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tt0105435 | Sneakers | In 1969, students Martin Brice and Cosmo are sneakers who hack into computer networks using university equipment, to redistribute conservative funds to various liberal causes. The police burst in and arrest Cosmo while Martin is out getting pizza, and Martin becomes a fugitive.
In the present day, Martin, now called Martin Bishop, is running a team of security specialists in San Francisco, including Donald Crease, a former CIA officer and family man; Darren "Mother" Roskow, a conspiracy theorist and electronics technician; Carl Arbogast, a young hacking genius; and Irwin "Whistler" Emery, a blind phone phreak.
Martin is approached by NSA officers Dick Gordon and Buddy Wallace, who know of his former identity. In exchange for clearing his record, he's asked to recover a "black box" from mathematician Dr. Gunter Janek, who has developed the box under the project name "Setec Astronomy" supposedly for the Russian government. Martin is hesitant but agrees to help. With help from his former girlfriend, Liz, Martin and his team secure the box, which is disguised as a telephone answering machine. During their subsequent celebration party, Whistler, Mother, and Carl investigate the box, finding it capable of breaking the encryption of nearly every computer system. Martin works out that "Setec Astronomy" is an anagram of "too many secrets", and issues a lockdown until they can deliver the box the next day.
Martin hands the box to the NSA officers, but quickly leaves after Crease discovers that Janek was killed the night before. He contacts a friend named Gregor in the Russian consulate, who confirms that the officers were rogue agents, and that Janek was working for the NSA. Before Gregor can elaborate further, fake FBI agents kill him and kidnap Martin to a remote location where he's reunited with Cosmo, who Martin thought had died in prison. While in prison, Cosmo developed ties with organized crime, allowing him to escape and become wealthy. He explains his plan to use Janek's box to destabilize the world economy, and offers Martin the chance to join him. Martin refuses, whereupon Cosmo uses the box to break into the FBI and connect Martin's current identity with his former name. Cosmo has Martin knocked out and taken back to the city.
Martin contacts his team and they relocate to Liz's apartment. They contact NSA agent Abbott, who wants the box but cannot offer assistance without it being in Martin's possession. Whistler analyzes the sounds that Martin heard during his kidnapping, and is able to identify the geographic area where Martin was taken. They find a toy company at that location, which is a front for Cosmo's operation. They track down Werner Brandes, the employee whose office is next to Cosmo's. They set Liz up with a fake computer date with Brandes to get his keycard and vocal recognition codes, while the others identify other security features of Cosmo's office. The team successfully get into the building to recover the box.
Brandes begins to suspect Liz during the date, and alerts Cosmo to a possible break-in. Once Liz mentions the computer date in Cosmo's presence, he realizes that Martin is responsible and locks down the facility and holds Martin at gunpoint. Again he tries to convince Martin to join him, but Martin refuses and instead turns over the box. The team escapes before Cosmo realizes that he is holding an empty duplicate of the box's case.
Back at their offices, Martin's team is surrounded by agents led by Abbott. After Martin points out how important the secrecy of the box is to the NSA, who could use it to spy on other agencies, Abbott agrees to clear Martin's record and grant the requests of the rest of his team. After Abbott and the agents leave with the box, Martin shows his team he has rendered the box useless by taking out the main processor.
In a postscript, a news report describes the sudden bankruptcy of the Republican National Committee, and the simultaneous receipt of large anonymous donations by Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and the United Negro College Fund. | comedy, suspenseful, murder, stupid, cult, intrigue, flashback, psychedelic, revenge, entertaining | train | wikipedia | The soundtrack is arguably the best of James Horner's film scores pre-dating Braveheart, with an ethereal jazzy feel that sets the mood from the opening credits.For an early nineties movie, Sneakers was remarkably forward thinking in its script and plot.
It is, perhaps, the last good "hacker" film (well, 23 (1998) also comes to mind, but that isn't widely available in English).The math is believable (Janek's lecture makes sense), as is the technology (except for the Hollywood-ish decryption displays -- but that's forgivable).
The techniques they use are the techniques of the business, especially in that era.Now that computers have become such a big thing, I don't think it would be possible for Hollywood to produce another movie like this.
It's easily the most frequently used tape in my limited video library.Mainly it's the cast; quality names down the length of the list, and each one, from Robert Redford heading the motley crew of good guys (Dan Ackroyd and Sidney Poitier especially good) to Ben Kingsley as a deliciously cool but insecure villain.
Seven years have passed since this movie came out, which is a long time in the gadget world in which this film is based, but none of their equipment or techniques (except a brief glimpse of a now outdated version of Windows but that's REALLY nitpicking) seem out of date; it could still be today.And then there's the moments.
Sneakers is still fun to watch after 12 years and it was a great look at the time in which it was made.
Sneakers captured that mood perfectly and kept things tense with the soundtrack, locations and set work.It's got the best balance of technical accuracy verses ease of viewing that I've ever seen on film.
Actors have fun with their roles although it's obvious that Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, Ben Kingsley and James Earl Jones are not delivering their A-Game.
I like Phil Alden Robinson's camera movements; don't forget to look for the long, low slide across the Scrabble pieces right in a pivotal moment of the plot.The movie still retains some relevance today.
"Sneakers" is without a doubt such a movie.It is a lightweight caper which gets into a higher division thanks to the acting: Redford is always good, as is Strathairn, Kingsley and McDonnell.
The other actors do a really good job as well, but these four stand out in my opinion.There are twists and turns in the script, Great San Francisco locations and lots of underplayed humor in this film, all contributing to that the movie can be seen several times.Take it for what it is, and you'll have a really good time in front of the TV..
For a movie like this to work it has to be believable, and this is believable.Sneakers is original in its ideas and the characters are very likable.
However, I found this movie to be more along the lines of a caper film.Robert Redford is the leader of a team of experts who break into security systems so that institutions (such as banks) can see how good their system is.
The group has great chemistry and often this leads to some fun humor.Redford and his team are hired by the government (so they believe) to retrieve a black box that can decode encrypted computer firewalls.
It is a fun film and is enjoyable to watch, but if you are looking for a true spy film, then you may want to pass.This film more closely resembles recent movies like Ocean's 11 or The Italian Job, popcorn films that have some laughs, some danger, and some suspense.Redford is really great in this movie as is Straitarn; Mary McDonnell is also very good.
Although far from their best roles, Poitier, James Earl Jones, Ackroyd, and Ben Kingsley are decent.Overall an enjoyable film which incorporates computer hacking before it was mainstream.
Twenty years later, Cosmos has died in prison and Brice use the alias Martin "Marty" Bishop (Robert Redford) to run a company that tests security systems with the specialists Donald Crease (Sidney Poitier) that is a former CIA agent; the blind Irwin 'Whistler' Emery (David Strathairn) that is specialist in sounds; Darren 'Mother' Roskow (Dan Aykroyd) that is an awesome technician that believes in theories of conspiracy; and Carl Arbogast (River Phoenix) that is a young genius.
Without giving too much away, because I'm an advocate of the second type of viewing, Robert Redford is the head of a secret group of hackers, including Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn, and River Phoenix.
Everyone has skeletons in their closet, Robert Redford in particular, so when they're threatened to take on a particular case, they've got no choice but to accept.The entire team has great comic timing and chemistry together.
Sneakers is a fantastic movie with a perfect blend of humor, action, suspense, and romance.
Starring: Robert Redford, Dan Akroyd, Ben Kingsley, Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, Mary McDonnell, David Straithairn This movie is just so good, it's almost hard to sum up the greatness in a review.
At this point it's kind of hard to not wonder how important the box is, but unfortunately, the box is already in the NSA's hands before they find out about Janek, and so they drive away with no money and no little black box.It's around this point where the plot of the movie really takes off and it gets very interesting.
Fun, tongue in cheek performances from Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell and James Earl Jones - quite a stellar ensemble cast - are entertaining and whilst not worthy of high acclaim and showers of awards, they are to the point and ideal.
I recommend anyone sees it, and it's one that really does stand up to repeated watching, and you'd never know it was over twenty years old as it's still relevant and pertinent today as ultimate codebreakers for hackers are still the holy grail of governments, mega-corporations, organised crime, terrorists, conspiracists and freedom fighters the world over..
Mostly overlooked and underrated this is a fun and engaging movie about a group of free-lance computer crackers, hackers, conspiracy theorist and others with geek/spy cred from diverse backgrounds, all with secrets and pasts of their own.
Whatever the reason, this movie is filled with great performances, many classic lines and performances, and a good mix of laughs and suspense to keep you interested the entire way through.I wil have a website launching soon at www.favoritefilm.com where people can write about anything and everything to do with their favorite films, and this movie is already, rather high on the list..
Robert Redford and Sidney Poitier play hackers, with an entire syndicate made up of Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn and River Phoenix.
Its all very well confronting Redford 20 years on and talking about a promise not to get into trouble but lets be clear about this, Cosmo's imprisonment and subsequent subservience to organised crime is the direct result of his laziness in going out to get that Pizza in the movie's opening scenes.
It's so much fun to watch a movie with computers and cryptography in it that doesn't make me grind my teeth and want to throw things at the screen.
Redford's weird change of loyalties in that scene, from his alleged employer to his alleged subject of investigation, have no ring of truth, and I still can't see how the woman, even distraught, could have fallen for it.Taken all for all, the film is a fun techno-thriller with an amazingly good cast and unprecedented technical accuracy..
You've got to catch at the very end where on a news broadcast it's said that Republican National Committee has gone broke overnight and Greenpeace is overflowing with money for its good work.Now maybe that's Robert Redford's secret fantasy, but this isn't Never-Never Land..
While it has the basic recipe for an enjoyable movie (strong cast, good premise, quirky characters), the movie is often predictable, the technological stuff makes no sense sometimes (even for computers of that time), a lot of characters are unbelievably clichéd (like the conspiracy-theorist on the team, which does basically nothing besides play his minor part in pulling their various heists or deliver conspiracy theories one-liners - supposedly to provide some comic relief).
All in all, a movie that tries to be tech-savvy, suspenseful, funny and make you ask some questions, but is riddled with believability and logic holes, very little humor, and terribly clichéd characters (plain cartoony at times).
Naturally this is hyperbole from the marketing department, but it's stuff like that that can make or break the chance of a viewers expectation level being achieved.I opened this write up with a funny line spoken by Robert Redford because having just finished the film I feel all jolly, and that is a priceless thing after watching one of the most suspenseful films ever!
Sneakers is an entertaining, suspense filled film with an excellent cast.
The level of sophistication of the electronic tools used in the intelligence community was surprising then and made me wonder what kinds of things were really possible at the time.If you're looking for blazing guns, car chases and repelling wires in watches, this isn't your movie.
It's a nearly perfect blend of plot, visuals, score, and a cast of characters that you come to know and love by the end.
I think a great movie is one you can watch over & over again, which I have done with Sneakers, and one which you recommend to others as a "must see," which I've done so many times I can't count.
The movie is great fun, enjoyable most when the actors (Redford, Aykroyd, Poitier, Phoenix, Kingsley, among others) are deciphering codes, unscrambling words, and delicately breaking into computer systems.
This movie is indeed fun, bolstered by some really strong performances, that of Strathairn, the much lost Phoenix, and the much underused Poitier, while I did like Ackroyd's hairdo.
In fact my only criticism of Sneakers is that too much time may have been devoted to getting the details right, since some of the cast's performances have a real first take look about them, as if the acting was a secondary consideration.
When I first saw this film advertised on TV a few years back now, I remember thinking: "Why is this the first time I've heard of this movie?" I mean for one, the cast is absolutely amazing: Robert Redford, River Phoenix, Dan Ackroyd, Ben Kingsley, Sidney Poitier...
As well as this, Mary McDonnell plays the love interest for Redford brilliantly - indeed she becomes much more than a love interest when she gets involved with the teams operations: the scene where she dates a man as part of the sneaking is an absolute classic.
But neither of those Cold War films are relevant today, while SNEAKERS still is.Watch this movie again in the new millennium.
Great Cast, Good Plot and the action is actually well scripted.
It had some neat high-tech gadgetry and had a big-name cast of Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, River Phoenix, David Straithairn, Mary McDonnnel and Sidney Poitier.THE BAD - More of the tiresome and typical Liberal propaganda that tells us the U.S. Government is the "bad guy'" the radical Left are the good guys (yes, the same ones who blew up a lot of buildings and killed people in the name of peaceful protest).
Average comedy/thriller that has a very good cast,a good promising start,but a sloppy ending.The sloppy ending was probably done to water down the very serious topic of INFORMATION COLD WAR so as not to rattle the mainstream movie goer.An apology of sorts usually employed by movie producers for quicker,short term profit returns at the box office.This movie is a cult masterpiece to a lot of HACKER FANS and big fans of COMPUTER TECH who believe that the world has shifted into the hands of COMPUTER TECH people.They have a strong case for this argument and in this regard,SNEAKERS is ahead of it's time (1992).But stll,to a true impartial movie expert,the movie was too watered down to the level of average........
Having just watched this early '90s suspense thriller about computer hackers (I think) for the first time, I was partially confused about some scenes though overall, I was a little entertained by some of the comedy elements that were sprinkled throughout.
This movie had some of the best one liners, like when Martin said that he wanted to join the NSA, but he couldn't because "his parents were married" or when "Mother" would tell Crease his US Government conspiracy theories because Crease was an ex-CIA agent and he could easily antagonize him.
A pair comes to Martin's (Redford) team of professional electronics security experts with NSA credentials and a request to steal it.An all star cast and an awesome film score flesh out this excellent, if somewhat breezy, spy thriller..
An interesting "What if" senario allows actors like Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix Mary McDonnell and Ben Kingsley to play around with some great scenes.
who has played more prominent characters recently in films such as THE PATRIOT.The best thing about this movie however, is it inspired me in the use of anagrams, an interest which I've still kept to this day..
I can watch this movie over and over again, still enjoying little scenes here and there, and overall, I recommend this to anyone who wants a good laugh, likes espionage, cloak and dagger and so on, computers, spies, Robert Redford and one liners that just zing past you.
Sidney Poitier - River Phoenix - Dan Ackroyd - Mary McDonnell - Robert Redford - James Earl Jones...
and Ab-uses.As head of this band of electronic robin hoods, Redford as 'Marty' Bishop is tricked into stealing a piece of technology and handing it over to Bad Guys headed by "Cosmo" aka Gandhi/Ben Kingsley - And this piece of Tech can literally shout secrets over rooftops...
The item in question actually deals with encryption algorithms that are still in use today.In an attempt to re-acquire this little gadget, Redford assembles his team and with the help of girlfriend Mary McDonnell, attempts to infiltrate the Marin County "fortress of solitude" of criminal Ben Kingsley.The technical and comedic situations which arise in this caper make a wholly fun and interesting film.
Small throw-away lines give us insight into the minds of the people in this movie.A special word must be said about Ben Kingsley's Cosmo.
I had a great time watching great actors like Redford, Poitier, Ben Kingsley, etc., just enjoying being in a great popcorn movie.
(a scientist invented something that "any government in the world would kill for" and guess where he keeps it!?!?!?)However, the film is redeemed by a riveting 2nd half, and performances by a near-legendary acting ensemble, all of whom have done their best work elsewhere, but are still fun to watch.
Cosmo (Ben Kingsley) returns into Marty's life with a truly villainous plan for the box.Redford and Poitier are two veterans doing a lighter movie.
Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Dan Ackroyd, Ben Kingsley, River Phoenix, David Strathairn, and Mary McDonnell star in "Sneakers," a film about security guys who get involved in a scheme to steal for the government.
It has a clever, realistic script and a fine supporting cast - Dan Ackroyd, Ben Kingsley, Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, and David Straithairn giving the best performance I've ever seen of a blind person - and his blindness is dealt with in a human and realistic manner, without being in the slightest bit patronising.Some other obvious recommendations (also starring Robert Redford) would be "All the President's Men" and "Spy Game".
Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, Mary McDonnell, Ben Kingsley, and David Strathairn go above and beyond the limits of their characters.
A movie that reminds you of "Mission:Impossible" and "Oceans Eleven",this one came before them.Good cast and a simple story with some funny moments along.You`ve seen this before;there`s nothing new to it,but the movie is engaging and exciting all the way.Many good actors:Robert Redford,Sidney Poitier,Dan Aykroyd and River Phoenix(who tragically died one year later).But the one who makes the most impression on me is Ben Kingsley.He fits his part perfectly.
The all-star cast is brilliant, especially Redford, Poitier, Strathairn and a very quirky River Phoenix.
Sneakers i think is a fantastic movie to watch.
This movie was made in 992, starring Dan Akwaord, Robert Redford.
All actors work incredibly well together, and the internal conversations in the film just make you laugh at the same time as it's an exciting movie to watch.
This is one of those few movies that you can watch over and over again, without fast-forwarding even one scene, since they are all so great.
Robert Redford is one of those people who get on your nerves; he is usually not very good, but he seems to win over all the 40+ women and hence gets more work.To be fair, this wasn't all that bad as far as thrillers of this type go, although it's not in the class of Enemy Of the State as far as conspiracy theory films go.Predictable ending [well, it _is_ Hollywood] but not bad in the realm of movies to watch on TV rather than when they're on screen..
Most of the techonology used in the film is now a bit outdated, but that doesnt spoil the fun whatsoever.Acting is great as well, let's not forget, that we have Robert Redford, Ben Kingsley, Sidney Poitier, Dan Akroyd and River Phoenix in one picture.
I've read that the cast had a great time shooting the movie.
So, Redford and his team Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poiter, River Phoenix, David Strathairn and ex-gal Mary McDonnell plan and go about their heist.It's a breezy movie with the cast exchanging cute one-liners with one another. |
tt0083133 | Student Bodies | Student Bodies is about a serial killer who stalks female students at Lamab High School, while at the same time, voyeuristically watching them. The killer calls himself "The Breather," presumably because the killer is always breathing heavily.
The Breather enjoys stalking victims over the telephone and much like Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13th films, he hates seeing youngsters having sex. The Breather uses many unusual objects to kill his female victims such as a paper clip, a chalkboard eraser, and a horse-head bookend. He kills his male victims by placing them in trash bags alive.
The film itself ends with several twists: initially, it is revealed that the Principal and his elderly female assistant are working as a duo as "The Breather", even though they are shown at one point in the film in the same room as other characters when the Breather contacts the school to threaten to commit further murders. The film then goes to reveal that the entire film was a fevered dream, caused by the main character Toby being sick and consumed by overwhelming sexual repression. In a send-up of The Wizard of Oz, many characters are revealed to be much the opposite of what they appeared to be for the bulk of the film: the jock-like shop instructor is really the school's French teacher, the stuck-up would-be prom queen is actually the school nerd (who is given the crown by Toby after she wakes up, due to her kind nature), the two handicapped kids turn out to be able-bodied, and a local ROTC cadet is a hippie.
After being released from the hospital, Toby and her boyfriend are about to have sex, at which point he puts on gloves similar to the ones worn by the Breather and strangles Toby, as he has lost respect for her. However, in a homage to the nightmare-ending of Carrie, Toby's hands rise up from the freshly dug grave after her funeral to attack her killer. | cult, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0104573 | Juice | Bishop (Tupac Shakur), Q (Omar Epps), Raheem (Khalil Kain), and Steel (Jermaine 'Huggy' Hopkins) are four friends growing up together in Harlem. They regularly skip school, instead spending their days hanging out at Steel's apartment, at a neighborhood arcade, and also a record store where they steal LPs for Q's DJ interests. Generally, they are harassed daily by the police or a Puerto Rican gang led by Radames (Vincent Laresca).
Fed up with all of the disrespect and torment he and his friends have endured, Bishop decides that the group must go on to do bigger things in order to win respect. Q, however, is unsure if he wants to become involved in a life of crime. One Saturday night, under Bishop's persistence, the friends decide to rob a local convenience store to teach the owner, Fernando Quiles, a lesson. At first Q hesitates to go through with the robbery, unsure whether it will be successful. He also fears it will affect his chances of participating in a DJ competition in which he has yearned to compete for years. After being pressured by his fellow crew members, he decides to join in. During the heist, Bishop shoots the owner in the head, killing him.
After fleeing the scene, the four young men gather in an abandoned building where they argue over the evening's events. Q, Raheem and Steel become angry at Bishop for killing Mr. Quiles, and Raheem demands that Bishop give the gun to him. Bishop resists, and a struggle ensues between the two, and Bishop shoots Raheem dead. Panicking, Bishop, Q and Steel flee to another abandoned building, where Bishop threatens to kill Q and Steel if they reveal to anybody that he murdered Raheem.
Q and Steel realize that Bishop is beginning to break down and is becoming addicted to the thrill of killing. They agree to give Bishop as wide a berth as possible. However, while attending Raheem's funeral, the two are surprised to see Bishop there. Bishop goes as far as to hug Raheem's mother and promise to find his killer. Q and Steel are mostly generally able to avoid Bishop, but he finds them and confronts them one at a time, questioning their loyalty.
After a scuffle, Bishop kills Radames. In order to cover his tracks, he begins planning to frame Q for the murders of Quiles, Raheem and Radames. Fearful of Bishop, Q resorts to buying a gun for his own protection. Meanwhile, Bishop confronts Steel in an alley, accusing him of disloyalty, and shoots him. However, Steel survives the attack and is rushed to the hospital, where he informs Q's girlfriend Yolanda (Cindy Herron) that he has been framed by Bishop. Fed up with both the tension and troubles brought upon him, Q throws his gun into the river and decides to confront Bishop unarmed. Q and Bishop meet up, where a scuffle and chase ensues.
Q is shot once in the arm during the chase, and he is subsequently chased into a building where a party is being held. Bishop begins firing into a group of partygoers in an attempt to hit Q, but Q escapes unharmed. Q disarms Bishop while he's distracted, and Bishop leaves the scene with Q following him. Q eventually finds Bishop on the roof of a high-rise building, and the two become engaged in a physical confrontation. Bishop eventually falls off the ledge, but is caught by Q. Bishop begs Q not to let go, but Q eventually loses his grip, and Bishop falls to his death.
As Q is leaving the rooftop, a crowd from the party gathers to see what happened. One of the people in the crowd turns to Q and says, "Yo, you got the juice now, man." Q turns to look at him, shakes his head in disgust, and walks away. The film ends with a flashback clip of the four friends together in happier times as Bishop yells, "Wrecking Crew!" | comedy, neo noir, murder, cult, violence, flashback, revenge, blaxploitation | train | wikipedia | Unfortunately respect came at a price, which the film was precisely able to convey, through strong performances by Tupac, and by Omar Epps, as the aspiring DJ, in their first featured roles.
Great Old School Hood Movie - Tupac and Omar Epps steal it.
Juice is a film about 4 friends growing up in Harlem, it tells the story of how far you will go to get respect and how possessive the need to be respected can be.
The transformation of Bishop from the start to the end is played out perfectly by Tupac.The movie has a great urban old school feel with a belting hip hop sound track.
Where a movie like 'Menace 2 Society' was just a showcase of the gang life, 'Juice' mixes that with an interesting and true-to-life story.
In the mix of it all are four Harlem boys all portrayed effectively by Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur, Jermaine "Huggy" Hopkins, and Khalil Kain.The boys call themselves "The Wrecking Crew," and are trying to survive with what they have in a dangerous town.
They rob the store, and from that moment on things go from bad to worse for the boys.There is a subplot involving another one of the gang's members nicknamed "Q" (Epps) who is an aspiring DJ, and has a big DJ competition the night of the planned robbery.Writer and Director Ernest R.
While Juice is passable and well-made, it suffers by comparison with film's made by Lee like Do the Right Thing and School Daze.
It has a following, but because of strong critical acclaim surrounding the other pictures and this one just having mixed reviews is the reason why this isn't remembered as well as the other films.The moral of Juice is great about a psychological change one person can go through in a matter of time, the message about gun violence, and strong friendships being tested.
This is still one more realistic hood film that many should make time to see, but this film only reaches the level of average to decent while all of Singleton's films surpassed the above average mark.Starring: Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur, Jermaine "Huggy" Hopkins, Khalil Kain, Samuel L.
Some parts really gave me the creeps and I felt like I was there in the middle of the action being afraid I would get shot myself.Plus it made me look at the person of Tupac Shakur from another point of view.
Though it's "only" a movie, he makes you think that he's actually crazy and if you cross his path, he'll take you out.I love 2Pac as rapper and this was his first movie I've seen and I have to say that the film did fulfill exactly what I thought it would be, when talking about it's quality.At the end I just want to add that I'm really glad I have grown up in a happy home in a rather quiet neighborhood!I recommend this to all.
Juice is one of the Best Black Crime (Hood) movie of its time.
Top performances from Epps and Shakur make this film watchable, the story a fairly mundane one of street youth gangs drifting into crime in search of kicks, streetcred and "juice" (or power).
Shakur is the nutter who leads the way on a downward spiral, eager to get involved in any crazy venture and leading his more cautious friends down with him, Epps the good kid hoping to escape the ghetto life through his DJing skills.
Includes a great cast of Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur, Samuel L.
When this came out I was a hip hop submerged teenager and I thought this was the greatest movie of all time, now as a old fogey approaching 40 this movie brings back great memories but its pretty rubbish.Tupac shows his crazy side and to be fair he did a decent job of showing the tormented evil within.The soundtrack still stands up, the Bass in the Eric B and Rakim track still gives me goosebumps.All in all I think old sod's like me that grew up in the golden era of hop hop will use this to reminisce, and young kids obsessed with lil wayne, Tyga and whatever rubbish passes as hip hop today will think its daft.Worth a watch, just..
Spike Lee cinematographer Ernest Dickerson (he shot Spike's first 6 films) makes a stylish, dark debut with the 1992 teen drama "Juice".
Set in Harlem, the story chronicles the lives of 4 friends (including Tupac Shakur in a strong debut) trying to stay out of trouble.
Expectedly, Q would rather focus on an upcoming DJ contest but trash-talking Bishop has other plans.Dickerson's directorial manner is sleek and balanced, his camera and editing preferences are not as out there and in-your-face as Spike Lee, yet he knows exactly where to put the camera for each scene (the cross-cutting police interrogation sequence is most dynamic, better than that of "The Usual Suspects" and it pre-dates that film by 3 years as well).
The real beauty of this movie is found in the harshness of the world it portrays, dark, maze-like, and violent, and the way the characters both clash with and reflect this environment.
To take this path, to take up this tool, will hold dire consequences for every one of the crew.It is an engrossing pleasure to watch Bishop (played with disturbing intensity by Tupac Shakur) as his already thin shell of morality, held tentatively in place by his crew, erodes completely away...
We're supposed to believe that before the movie Bishop was down and then all of a sudden at the beginning he turns into some cold, calculating guy willing to murder his friends?
Juice follows four teenagers from Harlem: Q, Bishop, Raheem and Steel (Epps, Shakur, Kain, Hopkins) who try to get power and respect they call "juice." Q follows his dreams of becoming a successful scratch-n-mix deejay and deals with his love life, while Bishop tries more violent activities that break his friends and the streets where they live.
He did a great job acting, played the character very, very well.This movie never had any bad, boring, plain or corny moments to it.
This movie is kind of a signpost of the whole hip hop culture and is a reflection of the good and bad sides, summation in the plot.
Bishop was nowhere near as spiritually centred as Tupac.There are some awesome footage in the movie that so encapsulates 1991 hip hop culture, that positive uplifting vibe that seemed to dissipate within a matter of months into 1992.
Peer pressure, petty crime and violence mark the lives of the principals and the lure of a gun and its power result in a showdown between the reluctant Omar Epps and the psychotic Tupac Shakur.
Jackson and Queen Latifah are great in supporting roles and the movie has a nifty hip-hop soundtrack that adds pace to a solid uptown crime drama..
Really good performances by Epps and Shakur, and Hopkins gives great comic relief at times.
Bishop(Tupac Shakur) always was the one getting into fights all the time and he loved it.
Although the film was all original, right down to the script, Tupac's portrayal of Bishop is typical of Inner City youth who are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, violence, and gangs.
I recall the quote from the film when he states "U ready to die, nigga?" in front of Q - it reminded me of young black males who always were sent to the principal's office at my old high school who later ended up in the penitentary.All of the 4 youths depicted in the film - only two lived through the violence, except for Tupac and Khalil Kain's portrayal of a baby-daddy/gangbanger.
Rated R for Violence and Language Quebec Rating:13+ Canadian Home Video Rating:18A(Should be 14A)I saw Juice a couple of months ago.I would say I am a fan of films about South Central LA.Menace II Society is one of my favorite films of all time.I saw Juice expecting to see a movie like this.This is not like Boyz In The Hood or Menace II Society which are "growing up in the hood" films.Juice is actually a fairly entertaining thriller with good performances.Tupac is one of the few rappers who can actually act!
His acting in this film is excellent.Omar Epps and the rest of the cast are fairly good as well.The film is about four friends named Q,Bishop,Raheem and Steel who skip school one day, they find out afterwords that one of their peers was shot and killed while he tried to rob a store.After hearing about this, Bishop(Tupac) wants to do something crazy.So the four friends go and rob a store but Bishop ends up killing the owner.They then run into an alley where Tupac then kills Raheem.He threatens to kill Steel and Q if they tell anyone.The film then goes on with Q and Steel trying to hide from Bishop who is losing his mind and kills some more people, then frames Q for it.Q must prove his innocence and confront Bishop.Juice is a pretty good thriller with good performances and a good early 90's rap soundtrack..
Tupac Shakur plays a chilling villain in Bishop but he turns from a buddy to a cold-blooded stalking killer in an instant, and this I find very hard to believe.The soundtrack is a must-buy if you're a hip-hop fan, esp.
In the aftermath, the boys argue and Bishop kills Raheem.Tupac shows his acting chops and some real power with potential.
Also learned from this site how Tupac got casted-WOW!What a way to be discovered-just tagging along w/ his friend,Treach to his audition-talk about fate..but very uncanny how his character Bishop, reflected Pac's life-"Who's got the juice now?" is what Tupac is saying from up above, very eerie..
Roland Bishop (Tupac Shakur) is very menacing once he gets himself into the criminal life and goes through some very rich character development.
Power, respect, street cred are all things associated with "Juice" the 1992 coming of age film directed by Ernest Dickerson.
The movie's four main characters Bishop, Q, Raheem, and Steel, are all high school students living in the New York City area, who are tired of being nobody's on the streets and are on the quest for "Juice," the power and respect they thing they need to have to survive in their daily lives.
The movie portrays the life of inner-city urban youth, the four main characters are all best friends who rarely go to school and regularly go to the local pool hall or hang out at each other's house when their parents are at work.
Each characters performance makes you think that no one else could have pulled off the roles, the casting was perfect, and the performances of Tupac Shakur as Bishop and Omar Epps as Q steal the show.
All in all "Juice" is an entertaining movie, with great individual performances and a storyline that gives a fresh take on the genre, and has allowed this film to become a cult classic over the years..
In my opinion, I think Juice was a fine movie that examplifies the realistic day to day life of Young Black Youths in the areas where their community is the vast majority.
this is one of many movies the late Tupac Shakur (rapper,actor,poet) starred in and one of the best movies of the EARLY 90's the realism gets you caught up in the movie you'd be like "damn thats just like my school" juice is about 4 teenagers living teenage life we got Q (Omar Epps) wanting to quit crime to follow his dream being a DJ and bishop (2pac Shakur) is one of those who like's watching gangster movies and ain't got know visions of what he wants to be when he grows up and gets a rep going but unfortunately it goes to his head and starts to turn on his friends.after the store shooting early on in the movie.if you have not already seen this movie yet i suggest you buy its a great movie to watch full of surprises and shows 2pac and Omar Epps at there best..and show's us what most teenagers go through in and out side of school i recommend it to people over the age of 13.....
Juice is still interesting movie if your'e a Tupac or Omar Epps fan.
The script, written terrifically, centers around four youths: Roland Bishop (Tupac Shakur), Raheim Porter (Khalil Kain), Quincy (Omar Epps), and Steel (Jermaine Hall)...all in all, this movie is fantastic.
this movie is great,i love this moviei whatch it at least once every day the acting is good and tupac is the best character.
if you r a fan of tupac or just like movies about friends and struggels then i suggest u see this film.
What makes Bishop such a dynamic and terrifying but recognizable force is that we can understand where he comes from.He is the antagonist of this story of four high school friends (who rarely if ever go) who go for Bishop's plan to get "the Juice" - to do a Big Bad Thing and get some money but most of all to get respect.
For me, every bad decision hes made leads him to what he does and who he is (and though its a subtly done point, and powerfully so, he doesn't have a father as he's there but tuned out for reasons left ambiguous).Hes not the protagonist though, and I was mistaken thinking going in he was, that's Omar Epps's Q, the guy who wants to find a way out of Harlem and to make it it's through music.
Epps in his way is very good too, and in his way he has to be the one who is about as close to an "everyman" as one can find who is young and in a place like Harlem at that time.
There are a couple of types here and there as far as the minor characters (Samuel L Jackson plays one but brings it full life anyway for the 5 minutes hes on), but all the same we have a young game cast that's given the kind of material that enlivens melodrama with a good deal of humor early on (some still lands, especially with an audience, some doesn't) by being as real as possible.
The only stand out scene is the school locker confrontation between Omar Epps and Tupac Shakur (Shakur showed he could act).
I mean, we started to wonder if maybe this movie should've been made with subtitles.And if that weren't bad enough, on a purely professional level, "Juice" looks like it was shot by amateurs!
This was the point when Tommy and I were laughing at it so hard, we shut the movie off, and immediately drove back to the video store to see about getting a refund.If you know ANYTHING at all about film, then STAY AWAY from "Juice"!
I think people should pay attention to my review because I am a young adult, a teenager who lives in New York and can relate to a few topics in this movie.Three things that I thought were good from the movie were the dialogue, the actors especially Tupac as an actor and Omar Epps and the places where the movie took place.This movie accurately shows the teenage life in New York because it shows how kids be skipping school, spending more time in the streets than home and how their day one "bros" be switching up on them and how they deal with their situations in the hood.
First of all Im sorry for the bad english, but english is not my native language, now about the movie..., Im a huge fan of Tupac and hip-hop culture and I was looking foward to watch this movie since I've just watched Boys N the Hood and kids, and love it, and besides that Juice's imdb's rating is 7.1 stars at this moment.
Omar Epps is a great actor, but the show stealer has gotta be Tupac, his performance is so realistic.
Omar Epps is one of the most under-rated actors i've ever heard of, he plays the good guy pretty well, and kicks Bishop's ass in it.
The movie Juice released in 1992 was directed by Ernest Dickerson and cast four major actors which are Tupac Shakur, Omar Epps, Jermaine Hopkins, and Khalil Kain.
The movie being so reliable is what I believe makes the film incredible, it seems like it is a story that has happened to me and I'm just retelling it.
This 1992 crime drama stars Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur, Jermaine Hopkins and Khalil Kain.
This focuses on 4 Harlem teen buddies, Q (Epps), Bishop (Shakur), Steel (Hopkins) and Raheem (Kain) who decide to rob a convenient store one Saturday night.
This is a pretty good film with some tense and humorous moments and Epps & the late, Shakur are great in it.
Juice(Ernest Dickerson)- Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur, Jermaine Hopkins, Khalil Kain, Cindy Herron, Vincent Larasca, Samuel L.
Overall a good film, with some not so realistic plot turns, but still great message and characters.
Also good debut from Shakur, although overacted at times was still very powerful and overall strong acting, although Epps outshined the cast.
Your legacy continues...Juice is a 90's movie that tells the story of 4 Harlem youth that are friends until one snaps, becomes trigger-happy, and gets hooked on the thrill the gun.
After seeing this many times over the years, I must say that the characters in this movie makes it worth watching.
This Film is Tupac Shakur's Greatest Role and a Fitting Homage to Harlem's 90's Youth.
In this film, Tupac plays Bishop, a rough street kid who feels like he has something to prove.
I honestly didn't think Tupac at the end, turned into a bad guy like it really tricked you that he wouldn't be the villain but damn, he did it really really well! |
tt0173983 | Life Is a Circus, Charlie Brown | Snoopy is lying on top of his doghouse when he hears music. He follows the music and finds a circus unloading. Among other animals, he sees three poodles, and immediately latches onto the white one (whom the audience later learns is named Fifi). He follows her to the entrance of the big top with his tongue hanging out and his pupils shaped like hearts, then stops. Polly, the dog's trainer, sees Snoopy and pulls him inside.
The next day, Peppermint Patty calls Charlie Brown to tell him her school gave all students the day off to see the circus. Charlie Brown tells her that his school will be closed as well, and they decide to attend the circus together. At the circus the children see Snoopy perform as part of a dog act. They all realize it is Snoopy and eventually relish his new career, despite Snoopy's shortcomings being completely untrained. However, Charlie Brown isn't having any of it, exclaiming Snoopy's career is being his dog.
Later that night, Charlie Brown realizes Snoopy has not returned. He goes to the circus site in time to see Snoopy enter a boxcar, still following Fifi. The gate of the boxcar slams shut on him, and the circus train pulls away. The next scene involves Snoopy trying to find a good warm place to fall asleep while the train is in motion. First he tries to lie on the humps of a camel, only to slide off in between both humps each time, then he finds a lion lying on the ground with its mane spread out on the floor. Snoopy finds this warm enough to settle into and does, but his comfort is short-lived when the lion wakes up and, while it does no harm to Snoopy, he gets scared off, running over the top of a bear (waking it but that's all), then finds himself in another boxcar filled with props. He decided to lie on top of one box, which turns out to be the saw-a-person-in-half magic trick. He falls into that box and his head and feet appear out the holes in each end.
Polly slowly trains Snoopy to become part of the act. First he is given the name Hugo The Great, then he is taught to ride a unicycle first on the ground, then on the high wire. Snoopy also learns to do a back flip and his performance in the next show is an improvement.
Meanwhile, back home, Lucy has decided to board up the doorway of Snoopy's doghouse and place a sign on it which reads "Premises Condemned". Charlie Brown also recounts to Linus the story of why his parents gave him a pet dog. (This story was also told in the movie Snoopy Come Home.)
Polly decides to expand the act by getting Snoopy and Fifi to do a trapeze act. Snoopy takes to the air a little more fearlessly, Fifi is initially scared. Eventually it works out, and at the next show, combined with the back flips and the unicycle ride, they are a major success.
After the show, Polly gives Snoopy and Fifi the good news that they are officially the stars of the circus. However, her boss feels their colors do not fit and wants them both dyed pink. She first wrestles Snoopy into a large vat of food coloring, and after he is completely pink, she goes to do the same to Fifi, but Snoopy jumps between them growling menacingly at her. After Polly shows no fear and tells him basically to get out of her way, Snoopy attacks her and wrestles her into the food coloring until she too is all pink, then jumps out and runs away, taking Fifi with him to the bus stop to return home, but Fifi decides to go back to the circus, then Snoopy sadly boards the bus and returns to Charlie Brown.
Back home, Charlie Brown is awakened by the shower running because Snoopy is washing the pink food coloring off him. Charlie Brown sees him exiting the bathroom but says nothing. Snoopy then makes himself some dinner, still crying over being heartbroken from Fifi. Then he realizes that the circus is her life and his home is his life, and he retreats to his doghouse. Upon seeing what Lucy did to it, he rips up the sign and tears the boards off the house. He goes to bed after illuminating a big blinking neon sign which reads "Hugo The Great". | psychedelic, romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1111833 | Super High Me | Super High Me documents Benson avoiding cannabis for a cleansing period and then smoking and otherwise consuming cannabis every day for 30 days in a row. Benson says that Super High Me is "Super Size Me with cannabis instead of McDonald's". The film also includes interviews with marijuana activists, dispensary owners, politicians and patients who are part of the medical cannabis movement. The DVD was released on April 20, 2008.
Benson underwent various tests to gauge his physical and mental health, first during a 30-day period in which he abstained from cannabis use, then during another 30-day period in which he smoked and ingested cannabis every day. Benson's physician concluded that the effects on Benson's health from his use of cannabis were generally inconsequential. The greatest undesirable changes noted were a weight gain of eight pounds during his "high" month and a significant decrease in his ability to do mental mathematics. His sperm count increased, contrary to what might be expected based on medical studies. His overall score on the SAT increased, mainly due to an increased verbal score.
At the end of the experiment, Benson expressed surprise that he did not acquire any aversion to the drug after such continual use, something which he had predicted at the beginning.
The end credits contain a dedication to Michelle Benjamin, a friend of the filmmakers who was killed in a traffic accident involving a drunk driver. | entertaining | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0093036 | Flowers in the Attic | In 1957, the Dollanganger family lives an idyllic life in Gladstone, Pennsylvania. After Christopher Sr., the children's father, dies in a car accident, his wife Corrine and their four children are left deep in debt. As Corrine has no work skills, the family is forced to move in with her estranged wealthy parents, who live at Foxworth Hall, in Virginia. Corrine explains to the children that she has been estranged from her parents because of something she did when she was 18. She then adds that their true family name is Foxworth, not Dollanganger. Upon arrival Corrine's mother, Olivia, sneaks the family into a small bedroom that connects to the attic and insists the children must be hidden from their grandfather. Olivia treats the children with disdain and threatens to severely punish them for any disobedience. Corrine meets with her father, and when she returns to the children, she has been savagely whipped by Olivia, who then tells the children that their parents were half-uncle and niece. Corrine confirms this and explains her plan to win back her father's love so she can introduce the children to him.
The older children, Cathy and Chris, turn the attic into an imaginary garden for the twins, Carrie and Cory, educate the twins as best they can, and read books to keep up their own education. At first, Corrine visits her children every day, sometimes bringing expensive gifts, but as the days and weeks turn into months, her visits become less and less frequent. Meanwhile, the grandmother physically and emotionally abuses the children and constantly threatens to whip them for doing anything she considers "sinful". When Christmas comes, Corrine allows Cathy and Chris to watch the Christmas ball from a hiding spot, where they see their grandfather, Malcolm, for the first time. They also see their mother with their father's attorney, Bart Winslow, who is helping draw up Malcolm's will. When Corrine discovers Chris was wandering around the mansion, she slaps him and threatens to whip him and Cathy, then immediately apologizes and promises to make amends to them for their confinement. While Chris believes her, Cathy points out how their mother has changed and worries that Corrine no longer cares about them.
A year later, Cathy and Chris have both entered puberty and taken on parental roles with Carrie and Cory, who no longer recognise Corrine. While Cathy and Chris are both entering adulthood, the twins have stopped growing altogether due to being imprisoned and the lack of sunlight and fresh air in their prison. Olivia catches Chris staring at Cathy in her brassiere in the bathroom and orders him to cut off Cathy's hair or all four children will starve. Chris refuses, but Olivia drugs Cathy and pours tar into her hair. She then abandons them for three weeks, driving the children to near-starvation. Cathy ends up cutting off her hair and when Olivia see this, she starts leaving them sugar-powdered doughnuts with their usual food. Corrine visits the children for the first time in six months, announcing that she has married Bart Winslow and they have returned from their honeymoon in Europe. Cathy and Chris react angrily, accusing her of abandoning them, and Corrine refuses to visit again until they apologize. Olivia continues to abuse the children, even whipping Cathy and Chris after he talks back to her. Cathy and Chris become physically attracted towards each other, and start to fall in love in spite of their mutual shame.
Alarmed by the twins' declining health and mistrustful of their mother, Cathy and Chris plan to escape. They begin to sneak into their mother's room to steal money and valuables. One night, Cathy goes down alone, and finds her stepfather sleeping in the bed. Curious, she kisses him. When Chris overhears Bart talking about this 'dream' to Corrine, he is enraged at Cathy and rapes her. Afterwards, feeling guilty and ashamed, he apologizes, and Cathy forgives him by saying she wanted it too. Chris confesses that he loves her, and although Cathy reciprocates his feelings, she is unsure how to respond. Cory becomes sick and Cathy demands that Corrine take him to the hospital. Corrine slaps her, but Cathy retaliates and threatens revenge if they do not help Cory. Olivia seemingly sides with Cathy, and they take Cory away. The next day, Corrine returns and tells them that Cory died from pneumonia. Carrie goes into shock and stops speaking.
Chris goes to Corrine's room for money but finds that his mother and Bart have moved out. He then overhears the head butler talking about how Malcolm died seven months ago and how Olivia has been leaving doughnuts sprinkled with rat poison in the attic because it is infested with 'mice'. Chris and Cathy give Cory's pet mouse a doughnut to confirm the story. When the mouse dies, they finally flee the house with Carrie and catch a train to Florida. At the train station, Chris reveals to Cathy that he discovered their mother's inheritance is conditional on having no children from her first marriage and that if this were ever proven, she would lose everything. Their mother has been poisoning them for nine months to secure her inheritance. Chris and Cathy decide against contacting the police; their main concern is to stay together and be there for Carrie. Chris assures Cathy that they can make a new life without their mother, but Cathy swears that she will get revenge one day. | claustrophobic, sadist | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0049547 | Never Say Goodbye | Dr. Mike Parker departs California to speak at a conference in New York. A widower, he and daughter Suzy have a deal with each other to never actually say goodbye. She remains behind with Miss Tucker, her governess.
Having a drink after the conference, a caricature artist, Victor, comes to Mike's table along with a woman who plays piano at the nightclub, Dorian Kent. To their mutual shock, Mike recognizes Dorian as his late wife, Lisa. Dorian flees into the street, where she is hit by a car.
While he waits for her injuries to heal, Mike recalls how they met in Vienna, Austria in the postwar 1940s, when he was an Army doctor. At that time, she and Victor had an act together as entertainers. Mike treated her for a sprained ankle and ended up marrying Lisa, who gave birth to Suzy. A jealous Mike, however, continually suspected her of having an affair with Victor, and when she went to the Russian sector to seek advice from her father, Lisa was never seen or heard from again.
Unwilling to renew their marriage but eager to see Suzy again, a recovered Lisa agrees to accompany Mike back to his home. The little girl misunderstands, however, believing her father is bringing home a new wife. She becomes hysterical. Later, she takes a dislike to Lisa and refuses to believe any suggestion that this is her real mother.
Victor visits and charms Suzy with his drawings. Mike gets an inspiration that Suzy should describe to the artist whatever memories she has of what her mother looked like. Lisa is about to leave when Suzy, having seen Victor's sketch, realizes who she is and calls out to Lisa to come back. | flashback | train | wikipedia | Well Done, Sirk-Influenced Melodrama.
Although Jerry Hopper is the credited director of "Never Say Goodbye", Douglas Sirk oddly goes unrecognized as the co-director.
Though Sirk's presence can be felt at times, "Never Say Goodbye" lacks the visual irony and heaving drama of his greatest films.
Nonetheless, this is a beautifully-acted, handsomely-crafted affair, with a lush Frank Skinner score and some climactic melodrama thrown in for good measure.
Part war romance, part domestic drama, "Never Say Goodbye" is an interesting hybrid that actually works.Rock Hudson plays a military doctor who falls in love with nightclub pianist, Cornell Borchers.
The always good George Sanders is sorely underused as the man who blames Hudson for the entire ordeal."Never Say Goodbye" has its heavy-handed moments for sure.
And you just might roll your eyes at how quickly and cleanly the ending gets wrapped up.
But the action gets rolling almost from scene one and it turns out to be a satisfying, if unmemorable, nugget of 1950's soap opera.
Uinversal-International continues to churn out the glossy fluff with this one..
Partly Sirk.
Although widely acknowledged that parts of "Never Say Goodbye" were directed by Douglas Sirk, the credit is given to Jerry Hopper with no mention of Sirk at all.
Filmographies of Sirk's work most often do not include this work."Never Say Goodbye" has many of the hallmarks of Sirk's work, though is much lacking in the biting social criticism that elevated his finest work.
Like "Interlude" this is pure melodrama, filmed with style but ultimately forgettable.Rock Hudson and George Sanders turn in predictably solid performances but it is Cornell Borchers an Ingrid Bergman Greta Garbo hybrid, who manages to bring a sense of truth to the more than unlikely drama, which is essential for the melodrama's success.
While obviously not in the class of the major Sirk melodrama's there is enough here of interest to followers of his work..
Memories from a LONG time ago.
Everyone remembers their first kiss and their "first" time and for me this movie represents my first movie that I can actually remember.
My step-mother took me to see it when I was but a tender lad of 10 in St Louis, MO.This movie set in my mind a kind of will to find my own mother although at the time I had not a CLUE as to HOW, IF, or WHEN I would do this, I just had this intense confidence that I COULD and WOULD find her one day.About all that I remember about this movie is the bombing of a European city and the loss of this little girls mother.
I also remember the character Victor (I always thought he was played by David Nivens) as the little girls confidant and her pained frustration at not being able to understand why she could not find her mother and her resistance to the idea of her father's desire to marry this "outsider" and have her take the place of her missing mother.
Of course the outsider was in fact her long lost mother from the war years.Victor was the only trusted link that she had to her mother, as he knew her during the war.Finally, at the end of her 8th Birthday party celebration, as the outsider was preparing to leave the family as a failed endeavor at persuading the little girl to accept her as her "NEW" mother, the little girl asks Victor (he was a portrait artist and also did caricatures at the Biirthday party) to draw a picture of her mother as he remembered her some 8 years earlier.Of course Victor did a charcoal sketch of the "outsider" and presented it to the little girl folded in half.
As she opened the large format drawing and looked at the image, she thought there was some sort of deception going on and she questioned him about his attempt to fool her.I cannot for the life of me remember his actual response but is was in the form of a question of "what she wanted to believe", sorta like the young peasant girl in the film Dr. Zhivago, who did not want to believe something that was not trueThe little girl reconciled with her Mother and all ended well that started out so horribly.For the record, I did search for, and found, my birth mother in Belton, TX in 1970.
Unfortunately the ending was not the same, quite the opposite.
But until we try there will always be an ache in the heart to want to know.
I saw and felt that ache in this movie.DubleDeuce.
Positively Noble.
German film star Cornell Borchers stars with Rock Hudson in this Fifties romance of love and sacrifice Never Say Goodbye.
Who would have thought that George Sanders would not be a cad in a film.Hudson plays an army doctor in post war Europe awaiting home and discharge and he runs into Borchers and Sanders in a nightclub.
He and Borchers marry and they have a kid who grows up to be Shelley Fabares.
But the way she and Sanders keep hanging around together arouses the old green eyed monster in Rock.
He confronts her and she takes off behind the Iron Curtain in post war Vienna where who knows she might have run into Harry Lime.Fast forward to the present being 1956.
Borchers and Sanders are in Los Angeles doing their club act and she runs into Hudson who has told his daughter that her mother was dead.
After this the film becomes positively weepy.I won't say more, but everybody here becomes positively noble and noble does not wear well on George Sanders.
Never Say Goodbye was what was termed a woman's picture back in the day and for those who are inclined to these type films this one is for you.
Look fast and you'll see Clint Eastwood as one of Rock's medical colleagues.Douglas Sirk guided Rock through a few of these kinds of films in their salad days.
But Sirk knew enough to keep his hands off this..
Undistinctive but enjoyable tearjerker.
Undistinctive but enjoyable tearjerker: American doctor loves/loses/finds Vienna nightclub entertainer.
The skillful screenplay mixes motherhood, medicine and the Iron Curtain, plus manages a few provocative digs at American male behavior.
Rock Hudson and George Sanders give appealing performances.
In the central role, German actress Cornell Borchers looks like Ingrid Bergman but lacks her warmth.
A rich supporting cast includes a bit by Clint Eastwood .
Old-fashioned, but done with some dignity..
Superior Romance; a Wartime Film for Everyone; Borchers is Lovely.
This is a beautiful color film which many might classify as a '"woman's picture".
However, it has three very fine performances by Rock Hudson, George Sanders and Cornell Borchers, very good supporting actors and a moving storyline told from the point of view of the male participant.
So it is a romance, a dramatic film, and a frankly superior "tear-jerker" all rolled into one.
The storyline is fairly straightforward.
Michael Parker, a doctor, married a German girl and lost her during WWII, having to go on while thinking she is dead.
She reenters his life in the US with an old friend as escort, one who blames him for what she had to suffer.
She wants to get back together with Parker, but first has to win over his daughter who idolizes the mother she has never known; finally, the escort, an artist, draws the little girl a picture of her mother, and seeing it, the little girl learns who is her real mother accepts her joyfully.
The film was written from a Luigi Pirandello play, and the final version of the screenplay was done by Charles Hoffman.
The cast is an unusually good one.
Directed by Jerry Hopper, it also features Ray Collins, David Janssen, Casey Adams, Jerry Paris, John Banner, Robert F.
Simon, Helen Wallace, Frank Wilcox and many others.
The remarkable fact of the production is the realism of its motivations and reactions; it is never glossy, never cheap, often very moving.
Shelley Fabares as the stubborn little girl is quite good also.
But lovely Cornell Borchers and suave George Sanders are the best actors in this solid film.
The technical production is very good, for any era.
Sets by Russell A Gausman and Julia Heron, music by Frank Skinner, Bill Thomas's costumes and hairstyles by Joan St. Oegger plus makeup by Bud Westmore insured that this was to be an expensive-looking ad beautiful finished product.
This is an appealing story, which qualifies as a wartime film also, one partly told in interesting flashbacks; it has never been appreciated for what it avoided becoming nor for what it was made to be--a very fine story about people whose lives were torn asunder by war....
Clearly depicts one of many personal struggles during WWII.
I think this movie shows how much a persons life can change and be affected by the events that occurred in WWII.
This movie, unlike many newer movies today, has a real hard-hitting story that can truly be felt by the viewer.
A movie that doesn't have to live off of sex and violence, and can, I believe, is a great movie!.
Review of Never Say Goodbye starring Rock Hudson.
Please, does anyone knows where this movie can be found?
To either buy or rent!
Please advise and thank you in advance.A wonderful family movie...yes with drama!
I liked it very much and thought it was well put together.
With the war surrounded this couple and the jealousy of Rock made the wife a bit uncomfortable.
However he seemed to have loved her very much and was very concern for her safety after she was missing and wanted to take her with him to the States especially since she was his wife and the mother of his very young daughter.
It was hurtful for all 3 of them with her missing for so many years.How can I get to watch this movie again?
It has been quite a number of many years and I just cannot find it to purchase and not in rental stores either.
Can someone please advice on this?
Much thanks.
Realizing too late how you can hurt the one you love.
This isn't high drama but appeals more to one's tender side and family life values.
The doctor Michael (Rock Hudson) finds romance with Lisa, an entertainer (Cornell Borchers) while in Europe; they wed and in time a daughter becomes a part of their life too.
But his streak of jealousy gets the upper hand when he thinks she is secretly meeting another man.
It causes havoc and estrangement for them in the years ahead and much needs to be set aright again, especially for the little girl who in all this time of separation is deprived of a mother.George Sanders as Victor, has a typical role of being the outsider, almost the observer.
Here he's an artist, a devoted confidante of Lisa, and cares for her well-being as years pass.For fans of Rock Hudson this is a fine movie from his heyday of being a top Hollywood heart throb..
Decent Rock Hudson flick.
Rock Hudson plays a military doctor who falls in love with nightclub pianist, Cornell Borchers.
They marry and have a baby and all seems right.
They marry and have a baby and all seems right.
That is, until Hudson's seething jealousy wrecks everything that they had established.
That is, until Hudson's seething jealousy wrecks everything that they had established.
Tragedy tears the couple apart and Hudson must raise their daughter alone.
Tragedy tears the couple apart and Hudson must raise their daughter alone.
Years later, fate brings the couple back together and their daughter (played surprisingly well by a young Shelley Fabares)must come to grips with the mother she had never known..
Years later, fate brings the couple back together and their daughter (played surprisingly well by a young Shelley Fabares)must come to grips with the mother she had never known..
Say Hello to Goodbye ***1/2.
Terrific 1956 film where Dr. Rock Hudson accidentally runs into his wife.
Hudson had thought that wife, an excellent Cornell Borchers, was long dead.
In the company of an artist, the picture reverts back to Austria and how Hudson met and married Borchers.Of course, Borchers having to go back to East Germany and trapped there, leads to her separation from Hudson, who eventually gave up and thought she was dead.This film, a prime tear-jerker, has solid performances by all concerned.
Hudson displays that emotional anger and as stated, he gives a tremendous performance.
Borchers, whose film career in America, was greatly limited is certainly the Ingrid Bergman of her time.
Surprised that Bergman didn't snag the role for herself, but in 1956 she was busy winning the Oscar for "Anastasia." |
tt0122541 | An Ideal Husband | The play opens during a dinner party at the home of Sir Robert Chiltern in London's fashionable Grosvenor Square. Sir Robert, a prestigious member of the House of Commons, and his wife, Lady Chiltern, are hosting a gathering that includes his friend Lord Goring, a dandified bachelor and close friend to the Chilterns, Mabel Chiltern, and other genteel guests. During the party, Mrs. Cheveley, an enemy of Lady Chiltern's from their school days, attempts to blackmail Sir Robert into supporting a fraudulent scheme to build a canal in Argentina. Apparently, Mrs. Cheveley's dead mentor and lover, Baron Arnheim, convinced the young Sir Robert to sell him a Cabinet secret, a secret that suggested he buy stocks in the Suez Canal three days before the British government announced its purchase. Sir Robert made his fortune with that illicit money, and Mrs. Cheveley has the letter to prove his crime. Fearing the ruin of both career and marriage, Sir Robert submits to her demands.
When Mrs. Cheveley pointedly informs Lady Chiltern of Sir Robert's change of heart regarding the canal scheme, the morally inflexible Lady Chiltern, unaware of both her husband's past and the blackmail plot, insists that Sir Robert renege on his promise. For Lady Chiltern, their marriage is predicated on her having an "ideal husband"—that is, a model spouse in both private and public life that she can worship: thus Sir Robert must remain unimpeachable in all his decisions. Sir Robert complies with the lady's wishes and apparently seals his doom. Also toward the end of Act I, Mabel and Lord Goring come upon a diamond brooch that Lord Goring gave someone many years ago. Goring takes the brooch and asks that Mabel inform him if anyone comes to retrieve it.
In the second act, which also takes place at Sir Robert's house, Lord Goring urges Sir Robert to fight Mrs. Cheveley and admit his guilt to his wife. He also reveals that he and Mrs. Cheveley were formerly engaged. After finishing his conversation with Sir Robert, Goring engages in flirtatious banter with Mabel. He also takes Lady Chiltern aside and obliquely urges her to be less morally inflexible and more forgiving. Once Goring leaves, Mrs. Cheveley appears, unexpected, in search of a brooch she lost the previous evening. Incensed at Sir Robert's reneging on his promise, she ultimately exposes Sir Robert to his wife once they are both in the room. Unable to accept a Sir Robert now unmasked, Lady Chiltern then denounces her husband and refuses to forgive him.
In the third act, set in Lord Goring's home, Goring receives a pink letter from Lady Chiltern asking for his help, a letter that might be read as a compromising love note. Just as Goring receives this note, however, his father, Lord Caversham, drops in and demands to know when his son will marry. A visit from Sir Robert, who seeks further counsel from Goring, follows. Meanwhile, Mrs. Cheveley arrives unexpectedly and, misrecognised by the butler as the woman Goring awaits, is ushered into Lord Goring's drawing room. While she waits, she finds Lady Chiltern's letter. Ultimately, Sir Robert discovers Mrs. Cheveley in the drawing room and, convinced of an affair between these two former lovers, angrily storms out of the house.
When she and Lord Goring confront each other, Mrs. Cheveley makes a proposal. Claiming to still love Goring from their early days of courtship, she offers to exchange Sir Robert's letter for her old beau's hand in marriage. Lord Goring declines, accusing her of defiling love by reducing courtship to a vulgar transaction and ruining the Chilterns' marriage. He then springs his trap. Removing the diamond brooch from his desk drawer, he binds it to Cheveley's wrist with a hidden lock. Goring then reveals how the item came into her possession. Apparently Mrs. Cheveley stole it from his cousin, Mary Berkshire, years ago. To avoid arrest, Cheveley must trade the incriminating letter for her release from the bejewelled handcuff. After Goring obtains and burns the letter, however, Mrs. Cheveley steals Lady Chiltern's note from his desk. Vengefully she plans to send it to Sir Robert misconstrued as a love letter addressed to the dandified lord. Mrs. Cheveley exits the house in triumph.
The final act, which returns to Grosvenor Square, resolves the many plot complications sketched above with a decidedly happy ending. Lord Goring proposes to and is accepted by Mabel. Lord Caversham informs his son that Sir Robert has denounced the Argentine canal scheme before the House. Lady Chiltern then appears, and Lord Goring informs her that Sir Robert's letter has been destroyed but that Mrs. Cheveley has stolen her letter and plans to use it to destroy her marriage. At that moment, Sir Robert enters while reading Lady Chiltern's letter, but as the letter does not have the name of the addressee, he assumes it is meant for him, and reads it as a letter of forgiveness. The two reconcile. Lady Chiltern initially agrees to support Sir Robert's decision to renounce his career in politics, but Lord Goring dissuades her from allowing her husband to resign. When Sir Robert refuses Lord Goring his sister's hand in marriage, still believing he has taken up with Mrs. Cheveley, Lady Chiltern is forced to explain last night's events and the true nature of the letter. Sir Robert relents, and Lord Goring and Mabel are permitted to wed. | historical, comedy, satire, romantic | train | wikipedia | In fact, with all the Oscar Wilde wit which sounds wonderfully fresh here, there are also rich moments of emotional depth throughout this amusing but also quite moving film.One theme here - touching in hindsight - is how little it can take to destroy a reputation - Wilde was later to have some of the most painful possible firsthand experience of this.
It struck me while watching it both that Wilde had very French characteristics - a continental finesse, the love of repartee - and yet was profoundly an English writer by virtue of his faith in fair play and the bonds of (platonic) male friendship.In fact, Lord Goring, whose world-weary ways make him something of a surrogate for Wilde, is a distant cousin to Sidney Carton in coming to the defense of a 'nobler' friend even at great (possible) sacrifice to himself.
His very lack of seriousness is what makes his efforts on behalf of his friends so moving.With this, the pure visual beauty of actors like Cate Blanchett and Rupert Everett, matched by sumptuous costumes and sets, adds a sensuous element which, in a lesser film, might have dominated the movie.
Oliver Parker's revitalizing of Oscar Wilde's classic play is filmmaking at its finest.Every element of this film is superlative.
Seldom can you find a story that attempts to be a romantic comedy, a tale of duplicity blackmail and betrayal, and a drama of political intrigue, and succeeds so well on all counts.The intricate weave of deception, manipulation and double entendre along with comic misperception, irony and rapier witted dialogue are delicious and classic Wilde.
Rupert Everett, as the self absorbed Lord Arthur Goring, delivers an exquisite performance as the unscrupulous rogue upon whom the mantle of truth and honor is laid.Julianne Moore was delightful as the evil and cunning Mrs. Cheveley.
Moore handles this emotional juggling act with great skill and you find yourself simultaneously loving her ingeniousness and hating her treachery.Cate Blanchett turns in another wonderful performance as the oh-so-perfect, Lady Gertrud Chiltern.
While watching An Ideal Husband, I didn't object to the lack of suspense as long as Rupert Everett was working his way around those Wilde lines, which he does as well as anyone I've ever heard.I used to think Stephen Fry was Wilde on earth, but Fry is something wonderfully different -- Everett is Wilde on earth, or at least the actor that Wilde should have had around to deliver those lines when he wrote them.
I can only imagine the effect of that scene on straight women or gay men -- probably something akin to the effect Greta Scacchi's "I think we're alone now" smile at the end of The Coca-Cola Kid has on me.An Ideal Husband is full of good performances, with one glaring exception: the usually great Julianne Moore.
It may be that Moore was just outclassed by the Brits, who are born to this stuff.Cate Blanchett, whom I've seen in three movies, two of which were British period pieces, continues to amaze me with her range.The unsung hero of the movie is Jeremy Northam, who takes a thankless role -- the man in the play who isn't the Oscar Wilde figure -- and makes it emotionally compelling.
I saw "An Ideal Husband" at the Old Vic theater in London, and was surprised at the time how timely a 100 year old play could be.When I saw the trailers, TV ads and posters for this version, it seemed like an entirely different story--will Rupert Everett get married off.
That's certainly a thread in the movie, but in the marketing of this version, they made it appear as if it was the entire wardrobe.I didn't see the film when it was in theaters because these ads, with their very modern music and fast cutting, made the film look like a joke.But when it came out on video, I decided to try it, and am glad I did.The film itself is excellent.
Wilde's humor shines through, and the writer-director has done a wonderful job "opening" up the play into a film, without changing anything important.
An Ideal Husband - ****In 19th Century London, Sir Robert Chiltern (Jeremy Northam,) is a successful member of parliament married to the virtuous, fabulously popular Lady Gertrud Chiltern (Cate Blanchett.) Sir Robert's sister Mabel (Minnie Driver) is infatuated with Sir Robert's friend, Lord Arthur Goring (Rupert Everett.) The dashing Lord Goring, the wealthy son of the Earl of Caversham, is an inveterate bachelor who lives a life of leisure.
We learn that the noble Sir Robert is less than perfect, while the rakish bachelor Lord Goring possesses a surprising level of honor and insight.If Shakespeare in Love deserved an Oscar, this film deserves the Nobel Prize.
But the true star of the film is Rupert Everett as Lord Arthur Goring.
The cast was superb from Jeremy Northam, Sir Robert Chiltern the title character, to Cate Blanchett, Lady Gertrud Chiltern his wife, to Minnie Driver, Mabel Chiltern his sister, to Rupert Everett, Lord Arthur Goring his friend, and Julianne Moore, Mrs. Cheveley.
"An Ideal Husband" is a charming though contrived little 19th century English period comedy with the subtly sardonic sense of humor typical of Oscar Wilde.
Rupert Everett and Minnie Driver play their parts to perfection, and so do all the remaining actors.
I can't get enough of Arthur, Lord Goring, or of Laura Chevely, who are both wonderful to look upon, and the script is full of funny dry wit, plus it's a good story.
In the midst of blockbusters and bathroom humour, Oliver Parker decided to film a faithful version of an Oscar Wilde play, complete with authentic costumes, elaborate sets and witty, wonderful dialogue.
The actors, particularly Rupert Everett, Jeremy Northam, Cate Blanchett and Minnie Driver, are obviously having a lot of fun as they sink their teeth into this worthwhile material.
Comedy plays like those that Oscar Wilde are tough to do; go one way, and it's too smug and arch, go another and it's too labored and drawn out.
Certainly Rupert Everett is effortless enough, and he's not only good in of himself, but everyone else is at ease when acting with him(I particularly like his sparring with Minnie Driver).
It was painful to watch perfectly wonderful actors -- Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchette, Rupert Everett, Minnie Driver -- gesticulate their way through the wildly unfunny material, and even more painful to witness the usually insipid Jeremy Northam get way too much screen time.
Based on the Oscar Wilde play of the same name, "An Ideal Husband" scores as a moderately entertaining drawing room comedy thanks to the elegance of its design and the performances of its first rate cast.
No one smiles more sincerely or maintains such immense social poise while slicing one's opponents to shreds than the elite of England - and this quality director Oliver Parker captures in complete fidelity to Wilde's overall vision.Jeremy Northam portrays a highly respected and happily married member of the House of Commons who is suddenly confronted with a moral dilemma: should he allow a blackmailer to expose an egregiously immoral action in his past, thereby ensuring the ruination of both his career and his marriage, or should he go along with the blackmailer's demands and publicly support a cause he knows to be highly unethical and injurious to both his people and his nation?
Rupert Everett also stars as a confirmed bachelor who manages to become intricately involved in everyone's affairs.The film succeeds most when it concentrates on the stuffiness of the stiff-upper-lipped British tradition juxtaposed to the single-minded viciousness of the Moore character.
Wilde, on the other end of the morality spectrum, also subtly jabs at the unrealistic obsession with virtue in the character of Northam's impossibly pure wife (Cate Blanchett); she erects so high a moral pedestal for her husband to stand upon that it is only after she has been caught in a moral infraction herself that the world these characters inhabit can come back into any sort of balance.The film is probably least effective when trying to cope with the complex interweaving and overlapping of the characters and their situations.
I went into this movie expecting to like it-- after all, it got rave reviews, I love this "type" of film, and I'm a big fan of most of the stars.
Both films did what An Ideal Husband attempted and failed to do.One last point to hammer home-- the close-ups of Rupert Everett's left ear revealed 2 earring holes (an anachronism or at least a reminder that THIS IS A MOVIE).
Chiltern turns to his friend, the idle and self obsessed Lord Goring for help, drawing him into a game of deception and love.The audience for this film is pretty easy to define.
The film opens out the play and includes a few in-jokes for Wilde fans and it is effective in making for a slick product even if it takes the edge of the actual characters.The witty dialogue is good and it won't disappoint fans of the play.
Driver is also great as his love interest and her scenes with Everett are the best of the film.
Wood and Vaughan both have small roles but get laughs every time!Overall this is a sparky little movie that will appeal to those who love the cut and thrust of well written, witty dialogue and playful to's and fro's between the characters.
"An ideal husband" is a forgettable movie: a routine work that produce poor results from Wilde's brilliant matter..
Rupert Everett is outstanding, as were Minnie Driver, Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett and the poor man whose name I just can't remember right now...
This film is self-described as "based on" Oscar Wilde's stage play, and that's accurate.
Nevertheless, it's entirely fun to watch and entirely worth it.My wife and I think this might be Wilde's best play, because it cuts a bit deeper than his more famous Importance of Being Earnest and really does have a serious message to go with the trademark Wilde comedy and unbeatable wit.
The acting is fine, led by Rupert Everett as Arthur Goring: all the Wilde plays have a character who represent Wilde himself, and Arthur is the best case of that.
Julianne Moore is fine as the villainously smooth snake who ignites the ticking time bomb that makes up the plot, Jeremy Northam and Cate Blanchett play the husband and wife pair who gradually come to understand each other, and themselves, better as they go along, and Minnie Driver is their sister who finally maneuvers Arthur into proposing, much to his own surprise.It's all a fun ride, though you end up wondering if they could have produced a version that would have been a bit more faithful to Wilde's text.
This screen version of the Oscar Wilde play is gorgeous to look at, has an all-star cast and opens out the action superbly.
I'm still not quite sure what audience the producers hoped to attract but then who would ever have guessed a movie entitle "Shakespeare in Love" would win the Oscar as the year's best picture.Of course, Wilde's original play isn't quite in "The Importance of Being Earnest" class, (and in a nice touch the characters here attend a performance of that very play), but director Oliver Parker pulls out all the stops and the end result is very entertaining.
The epigrammatic Wilde character is Lord Goring and Rupert Everett fits the part like a well-tailored glove but again it's the women who hold court and both Cate Blanchett, (Lady Chiltern), and Julianne Moore, (the very devious Mrs. Cheveley), are excellent while Jeremy Northam is a surprisingly effective Sir Robert.
A nod is given in "An Ideal Husband" to Wilde's masterpiece, "The Importance of Being Earnest", and there's even a brief appearance by Wilde himself, a self-indulgent man whose most selfish act was to destroy himself so that we couldn't get more polished and shining plays from him.
`An Ideal Husband' Rupert Everett stars as Lord Arthur Goring, a bachelor who's ex-finance (Julianne Moore) comes strolling back into town with a secret.
Set in 1894 London, and adapted from the stage play by Oscar Wilde, `Husband' is the latest costume drama where `scandal' and `society' are the buzzwords and tedium is the audience's reaction.
Script by Wilde; Minnie & Cate and the delicious Rupert Everett and Jeremy Northam.
Rupert Everett was born for this sort of role, and all the other stars do well, though Minnie Driver is Short-changed, with little plot device or wit to work with.
'An Ideal Husband' comes to the big screen for the second time here as Jeremy Northam's Sir Robert Chiltern is blackmailed by Mrs Cheveley (Julianne Moore) because of a mistake in his past.
Supported ably by Cate Blanchett as spotless Lady Gertrude, Rupert Everett as Lord Goring, John Wood as Goring's father, Lord Caversham, and Lindsay Duncan as Lady Markby, this version manages to be both entertaining and have a refreshing take on the play.Opened out from stage constraints as a film should be, this version is well-acted, energetic, but perhaps a little short on focus.
'An Ideal Husband' can be played seriously or as high farce; this film stumbles a bit before it decides which way to go..
I wish I could carry on a conversation like the characters in An Ideal Husband or any of Wilde's other stories.
Because the character of Lord Goring, whom you will find on the DVD cover played by Rupert Everett, is not "bright" or "smart" or even "epigrammatic." He is witty, and that is that.
This film is about a lady blackmailing a respectable lord, causing many merry misunderstandings and mischiefs in the subsequent days.Oscar Wilde adaptations always lighten up my heart.
I watched this film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's an Ideal Husband to complement my study of it for a 19th century English drama course.
This film carries all the wit that is expected from an Oscar Wilde play.
An Ideal Husband B-/B+ 7.10.00 1.85:1/5.1 First Viewing 16:9 EnhancedBased on an Oscar Wilde play, this witty piece stars Cate Blanchett, Minnie Driver, Julianne Moore and Rupert Everett.
Overall a very entertaining and witty film with a great performance by Rupert Everett..
I hadn't encountered Wilde's `An Ideal Husband' before seeing the movie; it's a much cleverer work than `The Importance of Being Ernest', just as funny when it wants to be, and yet more evidence that the nihilistic Wilde we think we know is a fabrication, dreamed up by people who have only read `Ernest' and the beginning, but not the end, of `The Picture of Dorian Gray'.
The whole character of the delightful Mabel was of course ruined by the knowing grimaces of Minnie Driver and I counted Rupert Everett`s pores several times.
This involves some remarkable timing coincidences which you can get away with in the theatre but often look a bit strange in the more naturalistic film medium.Rupert Everett is perfectly cast as Lord Goring, "the idlest man in London," and the most Wilde-like of all the characters.
This movie was a treat with its lush sets of amazing homes of the British aristocracy of the late 1800s, clever Oscar Wilde plot, and interesting characters.
Oscar Wilde penned his play An Ideal Husband in 1895, the same year he wrote and opened his famous opus The Importance Of Being Earnest.
Now they know they can trust him.End of play.There's another subplot or two, cleverly written, as we would expect from Mr Wilde, (screenplay by the film's director Oliver Parker).
These involve blossoming love between Robert's sister Mabel (Minnie Driver) and his best friend Goring (Rupert Everett?) but I find these Rule Britannia, London season films increasingly offensive.Australians are soon to vote on whether Australia should throw over England and become a Republic.
Oliver Parker managed to create a wonderful movie from Oscar Wilde's witty play.
(It's Jeremy, in my book.) Great writing, courtesy of Oscar Wilde and director/screenwriter Oliver Parker; spirited, fun performances from everyone, especially Everett and Julianne Moore, and the splendid production design make this movie one of my favorites of '99 so far.
Oliver Parker wrote and directed this consistently charming Victorian romantic comedy, based on the Oscar Wilde play, about a lazy bachelor (played by Rupert Everett) who juggles his friends (Jeremy Northam and Cate Blanchett as a politically-involved husband and wife) lives in one hand and a budding romance with Minnie Driver in the other.
The dueling words of Rupert Everett and Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting) created a playful tension and very pleasant resolution at the end.The casting and acting, due to the majority of English actors, were enchanting.
Rupert Everett, Minnie Driver, and Jeremy Northam lit up the screen with thick, aristocratic accents coupled with the good vocal coaching (Bravo dialect coach) of Julianne Moore and Cate Blanchett not only created atmosphere but held their own, fighting dialect and quick wit.
The public may be surprised that Oscar-caliber performances (Everett and Northam chiefly) have come so early this film year.This movie shone from start to finish.
I also enjoy watching the screen between Rupurt Everett and the actor who played his father in the movie-I couldn't contain myself from laughers each time the two appeared on screen together.
It details a blackmail scheme between Sir Robert Chiltern (Jeremy Northam) his wife, Lady Gertrud Chiltern (Cate Blanchett) and Mrs. Laura Cheveley (Julianne Moore).
There is the social reception, Lord Arthur Goring, (Rupert Everett as the Ideal Husband, who was also in "A Midsummer Night's Dream,") and his hidden love for Mabel Chiltern (Minnie Driver), his father's desire for Arthur to wed, and many other lesser blackmail gambles that keep the audience at a peek of tension.The movie's structure is generally effective as it brings to our attention a main problem, complications, character issues, gradually raising the tension level, and finally a pleasant solution that is needed for this type of entertainment. |
tt0046731 | Attila | The story is set in 450 A.D. The Huns, a horde of barbarians from the distant plains of Asia, move toward the rich western lands of Germania, led by a savage chief, Attila.
Flavius Aetius, a Roman general, is the only person who knows Attila since he was in a continuation of legation with the Huns for years. Aetius and his companion Prisco carry a message from the Roman emperor Valentinian III to the Hun's king Rua. After reaching their palace, Aetius learns that the king died, and that two brothers Bleda and Attila are now ruling the Hun kingdom. Bleda favours peace and tolerance, but Attila is at odds with him, and tensions develop. Yet Aetius knows to make an alliance between the Western Roman Empire and the Huns.
Aetius returns to the Imperial court at Ravenna, where the childish emperor Valentinian III is busy with Roman parties in his palace and enjoying himself, while ignoring the fact that the Empire is beginning to fall apart. Because of this, his mother Galla Placidia is ruling the Empire. Honoria, daughter of Galla Placidia and sister of Valentinian hopes to get rid of them, but needs help to do so. She asks Aetius to join her in a coup d'état, but he has vowed an oath to serve the Empire and refuses, even if he's arrested and stripped of his military rank by Valantinian and Galla Placidia due to his alliance to the Huns.
The two brothers battle, Attila wins by ordering his bodyguard to fire arrows at Bleda and his bodyguard during the hunt, and declares himself the sole leader of the Huns, riling them to support his aspirations of conquering the Roman Empire.
Flavius Aetius returns to Ravenna where emperor Valantinian is distracted by an attempt to poison him. His mother Galla Placidia realizes that the Empire is on the edge of destruction and gives Aetius full military power. Honoria decides to leave the Imperial court and join the Huns. Aetius decides to stop Attila's horde at a river near Italy. The battle starts with a number of Hunnic cavalrymen killed, but when Aetius is in pursuit of the Huns the main cavalry attacks him. His main foot army comes to help, but he is shot in his neck by a Hunnic archer. The entire Roman army loses it's morale to fight on and flee, killing Honoria on the way back. On the eve of victory, Attila takes his son Bleda, (who was named after Atilla's brother) to the battlefield to witness their helpless situation. Aetius, badly injured, fires an arrow at Attila, but misses, and kills Bleda. This traumatizes Attila. Aetius regrets his failed shot, and dies seconds later. Finally on their way to Rome, the Huns face a sacred procession of priests, led by Pope Leo I. Attila is about to kill the Pope, but he says to him calmly, "You can kill everybody...old people, women, children. But remember, Attila, innocent blood won't be washed away. It will come back to you." Attila turns back towards the Alps, leaving Rome untouched. | intrigue, murder | train | wikipedia | Quinn tries his best with a bad and unreasonable script....
Destroying towns and cities across the Alp to Italy, the mounted hordes led by Attila, King of the Huns, reached the gates of Rome where they were stopped by the Cross and turned back by Pope Leo I...Anthony Quinn is Attila, the infamous 5th Century barbarian in this Italian unworthy spectacular...Sophia Loren offers a pretty presence as the ambitious tempting Honoria who accepts Attila as a husband just to save Rome...
She loses her life and half of her kingdom...Quinn tries his best in his portrayal of the infamous Attila, but the script is bad and unreasonable....
The mighty Quinn.
The script is admittedly very badly written but it follows roughly Attila 's biography.Of course ,as it is a 75 min movie,many moments are passed over in silence but all that concerns the main characters is accurate: the brother was slain by Attila and his German vassals ,Honoria tried to forge an alliance with him,(but her brother locked her into a convent),and yes,the pope found the right words to stop the conqueror.He had previously failed in front of Paris ,reportedly with a little help from Saint Genevieve ,a woman of God who urged the Parisians to resist.The film suffers from an international ill-assorted cast:an American (Quinn) ideally cast as the bar bar,an Italian (Sophia Loren) which made sense,but also a Greek thespian (Irene Pappas) plus three French actors :Henri Vidal cast as the noble loyal hero- a character not unlike the legionnaire he played in "Fabiola"-,who was formerly Attila's good friend (?),Claude Laydu who gives a passable performance of an effeminate fearful emperor ,probably influenced by Peter Ustinov's masterful portrayal of Nero in Mervyn Le Roy's "Quo Vadis" ,Colette Régis,an obscure actress plays his mother ,an over possessive one of course.Also handicapped by a last scene which verges on Christian propaganda -the last picture is revealing-,the film is to recommend only for Quinn's fans..
Hun, they shrunk the story.
An early sword-and-sandal epic from Italy casts Anthony Quinn as Attila the Hun, with dialog that sounds as though it came from a kung fu movie.
"Attila" is probably most noticeable as an early appearance of Sophia Loren (she plays Honoria, who marries the vicious warrior).
Otherwise, it's the sort of movie that belongs on "Mystery Science Theater 3000".
At this point, I have serious doubts as to whether its even possible to make a good movie about a historical figure from that long ago.
Maybe they just work best as spoofs in the vein of "Life of Brian".Anyway, this is certainly the sort of flick that should be of interest to bad movie buffs.
Not terrible, but that year, Anthony Quinn starred in one of Italy's greatest films: "La strada"..
ATTILA (Pietro Francisci, 1954) **1/2.
Knowing of director Francisci’s subsequent contribution to the peplum genre, I fully expected this to be a low-rent version of SIGN OF THE PAGAN (1954) – which I watched the previous day – but the film ultimately proved fairly interesting in its own right.
For one thing, the narrative has at least as many differences as similarities vis-a'-vis the Douglas Sirk epic and, once again, we have an imposing Hollywood star (Anthony Quinn) in the lead.
Sophia Loren, then, stands in for Ludmilla Tcherina (though her character is ambitious and deceitful) while Henri Vidal – from the best Italian-made spectacular, FABIOLA (1948) – replaces Jeff Chandler (bafflingly, he dies here while Attila is allowed to live!).
Another reversal has the Huns fighting amongst themselves – more specifically, Attila and his peace-craving brother: just as Jack Palance in SIGN OF THE PAGAN was forced to kill his daughter for what he deemed treacherous behavior, so does Quinn in this case with his sibling.
In support of them, we have: Claude Laydu (from Robert Bresson’s DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST [1951]), a most surprising choice to play the typically wimpish Emperor; Irene Papas, who takes on the role of Attila’s sole wife (and, conveniently, his astrologer as well); and Eduardo Ciannelli, appearing as a wise old Hun. While Sirk tried – with some measure of success – to put his distinctive mark upon the material, Francisci was content to imitate the Hollywood model (and QUO VADIS [1951] in particular).
Consequently, the film features intermittent ponderous narration, gratuitous exotic touches (in the form of a dance sequence and Laydu keeping a pet leopard) and an unlikely – if still effective – spiritual conclusion wherein the Huns are finally driven away thanks to the intervention of Pope Leo and his ‘army’ of cross-wielding supporters.
Otherwise, the picture has a handsome look (i.e. bearing soft colors), compelling enough confrontation scenes (within both camps), and a long-in-coming but satisfactory climactic skirmish.
The main downside is that the version broadcast on late-night Italian TV is the shorter U.K. cut (running a mere 76 minutes in PAL mode), albeit in its native language, as opposed to the official 100-minute print (which probably explains the references to a couple of minor plot points that are not actually shown)!
Incidentally, reading through the credits one recognizes the names of several crew members who would later become directors in their own right: Luciano Ercoli, Christian Marquand, Flavio Mogherini, Luigi Scattini and Primo Zeglio...not to mention some heavyweights in the international film industry like Dino De Laurentiis, Carlo Ponti, Giuseppe Rotunno, Karl Struss and Aldo Tonti!.
Worth seeing!.
The acting schools are extremely expensive.
And what they teach you is how to control your breathing, how to scratch your balls or jump up.
Anthony Quinn is a real acting school only by himself, just watching any of his movies, you have a lot to learn.
Even in this film, the one born in Chihuahua, Mexico, makes us a great demonstration of huge talent, embodying "The Scourge of God".
He is the most credible Attila of all the movies.
Sophia Loren, very young, is good as Honoria.
Henri Vidal is convincing too as Aetius.
Same Claude Laydu as the idiot Emperor Valentiniano Caesar.
Irene Papas, also very young, is OK as Grune.
Christian Marquand, who was to become the director of the "Candy" masterpiece, is a Hun leader..
Passable Peplum with Sophia's Pulchritude.
After starring in La Strada Anthony Quinn went on to do two more films while in Italy, Ulysses where he supported Kirk Douglas and Attila where he starred as the bloodthirsty Hun chief who nearly conquered Rome.
This one is possibly the least of the three.Attila as Quinn plays it is one dude who only really gets his Mojo going with some hand to hand combat.
The Huns have a treaty with Rome and to show how times have changed, the Romans pay them tribute to not attack.
But in his view of things that is not quite a legitimate way for conqueror to do things.
Quinn who co-rules with brother Ettore Manni murders Manni and puts the Huns on a war footing.But Rome by 450 AD has grown soft and futile and ruled by a kid Emperor with Mom issues.
The Dowager Empress is French actress Colette Regis and her idiot son is Claude Leydu.
She also has a daughter played by Sophia Loren in an early role and Sophia is out to use her considerable charms to cut her own deal with Attila.
But she doesn't realize that Quinn just ain't interested when he can go out run people through with sword and lance.
To General Henri Vidal comes the disagreeable task of saving this worthless bunch.
And there is also the Pope who as legend has come down to us got the deed done, but only temporarily.Attila is a film I saw half a century ago on WOR TV in New York on Million Dollar movie.
Could not appreciate the color on our black and white TV set at the time.
I could also not appreciate Sophia Loren who's half the reason for seeing this film.It's passable Peplum, not down to the level of Maciste or Hercules later on.
But not one of Anthony Quinn's better remembered films. |
tt0352830 | Sssshhh... | Late one night, Malini Gujral (Simone Singh) and her boyfriend Sunny are brutally murdered while playing Squash on their college campus by a killer in a clown mask.
Six months later in Shimla, Malini's younger sister Mahek (Tanishaa Mukerji) is shopping for art supplies and runs into police inspector Kamat Uncle. He tells her there is no progress in the search for her sister's killer, as no evidence was left behind. He warns her that killers like this lie in wait before their next attack, and advises her to take care. While at the register, the phone rings and Mahek answers. The caller addresses Mahek by name and introduces himself as Malini's killer. He taunts her by describing the way her sister died and stating what a coincidence it is that Malini was wearing white the day she died, and today Mahek is wearing white. Mahek frantically looks around and sees a young man walking away from a pay phone from the back of the store, he comes closer to her, apparently holding a large knife, similar to the clown-masked killer. She screams and covers her eyes, but the man has no knife and he was following her to return her purse.
The next day at Simon College, she runs into the young man while hanging out with her friends Rocky (Dino Morea), Gehna (Suvarna Jha), and Rajat (Gaurav Kapur). He introduces himself as Suraj Rai (Karan Nath), and says he is new to the campus from Delhi. They are shortly joined by couple Rhea and Nikhil (Kushal Punjabi). Rocky is the jokester of the group and likes to bunk classes. Suraj and Mahek head off to Mrs. Roy's psychology class and it's obvious Rocky is jealous and in love with Mahek.
While preparing for gym class, Ghena encourages the relationship between Suraj and Mahek. Mahek expresses her concern of the incident of the phone call, and Gehna brushes it off. As Mahek is left alone in the locker room, the killer's voice comes over the loudspeaker calling her name. The principal announces not to worry, as someone played a cheap joke while out of his office. Mahek starts picks up her makeup she dropped when the person screamed over the loudspeaker, and the clown-masked killer comes up behind her with a knife. Mrs. Roy enters the room and the killer is gone. Mahek leaves and Mrs. Roy continues to rant about the prankster from earlier. She hears a man's cough from one of the stalls. Thinking it's a girl and boy together, she starts to open each stall. As she gets to the third stall, it won't open. She peers into a slight opening and the killer stabs her in the eye.
Students crowd around as the investigation of Mrs. Roy's death presses on. There is a bloody shoe print at the scene of the crime, but no other evidence. Kamat Uncle is there and advises the principal that his students are not safe as this is the second incident in 6 months. The inspectors believe it is the work of a serial killer. Mahek approaches Kamat Uncle and tells him about the phone call she received. Rocky is chatting with Nikhil and Suraj, making jokes about how he's escaped having to take the psychology exam tomorrow, obviously not taking the situation seriously. Kamat Uncle overhears and becomes suspicious and starts questioning where Rocky was, and what his shoe size is. Rocky claims to have been at home an hour earlier and just got to campus. He jokingly asked the inspector if he's planning on giving him a gift, and threatens that the inspector doesn't know who he is, and the inspector replies that is exactly what he wants to find out. However, Rocky's feet are bigger than the prints at the scene. Rocky tells the inspector to question newer students, pointing to Suraj. Suraj is very nervous, and even more so when his size 8 matches the footprint. Kamat Uncle dismisses it, saying that more than half the students probably wear that size and suggest they wait for the post-mortem report.
Mahek starts to avoid Rocky and apologizes to Suraj for his behavior. She reveals that she and Rocky have been friends for 15 years, but nothing more. Suraj shares about his close relationship with his father, and Mahek has flashbacks to when her dad left her family. Upset, she runs away without explanation. At home she is comforted by her mom, who explains she is going away for an art convention in Delhi. She is worried about leaving Mahek, even though it is just for 3 hours.
Later that night, she hears a noise thinking her mom is back from Delhi. She finds a window unlocked and realizes she's in her house with the killer. During the pursuit she notices an orange watch on the killer's wrist. She manages to alert Kamat Uncle of her attack and is able to fight the killer, who escapes through a window before the police arrive. She runs outside and Suraj is out there. Initially she rushes into his arms, but she notices the same orange watch on his wrist. Kamat Uncle arrives and she points at Suraj with disbelief. Inspector Rathod finds the clown mask and robe in the bushes nearby. Her mom arrives as Suraj is being arrested.
Rocky is throwing a party and is desperate for Mahek to attend. She is convinced by Gehna and her mom to get out of the house and go have fun to get her mind off of the attack. Mahek goes to the party but is less than enthusiastic. Eventually she leaves, and on the foggy drive home. Ghena is venting and blaming Rocky for being insensitive, but Mahek defends him saying it's not the party but her mood after all of the events. She receives a call on her mobile from the killer. She is terrified, because Suraj is currently in jail. Suddenly, the killer appears in the middle of the road, causing Gehna to lose control of the car and crash into a shallow river. Ghena is unconscious and Mahek climbs her way out and begins to scream for help. The killer comes out from the water and grabs her trying to drown her. As he pulls out his knife, Suraj is at the scene and begins to fight the killer. It turns out he had an alibi and was working with Principal Aneja that evening. Kamat Uncle is also there. He has his gun out but doesn't have a good shot. The killer escapes into the fog and is shot by Kamat Uncle, and jumps into the river. The police are unsuccessful in recovering the killer's body and Mahek is back at home.
She makes amends with Suraj, but continues to have visions of the killer, despite her assuming he is dead. She has a breakdown in front of Gehna, and her friends decide that they need to go on holiday. They decide on going to Thailand. There is no escaping death now as they realize they are trapped on an island with the killer. Tensions mount between the friends as they try to find out who amongst them can't be trusted. Mahek is turned against Rocky as suspicious circumstances continue to surround him. Rajat, Rhea, and Nikhil are all murdered. Kamat Uncle and Rathod arrive on the island and bring news of Mahek's mother's murder. Kamat Uncle is killed, and the killer is shot by Suraj. When they remove the mask, it is Inspector Rathod. Rocky tries to implore Mahek to accept his love, and Suraj shoots him.
It is at this point Suraj reveals his identity as the killer. It is also revealed that Rajat was not killed, but is very much alive. The killer is a duo. Suraj and Rajat are brothers. Their mother was raped by Mahek and Malini's estranged father, destroying their family after she committed suicide from the shame. Following their mother's suicide, their dad shot himself. For revenge, Suraj and Rajat killed Mr. Gujral first, followed by Malini, Mrs. Gujral, and need to claim Mahek's life to repay the debt owed for her father ruining their lives.
Rocky is able to regain enough strength to shoot Suraj and Rajat and save Mahek from the same fate as her family. Ultimately Suraj dies at the hands of Mahek, who stabs him after his gunshot wound proves to be nonfatal. Rocky and Mahek ride back to the mainland on a boat in each other's arms. | romantic, revenge, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | 'Bollywood horror' or 'horror from Bollywood?'.
yeap, horror from India, or should we say thriller, since the murderscenes are not that explicit like in other movies.
However, it is a refreshing thing: though there are still some songs, they are really part of the movie, without disturbing anything in the story.I definately don't agree with the other comment I read.
It is realistic, and the outcome, if you REALLY were watching, was definately predictable.
Maybe you will know for 50%, the other half is still a bit surprising, but as long as you don't fall asleep, you will know 'who did it'.
It is not an unique story.
You will find much alike in other horror movies, but don't we all repeat sometimes?The only problem I have with this movie is that a big part is filmed in a kind of Swiss village, only inhabited by Indians.....
Regualry you have the feeling that you are walking through a 'one-street-only' village, where behind the facade of the houses you will only find empty space.Anyway, the actors are all doing great, new talents give their best, and all in all, I would say 7 out of 10.
Worth watching!
nope, not Bollywood horror, but horror from Bollywood..
Well-made movie technically but too unrealistic.
For starters, this movie had terrific sound effects, camerawork, etc.
Tanishaa's debut was not too impressive.
However, if you scrutinize her, you can find some glimpses of Kajol.
The serial killing just got way out of control and became totally unbelievable.
Like Kucch To Hai, person after person was being murdered.
The murder sequences were also predictable.
Now, the end was completely unpredictable, but that isn't necessarily a good thing.
It was one of those endings were it is absolutely impossible to guess the culprit because there was insufficient information.
This was a good try at making a movie of a very demanding genre..
Mad slasher film from India.
This is a fascinating little film to catch.
It's an Indian production that imitates every cliche of American mad slasher films of the 1980's.
All the cliches are here- a killer, in clown get-up, targeting pretty young college girls.
EVERY cliche is here, even down to the bit where our heroine hears a stange noise in her deserted house, and it turns out to be a cat.
But, what makes the film interesting are the Indian characteristics.
Unlike American genre films set in colleges, the students here are VERY SERIOUS about studying.
There is no sex, women are not seen as sex objects (They are seen as second class citizens here.) The biggest culutre shock is the scene at the Indian frat party.
The students are thrilled over the only beverage avialable- Pepsi..
Technically sound...
but fails....
One of those whodonnit inspired by I Know What You Did Last Summer...
did I see race it with Kuch Toh Hain - a flick with similar theme?
How-ever a small problem - both of them faltered big time.
Reason: Not backed up with adequate storyline to keep the audience glued to seats.
And the ending was not at all justified the killing spree.
Must admit however that it was technically good....
shot at great locales.....
sound department and cinematography are quite good for Indian standards.
Being Kajol's sis, Tanishaa could have chosen a better movie as a debut vehicle.
She does have striking similarity to her sibling sister.
Acting wise, none of the younger lot showed any potential..
Old Tale Good Locations.
'Sssshhh' came out when most of the hopeless directors were either running short of ideas or glamorizing trashy tales with hi-tech SFX.
Despite being a bastardized version of Wes Craven's well-received cult flick 'Scream', 'Sssshhh' succeeds in creating atmosphere of its own.
The atmosphere it builds is not because of the plot, but outstanding locations.
The locations are both fantastic and spooky at the same time.
I remember when I left the cinema hall, I didn't have much to say about the plot but at the same time praised the director for being so wise in choosing locations that successfully induce the sense of solitude in one's mind.
Amateur Tanisha doesn't have much god-gifted charms to throw on screen and Suvarna Jha looks like a slut with her horribly groomed and badly 'damaged' hair, and has nothing else to do than acting promiscuous; Nevertheless the role of female protagonist didn't fall to her.
Well, better luck next time!
Till then keep enjoying your slice of dumb family operas.'Sssshhh' begins with Malini (Simone Singh), playing squash in the squash court, when she hears a strange and horrendous voice talking to her via announcement speakers.
The voice (obviously a male voice) tells Malini of the imminent horrors she would soon be a part of.
While Malini thinks that her boyfriend is trying to play a prank upon her, the voice makes clear that it is not her boyfriend's voice.
Malini soon witnesses brutal murder of her boyfriend, who is stabbed mercilessly and is shoved on the glass wall of the squash room.
A frightened Malini tries to save herself, but the killer, who has put on a joker mask and is clad in a black dress from head to toe, is bit too smart and manages to grab and stab her to death.After six months, we meet Mahek (Tanisha), a free-spirited and innocent teen, who is tormented by the untimely death of her elder sister Malini.
Mahek has good chums, namely Rocky (Dino Morea), Nikhil (Kushal), Priya (Tina), Gehna (Suvarna) and Rajat (Gaurav).
Mahek lives with her mother Mrs. Gujral (Maya Alagh), who separated from her husband Mr. Gujral (Nasir Abdullah) long back, when Malini and Mahek were young.
The real story starts when Mahek meets a sober young man Karan (Karan Nath) at a departmental store and mistakes her for Malini's killer.
Mahek finds that Karan is a student at her college and welcomes him in her group.
Mahek's group, however, gives an unfriendly welcome to Karan.
Few days later, one of the lady professors is ruthlessly killed in the lady's room.
Inspector Kamath (Shivaji Satam) and Inspector Aakash (Aly Khan) arrive at the college for investigation.
The only clue to the killer are his shoe impressions.
At first the cops are skeptical about both Rocky and Karan, but they don't have anything more than shoe impressions to prove their guilt.Karan and Mahek enjoy good times together and soon go hand-in-hand.
An obviously turmoiled Rocky despises Mahek's relationship with Karan.
However, he keeps things to himself and Rajat, his shabby pal.
Everything seems fine, until Mahek is attacked by the killer.
She somehow saves herself and mistakes Karan for the killer and calls for his arrest.
Karan is taken to the police station but is soon released.
Mahek feels sorry for her behavior and tries to rebuild her relationship with Karan.
Meanwhile the friends are planning for a pleasant trip to Thailand.
They soon go there and after few days end up at a lonely island.
It is there when one by one they are killed by the killer, who has stalked them all the way and is looking for a remorseless payback.So did you enjoy the story?
I told you, there is nothing in the story.
What make this film great are the charismatic locations of Thailand.
The deserted sea beach of the lonely island forces the viewer to remember the idyllic life Alexander Selkirk spent at Juan Fernandez Islands.
What looks beautiful is mostly fatal.
The vast expanse of sea and the fear of being alone at an abandoned but pristine beach will give you shivers.
You set out all the way with your friends to enjoy the raw and unspoiled beauty of nature and suddenly realize that you are not able to bear the tremendous sense of isolation and are devoid of any means to reach the mainland.
I really can understand what Tom Neale must have felt when he penned down his experiences in his book 'An Island For Oneself'.
So friends, if you are looking for untouched but creepy, beautiful but lethal, and picturesque but grotesque locations, please go for it..
The Joker who makes life miserable for everyone.
While playing squash one night Malini Gujral and her boyfriend is brutally killed by an unknown killer.
After five months, an unknown male person is calling up Mahek Gujral (Tanisha) and threatening her about he is Malini killer and whats more.
After that, Mahek reached up with a science student Suraj (Karan Nath) who attends the same college with her and both becomes friends.
She is being attacked a few times by an unknown person wearing a joker's mask.
Fed up of this Mahek has no more opinion in life than to turn insane.
But before this could happen Mahek friends decides to take her on holiday trip to an island, where the joker shall unmasked himself and revealed his true identity in front of Mahek..
The Opposite of SCREAM is...
you guessed it: Sssshhh!.
it's a blatant rip-off of Hollywood cult hit flick Scream starring Drew Barrymore and Neve Campbell.
Only here, you have over three hours of gut slashing blood spilling gore.
The film introduces Kajol little sister Tanisha to Bollywood, but trust me she is nothing special.
Her sister Kajol is Meryl Streep in comparison.
Anyhow, since I've told you that this is a copy of Scream, you should already know the plot.
Don't suspect anybody because I can assure you the director and writers have gone out of their way to really throw you off.
You won't be able to guess who the killer is until they reveal the secret.
Dino Morea co-stars as sexy Rocky who's secretly in love with Mehak (played by Tanisha)who is in love with Suraj (played by Karan Nath) who is brothers with Rajat (played by Gaurav Kapoor) who is in love with Gehna (played by Suvarna Jha) who is secretly sweet on Rocky.
Yup!
Yup!
it's a teeny-bop-per-soap-opera mixed into a scary movie.
People probably turned their noses up to this one at the Cineplexes, if the kissing scene and brutal almost rape scene are any indication. |
tt0057970 | The Creeping Terror | A newlywed deputy, Martin Gordon (Vic Savage), encounters an alien spacecraft that has crash landed in fictional Angel County in California. A large, hairy, slug-like, omnivorous monster emerges from the side of an impacted spaceship. A second one, still tethered inside, kills a forest ranger and the sheriff (Byrd Holland) when they independently enter the craft to investigate.
Gordon, now a temporary sheriff, joins his wife Brett (Shannon O'Neil). Dr. Bradford (William Thourlby), a renowned scientist, Col. James Caldwell (John Caresio), a military commander, and Caldwell's men were sent to fight the creature. Meanwhile, the monster stalks the countryside, devouring a girl in a bikini, picnickers at a "hootenanny", Grandpa Brown (Jack King) and his grandson while fishing, a housewife hanging the laundry, the patrons at a community dance hall, and couples in their cars at a lovers' lane.
The protagonists deduce that the monsters are mindless biological-sample eaters. The bio-analysis data is microwaved back to the probe's home planet through the spaceship.
Caldwell decides that the creatures must be killed, despite Bradford's objections. He orders his men to fire at the creature, which they do while standing close to one another as it moves towards them. Their gunfire proves ineffective, and all of the troops are devoured. Paradoxically, Caldwell decides a moment later to throw a grenade, and the creature dies instantly.
Ultimately, both creatures are destroyed, but not before the signal is sent. The dying Bradford suggests that this bodes ill for the human race, but observes that, since the galaxy to which the transmission was aimed is a million light years away, the threat may not manifest itself for millennia. | cult | train | wikipedia | There are so many fantastically awful bits in the movie I could mention...the death of Fat Grandpa, the anti-tree rage attack said fat person's grandson has shortly before the slaying, the tootling music that replaces sound for most of the movie's last third, the scenes where the army guys pretend to fire their toy guns at the alien...and the truly demented scene where the deputy sheriff ineffectually beats the control panels of the UFO with his gun...and later a steel pipe...
Highlights include the carpet guy attacking a high school dance (Monster makes sure he doesn't wreck tables and chairs) the army is called out in one scene (This "army" consists of five guys in helmets being transported in a pick-up truck!) 80 minutes of mindless fun.
In fact, you know its going to be a bad movie because it requires a narrator to explain what's going on as you watch it.
Look there been times when I've really been hungry for something that I don't have in the food pantry but I don't drive half way across the country just for a quick snack (which humans are for the monster since it can't seem to get full) But again I'm not a Chinese dragon.The film seems to be easily found on DVD thanks to MST3K, no idea where to get the original version.
By any standard of film-making (acting, lighting, sound, direction, writing, pacing, camera-work, sets, characterization, etc.) The Creeping Terror justifiably earns the very lowest score possible.
The incredibly dull monster, bad dubbing, bad acting, annoying narration and lack of narration during parts where you need it, the stupid couples who never learned how to run, the idiot military who cant figure out how to shoot a gun, the unexplained sub plots,no Torgo, EVERYTHING IS WRONG IN THIS MOVIE!!
I usually get a kick out of watching science fiction movies made forty or more years ago, especially those where the inside of the spaceship is so spacious with an enormously large amount of headroom, the astronauts dressed like factory workers, the equipment on board looking hopelessly cumbersome gawky and ineffectual.
The Swiffer, Shag pile..no sorry I mean err umm Monster (yes, that's the word I was looking for), the absolutely superb acting, the incredibly high quality sound track, the really authentic looking spacecraft (later eagerly emulated by the producers of 2001 - A Space Oddyssey), the crack troop of soldiers with their pop guns and water pistols, the Oscar nominated editing work.
An unintentional comedy starring the most mind-meltingly ridiculous "monster" (a.k.a. a pile of dirty blankets and slinkies); a deranged, rambling narrator; and a sleepy-eyed, half-baked sheriff and his vapid wife, this movie (and I use the term very loosely) is hilarious even without the "MST3k" gang- I'm glad they included the uncut version on the "MST3k volume 1" DVD, as I can finally watch this undercooked turkey in all its, er, glory.Q: "My God, what is it!?" A: It's the worst freaking movie ever made.Ever..
The monster literally looks like pieces of carpet mixed with the contents of a garbage can draped over some people crawling along at a snail's pace.
According to IMDb trivia, the original monster for The Creeping Terror was stolen days before shooting was to begin, and an alternative (something resembling a giant mouldy omelette or an unwashed duvet) was hastily assembled to take its place; several sources also state that director Vic Savage (hiding behind the pseudonym A.J. Nelson) lost the original soundtrack, which might explain why much of the story is told by a narrator.Although the lack of soundtrack could have been an intentional cost-saving measure, it doesn't alter the fact that Savage was clearly an all-round incompetent when it came to film-making, his dubious creative decisions easily qualifying this film as one of cinema's all-time worst.The plot for this mega-turkey sees a ravenous alien creature arriving on Earth to feed on humans.
Meanwhile, deputy sheriff Martin (played by director Savage, proving that he's every bit as bad at acting as he is at directing) and his wife Brett (Shannon O'Neil) try to track the thing down and destroy it.After eating several canoodling couples, everyone at a hootenanny, members of a community dance hall, some incredibly dumb soldiers, and an old guy so fat that you would think it might burst, the monster is destroyed, leaving Martin pondering the wonders of the universe, and the viewer trying to figure out why they just wasted part of their life watching such utter garbage.1/10 (not even the hilarious dance scene could make me give it more)..
Spaceship lands on Lake Tahoe and unleashes a big sluggish alien-creature that (not too convincingly) eats people.With its groan-worthy cheap 'FX' and sloppy direction, The Creeping Terror is easily one of the worst sci-fi horrors of the drive-in era.
The films monster looks like a Chinese dragon made of shag carpeting, the acting is dull, the editing is slow and haphazard, and nearly the whole film is narrated by a flat voice-over.
ZERO STARS out of ****I have chosen to review this film to warn people.Many people may tell you that movies like Plan 9,Bug,Monos:The Hands of Fate,Battlefield Earth and House of the Dead are bad.DON'T BELIEVE THEM!
I stumbled on the worst movie of all time.The story of The Creeping Terror is one of no context or sense.A fake looking alien UFO has landed on earth and out comes a giant alien that eats everyone it finds.Some military try to stop the massacre before it is too late.The story sounds standard and nothing special,but that isn't what makes the film so bad.The main problem with the film is that the alien that comes out looks like a giant rug that is dressed up in such a way that it looks more hokey than it does scary.If that isn't bad enough,the monster has a very strange way of eating people.Not only does it have a strange way of eating,but it also has trouble eating too.It looks like it eats people with it's belly button.When it actually does eat people it takes so long for the creature to get the people into it's gaping belly button that eventually,it gives up and some people's hands come out of the hole and give the food a hand while they try to get in the beast.This is no joke.And to make things even funnier,when the creature moves,it stands up,thus making things more obvious that the creature is just a rug.If you are not convinced yet,look down at the bottom of the alien when it walks and you will see someones feet while they try to move the monster.Actually, you will see a lot of feet trying to move the monster.That is just one of the many things that are just plain wrong about this movie.Bad acting,bad plot,bad music,bad cinematography,bad actors,bad script, these are just the least of this film's problems.What a piece of work.This film must be seen to be believed.I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to see how low some movies can go in terms of really low quality.watch out for the thermometer scene though,it's kind of gross.
The word "plot" can scarcely be mentioned in the same sentence with this movie.The best thing about The Creeping Terror is the sets.
Name whatever outstanding example of bad film-making you like, from any genre: terrible no-budget children's movies, high-school drama class projects, you name it, this pile of turkey dung tops them all.
There's no question that this "creeping bush-like monster from another planet story" is a terrible movie.
The monster in this film which emerged from a crash landed space ship looks like a beach version of Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent.
What can you say about a film that makes Ed Wood's 'Plan 9' look like a horror masterpiece?I say like the french do: 'Magnifique!'I get a kick out of this film every time I watch it.Some of my thrills:The fact that they lost most of the soundtrack is utterly charming.
The narration added is often hilarious, especially the attempt at characterization in the Barney/Brett/Martin domestic situation.Contains one of the scariest scenes ever filmed....the terrifying rectal thermometer episode with the infant ranks up their with Hitchcock's shower scene from 'Psycho'.The plodding and obvious 'quilt' that is the 'Creeping Terror'.
This is a thoroughly inept and fun time at the cinema.I am giving all of my 'bad movie' reviews a six, which equals to a 'ten' for a truly fine film.
As bad as 'The Creeping Terror' is, I do so look forward to seeing it again.I can't say the same thing for so many other truly bad movies.Two thumbs up, and in both of my hands -- rectal thermometers!!!.
I don't know if that's true though.The triple bill to die for; This, "Beast of Yucca Flats," and "Robot Monster." I'll bring the beer.Bad movies at their worst..
This movie has it all, terrible acting, horrible action, and not one iota of suspense, if you were ever to go see it in it's original farm my god have mercy on your soul My Grade: F MST3K Version: Episode 127 sees the inhabitants of the Satellite of Love opening a coffeehouse, Servo becoming the ship's security guard, and Crow becoming a sovereign nation among other things.
The best scene is when it gets some people in a car: it looks like the Creeping Terror is humping the car.
It was obvious that after the filming of this garbage of a movie the director (or some other idiot) decided to add a narrator throughout most of the movie to TALK OVER key dialogue and explain little inane things in the plot that never came up again.
One of the silliest movie monsters of all time, with the usual low production values expected from this type of film.
(Watch for the scene in which the voice of the female character on the screen is heard but it's one of the men whose lips are moving!) Overall, one of the funnier "bad movies" out there..
The PlotA newlywed sheriff tries to stop a shambling monster that has emerged from a spaceship to eat the citizens of an American town.From the worst acting ever to the monster who is essentially a guy wrapped in a carpet this has got to be the biggest hoot on earth.The space ship is a Mercury launch in reverse and then once it's on the ground it looks nothing like what you just saw AND the police say there was a plane crash!
It looks like it could be the Bat-mobile from the original serial in the 40s.The only bad thing about this film is that the director only made two movies so he couldn't get Ed Wood status.
I can't have been more than seven at the time so some of it went over my head, but for several years it was my primary source of information on things strange and campy with good coverage of monsters in particular and I always tried to seek out any film it mentioned (even back then I took the claim that anything was the worst of its kind to be a recommendation).
The Creeping Terror earned a mention, with an entrancing picture of its monster too, but until recently I never actually saw the film.
Things get off to a teetering start when it becomes clear that narration will be handling the plot-work and the tipsy feeling shortly tumbles into outright hilarity as reversed footage of a rocket launch brings the titular alien fiend to Earth, before the revelation that the craft that has actually landed looks nothing like the rocket seen earlier.
Hilarious, great reading.Now, am I going to contend that The Creeping Terror is NOT a bad movie?
(No, killing the box office at that time were RomComs, searing adult dramas or widescreen Technicolor Biblical Epics.) You do it because you think monster movies are cool.Having conceded that at the very least, Art Nelson had good intentions with this film, let us now compare and contrast the final results to another film with an equal amount of film making competence (ZERO), but with a much different motivation behind the scenes.
Best part: you can see the arms of the "eaten" actors pulling new victims into the mouth.I also heard from another member that they lost the soundtrack at one point and had to resort to narration.I enjoy these really bad movies, though.
Well for one thing the film is filled with awful sleep inducing narration(which is most often completely unnecessary), more narration and even more narration..you get the idea.Also the monster looks completely ridiculous and is maybe the slowest moving monster in the history of cinema..yet hardly any of its braindead victims think to just run away.
This is, by far, the most remarkably bad film ever made.The use of American rocket launches shown in reverse to simulate the space craft's landing is mind boggling.The creature devours its hapless victims with little difficulty (they actually assist the creature by crawling into its open mouth).If you look closely, you can see the feet of 10 or so people creeping along under the moldy quilt that passes as the alien.
I know it's a bit of a cliche these days to enjoy movies because "they're so bad they're good", but The Creeping Terror is one of those flicks that is so far removed from mainstream cinema it exists in another dimension,The creature in question is rubbish - it is basically a piece of tarpaulin draped over some poor sweating actors and is the most lumbering, unthreatening thing you'll ever see.But it's the weird atmosphere that appeals - the narration, the poor production values and the scenes inside the spaceship which are a bit creepy, I admit.I saw this film once in 1983.
The actual hero looks like Hugh Hefner's nerdy younger brother.3) The monster (which seems to be portrayed by about fifteen people walking around under a huge tarpaulin) is so helplessly inept that his victims must be accommodating enough to stand stock still (screaming hysterically) for about five minutes while the monster approaches, and then to voluntarily crawl inside the monster's mouth.4) Speaking of crawling, the alien spaceship can only be entered by having the interloper crawl underneath it, more or less as if it were a car having its transmission fixed.5) The assortment of odd minor characters, such as the bachelor co-worker who is invited over to the newlyweds' house to watch them make out, the big, suety fishing Grandpa who looks like Alan Lomax, the folksinger at the picnic who busts up a perfectly good Gibson L-5 archtop trying to fend off the monster, and the Adlai Stevenson look-alike who drives over to Lovers' Lane ...
His first victim looked like she was actually CRAWLING into the mouth of the monster while it was making gagging noises.
However there was some light, of a kind, at the end of the tunnel and The Creeping Terror was finally unearthed in September of 1994, only to become the next victim of Mystery Science Theater 3000.So what is it that makes this movie so terrible?
The effects they used to bring the monster to life (which in fact IS "The Creeping Terror") are the worst-looking movie effects ever.
Vic simply didn't have a clue on how to generate thrills or frights.All in all The Creeping Terror is a laughably inept movie from start to finish and after seeing it several times I'm completely convinced that it -was- the worst movie, that is until "Rollergator" happened upon the scene 32 years later.
Only there is clearly no hands inside them when we see the monster eat, I guess the person in command had to move to make space for the victims to get in.So many stories are floating around about the movie's production.
I'm giving this two stars just for the movie itself because it is so bad.The MST3K version is better because of the funny comments.I have a question:did the director think it would be more scary if he had the people in the movie not run away from the monster??
Most of them just sit there or stand there for this slow moving carpet to swallow them or they crawl inside instead.Notice the dance hall scene where they have more than enough time to get away and then,there's a fight on the other side.I know it's just a movie,but would anyone in their right mind continue to fight with someone if there's this alien on the other side eating your friends??
I did enjoy it,but only with the MST3K gang though I did watch a bit of the movie by itself,but it wasn't the same.What makes it worse,aside from the monster and the acting(if you call it that),is that the dialogue was lost,so there's A LOT of narration!!!
But for those that are connoisseurs of truly awful movies like Plan 9 from Outer Space give The Creeping Terror a shot..
Having seen such God-awful "classics" like Plan 9 From Outer Space, Manos, the Hands of Fate and The Wild World of Batwoman, this film, The Creeping Terror has them beat.
This movie is almost entirely voice-over narration, which plays over boring scenes of people doing mostly nothing.
That monster
Most of this abomination is footage of the "terror" creeping up on people at a snail's pace, confronting them, and the victims failing to do anything short of standing still and screaming.
It's so cheap and bad that in comparison, films like MONSTER A GO-GO, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and ROBOT MONSTER actually look appreciably better!
Heck, the acting and construction of most home movies from the time period is at least as good as THE CREEPING TERROR and surely it must rank in anyone's top 100 of the worst films of all time.Now does my horrible appraisal of the film mean you should not watch it?
Normally, a movie like that would at least end up in the so-bad-it's-funny category but the overuse of narration makes this thing thoroughly frustrating to watch.. |
tt0107894 | Psycho Cop Returns | In a coffeehouse, Officer Joe Vickers, a serial killer empowered by Satan, overhears Brian and Larry, a pair white-collar workers, discussing a bachelor party that they are planning to throw in their workplace for their friend Gary. Vickers follows the two to their office, and stakes it out in his car (which is full of body parts and demonic imagery) until after hours, which is when Larry bribes the security guard into letting in three strippers. Vickers tricks the guard into letting him in, then stabs him in the eye with a pencil.
Vickers sabotages the lifts, and when Mike goes downstairs to tell the night watchman about it, Vickers throws him down an elevator shaft. Vickers proceeds to send vaguely threatening faxes to the partiers, though this does not deter the drunken Gary from going up onto the roof with one of the strippers. The two are found by Vickers, who shoots Gary in the head, and throws the stripper off of the building. Vickers continues to send faxes, prompting Brian, Larry, and the remaining two strippers to go to the copy room, while elsewhere Vickers uses a decorative spear to impale a pair of workers who were having sex in a storage closet.
Larry, Brian, and the strippers flee when Mike and Gary's bodies fall through the ceiling of the copy room, and run into Sharon, an accountant who had stayed late. The quintet try to call 911, but the lines are not working, and while looking around to see if anyone else is in the building, they find the skewered couple, and are confronted by Vickers. Initially feigning being there to help, Vickers shoots Larry in the mouth, wounds Brian, and chases the others. The women try to escape through the front entrance, but the door is shatterproof, and handcuffed shut. While the trio make their way up to the garage exit, they are attacked by Vickers, who shoots one stripper, and snaps the neck of the other. Sharon is pursued by Vickers, but manages to set his face on fire (causing one of his sunglasses lenses to melt to his eye) and knock him down an elevator shaft, but he survives the fall.
Sharon makes it out through the garage, and is chased through the streets by Vickers, who catches her outside a bar. The patrons of the bar see Vickers attacking Sharon, and in a parody of the Rodney King incident, they beat down the officer as a bystander videotapes the scene from his apartment balcony. Sharon, Brian, and Vickers are all taken to a hospital, where Vickers is healed by demonic forces, massacres the police officers and medical staff watching him, and storms out of his room. | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | Psycho Cop 2 is one of the best movies I've ever seen.
I have never seen a better bad guy than Officer Joe Vickers.
the name says it all Psycho cop, what kind of horror film do you think you are in for?
yeah the movie for the most part is bad but its pretty damn funny at the same time.
After viewing the first Psycho Cop and found that a lot of fun, but completely stupid with awful acting and then finding out that there's a part 2, to be honest I wasn't all that thrilled and thought that it would be just a watered down version of the first one.
This time the setting is in an office building instead of the old camping teenagers in the woods scenario, which was a bit odd for a movie called Psycho Cop, but this setting makes more sense in a way and Bobby Ray Schafer (the cop himself) seems more fun in this one and has more snappier dialogue.
Plus the movie itself moves along at a decent pace and I wasn't bored for a minute and the strange turn it takes during the final act was a total surprise and very different and I didn't want this movie to end.The plot this time we start off with 2 office guys in a coffee shop making plans for a bachelor party at their office building after hours, but they are overheard by officer Joe Vickers himself and he doesn't approve and starts following them and of course when he enters the building all hell breaks loose with several office workers, a security guard and a couple of strippers all lined up ready for his brand of unique justice.The acting of course is pretty bad but I found the characters a lot more memorable than the first one and some were even likable.
Barbara Niven as the obvious final girl was pretty likable and was strong willed and proved to be a decent match for the psycho cop.
But the two strippers were a riot and of course Psycho cop himself steals the show.All in all Psycho Cop Returns is not by any means a masterpiece, but it is a lot of fun and highly enjoyable and honestly never thought that in a million years that I'd enjoy this but I did and I wish that there was a Psycho Cop 3..
Psycho Cop Returns is a ridiculously hysterical, spectacularly bad, and above all thoroughly bad movie.It would seem that a group of people with nothing better to do hired a thirteen year old to write a script, then broke into an office building and filmed the entire movie in sequence in one night.Yet, let me be the first to say that the end result is nothing short of a miracle.
If he thinks a supposed A-list release like the unfortunately boring DETROIT ROCK CITY is something to be proud of, he needs to revert back to the mindset he was in while making this fun fest.
After a nifty title sequence, PSYCHO COP 2 settles in to tell the tale of an after hours bachelor party at an office building.
Various people die when the PSYCHO COP shows up and Julie Strain runs around in chaps.
If there could possibly be a director's cut, PSYCHO COP 2 could be a guilty pleasure classic for us horror fans.
Entertaining cop maniac horror movie!!!.
Psycho Cop Returns (1993) is a movie that entertained me, very low budget and very poor acting, but i found it to be pretty fun!!!!
Bobby Ray Shaffer once again plays the "psycho cop" officer Vickers, who gatecrashes an office party, the party is filled with dorky young men and strippers!!
Psycho Cop wants to kill them all off one by one and stalks and slashes his way through the party, but can anyone stop him before everyone is dead??
Shaffer is great fun as the "Psycho Cop" and comes out with loads of funny one liners during his killing spree!!
Like i said before, this was all good fun and kept me entertained for the 85 minute duration, there's some gore, some hot sex and plenty of sexy women on show, i haven't seen the 1st Psycho cop movie but i've heard it's not as fun or gory as this one!!
I rate this movie 7/10, recommended for fans of the Maniac cop series!!.
So, I saw the sequel in a store, and I immediately remember that all sequels to horrible horror films ("Sorority House Massacre", anyone?) are usually way more entertaining than the original.
I'm not sure how anyone could watch the first movie and approve a sequel, but this is totally better than anything else in the horror/comedy genre.Psycho Cop is Officer Joe Vickers, a man on a mission.
He wanders around an officer building and stabs a man in the eye and goes, "Keep an EYE OUT for me." Then, he throws someone down an elevator shaft and says, "That's the problem with elevators -- you always end up GETTING THE SHAFT." Every punchline is delivered with such grace and such bravado that it's as if Jerry Seinfeld himself wrote the one-liners.All the actors are amazingly hilarious.
In this fine film Bobby Ray Shafer gives a gripping performance as Officer Joe Vickers.
Shafer, overhears office workers Larry & Brian, Rod Sweitzer & Milles Dougal, talk about a bachelor party that's to be held that evening at their office with booze and grass and semi-nude women being brought in for adult entertainment.
Vickers a law & order nut and a bit into Satanic practices and sacrifices decides to stop these impending breaches of the law, drinking and having sex on the job, before it happens and to punish those criminals who break it and the only way he knows how is with brutal and deadly force.
Before you know it the local strippers are let into the building by the night watchman Gus, Al Schuerman, and the drinking and partying starts as office worker Gary, Dave Bean, is given his last fling as a bachelor before he ends up getting hooked.
It turns out instead to be Gary's last day alive on earth.Bloody and in some ways hilarious, with a number of sharp and witty one liners by Officer Vickers, horror flick with Vickers knocking off almost everyone at the party.
Vickers starts with Gus who he put a pencil through his brain then works his way up the building finishing off everyone else but Brian & Sharon, Barbara Niven, who survived his rampage.
The movie has a scene in it that copies the infamous March 1991 Rodney King police beating with Vickers being beaten and kicked by a bunch of outraged citizens, after trying to murder Sharon, with bats sticks and fists as the entire scene is being videotaped by an shocked onlooker,Adam Rifkin.
Still Vickers still manages to survive to live and kill another day in another Psycho Cop movie..
It doesn't try to be a serious horror movie, because the makers knew it was a sucky film and so they added one-liners and jokes.
Totally wicked sequel has good old psycho cop killing people at a rowdy party in an office building.
I knew this was going to be a treat about thirty seconds in, right after Officer Joe Vickers had uttered his first of many one-liners.
This is one of those movies that makes so many other ones look obsolete, especially the ones that don't have terrible puns about killing people in them.
Keep an eye out for me, I'm beginning to suspect foreplay, I should let you of with a warning, our psycho cop is having an incredibly creative evening.
"Psycho Cop Returns" is just a weird, but funny, movie!
From looking at that video cover, I thought to myself, "Is this 'Robocop' or 'Psycho Cop'?" Well, this movie might not be as great as "Robocop" really is, but if you want a similar movie with all the laughs and good times, the "Psycho Cop" series is the choice!
Hey, I'm not kidding when I talk this and many other movies in this category!"Psycho Cop Returns" is a ten star movie in my book, and this is the best of the series..
Psycho Cop Returns (1993) ** (out of 4) Some guys decide to have a bachelor party at their office after hours.
Everyone is having a blast but they don't realize that Officer Joe Vickers (Bobby Ray Shafer) doesn't like people who break the law.PSYCHO COP was an extremely low-budget attempt at a slasher movie.
PSYCHO COP RETURNS is a fairly silly little picture that is mildly entertaining thanks to the R-rated stuff but there's no question that neither film is all that good.With that said, this sequel was certainly a bit better than the original because of the extra money that allowed for better special effects.
The non-stop nudity from the strippers (one played by Julie Strain) was a plus.PSYCHO COP RETURNS isn't the worst movie ever made but at the same time it's certainly not all that good.
It was surprisingly entertaining and easily surpasses the original "Psycho Cop".
Think of "Die Hard", but sleazier and done like a slasher outing with a touch of soft-core as Officer Joe Vickers gatecrashes a late- night stag party.
It's outrageous, sexed-up and totally ups the ante, nasty and gory deaths with Officer Vickers chipping with a witty response nearly every time.
I watched this immediately after the original Psycho Cop and, wow, what a difference a little self-awareness makes!
The original incompetently plodded through horrible writing, acting (with the exception of Shafer)and pretty much anything else you could screw up in a movie.
Psycho Cop, returning from his ill-fated venture in the first film, seeks out a couple of blue-collar office workers after he suspects their planning of something illegal.
Indeed, these two genntlemen, Larry (played by Roderick Darrin and Miles David Dougal) are planning a bachelor party for their friend, after the office closes.
A great movie, much more enjoyable than the Maniac Cop films..
What really elavates Pyscho Cop Returns (aka Psycho Cop 2) is the talent of Adam Rifkin (going under his Rif Coogan alias here) Rifkin completely acts like the first movie never existed which is good considering how bad the original really is, he gives you stuff you want in a movie like this good gore, boobs, sex, and an overall better performance from our killer Bobby Ray Shafer, all things that were missing in the first film.
Shafer himself is really good here and it's nice to see his acting and one liners have improved drastically this time around.
It's also nice to see Vingar Syndrome give this thing a great blu ray release, with better picture quality and of course the full uncut version of the film which for years was only available on a super rare VHS tape.
Overall, Psycho Cop Returns still isn't as good as its Maniac Cop counterpart, but it's still a fun enjoyable ride in it's own right..
I love this movie b\c it is so easy to make fun of, thanks to the cheesy editing and God-awful, but hilarious one-liners.
Officer Joe Vickers is simply a great villain, not for his intimidation or acting prowess, but b\c he looks like an insane asylum escapee.
Psycho Cop hacks his way through highrise office bachelor party..
Officer Joe Vickers (Bobby Ray Shafer, just as awful as he was in the original) decides that's "against company policy," sneaks into the building and proceeds to slaughter everyone while making stupid wisecracks ("You have the right to remain...
Other than the guys, a night watchman and male and female office workers are still around and three stripper/hookers (Julie Strain, Melanie Good and "Priscilla Huckleberry"/Maureen Flaherty) show up, so there's plenty of nudity and victims (unlike in the first film).Incompetently handled gore scene include a pencil to the eye, axe to the stomach and a double impalement, plus a girl tossed off the roof and people pushed down an elevator shaft.
"Psycho Cop 2" is totally ridiculous with the satanic cop dropping in on a bachelor party to ruin their fun.
Skip the "Psycho Cop" series and check out the "Maniac Cop" series, they're much better and more fun to watch..
Love this film so much since the day of its release, as the original it's mixed of comedy and blood and fun, whis they made a this one
I dont think this film is quite as bad as everyone makes it out to be, I know its not as good as the original, for a start it has no Bruce Campbell.
It's gory, I guess, but aside from the gorgeous Barbara Niven (I'm amazed-she's been in other stuff!)and some sleazy stuff, it's a total waste--however it's a heck of a lot better than "Psycho Cop 1!".
Because there have been so much work on it and the result is everything else but good.The movie is about this Cop Joe Wicker who also is a Psycho Cop. As he eats at a coffeeshop he overhears two guys that is having a party at their work after closing time.
Officer Wicker follows them to their work because he sees the guys party as breaking the law and therefore when night comes he begins to kill them of one by one by one.
In the end when the Psycho Cop is supposed to die he just goes on and on without stopping which makes the whole thing very annoying.
The only thing the makers of this film has tried is to do a cover on the great Maniac Cop and they have failed big time..
Funny, entertaining, watchable and for the guys t & a with loads of shots of the dancers backside as they run from this fiend Psycho Cop. Like others I have not seen the first and now I do plan to.
In the case of PSYCHO COP RETURNS I'm not quite sure which that is.Having not seen PSCHO COP I had no idea what to expect here.
The movie kicks off with a group of office workers planning a bachelor party after hours in their workplace.
But the truth is he only let them go to get a better idea of where they were heading and with plans on making sure they paid for breaking the law.Night falls, the office closes and the party begins.
At least at the time.Instead the films developed a cult type following with fans running VHS copies of the movie until they wore out.
Not bad for a 20 some year old movie.One interesting thing to note is that the director is a pseudonym for Adam Rifkin, the director of such films as THE DARK BACKWARD, THE CHASE and DETROIT ROCK CITY as well as having written SMALL SOLDIERS, MOUSEHUNT and ZOOM.
The end result is one that while not a fantastic movie is one of those fun slasher pics from the 80s/90s that is a must see for fans of the genre as well as a great drinking film for those who imbibe.
Bobby Ray Shafer and his wisecracking, satanic alter ego Officer Joe Vickers did their second go around in this almost comedic horror movie.
Laughing and slashing his way through the building, Officer Vickers like the first movie, has a one-liner for every occasion.
If you want to enjoy a couple of campy slasher flicks, spend an evening with Officer Joe Vickers..
In my opinion,"Psycho Cop Returns" is a lot better than its predecessor.It's more gory and sadistic than the original "Psycho Cop".This sequel pits a group of after-hours partying yuppies against satanic cop from hell Joe Vickers.Gore galore ensues until only a couple of yuppies are left alive."Psycho Cop Returns" features more sex and nudity than usual slasher flick.The director Adam Rifkin delivers also on the gore-the killings are more brutal as well.There is an eyeball violence,one guy is shot in the mouth etc.The party scene is pretty entertaining and gore-hounds should be satisfied by the lively death scenes.All in all,"Psycho Cop Returns" is a really good sequel and deserves a spot on any collector's shelf.I'm glad I picked up a copy as it was well worth the money spent.Highly recommended..
Psycho Cop Returns.
Squares in suits, working in cubicles in some city high rise company, are having a secret bachelor party in the building and will be the unfortunate victims of Bobby Ray Shafer's lunatic, devil-worshiping cop who seems impervious to pain (an ax to the stomach is merely a flesh wound and a fall down an elevator shaft several floors barely makes him limp while chasing the "final heroine").
While dropping lame endless kill and cop quips, Shafer has his fun decimating practically all characters he comes in contact with.
I think "Psycho Cop Returns" (I'm not sure any sequel to the wretched original was ever begged for) was an example of the tired slasher genre DOA at the beginning of the 90s.
It seems nobody told these guys that people had become numb to these movies by 1992.The murders are, at some points, somewhat well orchestrated, but the flat, often very obtrusive score (it even tells us when we are supposed to laugh at Shafer's dull jokes which are as obvious and old hat as his comedy killer routine) even ruins what could have been (and still somewhat is) a sizzling softcore sex scene between the attractive, sweaty, pulsating bodies of Justin Carrol and Carol Cummings.
Julie Strain is recognized in the credits as "1993's Penthouse Pet of the Year", and she shows up as one of the strippers for the bachelor party (and subsequently the one of many to be on Shafer's kill-list body count).
Oh, vey.Shafer resurrected himself on "The Office" as Bob Vance, a wonderful supporting part that has really given his career a needed boost from junk such as the Psycho Cop films.
Psycho cop is the ultimate crazy party crasher. |
tt0065597 | Cry of the Banshee | The film is set in Elizabethan England and revolves around a wicked magistrate who tries to kill all the members of a coven of witches. It opens, like many Vincent Price movies, with a quote from Edgar Allan Poe—in this case, The Bells.
Lord Edward Whitman (Vincent Price), as magistrate presides over the trial of a young woman. Ruling that she is a witch, he has her branded, whipped through the streets, then placed in the village stocks.
That night, Lord Edward hosts a feast as his henchmen search the countryside for the killers of a sheep. Two poor and ragged-looking teenagers are pulled into the hall. A burst of wolf-like howling from outside the walls warns that they may be "devil-marked" and, in conflict, both teens are killed. As his eldest son Sean (Stephan Chase) seduces or rapes (it is unclear) his father's wife (Lady Patricia) (Essy Persson), Lord Whitman begins mumbling that he wants to "clean up" the witches in the area.
Assisted by his two older sons, Whitman goes hunting in the hills for witches. His armed posse breaks up what is apparently meant to be a witches' Black Sabbath. He kills several of them, and tells the rest to scatter to the hills and never return. This makes the leader of the coven, Oona (Elizabeth Bergner), extremely angry. To get revenge on the Whitman clan Oona calls up a magical servant, a "sidhe", to destroy the lord's family. Unfortunately, the demonic beast takes possession of the friendly, decent young servant, Roderick (Patrick Mower), that free-spirited Maureen Whitman (Hilary Dwyer) has been in love with for years. The servant turned demon begins to systematically kill off members of the Whitman family.
Eventually, Harry (Carl Rigg), Whitman's son from Cambridge, and Father Tom (Marshall Jones) find Oona and her coven conjuring the death of Maureen and kill Oona. At that moment, Roderick, who was attacking Maureen, breaks off and leaves her. He soon returns and attacks Lord Edward. During this attack, Maureen shoots the demon in the head with a blunderbuss, apparently killing him.
Exhilarated that the curse is over, Whitman plans to leave the house with his two remaining children by coach. On the way, he stops at the cemetery, so he can reassure himself Roderick is dead. To his horror, he finds the coffin empty, and hurries back to the coach, only to find both Harry and Maureen dead. It is then revealed that Bully Boy (Andrew McCulloch), the coach's driver, was murdered by Roderick, who is now driving the coach.
The film ends with Whitman screeching his driver's name in terror, as the coach heads for parts unknown. | revenge, gothic, murder, historical fiction | train | wikipedia | There is horror to be had here however, and the film still does more or less what it promises."Cry Of The Banshee" is set during the height of Middle Ages England, where rampant ignorance and superstition meant anyone could be condemned and burned for alleged witchcraft, and anyone you didn't like could be targeted.
'Witches' are regularly found, and dispatched in the name of God. The witchfinder gets more than he bargained for however when he annoys a real witch, who decides to take revenge.Vincent Price is an actor you can rely on to take an average film up a notch, and he does so here.
