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tt2249079 | The Amazing Spider-Man | In 2000, Oscorp scientist Richard Parker records a video message to explain his disappearance. Later, he and his wife, Mary, are aboard a private jet hijacked by a man sent to assassinate Richard. The plane crashes, killing both Richard and Mary, after he uploads the video.
Fourteen years later, Richard's son Peter continues to fight crime as Spider-Man. He pursues and apprehends Aleksei Sytsevich. Later, Peter meets with Gwen at their high school graduation ceremony and, insisting he keep his vow to her father, ends their relationship. Peter's childhood friend, Harry Osborn, returns to Manhattan to see his terminally-ill father, Norman, CEO of OsCorp. Norman explains his illness is genetic, and Harry is at the age where it first develops. Norman gives Harry a small device he claims contains his life's work. The next day, Norman dies and Harry is appointed the new OsCorp CEO.
While working in an OsCorp laboratory, electrical engineer Max Dillon shocks himself by accident and falls into a tank of genetically-engineered electric eels. They attack him, and he mutates into a living electric generator. Meanwhile, Peter attempts to maintain a friendship with Gwen, but she reveals that she may move to England for schooling. Before they can discuss it, Dillon wanders into Times Square, accidentally causing a blackout, and is stopped by Peter after a battle. Dillon is taken to Ravencroft Institute, where he is studied by German scientist Dr. Kafka. Meanwhile, the first symptoms of Harry's illness are showing, and he uses the device Norman gave him to deduce that Spider-Man's blood could help save him. He asks Peter, who has been selling photos of Spider-Man to the Daily Bugle, to aid him in finding Spider-Man. Peter refuses, unsure of what effects the transfusion would have. Although he later comes to Harry as Spider-Man, he still refuses, and Harry develops an intense hatred towards Spider-Man. The OsCorp board-members, in particular the vice-president, Donald Menken, frame Harry for covering up Dillon's accident, remove him as CEO, overthrow him and take control of Oscorp. Harry's assistant, Felicia Hardy, informs him of equipment that could help him, so he makes a deal with Dillon, who now calls himself "Electro," to get him back inside the OsCorp building. There he finds a suit of armour and other equipment made by Norman, as well as venom from the now-destroyed genetically-altered spiders. The venom accelerates Harry's illness and transforms him into a goblin-like creature, but the suit's built-in emergency protocol restores his health and cures his disease.
Peter uses information left by his father to locate the video message in an abandoned subway station's hidden lab. Richard explains he had to leave because he refused to cooperate with Norman's biogenetic weaponization plans. Peter then hears a voicemail from Gwen, telling him she was offered the British scholarship and is heading to the airport earlier than expected. He manages to catch her and professes his love for her, and, vowing to go wherever she goes, they agree to go to England together. Electro causes another blackout, and Peter heads off to fight him as Spider-Man. Gwen follows, and together they restore power and overload Electro's body, killing him.
The transformed Harry, who now calls himself "Green Goblin", arrives equipped with Norman's armor and weaponry. Upon seeing Gwen, he deduces Spider-Man's secret identity and, swearing revenge for being refused the blood transfusion, kidnaps her and takes her to the top of a clock tower. Peter manages to defeat the Green Goblin, but his webbing breaks during the battle and Gwen falls to her death. Peter, depressed and distraught, mourns over Gwen's death and ends his career as Spider-Man.
Five months later, Harry is coping with the aftereffects of his transformation while incarcerated at Ravencroft. His associate, Gustav Fiers, visits Harry and the pair discuss forming their own team. Harry orders Fiers to start with Sytsevich. Later an unknown team of men break Sytsevich out of prison. Equipped with electromechanical suit armor, Sytsevich calls himself the Rhino and rampages through the streets. Peter, inspired by Gwen's graduation speech, resumes his role as Spider-Man and confronts him. | violence | train | wikipedia | Fantastic game!.
I used to work in a Game store, so I'm used to playing plenty of games to recommend to other people, but since leaving I've still picked up games here and there, the most recent being Spec Ops: The Line and The Amazing Spider-Man, the latter being played a lot more because of how good it is!
I've always been a fan of Spidey, however I've never really liked any of the games, apart from maybe Spider-Man 2.
People complain that this game is too hard, it isn't, it has difficulty settings for a reason, don't be ashamed of playing it on easy as games are made to be enjoyed by people, not for them to destroy the control in rage because they can't get past a certain level.
After reading many reviews I can assure you that this game is nowhere near as hard as people are saying it is.
Combat is a lot like the recent Arkham games, as soon as your spidey sense flashes above your head, press triangle and you'll counter, I personally find this system a lot better seeing as constant tapping of a button gets super annoying and boring after a while.
The free roam around the city is rather fun, and plenty of events pop up to keep you entertained.
