joan's phone number. When Mary refuses to testify against Neal, the charges are dropped. The police nevertheless hold him on the false premise of suspicion of burglary. After spending a few days in jail, Neal is released. He goes to Joan's house, but finds it empty; he waits, but eventually it is obvious she isn’t coming back. He walks back down the porch, steals a car, and disappears.
Neal finishes writing the letter and places it in an envelope. Walking away, he throws the pages of his novel into the air, paper flying and landing everywhere. | romantic, flashback | train | wikipedia | Seeing that the whole movie is based on a letter from Neal Cassidy to Jack Kerouac, I reckon Stephen Kay did an excellent job of re-creating the essence that was Cassidy and his neer-do-well existence.You felt for Neal (played very well by Thomas Jane ).
He could almost taste the sweetness of a well balanced life - the honey at home the white picket fence the dog running around in the yard, but circumstance (his likings for the female of the species, penchant for stealing cars and his friendship with good 'ol HARRY [played brilliantly by KEANU REEVES]), just got in the way of true happiness.The supporting cast give good all round performances, especially Claire Forlani as the girl of Cassidy's 'dreams'.This movie catches the 'beat' excellently with great visuals and a Class A soundtrack.Highly recommended..
The best thing about this movie is the opening scene, where Neal Cassady is doing more daydreaming and dancing then he is working on his writing.
The beginning of the movie screams to Cassady's life, and shows the audience a Marlon Brando type character that had strong ties with folks like, Allen Ginsberg and Jake Kerouac.
Cassady, a forgotten literary figure with more passion for creativity then progress in writing, would later become the character to drive the bus in Ken Kesey's, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
It is important to note, that while Cassady had only one decent literary publication, his zealous outlook on life was borrowed by some of the "great literary beat writers" in America.The Actor Keanu Reeves, who I have never been a huge fan of, does an excellent job of shedding light on Cassady's constant dissonance about leaving the life of a beat writer, for the life of a 9-5 working man with a stable house, beautiful wife, and loving family.The movie overall, is about this dissonance, is about the passion that Cassady had for both the creative life and the more stable environment of the family life.
Sadly, Cassady was unable to find balance between the two.Do not expect, watching this movie that it will touch your life with a "wow-effect" forever.
It is not some type of magical-beat-generation-movie that you can philosophize about for hours, it is just a pretty good movie.What you can keep with you forever, however, is the soundtrack to this movie, The Last Time I Committed Suicide.
This movie was amazing...Thomas Jane was terrific..Claire Forlani, Gretchen Mol..BUT..the one who stole the film...was KEANU REEVES..he should be VERY proud of the job he did in this film.
a very lovable one..This was a very overlooked film..that many people have not had the privilege to see...If you want to see Keanu Reeves ACT..see this film..Stephen Kay did a wonderful job..he captured the spirit of the time in the language and the cinematography..
This is an excellent film which really captures the feeling and atmosphere of the Beat Generation.
The film is based around a letter Neal Cassady (seen as Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's seminal 'On The Road') wrote to Jack Kerouac about his 16 year old girl friend Cherry Mary.
I won't go into anymore details as I think the less you know about a film before seeing it the better - but suffice to say that if you have any interest in the beat generation, or enjoyed any of Kerouacs books you'll like this film.
This little film shows excellent directing, cinematography and acting.
Thomas Jane BECOMES a young Neal Cassady, and displays one of the finer performances you'll ever see on film.
Admittedly, if you are interested in the legend of Neal Cassady this movie is going to be much more interesting to you.
The other Cassady-driven movie (unrelated to this cast and crew) - "Heart Beat" (1980) - hits you like a stale yellow lamp on a boring Sunday afternoon by comparison.
Kay made the kind of film that inspires filmmakers.The soundtrack - also becoming harder and harder to find - cannot be beat (It remained untouched from my CD player for months).
This film is a perfect evocation of Neal Cassady, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and the times that they lived in.
The script by Stephen Kay is based on a letter that Neal Cassady wrote to Allen Ginsberg about an adventure he had with a girl called Cherry Mary.
Thomas Jane gives an outstanding performance as Neal, and Gretchen Mol is a scene-stealer as Cherry Mary.
The cast is rounded out with strong supporting turns by Claire Forlani, Keanu Reeves (surprise, surprise!), and Adrien Brody.
One of the most moving letters of our time, reflected on film....
When I first read this letter written by Neal Cassady to Jack Kerouac, I was moved beyond words.
There are two amazing things about it: 1.) That this man had such an amazing talent for writing & 2.) That this man actually LIVED like that!I was curious to see what the movie would do to the letter (movies are rarely ever as good as the written form), and what I saw blew me away!
While I have noticed that the real Neal Cassady is more "jittery & wirey" (the man never sat still!), the actor Thomas Jane gave a remarkable performance as Neal!
Being a beat girl at heart, this has become my absolute favorite movie of all time..
To appreciate this film the viewer needs either to be in a jazzy, rebellious sort of mood, or have some interest in Neal Cassady, an American who figured heavily in the development of the "beat generation" of the 1950s.Set in the 1940s during one notable period of Cassady's life, the film is mostly a character study of Cassady (Thomas Jane), and his relationship with other people in his life, including his friend Harry (Keanu Reeves) and various romantic interests, the central one being Joan (Claire Forlani).But Cassady was a quirky kind of guy, a rebel, a nonconformist, fun loving, with a restless energy, a person constantly on the move, both physically and philosophically.
As presented in the film, he is a cross between James Dean and Jim Morrison.Cassady's offbeat personality is mirrored in the film's offbeat style.
Accordingly, a lot of viewers will find the film's unorthodox style off-putting.But I liked it, for the most part.
The plot would have been stronger if it had focused on Cassady's 1950s relationship with other historical figures, like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, instead of his romances with random women.
Otherwise, the cinematography, the music, and the performance of Thomas Jane are terrific..
Claire Forlani and Gretchen Mol give terrific performances.
"The Last Time I Committed Suicide" is an excellent description of live of a beatnick in the 50s.
Thomas Jane does a good performance in a quaint leading roll, but he is duly overshadowed by the young rising Godesses of Hollywood; namely Claire Forlani and Gretchen Mol.
This bunch of new talent has one advantage over Keanu Reeves, who takes on a minor part in this movie.
When we add the excellent choice of music we have a movie worthy a life at the top shelf..
That like Neal Cassady, I could just drop everything, hop into a stolen car, and ride away --- doesn't matter where, just away..
Kay does a wonderful job putting together this film taken from a letter.
If your looking for Keanu Reeves in a pretty boy film, this is not it.
I hope he continues to do independent films as he can really give to the characters that you cannot do with a big time director.
You have to see this film, if you've seen My Own Private Idaho, you will like this.
Keanu only has limited space in this film but is a key character just the same..
But i suppose they really had no choice seeing as how they were basing on a real letter that had been written adn a real person who actually existed, and im guessing actual events maybe.
One of the most surprising things in "The Last Time I Committed Suicide" is the whole part about Neal Cassady's thoughts about living the "ideal" American life (a nuclear family and a house surrounded by a white picket fence).
Cassady was one of the major people in the Beat generation, which rejected the "Leave It to Beaver" image of life.
If in fact Cassady thought about having this kind of life, then it goes to show his own conflicts, even beyond the main plot in this movie.But I digress.
I think that the movie did a good job looking at Neal Cassady (Thomas Jane).
Also starring Keanu Reeves, Marg Helgenberger and Gretchen Mol...and just take a look at that one scene of her!
Thomas Jane gives a star making turn as Neal Cassady,and he is backed up with a startlingly naturalistic and cozy turn byKeanu Reeves as his drunk buddy, Harry.
By God, Mr. Kaywas going to remind you every step of the way that he isDIRECTING this film and you are going to pay attention to that fact,come hell or high water.I mean, here we have a quiet intense drama about a charismaticman who inspired people like Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg,and the director uses every trick in "The MTV Bible of PseudoFilmography" to hide that fact and (supposedly) make it palatablefor the ADD generation.
You got your jump cuts and edits every .9seconds and odd angles and pretty inserts and on and on and onuntil I finally wanted to scream at the screen, "Take a F*****Gvalium!" Drama has to unfold; it cannot be force fed down yourgullet because the man making the movie thinks you're too easilydistracted to give a damn about the characters.I've only seen one other movie where the director completelydestroyed a wonderful script -- "A Chorus of Disapproval"(although if "While You Were Sleeping" had had any other actressin the lead besides Sandra Bullock, it would also fit in this cursedcategory).So...if you like your drama spit out in food fight fashion, then this isthe movie for you.
But if you want anything approaching reality,check out something like "La Dolce Vita" by Federico Fellini, whohas more style in his right pinkie than in all of Stephen T.
I'm obsessed with this small literary movement so I was definitely interested in seeing this movie.
If you have any interest in the inspiration for Jack Keruoac's On the Road, you can probably overlook the Keanu thing.
If you never heard of Neal Cassidy and hate Keanu Reeves, see this for the two females in it, Gretchen Mol and Claire Forlani who are both excellent.
To clear up any misconceptions, it's based on the Cherry Mary letter to Kerouac(not Ginsberg) and the Reeves character isn't supposed to be Kerouac, he's supposed to be one of Cassady's old Denver pool hall buddies.
If you recall the beginning of the movie, Cassady is writing this story to Kerouac(it's the letter, get it?) why would he be telling Kerouac a story that Kerouac was such a big part of?
Even though the nameless guy from the letter that he represents wasn't Ginsberg, I think Kay took the opportunity of a blank-slate character to make a Ginsberg character(I base this on the attitude of the character, the obvious crush he has on Cassady, and the race car story that Cassady tells him which is a story Cassady told Ginsberg orally in reality that Ginsberg jotted down and that you can find in Cassady's book, The First Third), which is a great idea.
Except that Adrian Brody stands firmly as my least favorite Allen Ginsberg portrayal of all time.
What makes up for Adrian Brody's Ginsberg is Tom Jane's Cassady which is spot on.
Unlike Naked Lunch(Which I think anybody who likes a good movie can easily enjoy) I understand how anyone who doesn't know and like the Beats wouldn't really dig this movie.
However it was a lot of fun for me to watch and it will be the next time I watch it too.I don't know if anyone noticed, but in addition to all the lines taken from the letter it's based on, there was lines taken from other stuff Cassady wrote too!
Like I said, the race car story he tells Benjamin is a story he told Allen and there is the best line from one of my favorite Cassady/Ginsberg letters: "I see no greatness in myself--I even have no conception of what is greatness.
I am a simple-minded, child-like, insipid sort of moronic kind of awkward-feeling adolescent." which is not quoted directly in the movie, as it is in this here review, but it's in there!
Anyway, Stephen Kay clearly knows his stuff when it comes to these guys and I don't think the script lacked wit at all, I thought it was natural, especially considering how many of the lines were quotes, I think he mixed them pretty well into his own writing(Although I wouldn't say quite as well a Cronenberg did in Naked Lunch).
An interesting historical fiction of a real letter written from Neil Cassady to Jack Kerouac.
Almost like Macbeth, not the story, but how it drew a character.
The hero of the story, you know is in ways bad, but you feel for..
There is no story to speak of, Neal Cassady's life is pathetically boring, and the dialog is without any wit at all.
We follow Neal Cassady -- who is supposed to be 20 but looks 30 -- swap girlfriends and hangs out with some losers, including some totally unrecognizable Beat poets.The actors are doing their best but the script they are grappling with is empty.
It's pretty girls and pretty boys, and pretty boring.No wit, and, worst of all, no beat!Neal Cassady : a would-be James Dean without a cause and indeed without a rebellion!.
How can a film with a dream cast that includes Keanu Reeves, Adrien Brody, Marg Helgenberger, Gretchen Mol and Amy Smart go wrong?
You might begin to consider suicide yourself about half an hour in.Thomas Jane headlines the cast as Neal Cassady in this headache inducing film biog.
But he certainly gets no help from director Stephen Kay who seems more interested in showing off his camera tricks and technique than actually directing actors and making scenes work.When this film isn't painful, its a bore.
There is a reason you've never heard of "The Last Time I Committed Suicide".
Great representation of beat literary style.
Anyone who has actually read any of the beat narratives, in particular Kerouac and Cassady prose, would agree that the film comes as close to encapsulating the language and overall style onto film as possible.
One could argue that Neal Cassady himself was one of the more well known ADD characters of late fifties literature, if not all literature, with his penchant for the next free drink of booze, the next broad, jumping from stolen car to stolen car, even ditching his friends (in Mexico in On the Road) if the need arose.
While you may have problems with the narrative structure, those of us who are great beat literature enthusiasts recognize that the jump cut style of the narrative already existed and was brought to life in this film in a fantastic manner..
Seeing this film for the first time is like being introduced to that friend or lover you always dreamed about.
Neal Cassady, the hero of Jack Kerouac's On The Road and Visions Of Cody, comes to life on the screen, having the same effect as James Dean used to; as the old cliche goes: women want him, men want to be him.
Taken from a letter Cassady wrote to good ol' Jack, the story meanders around the lives of Cassady, his pool hall boozer friend Harry, and his lovely but melancholy girlfriend Joan (played exquisitely by Claire Forlani, who is in my humble opinion one of the most beautiful and gifted people working in Hollywood today).
Stephen Kay follows Cassady and recreates a legend before our eyes.
The film delivers, and the spirit of the Beats once again is given a voice and, as it were, an image..
Like many movies nostalgic for a care-free past, this film maintains the notion that reckless abandon and a laissez-faire approach to living life is a viable option, a view that is expressed far too infrequently in today's society.
The film remains true to the letters that it is based on, and exemplifies the exuberant and excited writings of Neal Cassady.
I sat through this whole movie waiting for something, anything to make it worth watching, and nothing.
Basically this movie is about a guy who has no idea what he truly wants.
He thinks he wants a stable life with a wife, a kid, a house with a white picket fence.
Like most men he doesn't want to grow up nor does he know how.In the end he has accomplished nothing and neither has this movie!
Gretchen Mol. The only reason I rented this movie is because of Gretchen Mol. She gave a great performance as a 16 year old teenager in the 50s.
Overall the movie was kind of boring, due to lack of story.
I guess you can't develop much of a story from one letter.
The mood of the movie however is excellent.
I actually thought I might even enjoy it more if the whole movie is in black and white..
After seeing the film I felt sorry for the guy.
I also could not help wondering what made Reeves take part in the movie.
Did he want a day off or Stephen Kay was his best friend ?
In the meantime, one thing will certainly keep you awake throughout this dim, unbalanced, one-letter-long movie : cinematography.
Some parts of this movie had beautiful cinematography but too much of it dragged along with mundane scenes and banter that were supposed to be exciting, I think.
It is so hard to capture the energy of Beat literature and this portrayal of Neal Cassady didn't.
But it wasn't a bad movie. |
tt1363127 | Northern Lights | Homicide detective Nate Burns (Cibrian) once lived a tough life in Baltimore, but decides to move to a small Alaskan town, after being offered the position of chief of police. Burns leaves Baltimore just a few weeks after his partner is shot and killed, feeling partially responsible for what has happened.
Nate finds himself not very welcome by the town's residents, but takes an immediate interest in Meg Galligan (Rimes). Meg is a young pilot, whose father left and disappeared in 1994; leaving her mother Charlene (Arquette), who Meg constantly argues with, to single-handedly take care of her.
Soon, Nate helps in the search and rescue of two lost mountain climbers, and asks for Meg's help in getting there. Upon their rescue, Nate also locates a frozen corpse, who turns out to be Meg's father. It's clear that he was murdered, as the axe used to kill him is still embedded in his body. Meg has trouble mourning for her father, because she has always been mad at him for abandoning his family.
Meg suggests that Nate begin to investigate, but he is reluctant to do so, explaining that he moved from Baltimore to avoid murder cases. After giving in, Nate starts collecting information, and soon finds that nobody in town liked the man, and that he had affairs with several of the townswomen.
Soon, Max, one of the locals, seemingly commits suicide. Nate believes that Max had something to do with Meg's father's death. This upsets Meg, as Max was a well-liked man in town. Eventually they find Max's journal, where he talks of two other men. Nate however, doesn't believe he was the murderer, and refuses to believe that he committed suicide.
With the help of Meg, Nate continues the investigation. As they take their relationship to a new level, he finds out that they are being followed. Fearing for their own lives, Nate starts questioning everyone in town. Nate proposes to Meg, soon after, Nate is fired, because the locals have been complaining that all the trouble started after he arrived. Nate briefly considers returning to Baltimore, until he learns that an earring was found next to the body.
As the police arrive to arrest the murderer, the murderer takes a woman hostage and shoots Meg in the arm. The murderer is arrested after Nate shoots him.
In the final credits, the location of filming is stated to be Alberta, but in fact it was filmed in Dawson City in Yukon Territory, the town where the Yukon and Klondike Rivers meet.
Note: Part of this movie was filmed in Calgary, AB. at the historical Wainwright Hotel in Heritage Park, located on 14th St and Heritage Dr. SW. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0328589 | Under the Tuscan Sun | Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) is a San Francisco writer whose seemingly perfect life takes an unexpected turn when she learns that her husband has been cheating on her. The divorce—and the loss of her house to her ex-husband and his much-younger, pregnant new partner—leaves her depressed and unable to write. Her best friend Patti (Sandra Oh), a lesbian who is expecting a child, is beginning to think Frances might never recover. She urges Frances to take an Italian vacation to Tuscany using the ticket she purchased before she became pregnant. At first Frances refuses, but after another depressing day in her gloomy apartment, she decides that it's a good idea to get away for a while.
In Tuscany, her tour group stops in the small town of Cortona. After wandering through the charming streets, she notices a posting for a villa for sale in Cortona. She rejoins her tour group on the bus, and just outside town, the bus stops to allow a flock of sheep to cross the road. While they wait, Frances realizes that they've stopped directly in front of the very villa that she had seen for sale—something she believes is a sign. She asks the driver to stop and she gets off the bus. Through a series of serendipitous events, she becomes the owner of a lovely yet dilapidated villa in beautiful Tuscany.
Frances begins her new life with the help of a variety of interesting characters and unusual but gentle souls. She hires a crew of Polish immigrants to renovate the house. Over time, Frances also befriends her Italian neighbors and develops relationships with her Polish workers, the realtor who sold her the villa, and Katherine (Lindsay Duncan), an eccentric aging British actress who evokes the mystery and beauty of an Italian film star. Later, she is visited by the now very pregnant Patti, whose partner Grace has left her.
Frances meets and has a brief romantic affair with Marcello (Raoul Bova), but their relationship does not last. She is about to give up on happiness when one of her Polish workers, a teenager named Pawel (Pawel Szajda), and a neighbor's young daughter come to her for help. Her father does not approve of him, due to his being Polish and not having a family, yet they are very much in love and want to get married. Frances persuades the girl's family to support their love, by proclaiming that she is Pawel's family, and the young lovers are soon married at the villa. During the wedding celebration, Frances meets an American writer who is traveling in Tuscany, and their attraction for each other points to a romantic future. | comedy, realism, romantic | train | wikipedia | "Under the Tuscan Sun" is a polarizing film that seems to leave viewers (and critics) either in love with a story of growth and renewal or dismissive of its line.
I'm firmly in the former camp.Based so loosely on Frances Mayes's own account of her regeneration in beautiful Italy as to carry an end credit pronouncing that substantial fictionalization replaced key true details, writer and director Audrey Wells crafted a stunning vehicle for Diane Lane whose radiance projects from the screen powerfully.
And in every scene.Diane Lane, as the changed-from-the-memoir Frances, abandons San Francisco after her never shown cad husband divorces her, getting the house she once loved.
I'm not sure how many male directors could so well create that reality.Director Wells tells the story from a woman's heart but with a breadth of humor and drama that should appeal to anyone who wants to believe, or needs to hope, that there really is a light at the end of the tunnel of marital infidelity and dissolution.
That's a character we've seen in many, many films and Bova delivers an expectedly satisfactory but hardly deep performance.Yes, Diane Lane is beautiful but there is much more to her acting than a shining appearance.
If I have to see one more movie where the lead actress has nothing to do but make friends, remodel her gorgeous Tuscan Villa, eat gourmet food on her sunny patio in the garden, have no money worries, and not work, I think I might snap.
She happens to be healing from a failing marriage but you can relate to her story if you are dealing with any kind of problems in your life.There is one specific part of the movie which I truly like is the one where she defends the love story of a young couple though she was hurt.
Poet and writer Frances Mayes became a household name when in 1996 she published "Under the Tuscan Sun", a book where she detailed how she and her new lover bought and renovated an abandoned villa in Tuscany, Italy.
The book's detailed account of Mayes' trips attracted director Audrey Wells, who used the book's story of the renovation of an Italian villa as a basis for this charming romantic comedy set in Tuscany and starring Diane Lane.Frances (Diane Lane) is a writer in her mid-30s currently suffering writer's block, but this is the lesser of her problems, as her husband suddenly decides to divorce her and as a result of legal issues, he keeps their house.
"Under the Tuscan Sun" details France's efforts to renovate the villa and her life at the same time, as well as her encounters with many interesting characters from the beautiful Italian region.Well, it is safe to point out that other than the tale of the renovation of an old house, Audrey Well's adaptation of the story has little to no resemblance to the book's plot.
While not exactly the detailed travelogue that Mayes' book is, this version of "Under the Tuscan Sun" really captures the magic of the Italian region and accurately shows off bits of the country's culture despite the funny use of classic stereotypes.Director Audrey Wells takes a straight forward approach to her story, but wisely, takes full advantage of the location's awesome landscapes and the enormous talent of cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson.
While in terms of style Wells follows the romantic comedy formula somewhat to the letter, the movie is filled with a very human touch that most movies of this genre lack.Diane Lane is simply perfect as the movie's main character, as while the role may be a bit typical, she truly added her talents to the part and made Frances a very real and likable woman.
By the way, watch out for a small appearance of legendary director Mario Monicelli in a small role.It's impossible to compare the film to the book as they are both very different beasts, with very little in common; so fans of the book won't find a faithful adaptation despite the gorgeous images of Italy.
True, it's story may not be the most original one, but the way it's executed it's strangely charming, as if the beautiful cinematography and witty script were able to cast a magic spell on the viewers and simply captivate with their simple beauty.It's easy to dismiss "Under the Tuscan Sun" as another silly romantic comedy filled with typical clichés and sappy situations; but while those descriptions often prove true to this film, there is something else, something more that this movie offers that makes it special, and a truly different experience to those used to watch the same plots in melodramas over and over.
In "Under the Tuscan Sun", a recently divorced American writer/critic (Lane) ventures to Italy where she sets about putting the pieces of her shattered life back together in the rustic, bucolic, scenic countryside of Tuscany.
With the help of her gorgeous star, Ms. Wells found backing for this pastiche she ended up presenting to us, which bears almost no resemblance to the original book by Frances Mayes.This is a movie full of cliches: The lonely and naive American tourist that would stay in Italy, the Latin lover, the good lesbian friend, and last, but not least, the eccentric Brit living in the small town!The best thing this film offers is the radiant Diane Lane, who is just gorgeous enough to make us forget the story and what is she doing in the mess she is in.
"Under the Tuscan Sun" is a delightful romance, with a tour through the wonders of Italy and a great homage to the Italian cinema, with a reference to "La Dolce Vita" and a minor participation of Mario Monicelli.
Diane Lane looks like wine, becoming more gorgeous along the years, and with a lovely face and smile.
Not, I guess, the target audience.Well, as I sat there on the sofa with my cuppa, enjoying the scenery, and this striking lady who I hadn't seen before, (trust me, I know Diane now, and have a list of her films to watch), I just became entranced.I know I'm being manipulated, the mass of stereotypes, the fact (unlike most of us) she can just cash buy a villa on a whim, BUT, I gave in and went for the ride, and it couldn't of been better.
We not only have an imposed story (of a woman's self discovery and resexualization), that story is emphasized by all sorts of parallel threads: the resurrection of the house (even the "opening" of a certain watertap), the exuberant troubled passion of two teenagers, the episodes of an aging local beauty and the birth of a daughter from her spurned gay friend -- even the eventual acknowledgment of our troubled adventurer by the land as denoted by an local deity delivering flowers.The overlay of Tuscan pleasures is supposed to elevate this project from the ordinary such.But let's suppose you really believe what is being preached in this movie: to never settle for the mundane, but actively seek the richest path (as measured by lasting pleasure).
Also, as a book, "A Trip to the Beach" may suit you better as a commitment to a new food-driven Latin life than "Tuscan." As an engineered product, this film has something more interesting than the imposed redundant stories.
Derivative in the extreme, it is a by-the-numbers-movie graced only by some good camera work & locations that are undeniably agreeable on the eye.Diane Laine plays a newly divorced professional writer desperately searching for answers to her sad life.
The movie starts off promisingly, with the Diane Lane character discovering the infidelity of her husband and the ensuing heartbreak of divorce.
"Under the Tuscan Sun" is a glossy chick flick with a radiant star and beautiful scenery, but that was just not enough for me to get beyond wincible dialogue and cornball situations.Beautiful, talented Diane Lane is certainly deserving of a star vehicle and I pluncked down my full fare to be sure she gets credit for putting this fanny in a seat.I do note that screenplay co-writer/director Audrey Wells (who played on chick flick stereotype turnabouts much more creatively in her script for "The Truth About Cats and Dogs") womanfully put some creative tweaks on creaky conventions of the genre -- the caustic best friend is a pregnant lesbian Asian-American (one of my favorite actresses, Sandra Oh, who has been so good in little Canadian dramas and as a comedienne in "Arli$$"), we don't have to meet the one-dimensional two-timing husband, the secondary stories have some different ethnic gloss, and there's a little twist in the concluding romantic expectations.
It's the perfect movie for someone who is looking for someone who is closing an old chapter in their life and moving on to a new one.The film does have some small flaws, such as the occasional awkward musical choice, but overall, it's a lovely little film with an uplifting message..
Leisurely, romantic and nicely written 'finding a new life' story of a writer emerging from a seriously bad divorce and, on impulse, buying a house in Tuscany.
Turn the sound off and watch this and I guarantee you will laugh yourself sick at the bad acting clinic she seems to be giving.The love angle in the movie was corny at best and embarrassing at worst and played like a teenage girl's rendering of how it should be.
But this was a chick flick that was majorly rubbed in my face and could be at times very predictable.Kathleen is a newly divorced woman who has been cheated on, she goes to Tuscany, Italy and buys a house that is falling apart.
She goes through some rough times, but pulls herself together when her pregnant friend, Patti moves in with her.Under the Tucsan Sun is a very over the top chick flick that I wasn't at all impressed with, the only thing I'm giving points on that it had some very beautiful pictures in it and it had nice touches to it.
but once is enough.Acting 2 - spectacular, Oscar worthy 1 - Really good, enhanced the plot0 - movie wasn't about the actingPlot 3 - Spectacular, nothing else like it in the genre, nominated for Best Picture (Oscars) 2 - Makes you think well after, unique 1 - Interesting idea / story 0 - Run of the millUnder the Tuscan Sun???
This was a very enjoyable film that is full of very simple truths of life, where a woman is heart broken about a marriage break up and losses hope that she can experience such a wonderful feeling or joy.
Diane Lane,(Frances),"Must Love Dogs",'05 plays this tender hearted young woman who has a close relationship with her girl friend and encounters a so called romance that turns into a One-Night-Stand.
After that comes a few heartaches, but gradually Lane's back in the swing of things Italian style as it were.I did love the nicely photographed scenes of Italy showing the daily life there.
A lot of time is spent getting to know the locals and the areas around, but seeing as Tuscany is one of the most charming places on Earth, there are worse ways to spend an hour or two.Diana Lane plays the lead role, and a lot of the film's strengths can be attributed to her.
This is a travelogue that meets 'a year in Provence.'It is an adaptation of a book where Diane Lane who discovers her husband is having an affair and is persuaded to go to a tour of Italy and impulsively purchases a run down house.
She sets about getting workers together and fix the house while at the same time getting her life together and hopefully find romance again.There is wonderful Italian scenery, Lane looks ravishing, some tender and funny and scenes but its predictable.
Anyway, she is a consistently good actress, and, as Frances, is the one through whose eyes we see the story of "Under the Tuscan Sun." This is a delightful little movie, featuring lots of beautiful scenery, and containing some valuable messages: that love creates a family, and that oftentimes, our dreams come true in ways we would not have imagined.
Lovely modern-day fairy tale has recently-divorced American woman rebuilding her life after taking a vacation trip to Tuscany and deciding that's where she wants to live; after purchasing and remodeling a run-down villa, she makes new friends and love-interests.
Anyone who loves to travel to foreign destinations, in this case Italy, and for anyone who is a believer in fate, being in the right place at the right time and divine intervention will absolutely love "Under The Tuscan Sun." This movie is so uplifting, very inspirational and fully encouraging for the person who may be facing major life struggles, feeling displaced in life and in need of an extraordinary life change!
Marcello is good here too, his character is necessary to the movie overall, and he was well casted, the actor that played him is sexy, romantic, and charming, just how he needed to be.
The characters are likable and aren't too stereotypical.Diane Lane is lovely here and this movie deservedly revitalized her career.
I never read Frances Mayes' original novel Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy but I think director Audrey Wells strongly mastered the story, become completely alive to me!.
I don't usually like the kind of movie that "Under the Tuscan sun" is supposed to be -a "chick flick", romantic movie where the romance is the whole point and a happy ending for our heroine is imperative, and basically what the audience is paying the ticket for.
Frances will go on to live many adventures and misadventures in her new home, meeting colorful characters and, yes, keeping us guessing about her destiny.I think the movie is ruined precisely by how much the driving force is her quest for love, almost to an obsessive point.
but the story being as full of opportunities and life experiences, I was expecting and wanting for it to be something else than another movie about relationships, coupling up and falling in love the way it is traditionally depicted in Hollywood movies.The biggest asset of this film is undoubtedly its aesthetic beauty, showing us Italy and Tuscany like I had personally never seen them before in film.
Diane Lane is also always a delight to watch in film, because she's such a naturally gifted actress and she has the kind of classic, delicate beauty that fits so well with the story and the tone of the movie.However, because I was personally disappointed with the film, I rate it 5/10..
It could be described as a very gentle movie (even mildly spiritual in some ways) full of sage advice about life and how to handle the disappointments that naturally appear, and - being somewhat stereotypically Italian in its presentation - it has a lot about love and romance and flirtatiousness in it.
Frances (in a great performance by Diane Lane) discovers that her husband is having an affair, and they end up divorced - and, she being the primary bread winner - he gets the house and alimony.
Diane Lane is a very good actress, and can make the audience feel for her without showing much character.
I wish I was under the Tuscan Sun. This movie is woven around a woman trying to start her life over after a painful divorce.
This technique can be exciting when used properly, but under Wells' direction was more like trying to see your dinner date through an over-large centerpiece on your restaurant table.I'm sure that I am not alone in comparing Under the Tuscan Sun to another un-movie in which Diane Lane appeared only last year, Unfaithful (co-starring Richard Gere).
I guarantee that when Frances jumped into the sack with her Italian lover Marcello the furniture would not have gotten in the way!If you are a Diane Lane fan, which I am, Under The Tuscan Sun is a must-see, even though you may leave disappointed.
DIANE LANE is wonderful in this beautiful movie!.
Oscar nominee DIANE LANE (Unfaithful, The Perfect Storm) gives another wonderful performance in this beautiful and enjoyable movie.
It is funny and quite sexy in places and especially DIANE LANE is wonderful in this film.
The entire films shines with authenticity and coupled with wonderful performances and directing, Audrey has redefined the romantic comedy.This movie was refreshing, witty, poetic, dramatic and rich with characters that you not only like, but identify with.
"Under The Tuscan Sun" is romantic in every aspect of the word, It is an inspiring story about spiritual growth, love, heartbreak, life and the ideal of what romance should be and what it really is.
Diane Lane (who got a Best Actress Oscar nomination last year for "Unfaithful" ) gives another great performance as Frances Mayes.
Great scenery, photography, music and story all help support Diane Lane is this unforgettable film.
UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN was a brilliant film that was capped with a magical performance by Best Actress OSCAR Nominee DIANE LANE as Connie.
Oscar nominee DIANE LANE (Unfaithful, The Perfect Storm) is great in this very sexy, entertaining and heartfelt film.
A lovely and entertaining film with Lane on fire in the lead role - she deserves the Oscar this time!.
Diane Lane is Frances Mayes, a San Francisco writer-book editor who escapes to Tuscany trying to rebuild her shattered life and, hopefully, find love.
Diane Lane delivers a great performance in a classy and entertaining film!.
Though she made her first movie at the age of 13, Diane Lane has only blossomed into a true star in her 30s, and 'Under the Tuscan Sun' marks her full flowering.
Diane Lane stars in this funny, touching, inspiring and beautiful film about overcoming life's ups and downs. |
tt1294226 | The Last Song | At seventeen, Veronica "Ronnie" Miller (Miley Cyrus) remains as rebellious as she was the day her parents divorced and her father moved to North Carolina three years prior. Once a classical piano child prodigy under the tutelage of her father, Steve Miller (Greg Kinnear), Ronnie now ignores the instrument and has not spoken with her father since he left. While Juilliard School has been interested in her since she was young, Ronnie refuses to attend.
Steve now has the chance to reconnect with his estranged daughter when her mother, Kim Miller (Kelly Preston) sends the rebellious teen and her younger brother, Jonah (Bobby Coleman), to spend the summer with him. Steve, a former Juilliard School professor and concert pianist, lives a quiet life in Wrightsville Beach, the small beach town in North Carolina where he grew up, working on a stained glass window for the local church to replace the one the church lost in a fire. According to the locals, it was Steve who had (accidentally) set fire to the church one night.
After arrival, Ronnie becomes miserable, defiant, and defensive toward all those around her, including handsome, popular Will Blakelee (Liam Hemsworth) whose introduction involved crashing into her during a volleyball match, and accidentally spilling Ronnie's strawberry shake on her. She shrugs him off and meets Blaze, an outcast who lives with her boyfriend Marcus. While at a beach campfire, Marcus hits on Ronnie and Blaze mistakes this for Ronnie flirting with him. Angered by this, Blaze later frames Ronnie for shoplifting, causing her arrest. Later on, Ronnie discovers a Loggerhead Sea Turtle nest at the beach by her house and while protecting it, she meets Will again on his volunteer work for the aquarium. After a night of staying up to defend the turtle eggs from predators with Will, she discovers he is deeper than she expected, and begins to develop feelings for him.
The next day, Will takes Ronnie to where he works to show her the aquarium. After they leave to the beach, Ashley shows up and tells Ronnie about Will's past relationships and how taking them to see the aquarium was routine of his, making Ronnie doubtful of her feelings toward him. Will finds her at the turtle's nest and they have an argument about his past relationships. When Ronnie suggests she does not want to be another girl on the list and that they should end their relationship for good, Will embraces her and they kiss passionately, proving his feelings for her as akin to his quoting she's "not like the other girls." Marcus breaks up with Blaze because he wants Ronnie, which leads him and Will to fight at Megan's wedding party.
Ronnie soon hears the rumor that her father burned down the church from some locals. Distraught, she goes to Will and laments about the situation. Will, knowing that it was actually his friend Scott who while playing around set fire to the church, is overcome by guilt and goes to Steve to apologize. When Ronnie comes in hearing this, she walks out and Will follows where they have an argument and break up. Will leaves. Fall arrives and Jonah returns to New York for the school year. Ronnie stays behind to take care of their father, who revealed to Ronnie & Jonah during the summer that he is terminally ill. Leading a slow life, she tries to make up for the time with her father that she's lost. She continues work on a composition he had been writing (titled "For Ronnie"), after losing the steadiness of his hands due to his illness. He dies just as she finishes it.
At his funeral she stands to make a speech but declares that no words could ever be able to show how wonderful her father really was. Instead, she decides to share with them the song she helped finish. Before she sits down to play, sunlight shines through the stained glass window. Ronnie smiles and says "Hi, Daddy," remembering what she overheard her father tell Jonah earlier in the movie; that whenever light shines through the window, it's him.
Blaze and other townsfolk offer Ronnie sympathy and kind words after the funeral outside. Later on, while talking to the attendants, she runs into Will. He says that he liked the song she played and that he knows her dad did too and Ronnie thanks him for coming. Having decided to attend Juilliard, Ronnie is packing up to return to New York when she sees Will standing outside. She goes outside to see him and Will apologizes to her for everything that had happened and Ronnie forgives him. Will surprises Ronnie by revealing that he will be transferring to Columbia in order to be with her and they passionately kiss.
The end credits show Ronnie driving away in her car and smiling to herself. | romantic, entertaining | train | wikipedia | Mr. Sparks's death sequences are so surprising, that you could almost say they're completely unrelated to the genre that the previous two hours were aiming to be.And when a movie like Precious thinks its portrayal of a teenage girl in emotional turmoil is accurate, it's alarmingly mistaken.
That's what made the most recent, Valentine's Day, so brilliant was that I could watch Jessica Alba being Jessica Alba the whole time yet grow blissfully unaware to her character's traits, abilities...heck, I couldn't even remember her name.And mad props go out to Greg Kinnear in the role of a lifetime as the "antagonistic" father.
In this movie,Miley Cyrus made Ronnie seem like every other girl but with an attitudeproblem.
The whole movie, and please remember that I absolutely knew nothing about this story before hand, I felt like I had nothing to look forward to.In the end I would say that I wouldn't suggest paying to see this in theaters.
I'd also like to mention that, from what I understand from my mother and my sister, this movie completely differs from the book so don't expect what you've read and definitely don't get to excited for this..
We both had read the book and loved it so we decided to see the movie.The people who play Miley Cyrus' little brother and father were excellent and had a lot of great lines, but unfortunately Miley Cyrus and her boyfriend, absolutely, completely, can not act.
I really think we should rate this movie considering all the other things that compose it: a well-written and really moving story, an amazing soundtrack, a BRILLIANT Bobby Coleman's performance (WOOW!
the story line is good a tear jerker and gives the importance of family and acceptance, but choose some wooden-acting- novice-actors then you got a recipe for a bad movie..
To be fair this movie would had been mediocre even without Miley Cyrus in the lead (although she didn't help things) the reason why is that the book from Nicholas Spark's was crap so the odds were good that the movie was going to blow too.
One year later he transformed that sudsy story (with some help from Jeff Van Wie) into another of his formula films and turned it over to TV director Julie Anne Robinson to map out the predictable story.For a brief outline of the scant story: begin with a divorced family - Ronnie (Miley Cyrus) and her younger brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) are sent to spend the summer with their father Steve (Greg Kinnear) in an indescribably beautiful waterfront town in Georgia.
The light of the film is the screen presence of Liam Hemsworth who looks and acts like someone who will succeed in movies.
Yes, Miley Cyrus may not be the best, and yes some parts were predictable, but I still loved the movie an incredible amount.
And how can it have the score of 3.2?It was one of the most touching and real movies I have ever seen, and I've seen my share of great touching movies (Casablanca, Wuthering Heights, The Notebook, It's A Wonderful Life, Rain Man).I'm not comparing this movie with the greatest movies of all time, I'm only saying that it has the heart and soul to be a film that you remember and cherish in your heart.When this world becomes more and more apathetic with each day passing, I think this film brings back the feelings that we forgot and neglected, and that's just not a bad thing.I give this movie 10/10, because it crawled underneath my skin and into my heart.
But I guess too much of anything rarely work wonders, even if you throw big name stars in the film to shore up and try and mask all the clichés, and frankly off the heels of Dear John, The Last Song just feels like the neglected twin clamouring hard for attention.Miley Cyrus finally sheds her Hannah Montana persona for the big screen, and it's about time she takes on a role without putting on that blonde wig, or break out into song (although she does for a while here when singing off a few phrases of Maroon 5's She Will Be Loved) and dance.
But that aside, boy and girl spend plenty of time frolicking in the sand, sea, and aquarium even, before jealous parties and ex-girlfriends come spoil everything so that it's not as smooth sailing as we'd like to think.Being in love probably means becoming a better person, and through that comes the narrative opportunity for Ronnie to bond with her father Steve (Greg Kinnear), who's spending a lot of time with son Jonah (Bobby Coleman) given her daughter's new found relationship and the trouble in connecting with her nasty demeanour slowly unravelled by Will.
I found this part about reconnecting with a loved one a lot more powerful than the romantic one, which in part is thanks to Kinnear's superior performance over Liam Hemsworth, who;s like a cross between Keanu Reeves and Hayden Christensen.For all the real life romance between Cyrus and Hemsworth that came out from this film, I can't deny that it's likely curiosity more than anything else that would put bums on seats, wondering if kisses shown were for reel or for real (I'm inclined to think the latter from what's seen in the film).
The Last Song , however, will spoil the mood A moody girl is forced to stay with her father after her parents got divorced sometime back during one summer in Southern Beach where she finds new love and also re-kindles her affection towards her father.The Last Song was a complete letdown to Nicholas Spark's esteemed novel thanks to over-top-acting by Miley Cyrus, terrible screenplay and poor direction.
(( secondary, interesting not boring new and different person to what they see before )a.1 It was sell badly in this picture, but if you watching it carefully you will notice both : bad performance and attempt of showing it.Acting Well, there was no emotions at the start, good or bad marked strongly by each of character.Maybe because such a situations are so common this days around a globe, you do not need to show them such dramatically..........Later on, as movie goes by, there is some sympathy growing to main actors as you do expect there should have been some love from it .It is not ease play bad girl (Maily Cirus) and half an hour later turn onto in love Babe...I'm sorry for the director and the closest crew that Maily was not directed to be real in that moment.
'The Last Song' (based on the eponymous novel by 'The Notebook' scribe Nicholas Sparks) appears to have received much criticism for various aspects of its running time, many of which I can respect, however it strikes me as vicious that viewers are focusing on Miley Cyrus' likability as if it were the overall staple.
Some may take issue with the watered- down characters (particularly readers of the book) but this is a difficult problem for any screenplay when adapting from the written format.Besides the sole draw of superstar Cyrus, 'The Last Song' tells a touching story about love, life, family and friendship through Ronnie's connection with her estranged father (a suitably cast Greg Kinnear) and the local heartthrob Will, played by Liam Hemsworth who, like Cyrus, should be credited with rising to the part.
This was by far the most ridiculous attempt of a book to film adaptation I have ever seen.Miley Cyrus cannot act.
you couldn't fix that?" But there were also moments when I was pleasantly surprised.Note to the audience: Miley Cyrus isn't incredible, but the boy who played her little brother was and Greg Kinnear, as per usual, was quiet awesome.
Kelly Preston wasn't great but, when remembering that the filming of this movie fell somewhere near the death of her sweet son, she was fine; god bless the Travolta/Preston family.The relationship between Miley and her on/off-screen boyfriend was rushed; my friends and I were aghast by some of their actions because we couldn't tell how much time had passed since the beginning of their relationship and, we wondered, "isn't it a little soon for this?" The emotional element of this movie was pivotal, as it is with most Nicolas Sparks book-to- screen projects.
Miley Cyrus got better as the movie progressed but still didn't quite reach the level that Rachael McAdams did in "The Notebook." Not to compare actresses, but Nicolas Sparks is, in and of himself, a completely different genre of "love movie."I felt as though the subject of Ronnie's college attendance wasn't addressed aggressively enough; the movie makes several mentions of it but suddenly she makes a big decision that didn't seem contextual enough.
More like "Stop whoring out your emotions to make a pretty face and get a bit of attention." her playing at the funeral was predictable, but quite lovely, another little saving grace.I suppose true musicianship is something a non-musician will ever understand, and this film does not help to elaborate upon it, so they explore the shallow levels of family and stupid romances..
The movie started off with a supposedly rebel Ronnie, (Miley Cyrus did an awful portrayal of the character), who after a few things happening changed into "Daddy's little girl".
Not even to mention that what one called "acting" wasn't proved so by the two love birds, Ronnie and Will, Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth.
In my opinion this movie was one of those that it was a great book- but wrong choices are made, and we are left with a movie that we end up hating.And so honestly if you were planning on watching this movie, because after all you watched "The Notebook", "A Walk to Remember", "Dear John", all of the Nicholas Sparks' books turned into movies, well I would recommend you to do the following: first, if you are at your local movie rental place, put "The Last Song" down.
The Last Song is a nice movie which could have been much better if they found someone else, anyone else, but not Miley Cyrus, to play the part of the teenage girl.
It is little wonder that the costumers of the movie did their best to hide every part of her that they could, despite the fact that the movie is set in the south in the summertime, with other young ladies wearing skimpy bikinis.Even if you like her singing, you have to admit that Miley Cyrus has absolutely no acting skills.
In fact they are so bad as to be non-existent, or at least indiscernible.If producers want to make a decent movie, with any respectability at all, and have a chance of making a few dollars profit for their trouble, this movie, The Last Song, says clearly that they need to stay away from Miley Cyrus.
I like how Sparks took the time to develop the characters and how nothing in the novel seemed forced (for lack of a better word).After reading the book, I was very excited to rent the movie (RedBox is amazing!) and watch it after work (as a part of my Wine and a Movie event).
The Last Song features Miley Cyrus in an uneven and whiny performance as a teenage girl experiencing the love of her life during the summer.
But you know what, I still enjoyed it and so did a lot of people.So if you want to see a movie that will make you laugh, make you cry, feel frustration, that is beautifully shot in Georgia, then go see the Last Song without too much expectation and I think that you will be pleasantly surprised..
The Last Song Like their seasonal namesake, summer flings are sweaty, sleepless affairs that generally last for two-months before abruptly ending, leaving your body covered in strange rashes and bite marks.Sadly, the summer tryst of the troubled teen in this romantic/drama ends on a much more tragic note.Forced to spend the summer with her estranged/musician father (Greg Kinnear), the unruly, yet gifted, Ronnie (Miley Cyrus) is disgruntled.Her gloomy disposition, however, doesn't dissuade a local (Liam Hemsworth) from romantically pursuing her.
Unfortunately, his efforts are trumped by news her father has cancer.Layered with lachrymose love and loss motifs, The Last Song is typical Nicolas Sparks schmaltz made even worse by a lead actress whose awkward jaw is apposite evidence of her scene chewing abilities.As for the best part of a summer romance: You only have to stay fit and look sexually attractive for, like, 12-weeks out of the year.
I read Miley Cyrus played the main character in the movie.
I had never seen her playing before, but I thought, Ronnie could kinda looked like her - why not...As soon as the movie started, I got so disappointed by her acting.
(Synopsis) "The Last Song" is set in a small Southern beach town in Tybee Island, Georgia, where Steve (Greg Kinnear), a divorced father, gets a chance to spend the summer with his teenaged daughter Ronnie (Miley Cyrus) and his young son Jonah (Bobby Coleman).
It was a touching film, well written, well acted and directed, and in my opinion the actors were perfectly cast for their parts.The screen adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' bestseller is a deeply emotional story of young love, the process of maturity, the crucial choices in our lives.
While I am not a Miley Cryus fan I wanted to give her a chance.I had read the book several times, and think it is one of Nicholas Sparks best books.
Miley did a wonderful job in this role, however I do think the little boy playing Jonah did better.Greg was amazing as the father and brought tears to my eyes throughout the whole ending of the movie.
Both Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth turn in multi-layered performances as two people who are both at a crossroads in their lives and who meet, by chance & fate, to complete each other and share in a rare perfect moment in time that lasts over the course of a long summer.
That being said, what seemed like a train wreck in progress turned out being pretty decent.If anyone deserves something good out of this flick, it is Greg Kinnear (who plays the father character) and Bobby Coleman (who plays Miley's brother).
Greg Kinnear reminded us why he is an underrated actor, eliciting laughter (the good kind) in the most unexpected and emotional places, while at the same time making you feel for his character.As for Miley; I'll be blunt, she wasn't that great.
I loved it.I think too many people have just gone into this movie hating on Miley Cyrus or better yet, refusing to dive into the story because she is in it - that is after all, what films are there for, as an escape from reality or what is real.
Just so all those reviewers who wrote that know this: Nicholas Sparks WROTE the character of Ronnie FOR Miley.Anyway since I'm one of those people that likes to see the real portrayal of a character from book to screen I COULDN'T wait to see it and after it was over see it again (I'm going w/ one of my BFFs to see today even though I'd seen it yesterday.
Miley Cyrus sure looked as rebellious as Ronnie in the book, (just the way I imagined) even though her acting still need more practice.
I almost hesitated seeing the movie once I read a bad review of it, though I saw the ratings on www.kidsinmind.com, giving it a 3.3.3 out of 10 for sex/nudity, violence, and profanity.This is a clean movie, a PG.I thought Miley Cyrus did a wonderful job of acting her part(My own daughters act just like this at times)!
It's a very very good movie, an awesome story and Miley Cyrus does a very good job playing Ronnie.
But it was'nt all bad, but was'nt as good as Dear John.I think in time Miley Cyrus acting skills will improve..
I thought Miley Cyrus did an okay job, and Liam, her love interest, while too perfect, typified these types of movies.
thr4 last song is a movies about a girl named Ronnie who spends the summer with her dad and brother for the summer and many things happen through that time i personally am i huge Miley Cyrus fan and also Nicholas Sparks so i was expecting this movie to be great and it was and brought smiles but also tears Liam Hemsworth acting was amazing Miley Cyrus portrayed the character better then what i thought she would her emotion in the movie was great she has a lot of talent and mote to show it was a great start for her i hope she keeps up the good job the last song is one of my favorite Nicholas sparks movie i enjoyed it better then the notebook.
I really enjoyed and I think that deserve better.I guess was the Nicholas Sparks + Miley Cyrus combo that made people do bad critics to the film, but seriously we should be more open-minded and not typecast it and give it a 5 or less because of that..
As the film goes on, Ronnie re-connects with her dad at a whole new level and learns the true meaning about relationships.Now I haven't read all of Nicolas Sparks' stories yet, but I can tell that he seems very good at them when mostly all of his classic novels have been turn into movies.
This film stars Miley Cyrus as Ronnie and Liam Hemsworth as Will.
If you are looking for a great love story that can make you laugh and cry along with the characters in the movie then this is definitely a worthy watch!.
Although I am not a Miley's fan, I think the movie is pretty good.
I read the book especially for this movie because i am a huge fan of Miley Cyrus.
Miley Cyrus's acting wasn't as bad as people said on the reviews, although, her younger brother "Jonah" in the movie did a much better job.The ending also makes no sense, and is completely random, but until then two thumbs up. |
tt0116334 | For Ever Mozart | The film is divided into four parts, which Godard has subsequently given by name.
=== Theater ===
In the first part, Vicky Vitalis, an elderly film director, is casting a new project called "Fatal Bolero," assisted by his nephew, Jérôme. A group of hopeful actors lines up to audition, but Vicky is dissatisfied with each of their line readings. The director nevertheless manages to secure funding from a man called Baron Felix, who himself secures one of the actresses named Sabine, to the chagrin of Sabine's plaintive boyfriend. Later, Jérôme accompanies Vicky's daughter, Camille, a professor of philosophy, as she searches for a copy of The Game of Love and Chance, the play by Pierre de Marivaux. Her intention is to stage the play in war torn Sarajevo. However, unable to find a copy, she settles instead on the Alfred de Musset play One Must Not Trifle with Love, happily noting that she shares the same name as the play's heroine. Jérôme, smitten with his cousin, decides to go to Sarajevo with her, to his mother Sylvie's dismay. Sylvie persuades her brother Vicky to accompany them, and the family's maid, Jamila, also decides to go. Camille and Jérôme decide to cast Jamila in the play as the character Rosette.
=== One Must Not Trifle with Love in Sarajevo ===
In the second part, the four take a train to Bosnia and rough it in the wild. Increasingly unable to share in his young charges' idealism, Vicky abandons them, filling the role of a West European who turns his back on the horrors of the Bosnian war. The spectre of tanks begins to appear in the forest, and not long after, Camille, Jérôme, and Jamila are captured by Serbian paramilitaries and taken to a derelict mansion the paramilitaries are using as a base. There, Camille and Jérôme metaphorically dig their own graves when they correct a Serbian commander on his account of Georges Danton's participation in the French Revolution. After being anally violated, they are forced to literally dig their own graves, and are killed in an ensuing attack on the base. Jamila, a soldier having taken a liking to her, escapes.
=== The Film of Disquiet ===
The third part sees Vicky working on "Fatal Bolero" by the seaside. Baron Felix, the film's financier, holds court at a nearby casino. There the formerly hopeful actress Sabine, now the Baron's dutiful assistant, transcribes the dialogue of an anally fixated porn film while the Baron doles out money for Vicky's film. On the beach, Vicky arranges an unnamed Actress and Actor on the sand in imitation of Camille's and Jérôme's deaths. Later, he relentlessly shoots take after take of the Actress as she tries to articulate her lines – statements once spoken by Camille – amid a torrent of wind and rain. The elderly director eventually instructs the young Actress to shout simply, "yes." The scene shifts to the film's debut at a small theater. The people lining up don't even make it inside. Realizing that it is an art film shot in black and white, depicting the horrors of war, and not the least bit prurient, they wander off in disgust to see something called "Terminator 4," while the theater owner hurriedly removes the posters for the film. Sabine's ex-boyfriend arrives and declares to Baron Felix that "justice has been served."