Like many a horror movie knock-off, Cry Of The Banshee is a hopeless mish-mash of inconsistancies; and while Vincent Price has saved many such films by his mere presence alone, he does so here almost grudgingly, as if his heart really isn't in it.
Cry of the Banshee actually reminded me a lot more of the classic film Witchfinder General than either of Hessler's previous efforts, although it is nowhere near as good as that one.
However, this turns out to be a poor decision as Oona uses her magic powers to call up a magical being known as a 'Banshee', whom she uses - along with some members of Lord Whitman's own family - to bring a curse upon his entire household.Obviously, my main reason for seeing this film was because of the fact that it features a starring performance from the great Vincent Price.
The way that the plot plays out is mostly good enough to hold the audience's interest; there isn't a great deal of suspense in the film, but director Gordon Hessler does a good job of creating the right atmosphere and setting up a suitable 'feel' for the film.
The film is set in Elizabethan England and revolves around a wicked magistrate who tries to kill all the members of a coven of witches.
One wonders what might have happened with just a bit more spit and polish.The first thing you will notice when watching this film is that it looks like the opening is from a Monty Python movie.
Hilary Dwyer had previously been in both "Witchfinder General" (1968) and "The Oblong Box" (1969) alongside Vincent Price, but is not known outside of the AIP fan niche.For some reason, there is a happy song sung by a man with a lute about a maiden who is raped by a huntsman, and then gets her revenge on him by castrating him.
Vincent Price has better films where he plays a witch hunter (including "Conqueror Worm") and better films in general.
Sorry.Scream Factory, as always, has released the definitive version of this film on their Vincent Price box set.
Lord Edward Whitman(Vincent Price) is a wicked magistrate who why while not believing in Witchcraft, delights in accusing peasants of the crime.
Such an avenger is the mild mannered stable hand Roderick(Patrick Mower), who was found as a child in the woods and brought up by the Whitmans, around his neck he wears a strange and ancient medallion of unknown origin.Gordon Hessler has a mixed filmography in Horror, this on the face of it, is a production designed to take advantage of Michael Reeves's Witchfinder General, as wonderfully hammy Vincent Price and the beautiful Hilary Heath, both return, as does DP John Coquillon, who adds oodles of atmosphere and energy with his ever moving camera which captures the location work beautifully.
The witches coven send a "Sidhe" an ancient derivative of the banshee in the form of Patrick Mower, (his make up none to convincing) to kill one by one, members of the Whitman family, not all of which are bad, some are very decent people, this effective ploy is also used with the witches, making it hard to take sides or see who the really bad guys are.
The puritanical magistrate Edward Whitman puts the followers of the witch Oona to the death,although he deliberately spares her.She swears vengeance for this and calls up a manifestation of the Banshee in the guise of the young,handsome Roderick.He charms his way into Whitman's family and starts killing them off,as though to all appearances by a horrific demon."Cry of the Banshee" is an underrated AIP effort that features plenty of nasty violence and gratuitous nudity.Director Gordon Hessler manages to create several genuinely spooky moments,so fans of atmospheric British horror won't be disappointed.Once again Vincent Price is amazing as a truly evil Lord Edward Whitman.The film is pretty obscure,but if you get the chance watch it.8 out of 10..
Even Vincent Price...typically a wonderful villain who can make you like him despite his evil ways...is nothing more than an atypical English aristocrat who kills for no reason at all.
I was filled with disappointment after seeing it, because I had liked The Witchfinder General a great deal and love Vincent Price in almost every vehicle he appears.
It isn't on the same level as cult movies like "Witchfinder General" (also starring Vincent Price), but it does have it's moments.
The movie had already been sold to the distributors, which meant that the director, re-writers and so on couldn't change it as much as they would probably have liked to, so they didn't necessary end up making the movie they wanted to make.This accounts for the way that some aspects of the film are so much better than others.
Gordon Hessler's "Cry Of The Banshee" of 1970 is certainly one of the weaker films with the great Vincent Price, but it is still a pretty good horror flick, and certainly way underrated.
I must add, however, that Vincent Price is my favorite actor of all-time and my personal opinion is that you can never go wrong with a film with Price in the lead.Price stars as Lord William Whitman, a sadistic despot in Elizabethean England, who wants to terminate superstitious beliefs by brutally massacring followers of the 'old religion', a bizarre hippie-style witch cult lead by an old woman called Oona (Elisabeth Bergner).
Lord Whitman, who lives in his castle with his kind-hearted daughter Maureen (Hillary Heath) his sadistic son Harry (Carl Rigg), his wife, Lady Patricia (Essy Persson), and Roderick, a young man whom the despotic lord let live with his family since childhood, shows no mercy when it comes to the persecution of the pagans living in the woods, and brutal oppression is the everyday situation in his town, where people are tortured and killed for the simple suspicion of being followers of Oona's cult.Some parts of the movie remind a lot of Michael Reeves' masterpiece "Witchfinder General" of 1968, which also had Price in the lead and which is, of course, incomparably better than "Cry Of The Banshee".
Besides Price, the movie also stars Hillary Heath, who also played the female lead in "Witchfinder General".
Although the violence in this movie is not comparable to the violence in "Witchfinder General", the movie has some pretty brutal moments and some nudity, which gives the film a nice Exploitation feeling."Cry Of The Banshee" is certainly not one of the masterpieces with Vincent Price, but it is certainly not as bad as many seem to regard it.
I personally found it very enjoyable, it definitely has some creepy moments, and I warmly recommend it to fans of Horror flicks and Vincent Price.
Medieval madness over witchcraft is how I would sum up the film.I quite liked Vincent Price in this film, he was evil and nasty as the character is suppose to be.
The viewer really does not see clearly - instead it is left to your imagination as to what The Banshee completely looked like.The story really is a little bit sketchy because it leaves you with a few questions unanswered but that is what keeps you pondering the film.
Title: Cry of the Banshee (1970) Director: Gordon Hessler Cast: Vincent Price Review: I'm trying to work my way through Vincent Prices body of work and I've seen some pretty impressive stuff like for example the really excellent Roger Corman directed The Fall of the House of Usher.
Of course he eventually stumbles upon a real coven of witches and when he decides to kill one of them, well, then their leader, a witch called Oona decides to take matters into her own hands and calls upon the spirit of the Banshee to execute revenge upon the house of Whitman.After watching this film the first thing that came to mind was how similar it was in story to Tim Burtons Sleepy Hollow.
In Burtons film the spirit of the headless horseman is used by an evil witch who has sold hel soul to Satan, to execute revenge and little by little kill off all the members of a rich elite family.
I've seen Price do evil before, and even when he is evil he is often times likable...but this is not the case.The Banshee itself, the titular creature, was left out from most of the film.
By the way, I keep hearing Vincent Prices film The Conqueror Worm (aka Witchunter General) as a far superior "hunt down the witches and burn em" flick.
The Monty Python-esgue opening credit sequence somehow doesn't fit with this tale about the decidedly NOT benevolent Lord Whitman (the late great Vincent Price), his quest to kill all those who practice witchcraft at the shock and horror of his wife, and the cursed fate that one of the surviving witches put upon him and his family.While certainly not Price's best work, it still remains very watchable.
Lord Edward Whitman (Vincent Price) is a harsh magistrate punishing any and all people who come under scrutiny for being witches.
You guessed it: she places a curse on him and his whole family, summoning a sadistic demon.Cult director Gordon Hessler takes a so-so script by Christopher Wicking and Tim Kelly and gives it plenty of flavorful period atmosphere.
Bergner is good, if also unmemorable, as the antagonist, and Hugh Griffith makes the most of his regrettably minor role, as a grave digger and corpse robber."Cry of the Banshee" is not a great horror film, but it is good fun.
This was the third collaboration (in barely two years time) between director Gordon Hessler, scriptwriter Christopher Wicking and horror veteran Vincent Price, after the wondrously atmospheric Victorian tale "The Oblong Box" and the uniquely bizarre "Scream and Scream Again".
"Cry of the Banshee" certainly isn't a bad effort; I for one found it very much amusing at least, but due to its lead actor, periodic setting and subject matter, it will always and automatically get compared with "The Witchfinder General" and come out as the weakest one.
Perhaps I'm very much biased, because I'm a) a downright fanatic Vincent Price worshiper and b) obsessed with purchasing horror movies that deal with witchery and satanic cults, and therefore I don't think "Cry of the Banshee" deserves all the harsh & negative reviews around here.
You can somewhat expect a bit of gratuitous nudity and perversion in a movie about burning witches and corrupt magistrates, but the sequences in "Cry of the Banshee" – especially those during the first fifteen minutes – are quite degrading and misogynist.
I generally like period horrors, and Vincent Price is one of my all-time favourite actors.
In a very Matthew Hopkins-like role, Cry of the Banshee doesn't see Vincent Price at his very finest, but even when he is not at his best you-considering his calibre- are guaranteed an at least memorable performance, and with much of what made him so good an actor you get that with Price.
While i'm interested in seeing every horror movie vincent price has ever made,i happened to search for other American movies featuring actress Essy persson(which i liked in the foreign science fiction film MISSION STARDUST)and that's how i discovered this film.It does have a similar subject as Vincent price's other witches hunter film WITCHFINDER GENERAL but as unsatisfying as that one was,CRY OF THE BANSHEE is even worst.The violence(consisting of people getting blooded by a mostly unseen beast)is dull and repulsive and the nudity (Essy doesn't get naked in anyway in this film)isn't that great either.Most of the personnalities are unsympathetic and some of the dialogue is terrible.If this wasn't a presold product,it's doubtful that it would even have had a theater run.They say making movies is hard but when you look at the final result of this film,you can easily think that anybody could have made a film like this..
When he and his men brutally murder followers of an old witch named Oona (Bergner) she places a hex on Price's house, vowing to kill his bloodline.STORY: $$ (Quite weak.
WARNING TO PARENTS: Unlike almost all of Vincent Price's other horror films, this one has significant amounts of sex and nudity--some of which is rather violent and non-consensual.
Price is lord of a manor and takes great delight in killing, torturing and raping accused witches.
So, it's up to the surviving witches to come to the rescue and purge this town of this ruling family.Despite Price's character being 100% scum, there is a big plot hole in the film.
So it's certainly no surprise to anyone but Price when Oona releases the powers of Satan on him and his wicked family.As you can tell by my description so far, this is not typical of Vincent Price's other horror films.
I certainly can't recommend it and hope never to see this film again--even thought I really do like Price's horror films.By the way, in a funny mistake in the film, watch the scene where an accused witch is being roasted over a fire.
This film has a rather maligned reputation generated, in part, by unfair comparison with that other famous Vincent Price period horror opus, WITCHFINDER GENERAL (1968) but I found it to be surprisingly enjoyable and impressive in its own right.
Thematically, the film is quite complex (much as I admire WITCHFINDER GENERAL, I must say that the characters' feelings and motivations were a bit too cut-and-dried there; we all knew straight ahead who was on the side of good and who wasn't though the ultra-bleak ending was certainly a brilliant touch!).
The film also has typically wonderful camera-work (once again by John Coquillon who shot WITCHFINDER GENERAL, by the way!) and a delightfully bizarre animated title sequence, as only Terry Gilliam (a most surprising choice, I must say) can come up with!For its time, there is a great deal of violence and nudity on display but one never quite gets the feeling that it's done in an entirely exploitative way.
If anything, it's a relatively realistic depiction of the times in which the Church ruled its bewildered (and mostly uneducated) patrons with an iron fist and a distinct lack of Christian charity.If there is a failing in the film, unfortunately, it is presence of the Banshee itself or Sidhe, as it's called here which almost feels like an afterthought: its brief, shadowy appearances and underwhelming make-up (though the climactic struggle with Price is quite good), obviously the fruit of a limited budget.Actually, this was the only one of the four Hessler titles on DVD that I had previously watched and, though this was a very long time ago (when I was just a kid), I was quite surprised by how much of it I could still remember after all these years!.
One of three films Vincent Price made in England with the same director-writer team (along with "The Oblong Box" and "Scream and Scream Again").
In one of those, "Witchfinder General" aka "The Conqueror Worm" (Tigon-AIP, 1968), Price gave one of his best performances as a cruel, corrupt witch hunter.
Vincent Price leads a cast of unknown actors with some talent but no motivation and very poor directing (at least the cinematography is pretty good).
The plot concerns a hunt for a known witch named Oona, who has put a death curse on Vincent Price's family, enlisting the help of a "Banshee" to do the killing (it ain't Rick Baker's work, believe me).
The wicked and powerful magistrate Lord Edward Whitman (Vincent Price) is a witch hunter with his cruel sons Sean (Stephan Chase), Burke (Michael Elphick) and Bully Boy (Andrew McCulloch) in a small village in England.
Will Roderick be capable to harm his foster family?"Cry of the Banshees" is a cruel horror movie one of the best performances of Vincent Price in the role of a cruel magistrate.
We're back in familiar WITCHFINDER GENERAL territory as Vincent Price sends all manner of innocent young girls to be burned and tortured in this enjoyable period potboiler.
Price's Lord Edward Whitman is a character without any likable qualities.I don't think the story (very similar to The Conqueror Worm) was very original for its time.
Vincent Price made many good horror flicks in the 50's & early 60's, but as the 60's wore on into the 70's many filmmakers began showing nudity, extremely graphic violence, and even scenes of satanic worship...
The title is probably the most interesting thing about this competent but totally undistinguished horror flick, in which Vincent Price returns to Witchfinder General (aka Conqueror Worm) territory.
The banshee manifests itself in the guise of a handsome young man named Roderick (Patrick Mower), who manoeuvres his way into the Whitman household and makes them pay with their lives for the terror they have brought upon so many innocent people
.The film opens with a surprisingly imaginative titles sequence which is the work of Monty Python alumnus Terry Gilliam.
Cry Of The Banshee is hardly the stuff of classic horror there are better horror movies, there are better Vincent Price movies, and there are better movies about witch-hunting but on the whole it is passable fare.
Vincent Price is as evil as his WITCHFINDER GENERAL character here and does a great job. |
tt4123430 | Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2 | In 1926 the British wizard and "magizoologist" Newt Scamander arrives by ship to New York en route to Arizona. He encounters Mary Lou Barebone, a non-magical woman ("No-Maj" or "Muggle") who heads the New Salem Philanthropic Society, which claims that witches and wizards are real and dangerous. As Newt listens to her speech, a Niffler (a small platypus-like creature obsessed with hoarding shiny objects) escapes from his magically expanded suitcase, which houses multiple magical creatures. As Newt attempts to capture the Niffler, he meets No-Maj cannery worker and aspiring baker Jacob Kowalski, and they accidentally swap suitcases. Demoted Auror (a hunter of dark wizards) Tina Goldstein arrests Newt for being an unregistered wizard and takes him to the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) headquarters, hoping to regain her former position. However, as Jacob's suitcase contains only baked goods, Newt is released. At Jacob's tenement apartment, several creatures escape from Newt's suitcase.
After Tina and Newt find Jacob and the suitcase, Tina takes them to her apartment and introduces them to Queenie, her Legilimens sister. Queenie and Jacob are mutually attracted, though American wizards are forbidden to marry or even socially interact with No-Majs. Newt takes Jacob inside his magically expanded suitcase, where Jacob encounters a contained Obscurus, a dark, destructive parasite that develops inside magically gifted children if they suppress their magical abilities. Newt extracted it from a young girl who died, those afflicted rarely living past the age of ten. Newt persuades Jacob to help search for the missing creatures. After re-capturing two of the three escaped beasts, they re-enter the suitcase, which Tina takes to MACUSA. Officials arrest them, believing one of Newt's beasts is responsible for killing Senator Henry Shaw Jr. They decide to destroy Newt's suitcase and erase Jacob's recent memories. Director of Magical Security Percival Graves accuses Newt of conspiring with the infamous dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. Newt and Tina are sentenced to immediate death but Queenie and Jacob rescue them and they escape. Thanks to the help of Goblin gangster Gnarlack, Tina's old informant, the foursome then find and re-capture the last of the creatures.
Meanwhile, Percival Graves approaches Credence Barebone, Mary Lou's adopted son, and offers to free him from his abusive mother. In exchange, he wants Credence to find an Obscurus. Graves believes it has caused the mysterious destructive incidents around the city. Credence finds a wand under his adopted sister Modesty's bed. Mary Lou assumes it is Credence's wand, but Modesty claims it is hers. When she is about to be punished, the Obscurial is unleashed, killing everyone except Modesty and Credence. Graves arrives and dismisses Credence as being a Squib (a non-magical person of wizard ancestry), and refuses to teach him magic. Credence reveals he is the Obscurus's host, having lived longer than any other host due to the intensity of his magic. In a rage, he unleashes the Obscurus upon the city.
Newt finds Credence hiding in a subway tunnel, but he is attacked by Graves. Tina, who knows Credence, arrives and attempts to calm him, while Graves tries to convince Credence to listen to him. As Credence begins to settle into human form Aurors arrive. They apparently disintegrate him to protect the magical society, but a tiny Obscurus fragment escapes. Graves admits to unleashing the Obscurus to expose the magical community to the No-Majs, and angrily claims that MACUSA protects the No-Majs more than themselves. After being subdued by one of Newt's beasts, he is revealed as Grindelwald in disguise and is taken into custody by MACUSA.
MACUSA fears their secret world has been exposed, but Newt releases his Thunderbird to disperse a poultice as rainfall over the city that erases all New Yorkers' recent memories as MACUSA wizards repair the destruction. Queenie kisses Jacob goodbye as the rain erases his memories. Newt departs for Europe, but promises to return and visit Tina when his book is finished; he also anonymously leaves Jacob a case of silver Occamy eggshells to fund his bakery. His breads and pastries are unknowingly inspired by Newt's creatures, and as Queenie visits his store, he smiles back at her, revealing that he has not lost his entire memory. | murder | train | wikipedia | Let me start off by saying that I am a big Harry Potter fan; I loved all 8 HP movies, and really liked the 1st installment of Newt's adventures as well.
And as many other people have mentioned, as a Harry Potter fan, you just can't hate this movie.
Where Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them only contained a handful amount of references to the Harry Potter series, The Crimes of Grindelwald has tonnes.
Enough to hype up any Harry Potter fan.The problem this movie had for me was its plot, or rather, its almost nonexisting plot.
All in all, all this dialogue about characters made it extra confusing to know what the movie was about, in addition to it lacking much of a plot to begin with.This movie is definitely not a waste of money or anything, you could just buy a ticket for the stunning scenes and you'd be satisfied.
It's just that this movie was quite a disappointment compared to many people's expectations I think, seeing as it basically is just a setup for the upcoming movies, which lacks a good plot..
The arch-criminal wizard Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) is being tortured in 'Trump Tower', but manages to escape and flees to Paris in pursuit of a mysterious circus performer called Credence (Ezra Miller) and his bewitched companion Nagini (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) played fetchingly by Claudia Kim. Someone needs to stop him, and all eyes are on Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law).
which suits him just fine since his love Tina (Katherine Waterston) is working for the ministry there, and the couple are currently estranged due to a (topical) bout of 'Fake News'.Throw in a potential love triangle between Newt, his brother Theseus (Callum Turner) and old Hogwart's schoolmate Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz) and about a half dozen other sub-plots and you have...
Redmayne replays his Newt-act effectively but once again (and I see I made the same comments in my "Fantastic Beasts" review) his character mumbles again so much that many of his lines are unintelligible.I also complained last time that the excellent actress Katherine Waterston was criminally underused as the tentative love interest Tina.
you'll struggle afterwards to write down what she actually did in this film.Jacob (Dan Fogler) and Queenie (Alison Sudol, looking for all the world in some scenes like Rachel Weisz) reprise their roles in a sub-plot that goes nowhere in particular.Of the newcomers, Jude Law as Dumbledore is a class-act but has very little screen time: hopefully he will get more to do next time around.
While the visuals are as magical as ever, it's clear that the filmmakers are so distracted by trying to build a franchise that they're forgetting to actually tell a good story!
Huge and important elements of the story were left for us only to assume what had happened when discussing the one year time jump between the two films (like the Jacob/Queenie relationship, Jacobs memory, etc.).
It also seemed as if they were only adding in twists that would surely get a reaction from viewers despite the fact that they not only discredited the original Harry Potter films, but just felt like unrealistic and a little too convenient!
In short, as a huge fan of the Harry Potter Universe, I was disappointed, upset and felt really let down, and as a film goer, I was confused with the plot and frustrated with the lack of character connection and development!
The only reason I have given a 4/10 instead of a 1 is for Eddie Redmayne's perfect execution of the shy, socially awkward but loveable and charming Newt Scamander and for the alluring performance from Jude Law's Dumbledore who leaves us wanting to know more of his history!
I LOVE Harry Potter, but man, I hate this movie so much..
These two things have nothing to do with each other.In my opinion the faults of this movie date back to the first film, where we had the compelling story of a young wizard named David Attenborough whose animals escaped in New York and he had to find them.
The visual effects looked great except for the times they looked awful, especially in the Hogwarts scenes which was where the film took a nose dive, never to recover.The rest of the (far too numerous) supporting cast range from average to terrible.
If this movie did not have the Harry Potter fans it would have been a complete flop.
Having said that, this movie is much like Deathly Hallows Part 1 in the sense that it does not stand out when watched in isolation but understandable in the greater scheme of things, as it sets up the future movies perfectly without offering much on its own.
The entire movie is a history/explanation of Harry Potter characters instead of focusing on Newt and his beasts.
The rest of the time is just a complete transport track to the end.Even more unpersonal soul-lacking random CGI-creatures than the first movie just for the heck of it.I have no idea what I really saw, since there was basically no plot.Stay away and save your time and money..
I felt like I was binge watching 10 episodes of TV show, but couldn't fast forward boring story plots, fillers and flashbacks.
For a movie about magic the script is very unimaginative.This script has the same block buster problems that are money focused rather than than wanting to tell a good and exciting story.
And I would say that I am not worried at all, but Cursed Child made plenty of mistakes in terms of plot direction that cheapened or poked holes in the Potterverse.I actually like Grindelwald movie version more than Voldemort movie version (book version is a different story), he seems more sophisticated and his motives more reasonable.Overall, I liked the tone.
This movies intent was solely to set up a bigger money making franchise and forgets to tell a story on its own..
I wanted to like this movie, but I ended up walking out feeling disappointed..
The second sequel in the fledgling spinoff follows a familiar pattern, but too many characters and too many storylines rob it of its most enduring charmsEven magic takes a little bit of planning, and in David Yates' "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald," both are in short supply.
In it second outing, the cracks are starting to show in J.K. Rowling's much-hyped followup series to "Harry Potter," a franchise that is at the mercy of slapdash planning (these films are cobbled together from various pieces of "Wizarding World" material, not single novels) and the kind of higher-up decree that promised five films (five!) before the first one hit theaters.
It's a lot of time to fill, and while the second film in the franchise nudges its narrative forward, it's at the expense of a bloated, unfocused screenplay.Mostly, "The Crimes of Grindelwald" is hampered by the unwieldy meshing together of disparate plots that could service their own films (some of them surely better than others).
Newt's ditzy charm grounded the first film; and when he's allowed to lead this second story, it's as whimsical and good-hearted as any in the franchise.It's all the other subplots that damage that notion, from a charisma-free Johnny Depp taking over the role of evil Wizard Gellert Grindelwald to a convoluted section all about the family tree of Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller).
Too much open, no closed arcs, and an information bomb.So if you're not a Potterhead, expect to be confused during the movie.The cast is spectacular, especially Jude Law, Eddie Redmayne, Dan Fogler, and my future husband Callum Turner.
Of course, I wanted to say the same thing about Ezra Miller, who had incredible potential but almost disappears in what the script proposes.The animals keep showing up for a future Newt book, and that makes me happy to see that the name of the franchise remains consistent with the story, even if it's in the background.The CGI and 3D are impeccable, it pays to spend a little more and go in an IMAX 3D session.Thinking of Fantastic Animals as a franchise in small episodes, it's great.
Like a continuation movie, it has its flaws and does not close any arches that open in the beginning.By the proposal, we know that the film does better than the first and opens a range of possibilities for the future of the franchise.
A few scenes could have been shortened or written differently but overall this movie sets up an epic story that I'm sure WB will build on.The beasts did not disappoint either.
Did not like Zoe's character arc and either a lot of wasted potential on a few other characters or just left open for the next 3 movies to come.The young and charismatic Dumbledore played by Jude Law was my favourite and he added so much more depth to the character while staying true to the Dumbledore portrayed in Harry Potter .A healthy dose of magical spells and a dash of misunderstood beasts kept me hooked to this incredible little universe that I'll re-live in my imagination forever..
So if you are not an invested Harry Potter fan you probably will not love this movie.
The storyline is great, the villain is interesting, the special effects were amazing, and the history and lore for the Harry Potter series is rich and enjoyable.
I was a little afraid to be disappointed with the plot because of the critics BUT like always, the critics love to hate sequels and prequels.
Very anxious to see it develop.Conclusion: a very good movie, exceptional acting, especially Johnny Depp & Jude Law were amazing, colourful, darker, intenser.
I just saw the first fantastic beasts movie and the second one back to back and the differences really caught my eye here, while not being exactly bad, the sequel feels like just a part of the whole 5-part franchise yet to come, there are so many sub-plots introduced that it just gets confusing, and where the first movie was great by having the simple plot of gathering all the lost beasts, this one just suddenly ends and you will just have to wait and see what it will lead up to, as a huge Potterverse fan I have to say that there are some really good references hidden in this movie that fans will surely appreciate and all of the actors from the first movie were amazing..
I consider myself a series and movie fantast, I re-watched all the Harry Potters, Lord of the rings countless times.
I do not know what they are thinking, if they think people are so amazed at the Harry Potter success that we will watch just anything.Well No more I tell you JK Rowling and Warner Brothers.This movie had no red thread, no meaning, no story, no substance, It was complete lack of action and meaning.
This feels like someone made a freaking parody of the Harry potter world and JUDE LAW as dumledore.
Is this movie about Grindelwald and Dumbledore or Newt and beasts or Credence or American aurors?
The thing is that Jacob, the Muggle was the best character and that is just sad for movie about magic.
If this movie isn't about the fans of HP than there should be no Grindelwald as he is a book character.
Then make a movie about him and Dumbledore, how they met,how they went separate ways, how Dumbledore changed, the story about Ariana, the history of main characters..
Absolute piece of rubbish, I'm a massive Harry Potter fan but this just seemed like it was lacking in story as a film in its own right, its enjoyable as far as special effects go and to expand the lore of the Harry Potter franchise but that's it.
This film felt like it was setting it self up for the next movie, some the scenes just don't make any sense.
Not as good as the first movie and unlike the original Harry Potter movies ( I'm no crazy fan) feels unoriginal and lazy.
The only way I can think to describe this movie is if you've ever watched a long-running series that has 'filler episodes' where nothing really happens but it's setting up for something big-that's what this movie is.
I found the film tedious and poorly written with lots of plot holes - and this is coming from the biggest Harry Potter fan.
This film definitely feels like an attempt to make more money off the back of the Harry Potter world rather than a story in its own right.
Rowling tried to go all political in this new Harry Potter movie but just ended up creating a huge mess with too many subplots.
Jude Law is a great Dumbledore, hopefully we will se more of him in the next one though.After watching it a 3rd time i can understand why many people may be confused about this movie.
I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan and haven't seen all of the films but I thought this would be a good movie to watch with a friend who grew up loving the series.Nevertheless, we go into the theatre and commence to wasting two hours of our time.This movie made no sense at all.
No need for some of the things they did to show how awful Grindelwald was, i think anyone reading this who has watched the film will know what i am referencing without me having to give away any spoilers.
Rowling trades in complex characters and great story for visuals and filler.
The development of the most important characters was good, and Newt Scamander ranks up there with some of the classic Harry Potter characters after this movie.
The first film succeeded by adding to the Harry Potter universe without detracting from the magic of the originals; this one went out of its way to taint their good name.
It's sad watching a potential good story ruined by the necessity of making endless amount of movie from a story that (until now) looks like could fit on a single one...
It feels like a waste of energy, especially knowing that there are plenty of people out there who genuinely enjoy this film series, but I'm just not one of them.
I LOVE the Harry Potter movies and grew up with those 8 films, but I've never felt the connection to the Fantastic Beasts series that I did to Potter.
Which means it's about a lot of different characters some who are boring, some who don't really matter at all and yes also about some who are interesting and matter, but when the movie gets to them it has previously wasted time on several side characters or plot lines that go nowhere.
Which means it drags and feels unbelievably boring far too often(I can't believe I am saying this about technically a HP movie!) and while I get this period is supposed to be rough and not a joyride for the characters and the world at large, but it's utterly bleak and while there is humor, it has a distinct lack of joy!.
Visually stunning for sure but the forced characters, the pointless yes no yes no love story, the lack of fantastic beast (more or less), the lack of Grindelwald's crimes.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapter 15"How long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?" Professor Umbridge asked"Thirty-nine years this December", said Professor McGonagallIt is all you need to know about Rowling's attitude towards this film.
The series is filled with solid actors who you can love and admire.The second movie is crammed full of scenes, story, characters and art.
Yes, this movie have so many layers, very JK Rowling, but i love it!.
I love the Harry Potter franchise, but unfortunately this particular branch is not to my liking.
Rowling has already embellished in her memoirs a little too often concerning her beloved characters, but this movie basically steps on several aspects that we have come to know as canon from the Harry Potter universe.
A Fantastic Harry Potter world related movie.
The movie is good, it's bring both of fantastic beast vibe and harry potter vibe..
These films set the ground for what was an outstanding finish to the Harry Potter story and I can see Rowling doing exactly the same here.
Good story telling, visual affects, casting of characters, character development (in the short time they had), and plot development.
While I think there are always things that could have been done better or differently, it wasn't my story to tell and I just try to enjoy what I watch without too much expectation.
One of the BEST Harry Potter films.
The movie itself is quite good, a bit convoluted with to many subplots, but structured better than the first film.
I will be going to watch it again just so the story connects so well with the Harry Potter so differently..
But for non-fans of Harry Potter, i think it might be a bit confusing and many things at once..
I was so disappointed in first Fantastic beasts movie.
But let me tell you one thing THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD is a perfect prequel to Harry Potter movies.
As a HUGE Harry Potter fan, this movie was beyond my expectations.
It was by far the best movie I have seen in many years (since Harry Potter years).
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is another amazing magical journey through the wizarding world of J.
Jude Law is probably the best Dumbledore yet, at least on par with the first and way better than the second of the Harry Potter series.
I am a Potterhead, so for me this movie and it's prequel is a salvation, so I would like it anyway.The plot is amazing, it tells so much, it says a lot about what happened and gives hints, what awaits us.
The movie relates to Harry Potter world in a much better way than the first part.
With scenes of Hogwarts and glimpses of classes, its a much watch of harry Potter fans... |
tt0058091 | Fate Is the Hunter | A bird strike on one of its two engines shortly after takeoff downs a Consolidated Airlines passenger jet, killing all 53 passengers aboard and all but one of the crew. Pilot Jack Savage (Rod Taylor) is suspected of drinking and causing the crash that leaves flight attendant Martha Webster (Susanne Pleshette) the sole survivor of the flight.
Early in the investigation, it is found that the Captain shut down the aircraft’s one good engine for no apparent reason, and that he may have been drinking as little as an hour before the flight. The captain's wartime buddy, airline executive Sam C. McBane (Glenn Ford), is convinced of his friend's innocence and doggedly investigates. Flashbacks deal with both Jack's past and Sam meeting him, plus others they used to know.
Eventually, a test flight is organized as part of the investigation. Piloted by McBane, its purpose is to exactly recreate in every detail the flight of the ill-fated airliner. Every detail is replicated in sequence. After take off, flight attendant Webster brings McBane coffee, just as she did to the original flight crew. He shuts down an engine, simulating the bird strike, and the coffee cup tips over from sudden the loss of power, spilling it contents.
A short time later an emergency arises: A warning light and alarm indicates there is a serious engine fire in the remaining good engine. McBane deduces that the original pilot's coffee cup was sitting atop the instrument console, just as his had been. The spilled liquid leaked through the console's seams onto the electronics, causing a malfunction of the airliner's engines warning system. In reality the airliner still had a fully functioning jet engine that could have prevented the crash. McBane ignores the warning and goes to full power on both engines, returning safely to the airfield. A minor chance accident and the ensuing electronics fault, not pilot error, is proven to be the cause of the Consolidated airliner crash. | flashback | train | wikipedia | Ford plays Sam McBane, a VP with an airline which has just lost a plane in a crash.
A film whose story is told in flashback, during the investigation of an airline accident.
Sam McBane (Glenn Ford) is an executive of Continental Airlines who is desperate to prove that his old Army-Air Corps buddy Capt.
Through them, McBane learns a lot he didn't know about the airline pilot.The plot of the movie takes off during the last 10 minutes when McBane and the only survivor of the crash, Stewardess Martha Stewart (Suzanne Pleshette, excellent in limited screen time), recreate the original fatal flight in every detail.
A friend of mine who wouldn't usually go in for this kind of fare, after viewing it with me, said "Fate of the Hunter" turned into a pretty good movie due to the last part.Glenn Ford has some good scenes, particularly during the CAB hearing and Rod Taylor is likeable in his role.This is one of my personal favorite movies and I recommend it..
A terrific movie, Glenn Ford, Rod Tayler, and Suzanne Pleshette give wonderful performances.
If you don't like the fictional airliner, well that' s fine.Get over that part of it.Here is a movie that actually talks about a rudder power switch!I can also say that the cinematography is wonderful and the opening 12 minutes and last 10 minutes is the most amazing stuff I've seen.
I enjoyed this movie, not because 53 people died in a plane crash, but because through a determined investigation the cause was found and hopefully that same mistake won't happen again.
Glenn Ford brings his usual earnestness to his role as an airline executive determined to discover the cause of the crash, which killed its pilot and his good friend (Rod Taylor).
The flashback scenes with Ford, Taylor, Jane Russell and Wally Cox are extremely well done, and Dorothy Malone gives a fine, uncredited performance.
Very few movies held my attention like that back then.Fate is the Hunter, as other users have said, is intelligent and well thought out.
The other commentors have made entirely appropriate remarks about some of the virtues of this film, but for me the true power of this film is in the story of McBane learning, in the course of the investigation, about the true character of the doomed pilot.Better late than never..
Glenn Ford stars in "Fate is the Hunter," a 1964 film directed by Ralph Nelson.
The film also stars Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, Nancy Kwan, Wally Cox, Nehemiah Persoff, Mark Stevens, Constance Towers, and Max Showalter.Ford is Sam McBane, who is called in to determine the cause of a plane crash; a flight attendant, Martha Webster (Pleshette) is the sole survivor of the flight, piloted by Jack Savage (Rod Taylor).
He talks to Savage's friends, the women in his life, and finally actually reconstructs the flight in order to find the answer.Ford shows more emotion than usual and gives a strong performance - he actually dominates the film.
The Black Box. Fate Is The Hunter casts Glenn Ford as an airline executive and former pilot who is investigating the crash of an airline at his airport where a former Korean war buddy Rod Taylor was the pilot.
Most on the flight were killed, one of the survivors was stewardess Susanne Pleshette.Ford has a vested interest both professional and personal, he hired Taylor as a pilot and his judgment is called in question as well.
But Ford knew Taylor as a man cool in combat and we see Taylor after the initial crash in all sides of his character in flashback.The film is based on an Ernest K.
Gann's memoir is a rich tapestry of a flyer's life from biplane to four engine passenger airliner,while Harold Medford's screenplay is really just a pastiche of some of the story threads in the book.Having said that, Fate is the Hunter the film, stands on its own as an immensely satisfying story that takes an increasingly strong grip on the viewer and never lets go.
Rod Taylor plays airline captain Jack Savage, who's killed along with his crew and passengers in the crash of the fictional Consolidated Airlines flight 22.
Airline VP McBain, played by Glenn Ford, believes something other than pilot error was responsible for the disaster, but must battle his own colleagues and public perception of Savage in order to clear the dead pilot's name.
This is a sad, yet ultimately uplifting film, and although Gann might not have liked the result, the finished movie does manage to retain the tone and philosophy of his fabulous book..
It's one of those movies where you feel like you got a look behind the scenes of how a real investigation is handled, even though you probably didn't.Glenn Ford is great and understated -- good acting.
It also contains a lot of good oddball characters (Wally Cox, Dorothy Malone, Nancy Kwan) who do a great job.
While the investigation into the opening plane crash is a bit simplistic; this movie has great characters.
Prior to the film's titles, "Fate is the Hunter" opens with the fatal crash of an airliner only minutes after take-off.
The ensuing story revolves around an investigation into the mystery of what caused the accident.Using hearsay and circumstantial evidence, the airline management and the Civil Aeronautics Board rush to blame the crash on pilot error; well played by Rod Taylor, the aptly named Captain Jack Savage and his reputation become the target.
However, Savage's old army buddy, Sam McBane, works for the same airline company and is assigned to investigate the cause of the crash.
Suzanne Pleshette, Wally Cox, Nancy Kwan, and Dorothy Malone are among those who paint a more complex portrait of Savage that eventually leads to resolution.Despite the quaintness of flights without security checks, "Fate is the Hunter" is often engaging and holds viewer interest throughout.
Glenn Ford is so loyal to his friend that he will risk his life to prove the accident is NOT 'pilot error'.Even the angle of the pier demo project being delayed lends an important element to the plot.
Glenn Ford does his best to make his central character interesting but nearly all of the main characters in the film are middle-aged men who spend most of their screen time shouting and snarling at each other.
Glenn Ford was a big star in his day, but he does not get the credit today that he deserves for making some terrific movies.
FITH was well acted by everyone in the cast I think the chemistry between Glenn Ford and Rod Taylor was very interesting.
I believe the scene at the beginning of the film, the only contact they had not seen in flashback, was very subtle, but you begin to understand what drives Ford to pursue his investigation.
Several years ago, on a whim, I actually wrote to a famous director (who happened to have made a film with Glenn Ford when he was a child actor!) to suggest remaking FITH with an updated story.
Gann's wrote two different stories, both titled "Fate is the Hunter": a book, and a screen play.
Both stories suggest fate plays a large role in our lives, but whereas the book gives example after example after example, the movie concentrates on one incident.If you compare the book's detailed story of how co-pilot Gann and his old curmudgeon of a captain survive a mid-western ice storm in a DC-2, an airplane that is inferior in every way except one (ice handling) to the DC-3 that they had expected and had wanted to take, to the detailed story in the movie of how a new jetliner crashes because of a peculiar series of events, or if you compare the movie jetliner's crash to the crash of an Eastern Airlines DC-4 that occurred because its pilot reacted to a vibration that Gann, in an identical incident, decided to ignore, I think you'll be pleased.The DC-6 or -7 airliner that was modified in the movie to look like a prototype for a new, twin-engine jet airliner is great from a historical perspective.
(Some people think that a Convair was modified for the movie.) Gann ended his airline career flying DC-4s for Matson.
Continuing with the same basic DC-4 airframe in the movie (with fake jet engines stuck on the rear fuselage) certainly lends a Gann "air" to the film.
The jet DC-8, which was flying by the time the book and the movie were released, is very different from the DC-4/6/7 series of airplanes that Gann flew.Douglas would eventually produce another very different twin-engine jet airplane, the DC-9, but from an economical standpoint, going with the existing DC-4/6/7 design for the DC-9, which began production in the mid 1960s, sure would have made a lot of sense.
This is one of those movies that came out very well, in fact better than what could have been expected.I found the acting was good, and as the another reviewer has noticed, that first 10 minutes gives it to you right before your very eyes.
I mean, really: would a man who knows aircraft like he does have gone for the idea of a "jet" being nothing more than a de-engined Convair Metropolitan with papier-maché modifications to the empty engine nacelles?That aside, this was a heck of a good movie, and needs to be released on some home medium..
It's the story of two pilots, the other is Rod Taylor, who is less responsible and more adventurous, and as Glenn finds reason to investigate his friend's actual way of life, there are many flashbacks gradually building up a tremendous drama all dependent on the human factor.
It's a fantastic detective story of an air crash investigation, the case seems hopeless to find any explanation to, but Glenn Ford as the inveterate investigator in charge can't just drop the case at the first instance of what seems to be the final solution - there is always something more to it.I loved this film, it's perfectly on par with the "Doomsday Flight" with Edmond O'Brien 5 years later, and Glenn Ford makes a terrific performancer..
Glenn Ford shows what a great actor he is in this excellent film.
It is basically a story of a plane crash and Glenn Ford's determination to prove that his old war buddy Rod Taylor was not the cause of the crash.
Gann's book becomes interesting, somewhat unusual and gripping drama involving a doomed airliner, on a routine flight from Los Angeles to Seattle, which loses its first engine--and then, apparently, its second--and crashes just after takeoff, leaving only one survivor (a remarkably uninjured stewardess).
Glenn Ford is the investigator for the airline company who is pressured by board members into blaming the entire disaster on pilot Rod Taylor, an old military friend; Ford is uninterested in using the pilot as a scapegoat, instead putting his job on the line and searching out the actual reason the plane went down.
If only I had left it at that and left this movie half shrouded in a mystique associated with the title.Here's the basic story: a jet airliner (reasonably novel in 1964) crashes.
"It illustrates the many zany and unusual things that can happen to change our lives forever." The actual cause of this plane crash has stuck with me since I first saw the film over 30 years ago on TV.
Had this movie been titled "Airline Investigator" or "Cause and Effect" or even "How Did It Happen?", I would not have been quite so disappointed.
The book is Gann's masterpiece, chronicling the career of an airline pilot from his first solo flight to his retirement, featuring wonderful accounts of many of the events that occur during a life spent in the air.
I wanted to care about the lead character (Glenn Ford) and, through flashbacks, the pilot of the ill-fated plane (Rod Taylor).
Suzanne Pleshette fared best in a good (albeit minor) cast as the flight attendant who survived the crash and helps in the investigation.
The acting was fine, the sets and props seemed a bit dated/ineffective, but the story is a good one and work watching the solid performances of Ford, Pleshette, Kwan, Cox and several others made a most enjoyable evening.I was disappointed that the flavor of the book just did not come through in the movie.
The jet engines of the plane were poorly done, the engine going out on the plane not being noticed by the passengers was a real stretch, the haste to hold a hearing, the CAA admitting to acting in response to political/public pressure and the general portrayal of flight crews all seemed somewhat hasty, as if it was in the way of getting on with a few supporting elements for the PLOT, and to capitalize on the popularity of the book rather than making a serious movie.Anyway - A great Book, and an OK movie, just do not get the two confused as having anything to do with each other.BTW - I read Gann's "Hostage to Fortune" after watching the movie, and his comments about the movie explain and support my observations..
This is a silly story about the investigation of airliner crash.
They are finally cleared, but unfortunately, as they come for a crash landing, the plane strikes a pier and everyone dies, except Martha, the stewardess, who miraculously is spared.As the investigation proceeds, we are taken in flashbacks to the days of WWII when Sam and Jack were serving together.
The film is based on a book by Ernest Gann.Glenn Ford, a man that usually underplayed in most of his films, makes an excellent Sam McBean.
Rod Taylor, who is made to look older as Jack in the first scenes, does also a good job of this fearless pilot.
Gann wrote the book, Fate Is The Hunter, which became a classic among pilots.
It does not take long for some bright sparks to realize that, from a legal and financial viewpoint, it might be useful to put the full blame on the pilot...A good movie (part thriller, part drama) about an inquiry into the possible causes of a plane crash.
When the real cause of the accident is finally discovered, near the very end of the movie, it proves both ironical and poignant."Fate" also explores themes like gratitude and fidelity, with one man fiercely defending the reputation of a pilot (also a personal friend) he knew as brave, competent and resourceful.By now the movie has reached a certain age, but I fear that the blood sport known as "quick, find me a convenient scapegoat !" is still as popular as ever....
The pilot of the plane was Captain Jack Savage, a long- time friend of Sam's.
The only thing in common between Ernest Gann's excellent book and this movie, is the title.
It may be bad luck, when some soldiers get hit by bullets, while others don't, but that is not evidence that the victim's names were pre-written on those bullets.The main characters in the film, are phony to the core; nothing like real-life airline pilots and executives.
Sheen would be a good object lesson for anyone thinking about taking drugs for the first time (or second, or third, etc) For you aviation buffs out there trying to reverse engineer the plane in the movie...
It certainly looks as if the whimsical, Byronic airline captain Rod Taylor is responsible for this accident, which left 52 people dead, himself included, sparing only Susanne Pleshette, the flight attendant.
The airline traffic safety board convenes and, despite the strong reservations of executive Glenn Ford, an old friend of Taylor's, is headed towards the dreaded explanation of "pilot error." You see, Taylor was observed patronizing several bars the night before the flight, in the company of someone named Mickey who can't be located.
105 minutes.SYNOPSIS: One night on a lonely beach near the Los Angeles Airport, Consolidated Airlines flight 22 piloted by Captain Jack Savage (Rod Taylor) crashes and burns.
Sam McBane (Glenn Ford) Director of Flight Operations for the Airline, rushes to the scene of the accident.
Mr. Gann considered suing the production company because the film doesn't even resemble the story in the book.Being both a pilot and a film buff, I was extremely disappointed with this movie.
Nancy Kwan and Suzanne Pleshette are stunning, and Rod Taylor turned in a believable characterization of a flawed yet admirable man.Gann was not just a good aviation author, he was a great one along with Stephen Coonts and Richard Bach.
Still, as a kid in love with all things airplanes, I watched it many times and it became a favorite along with such great and small films dealing with aviation, pilots and airlines.
Many people believe the crash was caused by the pilot, who some suspect was drunk at the time.
The movie opens with one plane crashing and closes with a second nearly having the same crash.After much investigation of his friend's character, Sam Mc Bane is confident the pilot of the ill fated craft - Jack Savage was not drinking.
Imperfect, and not even remotely true to Gann's aviation classic upon which it is purportedly based, Fate is the Hunter is nonetheless a fine and compelling film.Essentially a character study and technological "whodunnit", an airline executive strives to exonerate the pilot after a deadly airliner crash.
Good movie, but not "Fate is the Hunter".
This movie's fairly good in it's own right, especially the last 15 minutes or so, but to me the only thing it has in common with the Mr. Gann's book is the title.The story line appears to be based more on his story "Band of Brothers" (same title, but nothing to do with the WW-II mini-series), where a group of friends don't believe a crash was due to pilot-error and launch an investigation into the true cause, than to "Fate is the Hunter".Actually, considering the time span the book covers, an HDTV mini-series would probably be the best way to do "Fate is the Hunter" and get it right. |
tt0242733 | The Chronicle | In February 2012, Seattle teenager Andrew Detmer starts videotaping his life; his mother Karen is dying of cancer and his alcoholic father Richard, who is a former firefighter, is verbally and physically abusive. At school, Andrew is frequently bullied by his classmates.
Andrew's cousin Matt Garetty invites him to a party to help him mingle with some people, but his filming causes an altercation with an attendee and he leaves disappointed. He is persuaded by popular student Steve Montgomery to record something strange that he and Matt have found in the woods. The trio enter a hole in the ground, where they hear a loud strange noise and discover a large glowing blue crystalline object which turns red, and gives them painful nosebleeds. As the crystalline object begins to react violently, the camera cuts out. Weeks later, Andrew, Matt, and Steve record themselves as they display telekinetic abilities, but begin bleeding from their noses when they overexert themselves. They develop a close friendship and begin using their abilities to play pranks, but when Andrew telekinetically pushes a rude motorist off the road and into a river, Matt insists that they restrict the use of their powers, particularly against living things.
After discovering themselves being capable of flight, they agree to fly around the world together after graduation. Andrew wants to visit Tibet because of its peaceful nature. Steve encourages him to enter the school talent show to gain popularity. Andrew amazes his fellow students by disguising his powers as an impressive magic act. After the show, Andrew, Matt and Steve celebrate at a house party where Andrew becomes the center of attention. After drinking with his classmate Monica, she and Andrew go upstairs to have sex, but he vomits on her, humiliating both of them.
As time goes on, Andrew becomes increasingly withdrawn and aggressive, culminating when his father, Richard, attacks him and Andrew uses his powers to overwhelm him. His outburst is so extreme that it inflicts psychically connected nosebleeds on Steve and Matt. While Matt ignores the nosebleed, Steve flies up to Andrew in the middle of a storm and tries to console him. However, Andrew grows increasingly frustrated, and Steve is suddenly struck by a lightning bolt and killed. At Steve's funeral, Matt confronts Andrew about the suspicious circumstances of Steve's death. Andrew denies responsibility to Matt, but he privately begs for forgiveness at Steve's grave.
Andrew grows distant from Matt and again finds himself ostracized at school. After being bullied, he uses his powers to rip a few teeth out of a bully's mouth. Andrew begins to identify himself as an apex predator, rationalizing that he should not feel guilt for using his powers to hurt those weaker than himself. When his mother's condition deteriorates, Andrew disguises himself using Richard's firefighter gear, where he uses his powers to steal money for her medicine. After mugging a local gang, he robs a gas station where he inadvertently causes an explosion that puts him in the hospital with significant burns, and under police investigation. At his bedside, his father informs the unconscious Andrew that his mother has died, and he angrily blames Andrew for her death. As his father is about to strike him, Andrew awakens and the wall of his hospital room explodes.
At a birthday party, Matt experiences a nosebleed and senses Andrew is in trouble. He and his girlfriend, Casey, go to the hospital, where Andrew is floating outside. After saving Richard when Andrew attempts to kill him, Matt confronts his cousin at the Space Needle and tries to reason with him, but Andrew grows hostile and irrational at any perceived attempt to control him. Andrew attacks Matt and the pair fight across the city, crashing through buildings and hurling vehicles. When police shoot Matt in the arm, Andrew throws dozens of police (and their cars) through the air, and then uses his powers to destroy the buildings around him, threatening hundreds of lives. Unable to get through to his cousin and left with no other choice, Matt then kills Andrew by telekinetically impaling him with a spear from a nearby statue. The police soon surround Matt after which he awakens and flies away.
Later, Matt lands in Tibet with Andrew's camera. Speaking to the camera while addressing Andrew, Matt tearfully vows to use his powers for good and to find out what happened to them in the hole. He positions the camera to view a Tibetan monastery in the distance before flying away, leaving the camera behind. | paranormal | train | wikipedia | What were they thinking?.
I was disturbed greatly when I realized (I had no idea the show was canceled until I watched the final episode) and later learned for a fact that Sci-Fi Channel was canceling this show.
I found this show to be well thought out, light-hearted, and just a plain good show - the cheese to cool ratio was in perfect balance.
I really wish that this was a show I could still be watching.
A great show cut down before its time, indeed.
I think that the execs at SciFi need to take a good look at their decision making process and see how it is that they went so wrong..
Too great a show to be cancelled so soon..
I was very disappointed Sci-Fi Channel cancelled this teriffic show.
The Chronicle provided just the right combination of humor, action, and wit which worked out very well about this series about the weird and unusual stories the reporters investigate for this Enquierer-type newspaper.
From alien abductions to rich elderly people paying to relive their youth via body switching to vampires at an Elvis convention, The Chronicle was very imaginative and quite entertaining.
In particular, there were quite a number of episodes that explored the human psyche.
Remember, the magic pizza oven that sucked its victims into a weird dimension where they were exposed to their worst fears?
How about the episode where high school cheerleaders were actually willing to become bionic women.
Remember in that episode when the reporters went undercover as students, they made references to Beverly Hills 90210 as their reason they could pull it off.
Pretty funny for sure!
There was even an episode where a so-called superhero had psychological problems of his own.
The Chronicle was one show that not only explored the weird and unusual, but took on current issues of human behavior as well.
With the series' great writing and blending these issues together, the results really paid off as an overall funny, dramatic and entertaining show.
The cast of Chad Willet, Rena Sofer, Reno Wilson, Don Polito, and Curtis Armstrong (as Sal the Pigboy) were all excellent in their roles.
They all had great chemistry and really looked like they had fun doing the show.
Let's hope they have as good success in their future endeavors now that the show is unfortunately over..
A Brilliant, Short-Lived Show!.
I began watching "The Chronicle" during the middle of its first season (I was looking for a prospective replacement for "The X-Files").
At first, I found it an odd-blend of sci-fi/mystery/comedy, and in many ways, seemed to be a simple parody of "The X-Files." But I got hooked, and with each new episode, it got better and better.By the start of its second season, "The Chronicle" finally came into its own!
It's storylines were becoming more original and far-out, proving that the writers finally realized that there were no limits to what they could do, and whatever their imaginations could come up with would work (although, some better than others).
It even began to develop its own "X-Files"-like mythology that only really picked up halfway through the second season.
And then it was canceled.It's a shame that "The Chronicle" was on for such a short period.
Sci-Fi Channel really underestimated the show's ability to entertain.
Along with the stories, the cast was excellent (especially Rena Sofer) and they all seemed to have fun making this show.If you ever get a chance to see the reruns, I'm sure you will love this beautiful, gem of a show.
Especially if you're lucky enough to see the episodes "The King is (Un)Dead" (about the vampire-Elvis impersonators) or "A Snitch in Time" (the series-finale).***1/2 out of ****.
I LOVE THIS SHOW!.
The Chronicle is one of the best science fiction shows ever created.
It has wonderful acting from Rena Sofer (The Stepsister, General Hospital, Melrose Place) and the others actors.
I give The Chronicle a perfect 10.
Let's just hope it lasts long enough for syndication..
The producers of "Six Feet Under" have done it again!.
I'm sure that from the previews, a lot of people were ready to write this one off as a total rip-off of X-FILES, with echoes of KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER and even a tip of the hat to MEN IN BLACK.
I know I was, but knowing how Greenblatt and Janollari have given Alan Ball free reign on 6FU, I decided to give the pilot a try and cut them some slack.What a pleasant surprise!
In less capable hands, the cliches would've dropped off the screen with thuds so loud, you could hear them all the way to Collinwood.
Nice to see that Silvio Horta (of URBAN LEGENDS infamy) knows how to infuse the writing with the same kind of cheeky brashness that freshened up THE INVISIBLE MAN, and the dearly departed GOOD VS.
EVIL.
The principal cast members may be young, (so young that they might not even remember MELROSE PLACE), but they deliver engaging performances and they seem to have a handle on the characters already, a plus when you consider that it almost always takes a half-dozen episodes of any new show, before all the character 'bugs' are worked out.
Jon Polito is especially good, bringing his considerable experience to bear as the curmudgeonly editor who has a sweet spot for slime demons, illegal aliens (the galactic and paranormal kind) and the other assorted flora and fauna of worlds we've never considered existed alongside our own.
The peek at future episodes shown at the end of the two-hour special has me hoping that the writers can sustain the rapport that already exists between the characters, even if the plotlines start to run out of steam.
If sci-fi/fantasy is your cuppa, this show is definitely worth a look..
Good while it lasted.
This show has been screening several episodes at a time over the past year It's great that a show like this was made but it's a shame that a well written show like this, head and shoulders above most of the stuff on TV gets cancelled after only one season.
The channel that shows this also showed 'The Lone Gunmen' this year, another well written SciFi/Comedy/Mystery that only lasted one season.
Are these types of shows unpopular or are they given bad timeslots in the US?
I suppose these shows wouldn't have been made if room wasn't made for them by the cancellation of other shows, but I wonder what needs to change to ensure that a good show stays on when it comes along..
This show is off to a good start, assuming....
...they can keep the writing fresh.
I was a bit worried when this show first was announced because it sounded pretty much like it was just going to be a funny version of X-file or First Wave.
Sure, that might be cool once or twice, but I thought it wouldn't last too long.Fortunately, The Chronicle has proven to be freshly written, with some good plots to go along with the humorous writing.
I love all the characters, especially Wes(played by Reno Wilson).
Overall, the show is very well cast and everyone seems to be aware of what their characters are supposed to be like.My only concern is that this show may not prove to remain strong for more than two seasons or so.
It's written by Sylvio Horta, who is mostly known for his "Urban Legend" movies.
Both those films were interesting at first, but withered into mundane garbage.
I hope this show doesn't do the same.
I have heard that the cast has really bonded and would hate to see them fall prey to writers whose abilities get exhausted.I give this show *** out of **** stars.
Worth a watch if you like Sci-Fi. Probably won't pull you in if you aren't particularly in to the genre..
A Sadly Missed Gem. There's a Pig-Boy in the basement, one of the reporters is psychic, another's been repeatedly abducted by aliens since her teens, the Editor has a mysterious past and the photographer is prepared for everything from ghosts to demons, there's an alien assassin in the form of an STD, Fat Ghosts and Pet-Eating Aliens that are actually the Spiritual Leader of the whole galaxy...basically it's just another day at the office for The World Chronicle newspaper.This is a show for people who feel that the X-Files took itself too seriously and I used to enjoy watching it on Sci-Fi...now I watch the 're-runs' online.
Yes, some of it's now a little bit dated but a bit of nostalgia now and then doesn't hurt)Every member of the cast seems to be having a fantastic time with their roles, really making it their own and the chemistry between them makes it seem realistic.Alas, it was cancelled much too soon, but we still have the memories |
tt0284978 | Cypher | Morgan Sullivan (Northam), a recently unemployed accountant, is bored with his suburban life. Pressured by his wife to take a job with her father's company, he instead pursues a position in corporate espionage. Digicorp's Head of Security, Finster (Bennett), inducts Morgan and assigns him a new identity. As Jack Thursby, he is sent to conventions to secretly record presentations and transmit them to headquarters. Sullivan is soon haunted by recurring nightmares and neck pain. When he meets Rita Foster (Liu) from a competing corporation, his life starts to become complicated.
Rita gives him pills to cure his pain and nightmares and tells him not to transmit at the next convention. After the convention, Digicorp confirms the receipt of his transmission, though Morgan had sent nothing. Sure that something strange is going on, Morgan takes the pills Rita gave him and finds that they work. Confused by what is going on, and intrigued by Rita, he arranges to meet with her again. At the meeting, she tells him about Digicorp's deception and offers him an antidote – a green liquid in a large syringe. Morgan hesitantly accepts. She warns him that no matter what happens at the next convention he must not react.
Morgan discovers that all the convention attendees are spies like him, all thinking themselves individual spies working for Digicorp. While they are drugged from the served drinks, plastic-clad scientists probe, inject and brainwash them. Individual headsets reinforce their new identities, preparing them to be used and then disposed of. Morgan manages to convince Digicorp that he believes his new identity. He is then recruited by Sunway Systems, a rival of Digicorp. Sunway's Head of Security, Callaway (Webber), encourages Morgan to act as a double agent, feeding corrupted data to Digicorp. Morgan calls Rita, who warns him that Sunway is equally ruthless, and that he is in fact being used by Rita's boss, Sebastian Rooks. Morgan manages to steal the required information from Sunway Systems' vault, escaping with Rita's help.
Rita ultimately takes him to meet Rooks. When she temporarily leaves the room, a nervous Morgan calls Finster, and becomes even more distressed. He accidentally shoots Rita, who encourages him to ignore her and meet Rooks in the room next door. Morgan finds the room filled with objects which appear to be personal to him, including a photograph of him and Rita together. Realising that he is apparently Rooks, he turns to Rita in disbelief.
Before Rita can convince him, the apartment is invaded by armed men. Rita and Morgan escape to the roof of the skyscraper as the security teams of Digicorp and Sunway meet, led by Finster and Callaway. After a short Mexican standoff both sides realise they are after the same person, Sebastian Rooks, and rush to the roof, where they find Morgan and Rita in a helicopter. Rita cannot fly it, but, having designed it himself, Sebastian can after Rita encourages him to remember his past self, connecting through his love for her. He lifts off amid gunfire from the security teams. Finster and Callaway comment as the couple seem to have escaped:
Callaway: "Did you get a look at him? Did you see Rooks' face?"
Finster: "Just Morgan Sullivan, our pawn."
Looking up, they see the helicopter hovering and realise, too late, the true identity of Morgan Sullivan. Sebastian triggers a bomb, causing the whole roof to explode. On a boat in the South Pacific Ocean, Sebastian reveals the content of the stolen disc to Rita. Marked "terminate with extreme prejudice", it is the last copy of Rita's identity (after the one in the vault was destroyed). Sebastian throws the disc into the sea and says, "Now there's no copy at all." | flashback, brainwashing, sci-fi | train | wikipedia | On his flights and during his sleep he is bothered by vivid dreams and voices in his head; he thinks nothing of it but then his next meeting with Rita reveals something much more sinister than the basic assignments he thought he was getting and he soon finds himself in deep.I had never heard of this film at all before watching it, nor did I even know anything about it whatsoever and I only ended up watching it because I had FilmFour free one weekend and this was one of the few films that they showed that was worth seeing.
The efforts of the director and the actors combined in an effective thriller.Although the plotting of the film was convoluted, the story progressed very clearly as the layers of corporate greed and skullduggery were revealed.In 1949, George Orwell suggested in his famous novel "1984" that the future would be ruled by the totalitarian State, which would control minds and diminish human liberty.
Cypher was a movie I was looking forward to after I had read some comments here about it's story being like the works Philip K.
Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu definitely deserve movies as good as this, although they don't seem to have found that many in their careers.
I think he too can be cold if the situation calls for it, and rather down-to-Earth, as well.Great film and definitely this movie-buff recommends it to be seen at least once if you like corporate espionage films..
The second feature from Vincenzo Natali (director of the cult film Cube, if you haven't seen it, go check it out) comes this tantalizing sci-fi with hints of film noir blended together to create a smart and puzzling piece of espionage, double-cross with numerous twists and turns.Set in an alternative reality where a bored business man Morgan Sullivan (played with bookish awkwardness by Jermery Northam) decides to apply for a job at a global computer firm Digicorp.
A world, which is not dissimilar to our own, is bought to life by the high contrast and sharp detail by cinematographer Derek Rogers giving the whole feel a cold, calculated and cool precision look.The performances by Jeremy Northam provides the main focus as we see his transformation from a bland everyday businessman into a paranoid agent who allegiances is divided and is unsure of who to trust and who to follow.
Indeed, something clever is going on here, but most alert and intelligent viewers will see each plot twist coming, and will feel (at least through most of the film) that they have seen it all before.
It appears to be a sci-fi film, but it's really just a pedestrian spy thriller with a few sci-fi elements tossed in to differentiate it slightly from the dozens of similar films that have been made in this popular genre.Likable Lucy Liu plays her usual role - an ambiguous heroine who could be a savior or a slayer for Jeremy Northam - a man who has been reprogrammed, brainwashed, and seems on his way to hell with a one way ticket.
Northam makes the film with an evolving, highly dynamic, and often annoying performance - playing a character who is, in fact, at least three different characters.Though Cypher is somewhat predictable in terms of action and events, it is never exactly made clear what is motivating everything until the very end.
Vincenzo Natali follows up the best science fiction movie of the 1990s with another stylish and intelligent mind blowing experience!.
'Cypher' isn't actually based on a PKD story but in many ways it's the closest thing to his fiction yet seen on a movie screen.
Maybe she's just trying to get indie cred by appearing in 'Cypher', but who cares when she gives a good performance in a great movie.
I did feel like I followed the film along and came out the other end appreciating what had just happened but not really affected by it.Shame really, since it was good to see such a great performance from Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu in a different role from the usual character she keeps playing..
Cypher is a cheap, derivative, dull movie, set in a poorly realised bland futureworld, with wooden leads, and a laughable ending.An eerie sense that something interesting might be about to happen keeps you watching a series of increasingly silly and unconvincing events, before the film makers slap you in the face with an ending that combines the worst of Bond with a Duran Duran video.It's painfully obvious they have eked out the production using Dr Who style improvised special effects in order to include a few good (if a little Babylon 5) CGI set pieces.
There is an obvious lack of research done here and given the open-source nature of the cyber-community, research would have cost little more than a bulletin board and personal time.DVD interviews also reveal the original movie name was "Company Man" but this likely ditched in order to cash in on Matrix hype.
I really liked director Vincenzo Natali's 'Cube', so my expectations were godamn high when I stepped into the cinema (despite the fact that one of the worst actor of our age, Lucy Liu, stars in it).I was fairly confident that the main guy, played appallingly by Jeremy Northam, would get killed off fairly soon, since his acting was so terrible that I dreaded the possibility that I could be forced to watch any more of it.No, the film never really takes off.It's rubbish as rubbish goes.Dull, uninspired and not innovative at all.I wouldn't even recommend it to hardcore sci-fi fans (sadistic tendencies put aside)..
I decided to watch Cypher after seeing it labeled sci-fi thriller-- now that I have seen it, I would rather label it a cliché spy film with slight sci-fi undertones.The movie centers around the concepts of unknown identity and corporate brainwash, which sound pretty interesting on the surface.
But then you add the whole femme fatale part, turn the geeky protagonist into a slick, skirt-chasing spy and create a plot with more holes than swiss cheese-- and you have Cypher.I have seen one other Vincenzo Natali movie, Splice, and I feel both films start with a great idea, but become caught up in clichéd plot techniques and flat, lifeless characters.If you're into slick spy films, then you will most likely enjoy this.
But if you want concepts like brainwash and unknown identity put into a unique, stylish, science fiction film (as I did when reading the user reviews for this movie), then forget about Cypher.
I have seen director Vincenzo Natali's Cube, which obviously didn't have the strongest of talent in it, but they story made it all worth watching.**Same with this film!
It's a spy thriller, has elements of noir, bits and pieces of action, science fiction, and cyberpunk all tied together with a brilliant narrative, mind-bending plot twists, and gorgeous cinematography.A lot of the comments here have centered around it being derivative, both in good and bad ways, of other movies.
After having watched it I must say that 7.4 is a bit too much (especially since the brilliant "Cube" only got 7.3 stars), but "Cypher" is indeed an interesting movie.
The other question, namely will he sleep with Lucy Liu is irrelevant but kept me going throughout the running time in ways I'd rather we didn't discuss.Brian King's script arguably has plenty of satirical edge - corporate zombies brainwashed and literally reformulated by technological conglomarates, Suites working for large companies drugged into accepting a life of suburbian normalcy etc...but although this all works fairly well, even to the point of rendering Cypher strangely lifeless and perhaps too cold in its dramatatic thrust, this is first a foremost a sci-fi potboiler - not a whodunnit more a whoamiandwhatthehellisgoingon?The direction, like the script is methodical and carefully layered - arguably a little too much so.
Whereas Cube was taut, well-made, claustrophobic and mind-engaging, I'm afraid Cypher is a bloated, tedious rehash of several well-worn themes which just don't add up to much, especially if you have seen almost any other half-way decent sci-fi film before.Cypher manages to drag all the way through its relatively short 95 minutes right to the incompetent ending.
Yep, that means I liked it more than Shutter Island/Inception (both Leonardo DiCaprio, 2010).The first movie directed by Vincenzo Natali I ever saw was Cube (1997), and I liked it so much that I even sought out and enjoyed Cube 2: Hypercube (2002; I like the DVD's alternate endings more than the film itself), and Cube Zero (2004).
Morgan Sullivan (Jeremy Northam,) tiring of his dull suburban life, gets a job as an industrial spy for a huge software house, but quickly finds himself in a bafflingly complex and perilous web of deception involving a rival corporation, brainwashing, a sinister, inaccessible Mr. Big, and a mysterious femme fatale (Lucy Liu) who appears at crucial moments only to vanish.Cypher is an intelligent sci-fi/espionage/thriller, stylishly filmed and well acted.
(It seems to be set in a near future -- at any rate, the technology used seems a bit beyond what currently exists.) It's a low-budget film that doesn't look low budget thanks to the the skill of director Vincenzo Natali (best known for Cube,) and features one of the more clever surprise endings you'll find.
Watched an absolutely wonderful twisty turny psych-thriller movie on Netflix called "CYPHER" even though it is 13 years old had never heard of it before and it is amazingly good.
It is here that we find things may not be what they seem.This movie was directed by Vincenzo Natali, who took us on a great journey in the original and great horror psych thriller flick "The Cube".
Halfway through the movie, you may guess and think you know the answer but be aware you will NOT because the clues NEVER stop until the very ending.Overall a terrific movie, the writing and direction the movie takes are amazing, the acting and chemistry could have been better especially by Lucy Liu, she does fall flat and at times stiff and others just aloof (not much character development), it could just be the way her character was written, directed or just her acting.
His follow up is just as smart and engaging but unfortunately a lot less well known.Cypher follows Jeremy Northam (delivering a wonderfully transformative performance) as an office worker who becomes entangled in a web of high tech corporate espionage.While individual elements have clearly been cribbed from some more high profile films, taken as whole Cypher feels stylish, cerebral and even unexpectedly emotional by the end credits.
It was made in 2002, and, 12 years later, Lucy Liu looks exactly the same -- great.Jeremy Northram plays Morgan Sullivan, a bored suburbanite, who takes a job as an industrial spy for a company called Digicorp, an international computer corporation.His job turns out to be not that exciting at first.
Despite a lot of switching things around, twisting the plot several times and following orders that are put across in a way to make them seem that the world will end if they're not carried out; the one thing that seems the most dangerous is any romantic link or connection with Lucy Liu's character and she's trying to help out(!) The film maintains that feeling of two sides battling a war of espionage, spying and keeping one up on its employees and opponents.
If you like a well-written and well-directed spy story/movie, its definitely worth the time.
If you like a spy/movie story where peak attention isn't acquired to follow the plot (as in James Bond), don't waste your time on this beauty.
The movie: They keep the visual effects to a minimum, it is nothing flashy, although the view inside the computer core made me think of a nice little modeling job made simple...The movie manages to grasp the unknown, and does not reveal any of the truth until the very end....which makes it so good..Character performancesLucy Lu: Decent performances, but it seems almost as she is struggling to keep the role interesting.
then I heard it was from the team that brought us CUBE and I knew I would have to watch it.A couple of weeks later I took the plunge to buy it first on DVD with its very loverly box design 'Hats off to the box designer' Very Funky.The film takes place in the not to distant future and brings us the story about identity in a gripping spy thriller where you are never quite sure what is going to happen next.Considering it was a low budget film (see the extras on the dvd for proof of this) they have managed to bring the vision and paranoia to the movie with relative ease.If you imagine James Bond films mixed with the matrix and an element of Minority report your on the right tracks.The ending is a little weak, but trying to find a film with a good ending is the hard.If you like intellegent films with dimension and mystery which at no point explain everything and nanny you...
Much like this directors previous effort Cube, Cypher is a stylishly filmed, one concept movie.I thought it was rather protracted plot wise, and the dialogue was pretty stunted, and not particularly realistic.
However it was shot with an extremely moody atmosphere with really nice sets and costumes, there is very little action and minimal special effects, which makes a nice change, since most directors now seem to think that wire stunts and time lapse effects are a pre-requisite for a Sci-Fi movie, and like Cube, Cypher succeeds on a purely aesthetic level.I watched it because as a matter of course I watch every sci-fi movie that gets made, and it didn't leave me totally flat, but it seems to me that Natali usually gets a better performance out of his cinematographer than he does out of his cast.
Liu and Northam : great performances this movie should have had a shot in cinemas rather than any of the hollywood dogmeat big budgets of the last few years!
Again, Natali is making a very good sci-fi movie with few special effects.
Cypher starts out with an interesting premise -- corporate espionage -- but then attempts to add twists & turns and layer upon layer, before pretty soon you have no idea what is going on, who are the good guys, who are the bad guys...what you're watching at all.The (apparently) deliberate monochromatic visual tones, pedestrian acting and dull CGI sequences don't help either.
Cypher is much deeper, more complex and - what belongs the story and the ending - also much, much more satisfying than Vincenzo Natali's other movies "Cube" and "Nothing".
A great indirect story about identity and modern society.I liked the color in which the movie is slightly tainted, reminder of a film noir and yet with a modern twist (kind of a Minority Report set and feeling).
Director Vincenzo Natali's earlier "Cube" (1997) was a fascinating film, and that was reason enough to give "Cypher" (2002) a look."Cypher" makes a very intriguing start; a man named Morgan Sullivan (Jeremy Northam) is being interviewed by Digicorp's head of security and is being put through some neurological tests.
"Mission Impossible"-like athletic stunts and nick of time narrow escapes put a dent in the film's grave atmosphere and transport the viewer to the world of popcorn cinema for those brief moments!Nonetheless, a very sincere and convincing lead performance by the underrated Jeremy Northam and a steady pace that doesn't let up, make for an engaging and entertaining sci-fi noir thriller.
still, if you are into lower budget movies much higher on creativity and originality, you can't miss cypher.Why?Awesome acting, with Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu (I have to agree, vastly underrated, but then again Hollywood and America want their stars to be white or black generally, how sad) giving performances that make many famous stars look like department stores dummies in comparisonLow budget effects but visually ultra stylish and very creative (as an example, our hero, basically a zero, lives in a neighborhood where, seen from above, the nondescript suburban homes form the image of a 0, just one of the many little details that add depth to the viewing experience)A very interesting story and plenty of thought provoking dialogs and situations; clever, well-crafted, interesting until the last minute.But then again, nothing that surprising when you consider that it's a work of the same director of "Cube", a cult, low-budget, Canadian Sci-Fi movie still remembered as extremely original by all fans of intelligent science fiction, too bad this fantastic new effort went unnoticed, the director and the actors deserved much more recognition for it..
Set in the near future, in a world of corporate espionage and the value of data being the most important thing of all, we follow the lead character, Morgan Sullivan, played by Jeremy Northam, into a world of mind numbing, and later on, mind bending conferences.
But I would definitely recommend this film for viewers who like their sci-fi movies to be intelligent rather than action packed.
The plot is good enough to see the movie without being bored, but is not tight enough to be thrilled or captured by it.Cypher definitely has an interesting idea, but the execution is not as tight as it should be, and one can guess what is going on from the half.O, I almost forgot.
As for the cast, well, Jeremy Northam is fine as the everyday 'grey man' caught up in an adventure that's rapidly spiralling out of control, and Lucy Liu, who I usually dislike, has never been better.CYPHER is one of those films it's best to not know too much about when you watch it; keeping up with the twisty-turny plotting is part of the appeal.
A very intriguing independent Sci-fi thriller Canadian film by Vincenzo Natali.It is a story of corporation espionage in a nearby future in which the control of the workers' minds is used to access the enemies' secrets. |
tt0348914 | Deadwood | === Season 1 (2004) ===
The first season takes place six months after the founding of the camp, soon after Custer's Last Stand.
In 1876, Seth Bullock leaves his job as a marshal in Montana to establish a hardware business in the gold-mining camp of Deadwood, along with his friend and business partner, Sol Star. Wild Bill Hickok, the infamous gunslinger of the west, is on a separate journey to Deadwood, accompanied by Charlie Utter and Calamity Jane.
Al Swearengen is the owner of The Gem, a local saloon and brothel. Other notable residents include Dr. Amos Cochran; A. W. Merrick, owner and editor of the local newspaper "The Pioneer"; and E. B. Farnum, proprietor of The Grand Central Hotel. Brom Garret, a wealthy businessman from New York City, lives at The Grand Central Hotel with his wife, Alma, who nurses a secret laudanum habit. Aware that Garret is interested in prospecting, Swearengen and Farnum deceive him into purchasing a gold claim in a confidence game. Newly arrived Cy Tolliver and his entourage purchase an abandoned hotel across from The Gem and begin renovations, then open the Bella Union Saloon, a luxurious gambling house and brothel.
Brom Garret soon learns that his gold claim is worthless and demands Swearengen reimburse his money. Swearengen orders Dan Dority to kill Garret and "make it look like an accident." Dority throws Garret off a cliff, only to discover that the claim is actually a rich one after all. Newly widowed Alma Garret asks Wild Bill Hickok for guidance regarding the gold claim and Swearengen's renewed interest. Hickok asks Bullock to advise Garret; Bullock agrees. Bullock suggests that Garret hire Whitney Ellsworth, a trustworthy and experienced prospector. Alma Garret takes custody of young Sofia Metz, whose family was murdered on the way back to Minnesota.
During a poker game, Wild Bill Hickok is murdered by Jack McCall in Tom Nuttall's #10 Saloon. When McCall is put on trial, Swearengen leans on the acting magistrate, suggesting that McCall must be acquitted to avoid scrutiny from Washington, D.C. The judge cuts the trial short and the jury acquits McCall, who leaves town immediately after the verdict. Bullock pursues McCall, determined to bring him to justice. Bullock and Charlie Utter later find McCall hiding at a boarding house and take him to Yankton for trial.
Smallpox spreads in Deadwood, creating an urgent need for vaccines. The afflicted are segregated from the main camp in plague tents. Calamity Jane aids Doctor Cochran in caring for the sick.
The senior members of the community form a municipal government to prepare for future annexation, as well as to bribe the territorial legislature, thereby ensuring the security of existing titles, claims and properties. Swearengen bribes local magistrate Clagett to quash a murder warrant.
Alma's father Otis Russell arrives with plans to secure Alma's new-found wealth in order to pay off his endless debts and fulfill his own greed. The U.S. army arrives in Deadwood and a parade is organized. Bullock confronts a self-confident Otis Russell in The Bella Union. When Russell threatens the safety of his own daughter should Bullock stand in the way of his acquiring the gold claim, Seth unceremoniously beats him and orders Russell to leave the camp.
The increasingly addled Reverend Smith, dying from an apparent brain tumor, is smothered to death by Al Swearengen in a mercy killing. Tolliver attempts to bribe General Crook to leave a garrison in Deadwood but is indignantly refused. When Magistrate Clagett attempts to extort Swearengen further over the murder warrant, Swearengen responds by enlisting Clagett's "toll collector," Silas Adams, to murder Clagett. Silas performs the deed and allies himself with Swearengen, becoming his agent. As Sheriff Con Stapleton has been compromised by Cy Tolliver, Bullock volunteers to become the new sheriff as the cavalry rides out of town.
=== Season 2 (2005) ===
Season two begins in 1877, seven months after the events of season 1, and the camp has become somewhat more orderly and civilized.
When Swearengen publicly disparages Bullock's abilities as sheriff, intimating that Bullock's focus is not on his job due to his affair with Alma Garret, Bullock removes his gun and badge and Swearengen and Bullock fight, accidentally falling over the Gem balcony. Al is about to slit Bullock's throat in the muddy street, but stops after looking up to see Bullock's wife Martha and her son William arriving in camp. Bullock tells Alma they must either leave camp or stop seeing one another. Garret agrees that it is better to end the relationship and remain in town. Calamity Jane resurfaces and manages to support Bullock and Utter in persuading Swearengen to return Bullock's gun and badge. A truce is made. Garret discovers she is pregnant by Bullock and confides in Trixie, who persuades Ellsworth to make a marriage proposal to Garret and influences Garret to accept the proposal in order to save her the humiliation of unwed motherhood.
Swearengen collapses in his office with the door locked. His concerned associates assume that he wants to be left alone, but as the day passes their alarm grows and they finally break into the office. Dr. Cochran diagnoses Al with kidney stones and performs a draining procedure. Swearengen eventually passes the stones, but has a small stroke in the process.
Joanie Stubbs opens her own brothel, The Chez Amis, with her newly arrived partner Maddie. Francis Wolcott, a geologist working for George Hearst, arrives in Deadwood and soon makes his presence felt at the Chez Amis. Wolcott has paid for transportation of most of the prostitutes, in order to cater to his selective tastes. Cy Tolliver learns of Wolcott's sexual proclivities and baits him, resulting in Wolcott murdering Carrie and Doris, two of Joanie Stubb's prostitutes. When Maddie attempts to extort money from Wolcott, he kills her too. Cy Tolliver has the bodies removed and pardons Wolcott. Joanie sends the remaining girls away so that they will be safe from Wolcott. Joanie confides in Charlie Utter regarding the murders, extracting a promise that he never repeat the information.
Alma fires Miss Isringhausen, Sophia's tutor. Isringhausen turns to Silas Adams under the pretext of fear for her life at the hands of the Widow Garret, and they embark upon a relationship. Isringhausen convinces Adams to allow her to meet with Swearengen. At the meeting, she admits to being an agent of the Pinkertons under the employ of Brom Garret's family, who instructed Isringhausen to frame Alma for soliciting Swearengen to murder her husband. Swearengen agrees to play along, but later reveals to Garret that he intends to blackmail Isringhausen due to his hatred for the Pinkerton agency.
Samuel Fields, "The Nigger General", returns to camp. He tries to enlist Hostetler in his schemes. Bullock is forced to rescue him from an angry mob headed by Steve, a virulently racist drunk. Later, Hostetler catches a drunken Steve in the livery stable masturbating on Bullock's horse in revenge. Fields and Hostetler manage to coerce Steve into signing a written confession of bestiality. The admission will be publicized should Steve make any trouble for either of the livery workers in the future.
Hugo Jarry, a Yankton commissioner, tries to persuade Swearengen and Tolliver that Deadwood should become part of Dakota territory rather than Montana. He ends up siding with Swearengen.
Alma Garret enlists the help of Sol Star to establish a bank in the camp.
Wolcott's agent, Lee, burns the bodies of Chinese prostitutes who have died from malnourishment whilst in his remit. Mr. Wu is enraged and requests Swearengen's help to stop Lee. Because Lee is employed by Wolcott, who is in turn employed by George Hearst, Swearengen refuses any help until after negotiations over the town's future have been resolved. Mr. Wu escapes house arrest at The Gem, but is stopped by Johnny Burns just in time from exacting his revenge or being killed.
William Bullock is trampled by a horse that escapes during a failed gelding. The boy dies several hours after. His funeral is attended by many of Deadwood's citizens and the service is conducted by former card sharp Andy Cramed, who has returned to Deadwood an ordained minister.
George Hearst arrives in Deadwood and when he learns of the murders committed by Wolcott, confronts and fires him. Hearst purchases the Grand Central hotel from E. B. Farnum. The shamed Wolcott hangs himself. Tolliver claims to be in possession of a letter of confession in which Wolcott states that Hearst was aware of his murderous ways, yet continued his employment. Tolliver blackmails Hearst for 5% of every Gold Claim he has acquired in Deadwood.
Al Swearengen negotiates with George Hearst on behalf of Mr. Wu, and they agree that Wu can regain his status if his people prove to be better workers than those of the "San Francisco cocksucker" Lee. Mr. Wu and Swearengen's henchmen plan vengeance in Deadwood's Chinatown. The operation is successful and Wu slits the throat of his rival.
Alma Garret and Ellsworth marry at a ceremony conducted by Andy Cramed at the Grand Central hotel. After much dealing and double-dealing on the part of Swearengen and Silas Adams, the official papers confirming Deadwood's annexation into Yankton territory are signed by Bullock and Swearengen with Hugo Jarry present. Andy Cramed stabs Tolliver outside the Bella Union.
=== Season 3 (2006) ===
Season three begins six weeks after the events of season 2, government and law, as well as the interests of powerful commercial entities, begin to enter the town as Deadwood prepares itself for entry into Dakota Territory.
Hearst has several of his own Cornish miners murdered when they attempt to unionize. Elections are announced: Star and Farnum run for Mayor, while Bullock and barman Harry Manning compete for Sheriff. Angered that Hearst had someone killed in the Gem, Al cancels the election debates in an attempt to reassert his position in the camp. To teach Al a lesson and force him to help Hearst buy Alma's claim, Hearst has his lead henchman Captain Turner restrain Al, then chops off one of his fingers.
Over Ellsworth's strong objections, Alma meets with Hearst to discuss buying her claim. Hearst becomes furious when she offers him a merely non-controlling interest and behaves menacingly towards Alma, but then allows her to leave without following through on his implied threat of rape.
Tolliver slowly recovers after being stabbed and gets back on his feet. Hearst knows Cy is lying about having a letter from Wolcott but decides to employ Cy to help deal with the members of the camp. Traveling actor Jack Langrishe arrives in Deadwood with his theatre troupe. He is an old friend of Swearengen's and eventually buys the former Chez Amis from Joannie Stubbs on condition that he build a new school house for the camp's children. Alma has Doc Cochran perform an abortion after her health takes a serious downturn and she and others decide it's best for all concerned.
Hostetler and Samuel "The Nigger General" Fields return to the camp to find that Steve has taken over the livery. Bullock mediates between them, eventually getting Hostetler to agree to sell the Livery to Steve. Steve's ranting, racial slurs and impugning of Hostetler's honor finally drive the latter over the edge and he shoots himself.
Another miner is killed. Already angry from the Hostetler/Steve ordeal, Bullock arrests Hearst, drags him by the ear through the public thoroughfare and puts him in jail overnight.
Alma is once again using dope. Leon confesses to Cy that he is Alma's supplier. Cy relays this news to Hearst but Hearst is still angry from his encounter with Bullock and believes that if Tolliver had told him this useful news beforehand he might not have provoked the sheriff. A furious Tolliver tells Leon to do nothing, but Leon, afraid of being implicated in Alma's murder, has already cut her off. Suspecting that Alma's return to drugs is due to her unhappiness at being married to a man she doesn't love, Ellsworth moves out of their house. They later agree to separate and Alma is able to stop taking the laudanum.
Hearst brings a large force of Pinkertons to the camp and encourages them to stir up trouble. Swearengen holds a meeting to decide what to do about Hearst. The town leaders are unable to decide on any direct action, other than to publish a letter from Bullock to the wife of one of the murdered miners that subtly highlights Hearst's callousness. Hearst has Merrick beaten for publishing it.
Alma is shot at in the street. Swearengen takes her into the Gem and orders Dan to kidnap and restrain Ellsworth. Al guesses, correctly, that Hearst ordered the shooting, in an attempt to provoke then kill Ellsworth when he comes to Alma's aid. Hearst sends his second, the same man that beat Merrick and possibly also shot at Alma, to negotiate with Swearengen; Al kills him after extracting information. The town unites to protect Alma as she returns to work at the bank. Hearst has Ellsworth assassinated in his tent at Alma's mine. Trixie shoots Hearst in revenge for Ellsworth's death but fails to kill him. Fearing for her and Sofia's lives and unwilling to make the camp responsible for her protection, Alma sells her claim to Hearst to avoid further bloodshed.
Bullock receives discouraging news about the county election returns in his race for sheriff against Harry Manning, all the while knowing Hearst may have manipulated the results using Federal soldiers brought in to vote for his handpicked candidate elsewhere in the county.
Hearst demands that the whore who shot him be executed. Swearengen and Wu gather a militia in case a war breaks out. Al murders the prostitute Jen, despite Johnny's objections, in the hope of passing her corpse off as Trixie and placating Hearst. The ruse works and Hearst leaves Deadwood, giving over control of "all his other-than-mining interests" to Tolliver. Tolliver points a gun at Hearst from his balcony and wants to shoot him but instead watches as Bullock sees a smirking Hearst out of the camp. Enraged that Hearst is cutting him off, Tolliver takes his frustrations out on Leon by stabbing him in the femoral artery. Johnny and Al speak briefly of Jen's death, before Al returns to scrubbing her bloodstain. | good versus evil, violence | train | wikipedia | Yet this is not a history lesson; it's an immensely entertaining western-show blessed with some of the best writers and actors working in television and film today – and especially the cast of 'Deadwood' really can't get enough praise: there is not a single performance here that isn't excellent.
His Al Swearengen is one of the most morally complex and fun-to-watch characters I've ever seen (and he misses absolutely no opportunity to show you just what the first five letters in "SWEAR-engen" stand for).
The power-struggles in Deadwood he is involved in – and since he wants to maintain his position at the top of the food-chain he's involved in all of them – are equalled in complexity and entertainment value only by those in top-notch shows like 'Game of Thrones', 'House of Cards' or 'Breaking Bad'.
And the lengths Al is willing to go to achieve his goals secure him a place in the top ten of "all-time great bad-asses".So my verdict: While certainly not for the easily offended or those who prefer a "sanitized version" of the old west, 'Deadwood' offers a fascinating look at a time we mostly know from myths and legends and gives us a chance to revisit those and see them from a different angle.
Watching the cast of Deadwood converse with a combination of old world English laced with profanity straight from the gutter is incredible and feels right for the first time.
People always want to think that they were the first to do something, when things like profanity, substance abuse and prostitution have been around since before man walked erect.Along with the incredible dialog and storytelling, David Milch has introduced possibly the greatest character to ever come to TV or film...Al Swearengen.
Deadwood is brought to life by the good, the bad and the very ugly- with some of the most wonderfully theatrically profane, but ultra-realistic dialogue of any western.
The degradation, ill manners, costumes, dirt, mud and profanities are all present and accounted for.Aside from the "real" characters we know of from Deadwood (Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and even the Sheriff Bullock), we have some of the most unsavoury villains of the time as well.The various stories, historical events and personal issues of the characters interweave with no discernible template or pattern to formalise the show.
The only thing that is certain in the old West is that where the desire for excess, fortune and greed are combined, human nature will see to the rest.Stand out performances are plentiful in this series- but Ian McShane is incredible, a true tour-de-force, a foul-mouthed, back-stabbing bad ass villain- who manages to humanise a repellent character in Al Swearengen.As the series wore on, the writers broadened his character and nature a little more so it was unavoidable but to side with him- even agree with his nastiest ideas.This was not a compromise or sell-out of the principally dark natured and notoriously ill-tempered brothel owner!
However, even Bullocks is prone to questionable actions, as he wrestles with his own conscience to resolve things in a "civil" way, or resort to a pistol-whipping to get the job done.If you have never seen this- look out for repeats or go buy the box sets and enjoy the best Western experience ever made.
I think they did a superlative job so far (first two episodes).It also looks like it's going to be the most accurate version of Bill Hickock's death -- which was far more than just the simple barroom murder usually portrayed -- ever put on film.The number of truly spectacular actors here is simply staggering.
After executing his last legally ordained job as a Montana marshal, Seth Bullock moves to a gold-mining camp known as Deadwood, where he and his partner Sol Star strike a deal with Al Swearengen, on a lot for their hardware store
While suspicions arise that 'road agents' may have been the true perpetrators of the killing of an entire family on the Spearfish road, competition arrives for Swearengen in the form of the Bella Union, a new joint from Chicago operated by Cy Tolliver
Deadwooda town without any laws or courtsis the center of a gold rush and is presided over by Al Swearengen, a saloon owner, and a brothel operator
His showing makes two different things between the coward and the lapse of momentary fear
Let him doubt those he's trusted, this camp will run red with blood
The show centers on Seth Bullock, a young man with a powerful temper who got a lot of Hickok's qualities
But being a man with an active conscience Bullock declines to accept the horrors around him
We are rapidly introduced to most of the other important characters:Wild Bill Hickokan asset to any saloon, and any joint he frequentscomes to look for business opportunity and sits there, losing at poker
He is the fastest gun around
While his respect for Bullock grows, he commissions 'Montana' to do a review of the Garret claim...Cochranthe town doctor who takes heat from Al Swearengen every time one of the whores is poorly sickwas full of opinion and took the most comprehensive view when he treated the bright widow
Now he doesn't feel at such perfect liberty to opine on her husband's case as he did on hers
E.B. FarnumJudas Goat looking fellow, coyote-moving typeis Swearengen's water boy, the innkeeper of a thousand faces staring straight at extinction
Brom Garretthe naïve city investor who had to go all his $20,000 to turn Farnum away and purchase a gold claimpursues his remedies in some other fashion
Sophiathe little survivorcould settle who killed her people, road agents or Sioux
Jewelborn with difficulties and hardships that got no curewants the doctor to brace her leg so her dragging it doesn't drive Swearengen crazy
Charlie Utterwho considers himself an important hand at the freight business plays a man too loyal and honest for his own good
Whitney Ellsworthwho saw something he shouldn't have, a man pushed off from a ridgeseemed very competent and trustworthy
Mr. Wuthe only source of opium in the campfinds a common language with Searengen when an opium theft occurs
Smiththe Reverend who has a distinct, clear set of moralsknows from past experience that it's a solace having friends
Ian McShane is a joy to watch
He gives a first-class performance as Al Swearengen, the oppressive boss who can order the execution of any man in the settlement with just a word
McShane who runs his Gem with the help of his cronies, emits power in every order he gives
While McShane is a marvelous villain who generates a palpable menace, Boothe is maniacally evil as Cy exuding despicable charm
Well dressed Cy is the gentleman on the outside while more cruel as Swearengen in beating, kicking, and killing
Such a performer was found with Timothy Olyphant, very effective as a formal marshal who understands the danger of his own temperament
Seth Bullock stood before Alma Garret as a married man to his brother's widow after he was killed
He took their five-year-old boy as his own son
The 4 show women that are trapped in a man's world are: Molly Parker as Mrs. Garret, the beautiful addict wife who suspects foul play
She inevitably feels she's had some part in what befalls her husband; Kim Dickens as Joanie Stubbs, the very attractive solitary woman who uses to make Cy warm; Paula Malcomson as Trixie, the prostitute who must've done some fancy to keep Al from Killing her
She tries to help Alma with the orphaned child while keeping her master in the dark; Robin Weigert as Calamity Jane, the sewer mouth that follows Hickok around
When she confronts the greasy-haired dangerous man who pulls all the strings, she fell apart, broken and weak
There's something powerful and moving about 'Deadwood'
It's truly a drama of memorable characters, dark and ultra-violent
If you love Westerns, don't miss it!.
Thankfully by the end of the second episode I was hooked as I began to understand the conflict between characters and recognised where the plot strands were heading DEADWOOD is like I said produced by HBO the cable company which allows " adult content " in their shows and to be honest if it was made by a mainstream American TV company I wouldn't have watched the show because we'd be watching one of those dire PG western series something like THE LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE with better cinematography .
The selling point of the show is that it's brutal adult drama set in the wild west and if you enjoyed Roy Rogers , John Wayne and Gary Cooper strutting their stuff in those old monochrome movies it doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy this same as if you enjoyed THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION doesn't mean you'll enjoy OZ .And speaking of HBO's classic prison drama if DEADWOOD resembles anything it resembles OZ the way the characters interact as they try to get one over on each other .
The way Swearengen is written is and played really makes this series stand out though I do confess my favourite plot strand of the first series was the one that revolved around a couple of teenage con artists who met a sticky end at the fists of Cy Tolliver .Despite being compelling DEADWOOD is an acquired taste .
No doubt history students will point out that while Swearengen , Seth Bullock , Sol Star , Calamity Jane etc existed other major characters like Alma Garret and Doc Cochran didn't so many of the plot strands and situations of the show are pure invention on the part of the writers and producers but did anyone market DEADWOOD as being 100% accurate ?
But apart from that DEADWOOD is a very well produced show with very good performances and I look forward to my Dad purchasing the second series on DVD.
Deadwood is a dirt-encrusted, visceral affair that depicts what real life was like in one of the most infamous old western mining camps during the late-19th century, and due to Milch's resplendently detailed writing, the show manages to use the Deadwood camp as a microcosm of the American experience.The show goes from strength to strength, really.
It's the texture of the characters, the setting, the haunting Oscar-worthy cinematography that ultimately keep drawing the viewer in to discover new layers.Most shows, even GREAT shows are good for perhaps one or two viewings of each episode.
It's as if no one has seen a Sergio Leone film or any of the string of revisionist Westerns of the 1970's (Doc; Great Northfield Minnesota Raid; Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.) Deadwood recycles (regurgitates) exactly the self-consciously grungy sensibilities and tones of these films, adding only the ridiculous, over-ripe, promiscuous use of profanity.David Milch, the writer and producer of Deadwood, has previously done fine work on Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blues.
I want to start out by saying that I very much enjoy watching the series "Deadwood." However, I believe that its producer / chief writer, Mr. Milch, wants to leave the impression that it is an authentic, realistic portrayal of a western mining camp in the 1870's --- albeit fictionalized ---, and, based upon my research, I disagree.
(Interviews with Mr. Milch, who swears about as much as his main characters, suggests that he is referencing his own behavior and not the norms of the Old West.)The REAL Deadwood was a fascinating place that existed for a very brief time, before becoming a sort of ghost town tourist attraction.
Birth control was non-existent at the time, and yes, prostitutes did get pregnant.Basically, this is a stupid, badly researched show made largely for the kind of childish audience that thrives on potty mouth stuff like South Park, where genuine humor and cleverness is undone by a constant need to use shock swear words (in that case, coming out of the mouths of cartoon kids).
On the positive side, some excellent performers, including the rightly praised Ian MacShane as Swearingen (based on a real life Deadwood resident, but how lame is it to take a character with such a name and have him "swear" a lot???), the excellent Powers Boothe, and Keith Carradine in one of his very best roles.
Chronicling the Black Hills settlement of Deadwood in the post Civil War era, this HBO series is one of the most ambitious Westerns ever created for television.
One example of David Milch's use of creative license: historians say that Seth Bullock didn't arrive in Deadwood until the day before Wild Bill Hickok was murdered (holding aces and eights) in 1876, where in the series Bullock and Hickok had days or weeks to develop a friendship.You read right, folks: Wild Bill and Calamity Jane Canary aren't the only actual people being portrayed here.
this is what built America?With the networks decision to allow swearing it has opened the gates to more realistic TV shows and Deadwood sets a high standard.Based on real events and real people with a little HBO tinkering for dramatic purposes the show delivers an endless amount of swearing, violence and brutal realism.
There is much to recommend "Deadwood" -- performances, dialogue, sets, cinematography, all contributing to it being one of the best television series of all time.
This is simply the best Television drama I have ever seen.There is not a single character in the whole series that one should like (they are all horrible people in some way or another) and yet I love them all.
Milch's scope is nothing short of breathtaking, coupled with absolutely brilliant writers and the fantastic direction (Walter Hill did a great job with the pilot) this show stands head and shoulders above practically everything else on TV.The real ace up the sleeve for "Deadwood" though lies in it's characters, all of whom are developed to the point where it's seemingly impossible not to care about them despite how you may feel.
Performances are also almost uniformly excellent with special praise having to be given to a select few who really take acting to new extremes.Ian McShane in particular stands out as the charismatic and ruthless "villian" of the piece Al Swearengen, right up there with Tony Soprano as one of the greatest television characters of all time.
He perfectly underplays his second character however and gives an equally terrific performance as the cutthroat Francis Wolcott, with an intimidating presence and an educated outlook (which was an intimidation of it's own back then) he yet again steals most of his scenes.The most important character however is ultimately Deadwood itself, starting as a tiny prospector's camp the small settlement flourishes and grows along with the characters before your very eyes throughout the series as law and order comes to Deadwood, as the characters decrease in power and status, Deadwood rises.One of the best shows to have ever been put on our screens, then the gremlins who supposedly know "good shows" went and cancelled it, they did the same thing with Arrested Development (which ironically also lasted only three seasons with talk of a film soon) guess the idiots in charge decided people wanted to see more Skins and CSI on the tube instead.10/10...Like a great novel..
Of course, there have been other TV shows that have proved me utterly wrong about my own senseless opinions, but none that put a pie in my face as whip-creamy as this one.The characters are fantastic; the actors who portray them are wonderful beyond all reason; the writing is beautiful, eloquent, filthy, and Shakespearean (that's not a metaphor, a few scenes of this show are written in blank verse as I recall); and the story is mind boggling entertaining.
Overall though, Deadwood is in the very least one of the best series to come out in last years and should be seen by anyone interested in quality drama.
Yes film-making not simply television.A morality play set deep within an immoral environment, Deadwood's writing and cinematography is dirty, dark, unflinching and in-your-face yet at the same time poetic, subtle and spiritual.
It is futile to single out a few fine performances here simply because there are so many to be found from top to bottom of the cast list.The old axiom "bad movies are always too long but a great movie is never long enough" is certainly applicable to Deadwood with each episode leaving viewers hungry for more.As difficult as this may seem, HBO has topped the Sopranos and Six Feet Under and that didn't seem possible..
I would say almost all HBO shows are rated R but Deadwood is particularly violent and crass.In particular, characters such as Al and Jane cannot produce a sentence containing less than six cuss words.
After watching all three seasons in a short period of time I stand corrected, this is one of the finest pieces of modern television I have seen.Deadwood is a camp in the South Dakota Dark Hills.
Gold-diggers, prostitutes, outlaws, gamblers, tradesman and the like; they are all looking for their part of the American Dream in Deadwood.There are many colorful (and historical characters) portrayed in the show, first and foremost there is the proprietor of the local saloon / whorehouse Albert Swearengen, played brilliantly by Ian McShane.
Like the commercial used to say, bet you can't watch just one.ADDENDA: after finishing the series the second time I will add this: while the entire cast is nothing short of perfection, I believe that McShane and Rainey give the performances of their career here.
It remains to be seen where Deadwood will end up in my all time list of favorite TV programs, but I've been stunned by the writing and acting of this drama.
Wiki Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, Deadwood, & Al Swearingen...having a little history about these real people set in a mostly fictional story will increase your enjoyment of the series, especially when they toss in a few real facts or occurrences.
If you like westerns at all you must watch all of Deadwood. |
tt0038958 | So Dark the Night | So Dark the Night is the story of a detective, Henri Cassin (Steven Geray) from Paris, who falls in love with an innkeeper's daughter Nanette (Micheline Cheirel) while on a long overdue vacation. She is a country girl with a jealous boyfriend. Nonetheless, the detective becomes engaged to her. Then the girl vanishes the night of her engagement party and later shows up dead. Cassin believes that the obvious suspect is Leon (Paul Marion), the old boyfriend, but soon he is also found killed. Soon after Mama (Ann Codee) receives a warning that she will be the next to die, she is found strangled.
Pierre, fearing for his safety, decides to sell the inn, Henri returns to Paris and comes up with a sketch of the killer based on information provided by the footprint. To Henri's astonishment, the sketch bears the exact likeness of himself, and when he fits his shoe into the footprint, he realizes that he is undoubtedly the killer. After making a full confession to the police commissioner, Henri is evaluated by a psychiatrist, who determines that he is schizophrenic. Though placed under watch of a guard, Henri escapes back to St. Margot, where he tries to strangle Pierre. However, the police commissioner, who has followed Henri to the village, catches the detective in the act and shoots him. | murder | train | wikipedia | Music is by Hugo Friedhofer and cinematography by Burnett Guffey.Henri Cassin (Geray) is a well regarded Parisian detective who while on a much earned vacation falls in love with innkeeper's daughter Nanette Michaud.
However, with Nanette already having a boyfriend, and a tempestuous one at that, true love does not run smooth, especially when murder enters the fray and Cassin has to start investigating the tricky case.It all begins so perky, with jolly music, smiling faces and brightly lighted compositions, so much so I had actually thought I had loaded the wrong film to watch!
Once Henri Cassin arrives at Le Cheval Noir (The Black Horse) in the rural town of St. Margot, however, the whole tone of the film shifts into darker territory.
Enter hunchbacked man, jealous guy, love sick chamber maid, weak parents et al...Joseph Lewis (My Name Is Julia Ross - Gun Crazy - The Big Combo) does a top job in recreating a French town with what no doubt was a small budget, yet his greatest strengths here are his visual ticks, in how he manages to fill the picture with the requisite psychological discord that craftily haunts the edges of the frames until they be ready for maximum impact.
In partnership with ace photographer Guffey, Lewis brings tilted angles and black shadowy shadings to this French hot- bed of lust and character disintegration.
Also note scenes involving a rocking chair, a dripping tap and a deft window splice sequence that signifies that the psychological walls are tumbling down.Something of a rare picture given that who the director is, this definitely is of interest to the film noir loving crowd.
The famous French detective Henri Cassin takes his first vacation in 11 years in St. Margot where he meets Nanette, the daughter of the vacation spot proprietors.
Despite Nanette being promised to childhood sweetheart Leon, Henri and Nanette fall in love and decide to marry, despite Nanette's father objecting due to Henri's age.
The only clue Henri has to work with is a footprint found by Leon, but he is also getting written warnings that others will die soon.
Soon Nanette's mother is found dead and Henri has no idea as to the identity of the killer.
Credit to that certainly goes to director Lewis who does manage to turn this into a noirish film despite the setting of the film, also aided by the use of good camera-work and lighting.
Geray turns in a very good performance in probably his only lead and the rest of the cast is able to carry their performance.
lewis was a great director who could do wonderful films with little money.
So Dark is the Night is an almost noir entry about a French detective on vacation in a little town near Paris who investigates some murders which he was somehow involved.
A short and objective cheap movie that does not hide the director's talent and gives Steve Geray a great role.
Famed middle-aged Parisian detective Henri Cassin (Steven Geray) takes his first vacation in eleven years.
While Henri is relaxing at a small village inn known as The Black Horse (Le Cheval Noir), he meets the innkeepers' daughter, Nanette (Micheline Cheirel), who is thrilled to make the acquaintance of such a famous person.
Before long Henri and Nanette fall in love.
A complication is that Nanette is supposed to be betrothed to a local farmer, Leon, a jealous man (Paul Marion).
Although the culprit's name is not provided in this review, note that the suspect list is rather short and the psychological ending is a little surprising.
STEVEN GERAY never got to play the leads in most of his films at Columbia, but he gets his chance here as a detective badly in need of a vacation in the French countryside.
As in all such stories, he has no time to relax because he's soon involved in a double murder.The trouble with the film, for the most part directed stylishly by Joseph H.
Lewis, is that it takes too long to become absorbed in the plot involving a double murder.
And then, as the detective begins to study the case, the plot takes a twist in another direction entirely.It's a minor entry in the films that were taking on more psychological tones in the early '40s, but I can't say there's anything memorable about the characters or the script.
"So Dark the Night" is a frustrating film to watch.
None of the stars of the film have household names, though if you adore old films, you will at least recognize the face of the leading man, Steven Geray.
The other star of the film is the director--Joseph H.
However, soon there are a pair of murders--and the detective's vacation is brought to an end.
What did NOT impress me was the weird psychological twist at the end of the film--it seemed a bit silly and just didn't work for me.
A French cast is featured in "So Dark the Night," a 1946 B noir directed by Joseph Lewis.
Steven Geray is Henri Cassin, a burnt-out detective who goes on holiday.
He falls in love with Nanette Michaud (Micheline Cheirel), who kind of plays both ends against the middle.
One day, they both end up dead - and there's more tragedy to come.I would have loved to see this plot directed by someone like Hitchcock, who could build the suspense.
Only 29 at the time of filming, Micheline Cheirel comes off as a bit too mature for some reason.
Geray is very good and underplays his role."So Dark the Night" plays about an 1:15 minutes.
Lewis' better known titles in the noir cycle Gun Crazy, The Big Combo, even My Name Is Julia Ross, which in its brevity it resembles as an odd choice.For starters, the bucolic French countryside serves as its setting.
Steven Geray, a middle-aged detective with the Surété in Paris, sets out for a vacation in the village of Ste. Margot (or maybe Margaux).
Quite unexpectedly, he finds himself falling in love with the inkeepers' daughter (Micheline Cheirel), even though she's betrothed to a rough-hewn local farmer.
For the first time in his career, the bereaved Geray finds himself stumped....A particularly weak script all but does the movie in; it plays like bad Cornell Woolrich crossed with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
Burnett Guffey lighted and photographed the film, with an intriguing leitmotif of peering out of and peeping into windows; there's also an effective score by Hugo Friedhofer, who supplied aural menace to many noirs.
Cassin is not exactly charismatic or intense enough for you to believe his role in that twist (or is it wrench?) of an ending and the supporting cast is as two dimensional as the "French countryside" backdrop.
The only thing of interest is how Lewis attempts, somewhat perversely, to employ noir conventions and build suspense in a sun-dappled bucolic landscape.
Detective finds love and murder in countryside.
It is here that the two-dimensional characters actually work for the film; is it the jealous widower, the protective father or the ambitious mother?
In this case I think it is the combination, particularly the direction by Joseph Lewis.
A Paris detective encounters mysterious murders while on vacation in the French countryside.Some day when I have absolutely nothing to do I'm going to count the number of window shots in this film.
The movie itself has a rather sumptuous look for a cheap second feature, a credit to the art department and director Lewis' visual imagination, I suppose.
Anyway, it's an interesting little noir with an ironical ending, even if it doesn't reach the suspenseful heights of My Name Is Julia Ross, Lewis' previous movie.I wasn't sure where So Dark was going since it begins in rather leisurely fashion.
Steven Geray made a notable career as a waiter or maitre'd in upscale night spots, but as a detective, his presence is a little thin.
Also, I agree with the reviewer who thinks Cheirel a shade too old for the ingénue role.Anyway, Lewis' visual talent is on vivid display, making this a very watchable 70 minutes, even though I'm canceling my next visit to the French countryside..
I just discovered "So Dark the Night" in the recently released "Film Noir Classics 4" set from Turner Classic Movies.
Although it is presented as a border line "noir" it is really a complex little murder mystery with a few surprises thrown in.
Filmed on a modest budget on studio bound sets in good old Black and White, it runs a scant 71 minutes.Director Joseph H.
Lewis has assembled a cast of largely unknown actors which adds to the mystery elements of the film.
Steven Geary plays Parisian detective Henri Cassin who is burned out and ordered to take a vacation by his boss Commissioner Grande (Gregory Gaye).
Cassin goes to a country inn and there meets the proprietor's young daughter Nannette Michaud (Micheline Chierel)whereupon a May-December romance begins.
Nanette hopes to escape her small village to the lights and glamour of Paris.The girl's father Pierre Michaud opposes the relationship because Nanette is already betrothed to local farmer Antoine (Frank Arnold) and he feels that the age difference between Cassin and Nanette is too great.
Mama Michaud (Ann Codee) is pushing Nanette into the relationship to help her to a better life.Nanette and her fiancé are found murdered causing Cssin's vacation to be cut short.
The suspects include Nanette's parents, a sinister looking widow (Helen Freeman) and a hunchback (Brother Theodore)Cassin's resolution of the murders comes after he gives a description of the murderer from the clues he has gathered to the police artist back in Paris.
The murderer then turns out to be................................................................A good movie..
French detective, Henri Cassin(Steven Geray) finally gets a vacation after eleven years, heads out into the countryside for some much deserved rest and relaxation.
His reputation known outside of Paris, even in a small village it seems Cassin can not escape murder and investigation.This little movie was a nice surprise because I'm not familiar with the director, Joseph H Lewis, but his camera is quite arresting and fluid.
The ensemble cast is spirited, with a delightful lead performance from Geray as the chipper, celebrated detective, a bachelor with eyes for Nanette(Micheline Cheirel) , whose parents run the inn for which he's staying in the village.
Nanette is engaged, though, to a handsome, young farmer, Leon(Paul Marion), while dreaming of a life in Paris, away from the mundane life of the country.
Monsieur Cassin is in love for the first time, life as a detective has aged him and so this moment is quite rewarding for someone so associated with crime and murder, during an entire career.I particularly love how Geray gazes lovingly at Micheline Cheirel when she appears, his face emanates.
But, this feeling of sudden joy is only temporary as Nanette's body is found in a nearby river, having run after Leon who didn't respond well to the news that, while he was gone, she had agreed to marry Cassin.
When Leon is found in his barn strangled like Nanette(bottle of acid in his hand to supposedly assume he had took his own life after strangling Nanette), Monsieur Cassin's sleuthing turns up a double homicide, a footprint implicating someone.
No motive befuddles the detective and when the next target turns up being Nanette's mother, he becomes consumed with solving this puzzling case.
Consider me a Joseph H Lewis fan..why is it always these guys who are used by studios to churn out little movies to accompany supposedly great ones that wind up standing the test of time?.
It's audacious -- the action goes from inside the bank to the getaway car with no cut and then Lewis let his actors improv all of their dialogue.But we're here today to speak of So Dark the Night.Inspector Henri Cassin (Steven Geray, who was in tons of films in supporting roles, but fans of this site may know him as Dr. Frankenstein in Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter) has left Paris for a vacation he's waiting a long time for.
He's a renowned expert who has solved all manner of the world's toughest cases, but he finally deserves some rest.At a small country inn, he falls for the innkeeper's daughter Nanette.
Everyone informs him that he's too old, but his romantic heart beats for the possibility of a new life.On the night of their engagement party, her ex-boyfriend Leon informs Cassin that he may have her now, but she will always think of her younger lover and eventually, he will have her.
Nanette vanishes from her party with Leon as the main suspect, but he's soon found dead.Nanette's mother is warned that she will be next to die and sure enough, she's soon strangled.
He comes up with a sketch of the killer and more information by studying the footprint found near Leon's body.
Arrow Academy is releasing two films by director Joseph H.
Lewis with MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS and this film, SO DARK THE NIGHT.
But of the two this one twists things more than the other.French detective Henri Cassin (Steven Geray) is taking a long overdue vacation from the police force.
Once he arrives he meets their daughter Nannette (Micheline Cheirel) and is immediately smitten by her.For Mama this is a good thing as she wants her daughter to find someone who will take her away from this small village life.
The most obvious suspect is Leon but when he turns up murdered as well the discovery of the killer becomes more complicated.
Then Mama receives a note telling her she is next and she is found strangled.Unable to find out who the killer is Cassin returns to Paris, pondering what it was that he missed that would have provided him with the clues he needed to solve these murders.
It is only then that he realizes who the killer was.The movie is a gem with subtle performances played out by actors who were often used in bit and side character parts but rarely in lead roles.
But it is the story that makes this movie worth watching.Any good mystery provides enough clues that the viewer can help determine the villain while those attempting to solve the puzzle onscreen do so.
But my guess is you won't be able to figure it out until near the end of the film.As with MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS director Lewis shows once more his distinct ability to tell a story effectively was amazing and overlooked by those in charge at the studios.
When a life-long bachelor police investigator from Paris takes a much needed vacation to the country, he finds more than he bargained for when a much younger pretty local maiden, excited by his glamorous city life, takes an interest in him.
This leads to the farmer becoming violently jealous, threatening both of them and resulting in murder, but not of who the audience suspects it will be.Steven Geray, a gentle European character actor, is perfectly cast as the seemingly mild mannered investigator who doesn't plan on falling in love but is obviously too lonely not to respond to the attentions of the pretty Micheline Cheirel.
It's obvious that Cheirel is not in love with Geray but definitely infatuated with him, and her sexual desires towards Marion make it clear that a marriage with Geray would be doomed.The build-up to the murders makes the audience believe that somebody else is going to get knocked off first, not the actual initial victim.
***SPOILERS*** Burnt out famous Paris police inspector Henri Cassin, Steven Geray, decides to take a trip out to the country to chill out and get his head back together.
That's after solving a string of unsolvable crimes that almost put him in the hospital suffering from exhaustion.At the small town of Saint Margot Henri stays at the Le Cheval Noir Inn where he plans to catch up with his long needed sleep and spend his free time out fishing at the local river.
It's when the inns owner Pierre Michaud's, Edger Borden, daughter Nanette, Micheline Cheirel, laid her eyes on Henri, who's exploits as a crime solver preceded him, she went completely gaga over the meek middle aged police inspector.
In fact it was Mama Michaud, Ann Codee, who tried to get Nanette and Henri matched up against the objections of her husband Pierre who thought that he, being some 20 years Nannete's senior, was a bit too old for her.Things got a little sticky when Nanette's boyfriend, who was also engaged to her, Leon Achard, Paul Marion, got wind of her attraction to Henri and didn't like it one damn bit!
Telling Nanette that he's not going to stand for her to leave him for Henri and that he'll kill her if she did didn't makes thing any better for Henri who was not really that interested, in him being a life long bachelor, in marrying her in the first place.
It's later when Nanette was found dead and dumped off a bridge into the river that Leon became the prime suspect in her murder!
It's almost by accident that Henri uncovers the person who murdered both Nanette and Leon in a plaster cast he made at one of, Leon's, the murder scenes.
But the person that Henri came up with is so unconnected to Leon and Nanette's murder that his boss back at the Paris Police Department thinks that Henri has finally lost it and even goes so far as recommending that he spend some time in a sanitarium for a long needed rest.Little did anyone know at the time that Henri, crazy as he was, was right on target in whom he suspected in Leon and Nanette's murders!
And by him bringing the murderer to justice Henri could finally get the much needed rest that he so badly needed. |
tt1244093 | Hisss | The story begins in Natchi, a small town in Kerala, India. American George States (Jeff Doucette) is suffering from the last stage of brain cancer and has only six months to live. To prevent death and gain immortality, he decides to extract the 'Nagmani' from a nagin, a shape-shifting snake that can morph into a human. He captures the nag (the male snake) so that the nagin (the female) comes after the capturer to free her lover, thus allowing him to obtain the nagmani by force. He keeps the nag in a glass box where he electrocutes and tortures him. His plan works and the nagin starts following him.
The nagin transforms into a beautiful woman (Mallika Sherawat), and is later helped by a police inspector (Irrfan Khan) and his wife (Divya Dutta), who is infertile, causing a strain in their relationship. The nagin helps a few women who are helpless: One who is beaten mercilessly by her husband; one being raped by a man, and so on. She brutally murders those men who were involved in the capture of her mate as well as men who torture women. The police inspector who is trying to help her find her mate investigates the murders. Finally, she reaches George's hideout where she reclaims her mate and they have sex, leading to the nagin becoming pregnant. George attempts to capture the nagin during intercourse since this is when she will be at her most vulnerable.
Wearing a suit that hides his heat signature, he lures her by using her dying mate as bait to a trap. He captures her and tries taking the nagmani but at that moment, the police inspector arrives and helps her. Angered by the death of her mate by the hands of George, she transforms into a half snake, half human creature and throws him in the glass box where her mate was kept and electrocutes him. The police inspector and his wife later welcome their new baby into the world. The nagin, back in the form of a beautiful woman, also gives birth to her new snake babies. | revenge | train | wikipedia | The film has got nothing but Mallika shows her amazing daring guts to do this..
But the name remains the only foreign touch in an otherwise totally Indian movie, which is more like a B class Bollywood film packaged and promoted well.Secondly, yes the film is based on a HIT and interesting topic of an Ichhadhari Nagin but the overall result on the screen is not even close to what we have already seen in Reena Roy's NAGIN (1976) and Sridevi's NAGINA (1986) or even in its not so successful sequel NIGAHEN (1989).
The film is just a collage of various graphical scenes without any good story build up or enjoyable musical soundtrack.
Moreover the erratic background score further reduces the impact of its engrossing theme to the least.Thirdly, if you are expecting a great computer graphics show in the movie displaying a human body's transformation into and out of a snake, then you are going to get disappointed in that section of the film too.
The graphics used in HISSS are not bad but at the same time they also don't offer anything great or exceptional to enjoy.
In fact watching ANACONDA once again would be a far better choice to opt, if you are really interested in watching the big snake movements in front of you.In the acting arena, I was simply stunned to see two highly talented actors Irrfan Khan and Divya Dutta agreeing to do such strange kind of roles where they simply have nothing to do except showing their known faces on the screen.
Especially, Why Irrfan opted for such kind of LOW in his otherwise famous career is simply beyond any logical explanation.So after pulling down the movie in almost all its departments
what can be a possible merit of watching HISSS?
That's the pleasure of watching the Sky-High Confidence of the girl called Mallika Sherawat.
And further her amazingly daring GUTS to opt for all those nude body scenes and love-making scene with the snake is undoubtedly applaudable.Truly speaking, even when the movie was completely a wash out for me in all aspects, still the girl managed to keep me hooked somehow with her unbelievable kind of confidence and a passionate performance.
So if you are really interested in watching Mallika in the most daring act of her entire career then HISSS may work for you.
Otherwise it would be better to watch the movie only after its DVD release.Rating : 1.5 / 5 (0.5 more only for the confidence level of Mallika)..
Snake Mallika's Hot Hissses Saves Her Love, but Kills the Box-Office!.
I hope all that pre-release publicity and marketing of Hisss by hottie Mallika 'Serpent" Sherawat did some good for the movie monetarily because simply said, the movie is just average, either in performances, direction or visual effects.I feel sorry for Irrfan Khan and Divya Dutta.
Even foreign actor Jeff Doucette, although appropriately sick & greedy as per his character, could not do much to save this movie.Nothing special about Mallika Sherawat too except that she flaunts off her toned, lithe body and some cool snake eyes!
The movie seems a joke coming from a director who has made Boxing Helena, this movie is even lower then the standards of combing Hollywood and Bollywood B-grade movies.
Just the name of Hollywood and the director is the daughter of David Lynch, If one doesn't expect master piece at least a decent effort, which it not even disappoints in every aspect of film making but make you puck.
Its seems the director was asleep while making this crap which has awful special effects, no story, no acting and not even a single plus point that goes in its favor to be mentioned.Irfan Khan is totally wasted and why the hell did he agree to work in this joke of a movie, Mallika has no dialogs only partial nudity in dozens.
The snake seems like a puppet and the rest I have no words to explain what a awful and crappy movie this is, avoid it no matter what or else regret it your whole life..
What do the Academy know, anyway?Whereas Danny Boyle's 2008 crowd-pleaser simply manipulated it's audiences' emotions whilst providing a fairly intriguing mystery, Jennifer Lynch's Hisss gives the more discerning viewer a far richer experience in my humble opinion: there's the Nagin (Mallika Sherawat), a sexy snake goddess with a great rack and an even more impressive set of fangs; an impromptu Bollywood dance routine (is there really any other kind?) that takes place during an Indian paint festival; an ugly, fat, obnoxious woman who continues to pester her son-in-law about grand-children even after death; a would-be rapist in a Pamela Anderson T-shirt swallowed whole and regurgitated as a pellet; gratuitous naked lamp-post climbing; gratuitous skinny dipping; a bad guy with brain cancer and a very itchy trigger finger; lots and lots of impressive practical effects from top MUFX maestro Robert Kurtzman, and some equally bad CGI; a raunchy sex scene between the film's smoking hot star and a rubber snake (complete with reptilian french kissing); and stunning cinematography that not only brilliantly captures the sights, sounds and squalor of India's slums but also the awesome curves of Sherawat's magnificent butt.As far as I'm concerned, THAT is entertainment worthy of an award!.
Hisss is slightly different Bollywood movie with a Hollywood taste.
It differs from Naagin,Nagine series as movie is based on facts and realistic approach.
After watching the movie, your head will be totally blank as in..
it is difficult to comment whether movie is good or bad.
You will be impressed with Mallika's body(may be the best in Bollywood), even though I believe movie don't portray nudity.
In short, Positives: light humor, music, concept, special effects, Mallika's body specially street light scene, scary scenes, acting(both Mallika and Irfan) and very important one: you will not feel bored.Negative: Very simple script, again exposing poverty in India, poor acting of supporting staff, broken screenplay, low budget impacts.If we give smooth flow to all the scenes then it will be far better..
This movie has nothing worth spending 1 hours and 30 minutes on, in fact it got unbearable after 30 minutes.
The plot is poor and is taken from old Naagin movie which is way better than this.
It seems film makers assumed Mallika Sherawat is so sexy that if present her half naked whole of the movie the public will lure into watching it.
Its overstretched the movie story gets finished in 30 minutes and rest 1 hour in between are just fillers.
If you are a Mallika Sheawat fan and have one and a half hours to waste watch it, there is nothing else in the movie expect her which is worth watching..
This movie was the worst piece of garbage I have seen in quite a while.
I don't think there was anything in this movie at all that was worth watching.
There were a few good effects early on that I actually enjoyed but the movie quickly becomes incredibly boring.
Id avoid this one and watch Clash of the Titans(81) for a more enjoyable snake woman.
Not really a Bollywood fan, but I watched it because of special makeup effects legend Robert Kurtzman, who designed the looks of the snake woman and also the director of this film is Jennifer Chambers Lynch.
Really loved the look of Nagin, the transformation sequences and some brutal death scenes which you don't usually see in an Indian film.
Mallika Sherawat gave a great performance and I gotta say that she can really slither.
from the start the movie opens up fairly solid, the initial transformation into human form was actually good.
is this worth multiple viewings, no, but its not so bad to give a good viewing once.our main character does a pretty superb job at portraying a snake in human form.
HISSS – TRASH IT ( D ) It won't be wrong to say that "Hisss" is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
The story about Nagin (Female snake) turning into a Human after 100hundred years is a popular myth in India.
Their have been lots of movies and TV shows about this story which were pretty successful.
I am huge Mallika Sherawat' fan so, because of Her nakedness I am giving it a (D) rating.
In my final words all I can say that "Mallika Sherawat's Nakedness can't save this Garbish.
Hisss is not at all a great movie, but it is not the worst one too!!
There have been more worse films than Hisss, In fact, it is a watchable one, in my opinion.
But, all other common people speak Hindi only.Mallika Sherawat did her role well, her snake-teeth is not looking much original, though!!
this is just another example where Indian movies try to copy Hollywood aspects into their movies, and result in total mismatches and failures...
can't they use their own brains and do some creativity without a Western influence yet..?this is just another example where Indian movies try to copy Hollywood aspects into their movies, and result in total mismatches and failures...
can't they use their own brains and do some creativity without a Western influence yet..?this is just another example where Indian movies try to copy Hollywood aspects into their movies, and result in total mismatches and failures...
Irfan Khan was the only reason i gave this movie 1 out of 10.
This movie is senseless and has no point, it is a movie which is nothing but good for brainwashing and confusing peoples' minds.
The plot has to do with a Hindu snake god coming to life in the form of a beautiful Indian woman (Mallika Sherawat) and preying upon the dastardly inhabitants of the slum city.
A detective tries to solve the case (Irrfan Khan).As noted in my title blurb, this is a gruesome movie but it's not really scary, at least not to me.
There are some other flashes of genius.Of course Mallika Sherawat is a gorgeous woman, Indian or otherwise, and she's featured in numerous stages of dress or undress, but it's Maya Gupta, as the detective's wife, whose beauty truly shines here, and she's fully clothed at all times (what's that tell ya?).The film was shot in various areas of India (West coast, East coast, South-Central, etc.) and is a visual feast of India in all its glory or disgrace.
Plus the detective's stepmother is really annoying (but maybe that's the point).The film runs 98 minutes.GRADE: B-.
Snake goddess takes on a human form to save its mate from a dying westerner who believes her essence will cure his disease.
She roams around the city looking for her mate, causing mayhem on the way.The movie is beautifully shot with cultural clues very different from that of west.
There are some erotic scenes that involves semi nudity along the way.There's kind of a ruthlessness in the scenes when the snake goddess makes her attack.
It seems more violent than western movie's violence that's mostly based on gun shooting.It's an interesting movie to watch, and also enjoy the atmosphere of India at the same time..
The movie tries hard--but falls flat on its face, right into a pile of rotten guts, like one particularly sick and unnecessary scene in the movie.The premise is familiar, dated and even banal--a man (a desperate Jeff Doucette) suffering from a life-threatening disease and having only 6 months to live decides to find the 'nagmani' and gain immortality.So he 'kidnaps' a cobra while it is engaged in an act of procreation and locks it up in a glass box, torturing it constantly by electrocution.
Somehow the cobra would communicate with the nagin telepathically and bring her to it, thus allowing the man to force her to give up the nagmani for her lover snake's life.
Mallika Sherawat plays the nagin, and I have the impression that the movie was made solely considering the fact that a shape-shifting Nagin would allow ample opportunities for the director to show Mallika with little or no clothes-and the whole film seems to be made to cater to this premise.
The fact that Mallika has not a single line of dialog just confirms this view.The remaining cast of characters is wasted--Irrfan Khan though manages to be respectable in his role as a police officer-very understated and elegant.
A good actor who took up this role needlessly.The story follows a linear path--and the dialog is so straightforward its laughable at times.
A case in point would be the goons hired by Jeff Doucette at his hideout-it seems the director knew the audience would wonder why the goons would decide to stay even after knowing of the impending danger and Doucette's maniacal ways--so they engage in a dialog justifying their decision--'we are doing it for the money.
anything for money.' Its a very lame way to rationalize the story, and its very obvious.The movie has nothing to offer, so it relies on shocking and disgusting the audience.
It wouldn't have been a problem if these scenes had added to the story, but they do not and seem pointless.The movie has a few elements which should have been clarified-like the fact that whenever the Nagin shape-shifts or is reborn to a woman form, any woman who is pregnant has a miscarriage.
The director has tried to weave this into the story, but it is not easily inferred, and adds to the confusion.The special effects are bad and seem cheap.
The snakes look fake, the transformation scenes look fake.
All in all, the movie has only one USP--an almost fully nude Mallika Sherawat..
India has been portrayed like a land of snake charmers and poverty stricken land, some scenes make you feel sick, (a bunch of girls walked out of cinema after first 30 minutes!).
You'll Enjoy It. I've recently, as in only a few hours ago per this writing, viewed this film, and honestly, the terrible reviews I've read here on IMDb are simply unacceptable.So unacceptable, that for the first time, I'm writing a review of a film, here.The entire film, though not a stunningly "Hollywood" style explosion of special effects, has some that do it's budget credit.
Those two women are beautiful together, I'd believe they are, in fact, blood relatives who do care for each other.Enjoy the film, the characters and make your own decision..
Firstly, I understand the director, Jennifer Lynch, left the project due to creative differences about the finished product.
From what I've read she envisioned a sort of love story while the rest of the crew wanted a horror film.I'm not entirely sure either would have worked.
He has cancer of the brain, which according to some makes him a bit crazy, therefore he wants to capture the snake goddess and force her to make him immortal so he won't die of cancer.
Now...opening scene, Mr. Stereotypical American along with some "misguided" Indians find the snake goddess and her male counterpart procreating.
Instead of snatching the snake goddess...they snatch the male and run away after Mr. Stereotypical American taunts the deity and continues to do so throughout the film so he can....capture her.Aside from that my other problem with the film is that it doesn't give me a reason to really care.
Maybe if they gave her some dialog to show she actually could think beyond primal instincts and the occasional erotic transformation or what I'll just call a nature scene....I would've cared more.I can't really say much for the acting as I'm not too familiar with the cast.
Of course this is a foreign movie, and it's expected to have a negative outlook on an American.
While some of this is true, I think it would've been easily successful to have a secularized Indian business man as the culprit just as well.Overall the movie fails.
There was a Thai movie about a female tiger woman, name slips my mind now, that executed far better than this..
This film is from India, and a few annoying production points.
There seems to be no reason for this at all.The plot is that an Rich American named "George States" is dying of brain cancer and has hired a bunch of Indian thugs to help him capture the mate of the Snake Goddess so he can force her into giving him immortality.
The snake Goddess takes on human form, and then proceeds to have a bunch of misadventures killing would-be rapists.Meanwhile, we have the hero of the film, a police detective investigating strange crimes where would-be rapists are half-digested by snakes.Frankly, they are trying to milk ten minutes of story out for 140 minutes of movie.
The only plot relevant points are at the beginning of the film when the Snake Goddesses mate is captured, and the conflict at the end.
The rest is probably unnecessary.This movie is worth it for the hot actress who plays the snake babe, and nearly gets naked every other scene, with strategically placed whatevers over the naughty bits..
At first let me confirm one thing that every movie in bollywood directed by an outside (hollywood) director can't be Slumdog Millionaire, saying this i didn't had any expectations before i watched this movie but the idea was a bit fantasizing.
I mean a snake taking human form and producing some kinda "mani" (precious stone) which will make you immortal has been a very old storyline for lot of bollywood movies, from Jitendra to Sridevi.
I don't even know how to describe this movie, only good thing i see about the movie is Mallika's nudity, I'm sure they might have used a body double, but still it was good.
The rest you can count as bad or may be worst, poor special effects, bad locations, seems like a B-grade movie, and acting tops all these.
If you are bored at home and like to laugh watching low budget failed films with friends, this is your movie, rest i suggest stay away from it. |
tt1618450 | Winx Club 3D: Magical Adventure | During a party at Alfea, the Trix crash it and take the Compass of Revealed Secrets for the Ancestral Witches. Despite the Winx's efforts, Icy, Stormy and Darcy escape with the compass. Meanwhile, on Domino, Sky proposes to Bloom, but a secret between King Erendor and the destruction of Domino forces Sky to call off the wedding. The rest of the Winx visit Bloom, who is struggling to get over it. The Trix report to the Ancestral Witches on the successful theft. The Trix head to the Tree of Life in Pixie Village to destroy all the good magical energy. On Domino, King Oritel puts Bloom to a showcase of princes to see who she will marry. Sky sneaks in and meets Bloom, saying that he will fix everything. He is soon discovered by an angry King Oritel. He gives Bloom a letter before being forced to leave. Bloom protests what is written on the letter. She is overruled by her father. An angry Bloom transports to Gardenia with the Winx. The Trix arrive at Pixie Village and take over the Tree of Life. This eliminates all good powers, along with the Winx's Believix. Powerless in Gardenia, the Winx turn to Bloom's adoptive parents Mike and Vanessa for shelter. They meet up with the specialists. Meanwhile, the Ancestral Witches learn that there is one tiny source of positive energy left in the universe. They remember giving King Erendor an hourglass with the tree's pollen. This protected Eraklyon when the Witches destroyed Domino. In Gardenia, the Winx meet the specialists and travel to Avram, which is the city with the last known sighting of the pollen. The Trix find Erendor and force him to give them the whereabouts of the pollen.
Along the way, their ship is attacked by ghost of Avram citizens. The Trix and Ancient Witches also travel to Avram. Oritel reads Sky's letter, discovering why he called off the wedding. The team learns that Erendor broke the hourglass, releasing the pollen and forming a seedling. Trying to get to the middle of Avram, Bloom and Sky get separated from the others, who make it to the seedling. The Trix and company also make it to the plant, and try to destroy it. Bloom and Sky arrive, and restore the seedling, which restores their powers. The Ancient Witches then merge with their Trix counterparts and attack the Winx. King Oritel and King Erendor arrive to aid the Winx in their battle against the witches but Icy manages to kill King Erendor when he sacrifices himself to protect Bloom. The Winx defeat the Trix and destroy the Ancestral Witches with a Believix Convergence. King Oritel reveals that he had collected some of the pollen from the seedling and sprinkles it on Erendor, bringing him back to life. King Oritel apologizes to Sky and gives Bloom and Sky his blessing on their engagement. Bloom and Sky reconcile as the city begins to revive around them. They imprison the Trix once again and fly back to Eraklyon's main city together. | fantasy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0115319 | Power Rangers Zeo | Power Rangers Zeo begins immediately after the events of Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, where Tommy and the other Rangers (Adam, Rocky, Tanya, Katherine and Billy) witness the destruction of the Command Center. After recovering, the powerless Rangers discover the Zeo Crystal intact in the rubble—apparently dropped by Goldar and Rito Revolto. The Crystal guides them to a portal, which takes them deep underground to the Power Chamber where they find Zordon and Alpha 5 waiting for them. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers become the Zeo Rangers, a new team of Rangers powered by the Zeo Crystal. The four remaining Mighty Morphin Rangers, Tommy, Adam, Rocky and Kat become Zeo Ranger V — Red, Zeo Ranger IV — Green, Zeo Ranger III — Blue and Zeo Ranger I — Pink respectively and Tanya Sloan joins the team as Zeo Ranger II — Yellow, while Billy chooses to become their technical advisor rather than continuing as a Ranger.
The Machine Empire, led by King Mondo and Queen Machina, enters Earth's solar system, seeking to conquer Earth, with the Zeo Rangers serving as the only opposition. Many, even Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, are forced to flee to the M51 Galaxy under the threat of destruction. Unbeknownst to anyone, Rito and Goldar – now amnesic – are left behind on Earth. They are taken in by Bulk and Skull, who have them serve as butlers. Meanwhile, Bulk and Skull continue to be members of the Junior Police Force until Lieutenant Stone is dismissed, when Bulk tries winning the heart of the chief's daughter. Quitting as a show of respect for Stone, they join him at his new detective agency.