The whole game seems like you're just pressing buttons that pop up on your screen, which makes you feel distant from total control over the game, but no too distant for me to put the game down on marks.
It's ranked #1 on most game sites for a reason, because its as amazing as the title suggests!.
Better than the movie..
I hated the movie but the game is better.
The reason why I gave it an 9 because it's not better then Spider- Man 2 the game.
I've like you can get the Sam Raimi black Spider-Man suit but it sucks that you can't get the regular Sam Raimi Spider-Man suit.
The Lizard still sucks because the way he look like why not making the lizard like the comics so I won't be hating the lizard.
The game is fun and I recommend it..
The Amazing Rip-Off. Wow...I've been playing for maybe an hour or two.
Hate this game.
Loved Spider-Man 2, 3, and Shattered Demensions.
This game is a rushed poorly made 100% rip off of Arkham Asylum/City.All the combat and flashy moves are done by simply pushing the X button, and you push Y to counter when the Spidey Sense white waves flash around your head.
When you web zip to the ceiling, which is with RB of course, all the guys in the room start searching for you saying "where did he go?" and "I know he's in here".
And you have to drop behind to do stealth takedowns.
You crawl through vents to get around inside buildings and have to solve wannabe puzzles like crashing boxes through walls to move one.
I mean comic books.
It's all so innovative and original, 3 years ago.Then there's the in between, where they couldn't decide if they wanted to make it a game based on the movie, or go completely original with it.
The game claims to follow the events of the film, but the characters look, sound, and act nothing like the actors in the movie, as if they tried to make it based on the comics instead.
So you're stuck with this weird movie based/original hybrid that doesn't work as nice as that sounds.
If they wanted to make an original Spider-Man game, it worked with Shattered Demensions.
If they wanted to make a movie based game, it worked amazing with Spider-Man 2 and 3.
I don't understand what they were trying to do here.Then, ignoring all that, there's the game itself.
The web swinging mechanic is incredibly dull and boring and requires zero skill.
Spider man is constantly running off, jumping over, or bouncing off things and never seems to go where you want him to go.
Have fun trying to land on a building without that lame web zip slow motion mode.
And have fun scaling a building while you're at it, it either takes forever, or you can run up it, which looks awful.
I loved the past wall climbing mechanics.
Speaking of buildings, in what city does this game take place?
Cause that sure as heck isn't New York.
In Spiderman 2 and 3 you felt like you were zipping around the streets of New York City.
This feels like the city from the Superman Returns video game.
Not to mention the graphics aren't much of an improvement over Spider-Man 3.
In some cases they look even worse.All this from just about an hour and a half playing this game.
As a huge fan of Activision's past Spider-Man games, I was severely disappointed in this one.
If you're really bored and feel like playing a Spider-Man game, sure, it does the trick.
But if you want a good Spider-Man game, or a good game period, look elsewhere.5/10.
Poop in fancy wrapping.
(PC VERSION)Straight up: The Amazing Spider-Man is an over-budgeted attempt to cash in on the homonymous Hollywood remake.The game picks up where the movie left off.
Some creepy dudes break free from Oscorp, some other dude makes robots to kill the first dudes, most dudes in the city get infected by the first dudes and Spidey has to save the day.
I'm not sure if this is cohesive with the comics, but who cares?
At the end of the day, it feels like a very poor plot lacking in substance.The presentation is basically something that resembles a sandbox open-world action game but that it's in reality closer to a bad beta or a DLC pack from some other game.
The missions feel completely ripped out from the rest of the game.
To keep it 'sandboxey', there's a few secondary objectives and a couple of collectibles that you can waste time on in-between missions.
There's nothing wrong with the formula, since that's what most modern action games do, but in this case, it just feels bland and empty.
Needless to say, the side-missions are scarce and repetitive.
In the spirit of keeping it fancy, there's power upgrades to choose from and different suits to wear.
Whoopie-do.Graphically, based on the options that you can tweak before launching the game, an educated guess would be that the game looks fantastic and it has a lot of potential to be shining, shimmering and splendid, but it's just a guess, after all.
Is it because my computer can't run it?
It's because this is a terrible, terrible port and you have a 50/50 chance that your PC will go full retard in the FPS department for no apparent reason.
I had to download a 'fix' from the interwebz that basically runs the game on DX9, hence disabling a lot of the eye-candy settings.
But hey, "Texture Quality: AMAZING" sounds pretty good to me.The combat is arguably the strongest point in this game, but it's not really anything new.
It feels like a less polished version of Arkham City's combat system.
Sometimes you'll try to hit a guy and you'll punch nothing but air and some other times the combat sequences are a bit more fluid.
I love me some inconsistent combat.
Not. There's also a 'stealth' element to it.
Obviously, this is all sprinkled with fancy webbing-tricks and acrobatics to add some flare.