=== For Ever Mozart ===
In the fourth and final movement, a group of people files into an ornate hall to attend a Mozart piano concerto performed by a youth orchestra. The performance is unable to begin until the pianist, an effete young man in period garb, secures one of the set runners from "Fatal Bolero" as a page turner. As the performance commences, a fatigued Vicky keeps time to the music in the hallway, unable to make it past the top of the stairs. Inside, the music plays on, and the pages, showing Mozart's carefully crafted notation, keep turning. | avant garde, murder, violence, psychedelic, satire, philosophical, romantic | train | wikipedia | It is Necessary to Dream (with spoilers).
This seemed quite accessible to me, at least in the context of late Godard.
The title is a pun on "Il Faut Rever", setting the theme of art in troubled times.
The story is about a group of young and somewhat naive actors setting off to perform the Musset play "On Ne Badine Pas Avec L'Amour" (One mustn't trifle with love") in Sarajevo and coming the inevitable cropper on the way.
Meanwhile the lead actress's grandfather plays the now standard "Godard" role of an old filmmaker battling with producers and technology to get his film made.The photography and use of music is often heart-stoppingly beautiful, the response to the Balkan conflict seems to me as serious as it should be while contrary to other comments there is certainly humour here both bible-black (a woman spouts philosophy while digging her own grave, a guerrilla shows a comrade what we assume are holiday snaps but are revealed to be photos of the massacre of her family) and knockabout (a film producer complains Lake Geneva has "not enough water", the audience for the old man's "Fatal Bolero" comments on a film suspiciously similar to the one we have just watched).As ever there are numerous references which those of us not steeped in French literature will miss, but overall this seems the most direct and outward-looking of Godard's later films.
I liked it very much..
Disillusionment.
Pointless, the negative reviews damn this film.
Yes, but only if we arrive here expecting a narrative separated from the life and legacy of its author.
But if we have apprenticed in Godard's work and stuck with him, for better or worse, the inscrutable film is a rich text which can be read, to various effects.The prophecies of the ancient oracle at Delphii hinged on the presence of the coma, moving the coma to the next word the entire sentence attained new meaning.
The prophecies were oral however, which means the coma was a later adoption, by the receiver.
Moving the figurative coma here we get different interpretations, both meaningful in their contradiction.A couple of young French intellectuals with aspirations for political activism embark on a trip to Sarajevo to stage a Musset play (or make a film, I'm not clear on this).
Along with them tags halfheartedly their old uncle, a theatrical writer.
When we see him sitting on a bed, a grizzly crone wearing a hat, ruminating quotes from a book in hand, we know who he is or is meant to be.
In the 60's Godard spoke through radical, troubled youths like these, now he feels separate, of an older, bitter generation who fought its struggles and stepped aside, to let the following generation take its stab at the political chimera.Two instances in the film, figurative comas, are important in this aspect.One is the arrival of our youths at Sarajevo, criminal no man's land torn by a bloody civil war.
Youth radicals from Western countries in the 60's enlisted in various revolutionary causes like the PLO, what used to be anticipated hopefully is now met by Godard with cruel, bitter disillusionment.
Our protagonist are not greeted as brother guerillas come to join a cause that matters, instead they're summarily arrested.
The dream of revolution is here crashed under torture, ridicule, ingloriously digging their own graves.
A corrupt Yugoslavian general presides over the aimless carnage, now and then a soldier routinely makes the rounds of mortars planted in the middle of nowhere, casually firing rounds at unseen enemies.
But is that failure one of ideas or people, we'll have to decide as viewers.The other, personally poignant for Godard, is the uncle who abandons these youths before Sarajevo, running off with a truck of film equipment to make a film.
Shifting the coma here we may read this variously, as Godard recognizing with the hindsight old age permits the folly of what is to come, or as Godard reflecting with some regret and shame that he wasn't more involved in that cause in his time and merely made films.Whatever meaning we choose to ascribe, Godard here doesn't follow the revolution, he openly abandons it (which he did more than a decade ago, perhaps only now mustering the courage to clearly show on film).
But, having withdrawn from the dream that used to matter, where does he turn next to devote himself?
We may know the answer from Godard's career, the films he chose to make, the subjects that troubled him next.
On the set of the film-within which the uncle assists in making, he stages a second absurdist comedy, this time a biting satire of the debasement of filmmaking.
He establishes this with running gags.
Cinematographers always an f-stop off, walking around trying in vain to get light readings, a megalomaniac director who demands for his shots more water in the sea.Both these points, politics and cinema, are met with disillusionment.
If nothing exists after the end and this life is all that matters, as we're told in the film, then the life we're shown here doesn't amount to much, the struggle is solitary and disheartening.
In many respects this is a continuation of Week End where in the end of it youths marched off with joyous clamor and violence to a revolution, only now Godard wastes no cheap shots mocking the bourgeois and includes himself and the revolution in the recipients of his ire.
At film's end, Godard, the uncle, is sitting alone with a book, overhearing a rehearsal of Mozart in a different room ("too many notes, they said").
The film then elucidates, bitterly or smartly, the events and decisions that brought him to where he is now, in 1996..
another essay-style trip, with maybe a tinge of story, down the Godard-hole.
Watching For Ever Mozart reminds me after taking a bit of a break from seeing Jean-Luc Godard's films, in this case really more-so the later ones (eg 1980s till now) how sumptuous and thoughtful his films can be while he also becomes, perhaps, too impressed with his references, philosophical and political tangents, and with characters being more like models and mouth-pieces than anything extremely palatable.
This time, unlike in a couple others by the director from this period, there is at least an attempt at setting up something for the characters to do, as opposed to being aimless amid Godard's own ramblings.
The younger characters in their 20s are planning to do some sort of play in Sarajevo, a place where war has turned the country into hell (Godard would later in Notre Musique explore Sarajevo).
There's also another story aligned with this where an old director, much as in other Godard works, is casting for a film, but is of course having trouble, not the least of which once he discovers one of his relatives (I think a relative, or a friend, I don't know whom) might be in harm's way or danger in Sarajevo.For Ever Mozart isn't the most pretentious arm-pit that one who plunges deep into the director's cannon will eventually find all too well, and there were individual scenes that were striking, even funny.
I thought it was fairly genius the scene where the director just keeps saying 'no, next' to the actors all just from saying two lines of dialog in an audition.
Many of his outdoor compositions- sans the all-too-expected shots of the ocean which are as trademark for Godard as the demented profile close-up in a Kubrick film- are evidence of his gifts with the camera.
Some of his compositions become even sort of awful, in a good way in its depiction I mean, of the material where the tanks and gun-shots and soldiers become more prominent in the 2nd half of the film.
In a way it's a return to the kind of un-hinged anti-war film that Godard made in his earlier days with the near-masterpiece Les Carabiniers.
There's even a considerable amount of on-screen violence, some of it punctuated with shots like a dead foot.
There's also one scene particular, with more than a few references to obscene sexual talk in a casino, that had me grinning even if it had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the film.But with For Ever Mozart, for all of the parts that do work or seem somehow accessible, there are at least a few more than necessary that don't.
It's all subjective, of course, and I'm sure those who decide to seek it out of Godard's oeuvre, which might not be many seeing the number of comments and votes on this site (and just critical response in general), may respond to it more than me.
But the more interesting bits, those that may even not seem to be part of the usual mechanics of the unconventionality of his films, are sidelined by the self-consciousness, the references to everything from Camus to Rossellini.
It's like Godard isn't content enough here to go completely with characters for us to really give a damn about or remember once the film ends (with the possible exception of the film director character) even if there is something of a story going on as one inter-cuts with another and another.
There's some good ideas, and some tasteful music, going all abound in For Ever Mozart, but the lack of cohesion becomes staggering..
Rape of Europa.
Godard's sombrest film, this meditation on the triumph of art over atrocity illustrates the Balkans' horrors as the slapdash Brechtian theatre of LES CARABINIERS.
But both the world and Godard have changed in the last forty years, and the approach seems offensively academic.
Even in films as recent as FIRST NAME: CARMEN and KING LEAR, Godard sprinkled atop his gnomic aphorisms and contrapuntal poetry moments of chaotic, dissonant humor.
Here, blank-faced actors recite "Isn't the presence of evil worse than the absence of good?" as if off cue cards.
In the pearly, mystical clarity of his images and his sounds--the latter appearing both more naturalistic and rhapsodic than ever--Godard remains a world-class master.
But since his recent JLG PAR JLG, it would seem the last movement of his career is toward a crotchety cultural conservatism.
His garret full of Goya, Musset and Marivaux seems colder, lonelier and less companionable than ever..
great new film.
I just saw this film last night at the UC theatre in Berkeley CA.
It was great; I'm only 23 so I see Goddard's classic movies in a different context than the generation that saw them released.
For anyone who says "they" don't make movies like this, hey, Jean=Luc does.
NOt "Terminator 4" Not "The Fatal Bolero".
The movie will definitely displease anybody with hang-ups about continuity.
But for those who appreciate aesthetics and politics, this will be a treat..
"That was completely pointless...".
...said a couple exiting the movie theater just as I was entering to watch this.
Hmm, not a good sign, but who knows?
Different strokes for different folks, after all.
Well, nope.
They were being kind.
Godard has released work that is passionate (Contempt), entertaining (Band of Outsiders), sometimes both (My Life to Live).
This is just dull intellectualism, that grates on the nerves pretty quickly.
During my showing, literally half of the audience had walked out by the end of the film.
If only I had been so wise..
visual essay, beautiful cinema.
Godard has create yet another confounding, challenging, beautiful, sad and passionate visual essay.
the film is rich with ideas, meanings, questions, and images..
Pointless Crap.
The first point that calls the attention in "For Ever Mozart" is the absence of a plot summary in IMDb. The explanation is simple since there is no story, screenplay, plot or whatever might recall the minimum structure of a movie.
Jean-Luc Godard is one of the most overrated and pretentious directors of the cinema industry and this pointless crap is among his most hermetic films.
I believe that neither himself has understood what is this story about; but there are intellectuals that elucubrate to justify or explain this messy movie, and it is funny to read their reviews.
My vote is one.Title (Brazil): "Para Sempre Mozart" ("Forever Mozart") |
tt1104836 | Feast III: The Happy Finish | Honey Pie is mauled and beheaded by a monster who quickly digests and excretes her head. Lightning survived the explosion near him and stumbles off. The remaining survivors (Biker Queen, Tat Girl, Tit Girl, Secrets, Bartender, Slasher and Greg now with a pipe lodged in his head) are then attacked by monsters on the roof of the building they are hiding on. Thunder is seen still alive and crawling away after being disemboweled, but is run over by a man named Shitkicker.
Shitkicker smashes open the front door of the police station and enters. The rooftop survivors make their way to the jail, where Hobo attempts to kill them, but literally gets the shit beaten out of him by the biker girls, spreading all over his legs. Greg reveals that Slasher has a lot of used cars that the survivors can use to escape. Shitkicker is accidentally shot in the head by Secrets. The gunshot alerts the monsters, who enter the police station. The group then decides to run to the used car lot.
Once they exit, Slasher runs a different way from the group, and then trips Hobo as a distraction for the monsters. While a monster begins to eat one of Hobo's legs, Slasher runs towards a metal storage unit. The monster lets the shit ridden Hobo go and resumes to go after Slasher, who is joined by Tat and Tit Girl of the biker women. Inside the unit, they meet about a dozen survivors who proceed to gang up and beat Slasher for ripping them off with his car deals. Slasher moves to the back of the unit and stands against the back wall. A monsters spots a hole Slasher is standing in front of and uses the hole to rape Slasher, impregnating him. A monster then immediately bursts through Slasher's stomach, giving birth to a Slasher hybrid, killing the dozen survivors inside the unit. Meanwhile, Secrets, Greg and Bartender find the wounded Lightning and take him with them. Biker Queen frees the biker girls and they run from the Slasher/Monster Hybrid. They follow Hobo down a hole, in an attempt to hide inside his buried school bus/meth lab.
A monster follows them and kills Tat Girl. Biker Queen is finally able to get the bus started and as they leave, Tit girl sets the Hobo and a monster on fire who then fall out the back of the bus. The bus emerges from underground with Biker Queen and Tit Girl intending to abandon the remaining survivors, however the bus dies just as the other survivors catch up. The monsters immediately swarm the bus, but the group is saved by a man named Short Bus Gus, who seemingly has the ability to repel the monsters. He then leads the survivors into the sewers in an attempt to reach the big city. While working their way through the sewers, Tit Girl is killed by infected townies. The survivors are about to be killed by the infected until another survivor known as Jean Claude Segal saves them. Jean Claude tries to lead the survivors to the surface when he is attacked by a monster and has one of his arms bitten off. The survivors are then separated into two groups, Jean Claude and Bartender, and Biker Queen, Secrets, Greg, Lightning and Short Bus Gus. While trying to cauterize one of Jean Claude's wounds, Bartender accidentally blows off his remaining arm.
The other group of survivors finds the Hive, which is a gigantic rave with infected townies and monsters who spew their vomit on the people, causing horrible mutation and insanity. The survivors are reunited but are spotted by an infected townie and Biker Queen is infected. Jean Claude volunteers to stay behind to fight off infected townies to give the survivors a chance to escape. Jean Claude manages to fend off the infected townies for a short while before being ripped in half.
Short Bus Gus finds out that it has been his malfunctioning hearing aid that has been repelling the monsters and is impaled by a monster. The Slasher monster finally catches up with the group and kills the attacking monster and then forcibly removes the pipe lodged in Greg's head, killing him. Secrets is insane with grief and savagely attacks the Slasher Hybrid, killing him with the same pipe that was lodged in Greg's head.
Biker Queen takes off with one of the monsters, setting off its internal alarm system in an attempt to draw the monsters away from the remaining survivors. Bartender tells Secrets and Lightning that they are the only survivors left and that they have to repopulate now. Secrets looks up just as the foot of a giant robot crushes her, as well as Lightning, and walks away. Bartender slowly walks towards the camera and murmurs, "Goddamn it". | revenge, psychedelic, satire, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0060899 | Ride Beyond Vengeance | A census taker (James MacArthur) arrives in the Texas town of Cold Iron, with a population of 789. He goes into the local bar for a cold beer, and tells the bartender the town has an unusual number of citizens named "Jonas" and "Reprisal." He observes a painting above the bar of a violent street fight. He is then told of the events behind the fight involving a buffalo hunter and gunman named Jonas Trapp and the night the local Mexicans still call "The Night of Reprisals".
In flashback, we learn that Jonas Trapp (Connors) is a poor cowboy in love with a wealthy woman named Jessie Larkin (Hays). They intend to marry despite the objections of her aunt (Ruth Warrick). The aunt sees Jonas as a man of no prospects and prefers she marry someone more substantial.
To gain the aunt's permission, Jessie pretends to be pregnant. Jonas marries her, but quickly tires of his dull life in town. He heads for the hills without her to become a buffalo hunter, hoping to amass enough money to give Jessie the life he feels she deserves, without her aunt's involvement.
Jonas is gone for more than 10 years. He amasses a small fortune of his own and a reputation as a dangerous gunman who once fought Clay Allison and walked away. He decides it is finally time to return home. On the trail, Jonas stumbles over the campfire of an obvious rustler and is ambushed by three men: Brooks Durham (Rennie), the local banker; John "Johnsey Boy" Hood (Bill Bixby), a sadistic young hustler with a love only of fine clothes and himself, and Coates (Claude Akins), a notorious drunk. They accuse him of being the rustler and, despite his denials, beat him, take his money, then brand him with a running iron and leave him for dead.
A farmer named Hanley finds Jonas and helps nurse him to health. Trapp, learning that his money has been stolen, is consumed by a desire for revenge and heads back for Cold Iron, where he learns from his father that Jessie's aunt has died and his wife is now engaged to another man - Brooks Durham. When Jessie encounters him on the street, she doesn't recognize him. She thinks he's just another "filthy, smelly animal" and runs away.
In the course of his remaining in town, Jonas continues hunting for the men who branded him. He takes "Johnsey-Boy" Hood on his way back from romancing the lonely wife of a local farmer (Gloria Grahame) in hopes of cheating her out of some money. Under the threat of being "branded and gelded" by Jonas, Hood's sanity cracks. He grabs the hot iron and rams it repeatedly into his stomach as he runs screaming into the woods. He later commits suicide.
Jonas also encounters the saloon bouncer (Buddy Baer), a giant of a man whom Jonas had met the night before. He(the bouncer) doesn't like the town laughing at him for letting Jonas leave the bar with a bottle of liquor that Jonas has promised to pay for later, and now wants the money for the bottle Jonas took the day before. The resulting fight presages the subject of the painting we saw in the framing sequence, and the bouncer is nearly beaten to death. Only the arrival of Jonas' father stops the fight.
Hanley is revealed as one of the rustlers involved with Coates. Coates kills Hanley when the old man denies having Jonas' money. Coates reasons that Durham must have it and tries a little blackmail. Durham threatens to kill Coates, but the alcoholic Coates is beyond reasoning. Jonas runs into Durham on the street, the last man on his list, but both are ambushed by Coates, who is on a drunken rampage. Coates is eventually beaten to a pulp by Jonas, then killed when he tries for his gun. That act of violence apparently takes the thirst for revenge out of Jonas and he leaves his now-empty forty-five behind on the bar.
When Durham finally confesses to the town what he and the other did to Jonas and that he took the money, Jonas can only knock him down in disgust and walk away. He leaves the cash - and his need for revenge - behind.
The flashback ends with Jonas mounted up and on his way out of town. Jessie pleads with Jonas to stay, but he demurs and the scene ends with her standing in the street as she watches him ride off.
The film ends with the bartender showing off the pistol Jonas left behind. He and the census taker wonder if Jessie left with Jonas. The bartender wants to believe she did, but the census taker says she probably didn't, echoing the film's song, says "You can never go home again." | violence | train | wikipedia | Although produced on a low budget by television producers Mark Goodson And Bill Toddman ("The Price is Right") and featuring several names mostly familiar to TV audiences, it has a dynamic, if pessimistic script more concerned with character development than standard action--not that the film lacks action or violence.
Cowboy Jonas Trapp (Chuck Connors of "Rifleman" fame) falls in love with the beautiful Jessie (Kathryn Hays), very appealing in her first film, a wealthy girl out of his humble class.
11 years later, with his self-made fortune, he sets out to return home, only to be set upon by three sadistic marauders, Michael Rennie, Bill Bixby and Claude Akins, who steal his money and leave him for dead.
Connors gives his best performance, and he is well (if briefly) supported by Joan Blondell (as a gossipy townswoman), Gloria Grahame (a cheating wife having an affair with Bixby), Gary Merrill as Jonas' foster father, Frank Gorshin as an arrogant ranch hand, and Buddy Baer as a Bouncer.
I grew up in Bay Saint Louis Mississippi.My Mother was makeup artist for the Little Theatre there(mid fifties).Under her influence I did my first role there(in my mid teens).The best character actor with the group was a man by the name of Mark Solomen.He helped coach me in my first role.At the time, he had just read what he said was the best western novel he had ever read.He ended up giving me the book.
At the time, I had no way of knowing that through a most unique set of circumstances I would end up launching a career in films myself(on Yancy Derringer, in 1958).Because I am a good horseman as well as a western type(6'4"anglo),by the mid sixties I was a seasoned veteran of the westerns of the era in both TV and feature films.
In the early sixties I became friends with Chuck connors,and ended up working for him as standin and horseback double on some of his western projects including Rifleman, Cowboy in africa,and Branded.
It was when we were doing the Branded series,and the time came for us to shut down for hiaetus.I was told we would be doing a movie with a thirty day shooting schedule in the meantime, and that I would shortly be called in to do make up and costume tests for Chuck,on lot three at MGM,with a skeleton crew.
Imagine,Bill Bixby,Jim Mc Arthur,Claude Akins,Paul fix,Michael Renny,etc.
Chuck Connors gives his best performance, as the hard-bitten buffalo hunter, whom abandoned his new bride (Kathryn Hays) to make a fortune for her.
Connors spends the rest of the film obtaining justice, both from the thugs and from the woman he left behind.The real acting kudos in this movie belong to Kathryn Hays, Gloria Grahame, Claude Akins and, most of all, Bill Bixby.
With excellent performances by Bill Bixby, Michael Rennie, Kathryn Hayes and Claude Adkins as a borderline psychotic who talks to his invisible friend "Whiskey Man." This one is definitely worth catching and of late has appeared many times on the Westerns Channel where it is shown uncut and without commercial interruption which helps to add even more to the movement of the story.
Ride Beyond Vengeance casts Chuck Connors as a returning buffalo hunter returning to his wife after an eleven year absence.
Sounds a whole lot like the plot premise for the Iliad and Connors does go through some trials just like Ulysses did.Eleven years earlier Connors married Kathryn Hays who faked a pregnancy to get her aunt Ruth Warrick to consent to the wedding.
The three who do it are a pair of bottom feeding sadists Bill Bixby and Claude Akins and also Michael Rennie who's a rich man courting Hays because he and everyone else think her husband is dead.Connors ain't dead and when he wakes up he's going to take care of business the way Ulysses took care of all of Penelope's prospective suitors.This no frills B western has a fine supporting cast to Connors and Hays.
Later on Frank Gorshin in a small bit himself gives a description of Bixby's final moments that will unnerve you for days.Ride Beyond Vengeance is one brutal and savage western which no way would have made it in the days of those cowboy heroes for Republic.
Returning home after toiling eleven years as a buffalo hunter in order to to provide for his rich, estranged wife, Chuck Conners (in a terrific performance) is beaten, branded, and robbed of his life savings by banker/gambler Michael Rennie, psychotic dandy Bill Bixby, and drunken cowboy Claude Akins.
(and Akins imaginary friend!) Needless to say that Chuck's infuriated when he finds out that Rennie is courting his wife.Ride Beyond Vengeance is uniquely bookended by modern scenes of a visiting census taker being told the story by a bartender, in the exact place where Conners' vengeance went down.
It gives the unfolding events both a feel of historical significance and a sense of western mythology.Co-produced by game-show impresario Mark Goodson, this is stark, mean film, truly top-notch in terms of characterization and story.
Anyone who thinks the Italians had a monopoly on hard-boiled, violent westerns in the sixties really should see this!Bixby is a lot of fun to watch, especially in the scene where he's confronted by Conners on a lonely road and made to squirm.
And he's a psycho at the end.The character development is substantial on Connors (the good guy), Rennie (the bad guy), and Hays (the good guy's wife who is now with the bad guy).
Not really.Connor's character could fall in love and marry, but he wouldn't have let the Aunt influence his marriage or his wife.
He certainly would have left his home and wife as he did, but he never would have let himself get into that situation in the first place.Rennie did play a guy who could turn bad, but he didn't play a stupid man.
There are only two characters that are necessary to this movie: Connors and Akins.
It would be the exact same movie if Bixby, Rennie, O'Connell, Hays, Blondell and the rest were replaced, rewritten or discarded.
Connors fits the stoic lead character like a glove, in certain ways it's an extension of his Rawhide character, with the rest of the performers well cast in roles that weren't any stretch for them but which they play well.
Rugged Chuck Connors (in one of his best roles as a vengeful buffalo hunter) heads an impressive parade of Hollywood veterans and current TV stars that people this modestly pleasing and occasionally bloodthirsty Western saga: Claude Akins, Buddy Baer, Bill Bixby, Joan Blondell, Jamie Farr, Paul Fix, Frank Gorshin, Gloria Grahame, James MacArthur, Gary Merrill, Arthur O'Connell, Michael Rennie and Ruth Warrick.
Connors marries wealthy beauty Kathryn Hays (the then-Mrs. Glenn Ford) but seeks to make a fortune for himself in buffalo skins, a quest which takes him 11 years and earns him $17,000.
Bixby gets his in gruesome fashion to the torments they had themselves inflicted on Connors (with a branding iron), Akins is trashed and killed in the climactic bar-room brawl and Rennie (who is engaged to Hays) is unmasked as the thief of Connors' money.
The high point (or low point) comes when Chuck Connors is branded on his 45-inch chest with a red-hot iron shaped like a "T." Also worth noting is an eclectic, one-of-a-kind supporting cast which manages to find room for Bill Bixby, Jamie Farr, James MacArthur, Arthur O'Connell, Michael Rennie, Frank Gorshin, Gary Merrill, Paul Fix, and Claude Akins, as well as three veteran actresses: Joan Blondell, Ruth Warrick, and Oscar-winner Glorida Grahame.
A surprisingly good western in the 60s A nice way to present the Old West where the bartender played by Arthur O'Connell tells the story to the young man played by James MacArthur.
Jonas Trapp (Chuck Connors), buffalo hunter, returns home 11 years later and found his wife taking another wedding.
But the story becomes even more complicated when it is robbed on the way and marked with hot iron by three men (Michael Rennie, Bill Bixby and Claude Akins) one being the pretender (Rennie) to the wedding with his wife.
The scenes where Chuck Connors' character executes his plans for vengeance will most likely raise the eyebrows of viewers even in this day and age.
Though I don't think this movie was trying to ape spaghetti westerns that were coming out of Europe at the time, those who like spaghetti westerns will find extra interest, because in many ways this Hollywood western plays like one..
It is to my mind a classic example of the funk American Westerns had got themselves into at this juncture of genre film making.Michael Rennie and Bill Bixby are badly miscast, Claude Akins overacts to within an inch of his life (a rare poor show from him), while Bernard McEveety's direction shows why he was more at home in TV work.
(most likely built from Chuck Connors' woodenness) Script is weak, which leads to a story that is never once authentic in tone or feeling, scenarios that are meant to be telling are unconvincing and the action is laughably staged.No hidden or misunderstood gem here, just bad film making that irritates as opposed to entertaining.
But the director and producers were the same people behind the series BRANDED, starring Chuck Connors, which went out of production at just about the time that this movie was released.Chuck Connors plays Jonas Trapp, a proud but poor laborer in a small western town who -- as we learn from the backstory unfolded in a string of flashbacks -- married the wealthiest young woman in town (Kathryn Hays).
Unable to abide the ease of their life together, or to persuade her to join him in building up a fortune of their own, he lights out for the frontier to become a buffalo hunter, and, as the movie opens (following an introductory section set in 1966), he is returning home after 11 years, carrying over a decade's worth of hard-earned cash.
The leader of this trio, Coates (Claude Akins), is drunk and a little crazy to start with, and wants to hang Trapp as a rustler; the banker Durham (Michael Rennie), talks him out of that, despite the egging on off sleazy, fancy-dan hanger-on "Johnnsy" (Bill Bixby).
On a more positive note, it is entertaining to see these actors in something this jarring in its viciousness, and the supporting players populating the screen: Joan Blondell, Gloria Grahame (in too short an appearance), Gary Merrill, Frank Gorshin, and Buddy Baer, along with a youngish Jamie Farr; and, in the framing sequences, James MacArthur and Arthur O'Connell..
"Ride Beyond Vengeance" is a gritty, violent, but far from unsavory frontier western revenge saga starring Chuck Connors that could almost be mistaken for a Spaghetti western, except for its polished production values, its humane characters, and its offbeat ending.
Hollywood wasn't making westerns like this until a few years later after the Spaghettis had taken violence to more intense, savage levels.
In fact, in 1968, Chuck Connors followed a stream of American leading men who migrated to Europe to cash in on the Spaghetti western craze and played in a forgotten but rip-snorting little shoot'em up called "Kill Them All and Come Back Alive." Derived from Al Dewlen's novel "Night of the Tiger," "Ride Beyond Vengeance" begins in the contemporary Texas town of Cold Iron when an exhausted census taker (James MacArthur of CBS-TV's "Hawaii 5-0") visits a cafe and points out to the man behind the counter (Arthur O'Connell of "The Poseidon Adventure") that three names are popular with the town's folk.
Veteran TV director Bernard McEveety, who helmed episodes on virtually every major TV western series, including "Gunsmoke," "Branded," "Laredo," "Bonanza," and "Rawhide," takes us back to the past as O'Connell begins his narration about the turbulent events that rocked Cold Iron to its roots.The first set of flashbacks open with rugged Chuck Connors sporting a shaggy beard and riding a horse through the wilderness.
On his way back to Cold Iron, Jonas (Chuck Connors of "The Big Country") spots a campfire.
Crazy, pistol-toting Elwood Coates (Claude Atkins of "Return of the Seven"), handsome, well-dressed Johnsy Boy Hood (Bill Bixby of CBS-TV's "My Favorite Martian"), and local banker Brooks Durham (Michael Rennie of "The Day The Earth Stood Still") accuse Jonas of rustling cattle.
McEveety shows us the branding iron from Jonas's point of view so that the glowing end is hovering in our faces.We learn from another flashback in writer/producer Andrew J.
When everything is said and done, Jonas lets Brooks live and leaves the town and his wife again.Director Bernard McEveety must have relished this opportunity to make a grim, unrelenting western as opposed to the family friendly western fare that he had done for prime-time television.
In the process seasoned Hollywood celebrities like Joan Blondell and Gloria Grahame are squandered in peripheral roles as is Frank Gorshin who has one big scene where he describes the grisly death of Bill Bixby's character, particularly how Johnsy Boy's guts resembled blue snakes.
A seldom played film, this western has superb characterizations, good casting, a good story, but sometimes poor camera work and editing.
The camera and editing quality notwithstanding, their expertise in the art shine through.*** POSSIBLE SPOILERS *** The film contains some memorable scenes and portrayals: the angry focus of Jonas (Chuck Connors) while fighting with personal naive goodness, the latent evil within Johnsy Boy (Bill Bixby), Chuck Connors accosting Bill Bixby in the woods, the story telling in the bar by Tod (Frank Gorshin - who also played Riddler in the Batman series the same year), the clinging despair of Bonnie Shelley (Gloria Grahame) willing to do anything, Jessie's (Kathryn Hay) strong emotional rollercoaster changes, Mrs Lavender's (Joan Blondell) orbital character sketches, the borderline sanity of Elwood Coates (Claude Akins), Brooks Durham (Michael Rennie) riding along the edge of good and bad, the secret dream of Maria (Marissa Mathes) and onscreen smoking [it is still rare to see a woman in a western smoking a cigarette], Paul Fix (as Hanley) without teeth (reunited here with fellow 'Rifleman' Connors).
*** END POSSIBLE SPOILERS ***There's also a short appearance by a fairly young Jamie Farr, a decade after his film debut and a decade before his MASH series fame.This revenge' western story doesn't follow standard plot strategy so characters don't behave, and events don't progress, as one expects them to in a 'safe' storyline.
I think my summary quote might have been more appropriate for Bill Bixby's character Johnsy Boy after the old rifleman came on the scene for a little payback with the branding iron.
It looked like Gorshin was still stuck on his Riddler character from the Batman TV series of the mid-Sixties.So I just watched two Westerns back to back that ended with unsatisfying conclusions.
I guess one could make a case for Jonas Trapp (Chuck Connors) riding off into the sunset without his wife considering what happened here, but he went to a lot of trouble for nothing.
The casting is really eclectic, with players like Connors, Bixby, Gorshin, Michael Rennie, Kathryn Hays, Joan Blondell, Gloria Grahame, Claude Akins and Paul Fix. The Western movie character actors all made sense, but the rest looked a little out of place.
Even the opener was a little strange with the modern day setting resolving to a flashback to reminisce about La Noche del Tigre, the Night of the Tiger.But at least it had that great bar room brawl with Claude Akins up against Connors; that was one of the more memorable ones you'll find in a Western.
Chuck Connors plays Jonas Trapp, a cowboy that falls in love with a beautiful, but high tone, woman Jessie Larkin(Kathryn Hays).
And it is a good chance that Connors' fans wanted more out of this western.
Also featured: Michael Rennie, Claude Akins, Joan Blondell, Gary Merrill and Gloria Grahame.
It seems that years ago, Chuck Connors, a guy from the wrong side of the tracks fell in love with pretty Kathryn Hays, but her ailing aunt Ruth Warrick was opposed to them being married, and after walking out on her, Connors goes to make his fortune, returning nine years later to find out that he is not so welcome in his community.
On his way back, he is attacked by gamblers Bill Bixby, Michael Rennie and Claude Akins, and branded for allegedly stealing coffee from them, his money stolen, and left to die in the countryside.
Upon seeing Hays when he arrives in his hometown (late at night), Connors is rejected by her in the darkened streets for being just another drunken bum making a pass, and later finds out that she's engaged to marry the wealthy Rennie.
When Connors, who was believed to be dead, reveals himself for real, the town is turned upside down as a cloud of violence hangs over everybody for the wrongdoing done to him, leading to some ugly confrontations and some disgusting situations concerning his vengeance.Certainly, practically every western town or city once started off just as a few buildings and businesses, and as they grew, became bustling metropolises or communities.
Chuck Connors isn't really all that likable other than the few early romantic scenes he has with Hays, and as dashing as Rennie is, he's given a character that is completely vile beneath the silk suits he wears.
While it's true that this is not a "typical western" in the sense that the good guy wins, kisses the girl and rides off into the sunset, I don't believe it's a remarkable movie.Firstly, the typecasting of actresses such as Joan Blondell and Gloria Graham is obvious - they appear to be rehashing the roles they played in Other Men's Women and Human Desire, respectively.
He's lucid enough to know there is money involved in the scheme against Chuck Connors, but impaired enough to be controlled by the others in the gang for most of the movie.Bill Bixby's character is merely odd - a foppish, sadistic gigolo who develops some sort of conscience in the end. |
tt0047101 | Human Desire | Returning Korean War vet Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford) is a train engineer, usually working alongside Alec Simmons (Edgar Buchanan). Alec's daughter Ellen (Kathleen Case) is in love with Jeff.
Carl Buckley (Broderick Crawford) is a gruff, hard-drinking assistant yard supervisor married to the younger and more vibrant Vicki (Gloria Grahame). When Carl is fired for talking back to his boss, he pleads with Vicki to go into the city to see the man she used to work for, John Owens (Grandon Rhodes), a railroad executive who can get Carl his job back. Unbeknownst to Carl, Vicki did more than just work for Owens, and she allows Owens to bed her again in order to get Carl his job.
Carl suspects Vicki and in a violent argument the truth slips out of her. Carl beats her and forces her to write a letter to Owens, setting up a meeting in a train car. On the trip Carl goes with Vicki, barges into the room when Owens opens the door, and kills Owens with a knife.
Jeff, who is taking a comp ride on this run, happens to be having a smoke in the vestibule near Owens's compartment. Carl makes Vicki go to Jeff as a distraction so Carl can hide himself.
At the inquest for the murder of Owens, Jeff is called as a witness. The various passengers on the train that night are asked to stand. When he's asked if he saw any of the people that night, Jeff looks intently at Vicki, then answers no.
Vicki and Jeff begin an affair. Jeff wants Vicki to leave Carl and marry him. She finally explains about the killing, and the letter Carl keeps hidden so Vicki will be forced to stay with him. She suggests the only way they'll ever be free is if Jeff kills Carl, making it look like a drunken accident at the rail yard.
Jeff follows the drunk Carl through the yard. But he returns to Vicki saying he couldn't do it, and accuses Vicki of setting him up from the start just so he would kill her husband. She protests that she really does love Jeff, but it's too late. He leaves her, but gives her one thing as he does––the letter, which he took from the drunken Carl without his knowledge.
Vicki is now free to leave Carl. She gets on the next train. But shortly after it leaves the station, Carl enters her compartment, accusing her of running away with Jeff. Vicki denies it and defies Carl, who then realizes he no longer has the letter. When Vicki confronts him with the whole truth about her and Owens, Carl strangles her to death.
Jeff, happily operating the train, has thoughts about taking Ellen to a dance. | murder, melodrama | train | wikipedia | The film turns out to be gloomy, often bleak melodrama that has a striking affinity with Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity" in its plot, dealing with a married woman (Gloria Grahame) trying to get rid of her bland husband (Broderick Crawford) through the help of a train engineer (Glenn Ford).
If you stop concentrating on the melodramatic plot and focus on Lang's lovely architectural compositions, "Human Desire" becomes quite engrossing picture, on par with "The Big Heat", Lang's previous film noir with Grahame & Ford.
Well-done film noir about a railroad engineer, Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford), who gets mixed up with a beautiful femme fatale (Gloria Grahame) who comes complete with husband who has murdered a man in a train car in an act of jealousy - and happens to be one of Warren's co-workers.
Meeting her on the train just after the murder, kissing her within moments of meeting, it seemed like, our railroad man is soon embroiled in a love affair with this woman, who can't break away from her husband as he is holding a piece of blackmail over her head involving the murder.This film is quite a good one, boosted up considerably by the great performance given by Gloria Grahame, who brings a sad vulnerability to her character and really makes this film.
Broderick Crawford is also very good, as the angry, murderous husband and Glenn Ford comes across as the handsome, strong, quiet type which completely suits his part - well done acting all around for this.
Fresh from their exertions in Fritz Lang's superheated The Big Heat, Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame (joined by Broderick Crawford) reunite for the director's recension of Zola's La Bete Humaine.
The story had been filmed twice before, as Die Bestie im Menschen in 1920 and La Bête humaine in 1938.The plot revolves around a love triangle axis involving Jeff Warren (Ford), Vicki Buckley (Grahame) and Carl Buckley (Crawford).
Lang had wanted Rita Hayworth for the role, but a child custody case prevented her from leaving the country (much of the film was shot in Canada), so in came Grahame and film noir got another classic femme fatale.
Strong support comes from Buchanan, Case and Diane DeLaire.Adultery, jealousy, murder and passion dwells within Human Desire, a highly accomplished piece of film noir from the gifted Fritz Lang.
His counterpart in the Renoir movie is an authority figure in the railroad system who more than anything else wants to keep up a front of respectability.Gloria Grahame's character is less a femme fatale, like cocky Simone Simon in La bête humaine, than a true victim who has suffered on the hands of different men.
Broderick Crawford and Gloria Grahme make an interesting couple as the two of them unravel in yet another boozy black and white (but mostly drab grey) plot of murder, betrayal, and blackmail, this time on a train as well as in a railroad yard, with Glenn Ford in the middle, coming back to his job as an engineer after fighting in the Korean War. It makes for a cozy and claustrophobic setting.
] There are good points, however, in this film, notably the convincing portrayal of the "cursed couple" by always reliable Gloria Grahame and Broderick Crawford as well as the opening sequences of tracks,switches, metallic bridges...
Human desire aspires to be a hard-hitting, gutsy crime picture that shows not only a story of romance bound to fail from the start, but also makes a series of aggressive comments on the topic of alcoholism and pathology in families.When Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford) returns home after serving his time in Korea, his only dream is to return back to his steady job as a train engineer.
But director Fritz Lang takes his version in an entirely different direction, turning the story from psychological thriller to film noir masterpiece by focusing on the two-timing woman (Vicki Buckley - played by Gloria Grahame).Renoir's "La Bete Humaine" had instead focused on the exploring the mind of Gabin's protagonist (Lantier); specifically his genetic curse of brutality and rage.
His occupation of train engineer and the images of train tracks are used to reinforce the inevitability of his fate.In Lang's version this character (Jeff Warren - played by Glenn Ford) has no dimensionality, the train tracks reinforce his straight and narrow nature, he is not bent and his train engine must be placed in a roundhouse to be given a different direction.There are intersecting tracks in the train yard and Jeff's moral compass is only challenged in that location.
The film's two most suspenseful sequences occur in the train yard and Lang amplifies the discordance with disorienting changes of camera angles and at one point an expressionistic jump-cut as Jeff and Vicki suddenly bridge the distance between each other.But this is Grahame's film; her all-time best performance and Lang's best work as an acting for the camera director.
The only weak point of the movie is the character of Ellen Simmons which I found very naive even though this kind of characters were very common in the movies of that time.Jeff Warren returns to his former job as a train conductor after fighting in the Korea war but he will get involve with one of his coworker's wife beginning a secret relationship that could lead him to commit murder in order to get her free from a terrible thing that she and her husband have done .....
Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Broderick Crawford deal with "Human Desire" a 1954 film directed by Fritz Lang and based on Emile Zola's "La Bete Humaine." Fresh from Korea, Jeff Warren (Ford) is a railroad engineer currently staying with his friend (Edgar Buchanan) and his family, one of whom is a young woman interested in Jeff.
One of the railroad bosses, Carl Buckley (Crawford) loses his job in a fit of temper and asks his wife Vicki (Grahame) to appeal to a wealthy and powerful family friend to help him get his job back.
Crawford's character is an odd one; he's presented as a good guy and then suddenly he goes off and becomes a total madman.What makes this film is the sexual tension between Ford and Grahame.
Emile ZOLA's books are deceptive.It is hard to transfer them to the screen badly while being harder still to make great movies out of them.In "La Bete Humaine" the 19th volume in the Rougon-Macquart saga,the hero was "invented" from start to finish by the writer who needed another son of Gervaise ("l'Assommoir").Like most of Zola's characters ,his family had a history of mental illness (which stemmed from alcoholism).When he made his movie in 1939,(la Bete Humaine)Jean Renoir insisted on the "I cannot help it" side ,which the scene when Gabin tries to strangle Blanchette Brunoy and the apocalyptic finale perfectly restitutes.As Zola's book was -it's one of his best- also a thriller (some of its chapters make me think of Patricia Highsmith) ,Lang's treatment made sense.This is one of the few Zola novels which after all could happen in America .The war is a hackneyed subject and is not really a good equivalent of Lantier's (the original name)folly.That's why Glenn Ford's character is not really interesting ,even if it fits in the Lang's "every man is a potential criminal" mold.On the other hand Gloria Grahame's character is at least as good as Simone Simon's one.She displays more ambiguity,she too seems at once "good" and "evil".Lang's talent makes the opening as exciting as Renoir's work but the finale is definitely inferior.It was the second time Ford and Grahame had teamed up for Lang after "the big heat" (which was ,IMHO,a better collaboration).
It is a love triangle with Broderick Crawford and Gloria Grahame as an unhappy couple, with Glenn Ford at his somnambulistic best, showing all the emotion of a turnip.
Human Desire, Fritz Lang's update of Emile Zola's book La bete Humaine (and also made into the wonderful film of the same name by Jean Renoir, a kind of pre-noir example in the 30's), is drenched in noir, and it's a wonderful example of what could be done with the right actors - or seemingly the right ones all the way through - and the right setting.
It's set among workers on trains, as an engineer, Jeff, played by Glenn Ford, comes back from Korea and is back a work, a nice but quiet type usually, and also works with Broderick Crawford's Carl.
She goes to see this boss-man, but Crawford ain't havin' it: he goes ahead and kills the guy on a train, and Glenn Ford's character suspects something, having seen Vicki come out of the same car.
And for a dame?Sounds like a book title (matter of fact it was at some point), but it's how Lang presents these characters, in shadows and among the grime of the trains and tracks, and those dark rooms, that make things interesting.
It's a strange thing since she isn't bad in the role, just inconsistent, and it was mostly due to some good chemistry with Ford (who he himself is a little stiff in a non-bad-ass-villain role but stuff dependable) that I could believe her in the part.Lang also gets some moments for "pure" cinema, that is without much dialog and just the physical locations and scenes, like how Jeff just motions for a cigarette and drives away as the engineer on the train, or how he tracks Carl one night coming back from a bar drunk.
Things like that, or how Jeff and Vicki are lit outside by the tracks at night contemplating their love/lust for one another, is done with such emotion that is just fine.Other times there is some melodrama, and, again, Crawford does ham it up in some scenes to where it comes close to unintentional hilarity (the crowd I saw the movie with laughed at a few key moments that would've probably been dead-silent back in the day, but this may be more for the change in times than anything else).
I don't think it was Fritz Lang's fault that Human Desire did not quite turn out like the Jean Renoir film of Emile Zola's La Bete Humaine, let alone the novel itself.
In any event I'll be viewing and reviewing the Renoir film soon I hope for comparison.In any event part of the reason that Fritz Lang did this film for Columbia I'm sure was Harry Cohn's desire to team Ford and Gloria Grahame once again.
Ford's bunking in temporarily with his old friend Edgar Buchanan and his daughter Diane DeLaire has eyes for him.A man with a not so good domestic situation is fellow worker Broderick Crawford married to Gloria Grahame.
She gets his job back, but things take a turn when he becomes jealous of his wife and ends up killing Owens on a train...The film takes on the classic bleak film noir style and Lang compliments this well with his assortment of characters and the plot line.
HUMAN DESIRE has it all: a jealous husband (Broderick Crawford), his mousy but sensuous wife (Gloria Grahame), a Korean war vet with an unshakable moral code (Glenn Ford) and all the murder and duplicity one could ask for in a Fritz Lang movie.
Back on the home-front, Mr. Ford learns hulky co-worker Broderick Crawford (as Carl Buckley) has been promoted to railroad "yard master" and has acquired a beautiful wife, seductive Gloria Grahame (as Vicki).
Moreover, it's directed by Fritz Lang and photographed by Burnett Guffey, with occasional flair.****** Human Desire (8/5/54) Fritz Lang ~ Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford.
Glenn Ford is unusually good here, although he plays the same character as he always did, but here at least he doesn't talk and act too much but is kept more aptly at bay by the expert thriller director Fritz Lang, who once again surprises you by appearing totally new in his ways of getting into people.
Gloria Grahame is always good but here better than ever as a helpless victim of her exposed weakness as married to the hoodlum Broderick Crawford, who is here worse than ever, but only as a type, not as a character, because his acting is marvellous, going constantly from bad to worse in one of the most convincing revelations on cinema of a man going piece by piece to perdition.I was disappointed by the Jean Gabin film on this story, which was downright depressing in spite of Jean Renoir's excellent direction, but this film is not depressing, although the same story but with a more human view of the situation.
It's a great film on a bad story, Jean Renoir made the bad story even more destructive on film, but here at least you have genuine human feelings, in the despairing eyes of Gloria Grahame, the sharply investigating looks of Glenn Ford, and the exaggerated but marvellously convincing drunkenness, as an illustration of his helplessness, of Broderick Crawford.
One look at Crawford and you know he's bad news.Was it a fluke that Lang and Ford and Grahame came together again to make this just after "The Big Heat" or was it providence?
Human Desire (1954) *** (out of 4) Minor but interesting love triangle from Fritz Lang about a Korea vet (Glenn Ford) who begins a love affair with a married woman who can't leave her husband because of a murder secret.
Fritz Lang's Human Desire is well worth the watch for any fan of film noir, as it is truly competent in that respect.
Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame are back together following the superbly good The Big Heat a year earlier, although this time the result isn't nearly as interesting.
Grahame as the femme fatale is the high point of this movie for me, Glenn Ford certainly doesn't disappoint, and although I was never a big fan of Broderick Crawford, his performance here is apt.These back-to-back movies starring Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame remind me of Lang's earlier works, The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street, both starring the wonderful Edward G.
Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford) encounters and is distracted by Vicki as Carl murders John.This is a dark melodramatic noir of non-sympathetic characters with no rooting interest.
I guess Broderick Crawford has done better roles than this one.The scenes in the train reminded me of another noir called "The Narrow Margin" which came out a couple of years before Human Desire.
Anyway this is a pretty good film despite this with many good performances especially Gloria Grahame and a sublime piece of acting from Broderick Crawford as the abusive killer husband who just can't keep up with life.
Fritz Lang was well on the way toward losing his magic touch with grim film noir by the time he did HUMAN DESIRE, from an Emile Zola novel and better made originally with Jean Gabin and Simone Simon.
His Hollywood phase included such disappointments as WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS and BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT, both highly flawed from a directorial standpoint.Here he has the screen's sauciest femme fatale, GLORIA GRAHAME, using her sultry demeanor to lure All-American hero GLENN FORD into committing a murder to dispose of her obnoxious, insanely jealous husband BRODERICK CRAWFORD.The plot is driven by Crawford's brutal killing of his wife's ex-boss whom he suspects of dallying with her.
Fritz Lang's "Human Desire" is based on Emile Zola's novel "La Bete Humaine" which had previously been made into a movie directed by Jean Renoir in 1938.
These people are not only unencumbered by any type of moral code but also, by their actions, have a corrupting effect on a more passive character who is also a mutual acquaintance.Railroad official Carl Buckley (Broderick Crawford) is fired from his job for insubordination and begs his wife Vicki (Gloria Grahame) to approach her mother's former employer, the influential John Owens (Grandon Rhodes), to get him to persuade Carl's ex-employer to change his mind and re-employ him.
Railroad engineer Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford) is standing in the train corridor when the couple want to leave Owens' compartment and so Carl tells Vicki to encourage Jeff away from the area which she duly does.
Glenn Ford then shows as the action continues, how Jeff's demeanour alters as he becomes morally compromised enough to withhold information from the murder inquest before getting involved in an affair with the untrustworthy Vicki and then taking part in a plot to kill her husband."Human Desire" is ultimately an engaging and sordid story about people who act without reason, logic or compassion and in the process, corrupt or inflict misery on, those with whom they come into contact..
Crawford gets fired from his job at a train yard, and asks his wife to put in a good word for him with a successful business man she knew before they were married.
But, instead of controlling his wife Carl is losing her to returning veteran and railroad engineer Jeff Warren played by Glenn Ford.
But, it is a quite strong film due to the strength of Grahame as Vicky Buckley in playing out of that age old story of a love triangle with a murder in the middle As such is gets a definite recommendation..
She tries to get him to knock off her husband which leads to one of the definitive great film noir sequences where Ford follows Crawford through a darkened railroad yard.
Grahame, fresh from her best film noir role in "The Big Heat" (also with Ford) isn't as interesting here.
From Zola, by way of Renoir, Fritz Lang's "Human Desire" becomes a story of love, hatred, murder, lust, and more murder in and around a railroad marshaling yard.Broderick Crawford is the hulking drunk who is morbidly jealous of his younger and horny wife, Gloria Grahame.
Lang offers Glenn Ford for Gabin, Brod Crawford for Ledoux, Edgar Buchanan for Carette and Gloria Grahame for Simon.
Warren meets Vicki Buckley(Gloria Graham)and enters a passionate affair after reluctantly helping her bullish, combustible husband(Broderick Crawford)get away with murder.
But, in "Human Desire", Crawford is an engineer on a train--not the sort of man you'd ever believe would marry Graham (or vice-versa). |
tt0056219 | Maniac | Frank Zito (Joe Spinell) is a deranged man that due to his suffering from his abusive mother when he was a child, he becomes a serial killer that murders young women and scalps them to add towards his mannequin collection. After he awakens in his bed screaming and crying from having a nightmare about killing a couple on a beach, he dresses himself and leaves his resided one-room apartment - consisted of paintings, a framed picture of his mother, and a collection of mannequins - towards downtown Manhattan. When Frank is randomly invited inside a hotel by a prostitute (Rita Montone), she kisses with him before he abruptly strangles the woman, then scalps her with a utility razor while on a range of disturbance. He then returns home and adds the hooker to his mannequin collection by placing her clothing and nailing the scalp onto the mannequin; he tells himself in his mind that beauty is a crime punishable by death.
Sometime later, he dresses again and takes a collection of weaponry with him, including a double-barreled shotgun, before leaving. He drives around Brooklyn and the Queens area, where he finds a couple exiting a local disco and parking near the side of the Verrazano Bridge. When the boyfriend (Tom Savini) starts up the vehicle after his date sees Frank spying on them, Frank kills the couple with his shotgun and then adds the murdered woman to his mannequin collection back at his apartment. After seeing his recent crime committed on television, he begins to talk to himself and the mannequins and sobs himself to sleep.
During the next day in Central Park, Frank follows a photographer named Anna (Caroline Munro) after she takes a photo of him and a little girl riding on a bicycle in the distance. At night, Frank sees a nurse (Kelly Piper) leaving the Roosevelt Hospital, where he then stalks her inside a subway station and murders her with a bayonet before adding her to his mannequin collection. Days later, Frank heads to Anna's apartment and is invited inside by Anna after she recognizes him from the photo she took earlier. While on a dinner date, he shows her a photo of his mother who died in a car crash years before. A few days later, Frank is invited by Anna to a studio where she is taking photos of models at a photography session, and she introduces one of her models Rita (Gail Lawrence) to him. After seeing the two talking and holding hands, he steals Rita's necklace left aside and leaves. Later that same night, he arrives at Rita's apartment to give her the necklace, and then later sneaks in, attacks her, and ties her up to her bed. Frank begins disorientingly talking by addressing her as his mother and stabs her with a switchblade before scalping her for his collection.