Over time, the Machine Empire wears down the five Zeo Rangers, but they are rescued by the mysterious Gold Ranger. Though his identity is unknown, it quickly becomes clear he is there to help the Rangers. After he is injured in battle, it is revealed that Gold Ranger is an alien, Trey of Triforia. Split into three separate selves, Trey is forced to temporarily pass his powers to a worthy warrior while healing. They attempt to transfer Trey's powers to Billy, but as Billy acquired excess negative energy during the Command Center's destruction, he is unable to do so. The ultimate successor is Jason Lee Scott, the original Red Power Ranger and team leader. This event also sees the introduction of the more powerful Super Zeozords, which were used against a tougher generation of machines. The Super Zeo Megazord is powerful enough to later destroy King Mondo, creating a power vacuum in the Machine Empire.
Secretly returning from the M51 Galaxy, Lord Zedd and Rita seek to become top villains again. Operating out of an RV with Finster, they restore Goldar and Rito's memories, retrieving the pair in the process. After King Mondo's death, they launch their first plan, to use Louie Kaboom to take over the Machine Empire. Though he succeeds, he breaks free of Zedd and Rita's control. He embarks on his own plans to conquer Earth and destroy the Zeo Rangers. Louie is eventually killed by King Mondo's first-born son Prince Gasket and his wife Princess Archerina, who rule until King Mondo's reconstruction is complete and causes them to flee.
When Billy begins rapidly aging as a side-effect of restoring his proper age before undoing Master Vile's spell in the last series, the Zeo and Aquitian Rangers race to help him and fend off monsters from King Mondo as well as Zedd and Rita. Billy leaves Earth for treatment on Aquitar and chooses to stay to be with Cestria. Soon afterwards, it is discovered the Gold Ranger powers are leaving Jason and draining his life force in the process as the alien powers were not meant for a human. Trey is still in recovery, but a risky gamble with the Zeo Crystal heals him, restoring his powers. Rita and Lord Zedd finally get revenge on the Machine Empire by crippling their leaders with a bomb. | good versus evil | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0080472 | Bronco Billy | "Bronco Billy's Wild West Show" is a rundown traveling circus, the star of which is Bronco Billy McCoy (Clint Eastwood), the "fastest gun in the West." For the show's finale, a blindfolded Bronco Billy shoots balloons around a female assistant on a revolving wooden disc, and for the last balloon, he throws a knife. However, the assistant moves her leg and is nicked, so she quits. The show is not making any money, and nobody has been paid for six months.
The show moves on to a new town and Bronco Billy goes to city hall to get a permit. He bumps into Antoinette Lily (Sondra Locke) and John Arlington (Geoffrey Lewis), who are there to be married. Antoinette despises her future husband, but has to marry before she is thirty in order to inherit a large fortune. Their car breaks down at the motel opposite the Wild West Show. The next morning, Arlington steals all her money and their repaired car. She is left to fend for herself.
Bronco Billy talks Antoinette into becoming his new assistant, "Miss Lily," though she only agrees to do one show. Her first performance is unusually successful, although Miss Lily irritates Billy by not sticking to the script.
Antoinette discovers that Arlington has been arrested for her murder (framed by Antoinette's stepmother and her scheming lawyer friend, who stand to gain her inheritance). Seizing the chance to get even with Arlington, Antoinette rejoins the Wild West Show.
She discovers that none of the performers are real cowboys: they are mostly ex-convicts, or alcoholics, or both. Bronco Billy was a shoe salesman who shot his wife for sleeping with his best friend. Nevertheless, Miss Lily begins to warm to the troupe.
Two of the show's performers announce that they are going to have a baby. The crew goes to a bar to celebrate. One gets arrested by police who discover that he is a deserter from the Army. Bronco Billy uses the show's meager savings to bribe the sheriff into letting the man go, swallowing his pride and enduring the sheriff's verbal humiliations for his friend's sake.
Then the circus tent burns down. Everyone blames Miss Lily for their bad luck, but Bronco Billy defends her and proposes that they rob a train. They try to do this in the standard Western way (riding alongside and jumping on), but a modern train proves to be resistant to such an approach and they give up.
Next, the troupe travels to a mental institution at which they have previously performed pro bono. The head of the institution, who is obsessed with the Wild West, agrees to provide them with accommodation and to supply a new tent, and the inmates sew one out of American flags. Miss Lily and Bronco Billy spend the night together. By chance, one inmate turns out to be Arlington (he had been paid by the crooked lawyer to confess to being mentally disturbed when he "murdered" Antoinette). When he sees her, he raises a fuss and gets released. Bronco Billy and the show depart without Miss Lily.
Antoinette returns to a luxurious lifestyle, but she is bored and misses Billy, who drowns his loneliness with alcohol. The two reunite when Miss Lily returns to the circus. | cult, suicidal, violence, comic | train | wikipedia | When I read where Clint Eastwood said it was a personal favorite of his I smiled, because it's mine, too.....and I like a lot of Eastwood's movies.This isn't just my favorite Eastwood film.
However, it's not a violent story, just a tale of a modern-day man and his little troupe who want to be cowboys and Indians, and go on tour with their little Wild West show.The film has nice, colorful photography and looks great on DVD.
It's refreshing to see Eastwood play a role like this where he's a Mr. Rogers-type western hero for little kids, urging children to stay on the straight and narrow, mind their parents and say their prayers before going to bed at night.Sondra Locke also is effective as the cold newcomer who reluctantly joins the group and slowly changes from a mean-spirited, sarcastic woman to a caring person.
She shows a good comedic touch and is excellent in this film, perhaps her best effort since "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter."The rest of the cast is fun to watch, too, and it includes one of my favorite faces and voices, that of "Scatman" Crothers.
Bronco Billy the sharpshooting cowboy is the owner of a modern-day travelling Wild West Show that seems to get caught in one messy situation after another.
Through some amusing chain of events a wealthy, snobby heiress Antoinette Lilly finds herself tagging along with the show and becoming one of Bronco Billy's assistant, after her new husband leaves her stranded with nothing.I don't understand why they think this cap gun shoots nothing but blanks.
Even though he is a flawed character Billy does have a good heart and performs shows for the underprivileged for free.If you are a in the mood for a film that will make you feel good for two hours then Bronco Billy is for you.
Like most of Eastwood's films, Bronco Billy is built around a story, but in this story how it comes out is not important, it is how Billy and this cast of lost souls get there.
And the film has one the greatest lines in cinema history: The one Bronco Billy used to tell Antoinette what happened to his wife..
It's an admittedly corny but charming semi-western comedy that has Eastwood leading a ragtag "wild west show" across the country, playing at various county fairs, churches and orphanages.
Eastwood directs with a sure hand; the film is rather leisurely paced, but has warm, rustic charm that's very likeable and the movie is worth discovering on video and DVD now.
It's just a sweet little comedy with great characters that deserves more recognition.Maybe the biggest problem with "Bronco Billy" is that it tries to have too much story.
I especially enjoyed Scatman Crothers in his role but also Clint Eastwood did a good job as a character that basically wanted to be like the western characters Eastwood previously played before.Fun comedy by Eastwood!
Even though it's flawed, 'Bronco Billy' has heart and how can one not like a film about a circus group with intriguing characters.
I liked how the relationship was developing between Billy and Antoinette but in the second half the film felt rushed, as though Eastwood was suddenly in a hurry to finish the movie.I've always been fascinated by the circus (the real ones, not the ones that torture animals) and was easily persuaded to see 'Bronco Billy' (alongside the fact that it's a Clint Eastwood film of course).
Sondra Locke shares fine chemistry with her leading man.There's a subtle sense of adventure in 'Bronco Billy' which isn't realized right away.
As the viewer is lead to follow these characters and experience their struggle and hardship at the same time their will to stick together and be there for one another while embracing the unpredictable life they lead, Eastwood shows that there is something beautiful and pure about that lifestyle.'Bronco Billy' is quite well-crafted.
Due to this, plus this being a comedy and a well planned out plot and story, I think this is Clint Eastwood's best movie and was very underrated for it's time.
I think people still see it as Clint Eastwood's failed movie just because he wasn't a tough cowboy like character.
Bronco Billy (1980) ** 1/2 (out of 4) The cowboy/dreamer Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood) is barely keeping his Wild West show going but his luck's about to change when he gets involved with a woman (Sondra Locke) recently dumped by her husband.
You know you're movie's off to a good start when Scatman Crothers is immediatly introduced.The movie is about a Wild West Show troupe (one of whom is played by Scatman) who happen to stumble upon a stuck-up b*tch named Lily (played by Sandra Locke).
This film is a fun feel good movie with characters you adore (if you don't, you have serious psychological issues).
Bronco Billy (1980)Plot In A Paragraph: Bronco Billy (Clint) an idealistic, modern-day cowboy struggles to keep his Wild West show afloat in the face of waning interest.I always thought that this was another Malpaso Company production, (especially since it cast is full of Malpaso regulars) but it's actually produced by Second Street Films.
A personal favourite of Clint's, Bronco Billy is a charming little movie, very similar to Every Which Way But Loose in that it just ambles along pleasantly from one scene to another.
Once again Sondra Locke is playing an unappealing character, and it's worth noting that she is once again the victim of a sexual assault (What's with that??) along with Locke, previous Eastwood Co Stars Bill McKinney, Geoffrey Lewis, Sam Bottoms, Walter Barnes, Dan Vardis and William Prince all appear.
This is one of the most underrated films that Clint Eastwood has directed and also starred in.
It was not one of his greatest films overall, but the story of Bronco Billy proves a great dramatic story.
The story is about a wild west show, much like Buffalo Bill Cody's wild west shows of the late nineteenth century, set in modern times.With interest in his show dwindling, and no money to pay the performers, Billy must find a way.
Clint Eastwood is back in a gun-slinging western role - but this time he's funny with it.
Bronco Billy is not your average Clint Eastwood movie - it is a comedy.
This film proves that Clint Eastwood has a fine sense of humor and that he's more than just a good gunslinger on film.Bronco Billy is one of movies that makes great manatee.
If you liked the films: "Blazing Saddles", "Every Which Way But Loose" or any of the serious Western films starring Clint Eastwood - then you might enjoy Bronco Billy.7.5/10.
Bronco Billy is one of Clint's favorite films.
Bronco Billy is part of a traveling wild west troupe out to make a living by entertaining the kids.
That does not mean it lacks depth as the story is good and the characters are interesting.I find Bronco Billy somewhat similar to Overboard ,which is also a funny ,heartwarming comedy with another real Hollywood couple that is fun for the whole family .
Bronco Billy really is a solid movie and proof to any naysayers that Clint is not a one dimensional filmmaker,or only good as action star.
BRONCO BILLY (1980) *** Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Scatman Crothers, Geoffrey Lewis, Sam Bottoms.
Good natured and amiable little Eastwood gem (he also directed and once said this was personally his favorite film) about a ragtag group of wild west performers strictly small time but with big warm hearts.
Who would have thought that a film starring Clint Eastwood roaming the Western states in cowboy gear could be so uncannily reminiscent of a classic romantic screwball comedy of the 1930s?
Bronco Billy shows the shabbiness of the small Wild West show but it also imparts many of the good feelings given by the cowboy shows of old....
"Bronco Billy" is Clint Eastwood's Capra movie.
"Bronco Billy" is nothing like those films and, for the most part, is way better..
An idealistic, modern-day cowboy (Clint Eastwood) struggles to keep his Wild West show afloat in the face of hard luck and waning interest.Right off the bat, we have to say that this film has some of the same themes as Robert Altman's "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson" (1976).
Altman's film took place when "Wild West" still meant something, whereas Eastwood's movie has a traveling troupe well past the prime of the genre.Exactly what the message is, if there is one, I do not know.
Clint Eastwood labels Bronco Billy as one of his favorite films so who am I to tell him different.
It is a fun and quirky movie, kind of like You Can't Take It With You. He certainly has gathered together a collection of people similar to Grandpa Vanderhoff's friends and family.Playing the title role Eastwood is the owner and star of a wild west show Eastwood has in his employ a collection of characters who are uniquely loyal to him.
To which he adds Sondra Locke who is one of those rich heiresses which saturated films in the Thirties.Bronco Billy's outfit is hardly like Buffalo Bill Cody's show nor even like the one John Wayne was the impresario of in Circus World.
Eastwood himself has created Bronco Billy, his own real life was nothing to brag about.
He feels to some degree that people can be what they want and he gives those who are with him a chance to do just that.Clint Eastwood in his westerns certainly created enough mythology of the old west steps back a bit from those characters in Bronco Billy.
It's a curiously old fashioned film though, the kind I wish were still made.What I wouldn't give to work in Bronco Billy's show..
(Credit IMDb) An idealistic, modern-day cowboy struggles to keep his Wild West show afloat in the face of hard luck and waning interest.This movie has sporadically enjoyable moments.
Yet "Bronco Billy" seems to have gathered a following, for good reasons.Clint plays a character very different from the one depicted in his westerns and his cop movies.
In a cynical time, he and his pals travel around the west performing a "Wild West Show" complete with a native American snake dance, a wrangling exposition, and a showcasing of Billy's sharpshooting talents.Things get complicated when Miss Antoinette Lily, a runaway heiress, gets unwillingly involved with the show as a desperate gesture.
Bronco Billy implores youngsters to "obey your mom and dad, because they know what is best," and to "say your prayers at night." A Clint Eastwood movie with a strong message about loyalty and getting the courage to become whatever you want to be.
It's easy to see why Clint Eastwood counts this film among his personal favorites.Only a few contrived plot points concerning Antoinette Lily and her estranged husband and step-mother add nit-picky elements to what is otherwise a wonderful and enjoyable movie..
Clint Eastwood is Bronco Billy, the leader of a Wild West troupe, one of six regular misfits who comprise a struggling-to-break-even touring show.
It seems Miss Lilly, as Doc (Scatman Crothers) calls her, is a would-be heiress who will only receive her long-deceased father's estate if she's married by the time she turns 30, so on the eve of that birthday she gets hitched to the cartoonish Geoffrey Lewis.So, what's the plot of this film?
BRONCO BILLY (2+ outta 5 stars) Kind of an odd, little movie for Clint Eastwood...
This quirky character study of the people involved in a modern day "wild west show" has decent enough dialogue and the performers (most from the usual Eastwood stable of the time, including soon-to-be-ex-wife Sondra Locke) make viewing the film painless enough...
I guess it was just the kind of movie Clint wanted to make at the time (he produced and directed) and after his huge success with "Every Which Way But Loose" who was going to tell him "no"?
It is my personal opinion that this has to be one of the worst films Clint Eastwood ever made.
I watched a second time as I didn't think he could do anything this bad, but was rewarded with the viewing of the poor performance of Eastwood and Locke.
In this small comedic film, he has a stellar cast including himself as Bronco Billy, Sondra Locke as the heiress and his real-life girlfriend at the time, Beverlee McKinsey, Scatman Crothers, and others.
Actually, "Honkytonk Man" is Clint Eastwood's worst film but "Bronco Billy" cuts it close.
It came on TV at like 2:00am and i sat up and watched it all and didn't get bored once.A rich woman is left in the lurch after her new husband runs off with all of her possessions, she's kinda mean to "poor" people but she joins Bronco Billy's wild west show to get from A to B.
Chiefly, however, the comparison between the two films ends here, because "Bronco Billy" lassos bigger themes than the contrived, self-conscious "Circus World." As it turns out, the Clint Eastwood characterBronco Billy McCoyis a huge fraud in the best sense that Paul Newman's hero amounted to a fraud in Robert Altman's "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson" (1976).
Whereas director Altman ridicules Buffalo Bill as a cynical fraud in the bi-centennial "Buffalo Bill," the Eastwood film pokes fun at Bronco Billy's masquerade but not the dreamer of a man beneath the masquerade.
Bronco Billy's circus reforms the hard-hearted Antoinette Lilly and gives her a home, the way that Fellini's circuses give Masina a home in his own films.
Hardcore Eastwood fans that want to see Eastwood in "Dirty Harry" type movies are not going to still through "Bronco Billy." Or if they do, they will be disappointed.
One of Clint Eastwood's most charming movies.
Self-stylized modern-day cowboy and ace sharpshooter Bronco Billy (a pleasingly amiable performance by Clint Eastwood) runs an old-fashioned traveling Wild West show that's fallen on hard times.
The Wild West Show, I believe, is a metaphor for the film-making process, in which a carefully crafted illusion is created for the viewing public.After the tent burns down, Billy has a new tent stitched together by the inmates at a mental asylum, which results in a patchwork of American flags -- literally, a crazy-quilt assemblage.Bronco Billy is gleefully old-fashioned, even anachronistic, both in its optimistic mood, which ran counter to the popular culture at the time of its release in 1980, and in its characters -- a cowboy who belongs to another time, a daffy heiress who has stepped out of a 30's screwball comedy.Best of all, Eastwood's heart is in the right place, and he has a genial affection toward his eccentric characters..
Bronco Billy McCoy is the poor man's Buffalo Bill Cody, the proprietor and star of a touring Wild West show, essentially a circus with a Western theme.
Of course, this being a romantic comedy, that means that they will eventually end up falling for one another.Antoinette is played by Sondra Locke, who was Eastwood's lover at the time.
It also deals with the theme of the way in which the enduring legend of the Old West continued to influence American culture even in the late twentieth century.Clint Eastwood's Billy character has been described as a parody of the sort of Western heroes he played in films such as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" or "High Plains Drifter", but in fact he is both a parody of and a celebration of the traditional Western hero.
maybe this film did not do well because it is about a bunch of losers, albeit warm hearted losers who stick together and have the advantage of a loyalty most families don't have.Stand out scenes are Clint's reaction to the little kid being hit at the bank robbery, and Clint swallowing his pride to get his buddy freed with the god awful sheriff - a nice performance of the corrupt lawman getting emotions running in the right direction.Scatman does his usual scene stealing thing, Bottoms is good, it is interesting to see McKinney in a sympathetic role after his Clint nemesis in Outlaw Josie Wales, Geoffrey Lewis always dependable manages a wonderful slimy coward, Sondra Locke is her usual wooden self, Clint must have been blinded by love to put here in so many of his movies, she deservedly disappeared without trace after splitting from him.
We are used to seeing Clint Eastwood starring in and directing himself in cowboys, but this one wasn't the usual western with a town, showdown and shootouts, it was hopefully going to be something more fun.
Basically "Bronco Billy's Wild West Show" is a rundown travelling circus, the star is cowboy Bronco Billy McCoy (Clint Eastwood), the "fastest gun in the West".
Eastwood is essentially a cowboy with a good heart, Locke is slightly annoying but an alright performer's assistant, it a nice simple of how optimism and showmanship can get you somewhere, most of the no-hoper and oddball characters are likable, and the circus scenes are memorable enough, it is mostly the circus stuff I remember, the sentimental and attempted dramatic stuff only works slightly, it is a fun enough small-scale comedy western.
I had assumed, incorrectly, that this film was some sort of biography about the old silent movie cowboy star, Bronco Billy Anderson.
Instead, Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood) is a modern fictional character--much like Buffalo Bill Cody with his wild west show, but on a much, much, much, much smaller scale.
BRONCO BILLY is a likeable comedy romance from Clint Eastwood that sees the star and director on typically strong form.
I never thought the Bronco Billy Wild West Show would actually aspire to entertainment on a deeper level.
Right after that great con job by Clint Eastwood's character when he makes everyone in the troupe feel good about not being paid, there was no reason to believe this was going to be anything more than pure popcorn. |
tt0039345 | Easter Yeggs | Bugs Bunny finds the Easter Bunny (also called the "Easter Rabbit" throughout this cartoon) sitting on a rock, crying. The Easter Bunny tells Bugs that his feet are sore, so he cannot deliver the Easter eggs. Bugs takes up the job, not knowing that, every year, the Easter Bunny gets some "dumb bunny" to do his work for him. (The Easter Bunny characterization is taken from Mel Blanc's "Happy Postman" radio character, including the ironic catch phrase "Keep Smiling!")
The first house the "joyous bunny" visits bears a name by the door: Dead End Kid, and the mean little red-haired kid who lives inside throws the egg at Bugs' face, bites him in the leg and beats Bugs up before body-slamming him on the floor. Bugs loses his cool and grabs the kid's arm. Unfortunately, Dead End Kid screams that Bugs has broken his arm and three huge thugs (one of them female) rush in, aiming guns at Bugs. Bugs barely escapes the hail of bullets (some of which spell the message "And stay out"). When Bugs rushes back to the Easter Bunny telling him he quits, the Easter Bunny gets him to "try once more".
Unfortunately, the next house is that of Elmer Fudd, the veteran wabbit-hater. Fudd sets up an elaborate welcome and, disguised as a baby, hides his gun in a bassinet and climbs in. Just then Bugs arrives, but this time he's prepared for toddler resistance: he cracks the egg in Elmer's hands. Thus commences the classic chase until Bugs manages to sic Dead End Kid on Elmer (who beats Elmer on the head repeatedly with a hammer after Bugs paints Elmer's head to look like an Easter egg). Finally, Bugs plants a bomb painted like an Easter egg and leaves it for the Easter Bunny. When the Easter Bunny picks it up to finish his job, Bugs lights the fuse, proclaiming to the audience "it's the suspense that gets me," and the bomb explodes on the Easter Bunny, leaving the hapless hen-fruit handler hanging high up in a tree. Bugs' parting shot: "Remember, Doc, keep smiling!" (in reference to Mel Blanc's Happy Postman from the radio version of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show). The cartoon irises out as Bugs starts laughing. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0115676 | Big Bully | Growing up in Hastings, Minnesota, young David Leary was bullied by Roscoe Bigger, nicknamed "Fang" because of a pointed tooth. David is ecstatic when his parents announce they're moving to Oakland. David informs teachers about Fang stealing a moon rock and Fang is arrested.
Twenty-six years later, David is divorced and raising his troubled son Ben as a single parent. Not having much success as a writer, David's old school offers him a job teaching creative writing for the semester. He meets his neighbors Art and Betty Lundstrum and begins rekindling a relationship with his old flame Victoria. He also encounters the school librarian Mrs. Rumpert who is still waiting for David to return Green Eggs and Ham to the library. After Ben begins picking on a kid named Kirby, David meets the boy's father Ross Bigger when both are called to the office of Principal Kokelar. Following a fire drill, David meets with his old friend Ulf, a firefighter. When meeting with Ulf, Alan and Gerry at a bar, David learns that after Ross got out of juvenile hall, Ross' parents skipped town which led to him growing up in an orphanage.
When Ross learns who David is, he reembarks on his old routine of bullying him to make himself feel better. Ross drops his mild-mannered and pushover attitude and begins taking charge in his classroom and home. David's son begins bullying Ross's son, but after a discussion they become friends. Ross begins to intimidate until David becomes paranoid, and begins freaking out another teacher, Clark, who thinks he is on crack. When David brings Ross' actions to Principal Kokelar after a recent pranking, David is told by Principal Kokelar that Ross has been a teacher longer than David has and even states that he had gotten some complaints from Clark about David and that if David can't straighten up his act, he will get another teacher to cover for him for the remainder of the school semester.
Later that night, they meet at the old see-saw where Ross reaffirms that David has never stood up for himself at which point David admits snitching to get Ross put in Juvenile hall. After a game of cat-and-mouse in the school after hours, David flees to his hiding place he used when he was a child, a cave. Ross chases him onto a waterfall and tells David that he always thought of him as a friend, before an enraged Ross attacks him. David hits him with a piece of driftwood causing Ross to fall into the river. Fearing that he has killed his enemy, David tries to turn himself over to the police only to find that the cops are out. Ulf drives David to his home while he tries to find Ross' body. After a talk with Art, David attempts to go to sleep only to discover Ross alive and well. The two men fight once again until Kirby and Ben come in and reveal that they've made up and encourage their fathers do the same. Ross reveals he stole the moon rock because he wanted to be an astronaut. It was also shown that during their recent fight, Ross' "fang" was chipped. They finally patch things up.
With nothing left for him in Hastings, David's semester teaching job was over. David begins to pack up and move to New York. He has Victoria return Green Eggs and Ham to the school library for him. Ross arrives and as a goodbye present for David, Ross gives him an Evel Knievel action figure identical to the one David had as a child before Ross threw it into a river. David tells them to visit whenever, and the changed family leaves. Ross hooks up his mobile home to his truck, and follows David telling his family that they have been "invited" to come to New York. | revenge, prank, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0037469 | The Woman in the Window | After criminology professor Richard Wanley sends his wife and two children off on vacation, he goes to his club to meet friends. Next door, Wanley sees a striking oil portrait of Alice Reed (Joan Bennett) in a storefront window. He and his friends talk about the beautiful painting and its subject. Wanley stays at the club and reads Song of Songs. When he leaves, Wanley stops at the portrait and meets Reed, who is standing near the painting watching people watch it. Reed convinces Wanley to join her for drinks.
Later, they go to Reed's home, but an unexpected visit from her rich lover Claude Mazard (Arthur Loft) leads to a fight in which Wanley kills Mazard. Wanley and Reed conspire to cover up the murder, and Wanley disposes Mazard's body in the country. However, Wanley leaves many clues, and there are a number of witnesses. One of Wanley's friends from the club, district attorney Frank Lalor (Raymond Massey) has knowledge of the investigation, and Wanley is invited back to the crime scene, as Lalor's friend, but not as a suspect. There are several comic dialogues in which Wanley appears to know more about the murder than he should. As the police gather more evidence, Reed is blackmailed by Heidt (Dan Duryea), a crooked ex-cop who was Mazard's bodyguard. Reed attempts to poison Heidt with a prescription overdose when he returns the next day, but Heidt is suspicious and takes the money without drinking the drugs. Reed tells Wanley, who overdoses on the remaining prescription medicine.
Heidt is killed in a shootout immediately after leaving Reed's home, and police believe Heidt is Mazard's murderer. Reed, seeing that the police have killed Heidt, races to her home to call Wanley, who is slumped over in his chair, and apparently he dies. In an impossible match on action, Wanley awakens in his chair at his club, and he realizes the entire adventure was a dream in which employees from the club were main characters in the dream. As he steps out on the street in front of the painting, a woman asks Wanley for a light. He adamantly refuses and runs down the street. | suspenseful, murder, melodrama | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0048216 | It's Always Fair Weather | Three ex-G.I.s, Ted Riley (Kelly), Doug Hallerton (Dailey) and Angie Valentine (Kidd) have served in World War II together and become best friends. At the beginning of the film, set in October 1945, they dance through the street celebrating their upcoming release from the service ("The Binge") and meet at their favorite New York bar. They vow eternal friendship, and before going their separate ways, promise to reunite exactly ten years later at the same spot.
In the years after the war, the three men have taken entirely different paths ("10-Year Montage"). Riley, who had wanted to become an idealistic lawyer, has become a fight promoter and gambler, associating with shady underworld characters. Hallerton, who had planned to become a painter, has gone into a high-stress job in advertising, and his marriage is crumbling. Valentine, who had planned to become a gourmet chef, is now running a hamburger stand in Schenectady, New York that he calls "The Cordon Bleu", and has a wife and children.
The three men keep their promise to meet at the bar ten years later, and quickly realize that they now have nothing in common and dislike each other. Hallerton and Riley view Valentine as a "hick", while Riley and Valentine think Hallerton is a "snob", and Hallerton and Valentine think Riley is a "punk". Sitting together in an expensive restaurant as Hallerton's guest, munching celery, they silently express their regrets in "I Shouldn't Have Come", sung to the tune of "The Blue Danube".
At the restaurant, they encounter some people from Hallerton's advertising agency, including Jackie Leighton (Charisse), an attractive and brainy advertising person. Jackie gets the idea of reuniting the three men later that evening on a TV show hosted by Madeline Bradville (Gray). She and Riley gradually become involved, though at first Jackie seems motivated by wanting to get Riley on her show. She joins Riley at Stillman's gym, where Jackie demonstrates a deep knowledge of boxing while cavorting with beefy boxers ("Baby You Knock Me Out").
Riley gets into trouble with gangsters because he refuses to fix a fight. As he seeks to evade gangsters from a roller skating ring, he skates out on the streets of Manhattan, where he realizes that Jackie's affection for him has built up his self-esteem, and he dances exuberantly on roller skates ("I Like Myself"). Hallerton, meanwhile, has misgivings about the corporate life ("Situation-Wise").
The three men are reluctantly coaxed into the TV reunion, with the gangsters tracking Riley to the studio. They jointly fight and defeat the gangsters, which brings them back together. At the end they are friends again, but go their separate ways without making plans for another reunion ("The Time for Parting"). | romantic, satire | train | wikipedia | The movie also teams Dan Daily and Michael Kyd with Kelly, a Grade A, winning combination for the few, but excellent numbers, they perform.However, this movie should be seen for one and one reason only: Gene Kelly's dance on roller skates to one of the most beautiful tunes ever written by Comden and Green.
the wonderful roller skating sequence by Kelly (since I'm tired to death of seeing the "Singing in the Rain" puddle dance, this is a refreshing change and an excellent sample of his skills!) He even parodies his "Rain" dance when he hops off & on the curb with his skates (folks, those are metal-wheeled skates - nowhere as smooth & speedy as the polyurethane ones of today) Somebody mentioned that the skating set features a big piece of the "Rain" set, but I don't agree - we're talking films set 30 years apart & I didn't see any similarities in the "Fair Weather" setDolores Gray's bizarre number "Thanks but no Thanks" where she rewards the tuxedoed men bearing jewels and affection (who literally vault, flip and tumble around her) with bullets, dynamite and finally a huge trap door where they all slide awayand Cyd Charisse's gym number "Baby You Knock Me Out"(these last 2 numbers were featured on "That's Entertainment III")It's interesting to see Michael Kidd, mostly known for his wonderful film choreography, dance onscreen.
And the film - this is a sign of the times - glamorizes smoking (including by Dan Dailey's character, who says he won't drink or eat heavily b/c of his health, yet he "lights up" often), fixed boxing matches, gambling and drunken sprees.Still, it makes an excellent "sequel" of sorts for "On the Town" and they should be paired together on TV or at film fests.Also, Previn's tunes are not really memorable - they're OK.The film also pokes fun at early TV - Delores Gray's show is a mix btw a variety show & something like "Queen for a Day" or "This is Your Life." Sponsors (in this case, laundry detergent)were a huge deal back then.
Lets talk about the story: War is over and our gang drink a lot and start dancing , singing and be drunk as ever.They promises to be friend all life long and to coming back in the same places ten years later.
Well,ponder this for a moment-he will often do something truly spectacular at the end of a take,leading one to wonder just how many times the poor chap put himself through the preceding minutes before getting it right...A case in point is the justly famed (among those in the know) "Rollerskate Number":In order to demonstrate that the skates are,indeed,authentic,Kelly will swap-flawlessly-from "tap" to "glide" at the end of each take.Incredible.Compare and contrast,by the way,with protege Donald O'Connor's emulation in "I Love Melvin"-we never see thetwo movements co-existing within the same shot.Gene Kelly made me want to dance when I was 11,and not feel like a poof for doing so..
The folks that brought you Singing In The Rain, Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Cyd Charisse, and Arthur Freed combined their considerable talents to give us one of the last of the great MGM screen musicals in It's Always Fair Weather.
In fact there are relatives of mine I barely keep up with because of the little we have in common.Thus did army pals Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, and Michael Kidd find themselves after ten years earlier in David Burns's bar swearing that they would meet there ten years later and still be best pals in 1945 after V-J Day.Well it's now 1955 and Gene Kelly is a native New Yorker.
The best numbers are by Gene Kelly dancing on rollerskates proclaiming his new found love for Charisse down the city streets just like in Singing In The Rain.
Gene Kelly is entertaining as always, but I was really surprised by Dan Dailey's talent as the ad executive that comes to a startling self-realization at an inopportune time and does quite a performance dancing and singing about his plight.This film was a product of the famed Arthur Freed unit, which made many lavish musicals in their time.
Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, and Michael Kidd are army buddies in "It's Always Fair Weather," a 1955 musical film directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly.
The film also stars Cyd Charisse and Delores Gray.At the end of World War II, Ted Riley (Kelly), Doug Hallerton (Dailey), and Angie Valentine (Kidd) return to the states and make a bet with a bartender that they will be friends for life.
Thanks to a talk show host (Delores Gray) who refuses to do her show as planned, and the show's beautiful consultant (Charisse), the three are destined to be reunited again - on network television.This is a nice movie with some great dancing and singing, but given the cast, directors, writers and composer, one expects a little more than "nice" and "pleasant." The music by Andre Previn is uninspired.
The glamorous Delores Gray sings the heck out of her numbers, but her acting, unlike in "Designing Woman," is way over the top, more of a stage performance.Despite the spoofing of advertising and early television shows and the singing and dancing, the film has a strange edginess; when it's dark, it's almost too dark, and the light moments aren't light enough.
It's just not possible to despise a TV personality (Dolores Gray) who can trump every femme-fatale number ever filmed with the uproarious, much-loved "Thanks a Lot, but No Thanks.""Fair Weather" has it's fans, but half a dozen incongruities like this (and that elaborate plot!!!) leave you puzzled.
(After all, musicals are usually free of such cynicism and vulgarity.) Betty Comden and the late Adolph Green- responsible for so many great film scores as well as the scripts of "Auntie Mame," "Bells Are Ringing," and "What A Way To Go-" contribute very witty songs here, including the three-way, split-screen dance "Once Upon A Time-" which shows the three buddies reflecting on their wartime friendship and whether or not they'll ever get it back; Dolores Gray's wicked "Thanks A Lot, But No Thanks;" and the requisite Gene Kelly solo (on roller skates), "I Like Myself." The big revelation, however, is Cyd Charisse- fine as ever, but in a rare, 'real' acting role which calls upon a bit of cynicism and smug defensiveness.
Sure, Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly are tops, but Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd do just fine themselves at keeping up in the dance scenes.
The movie's only crime in the song and dance department is the lack of a dance number between Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse, despite one actually being filmed.The movie's other notable aspect is being one of the earliest movies to satires television and its vacuousness.
This may seem hypocritical of Hollywood but unlike other Hollywood musicals, Its Always Fair Weather actually has a dark and not very uplifting story of three war buddies who are reunited ten years later to find out they can't stand each other.
(Maybe I've got too strong a memory of her as the slinky siren in "Singin' in the Rain"?) Finally I've never liked the dance number on roller skates, however difficult it might be: Kelly is supposed to be crowing about the girl, but instead he's singing a valentine to HIMSELF.
The most rewarding musicals have a dark, not a sunny soul.It's Always Fair Weather has a brilliant mid-fifties screenplay: the effect of World War II lays its hand on it; television is an added character to be lampooned as the film studios tried to maintain supremacy over the upstart TV medium (you can see where My Favorite Year got its ending); roles for the principles that were all worldly and complex.The dance numbers are top-drawer in this underrated gem; unfortunately the songs aren't memorable.
Gene Kelly as "Ted Riley" is such an old-fashioned male chauvinist that in today's world women would cringe at some of this lines and actions in this movie.The dancing is very good, beginning with Kelly, Dan Dailey ("Doug Hallerton") and Michael Kidd ("Angie Valentine") giving us a great opening dance, capped off by the three of them hoofing with garbage can lids on their feet.
Dolores Gray, as "Madeline," provides a very entertaining number near the end with some great sets accompanying the song and dances.Finally, the story the last 20 minutes or so redeems much of the earlier (see below) darker stuff, and you makes you feel good when the film ends.
In fact, after a lunch at a swank restaurant uncovers the differences that the years have brought, they split up in an unfriendly fashion and play out their scenes separately until the climactic reunion, a surprise cooked up by a cheesy television show created by one of the boys (Dan Daily) at the behest of Gene Kelly's love interest, the never hotter Cyd Charise.
Film fans may argue that "Singin' in the Rain" is the greatest movie musical of all time, and that it's title song scene is Gene Kelly's best dance on film, but in my opinion, this film and its roller-skate-tap routine tops them all.
It MUST be seen in its full-width version.Among the talent here is, of course, Gene Kelly who shines in his "I Like Myself", goosebump-inducing roller-skate number, Cyd Charisse is punchy in "Baby, You Knock Me Out", and this is perhaps her most perfect role on film.
Two other numbers that are standouts are the "Binge" early on in the film, when the trio puts trash can lids on their feet and tap dance, and the "Once Upon a Time" scene where the screen splits in three so the three men can soliloquize at the same time.This is truly one of the great musicals ever put on film, for its sheer originality.
Unfortunately, no Kelly/Charisse duet dance in this, their best film, but they do each get outstanding solos (as does Dailey) and the movie is loaded with musical wit and charm.
It features some of the finest, most expressive dancing ever caught on film, including a a drunken roust-a-bout with his sailor buddies (garbage can lids on their feet), and a breathtaking, rollerskating expression-of-new-love sequence that, I think, far surpasses even the heralded "Singin' in the Rain." Besides the dance, the film is also quick and witty when it focuses on Kelly's big-hearted sharkie character, Cyd Charisse as his mental match, and the wonderful send-up of infant television and its dependance on corporate sponsorship.
If you want Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse, go watch "Singin' in the Rain" or "The Band Wagon" instead.Unbelievably, "It's Always Fair Weather" brought Betty Comden and Adolph Green an Oscar nomination for their wisp of a screenplay, and Andre Previn received a nomination for his musical scoring.Grade: D+.
Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly direct with an assured touch and avoid being too overblown or heavy, while the clever and sardonic satirical wit, in its poking fun at television, advertising and sports, contrasts well with the darker and more cynical edge 'It's Always Fair Weather' has.Kidd aside, the cast are great, Kelly is charismatic, Dan Daily shines in his scene-stealing drunk dance, Cyd Charisse dazzles with her dancing (and legs) and Delores Gray is a sheer delight with the best singing voice out of everybody.What really captivates here, as aforementioned, are the dance sequences and the dancing.
The number with the bin lids is also incredibly clever, while "Baby You Knock Me Out" and "Thanks a Lot But No Thanks" showcase Charisse and Gray's talents to show-stopping effect.In conclusion, a good if uneven film worth seeing for the spectacular dance scenes.
Following service in World War II, three army buddies - Gene Kelly (as Ted Riley), Dan Dailey (as Doug Hallerton), and Michael Kidd (as Angie Valentine) - booze it up in New York City.
After you watch this movie a few times for its marvelous dance numbers, it might be amusing to watch it again just to observe the extraordinary steps that were taken to conceal the fact that Cyd Charisse was 2 or 3 inches taller than Gene Kelly.
As well as the amazing dancing-on-skates number, I remember the song using the melody of The Blue Danube Waltz, with the words "Could these be the guys I had thought I could never live without?" It's probably Gene Kelly's most bitter role in a musical.
Noteworthy for a couple of stunningly choreographed numbers--namely, "Baby, You Knock Me Out!" with CYD CHARISSE and the boxers at Stillman's Gym going through some fantastic acrobatics, and DOLORES GRAY singing "Thanks A Lot, But No Thanks" to a bevy of loose-limbed chorus boys who gyrate to the tune with some acrobatic flip-flops--well, in those moments IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER really sizzles and comes to life.But unfortunately, the script by Comden and Greene is only fitfully witty and is not on par with some of their other MGM greats and the other numbers are not quite catchy enough to create much more than a passing remark and likely to be quickly forgotten.Even more detrimental is the fact that while GENE KELLY gets a fair share of nice musical turns (his cool roller-skating routine is really polished), DAN DAILEY (a great singer/dancer talent) is given the worst material imaginable and much less screen time to shine.
Gray's routine is even more imaginatively staged for maximum effect.While not quite up to the standards of other Stanley Donen-directed musicals, IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER is worth watching for the splendid performances (even CYD CHARISSE warms up in that boxing scene).
They thought otherwise and he teamed instead with Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd (more likely to be found behind the camera as choreographer).Female support comes from big-voiced Doleres Gray, who has quite the best number in the film (Thanks a Lot, But No Thanks'); and an under-par Cyd Charisse, who perhaps suffers from having to act when she really couldn't.
The plot is a little muddled and looks re-jigged to accommodate the strengths of its principals so Dailey gets a drunk scene and Kelly gets to dance in his roller skates (a cute number, I Like Myself', which is really a second-grade now I love the girl' bit following the famed scene in Singin' in the Rain').
Not a well known MGM Musical, Always Fair Weather came through the somewhat traumatic diatribes between the creative minds of Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen to be a wonderful bit of watching.
As for Weather - If you haven't seen the DVD version make sure you do, not only are all dance moves in Cinemascope preserved you also get to see two deleted musical numbers - Let's just say It's great to see new scenes when you've thought you saw all there was to see from MGM.
So, they make a bet with Tim to return exactly 10 years later (October 11, 1955 at 12 noon), tearing a dollar bill into three pieces to remind each of their pledge, before going their separate ways.Cyd Charisse (who surprisingly doesn't dance with Kelly in this one), Dolores Gray, and Jay Flippen round out the cast.Ten years later, each of the war buddies actually does return, though Tim doesn't really recognize them as each of the old friends have undergone more than a physical change: educated Ted, who'd been the "most likely to succeed" with plans to become a lawyer or more, heartbroken that his sweetheart got married while he was serving his country, lived the high life partying & bar hopping with different women every night, gambled and lived day-to-day such that he's got no savings and his current gig, managing an up-and-coming boxer (Steve Mitchell, uncredited), needs to pan out for him; artist Doug, who'd hoped to become a famous painter one day, finds himself in a failing, childless marriage after selling out, settling for drawing caricatures for an advertising agency's campaigns; and blue collar Angie, the happiest of the three, who's running a roadside diner called the Cordon Bleu with his wife, with whom he has several young children.Needless to say, the reunion isn't a very happy one as the three discover they not only have nothing in common anymore but really don't like each other, or what they've become, either.
She could also sing, as demonstrated several times.Despite a number of unusual dance numbers, including the 'trash can lid' dance by the drunken trio, Kelly's impressive roller skating street dance, Dailey's drunken unpredictable 'lampshade' act, and Cyd's"Baby You Knock me Out" song and dance , I can understand why this film lacked the audience appeal of "On the Town".It's not just the obvious fact that the 3 buddies at the beginning of the film realize they have become irrelevant strangers to each other for most of the rest of the film.
In 'It's Always Fair Weather', Gene Kelly, Michael Kidd & Dan Dailey play three GI's returning home after WWII.
IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, the little musical that could, makes its point resoundingly with comical numbers of song and dance.
Doug, Angie, and Ted sing their praises to friendship with no intention of keeping in touch in the intervening years, but vow to the doubtful bartender Tim that even ten years from now they will be as good a friends as they are now.This is a great film; not so much for its technical virtues, though the dance numbers are exhilarating; especially the garbage can number and the number Gene Kelly performs on roller skates, but because of its unabashed optimism about life.
The dances with Michael Kidd and Dan Dailey and Kelly are well done, as is the gym dance number between Cyd Charisse and the pugs at Stillman's.
White some other reviewers seem to give this film a hard time, I found a new musical favorite, in this tale of three war buddies (Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, and Michael Kidd), who vow to meet 10 years to the day, to prove to the bartender of their favorite hangout, that they won't forget each other and will remain friends. |
tt1440345 | This Must Be the Place | Cheyenne is a wealthy former rock star, now bored and jaded in his 20-year retirement in Dublin. He retired after two of his teenaged fans committed suicide. He travels to New York to reconcile with his estranged father during his final hours, only to arrive too late. The reason he gives for not communicating with his father for 30 years was that his father rejected him when he put on goth make-up at the age of 15. He reads his father's diary and learns about his father's persecution in Auschwitz at the hands of former SS officer Alois Lange. He visits a professional Nazi hunter named Mordecai Midler who tells him that Lange is small fry.
Cheyenne begins a journey across the United States to track down Lange. Cheyenne finds the wife of Lange, Lange's granddaughter and a businessman. He buys a large gun. At the gun shop, a bystander delivers a soliloquy about a certain type of pistol that allows people to "kill with impunity," and given that ability, "if we’re licensed to be monsters we end up having just one desire – to truly be monsters."
When Cheyenne eventually tracks Lange down with the aid of Mordecai, Lange, now blind, says that he received hate mail from Cheyenne's father for decades. Lange recounts the incident that led to Cheyenne's father's obsession with Lange, in which Cheyenne's father peed his pants from fear; Lange describes this as a "minor incident" in comparison to the true horrors of Auschwitz, but mentions that he came to admire the man's single-minded determination to dedicate his life to making his own miserable. Cheyenne takes a photo of Lange and whispers that it was an injustice for his father to die before Lange did. Cheyenne forces the old blind man to walk out into the salt flats naked, like a Holocaust victim; skin and bones and numb with fear. Cheyenne and Mordecai drive away soon afterwards, leaving him still standing in the flats.
Cheyenne travels home via airplane (something he had previously had a strong phobia of), cuts his rockstar hair and stops wearing his goth make-up, jewelry and outfits. | revenge, psychedelic, romantic, flashback | train | wikipedia | In Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's English-language debut following his 2008 Cannes hit 'Il Divo', the two-time Academy Award winner takes on an unlikely comedic role as an over-the-hill pop star named Cheyenne and pulls it off with aplomb.
As is typical of such characters, Cheyenne suffers from depression, and besides doing the groceries while his fireman of a wife (Frances McDormand) is off at work, spends most of his time in the day hanging out with a spunky teen Mary (Eve Hewson) at a café in a shopping mall.Purpose is what is lacking in his life- haunted by the suicide of two brothers who said they were inspired by his lyrics, Cheyenne has not been able to return to his music since.
For the first half hour, Sorrentino familiarises his audience with the idiosyncrasies of his lead character as well as his marriage with his wife Jane, and thanks to an empathetic performance by Penn, your heart will go out to this lost soul searching for that elusive thing called meaning.
It is testament to Penn's flawless performance that you'll still feel the warmth and heart behind his character's eccentricities.Cheyenne awakens from his stupor when he gets news that his father is dying and promptly makes the travel by cruise- because of his fear of flying- to New York.
So when his cousin Richard (Liron Levo) informs him that his dad was obsessed with tracking down a Nazi war criminal at Auschwitz named Aloise Lange (Heinz Lieven), Cheyenne takes it upon himself to complete his father's mission.And so begins a road trip across the United States, each pit-stop in Michigan, New Mexico and finally Utah offering memorable encounters with locals that in their own way serve to give him closure and reconciliation.
Less patient viewers will probably be frustrated, but those willing to accept the laid-back tone of the film will find Cheyenne's journey a rather therapeutic one- especially in its closing lesson on the importance of learning to let go of the past.Sorrentino, who co-wrote the script with Umberto Contrarello, also lightens the mood of the film with some well-placed deadpan humour, delivered with panache by Penn.
Among his co-stars, McDormand shines in her role as Cheyenne's wife, and a sequence where she is practising tai-chi in her lawn while distracted by her husband in the upper window one of the best moments in the film.For rock fans, the participation of David Bryne is no doubt a highlight in itself, and Sorrentino pleases his fans with an extended concert scene that has the rock star performing the title song of the film while a woman in a room that reflects a period setting floats above the crowd.
It tells the story of Cheyenne, a middle-aged, diverge and somewhat bored former rock star who lives a quiet life with his spirited wife Jane in a large house in Dublin, Ireland.
Cheyenne hangs out with his friend Jeffery who goes on and on about his many lovers, has a close relationship with a young girl from his neighborhood named Mary and is trying his luck as a stockbroker, but when he learns that his father whom he has not seen for thirty years is dying, he leaves to make peace with him.This French, Irish and Italian co-production which was initiated by Paolo Sorrentino's interest in Nazi war criminals, is a humorous, rhythmic and efficiently edited drama, a gracefully narrated and well-paced story about family relations, identity, interpersonal relations, reconciliation, war, vengeance and love and a rare study of character which draws an intriguing portrayal of a distinguished man who sets out on a journey of discovery that leads him towards a greater understanding of himself and his estranged relationship with a father he barely knew.Paolo Sorrentino's directing is distinct and the cinematography by his frequent collaborator Luca Bigazzi is eminent in this character-driven and plot-driven road-movie which is impelled and reinforced by its quick-witted dialog and the detailed and excellent acting performance by Sean Penn who is accompanied by Frances McDormand, Judd Hirsch and Kerry Condon's great supporting acting performances.
I had to keep reminding myself that this was Sean Penn and these continued reminders simply made his performance all the more brilliant.In the manner of an 'old Master',Paolo Sorrentino places layer after layer of subtle strokes to compose a mesmerizing work.
Its very slow paced road trip, but Penn carries that overwhelmingly with his outstanding performance of the character, who reminds of course of Robert Smith, but in a superb way.
This must be the slowest movie I've ever seen, and I was completely fascinated: slowly moving things on screen, a slowly moving camera, a main character who walks and talks slowly, and last but not least, a slowly developing story.
In a time when everything has to go faster and faster, this film just takes its time.Cheyenne as a character could have been created by Tim Burton: a weird, lovable outsider who doesn't seem to belong to this world.About Sean Penn's mumbling: English is not my first language, but I didn't think it was that bad.
I understood from the plot that it was about an aging rocker, I understood that it was about finding his fathers executioner an ex-Nazi war criminal who is a refugee in the US.Sean Penn mumbled, whispering thru out the entire movie just made it difficult and frustrating to try to understand what he was saying most of the time.Penns interaction with other characters was unbelievable and completely wooden.
Three weeks ago I see the trailer for THIS MUST BE THE PLACE and thought "This looks like a pretty good film I have to see it" I was not disappointed THIS MUST BE THE PLACE was all I thought it was going to be and much more it was a stunning captivating film as a aging rock star Cheyenne (Sean Penn) in a Oscar worthy performance seeks revenge for the sadistic Nazi concentration camp guard that may still be alive who was especially hard on his just deceased father.
This one on the other hand tries to be more artsy than it really is.At first I didn't like how Sean Penn portrayed Cheyenne, but later on in the movie I completely forgot that I was watching Mr. Penn.
The plot doesn't take off until half way thru and even then it feels like you've already watched this movie for hours.There's an insane amount of camera trickery, almost every scene uses some camera dolly or crane thing, even if it serves no purpose other than moving the camera around in an "imaginative way".
Bless.David Byrne's cameo felt as much an awkward non-sequitur as the inclusion of The Lovin' Spoonful in "Whats up, Tiger Lily?" and that was 1966 so I guess the director achieved something there.I personally think David Byrne isn't clever, original or interesting so I'm probably biased.If you like David Byrne, want to see Sean Penn play Robert Smith's Aspergers doppelganger and like high levels of quirkiness delivered quite slowly, watch it.
Byrne, on the other hand, takes over a full scene with a stirring if over-long rendition of the song from which the film takes its title, but he then promptly dies like a rabbit stuck in headlights in the subsequent scene looking as though he cannot come to terms with Penn's character.'Place' is billed as a comedy and despite strong comic moments, they often feel out of place.
This Must Be the Place (2011)Sean Penn tries very hard in this film, taking on a role of the worn out and disturbed rock star (Cheyenne) living in isolation.
It is rare that I will switch a film off after 10 minutes, this is a man who sat through Tree of Life, but this film forced me to reach for the remote.It is little wonder that the Irish economy is in such dire straits if it is wasting it's money on a film about Robert Smith having suffered a stroke.Ozzie Osbourne would have been better in the lead role - at least then it would have been funny.
Like the creator thought he made it for it to be viewed as art and that it will become a cult movie or something.If you don't mind staring at a film with no relative story to the actors and can endure slow and rather mixed up scenes which are not tied up to the rest of the plot and the ending, then fine, go ahead and watch it.
And so, he gives us this: a story so buried and convoluted by his resistance to anything remotely resembling coherence that by the end of the movie, you feel like any extra on the film could step into a shot and the film would be about him or her for the closing five minutes because...
Unfortunately, because it's the highlight and really has nothing to do with the rest of the film, it only emphasizes how little else this movie has to offer.I've seen worse, but having just watched it, I've yet to shake its awfulness off me and would be hard-pressed to name one.
I am not a Penn fan, although I would not rule out a movie just because he is in it.In this particular movie, I really disliked him for lots of reasons: the exasperating monotone of his speech; the phoniness of all his "conversations"; the weird and yet dull interaction with the many bizarre characters populating the movie, etc
The word "boring" is used quite often when we explain why we did not like a movie.
Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino's This Must be the Place is a beautiful film featuring an exceptional performance from Sean Penn.
It's a beautifully absurd character, and while the initial compulsion may be to laugh at him, very quickly Penn's commitment to Cheyenne wraps its hands around your heart and draws you in like no other performance this year.Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's This Must Be The Place follows Cheyenne, an apparently briefly influential glam/goth musician (think Penn as Robert Smith from The Cure) trudging along in an existence of somewhat self-imposed obscurity.
There's a very fine line between quirky charm and annoying pretension, but Sorretino and Penn, not to mention the top-tier supporting cast and soundtrack, have managed to create the most heart-warming and moving film of 2012 thus far with This Must Be The Place, and there's unlikely to be anything else quite like it for years to come.tinribs27.wordpress.com.
Cheyenne (Sean Penn) is a weird looking retired rock star living in Dublin.
So he decides to continue the hunt himself.There is nothing wrong with weird, and I like Sean Penn's odd looking soft spoken ex-rocker character.
I was looking forward to this movie coming out as I live in Dublin and was hearing stories about Sean Penn being seen in various pubs around town when they were shooting it.
Although this is my favorite genre - that's why the generous rating - it lacked the melancholy of an indie.Its understandable the weirdness, unusual social behavior and even abrupt situations but what is not is the fact you can't tie an end to it, no metaphoric connection at all.Sean Penn is a brilliant actor and if I wasn't aware of ozzy Osbourne maybe he could have pulled it off.But under all the criticism he did make the character real,lost,uncertain but alas unauthentic.It could have been all a different ball game if it wasn't Ozzy that was impersonated.Plot was good pick for an indie but needed much explanation all the way.It was easy to be carried away seeing the unusual characters but scenario just seem to be aligning itself with the weirdness of the character made it difficult to buy.I liked the fact how story unfold with so many questions raised in the beginning getting answered in the end keeping curiosity alight.
Although it certainly won't be for everyone, this wonderfully shot and uniquely charming story provides not only a strong plot, but also one of Sean Penn's best performances on screen.
The stripped down synopsis would describe the film as a road trip story about an aging rock star who's going through a mid-life crisis, only to find out his father has died.
On his journey he meets some interesting and enlightening characters, and as the road takes him on some strange paths, he finds something more substantial than just an old Nazi.The film stars Sean Penn in the lead as Cheyenne, a soft-spoken 50-year-old who bears an odd resemblance to The Cure's Robert Smith.
Make no mistake about it, this film does a lot of things right, but it's Penn's performance that pushes it over the top.Francis McDormand also provides a stellar performance, playing Cheyenne's loving wife of 35 years, Jane.
If you are interested in complex characters, beautiful cinematography, wonderful performances and deep story telling this movie is for you.
This is a really strange movie that takes the audience on a weird personal journey of this character that turns into a road trip film pretty quickly.
Sean Penn give a strange but great performance channeling the look of The Cult and some of the mannerisms of Ozzy to create a truly unique character.
The story isn't anything all that original, but thanks to the addition of the Penn's character and his unique look and behavior it shifts the film into new directions.
The first half of this film is a bit slow and takes a little bit of an effort to really stick with it, but once it gets into the road trip aspect it becomes much more entertaining thanks to the other interesting people he meets along the way.
When you see the box and read the synopsis you will be hard pressed to not be intrigued, but while it sounds like a ridiculous film, it actually works really well delivering emotion, humor and redemption all in a simple road trip movie..
The rock stars of the film is called Cheyenne, but in reality is Robert Smith, the leader of the Cure although Sorrentino uses the character as a figure of the collective imagination and adapts it to his purposes in making the protagonist of an adventure as any hero comics.
No, they are not broke, it's just what she does.The two of them are surrounded by some interesting characters in a film that moves at a snail's pace.You never really know where it is going, but at the end you realize that it was good for Cheyenne to get out of his world and grow up..
The whole movie has weird and quirky with fun strange scenes without real meaning (including pingpong, a goose etc).The story of him going after his fathers Auschwitz torturer was also a bit "oh...we need a storyline too...hmm".
Cheyenne (Sean Penn), a retired rock star living off his royalties in Dublin, returns to New York City to find the man responsible for a humiliation suffered by his recently deceased father during WWII.This film took a little bit to warm up to.
definitely surprising, but there is a story, or rather an "Arc"; this one is build on a classic scheme, but what is the ultimate goal i cannot tell unfortunately.now that i think of it, there are so many questions, that if i tried to get deeper about them, it would turn out that the movie is a complete trash there is a weird ex-rockstar and his company, there is a back story, the supporting crew, the side lines and the main quest it is quite funny how sean penn's character goes to fulfill his 'mission' - on the outside he seems weak, but is there a monster lurking beneath it?
I really did not look into the film before watching, so, imagine my surprise to see Penn as the main actor, i really do not like any films with him in, and then he does this, what was that about?, only he could have pulled it off, and with such confidence, not one moment did he falter in his character.
This was simply on TV, and so I watched it, thinking how bad could a movie with Sean Penn and Frances McDormand get?
The movie certainly sounds intriguing enough as Penn decides to carry on his father's quest, however, over a third of the film elapses before it reaches this point and then the pre-hunt scenes end up resonating more than the hunt ones.
An artsy European Film flavored with a piercing performance from Sean Penn with a beautiful mounting of images and fluid framing that is mesmerizing.The witticisms of the main character, a retired, suffering, inflicted and conflicted Rock Star, are dark humor delights.
An ageing, softly spoken Gothic rock star named Cheyenne (Sean Penn) is bored with his life in Dublin.
Penn's character fills not only the screen, it follows you after the end credits, with his straight and naive logic and belief in truth, with his strange but yet so human way of talking and behaving.There are several beautiful and memorable scenes in this film.
But maybe this was intentional to separate him from the other residents including Cheyenne's pretty Goth girl/friend, whom he's trying to set up with a naïve, not very hip young man.These first-act characters are interesting, and the Dublin scenes have the mellow, involving pace of a foreign film – but soon we're transferred to America where THIS MUST BE THE PLACE becomes an ABOUT SCHMIDT (or in this case, ABOUT SMITH) style road movie where Cheyenne, receiving documents from his recently departed father...
I keep forcing myself to see Sean Penn movies because I know deep down he's a good actor: Milk, Fast Times..
The movie does start off a bit slow, as the characters are being developed, but it quickly gets into the story and you will be entranced as it reaches it's climax.I gave this film ten stars because I could not find a flaw in the acting, cinematography, direction, or storyline. |
tt0183306 | Jinnah | The film opens with the words of Professor Stanley Wolpert:
The film begins with the events surrounding the death of Jinnah. On 11 September 1948, the ailing Jinnah's plane lands at Karachi Airport from Quetta where he was retreating at higher altitude in Ziarat. Jinnah's deteriorating health had led doctors to urge him to go to Karachi. On his way to Governor House Jinnah's ambulance breaks down with engine failure, where fate leaves the dying Quaid of Pakistan in a state of confusion.
The film then cuts to a heavenly place where Jinnah is awaiting the final judgement on his deeds, where it is found that the celestial bureaucrats in charge have misplaced Jinnah's life-file and the whole heavenly computer network is down. With nothing but time on his hands, Jinnah has to answer the questions of his life asked by the heaven guide or Narrator (Shashi Kapoor) in order to decide where Jinnah should be sent, to Heaven or Hell.
The guide takes Jinnah to 1947 where, at the Simla conference with Lord Mountbatten, Jinnah demanded a homeland for British Indian Muslims. After World War II, the British Imperial Government intends to withdraw grant independence to the subcontinent. This would mean a Hindu-dominated state. Religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims that were already increasing further erupt into violence throughout the subcontinent, leading to the idea of the partition and dissolution of British India. Jinnah's sister Fatima Jinnah starts to campaign for Muslims and is arrested by an Indian Imperial Police officer for inciting Muslims. In a meeting with Mountbatten, Mohandas Gandhi(Mahatma Gandhi) proposes making Jinnah the first prime minister of the Union of India in order to avoid the formation of two states instead of one, but Jawaharlal Nehru opposes the idea. Jinnah in any case refuses the offer and says, "Why do you want to force reluctant partners into a marriage?" He argues that by encouraging the Muslims to live in a separate country, violence will abate.
Flashbacks resume when the Guide recounts the marital life of Jinnah, when he fell in love and married a Parsi named Rattanbai Petit, later known as Maryam Jinnah, against the will of her parents, mainly on grounds of religion. In 1922, Jinnah faces political isolation as he devoted every spare moment to be the voice of moderation in a nation torn by Hindu-Muslim antipathy. This created tension between Rattan and Jinnah. She finally leaves him with their daughter in September 1922, and they eventually separate in 1927. Ratti died of cancer on 18 February 1929. The death of Ratti had a huge impact on Jinnah's life. Allama Iqbal writes to Jinnah to run the Muslim League and fight for Pakistan. Initially, Jinnah refuses but accepts after the betrayal of the Indian National Congress. He went to back to British India from the UK in order to start political journey of two nation theory. In 1940, the Muslim League annual conference is held from 22–24 March. Jinnah addresses thousands of Muslims and gives them the assurance of the birth of Pakistan.
Guide questions Jinnah as to who he loves the most apart from Ratti and Fatima. He then remembers his daughter who married a Parsi boy without his permission.
While addressing a Muslim League conference in 1947, rebel Indian Muslims who were not in the favor of Pakistan attack the conference, arguing that if Pakistan is to be a Muslim state it cannot give equal rights to women and non-Muslims. However, the independence of Pakistan was carried out and Guide and Jinnah saw the massacre of Muslims in migration done by Hindus and Sikhs. Jinnah is sworn in as the first Governor-General of Pakistan and announces Liaqat Ali Khan as the first Prime Minister of Pakistan.
After independence and the end of British rule, Pakistan stands as a new nation and sanctuary for the Muslims of the subcontinent. Jinnah is given the title of Quaid-e-Azam of Pakistan. Jinnah waits for the first train carrying Muslims who left India for Pakistan, but when the train arrives, they are all found dead save for one infant child. Fatimah and Lady Edwina Mountbatten visit refugees and Iris learns the importance of independence. Mountbatten betrays Jinnah as the Hindu Maharaja, Sir Hari Singh, stalls his decision on which nation to join. With the population in revolt in October 1947, aided by Pakistani irregulars, the Maharaja accedes to India; Indian troops are airlifted in. Jinnah objects to this action, and orders that Pakistani troops move into Kashmir. This leads to a war between India and Pakistan then and afterward from time to time in the Kashmir conflict.
The film jumps into a final fictional scene of Lord Louis Mountbatten (last Viceroy of British India) in a Heavenly Court. Jinnah is fighting a case against him over his betrayal. The film ends with Jinnah and his angel judge traveling back in time to the scene of Muslim refugees. Jinnah expresses his sorrow over the plight of the refugees and result during the division of Punjab. They chant "Pakistan Zindabad" and "Quid-e-Azam Zindabad" in response which ends the film. | psychedelic, historical | train | wikipedia | Christopher Lee's excellent performance goes a long way towards making Jinnah a sympathetic character despite the controversial decisions he takes; I would say that this is some of his finest acting and I found the final scenes very moving indeed.The flashback technique works well most of the time, although it's not always clear where some scenes are set (England, India, Pakistan or the imagination).
and that was a start of my education on the subcontinent and its politicians that created India nd Pakistan today....i find the movie Jinnah simply fantastic.
and even though i was not very well versed with the history of Pakistan, (in fact i wasn't even sure where Pakistan was exactly before seeing this movie), what i found was a series of reports by great biographers and historians, who have instead of being factual have decided to be emotional to the point of being ridiculously biased.
Mountbatten is quoted as saying about Jinnah; "...That son of a Bit--, could turn you to stone with one look..." sounds like he was scared?but its much easier to praise a movie like "gandhi" whose hero is such a simple case study, perfect in his nature and morals..etc etc...
No one knows the real Jinnah, but many have formed opinions based on 'stories' with no real truth behind them.i read a excerpt from an article written by an Indian author, who wrote that in a rally held in 1930's, Jinnah was giving a speech in English and almost no one in the predominantly Hindi speaking crowd understood what he was saying, but when a British journalist queried a bystander on this he replied; "Its Mohammed Ali Jinnah, we trust him, whatever he says is right"i don't think a man described in an unkind and biased history, as something close to Hitler, would command such respect and admiration from his people.
Best work under wraps - Christopher Lee Christopher Lee may be starring in the forth-coming Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Star Wars: Episode II, but the lack of distribution for his 1998 film Jinnah continues to be a source of frustration for the actor.
Lee who plays the title role of Mohammed Ali Jinnah who founded the nation of Pakistan in 1947 shot the film on location there over a ten-week period in 1997 amid significant controversy (including attempts to have him arrested and deported).
It has absolutely nothing to do with Fundamentalism," said Lee, adding that the film was not a political movie and had"played in Pakistan for a couple of months to packed houses and there was not one dissenting voice." Lee did hit out at the portrayal of Jinnah in Richard Attenborough's Oscar-winning movie Gandhi, however, telling Empire Online: "The presentation of him in the film Gandhi was on the level of distortion.
The film is very good and brings out the best about Jinnah- a leader who sacrificed his home, family and love for his people.
i think apart from certain aspects which can be presented more efficiently, the film is a good presentation of the life of Jinnah.the movie has portrayed the life of a politician who never went to jail during a whole revolution.
over all a good film, some people may disagree with the creation of two nation theory but no body can object the personality of Jinnah as a law abiding and man of principal politician..
Very neutral film, without making Jinnah an angel and Hindu's or British the scapegoat.I only feel sorry for my country men , majority of whom will not be able to understand the story telling technique..
some people objected to a hindu (Shashi Kapoor) playing an angel, some objected that the role of Jinnah was given to an actor who played Dracula, and still others objected to the director, since he is persona non grata in Pakistan, because more than 2 decades ago he made the film that defied martial law regimes and made a monkey out of a certain general (now deceased).
Jinnah the Movie' is tribute to this great personality of the previous century.The film took a long time in making and was surrounded with all sorts of rumors and controversies, but the end product is definitely very impressive.
Christopher Lee gives probably the best performance of his life and Shashi Kapoor deserves special applaud for working in a film that negates many of the India's political beliefs.
A host of actors from Pakistan television have also performed in minor roles although the pick of them is Talat Hussain who shines in his cameo appearance.All in all Jinnah the Movie' is a tribute to the great leader who, though called snobbish and arrogant, was respected by all his contemporaries for his integrity and honesty.
This movie??Compare it to any routine box-office movie,,whether it be some action,thriller,true story or any other,,this movie has got a very very different and a bewitching touch to it with Mr.Jinnah explaining his motives behind everything he did,what a concept,awesome.Just like a live interview,I really appreciate the writer,the director,the whole team for carving out such a splendid concept and the actors/actresses deserve great applause for the work they did.
A must-watch movie for everybody,,go and watch it whether you be a student,a professional,a teacher,a lawyer or even a family-man,you'd get many many lessons for your life to come when you get to see Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah's life story on screen,it's what can make you rise and individual and as a nation too..
It is a great character portrayal of a key figure in the history of the Indian subcontinent, and it peels away layers of Jinnah's life in the context of the events that shaped the independence struggle and the partition into India and Pakistan.
Lee, Fox, Kapoor, and Lintern were especially notable.Being from India, I especially appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the life and persona of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who no doubt was among the most important historic figures of the time that shaped the history of the two countries.
I liked the form of the film where Jinnah is challenged and questioned on many of the events in his personal life and on his political ideology.
However, films like Jinnah and also Gandhi to some extent offer a critical glimpse into the human aspects of the leaders of those times and what made them Quaid-e-Azam or Mahatma for the people then and also for the generations that followed..
The Quaid-e-Azam (Muhammed Ali Jinnah) is portrayed as a leader of unwavering integrity and impeccable determination, all set to win a country for the hapless Muslims of the sub-continent.
NO AMOUNT OR REASON AS EXCUSE FOR THE DISTORTION OF HISTORY CAN BE JUSTIFIED.It may be the best acting performance of Christopher Lee, quite in contrast with his earlier dreadful image of Count Dracula and mostly negative roles as villain like in the Bond movie "The Man with The Golden Gun" ....
but, he was, indeed too bulky to portray an aged and skinny Jinnah, as in reality.All said, the movie is respectably poised to exalt the saintly image of an honest and principled leader of the Muslims of the South Asian subcontinent..
The movie follows Muhammad Ali Jinnah through his life, bringing out his sincerity, his suave educated personality, and his passion.
It's not a big budget movie, probably, but then Hollywood doesn't like a Muslim leader --- even when he was in favor of the separation of religion from the state, and unlike Gandhi, disapproved of mixing religion with politics.
Unfortunately, Dehlavi's controversial past would come back to haunt him two decades later during the filming of Jinnah.Dehlavi's contentious choice of making a western Christian—that too someone whose most famous portrayal hitherto had been that of Count Dracula—to portray the part of Muhammad Ali Jinnah didn't go well with the extremist elements in Pakistan.
Christopher Lee considers Jinnah to be the greatest achievement of his long and illustrious career.The cinematic importance of Dehlavi's film can be easily gauged by the fact that till date it has been cinema's first and only major attempt at capturing in essence the philosophies and principles that underlined Muhammad Ali Jinnah's life.
Jinnah being the grand architect behind the partition of British India into two separate states based on religion, a Hindu state and a Muslim state, was hailed as a hero in the newly formed state of Pakistan.
As Mr. Jinnah defends the accusations made against him, the audience is treated to sumptuous vignettes from different junctures in History as the story follows important events in Mr. Jinnah's life (not necessary in a linear fashion): be it his early days as a love- struck lawyer who dotes on a beautiful Parsi girl named Ruttie (whom he eventually married); his later days as the greatest adversary of Mahatma Gandhi; or his brief stint as the 1st Governor General of Pakistan before finally succumbing to tuberculosis.
When the film began, I noticed right away something that surely must have upset many Pakistanis when the film debuted...the man playing Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the Father of their country, was played by the very English Christopher Lee!
The man M.A.Jinnah in my opinion wasted and spoiled his life for an incapable , callous corrupt nation nation like Pakistan.Although he was a man who thoroughly believed in what he do , always kept his principles come 1st, what he meant he really do but he failed to forecast what his followers will do to his country for which he made hard efforts to build.
If talking about this film i will say that however this movie may be very good , maybe accurate but if the future a Pakistan is concerned this country now is a failed state and its not gonna last,nobody can save it.
While Pakistanis are right to claim that Jinnah created their nation for them from India, they must also remember that there would be nothing called Pakistan had British India not won her Independence.
If not for Gandhi, India would have taken a few more decades to gain independence and by that time Quaid and his ideas of Partition would have long been dead.I would give an above-average rating of 6 for a relatively bold story telling and good acting, but on the whole it was quite disappointing..
'Jinnah' is probably the best movie to come out of Pakistan.
At best the movie is an attempt to show Jinnah as a man wronged by the Western media, and Gandhi and the others wrongly depicted as martyrs.
It's a great movie but if you really want to know about Muhammad Ali Jinnah read a decent history book (perfiberabally not one from USA or India) and the guy who commented about the killings in East Pakistan should also consider Abrahim Lincoln's USA when he killed millions of people to win his civil war.
The movie has a bazaar theme that Jinnah after his death journeys in time with an angel to review events in his life as well as other's lives.
Mr. Dehalvi should know better that what has happened in Pakistan since its inception is also what Gandhi, Nehru and various British officials forewarned about and thought exactly why Pakistan should not be created.From acting point of view, Richard Lintern portrays young Jinnah vibrantly well but Christopher Lee some how does not seem to get out of his Dracula shell and much of the portrayal of older Jinnah is dull, monotonous and zombie-like.One item well below the horizon and was done very well was the symphonic version of Pakistani anthem done by Nigel Clarke and Michael Csanyi-Wills which is one of a kind I have heard..
Though the movie was an obvious attempt to portray Jinnah in a good light, we see that while he was preaching "all religions are welcome in Pakistan", and fighting for a separate country for muslims.
Obviously this movie tries to justify Jinnah's "nations based on religions" and "people will die, but that is the only way to divide the country by fanning the religious flames" policy.
However the director does not feel this small matter is worth a mention.The disaster of this film is that Jinnah is a very interesting man.
However, I need not have worried since, not only was it a compelling biopic (the titular founder of the Muslim state of Pakistan was a contemporary – and religious rival – of "Mahatma" Gandhi) but one that was tackled in a quite original fashion for pictures of its ilk.Having mentioned the beloved Hindu leader, at 110 minutes against the 188 of Richard Attenborough's GANDHI (1982), the film under review feels somewhat like a subplot within the epic narrative of that multiple Oscar-winner – in which Jinnah is said to have been unflatteringly portrayed (I have not watched it for years, so I cannot really say myself).
Ironically, despite their often radically different approach (Jinnah coming across as Malcolm X to his Martin Luther King), Gandhi was assassinated by his own people because of his ultimate consent to the country's "partition" – allowing the Muslim minority in India to have its own nation; in the film, he even meets Jinnah in the computer-driven(!) afterlife and chides him for it.Incidentally, it is scenes such as the latter – which surprisingly abound here – that stand out, even more perhaps than the expected stirring speeches (powerful though these undeniably are); in fact, the movie emerges as more of a fantasia (though obviously far removed from the self-indulgent excesses of Ken Russell's treatment of many a classical composer in his 1970s heyday) than a typical biopic.
Even today it is screened on Movie channels at unearthly hours.The likeness of Mr. Lee to the real life Jinnah more then justify his choice for the leading role and despite its artistic slant, the historical accuracy of people and events give the film a chilling touch of reality that veterans and historians will appreciate.This is a highly moving film but in contrast to Attenborough's Ghandi film it does not shower the hero with praises and gold dust.
The best thing that could happen to this film would have been to caste Ali G as Jinnah.
Gandhi did not want India to be divided along religious lines, Jinnah was pressured by various Muslim groups for a separate homeland.This film is biased in favour of Pakistan and grim scenes of massacres are highlighted as the work of Hindus and Sikhs no mention of the destruction of Lahore's tolerant society by the Muslim League.As Mountbatten said " If I had known Jinnah was dying of tuberculosis I would have delayed Independence for a further six months and left an undivided India".Jinnah was no Muslim separatist in fact the entire opposite, this is not brought out in this film.He comes across as a visionary leader of a new nation, not as an urban sophisticated lawyer from London who had no interest in religion.All in all a very disappointing film which was never on general release..
In this regards I think it depicts the history with a pretty neutral point of view, many Indians and indeed many westerners have presented history in such a manner that even a neutral account seems to take a lot of gloss away from Congress leaders like Nehru and hence such remarks appear anti Nehru and anti Mountbatten.As far as the artistic value of the movie, although its a nice effort, I believe its not perfect although for Christopher Lee it was a job well done.
The film is a recollection of those last years with World War II, the British leaving India, and the partition that created India and Pakistan.
But that's a whole other film.With Richard Lintern playing a younger Jinnah and showing incidents of Jinnah's personal life, Lee is the older Jinnah and the principal actors in the creation of Pakistan by way of the partition are James Fox as Lord Louis Mountbatten, Maria Aitken as Lady Edwina Mountbatten and Robert Ashby as Jawaralal Nehru.
But Lee and Lintern create a fine joint portrayal of Pakistan's founder and Jinnah is a fine film both entertaining and educational..
Best movie ever made based on truth mostly liked the end part when Jinnah asks for forgiveness but there is nothing to forgive only thank him.If he did not step up for Pakistan it will never come into existence and you all can see in India as today how they treat Muslims and also you can search for Kashmir which was a part of Pakistan as decided what are they doing in there.What he did was for all the Muslims of Pakistan whether today Pakistanis forget this.This movie was a great reminder of what he did for us even his own health was in bad shape he did not care for his life but cared for 180 million people of Pakistan.
This movie was superb...it showed Jinnah's transformation from a man who was the champion of Hindu-Muslim unity to when he decided to ask for Pakistan in Muslim-majority areas of British India.
This movie goes to the heart of the creation of Pakistan and explores the life and struggle of it's GREAT leader Muhammed Ali Jinnah.
this movie was awarded a SILVER REMI AWARD at the 1999 WORLDFEST in Texas,USA.lee clearly stands out from the crowd in his style of dialogue delivery and acting,James fox looks good as Mountbatten so does Shashi Kapoor as narrator,some scenes in this movie are worth watching especially the last one,Richard Lintern also does not let down with his performance as young Jinnah,the background score is OK,and so is the screenplay,the director has really and honestly depicted the life history of a forgotten leader,the movie is totally unbiased in its format and tries to look into the life of a great leader,all in all a must watch for anyone interested in historical biographies.one of the best biographical movies i have ever seen.
Then you come across a brilliant movie like "Jinnah" which weaves mindlessness, history, leadership and unpredictability into one seamless work of art. |
tt0097570 | In Country | Recent high school graduate Samantha Hughes, 17, lives in fictional Hopewell, Kentucky. Her uncle Emmett Smith, a laid-back Vietnam veteran, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Samantha's father, Dwayne, was killed in Vietnam at 21 after marrying and impregnating Samantha's mother, Irene. Samantha finds some old photographs, medals, and letters of her father, and becomes obsessed with finding out more about him.
Irene, who has moved to Lexington, Kentucky with her second husband, wants Samantha to move in with them and go to college. But Samantha would rather stay with Emmett and try to find out more about her father. Her mother is no help, as she tells Samantha, "Honey, I married him a month before he left for the war. He was 19. I hardly even remember him." Finally, Samantha, Emmett and her grandmother visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Finding her father's name in the memorial releases cathartic emotions in Samantha and her family. | flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0329355 | Marion Bridge | Agnes (Molly Parker), an alcoholic and drug-user who is struggling to overcome her self-destructive behaviour, returns from Toronto, Ontario, to her Cape Breton Island hometown of Sydney, Nova Scotia, because of the failing health of her mother Rose (Marguerite McNeil). Rose, an Irish-Canadian who is also an alcoholic, lies dying of cancer at a local hospital. Agnes stays at her childhood home with her older sister Theresa (Rebecca Jenkins), a devout Catholic whose husband recently left her for a younger woman, and Louise (Stacy Smith), a middle sister who has retreated from the outside world. Waiting at their mother's deathbed, they are forced to face the resentments, trust issues, and scars of their past, particularly the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of their father, as they make peace with one another and with their mother.
The sisters bring their ailing mother home despite the mistrust they feel at Agnes' pledge to care for Rose, but Agnes cleans the house, acts responsibly, and even encourages Louise to play her guitar and socialize with a friend from church. When Theresa's husband Donnie is left by his girlfriend, Theresa feels compelled to comfort him and clean his house as she blames herself for his betrayal; he wanted children while she didn't, which she considers a sin. Agnes repeatedly drives out to a craft and gift shop in rural Marion Bridge, near Sydney, where she befriends a 16-year-old girl named Joanie (Ellen Page) who works at the shop. When Theresa finds out what Agnes has been doing, she angrily warns her sister not to tell Joanie about her relationship to their family, and she adamantly refuses to consider Agnes' suggestion that they talk to their father.
Eventually Theresa relents about Joanie and accompanies Agnes to meet her. Joanie's adoptive mother Chrissy (Hollis McLaren) comes to visit them and asks that they wait until Joanie is an adult before telling her their secret. It is implied that Joanie is the product of the incestuous relationship between Agnes and her father. When Joanie visits the sisters and asks Agnes whether she is her mother, Agnes tells her that Chrissy is her real mother. Before she dies, Rose asks her daughters to forgive her for ignoring things she didn't want to see as she believed it was best for everyone. The sisters finally visit their father, who is suffering from dementia, and his wife. With Agnes' encouragement, Louise buys a new truck and the sisters drive out to Marion Bridge for a picnic with Joanie and Chrissy. | dramatic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0035015 | The Magnificent Ambersons | The Ambersons are by far the wealthiest family in the small midwestern city of Indianapolis at the beginning of the 20th century. Eugene Morgan is a young man who is courting Isabel Amberson, but she rejects him after he publicly embarasses her. Isabel instead marries Wilbur Minafer, a passionless man she does not love. They have a child, George, whom she spoils and who becomes the terror of the town. The townspeople long to see George get his comeuppance.
George Minafer returns home from college during the holidays and attends a large party at the Amberson mansion hosted by his grandfather, Major Amberson. Among the guests are Eugene Morgan, now a widower who has just returned to town after a 20 year absence, and his daughter, Lucy. George instantly takes to the beautiful and charming Lucy but intensely dislikes Eugene, whom he sees as a social climber. He also ridicules Eugene's investment in the new "horseless carriage" technology (automobiles).
The next day, George, Fanny, Isabel, and Isabel's brother, Jack, take a sleigh ride. They pass Eugene and Lucy, whose primitive automobile has gotten stuck in the snow. George derides Eugene and his "horseless carriage". The Amberson sleigh then overturns, and Eugene (his vehicle now mobile again) gives everyone a ride back to the Minafer mansion. George is humiliated during the incident and angered by Eugene's attentions toward Isabel as well as his mother's obvious affection for Eugene.
George returns to college. Wilbur Minafer loses a substantial amount of money on bad investments, and soon afterward dies. George is largely unmoved by his father's death. The night after the funeral, George cruelly teases Fanny, who is besotted with Eugene.
Time passes, and Eugene becomes very wealthy in automobile manufacturing. Eugene also begins to court Isabel. One summer, he asks Isabel to tell George about their love, but she refuses, unwilling to risk her son's disapproval. Meanwhile, George proposes to Lucy. She rejects him, claiming he has no ambition in life other than to be wealthy and keep things as they are. George blames Eugene for turning Lucy against him. Lucy leaves town soon after, and the Ambersons invite the lonely Eugene to dinner. During the meal, George nastily criticizes automobiles in front of Eugene. The other family members are taken aback by his rudeness, but Eugene says that George may turn out to be right. That evening, George learns from his aunt Fanny that Eugene has been courting Isabel. George's uncle Jack confirms Fanny's revelation. Enraged, George rudely confronts a neighbor for spreading "gossip" about his mother. The next day, George refuses to let Eugene see his mother. Jack tells Isabel about George's terrible behavior, but she declines to do anything which might upset her son. Eugene writes to Isabel, asking her to choose between her son and his love. Isabel chooses George.
Lucy returns home in time to discover that George is taking his mother to Europe on an extended trip. George talks to Lucy in an attempt to discover if she loves him. She feigns indifference to his absence, and they part. Lucy is heartbroken, however, and faints.
Months pass. Jack Amberson returns from Europe and tells Eugene that Isabel is seriously ill. George, however, will not allow her to come home because he fears she will renew her relationship with Eugene. When Isabel starts to die, George finally relents and he and his mother return to Indianapolis. Eugene tries to see her, but George refuses to let him into the house. Eugene leaves when Fanny tells him that Isabel is on her deathbed. Isabel dies while holding George's hand, begging to see Eugene one last time.
Shortly after Isabel's death, Major Amberson learns he has only a short time to live. George is too self-centered and preoccupied with his own problems, and ignores his grandfather's revelation. Major Amberson dies, and the family learns his estate is worthless and there are numerous large debts. Jack leaves town to take a job in another city. George tells Fanny that he intends to live on her income, but she reveals that she lost everything after making bad investments. With the utilities having been turned off and the Amberson home and all their belongings soon to be sold, George and Fanny discover they have only a few hundred dollars to live on for the rest of the year.
Eugene asks Lucy if she will reconcile with George. Lucy instead tells her father a story about a Native American chieftain who was "pushed out on a canoe into the sea" when he became too obnoxious and overbearing, which Eugene understands to be an analogy for George.
Penniless, George gives up his job as a clerk at Roger Bronson's law firm, and finds entry-level but high-paying employment in a dynamite factory. This gives him enough money to live on and take care of Fanny. George wanders the newly-industrialized city, dazed by the modern society that has grown up around him. In his last night in the Amberson family home, George prays desperately by his dead mother's bed. The narrator says that no one is around to see George Minafer receive his comeuppance.
The next day, George is struck by an automobile and seriously injured. In the film's final scenes, Lucy is seen in the hospital at George's bedside, having reconciled with him. Eugene and Fanny walk arm in arm down the hospital corridor, as Eugene says that taking financial care of George and Fanny is what Isabel would have wanted. | romantic | train | wikipedia | (For an excellent account of this truly remarkable story behind the film, read Joseph McBride's bio "Orson Welles") 50 minutes of film were burned, however, the 88 minutes left for us to see contain some incredible, even revolutionary moments.Joseph Cotten plays his consummate "2nd place" character, a man unable to have his real true love.
Plot elements aside, this central theme is the powerful backbone that leads to the inevitable destruction of the narrow-minded Tim Holt.The latter aspects come across on screen so memorably because of Orson Welles' continued experimentation with film.
If only Welles stayed in America at the time and protected THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS from the long arm of the near-sighted studio system, he may have had #'s 1 and 2 on the AFI's list of 100 Greatest American films..
Some have even said that, scene for scene, it's a better film than "Citizen Kane."The opening montage, set to Welles' narration, is as good as anything of its kind that's been done before or after -- brilliantly, and I hate to use that word because it's so often overused, it achieves two things: 1) it sets up the dramatic side of the story, with Eugene's fawning for and losing the affections of Isabel, and 2) putting us in a specific, historical time and place.
She's a pressure cooker to begin with, but when the Ambersons hit rock-bottom she lets go, in a torrential, hysterical performance that's still getting praise today."The Magnificent Ambersons" also carries an equally dramatic story of Hollywood's assault on artistic expression; almost everyone knows that RKO seized the film and cut it to pieces while Welles was out doing his documentary "It's All True." Today there's other ways for great directors (Kubrick, Altman) to dodge the system, but film stock and equipment in those days could only be procured from big studios, and for the remainder of Welles' career his genius would only be seen fleetingly (his adaptations of Shakespeare, Kafka's "The Trial").
Agnes Moorhead, as the Neurotic aunt, gives a performance rarely equaled in movie history.Stanley Cortez was cinematographer for three great movies (and many other fine ones): "The Magnificent Ambersons," "Night of the Hunter," and "The Naked Kiss." Each relies strongly on its look and Cortez created three very different, memorable canvases.One fan hope against hope that the lost footage turns up in someone's basement, unlikely as that is.
Orson Welles was drawn to Tarkington's novel because Tarkington had been a friend of Welles' father and Welles identified strongly with the story, seeing something of his own family's history there.Whether it is better than Kane is a fun question for film clubs to debate (I did once but I don't now), but it is interesting to note that while Orson Welles was particularly bitter that RKO re-shot his ending to make it more appealing to audiences, if you read the novel you will see that it is the novel's ending that RKO tacked on.
While he was out of the country filming 'It's All True!' (another doomed film in the Welles cannon), RKO pictures, the studio that had granted Welles total freedom for Citizen Kane and a few future projects, cut out fifty minutes (mostly of the last fifty), put a happy ending, and released it on a double-bill with a B movie.
As he grows up, he's still a little hard-headed (played in one of the top, intense performances in any Welles film by Tim Holt), as he is against the changing of the times, in particular of Eugene's re-founded courtship of the mother following his father's death.
There is also the character of his Aunt Fanny, in another perfect performance from Agnes Moorhead (the mother from Citizen Kane).Alongside this examination of a family's downfall amid the changing of personal relations, and of George's own complex emotional problems, and of George's coming-of-age, there's also the examination of the transition from the horse and buggy to automobiles, to the heavier boost of the industrial age.
Stealing the acting honors throughout the production are Tim Holt with his superb portrayal of the spoiled brat heir-to-the-throne, so to speak and Agnes Moorehead as his Auntie, who put their plan into action to sabotage a relationship between the widowed Isbabelle Amberson and charmer Eugene Morgan.Overall, lives up to it's expectations of success, but suffers due to limited screen time and a very confusing plot for audiences of our generation.7/10.
And isn't it ironic that Tim Holt, son of cowboy actor Jack Holt, returned to the family business of B-Westerns (along with his sister Jennifer) after he turned in good performances in 2 of the greatest films ever made (his other major role was in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" -- he also had a minor role in "Stagecoach")?Read the novel if you want a full explanation of how the Amberson family lost its fortune.
Isabelle's imperious son George grows up and, thwarted in his own love for Lucy Morgan, develops an intense antipathy towards Eugene, the ever-present guest at the Ambersons' dinner table.Welles' affection for the Booth Tarkington novel which inspired this masterpiece is easy to understand.
No one will ever know what it would have been like if Orson Welles' original version had been allowed to stand as it was, but what is left is still extremely good despite the missing portions.The story of the leading residents in a turn-of-the-century town combines some interesting themes.
Welles regulars Joseph Cotten and Agnes Moorehead are especially good.The only real disappointment in the movie is that, due to all the cuts made against Welles' wishes, there are times when it is obvious that a scene or information is missing, since characters at times refer to events that are not quite familiar to the audience.
This approach is ideal for this kind of story of individuals within the context of historical fact, and although the content is totally different, it's not unlike the way in which Martin Scorsese would construct films like Raging Bull and Goodfellas decades later.The opening sequence of Magnificent Ambersons, in which Welles narrates the changing fashions of the 1870s and Eugene's courtship of Isabelle, is this film's equivalent of the "News on The March" sequence from Citizen Kane.
The story of the destruction of Orson Welles' second "Mercury" film THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS is pretty well described in these remarks on this thread.
But if it did, I wonder if we would end up siding with the powers that be at RKO or with Welles.About three or four years back a television version of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS was made on cable television, which contained far more of the novel than the deconstructed Welles' film currently does.
It was in Wise's interest to deflect any negative views about the butchering of the film for the sake of his own reputation (and it is interesting that in the years after he made that comment, Wise was given an Oscar for his life's contributions to movies - he gave some good ones, but he helped to destroy one great one).I think that if AMBERSONS had been a comedy Welles would not have had the same problem.
But it captured the mood of a time when the automobile was an unknown quantity, as well as a story of family and personal jealousy.The cast is excellent, especially Tim Holt as George, a character who is so nasty, he makes the current screen evils look like teddy bears.
The scene when he turns Joseph Cotton away from seeing his mother was magnificently played.Technically it's as interesting as Kane, but Orson Welles holds back, doesn't need to be so flashy, but instead, lets the story do the work, and it works.
For his second feature film directorial effort Orson Welles assembled a lot of his Citizen Kane alumni, Joseph Cotten, Erskine Sanford, Ray Collins, and Agnes Moorehead, for this screen adaption of the Booth Tarkington novel The Magnificent Ambersons.
The Magnificent Ambersons certainly didn't have that kind of a built in publicity gimmick.Even with the cuts that Welles objected to the film still has great merit, a fine group of players telling a good story.
Orson Welles's flawed and troubled film The Magnificent Ambersons is in some ways just as great as Citizen Kane.
George (Tim Holt) rejected modernization and kept his mother (Dolores Costello) from the man she loved (Joseph Cotten), who invented automobiles.This film is a beautiful example of Welles work, especially how lighting changes as the movie progresses.
"Magnificent Ambersons"(1942) is a magnificent film even with its 88 min running time that was left after RKO took advantage of the director/writer/narrator Orson Welles absence by editing down the film from its original 131 minutes.
"Citizen Kane" may be the most enjoyable 'high brow' movie ever made and I can't think of another film quite like it that moves at such a clip, but isn't there something just faintly facile about the way it reduces it's characters to stereotypes.
Great fun it may be but it never goes very deep into the psychology of it's characters including Kane himself, despite the greatness of Welles' performance."The Magnificent Ambersons" may have been butchered by the studio and may have had the most unsatisfactory ending tagged on to it of any great film but what remains dazzles on an entirely different level from "Kane".
What we do get is 88 minutes of sheer human drama in glorious black-and-white.In a day when films spend ridiculous amounts of money to satisfy the brain-dead masses who want every movie to be a roller coaster ride for the senses, it brings tears to my eyes to see human drama like The Magnificent Ambersons.
But there is a reason I think it never caught on like many other classic films of the time: it is a lavish though dated production that is more lamented among film fans for its lost footage than it is for its cinematic greatness.For those who have always wanted to know what was lost, the best source is The Magnificent Ambersons - A Reconstruction by James Carringer.
The Magnificent Ambersons succeeds in being an exciting trailer of a great movie that we probably will not ever see.However it thankfully remains that Agnes Moorehead is very very powerful, especially in a later scene, and Tim Holt is incredibly becoming as a man we cannot stand.
I haven't read the Booth Tarkington novel on which Orson Welles' film is based but I mean to, if only to try to fill in some of the gaps that the 50 minutes of studio cuts made to the 90 minute running time.
There are several Hollywood movies where the production suits upstairs have cut down the running length of a film, but I can't think of another where I'd so much want to see what was lost.It's just so obvious watching it that the story of this film had more to give and should have been allowed to play out like say "Citizen Kane" had.
So much originality and imagination right from the start as Joseph Cotten's ardent young Eugene almost falls out the frame in the opening minute, the long dolly shot as George walks Lucy around the Amberson mansion at the grand ball, the shadow of Eugene's head on a door to signify death within, the changing light on the dying Isabel's face as the curtains are drawn in her room, the upward tracking shot up two flights of stairs to gauge George and Aunt Fanny's reactions after George has sent Eugene away, itself so reminiscent of the famous reaction shot of the stage workers in "Kane" to Susan's disastrous operatic debut, all these and many more.Of course there are other recognisable Wellesian trademarks, like the monumental sets, overlapping dialogue, long takes and extreme close-ups not to mention his entirely novel way with title sequences.Up until the part where you can see the scissors wielded, the story of mummy's boy George's unhealthily protective love for his mother and hers for him, for him justifying his extreme petulance and selfishness as an adult to the exclusion of her future happiness and indeed his own, makes for engrossing viewing.
Knowing some of Orson Welles' other films, and what Welles himself said about "The Magnificent Ambersons" and how it was taken from his control and ruined beyond recognition, I can only heartily agree with his point of view.This is one movie that starts out with a Welles setup and dies in a corny mess, something like Hitchcock's "Rebecca" with Mrs. Danvers taken out - Manderley ends up in flames, but just how it got so far must have been too distressing for a test audience.All of Welles film have a strong narrative and ask interesting, often uncomfortable questions.
If you have to have one lopped-off masterpiece in the sound era of American cinema, it might as well be "The Magnificent Ambersons." The very title, as well as the movie's treatment of the insular, too-proud clan, speaks of a grandeur that's not all quite there.What's left of the story, after heavy cuts (a full hour from its original running time, and more than 40 minutes less than it had been when previewed in Pomona, CA) and an upbeat reshoot of the ending while director Orson Welles was away, tells about the son of one Amberson, George Minafer (Tim Holt), and his downfall after he stops his widowed mother from taking up with the only man she ever loved, car inventor Eugene Morgan (Joseph Cotten)."The Magnificent Ambersons" is a satisfying film in many ways.
The acting is uniformly strong, with Cotten especially engaging our amusement and favor at the opening ballroom scene (I see more of Welles in him, the inventor, than I do in Holt, who is often spoken of as having the Orson role in the film) and Richard Bennett, playing the Amberson patriarch literally on his deathbed and working it into his performance, standing out.So why don't I think it's great?
This time Isabel seems more interested in Eugene but her son, George, is not so happy with this attention nor with his lack of success in the love stakes and sets about to scupper any chance of the reunion working out.Apart from the fact that it had a good going over by RKO executives and the fact that the "happy" ending doesn't totally ring true, this film still stands up as being an interesting and dark look at the fall of a family with the passage of time.
While the Magnificent Ambersons have an interesting cast and story, it lacks the drive that Welles' other films had..
But still, the RKO Radio version is a remarkable one, and everyone should definitely see it.It's worth mentioning that this picture wouldn't be so fine without the great narration, provided by the director himself, which places the movie in time and space, and give a great insight into the characters' personalities.The Magnificence of the Ambersons lies in their ability to make money.
Being so full of hatred and jealousy he, along with the help of a devious and eccentric aunt Fanny (Agnes Moorehead), plans to sabotage their relationship.I think it's brilliant that Orson Welles was able to present a tragic story about love, and at the same time show how, in the times of industrial revolution, one rich family lost their big chance to stay on top and eventually collapsed under the weight of industrialization.
In the final scenes, he wanders around town confused, looking at the changes that the revolution brought, and realizing that everybody went forward but him, as he was too concentrated on his selfish desires.Great performances from all the actors: Joseph Cotton as the stylish and dignified man, who was true to his first love up till the final moments; Dolores Costello shines in all her beauty and elegance; Tim Holt as the spoiled brat George, who not only made his mother miserable and sad, but also missed a chance to rebuild his family's magnificence; Agnes Moorehead gave probably the most memorable performance of all, as the wacky aunt Fanny, so in love with perfidious affair of any sort that it ultimately made her descend into psychosis.All in all, The Magnificent Ambersons is a vital position in the Orson Welles directorial career.
And I don't think even Welles' "true" version would have changed that, since the failing is in the actor, not the editing.However, that aside, "The Magnificent Ambersons" stands as a towering achievement in film art.
Though the RKO cut which survives leaves much to be desired (the studio excised and re-shot a significant portion of the film), Ambersons remains a very good picture and a glimpse into the cinematic genius of Orson Welles.The film centres around George Amberson Minafer (Tim Holt), the spoiled heir to the Amberson legacy.
Finally forced to kick reality, George gets a factory job and injures himself - his story parallelling the fall of old money and rise of industry at the turn of the century.The only criticism to be levelled at The Magnificent Ambersons is the editing job done by RKO, you sense that the original cut was an uncompromising work of art and that the surviving version, while still quite good, is by comparison inferior.
The Magnificent Ambersons was an almost-great Orson Welles-directed film.
Their lives change drastically as the country is industrializing.Orson Welles amassed an impressive cast where Joseph Cotten twice attempted to marry Isabelle Amberson, (Dolores Costello) but fate intervened each time.While both marry others, it appears that their offspring George (Tim Holt) and Lucy (Anne Baxter) will marry each other but the fates are tempting again.Holt, as the wealthy scion, steals many of the scenes in every sense of the word.
Orson Welles thought his version of The Magnificent Ambersons could had eclipsed Citizen Kane.
Meanwhile, the selfish and rude George falls in love with Eugene's daughter, Lucy (Anne Baxter).There is much to be admired about 'The Magnificent Ambersons,' but I don't think it worked quite fully as a film, perhaps due in no small part to the intervention of the studio. |
tt0462335 | High-Rise | Following his divorce, doctor and medical school lecturer Robert Laing moves into his new apartment on the 25th floor of a recently completed high-rise building on the outskirts of London. The tower block provides its affluent tenants all the conveniences and commodities that modern life has to offer: a supermarket, bank, restaurant, hair salon, swimming pools, a gymnasium, its own school, and high-speed elevators. Its cutting-edge amenities allow the occupants to gradually become disinterested in the outside world, providing them with accommodations and their own secure environments inside.
Laing meets fellow tenants Charlotte Melville, a secretary who lives one floor above him, and Richard Wilder, a documentary film-maker who lives with his family on the building's lower floors. Life in the high-rise begins to degenerate quickly, as minor power failures and petty grievances among neighbours and rival floors escalate into an orgy of violence. Soon skirmishes are being fought throughout the building, as floors try to claim elevators and hold them for their own. Groups gather to defend their rights to the swimming pools and party-goers attack "enemy floors" to raid and vandalize them. The lower, middle, and upper floors of the building gradually stratify into distinct groups.
It does not take long for the occupants of the entire building to abandon all social restraints, abandoning life outside the building and devoting their time to the escalation of violence inside; people abandon their jobs and families and stay indoors permanently, losing all sense of time. As the amenities of the high-rise break down and bodies begin to pile up, no one considers leaving or alerting the authorities, instead exploring the new urges and desires allowed by the building's disintegration. As Laing navigates the new environment, Wilder sets out to reach the top of the building's 40 floors and finally confront the building's architect, Anthony Royal. | murder, violence, flashback, insanity, psychedelic, satire | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0036037 | Immortal Sergeant | In North Africa, experienced Sergeant Kelly (Thomas Mitchell) leads out a British patrol, accompanied by Corporal Colin Spence (Henry Fonda), an unassertive Canadian. When they are attacked by Italian airplanes, they manage to shoot one down, but it crashes on one of their vehicles, killing eight men. Later, Kelly leads the six survivors on an attack of an Italian armored car, but is seriously wounded. He orders Spence to leave him behind; when Spence refuses to obey, he shoots himself.
Spence leads the remaining three men towards an oasis. Before they can reach it though, a transport plane lands and disgorges German soldiers who set up a base. After sneaking in to steal badly needed food and water, Spence has to assert his leadership when one of his men advocates surrendering. Instead, Spence leads them in a surprise attack under the cover of a sandstorm. The British emerge victorious, though one man is killed and Spence is wounded.
The corporal comes to in a Cairo hospital and finds he is to be given a medal and promoted to lieutenant. His newfound assertiveness extends to his personal life. He proposes to his girlfriend Valentine (Maureen O'Hara), whom he had thought of (in flashbacks) throughout his ordeal. | romantic, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0110979 | Return to Two Moon Junction | Savannah Delongpre (Melinda Clarke) is a wealthy runway fashion model living in New York City who returns to her small town in Alabama in order to get away from her stressful and demanding spotlight life and to visit her wealthy grandmother, Belle (Louise Fletcher; the only actress to appear in this and the previous Two Moon Junction film). While staying with Belle, Savannah views some homemade 8mm films about her childhood past which include her recently deceased mother. There is also a subtle reference to the first Two Moon Junction film in which Belle tells Savannah about her cousin April having abandoned her recently married husband to run off with a stranger.
While visiting her childhood home, which includes a swamp property called Two Moon Junction owned by the Delongpre family, Savannah has a run-in with Jake Gilbert (John Clayton Schafer), a rugged but good-natured drifter living in a small house on the property. Jake is an artist who comes from a poor family that has had a decades-long feud with the Delongpre family. Unwilling to return to New York right away, Savannah eventually begins a sordid affair with Jake despite their backgrounds. Savannah tries to persuade Jake to come to New York City with her so he can open his own art gallery to display and sell his scrap-metal sculptures. However, the prideful Jake repeatedly refuses because he makes sculptures out of principle rather than for money.
Belle soon learns about Savannah's tryst with Jake and tries, any way she can, to break them up. After failing to bribe Jake to end his tryst with Savannah, Belle tracks down and contacts Savannah's possessive fiancee Robert Lee (Yorgo Constantine). Robert arrives in town and colludes with Belle to break up the relationship by purchasing the Two Moon Junction property and evicting Jake.
Although Savannah manages to prevent the sale from the property, Jake decides that being with Savannah is not for the best and he moves out of the property without saying goodbye. Belle then has a talk with the heartbroken Savannah in which she tells Belle that she really did love Jake.
In the final scene, as Savannah prepares to board a train to return to New York, Belle arrives in her car with Jake who runs and joins Savannah on the train. Belle had previously told Jake the truth about trying to keep them apart. Savannah returns to New York with Jake, who decides to give "big city" life a chance. Belle happily watches them leave town for good. | flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt5548284 | Lego Scooby-Doo!: Haunted Hollywood | While trying to solve the mystery of a sea creature haunting a lighthouse, Shaggy complains to Scooby about how Fred, Daphne and Velma always bribe them into being monster bait with Scooby Snacks. As a result, Shaggy and Scooby decide to not eat Scooby Snacks again. After they solve the mystery, the gang goes to the malt shop where Shaggy and Scooby win a hamburger eating contest and win the whole gang a trip to Hollywood.
Once they arrive, they first visit Brickton Studios, an old horror film studio that is about to be closed down. The studio's employee Junior, an avid fan of horror films, welcomes them and offers to give them a tour. Joining them on the tour is Atticus Fink, a developer who wants to buy and level the studio. During the tour, they drive their truck through a dark storage facility, causing Fink to leave. After Fink leaves, a Headless Horseman appears and chases the gang.
After they escape, they go to ask the manager, Chet Brickton, about their encounter. Brickton tells them that all the monsters used to be played by an actor named Boris Karnak, who died years ago and that his ghost may have come back to haunt the studios through various costumes of the monsters he played. In addition to the Headless Horseman, there have also been sightings of a mummy and a zombie, which is why he must sell the studio to Fink to avoid bankruptcy. The gang offers to help Brickton solve the mystery.
First, the gang goes to the set of a romantic comedy film that the studio is currently working on, much to Junior's displeasure. Suddenly the Headless Horseman attacks and ruins the set, making Brickton forlorn. The gang offers to help him finish the movie. Brickton appoints Fred as the director and casts Shaggy in the lead. Brickton then casts TV show talk host Drella Diabolique as the female lead, much to Daphne's dismay. After a long film making process, a mummy attacks and destroys the set.
Later, Fred and Velma go to look for clues, while Drella coaches Daphne on being a movie star. Finding his footage unharmed, Fred decides to continue filming his movie. While shooting a particularly extravagant scene involving a plane, both the Headless Horseman and the zombie appear. After Scooby has a wild ride on the plane and the monsters disappear, Brickton reluctantly signs the studio over to Fink, much to Junior's sadness. Velma mentions that the Headless Horseman and the zombie appeared at the same time, meaning the ghost of Boris Karnak cannot be in two places at once. The gang decides to capture the monsters and solve the mystery.
The gang heads back to the studio and with Drella's help and Fred's elaborate trap, they catch the zombie and the Headless Horseman. The Headless Horseman is revealed to be Fink, who used the costume to get a cheap ownership of the studio. Daphne tells Fink that the evidence of fraud violates the terms of his contract, making it null and void. The zombie is revealed to be Junior, who was also the mummy. Junior tells them that he is actually Boris Karnak Jr., and wanted to carry on his father's legacy. Brickton orders the police to take Fink away and allows Junior to go free, but says that the studio will still have to close down due to lack of a movie. They then realize that the security cameras have recorded the gang being chased by the monsters and decide to make a found footage movie. With the studio saved, the movie ends with the gang at the premiere of "Security Cam Monsters: The Adventure Begins". | horror | train | wikipedia | Nice Homage to Classic Horror Films. Lego Scooby-Doo: Haunted Hollywood (2016) ** 1/2 (out of 4)After bringing down the Sea Creature, Scooby and the gang head to Hollywood for a vacation. They end up at a famous movie studio known for their classic horror movies and before long a zombie, a mummy and a headless horseman are running loose.LEGO SCOOBY-DOO: HAUNTED Hollywood has a lot of very good stuff in it but it also has some weak stuff that keeps it from being a lot better. I will say that as a classic horror film fan it was great seeing the various homages made to the old movies. The studio here is obviously meant to be Universal with one of the main characters meant to be Lon Chaney while the name is a wink to Boris Karloff. Even the posters shown here are copied from famous movie posters. The Son of Zombie film poster here is the same as that for SON OF FRANKENSTEIN.That stuff is all fun but the mystery itself is rather bland and even at just 75 minutes the film seems long at times. There's a running gag dealing with Daphnie wanting to be a "star" and it's rather boring and gets very few laughs. I'd also argue that overall the film lacks many good laughs. The animation and vocal work is nice but as a whole there's just something missing.. Better than expected. You can't expect much from a direct-to-video, CGI, Lego movie. And it seems almost appalling that Warner bros. would allow a film like this to be made or that someone would even conjure up the idea for this movie in the first place.But surprisingly enough, I didn't hate it. I mean don't get me wrong, it's not a good movie, but its not nearly as bad as the premise led me to believe.First of all, they did manage to get the official voice cast together to make this. That alone improves the film. The movie also has a pretty classic Scooby-Doo plot that is executed fairly well. On top of that, they managed to pull off the comedy. The jokes were good and they even had some pretty clever Lego-inspired gags throughout.But of course, this movie does fall short in a lot of areas. Besides the funny bits, the script was poorly written. The supporting characters were throw-away consisting of an unsettling and unappealing tour guide, an off-brand Elvira, and not one, but two generic J Jonah Jameson ripoffs.The ending was also completely predictable, they didn't give Velma anything to do throughout the film, and they mis-characterized Daphne by giving her a craving for fame. A trait I don't recall from any of the other movies/TV shows.In the end, this movie obviously isn't great, but also isn't a train-wreck and I'm sure your kid will love it if they like Scooby-Doo and have a weird thing for Legos.. Not haunting enough. Being a huge 'Scooby Doo' fan for goodness knows how long, any new show, special or film would be watched with great anticipation. While 'Scooby Doo Where Are You' is still the jewel of the crown of the franchise, it was interesting to see 'Scooby Doo' rendered in Lego.The first Lego 'Scooby Doo' film, after being pleasantly surprised if not blown away by the short special 'Knight Time Terror', 'Haunted Hollywood' has both good and very weak elements that make it an interesting but mixed bag watch. It is a long way from the worst 'Scooby Doo' film (excluding the television specials of the late 80s, which are very flawed but not that bad, and 'Arabian Nights', which is terrible, the only weak one to me is 'Monster of Mexico'. However, all the other 'Scooby Doo' films are much better. Especially 'Zombie Island', 'Witch's Ghost', 'Big Top', 'Goblin King' and 'Mask of the Blue Falcon', the rest are decent to very good.Starting with 'Haunted Hollywood's' issues, the film doesn't have enough story for the 75 minute running time, making it feel over-stretched and making one think that a half an hour special would have been better.Despite saying that 'Knight Time Terror' felt too short and rushed, that had a much stronger mystery, much more going on, more atmosphere and felt too hasty for a special so a feature length would have been justified. The mystery has its moments but can feel bland and some of the film feels padded, not all of it necessary, with a fairly obvious reveal.Of the gang, only Shaggy and Scooby work properly. The other three lack agreed distinct personalities, Daphne particularly is bland and her rock star subplot would have worked and easy to relate to if it didn't wear thin too early.Lastly, some of the character designs are wanting, especially for Daphne and a couple of the monsters. Even for Lego they look blocky and their movements aren't particularly smooth, Daphne apart from the hair and clothes could have been someone else entirely.However, other elements do work very well. Character-designs aside, the Lego animation is very nicely done. It's very colourful and atmospheric, with some of the visuals also being inventive. The music is both dynamic and groovy, with a lot of energy and a haunting undercurrent.A good deal of the writing is fun and smart, with witty in-jokes, endearingly goofy jokes (although a few of the puns go overboard on the corniness) and nostalgic homages to past horror films that are so much fun to recognise. It's quirky and a few thrills and scares, thanks to the villains being pretty creepy.There are some decent supporting characters, particularly Drella Diabolique (brilliantly voiced by Cassandra Peterson.Voice acting is very good. Frank Welker shows no signs of being long in the tooth despite voicing Fred since the very beginning way back in 1969, so nearly 50 years and he is going strong. His Scooby voice took some getting used to, having been so accustomed to Don Messick since forever, but it's definitely grown on me. Matthew Lillard is a worthy successor to Casey Kasem, a very difficult feat that he pulls off with ease, he is hilarious and an immensely likable goofball.Kate Micucci does well as Velma, though the writing for the character is not the best. Grey DeLisle has to work with Daphne being bland but that doesn't stop her putting effort with the character regardless.In summing up, a slightly above average mixed bag with an air of disappointment. 6/10 Bethany Cox. Shameless Cash Grab. The Plot to any scooby doo movie is simple, there is a mystery and the gang solve it in the last few minutes in a monster of the week style.The mystery here is that a movie studio seems to be haunted and classical horror monsters like the mummy and Dracula pop up and scare the staff away. The Twist is that everything is awesome, everything is cool when you're part of a team! (ok so everything is lego but I just couldn't resist)Plot is simple, graphics are beautiful.... that's about all that's good here, the characters could have been any random group as they had no distinct personality let alone the personality of the beloved Scooby doo and the mystery Inc gang! When your stars get out shined by a random person in the movie who you won't see again (Drella Diabolique voiced by Cassandra Peterson) even though Shaggy AND Scooby are both standing right there then you know you have a problem!Another big issue is the writing, breaking the fourth wall and going meta in a heavily processed way (yeah found footage movies are sooooo in! add that to the movie!) mocking the old show (pft, catch phrases! using shaggy and scooby as live bait because they'll do it for a scooby snack,,,etc) and reminding us over and over this is a movie... as if it's saying hey don't be too hard us, it's all fun and games...The Mystery Inc. Gang was never mean spirited, they did not place Shaggy and Scooby in danger on purpose so they'd be live bait (and actually told them that's their function in the team, to be live bait).The one smart thing here is the use of legos in the world to their advantage but the same joke is used again and again in the movie so after the 1st time it's already worn out (taking their hair off and throwing it as a weapon!).Not sure who this is made for, It's Banking on the fact that you saw the original so not small kids. too simple for adults that grew up with the show. My guess it was made for people who eat legos, they'd probably like it..... over all it's harmless so if you have little kids,,, show them something from the original first then take them to see this! Don't let this one be their first Scooby movie! |
tt0241985 | Star Fox 64 | === Characters ===
The game's protagonist and playable character is Fox McCloud, a red fox and leader of the Star Fox team, who defends the Lylat system. His father, James, was part of the original Star Fox team, who disappeared before the start of the game. The main antagonist is Andross, a scientist from Corneria who was exiled to Venom after he nearly destroyed the planet.
The Star Fox team is a group of mercenaries consisting of: Peppy Hare, a rabbit and member of the original Star Fox team; Slippy Toad, a frog and the mechanical and energetic expert of the team; and Falco Lombardi, a Vietnamese Pheasant and former gang member. Helping the Star Fox team on their quest to defeat Andross are: General Pepper, a dog and leader of a militia force in Corneria; Bill Grey, a bulldog friend of Fox and commander of the Bulldog and Husky units; Katt, a friend and former fellow gang member of Falco; and ROB 64 (NUS64 in the Japanese version), a robot piloting the Great Fox, Star Fox's headquarters, who gives them support along their quest.
Andross' henchmen include the Star Wolf mercenary team, consisting of: Wolf O'Donnell; Leon Powalski; Pigma Dengar, a former member of the Star Fox team with James McCloud; and Andrew Oikonny, Andross's nephew.
=== Story ===
Star Fox 64 is set on a group of planets in the Lylat system. Ingenious scientist Andross, a native of the fourth planet Corneria, is driven to madness and nearly destroys the planet using biological weapons. General Pepper exiles Andross to the remote planet Venom. Five years later, Pepper detects suspicious activity on Venom. Pepper hires the Star Fox team (including James McCloud, Peppy Hare and Pigma Dengar) to investigate. After Pigma betrays the team and Andross captures James, Peppy escapes from Venom and informs Fox McCloud about James' fate.
A few years later, Andross launches an attack across the Lylat system. Defending Corneria, Pepper summons the Star Fox team, now consisting of Fox, Peppy, Falco Lombardi and Slippy Toad. While traveling through several planets, the team battles with several of Andross' henchmen, including the rival mercenaries, Star Wolf. After arriving in Venom, Fox defeats Andross, but discovers that it is actually a robotic version of himself and destroys it, leaving Andross drifting in the Lylat System. Fox decides to redeem himself by returning to Venom and defeat Star Wolf once again. After revealing Andross as the true form of the floating brain, Fox defeats it, before James leads him out from Venom. After James' disappearance, Star Fox returns to Corneria for a victory celebration. General Pepper offers Fox to be the member Cornerian Army, but he declines it on his behalf for the team. The game ends with the Great Fox and the Star Fox team flying off in their Arwings into the skies.
In a post credits scene, Pepper receives a bill from Star Fox presenting the number of enemies killed and multiplies it by 64, resulting in the amount of money due. If the price is between $50,000 and $69,999 (between 781 and 1,093 enemies killed) he will say, "This is one steep bill....but it's worth it." If the price is over $70,000 (1,094 or more), he says "What?!" At this point, the player presses a button to stamp the bill, thus bringing the player back to the main menu. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0067633 | Punishment Park | The film takes place in 1970. The Vietnam War is escalating and United States President Richard Nixon has just decided on a "secret" bombing campaign in Cambodia. Faced with a growing anti-war movement, President Nixon decrees a state of emergency based on the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950, which authorises federal authorities, without reference to Congress, to detain persons judged to be a "risk to internal security".
Members from the anti-war movement, civil rights movement, feminist movement, conscientious objectors, and Communist party, mostly university students, are arrested and face an emergency tribunal made up of community members. With state and federal jails at their top capacity, the convicted face the option of spending their full conviction time in federal prison or three days at Punishment Park. There, they will have to traverse 53 miles of the hot California desert in three days, without water or food, while being chased by National Guardsmen and law enforcement officers as part of their field training. If they succeed and reach the American flag at the end of the course, they will be set free. If they fail by getting "arrested", they will serve the remainder of their sentence in federal prison.
European filmmakers follow two groups of detainees as part of their documentary; while Group 637 starts their three-day ordeal and learn the rules of the "game", the civilian tribunal begins hearings on Group 638. The film makers conduct interviews with members of Group 637 and their chasers, documenting how both sides become increasingly hostile towards the other. Meanwhile, back at the tent, the film crew documents the trial of Group 638 as they argue their case in vain for resisting the war in Vietnam. The first group splinters into one group that refuses to accept the rules of the game and tries to resist with violence and another group that goes on towards the goal. The violent group are all killed. As the others come near the flag they find a group of police waiting for them; it turns out that there is no way to win the Punishment Park course as the system controls it from start to finish. | avant garde, murder, allegory, cult, anti war, violence, brainwashing, romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0317640 | The Hebrew Hammer | The film begins with a flashback to a young Mordechai Jefferson Carver. At school, Mordechai is tormented by his fellow students and his teacher for being a Jewish child in a public school predominantly attended by Christians, and for celebrating Hanukkah while everyone else celebrates Christmas. He feels further alienated as he walks through his neighborhood and sees a seemingly endless number of Christmas decorations and window displays celebrating the holiday and announcing that Jews aren't welcome. As he lies down on the sidewalk in front of a store saying "Jews Welcome (for about 5 minutes)" and spins his dreidel to cheer himself up, Santa Claus walks by and crushes the toy under his foot, then gives Mordechai the finger.
The scene then changes to the present with Mordechai as the Hebrew Hammer, a Certified Circumcised Dick who has dedicated his life to defending Jews. His snappy dress (a cross between that of a pimp and a Hasidic Jew) and tough-guy demeanor have made him a local hero within the Jewish community. Jews and African-Americans have enjoyed a tenuous peace with the White Christians over the previous few decades, because the current Santa (the son of the cruel Santa who stomped Mordechai's dreidel years earlier) has pursued a policy of inclusion and tolerance. This Santa is murdered and replaced by his son, Damian, who seeks to destroy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa thus reserving December for Christmas alone. Mordechai is reluctantly recruited to stop Damian, gaining allies along the way, including love interest and daughter of the Chief of the Jewish Justice League Esther Bloomenbergensteinenthal and the Kwanzaa Liberation Front's leader Mohammed Ali Paula Abdul Rahim.
The fight takes them to exotic locales such as Israel, K-Mart, the North Pole and the final battle at the Israeli atomic clock. | cult, clever, absurd, humor, satire, blaxploitation | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0335559 | Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! | The film opens with a soldier and nurse getting out of two 1940-style cars in the middle of night. The nurse runs up to the soldier and the camera switches to reveal this to be a scene from a film. Three Piggly Wiggly store workers in Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia—Rosalee, Cathy, and Pete—are watching and as the nurse on screen asks for forgiveness and the soldier agrees, the women in the audience are moved to tears as Pete is clearly unimpressed. As the ladies wonder what Tad Hamilton—the star of the film—is doing at that moment, their prediction of praying is proven false as the scene cuts to Tad—described in the next scene by his agent—"drinking, driving, smoking, leering, and groping all at the same time".
Tad's agent tells him that his hedonistic lifestyle is damaging his reputation and career opportunities. In order to improve his image and convince a director to cast him in an upcoming film, his agents establish a competition to win a date with Tad with proceeds going towards the charity Save the Children. An online advertisement for the competition is found by Rosalee. With the help of the Piggly Wiggly customers and the reluctant agreement of Pete, the girls raise the $100 entrance money as Pete reveals to his superior that he will leave for Richmond to go to college after he has a discussion "with someone about going to Richmond with me".
A news crew arrives outside Rosalee's house signalling her success at winning a date with Tad Hamilton, and subsequently a despondent Pete sees her off at the airport. She is awed by Los Angeles and becomes tongue-tied in Tad's presence; the date does not go well as Rosalee vomits in the limousine and Tad mentioning his love of animals—which Pete had warned was a signal of sexual intentions—rouses her suspicions. After seeing Tad's house, Rosalee requests to go back to the hotel and soon returns home leaving Tad thoughtful.
As Pete is about to tell Rosalee about moving to Richmond she is surprised—as much as Pete is disappointed—by Tad's sudden arrival to rekindle their relationship. Though Rosalee is still cynical of him as he uses a line from one of his films, his admission of not having "his priorities straight" seems to convince her of his good intentions. During a phone call with his agent, Tad insists that he wants to turn over a new leaf, and will not return to Los Angeles for a while. When he picks Rosalee up for a date he leaves a good impression on Rosalee's father, who had studied hard for the encounter. Pete tries to stop their date by reporting the pair for illegally parking. He tries to convince Rosalee that Tad is just using her. Despite all his efforts, Rosalee and Tad grow close over the next few days.
In the bar, Pete corners Tad in a men's room stall. After conceding that Rosalee is in love with Tad, he tells Tad that Rosalee is more than a "wholesome small town girl", she is a wonderful person with "the kind of beauty a guy only sees once". He explains about her six smiles: one smile when something makes her laugh, one for polite laughter, one for when she makes plans, one when she makes fun of herself, one when she's uncomfortable, and one when she's talking about her friends. He makes Tad swear not to break her heart or he will tear Tad to pieces with his bare hands or "vicious rhetoric". When the pair is in Tad's hotel room, his agents appear and inform him that the director has decided to cast him in the film after all. Tad is overjoyed and convinces her to come to Los Angeles with him by using Pete's "six smiles" speech.
After a rousing speech about great love from Angelica, a barmaid with a crush on him, Pete rushes to Rosalee's house and confesses his love for her but she is confused and resolves to still go to LA with Tad. On the plane when Tad fails to identify one of Rosalee's smiles, he confesses his lie and she asks to go home. She runs to Piggly Wiggly and Pete's house, then drives furiously towards Richmond to overtake her heartbroken friend. Similar to the opening scene, Rosalee and Pete get out of their cars and Pete, surrendering to a romantic song on the car radio, asks her to dance. | romantic, comedy, cute, entertaining | train | wikipedia | Kate Bosworth stars as Rosalee Futch, a small town girl from West Virginia who has a mad crush on a hot Hollywood stud named Tad Hamilton.
Complicating matters is the fact that Rosalee's long time friend and boss, Pete, is secretly, madly in love with her and isn't about to give her up without a fight to this fancy, flashy dude from Hollywood.Given the premise, the makers of this film could, with a bit more self-confidence, have made a keen, hard-edged satire about the role celebrity-worship plays in the lives of ordinary folks.
As played by Josh Duhamel, Tad is, instead, a decent, well-meaning, good-natured young man who basically just wants the same thing out of life that we all do, namely love and commitment from that one special person.
And Topher Grace nicely underplays the role of Rosalee's erstwhile secret devotee who faces a rival no Ordinary Joe should ever have to go up against.`Win a Date with Tad Hamilton' isn't as good as it might have been had it opted for a riskier, edgier tone.
I liked Josh Duhamel too, and was interested to find that he really wasn't the stereotypical movie star trying to manipulate Kate Bosworth.
A grocery store checkout girl (Kate Bosworth) wins a contest to win a date with hot young "bad boy" actor, Tad Hamilton, played by Josh Duhamel.
When he ends up falling in love, her life is turned upside down when he comes to her small hometown, and gets into a competition with her best friend (Topher Grace), who is also in love with her.Generic story aside, the film is actually pretty decent.
Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes play Tad's agents and they both give funny performances.Besides for the impressive cast, there isn't much more to recommend.
I went to the screening of "Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!" last night.I thought it was a great romantic comedy, and it was more funny than I expected.Kate Bosworth was great.
She looks just like a typical girl who wants to meet her favorite movie star-screaming and all.Topher Grace was someone most girls could be friends with.
He tells Rosalee to "guard her carnal treasure" quite often.Josh Duhamel was great playing what you would think of a guy like him.
She would act really weird in front of him, and some things she said, you couldn't help but laugh at.This would probably be a movie you take your best friend or sister to, but not a boyfriend (unless he likes Kate Bosworth).
I felt like this movie could have been a lot better if there had been some real chemistry between both Tad (Josh Duhamel) and Rosalee (Kate Bosworth) and Pete (Topher Grace) and Rosalee would have had just a little bit of chemistry.
I'm pretty much the target demographic (17 year old girl with a liking for romantic comedies and good looking boys) so I thought this film would be a great way to kill a couple of hours on a boring thursday night.And to be honest, the plot isn't too bad.
They, alone, are worth the hour and a half this movie takes up of your life.As for the rest...well...the main characters in West Virginia are supposedly in their early twenties, but they all talk and act like they're freshmen in high school.
The movie is sweet, and funny at times, but there are some major flaws that ruin it.Tad and Rosy's date is not great, they dont connect, they barely even have anything to talk about, so why is he so into her that he's willing to change his life around?
All that is shown is a few awkward conversations over dinner and at a overlook.Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes are great comic actors and their roles in this movie are completely short of what I had hoped.Topher Grace's timing is hilarious but all his jokes are the same, this gets old.The ending was too predictable even for a movie like this.All in all, I dont recommend seeing it unless your a 12 year old girl, then you might like it..
The only positive thing about the flick are the actors and actressess giving their characters persona and the character Tad Hamilton, since he's actually not JUST a slimeball one-dimensional character but actually a guy who does transform during the coarse of the movie, just like the other two leads..
I have to say that save for the hackneyed stereotypes (stereotypical gay guy, stereotypical nice guy nerd, stereotypical "zany" best friend, stereotypical industry vulture managers, giggly blonde "innocent" girl next door hayseed, etc...) the one beacon of light is the witty and charming Topher Grace who's character could be called "Eric Foreman goes to Supercuts and gets a job at the Piggly Wiggly" but just as on That 70's Show he manages to take a potentially bland cardboard cutout character and make him sympathetic and quite funny.It's REALLY not necessary to shell out cash for this.
I can't even figure out why it got a PG-13 rating, I'll bring my pre-teen to the official opening without being embarrassed.Spielburg made perfect casting choices for this film (Josh was handpicked for this role by the great S.S. himself, over well-known stars like Ben Affleck, Heath Ledger, and Brad Pitt) Everyone in the movie performed wonderfully, and Topher Grace was a riot.
Josh Duhamel as Tad Hamilton is in all ways the big, hot-shot, drop-dead-gorgeous movie star.
I would have thought that younger actors would draw more for their target audience."Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!" is not all that good, but as a fan of Topher Grace, I found myself almost liking it..
The casting was excellent, and I would say that no one was miscast.'Tad Hamilton' is played by a gorgeous no name actor, who probably will be lucky if this is the best film he ever gets recognition for.
Kate Bosworth plays the lead character of Rosalee, who wins a date with her movie star crush, Tad Hamilton.
Topher Grace, who makes the film, in my opinion, tries his hardest to make Rosalee see that he's the one for her and not Tad Hamilton.The film is so funny, and very, very cute.
From the beginning I was like,'Pete and Rosalee will end up together and Tad will be heart-broken.' Despite that, this movie completely rocked.
How about a win a date contest with Tad, where they can choose the most sweet-and-light woman for the movie actor?
I'm not one for romantic comedies, but I was a huge fan of That 70s show, and wanted to see if Topher Grace's movie roles were really worth leaving the show for, and needless to say, I was unimpressed.
They are big movie fans and the girls love Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel), the hottest new star in Hollywood.
As for Topher Grace, he plays this whiny, love struck, jealous friend of Kate Bosworth, and he wasn't really that funny either.
Win A Date With Tad Hamilton seemed like someones attempt at making a Woody Allen film and ultimately they failed.
A chick flick romantic comedy although the laughs are mainly provided by Sean Hayes and Nathan Lane.Tad Hamilton is an actor known for wholesome roles but when he is caught drinking and driving, leering with a floozy, his agents decide to get him some positive publicity by raising money for charity via a lottery.
Tad has a good time in LA with Bosworth and follows her down to their small town, making Grace jealous.This is light, inoffensive, frothy film but with little substance.
Rosalee Futch (Kate Bosworth), Pete Monash (Topher Grace), and Cathy Feely (Ginnifer Goodwin) are best friends and co-workers at the local Piggly Wiggly.
Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel) is a big movie star with a shallow life.
While Win a Date with Tad Hamilton fits that mold, it nevertheless puts a smile on the face of those who watch it.Kate Bosworth plays the adorable Rosalee Futch, a small town girl that works in a grocery store with her two best friends, and lots of dreams.
Unobtrusive would be a good word to use when describing the film Win a Date with Tad Hamilton.
Sure most of it was due to the sheer absurdity and banality of it all, but it was a genuine smile nonetheless.The premise is something that could be written by any marginally gifted screenwriter and pits two best friends (with the obvious sexual tension of the boy being in love with the girl) caught up in the fact that she wins said date with said movie star.
Rather than finally tell her how he feels, he attempts to sabotage Tad's advances, but of course, like in all these types of films, his tries end up backfiring, bringing the two lovebirds closer together.There are no misconceptions on how the movie will end up, who will get the girl, who will do the right thing at the right time, but despite these misgivings the journey is entertaining.
Topher Grace as the lead hero, trying to win the girl of his dreams, plays the geeky good guy to perfection.
When Tad meets Rosalee and gets a taste of what he's been missing in the real world, he decides he wants seconds and moves to West Virginia, turning Rosalee's dream come true into a nightmare for Pete.Now here is a film that is so heart wrenching to watch through the whole movie because of how realistic it is.
There's even a fresh new cast: Kate Bosworth plays the insecure woman, Topher Grace plays the guy who isn't confident enough to tell Bosworth that he loves her, and Josh Duhamel plays the charismatic celebrity.After you finish this film, you will end up happy and enlightened.
i really like the music playing in it.they are all nice and romantic.Rosalee is a pretty girl whose eyes can talk.i think tad sometimes looks old,like a mid-aged married man,OK for example,especially how about the scene while he was having dinner with rosalee,his way talking and the facial expressions,the pretending "hurting" smile with a low voice can tell that.second,the chemistry about love between tad and rosalee is not logical and in reality.especially sometimes she cant help dating with him ,kissing him,and sometimes she is so sensible.tad doesn't make it much better.particularly how about the scene they face to face sit on the plane embarrassedly talking about her smiles.he can make a hug with her instead of answering her question or just jokingly pretend not to remember or give a honest explanation like "LOOK,Rosalee,i do like you,perhaps i cant say how much i like you ,but i feel it.a love starts with acquaintanceship and fate and will be test of time " since he already stole different excuses from movies many times and the six smiles sayings at the beginning.how come he suddenly seemed to be so frankly,so there is something wrong with the loving chemistry between them .it only always appears in the movies.i prefer more logical loving movies like Roman Holiday,Anna Karenina,pride and prejudice,etc.anyway it's a nice comedy too although love story cant tell very well.and i like Topher Grace better.
It was also pretty clean overall, (some passionate kisses and a few four-letter words beside) which is commendable for this type of movie.Rosalee Futch (Kate Bosworth) is a simple small-town girl from West Virginia.
Of course, like any modern day Midwestern girl, Rosalee has her Hollywood crushes...the biggest being superstar Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel).Online one day, she discovers a contest to win a date with Tad Hamilton, hence the movie's title.
The problem nowadays with romances if they can even be taken as "romantic" and "touching" or as so many do fall into the "soppy and sick" category which might be what win a date does.Win a date is not a overly soppy film.By the title and tagline you should know what your getting yourself into.A modern day fairytale story of romance.It's quite predictable and a little nauseating to some but this is carried through with tenderness,humour and generally great acting.Certainly form the 2 male leads.Josh gives it the much needed sexiness and is brilliant as movie star tad.Not really big-headed as it could come across as and not an a**hole either.The real star ,for me is the adorable topher grace.Never having seen "that 70's show" i have to ask....where have they been hiding him?
Sure, it's simple and quite predictable; but, as a movie written for teens, it also has some charm to it, not to mention a pretty decent message.Yes, Rosalee (or whatever the main actress' name is) has no noticeable accent -for that matter, neither do most of the actors that play West Virginians, but I think that lost detail is ultimately irrelevant.
In fact, I think the real focus of the movie is on a young girl getting the chance to learn some pretty good lessons in love.I'd recommend this as a simple, entertaining movie.PS: I'm a 32 year old bachelor and watched this movie with a date..
In this film, a home town girl wins a contest to date a movie star.
I wonder if it makes me a saddist that I long for an ending where the object of affection in the movie realizes how they REALLY feel too late, and the last scene in the film is he/she tearfully blurring into the background as the camera focuses on the now-happy nice guy/girl walking away to their new, healthy, relationship?
What more could a girl ask for?On the whole I liked it more than 50 first dates which at first had the odd Adam Sandler set gross-out piece, Tad knows what it wants to be - a good value Rom-Com.The four main characters are well acted with a strong supporting cast.
The film is formulaic - but pokes fun at itself from the outset, no major twists, just good popcorn fun.Ginnifer Goodwin is a star on the rise - two contrasting parts within this and Mona-Lisa Smile show a talented 'one to watch'.Josh Duhamel is the ideal Hollywood hunk - playing the beefcake here, but showcases his talent in the Las Vegas series now showing in the UK on Sky One.I've not seen Topher Grace (Pete) in anything before but he reminded me a little of Kevin Spacey - so I think he should do well too.Oh and girls - how hard will it be for Kate Bosworth to act the part of a hunks girl - lucky lady gets to go home to Orlando Bloom every night!!!!.
Bosworth is the small town checkout girl who wins a date with Hollywood star (Duhamel as Hamilton), whose career is on the skids, until he can show he's shaken his bad boy image.
The good cast also includes Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes (TV's "Will and Grace") as Hamilton's entourage, Gary Cole as Bosworth's dad (studying up on his showbiz) and Ginnifer Goodwin (the best surprise of "Mona Lisa Smile")..
Kate Bosworth stars as a wholesome West Virginia grocery store clerk who wins a date with Hollywood superstar Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel), the contest being an effort to clean up his bad-boy reputation; in reality, he develops designs on his unsuspecting date but the twist is that her virtuousness forces him to rethink his caddish ways and he woos her while her pining friend watches helplessly.
Win A Date With Tad Hamilton is a cute movie.
Rosalee Futch (Kate Bosworth), a Piggly Wiggly supermarket checkout girl in a small West Virginia town, wins a contest for a date with Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel), a Hollywood movie star.
If you go into a romantic comedy expecting anything more than light hearted fun, you're going to be disappointed.(Especially with a title like Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!
"Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!" is not really a "teen" movie, but it is being presented as one.
After all, he really knows what makes Rosalee tick, contrary to Tad Hamilton, the Hollywood "hunk", who is only playing a role, which proves to be the case when his agents come calling him for the new picture where he will be the star.Kate Bosworth, as Rosalee, has some good moments.
Topher Grace, who is a good actor, plays second fiddle to Josh Duhamel, the star of movies who thinks he might be in love.