Some epic boss fights are good and stand out as probably the best bits of this title.
Oh, wait.
Every action game for the past 20 years has done it.The one thing I truly liked about the game was the web-strike or whatever is called, which is basically a time-stop first-person view that enables you to shoot a web to a wall or enemy and get around (besides having other, more ordinary mobility skills).
It's a neat mechanic and probably the only truly original thing I've seen in the game.
However, this is kind of overshadowed by the fact that the control scheme is down-right weird.
Here's the kicker: I couldn't even use my gamepad to play this because the game is so poorly ported that it would mess up the button assignment (i.e: vertical right analog stick axis = horizontal camera axis).
Couldn't find a fix for this so I had to go with my good buddies Mr. Keyboard and Senor Mouse.Overall, The Amazing Spider-Man was a huge let down for me.
Sure, you can play through it once because big companies are behind it so it's not a complete flop, but it could've been so much more.
This is just one of those games where you get the constant feeling that the developers just didn't give two craps about what was going on and it was all about the monayz.
Maybe Marvel or Universal had some kind of package-deal for when the movie came out and they just had to fulfill a contract or something.
I would steer clear of this unless you're an absolute fan..
Good but not necessarily an Improvement.
I feel like after years of playing spider man games this game doesn't "quite" live up to it's hype.
The game centers way too much on the web rush mechanic and the combat is more or less hard to maneuver due to the fact that it's not your standard beat n kick spider man but a well more lick spy like spider man.
I also think that in this game it's a little too easy to die whether your fighting villains or just the standard thugs your just constantly getting hit every fight.
The graphics and the game overall is interesting it's just the controls however which i think need be redone so this game is pretty much a rental and then if you really are into it buy it but as i predicted it'll be a long time b4 we have a game as good as spider man 2.
The Amazing Spider-Man Video game review.
The Amazing Spider-Man is a great game!
it has good graphics and fun boss levels.
The game does a good job of making things look realistic for example in my 2 fights against the "Rhino" so far it wont let me hit him unless i make him struggle to destroy something like in the first fight i had to try and make him "bulldoze" a truck and while he is vulnerable to be attacked.
what i don't like is that Hero difficulty (Normal difficulty) is like Human difficulty (Easy Difficulty) they should have made the game a little longer.
What i also don't like is continuing fights for example in one fight after i beat the scorpion and successfully escape oscorp (because i poisoned Allistaire Smythe's legs) i have to fight the giant S-02 robot the moment i get out of oscorp.
overall i love the game and recommend it..
Does the Amazing Spider-Man Video Game Live Up to the Hype?.
The Amazing Spider-Man Video Game (2012) is a tie-in to the rebooted Spider-Man movie, but actually serves as an epilogue to the movie.
When the game starts Curt Connors (The Lizard)is still in prison and things were left as they were (including Spidey's reputation and his relationship with Gwen).
When I review games I critique on several different categories which include: Story, gameplay, graphics, achievements (which pertains to unlockables, side missions and bonus material), and overall satisfaction and then I follow it up with a recommendation (or not!!!)Story -- To be honest, I am a big fan of the rebooted "Amazing" movie series and I felt that there was a lot of potential for a video game tie-in, however, the game seemed a little rushed.
The storyline is quite basic...
and rather boring.
The whole object of the game is to stop a cross-breakout that transforms people into human-animal hybrids...
Without going into too much detail, the story was shaky at best and there were a lot of sidelined stories that just seemed unnecessary.
At times I wasn't quite sure why this game was even made.
4.5/10Gameplay -- To me, the gameplay is one of the shining beacons of this game and Beenox does some really cool stuff that separates itself from other Spider-Man games.
One thing that was introduced is the Web-Rush mechanic which allows you to slow down time and web zip to just about anywhere in your surroundings.
When done correctly, you are able to chain together several web-rushes and bounce around from enemy to enemy and avoid damage (while showing off the agility that Spider-Man is known for).
The combat was pretty solid, but definitely had some room for improvement.
While the bosses in the game were rather dull, it was challenging and (if I must say) rather entertaining all the same.
"Amazing" swings off of the Arkham games with some of the combat, including a stealth attack system and a counter button.
While it didn't live up to Arkham's standards, the combat for "Amazing is unique in its own way and brings some new things to the table.
This game returns to the open world setting and (in my humble opinion) has the best web slinging action of any previous game.
7/10Graphics -- I wasn't to impressed with the graphics, but it could've been a lot worse.
Swinging threw Manhattan looks top notch, but the character detail was no where near what it could have been.
6.5/10Achievements -- While there is plenty of side missions, collectibles, and challenges throughout the game, none of them seem necessary or motivate you to to even partake in any of them.
5/10Overall Satisfaction -- To me, The Amazing Spider-Man is a mediocre game and by the time I finished it, was not looking forward to going back and collecting the rest of achievements and bonus material.