One night, Frank invites Anna to a show, and they stop by a cemetery where his mother's grave resides. While laying some flowers beside the headstone, Frank begins to mourn over one of his early victims and attacks Anna. While chasing her around the cemetery, Anna injures his arm with a shovel before fleeing. While sobbing at his mother's grave, he hallucinates his decomposing mother attacking him from the grave. Frank returns to his small apartment and while he cries, he then sees his mannequins suddenly coming alive and they mutilate Frank with his weapons before ultimately tearing off his head.
The next morning, two police officers break into Frank's apartment after likely being informed by Anna and see Frank lying dead on his bed. He has committed suicide from hallucinating the mannequins attacking him. As the officers leave the apartment, Frank's eyes suddenly open as the film ends with the title printed onto the screen. | revenge | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0360463 | Chalte Chalte | Geeta and a young man are in love and want to marry. Unfortunately the young man tragically passes away, leaving behind a devastated and shocked Geeta, who eventually loses her senses and is confined to a mental hospital. Years later, Geeta recovers and is discharged, only to find that the man she thought was dead is still alive, calls himself Ravi, and is in love with a lovely young woman named Asha. Unable to deal with this, Geeta decides to make Ravi her own. When she fails, she is re-confined in the mental hospital. Ravi decides to travel abroad, leaving Asha alone. It is then Geeta escapes, gains entry into the house, and tries to do away with Asha, who she believes is the real cause of why her lover has lost interest in her. Geeta tries to kill Asha but is ultimately killed by falling off the roof. The film ends with Ravi consoling Asha. The background music 'Chalte Chalte' plays. | murder | train | wikipedia | Psychotic woman in case of mistaken identity (poss spoiler). What attracted me to this film was the soundtrack which features the famous song "chalte chalte mere geet yaad rakna kabhi alvida na kehena" This where it all ends for this film though. This film fails to live up to any type of expectation. The story though interesting is shoddily handled. The heroine makes a mark with her westernised outfits eg the lime green bikini. which at the time were quite a bold move for any bollywood heroine. you can see that the filmmakers have attempted something unique but seemed to have missed the mark. Simmi Garewal plays the psychotic widow who mistakes a man who looks exactly like her late husband quite well. She seems to be the star of the show and the main hero who we might as well forget as wasn't seen in many movies after Chalte Chalte. All in all this film features a fantastic soundtrack an interesting story failed by poor direction and some very bad acting. quite as measly 4 out of 10. Superb songs, so-so movie. Bhappi Lahiri's music is great. "Kabhi alvida na kahna", "Pyaar me kabhi kabhi", "Jaana kaha hai" and a few others are great. Bhappi Lahiri was a budding music director in those days and he has produced unforgettable compositions for this movie.But the movie itself is so-so. The hero of the film is pretty mediocre. Naazneen looks good (especially in the green bikini!) but otherwise pretty tepid acting. Simi Garewal is slightly better. The direction is bad. The story had enough strength to make a powerful, suspense movie but the director failed. The secret on which the movie is based is revealed in a very plain way. The movie becomes very predictable and the end is disappointing. Surprisingly, there is no comic relief other than a servant saying "haaloooooooooooo" while answering phone! Really annoying! |
tt0181947 | 3 dev adam | The story takes place in Istanbul, where a violent criminal organization led by Spider-Man ("Spider's Gang") surfaces in the city with counterfeit United States dollars. A small task-force consisting of Captain America, Santo and Captain America's girlfriend Julia arrives to help local police stop Spider-Man and his gang.
Captain America's girlfriend, who has infiltrated Spider-Man's hideout, is captured and taken to a house in a remote location. She manages to send an SOS signal to the Captain. Captain America saves Julia and chases after Spider-Man, who manages to escape.
Meanwhile, Mexico's national superhero/wrestler, Santo, infiltrates the dojo that is used as a front for counterfeiting. After being captured, he manages to escape along with incriminating evidence.
Captain and Santo raid a very important hideout where most of the counterfeiting operation is taking place. They manage to shut down the hideout while Spider-Man kills a couple, steals a statue and runs away.
Soon afterwards, another fight between heroes and Spider-Man begins. It is revealed that there are four Spider-Men as one is beaten to a pulp by Santo and another is strangled to death by Captain America.
Captain America and Santo then go undercover in a club. Spider-Man's gang notice them and a fight occurs. The heroes are seemingly overpowered this time and are taken to Spider-Man's hideout. Once there Captain America and Santo act like they are fighting themselves to confuse their captors but manage to break out and eliminate most of the gang members. Spider-Man arrives at the end of the fight with his girlfriend, only to have her struck by a wild shot from the gun of one of his henchmen. He flees, with Captain America in hot pursuit.
Captain America catches Spider-Man and defeats him, only to hear the taunting laugh of yet another Spider-Man. The fight continues until all of the Spider-Men are dead.
As the heroes are about to leave Istanbul, Captain America sees the face of Spider-Man in a taxi and furiously runs and removes the mask of the person in the car, only to realize that it was just a child wearing a toy mask. | cult | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0077223 | The Bermuda Depths | On a Bermuda beach, a sleeping Magnus Dens (Leigh McCloskey) is approached by a beautiful but mysterious woman (Connie Sellecca), who seems to recognize him. In the meantime, Magnus is dreaming of his childhood, playing on the same beach, watching a turtle egg hatch with his friend Jennie. Jumping a few years later, both are playing with a grown turtle, Magnus carves "J+M" inside a heart on the turtle's shell while Jennie makes a cowrie shell necklace for Magnus. Follow on to young Magnus on the beach spotting Jennie riding the turtle heading out to open sea and disappearing beneath the water as he calls after her. Then jumping to his nightmare of the night his father, Lionel was knocked into the water by an unseen horror in the cave beneath the house and part of his house on a cliff crumbling down to the beach as the storm rage on.
Finally awakening and groggily gathering his things to go to town, Magnus sees a woman swimming in the ocean. He meets his childhood friend Eric (Carl Weathers) at the docks. When Eric asks him where he's been, he admits he's been drifting for a few years. Eric introduces Magnus to Dr. Paulis (Burl Ives), whom Eric is working for to finish his master's degree in marine biology. Suddenly the boat lists violently to one side and the net they pulled up has been shredded by something very large and strong.
That evening, the three men are joined by Eric's wife Doshan (Julie Woodson) for dinner at Dr. Paulis' house. He explains that he and Eric are doing teratology. Dr. Paulis calls out to Delia (Ruth Attaway) to hurry up with dinner. Magnus is intrigued by the necklace she wears, which resembles his own.
After dinner, upon not getting answers to his query about his father's death from Dr. Paulis, Magnus steps outside. He again sees the mysterious woman swimming by the boat. He jumps into the water to follow her, but he is saved from drowning and revived on the beach by the woman, whom he doesn't recognize. She returns to the ocean, telling him her name is Jennie Haniver. His description of the incident to Dr. Paulis is not taken seriously and he went off angrily. But when Delia tells him about the legend of Jennie Haniver he becomes upset.
The next morning, the police brings in Eric to examine enormous tracks on the beach. Magnus goes down to the beach and meets Jennie. Finally remembering her as his young playmate, he takes her to his father's wrecked house. He tells her some of his memories from childhood, while she describes the quadrilles her father would hold in their great hall. Then Eric calls him away to go out on a boat with Dr. Paulis. Again, the boat lurches uncontrollably forcing Eric to cut the cable to the trawling net.
In the evening, Magnus again confronts Dr. Paulis about his father's death. Paulis explains that Lionel was conducting tests regarding mutation in sea life when he was attacked and apparently eaten. Magnus asks him if he remembers the turtle from his childhood, and describes how he carved initials on the shell, for himself and Jennie. Paulis is dismayed.
Magnus awakens to Eric and Dr. Paulus arguing. Eric wants to use the Horror, a harpoon-firing bazooka. Paulis is aghast at the idea, withdraws his support for the expedition. Eric collects Magnus and heads out in the boat. After some trawling, they again find something dragging on the line. Taking a small harpoon gun, Eric dives to try to save the net. He shoots at a form he could see only vaguely. It turns out to be Jennie. Eric and Magnus resume trawling. Magnus tells Eric he had been with Jennie the night before on the beach, and how she was his friend from when he was young. Eric doesn't remember her, and dismisses her as an imaginary friend. The trawl lines finally catch the turtle, which is so large it begins to tear through the net. Eric blasts it with the Horror, and allows it to run out the line, waiting for it to resurface.
After sundown, the boat's power mysteriously gives out, the compass spins crazily. Magnus leaves the boat's cabin, finds Jennie on board the ship. She begs him to free the turtle, nebulously saying she made a promise long ago she'll forever regret.
At Doshan's insistence, Dr. Paulis boards a helicopter to fly out to the boat. Upon arriving, he observes a huge shape underwater near the boat. The turtle surfaces, swimming quickly towards the helicopter, then leaping out of the water, sending the helicopter crashing into the ocean. Upon seeing the crash, Eric rushes out onto the deck but is confronted by Jennie. To his horror, her eyes glow an eerie green, just as the turtle surfaces under the boat, capsizing it. Magnus climbs aboard the lifeboat amidst the wreckage and desperately tries to help Eric on board, but he is entangled in the line from the Horror. The turtle surfaces, its eyes glowing exactly like Jennie's, before it dives down into the depths, dragging Eric helplessly behind.
Jennie approaches an unconscious Magnus lying face flat on the beach, sadly kisses him, then returns to the ocean for the last time.
Doshan approaches Magnus in the graveyard where his parents are buried and expresses her horror at the losses of her husband and Dr. Paulis. Magnus tells her he is leaving Bermuda and wants nothing to do with the sea ever again. He walks away without noticing the statue of Jennie and the inscription "Jennie Haniver, 1701-, Lost at Sea" on her gravestone
On the ferry leaving Bermuda, Magnus removes the necklace Jennie had given him and sadly throws it into the sea. It sinks past the giant turtle, which is shown to have the initials Magnus inscribed on its shell so many years ago. | paranormal, horror | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0048281 | The Ladykillers | Mrs Wilberforce is a sweet and eccentric old widow who lives alone with her raucous parrots in a gradually subsiding lopsided house, built over the entrance to a railway tunnel in Kings Cross, London. With nothing to occupy her time and an active imagination, she is a frequent visitor to the local police station where she reports fanciful suspicions regarding neighbourhood activities. Having led wild-goose chases in the past, she is humoured by the officers there who give her reports no credence whatsoever.
She is approached by an archly sinister character, 'Professor' Marcus, who wants to rent rooms in her house. She is not aware that he has assembled a gang of hardened criminals for a sophisticated security van robbery at London King's Cross railway station: the gentlemanly and easily fooled con-man Major Claude Courtney; the comedic Cockney spiv Harry Robinson; the slow-witted and punch drunk ex-boxer 'One-Round' Lawson; and the murderous, cruel and vicious continental gangster Louis Harvey. As a cover, the "Professor" convinces the naive Mrs. Wilberforce that the group is an amateur string quintet using the rooms for rehearsal space. To maintain the deception, the gang members carry musical instruments and play a recording of Boccherini's Minuet (3rd movement) from String Quintet in E, Op. 11 No. 5 during their planning sessions.
After the heist, "Mrs. W" is deceived into retrieving the disguised money from the railway station herself. This she successfully manages to do but not without serious complications owing to her tendency to righteous meddling. As the gang departs her house with the loot, 'One-Round' accidentally gets his cello case full of banknotes trapped in the front door. As he pulls the case free, banknotes spill forth while Mrs. Wilberforce looks on. Finally, smelling a rat, she informs Marcus that she is going to the police.
Stalling, the gangsters half convince Mrs. W that she will surely be considered an accomplice for holding the lolly. In any case, it is a victimless crime as insurance will cover all the losses and the police will probably not even accept the money back. She wavers but when she rallies the criminals finally decide they must kill her. No one wants to do it so they draw lots using matchsticks. The Major loses but tries to make a run for it with the cash. As the oblivious Mrs. W dozes, the criminals cross, double-cross and manage to kill one another in rapid succession. The Major falls off the roof of the house after being chased by Louis; Harry is killed by One-Round who thinks Harry has killed Mrs. W after having a change of heart; One-Round tries to shoot Louis and Marcus when he overhears a plan to double-cross him but leaves the gun's safety catch on and is himself killed by Louis; Marcus kills Louis by dislodging his ladder under the tunnel behind the house causing Louis to fall into a passing railway wagon. Before falling into the carriage Louis fires a last shot at Marcus which nearly hits him. Finally with no one else left Marcus himself is struck on the head by a railway signal over the tunnel and drops into another wagon. All the other bodies have been dumped into railway wagons passing behind the house and are now far away.
Mrs. Wilberforce is now left alone with the plunder. She goes to the police to return it but they do not believe her story. They humour her, telling her to keep the money. She is puzzled but finally relents and returns home. Along the way, she leaves a banknote of enormous denomination with a startled "starving artist". | comedy, murder | train | wikipedia | But it doubles as a sly, subtle rummage around the psychology of the respectable, old-fashioned middle classes, with Katie Johnson deserving top billing alongside Alec Guinness (she doesn't get it) for her remarkable turn as the lady in question, the redoubtable Mrs Wilberforce.
The screenplay, deservedly Oscar-nominated, has the genius and economy to provide us with all these hints without ever slowing down a tightly-edited and superbly directed narrative.The other characters are a good deal simpler, but Alec Guinness is in impressively seedy form as 'Professor' Marcus and Cecil Parker makes an appealing Major.
It would have worked just as well in black and white, possibly even etter.( I have watched it in black and white on TV by turning the colour controls off!) The location shots, which were done around the back of King's Cross station in London, capture forever something of the old London I used to know as a child.I suppose they best description for this film is a comedy of a bank robbery gone wrong.
The comedy, for me, lies in the difference between what is planned and what is played out, particularly in the difficulties that the gang of criminals have in outsmarting a sweet old lady who acts like a grandmother supervising a group of unruly grandchildren.The problem that the movie has is that the pace is very slow and much of the comedy has faded over the years, but structurally and intellectually it remains a respectable film, even more now in comparison to its disastrous remake.
There is no irony in being overpowered by someone more powerful than yourself from the outset, which I imagine is why the remake also featured Marlon Wayans and a case of irritable bowel syndrome, which I have never seen used in an even remotely amusing way.While the original film may be a bit too slow for modern audiences, it is indeed charming the way 87-year-old Mrs. Wilberforce continually foils their carefully thought out plans, many times inadvertently.
I'm no expert about British comedies or Alec Guinness' early works, but I can certainly tell enough from watching this movie that the Coen Brothers' remake did nothing to impress the British about Hollywood's respect for the classics..
None of the men have previously met each other, but join together for the single heist.Their strategic planning takes place in the upstairs of a Victorian home owned by Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson), a somewhat eccentric older woman who is under the impression that Professor Marcus and his "friends" are part of a music orchestra and unite daily to rehearse.
Many thanks therefore for providing two hours of classic cinema that showed clearly why Americans should not bother with naff remakes.A classic ensemble of some of the UK's finest acting talent o the time pull of a heist in the centre of London but when their landlady finds out what they are up to, a bizarre sequence of events leads the gang to turn on each other in a brilliant and amusingly written, directed and produced film.Whilst railway nostalgists will be wondering at the vintage footage of steam hauled trains coming out of St Pancras station and goods yard, others will be marvelling at the brilliant characterisations and script that makes this a timeless classic from Ealing studios.And then the Americans decide on an Americanised remake WHY?!?
Starring Alec Guinness at his finest, this funny, but not slapstick comedy is totally entertaining.For once, I am happy that my parents encouraged me to watch a film from days gone by.
Well it is that intoxicating combination of dry black humour, pathos and perhaps a pleasing inevitability that whatever twist the film takes, you know it should be no other way.I cannot fault the cast, I regretted as a kid that I did not see Katie Johnson again (I know she made many other films, but I have never collided with them), whereas Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers were often featured on a Saturday Matinee.I am, however, pleasantly surprised at how well this film is rated by IMDb!
It is only upon watching it three or four times that the mutual destruction of the criminals makes more and more sense, and the permanent victory of the little old lady caps off the film very satisfactorily indeed.Mrs. Wilberforce, elderly, crotchety (but in a gentle and genteel way), and very moral, is the personification of an earlier Britain - the Victorian/Edwardian period, where right was right and wrong was wrong.
Alec Guinness with his crooked teeth, Peter Sellers' spiv, Herbert Lom's dark psychopath, Cecil Parker's colonel character and Danny Green's dumb heavyweight - with the wonderful nickname of one-round.
Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) lodges five elegant men (Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers and Danny Green) in her home, who intend to rehearse string quintet music.
The first Ealing movie filmed in technicolour, and the final effort of director Alexander Mackendrick ('The Man in the White Suit,' 'Whisky Galore!') before he moved to Hollywood, 'The Ladykillers' is a delightfully black crime caper of murder and betrayal, the darkest comedy since Charles Chaplin turned wife-killer in 'Monsieur Verdoux (1947)' {interestingly, the working title of the latter was "The Ladykiller"}.
In the urban jungle of post-War London, a gang of five criminals headed by the evil mastermind, Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness) plan the theft of £60,000, masquerading as a rehearsing string quintet to fool their sweet, proper and slightly senile old landlord (Katie Johnson).
A comedy from another place and another time, that right now seems so long ago and far away, `The Ladykillers,' directed by Alexander Mackendrick, stars Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom, and stands as a perfect example of how charming, delightful, civilized and yes, `funny,' a film can be when approached with intelligence and respect for the audience.
Alec Guinness plays a low-key, understated fake British professor and amateur criminal kingpin and still manages to be funnier than Tom Hanks' over-the-top, wildly over-acted caricature of a caricature of a "professor" from the Southern US.Guinness's deft comedic touch demonstrates his versatility as an actor - very careful asides by modern cinematic standards (British or American) distinguish his performance and contribute to the classic character of the original version of Ladykillers.
Guinness's use of subtle incongruities in his character's persona do the comedic work, in contrast to the other characters' enjoyably absurd dialogue and the slapstick which winds through the plot.Herbert Lom and the other actors portraying the "musicians" of the gang all pull their oars, delivering professional and hilarious performances (and again, much less over-the-top than the modern, American interpretation of the film).Without spoiling the movie for anyone, I can say that the comedic timing and (for the time and technology) good production values are spot on, and this film's reputation as a classic of dark comedy is wholly deserved.
This is an excellent droll black comedy and featured by a British all-star-cast such as Alec Guinnes , Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers and originally written by Willian Rose ; being produced during the golden decade of Ealing studio .
It deals with an eccentric man named professor Marcus , (Alec Guinness who had said that he based his characterisation on theatre critic) , actually a robber , and his crew called Major Courtney (Cecil Parker) , Mr. Harvey (Herbert Lom) , Mr. Robinson (Peter Sellers , though Richard Attenborough was originally considered for this role) and One-Round (Danny Green, though Tommy Cooper was suggested for the role but stage commitments prevented him from auditioning) pose as a band in order to rob an armored truck , all under the nose of his unsuspecting landlord , a sharp old woman (Katie Johnson) .
Modern adaptation älso titled Ladykillers was directed by Cohen Brothers , Joel and Ethan , in 2004 , being a remake of the 1955 comedy ,this new version of the classic movie results to be as entertaining and amusing as the British film ; the story revolves again around professor who puts together a group of thieves to rob a loot, being starred by Tom Hanks , Irma P Hall , Tzi Ma , Marlon Wayans , Ryan Hurst , Tzi Ma and J.K. Simmons .
As said, in this movie we get a good set of classic characters, we have the coward, the temperamental, the unlucky, the dumb and finally the clever one, and then we get the most sweet little old lady set on this earth, what a good job you did there Katie Johnson.This movie was also the first quality picture Peter Sellers was in, but not the movie where he gets the big leading role.
It's like this movie is remembered most by Sellers performance, and not all the other good stuff we get, and here I especially think about Katie Johnson's and Alec Guinness's characters, but thats just the way Sellers acting works - he always outshines the others.
Without her highly amusing central role as the woman who unwittingly gives the gang shelter, it would be no more than a broad comedy.That's not to say that ALEC GUINNESS, HERBERT LOM, PETER SELLERS and CECIL PARKER aren't superb as the gang members, but Johnson is the story's most necessary ingredient.
The charm of this comedy is its British origin and characters, a little old lady whose coming out debut coincided with the death of Queen Victoria, clashing with a gang of crooks all of whom are quite modern characters circa 1955.One of the crooks Alec Guinness rents a room from Katie Johnson who was 77 at the time this film was made.
The 1955 film directed by Alexander Mackendrick pins Guinness along with Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, and Danny Green as a group of criminals posing as a quintet to attain board that is to become their headquarters while staying under the radar.
Professor Marcus thinks planning around an elderly unsuspecting woman will be an easy task so he rents the room and introduces his cohorts Major Courtney (Cecil Parker), Mr. Harvey (Herbert Lom), Mr. Robinson (Peter Sellers), and Mr. Lawson (Danny Green) to his border Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson).
The movie is more funny with it's subtle things, such as with its characters, the odd events, it's overall atmosphere and its greatly written and constructed story.A great classic comedy, that never gets old and you never grow tired off.9/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
So it was that I found myself enjoying this veritable comedy classic from the greatly missing Ealing Studios which, despite a fairly recent Hollywood makeover, still holds its own against its contemporaries thanks to tight scripting, brilliant performances and a wickedly simple story that can't help but entertain.Just around the corner from Kings Cross station in London lives aging spinster Mrs Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) who is in sore need of company and advertises the rooms in her secluded house to let.
Wonderful black Ealing comedy which like all the best darkly humorous movies I've ever seen is all the better for starting out innocently, even whimsically before gradually descending into deeper territory, while retaining enough good sense to turn back on itself in the final reel.The cinematography and general camera set-ups are imaginative in the first place (bar a few very-much-of-their-time rather garish process shots, which even Hitchcock wasn't above using).
There's superb characterisation all the way down the cast-list, especially Katie Johnston as Mrs Wilberforce and Alec Guinness as the buck-toothed criminal mastermind whose best laid plans fall apart the minute the redoubtable petite-dame gets wind of her boarders' real intentions.The acting across the board is marvellous, from Guinness's creepy kingpin, to Peter Sellers' spivvy Teddy Boy and Herbert Lom's (whose path would of course cross with Sellers' again many times in the future, usually over bungled robberies too) near-psychopathic hit-man, but who baulks at dispatching the troublesome little old lady who threatens to disrupt the gang's escape, while of course the whole thing is set up for Johnston to steal the show which she does, with both hands.In a film of many humorous moments, surely none is more so than Guinness' last-man-standing demise at the railway which has served him so well up till then, but where he now literally gets his signals wrong.It would be easy to think of the Ealing comedies as quaint and quirky, but they often had a macabre undertow too, making them all the more intriguing and long-lasting in the memory.
Sellers shines in a supporting role, Lom is better than usual at his usual, but Guinness carries the film with his portrayal of a criminal mastermind who includes nice little old lady Johnson in his plans as an unwitting accomplice.
And then of course there's sweet little Katie Johnson, as Mrs. Wilberforce, the "Lady." Watching her make her innocent way past the master criminals and through the proverbial Valley of the Shadow of Death (and in MacKendrick's hands it's really quite a dark shadow) becomes one of the pleasantest, funniest experiences I've ever had from a movie.This is dark comedy at its best; perfectly written, beautifully shot, and best of all performed with spirit.My favorite line (though there are many):One-Round: So all right!
I believe they call those dramedies but this didn't even succeed at that.Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness) and his assembled gang have a plan to steal some loot but it all rests upon the unwitting cooperation of Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson).
As for ingenuity of plot construction, it rivals The Lavender Hill Mob and runs well ahead of Kind Hearts and Coronets.A "professor" with an unctuously courtly manner and an insane gleam in his eyes (Alec Guinness) takes a room in the home of a thoroughly innocent little old lady (Katie Johnson).
The London before my time but must still be recognisable to many, all bustle and recovering from War.The casting is sublime, from the wonderfully twee but rather plucky 80 year old Katie Johnson as Mrs Wilberforce (just 'Old Lady' in some credits) but also with a list that includes Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Cecil Parker, Danny Green and of course, the gang's smooth-talking leader, Alec Guinness, in a role I don't think he's ever played the like of which before, or since!Anyway, this mob (with names as Mr Robinson, Mr Harvey, Mr Robinson, reminds one of Tarantino's 'Reservoir Dogs) want an innocent and discrete little pad from which to execute a large bank robbery from and the dappy old dear seems a too perfect landlady to be true.
The final scenes include an atmospheric Hitchcockian style suspense scene, with the shunt and puff of steam trains below - and a really great twist...A young Frankie Howerd has a quick, but amusing run-in with Mrs Wilberforce as a rather old barrow boy but perhaps what made it special for many my father's age was to feature Jack Warner (the incredibly popular and fondly remembered Dixon of Dock Green star, who was pretty much the face of the British 'Bobby' at this time) as the superintendent-in-charge of the case.Really great films do get remade and Hollywood came knocking a whole half century later, with the Coen bros.
They key to it all is Johnson's spot on classic old English lady performance.******** The Ladykillers (12/8/55) Alexander Mackendrick ~ Katie Johnson, Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom. A sweet little bit of Heaven.
The gang includes: Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness), the strange criminal mastermind; Major Courtney (Cecil Parker), more of a confidence man than a robber; Louie Harvey (Herbert Lom), a somewhat menacing hoodlum; One-Round Lawson (Danny Green), a punchy ex-prizefighter; and Harry Robinson (Peter Sellers), a cocky young punk.
I would think it almost impossible to steal a movie from Alec Guinness, but, as good as he is, Katie Johnson does steal this movie.One of the best comedies ever made by one of the best British studios, Ealing.The funniest part for me is watching Ms. Johnson wander quietly around amid the chaos (most of which she creates in her wake).Beautifully shot, great locations, great cast, great script...just great.The humor comes out subtly as the film is carefully constructed in the early goings, but, then watch the fun begin.A 10 out of 10 and a must see..
But who could really kill a sweet, old lady?Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Danny Green and Peter Sellers are all brilliant as the rag-tag quartet, led by Guinness the slightly mad genius who architects an apparently perfect crime, except for, as he later laments "nothing could have planned for Mrs Wilburforce".
Guinness's ghoulish turn as the criminal mastermind; the presence as members of his gang of two actors who would in the 1960s and 1970s clash so memorably in the anarchic Pink Panther movies; and the whole idea of murder as light comedy all point to a time well after the film's release in 1955.
Alec Guinness is Professor Marcus who is the leader of a group of crooks.They rent a house from London.Their landlady is a sweet old lady called Louisa Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) who these men are supposed to kill.But it's not as easy as thought.Other actors of the group include Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Danny Green and Peter Sellers who all do a great job.Alec Guinness is amazing as always.But the real star of the movie is Katie Johnson who is marvelous as the old lady.The Ladykillers from 1955 is brilliant black comedy in color.It's a masterpiece without a doubt.Watch this movie if you want to see a great movie with great acting..
In creating the character of Mrs. Wilburforce she literally steals the movie from Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, and Cecil Parker.
It is perfect in every way imaginable - script, selection of actors for the roles and performances themselves.Katie Johnson, a classic "little ol' lady", won a British Film academy award for her portrayal of a landlady, who rents an apartment to a criminal mastermind Guinness, who poses as Professor Marcus, a head of an "amateur music quintet", consisting of gangsters, trying to rob a bank. |
tt0280928 | MediEvil | In the year 1286, an evil sorcerer named Zarok plotted to take over the kingdom of Gallowmere with his undead army. It is told in legend that the champion, Sir Daniel Fortesque, led the King of Gallowmere's army to victory and managed to kill Zarok before he succumbed to his mortal wounds. In reality however, Dan was in fact struck down by the first arrow fired in the battle, with the king choosing to cover it up and declare Dan the "Hero of Gallowmere". Zarok, meanwhile, was forced into hiding and was presumed dead. 100 years later, in 1386, Zarok reappears, casting a spell over Gallowmere to awaken his undead army and steal the souls of the living. However, in the process, he unwittingly revives the corpse of Dan, who has over time become a skeletal corpse, missing his jaw and the eye he lost in the battle of Gallowmere. Having been unable to ascend to the Hall of Heroes due to his failures in life, Dan uses this opportunity to defeat Zarok, save Gallowmere and earn his place as a true hero.
As Dan travels across Gallowmere, fighting his way through Zarok's hordes and confronting all manners of beasts, he soon arrives at Zarok's lair, fighting off Zarok's skeletal warriors using the souls of his old allies retrieved by collecting the Chalices. After also managing to defeat Zarok's champion, Lord Kardok, Zarok turns into a powerful monster, but Dan manages to defeat him. As Zarok uses his last breath to cause his lair to collapse, Dan escapes and Zarok's magical influence over the land is thwarted, restoring the souls back to the living and putting the dead back to rest. With the magic cast on him also wearing off as a result, Dan returns to his burial chamber where he once again enters eternal slumber. If the player has managed to collect all the Chalices, Dan will ascend to the Hall of Heroes, where he is hailed as the rightful Hero of Gallowmere. | comedy, gothic | train | wikipedia | You'll wonder how you ever left the grave without it. This is what it would look like if Tim Burton made a video-game. Hundreds of years ago, in the kingdom of Gallowmere there was a popular and trusted knight, and when the sorcerer Zarok attacked, it was this man, Daniel Fortesque, who led the force against the fiend. It is said that he vanquished the evil warlock, though himself mortally wounded, after many days of war. Unfortunately, that isn't quite what happened. The end result is the same, but the poor guy actually fell in the initial charge. It's been a hundred years, and Mr. Z returns, in the mood for revenge. He curses the living(rendering them mindless and dangerous drones), and raises, well, those that aren't, anymore. What he didn't realize is that that includes Dan, since he's the only late warrior not found in the Hall of Heroes(think Valhalla). He's now gotten a second chance to prove that he can defend the land, and he's literally the only hope. This successfully sets the tone right from the start, being funny and genuinely creepy at the same time. While there are numerous kinds of jokes and gags... some are silly, several are verbal, there are clever ones, and there is plenty of strong irony, almost all of it is dark comedy. So you're playing as someone who's literally been dead for a century; he's a skeleton, and decomposition hasn't been kind to him... he's missing an eye(that would be where the arrow that took him out hit him... *ouch*), his jaw is gone making everything he says indecipherable(subtitles to the rescue, in fact, everything that is said in this, at all), and if it comes to that, he can take off one of his arms non-violently and use it as a weapon. And it doesn't stop there. A lot of what you fight is deceased, and the daft zombies are only the beginning. There are victims of medieval times methods of execution, still stuck in the machines of their demise, that pursue you, and the absurdity of the sight is one of the countless hilarious instances. Design in general is creative, colorful and imaginative. There are gorgeous Gothic visuals all through this, and while animation and so forth may be dated today, they hold up more than well enough and were excellent at the time. Cutscenes tend to be fully rendered, and look fantastic, a few are in-engine and aren't bad at all. The characters are all well thought up and memorable, and there are such nifty ideas in this. All the well-designed and nicely varied levels(that take you through many locations) are linear, though you have reasonable freedom of the order of them, especially considering that this is entirely plot-driven. The length is great, this certainly doesn't overstay its welcome or finish without having explored its highly original concept well, and how thorough you play this determines exactly how long it will take. Replayability is found in discovering the secrets, and especially in trying to collect all of the cup-shaped, and sometimes well-hidden, Chalices. Slaying enemies that work for your nemesis releases their souls, and the aforementioned drinking instrument gathers them, and once it's full, you can pick it up, and it will grant you a reward, provided you get it and then complete that particular mission. You can save outside of them, anytime, and since they're all fairly short, this is usually enough that you don't have to go back and redo a ton if you fail. Dying in-game isn't necessarily going to mean restarting... you can pick up Life Bottles, each is good for one resurrection, and can be refilled the same way your Health Bar is replenished. If a fall was the cause of your undoing, you are picked up, magically, and left by the edge of where you fell off. I suppose it's possible that there's too much jumping in this, though there's nothing wrong with the programming on it. There may be tougher VG's out there, meanwhile, this contains solid challenges, and definitely isn't the easiest. The difficulty is a tad uneven at points, and this can be frustrating. There is only one setting to it. Younger audiences can play, since it has no mature-rating type material, though it's not decidedly geared towards them, and older people can enjoy this just as well, it's not juvenile, and it does take effort. The game-play has you running around, defeating foes, getting Runes(that work as keys) and other necessary objects, and solving the puzzles, with a spectrum of how hard they are. You can gain a cool arsenal only consisting of useful means of causing destruction to aid you, and every mêlée weapon, and one of the projectile ones, have alternate fire. They differ in speed, effective range, amount of damage done, and they all have specific pros and cons. The ones you fire also have accuracy thrown into that mix. Add to that the magnificent auto-aiming system, which is a near-perfect solution to the problem of how to get the precision of where you want to, for example and in this case, shoot when it's on a mouse-less(and not Next Gen, I'm not getting into those here) console. There's a little green... darned if I know what it is, the important thing is that it flies back and forth between you and your target, and you're seldom unaware of where it'll go when you press the trigger. The camera is close to being spot-on, and you can enter first-person mode and/or turn it, to help. Boss battles are perhaps mixed, the vast majority are on the positive side, if the final one is arguably a relative anti-climax. Overall, this is satisfying, however, and in fact close to being my definite favorite PlayStation 1 title(Silent Hill 1 wins that, amazing). I recommend this to any fan of the genres of action, adventure, fantasy and horror in electronic entertainment. Go forth, and restore the honor and glory that Sir F's name ought to be endowed with. 8/10. THE Medieval fantasy game of the decade.. When the evil sorceror Zarok returns after a hundred years in exile to conquer the peaceful land of Gallowmere, he resurrects his ancient armies to aid him, and, unwittingly, brings back his old nemesis, Sir Daniel Fortesque, who defeated him a century before. Once back in action, Fortesque must fight his way through undead hordes of Knights, zombies, Dragons, demons and a power-mad wizard to save the world in this stunning yet humourous RPG style adventure.. Dan might have aged but the game remains ageless. 20 years since it's release and this game still impresses me. It's one of those little gems that makes glad you were there to see it first time around. The visuals are great, the music is very good, the cutscenes are nice and although the voice acting is a bit 'silly', the gameplay let's that one slip by. It's a simple premise, you control an old warrior called dan who's mission is to thwart the plans of zarok, a mean old dude who wants to cause a shed load of havoc for our hero. Along the way you fight some interesting bosses and collect some pretty cool weapons. You'll find yourself revisiting levels in order to get better loot and weapons. On the whole it's a lovely game and one that, even in 2018, will keep you entertained and the hours will fly by.. A lot of hype with far too many issues.. Over the past couple years I have been playing older games that are in my collection. I have had the habit of purchasing popular games that are on sale or at second-hand stores for good prices. But I have always been a busy person so I haven't had the time to play video games. I have recently been able to play all of these games I purchased back in high school and college.Recently I came across Medieval. The game had decent reviews and a few sequels so I figured it must have a decent game. How wrong I was.Medieval is plagued by the same issues many other game franchises are when they are first released. The camera angles are decent, until you have to make a complicated jump, walk on a thin path, or focus on surrounding enemies. Far too many times the camera has spun away from my character when I am trying to make a jump. Far too many times my character has died because the camera refused to tilt at the very moment I needed it to. The fighting system can also become frustrating when using arrows and spears. Wasting valuable weapons because your character likes throwing them at thin air is one of the most frustrating issues any game has. A better aiming system would have been appreciated. So do I think you should skip this game? It depends on if you can stand the above issues. If you can, then this game might be decent for you. Medieval does have a very nice feel to it. The sound is fantastic and the music fits the game perfectly. The storyline is quirky yet quite interesting. It's all so ridiculous yet it still works. But the technical issues with the game stopped it from being great. |
tt0110955 | The Ref | In a charming Connecticut village, Lloyd and Caroline Chasseur (Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis) are in marriage counseling on Christmas Eve; the session doesn't go well and their problems become evident. Caroline has had an affair, and Lloyd is miserable and blames the problems with their son, Jesse (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.), on his wife. The marriage counselor Dr. Wong (B.D. Wong), tries to get them to open up, but, behaving professionally, he refuses to intercede on either side.
Meanwhile, a criminal named Gus (Denis Leary) is in the midst of stealing jewelry from a safe in a home he has broken into; however, he accidentally sets off the alarm, a trap door opens and he lands in the basement. Only after he is bitten on the leg by a guard dog is Gus able to escape the house, but his getaway car, driven by his bumbling, alcoholic partner Murray (Richard Bright), is no longer there. Then he runs into Lloyd and Caroline.
Holding a gun on them, Gus orders the couple to drive him to their house. Along the way Caroline and Lloyd continue to argue, with Gus beginning to act as a referee and repeatedly telling them to shut up.
Police set up roadblocks and a reward is posted for Gus. At the house, Lloyd and Caroline continue to argue. A neighbor dressed as Santa stops by, bringing a fruitcake, and two inept police officers go door-to-door looking for Gus. Knowing full well that Murray will seek refuge at a seedy bar, Gus calls the bar and describes Murray to the bartender. He tells Murray to steal a boat for their getaway. Jesse comes home and discovers his parents tied up. Jesse is unhappy, forced to attend military school, and has been blackmailing a commanding officer there named Siskel with photographs of an affair. He prefers Gus to his parents.
Lloyd’s family is en route for the holidays. It includes his brother Gary (Adam LeFevre), sister-in-law Connie (Christine Baranski), their two children Mary and John (Ellie Raab and Phillip Nicoll), and Lloyd’s mother Rose (Glynis Johns), who is extremely wealthy and is a cold, callous, arrogant woman. Gus pretends to be Lloyd’s and Caroline’s marriage counselor, Dr. Wong, since he can't hold everyone hostage. Jesse is tied up and gagged upstairs in his parents' closet.
Caroline and Lloyd are unable to stop fighting, She wants a divorce. Gus' pointed comments goad Lloyd to finally find the guts to stand up to his wife and his mother. Everyone finds out who Gus really is after Rose attempts to go upstairs; Gus puts a gun to her head and Connie, fed up with everybody, says, "Shoot her."
Jesse’s commander from military school (J.K. Simmons) turns up to reveal how he's being blackmailed. Jesse has managed to untie himself and is discovered with his hidden money. Then the neighbor dressed as Santa returns, very drunk, wondering why he never gets a gift in return. He spots the gun and clumsily lunges at Gus, who knocks him out.
The state police arrive and Lloyd, having a change of heart decides he can't 'spend his life sending everyone he cares about to prison' and tells Jesse to take Gus to the docks using a path through the woods. Gus steals the Santa suit and makes it safely to the boat. He escapes, arguing with Murray much the same way he argued all night with Caroline and Lloyd.
Back at home, the couple's bickering even drives away the police. Having aired out their differences throughout the evening with their armed robber's assistance, they make up and decide to stay together and kiss. Their reconciliation is interrupted when John informs them that "grandma Rose is eating through her gag." | comedy, humor | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0099399 | Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection | Ramon Cota (Billy Drago) is a wealthy and powerful drug kingpin who controls the cocaine industry with an iron fist. His drugs pour steadily into America, corrupting the country's youth and causing a feud between the DEA and San Carlos, Cota's country of origin.
The film opens during a carnival in Rio de Janeiro, as an undercover task force led by several DEA agents conducts surveillance on a private party that Cota is attending (similar to a Mardi Gras ball); however, the surveillance team is ambushed and massacred by Cota's hitmen, who are masquerading as carnival performers. Due to the Rio fiasco, The DEA enlists the support of the U.S. Army's Delta Force in order to infiltrate San Carlos. They are aided by an undercover agent within Cota's drug cartel.
General Taylor orders Colonel Scott McCoy (Chuck Norris) and his partner, Major Bobby Chavez (Paul Perri) to bring Cota to court. They pose as airline passengers while Cota is en route to Geneva to deposit his drug money in a Swiss bank account, and are able to capture him during a short interval in which the plane enters U.S. airspace. However, their efforts amount to nothing as Cota is easily able to post bail and escape. Unable to contain his rage, Chavez furiously lashes out at Cota in court. Cota decides to strike at Chavez by having Chavez's pregnant wife and 13-year-old brother killed.
Out on a personal mission of vengeance, Chavez is captured by Cota's forces and is tortured and killed. When three DEA agents attempt to go in and bring Cota and his army down, they are taken hostage, and are to be executed. During a press conference, a spokesman for the DEA explains that San Carlos's president Alcazar fears a coup and is therefore reluctant to crack down on the cartels, while his corrupt generals benefit from the drug trade and are willing to protect Cota from extradition.
McCoy is parachuted into San Carlos and sent to rescue the hostages in a stealth operation, while Taylor and the rest of the Delta Force perform surveillance. Their mission is supervised by a delegate from the government of San Carlos, which has entered an agreement with the U.S. government that severely limits the scope of the mission. Meanwhile, McCoy scales a tall cliff and infiltrates Cota's mansion.
Later, the government of San Carlos attempts to cancel the U.S. intervention outright by staging a massive drug raid that would make the American mission unnecessary. Upon learning of the hoax, Taylor breaks protocol and heads south of his perimeter in a heavily armed gunship, prompting the San Carlos army to send their own choppers in pursuit. The chopper lands at Cota's mansion and deploys troops to destroy cocaine storehouses and laboratories. McCoy succeeds in releasing the hostages, but is captured by Cota and placed in a chamber filled with toxic gas and isolated by a glass pane. Before the gas can kill him, however, a rocket from Taylor's gunship shatters the glass, allowing him to break through.
With the help of DEA Agent Page, McCoy captures Cota in his own armored limousine and flees the mansion. Cota's bodyguards and a San Carlos attack helicopter pursue the vehicle and eventually bring it to a halt, but Taylor's gunship saves them. Cota flees on foot through the jungle during the fighting. After the drug lord kills a villager who wanted revenge for the murder of her family, McCoy arrives and beats him. Cota then tries to goad McCoy into killing him, knowing he is wanted alive.
Taylor's helicopter arrives to pick up McCoy and his prisoner with ropes, as the last few of Cota's men close in. One of them swings his machete but only manages to partially cut Cota's rope before the helicopter heads out to sea to join the American carrier fleet. Hanging beneath the chopper, Cota continues to goad McCoy about his invulnerability, saying that once in court he will walk free again. However, the rope grows thinner from the machete cut, until it snaps completely. The film ends with Cota falling thousands of feet to his death. | cult, revenge, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | Compared to the big studio tentpole Summer blockbusters, all Norris films are like home movies.
To me personally, however, the line between these big budgeted action flicks and Chuck's is becoming thinner and thinner as time goes by (what at first seems like innovation soon becomes just another cliché as it is imitated by everyone everywhere, a la "The Matrix").
Follow-up to ¨Deltaforce I¨ which based on the real-life hijacking of TWA Flight 847 on 14 June 1985 with Norris shinning ,resulting to be one of the best roles he'd made to date and here again Delta Force commanded by Chuck is called into service to eliminate all elusive drug lords and smugglers on the Colombian jungle .
Delta leader/Norris leads the brigade into Latin America to snuff out a nasty drug baron and being starred by Chuck Norris , Richard Jaeckel, John P Ryan , Begonya Plaza , Mark Margolis , Billy Drago and directed by his brother Aaron Norris .
This is a routine actioner with Karate star Chuck Norris as the veteran Delta, as he's fine as tough, cold, stubborn Colonel .
It's a predictable, shallow and brainless film though will appeal to Chuck Norris enthusiasts because of it contains some acceptable action sequences .
Aaron has usually produced , playing stunts and directed various vehicles for his brother Chuck , such as ¨Missing in action 3¨ , ¨Hitman¨ , ¨Hellbound¨, some episodes of ¨Walker Texas Ranger¨and three children films such as ¨Sidekicks¨ , ¨Top dog¨ and this ¨Forest warrior¨.
This a a sequel to ¨Delta Force I¨ that dealt with a a hijacking TWA plane and starred by an all-star-cast as Chuck Norris , Lee Marvin , George Kennedy , being professionally produced and directed by Menahen Golan from Cannon Productions along with Yoran Globus .
Even though he's still apart of 'The Delta Force', this time Norris goes it alone, and tackles South American drug lords led by an impressively juicy and vicious Billy Drago bad guy performance of utter evilness and slime.
When eccentric bad guys are not hammy, they are Ramon Cota (a sickening performance by villain's villain of choice and villain of the week Billy Drago).Cota is a Columbian drug lord, who ships massive amounts of cocaine into America.
He kills DEA agents with unnatural glee, murders pregnant women, tortures people to death in a gas chamber, rapes women, murders their husbands, murders sick babies and uses their bodies to smuggle cocaine - you get the picture, this guy is lower than minus infinity.In a rare opportunity to catch him, Colonel Scott McCoy (the ever-bearded Chuck Norris) kidnaps Cota in mid-air and drags him into court only to watch him leave with virtually no charge.
Killing Cota is not his mission, rescuing the DEA agents is, but you know that Cota is going to get what he deserves (with a little bit of slightly unsubtle philosophy from Norris).The script is generic and by numbers.
It's a shame Delta Force 2 isn't hyper-kinetic, because the slo-mo becomes very noticeable.Chuck Norris' methods are also highly questionable.
Ryan), a character so relentless gung-ho and over-the-top that he really should be in a pantomime, is McCoy's boss and he enjoys himself way too much when he tags along on the mission to blow away zillions of nameless henchman from a helicopter that is so indestructible and equipped with a never-ending supply of ammo you wonder why the REAL Delta Force doesn't use this thing over in Afghanistan.
On the surface everything appears to be there: Chuck, action, fight scenes, outrageous stunts, explosions, evil bad guys - it's all there.
But, despite it all, there still feels like there's something missing.This time, instead of Middle Eastern terrorists, we have Columbian drug lords (who follow every stereotype of South American cultures ever) who have kidnapped a load of DEA agents and, not only that, but they've only gone and murdered Chuck's best friend and his family.
Does not really feel like a sequel to the earlier Delta Force movie..
While I remember the older movie Delta Force almost entirely and I did not exactly watch that one a whole lot more.
One of the few scenes that I even remember is the scene involving the Delta Force doing a sky jump with the drug lord and the fact this film had a bit of a similar plot to the James Bond film "License to Kill", however that film is superior to this one as I can remember a lot about that one too.
Like this one was supposed to have Chuck in some sort of drug task force, but they thought they could get some more bucks by making it a sequel to the Delta Force movie..
With Cannon all but a memory, the crew decided to make one more Delta Force movie starring an aging Chuck Norris.
The movie is by the numbers, late 80's/ early 90's Chuck Norris action vehicle.I don't know why the called it Delta Force 2.
Drago plays the bad drug lord who is so completely over the top wicked that some of his actions warrant an unintentional laugh.
When DEA agents are taken captive by a ruthless South American kingpin, the Delta Force is reunited to rescue them in this sequel to the 1986 film.Almost as long as the first movie, this film retains none of the cast of the first film except for Chuck Norris.
It also doesn't focus on the Delta Force team so much as part one.What this movie does offer is more Chuck Norris, more action than part one and more American jingoistic patriotism.
They just don't make them like this anymore.Chuck Norris fans have all they could ask for with Delta Force 2.
As the sadistic Coda, Billy Drago has a Medusa-like presence that produces shivers just from looking at him.There are some terrific action scenes, fighting scenes and explosions!Delta Force 2 is yet another awesome Chuck Norris action picture and one that adds to the ass-kicking mystique that he would be legendary for decades later.
I would rather see Chuck Norris fighting than Arnold fighting the machines any day.I like the villain Cota in the film as he portrayed a bad guy very well.
One of the best I have seen.Honestly, I do not know why people don't give a lot of credit to Chuck Norris in his films.
Chuck Norris returns as Maj Scott McCoy the delta force commando who this time takes on a sadistic drug dealer named Ramon Cota(Billy Drago)who is holding a group of DEA agents hostage in this cold blooded and pointless sequel which is a total bomb until it's final 20 minutes of cool sky diving stunts..
Delta Force colonel Scott McCoy (Chuck Norris) and his super secret military unit The Delta Force are called back into action due to the activities of a ruthless cocaine kingpin named Ramon Cota (Billy Drago).
People will also notice character actor Mark Margolis ('Breaking Bad', 'Better Call Saul') as a crooked general in league with Cota.What could have been a more interesting set piece, when Scott is required to scale a mountain in order to reach Cotas' lair, isn't as satisfying as it could have been, but at least it offers something fresh in an otherwise formula plot.Adequate pacing and a truly excellent, rousing score by Frederic Talgorn help to make this an agreeable diversion for action fans.Six out of 10..
Chuck Norris returns after the death of actor Lee Marvin (rip) in 1987 to reprise his role as Scott McCoy head of Delta Force Team.
In the 1986 original film he and his men were fighting cooky Islamic airplane hijackers, this time around the team is gone and it is up to one man army McCoy to take on the sadistic South American drug lord Ramon Cota, played by the pure evil on screen known as Billy Drago.
Chuck Norris returns in the movie as Col. Scott McCoy, leader of a covert team who rescues commardes who gets captured by the enemy.
Chuck Norris returns as Scott McCoy the commando from # 1 who puts the boot to the bad guys represented by Billy Drago.
Delta Force 2 can be seen as a comeback for Norris after the dismal likes of Hero And The Terror and MIA III, Delta Force 2 isn't a great movie, in fact the movie is a muddled mess but it's all fairly watchable and the action sequences are frequent enough to qualify this as dumb fun.
The scenes like the skydiving and Chuck Norris' exhibition scenes are really caught on film quite well and its some of the best I've seen in a movie!
If you like Norris and Drago and the prequel then Delta Force 2: Operation Stranglehold is something else to watch!.
The fist Delta Force movie was a team effort, this one is all Chuck Norris.
When you have Aaron Norris directing the film you know your not going to get your money's worth.Why do you think the guy's never made an actual Hollywood film, for a huge company.Chuck Norris looks bored and so does everyone else involved in the film.
As Delta Force 1 is my all time favorite action film I guess it was up hill from the start.
Although sometimes General "Always The Hard Way" and the camp portrayal by Drago let the film down Chuck and some fine one liners really make this a must see..
(Hope that was helpful)?The action scenes are awesome, Chuck fights bad guys
In San Carlos, South America, DEA recruits outsiders Col. Scott McCoy (Chuck Norris) and Major Bobby Chavez to bring in Cota.
I WILL NEVER watch another Delta Force movie again as long as I LIVE!!!!!!!
Even if it was pure camp material, the original DELTA FORCE with Chuck Norris, Lee Marvin and a supporting all-star cast didn't take itself too seriously as it might have.
Some stunt work (especially the skydiving scene and helicopters) are pretty good, but the overall film is too bloody serious to even be fun, hence it's often tedious.Chuck Norris looks bored replaying his role in the first film (Col. McCoy) for vengeance when his pal's wife was killed by a merciless drug dealer named Ramon Cotta (played with surprising menace by THE UNTOUCHABLES' Billy Drago), who has been freed numerous times after being captured.
Good for norris fans Billy Drago was outstanding playing the bad guy Not as good as the original but if your in the mood for a good old norris kick drug lord butt rent it or buy it if if your a big fan.
Not much to say, except that this movie has more corny dialogue than anything Arnold Schwarzeneger has ever done, and that Billy Drago should've actually tried (he looks like the coke business goes very well w/ his personal life.) Also, look at what he did, you'd think Chuck Norris would press his advantage to torture him to death, but I guess we all can't be as violent as I.
One of the few films with Chuck Norris to actually raise above the "So bad it's good" stigma.
Not only did I get to see my favorite Chuck Norris action movie, very well done I must add.
People love to talk about actors like Kevin Spacey and Al Pacino, calling them "gods" and "my greatest inspriation." I belive that two of the greatest actors of all time are Chuck Norris and Billy Drago.
I have a lot of time for Chuck Norris—he was the star of the first martial arts film I ever saw—but in '80s action hero hierarchy, the karate champ is strictly second tier, along with the likes of Van Damme, Seagal, and Lundgren.
As Sly and Arnie's films got bigger and better, Chuck's simply stagnated.Delta Force 2 is a fairly typical Cannon/Norris effort—a loud, dumb, explosive piece of jingoistic nonsense in which Chuck plays Col. Scott McCoy, who vows to bring despicable South American drug-lord Ramon Cota (Billy Drago) to justice for killing DEA agent Bobby Chavez (Paul Perri) and his family.
Travelling to the fictional South American country of San Carlos (NOT Colombia), McCoy scales a sheer rock-face, shoots numerous nameless henchmen while avoiding rocket launchers, survives certain death by gas chamber, takes on Cota's best fighter while spouting corny one-liners, and single handedly apprehends Cota, before fate intervenes and gives the sneering, baby-killing, rapist, cocaine baron his just desserts.Directed by Chuck's brother Aaron, this is formulaic and predictable stuff, but still manages to be slightly more entertaining than the first Delta Force movie, which couldn't decide whether to be a gripping hostage drama or a silly action flick.