And it has to do with the four main actors - Kate Bosworth (Rosalee), Topher Grace (Pete), Ginnifer Goodwin (Cathy) and Josh Duhamel (Tad Hamilton).
(2004) **1/2 Kate Bosworth, Josh Duhamel, Topher Grace, Ginnifer Goodwin, Sean Hayes, Nathan Lane, Gary Cole.
"Win A Date With Tad Hamilton" was a good movie, albiet predictable and cliche, but, what romantic comedy isn't these days, it was great to see Topher Grace in a role other than Eric Forman or bit parts in Soderbergh movies, he definitely has real potential to be leading man material later in his career, but not to far off I am sure, this was a great start for him, Kate Bosworth was stunning as always, but I just didn't feel much chemistry between her and Josh Duhmel, maybe that was the point, the scenes between her and Topher were well done and they showed a chemistry with each other, but I wish there had been more scenes with them, and let the story between them evolve, other than that, it had alot of energy, some wonderful scenes between Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes as Josh's Agent and manager, and Josh wasn't the typical slimeball actor that you would expect he actually showed tons of heart, and I think that he was very charming in spots, I think this film will find the audience that liked the directors first movie "Legally Blonde", so, cliched as it was, it was a good way to spend 100 minutes.
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton (2004) **** (out of 4)Rosalee (Kate Bosworth) is your typical girl living in a small town where nothing much really happens. |
tt0066390 | Soldier Blue | A young woman, Cresta Lee (Bergen), and young U.S. private Honus Gant (Strauss) are joined together by fate when they are the only two survivors after their group is massacred by the Cheyenne. Gant is devoted to his country and duty; Lee, who has lived with the Cheyenne for two years, declares that in this conflict she sympathizes more with them. The two must now try to make it to Fort Reunion, the army base camp, where Cresta's fiance, an army officer, waits for her. As they travel through the desert with very low supplies, hiding from the Indians, they are spotted by a group of Kiowa horsemen. Under pressure from Cresta, Honus fights and seriously wounds the group's chief. Honus finds himself unable to kill the chief, and the chief's own men stab him for his defeat and leave Honus and Cresta alone.
Eventually, after being shot at by a white trader (played by Donald Pleasence) who had supplied guns to the Cheyenne, Honus finds himself in a cave where Cresta has left him to get help. She arrives at Fort Reunion, only to discover that her fiance's cavalry plans to attack the peaceful Indian village of the Cheyenne the following day. She runs away on a horse and reaches the village in time to warn Spotted Wolf, the Cheyenne chief. The chief refuses to indulge in warfare and rides out to extend a hand of friendship to the American soldiers using the U.S. flag. The soldiers, however, obey the orders of their commanding officer to open fire at the village. After a cavalry charge decimates the Indian men, the soldiers enter the village and begin to rape and kill the female survivors as Honus attempts to disrupt the massacre. Cresta attempts to lead the remaining women and children to safety, but her group is discovered and massacred while Cresta herself is spared. After the battle, Honus is led away in shackles and Cresta departs with the remaining survivors. | anti war, violence, revenge, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | Olsen's novel "Arrow In The Sun", SOLDIER BLUE, directed by Ralph Nelson (of CHARLY and LILIES OF THE FIELD fame), stars Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss as, respectively, a Cheyenne-raised white woman and a disenfranchised U.S. Cavalry officer who have survived a savage attack by Cheyenne Indians on an Army payroll wagon train and are forced to be together to survive, even as they disagree starkly on who is right in the white man-versus-Indian conflict.
But it also leaves the viewer heavily unprepared for the incredibly horrific massacre that climaxes the film.Even today, this massacre, a sequence of unbelievably extreme violence that involves hacked body parts, rape, and infinite bloodshed, makes SOLDIER BLUE very difficult for viewers to watch.
Apart from the brutal nature of that final sequence, the film's depiction of the Army as a bunch of bloodthirsty savages does not make SOLDIER BLUE an easy film to agree with--and contrary to what a previous reviewer said, I don't think it even comes close to being a politically correct movie.
The film's two protaganists(Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss, a US cavalry trooper), escape from Indians who have attacked an Army wagon train(carrying amongst other things The soldiers wages).
Don't miss the beginning at any cost.Or else you would not hear Buffy Sainte-Marie's eponymous anthemic song (Yes this is my country,young and growing free and flowing from sea to sea...).The version of the song as performed here features a string arrangement not present in the original version (which is to be found on BSM's "she used to wanna be a ballerina",vanguard).This song is as moving today as it was 30 years ago,and when the singer implores "can't you see there's another way to love her?" it gains an universal meaning(not only American natives or Vietnamese as it was mooted at the time for the movie)The movie is famous for the slaughter which ends it.Terribly realistic ,it remains impressive today and may repel some viewers.There's a very strong use of the score during these scenes.But most of the movie deals with the initiatory journey of a young naive soldier,"educated " by a woman who was captured by the Indians and had to live with them for a while.Candice Bergen's performance came aside as a shock at the time because she used to play frail young maids (Robert Wise's "the sand pebbles";Claude Lelouch's "vivre pour vivre" ) before.But there's a problem:her character is not really believable;just compare her with the heroines with a similar fate in Ford's movies :"the searchers" ,1956;"two rode together",1961..They are far from Crista 's outspoken and politically aware character.Actually ,it seems that this woman is a contemporary woman,with Joan Baez's, Buffy Sainte-Marie's or Jane Fonda's mind (in the late sixties)..For all that,"soldier blue " is worth watching and superbly uses wide screen :the landscapes match Sainte-Marie's song.Primarily an intimate movie,for most of the time there are only two people on the screen.Hence the contrast with the violent finale..
Well, nearly the whole film tells the love story of a woman who has grown up at the Indians and an American soldier as well as their survival in the wilderness.
The last 15 minutes however have the same shocking effect other controversial films like "Cannibal Holocaust" or "I spit on your grave" have got: it is shown how the US-cavalry massacres/slaughters an innocent and peaceful Indian tribe, how children get killed or even beheaded, women get raped and tortured to death, how genocide was done in the name of freedom, democracy and liberality.
A positive aspect of "Soldier Blue" is, that this film doesn´t deal with the typical "good Americans/bad Indians"-cliché: in this movie you won´t see a glorious hero like John Wayne riding into the sunset at the end, because "Soldier Blue" shows the darkest side of the American glory..!.
Released in 1970 and directed by Ralph Nelson, "Soldier Blue" is a Western starring Peter Strauss and Candice Bergen as a soldier and Native sympathizer, the only two survivors of a cavalry group Massacred by the Cheyenne.
The opening Indian attack is set in order to align the audience's sympathies with Honus (Strauss, the 'Soldier Blue' of the title), so that the viewer travels on the same journey as him, starting by regarding the Indians as murderous barbarians, and ending up forced to confront the idea that maybe his kin are just as barbaric when the occasion is 'right' (or, should I say, wrong).The final massacre is shocking, but hampered by the film's insistence on stacking the deck so completely in terms of depicting the US military as savages dripping with ee-vil.
"Soldier Blue" is guilty of this but, as a movie, it's entertaining and its message is necessary in light of all the movies that depict Indians as sub-human savages to be gunned down on the spot.The film runs 114 minutes and was shot in Mexico.GRADE: B.
While riding through the Cheyenne territory transporting a safe to Fort Reunion and protecting the white woman Cresta Marybelle Lee (Candice Bergen), who had lived in a Cheyenne village for two years and sympathize with them, the twenty-two men of the cavalry are attacked by the Indians.
When the cavalry attacks, he witnesses the hideous massacre of five hundred peaceful Cheyenne, more than half composed of women and children, and realizes that Cresta was telling the truth.In 1970, I was in my first year of high-school, and my classmates and I went at least three times to the movie theater to see this fictional story based on one of the most hideous crimes of North America history, the Sand Creek Massacre on 24 November 1864, in this awesome and controversial motion picture.
This movie rewrote the Western genre, in a period of Vietnam War, "peace and love" and "Billy Jack", and for the first time the Indians were disclosed as human beings and owners of a land invaded by the "white men".
Soldier Blue chronicles the adventures of Honus (Peter Strauss) and Cresta (Candice Bergen), the only survivors of a Cheyenne Indian attack, as they journey across the wilderness of the old west in search of refuge.
Reflecting the political climate of the time, Soldier Blue is uncompromising in its anti-war stance and its extremely graphic and savage depiction of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864.
We follow the two of them as they make their way through the Wild West...Soldier Blue is actually a really clever film and packs a hell of a lot more of a punch than many other anti-war movies out there.
The anti-war ideology comes through by way of the character of Cresta; an anti-American native Indian sympathiser whose beliefs are the direct opposite of the young soldier she is travelling with.
She makes good points throughout, but director Ralph Nelson never shoves anything down the audience's throats; it's not until the end that the real point of the movie comes through, and while the violence is strong (this film features one of the greatest beheading sequences ever filmed!), it's point is clearly defined and the anti-war message is so much more potent than it would have been if the idea was enforced with a sledge hammer.
A variation on the theme of "Little Big Man," and released in the same year, this film features the conversion of the male protagonist to an Indian phile from a phobe, but this time we end with a terrible massacre of Indians by the U.S. Cavalry, based on the real-life 1864 Sand Creek Massacre of Black Kettle's Cheyenne tribe.
The love interest of Honus (Peter Strauss), Cresta, is played by Candice Bergen, who represents the Indian viewpoint after the start of the film.
Yes this is a very brutal film and some of the blood and guts doesn't look so real now, but this film still has the power to shock you and enable you to feel sympothay with the Native American Indians, who themselves are quite violent in this movie.This movie is basically a love story which also has some factual elements to it, and the two main characters are completely opposite to what one would expect, she is rough and ready whilst "Solider Blue" is young and innocent, but eventually by the end of the film becomes a man who can think for himself.I waited nearly twenty years to see this movie, as at the time, we didn't have a betamax player to watch it on , and i think it was well worth the wait.However one word of waring some of the violence scenes are quite graphic..
Soldier Blue was another Anti US Military/Anti Viet Nam film made in the early 1970's, this time using the nineteenth century American Government's ethnic cleansing policies against the Native American Tribes of the Western Planes as a metaphor for The US Governments Southeast Asian Policy of the Viet Nam Era.The college anti war crowd had "Fallen in Love" with Native American Culture and Hollywood was looking to cash in on their new appreciation of the dark side of the winning of the American West.
Soldier Blue is loosely based on the Sandcreek Massacre of 1863.The film purports to chronicle the events leading up the tragic incident as seen through the eyes of two white people.
That is the big problem with the film.Other then the title song by Buffy Saint Marie there really isn't a whole lot of input from the Indians The Native Americans portrayed are still caricatures and little is revealed about their personalities and viewpoints other then they are the "Noble Savages" and are in need of the sympathetic guidance of the two racially sensitized Caucasians because they are not really sophisticated enough to understand whats going on.While the theme of the movie is certainly a laudable one, that's not enough.The script tries to be politically correct but comes off as condescending.The opening scene has Dana Elcar coming out of an outhouse which winds up being a telling image of story quality of the film itself It also is way too vague in it's historical reference.
"Soldier Blue" is one of these movies that can't find a way between a love story, a tongue-in-cheek western or a political rewiew of a sad and violent episode of the American history.
9) Peter Strauss' primary concern during the runtime of the film is his lack of clean socks, which reminds me of the often repeated tale that our own soldiers in Iraq obsess over things we take for granted like new boots and uncensored copies of Hustler magazine.10) The speech of the cavalry commander before the film's infamous closing slaughter is eerily similar to comments routinely attributed to Vice President Dick Cheney in regards to how he "likes to kill."11) Whatever capacity the final massacre might have had to shock was long evaporated by the film's insistence on stacking the deck so completely in terms of depicting the US military as savage buffoons.
As far as I know Colonel Iverson's attack and massacre on a Cheyenne village was a true fact in American history and this is what "Soldier Blue" is about.
But with that as a final target director Ralph Nelson builds a most entertaining and enjoyable western as a rookie soldier escapes through Indian territory with a white woman rescued from the Cheyennes.Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss play convincingly the main couple and Donald Pleasence is excellent as a colorful and truly nasty gun trader.
So it's surprising how badly this controversial Ralph Nelson oater has fared since its release in 1970.The soundtrack Buffy Saint Marie's track aside doesn't help; it places the film squarely in the late sixties, as does the strident attitude of Candice Bergen's hippy chick character, a white woman back with her people after being abducted by Indians.
All the white folk are ignorant trash, whatever their social standing might be, while the Indians despite a savage massacre of a cavalry unit early in the film, are largely portrayed as noble savages occupying a lofty moral plain unattainable to the whites.No review of Soldier Blue would be complete without some mention of the violence that created such a fuss back in the 70s.
In the end, Bergen and Strauss bear witness to a horrendous massacre in which cavalry soldiers slaughter many Indian women and children in retaliation for the earlier attack.
Calling Gant by the snarky nickname "Soldier Blue," Cresta demonstrates that her years among the "savages" was time well spent, outstripping Gant in survival skills, common sense, and sheer balls, and over their journey toward the fort they must persevere against the elements, a band of hostile Kiowa, an unscrupulous trader played by Donald Pleasance, here giving one of his most ridiculous performances, and that's saying something and, in the tradition of many previous western-set romantic comedies, each other.During the course of their misadventures the two opposites are inevitably and predictably attracted to each other and eventually end up getting it on while Gant has a freshly- treated bullet wound that went clean through his leg, no less in what was surely the only conveniently located cave for at least a twelve mile radius that wasn't filled with rattlesnakes, mountain lions, or who knows what, to say nothing of the Cheyenne, who could have done something really spiffy with such a primo apartment (there I go, thinking in NYC real estate terms again).
No joke, this scene would instantly garner an NC-17 rating if released today, to say nothing of possibly spurring Native American interest groups to riot in the streets over the incredibly exploitative manner in which the atrocities are depicted.I'm all in favor of westerns that don't shy away from honest portrayals of how the west was won, or stolen if truth be told, but this film has no idea of what kind of movie it wants to be; one minute it's a heavy-handed pseudo-hippy lecture about how the treatment of the natives was totally effed up (well, DUH!), then it's a light-hearted battle of the sexes farce wherein Cresta proves herself five times the man Gant is and manages to look hot in her tasty red calico poncho (with no undies), but that all goes out the window when Donald Pleasance shows up with an unintentionally (?) hilarious pair of buck-toothed dentures and our heroes must figure out how to escape from his murderous clutches in a sub-plot that goes nowhere, all of which culminates in the aforementioned apocalyptic climax.
But by trying to be all things to all audiences, SOLDIER BLUE ends up as an incoherent, preachy Mulligan stew of presumably well-intentioned political correctness, but if they were going to tell the story of the Sand Creek Massacre, wouldn't it have been a good idea to have some Indian characters who were more than just walk-ons with Murphy Brown acting as their mouthpiece?
You can just imagine Joseph Levine scratching his chin while reading several scripts on his desk featuring different genres and deciding that he's going to make a movie featuring bits and pieces from all of them so we have 1 ) A love story between two protagonists where opposites attract 2 ) A couple hiking in the great outdoors being kidnapped by a sadistic thug and having to run for their lives 3 ) A standard western that borrows ideas from THE SEARCHERS 4 ) An ( Anti) Vietnam war movie that's the perfect antidote to THE GREEN BERETS All of these are incorporated into SOLDIER BLUE and I'm afraid that it doesn't really work .
There is one slight difference and that is director Ralph Nelson doesn't shy away from showing innocent children getting shot down , even in 2005 the massacre scene still carries an impact and the impact would have been bigger still if the Indians hadn't been shown massacring a Calvary unit earlier , but I guess when discussing what was happening in 'Nam the movie wants to have its cake and eat it It's impossible not to discuss SOLDIER BLUE without mentioning Candice Bergen as Cresta .
But the raison d'etre of this movie - stated, if obliquely, in Buffy St Marie's opening theme song - is the massacre at the end, which is genuinely horrific (if rather dated in terms of special effects).The opening attack is set in order to align the audience's sympathies with Honus, so that we travel on the same journey as him, starting by regarding the Indians as murderous barbarians, and ending up forced to confront the idea that maybe it is we who are barbaric.Peter Strauss and Candice Bergen both give perhaps their best performances ever.An over-sensationalised and under-rated movie..
What the hell is going on?" – Hugh Thompson (helicopter pilot hovering over My Lai) "Soldier Blue" often gets touted as a "revisionist western", but its actually got more in common with exploitation cinema, of which it's one of the genre's best.Directed by Ralph Nelson, "Solder Blue" offers a recreation of the Sand Creek massacre, a horrific incident which occurred in 1864, in which a 700 man force of the Colorado Territory militia, attacked, destroyed and raped a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians.
Almost 200 natives were slaughtered during the attack, most of whom were women and children.But what made "Soldier Blue" popular were its allusions to the Vietnam War. The film was released in 1970, several months after news of the My Lai Massacre (and its attempted cover-up) was leaked to the public.
While the bulk of the movie is a growing 'romance' between a soldier and a woman 'rescued' from indians its the end of the film that made it noteworthy.
What starts off as a typical cowboy/indian western suddenly descends into a very dull romantic 'comedy' about Honus (Soldier Blue of the title played by Peter Strauss) and Cresta (Candice Bergen) who escape an onslaught of the cavalry by the Cheyenne.
Since then, advances in special effects have resulted in far gorier films, but few share the disturbing realism of this movie's climax, which itself is based on the true story of the Sand Creek Massacre by Colorado soldiers led by one Colonel Chivington. |
tt0083117 | St. Helens | The film opens up with an image of Central Oregon's Mount Bachelor and the Central Oregon Cascades, which is the fictional setting for Mount St. Helens itself. On March 20, 1980 an earthquake of 4.1 on the Richter Scale strikes Mount St. Helens, signalling the first signs of volcanic activity in 123 years.
During the first earthquake, a flight of quail becomes disoriented and smashes into the windshield of an Aerospatiale SA341G Gazelle helicopter being used for logging operations. Pilot Otis Kaylor lands the helicopter, only to be accused of nearly killing a group of loggers.
Shortly afterward, David Jackson (a fictionalized analog of real-life volcanologist David Johnston), a United States Geological Survey scientist, is sent to investigate the activity. Upon arriving in the small town of Cougar (a real-life town located 12 miles south of Mount St. Helens), he quickly befriends a single mother named Linda Steele (played by Cassie Yates), a waitress at a fictional restaurant named Whittaker's Inn. While there, he stirs up concern with the owner, Clyde Whittaker (Albert Salmi), and a group of farmers and loggers.
Art Carney stars as the 83-year-old Mount St. Helens Lodge owner Harry Randall Truman, who has a defiant attitude toward the idea of leaving his home.
Later in the film, as the volcanic activity increases, so does the attraction between David and Linda, and the two eventually fall in love. In their last scene in the movie, he packs Linda and her son off to safety and stays behind for the work that needed to be done on Johnston Ridge, presumably on the day before the eruption. Later that night, he pays a last visit to Harry Truman.
On May 18, 1980, David hikes to a ridgetop on the north face of Mount St. Helens to monitor some scientific equipment, then the mountain explodes, apparently killing him and Harry Truman in his nearby house. As the film ends, Linda soon realizes the horror of the day's events when a radio announcer declares that one of the first victims was Jackson.
The film ends with a scene of a small tree growing back to life amidst the barren moonscape that was the North Fork Toutle River valley. | tragedy | train | wikipedia | First I must take issue with the reviewer who found this film boring because he classed it as a disaster movie, and felt there was not the suspense necessary for a good disaster movie.
Personally I would question whether disaster movies really comprise a distinct category - they are dramas in the thriller category where the more usual dramatic excitement of violent action is replaced by the tension of waiting to see whether or not the impending disaster can be staved off.
To maintain this tension, such a movie has to be based on a fictional story.
By contrast, films of real events can be full documentaries which were filmed only in advance or concurrently; or semi-documentaries in which some of the essential scenes have had to be fictionally, but as accurately as possible, reconstructed and filmed after the event.
Such films should have a sufficiently dramatic story to retain the viewers interest throughout, but they also have a very important role to play in conveying to the general public in dramatic terms the actual impact of the event in question on the lives of the ordinary people who were affected.
In my view St. Helens meets both objectives well, and was artistically a most successful film.
Volcanic eruptions are not rare events, but the eruption in North America of a volcano generally regarded by the public as extinct, attracted enormous public attention as events unfolded day by day.
Millions in North America experienced dull skies and falling ash over a period of several days, and those of us who are old enough remember the story very well.
Ultimately this eruption cost fifty nine lives, but two of these in particular provided the media with ongoing human interest stories and later provided the core story for this movie.
One was the young geologist from the U.S. Geological Survey who allowed his enthusiasm to run away with him to such an extent that he was conducting monitoring in an area very close to the mountain when the eruption took place.
He saw it happen, and had time to report it by telephone before he was overwhelmed by the escaping gases or falling rocks.
The other was the elderly retired man living alone in a cabin on Spirit Lake very close to the volcano who consistently refused to be evacuated until too late.
These are the principal characters in this semi-documentary, and both are portrayed very sympathetically so that their self destructive behaviour becomes quite understandable.
I would rate this as a very good film - I also have an 'official' full documentary account of this eruption on videotape, it provides many interesting facts about the scientific impact on the area; but this dramatised semi-documentary with its human interest stories is the one which will bear watching repeatedly, and it is commendably careful not to seriously distort any of the facts in the interests of artistic licence.
We may never be near a volcano that is threatening to erupt, but we read about such eruptions each year and this film helps to give us a better understanding of what one is really like..
This film is pretty good for emotion and drama.
I've been to St. Helens and love the region.
I liked the movie the first time I saw it probably about 20 years ago on TV.
Harry Truman (Carney in a real departure from Ed Norton), the crusty old soldier who won't do what he don't want to.
And David Jackson (Huffman) who is based on the late David Johnston who died on the mountain in the eruption.
He and Harry hit it off despite their differences and find common ground in the love of the mountain about to destroy everything.
I rather liked Tim Thomerson, the sheriff, who's out of his usual stand-up routine but a 'stand up guy' in the local community, as he tries to keep peace as the drama unfolds.
Probably untrue, and in my opinion, unnecessary in the film.
A bit of country-western 'local yokels' in the bar, getting to know one another is a decent way of helping us like the town and the folks, but one wonder something.
And when the news report of the eruption comes on, the first thing they say is that Harry Truman was at his lodge and David Jackson, the 'Young Geologist' was on the face of the mountain when it erupted.
The end theme, "Here's to You, Harry Truman," is a pretty good ballad, and catchy, even if old Harry himself would probably have scoffed at the overly maudlin lyrics.
"Sounds like pigs being murdered." The film of the eruption and the later destruction are impressive and gut-wrenching.
Yet, if you go up to St. Helens, the thing you'll be most surprised by is the roadside attractions.
HELENS: FEEL THE ERUPTION!
All over the place, you can see movies, buy lava chunks and explore houses buried under ash.
This is a superior made for TV movie about one of the worst natural disasters in the history of North America.
The film centers on the crusty old mountain man Harry Truman played by the fine actor Art Carney who gives one of his best performances.
Harry was a cracker barrel philosopher of sorts who loved all the attention given him my the media.
Determined to stay put come hell or high water or a mountain blowing up in his face, Harry represents the stubborn American type who wants to hang on to cherished memories of his wife and daughter at any cost, choosing to die with his canine companion than to face an uncertain future elsewhere in a world he doesn't know.
Art Cartney captures the spirit and essence of this eccentric oddity out of place in the present high-tech world he never made.The weakest aspect of this film is the awful music.
Too bad they couldn't have got someone of the caliber of Merle Haggard or Dolly Parton to give the flick some real s**t-kicking hoedowns and barroom crying in your beer songs.The cast other than Art Carney is adequate.
David Huffman and Cassie Yates make a cute couple of opposites attracting, he a professional geologist, she an uneducated waitress with a failed marriage and a son.
But they make the relationship believable and the ending probable.
He is perhaps the most famous villain in screen history because of his work as the Mountain Man in "Deliverance." In "St. Helens" he gets the short end of the stick.The on-location photography is an added attraction with actual shots of the Mt. St.
Helens eruption inserted.
The scene toward the end where Harry is fishing as the mountain spews forth its load is harrowing.
The attentive viewer will come away from this picture with new questions concerning the meaning of life and its brevity..
The cataclysmic eruption of Mount Saint Helens..
"St.Helens" centers around the events leading up to the eruption of Mount Saint Helens in Washington with the story beginning on the day volcanic activity started on March 20,1980 and ending on the day of the cataclysmic May 18,1980 eruption.David Huffman plays David Jackson,a vulcanologist who is sent by US Geological Survey to investigate the activity.His character is based on David Johnson,a real life vulcanologist who died during the eruption.Art Carney plays Mount St. Helens Lodge owner Harry Randall Truman.He refuses to leave his place of living during the volcanic activity.Jackson falls in love with a single mother named Linda Steele.On 18th May the volcano explodes..."St.Helens" is very loosely based on facts.It's an entertaining disaster drama with lovely score by Italian band Goblin.The entire movie was shot on location in Bend,Oregon and at Mount Bachelor in Central Oregon's Cascades,but there are some real-life images of Mount Saint Helens taken during an eruption.8 out of 10..
Dramatic re-creation of the events leading up to the eruption of Mt. St.
Helens and the unsuccessful efforts to evacuate the area even with so many warning signs.
Special effects combined with actual footage give added reality..
The best kind of history: involvement with the people who lived through it..
The best kind of history: involvement with the people who lived through it..
With its low-key acting, and real, believable characters, this film was a superb re-enactment of what became a nightmare for those closest to it.
With its low-key acting, and real, believable characters, this film was a superb re-enactment of what became a nightmare for those closest to it.
Art Carney, as Harry S.
Art Carney, as Harry S.
Truman, is completely believable, and understandable, as a man set in his ways and content with his life, unwilling to run away and perhaps unable to comprehend the totality of the disaster that is looming.
Truman, is completely believable, and understandable, as a man set in his ways and content with his life, unwilling to run away and perhaps unable to comprehend the totality of the disaster that is looming.
We would all like terrible realities to go away, but often they are worse even than the forecasts.
We would all like terrible realities to go away, but often they are worse even than the forecasts.
In light of 9/11, the poignancy of the human relationships in this film is even greater.
In light of 9/11, the poignancy of the human relationships in this film is even greater.
We are so vulnerable in the face of many of the events of life, and the most important things we have to cling to are each other, and our relationships to the people we love, and to life itself.
We are so vulnerable in the face of many of the events of life, and the most important things we have to cling to are each other, and our relationships to the people we love, and to life itself.
A haunting, under-rated film..
A haunting, under-rated film..
Somewhat a slow movie but predictable..
The movie St. Helens was a bit slow, especially how the film was drawing up the timelines.
Simply I knew what I was waiting for during the whole time was May 18, 1980 at 8:32 a.m. for the "big explosion." Needless to say, the film was a bit dull but that is almost an unfair comparison when its compared to witnessing Mt. St.
Helens unleash her fury in real life.
Like most docu-drama disaster flicks, this film is pretty boring and has little to note.
About all it has going for it is the fact that you know how the film is going to end...
The only reason you keep watching this is the morbid curiosity of which characters are going to die..
This movie purports to be a true story, but other than some geographic references, it is true only in that Mount St. Helens erupted violently and two of the fatalities.
While the differing perspectives of innkeeper Harry Truman and geologist David Johnston on the peril posed by the volcano could have made for a compelling human interest drama; but while the acting is generally acceptable, this isn't it.
The special effects are laughably cheesy, even given the state of the art in 1981, and the music is screwy.
Much of the geologic phenomena that the movie associates with the eruptions are pure fantasy, and the sequence of the eruptive events before the final blast is entirely wrong.
The climactic line of the movie is yelled without any context to indicate what the actor is talking about.
Helens, the only way I would recommend this fiasco is to fans of Art Carney, who valiantly tries to carry the film.
The stock footage of the St. Helens eruption is better seen in a context that rightly explains the eruption, rather than exploiting it in such absurd terms..
Renegade geologist David Jackson (an excellent and engaging performance by David Houffman) tries to warn people about the impending eruption of the volcano Mt. St.
Helens while crusty and stubborn old-timer Harry Truman (a wonderfully ornery portrayal by Art Carney) refuses to leave his lodge home despite the fact that he lives in the immediate proximity of the volcano.
Director Ernest Pintoff, working from an absorbing script by Larry Ferguson and Peter Bellwood, relates the compelling story at a steady pace, ably creates and sustains an ominous atmosphere of slowly mounting dread, and presents believable characters who are firmly grounded in a totally plausible everyday reality.
This movie further benefits from sound acting by a top-drawer cast: Carney and Huffman excel in the lead roles, with bang-up support from Cassie Yates as the sweet Linda Steele, Albert Salmi as mean and greedy local mill boss Clyde Whittacker, Ron O'Neal as tough Vietnam vet helicopter pilot Otis Kaylor, Tim Thomerson as the amiable Sheriff Wayne Temple, Bill McKinney as belligerent lumberjack Kilpatrick, and Henry Darrow as arrogant scientist Lloyd Wagner.
The climactic eruption is genuinely exciting and makes effective use of actual newsreel footage.
Only some shoddy optical special effects of the deadly billowing clouds of volcanic ash fail to impress.
The old man and the mountain.
(Mild Spoilers) True modern day Don Quixote like story of a somewhat nutty old man Harold known as "Give em Hell Harry" Truman, Art Carney, who against everyones advice stayed steadfast at his Mt. St.
The hard as nails Harry is waiting for the end to come together with his fitfully pooch and a years supply of bourbon to keep him both warn and happy.
That's as Mt. Saint Helena is about to blow sky high and flatten everything within as much of 50 miles around it!This real life drama began on March 20, 1980 as Mt. St.
Helena started to rumble and churn out hot lava causing the people living around it to become concern that it might just erupt for the first time in over 100 years.
With handsome geologist David Jackson, David Huffman, sent by the US Government to check the mountain out he comes to the shocking conclusion that the mountain is very likely to blow it's top at any moment.
Helena Wayne Temple, Tim Thomerson, to evacuate the ares before the now active volcano ends up vaporizing the town with everyone in it.Harry for his part is totally unafraid of what's about to happen in his determination to stick it out and ride out the storm or volcanic eruption even if it ends up killing him!
There's also the owner of the Whittaker Inn and local logging company Clyde Wittaker, Albert Salmi, who despite warning of impeding doom refuses to closed down his inn and timber business putting profits ahead of people like the true money grubbing and unfeeling, for his fellow human being, capitalist swine that he is!The drama of the St. Helena eruption that everyone watching the movie knows is going to happened since it was broadcast around the clock,for some six weeks, at the time it did is seen in stages as the mountain continued to rumble and grumble as the pressure builds up inside of it for it's massive and powerhouse eruption!
An explosion that has the destructive power of, God help us all, at least 500 Hiroshima like atomic bombs!We also have in the movie David Jackson's love interest single mom Linda Steele, Cassi Yates, who works at the Whittaker Inn who by the time the movie is over falls in love with David who instead of returning the favor leaves her to take photos of the big once in a lifetime eruption despite the danger he's to face photographing it.
There's also the butt kicking and karate black belt helicopter pilot Otis Kaylor played by Ron "Superfly" O'Neal who together with David flies into the belly of the beast, Mt. St.
Helena, to check out if its about to blow that almost cost him and David their lives!
We also have as comic relief, if you can call it that, this whacked out Reverend Dr.Lucus Romarantin, Biff Manard, who in an effort to keep Mt. St.Helena from erupting is willing to offer up to it a human sacrifice, not himself of course, of a virgin from his congregation Pamala, Julie Phillips, in order to placate the God Vulcan.
It's Vulcan that Dr.Romarantin feels is the reason that the mountain is acting so angry toward the world or better yet the state of Washingon and its surroundings!***SPOILERS*** As the fateful day-May 18, 1980-approaches it's old man Harry Truman who turns out to be the real hero of this end of the world earth shaking drama.
With Harry not giving as much as an inch to the mountain that's about to bury him he and his dog go out for a days fishing at Spirit Lake that by the time the movie is finally over would be vaporized together with Harry and 59 other people as the big bad and angry Mt. Saint.
Helena lets off the steam, as well as fire and brimstone, that's been building up in it for over the last 100 years!!.
The dumbest movie i have ever seen.
Call me an immature little boy, but i've had a more profound experience just watching a documentary on Mount St. Helens.
To that end, there was actually some real footage of the eruption mixed in there somewhere.
Now that was good, about all that actually was good in this dumb movie.
(some people might think of this as a spoiler) The actor who plays Harry Truman is.
Truman was probably in his seventies, the actor looks like he's barely out of his fifties.This movie runs about ninety minutes.
Am I ever thankful for that, ninety minutes of sheer torture magnified by the fact that they swear (i'm talking S-words here) like it's 1999 just all the time.
they must swear at least three times every scene.
I'm telling you, it's out of control.The only good line in the whole movie is "Ahh, hayte bahg pypes!" oh, sorry, translated version: "I hate bagpipes!" That line has become legendary around my house.1 star is way too many.
Watch a Mount St. Helens documentary instead. |
tt1522835 | Sherlock Holmes | The film begins during the German air raids in London in 1940. An elderly Dr. John Watson tells his nurse the tale of an unrecorded case he shared with his friend Sherlock Holmes. In 1882, Holmes and Watson investigate the shipwreck of a royal treasury ship which was destroyed by a monstrous giant octopus on the coast of Newhaven. They do not believe the first-hand accounts of the sole survivor of the attack, but nonetheless investigate. Inspector Lestrade states that he has recently had contact with Holmes's estranged brother Thorpe, a former partner of Lestrade's who was paralyzed during a bank robbery seven years prior.
In Whitechapel, a young man is killed by a dinosaur. Watson is skeptical until he and Holmes discover the creature on their morning constitution. Finding escape, several more clues lead Holmes to deduce that the monsters are artificial, built by a criminal genius to acquire resources. On the case, the dinosaur steals a water pump operating a fountain and rolls of copper wire, presumably so Spring-Heeled Jack can create another monster. The octopus that destroyed the ship earlier is linked to the dinosaur because they are both similarly "exceptionally improbable". Lestrade accompanies Holmes and Watson during their investigation. On one of their leads, Lestrade ends up missing. Holmes's reasoning leads himself and Watson to an old castle in Helmsmouth he and his brother visited as children. They come across another monster, a masked mechanical man: Spring-Heeled Jack.
Spring-Heeled Jack is revealed to be Holmes' brother, Thorpe, who also assumed the identity of a patient of Watson's. Inesidora Ivory, his accomplice, is with him. Thorpe explains that he built a mechanical suit to cure his paralysis, and he deduced that the crippling bullet ricocheted off a doorframe, fired by Lestrade. He plans to destroy London, assassinate Queen Victoria and force Lestrade to claim responsibility. Ivory is revealed to be one of Thorpe's creations and his lover, and she carries that will detonate when she reaches Buckingham Palace, while Thorpe pilots his most complex invention yet, a fire-breathing dragon in which he pilots and holds Lestrade hostage. Watson is sent to stop Ivory from killing the Queen, while Holmes pilots another one of Thorpe's flying inventions in an attempt to stop his brother.
Thorpe's dragon sets fire to Parliament and Westminster Abbey. Ivory is deactivated by Watson moments before the explosion can take place and the dragon is sent crashing in the garden outside the Palace. Thorpe, crippled again, crawls from the wreckage and tries to shoot Watson, before he himself is shot by Sherlock Holmes. Holmes proves Lestrade was not responsible for Thorpe's crippling. Lestrade takes credit for saving the Queen and Holmes and Watson vow never to speak of the events again. In present time, Watson dies and his nurse visits his grave. Nearby, Ivory is visiting the grave of Thorpe Holmes. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0110668 | Night of the Running Man | Jerry Logan, a cab driver in Las Vegas, picks up a nervous passenger who offers him $100 to get to the airport as quickly as possible. Unknown to Jerry, the man has stolen $1 million from Al Chambers, a mob-connected casino owner. Chambers himself skimmed the money from mob boss August Gurino. Knowing that Gurino will kill him if he notices the missing money, Chambers sends assassins to recover it. Although they kill the thief, Logan escapes with the cash. Desperate, Chambers hires an expensive hitman, David Eckhart, who tracks Logan to his house. Logan escapes with the money and flees the city on a train. Before he leaves, he confides in a friendly waitress, and Eckhart intimidates her into revealing Logan's destination. Eckhart kills the waitress and follows Logan.
In Salt Lake City, Eckhart captures but loses Logan at the airport as he boards a flight for Los Angeles. Eckhart contacts his associate, Derek Mills, who pays off all the cab drivers at the Los Angeles airport. With no other choices available, Logan chooses Mills' cab. Mills kidnaps him at gunpoint and, at his house, burns Logan's feet in boiling water to make escape impossible. However, Mills underestimates Logan, who overpowers him and flees with the money. When Logan collapses unconscious on the street, he is taken to the hospital, where he meets nurse Chris Altman. Altman treats his wounds and covers for him when Eckhart comes looking. Mills, who is in the same hospital, overhears that Altman has taken Logan to a hotel for safety, and he alerts Eckhart.
Although Logan encourages Altman to leave, Eckhart bursts in before she can. The two escape together and head for Altman's house after depositing the money in a safety deposit box. At her house, Logan and Altman have sex. When Logan wakes in the morning, Eckhart is waiting for him in the kitchen. Logan proposes a deal: he will split the money with Eckhart, and, in return, Eckhart lets both him and Altman survive. Eckhart accepts the deal and leaves for Las Vegas, where he kills Chambers and his wife on the orders of Gurino. When Eckhart returns to Los Angeles, Logan attempts to ambush him but fails. Frustrated by Logan's reluctance to produce the money, Eckhart orders Mills to beat Altman. Logan reveals that he has hidden it in the basement, and Eckhart kills Mills when Mills offers to retrieve it.
Eckhart and Logan proceed to the basement. Logan disarms Eckhart, who only becomes more excited by the heightened tension. Although Eckhart briefly considers killing Altman to flush out Logan, he instead engages Logan in hand-to-hand combat. Armed with a knife, Eckhart stalks Logan in the dark, taunting him as he scores hits. Although Logan briefly surprises Eckhart, Eckhart easily overpowers him and goes for a killing blow. Before Eckhart can finish him, Logan strikes Eckhart with a wooden plank. Both men are surprised when a nail in the plank impales Eckhart, killing him. Now more careful, Logan and Altman leave the country under assumed names and pay cash for their tickets. | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | It is one of the fastest-moving films I've seen.Usually, I like to see at least one good person in the film but this is an exception but this is a notch above the average low-life affair because of the performances of Scott Glenn and John Glover.
Both are also fascinating to watch with Glenn having the bigger role as the main hired killer and Glover as his friend in another city.I might be overrating this a bit because the last 45 minutes is a stretch, a real stretch, beginning with the entrance of a beautiful nurse who unrealistically gets involved with Andrew McCarthy, a guy on the run from these killers.
That just wouldn't happen, but it does keep the story going strong.There are some memorable scenes in this movie and some of them not too pleasant, so be forewarned: a woman dangled from the top of Hoover Dam and McCarthy being tortured with his feet scalded.
There are two gratuitous sex scenes in here, too.At any rate, for a no-name movie, it was surprisingly entertaining and I'd like to see it out on DVD before too long..
It has a plot line that I find hard to resist: "Regular guy finds a pile of money and Complications ensue."The Night of The Running Man is a lot of fun.
It has great performances from Scott Glenn and John Glover and also from Andrew McCarthy.
There are some excruciatingly painful to watch moments in this film,scenes that rival the infamous tooth-drilling scene in Marathon Man, scenes where characters have their feet submerged in boiling water,have their necks broken,foreheads smacked with boards thru which nails are protruding, etc etc.
He comes across as very believably scary.The film was directed by Mark Lester and he keeps things moving nicely.This one is worth checking out..
I love B grades, especially ones like this that surprise me, and this is exactly what 'Night Of The Running Man' does, and it doesn't stop for anything.
We've got one slick thriller, and Scott Glenn here is bloody scary, an underestimated character of evil, a professional hit-man, void of remorse or emotion (watch one lovemaking scene that sickly shocks).
Andrew McCarthy who does well here, plays a loser cab driver, who like he says, gambler that he is, has the worst run of luck possible.
Fleeing the scene of a crime, his previous passenger run down, after stealing a suitcase full of money, the kind of moolah that can get you dead (and remember we're in Vegas here) leaves it behind in McCarthy's cab.
Here's McCarthy's plan: Take off from Vegas with the money, leaving his little trailer park home, for some greener pasture, but Glenn is hot on his heals, making this a dangerous and scary thriller/adventure.
No doubt the trademark scene is the torture one, where John Glover as a sleazy old friend of Glenns, pretty much puts a stop plug on MCcarthy's plans, who gives his feet a bathing that he'll never forget.
NOTRM is pretty much a scene by scene movie, but it has pace, and for the viewer is scary fun, where you wouldn't want be in McCarthy's shoes, where psychopathic hit man Glenn's intensity is the winning formula in making this movie, as thrilling as it is, where it's neatly wraps up.
He can't help the fact that some viewers are too unintelligent to know what is going on in the movie as has been discussed above and then refer to it as a "bad movie".If you haven't seen the movie, it is good, entertaining, contains solid acting, and McCarthy's specialty - making love to a woman that most of you need to view as a "how to" video - if you have the attention span to keep your eyes on the movie for that length of time..
"Night of the Running Man" opens with a real "grabber" of an opening, as likable cab driver (Andrew McCarthy) unintentionally gets involved with a fare who has a bag of money stolen from the mob.
Enter Scott Glenn as an arrogant "fixer', who is sent by the head boss (Wayne Newton) to retrieve the million dollars and eliminate the cab driver.
I was puzzled by the star billing of Scott Glenn in the credits, since McCarthy is the hero.
Usually a "chase" film lasts as long as two hours because of the bad guys ineptness: not so in this movie - hero and villains are well matched; the latter pros demonstrate their competence by being always one step ahead of their amateur quarry, the playing field is levelled by his resourcefulness, guts, their bad luck, and his youth (in one sequence, the McCarthy character simply outruns the pursuing Glenn, through a crowd).
Yes, it's a fair, fast-paced fight, and I admired all three protagonists.The McCarthy character evolves through his reaction to the various threats to him and his girl-friend, while the villains are well served by a non-formula script, and the smooth, humorous ruthlessness of Glenn and Glover..
This is an extremely suspenseful, lighting paced thriller about a cab driver (Andrew McCarthy - Weekend at Bernies) who finds a suitcase full of money in his cab when a mysterious man leaves it there after being chased by the Mafia.
He foolishly decides to keep the money and its not long until a cold faced hitman (brilliantly played by Scott Glenn - Backdraft) is on his case.
The production values are standard, the music or direction isn't anything special, the only thing that actually stands out is the performance by Scott Glenn (Silence of the Lambs).
The Breakfast Club's Andrew McCarthy plays a Las Vegas cabbie, who discovers a million dollars of cash stashed in her cab.
It turns out to be stolen mob money, and he finds that a hired hit man (Glenn) is after the money- and him.
This is one of those movies where the star is the good guy even though he leaves the scene of a deadly accident, steals a million dollars, is too stupid to effect a proper get away, kills a person and ends up torching his own car with two dead bodies in it and no one behind the steering wheel.
At one point a friend said to me that Andrew McCarthy is one of the kings of Bad movies.
Ok, ok, "Weekend at Bernies" or some of the others may be ok, but they are not very memorable and would be on few top 100 or 1000 lists.Anyway, Night of the Running Man, brings this idea of McCarthyism into the 90's (1994), and once again it rings true.The concept of the movie is ok: $1 mil in the taxi, a killer is after you, and you run.
Scott Glen, plays the killer without morals, so much so, that we know something is up come ending time.
There are also little type goofs, like McCarthy's feet are burned so badly that he is supposed to be bedridden for 2 or so weeks, yet in 2 days, he is walking without any limps.Also, "night " is a bit of a mis-nomer as the movie takes place over days.
It's a very silly movie!Poor Andrew McCarthy suffers hell after finding a suitcase full of money in his cab, left by one of his unusual passengers.
It looks like the mob is trying to get back the money and they hired a dangerous hit-man (Scott Glenn) to find it.
On one side there's Andrew running away from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City and then Los Angeles, and on the other side, Glenn's tactics to find this dumb guy, who seems to be getting really smart after this sudden lucky strike.
And there's another villain, played by John Glover, who is very scary and because of his torture methods that the film gets interesting (when he puts McCarthy's feet on boiling water to prevent him from running away).
That scene alone worths the whole film.But this movie cannot escape of its negative aspects.
Fight scenes are badly executed; lots of laughable parts; the amazing fact of a guy who had his feet burned walking on crutches one day later after the incident (at least put him on a wheelchair when walking out of the hospital, then I would believe just a little); the presentation of both major characters are terrible, you don't even have time to relate or care for the hero, he's simply thrown on the screen and we "have" to like him.
Uninteresting as an action film or as a thriller, and a little bit funny as a drama, "Night of the Running Man" is good in making us wondering why good actors allow themselves to waste their talents in such a simplistic and dull project where their skills aren't well used.
Rarely, almost never, does a botched costume tell you everything you have to know about a movie but in this self-described "low budget" film, one of the lead's costumes in fact is a warning signal.
The so-called "professional ", "best there is" hit man (played by Scott Glen) is saddled, pun intended, with an ill-fitting suit that he wears throughout most of the movie.
I've worked on low budget films in my career but when a director or producer saves money, not by serving pizza for meals instead of catering thefilm, but stints on the leading man's suit, then you know you are in trouble.
Once a thing like this starts a movie then something as simple as the Scott Glen character acting "hired gun cool" becomes an item that causes smiles, if not laughter.
Stilted direction, formulaic plot, cliché-ridden characters, wooden acting, badly shot (looked like an old Barbaby Jones episode, but not that good), dreadful script.
Sexy and stupid and then.....dead.I can't imagine why Scott Glenn or Andrew McCarthy would work on a movie this terrible..
enjoyable movie with Andrew McCarthy and Scott Glenn.
The movie begins with a Las Vegas cab driver finding a briefcase stuffed full of money.
Every geek who grew up in the 80's knows Andrew McCarthy (who was not in The Breakfast Club btw, as another reviewer said), Scott Glenn is even today in every other movie and the director had a couple of hits in the 80's, so somewhat promising setup.The plot itself is pretty good in all it's simplicity, you have a hit-man chasing a cab driver who took the opportunity to get rich with money which is not his.
The chase is on and the scenery changes with a rather nice pace.What doesn't really work, is the leading man McCarthy.
Lester's Night Of The Running Man, not to be confused with the Schwarzenegger classic of a similar moniker, is a mean spirited little urban thriller with Scott Glenn in one of his primo amped up psychopath roles.
The hot man called in to pursue the funds is David Eckert (Glenn), a sociopathic monster with a heavy artillery, bent on retrieving the case and killing as many people along the way.
Erstwhile 80's Brat Pack thesp Andrew McCarthy is unexpectedly strong and engaging as a sweet, luckless Las Vegas cab driver who inadvertently takes possession of a million dollars worth of mob money and promptly hotfoots it out of town.
Greatly enlivened by B-movie action maestro Mark ("Truck Stop Women," "Commando") Lester's briskly smooth, straightforward direction, further enhanced by a splendidly scuzzy appearance by the ever-slimy John Glover as Glenn's equally detestable and overconfident Los Angeles partner in crime, a genuinely beguiling performance by the cute, perky Janet Gunn as the kind, cuddly nurse who comes to the battered, beleaguered McCarthy's aid, a few fun, clever plot twists, a welcome and refreshing sense of neatly realized inner logic and rationality (yes, this flick is actually very smart and doesn't actively insult the viewer's intelligence), an appropriately hard and gritty no-nonsense tone, a nonstop snappy pace, some good old fashioned (pretty graphic) sex and violence, and authentically tacky Las Vegas and Los Angeles locations, this rip-snorting little corker really makes the grade as a tense, tasty, and, most importantly, quite trashy chase action thriller..
Once you accept that premise, however, you can enjoy the film on its own terms.As is explained in greater detail in some of the other posted comments, the film concerns a Las Vegas cab driver (Idiot No. 1) named Jerry Logan (Andrew McCarthy), who inherits a suitcase containing a million dollars after one of his fares is killed while trying to abscond with the money from the casino at which he worked.
Otherwise, however, Logan behaves like an idiot throughout the film.What follows is loaded with SPOILERS (as are most of the comments on this film), so don't read on if you don't want to know what happens in the film.Soon after Logan discovers the money, Eckhart comes after him and gives him good reason to believe that he's in deadly peril.
He goes to the train station, buys a ticket in own name, and then gets coffee in the station cafe, where he tells the waitress where he plans to get off the train.Needless, to say, Eckhart easily catches up with Logan, only to have the guy slip away from him in a crowded airport.
It turns out that this cab is being driven by Idiot No. 3, Derek Mills (John Glover), another hit man whom Eckhart has tipped off about Logan's arrival.
Possibly even more sadistic than Eckhart, Mills takes Logan to his own house, where he boils Logan's feet to keep him from running away.
(And this dope considers himself unlucky?) Unfortunately, Logan's new friend Mills is also in the hospital, getting his head wound treated, and he overhears two nurses talking about the new patient with boiled feet.
Soon, Eckhart comes calling yet again.After Nurse Altman tells Logan that a man is looking for him, they both escape (Logan's boiled feet slow him down considerably, but they seem to heel rapidly through the last 30 or so minutes of the film.
He does, but not until the next morning, permitting them to spend the night in vigorous love-making--which must be part of Nurse Altman's cure, as Logan is in terrific condition the next day.Well, I think I've made my point.
Nevertheless, the film can be fun to watch (apart from several scenes of sadistic violence), if you enjoy guessing what stupid move each character will make next.
The film ends with Logan and Altman blowing up the latter's car with the dead bodies of the two hit men in it.
Another commentator on this page suggests that they burn the car so that the "mob" will think that they (i.e., Logan and Altman) are dead and stop looking for them.
So far as I could tell, before Eckhart gets killed, he goes back to Las Vegas and kills most of the people who might know who Logan is.
In any case, I don't think anyone in the mob knows about Nurse Altman, except Eckhart and Mills--who are dead--so there would be no reason to connect Logan with the car anyway.
Another organization killer in brought into the picture, this time a friendly, matter-of-fact, guy with a sense of humor (Glover).
There is a meeting between Glenn and Glover, the two professionals, in which Glover comes up with something out of a B Western -- "Someday the two of us will have to find out which of us is better." I know that it's dumb, but it doesn't leap out at the view because so far the entire movie is pretty dumb.
When the waitress accidentally runs into Glenn she's dumb for not simply denying she met McCarthy but also for lying about where he's headed.
A final attempt an escape fails and the four principals are brought together -- Glenn, Glover, McCarthy and Barbie.
Glenn mutters a few ironic words, then dies, which is just as well because with all that frontal lobe damage he'd never be able to plan far enough ahead to decide what kind of pizza to order.McCarthy and Barbie now have not only the million bucks but two dead bodies, which they destroy in a fire, leaving the organization to think that the bodies are their own, rather than the killers'.
Therefore, I was pleased to see her turn up for a few minutes playing a waitress who covers for Andrew McCarthy (playing a cab driver on the run from the mob) in "Night of the Running Man." Lankford made the most of her screentime and brought some warmth and humanity to a drab direct-to-video actioner.
Therefore, (spoiler coming up ahead, folks), I was thoroughly disgusted with the scene where mob hitman Scott Glenn dangles Lankford's terrified character from high up on a Dam in order to coax McCarthy's whereabouts from her, then drops her to her death.
This is without question a "B" Movie, but what a "B" Movie, one of the best "Cat and Mouse" films you are likely to find.
"The Cat", Scott Glenn's Dave Eckert is without question one of the most evil villains you will ever find in a film.
"The Mouse" Jerry Logan (Andrew McCarthy), is an innocent Las Vegas cab driver who picks up a fare who stole money from the Mob, and gets killed.
Logan then takes the money and starts to fun, and so begins the chase.
Then he gets to LA and at the airport, he takes a cab to get away, but finds the driver is Derek Mills (John Glover), and even more sadistic hit-man then Eckert, who puts Jerry's feet in boiling water.
He then collapses in the street and is taken to the Hospital where he is treated by Chris Altman (Janet Gunn), and when Eckert and Mills show up, he tries to run away, and she says if you leave you will die, he says if they catch me, I will die, and lets her know they are Mob hit men, and says he will pay anything to get away. |
tt0096000 | Robowar - Robot da guerra | Major Murphy Black (Reb Brown) leads a group of commandos through the jungles of an unnamed island, but unknown to all involved but Mascher (Mel Davidson), they are being stalked by Mascher's robot invention, Omega-1. Over the protests of Mascher, the group first saves a volunteer hospital worker, Virginia (Catherine Hickland), from a band of guerrillas, then take out the hospital camp, killing all the guerrillas there, also. At this point, the robot begins killing members of the commando group, one by one. That night, Mascher admits to Murphy that he created Omega-1, that it was acting sporadically, and that he was there to check out the match-up between the decorated Murphy and Omega-1.
The next day, they continue, and are further stalked by the Robot. At one point, as Mascher is reviews a computer to check Omega-1's location, one of the commandos tosses it into the river, declaring that Macscher is now in the same danger they are. Later, Mascher reveals the radio device which can destroy Omega-1, but the robot kills Mascher and others, leaving only Black and Virginia, and takes the radio destruct device. That night, Black listens to an audio tape given by Mascher, which reveals that Omega-1 is a human/machine hybrid, whose human parts were made up of the brain of Black's old friend, Lt. Martin Woodrie. Omega-1 attacks in the house they're hiding, but Virginia stuns the robot with acid, and Black blows up the house. Black and Virginia reach the shore, and try to signal the boat, but Omega-1 catches up, and chases Black into the jungle. Cornering him, the robot removes the visor of his mask, hands Black the destruct radio, and instructs him to key the destruct sequence. Black does so, and returns to the shore. | violence | train | wikipedia | Ah, leave it to the directorial talent (or lack thereof) of Bruno Mattei to make me yearn for the Citizen Kane Reb Brown classics such as Space Mutiny or Yor the Hunter from the Future.Think of this outing as a prolonged hike in the nature preserve.
Herr Mattei also had access to bio lab skeletons and you're bloody sure that he was going to use them!All levity aside, many thanks to Smoke Manmuscle, I mean Reb for making this trial somewhat amusing.
Whether it's his high shrilled helium-ated octaves of unforgettable lines such as 'Incoming, get out of here!' and 'Move out!' or his constant bickering with Mascher (less than Carl Weathers and more like Andy Richter's shady uncle), Murphy Black weathers the storm to the beat of a Casio laced soundtrack.
Bruno Mattei does Predator, results are predictably awesome.
A combined rip-off of Predator and Robocop directed by hack trash grand wizard Bruno Mattei and starring veritable Colossus of kick-ass charisma Reb Brown in the Arnie role, along with Massimo Vanni looking like Chuck Norris and the always reliable Jim Gaines, and a script by husband and wife super-scribes Claudio Fragasso (Troll 2, Zombie 4: After Death)) and Rosella Drudi.
Anybody reading this already knows whether this film is for them or not, people generally are either Mattei fans or have sh!tty taste.
Fortunately the dialogue is worthy of Mamet, my favorite line being probably "You walk like a ruptured duck" .
It's OK though.Basically if you like films full of people walking around in the jungle and shooting at trees with occasional explosions and a robot that speaks in comically mangled digital gibberish then this is a film for you.
I like all of these things, so Robowar was definitely a film for me.
Not as good as the classic Strike Commando mind you, but in Mattei rip off terms this is pretty darned decent.
"Reb Brown stars in this action-packed adventure story of fighting men pitted against an unseen enemy, a force more powerful than the fiercest weapons.
Recruited by the CIA to rescue hostages held by guerrilla fighters in a Central American country, Brown and his men encounter an enemy unimaginably more deadly than any on Earth - because the Omega One is not of this Earth!"What you have just read (save the references to Reb and Omega One) is the VHS plot synopsis of the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle PREDATOR (1987) because that is exactly what this Bruno Mattei flick rips off!
A virtual scene-for- scene, shot-for-shot remake of the big budget sci-fi epic, ROBOWAR is bad.
Mattei usually wouldn't settle for just one flick to rip off and throws us a curve ball by also copying 1987's other classic sci-fi flick, ROBOCOP.
But no one until Mattei had the gall to just brazenly ape a popular movie scene-by-scene, shot-by-shot, line-by-line.ROBOWAR is an obvious remake of PREDATOR, only changed slightly to accommodate the total lack of budget.
Thankfully, the bulk of the actual film is largely stock-footage-free though you'll recognize a lot of the locations from other Mattei/Fragasso Filipino films like the old hut from AFTER DEATH.The great cast (including Romano Puppo, Massimo Vanni, Jim Gaines, Max Laurel, etc.) actually turn in surprisingly good acting.
Even star Reb Brown performs much better here than in his other Italo-Filipino outings.
It's amazing too considering Mattei stages them either theatrically (everyone crammed into a master-shot) or shoots them shot-for-shot like scenes in PREDATOR.
Good, yet idiotically staged action scenes come fast and furious but are interspersed with more than enough filler shots of Reb Brown and Co. wandering through the jungle.The only real kudos go for the pyrotechnic crew for plenty of lovable slow motion explosions, as well as Al Festa and his wonderfully cheesetastic 80's synthesizer spectacular score.
While nothing as heinously 80's as AFTER DEATH and COP GAME, it's in a pretty similar league.People who like this film and get a kick out of line-by-line ripoffs should also seek out Mattei's not-quite-as-fun-but-still-hilarious SHOCKING DARK, which did the same thing with ALIENS and TERMINATOR..
The all-time favorite movie of director Bruno Mattei may he rest in peace undoubtedly must have been "Predator".
One of the last films Mattei made before his death was called "Cannibal Ferox 3: Land of Death" and it was an extremely blatant imitation of "Predator" where he simply replaced the intergalactic hunter with a tribe of cannibals.
When I watched that film, I didn't even know yet that "Robowar" existed and was thus unaware of the fact that Mattei already pulled off the exact same trick nearly twenty years earlier!
This is, again, a shameless and outright rip-off of the classic 80's action flick starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, yet this time replacing the alien with an out-of-control robot that was initially designed as a surprise, surprise hi tech secret warfare weapon.
Every other even remotely memorable element of "Predator" gets copied here, like the testosterone-driven lead characters, rotting human cadavers lying all around the jungle, the blurry computerized view from inside the robot's helmet, entire pieces of dialogs and even the who-played-who end credits!
Needless to say this is a terribly inept and laughable B-movie exploitation product, but it is guaranteed entertainment to watch; especially in case you're an avid fan of typically Italian trash.
Bunch of beefcake mercenaries, all of them with bad-boy attitudes and carrying around heavy artillery to compensate for their lack of brain capacities, are sent into to the jungle to complete a mission they know absolutely nothing about.
The Robo-Soldier wipes out everyone before the replacement Arnie leader (Reb Brown) discovers it was constructed using spare body parts from his buddy who died in the Vietnam War. End of story.
Obviously "Robowar" is just an insignificant and utterly brainless popcorn Sci-Fi/action/War flick with nothing else than explosives and violent shootouts.
Speaking of which, I guess Bruno Mattei spent most of the nearly non-existent budget on explosives and ammunition!
* note: if you are, like me, a sucker for old movie posters and DVD illustrations, you might have noticed that the cover image depicted here on this page is not "Robowar" but for "Robo Man", an even obscurer 70's Sci-Fi sleeper..
Italian low-budget PREDATOR rip-off!.
There is some scenes that rip-off PREDATOR as Reb Brown and Catherine Hickland battle a mumbling robot that doesn't stop.
This is one of the last few films made before the italian action craze ended in the late 80's.
From Italian trash director Bruno Mattei (Hell of the Living Dead) and writer Claudio Fragasso (who gave us the legendary Troll 2), Robowar is a blatant cash-in on the success of Predator, with a touch of Robocop for good measure.
Reb Brown stars as Major Murphy Black, leader of a group of mercenaries with very silly (nick)names (Diddy Bop, Killzone, Blood, Papa Doc, Quang) who are sent on a mission about which they have very few details, but which sees them coming face-to-visor with a high-tech renegade humanoid killer robot called Omega One.As the soldiers explore the jungle, encountering the charred corpses of victims of the malfunctioning machine, as well as groups of hostile guerrilla fighters, Mattei and Fragasso miss no opportunity to blatantly ape the aforementioned Schwarzenegger classic, with entire scenes and chunks of dialogue mimicked throughout (silliest moments: Brown throws his knife at an enemy and quips 'Don't move!', inadequately aping Arnie's 'Stick around' gag; Quang's utterly pointless sacrifice).As with many a Mattei film, there are plenty of unintentional laughs to be had at the sheer goofiness on display: Reb Brown, in his blue, sleeveless, cropped T-shirt, who looks ready for a pride parade; the supposedly cutting-edge Omega One, equipped with low resolution pixelated visual sensors and a garbled Speak and Spell voice-box that Stephen Hawking would laugh at; the group of marines wasting countless rounds of ammo shooting at the jungle while screaming; and Quang referring to himself in third person.Great film-making it most definitely isn't, but one can't help but be entertained just a little..
Robowar (1988) * (out of 4)Maj. Murphy Black (Reb Brown) leads a group of men into the jungles where they can't possibly imagine what is about to attack them.
Inside the jungle is an alien creature who will slowly stalk and kill them.Plagorism is one of the most serious crimes that a writer can commit and often times it will end their career or at least put a black cloud over it.
For some reason filmmaker Bruno Mattei ripped off countless movies in his career.
Often times he would not only rip-off plots but also entire sequences, lines of dialogue and much more.
With that said, for some reason Mattei is still a "legend" in his own way as bad movie lovers flock to his films.ROBOWAR is a rip-off of PREDATOR but it also rips on ROBOCOP.
The alien here stalks the people in the jungle just like PREDATOR but his outfit is pure metal like ROBOCOP.
I can understand how some people would watch movies like this and have a good time with their badness but sadly this film isn't in that "so bad it's good" range.
Instead, ROBOWAR is just a really low-budget movie and a really bad one at that.The performances, direction, editing, story and pretty much everything else are downright awful but that's to be expected.
What's so bad about this movie is that it really doesn't reach a sleazy level as the violence is rather tame and there's not much blood or gore.
The men are hit with countless bullets but not a drop of blood spills.The action scenes are all rather stupid but the ending is nice in terms of explosions.
I'm sure some might find a few laughs in how bad the movie it but sadly it's too boring to be enjoyed..
Reb Brown and director Bruno Mattei are notorious for making really bad movies, but this is the worst of the worst!
An all-too-obvious PREDATOR rip-off, this movie very nearly copies PREDATOR scene for scene!!
Most of Brown's movies are incredibly bad, but also delightfully fun and cheesy.
As for Mattei, while he's considered by many to be the Italian Ed Wood, he needs to just leave originals alone and stop trying to rip-off other versions of good movies.
It's bad enough he would end up making a rip-off of TERMINATOR 2 (even though it's more like ALIEN than T2).
This movie is confounded by bad acting, lame dialogue, and from the looks of it, the script is only about 15 pages long!!
Not wishing to go down the road of the late eighties Italian haunted house films of Lamberto Bava, Umberto Lenzi, Lucio Fulci, Marcello Avallone and Fabrizio Laurenti, Bruno Mattei instead relocates the slasher film to the jungle, and instead of screaming teens pits a bunch of muscle bound soldiers against an unstoppable killing machine.
Believe me, you haven't seen anything like this before.Reb Brown (Strike Commando) stars as Reb Brown (Strike Commando), leader of the Big A*s Muthf*ckas, a squad of soldiers hired to go into the jungles of Venezuela to stop guerrilla activity.
Some other guys too, including an ethnic guide in touch with nature (Where does Bruno get these ideas?), a doctor and a mysterious gentleman along for the ride that Reb is suspicious of, but judging by the skin tight, half-t-shirt Reb's wearing when he gets off that boat, I'm guessing Reb doesn't think about things too deeply so he lets him come along anyway.Things get strange for our macho mo-fos the moment they discover a pile of human bodies torn to bits.
What we the audience know but Reb and co don't is that there is an experimental soldier/robot on the loose, killing everything in sight, and that guy who's joined them is its creator.
I know, it sounds a bit like Robocop, but Bruno has the insight to inject a bit of originality to the film, including Reb going head to head with a bunch of guerrillas and picking himself up a chick sidekick into the proceedings.The lads start to get the idea that they're being stalked, which leads to several scenes of Massimo et al firing wildly into the foliage, no doubt a satiric remark on Mattei's part regarding the futility of US military might versus guerrilla warfare in Vietnam.
Also, Reb (and Jim Gaines!) scream like girls every time they fire their machine guns, a reference to Strike Commando.
This film bears a lot of similarity to another film you may have seen, set in the jungle and involving marines facing something they've never encountered before, being picked off one by one in various gory ways.
As an even more glaring example of the intricities of Bruno Mattei's conceptual continuity, the director of that film here plays the killer robot.
Vast legions of fans devote themselves to finding all these 'clues' in Mattei's film.So, although Massino, Romano etc put up a good fight, you know the film is going to boil down the Reb being the Final Girl.
There's a few twists at the end I won't reveal here, and I'm sure Mattei's making some comment about the faceless terrorist threat the West faces every day by having the Venezuelan extras played by Filipino actors, but that's just the multi-layered complexities of a Bruno Mattei film (hell, I'm still finding things in Zombie Creeping Flesh after all these years).This film is crying out for an American remake, probably starring someone weedy and terrible, like Adrian Brody.
Also, check out the mixed up credits for Jim Gaines and Massimo (Alex McBride) Vanni – another little in-joke for us uber-fans..
Bruno Mattei gathered a bunch of B-movie actors, threw them into the jungle, and then ripped off the basic plotline from "Predator", ripped off whole lines of dialogue from "Predator", ripped off the irrelevant action sequences from "Predator", he even ripped off the "who-played-whom"-type closing credits from "Predator"!
Well, well, well.....this is a mightily shameless knockoff even by Bruno Mattei standards!
Despite the great cast of Italian B-movie stars assembled here including Reb Brown, Massimo Vanni, Romano Puppo and Max Laurel, this film never raises above the decidedly average mark due to its obvious lack of imagination and ambition other than to be a blatant Predator clone (sans the budget).Not content with ripping off just the basic premise either, Mattei has directly lifted a number of scenes and lines of dialogue from the previously mentioned Hollywood blockbuster with the result at times being frankly cringe inducing.In addition the main bulk of the film here is comprised of budget saving, boring padding tactics which usually comprise of our heroes plodding around the jungle aimlessly interspersed with some intermittent gunfire as they catch a fleeting glimpse of their hunter (a rather poorly conceived looking robot named Omega 1) Certainly not one of Mattei's better efforts and curiously lacking the usual 'so bad it's good' charm that his work usually comprises, Robowar is overall, a fairly bland affair.
Robowar is shameless...ly entertaining fun!.
Major Murphy Black (Reb) and his team are sent into the jungles of the Philippines to track down and destroy a rogue robot.Much has been made that this is just an Italian knockoff of Predator (1987) and Robocop (1987) (but especially Predator)...that's all well and good, but, that aside, is this movie worth seeing?
For a movie with almost no plot, it's surprisingly fast-paced, and rather than have a lot of dialogue, it's mainly yelling and shooting machine guns.
There are other silly one-liners, but this was our favorite.Fan-favorite Reb Brown is out in force here - looking especially ripped in his child-size half-shirt, he gets to command his team with his trademark screams.
As for the robot, we get some pixelated "robo-vision", and it seems like a guy in a motorcycle outfit.
Honestly, it's still pretty hard to find, presumably having been released largely in Japan and Italy, and we thank Sutekh over at Explosive Action for hooking us up with a copy.If you ever wished Predator was an Italian-made Exploding Hut movie shot in the Philippines, and had a robot instead of a "Predator", this is surely the movie for you.
Featuring a great synth score by Al Festa and released in the golden year of 1989, Robowar is shameless...ly entertaining fun.For more action insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com.
Even my Reb Brown love has limits.
An Italian ripoff of both Predator and Terminator starring Reb Brown (Yor Hunter from the Future), directed by Bruno Mattei (The Other Hell), from a script by the husband and wife team of Claudio Fragasso and Rosella Drudi (who concocted Troll 2, a movie that is at the same time not a sequel and not about trolls)?
You had me at Italian ripoff.Major Murphy Black (yep, Red Brown) is the leader of a team of commandos that are on a mission in the jungle.
Only Mascher knows why they are really there - to test his new invention, Omega-1 (who is played by writer Claudio Fragasso), a robot that looks like a BMX racer with scuba gear.But first, they have to rescue Virginia (Catherine Hickland, Witchery) from soldiers who are overtaking her hospital camp.
Just like Predator, the team easily kills all of the terrorists/evil guys/generic villains, but it's just to set up the real story.
Yep, Masher wanted to see how his creation would stack up against Murphy.The robot is smart enough to kill everyone, even his creator, and destroy the one device that is supposedly the only thing that can kill it.
At the end, the cyborg corners Murphy in the jungle and shows him how to initiate his self-destruct sequence.
And that's that.Even I can't defend the fact that I waste nearly ninety minutes of my life watching this movie.
Robowar." Hopefully, they realize that I mean a Bruno Mattei movie and don't think that it's a Rosebudian cipher and they have to go on a quest to discover what I mean. |
tt0376591 | Empire Falls | Set in the decaying, nearly bankrupt, small town of Empire Falls, Maine, this is the story of the unassuming manager of the Empire Grill, Miles Roby, who has spent his life in the town. The town, and Miles' life to a large degree, is controlled by the Whitings, a rich family that owns the local factories and much property.
Miles is separated and later divorced from Janine, who has become a cocky, selfish person after losing weight and exercising rigorously. This is partly due to encouragement from Walt Comeau, the antagonistic owner of a local fitness center who visits the Empire Grill daily and has moved into Roby's old house.
Roby is protective of his loving teenage daughter, nicknamed "Tick", who loves art. Tick is dealing with Zack Minty, her ex-boyfriend who continues to pursue her, and struggles with her mother's relationship with Walt whom Tick cannot stand. In addition, Tick has a complicated friendship with John Voss, an emotionally disturbed boy at school. The obnoxious jock Zack and his friends constantly bully John.
Other important people in Miles' life include his grubby, ne'er-do-well father, a rascal who can't resist a handout when it comes his way; Miles' reformed, marijuana smoking brother, who is a talented Empire Grill cook; Miles' good-hearted ex-mother-in-law, who owns a bar; the town's wealthiest woman, Francine Whiting, a condescending matron who owns the Empire Grill; Whiting's daughter, who has loved Miles for many years; an attractive waitress; a retiring police chief; and a dimwitted police officer, who is Zack's father and has known Miles since childhood.
Miles is plagued by flashbacks of his family when he was a child; these include memories of a mysterious affair between his mother and a suitor, the details of which might answer some questions Miles has had his entire life. | plot twist, revenge, murder, romantic, flashback | train | wikipedia | Richard Russo's 483-page novel offers a multi-faceted story and a fascinating array of characters in a small town in Maine who are burdened by the weight of the past.
The story resonated with American readers, and Russo was awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.For a film version of Russo's novel, it would be difficult to imagine the assembling of a finer cast for the quirky, eccentric characters of "Empire Falls." The unassuming and selfless Miles Roby is brilliantly performed by Ed Harris.
Other members of this stellar cast include Paul Newman (as Miles' crusty father Max); Joanne Woodward (as the town matriarch Francine Whiting); Danielle Panabaker (as Miles' daughter); Helen Hunt (as Miles' ex-wife Janine); Aidan Quinn (as Miles' brother David); Theresa Russell (as Miles' co-worker and confidante at the grill); Estelle Parsons (as Miles' mother-in-law); and Kate Burton (as Cindy Whiting and lifelong admirer of Miles).
Schepisi's transitional moments between past and present were brilliantly conceived in the film.Russo's novel is a uniquely American saga, recalling such great works of naturalism as Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy." The story has great scope and deals with such themes as family dysfunction, small-town gossip, commerce and industry, political infighting, and, above all, family secrets.
This HBO film adaptation of "Empire Falls" has been three years in the making, and the result is truly a labor of love..
I can't believe that at 80 years old he can still steal the show but he does.David and Charlene were not used enough but like I said I didn't want the story to end or to leave the town.
Thank you Paul Newman for bringing to my attention.Watch the movie, read the book.
I saw the premiere in NYC, and I work with one of the cast members, so my take on the movie is a bit biased.I also grew up in Maine, and know several of the locations well.
Look out the window of the Empire Grill for the best music store chain in the country, Bullmoose Music, or the background for other Maine details - Gifford's Icecream, Hannaford's, Route 201, Kennebunkport (and the Bush compound at Walker Point).The film is excellent, and managed to translate the Richard Russo novel quite well.
Watch it in two installments, late May, 2005 on HBO.There is a very interesting dynamic with Paul Newman playing the passionate opposite of real-life wife Joanne Woodward, playing the rational and controlling matriarch.
The supporting cast of Helen Hunt, Dennis Farina (hilarious), Kate Burton (wow), Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright Penn, Aidan Quinn, and Jeff DeMunn add up to an amazing ensemble.It would be a 10 of 10 if the ending weren't the easy way out of a complex story, a problem with the book as well as the film..
Richard Russo's brilliant novel gets a full movie treatment from HBO Films under the direction of Fred Schepisi.
This multi layered saga of people in a small and forgotten town in Maine follows Mr. Russo's novel and makes its people come alive, as portrayed by some of America's best actors working as an ensemble under Mr. Schepisi's unobtrusive direction.Empire Falls serves as a metaphor for all that has happened in most New England towns when industry abandoned them and unscrupulous liquidators came to pick at the bones of whatever was left behind in order to make an easy buck.At the center of the story we find Miles Roby, a decent man who has to deal with the present day realities and try to keep his family together.
Helen Hunt, on the other hand, seems to be miscast in the role of Janine; her fake accent doesn't seem to help her.Paul Newman, as the eccentric patriarch of the Roby family, loses himself in his role and we forget we are watching anyone by that crazy Max Roby.
Robin Wright Penn is seen briefly also as Grace, Miles mother who is a key figure in the story.The rest of the cast is excellent.The best thing that can come out of this adaptation is that people will flock to read Richard Russo's novels because he is an important voice in American literature..
Although everyone should read the book - it will pull you in and you'll know the real Maine and the people who live there - this film is the next best thing.
(The talent quotient is unbelievably high!) As amazing as this production is on just about every level (except for the music, which is irredeemably cheesy but fortunately mostly unobtrusive) credit must be given first and foremost to Richard Russo for writing characters so real and so complex and nuanced, and dialogue that is realistically elliptical that the real pull of the movie is not waiting to see what happens, but in getting to know the characters better.
I hope some Hollywood producers think about the fact that film can be thought-provoking, and not just a series of electronic jolts.Empire Falls was a clear indication that there are still actors and actresses out there, and there are stories to be told without resorting to egregious remakes of old television series.
A cast superb, Ed Harris was brilliant, as was Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Helen Hunt, Estelle Parsons, everyone was outstanding, from the seasoned actors right down to the very young, newcomers.
It seems like there is a business going under every week up here.Paul Newman and Ed Harris are spectacular in the movie (as with everything else they do).
Helen Hunt does a terrible accent - sound more like she's from Brooklyn instead of central Maine.Great picture.
It is a multi character drama that takes place in a small town Empire Falls, Maine.
Both of them make little effort to get inside their characters and use tricks to try to make it work on the surface, but it doesn't, in my opinion, because the material is wrong for them.The material itself, from a Pulitzer Prise winning novel (?!) is sheer soap opera, however well Mr. Russo writes prose, and he does that, from what I've read of it.
Harris is one of the most gifted actors of his generation, and his simple, intense playing shines here, reminding me of classic screen actors like Tracy and Stewart, and leaving the work of Newman and Woodward in the dust.
So, my take is strictly to the point of commenting on the movie version of the story.I enjoyed this film for the scenic locations and amazing cast artfully giving us the complex characters of the story.If you have never been to New England, take it from a recent transplant from Southern California, it is all and more than you imagine or see in the movies.
The scenes with Ed Harris (as Miles Roby) and William Fichtner (playing Jimmy Minty) are masterfully acted to reveal numerous layers in each character's persona.
I had come to know the characters so well, through the deftness of Richard Russo's prose, and had come to like (at least most of) them, that I couldn't bring myself to say goodbye.Such was my reaction to HBO's film version of this great American novel.Others here have praised the production, so I'll only add my brief thoughts: The cast, from the main players to the secondary characters, is uniformly excellent, with one or two exceptions.
As a recent immigrant to Maine myself and not having read the novel, I was keen to see this movie.Well acted and observed, with a wonderful performance by Paul Newman as the absentee patriarch, this film offers astute insight into thwarted aspirations and the dynamics of small-town USA.
The ensemble cast is well balanced and the performances real.An excellent story (clearly as it is based on a Pullitzer prize winning novel) with an entirely unexpected twist (perhaps not fully explored if I have to be a little critical) it was a wonderful way to spend 3.5 hours.Recommended to those who enjoy under-stated but 'real' movies..
Well acted, sterling cast and a great storyline that probably doesn't stray too far from the truth as applied to many small New England towns.I especially liked Ed Harris and Helen Hunt.
He's one of the most underrated actors and did a great job as the town "intellectual" (since he'd been to college)and she played her part as a frustrated wife, ex-wife, bride, divorcée to a T.I would like to have seen a chapter or two more, bringing resolution to certain situations in a more complete way.
Ed Harris was great in the lead role of Miles Roby and does his best to save Empire Falls, or at least carry it.
So much detail was put into this obvious labor of love, to fall so short at the end leaves both my husband and I sadly dissatisfied.Let me say there are many times my hubby & I do not agree on which movies to watch; much less we truly ENJOY what we choose to watch together, so this was so unusual that we both enjoyed this.
Considering how good the rest of the story was the author could have been more creative.Not having read the book I could not tell if the Paul Newman character was made up excessively dirty looking, as was the young man who was always picked on.
I grew up in a REAL Maine mill town and let me tell you, Empire Falls wasn't it!!.
There are several wonderful performances: Ed Harris brings a sense of quiet dignity and inner strength to the role of Miles, Joanne Woodward puts a lot of nuance into her performance as a manipulative, powerful woman, and Paul Newman is an absolute joy as Miles' charming, ne'er-do-well father.The director seems to have let everyone rise to the particular acting level, with the great actors doing great and some of the others struggling.
Taken from the Novel Empire Falls by Richard Russo, this story is told by narrative present day and flashbacks of the main character Miles Roby and his early days from what he recalls.
In this movie there are several facets of story lines that seem to come out at one main central focus, that being Miles and his encounters with the other characters.
An interesting side note to mention; the actor who plays Miles' dad, Max, is Paul Newman who is also the executive producer of the movie.
("Please, God, where is Meryl Streep or Glenn Close when I need them?") I realize these women are of a different generation from Woodward, but still...I felt his desperation.Final hilarious casting...Helen Hunt as someone 'who used to be fat.' I gave it 3 stars for the Harris and Hoffman performances..
Very nice little film (or mini-series) that boasts some terrific performances from Ed Harris (too old though), Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Kate Burton, William Fichtner, Aidan Quinn, Theresa Russell, Jeffrey DeMunn, Estelle Parsons, Robin Wright, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Dennis Farina.
This makes me want to read the book to see if anything is different or explained more.I felt all the actors did a great job except for Helen Hunt and oddly enough Paul Newman.
Go ahead and watch this film and, if you squint your eyes just right, you can almost see the achingly beautiful story that was the heart of Empire Falls, the book that finally won the brilliant Richard Russo a Pulitzer Prize.
"Empire Falls" is a 4 hour HBO miniseries which delves into the lives of a bunch of folks who live in a small, quaint Maine town where everyone knows everyone else and their business as well.
A where-have-I-seen-this-before story of an apparently functional community with evidence of dysfunction bubbling to the surface at every juncture, "Empire Falls" tells a predictable but pleasantly easy going story which revolves around a passive, underachieving college grad (Harris) who runs a café owned by a wealthy widow (Woodward) who has little interest in anything beyond controlling the townsfolk like so many puppets.
The cast is comprised of some fantastic actors (Ed Harris, Paul Newman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Helen Hunt, etc.).
We are talking Paul Newman, Robin Wright and Helen Hunt in one place, which will never happen again, and even Ed Harris is too good for this production.There is a reason why writers who don't write cinematic novels are normally nor allowed to write adaptations of their own work - they are in love with their own writing and turn a movie into an audio book.That's exactly what happened here.
Paul Newman, even though he doesn't get much screen time delivers the best performance in the film, followed of course by Ed Harris who hasn't done a bad movie yet.Empire Falls kept me going, despite some bits which are almost unwatchable.
Typically elaborately crafted HBO production with a first-rate cast, a rich small-town atmosphere and some nice narrative vignettes, graced by above average production values.But, and that's a huge 'but', the various subplots, peopled with some likable, mostly annoying caricatures, are paper-thin and go and and on in dull stretches for over three long hours.The often silly story veers uneasily between melodrama, without being entertaining enough, and personal drama, without being profound at all.A shame, because some scenes really shine.
When I found out there was going to be a movie made about a town just like mine, (there are about 3 towns in Maine like Empire Falls, mine might be the best example, even though it's not where it was filmed) I looked forward to it for months.
Though living in the town in which it was filmed, for most of my life, I may be a little bias.I was extremely pleased with the movie/mini series,which ever you choose to call this wonderful piece of work.
The production was quite a site to see; just imagine driving to work and seeing Ed Harris, Helen Hunt, or even Paul Newman working on a small street corner in your home town!
This film tells the story of Empire Falls,which could be any number of small towns in central Maine located on one of our many rivers.
Mr. Russo and the rest of the production crew have done a wonderful job telling a great story,there are many flashbacks to Miles Roby's childhood but they flow in the film like the currents of the Knox {Kennebec} river.The film from start to finish showcases some of the beauty that Maine has to offer along with some top notch acting led by Paul Newman.
Mr.Newman gives a brilliant performance as Max Roby, Miles' always ragged,smelly,and sometimes drunk father.Mr. Newman, in my opinion, gives one of the best performances in recent history.Acting along side Mr. Newman was a cast superbly put together,they all portrayed Mainas {that is Mainers for the rest of the country}very well,but I would have to say the best accent has to go to Aidan Quinn, he nailed it perfectly!The film at just under four hours was slightly long while sitting in our 100+ year old opera house,but shown in its intended two parts {or even all at once} in the comfort of your living room it will envelop you and take you some where near a small place I call home..
SPOILERS THROUGHOUT:It was a pleasure to watch this HBO miniseries, Empire Falls featuring the best cast I've seen in years.
I'm very happy to have seen this.The rich tapestry of characters in Empire Falls were plentiful and all the performers were perfectly cast.
Aiden Quinn-one of the most talented actors working today- excellent but underused-Newman, Woodward, Wright Penn, Hunt, EVERYONE-great.
Perhaps Empire Falls should have been longer(or maybe needs a sequel.)Also wonderful to see, was the depiction of small town life in Maine.
This story of the goings-on in a small Maine town does not deliver at the level one would expect given the cast, the high production values, and the Pulitzer Prize source.
Ed Harris turned in a good performance as Miles Roby and I did have the feeling that he was a real character struggling with some deep personal problems.
I won't mention all the other ridiculous things that happen, like the matron dying in the great flood of 2005, trying to save her cat (good performance by the cat.)For picaresque plot telling, this movie gets a "0".
I only gave it a 3 for good performances of Paul Newman, at 80 (claiming believably to be 70 in the movie) and Joanne Woodward playing the wicked witch of the waters.
After seeing both parts of Empire Falls, I can only wonder why more producers and directors don't make comprehensive movies that work as well as this one.
Like many people who see their family crumbling, he wraps himself totally into his unqualified love for his daughter.Strong supporting performances were also turned in by Paul Newman as the alcoholic father and Phillip Hoffman as the mysterious lover, but it was Joanne Woodward who provided the most accurate and realistic portrait, that of a brittle, wealthy widow who controls much of Empire Falls.Some have criticized Helen Hunt for her accent and performance, and I will agree this was not her best role, but I did not leave the film thinking she seriously detracted from it.
(I think the desire for a "name" overwhelmed the need to accurately cast the character.)Empire Falls is not just the story of small-town Maine, but rather the story of small-town America.
Rarely does it --- in reality --- end as hopefully as did the Empire Falls story, but stretches are expected and even encouraged in film-making.When was the last time you applauded a televised movie in the privacy of your home?
"Empire Falls" is a fictional town along the river in Maine.
(Several different Maine locations were used for the filming.) This town was originally settled by Algonquin Indians, but the Whiting family over the generations owned everything worth owning.Ed Harris plays the central character Miles Roby, who runs the local café owned by Francine Whiting (Joanne Woodward).
Ms Woodward's real-life husband and perhaps the best actor of modern times, Paul Newman, plays the grizzled old dad Max Roby. |
tt0110300 | The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure | A short time after the events of the first film, Littlefoot and his friends are living happily in their new home in the Great Valley, under their families' watchful eyes. One day, the gang attempts to get to the sheltering grass to play, but land in the sinking sand surrounding it. The grownups come and save them, and afterwards chastise them for crossing the sinking sand without help. The following night, Cera calls the others over for a secret meeting, informing them that they need to prove they are adults and suggests running away for a while into the Mysterious Beyond, a location just outside the Valley. Before they leave, they notice two egg nappers, Ozzy and Strut, stealing an egg from Ducky's nest and chase them into the Mysterious Beyond. During an ensuing landslide, the five are sent to the Mysterious Beyond, while the egg rolls safely back to the nest. In the Mysterious Beyond, the five discover another, larger egg and mistake it for the original.
The gang transports the egg into the Valley, and despite finding the original egg back in Ducky's nest, they decide to hatch it. The egg eventually hatches, revealing a baby Sharptooth. While the others flee, Littlefoot quickly realizes that he is not yet dangerous, and tries to raise the hatchling on leaves; though this fails, the hatchling, whom Littlefoot names "Chomper", becomes content with a diet of insects. He then hears the others calling for help, as the vengeful Ozzy and Strut are attacking them. He runs to their aid, but Chomper's shadow ultimately frightens Ozzy and Strut away. Littlefoot exchanges introductions between Chomper and the others. They accept him as part of the group until he bites Cera by instinct. Chomper is told that this is considered bad behavior in the Great Valley, and runs off as a result. When the others follow him, they find him chasing insects on top of the Smoking Mountain.
At the Smoking Mountain, Ozzy and Strut attack the children again, but Chomper once more comes to the rescue, biting Strut's tail. At that moment, the volcano erupts, lava slowly oozing in the children's path. Littlefoot pushes a tree over a canyon to make a bridge for the others, though Ozzy and Strut fall into the canyon while attempting to cross it themselves. Once across, the group encounters two adult Sharpteeth on the other side. They escape them and make it back to their families, though Chomper runs away again. After fighting the Sharpteeth off, the adults inquire as to how they entered the Valley, and the children explain their adventure the night before, and the landslide that resulted. Realizing the landslide created an opening used by the Sharpteeth to gain access to the Valley, the adults set off a plan to close the entrance for good, and tell the children to stay behind.
Littlefoot runs off into the forest to find Chomper. After finding him, they are chased by the two Sharpteeth again. They are cornered by the Sharpteeth when Littlefoot gets his foot trapped in a rotting log. Chomper roars at them, and they recognize him as their son and leave with him. Littlefoot frees himself from the log, but winds up getting captured by Ozzy and Strut, who survived the fall into the canyon. Chomper hears Littlefoot screaming as Ozzy and Strut attempt to drop him off a cliff, and goes to intervene, but is unsuccessful. Then, Chomper's parents rescue him and Littlefoot, chasing Ozzy and Strut into the Mysterious Beyond. After they say their final goodbyes, Chomper follows his parents while Littlefoot returns to the Valley, later assisting the adults in sealing up the entrance between the Valley and the Mysterious Beyond. Finally, it is closed forever; that way the sharpteeth are never going to go back in again. Afterwards, Littlefoot tells his grandparents that being young is not so bad after all, but decides he still looks forward to growing up. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0158375 | Yakeen | Rajesh is a scientist. He is injured following instructions of Dr Sharma in a secret experiment & granted leave. Rajesh lives with his dog, cook Bhola and loves Rita. Rajesh goes to meet Rita & asks for her hand from her mother who agrees. He finds his things spread on bed on returning to his hotel room. Shetty fools Bhola & takes pictures of Rajesh's house. Sharma calls him during his leave. He meets Sharma but is surprised to know that Sharma did not call him. He & Sharma quarrel when he asks for leave to marry. Rajesh reaches office on being called by Sharma but finds him murdered. Rajesh goes to call the police & returns with them to find the body missing. Intelligence chief Mr Roy & his assistant Mr D'Mello ask Rajesh to take the murder blame of Sharma so that miscreants after Sharma's research can be caught. Roy devises an escape plan for Rajesh but it goes wrong & Rajesh is kidnapped by Shetty and taken to Mozambique. Rajesh is imprisoned and a look alike named Garson is sent to India. Garson is with blue eyes and a voice different from Rajesh's. Garson uses contact lenses and gets a neck cut to portray lost voice. His unconscious body is found in an Indian sea. Rita accepts him as Rajesh although she has some misgivings after he touches the feet of another lady instead of Rita's mother. Rita is pregnant with Rajesh's baby. Garson is given a similar mole as Rajesh. Rajesh's dog and cook realise what has happened, so Garson kills them to avoid their exposing him. The authorities are also less trusting. Rest needs to be seen. | romantic, murder | train | wikipedia | Gripping spy film with lovely music!!. Good film starring Dharmendra as the scientist on a secret mission, and lots of international twists and turns which are rare for films of 1969... The action and suspense keeps heightening , the hallmarks of Brij the director who went onto make thrillers like Victoria 203 etc later on.. Sharmila Tagore wears trendy dresses and makes a good heroine.. Murders, kidnaps and impostors and a satisfying climax .. There are some hummable numbers from Mohd Rafi and Lata and shot in exotic locations..You get to see Mozambique , in 1970s and a nice cabaret number by the ever so dependable Helen and some bely dancer to boot! what more do you need on a lazy evening?. Yakeen (1969).... a James Bond Copy....... The first James Bond movie came in 1962 and with "Dr. No" and "Goldfinger" Hindi Movies too saw this new genre filled with action, adventure, suspense , and thrills. Well, such films won't linger much in your mind except you would get glued till the film lasts. Same applies with this film in which Dharmendra plays a scientist who gets double crossed by his dangerous look alike who tends to blow his laboratory. Though the film is indeed a copy of 60s James Bond movie, the film is quite entertaining as the film doesn't get Indianised much and stays with its theme. The protagonists and villains don't leave that impact through their acting, but they are still OK. But a special mention should go to David as a CBI officer. Overall, it's fairly welcome film; which though not a classic and won't remain much with you, still entertains as long as it lasts.Rating: 1 star out of 4 |
tt4428124 | Wicked City | The existence of the "Black World" - an alternate dimension populated by supernatural demons - is known to very few humans. For centuries, a pact between the Black World and the world of humans has been observed to maintain peace, and terms must be negotiated and renewed every few hundred years to continue relative harmony. A militant faction of radicals from the Black World stops at nothing to initiate chaos between the two worlds. Their chief enemies are the Black Guard, an organization designed to protect the relations of both worlds in secret.
Renzaburō Taki, a salaryman electrical goods salesman by day, and a Black Guard agent when needed, has casual sex with Kanako, a young woman who he has been meeting at a local bar for several months. Kanako reveals herself to be a doppelgänger from the Black World Radicals and attempts to kill Taki, but he resists her attempt and she escapes. The next day, Taki is assigned to protect Giuseppi Mayart, a two-hundred-year-old man with fantastic spiritual powers. Mayart is to be a signatory for the ratified peace treaty between the Human World and the Black World in Tokyo, and a major target for the Radicals. Taki is also informed that he will be working with a partner from the Black World.
While awaiting Mayart's arrival at Narita, Taki is attacked by two Radicals, but is saved by his partner - a beautiful fashion model named Makie. Taki and Makie eventually meet Mayart, who quickly reveals his perverse behaviour to them. The trio take shelter in a Hibiya hotel with spiritual barriers to protect it from Radicals. While playing chess to pass time, the hotelier explains to Taki, who is unsure of his responsibilities within the Black Guard, that he will only value his position once he knows what he is protecting. During a skirmish with a Radical, Mayart sneaks out of the hotel.
Makie and Taki find him at a soapland in the grip of a Black World woman, who has sapped his health, prompting a frantic trip to a spiritual hospital under Black Guard protection. Halfway there, Makie is taken prisoner by a tentacle to be punished for her "crimes" against the Black World by being repeatedly raped, and Taki is forced to leave her behind, but as soon as he knows Mayart is safe in the hospital, he rushes to where his partner is being held, despite Mayart’s threats that he will be thrown out of the Black Guard. Taki is led to a dilapidated building far from the hospital, where he finds Makie being gang raped. While Taki is successful in freeing Makie after eliminating a succubus and other demon agents, they are relieved of their Black Guard duties and are captured by Kanako, who attempts to kill them again. Bolts of supernatural lightning appear and kill Kanako, and Taki and Makie fall unconscious. They awaken inside a church, and have a romantic night of copulation.
A final attack by the Radicals comes against Taki and Makie, and it is partially deflected by a surprisingly healthy Mayart, who reveals he was protecting his so-called bodyguards, not the other way around as they had been led to believe. Mayart and Taki almost succeed in defeating Mr. Shadow, the leader of the Radicals, but the final blow comes from Makie, whose powers have increased tenfold due to her being impregnated by Taki. Mayart explains that the two are essential to forming a new peace treaty; Taki and Makie were selected to be the first couple from both worlds that can produce half-human, half-demon children, and their bond will be instrumental in ensuring everlasting peace between the two worlds. Although angry with Mayart due to him and Makie not being informed of the Black Guard’s plans, Taki admits that he is falling for Makie and, as per the hotelier’s advice, wants to protect her and their child. The trio leave to attend the signing ceremony. Taki remains in the Black Guard to ensure the protection of both worlds and his loved ones. | murder | train | wikipedia | There's an odd critic backlash against "Wicked City" because of "violence against women".
it's a show about a detective pursuing a serial killer similar to Hillside Strangler, who targeted women.
And when it comes to actual graphic scenes, they're tame compared to a show like "CSI" or "Bones", never even mind "Dexter".
Is that how low the bar has fallen, that we now want to keep storytelling on a politically-correct leash, to strip it of any edge or rawness, dare it not offend anyone?
I hope not, because that will be the end.Compared to your generic procedurals like CSI: CITY or NCIS: CITY, or Hawaii Five-O, this show's pilot was refreshing, it moved along at a brisk pace, and made me actually interested in what happens next.Compared to throwaway skin-show-for-kids like "Quantico" this show should be a breakaway hit.
This might be just one of those cases where the pilot is far better than the rest of the series but this first episode is just impressive.The story is really original and every character in the show has the potential to be a bad guy/girl.
I was specifically impressed by Erica Christensen who plays a role with more depth than in Parenthood.As per Jeremy Sisto and Ed Westwick, both are giving an excellent show.This story has a real potential and can run for many seasons if the quality of the scenario doesn't deteriorate after the first 10 episodes...
as it's often the case (with the producers firing the expensive writers and directors and replace them with amateurs).And the music is good too..
I actually like the show.
Kent Galloway (Ed Westwick) is a serial killer hunting the Sunset Strip in 1980s L.A. Karen McClaren (Taissa Farmiga) is an aspiring journalist who has a close encounter with him.
Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen) is a single mom nurse who begins a twisted affair with him.
Police detectives Jack Roth (Jeremy Sisto) and Paco Contreras (Gabriel Luna) hunt for him.
Jack is married to Allison (Jaime Ray Newman) with a daughter and having an affair with undercover cop Dianne.I actually like the style, the music and the killer story.
I don't mind the Gossip Girl killer, and I really like Erika Christensen, Taissa Farmiga and Jeremy Sisto.
A lot of things go through my mind about why this show crash and burn so badly both critically and in viewership.
I have no problem with this getting canceled.
It deserves to be canceled after only 3 episodes.
So what went wrong?
This would work better as an 8 part serial with a lot more blood splatter.
As for Wicked City, I don't care about Jack Roth's personal issues.
It would be better to concentrate on the killings and the investigation.
I'm one of the few who actually like the show but I won't shed a tear for its cancellation..
Great New Series - Westwick Slays.
If you are looking for an exciting fast paced drama after the disappointing line up fall has had to offer def.
check out Wicked City.
ABC def saved the best for last saving standout actor Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl) paired up with the equally talented Erika Christensen.
The two take us on a Bonnie & Clyde like adventure filled with lots of action, suspense, & great musical soundtrack.
The series is different in that you see each point of view given its own substantial air time and instead of waiting episode after episode to find out who did it (Pretty Little Liars) anyone which can be tiresome we already now!
Westwick shows just how diverse his acting is and this is just the beginning of what is shaping up to be an amazing life long career for the young British Actor.
The cast also features Taissa Farmiga popular for her work in (AHS) and Jeremy Sisto who has had many great roles over the years as a sharp but flawed detective dealing with issues of his own.
Gabriel Luna & Karolina Wydra are ones to watch as well!
Be sure to check this series out of you are looking for a fresh new series to dive into!
Also the series will take on an entirely different case each season which will keep things interesting although I will personally miss the steamy chemistry between Westwick & Christensen on screen..
I'm a huge Ed Westwick fan, and had high hopes for this.
I thought the trailers made it look really good, and it was really talked up.
But after last night, no wonder it's failing in the critic world and had ABC's record low fall premiere.
It was so rushed, no back story was given, i didn't give a damn about any of the characters because there was no time too, none of the stories were developed or explained as they should be in a pilot.
I might give the next episode a shot just to see Ed Westwick's beautiful face grace my TV, but I have a feeling that after this crappy of a pilot, I will not be wow'd.
this show definitely won't last, unfortunately (well, unfortunately for the decent cast.
I started watching Wicked City the day after it premiered.
I studied serial killers, deviant behavior, psychology in college and I've always been fascinated.
The problem is when a show just becomes like every other crime drama on TV.
You need something to set yourself apart and unfortunately, this one tries to hard with the sex and violence.The other problem I had was with the homicide detectives at the scene.
For a seasoned detective whose repertoire including the notorious Hillside Strangler, he doesn't know a thing about crime scene protocol.
I know it was set in the 80's and there were some continuity errors with the exact date, but starting in the 70's detectives carried gloves to use at crime scenes.I'll keep watching to see where it goes from here though.
I do love a good crime drama..
Favorite show of the new fall season.
I absolutely LOVED the pilot.
I was initially attracted to Wicked City because I am such a huge fan of Ed Westwick, but I have fallen in love with the ensemble cast (esp Taissa Farmiga, Jeremy Sisto), the setting, the music, the wardrobe, the writing, and how the show is filmed.
Ed does an amazing job portraying a complex individual who just happens to be a serial killer.
His portrayal of Kent is multi-layered and I am so looking forward to how he continues to develop over the course of the show.
This show is very very dark, definitely not for the faint of heart, and ABC is pushing the boundaries with this prime time show.
Sadistic, wicked, cool and hip, sexy look series of culture in early 1980's L.A..
Been watching the new ABC series "Wicked City" I must say that it's blended well with drama and suspense to make a viewer interested.
As it follows the times and trail of a serial killer in the city of L.A in 1982., or should I say that of a serial killer tag team.
As the killings taking place are done by that of a man and woman team!
And the scenes of dead bodies and chopped heads and cut limbs are gross and typical with all crime dramas it features abductions, and missing women.
And the sex scenes are a little sexy yet sadistic for a network TV series, and interesting is how each week the detectives follow the cases with clues and searches.
The quotes and sayings really capture the times of the early 80's most catching are the movie and political quotes.
The biggest treat is the early 80's music played during each episode it takes you back as the music helps carry the show.
"Wicked City" is one series that cuts like a knife with drama and sadistic suspense while punching and throwing a jab well with the times of pop culture of the early 1980's..
Music played was incorrect for the date in the show.
The show was entertaining enough, but when a period show set in the early eighties cannot even get the music being played correct, the show goes way down.
Billy Idol was in concert in August of 1982 in the first episode, but was singing Rebel Yell, which was not released until November of 1983.
Most people probably did not even notice this mistake, but as huge TV, movie and music fan, details, especially in a period piece, are extremely important.
May or may not watch again.
The only thing that saved episode one for me is that the cast is quite sexy and good-looking.
Violence and good looks have never hurt any show.
Everything was wrong.
I believe a high schooler could have written a better script.
It felt like it had been thrown together with no concern for details.
Why are decent shows eliminated all so they can add more reality shows and drivel like this?
Considering how terrible the script is the acting is not terrible, just not good.
I imagine the scene with the spider was to give us a clue into the mind of Betty.
It doesn't matter if future episodes are better.
I am no longer watching..
After watching the 8 episodes of Wicked City, I am appalled it was cancelled so hastily.
In the aftermath of Ted Bundys fame, charisma, and semi-success, Kents story isn't shocking, it's appealing.The luring intrigue of Ed Westwick as a serial killer with a misunderstood heart, holds up throughout the show, allowing mild sympathy for the killer, and growing disgust for the cops who hunt him down.
The audience sees the while the killer exposes his truth, the "good-guy" cops hide theirs from all who know them.Who will win, the good, bad, or other, and which is which?While nearly perfect in believability, the only discouraging force in the show is Taissa Farmingas acting, parallel to her constant deer in the headlight approach to each situaion, in every other show.
I actually was a fan of this show and was disappointed after it was cancelled after only 3 episodes.
After watching the whole season I felt it got better with each episode and that the show was delightfully twisted.
Has awesome story line and music.
Has a great cast and pretty good plot twists included.
Overall if another season would've been made I would have watched it with excitement.
I find that the whole killer couple was a good idea.
This show would definitely want you to watch more.
I believe that it just didn't have the right network backing it up.
Hopefully another network or streaming site would get rights too it and make the fans happy..
Love it so far...there are so many other choices on the tube right now which are total losers.
This one is worth the time!.
I also love the acting.
I understand there were some rewrites and new scenes, which I am guessing had to do with the ridiculous comments from critics saying its sexually gender demoralizing???
has anyone seen a "true crime" show concerning serial raper/killing, and the gory scenes suggested in those shows?
Yet they get kudos, and the lost in time,father knows best networks cant seem to swallow reality or a slight taste of it?
These are the realities of true crime, yet this show tries to keep it lower on the "reality" or "truth telling" crime radar, than some other series?
The very topic of rape and serial killing is what this kind of crime is about, power and control.
That's just what happens in a rape and serial killing story.
I like the truth in it, though it does deviate just enough for me to see it as entertaining cop and serial killer bad guy show, rather than horror show or another one of those gore related to SCSI kind of shows.
It's just enough different and new idea that its interesting and the actors are all seasoned and seem to be doing really well in capturing the characters and their roles.
I also like the way they really hit on the 1980's vibe.
Its not a ten, but close enough for me to keep watching.
Thank God Ed Westwick is back and HOTTER than ever!.
When I first saw the promos for this I knew I would watch it mainly for Ed Westwick.
Boy doesn't he look good!
I understand Jeremy has been around longer and I'm happy to have him back as well after the US version of The Returned was taken off the air after only one season, what a bummer.
At least he should be after Jeremy in billing because the show is centered around these two characters the most.
I will be watching this show as long as the network continues to show it.
For those TV and movie fanatics out there, don't let the music not being perfect to your standards bother you so much.
Try to just enjoy the show and all the wonderful actors portraying their characters..
After 2 episodes, I think this one may turn into a winner--I'm wondering if they might get bogged down in the whole "period piece" thing of the 80's because frankly, I didn't even pick up on that until halfway through the first episode...
but the entire second episode put it right in my face.
I absolutely love Taissa Farmiga in everything she's done so far, but in this series, her acting is horrible.
I don't know whether it's on purpose or not, but she'll say a line and THEN react to it; like, "He tried to kill me..." in a deadpan and then she'll remember she's supposed to look like she's surprised.
Good Plot But Suffered from an Unsympathetic Lead and His Partner.
Stumbled on this show while searching for TV shows to binge watch.
Apparently, it got canceled after less than a season.
The series had a good plot and had potential.
But the main character and his partner do not have chemistry.
It would have been better if they slowed down the tempo and make the story unfold, made it darker/grittier and hired more sympathetic actors for the main character and his partner.
True detective...Made better!.
Quite why this has been cancelled, I have no idea!The premise is simple, a serial killer on the loose and a two focused plot on both the killer and cop chasing him/her!
Because it doesn't try and complicate the story with interwoven plots (yes, true detective I mean you!), because it is set in an era when serial killers started to gain notoriety, because it doesn't shy from the gruesome aspects of a serial killer and more importantly, that sets it aside from true detective, it gets into the mind frame of the sociopath quality (yes I wrote quality, as its the one thing that sets us all apart, be that bad or good!) of manipulation and total confidence in the act by the said sociopath.The casting is great, not newbies, but not stellar casting, this makes it convincing from an actor point of view as there is no cheesiness and its believable, the story is really well written, simply because it focuses on the main subject and rarely deviates from the chase, and the setting of the 70's for me at least, means the genre is right at the heart of the time when serial killers started to attain focus on what they did.
In all this is a cleverly scripted TV show and could easily have gone on to spurn multiple series, but for some reason it was cancelled, some cite the brutality of it (it's not that gory), but I expect it's because it's so similar to True Detective, but was made on a lesser budget with less well known actors, that was it's downfall.
None the less, this is a well made TV show and deserves a second chance, but only if it is in keeping with what it set out to do...Tell a good story, with no over dramatisation, and using the simple basic methods of script writing...Keep it simple, make the plot believable, and keep the viewer hooked!
I love the cast.
Ed Westwick is amazing as Kent.
His "Kill me ,I like to give back" line may be this series "I'm Chuck Bass".
It is just so much grittier than the polished prefabricated crime dramas being cranked out today.
The same story lines in different cities with different actors just doesn't measure up.
Yes I will admit it pushes the envelope but still it's the best thing coming out this fall..
Different in a good way..
"Wicked City" came across as different in a good way.
Probably should be X-rated for sex.
In Wicked City Betty isn't as high IQ.
It was difficult trying to distinguish the main cop from the serial killer as they both had plenty of facial stubble and similar hair color and hair cuts.
Will record and watch during the day next week.
Many of the shows that began new in October we've dropped already because of difficulty seeing and hearing, so we're trying to stick with this one.
For the first half of the pilot I thought the main cop might be the serial killer, but the confusion was cleared up later..
I like very much the show, has something special that really keep you wanting more, the suspense, the situations, the crimes, the twisted and darkness duo Kent-Betty, the external stories such as extra conjugal love story of Jack, all of these make a perfect cocktail for the show.
Of course Ed Westwick is just fantastic playing the character of the serial killer, psychologically messed up, having this issue with his mother from his childhood, for me this is another "Dexter", is actually even better, that one had a lot of flows, this one is more consistent and has a fluent course of the events.Too bad though that was cancelled, because I would like to watch more of this. |
tt0039536 | Kiss of Death | Jimmy Kilmartin is an ex-con living in Astoria in the New York City borough of Queens, trying to stay clean and raising a daughter with his wife Bev. They are both recovering alcoholics. Bev leaves Jimmy alone to go to an AA meeting. While she is gone, Jimmy is awoken by his cousin Ronnie who is in desperate need of a driver to help him move some stolen cars. Jimmy tries to eject Ronnie, knowing that he could go back to prison just for being seen with him. Ronnie's right ring finger is broken, and he confesses that if Jimmy does not help him move the cars, Little Junior Brown will kill him.
Little Junior Brown is an asthmatic psychopath. Enraged that they are so behind schedule, he insists that Ronnie move the four trucks full of stolen cars in a caravan, instead of staggering them to avoid detection. The caravan draws the attention of the police, and when they arrive at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to unload the cars, the police arrive. During the arrests, Jimmy's passenger shoots at the police. The bullet goes through Jimmy's hand and just below the right eye of Detective Calvin Hart.
The lawyer for the Brown crime family, Jack Gold, promises Jimmy that Bev will be taken care of if he takes the rap without naming his co-conspirators. Ronnie shorts Bev on her allowance, giving her only $150 of the $400 a week that the Browns intended for her. Bev agrees to work for Ronnie at his chop shop just south of Shea Stadium. On her first day, she witnesses Ronnie beating a man who tried to sell him a stolen car. She drinks a Rolling Rock, and goes with Ronnie to Baby Cakes, the strip club owned by the Browns. She drinks vodka and wakes the next morning in Ronnie's bed. Horrified at her relapse, she rushes out of Ronnie's house and steals his car. She drives head-on into a semi-truck in the street and dies.
Given a supervised release for her funeral, Jimmy listens to Ronnie's lame explanation for why Bev died in his car. Bev's sister Rosie explains that she never returned home the night before her death. Convinced of Ronnie's complicity in Bev's death, Jimmy agrees to turn state's witness. He names all of the people involved in the Navy Yards fiasco, except Ronnie. When the cops arrest everyone but Ronnie, the Browns are convinced that he is the snitch. Little Junior Brown visits Ronnie's shop and proceeds to beat Ronnie to death in his office as retaliation.
Several years pass, and the district attorney approaches Jimmy again about snitching on the Browns. Still in Sing Sing, Jimmy negotiates for a pardon and a job that he would enjoy. He and Rosie get married, but he hides his informant duties from her.
Det. Hart meets with Jimmy at a Chinese restaurant and informs him that his target is actually a drug dealer named Omar, who gets weapons and cars from Little Junior Brown. Jimmy dons a wire and returns to work for the Browns with an initial assignment of boosting cars. After their rounds, Jimmy's crew heads to Baby Cakes where he sees Little Junior for the first time in years. Little Junior is distraught over the recent death of his father, and he offers Jimmy his condolences over Bev's death. Little Junior takes Jimmy to a meeting with Omar.
Jimmy is unable to sustain the charade with Rosie. Eventually, Little Junior takes Jimmy to another meeting with Omar, whom he kills. Later, Omar's crew throws Jimmy into a car and drives him to a meeting, where he learns that Omar was an undercover DEA agent. The DA and the DEA use Jimmy's tape of the killing to arrest Little Junior. When Little Junior is out on bail, he abducts Jimmy's daughter to send him a message. He eventually finds his daughter in the woods, with the letters B.A.D. (Balls, Attitude, Direction; an acronym Little Junior gives himself in a private moment with Jimmy) written on her forehead in blood.
Realizing that his family is not safe anymore, Jimmy returns to the city and confronts Little Junior at gunpoint at Baby Cakes. A fight ensues with Little Junior and Jimmy, which results in Little Junior being arrested by Det. Hart (after learning that Jimmy was wired). Jimmy uses a tape of the DA's corrupt threats as leverage to escape the situation. The film ends with Jimmy getting into a stolen Explorer that Little Junior gave him, and he leaves the city with Rosie and his daughter. | revenge, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0062820 | The Committee | The movie follows a man (Paul Jones) who is unnamed. The movie starts out with the central character in a car with a man (Tom Kempinski) who just picked him up. The victim talks to him, but he's uninterested. The victim decides to pull over because he doesn't like the sound of the engine. While he's looking under the bonnet of the car the central character slams the bonnet down on his head several times, decapitating him in the process. The central character eventually sews the head back on, and the victim wakes up. The central character tells him he doesn't want to drive anymore that day and to leave without him.
A few years later the central character is called on to be part of a committee, groups that supposedly keep the system running but really don't do much of anything. He feels paranoid that the committee was called on account of him, and runs into the victim while there, who doesn't seem to remember him.
The central character talks about this with a man listed as 'The committee director' (Robert Langdon Lloyd) in the credits. This conversation lasts for the duration of the movie, and features most of the music Pink Floyd wrote for the film. | allegory, cult, murder | train | wikipedia | Market research run amok...a real head trip.
This British film recently played at the Hollywood Cinematheque.
I don't think that it's available on tape, but obviously a print still exists.
It was in pretty good shape, too.It's a great film, combining magical realism and psychological absurdism.
It's short == 60 minutes or so.
There's a really great party scene with The Crazy World of Arthur Brown that equals or excels any MTV music video that could have ever been made of this unique musician.The story divides into two parts, the first being an unusual Hitchcockian thriller.
The second part involves a team of market researchers who assemble groups of people, or "committees" for a variety of absurd reasons.
The central character is present in both parts, tying them together in a weird blend of paranoia and consumerism.The mod costumes and sets make for a satisfying black and white experience.
If it comes to your local film museum, it's worth the trip and the 7-8 bucks admission, especially if there's another good sixties British psychological mind-bending film on the bill..
A Walk To Remember.
Brief, surreal, enigmatic British film from the late 60's.
It opens with a man killing another in a car for seemingly no reason(think Albert Camus existential murder tale "The Stranger"), only to then sew it back on, to find the man is appalled but otherwise fine.
The second half of the film involves, people from all over the country being summoned to spend a weekend as part of a "committee", where the man who decapitated his fellow traveler earlier, is also summoned.
Everyone wonders, but no one bothers to question the committee, after all it's a free weekend getaway, and they are told they will make very important decisions.
Our hero is lead away from the party which features performances by psychedelic wild man Arthur Brown of (The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, seen on cover here), by an even more enigmatic stranger who proceeds to explain to him, in a 20 minute conversation, the nature of individuality and community, freedom and order, impulse and the nature of the committee.
The conversation is really the cornerstone of the film (the screen-writer who became an economist after the lack of success with this film, likens it to The Matrix in reverse, and he's not far off.
The conversation scene is also parodied in the climax of Grant Morisson's "Animal Man").Anyway it's a mysterious film for fans of mysterious, philosophically dense movies(it's hour time line keeps the movie from treading into boredom).
The most disappointing aspect of this film is actually the Pink Floyd soundtrack, which is good, but not nearly as good as fans of the original band(Syd Barret days) will imagine it must be.
A good movie, all but lost to the common man before the days of Netflix.
If you like political, psychological, and philosophically challenging films, and "wierd tales", than this is not to be missed.
this poor man's A HARD DAYS NIGHT has its moments.
**warning: spoilers contained herein *** THE COMMITTEE has many fine moments from its cool opening title sequence, Pink Floyd score, to its philosophical ending.
It all starts with a hitchhiker, played by Paul Jones, cutting off his driver's head and sewing it back on.
He does this for a lark.
Initially there are no consequences for this act, as the driver drives on as if nothing unusual has happened.
However, a committee is soon formed to decide what the punishment for Jones should be.
Jones is sent on holiday from work to attend the committee.
No one in Jones' circle seems to know why they are sent there, until Jones starts putting two and two together.
He then becomes somewhat paranoid that the committee is out to get him.
Great story, silly as it is.
Monty Python could have had a field day with a premise such as this.
This could have also been suspenseful, but it's not.
It's all told in a very laid back manner with typically dry British humor.
There is much witty dialog sprinkled throughout the film.
The best moment of all has to be the performance by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
A.B. was the Marilyn Manson of his day.
So, if you are in the right frame of mind, are a Pink Floyd or Paul Jones fan, or just dig 60's nostalgia, THE COMMITTEE is well worth seeing..
If your a fan of sixties "abstract" films then check this out!.
I was totally shocked when walking into Virgin Megastore nonchalantly one day, to discover that this film thought long forgotten, had been actually released.
It's something many people no doubt for decades have wished to see.
This DVD comes with an excellent interview sequence (as long as the 54 minute film) which does explain things if you get a little bit confused!
While admitting, that yes, I knew of this film as a hardcore Pink Floyd fan (whom indeed provide some great musical moments) the film is nonetheless an excellent example of the type of "art" films of the period and is well worth investigating.
If your into Kafka, Hesse, The Prisoner, Sixties "pop" Psychology, New-Left Politics, Antonioni (spelt right?), Godard, Bergman etc etc then I do recommend this film.
It's perhaps more of a period piece now of course, and the director himself admits flaws, but this is still a thoughtful experience and its sad in a way that it seems so fresh amidst all the more intelligent, commercial films of today.
This is especially a point worth noting; when thinking that the film is of its time, and was designed for a receptive, cool, hip audience.
Today while claims are made that a film is made commercially but in a more intelligent way for a mass audience it still just seems to say "Well there you go, watch the flashing lights, a few nice things to think about - happy now?" Actually it's interesting that the writer in the interview section cites The Matrix as a comparable example, when discussing the themes of the film.The decapitation scene is quite shocking even by todays standards, especially when the head is sewn back on!
Also, while admittedly biased there is an excellent, memorable scene with various individuals walking around an office with a wonderful repetitive piece of music by the Floyd.
Certainly not for everyone, but if you're in the know and looking for an experience I would certainly give this film a try.
I struggled whether to vote it 7 or 8 out of ten, but then, I'm writing this so it must have made an impression!Enjoy..
Beautifully filmed, darkly funny psychedelic romp.....
Wow!
It is doubtful that many people will get a chance to see this wonderful film, which is a shame.
Lush, brief, darkly funny and psychedelic, this film ruminates about the existential nature of being, albeit in a meandering late 60's kinda way.
Nice to not be led around by the hand, narratively speaking....
Paul Jones (Manfred Mann) is great, and there is an amazing cameo by Arthur Brown (the Crazy World of), and, of course, the soundtrack by The Pink Floyd - I think I may have glimpsed Roger Waters in the party scene, too..
Creative genius.
The Committee captures the essence of artistic film school movie making.
While strange, sometimes confusing, and certainly disturbing, it is nonetheless a brilliant film and one that certainly deserves to be seen more than it is.It appears from time to time at British film retreats and small art movie houses, but is not available on video as it has never been officially released.
It is, nevertheless, somewhat of a "white whale" to fans of Pink Floyd (who contributed much original, unreleased material to the soundtrack).
There are apparently bootlegs of it floating around, although in miniscule numbers.
None have been seen in public.If you ever have the chance to see this, and are a fan of art school films, then The Committee is for you!It should be noted that Pink Floyd also contributed to the soundtrack for "Tonight Lets All Make Love In London", a Peter Whitehead film.
(In addition to those mentioned by Phantom Moonhead)..
Sixties curiosity, worth seeing.
I recently found this film on DVD, after many years of being curious to see it.
It's not a lost masterpiece.
Very low-budget, it's visually flat and plain.
Even at just under an hour, it's overlong, and would probably have been more effective cut to half that.
With no characterisation or plot development in the conventional sense, the story reaches no real resolution, but just stops.
Yet individual scenes stick in the memory and I've found myself watching them again.
Musically, the Pink Floyd soundtrack is minor stuff, but unmistakable Saucerful Of Secrets period Floyd, and Arthur Brown's appearance at the party scene is the film's most riveting sight.
(For those who remember Joy Division, his stage moves are like a forerunner of Ian Curtis...).
Surprisingly good if unmotivated.
A British attempt to do mysterious, unexplained and surreal.
Whereas a French equivalent, like, say, Last Year In Marienbad, is aristocratic, eerie, dark and allusive, this is a white collar effort, following a strange bureaucratic process, filmed in clear daylight, with dialogue that, though straightforward on the surface, seems to refer to some reality known to the participants but not the viewer.
Unusually for such a film, certain events - including the early beheading - are actually given explanations, undercutting the post-modernism with a very unexperimental model of a character acting in character.
Paul Jones, lead singer of Manfred Mann and just beginning a parallel acting career, does surprisingly well, though his part (as "central figure") is a mere cipher.
There is of course interest with the Pink Floyd soundtrack, though they hardly stretched themselves.
Arthur Brown is very good value, with a lively cameo complete with burning headgear (would never get past health and safety nowadays).
Very much of its time, but without the courage of its surreal convictions.
The ultra-realistic portrayal of the bizarre events can be hypnotic, but ultimately deprives the film of a real artistic punch.
Nevertheless at 58 minutes it hardly outstays its welcome..
"Do You Play Bridge?".
To grasp where this film is coming from I guess you'd have to read the short story by Max Steuer (originally a dream) on which it is based.
It plays as a bargain basement melange of Robbe-Grillet and Kafka, with the attention immediately grabbed by the arresting title sequence juggling mug-shots of the three main protagonists to a sinister blurping accompaniment on the soundtrack; but which is soon allowed to dissipate by what follows.
For a film that begins with the central figure decapitating a total stranger on a whim, 'The Committee' is an incongruously well-mannered, very British affair - albeit with hip sixties trimmings in the form of a soundtrack by Pink Floyd and a personal appearance by Arthur Brown.Ian Wilson's cool black & white photography is presumably intended to evoke 'L'Année Dernière à Marienbad', and as in 'Marienbad' there's a lot of talk but very little actually said.
The plush backdrop is here provided by the London School of Economics, where Steuer - author of 'The Scientific Study of Society' (2003) has been ensconced in the philosophy department since 1959, and was at the time of the making of 'The Committee' a lecturer in economics and social sciences.
The endless gnomic prattle may be a joke at the expense of his colleagues there..
Seems This Film Might Not Exist Anymore.
The only thing I know about this film is that is of interest to "die-hard" Pink Floyd fans because they did the soundtrack for it.
From what I understand the entire soundtrack is 50 minutes long but Pink Floyd only did about 17 minutes of it.
I have never seen this film for sale anywhere,the other films that have a Pink Floyd soundtrack can all be found,they are:A Day In The Life Of San Francisco (1966)More (1969)Zabraskie Point (1970)The Valley (La Vallee) (1972)If anyone has anymore information about this film,please let me know..
Watchable, even for a non Floyd fan..
Though this one may never fully see the dark of a cinema, I managed to see a copy; and have heard it was shown in a Rock and Roll Film Festival a few years ago on the west coast.**SPOILER** B&W Story takes place in a modish alternate sixties, and involves an aloof and quietly cocky young draftsman/architect (nod to the abdabs?) who inexplicably murders a driver (who while annoying was not deserving) who picks him up while hitch-hiking.
Shortly afterwards he is invited to a meeting in the country with other young English men and women.
The committee is to meet at some grand country estate and supposedly not uncommon in this world (like a think tank/spa) but he begins to feel that the committee exists to examine him and his deeds.
There is some good existentialist and almost classical student mentor discourses between a slightly older mod!
moderator and protagonist.Also some party scenes with drinking, mini-skirts, a performance by Arthur Brown with his band and fire breathing.
And of course...A couple of minutes of great little Pink Floyd instrumental fills, which are available on bootlegs for the resourceful to find.Keep looking! |
tt0092603 | Babettes gæstebud | The elderly and pious Protestant sisters Martine (Birgitte Federspiel) and Philippa (Bodil Kjer) live in a small village on the remote western coast of Jutland in 19th-century Denmark. Their father was a pastor who founded his own Pietistic conventicle. With their father now dead and the austere sect drawing no new converts, the aging sisters preside over a dwindling congregation of white-haired believers.
The story flashes back 49 years, showing the sisters in their youth. The beautiful girls have many suitors, but their father rejects them all, and indeed derides marriage. Each daughter is courted by an impassioned suitor visiting Jutland – Martine by a charming young Swedish cavalry officer, Lorens Löwenhielm, and Philippa by a star baritone, Achille Papin, from the Paris opera, on hiatus to the silence of the coast. Both sisters decide to stay with their father and spurn any life away from Jutland.
Thirty five years later, Babette Hersant (Stéphane Audran) appears at their door. She carries only a letter from Papin, explaining that she is a refugee from counter-revolutionary bloodshed in Paris, and recommending her as a housekeeper. The sisters cannot afford to take Babette in, but she offers to work for free. Babette serves as their cook for the next 14 years, producing an improved version of the bland meals typical of the abstemious nature of the congregation, and slowly gaining their respect. Her only link to her former life is a lottery ticket that a friend in Paris renews for her every year. One day, she wins the lottery of 10,000 francs. Instead of using the money to return to Paris and her lost lifestyle, she decides to spend it preparing a delicious dinner for the sisters and their small congregation on the occasion of the founding pastor's hundredth birthday. More than just a feast, the meal is an outpouring of Babette's appreciation, an act of self-sacrifice; Babette tells no one that she is spending her entire winnings on the meal.
The sisters accept both Babette's meal and her offer to pay for the creation of a "real French dinner". Babette arranges for her nephew, a merchant, to go to Paris and gather the supplies for the feast. The ingredients are plentiful, sumptuous and exotic, and their arrival causes much discussion among the villagers. As the various never-before-seen ingredients arrive, and preparations commence, the sisters begin to worry that the meal will become a sin of sensual luxury, if not some form of devilry. In a hasty conference, the sisters and the congregation agree to eat the meal, but to forgo speaking of any pleasure in it, and to make no mention of the food during the dinner.
Martine's former suitor, Lorens, now a famous general married to a member of the Queen's court, comes as the guest of his aunt, the local lady of the manor and a member of the old pastor's congregation. He is unaware of the other guests' austere plans, and as a man of the world and former attaché in Paris, he is the only person at the table qualified to comment on the meal. He regales the guests with abundant information about the extraordinary food and drink, comparing it to a meal he enjoyed years earlier at the famous Café Anglais in Paris. Although the other celebrants refuse to comment on the earthly pleasures of their meal, Babette's gifts break down their distrust and superstitions, elevating them physically and spiritually. Old wrongs are forgotten, ancient loves are rekindled, and a mystical redemption of the human spirit settles over the table.
The sisters assume that Babette will now return to Paris. However, when she tells them that all of her money is gone and that she is not going anywhere, the sisters are aghast. Babette then reveals that she was formerly the head chef of the Café Anglais, and tells them that dinner for 12 there has a price of 10,000 francs. Martine tearfully says, "Now you will be poor the rest of your life", to which Babette replies, "An artist is never poor." Philippa then says: "But this is not the end, Babette. In Paradise you will be the great artist God meant you to be" and then embraces her with tears in her eyes saying: "Oh, how you will enchant the angels!", which is precisely how the short story ends. | romantic, cute, flashback | train | wikipedia | Babette will give everything she has, and in the process, will teach the sisters and their flock about grace, about sacrifice, about how sensual experience (as in the bread and wine of the Eucharist) can change lives, and about why true art moves us so deeply.
Flawlessly directed, written, performed, and filmed, this quiet and unpretentious Danish film is an example of cinema at its best, and if a person exists who can watch BABETTE'S FEAST without being touched at a very fundamental level, they are a person I do not care to know.The story is quite simple.
Although they do not really require her services, the sisters engage her as maid and cook--and as the years pass her cleverness and tireless efforts on their behalf enables the aging congregation to remain together and the sisters to live in more comfort than they had imagined; indeed, the entire village admires and depends upon her.One day, however, Babette receives a letter: she has won a lottery and is now, by village standards, a wealthy woman.
The meal and the evening it is served is indeed a night to remember--but not for reasons that might be expected, for Babette's feast proves to be food for both body and soul, and is ultimately her gift of love to the women who took her in and the villagers who have been so kind to her.The film is extraordinary in every way, meticulous in detail yet not overpowering in its presentation of them.
As the film progresses, we come to love the characters in both their simple devotion to God and their all-too-human frailties, and the scenes in which Babette prepares her feast and in which the meal is consumed are powerful, beautiful, and incredibly memorable.
There have been several films that have used food as a metaphor for love, but none approach the simple artistry and beauty of BABETTE'S FEAST, which reminds us of all the good things about humanity and which proves food for both body and soul.
Seeing it years ago--as it was gaining a great deal of notoriety at the audaciousness of its subject matter--half the movie being a single dinner--the audience was "oohing and aahing" as some of the courses took their finalglorious shape, laughing at the reaction of the diners, as they became totally seduced by the gustatorial pleasures being introduced to them by Babette, and being totally surprised at the turn of events at the end of the film.
The film'smeditation on the passage of time and the way it uses a seemingly simple story to comment on life and love and art and generosity is truly something tocherish..
Their personal differences of passion or conviction are not as important as the ways in which they can connect with each other.How shockingly refreshing.There is an undercurrent to this film that gives it the feel of a Garrison Keillor monologue, in that it is built around people's personal foibles and quirks.Even more refreshing is how "Babette's Feast" manages to be nice without becoming cloying, saccharine, facile, superficial or insincere.
People's personal passions are portrayed not only from their own perspective, but from the perspective of the people they affect, with more realism than you usually get in film, yet also with sincere and infectious optimism.If you don't come away from "Babette's Feast" smiling and feeling better, then you must have been distracted from giving it your full attention.
Babette's Feast!Our story (from an Isak Dinesen short story) is of two lovely maiden sisters from Jutland, the pious daughters of a stern and dictatorial minister, who spurn their chance for love to remained devoted to their austere Protestant creed and to their puritanical and selfish father.
This movie came aside as a shock in the eighties.Far from trends,that is to say in the heart of sincere creativity,Babettes gaestebud stands as one of the finest movies of its time.Stephane Audran,the wonderful actress of her ex-husband Claude Chabrol's greatest achievements (le boucher,la rupture,les noces rouges,all unqualified musts for movie buffs)gave a lifetime performance.To see her prepare with love and affection her meal is a feast for the eyes.All the people who saw this masterpiece actually tasted,ate Babette's culinary triumph.
But the most moving part of the story is its conclusion:Babette was a great French chef,she was famous,now she found a new homeland but her heyday is behind her and she won't never be allowed to come back to her dear France.So the two old sisters do comfort her:In heaven,there will be huge kitchens where she'll cook for eternity.While sharing her fortune with her new friends,Babette changed their life,she gave them pleasure and a magic evening they would remember forever.In this simple but extraordinary screenplay,human warmth is everywhere,and I wish everybody a Babette's feast,would it be only for one starry night....
I figure it's also her point that Christ answers the doubts and regrets of those who give up worldly success (Philippa's sister Martina rebuffs efforts by a visiting baritone (Jean-Philippe Lafont whose jolliness creates an uplifting counterpoint to the sparsity of spirit that surrounds his discovery) to turn her into an opera star; the title character leaves France and an enviable reputation and seeks sanctuary as the servant of two spinster sisters) to pursue artistic triumphs for only God and those closest to Him to witness.
Anyway, as the film progressed it got better and better and the viewer is rewarded for his/her patience.Being a fan of the movie, "Out Of Africa," this film piqued my interest because it's based on a short novel by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), the major character in that film.The meal - Babette's feast - was amazing.
She returns laden with exotic cargo, the makings of a single meal commemorating the birthday of the sister's father, the community's founder.This meal looms darkly in the minds of the pleasure-denying faithful but its subtleties are translated by an aging military officer who, as a young man in Paris, learned to appreciate the sensory experience unfolding here.
Watching the movie in a cold snowy late afternoon can cause you to approach this evening dinner with some sumptuous expectations ...The final sentence that give a title to Babette's sacrifice far from Paris: An artist is never poor.Superb photography.
You share General Loewenhielm's exquisite joy in his partaking of the Cailles en Sarcophage even though you are just watching a movie - but you do wish for just a small sample to savor.Babette is an artist whose medium is food.
Perhaps no other art form allows the artist to share her creations so directly.The main theme of this movie, the potential that the sharing of food has to transform how people see each other and how they see the world, is much the same as the theme of "Chololat," but "Babette's Feast" does not hit you over the head with its message.
Karen Blixen is perhaps best-known in the English-speaking world as the character played by Meryl Streep in "Out of Africa", but she is a celebrated author in her native Denmark, and "Babette's Feast" was the first Danish film to be based on her writing.
The film is set in a small Danish village in the 19th century and tells the story of two elderly sisters, Martine and Philippa, the leaders of a small religious sect founded by their father, and of the sumptuous feast cooked for them and their followers by Babette, their French housekeeper.The film's main theme is the interaction between the religious life, particularly the puritanical traditions of Scandinavian Lutheranism, and the life of the senses.
After fourteen years as a refugee, Babette wins 10,000 francs in the French lottery and uses this money to prepare her feast, using the most costly ingredients to cook dishes like turtle soup, "Blini Demidoff au Caviar" and "Cailles en Sarcophage", all accompanied by fine wines.
Martine, Philippa and their followers are, of course, completely unused to food of this sort; they are too poor for luxuries and even if they could afford them would regard them as sinful; they agree to the meal, however, out of respect for Babette's feelings.The film is not in any sense anti-religious.
The literal meaning of the term "Eucharist" in Greek is "thanksgiving", and Babette intends her meal to be an act of thanksgiving, to Martine and Philippa for the kindness they have shown her and to God for the talents which He has given her.The film's religious emphases are also brought out in the brief speech given after the meal by Lowenhielm, now a General and the one guest with previous experience of such delicacies, beginning with words taken from Psalm 85: "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed one another." The idea of spirituality is also contained in Philippa's final words to Babette, that in paradise she will indeed be the great artist God intended her to be.
The acting is also of a particularly high standard, especially from Stéphane Audran as Babette and Bodil Kjer and Birgitte Federspiel as the two sisters."Babette's Feast" won the 1987 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
But all that changes with the arrival from Paris of an attractive refugee (the story takes place during the French Revolution) who thanks her benefactors, and tests their strict religious principles, by preparing a sinfully delicious gourmet feast for the entire town.
Babette, however, brings something more to the relationship than merely good food--she gives the older ladies, who both passed up opportunities for fame and romance as young women, a taste of the beauty that life away from their tiny village contains..
Though the director may have been making a statement about the purity of art - "A true artist is never poor" - what came through for me was the joy of full Christian living, as exemplified by Jesus' injunction to "Live life, and live it fully." Babette, like Christ, sacrificed all she had to change the dour Danes into the joyous, childlike villagers they were at the end, singing and holding hands under the stars.
This film is about sisters who have dedicated their life to their father who was a religious sect leader in their small Dutch village.
this is one of the finest movies i have ever seen....the stark scenery...the isolation...the ignorant bigoted people hiding behind their religion...a backdrop for some wordliness and sophistication...the acting is completely natural...but for me as a"foodie' the best is the actual choosing and preparation of the feast..i have spent time in paris and know the cuisine well...whether or not the cafe anglais really exists i don't know but i do know of similar establishments and babette's menu and choice of wines are authentic...and of course the end where despite themselves the perfect meal mellows them back to friendship is the only ending there could be..this is a 10 out of 10 film and should be seen by anyone with enough brain and taste to understand it.
Gabriel Axel's Babette's Feast, adapted from Karen Blixen's short story of the same name (written under the pen name Isak Dinesen) and winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, is about both the richness of true artistry and the spiritual necessity of sampling what few pleasures life has to offer during our short time on Earth.
Like an exquisite, expensive meal, it moves at a slow pace and requires you to savour the delicate starters before the wholly satisfying climax arrives like a rich dessert and fine malt whiskey, resulting in the most romantic film about living a quiet, pious life ever made.Two elderly sisters, Martine (Birgitte Federspiel) and Filippa (Bodil Kjer), have lived in a windy, remote hamlet in Jutland, Denmark their entire life.
The sisters are courted in their youth by two men - cavalry officer Lorens Lowenhielm (Jarl Kulle), who falls in love with Martine, and opera singer Achille Papin (Jean-Philippe Lafont), who happens to hear Filippa's flawless singing voice and longs to make her a star.
Both reject their suitors advances out of loyalty to their marriage- spurning father, and remain alone together for the remainder of their lives.One day, a French refugee named Babette (Stephane Audran) arrives having being sent by the ageing Papin to escape the bloody Paris Commune.
Based on a short story by Isak Dinesen (also known as Karen Blixen), this is a lovely and quietly contemplative film about two elderly Danish women and the French refugee they take in as their cook and who ends up transforming their life.
Stephane Audran plays the eponymous heroine who escapes from Paris in the 1870s during a time of turmoil and lives for many years in a hamlet on the coast of Jutland in Denmark as a cook and servant for a pair of spinsters who made their own choices in their youth to stay with their father, the pastor of the community.Like many European films, nothing much happens but the atmosphere, acting, and production are superb and the film leaves you at the end just as satisfied as if you had partaken of the feast yourself..
Scenery and locations are lush, you want to live there.Characters are easy to know,likable,and well developed.But the scenes involving foodstuffs,from the market to the table, the rituals and ceremony for the purchase, preparation and presentation of Babettes Feast left me hungry; for not just the beautiful food but for the time when such ceremony was the norm.
Babette's Feast is considered among the top movies of all time.It moves in it's own time, which may frustrate those who expect instant gratification.It is also not in English, so English speakers will have to read the subtitles.What it is, is just about the perfect film.
I should have known better when I saw that the writer of this little opus was Isak Dinesen who wrote "Out of Africa"--a film that I could barely tolerate after the first slow-moving hour in which the scenery was the star, hoping that something would happen to stir my interest.I had the same feeling when I watched BABETTE'S FEAST.
The only mystery is in finding out just who Babette is and why she is so skillful at culinary arts.And so a short story has been turned into a long, extended film with virtually very little in the way of a plot (and most of it irrelevant to the final feast).
This is one of those art house films that never found its audience here in America but apparently has found an appreciative audience among those who've savored French food and enjoy watching Babette's meticulous cooking preparations..
My Rating : 8/10First Danish film to win an Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film, 'Babette's Feast' is a well-crafted, sweet and cleverly executed drama about a Parisian refugee named Babette (Stéphane Audran) who serves as the family cook to two religious sisters in 19th century coastal Jutland, Denmark.Starts off slowly but when the main event begins towards the second half it's pure delight.Worth a watch if you want to explore a good upbeat drama piece..
One thing: the dinner will be French and once the ingredients start to arrive, the unsophisticated villagers suspect that something unholy is about to take place.Based on a short story by Karen Blixen (of Out Of Africa fame), this is an engaging, though not overly profound, movie.
Babette's Feast (1987)This movie made my eyes damp a few times.It takes place in a small village on the west coast of Denmark, where two spinster sisters carry on their deceased father's spiritual work.Babette comes to the village after her family is killed in a French revolt.She cooks for the sisters, mainly fish soup and bread mixed with ale.The after 14 years, Babette receives a letter saying she was won the French lottery -$10,000 francs.The two sisters had planned a dinner party to honor what would have been their father's 100th birthday.Babette decides to spend her lottery money by cooking a real French dinner with many courses for the occasion.She sends for what she needs, which includes a large live turtle, a dozen live baby quails, the finest wines and champagne, truffles and much other stuff.When the sisters see the big turtle on the kitchen counter they react as if it were the devil's food, and pre-warn their guests not to mention the food at the party.The day arrives, and shows Babette cooking each dish and desert, and has a neighbor boy serve the table.
This film says everything there is to say about religion - I wish it were required viewing for all bigots and would-be clericals.The story, set in a turn-of-the-century Danish villages is about two very religious sisters whose late father was a rigid priest who discouraged all their dreams of love and exploring the world and its many beauty.
The life in the village is simple and the stark direction reflects that.When Babette wins the lottery, she requests a chance to prepare a feast - a true labour of love.
I don't know whether this film hits my heart the way it does because of the feelings of friendship, love, closeness to others or the warmth of that transformation Babette's cooking creates, but when the feast starts and for the rest of the movie, I choke up often.
Passion Is What You Make Of It. A story of scant Scandinavian living that is dotted with moments of passion is in a nutshell what the movie Babette's Feast is about.
Their belief in God is very strong and they believe that living a simple life brings them closer to Him. At the time of the feast they tell the congregation to say nothing of the food and drink that Babette has prepared and simply sit in silence because the meal is the work of the devil.
It quickly becomes obvious that cooking is Babette's passion and over the course of the meal the sisters and other members of the congregation enjoy the food more and more.
If I had to create a shortlist of my favorite films of all time, "Babette's Feast" would be among them. |
tt0068291 | Blood of Ghastly Horror | Dr. Howard Vanard (John Carradine) implants a strange electronic brain component into the brain of returning soldier Joe Corey (Roy Morton) who becomes a psychotic killer. After a robbery, the money is thrown into the back of a car belonging to David Clarke. Corey returns to Dr. Vanards' lab and kills him and then follows Clarke's wife Linda and daughter Nancy, who unknowingly have the money in the car. Corey chases the pair across a snow-covered country-side before being shot by pursuing police and falling off a cliff and dying. Some years later, Susan Vanard (Regina Carrol) tells the police she's been getting mental messages from her father, the late doctor. Sgt. Cross (Tommy Kirk) who has been investigating a recent series of murders that have taken place and can't seem to find any clues. Meanwhile, a strange scientist, Dr. Elton Corey (Kent Taylor) brings to life a zombie called Akro and sets out to avenge those responsible for the death of his son. Sgt. Grimaldi tracks down the zombie but is killed and his heart is mailed to Sgt. Cross. Susan is captured by the zombie and taken to Dr. Corey who injects her with a serum that turns her into something like Akro. Sgt. Cross follows some clues left by his dead partner and finds Dr. Corey's lab, then kills both him and Akro. Susan takes a serum that reverses the process and returns to normal. | murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | [Also released as: "The Fiend with the Atom Brain", "Fiend with the Electronic Brain", "The Love Maniac", "The Man with the Synthetic Brain", and "Psycho A Go-Go"].The Film that Wouldn't Die: a movie which has endured more surgical alterations than the Frankenstein monster.
Behold:In 1965 Al Adamson produced and directed a very low budget quickie called "Psycho A Go-Go", in which an ex-soldier is turned into a zombie-slave-killer by criminals who implant a device in his brain.
The film was a big flop.Four years later Adamson tried to jazz it up by adding new scenes and giving it a new title: "Fiend with the Electronic Brain".
This new version was also a big flop.In 1971 Adamson decided the film needed more new scenes, and this time he got Kent Taylor ("The Day Mars Invaded Earth") and John Carradine to help out.
Even better, Adamson persuaded his sexy wife, Regina Carrol, to play Carradine's daughter.
Best of all, he got Tommy Kirk ("Mars Needs Women", "Village of the Giants") to play a police detective who investigates the murders.
To celebrate the film's big upgrade, he retitled it again: "The Man with the Synthetic Brain".
Even with these well-known stars and nifty new title, the film was still a big flop.
So Adamson waited awhile, gave the film another new title, "Blood of Ghastly Horror", and re-re-re-released it.
Naturally the film was a big flop again because it was the same terrible movie that had flopped the last time.Is that the end of Adamson's Indestructible Movie?
At various times the movie has also been released under the title's "The Man with the Atomic Brain" and (get this) "The Love Maniac".Maybe the next reincarnation of this unkillable film will be disguised by a really tricky title -- like "War and Peace" or "The Eleven O'clock News".
Al Adamson might just have been the worst film director in history.
I truly think that his films are at least as bad as Ed Wood's and both men finished up their careers making porno flicks.
This film, made in the pre-porno days, manages to perhaps be the worse excuse for a film Adamson ever made--even worse than Dracula VS.
That's because this master of the super-super cheap drive-in film found a way to make this film even cheaper and cheesier than the rest--he took apart an older film he made (PSYCHO A GO-GO) and pieced it together with some new scenes to make an entirely new film!!
The original film, PSYCHO A GO-GO was actually one of Adamson's best films (though its current rating of 2.0 is hardly stellar).
It was about a jewel robbery gone bad and particularly focused on a psychotic killer within the gang and his evil deeds.Now, the same guy who was killed at the end of PSYCHO A GO-GO is back as a zombie re-animated by John Carradine with an electronic brain!
And, it's up to Tommy Kirk and a bunch of other no-talents to unravel the mystery (about the murders, not why they agreed to be in this pile of bilge).Much of the film makes no sense at all and it's all quite confusing and stupid--with very large chunks of the old film re-used haphazardly.
The only people who could enjoy this dull mess are bad movie freaks like myself who occasionally enjoy laughing at horrid films.
And this one has it all--very bad acting, the director's stripper wife making yet another gratuitous appearance in one of his films, non-existent writing and terrible direction (with quite a few out of focus and poorly framed shots)..
This chase scene incidentally is most of the movie, or seems like it, killer running, woman and child running, killer, woman, on and on ...
To say this is a cheesy horror film is to be generous.
awful film results from being cut and recut.
Disjointed horror film that was made from a heist film that was cut apart and had new scenes added.
Its films like this that make me hate Al Adamson films because they are such patchwork messes with new and old footage mingling freely.
After listening to the commentary on the DVD I have to temper my criticism of the film since its clear that the scenes from the original heist film were actually really good.
Had that film been released (it couldn't get released because it had no stars) I'm pretty certain that it would have had a nice reputation and Adamson might have gone on not to be a hack.
The trouble was that Adamson was willing to sell his film short and shoot and reshoot and cut apart the heist film.
Producer Sam Sherman who does the commentary takes the blame for ruining the film with the re-cuts and rewrites.
Sherman in his commentary said the film plays better with commercials and he ain't kidding.
Only because this movie hasn't graced MST3K, has it not received attention as the worst of all time.
I saw this film over 20 years ago and still remember it as the worst ever - without having seen it since.
And yes, I have seen "Plan 9" and "Robot Monster" and a number of the films shown on MST3K, like "Manos, The Hands of Fate" and "The Puma Man."This film, which I saw as "The Man With The Synthetic Brain," is truly terrible.
A crime film which becomes a mad scientist film, which becomes a chase film, and ends up as a zombie movie!I saw this on TV, and when coming back from commercial breaks, I frequently thought that I was watching a different film entirely.
The suit lint would ruin everything!Only see this film if you love bad films.
Anyone looking for even a below average B-quality movie would be very disappointed by "Blood of Ghastly Horror."SCGp.s.
"Blood of Ghastly Horror" first began life as an unreleased Al Adamson heist feature from 1964 titled "Echo of Terror," then with new footage of go-go dancers and a brutal stabbing slipped out from Hemisphere Pictures in 1965 as "Psycho A-Go-Go" (not to be confused with "Two Tickets to Terror," in reality a rerelease title for 1961's "Half Way to Hell").
Adamson shot new footage of John Carradine in 1966, resulting in a second release, as "Fiend with the Electronic Brain," playing in selected Southern states as early as Dec 1967, courtesy David L.
By 1969, still more footage was shot, with Kent Taylor and Regina Carrol (Mrs. Al Adamson), and still later Tommy Kirk, resulting in what producer Samuel M.
Sherman accurately described as an 'interesting editing exercise.' The finished (?) product was issued in 1972 by Sherman's Independent-International Pictures Corporation, simultaneously playing on television under yet another new title, "Man with the Synthetic Brain." Only a devotee of outright schlock could really appreciate what remains, provided they possess the knowledge of its convoluted backstory.
We begin with a zombie-like creature named Akro (Richard Smedley) committing several murders, switching gears to a police investigation conducted by Sgt. Cross (Tommy Kirk), relating the background on Dr. Howard Vanard (John Carradine, entering at the 17 minute mark), who had implanted an 'artificial brain component' into almost dead Vietnam veteran Joe Corey (Roy Morton).
Sgt. Cross now follows the trail of Dr. Elton Corey (Kent Taylor), father of the dead Joe Corey, who uses his voodoo powers to create the hideous Akro, seeking vengeance now against Dr. Vanard's daughter Susan (Regina Carrol), with most of the final half hour consisting of the original unissued heist footage, and Joe Corey's high altitude pursuit of stolen diamonds.
Tommy Kirk is the other veteran actor, not what one would expect for a solemn police sergeant, but as the only actor to work with both Al Adamson and Larry Buchanan ("Mars Needs Women," "It's Alive!"), deserves a measure of respect for surviving such highs and lows in a screen career soon to fade.
"Blood of Ghastly Horror" is undeniably a bad film, but "Horror of the Blood Monsters" reached a new low even for Al Adamson.
Then they decided to make it into some sort of sci-fi flick, by adding footage which explains the criminal's behaviour in terms of a synthetic brain place in the head of a soldier.
Then they decide to wrap this with some incredibly trashy low-budget early 70s zombie monster footage..
Al Adamson was a next-generation Ed Wood who directed many movies in the history of bad cinema, such as DRACULA VS.
Not too surprisingly, you may have noticed Regina Carroll appearing in almost every one of his films.
I believe the public hasn't taken Al Adamson's name in widespread recognition too seriously, but then again, Ed Wood bounced back into popularity due to the highly-praised 1994 movie about his life and career.
Don't complain about thinking this is a horror film, because it's not.
This is a fine piece of work by a respectable genius who made something look like a collage, which complicates everything in the movie's framework.
Later on, a stupid mad scientist and a 10-minute long mom & daughter mountain chase makes you wonder what the hell Al Adamson was doing in making a HORROR movie!
Yucksters will definitely enjoy this and his other weird films, but they usually lack the spirit of famously familiar Ed Wood material, however they are a little more modern considering they were released during the early years of the anti-social generation.
BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR is okay, but Al's other movies are probably much better than what I saw..
You really get 2 bad films for the price of one.Its obvious the producers put 2 turkeys together to get one dead fish.
Don't ask me how I did it, but even though this is technically a botched and splicey patchwork of a movie, I had a good time with it.
It helps going in to know the history...It was directed by drive-in movie maestro Al Adamson (of "Dracula vs.
Frankenstein" fame), who originally planned a straight jewelry heist picture in 1964 until meeting up with producer/mentor Sam Sherman who persuaded him to gradually add new scenes and ideas specifically for the horror/sci-fi television market in the early '70s.
It was finally sold to TV with the lucrative title of MAN WITH THE SYNTHETIC BRAIN, but Sherman thought it could be milked further, so the movie was also played at theaters where it became known as BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR.Ultimately emerging as connected pieces of different half-baked incarnations (one of these was even called PSYCHO A-GO-GO before the music was eliminated), the movie begins with a zombified maniac running around town strangling people.
Through flashbacks within other flashbacks we're treated to a background story of how a Vietnam vet named Joe Corey was wounded and then "helped" by a wacky scientist named Dr. Vanard (the always welcome John Carradine) who planted some sort of mechanism inside Corey's head and unintentionally turned him into a murderer with a taste for jewel robbing (which is how the old 1964 heist footage managed to get utilized).
But this man-made killer's got an angry dad who's also a scientist and is even nuttier than Dr. Vanard.
He's out to even the score for what was done to his victimized son, and that includes making a mummified and whimpering she-monster out of Vanard's sexy daughter (Regina Carrol, director Adamson's wife).This isn't a film for most audiences, but anyone who revels in idiotic or badly made exploitation films of the '60s and '70s would want to get a load of this concoction.
You've got to hand it to Sam Sherman and Al Adamson, in any case...
Three people whose careers saw better days star in Psycho A Go Go. John Carradine, Kent Taylor, and Tommy Kirk are the stars and the rest of the cast of this monstrosity are a bunch of never wases.
Carradine plays a scientist who puts an electronic pulse in the brain of a wounded Vietnam vet who becomes a psychotic killer.
Taylor is another scientist and Kirk the homicide cop assigned to catch this deranged killer.It's sad to see someone like Kent Taylor in this stuff, he had a respectable career in some decent roles in B pictures.
There ain't a spark of anything in the three dull faced stars.You name it, it's bad, acting, direction, camera work.Skip this one if at all possible..
Pretty bad, even by Adamson standards..
A true mishmash of a movie, "Blood of Ghastly Horror" is an affair that was fudged with repeatedly over a period of several years.
As its associate producer Sam Sherman says, you could fall asleep while watching, and wake up thinking that you're watching a different movie.
It moves from sci-fi / "zombie" tale to serial killer feature to heist film to chase picture, and is just barely coherent.It deals with, more or less, a character named Joe Corey (Roy Morton), who was given a new lease on life by a typical Mad Scientist, Dr. Vanard (John Carradine), who implanted an electronic device in his brain.
Some time later, Joes' father, Dr. Elton Corey (Kent Taylor) seeks revenge with the help of his own special serum.Always reliable veterans Carradine and Taylor give the proceedings their best shot, but "Blood of Ghastly Horror" may be tough to stick with even for dedicated schlock lovers such as this viewer.
Producer & director Al Adamson could usually give his low budget efforts some entertainment value, but this one is more along the lines of just plain bad, rather than so bad that it's funny.Among the illustrious thespians filling out the supporting cast are Tommy Kirk (who sure came a long way since his days at Disney) as a detective, and Adamsons' wife, actress & dancer Regina Carrol, as Carradines' inquisitive daughter.There are indications that the original heist film might have been okay.
I watched this Z-grade excuse for a "movie" under its title "The Man with the Synthetic Brain", but I can assure that any form of brain activity is the absolute last thing you should expect to find here.
Now I am aware that one shouldn't anticipate much when selecting a movie directed by the notoriously incompetent director Al Adamson (his other "highlights" include 'Blood of Dracula's Castle', 'Satan's Sadists' and 'Brain of Blood') but this worthless excuse for a motion picture is literally insufferable.
John Carradine looks really fatigue in his umpteenth role as unstable scientist (and cause of all horror) and Adamson's direction totally lacks style and inspiration.
Poor but Fun. Blood of Ghastly Horror (1972) * 1/2 (out of 4) Drive-in master Al Adamson strikes back once again with another mix and match film.
Apparently in 1964 Adamson finished a police thriller but it couldn't be sold so he and producer Sam Sherman started filming new scenes to try and make it better.
Considering there are five or more movies on display here it's pretty hard to follow any story but it involves scientists (John Carradine) doing brain work on a killer who eventually goes out and kills.
The Carradine footage is obviously the most recent thing filmed for the movie and he does have a few campy moments, which earn a few laughs but I'm really not sure what his footage has to do with too much of the film.
The cop footage seems to come from Adamson's Psycho a Go-Go, which is also pretty bad but this film does have its charm because it moves at a nice speed and you really can't believe your eyes with what you're watching.
Tommy Kirk and Kent Taylor are also scattered around the film and what they're doing exactly is anyone's guess.
What remains interesting is how a film that isn't "good" in any objective sense can light a spark in your imagination.
For me, "Blood of Ghastly Horror" (which I first saw as "Man with the Synthetic Brain" on cable TV in the 1980s) is one of those films.
(It's true, of course, but has nothing to do with what fascinates me about this movie.) I will say that what I consider surprisingly profound about such a cheap drive-in horror flick crops up in both the "Psycho A-Go-Go" scenes shot in 1965 and the darker, grimier footage from 1972--which might or might not say something about the themes that preoccupied director Al Adamson over the years.
I have no idea, but there are two scenes in this film that touch on something other than the customary monster-menaces-pretty-girl fare of the genre.
"Who were you to play God with my life?!" Morton roars at Carradine (before killing him) in one of the most jarringly realistic exchanges of dialogue in any horror film.
It's played totally straight, not for melodrama as it might be in a Frankenstein flick, and it works.
The second scene doesn't arrive until the end of the movie, and it's more difficult to describe what makes it work, but I'll try.
The 1972 footage looks dirty and low-rent even by Al Adamson standards, but in my opinion this worked to his advantage.
The scene plays out to the sound of Regina Carrol's despairing screams and a starkly urgent Harry Lubin cue (kettle drums and strings), and it's difficult for me to believe that Adamson didn't know precisely what he was doing when he staged it.
(Many would even argue that there is no deliberate philosophical reflection in these scenes, to which I would respond that such ruminations were turning up in unexpected quarters at the time "BGH" was made...even in hardcore porn films like "The Devil in Miss Jones".) Fair enough.
But they've made me a compulsive watcher of "Blood of Ghastly Horror" for almost thirty years..
It is a hodge podge of multiple plots, none really developed, part 60's crime drama, part psychedelic anti-establishment protest, and most interestingly (not by much) mad doctor horror film with poor John Carradine sinking very low in his extremely long career and somehow being the only classy element of what has to be one of the most pointless movies ever made. |
tt1259299 | G.I. Joe: Resolute | After repeated attempts to seize power through brute force have failed, Cobra Commander comes up with a new plan to recover Cobra's financial investments, and seize control of world power at the same time. The plan begins with the seizure of the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program array (HAARP), which superheats the ionosphere. Following this, various rockets carrying electronic equipment are launched into low earth orbit. A solar powered stratellite network is deployed just below the ionosphere, allowing Cobra to maintain a covert worldwide communication network. Finally, at a decommissioned nuclear missile silo in Siberia, a prototype particle beam weapon is unveiled. Cobra Commander warns his troops that he will tolerate no attempts against him, and as a show of his seriousness, he kills Major Bludd, and has his dead body found in Washington DC.
A Cobra operative known as Firefly fires a special missile package through the wall of the United Nations building in Manhattan, NY, which deploys a small holographic projector. Cobra Commander uses the projector to broadcast a message to the assembled UN representatives, in which he demands that all nations on earth turn control of their resources over to the Cobra organization within 24 hours, or face indiscriminate attacks upon their capital cities. As a show of force, the cannon is fired at Moscow, Russia, destroying the city and killing approximately ten million civilians. In the Pacific Ocean the USS Flagg, a modified aircraft carrier, falls prey to a saboteur. Explosives rigged in vital areas destroy almost all on board weapons, ammunition, and vehicles, in addition to severely compromising the vessel's integrity. A Joe named Bazooka had been killed prior to the attack while on guard duty. An autopsy uncovers a note hidden in Bazooka's mouth, which reveals the assassin to be Storm Shadow, a former friend of Snake Eyes from his time training as a ninja. Snake Eyes, after reading the scroll's hidden note, departs to confront Storm Shadow and settle their rivalry once and for all.
Meanwhile, the other Joes on board the Flagg learn from Dial Tone that satellite communications are down due to the superheated ionosphere, and eventually trace Cobra's activity to the HAARP array, the satellites, and the Siberian particle cannon, which lies beneath the decommissioned Russian ballistic missile complex. Logistical personnel explain that the HAARP array allows the particle cannon to superheat the ionosphere, causing it to reflect particles. The energy from those charged particles is dispersed across the super-hot ionosphere, and then reassembled above its intended target. Once there, the particles are focused into a powerful collimated beam, which uses charged particles to wipe entire cities off the map.
Three separate Joe teams are deployed: The first team consisting of Gung-Ho, Roadblock, Stalker and Beach Head manages to recapture the HAARP array in Alaska, and free hostages being held by Destro and the Baroness. The second team consists of Ripcord, Duke and Scarlett. Duke and Scarlett perform a HALO jump to the Siberian facility wearing winged jet packs. They infiltrate the location, kill Zartan, and destroy the location by forcing the repurposed nuclear warheads powering the particle cannon to detonate. Tunnel Rat manages to knock out Cobra's orbiting stratellite network by reviving technology from Project Manhigh, building an assault platform capable of reaching the stratellite array, without activating each stratellite's defensive cannons. He then uses a microwave power transmission broadcast via the stratellite's rectenna to compromise and destroy the network. However, Cobra Commander unveils a second smaller HAARP array on an islet in Micronesia, and a second lesser particle cannon hidden in the town of Springfield, a major Cobra installation. Cobra fires this secondary particle cannon at the Flagg, sinking the already evacuated carrier. Elsewhere, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow meet on an island, containing an abandoned complex that was once used by Snake Eyes' ninja clan. In flashbacks, Snake Eyes recalls his time as a student, and how he unsuccessfully attempted to prevent his mentor's assassination at the hands of a Cobra mercenary working for Storm Shadow. Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow engage in a fight to the death, a fight that ends with Storm Shadow's defeat.
Over the Pacific Ocean, several aircraft carrying the evacuated Joes and crew members of the Flagg arrive at the location of the secondary particle cannon. After exchanging fire with Cobra forces, Flint and Scarlett manage to create an opening, allowing Duke and Snake Eyes to gain access to the facility. Duke makes his way to the control center, and discovers that Cobra Commander ordered his men to aim the particle cannon at Washington, DC, then killed them, and locked himself inside a safe room within the control center. Unable to prevent the firing of the particle cannon, Duke elects to reprogram the targeting coordinates, causing the directed-energy weapon to fire on its own location. However, Cobra Commander's whereabouts remain unknown, as his safe room was later found empty, as documented by Duke in his final report. A post credits scene shows Storm Shadow's grave to be empty. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0062936 | Si wang mo ta | There's a mysterious Chinese document that's hidden in the Tower of Death, and evil Japanese occupiers want to get their hands on it. Meanwhile, a Chinese fighter named Mr. An (Bruce Le) is training in the forest, only to be challenged by several Japanese fighters as well as one of the main Japanese henchmen Bolo (Bolo Yeung). He defeats the other fighters, but flees from Bolo when he pulls out a sword. Mr. An and Bolo meet again in a wrestling ring, where Mr. Ang once again defeats Bolo.
Mr. Ang's victory impresses the Japanese who want to hire him to go to the Tower of Death. However, Mr. Ang is a Chinese nationalist and refuses. This leads to Mr. Ang being challenged by another group of Japanese fighters in another forest, with Mr. Ang once again reigning victorious. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Ang discovers that a woman he thought was working for the Japanese is actually an undercover Chinese agent. They make a plan to retrieve the document from the Tower of Death.
They arrive at the Tower of Death and Mr. Ang enters the tower. On the first floor he fights a monk. On the second floor he fights a man who uses snakes as weapons. On the third floor he fights a nunchaku master. On the fourth floor he fights a possessed man who attacks when a red lamp is turned on and a shaolin master. On the final floor he fights a brute. However he discovers that the document is not in the tower. | violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0799987 | Circle of Friends | Set in 1950s Ireland, the film focuses on the experiences of Bernadette "Benny" Hogan and her two friends, Eve Malone and Nan Mahon. They are characterised early on in childhood, during their First Communion: Benny is the beloved and well-fed only child, Eve the orphan raised by nuns and Nan is destined to be defined by her beauty. The three girls grow up in the small town of Knockglen. Skip to eight years later: Nan has moved on to Dublin years earlier, and Benny and Eve have graduated from the local convent school and are heading to Dublin to attend university.
Eve's education is financed by the local wealthy Westward Protestant family, The family has also willed to her a cottage on their property. Eve boards at a convent in Dublin, while Benny must commute daily between home and Dublin, her parents being loath to let her go. They would prefer she marry the loathsome and creepy Sean Walsh, her father's faithful employee at his tailor shop.
Once in Dublin the two girls reconnect with a mature and sophisticated Nan who is quite aware of her bewitching effect on the opposite sex. Benny eventually falls in love with Jack Foley, a handsome rugby player and doctor's son, studying medicine and expected to follow in his father's footsteps, though he is not quite convinced that this is the career for him. After the College Ball, Benny and Jack begin a relationship, Eve starts to date Aidan, a friend of Jack's, and Nan becomes involved with the much older Simon Westward, who the group ran into as they entered the dance and whom Nan "accidentally" arranged to run into at a lunch. While Benny is able to resist a physical relationship with Jack, Nan is not and believes that Simon truly loves her.
When Benny's father dies suddenly, she is forced to suspend her university studies to take care of her mother who is devastated by her husband's passing, and to run the family shop. Sean Walsh attempts to woo her into marriage. Benny notices the accounts of the prosperous Hogan business are missing significant funds, creating a mystery over double entry bookkeeping. She suspects Sean has something to do with it but has no proof.
Eve's cottage, in an isolated sector of the Westward estate, serves as a party location for the three young women and their friends. Nan and Simon visit it secretly for their trysts. Sean, who has been spying on the cottage since the first party to watch Benny, witnesses Nan and Simon's sexual relationship, having hinted at it to Eve during Benny's father's funeral. Nan becomes pregnant and reveals the news to Simon, sure he will marry her. Instead, Simon ends their relationship, stating he must marry for money, not love, to maintain the family fortune. He attempts to pay her off with a large cheque to get an abortion in England.
A desperate Nan goes out to find Eve's boyfriend Aidan, but runs into a depressed and drunk Jack, who has not seen Benny since her father's funeral. She convinces him to take her as his date to a rugby team party and lures him into having sex with her. She later pretends that he is the one who got her pregnant. Jack does what he believes is the honourable thing and asks Nan to marry him. He tells Benny about the baby and the engagement and she is devastated. Eve grows suspicious of someone using the cottage after finding a half-burned newspaper in the fireplace. The nuns from her old convent told her they had seen lights on at the cottage and smoke coming from the chimney. Nan suggests that perhaps the cottage is haunted to cover up her and Simon's secret meetings there.
Eve throws another party which a still devastated Benny attends alone. Nan, oblivious to the pain she's caused by her deception, convinces Jack they should attend the party, though he feels uneasy about going to Eve's. As he speaks to a sad Benny, Nan seeks out Eve, bringing her flowers and a present of a vase, acting as if nothing has changed and she and Eve are still the best of friends. An enraged Eve, having figured out the truth of what Nan has done and that Simon, not Jack, is the father of Nan's baby, confronts her, threatening to tell Jack the truth and screaming at Nan that she had broken Benny's heart. Eve, enraged at Nan for not realizing how much damage and hurt she has caused her friends, comes towards her waving a knife she was using to cut bread. As Nan backs away, she falls into a glass door which shatters, cutting her in the arm and severing an artery causing her to bleed profusely. Jack comes to Nan's aid, tending to the bleeding that Eve has been trying to stop. Benny, seeing Eve and Jack attending to Nan, leaves the party.
Jack tries to contact Benny but she refuses to answer the phone. Though he has learned the truth of Nan's deception, Jack escorts Nan to the train station despite her protests that it has nothing to do with him now. She asks that he and Benny forgive her for her desperate actions. Nan heads to England to have her baby (or to have an illegal abortion).
Curiosity over the missing money from the family store finally gets the best of Benny, and she snoops around Sean's living area above the tailor shop. She finds several pornographic pictures of larger women during her search. Sean finds Benny in his room and attempts to sexually assault her. She fights him off, and in the process finds the money that he has embezzled from her family for the duration of his employment. She demands that he leave or she will call the Garda (police). He tells her that he would have married her but now he wouldn't touch her. As he leaves, she throws his clothes at him, hitting him in the face with his coat.
After Jack sees Nan off, he goes to visit Benny to try to win her back. He explains to Benny that helping stop Nan's bleeding made his hesitations over becoming a doctor disappear and he knows it is what he wants to do for the rest of his life. Jack also tells Benny that he loves her and if she'll have him back, he wants to marry her and that she is the one. He never loved Nan. Benny, unwilling to let him off so easily, tells him his actions have changed both her and their relationship, and it will take quite a bit of time for him to gain her trust again. She tells him they will have to get to know each other as they are now and they will just have to see where it takes them.
Benny's voiceover states that Jack threw himself into his medical studies, as well as his pursuit of Benny. He demonstrates his patience and humility, devoting himself to his studies as well as Benny. Benny states that she moved to Dublin at the start of the new school year to share a flat with Eve. A paper Benny writes causes a stir at the university and sets her on course to her future career as a writer. With time, Benny falls in love with Jack again. The final scene shows Benny taking Jack to Eve's cottage. As he follows her inside, Benny says "Bless me father, I have sinned" implying the pair have finally consummated their relationship. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0115640 | Beautiful Thing | The story is set and filmed on Thamesmead, a working class area of South East London dominated by post-war council estates.
Jamie (Glen Berry), a teenager who is infatuated with his classmate, Ste, has to deal with his single mother Sandra (Linda Henry), who is pre-occupied with ambitious plans to run her own pub and with an ever-changing string of lovers, the latest of whom is Tony (Ben Daniels), a neo-hippie. Sandra finds herself at odds with Leah (Tameka Empson), a sassy and rude neighbour who has been expelled from school, does several drugs, and constantly listens and sings along to her mother's Cass Elliot records. While Jamie's homosexuality remains concealed, his introvert nature and dislike of football are reason enough for his classmates to bully him at every opportunity.
Ste (Scott Neal), who is living together with his drug-dealing brother and abusive, alcoholic father in the flat next door, is one night beaten by his brother so badly that Sandra takes pity and lets him sleep over. In the absence of a third bed, Ste has to make do with sleeping 'top-to-toe' with Jamie. On the second night they share a bed: after a massage and a minor conversation, the boys soon change sleeping arrangements and Jamie kisses Ste for the first time.
The next morning, Ste panics and leaves before Jamie awakens, avoiding him for days. Jamie works up the nerve to steal a Gay Times from a newsagent, apparently starting to accept his sexuality and affection for Ste. Jamie finally spots Ste at a nearby party and confronts him; they prepare to leave together. The party ends badly, with Sandra taking vengeance on Leah for gossiping, who then threatens to 'spill the beans' about Ste and Jamie and confesses to having covered up for Ste in front of his father and brother. Ste reacts poorly, angrily rejecting Jamie and running away.
Slowly, Ste accepts Jamie's love and their relationship begins to develop as they visit a gay pub together. Sandra follows them and discovers their secret, and the film reaches its climax as a bad trip by Leah (on an unnamed drug) precipitates Sandra's breakup with Tony; the news of Sandra's new job comes out; and Sandra confronts Ste and Jamie. Sandra comes to accept her son's relationship.
The film ends with the two boys slow-dancing in the courtyard of their council flats to the Cass Elliot song "Dream a Little Dream of Me", while a guarding Sandra dances defiantly at their side with Leah as the local residents look on; some of them shocked, some of them strongly disapproving; and some of them enjoying the moment themselves. | queer, feel-good | train | wikipedia | The young actors that play Jamie and Ste do an extraordinary job sometimes forgetting how well they pull off such complex characters throughout the movie.
This movie makes me smile on every level...from the way the two boys discover their affection for one another, the wonderful comedy relief from the next door neighbor Leah (and her relationship with the entire tenement population), and the perfect choice of soundtrack music from Mama Cass that, at times, seems written specifically for certain scenes and works on both a nostalgic and familiarity level.
This movie gets better with every viewing...and I'd love to see what happened to each of the characters in a sequal.This movie is, without a doubt, very personal to all gay men and women who came out during their youth and a favorite of all of my friends, both gay and straight..
Although slightly exaggerated in places, this film is a great comment on London working class life as well as being focused around a gay-based storyline.However, I wanted to add that this film also comments on the complex class system in the UK which explains why Tony was dropped by Sandra.
BEAUTIFUL THING is a unique drama - presenting an adolescent gay couple as complex individuals, within a greater setting (an English housing project) that also captures a bit of a slice-of-life feel.
I like the working-class setting, and wasn't bothered by the accents - as an American it required me to pay attention - a good thing as there are many subtle details that make this a very rich drama.It does tug at the heartstrings a bit, and it lays on the cuteness a bit more than it should, but I loved the characters anyway, and the setting and context (very nicely detailed film-making) keeps those minor gripes minor.There have been so many cynical or clichéd gay dramas released during the last decade or two, especially in the US (gay film from elsewhere in the world often seems so much more fresh and lifelike) - in many ways this film was (and remains) a real breath of fresh air..
The whole film is fantastic, for all areas, the hard-working, loving, caring single mother, the shy, nervous, unsure child, the popular but insecure, frightened, abused boy, the crazy neighbours, everything!The film has some amazing scenes in it, especially the scene in the woods with the music - makes me cry and smile every time, the two young lovers are just wrapped up in themselves with no care in the world and it really shows through the acting and reactions of the actors, who obviously have such chemistry about them - and the music as well was fabulous and so poignant.This is probably my second ranking film of this genre (possible my second favourite in all) the first goes to Get Real that applied more to me than this film did, though the film affected me in a similar way to Get Real.
Get Real changed my life, Beautiful Thing helped it along.I give this film a very good 9/10 (I never give 10 it may prevent others from trying to match or better it!).
This is an "excellent" romantic love story concerning two coming of age boys in gay accepting England.We found the movie to be both entertaining and moving.We own the movie on both VHS & DVD, that's how much we enjoy it.I would like to have seen a sequel to "Beautiful Thing", merely to have had the writer pick up the story after Sandra & Jamie moved to Sandra's Pub. The reason being, the movie ends giving the impression that Sandra took Ste along with her & Jamie, to live with them at Pub.I feel a sequel would carry on further with this point, along with how the boys relationship grew with time.
Gays need a positive light, as "Beautiful Thing" portrays.I was wondering if anyone else feels the same way concerning Ste moving with Sandra & Jamie.I can "HIGHLY" recommend this movie, as it is well done, and a touching story.Lea, adds much to the movie also.
It reveals a story of two young ordinary English boy trying to come out in a very conservative English period.This movie tells us that there is no such thing as -gay love or straight love-.
Heart-wrenching performances, a witty and sensitive (but never sappy) script, and characters so real they could walk off the screen: these aren't usually things to be found in gay-themed movies, but Beautiful Thing has all of them and more.
Where Brokeback Mountain left me devastated and believing happiness couldn't ever last (I will never watch it again), and Latter Days is a prime example of style over substance, Beautiful Thing makes me feel like love is out there and it's really worth fighting for.
It has stayed with me vividly and powerfully since I first saw it, and I continue to watch parts of it often.I don't know if Glen Berry or Scott Neal could have realized what an impact this film would have on some viewers, but I wish I could thank them for bringing such humanity, realism, and likability to the roles of Jamie and Ste. Linda Henry, too, in the brilliant role of Sandra, gives a performance worthy of an Oscar, and Sandra's boyfriend Tony (played perfectly by Ben Daniels) is hilarious and surprisingly endearing.
If you're gay or just a human being with empathy and understanding (and a good sense of humor -- the script is terribly clever and the film really benefits from multiple viewings), Beautiful Thing is an experience you should not miss.
It's a film I will cherish forever, enhanced by the music of Mama Cass Elliot (who was truly gifted and whose death was a great loss).Favorite scenes (though almost every scene is really a favorite): the "Make Your Own Kind of Music" chase in the woods (I may love this scene more than anything else ever), the bedroom scenes with Jamie and Ste, and the final sequence, (featuring Mama Cass's beautiful "Dream a Little Dream of Me") which I will not spoil -- I envy the first-time viewer, who is in for a huge treat.
I like to think that Jamie and Ste live on forever in the final shot, the future uncertain but the present a greater joy than they had ever known, their love a small but bright glimmer of hope in an otherwise gray world..
every time i watch this movie it makes me feel that after all the bad things we go trough in life for being gay is not that bad if you can find love and this movies is the best gay love story ever, i relate to it, it just moves every single cell in my body, just when i am down sad and blue takes me to a place i cant describe, makes me feel innocent and not soo complicated, cause thats how it was for me, it wasn't about a rainbow flag, gay outfits, gay this gay that, is just two kids on love..
Every now and then, when I'm in the mood to watch a sweet little gay romance, I dig out my VHS copy of "Beautiful Thing." The film has its flaws.
The two male leads aren't especially attractive (as would have been required if this had been an American production), but they make the romance so endearing that they somehow seem to get cuter as the film progresses.My great regret about this film--the thing that keeps me from enjoying it as un-self-consciously as I would like, and as the filmmakers presumably hope I would--is that closing scene where Ste and Jamie dance in the courtyard, ignoring the crowd around them.
Jamie's making foolish decisions in the reckless euphoria of coming out, but Sandra's there watching out for him, glaring at the crowd like a mother velociraptor, daring anyone to threaten her child.I've tried to explain the closing scene in all those ways.
But 'Beautiful Thing', Hettie MacDonald's sweet little movie, is lifted above mere cliché through the quirky humanity of its characters, and the atmospheric cinematography of the ugly-beautiful London overspill estate of Thamesmead.
Watching this film is a bit like being tickled--you know what is happening but you cannot control yourself.You will care about these people (sorry--characters: you will forget they are fictional).
On one hand, it's a nice little low budget film about two young boys coming to grips with their sexuality amidst a colorful cast of characters living in the same apartment building.
But on the other hand, I couldn't help but feel something was missing here.Being a gay male myself, I haven't delved very much into the world of gay cinema, but I will say I was pleased that nothing in this film seemed intent on exploiting homosexuals, which is the very thing that has kept me away from the genre most of the time.
The story unfolds in a very low-key manner, and for once I didn't feel as if the filmmakers were simply trying to cash in on the hordes of homosexuals out there that will pay to see anything they can relate to, not even realizing the filmmakers are just after their wallets.For a movie whose central feature is the evolving love story between two teenage boys, Jamie and Ste, I felt it was void of the usual pitfalls that plague most movies in this vein--thankfully, the clichés are kept to a bare minimum, and there's very little of what I like to call "Hollywood"-isms in the film, which I was grateful for.
The chemistry between the two male leads was what kept me watching the film, as I felt the writing and the casting were both spot on in this department.If anything leaves me humbled and a little puzzled, however, it has to be the film's focus on the other inhabitants of the apartment complex, mainly a vivacious black girl who is friends with the two leads, Jamie's mother and her new boyfriend, as well as Ste's father.
The bonding that Stu and Jamie find is rather beautiful and at times touching, the performances from the young actors brings a natural element to their on screen relationship.
The film doesn't portray stereotypes, nor does it present being gay negatively.The final scene is a stunning ending with Stu and Jamie dancing arm in arm in the square of the council estate though I did struggle with the idea of it happening on council estate!
I wish that there were more gay-themed films like this one - romantic in the best sense of the word and accessible to all with hearts open to love - to help counterbalance the usual portrayal of gay characters as superficial and self-absorbed.
This film is about two teenagers in a deprived neighbourhood coming out and falling for each other.Character development is excellent in the movie.
"Beautiful Thing" is an forthright look into the lives of two average young boys and their harsh life behind closed doors, giving us a modest story without romantic clichés or gimmicks.I was thoroughly prepared to like this film a lot, due to how many recommendations I've had from those who knew I favored practical and romantic films like "My Beautiful Laundrette".
I only just now finished "Beautiful Thing," and it seems the only words I can think to describe it best are "somewhat good/mostly OK." I had a good time watching it, and thought it was sweet and well-done, though there isn't much that stood out to me when standing back to look at the film from afar.I think one of the things that seemed the most lackluster is that I didn't feel satisfied with the amount of romance or tension between the lead two boys, which made it hard for me to be genuinely invested in how their futures did or didn't intertwine.
I think we can credit that to an overuse of comedic relief, which makes me think I might have liked this film a lot better if it were simply drama/romance."Beautiful Thing" does have an ending that is spectacularly sweet and homely, which is something unusual to find in films of this sort.
I love the way Jamie tried to help Ste like in the massage scene, the acting was so fantastic, you could almost see the emotion.
It shows the emotional side, the time of self-confusion, self-conflict and the time of questioning who you really are.I was really moved by this film, and have now watched it 5 times, and every time I watch it I love it more and more, and it still moves me every time.The last scene (which I obviously wont say what happens) is amazing, it really is the way the film should end in my eyes, and it made me feel good about myself, being a young gay guy myself.I really would recommend everyone to watch this film, I'm glad I've had thechance to watch an amazing piece of film, and I think everyone else should as well..
The script faults are an on-going mystery to me and I can never quite fathom the anomalies they pose - the rainbow colors and lights in the bedroom of a young boy who has just discovered he is gay, why the mother says that Ste might be happy living in a Greek island inhabited entirely by lesbians, why earlier in the movie in an altercation Jamie asks his Mum the question "How am I weird?" for no particular reason, the double take on "Do you have to use words like that?" only to get the joke right on the second take, and some rather abrupt looks and words between the two boys that feel out of context or inappropriate to the circumstances.
With the movie ending, we never know how Ste deals with his father's reaction to his public "coming out" by partnering Jamie in a dance on the common area of the housing development estate.
While other characters battle their own demons (a neighbor girl appears to be obcessed with her admiration for Mama Cass, another teenager is physically abused by an older brother and a drunken single dad, the main character's mom falls in and out of love with a string of boyfriends), the "star" eventually confesses his attraction to the boy who "sleeps over" whenever things get too rough at his own place.
The film attempts to portray a gay love story as something which isn't out of the ordinary and is a "beautiful thing".
I've already watched this movie for five times though I got it only for few days, It warms my heart.I realized that there still waits beautiful things for everyone, also for me.
The story is effortless to follow, but still requires the viewer to think and feel.This is not a film about homosexuality (though Ste and Jamie's relationship is quite touching.) In fact, this film has very little to do with homosexuality.
This story tells what a lot of gay teens across the world are going through, modern society is a cruel world and does not take likely to different sexually orientated people, but this film shows you that you shouldn't care what others think and that it should be what makes you happy, it is a beautiful film , anyone who watches it will be left with the heart warming urge to find someone like Steven and Jamie, congratulations to these amazing young boys , to me this film is flawless , it has changed my life completely.
I only just discovered this film after it being on late at night during the current films 4 life, Watched this video for the first time and i could not stop thinking about it constantly over and over again for the past 2 days, Its excellent and best movie I've seen for long time it is such a shame that glen berry (Jamie) dint get more work for this as i really wanted to see him now hes 32 rather than when he was 17.Personally i think its liked more by gay people rather than straight as most straight people are homophobic still but keep it to themselves.
The only way you can love yourself is if you see this film."Beautiful Thing" is right up there with "Get Real" as being excellent British films about gay school boys.
This is the background of Beautiful Thing where personages have to face different troubles every day; hope for a better life is always there, but poverty and addictions often hinder achieving it.The film is created with a warm feeling and support, and most actors (particularly Linda Henry as Sandra Gangel and Tameka Empson as Leah Russell) are good, but the course of events and the ending are not very realistic - bearing in mind the neighbourhood.
Jamie knows a good thing when he sees it and isn't about to let Ste get away.The point here is that being gay is not just about sex nor just about good looks, but about everything that is involved in a human relationship, about caring and understanding, about bonding and growing, about trust and sharing, and also about allowing each other a little space.Moreover there is a real chemistry on screen between these two actors, so much so that it is hard to believe they are just acting, which is true of very few gay movies.
But the film is brilliant in its own right - and better than the recent and much-compared-to "Get Real" (the other well-known British gay teen movie).
Keep in mind that the most realistic movie I've ever seen about a teenage boy coming to terms with his homosexuality is "Edge of Seventeen." I would recommend that for anyone who enjoyed "Beautiful Thing.".
Contains the most beautiful love scene I have ever seen on film.
In the end, this is a movie that makes us feel good about ourselves and cheering for the characters.. |
tt0158534 | The Burning Train | The plot is an intricately woven one. It starts from childhood with the story of Ashok (also called Shoki by his childhood friend Vinod) (Neil Mohan) who is a wealthy industrialist's only son. He is passionate about cars from childhood befriends Vinod (Vinod Khanna) who is passionate about trains; it's his dream to make India's fastest train. Rakesh (Vinod Mehra) shares the same passion as Vinod. Randhir (Danny Denzongpa) is in a tussle from childhood to make a better train than Vinod's. Childhood turns into adulthood and one day both attend a dance function organised by the Indian Railways. This is where Ashok and Vinod fall in love with two beautiful women: Seema (Hema Malini) and Sheetal (Parveen Babi). Ashok is now deeply in love with Seema and they are planning to get married after their engagement. Vinod is married to Sheetal and they have a son Raju. One day Vinod, who is now a top notch railway engineer, gets awarded the contract to build a super-fast express train between New Delhi and Mumbai. Rakesh (Vinod Mehra) is his assistant. Randhir, the losing engineer and ex-lover of Sheetal, swears revenge and leaves.
As the three friends celebrate Vinod's success, Seema leaves for a pilgrimage. Ashok hears that his father has died. He rushes to his funeral and finds out that his father was debt-ridden, and he is left with nothing. As he is still recovering, he gets a letter from Seema breaking off their relationship stating that she was interested in him as a rich man and since he is now poor, she is not interested anymore. Heartbroken, Ashok leaves town.
Six years pass by. Vinod has completely focused on building the train, ignoring his wife and son. On the day of the train's inauguration, she comes to fetch him for their anniversary party. He refuses to go since the next day is the train's inaugural journey. Heartbroken, she puts her son, Raju, on the train to go to her mother, and leaves Vinod. Iftekhar, their boss, asks Vinod to go to Mumbai by flight for the arrival of the train. Vinod refuses to say that he needs to be in the control room. So his assistant and friend Rakesh go instead.
The train starts from New Delhi where a lot of the characters board. Rajendra Nath is a devout Hindu priest. Om Shivpuri is a royal king, Raja Ram Mohan, travelling with his wife Padmini (Indrani Mukherjee). Ranjeet is a smuggler fleeing with stolen diamonds and his girlfriend Raziya. Sujeet Kumar is an undercover police officer dressed as a Christian priest and following Ranjeet the smuggler. Asrani is an ex-Army colonel P.K. Bhandari. Keshto Mukherjee and Paintal are travelling without tickets hiding in the train's lavatories. Simi Garewal is a school teacher, taking a group of students on a visit to Mumbai. Neetu Singh is fleeing her home to escape a forced marriage. Ravi (Jeetendra) is a small-time thief who tries to befriend Neetu Singh to steal her jewellery. Seema is travelling to Mumbai with her cousin (Navin Nischol) who is a doctor. Rakesh's pregnant wife is travelling to Mumbai with her mother. Ashok also quietly boards the train so that he can be a part of his friend Vinod's success and is shocked to see Seema. He sees her with her cousin and mistakes him for her husband. He snaps at her before she can say anything, but befriends Raju after recognising him.
Unknown to all of them, Randhir has planted a bomb in the engine at the Mathura Railway station and disengaged the vacuum brakes so that even guard wouldn't be able to stop the train. The bomb was timed to explode halfway through the journey. He hopes to sabotage the train and thereby destroy Vinod's reputation without a scant thought to the lives of the passengers. Meanwhile, Ashok leaves the train as he does not want to travel by Seema in the train. He meets Randhir in a bar where Randhir tells him that he has fulfilled his and Ashok's revenge. (He was misunderstood that Ashok must be seeking revenge from Seema for her betrayal). Knowing this Ashok immediately leaves to catch the train before explosion time so that he can save his friend's train and save passengers. He manages to catch the train at Ratlam Railway station but is too late.
Halfway, the bomb explodes killing the drivers Jeevan Lal and Dango and destroying the brakes and accelerator. Ashok goes outside the train and goes to the engine compartment and saves the guard (Osman Ali) and brings him back. Vinod, who is desperately trying to save their lives, talks to them through All India Radio and asks them to go to the engine compartment and apply the emergency brakes.
The radio broadcast completely panics all passengers and the train cooks come running to find out what has happened. In their haste, they leave the cooking gas on. The news also panics the relatives who are waiting at Mumbai and they besiege Vinod. Sheetal also comes to him and shouts at him asking him to save their son, Raju.
Ashok, Ravi and the guard climb on top of the train and try to reach the engine. Meanwhile, Rakesh's wife enters labour and Seema's doctor cousin attends to her, asking for some hot water. A cook lights a match to heat up some water in the kitchen. The open gas explodes killing the guard Osman Ali, the cook and several passengers and half the train starts burning. Ashok and Ravi barely make it back and with the help of some passengers erect some gaps between the burning compartments and the passengers.
Vinod tries another effort by sending a helicopter and trying to get someone to land on the engine compartment. Randhir sabotages this mission by volunteering to go on the helicopter. He drops onto the engine compartment but does nothing, leading Ashok and his superiors to believe he is dead, as the helicopter explodes.
Meanwhile, Ashok finds out why Seema left him. She had lost her leg on the way back from the pilgrimage. She didn't want to be a burden on him in his poverty and decided to go away. They patch up. Ravi and Neetu also fall in love. Sheetal also comes back to Vinod and apologises for her behaviour. She gives him courage for his last attempt to save the train.
Rakesh, who is in Mumbai, tries to build a steep incline quickly which will reduce the speed of the train once it reaches Mumbai and may yet stop the train but he is running out of time as the train is speeding towards Mumbai and is just hours from reaching it.
Vinod tries one last effort by getting an engine to drive the Superfast train. He asks Ashok and Ravi to come up top and throws a rope saying that he will come over to the train and stop the train himself. Ranjeet tries to escape by using the same rope to the other train knowing that he will be arrested in Mumbai. Asrani tries to stop but Ranjeet throws him off the train. Ashok fights Ranjeet who falls off the train. Vinod comes over to the train, but not before being almost impaled by an electric tower.
He says that he has brought fireproof suits and some dynamite (just in case). They will wear the suits, go to the engine, and apply the emergency brakes. Vinod, Ashok and Ravi go through the fire to the engine where they find Randhir. Randhir tries to kill Vinod but falls off the train in the scuffle.
They reach the engine to find that the drivers are dead and all systems have failed. Ashok comes up with an idea of blasting the couplings of the compartments from the engine. Vinod disagrees saying that passenger compartments will derail if blasted off at this speed, but then remembers the incline being built by Rakesh. They send Ravi back to warn the passengers and to ask everyone to tie themselves to their seat.
Vinod asks Rakesh over wireless to clear the inclined area even though it isn't completely ready. Ashok and he set up the dynamite charges on the couplings. As the train starts climbing, they blast the dynamite and jump off the slowing engine. The engine blasts through Mumbai station and stops on the road. But the passenger compartment slows down and comes to a complete halt. All passengers get off safely. Vinod and Ashok happily come walking they're hurt but alive.
Everyone connects with their relatives and the film ends as a tribute to the soul of India. | flashback | train | wikipedia | Now, this is what I call good Bollywood action!.
A very slick, very action-oriented movie with a non-standard theme that promised to change Bollywood movie-making standards of the early 80s (Ramesh Sippy's "Shaan" was another one in the same genre).
Quite surprising that Bollywood took so long to pay a fitting tribute to the Railways because (at least during those days) a humongous percentage of working Indian populace were directly or indirectly dependent on the railways for their livelihood.
Why, the Indian Railways were one of the largest employers in those days!
The Railways depiction is more or less realistic (note to critics: the song-and-dance parts before the Super Express is launched is just plain old Bollywood masala nothing to do with the Railways).The train has been the ubiquitous, yet highly sidelined prop in dozens of Bollywood movies.
Who can forget the passenger train that brings the jailer to Ramgarh in "Sholay" or the endless shots of Victoria Terminus in any movie based in Bombay.
Even now, trains have been very much around in the Bollywood landscape.
"Bunty aur Babli" recently effectively used Indian Railways throughout the movie to enhance the small-town feel.
The trains in India have been much more than just a mode of transport they are a part of our very fabric.Anyway, back to the movie it about the launch of a new super fast express train that runs between Delhi and Bombay in a record time of 14 hours (clearly a tribute to the swanky Rajdhani Express trains that was the hottest thing on the tracks those days).
The movie starts in Varanasi rail factory (Diesel Locomotive Works), where a group of capable engineers (Khanna, Dharam "paaji", Mehra, etc) toil away to design the new engine.
During all this, the lead characters go through heartbreaks (Dharam-Hema), family crisis (Khanna-Babi) and professional showdowns (Danny-Khanna).
Meanwhile the train is full of standard stock characters a kind-hearted petty thief (Jeetendra), a runaway bride (Singh), a school teacher (Simi Gerewal) with an army of school kids, a diamond smuggler (Ranjeet) who has an undercover cop (Sujit Kumar) chasing him, the heartbroken hero (Dharmendra) and his ex-flame (Hema) with her new doctor beau (Nischol) a pompous army man, the Hindu pandit sitting next to the staunch Muslim, the paan-chewing seductress in red sari (Asha Sachdev), the Sardarji, the Parsi, the Marwari you name it!
So the brakes have failed, the engine drivers are dead and the runaway train is speeding away on the tracks while the unsuspecting passengers have a ball singing qawwalis in the train.
Blissful days) Luckily, we have Dharamendra who jumps back into the train to save lives.
Our heroes on the train take the onus to do something to save their own lives while the heroes outside are trying their best to get things out of the train's way!
Trust me: stagecoach-sagas cannot get better than this.As I mentioned, it was one of the slickest action movies of its time use of miniatures, complex action sequences, chase scenes, explosions, aerial shots it has a bit of everything.
The all-star cast is excellent, especially Khanna who delivers a powerful performance as the engineer trying to set things right.
This was a very, very good effort by Ravi Chopra (who later moved on to make movies like "Baghban" and now "Babul") and, once the express leaves Delhi station, is a non-stop action thriller.
"The Burning Train" is a very nicely put together, entertaining action thriller.
The sacrifice made by the heroes of the film in trying to save the 'burning train' is nicely mirrored by the sacrifices they make in their personal lives, often with less than happy results.The movie is also a very satisfying story about relationships (particularly the friendship between Vinod (played by Vinod Khanna) and Ashok (played by Dharmendra), envy, betrayal, redemption - and love.
Dharmendra(whom I love love love - that was 3 loves) and Vinod Khanna (whom I love love - that was 2 loves) are excellent in this movie (as always),putting in brilliant performances.
They are very effective and complimentary leads, and they're also quite funny (the scenes where they try to snag their girlfriends by tricking them are great).
Hema Malini is excellent as well (I always love the energy between her and Dharmendra - see the classic 'Sholay', although Malini's character in this movie is very different from Sholay's 'Basanti').
I think they make a great pair.Danny, who plays the villain ('Ranvir') does quite a good villainous face, I must say!
Nice portrayal of how a villain can still manage to be really pathetic.All the other performances (Jeetendra, Neetu Singh and the others - the scene when they all sing on the train is another highlight of the film) are fantastic as well.
I also love the opening scene, which introduces the main characters perfectly.
The big-budget (for that time) special effects in this movie also deserve a mention.
Despite a couple of forgivable poor shots of a model train, the 'burning train' of the movie's title is very realistically portrayed.
I also have to mention the lovely song sung by Vinod Khanna, Dharmendra, Hema Malini and Parveen Babi near the beginning of the movie (ok, I know it wasn't sung by the actors but by Asha Bhonsle, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar etc, but you know what I mean).
I love the song and the choreography.By the way, if you don't like a healthy dose of sentimentality (in which case you probably don't like Bollywood movies in the first place), then this movie is not for you.
Anyhow, I think I've said enough...all that's left to say is this is a great, entertaining movie for the family.
One of the classics, this movie remains much ahead of it's times by it's visualization and special effects.
A multi-starrer in which the central theme in neither love-story nor revenge story but rather about a burning train.
A very well done disaster movie.Ashok(Dharmendra) and Vinod(Vinod Khanna) are two friends.
Ashok is engaged with Seema(Hema Malini) and Vinod is married with Sheetal(Parveen Bobby).Vinod has dreams of building a a super fast train which will cover the distance between Delhi and Bombay(Mumbai) withing 12 hours(That too in 1980).Rajdhani currently takes 16.5 hours at best.
And he wins the tender from Indian Railways to build the fastest train.
Vinod's marriage with Sheetal is almost falling apart because of Vinod's full devotion to the train.The maiden journey of the train starts at Delhi.
The 3rd hero, a small time crook Ravi(Jitendra) meets his love Neetu Singh on the train.Ashok is also on the train .
Meanwhile Ranjeet has removed the brakes and placed bombs in the train and has got down in Agra.Ashok and Ranjeet meet in a bar in Agra and Ashok learns about the bomb.
The train's brake has failed and only desperate measures can now save it.Ashok learns now that Seema's leg is amputated and that's why she broke the engagement.
Meanwhile in the chaos, fire spreads, the train burns and hence the name "The Burning train".The rest of the movie is a struggle by everyone, particularly by Ashok, Vinod and Ravi to prevent the disaster from happening.See the movie..it's worth a watch..
Indian filmmakers have been taking inspiration from Hollywood flicks but very few such filmmakers openly admit it.
Director Ravi Chopra (son of the legendary film director - late B.R. Chopra) saw a Hollywood movie - The Towering Inferno (1974) and got inspiration for making an Indian movie.
The Towering Inferno was based on the plot of the fire in a building whereas Ravi Chopra decided to make a movie on an incident of burning of a running train.
And he made a brilliant movie whose climax (the train on fire) is simply mesmerizing and by inserting all the regular Bollywood formulae according to the taste of the (Indian) public, he finally served a Masaala flick to the Hindi movie audience.The Burning Train is the story of three childhood buddies - Ashok (Dharmendra), Vinod (Vinod Khanna) and Randhir (Danny Denjongpa).
Vinod and Randhir were at loggerheads even in their childhood and the rivalry continues even after their growing-up and becoming employees of the Indian Railways.
Ashok has been in love with Seema (Hema Malini) but gets heartbroken when she leaves him due to his losing his wealth and becoming poor and vanishes from his life.
Vinod marries the love of his life - Sheetal (Parveen Babi) and gets a kid but his family life is not pleasant because he is not able to give sufficient time to his family due to extreme busyness.
Randhir's jealousy towards Vindo has not only carried over since their childhood but it has deepened in adulthood due to Randhir's losing out to Vinod for Sheetal's love also.Why Vinod is not able to devote time towards his family ?
Because he has been relentlessly working upon his dream project of making a magnificent train for the Indian Railways.
The train is all set for its inaugural run from Delhi to Mumbai when Sheetal finally leaves Vinod's house and highly sad Vinod moves to the control room of the train to take care of the technicalities, sending his friend and colleague Rakesh (Vinod Mehra) to Mumbai by flight to welcome the train there upon arrival.
Ashok and Randhir are also on the train due to different reasons.
There are different kinds of passengers on the train including a small time thief - Ravi (Jeetendra) and a young girl - Madhu (Neetu Singh) who is escaping from a marriage being forced on her by her family.The drama gets a boost when Ashok comes across Seema in the train and to avoid her, gets down from the train in the middle of the journey only to find Randhir in a bar who tells him that he has kept a time bomb in the engine of the train to sabotage the train and taint the repute of Vinod.
Now starts the tussle between the baddie and the heroes to save the train which is set on fire after the explosion and with its brakes also failing, is going to meet its disaster and the death of all its passengers.
The prolonged and thrilling climax leads to the happy ending of the movie.The movie has all kinds of regular Bollywood formulae, entertaining the typical Indian movie buffs but its essence is the climax which justifies its title.
It's technically superb and contains several twists and turns, making the final part of the story of the movie a see-saw.
Several character artists have got ample opportunity to leave their mark in the final sequence of events.Though Ravi Chopra had got the inspiration for making this movie from The Towering Inferno, by default perhaps, it gives glimpses of the Titanic mishap also (the Hollywood movie - Titanic was made much later than this movie) in which the inaugural journey of the ship fails and that journey contains all kinds of RASAs of literature - romance, sentiments, humour, action, thrill just everything.
This way, similarities can easily be seen between The Burning Train and Titanic.The music of R.D. Burman is not great but not bad either.
The songs appear good to ears when listened to during the movie.
However the Qawwaali - Pal Do Pal Ka Saath Hamaara Pal Do Pal Ke Yaarane Hain is a memorable one both in terms of the lyrics and the melody and also the picturization.The Burning Train boasts of a great star cast, viz.
Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Vinod Khanna, Parveen Babi, Jeetendra, Neetu Singh, Vinod Mehra, Danny Dengjongpa, Simi Garewal, Asha Sachdev, Romesh Sharma, Padmini Kapila etc.
I give full marks to director Ravi Chopra that he did justice to all the characters and allowed every one of them to leave his / her mark in the story.
All of of them have done pretty well though footage awarded to them varies from character to character.All in all, it's a highly entertaining movie with technical excellence which I unconditionally recommend to movie buffs of all categories.
Indian audience did not like such movies those days.
However now the taste of the Indian audience has changed a lot and I believe, if B.R. Films decides to re-release it, it will get the love and appreciation of the Indian audience..
Good movie but very lengthy..
The Burning Train is a good watch but is very lengthy.The movie has many characters which makes it boring plus even there are some songs which could have been avoided which could have made the movie short.But otherwise the movie is an stylish action packed mass entertainer.Story:- Vinod Verma is an employee of the Indian Railways, who always had a dream of making the perfect and fastest train in India.
After years of dedication the Railway Board approves his prototype of the Super Express.
But these years had had their toll on his personal life, as his wife, Sheetal and son, are more like strangers to him.
He hopes to make it up to them after the train makes it inaugural run from Delhi to Bombay in a record 14 hours.
But an embittered fellow-employee named Randhir, the son of the Chair of the Railway Board, has other plans for Vinod and the Super Express - plans that may derail Vinod's delicate personal balance, and make the Super Express' inaugural journey also the final one.The story is fine The direction is good.The music is okay.The action scenes are excellent.Performances:- Dharmendra steals the show with his stellar performance.Vinod Khanna is good.Jeetendra is perfect.Hema Malini,Parveen Babi and Neetu Singh are okay in their respective roles.Danny Dengzonpa is superb.All in all,The Burning Train is a good weekend watch!.
I have attempting to get hold of this film for a very long time and when i finally got it wow.
Although the film was great, the reason it did not make sense was because i'd seen the edited version, where they had taken out all the important bits.The songs are absolutely great, the relationship between Vinod Khanna and Praveen Babi, and Dhamendra with Hema Malini was great, especially where they got together.Still attempting to get hold of a proper copy so if anyone knows where then please let me know..
I think this movie was ahead of its time, and would be a great film to remake with current technology and sensibility.
I will mention them first before I discuss the flaws:Great character drama.
The train is full of all sorts of different kinds of characters, funny, quirky, sexy, angry, criminal, religious, young, old, family, couples, single, and the interactions between them make for very entertaining drama.
Think of a road trip movie, except on a train with a myriad of characters.Great screenplay.
Except for the speedbreakers at the start, once the journey on the train begins the screenplay packs a lot of interesting situations and turns of events that keep the journey interesting; the initial character introductions and banter, the realization the breaks have failed, the train catching fire, the attempts by the passengers to save themselves, the frantic efforts by the railway officials to come up with ideas to save the train racing against time.
Great action.
I would not have thought an 80's Bollywood movie would have had such technical finesse.
The fast moving burning train actually looks real, the interiors look real, you actually feel like it was shot in an actual train(I am sure some portions were) The parts where some of the characters climb out of the moving train and then try to get to the next cabin by going across the windows or running on the top of the train looks like they really did it.
It is evident that this was a big budget movie for its time and it is executed with the same professionalism as similar disaster movies like Towering Inferno.Great acting.
Vinod Khanna as the train's engineer particularly is notable and very handsome, you do wonder why the gene was not passed on to Akshay Khanna.Now I will begin with the cons:Takes time to start.
The initial half hour is about introducing the leads and their love interests, and there are a couple of unnecessary songs.
In fact the only song that really works in the movie is the lone song on the train between all the characters to entertain themselves on the journey.
This actually can happen on Indian trains.Female characters are weak.
This is 80's patriarchal Bollywood when feminism had not really taken off yet, and it is evident here as the female characters have little personality and just react to their male counterparts.
Another 80's Bollywood staple is the "Disshom" fighting scenes which are cheesy and you have the OTT comic characters, the Johnny livers of their time, like Asrani with their slapstick routines.
If it was remade today for a contemporary audiences many of these 80's staples should and would be done away, leaving a great disaster movie.
There are not many notable Bollywood disaster movies, so this would provide great material for a contemporary one..
How does one logically stop a burning train with failed brake controls from meeting its fatal destiny?Please note: This movie does not provide the answer to the above question.
Deliver a baby on board such a train right at the climax.
6. Write a plot of a movie titled "The Burning Train" that includes 1 h 20 minutes that have nothing to do ( remotely) with a train or burning.
7. Assemble the largest number of Indian cultural stereo-types and give them obnoxiously type-cast roles to play.If you are interested in the above topics, do watch the 3:04:39 worth of reel time that this movie runs for.
( Also the music is boring).I watched this flick 15-17 years ago , when I was a kid.
What prompted me to write this review after all these years was the train wreck scene from Skyfall (2012) which in itself is a tribute to this marvelous piece of Absurdist cinema. |
tt0091129 | The Golden Child | In a temple in an unknown location in northeastern Nepal, a young boy with mystical abilities — the Golden Child — receives badges of station and demonstrates his power to the monks of the temple by reviving a dead eastern rosella, which becomes a constant companion. A band of villains led by a mysterious man, Sardo Numspa (Charles Dance), breaks into the hidden temple, slaughters the monks and abducts the boy.
Some time afterwards, a young woman named Kee Nang (Charlotte Lewis) watches a Los Angeles TV show in which social worker Chandler Jarrell (Eddie Murphy) talks about his latest case, a missing girl named Cheryll Mosley. She seeks him out the next day and informs him of the kidnapping of the Golden Child and that he is the 'Chosen One' who would save the Child. Chandler does not take this seriously, even after the astral form of the Child and his bird familiar begin following him.
Cheryll Mosley is found dead from blood loss, near an abandoned house smeared with Tibetan graffiti and a pot full of blood-soaked oatmeal. Kee Nang reveals to Chandler that this house was a holding place for the Child and introduces Chandler to Doctor Hong, a mystic expert, and Kala (a creature half dragon, half woman, who remains hidden behind a screen).
The three track down a motorcycle gang, the Yellow Dragons, which Cheryll had joined, and Chinese restaurant owner Tommy Tong, a henchman of Numspa, to whom Cheryll had been 'sold' for her blood, used to make the Child vulnerable to earthly harm. Tong, however, is killed by Numspa as a potential traitor. Still not taking the case too seriously, Chandler is drawn by Numspa into a controlled dream, where he receives a burn mark on his arm. Numspa presents his demands: the Ajanti Dagger (a mystic weapon which is capable of killing the Golden Child) in exchange for the boy. Chandler finally agrees to help, and he and Kee Nang spend the night together.
Chandler and Kee travel to Tibet, where Chandler is swindled by an old amulet seller, who is revealed as the High Priest of the temple where the dagger is kept hidden and, subsequently, Kee's father. In order to obtain the blade, Chandler has to pass a test: an obstacle course in a bottomless cavern whilst carrying a glass of water without spilling a drop. With luck and wits, Chandler recovers the blade and even manages to bring it past customs into the United States.
Numspa and his henchmen attack Chandler and Kee. The Ajanti Dagger is lost to the villains, and Kee takes a crossbow bolt meant for Chandler, and dies in his arms confessing her love for him. Doctor Hong and Kala offers him hope: as long as the sun shines upon Kee, the Child might be able to save her.
Chandler, with the help of the Child's familiar, locates Numspa's hideout and retrieves the dagger with the help of Til, one of Numspa's men converted to good by the Child, and frees the boy. When Chandler confronts Numspa, the latter reveals his true face as a demon from hell. Chandler and the Child escape the hideout, only to be tracked down by the demon in a warehouse. Chandler loses the dagger when the warehouse collapses, but Numspa is buried under a chunk of falling masonry. Chandler and the Child escape and head to Doctor Hong's shop where Kee is being kept.
As the two approach Kee's body, a badly injured but berserk Numspa attacks Chandler, but the amulet the Old Man sold Chandler blasts the dagger from Numspa's hand. The Child uses his magic to place the dagger back into Chandler's hands, and Chandler stabs Numspa through the heart, destroying him. The Child then uses the last ray of sunlight and his powers to bring Kee back from the dead. The three take a walk discussing the Child's return to Tibet and (as Chandler jokingly suggests) the boy's prospective fame as a stage magician. | good versus evil, cult, comedy | train | wikipedia | "The Golden Child" was Eddie Murphy's first film since his megahit "Beverly Hills Cop".
Without doubt it's one of Eddie Murphy's finer films; it's impossible to not have a good time while watching this movie...
This Film Offers A Good Mix, But Eddie Is Too Loud For Me Now. Like most people, I enjoyed Eddie Murphy in the 1980s with the humorous, wild movies he made.
With her looks and manner, I thought she might go places, but I think this was the only hit movie she's been in.Twenty years after "The Golden Child," I have found most of those Murphy films not the entertainment they used to be.
Every once in a while, Eddie Murphy will surprise you.In a movie like "the Golden Child", especially.
But Eddie really does work; he's smart, he's funny, he's brave, kind, courteous, thrifty, clean and everything else a hero should be.Having been chosen to secure a mystic child who holds the key to protecting the world from complete evil (embodied perfectly by Dance), Eddie goes from California, to Nepal and back, all while the beautiful Kee Nang (Lewis) wonders if he's all he says he is and a crazy old holy man (Wong, perfect as always) knows that he is.It's exciting, breathtaking in spots, shocking and, of course, funny.
Eddie is the only action hero I know who could begin a movie by making rude remarks behind some guy reading a porno magazine and end it with smart-aleck remarks about Ed McMahon.No problem with this "Child": it's a "Golden" find.Nine stars.
So Na-Na to you Mr Jarrell.Jarrell is fast talking, hip, and irreverent but well meaning - in other words everything that summed up Eddie Murphy in his "relevant" phase, which ended around the release of Boomerang when Murphy got all serious and introspective and sh*t.Kee on the other hand is poised, deliberate, sombre and calm, but surprisingly well equipped at unexpected times - and I'm not just referring to the scene where she gets her white blouse soaked for no good reason...
well two good reasons.After the two team up the trail takes them to the lair of a bikie gang, then Chinatown where they meet Kala the Oracle (of sorts) who informs Chandler of the magnitude of his quest - being that he is the Chosen One after all...Chandler also learns that the Golden Child is a once in a thousand generations birth, born specifically to rescue humanity, capable of restoring life with a touch, wise beyond reason and with the ability to make a Pepsi can dance to classic 1950s songs...So there's that.There is a cool oddball dream sequence and a trip to Tibet to obtain the sacred dagger that can free the imprisoned Golden Child, and a pretty hilarious scene where Chandler and Kee have to bluff the airport security to escape from Tibet.When finally meets his nemesis Sardo Numspaa (Charles Dance) formally to discuss the dagger for child swap things heat up, before a good quickie 80s finale in which everything builds to a crescendo, the figureheads of good and evil have a showdown and all is resolved in about 6 minutes.Perhaps The Golden Child doesn't move quite as fast as films do today and the FX - which were pretty cool in the 80s - don't hold up quite so well now, it is fun and enjoyable while it lasts and also has a few quotables, including "One of her ancestors was raped by a dragon", which is a line you don't hear every day.Final Rating - 6.5 / 10.
A private detective specializing in missing children is charged with the task of finding a special child who dark forces want to eliminate.John Carpenter was originally scheduled to direct the film, but dropped out and would later direct "Big Trouble in Little China", a film with similar Chinese mysticism themes (Chinese American actors Victor Wong, James Hong, and Peter Kwong appear in both films).
The actors are OK and the footage can't be complained at either and I must add that thanks to Eddie Murphy the movie is watchable and even funny.I don't know how he does it but his zany jokes keeps hitting the right comedy-button - every time.So the conclusion is that, in the end I must recommend you all to see it - if not for a brilliant movie but for Murphy's jokes..
By all means this is not Eddie Murphy's best film, like Beverly Hills Cop, 48 Hours and Trading Places, but he has also done worse, Norbit anyone?
By all means it is not perfect, as the story does have its silly and predictable moments, one or two parts in the middle half sag a tad in the pacing and the effects do seem creaky by today's standards, but it is not flat and unfunny like critics make it out to be and although I make every effort not to take IMDb ratings to heart I do think the rating is a disgrace for this film.
The Golden Child may be flawed, but it also has its strengths, such as Eddie Murphy's charming performance, funny and smart script(or so I think), a fun performance from Charles Dance, decent direction and agreeable soundtrack.
For I can remember vividly how much this film entertained folk back in that decade, it's box office was $79,817,937, making it the 8th biggest earner of 1986, but since the 80s faded from memory it has become the in thing to deny Eddie Murphy pictures the comedy accolades that they actually once had.
The Golden Child is not up with the more accepted 80s Murphy pictures like Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop, but upon revisiting the film recently I personally found that it contains Murphy at his wisecracking, quipping and charming best!
Eddie Murphy spends his time looking for lost children, so when a very special magical child is kidnapped in Tibet, the sexy Charlotte Lewis asks for his help to rescue this child from the clutches of evil itself.Although the story is a bit silly, it never quite feels corny, despite the hilarity of the comedy throughout the film; Charles Dance off-sets the comedy with his very serious and dark characterisation of the evil that holds the child hostage.The Golden Child is very funny, action packed and really quite compelling in a charming, almost magical way.7/10 Great for all generations..
And here, loquacious Eddie Murphy erases memories of Trading Places and 48 Hours with this "family" adventure flick, which is an unbelievably tedious, childish and generally plain awful misfire in which the chance to see Charlotte Lewis's great big breasts in a tight blouse is the most appealing aspect of the entire film.The story is pure humdrum.
There Was a time when Eddie Murphy was one seriously funny guy, and this film is a good example of that, released in the fall of 1986 THE GOLDEN CHILD was met with mixed to mostly negative reviews (Then again Roger Ebert liked it) I really don't see why people didn't like this film, and to some extent it still to this day is considered a low point in eddies career, for those of you who haven't seen this film before/since i suggest giving it another watch with an open mind knowing that its a fantasy comedy and not your usual Eddie Murphy film (Probably the reason why people just didn't get into it) The Plot concerns Eddie trying to find a kidnapped child who holds magical powers that can bring love and peace in the world or can bring chaos and destroy the world if the child were to be polluted with anything evil, and the people who kidnapped him want to sacrifice the child to gain and use his power for their own evil scheme.PROS: Eddie Murphy is hilarious just playing the average Joe who cannot believe the situation around him, as things get crazier Eddie just gets funnier, Charles Dance as the main Villain does a Decent job at playing a Super Serious villain who seems to constantly keep pronouncing his J's Silent Which leads to a lot amusement when Eddie Murphy shares scenes with him.
The Art Directiom is Splendid and the Cinematography is stunning (Especially with the scenes in Tibet) The Musical Score by Michael Colobier is so 80s but infectiously catchy Funk influenced Pop Rock that just makes you feel like a Bad A%$ The Film has a great supporting Cast Half of which appear in another similarly themed movie Called BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA And there's a handful of creative set pieces that really stand out (I.E) The Cave which Eddie must retrieve a dagger and a Hilarious Dream Sequence with Eddie and the villain.CONS: The Final showdown with the Villain feels a little rushed and the Villain's final form isn't all that inspired And the Film's Visual FX don't hold up well in 2 or 3 scenes But aside from that the Film is a lot of Fun, Eddie needs to release a special edition DVD/Blu Ray for this one, but according to some sources he's not too fond of this film (Honestly I don't see why, maybe because it was made at the height of his career and it burned him inside that it didn't do as well as it should have)Overall: 7/10 "Not as good as Coming to America or Beverly Hills cop, but its not far behind and definitely better than anything Eddie made in the 90s onwards..
The Golden Child is a very mediocre movie with a storyline that is actually pretty promising storyline but fails to be interesting because of a not so inspired cast.Edie Murphy did do a good enough job,but he was the only member of the cast that seemed like he actually liked this films script and was enthusiastic about being in this movie.I think that the story sounded really good and if they had made it a bit more serious and less comedy and got a more serious cast it could have been really interesting,I think that it was a bad decision making it a comedy.It is funny at times,but honestly not enough,and because of that I wouldn't really recommend the Golden Child to anyone.
In fact, I think you have to be either an Eddie Murphy fan, or looking for a goofy time to enjoy this one.In all, this movie will make you chuckle all the way through!.
At least "The Golden Child" represented a real change of pace for comedy star Eddie Murphy, cast here as Chandler Jarrell, a tracker of missing children whom, it is determined, is the perfect individual to retrieve a powerful child (J.L. Reate) who's been stolen by some very bad men.
It has some pretty good special effects, and exciting action scenes.As a finder of lost children, Murphy's character starts off looking for a missing girl, which leads him on the path for which others believe he was "chosen" - - to protect the Golden Child.
As we accept this premise of the plot, we must let go of our touch with a perceived daily reality, and prepare for the earth and walls to crumble away, and reveal a realm of evil just waiting to destroy us.This is an excellent movie, with a good plot, fine acting, and for the most part, pretty decent dialogue combining a serious topic with a healthy balance of Martial Art fighting, and Eddie Murphy humor..
For the sheer funniness of it and underrated aspect of Eddie Murphy just being a VERY good, NATURAL actor that makes it look EASY (I feel WILL win an Oscar one day if/when given the right role...it's kind of amazing he hasn't won one yet)...I give this movie a HIGH 8..
Big Trouble with the Golden Child - not one of Murphy's 80's best, but still an entertaining comedy / fantasy / adventure film for all the family !!.
After the global success of "Beverly Hills Cop", Eddie Murphy's next project was to expand his wisecracking on-screen personna in comedy / action flicks to a more adventure / fantasy oriented, galloping on the ressurgence of the adventure films such as the two first "Indiana Jones" films and the major hit of "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" released the year before."The Golden Child" was conceived as a straight action / adventure / fantasy / horror film with the 'Master of Suspense", John Carpenter in the director's chair and the rising star, Mel Gibson in the lead role of Chandler Jarrell (the main character's first name was a homage from the screenwriter Dennis Feldman to Raymond Chandler, the famous 'detective fiction' writer and the creator of Philip Marlowe, P.I.).When Carpenter left the project to direct his own (& similar themed), "Big Trouble in Little China" and Mel Gibson took a year off movies before starting shooting "Lethal Weapon", Eddie Murphy stepped in as a replacement (the same happened before when he replaced Sylvester Stallone in "Beverly Hills Cop"), the movie was re-written to acommodate Murphy's humour routine and Michael Ritchie, the veteran director of comedy flicks such as "The Bad News Bears" ('76); "The Survivors" ('83) or "Fletch" ('85) was hired to enhance the lighthearted comedy aspect.The end result is a fun film, but not as fun as the previous Murphy's films and even if it made a good money at the B.O., it was critically torn apart and was considered a financial disappointment by the studio.Murphy returns in a re-hash of his two previous (& widely famous) film roles as Reggie Hammond in "48 Hrs." and Axel Foley in "Beverly Hills Cop", but this time a bit more contained and less vibrant & exuberant as if he tried to pursuit more his dramatic side, following the mixed tone of the movie (part dark fantasy / part lighthearted comedy), but still improvising his trademark wisecracking humour which was probably estipulated on his contract with Paramount Pictures.The movie suffers from the crossover genres imposed, because it's way apparent that it went into production as a straightforward and 'serious in tone' fantasy film and the added comedy, even if some gags were nicely staged and always hilariously performed by Murphy, it still feels a bit out of place.In the supporting cast, Charlotte Lewis is almost as wooden as she is stunning beautiful and Peter Kwong, Victor Wong & James Hong came straight from the "Big Trouble in Little China" set to perform here similar parts, except for James Hong, playing here a way different character than his evil sorcerer, David Lo Pan in the latter.
Classical trained English actor, Charles Dance is superb playing the 'Machiavellian' main villain, Sardo Numspa, with his usual wicked bureaucratic snobbery and a touch of exquisiteness.In short, despite its flaws, "The Golden Child", emanates that movie magic that only the 80's could do, it's a very entertaining flick that appeals to both, children (i loved it when it was released, i was around 10 years old or so) and adults (i still like it a lot now) and a good watch for a movie marathon with "Big Trouble in Little China", "Shangai Surprise" and even "Howard the Duck", curiously all also released in '86.I give it a 7 / 7.5 stars, but as a nostalgic film from my youth and because it's way better than the 99,9 per cent of the fantasy / adventure movies that came out nowadays, it surely deserves an extra point..
The Golden Child is much more of a comedy and Eddie Murphy is in top form here, in one of his strangest, but funniest movies.
Somewhat underrated Eddie Murphy movie with Eddie playing an American social worker recruited by a Tibetan woman to help rescue a kidnapped boy with special powers called the "Golden Child." I remember when this came out it wasn't met with a warm reception, from the critics or myself.
Ironically, this was a bigger box office hit than Big Trouble but the latter has gone on to deservedly earn a cult fandom while Golden Child still has a mixed reputation at best.Eddie Murphy is pretty good here and seems to be having a fun time.
Eddie Murphy had two exceptionally good comedies in the first three years of his film career.
The most interesting and entertaining aspects of the film involve the young monk, the golden child, played by Jasmine Reate.In 2015, Eddie Murphy still has some years of acting ahead.
THE GOLDEN CHILD is less spectacular than both of those films – it has fewer special effects than the first and no martial arts like the second – but it proves to be a likable enough film boasting a strong comic turn from Eddie Murphy before he stopped making films for adults.The story, as it reads, is exceptionally lightweight: Murphy is, for some inexplicable reason, the 'Chosen One' and his job is to rescue the 'Golden Child' from the clutches of evil, personified by Charles Dance in one of those stock British villain-type roles that Hollywood seem to love.
There is also some nice special effects, particular the Golden Child moving objects around with his mind.I would have like to see more action, though, between the good and bad guys as I thought the second half was rushed somewhat and scenes cut away from one and another too quickly.
THE GOLDEN CHILDI like this movie.It has been a lot of years since I last watched this film, and even though it was still very good...
his stand up gigs (Delirious and Raw) were brilliant.The Golden Child was funny, but not as good as some of Eddies others.There were a lot of special effects in this.
The first time I saw Golden Child, I wasn't really all that impressed, but now I have come to appreciate the charming wit that is Eddie Murphy, and the way that a man who is used to the mundane in thrown into the hidden fantasy world that the real world hides.This movie has little to think about.
Eddie Murphy, Charles Dance, Charlotte Lewis and Victor Wong star in this 1986 fantasy-comedy. |
tt2494376 | Justice League Dark | All over the world, people suddenly begin panicking as they start to see everyone around them as demonic monsters and end up killing innocents before members of the Justice League stop them. Deliberating about this strange outbreak, most of the League's members come to the conclusion that magic must be involved in this. Despite his own past experiences with magic, Batman expresses his skepticism and walks out; but as he returns to Wayne Manor to rest, he suffers a temporary blackout (from a possession by Deadman) and then finds the word "Constantine" written all over the nearby walls.
In a flashback, occultists John Constantine and Jason Blood engaged the Demons Three in a poker game in Las Vegas for high-end stakes; the former even offering his home, the House of Mystery, as his part of the pool in exchange for a box of artifacts, including one called the Dreamstone. However, both parties cheated at the game, and when Constantine exposed the Demons' trickery, they attacked him. Constantine unleashed Jason's alter ego, the demon Etrigan, who defeated the Demons Three, but not before they swore revenge on him.
Batman visits Zatanna after one of her performances and begins to ask about Constantine, with whom Zatanna had a disappointing romantic history. Deadman possesses Batman once again and tells Zatanna she needs to see John. Zatanna brings Batman to Constantine, but they are attacked by a magical whirlwind summoned by an unknown sorcerer. The trio narrowly manage to get inside John's house in time where they are joined by Black Orchid, the spiritual embodiment of the House. The group gathers to share information, and after a quick discussion and some argument between John and Zatanna, form a team to investigate the cause and reason for these supernatural occurrences.
The heroes visits a friend of Constantine and Zatanna's named Ritchie Simpson, but outside the house they find shroud spirits of Death waiting to collect Ritchie's soul upon his upcoming demise. The team is granted entry by Simpson, who is suffering from a magical cancer and resentful of Constantine for abandoning him to his fate, but loans them the Keshanti Key. Constantine and Zatanna look through one of the unwitting rampager's memories for the cause of his frenzy, and discover that he was possessed by an unknown entity wearing a strange ring. Batman, Deadman, Constantine, and Zatanna narrowly manage to escape from a living feces beast conjured to consume the man, and Zatanna proceeds to destroy the monster.
Returning to Ritchie's home to identify the ring from the man's memory, the team finds him about to die, with Blood nearby. Batman revives Ritchie with an adrenaline shot to the chest, but he quickly falls into a coma. After being brought to the House of Mystery for interrogation, Blood tells the team that he did not attempt to hurt Ritchie, but was looking for a way into the House of Mystery to find the Dreamstone. He reveals that in his old time, the era of King Arthur, the stone was created by a sinister magician naming himself Destiny, who sought to conquer the land. Blood fought Destiny and managed to cleave the stone in two, banishing the sorcerer, but was himself mortally wounded. Merlin, anticipating that Destiny was only temporarily defeated, fused Blood with his demonic servant Etrigan to battle the evil magician once the Dreamstone would resurface. Ritchie awakens and names Felix Faust as his assailant before falling back asleep.
The group locate Faust's observatory with help from Swamp Thing. When they infiltrate Faust's lair, the wizard battles the team, but is ultimately defeated by Zatanna; however, Faust is found to have no involvement in hurting Ritchie. Ritchie awakens and is revealed to have the other piece of the Dreamstone, which he has been using it to keep his cancer in remission; he apparently destroys Black Orchid, but then is seemingly killed when the Dreamstone brings Destiny back to life. Destiny declares himself a god, destroys the House and departs to sink the United States into chaos; Zatanna saves the group, but passes out from the exertion. The Justice League tries to fight Destiny, but he makes them perceive each other as demonic threats. Etrigan attacks Destiny, but is separated back into Jason Blood and Etrigan. Constantine summons Swamp Thing and tricks him to fight Destiny while Batman and the recovered Zatanna disable the Justice League. However, Destiny defeats Swamp Thing by ripping Alec Holland's remains from his body.
Constantine tricks Destiny into bringing him and Deadman within his protective shield, allowing Deadman to wound Destiny, before Constantine, Batman, and Blood destroy the Dreamstone and Destiny's body, leaving Ritchie, whose soul is dragged to Hell by the shroud spirits. Right afterwards, Blood succumbs to his mortal wound from centuries before. Zatanna, Constantine, and Etrigan bury Blood's body near the place of his old village, before Etrigan leaves for parts unknown. Zatanna agrees to join the Justice League, and offers Constantine a position as well. Constantine initially declines claiming Batman wouldn't approve of him, but Zatanna claims it was his idea. The two return to the now-rebuilt House of Mystery, taking a first tentative step to restoring their fractured relationship, and Deadman likewise joins the restored Black Orchid as her soulmate. | paranormal | train | wikipedia | You have probably wandered into this review expecting some kind words about a "good effort" from Warner Animation but, of course, compared to the concurrent zillion-dollar Dr. Strange epic from Marvel, "no cigar." Well, you would be wrong.For two reasons.First, in spite of the big budget, and the big Benedict, Dr. Strange suffers from all kinds of narrative problems, and gaps in continuity.
The original story arcs were far from Marvel's best, compared to its better-known heroes, featuring the same two villains over and over, Nightmare and Dormammu, each taking turns boring the reader to death.) Which brings us to this ambitious JLA entry, an attempt to show that the mighty DC library can possibly take on the mighty Marvel library, sort of a David Goliath thing....?
Early in the story, a hot babe who is actually the essence of Constantine's magic house does a 30 second analysis of Batman and concludes he is mainly pain and darkness."How do you manage?," she asks sincerely.
Wow.To sum up, the high score is because DC/Warner attempted the impossible, taking on a Marvel live action film with their own animated product at a fraction of the cost, and more or less pulled it off.
This team of supernatural beings include John Constantine, Zatanna and Jason Blood also known as the demon Etrigran."Directed by Jay Oliva, Justice League Dark brings a new story with different characters.
Got to love Matt Ryan as Constantine, he's perfect, and he has a really good chemistry with Camilla Luddington who portrays Zatanna.I feel like Batman was not needed and put in the movie for the sake of it, but I understand why DC wanted him in there, so that people have more interess in this film.The film is rated R, but it could have been even darker...
In the wake of the inconsistency of the live-action, universe building marathon, it's refreshing to see a simpler, more straightforward, yet still effectively intriguing story-telling pace set by DC's animated feature titles.
After watch 'Batman: The killing joke' I thought now DC don't have good stories to make nice animated movies but I prove wrong after watching latest DC animated movie 'JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK'.
Even though in this movie there are only 2 or 3 shots of whole justice league team except Batman.
Surprisingly, a fun watch for a superhero movie featuring characters from the DC universe.I didn't expect much from the movie but I had quite a pleasant surprise and enjoyed watching it.The movie did justice to the plot and I feel gave enough attention to each of the characters in the movie to stand out for themselves and explain their actions.A lot of humor and subtle emotions displayed throughout the movie in an articulate manner.
A basic summary - We're introduced to the backstories of each character as the generic story/villain plays out in the background until we get a more focused conclusion at the end, with a few connections to protagonists like the etrogan/sorcerer(villain, ritchie,), tho that felt a little thrown in as fan service, it worked.
So its a great animation to watch it you're interested in learning more about dc characters you were unaware of or didn't know well before.
And for avid comic fans i'm sure seeing less appreciated characters on screen, and not done poorly, would be a satisfying thing to watch.
One of the most audacious decisions of DC Comics during the launching of The New 52 was the comic Justice League Dark, which promoted the integration of "magical" characters (such as John Constantine, Swamp Thing and Zatanna) to the universe of "normal" superheroes (like Superman, Flash and Batman).
The comic Justice League Dark broke that barrier, and even though it never was a big sales success, it earned various fans throughout 4 years and 40 editions.
However, I have never been one of those fans, and as a consequence, my expectations for the animated film Justice League Dark were quite low.
In fact, I liked the magical plot of Justice League Dark much more than the one of the movie Doctor Strange, specially regarding the coherence in the villain's plan and the clarity in the answer from the "good" ones.
In conclusion, I found Justice League Dark an excellent film on its own merit, and a very promising augury for future collaborations which had previously been relegated to the "fan fiction" world..
Just a run-of-the-mill plot, odd voice-acting at times (maybe the comics explain it but why does Deadman sound like a cab driver?) and a lack of Swamp Thing - I know that's a petty thing to say, but Swamp Thing is an outstanding character in the comics, and is so little used here he barely should make the cover of the DVD (Batman gets most prominence because...
Batman, but, honestly, Green Lantern is in this more than ST).It's not that I can pinpoint to a specific moment like 'here is where this whole thing falls off a cliff and omg it's so good until before then.
Jay Oliva's direction is simply standard throughout, never really rising too far above what is absolutely required for such a boilerplate comic book story, and I think it's because there seems to be so much potential with these characters and the world that it's set in that to all of sudden see that it's just...
Not to mention there's things that make it feel painfully standard like the 'oh no here's the twist/reveal that this character was not what we thought he was!' that feels weak and hackneyed.Even the writing for a character like John Constantine, who is a wonderful bad-ass in his own series, is often here giving simple exposition.
Occasionally a character will have a good line or quip, and the writing tries really hard (and maybe once or twice succeeds) in giving Zatanna some dimension and pain in moments with her magic usage.
There was some of it of course but, I've seen in the other animated movies where everything just comes to a halt and some character is just hurling exposition.
That increased the intensity of the fights by a notch.VOICE-ACTING - There were a lot of known actors and actresses doing the voices like, Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman, Alfred Molina as Destiny and of course Matt Ryan as Constantine.
All the others were great as well, no complaints in the voice-acting department.FINAL VERDICT - At one point I was thinking that what is Batman doing in the middle of all this magic and hocus-pocus.
the main character s are constantine batman, zatanna, swamp thing (a cameo of sort),deadman,demon etrigan, black orchid (cameo of sort).
The voice actors are perfect specially Matt Ryan and his hard British accent,batman's and deadman's dry humor is on point.
Another thing i want to point out is the music which i know or hope that everyone will like because it's seriously good- haunting and eerie perfectly fit for this kind of film.
The film's really good for both casual fans and hardcore fans alike, although it could have been better but for their first outing with the occult it's very very good, they do need to make another story with these characters with spectre and other anti heroes.
It was the cover/poster for "Justice League Dark" that made me decide to watch this 2017 animated movie with my son.
But the cover and the synopsis for this movie sounded like it could be an interesting watch.First of all I must say that I wasn't particularly much of a fan of the art style they used here.
The story didn't really have moments where it lost its breath and slowed down.As for the voice acting, which is very crucial for an animated movie, then I must say that the actors and actresses that they had gotten together for "Justice League Dark" were doing quite good jobs.The storyline was adequate, although it wasn't outstanding or particularly memorable.
Sure, it was entertaining enough, but it had some gaps and plot holes.Granted, I am not a superhero fan, but it was difficult to look at Wonder Woman in that particular outfit, and I must admit that I am not even familiar with the Zatanna, Destiny, John Constantine and that yellow demon character - I don't even know his name.
The actual league was barely in the movie, except for Batman, who was also only there for pretty much nothing.
This movie was scripted by a John Constantine's super fan, who perhaps thinks that batman is overrated.
A good animated DC movie about the more magical aspect of the DC Universe.
I love Justice League and I am a huge Batman fan, so I was pretty pumped to see that Batman was a huge part of this with Constantine.
I want to like this movie because I like many of DC's animated movies and the concept behind Justice League Dark is uber-cool: the magical DC heroes (and Batman) band together to fight a supernatural force.
Justice League Dark should be taking on Cthulu/Lovecraftian/Hell horrors, man-- not just another smirking villain who, instead of firing 'energy' bolts fires 'magic' bolts instead.
Maybe I'd buy it if I was one of those fedora-wearing neckbeards, but I moved out of my parent's basement long ago.Constantine is a great character, and so is Deadman: but I can't stand the voices for either or.
Deadman's job is to play comic relief (he annoys us with a phony Brooklyn accent) and Constantine sounds like some Yank doing a poor impression of a Game of Thrones character.
Hey: now that Hellboy 3 is confirmed as not going to be made, I'd love, love, love to see HB appear in a live action version of JLD, ohyesplease.Anyway: this 2017 version of Justice League Dark is not great: but as it stands, it's better than 2016's Suicide Squad: just for the fact that it doesn't constantly show Marge Robbie's pale clown backside."Don't let her sit down on anything before I cover it with plastic, dude!".
Deadman does also have a good role to play even if his voice doesn't really work for the character.
I don't feel Batman was needed, but I didn't mind him when it was in the context of the film.I actually loved the way all the Justice League members were used.So I would consider this a pretty good film.
Maybe not worth the extra money on DVD or Blu Ray, but still a pretty nice film if your a fan of DC animation..
Good movie, fine cartoon, great storyline and fun to watch.
Justice League Dark didn't disappoint any of my expectations, being another good entry for the DC animated universe.It was entertaining to watch and it had a nice animation and designs.
It was also nice to see some often overlooked characters from DC comics (Such as Deadman) getting some spotlight, and honestly more of these lesser know characters deserve their own opportunity to shine.And honestly I don't know why this got an "R", taking into consideration how The Flashpoint Paradox got only a PG-13 rating despite being far more violent than this movie..
It's better than the Justice League movie..
This SHOULD have been called Constantine but DC knows that only Constantine fans would have gave a sh!t if they did that; so they called it Justice League Dark and had Batman literally stand around watching while Constantine did his little magical dog and pony show for over an hour.
The biggest problem with this film is that the story/plot seems like filler, almost as if they needed to throw in something to kill the time in between origin stories.
The animated DC universe used to be somewhere we could run to when the live action DC films let us down.
I didn't expect much from this title but this was actually a good movie, No spoilers but batman's "Hmmmmmmm"....LOL classic made me burst out laughing each time I heard it.
This is an ok movie, but to be clear, it has nothing to do with the justice league or batman, there names are there only to draw views.
But if you like these sort of cartoons the story is interesting, so even if it has nothing to do with justice league it might be worth to watch..
There are some good to excellent animated superhero/comic book films out there.
People will either love it, be disappointed in it or find a lot to like while finding things that didn't work, there's a bit of all three going on here.'Justice League Dark' is somewhat too short, 75 minutes doesn't seem anywhere long enough for a film with so many characters, rich themes and a very densely structured story.
As a consequence, some of it is a little rushed and there are instances of parts in need of more exploration or characters having nowhere near the amount of screen time they deserved (Swamp Thing is one of the biggest wastes).Most of the voice acting is fine, others not so much.
'Justice League Dark' follows the chronology from "the new 52" animated movies that was left in 'Justice League vs Teen Titans.
The movie centers in a different and darker team of superheroes that have to join together in order to save humanity from demonic forces.I think that this movie is a little bit overrated because, I mean, the animation was very good, and it was interesting for me to know these characters better, particularly John Constantine, and the movie started off very well, but then it became quite a bit superficial, to the grade of not understanding what was going on.I also think that this movie was not worthy of an R rating at ALL!
It is violent as any other DCU animated movie nowadays, but Son of Batman and The Dark Knight Returns Part II were far more bloody and violent than this one, and still they're PG-13.
I do not see a better way to describe Justice League Dark.
With a story that takes a universe already established within the animations, the film works very well its characters, in a simple way, not wasting time trying to tell its origins to the public, and with that, goes straight to the point.The chemistry between the characters is very cool, and Batman adds a lot to the group's dynamics, with simply sensational speeches, giving us great moments inside the movie!Finally, I think Justice League Dark shows DC itself the potential that this brand can have not only in animated films, but also in live-action.
Please DC, make the Dark Justice League live-action!
We want to see!In summary, Justice League Dark fulfills its role, tells a cool story, with well-built characters and excellent dynamics, providing little more than an hour of pure of great entertainment!Ps: Listening to Matt Ryan once again bringing Constantine to life is also incredible..
We need more of Constantine and Justice League Dark..
I liked Justice League Dark.
John Constantine is a DC Character who needs more time in the spotlight, because his magical powers are really cool.
Not a personal favorite, but I liked Constantine, Batman and the magic and I'd prefer Justice League Dark over Justice League: War..
It gives a good reason to assemble a Justice League Dark.
This movie is in no way bad, it is just very basic in terms of plot and character development and instead acts as a showcase for various side characters in the DC universe.
Batman is great, but do we really need him in every DC movie?!Overall this is a generally watchable film, it's pretty entertaining and the characters are cool.
It's rather unique compared to some of the other DC movies, being more of a dark fantasy.There are a few qualms: They still use the blocky character design they used in the other films and I'm not a fan of it.
So we finally have a Justice Dark movie, eh?
Its nice to see Batman in the movie, and he has ties to Zatanna actually - but its a stretch to see his usefulness in this universe.
One is a human walking with gods, and the other is a conman playing the angels and demons.Coming to the movie, the animation is solid and I loved how they used the spells with multi coloured sigils for different mages.
I just wish Bruce tied in better, especially given how awesomely he handled an alternative version of Destiny in the Timmverse.So overall a nice introduction to the Dark Universe of DC and I'm hoping this can be expanded to a good two and a half hour life action feature film in the DC movie verse.
The backstory of him could be another animated movie that would love to watch.
(b) there is actually such a thing as a "killer turd," and (c) Batman grunts quite a bit.I tried to watch this three times before giving up.
Well I like the point some major flaws and great little things about the movie - 1.
She throws the baby batman catches him/her and as an ending to the opening the woman commits suicide .Overall considering all those scenes it was actually a good movie with a great voice cast and good music.
DC needs someone to animate, design characters, balance powers and also to name things.
I mean it's not like this is a superhero film that it will require good animations due to presence of action scenes, that's the only thing I can say to justify how bad it is.
It has better character design, better animation,is way more original and funny and also ,actually features batman.
Very good for a Justice League movie!.
It makes it feel like half of the justice league just want to be left alone and not bother joining Batman,John Constantine, Zatanna and Jason Blood.
Jason O'Mara voices batman, which again shows continuity as he has done in about 6 other DC Animated films.
Im a DC animated film fanboy, and with the exception of Son of Batman (and maybe Bad Blood), I think they've all been pretty good. |
tt0120627 | Carnival of Souls | Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) is riding in a car with two other young women when some men challenge them to a drag race. As they speed across a bridge, the women's car plunges over the side into the river. The police spend three hours dragging the murky, fast-running water without success. Mary miraculously surfaces, but she cannot remember how she survived.
Mary then drives to Utah, where she has been hired as a church organist. At one point, she can get nothing on her car radio but strange organ music. She passes a large, abandoned pavilion sitting all by itself on the shores of the Great Salt Lake; it seems to beckon to her in the twilight. Shortly thereafter, while she is speeding along a deserted stretch of road, a ghoulish, pasty-faced figure (never identified, but called "The Man" in dialogue and played by director Herk Harvey, uncredited) replaces her reflection in the passenger window and stares at her. When The Man suddenly appears in front of her, she swerves off the road. At a gas station, the attendant tells her the pavilion was first a bathhouse, then a dance hall, and finally a carnival before shutting down.
In town, Mary rents a room from Mrs. Thomas; John Linden, the only other lodger, wants to become better acquainted with the blonde newcomer, but she is not interested. That night, she becomes upset when she sees The Man downstairs in the large house and retreats to her room. Mrs. Thomas, who brings her some food, says she did not pass anyone.
Soon, Mary begins experiencing terrifying interludes when she becomes invisible and inaudible to the rest of the world, as if she simply is not there. When The Man appears briefly in front of her in a park, she flees, right into the arms of a Dr. Samuels. He tries to help her, even as he acknowledges he is not a psychiatrist.
Her new employer, the minister (Art Ellison), is put off when she declines his suggestion of a reception to meet the congregation. When she practices for the first time, she finds herself shifting from a hymn to eerie music. In a trance, she sees The Man and others of his ilk dancing at the pavilion. The minister, hearing the strange music, denounces it as "profane" and insists upon her resignation.
Terrified of being alone, Mary agrees to go out on a date with Linden. When they return home, he smooth-talks his way into her room, but when she sees The Man in the mirror, she becomes upset and tries to tell Linden what has been happening to her. He leaves, believing she is losing her mind.
After going back to visit Samuels' office, Mary believes she has to go to the pavilion. There, she is attacked by The Man and his fellow ghouls. Mary tries frantically to escape, at one point boarding a bus to leave town, only to find that all the passengers are ghouls. Then she wakes up, showing that she dreamed this sequence at least. In the end, she is drawn back to the pavilion, where she finds her tormenters dancing. A pale version of herself is paired with The Man. When she runs away, they chase her out onto the beach. She collapses, and they close in.
The minister, the doctor and the police go to the pavilion to look for her. They find her footprints in the sand – the only ones – but they end abruptly, and there is no other trace of her. Back in Kansas, the car is located and pulled from the river. Mary's body is in the front seat alongside those of the other two women. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0102984 | Stone Cold | Jesse Stone (Tom Selleck) is the police chief of Paradise, Massachusetts, a small coastal town north of Boston. A former homicide detective in Los Angeles, Jesse was fired from the LAPD because of a drinking problem that began following his divorce. He was hired for the Paradise position by the corrupt president of the town council who thought he would be easy to control. After five years, Jesse is still in contact with his ex-wife Jenn, who calls him regularly. He also has a relationship with a beautiful lawyer named Abby Taylor (Polly Shannon), who sits on the town council. Although their relationship is mainly physical, they have a genuine affection and concern for each other.
One cold November night, a body is discovered on a rocky shoreline by Jesse's deputy, Officer Luther "Suitcase" Simpson (Kohl Sudduth). The victim was shot twice in the heart with a .22 caliber weapon. With no suspect, motive, or weapon, Jesse begins his investigation by gathering the names of gun owners in Paradise who have registered a .22. He also adopts the victim's loyal dog, Reggie. Soon a second victim is discovered in a parking lot—also shot twice in the heart by a .22. Jesse orders photographs taken of all the vehicles in the lot and their license plates, suspecting that the killer or killers are still in the area. Following a third killing with the same modus operandi, an eyewitness is found who saw a red Ford Explorer driving away from the scene of the crime. Jesse checks the photos from the parking lot of the second murder and discovers a red Ford Explorer, registered to someone who is also on the list of .22 caliber gun owners in Paradise, Andrew Lincoln.
Brianna and Andrew Lincoln are middle-aged thrill killers, independently wealthy from a patent Andrew obtained for an optical scanner he invented while practicing medicine. The couple moved to Paradise and began selecting random people and murdering them while videotaping their crimes. Later they find erotic pleasure in watching the videos of the murders while having sex. Jesse and Luther pay the Lincolns a visit and briefly interview the couple, who show interest in the murders. As they leave, Jesse tells Luther that the Lincolns are the killers.
Meanwhile, Jesse investigates the rape of a high school girl, Candace Pennington (Alexis Dziena), who refuses to talk about the incident and whose parents refuse to report the crime, to avoid scandal. Assisted by Officer Molly Crane (Viola Davis), Jesse discovers the identity of the three boys who raped Candace. After one of the rapists, Bo Marino (Shawn Roberts), is brought in on drug charges, Jesse discovers photos in the boy's possession of the naked Candace being raped. Bo's father and his attorney arrive at the police station, but the boy spends one night in jail. After Candace agrees to testify against the boys, Bo and his father storm into Jesse's office and force a confrontation, that ends with Candace's father knocking both Bo and his father to the floor. The attorneys for the three rapists agree to have their clients plead guilty, in exchange for sentences of "community service".
While Jesse struggles to find evidence on the Lincolns, the murderous couple begin to stalk Abby Taylor. One afternoon, while walking through a park trying to reach Jesse on her mobile phone, Abby is murdered by the Lincolns in cold blood. Devastated by his girlfriend's murder, Jesse devises a plan that will encourage the killers to attempt to kill him. He goes to the Lincolns' home and returns the .22 rifle. As they taunt the police chief with subtle talk of the murders, Jesse makes it clear that he knows they are the killers.
Jesse calls Andrew Lincoln and asks to meet later that night at the parking lot scene of the second crime and Andrew agrees. Jesse suspects that the Lincolns have other plans and while Molly and Luther wait at the parking lot, Jesse waits outside Candace's house, knowing the killers intend to kill Candace. The Lincolns show up at Candace's house and enter the living room where a tape recording of Candace and her parents is playing. Just as they realize they've been set up, Jesse enters the room. Brianna pulls out two .22 caliber pistols and shoots Jesse in the chest. Knowing of their ritualistic technique of shooting their victims in the heart, Jesse has come prepared with a bulletproof vest. Jesse returns fire and shoots Brianna dead. He turns to Andrew and tempts him to pick up his gun, but the cowering murderer refuses, saying no court will give him the death penalty and that he will outlive the police chief. Jesse responds by punching him in the face.
Afterwards, Jesse returns to his house by the water and pours himself a drink. His wife calls and begins to leave a message on the answering machine, but Jesse doesn't pick up the phone. Instead he walks outside and watches the tide beneath the evening sky. | violence, revenge, humor, murder, sadist | train | wikipedia | STONE COLD was such a big bomb in theaters, it not only put an end to the Stone Group film company, but derailed Brian Bosworth's chance of a post-football career in theatrical movies - it was several years later when Bosworth made his next movie, which went straight to video.
Black roots juxtaposed with platinum blonde tresses hanging like a mudflap down his beefy neck while the top and sides are all "bidness" crewcut as evidenced by his ability to infiltrate both the Salsa club and the greasy biker compound.Rent this movie and watch in rapt horror/delight as "The Boz" tears a searing hole into your heart!.
this is a surprisingly entertaining movie.it won't win any awards for originality.this plot line has been used several times,sometimes to better effect,sometimes not.as a matter of fact,Charlie Sheen would star in pretty much the same movie,Beyond the Law,one year later(1992).both are comparable efforts.any way,in Stone Cold Brian Bosworth,an ex football player,takes on the role of of the undercover cop.He does a surprisingly admirable job.it's strange that his film career didn't take off,as his acting ability equals(probably surpasses) that of Stallone and Shwarzennegger when they started out.He is certainly better than Van Damme.Lance Henrickson is well cast as the chief bad guy in the film.action abounds in this movie,leaving pretty much no dramatic moments.of course in most movies of this type,there is zero character development,but that can be forgiven in this case.the movie knows what it is and doesn't try to be something it's not.it is pure fun.oh,yeah,i almost forgot.William Forsythe also plays a baddie and is brilliant as always.this is definitely a great way to entertain yourself for 2 hours.
Stone Cold is that film.Starring man of the day Brian 'the Boz' Bosworth this low budget action vehicle is one of the most fun actioners that I have ever seen.
Henrikson is a superb villain and Bosworth makes the most of his limited abilities to chew the scenery whenever it gets into his way.As I said not a perfect film but pretty damn perfect nights entertainment..
The film follows the story of a rough and tough cop Joe Huff (Brian Bosworth, aka The Boz, former NFL player who tried his hand at acting and while he may not be a great actor, he does do a decent job for the role) who is forced to go undercover in a vicious biker gang known as The Brotherhood, who's motto is "God Forgives, the Brotherhood Doesn't" (a motto that was almost certainly borrowed from the American Outlaw Association or Outlaws MC, their's being "God Forgives, Outlaws Don't).
While going undercover, the Boz faces all sorts of dangers, be it from fights, guns, knives, explosions, but above all, from the gang's infamous leader, Chains Chopper, played by the always entertaining Lance Henriksen.
Even though this is far from being standard A material, Lance dives into his character, producing one of the best bona fide psychopaths in the history of action cinema and thus making the movie all the more better because of it.
You also have William Forsythe in an equally menacing role of Ice, Chains' right hand man and constant bump in the road for the Boz. Then there is the beautiful Arabella Holzbog (sadley, I can't seem to find any info on her) as Nancy, Chains' old lady (biker slang for wife or girlfriend) who ends up falling for Huff, not realizing that he is a cop which leads to tragic results.
All in all, if you're a guy and in the mood for a man's man movie, filled with plenty of action and hot naked women, plus some really nice motorcycles, then "Stone Cold" would be a great way to spend some time on Sat night.
Brian "Boz" Bosworth, Joe Huff, a Mobile Alabama undercover cop who specializes in infiltrating biker gangs is recruited by the FBI to get the "goods" on "The Brotherhood's" leaders Chains, Lace Henriksen, and Ice, William Forsythe, as well as uncover their plans to spring Trouble Owens from jail.
If it weren't for the final five or so minutes of the movie "Stone Cold" wouldn't be worth watching with has "The Brotherhood's" explosive assault on the state capital building and "The Boz" coming to the rescue, by air, just in the nick of time before they can get away.
Even though he can't act a lick Brian "Boz" Bosworth is very imposing and physical in the movies incredible action scenes.
Henriksen and Forsythe easily steal the acting honors in the movie as the crazed and insane bikers leaders Chains and Ice. Chains even gets religious in order to get close to and take out the hated state DA Brent "The Whip" Whipperton.
Stone Cold is a very good film that has a good cast which includes Brian Bosworth, Lance Henriksen, Illana Diamant, William Forsythe, Arabella Holzbog, Sam McMurray, Richard Gant, Paulo Tocha, David Tress, Evan James, Tony Pierce, Billy Million, Robert Winley, and Gregory Scott Cummins!
If you like Brian Bosworth, Lance Henriksen, Illana Diamant, William Forsythe, Arabella Holzbog, Sam McMurray, Richard Gant, Paulo Tocha, David Tress, Evan James, the rest of the cast in the film, Action, Adventure, Thrillers, Crime, Dramas, and interesting films then I strongly recommend you to see this film today!.
..........Man,how I was mistaken,I thought this movie got me alone.But it really got a whole lot of others.Was 13,when i first watched it,didn't even know Mr.Brian Bosworth,but got another chance later 5yrs later.And damn,I have never had enough of it.I liked this scene,where the biker gang storms the hospital,to see their critically bike injured colleague,and Man,they crack jokes!I like that brotherhood feel in movies,people don't expect it from leather clad bikers.Well it is just an all-time biker movie for me,it really deserves a sequel......STONE COLD II..
Stone Cold (1991) marks the film debut of former college football star (and N.F.L. bust) Brian Bosworth.
I don't think this movie deserve a low rating, it should be more than 6.0 i guess...To all people who gives this movie a low vote and bad reviews about Stone Cold, please watch this movie again and judge this this movie as an simple action movie, not drama, war or anything else because Stone Cold is definitely not an Oscar Nominated movie, but indeed it does have good elements, hard hitting action and violence.Give this movie a try...if u're a fan of Lance Henriksen, i guarantee u will love this flick...10*/10 (Excellent).
This is a great movie you need if you are one of the following: 1)Bored 2)With some friends getting drunk or stoned 3)Just a huge fan of late 80s/early 90s action over the top flicks.Check your brain at the door before you watch!And then some....
If you like bikers, Harley's, or if you're into some simple action entertainment, I really recommend this one.Not Brian Bosworth is the big star over here, but William Forsythe as the villain Ice Hensley.
Those "critics" will like for nothing better than to watch non-stop episodes of Ally McBeal and various LIFETIME and OXYGEN channel programming.If you truly enjoy watching action movies, Stone Cold is a must see.
Most action films fall short in this category, where predictable Hollywood endings have now become the norm.The story is simple, stunts are first rate, acting is good, and the plot twists are fun.This movies is now available on DVD..
Stone Cold is the best action-movie.
Bosworth (Of course, my favourite Action Actor) plays a Tough Cop, who kick the violent Bikers, in their A.....
"Stone Cold" is fine rip-roaring, kick ass, macho action entertainment, a perfectly mindless update of the biker films that took dominance in the 1960s and 70s.
Functioning as the debut movie vehicle for football star Brian "Boz" Bosworth, it's got great heroes and villains and extremely well staged action sequences.
"I Come in Peace"), guides all of it with efficiency, setting a tone immediately with the very amusing supermarket robbery opening.Boz plays Joe Huff, an Alabama cop on suspension recruited by the FBI to infiltrate a particularly ruthless biker gang named The Brotherhood, led by the malevolent "Chains" (a confident Henriksen), who run afoul of the local Mob as well as the Feds.
Besides those actors mentioned, Sam McMurray is funny as germophobic federal agent Lance, Richard Gant is good as his boss Cunningham, Arabella Holzbog is appealing as Nancy (Chains's old lady), and you'll doubtless recognize Robert Winley, who plays Mudfish, from other biker roles he's played (most memorably in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day").Be prepared to turn off your brain and just have fun with "Stone Cold".
The leader of the biker gang played by Lance Henriksen is a great villain and the undercover sub plot is fun to watch.
His new identity is John Stone (and thus the sense-making title!) and his nemesis is Chains Cooper (a truly brilliant Lance Henriksen) and his right-hand man Ice (William Forsythe, playing the second of his 1991 psycho maniacs after his turn in Out For Justice).Brian Bosworth, as Joe Huff, truly is an amalgamation of all the tough-guy tropes of the era delivered in one meathead package.
A violent motorcycle gang called The Brotherhood led by Chains Cooper (Lance Henriksen) and his right-hand man Ice Hensley (William Forsythe) is murdering and causing havoc.
Suspended Alabama cop Huff is forced by the FBI to go undercover to infiltrate the gang.This has some good action scenes especially for a B-movie.
John Stone (The Boz) is a cop who goes undercover in a biker gang to weed out the leader, Chains (Henriksen) and his dangerous crew.Okay, the plot isn't much, but how about that Mullet!
The first thing didn't happen, Bosworth has languished in low grade schlock ever since, but in spite of its low rating on internet forums, Stone Cold is a gloriously over the top action movie that wouldn't have looked out of place on either of Arnold and Sly's resume's.
acting role, former football player Brian ("The Boz") Bosworth stars as Alabama cop Joe Huff.
If you like fact acting action, & Harleys, then you'll enjoy Stone Cold.
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs Loose-cannon cop Joe Huff (Brian Bosworth) is approached by the FBI to infiltrate a biker gang called The Brotherhood who've been spreading a wave of terror across America,and are now branching out with the mafia in the drugs,protection and prostitution rackets.Assuming the identity of Stone (remember my Team America review!) a hard-ass biker with a problem with authority,he ingratiates himself with the biking community and their maniacal leader Chains (Lance Henriksen),but it will only be a matter of time before his cover is blown and he has to take down the bad guys in true tough guy fashion.Of all the direct-to-video action movies originally released around the late 80s/early 90s period,Stone Cold is easily one of the most memorable,enduring and popular ones,probably with no small part owed to the legions of 'biker' fans around the globe,especially in the States,with Craig R Baxley,responsible for a number of such films around that period,at the helm.In the lead role,former pro-American footballer Bosworth has a fairly strong presence,no Bruce Willis but certainly no Don 'The Dragon' Wilson either!He's the diminutive early 90s action hero,long hair,long leather jacket,well oiled six-pack,and dodgy retro-80s Flashdance clothing (with a touch of the Patrick Swayze about him,in fact),appearing in the diminutive early 90s action film.In the bad guy role,genre favourite Henriksen ditches his usual calm,assured persona for a slightly crazier,more maniacal turn as the kill-crazy Chains.All the supporting cast,mainly concerned in the 'Brotherhood' roles,William Forsythe especially,give off eerily convincing turns as mean,merciless bikers with no respect for law,order or the sanctity of human life.The film also boasts some cool visual scenes with the bikers on their bikes or in their gangs.The story doesn't really work very well,poorly plotted and failing to hold together as an engaging whole.And the film is clearly made on the cheap,with some really see-through lighting throughout that sees it remains indicative of it's video roots.But the script offers up some nice lines ("Imagine the future,Chains-'cos you're not in it!",amongst others) here-and-there,and there are a couple of cracking action scenes amongst some others that are certainly not to be sniffed at.Overall,this is one to check out if you'd like to see a real distinctive archetypal early 90s action film.If you're looking for a film with a decent story or anything like that,you'd be wise to look elsewhere but,if you know what you're here for,you should have some fun.***.
It's a hard-core biker movie about outlaws who control the underground and it's up to John Stone(Brian Bosworth) to infiltrate the gang and shut it down.
Lance Hendrikson(Chains) and William Forsythe(Ice) support the movie well playing the leaders of the biker gang.
They don't make action movie like Stone Cold anymore cause people nowadays very judgmental and harsh towards action movie cause they need to make some sense or else no one can relate to the story and feel for the characters.I appreciate action movie from the 80s-90s are the most cause they super entertaining and know no limits with ultra violent and corny dialogue.Brian Bosworth is badass and Lance Henriksen is terrific as the bad guy so Stone Cold is a much watch for action fan.
Very enjoyable and entertaining movie.typical end of 80's beginning of 90's style, a stud which dresses weirdly, short sentences and unexpected jokes, in the overall style it reminds me of Terminatorfor example (in style not quality or level).it is Brian Bosworth very fist movie but if you didnt tell me i wouldnt know i thought he is very decent.the whole biker theme is pretty cool and really puts you in the atmosphere.well worth a watch, recommended, 8/10..
Stone Cold has some of the best talent around making this movie happen, Brian Bosworth, William Forsythe, Lance Henriksen (Millenium, Hard Target, Terminator).
The movie offers a great combination of action, biker and undercover cop genres.
It also presents Bosworth as a decent actor whose on screen persona fit those direct to video movies, never quite being good enough to make it to major releases but solid enough to make a living as an action star in his own right.
Both continue to make movies and have added some fantastic characters to their list of achievements over the years."Stone Cold" is an underrated, hardcore, 90's action flick.
Brian Bosworth, former Seattle Seahawks linebacker, stars in this average 80's action film with plenty of good plot-additives (Hell's Angels-like motorcycle gang, explosions for no reason, Bosworth in bikini briefs).
William Forsythe (Dick Tracy, Raising Arizona) and Lance Henriksen (Terminator, Pumpkinhead, Aliens) are two gang members with bad reputations who plot to kill the mayor because the FBI captured their leader.I was entertained by this film, but I couldn't get past the 80's cliché action films which put this movie in the middle of the pile.
Brian Bosworth plays Joe Huff a cop who goes undercover to infiltrate a biker gang who is planning an assassination on a senator in this chaotic yet strangely entertaining feature which rises above most movies of the genre.
if you were brian bosworth, you probably answered with, "make a horrible movie!" and "stone cold" is truly a bad movie.
"stone cold" is a so-bad-it's-good movie.
This film is a high-end B-movie with over-the-top action and a good amount of Ultra-Violence dished out at any moment it can.
The film itself is nearly 2 hours long, so if you are looking for an action packed movie then this one is a good choice.
The stunts are good, the film making above average for a B movie and also it has a plot!
Brian Bosworth stars as John Stone a police officer who goes undercover to infiltrate a band of bikers who are planning on killing a senator and are becoming a problem with the FBI, National Guard and the Senator in question.
The rest of it was really enjoyable and never slow and has the typical bad guy, Lance Henrikson and is good at being the head of a huge biker gang.I definitely recommend this movie to every action movie fan...
An ex football star who was given a chance at being a box office draw, but never hit the big screen again, Henriksen in probably one of his best bad guy roles, naked women, a maniacal Forsythe coming straight from out for justice.And of course, silly explosions, stick in the ass partners, punch ups for no reason, and rock music playing whenever Bosworth mounts a bike.It's not plausible, the story is rotten, but does it give you a lot of bang for your buck.
All the characters are good, and the story while routine is pretty cool, plus Brian Bosworth and Lance Henriksen both deliver fun performances.
Brian Bosworth is not a very good actor at all, however he kept me very entertained, he was fun to watch, and blew lots of sh*t up, had some cool lines,and was one big dude, I liked him.
I find the violence in movies like Stone Cold, Cobra, The Death Wish series, and others way more potent than Shoot 'Em Up, Kill Bill, or any Jet Li movie.Lance Henrikson and William Forsythe are number one and number two on the list of most psychotic bikers in film history.
And the first film that Bosworth starred in was Stone Cold, a tough cop versus evil bikers epic.Joe Huff (Bosworth) has been suspended for how rough he is on criminals.
Bad idea - the villain grabs a gun and comes back for Joe/John, who is saved by Lance.Stone Cold was originally going to be directed by Bruce Malmuth (Hard to Kill, Nighthawks), but personal problems led to the backstory of Bosworth's character being removed from the movie and Craig R.
Perhaps it was his football persona which enabled him to get the lead as an undercover cop in "Stone Cold".It is an action film with lots of guns, explosions, fighting, and trash talking. |
tt1675161 | Guns, Girls and Gambling | John Smith (Christian Slater) is down on his luck. His girlfriend left him for a doctor. He headed to an Indian Reservation casino only to have his wallet stolen by a hooker. His money was in a security wallet though, so he enters an Elvis Impersonation contest and loses but then proceeds to plays cards with four other Elvis impersonators: The Winner Elvis (Gary Oldman), Gay Elvis (Chris Kattan), Little Person Elvis (Tony Cox), and Asian Elvis (Anthony Brandon Wong). They beat him at cards enough times to bankrupt him and then he dozes off. He is later awakened by casino security guards who think he stole a priceless ancient Native American mask.
It turns out that the owner of the casino "The Chief" had the ancient Native Mask in a saferoom and now it's gone and witnesses saw an Elvis impersonator steal it, so John becomes the prime suspect. The two Native security guards figure John didn't take it but they still decide to kill him while they hunt for the real culprit, presumably Winner Elvis. The Chief says he will pay $1,000,000 for its return. The last thing John sees is them opening the trunk of his car, then writing down Elvis's address, then they knock him out.
Meanwhile, we get introduced to a hitwoman known as "The Blonde" who quotes Edgar Allan Poe before killing her victims. She confronts Gay Elvis and asks where the mask is. He tells her he doesn't have it. She kills him and leaves one of John Smith's credit cards on his corpse (apparently she is allied with John's wallet thief).
John regains consciousness and is still in the trunk of the car. He escapes and finds the Native security guards shot dead. He gets Winner Elvis's address and goes to his house. When he gets there, he meets Elvis's neighbor Cindy (Megan Park). They realize the mask isn't there, but they find Asian Elvis's address and decide to go to his house. Before they leave, they are almost shot to death by another hitman "The Cowboy" (Jeff Fahey) and his sidekick Mo. As they escape, John suggests calling the sheriff only to have Cindy explain that there are two sheriffs and both are corrupt. One is on The Chief's payroll and the other is on The Rancher's payroll. They also encounter "The Rancher" (Powers Boothe). He explains that he hired the Elvises to steal the mask because he used to have it. It is revealed through a flashback that back in the 1980s, a family consisting of a father, mother, and son were working for the rancher and transporting the mask. They reached a train station only to get ambushed by Natives who killed the family and took back the mask. Now he wants it back and will pay $1,000,000 to whoever gets it.
They leave and go to Asian Elvis's house. He tries to kill them before getting tomahawked to death by another hitman "The Indian". They escape and head back to Elvis's house only to have Little Man Elvis show up with a gun asking them where the mask is. Before he can shoot them, The Blonde shows up and kills Little Man Elvis. As they are leaving, they run into The Sheriffs who arrest John for Little Man Elvis's murder. However, Cindy posts bail and he is released. But the Sheriffs know that John knows more than he's letting on so they follow him.
Meanwhile, Winner Elvis is on the way to delivering the mask only to have his car break down. He hikes a long way and gets to a bus stop. As he boards the bus, The Blonde enters and shoots him. As he is dying he whispers something to The Blonde and she smiles broadly. The bus driver is on the phone with someone and The Blonde deduces that he is in cahoots with The Rancher and The Chief playing both sides. She kills him as well.
Later, John, Cindy, and The Sheriffs make it to the bus. They see Elvis and the bus driver's bodies inside the bus and written on them is "Bring the mask and John Smith to Station 12". Station 12 is the same station where the family was killed in the 60s. As they're leaving, The Cowboy and Mo show up and reveal that The Cowboy is a fast sharpshooter who killed the two Indian security guards earlier in the film. As The Sheriffs are drawing their guns, The Cowboy kills them both. Then The Indian shows up and tomahawks The Cowboy and Mo before they can get a shot off. The Indian accompanies them to Station 12.
As they show up, The Rancher and The Chief also show up each holding a briefcase with $1,000,000. At this point, Cindy reveals that she is The Rancher's daughter and was following John to make sure he would find the mask for her father. The Blonde comes out and instructs them to hand their briefcases to John and he enters the station alone. The Indian has a better idea and runs in with his tomahawk to kill The Blonde. The Indian then tries to attack The Blonde, but she blocks all of his attacks. She then kicks him several times, knocking him out. Then The Blonde shoots The Indian and kills him. She re-emerges and repeats her instructions promising more deaths if they don't comply.
John takes the briefcases and enters the station. As he enters, he and The Blonde embrace. They are scamming everybody.
It turns out that the family that was killed in the 1980s were John Smith's parents. They had an Indian servant who hid John in the floorboard of the station and told the Indians that he was dead too. The servant was part of a rival Native tribe "The Hopi". The mask really belonged to her tribe and The Chief stole it from her.
The Blonde is the girlfriend who left John Smith at the beginning of the movie because she realized she liked women. However, she knew what happened to John's family so she stuck around long enough to assist him. Also, when John told her she would get one of the briefcases, that enticed her further.
John and The Blonde emerge from the station and tell The Rancher and The Chief why they are doing this. Also, she tells them that Elvis destroyed the mask when he realized he wouldn't be able to sell it. That was what he said to her before dying.
John tells The Rancher and The Chief that he's keeping one briefcase because of what they did to his family. The Blonde tells them she will return and kill them if they try to retaliate. Then she leaves with the other briefcase on a motorcycle driven by the woman who stole John's wallet. She is actually the doctor that The Blonde left him for posing as a hooker.
At this point, he finds Elvis's car and repairs it and drives it. It only broke down before because he sabotaged it in a way that could be repaired. Also, he actually tried to steal the mask earlier in the film, but Elvis caught him doing it and knocked him out and took it for himself.
It turns out the Indian servant was in on the scam too. The mask wasn't really destroyed. John returns it to her since her tribe rightfully owns it. Elvis actually told The Blonde "Elvis has left the building" before dying. She just lied about his last words.
And finally, it is revealed that his name isn't even John Smith. Someone he bumped into at the beginning of the movie is really John Smith and he pickpocketed him. | revenge, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | This happens so many goddamn times though, that eventually I felt like I was watching Mel Brooks's attempt at a heist flick.
There's gay Elvis (Chris Kattan), midget Elvis (Tony Cox), Asian Elvis (Anthony Wong) and Gary Oldman Elvis, played by Gary Oldman who looks like he was dared into taking the role at a frat party.
Now from what I could make out: Christian Slater plays a dude called John Smith, a 'wrong place at the wrong time' type of guy who is swept up into the intrigue and is in way over head.
Best of the bunch is a snarling Powers Boothe as The Rancher, a good ol' southern gangster who languishes in a white limo longer than the cast list of this movie, chewing scenery as vigorously as his cigar.
I was wondering why Gary Oldman would appear in this film, which was one of the reasons i picked it up.Christian Slater's stardom has long since faded, Dane Cook has yet to be funny in a movie and who's ever heard of Michael Winnick.A 3.5 on IMDb also didn't bode well.
now this is the kind of movie that Christian Slater does best.
:) all the characters are well rendered, the dialog is perfectly paced and the end result: a completely satisfying film that i'll see a few more times yet.there are so many fun twists it'll keep you guessing if not WHO dunnit, HOW the heck they dunnit.
This is actually a great accomplishment as too many movies starting with a similar vibe get goofy and boring after a while.Plot- and character-wise Winnick uses many stereotypes, the ingredients of GGG are very familiar.
Winnick was undoubtedly using the formulas that made both of those Directors/Writers/Actors famous.Unlike some other reviewers, I liked the movie.
As usual he presented a magnetic being that you love to hate.I think if the movie had the name Tarantino or Rodrigues affixed to it, you would see higher ratings but alas, it may take this director time to reach the pinnacle of success claimed by Quinten and Robert..
This film was one of the biggest surprises in the last 2 years given the bad ratings on IMDb. It just seems people have no clue how to handle a self ironic movie making fun about itself.
Not every movie with good old fashioned music and edgy characters is a Tarantino rip off!
Hands down this movie is close to being brilliant, it got everything you expect from it and yet you will end up completely surprised.
The ending will proof to you that it was thought through scene by scene and if you can oversee the bad ratings and watch it with an open mind you will love it..
A title like "Guns, Girls, and Gambling".
But, I like Slater, and I also like girls and gambling, so I thought, what the hay.G3 is, well, Tarantino-light.
This Winnick guy must know a lot of people in Hollywood, but unfortunately, none of them are writers.The twists in the storyline are nice, and it was nice to see Slater dawn the Elvis sunglasses again.
He claimed the comedy was too predictable, why would Gary Oldman do the movie--I think he would've done it for what I think is his best line--watch it and don't miss it--since telling Clarence "Must not be white-boy day" in True Romance.
Nothing deep,but funny and quite tongue in cheek.Helena Mattson,s character is worth the price of admission!Christian slater is doing an Elvis impersonation again a la 3000 Miles from Graceland.
I love when they kinda tie movies in like that!!I watched GGG three times the 1st setting.
However, it turned out that director and director Michael Winnick managed to pull off quite a surprisingly nice movie, and an entertaining movie at that too.I was initially interested in watching the movie because of the cast, which included Gary Oldman, although in a minor role only, unfortunately.
But it also had Christian Slater in the lead role, and he actually carried his weight quite nicely.The storyline was quite interesting, as it was fast paced, had a really solid script, and the storyline was really unpredictable.
And most of the times, the twists and turns that the story took just makes you go "what just happened?" And it worked out so well in favor for the movie.Writer Michael Winnick has also managed to create some very good, witty and interesting dialogue for the characters in the movie.
As I stated earlier on, they had a great cast ensemble whom did really good jobs with their given roles and characters.
And this was true from both the lead and supporting cast."Guns, Girls and Gambling" was a genuinely entertaining movie that really turned out to be a nice surprise.
If you haven't already seen the movie, then I can warmly recommend that you take the time to sit down to do so..
What you see here is precisely what you get, and that list is as follows: Christian Slater as Christian Slater, endless clichés and plot holes, recycled characters and storytelling devices, shamefully shameless editing, racism, sexism, gratuitous violence, oh, and did I mention Gary Oldman as an Elvis Impersonator?