Routine action movie that has next-to-nothing in common with the great Delta Force.
It does, however, have a tour-de-force performance by Billy Drago as a ruthless Colombian (!) drug lord.
Chuck Norris reprises the role of Scott McCoy from the first film, who is tasked with bringing down Drago and saving America from drugs.
Bad sequel to Norris best movie.
The main villain does really despicable things in this one , that strangely "Delta force 2" at times belongs more to the modern times of dark , gritty action movies.Billy Drago ("The Untouchables") is fun as always as the bad guy.
I have to admit that the stunts (skydiving) are pretty cool.Brainless sequel for Chuck's best movie.
DELTA FORCE 2 was one of the first Chuck Norris movies I ever watched and it's stayed with me: a silly, completely OTT B-movie full of gunfire, explosions and cheap and cheerful special effects work.
I recently revisited the movie on DVD, and I was pleased to find it still holds up to this day as one of the star's most simple yet entertaining films.I still haven't seen the original film, not that that matters: DELTA FORCE 2 is a standalone outing concerning a soldier's battles to take out a Colombian drug lord responsible for the death of his friend.
I'm a big fan of Chuck Norris, and I really enjoyed this movie a lot.
i enjoyed this sequel quite a bit as there is plenty of explosions and action to keep one entertained, plus Chuck Norris was simply amazing in this!.
You know it's not a quality production when even Chuck Norris is on record as saying he didn't like this film (which was incidentally directed by his brother).
The original Delta Force film was not all that good, but at least it had some credibility with a star studded cast of past-their-prime old Hollywood stars to bolster the weak story and action.
This time we're left with direct-to-video quality of stars, led by Norris, now commanding the Delta Force with John P.
Funny thing is yet again despite the film title there isn't actually much Delta Force action.
Again it all happens right at the end for the big finale, there's even less Delta Force action than in the first film!
maybe they should of left out the Delta Force 2 bit in the title.Its pretty straight forward stuff, the ever evil Billy Drago is the worlds most dangerous richest drug kingpin ever and he's flooding the US of A with lots of Lemsip....errr cocaine.
So the DEA draft in Chuck Norris of Delta Force to basically save the South American country of 'San Carlos' where Drago is based, save the USA from all the drugs coming in...just save the world in general gosh darn it!.Its all very predictable stuff that we've seen before (baring in mind its an old film of course), the step by step motions of any action flick really.
As said at the start this is when we see some Delta Force unit action but its nothing amazing, lots of explosions.
DEA agent John Page (Jaeckel) is in over his head, so he calls in the best - Col. Scott McCoy (Norris) - to help take down Cota once and for all.
The best film Chuck Norris made..
Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection starts in Rio as DEA agent John Page (Richard Jaeckel) & his team prepare to arrest Ramon Cota (Billy Drago) the biggest drug dealer in the world, however Ramon has been tipped off & kills agent Page's team.
Ryan) to organise the arrest of Ramon using none DEA agents, Taylor turns to Delta Force men Colonal Scott McCoy (Chuck Norris) & Major Bobby Chavez (Paul Perri) to bring Ramon in.
It's quite surprising at just how much action there is in Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection with the last forty minutes in particular full of fights, shoot-outs, explosions, helicopter & car chases & general mayhem.
From a story point of view Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection is acceptable, the character's are alright with the slimy drug lord Ramon Cota one of the best villains around while the tit for tat revenge motives are familiar but make sense & it's fun watching lots of things get blown up.
Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection is just a highly entertaining moderately budgeted action film that really delivers the good, they just don't make films like this anymore.
Add some helicopter & car chases & stunts too & Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection really delivers the action.Filmed in Tennessee & the Philippines, this looks nice enough & is well made for this type of film.
Ryan has fun with the General but Billy Drago steals the show with his slimy drug lord character.Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection is a great film, it's an action packed film with more story & better character's than usual & more importantly better action than a lot of fairly low budget action films.
The better Norris films are those that focus on the action because the acting and the plots are usually forgettable. |
tt0094668 | Appurushîdo | Deunan Knute, a young soldier and one of the Global War's last survivors, is rescued by Hitomi, a Second Generation Bioroid. Knute's escape attempt is stopped by her former lover Briareos Hecatonchires, now a cyborg. She realizes that the war had ended and she is in a Utopian city called Olympus. Its population is half-human and half-clone, a genetically-engineered species called Bioroids. Olympus is governed by three factions: Prime Minister Athena Areios; General Edward Uranus III, head of the Olympus Army; and a Council of Elders. Everything in the city is observed by an artificial intelligence named Gaia from a building called Tartaros. While there, Deunan joins the counter-terrorism organization ESWAT.
The Bioroids were created from the DNA of Deunan's father, Carl, making the Second Generation Bioroids her brothers and sisters. However, they have a much shorter lifespan than humans due to suppressed reproductive capabilities. The Bioroid's life extension facilities are destroyed by a secret faction of the Regular Army in a terrorist attack against the Bioroids. However, the Appleseed data, which contains information on restoring the Bioroids reproduction capabilities, still exists.
Olympus is plagued by conflicting factions. Along with a strike force, Deunan and Briareos head to the building where the Bioroids were originally created. She activates a holographic recording showing the location of the Appleseed data. Dr. Gilliam Knute, who created the Bioroids, entrusted Appleseed to Deunan, but was inadvertently killed by a soldier. They are betrayed and cornered by the Regular Army. Deunan discovers from anti-Bioroid terrorist Colonel Hades that Briareos had intentionally allowed his Landmate, a large exoskeleton-like battlesuit, to escape. Kudoh allows Deunan and Briareos to escape to the rooftop before he is killed. Uranus attempts to convince Deunan that Bioroids seek to control humanity, and he wants to destroy Appleseed and the D-Tank containing the Bioroid reproductive activation mechanism. Briareos tells Uranus that the Elders manipulated the Army into wanting to destroy the D-Tank, but Athena is trying to prevent them from doing so and protect humanity. Hades, who resents Carl, wounds Briareos only for Deunan to kill him as she and Briareos flee into the sea. Despite Deunan's pleas not to leave Briareos behind, he persuades her to search for the Elders. Mechanic Yoshitsune Miyamoto arrives in his Landmate and begins repairing Briareos after receiving an SOS from him. Deunan flies back to Olympus in Yoshitsune's Landmate and uses the Appleseed data to fully restore Bioroid reproductive functions.
As Deunan encounters the Council of Elders, they reveal their involvement in Gilliam's death and also plan to use the D-tank virus to sterilize humans, which will leave the Bioroids the new rulers of Earth. They needed the Appleseed data to keep the Bioroids alive, but Gilliam hid the data so they could not move forward with their plan. Athena, stepping in to stop them and announcing that Uranus has surrendered, tells Deunan that the Elders had been acting on their own and had shut Gaia down once they realized humanity had softened their stance against Bioroids. The Elders state that they will soon die since Gaia kept them alive, but that they were ready to sacrifice themselves. They then activate the city's mobile fortress defenses, which begin marching towards Tartaros. Athena states that D-tank's security system is nearly impenetrable, but a shot from the fortresses' main cannons might puncture the tank, releasing the virus. ESWAT begins mobilizing, but suffer heavy casualties due to the fortresses' heavy weaponry.
Briareos arrives and asks Deunan to join the battle. Despite the Elders' objections, she goes with him to the towers, and attempts to enter the password to shut the defenses down, but a malfunction makes it difficult. The final password letter appears by itself, and Deunan secures the D-Tank. She reveals that the sins of humanity will probably get worse, but that there is always the chance that future generations will learn from these mistakes; she vows to keep fighting for the children. | violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1131749 | Poison Ivy: The Secret Society | Recently orphaned country girl Danielle "Daisy" Brooks leaves her ranch and her boyfriend William behind to pursue her college degree, and transfers to Berkshire college, an elite New England private school haunted by the mysterious death of a young college student, Alexis Baldwin. Her first week as a college freshman makes a big impression, not only attracting the notice of the dean’s handsome son Blake, but also singling her out for a prestigious internship in Washington D.C. Blake quickly becomes infatuated with Daisy and asks her out on a date, much to the disapproval of his father, Professor Andrew Graves.
Daisy’s arrival also piques the interest of the Ivy Society, a close-knit secretive sisterhood to whom the lucrative scholarship is traditionally granted to. The head of the Ivies, an attractive and ambitious student named Azalea Berges with a long history of truancy and illicit affairs with teachers, breaks into Blake’s home, offering sexual favors in exchange for his help in boosting her chances with the internship. Upon learning that one of the considered candidates is Daisy, she invites her to join the Ivies. Daisy initially refuses, preferring to continue her studies and consummate her relationship with Blake. But when an error in her tuition payments threatens to erase her name from the college system, she is left with no choice but to agree. Late one night, she and two other students take part in an initiation ritual at the Ivy household. Pledging allegiance to the sisterhood, they drink from drugged ceremonial wine, are stripped naked and tattooed with the Ivy insignia.
At first, Azalea and the Ivies seem willing to help Daisy with anything she needs, outfitting her with a fashionable new wardrobe, solving her financial issues and introducing her to a popular new lifestyle. But Daisy’s new social status distances her from her roommate Magenta Hart, still mourning the death of her friend Alexis Baldwin. She is also awarded a place in the scholarship by Dean Graves, but breaks up with Blake for ignoring her after they slept together. Distracted by his relationship with Daisy, Blake fails to honor his agreement with Azalea. Having recorded Blake and Daisy’s first night of lovemaking in secret, she and the Ivy sisters leak the video onto the internet and set fire to Blake’s sports car. With her reputation destroyed, Daisy soon gets wind of the Ivies’ true nature as a power-hungry group of sirens who manipulate men to their advantage and employ blackmail and seduction to achieve their aims, wishing to use the government internship to gain a political foothold in society. She also learns that Alexis Baldwin’s death was not an accident, and is one of a large history of killings that have been covered up by the dean.
Azalea is shocked when Magenta Hart takes her place in the list of candidates applying for the scholarship, and furious at Blake’s deceit, declares war on the Graves family. She threatens to destroy William’s land deed when Daisy attempts to extract herself from the clique, and tasks her with a test of loyalty. Dressed in provocative lingerie, Daisy breaks into the administration building to infiltrate Professor Graves’s office, but upon learning she is to have sex with him, baulks at the suggestion and breaks rank. Having failed to make Daisy one of her own, Azalea seduces Graves herself, impaling his head on a sharp ornament during their coital encounter and framing Daisy for the killing.
A police investigation is launched following Graves’s murder, and Daisy becomes the prime suspect due to her extensive interaction with the Graves family. Facing custody, Daisy makes amends with Blake and upon discovering that the Ivies have been manipulating her all along, visits Azalea’s home to seek solace. Through desperate pleas of forgiveness, she manages to get Azalea to admit her murderous behavior and the attempt to set her up. Discovering that the confession has been recorded, Azalea attacks Daisy in a rage with a sword, and a fight ensues in the Ivy swimming pool. Daisy pretends to drown, and then overpowers Azalea from behind, knocks her head on the pool steps. Having admitted her part in the cover-up, Dean Graves leads the police to the scene, where Daisy submits the recording proving her innocence and an unconscious Azalea is taken into custody.
Following the ordeal, Daisy is given the rest of the semester off. With four years of a prestigious scholarship ahead, she leaves Berkshire campus, returning to her farm in Iowa to resume her relationship with Will for the summer. As the two reunite, her Ivy tattoo is shown to now depict a Daisy. | murder | train | wikipedia | This movie had some potential in the script, and the actors had moments where they shined through, but for the most part this movie was a muddled mess.The plot to this film seems like it was originally intended for teenage girls.
If that had been the case, and the nudity and rather boring sex scenes had been excised I could understand a market for this type of film.
Maybe if the plot had been sexed up a little, with more emphasis on the sexual politics and seduction I could understand it being a late night movie, but in the end the movie is a mess.
It seems like soft core porn for middle school girls who enjoy staring at fake breasts.The movie is rather dull, the story doesn't really kick in till the final five minutes, the direction is flat, and most of the actors seem like they are about to break out laughing during the scenes.
This one is a confused, muddled mess that never decides if it wants to be a slightly dirty version of Mean Girls or a late night cable flick.Skip it..
Small town girl Daisy (Miriam McDonald of Degrassi: The Next Generation fame) attempts to start anew, leaving her steady boyfriend and country life to go to a New England college.
She soon becomes embroiled in the manipulation of the secretive feminist Ivy Society, a clandestine club who has many members as well as finds a new love interest in Blake, the dean's son.Having nothing at all to do with the first three Poison Ivy films, this is merely a slightly below average soft-core (the DVD sexes up the version that debuted on television) female version of "the Skulls".
Seeing Miriam shed some clothes might be worthwhile for fans of hers, but that's all there is to recommend this movie.Eye Candy: Miriam McDonald & Shawna Waldron both get topless; 2 extras also get topless My Grade: D DVD Extras: No extras for the movie itself but an anti-piracy psa; corporate schilling for Blu-Ray; trailers for "Alien Raiders", "Friday the 13th", "Wonder Woman"; "Where the f**k is Santa?", & the X-box 360 games "Tomb Raider: Underworld".
In one movie, I'd love to see a character like this get so far in flirting and then be told the guy was gay and she was wasting her time.
Two later films have featured Alyssa Milano and Jaime Pressly playing characters with different names but not dis-similar roles.
All three films were essentially trashy melodramas, none achieved an IMDb viewer rating above the mid way point; but not because of poor acting, they all gave the career of their star a useful boost.
Unfortunately it did not come off - like its predecessors this is a trashy melodrama with a transparent and overworked story spiced up with eye candy to increase its appeal; but not sure what audience it is really trying to attract.
Ivy returns to this film in the guise of a University secret society - the Ivy Women's Society - which has established a dangerous influence on the administrative machinery of the University, and under the guidance of its current President (Azalea, played by Shawna Waldron) is prepared to go to any lengths, including violence if necessary, in order to maintain this.
An unsophisticated country girl (Daisy, played by Miriam McDonald) who has decided to seek a University education following the death of her parents, improbably proves to be her most serious obstacle.
For example PI-4 includes a totally ludicrous and unnecessary bondage sequence showing new recruits to the "Secret" Society being tattooed during their initiation.My TV version of PI-4 incorporated virtually no nudity but the Parent's Guide notes in this database just comprises the comment "nudity throughout".
I understand the first release on television was a bowdlerised version, a number of spicy sequences intended to increase its appeal were added for a limited cinema release and later an even more spicy unrated DVD was released.
Ideally the Parent's Guide should relate to the cinema release, but once a film has made its rounds in the movie houses most prospective fresh viewers will only see either a heavily cut TV version or a spiced up DVD, probably designed for the young married viewers who rent or buy most DVD's today.
The TV version of PI-4 runs about 84m and the DVD 95m - for very different reasons neither is suitable for children's viewing.
This wide gulf in running times between TV versions and DVD versions for many films which are no longer regularly screened can nullify the value of IMDb Parent's Guide notes even though we all recognise they are of great importance to worried parents.
Furthermore, when added sequences in DVD versions are designed to appeal to a different audience, they are often incompatible and spoil whatever appeal the original film had.
Often I have wanted to contribute to these guidance notes, but found this almost impracticable because multiple versions of the film exist.
Perhaps IMDb could open a blog for further discussion - it would not be relevant here.My advice is to stay away from either version of PI-4 - the only reason to watch is if you are interested in its two young stars.
But, whilst Cruel Intentions was a very good film, Poison Ivy-4 only rates 2 stars..
Out of all the "Poison Ivy" I have seen, this one is like none of the three.
Here you have an orphaned teen named Daisy(Miriam McDonald), who lives in a small town ranch, who gets to go to s very prestigious college.
The leader Azalea(Shawna Waldron), seduces Blake one afternoon to get ahead.
Blake would warn Daisy about Azalea and the Ivy society.
Onetime child stars Miriam McDonald and Shawna Waldron go the Alyssa Milano route, trying to prove how grown-up they are by taking their clothes off in a terrible Poison Ivy movie.
All the Poison Ivy movies are awful but this one, which doesn't actually have anything to do with any of the others, makes Milano's look like Gone with the Wind by comparison.
McDonald and Waldron may look good but their acting skills have not grown with their bodies.
McDonald plays Daisy, an innocent country bumpkin who goes away to college.
She gets mixed up with the school's powerful all-female secret society, the Ivies.
Anyhow, Waldron plays Azalea, the key figure in this cabal of stupid girls.
Azalea wants some internship, she's afraid Daisy might get it.
this movie goes in a different direction and does not follow the first 3 Poison Ivy films..
this one has a girl starting her life over at a New England college.
but anyways to be honest I bought this just for all of the hot girls in this movie,, and the DVD added it was unrated.
but the movie wasn't bad at all , actually had some depth and plot to it,, a real mystery for awhile,, .
I think this one would stand alone and really didn't need to be even named poison ivy,, but I really liked the film and was surprise some of the young girls actually could act instead of just look great naked..
After the death of her parents, Danielle "Daisy" Brooks (Miriam McDonald) sells the family farm and leaves behind her boyfriend to transfer to Beckshire College.
The Ivy Society led by Azalea Berges (Shawna Waldron) dismisses the poor new student until Blake (Ryan Kennedy) takes an interest.
Magenta is Daisy's film student roommate.
Daisy starts working for Blake's mother dean Elisabeth Graves (Catherine Hicks).
Azalea wants a prized internship but Daisy has the inside track.This is most notable for the sexy Icebox.
Check this one out if you like suspense, seduction and mystery all in one movie..
And why the hell was the ugly brunette Society leader chick believe everything the professor's son said?!!!
( She was waaaay too ugly for that role).And it's a good thing that the other Ivy member (the prettier one) suddenly had a change of heart and decided to help Daisy for no logical reason.On the other hand, this movie is great for men and young boys who are too afraid to buy porn..
I have a bit of a soft spot for bad B-movies made by naive filmmakers who seem to think that they are doing a good job.
Those movies that will never get the exposure like 'The Hobbit' gets, due to the very limited release; mostly the umpteenth direct-to-DVD sequels nobody ever heard of from a franchise (loosely applied) they hardly know, and very few will ever rent or buy, especially when it receives a considerable amount of beating from all kinds of review sites.I happened to catch this naughty little underachiever recently in its unrated DVD edition.
Now I'll admit that 'Poison Ivy 4: The Secret Society' is a movie to steer clear from: it is a B-movie in any sense of the word, with risible acting, sub-par screenplay, below average directing and very limited production values (the music and photography are too generic to make an impression).
Especially bad movies get an increasingly worse reputation from people who haven't seen it, but simply copy the judgments of others and then add some.
now THAT is a reason!" Now, you could describe Poison Ivy 4 as 'god-awful', but that would be overstating it.
Much of that is thanks to Miriam McDonald as the unconvincing leading lady Daisy.
She couldn't act her way out of a dating site commercial, but somehow she was cast as a cute freshman out-of-town genius who gets admitted into a highly exclusive college course.
She is supposed to be very smart, straight A's and all, yet she is so adorably naive to have sex on the first date with an obvious bad boy who has the word 'womanizer' practically burnt into his forehead.
The sorority itself is ruled by a queen bee called Azalea (Shawna Waldron) with equally limited acting skills.
You keep wondering how effective Azalea is as leader of this supposedly powerful and secret society: it is supposed to have influences everywhere, but outside, nothing more than a rumor; yet everyone on campus seems to know and warn about it.
Strangely, the secret and sophisticatedly-sounding motto, 'Concordia res parvae crescunt' (small things grow through harmony), is proudly displayed on their headquarters (I assume the writers chose it since it was already displayed on the building where they were allowed to film).Not much is unpredictable or surprising in the remainder of the movie, although this all-powerful organization is surprisingly easily defeated.
Some of the older actors (like Greg Evigan as the professor) do a lot better than the younglings, except for the female detective, who even beats Daisy in underacting (but isn't as cute).
There is some nice, non-offensive nudity, twice from Azalea pretending to be a femme fatale (at least her body language is better than her acting), and twice from Daisy (she is required to be completely nude for a tattoo on her lower back, so don't worry, all functional :-).
The fact that it was released by New Line Cinema, a quality house since the 'Lord of the Rings' movies, may signify that they intended to produce a genuinely smart erotic thriller cross-breed of 'The Craft' and 'The Skulls'.
Next time, read the script first, guys.Not wanting to kick an already dead horse, I maintain that while I do not applaud or recommend this movie, judging it has not been without a sense of (guilty) pleasure.
It should be mandatory viewing for those who claim that most of the stuff that comes out of Hollywood is really really bad, because nothing puts things back in perspective than a genuinely mediocre movie.
***SPOILERS**** The film "Posion Ivy" is a womens or girls version of the super secretive Yale Skull & Bones Club.
It's when out of town as well as state student Daniel "Daisy" Brooks, Miriam McDonald, arrives at the exclusive New England Beckshire Collage that she catches the eye of the president of the all womens Ivy Club the sexy and witch-like Azalea-the name fits-Burgess played by Shawna Waldron who seems to have the hots for the very naive as well as pretty country girl.
After Daisy's parents were killed in a car crash a year ago she have a major life change and decided to leave home as well as her boyfriend farmer Will, Brendon Penny, and get a degree in international politics in order to broaden her horizons and end up getting elected for high office.
It didn't take that long for Daisy to realize that her life was going to change not for what she hoped to be the better but for the worst.It was Blake , Ryan Kennedy,the son of professor Andrew Graves, Greg Euigan, who clued Daisy into what to expect by at first trying to hit in on her.
The way to make it big in this place Beckshire Collage Blake hints is for Daisy is join the all womens Ivy League or Club and then all her troubles in making her grades in class as well as romantic endeavors & financial problems will all be over.
Being a straight A student Daisy didn't have to worry about her grades but when her bank account, that she's paying her tuition with, mysteriously dried up she decides to join the club that turned out the biggest mistake she made in her entire life.***SPOILERS*** It in fact was Azalea who started the downfall of the secretive Ivy Club in her greedy attempt to get professor Graves to give her passing marks in his political science class.
That's when Azalea started to target both Professor Graves and his son Blake in retaliation for her personal failure in him not getting her a passing mark in his class!
The by now completely out of control Azalea went so far as embarrassing Daisy who didn't put out for her, in getting the professor to pass her, by secretly video taping her having sex with Blake Graves and putting the entire hot XXX-rated no holds bar and all clothes off sequence on the internet.
It was when Azalea went a bit too far in murdering Professor Graves, for giving her failing grades, and trying to frame Daisy with the crime that her goose was finally cooked or in this case drowned.
Getting Azalea , through a hidden tape audio recorder,to admit her crime or crimes in her having another girl murdered for not following orders resulted into a violent cat fight between the two sexy and scantly clothed girls.
But with now the news becoming public about the secretively Ivy Club and even worse then that in exposing it's #1 man or in this case woman being non other then the late professor Graves' wife the Dean of Beckshire Collage Elisabeth Graves, Catherine Hicks, that turned out to be the final nail on its coffin.
I really liked Miriam on Degrassi, I think she's an excellent actress...Bu this role put her in such a bad light.I didn't see all of the movie, but what I did see was way too much for TV.
It seemed more like a porno because of the lack of concept than an actual movie.
In the scene where they asked the girls if they wanted in, they looked at each other instead of deciding for themselves.
I'm pretty sure there's a law against forcing someone to get a tattoo..But I guess since it's a movie, they don't have to be realistic?I think this movie is only good for pubescence boys to get their jollies off.
I have not seen any of the other Poison Ivy movies, but I know the premise had to do with a young seductress, along the lines of Amy Fisher.
This movie, which I think would be part four, doesn't really have much to do with that formula, although they do end up putting in a scene between a student and a teacher.This episode is more like the Skulls series--a secret society that sucks in an innocent country girl and draws her into a world of manipulation.
The majority of the kids she interacts with are there because they have money, and bit by bit, she is distracted from her studies until she is caught up in their world of deceit.What I didn't like about this movie is that everything was completely formulaic--I had seen it all before, and knew where it was all going.
In addition, the resolution was completely ridiculous--the girl gets a taped confession that supposedly brings down the entire infrastructure of the secret society.
It's one of those movies that could only appeal to kids who are too young for the subject matter, because anyone older than early teens already knows what's going to happen anyway..
Entirely predictable tale about a country girl who goes to college only to find that a secret society ( sorority) is enacting murder on campus with impunity.
From the point of her arrival to the climactic cat fight with the leader of the "Ivy Society," she spends her time dating an instructor's glib, overconfident and basically spineless son, Blake.
He performs a role like a male lead in a porn film and nothing more is required of him.Blake is sexing her as well as the villain.
Both women conduct themselves in bed aggressively exactly as you would expect a sex worker to perform, country girl or no.When she hands the Ivy Society over to the police, she returns home for the summer to the boy she left behind, whom she promises a lifetime of her sexual favors.
Just because Miriam is in this movie was the reason I wanted to see it.
I am really happy to see that Miriam is trying to move her acting career into a more mature field, though Degrassi is a very mature show.I am looking forward to the DVD release and I strongly recommend this movie to many people who are fans of Miriam, Degrassi, or the Poison Ivy series.Vote: 10 |
tt0022913 | Freaks | The film opens with a sideshow barker drawing customers to visit the sideshow. A woman looks into a box to view a hidden occupant and screams. The barker explains that the horror in the box was once a beautiful and talented trapeze artist. The central story is of this conniving trapeze artist Cleopatra, who seduces and marries sideshow midget Hans after learning of his large inheritance. Cleopatra conspires with circus strongman Hercules to kill Hans and inherit his wealth. At their wedding reception, Cleopatra begins poisoning Hans' wine. Oblivious, the other "freaks" announce that they accept Cleopatra in spite of her being a "normal" outsider: they hold an initiation ceremony in which they pass a massive goblet of wine around the table while chanting, "We accept her, we accept her. One of us, one of us. Gooba-gobble, gooba-gobble". The ceremony frightens the drunken Cleopatra, who accidentally reveals that she has been having an affair with Hercules. She mocks the freaks, tosses the wine in their faces and drives them away. The humiliated Hans realizes that he has been played for a fool and rejects Cleopatra's attempts to apologize, but then he falls ill from the poison.
While bedridden, Hans pretends to apologize to Cleopatra and also pretends to take the poisoned medicine that she is giving him, but he secretly plots with the other freaks to strike back at Cleopatra and Hercules. In the film's climax, the freaks attack the evil pair during a storm, wielding guns, knives and other sharp-edged weapons. Hercules is not seen again (the film's original ending had the freaks castrating him: the audience sees him later singing in falsetto). As for Cleopatra, she has become a grotesque, squawking "human duck". The flesh of her hands has been melted and deformed to look like duck feet, her legs have been cut off and what is left of her torso has been permanently tarred and feathered. She is the opening scene's cause for alarm.
In a final scene MGM inserted later for a happier ending, Hans is living a millionaire's life in a mansion. Venus and her clown boyfriend Phroso visit, bringing Frieda, to whom Hans had been engaged before meeting Cleopatra. Hans refuses to see them, but they force their way past his servant. Frieda assures Hans that she knows he tried to stop the others from exacting revenge. Phroso and Venus leave as Frieda comforts Hans when he starts to cry.
=== Subplots ===
Interspersed between segments of the main narrative are a variety of "slice of life" segments detailing the lives of the sideshow performers.
The Bearded Lady, who loves the Human Skeleton, gives birth to their daughter. The news is spread among the freak friends by the Stork Woman.
Violet, a conjoined twin whose sister Daisy is married to one of the circus clowns, becomes engaged to the circus's owner. The sisters appear able to experience each other's physical sensations: Daisy appears to react with romantic arousal when Violet's fiancé kisses her, and a closed-eyed Violet knows when Daisy's shoulder has been touched. The sisters were played by the real-life conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton.
In the middle of a conversation, the Human Torso lights his own cigarette, using only his mouth. In the original scene, he also rolls the cigarette.
Frances O'Connor, the armless wonder, demonstrates how she performs everyday activities using feet instead of arms. | dark, suspenseful, cult, horror, atmospheric, psychedelic, revenge, sentimental | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0872230 | My Soul to Take | Family man Abel Plenkov (Raul Esparza), a sufferer of schizophrenia, accidentally discovers that he is the Riverton Ripper, a local, masked serial killer. After killing his pregnant wife, Sarah (Alexandra Wilson), and then his psychiatrist, he is shot down and carted away in an ambulance, leaving his young daughter Leah and premature son orphaned. On the way to the hospital, a paramedic (Danai Gurira) suggests that Plenkov himself is innocent but that he houses multiple souls, with the Ripper's being one of them. Near death, Plenkov unexpectedly revives, slashing the paramedic in the throat, causing the ambulance car to crash and burn and seemingly escapes.
Sixteen years later, the Riverton Seven—blind Jerome (Denzel Whitaker), loser Alex (John Magaro), imaginative Jay (Jeremy Chu), timid Bug (Max Thieriot), religious Penelope (Zena Grey), beautiful Brittany (Paulina Olszynski), and jock Brandon (Nick Lashaway)—gather for the annual ritual of "killing" a Ripper puppet to superstitiously prevent his return. Bug is elected but fails. Not long after, Jay is murdered by the reappeared Ripper. At home, Bug begins to redo a class project, exhibiting Jay's creativity.
At school, Brandon torments Bug and Alex on orders of Fang (Emily Meade), a tyrannical bully. Bug and Alex decide to spy on Fang to see if Brittany has a crush on him. During their surveillance, Fang cruelly alleges that Bug had previously been in institutions for killing people. Bug begins unwittingly imitating the rest of the Riverton Seven, including Fang. Penelope, having predicted the Ripper’s return as well as their deaths, is the next one killed. Brandon and Brittany discover her body in the woods and are both stabbed to death also.
That night, Fang who revealed to be Bug’s sister and by the name of Leah gives her brother a birthday present: a rocking horse created by Abel Plenkov. Angrily, she unveils the truth that had long been hidden: that they are his children and she is the daughter he had failed to kill; Bug had survived in his dead mother's womb albeit born prematurely. Everyone saw him as a miracle, which caused Fang to harbor lifelong resentment towards him; she had been traumatized by the event but he remained innocent of its memory. The two reconcile, but are informed of the murders.
Alex visits a distressed Bug and theorizes that the Ripper’s evil soul jumped into one of the Riverton Seven, forcing them to kill off the others. Downstairs, Bug and Fang encounter the Ripper. Just as Bug is about to be killed, the Ripper hears a noise upstairs. Bug goes back to his room, discovering Jerome, mortally wounded, in his closet. After Jerome dies, Alex reappears and suggests that Bug inherited schizophrenia from his father, and had unknowingly killed everyone. Bug rejects this idea. The souls of the dead Seven are now part of him, and together they help him deduce that Alex is, in fact, the one with the Ripper’s soul. "Alex" admits guilt and confesses his revenge. He proposes that they kill Fang and pin the murders on Jerome to appear as heroes. Bug refuses, stabbing Alex in the stomach. Freed from the Ripper’s soul, Alex dies as himself in a touching moment between best friends.
Although Bug expects to be arrested, Fang tells the police everything, clearing his name. The town proclaims him a hero. Despite not feeling like one, he narrates that he would "fake it good" in order to honor Alex’s memory. | paranormal, revenge, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | It keeps you wondering, guessing and a little annoyed you didn't see it coming.Admittedly, I do scroll through the reviews to get an idea of how people viewed the movie and how they rated it.I have my own 5 Star system which got this film a 4.5.If you are new to IMDb.....never, ever take the scoring system to heart.
Naturally then, the fact that "My Soul to Take" is Wes Craven's first film in five years (since 2005's "Red Eye") and first that the horror- meister has written and directed in fifteen years comes with certain expectations.
Indeed, all the usual elements of a classic Wes Craven horror are present- a small town with hidden secrets from the past; a legend that is the stuff of campfire stories; and hipper-than-thou teen- speak- but unfortunately this is far from any classic.
Unfolding entirely over the course of one day, Craven spends the first half of the film setting up his seven characters- the hot jock (Nick Lashaway), the sweet hottie (Paulina Olszynski), the religious chick (Zena Grey), the token Asian (Jeremy Chu), the African American blind boy (Denzel Whitaker), and Max's best friend Alex (John Magaro)- before the start of the blodletting.
I went into My Soul to Take with an open mind and I don't know if the rest of my theater did, but I can safely say most of them cleared out before the credits rolled.This abomination is an insult to Wes Craven's name and anyone associated with the film.
The scenes are so scatter-brained and the script is so bad it was destined to fail.At some times I was really confused if I was supposed to be watching a horror movie or a comedy.When the movie ended I stood up and asked who was left in the theater, "Worst horror movie of the year, anybody with me?" I was applauded.
In the same night, there are seven births in one hour and people believe his soul will reincarnate in one of the seven children that are known as The Riverton Seven.Sixteen years later, the ghost of the Riverton Ripper seems to have returned seeking revenge and the teenager Adam "Bug" Hellerman (Max Thieriot) has dreadful nightmares with the killer.
When Bug and his sister Fang (Emily Meade) are attacked by the killer, Bug asks his friend Alex (John Magaro) if he is the killer or whether Abel Plenkov is alive and has returned to revenge.The lame "My Soul to Take" is an awful horror movie by Wes Craven.
My Soul to Take (2010) ** (out of 4)Wes Craven's return to the horror genre hits with a major thud and turns out to be his most disappointing film since VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN.
The first sequence on the bridge actually contains some of that Craven magic where your pulse goes from zero to sixty in a matter of seconds and this expands to an earlier scene where you just know the killer is going to come back to life and although you're expecting it when it does finally happen it makes for a good jump.
This scene really doesn't make too much sense and in many ways what starts it seems out of place but not a single frame of this long sequence has any suspense to it, which is shocking since we're talking about a Wes Craven film.
This isn't a horrible movie but at the same time you expect a lot more when Wes Craven is involved.You pretty much have to give this a second review in terms of the 3-D.
But it is written and directed by Wes Craven and he will forever be considered as a master of horror, even though he made four times as many stupid movies than good ones.
Especially because Wes Craven has more than 30 years of experience in the horror movie business, he ought to know better than to stuff his screenplay like a Thanksgiving turkey with dreadful clichés and stereotypes!
After an overheated opening, the film devolved into a confused jumbled mess loaded down with heavy handed symbolism and half-baked (the condor) and ill-realized concepts (soul collecting.) Unfortunately, it seems that Wes Craven is such an icon in the horror movie genre that no one on the production side had the guts to tell him that he needed work a little more on the script.
The movie opens one way and we are surprised at how it takes a completely different turn than we thought it would and already has a plot twist that kind of confuses us but as the film progresses we are able to produce enough theories to keep our head spinning until we learn the truth.
I like Wes Craven but have found some of his films to be a little lame, also the trailer didn't really catch me with this one so I didn't really know what to expect.Not only did this movie surprise me but it really just shocked me at how original it was.
People cry over how all horror films are the same yet when they gets something which is extremely cool and different like this they complain.Not for everyone I guess but still one of my favorite Wes Craven films of all time.
Of biblical proportions awful...I love horror movies & yes, I should've known better than to waste my time, but I tried to rationalize renting MSTT...it's Wes Craven.
And we all know that Wes Craven horror movies are not without their sense of humor too (e.g. Scream).
'Scream' meets 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' (the original, not the Micheal Bay produced abortion), would give one a good idea of what the film is like.Small town haunted by an urban legend about 'The Ripper.' The film takes place over the period of one day, as it is said 'The Ripper' will return and on this day, he does.
The story is told through the eyes of 'Bug' who is mentally unstable, therefore allowing Craven to play tricks like he could in 'Nightmare' with bluring the line between dreams and reality, here, blurng the line between what is in a mentally unstable characters mind and what is real.It's twisted, original, great dialogue, excellent acting but today's audiences look past this all - they do not appreciate horror-fantasy's unless it is pushed to the point of comedy.
Like 'Drag Me To Hell' did for Sam Raimi fans and critics last year, I'll agree Craven's 'My Soul To Take' wasn't as fun but both films are a throw-back to those director's films out of the 80's and early 90's.So if you are not a fan of 'Scream' or 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' or anything Wes Craven has done, then don't bother, you won't like this.
'MY SOUL TO TAKE': Three Stars (Out of Five) Horror master Wes Craven returns to the teen slasher film, both writing and directing for the first time since 1994's 'NEW NIGHTMARE'.
If I were to plot a line graph based on Wes Craven's directorial career, the result would have more peaks and troughs than the Himalayas, with it being nearly all trough since the start of the millennium; My Soul To Take would make the line drop off the bottom of the page.With a convoluted plot that introduces far too many ideas for its own good (none of them very original), and a cast of characters guaranteed to annoy the hell out of anyone over the age of 20, this film represents a new low for the director, whose desperate struggle to remain hip with the young horror crowd is truly embarrassing.The ridiculous dialogue spouted by the obnoxious teens in this film is possibly the most grating aspect and halfway through I had to pause the film it to see who had written this garbage—turns out it was Wes himself.
It's been twenty years since the last good film written by Craven (The People Under The Stairs)—it would seem that the well of ideas has run dry (and after the mess that was Scream 4, I wouldn't bother calling Kevin Williamson for help)..
Chalk this one up as a miss for horror master Wes Craven; while it's not without some good moments and assets, there's a decided lack of suspense, a poor script (surprising, coming from Craven), mostly inane characters, failed attempts at humour, and a lame killer.Too bad, because the set-up had some potential: a psychopath (Raul Esparza) with multiple personalities is caught by the cops, but in a ridiculous series of events, ends up vanishing, never to be seen again.
Attempting to rekindle the atmosphere of horror serial killers Wes Craven breaks into a script with absolutely no redeeming qualities, additionally inhibited by senselessly laughable dialogue and character formation, which fails to go anywhere.
A film with a ridiculous idea that wasn't even developed, with very bad acting, poor dialogues & horrible characters, where i thought "wow, Wes Craven, are you serious?
I just wanted to let everyone know - literally, this movie is so terrible I feel compelled to forewarn others.You would think a movie written and directed by Wes Craven would be pretty good, considering he's one of the biggest names in horror film - WRONG!
The characters were not entirely unique but they did have enough life in them to make them seem believable, unlike scream or any nightmare on elm street flick.This is a really good popcorn film that you should watch.
Which is a good thing not that I haven't enjoyed Wes Craven films but the feel of originality has escaped them in a sense.
RELEASED IN 2010 and directed/written by Wes Craven, "My Soul to Take" is a slasher movie about the high schoolers of Riverton, Connecticut, and the legend that a schizophrenic serial killer will return to murder the teens born the day he died 16 years earlier.
It wasn't the best movie but it surely was entertaining and you never really know what is happening or who the killer is until the end.I liked the twists and turns and the acting and dialogue was well executed.
It is a new concept of a story and Wes Craven does what he does best, horror.I gave this movie a 6/10 and think people should give it a go..
My Soul To Take The best thing about having multiple personalities is that you can take real advantage of Groupon offers.Unfortunately, the identity disorder sufferer in this horror movie is not scoring reasonably priced hot air balloon rides, but instead killing teenagers.In 1994, Abel (Raul Esparza) is made aware of the fact that one of his personalities is the homicidal Riverton Ripper.Although he tries to resist the pushy persona, Abel is ultimately shot by police.
While his physical form dies, Abel's personalities live on in the souls of seven Riverton area children, including his own son Bug (Max Thieriot).Sixteen years later, the soulless Abel returns to reclaim his property from the septet.Though it has hints of ingenuity, its low-rent actors and weak-ass kills makes this Wes Craven concocted cutup a complete bore.Besides, the real threat against the souls of teenagers is women over the age of 40.
Wes Craven's My Soul to Take - the last original film he made before he died of brain cancer in 2015 - opens with Abel Plenkov (Raul Esparza), a schizophrenic man who discovers he is also the notorious serial killer known as the "Riverton Ripper" his sleepy town has been trying to catch for some time now.
In the midst of this, we largely focus on Bug, who works with his close friends in order to try and prevent what seems like an inevitable and brutal death.My Soul to Take is as boring as it is almost entirely artless; Craven trades mystery, uncertainty, and imaginative setups for an atmosphere drenched in teal cinematography and bleak visuals that lack everything that should make a horror film engaging and fun.
Other things I liked about the movie: -It had a cool setting, although I wish there were more scenes that take place on the bridge they feature during one of the first kills.-It spent some time actually developing some of the characters, which is something you don't see in every horror film.
Its not like every Wes Craven movie is Nightmare on Elm Street.
I'm sick of slasher movies, but I was compelled to see My Soul to Take because of director Wes Craven, who revitalized American horror in the '70s with independent films like Last House on the Left and again in the '80s and '90s with A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream.Wes directed the very first film I ever worked, and the one I had the most fun on, never mind that it was the worst film he ever made, through no fault of his own (most of the damage was inflicted in post-production).
His horror-movie reputation notwithstanding, he's a courteous gentleman profoundly concerned with what he does and who reflects deeply on its impact, which makes writing this somewhat painful.Not only is My Soul To Take a retread of themes Wes has dealt with before in better films, but some of it approaches being incomprehensible, and not in a good way.
I didn't find anything scary or creepy in this movie, , I wasn't fan of the ending at all As I expected to be a really bad movie, that may have help me not being to let down by it, I didn't think was as bad some reviews made out to beIt was one of weakest movie from Wes Craven you brought to Elm street and Scream movies.
The movie is set an in small town where there is a murderer who was (supposedly) on the loose once a year for 16years to take revenge on life of 7 kids who were born on the day the ripper supposedly died.Bug (Max Thieriot)does a very commendable job as disturbed teenage.The scenery at night in the woods was very well shot it added a scary element to it that made me jump a few times and it being in 3d made those scenes a little scarier.
I thought Wes craven did a very good job in another crave classic .He blended all the aspects of a good horror movie story line, scenery, good old fashion slasher, and some good acting by the lead character Max Thieriot who played the supposed disturbed teen very well.
I am a big fan of Wes Craven's movies, he really made a good mark on the horror genre with movies like "A Nightmare On Elm Street" (The 1984 original) and "Scream" along with the original versions of "The Hills Have Eyes" and "The Last House On The Left".
Plot is basically the same as Elm Street 2, and that's interesting - Wes Craven borrowing heavily from a sequel to one of his movies, but MSTT suffers from trying to hard to be too smart and complex, instead of being a simple straight-forward slasher film.
i love horror movies that start fast,i hate horror movies were the first 45min is all talk,,not this.i thought the story was good and the tension is fairly high throughout.for a teeny slasher i think this is better than most being made these days,which isn't hard, but not done enough.i hope to see more movies by craven after his long break after a new nightmare in 1994,,,in this day and age its criminal that a writer and director with that much talent takes a 16 year break while the rest of us have to watch really bad horror films like,sorority row,paranormal activity,pandorum,13 ghosts,drag me to hell,don't even get me started on rob zombie,that man is a talentless buffoon,not a horror director,,,anyway enough ranting,my soul to take is a nice little gem..
It wasn't until someone lent me this movie was when I finally got round to watching it and my outcome was that it's not that bad.Directed by Wes Craven, his first written movie since 1994's New Nightmare, he has directed some gems in his time such as (Nightmare On Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes, Scream Trilogy, The People Under The Stairs and Red Eye) but he has also made some dregs such as (Deadly Friend, The Hills Have Eyes 2, Wishmaster and Cursed) But this one I have to say falls somewhere in the middle not great but not terrible either.When it comes down to it, My Soul to Take is a muddled mess of a film that has bright spots which give you glimpses into what could have been something special.
A rather strange slasher movie but not exactly nearly as bad as people have been saying and me personally I've seen way worse than this film, its also not a complete cliché driven mess, its a little different because even though its a teen slasher, the characters aren't the type of teens that just want to smoke dope, drink and have sex and are completely stupid.The characters are actually an odd bunch but some of them are quite likable, the dialog ranges from cheesy lines to a few lines that actually made me smile at times, the concept of the film is pretty good but there is hardly any suspense, the kills are too straight forward as in they just happen, its a question of "bah" you're dead, there's no creepy build up, no sense of dread and no atmosphere.Overall, MY SOUL TO TAKE is not that bad, it is entertaining enough to pass the time but its not really suspenseful, the one thing I agree on is this is not Wes Craven's best work, compared to his classics that need no introductions, this is one of Craven's weaker films..
Needless to say that My Soul to Take ended up being atrocious, and particularly disappointing for those of us who expected the triumphal comeback from legendary director Wes Craven to the horror genre.The screenplay from this film is very badly written, mainly because I found its pseudo-juvenile drama so boring that I was glad when the killer started to finish the antipathetic characters. |
tt0107969 | Rising Sun | During a commencement gala at the newly opened Los Angeles headquarters of Nakamoto, a Japanese keiretsu, a professional escort named Cheryl Lynn Austin (Tatjana Patitz) is found dead, apparently after a violent sexual encounter. Police Detectives Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) and John Connor (Sean Connery), a former police captain and expert on Japanese affairs, are sent to act as liaison between the Japanese executives and the investigating officer, Smith's former partner Tom Graham (Harvey Keitel). During the initial investigation, Connor and Smith review security footage taped by hidden surveillance cameras, and realize that one of the laserdiscs is missing.
Smith and Connor suspect Eddie Sakamura (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), a sleazy yakuza playboy and Cheryl's boyfriend of killing her, and interrogate him at a house party. Sakamura promises to bring Connor something, and Connor reluctantly lets him go after confiscating his passport, due to his father having saved his life in Japan years ago. Ishihara, a Nakamoto employee whom Connor had previously interrogated, delivers the missing laserdisc, which clearly shows Sakamura killing Cheryl. Graham and Smith lead a SWAT raid on Sakamura's house. He tries to flee in a sports car, but crashes it into oncoming traffic and is killed.
Smith learns that Sakamura had attempted to contact him moments before the raid about the missing laserdisc, and with Connor takes the disc to an expert, Jingo Asakuma (Tia Carrere), who reveals that disc is copy and has been digitally altered to implicate Sakamura in the murder.
Nakamoto is in the midst of sensitive negotiations for the acquisition of an American software company, with Senator John Morton (Ray Wise), a guest at the party, abruptly changing his stance on a bill that would prevent the merger from going through. Suspecting his sudden shift is somehow related to the murder, Connor and Smith attempt to interview him at his campaign office, but without much success. Upon returning to Smith's apartment, the duo find Sakamura alive and well. He reveals that he was being tailed that day by Tanaka (Clyde Kusatsu), a Nakamoto security agent attempting to locate the original disc. Not wanting to be seen with Sakamura, Tanaka stole his sports car and committed suicide by crashing it. Eddie gives Connor the original, unaltered security footage, but before he can leave, Lt. Graham arrives with Ishihara, revealing the two to be in cahoots. Sakamura is killed trying to fight off Ishihara's men, and Smith is shot and left for dead, surviving only thanks to a bulletproof vest.
After being interrogated all night, Smith is put on paid leave due to an ongoing investigation of an earlier corruption charge. Regrouping with Connor and Jingo, the three view the original surveillance footage, which shows Senator Morton performing erotic asphyxiation on Cheryl while Sakamura looks on. Falsely believing to have killed her, Morton changes his stance on the regulation bill to stay in Nakamoto's good graces. After leaving the boardroom, the footage shows an unknown figure approaching and killing Cheryl by strangulation.
Hoping to draw the killer out, Connor and Smith send fax Morton stills of the footage showing his implicit involvement in the murder. Panicking, Morton contacts Ishihara, revealing the executive to be in on the cover-up as well. Morton commits suicide, and Connor, Smith, and Jingo interrupt the merger negotiations to show Nakamoto President Yoshida (Mako Iwamatsu), the surveillance footage. Bob Richmond (Kevin Anderson), an American lawyer working for Nakamoto, reveals himself as the killer and tries to run away, only to be drowned in wet cement by Sakamura's friends.
Yoshida maintains his and his colleagues innocence, quietly exiling Ishihara to a desk job back in Japan. Smith drives Jingo home, where she casts doubt on whether Richmond was really the murderer, or if he was simply taking the fall to protect someone higher up in the organization. | mystery, neo noir, murder, suspenseful, violence, intrigue, revenge | train | wikipedia | Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes and Harvey Keitel star, along with Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Kevin Anderson, Mako and Tia Carrere.
It's Japanese-big business-politics intrigue with surveillance cameras being the key to figuring out a murder.Connery and Snipes complement each other as a "buddy" cop duo with Connery being mostly responsible for making this story interesting.
I actually read the book before seeing the movie, I recall at the time (many years ago) that I didn't think Snipes fit the kohai role very well.
"Rising Sun"There is an old Japanese motto: "Business is war." Well, that sentence is taken to new heights in the Philip Kaufman thriller "Rising Sun," based on the best-selling novel by Michael Crichton.Wesley Snipes plays Web Smith, a Japanese-American liaison officer in LA who is called on duty after a young woman is found dead at the opening party for the new Japanese company named Nakamoto.
Sean Connery plays John Connor, a retired liaison officer who is an expert on Japanese customs and culture.
Soon, foul play is suspected, and Smith and Connor must find the killer before it is too late."Rising Sun" is taken from a great novel, and turned into an average thriller.
It stays surprisingly true to the book, but the very few things that stray from the course of the novel turn out to be the blunders.There are no sparks flying between Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes.
Connery is perfect for the character of John Connor, but Snipes just doesn't fit Peter Smith - whose name was changed to Web Smith for the film, for no apparent reason other than Peter isn't a suiting name for Snipes.The director/screenplay writer of "Rising Sun" - Philip Kaufman, who brought us "The Right Stuff" - seems to have charisma and obviously tries to keep the film true to the book.
And of course, he didn't want to miss being paired with the man himself, Sean Connery!Tight direction, entertaining dialogues(especially Connery's yap on Japanese traditions are hilarious), the suspense and also intense performances from Connery & Snipes make this movie a winner.
But the movie amply compensates with tense moments.The only places where I feel our attention span drops are those kinda tediously long camera footages shown of the murder and all that explanation by the hot Tia Carrere on how the video was edited blah, blah!Verdict: Still, a highly engaging thriller.
The background of the film is the American-Japonese business competition in L.A. where a cop (Wesley Snipes) accused by corruption teams up with old man (Sean Connery) , expert on Japanese world .
When the suspect dies in a chase the investigation seems over but a closer investigation of the evidence shows that the case is far from closed.Not being a real big fan of Michael Crichton, I wasn't sure how I'd like this film I'm not a big traveler and don't buy my books in the airport when I do travel!
Wesley Snipes plays Web Smith, a lieutenant in the LAPD assigned to investigate a murder on the Los Angeles premises of a Japanese corporation.
Sure, it's no masterpiece, but this adaptation of a Michael Crichton novel makes for compelling viewing, a fun entry in the East-meets-West sub-genre of the films detailing the conflict that arises when two different cultures are forced to come together.The plot is essentially that of a murder mystery, but with Crichton as source material there's the expected preoccupation with technology (a piece of CCTV footage plays a pivotal role here, throwing up questions as to privacy and manipulation, with the film feeling way ahead of its time some twenty years later).
Connery bags the best role and steals all of his scenes, while Harvey Keitel gives a volatile performance and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is a pleasure when he's given the chance to act (and not typecast as the villain, either).
Lt. Webster Smith (Wesley Snipes) and Japan expert Captain John Connor (Sean Connery) are assigned to solve it.
Smith is made black for no good reason, the anti-Japanese slant was toned down a lot, there was no romantic interest between Snipes and Tia Carrere as is shown in this movie and the identity of the killer was completely changed!
But, if you ignore the book, this is OK on its own terms.It's well done and written and there's some good acting by Connery, Ray Wise (as a slimy senator), Harvey Keitel (as a cop) and Steve Buscemi (still not sure what he was).
The movie starts off with a goofball karaoke scene where Eddie Sakamura, the lead bad guy in another absolutely awful performance by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, singing a country song called Don't Fence Me In, in a scene that's probably one of the most pathetic attempts to develop a three dimensional character in cinematic history.
The worst of the screenplay writing comes in about when Sean Connery's John Connor (real creative name, guys) is introduced, and continues pretty much until the end of the film.
Welsey Snipes embarrasses himself by taking on a role in which he serves no other purpose than to be Wesley Snipes so that his name can go on the cover of the movie and trick action fans into thinking this might be another fast paced Snipes film (he's not the best action hero in the world, but he has certainly come out with better stuff than THIS), and to stand around and ask questions like a confused child.
Rising Sun is a forgotten decent underrated mystery thriller based on Michael Crichton's novel and that a good one.
This movie I like a lot and it is Wesley Snipes best performance a long side Sean Connery.
Accompanied by a detective (Connery) with unusual knowledge of the Japanese Culture the two men must unreval the mystery behind the murder by entering an underground "shadow world" of futuristic technology ancient ways and confusing loyalties.Also the cast includes Harvey Keitel, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Kevin Anderson, Mako, Tia Carrere, Ray Wise and Stan Shaw.