I won't say why, because that might spoil it for you if you watch 'Guns, Girls and Gambling.' The two films follow (dare I say a 'more British' style?) genre of film where a character gets into trouble with numerous different warring factions (normally gangsters – think Lock Stock, Snatch and Layer Cake) and ends up having to dodge the lot of them and/or pit them against each other in order to come out on top.Christian Slater's offering is – sadly – not quite as good as any of those films I've mentioned.
It's not the longest of films, but it does have some fun scenes which go a long way to make me stay the distance.From the title, you can probably tell that it is going to be a little tongue-in-cheek.
There are some twists in the story – some you'll see coming, others may take you by surprise, but by the time the credits roll, you'll feel satisfied that everything adds up (well, just, but it does more than it doesn't!).If you like those sorts of Guy Richie gangster movies, or are just looking for something loud, a bit cheesy and quick, then give this one a go.
I have to admit that when I sat down to watch "Guns, Girls, and Gambling", I wasn't expecting that much.
I thought the title sounded lame (and I still feel that way.) And there was the fact that Christian Slater was in the movie, an actor who has churned out one lame direct-to-DVD movie after another for some years now.
The screenplay is also very funny at times - there were a number of moments when I laughed out loud, something I seldom do when watching a movie.
And Christian Slater is actually pretty good in the movie's central role.
But most of the credit for the movie's success is due to writer/director Michael Winnick.
There are numerous films that hit the straight to video market featuring a great cast that delivers some interesting filmmaking, but just never get the push you would think.
The latest Guns, Girls, and Gambling sports a cast featuring Christian Slater, Gary Oldman, Powers Boothe, Jeff Fahey, Chris Kattan, Sam Trammell, Tony Cox and Dane Cook.
The trailer looked pretty entertaining, but the title alone explains why it didn't get the wide release push, but it also has potential of delivering something fun or a total train wreck.Guns, Girls, and Gambling follows a wild and crazy heist story featuring Elvis impersonators, Indians, cowboys, a blond assassin, a frat boy, corrupt cops and a prostitute all out for one thing, a priceless American Indian artifact stolen during a poker game.
Christian Slater has always been great, but for some reason been bumped to the straight to video market lately, but this is by far the best film he has delivered and really seems to having a great time.
Seeing Gary Oldman walk around as an Elvis impersonator is pretty much worth the film and the fact that he seems to be having fun with it makes it that much better.
The rest of the cast do great with their parts to bring this violent dark comedy to life.This is one of those films that doesn't deliver anything all that new, but has enough star power and fun to create a film worthwhile to check out.
Unlike most of the films like this that are released straight to video this one works and delivers exactly what the title says.
If you like any of these actors and just want to have a crazy ride through an over the top story of violence, betrayal, cowboys, Indians, and Elvis then this is the movie for you..
The title, which sounds like a prop list, should have clued me in that this effort would be about as original and inspired as butter on toast -- an infinitely shallow and stupid Tarantino pastiche cobbling together every trite and overdone Hollywood cliché of the last 20 years.
The cast quickly overpopulates with a mind-numbing parade of cardboard cutouts, introduced with freeze frames and jittering titles: "The Girl Next Door." "Asian Elvis." "Midget Elvis." "The Cowboy." The usual spectacle of tired violence and mayhem ensues.This kind of cool campy violence has come under a lot of critcism after all the mass shootings recently.
Cheap thrills, and morally obtuse, making this effort bad on another level.If Saturday Night Live had produced a satirical skit on how to produce a paint-by-number Hollywood film to entertain jaded morons, they couldn't have done a better job.
The writer(s) also must have thought they were being really clever by having movie clichés and racial stereotypes blatantly pointed out, yet they use them like they were going out of style (see what I did there...).
Some of those colorful caricatures include four different Elvis impersonators, a rancher, a cowboy, a college student, two sheriffs a lesbian prostitute and a blonde assassin who wears black and has a penchant for quoting Edgar Allan Poe. And that, my friends, is as far as the character development goes.
Someone has stolen a valuable Native American mask stolen during a Elvis impersonator poker game at a casino.
I originally watched this because of Gary Oldman, Jeff Fahey and the Elvis theme that was underpinning it.Considering Fahey had nailed his performance in Machete around the same time...he totally locked-out on this dire role.
Christian Slater movies are globally accepted as trash these days so I did have that niggle in the back of head when picking it up...I wasn't let down LOL!!
Had this movie been done by either Tarantino or Rodriguez then it would be another cult classic like Machete, but I defy anyone to say they would keep this well below par, poorly acted, body-less FAIL in their collection..
An all-star cast, witty writing & funny dialog make this a very fun movie to watch.
"Give me the mask!" Six Elvis impersonators are sitting around playing poker, in the morning one of them (Slater) wakes up alone at the table and is quickly accused of stealing a Native American mask.
I have said for a while that just because a movie has an all star cast doesn't mean that it's automatically good.
This is one of the better straight to video movies that I have seen in a while.
This is the type of movie you can just put in and watch without having to think about.
Overall, a very entertaining movie with witty writing.
Just by adding an endless stream of different characters and freeze framing their names like "The Cowboy", "The Chief", "The Rancher", "The Indian", "The Girl Next Door" and "The Blonde" as just a few examples is silly and boring and very much overdone.
There must have been 20 or more characters they introduced with the freeze frame title approach in an effort to make the plot more interesting and confusing.
The plot is everyone and their brother are chasing Christian Slater who plays John Smith because they believe he stole a mask in the middle of a poker game which is a rare priceless Indian artifact.For these types of movies to really be effective they need to have a great story line, which this film does not come close to having.
The film does have several Elvis impersonators including a gay Elvis played by Chris Kattan and a Midget Elvis played by Tony Cox. Oh yeah we even have an Elvis Elvis played by the Grade A actor Gary Oldman.
Helena Mattsson may have looked great in the black leather jumpsuit but her portrayal of a two gun toting Edgar Alan Poe quoting gunslinger for hire was also boring.Christian Slater plays the lead character John Smith, and he is also another one of the Elvis impersonators who everyone is after because they assume he has the stolen Indian mask.
Yes, there is lots of shooting, stabbing, tomahawk throwing, punching and kicking, all in an effort to just pad the movies length.I should have known the movie would be below par when I read that Michael Winnick was the producer, writer and director for Guns Girls and Gambling.
For those unaware, for those wondering, there is a Mamie Van Doren Drive-In Flick from 1959 called Guns, Girls, and Gangsters.After that, we have here every modern Cult Movie cliché wrapped together in a Direct to Video (who decides this thing?) star-studded Comedy/Action wisp that is so full of froth that it glides along with jaw dropping easiness.
What the hell was a star like Gary Oldman thinking!
As for the other characters, most of them are near the end of there careers so it's not a surprise that there in a straight to DVD movie.
This movie goes from violent to racist with a flip of the wrist, and then throws out some bad action film clichés that I guess are supposed to be funny.
If you like horrible films that make you laugh because they are so utterly bad, then give this a try..
Nice to see Christian Slater in a good role!.
This movie is all about the fun, no award buzz here, but I really liked it.
Let me confess, I'm a Christian Slater fan, True Romance is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Christian plays a guy named John Smith, who is having a bad life.
Unfortunately, the girl dumps him right after stealing his wallet.So, Mr Smith gets drunk and enters a poker game with his fellow Elvis impersonators: Gay Elvis, Midget Elvis (Bad Santa), Asian Elvis, and Elvis Elvis (Gary Oldman).
One of Christian Slater's Best Straight to Video Pix. Writer & director Michael Winnick's "Guns, Girls, and Gambling" is truly a guilty pleasure.
This lightweight, breezy, shoot'em up, road trip epic about a group of Elvis impersonators and the search for an ancient Hopi Indian mask is a lot of fun.
A diverse cast, funny performances, interesting characters, scenic settings, amusing dialogue, a little nudity, and good cinematography make this opus worth watching.
The Elvis impersonators reminded me of the Kurt Russell & Kevin Costner shoot'em up "10,000 Miles to Graceland" and the quirky humor sounded like something out of a Cohen brothers movie.
Calling "Guns, Girls, and Gambling" a Tarantino movie because of a trunk shot and Christian Slater's presence is pretty facile.
John Smith (Christian Slater) is at an Indian casino and participates in an Elvis impersonator contest.
This grindhouse aspect of Poe reading was done rather well by Daryl Hannah in "Eldorado in 3D." The fact is that they stole the idea and could not improve upon it.Be warned that Christian Slater performed as well in this one as he did in "Hatfields and McCoys: Bad Blood" and "Soldiers of Fortune."The film has some twists, but lacks any serious clues, so don't look for any.
First thing that hit me here...this is a rip off of '3000 Miles to Graceland' surely, it even stars Christian Slater who does yet more Elvis mincing.
A group of Elvis impersonators are after a native Indian relic, so are some crooked cops, a cowboy hit-man, a female assassin and a crime kingpin called 'The Rancher'.
They all think Slater has it but he doesn't, no one knows who has it and naturally they're all trying to kill each other left right n centre.This film follows the trail of so many other heist films these days.
Characters are introduced like a video game with their names popping up on screen alongside hokey graphics which looks so tacky now.
All the characters are clichéd unoriginal and mundane...'The Rancher' who looks like 'Boss Hog', 'The Cowboy' 'The Chief' 'The Indian' 'The Blonde' all speak for themselves really, oh geez!.
Then of course you have the four Elvis impersonators, an Asian, a black midget, a homosexual and Gary Oldman who clearly can't do Elvis impressions.The film pretty much consists of all these characters running around shooting at each other and beating up Slater.
I must admit some of the gun action is quite good, there is some blood and gore at times which does make the film feel better than it should...or more exciting anyway.
Obviously they included a hot blonde female assassin in a figure hugging black catsuit to attract more viewers...OK OK it worked.As with a lot of these straight to DVD crime heist flicks its an ensemble cast which is impressive, clearly everyone thought they might be in the next big crime comedy.
Powers Boothe, Oldman, Jeff Fahey, Chris Kattan (where has he been?!), Tony Cox and Slater, OK so a few big names and a few B-movie stars.
The only thing here which is remotely interesting are the Elvis impersonators, but even that has been done before in '3000 Miles to Graceland' and much better. |
tt0082257 | Demonoid: Messenger of Death | 300 years ago, in a mine located in Guanajuato, Mexico. A satanic cult built a temple where they sacrificed humans to the Devil by cutting off the left hand of their victims. In the present day, couple Mark and Jennifer Baines explore the temple where they find a small casket containing a severed hand which they take back to their hotel room. Later that night Mark opens the casket and is attacked and possessed by the hand. Fleeing to Las Vegas, he wins a fortune by gambling. Hating being possessed, Mark attempts to sever his left hand but is burned to death by his possessed hand. Mark's body is shipped to Los Angeles for burial. Jennifer arrives at Father Cunningham’s church where her husband is to be buried and warns the priest that her husband might still be possessed and requests that an autopsy be performed on the body.
As they talk on the matter, Mark’s severely charred corpse reanimates and bursts from his coffin and escapes. When Police Sergeant Leo Matson arrives to investigate the turn of events he is attacked by Mark who then severs his left hand by slamming it in a door, after which Mark falls dead and the hand immediately possesses the Matson. Horrified, Matson forces plastic surgeon Dr. Julian Rivkin to sever the hand at gunpoint after which the hand shoots a nurse with Matson’s discarded handgun, and murders Matson by brutally ripping the Sergeant’s face off. The hand then possesses Rivken who severs his hand on a train track. The hand later finds and corners Jennifer at her motel and attempts to possess her as well but is saved by Father Cunningham and they both flee to the church. There the hand cuts the power and phone lines and stalks the group, the hand manages to possess Cunningham who then attacks Jennifer with a knife. However he is eventually able to overcome the hand’s influence and stabs his own hand and has Jennifer burn his hand off with a blowtorch and scatter the hands ashes in the harbor. Later, Jennifer is back home, the hand, which somehow survived attacks and kills her. | paranormal, murder | train | wikipedia | Ghastly high-camp Mexican horrors with Stuart Whitman as a Priest attempting to help Samantha Eggar in her battle against a murderous demon which possesses people's left hands.
Russ Meyer starlet Haji has a small role as a gangster's moll while Mexican superstar Erika Carlsson receives prominent billing for her challenging role of "Nurse Morgan": a sexy blonde cleavage-revealing nurse who has about 45 seconds of screen time and who's only dialogue is screaming out "NOOOOOO!!!" (See Alicia Encinas' role in "The Bees".)Infinitely compelling and enjoyable in its badness, the film is enlivened by several grisly/hilarious horror sequences and quite a few genuinely suspenseful situations.
The funniest sequences involve assorted possessed people finding various imaginative methods of removing their left hands.
They almost made it but fortunately there is enough terrible acting, laughable dialogue (possessed cop to a plastic surgeon: "cut my hand off or I'll kill you!") and high-camp hilarity to keep any bad-movie buff enthralled.The film apparently sat on the shelf for three years; release of "The Hand" starring Michael Caine undoubtedly encouraged distributors to finally release this to cash-in on the living-hand craze..
*Note: Like many of my reviews, this is taken from my blog, which is called "Talk of Horrors." This one comes from the last entry of "Not on DVD Week." The workers at a Mexican mine don't exactly want to go there because of a curse.
Well, Jennifer (Samantha Eggar) and Mark Baines (Roy Jones) go in anyways, and accidentally unleash a demonic force that has a fondness for possessing people's left hands.
I guess Ned Flanders was wrong when he said "Lord Love a Leftie." Anyways, the only way a person can free themselves from committing acts of evil is severing said hand-which will then go after someone else and kill or possess them.
The highlight of those goofy moments is a police officer demanding "cut my hand off or you die!" In spite of it's problems, I found myself kind of enjoying this movie.
Apart from that, Eggar and Whitman aren't great, but do their best carrying the material, and there's something perversely amusing about seeing people finding different ways of getting their hands severed, providing some fun bloody moments.
Soon Alfredo Zacarías started making films on his own and found success directing the comedies of GAspar Henaine "Capulina", however, Zacarías had big plans in mind and by the end of the 70s, he directed two ambitious horror films co-produced with the U.S.A. and starring somewhat famous American actors: 1978's "The Bees" and this film, "Demonoid, Messenger of Death".Also known as "Macabra, la Mano del Diablo", the film stars Samantha Eggar as Jennifer Baines, who is visiting the mining city of Guanajuato in Mexico as his husband, Mark (Roy Jenson) owns an important mine there that seems to be very rich.
The Hand begins to possess people transforming them in psycho killers, and only Jennifer knows the truth.While the movie is written by Amos Powell (of Croman's "Tower of London" fame) and David Lee Fein (who later would write "Cheerleader Camp"), the film is obviously the brainchild of Zacarías himself, as he wrote the source story the script was based on.
Unlike in "The Bees", Zacarías really attempts this time to create an interesting horror piece, and while he unashamedly lifts some ideas from Oliver Stone's "The Hand" (released previously that same year), it could be said that he succeeds in making a somewhat original tale of horror.
Sadly, the plot lacks the coherency and the sense to put all the elements together and the bizarre story never really takes off.Zacarías' direction is technically effective, but his style is outdated and unoriginal, and in the end this makes the film look 10 years older than its true age.
To Zacarías' credit, he makes really original set-pieces aided by some good special effects and a somewhat effective musical score; however, the bad cinematography, together with the low-budget and the contrived plot, would diminish the power of those scenes.
The various action sequences of the film are really good for the budget, although again, with a notoriously anachronistic look in the execution.Samantha Eggar does her best with what she has to work and manages to carry the film despite the movie's obvious problems.
However, to tell the truth, Roy Jenson did give an effective performance in his short screen time.It's true that at first sight, one could blame the movie's flaws to it's low budget, it's bad special effects or to its director, however, I think that the real problem lays on the poor way the script was built.
Zacarías has done better films when he has a good script to work with, but in "Demonoid", the lack of coherency of the plot simply make the film boring and tedious.It's kind of sad that Zacarías had the chance to make this film when the Mexican film industry was at its lowest point, as the very ambitious idea (that without a doubt looked good on paper) simply couldn't work well on film.
Fortunately, he finally would make a movie the way he wanted in 1989, with "Crime of Crimes", in the meantime, "Demonoid, Messenger of Death", ends up as another good idea that was just badly executed.
Instead of winning silver, Jennifer and Mark unleash pure evil in the shape of a mummified hand that takes control over the people it possesses.
"Demonoid:The Messenger of Death" is an entertaining and bizarre Mexican horror flick about a mine proprietor(Roy C.
Jensen),his gorgeous wife (Samantha Eggar) and the hand case found by them in an underground mine chamber.During the night the dust turns back into a flying hand,which promptly starts possessing people.Admittedly this crazy horror flick is really bad,but I had lots of fun watching it.Its premise is similar to Oliver Stone's "The Hand":a possessed severed hand is stalking people.The possession of the left hand creates the opportunities for many bizarre scenes:a hand literally catching the train,fortune hunter dynamites his own mine- with his entire crew still inside it and a policeman pulls his pistol on a surgeon and insists the MD amputate the cop's arm sans anesthesia to name only a few.Watch "Demonoid" as soon as possible.7 out of 10..
Jennifer Baines, played by the lovely Samantha Eggar, joins her husband Mark (character actor Roy Jenson, in one of the bigger roles of his career) as he attempts to open a Mexican mine.
They mess around with the artifacts laying around, and a cursed severed hand takes possession of him, making him do odd (and profitable) things.
The hand is soon free to control a succession of hapless victims, while she teams up with a priest (a grim looking Stuart Whitman) who's having a crisis of faith.Director Alfredo Zacarias ("The Bees") co-scripted this one, based on his own story, an update of "The Beast with Five Fingers" type stories.
Zacarias tries to spice things up a bit with breast shots (in the opening few minutes) and an action scene, but his bumbling misdirection is simply laughable.Fortunately, Eggar doesn't look *too* serious.
Kill!") co-star.Good fun for people who want to see characters devise ways to rid themselves of their left hands.Five out of 10..
The hand possesses the next victim whom possesses the next one, it goes on and on and of course the hand is being hunted by Jennifer Barnes (Samantha Eggar; CURTAINS) after she looses her husband being killed by the hand.
But just showing one scene of a cult, and then showing a husband and wife going into a Mexican mine and finding the remains of a temple, thereby releasing an evil hand?
There had been 'living' severed hand movies before (The Beast With Five Fingers, The Crawling Hand, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, And Now The Screaming Starts), and there have been a few since (The Hand, Evil Dead II and Idle Hands), but none of them have been as wonderfully schlocky and unintentionally funny as Demonoid, an inept slice of z-grade Mexican horror made all the more laughable by earnest performances from leads Samantha Eggar and Stuart Whitman, and direction from Alfredo Zacarías that shows no sign of intentional humour.
Eggar plays Jennifer Baines, who attempts to track down and destroy an ancient evil force that possesses people's left hands (starting with her husband Mark, played by Roy Jenson).
Whitman is Father Cunningham, the initially sceptical priest who eventually helps her on her mission.Demonoid immediately displays its trash credentials with a marvellous pre-credits sequence that delivers both gratuitous nudity and gore: a woman wearing cult robes fights against several men, but is overpowered, her clothing torn open in the process, exposing her ample breasts.
Each time someone is possessed, they are driven to remove their hand, which results in some truly memorable moments: Mark's badly burnt reanimated corpse slams his wrist in a car door, a gun-toting cop tells a plastic surgeon 'either you cut my hand off or I'll kill you!', while the very same surgeon severs his own hand by placing his arm on a railway track.
It looks like the 'devil's hand' has been vanquished once and for all, but a delightfully silly epilogue sees Jennifer attacked by the five-fingered horror, which has somehow returned from the ocean..
This is actually the first horror movie that I have any recollection of watching, and I must have been between 6 and 9 years old at the time.
I have vivid memories of being scares so much of that crawling hand.And I have been looking for the movie for about 30 some years or so to revisit it again after all that time.
But I know that I will not be returning to watch it ever again.And reviewing it as an adult now, with a keen love for cinema and horror, then I am forced to rate "Demonoid: Messenger of Death" an abysmal 3 out of 10 stars.
To its credit; Demonoid is very fast paced, but the credit ends there as despite the plot playing out quickly, the film is still very boring and the swiftness in the story's movement seems to be a lame attempt to mask this.
The plot has something to do with a Mexican mine and a possessed demonic hand.
The idea of someone's hand becoming possessed and developing a life of it's own was very well used in classic horror Evil Dead II, but here the idea is sadly squandered and unfortunately the best way to describe Demonoid is simply 'damp squib'.
A severed hand found in a Mexican mine causes all sorts of trouble for the couple (Samantha Eggar and Roy Cameron) when the hand takes over Cameron and forces him onto a massive killing spree and the hand's main target appears to be Eggar.
A couple (Samantha Eggar and Roy Cameron) while working in a Mexican mine discover a severed hand.
The hand becomes one with Cameron and possesses him, causing him to commit all kinds of nasty murders.Not as bad as other people make it out to be, but nowhere near good.
Demonoid: Messenger of Death (1981) * 1/2 (out of 4) Ultra bizarre horror film has Jennifer Baines (Samantha Eggar) traveling to Mexico with her husband.
In all seriousness, there have been countless horror films going back to the silent era that have dealt with a possessed hand coming back for some sort of revenge.
This film pretty much takes elements of THE EXORCIST and mixes it with one of these movies and the end result is pretty bad but mildly entertaining.The best thing going for this film is the fact that it offers up quite a bit of violence and some silly death scenes.
There are also a few scenes where skulls get crushed by one of the hands, which adds some red stuff.Eggar turns in a good performance but you can't help but feel she's wasting it on a picture like this.
I also thought Stuart Whitman was good in his role of the Father trying to help the woman destroy the hand.The biggest problem with this movie is that it just doesn't contain too much plot or characters that we actually like.
We basically just get a bunch of short scenes where people get possessed, kill and then cut the hand.
Samantha Eggar's husband owns a Mexican mine which contains within it an ancient tomb housing a metal box with a severed demonic hand possibly possessed by the Devil himself.
The hand's ultimate choice for an owner is Eggar herself who joins forces with a priest(Stuart Whitman)to try and stop it.
Whitman and others doing battle with a severed hand trying to smother them is hard to watch without shaking your head in disbelief, and Eggar's fate at the end, the screaming, the swirling camera, broken glass table, it's the tip of the iceberg.
It is an absolute slog to get to the end as a lot of nothing, other than the infamous severed hand crawling about, happens for long periods, but there are a series of decapitations which might amuse lovers of rancid cinema: a laser, train on railroad tracks, and a car door among other things.
Whitman, who I like a lot, doesn't have a prayer(pun intended)in this movie as the heroic man of the cloth who must use the power of Christ to combat the evil demonic hand.
The funniest scene could be when the severed hand helps Eggar's husband Mr. Bain win at throwing dice in a Las Vegas casino--who knew a demonic hand had such luck..
"Demonoid: Messenger of Death" is a moderately flawed and entertaining effort.**SPOILERS**In a newly-discovered mine in Mexico, Jennifer Baines, (Samantha Eggar) discovers a long-sealed burial chamber that the locals are fearful of.
Finally seeking help from Father Cunningham, (Stuart Whitman) on help with dealing with the situation, they try to put an end to the reign of terror.The Good News: There's some really fun stuff here when it tries to.
One of the greatest is the sequence in the doctor's office, where a cop forces a doctor at gunpoint to surgically remove his left hand, and is shown in full detail, which is quite bloody and messy in and of itself, then it shows the resulting chaos which really gets the best out of the scene.
There's also some nice creepy scenes in here at the end, when the disembodied hand chases them around the church, and at one point even cutting both the phone and power, making for some really nice atmosphere at times.
These here are the film's few bad points.The Final Verdict: With some stuff that's actually pretty good and a couple of flaws to drag it down, this one is actually somewhat watchable.
To wit: if your mine is over a Satanic temple where left hands were severed to honor demons and every single worker refuses to go any deeper, perhaps it's time to find a new mine.
Here, he plays a battling Catholic priest who we just know could win over Ms. Eggar if he didn't have that pesky collar and angel on his shoulder to worry about.Maybe they weren't watching the Mexican cut (Macabra!), which has more dialogue, more death and a different ending?
Give me Demonoid or give me a severed left hand!.
Demonoid, Messenger of Death starts some 300 years ago in a Mexican mine where some ancient demon or other possesses the left hand of a woman, she is chained to a wall by robed religious fanatics & her left hand is cut off with an axe the disembodied hand then tries to scuttle away but a guy stabs it & places it into a silver hand shaped casket.
The ancient left hand possessing demon is free & goes about doing what it does best, possessing people's hands with the ultimate aim of possessing Jennifer's for some reason I'm not sure of...This Mexican American co-production was co-written, produced & directed by Alfredo Zacarias & is one zany, crazy & at times gob-smacking exploitation film that provides terrific entertainment for it's slight running time of 78 minutes.
I absolutely love the scene in which a policeman walks into a Doctor's surgery & demands at gunpoint that the Doctor cut his hand off or he'll kill him, this part is played 100% straight & the ridiculousness doesn't end there.
There are numerous flying severed hands, satanic rituals, dodgy gamblers, disbelieving priest's, mummy's, re-animated corpses, ancient demons, gore, nudity, bad Mexican actor's, a car chase, a woman who thinks walking into a pitch black cavernous mine 100's of years old wearing high heels is a good idea & a pace which never lets up.
I have to admit I really liked this goofy film, it was just so entertaining for all the wrong reasons.Director Zacarias creates some pretty decent moments, the sequence where the hand reforms & is inter-cut with footage of real mummified bodies is particularly effective.
The acting was OK & you have to consider the fact that it's very hard to convincingly fight your own hand while it's still attached to your arm, isn't it?Demonoid, Messenger of Death is a pretty unique film, it's certainly something a bit different & overall I was throughly entertained by it.
DEMONOID is a cheapo Mexican horror movie, shot south-of-the-border with a couple of notable Hollywood performers as the leads.
Jennifer Baines (the always classy Samantha Egger), the wife of industrialist Mark Baines (a sturdy portrayal by Roy Jensen), joins forces with renegade boxing Irish priest Father Cunningham (a gloriously hammy portrayal by Stuart Whitman) to combat a lethal ancient evil force that has taken on the form of a deadly severed crawling hand.Director/co-writer Alfredo Zacarias keeps the entertainingly absurd story zipping along at a brisk pace, treats the ridiculous premise with utmost misguided seriousness, and delivers many jaw-dropping moments of inspired lunacy.
It starts a killing spree while possessing, then, it hides under Samantha Eggar's sheets (dirty hand!), and if it wasn't enough, it jumps over a moving car without a stunt double. |
tt0043665 | I Was a Communist for the FBI | Matt Cvetic (Frank Lovejoy), who works in a Pittsburgh steel mill, has been infiltrating the Communist Party for the FBI in Pittsburgh for nine years. During this time he has been unable to tell his family about his dual role, so they believe he is a Communist and despise him.
He becomes emotionally involved with a Communist school teacher (Dorothy Hart), who is becoming disenchanted with the party. She breaks with the party when it foments a violent strike. Cvetic helps her escape the Communists in violent sequences in which two Communists and an FBI agent are killed.
Communists are portrayed in the film as cynical opportunists, racists who are interested only in seizing power on behalf of the Soviets and not in improving social and labor conditions in the U.S. They are shown exploiting ethnic tensions to get their way, such as by wrapping copies of a Jewish newspaper around lead pipes used to beat up people during a strike. They also are shown fomenting discontent among blacks. They are shown as cynical racists, calling blacks "niggers" and Jews "kikes".
The Communists in the film are also shown to be violent thugs who kill informers.
Cvetic ultimately testifies against the Communists before the House Un-American Activities Committee and reconciles with his brother and son. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0090466 | L.A. Law | The show often combined humor and drama in the same episode. In the pilot episode of the series, only the back and hand of law partner Chaney, gripping the pages of a tax manual while seated at his desk, are seen after he succumbed to a fatal heart attack. One of Chaney's final acts was to hire a new secretary, who began work on the morning Chaney's body is discovered. Later in that episode, in front of his partners, friends and his wife, the secretary at Chaney's eulogy reveals that she is transsexual, and details how she first met the gay Chaney at a gay bar. Chaney had been financially supporting her gender transition, and hired her as part of her real life test. She is then promptly fired from her job by Douglas Brackman, in an act of transphobia.
A running gag throughout the series was the overtly promiscuous lifestyle of divorce lawyer Arnie Becker, and his chronic and constant liaisons with women, up to and including bedding some of his own clients. This once caused problems when a client used him to set up her (estranged) husband to be murdered. Series producer Steven Bochco used a similar incident in Hill Street Blues when a woman bedded one of the police officers in the squad and tricked him into shooting her ex-husband when he (apparently) broke into her house.
A running gag during Harry Hamlin's tenure was to have his character, Michael Kuzak, always shown picking, scrutinizing, and eating pastries or fruit at the morning staff meetings. He was the only one who ate from the mountains of food provided.
To some extent, the sexual peccadilloes of almost the entire cast would become fodder for episodes of the series.
After Grace van Owen makes a comment that Michael Kuzak would have to be a monkey before she'd be interested in him, he woos her on the courthouse steps (where she is about to get married) in a gorilla suit. Douglas Brackman becomes involved with a sex therapist. Benny Stulwicz, an intellectually disabled clerk at the office, has sex with the intellectually disabled daughter of a client of the firm. Leland McKenzie and Rosalind Shays, antagonists, secretly become lovers.
The show tied itself into the events of the Los Angeles riots of 1992, which were prompted by the acquittal of four white police officers who were put on trial for the videotaped beating of African American motorist Rodney King. In a scene reminiscent of the Reginald Denny incident, tax attorney Stuart Markowitz is struck on the head by a rioter, and ends up having serious head injuries, causing a number of problems for him and his wife for several episodes as a result. Douglas Brackman, their boss, is also arrested in the mayhem of the riots as he is on his way to get remarried.
In one scene later in the series, the writers enacted an inside joke: "The easiest way to get rid of a soap opera character is to just have them fall down an elevator shaft." In her final scene, the character of Rosalind Shays steps into the empty shaft (expecting an elevator car when the doors open) and falls to her death.
The show did not shy away from controversy, with a scene in the episode "He's a Crowd" where one of the female lawyers, Abby Perkins, has an on-screen romantic kiss with C.J. Lamb, another female lawyer who is openly bisexual.
The name Chaney remains in the name of the law firm, despite numerous changes in personnel and the death of Chaney in episode 1. When Michael Kuzak leaves, it is announced that new stationery will arrive without Kuzak's name on the letterhead. In a line heard off-screen and in the background, Arnold Becker states: "I think we should drop Chaney's name." | murder | train | wikipedia | Tall gorgeous handsome sexy six figure prominent attorney with an incredibly great personality and a command on the world that respects him as well as loves the fact that he is young and good looking!!
Steven Eckhold plays the gorgeous hunk attorney who is just too good to be true...This is why he is a television character, and not a real guy just walking around in downtown Los Angeles somewhere!!
I love Steven Eckholdt...I loved him in a great number of things, but I really loved him in L.A. Law,,,he is so incredibly handsome and I just go crazy thinking about dating a guy like that...He was the true hunk on L.A. Law and some of the other guys were OK!!
Nothing really all that special...Television is of course supposed to be entertainment, and looking at a hunk like Steven Eckholdt is very entertaining to me..
As a matter of fact, Steven Eckholdt would be the perfect blind date...upon feasting my eyes on him and then finding out that he is L.A.'s most prominent attorneys, the first thing I would say to him would be, yes I will marry you!!!.
At the end, as many drama's have happen, it became somewhat stale and may cause many to forget the gripping storylines Bochco, Kelley etc.
As the show expanded Law brought forth additional characters played by Dey, Smits, Greene, Underwood, Donohoe, Spencer, Drake, Muldaur etc.
These actors made their roles and characters as unforgettable as the originals made there's.Probably the best thing that can be said about this show is that no one player was the focal point.
In an interview for the 100th show Richard Dysart, who played Leland McKenzie, the paternal "glue" of McKenzie, Brackman, Cheney, Kuzack, and Becker, told Jane Pauley that the actors weren't the genius of the show...the writers were.
It's the L.A. law firm of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak.
In the pilot opening, divorce lawyer Arnie Becker (Corbin Bernsen) and his secretary Roxanne Melman (Susan Ruttan) find senior partner Norman Chaney dead in his office.
They and the other various characters over the years deal with court as well as life.Steven Bochco created one of the most popular series of the '80s.
It's a legal drama about a law firm in L.A. It featured some great actors who created some iconic characters.
Much of the cast contributed significantly to the success of this series, Tom Verica and Steve Eckholdt were very enlightening and auspicious factors to making "L.A. Law" popular in the latter years of the show's existence!!
"L.A. Law" was the harbinger of things to come in terms of relevant and legally germane script writing which was pertinent to the authenticity of a law office in the 1980's!!
The original made for T.V. movie signified a revelation in television law shows!!
Candor about legal settlements, and situations involving ethics with relation to salaries and status quo behavior, became a staple to the modus operandi of L.A. Law!!
"L.A. Law" lasted eight seasons, only three were really excellent!!
There were a few highlights to the show in it's last couple of years, guys like Steve Eckholdt added to the show tremendously!!
Even with his talent, he was not enough to re-establish the reputation "L.A. Law" had at one time for being one of the best shows on television!!.
It was an amazing program that, when it focused on the intriguing cases that came to the firm, was arguably the best show on television in the late 80s and early 90s.
If I recall correctly only Hill Street Blues, The West Wing, and L.A. Law won 4 Emmys for best drama (now maybe Mad Men?).
There's a reason this show ranks in the upper echelon of television dramas.To be fair to its critics, however, I can't remember ANY program that was this good that, almost abruptly, became so bad!
Although I continued to watch it until the end, it was hit-and-miss at best, and sometimes just plain terrible after the fifth season..
This show concerning the lives of lawyers at an LA law firm was a breakout hit during its first season for its well written plots and great characters.
This of course was because of some incredible writers and great actors.
However as the show entered about it's sixth season the best writers and actors began to leave en masse the plotlines fell apart and the show became much more stale.
The previous post was less than favorable to this incredible show ("great actors, flawed writing"), so I just had to weigh in.
For a moment, forget that "L.A. Law" presented some of the most compelling and unusual legal cases as drama (some of them so unusual, in fact, showrunner David E.
"L.A. Law" brought black comedy back to television and presented sexuality and sensuality that actually advanced its storylines.
The latter were core character traits of Corbin Bernsen's Arnold Becker and Jill Eikenberry's and Michael Tucker's Ann Kelsey and Stuart Markowicz, respectively.
Whether surgeons should be obligated to operate on AIDS patients, the right for the terminally ill to die, the lives of the mentally challenged, sexual dysfunctions, the pressures and responsibilities of the police -- these and other episodes paved the way for the shows we're watching today.
"L.A. Law" stood on the shoulders of giants, yes, but it became a giant in its own right.Arguably the show created by Stephen Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher suffered with the departure of David.
The guys who used to run "St. Elsewhere" had a brief stint as showrunners, and viewers began tuning out when the show became less about L.A. lawyers and more about various medical maladies.That fifth season was especially dramatic, too, as several cast members also were leaving, which freed the writers from some of the constraints of series television -- namely, that characters could not change significantly from week to week.To dismiss "L.A. Law" as a show about yuppie lawyers is to misjudge a deep, poignant, and important book by its slick, glossy cover.
Steven Eckholdt Is Too Handsome And To Die For!!.
I love Steven Eckholdt, he is so incredibly handsome, and he was my favorite part of the show "L.A. Law"!
I think that Steven has one of the best looking faces that I have ever seen.
Steven's acting is superb, and I believe he got a really good start on "L.A. Law", he had been in other television presentations prior to "L.A. Law" but, his role as Patrick Flanagan put him on the map!!
Amongst the many shows that Steven Eckholdt has been a guest star on, his quasi-regular role of Patrick Flanagan on " L.A. Law" was extremely excellent!!
"Law and Order" "Boston Legal" "West Wing" "Wings" and so many others!!
The short lived series "It's Like You Know" was tremendously bolstered by Steven Eckholdt, and I thought he was really good in "Leaving Drew" as well!!
The best part of Steven Eckholdt with his role as Patrick Flanagan on "L.A. Law" was that he was a character who was flawlessly feasible.
A young, good looking, and successful attorney working in a high profile law firm in Los Angeles is going to be very arrogant, and, basically, he is going to feel like he is above the law!!
Towards the end of the series "L.A.Law", Steven Eckholdt was a big reason why I watched the show!!
I know a lot of people who just think that Steven Eckholdt is absolutely spectacular!!.
All of the main characters on L.A. Law were quirky in some way but to go into all of them would take up more space than is allowed here.
So I will simply name a few: 1) Michael Kuzak: The social conscience who went out of his way to take cases of the underdogs but also had a goofy side, especially when dealing with his lady love A.D.A. Grace van Owen.
2) Grace van Owen: Very much like Kuzak, except she has higher ambitions than just being a lawyer.
He craves to take high profile entertainment cases and generally loves anything flashy, sport cars and beautiful women in particular.
He is a tax lawyer and she mostly deals with civil law and is also prone to take cases for the underdog like Kuzak.
Mckenzie, the strict but fair senior partner with a soft spot for his firm and kind of a father figure to all of his associates.Like the earlier Bochco show Hill Street Blues, the emphasis on one day at a time is very much a mainstay in L.A. Law. The lawyers go through every case in the courtroom over very little time that in the real world would take years and although it is not really what trials are like, it is entertaining and if you are looking for something more realistic then you should try seeing an actual televised trial.
But there is also room for comedy like Kuzak showing up at a wedding, where he is most definitely not invited in a gorilla suit and Becker screwing over one of the aspiring associates in more ways than one.
This mix is rarely pulled off in a successful way but Bochco has created such a great universe that when he stumbles there is always a new try at every turn..
This show had one of the best ensemble casts in recent memory, at least for a drama series.
Entertainment In Legal Series Expanded.
Kelly first started writing television scripts with Doogie Howser MD & then went straight to this.
While this series has some comedy, it has a much more serious tone than Ally McBeal or House MD which have been his later work.
This series not only presents more serious issues than those later shows, but also better draw more realistic characters as well.The acting & production quality of this is very good.
Richard Dysart seems the perfect actor to be the foundation of this law firm.
A retrospective could be fun.Towards the end of the series, more of David E Kelly's humor started showing up.
In fact, the last season very much resembles a trial run of Ally McBeal in it's tone.
Kelly has continued to develop his talents in that direction since.If you like House MD or Ally McBeal, you will like this series.
There's no better legal drama.
I grew up watching L.A. Law as a teenager in the 1980s, right through to 'Finish Line' in 1994.
It had so many elements that drew me to it, including the story lines that focused both in the professional & personal lives of the characters.
In particular, these were Michael Kuzak, Grace Van Owen, Victor Sifuentes, Benny Stulwicz (the role that earned 'Darkman' Larry Drake an Emmy), Leland McKenzie, Ann Kelsey & Stuart Markowitz.
Memorable episodes included the one where Benny goes before Judge Richard Lobel (Stanley Grover) to exercise his right to vote, one in which Jonathan Rollins (Blair Underwood) cross-examines an ethically bankrupt financial adviser (Richard Masur) into a fatal heart attack, one in which Grace prosecutes a gang member for a prison guard's murder then is targeted herself, one in which the despicable Rosalind Shays (Diana Muldaur) falls to her death in an open elevator shaft, and the Earl Williams trial in which Kuzak squares off against A.D.A. Margaret Flanagan (played by Veronica Cartwright of 'Alien' fame).
In later years, some of the characters came & went (as with any series); some of the new ones (such as A.D.A. Tommy Mullaney, Jane Galloway, C.J. Lamb & A.D.A. Zoey Clemmons) were quite likable, while others (Susan Bloom, Frank Kittridge) bordered on loathsome.
The original characters were what really held the series together and made it so popular.
Some of today's well- known actors (Larry Drake of 'Darkman' and Dann Florek of 'Law & Order' and 'Law & Order:SVU') got their big start with supporting roles in this series.20 years after it ended its run, L.A. Law still has a popular following.
From its second season onward,this show was a stalwart of "Must See Thursday" and,for much of that run,carried the banner ably and even proudly.The exploits of the Los Angeles law firm of McKenzie,Brackman and(by season three)Becker covered the work and(to greater or lesser degrees)their lives.
Even though the show had its ostensible "stars"(at the onset,it was Harry Hamlin and Susan Dey as firm mates Michael Kuzak and Grace VAn Owen,later it was Jimmy Smits as fiery attorney Victor Sifuentes,Corbin Bersen as perpetually sleazy divorce attorney Arnie Becker or Blair Underwood as smooth,black lawyer Jonathan Rollins),this show was as much about supporting players(most notably Horror/Sci-Fi staple Larry Drake as the gentle,high-functioning retarded office worker Benny Stulwicz,Alan Rachins as the upright,uptight head of litigation Douglas Brackman,John Spenser as rumpled,recovering alcoholic lawyer Tommy Mulaney and,of course,veteran actor Richard Dysart as senior partner Leland McKenzie)and the writing,which tackled a whole smörgåsbord of issues of the day as well as a variety of cases ranging from the absurd to the morose(sometimes in the same episode!).
The show had some dark turns(most notably around season five,when the show changed producers for the first of two times)and the cast became a revolving door of "main" characters,but all in all,it still evened out to make a good run.
Creator Steven Bochco(post-"Hill Street Blues",pre-"NYPD Blue") and co-producer/writer David Kelley(before "Picket Fences","Boston Legal","The Practice","Ally McBeal",etc.)made a fine offering of television that I recall favorably.
While I may not run out to buy the eps on DVD,I wouldn't rule out watching an episode if I run across one in the vast landscape that is cable reruns..
Besides quality acting by some great actors, the writing was superb.
For those waiting it on DVD as much as me, you can look it up on AMazon (under L.A. Law) and enter your email for information on when it will be available.
Hi All, I live in Taiwan, I really love these shows, I watch it every Saturday night back to the 1980s, it was the in the end of 1980s, I really miss these old time, I'd like to know where I can find it in DVD?It's OK if there are only tapes available.
A beautifully crafted legal drama with characters that last a lifetime.
Not since "The Practice" have we had a legal drama as well made as "LA Law." I recently read the pilot script and the show came to life as if I was watching it on television.
LA Law shows the importance of the executive producer in episodic television.
The best part of the first three years is that one never knew who to root for, the most successful characters were the slimiest, the nice guys never got ahead, that's life and LA Law wasn't afraid to say it though it always challenged the audience to consider what this meant.
The cast of "L.A. Law".
I want to say that L.A. Law is the best show on TV.
I want to meet the cast members especially Blair Underwood.
Less than two dozen reviews for a show which, like the Buffy/Angel series which was yet to come, essentially changed the face of prime time drama?
In the 60 and 70s, TV dramas (eg- Perry Mason, Mannix) were about the stories not the characters.
If you wanted to learn about the characters, you had to infer the information from things that happened in the main narrative.
Every now and then the writers might give the viewer a treat and actually do an episode about the main character himself/herself, but these were few and far between.
Shows like this one by Bochko (and his HILL STREET BLUES, which preceded it) paved the way for the type of work that Whedon (and others) would deliver later.
Ultimately we would end up with programming in the current generation like Arrow (also reviewed by this scribe in the IMDb) where the line between dramatic narrative and soap opera has become indistinguishable, and no one, not even the Head Writer, really knows where the series is headed.
It also did not hurt that Harry Hamelin was voted at the time "sexiest man alive;" and that in an early episode, Bochko presented the viewer with an office party where the short, dull, nerdy lawyer (nicely played by Michael Tucker) got drunk and made a pass at the tall blonde Nordic-goddess lawyer played by Jill Eikenberry.
I saw the first few seasons of L.A. Law and some story lines really stuck out.
This was a terrific legal drama about a hodgepodge of lawyers in an upscale legal firm in Los Angeles, and it focused on their cases and their lives.
The story lines were terrific as were the characters, like the womanizing Arnie (a character you usually find in sitcoms!), the retarded office worker Bennie, the Hispanic attorney Victor who knew he had been hired to meet racial status quos, and the nasty attorney who met her end when she fell down the elevator shaft.
Anyone who likes legal dramas will love this show.
Allot of people give Steve Bochco all the credit for the shows success as well they should because he read a screen play called From The Hip ands in turn hired the writer of said screen play.
While Bochco wrote many amazing moments in Hill Street, it was David E.
Hardest thing for this writer is every show after it was compared to LA Law. People complained about that in the case of Harry's Law. But at least it was considered in the shadow of Boston Legal.
Although LA Law is entertaining enough, the more episodes that I view the more nauseated that I get.
But LA Law would have us believe that not only are lawyers "Whores with a Heart", but that they are "Whores with a Heart" who happen to be "Beautiful People" as well.
The portrayal of lawyers in LA Law would be Utterly Hilarious, were it not for the fact that naive and inexperienced viewers are led to believe that lawyers are actually Good Guys who really care about their clients. |
tt0108281 | Tai ji: Zhang San Feng | Junbao and Tienbo grow up together in a Shaolin Temple as monks, studying the martial arts and generally getting into trouble. They are both expelled from the temple after Tienbo almost kills a fellow student who cheats in a fight against him. Aided in their escape by their sympathetic teacher, they receive final instructions regarding the potential paths of their different personalities, with a specific warning given to Tienbo. They both then go into the outside world to find their way in life. Meanwhile, a gang of henchmen are forcibly taking money from a local shop owner. A woman named Miss Li steals the money and returns it. Having noticed the money gone, the henchmen start to fight with Miss Li. Miss Li holds her own during the fight, but soon gets into a bit of trouble due to her being outnumbered. Junbao comes to her aid and defeats the gang. Army reinforcements arrive to break up the fight and so the trio run away to escape capture. At this moment the eunuch governor travels through the town, roughing up the locals as he does so. Tienbo realizes that he wants to be as rich and powerful as the governor, but Miss Li warns him that the governor has "the heart of a viper" and wonders if he could handle this power. Miss Li then shows them to a pub to get food.
Inside the pub, they find a woman named Siu-lin. Siu-lin is searching for her lost husband, during which she supports herself by playing on a sanxian that said husband gave to her as a gift. She finds him inside the pub as the new husband of the governor's niece. The niece starts a battle with Sui Lin where they both seem equal, but the husband hits Siu Lin on her head with a stool causing her to collapse. Junbao helps Siu Lin by defending her against her ex-husband and the niece's guards.
The next day, while Junbao and Tienbo are making money with their amazing kung fu skills, the governor's second in command spots them and is impressed with Tienbo's abilities (and his eagerness to kow-tow to authority.) He offers him to join the army (which he readily accepts) however, Junbao is more reluctant to do so and declines going with Tienbo and so the two go their separate ways. Later, some soldiers come to the pub to collect taxes (which have increased due to the governor’s greedy nature) but Junbao and the rebels (who have stolen great valuables from the governor to give back to the poor) fight and kills them one by one. One soldier escapes alive and starts off towards the army's camp to warn them about the rebels with Junbao in pursuit. Just in front of the army encampment, Tienbo kills the soldier before he warns the rest of the army about the rebels whereabouts. Tienbo warns Junbao to stay clear of the rebels as they'll get him into trouble. Now knowing where the rebels are hiding however, Tienbo takes this unique opportunity to gain a promotion. He sets a trap for Junbao and the rebels by telling them that the army is on patrol and when would be the best time to attack them.
Junbao and Siu-lin collect all the rebels from the region, and go to the army camp (thus, falling for Tienbo's trap). A big battle occurs where most of the rebels die. Tienbo captures Miss Li and Siu Lin. In the end, the only survivors are Junbao and a few rebels.
Because of the trap, the governor promotes Tienbo to lieutenant. With his new authority (and some poignant advice from the governor) Tienbo kills Miss Li, and holds Siu-lin as bait so that he can try to convert Junbao to the army's cause. This is unsuccessful and Junbao rescues her. Due to the fact that his best friend betrayed him, Junbao's mind snaps and he goes crazy for days. While recuperating in the countryside with Siu-lin, he has a sudden epiphany that leads to him regaining his mental health and inspiration for the creation of the martial art of Tai Chi Chuan.
While the governor is traveling to Beijing to see the empress, he encounters Junbao and Siu-lin who defeats his niece the soldiers guarding him. With the governor captured as a hostage, they go to the army camp and demand Tienbo to surrender his wealth and his power. Due to his arrogance, Tienbo declines and starts to fight Junbao thinking that he is still the inferior fighter. To Tienbo's surprise, however, Junbao is now fighting using the heretofore unseen style of Tai Chi Chuan. Because the style relies less on size, power, speed and strength, Junbao is able to fend off Tienbo with ease. Seeking an additional advantage in their fight, Tienbo kills the governor in order to gain complete control over the troops surrounding them. Siu Lin intervenes and convinces them not to listen to Tienbo as he just betrayed their leader. Seeing this (and also the way Tienbo utilizes his troops as battle fodder), the troops back off and leave Tienbo's fate to Junbao. After a stunning series of parries and blows by Junbao, Tienbo is defeated and ultimately killed due to his reluctance to accept fate and admit defeat.
After the fight Siu-lin and Junbao go their separate ways with Junbao returning to the Shaolin temple and establishing his own school to teach Tai Chi Chuan. | revenge, entertaining, violence | train | wikipedia | There are some minor flaws, like a times you can see wires, or things just look really fake, but it doesn't really take anything away from the film and is very entertaining.
"Twin Warriors" is one of the best martial arts films I have seen, there are at least 20 different fight scenes all of them spectacular.
Jet Li does a good job of acting here, he isn't as serious as he usually is, Michelle Yeoh who proved she could kick ass in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" shows her skills here as well.
The action scenes for the most part are believeable, a few of them go over the top but other than that I was totally into them, if you're looking for pure martial arts action with a decent story and acting, give Twin Warriors a look..
This movie has it all: friendship, love, betrayal, corruption, murder, and comedy, not to mention the kung fu Style of Shaolin which will never cease to amaze, bewilder, and captivate the viewer.The plot itself is simple and easy to follow.
Things come to head when Chin Bo takes things a little too far during a kung fu initiation, attacking a master with some of the master's own secret kung fu moves.Forced to leave the temple Junbao and Chin Bo are forced to live as street entertainers, demonstrating their kung fu and ability to absorb punishment for money.
It is a well made tale of an ousted Shaolin monk who through hardship and madness, learns the ultimately taoist T'ai Chi Chuan.The thing I love about this film, (and you'd have to be a geek to go with this} but I love the fact that he learns T'ai Chi through his own hardships, not from a sifu (teacher), and the typical sifu or friend who dies is his friend, who, instead of dying, turns evil with power.The entire movie is a great representation of Taosism (yin, yang, good and evil}.
Good guy gets defeated, learns a new style of Gong Fu and defeats the bad guy, but then again, isn't that what Star Wars took 3 films to accomplish?Anyway, my opinion of this film is tainted by the fact that I'm a taoist, but the action is top notch, nobody flies for no reason, all the characters (even the comic relief) are fleshed out.
If you like martial arts, and even a little comedy, watch this Yuen Woo Ping classic.The opening Tai Chi training scene is so well done (see how everyone's movements are in sync) and sets the standard for the film.
The Shaolin "Luo Han Pole" formation scene must be watched in slo-mo to really appreciate it.Jet does an awesome job as Junbao and his martial arts is amazing.
From the spinning table scene fight to battling an army of soldiers, Yeoh really demonstrates her fighting prowess and acting ability as well.Being that this was the first Jet Li film I've seen, it's one of my all-time favorites.
One of my favorite Hong Kong actors, Jet Li, does what I call his best film in "Tai Chi Master." Starring alongside Michelle Yeoh and a dozen other folks whose name I forgot, Li plays Junbao, a monk whose best friend betrays him and becomes a ruthless whacko.
While some parts are just too cheesy to mention, i.e. people flying around and some ridiculously hokey-looking effects (you can see the cable attached to a guy's back at one point), the best fights take place with just good ol' Jet Li, a pole, and an army of bad guys, where there is no room to fly around or do the ultra-powerful Buddhist Palms.
And then gets ready for the best fight scene ever which was going on for like really long time.
Good Wuxia Fun. As a t'ai chi player, I watched this film hoping to see a lot of t'ai chi (I'd already started running scenarios in my head where the brash young Jet Li learns t'ai chi from Michelle Yeoh).
Of course this mix will probably be insufferable to anyone who isn't into wuxia, but if you like the kind of martial arts films where combatants call out the name of the move they're about to do, you'll love this.
Twin Warriors succeeds as a martial arts film because it keeps us entertained with almost a constant stream of highflying action sequences.
However, due in part to poor dubbing; the drama scenes between the fights are laughable.The story follows that of two friends, Chin Bo and Juanbo (Siu-hou Chin and Jet Li), two monks that becomes friends at, and later get thrown out of a Shaolin Temple.
They meet a young woman, Siu Lin, and start to help her out but, after thinking about the future, the two friends go their separate ways with Chin Bo becoming a soldier and Junbao falling in with Siu Lin and a group of rebels.With Hero currently being touted all over the place as the greatest thing ever, I thought I'd just avoid the multiplex hype and view some older Jet Li films, one of which was Twin Warriors, as it is known in the UK.
As such he does well to produce some exciting fights that demonstrate how good wire work can be only once or twice does he hit a bad note (Junbao's bouncing head butt was more silly than exciting).
None of the fights really stand out as being one of the greats, they are often too contrived and and are (surprisingly) rather flatly filmed at times; but they are still enjoyable and are certainly a lot more fun than the stuff that Jet Li has been reduced to in his American films in the past few years.
Sometimes dubbing is OK with this but here I didn't think some of it was very good and they messed with the characters by the manner of their delivery the Emperor was the worst, he was done by some guy giving a very bad Peter Lorre impression.Overall this is an enjoyable film from a martial arts point of view but it really isn't that great.
I saw this movie (the original Tai Chi Master version) based in part on the recommendations on this site and I was sorely disappointed.I'm a big fan of Fist of Legend (Jet Li and Siu-hou Chin) and thus had high hopes for this one, but the fights here are not nearly as entertaining (not even semi-realistic or convincing), the plot is not really bad but the silly (badly done) wire fu makes the movie seem unintentionally silly..
The fighting sequences in this movie are top-notch, and are some of the best choreographed scenes I've seen in a long time.
I think that Wachowski brothers also loved this film because "The Matrix" has some almost identical fighting scenes, but who can blame them when those scenes here are among the best martial art scenes ever filmed.
That said, I don't remember when I last saw a movie as relentlessly fun and Twin Warriors (the American title of the film apparently called Tai ji Zhang San Feng in Hong Kong).
Directed by Woo-Ping Yuen, who's now best known as the master behind The Matrix's martial arts sequences, Twin Warriors adds a new twist in every battle, whether it's Yeoh turning a broken bar table into stilts, or Li deciding to fight an entire skirmish using only his head.
Yeoh is similarly weak when she isn't fighting and she spends a bit too much of the movie being victimized to actually be doing her full duty as a twin warrior.Still and all, as films of this genre go, it doesn't get much better than this.
Junbao eventually joins forces with other concerned rebels in confronting the tyranny of the evil Governor (Jian Kui Sun) as well as Chin Bo, a newly minted general."Tai Chi Master", also known as "Twin Warriors" in North America, is an invigorating example of this genre.
(Yes, you can sometimes see the wires holding performers in the air or pulling them along, but not often enough for it to really be a problem.) The comedy is frequently hilarious, and it's quite a joy to see action icon Michelle Yeoh bust out some comedy chops as her character Siu Lin turns to drink as a way of trying to forget about an unfaithful husband.
Siu-Ho Chin is excellent as the antagonistic Chin Bo, letting power go to his head, abusing his soldiers, and betraying his former friends.The film gets fairly gory at times, and the English translations of the Asian dialogue do contain some profanity.
It tells an adult story without ever getting too, too unpleasant."Tai Chi Master" has its over the top moments, but it does have some heart in addition to the action and humour, and the poignancy of a long friendship gone sour, so fans of the genre are sure to enjoy it.Seven out of 10..
The world is cruel, you don't meet force with force.'Soft' - sudden enlightenment in the mountains, madness and gibberish as meditation, coupled with a series of visual meditation in the exercise doll centered low, spinning ball and transference by wave, all of which are also keen in-sights into taiji structure.And 'hard' again in the rousing finale where he defeats hordes of opponents - nevermind the far-fetched fiction, look for the noticeable transition in Jet Li from previous kung fu into now fluid motions, circular evasion and low stances.It works much better for me than Once Upon in China or the later Crouching Tiger, where again you will see Michelle Yeoh and a lot of taiji.
This movie's other title "Twin Warriors" might be more appropriate title for this movie, as two ex-disciples goes separate ways one becoming the military general, and the other a rebel.The story takes place in Shaolin temple where two disciples Jun bao (Jet Li) and Tian Bo (Siu- Ho Chin) joins as a child apprentice monk.
As a wushu athlete my self I understood the movements the hong kong action stars have to endure so I can relate I was present during the filming of this movie it was fascinating how the director uses thin wires to create special effects that cost millions in the US try to get the the uncut U.K version.
The authentic dialogue is lost even though DVD has the ability to give the VIEWER the option of the way he/she wants to watch the movie.It is widely known that real Kung Fu fans would much rather have the real dialogue along with subtitles, than some bad english dubbing.
If you want to see this movie (and you should) find the one that said "Tai Chi Master" or "Tai ji Zhang San Feng" (the real title), and pass by "Twin Warriors" unless you love English Dubbed flixs..
I love this movie, Its my Buffy Of Martial Arts Movies, The only Martial arts film what comes close is Jet Li's Legend Of The FistIt's the kind of film you will want to watch over and over again because its that good..
The endearing innocence which Jet Li brings to his character, and the fluidity of his "Taoist boxing", real or assisted (remember when he acted like the punching bag, swinging around and knocking his weight into his opponent as if he had concentrated all his weight in his feet?) The picture and sound are much lower quality than other Yuen Woo-ping movies within a year's radius (Iron Monkey, Wing Chun), but it's difficult to notice such superficial markers of quality when the pacing, emotional power and action of the movie so surpass the era's other offerings.Another of the movie's fine points is the natural flow of its few comic sections.
While Fist of legend is clearly Jet's best film of the 90's TCM is a great runner up.The film is the story of two shoalin students who are thrown out of the temple and after a life time of friendship end up on the opposing sides of a rebellion.
The story while very, very loosely based on the life of Tai-chi's inventor , trades a serious story for Humor which is done effectively.Perhaps one minor problem is the best fight scene comes early in the film.
But it moves quickly and contains some wonderful martial arts scenes.Michelle Yeoh interests me very much as an actress.
Regardless of the way you watch Twin Warriors, the film is just not good although I must admit the bad synchronization on part of the American distributor made it worse at times.
Review: I always like watching these martial arts movies that show the Buddha monks training.
The epic fight scene at the end was brilliant because you have seen these two close friends grow apart but Jet Li has managed to keep his discipline to his art.
Enjoyable!Round-Up: In this film, you really see different sides to Jet Li. At the beginning, he's very vulnerable and he totally looks up to his best friend.
A classic concept for all Kung Fu fans.I recommend this movie to people who are into their Jet Li movies about 2 orphans who are close friends through there childhood but then they grow apart because one longs for power and money.
It's not worth more than 6/10, but I give it less in order to balance things since it was rated pretty high by a lot of people that clearly haven't seen too many good movies, especially from this category *sigh* Yes, Jet Li does play in this movie, but that doesn't mean it's a great one.
I had plenty more fun watching Lone Wolf staring Chuck Norris to be honest :) This movie is a disappointment to the genre and it makes the Shaolin monks look pretty bad overall..
It was simply a fantastic martial arts movie...Think along the lines of a mixture of Gordon Liu's Master Killer, Michelle Yeoh's Wing Chun and The Iron Monkey.
This film isn't half bad, there's quite a lot of story, plot and rich characterisation - especally in the main characters - but the whole thing tastes like a lighter version of Star Wars.The version I saw was heavily dubbed and thus every mannerisim, quote and line got me thinking of star wars - for example, Jet Li's best friend goes to the dark side - the evil white heared emperor tells Jet Li's friend-turned-evil that he must crush the "rebellion" in order to celebrate the emperor's rise to power.There is quite a lot to marvel about - the fight sequences are good, but the SFX and the wire-fu is incredibly sloppy - you can see every wire in every scene - it is really annoying - but it is enjoyable non the less.Overall: 5/10.
Woo Ping Yuen has done some of the best martial arts movies in Magnificent Butcher(1979), Dreadnaught(1981), Iron Monkey(1993), Tai Chi Master(1993), and Wing Chun(1994).
Jet Li shows grace and style in the final fight scene between Junbao and Chinbo.
Michelle Yeoh kicks mean butt in this one, too...she has such a lovely grace when she fights, as does Jet Li.
Junbao recovery is due to learning the art of Tai Chi to face off against Tienbao with the help of Siu Lin. The story is very good and tragic, its almost like a Chinese Macbeth, a man turned evil by the pursuit of power, and his friend the only one to stop him.
Yuen Woo-Ping does an amazing job directing the movie and choreographing the fight scenes.
The chemistry between Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh is solid; Siu Lin is a great friend and ally.
Twin Warriors is amazing, top notch performances and brilliant full force action scenes, along with great music make this film a Hong Kong classic many will and have enjoy!***** 5 stars Ryojin20 favorite!.
Nonetheless, the fight scenes are sometimes incredible, and at other times somewhat ridiculous.Jet Li takes on an entire army in this movie, armed only with a length of bamboo.
I was expecting "Tai Chi Master" to be an entertaining and dramatic martial arts movie.
The only problem with the film is the (very) noticeable wire work, especially in the final sequences, but this doesn't spoil what is a very fluid and beautiful film to watch.Jet Li seems more self-assured and amiable here than he did in the ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA movies, and he's ably supported by a strong cast that includes an excellent Yuen Cheung-Yan as the unlucky Reverend Ling and ass-kicking Michelle Yeoh as the feisty female lead.
This Hong Kong action film follows the lives of Junbao and Chin Bo who grow up learning Kung Fu in a Shaolin temple.
Jet Li is on great form as Junbao and he is ably supported by Michelle Yeoh as a fellow rebel.
Overall I'd certainly recommend this to anybody wanting plenty of martial arts action and lots of laughs.This comments are based on watching the 'Tai-Chi Master' version of the film in Cantonese with English subtitles..
If you're here to watch a Jet Li film with mind blowing action, you've come to the right place.
There is some fantastic Tai- Chi in this movie, with Jet Li at his best.
ONE of the BEST martial arts films you will ever see!.
The only thing western is the English dubbing, which is cheesy yet funny to listen to.I cannot give enough praise on this movie as it is but you will have to see Tai ji: Zhang San Feng (a.k.a. Twin Warriors) for yourself, even if you are not into Kung Fu movies or even if you don't like foreign films.
The first scenes; set in the temple, are the best seen in a long time and give a real sense of power for the style.
This is a review of "Tai Chi Master" starring Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh.Two shaolin monks grew up together practicing martial arts.
I think they have done this so many times the fake actions looks natural to them.I don't know what the fascination with michelle yeoh is. |
tt0465624 | My Super Ex-Girlfriend | After foiling a purse snatcher who tries to steal Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman)'s purse on the subway, Matthew Saunders (Luke Wilson) becomes Jenny's "hero" and starts dating this shy stranger. After several dates, Jenny displays increasingly neurotic and aggressive behavior, becoming more demanding and ultimately injuring Matt and destroying his bed the first time they have sex. Soon after, Jenny reveals to him that she is in fact the voluptuous blonde superheroine, G-Girl, who accidentally received powers such as flight, superhuman strength, speed, and senses, invulnerability, super breath, and heat vision after she was exposed to radiation from a crashed meteorite as a teenager. Jenny starts to become more controlling after she reveals her powers and Matt starts to lose his mind.
Hannah Lewis (Anna Faris), Matt's co-worker, has a crush on him despite the fact that she is going out with a handsome but shallow underwear model. As Matt and Hannah's friendship develops further, and after becoming aggravated with Jenny's escalating jealousy, Matt ends the relationship. An enraged Jenny vows to make Matt regret the decision, using her superpowers to publicly embarrass him, throwing his car into space and eventually causing him to lose his job as an architect when she strips him naked during an important meeting. Professor Bedlam (Eddie Izzard), Jenny's former friend, and now G-Girl's nemesis, contacts Matt in order to enlist his aid in defeating her. Matt refuses and makes plans to leave the city. As he does so he is contacted by Hannah who has broken up with her cheating boyfriend, and after confessing their feelings to one another, they end up in bed.
Jenny (as G-Girl) discovers them in bed the next day. Enraged and jealous, she attacks the pair with a great white shark. Angered, Matt contacts Professor Bedlam and agrees to help him defeat her, as long as Bedlam retires from being a supervillain. He instructs Matt to lure Jenny to a meeting where she can be exposed to another meteorite that will draw away her powers, leaving her a mere mortal. Matt agrees and meets Jenny for a candlelit dinner at his apartment, under the pretense of wanting to resume their relationship. Hannah arrives to see Jenny sitting on Matt's lap. The two women fight, and in the struggle Jenny's superhero identity is revealed to Hannah. Bedlam's trap is sprung, and the energy that gave Jenny her powers is drained back into the meteorite, incapacitating Jenny.
Professor Bedlam appears, but reveals that he has no intention of keeping his promise to retire from villainy and in fact plans to take the powers for himself. While he and Matt fight, Jenny crawls to the charged meteorite attempting to regain her powers. Hannah intervenes just as Jenny grabs the meteorite, which explodes in a burst of power. Both Hannah and Jenny are catapulted off the roof, apparently to their deaths; Jenny appears within seconds, powers restored, threatening even more mayhem. Only the unexpected reappearance of Hannah, who was also exposed to the meteorite's energies, and now possesses the same powers as G-Girl, saves Matt. The second fight between Hannah and Jenny is a full-on super-brawl, destroying part of the neighboring properties. Finally, Matt reasons with them both and they cease fighting. He tells Jenny that Professor Bedlam is her true love. Jenny agrees and she embraces her former nemesis.
The next morning, Matt and Hannah meet up with Professor Bedlam (now just "Barry") and Jenny. As cries for help are heard from afar, Jenny and Hannah, who have become partners in crime-fighting, take off to tackle the emergency. Matt and Barry are left holding their girlfriends' purses and clothes, and leave to have a beer together. | revenge, entertaining, violence, stupid | train | wikipedia | It's funny, but it's not pretty ..It's a delightful premise, hell hath no fury like a super-heroine scorned, and those involved don't altogether carry it off, but it has its moments, and I think I'll get the DVD.I liked this movie ...
However, director Ivan Reitman and writer Don Payne (of the "Simpson's") almost fatally miscalculate in having their hero G-Girl (played by striking Uma Thurman) come off as a total nut job as both Superhero and secret identity persona Jenny Johnson.
The movie even cops to this in a conversation between Jenny and Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) following his rescue by G-Girl from the Statue of Liberty.
Matt replies, "She's kind of nutty
" I think the intent was to have Jenny (Thurman) be this lonely young woman, who has no one in her life, isolated by her great physical powers.
Luke Wilson is way too breezy in the role reversal of boyfriend and superhero girl friend."My Super Ex-Girlfriend" is also a victim of bad timing, coming on the tail end of "Superman Returns" which plays Superhero straight up, so to speak.
With all its quirks and inconsistent writing I still thought "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" was funny and enjoyed the movie.
Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) thinks he has found the perfect woman in Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman), who seems like a quiet but pretty woman, though he soon learns that she's needy and possessive, oh, and she's also the superhero G-Girl, though you wouldn't know it from the things she does to Matt after he freaks out and breaks up with her.A promising premise is ruined by a mediocre execution.
After a successful run in the eighties and early nineties, he started making crap like Evolution and Father's Day. I wouldn't say My Super Ex-Girlfriend is a complete bust but I don't give him credit for any of the quality the movie holds, which isn't too much.
My Super-Ex Girlfriend;; Matt Saunders(Luke Wilson) is uneasy when he meets Jenny Johnson(Uma Thurman), who comes off to him as a shy, needy librarian type.
Little does anybody know, G-Girl is really Jenny Johnson.When Matt introduces Jenny to his long-time work friend Hannah(Ana Faris), Jenny begins to act jealous and controlling, which leads to him dumping her.
It's no masterpiece, but it had me in tears from laughing on more than one occasion - the two lead characters twirl around each other in a crazy love fest that is, even with the superhero thing going, believable.So. Thin story, but worked out really funny and thus worthy of cinema time.7 out of 10 broken hearts.
My Super Ex Girlfriend turned out to be a pleasant surprise for me, I was really expecting a horrible movie that would probably be stupid and predictable, and you know what?
I know that this was a very cheesy movie, but Uma and Anna were just so cool and Steve was such a great addition along with a great cast that looked like they had so much fun and that's what made the movie really work.Jenny Johnson(scary, that's my best friend's actual name) is not your typical average librarian looking woman, when Matt, your average male, asks her out, he's in for more than he expected, he's asked G-Girl out on a date, the super hero of the world!
But when he finds out what a jealous and crazy girl she really is and decides that it may be a good idea that they spend some time apart, but Jenny won't have it since he's fallen for another girl, Hannah, and she will make his life a living hell, I mean, let's face it, he couldn't have chosen a better girl to break up with.The effect were corny, but you seriously move past them quickly, the story and cast made the story really work and I loved Uma in this movie, it was such a step up from Prime.
My Super Ex Girlfriend is a fun movie that you shouldn't really take seriously, it's just a cute romantic comedy that I think if I could get a laugh out of it, anyone could.7/10.
Yes, it is nothing spectacular, but if you are after some really light, fun and cool movie, this one is great one.I actually don't like many of those comedy / romance films, but this one is actually funny!
This distaff Superman, with powers bestowed upon her by a fallen meteorite, isn't a fantasy heroine, however...screenwriter Don Payne has conceived her as a needy, possessive, vindictive bitch (he telegraphs this to us from miles away, though Uma Thurman still plays the role for sassy laughs).
A lot of sexual stuff, but when your dealing with Uma, and Anna, its okay.I would have like to have seen Vince Vaughn play the part of "Vaughn" and although Luke Wilson played the part well, it was definitely a Ben Stiller-type character.Within 10 minuets, it already, to me, beat out superman as the best superhero movie this year.Highly Recommended..
The supporting cast was also superb especially Anna Faris who was extremely good (A lot better than in the Scary Movie franchise).Ivan Rietman did very well in directing this film because if it wasn't for him and Uma Thurman this film wouldn't have done so well.
I don't know I just found this movie very funny...the effects were rather good for a goofy comedy and it had a very likable cast.
The acting is poor, and the worst thing about this film is the payoff at the end, or lack thereof.Why Luke Wilson still gets film roles is beyond me, and now is probably the time for Uma Thurman to start doing costume dramas - she is not physically attractive, and to my mind, hardly ever was.Eddie Izzard, one of the world's most innovative, imaginative and hilarious comedians is reduced to a pithy, forgettable yet cringe-worthy role as the, "evil," bad guy of the piece, but has to stick with the pathetic script that he's been dealt and cannot add any of his own genius to the film.The special effects look cheap and nasty for this day and age, but are probably the best thing about this poor film.If you like the extremely mediocre, then you'll love this film.
And i also like how Uma Thurman plays the superhero g-girl i think she's a great actress!!!
Ultimately, I think the most important point the movie makes is that if someone isn't in love with you, you can't change that through force- even if you're as hot as Uma Thurman (and she is as smoking hot as ever) and have special scary powers.
But then his luck begins to change when he meets Jenny (Uma Thurman) who is also a well known superhero named G-Girl, who has the same powers has Superman, well pretty much.
I thought it was the funniest thing I'd seen in over a year.Yet I understand why some people might either be offended by sex humor; expect it to be a Bill Murray movie; just not get some of the crude humor or ironic "stealth humor"; not dig comic book heroes; or even think Jenny Johnson/G-Girl's behavior was totally appropriate, and therefore see it as drama rather than as comedy.It's not a movie for the chronically uptight, but I'm not rating this movie for how others might feel about it.You could wait for the DVD rental if you're broke, but I thought the superhero action looked good on the big screen.
Before seeing it I had a fairly good idea that it wouldn't be genius - the premise seemed far too silly and stupid for anything good to come out of it, but at the back of my mind I was thinking "but there must be something good about it for UMA THURMAN and Luke Wilson do to the film..." not that I think either of them are particularly terrific but they are big-named stars who would normally only do films that would enhance their reputations.
Uma Thurman is an absolutely beautiful and delightful woman, she is great as super heroine g-girl, as for the other supporting characters they are there to be there since all or most of our attention ought to be focused on Uma. Anyways, the movie plays out like any other great Ivan reitman film.
I just thought this movie was hilariously funny, like after the shark fell out the window, Hannah says, "Why did G Girl throw a shark at us?
When you watch the movie you can guess every punch line something like 30 seconds before it comes, and about 90% of the jokes aren't funny.
There is a really great, funny movie waiting to bust out of "My Super Ex-Girlfriend." It never quite happens.
In New York, when the shy and lonely project manager of a design firm Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) meets Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman) in the subway, he invites her to date and have dinner with him.
However, the archenemy of G-Girl and former high school sweetheart of Jenny, Professor Bedlam (Eddie Izzard), proposes Matt to lure Jenny to strip her superpowers."My Super Ex-Girlfriend" is delightfully silly and funny.
I think this is definitely a great 'first date' kind of movie, and even a 'hanging with the girls/guys' kinda film.
Fed up with her neediness and obsessive behaviour, Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) decides to dump G-Girl (Uma Thurman), his superhero girlfriend.
Miffed at being ditched, G-Girl proceeds to make Matt's life a misery, trashing his car, boiling his goldfish, and even throwing a live shark into his new girlfriend's apartment.At the end of his tether, Matt agrees to help master villain Professor Bedlam (Eddie Izzard) to strip G-Girl of her powers.After watching nothing but horror movies recently, I was in the mood for a silly, undemanding piece of vacuous fluff; with My Super Ex-Girlfriend, that's exactly what I got.The comedy is thankfully more 'hit' than 'miss' (although it is admittedly fairly low-brow stuff, with plenty of crude jokes about sexlet the kiddies watch this one, and be prepared to have to answer awkward questions), there are plenty of flashy special effects, and the plot sees everything ending up hunky-dory by the closing credits.Uma Thurman proves that she is adept at comedy and delivers a fun performance, switching effortlessly between being smoking hot (G-Girl is a total babe!) and convincingly menacing; Luke Wilson looks sufficiently confused as his life is turned upside-down; Anna Faris (as Matt's true-love Hannah) is her usual yummy self; and Eddie Izzard is...
Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) thinks he's finally found the perfect girlfriend, the beautiful Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman) -- who just so happens to be a superhero.
Rated PG-13 for Violence,Language and Sexual Content.My Super Ex-Girlfriend is a romantic comedy with an interesting and original concept.Its about a man who gets a girlfriend but the girlfriend is really a superhero.She is also controlling and the man doesn't like her very much after a while.He breaks up with her and she gets very angry and starts making his life a living hell by getting him fired from his job and ruining his house.Meanwhile her nemesis/ex-boyfriend wants to destroy her and gets her other ex-boyfriend to help him.My Super Ex-Girlfriend is a film that's funny at times and has an original concept but other than that.Its just your average romantic-comedy..
Unfortunately, this film just seems like it fell into a chasm of wasted ideas, talent and humour.As anyone can guess from the movie's title, the film concerns a superhero, G-Girl/Jenny (Uma Thurman), and her boyfriend Matt (Luke Wilson).
Wanda Sykes plays another mouthy eccentric character, but after seeing her pull this same shtick in everything from her TV roles, to her work with Chris Rock, and even her animated roles in Barnyard and Over the Hedge, it is getting to be a bit overdone.Rainn Wilson, as Matt's friend Vaughn, actually emerges fairly unscathed from the film as just about the only thing to continue watching for.
It was actually a joy to watch him show up on-screen, because no matter how ridiculously bad the situation in the film was, Wilson would still manage to inject some sort of saving grace.On the whole, My Super Ex-Girlfriend is just one big mess of a movie.
This film combines comedy with special effects, just like "Ghostbusters", but comparing the two is painful: "Ghostbusters" had fun characters, "Girlfriend" has none.
I must also comment on the wonderful performance of Uma Thurman and a very surprising and convincing one by Luke Wilson.The rest of the cast is doing their share in an altogether nice comedy..
That leads into the movie's final battle, with a couple of surprises in store, as Matt tries to lure Jenny/G-Girl back under falsely altruistic pretenses.My Super Ex-Girlfriend is a funny, light-hearted movie, which puts a different spin on superhero movie conventions.
There was hardly anything funny in 'My Super Ex-Girlfriend' and that comes from a guy who liked director Ivan Reitman's 'Evolution'.
Here he lives in a New York where a superhero named G-Girl (Uma Thurman) becomes his girlfriend as Jenny Johnson.
omg, i totally did not like this movie EVEN ONE BIT it as truly AWFUL, it is so good to go see a movie where you can just turn your b rain off and just laugh but you do not even get that with this terrible movie, my friends and I all HATED it.The only funny thing was the shark scene but that was just one little piece out of an entire whole movie.
But that part was pretty good, but also they gave it away in the preview so you totally knew it was coming so it was not a truly big huge laugh.Luke Wilson is hot but that is not a good enough reason to spend your money to watch this.Terrible movie!.
I went to this movie with hopes of being entertained and having a good laugh as the preview made it look very funny.
My Super Ex-GirlfriendThe problem with dating a superhero is that they always have to 'save the world' right before the check arrives.Being stiffed with the bill however is just another reason why the civilian in this comedy dumped his super-girlfriend.When Matt (Luke Wilson) apprehends her mugger, Jenny (Uma Thurman) agrees to go out with him.
This is an extremely light romantic comedy starring Uma Thurman, Luke Wilson and Anna Faris.
The fight scene between Uma Thurman and the other girl was kinda cool.However, what put me down in this movie is something in the acting.
Despite the fact that Uma Thurman appears in a super-girl type outfit, it's not enough to redeem this sorry excuse for a movie.
It boasts also some very good performances from Uma Thurman as the ultra-neurotic and high-strung Jenny Johnson aka G-Girl, who can be as nuts as she is sweet and dangerous as heroic, and even Luke Wilson playing a typical kind of role with his sort of charm and off-handed way of playing scenes.
It may be a flip of the coin in which a comedy will be successful or not and it turns out "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" got the unfortunate half.This film will put a smile on your face when you finish watching this movie.
All the cast members give their share of laughs and Anna Faris' performance is actually her better performances than in the Scary Movie franchises.If you just want a light hearted fun action comedy that doesn't go into the serious issues in many superhero films, this film will win you over..
He hooks up with super girl, actually G-Girl, played by Uman Thurman.Now, it was a little corny seeing someone of Uma's ability acting like a school girl, but Izzard wasn't doing much better.Things get a little silly when he breaks up with her, and she and Anna Faris (all the Scary Movies) get it on with Luke as the prize.
Maybe one appreciates it more if one is used to watching "superhero" films like the Superman, Batman, X-Men, Spiderman etc franchises but, be that as it may, it sure made comedy sense to me.I won't say much about the story except that it is a good idea and works...
Other comedy caricatures that can be found are the loud supervisors, the stereotypical foreigners etc.The superhero bit was in fact incorporated quite well in this movie and even the few superhero acts that are performed are quite humorous and try and incorporate the fact that the superhero is actually a girl.The supervillian though was far from super and even though Eddie Izzard did a great job as the villain his character was completely wasted.The acting was great but Uma Thurman looked old and out of place I can think of a dozen better people to play this role.The jokes were quite funny with some really ones being the hilarious shark scene, the presentation scene, the sex scenes and my favourite the scene in the restaurant when Uma has to save the city.A few scenes bordered on intelligent especially the different descriptions of Umas childhood.
Who wants to be on the bad side of a Superhero!I read some reviews of this movie and some people were criticising the story, performance, etc..After watching this movie I must admit that the film was a great flick for a laugh and some good fun.
The cast of Uma Thurman, Luke Wilson and Anna Faris really work well together in a odd sort of way with the special effects not looking as cheesy as they could in a comedy.If you're looking for a film with stunning direction and consumptive story then rent something else, But if you want a snappy little comedy for a light night with friends or you partner and maybe a few beers then My Super Ex-girlfriend delivers!.
I obviously know of Uma Thurman, yet I don't think I had actually seen her in any other films so I had no preconceptions of her!
Luke Wilson, who plays Matt, does also bring in some great moments in the movie in acting out his characters attempts at coping with his super hero ex! |
tt0063643 | Stay Away, Joe | Elvis Presley stars as Native American rodeo rider Joe Lightcloud, a Navajo whose family still lives on the reservation. He returns to the reservation in a white Cadillac convertible with which he proceeds to drive cattle.
Joe persuades his Congressman (Douglas Henderson) to give him 20 heifers and a prize bull so he and his father (Burgess Meredith) can prove that the Navajos can successfully raise cattle on the reservation. If their experiment is successful, then the government will help all the Navajo people. But Joe's friend, Bronc Hoverty (L.Q. Jones) accidentally barbecues the prize bull, while Joe sells the heifers to buy plumbing and other home improvements for his stepmother, Annie Lightcloud (Katy Jurado).
Joe is able to borrow a bull, Dominick, but the bull is lackadaisical and shows no interest in the heifers. Mamie Callahan (Quentin Dean), the daughter of shot gun-toting tavern owner Glenda Callahan (Joan Blondell) can't seem to stay away from the girl-chasing Joe. Joe also trades in his horse at a used car dealership for a red convertible automobile from which he sells the parts off to obtain cash from a salvage yard. After almost all of the usable car parts are sold, he rides around in a beat-up motorcycle.
In order to raise money, Joe organizes a contest in which riders have to stay on Dominick, the unresponsive bull he procured from his friend as a replacement. In addition, Joe himself has to ride Dominick and stay on in order to win the prize money. Joe wins the contest and receives the prize money. In a fight at his father's house, Joe and his friends are involved in a large fight that destroys the house they have been building. | cult, violence, comic | train | wikipedia | As An Elvis Fan, I Loved It. Pretty much everybody who ever talks about this film says it's horrible and stupid.
Three of his friends (Charlie Hodge, Joe Esposito, and Sonny West) join him on this movie, and it only adds to the fun.Say what you want about this movie, but as an Elvis fan...I was just happy to get to spend over an hour laughing with the King.How can you stay away?.
Not Elvis' worst movie..
I have to disagree with a previous comment that this is Elvis' worst film.
Besides a very good-looking Elvis, the supporting cast Burgess Meredith, Katy Jurado & the wise-cracking Thomas Gomez (as grandpa) are a joy to watch.
And the opening title sequence with the camera flying over the Grand Canyon while the lovely "Stay Away" (a re-working of "Greensleeves") plays on the soundtrack must rank as one of the most beautiful openings in all of Elvis' movies..
This is better than Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid where she's on-screen for two minutes and even makes that film worth seeing.This is a silly comedy, with a few effective gags and lots of slapstick.
I think the movie is hated because 1)many of the Native American characters are played in brown make-up by Euro-American actors and they seem to childishly enjoy getting drunk and getting into fights.
Her age isn't mentioned, but she appears to be about 16 years old, at most.If you can get over these two offensive points, the movie is fun in a three stooges type of way.
This was one of his last films and he seems totally comfortable playing rodeo rider Joe Lightcloud.It is always nice to see Joan Blondell.
She had become a big star again in 1968 with her role on the hit television show,"Here Comes the Brides." Still, her role is pretty pedestrian as the bootlegger mother of Quentin Dean, who first tries to keep Elvis away from her, but then decides to use a gun to make him marry her.Still, its Katy Jurado's delightful small performance that made the film worth watching for me.
Elvis plays a half breed named Joe Lightclould who is always getting himself in trouble.
is an American Treasure, that should not be overlooked if you truly love Elvis Presley movies.
It accurately represents the living conditions of most First-Nations people at that time in American history...to this day reservations are plagued with poverty, broken down cars, and stray dogs...Elvis was not ashamed to portray a halfbreed native American, no matter how much this may have offended the straight, upper class, white America!
If you want honest camp, wild and crazy young people, great Elvis songs you must see this movie with a open mind, remember, you, watching this movie in the comfort of your home on a Sunday afternoon was not the intended audience!.
"Stay away, Joe" is one hilarious comedy movie.
One has to admit, that once or twice one gets the impression, the script wasn't quite finished when they started shooting (like in the overlong party sequence near the beginning) and the director wasn't as talented as Burt Kennedy, but we still get some 100 min.
As a fan of western movies I have seen all the Peckinpahs, Hawks' and Fords and I find it interesting that "Stay away, Joe" tells a similar story like "Junior Bonner" which was made several years later; rodeo champion returns home, wants to support his folks, encounters all sorts of problems.
Anyone who liked "Support your local gunfighter" will most likely enjoy "Stay away, Joe", too.
Elvis Presley plays a "half-breed" Native American ("Indian") who has to defend his reservation from nasty business tycoons.
Fighting, wrestling, and "punching out" each other replace the stereotypical hand-raised expression "How"?Although he does have make-up on, it's obvious Elvis is healthier than he appeared in prior films; possibly, he was getting ready for his famous "comeback".
Joan Blondell trying to seduce Elvis, and Burgess Meredith in "war paint", should be ashamed.The best song is "Stay Away" (actually, "Green Sleeves" with different lyrics).
** Stay Away, Joe (3/8/68) Peter Tewksbury ~ Elvis Presley, Burgess Meredith, Joan Blondell.
It's very sad when you see a big star like Elvis Presley get reduced to this.
Every Elvis movie that I've seen I've liked.
People say that Clambake is Elvis Presley's worst movie and Elvis himself almost refused to do it, but what was he thinking when he agreed to this.
This movie is just about Indians on a reservation that like to drink, party and roughhouse.
The only good parts in this movie are when Elvis is singing, running for his life, and fighting.
When you watch this movie it's not even like an Elvis movie.
Maybe Elvis wanted to get away from the same formula they used in his movies where he gets the girl.
Elvis Presley made very good movies.
See his other movies if you want to see a good Presley flick.
Elvis Presley plays an Indian bull-riding champ who leaves the rodeo for a stay at home on his folks' desert-spread in Arizona, where government suits have just invested in the family's herd of cattle (which is in dire need of a stud).
Despite colorful supporting turns by Katy Jurado and Joan Blondell, the general wackiness gets way out of hand, and there's too much hoopin' and hollerin' to sustain much interest.
As for Elvis, he's loose and frisky throughout--and while it's nice to see him having fun on-screen, one has to wonder if he had just given up on movies at this point.
This movie is not very good.In fact, it is the worst Elvis movie I have seen.It has very little plot,mostly partying,beer drinking and fighting.
As a true Elvis fan, this movie is a total embarrasment and the script is a disaster.
The movie opens with the beautiful son "Stay Away" and the scenery of the Grand Canyon gives the viewer hope of something special.
Elvis gets in the picture and his talent is wasted big time, especially on the rest of the featured songs.
Stay Away, Joe (1968) * (out of 4) Incredibly bad film has Elvis playing an Indian who also just happens to be a rodeo champion.
He decides to return to the reservation so that he can help his father (Burgess Meredith) raise cows but soon he gets into trouble with various women and some government men.
For starters, all of the white cast members are wearing tan paint to make them look like Indians and the first time we see Meredith he's an ignorant drunk.
The songs were equally as bad including one scene where Elvis sings to a bull.
The supporting cast are all pretty bad but Meredith comes off the worse with the most embarrassing performance and part I've ever seen him do.
Stay Away ELVIS Fans.
Watch ELVIS's skin change color throughout the film..
I'd place this easily in the lower two or three of Elvis Presley's very worst movies.
Presley plays Joe Whitecloud, a half-breed Indian bull rider who returns home to Arizona and the broken-down shack where his family lives, and where his friends love to party all night long.
His parents are played by Burgess Meredith and Katy Jurado, and his old Indian grandpa is Thomas Gomez.
The one thing that puzzles me, however, is that Elvis actually seems to be having a good time in the film.
Elvis plays Joe Lightcloud a modern Indian who returns to his reservation in order to assist his people with a goverment rehabilitation scheme.
Joe Lightcloud (Elvis Presley) returns home after a successful run on the rodeo circuit.
This fun romp of a movie also stars Joan Blondell, Thomas Gomez, Katy Jurado and L.Q. Jones.
To be honest, I haven't seen the movie, but just found the book in an old dusty bookstore (I liked the title because my hubby's name is "Joe" and the cover art was intriguing).
Funny to see that it was an Elvis movie -- but I bet he'd make a pretty good "Joe" now that I think of it.
Some here have commented that this is the WORST Elvis movie ever made.
There is no campy trashy fun to be had here like in some of Elvis' other bad movies like Clambake.
Not even the normally astute management of Colonel Tom Parker who as usual got a cast of top flight players to support Elvis Presley could save a stinker like Stay Away Joe. I had heard for years at how the American Indians were upset at this film and I've finally seen why.As usual a bunch of white actors with a little olive oil makeup including the King are playing Navajo Indians.
Elvis is a rodeo performer and a bull rider to be precise who has come home to the reservation bringing a herd of cattle that the government has given his parents Burgess Meredith and Katy Jurado to tend and raise.
About two dozen cows and a bull which the Navajos slaughter and barbecue at a wild party to welcome Elvis home.
A running joke is Joan Blondell trying to affect a shotgun wedding between Elvis and her daughter Quentin Dean, a girl whom the facts of life haven't been sufficiently explained, but who has some real lively hormones.The Navajos here were portrayed as a bunch of partying drunken louts whom the white man isn't sure can deal with such responsibility as government cattle.
It's the Amos and Andy syndrome working here.A young man named Ryan Dirteater who is one of the rising stars of the Professional Bull Riders came to mind when I watched Elvis riding home, making a grandstanding gesture on the original bull.
I single out Dirteater because he is from Oklahoma of Cherokee Indian background.Worst of all there are no good songs for Elvis coming out of the score.
Isn't that what we really see a Presley movie for?Just Stay Away Joe, and you viewers stay too..
I tend to take away the positives from the likes of "Double Trouble" and "Speedway" (admittedly two of his lesser films) and the bad kinda' gets forgotten...or willed away.I mention those other two flicks 'cause I just recently downed 3 Presley flicks in a row.
There's hardly anything to recommend it...even to hardcore Elvis fans.Elvis doesn't even attempt to act here and yet he fares better than old pro Burgess Meredith who gives a shamefully bad performance as Elvis's father.
This film came at about the time of his Comeback Special and Elvis worked real hard at getting in physical shape...and it shows.
The third and final star goes to the gorgeous opening song "Stay Away" that plays out over beautiful images.
Stay Awake, Joe. They wanted to make a good Elvis film.
They just didn't have the commitment to do what it took, as evidenced by a gun-slinging Joan Blondell (I love her anyway) and the almost unbelievable decision to let Elvis act near a comic bull, to or about which he will inevitably sing, with tragic results.The film they wanted to make here, more or less, in my opinion, is "The Rounders" (1965): a bawdy, modern western with a smallish feeling, driven by life-sized characters and the fringe world they inhabit.
And there are a lot of things going for "Stay Away": the location shooting, an excellent cast; and even the meandering plot serves the film well, to a point.
"Stay Away, Joe" is defeated by a number of things, ranging from the decision to let Elvis sing "diagetically" (i.e., in the film rather than over it), a make-up job on Burgess Meredith (who is completely wasted) that would make Bozo blush, and most especially, the overly broad comedy.Broad comedy is a nice fit for this film.
After a few lean years, 1968 was a pretty swell time for Elvis: not only did he make that celebrated "Comeback" TV Special but he also became a father and starred in two pretty decent movies as well SPEEDWAY and LIVE A LITTLE, LOVE A LITTLE.
Therefore, personally I can forgive him for the misstep that was STAY AWAY, JOE which, at best, emerges as an interesting misfire and is not all that bad considering.
Sure, Burgess Meredith and Joan Blondell are indeed embarrassing as, respectively, a dopey Indian father to Elvis' character and a bawdy bartender who has her eye on Mr. Presley too - but one is glad to see Elvis surrounded by top veteran Hollywood talent like Katy Jurado (as Meredith's Mexican wife), the two Jones Henry and L.Q.
The only Elvis movie I'd like to see again..
But he looks like any other Hereford bull and is sleepy all the time until someone gets on his back.
I guess in the end Elvis rides the bull and wins a bunch of money..
This is one of my all time favorite Elvis movies!
Stay Away Joe. I found this movie entertaining and funny.
There are some bad Elvis films and then there is Stay Away, Joe- a bomb at a much lower level.
Burgess Meredith wears the worst Native American makeup I have seen in many a decade.
Having watched all of Elvis's movies, towards the end you tend to know the quality of what you're getting into.
However, I didn't feel that way about 'Double Trouble', and then got an even worse dose of bad with Stay Away Joe.This film is, frankly, god awful.
This is a film that should only be shared on movie night with your worst enemy.
If you appreciate your hearing, turn to movie down for the first half of the movie, you won't be missing much, but your ears will thank you.I'm not even going to get into Burgress Meredith in dark makeup grinning creepily as one of the supposed American Indians.
If you happen to be Native American, don't watch this, it's offensive on at least 546 levels.By all means watch most of Elvis's films.
Stay Away Joe is sadly, quite possibly one of the worst films made...ever..
He embarked on a film career consisting of 33 films from 1956 to 1969, films that did well at the box-office but mostly panned critically (especially his later films) and while he was a highly charismatic performer he was never considered a great actor.His twenty-sixth film 'Stay Away Joe' has often been cited as one of his worst, something that is agreed with by me.
The production values generally are improved over many of Elvis' later films, the scenery is colourful and not artificial-looking and it's nicely shot mostly though in need of a more sweeping style.
Most of the rather spare soundtrack does not fare well, but "Stay Away" is lovely.Regarding Elvis himself, he is the best he's looked in any of his films since the mid-1960s, and gives an enthusiastic performance that actually saw him trying after seeing many post 'Viva Las Vegas' films where his performances were at best perfunctory and like he had lost interest.
Faring best in support are an amusingly deadpan Thomas Gomez and charming Katy Jurado.Unfortunately, for all Elvis' valiant efforts, his role is pretty wasted, one that is underwritten and severely underutilised in favour of the veteran actors.
As much as it pains me to say it, Burgess Meredith is made to look, sound and act foolish and odd and it's in a way that's pretty embarrassing for a character actor of considerable calibre like Meredith.
Quentin Dean's character is basically a typecast stereotype and her scenes with Elvis have an unintentional creepiness, but Dean does her best."Stay Away" aside, the songs are too few and none of them are any good or do anything for Elvis' talents.
Even hard-core fans and completests may find 'Stay Away, Joe' hard to watch.
But Flaming Star, Wild In The Country, King Creole, Love Me Tender & Charro were better movies showcasing his dramatic acting ability.This film has no plot, no storyline, no purpose & no script, no character development & has no direction & has no point & says nothing at all.
There's too much hooping & hollering & nonsense which gets tiresome & meaningless with Elvis as a seemingly endless "Good Time Charlie", as if life is just one big party.The film is like a car spinning it's wheels but goes nowhere, if you haven't seen this you're not missing anything.
This is a sorry excuse for a film & I think it's Elvis's worst movie.
In fact it's the worst movie I've ever seen in my life.
positive things: Elvis seems to enjoy his part, just enough songs, two are great...the Director keeps things rolling.negative things: a very curious collection of native American stereotyping, esp.
sad since Elvis won an award back in 1960 for his "Positive Portrayal of an American Indian", for FLAMING STAR.
The Indian given the cattle is played by Burgess Meredith.
Sure makes the Indians look good.
I do agree that Elvis looks rather good here, but yeah, his skin color does seem to change during the movie.
It's as bad as the 'indians' on 'F-Troop' and the old Hollywood westerns who were played by Jewish and Italian American actors and not real Native Americans!This movie is o.k., but typically lame story and mediocre songs, like in all of Elvis' later films.
It is cool to see character actors Joan Blondell, Katy Jurado, L.Q. Jones, Henry Jones and Burgess Meredith in this movie, though.Burgess Meredith's 'indian' makeup is absolutely AWFUL.
I do love certain Elvis movies, though.
I can even stand to watch his movie with future TV co-stars Mary Tyler Moore and Ed Asner,'Change Of Habit' in which Elvis plays an inner-city doctor.Oh well, at least Elvis made a FEW good films, but the mediocre and bad ones overwhelm the decent and good ones.I'll always love ELVIS!
If you can swallow that, then try the bull of Elvis Presley as a Native American. |
tt0105150 | The Playboys | In a small Irish village in 1957, Tara Maguire, a young resolute woman, is the talk of the town because she is having a baby out of wedlock, and refuses to name the father. During Sunday mass she goes into labour giving birth to a baby boy. Sergeant Brendan Hegarty, the local police officer of An Garda Síochána, and Mick, a local landowner, vie for Tara's hand in marriage, but she refuses them both.
Mick loses his cattle and facing economical ruin commits suicide. People in town blame his death on Tara's rejection. The local priest, Father Malone, attempts to compel Tara to marry the constable before another tragedy takes place. But Tara is not in love with the solemn and older Sgt. Hegarty, a reformed alcoholic, who hides the fury of his unrequited love for Tara in his devotion for her. He carves a cradle for the baby, but Tara vehemently refuses the gift and his attentions.
The beautiful and strong willed Tara lives with her sister Brigid and is determined to make it on her own. She supplements her income as a dressmaker, raising chickens in her garden and smuggling goods from the nearby border with Northern Ireland. However even in this she has to face Hegarty who discovers her secret illegal dealings while riding his bicycle at night looking for smugglers on the roads.
The arrival of a shabby troupe of travelling actors called the "Playboys", stirs the town. Tara surprises Tom, one of the actors, stealing one of her chickens. He has to pay for it, but he is smitten with her beauty and her character. They flirt and spar around the village, all under the resentful eye of the constable. The Playboys are a success in the sleepy village and the tent is full when the show starts at night. One of their numbers with female dancers lifting their skirts causes a furious response from Father Malone, who has another opinion of what is wholesome entertainment. The actors are forced to switch to staging Othello. A blind woman gets so excited during a show that she suddenly regains her vision. Not only do the group of actors have to deal with discord when the time to share the dividends comes, but the recent arrival of television threatens the survival of their art.
The romance between Tara and Tom grows slowly over the few days the theatrical company is in the village. Her past has made her suspicious of men, and Hegarty's intrusions provide an added obstacle. He tells her that Tom is a liar who already has a wife, which turn out not to be true. Hegarty confronts Tom and tells him that he is the father of the baby, but Tara assures him that not only she does not have any feelings for the constable but that the baby was conceived on a lonely night without deep feeling involved on her part.
One of the actors is involved with the IRA and has smuggled some explosives. When the explosives are accidentally discovered by Hegarty he blames his rival. Tom is framed as an IRA man, but he breaks out of jail with Tara's help. When Gone With the Wind plays at the local cinema, the actors stage an instant, improvised knock-off of it, with Atlanta burning while Tom struggles with his lines in the role of Rhett Butler. Comically, Fred (Milo O'Shea) has to take the role of Mammy. During the show the triangle between Tara, Tom and Sergeant Hegarty comes to a boiling point. The performance is interrupted by the frantic Brigid. Hegarty, drunk, has taken the baby. He comes to the tent, drunk, but gives the baby back to Tara. There is a confrontation between Tom and the Sergeant, but the Sergeant painfully loses in a public fist fight with Tom. Even after this defeat, he trashes the tent. The next day the time for the playboys to leave has come. Hegarty, now jobless and in civilian clothes, also leaves the town for good. Tom is happily surprised when Tara decides to join the group with her baby and share a life together, perhaps in the end to take on a new life with Tom in America. | romantic | train | wikipedia | A very beautiful Irish setting, a most somber Irish tale.
It's 1957 and the setting is a small village in Ireland.
Tara (Robin Wright Penn) lives with her sister and runs a tailoring/dressmaking shop.
She has recently set the local tongues to wagging by having a baby out of wedlock and not naming the father.
The town priest is encouraging her to look at Brendan (Albert Finney), a local police officer madly in love with her, as a possible husband.
But, Tara is not in love with him and won't consider it.
A second suitor actually commits suicide for the love of her, it is supposed.
Only when a troupe of actors comes to town does Tara meet someone who interests her.
That would be Tom (Aidan Quinn), a most friendly and engaging gentleman who stars in the troupe's productions.
However, Brendan is most displeased to have a rival and thwarts Tom's attentions as best he can.
Will Tara be able to find happiness?
The Irish setting is beautiful, as no one can disguise the loveliness of the country.
However, the story here is most somber.
Life in this village is restrictive and sobering, with hardly a break, for anyone, from the harsh realities of life.
Penn's Tara is a very worthy lady, who defies the odds to keep her son.
Finney is wonderfully scary as the policeman who hounds Tara, day and night, to accept his hand.
By contrast, Quinn's Tom is a breath of fresh air, with his good spirits and funny manners.
If you wish to see Ireland, and can put up with a story of a depressing nature, this is a good view.
For, although the tale is sad, it does have its moments and the scenery is a knockout.
Just do not expect a mirthful tale, as depicted on the handsome box cover..
great spirit; great acting.
In the tradition of low-key Anglo-European films, this is a brilliant depiction of the meeting of an independent spirit with a closed community.
This is one of their own so they will not condemn absolutely.
At the same time they cannot understand why, or how, anyone can take a radically different path.
Paraphrasing Victor Borge, this is acting that is so low key it is off the keyboard but because of that it resonates in a register that affects absolutely.
Absotutely brilliant.
This is what real movies are all about.
I don't really have any more to say but the instructions are that one has to write a minimum of 10 lines and/or 10,000 words.
Hopefully this entry meets that minimum requirement because if this entry convinces one more person to see this movie it will have been worth it..
A band of strolling players are we!.
This film was billed as a drama.
You could have fooled me.
The productions of the travelling group of thespians are the funniest things I have ever seen.Forget the plot about the young unwed mother with two suitors and just watch the hilarious performances of the rag-tag travelling gypsy players who tour Ireland performing in a threadbare tent, led by the flamboyant actor manager played with gusto by Milo O'Shea.
For those of you who are not familiar with this great Irish stage actor, Mr. O'Shea played Sam Malone's Irish Uncle in the Woody's Wedding two-part episode of Cheers, on TV.
The troupe of players are not above changing the script to accommodate whatever actors or costumes are available, and they open up with a song and dance act, no matter what the play.
Lines are read from cue cards, and even made up as they go along.
Even Othello begins with a can can.
You will never be able to watch Gone with the Wind with a straight face again after you have seen it performed as a musical in a tent in a small Irish town.
I have not laughed as much since I saw the theatrical troupe in a Midsummer Night's Dream.The lead actors, Robin Wright and Aidan Quinn make an attractive couple, and Albert Finney does well as the heavy, but it is the players who make this movie such a joy..
The discreet charm of the past..
This is a fine depiction of a small Irish village,in a green country where a woman has a baby whereas she's not married.And however she could,because,at the beginning of the movie,she had two men longing for her.But,and it's the only modern touch in a rather obsolete movie,she wants a man she really loves and she does not care about the piece of advice the well-meaning and the priests are always giving to her.Albert Finney has got a thankless part as the rather ugly cop, even if he's just a jealous guy.Robin Wright is a good lead.That said,it's not what you call full throttle ,and some people might think that the tempo is really slow..
A shallow soap opera disguised as a dramatic movie.
As is, this movie is loosely a romantic comedy which tries desperately to inject drama into a shallow, unconvincing plot.
The story centers around the plight of a woman who has a child out of wedlock in a small Irish village in the 1950s.
Instead of exploring the realistic spectrum of human behavior that could arise in such a situation, it relies on stale caricatures.
It spends a lot of screen time trying to show how hypocritical all the village folk are as they look down on this poor single mother yet indulge in bad behavior every chance they get.
For as we all know from watching many Hollywood movies, in the 1950s the world was ruled by silly hypocritical cavemen who forced their oppressive, outdated morality on the enlightened young'uns.The main characters are not especially likable and when the single mother develops a new love interest, the plot fails to give a convincing reason why the couple would care about each other (beyond lust).
That makes it very hard to care what happens.Honestly, some people might think this movie is OK, but very few people will love it.
The acting is decent, but the plot is just so uninspired and built around unrealistic clichés that it doesn't connect with the heart..
An older movie, in Ireland, with a traveling show theme..
It is rural Ireland and yearly a traveling show comes to town.
They call themselves "The Playboys" because they do lots of different things, but feature different plays put on in a very small tent and on a vary small stage with minimal set.
In one funny scene, we see towns people going to the movie house to see the film, "Gone With The Wind", and the next evening the Playboys are doing their stage interpretation of the same story, improvising after seeing the movie.Aidan Quinn is Tom Casey, one of the members of the show troupe.
He seems to be an irregular in that he doesn't plan to make it a career like the others.Robin Wright is in full Irish accent as local townswoman Tara Maguire, single, and sharing a residence with her less pretty sister.
Tara is the town scandal because she is pregnant out of wedlock, and she refuses to say who the father is.
She and Tom are immediately attracted to each other, although she tries to keep her distance from the traveling show types.The other key character is Albert Finney as Constable Brendan Hegarty.
He is the sheriff in this one-police town.
However his regional supervisor is not always happy with his efforts.As Tom gets friendly with Tara, Hegarty becomes agitated and protective, seemingly wanting to prevent Tara from falling for this guy.It is a fairly interesting and entertaining story, and the acting is first-rate, especially by Albert Finney.SPOILERS: It turns out Hegarty is the father of Tara's child, in one encounter in the grass after she had a bit too much to drink.
While Hegarty is madly in love with her, and wants her as his wife, she has no romantic feelings for him.
As the movie ends Tara and Tom leave town, their fate unknown..
Love and jealousy in a small village.
The Playboys is directed by Gillies MacKinnon, is written by Shane Connaughton and Kerry Crabbe.
The film stars Robin Wright, Albert Finney, Aidan Quinn and Niamh Cusack.Ireland, in the 1950's.
The occupants of a village are scandalised when Tara(Robin Wright)gets pregnant without being married, she refuses to say who the father is.
Tara is ostracised by everyone in the village apart from her sister Brigid(Niamh Cusack)and the local policeman, Sergeant Hegarty(Albert Finney).Hegarty loves Tara very much but is much older than her and she doesn't love him.
He tries to be kind to her and offers to help her with the baby, she throws all his kindness back in his face and he gets very angry.
Matters aren't helped by the arrival of a group of travelling actors.
Tara falls in love with one of them, the funny and passionate Tom Casey (Aidan Quinn).
Their growing relationship enrages Hegarty and the two become rivals for Tara.Finney gives the standout performance in this for me, he perfectly conveys a man who is not used to showing his feelings but tries very hard for the woman he loves.
Finney also does a good job of portraying this mans anger slowly building up and up until it has to be released, one of his very best performances.
Robin Wright is superb as Tara, Robin makes her tough and passionate.
Aidan is a great deal of fun as the handsome travelling actor who falls for Tara. |
tt2125666 | The Queen of Versailles | David Siegel is the wealthy owner of Westgate Resorts, a timeshare company in Florida. His wife Jackie Siegel, thirty years his junior, was the winner of the Mrs. Florida pageant in 1993. They begin construction on the Versailles house, a mansion modeled on the Palace of Versailles. Located on the outskirts of Orlando, it would be one of the largest single-family detached homes in the United States if completed (the largest being the Biltmore Estate at 178,926 square feet).
However, Siegel's company is badly affected by the Great Recession in 2008 and his family struggles to cope with their reduced income. Construction on the new house is halted, most of their servants are laid off and their pets are neglected. David retreats into his office, determined to save his property venture in Las Vegas. Jackie struggles to rein in her compulsive shopping habits. The children and their nanny are also interviewed. The film ends with none of their issues resolved. | home movie | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0075754 | Billy Jack Goes to Washington | Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin) is appointed a United States Senator to fill out the remaining term of another senator. It is hoped that he will quietly vote the party line, but his term in the Senate runs into trouble when he proposes a bill to fund a national youth camp which happens to be on the property where a nuclear power plant is also being proposed. His fellow senator, Joseph Paine (E. G. Marshall), claims to oppose nuclear power but is secretly taking graft to influence his votes in favor, and moves to try to keep Billy Jack out of the way when the bill is being debated.
Seeking to keep Billy out of the Senate on a day when a controversial energy bill is being voted on, Senator Paine suggests he should meet with a grassroots group that day instead. The group is working to pass a national initiative and Billy Jack becomes convinced of their cause.
Billy is invited to meet with a group of lobbyists attempting to offer him bribes and other perks if he will vote their way. Up against a man named Bailey (Sam Wanamaker) who wields a powerful influence in his home state, Billy Jack has his political career and reputation at stake if he does not cooperate. Billy responds with anger at their threat.
The next day in the Senate, he tries to speak on the floor in opposition to the nuclear power plant. Paine responds by proposing to expel Billy from the Senate as unfit for office. Billy's assistant quits after the murder of a lobbyist, fearing for her own safety, but returns after Billy Jack is about to be expelled from the Senate, to help him learn Senate procedure in order to filibuster. Billy collapses on the Senate floor in the effort, whereupon Paine confesses to his colleagues that every word Billy spoke was the truth. | cult, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | Having seen the original Billy Jack a few years back I figured it might be worth a few laughs if it was anything like the original.
It had some decent scripting and Laughlin is not that bad an actor, especially when working with a seasoned veteran like E.G. Marshall.
Despite a somewhat contrived plot the movie did get it's point across showing the corruption in Washington and how one man can make a difference.
The movie is no Mr. Smith goes to Washington, but then Laughlin is no Jimmy Stewart and for that matter Jimmy is no Billy Jack..
Other than to provide unintended laughs, I just can't see the Billy Jack films as capable of earning anything close to these very respectable scores--even this one, which is probably the best in the series.This film starts on a very, very poor note.
Instead of storytelling, there is a long exposition by Pat O'Brien as he explains much of the setting for the film--and it's way too much!
This long diatribe about the evils of nuclear weapons and nuclear power just seemed like sloppy film making-- like a political speech instead of a proper prologue.
Having this prologue just seemed like they forgot to film these scenes and instead chose to sum it all up this way!As for the rest of the film, it sure showed a lot of hubris for director/actor Tom Laughlin to consider remaking the Jimmy Stewart-Frank Capra classic film (currently #101 on IMDb's top 250).
In this version, however, instead of appointing Jefferson Smith to the Senate (a beloved icon of children across America), the powers that be decide to appoint a man with a long history of manslaughter and possibly justifiable homicides!!
Well, it was finally nice to see Delores Taylor (Laughlin's wife and co-star in the Jack films) stop being the perennial victim.
Finally, after three films, Billy apparently finally taught her martial arts and she, as well as Billy, deliver some well-earned butt-kickings in one scene!
Also, while the film stuck VERY close to the original material (too close if you ask me), the basic story, no matter how bastardized, is still very good--so good that Laughlin couldn't help produce a reasonably entertaining film--provided you turn off your brain and don't think too much about putting Billy Jack in this locale.
Plus you gotta admit that Laughlin sure seemed sincere--and infused the film with some nice energy late in the film--and not in the form of butt-kickings (I half expected him to do this on the Senate floor)!
This section of the film was, at times, too intense, but at least it was NOT an exact copy of Jimmy Stewart.However, despite some good intentions, the premise of Billy Jack taking on and winning against the evil special interest groups is silly--and also way too idealistic--and probably will result in a few laughs.
Apparently audiences felt pretty much the way I did, as this film never even made it past preview audiences and so it never received a normal theatrical release--though the film was definitely better than THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK (which made "The Fifty Worst Movies of All Time" book).
Luckily for lovers of the bizarre and bad films (like me), BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON was finally released on DVD some time back.By the way, because the film was never released until recently, this might explain the poorly executed edits and choppy transitions.
Not The Best Of The Billy Jack Films.
This was fourth and last of the Billy Jack Era however, this picture never made it to the theaters for any length of time.
Tom Laughlin resumes his role as Billy Jack and Delores Taylor resumes her role as Jean Roberts.
Tom Laughlin was an adequate actor, he and his wife were always the best actors in any of the other movies.
If you want to enjoy this story line, get Mr Smith goes to Washington.
The movie was pretty well-received and even I was surprised that Billy Jack was a better fit in the old Jimmy Stewart role than I had expected.
It wasn't great, but serviceable, and certainly better than THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK.
Long scenes that helped the flow of the film and made it less --well, "Billy Jack-ish" had been cut.
If Laughlin had used the cut I saw nearly thirty years ago, the film would still have worked.
His movie BILLY JACK foretold the way action movies would go (ie.
RAMBO, STEVEN SEIGAL, CHUCK NORRIS, etc.) In this particular installment of the Billy Jack Saga,the emphasis is on Washington and the way the special interest groups and power brokers have corrupted our government.
There is an eerie fortelling of the Vince Foster espisode.BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON is a re-make of the Jimmy Stewart classic MR.
SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, except using nuclear reactors as the hub of the plot.
Tom Laughlin, as the character Billy Jack, really has a chance to prove his acting skills in this one; there is more depth of character in his performance of the lead role.
Remake of the 1939 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington..
The only differences between this film and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington are to update it from 1939 to 1977 and to fit it into the context of the Billy Jack character.
If you're a Billy Jack fan it's worth a watch.
If you're not a Billy Jack fan watch Jimmy Stewart in the original instead..
I rented this thinking it was going to be another fun Billy Jack movie (i.e. strong on social message but inarticulate enough and just enough over the top to be a good camp experience).
Shortly into watching this I realized I was watching a remake of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and I immediately fell in line with the story's passion.
Thankfully, this film knows where its passion lies, because it stayed clear of the romantic angle between Mr. Smith and his aide.
And fans of movies with a social conscience are going to cringe at a scene that looks like it was lifted from Mannix (BJ looks cool doing his fight stuff on the reservation, but against big city thugs?
We do have CSPAN to record filibusters today, but we have no Mr. Smiths or Mr. Jacks with the ability to make it to the senate in the first place.
As a Washington, D.C. native who saw this film when it was first released (and, contrary to some other comments, it WAS released in DC, playing in several area theaters), I was interested to see how Laughlin would portray the city and its political institutions.
The debt to Jimmy Stewart is obvious throughout but, having said this, his film reflected the political temper of the city in the late 1960's-early 1970's very well indeed.
Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977) was the last film in the Billy Jackseries.
Unlike the other films where the political posturing was kept in check, Tom Laughlin goes full tilt boogie into the subject.
In this virtual remake of the classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Billy Jack isappointed the vacant senatorial seat after receiving a full pardon from theGovernor.
But they did and he tries to do his best to let the whole nation know thathe's the last and only honest man in Washington D.C.Why do we watch Billy Jack movies.
I remember, as a kid, running into a bit of advance promotion on "Billy Jack Goes to Washington" in one of my teen magazines and readying myself for its release.
It is an almost fully literal remake of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" made in full cooperation with Frank Capra, with Laughlin in his Billy Jack character taking the place of James Stewart.
The excellent cast plays the property professionally, but invariably the piece comes off like a sub-TV Movie of the Week affair, and way too long.
I haven't seen the re-edited version for DVD, but I would think that reducing the film's length would reduce comprehension of the story as well.
Nevertheless, it is to be preferred over the bathetic and ridiculous "The Trial of Billy Jack," which can be seen as reflecting the screeching halt of the 60s counterculture; "Billy Jack Goes to Washington" may likewise reflect their attempt as reintegration into the system, but that's a bit of a stretch.
They decide on Billy Jack, currently sitting in prison after being sent to jail at the end of his previous film.First of all, the premise is pretty silly.
But it is necessary to move the plot forward.Unfortunately, the plot is pretty weak and is really just a ham-handed confrontation between Billy Jack and some corrupt politicians who are obsessed with building a nuclear reactor on a fault line.
The plot idea is not bad, but the execution is so sloppy it seems like an amateur movie-of-the-week, not a theatrical release.
this fourth and final film in the Billy Jack franchise was never released theatrically.i thought it was a better film the the previous one,the T4ial of Billy jack,which i found tedious,bloated and preachy.this one is not as heavy.there is very little action.it/s more drama than anything.basically.billy jack become a senator and quickly realizes how corrupt things are in Washington.i'll leaver the plot at that.on a side note,i noticed that the run time is listed as 155 minutes,which is interesting since the version i watched was about 111 minutes or so.i also noticed on message boards that someone had seen the original cut at a preview some thirty plus years ago,and had noticed that the DVD version was cut to pieces.it would be interesting to see that version.maybe some day,that version will see the light of day.as for this version,it was decent enough.for me,Billy Jack Goes to Washington is a 6/10.
Senator Billy Jack.
Tom Laughlin returned once again as both director and star of this film, both the fourth(and last) Billy Jack film, and a remake of "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington".
After one of his state senator's dies, Billy is chosen by the governor and surviving other Senator(played by E.G. Marshall) to replace him(!) For some reason, they think fiercely independent Billy will follow the party line(huh?) while attracting younger voters(Perhaps!) Of course, as soon as Billy gets wind of the political corruption in his state, he goes into Martial Arts fighting, then filibustering mode...
Well-intentioned but misguided film tries to shoehorn Billy into Jimmy Stewart's Mr. Smith role(and costar Delores Taylor as Jean, his adviser of sorts).
Former convicted criminal from the first Billy Jack movie and focal point of a riot where a few dozen people were killed now gets an appointment to the US Senate via Governor Richard Gauthier.
Only in the movies.Tom Laughlin felt that Jimmy Stewart's character of Jefferson Smith was a proper vehicle for the expression of his ideas and so Billy Jack Goes To Washington was born.
And if you've seen Mr. Smith Goes To Washington you know pretty much what happens here.
Whole chunks of dialog from the original is lifted into this film.Another idea that had me reeling though was included, that being a national initiative that the young folks who Billy Jack is an icon want.
Billy Jack Goes To Washington is a bad idea of misplaced populism..
watch the billy jack "franchise" crash and burn.....
In 1967, Laughlin produced Born Losers a film so obscure, even at the time, that if you wanted to see you had to -- not making this up -- find the nearest drive-in, and even at that date the drive-in was starting to fade into history.
Laughlin cast his wife in the main supporting role (a performance so subdued that critics, who did not know the lady, could not tell if she was acting or simply running lines) and grabbed warm bodies off the street (so it seemed) for every other part.
(Nonetheless the one scene in Billy Jack where Laughlin points to the bully's face and tells precisely where he is about to kick him, and how nothing can stop it, will live on in film history, it's brilliant).
The success of BJ led to The Trial of Billy Jack which to be fair was at least as good as the preceding film, though not much better.
Then Laughlin, never comfy in the role of producer or deal maker, disappeared amid rumours that he was having trouble getting financing for Billy Jack Goes to Washington.
The charming amateur acting so obvious in the first three is completely inappropriate in a film that is demonstrating the hubris of remaking a Jimmy Stewart role.
There is an EXTREMELY MISGUIDED attempt to insert into the film the trademark "Billy Jack" brand of violence.
As the title clearly suggests, BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON is a remake of the Jimmy Stewart film- only with a bit more kick...
The prostitution of the Constitution is beautifully summed up at one point when one of the thugs working for one of the politicians who has auctioned off his seat to the highest bidder says, "Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered." Although Laughlin seems a bit TOO laid back in the early scenes, looking like he's about to nod off at a presidential debate, he DOES eventually get to doff his boots and kick some ***.
(In an odd little scene near the end of the movie, Dolores Taylor congratulates Billy Jack for not "taking his boots off" during the course of events.
It's an odd observation because not only does HE take off his boots to kick some ***, but SHE does, too- literally.) The message Laughlin's trying to get across- about the built-in uncertainties of using nuclear power- are still valid today (look at GE's Fukushima meltdown, if nothing else).
Billy Jack has always been the Patron Saint of Lost Causes, which is one of the things that makes the character so enduring: we're ALWAYS going to be at the mercy of the 1%; but at least Laughlin stood up and said something that most of the spineless cowards in Hollywood wouldn't DARE.
As for the movie, Billy Jack does his on-the-level best, but Bernie Sanders (or Jimmy Stewart) he ain't: he literally collapses during his filibuster and has to be rushed to the hospital (where it's touch-and-go for a while).
Needing a puppet they can control to complete their deal, and concerned about populist opposition to the senator's replacement, these corrupt politicians and lobbyists appoint a person totally disinterested in politics--Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin).
Yet even though the appointment is only supposed to be for a couple of months, what the insiders don't realize is that Billy Jack has his own code of values and he doesn't bend to political pressure that easily.
Remake of classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington doesn't get MY vote!.
I stumbled across this movie on the late, late show and recognized Laughlin and wondered if this might be one of those "Billy Jack" movies I'd heard about but had never seen.
It didn't take me long to realize the movie I was watching was a remake of the classic Mr.Smith Goes to Washington as it follows the scene structure pretty closely.
Laughlin was so wooden in the film that I was shocked that he had enough popularity to HAVE this role.
In this film Billy Jack is appointed a Senator, and despite all that we've seen in the past films where he raves against the Government, he goes to Washington and discovers that politicians are crooked.(?????) There is only one real action scene where Jean is being accosted by some knife wielding black dudes and Billy shows up just in time to kick the crap out of them.
All four of the Billy Jack films, the first two very good, seem to have a disjointed story line.
It doesn't appear to be that way, and now he's gone off into the limbo of obscurity - I will have to agree that this may have been the film to end Billy Jack entirely.
strange, silly, force-fed, and filled with unrealistic portrayals of the people we know and share this world with.The third film in the Billy Jack trilogy is, as you may have guessed it, a remake - if one could so be inclined to call it that - of the Jimmy Stewart film 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'.
Surprisingly, he actually has his shoes on this time and does very little of 'boots-to-faces' than the previous films; rather, he decides to let his speeches do the butt-kicking.I don't consider this film a remake of a classic and more like one man's quest to take a classic and spin it 'his' way.
If the fates had their way we might've gotten something from John Denver, but sadly Laughlin won the bid to take the directorial bid to make this film and it shows.
I think the only generous compliment I can really give is that he at least tried to give me, the viewer, a decent adaptation of Washington and the Senate at best.
instead, that did not come to be, and we have this obscure directorial mess.As in my previous review, I don't think I had to have been born in the 60's and 70's to have 'understood' this film.
I guess Tom Laughlin thought he was as good of an actor as Jimmy Stewart which he isn't anywhere close to.
High school actors are MUCH better than Laughlin and his wife.
I can't believe the owners of "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" let such a bunch of amateurs do a remake of such a great movie that had professional/talented actors.
I should have known how bad the movie was going to be as I thought the original "Billy Jack" movie was also terrible due to the amateur acting.
Don't waste your time watching this movie or any other of Tom Laughlin and his wife's pathetic movies! |
tt0357529 | Catch-22 | The plotline follows the airmen of the 256th Squadron while in action over Italy, and their repeated attempts to avoid combat missions that appear to lead to certain death. Their attempts are almost always comical: when an officer refers to the string on a map representing the front line and states that they won't be able to fly if it moves beyond the target, the airmen begin watching the string obsessively until Yossarian secretly moves the string and the mission is canceled. The officer is not amused and assigns them a particularly dangerous mission. The ultimate escape is to have oneself declared mentally unfit for duty, but the Army has made this impossible through the eponymous Catch-22. In spite of their best efforts, most of the airmen are killed over the span of the novel.
The development of the novel can be split into segments. The first (chapters 1–11) broadly follows the story fragmented between characters, but in a single chronological time in 1944. The second (chapters 12–20) flashes back to focus primarily on the "Great Big Siege of Bologna" before once again jumping to the chronological 'present' of 1944 in the third part (chapter 21–25). The fourth (chapters 26–28) flashes back to the origins and growth of Milo's syndicate, with the fifth part (chapter 28–32) returning again to the narrative present but keeping to the same tone of the previous four. The sixth and final part (chapter 32 on) remains in the story's present, but takes a much darker turn and spends the remaining chapters focusing on the serious and brutal nature of war and life in general.
Previously the reader had been cushioned from experiencing the full horror of events, but in the final section, the events are laid bare. The horror begins with the attack on the undefended Italian mountain village, with the following chapters involving despair (Doc Daneeka and the Chaplain), disappearance in combat (Orr and Clevinger), disappearance caused by the army (Dunbar) or death of most of Yossarian's friends (Nately, McWatt, Mudd, Kid Sampson, Dobbs, Chief White Halfoat and Hungry Joe), culminating in the unspeakable horrors of Chapter 39, in particular the rape and murder of Michaela, who represents pure innocence. In Chapter 41 the full details of the gruesome death of Snowden are finally revealed.
Despite this, the novel ends on an upbeat note with Yossarian learning of Orr's miraculous escape to Sweden and Yossarian's pledge to follow him there. | anti war, psychedelic | train | wikipedia | More of a curiosity than anything else. Since 20th Century Fox found some success with a TV version of its 1970 military black comedy film "MASH", Paramount tried to find similar success with a TV version of its own 1970 military black comedy film, "Catch 22".Richard Dreyfuss stars as Captain Yossarian, a bombardier who has completed his required number of missions and is on his way home. His plane stops for refueling on Pianosa (the base in the movie) where he learns all about the (possibly mythical) "catch-22" and engages in the usual standard issue military sitcom hi-jinks.As with the TV version of "MASH," most of the characters from the film appear (although unlike TV "MASH," no actors from the film version of "Catch-22" appear). Also, like TV "MASH," the R-rated movie hi-jinks are considerably toned down for broadcast TV (in the movie, for example, Captain "Aarfy" Aardvark commits murder to cover up a rape. Suffice to say, nothing like this happens in this show). It's mostly harmless, early 70's sitcom stuff.Dreyfuss is quite good as Yossarian. It's always fascinating to watch future award winning movie stars act in shows like this, because it shows a certain Hollywood meritocracy at work: Dreyfuss just seems to be acting on a whole other level than everyone else in the show (you can see the same phenomenon when you watch an episode of the Steve McQueen western "Wanted Dead of Alive").Now, the movie version of "Catch-22" isn't all that good. It's certainly not as good as "MASH". This pilot isn't that great either, but quite frankly, it's about on a par with the "MASH" pilot (which was only OK), although I think the "MASH" cast is a lot better overall. But after watching this, you can see why ABC passed.. M*A*S*H Without the Humor. I guess with the popularity of "M*A*S*H" a year prior, anybody thought they could throw together a band of character actors, quick jokes and a laugh track and they could ride some coat tales to fame. Anybody was wrong.Imagine "M*A*S*H" with flat jokes, terrible jokes, un-funny set-ups that just keep going and going and going like the Energizer Bunny, and no Hawkeye, Radar or Blake. That's what you get with "Catch-22", one large waste of time misfire that even manages to to get composer Neal Hefti to phone it in.It's no surprise almost nobody is credited for their work on this -- I know I'd not want my name on it if I had a hand in it (for a paycheck).A bomber has flown his thirty missions and he's due to head home. Oh, but there are delays and misunderstanding and hilarity that was supposed to ensue. It does not. This was wisely not picked up for a series and you can also get in on being wise by not watching it -- it's not even a curiosity. Oh man, can you imagine what's worse than the un-funny opening that you'd wish would end? How about that opening going on for over twelve minutes (plus opening credits)!Poor Dana Eclar -- why was he in this mess?Avoid. |
tt0108243 | The Substitute | Jonathan Shale (Berenger) is a mercenary and a Vietnam veteran who returns home to Miami after a botched covert operation in Cuba in which three men from his platoon were killed. He surprises his girlfriend, Jane Hetzko (Diane Venora) at her apartment and is warmly welcomed. On the outside, Jane is a schoolteacher at inner-city Columbus High School, an institution with a considerable gang problem. She is particularly disliked by Juan Lacas (Anthony), leader of the KOD ("Kings of Destruction") gang. While jogging one morning, Jane is attacked and has her leg broken. Jane and Shale believe this to be related to the KOD, which prompts the latter to go undercover as an Ivy League-educated, government-affiliated substitute teacher for his girlfriend's class.
Shale arrives at Columbus High School and is, at first, taken back by the lowly conditions. He is unable to control his class of poorly-educated students on the first day, but decides to use his street-smarts and military tactics to gain the upper hand. Soon enough, he is able to take command of the students by displaying his combat self-defence techniques when students attack him. He is warned not to use such methods by Principal Claude Rolle (Hudson), but gains the respect of his students when he bonds with them over the similarities between his early gang and Vietnam War experiences and their involvement in petty crime and street gangs. During this time, he befriends fellow schoolteacher Darrell Sherman (Plummer) and also crosses paths with Lacas, one of his students.
Suspicious of odd conditions within the high school, Shale sets up surveillance cameras throughout the building. He discovers that Lacas orchestrated the attack on Jane. He also discovers that Lacas is secretly working with Rolle to distribute cocaine around Miami for a major narcotics ring. Shale and his team raid a drug deal, using the stolen money to buy music and sports equipment in the form of a "school donation." While Sherman initially denies Shale's discovery, Sherman and a female student inadvertently witness the drugs being loaded into one of the school buses later that day. Sherman tells the student to warn Shale and Hetzko, and sacrifices himself by creating a distraction.
Rolle, who at this point is aware of Shale's interference orders a "car accident" for Shale, and sends Lacas after Hetzko. With the help of another student, Lacas is killed and Shale saves Hetzko, learning the full story from the female witness. Shale and his team garrison the school grounds to enter combat against the remaining K.O.D. members, a rival mercenary company led by Janus, and Rolle himself. Ultimately, Shale and Joey Six end up as the sole survivors of the battle, walking away from the school grounds discussing future operations as substitute teachers. | murder | train | wikipedia | Amanda Donohoe as Bette Davis.
Amanda Donohoe is exceptional in a character tailor made for Bette Davis.
This movie by the enigmatic Martin Donovan is a mix of extraordinary moments - cinematic, surprising, beautiful, frightening and funny as well a downright bad, amateurish moments - I'm trying to find everything Donovan has done.
Mark Wahlberg makes his film debut here looking straight into the camera.
As awkward as this film is, there are moments that can only be described as, sublime.
If you read the film through the faces of its characters you'll have a memorable experience.
The pain and anger in Amanda Donohue's face is as entertaining and shattering as anything Bette Davis has ever done.
Mark Whalberg ambles down into the film scene with a bang, looking straight into the camera, inviting us to "get busy".
The faces of the students, Molly Parker and Martin Cummins among them, tell us, in beautiful close ups, how much their murderous teacher has done for them.
Then the teacher tells them how much they mean to her, we see the kids faces from above as her point of view.
Last but not least is the amazing score by Gerald Gouriet (Madame Souzatska, Seeds of Tragedy) All in all I had the feeling that a genial mind was at work here, but chained to some kind of wall of mediocrity.
I was curious about "The Substitute" because it was Mark Whalberg's debut as an actor but I couldn't have imagined the pleasures that this off beat melodrama had to offer.
Elegantly told with unexpected holes in the narration here and there but with a thrilling central performance by Amanda Donohoe that left me kind of breathless.
Amanda Donohe looking at herself in the mirror at different times of her shattering journey gives you clues as to were her mind is.
What does she actually see when she looks into the mirror?
Question is: If the music was supposed to be a homage to Bernard Herrmann (the composer of Hitchcock's Vertigo, Psycho, North by Northwest, Marnie) then Mr Gouriet did a great job.
Perhaps director Donovan prescribed the similarity on purpose, as many visual passages in this film have been resolved in the non-realistic -almost oneiric- way Hitchcok staged some scenes in his films.
A case in point: when Josh is reading the newspaper microfilms at the library, titles (in red) are superimposed over the pages of the newspaper.
When the camera shoots down on the smiling and hopeful faces of students is another moment where viewers realize a professional director is holding the reins.
An Explosive Amanda Donohoe.
Amanda Donohoe creates a very human monster.
That pain that you perceive in every one of her smiles is like an emotional ticking bomb that sooner or later is going to explode.
I had to be reminded this movie was made for cable TV about two decades ago and that may explain its inconsistencies.
There is a clear ambition, visual and dramatic in this surprising movie - look at that triangular moment at the school party.
Father, son and teacher.
It bears repeating that Amanda Donohoe's performance deserves some kind of trophy.
Dalton James, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Molly Parker and even Mark Wahlberg making his film debut have moments of beauty and power.
The film, made for Cable, is far from perfect but the truth is I was engrossed.
Amanda Donohoe gives a fantastic performance as someone trying to hide from her own past and failing in the most devastating way.
Great part of the film is just mesmerizing.
Young faces full of something lyrical and magic.
When i first saw this movie was a few years ago because i had it on VHS.Back then i thought that the movie deserved 5/10 (Average) but i bought the DVD with good image and sound it made to give this movie a 7.
The music score is excellent and the movie (instead of having some minor flaws) is very entertaining.In this film Mark Wahlberg made his debut and you can tell but he is acceptable because of his charisma&attitude.Amanda Donohoe has done the biggest role in her career in this movie.But this just my opinion.Watching this movie you'll not be disappointed because Amanda Donohoe is Bete Davis of our times..
I must admit, I am usually a bit dubious when looking at TV movies, as in most cases they are quite poor, but in this case I was pleasantly surprised.
This was mainly due to the superb performance of Amanda Donaghue, who made a convincing & sympathetic psychotic killer (why is it every feature film has to have a British nasty?
I know they are always good, but come on), which makes a change from the usual one diminsional characters.
The rest of the cast played the part too, & were quite good, making you at least believe in them, though there was the usual nonsense of ancient pupils, who were in alot of cases not much younger than Amanda Donaghue.
So although the film had nothing that hadn't been seen before, it is not bad, & worth a look if only for Miss Donaghue.
Now, why didn't I have a horny teacher like her when I was at school..
Martin Donovan directs this film with an inspired cast.
"The Substitute" seems to be a movie of the week feature that we had never seen.
It was shown on a cable channel the other night and while the film doesn't even attempt to break new ground on the horror genre, it will not bore the viewer.
Thankfully, it's only 87 minutes long!The best excuse for watching the movie is Amanda Donohue, an actress that has done some interesting work.
Her take on the evil teacher is right on target.
Ms. Donohue plays the dual role of Gayle/Laura with great style, something she has always brought to other roles.
She registers a lot of emotion without appearing ghoulish.The young supporting cast is good.
Dalton James plays Josh, a young man that gets a taste of what Laura is capable of doing.
He was still trying to find his way around the movie business.
Natasha Gregson Wagner plays a bland Jenny, Josh's girlfriend.
Finally, Eugene Robert Glazer is seen as Josh's father and the object of Laura's sudden interest.See the film with an open mind..
It has been awhile since audiences have seen Amanda Donohoe.
(Remember L.A. Law?).She is actually quite good as a teacher with less than good intentions; she looks mysterious and menacing.
It is surprising also that Mark Wahlberg (previously known as "Marky Mark") is in this film I recently saw him in "The Shooter" and he has come a long way.For a TV suspense film this is not bad.
Dalton James ("90210") also has a part as Ben's son, who realizes Donohoe is capable of murder.
There are a few scenes reminiscent of Psycho, when he is in the library collecting information about the teacher and her murderous history.
Natasha Gregson Wagner also has a small part as a student and Molly Parker ("Intensity").All in all, not a bad film for a rainy day..