To me this movie is one of my favorite Wesley Snipes films and that a good one, a lot Connery and Snipes complement each other as a "buddy" cop duo with Connery being mostly responsible for making this story interesting.
Rising Sun is a 1993 American crime film written and directed by Philip Kaufman, starring Sean Connery (who was also an executive producer), Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.
Michael Crichton and Michael Backes wrote the screenplay, based on Crichton's novel of the same name.7/10 Grade: B Studio: 20th Century Fox Starring: Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Kevin Anderson, Mako, Tia Carrere, Ray Wise, Stan Shaw Director: Philip Kaufman Producer: Peter Kaufman Writter: Michael Crichton, Philip Kaufman, Michael Backes Based on Rising Sun by Michael Crichton Rated: R Running Time: 2 Hrs. 09 Mins.
Beyond this the acting is like what you would find in a a Jim Jarmusch film (ie: bad), and you can't help but feel sorry for Harvey Keitel who wouldn't be able to act badly if he tried, and Sean Connery and, well, the whole cast when you think about it, who are stuck with this director and script, both of which were not up to par with the ambition they were aiming for (I'm guessing intellectual thriller).
It stars Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel, Ray Wise and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.
John Connor (Connery) and Lt. Webster "Web" Smith (Snipes) paired together to try and solve the mystery of a woman murdered at a Japanese high corporation party.
The best moments are the ones which deal with video manipulations.That's typically Crichtonesque:in "mondwest",which he directed,he created a fake world,in "coma",things are not what they seem."Looker" reveals a threatening side of advertising,and advertising is par excellence manipulation .Let's mention that Antonioni's "blow-up" had already tackled the "there's more to the picture than meets the eye" topic though,and even DePalma's "blow out" displayed more care and respect for the audience.Unfortunately,Crichton does not direct here.Philip Kaufman is always showing off,his remake of "body snatchers" made up for the lack of new ideas with gaudy pictures and a fair share of nudity.And if you're looking for nudity,you will not be disappointed here.If you're looking for substance,suspense and relevance,it's definitely not your cup of tea.Kaufman even calls Hitchcock for help:the murder which we see on Mako's glasses is a "strangers on a train" rip-off.What remains is Eagles-versus-rising sun economic feud:most of the time,it's boring,because the movie is overlong,and the killer's identity is not such a big surprise(and he dies a terrible death at that!).Sean Connery who produces this film ,teams up with Snipes and ,as a lot of actors before him, falls in the trap of "hostile cops partners at the beginning,who little by little find reciprocal esteem.(We've been in this movie before).
'Rising Sun' Synopsis: When a professional escort is found dead, apparently after a violent sexual encounter, Police Detective Web Smith & John Connor, a former police Captain and expert on Japanese affairs, are sent to investigate.'Rising Sun' is good stuff.
The film is good thanks to the interplay between Snipes and Connery, there is not really a whole lot of action in this movie so it is good that they do such a good job with their roles.
Connery plays a police detective with an expertise in Japanese culture who's called in to assist on a murder case that took place at an LA high rise owned by a Japanese multinational corporation.
Connery is partnered with a very American of detective, Wesley Snipes, which unfortunately gives the film a disappointingly conventional buddy-cop-film vibe that was wisely absent from Crichton's novel.
Crichton (a film director himself) and "Rising Sun" director Philip Kaufman reportedly clashed over changes to the script Kaufman made regarding making Connor's partner black, which I'll side with Kaufman that it added an interesting new element in this clash of cultures murder mystery, but I'll side with Crichton in that it was badly done.
For Sean Connery fans they will be pleased with what Connery does in this film.Wesley Snipes plays a Los Angeles homicide detective who has it insisted to him that he bring retired police captain Connery along with him to solve a murder committed in one of those glass tower buildings owned by a Japanese firm.
This adaptation of Crichton's novel of the same name is flawed, specially in some key casting (Snipes is wrong for the part) and tone choices (the main relationship is badly portrayed, some characters enter and leave without regard and the action scenes seem very off).However, it makes the grade into the above-average category of high-tech thrillers for the excellent Sir Connery performance and the adherence, in about 80%, to the gripping and quite scary, economically speaking, original plot.Crichton was never afraid to take a stand and the movie version, although clearly into a more action-driven-politically-correct approach, tried to present a more layered portrayal of the business war arena, without hiding the author's criticism of the American posture towards the velvet covered Japanese iron hand on such matters, which is refreshing.The pace is lightning fast, the convoluted plot is presented in a very satisfactory fashion - the audience can understand what is going on and why - and the almost 2-hour movie passes by with grace.The little disappointment goes for the last 20 minutes, that present a rather stupid conclusion (different from the book, I might add) and wastes the audience time with perfunctory developments that could, easily, have remained in the edit room floor..
For the most part, "Rising Sun" is ably told, although some of the minute details (that aren't so minute) are slightly confusing.Apparently, Michael Crichton imagined Connery playing John Conner as he was writing the book, and that's readily apparent.
Here is why: "Rising Sun" is about the story of two police detectives, Web Smith (Snipes), and John Connor (Connery), who are brought in hastily to investigate the murder of a prostitute inside the luxurious offices of a Japanese multinational.
Cops Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes are trying to solve a case involving a murdered American woman and a high-class Japanese corporation.
Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes chew up the scenery in RISING SUN, the film adaptation of Michael Crichton's best-selling novel of the same name.
Rising Sun had a scene that so annoyed me it overshadowed everything before it and after it.John Connor (Sean Connery)--not to be confused with John Connor from Terminator--and Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) were pursuing a suspect in their murder case.
Wesley Snipes and Sean Connery play 2 detectives who are called to the scene of the crime.
Rising Sun is basically a buddy-cop movie paring the unlikely duo of Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes.
The film has a few nice action sequences, enjoyable performances from Connery and Snipes, and a plot with enough twists and turns (even though the real killer's identity is as obvious as the hand in front of your face) to keep me reasonably interested throughout.
Talky detective mystery/thriller with Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes.
RELEASED IN 1993 and directed by Philip Kaufman based on Michael Crichton's 1992 novel, "Rising Sun" stars Sean Connery & Wesley Snipes as two L.A. detectives familiar with Japanese culture who are assigned to investigate the murder of a prostitute at a Japanese owned skyscraper.
Harvey Keitel plays the tough cop in charge of the investigation while Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa appears as the charismatic Japanese suspect.It should be stressed that this isn't an action movie, like the "Die Hard" flicks, it's a modern film noir suspense thriller with a Far East mystery.
Crichton's novel emphasizes the differences between the Japanese and Western mindsets, particularly in the areas of business strategy and corporate culture."Rising Sun" scores pretty well on the female front, highlighted by Tia Carrere, Alexandra Powers, Tylyn John and Tatjana Patitz.
Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) is called in but he's told to bring John Connor (Sean Connery) along.
I remembered liking it, and I have a soft spot for old Sean Connery so gave it another go when it was on TV.Plot In A Paragraph: During a party at the United States offices of a Japanese corporation, a woman is found dead, apparently after a violent sexual encounter.
Police Detectives Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) and John Connor(Sean Connery), a former police Captain and expert on Japanese affairs, are sent to act as liaison between the Japanese and the investigating officer, Smith's former partner Tom Graham (Harvey Kietel).Whilst it was not as good as I remember Sean Connery does what you would expect of him in his mentor role, and he does it well.
With a cast that includes the original and still the best James Bond and Wesley Snipes, as well as many character actors famous for playing heavies in movies, it would have been so easy to make a cheap, b-grade action movie out of the novel Crichton wrote.
"Rising Sun," a murder mystery with two heroes investigating shady Japanese businessmen is an enjoyable thriller on the strength of the leads alone.
Wesley Snipes compliments Connery nicely as Webb Smith although his role basically requires him to look baffled throughout the whole movie.
I rented it this movie for two reasons : (a) it was based on a M.Crichton book and (b) Sean Connery was playing.
I am sure that Crichton had Sean Connery in mind when he was developing the character of LAPD officer John Connor : extremely clever, dressed in Armani suits, excellent golf player, fluent in Japanese, and could kill with his thumb (a different kind of J.Bond!).
Although the hi-tech gadgets of the Japanese implicated in the film (zoom-in cameras, laser disks etc.) has become today trivial stuff, the Rising Sun is still a good police thriller to watch.
Wesley Snipes plays the young "thinks-he-knows-all" cop (Web Smih) who is assignned to investigate the murder of a "white" girl at a Japanese firm.
To that end, I do like the pairing of Connery and Snipes; and were they in a different movie, you'd have something.
It is hard to pass up a Sean Connery movie, especially one with Wesley Snipes.
Through his experience of living in "the land of the rising sun", Connor had learned a great deal about Japanese culture and customs and uses this knowledge to good effect to interact smoothly with the people from the Nakamoto Corporation and to advance the police investigation far quicker than would otherwise have been possible.It soon emerges that the laser disk recording of the murder had been doctored and so further work then becomes necessary to access the original recording and to investigate whether there was any special significance to evidence of Austin's involvement with Senator John Morton (Ray Wise) who, for reasons of national security, had strongly opposed the negotiations that Nakamoto were conducting with MicroCon.A complicated plot, the complexities of its characters and the difficulties created by cultural differences, all add interest to what otherwise would have been a simple whodunit.
This is a film that took me by surprise when I first watched it because of how chill and easygoing it is, much like character John Conner, played by Sean Connery, an eccentric detective and friend of the Japanese businessmen they're investigating, who knows the Japanese inside out and is therefore the best man for the case.
This is a fairly solid thriller with great performances from Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes as Capt.
That doesn't spoil the film though as it is a decent story which is well acted, hhile Connery and Snipes are clearly the stars the film includes good actors like Harvey Keitel and Steve Buscemi in relatively minor roles..
This movie has two things going for it: Wesley Snipes, before he went all vampire-zombie, and Sean Connery, who's always a welcome presence.
Called in to investigate the death is police detective Lt. Webster Smith (Wesley Snipes), but he is called by someone who tells him that should pick up former police Captain and an expert on Japanese affairs, John Connor (Sir Sean Connery) (not to be confused with the saviour of mankind in the Terminator films, LOL). |
tt0086807 | Spitting Image | At the time he wrote The Spitting Image, Lembcke had not found a single substantiated media report to support the now common claims of spitting. He theorizes that the reported "spitting on soldiers" scenario was a mythical projection by those who felt "spat upon" by an American society tired of the war; an image which was then used to discredit future antiwar activism and serve political interests. He suggests that the manufactured images of pro-war antipathy against antiwar protesters also helped contribute to the myth. Lembcke asserts that memories of being verbally and physically assaulted by antiwar protesters were largely conjured, noting that not even one case could be reliably documented. He further suggests the "baby-killer" and "murderer" components of the myth may have been reinforced, in part, by the common chants by protesters aimed at President Lyndon Baines Johnson, like "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?"
The Spitting Image asserts that the image of abuse of soldiers by antiwar demonstrators only really became ingrained in the American consciousness years after the war had come to a close. Lembcke attributes part of the legend's growth to films relating to Vietnam, notably Rambo, in which a "spat-upon veteran" image is popularized. He writes that the myth of the spat-upon veteran was later revived by President George H. W. Bush as a way to help suppress dissent when selling the Gulf War to the American people. Lembcke believes that resurrection of the myth was useful in promoting the yellow ribbon Support our Troops campaign, as it implies that for one to support the troops, one must also support the war. It conflates the ideas of antiwar sentiment and anti-troop sentiment, despite a common antiwar chant being "Support the Troops: Bring them Home!"
The "spat-upon veteran" meme became so pervasive that some found it hard not to believe. In 1989, Bob Greene's book Homecoming reprinted letters he had solicited, asking to hear from veterans if they had been spat upon. Greene's book includes 63 alleged accounts involving spitting, and 69 accounts from veterans who do not believe anyone was spat upon after returning from Vietnam, among other stories. Greene admits he couldn't validate the authenticity of the accounts in the letters he received, but he did believe spitting must have occurred, stating, "There were simply too many letters, going into too fine a detail, to deny the fact." Greene concluded, "I think you will agree, after reading the letters, that even if several should prove to be not what they appear to be, that does not detract from the overall story that is being told." "Greene was too willing to suspend disbelief", says Lembcke, who cited Greene's book as an example of how prolific the stories had become and also for the patterns that appeared in them. Lembke said, "These stories have to be taken very seriously, but as historical evidence they are problematic. In the first place, stories of this type didn't surface until about ten years after the end of the war. If the incidents occurred when the story tellers say they did, in the closing years of the war, why is there no evidence for that? Moreover, many of the stories have elements of such exaggeration that one has to question the veracity of the entire account."
Lembcke points out that there were several newspaper accounts of pro-war demonstrators spitting on antiwar demonstrators and suggests that these oral accounts could easily have been reinterpreted and inverted and made into stories about activists spitting on veterans. He highlights the contradictions between the collective memory of today and contemporaneous historical records, like the results from a 1971 poll showing over 94% of returning Vietnam soldiers received a "friendly" welcome. Lembcke also notes how it was older vets from previous wars who most often scorned the returning Vietnam Vets; in 1978 the Vietnam Veterans of America vowed in its founding principle: Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.
In The Spitting Image Lembcke acknowledges that he cannot prove the negative—that no Vietnam veteran was ever spat on—saying it is hard to imagine there not being expressions of hostility between veterans and activists. "I cannot, of course, prove to anyone's satisfaction that spitting incidents like these did not happen. Indeed, it seems likely to me that it probably did happen to some veteran, some time, some place. But while I cannot prove the negative, I can prove the positive: I can show what did happen during those years and that that historical record makes it highly unlikely that the alleged acts of spitting occurred in the number and manner that is now widely believed." | satire | train | wikipedia | Ignore the dreadful 1994/1996 era and you have the best satire series ever made..
What on earth went wrong?
From its start in 1984 through to 1993 this was the best satire series on TV, but when Giles Pilbrow took over as producer in 1994 things went from bad to worse.
The witty humor turned into spiteful name-calling and the whole thing adopted a very down-market, tacky feel to it.
Though the first 1994 series shows promise to begin with, before long it descends into childish, playground-style sniping at people.
Satire is much more effective if it's subtle, but 'subtle' is a word which is obviously missing from Pilbrow's dictionary.
By the 1996 (final) series, things were at an all-time low.
The comical, imaginative voices were replaced by the same smug, self-satisfied tones which cropped up time and time again, the series seemed to center more on pop groups rather than politicians and public figures and most of the songs had become dire.
Though the 1996 series had a few good ideas, rather than humorous sketches there was an insufferably smug voice relating political facts and lists of statistics.
More of a documentary than a satire show.
This approach also displays a very lazy, interest-lacking attitude.The older Spitting Image series are unmissable - hilarious, well-made, well-thought-out.
But Pilbrow ought to be ashamed for running this great series into the ground.
The only good he ever did the show was stopping it in 1996 rather than dragging it to even more ignoble depths..
This isn't your parents' puppet show.
So how did a Yank who has never visited England get addicted to this show?
One evening in the 1986, my parents were howling at something with puppets called "The Ronnie and Nancy Show", which was being broadcast on an American network (I forget which) and was never shown again.
Although I didn't get all of the jokes (I was eight at the time), I remember laughing at President Reagan putting Slick 50 motor oil in his hair, and falling out of his bedroom window at the show's conclusion.
The routine has always stuck with me, but I could never figure out where it came from!
Then a few months ago, desperate to see if anyone else had heard about it, I did a keyword search and found out about a British television show called "Spitting Image".
Of course; the British have ALWAYS been superior to Americans when it comes to satire on TV, and this show is no different.
I purchased some videos of it on Ebay, had them converted to NTSC format, and laughed my head off.
Although I could only get about half of the jokes that dealt with British politicians (I guess I need to brush up on history!), this is still one of the best comedy sketch shows I have ever seen, and the puppet format makes it that much better!
If you love seeing politicians and celebrities getting attacked with as sharp a sword as possible, then check this show out!
A warning though: Some of the routines contain material that is not appropriate for children, as BBC standards are different than American Networks..
See the funny side..
All satire bites.
Of course this series was vituperative.
Most, if not all humour is at the expense of somebody else.
So what better targets can there be for humour than the rich, famous and powerful?
The other reviewer who expressed his disgust at a programme that could mock a certain baby should take this into consideration: any child born into the family of Windsor will be one of the most privileged and pampered people in the world from the very first day of its life.
"Spitting Image" was not evil.
It didn't stigmatize the large numbers unemployed, force the poll tax on people, starve public services of cash.
It didn't widen the gulf between the rich and the poor.
It simply provided satire.
If one doesn't like "Spitting Image" then one won't like any good satire at all.
The series also launched the careers of many of this country's most popular comic actors.
The puppets, mannerisms and voices were spot on.
The 80s and early 90s were a very difficult time for a lot of people in the UK.
"Spitting Image" was a fine example of how we were able to laugh at ourselves and this crazy world we live in..
Best Satire In History.
This was a hugely welcomed relief for the pressure of almost two decades of Conservative government worldwide (the Tories in the UK, and the Republicans in the US).
Remember that this series started only 5 years before the Berlin Wall fell.
I can only hope and pray that in these times when "news" is just another corporate commodity, someone will revive this series.
I keep imagining John Kerry donning a bandana, smearing on the greasepaint and taking an M60 to the Republican team - Dick Cheney trying to scuttle away in vain, Dubya having his satisfied smirk wiped of his face by a 7.62mm round and John Kerry screaming his head off and curling his lip like Johnny Rambo.
Or is that a terroristic threat nowadays?
I think an American Spitting Image should be a lot more violent than this British version.
But let there be no mistake - the venom in this series was incredibly potent.
Margaret Thatcher was a favorite target.
Thatcher sits in a restaurant with the rest of her cabinet (Howe, Tebbit, etc.).
The waiter comes over and asks: "Would you like to order meat, ma'am?" Thatcher: "Yes. Rare." Waiter: "Vegetables?" Thatcher, making a broad arm movement to the boys: "Oh, they'll have the same".Tebbit in jackboots and leather who always salutes Thatcher with "Yes, Leader".
Thatcher peeing standing up in the men's room.Anyway, even if you don't know every detail of the British political scene 20 years ago (neither do I), still get a hold of this gem and see how real political satire is made.
There was a Russian version of Spitting Image that was very popular too..
"Don't Miss TV" of the 80s.
In the 80s no celebrity was off limits to the Spitting Image team which lampooned contemporary celebrities using latex puppets with exaggerated features.
Regulars included the street smart Pope with his shades and cellphone, or Ronald Reagan in the infamous "the President's brain is missing" (with two dangerously arranged "nurse" and "nuke" bedside buttons).
Other common appearances included the British royal family, Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet.Every Sunday night at 10pm Brits would be sure to watch the latest satirical sketches penned by now famous celebrities such as David Baddiel.
Voices were also from comedians who went onto greater things including Steve Coogan (Around the World in 80 Days), Rory Bremner (has his own impressionist show on British TV), Harry Enfield and Adrian Edmonson.Over time it deteriorated.
The great news is that there is talk the show will return in 2005..
Spitting Image was hilarious.
Spitting Image was an extremely funny show.
It stopped at nothing & ridiculed everyone, from politicians to royal rivalry.
It is a pity it ended & didn't get the chance to parody Blair, Prescott & Buyers, i am sure they would have had a great time coming up with sketches as good as the thatcher era.
as for de_niro_2001 from Scotland, i guess he can't appreciate humor or lacks one, or maybe because the show made fun of Scotland one time, when they showed a list of some things that Scotland brought the world: Dr Finlay, Lulu, English tourists, wee wee on the floors of trains,that really horrible Dundee cake, a monster that doesn't exist & lots of silly dancing.
Scotland, not far from London.....not far enough!
that was a classic!.
a breath of fresh air.
I watched most of these shows when they came out on ITV/Channel 4.
I was relieved to find someone shining the light on current events.
It was funnier than anything else on TV and years ahead of it's time.
Britain and the world was suffering a new wave of greed and corruption by the USA and the corporations (many of whom the British Royals were only too happy to do business with) of the world who were accelerating the growth of today's problems.
Unfortunately most people don't see the truth nowadays.
It's necessary to be crude and vituperative (gosh, I had to look that one up - I'll be using that one at the next Conservative get-together!!!).
I look forward to it being released on DVD..
Ultimate Satire..
Before 'Spitting Image' there was Mike Yarwood.'Nuff said.
He was great as impersonators go.
But in the clearer light of the 1980's, nowhere near cynical or cruel enough.
By then; we were beginning to see just what creepy, crooked liars our politicians really were, and what shallow, vain-glorious humbugs our celebrities.
Cheerful lampooning was not enough.And latex was the answer.
Puppets could accomplish something that human impersonators could not.
Oddly, it was something that our ancestors knew all along, and was practiced in the old Punch & Judy shows.
Unlike impersonators, puppets have no intrinsic personality.
Instead they are original mockeries, and can get away with the kind of ruthless abuse that would undermine the career of any human impersonator.Margaret Thatcher's term in office was an ideal time.
Politicians had become outrageously arrogant.
Two of her tribe (Archer & Aitken) were ultimately sent to prison, whilst celebs thought they could do as they pleased.
'Spitting Image' changed all that.
The puppets and script-writers took no prisoners.
From the spittle-fountain of Hattersley and the semi-senile Reagan, to the neo-fascist Tebbit and the pocket-pet of David Owen; if you were visible on the spitting-radar prepare to squirm.Some actually liked their puppet - or at least, claimed to.
But then there was nothing else they could do except lump it, if they didn't.
Others genuinely hated theirs, and it is a matter of record that careers were affected by this uncompromising satire.
There is no better proof here that a good puppet is better than human impersonators, cartoons or even CGI.
Tony Blair's entire crooked regime escaped the well-deserved lambasting that the 'Spitting Image' team could have provided.
No regime was more image conscious that his, nor indeed ultimately more arrogant.
In this regard he far exceeded even Margaret Thatcher.
And because his gang were composed mostly of lawyers, they knew how to be crooked and yet circumvent accountability.
Who knows; if 'Spitting Image' had been around in the late 1990's, to worthy effect, we might have been spared 2 disastrous, costly and illegal wars.A class act, sadly missed by the public, and gratefully avoided by the over-weening creeps of this world..
"Hold a chicken in the air...".
When, many moons ago, I first heard of 'Spitting Image', I thought it would be at best a one-season wonder.
The novelty of having puppets doing satire would in my view wear off quickly, leaving the show nowhere to go.
As we now know, 'Image' ran for over a decade.It was originally produced by John Lloyd, one of the driving forces behind 'Not The Nine O'Clock News' so predictably it inherited that earlier show's healthy disrespect for authority and public figures.
The voices of Chris Barrie ( magnificent as Ronald Reagan ), Harry Enfield, Jessica Martin, Kate Robbins and Steve Nallon ( more like Thatcher like she ever was ) were superbly matched to clever puppetry courtesy of Fluck & Law. Amongst the writers were Doug Naylor and Rob Grant ( later to create 'Red Dwarf' ), John O'Farrell and Mark Burton.The first few episodes were at best patchy, marred by canned laughter and some iffy material, but by the end of the first season the bugs had been ironed out.
A regular item was 'The President's Brain Is Missing!' starring President Ronald Reagan.
No-one then knew that Reagan had the first symptoms of Alzheimer's.
The Reagan of 'Spitting Image' was gaffe-prone, frequently seen in bed with wife Nancy, read comics and loved Warner Brothers cartoons.
In one episode, he authorised the use of Phantom jet fighters to assist Wile E.Coyote in the destruction of the Roadrunner.
In another, he conducted a secret nuclear test up his own arse.British politicians also came in for a bashing; Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dressed like Al Capone, smoked cigars, and was seen taking political advice from a 90-year old Hitler.
The show ridiculed Labour leader Neil Kinnock's attempts to make his party electable ( it had been in opposition only five years when the show started ).
In one sketch, he said to the Shadow Cabinet; "We must get rid of all the people who will be a liability at the next General Election.".
At which point, the entire Shadow Cabinet left the room.
Liberal leader David Steel later blamed 'Image' for his failure to become P.M., it caricatured him as a squeaky-voiced muppet living in the top pocket of David Owen.No review of the show can be complete without mentioning their treatment of The Royal Family.
Though pro-monarchists wailed that it was insulting and unfair, I disagree.
I thought the show gave them an unexpectedly human face, portraying them as ordinary people with normal fallacies.
The Queen Mother, in particular, came across as a lovable Beryl Reid type fond of a flutter on the horses.
When the Royals sang a parody of Queen's 'We Are The Champions' ( entitled 'We Are The Windsors' ), it sounded like a new National Anthem.'Image' was lucky enough to be around when Thatcher was dumped by the Tories and replaced by the ultra-grey John Major.
The writers and performers succeeded in making the man more interesting than he really was.The show got into trouble on more than one occasion.
For instance, a joke at the expense of gun collectors soon after the Hungerford massacre in 1987 provoked predictable self-righteous fury from the tabloids.'Image' also spoofed '80's and '90's pop culture, such as 'Rambo', 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' ( or Turds as they became ), pop groups like 'Wham!', 'Culture Club', and 'The Pet Shop Boys' ( their hit 'Go West' was guyed as 'How The Hell Do We Keep Getting Away With It?' ).
No respect was shown for anyone or anything.It overstayed its welcome, unfortunately, ending the year before Labour's 1997 landslide victory.
Despite many imitations, it remains unequalled.Perhaps the show's unsung heroes were the people inside the puppets, such as Louise Gold and the late Alistair Fullerton.
Another underrated aspect was the songs.
'The Chicken Song' sent-up 'Agadoo' by Black Lace' and became a hit in its own right.
'We've Screwed Up The World' was a bleak parody of Louis Armstrong's 'Wonderful World' with Satchmo bemoaning our increasingly polluted planet.
'Every Job You Take', performed by Sting, rounded off the first series.'Image' provided I.T.V. with one of its last great comedy shows, and helped make the nightmare of the Thatcher/Reagan years partially bearable. |
tt0070195 | The House in Nightmare Park | Struggling actor Foster Twelvetrees (Frankie Howerd) is invited to a large country home by Stewart Henderson (Ray Milland) to perform a dramatic reading for his family. Outwardly, Stewart is complimentary and enthusiastic, but his more sinister intentions were made clear when earlier he secretly sliced a poster of Twelvetrees. Whilst they chat, Stewart's sister Jessica (Rosalie Crutchley) and their Indian servant Patel (John Bennett) begin searching through Twelvetrees' luggage. Twelvetrees nevertheless responds with an unintentional wit and bumbling characteristic throughout the rest of the film.
After they send him to bed, Stewart and Jessica talk cryptically about not being able to find something in his luggage and concluding he must have it elsewhere. Later on Twelvetrees is chided by Stewart for nearly walking in on a restricted room – Stewart explains his ill brother Victor is in there. Then during his sleep Twelvetrees is woken to a commotion downstairs: Stewart's other brother Reggie (Hugh Burden) and his daughter Verity (Elizabeth MacLennan) have arrived with Reggie demanding his regular allowance from Victor. Spying on the proceedings Twelvetrees spots Stewart going elsewhere to see his mother. The next day, after being introduced to a snake house underground, Twelvetrees secretly goes upstairs to see Stewart's mother: though kept behind a locked door she initially seems extremely polite and explains her family's history of theatrics in India. Suddenly, she tries to kill Twelvetrees with a knife but he is saved by Patel – the servant explains her presence there is secret lest she be taken away. Though very unnerved, Stewart persuades Twelvetrees to stay to perform that evening.
Before doing so another brother arrives; Ernest (Kenneth Griffith) and his wife Aggie arrive to demand his regular allowance – both he and Reggie have found their cheques from Victor have been bouncing. Suspicious that Stewart is trying to change Victor's will to his favour, Reggie and Ernest resolve to stay and make sure that doesn't happen. In the meantime, Verity persuades Twelvetrees to check up on Victor, and to their shock discover the bed in his room is filled by a dummy. Confronted, Stewart tells Reggie and Ernest that Victor is dead and reveals another secret: Twelvetrees is in fact Victor's secret son and that he is entitled to everything in Victor's will. Plus, Stewart is convinced Twelvetrees unknowingly has a clue to where a batch of diamonds are hidden on the estate. Ernest and Aggie, after their own search, are convinced they've found the clue is a framed misquoted motto and plan to kill Twelvetrees with poison: Stewart foils the plan and works out they know whatever the clue must be. Later that evening during a Henderson family performance Ernest is killed with a stab to the back. Petrified, Twelvetrees makes a hasty exit only to be pursued by Verity: she convinces him to come back after she reveals the true identity of his father and his place in his will: he is in line to take over his money, the house and its estates. Whilst confronting his uncles, Foster is told by Verity about the diamonds, their secret location and the fact he might be in possession of a clue to their location. Whilst he goes for the police Foster gets lost in the forest and eventually finds Patel: he tells him to go in his place. However, having taken some of his clothes, Patel is mistaken by the Henderson mother and she kills him as he walks through the woods.
Going back to the house, Foster meets up with Verity again to find Jessica – in possession of his framed motto – and Agnes dead by the snakehouse. Foster explains he received the motto in the post and Verity notices it's inaccurate. Explaining that it came with a birth certificate, Verity concludes the clue must be in his name. Foster goes to get it – learning his real name is Nigel Anthony Julian Amadeus Henderson – but comes back to Verity on the floor. Reggie walks in immediately and says she's dead. Foster, left alone, works out the clue: his initials form naja – a genus of snake, and he finds a package in the snake house. Confronted then by Stewart – Reggie having been killed in the interim – Foster refuses to hand it over and a violent chase ensues, but Foster traps Stewart with his mother. Downstairs, Foster is confronted by an alive Verity pointing a gun at him. She demands the diamonds and he unwraps the package, throwing the covering paper into the fire. However, the document inside reveals the covering paper was actually the map to the diamonds hidden in the estate, by the time they realize the map is already burned away. The film ends with Stewart, Verity and the Henderson mother being taken away in a police cart, whilst a camera shot moves away from Foster beginning to dig in the large grounds outside the house to find the diamonds. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0034445 | Alias Boston Blackie | In the Christmas spirit, Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) decides to entertain the inmates at his old "alma mater" by bringing a variety show headed by clown Roggi McKay (George McKay). Roggi drops one of his showgirls, Eve Sanders (Adele Mara), as she has already visited her prisoner brother, Joe Trilby (Larry Parks), the maximum allowed number of times that month. However, Blackie kindheartedly lets her tag along.
Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) and Detective Joe Mathews (Walter Sande) unexpectedly join the group on the bus, just to keep an eye on Blackie. When Joe manages to escape from the prison, by tying Roggi up and putting on his costume and makeup, Farraday suspects Blackie helped him.
Blackie heads to Eve's apartment. Sure enough, Joe shows up soon afterward. Joe claims he is innocent and that Duke Banton and someone named Steve got him to drive them to the crime scene without telling him why. When the robbery was foiled, they fled, leaving him behind. Now he wants to kill the pair, regardless of the consequences. Joe takes Blackie's suit and ties him up. Eve eventually arrives and frees him.
Blackie and his sidekick "the Runt" (George E. Stone) head to Duke Banton's place, but arrive too late and find only a dead body. Then Joe enters. He claims he did not kill Banton. When the police surround the building, Blackie has Joe switch places with Banton after Farraday has examined the corpse. The "body" is taken away in an ambulance. Blackie is taken into custody, but manages to victimize Detective Mathews, putting on his uniform to get away.
From information provided by Jumbo Madigan (Cy Kendall), Blackie figures out that the other robber was taxi driver Steve Caveroni (Paul Fix). He has Eve pose as a fare to lure Caveroni to Banton's hotel room. Caveroni feels he is in control of the situation as he has a gun, so Blackie has little trouble getting him to confess he killed his partner (Banton was trying to flee, leaving Caveroni to take the blame) and that Joe is innocent. Farraday and his policemen eavesdrop through the door. Once he realizes he is trapped, Caveroni makes a break for it, but is shot dead. | revenge, murder | train | wikipedia | Watchable, fast-paced.
Its just entertainment and was meant to be just that.
I give it a solid "7" vote because is accomplishes what it sets out to do- it entertains you and will hold your attention.
No lofty pretensions, no Oscar awards were expected here.Sit back and watch, be entertained, its fast and cute in a well-edited, quick sort of way.
The cops are always hard-working, but a step behind Blackie.
Richard Lane is good in the Insp.
Farraday role, and Walter Sande is great as a thick-headed cop who is easy to outwit.It should be noted that this film is very well edited, very professionally acted by an ensemble cast, and is a pro piece of work all around.
Yet it doesn't take itself seriously at all.
Therefore, it couldn't possibly put off anyone, and anyone can enjoy this film for what it is- light entertainment.Chester Morris was very talented at delivering a strong, energetic lead actor presence while maintaining a sort of good-natured wink in his eye.
Fine actor who you could watch all day, yet you would never really tire of his act..
Not very seasonal Christmas fare.
A nice entry in the series (3/14) set at Christmas time, with a frenetic and tortuously multi-layered chase sequence in the middle.Again, Blackie is implicated in a crime even though innocent, ultimately resulting in Farraday assuming his guilt.
Framed Larry Parks as con has broken out on a murderous revenge mission, dragging his demure sister (Adele Mara) plus Blackie, Runt and of course cops Farraday and Matthews all into the vortex.
Some witty lines and situations later we have a dead body in a hotel room to mull over - a corpse that is rather recklessly treated throughout!
The dreamy looking sister proves of use to Blackie, crime-solving-wise, and is more than wallpaper in here.
The character Jumbo Madigan makes his first lugubrious appearance as the know-it-all fence.As with a lot of the Morris Blackies, I sometimes wish they could have been even only 5 minutes longer, it's all taken at such a breakneck speed that it can leave you as bit puzzled at times working it all out.
But I love it!.
A solid little action film in the Boston Blackie series.
Chester Morris really found a home in his role as Boston Blackie, the former jewel thief who has turned over a new leaf but still has Inspector Faraday always believing him to be the perpetrator of every crime Blackie is within ten square miles of.Usually, the first film in a series is the best and then it is often downhill from there.
I didn't care a great deal for the plot of the first Boston Blackie film, but by this third one the series had really hit its stride.
This time Boston Blackie is taking a theatrical troupe to entertain the convicts on Christmas Eve. One of the girls in the troupe is the sister of a wrongly convicted man (Larry Parks) who wants nothing more than to escape and wreak revenge on the two thieves that set him up for a fifteen year stretch in the big house.
Of course, when the man escapes, Faraday believes Blackie is behind it all.There's good action, a pretty good mystery, interesting characters, and of course Chester Morris at his dapper witty best as Boston Blackie along with his faithful sidekick The Runt (George E.
Stone).The one mystery that is never solved - and maybe I just missed it - is how Boston Blackie now makes a living.
He seems to have plenty of money, dresses well, and lives in a well-furnished spacious apartment, yet no mention is ever made of his current occupation.
No wonder Faraday is suspicious.
But I digress.
Great entertainment for lovers of the fast-paced crime films of the 40's..
Fast moving caper with Chester Morris in his signature role....
These BOSTON BLACKIE movies are the kind that demand your attention never strays from the screen lest you are unable to follow the convoluted plot.
They tell their tales in a brisk, no-nonsense way and seldom run ten minutes over an hour.ALIAS BOSTON BLACKIE has Blackie finding himself implicated in the escape of a convict from a prison magic show at a Christmas celebration.
LARRY PARKS (before he played Jolson in THE JOLSON STORY) is among the supporting players as the escaped convict.
ADELE MARA is his worried sister who knows he wants to break out in order to seek revenge on two pals who put him there.Blackie has to evade the detective work of Inspector Farraday (RICHARD LANE) and track down the escaped convict who becomes implicated in two murders.
Along the way, he's constantly outwitting the inspector with a bag of tricks that leave him being hotly pursued by the police.It's an entertaining enough entry in the Boston Blackie series, but nothing special.Trivia note: Watch for an uncredited LLOYD BRIDGES as driver of the bus headed for prison.
He hasn't a word of dialog..
Action-Mystery.
Boston Blackie movies are fun to watch.
Even as a kid, I enjoyed them because of the action, coupled with intelligent stories and good acting.
Chester Morris IS Boston Blackie, and in this one he has to track down an escaped prisoner...
always leading from one situation to the next.
Good stuff!
How is Blackie going to get out of this one?.
It's Christmas at the Boston Blackie household, which means that Blackie is trimming the tree and the Runt is telling him that Christmas trees are bad luck.
Will a Christmas mystery ensue?
Well, a mystery there is, but oddly little time is devoted to the season aside from that opening and then a bit at the end.Blackie rounds up a gang of theatrical friends, including Adele Mara as Eve, and buses them out to the prison for a Christmas show for the inmates.
Eve's brother Joe (Larry Parks) is an inmate who is hot for revenge on two hoods who lined him up for this prison stretch; during the show, Joe steals a costume/disguise from one of the entertainers and escapes with the troupe on their way out.
It isn't long before one of said hoods turns up murdered, and our old friend Inspector Farraday seems to have Blackie dead to rights for aiding in the escape, the murder, or both.Less comic relief than expected in this one, though the banter between Blackie and Farraday is, as always, crisp and catchy.
Chester Morris and Richard Lane both look very confident in their third film in the roles..
Blackie Clowning Around.
The accent is more on comedy than mystery in Alias Boston Blackie, as Chester Morris spends more time making fools of the local law enforcement than in actually solving the case.
For the 67 minute running time of Alias Boston Blackie, Morris only spends about 10 minutes or so toward the end in actually apprehending the criminal.Morris and his valet George Stone are taking a trip to prison with a revue show as a Christmas treat for the inmates, many of which Morris did some time with.
In the revue is show girl Adele Mara who has a brother, Larry Parks, among the inmates.What she doesn't know is that Parks is planning to use the show to crash out and settle with the two guys that framed him for a robbery.
When he makes it, Blackie's watchful nemesis Inspector Richard Lane assumes as he always does that Morris had something to do with it.
So Morris has to clear himself and in doing so help Parks find his quarry.
That's made even more complicated by one of the two showing up dead in a hotel room.But before Boston Blackie can get to work he has to constantly avoid the police who seem to have graduated from the Keystone Academy.
In fact Lane's partner Walter Sande is the second dumbest detective in the world, only exceeded by William Bendix in Who Done It. The way that Morris keeps constantly making a fool of Sande, you can almost feel sorry for the poor slob.The pace is quick in Alias Boston Blackie with this definitely being one of the funnier of that mystery series..
Christmas Blackie.
Alias Boston Blackie (1942) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Third film in Columbia's Boston Blackie series has Blackie (Chester Morris) tracking down a prison escapee who escaped during one of Blackie's shows.
Lew Landers (The Raven) returns to direct this entry and like the previous film in the series, this one here moves at a very fast pace but for some reason most of the comedy is left out of this film.
The mystery isn't all that compelling either, although the first half of the film works the best with the second half losing some of its fire.
Morris is really good here as he seems to really have the role down to ease..
Merry Christmas, Boston Blackie.
Well, it's Christmas time and Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) celebrates the only way he knows how -- by proving himself innocent of a crime he didn't commit!
This time it starts with a magic show Blackie puts on for convicts, only to have one of them escape.
Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) is present for the jailbreak and convinced Blackie helped with the escape.
So, along with his sidekick Runt (George E.
Stone), Blackie sets out to find the escaped prisoner and winds up trying to prove the man's innocence.The third in Columbia's great Boston Blackie series of B detective flicks is a solidly entertaining entry.
In addition to the primary trio of Blackie, Runt, and Farrady, this one has recurring characters Arthur (Lloyd Corrigan), Sgt. Matthews (Walter Sande), and Jumbo Madigan (Cy Kendall).
The Boston Blackie series had a great bunch of regulars.
This one also has fine support from Larry Parks, Paul Fix, and pretty Adele Mara.
Lloyd Bridges has a bit part as a bus driver.
Another fun and fast-paced Boston Blackie movie..
Boston Blackie back in jail....
Since he's got so many old memories from there (...), Blackie helps arranging a Christmas variety show for the inmates of a prison; only to get himself in trouble again: one of them has been convicted wrongly and grabs the opportunity to escape - and although he's in fact a decent guy, the two years he spent in jail have hardened him so much that he's ridden by the obsession now to take revenge on the two crooks who double-crossed him.
Blackie tries to keep him from doing something stupid - and ends up once again in a room with a corpse as the murder suspect...Although this case is presented in a somewhat more serious way than the previous ones, there's still PLENTY of room for mad car chases, vanishing corpses, disguise games - and of course hilariously funny dialogs.
Here's an example: the room where Blackie is found with the body is on the 13th floor of a hotel; and Inspector Faraday suggests that Blackie might make one of his famous escapes: "Here's a window, why don't you try it?" - "No, not on the 13th floor..." - "What's the matter, are you superstitious?" In other words, another GREAT example of the series' so well-tried and popular recipe; and it doesn't matter at all that basically it's the same stuff every time - because it's always in a new, exciting, entertaining disguise; that's simply Boston Blackie's unique style....
Oddly, this one was remade, of sorts, just four years later!.
If you have watched several Boston Blackie films, then it is very possible you had a sense of Déjà Vu when you saw this film.
That's because due to some VERY lazy script writers and a studio that apparently didn't care, the exact same script was rewritten as BOSTON BLACKIE AND THE LAW.
Both films featured Blackie visiting a prison to do a magic show and both then had one of the prisoners escape while this was occurring and both featured the bone-headed detective blaming Blackie for this!
I recently read a book about Harry Cohn (the head of Columbia Studios) and it said that he had his hand in every production and knew exactly what was happening in all of them--except for the B-movie unit, which he cared practically nothing about and never bothered with the details.
Had he been involved, knowing how his employees often hated and feared him, they never would have tried doing a remake so quickly.As this is the first (and best) version of this script, I recommend you see this one and skip BOSTON BLACKIE AND THE LAW unless you are a nut like me who likes to try to see every film from each detective series (even the bad ones)..
"I've got a date with a guy that's gonna commit a murder.".
This was my introductory film to the Boston Blackie franchise, and it stacks up favorably against other mystery series of the era.
Blackie's (Chester Morris) former occupation as a safe cracker puts him in company with The Lone Wolf, and other similarities abound, such as inept detectives and a comedic sidekick.
It's probably a good thing that Blackie isn't busy dodging the matrimonial advances of a zealous fiancée like Bulldog Drummond had to, though in this caper the female lead (Adele Mara) is in the thick of things as the sister of an escaped prisoner (Larry Parks) who leads Blackie and his cohorts on a merry chase.It's a pretty frenetic affair that keeps you guessing with some effective visual sleight of hand, like the sequences involving the clown costume.
I had to wonder though how Joe Trilby (Parks) could do all those acrobatic maneuvers as well as the guy he was impersonating when he made the prison break.
Trilby's mission was to get the goods on the two hoods who framed him to put him in prison in the first place.With it's emphasis on action, the flick gets a lot of mileage out of Blackie's sidekick Runt (George E.
Stone), who falls asleep on his feet a lot and has a bit of trouble with the lockjaw gimmick.
The one scene that really got my attention didn't even have a lot to do with the story per se, it was just a little weird seeing Lloyd Bridges as the bus driver on the way to the prison show!.
Solid and fast moving, perfect for one evening's screentime ....
Blackie has a good heart, an unnamed profession now that he's not a thief anymore, and more supporting and supportive characters than about any other B movie detective.
Runt in particular deserves credit for the rapport he has with his boss; Farraday exudes equal parts suspicion and camaraderie with Blackie, while Matthews is sweetly dumb as a post.
The plot involves a vaudeville troupe rollicking upstate to entertain at Sing Sing on a bus driven by Lloyd Bridges, stolidly looking ahead to his stellar future while changing the bus's gears in character.
Adele Mara is pretty and competent in her actionful part of clearing her brother's name.
It was particularly noticeable that 1942's Alias Boston Blackie proved one of the reasons to appreciate B movies, in that their short production time allowed many topical subjects.
In this film, the lines "what is this, a concentration camp?" and Run calling a stickler for rules cop "Gestapo!" remind viewers when this movie takes place..
Boston Blackie, smartest cookie in the pokie..
I give credit to the wink wink from the screenwriters of this series to the audience indicating that they wanted the characters to feel as if they were part of a movie plot.
Every now and then, one of them indicates that if this was a movie, they'd say something like what they were about to say.
Between series regulars Chester Morris (as Blackie), Lloyd Corrigan, Richard Lane and George E.
Stone, all these characters have little aside wink winks, indicating that they know that they are clichés, and the more they spoof it, the funnier it gets.
This time, Morris is aiding pretty Adele Mara whose brother (Larry Parks) claims he's in prison on trumped up charges.
But disguised as a clown and escaping, he knocks Blackie out, causing more issues between Blackie and Lane, not that there wasn't already enough.Adding the comedy as they introduced in the previous entry, Corrigan and Stone are contrasts in their schtick, but are an amusing team of sidekicks.
Lane and his sidekick (Walter Sande) aren't carbon copy dumb cops, but I would find their ability to solve a crossword puzzle, let alone a murder, iffy at best.
The script is still as clever as the previous two, if not as tight.
But it's apparent that they are going out of their way to mix intelligence both in the adventure and with the humor, being far from standard B mystery fare.
Lloyd Bridges has a blink, blink (and you'll miss him) walk-on, but something tells me that he'll be back in a larger part, a la Parks here who passed the screen-test and went onto bigger things.
B movie veteran Lew Landers directs this at a light but brisk speed, and while this was a charm prior to the third try, it's still quite a lot of fun. |
tt0466771 | Puff, Puff, Pass | The film opens with an infomercial, given by Dick Dupre (a parody of Don Lapre) played by John C. McGinley, which Larry (Danny Masterson) and Rico (Ronnie Warner) are watching. Larry and Rico are two stoners who live in a one-room apartment, and after watching the entire infomercial, they decide to start a "tiny classified ads" business. This is a running gag throughout the film. Each time they explain their new "business," someone asks, "Ads for what?", and they respond confidently, "That's not the point! It's complex" or "The ads themselves... they generate income", simply quoting the infomercial.
After the two are locked out of their apartment by their landlord Lance (Jonathan Banks) for being late on rent, the two are stuck for a way to get cable television so they can watch The Shawshank Redemption during a 24-hour marathon on TNT. Larry, in despair because his car won't start and they will miss "the Shank," remembers a rehab brochure he picked up, and decides that he had reached "his bottom", and needs to go to rehab. Rico decides to go with him after he sees in the brochure that the clinic has basic cable.
In rehab, the two stoners quickly find themselves out of place among the hard drug addicts there, not to mention the counselors. Beside this, they also find out that the brochure was false, and they only have eight channels and no TNT. After spending their first night messing with junkies and each having a one-night stand with the women in rehab, the two are kicked out. They decide to go to see Big Daddy (Mekhi Phifer), a wealthy acquaintance of theirs.
Big Daddy thinks that Larry and Rico are two guys his girlfriend Elise (Ashley Scott) has set up for his sale of an expensive collection of antique Indian Head pennies. The buyer is an aspiring rapper named Cool Crush Ice Killa (Terry Crews), who wants to meet Larry and Rico at a bus station with the money. They forget the coins in Larry's car, and in a panic they run from the bus station with the money, with Ice Killa chasing them. They go back to Big Daddy's, where Ice Killa, who has a great fear of dogs, is chased up a tree by Big Daddy's trained guard dog. Larry, Rico, and Big Daddy then find out that Elise and Ice Killa were trying to steal the coins. Big Daddy then asks Larry and Rico to work for him in his investment in beachfront property in Nicaragua. At the airport, they run into Dupre, whose infomercials turned out to be a scam, and is now also investing in Nicaragua.
The movie ends with another infomercial, this time featuring Dupre, Larry and Rico. Back at the apartment, two new stoners (Jaleel White and Paulo Costanzo) are being told off by Lance for being late on rent, when Larry and Rico appear on the TV telling of their new fortunes. The new tenants hail them as brilliant, yelling "Nicaragua!" victoriously. In complete disbelief, Lance decides to hit their joint. | comedy | train | wikipedia | Not that bad.
If you go into watching this movie looking for the pothead humor of Half Baked or even That 70s Show, you will not find what you are looking for.
By that I mean there is no "Man I am so high" giggle giggle jokes.
Although there is a fair share of toilet humor, literally.
The acting, in my opinion was good.
There is nothing I hate more than an actor playing up to all the stereotypes to make themselves seem "intoxicated." Smoking marijuana may not make you the smartest person around, but you can still function.
With the writing, it seems like they were trying to make built in catchphrases, by repeating the same lines at several points.
It's not like they were randomly spoken, they fit every time.
I just don't see them getting to be as big as say, "Your mom goes to college." But who thought that that would catch on?
Irreguardless, I'm sorry, regardless, it is a decent movie.
A good example of why a movie should go direct to DVD.
It's likable, just not a blockbuster hit.
It's good marketing not to waste money advertising it.
The people that are going to see it know about it and are going to rent it or buy it either way.
It's complex..
Excellent modern Cheech and Chong mirror movie!
This movie was absolutely wonderful, A modern day Cheech and Chong film without remaking one.It will have you rolling on your sides with laughter and comparing it to your own life the next minute.This movie is more down to reality on earth than anything else being produced today, it is a day in the life of most modern Americans and isn't filled with a bunch of unrealistic dreams and fabrications of how life really is.
It was written extremely well and the flow of the film beats any of the blockbuster junk Hollywood spits out today.The story line is something real that real people can relate to.Shawshank Redemption Baby!
All weekend long, ha ha!
A solid stoner film.
7.5, really.I think this is a really solid stoner movie.
It has the 'quest' elements that good stoner movies have and it's a worthy quest - a shawshank redemption ("the shank") marathon on TNT that they just -have- to see.I didn't find the jokes stale.
The jokes themselves aren't all incredibly innovative but I thought Danny Masterson's acting lifted a lot of them to a higher level.
Great comedic timing and he says a lot without saying it.It would have received a higher grade if the ending didn't feel rushed.Oh, and worth watching just for the -terrific-, but small, performances of John C.
McGinley as scam artist, Ben Tolpin as Mikey and Terry Crews as a wanna-be rapper.Recommended..
it was nice.
excuse me for my terrible English.
it isn't my first language.i watched this movie last week, after rolling a few joints.
i thought it was hilarious.
yesterday, i watched the movie again, but this time there wasn't any weed involved.
i still thought the movie was funny, even though it's a very very low budget movie.i like to smoke weed, and maybe that is the reason why i can laugh about these jokes.
i don't think this movie will be a favorite of any person, but i think most people don't like the idea of watching a movie that contains 2 people smoking weed.i gave it a 7, just because it made me laugh..
one of the best for them cloudy nights.....
The movie is a perfect treat for all of the smokers among us.
i have seen the film 3 times and it just keeps on getting better.
it is so true.
the whole thing is just ridiculously right...
us smokers....this could happen to us and makes it so much more funnier to watch.
for nonsmokers, a fabulous wast of time but if you do not mind having to light up to see a movie, this one is for you.
the plot, the dudes and the visuals/ soundtrack hit the spot just right.
the cast is also just right, both stars fit their characters so well.
as for flaws, the scam the boys were getting involved in, should have been explained more, as originally intended.
it would have made the movie even more stupid, if the level of idiocy involved in the plan was explained.
requires pizza!.
Like it or hate it i guess...
Honestly this movie gets better each time i watch it.
Its not all that surprising that people either like it or hate it, for those looking for a classic stoner movie it may leave a bad taste in their mouth.
This movie is in no way candy coated and has a much more honest outlook on drug use and abuse.
Unlike half baked and white castle, a lot of the humour touches on the seedy underbelly of substance abuse, if you cant laugh at crackheads of speedfreaks then this movie is not for you.
Lastly the running gag jokes in this film are just great, it plays on the same sort of comedy style featured in arrested development and the likes.
If you have seen this movie and sort of liked it, i recommend watching it again..
I hope to see more of this type of film in the future..
Boring.
I watched this movie expecting a good,stoned,funny, comedy....
but it was a disappointment.
Normally i really enjoy this kind of film but not this one.
It's not really bad but i really hoped that was more funny.
I was a little bored during the all time, yes some laughs but nothing special.
I really loved the two principal characters, the actors were good and they were perfect for the part.
Some of the secondary characters were very funny and some situations absolutely hilarious.
The very disappointment was the plot, nice start but without verve at the end.
So, watch this movie if there is nothing better to watch.....
rent or download it.....
Funny movie.
The only reason I borrowed this movie because Mekhi Phifer was on the cover.
But I was surprised at how hilarious this movie really was.
It was also fun to see how many other celebs were in the movie.
Danny basically furthered his "70s" role except this time it was Hyde uncensored.
Terry Crews has a funny role as usual playing the fake gangsta rapper that can't rap.
Bud Bundy looks exactly the same.
And I do mean that.
Now I did not agree with the whole Jesus scene (you will have to see it for yourself) but I had to ask for forgiveness for laughing at it.
Did this movie come out in the theaters?
I have no idea.