I finally came to view this, yesterday, if only for Marky Mark Wahlberg.
He gives a kind of breakthrough, if memorable performance.
Suck factor: he dies 51 minutes into the movie, at which point I, turned off.
Killing MM in this film, is like sticking a knife right in the belly of it, his life, taken by the murderous crazed, hottie teach, Donahue, a human sex magnet to the eyes of any male, much more ones, who are undersexed.
She killed her former hottie husband, after catching him in bed with one of her students, and from there, she just loses it, where cut to the present, she's starting a whole new life, in a new town, and new school, substituting for an old hag, the students were glad to see go.
She catches the eye of a young good male student, whose hormones are working overtime.
The Substitute, the same title taken a few years later by that Berenger school yard film, is stupid, but marvelously and addictively entertaining, shot how 90's t.v movies were shot, and we wouldn't want it any other way.
Donahue, gives a memorably knock out performance, while Wahlberg, generates so much charm, and natural ease in it's acting.
You can look at it, as bad, or is it?
I'm sorry I turned off after 51 minutes, but it just wasn't right, disposing of Wahlberg, like a down right low kick to the guts..
Amanda Donohoe's performance is the highlight of this TV film.Gale had it all.
Students who loved her and an adoring husband.
Apparently, he found another love and when he was caught in the act, he is killed along with his lover.Gale runs off to Minnesota and begins a new teaching career.
With Mrs. Fisher, the regular teacher, out on sick leave and probably taking early retirement, Laura Ellington, her new name, gets a long-term position and works with extremely difficult youngsters.She now looks like a witch and is quite a character.
When Mrs. Fisher announces her surprise return, Laura does away with her so as to get the teaching position permanently.The film, as is the case with many others of this type, begins to deteriorate as the bodies pile up.
Laura goes to bed with one of the students and then takes up with his widowed father.
Mark Wahlberg plays a troubled student.
When he follows Ms. Ellington to Mrs. Fisher's house, she kills him.I'll stop here because the ending is contrived ...but wild.
Our school systems stink but a teacher like this, wow!.
Amanda Donohue stars as a wonderful teacher with a dark side - she kills people.
Amanda Donohue was flawless in her portrayal of both a high school teacher and a psycho loon.
This film also marks Mark Wahlberg's acting debut and you can tell.
Dalton James was alright, but Natasha Gregson Wagner, who looks she's balding, was quite boring.More suspense was needed as was some development of the supporting characters (Wagner, Wahlberg, etc...).
Aside from a few lost plots, bad performances and scenes of standard thriller fare, check it out.
this movie starts well but.....
What can i tell about this movie is that it is one of that movies which could have been great but instead it remained mediocre eventually.The theme is great could have been a great scary movie but it doesn't have gore in it and boys will be disappointed because Amanda Donohoe doesn't show some flesh.The positive sides of this movie are the performance of Mark Wahlberg billed here as Marky Mark and Amanda Donohue.Unfortunately for Marky Mark fans,he didn't sing in this movie.He appeared almost until the middle of the movie, so until here the movie was pretty interesting but after Marky Mark disappears the movie appears to be pretty boring.So Amanda Donohue and Marky Mark bring some attitude and talent to this movie but it is not enough for a movie to be good.THE SUBSTITUTE has a mediocre story,it isn't suspenseful enough and the rest of the cast didn't make a good job and yeah Amanda Donohue is like Bette Davis in this film.if will appear a DVD with an unrated version of this movie where we can see the 2 sex scenes extended and gore scenes also then maybe i will buy the DVD and i would enjoy it..
Somewhere Between Good And Evil.
This surprising film made for Paramount television includes some startling cinematic strokes and a phenomenal performance by Amanda Donohoe.
She plays not just a good teacher but a great one.
Discovering that her husband is cheating on her with one of her students, something inside her snaps.
She kills her husband and his lover, burns the house down and disappears.
We find her some time later in another school becoming a substitute teacher with a brand new identity.
That's all I'm going to say, those are the first few minutes of the movie.
Amanda Donohoe never look so beautiful, so strong or so vulnerable.
We are aware of her internal struggle between the goodness that she always nurtured and the evil that made a home inside her.
The film has extraordinary moment of lyrical beauty.
But what's good is really terrific and makes the film a worthy case for re-evaluation/ 8 out of 10.
All She Ever Wanted Was A New Start in Life!.
**SOME SPOILERS** You can't deny the fact that Laura Ellington, Amanda Donohoe,is a great teacher in both looks, looking like a very glamorous classy and much younger Margot Kidder, and in motivating her students in her high-school English study class when she brings out their inner most and creative feelings when their made to recite the great classics of 17th 18th 19th and even 20th Century English Literature.
The only drawback that Laura has, and it's a big one,is that she's a fugitive from justice in the murder and arson of her cheating husband Doug, Martin Martinuzzi, and his lover Claire Bilino, Justine Priesttey.
This happened back in Albany New York when she was Gayle Richards the year before.With a new identity and new job at the Barker Spring Minn.
high school Laura takes her job very seriously and makes sure her students do the same thing by getting them off their butts and in their books.
Before you, and the school administration, know it the worst bunch of Barker Spring High students become candidates for Rhodes Scholarship's due to Laura's exceptional teaching methods.At the school Laura takes a very strong liking to one of her students.
The sensitive, he's trying to get over the recent tragic death of his mom, and very handsome 18 year-old Josh Wyatt, Dalton James.
One night running into Josh she invites him over at her place where in no time at all seduced the startled and at the same time happy young man.
Telling Josh to keep the affair with her to himself Laura really messes up his mind later when she starts to have an affair with Josh's widowed father Ben,Eugune Robert Glazer.
This so greatly upsets the young man that it causes Josh to fall behind in his studies and at the same time develop a number of serious psychological problems that just about destroys his social life.Everything goes very well for Laura until she's suddenly called into Principal Beatty, Patricia Grge, office and told that the the teacher that she's been replacing a Mrs. Fisher (Sheila Patterson), who was thought by everyone was going to retire, was coming back to teach in the school and that Laura would have to be let go.
Sneaking into Mrs. Fisher's house Laura get's the elderly woman, who looks like she's in her 80's, to have a fatal heart-attack by sticking her pet cat into the oven roasting the poor kiddie to a crisp.
Laura doesn't know that she was seen by one of her students the class loudmouth Ryan Westernberg, Mark Wahlberg, entering Mrs. Fisher's house the night that she died.
Big mouth Ryan now threatens to tell the cops all he knows unless Laura puts him, who has the worst academic scores in school, on the list to receive a full scholarship!Meeting Ryan outside his home Laura instead of agreeing to give the blackmailing creep a scholarship slices his throat open with a broken whiskey bottle, that he was drinking out of and offered her a free swig, leaving Ryan unconscious and bleeding to death.
Josh going to check out the local police criminal database finds out about Laura's past as the fugitive murderess Gayle Richards.
With the walls now starting to close in on Laura she becomes more and more unstable and unpredictable.The movie leads up to a double attack on both Josh's father Ben and girlfriend Jenny, Natasha Gegson Wagner, by the now insane Laura as her past, as Gayle Richards, finally catches up with her.
With her ending up trapped on the roof of the high school confronted by Josh with the Baker Spring PD surrounding the place.***SPOILERS*** Trying to talk Laura into giving herself up Josh is unable to keep her from slipping and falling to her "death" which looked so ridicules since Laura fell no more then ten feet without as much as even mussing up her hair much less breaking her neck.
We later learn that Laura indeed survived her fall as we see her applying for a new job, with a blond wig, as a teacher at another school.
We can only hope that the students there don't suffer the same fate that those, as well the the teachers students families and administrators, suffered at Baker Springs High..
"Gayle Richards" (Amanda Donohoe) is a successful high school teacher who comes home from work to celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary with her husband.
So, she tells her husband she has to go away for a few days to see her mother.
That evening she catches him in bed with that same student.
Feeling betrayed and ridiculed she ends up killing both of them and sets the entire house on fire.
After that she leaves New York and drops out of sight for a year and then turns up in a small town in Minnesota under the name of "Laura Ellington".
Unfortunately, she is still unable to come to terms with her past and not long afterward sleeps with one of her students named "Josh Wyatt" (Dalton James).
Besides being inappropriate it also causes problems for both of them when she starts dating Josh's father, "Ben Wyatt" (Eugene Glazer).
At any rate, because this film was a "made-for-television" production it goes without saying that some scenes were toned down to accommodate a general television audience.
This caused the film to seem less intense than it could have been.
Even so, it was still entertaining to a certain degree and probably merits an average score, all things considered. |
tt2321502 | Uncanny | In 1977, in Montreal, writer Wilbur Gray (Peter Cushing) visits his publisher Frank Richards (Ray Milland) to discuss his new book about cats. Wilbur believes that felines are supernatural creatures, and that they are the devil in disguise. Wilbur tells three tales to illustrate his thoughts:
In 1912, in London, Miss Malkin (Joan Greenwood) is a wealthy woman who rewrites her will leaving her fortune to her cats rather than to her nephew Michael (Simon Williams). Her maid Janet (Susan Penhaligon), also mistress of Michael, steals one copy of the will from the lawyer's briefcase and tries to destroy the original copy which is kept in the safe. When Miss Malkin sees her attempt, Janet kills her. The cats avenge Miss Malkin.
In 1975, in the Province of Quebec, the orphan Lucy (Katrina Holden) comes to live with her aunt Mrs. Blake (Alexandra Stewart), her husband (Donald Pilon), and her cousin Angela (Chloe Franks) after the death of her parents in a plane crash. Lucy brings her only friend, the cat Wellington, but her mean cousin forces her parents to get rid of Wellington. Lucy uses her mother's book of witchcraft to avenge Wellington.
In 1936, in Hollywood, the actor Valentine De'ath (Donald Pleasence) replaces the blade of a fake pendulum to kill his actress wife (Catherine Bégin), and give his young mistress and aspiring actress (Samantha Eggar) a chance. The cat of his wife avenges her. | dark | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1869152 | Titanic | In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team aboard the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh search the wreck of RMS Titanic for a necklace with a rare diamond, the Heart of the Ocean. They recover a safe containing a drawing of a young woman wearing only the necklace dated April 14, 1912, the day the ship struck the iceberg. Rose Dawson Calvert, the woman in the drawing, is brought aboard Keldysh and tells Lovett of her experiences aboard Titanic.
In 1912 Southampton, 17-year-old first-class passenger Rose DeWitt Bukater, her fiancé Cal Hockley, and her mother Ruth board the luxurious Titanic. Ruth emphasizes that Rose's marriage will resolve their family's financial problems and retain their high-class persona. Distraught over the engagement, Rose considers suicide by jumping from the stern; Jack Dawson, a penniless artist, intervenes and discourages her. Discovered with Jack, Rose tells a concerned Cal that she was peering over the edge and Jack saved her from falling. When Cal becomes indifferent, she suggests to him that Jack deserves a reward. He invites Jack to dine with them in first class the following night. Jack and Rose develop a tentative friendship, despite Cal and Ruth being wary of him. Following dinner, Rose secretly joins Jack at a party in third class.
Aware of Cal and Ruth's disapproval, Rose rebuffs Jack's advances, but realizes she prefers him over Cal. After rendezvousing on the bow at sunset, Rose takes Jack to her state room; at her request, Jack sketches Rose posing nude wearing Cal's engagement present, the Heart of the Ocean necklace. They evade Cal's bodyguard and have sex in an automobile inside the cargo hold. On the forward deck, they witness a collision with an iceberg and overhear the officers and designer discussing its seriousness.
Cal discovers Jack's sketch of Rose and an insulting note from her in his safe along with the necklace. When Jack and Rose attempt to inform Cal of the collision, he has his bodyguard slip the necklace into Jack's pocket and accuses him of theft. Jack is arrested, taken to the master-at-arms' office, and handcuffed to a pipe. Cal puts the necklace in his own coat pocket.
With the ship sinking, Rose flees Cal and her mother, who has boarded a lifeboat, and frees Jack. On the boat deck, Cal and Jack encourage her to board a lifeboat; Cal claims he can get himself and Jack off safely. After Rose boards one, Cal tells Jack the arrangement is only for himself. As her boat lowers, Rose decides that she cannot leave Jack and jumps back on board. Cal takes his bodyguard's pistol and chases Rose and Jack into the flooding first-class dining saloon. After using up his ammunition, Cal realizes he gave his coat and consequently the necklace to Rose. He later boards a collapsible lifeboat by carrying a lost child.
After braving several obstacles, Jack and Rose return to the boat deck. The lifeboats have departed and passengers are falling to their deaths as the stern rises out of the water. The ship breaks in half, lifting the stern into the air. Jack and Rose ride it into the ocean and he helps her onto a wooden panel only buoyant enough for one person. He assures her that she will die an old woman, warm in her bed. Jack dies of hypothermia but Rose is saved.
With Rose hiding from Cal en route, the RMS Carpathia takes the survivors to New York City where Rose gives her name as Rose Dawson. She later finds out Cal committed suicide after losing all his money in the 1929 Wall Street crash.
Back in the present, Lovett decides to abandon his search after hearing Rose's story. Alone on the stern of Keldysh, Rose takes out the Heart of the Ocean — in her possession all along — and drops it into the sea over the wreck site. While she is seemingly asleep or has died in her bed, photos on her dresser depict a life of freedom and adventure inspired by the life she wanted to live with Jack. A young Rose reunites with Jack at the Titanic's Grand Staircase, applauded by those who died. | tragedy | train | wikipedia | I highly recommend the "play all" option, it has a running time of 187 minutes which will be long for some, but I find you are more aware and drawn into the stories, and because it is a drama it is much more of an emotional experience if you watch them consecutively because you are still in that mindset.
Julian Fellowes' Titanic felt to me more like a re-imagining than a retelling of an all too familiar story.
The story lines overlap and all meet in the same disastrous finale: the sinking of the ship.Although there are no big names in the cast, several are familiar faces (Maria Doyle Kennedy, Linus Roache, Toby Jones, Steven Waddington, Stephen Campbell Moore, Celia Imrie, James Wilby, Linda Kash).To my knowledge this is the only "Titanic" story that has included the real-life Dorothy Gibson (played by Sophie Winkleman), an American movie actress, who survived the disaster.
I think a lot of people are comparing this to James Cameron's Titanic, but if you want a different take on the actual sinking on the ship, then do watch this.
Perhaps when the DVD is released and there are no loud and ugly commercials every 5 minutes the story will hold together.Julian Fellowes, so respected for his writing of such series as Downton Abbey, etc.
seems to have the urge to tell the story of the event through quick snippets of personal stories among the passengers - a commendable idea, but when the tiny tales are buried in the almost immediate collision with the iceberg and the attempt to flesh out the story by making it about how tragedy affects people's relationships come as little disconnected pop-ups, it is difficult to care about anybody, much less get to know them well enough to remember them at picture's end.
Granted there are some moments before the ship is finished that emphasize the fact that the unsinkable Titanic was rushed to completion before it was safely ready, and those flashbacks to offer some interesting moments.But basically the story is the same as all the other TITANIC movies - a study about class distinction not only among the peerage of Brits but also the differentiation among first, second and third (steerage) classes - with a hefty dollop of snubbing the crass American passengers.
Most of the drama had a very rushed feel to it, consequently characters came and went, story lines(and rather derivative ones at that) were introduced but never satisfactorily elaborated upon or resolved(especially Mary Maloney's) and the main characters lack depth or even any sort of genuine personality and it doesn't help that here they are all underdeveloped stereotypes.Some scenes particularly at the start take a while to get going, maybe in an attempt to give the characters depth but seeing as they failed with that aspect the first episode was dull, and the sinking scenes which had potential to be riveting lacked any true tension.
The rest of the acting considering the cast pedigree was disappointing, and the fact that a lot don't have much to do has a lot to do with it.Toby Jones for example is a good actor, but is one of these, and for me he also had a character that was all too derivative of some of his other roles(such as a less-evil version of Quilp from The Old Curiosity Shop).
All in all, a big soggy and largely unmoving disappointment, better than the animated versions, which are the "what-the-devil-did-I-just-watch?" sort of quality, but for a better version try the sumptuous James Cameron version which had an absolutely riveting last hour and especially the brilliant A Night to Remember.
Given the easy potential for creating a compelling, suspenseful drama set aboard the most famous ship in history during its final hours, TITANIC is shamefully poor.
It's a wasted opportunity from the get-go, a lazy class-based drama in which – unforgivably – the sinking of the ship comes second to high melodrama and character relationships.
The sinking takes place in the last half hour and almost seems incidental.The characters are dull and featureless, each occupying a clichéd niche in society: there are the haughty aristocrats, the tradespeople, the servants, the Irish working classes, the stubborn captain, the decent officers, the good-looking Italian waiter.
Decent actors like Maria Doyle Kennedy and Toby Jones are lost amid the sea of faces – if there ever was a series with just too many extraneous characters, then this is it.
The Titanic is a cheesy CGI creation that wouldn't be out of place in a bad B-movie, there's no indication at any point that the sea was freezing cold (that's what killed the majority of the people, after all), and disaster scenes are limited to some water sloshing about on the deck – I thought the toilets had backed up for a second, I didn't realise that was supposed to be the ship going down!
Titanic debuted in Canada on March 21 and if the rest of the series was like the first episode then I can't recommend this version.
Otherwise, the story is just more of the same fictitious crap devised to retell this story incorrectly in a new, agonizingly dull way.That boat was filled with thousands of interesting stories that are never told - I have read snippets here and there over the years that include stories of stowaways, a woman who wouldn't sleep at night for fear of the ship sinking, a Japanese businessman, a French mistress travelling secretly with her lover, numerous honeymooning couples...
Frankly, this version of Titanic resembles Downton Abbey on Ice...Come April 15 I hope TCM has a marathon of the better movies about the Titanic - A Night to Remember, and S.O.S. Titanic, because this series is dull and boring, not like the real story at all..
It was awful to say the least mainly because the format of the series being one episode per week instead of over four days, I think the opening episode has put a lot of people off basically because it's too rushed towards the sinking, the characters are all behaving in a bad and rude manner, everything is crammed in without saying what the point of it is about, it would have been better if it introduced you to the characters in the first episode leading up to the sinking in episodes three and four!, I don't know how this is going to work as far as I have seen it's poorly put together despite the money spent on nice sets!.As for the acting I am truly disappointed mainly because the plots seem pointless, this is a weak episode but with more better episodes surely to come, I think this format has put a dampener on the mini series it could have had a better introduction..
I wasn't expecting great things of this title (I have issues regarding things made by ITV), but as its the 100th anniversary coming up, I felt I should give this a watch, without trying to get to excited (although admittedly, I was really looking forward to watching it).So far, I've only seen two episodes, and I have to say, while they aren't perfect, I feel that they are a good watch for a casual enthusiast of Titanic.
Let me just touch on a couple of bad points.Now, I don't know as much as a lot of people about the ship, but it does have some errors in historical accuracy, although reviewing from my perspective as somebody who knows a fair bit, but not a massive amount (or somebody, like me, who used to know, but is too stupid to remember...), I can say that you won't notice anything so bad that will ruin it for you, even though looking at the forums, some people seem to have taken great offence to this.My main gripe with these episodes is that they are very rushed.
While it was an interesting, if ambitious attempt at telling the story, I have to admit, I think that it would have worked better by going through in order, rather than chopping and changing the main characters every episode (although I have to say, it's nice they aren't doing a Cameron and just focusing on a couple of people).
I've read several reviews of Julian Fellowes' Titanic, and I agree with comments about the choppy, confusing editing (I'm sure there was a point to it, but I kept thinking I had started with the wrong episode, or in the middel of one...) I also agree with those that found the cast to be lacking in chemistry or real emotion.
I'm not a viewer of "Downton Abbey", writer Julian Fellowes big small-screen success story of recent times, but given the broad perception that it appears mainly to be a class-driven soap opera of a hundred years or so ago, I guess my hopes for this ITV four-parter weren't very high and so it proved.For a start, I found the non-linear narrative construction both confusing and irritating.
The first 30-40 minutes of each episode comprised supposed character-studies and depicted various interrelationships of passengers and crew, before the ship hits the iceberg to trigger the worst maritime disaster of all time.
The ship thus hits the berg four times, weakening, if not deadening the obvious climax to the piece.Unlike James Cameron's Hollywood epic, which focused on one relationship at its heart, Fellowes of course gives us loads and has many of his characters apparently at some sort of crossroads in their lives, falling in or out of relationships like it was the Love Boat.
Some of the plotting is distinctly fanciful, especially the notion that the anarchist leader of the infamous 1910 Saracen Street siege finds his way on board and his own way to redemption, otherwise it just looked like a big period soap opera with a particularly tragic ending.The story of the Titanic will no doubt be done again and again down the years, though not for some time I'd imagine as its centenary passes, but I doubt this will be one of the best-remembered dramatisations.
The James Cameron film is a big-budget Hollywood studio disaster/action movie, in which the main characters are fabrications who are not based on historical fact.
This television series is a sober and serious drama that tells the story of class conflict and tragedy, based on real life characters who actually were present on the voyage.
ITV's 'Titanic' sunk without a trace because it couldn't cope with the first of these, couldn't match the expectations, and didn't get the ratings.The reason may be is that we had it so rammed down our throats that it was going to be the best thing on TV ever It couldn't meet that level of pressure, especially when James Cameron's film of the same subject matter has become long associated as the accepted version.There are some nice performances, there are some nice moments.
And one that is not actually a drag to sit through.The 2012 "Titanic" series focus on the ship and the stories of the passengers, which is what the audience wants to see.
And the visuals do play a big part in a drama about the Titanic.The costume and props department also did their job quite well, fleshing out the atmosphere nicely.If you have an interest in the Titanic then you should take the time to sit down and watch this 2012 TV mini-series, because it is actually quite entertaining and good..
But then in next chapters we get to know them and this is great opportunity to see a story from many points of view, rich and poor people that were on that ship.
This miniseries is not at all like James Cameron's movie (in fact, I do like this miniseries more than that movie) because this is set around a whole group of people and not just a fictional love story.
yes, the first part was a bit rushed, but the next 3 episodes were much more improved.and to the people criticizing this because this has inaccuracies, yes it does, but newsflash: EVERY movie that has been made about Titanic has inaccuracies.
I recommend people "binge-watch" it, either all at once or at least break it up into two episodes per day.The episodes correspond well, in my opinion, even though the overall plot isn't about one person (like in Jim Cameron's Titanic).
The stories are sometimes re-told in future episodes through a different character's perspective.
Each episode builds on the previous one, adding more detail to the different characters' (some characters are completely fictional and others are based off of real passengers) lives.Even though the costumes, set design, and CGI aren't as spectacular or accurate as in Jim Cameron's movie, they're still very impressive.
I think people definitely should have watched all the episodes before reviewing this..
As a result, I found myself moved by some of the characters but confused by others and therefore, not as entertained, or at the least interested, as by the recent re-release of the 1997 James Cameron version, that was converted to 3-D, at the same time as this broadcast, both of which were out in time for the anniversary of that ship's going under a century ago.
Really, all I'll now say is if you want to watch yet another version of what happened on that ship with yet another depiction of the ways people acted then, whether fictionalized or not, go watch this version of "Titanic".
I was looking forward to this series, expecting top drama and characters I wanted to root for.
Unfortunately what I got was a low budget retelling of James Cameron's Titanic.As I watched I started to notice a few similarities to Cameron's screenplay, such as certain character stereotypes, thematic tropes, story lines ...
There were people who couldn't reach the boats, and the first boat was not launched until an hour after the collision, because the ship was badly organised and managed - that is the *real* tragedy of Titanic.The sinking itself is completely mishandled, a confusing mish-mash of scenes with no sense of increasing danger, just a desperate effort to tie-up all the plots which started in the first three episodes.
ABC-TV lucked out in that reports say almost nobody watched their "much anticipated" TITANIC mini-series.
I felt like there was no time to connect with the characters or care about certain people surviving or not surviving the sinking.
And isn't that why people loved Cameron's Titanic?
In comparing it to the film, I would say that audience will care a whole lot more for Jack and Rose than any romantic couple or family on Fellowe's Titanic.
If I had known all of this before watching the first episode, I think it would have made me enjoy the series that much more.Plus, I find the Countess of Manton annoying.
When I first heard about this television drama mini series, I was a little bit dubious, especially as I thought nothing could compare to the spectacle of the brilliant 1997 blockbuster success, but then I heard it was written by Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey), so I was willing to give it a go.
Basically the four episodes start at different points before or during the voyage of the famous ship, the RMS Titanic, launched on 10th Aprl 1912, and we see a bunch of stories from the perspectives of many main characters, passengers and crew in all the classes, but mostly in the upper classes.
I decided to stick with this, but this turned out to be a silly decision, because it got worse as it went on, the characters are dull, even the ones you know like Captain Smith, the stories they have are boring and predictable, the Titanic sinking with special effects should have been much better, and overall it just feels like a terrible piece of trash that didn't need to be made.
They said it was going to be "Downton at sea", it was just a silly period drama with no imagination, and it was a bad way to be paying tribute to 100 years since the disaster happened, just stick to the James Cameron/Leonard DiCaprio/Kate Winslet version, especially if it's in 3D, this is a daft and dire costume drama series.
Oh, and trying to rip off the REAL Titanic story with Jack And Rose, by showing a waiter with a high class daughter..
I was presented a thread about a week ago on Facebook in which endless posters didn't realize there really was a Titanic.Complaints about this miniseries, which is fine to me, I've spent the day watching recreations on the Discovery channel, looks about like them, give me the impression people wanted My Heart Will Go On And On to start playing at the beginning and it didn't!
The sinking scenes were rushed and I couldn't help but want to watch James Cameron's version and A Night To Remember or even the Catherine Zeta- Jones version.
My favourite Titanic adaptations are as follows, 1st - James Cameron's 1997 epic, 2nd - 1958 British effort A Night To Remember, 3rd - 1996 Catherine Zeta-Jones mini-series, 4th - This ITV version, 5th - S.O.S. Titanic, 6th - 1953 version..
A New Mini-Series About The Titanic.
Titanic is a TV miniseries period drama based on the sinking of a passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean back in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City.It stars Toby Jones, Linus Roache, Geraldine Somerville and Maria Doyle Kennedy.It was released to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the disaster.It was written by Julian Fellowes and directed by Jon Jones.Each of the first three episodes starts before the launch and follows different characters through to the ocean liner's collision with the iceberg, slowly unfolding more information and approaching scenes from different perspectives until the final episode follows everyone as the ship begins to sink, to powerful emotional effect. |
tt6460664 | Kido Senshi Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory - Sora No Kagero | === Season 1 ===
The series is set in 2307 AD. As a result of the depletion of fossil fuels, humanity had to search for a new source of power. The power was found in the form of multiple Dyson rings (massive arrays of solar power collectors) orbiting Earth, and supported by three orbital elevators, each one serving one of the three "power blocs" on the planet, namely Union, controlling the region surrounding North America; Human Reform League (Sino-Japanese: 人類革新連盟; Romaji: jinrui kakushin renmei; Pinyin: rénlèi géxīn liánméng), consisting of China, Russia and India; and AEU, which controls mainland Europe. With this nearly inexhaustible source of energy benefiting only the major powers and their allies, constant warfare erupts around the globe among minor countries for fuels and energy. Countries that once economically relied on the sale of fossil fuels have plunged into poverty. Some even believe that solar energy threatened the "promised land of God", resulting in the 20-year Solar Wars. This chaos led to the formation of a private military organization, called Celestial Being (ソレスタルビーイング, Soresutaru Bīingu), dedicated to eradicating war and uniting humanity through the use of four advanced machines called Gundams. Mobile Suit Gundam 00 follows four mobile suit pilots termed Gundam Meisters (ガンダムマイスター, Gandamu Maisutā), sided with Celestial Being. The main protagonist is 16-year-old Setsuna F. Seiei, a taciturn Gundam pilot who grew up in the war-torn Republic of Krugis.
Unable to counter Celestial Being's superior technology, the three major powers eventually unite into the United Nations Army in order to counter Celestial Being's armed interventions. In order to fight the Gundams, the United Nations Army employed the help of Laguna Harvey. Harvey, a Celestial Being intelligence agent turned traitor, provides them with 30 GN-X, mobile suits equipped with pseudo-GN Drives. As the United Nations resist Celestial Being's interventions, a second team of Gundams, known as Team Trinity, appears and assists in the Meisters' eradication of war, albeit in a much more cruel and cold-blooded fashion.
Alejandro Corner, a former Celestial Being observer who plans to make use of the chaos and destruction created by Celestial Being to rule a reconstructed world, subsequently takes over Veda, Celestial Being's supercomputer which is believed to be located in the moon somewhere. Without the tactical aid from the organization's artificial intelligence, Celestial Being is easily overwhelmed and overpowered by GN-X units and their superior numbers.
The United Nations Army initiates Operation Fallen Angels to destroy the Gundams, having discovered the location of the Meisters' mothership, Ptolemaios. During the operation, Ali Al-Saachez kills Lockon Stratos after a climactic battle (Lockon Statos was just injured in a previous battle). Alejandro Corner, in his unique custom mobile armor Alvatore, attacks Setsuna as the GN-X units proceed to destroy the Ptolemaios and the remaining Gundams. Setsuna struggles with the monstrous Alvatore, but in the end succeeds in killing Alejandro. Graham Aker, an ace pilot of the United Nations Army, then challenges Setsuna to a fight, seeking revenge for his fallen comrades and questioning the purpose of Gundams' existence. The fight results in the destruction of the GN-Flag, while the Exia is heavily damaged.
Celestial Being is an Independence Army that was founded by Aeolia Schenberg, who is a genius of the 21st century, and has a point to prevent wars and contradiction in any case by intervening and eliminating the culprits with the more power. The real purpose of this independence is still not revealed to public, but it had been organized for long time ago and only just exposed to public nowadays. By the way this independence has agents in many independences and world class corporations, so they can carry out their plan easily and get many allowances. Technology in independent is more advanced than other mighty nations, especially "Gundam" that it is the most powerful and perfect weapon in the world. Actually the real purpose of Celestial Being is moving people go to space and plan 3 steps to Prevent the wars, Make the world have unity, make an effort to move people to space. But Aeolia Schenberg can only do just first step. Celestial Being has a meaning "Angel" and it is allegorical as they are a god that has power that human can't fight with.
=== Season 2 ===
Four years have passed since the final battle between Celestial Being and the UN Forces. Humanity, having established the Earth Sphere Federation, forms an autonomous peace-keeping force, A-Laws, separate from and above the formal Federation army. Given unfettered discretion, A-Laws is charged with the duty to further unify nations, enforce the will of mankind, and dispose of terrorist cells. Unknown to the general public, however, is that the A-Laws misuse their power and employ inhumane tactics to oppress freedoms, doctrines, and ideologies, all in the name of 'unity'.
Meanwhile, Setsuna tries to confront the A-Laws by himself with his battered Gundam Exia, but is easily overpowered by their newer models. He is soon rescued by Tieria Erde, piloting his new mobile suit, the Seravee Gundam. By combining the GN Drives of Exia and 0 Gundam, Celestial Being's engineers manage to complete Aeolia's plans for an advanced mobile suit with twin GN drives - the 00 Gundam - which is entrusted to Setsuna. To pilot the two remaining new units, Lockon Stratos' twin brother is invited to assume his brother's codename and former position as the pilot of the Cherudim Gundam, and after Allelujah Haptism is rescued from the prison he was being detained in during the timeskip, he assumes the command of Arios Gundam. Saji Crossroad reclutantly joins Setsuna to pilot the upgraded 00 Raiser and confront his fiance Louise Halevy who has joined A-Laws.
Unknown to Celestial Being and the A-Laws, a third party is manipulating both sides of the conflict. This group call themselves "Innovators", composed of Alejandro Corner's former assistant Ribbons Almark, and his six subordinates. Subsequently, it is revealed that Aeolia Schenberg's plan is to ensure humanity's survival; unite the world's factions through Celestial Being's armed interventions and then advance humanity into deep space and undergo Innovation, a trans-human process.
After uncovering the truth about Ribbons' true intentions, Celestial Being joins forces with dissident members of the A-Laws to stop their oppression and bring the fight to the Innovates. Being continuously exposed to the GN particles of the fully completed Gundam 00, Setsuna undergoes Innovation, becoming the first true Innovator with powers far greater than Ribbons and his group. The conflict ends in a final showdown between Ribbons and Setsuna with the latter's victory. The story continues in 'Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer. | violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0091949 | Short Circuit | Number 5 is part of a series of prototype U.S. military S.A.I.N.T. (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport) robots built for the Cold War by NOVA Laboratories. The series' inventors, Newton Graham Crosby and Ben Jabituya, are more interested in peaceful applications including music and social aid. After a demonstration of the robots' capabilities, Number 5 is hit by a lightning-induced power surge, scrambling its programming and giving it a sense of free will. Several incidents allow the robot to escape the facility accidentally, barely able to communicate and uncertain of its directive. In Astoria, Oregon, Stephanie Speck (who cares for animals and mistakes Number 5 for an extraterrestrial visitor) grants Number 5 access to books, television, and other stimuli, to satisfy his hunger for 'input'; whereupon Number 5 develops a whimsical and curious childlike personality. When Stephanie realizes Number 5 is a military invention, she contacts NOVA who send out a team to recover him, bringing one of the other robots along to help. When Number 5 accidentally crushes a grasshopper and gains an understanding of mortality, he concludes that if NOVA disassembles him he too will cease to be alive. Horrified, Number 5 steals Stephanie's van and flees, but the pair are cornered by NOVA, including Newton and Ben. Although Stephanie attempts to reveal his newly discovered sentience, Number 5 is deactivated and captured. Being taken on the way to NOVA, he manages to turn himself back on and escapes despite a tracker that had been placed on him. Returning to Stephanie for protection, Number 5's unusual actions catch the attention of his creators, but NOVA's CEO Dr. Howard Marner turns a deaf ear to their wild hypothesis.
From this follow several adventurous escapes from the soldiers, led by NOVA's security chief Captain Skroeder (G. W. Bailey). Having humiliated Stephanie's ex-boyfriend Frank and three of the remaining prototypes (that have been reprogrammed to imitate The Three Stooges by Number 5), Stephanie and the robot convince Newton of the robot's sentience. Shortly after, the trio are cornered by Skroeder, who has secretly taken over NOVA's security, and the Army, both of whom chase after Number 5, whose only concern is Newton and Stephanie's safety. Number 5 flees across the fields until a US Army helicopter sweeps over a nearby rise and its missiles blow the helpless robot to pieces. Newton and Stephanie are devastated over the loss, Newton quits NOVA. Marner is also disappointed at the destruction of years of research, and seeing the security team celebrate, quickly dismisses Skroeder for insubordination. Stephanie leaves with Newton, who plans to head to his father's estate in Montana and start over. During their drive, Number 5 reveals himself to them, surprising his friends by revealing the warmongers actually blew up a duplicate he made out of spare parts. Elated in their reunion, Number 5 renames himself "Johnny 5" after a song "Who's Johnny" that he heard when he escaped from NOVA's van. He accompanies Stephanie and Newton to their new home. | entertaining | train | wikipedia | This film is wonderfully life-affirming through the character of robot Jonny 5 (the scene where he realises what it means to be alive through crushing a grass hopper is beautifully portrayed), Ally Sheedy brings a bucket load of positive energy to the character of the naive but loving Stephanie, and to top it all there is a subtle but powerful comment on American militarism.
I know how this sounds, so bear with me a moment.Short Circuit is, at heart, a comedy about what happens when a robot designed to replace a special forces soldier is struck by lightning, and starts to believe he is a living entity.
Maturer audiences will have a hard time overlooking some of the childish nuances of the movie, but it is such a fun and entertaining family film that all of those things can be easily forgiven.
I feel like I've lost something when I can't think of a single movie now that I love so much that I will watch it a few times a week.
This is a pretty tired formula, something man-made suddenly displaying life-like qualities and wanting to be recognized as a real boy, but it's accompanied by some clever messages about the advancement of technology, particularly technology designed to replace humans, which has always been seen as a bit of a dangerous idea, criticized brilliantly by everyone from Charlie Chaplin to James Cameron.
Sadly, CGI has forever replaced the need to create a physical robot like the one that plays Johnny 5 in this movie, so any Short Circuit that was made today would just be some soul-less digital effect cavorting across the screen, instantly forgettable.
They are both cookie-cutter caricatures, Sheedy the lonely Stephanie, who drives an ice-cream truck for a living, and Guttenberg plays a scientist named Newton, who works for the evil NOVA but who only needs a cute ice-cream lady and a charming robot to change his evil ways.
The sequel is not quite as up there, but I also keep it mixed in with my favorite DVDs. For any science fiction fan, it can be seen as a classic and prelude to movies such as "I, Robot".10 out of 10 is my rating because this movie has played a great part in my movie-watching life.
Number Five's designer, Newton Crosby (Guttenberg) and his silly assistant Ben Jabituya (Stevens), have yet to appreciate what Number Five has achieved, as a shell of wires and controls able to take on human qualities, but, soon, they too will join Speck in the quest to save 'Number Five.' Some of it is kind of reminscint of other 80s sci-fi movies like 'Batteries Not Included' and 'E.T.' There's two issues at work in this movie.
I think that's because 'Number Five' is such a funny, loveable robot.If you like the theme of this movie, I recommend seeing the hilarious comedy, 'Making Mr. Right,' which is about a robot designed for space exploration rather than military use.
I saw this movie at the pictures This Movie was a Classic back in 1986 I still remember this movie well "NUMBER 5 IS ALIVE" I would have been 7 years old when I watch this movie the reason I am guess it has such a low rating.
is cause there have been so many movies in this Genre, Over lets say the last 8 years, Including Short circuit ripoff Wall-E http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/ Anyway it doesn't have the awesome graphics Wall-E has cause 3d computer graphics didn't really exist in 1986 Wall-E might even have a slightly better story line But you must remember Short Circuit was the original and did not have 100s of robot friend movies to copy of like wall-e at the time it was made to copy ideas off and revise from, Wall-e received 9 out of 10 Short circuit received 6 out of 10 I feel Short Circuit have been very hard done by for being a old movie.
It could be a number of things: A cute robot, a good cast, great comedy, and John Badham, the director that can take a low budget film and make it into a classic (such as his previous work, Saturday Night Fever, which was alot more vulgar) Or Maybe it's just fun to watch all of the neat little gadgets Number 5 has, showing that some of the least expensive things can be made to look high-tech..
I still see, and still laugh at the ex boyfriend getting his boot heels shot off...his belt and brim of his hat...the look on his face as he saw his precious car taken apart...not Number 5's fault he had left the Chilton manual in the car...:) :) :) This movie is truly an original tale, very well told, and will stand out as an excellent piece for a long time to come..
As the military hunt for the escaped robot, two scientists (Steve Guttenberg, Fisher Stevens) try to find it first.A heartfelt sci-fi comedy that's funny, positive, and extremely entertaining.
I know, I know, it's not like it's a brilliant work of cinematic history or anything, and Steve Guttenberg is hardly the greatest actor of his generation, but if you are looking for just a fun movie with some cheap laughs that won't make you think too much, this is a great pick.
Especially if it's for the whole family, because Short Circuit is definitely family friendly (for the most part).One thing we didn't appreciate was that Fisher Stevens was playing a silly comic-relief character, a nerdy scientist from India who talks with a stereotypical old Indian accent and just doesn't understand things and is super socially awkward.
Short Circuit is a good movie with a good storyline and a decent but not fantastic cast.I watched the movie because my mom always talked about it as a fond movie she remembers as a child,but it definitely wouldn't hold up today,the effects and especially the acting is very cheesy,but its almost impossible not to fall in love with Number 5,he's a very funny and lovable character.I wasn't impressed with the cast,however,I did enjoy G.W. Bailey's performance,I really enjoyed his asshole that he proved from Police Academy that he can pull it off very well.Short Circuit is a very fun movie that the whole family can enjoy.After the fifth member of a group of robots is electrocuted,he forms human feelings and emotions,and escapes his organisation with no intention of returning..
Looking like a cross between a mechanical ET and a prototype WallE, Johnny 5, the robotic hero of John Badham's Short Circuit, is a top-secret, multi million dollar piece of army hardware that comes 'alive' when he is accidentally zapped by a bolt of lightning.
After escaping the high-tech facility where he was designed and built (by Steve Guttenberg, of all people!!!), Number 5 meets animal-lover Stephanie (Ally Sheedy), absorbs huge amounts of information from her books and television, and learns that life is preciousespecially his own.Oozing 80s style from every frame, Short Circuit might be an extremely dated movie (check out the computers that feature in the filma Mac classic is seen being unpacked!) but it still manages to be a whole load of fun thanks to its likable characters and a pretty funny script.
I just finished watching the DVD with my kids (aged 7 and 5), and we all had a great time: I particularly enjoyed the sense of nostalgia I got from watching a 'pre-internet, pre-mobile phone era' piece of cheesy sci-fi from my youth, whilst the children just lapped up the silly antics of Johnny 5.Badham might not be the most stylish of directors, but he can always be relied upon to deliver a solidly entertaining film, and although this one isn't packed with state of the art special effects (even for the time), sometimes the action is rather weak (the 'high speed' chase scenes look rather slow to me), and Fisher Stevens' portrayal of an Asian is rather dubious, it's still worth a try.
Fisher Stevens is the actor whom I remember as defining all that was fun in the film.4 nights ago, I watched my children in amazement, as they voiced appreciation of and approval for virtually all that I found worthy in the movie.
'Short Circuit' is a 1980s film about a witty and loud-mouthed robot (Number Five/Johnny Five) who begins a quest on his own after he has been brought to life after being electrocuted.
"Short Circuit" is indeed worth watching repeatedly.Number Five, one of the robots originally designed as war weapons by Nova Laboratories, accidentally gets struck by lightning and starts to have a mind of its own.
But he and Stephanie have to convince Newton Crosby (the robot's co-creator, played by Steve Guttenberg) that Five is ALIVE and has emotions, just like humans.
As the ending approaches the plot gets really dramatic and you feel so happy after you watch the whole movie.Number Five is enormously sweet and adorable on one particularly memorable scene which he dances with Stephanie and sings along to "More than a Woman".
"Short Circuit" certainly captured my heart and it should be recommended to everyone looking for an enjoyable movie filled with many opportunities for a good laugh.
I've always been a sucker for that old computerized robot voice you hear in this movie, and I'm kinda surprised it didn't leave me with a zen for vodka tonics as well.But it's also got plenty in the amusing department: Ally Sheedy's comical overacting, a guy in brownface, happy-go-lucky Steve Guttenberg, and most importantly, the cool robot with the funny voice and distinctive look.And a laser.A lot of fun, this movie.8/10.
It never gives off the sense that it's trying to be something it's not, staying fresh, funny and even laughing at itself.Maybe the best way to put the filmmaker's attitudes into perspective while making "Short Circuit" would be to mention that director John Badham not only made a much more serious Cold War adventure film in "War Games" a few years before, but the robot (No. 5 as he's called) at one point imitates John Travolta's dance moves in "Saturday Night Fever," another Badham film.
Badham even takes to making fun of his other work using "Short Circuit."Although Badham gets the credit for making No. 5 such a lovable character (with some help from fine voice acting in Tim Blaney), the writing team of Wilson and Maddock deserve a lot of credit for the film's clever and amusing take on artificial life as well as the numerous jabs at Cold War America."Short Circuit" is about a top secret set of military robots designed by Newton (Steve Guttenberg of "Police Academy") for the military supplier he works for called NOVA.
When a lightning strike fries one of the robots, he ignores his programming and escapes the facility where he meets an animal-lover named Stephanie (Ally Sheedy of Badham's "War Games") who takes him in believing he's an alien.
Cue a lot of cute situations where the robot - Number Five - can sing, speak, dance, and fall in love.Steve Guttenberg and Ally Sheedy, both key 1980s movie faces, are well served by great parts in this, and although 'Short Circuit' occasionally feels contrived and a bit certain about the black and whiteness of good and bad, it is still a good film and a lot of fun.A sequel which appeared after a decent interval appeared to have forgotten the first film's ending and was nowhere near as good, but this original item in the series stands up well, despite clunky special effects which pale alongside CGI..
Short Circuit is like the movie "ET" with a robot substituted for the extra-terrestrial and a young woman in place of the child.
Short Circuit is one of those films I rented as a kid back in the precious 80s when we got so many good family movies that just wouldn't see the light of day in these awful times.
Steve Guttenberg and Ally Sheedy star in this often forgotten but somewhat iconic comedy-adventure with a robot in 'Short Circuit'.
Badham even recreates a scene from 'Saturday Night Fever' for laughs, and endears the audience to this robotic hero.I remember enjoying this film as a kid, and still enjoyed watching it again.
In Short Circuit the inspiration is to marry the heartwarming story of ET with robot technology and the story of Robot Number 5, an advanced robot developed for military purposes but gains some kind of artificial intelligence after being struck by lightning and being fried.Number 5 goes on the run from the defence company who want to disassemble him and he ends up befriending naive animal lover Ally Sheedy who protects him but initially thinks he is an alien from outer space.Steve Guttenberg is the creator of the robot program, unhappy about the proposed military uses of his creations.
Number 5 because he was an adorable robot bumbling through his newly discovered "life" and Ben because his jumbled words and teen-like lust for women was hilarious.As much as I like those two characters I found Stephanie (Ally Sheedy) annoying.
btw...Wall-e Reminded me of Johnny -5!(resemblance is uncanny) There was another movie which I liked a Lot at that time , I think it was "short circuit" ..
He finds a lady and they become friends and he becomes more and more human.This movie is just great I would still highly recommend this to kids now a days just because they are sure to fall in love with the robot just as I did as a kid..
I love this movie its was funny charming and really good the story is about number 5 who gets hit and starts to have a mind of his own and ends up at a farm and becomes friends with a human who also think he is a live this film is a like The love bug where it took time for Jim to realize that Herbie was a live I saw this after watching the 2nd movie that is a sequel to it but this movie is better the 2nd I find it more fun and funny the 2nd one was okay but compared to this one it look a bit corny this is very sad and you will love it and its underrated maybe give it a better rating because its a very good movie this would be great if they made a 3rd movie to this and the 2nd The movie is pretty good for the family and you will love it watch it again and again mostly if you have not seen this movie then get out on DVD because it was a huge hit and I love this movie this has became one of my favorites movies its on my favorite movie list that get a 5 stars in my book I give this movie a 10 out of 10..
And believes it's alive like a human.But with the army in search for #5, it needs to find a way to avoid being disassembled.Short Circuit is a cool 80s movie.
Another movie from my kid past, a story about a military robot named Number 5 developing self-awareness and consciousness after being struck by lightening.
With the company who built him, Nova, out to get him because they think he has malfunctioned, technician Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) and animal lover Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy) are on a mission to save Number 5 from being reprogrammed.After watching this movie in its entirety as an adult, I, unfortunately, was not impressed with the film.
The so-called comedy is unfunny, the action is dull and the characters were extremely annoying.Ally Sheedy's Stephanie Speck character was loud, obnoxious, overbearing and developed no chemistry with lead Steve Guttenberg; Fisher Stevens' Ben Jabituya character was very lame with his dumb, stereotypical Indian accent and unfunny jokes; Austin Pendleton's Howard Marner character was overly-excited; and G.W. Bailey's Skroeder character was over-asserted as the supposed villain.
Number 5, the star robot of the movie gets hit by lightning and some thing happened to his circuits.
"Short Circuit" is a watchable film about a military robot who gets zapped by lightning one day and develops a mind of his own ala "Frankenstein".
There's only one reason a person would like this film: If anyone would love to see Steve Guttenberg be upstaged by robot, this is the movie for you..
As cute as Number 5, Steve Guttenberg, and Ally Sheedy were in this movie, the greatest character was Ben!
I Love this Movie because Johnny Five is a Great "Robot".
John Badham, who entertained us so well with "War Games", yet disappointed us with movies such as "Bird on a Wire" and "Blue Thunder", brings to the screen this time a film which plays like a collage of many previous and better shows, "E.T." being the most obvious.The plot follows the adventures of No.5, a hi-tech defence robot that has 'short circuited' after being struck by lightening, and is on the run from his creators who wish to 'disassemble' him.
Having no wish to be destroyed, our little hero befriends an animal lover (Ally Sheedy) who offers him protection.While it presents no originality, and the special effects and gadgetry have been outdone both before and after its release, "Short Circuit" is a good humoured film which provides reasonable entertainment thanks to some enjoyably funny antics from No.5.
Meanwhile, his creator Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) along with fellow robot expert Ben Jabituya (Fisher Stevens) are looking for Number 5, aka Johnny 5, to see what has happened to him, and they are against the military forces who think it's best to destroy him.
Experimental military robot Number 5 believes that he's really alive after he gets struck by a bolt of lightning.
May 9, 2016Number 5 is a cute robot and brought to amazing life through special effects, however, I'm a little confused as to how this is a kids film? |
tt0045563 | Blowing Wild | After the bandit El Gavilan and his men blow up their South American oil rig, broke wildcatters Jeff Dawson and "Dutch" Peterson head back to town, looking for work. Sal Donnelly, an American down on her luck, tries to use her charms to get Jeff to buy her a ticket to get home; Jeff offers his oil lease as payment, but the ticket taker shows him a fistful of leases he already has.
Jeff accepts a very dangerous job delivering unstable nitroglycerin the next day for $800, despite Dutch's protests. That night, Dutch tries to mug a man for enough money to buy a meal. The man turns out to be "Paco" Conway, an old friend and former partner of Jeff and Dutch, who has struck it rich. He offers them work, but his marriage to Jeff's old flame Marina makes Jeff turn it down. The next day, Jeff and Dutch (and the nitroglycerin) are ambushed by El Gavilan. They get away, though Dutch is shot in the leg.
When Jeff goes to collect their pay, Jackson claims he does not that much on him. Sal, whom Jackson is romancing, tells Jeff that Jackson has $2500 in his wallet. Jeff gets his money, after a brawl, and gives $200 to Sal for her ticket. However, a policeman confiscates Jeff's $600, as Jackson has other creditors, though he is gracious enough to leave Sal her money. With Dutch in the hospital, Jeff reluctantly goes to work for Paco, drilling a new oil well.
Marina makes romantic overtures to Jeff, but he avoids her as best he can. He reminds her that he loved her once, but could not trust her. She admits it, but says she realized she loved him too after he had left. Paco remains oblivious to what is going on. To Jeff's initial annoyance, Sal gets a job as a blackjack dealer and sticks around. Later though, he starts going into town to see her.
When El Gavilan threatens to blow up Paco's oil wells unless he pays $50,000 extortion money, Paco considers paying, much to Jeff's disgust. Marina sides with Jeff, calling her husband a coward. A drunken Paco later laments publicly that his wife loves another man. He finally realizes the other man is Jeff. When Paco tells her that he loves her regardless, Marina pushes him into a well, where the machinery kills him. Marina claims that Paco fell in by accident. When she lets slip to Jeff that she killed Paco so they could be together, he nearly strangles her, then regains control of himself and leaves the house. Just then, the bandits attack. The local police and Jeff fight them. Marina is irresistibly drawn to the fatal oil well during the battle, and dies when it is blown up. Jeff kills El Gavilan, then leaves with Dutch and Sal. | murder | train | wikipedia | Good Cast in a Watchable Product.
Blowing Wild is some sort of modern times western, unpretentious but interesting.Ruined friends Jeff Dawson (Gary Coooper) and Dutch Peterson (Ward Bond) are stuck in a small South American city after bandits blow to pieces their only oil well.
As they wonder around they run into wealthy Paco Conway (Anthony Quinn) a former close friend of Dawson who is in the oil business and hires him to give him a hand.
Dawson takes the job just to raise the money that will bring him and Dutch back to the United States.
Paco's wife Marina Conway (Barbara Stanwyck)has had something with Dawson in the past and she seems willing to revive it.
Bandits are also around menacing Paco's oil wells.
Circumstances mix up and the plot turns out interesting as it shows the disturbing relationship between Jeff, Paco and Marina.The film was shot in black and white by Argentine director Hugo Fregonese who makes a good job here in a story about friendship, ambition, passion and murder.
Frankie Lane sings the adequate title song.Cooper is very good as the straight minded Dawson as also is Anthomy Quinn as the self made man that really loves his wife.
Barbara Stanwyck's character is the center of the plot and she renders an outstanding performance in another of her many "mean woman" roles.
Ward Bond and Ruth Roman -Jeff's romantic alternative- are a strong support.
There's also Ian McDonald playing one of his usual unsympathetic characters and meeting Cooper again after High Noon (1952).Blowing Wild is an acceptable product in its kind.
You won't miss a great movie if you don't see it, but you'll enjoy it if you do..
Great early 50's movie.
I remember seeing this as a14 year old in England when it was first released.
It has stuck in my mind ever since.
The combination of Gary Cooper's world weary persona, Dimitri Tiomkin's evocative score, the great rendition of the title song by Frankie Laine and the powerful sense of loss and what might have been all combine to make a fantastic couple of hours.
One thought did occur when I watched it again last night was how old the characters all were...
We take it for granted today that most roles are played by 25-35 year old actors (and actresses)that to see Cooper, Stanwyck, Quinn, Bond etc.
brings one up with start.
Lovely film, though, and I look forward to seeing it again..
Magnificent Cast in a Reasonable Film.
In a hypothetical country in South America, Jeff Dawson (Gary Cooper) and his partner Dutch Peterson (Ward Bond) have invested all their savings in a lease contract to explore oil.
However, their expectation ruins when bandits blow the derrick of the oil well with dynamite and they get stranded in the town without any money.
In despair, they accept the risky transportation of nitroglycerin to raise US$ 800.00 and Dutch is shot in the leg by road thieves; but Jeff discovers that their employer is a trickster and they area not paid for their job.
When their former friend Paco Conway (Anthony Quinn) meets them, Jeff finds that he is a local tycoon and is married with Marina Conway (Barbara Stanwyck), who had a past with him.
Paco hires Jeff his foreman to help him with his eighteen oil wells while Dutch is recovering in the hospital.
Meanwhile the criminals press Paco to pay US$ 50,000.00 otherwise they will blow his wells and Marina revives her love and desire for Jeff, leading the trio to a tragedy.
"Blowing Wild" is a reasonable film with a magnificent cast.
The writer is visibly inspired in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "Le Salaire de la Peur" and combines with elements of film-noir, with Barbara Stanwyck performing a "femme fatale".
The idea of a hypothetical South American country is silly and dull.
In the end, "Blowing Wild" is an entertaining little flick that wastes the huge potential of a dream cast.
My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Sangue da Terra" ("Blood of the Earth").
Decent action/drama.
Gary Cooper is looking for work somewhere in South America when he meets an old friend with a succesful oil-digging company.
His wife, however, is an old love from Cooper and the tension can only lead to bad things.
On top of it all, the country suffers from bandits who destroy and rob all material.
The story has a negative undertone about the failure Americans have when trying to make it big outside their motherland just like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Bogart.
The characters are well thought-out and all of them have a solid background.
Gary Cooper's character has a past he'd rather forget and it made me think about his character in High Noon.
Unfortunately the movie seems to be made in a rush, but due to the story, drama and character studies I give this a 7 out of 10!
And for me that's rather a lot!.
a western at heart, great entertainment, outstanding cast.
Blowin Wild is the type of movie you took for granted when originally released and now can appreciate how good it is.
Starting with Barbara Stanwick who could play a "femme fatale" better than no one, Anthony Quinn as the good guy's friend, that has a great weakness, a role he also played in Warlock, Quinn was the ideal villain, and Gary Cooper was one of the best heroes ever on the screen.
The outstanding Ward Bond and the pretty Ruth Roman complete this fantastic cast.
Apart from the ridiculous premise that there are independent small oil operations in South America, this is an excellent western (at least at heart).
At certain moments I was reminded of The Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la Peur, 1953, others of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre(1948).
There is a great scene when Barbara Stanwick and Ruth Roman confront each other..
South American oil wells are blowing wild...and so are the tempers between the stars!.
Shotgun-toting, dynamite-wielding banditos in South America shake down local oil-drillers for cash; they run strapped American Gary Cooper out of business, forcing him into partnership with an old friend whose oil-site is doing well--but whose steely-eyed wife is a real wild-card.
Surprisingly cheapjack production featuring three top stars (Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, and Anthony Quinn), all of whom acquit themselves well with a script which seems half-finished.
Ruth Roman is a con-artist who runs into Cooper a few times--and before you know it, she's declaring she loves him.
Stanwyck puts forth a lot of heat, and gets us to believe in the tempestuous marriage she shares with Quinn, but there's little motivation for what comes next.
The finale, which should have been as emotionally explosive as the effects, plays curiously flat, and there's no reasoning for why the bandits are so extreme in their destruction, nor why they choose the opportunities to strike when they do.
From a narrative standpoint, the picture is a mess; however, it is quickly-paced, torrid in spots, and is frequently entertaining in spite of its flaws.
Better than I'd expected..
I have been an avid Turner Classic Movies viewer and cannot recall them ever playing this obscure Gary Cooper film.
It's a shame, as it's pretty good.
The film is a remake of the Cagney film "Torrid Zone" and it's also a bit similar (at least in the early part of the movie) to "Wages of Fear"...a film that also came out in 1953.Jeff and Dutch (Gary Cooper and Ward Bond) are stuck in Mexico*...broke and with no prospects after bandits dynamite their oil rig.
They get a crazy job transporting nitroglycerin but it turns out that the guy hiring them is a crook.
Fortunately, at least at first, an old friend, Paco (Anthony Quinn), discovers their plight and hires them.
Unfortunately, his wife, Marina (Barbara Stanwyck), is a total screwball...a femme fatale in the most vivid sense.
She doesn't appreciate that Paco is handsome, loves her and provides her with anything she wants...she wants Jeff...mostly because it's wrong!
What's to come of all this?This is a decent film that gets better later due to Stanwyck's florid character.
She's bad...really, really bad...and although she was not the lead, she easily dominated the film.
The only negative is that you KNOW what's going to happen to her due to the notion enforced at the time that the evil must ultimately pay.
Exciting and well worth seeing..
Blows Hot and Cold.
In a film that is partially taken from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, two down on their luck Americans, Gary Cooper and Ward Bond, run into an old pal, Anthony Quinn who has become richer in the oil business than these two wildcatters have.
Quinn's also married Barbara Stanwyck who at one time had a thing for Cooper.It's over for Coop, but Stanwyck ain't taking no for an answer.
Even the presence of Ruth Roman one of those beautiful woman that are stuck in exotic places in films who's really got Coop's attention, doesn't faze her a bit.
She says she'll do whatever she has to, to win Coop back and pretty much does as the film concludes.Blowing Wild only holds interest because of the star players involved.
When you consider that back in the day Cooper and Stanwyck did classics like Meet John Doe and Ball of Fire, Blowing Wild looks like something they did in their spare time on a holiday in Mexico.Everybody overacts outrageously to keep the film afloat even Gary Cooper if you can believe that..
Would YOU cheat on Anthony Quinn?.
I'll tell you the problem with Blowing Wild: the casting.
Barbara Stanwyck is married to Anthony Quinn but falls in love with Gary Cooper.
Yes, you read that correctly.
She's married to the passionate, ruggedly attractive, warm Anthony Quinn, but she'd rather have the wooden, cold, clueless Gary Cooper.
It doesn't make any sense, and since that's the main plot of the movie, the movie doesn't make any sense.There's another woman in the picture, Ruth Roman, and while Barbara is clearly drawn out to be the "bad girl", I didn't think Ruth was much better.
She meets Gary and immediately tries to con him out of a hundred dollars, then pulls the same scheme on his business partner, Ward Bond.
Why are we supposed to root for her instead of Barbara?
The love triangles aside, the plot isn't terrible, but the oil rigs and bandits and transportation of nitro bombs aren't really that captivating, since they're given a backseat to the scenes with the ladies.
You can give this a shot if you like the cast, but just know you've been warned.
I mean, would you cheat on Anthony Quinn with Gary Cooper?
I don't know anyone who would..
The Churning Oil Wells of Madness.
From the acting of Anthony Quinn to the exquisitely overblown melodramatic elements, Blowing Wild is a great relatively unknown gem of a modern western.In the current trend of films that must have happy endings and uplifting themes I found it just so refreshing to watch something where it all goes wrong.
The heroic sensible character does not win the day, there is no overcoming of difficult circumstances although there is certainly bravery and doggedness.The art of the tragedy bares it's garish colours in Blowing Wild.
With so many of today's directors chasing the ghosts of "modern" themes, trying to speak to "modern" audiences, they would do well to study a film such as this, and other's of the older period.
They seem to have far more to say to us "moderns" than current offerings that seem to have regressed to some kind of prepubescent state..
Wildcatters.
"Blowing Wild" showed unexpectedly the other day on cable.
Seldom seen these days, this film reunited once again Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.
Alas, they are not as effective in it as they were in either "Ball of Fire", or "Meet John Doe", two of the best comedies of the 40s, bar none.
The film was directed by Hugo Fregonese.The setting is an unnamed Latin country, which must have been Mexico.
It focuses on the people that wanted to get involved in the oil business because of the wealth it generated.
There is a sequence that parallels Henri-Georges Cluzot's "The Wages of Fear" as Jeff Dawson and Dutch Peterson are asked to transport a crate full of dynamite to a nearby oil drilling site.
It's a rustic route full of dangers and local bandits.
Probably this was purely coincidental since both films came out in the same year in two continents apart.Gary Cooper, who appears as Jeff Dawson, a wildcatter, seems to be acting on auto pilot.
He was always a minimalist actor.
He was not too expressive a man on the screen.
Playing opposite Ms. Stanwyck, whose character showed an explosive nature, he did not show any emotion to speak of.
Barbara Stanwyck, in contrast shows a talent for impersonating an ambitious Marina Conway, who had a romance with Dawson in the past.
She is now married to a Paco Conway, a man she feels disgust for.
She tries to rekindle whatever they shared in the past with bad results.Anthony Quinn makes an impression with his Paco Conway, the man that had the good fortune of striking rich with the oil he found.
Mr. Quinn has a great scene at the local watering hole where he dances with a young woman and later pretends to be a matador with another.
Ward Bond is also seen in the movie as Dutch Peterson, Dawson's partner.
Ruth Roman has an important supporting role and she does well.
Ian McDonald, who was in "High Noon" with Mr. Cooper has a small part.It's easy to see why the film has kept its appeal.
The copy shown was of superior quality.
Sidney Hickox's cinematography was memorable, and the same can be said about Dimitri Tiomkin's musical score.
Frankie Laine is heard with the theme song throughout the movie..
There She Blows!.
She is Barbara Stanwyck, the hot-blooded and high maintenance wife of oil rig baron Anthony Quinn, as well as former lover of Gary Cooper, and she is desperate to get rid of a husband she hates and get back a former lover who makes her oil crude.
Stanwyck's characters has never been someone you'd see grocery shopping (unless she was plotting a murder with Fred MacMurray) or attending social functions, but here, she is aging but still very much on the prowl.
She's definitely a cougar, and while her prey may not be a young buck, she's roaring loudly with desire.
Cooper, though, isn't buying her brand of spitfire anymore, and is now ready to settle for the sultriness of Ava Gardner look-alike Ruth Roman who purrs her lines like a kitten compared to Stanwyck's raspy and claw-clad alley cat.
Quinn, too, underestimates his wife's hatred, finding out the hard way her real desires.This is the third variation of this story at Warner Brothers-1935's "Bordertown" and 1940's "They Drive By Night", all told extremely similar stories with different professions for the hero and equally wild leading ladies in the Stanwyck role: Bette Davis ("Bordertown") and Ida Lupino ("They Drive By Night") both got to be dames to be reckoned with.
Roman takes on the Margaret Lindsay and Ann Sheridan roles with Cooper replacing Paul Muni and George Raft, Quinn taking over for Eugene Palette and Alan Hale.An unusually large over abundance of music dominates this version, including a theme song ("Marina Mine") sung by Frankie Laine, obviously influenced by his hit recording of "Do Not Forsake Me", the theme from Cooper's Oscar Winning success "High Noon" the previous year.
Quinn's seemingly macho coward fights cowardice as a result of harassment from Mexican bandits, seen at the start of the film attempting to rob Cooper with stereotypical racist dialog.
Ward Bond gives a sympathetic performance as Cooper's mentor.
While the romance may focus on Cooper and Roman, it is Stanwyck who dominates the film.
She may be melodramatic, but she's somebody you'll never forget. |
tt0286112 | Siu Lam juk kau | Sing (Stephen Chow) is a master of Shaolin Kung Fu, whose goal in life is to promote the spiritual and practical benefits of the art to modern society. He experiments with various methods, but none bear positive results. He then meets "Golden Foot" Fung (Ng Man-tat), a legendary Hong Kong soccer star in his day, who is now walking with a limp, following the treachery of a former teammate Hung (Patrick Tse), now a rich businessman.
Sing explains his desires to Fung who offers his services to coach Sing in soccer. Sing is compelled by the idea of promoting kung fu through soccer and agrees to enlist his former Shaolin brothers to form a team under Fung's management. Sing and Fung attempt to put together an unbeatable soccer team. Fung invites a vicious team (some of which Sing previously encountered) to play against them and the thugs proceed to give the Shaolin team a brutal beating. When all seems lost, the Shaolin disciples reawaken and utilise their special powers, dismantling the other team's rough play easily. The thugs then give up, and ask to join Sing's team.
Sing meets Mui (Zhao Wei), a baker with severe acne who uses Tai chi to bake mantou, and even takes her to look at very expensive dresses at a high-end department store after hours. She soon forms an attachment to Sing and even gets a makeover in an attempt to impress Sing. However, this backfires and when Mui reveals her feelings to him, he tells her he only wants to be her friend. This revelation, coupled with the constant bullying from her overbearing boss, leads Mui to disappear.
Team Shaolin enters the open cup competition in Hong Kong, where they chalk up successive and often ridiculous one-sided victories. They end up meeting Team Evil in the final. Team Evil, helmed by none other than Fung's old nemesis, Hung, who assembled a squad of players who have been injected with an American drug, granting them superhuman strength and speed, making them practically invincible. Team Shaolin, which had steamrolled their earlier opponents, are brought back to reality when Team Evil's amazing capabilities prove more than a match for them. After Team Evil took out Team Shaolin's goalkeepers, Mui, who has shaved her hair and gotten rid of her acne, reappears to keep goal for Team Shaolin.
In their final attack, Team Evil's striker leaps into the sky and kick the ball with enormous force towards Mui, she use her martial art to divert and stop it, thus preventing a goal. Mui and Sing combine their martial skills and rocket the ball down field. The ball plows through Team Evil's goal post, thereby scoring the winning goal. Sing is then thrown into the air in celebration as the trophy is presented to him and his team.
A newspaper article then shows Hung being stripped of his title of soccer chairman and sent to jail for five years, while Team Evil players are permanently banned from playing soccer professionally. With people all over the world practicing kung fu in their daily lives, Sing's dream is finally fulfilled; and Sing and Mui also become a famous kung fu couple. | cruelty, murder, cult, violence, flashback, good versus evil, absurd, romantic, revenge, entertaining | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0116778 | Kingpin | Flashy young bowler Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) wins the 1979 Iowa state bowling championship and leaves home to turn professional. In his professional bowling tour debut, he defeats established pro Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray), who takes the loss poorly and seeks revenge. McCracken convinces Roy to join him in hustling a group of local amateur bowlers. When the amateurs become furious after realizing they are being conned, McCracken flees while Roy is brutally beaten and loses his hand when it is forced into the ball return, ending his career. 17 years later, Roy uses a prosthetic hand and is living in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he sells novelty items with little success and drinks heavily. He is also behind on his rent and is constantly harassed by his landlady Mrs. Dumars (Lin Shaye), even going so far as to have sex with her to avoid her having him evicted and possibly prosecuted for he and his friend staging a mugging for him to save her.
On a sales visit to a nearby bowling alley, Roy meets Ishmael Boorg (Randy Quaid). Roy tries to convince Ishmael to turn pro, with Roy acting as manager. Ishmael declines, explaining that he is from the local Amish community and that his bowling hobby is a secret. Roy then sees a poster in a bowling magazine advertising a $1 million winner-take-all tournament in Reno, Nevada. Learning that Ishmael's family is about to lose their farm to the bank, Roy eventually convinces Ishmael's family to let him join Roy.
Roy discovers that the childlike Ishmael is not aware of some of bowling's basic rules and skills, but after some coaching, Ishmael improves. The duo earn money in various local tournaments and by hustling bowlers. Ishmael defeats a wealthy bowling enthusiast named Stanley Osmanski (Rob Moran), but Stanley attacks the duo after discovering that the roll of cash Roy put up was fake. As the group flee Osmanski's mansion, his girlfriend Claudia (Vanessa Angel), who had also been a victim of Osmanski's violence, joins them. Roy suspects Claudia has ulterior motives and is distracting Ishmael. After Roy gets in a big fight with her, Ishmael flees. During his absence, Roy and Claudia drive on and end up at his family home, abandoned ever since Roy's father passed years ago. They eventually find Ishmael and continue on to Reno.
In Reno, the group runs into McCracken, who is now a national bowling superstar. McCracken insults and makes fun of Roy and infuriates Ishmael, who attempts to punch McCracken but instead hits a wall and breaks his hand, leaving him unable to bowl. Later on, Claudia disappears with all of their money after being discovered by Stanley. Feeling distraught, Ishmael convinces Roy that they still have a chance to win the $1,000,000 – if Roy bowls. Roy enters the tournament, rolling the ball with his prosthetic rubber hand. He wins his first several rounds, ending up in the televised finals against McCracken. During the final match, Ishmael's brother, who had been sent by the Boorg family, arrives and takes Ishmael back to Pennsylvania. When Roy realizes he is alone, he struggles and McCracken wins the tournament by one pin.
Afterwards, Roy is again living in Pennsylvania when he is visited by Claudia, who explains she had disappeared with Stanley in Reno in an attempt to keep him from hurting Roy and Ishmael. She made Stanley believe she was running away with McCracken, and confesses her love for Roy, offering him money Stanley earned from gambling on McCracken in the finals. Roy responds that he has already earned $500,000 in an endorsement deal for Trojan condoms based on his prosthetic hand. Roy and Claudia visit Ishmael's family home. Ishmael's parents explain that Roy and Claudia told them about Ishmael's forbidden bowling career, but also about the moral strength and decency he showed during his travels. Roy tells them how Ishamel straightened Roy and Claudia's life out. Roy pays off the Boorg family's debts with his endorsement check, and Roy and Claudia drive away together. | cult, comedy, humor | train | wikipedia | Along the journey they are great supporting comedic performances given by Bill Murray and Vanessa Angel who certainly makes the look of the film more appealing.The Farrelly brothers in my opinion give their best direction they've yet to have.
The Farrellys had a good screen play by Barry Fanaro and Mort Nathan to work with, as they showed a talent for assembling a wonderful cast to make this a winning comedy the fun and exciting film it is.The best thing in the film are Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray.
The 1979 accident was the result of Roy taking the fall for the hustle engineered by legendary bowler Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray).Fast forward to 1996, and Roy stumbles across an Amish bowler named Ishmael Boorg (Randy Quaid), the most talented bowler he's ever come across.
Ishmael's brother is the requisite family member sent to bring the stray relative back home, and Vanessa Angel is extra-hot as the love interest for almost every guy in the film.If you think this is a parody of bowling, the joke may be on you.
Expect a procession of jokes at the expensive of the main characters, fused with an simple storyline and that's exactly what to expect from a Farrelly brothers film.Woody Harrelson plays Roy Munson a washed bowler that had potential to be a professional Bowler but his dream comes to an end when he encounters Ernie McCracken, played to perfection by Bill Murray who ends up costing Roy Munson his bowling hand.
Together the three form an unbreakable bond and come face to face with their adversary Ernie McCracken.I like my comedy to be intelligent, and Kingpin is one of the few movies of its kind that actually makes me laugh.
Randy Quaid is always solid, Vanessa Angel is devilish sexy and cunning, Woody Harrelson is suitably vexed and Bill Murray reminds us all why he has remained Hollywood's main comedy actor long since all his peers disappeared.Kingpin is definitely for an adult audience and it is worth watching some night that there is nothing on the television or at the cinema.
It's at one of the bowling alleys that Roy does routes to that he witnesses one Ishmael Boorg(Randy Quaid,backing his scene stealing performance in ID4 with this bravura turn),a sweet,gentle Amish man-child who has a natural knack for bowling.
Needing money and smelling a chance at scoring big time,Roy decides to take Ishmael under his wing.On the way to a Million dollar tournament in Las Vegas,Roy and Ishmael pick up a comely stowaway and ally in a gangster's moll(VAnessa Angel) and bond from mishap to mishap.There's nothing particularly brilliant or especially sharp about this offering,the second from the brothers Farrelly,but its uniqueness and lack of restraint on the gross-out humor make this movie a very easy watch(for those who love that kind of stuff,of course).
in Iraq this movie was a hit , and still available at video rent shelfs.not much cgi, Vanessa Angel definitely plays a nice part and she is a very hot one, the scene of fight between her and woody was to much and you can see the sub performing..
At first I was afraid it was going to be too irreverent to the Amish - and there definitely was some of that with Quaid's character, who is made to look like a total dimwit, who has no knowledge of the Bible and is easily led - NO characteristics of an Amish person, BUT the film really isn't mean-spirited and it does show respect for the Amish in a number of scenes.
I'm sure that's apart of the Farrelly humor, but if you're a viewer who doesn't like that kind of humor, it won't be that funny.Bill Murray even has a fairly major role in the story too, playing a bowler named Ernie McCracken.
Woody Harrelson is just brilliant as the one handed Munson, Randy Quaid is excellent as the naive Ishmael, even if he does seem a little old for the role, and Vanessa Angel........enough said!
It is this emotional intensity that makes the extreme scenes so funny; the audience cares about the characters and whatever happens to them.It is the craftsmanship of the Farrelli brothers that made the transition from the humor prior to 'Dumb and Dumber' to today's movie humor so flawless.
Woody Harrelson and Randy Quaid made a superb team, and both were quite moving at times.However, I must mention the extraordinary comic genius of Bill Murray here, as in this film he provided me with what must be one of the funniest scenes in the history of movies -- a very simple gag that was really bound to happen, yet I wasn't expecting it.
He plays a big role in the plot, but Murray's outstanding performance makes him so self-absorbed and bereft of any real humanity that he is almost completely separate from the movie -- there really is no point in him being there, apart from to provide us with enormous laughs and upstage everyone else and all the important things in the film.
IMBD clued me that this was made by the same guys who did "Dumb & Dumber" and "There's Something about Mary." If those two screamers aren't to your taste, you'll be with the critics on "Kingpin." Comedy works differently for different people.Full of truly original humor.
If you can appreciate rapid-fire jokes and shameless attempts to get a laugh out of anything, this is a great film to see.What surprised me about "Kingpin" is that, beneath all the raunchy humor and satire, there is a real story behind it all.
While generally regarded as the weakest of the Farrelly brothers movies to date, which also include Dumb & Dumber, Something About Mary, and Me, Myself & Irene, this movie is far better than it's lack of critical acclaim would lead one to believe.For the most part, this movie has been written off because the story is extraodinarily dark for a comedy.
the tragic character of Roy Munson is genius in itself but the true golden star of this film is Ernie McCracken played by bill Murray.
Kingpin is a film that might not match up to the Farrelly Brothers masterpieces like Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary, but it comes close.
The movie stars Woody Harrelson as a once great bowling champ who's career is ended by an injury to his hand for which he must spend the rest of his life with a hook.
Harrelson, Quaid and even the seductress Vanessa Angel (you might remember her from TV's Weird Science) deliver good laughs, but it is two people who steal the show and make this film utterly hilarious- Bill Murray who gives a new meaning to the word comb-over, and Chris Elliot who gives one of the funniest moments in 90's comedy in a cameo.
The movies is about Roy Munson(Woody Harrelson) a bowler who may just be the best ever for the sport.
After 17 years he meets Ishmael(Randy Quaid) an Amish who secretly bowls at the local shack and of course takes him under his wing the only way the Farrely Brothers know how.
It has the same sense of humor of films like the Naked Gun, and the cast is great.Kingpin is a cleaver movie with a different plot(where did they came up with the idea of making a movie about a former bowling player that nowadays has a rubber hand, teaching an Amish guy to play bowling so they can win a competition that pays 1 million).Definitively one of the greatest comedies I've ever seen.
Randy Quaid is awesome as the unwilling bowling Amish, Woody Harrelson great as his con-man manager and finally Bill Murray is as usual brilliant as the antagonist.
Just like most of the work from the Farrelly-brothers this movie constantly uses cheap tricks and nasty comedy to get laughs from the audience.
Kingpin, starring good ol' woody is probably the funniest comedy of all time.
Woody Harrelson and Randy Quaid make an funny odd couple in this original comedy.
The performances here by Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray, and especially, Randy Quaid as an Amish boy are hilarious.
Roy's career sadly ends when he loses his hand after he tries to cheat the wrong guys.17 years later he finds a real bowling talent, Amish man called Ishmael Boorg (Randy Quaid).They both start bowling together.Soon they are on their way to bowling contest where they can win 1 million dollars.On their way these two dummies meet Claudia (Vanessa Angel) who is a real hottie.Bill Murray plays Ernie McCracken who is Roy's biggest bowler enemy.Bobby and Peter Farrelly's Kingpin from 1996 is a hilarious comedy with great actors.I found myself laughing several times.I think this is an underrated movie.This didn't do so good at box office like the smash hits Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary.The Farrelly bros know how to make you laugh.I recommend Kingpin for everybody with a weird sense of humor..
Roy takes him under his own and trains him to beat his eternal rival on a big tournament.This silly sports adventure is very entertaining and at times hilarious, and the above-mentioned rivals are played by Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray, backed by Randy Quaid in the role of the bowling Amish and Vanessa Angel in the main female role.
Some of he best gags involve Harrelson's rubber hand, the foul mouthed Lin Shaye, Harrelson trying to pass as Amish, Quade getting some cold drinks, and an odd Indecent Proposal sequence involving a cameo by Chris Elliott, but it's really Bill Murray who steal every scene that he's in, whether he's mugging after losing a bowling match, doing a self serving infomercial, or something as small as his bad hair combover, he is absolutely hilarious in what might arguable be his best comedic performance (and that's saying something).
Writer/directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly had previously made the popular (and I believe critically underrated) "Dumb and Dumber," but it was this film that helped pave the way for the slew of raunchy 90s comedies that followed, such as "American Pie," the Farrellys own "There's Something About Mary," all the way up to "Superbad." The 80s certainly had it's fair share of Porky's inspired raunch, but this new generation is a bit more story and character driven than their sleazier 80s counterparts.
The film also benefits from Bill Murray at his funniest, some fun movie references ('The Graduate'; 'Indecent Proposal') and the way the story defies generic expectations and ends with loose ends as the fates of certain characters are not actually germane to the plot.
Woody Harrelson plays Roy Munson, a former tenpin bowling champion who falls on hard times after he loses his right hand following a disagreement/misunderstanding with some thugs.
Believing that Ishmael is the perfect ticket to win the money, Munson befriends Ishmael and the two men set off on a journey that neither man is likely to forget.The Farrelly brothers show in this film (and with the original Dumb and Dumber film) that they could still make films that were funny and fairly good natured.
Yes like Dumb and Dumber some of the humour is a bit crude (it's a Farrelly brothers after all), but for me most of the funny moments revolve around Ishmael's naivety when Munson pulls him into the 'real' world outside of his Amish community.
The supporting cast were also good and Vanessa Angel looks great here.Kingpin plods and drags its heels at times, but it's a fine film with great performances, lots of heart and many very funny moments..
Kingpin is a funny movie with some laugh out loud scenes,a well thought out storyline and some pretty good actors,but I feel the movie goes on a bit,being two hours long and most animated films would only be an hour and a half,and find a lot of the humor to be a bit dry,not the Farrelly brothers finest work.A former bowler named Roy who hasn't bowled for over twenty years meets Ishmael,who is a natural bowler,Roy wants to get him to bowl for some professional games but it is hard to get him to take part because Ishmael is part of an Amish community,Roy eventually gets to Ishmael when pretends to be Amish himself..
I had to watch this movie a few times before I fully appreciated the "once in a lifetime" performances by Harrelson and Murray, and outstanding writing by the Farrelly brothers.This movie, unlike most other comedies I've seen, continually provides genuinely funny moments throughout the entire movie.
Following their success with "Dumb and Dumber", the Farrelly brothers directed "Kingpin", about a mangled bowler (Woody Harrelson) who trains an Amish man (Randy Quaid) to bowl.
Woody Harrelson's funniest role so far, Bill Murray is on that spacebound rocket, Randy Quaid is perfect as the Amish "natural born bowler," and all of them are decorated nicely by the very sexy presence of Vanessa Angel.
Woody Harrelson is brilliant, Randy Quaid is outstanding, Roger Clemens gives an outstanding cameo, but there is no doubt that Bill Murray steals this movie.
I am not a fan of Bowling Movies , however the Farelly Brothers have done a superb job with Kingpin , This movie is so funny I nearly fell off my chair watching it .Woody Harrelson plays Roy Munson , A very promising bowler in the 70s , As you see in the beginning of the film ) , he comes across Ernie Mc Kracken played superbly by Bill Murray , who talks him into betting on a bowling game , they win , however the guys that lose get pretty mad and decide to put Roy's right hand in the ball return , therefore cutting his hand off , Bowling Career Done ?Anyway 17 Years Passes , And Roy is now living in a run down apartment , selling condoms , and dodging his landlady , this leads to some very funny scenes , Than 1 day he meets Ishmail ( played by Randy Quaid ) who is a very promising bowler , and Roy wants to manage him , The story goes on from there , eventually meeting up with Claudia ( played by Vanessa Angel ) , this gives the film a sexual twist .I would highly recommend this film to anyone over 17 .Fox video has just recently released a Director's Cut of this film on Video , with bonus footage not to be missed , If you are a fan of the Farelly Brothers films ( DUMB & DUMBER & There's Something About MARY , ) You don't want to miss this film !!!!.
The plot is even funny as Roy Munson a one handed star bowler goes along with an amish man and a rich good looking woman to Reno to compete in the Bowling championship.
Bill Murray, Woody Harrelson, and Randy Quaid were the funniest characters throughout the movie especially Bill and Randy as Ernie and Ishmael.
Randy Quaid might not be quite as convincing as an Amish man, but he sure as heck is funny, and that's all I need in a movie like this.
It has since gone on to be one of my favorite comedies and showcases Bill Murray's evil, sarcastic humor at it's finest.Woody Harrelson is Roy Munson a young, up-and-coming bowler who falls foul of 'Big' Ern McCracken (simply by beating him).
Harrelson, a bowler with promise who was robbed of his golden moment, as well as his bowling hand, hits back years later, teaming up with the most likely of partners, an insecure Amish man, played by character actor, Randy Quaid, this unfunny mess of a comedy, not the first film, he's been wasted in.
17 years, and boy do i miss these kind of films, When the Farrelly brothers made great comedy movies.
Bowling legend Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) loses a hand to a group of drunks after trying to con them with fellow bowler Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray).
This not a film for those who find no humor in stupid, for those who do, "Kingpin" is a very enjoyable film.Woody Harrelson stars as Roy Munson, the 1979 Iowa amateur bowling champion whose life goes south when he gets cheated by Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray) and it costs him his bowling hand.
One day he meets an Amish bowler named Ishmael and offers to teach him to bowl and they head for Reno for the National Bowling Championship.Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid and Bill Murray are as always hilarious.
This is a hillarious comedy,which goes where no comedy has gone before.Nothing is to weird for this comedy.Bill Murray and Woody Harrelson are great in their roles and the story is so simple that it is funny.It is about winning a bowling tournament.
This, "Dumb & Dumber" and "There's Something About Mary" are the Farrelly brothers' GOOD movies.
For some reason, this was the only Farrelly brothers flick NOT to be a big hit.Woody and Bill are at the top of their game, with one hysterical moment after another and knockout Vanessa Angel is even suprisingly good at comedy.If you've never seen it, do yourself a favor and rent it right away.
"Kingpin", which is a Farrelly Brothers film about an Amish bowler, is not only howlingly funny, it's also sick, twisted, and one of the most underrated comedies of recent years.
While not quite up to the lowbrow genius of the Farrelly Brothers' other films ("Dumb and Dumber", "There's Something About Mary"), there's enough crude humor blended with a genuinely engaging story to create a film that's remarkably good.Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) is a promising young bowling champion who has the audacity to defeat the king of the local lanes, Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray, in a delightfully sleazy, love-to-hate role).
The more obvious comedy of Woody Harrelson as Munson, and Bill Murray as McCracken, combined with the subtle comical lines of Ishmael played by Randy Quaid, results in non-stop laughs. |
tt0076845 | Twilight's Last Gleaming | After escaping from a military prison, the rogue Air Force General Lawrence Dell and accomplices Powell, Garvas, and Hoxey infiltrate a Montana ICBM complex that Dell helped design. Their goal is to gain launch control over its nine Titan nuclear missiles. The infiltration does not go as planned, as the impulsive Hoxey guns down an Air Force guard for trying to answer a ringing phone. Dell then shoots and kills Hoxey. The three then make direct contact with the US government (avoiding any media attention) and make their demands: $10 million ransom, and that the President go on national television and make public the contents of a top-secret document.
The document, which is unknown to the current president but not to certain members of his cabinet, contains conclusive proof that the US government knew there was no realistic hope of winning the Vietnam War but continued fighting it for the sole purpose of demonstrating to the Soviet Union their unwavering commitment to defeating communism.
Meanwhile, Dell and his two remaining men remove the security countermeasures to the launch control system and gain full launch capability over the complex.
While the President and his Cabinet debate the practical, personal, and ethical aspects of agreeing to these demands, they also authorize the military to send an elite team led by General MacKenzie to penetrate the ICBM complex and incinerate its command center with a low-yield tactical nuclear device. Just as the device is about to be set, the commando team accidentally trips an alarm, alerting Dell to their operation. The furious Dell responds by initiating the launch sequence for all nine missiles. As the military and President Stevens watch the underground missile silo launch covers begin to open, they agree to call off the attempt and the launch is aborted with mere seconds to spare. During this time, the captive Air Force guards attempt to overpower Dell and his men, resulting in the death of Garvas and another guard.
Eventually, the President agrees to meet the demands, which include allowing himself to be taken hostage and used as a human shield while Dell and Powell make their escape from the complex. As the president leaves the White House, he asks the Secretary of Defense to release the document should he be killed in the process. US Air Force snipers take aim and shoot both Dell and Powell, but also accidentally shoot the President, who with his dying breath asks the Secretary of Defense if he will release the document. The Secretary cannot bring himself to answer. | revenge | train | wikipedia | null |
tt4326444 | Julieta | Julieta lives in Madrid and is about to move to Portugal with her boyfriend Lorenzo. In a chance encounter on the street with her daughter Antía's childhood friend Beatriz, she learns that Antía, from whom she has long been estranged, is living in Switzerland and has three children. Overcome by her desire to reestablish contact with Antía, she abandons plans to leave Spain and instead leases an apartment elsewhere in the building in Madrid where she raised Antía, knowing that address is Antía's only means of contacting her.
Anticipating word from Antía, and aware that she owes her daughter an explanation of the events that led to their separation, Julieta fills a journal with an account of her life as mother, spouse, and daughter. As she begins with the story of meeting Xoan, a fisherman and Antía's father. In a flashback, Julieta recounts meeting Xoan on a train, having fled to the restaurant carriage from an older man. He tells her about his life as a fisherman, and his wife who is in a coma. The train stops sharply, having hit the older man, who committed suicide. As Julieta blames herself for his death, Xoan comforts her, and they have sex on the train. Later, at the school at which she works, Julieta receives a letter from Xoan which she takes as an invitation to visit. She learns his wife has recently died and that he is with Ava, a friend. Julieta and Xoan resume their relationship, and she informs him that she is pregnant with his child. Two years later, Julieta and Antía visit Julieta's parents. Her mother is ill and apparently suffering from Alzheimer's disease, at first not recognising her daughter. Her father is having an affair with the maid, to Julieta's chagrin.
While an older Antía is at a summer camp, Xoan and Julieta argue over his occasional dalliances with Ava, prompted by the housekeeper. Julieta storms out to walk and Xoan goes fishing. A storm rolls in and, as Julieta watches the news in panic, Xoan is killed. At camp, Antía has become inseparable with a girl named Beatriz. Julieta travels to Madrid to break the news of Xoan's death, and rents a flat there. At the age of 18, Antía embarks on a spiritual retreat and announces that she will be incommunicado for three months.
When Julieta drives to the location of the retreat in the Pyrenees three months later, she is informed that her daughter has already left, and does not want her location disclosed to her mother. Julieta is racked by the loss and her attempts to find Antía are unsuccessful. The only contact she has is a blank card on her 19th, 20th and 21st birthdays. After the latter she is enraged and destroys most traces of her daughter in her life, moving from her apartment. She visits Ava, who has multiple sclerosis and is dying. Ava tells her that Antía knew about the argument that precipitated Xoan's death and blamed Julieta and Ava, and that she had ultimately internalised guilt about this because she was away at camp at the time. At Ava's funeral, Julieta meets Lorenzo and the two embark on a happy relationship, which distracts Julieta from her loss. She tells him nothing of Antía and he respects that she has some secrets in her life.
Back in the present, Lorenzo has gone to Portugal and Julieta's mental state is deteriorating as she visits places she used to go with her daughter. Beatriz encounters her, and reveals she and Antía had a lesbian relationship. After attending the spiritual retreat, Antía told Beatriz she was ashamed of it, and cut her out of her life just as she had Julieta.
Later Julieta collapses in the street but is seen by a newly-returned Lorenzo. He visits her flat where he finds a letter from Antía, which he brings to Julieta - along with her memoir, apparently unread. Antía speaks of the death of her son, which has deeply affected her and allowed her to understand how Julieta must feel at their separation. She has also included a return address. Lorenzo and Julieta drive to Switzerland and Julieta resolves not to demand an explanation, simply wishing to be with her daughter. | flashback | train | wikipedia | In one of the first scenes, director Almodovar presents the question that is central to the rest of the film: what happened to the daughter of lead character Julieta?
This is Pedro is a very serious mode, perhaps too serious; maybe a little bit of humor might not have gone amiss.Julieta is played by two different actresses, (Adriana Ugarte and Emma Suarez), at different stages of her life and much of the film is told in flashbacks.
These women, and Almodovar's meticulous direction, hold our attention but I was never moved by the film in a way I felt I should have been, at least until the very end.The source material is three stories by Alice Munro, none of which I've read, but considering how seamlessly Almodovar keeps the material flowing I am sure he has done a very fine job of adapting them for the screen, nor can I imagine how the original conception of filming this in English with Meryl Streep might have worked.
I'm a big fan of Almodóvar's work, his movies follow my life since I was a teenager, I always adore his early work, movies like "Kika", "High heels" and "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" are still considered by me as the height of his career - a bizarre comedy- dramas with a kinky side and raw edges.in the late 90's Almodóvar became famous worldwide with movies such as "live flesh" "all about your mother" and "talk to her" a melodramatic movies that touched us with a unique approach and vivid colors.this movie is similar to his big successful movies from the late 90s: the women are in the center of the story where the men pushed aside, there is still a melodramatic approach and lots of mysteries that similar to an onion, piled up slowly, layer by layer until the very end of the movie.
This character study/mystery/melodrama has hints of both Douglas Sirk and even Hitchcock in its beautiful look, production design, and score, even if it's story is more wispy than most films by those old masters.
She writes the story of her adult life and loves – which led to her loss – as a sort of goodbye (perhaps suicide?) letter/diary to her daughter that she knows will probably never be read.
You may enjoy Julieta (2016) more if you know that it is a women's film from the melodrama genre and a story of pure emotion.
While critics may be divided, this is a beautiful film with a long aftertaste.We meet the attractive widow Julieta just as she is packing to leave Madrid and move with her boyfriend to Portugal.
Unable to deal with her grief in any other way, she writes the story of her life as if she is talking to her absent daughter.Julieta narrates the story in chapters that become extended flashbacks to her early romance with Antia's father, their lives together as a family and its eventual disintegration.
Pedro Almodovar's 2016 production is one of those films that captivates the viewers during the whole duration of the screening because of the mastering of story telling and by using human emotions.
I believe that the conditions are met for the first 10 out of 10 grade on my IMDb scale in years.Many of the previous films of Almodovar are about love and loss, about communication with and without words, about death and passion and the fragile border between them.
What seems to be different in 'Julieta' is the more tender approach and also a message that seems to be more assertive that in many other movies of the Spanish maestro – there are dangers in being lonely and in not being capable to communicate with those you care about.The social landscape where the film takes place is the same Spain in evolution from the democratic awakening of the late 70s and early 80s with its breaking of tradition and liberation of passions until the today with its cold and antiseptic kind of connections in the bourgeois or intellectual circles.
Death seems to be around the corner at many moments, so is physical incapacity and the pain of coping with the decay of the dear ones – these are some of the recurring themes in the movies of the Spanish master.As in many of Almodovar's films its the women characters who share most of the load (although this film also features one sensitive man as a key supporting character).
The two actresses that play Julieta at the two stages of her life – Adriana Ugarte as a young woman, Emma Suárez as her elder self are both superb in taking turns to tell the story of a woman who loves and fears, loses all and searches back to find her compass in life.
Based on three short stories written by the Canadian author and 2013 Nobel laureate, Alice Munro, I'd say 'Julieta' is about a woman who struggles with the absence of those she'd like to have closest to her, because she foremost lacks a healthy relationship with her own self.
She decides to write the heartbreaking story of her life since she was a young woman and met her beloved future husband and Antia´s father Xoan (Daniel Grao) until the losses of Xoan and Antia.
"Julieta" is a dramatic romance by Pedro Almodóvar in a conventional style totally different from most of his previous works, since it is neither tacky nor aggressive to the Catholic Church; and using neither bright colors nor bizarre characters.
Indeed it is a mature work disclosing the story of a middle-aged depressed woman that has her life affected for the loss of her beloved husband first and the last twelve years for the disappearance of her eighteen year-old daughter.
Pedro Almodover 2oth feature film being an engaging and thought provoking melodrama dealing with a middle age woman , Emma Suarez , living in Madrid with her sweetheart , Dario Grandinetti , about to move towards Lisboa .
Fate and mother/daughter relationships Pedro Almodóvar crowns his 30 year career as one of our most creative, controversial and brilliant cinematic artists with this his twentieth film – JULIETA – based on three short stories by Alice Munro as adapted for the screen by Almodóvar.
Not only is the story mesmerizing and at times challenging to keep up with the director's ideas, it displays a brilliant cast of Spanish actors in one of the most impressive films of the past year.
The manner in which Almodóvar transitions these two aspects of the personality of Julieta (as well as the stunning performances by the two actresses – Emma Suárez and Adriana Ugarte) is just one of the miracles of this film.Briefly, after a casual encounter, a brokenhearted woman decides to confront her life and the most important events about her stranded daughter.
With the heart broken after 12 years of total absence of her daughter, Julieta cancels the journey to Portugal and she moves to her former building, in the hope that Antia someday communicates with her sending a letter.
Alone with her thoughts, Julieta starts to write her memories to confront the pain of the events happened when she was a teenager (Adriana Ugarte) and met Xoan (Daniel Grao), a Galician fisherman.
Falling in love with him, Julieta divides her time between the family, the job and the education of Antia until a fatal accident changes their lives: Xoan is drowned at sea during a brutal storm.
Slowly decaying in a depression, Julieta is helped by Antia and Bea, but one day Antia goes missing suddenly after a vacation with no clues about where to find her, leaving Julieta desperate to understand the reasons of her missing and her search leads to self discovery and acceptance of buried secrets – her own relationship with her mother and the kinship between like mother who happen to be mother/daughter.
-Julieta is a 2016 Spanish film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar based on three short stories from the book Runaway (2004) by Alice Munro.
The film marks Almodóvar's 20th feature and stars Emma Suárez and Adriana Ugarte as older and younger versions of the film's protagonist, Julieta, alongside Daniel Grao, Inma Cuesta, Darío Grandinetti, Michelle Jenner and Rossy de Palma.
Rotten Tomatoes gave Julieta a score of 66% based on reviews from 29 critics; Metacritic gave the film a weighted score of 63/100, based on 10 critiques, which indicates "generally favourable reviews".-The film drew praise from critics in Spain, including La Vanguardia, who compared Julieta to the female-centric films of George Cukor and Kenji Mizoguchi while noting hints of Alfred Hitchcock in Almodóvar's screenplay.-Julieta had a warm reception at the Cannes Film Festival, which was followed by extremely positive reactions from French film critics, including Le Monde who called it "a beautiful film of very pure sadness" and La Croix who thought the theme of guilt was a welcome new addition to Almodóvar's work, calling Julieta "a beautiful and intense film".-The British press were very positive about the film: Screen Daily labelled the film "an anxious, tantalising creature which returns the Spanish director to the exclusive world of women" and stated that Almodóvar's "distinctive voice (grows) in texture and depth with each new production".-American critics tended to have more mixed feelings, like Variety, who stated that while the film was "a welcome return to the female-centric storytelling that has earned Almodóvar his greatest acclaim, it is far from this reformed renegade's strongest or most entertaining work"..
The story is not unique, but the way it was told and unfolded, coupled with the superb performance and the aesthetic visuals, all together they created a wonderful piece of cinema.The real intriguing point that was never addressed or shown throughout the film, but is the main driving force behind the whole story is the pain of losing a father from the daughter.
Before the end credits rolled out, my feeling was "At last a great film from Almodovar with a mesmerizing performance from Emma Suarez as the older Julieta." That feeling, unfortunately, was short lived.
However, Julieta is not an invention, but a reference to three Alice Munro's short stories, which were gathered in one trilogy.Nevertheless, beyond how appropriate and box-office earner for a film based on a Nobel Prize story could be, there is a meeting point that the spectator could feel honest in-between these two languages.
No scenario,no plot, absurd screenplay, absolutely meaningless.You have million other things to do instead of watching this film.If you insist, beware of the upcoming disappointment, I keep wondering how this film got awards.A "cliche" idea given so badly on screen, unbelievable gaps and jumps, and what you get in the end is no answers at all about what happened.Looks like a pile of story fragments, with unrelated and inconsistent characters and correlations.Extremely slow and boring, thank Pedro it was not longer..
Based on three short stories in "Runaway" by Alice Munro: the title character is a resident of Madrid who is suddenly re-stimulated by the pain of having been estranged by her young adult daughter many years ago.
In the current time, Julieta is played by Emma Suarez; in the earlier flashbacks, she is played by Adriana Ugarte.As directed by Pedro Almodovar, this movie is touching in ways that are mysterious, sensuous, and passionate.
With beautiful locations that include Madrid, the Galician coast, and the Pyrenees countryside (and lifestyles of people who end up in places like Portugal, Switzerland, Lake Como, and Milan), the movie allows us non-Europeans to temporarily live vicariously through characters with such good fortune - even if their lives are sad in other ways.By the end, there are some loose ends that are mainly due to some one-dimensional villains whose motives remain unexplained.
I'm assuming that Pedro Almodóvar is making the movie about Julieta but I'm just as interested in Antia.
Yet "Julieta" strikes no nerves anymore as "The Skin I Live In" (2011) did with mask-ripping forces; tensions between the characters kept to an minimum, making the picture a pleasant one-time watch of your standard color balance in production design, leaving me wishing for another breakthrough cinematographic action as cameras hitting asphalt in "All About My Mother" (1999).Sincerely Yours,Felix Alexander Dausend.
Ms. Suarez plays the older Julieta looking back on her life, while Ms. Ugarte populates most of the memories being entered into the journal
a writing effort designed to fill in the life gaps for her long estranged daughter Antia.We learn that Julieta fell in love with fisherman Xoan (Daniel Grao) while his wife was in a coma, and that Antia was conceived before the wife passed away.
Other key players here are the older Julieta's boyfriend Lorenzo (another Almodovar regular Dario Grandinetti) and Antia's special childhood friend Bea (Sara Jimenez) who appears years later (as Michelle Jenner) in a quick appearance that rocks Julieta's world.Guilt, death, love, disappointment, and relationships are all significant pieces to this Almodovar puzzle.
At first sight, the heroine of his new film 'Julieta' is an attractive academic preparing for a quiet retirement, but it's soon revealed her daughter Antia has been missing for more than a decade.
Julieta is another great story telling film by Almodovar.
Adapt delicate writer Alice Munro's three short stories, take her heroine Juliet, and mix with hyperbolic writer-director Pedro Almodovar channeling Alfred Hitchcock, and you have one heck of a romantic thriller, Julieta.
I realize the Spanish setting, not Munro's Canada, turns the screw of lyricism very tight, but it is after all as flamboyant, colorful (full of figurative blood reds) and, female-loving as any other of his films.As we come to know our reasonably-reliable narrator, Julieta (Emma Suarez), we discover a mature but lonely woman whose pain will be incrementally exposed to us but not too soon.
She breaks the linear underpinnings of the story to take us by flashback to her younger self (Adriana Ugarte) and the birth of her eventually-estranged daughter, Antia (Priscilla Delgado, adolescent and Blanca Peres, 18 years old).Almodovar is not in a rush to reveal the toll on Julieta for her daughter's absence, and that is the beauty of this romantic drama, where her pain, loss, and guilt form a seamless portrait of a woman on a journey to self discovery.
Like Odysseus (The Odyssey is alluded to in one of her young teacher sequences), only after serious confrontation with her selfishness and self-centered libido does she see the central role she plays in the seemingly random vicissitudes of life.The sea plays a its lyrical presence as well as its danger (like women): "The unplumbed, salt, estranging sea" Matthew Arnold.While women do the heavy emotional lifting and seem to hold the plot strings, as typical of Almodovar, men are actually prominent players, from a suicidal train passenger across the seat from her and a manly fisherman, Xoan (Daniel Grao) in the dining car to a splendidly-attentive writer, Lorenzo (Dario Grandinetti—reminding me of Frank Langella).
Here two wonderful actresses play the same eponymous character: Adriana Ugarte as the younger, more care-free woman and Emma Suárez as the older, grief-ridden mother trying to come to terms with the sudden disappearance of a loved one (the transition between the two is cleverly executed).
When in Madrid these days, for a cinephile, don't miss the chance to watch Almodóvar's latest drama in the cinema, earlier than its Cannes debut later in May, and there is an afternoon screen with English subtitles catering to Anglophones.Adapted from three short stories from Alice Munro's RUNAWAY and transposed the story to the modern-day Madrid, in the opening Julieta (Suárez) is a middle-aged woman who is going to embark on a new chapter with her boyfriend Lorenzo (Grandinetti), moving to Portugal.
But a chance encounter with Beatriz (Jenner), her daughter Antía's old friend, jolts her to change her mind, she leaves Lorenzo and relocates to the apartment where she and Antía had lived in Madrid, where she unlocks the door of her hidden memories, the past comes rushing in.In the flashback, a young Julieta (Ugarte), at the age of 25, met Antía's father, a then-married fisherman Xoan (Grao) on a night train, they engaged a passionate consummation after witnessing a suicidal incident, Julieta was pregnant.
So back to the present day, after learning about the news of Antía for the first time in 12 years, it is understandable that Julieta cannot make peace with the painful secret, will she finally get the forgiveness from her only daughter?
Or, whether or not she should be blamed?It is a guilt trip for Julieta to stressfully unveil her side of experiences, two deaths, although are not directly caused by her, but somehow, she feels accountable, Munro's judicious dissection of one's inner inquiry about life's capriciousness feels a tad solemn and innately incongruous with Almodóvar's wheelhouse, maybe after his previous outlandishly self-indulgent romp I'M SO EXCITED (2013), he decides to go dead serious this time, only the end product is defective in both witty enlightenment and emotional catharsis when all the plot-line is laid bare.Multi-colored palette is still Amodóvar's unvarying trademark, strewed in the film's contemporary settings and costumes, Suárez and Ugarte are not Amodóvar's regulars, but both shoulder their narrative with engaging gusto, and the requirement of the former's performance is more challenging, and Daniel Grao, presents himself with unabashed allure, but, it is Rossy de Palma as a blunt-talking maid, steals the sole laughters and imprints with a singular mark on how a close-up of her intense stare can summon so many unsaid judgements from her character.JULIETA cleverly ends before heading into a more conventional reconciliation, it all leaves up to audience's own imagination.
Each time the viewer thinks he has reached the reason for Antía's abandonment of Julieta, Almodóvar, who adapted short stories by Canadian Nobel laureate Alice Munro to write the script, delivers another heart-wrenching revelation.
The film stars Adriana Ugarte and Emma Suárez who play the title character during different ages.
Family drama in this case as here it is all about the title character's relationship to her daughter, even if the film ends right away before we see her in the now.
Now he brings us "Julieta", focusing on a mother's guilt.The title character is a middle-aged woman planning to leave Madrid.
notes JULIETA's daughter Antia to her mom during this offering from that knotty director, Pedro Almodovar. |
tt0047163 | The Law vs. Billy the Kid | Cheated out of a day's pay, William Bonney takes his money anyway and rides off. He kills one of the men who pursues him and soon becomes better known in the territory as Billy the Kid.
Pat Garrett, a cowboy who considers Billy a friend, finds him a job at British land baron John Tunstall's giant ranch in New Mexico. Rustlers are causing Tunstall trouble and he asks Garrett and Billy to help protect his property. Billy tries to go straight, partly because he's fallen in love with a local beauty, Nita Maxwell.
Bob Ollinger, a brutal foreman, takes a dislike to Billy and beats him up. Ollinger also goes to a crooked lawman, Watkins, to dig up a wanted poster on Billy and insist on his arrest.
A posse comes looking for Billy and kills Tunstall by mistake. Billy guns down the man who pulled the trigger. The governor of New Mexico wants to replace Watkins and asks Garrett to take the job. Garrett declines until the governor vows to institute martial law and have Billy shot on sight. Billy tries to go along with Garrett peaceably, but others like Ollinger demand that he hang.
Billy kills Olinger and flees. He tries to get to Nita with a wedding ring and a proposal they begin a new life in Mexico, but then he is shot dead by Garrett. | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | Colorful and low-budgeted chronicle of Billy the Kid with B-actors and regularly direced by the peculiar director William Castle.
Biographic movie about the real-life of Billy of Kid (Scott Brady) who is forced to kill for the girl he loves as well as becomes embroiled in Lincoln County war .
This is an interesting look about the known story of the West's greatest bandit .
When a baron cattle called Tunstall who gave him a job is shot by rival henchman , Billy vows vendetta .
Meanwhile , he's infatuated by a beatiful girl .
Young William Bonney inspires the faith and friendship of Pat Garrett (James Griffith) , despite Bonney's violent past .
Lawman Garrett believes that Billy can make a better life for himself, a sentiment shared by rancher John Tunstall, who befriends Billy and gives him an employment .
Billy has a crush with Tunstall's niece, Nita Maxwell (Betta St. John) , but the violent Tunstall's foreman , Bob Ollinger (Alan Hale Jr) seeks vengeance .
When Billy's new friend , John Tunstall (Paul Cavanagh) , is killed , he goes on a criminal spree , and Pat Garrett, now a tough sheriff , is forced to go after his young friend .
Kid takes to the mountains with his colleagues until caught .
Billy is detained but he escapes hanging .
The film gets spectacular shoot em'up , thrills , exciting horse pursuits ; it's entertaining , although nothing new but displays an ordinary pace and with no originality .
This moving movie is a poor portrait of the historic story about the celebrated gunfighter .
The movie is plenty of action , shootouts , adventures and is entertaining enough .
The plot is plain and simple , as the story follows Billy the Kid and his rampage of vendetta , taking authentic events , but changing some deeds .
This passable Western packs lots of thrills , shootouts , and explosive action .
Taut excitement throughout , beautifully photographed and with spectacular crossfire but realized with some flaws and short budget .
So-so but enjoyable chronicle of Billy the Kid enthusiastically played by Scott Brady and he is ultimately brought to justice by his old friend Pat Garrett finely performed by James Giffith .
It's one of very few Scott Brady Westerns based on historic events .
Support cast is pretty well such as James Griffith Alan Hale Jr.
, William Tannen ,Gregg Barton and Paul Cavanagh .
This cheap film produced by the king of the Quickies , Sam Katzman , was middlingly directed by William Castle .This one is based on facts about William Bonney, alias Billy the Kid , these are the followings : Billy became a cowboy in Lincoln County (New Mexico) for cattleman Tunstall allied to Chisum , but Tunstall is killed and started the Lincoln County war against Murphy as main enemy .
Billy seeks revenge for his death and he converted a nasty gunfighter with a price on his head and an outlaw pursued by several posses .
Then Billy along with a young group have their own ethic codes and undergo a criminal spree .
The bunch is besieged but they went out firing his gun and made his escape .
However , the Kid was caught and convicted of killing and sentenced to be hanged ; though shackled foot and hand , he managed to getaway from prison by shooting dead the deputies guarding him.
Pat Garret , a former friend, was elected sheriff and set off in pursuit to capture him and on 1881 tracked at Fort Sumner and there shot him dead by surprise.
It is said that Chisum was instrumental in making Billy the Kid an outlaw killer, he used his considerable influence in getting Garret elected Sheriff of Lincoln County in 1880 and it was Pat who hunted down and killed the young outlaw .
Garret and his gang pull off a hot chase against the outlaws.
Legend says that Billy murdered 21 men in his 21 years of life but is really thought to be much less.
After Pat Garrett was not reelected sheriff of Lincoln County, however he was commissioned a captain in the Texas Rangers.
On 19 February 1908 he was driving his buggy on a lonely desert road, he stepped down to urinate and was shot in the back by a hired killer.
A man stood trial for the murder but was acquitted.
Controversy still surrounds the end of Pat Garrett ..
Not Bad as a Romance, Not Great as a Billy the Kid Picture.
William Castle made a fair number of Westerns before he discovered his niche in horror; blacklisted screenwriter Bernard Gordon would ultimately distinguish himself in science fiction.
Billy the Kid" is merely an example of two talents better at doing other things making a Western.
The flat, artificial-looking sets commonly employed at Columbia were turned to surreal purposes in Castle's horror films merely look bland here; although cheaper in appearance, a PRC Western looks more like a Western than this does.
Gordon has transformed Billy the Kid's big Western legend into a tidy romance; almost a chamber drama.
But the treatment sacrifices some of the strong dramatic elements of that same story and also its irony, which is a replaced by a burning seriousness in the character of Billy that runs against type.
Scott Brady is really too much of a manly he-man type to play Billy and is definitely too old for the part.
Brady is the weakest element in the cast, which is generally good -- it's especially fun to see the beloved "Skipper" of Gilligan's Island play a sadistic jerk.
I can think of a lot worse films -- even Westerns -- than this one; it's at least moderately entertaining.
But the compromises made to the rich vein of source material from which it was draw, and in some other respects as well, makes the cost to the basic property a little too dear..
Another Account Of An Oft Told Tale.
There are occasions when the the title does tell all as in the case of The Law vs.
Billy The Kid. There've been so many versions of Billy Bonney's story, just about everyone knows it and every western fans should.Scott Brady and James Griffith play Billy and Pat Garrettnin this film.
Billy's fleeing to New Mexico territory away from a murder charge and Garrett's his pal from a ranch the two had been working on.
John Tunstall, played here by Paul Cavanaugh, takes the two of them in and isn't long before the two are hip deep in the Lincoln County range war of western lore.Billy gets a love interest here, the fictional niece of Tunstall played by Betta St. John.
As Brady plays him Billy's a kid with a quick temper who likes to do things his way which usually involves violence.
Not terribly different from many of the screen's William Bonneys.For those who remember the jolly but exasperated Skipper of Gilligan's Island the revelation will be Alan Hale, Jr. playing a sadistic deputy sheriff who is Brady's tormentor.
Billy The Kid is yet another account of an oft told tale..
A Katzman Quickie.
Seeing this was a producer Sam Katzman quickie production, I wasn't expecting much.
What I got was even less.
So why beat a dead horse when a half-dozen reviewers have already mocked the film.
I guess I just can't resist it.
Besides, maybe someone has finally awakened the sleepwalking Scott Brady.
In the long line of Billy the Kid impersonators, his is easily the weariest, from start to finish.
But then, he's already pushing middle-age, a 30-year old looking like 40— some Kid!
St. John, on the other hand, looks very much a kid, like she just stepped out of a 1950's malt shop, Debbie Reynolds ponytail and all.
Remember, this is supposed to be 1880's eastern New Mexico, even though that desolate prairie looks nothing like the movie's lush San Fernando Valley.
I don't mind some liberties with historical accuracy, but this movie is about as accurate as a cartoon.
Oh well, it probably played three or four drive-in's, before earning back the fifty bucks Katzman spent on it.
I hope I learned my lesson, at least until the next bomb comes down the Western Channel chute..
Western Castle.
Law vs.
Law vs.
Law vs.
Billy the Kid, The (1954) * 1/2 (out of 4) William Castle is best known for his horror films but he did mangle in the western genre for the majority of his career.
This Columbia "C" picture has Billy the Kid (Scott Brady) and his buddy Pat Garrett (James Griffith) finding work on a farm but when the owner is killed by a bad sheriff, the kid decides to seek revenge, which will have all the law looking for him.
I'm still not too familiar with Castle's western era even though I did sit through Jesse James vs.
This film here isn't nearly as entertaining and for the most part this comes off very flat with very little life, action or energy.
The biggest problem is that the screenplay is all over the map in what it's trying to do.
We see Billy as a good kid and then we see him as a jerk.
The film starts off with the relationship between Billy and Pat but then goes off into different directions.
I'm really not sure what the point of the movie was but perhaps they were just trying to throw as much stuff they could into a 72-minute movie.
Brady is pretty poor as Billy the Kid as he brings no life or energy to the role.
Griffith isn't much better as Garrett and Alan Hale, Jr. of the Skipper fame doesn't fare any better.
I doubt western fans will find anything worth watching this for so it'll probably have to be seen by those wanting to know what Castle did before making a name for himself with Vincent Price..
Forgettable western.
Another historical(???) piece brought to us by the same bunch that foisted "Jesse James vs.
the Daltons" on us.
the Daltons" on us.
This one has a slightly better cast.
Title tells all..
How bad is it?.
This movie is bad.
And not in an Ed Wood way kinda bad.
No, No, No. This movie bites so bad that if you left it along it would run off and howl at the moon and eventually deliver a whole flock of mindless look-a-likes to your front door, which is where this cur came from in the first place.The script, such as it is, moves the plot line along at the break neck speed of a depressed three-toed sloth.
The cast was assembled much the same as Frankenstein's Monster was.
The set looks like it was all borrowed from a dream sequence of Gilligan's Island, which makes sense being as how Alan Hale Jr. appears as one of the baddies.Hale chews up the scenery like a crazed beaver, spitting out the most atrocious dialog like so much sawdust and toothpicks.
His character meets his much needed end in quite possibly the most unconvincing, unrealistic death scene ever to grace a western.Best viewed with several friends, an endless bowl of popcorn and the mind altering drug of your choice..
"How much you figure a man's life is worth?".
The problem with most early movie treatments of Billy the Kid is that the casting put a much older actor in the title role.
Movie cowboys like Buster Crabbe and Roy Rogers were in their thirties portraying a fictional Billy; Bob Steele got the nod in his fifties!
Even Paul Newman's take on The Kid in "The Left Handed Gun" occurred when he was thirty three.
Robert Taylor, like Scott Brady here were thirty years old, leaving perhaps Emilio Estevez in "Young Guns" as the actor coming closest to Billy's actual age, and even so, he was twenty six while Billy the Kid was in the ground by the time he reached twenty one.So that's part of it.
Like the other reviewers of the film before me, I have to agree that the picture makes a mess of the Billy saga in more ways than one.
An early friendship with Pat Garrett, though rumored in history, is not supported by credible evidence.
Likewise, the names of characters in this story, borrowed from the real life William Bonney saga, are used in ways that don't comport with history.
But if you're not up on your Billy the Kid lore, none of this will make much of a difference.As for Scott Brady, I've seen him in a number of vehicles and I'm surprised by the number of film credits he has because he doesn't seem like that good of an actor.
It appears he almost sleep walks through this picture, even when he's about to blow his stack.
But he looks the part of a cowboy pretty well, which might explain his two season run as TV's 'Shotgun Slade' during the years 1959 to 1961.Speaking of TV shows, 'Gilligan's Island' fans might do a double take to see the Skipper himself here, Alan Hale Jr. as the ranch hand jilted by Brady's love interest, Nita Maxwell (Betta St. John).
Hale actually appeared in quite a few Westerns during his early career, and at one point in this film, while wearing a vest and white ten gallon hat, he bore an uncanny resemblance to Hoss Cartwright (Dan Blocker) from 'Bonanza'.
I wonder if he might have been considered for the part.
His character Bob Ollinger was killed in a shoot-out with Billy, but managed to revive and return in a guest spot on 'Shotgun Slade'.
It was the 'Lost Gold' episode. |
tt1323932 | Left 4 Dead | Pennsylvania suffers an outbreak of "Green Flu"; a highly contagious pathogen causing extreme aggression, mutation to the body cells, and loss of higher brain functions. Two weeks after the first infection four immune survivors—William "Bill" Overbeck, a Vietnam veteran; Zoey, a college student; Louis (voiced by Earl Alexander), an IT analyst, and Francis, an outlaw biker—make their way through the city of Fairfield, only to discover that the infection is creating more dangerous mutations. After narrowly avoiding these new infected, along with hordes of others, the survivors are alerted to the presence of an evacuation point at the nearby Mercy Hospital roof by a passing helicopter. Fighting their way through the city's streets, subway and sewers, they are rescued from the hospital's roof by the pilot, only to discover he is infected.
With Zoey forced to kill him, the helicopter crash lands in an industrial district outside the city. Finding an armored delivery truck, the group uses it to make their way to the town of Riverside. However, they find the road blocked, and travel the rest of the way on foot. After an encounter with an infected lunatic in the local church, they discover that the town is overrun, and decide to head to a nearby boathouse for rescue. Contacting a small fishing vessel, they manage to reach the city of Newburg on the other side of the river, only to find much of it in flames. Seeking cover in a large greenhouse, their rest is interrupted when a military C-130 Hercules passes overhead, leading the survivors to travel through the city's business district towards Metro International Airport. Upon arrival, the group see that in an attempt to contain the infection, the military had bombed the airport while infected pilots crash planes in an attempt to land; the runway however is largely intact, allowing the survivors to fuel up and escape in a waiting C-130.
Despite this apparent rescue, it crashes as well, and the survivors once again find themselves alone on the outskirts of Allegheny National Forest. Following a series of train tracks through the area, the group find themselves at a functioning, but abandoned, military outpost. After answering a radio transmission, the survivors make their final stand against hordes of infected, before a military APC arrives to transport them to Northeast Safe Zone Echo, supposedly the only uninfected area not yet overrun. Instead, they are kept at a military installation and informed that even though they are immune, they still carry the infection. They are temporarily held by the military before the base is overrun with infected. The four escape via train and travel south at Bill's insistence; Bill believes that they can find long-term safety from the infected on the islands of the Florida Keys.
At the portside town of Rayford, they find a boat but must raise an old rusty bridge powered by an aging generator to get the boat into open waters, assured that the machinery noise will alert a large horde. However, the generator gives out. Bill sacrifices himself in order to restart it, so that the others may reach safety. After waiting for the horde to disperse, the three then encounter four more survivors. They move the boat to the other side of the bridge and help them re-lower the bridge so they can cross in their car. Afterwards, Louis, Zoey, and Francis head back to the boat and set course to the Keys. | violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0096925 | Big Man on Campus | The film opens with a news broadcast on the apparent sighting of a "mysterious creature" on the UCLA campus. Among those interviewed are underachieving student Alex Kominski (Corey Parker) and his girlfriend Cathy Adams (Melora Hardin). Although neither claim to believe in the creature's existence, a hunchbacked figure (Allan Katz) is shown looking down from the bell tower, spying on Cathy through a telescope.
While attending a renaissance-themed carnival on campus, Alex gets involved in a scuffle after insulting another student's girlfriend. When Cathy interjects herself into the fight, the creature suddenly comes to her defense. He motions affectionately toward Cathy, but is chased away by campus security and eventually captured. After a cursory examination, the creature is brought to trial where psychiatrist Dr. Victoria Fisk (Jessica Harper) is quick to label him as a menace to society. Cathy refutes the doctor's opinion, stating that the creature was only trying to protect her. Another witness, Dr. Richard Webster (Tom Skerritt), the head of the university's Psychology department, suggests it might be possible to rehabilitate the creature.
Finally the hunchback himself is called to the stand, where Dr. Fisk asks him who he believes is better qualified to determine his fate, Dr. Webster or herself. Demonstrating that the primitive creature can only repeat the last thing he hears spoken, he predictably answers, "Dr. Fisk". She then further humiliates him by prompting him to describe himself as a "complete and total fool". Given the evidence, Judge Ferguson (John Finnegan) orders that the hunchback be confined in a mental facility. When Cathy protests, the creature stands and acknowledges both her and the judge by name, leading the judge to overturn his ruling and award temporary custody to the university under the supervision of Dr. Webster, with the condition that should the creature exhibit any violent behavior, he will be institutionalized.
Upon being escorted back to the university, the creature shows Alex, Cathy, and Dr. Webster his home in the bell tower, cluttered with various objects scavenged from around campus. Reluctant to leave him alone in the tower, Cathy encourages Alex to stay and watch over him, with Dr. Webster offering to get him special consideration for the task from his instructors at the university. Left with little choice in the matter, Alex agrees.
Over the next several days, the hunchback undergoes a series of observational tests, including speech therapy with Dr. Diane Girard (Cindy Williams). Despite his unusual behavior, he learns quickly, and with time he and Alex eventually become friends. During a session with Dr. Webster, the creature is asked to choose his own name. After settling on "Bob Maloogaloogaloogaloogalooga", he explains that after his father deserted them and his mother died from illness, a group of people came and locked him away. He then managed to escape custody and take up residency in the bell tower.
Despite all his progress, Bob remains infatuated with Cathy. While Alex struggles to catch up on his studies in order to pass his finals, Bob strives to better himself in order to win Cathy's affections. But when he suddenly presents her with an engagement ring, Cathy has no choice but to turn him down. Heartbroken, Bob returns to the bell tower where he receives a phone call from Dr. Fisk. Desperate to prove her theory that Bob is a danger to others, she falsely tells him that Cathy was injured in an accident. Bob immediately races across campus to the girls' dormitories, but is confused to find Cathy alive and well. With campus security closing in on him, Bob flees into the streets of Los Angeles.
Alex and Cathy and the rest of Bob's supporters then appear on a controversial talk show hosted by Stanley Hoyle (Gerrit Graham), who attempts to demonize Bob in every way possible. When Hoyle states that Alex and the others are "in big trouble" for supporting the hunchback, Bob, who has been watching the program on television, is prompted to come to his friends' aid. After taking a taxi to the studio, he makes his way in through the roof and swings down from the catwalk to snatch up Dr. Fisk. Forced to confess her lie in front of everyone, the live audience quickly turns to Bob's side, chanting his name. Stanley Hoyle then apologizes to Bob for his slanderous remarks, and Dr. Webster suggests looking into a scholarship for Bob at the university. When asked by Hoyle if he would have done anything different up to this point, Bob takes Dr. Girard into his arms and kisses her at "two speeds", a reference to an intimate experience Bob once had with a Hoover vacuum cleaner. Bob then smiles sheepishly into the camera as the film ends. | romantic | train | wikipedia | 10 out of 10 doesn't go far enough to tell you how good this film is.
i can't believe you didn't get a laugh a minute out of this film.
we, my friends and family found, it hilarious,we have all watched it several times.
it's laugh out loud, belly clutching, plain funny.
long live the hairball.....you must judge for yourselves, try it and listen out for bob's sex aids, watch him roll off the coach,when he wants to eat chocolate and for future reference it's bob alga-looga-looga-looga-looga.bob alga and 4 looga's.watch the film,and listen to that script.we are all surprised it wasn't more famous all those people missing out on those laughs written and loved by madeline tansey.
this film is full of catchy/witty humor, and is a joy to watch.
b.m.o.c. may not be for everyone because some people just can`t relate to a hunchback that has lived in a room that overlooks a college campus for most of his life.
but if you give this movie a chance you will like it!
to be honest their really isn`t much to say about this film except that it`s about a hunchback that falls for a college co-ed and has some funny mis-adventures throughout the movie.
it`s not a film that could win academy awards but it is a film that will win your heart, it`s one of those "feel good" movies that will end up having some kind of cult following for many years to come.
Cute Movie.....
....but definitely belongs on Comedy Central's "Mastercheese Theater", which is where I always seem to catch this movie every time it's on.
:-)I think the movie is cute, although I don't know if it deserves the star rating it had when I looked up this movie.
Bob is funny, I will give him credit for.
I think Cory Parker was trying a little too hard to be Woody Allen with a lot of his lines in this film.
Big Man On Campus is one of the funniest movies ever made in the 80's.
Big Man On Campus is one of the funniest movies ever made in the 80's.
I remember when I first saw it along with my family in 1992 that I loved it.
Now when I talked with a couple of my friends at school about it, they've seen it too.
Now, after years of not watching it and going crazy, I finally got a chance to watch it again with my church youth.
Some thought it was funny while others thought that it was crude, and I have to agree on some parts especially when Tom Skerrit talks about Cathy being Bob's way of masturbating or something like that.
Plus, my church youth and I will never (at least me and a couple of others) forget the part when Bob was naming body parts to Diane Gerard and asked what part was his private and she said "oh, boy." Well, Bob thought "Oh, boy," was the name and started saying "oh, boy," over.
If you haven't seen this movie, then you don't know what you are missing..
This is one of those films that's so stupid, it's funny.
It's a little slow going at first, but once you get into it, you realize that Allan Katz is a master at subtle physical schtick.
This is the sort of film where you'll come away reciting lines for years to come.
Unfortunately, almost no one else will know what you're talking about, because hardly anyone has seen this film.
Big Man on Campus is a forgettable but pleasant little retelling of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
It's pleasant because it's witty and silly and no one could get mad at Bob Maloogaloogaloogalooga (How many "loogas" are there supposed to be, anyway?).
It's forgettable because other than some of the goofy stuff that the hunchperson says, there's not a single situation or person that really sticks to your memory.BMOC was recommended to me by a good friend some ten years ago.
She thought it was hilarious, and it is for someone in the mood for, well, this movie.
Bob once made love to hoover vacuum 2speeds rrrrrrrRRRRR.
This movie was awesome , never got the credit it deserved .
If anyone can ever find and get me a good quality DVD of this movie i will be forever grateful and i will pay for it of course ..
great movie.
i found this movie to be a slapstick comedy that surpassed all my expectations.i would recommend this film to anyone who loves to watch a moviejust so they can laugh.when my good woman first told me about this movie,i thought no not for me.It didn't help that while trying to tell me about the film,she constantly laughed,so i didn't really find out anything of substance of the storyline.i eventually sat down and watched the film and laughed from start to finish.the storyline isn't important,as this film is just a good movie to make you laugh:).
First, this is a favorite movie of mine.
I do love watching it, but NOT for any cerebral reason whatsoever.
So many of the lines in the movie just seem to be repeated for a week or so afterwards, as my son and I amuse ourselves.While I don't recommend beer for the younger ones, watching the opening credits to this movie with the first beer almost completely in is a great start.
This is NOT "Saving Private Ryan".The sad thing about this movie, is that aside from the writer/star, Allan Katz, all other performances are completely forgettable.
This is a movie written by, and for, the star to perform in.
Everyone is a straight man for Bob Maloogaloogaloogaloogalooga.
If you don't take yourself too seriously, you too may be able to simply laugh your butt off watching this.
And if you also have a "stupid movie" collaborator like I do with my 16 year old son, why then you can double your fun!.
This is one of the greatest films I remember from my childhood.
Its a film which you can do impressions of with your friends for years to come.
Its humor is slightly repetative with the same jokes used a few times, but still, it works.
Definately see this movie.
It wasnt made to win any Oscars, but it does its trick to give you a laugh with your friends and make you feel good for a few hours :).
It's a MUST have for my movie collection....
Comedy Central [cable channel] played this several times one year, and everytime i saw it i liked it MORE....
The story and the charactors flow well and pretty soon you like the hunchback so much your tempted to name your first born "Bob Maloogaloogaloogaloogalooga ".....
It might seem a pat campus movie, but there's a lot more here.
The gags and jokes are really funny, and catch you by their Understatement.
It has become one of our ravenous movie watcher household's "watch again" classics, a fate which few films enjoy..We have one 35 yr old filmwriter and fanatic, one theater/film educated person of the next [old] generation, and one newby with discrimination.
We stumbled upon "Big Man on Campus," and immediately determined that we had laid our eyes upon the single most retarded movie in the history of film.
All the characters deliver their lines badly and the dialogue is campy, and Bob MaloogaLooga-LoogaLoogaLooga was pretty funny but I wanted to hit him in the face.We couldn't, however, seem to stop watching.
Every scene got more ridiculous than the one before it, and we found ourselves rolling on the floor laughing by the time the inevitable happened: Bob MaloogaLooga-LoogaLoogaLooga starts making dirty jokes and trys to get laid.
"Big Man on Campus" is now a favorite of ours and we regularly quote lines from it.Highly recommended.
Why watch a dumb movie like "Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo" when you can watch a REALLY dumb movie like "Big Man On Campus" ?.
I have been bumping into this movie late nite for awhile now and it's grown on me.
Bob is a really winning character, and probably deserves his own teevee show.I give this movie One Malooga and Four Loogas!.
Big Man on Campus is a funny movie.
Big Man on campus is a clever, witty movie that will definitely make you laugh!
You grow to love Bob Maloogaloogaloogaloogalooga and I found myself keeping my fingers crossed for him!
It is a movie for everyone and I recommend it.
LOVE THIS MOVIE.
this movie is hilarious.
anyone who does not think this movie is great, i would not want to be friends with.
it just keeps getting better and better with each time you watch it..
Talked to Bob!.
I've started a website devoted to this movie at www.malooga.com.
Yes, Allan Katz emailed me to say thanks for keeping the dream alive.
He explained why the movie has not been released on DVD.
I've emailed them asking to have it released on DVD, but have had no response yet.We all know how great the movie is and maybe if lots of us email Lions Gate, they'll consider a DVD.
It's a longshot, but hey, this is a cult film and it's going to take a lot of pressure to get what we want.Please stop by the site and have a look and let me know what you think.
Allan sent me the original script along with a never before seen photo of Bob and I've posted these on the site.
This film has some funny and touching moments, but it's only sporadically truly inspired.
Allan Katz gives a very good performance as the title character, and it's a role that must have been more difficult and demanding that it appears at first.
An OK film to watch, but the story just seems to go on and on and on...long after you're ready for it to end.
We have been searching for this movie on DVD for a few years and were very excited to actually find it.
We first saw this movie in the late 80's and even recorded it on VHS.
It was always a go to movie when there was nothing else to watch.
We still quote different lines from this movie today and I am sure being able to watch it again will just renew the fun of that.
Ranking it right up there with Scavenger Hunt.(another hard to find movie)One of our favorites!!!.
can anyone tell me where i can get this movie.
i have seen this movie years ago and i would like my family to see it now, does anyone know where i can get it i have tried for some time i would be very grateful thank you.
i think this was a brilliant film the first time i watched it a laughed so much i missed some of it and had to watch it again nd again its really good, i had a copy of it as it wasknown as hunchback hairbal of la, then i lost it nd some timelater i found a copy in th library and it was called big man on campus it is a really funny film, i would really like my sons to see it now as i have told them so much about it but i cant get a copy anywhere i would be very grateul if anyone can tell me where to get it or if it will be on DVD soon thank you..
A great film for the entire family.
I saw this movie with my kids in 1990 while we were vacationing.
ll of us really enjoyed the film.
I was able to acquire a VHS copy a couple of years later and in fact, I haven't run across a person that I have shown it to that didn't like it.
Of course Alan Katz is really fantastic as Bob Malooga Looga Looga Looga Looga.
but I would really like to see Lions Gate release it on DVD.
Lions Gate owns all of Vestrons film library apparently.
I've sent an email I urge others who liked the film to do so as well.
you have to have a sense of humor and see the humor in the movie.
i laughed till i cried while watching this movie.
i have it on VHS and watch it when i need a laugh.
i have had my friends watch it as well and some of the lines are great.
it makes people laugh.
and then they ask where did i hear that line and i tell them big man on campus.
laughter is a great way to let the stress of the day evaporate.i think when william katz wrote the movie it was done with tongue in cheek humor and as he plays the hunch back he would have to have one.a sense of humor i mean.
Big Man on Campus.
I first saw this film when my teenagers were small, we all loved it and to this day we still quote from it, people think we are mad as no-one has seen it!
I have searched everywhere for this film, I thought that good old Sky TV would repeat it again but no and the video we had was recorded over so I was over the moon when I found a copy of the video on EBay, I am awaiting delivery as we speak!Thank God for the internet, now I can surprise my kids and show my little one (she is 7) and introduce her to Bob Maloogalooga etc.I even went so far as to have a pet cat called mooka and a rat called camoula.
The funniest and yes daftest film I have ever seen, but I LOVE IT!.
I saw this movie years ago, by accident, on Sky movies and taped it the next time it was shown.
Nobody I had ever asked about it had heard of it and soon my videotape was doing the rounds and not one person who had borrowed it didn't agree that it was extremely funny.Alan Katz is hilarious as Bob the hunchback and all the other actors do an adequate job in supporting his character.There are some classic lines in there that you will find yourself reciting to the other members of your family & friends who have seen it.I'm not going to write a synopsis of the movie because there are already plenty of them on here, I just want to say that if you EVER get a chance to see this movie, then jump at it, and if the studios have any sense at all and release this on DVD one day, then buy it.
Love this film!
I was only 1 when it came out but we have it on video and me and my mum think it is one of the funniest films I have ever seen!
my favourite parts are: 'you can have any piece of chicken you like, a leg, wing?' '2 faces!'/ (singing)'Caaathy Malooga, Malooga Caaaaathy' at the top of his tower/when he stuffed his face with chocolate cake and it all gets stuck in his beard/when he is in the Psychiatrists sat on the bed thing and he can't lay backwards because of his hump and he just rolls off onto the floor!/camoola the rat 'mooka camoola'/ :oD i could go on forever!
Classic Film!.
Allan Katz is great, Corey Parker is horrible.
I love this movie simply because of Allan Katz's portrayal of hunchback Bob Maloogaloogaloogaloogalooga ("one malooga, four loogas").
He is very quotable ("Why is my face leaking?"), and the physical comedy is great too.However, Corey Parker is horrendous.
Melora Hardin (girlfriend Cathy) has an average and forgettable performance, but it's an accomplishment that she was even able to laugh at Parker on screen.
So bad, you'll be embarrassed FOR him.Cindy Williams and Tom Skerritt play professors, and are both very good in their "straight man" roles opposite Katz.
But watching Katz is really the only reason to watch this movie, and it is well worth the time.
This is a great "bad" movie!
This is a great "bad" movie!
I love Bob Maloogaloogaloogalooga....looga.
It is very silly, and sometimes cheesy, but Bob rocks.
Bob has become a cult classic in my house, my roommate introduced me to this movie, and it became a classic in my heart, at first, it seemed really stupid, but after sticking to it, it is really funny..
The Best Movie Ever!.
If you've never met Bob Maloogaloogaloogaloogalooga, you've missed one of the great experiences of life.
This little known, out-of-print film, is a masterpiece that can only be appreciated with repeated viewing.
This is possibly one of the funniest movies ever!
That was it - hooked!You've just got to watch it to check out the look on Bob's face when he's been goaded into eating all of the chocolate cake.A classic !.
The first time I watched this movie, I nearly turned it off after a few minutes - it seemed too ridiculous to bother with.
Allan Katz has made a film destined to become a cult classic (at least around my house).
Mocha!" right along with Bob Maloogaloogaloogaloogalooga..
This 1989 comedy stars Allan Katz, Corey Parker, Melora Hardin, Tom Skerritt, Jessica Harper and Cindy Williams.
This is basically a send-up of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" where we meet Bob (Katz), a semi-deformed, wild-man who dwells in an old bell/clock tower on a college campus.
Parker (How I Got Into College) plays Alex, a college student who becomes his friend & roommate, Hardin (The Office) plays Alex's girlfriend, Cathy who is the object of Bob's Affection, Skerritt (Top Gun) plays psychologist, Webster, Harper (Suspiria) plays psychiatrist, Fisk who thinks Bob is a danger to society and Williams (Laverne & Shirley) plays professor, Girard who falls for Bob. I grew up watching this and always enjoyed it.
This is an amusing late 80's comedy with humor and heart I recommend. |
tt1462635 | The Boy Who Drew Cats | A farmer has many children, who are all hard-working, except for his youngest, who is small and weak and only interested in drawing pictures of cats. He decides his son is not cut out to be a farmer, and sends him to a temple to study with a priest. The boy spends all his time drawing cats instead of studying. The priest tells him he's better suited to being an artist and should return home. As he sends him on his way, the priest warns the boy: "Avoid large places at night. Keep to the small."
Ashamed of being dismissed, the boy decides not to return to his father's farm. Instead, he travels to another temple in the hopes he can ask for a night's shelter, not realizing all the priests living there have long-ago been driven away by a giant goblin-rat. When the boy arrives, he finds the place deserted and decides to draw cats on the walls. As he begins to feel tired, he remembers the old priest's words and climbs inside a little cabinet to go to sleep.
During the night he hears horrible sounds of screaming and fighting. When morning comes and he finally climbs out, he discovers the corpse of the goblin-rat. As he wonders what could have killed it, he notices that all his cats now have blood on their mouths. He is hailed as a hero for defeating the monster, and grows up to be a famous artist - one who only draws cats. | fantasy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0059909 | Who Killed Teddy Bear | Norah Dain (Juliet Prowse), a nightclub disc jockey and aspiring actress living alone in a Manhattan apartment, receives a series of obscene phone calls from someone who seems to be watching her on a daily basis. She also finds a decapitated teddy bear in her apartment. At first it is not clear to either the viewer or Norah who is making the calls. A police detective, Lt. Dave Madden (Jan Murray), whose own wife was raped and murdered, takes a personal interest in Norah and her case. Lt. Madden engages in suspicious behavior such as suggesting to Norah several times that he himself could be the caller, secretly tape recording his discussions with Norah, listening to tapes of Norah and other women talking about obscene phone calls, and obsessively studying pornography and the behavior of sex perverts, despite the fact that he is exposing his ten-year-old daughter to such adult concepts and he is being reported to his superiors at work.
However, midway through the film, it is revealed to the audience (but not to Norah) that the obscene caller is actually Lawrence Sherman (Sal Mineo), a waiter at the nightclub where Norah works. Lawrence lives with and cares for his 19-year-old sister Edie (Margot Bennett), who is brain damaged and has the mind of a child. Edie's brain damage is apparently the result of an accident when she was a little girl and saw her older brother, Lawrence, having sex with an unidentified older woman (possibly their mother, although this is not made clear); she ran away in horror or fear, and fell down the stairs. Lawrence is unable to have a normal romantic or sexual relationship due to his guilt over the accident and his duty to look after Edie following the death of their parents. He is also frustrated when Edie dresses up in an adult dress, high heels and makeup and seems to make advances towards him. He tries to get rid of his frustration by visiting adult bookstores and movies in Times Square, but still is obsessed with watching and calling Norah. Despite Lt. Madden's warnings that the caller might be someone Norah knows, Norah never suspects Lawrence until it is too late. Instead she is friendly to him and even attracted to him, complimenting him on his body when they meet at the gym, and offering to stay late after work to teach him to dance.
Marian Freeman (Elaine Stritch), the older, experienced manager of the nightclub where Norah works, also takes a personal interest in Norah and tries to advise and protect her. She offers to spend the night with Norah at her apartment so Norah won't be alone and afraid. While Marian is visiting, Norah receives yet another telephone call and starts to cry. Marian consoles her, but Norah senses that Marian is actually making a lesbian pass at her and, revolted, asks her to leave the apartment immediately. Marian leaves in a huff, still wearing Norah's coat, which she had been using as a bathrobe. Lawrence, who is outside, sees Marian leaving in Norah's coat, and mistaking her for Norah, chases after her and kills her.
Lawrence finally attacks Norah after closing time in the empty nightclub and violently rapes her, but does not kill her. Lt. Madden, who has just figured out that Lawrence was watching Norah through the reflection of a mirror, arrives too late to save Norah from the rape. He beats Lawrence and then, inexplicably, lets him leave the club. Lawrence runs through traffic in Times Square imagining that he is running through Central Park towards a welcoming Norah. Police officers chase him and ultimately gun him down as the film ends. | neo noir, murder, cult, violence, flashback, melodrama | train | wikipedia | So I consider myself fortunate to have been exposed to this sleaze-ball of a movie.The highlight for me was in one of the final scenes where Sal Mineo and Juliet Prowse shimmy to one of the sassiest, silliest 60s dance tunes ever invented.
Sal Mineo plays a busboy obsessed with aspiring actress/club DJ Juliet Prowse (and Prowse is at her foxiest in this one, with her pencil skirts, kitten heels and cat eyes), coming off like a perverted puppy dog.The obscene phone call bits--all heavy breathing, bulging tighty whiteys and sweat--will make you want to leave the theatre and take a shower.
Or, if that isn't nasty enough for you, how about the scene with bulldyke Elaine Stritch fondling Prowse's fur (so to speak), or the retarded kid sister locked in the closet or the policeman obsessively playing audio tapes of various twisted criminal's confessions as his daughter listens wide-eyed from the other side of the door?
Another asset of this great piece of cinema are its New York City location shots, especially when Mineo goes walking the city at night, looking for filth in scenes that must've influenced "Taxi Driver" (also love the W.S. Burroughs titles in the window of the "dirty bookshop").
Who Killed Teddy Bear, Sal Mineo shines in a brilliant performance ahead of its time, in an ignored masterpiece.
Coming at a time in his career when he was frustrated with very little roles to choose from, came this harrowing film from director Joseph Cates.
Pakula's Klute (1971).First, it is important to note how much "Teddy Bear" resembles the great Italian films from the late '50's, early'60's.
Mineo's character certainly would have made movie legend, like DeNiro had done with Driver, if Teddy Bear had been accepted by theatergoers in the first place.
The apex of 60s exploitation pix, with Sal Mineo, painted into over-exposing pants, as a proto-Travis Bickle: a pornophilic, body-building Times Square (filmed in its seedy heyday!) habitué fixated on disco dj/dancer Juliet Prowse.
"Who Killed Teddy Bear" is irresistible trash, an utterly sleazy film that wallows in B-movie murk without apology.
Filmed entirely in real New York locations (much of it on the fly, by the look of it) and dripping with sordid Times Square atmosphere, this is a cheap, sensationalistic, slightly arty psycho-sex-thriller with a startling cast drawn from Broadway, Hollywood, and the Borscht Belt.
It's a New York story, but of the grotty 1960s, when Manhattan led the nation as an example of how American cities were surrendering to crime and vice and ugliness at the core.Spinning platters in a seedy discotheque, Juliet Prowse starts getting obscene phone calls then finds a decapitated teddy bear in her apartment.
Shown the door, Stritch, in a slip and fur coat, wanders the dark streets and back alleys, where....Top billing goes to Sal Mineo, 10 years after his debut as Plato in Rebel Without A Cause, as a waiter in the club.
Though his character isn't gay, he's served up like prime, pre-Stonewall beefcake, halfway between raw and blue; towards the end, when Prowse teaches him to dance, he erupts like a go-go boy.The movie bears all the marks of a starvation budget, but for once the saturated photography and jumpy cutting seem just right.
But it's the vision of the TV-reared director, Joseph Cates, and writers Arnold Drake and Leon Tokatyan that makes Who Killed Teddy Bear so hard to shake.
Not forgetting that you are led into the wonderful atmosphere by the wailing and unforgettable theme tune, which sounds like an old 45rpm record where the center hole has not been cut quite right.IMHO due to Hollywood, American Independent film makers were just not taken seriously enough at this time, because of this, films like this have been unfairly over looked as great examples of low budget, gorilla technique( getting the shot before the police arrives etc).
Sal Mineo is unbelievably sensuous, erotic, neurotic, as is Elaine Stritch who plays the Lesbian, Marian wonderful performances..
Sal Mineo at his sexiest in this 65 thriller.This film must have really made shock waves when it was released.Although,sleazy,campy and exploitive,it is also compelling,and a dirty pleasure to watch.Juliet Prowse plays the victim.This film offers an ending that would still shock viewers in the 90's.
Everybody who wants to see a great black and white movie with intelligent story, very good acting and sexy Sal Mineo should watch this one....
Pretty, young Juliet Prowse is a NYC discotheque DJ being stalked by sex-psycho Sal Mineo in this flawed but ahead-of-its-time shocker, a film perched on the median between arthouse and grindhouse which might appeal to enthusiasts of Sam Fuller's contemporaneous work.Performances are strong from the key players(especially Elaine Stritch as Prowse's inured lesbian boss, Jan Murray as the solicitous investigator, and Mineo...a deeply disturbed but ultimately pitiable predator).
Unfortunately, the film is marred significantly by the comically written and overplayed character of Mineo's little sister, doomed to eternal childhood as the result of a tragic accident.Though there is intermittent creative camera-work at hand, production values are pretty low overall.
Joseph Cates "Who Killed Teddy Bear" is a dark, seedy, and sex obsessed oddity that must have unnerved audiences in it's day.
Taking visual cues and a raucous jazz score from French New Wave, and predating the Times Square Sleaze of 'Midnight Cowboy' and 'Taxi Driver' by several years, 'Who Killed Teddy Bear' is a thoroughly bizarre time capsule offering both a rare and fascinating glimpse into the sleazy porno subculture of sixties New York and an early cinematic attempt to provide a psychological motivation for mental instability.A movie well worth seeking out that captures a disturbing time and place that is genuinely lost forever..
It's B&W photography is as haunted and moody as a PSYCHO-era horror film, but TEDDY BEAR has an organic quality about it most Hollywood movies don't have today and didn't have yesterday --- and it reminds those of us old enough to remember of how the cities, from the mid-'60s to the '70s, were beginning to fall apart in the wake of JFK's death and the rise of the incomprehensible Vietnam war (where all our tax dollars were going) -- when peep shows and adult "book stores", with their wares on display in the shop windows, popped up in even "nice" business districts beside Tiffany's, creating a tense and fascinating shabbiness that helped define the schism that was "the '60s".So the cultural meltdown wasn't just about the hippies and their drugs and the acid rock and the protests which would soon follow this movie (not that there was much of a reaction to the film itself, as few people saw it then); for all the romanticizing of that decade (some of which is understandable), Walter Cronkite wasn't entirely wrong when he called the 1960s "a slum of a decade" and TEDDY BEAR hints at that better than most industry films of the time, and serves to remind us that the world of that era wasn't really all that innocent (even if it was a bit naive in other ways).
Harassed by an obscene phone caller, a young woman begins to wonder if the detective assigned to her case is behind the calls in this strange little mystery thriller starring Juliet Prowse.
The supporting characters are refreshingly different too from those of the typical noir thriller, from Jan Murray's policeman, unhealthily obsessed with perverts, to Elaine Stritch in a terrific turn as Prowse's lesbian boss with designs on her, to Margot Bennett as a brain injured teenager.
'Who Killed Teddy Bear' gives an interesting glimpse of what gialli would have looked like had they been made just a few years earlier when a modicum of taste still prevailed, and male dress sense (an oxymoron if ever there was one after the late sixties) hadn't yet been wrecked by the bizarre notion that flares and sideburns looked cool, and sharp suits, thin ties and short back and sides were still standard male apparel (it's nice to see Dan Travanty (sic) and Bruce Glover, for example, looking so young and clean-cut; the former playing a deaf mute, the latter an unnerving security adviser).
That goes for the women too: I've never seen Elaine Stritch look more chic and glamorous than she does as the elegant lipstick lesbian she plays here.Most of the conventions of the giallo are present and correct in this movie: including voyeurism, transvestism, flashbacks depicting childhood sexual traumas, the stalking of women, weird camera angles making us complicit with the killer, obtrusive musical accompaniment and cops who make the Keystone Kops look like Maigret (the unprofessional way the detective behaves at the end has to be seen to be believed!).
But 'Who Killed Teddy Bear' could only have been made at that fault-line in the mid-sixties when censorship was being rapidly eroded and subjects that would have been absolutely taboo just a couple of years earlier could even be hinted at; but before the descent into full-frontal crudity that makes so much modern cinema almost unwatchable.
According to a recent biography of Sal Mineo he was going through a lot of professional and personal angst at the time he was making Who Killed Teddy Bear.
Normally I might applaud the fact that lesbianism even got a hint on the screen, but in such a crass and a exploitive film as Who Killed Teddy Bear.It's one weird film, shot totally on location in New York with what looks like someone's Bell&Howell home movie camera.
By far Sal Mineo's finest and at the same time most haunting performance.
**SPOILERS** Sal Mineo lets it all hang out in this psychological thriller as the sex crazed and obsessed busboy Larry Sherman who's fixated on beautiful Norah Dain, played by tall and leggy Juliet Prowse, a disk jockey in the midtown Manhattan disco that he works at.Larry had it rough in his attempts in striking up relationships with women over the years which for the most parts ended up just being one night affairs.
It just so happens that Norah lives across the street from Larry's apartment in a walk-up she just recently sublet from a friend of hers!We also get a glimpse of one of the many reasons that makes Larry tick very early in the movie as we see Larry having sex with-what seems to be-a hooker as his little sister Edi,Margot Bennett, catches him in the act.
It's when Larry starts to get personal with Norah and knowing things about her-like where she works and lives-that makes her feel threatened by his constant and unwanted phone calls.
But in fact it,the X-rated books magazines and scantly clad women, get Larry even more turned on towards Norah whom he thinks, after the incident at the gym, is hot for him!Shocking and extremely sexually explicit for its time the film "Who Killed Teddy Bear" and its star Sal Mineo are some ten years ahead of the equally shocking psychological thriller "Taxi Driver" with Robert De Niro playing the crazed and sex obsessed cab driver Travis Bickle!
A part very similar to Mineo's Larry Sherman!In fact Sal Mineo is far more believable then De Niro in that the film doesn't clean up his acts of violence and depravity like the movie "Taxi Driver" did with Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle!
This action in his mind and in the minds of those who made the movie supposedly proved to the audience that the mentally unstable and criminally driven Bickle was actually fit to live in a civilized society!***SPOILERS*** The films ending has Larry really lose it as Norah, not realizing that he's the person who's been unmercifully harassing her on the phone, invites him to dance with her at the now deserted disco.
Let. Madden who had his suspicions about Larry's, whom he met with Edi in Central Park, mental state soon realizes, by checking Larry's apartment, that he's making the obscene calls and rushes down to the disco where both Larry and Norah are!Not all that surprise of an ending with Larry paying for his crimes which includes the murder of his and Noarh's boss at the disco lesbian Elaine Stritch, Marian Freeman, who had earlier made an unwanted pass at a totally turned off Noarh.
It turned out that Larry's ultimated fate was for him to end up in a place that he's very familiar and at home with: The sleazy and red light Times Square District of New York City..
Even before you see his face, you can feel the sensuality of Sal Mineo thrusting its way off the screen, wearing nothing but tighty whities as he makes several obscene phone calls at 6 O'clock in the morning.
Of course, that is assuming that you're planning on making it on your feet, so to speak!" That's how you're introduced here to the legendary "Ladies Who Lunch" diva Elaine Stritch, playing an extremely glamorous lesbian who has the hots for D.J. Juliet Prowse.
She reminds me a great deal of Grayson Hall's character in the cult movie "Satan in High Heels", although this was obviously made on a bit of a higher budget even if it's still down the scale on its vision of a lack of polite society.As for Mineo, don't let his polite on the surface nature fool you; He disguises his voice on the phone as you see only his bare chest and the tip of his jockeys, and this is where the perversion takes on a sexual film noir story, pre-dating "Basic Instinct" and "Fatal Attraction" by more than two decades.
A long out of circulation cult film, Who Killed Teddy Bear is a kind of stepping stone between Hitchcock's excavation of the warped mind in psycho, with its final psychiatric classification of Norman Bates, and Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, with its disturbed lonely man lost amongst the newly permissive urban landscape.The primary focus of Joseph Cates' 1965 film is a sometime dancer and barmaid (Juliet Prowse) who has been receiving obscene and threatening phone calls from an unknown person.
Yet as the case unfolds, the film becomes more intrigued by the characters surrounding her – the possibly lesbian manageress of the bar (Elaine Stritch), the investigating detective who is obsessed by abnormal psychologies (Jan Murray) and the disturbed busboy who turns out to be the caller (Sal Mineo).
Prowse does not know who to trust, even whether to trust herself, and although the film descends into a "get the culprit" finale, even this traditional end fractures into a private turmoil lost in an alienating environment.The film offers a series of very strong character studies, all remarkably well acted, but often seems concerned to conjure the feel and sound of the times through montages to music, of dancing, working out and wandering, and its black and white footage cut to pop hits makes it seem like a greyscale Kenneth Anger at times.
Mineo proves here what a remarkable actor Hollywood wasted when it underused him, and his physical presence – often showing his toned body in swimming trunks or flaunting his butt in the tightest of Chinos – suggests a missing link between mainstream Hollywood and underground stars like Warhol's Joe Dallesandro and Pink Narcissus' Bobby Kendall.Who Killed Teddy Bear isn't a perfect film – there's something missing structurally and a tendency towards melodrama – but its picture of a world fallen from a childhood Eden into an adulthood of sticky and strange sexual dramas, it was way ahead of its time and still stands head and shoulders above most of the so-called sophisticated cinema of today..
There are a lot of problems with the story; mainly, it really isn't about an obscene "Telephone Psychotic" caller; rather, it is about a stalker who uses to phone.Sal Mineo (as Lawrence "Larry" Sherman) creates an interesting character; but, his considerable abilities as an actor do not equate with the inferior material.
Ms. Stritch has been quoted as explaining, "I was a lesbian owner of a disco who fell in love with Juliet Prowse and got strangled on 93rd Street and East End Avenue with a silk stocking by Sal Mineo.
Prowse's character overreacts, which leads directly to Stritch's death.Also disturbing (probably intentionally) is officer Murray's 10-year-old daughter listening in on her father's sex tapes.
The dancing of Sal Mineo and high-heeled Juliet Prowse during the "It Could Have Been Me" song is a swimming classic (or, should have been).
******* Who Killed Teddy Bear (9/65) Joseph Cates ~ Sal Mineo, Juliet Prowse, Elaine Stritch, Jan Murray.
An inept film that represents a major come down for its leading actor, "Who Killed Teddy Bear?" tries to be a moody psychological thriller, but ends up a seedy confused melodrama that dribbles to an unsatisfying finale.
In contrast, the second half of the film lurches and jumps from one unrelated scene to another, leaving enormous plot holes and dangling threads in its wake.As Lawrence Sherman, a nightclub busboy, Sal Mineo, whose credits include Oscar-nominated performances in "Rebel without a Cause" and "Exodus" does well with what little he is given by Arnold Drake's inadequate script.
Jan Murray's performance as Lt. Dave Madden is best left unmentioned, and Margot Bennett is embarrassing as Mineo's sister.The moody black and white cinematography is often effective in capturing the seediness of 1960's 42nd Street, and near abstract close-ups suggest an unrealized artistic intent on the part of director Joseph Cates.
Evidently, the writer just ran out of ideas, and the director yelled "cut." "Who Killed Teddy Bear?" would be better titled "Who Killed Sal Mineo's Career?" The film is a sad late entry for an actor who began with such promise..
It's lurid and gritty to the point of exhaustion...unfortunately WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR isn't a very good movie.
Sal Mineo, wearing tight pants, a tight shirt and a tight jacket, is a busboy obsessed with record spinner Juliet Prowse.
Prowse suspects cop Jan Murray of being the perp and her lesbian boss Elaine Stritch thinks she's just plain crazy. |
tt0110647 | Die unendliche Geschichte III: Rettung aus Phantasien | In a prologue, the Old Man of Wandering Mountain (Freddie Jones) reads from a large book; begins to record a prophecy of a day when 'The Nasty' will arrive in Fantasia; and describes the savior of "Extraordinary Courage".
Bastian Balthazar Bux (Jason James Richter) grown older, and his father Barney (Kevin McNulty) has married a woman named Jane (Tracey Ellis) whose daughter Nicole (Melody Kay) is displeased at having a new family. Bastian has also started high school, where he has become victim to the Nasties: a quintet of bullies led by Slip (Jack Black). He arranges for them to be expelled with the help of the janitor (Mark Acheson) after they trap him in the boiler room. He later flees to the library where he is surprised to find Mr. Koreander (Freddie Jones) and the Neverending Story. The Nasties locate him, but he uses the book to escape to Fantasia, where he is reunited with Falkor (William Hootkins), Engywook and Urgl (Tony Robinson and Moya Brady). On Earth, the Nasties find the Neverending Story and use it to bombard Fantasia with fireballs and a storm. With a walking tree named Bark Troll (William Hootkins), Bastian and his friends head for the Wandering Mountains to speak with the Childlike Empress (Julie Cox), who asks Bastian to find the Neverending Story with the AURYN. Falkor, Barky, the gnomes, and the Rock Biter's son, Junior, help him; but a "wish overload" scatters across Earth, where Barky ends up in a conifer forest; Falkor saves Junior from falling to his death near Mount Rushmore; and the gnomes arrive in Nome, Alaska. Bastian locates Falkor and Junior, and Falkor flies off to find the others while Junior stays at Bastian's house. Rock Biter sadly informs his wife that Junior is gone, and the Nasties provoke them to quarrel.
Nicole takes the AURYN from Bastian's room, discovers its wishing abilities, and takes it for a shopping trip to the local mall. Bark Troll arrives at Bastian's house disguised as a garden plant, while the Gnomes are mailed to him in a box. The reunited group go in search of Nicole; but the Nasties find the AURYN first, whereupon giant crustacean creatures appear in Fantasia to kill the Empress and her advisors. Everyone in the mall turns to evil, including Mr. Koreander and Bastian's parents. Bastian is struck by lightning, and begins to succumb to the wills of the Nasties; but Nicole saves him, and Bastian recovers the AURYN and the book in a fight. The Fantasians return to Fantasia, which is restored to its former magnificence; Bastian and Nicole manage to keep their parents from divorcing; and Junior is reunited with his parents. Nicole and Bastian return to school the next day and find that Bastian has changed Slip and the Nasties into friendly classmates, and Bastian returns the Neverending Story to Mr. Koreander. | good versus evil, fantasy, flashback | train | wikipedia | Besides, I knew that it could not possibly be worse than "The NeverEnding Story II."Boy, was I wrong."The NeverEnding Story III" has rightly earned its place among IMDb voters as the 79th worst movie of all time.
It is so bad that, in writing this review, I risk making it sound like it's worth watching, sort of like "Plan Nine from Outer Space." I assure you, this film is in no way in the Ed Wood category of being so incompetently done that it becomes enjoyable to watch.
Those moviegoers who take pleasure in seeing cinematic disasters should be forewarned about this one, lest they never again be able to erase from their memory Rockbiter's gravelly-voiced version of "Born to be Wild," played in a video sequence early in the film and again during the end credits.No, I am not joking.The second film does have its admirers, and as much as I hated it, I sort of understand where they're coming from.
(Falkor, who must have gotten a lobotomy sometime between the second and third film, will chase after a "dragon" at a Chinese festival.) What we do see of Fantasia makes the place seem a lot smaller than I had ever imagined.
When the gnome describes Bastian as "not exactly Arnold Schwarzenegger in the muscle department," we're reminded how much more enjoyable the film would probably be if Schwarzenegger were actually in it.The cause of these events is that a gang of school bullies steals the book and discovers that it gives them the power to wreak havoc on the inhabitants of Fantasia.
Mr. Koreander is played by the British character actor Freddie Jones, Bastian is played by the kid from "Free Willy," and the main bully is played by a relatively young Jack Black, who now probably would like to do with this film what George Lucas wants to do with the "Star Wars Holiday Special.".
The first two movies covered all the wondrous things within the original book, so I don't understand why this film was made at all.
One gets the impression that this was made as a sort of kid/family-friendly approach to The Neverending Story, because it is just so simplistic, and sacrifices the charm of the original characters and settings for the sake of being funny and entertaining.
If however you are not familiar with the Neverending Story, see the original 1984 movie and read the book and be contented with that.
A few years later I had the pleasure of watching the second one, and although not as good as the first one, I have to say it is one of the better movie sequels I have seen (the people who comment on it give it too harsh criticism) It was still as imaginative and beautiful as the first one, and kept all the main characters.
There are those bad movies that are MST3K fun and then there are those that make you wish you had a sharp object to commit suicide with, this one is the latter.This franchise went from excellent original fantasy, special effects for the genre, and well written characters to bad acting and writing in part 2, to movie of the week actors and rubber puppets in part 3.
Especially if you're considering getting this for the kids, at least treat them to the original movie or something like the Peter Barnes inspired fantasy miniseries' from the late 90s..
Mr. Koreander's line: "The story's not over yet, young man" is the only time in any of the three movies where it talks about the NeverEnding Story's "unendingness." I like seeing the Old Man of Wandering Mountain, but it's not the same part as the book.
I love the first NeverEnding Story and consider one of the all time great fantasy films, and the second one while disappointing was pretty good, but this one was garbage.
Sorry I hated it, it has none of the magic of the first film, none of the sense of wonder that enthralled me when I first saw NeverEnding Story as a child.
It was nothing more than a pathetic attempt at humour with the unnatural mixing of the Fantasia world with the materialistic pop-culture that I watch fantasy movies to try to escape from.
Imagine that you are reading an entertainment magazine like "Entertainment Weekly" or "Rolling Stone", and you happen to look in the news section where they give you information about a movie that is in production.
It is by far one of the worst sequels ever made, and it does a disservice to the book by Michael Ende and the original 1984 film on which it is based (My review: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088323/usercomments-250).This movie takes characters from the book and creates a new story that is full of plot holes, bad puns, and very little logic whatsoever.
It helps very little that none of the cast members from either of the first two movies were involved in this film.This time, Bastian is played by Jason James Richter ("Free Willy" (1993)).
Although Richter looks like a preteen model, he is still harassed by a gang at his new school known as the Nasties (or the Nastys) whose leader is Slip, played by a then-unknown Jack Black.As it turns out, Bastian's new school also happens to be where Coreander, the owner of the book store in the original story, works as a librarian.
It's a pretty contrived way to bring the book back into the story after the main character has moved away if you ask me.What's even more contrived is when Bastian, hiding from the Nastys, retreats into the world of Fantasia, only to have Slip retrieve the book, realize its powers, and try to destroy the world and Bastian.
The NeverEnding Story being an enchanted book is no excuse to cover up such plot holes.When Bastian realizes he has to re-enter the real world to obtain the book and save Fantasia, the movie just gets worse.
There's the Rock-Biter's baby boy who talks in annoying "baby talk" that real children under 3 don't use as vernacular, an anthropomorphic tree who talks like an old Jewish comedian except not as funny, and two gnomes (Urgl and Engywook, featured in the first movie but played by different actors) who have a tired running joke about needing to use the bathroom.Oh yes, and who could forget Falcor, the luck dragon?
Any script reviser could point out these plot holes, and it most especially amazes me that filming progressed despite these inconsistencies.It is even more amazing that no one in this movie actually acts poorly.
absolutely, without a doubt, the worst of all three, and one of the worst movies of all time.I have heard so many negative things about it for many years, so one day I decided to watch it with an open mind.
On the other hand, I had nothing to do, so I decided to watch this just to see how bad it would be.My oh my, the many negative comments I read about this movie have all the reason to be.
Seriously, I don't get how in the world did this movie lost its place in the IMDb Bottom 100 because that's where it belongs.This terrible film should have never seen the light of the day.
Everything is bad in this movie: the crude puppets and sceneries, the very poor plot, all of the characters (especially the more than annoying bullies, the Nasties) and the crappy lines (such as a reference to Arnold Schwarzenneger and Jean Claude Van Damme).But that's far from being all.
Even how the characters dress, with their preppy plastic clothes or stereotypical "punks" outfits.As another commenter pointed out, the references from Fantasia characters to real world people and places is insulting.This movie kills fantasy.The contemporary soundtrack also destroys whatever potential there could ever be for a lasting (positive) impression.Everything about this is horrible.
This movie gives the NeverEnding Story a bad name!.
Especially since the second film in the trilogy was such a huge disappointment.I find it an absolute insult to the original film, the book, and Michael Ende that this rubbish shares the name "The NeverEnding Story".
Nothing at all like the Falcor we all loved in the original movie.
Believe it or not, being such a HUGE fan of "The Never Ending Story" saga, I didn't happen to see this movie till about 2 years ago.
Rock Biter has somehow shrunk from being the size of a 3-story house to the size of a door.I couldn't watch this movie all the way through.
Why oh why didn't they try a little bit more.Just a little....Or maybe they did try...Because you have to try hard to have such a shitty and boring story and to destroy the main characters in such an extent.And the villain...The nasties...Really....It went from the Nothing to the Emptiness and end up in the school bullies?Going from abstract meanings symbolizing the disappearance of imagination to the school bullies?The first time i saw it i actually stopped watching it in the "bike scene".Unfortunately i made the mistake of continuing it some other day...Wish i hadn't...Go watch the first movie again which is a masterpiece of children fairytale movies and don't ever touch this one....PS And all you trolls reviewing this saying it is fantastic and tricking people in to seeing this awful thing...YOU ARE TERRIBLE HUMAN BEINGS!!!!.
I don't know if it's because the movie feels and runs like they spent a grand total of twelve minutes in development, or if each and every individual element is inferior (if that's even possible) to the second installment.Either way, it's not worth my time to figure it out, it's just that bad, but if you happened to be among the two or three people who liked the second installment, the third is necessary to fill in the numerous plot holes.It rates a 2.4/10 from...the Fiend :..
And the sad part is this movie will probably appeal to young kids more than the other two.In this atrocity, Bastian Bux's father gets married and Bastian has a new stepsister who doesn't like him for some reason.
One thing I can say about this movie, is it's actually somewhat entertaining at times because of it's stupidity, where the second film was just boring.
It seems as though the writer and director didn't think to use the other two movies as references on how the characters should look or act.
Atreyu, the co-main character of the last 2 films is gone, and everything about Fantasia has changed in this terrible so-called final Neverending Story film.My rating: BOMB/****.
This third movie completely cut off Atrayu and made Fantasia look like a piece of garbage.
I'm serious, what the chocolate coated hell is this.The first one was a master piece, the second one was ok and this.....Should not be seen by a living soul.The rock biter is different looking, falkour looks and sounds like Patrick Star as well as being wrong.Jack Black, who plays a cillian HATED how the movie turned out.
I've seen the first two NeverEnding Story movies, but none of them have a script like the third one!
The series could have been great if it was consistent in actors & quality.I think I'm going to go cry about the hour I wasted watching this movie.This site asks for my review to be at lest 10 lines....
Once upoun a time there was a legendary tale like the Dark Crystal called the Never ending Story which is adventurous, fun and has many fantasy elements to enjoy.Then there was a mess of a sequel and now fours years after that messy muck, we have another ridiculous sequel, the Neverending Story III.It was getting good at the start and then 5 minutes later, towards the end it just felt like a funny, doo film and in this film especially, all the magic has died.The acting is still up to scratch which is good but director shame on you for destroying their talents.
There are many things which bring this film down and it is a shame that they actually tried to be like the first one, e.g Rock biter's bike.I'll go through many weakness of this film: - The Bastian character is really weak, annoying, irritating and comes up with the most stupidest accuses ever e.g. when the elves are in the box, he says the parrot I brought, for gosh's sake the bird would have been dead in 2 hours or less.What happen to the giant Rock Biter and why does he have a wife, it was already bad enough that he has freakin kid already.
It's a good film for kids from ages 4-7 and that's it.Like the Never Ending Story 2, I really tried to like this but it ain't enough, the magic is gone like I've said, even some of the dialogue is stupid.4/10.
I have watched the other two and well all i can say is number one is the best,did they pay attention to the first one at all i mean this is so bad,my own children wouldn't even sit and watch this they turned away quick.This didn't put me or anyone i know in the fantasy world at all,if you have seen the first one then i have a feeling you will be very disappointed with this indeed.Falcor didn't even look look the same in fact it was a big let down to the one in the first one,they could have made the story line better that would have at least been something.well when i watched this movie i was so bored and well i wont be watching it again,i was not impressed in the least and well if your thinking of watching it then you need your head testing.Being honest don't waist your time..
Entertainingly bad film...makes the 2nd look like a classic!.
Despite being older, more cynical teenagers, Slip accepts the concept of a magical world within a book surprisingly easily and decides that he will use the book to change the story he wants to hear and the world of Fantasia is yet again under threat however this time the people of that world must take the battle into the real world.Having seen the bit in quality between parts one and two already I must admit that I held out limited hopes for part three.
a bit like the whole film, really.Jack Black has fun in an early role as one of the Nasties (what kind of a name for a high school clique is that?) and the actress who plays Bastian's stepsister is quite charming (if a slightly amateurish thespian) but we're a long way from the superb original here.
This movie gets a 2 only because it has the words "Neverending Story" in the title.
So here's my new breakdown for this god-awful piece of crap: 1 point is the minimum, and then a half-point for being a Neverending Story movie, and another half-point for having Jack Black in it..
Normally, you don't throw away interesting characters like him in any movie series.
Do you want to know why there are no more "Neverending Story" films?
I to be honest I don't really like watching movies that are older, But I love this movie soo much because I think its a very good movie also the story is great, the actors are amazing, I think the little boy who played in it did such an amazing job.
This movie is not as well done with the fantasia characters but I really liked the story line with Bastion's little sister.
Even that could have been passably entertaining, since the Nasties find and read "The Never Ending Story"(pretty smart bullies)and start to control it in a way where stupid Fantasia goes all wrong, so wrong in fact, that all of the myriads and gnomic creatures of Fantasia have to move down to Earth to escape.And after they did, I stopped paying attention and dubbed the movie quite worthy of its title, "The NeverEnding Story," for it went on and on and on.
I remember watching the second movie and being amazed at how bad it was.
Particularly when a group of comical high school bullies, led by Jack Black, steal The NeverEnding Story book and create havoc in both Fantasia and our world.
Before I commence, let me say how good a film The Neverending Story is.
It didn't even feel like a Neverending Story movie at all.
The only thing I liked in this movie was Jack Black and thats it.
But, when the rockbiter started singing Born to Be Wild,That's when i pulled out chunks of my hair!Just watch Neverending story 1 and 3 together and look at the difference This movie isn't even a 1,it's a -100,it's the worst sequel in cinema history!.
The acting is terrible and the only decent enough performance is Jack Black who you can understand why he was successful because as much of a bad story as this is, he looked like he was having fun.
Neverending story 1 was my favourite movie as a kid.
It can't be stated more clearly than that.Like many others, the first Neverending Story movie was a much-loved, magical part of my childhood.
You kids, better pick up the Neverending Story book from somewhere, read the original written word and skip incredibly idiotic movies as this one.God, horrible!
It really feels like someone made a deliberate joke of the beautiful story the first movie was..
=) A little bit of love, friendship, fear, happiness and you have the perfect movie like never ending story III.
Even the NASTIES are more heroes in this movie because they take advantage of what they have.That's why I want The NeverEnding Story III to never exist.
The Neverending Story 3 is ONE OF THE WORST FILMS OF ALL TIME..
This film has horrible characters like Rock Biter Jr. and messes up the series by a lot. |
tt0109327 | Brainscan | A lonely boy named Michael Brower (Edward Furlong) lives an isolated existence in his absent father's mansion. Michael's mother was killed in a car accident, which also permanently injured his leg. He spends his spare time stalking his crush, a typical girl-next-door named Kimberly. A huge fan of horror films and video games, Michael's only friend is a similar-minded misfit named Kyle. Kyle tells Michael about a new, ultra-realistic game called Brainscan. Intrigued, Michael sends away for the first disc.
The game begins strangely, with a warning screen informing him that the experience has much in common with hypnotic suggestion. During his first experience with the game, Michael is encouraged to act as a psychopathic murderer by the game's host, an entity known as Trickster. In-game, Michael murders a stranger and takes his foot as a trophy. Later, he is horrified to discover that his victim in the game was a real person, and that the same murder also happened in the real world.
Kyle begs Michael to let him play the game, and Michael angrily rebuffs him. Later Michael is tormented by Trickster, who exits the game and plays a song by the musical group Primus in Michael's bedroom. Because he is a possible witness to the earlier murder, Trickster tells Michael he must kill Kyle, which he eventually does in-game.
Michael doesn't remember Kyle's murder and calls his house. The phone is answered by a policeman, Detective Hayden (Frank Langella). Michael becomes paranoid that he will be sent to jail. He is also continually annoyed by the presence of Trickster, who refuses to leave his home. Trickster ultimately instructs him to kill Kimberly.
At nightfall Michael sneaks into her room, but refuses to hurt her. Trickster reveals that he is actually the evil part of Michael. He possesses Michael, the struggle of which wakes Kimberly. Kimberly tells Michael that she loves him, which allows him to break free from his own inner darkness. At the last minute, the Trickster materializes and opens the bedroom door. Detective Hayden enters and shoots Michael dead.
Michael awakens in his room. He discovers that the whole experience was a fantasy. After a short tantrum, ranting at the game for his traumatic experiences, he excitedly realizes that Kyle is still alive and that nothing in the game happened in the real world. He goes over to Kimberly's and asks her out, which she replies with "maybe" before giving him a kiss.
The next day, Michael brings the Brainscan disc to school to show as part of a horror movie marathon. Unexpectedly, Trickster appears before the disc begins to play. | allegory, cult, comedy, murder | train | wikipedia | Instead, I found myself simply feeling uneasy while watching it.I recently decided to rent it for the nostalgia factor and give it another watch, fully expecting it to be horrible and downright laughable, but I was surprised to find that this movie still has the power to make me feel uneasy and even uncomfortable while watching it.The scriptwriter's alien ideas about how computers and games work are indeed rather laughable, but if you can forgive those, the movie does an admirable job of pulling you into Michael Bower's world.
The main theme, played several times throughout the movie, is very creepy and mood setting; I loved it.I found Brainscan far more compelling than the standard slasher flick or monster movie, and would readily recommend it to anyone looking for something a little more psychological..
Ed Furlong of Terminator 2 is a high school student that exposes himself to large amounts of Horror, Hard Rock, and Video Games.
A sinister antagonist called The Trickster drives the plot of the movie and forces the main character (Furlong) to become either a hero or a victim.
This film should be highly recommended to fans of Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy and admirers of Frank Langella and/or Edward Furlong..
It has been many years since I saw my teens or in fact my 20's, but Brainscan is one of those rare movies that can appeal to anyone who enjoys a good horror spoof..
Edward Furlong (T2) plays a horror fanatic who stumbles upon an advert in a horror magazine advertising a CD ROM game called 'Brainscan' He decides to play it but is skeptical, that is until he gets a little more than he bargained for.
The fact that characters may be just a little melodramatic doesn't necessarily come down to a bad script but it is in the essence of all horror films.
This movie took a very creative stance behind the usual blandness of a typical horror story and made what could be interpreted as a piece ahead of its time.
This kid is sent the latest in video game technology, an interactive VR experience which sees him kill another human being, the catch being he's not allowed to leave any witness's or clues.
To give any sort of praise 'Brainscan', a film coincidentaly lacking a brain, requires you be either a teenage girl with a crush on Edward Furlong, or a 20 something video gameaholic.
But he is also like a cool nerd who adores watching horror movies and playing bloody video games.
Acting is very good and the character in the spotlight, main character Michael, is excellently preformed by Edward Furlong.After I watching this film through, I thought that we humans, as a race, are not ready to be mind readers or be able to materialize our imaginations.
Still, Edward Furlong does a neat job as teenager Michael Bower, whose video game starts manifesting itself.
The story's about a disturbed teenager named Michael Brower (played by the asthmatic Edward Furlong) who is obsessed with death, horror movies, and heavy metal; and what ensues when he plays a virtual reality-like horror game called Brainscan.
The story is Edward Furlong plays a teenage slacker who loves computer games and horror movies.
When I got back and watched my "Braveheart" recording I was disappointed to find that out, but one day I discovered that my best friend -to whom I had given a couple of tapes to record whatever might be of interest to me- and after a couple of minutes I was bound to that excellent movie and couldn't refrain from watching it.The script is definitely good but it lacks what makes up a real good script: the unforeseeable plot.
Knowing American movies all too well I could be certain just after the first murder that the end would be "all good" (All's well that ends well) and I imagined the rest of the story going something like...
But the plot was able to stun me with a turn, when the game demands what can't be done.I also have to admit that I was mostly fascinated by the characters which had the luck to be played by actors who fit into their parts and were extremely good at it.
Another bonus there.I would have loved if they would have showed more of the story "Michael - Kimberley" towards the end because -as I find- this is as elementary to the movie as the "Brainscan game" and "Trickster" itself.
Edward Furlong plays Michael Brower, a teen who spends his spare time playing video games and spying on the beautiful girl next door (Kimberly played by Amy Hargreaves).
One day Michael calls a number his clownish friend (Jamie Marsh, who is basically good for a few dry laughs) gave him and thus discovers Brainscan, a new interactive video game with a goal that reaches beyond innocent entertainment.
With a plot about a virtual reality video game in which you get to indulge in people's sickest innermost urges (killing people).It's a little too violent for pre-teens, yet that's why it would be such a stand out movie at that age.
The movie overall gives you a very uncomfortable feeling but it's too campy to be one of those "I love it because it's so incredibly hard to watch" movies like Irreversible for example.The cheesy effects are actually pretty entertaining at least.
I've watched plenty of movies with Furlong and what can I say, they're all great.Brainscan is an excellent thriller with a lot of suspense.
Badly executed attempt at a video game horror movie....
1st watched 10/14/2009 - 3 out of 10 (Dir-John Flynn): Badly executed attempt at a video game horror movie although it's an interesting concept.
The storyline revolves around a disturbed kid who's obsessed with horror movies and videogames and is presented with supposedly the scariest experience available called Brainscan.
Edward plays a teen that gets this great game that allows you to kill someone...kind of a virtual reality game.
Brainscan is a horror film where the things you expect to happen do, but not in the method you would come into to call with.
He loves horror films, violent video games and anything dark in aura.
It's like `lighting a marijuana cigarette and travelling to the real world, or getting an erection from watching a pornographic sex film and raping someone.' He is a best friend with another naive narcissist youth named Kyle, and together they discover Brainscan.
Great movie with cool characters you can like.
Impressed with the realism of his latest virtual reality video game, a teen horror fan begins to suspect the murders in the game actually happened in this nifty thriller shot in suburban Montreal.
One of the cleverest meta lines in 'Brainscan' is "do all these horror movies that you watch make sense?"; the line is uttered though by an annoying comical supporting character that emerges after thirty minutes to taunt the protagonist.
The comical final scene does not quite work but the denouement is surprisingly good with the teenager truly altering his outlook on horror, gaming and the like as the result of his experiences..
Edward Furlong plays his main character very well in this movie.
Honestly I especially like "bad" horror movies because they are many times funny as well, which you don't see in the average "ohh now I am supposed to be scared movie's"The background music is great as well!At last I was also surprised at the actor who play's "The Trickster" (Who acts crazy funny and mad!) (he doesn't play any many movie's which is weird in my opinion!)8/10 for me..
The slightly erotic and mysterious atmosphere a la Lost Boys boosts it the most, too bad they used just a little smudge of it and a lot more Elm Street tricky demon stuff.The plot is pretty predictable, but the script is decent and Edward Furlong is very suited to play the alienated youth obsessed by hard, but fake, horror movie scares.
Edward (T2) Furlong stars a troubled teen named Michael who loves horror movies and horror video games.
Well I first watched this movie when I was 18 in 1994 and, feeling a little nostalgic thought I'd give it another look as I remembered it being good.
Sure the special effects can look cheap and are shoddily conceived, but the virtual reality context (high tech for the period) and it's critical allegory on society's narrow-minded views on violence (the horror genre here) as escapism entertainment to supposedly fulfil their deranged fantasy's seemed to draw me in and Edward Furlong (stemming of the success he gathered from James Cameron's 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day) is actually quite good with a sympathetically appealing moody character.
However, I consider Edward Furlong to be a decent actor, plus I had nothing better to do.I wouldn't consider this a horror movie really, there is really not much to frighten you but, the plot is decent, well paced and it does keep you interested the whole way through.
In parallel, the bogey Trickster, also, testifies a typical heaviness of any "cyber-ludic" productions.The pub's sociology of this kind of "B movies", seldom as much did not show relevance with its prototype of the nineties anomic teenager (thrash metal, discomfort, returns to oneself, first sexual instincts
) who takes refuge in the virtual world.Unfortunately, in addition to the ubuesque control of the characters above-mentioned, a certain number of slownesses accumulate throughout film and the happy end of the high-school pupil who is avenged for his headmaster as in a Twisted Sister's video leaves the spectator disappointed..
Fanatic teenage horror movie fan discovers a video game which gives him the possibility to become a serial killer.
only to find out the next day that the people he kills in the game are really dead.The video games host called Trickster tells him that if he doesn't finish the game his girlfriend next door will die.Edward furlong as the teenage kid does an OK job, Frank Langella as the detective who investigates the murders kinda feels out of place in this campy teen cyber horror movie ( Cause he was snorting 2 pounds a day ).
Depressed teenager (Edward Furlong) finds out that his newest video game is forcing him to commit a series of murders.
Ryder Smith) is forcing Furlong to keep on playing the video game.
Edward Furlong's performance as Michael was great and also the guy who played Trickster he was like a Freddy Krueger type character.This type of film is mainly targeted at 15 year olds and younger, and me being around that age I quite enjoyed it.Overall I gave this film 7/10, so any kid who wants a night in to watch a light horror film I recommend this film..
This is a real good movie.Eddie Furlong was really scary in this one.
On the surface, Brainscan seems to be your run-of-the-mill dumbed-down Hollywood hollywood thriller; Its plot seems gimmicky, it's got a young up-and-comer/teenage heart-throb as its star, and it seems to try very hard to be cool, presenting us with the usual watered-down and unrealistic depiction of teenage life that we've come to expect from studios: a surface depiction of stereotypical personalities, obviously produced by middle-aged men deliberately attempting to target the MTV audience, which will see through it instantly anyway.
BRAINSCAN sounds very cool as pseudo sci-fi, but when the attempt is made by creating something out of a video game and turn it into another cheesy movie, the result is painfully lacking.
First my question: The computer Michael has, is there such a thing and is it out for sale or can you have someone down load the stuff and you can personalize it so you don't have to call it I'gore, How much would it cost?My comment: I loved the movie so I bought and watch it all the time, if they ever made a game like that I would try it but have a friend there to tell me the day and time so I wouldn't think it actually happened or go crazy wondering if it was true or not..
Edward Furlong (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, American History X) and Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon, Dracula) team to bring a comedy, horror, sci-fi thriller.Michael (Furlong) discovers a new video game that he plays when he isn't checking out Kimberly's (Amy Hargreaves) breasts.
The only thing lamer than "Brainscan" is actually watching all of it.I'm sorry Edward!!!I'd like to admit that I'm over 14 so it's not really aimed at me anyway...but I feel better having said that..
But, truly, I gave this movie a chance...I loved the premise and the idea of a video game that is supposed to be a 'virtual reality' session of what it is like to be a murderer...except all of the murderers happen to occur in real life.
His relationship with the female lead was absolutely unrealistic, and the movie suffered from it.Then there is 'The Trickster', the main bad guy of this film who looks like a recurring character in a number of 80's bands.
In addition, the special effects are for the most part very dated, which further hurts the film.The movie's highlights are the impressive camerawork in some scenes (reinacting a virtual reality video game) and a very nice soundtrack...but the acting ranges from okay to subpar.
Not much of a horror film, and not a very good movie overall, yet it is mildly entertaining with an interesting premise.
BrainscanThe upside to murdering someone online is not having to clean up all that blood afterwards.Unfortunately, for the player in this horror movie, his victims are appearing in reality.A homebody since an accident, Michael (Edward Furlong) has become a skilled gamer eager for new challenges, which he finds in a hyper-realistic mail-order game.Egged on by the games master Trickster (T.
If you like 90's teen horror, with a little bit of 80's feel thrown in, you can't go wrong with Brainscan..
Edward Furlong (Terminator 2) stars as a monster movie/video game fanatic who receives a CD-ROM that challenges players to carry out brutal killings.
When Furlong discovers that the murder has also occurred in real life, he attempts to rid himself of the game, but its hideous "referee," Trickster (T.
One of the best low budget psychological horrors ever made.Edward Furlong plays Michael, a teen-aged boy who lost his mother at a young age.
It changes his life.Excellent cinematography, adequate direction, and weak performances from Frank Langella as the local homicide detective (why was he even IN this movie?!); James Marsh as Kyle, Michael's only friend; and Amy Hargreaves as the girl next door tend to drag down the decent performance given by Edward Furlong and the excellent and compelling talents of T.
This movie was more of a psychological mind twist than anything else.SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT.Michael was forced by Trickster (and ultimately the game) to kill Kyle to show him that things DO matter; friends matter.
The new video game Brainscan comes out and this young horror movie fan tries it.
There's a great scene at the end when he hands the game disk to the high school principle who banned his horror movie club.
This is the Trickster.Trying to prove that the game is evil he films himself the next time he plays.
But before he can leave he notices a stack of pics like the ones in the game.The next day Furlong brings in the Brainscan disk and gives it to his principal.
Edward Furlong gives an excellent performance as a young teenager who compensates for his loneliness by playing violent video games, until one gets a little to real.
I thought that the film was better in the beginning then the end.The story goes like this: A kid (Edward Furlong) gets a video game which is like virtual reality and it makes him kill people.
Michael Bower(Edward Furlong)is an alienated teenager who loves horror films, is still haunted by the car crash that left him with a limp & took his mother's life, and is in love with a girl named Kimberly(Amy Hargreaves), for whom he records with his camcorder.
This game is called "Brainscan" and it has four different stages with the first having the person playing actually committing a crime of brutal murder.
The film's special effects are hokey, but the idea works for me..this poor kid decides for the ultimate experience and is thrust into a macabre world of his own doing basically because he likes escape through the horror genre often criticized for displaying mindless violence in the way of entertainment..
I love an intelligent horror movie with a real life social message.
Trouble is it appears that Michael really is killing people and when he tries to shut the game down wonderfully mad character called The Trickster pops out of the TV and involves himself in conversations regarding the nature of horror that become a bit too philosophical.Brainscan ends with a plot twist that is quite ingenious and caught me totally off-guard the first time I saw it.
Used to like them but now I think they're some of the dumbest movies ever made.Edward Furlong probably gives his worst performance ever in this film.
He stays at home playing video games, watching horror flicks and reading Fangoria.
I don't have a real feel for horror flicks, but I love a good sci-fi, I think this movie would fall somewhere in between the two.
Edward Furlong stars as Michael in "Brainscan".
He finds out about a new video game called "Brainscan" from a friend and orders a copy.
However, as a work of art (something which I think all films are), Brainscan was excellent.Dealing with a sixteen year old boy (T2's Eddie Furlong) who comes upon a video game that puts him within the eyes of a murderer, Michael experiences horror after horror when he finds himself essentially inside a truly scary horror flick.
I think Edward was a bit awkward at times I mean when he's spying on his love interest he doesn't even look like he's interested in what he's doing. |
tt0291777 | A Bug's Life | A colony of ants living in the middle of a dry creek led by Princess Atta and her mother, the Queen, is oppressed by a gang of marauding grasshoppers that arrive every season demanding food from the ants. One day, after Flik, an individualist and would-be inventor, accidentally knocks the annual offering into a stream with his latest invention, a grain harvesting device, Hopper, the leader of the grasshoppers, demands twice as much food as compensation. When Flik suggests in earnest that they seek help from other stronger bugs, the other ants see it as an opportunity to be rid of him, and send him off.
At the "bug city" (a heap of trash under a trailer), the naive Flik mistakes a troupe of circus bugs who were recently fired by their money-hungry ringmaster, P.T. Flea, for the warrior bugs he seeks. The bugs, in turn, mistake Flik for a talent agent and accept his offer to travel with him back to Ant Island. During a welcome ceremony upon their arrival, the circus bugs and Flik both discover their mutual misunderstandings. The circus bugs attempt to leave, but are attacked by a bird; while fleeing, they save Dot, Atta's younger sister, gaining the ants' respect in the process. At Flik's insistence, they continue the ruse of being "warriors" so the troupe can continue to enjoy the hospitality of the ants. Hearing that Hopper fears birds inspires Flik to create a false bird to scare away the grasshoppers. Meanwhile, Hopper tells his gang the ants outnumber them considerably and worries that they will eventually rebel against them.
The ants finish constructing the fake bird, but during a celebration, P.T. Flea arrives searching for his troupe and accidentally exposes their ruse. Outraged by Flik's deception, the ants exile him and desperately gather food for a new offering to the grasshoppers. When the grasshoppers arrive to discover the mediocre offering, they take over the island, demanding the ants' winter store of food. After overhearing Hopper's intention to kill the Queen, Dot has Flik and the circus bugs return to the colony to help.
The circus bugs distract the grasshoppers and rescue the Queen before Flik pilots the bird; it initially fools the grasshoppers, but P.T. Flea, also mistaking it for a real bird, lights it on fire, exposing it as a decoy. Hopper beats Flik in retaliation and proclaims that the ants are lowly life forms who live to serve the grasshoppers. However, Flik responds defiantly, realizing that Hopper actually fears the colony, and inspiring the ants and the circus bugs to fight back against the grasshoppers. The ants attempt to evict Hopper from the island, but it suddenly begins to rain. In the ensuing chaos, Hopper kidnaps Flik and flees. After the circus bugs fail to catch them, Atta rescues Flik. As Hopper viciously pursues them, Flik lures him to the nest of the bird he encountered earlier. Assuming that the actual bird is just another fake one, Hopper taunts it but is caught and fed to one of her chicks.
In the spring, a few months later, Flik has improved his inventions and the quality of life for the colony, and Atta professes her love for him. Atta is crowned the new queen and Dot is second in line to the throne. The ants congratulate Flik as a hero and bid a fond farewell to the circus troupe, who promise they will return the following year. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1814621 | Admission | Straight-laced Princeton University Admissions Officer Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) is caught off guard when she makes a recruiting visit to an alternative high school overseen by a former college classmate, the free-wheeling John Pressman (Paul Rudd). With vast experience in the coaching, consoling, and criticism involving Princeton's admission, she pays a visit to the Quest School, where John teaches while raising an adopted son. After exposing Portia to outspoken Quest students' impressions of college, he takes her to meet the rather unconventional Jeremiah Balakian, a child prodigy.
Back on campus, Portia's longtime boyfriend Mark breaks up with her after impregnating a "Virginia Woolf scholar" named Helen. After an awkward romantic attraction to Pressman, she arranges for Jeremiah to visit Princeton, where she and a colleague, Corinne, are rivals to succeed the soon-to-retire Dean of Admissions.
Portia long ago had a secret pregnancy, putting the baby up for adoption, and is shown apparent proof by Pressman that Jeremiah is her son. Although he is brilliant, Jeremiah's miserable transcript results in his being deemed unfit to attend the University. Portia, in an act that greatly endangers her position, schemes to gain Jeremiah entrance into the school, knowing that Princeton cannot reveal such a scandal.
Her resignation is demanded. Later, when revealing to Jeremiah that she is his biological mother, she finds out that there was a photocopy mistake on his birth certificate and that the boy has already located his actual biological mother. Portia appears at the Adoption Agency, trying to locate her son, where she describes her life with a different perspective. When asked how would she feel to meet her actual child, she replies that she would feel "nervous, but lucky."
In the end, now dating Pressman, she receives a letter about her son, which says he is not ready to meet her yet. Pressman points out to her that she is on the waitlist "... and that's not so bad." | comedy, boring, plot twist | train | wikipedia | Tina Fey as Portia and Paul Rudd as John turn in pleasant performances as an admissions executive and a progressive school teacher respectively.
Rudd is amiable here and usually successful in his film career, while Fey's efforts up to now have been mediocre (Date Night, Baby Mama).As an Alumni Admissions interviewer for over 30 years at Georgetown University, I find much of the story ringing true from the overachieving candidates nurtured by ambitious parents to the underachieving but brilliant and risky individualists.
However, it's their reactions to the admission process that provide the authentic tension as he has developed students with independent minds, and she is used to the cookie-cutter candidates who lack the passion of those independents.Director Paul Weitz knows something about family dynamics and children with his About a Boy, In Good Company, and Little Fockers among the more obvious examples.
The characters are all good characters so they hold our interest despite the lack of substance to the movie.The laughs are hard to come by, but if you're thinking in terms of a dramatic romantic comedy, then that shouldn't be too surprising.
The story centers on an admissions officer for Princeton University, Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) who is responsible for combing through thousands of submission requests and evaluating who should be allowed to attend this prestigious school.
Granted, some parts are rather bland and contrived which you can thank the screenplay for, but the charming actors, subtle direction, and an interesting story is able to elevate this movie to be the charming movie it is.Paul Weitz directs a film about an overworked Princeton admissions officer named Portia Nathan who on her recruitment trips, meets the highly intellectual Jeremiah takes to the help of an old college classmate named John.
A movie that is worth watching & has a lot of heart but isn't as funny as I was expecting from a Fey/Rudd pairing.
Tina Fey and Paul Rudd and cast are nice surprises for their performances in the humorous drama Admission.
Okay, like some reviewers here, I watched Admission expecting a comedy, the kind Tina Fey and Paul Rudd usually are associated with but unlike some of them, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was more of a drama than a rom-com.
She plays an admissions official at Princeton, and lots of Ivy League clichés and would-be jokes parade by.And that's the overview—a pre-packaged kind of routine film, not very imaginative to start with and never pushed or pulled the way a comedy, or a romance—or both!—ought to be.
Every character is clichéd, over the top and many of them are so mean...Tina Fey is a good actress, but her character i annoying, stupid and way too silly.Paul Rudd can be funny, but he wasn't in this...Its a film that really angers me to the point of exploding, because of its mean-spirit and cringe-worthy characters and story..
I had higher expectations for Admission considering it had two of today's most successful comedy actors: Tina Fey and Paul Rudd.
Stay away from Admission, this is one film you won't want to be enrolling in.Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) has spent the last 16 years of her life working at the admissions department for Princeton University.
The film was funnier than the reviews led me to believe, and while some of the subplots aren't played-out perfectly, they're brought to life by good performances from a strong cast.Perhaps the best characteristic of "Admission" is that it is a departure from the conventional rom-com.
Tina Fey is an admissions officer at the prestigious Princeton College who has to whittle down thousands of applicants each year for the relatively few places available.She meets an ex student from her past, Paul Rudd who has started a radical new college which contains a promising but troubled student who might be her son who she gave up for adoption.The trouble with the movie is that it's neither romantic nor a comedy.
How do you not like a movie with the always likable Tina Fey and Paul Rudd cast as the leads?
However, because of the solid effort by the leads, good performances by supporting cast (even though Lily Tomlin is a little too over the top), and nicely shot scenes, you probably will leave the movie with a slightly favorable impression although you also probably wish they had done more with all that this movie had going for it.So if you need an OK movie (not bad, not great), and a little harmless attempt at romance, and humorous situations without any laugh-out-loud moments, this would be your choice..
Therefore, I tend to trust IMDb member reviews and tend to stick to TV and film that rates a 7 or above.That said, I like both Tina Fey and Paul Rudd and honestly there was nothing else on "on demand" TV so I thought that I would give this movie a try, with low to no expectations given the 5.6 rating.I truly enjoy a diverse range of TV and film (funny, sad, dramatic, weird - sometimes all at once, from Muppets to Dexter etc.).This movie is all of those things and it creeps up on you.
'ADMISSION': Three Stars (Out of Five) Director Paul Weitz's new film is yet another comedy-drama, this one is starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd.
It's not nearly as good as Weitz's other films ('ABOUT A BOY', 'IN GOOD COMPANY', 'AMERICAN PIE' or even 'LITTLE FOCKERS') and doesn't live up to Fey and Rudd's potential but it is very touching at times and has a few decent laughs.Fey plays Portia Nathan, a Princeton admissions officer who's obsessed with her career and never made time for anything else.
She also has a troubled and distant relationship with her own mother (Lily Tomlin), she's still dealing with.The movie's not nearly as funny as you'd expect, given it's stars and director, but it does have a few good laughs here and there.
Available on Blu-ray Disc (Region B)USA 2013 English (Colour); Comedy/Drama/Romance (Focus/Depth of Field); 107 minutes (12 certificate)Crew includes: Paul Weitz (Director); Karen Croner (Screenwriter, adapting Novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz ***½ [7/10]); Paul Weitz, Kerry Kohansky-Roberts, Andrew Miano (Producers); Caroline Baron (Executive Producer); Declan Quinn (Cinematographer); Sarah Knowles (Production Designer); Joan Sobel (Editor); Stephen Trask (Composer)Cast includes: Tina Fey (Portia Nathan), Paul Rudd (John Pressman), Michael Sheen (Mark), Wallace Shawn (Clarence), Nat Wolff (Jeremiah Balakian), Lily Tomlin (Susannah Nathan), Gloria Reuben (Corinne), Olek Krupa (Vladimir Polokov), Sonya Walger (Helen), Christopher Evan Welch (Brandt), Travaris Meeks-Spears (Nelson Pressman)"Let someone in."A highly strung, Princeton admissions officer (Fey) meets, and subsequently does her utmost to support (breaking college rules), an exceptional but atypical applicant (Wolff) when she visits a new developmental school, whose altruistic head (Rudd) leads her to believe he may be the son she secretly gave up for adoption.Great to see comedy legend Tomlin back on screen, firing on all cylinders as Fey's feminist, unconventional mum; comparative youngsters Fey and Rudd spark off one another nicely and are immensely likeable together (and apart), while a bearded Sheen steals a few scenes as Fey's unfaithful ex-partner-to-be.Effectively adapted, to fit romcom requirements, from a much more expansive, literary source.Blu-ray Extras: Featurette.
While so many folks are wrapped up in getting their kiddies into the best universities with the best reputations and the best safe places without micro-aggressions, I want kids to get to work living, earning the money for each credit, and feeling that they can give themselves the credit for being grown-ups as soon as possible after high school.Maybe that's why Paul Rudd and Tina Fey dropped off my radar as I went through the theater door after the flick.
Obviously with Tina Fey and Paul Rudd there is some comic relief but giving the premise it would have been foolish to expect a full on comedy - that would have been a mistake - so the movie is a little bit of both a drama and a comedy with some romance thrown into it.
Really lame piece of movie making.Tina Fey: Dreadful Paul Rudd: Not funny at all (How is this possible?) Lily Tomlin, like Wallace Shawn, plays a cad.Spoiler alert for this movie: Do not, under any circumstances, watch this movie.Saving grace was the ventriloquist bit for Rene DesCartes; cool dogs and setting of movie.
'Admission' Synopsis: A Princeton admissions officer who is up for a major promotion takes a professional risk after she meets a college- bound alternative school kid who just might be the son she gave up years ago in a secret adoption.'Admission' begins well, but slips post 30-minutes into the film.
Story of a gal who just won't do things cz she pretend to b happy n her life.The mere presence of Tina Fey and Paul Rudd would elevate most any script and movie.
I did read the plot summary and found it interesting and with actors like Tina and Paul - movie has to be a good laugh.
Although Tina and Paul played a decent role with others doing an okay job, the movie was pretty simple with no real comedy.
Being a fan of Tina Fey is what brought me to this film, with the great ensemble of Paul Rudd and Lily Tomlin and what I expected to find and what I found was very different.
it is really a drama with some light/funny moments....but that is what you would expect from the combination of fey, rudd and tomlin in one movie.this movie deserves a better rating and is definitely worth a watch..
The critics have not been kind, nor the reviewers here, but we really enjoyed this - maybe because we like Screwball Comedies from the 30s and 40s and both agreed that this is really the roots of the comedy here- which is out of step with modern tastes - but makes for a rather interesting drama comedy.The plot centers around Tina Fey, who is the admissions officer, at Princeton - and nothing less than perfect is getting in - and Paul Rudd, a sort of hangover from the 60s who is out to save the world, even it means one person at a time, who is convinced he's got the candidate that she wants.While I agree the film does lack balance and can't decide how it's gong to get its laughs sometimes - it has a zinging script, two immensely likable stars, and the journey is an interesting one.Lots of people will still sneer, but for our money, this is one of the more enjoyable films of the year - it doesn't take itself too seriously, but is not just buffoonery either - it is worth anyone's time - it tries to be a genuine screwball drama comedy, and that's never going to be an easy choice, and we liked that it is at least different..
Much of the success of the film is due to the fine performances by Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Lily Tomlin, Michael Sheen, Gloria Reuben, and Wallace Shawn as well as newcomers Nat Wolff and Travaris Spears.The story can be too quickly summarized as follows: Straitlaced Princeton University admissions officer Portia Nathan (Tina Fey), co-habiting with Chaucer-spouting boyfriend Mark (Michael Sheen) is caught off-guard when she makes a recruiting visit to an alternative high school overseen by her former college classmate, the freewheeling John Pressman (Paul Rudd) who has adopted a young lad from Africa (Travaris Spears).
Portia, the lovechild of kooky Susannah (Lily Tomlin), finds herself bending the rules for Jeremiah, putting at risk the life she thought she always wanted -winning admissions director at Princeton where the current director (Wally Shawn) is deciding between Portia and her co-worker Corrine (Gloria Reuben)- but in the process finding her way to a surprising and exhilarating life and romance she never dreamed of having.Where this film shines is not opting for the easy 'perfect endings' and it is a much stronger and more meaningful film for that.
Straight-laced Princeton admissions officer Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) is caught off-guard when a school administrator of an alternative school (Paul Rudd) pester her for a visit.
It might look inviting on the outside, but until the first bite there is no way to know if it is any good.I went in to this movie expecting a romantic comedy that was more comedy than romance a la Tina Fey. She however stretches her dramatic acting chops even farther than she did in "Baby Mama" where she had the comedic support of another Saturday Night Live actor Amy Poehler.
Admission To get into university nowadays you must make sure your overprotective parents write an exceptional admissions essay on your behalf.However, the admissions officer in this comedy is more focused on the interview process.Inundated with hundreds of applications, Portia (Tina Fey) excels at acceptance; except when it comes to the son she gave up for adoption.Invited home to speak to an eclectic classroom taught by a progressive professor, John (Paul Rudd), Portia is introduced to a savant (Nat Wolff) who John claims is her estranged son.Blinded by her emotions, Portia admits her alleged offspring into Princeton, despite the fact that his poor marks mar her chances of succeeding her boss (Wallace Shawn).An uneven adaptation of the novel, Admission permits its dramatic adoption narrative to be rebuffed by excessive class clowning.Incidentally, it's cheaper to meet the child you gave up for adoption after they graduate university.Red Light vidiotreviews.blogspot.com.
The jokes wasn't that funny and we have seen Paul Rudd and Tina Fey, play these type of roles many times.
ADMISSION (2013) *** Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Lily Tomlin, Gloria Reubens, Wallace Shawn, Michael Sheen, Nat Wolf, Travaris Spears, Sonya Walger, Olek Krupa.
Her serious approach to her work is complicated by a competition with her inner-office rival (Gloria Reuben) and by a going-nowhere relationship with Michael Sheen.All of that sounds pretty straight-forward, so it takes a left turn when Portia makes a campus visit to the Quest School, an experimental campus run by ultimate good guy John Pressman (Paul Rudd).
Tina Fey plays the world's worst admissions officer who is being heckled by a teacher, played by Paul Rudd, to admit one of his "prodigy" students into Princeton.
ADMISSION would fit in the latter category, with an antagonist so neurotic you might wonder how she got her stuffy job – an admissions officer at Princeton University – in the first place.Tina Fey's Portia Nathan is so frustrated and frantic
stuck in a dead-end relationship with a boring professor
she's subconsciously dying for a love interest to spark up her life.
Creative elements, like spoken-of characters appearing who aren't really there – especially during the final admissions process where Portia strategically tries getting Jeremiah in the door – add to the indie flavor of a film misleadingly promoted as a romantic comedy.Of the side cast, Paul Rudd's relationship with his adopted black child is sweet but ultimately pointless, while Lily Tomlin, as Portia's stubborn mother, who, like Glenn Close in THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, years earlier wrote a book on feminism and found a random "sperm donor" to create her child, tries hard to steal scenes, but Tina Fey does a good enough job carrying a simple story that, for better or worse, she owns entirely..
The likable Tina Fey and Paul Rudd did play the parts well, and I found myself liking their characters and wanting more.
Like many others, I suspect, I expected an uproarious laugh-a-minute satire of the capricious college admissions process, somewhat in the vein of "Back of School", especially with the supremely talented Tina Fey in the lead.
John Pressman (Paul Rudd) runs the school and wants one of his exceptional students, Jeremiah (Nat Wolff) to attend Princeton.Portia's mother is played by Lily Tomlin, who I thought was dead because I don't watch a lot of TV shows.
Tina Fey has always been an actress I've admired ever since she started in the film business, granted she's no Meryl Streep or Audrey Hepburn, but there's a lot of untapped talent there, she deserves the chance at bigger roles like her co-star Paul Rudd did starring as the titular character in Ant Man. Rudd is a good actor and seems to thrive in these kind of films, Ant Man was probably punching above his weight somewhat, but throw him into a cheesy rom-com or general comedy film and he excels.
Directed by Paul Weitz, "Admission" stars Tina Fey as Portia Nathan, an Admissions Officer at Princeton University.
Working better as a drama than a romantic comedy - Fey, primarily a comedian, handles the film's last act tragedies very well - the film co-stars the always awesome Lily Tomlin, and a puppy-dog faced Paul Rudd.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing..
Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) is an admissions officer at Princeton.
Portia then meets John Pressman (Paul Rudd) who further upends her life with the news that one of his students, Jeremiah, may be the child Portia gave up for adoption years before, and could she help him with his Princeton admission.
It also feels like Paul Rudd and Tina Fey should have good chemistry together, but they just do not.
Not a great movie but a nice story.SPOILERS: John presents something which makes Portia believe Jeremiah is her actual son, she had given a baby up for adoption when she was still in college 17 years earlier.
The chemistry between Tina Fey and Paul Rudd is phenomenal and is considered one of the best parts of the film as the majority of the interactions between characters are certainly believable, which gives the film a bit of extra charm that other dramatic comedies can't match.This is certainly one realistic take on the process of applying to a prestigious college such as Princeton.
Tina Fey and Paul Rudd are big enough stars in the comedy world to carry a film like this.
However, one of the most redemptive thing in the film are the scenes featuring Tomlin and Fey.Admission is a lesson in "just okay." Everything about the movie is average at best.
It is a real shame because I like both Tina Fey and Paul Rudd. |
tt0049443 | The Lieutenant Wore Skirts | TV writer Greg Whitcomb did his military service heroically but now has settled into everyday life with a young wife, Katy. A letter from the war department arrives that Katy believes is calling Greg back to active duty from the Air Force reserve, but she hides it during a party celebrating their wedding anniversary.
A captain attending the party, Barney Sloan, casually calls Greg an "old-timer," offending him. Greg gets drunk and passes out. His pride stung, Greg is willing to return to duty once he learns of the letter, so Katy, a former Air Force officer herself, decides to re-enlist so they can stay together.
Trouble is, Greg flunks his physical exam due to a bad knee. Katy is shipped to a base in Hawaii without him. Female neighbors keep suggesting Katy will be lonely and surrounded by handsome servicemen, so Greg flies to Honolulu to join her. He ends up spending hours with the wives, a situation their husbands don't appreciate.
Greg decides to sabotage Katy's career so she can get a discharge. His stunt backfires, but because Greg's knee has healed, he is now recalled up to duty. Which would be fine, except Katy now needs to be honorably discharged and sent home because she is pregnant. | insanity, romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0103466 | The Larry Sanders Show | The show follows the production of a fictional late night talk show The Larry Sanders Show. It chronicles the daily life of host Larry (Garry Shandling), producer Arthur "Artie" (Rip Torn), sidekick Hank Kingsley (Jeffrey Tambor) and their interaction with celebrity guests, the network and others. Episodes focus on the professional and personal lives of the principal characters, with most focusing on Larry. Ancillary characters are also featured, among them the writers Phil and Jerry, talent bookers Paula and Mary Lou, and the personal assistants Beverly, Darlene and Brian. Larry's wife, ex-wife and girlfriends are frequent sources of conflict, and his home is a secondary location for the show.
A typical early episode opens to the titles with the sound of Hank's audience warm-up routine in the background. This is followed by the talk show's titles and an excerpt from Larry's monologue. Episodes vary after this, sometimes continuing with the studio recording, but often cutting to a back-stage shot or to the production offices.
=== Writing and production ===
The Larry Sanders Show is a satire on show business that mixes fact with fiction. It featured real-life celebrity guests as they performed on the talk show and as they appeared behind the scenes. For example, in the final episode Larry interviews Sean Penn who, once they cut to a commercial break, gossips freely about Shandling's acting, insecurity, and behaviour towards Penn's wife (Robin Wright) on the set of Hurlyburly, in which all three appear. The scripts often shocked by appearing to show the guest's malice, or the difference between their public and private personas.
Profanities are used on the show, although not gratuitously, with the writers taking advantage of the freedom allowed by HBO as a subscription cable service. It paved the way for subsequent HBO shows such as Oz, The Sopranos, and Deadwood. According to Peter Tolan, early episodes were also recorded with language suitable for broadcast syndication until midway through the second season, when the actors resisted shooting the extra takes.
The show used both videotape and film. The behind the scenes footage was shot on film, often using hand-held cameras, in a documentary style. Four video cameras recorded the show-within-a-show which gives a brighter, less grainy picture and helps distinguish the talk show from the back-stage scenes. The talk show was staged with realistic music, lighting and set design. It was recorded in front of an actual live studio audience during the first season and then occasionally during later episodes.
The show had a few catchphrases used throughout its entire run. The most common was "Hey now", a phrase Hank repeats in the opening credits of the fictional talk show and whenever he greets someone (though it was intellectual property of the network; season 3, episode 1, "Montana"). It mirrors the "Hi-yo" catchphrase used by Ed McMahon (sidekick on The Tonight Show), upon whom Hank Kingsley was based. In one episode, Hank says he invented the phrase when he accidentally said it to someone and liked it. In 2007, Nickleodeon's TV Land ranked "Hey Now" as the 87th Best Television catchphrase. "No flipping" is a phrase Larry uses to go to commercial breaks, encouraging the viewer audience not to change to another channel (which was considered public domain; season 3, episode 1, "Montana"). In the series finale, the last thing Larry says on his talk show is, "You may now flip" (though he said near the end of episode 18, season 2, "New York or LA": "You may feel free to flip" while pondering relocating to New York City due to a change in network ownership). | humor, satire | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0058279 | Kaidan | === The Black Hair ===
"The Black Hair" (黒髪, Kurokami) was adapted from "The Reconciliation", which appeared in Hearn's collection Shadowings (1900). An impoverished swordsman living in Kyoto divorces his wife, a weaver, and leaves her for a woman of a wealthy family to attain greater social status. He takes his new wife to his new position as a district governor. However, despite his new wealthy status, the swordsman's second marriage proves to be unhappy. With his second wife being callous and shallow, the swordsman regrets leaving his more devoted and patient ex-wife.
One night while he sleeps, the second wife is furious when she discovers that the swordsman not only married her to obtain her family's wealth, but also still longs for his old life in Kyoto with his ex-wife. After lashing out at him for his ungrateful behavior, the second wife returns to her marriage chambers in humiliation. When he is told to go into the chambers to reconcile with her by a lady-in-waiting, the swordsman refuses, stating his intent to return home and reconcile with his true wife. He tells her that it is his foolish youth in being impoverished that made him marry his second wife. Admitting that he didn't love her, the swordsman tells the lady-in-waiting to inform his 2nd wife that their marriage is over and she can return to her family.
After a few years, the swordsman returns to Kyoto and finds the house in disrepair. He reconciles with his ex-wife, who refuses to let him punish himself. The wife understands he only divorced her so he can better support her, and the she is happy to see him again "only for a moment" to which the man replies that he will never leave her again. Before going to bed, the swordsman promises her that they won't have to worry about poverty anymore because of his new resources and connections and he will never leave her side again. The two happily exchange wonderful stories about the past and the future until the swordsman fell asleep. He wakes up the following day, finding that he had been sleeping next to the rotted corpse of his wife. Rapidly aging and attacked by black hair, he leaves the house, only to be further attacked by black hair.
=== The Woman of the Snow ===
"The Woman of the Snow" (雪女, Yukionna) is an adaptation from Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1903). In the Musashi Province, a woodcutter named Minokichi takes refuge in a fisherman's hut during a snowstorm alongside his mentor Mosaku. Minokichi finds Mosaku killed by a Yuki-onna, who spares Minokichi because of his youth. Yuki-onna warns him to never mention what happened or she will kill him. Keeping his word, Minokichi later meets a young woman named Yuki who resembles the ghost he encountered. She reveals that she is on her way to Edo for she lost her family and her relatives had got her a position as a lady-in-waiting. Minokichi takes Yuki to his home to rest up. His mother takes a liking to Yuki and asks her to stay. Yuki never leaves for Edo and Minokichi falls in love with her. The two marry and have children, living happily for ten years. The female villagers are in awe of Yuki's youth for after having three children, she still looks the same. They noted that Minokichi's mother talked highly of Yuki, which is unusual because in their village, most mothers talk ill of their daughters-in-law no matter how good a wife she may be. One night, during a snowstorm, Minokichi tells her that her appearance reminds him of the Yuki-onna he met, telling her of the strange event. It is then that Yuki reveals herself to be the Yuki-onna. She tells him that he broke his word, yet refrains from killing him because of their children. Yuki then leaves Minokichi with the children, warning to treat them well or she will return and kill him. She disappears into the snowstorm, leaving Minokichi heartbroken.
=== Hoichi the Earless ===
"Hoichi the Earless" (耳無し芳一の話, Miminashi Hōichi no Hanashi) is also adapted from Hearn's Kwaidan (though it incorporates aspects of The Tale of the Heike that are mentioned, but never translated, in Hearn's book). It depicts the folkloric tale of Hoichi the Earless, a blind musician, or biwa hoshi, whose specialty is singing The Tale of the Heike, about the Battle of Dan-no-ura, fought between the Taira and Minamoto clans during the last phase of the Genpei War. He is subsequently called in to sing for a royal family. His friends and priests grows concerned that he may be singing for ghosts as soon as he answered the call. To protect Hoichi, a priest and his acolyte write the text of The Heart Sutra on his body, and instruct him to go outside and sit still as if in meditation. They forget to write on his ears, which are subsequently visible to the ghost which comes to fetch him. The ghost seeks to bring back as much of Hoichi as possible, and rips his ears off.
=== In a Cup of Tea ===
"In a Cup of Tea" (茶碗の中, Chawan no Naka) is adapted from Hearn's Kottō: Being Japanese Curios, with Sundry Cobwebs (1902). A writer who is anticipating a visit from the publisher writes a story about a samurai who keeps seeing the face of a strange man in a cup of tea. | cruelty, murder, horror, haunting, flashback, atmospheric, insanity, psychedelic, romantic, historical, storytelling | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0088146 | A Soldier's Story | The time is 1944 during World War II. Vernon Waters (Adolph Caesar), a master sergeant in a company of black soldiers, is very drunk and staggering along a road along Fort Neal, a segregated Army base in Louisiana. Waters' last words amidst his raucous laughter were "They still hate you! They still hate you!" before he is shot to death with a .45 caliber pistol.
When Waters' body is found the next day, Captain Richard Davenport (Howard E. Rollins, Jr.), a black officer from the Judge Advocate General is sent to investigate, against the wishes of commanding officer Colonel Nivins (Trey Wilson). While the general consensus is that he was killed by local members of the Ku Klux Klan, others are doubtful, having heard that Waters' stripes and insignia were still on his uniform and aware that the Klan's typical M.O. is to remove them before lynching their victims.
From the outset, Davenport is faced with obstacles. Colonel Nivins will only give him three days to conduct his investigation. Even Captain Taylor (Dennis Lipscomb), the one white officer in favor of a full investigation, is uncooperative and patronizing, fearing that a black officer will have little success in catching those responsible. While some black soldiers are happy and proud to see one of their own race wearing captain's bars, others are distrustful and evasive.
Davenport learns that Waters' company was officially part of the 221st Chemical Smoke Generator Battalion and while eager to serve their country overseas, when not training they are assigned menial jobs in deference to their white counterparts. However, most are former baseball players from the Negro Leagues and grouped as a unit in order to play ball, with Waters assigned to manage the players. Their success as a team playing against white soldiers gives them a good deal of popularity, with talk of the team playing against the New York Yankees in an exhibition game.
James Wilkie (Art Evans), a fellow sergeant whom Waters recently demoted to private for being drunk on duty, initially portrays Waters as a strict "spit-and-polish" disciplinarian but also a just, good-natured NCO who got on well with the men, especially the jovial and well-liked C.J. Memphis (Larry Riley). But as Davenport probes deeper, he uncovers Waters' true tyrannical nature and his disgust with his fellow black soldiers, particularly those from the rural South.
An interview with Private Peterson (Denzel Washington) revealed how he stood up to Waters when he berated the men after another winning game. In retaliation, the sergeant challenged Peterson to a fight and beat him badly. Davenport then learns through interviews with other soldiers how Waters charged C.J. with the murder of a white MP, after a search conducted by Wilkie turned up a recently discharged pistol under C.J.'s bunk. Confronting him with the evidence, Waters provoked C.J. into striking him, whereupon the weapons charge was dismissed and C.J. was then charged with striking a superior officer.
When C.J.'s best friend Bernard Cobb (David Alan Grier) visits him in jail, C.J. is suffering from intense claustrophobia and tells Cobb of a visit from Sgt. Waters, who admitted freely to C.J. that it was a set-up and that Waters had done it at least five times before to others like him, saying "the Black race can't afford you no more...the day of the Geechee is gone, boy. And you're going with it." When Davenport asked Corporal Cobb what happened to C.J., he is told that the man hanged himself in his cell while awaiting trial. In protest, the platoon threw the last game of the season, while Waters was left profoundly shaken by the suicide. The team was disbanded by Taylor and the players assigned to a smoke generating company.
Davenport then finds out that two white officers coming from a military exercise, Captain Wilcox (Scott Paulin) and Lieutenant Byrd (Wings Hauser), had an altercation with the drunk sergeant a short time before his death. When questioned, both officers admit to physical assault when confronted by Waters on a drunken tirade, but deny killing him, revealing that they had not been issued .45 ammunition for the exercise as it was in short supply and it was reserved for MPs and soldiers on special duty. Though Taylor is convinced that Wilcox and Byrd are lying and is eager to arrest them, Davenport releases them.
While a search has begun for Privates Peterson and Smalls who have both gone AWOL, Davenport questions Wilkie once more, and the demoted private is forced to admit that he planted the gun under C.J.'s bunk on Waters' orders. Though he hid it from everyone, Waters divulged in private to Wilkie his intense hatred of C.J. and others like him whom Waters felt were an unwelcome weight on the Black race. Davenport then asks why Waters didn't go after Peterson since they had the fight, and Wilkie tells him that Waters liked Peterson because he fought back and was planning to promote him. Davenport has Wilkie placed under arrest just as an impromptu celebration has begun outside after learning that the platoon is to be shipped out to join the fight overseas.
Realizing that Peterson and Smalls were on guard duty the night of Waters' murder, and thus had been issued .45 ammunition for their pistols, Davenport interrogates Smalls after he has been found by the MPs and Smalls confesses that it was Peterson who killed Sergeant Waters, as revenge for C.J. When Peterson is captured and brought into the interrogation room, he confesses to the murder, saying "I didn't kill much. Some things need getting rid of."
The film ends with Taylor congratulating Davenport on getting his man and admitting that he will have to get used to Negroes being in charge. Davenport assures Taylor that he'll get used to it. "You can bet your ass on that," he adds, as the platoon marches in preparation for their deployment to the European Theater. | revenge, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | It is equally puzzling and disturbing and will leave you thinking about it for a long time to come.The story takes place at a military base in the American South during the last full year of the Second World War, in 1944.
The White officers all want to see this matter brought to a swift and tidy conclusion in order to prevent what they see as a potential race riot between the Black soldiers and local Whites around town.Davenport (deftly played by the late Howard E.
Rollins Jr.) questions the enlisted men at the base, and begins to learn that the murdered sergeant(Adolph Ceaser in an Oscar-nominated performance) had no shortage of enemies, White and Black.Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Waters is a man of great personal pride and dignity, a man who believes that the African-American race has great potential to "take it's rightful place in history" alongside the White race in America.
But his pride is also fueled by a terrible hatred of Black men, mostly Southern men, who he believes are hurting the race by presenting themselves as lower-class bumpkins; the stereotypical shiftless, lazy, ignorant types; the smiling, singing clowns; the "yassah-boss niggers."One soldier, C.J. Memphis, a simple but charming, illiterate, guitar-strumming man, comes to personify these character traits in Waters' eyes.
His best moment occurs in a bar where he stares into a mirror and talks in a dark tone about his unit's heroic efforts in France in the First World War, and how one Black soldier destroyed that sterling image in the minds of many White Frenchmen.....and what Waters did in response.
Director Norman Jewison(In The Heat Of The Night)adaptation of the Puliitzer Prize-winning play(by Charles Fuller) and numerous NAACP awards for best achievement in African-American literature,tells about the ramificiations of racism and loyalty through the prism of blacks in the military,revealed through a mystery set in the 1940's deep South.
Rollins(Ragtime,and from the TV series In The Heat Of The Night)plays a military investigator,Captain Davenport,who is assigned to the murder of a drill instructor,Sergeant Waters,played by Adolph Caesar(The Color Purple),who was in charge of a black platoon during World War II.
A lot of fresh faces gives brilliant performances throughout the film including one from a youthful Denzel Washington,who makes an early appearance as a soldier with a deep grudge against the drill instructor and a deep mistrust of Rollins' investigator.
However his best film is probably "A Soldier's Story", an intense character-study that deals with African-American soldiers in Louisiana during World War II.
Howard Rollins shows the great actor he once was (and makes you saddened by how his later career after "Heat of the Night" turned out) and you cannot beat the who's who of the rest of the cast: Robert Townsend, Denzel, Adolph Caesar...
That's too bad, because they miss out on one of the best ensemble films of the 1980s, not to mention a tough mystery story that navigates deep psychological waters in delivering a message far less rosy and doctrinaire than you might expect.It is World War II, and just outside a Louisiana army base for "colored" troops, a black master sergeant is shot to death on a deserted road.
The expectation is he will ruffle no feathers and work instead at being what the base commander calls "a credit to your race." But Davenport quickly makes clear he isn't anyone's token, even if it means pressing white suspects or investigating the possibility that whites didn't kill Sgt. Waters at all.Today, you see the film and notice Denzel Washington has a major role as one of Sgt. Waters' men.
For him, the black race is held down by a certain type of southern black, "geechies" he calls them, who play to white stereotyping by not speaking correct English and so on.Caesar tackles Sgt. Waters as if his were a Shakespearean role, and in a way it is, Shylock crossed with Richard III, filtered through a multitude of American racial prisms, white on black, black on white, black on black.
Davenport, the no nonsense, stoic black army officer investigating Waters' murder, and Dennis Lipscomb plays Captain Taylor, the late Waters' white commanding officer, who, like Davenport, desperately wants Waters' killers prosecuted.
However, Taylor earnestly tries to persuade Davenport to relinquish the investigation, believing that as a black man, there's no way that Davenport can possibly "get at the truth" behind the killing.But it is Adolph Caesar who commands most of your attention throughout this movie in the role of the sadistic Sgt. Vernon Waters.
The mystery of Sgt. Waters' murder is the focal point of "A Soldier's Story," and, fittingly, Caesar is "the man" of this movie.
Through a series of film flashbacks of Waters, via Davenport's interviews with black soldiers of Waters' platoon and Captain Taylor, we learn that Waters was an intensely embittered, disillusioned black master sergeant who believed that Southern blacks, perpetuating stereotypes of minstrelsy and ignorance, impede the black race from attaining acceptance and respect from white society.
(While hearing him deliver his lines in this movie, and if you're over 45, you can't help but to reminisce about the classic tag line he delivered in TV commercials for the United Negro College Fund way back in the day—"A mind is a terrible thing to waste.") But it is in this role as Sgt. Waters in "A Soldier's Story" that Caesar displays his powerful talent as a dramatic actor, in a role that would eventually become his signature.
Although small in stature, his screen presence is commanding, and at times even chilling, particularly when he vents his animosity and sadism toward the Southern Negroes of his platoon, whom he deprecatingly refers to as "geeches." It is a hatred so intense that as Pvt. Wilke (Water's subordinate) explains to Davenport, "You could just feel it." Caesar would go on to win a well-deserved Academy Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actor" for his portrayal of Sgt. Waters in "A Soldier's Story," a performance that would make him a star overnight.
Unfortunately, he would suffer an untimely death two years after the movie was released, just as he was coming into his own as a Hollywood celebrity.In what was only his second appearance in a Hollywood movie, Denzel Washington delivers a solid performance as "Pvt. Peterson," the outspoken and assertive soldier from Alabama, totally unafraid to challenge Waters' bigotry toward the Southern black soldiers.
However, even though the story is intended to be a "whodunit," you'll most likely gather who murdered Waters before it is revealed at the end of the movie.Nevertheless, "A Soldier's Story" is a truly compelling tale, and the magnificent performances delivered by the cast alone, a cast that would be perceived by many today as "all-star," will have you wanting to watch this movie over and over again..
Rollins) from the North is sent to a Southern base stationed in Louisiana to investigate a killing of an unpopular sergeant (Adolph Caesar) in a racially charged situation in World War II .
There he finds a motley group of soldiers (Art Evans , Denzel Washington , David Alan Grier , William Allen Young , Robert Towsend) and various suspect white officers (Scott Paulin , Wings Hauser) .This intriguing and totally absorbing film features solid acting , suspense , whodunit , mysterious elements , racism , jazz and blues .
Magnificent performances from main cast as Howard Rollins and Adolph Caesar as a hateful sergeant who achieved prize as the best actor given by L.A. Films Critics 84 .
There is a lot of overt racism amongst the white soldiers of the camp and Rollins' character marks a movement away from that crutch.The supporting performances of this film are equally powerful.
Many think it was local Klansmen who didn't like seeing a black man in a position of responsibility, but that theory is quickly rejected and in steps Captain Davenport (played by Howard Rollins) - a black lawyer/officer charged with solving the mystery.
Rollins was good in the role, and the movie paints a complex (and sometimes confusing) picture of Sgt. Waters, giving reasons for both liking and disliking him, and opening up the possibility that virtually everyone he came into contact with might have had some motive for wanting to kill him.
There were in fact race riots during World War II a fact the War Department considers in assigning one of the few black officers in the army, Howard Rollins to go to the post and investigate.The late sergeant played by Adolph Caesar is a controversial man who no one is neutral about.
In fact as Rollins probes a few people tell different stories and contradict themselves, giving different views about what kind of a guy Caesar was in life.The film was directed by Norman Jewison and A Soldier's Story doesn't have one bit of wasted film footage or one bad performance out of his ensemble cast.
Ironically enough Howard Rollins also got to play Virgil Tibbs in the television series adapted from In The Heat Of The Night.Two favorites in the supporting cast are a young Denzel Washington as one of the platoon soldiers and Art Evans as an older guy in the platoon who's been a non-commissioned officer before and is craftily kissing up to the right people to get those stripes back.
Instead, Charles Fuller and Norman Jewison make their point through a thoroughly compelling murder mystery set on a "colored" or rather African-American army base in a southern rural community during the latter part of World War II.
This is not just pure escapism, although much of the story is highly entertaining and thought-provoking, much like Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".The first scene is the murder itself, inflicted upon some kind of army sergeant who happens to be a "mulatto", someone of white and black lineage.
A few weeks later, an African-American army officer, Captain Davenport (Howard Rollins) arrives from Washington DC to investigate the crime, which gets quite a stir as no one in this predominantly white community has ever seen a black commissioned officer before.
The officer begins his investigation by interviewing the many soldiers of the platoon who had been under the leadership of the slain sergeant.We learn that the victim of the story, Sergeant Waters, played by Adolph Caesar in an academy-nominated performance in which he re-prised his role from the stage play, was a hard-driving non-commissioned officer who feels like his men can't quite measure up to his expectations.
Much of the cast, except for Howard Rollins, re-prised their roles from the off-Broadway play including Denzel Washington, the late Adolph Caesar, and the late Larry Riley as C.J. Memphis.
"A Soldier's Story" plays like a 1980s version of "In the Heat of the Night," the 1967 Best Picture winner directed by Norman Jewison, who also directed this film.
Despite being nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, it's not a well known movie, and I hope more people find it.The film's set up is a murder mystery staged in a military barrack during WWII.
But it's so well adapted, directed, and acted that it remains pretty engrossing nonetheless.Adolph Caesar received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for playing the murdered soldier, and his is a fascinating creation.
Rollins, Jr. as the investigating officer, probably the film's weakest link, and a young Denzel Washington.In addition to Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor, playwright Charles Fuller received an Adapted Screenplay nomination.Grade: A.
The 1980's era film captures not only the essence of racial conflict, discrimination and bigotry in the south during Word War II, but also the tension between southern and northern blacks, or country versus urban blacks, with the latter looking down upon the former.The movie offers superb performances by many actors, including the late Adolph Cesar, who also appeared in the Color Purple, and the late Howard Rollins Jr. who has appeared in many movies and TV shows portraying the south in the 20th century.
The story and characters are motivated by life-like emotions and thoughts, so it is honest, meaningful and, not surprisingly, overlooked as one of the finest films to cover the subject of racism.It would be very convenient, and the solution for racism would be very easy, if all the blame for it could be attributed to a specific group of people from a specific area of a country; in this case the opening quote above refers to the whites who lived in and mostly controlled the southern United States during the 1940s.
Adolph Caesar who rightfully received the Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance was fantastic!I think also what really makes this film resonate more strongly is that, as Jewison said in the commentary, being either white or black, many people can truly relate to these characters.
Rollins, Jr.), who is sent to investigate the murder of a black sergeant (Adolph Caesar) in Louisiana near the end of World War II.
The story focuses on racism within the segregated black U.S Army regiment and is told in flashbacks with rich writing and highly complex characters, especially the conflicted and hated sergeant Waters, the defiant Private First Class Peterson, (played by Denzel Washington), and the self-righteous Captain Davenport.
A black army official has been sent in from Washington to investigate the murder.Well directed by Norman Jewison who seemed to focus on murder mysteries as he did so well in the 1967 Oscar winning film "In the Heat of the Night."It first appears obvious that the Ku Klux Klan has done the sergeant.
(Adolph Caesar in a brilliant Oscar nominated performance for best supporting actor.) Later on the attention drifts to two white soldiers, one of whom, had beaten the sergeant up moments before the shots rang out.Howard E.
The sergeant has done this previously in other parts of the country.One black soldier stands up to him and that person is played by Denzel Washington in his first movie.
I suppose the big thing for this movie is that most of the actors are black and it seeks to portray conditions in the military during the time of WWII.I, on the other hand, was just looking to watch a good murder mystery.What I got was the equivalent of "In The Heat Of The Night" if it was put on by your local amateur dramatics society.The murder story is nothing startling or new.
As a World War II army officer, he is sent by his superiors to a base in a racially divided southern town to investigate the murder of a platoon sergeant under mysterious circumstances.
Adolph Caesar's performance as Sgt. Waters(the victim in question), a veteran soldier(who happens to be black)who wreaks with animosity towards his own race is riveting.
This gets in the way of some really fine performances, and in a way waters down the really important points, about the conflict of assimilation and equality for blacks in a military not ready for it, and in a culture (the deep South) completely resistant to it.A young Denzel Washington, and a seasoned Norma Jewison directing, at least make this movie worth watching, but neither rises to their best stuff.
Although it is very predicable,the writter gave a clue when the Sergeant was killed by their own people,it was so clear that spoil the whole story,but the main target of the movie never was sergeant's behavior,but the message to reach the audience about the real facts during World War 2,when black soldiers never were accepted in same places with white soldiers,more they didn't have any recognition from the Army,including medals of honour after risking their lives for homeland....worst making every kind of dirtiest job in the army.....in the bonus has a little doc about that matter,shame for a country which has two kind of people!!Resume:First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.
A murder mystery among black soldiers during World War II - in the last years of the segregated military.
Directed by Norman Jewison, A Soldier's Story is a gripping film that tells the story of an African-American captain and lawyer who is sent to the Deep South to investigate the murder of a sergeant.
Racism is the central theme that surrounds the murderous plot.The movie takes place in 1944, on a black army base in Louisiana where the men eagerly wait to be sent to Europe to fight World War II.
Adolph Caesar, who starred as Sergeant Waters, also did a delightful job portraying a hateful man who enjoyed putting black men away who made his race look bad.
With the racism being instigated my the murder victim himself the late Sgt. Waters!Powerhouse movie that has black US Army Captain Davenport, Howard E.
Davenport's mind is who among the black troops on the base murdered him!More then anything else the movie "A Soldier's Story" shows that racism comes in all shapes sizes as well as colors.
No review of Soldier's Story is complete without praise for Adolph Caesar's wonderful Oscar-nominated performance as Sergeant Waters.
Recap: Around the time of the second world war, a black sergeant is murdered on an American Military base in the South.
It does it good, but there are better murder stories out there, and there are better movies about racism too.There are many good actors, Howard Rollins Jr. as Davenport among them,(unfortunately many that has died before their time since), but maybe most notable now is an early role for Denzel Washington.6/10.
The film not only chronicles the murder investigation of a black sergeant but also the racial difficulties within the African American people as well.
Sgt. Vernon Waters by Washington, Captain Davenport(Rollins) quickly realizes he is looked up to by young black soldiers & scoffed at by fellow white officers.
Davenport reveals the two men really murdered Sgt. Waters because "some people need getting rid of." Davenport solves his case, Cpt. Taylor apologizes for his conduct, & the black troops prepare for battle in WW2."A Soldier's Story" is a winner in every way a film can. |
tt0039484 | I'll Be Yours | Louise Ginglebusher (Deanna Durbin) is a young woman from the small town of Cobbleskill who comes to New York City to make it in show business. In a café, she's befriended by a kindhearted but ornery waiter, Wechsberg (William Bendix), and meets a bearded struggling attorney, George Prescott (Tom Drake). She gets a job as an usherette from Mr. Buckingham (Walter Catlett), the owner of the prestigious Buckingham Music Hall, who's an old friend of her father.
While working at the Music Hall she meets Wechsberg again, and later when she is accosted by a masher, she gets rid of him by claiming that Wechsberg is her husband. Wechsberg then invites her to come with him the next night when he works at an upscale social gathering at the Savoy Ritz. Louise borrows a gown and comes to the party, where they get her past the headwaiter by claiming she's one of the entertainers. Mingling, she meets the host, J. Conrad Nelson (Adolphe Menjou), a philandering meat magnate, who requests that Louise sing a song. She does, so beautifully that Nelson offers to star her in a Broadway musical. To discourage Nelson's obvious physical interest in her, Louise tell him that she's married, whereupon Nelson offers buy her out of her marriage by paying her husband for his loss. Impetuously deciding to do a good deed, she gives Nelson the business card that George Prescott, the struggling lawyer, had given her, and tells him that George is her husband.
When Nelson visits George the next day in his shabby storefront law office, and offers to make him the legal representative for his company, George is suspicious and refuses the offer, but Nelson allays his concerns by telling the ethical young attorney that he needs an honest lawyer as a role model for his staff – the truth is he wants George on his staff so he can keep him occupied while he pursues Louise. Many complications ensue after Louise gets George to shave off his old-man's beard, revealing the handsome young man underneath, and a stroll in the moonlight provokes George to propose marriage to Louise. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0115994 | Curdled | Gabriela (Jones) is a Colombian immigrant living in Miami who has been fascinated with violent death ever since she saw a falling corpse pass by her mother's bakery window as a child. With many television shows and films feeding her obsession, she believes that after someone is decapitated, they still talk for a short while afterwards.
Having quit her job at a bakery, she begins work for a cleaning service, headed by a man named Lodger (Barry Corbin), who specializes in mopping up what is left behind at crime scenes after she sees a television commercial advertising it. She goes to the office, inquires about a job and later is (to the dismay of Elena (Mel Gorham), her cleaning partner) offered the opportunity to clean up after an execution by her favorite at-large serial killer, The Blue Blood Killer (William Baldwin) (so named because his victims are all wealthy women).
The two women go to the scene of the crime and begin cleaning up the mess. Elena diligently works away, trying to get out of there as soon as possible; meanwhile Gabriela discovers what she believes to be the name of the serial killer - "Paul Guell" - beneath a pool of blood, but covers it up so that Elena won't see and think she is weird. Due to the amount of blood, they have to leave and come back the next day.
While out on a date with ex-colleague Eduardo (Bruce Ramsay), Gabriela reveals to him what she found out and after failing to clearly explain, convinces him to go to the house that same night, before it all gets cleaned up.
Unbeknown to Gabriela and Eduardo, the killer is still in the building after accidentally locking himself in the wine cellar while trying to escape. Gabriela opens the door to the cellar, when Eduardo freaks out and decides he wants to go, leaving the door ajar and the killer an escape route. Eduardo leaves when Gabriela refuses to go with him, and she picks up a knife, dancing around the house where the blood is, acting out what she thinks happened - all while the killer watches.
When Eduardo returns after a second thought, the killer hits him over the head and hides him in the wine cellar. He soon stops Gabriela and forces her to walk him through what happened, checking that she knows the full story, and when they come to the end, they briefly argue about Gabriela's theory of heads talking after decapitation. The killer then decides it's time for Gabriela to die, but in a struggle, he slips and is knocked out on the tiled floor.
When he begins to come to, Gabriela, out of sheer curiosity, picks up the knife and cuts his head off. She slowly lifts up his head and he mumbles her name, to which Gabriela smiles with satisfaction. In a post-credits scene Gabriela and Eduardo are driving in a car and Gabriela plays the tape which recorded the killers last word after beheading. | violence, comedy, satire, murder | train | wikipedia | Tarantino presents this little gem, which he caught at an Italian genre festival while promoting Reservoir Dogs (he relates the fateful anecdote in an epilogue after the movie on video.) It shares with that director the nervy, hip black-comedy attitude, an absolute command of cinematic techniques, and a post-modern approach steeped in b-movie history.
Gabriella (Angela Jones), a Colombian immigrant, is obsessed with understanding violent crime.
She lands a job with a post-murder cleaning service and during a Blue-Blood clean-up job, discovers evidence that police have overlooked.While this is not a perfect film, it is a fun dark comedy that should appeal to "gore hounds" and fans of Robert Rodriguez.
That is pretty sweet.I would need to see this a second time to really get a handle on it, but I think I was pleasantly surprised and hope this film somehow makes a resurgence on people's to-see lists..
In my opinion, this is one of the most underrated movies of the 90s, featuring one of my all-time favorite performances by the enchanting Angela Jones.
It is based on a short made in 1991, about a childlike murder-obsessed Colombian-American who takes a job as a maid...who cleans up after violent murders.
Apparently, Tarantino liked the short so much that he cast Jones in Pulp Fiction and produced a full length version of "Curdled" with Jones and William Baldwin (who is surprisingly great.) This is one of my favorite black comedies and easily the funniest serial killer thriller ever.
Angela Jones lights up the screen with her animated facial expressions (think Audrey Tautou) and quirky delivery.
The recently released DVD is a blessing and surprisingly chockful of extras (including the original short film) for a movie that is apparently so reviled.
The worst thing I can say about "Curdled" is that Braddock didn't go on to make another film and Jones went on to do a freakin "Children of the Corn" sequel.
Recommend to all fans of serial killer movies and dark comedies.
This film was originally a 20 minute short by Reb Braddock.
Angela Jones' character is mesmerized by murder scenes and gets a job with a company that cleans up after murders.
Great performance by Angela Jones and a brilliant story and dialogue provided by Braddock..
It was really cool linking the similarities between her and Esmerelda Villa Lobos from Pulp Fiction-besides both had Tarantino having some role in them- both characters exhibited an almost childish facination with death and murder.
It also has a few scenes that b\c of the conversational build up during the movie about what it's like to see a crime scene for the first time, and the casual way that the gore is treated, it may not be suitable for everyone.
Just follow my advice: if you loved Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs don't miss it, Curdled it's even better!.
Curdled succeeds in it: it's a hilarious film about a girl obsessed with murder, with a nicely twisted vision of the world.
Yes, it has it's faults, but there are some irresistibly funny moments in it as well.Jones does an excellent job in this black comedy, it really is a shame we haven't heard more of her.
Braddock has extended this from a short film, and unfortunately it shows in some places.
A few scenes feel, well, boring, and dialogue isn't as sharp as it could be.Tarantino is often linked to this film, although he was only the producer and wrote a very little piece of script.
I thought it was intriguing, this woman wants to know "what it would feel like to kill a man."Imagine my surprise when I turned on this movie, CURDLED; starring Esmeralda herself, Angela Jones.
I also wondered if he could've been ballsy enough to keep Angela Jones as the same character as in Pulp Fiction, instead of the ditzy not-all-there Gabriela.
Stylish, Dark and a must-see for fans of black comedy.
Unlike most Tarantino flicks this movie has a less than 90 minute run-time, which could leave a certain fan unfulfilled and unsatisfied by the end.
That being said, the film is fantastic in the time it's given, it's full of details, style and a soundtrack that honestly made me stand up and dance.The main character is a young Columbian woman, Gabriella, who has an obsession for gore and a serial killer "The Blue Blood Killer" who specializes in murdering and cutting off the heads of rich women, clean cut with a Tanto.
Gabriella begins working for a forensic clean up crew, but finds more interest with the scene of the crime than the cleaning.
The ending may come a bit sooner than you would think, but it feels very similar to the ending of Inglorious Basterds, and will leave you smiling and satisfied if you see the film for what it is and is trying to be.
Excruciatingly slow-paced, over-scripted black comedy with a too-clever premise and bad acting.Maybe this would have worked as a Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt episode, but by the last half, you just want it to get to its predictable ending and be done with it already..
This movie had the potential to be a great black comedy with the idea behind it, but it falls very short.
It's like a black comedy without the black (the film tried to be violent and gory, but looked little more than ridiculous) or the comedy.
The film is about a woman (Angela Jones) who quits her job and decided to go work for a company called PFCS (Post Forensic Cleaning Service) when she becomes fascinated with a serial killer known as the "Blue Blood Killer", a psychopath who goes around Miami beheading rich women.
The premise for a company like this is funny (one of the only moments in the film that caused me to laugh was their T.V Commercial), but the end result is not.I can see why Quentin Tarantino was attracted to a project like this.
Word on the street is that this was originally a funny short film that was shown at Sundance in the early 90's and after the success of "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction", Tarantino bankrolled this full length version of the movie and released it later on video with his "Rolling Thunder Pictures".
He surely watched Luc Besson's "La Femme Nikita" many times in the later stages of his video store clerk days and used the idea of "Victor the cleaner" for his Winston Wolf character in "Pulp Fiction".
The rest of the movie is boring and pointless and the acting, apart from Angela Jones, is pretty stale.
If you want to see real black comedy that will make you laugh (and cringe, that's another thing this film was missing), I would suggest seeking out the early works of Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting", "Shallow Grave") and the Coen Brother's "Fargo" over a boring film like this.
By far Billy Baldwin's best work, Angela Jones shines in this quirky dark comedy expanded from a film school thesis short.
In a movie world that exists just a few degrees of deviation from our own world, Reb Braddock has lovingly crafted a dangerous innocent - Gabriella, who is so fascinated by violent crime that she takes a job as a maid for the Post-Forensic Cleaning Service.The only true flaw in this film is the 'question' that Gabriella so sweetly seeks an answer to, but the fantastic soundtrack and hauntingly choreographed 'final dance' make it all worthwhile..
Quentin Tarantino produced this film and put it under his now failed Rolling Thunder Pictures.
The film in its essence had a lot of potential and really had a great leading actress, but it had its share of problems.
From it's uninspiring title to the flat acting performances, Curdled is very much an unremarkable film throughout.
The film has gained some fans by way of the fact that Quentin Tarantino's name is attached to it, and the silly and out of place nod to the Rodriguez/Tarantino flick 'From Dusk till Dawn'.
These things do not make a great movie, however, and this is more than evident all the way through 'Curdled'.
The Mexican music score that accompanies many of the sequences in the film is obviously meant to be cool, but it's becomes annoying very quickly; especially as aside from the fact that the lead character is Mexican, it doesn't fit with the tone of the movie.
The film's plot is typically offbeat and it follows a gorehound who, because of her obsession with grisly murders, takes a job with a firm that cleans up murder scenes.
Angela Jones, or rather; the taxi driver from Pulp Fiction, takes the lead role as the murder obsessed young woman, and it is always clear that it's her involvement with Pulp Fiction that won her this role, not her acting ability.
She may have been good enough in her small role in Tarantino's masterpiece, but she doesn't have the talent to lead a film by herself.
Whether you're a Tarantino fan, William Baldwin fan, horror fan or just a movie buff; this is one to miss..
Frankly for anything like this to work it would need some basis in reality and the fact that William Baldwin kills women without using gloves avoiding touching things or even getting rid of his fingerprints immediately annoyed me.
The director poars on the stage blood but every murder is done in a clean emotionless tarantino type of way and all the crime scenes just contain neat little pool of blood.
After reading that this was a short I could believe it because the entire film feels like it was very thinly stretched..
This very black and bloody horror comedy is a real favorite of mine, ever since I first saw it on cable several years ago.
Tarantino saw the original short film while promoting his Reservior Dogs at an Italian film festival, and suggested the filmmakers to expand it to a feature film, and he would produce it.
They did of course, and to me, this is a work of art, with a film score that fits about as perfect to the scenes as any I have seen.
Angela Jones plays Gabriela, a Columbian beauty that has moved to Miami, and has an obsession with bloody crime scenes.
She gets a job with a company that cleans up crime scenes, and she starts following the news accounts of a serial killer played by William Baldwin.
After his recent murder, she gets assigned the job of cleaning up the bloody mess, and doesn't know it, but the killer is locked in the wine closet because he left a clue to his identity.
This is black comedy at it's darkest and most fun, and the DVD is loaded with features including an intro and outro by Tarantino.
It also contains the original 30 minute short version of the movie.
It's no wonder Reb Braddock hasn't directed anything else since - anyone who has a chance to make his first film on his own rules, based on his own script, with the help of Quentin Tarantino himself, and creates something like THIS, anyone who feels that THIS was a story worth telling to the world, doesn't deserve a second break.
It is about a woman with a fascination of death who gets a job cleaning up after crime scenes, Angela Jones is unconvincing in this role, William Baldwin is better as the Serial Killer who keeps Jones in employment!.
William Baldwin & Angela Jones are perfect in their roles as a serial killer and a woman who cleans up in his victim's homes after the police have gone.
Angela Jones delivers a great performance and I easily understand why Quentin Tarantino wanted to keep her in the feature film version.
i do think it is comedy and the idea behind it is black.
Just like gabriela does not think it is sick to be obsessed with the idea.
The photography was also great with the wide shots, especially for a movie with so little pretensions.And what about the end?
When anyone asks me my vote for my all-time favorite film, I immediately reply with "Curdled", which leaves them all staring vacantly with a not-so-bright look on their faces.
It's not just that the heroine becomes enthralled in this murder madness, but because of Angela Jones excellent job, so do we.
The naive Gabreila, played by Angela Jones, is obsessed with a head-hunting serial killer for reasons that go back to her childhood in Colombia.
(That part is a little forced but excusable.) Except for Jones and Billy Baldwin, the acting ranges from so-so (Daisy Fuentes and Barry Corbin) to poor (just about everyone else), and the script is adequate without being too inspired.
What really drives this film is the morbid fascination and curiosity that most of Quentin Tarantino's fans were born with for some reason.
Tarantino was the executive producer on the film, but apparently did little more than shell out some money and guide Reb Braddock, the movie's writer and director, through his first and only feature to date.
Tarantino saw Braddock's 1991 20-minute short upon which Curdled is based and encouraged him to turn it into a feature and to make sure he used the same actress in the lead.
Tarantino also cast Jones as Bruce Willis' cab driver in Pulp Fiction.
In some ways, it does work, depending on what kind of film you are looking for.
Unfortunately, she's more obsessed on what happened, why it happened, and where it happened, rather then focusing on cleaning up the crime scene.
She eventually ends up talking to a serial killer himself, and there's quite an interesting discussion on weather the head talks after it's been removed from the rest of the body ( If that doesn't steer you away from this, then what will?) Again, black comedy, SUPERB!
In this elongated version though, it seems as though Red Braddock was not quite sure what to work in to expand the film.
It turns out to be a watered down, meandering script and a rare good performance by William Baldwin and the serviceable Angela Jones are somewhat left adrift.
It's just my personal opinion, but Quentin Tarantino should have listened to Red Braddock when he was hesitant about expanding it into a feature.
I must admit though that it was interesting to see the "blue blood" killer developed a little more (however minute that expansion onto the original character was).
Nice little Black Comedy.
Angela Jones did a great job, I thought, and her naive manner in the role was just dreadfully cute, which made the movie horribly funny.
I love the scene where she's talking to Billy Baldwin about his killings and the disgusting cartoons she draws.
Definitely Baldwin's best movie.
Billy Baldwin hasn't had much success in acting in great films.
Curdled is probably the best story Billy ever worked on.
Angela Jones did great, and Daisy Fuentes' cameo was awesome.
). Wickedly enjoyable, Angela Jones is great!.
Angela Jones is a delight to watch.
Don't turn the video off at the end, fast forward through the credits and watch Quentin Tarantino explain how he discovered this film at an Italian Film Festival..
This black comedy was a little too dark for my tastes; but I loved the opening tune and the graphics.
Quentin Tarantino, aglow with the buzz-borne light from the soon-to-be-released "Pulp Fiction," was sitting in a darkened theater with his producer/pal Lawrence Bender, enjoying a short-film festival.
The short being screened was called "Curdled," and it was about a Latin woman working for a housekeeping service that specialized in cleaning up crime scenes for murderers and killers.
We're gonna take your short film and make it into a feature, okaaaaaaaaay?
Watch the immediately-attractive Angela Jones (Butch's cabbie in Pulp Fiction) become less and less adorable as sheer boredom numbs your senses.
Laugh at a one-joke black comedy that manages to kill the joke after twenty minutes.
We learned that short films don't necessarily translate into feature-length.
Although there is some blood, don't expect a bloodbath, and there's no nudity (which DOES suck...) but this one is good on it's own merits as a fun and pretty original film...Gabriella is a sweet young girl, who has been obsessed with murder and death since an early age.
To satisfy this obsession, she takes a job with a cleaning agency that specializes in cleaning up murder/accident scenes.
CURDLED truly is an enjoyable and original film.
There are a ton of people you'll "recognize" in this one, in both large and small roles - William Baldwin, Kelly Preston, Daisy Fuentes, a quick shot of Clooney and Tarantino from DUSK TIL DAWN on a "crime-show", and the guy that plays Gabriella's boss (I forget his name, but he's been in a ton of stuff too - he was the one big "boss" in WAR GAMES...) - and all the performances are pretty top-notch.
This always quirky, sometimes funny, sometimes dark, and sometimes misses film isn't a masterpiece.
The exchange between Baldwin and Jones is one of those scenes.
When she sees an ad on TV from a crime scene cleaning company she quickly contacts them to get a job with them.
As mentioned before his exchange with Jones, was well worth watching the movie.
A young woman fascinated with murders gets a job cleaning up murder sites..
As an adult she lives in Miami and ends up working at a place that cleans up after murders (suicides).
What makes this movie so great is Jones, who plays the young woman, and her somewhat warped sense of killings.
In the Special Features Quentin Tarantino explains why this actress was so perfect for the part, and he's spot on, as even while watching her (prior to watching the SF) you could just tell.
Everyone else, even Baldwin (as the killer), does not come close, though he did a fairly good job, especially in their scene where they are together dancing. |
tt0035639 | Apache Trail | Tom Folliard (William Lundigan) is released from jail and seeks work at his prior employer, a stagecoach line. He is sent to manage a stagecoach rest stop in a remote area. Upon arrival, he meets a woman, Señora Martinez (Connie Gilchrist) and her daughter Rosalia (Donna Reed) who cook and clean at the rest stop. When the next stage arrives, among its cargo is a strong box with cash. Soon after, Folliard's brother "Trigger" Bill Folliard (Lloyd Nolan), a known outlaw arrives and seeks shelter from the local Apaches, whom he has offended. Upon his discovery that a strong box is present, he plans to steal it and make a getaway.
During Tom Folliard's absence from the rest stop, Trigger Bill gets the upper hand on the stagecoach line employees watching him and tries to escape with the proceeds but is thwarted by his brother's arrival back at the rest stop. Soon thereafter, the Apaches attack the rest stop but are repulsed. They demand Trigger Bill and in return they will leave the rest stop alone. A vote is taken by all those in the rest stop with Tom casting the deciding vote to not give his brother to the Apaches. During the next attack Bill, previously expertly shot through both hands by his brother, elects in noble fashion to sacrifice himself to save the others by riding away from the rest stop. Meanwhile, Tom, after a brief flirtation with one of the stagecoach passengers, Constance Selden (Ann Ayars), tells Señora Martinez that he would like to court her daughter. | romantic | train | wikipedia | Lloyd Nolan Opposes Law, Order, and Decency With Charm.
Lloyd Nolan, cheerful black-hearted villain, shows up at his brother's stagecoach way-station, and menaces everybody there so he can get his hands on some loot.
Will the denizens of the way-station force Lloyd outside the walls of the station, when justifiably irate Apaches march down the APACHE TRAIL to demand his hide?
This is a pretty good (if somewhat set-bound) western, featuring a nice villain turn by Nolan (who really does pull off both his trademark everyman likability and hiss-able villainy) and a ridiculous hot-blooded Latina turn by Midwesterner Donna Reed.
There's nothing especially different about this one -- but the careful, somewhat slow MGM pacing and the generally good level of acting keep the subplots moving along.
If you like Westerns, you might miss the stunting and outdoor photography you might get in other films like this, but you'll probably like what you see.All in all, this is not a bad way to spend an hour and a half..
The Domino Judgement..
Apache Trail is directed by Richard Thorpe and adapted to screenplay by Maurice Geraghty from a story by Ernest Haycox.
It stars Lloyd Nolan, Donna Reed, William Lundigan, Ann Ayars, Connie Gilchrist and Chill Wills.
Music is by Sol Kaplan and cinematography by Sidney Wagner.Ernest Haycox's "Stage Station" was put together as Apache Trail and ended up being a better than average "B" Western.
Set essentially at the Tonto Valley Station, story finds Nolan and Lundigan as polar opposite brothers caught in the middle of the Apache's ire on account of Nolan's dastardly ways.
Also at the station are a roll call of familiar 1940s Western characters, gruff men of honour, some lovely women causing sexual friction and a token Indian guy working for the whites.This small group of people will have to defend the Station (come Fort) against what seems like 300 Apache's; that is unless they agree to give up Nolan, who of course has "not" exactly endeared himself to the group during the siege.
While there's naturally the "brother" angle hanging heavy in the air, something which almost detracts from the love triangle sub-plot as the "honest as apple pie" Reed (playing a Latino!) and "smoking hot but questionable in morals" Ayars conspire to put hero in waiting Lundigan in a choice situation.The production is a mixture of poor rear projection and stage work with gorgeous exterior location work (Tucson, Arizona), while the acting is exactly what it is, a group of actors either contracted to the studio, working for food or hopefully taking the first steps on the ladder to better opportunities.
The photography is very nice, but the poor racist bravado of the era is not, while Thorpe's staging of action is indicative of his career in how he makes a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
Accept it for the time it was made and this is a decent and enjoyable film.
It was loosely remade in 1952 as Apache War Smoke, suffice to say that even then, ten years later, the material still didn't advance to anything out of the ordinary.
Paying Your Dues....
APACHE TRAIL (1942) was Donna Reed's ninth role under her M.G.M. contract.
As someone new at Culver City, Ms. Reed was put through her paces in a variety of roles, too learn the ropes.
Here Donna is 'Rosalia Martinez' a immigrant with her Mother, recent from Spain and somehow stuck in the middle of the Arizona desert.
Looking a bit too Middle-Western and with a unconvincing accent.The story has all the makings of the 'B' Westerns churned out over at REPUBLIC.
Brothers at odds with each other, the good, William Lundigan, the bad, Lloyd Nolan, renegade and all around creep.
Usual cast of supporting Actors including Chill Wills, Grant Withers and Connie Gilchrist, etc.
Also thrown in, some 'dudes' from the East with a 'femme fa-tales', plus a attack by the Apaches on their lone outpost.
Competently directed by Richard Thorpe too the level or the limits of his talents, that were perfectly suited for this effort.
At 66" it will not tax the viewer.This was another of those thankless roles a rookie had to suffer through before making the grade and Stardom.
I am sure that Ms. Reed's private thoughts were not that charitable when she first was given this assignment and the script.
Though back then if you wanted to make it in the 'Studio System' you did what you were told.
Ms. Reed proved not only a apt pupil but was good enough to play M.G.M. politics and soon would be getting more challenging roles.
Her skills would finally be rewarded with the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) COLUMBIA..
Lloyd Nolan's finest heavy?.
***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** This is a film which utilises the 'passengers in peril' scenario, familiar from more prestigious productions like Ford's 'Stagecoach' (1939, also originally written by Haycox).
The difference here is that those threatened are stationary, having already travelled to the Way Station and their destiny.Although there is some proficient external photography (Tom's rescue of Pike being a prime example), most of the dialogue here takes place on a sound stage, amidst a fairly extravagant set.
Unfortunately being enclosed, sound conditions are distracting.
There's an artificial echo to some of the talk, hard to reconcile with the impression so carefully sought of being 'outside'.
It makes one wonder why the decision to film so much inside was made, considering the trouble and expense that has been taken.
This is particularly puzzling when the climactic fight with the raiding indians is shot on a similar - but exterior lot.
Having said that, the studio work is excellent and looks convincing.
This is one of those Westerns where one can relish the attention to detail: the horses, the weaponry, the decor - everything in fact that adds up to a satisfying mise-en-scene.At the centre of this drama is 'Trigger' Bill and his relationship to his brother.
Lloyd Nolan steals the show with his swaggering credo, endowing Bill with a genuine sense of cruel bravado and low cunning which makes him a much more interesting character than his brother.
As Tom, William Lundigan is suitably upright and looks the part, but after the first few scenes one feels that his part is somewhat underwritten.
A scene continuing the antagonism between the two brothers would have been welcome as the stress within the station grows.
Instead they only converse to any depth at the very start and then again at the end of the film, which means interest in their troubled relationship loses tension.
Bill sees Tom as weak because he is 'gutless'.
Eventually this view is modified and, as Bill grudgingly admits to Tom: "the trouble is that you have a heart".
It is this belated recognition that Tom has something of worth, a humanity which his brother cannot aspire to, which inspires the villain's final sacrifice.Such is the pull of 'Trigger' Bill upon the viewer that Tom's two romances somewhat pale in comparison.
The excellent Donna Reed (Rosalia) has little to do but simper and wax jealously as she sees Tom drift away from her.
Reed made relatively few films ('Its a Wonderful Life' (1946) being a cult favourite) and could have a dramatic luminescence which is largely wasted here.Tom's brief dalliance with Constance is of interest not least because she is a 'bridge' between the two warring brothers.
'You and Me. We're the same breed' declares Trigger Bill in one telling encounter between them, and we sense that her haughty denials mask a recognition of this fact.
But she has none of Bill's viciousness or romantic crudity.
She is just a woman who wants a safe haven of her own.
Her love for Tom, although sudden, appears genuine.
We sense though that life at the station is ultimately not for her, even without a consideration of Rosalia's prior claim.There is a pleasing symmetry to 'Apache Trail'.
At the beginning Tom is released from jail and redeems his reputation to take up a new job.
At the end, Bill dies to ensure the safety of the others, to an extent redeeming his.
The religious imagery of his punctured hands is underlined by Tom's sober reference to a thief's presence at the crucifixion, a remark apposite if heavy handed.Thorpe (a generally nondescript director) manages fairly well, although some of his camera set ups are unimaginative.
The dominos scene, in particular, cries out for effective editing to bring up the drama.
Instead the direction is relatively restrained, more naturalistic, and makes less of this key scene than it should.
By far the most atmospheric moments are contained in the first few minutes as Tom meets the judge in the coach.But this is an enjoyable film, better than the remake which followed a few years later.
A must-see for Lloyd Nolan fans, others will also want to follow this 'Trail' to its end....
Lloyd Nolan plays the man in black in this Western.
Directed by Richard Thorpe, this Western features Lloyd Nolan as the man in black, William Lundigan as his incorruptible brother, Donna Reed, Anne Ayars, Connie Gilchrist, and Chill Wills as supporting players in the cast of this Ernest Haycox (story) and Maurice Geraghty treatment.The film begins with hanging Judge Keeley (George Watts) literally riding through town on the stagecoach to pass sentence on whomever the Marshal happens to have in the jail.
It turns out the only man is Tom Folliard (Lundigan) who, after briefly hearing the charges and circumstances, the Judge releases for time served.
Tom wasn't really involved in the stagecoach robbery his brother Trigger (Nolan) committed, but Trigger has yet to be caught.
Not able to get his old job riding shotgun on the stagecoach, even though he's the fastest draw in these parts, Tom settles for a job as "the law" in a remote outpost that's constantly under attack from the Indians.
Emory Parnell appears uncredited as Mr. Walters, the man who gives Tom the second chance.Tom arrives to find that former friends, SeZora Martinez (Gilchrist) and her almost 18 year old daughter Rosalia (Reed), are leaving the dangerous town, but convinces them to stay.
He is assisted by other deputies (Grant Withers, Ray Teal, Fuzzy Knight, Trevor Bardette?) and also hires a local Mexican Cochee (Tito Renaldo) as a helper.
Tom rides out to meet the stagecoach, which then arrives with several passengers who unload to rest their feet, and eat the Martinez's food, before they plan to continue on.The widow Constance Seldon (Ayars) turns everyone's head with her beauty, even Tom's who is watched by the jealous Rosalia and her mother, who love to make a match for her daughter.
A sickly artist James Thorne (Miles Mander) and his wife (Gloria Holden) are also passengers.
Just then, a cavalry officer Major Lowden (Frank Thomas) arrives to inform Tom of an Indian uprising; he's on his way to the fort to get help.
Shortly thereafter, Trigger comes to the gate and is allowed by his brother Tom to enter as long as he gives up his guns, given the stagecoach's lock box.
Tom stores Trigger's guns in the "safe" with the lock box.Tom then decides to go and see if he can figure out the cause of the Indian's agitation.
While he's away, there are various discussions between Trigger, whom everyone distrusts, and the others including Ms. Seldon.
Based upon a conversation between Constance and the Major at dinner, Trigger correctly surmises that Seldon's husband was not killed in action, but committed suicide.
He then uses the artist's guns and suitcase tray to capture the other men and their guns.Meanwhile, Tom is rescuing 'Pike' Skelton (Wills) from the Indians.
Trigger gets the lockbox and plans to take Constance as his hostage, willing or otherwise, before Tom arrives to foil his plan.
The injured Skelton provides enough information for the men to determine that the stolen peace pipe Trigger had been flaunting is the reason for the Indians being on the warpath.Will the Major make it through to the fort in time for reinforcements, or will the Indians' subsequent raid on the small outpost prove fatal for all of its occupants?
A great battle will determine the outcome, but not before there's a crucial vote to determine Trigger's fate. |
tt1433562 | Vertige | Young adults Fred (Nicolas Giraud), his girlfriend Karine and their friends Chloé (Fanny Valette), a nurse grappling with guilt after accidentally killing a young patient; Guillaume (Raphaël Lenglet), who harbors feelings for Chloé; and Loïc (Johan Libéreau), Chloé's unpopular boyfriend, travel to Croatia to climb and hike. They find the starting point closed off with rocks but experienced climber Fred convinces the others, including Chloé's boyfriend Loïc, to cross the track. The inexperienced Loïc is consistently paralyzed with fear, often needing encouragement from Chloé to continue. As their journey progresses, they realize that the trail is more dangerous than they had first thought: an unstable rope bridge collapses after their crossing, nearly killing Karine. With the bridge gone, the group realizes that they can't turn back, and Fred, feeling guilty after persuading the group to hike a closed-off trail, tells them that they need to go to the end as quickly as possible.
Fred climbs ahead with Karine as the rest of the group hangs off of a cliff, but is wounded in a bear trap. As Karine tries to pry the trap off of his leg, the rest of the group struggles as a vertigo-stricken Loïc fails to belay the rope; Loïc ignores advice from Guillaume, jealous and hostile because of the latter's obvious feelings for Chloé. Loïc's support fails and he falls, bringing the attached Guillaume down with him, and the two are suspended as Chloé looks on in horror. Meanwhile, Fred tells Karine to leave him and retrieve the others. Soon after Karine leaves, Fred hears movement in the trees around him as the chain to the trap tightens, and he is suddenly dragged off.
Karine uses a rope to bring help the rest of the group to the top, but when they return, Fred is missing, but Loïc finds blood on the surrounding foliage, and the empty, bloodstained bear trap is found discarded. Karine, though confused as to how he managed to get out of the trap when they couldn't open it before, panics and believes that Fred must have wandered off and gotten lost. Chloé assures Karine that they will look for Fred despite the fact that it's becoming dark and Fred's bag had the flares inside. As they search, Loïc and Guillaume bicker over Chloé and begin to grapple. Chloé, going over to break them up, falls into a pit trap. Karine rappels down and finds a poacher's trap full of spikes; one went through Chloé's arm and she is injured. As they watch Karine rescue Chloé, Guillaume feels they're being watched and tells Loïc, who ignores him. When Karine finally rescues Chloé, Chloé realizes that the trap is a poacher's trap; they wonder what could be the prey.
Rain pours as the group ropes themselves together and searches for Fred. Karine, at the end of the rope, is hit by an arrow through the chest; when she pulls her rope, she finds that it has been cut. A shocked Chloé notices and tries to rush towards her, but Karine is suddenly pulled and dragged away. Chloé, distraught, tries to find her, and Loïc insists that they should abandon Fred and Karine to escape. As they continue on they find a cabin in the forest and enter; inside, a naked and bloodied Fred is lying on a slab, and though Chloé tries to save him, he dies shortly after from shock and his wounds; Loïc covers his body with a sheet.
Guillaume finds a door to the basement and goes down to find Fred's bag; there he also finds animal pelts, shackles, hunting equipment, and hanging decapitated heads. On the wall is the name "Anton." Guillaume realizes that the poacher, named Anton, must live alone in the cage, but when he tries to tell Loïc, the latter refuses to listen. Loïc pushed Guillaume down the stairs to the basement, accidentally knocking him unconscious. Loïc locks him in the basement and tries to tell Chloé to leave with him (with the lie that Guillaume was trying to abandon the both of them), but Chloé, disturbed at his behavior, refuses. Anton suddenly returns with Karine's corpse, and Chloé is briefly knocked unconscious as Loïc ineffectually grapples with Anton. Chloé regains consciousness and helps Loïc fight Anton, but when she manages to get an advantage over Anton and looks to her boyfriend to help, the cowardly Loïc flees with a flare, leaving her to die. Chloé is quickly overpowered by Anton.
Chloé and Guillaume, shackled to the wall in the basement, hear Anton eviscerate the corpses of Fred and Karine. Though Chloé is close to escaping from the shackles, Anton returns and takes her upstairs to kill her. Meanwhile, Loïc's flare dies and he reluctantly returns to the cabin. Guillaume, fighting to save Chloé, escapes his bonds and yells through the basement trapdoor for Chloé to call the poacher Anton. The poacher pauses, and Loïc appears to attack Anton. An enraged Anton chases a fleeing Loïc, giving Chloé enough time to escape and free Guillaume. Guillaume wants to escape to the nearby cable, but Chloé insists on saving Loïc.
Anton chases Loïc with a crossbow and shoots Loïc in the leg, but Loïc fights Anton, stabbing him and hitting him with a rock several times, though he flees to the cable before killing him. However, he misjudges the distance and ends up on the wrong cliff, and in escaping Anton climbs down an unstable cliffside ladder. Loïc calls for help, and Chloé and Guillaume arrive. Guillaume initially tries to pull him up, but is overcome by hatred and anger from Loïc trapping him in Anton's house, and lets him fall to his death off the cliffside. Guillaume tells Chloé that he had slipped and the two embrace; however, it's cut short when Anton shoots a crossbow arrow through Guillaume's head, killing him.
Chloé charges at Anton with a knife and attacks him. The two fight, but Anton gains the upper hand and begins to beat her. Chloé says his name, making him pause once more, and she cuts his neck with the knife. Though she has an opening to kill him, a flashback to her dead patient makes her realize that she cannot do it. Leaving him to die, Chloé escapes to the cable and in tearful joy begins the descent to safety. However, she leaves her knife behind, and Anton takes it up and goes to the cable in a fit of rage. The last shot is of Chloé traveling down the cable, and a loud snap is heard before the film cuts to black, implying that Anton managed to cut the cable. The film ends with the note that only Loïc's body was found; Fred, Karine, Guillaume and Chloé remain missing, and a boy named Anton, kidnapped at the age of five, also remains missing: countless people go missing in the Balkans every year. | violence, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
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