Basically I'm just trying to reach the 10 line limit.
Needless to say, I'd watch this again..
Bad...even for stoner's.
So I work at a video store, and I got to watch Puff, Puff, Pass before it's released tomorrow, and I must say it was definitely a horrible movie.
Mekhi Phifer shouldn't be allowed near a camera ever again.
The movie basically follows two bumbling stereotypical stoner's, who want to watch the movie Shawshank Redemption, but are kicked out of their apartment.
So they spend the rest of the movie, trying to find a way to watch it.
Even with all of the different characters, and the crude jokes, this film fails at everything.
Tasteless humour, a clutter of bad clichés, an awfully low budget (and it shows), mediocre acting, and terrible character structure.
Not even Masterson could save it, because the entire time it's as if he and his fellow cast mates were acting in a school play.
My verdict was low, but by all means watch this movie and give your own opinion.
But not even smoking weed saved this movie for my friends and I.3/10.
What on earth did I miss during these 90 minutes?.
A five minute rant as follows...What you got here is, as somebody earlier stated so well, a one and a half hour piece of dry and already used jokes.
Even though one can relate to the jokes, I simply cannot find them amusing me.
I think I laughed one time during the entire movie, and that's really how good the jokes were doing it for me.
Nevertheless, I'm a big fan of Cheek & Chong and the such-a-likes, but this one is just too poor to receive any attention at all, really.
If you find yourself choking of laughter by simple jokes such as a guy with dreadlocks pulling out a spliff out of his hair or general "The Munchies" humor - well I guess this one will do it for you, whatever that "it" could be, since I cannot see how anyone can find it "hilarious", as somebody cried it out to be...
Screw me...3/10 - head over to Cheek & Chong instead!.
Pretty Entertaining..
This movie was entertaining to say the least.
Danny Masterson is one of my favorite actors and I have a thing for stoner/weed movies.
Well, seeing him in the cast and the plot line, I just had to check this one out.
Well 5 minutes in and I have laughed so much.
These characters are so funny.
I was thinking the writer is hilarious or my dealer is awesome.
By the end of the movie I found that this had become one of my favorite movies.
The constant references to The Shawshank Redemption was nice, too, because that's also one of my favorite movies.
Alright, long story short great movie.
I'd recommend this to a lot of friends, and if I know my friends, they will love it as well..
this movie is AWESOME.
this movie is AMAZING my best friend Katie and i have watched it probably 10 times in the past like 5 days (i know i know we are both named Katie and we are best friends..
its crazy...
lets freak out!) anyway...
we quote it all the time, and watch it whenever we can..
i pretty much have the entire script memorized...and its GREAT!
i love the parts when they are talking to Montana in rehab...
both at the end and the beginning its so funny...
"just a few more questions then i poke my finger up your butt and were all set." ...
"all right" ...
"that was a joke" ...
you can if you need to..." hahahahahah!
so funny!
where do they come up with this stuff...
and then how they always say the same thing to different people..
like the tiny classified ads parts!
ITS SO FUNNY!we also try and show it to as many people as we can...
so far everyone we've shown it to has loved it...
i mean how could anyone dislike it...
i love it!
it basically shows me how i'm gonna be in a few years...
HILARIOUS.
HILARIOUS.
HILARIOUS.
My favorite movie.
I've been looking for a new pot movie and i found it.
Its not stupid humor like half baked which was OK If you love fear and loathing than you will love this too I think everything about this movie is awesome its hilarious and its not jokes its just a real good movie the sound, acting just everything is perfect I've seen it a couple times baked and it was hilarious i watch it all the time sober its hilarious its a movie that you can keep watching and still is as funny because its not jokes its just real I've had this movie for about 2 months and i would say i watch ti about 2+ times a week ANY stoner needs this movie.
it beats all the rest and is now my fav.
pshhhhh.
I believe ur talking of Cheech and Chong!.
Greatest stoners ever.
haha.
However, I did see this movie and had to say it wasted my time as well.
The jokes really were stale, overdone jokes.
I don't even remember if I finished it, nor do I think that I cared at the time.
I even saw a close resemblance of acting with Danny Masterson's character from "That 70's Show" and his character in "Puff, Puff, Pass".
I had actors that can only be one-dimensional.
Hopefully he has some more skills up his sleeve as his career get's bigger.
Topher Grace is going to be VENOM!!
It's going to be great.
But, as soon as Danny hits it bigger than "That 70's Show" he'll be one of the most wanted comedic actors.
But he has to hone his skills.
HONE DANNY!!!
HONE LIKE HELL!.
Excellent pot movie....incredibly well written, and creative characters!.
I love this movie, and it gets better each time I watch it.
Larry and Rico are 'complex' characters, and it's just the type of refreshing views that's needed in the genre of stoner flicks.
My favorite character is Larry's brother, Johnathan, who owns a '77 Trans AM and rents a house boat.
His presence gives the film's nonchalant attitude towards the overall environment some balance.
D. Hammond was good in this one.
Crews is also stellar in his role as a 'blood spilling rapper.
Mekhi Phifer simply snapped on this film.
I was looking at the ending credits, and there's no credit for the music.
I wanted to download that song that that Otis was beating off to, but to no avail....Anyone have a link?U don't have to be dro'ed up to watch this, but I recommend it.
Not that Bad. Not that bad,it actually was a very entertaining movie.
Its worth watching if there is nothing else to do.
My wife and I watched it On Demand and we laughed more then a few times.
Some may ask whats the plot?Thats not the point, Its Complex!Watch it.
I thought it was better then Harold and Kumar to tell you the truth.
I didn't laugh out loud once watching Whitecastle, I laughed a few times during Puff Puff Pass.
The part when they are in Rehab is pretty funny.
During the ending I kept asking myself, Why don't they just give him the case?
Typical Stoner happy ending..
A masterpiece for stoners..
I don't know it I felt this way because I was high as mo fo when I saw this movie but I felt as if this movie was made for me.
It guides your mind , every dialogue ends up with you and the guys from the movie not understanding anything at all, you feel exactly the same way this people feel and they got where they got in the end of the movie without understanding nothing at all.
Maybe you will even get a lot of inside jokes.
I could really relate with the white guy since I have seen Shawshank redemption a trillion times and yet never seen the rape seen.
Well anyways guys, I really have nothing to say.
I guess I am still high, anyways I loved that movie, definatelly the best movie I have ever seen.
Good as Butterfly effect, Forest Gump and many other movies from my top ten list..
Wow!.
I thought that this movie was outstandingly hysterical.
Most people, if you are not a teenager, I don't really recommend that you watch it, as I know my parents didn't really care for it, from what they heard of it.
However, me and my friends, laughed hysterically at it.
From the completely and totally pointless jokes in the movie, to the pointlessness of the movie itself, it was by Farly one of the funniest movies of its kind that I have ever seen!
I honestly recommend this movie very much so.
But, if you don't like your children watching movies to do with drugs, or constant language, then I don't recommend it at all.
But, for people who can laugh at anything, have a great sense of humor, I recommend this very much, I think it's a must see for these types!.
A fine stoner movie!.
I had read a negative review on here and decided against seeing this movie.
My wife brought it home and lo and behold, we watched a very funny movie.
The two main characters are stereotypical stoners but the plot veers all over the place in a clever fashion so that you're never quite sure where the next joke will come from.
The characters are great together and have a comic chemistry that works on all levels, both the semi-serious and the physical.
The fast food scenes are worth playing over again and the stint in rehab is a howl.A spoiler: Now you'll know who infomercials are written for!
Remember: it's complex..
Step back and enjoy.
I'm not surprised that most people didn't like this film.Originally I was half and half and now considering buying the thing.Heck I will buy it.Mainly for the acting and moments.
I mean Ashley Scott as a conniving and manipulative bitch.
Her partner in crime wannabe rapper with three pounds of solid muscle and a fear of tiny diminutives mutts called Killer.
Mikhal Phiffer as a well spoken and not too smart but pretty nice guy who runs a 'business.' I will admit the two leads where only so-so but everything else was OK.Besides I loved how the white guy was so sure that 'Andy does not get raped in jail' and how the two other guys had to stress that it was a major plot point.Oh, the main disturbing thing I found was the mayor daughter with a JC fixation.
That was wrong on levels unknown. |
tt0054073 | Meghe Dhaka Tara | To Ritwik Ghatak film was not merely a form of entertainment, but a weapon, a medium to portray struggle of common man He was successful neither in his career nor could he become a good family man or husband. Still he was an artist who never compromised for personal gain, fame or profit.
The story of the film starts in 1969 and deals with Ritwik Ghatak's time spent in a mental asylum. It shows Nilkantha being admitted to mental asylum under the supervision of Doctor S. P. Mukherjee. S. P. Mukherjee learns that the Prime Minister of India knows Nilkantha and is fond of his works and may request the hospital authority to take special care of him. In the hospital a police officer sees Nilkantha and tells Doctor Mukherjee that he is a wasted drunkard. Another patient of hospital mocks Nilkantha as a "disgraced intellectual". Even while he was undergoing treatment in the hospitals, he writes a play and stages it with other asylum patients.
The film shows how Durga (Nilkantha's wife) wants to leave him saying "separation is essential". Nilkantha witnessed partition of Bengal and its devastating effect and in his youth became attracted towards communism. Throughout the film Nilkantha's mental agony, struggles, inner contradictions, disappointments as well as financial troubles faced by him are shown. He clearly tells, it is not possible for him to make entertaining or commercial films. During a discussion Nilkantha asks Doctor Mukherjee that should a man perform mujra at a time when the society is burning? He also tells Doctor Mukherjee that he is a "people's artist" and that is his job.
The film also shows the atmosphere of Bengal during Tebhaga and Naxalite movements. A scene has been shown in the film where a book named "How to be a good communist?" is burning. This scene symbolises Ghatak's dissatisfaction with India's communist politics. When Durga tells Nilkantha that they don't have a single rupee to run the family, Nilkantha readily replies, it is not money but it is one's work which will remain forever. | melodrama | train | wikipedia | One charge laid against the revered director Satyajit Ray was that, much like Kurosawa in Japan, his films weren't national or native enough, that they gave a Westerner's view of India, one moulded in Western forms, rather than something 'authentically' Indian.
That said, 'The Cloud-Capped Star' seems to me to be a truer film than 'Pather', not necessarily as a representation of Indian experience, but of human experience, and certainly as a cinema experience, of which it is rare and overwhelming.The irony is that the film is as replete with Western influences as Ray's.
Director Ritwik Ghatak was a left-winger, and his film is a thrilling assault on mind and body, using many of the methods developed by Western leftists.
The film is unashamedly a melodrama - the harrowing tale of a beautiful, clever, promising young woman who is mentally and physically broken by the relentless fending of a family alternately selfish and feckless.
Not only does Ghatak use Sirkian devices - frames within frames, intrusive decor, 'unrealistic' lighting - but he takes the idea of the hysterical body to its limits - just as a character who must repress her emotions betrays them in physical pressures, so the repressions of character and narrative are displaced onto the form of the film, which is full of violent jump cuts, extreme clashes of composition, space and editing, deliberate dis-integration of musical numbers, a radical use of lighting and sound (including bizarre sci-fi whinings), taken to an extreme unavailable to Sirk in Hollywood, giving the film a formal hysteria that is reminiscent of another Sirk admirer, Godard.
The visionary Bengali filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak peers into the future, and sees nothing but disintegration - succeeding at multiple levels, CLOUD-CAPPED STAR humanizes this bleak vision, by locating the drama in a Bengali family, but everything occurring is something of a howl of outrage at what had become of his divided homeland.The central figure in this sprawling melodrama (with some coincidental resemblances to European new wave and neo-realism) is Nita, the eldest daughter in a once-middle class, intellectual family, driven by partition into refugee status in the slums of Calcutta.
Throughout, Ghatak boils human nature and the survival instinct down to the most ruthless basics: this is a compelling and visionary film, but there is virtually no room for lofty ideals or sentimental altruism in the world created here - mourn what one must, and do what one must do to survive.
Sentiment and ideals are - in this film - luxuries, and from the cruelty of such a truism, Ghatak has created one of cinema's great, vital tragedies.Ghatak claimed few Western cinematic influences - like Jean-Luc Godard in France and Nagisa Oshima in Japan, his primary concerns were historical and political, and also technical - how to alter cinema to express those concerns in accessible language?
For Ghatak the solution was found in using outdoor locations, natural sound, idiosyncratic editing, and a minimum of the flash seen in Bollywood or Hollywood - CLOUD-CAPPED STAR is bleak, absolutely gripping, tragic and infuriating.
This is highly unfortunate - as a film of moral/social outrage, this rivals Bresson; its' overall feel for the everyday reminds one of Italian neo-realism; it's willingness to experiment boldly evokes Godard or Oshima; in it's concerns with the status of women (another of the many themes explored here), it evokes Naruse, Sirk or Mizoguchi.Ghatak's own biography is one of great tragedy; one could possibly read the discretely enraged hopelessness of this film as an extension of his own, and see this as a drive that would have to produce at least one masterpiece (his later SUBARNA-REKHA is also very much worth a look), even as it brought him to a premature end.
Nowhere is this upheaval better portrayed than in the films of Bengali director Ritwik Ghatak.
An active Marxist who began his career in the Communist People's Theater, Ghatak's films never achieved widespread popularity but he is now considered to be one of the top Indian directors of the last half of the 20th century.
His best known film, The Cloud-Capped Star, the first in a trilogy examining the economic effects of partition, is a powerful story about a young Indian women who sacrifices her education and marriage in order to hold her family together.
Ghatak's inspiration for the character was a woman he saw at a bus stop whose beaten down appearance struck him as being typical of Bengali refugees.
Neeta (Supriya Choudhury) is the youngest daughter of a refugee family from East Pakistan who lives in a middle class home near Calcutta.
Neeta is a college student whose brother Shankar (Anil Chaterjee) is a layabout, an aspiring singer who lives off the family while practicing his art and dreaming of a career on the concert stage.
Neeta also has an attractive sister Gita (Gita Ghatak) and a brother Mantu (Dwiju Bhawal) who is also a promising student.
Neeta is a good-hearted young woman, but one who fails to consider her own needs and puts off plans for marriage with Sanat (Niranjan Ray), an intellectual studying for a Phd. Sanat, unwilling to wait for her, becomes infatuated with Neeta's sister Gita and they marry to Neeta's dismay.
The Cloud-Capped Star is an angry film and often bleak, but sudden bursts of sitar music and joyous singing by Shankar lighten the tone.
Ghatak's raw passion and compelling characters make it easy to overlook its flaws and the result is a tribute to the human spirit and a deeper understanding of the tragedy that partition brought to India..
This movie by Ritwik Ghatak is on the list of most of the Indian big times directors as one of the best movies of Indian cinema.
The name of the movie means Cloud Capped Star what a lovely name.The story is about a girl Nita (Supriya Choudhury) in a family who have migrated to India from Bangladesh, after the partition and staying in a small West Bengal town in poverty.
Nita's boy friend Sanat (Niranjan Roy) gets attracted to her sister Gita (Gita Ghatak) and marries her.
Nita carrier the burden of all these silently, but it takes toll on her health and mind who is finally sent to treatment in a remote hospital where Shankar goes to meet her in the end of the movie.The movie though latent in high emotions is a superb story unfolding, with so much humanness that it touches your heart even today through it (sometimes) melodramatic 1960 style.This was the first movie of Ritwik Ghatak that I have seen till date, and I consider myself fortunate, because Ritwik was called by the Life Time Oscar winner Satyajit Ray as his inspiration and Satyajit Ray always considered Ritwik the best in India.Ritwik presents the drama with such finness of light and darkness, using great visuals, sound and symbols to present a tender emotion.
The foliage, the train, the mountains, the soul rendering vocals remain with you for long after the movie.A must see for all the students of good cinema.
Nature plays an intricate role in many of his cinemas like Ajantrik and it often highlights the character and gives it also a context, done in the most effective and subtle way.The second quality of this movie is the usage of classical music so deliberately for mood change.
The effect of partition on the Bengali people have never been captured so authentically as been done here, the characters so identifiable, the story so representative and the settings so familiar.The fourth and true to the identity of the genre it belongs to, this movie is a cinematographic excellence.
Also there are other aspects of it like there are meaning to be understood by relating the context and what been showed, something Satyajit is very good at, Ritwik great at and been taken to extreme by Mrinal Sen.The fifth and most touching part of it is the storyline.
If Satyajit Ray is the virtuoso of Indian cinema, Ghatak is the maverick.
it's just that he made films for the love of it and never for anyone else that this somewhat forgotten legend later realised to be great made such a deep film.This film is not about cinematography unlike ray's but this is about the script.The scene where the father say's "you bore the burden and now you are the burden,you shall go' is a landmark in itself.Especially the believe in her somewhat useless brother who becomes a gr8singer in bollywood .This film has to be seen without any distractions.i give film -10 ,script -11, and cinematography -9 all out of 10.The background music is amazing ,it;s tearful.After ,watching i am almost compelled to take up a camera and shoot a film for myself.I don't care about this plastic world anymore..
'Meghe dhaka tara' or the 'Cloud-clapped Star' is definitely one of the best films ever directed in Bengali,and it vividly portrays the directing skills of Ritwik Ghatak.
The story revolves around a lower-middle class Bengali family, who lived in the refugee colonies situated in the outskirts of Kolkata.
The father of the family was a English teacher and his eldest son 'Shankar'(Anil Chatterjee) was a promising young classical singer while the youngest son 'Montu' played football.
Nita and Gita were two sisters, the former being somewhat responsible, caring, loving while the latter was simply a beauty conscious,lazy, insincere flirt.
Another important character of the movie was Sanat, a talented Physics research fellow whom Nita sponsored for she had affections on him.
According to the story Nita a working woman, couldn't spare time on him and Gita, her sister began having relations with him and eventually they married.
One the last scenes perhaps the best of the film wonderfully shows Nita's love for life, her urge for struggle and her positive thinking.
The film over all portrays the life-struggle of a promising family with contemporary middle class livelihood.
Actings of Anil Chatterjee and Supriya Devi is of high quality and the over all direction, screen-play, music equally good.
Things have changed, though, and it is nice to have such a compelling piece of art to retain those memories.But of course Ghatak is working on two planes in this movie.
I was quite late into watching Ritwik Ghatak and when I saw Saswata's Meghe Dhaka Tara on the life of this master film-maker himself, I chose to see his original creation by the name.
One of the great films of Indian Cinema.
The great Ritwik Ghatak's iconic film "Meghe Dhaka Tara" (translated as the Cloud-Capped Star), is perhaps his most popular and famous film.
The overwhelming tragic nature of the film is what makes it so memorable in the minds of cinema-goers the world over, who are bound to if not identify, they will most certainly feel for the characters of this very human, and very touching story.
The character of Nita (played brilliantly by Supriya Choudhury) is a girl from a middle class Bengali family living near Calcutta (now re-named as Kolkata).
She is the protective sister to her brother Shankar (played by Anil Chatterjee) who is portrayed as a lazy sort of chap who aspires to be a singer and like most aspiring artists, lives off his family looking to them for financial support.
So quite obviously, like in most families, the parents have issues with their son, but Nita defends him from her parents as her love for her brother goes very deep.
Apart from Nita and Shankar, there are two other siblings in the family, a brother Mantu, a good student (played by Dwiju Bhawal) and Gita (played by her namesake Gita Ghatak).
Nita's father (played by Bijon Bhattacharya) is unwell and is unable to take on the responsibility of his family as would be his traditional role as the patriarch.
So non-traditionally so, Nita being the daughter, takes on the responsibility which would traditionally be that of the son of the family, of being the sort of head of the household, due to her education.
So in a way this is one of Indian cinema's strongest feminist movies showing a woman sacrificing her marriage and education for the greater good and well being of her family and loved ones.
But whoever the real life inspiration may be, one thing is for sure, is that this female leading character is etched in the minds and memories of cine-goers across the world.Perhaps modern and "refined" audiences today might find the sentiment of the film "melodramatic", but if you ask me, such things are subjective, and with such fine craftsmanship as Ghatak's with the characters developing so subtly and naturally, one can't help but be swept away by the heightened emotion of the film.
The cinematography and lighting are so artistic that it is not surprising that this film is not just watched by film lovers but also studied widely by film students, making "Meghe Dhaka Tara" still one of the most celebrated and talked about films in the history of Indian cinema.
The exaggerated expressions carried on for a long time in the film and in a way made the viewer disbelieve the character the actors were trying to play.
The father who plays an open minded man with his love for literature; Shankar, an aspiring musician who is scorned upon by many for his idleness and Sanat, who promises to marry Nita but ends up marrying her sister.
Although the film contained some beautiful scores, the actor (Shankar) lost the dub and hence the high-pitched songs lost their effect, as he couldn't fortify the passion and rhythm the songs contained.
One song that I honestly appreciated was the baul track in the middle of the film, which was sung by an actor playing a baul and was beautifully composed and shot.Although a great story of Nita told by the end of the film, I wish they had avoided these little technical glitches in order for this film to showcase some great cinema and talent.
Ghatak although directed this film rather well lost out in a few sequences and scenes but still had the emotions of the story felt by the viewer's.
Being an ardent Satyajit Ray fan, any Indian film that I saw after his, never quite had the same impact on me.
Needless to say when I began watching 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' (The Cloud Capped Star) I was not expecting much.
The rhythm of the film, in the beginning (ironically like Ray's) is quite slow, then it increases in tempo, slowly captivating and engaging the viewer by its beautiful emotional appeal.
It narrates the story of a beautiful, qualified and selfless young woman, Nita, as she attempts to hold together a family that is already 'broken'.
It is not that they don't love her (notice the mother's apologetic plea to her daughter in one scene and her father's continuous acknowledgment of her suffering), they know their situation can't be helped.
In that sense she is more akin to Ernest Hemmingway's Santiago from 'The Old Man and the Sea', displaying a tremendous 'grace under pressure'.Unlike his contemporary Satyajit Ray, Ghatak remained largely unknown to international audiences.Battered by mental and emotional pain, he himself seems to embody the image of 'the cloud capped star'forever unknown (or at least shrouded) to the film world and future generations of viewers as the 2013 biographical film of the same name portrays.
Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud-Capped Star) by the respected Indian director Ritwik Ghatak is an intense human drama starring renowned Bengali actors Anil Chatterjee and Supriya Choudhury in the lead roles.Meghe Dhaka Tara is an experience too enormous and deep to be described in words.
The film portrays their struggles and their fight for life in conditions that apparently do not tire of hurling new challenges, difficulties and tragedies at them.Ritwik Ghatak's masterly portrayal of all the characters, their interactions and how they influence each others' fortunes make this film a timeless classic.
Anil Chatterjee and Supriya Choudhury deliver stunning performances and are ably supported by the rest of the cast.To conclude, Meghe Dhaka Tara is a film that draws upon the full strength of the medium of cinema to tell its story, and the resulting force is so strong that it leaves one reeling at the end.
The book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is where I found this Indian film, it sounded like an odd title, so obviously I didn't know what to expect, and I didn't really read what the plot would involve, so I watched hoping for the best.
Basically, set in the 1950s, in the suburbs of Bengali, beautiful young girl Nita (Supriya Choudhury) who lives with her refugee family from East Pakistan, she has sacrificed a lot for the family to get by.
Her family included, she is exploited by everyone around her, they all take her good nature, while her older brother Shankar (Anil Chatterjee) wants to become a singer, and does not care for her family or their wishes for him.
Also starring Bijon Bhattacharya as Father, Gita Dey as Mother, Dwiju Bhawal as Mantu and Niranjan Ray as Sanat.
The later stages of 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' opt increasingly towards the latter with a fanciful combination of expressionistic visuals and weird sound effects.The passage of time is inclined to render vintage films depicting poverty picturesque to later audiences, and the sympathetic characters, superb photography by Dinen Gupta and the beauty of the two sisters and of the rural setting further conspire to make 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' as engrossing a cinematic experience as the reality of the genteel poverty experienced by Neeta's family would have been soul-destroying to experience on a day-to-day basis.SPOILER COMING: That Neeta's brother Shankar actually achieves his dream of success would seem a concession to the need to provide a happy ending; except that the family's salvation has been achieved only at the cost of sacrificing Neeta, having wrecked first her hopes and then her health. |
tt1911658 | Penguins of Madagascar | In Antarctica, three young penguin brothers – Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico – defy the laws of nature to save an egg the other penguins believe to be doomed. After saving it from a pack of leopard seals and accidentally setting themselves adrift on an iceberg, the egg hatches into Private.
Ten years later (after the events of the previous film), the penguins decide to leave the circus to celebrate Private's birthday by breaking into Fort Knox in order to treat him to a discontinued snack called "Cheezy Dibbles" in the vending machine of their break room. Despite this, Private begins to feel out of place with the team, as he is described as being the "secretary/mascot". Suddenly, they are abducted by the machine and sent to Venice, Italy by Dr. Octavius Brine, a renowned geneticist who removes his human disguise and reveals he is actually an octopus named Dave, who has grown resentful of penguins after he had been shunned from every zoo in the world because of cute penguins.
Rico swallows Dave's collection of snowglobes along with a canister of a green substance called the Medusa Serum before the four escape and are chased through the canals and streets of Venice by Dave's henchmen. When cornered, they are rescued by a group of animals from an Arctic elite undercover interspecies task force agency called "The North Wind" consisting of their leader, a gray wolf whose name is Classified, a harp seal demolitionist named Short Fuse, a polar bear named Corporal, and an intelligent snowy owl named Eva with whom Kowalski is instantly smitten. Their mission is to help animals who can't help themselves.
At their hideout, their communication systems are hacked by Dave, who reveals that he has an enormous supply of the Medusa Serum and that he intends to capture the penguins out of every zoo he was kicked out of. Not wanting the penguins' help, Classified darts the group and sends the group to their most remote base (which happens to be on Madagascar) but the penguins awaken mid-flight and crash land in the Sahara Desert before making their way to Shanghai, which they mistake for Dublin, Ireland. Discovering Dave's next target in Shanghai using Dave's snowglobe collection, the penguins ship themselves to their current location and make their way to the zoo. Disguising himself as a mermaid-tailed penguin (a tourist attraction) to distract Dave from his real target, Private himself is captured along with the Shanghai penguins after the North Wind arrives to put a stop to Dave's plan. The penguins take the North Wind's high-tech plane to give chase, but accidentally self-destruct the machine. They manage to track Private to an island though, using a device planted on him when Classified darted them before planting them in a flight to Madagascar. Meanwhile, on the island, Dave demonstrates his way to genetically mutate the penguins into hideous monsters as an effort to make humans disgusted by them as revenge.
Skipper and Classified argue on the best means to rescue the captives and stop Dave, settling on Classified's plan of a frontal assault and Skipper agrees to act as a diversion. The North Wind manages to corner Dave in his lair only to be captured by Dave's henchmen as well as the other penguins. Dave demonstrates his mutation ray at full power on Private, apparently disintegrating him with the beam, but unbeknownst to them he escapes at the last minute by using a paper clip he swallowed earlier. Private rescues the North Wind members, who want to regroup due to lack of equipment, but Private, not wanting to leave anyone behind goes to stop Dave. As Dave's submarine docks at New York with the promise of returning the penguins he found to the zoo, he turns the ray on the rest of the penguins, mutating them all into hideous monsters. The city erupts into chaos as the brainwashed, mutated penguins run amok on the terrified human crowd. Getting the senses back into Skipper, Kowalski and Rico, Private decides to connect himself into the ray to return them to normal. They turn all the penguins back to normal in one huge blast.
Private is left mutated from the machine while the rest of the penguins are restored to normal. Despite his strange new look, the Penguins show their gratitude and new-found respect for Private. Dave (who was caught in the blast) has been turned into a pipsqueak version of himself and is trapped in a snow globe where he is admired by a little girl. Finally seeing one another as equals, Classified promises to grant the Penguins anything they want. In addition to Kowalski getting a kiss from Eva, the Penguins are given their own jet packs and they then fly off above the clouds looking for their next adventure.
In a mid-credits scene, the Penguins return to the circus and plug Mort into the ray and use him to revert Private back to normal. Mort does not appear to show any side effects from the ray until he manages to swallow King Julien whole, much to King Julien's delight. | good versus evil, revenge, comedy, humor | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0030138 | Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars | When a mysterious beam of light starts disrupting and destroying the Earth's atmosphere, Flash Gordon (Larry "Buster" Crabbe), Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon), and Dale Arden (Jean Rogers) - accidentally accompanied by wisecracking reporter Happy Hapgood (Donald Kerr) - swing into action in Zarkov's rocketship, believing that it could be coming from the planet Mongo. Once in space, however, they discover that the ray is originating from Mars.
Journeying to the fourth planet, they discover that their old enemy from Mongo, Ming the Merciless (Charles B. Middleton), whom they had believed dead, is still alive, and has formed an alliance with Azura (Beatrice Roberts), the Witch Queen of Mars. From Azura's planet, and under her protection, he is operating a gigantic Nitron ray that is destroying Earth's atmosphere. Azura's powers include the ability to transmute people into figures of living clay, condemned to live in darkened caves, and she is hated and feared by most of the population. Conversely, the Clay People, led by their King (C. Montague Shaw), know the secret of how to eliminate Azura's power, but lack the means of escaping the caves to which their ruined bodies restrict them, in order to battle her.
Gordon and his party would seem to hold the answer to their problem, except that the Clay People don't trust them at first, and end up holding Dale Arden hostage. Ultimately the Earth visitors and the Clay People become allies in the tandem quest to defeat Azura and stop Ming from destroying the Earth. Flash, Dale, Zarkov, and Hapgood do battle against Azura's magic and her Martian space-force, Ming's super-scientific weaponry, the treacherous Forest People, and other dangers on the Red Planet. Finally, they win by the classic strategy of divide-and-conquer, showing Azura that Ming has been plotting behind her back to take power from her.
Azura's alliance with Ming is broken, at the cost of the Queen's own life, but the Clay People are freed from their curse. And the evil emperor of Mongo, his Nitron ray destroyed and his escape cut off on all sides by the now hostile Martian forces, is finally destroyed by the accidental result of his own machinations and treachery. | good versus evil | train | wikipedia | Flash, Mars, and the Zeitgeist.
From certain standpoints, this serial is superior to the 1st Flash Gordon chapter-play.
The available prints are and photography are generally of better quality, some of the special effects are superior, there are certain exotic space novelties, like the Clay People's subway to the queen's palace and the light bridge, and there are some interesting and creepy visuals in the Forest Kingdom.
Dale Arden and Prince Barrin are played by the same fine actors as in the 1st serial.
And one of the best highlights is the surprisingly effective special effect of showing the Clay People kind of 'ooze' out of the cave walls.From other standpoints, however, this one is not quite as good as the 1st.
This is one of the longer movie serials, and it could probably have been shortened by about 3 chapters, if some of the back-and-forth removed.
Also, there are not as many fight scenes as in the 1st serial, and no sword fights.
And apparently, the Hays Office must have finally gotten a look at Dale and Princess Aura's outfits from the 1st serial, because, to my dismay, Dale is fully dressed throughout every chapter.
Just as sad, there is no Princess Aura, who was a wonderful character and helped amp up the sex in the 1st Flash serial.Nonetheless, if you are one of those quirky or nostalgic types who enjoy movie serials, you will enjoy this.
There certainly was no greater movie serial hero than Flash Gordon as played by Buster Crabbe, and there certainly was no greater villain than Charles Middleton's portrayal of Ming the Merciless.
Although the term super-hero had been coined around 1918, probably in reference to Tarzen of the Apes, the 1930's saw an explosion of super-heroes in pulp magazines, radio shows, newspaper funnies, film and serials, and finally comic magazines.
The Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet, the Shadow, Flash Gordon, Doc Savage, and of course Superman, all premiered in the 1930's and all were huge commodities at the time.The opening chapter of this serial features a newspaper headline shot referring to Flash, Zarkhov and Dale as 'Super-Men of the Century.' The term 'superman' could still be used without fear of a lawsuit by DC comics; this serial was released in March 1938, about a month before the 1st issue of Action Comics, featuring the copyrighted Superman, hit the newsstands.Also noteworthy: the Martians and our heroes sometimes utilize Martian 'flying capes,' which look a lot like a bat's wings.
The comic book character Batman premiered a year after this serial, in 1939, looking very much like our hero wearing a flying cape and helmet.
(Superman himself would not actually 'fly' until about 1942 or so; in 1938 he could only take prodigious leaps.) In this serial, Flash (along with many other characters), wears a shirt with a stylized lightning bolt across the chest.
This lightning bolt looked very much like the symbol adorning the chest of the comic book character Captain Marvel, whose magazines outsold those of Superman, and who would premiere in 1940.
A lesser character named 'The Flash' also premiered in 1940, and he also wore a shirt with a lightning bolt insignia (this 'Flash' character would not reach his real fame until the late 1950's, however).A few months after this serial premiered, on Halloween 1938, Orson Welles broadcast his legendary 'War of the Worlds' radio play, which panicked half the country with a realistic tale of a Martian invasion.
The infamy of this play helped draw audiences to see a re-released version of this serial, albeit cut and edited into a feature length movie, that was shown in late 1938.The fact that this serial takes place on Mars is an anomaly: the original Alex Raymond Flash Gordon story upon which it is based took place entirely on the fictional planet Mongo, which is also the setting for the other 2 Flash serials.
Indeed, as of 1938, the comic strip Flash had never been to Mars.
Nothing survives to inform the modern film historian as to the reason for changing the setting to Mars.However, it is known that virtuoso animators the Fleischer Bros.
were, prior to this serial, working on a full color animated version of Edgar Rice Burroughs enormously popular space opera "John Carter of Mars." Some test footage for this project survives, and if the film had been completed, the final product would have indeed been immensely spectacular.
I speculate that it is possible that Universal changed the setting of the Flash Gordon story to Mars so as to place themselves in advance into a position that might favor them should they start copyright infringement litigation against the Fleischers.
Indeed, in the absence of good information, this potential threat might even be the reason the Fleischers abandoned the John Carter project.Regardless of my speculation, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars remains a fun, interesting, well-crafted in its own way, and a fine trip into the popular consciousness of the late 1930's..
Great escapism; not quite as good as the 1st "Flash" serial.
Some of my reactions to Flash Gordon serials (such as this one) are similar to my feelings about the original Star Trek series.
I marvel at the ingenious and original sci-fi elements, while chuckling at some of the increasingly dated technology and special effects.
I question the plausibility of some of the plot elements, and wince at some of the social commentary that hasn't aged particularly well.In Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, many of the actors from the first serial return in their memorable roles.
In particular, Buster Crabbe (Flash) and Charles Middleton (Ming) portray their characters with a great deal of flair.
Jean Rogers (Dale Arden) seems more subdued and less memorable than in her previous outing.
(This may reflect my disapproval of her transformation from a blonde to a short-haired brunette and her censor-demanded, conservative garb!) The new comic-relief journalist character (not present in the original comic strip), "Happy" Hapgood, seems to be a bit of a miscalculation, but his role falls far short of "Jar-Jar" level distraction.The storyline is interesting, although things do drag a bit during the second half of the serial.
The plot is primarily action-driven; the romantic story angles that percolated through the first series are virtually absent here.
Although the world of Mars is not as diverse as Mongo's (Lionmen, Sharkmen, Hawkmen), the Clay People are a sad and interesting race.
The acting and special effects both seem somewhat more polished than in the first serial.
Overall, this is an enjoyable and memorable serial that fans of old sci-fi will want to seek out..
This is perhaps the best of the three Flash Gordon serials due to the fact that it not only was action packed, but that it also included some humorous moments provided by the character of "Happy" Hapgood.
The third serial was good, but they had different characters playing the characters of Dale, Barin and Aura (give me Jean Rogers as Dale anytime).
Also, this is the first one in which Dale takes part in the action, especially in the scene where she bombs the Forest People's temple.
If you want thrills, just look at this serial..
This sequel to the first serial is overlong; it's got a twelve chapter story stretched to fifteen, and Mars lacks the cultural diversity of Mongo, so you don't have Lionmen in one chapter, Sharkmen in the next, etc.
However, I think Buster Crabbe's hairdo is more appropriate and he also avoids the knickers for a costume more faithful to Alex Raymond's comic strip art.
Those clay people are memorable; so is the lightray bridge and the Martian wings used for parachuting from rockets.
One wishes that Universal had spent more money and brought in the kind of monsters they had created in the first Flash Gordon.
One can go on wishing for other changes as well, but if you liked the first one and like serials, you'll like this one..
The Clay People!
Still a good serial to watch, even in these days.
Good photography, OK acting, polished script but somehow the original 1936 serial was superior.
And kudos again to that great tracked musical score..
This direct sequel to the now classic "Flash Gordon" is quite good.
The tracked musical score is great.
Charles Middleton made a great Ming the Merciless.
All in all, fun film but not as good as the first serial.
First saw this serial as a child.....remembered it when I saw it as an adult......even remembered the music......how about that!.
A Very Good Sequel.
This is the sequel to the 1936 Flash Gordon serial.
Flash and company go from the planet Mongo to the planet Mars.
The same cast return with the addition of Frank Shannon as comic relief.
Beatrice Roberts plays Queen Azura, "Queen Of Magic".
Charles Middleton is and always will be "Ming The Merciless" This serial is also Jean Rogers last portrayal of Dale Arden.
This is a fun serial to watch.
15 thrilling episodes with clay people, forest people, Flash, Dale, Dr. Zarkof and, i do so love her, Beatrice Roberts.
The degree to which these episodes require of the viewer a super-human suspension of belief makes them, I believe, beyond all criticism and places them in a category that defies definition--"kitsch" and "camp" do not begin to do this cinematic production justice.
They should have left in the original breaks in the story line which corresponded to the actual viewing experience of the original audiences in the movie houses of the 30s & 40s and TV of the 60s & 70s: namely those dramatic moments at the end of a chapter when Flash & company appeared to be finished for certain.
Flash's 2nd Interplanetery Trip Has UnNecessary Change of Setting.
The overwhelming success of the 1936 Flash Gordon Serial demanded that a sequel be made.
With out any change in the main cast of characters, the New Universal plunged head first int the second film, retaining Buster Crabbe,Jean Rogers,Charles Middleton and Richard Alexander from the cast of the original.What they came up with was FLASH GORDON's TRIP TO MARS (1938).
We open up with "the Stratosphere Party" returning to Planet Earth, and landing in some farmer's vegetable patch.
Ironically in the conversation leading up to re-entry, Flash states that the'll be okay as long as wherever they land, it should be "anywhere but the ocean!", which is directly opposite to what NASA projects have always desired.Well, they no sooner get back and Dr.
'Alexis' Zarkov* addresses the scientific community, then a mysterious beam of a light ray coming to earth from space sends them off to Mongo again.
A now brunette** Dale quips, "I'm getting to feel like a regular commuter!" Obsevation from space leads Zarkov to discover that the culprit planet is Mars, not Mongo.
After course correction, and being shot down by martian ray, they are off to a great number of encounters with several different races of Martians.
The Clay People, the Forest People and those reg'lar Martians at the Court of the Great Azura (Beatrice Roberts),Queen of Magic all seem to have it in for the 4 of them.Yes, 4 (four) people were now in the party, as they were joined by one 'Happy' Hapgood, star reporter of The Dispatch,who had stowed away.
Hapgood (played by Donald Kerr) is there to provide a comic relief,the one element that the first serial lacked.Well needless to say after all is said and done, Flash and company are victorious in winning the any for Earth and destroying the Nitron Lamp that was causing the problem.This film had a much brighter look to it, overall.
There was plenty of peril and the action was superbly maintained through out.Great special effects,with the Clay Peoples' transformation scenes being at the top of the list!
It may seem trivial to say, but once again, alas, Hollywood took some really unnecessary liberties with the story.
Basing their screenplay on the continuity in the Sunday Newspaper Comic Strip by Mr. Alex Raymond, it was truly a subject matter that was already familiar to most of the movie going audience.
This adventure in the original comic strip form, was entitled THE WITCH QUEEN of MONGO.
That's right the whole adventure was set on the fictional Mongo, not Mars.One can only speculate as to the why of this change, so I will.Mars has long been hot copy in the sci-fi world.
People like Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.P.Lovecraft and H.G. Wells have used its mysterious, cloudy reddish appearance as a springboard to exciting, fantastic adventures in the still unknown space.
Mars was still a good venue to have such a story to take place-even in the late 1930's.But perhaps it was Welles, Orson not H.G. who caused the moving decision.
Remember this was the year of the famous and infamous War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast.
One could reason that this was an attempt by Universal to cash in on the Mars Craze.
However, there was a Feature version of this F.G. adventure, entitled MARS ATTACKS, that was definitely marketed in this manner.One should mention a few other elements, lest we sound too critical.
FLASH GORDON's TRIP to MARS had an opening to each chapter showing a uniformed Martian viewing a telescreen, which capsulized the previous chapters' action, leading up to this weeks 'cliff hanger'.
The images on the screen are like the illustrations from the comic strip, with summarizing written text.
This same gimmick was used in at least 2 other of Universal's comic strip adaptations, JUNGLE JIM (also by Alex Raymond) and for RADIO PATROL.
It was a very effective and interesting way of story telling.The film was loaded with a lot of pseudo scientific gadgetry.
The great Nitron Lamp, the Martian aircraft (dubbed 'Strato-sleds'), a Jet Rail Car (through a tunnel of poison gas, no less) and a Paralyzer Ray Gun (another gadget cooked up by Zarkov).
I know, we did.The music in any Flash Gordon always should get a mention.
The sound track features incidental music culled from previous Universal features such as THE INVISIBLE MAN, THE WEREWOLF OF London and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, all expertly woven into what we all knew as 'Flash Gordon Music.' NOTE * Zarkov's given name was Hans.
It was 1938, World War II was on the horizon and the 1st World War hardly forgotten.NOTE** Dale was always a Brunette in the Newspaper Strip.There has been some speculation that she was made Blonde in the earlier adventure because of Jean Harlow's popularity on the screen..
It posited a Manichean world at least originally, where good and evil had some sort of tides in the cosmic ether.
Then it devolved into a self-parody of 50's era family damage, with deliberate hooks for frustrated kids.These old Flash Gordon things have none of the cinematic values that even the poorest modern flick does.
And rooted in the womb instead of a muppet.The effects seem clunky but you have earth forces (clay men who form out of and return to the earth) and science.
All four of these in various combinations form the plot structures for this and other Flash Gordons.
There's even a clever folding mechanism: the players us a TeeVee like device to communicate.
Flash Saves the World Yet Again!.
As "Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars" begins, Flash (Buster Crabbe) Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon) and Dale Arden (Jean Rogers) are returning from the planet Mongo where they have defeated Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton) in his efforts to destroy the earth.
Somehow on the way, the comely Miss Arden has managed to get a makeover including a new hair color and style.On returning to earth, Flash learns that there is a mysterious ray emanating from the planet Mars which is drawing nitrogen from the earth's atmosphere.
Flash, Dale and Professor Zarkoff takeoff for Mars immediately.
Stowing away on board is bumbling reporter Happy (Donald Kerr) who is along to provide the comedy relief this time around.Arriving on Mars, Flash and his team discover that Mars is a land of matte paintings and miniatures ruled over by Queen Azura (Beatrice Roberts) who can appear and disappear at will.
Much to Flash's surprise he discovers that his old nemesis Ming has turned up on Mars and has allied himself with Queen Azura.Over the course of 15 chapters, Flash has encounters with the Clay People and the Tree People as well as Azura and Ming's many followers in life threatening death defying situations.
Prince Barin (Richard Alexander) drops in from Mongo to lend Flash a hand.Buster Crabbe complete with blonde hair makes a believable serial hero.
He even gets to swing on a vine in the land of the Tree People as he had as Tarzan a few years earlier.
Jean Rogers has little to do but look beautiful in her floor length gown while being concerned for Flash's safety.
Charles Middleton makes an evil sinister double-crossing no good villain.Others in the cast are Montague Shaw as the Leader of the Clay People, Wheeler Oakman as Ming's assistant and Kane Richmond, Kenne Duncan, Warner Richmond and Jack Mulhall in other roles.Will Flash save the world yet again?
Tune in again to see Flash's continuing battle with the forces of evil.....
Not once, but twice in FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS he ends up being paralyzed pretty much BY HIMSELF: once, when the villains are literally knocking down the doors to get at him (when he urges Zarkov to test the "freeze-ray" on him) and, not long thereafter, when he turns the weapon on AND RUNS DIRECTLY INTO ITS BEAM.
The sets are as spectacular as in the first serial, and the creepy Clay People are my favorite creatures in any of the FLASH GORDON serials, but his trip to the Angry Red Planet just doesn't measure up to his initial outing.
Crabbe seemed to grow more relaxed on camera with each successive serial, but the writing was against him this time around. |
tt0067588 | Play Misty for Me | Dave Garver (Clint Eastwood) is a KRML radio disc jockey who broadcasts nightly from a studio in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, often incorporating poetry into his program. He lives a rather freewheeling bachelor lifestyle. At his favorite bar, seemingly by chance, he encounters a woman named Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter). Dave drives her home, where she reveals that their meeting was not accidental; she sought him out after hearing the bar mentioned on his radio show. He guesses correctly that she is the recurring caller who always requests the jazz standard "Misty". The two have sex.
A casual relationship begins between Dave and Evelyn. But before long, Evelyn begins to display symptoms of borderline personality disorder. She shows up at Dave's house uninvited. She also follows Dave from his home to workplace at all hours of the day and night. Evelyn phones Dave all the time to demand that he keep her company and not leave her alone for a single minute. The final straw comes when Evelyn disrupts a business meeting, mistaking Dave's lunch companion (Irene Hervey)—a representative who has come to offer him a career opportunity—for his date.
Despite his efforts to gradually and gently sever ties with Evelyn, her unbalanced feelings lead her to attempt suicide in his home by slashing her wrists. After Dave rejects her again, Evelyn breaks into his home where his housekeeper, Birdie (Clarice Taylor), finds her maniacally vandalizing his possessions. Evelyn stabs her with a knife and is subsequently committed to a psychiatric hospital.
During Evelyn's incarceration, Dave rekindles a relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Tobie Williams (Donna Mills). A few months later, Evelyn again calls the studio to request "Misty". She tells Dave that she has been released from the mental hospital due to good behavior and is moving to Hawaii for a new job and to give herself a fresh start in life. She then quotes an Edgar Allan Poe poem, "Annabel Lee". That night, while Dave is asleep, she sneaks into his house and tries to kill him with a butcher knife. He fights her, she flees, at first he thinks this is just a dream until he notices knife marks on his pillow case and Dave subsequently contacts the police.
Dave tells Tobie about Evelyn and cautions her to stay away from him until the woman is caught. For her safety, she goes home. There, she meets with a girl who answered her ad for a roommate: Evelyn, using the alias Annabel. Tobie eventually realizes that Annabel is Evelyn when she sees the fresh scars on Evelyn's wrists, but before Tobie can escape, Evelyn takes her hostage. Evelyn also murders McCallum (John Larch), a police detective who had come to check on Tobie.
At the radio station, Dave makes the connection between Tobie's roommate and the quote from "Annabel Lee". When he calls Tobie to warn her, Evelyn answers and says Tobie and she are waiting for him. Dave switches from a live show to taped music and rushes to the house, where he finds Tobie bound and gagged. Evelyn attacks again with the butcher knife, slashing Dave multiple times. He punches Evelyn, knocking her through the window and over a railing and she falls down the cliff onto the rocky ocean shore below. Dave and Tobie look down at Evelyn's dead body as Dave's voice on the taped radio show dedicates "Misty" to Evelyn one final time. | neo noir, murder, cult, flashback, insanity, romantic, revenge | train | wikipedia | Clint Eastwood made his directorial debut with this 1971 suspense/thriller, `Play Misty for Me,' in which he also stars as Dave Garver, a late night radio disc jockey for a small station in Carmel, California.
During his show, he opens the phones to take requests, at which times a frequent caller-- a woman named Evelyn (Jessica Walter)-- always asks for the same tune, `Misty.' Her obsession, it turns out, is not with that particular record, but with Garver, who is currently sorting out a relationship gone bad with a young artist, Tobie (Donna Mills), but which may be on the mend in light of the fact that Tobie has just returned to town after a lengthy absence in the wake of their breakup.
In the interim, Garver has become entangled with Evelyn, a fan he soon discovers gives new meaning to the term `fanatic.' Eastwood invades Hitchcock territory with this film, which it turns out was indeed a harbinger of the course his career would take from this point on, that of directing and starring in his own movies.
The directorial debut for Clint Eastwood was this classic suspense thriller that's both intelligent and shocking.Dashing California DJ has a one night stand with an obsessive fan, who will have his love at ANY cost!While a bit on the dated side, Play Misty for Me still works well as a steely, nail-biter of a film.
Also, being honest is the obvious thing to do here and, of course, that's not done either.Nevertheless, it's a taut thriller with Jessica Walter doing a great job playing a nutcase stalker "Evelyn Draper." I also enjoyed watching Donna Mills.
In the city of Carmel, the popular disc-jockey David Garver (Clint Eastwood) has one night stand with Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter), a strange he met in a bar after his show.
The woman, indeed a deranged obsessed fan, stalks David and threatens his life, his girl-friend Tobie Williams (Donna Mills), his friends and even his job.The debut of Clint Eastwood as director could not be better.
Too-careful shocker directed and starring Clint Eastwood involves a radio disc-jockey who gets seductive requests by telephone for the song "Misty"--he later meets the overly-friendly female fan and they share a fling, but she 'won't be ignored'.
A remarkable first directing job for someone who learned by watching and observing a never attended film school.Mr. Eastwood cast himself as a disc jockey who finds his number one fan, a silvery-voiced woman named Evelyn, frequently calling him on his show "play Misty for me." By chance, he happens to meet her and they have a brief, erotic affair.
However, Evelyn (played magnificently and memorably by Jessica Walter) soon makes it apparent that she does not intend their relationship to end after one night together, even when one of Mr. Eastwood's former flames (Donna Mills) re-enters his life.The most interesting character dynamic in "Play Misty for Me" is between, of course, Mr. Eastwood and Miss Walter.
By this time, most people had come to associate with him as sneering Man with No Name or the cop in Don Siegel's classic "Dirty Harry." But instead of playing a tough, iron-willed man, he made the daring but exquisite choice of playing the disc jockey as a restrained, troubled, nervous man who can't find a way to explain anything properly, least of all to an obsessive one-night lover.Like with that great 1987 thriller "Fatal Attraction," the movie takes a turn toward the thriller genre and in more ways than just psychologically.
To keep it in an almost docudrama fashion, he shoots the movie without any remarkable, saturated lighting and oftentimes keeps the camera hand-held to make us feel like we are actually there."Play Misty for Me" was Mr. Eastwood's first time directing a motion picture, and sadly, it does show sometimes.
Overall, the direction was controlled, confident, and far from the disappointment I feared it might maybe be.A very strong debut for Eastwood behind the camera, Play Misty for Me is a classic thriller story which functions very well with the aid of its central performances.
The experience gained in particular with Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood's talent enough to finish this movie with a good realization, a method acting and direction more than impressive and promising for a first film.And note the good jazz soundtrack in the movie supported by the long sequence in the music festival, it sound very Clint Eastwood.Although the story may lack depth and foundations, it easily gets trapped in the streets of this small California town and history experienced by these characters.
But that is indeed what happened; and his first effort both in front of and behind the camera was a winner: PLAY MISTY FOR ME Filmed in Carmel, California, 'Play Misty For Me' features Eastwood as a DJ at a local jazz radio station taking all-night requests.On a particular night he gets a call from a mysterious woman to "Play 'Misty' for me", referring to a classic Errol Garner song "Misty".
Furthermore, when Eastwood meets back up with an old flame of his (Donna Mills), Walter's fixation takes a turn towards the psychotic.At this time if you are thinking this sounds like Fatal Attraction starring Michael Douglas, you would be right.
There are a couple of awkward sequences that simply don't work at all in the film, but Eastwood recovers from such scenes and makes some very good and mature directorial choices as the film progresses.Featuring of a cameo role from Eastwood's mentor Don Siegel as his local bartender, 'Play Misty For Me', despite some slightly misogynistic overtones, is an incredibly suspenseful work of film-making and shows the first glimpse of just how good Clint Eastwood would become both in front of and behind the camera..
Thinking that his night of passion with Evelyn is purely a one off, he starts to become concerned as Evelyn refuses to leave him alone, and things are about to get very out of hand and become very disturbing for all involved.This was Clint Eastwood's first stab (hrr hrr) at directing and it proved to be a very commendable effort as he directs himself in the picture, polishes the production across the board, and then wrapped the film on time and under budget, quite an achievement and it's no surprise that he went on to be a big hitter from behind the camera right up to this present day.Play Misty For Me is a truly tight and engrossing picture, and certainly more of a character study than its slasher shell would suggest.
Eastwood (playing against type) plays Garver perfectly weasel like, and it's because of his selfish sexual proclivities, and all round disdain for his actions, that the maelstrom that comes his way is kind of like the reckoning.The picture firmly belongs to Jessica Walter, her turn as the irrational psychotic in waiting, Evelyn, is truly magic, lacing sympathetic sadness with outright moments of terror, believable to the point of forcing the audience into an uneasy understanding.
It's a mystery (and a crying shame) that Walter didn't go on to be a big star because the marker for major talent was right here.Edgy and darkly fascinating, Play Misty For Me stands up today as a right on the money thriller, and not even the sight of Clint in his over large white underpants can dim the films appeal, 8.5/10..
That scene and the one with Donna Mills that is, in fact, a music video for Roberta Flack's song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face may seem like intermissions, but I think they prove again and again that Clint Eastwood wasn't afraid to follow his artistic instincts - he knew what he was doing.
Play Misty For Me (1971) Plot In A Paragraph: A brief fling between a DJ (Eastwood) and an obsessed female fan takes a frightening turn when another woman enters the picture.In his directorial debut, Clint sets the action in Carmel (the town he would later become Mayor of) and keeps the tension on a knife edge.
Disturbing and atmospheric urban thriller has Eastwood in his directorial debut playing a late-night DJ who picks up Jessica Walter for a casual fling then discovers she's an obsessed fan who proceeds to destroy his life, in an escalating campaign of terror.
A low pace, as usual with Eastwood, but very much like a Hitchcock movie, not better, not worse, about a stalker, here a female (played expertly by Jessica Walter) stalking a male, played equally well by the director himself, and his ex-girlfriend (Donna Mills).The best thing with the DVD is the extra material, which is amazing, just as one would love to have with all DVDs. All the actors still alive (Don Seigel passed away years ago) are interviewed, Clint tells why he choose just them - many without an audition or anything, the producer tells about his friendship with Clint, and so on.If you find it on DVD, buy it, as the film is OK, as a run of the mill Hitchcock (which ain't bad) and interesting, and the extra material is just amazing!.
Clint Eastwood starred in his directorial debut, 'Play Misty for Me', but his role is thankfully self-effacing and (very) laid back; there's some nice cinematography (especially the shots of the Californian coastline), the use of music is interesting and overall this film is surprisingly accomplished for a rookie's work.
Clint Eastwood takes a break from Dirty Harry's and other violent types to make a vulnerable guy who fears for the attacks of a flame of one night stand, an obsessive fan (Jessica Walter) of his radio program that loves this guy so much that she can't stand the possibility of not be with him.
Play Misty for Me starts off as a simple movie, basically becoming a romance movie, quickly turning into a thriller and almost a horror movie.Clint Eastwood plays Dave Garver, a local radio DJ whose job interferes with his personal life often.
Jessica Walter plays Evelyn Draper, a fan of Dave's who becomes a one night stand for him and eventually she puts herself in the position of his lover and his crazy, obsessed stalker.
One of those fans is Evelyn Darper, Jessica Walters, who's obsessed not only with Dave but with a song that she calls and requests him to play for her almost every night "Misty".
While there were a few suspenseful and interesting scenes and a good performance by Jessica Walter (though I kept giggling when her mannerisms reminded me of her character from Arrested Development), it was dragged down by bad direction, bad dialogue, bad fashion and a needlessly long running time.Clint Eastwood made a lot of ...interesting...
Storywise, it could have been shorter and I didn't find any of the supporting characters very interesting.Like I said, Jessica Walter's character, and the obsessive relationship she develops with Clint Eastwood are engrossing, and their scenes together are pretty good.
Now I've watched PLAY MISTY FOR ME, a 1971 thriller directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, and I realise that FATAL ATTRACTION is nothing more than a rip-off.PLAY MISTY FOR ME gets there first, and arguably does it better, giving the story more 'meat'.
JESSICA WALTERS is very convincing as an obsessed ex-fan of DJ CLINT EASTWOOD, the woman who always asked him to PLAY MISTY FOR ME.
But when Dave wants to call it quits with the feisty fruit-loop, preferring to rekindle his relationship with much saner old flame Tobie (Donna Mills), crazy Evelyn dials the lunacy up to eleven.Eastwood's directorial debut, Play Misty For Me shows the actor to be so much more than a squint, some stubble and a grimace: his first feature film at the helm is a very accomplished thriller that delivers solid storytelling, a superb villainess (Walter is truly frightening in a performance that rivals those of Glenn Close and Kathy Bates in the aforementioned classics), some terrific suspense, and even a spot of rather nasty violence, with a frenzied knife attack on Dave's house cleaner every bit as cringe-worthy as the hobbling scene in Misery.Admittedly, the film does lose some momentum in the second act, where Clint gets a little self-indulgent, with a romantic montage scene that plays out to Roberta Flack's 'The First Time I Ever I Saw Your Face' in its entirety (great song, mind you), followed by some musical footage from the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Clearly it's special because this was Clint Eastwood's first directorial debut, yet still this film was significant for the fact that it was really the first to introduce the stalker and love obsession genre as it was not 1987's "Fatal Attraction" but 1971's "Play Misty for Me" that started the genre.The film is well written as director Eastwood stars as Dave Garver a coastal California man who earns a living working as a late night radio DJ.
And this is exactly what Dave thought it was just a one night stand, yet Evelyn pushes for a torrid affair only Dave wises up and sees that she's to obsessed and he ends it.Then to add more drama Dave's ex flame Tobie(played by sexy and attractive future soap star Donna Mills)has returned back to the West Coast, and gradually the two rekindle their old love making ways.
Clint shows some definite skill in his first effort behind the camera, and the film is generally compelling.Jessica Walter, who plays the obsessed fan, often calls Clint while he's on the air and requests a song titled "Misty".
It takes that obsession to a dangerous level about 17 years before the better-known "Fatal Attraction" with Michael Douglas and Glen Close.The whole movie is so realistic - no Hollywood sets - real interiors, real exteriors and no computer generated special efx.Clint Eastwood is NOT super human Dirty Harry here - instead he's a very believable DJ - low key and not that witty or clever - just a real guy trying to have a real life.
"Play Misty for Me" was a very good choice of film for Clint Eastwood to direct.
Jessica Walters gives the best performance in this film as the woman who threatens Clint Eastwood's life.
A brief fling between a male disc jockey (Clint Eastwood) and an obsessed female fan (Jessica Walter) takes a frightening, and perhaps even deadly turn when another woman enters the picture.I appreciate that Eastwood's directorial debut was a thriller, rather than a western or drama or action film.
This was a brilliant movie.Jessica Walter's amazing psychotic performance was absolutely frightening and so very real.It was the original stalker movie before Fatal Attraction.And great to see a young Donna Mills I barely recognized.Great Directional debut by Clint Eastwood, Fantastic work !I read somewhere Clint gave up his Acting fee for the movie to be only paid as a Director.Overall the film was a great financial and critical success, with exposure of Robertas Flack song "The first time I saw your face" going to Number 1 from the movie..
Secondly, it was way ahead of its time in terms of plot, and pre-dates several films on the same theme (Fatal Attraction, The Crush, Swimfan, etc.) Play Misty For Me is thankfully low-key in approach and refuses to descend into a crude bloodbath of gore; this is actually a good thing, as the credibility is kept in check and makes the suspense real, as opposed to contrived and artificial.California DJ Dave Garland (Clint Eastwood) is likable but no saint; he spends his nights playing music over the airways, drinking at a local bar, and wooing an endless stream of female fans.
One evening, Garland picks up an attractive middle-aged woman called Evelyn (Jessica Walter), who has long been a fan of his show and who regularly phones in requesting that Dave should play her favourite song "Misty".
Like a two act play, the film is cut straight down the middle by the love scenes between Eastwood's character "Dave Garver" and his girlfriend Tobie (in some surprisingly explicit scenes for the time, this must have been a pretty heavy "R" rating in 1971), along with Roberta Flack's song "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."The first half of the film I thought was superb, amazingly good...
Play Misty for Me represents the successful 1971 directorial debut of Clint Eastwood, who also starts in the film.
Beautiful shots of the the Northern California coastline and the Monterey Jazz Festival add to the mood of the film.Play Misty For Me adds another great movie to Clint Eastwood's fine body of work over the years.
"Dave Garver" (Clint Eastwood) is a disc-jockey for a radio station in the small city of Carmel, California who works during the night playing jazz music for his listeners.
Give Clint credit for not making a western his first time behind the camera, and for making one of the earliest and best music videos out of Roberta Flack's haunting ballad, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." Also, praise the laconic star for making the film less a showcase for himself than for Jessica Walter who delivers an Oscar worthy performance as the homicidal Evelyn, whose stalking of mellow DJ Dave Garver begins when she repeatedly requests Errol Garner's "Misty" on Garver's late night radio show.
Clint Eastwood is a genius, and Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter) is the original Fatal Attraction.
Clint Eastwood plays the role of Dave Garver, a local disc jockey, that attracts the attention of an amorous fan, Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter).
In fact, she isn't going anywhere...Donna Mills plays his girlfriend, and there is a memorable love scene between them played to the classic song "The first time ever I saw your face." Though an interesting directorial debut for Eastwood, this suspense film is undermined by a highly unsympathetic lead character.
Clint Eastwood's directorial debut is not at a bad thriller, setting the template for "crazy female stalker" movies like FATAL ATTRACTION and THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE. |
tt0120667 | Fantastic Four | Physicist Reed Richards is convinced evolution was triggered millions of years ago on Earth by clouds of cosmic energy in space and has calculated that one of these clouds is soon going to pass near Earth. Together with his friend, astronaut Ben Grimm, Reed convinces Victor Von Doom, his former classmate at MIT and now CEO of Von Doom Industries, to allow him access to his privately held space station to test the effects of a biological sample of exposure to the cloud. Doom agrees in exchange for control over the experiment and a majority of the profits from whatever benefits it brings. Reed brings aboard his ex-girlfriend and Von Doom's chief genetics researcher Sue Storm and her ex-astronaut younger brother Johnny Storm.
The quintet travels to outer space to observe the cosmic energy clouds, but Reed miscalculates and the clouds materialize ahead of schedule. Reed and the Storms leave the shielded station to rescue Grimm, who had gone on a spacewalk to place the samples. Grimm receives full exposure in outer space, while the others receive a more limited dose within the station. Back home they soon develop superpowers: Reed can stretch his body like rubber, Susan can become invisible and generate force shields, Johnny Storm can engulf himself in fire and fly unaided, and Grimm becomes a rock-like creature with superhuman strength and durability. Meanwhile, Von Doom faces a backlash from his stockholders because of the publicity from the space mission, and has a scar on his face that came from an exploding control console on the station.
Grimm's fiancee Debbie cannot handle his new appearance and leaves him. Grimm goes to brood on the Brooklyn Bridge and accidentally causes a traffic pileup while preventing a man from committing suicide. Grimm, Reed and the Storms use their various abilities to contain the damage and prevent harm. The media dubs them the Fantastic Four. They move into Reed's lab in the Baxter Building to study their abilities and seek a way to return Grimm to normal. Von Doom, himself mutating, offers his support but blames Reed for the failure of the spaceflight, which has lost him his company's hope for an IPO.
Reed tells the group he will construct a machine to recreate the storm and reverse its effects on them, but warns it could possibly accelerate them instead. Meanwhile, Von Doom's arm has become organic metal, giving him superhuman strength allowing him to produce bolts of electricity, and he begins plotting revenge. He drives a wedge between Grimm and Reed, who has rekindled his relationship with Susan Storm. Using the machine, Von Doom restores Grimm to human form, while accelerating Von Doom's condition, causing much of his body to turn to metal. Von Doom knocks the human Grimm unconscious and captures Reed.
Now calling himself Doctor Doom, he puts on a metallic mask and a cloak to hide his disfigurement, Doom then tortures Reed and fires a heatseeking missile at the Baxter Building in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Johnny. Sue confronts Doom but is outmatched. Grimm arrives to assist her, transformed into the Thing again by reusing the machine. The battle then spills into the streets, and the Storms combine their powers to wrap Doom in an inferno of intense heat, while Grimm and Reed douse him with cold water, inducing thermal shock and freezing Doom in place. Grimm informs Reed that he has accepted his condition with the help of Alicia Masters, a blind artist for whom he has developed feelings, and the team embraces its role as superheroes. Reed proposes marriage to Sue, who accepts. Meanwhile, Doom's statue-like remains are being transported back to his homeland of Latveria when the dock master's electronic manifest briefly undergoes electromagnetic interference, suggesting that Doom is still alive. | entertaining, action, murder, boring, fantasy | train | wikipedia | Fantastic Four reminds of the quirkiness superhero films were once predicated upon, and while it may get a bit too corny at times, and its focus can never really settle, it's also a very commercial film that satisfies on some level of entertainment when it gives every card in its deck a fair time to shine.We open by looking at a physicist named Dr. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), who is convinced evolution was triggered millions of years ago by stray elements of cosmic energy in space, some of which will pass near Earth very soon.
While Doom agrees, he winds up walking away with most of the profits that this experiment will bring, affirming Reed's desperation to make his project work.Still, he persists on and brings his close friends Susan Storm (Jessica Alba) and her brother Johnny (Chris Evans) along for the ride.
However, when a trip to outer space goes awry, exposure with the cosmic energy results in the four receiving deformities and enhanced human abilities that have never before been seen: Reed possesses the ability to stretch every limb of his body, Susan has the ability to disappear and reappear at her leisure, Johnny can have his body engulfed in flame simply by reciting the phrase "Flame on!," and Ben turns into a hideous, orange rock monster.Following the four's mutations, writers Michael France and Mark Frost focus a great deal of their time on the agony that these mutations bring, particularly The Thing, who experiences his wife leaving him shortly after revealing his deformity.
Reed and Ben, who are ultimately the film's main focus, wind up monopolizing too much of the picture, and any time we see Johnny is when he's right in the middle of making a smug comment or being his typical, womanizing self.The action in Fantastic Four has a colorful commercial look to it, brilliantly bold and very vibrant in a way that makes many of the scenes pop with life.
One particularly involving scene takes place on a suspension bridge, where The Thing is seen pummeling everything in his sight and the remaining three members of the team must resort to either relaxing him or protecting drivers and innocent bystanders.The goofiness in Fantastic Four, however, in an age of dark superhero films that come with slick aesthetics and brooding characters, is a delightful change of pace.
Yes, there is a point when one wishes director Tim Story, France, and Frost would command a tighter grip on the seriousness of the writing, but the pulpy fun of Fantastic Four, in addition to the effects and the neatly choreographed action, keep it a moving, satisfying spectacle that is more than just colors flying around on screen, trying to find their place.Starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon.
Sure, The Thing looks a bit hokey in what is clearly a rubberized suit of some sort, and I think they surely could have found an actor that looked more like Reed Richards from the comics than Ioan Gruffudd (that's quite the name, by the way!).
During a failed experiment in space, Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), Sue and Johnny Storm (Jessica Alba and Chris Evans), Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) and Dr. Victor Von Doom are bombarded by cosmic rays, changing their molecular systems and giving them superpowers.
Of course it's not as good as X-Men 2 or Spider-Man (the original, with Tobey Maguire), but it's good for what it aims to be: a sci-fi/action movie about comic book characters.
There's no real plot to the film, or even a story beyond "Nasty self absorbed un-credible astronauts become nasty self absorbed un-credible 'super' heroes, then argue with each other for a while, take their clothes off for no reason, then beat up some poor disfigured guy apparently because he didn't join their little gang, roll credits." Direction and cinematography was Filmschool #101, the score was instantly forgettable, and the editing was appalling, with the pacing in particular being random and rushed.The effects were only what we've come to expect from a hundred million dollar movie, which brings me to the big question: what on earth did they spend all that money on?
i predict the fantastic four will become the all time favorite comic book movie series outdoing superman,batman,x-men and even spiderman.
The crew consists of Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), Reed Richards, (Ioan Gruffudd), Johnny Storm (Chris Evans), Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) & Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon).
After making movies for their other comic book titles like Spiderman, The X-Men, the Hulk, Daredevil, among others, Marvel Comics goes about and makes a film about the characters that started it all for the Marvel Universe, The Fantastic Four.
Yes Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm , and Ben Grimm are brought to life in a feature film that will give them the respect and studio money that the marvel title that was billed "The World's Greatest Comic Book Magazine" deserves.
Gruffred ,no matter how one looks at it, isn't Reed Richards.His chemistry with everyone in the movie is readily not apparent.I know many studio executives may have thought that making Jessica Alba as Sue Storm would bring in a lot of publicity for the film and it may have.
Having Jessica Alba playing a scientist is a bit of a stretch that not even Reed Richards with his powers could reach.Johnny Storm in the comics was a teenager so it is hard to believe Chris Evans was to play Sue's younger brother.
Marvel Comics could have found a better producer for this film than Story.Whereas Marvel hit two home runs with Spiderman and the X-Men, with the Fantastic Four, Marvel gets a single but gets thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.
The studio have obviously looked at Spiderman, Hulk, X-men and Daredevil, and despite the varying degrees of popularity there, I think it was wise of them to make this a much lighter jaunt.This film is pure undemanding entertainment, it has nothing more on its mind than "lets have some fun", and dark superhero movies are getting to be a bit of a pill.
This adaptation from famous comic begins with an experimental space journey financed by Victor Van Doom(Julian McMahon).The spaceflight crew,included Victor Doom, is constituted by team leader scientific named Reed Richards(Ioan Gruffud),the pilot named Ben Grimm(Michael Chiklis),Sue Storm(Jessica Alba)and his brother Johnny Storm(Chris Evans).But the starship is bombarded by cosmic rays and they find themselves turning into fantastic Super-heroes.
Mr. Fantastastic,leader of the group gains the ability to stretch his body to any shape;Sue Storm gains the ability to become invisible girl and projects telekinetic fields ;Johnny Storm as the human torch creates a flying blazing ball and with ability to control the fire ; and Ben Grimm is turned into super-strong rock hunk known as Thing.Then Ben is rejected by his bride(Laurie Holden)although he gets a new blind girlfriend named Alicia Masters(Kerry Washington).The Fantastic Four become into team of Super-heroes and use their supernatural powers to battle the nasty enemy,Doctor Doom.The incredible quartet taking on the threats to the world with their extraordinary force.The movie blends action comic,humor,romance,spectacular adventures and is pretty entertaining and funny.The picture is marvellously realized with sensational production values and ideal casting formed by agreeable young men actors.Amazing array of technical special effects with rousing action set pieces action illuminate the full-blown feats Fantastic four.The final duel between the protagonists and villain super-hero is breathtaking and exciting.Although have given bad reviews to this film ,I think that is amusing with spectacular scenes during whole the movie.The plot is pure fun just like the original comics by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee(appears in a cameo).The motion picture is rightly directed by Tim Story(Barbershop,Taxi),he's making the second part titled¨Rise of the Silver Surfer(Doug Jones)¨with the same players.Indispensable and essential seeing for Super-heroes fans..
So, it's clear that I have NO loyalty to Fox. Next, I saw Fantastic Four a few days ago at the AMC Empire in NY and loved every minute of it.It appears that the director must have done his homework because this movie captures the books I remember reading about the FF as a kid in every way.
Perhaps the actors simply did the best they could with what they had to work with, because the characters are uninteresting, unsympathetic and, at times, flat-out annoying (especially Chris Evans' hotshot thrill-seeking "Human Torch").The only thing worse than the pace, the characterizations and the performances was the writing.
Reed Richards becomes Mr. Fantastic, and can make his body stretch like rubber, Susan Storm becomes the invisible woman, who can turn invisible and can create shields, Ben Grimm becomes The Thing, a superhuman of enormous size with incredible strength, and Johnny Storm becomes The Human Shield who can "flame on" at any time and fly!
Jessica Alba as The Invisible Woman; Ioan Gruffudd as Mr. Fantastic; Michael Chiklis as The Thing and Chris Evans as The Human Torch.
I just wish that those idiots that made Batman Begins the dull waste of film that it is would've had a chance to study a movie like this before churning out their absurd effort at a sequel/prequel/relaunch.The Fantastic Four is near perfect on every level.
Acting was good, special effects are great, story is pretty good overall for being a movie based on the first comic book that i ever received I loved this movie.
If you like quality film making and coherent movies with believable characters and an interesting plot, look elsewhere.The dialogue and the characters are so cheesy I literally had a hard time trying to stay in the room while this movie played.
The effects are mediocre, but the character interactions and dialogue really take away from any possible impressiveness of those effects that are well done.I never read any of the comic books, but I don't think it's fair saying that you have to be a fan of the comics to enjoy the movie.
I don't know why people like it at all, unless of course they are younger than the average moviegoer.As a summary, if you're looking for a good action/super hero movie, watch the second Spider-Man movie or the first two X-men movies, those are at least entertaining and well done..
People loved the movie, and I guess they responded like me: I feel jaded by watching the overblown 'special effects' of computer-generated armies of millions (a la the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, where it's obvious that nothing is real).
I'm equally tired of movies like Batman, where the tone and atmosphere is so dark or distorted that you can't tell what is happening or where it takes place.I think the reason most people are staying away from movies this summer is because they are tired of un-believable characters and of movies that hide their lack of a good plot line with increasingly silly and extravagant special effects, gratuitous violence and sex.
Director Tim Story is handicapped with a pretty weak cast, although Julian McMahon ("Charmed", "Nip/Tuck") does a decent job as Victor Von Doom and Michael Chiklis ("The Shield" and a memorable "Seinfeld") is very good as Ben Grimm/The Thing.
Chris Evans seems to have fun with the most energetic role of Johnny Storm but there is just not enough for him to do.Special Effects in this one are pretty decent, but the movie watches as if we are reading a comic book.
The film starts out when Reed Richards(Ioan Grufford) and his nice but quick tempered friend Ben Grimm(Michael Chiklis) make a plan to go up in space, with his billionaire old friend Victor Von Doom(Juilan McMahon), and scientist, and Reeds ex-girlfriend Sue Richards(Jessica Alba) and her hotheaded younger brother Johnny(Chris Evans) come along for the ride.
First of all there are apparently people here who are determined to make this movie look bad without even seeing it and then there are those who are saying it is the best film of the year.
Reed Richards is Mr Fantastic, Sue Storm/Richards is The Invisible Girl, her brother Johnny Storm is The Human Torch, and Richard's best friend / one time Sue's ex is Ben Grimm, aka The Thing.This is not the first time that the origin has been recreated in film (the first one being a desperate attempt to secure movie rights, and is a tacky B-production), but this is the version that's done so right.And I dare say this is the BEST Marvel comic book adaptation ever, staying very true to its characterization just as Stan Lee envisioned it to be.
What I also liked is that this film takes its time to develop their arch-nemesis Victor Von Doom, as his transformation takes place throughout the movie until the finale.Compared to Spider-man, there isn't a sappy romance to slow things down (and Mary J Watson was never Peter Parker's first!), nor are there too many heroes and villains like X-Men such that each character has limited screen time because of the focus on its most popular character Wolverine.
Maybe it is suppose to be a fun comic book film, but that would never work if the individual viewer can't look past the campy acting.Some people make an excuse for the writing.
My husband and I went to see this today,and I was very happily surprised.I have really liked some of the superhero movies,and haven't liked some,but I really enjoyed this one.It has action,love interest,comedy,everything you could want.I was a big F4 fan as a kid,and I found out today that I still love them.Sue Storm has 2 terrific abilities,and Jessica Alba did her credit.Chris Evans had waaaay too much fun playing Johnny Storm.The others did as good a job as they did.It's so nice watching "good guys" enjoy being good(Johnny),and I really enjoyed the "bad guy" being bad!!
The graphics were good,the story was good,the acting was terrific.I will buy the DVD,but I think it will lose something on the small screen.Even the music was terrific.My husband and I were on the edge of our seats.Even though we pretty much figured out everything,it was still fun to watch.I noticed they left it open for a sequel.I will definitely be there to see it.I just hope the same people are in it,as they had great chemistry,and a good camaraderie.This movie is A++ in my book..
"ah, now the films going to start!" But all that happened was more mediocre dialog from basic cable actors, keeping the pot boiling with a little not very impressive F/X, and even less impressive drama, in a film that I suspect was made by people who were uncomfortable to be making a comic book movie in the first place.A fantastic four minutes at the end, the rest, in my opinion just dull..
Granted Julian McMahon is a television actor and rarely makes it to the big screen, he still gave a great effort, and, in my opinion, truly brought forth the true Dr. Doom from the comics: a friend to Reed Richards, a lover to Ms. Storm, and an untrusted foe by the two other characters.
Fantastic 4 is the second best comic book movie from marvel..
Micheal actually makes you feel for the guy, which in an action packed movie like this, is a very rare and hard thing to do.Julian McMahon....(Dr Victor Van Doom) Well, i don't really think you'll see a better actor play the hardest bad guy anywhere, ever.
I've heard people say the following: "Oh, dude, in the spectrum of the most recent philosophical comic books films, this movie strives to be a contender against Batman Begins or the brilliantly crafted Spider-Man." I exaggerated a bit there, but you know this is what a bunch of people say in order to act like they don't enjoy relentless bad-ass action.
Michael Chiklis is cool as The Thing, Iaon Gruffudd's character isn't really cool, Chris Evans is cool as the Human Torch, and Julian McMahon is bad-ass as Dr. Doom.The movie is loaded with CG.
Are you the die hard comic book fan, or the passive movie goer that enjoys action/adventure films?
A few bits of cliché and hammy dialog didn't really make me enjoy it less, because, well, most comic book stories have them.FF felt like it was a set up for the sequel, getting character origins out of the way.
It was one of the best comic book movies I have seen along with Spider-Man and Batman.
I've never been a fan of the fantastic four but still i think this film goes to show that you can't write movie characters as thin as comic book characters.
I saw F4 last week with my husband, who is *ahem* a tad older than I am, and was a big Fantastic Four fan growing up.I went into this movie knowing nothing of the stories, as the only comic books I bought when I was growing up were of the "Betty & Veronica" variety.We both loved this film, and yes, we've both seen the "X-Men" and "X2" along with whatever else it is everyone is comparing this movie to & complaining about.When I read some of these user comments I get the feeling Tim Story & Stan Lee (et al) must have missed a payment to a few "Whoever-It-Is-This-Week & Ebert" wanna-bes.Michael Chiklis will break your heart (when he's not making you laugh), Jessica Alba really can act and Chris Evans IS Johnny Storm - see it..
I may be a bit biased seeing as I am a long time comic book fan, but let me tell you that everyone I saw the movie with (7 of my friends) thought it was a kick ass film.
It was fun to watch, had some of the best special effects I have ever seen, and the characters were right on the money like their comic counterparts.
Great effects make Fantastic Four an enjoyable movie for fans of the comic book, children, and adults as well. |
tt0049405 | The Killer Is Loose | An employee of a savings and loan company successfully robs a bank as an inside job. At first, bank employee Leon Poole (Wendell Corey) is considered a hero during the bank robbery, but the police quickly figure out he's involved in the crime. The cops catch up with Poole and his young wife at their apartment. Poole's wife is accidentally shot to death during a gunfight. Poole is arrested, convicted and sent to prison for the robbery.
While behind bars, Poole plans his escape and revenge on the policeman who killed his wife, Lt. Sam Wagner (Joseph Cotten). Poole figures the best way to exact revenge is to kill Wagner's wife, Lila (Rhonda Fleming).
Poole escapes while working on a prison honor farm, murdering a guard. He kills again to gain access to a truck. Managing to avoid a highway roadblock set up by the police, Poole heads for the home of his former Army sergeant, Otto Flanders, holding his wife captive and then killing Flanders in cold blood.
Wagner's wife is unaware that she is Poole's target. Wagner manages to get Lila safely out of town, but because she resents her husband's unwillingness to quit law enforcement, she decides to leave him for good. Lila then learns he was merely trying to protect her, so she heads back for their home, where Poole is waiting. | revenge, murder | train | wikipedia | Watching "A Killer is Loose" it's not hard to see how Budd Boetticher garnered a reputation as one of the top B movie directors.
With the limited resources allotted to the makers of B movies, not to mention the casting of often second rate actors, a lot of skill went into creating the few B movies which have endured.Boetticher gets good performances from leads Joseph Cotton and Wendell Corey (not strictly B movie actors) as well a surprisingly convincing Rhonda Fleming.
Corey (who usually played stiff bureaucrats and cops himself) gets the role of his life as a mild-mannered clerk turned crook who becomes unhinged and escapes with the plan to kill the cop who sent him up.
And if you want to know what Brian dePalma's been trying to do all these years with movies like Blow Out and Snake Eyes, just watch how effortlessly Boetticher plays out the climax over walkie-talkies (a sequence to rival Touch of Evil)..
"The Killer is Loose" is a 1956 B film directed by Budd Boetticher, and it's pretty good.
It stars Wendell Corey as Leon Poole, a man who is working in a bank when a robbery occurs.
The police break in, the lights are off, and Detective Wagner (Joseph Cotten) sees a form emerging from the bedroom and shoots, killing Poole's wife.
When Poole is sentenced, he promises to pay Wagner back for killing her.I've never understood what happened to Joseph Cotten's career, but by the '50s, he was appearing in B movies after being part of so many important films in the '40s.
Corey is excellent as Poole, a disturbed man with a flat affect; he never knew any happiness until he got married and goes crazy when his wife is taken from him.Good noir..
In some ways, the costume or prop department deserves a lot of credit, because the glasses he wears makes him seem bland yet steady and menacing.Joseph Cotten and Rhonda Fleming are not convincing cast as a cop and pregnant wife.
What makes this film so fresh is the "different kind of bad guy" It's film noir, about a meek man whose wife is accidentally killed by police.
In fact, like most older films, the illusion of action is given to non action scenes that make such films seem more animated than most of the high octane action movies made since 1970 or so.The big stars, Cotten and Fleming need no introduction, we all know Hale as the skipper, and Pate famous for playing sneaky looking henchmen as in "The Black Caste", these stars play the "stable" characters.
Wendell Corey is a crazed man who has murdered three innocent people and they know his next target is Joseph Cotten's wife.
So, combining this with the above character problems is a real nightmare for people who are looking for realism--something Film Noir movies MUST have.All these serious problems are even more infuriating since Wendell Corey's character is amazingly well-written and conceived.
Wendell Corey steals low-budget B-film as crazed killer....
Budd Boetticher was getting his "Director's Day" salute on TCM when I watched this little known thriller starring Joseph COTTEN, RHONDA FLEMING and WENDELL COREY.It's Corey who walks off with the film in what is really the central role as a crazed killer, angry when detective Cotten and his police officers accidentally kill his wife when trying to get him.
He vows revenge when he's found guilty of a bank robbery where he was an accomplice, and the rest of the tale involves vengeance and a final comeuppance for Corey.Joseph COTTEN gives only a middling performance, almost phoning in his job as though he knows his colorless role isn't worth much effort.
The same for RHONDA FLEMING as his selfish wife, whose sole contribution is a shapely figure and a pretty face obviously ready for many a close-up.What raises this above the level of an average B-film is Corey's nuanced performance as a nerdy man who appears almost sympathetic at times and chillingly ruthless when crossed.
It's Corey's work in the film that puts it into a higher category and makes it a psychological crime melodrama worth watching.Budd Boetticher's no-nonsense approach delivers a solid bit of film-making that lasts a mere one hour and thirteen minutes.Note: The lower case for the name Joseph is either the fault of my keyboard or IMDb--I've been capitalizing it but it comes out each time as lower case for some unknown reason..
Killer is Loose, The (1956) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Budd Boetticher directed this highly intense police drama, which certainly deserves to be better known than it is.
In the film, a bank robber (Wendell Corey) gets away from the scene of the crime but a detective (Joseph Cotten) tracks him down to his apartment.
When the detective breaks the door in he accidentally kills the man's wife (Rhonda Fleming).
The robber is eventually sent to prison but he escapes and plans his revenge by killing the detective's wife.
Cotton is very good in his role as is Fleming but the film belongs to Corey as the deranged psychopath.
It had a few redeeming features: better than average b/w cinematography, including rain sequences (in LA!); location photography which fascinated me, as I tried to identify street corners; better than average acting for a low-budget mid 50s b/w post-studio heyday film; and Wendell Corey who, believe or not, I've always loved; and an always-reliable Joseph Cotten.
The downsides: a script that defies credulity over and over, from Corey being a psychopath, to his escape when he is close to parole, to the actions of Fleming at the end, to Fleming's unconvincing performance and casting, to the bland storyline, to the cops' ineptness, to the hackneyed storyline of a cop's wife's frustration.
The only thing that makes this one watchable is Corey's performance as the lunatic killer on the loose.
Bank robber, cornered in his room by the police, refuses to give up and shoots at an officer; they return fire and accidentally kill his innocent wife.
Two-and-a-half years after sentencing, the deceptively mild-mannered thief escapes from a prison work farm, kills a guard and a farmer, and sets out to kill the police detective's wife to avenge his own spouse's death.
The dated police business seems very naïve, and most of the female characters are weak-kneed ninnies (a tiresome cliché); however, the usually-bland Wendell Corey gets a rare chance here to play the villain and he's very effective.
This noir features Wendell Corey as a very creepy psycho in a plot that brings instantly to mind a much more famous movie, "Cape Fear." Corey is sent to prison for aiding a bank robbery.
But Corey's way of realizing his vengeance on Cotten is by threatening Cotten's wife, played by Rhonda Fleming.Corey plays the killer very quietly and emotionlessly, which makes him much scarier than if he had resorted to histrionics, and it makes the killings in the film, which are actually fairly shocking, much more effective because of their cold bloodedness.
Women aren't going to be much pleased by the portrayal of the female characters and the way the film either disposes of them or has them do foolish things that service the movie's plot, but this was the 1950s, so we can't expect too much.Grade: A-.
Corey is effective as the disturbed, cold-blooded killer who targets Fleming, Cotten's wife, because the latter accidentally killed Corey's wife.
The problems: Joseph Cotten (whom I often like) isn't particularly good here, looking rather tired and perhaps a little disengaged; the character of his wife, played by Rhonda Fleming, is considerably shrill and annoying, to the point of being very nearly unsympathetic; the story itself is considerably simple; and the climax is rather weak and too abrupt.
Still, Wendell Corey is quite convincing as psychopath Leon "Foggy" Poole, and it's fun to see some of the settings, styles, and conventions of mid-50s Los Angeles.
Rhonda Fleming seems right as police detective Joseph Cotten's wife, Lila, but her role is so poorly conceived (and she becomes so annoying), that I lost all interest and sympathy for her.
Even worse, you can't watch him without seeing Joseph Cotten; he doesn't create a character and his movements seem all wrong as a cop.
Boetticher seems to have waived rehearsal time and settled for the first take as leads Joe Cotton and Rhonda Fleming put little effort into their roles, delivering lines flatly and without energy.
Mild mannered employee Leon "Foggy" Poole works as an inside man on a bank job that goes bad and gets his wife killed in the process.
Hundreds of cops are mobilized to keep him from getting to the home of the intended who has been moved to another location but wouldn't you know in the films final moments we have Foggy trailing feet behind the victim (who thought somehow that taking a bus back to the house was a sound move) while a company of cops observe and bicker over what action to take.
As Poole, Wendell Corey is the best thing in the film managing to evoke great sympathy as he transitions from gentle soul to murderer.
The most remarkable thing about this film is the lead performance from Wendell Corey.
He provides a different kind of villain to what most people will be used to seeing; he's calm, cool and collected and clearly only intending to kill the cop's wife because he wants revenge, not because he's a deranged psycho.
The film belongs to Wendell Corey in the title role.Now I'm not saying that Corey's character is anything like the lovable, multi-phobic Adrian Monk.
But in the way that Monk was so fanatically attached to his late wife who was killed it strikes a similar note in me when I watched this film and Wendell Corey's performance.The film begins with a bank holdup in which teller Corey tries to stop the bandits and is pistol-whipped.
The tap points the finger at Corey as the inside man.But in trying to take him, Pate is wounded and then Cotten fires through the closed door.
At his sentence Corey vows vengeance and later on much into his sentence he's given the honor farm for good behavior and kills a guard in his escape.
He told cell-mates he was going to kill Rhonda Fleming who is Cotten's wife in retaliation.The key scene in the film is when he holds his former army sergeant John Larch and his wife Dee Thompson as hostages while he figures how to get to Cotten.
Like Monk, his whole world was shattered when she was killed.Corey is a frighteningly ordinary man which makes his psychotic behavior all the more frightening.Director Budd Boetticher, known primarily for those Randolph Scott westerns, gets a good performance out of the cast.
In "Killer is Loose", a relatively minor effort, one gets the impression that Boetticher is merely doing routine job, which is to say there is nothing genuinely personal or elating about it.Nonetheless, in its own ways "Killer is Loose" works and remains fascinating, sometimes terrifying film noir that packs a wallop thanks to its skill and compactness.
The film anticipates Hitchcock's "Psycho" in its focus on the psycho killer on loose, brilliantly played by Wendell Corey.
But I liked the way she handled the moment when the killer is stalking and walking behind her as she heads home and at the same time the police are watching them.
Overall, "Killer is Loose" is a good noir, but not one of Boetticher's best..
Surprisingly, for a movie that runs for only 78 minutes, "The Killer Is Loose" features a bank robbery, a jailbreak and a manhunt as well as a series of murders, a home invasion and a stalking sequence before eventually reaching its tense climax.
More importantly though, it's a well-written revenge thriller that does a particularly good job of explaining the reasons for the killer's psychosis and by doing so with great pace and clarity, ensures that the story's excitement, suspense and enjoyment are all kept at a high level from start to finish.One day, when he's carrying out his routine duties, bank teller Leon "Foggy" Poole (Wendell Corey) is confronted by his old Army sergeant Otto Flanders (John Larch) and immediately feels uncomfortable because this man habitually used to ridicule him when they served together in the South Pacific and unkindly named him "Foggy" because of his poor eyesight.
Before they can become fully reacquainted, however, it becomes evident that the bank is being robbed and as the thieves make their escape, Poole is injured after trying to stop one of them from getting away.Shortly after, when LAPD Detective Lieutenant Sam Wagner (Joseph Cotten) is investigating, he quickly recognises that Poole was actually an accomplice to the heist and with a few of his colleagues, goes to the bank teller's apartment to arrest him.
He then also kills a neighbouring farmer so that he can use the man's truck and clothes to make his getaway without being recognised.On hearing about Poole's escape, Wagner attempts to protect his now pregnant wife from any anxiety or danger by moving her out of their house temporarily and staying there himself in the hope that the killer will come looking for Lila and be apprehended by the police officers who are keeping his home under constant surveillance.
Detective Wagner's plan seems to be working well until Lila fully realises what's going on and puts herself in danger by heading home to be with her husband.Despite its modest budget, this movie features a good cast of actors whose performances more than adequately meets the requirements of their various roles.
The way in which Corey makes his psychopathic character's various qualities credible is tremendously subtle, well-balanced and totally convincing and also one of the most powerful reasons for watching this fine movie..
But after the end of the movie, I didn't remember the last name of Cotten's character (Wagner).
Which is what sends Leon over the edge But Corey as Poole is, even as a killer, a sympathetic character.
In the apartment after the shooting he seems more dazed than crazed as he asks Wagner "Don't you see how wrong it was to do that?" The movie then jumps to Poole's trial, where he gives the calmest revenge threat I've ever seen.
A great bit of irony.This movie's only real weakness is that that Rhonda Fleming lives through it.
At the same time, though, the writers wasted effort on the cliche of the cop's wife wanting a more secure life and leaving him because she hates the kind of work he does.
Good touch when pots and pans clang to the floor after the John Larch character gets blown away by an unblinking "Foggy" Poole (Corey).
It's a first-rate performance, such that were the Oscars not so prejudiced against low-budgeters like Killer, Corey would have been considered for a presentation.The Foggy role is clearly the best thing the movie, which otherwise is pretty much standard thriller fare.
Wendell Corey, mousy bank clerk plans the bank holdup and is holed up in his apartment where Joseph Cotton, good cop, goes to arrest him.
In the confusion Cotton accidentally kills Corey's wife.
Wendell Corey usually played the boring, uptight second lead in his film roles so his character in this little "B" noir is a huge surprise.
He is out for revenge on Joseph Cotten who sent him up the river for his participation as the "inside man" in a bank heist which resulted in Corey's wife being killed accidentally.
After his escape from an Honor Farm where he was serving the remainder of his sentence, he starts stalking Cotten and his wife (Rhonda Fleming) with a few incidental murders along the way.
Years have past since Detective Sam Wagner(Joseph Cotton)brought bank robber Leon 'Foggy' Poole(Wendell Corey)to justice and in the crossfire accidentally killed the crook's wife.
When the once mild mannered convict escapes jail, he is crazed with just one thing on his mind and it is to get revenge by killing Wagner's wife Lila(Rhonda Fleming).
Instead, the movie seems to be more interested in the lead cop character and his wife, which eventually gets to be quite tiresome, especially since the wife doesn't come across as totally likable (or smart).
But the movie is never dull, and has some really good moments (the best being when the Corey character confronts an old army acquaintance).
So when you balance the good and bad stuff, the movie ends up being okay..
Wendell Corey is perfectly cast as the personality absent loan shark clerk who botches a robbery that ends up with police officer Joseph Cotten accidentally killing his wife.
On his way to prison, Corey looks Cotten's wife (Rhonda Fleming) right in the eye and promises he will venge his own wife's death.
**SPOILERS** Having it in for Det. Sam Wagner, Joseph Cotten, since he shot and killed his wife Doris when bank teller Leon Pool, Wendell Corey, was hold up in his apartment as he was holding off the police.
Pool was part of a robbery, with him being the inside man, of the bank that he worked for and his actions lead to his innocent wife Doris losing her life.
Sentenced to ten to twenty for armed robbery and resisting arrest Pool tells Det. Wagner at the conclusion of his trial that he'll get even with him by murdering his wife Lila, Rhonda Fleming, like he murdered his sweet and dear old lady Doris.After almost three years behind bars Pool makes his long planned escape from the prison's "honor farm" for model prisoners where he ends up killing a guard and then taking off with the prison lettuce truck and then murdering a local farmer and taking off with his pick-up truck drivers license as well as identity.
Making his way to the house of his former army staff Sergent Otto Flanders, John Larch, Pool hold's Otto's wife Grace, Dee.J Tompson, hostage and when her husband shows up.
Wendell Corey as the psycho killer Leon Pool made a name for himself here as one of the most unusual and creepy villains of film-noir movie history. |
tt2099556 | Antiviral | In a dystopian near-future, Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) is employed by the Lucas Clinic, a company which purchases viruses and other pathogens from celebrities who fall ill, in order to inject them into clients who desire a connection with celebrities. In particular, the pathogens supplied by the Lucas Clinic's exclusive celebrity Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon) are extremely popular, and another employee at the clinic, Derek Lessing (Reid Morgan), is responsible for harvesting them from Hannah directly. To make extra money, Syd uses his own body as an incubator, steals pathogens from the lab, and sells them on the black market. To do so, he uses a stolen console to break the copy protection placed on the virus by the clinic; once injected in a client, the pathogen is rendered incommunicable. He then passes the pathogens to Arvid (Joe Pingue), who works at Astral Bodies, a celebrity meatmarket where meat is grown from the cells of celebrities for consumption.
After Derek is caught smuggling and arrested, Lucas asks Syd to take his place and harvest a pathogen from Hannah, who has recently fallen ill. Once he has taken a blood sample from Hannah, Syd quickly injects himself with some of her blood. He experiences the first symptoms, fever and disorientation, rapidly, and he leaves work early. His attempts to remove the virus' copy protection are unsuccessful, and the console is destroyed during the process. When Syd awakens from severe delirium the next day, he discovers Hannah has died from the unknown disease, and all products harvested from her have skyrocketed in popularity. Desperate to fix his console, he approaches Arvid, who sets up a meeting with Levine, the leader of the piracy group. Levine offers to fix the console in exchange for samples of Syd's blood, but Syd refuses. Levine subdues him and forcibly takes samples from Syd, as the pathogen which killed Hannah is now hotly in demand on the black market, and lethal pathogens are not legal to distribute.
The next day, a severely ill Syd is approached by two men, who drive him to an undisclosed location where Hannah is actually still alive. Syd learns from Hannah's physician Dr. Abendroth that the virus infecting them both has been intentionally engineered with a security measure to prevent analysis, which explains why Syd's console was destroyed. Hannah's death was fabricated to protect her, but she is shown to be in the extreme stages of the illness, extremely weak and bleeding from her mouth. Dr. Abendroth reveals to Syd that the virus is a modified version of an illness that Hannah has had before, and that he himself has an infatuation with her, having had samples of her skin grafted to his own arm. He further suggests that since Syd unnecessarily injected himself with Hannah's blood, he too is "just another fan." As Syd's condition worsens, he returns to the Lucas Clinic, where he traces the original strain of the virus to Derek, who sold it to a rival company, Vole & Tesser. Dr Abendroth discovers that Vole & Tesser patented the modified strain, though their motives remain unclear.
Before Syd can proceed further, he is abducted by Levine and incarcerated in a room where his deterioration and death will be broadcast on reality television to sate Hannah's fans, who could not witness her death. As Syd begins to show the final symptoms, he escapes by spearing Levine in the mouth with a syringe and holding a nurse hostage with his infected blood. After Syd realizes that Vole & Tesser infected Hannah to harvest their own patented pathogen from her, Syd contacts Tesser and negotiates a deal. The film closes with a virtual-reality version of Hannah that advertises her "Afterlife" exclusively from Vole & Tesser. Syd is shown working for Vole & Tesser, where Hannah's cells have been replicated to form a distorted cell garden from Astral Bodies' celebrity meat technology. Viruses injected into her system are sold. Syd demonstrates a new virus as he sticks a needle into a genetically created arm. Later, while alone, Syd cuts the arm and drinks the flowing blood; it is revealed the arm is in fact Hannah's, as her deformed face and body are shown to be in the Cell Garden chamber. | psychedelic, satire | train | wikipedia | Antiviral is a sci-fi/horror film from the mind of Brandon Cronenberg, David Cronenberg's son.
The film follows Syd March, a man who works for a company that harvests diseases from celebrities and then injects them into paying clients.
The new flesh here being David Cronenberg's son Brandon, who seems to have inherited his father's body-horror fixation and has used it to direct his feature-length debut Antiviral, an unnerving yet very entertaining piece of science fiction.Antiviral offers a disturbing new meaning to our culture of celebrity obsession.
Syd Marsh (Caleb Landry Jones) works for a company that specialises in injecting members of the public with diseases that have been taken from specific celebrities; you could be walking around with Madonna's chest cold if you wanted to.
His desire to make a bit of extra money on the side however, coupled with his own addictions, leads him to be injected with a disease so incurable, it becomes a matter of life and death.More a criticism of celebrity culture than an accurate vision of the future, there are moments in this film that are frankly alarming, even when compared to our present day society of Big Brother, X-Factor and Heat magazine, a world in which attaining celebrity status is the only worthwhile ambition.
In Antiviral, for instance, there are companies that have developed 'cell stakes', slabs of grey meat grown from the muscle cells of the rich and famous that people actually queue up to buy and subsequently eat for lunch, their excuse being that it makes them feel closer to those they admire.
It's moments like these that make it a hard concept to imagine, yet it's a credit to Cronenberg's direction, his cold, very clinical approach to every scene, that makes it somehow believable.
There are certainly elements that share similarities: the hospital settings of Dead Ringers, the exploration of media and addiction in Videodrome, but Antiviral needs to be viewed as a completely separate piece of cinema, one that is refreshingly unique in its approach to a topic dealt with many times before, portraying a not-so-distant future with a strange, yet very absorbing bleakness.
It's a well-directed film with an extraordinary performance at its centre that serves as a perfect showcase for the brilliance of both Brandon Cronenberg and Caleb Landry Jones; let's hope their collaborations continue.http://monsters-and-ink.blogspot.co.uk/.
Brandon Cronenberg's auspicious debut feature is a visually stunning, compelling science fiction story that asks the question, "How far would you go to own a piece of your celebrity crush?" Directing from his own script, the young Canadian takes a decidedly cynical view of the cult of personality in this sci-fi paradigm shift -- "Antiviral" isn't necessarily showing us what will be in the future but what could be now as it appears to be set more in the present day.The film opens in a pristine medical facility where a desperate young man, Edward Porris (Douglas Smith in a too-brief but important establishing role), is about to be injected with a live virus taken from his favorite superstar.
22-year-old Caleb Landry Jones (Sean Cassidy/Banshee of "X-Men: First Class") is in virtually every shot, undergoing a total physical and emotional transformation that's almost painful to watch, reminiscent of the award-winning performance turned in by Tom Hanks in "Philadelphia." His masterful characterization of Syd's downward spiral is breathtaking and central to the picture's potency.
Every frame is like a painting, with lush cinematography and score that can only be effective when director, DP, composer, editor, and the entire visual team work in lockstep, resulting in a brilliant vision executed with highly disciplined precision.Much of March's day is set in the clinic and his home, which mirrors his workplace in its cold sterility.
The outside world is like a parallel universe, where dirt and grime cover a worn out, used landscape as if diseased itself.Cinematographer Karim Hussain ("Hobo with a Shotgun," one of my 2011 Sundance Film Festival Top 4) goes against the hand-held trend with stationary camera throughout much of the movie.
It's not without its flaws, but I give it major points for a unique, interesting concept and its sterile visual style.As a horror and sci-fi fan, I wish there were more films like Antiviral.
Antiviral seems to step out of that box.As mentioned, it isn't perfect, but a really great film for sci-fi/horror fans looking for something less cliché and more unique, something that can be hard to find within these genres today.It's a pretty low-budget film, so don't expect a ton of crazy sci-fi special effects.
Since our society is already relatively obsessed with celebrity culture, Antiviral's world feels distant, but not too far off.One issue is that the plot can feel a bit unfocused here and there.
Like Father Like Son. Syd March works for a cosmetic company that sells you a way to share the viruses and diseases your favourite celebrities have.
Beautifully done, a little slow paced, but worth it.The main character is a guy (Banshee from X-Men, now even creepier - he made a great role) who works as a technician in a company that buys and sells celebrity diseases.
There is a black market for steaks cloned from the genetic material of your favourite celebrity.The idea is great and they could have stopped here, with a boring movie about an interesting idea, but they did not.
It is a great film that fringes on horror (by showing people real horror, not something made up), but is basically a very good sci-fi movie.
If you were missing the old Cronenberg style, you're gonna love this movie.The script is very original and contains some interesting ideas.
It gave me the feeling of "something is missing here" at times - including in its ending - but all in all it was pretty impressive as a first feature-film for Brandon, both as a writer and a director (although if I compare it to Duncan Jones' Moon, the latter wins big time).
Antiviral follows the story of Syd March an employee at a clinic that sells celebrity viruses to the masses of fans desperate to feel closer to their idols.Brandon Cronenberg takes a stab at the body horror genre his father helped make famous.
The visual effects are impressively gruesome, With one nightmarish dream sequence lingering on long after the movie ends.The one point where Antiviral falls short for me is pace, each time the story picks up steam it seems to falter.
A little fat could have been trimmed, Instead of adding more and more ideas into the mix the movie could have done with honing the ones already there and using those to propel the story forward.I did enjoy the film and I very much look forward to the directors next work..
Boredom is the death of any movie, and this one will bore you to tears.'Antiviral' presents us with a celebrity obsessed near future.
Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) works for Lucas Clinic which buys viruses from celebrities to be injected into obsessed fans who are willing to pay.
A tech at one of these companies also smuggles the fresh virii out of his building by injecting himself; trouble arises when the celebrity unexpectedly dies, leaving the staffer little time to learn what went wrong before he suffers the same fate.Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) is that tech, Syd. He's got a pretty sweet gig, selling the virii he harvests to pirates who then alternately inject people with the virus (for a nice price) and grow the equivalent of steaks - really!
The obsession with celebrities, all too apparent in real life, is shown to be pretty normal in the film's fictional universe, and yet the horror of playing with the fire of fast-spreading pathogens undercuts this seeming normalcy with an almost Jones' Syd pretends to be just another hustler, but he's really as demented as his customers (and clients).
Jones plays Syd perfectly as a shady, somewhat-sullen man of little distinction; also noteworthy are Joe Pingue as Arvid (employee of the celebrity meat market), Wendy Crewson as the head of a rival pathogen company, and Malcolm McDowell, playing yet another doctor, this time with skin grafts from his favorite celebrity.Antiviral is a horror mystery, with buckets of blood and oodles of intrigue.
ANTIVIRAL is the debut film from Brandon Cronenberg, son of famous Canadian filmmaker David.
It's a gory effort with an emphasis on body horror which is odd given that in an interview I saw Cronenberg say he has no real interest in the horror genre; perhaps that's why this film feels so half-hearted as a result.The main character is a repulsive creep and the supporting cast of self-obsessed celebrities is even worse.
Now, some years later, his son, Brandon Cronenberg, is doing much the same thing.Antiviral is about a world where (believe it or not) the population can buy illnesses that have once infected the celebrity of their choosing, so they can be ill like their idol!
It's certainly a different type of film when you compare it to those other 'horror' movies of today, however, it's probably more at home with Cronenberg Senior's work back in the eighties.
While I can understand that some people would brush off the idea as 'too weird' - after all, what sane person would inject a disease into their own body just to feel close to someone?
What is supposed to happen?You come to look like the celebrity?You have a dream where the celebrity enters your life?You became a celebrity and hence can socialise?It gradually becomes most likely that you get to share a disease with your selected celebrity though I never understood the purpose of the machine or why people wanted this form of souvenir.On the black market, you can buy meat, cultured from the cells of celebrities.
Overall, its a pretty good sci-fi/horror type of film, the horror coming mainly from the theme of society and our worshiping of celebrities.Please like me on Facebook!
And if you enjoy A, B, C plots, you'll be scratching your head trying to figure out what happened.In the film, Caleb Jones plays Syd March, who works for the Lucas Clinic selling designer celebrity diseases to fans who want to experience the same illness their favorite star has endured.
"Antiviral" is another dystopian fantasy set in a world that very much resembles our own but one in which a high-tech clinic sells celebrity viruses that are readily taken up by fans seeking a new thrill; illness as sexual pleasure with an obvious AIDS metaphor.It's clear that young Cronenberg has been heavily influenced by his dad's early work, particularly "Shivers" and "Videodrome" with a little touch of "Soylent Green" thrown in for good measure but this is altogether more sophisticated than any of these and there's a nice touch of the living dead about the ashen-faced performance of Caleb Landry Jones as the Frankenstein figure who becomes his own monster as he injects more and more of the virus into his body.
Caleb Jones is absolutely perfect as the protagonist working at a corporation selling celebrity viruses to allow fans to feel close to their favourite stars by having the same viruses that they do.
Caleb Jones as Syd March has an ethereal beauty and paleness allowing him to pull off the part impeccably as does Sarah Gadon as Hannah Geist the main star on exclusive contract with the Lucas Clinic.
In this film, Caleb Landry Jones (X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) plays an employee of a clinic which sells viruses that have been in celebrities.
The acting also from Malcolm McDowell and the rest of the cast is first class.I find the idea of extreme celebrity obsession getting out of hand, do much that we will do anything to disease ourselves with viruses from their bodies, and eat flesh and meat cloned from our obsessions is both sick and scary.
Imagine if you could get anything you want, even parts if the likes of Madonna, Michael Jackson or Neldon Mandela.Only for it's aesthetic, clinical, white, clean, sharp, and empty atmosphere the movie us astonishing, and combined with the filthy ideas and red and blackish blood and black suits which disgustingly enough makes the film quite sexy.It's also interesting that it is impossible to read into the film what's up next, but many will hate this for the same reasons I was fascinated.
Syd March is a great interesting character played by Caleb Landry Jones who is the best fit for the role.
Set in the very near future where celebrity obsession has become paralyzing infection of the populace, a salesman in a virus clinic sees beyond the cloud of asphyxiating distraction and, by virtue of his own addictions and through chance of fate, is drawn into a complex mystery, that only he can solve.That being said, we'll never get to meet Hannah Geist.
Antiviral, equates these obsessions with addiction, and as each plot point turns, these themes are blended and blurred for Syd. Even when you think you have every turn and motivation figured out, Cronenberg keeps you guessing until the very end.The design and sound of this film are engrossing.
I'm a big fan of Cronenberg Sr. and the body-horror genre, but for some reason, "Antiviral" didn't quite live up to what I was hoping for in terms of plot.
It's tragic in the sense that Syd, although he's infected and has access to all of Hannah's illnesses, is no closer to "communion" with her then any other obsessed fan.I suppose I would have written the story differently and perhaps I didn't love this film because it didn't have the ending *I* wanted.
The film was directed by Brandon Cronenberg, son of director David Cronenberg.Essentially an inferior, scifi version of "Perfect Blue", "Antiviral" follows Syd March, a young man who steals viruses from celebrities and sells them on the black market.
First of all, I'd like to give my opinion on the idea - the whole premise of celebrity obsession getting to such an unhealthy level that we pay to disease ourselves with viruses from their bodies.
This is the movie that first got me infatuated with Caleb Landry Jones (which is ironic, considering the theme of this film), and the way he portrays Syd March is so perfect, it still shocks me to this day.
Plot summary: "Syd March is an employee at a clinic that sells injections of live viruses harvested from sick celebrities to obsessed fans.".
Now let's imagine that we live in a world that is basically disease free, but that for another reason people actually are willing to pay enormous amounts of money to get infected with the diseases that bring them closer to the illusions of human beings which are created and perpetuated by society as celebrities.
From the beginning his obsession with Hannah Geist seems pretty clear, but whether or not his attempts to find a cure for the disease that was killing them both remained ambiguous to me and I've seen the film a couple of times.
Brandon will probably have more success because thanks to his father the world has become more prepared to explore many of the themes introduced in this fascinating film; but I wonder what it's like living in the shadow of such an important figure, especially if you feel the need to reference their work so much and so often..
but something like Antiviral will be the type of movie where people will always want to see once they become a fan of however many films Brandon Cronenberg puts out there at the point in time when they first realize how much they enjoy what he does..
When he becomes infected with the disease that kills celebrity Hannah Geist, Syd becomes a target for collectors and rabid fans.
What the film does deal is the obsession of celebrity, and the lengths people will do to be like their favourite celebrity.Even eating the celebrity...The film is very sanitised, and Jones is wonderful, as the man who is literally carrying a disease and his physical transformation throughout the movie is quite spectacular.All in all, it does owe a lot to Cronenberg Sr., especially his early works, but it's a wonderfully bonkers concept, and it works....
The story is a bunch of people work in this weird clinic its a company that purchases Viruses and other pathogens from celebrities that get sick and for some reason the people in this film want to buy the viruses and inject them into their bodies.
but the characters were just plain stupid and demented that it made me wonder what the writer of this movie was thinking when he wrote the Script.I just didn't care for the script or the directing and as for the main character Syd all he does is spend the entire film walking around like an Old Man!,and i had no sympathy for him because i thought he was an idiot.I'm sorry but anyone who is stupid enough to inject themselves with a virus or pathogens deserves everything that happens to them.I don't feel sympathy for dumb people.
this movie just has so many dumb and weird scenes that it becomes laughable at times.there is another scene where Syd is talking with this Fat man about Viruses and the two of them ending up fighting over a VIRUS!
Syd gets beaten up by the Fat man which i thought looked so LAUGHABLE.There is another scene later in the film where we see Syd yet again walking around like an OLD MAN!.I should probably mention this happens during the WHOLE MOVIE!
This film even feels like a Soap at times because most of the time you just have people walking around!.
Also, there's a few plot twists that kept me watching all the way to a very sick ending.I think it would be more credible for extreme fans to buy celebrity fertiliser.
Syd March is a scientist whose job is to sell viruses taken from sick celebrities to sell to obsessed fans. |
tt0395585 | House of 9 | The film opens up with surveillance camera views of a mansion and its rooms; the views alternate among images of nine people being kidnapped. Lea (Kelly Brook), an abductee, wakes up in a bedroom. She notices others in nearby bedrooms, and runs to the main door, bangs at it, and shouts to be let out. She finds the windows are all walled with bricks; even the basement door is blocked. She has a panic attack and passes out.
Lea is awakened by Father Duffy (Dennis Hopper), a priest who is with a group of seven people. A voice (The Watcher (Jim Carter)) comes over a speaker which announces they are gathered to play a game. Their friends and family are being "taken care of", so they won't be found. Also, they were chosen "not based on who they are, but what they are". It is like a reality show, only much graver: the rules are that the winner is the last one left alive; he or she would then be freed, and also receive compensation of five million U.S. dollars.
The players discuss the situation. They try to break down the door using a dining table as a battering ram, and then try to dig and break through other holes, but nothing works. A sound from the kitchen reveals a dumbwaiter with food.
In the dining room, the players introduce themselves. Father Duffy is a priest. Jay is a cop with a pistol. Lea is a dancer. Claire is a tennis player. Francis is a musician, and Cynthia is his wife. Al B is an ambitious rapper who covets Jay's gun, and assumes anything said about him is racially motivated. Shona is a drug addict with an ankle bracelet monitor; some players hope that this may attract outside help. Max Roy (Peter Capaldi) is a clothes designer.
After dinner, the players choose bedrooms. Cynthia and Francis take one, and Duffy gets his own; the others share. Jay and Lea talk about their families, until someone sneaks in and tries to steal Jay's gun. Jay and Lea foil the attempt and assemble everyone in the hallway where they all argue. Afterwards, Jay tells Lea that he only trusts her and Duffy.
The players open a wine cabinet and have drinks, except for Duffy, who returns to his room. Lea goes for a walk and Jay sits at his bed. Francis leaves with a glass stopper; he breaks it in the bathroom, and hides some shards under the toilet lid. Shona, Claire and Max get drunk. Al B flirts and dances with Cynthia, until Francis arrives. The two men fight, but when Cynthia intervenes, Al B pushes her and knocks the back of her head against the stone railing, which causes her death. Jay "arrests" Al B, and locks him in a room using a pipe.
The players are shocked at Cynthia's death. Al B screams to be let out. Duffy brings him food, but he escapes and attacks Jay with the pipe; he beats him to a pulp. With his dying breath, Jay gives Duffy his gun. Al B slowly backs into the room and shuts the door.
The next day, the six remaining players find food and wine, along with a card that says "Good work". They run to Al B's room and find that he has hanged himself. Duffy and Lea stand in shock, while the other players leave to eat. Francis retreats and show signs of a mental breakdown. Shona and Claire argue, and it escalates to the point where Claire kills Shona. Meanwhile, Francis goes after Lea, who is washing her face in the bathroom. He rips the light fixture from the wall and throws it into the sink, electrocuting her.
Claire tells Duffy that she killed Shona in self-defense. Duffy leaves to look for Lea, and finds her on the bathroom floor. Francis arrives, and pretends to act surprised. Meanwhile, Claire goes to get food, but sees Max. She offers to form an alliance with him; he accepts. Francis attacks Duffy with the assumption he would not retaliate with the gun, but Duffy shoots him in the stomach. As Claire turns around to the sound, Max wraps his belt around her neck. Duffy returns to the foyer and sees Max strangle Claire. Max explains that "she was stealing food", but refuses Duffy's pleas to stop. Duffy shoots Max in the head.
The gunshot awakens Lea, who had survived the electrocution. She barricades the door and rushes to the shower, but knocks the toilet lid and discovers the glass shards that Francis hid. She tears a shower curtain and wraps it around one of the shards. Duffy asks Claire if she is okay, but he is stabbed in the back by Francis, and he drops the gun. Francis retrieves it and shoots Claire. Duffy pleads for his life, but Francis uses the last round to shoot him. He then declares victory, repeatedly shouting "I Win!"
Upstairs, Lea makes a commotion when she fumbles with the toilet cover. Francis hears the noise and heads upstairs. Lea hides under the bed when Francis walks in the room. After seeing that Lea is no longer in the bathroom, he spots her, and toys with her briefly before pulling her out. In the ensuing struggle, Lea stabs Francis in the leg with the shard, and runs to a balcony. Francis charges her, and they flip over the railing. Lea lands on top of Francis, but when she gets up, she realizes the shard had pierced Francis in the heart.
The front door opens, revealing a bright light, and a bag on the floor. Lea walks to the door, picks up the bag, and leaves.
=== Alternate endings ===
The DVD includes two alternate endings.
In the first ending, as Lea steps into the light, she is knocked unconscious, and wakes up in her apartment bed. She notices the bag, a small TV set and a videotape. She opens the bag and sees a pile of cash. She plays the tape, and sees the camera footage of the foyer (all the bodies are gone and everything is cleaned up). The Watcher says she just became a member of the world's most exclusive survival club, and that he is very proud. The picture then goes to the bedrooms where there are nine new people passed out on the floor. Lea stares at the screen in shock as The Watcher says, "Happy viewing..."
In the second "originally intended" ending, as Lea leaves the house, she is led into another house where she meets four people. Each of them has a bag of money. The camera zooms in on Lea; a fearful look grows as she realizes that the game is not over. | psychedelic, suspenseful, cruelty, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0042296 | Caged | A married 19-year-old, Marie Allen (Eleanor Parker), is sent to prison after a botched armed robbery attempt with her equally young husband, Tom, who is killed. While receiving her initial prison physical, she finds out that she is two months pregnant.
Marie has trouble adjusting to the monotonous and cutthroat world of the women's prison. She meets Kitty Stark (Betty Garde), a murderous shoplifter, who says once Marie gets out, Kitty will get her a job "boosting" (shoplifting). Marie does not want to get involved in crime, but Kitty explains the realities of prison life: "You get tough or you get killed. You better wise up before it's too late."
Told she can be paroled after 9 months, Marie witnesses prisoner after prisoner being "flopped back" – granted parole, but then not released from jail because no jobs had been arranged by their parole officers. One flopped-back prisoner, June (Olive Deering), kills herself given the hopeless situation. This saps Marie's hopes of getting out early.
Despite the hardships under sadistic matron Evelyn Harper (Hope Emerson), Marie gives birth to a healthy baby and wants to "temporarily" grant full custody to her mother. The intent is to get the baby back after she is released. Marie's callous step-father has decided not to allow the baby into his house. Marie's mother uses the excuses that she's "too old" and "hasn't a penny in [her] name" as reasons why she can't help Marie. Marie is denied a parole. She half-heartedly tries to escape, but is not punished. The prison forces her to permanently give the child up for adoption.
The arrival of "vice queen" Elvira Powell (Lee Patrick) sets off a rivalry with Kitty. Elvira bribes Harper to put Kitty in solitary confinement, where Kitty is beaten. When a kitten is found in the jail yard, Marie attempts to make it a pet. When Harper tries to take the kitten away, a riot ensues, during which the kitten is accidentally killed, and Marie is put into solitary confinement as well.
Before taking Marie to solitary confinement, Harper shaves Marie's head, symbolically stripping her of her innocence. Harper has disagreements with the sympathetic reformist prison superintendent, Ruth Benton (Agnes Moorehead), especially after this latest incident with Marie. However, since Harper is a political appointee, the police commissioner refuses to fire her, and asks for Benton's resignation, instead. When Benton declares that she will request a public hearing, the resignation issue is dropped.
Out of solitary confinement after a month, Kitty is distraught and mentally ill. After being picked on by Harper in the cafeteria, Kitty stabs Harper to death as the inmates watch and make no attempt to stop it. After her exposure to hardened criminals and sadistic prison guards, Marie actually urges Kitty on.
Up for parole once again, Marie has found a "cashier's job" outside—actually just a ruse to join Elvira Powell's shoplifting gang—and leaves prison a hardened woman after 15 months. Benton asks Marie why she is going into crime when she could go back to school. Marie says she got all the education she needed in prison.
After Marie leaves, an office assistant asks Benton what to do with Marie's file. Benton replies, "Keep it active. She'll be back." | cruelty, sadist | train | wikipedia | Not only is it a good prison drama, but it is a good example of film noir moviemaking as well.It was a bit of daring to show how corrupt the prison system can be and "inmates decaying" as one character put it.The lead character (Eleanor Parker) goes from being an innocent to becoming as hard as anyone else in the prison system due to the efforts of her matron and chief tormentor (Hope Emerson).
At nearly fifty years old, 'Caged" isn't quite like today's women-in-prison sexploitation flicks--and that's good.
For reasons I cannot fathom, this film sometimes ends up on lists of the worst movies of all time; this despite Oscar nominations for Eleanor Parker and Hope Emerson.
Brilliant performances by Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, and especially, Hope Emerson, as the prison matron...
(And, given the milieu and all-but-all-female cast, that innuendo has a heavily Sapphic tinge.) One need only list the characters and the players to get a map of the direction the drama will take: "new fish" Marie Allen (Eleanor Parker); corrupt, sadistic matron Evelyn Harper (the 6'2" Hope Emerson); hard case Kitty Stark (Betty Garde); vice queen Elvira Powell (Lee Patrick); warden Ruth Benton (Agnes Moorehead); and one tough old bird who almost steals the whole damn picture ("one more like you would be so much velvet").
There is undeniably some hokum in this 1950's crime drama, but this is still easily one of the best prison films ever, featuring top-notch performances by Eleanor Parker as the young innocent eventually hardened by the grim realities of prison life, and by Hope Emerson as the scary prison matron (both deservedly recieved Academy Award nominations for their work).
The picture obtained three nominations for Academy Award : the best principal actress (Eleanor Parker) , support cast (Hope Emerson) and the best original screenplay (Virginia Kellogg).The film is remade as ¨House of Women¨(1962) with Shirley Knight and originated a real sub-genre and spreading several sequels , imitations and copies as ¨Women's prison¨(1955) with Ida Lupino and ¨Girls in Prison¨ with Joan Taylor.
It's just that things are a lot more raw than they are on free side.The film is seen through the eyes of protagonist Eleanor Parker who drew a one to fifteen year sentence on a robbery in which her husband was killed.
Due to the influence of the prison even with a relatively compassionate warden like Agnes Moorehead, by the time she leaves she's as tough a cookie as those she met and dealt with as fellow cons and as matrons.Eleanor Parker and Hope Emerson as the wicked matron Harper both received Oscar nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively.
Yet the whole film is so well cast it seems a shame to single out just those two performers.Two of the most interesting characters were Betty Garde as a tough con who runs the cell block until an enemy in the person of Lee Patrick who is a society madam arrives for a short term.
Look also for good performances by Ellen Corby as the loopy murderer of her abusing husband and Jan Sterling in on a prostitution rap.I think if the cast of The Women were ever thrown into prison as they are in Caged, I think the behavior would be exactly the same.
For example, nineteen-year old Marie (Parker)"flops" in as a wide-eyed innocent but leaves as a hardened criminal; guard Harper's sadism and influence-peddling flourishes; day-to-day routines strip inmates of self-respect; the medical dispensary remains under-funded and filthy; while the entire package is held together by state politics, skimpy budgets, and behind the scenes string-pulling.
"Caged" is the rare kind of movie that works both as a film to take seriously and as a camp classic.Eleanor Parker plays Marie Allen, a naive 19-year-old who goes to prison as an accomplice in an armed robbery staged by her loser husband.
She doesn't really belong there, but despite the efforts of the prison administrator (Agnes Moorehead) to help her get paroled, she remains locked up, only to be turned into a jaded criminal by the very institution that's supposed to reform her.The film is full of rough stuff, atrocities and indignities heaped one after another on Marie or the other inmates.
Presiding over all is sadistic warden Evelyn Harper, played memorably by the gigantic actress Hope Emerson, who abuses her power so egregiously that she eventually gets stabbed in the chest with a fork by one crazy inmate while Parker's character hisses "Kill her!
Kill her!" The screenplay tosses out one memorable line after another -- my favorite is Parker's departing words to Moorehead when Marie finally gets her parole: "Thanks for the haircut." But for all the women-behind-bars sensationalism, the film is no joke.
I laughed a lot, but I also found myself outraged.In addition to Parker, Emerson (both Oscar nominated, by the way) and Moorehead, the cast also includes Jan Sterling and Betty Garde as two of the more memorable inmates.Grade: A.
Some of the finest character actors in the business were in the film including the aforementioned Jan Sterling, Betty Garde, Hope Emerson, Lee Patrick, Agnes Moorhead, Ellen Corby, Jane Darwell, Olive Deering and Sheila MacRae. And who can forget the stellar performance of Eleanor Parker as Marie Allen, a young woman who made a mistake and paid dearly for it.
this is one of the most under rated movies of all time.eleanor parker really did deserve an oscar for this performance, the entire cast is excellent as well.
The warden states: "She'll be back!"Eleanor Parker received the first of 3 Oscar nominations for this realistic film on the conditions of prison life.
Surprise!) rises far above the usual pitfalls of being nothing more than pure exploitation trash.As well - Kudos goes to both Eleanor Parker and Hope Emerson for their earnest conviction and sincere believability in the first-rate character portrayals that they delivered in "Caged".This gritty, unsentimental, unglamourous, tough-as-nails Chick Flick from 1950 is, without question, the best prison film (focusing on women) that I have ever seen, bar none.Yes. Caged is clichéd as only a prison picture could possibly be, but, with that aside, its cast, its director, and its screenwriter (Virginia Kellogg) were obviously so professional and self-assured about their involvement in the story that they were tackling that Caged literally stands tall as a shining gem of its genre.From its despairing opening sequence, to its even more despairing final moments, Caged certainly succeeded in holding my unwavering interest and attention for its full 96-minute running time.Yes. Indeed.
If no attempt is made to adjust felons, all a prison is good for is to further indoctrinate criminals in their pegged rackets.Of all of them, the most indelible impression is made by the gruff voice and towering physicality of Hope Emerson, who mustered all of the feelings of inadequacy one frankly imagines she suffered in her time to scald the morale of the inmates over which she abuses the power she sadistically relishes.
Subsequently, one need just run down the characters surrounding her to map the bearings of the angle the drama will take: Manipulative and vicious superintendent Hope Emerson, hard-boiled ringleader Kitty Stark played by the boldly unglamorous Betty Garde, and corruption matron Lee Patrick.
CAGED has many of the same elements as other prison films but nonetheless it's a superior movie thanks to great cinematography, action, characters, and overall intelligence guiding it.
The beginning shot is a classic noir shot inside the paddy wagon taking the women, including the protagonist Marie Allen played by Eleanor Parker in an Oscar-nominated role, to the prison.
The film conveys a dark and gritty "social realism" that Warner Brothers seemed to specialize in at this time.While the prison is run by a progressive warden played by Agnes Morehead, the prisoners are cruelly harassed by a truly monstrous matron played by Hope Emerson, who also received an Oscar nomination.
That would be Evelyn Harper (Hope Emerson), a big corrupt brute.Photographed in an impressively stark manner by Carl Guthrie, "Caged" is directed with sensitivity and intelligence by John Cromwell, who gets excellent performances out of his mostly female cast.
It stars Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Ellen Corby, Betty Garde and Hope Emerson.
Struggling to come to terms with her incarceration and the tough regime overseen by brutish warden Harper (Emerson), Marie comes to realise that she may have to go through a major character transformation to survive.Unfairly tagged as camp and sounding on synopsis like what would become a cheese laden staple of women's prison movies, Caged is actually rather powerful film making.
A serious no laughing matter movie about prison life period,no need to consider gender.Even with all that for me the character that stood out most was the warden played by Agnes Moorehead.Having not seen her work before I went into this movie not being a follower of hers but in the end I liked her presentation.Trying to change what's wrong in the prison she keeps running into a brick wall.Visiting officials to the prison aren't really concerned about doing what is right,their main concern is keeping their positions and not upsetting persons in positions over them.The way the warden doesn't back down to these pompous,gutless bootlickers was to my liking.It seemed like a scene at many workplaces maybe yours.It reminded me of the persons that butter-up those in charge.Those in charge clean up the unit when they hear higher-ups are coming for a visit.The officials in this movie remind me of the above.I'd like to think I saw a bit of myself in the wardens character..
Eleanor Parker got a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for this gritty look inside women's prisons.
Eleanor Parker from Caged, one of the first women-in-prison movies.
Hope Emerson was nominated for a Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as the vaguely lesbian matron of the prison who treats the inmates like garbage.
After her husband is killed attempting to rob a gas station, 19-year-old Eleanor Parker (as Marie Allen, #93850) is thrown into prison as an accessory.
Hardened inmate Betty Garde (as Kitty Stark) wants Parker to join her gang, and wealthy Lee Patrick (as Elvira Powell) wants her sexual favors...Nice warden Agnes Moorehead (as Ruth Benton) provides hope...This is a well produced drama, although it is simplistic and superficial.
Her supporting cast, led by Ms. Emerson, is exceptional.******** Caged (5/19/50) John Cromwell ~ Eleanor Parker, Hope Emerson, Betty Garde, Agnes Moorehead.
A scared, 19 year-old woman named "Marie Allen" (Eleanor Parker) has been sentenced to 1 to 15 years in prison for being an accessory to a robbery that was not her fault.
Noticing how emotionally fragile Marie Allen is, another prisoner named "Kitty Stark" (Betty Garde) gives her this advice, "In this cage you get tough or you get killed." Since the movie evolves from this point and rather than spoil the film for anyone who hasn't seen it, I won't give out any more details of the story.
It wasn't award winning as a movie, but two of its actresses (Parker as the new inmate and Emerson as the sadistic guard) were nominated for Oscars!
It's a well acted and extremely well directed movie without the severe brutality and exploitation that most of the films of the same genre would become known for later in the 60's and 70's.Marie Allen played by a superb Eleanor Parker's transformation from the girl next door to a hard nosed convict is spectacular.If you are looking for the brutal, naked chick prison flick you're in the wrong place but if you are looking for one of the best if not the best then sit back and enjoy..
Great performances from Oscar nominated Eleanor Parker and Hope Emerson--as well as Agnes Moorehead and Lee Patrick.
This powerful drama inside the female prision was a turning point to reform the inhuman system which ruled in America,this picture was a warning for changing the rotten and vicious circle at this period of time a crime's school, Eleanor Parker had a great performance as a primary detainee but Agnes Moorehead stolen the show for first time plays the good girls as far l've remember, without forget Hope Emerson on a remarkable acting as devious keeper,almost perfect noir which was increased by the final result choosen by the system's victim!!Resume:First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 9.5.
Eleanor Parker gave one of her best performances as Marie Allen, a young naive pregnant widow, who becomes an unwilling accessory to a robbery that killed her husband.
At the beginning of this film, a naïve 19 year old woman (Eleanor Parker) enters prison for being with her husband when he committed a robbery.
The other prisoners, led by a 'queen bee' (Betty Garde) size her up quickly as a nice person, and look out for her, although Garde also begins trying to recruit her into a career of shoplifting for when she gets paroled.As the film plays out, there are some aspects that seem unlikely, e.g. the woman breaking down after only three days of solitary confinement, and the warden entering the prison area behind bars fearlessly, quelling a riot by simply shouting "Stop it!" There is also a bit of toughness missing, with little real threat from other prisoners, who all seem relatively decent in spite of some of the crimes they've committed.
At a time when the United States is undergoing overdue prison reform, this movie has not at all lost its relevance.The entire supporting cast is excellent, but Agnes Moorehead, Hope Emerson, and Betty Garde especially stand out.
Eleanor Parker gives a terrific performance as the innocent young woman hardened by the brutality of prison.
Eleanor Parker (as the new girl in the cell block), Hope Emerson (as the hissable matron) and the screenplay were all nominated for Oscars--which is more surprising actually than anything in the picture.
Meek mild Marie Allen (Eleanor Parker) is sentenced to 5 years in prison for a robbery attempt her husband forced her into--he was killed.
Marie, here played by Eleanor Parker in what has become her most-remembered movie role, is haunting as the ingénue who gets ground into mincemeat and comes out a hardened criminal.
However, CAGED is a fantastic film, with a first-rate cast including the likes of Agnes Moorehead, Lee Patrick, Betty Garde, Ellen Corby, Jane Darwell, Sheila McRae, and Jan Stirling in a scene-stealing role as Smoochie and a presence that points at the type of women that would become icons of beauty a full decade later -- think Goldie Hawn and Twiggy..
Best of the women's prison films...Eleanor Parker deserved an Oscar....
Marie comes out at the end of the movie a hardened and embittered young woman with only a life of crime awaiting her on the outside.Marie had at first something to look forward to in that she being pregnant and the warden of the prison Ruth Benton, Agnes Moorhead, understanding her sorry plight in that she was a victim of circumstances, being at the wrong place at the wrong time, more then a criminal with her husband getting gunned down trying to stick up a gas station and she unknowingly, what her husband was up to, sitting in his car.
Eleanor Parker gives a superb and touching performance as naive and innocent 19-year-old Marie Allen, who finds herself doing hard time in a brutal women's penitentiary.
Excellent Prison Film with Eleanor Parker at Her Best.
Agnes Moorehead gives great support as the superintendent or warden of the institution and is a much-needed friend to Eleanor and the film boasts a strong cast of character actresses including Ellen Corby, Jan Sterling and Lee Patrick, but the film belongs completely to Eleanor Parker and the film's director who holds nothing back.
However, they had to start somewhat...and who knew that the first big one was such a good movie--even with its histrionics.The film begins with the naive Eleanor Parker being sent to prison as an accomplice to a robbery that went bad.
Young Marie Allen(Eleanor Parker)is sentenced to prison for aiding her husband in a robbery.
When she arrives as a "new fish" at the women's prison, she's surprised when her routine medical examination reveals that she's pregnant.Evelyn Harper (Hope Emerson) is the matron in charge of Marie's cell block.
This makes her increasingly bitter and cynical and leads her to the realisation that unless she compromises her principles, she simply won't be able to survive her sentence.Eleanor Parker and Hope Emerson were understandably nominated for Oscars in recognition of the quality of their performances and the movie also garnered a further nomination in respect of its story and screenplay."Caged" is very hard-hitting and uncompromising in the way that it depicts the brutality and corruption that are a part of the prisoners' everyday lives and is equally forceful in emphasising how impossible it is to rehabilitate anyone in this type of environment.
And as the end of the movie makes clear, the prison experience has almost certainly made the protagonist more prone to crime (as often happens in real life).In addition to Parker, the cast includes Agnes Moorehead (Endora on "Bewitched"), Hope Emerson (the strongwoman who hoisted Spencer Tracy's character in "Adam's Rib") and Jane Darwell (the matriarch in "The Grapes of Wrath").
Unlike other women's prison movies, this lacks the camp quotient, although there's plenty of opportunity to make some of the more melodramatic moments into something humorous.Holding it's own nearly 70 years after release, this is going to be the film for which Hope Emerson will always be remembered.
Well made film prison film and a must see for anyone that likes Elenor Parker, who is good, but Agnes Moorehead and Hope Emerson are even better.
Caged is a taut, well played prison drama with Eleanor Parker as Marie Allen, a naive, pregnant nineteen year old who gets a stretch in stir for a small time crime.
Agnes Moorhead plays the concerned, reform-minded warden against rigid prison officials and a corrupt, hard minded matron played by Hope Emerson (who made a career in tough woman roles). |
tt0025011 | Crimson Romance | In 1916, childhood best friends, Bob Wilson (Ben Lyon) and Fred von Bergen (James Bush), are test pilots working for an American company that builds bombers for the European allies. Since he is German-born and faces prejudice against his heritage, Fred loses his job and, unable to find other employment, decides to return to Germany to fight for his homeland. Although he has no special attachment to the German cause, Bob quits the aviation company and joins his friend in Germany.
On their way to a German airfield, Red Cross nurse Alida Hoffman (Sari Maritza) accidentally runs Bob and Fred off the road, Both men are immediately drawn to Alida, especially Bob although Fred is more shy. After Bob's first unsuccessful mission, Captain Wolters (Erich von Stroheim), the squadron's tyrannical leader, expresses his doubt about his loyalty but, desperate for pilots, gives him another chance.
As the United States is drawn into the war, instead of sending him into a crucial air battle, Wolters arrests Bob. Fred, heartbroken that Alida has chosen Bob, quarrels with his friend, calling him a coward. Later, however, Fred allows his friend to escape from a firing squad and flee to the Allied lines.
To prove his allegiance, Bob leads British bombers to the German base, while Fred is told by Wolters that he must shoot down Bob to prove his loyalty. Neither man is capable of killing the other, and, in the end, Fred sacrifices his life for Bob. After the war, Bob returns to Germany to marry Alida. The newly married couple then returns to the United States, and pay their respects to Fred's mother. | romantic | train | wikipedia | Friendship or Country?. When Fred is forced to leave his job as a test pilot for being a German immigrant his friend Bob goes with him. These are the days prior to America's entry in to World War One and anti German hysteria is running high. Unable to find work Fred decides to return to Germany "where he's wanted" and Bob goes with him. Both men fall in love with a pretty ambulance driver complicating their friendship. Things get even more complicated when America enters the war and Bob feels he must join his fellow countrymen on the other side. His only hope to escape would be with Fred's help, but to do so would put Fred into terrible danger.Interesting war drama about love, friendship and nationalism in time of war. Certainly its a pot boiler first (and a good one at that) but it also forces you to wonder which is more important friendship or country? The answer isn't that easy especially when any choice will be deadly. There really isn't much more to say beyond that except its a good little movie thats well told. Its an enjoyable hour and change that probably won't change your life but will keep you entertained.. Germany...we're kinda sorry about WWI.. In the late 1920s into the 1930s, quite a few films began re-thinking America's involvement in WWI. While the Germans had previously been described as monstrous, the post-war years brought a realization that the First World War was a crime against humanity and there were no 'good guys'....just victims of this accursed war. Films like "Ever In My Heart" (1933), "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930) and "Four Sons" (1928) now showed Germans in a very sympathetic light and they presented a much more realistic view of the war.When the story begins, Fred is fired from his job because he's a German and there's a lot of anti-German sentiment in the USA*. After not begin able to find work, he decides to immigrate back to Germany---and his friend, Bob (Ben Lyon) goes with him even though he's not German. Both soon join the German army**. Soon they are transferred to the air corps, as they both are trained pilots. Unfortunately, Bob makes a terrible pilot. He seems to think more of his German sweetie, Alida, than he does serving Germany. As a result of this relationship, Bob and Fred have a falling out...which makes little sense in light of Bob's actions leading up to this (quitting the USA and standing up for Fred repeatedly up until this time). He also is torn when the USA enters the war...will he keep serving Germany, go to prison for refusing to fight or will he try to go across enemy lines and join his American comrades?This is an okay film.....and not nearly as impactful as the ones I mentioned above. This is for a few reasons I can think of right away...such as some bad acting here or there (with folks who couldn't approximate a German accent if their lives depended on it!), a muddled message (Bob, if you think about it, really WAS a traitorous sort of guy) and a finale pitting Bob against Fred which just seems ridiculous. Overall, watchable but a missed opportunity to be something more.*It's hard to believe now, but in cities across the USA, there were anti-German riots and German immigrants WERE targeted for attacks in many places, such as Cincinnati and Milwaukee (primarily German cities, in fact). Additionally, famous German-Americans lost jobs in places like Chicago and Nashville. This was mirrored in countries like Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. **Before the USA entered the war in the Spring of 1917, some Americans volunteered to fight in the war. The vast majority fought for the French or British, though some (like in this film) did fight for the Reich....so this story element isn't far-fetched. What IS far-fetched is that neither of the friends sound the least bit German! While it made sense for Bob not to speak German or have an accent...where is Fred's?! Plus, a few of the Germans in the film have very thick accents...yet others have almost none!!. Exactly 100 years ago... A lot of history can be recorded in a century, and while we haven't yet reached the centennial of America's involvement in the great war, society advancements make it seem like a millennium. Look at aircraft alone, from the one seaters of more than a century ago to the huge airline industry of today. America's involvement in the first world war didn't come until the end if it, and certainly the outcome for the boys was grim when they returned. An American pilot leaves the service of his country when his German pal is kicked out over paranoia during pre- American involvement times. He follows his friend to Germany and ends up serving under the Kaiser. But America's involvement is inevitable, causing conflict inside him, as does his love for a pretty German girl. "Please don't go away mad. Just go away", he tells his German pal, but under the thumb of commander Erich von Stroheim, he finds more than his share if issues to deal with.There's believable conflict in this above average B film that flies by in an hour. Ben Lyon is quite good as the American, with von Stroheim both subtle and powerful in his supporting role. This gives a reminder that the enemy is not always individually rotten as we would like to think, and the conflicts of war involve more than just two sides. Seeing that this came out as Germany was rebuilding under the Nazi's makes this all the more interesting and in the case of when it was released, very timely. |
tt0055458 | Snow White and the Three Stooges | Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Fortunia, a noble king and his lovely young queen lack but one blessing to make their joy complete. The queen gives birth to a daughter named Snow White, but dies soon after. The king mourns her, but in time, he remarries because of the pleading of his people. His new Queen is a beautiful, but evil woman who soon becomes jealous of Snow White's beauty.
On her 17th birthday, Snow White's father dies and the wicked queen immediately imprisons her. Eventually, the queen's jealousy of her stepdaughter becomes so great that she orders her killed. Snow White escapes her hired assassin and finds refuge in the empty cottage of the seven dwarfs, soon to be joined by the Three Stooges, who are traveling to the castle with their ward Quatro. But the boy they have raised since childhood (also narrowly escaping an assassination attempt by the queen) is in reality Prince Charming, who though he has lost his memory, is betrothed to Snow White.
Snow White and the Prince fall in love, but the queen has him kidnapped when she suspects his true identity. The Stooges, disguised as cooks, attempt to rescue him, but he falls from a staircase in the palace and is presumed dead. Meanwhile, the queen learns from her magic mirror that Snow White is still alive. With the help of her magician, Count Oga, she transforms herself into a witch and succeeds in getting Snow White to take a bite from a poisoned apple.
As she rides back to the palace, she encounters the Stooges, and thanks to an inadvertent wish they make on a magic sword (stolen from Count Oga), she crashes her broom into a mountainside and falls to her death. The Stooges then find the poisoned Snow White, but they do not bury her. Instead, they place her on a bed, and pray to her each day.
Meanwhile, the Prince (Quatro) has not died from his fall. Instead, he is saved by a group of men who want to revolt against the Evil Queen's rule over Fortunia. As the prince recovers, he realizes that his memory has returned, and so he knows that he is indeed a Prince, and that Snow White is the princess he was destined to marry.
After leading a successful revolt which places him on the throne of Fortunia, the prince sends out searchers to find Snow White and the Stooges, unaware that, thanks to yet another inadvertent wish on Count Oga's sword, they are no longer in the country of Fortunia. All searches are fruitless, and Prince Charming is close to giving up hope when he learns of the Evil Queen's magic mirror. The mirror responds truthfully to the desperate Prince's pleas, and the Prince sets off on his journey. He arrives at the Stooges' cabin just in time to dispel the effects of the poisoned apple. Snow White and Prince Charming are married and live happily ever after. | action | train | wikipedia | The sets and opulent costumes boost this film considerably, as do the presence of the very dark, traditional elements of European folklore, and I think this movie would have been a GREAT fantasy film if there had been seven dwarfs in it!
I would agree that Carol Heiss is not a very good actress, but the character of Snow White does not call for the use of great thespian skills.
''Snow White And The Three Stooges'' was the most lavish film the famous comedy team was ever associated with.
However, when production got underway in late 1960, he had been replaced by famed director Walter Lang, known for the many musicals he made during ''Hollywood's ''Golden Age''.In fact, ''Snow White'' was his last film.
In fact, ''Snow White'' was always intended as a vehicle for her skating talents, with the Stooges aboard merely as support.
Edson Stroll, a virtual unknown, played Prince Charming, while British character player Guy Rolfe (beating out Martin Landau) was the evil Count Oga, henchman to the Queen.Also present were Blossom Rock, sister of Jeanette MacDonald, who would gain fame later as ''Grandmama'' on the ''Addams Family'' TV series, as the Prince's onetime Nurse, and Herbie Faye as the Head Cook.And look for veteran ''codger'' Burt Mustin (''Detective Story'') cast as a disgruntled spectator in the ''Medicine Show'' sequence.
The plot is basically the same as the Grimm fairy tale, with the skating sequences added to showcase Carol Heiss' talents on ice.
It is, however, a wonderful fantasy with fine performances by Carol Heiss, who made a lovely Snow White in what was both her film debut and her swan song, the beautiful Patricia Medina (as the Wicked Queen) who conveyed the evil in her character without overdoing it, Guy Rolfe, as sinister a villain as one could wish for, and Edson Stroll, a ''charming'' Prince of whom little was heard from since, outside of a part in the ''Mchale's Navy'' TV series.
Although the film was also criticized for toning down the Stooges antics, there is, after all, little room for all-out slapstick in a fantasy of this kind without destroying the mood.
But though it's better appreciated by fans of fantasy than Stoogephiles, the film is successful as a lavish and satisfying adaptation of a classic fairy tale, and no apologies need be made for it..
As I lover of the Stooges, ice skating, romance and fairy tales, I was so thrilled with this movie that I plan to purchase it.
While the amazing costumes and scenery and unique twists on the Snow White story would have been enough to entertain me, seeing the Stooges acting in tender roles make them all the more lovable.The ice skating scene as Snow White lies crying in the snow is absolutely the most visually stunning effect I've ever seen in a movie.The only drawback to this film is that the Moe/Larry/Curly Joe combo never has the same magic for Stooge fans as the Moe/Larry/Curly or Moe/Larry/Shemp lineup.Everyone in my family, even the 9 month old baby, enjoyed this movie tremendously..
Carol Heiss and Patricia Medina are excellent as Snow White and the Queen/Witch.
This movie has been slammed by disappointed fans of the 3 Stooges for good reason!
It put Carol Heiss in the limelight, focusing more on her incredible skills as a champion ice skater and a little less on her not-so-incredible skills as an actress.This movie was standard matinée material in 1962.
(Lou Archer played "Good Time Charlie" in the 1935 Stooge short, UNCIVAL WARRIORS.) The movie showed promise in the beginning.
An introduction with the story book, its pages turning with the Stooges showing up in the wrong time, much to the irritation of the narrator, leads the viewer to believe that this is the makings of a "fractured fairy tale".
In spite of all this, I must give this movie a High Six after all, this film was intended to entertain a younger audience, which it did!The movie trailer for this movie (an added feature on the DVD) accurately described the movie with promises of lots of ice skating, swashbuckling sword fights, love & romance, and (of course) the 3 Stooges..
The sets and costumes exactly what a fairy tale calls for.Don't listen to those people who only wanted the usual Stooges black and white short type of film.
Anyone who loves fairy tale fantasy films will find a lot to like in this production..
That title threatens, at all times, to put this film in the same category as "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" or "King Kong vs Godzilla", so disparate are the names Snow White and The Three Stooges.
Though nothing as memorable as the musical score from Walt Disney's animated Snow White comes out of this film, this children's story has one thing the other doesn't have.
Well three things actually.Instead of seven dwarfs to serve her exiled majesty in the forest, Snow White has Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe at her beck and call.
Snow White And The Three Stooges was a film especially designed to make Olympic ice skating star Carol Heiss, the Sonia Henie for a new generation.
I well remember in the late Fifties when WPIX started running those old Stooge shorts from Columbia there were many complaints about how violent they were, that little kids were imitating Moe doing all kinds of nasty things to their littler brothers and sisters.
As for Carol Heiss as Snow White, she was a great figure skater and might have in a few more films become competent as an actress as Sonia Henie did.
But she preferred the ice to the soundstage and probably was happier for it.Snow White And The Three Stooges is a nice charming filmed fairy tale and it's for Stooge fans of all ages..
20th Century Fox's colorful live-action version of the oft-retold fairy tale is a lavishly-produced fantasy extravaganza featuring the Three Stooges as the star comics.
Cast as Snow White is charming Olympic Champion ice skater Carol Heiss who dances two ice ballets.
The film is a worthy variant of the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm and need not suffer direct comparison with the Disney version, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).Fans of the Three Stooges have long expressed hatred and contempt for this film, which is not neither a slapstick comedy nor a true Stooges vehicle.
Lavish if overlong version of the popular fairy-tale (most famously incarnated on screen via the 1937 Walt Disney animated milestone) which incorporates a skating star (whose numbers go on forever), the comic trio's brand of violent slapstick (replacing the Seven Dwarfs though they feel constrained by the material, much like the Laurel & Hardy of THE BOHEMIAN GIRL [1936] and SWISS MISS [1938]) and saccharine songs; the familiar plot is further enlivened by an amiable ventriloquist act and numerous swashbuckling routines.
It's colorful and pleasant certainly more enjoyable than I had anticipated, and wholly undeserving of Leonard Maltin's unflattering BOMB rating emerging, all in all, to be perfect unassuming entertainment for the festive season.Guy Rolfe and Patricia Medina convey appropriate comic-book villainy in their respective roles (each receive their just desserts in memorable fashion but while his is particularly gruesome, hers is done in a rather clever way); burly Buddy Baer is their evil henchman who subsequently has a change of heart.
Incidentally, this was the first of five belated feature films starring The Three Stooges the others being the equally improbable THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES (1962), THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT (1962), THE THREE STOOGES GO AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE (1963) and THE OUTLAWS IS COMING (1965).Frank Tashlin is said to have contributed to the film under review but, at any rate, the producers involved did have their hearts in the right place by employing director Lang (whose last effort this proved be) having been responsible for the splendid Shirley Temple fantasy vehicle THE BLUE BIRD (1940) and screenwriter Noel Langley who had co-scripted the classic MGM version of THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939).
By the way, this viewing of SNOW WHITE AND THE THREE STOOGES came in anticipation of my acquiring a 2-Disc collection of the comic trio's vintage shorts....
Snow White and the Three Stooges is a very good film that has a good cast which includes Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Joe DeRita, Carol Heiss, Edson Stroll, Patricia Medina, Guy Rolfe, Michael David, Buddy Baer, Edgar Barrier, Peter Coe, Marie Blake, Mark Bailey, Bill Blackburn, and Mel Blanc!
Poor skater Carol Heiss looks positively in pain as Snow White, which may provide some unintentional comic relief from the sub-Disney nonsense on hand.
I have a VHS tape of this movie and the reason I recorded it was because of the beautiful ice skating of Carol Heiss.
I am a Three Stooges fan, to this day, but we all know from the other reviews that this movie wasn't about the Stooges and their kind of slapstick comedy, but a fantasy, fairy tale with ice skating.
I saw this movie when I was a young, impressionable 11 year old girl and I think that after I had seen it, I only wanted to ice skate.
I suppose The Three Stooges were getting a little fatigued by the time they did their work in SNOW WHITE AND THE THREE STOOGES because they're less exuberant than usual, in fact you might even say their slapstick is much more restrained.
But this is good because Fox never intended this to be a showcase for them--rather, it introduces Olympic Skating Champion Carol Heiss and features Edson Stroll doing a nice job as Prince Charming.Walter Lang did the directing and he's given an A budget on which a lot was obviously spent on costumes and settings, so from a strictly pictorial viewpoint the film is pleasant to look at in stunning technicolor.
Gorgeous PATRICIA MEDINA has fun with her role as the wicked Queen who disguises herself as an old hag.Just to make sure Miss Heiss' ice-skating is not totally ignored, they've given her two big production numbers and both of them are skillfully filmed and performed in winter wonderland type of settings.Fans of The Stooges may be disappointed, but actually this is not a bad re-telling of the fantasy using a totally different approach.
I am a big Three Stooges fans, been watching them ever since I was a little kid, and I loved each and every short they did.
This movie is a terrible adaptation of the Snow White stories and the Stooges don't help any.
Another problem was the casting of Olympic ice skater Carol Heiss in the role of Snow White.
They are a pale shadow of their real selves.In the meantime, we get to watch a very lavish fairy tale with mammoth sets, script by the guy who wrote the WIZARD OF OZ film, and direction by one of Hollywood's prime musical directors.
I thought this is going to the stupidest movie ever and ruin the Snow White story.
I thought this is going to the stupidest movie ever and ruin the Snow White story.
As a huge stooge fan, it was a heartwrenching film to watch.
DO NOT waste your time by seeing this movie, but PLEASE....do not make the mistake of basing any opinions of the stooges solely on this film.
If you enjoy the Three Stooges then don't watch this film.Snow White and the Three Stooges was the most expensive and the least funny of all of the Three Stooges films or shorts.
All that being said, I'm speaking as someone who loves the Three Stooges--mostly from their prime years at Columbia Pictures making the short subjects from 1934 to about 1952 with Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp.There were a few good films made after 1953, but they were few and far between.
At any rate, I don't think the entire problem with the stooges during the late 1950s and into the 1960s was necessarily Derita, but more of a symptom of how the stooges were being perceived at this time--somehow, someone got the idea that the Stooges were merely "Children's Entertainers".Add to that, the fact that a lot of Parental Rights Groups were bitching and moaning about the violence in the old stooge shorts & subsequently you had to tone down the slapstick during the Derita era.Which leads us to the turkey that is "Snow White".
That's because much of it is really an ice skating movie featuring Olympic champion Carol Heiss (or whatever the spelling is) AND it has the most unfunny of all "stooges"--Joe DeRita.
I loved all the fairy tale trappings, the singing, the skating (only Olympic gold medal winner Carol Heiss does her own thing on the ice, the others are pros taking place of the other players), and, of course, the Stooges' antics getting balanced with their more dramatic lines and scenes.
So on that note, I recommend Snow White and the Three Stooges to anyone who doesn't mind the boys being a bit subdued in their fairy tale trappings..
In doing research for a project on Snow White, I watched it again a couple of times, and the movie is actually a pretty good version of the story.
I like the added dimension of the Prince's back story, the Stooges, while not playing their usual characters, are integrated nicely into the story, and even though Carol Heiss can't act or sing, she is a lovely dancer and skater.
Patrica Medina is superb as the witch and it's a pretty enjoyable film.While you're at it, watch the Fairie Tale Theater version.
Yes as The Renowned Movie Critic,Leornard Maltin from Entertainment Tonight Fame had put it very well in his TV,Movie,and Video Guide even kids will find this film to be Stodgie.It has no plot to speak of it may have a few funny moments like when Curley Joe makes his 3 wishes on the magic sword to not give too much away but the stupidest aspects as we may all agree are the ice skating scenes.Perhaps because sometimes compared to others a remade variation of a Fairy Tale just can't be spread over a 2-hour block.Coitainly,Stephen "Steve" G.
The acting in the movie is horrible, the stooges are not at their comic best either.
From 20th Century Fox comes a highly expensive motion picture musical extravaganza that turned out to be a major disappointment: "Snow White and the Three Stooges".
It seems that the primary aim of "Snow White and the Three Stooges" was to capitalize on the ice skating prowess of Carol Heiss, who fits the role of Snow White even though she is not known to be an experienced actress.
Personally, although I am indeed a Stooge fan, I believe this film is quite charming and not as bad as others say.My favorite sequences from "Snow White and the Three Stooges" include the following (DON'T read any further if you have not yet seen this movie).
When the Stooges and their adopted son Quatro (Edson Stroll) stage a performance for Snow White, Quatro's ventriloquist dummy Quinto (voiced by the great Mel Blanc) sings the beautiful tune "Because I'm in Love", accompanied by Larry on violin, Moe on flute, and Curly Joe on concertina.
i'm not into the whole 'Sonja Henie' ice skating movie genre, but i thought Olympic skater Carol Heiss was graceful and a real treat to watch.i'm not sure this movie deserved the 1961 WGA award for best musical, but it is a lot better than most of it's scornful critics would have you believe.it also helps to like the Stoogies.
Quatro is kidnapped, and it's up to the Three Stooges to save the day and bring Snow White and the Prince back together.This film has been unfairly panned by critics over the years, which is a shame.
True, the Stooges' trademark comedy is played down in this film.
However, they do manage to sneak in a few funny moments (they ARE the Stooges, after all), and they prove themselves to be fine dramatic actors as well, such as when they find Snow White poisoned by the Queen.
What makes this SNOW WHITE unique is that Snow White is played by Olympic ice skater Carol Heiss, whose skills are put on display in several lovely fantasy sequences.
Snow White + The Three Stooges= Vintage Magic!!!.
Snow White and the Three Stooges is a conflicted little film.
It's a fairy tale, a capitalization on Carol Heiss's (then) new-found fame as an Olympic figure skating champion and a Three Stooges vehicle, all at once.
The plot devotes much of it's time in telling the Snow White story rather than focusing on the slapstick comedy of Larry, Curly and Moe, and herein is where a lot of disappointment lay, during it's theatrical run, for those who were eager to see a Three Stooges film in color for the first time.
For those who aren't well versed in Stooges entertainment, or are willing to overlook the lack of traditional Stooges comedy, I suspect this won't cloud your judgement of this delightful film.Now onto the rest of the cast: Carol Heiss is Snow White, Patricia Medina is the Wicked Queen, Guy Rolfe is Count Oga and Edson Stroll is Prince Charming.
Heiss wasn't an actress and one can see that here in her performance as Snow White, but she suffices, and Stroll makes for a dashing, if not particularly noteworthy, prince.The production design is lavish, colorful and truly befit for a fairy tale.
But I suspect some viewers, if not most, would find them tedious to sit through as they slow the story down somewhat.Snow White and the Three Stooges has become something of a "forgotten" film.
this movie is not for Stooge fans.
Fans of fairy tale movies and junk like that may find this movie to be a delightful version of the tale of Snow White, Stooge fans will cringe at the sappiness and cutesiness of said film. |
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