This however does not mean that others will not thoroughly enjoy this game.
5.5/10Recommendation -- Unless you are a Spidey fan, this is definitely a game you can do without.
For people interested in Spider-Man and the Marvel universe, I recommend renting the game first and then perhaps buying it if you enjoyed the game..
Fun, but not worth full price.
As a longtime fan of all video games Spider-Man, I was eager to play this title right away.
The previous movie-based installments in the franchise like Spider-Man 2 and 3 were pretty well done, and I enjoyed the new movie this game is based on.
I was especially excited to hear that free-roaming around the city was back as it was missing from other recent Spidey titles.The story caught my interest right away.
I particularly liked how, instead of a loose interpretation of the film, it was a direct sequel, taking place right after the movie's end.
I couldn't wait to extend the storyline and see what happened next.
That being said, the story itself in this game was never really immersive, suspenseful or climactic.
There is zero character development, and hardly any story beyond, "Oscorp hybrids have escaped and Spidey recaptures a few."While the voice acting itself wasn't bad, I was still disappointed not to hear Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone reprise their roles.
This is only a small hang-up that didn't make or break the game or anything.
They were noticeably missed, though, especially since Tobey Maguire voiced Spidey in previous games.The action takes a few notes from the Arkham games with a very similar combat style and emphasis on stealth.
I found it to be more forgiving with not breaking your combo chain in between strikes, and I could get 40-50 hit combos without much problem.
It was fun for a little while but didn't add much challenge, especially since you can "web- retreat" at any time to safely sling to the ceiling out of harm's way.
I found it more entertaining to stealth-KO all enemies as the fights themselves became tedious.The selection of enemies for you to fight was pretty weak.
I would have liked to see more villains than the very few they had as the boss fights were generally uninteresting.
Of course, I do understand that it is probably because it is a sequel to the film and they are saving the better bad guys for the movies first.
Still, for a Spider-Man game, their absence was felt.Side missions were sprinkled all over the map, however they were mostly repetitive and redundant.
There were blimp races, muggings in progress and getaway cars to stop.
Unfortunately, they were incredibly easy and literally the exact same mission each time.
There were also "infected" humans you can pick up and take to quarantine areas, but this was even more repetitious than the other side quests.
I did really enjoy the bank robbery side mission, though, but it was the only kind of it's type.I guess that brings me to my favorite part about the game which is the web-slinging.
There is something so incredibly fun about pretending to be Spider-Man and just flinging your away across Manhattan.
You can find comic book pages on rooftops to unlock real Spidey comics you can read in-game (admittedly a very cool feature).
Sometimes you can have difficult times with your landings, but this can be aided with the ability to momentarily stop time and choose your exact destination.
This mechanic did help a lot with navigation, but sometimes it got a little annoying to have to break up your fast-paced gameplay to do it.All in all, it did keep my interest until the end, but I am also a big fan of the Amazing one.
Spidey aside, this game plays a lot like a budget title with some fun elements, but a lack of polishing which was probably due to a rushed release date to coincide with the movie.
I would not recommend paying $60 for this game, but rather give it a rental, or at least wait for it to drop in price. |
tt0096639 | Lonesome Dove | It is 1876. Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae and Captain Woodrow F. Call, two famous ex–Texas Rangers, run a livery called the Hat Creek Cattle Company and Livery Emporium in the small dusty Texas border town of Lonesome Dove.
Working with them are Joshua Deets, who is an excellent tracker and scout from their Ranger days, Pea Eye Parker, another former Ranger who works hard but isn't all too bright, and Bolivar, a retired Mexican bandit who is their cook. Also living with them is the boy Newt Dobbs, a seventeen-year-old whose mother was a prostitute named Maggie and whose father may be Call. Jake Spoon, a former comrade of Call's and McCrae's, shows up after an absence of more than ten years. He is a man on the run, having accidentally shot the dentist of Fort Smith in Arkansas. The dentist's brother happens to be the sheriff, July Johnson. Reunited with Gus and Call, Jake's breath-taking description of Montana inspires Call to gather a herd of cattle and drive them there to begin the first cattle ranch in the frontier territory. Call is attracted to the romantic notion of settling pristine country. Gus is less enthusiastic, pointing out that they are getting old and that they are Rangers and traders, not cowboys. But he changes his mind when Jake reminds him that the love of Gus' life, Clara, lives on the Platte, 20 miles from Ogallala, Nebraska, which is on their route to Montana. Although he had proposed many times, she had rejected him every time because, in her words, Gus is "a rambler." Clara dislikes Call because she feels jealous of the years Gus spent with him instead of her. Captain Call prevails. They make preparations for their adventure north, including stealing horses in Mexico and recruiting almost all the male citizens of Lonesome Dove.
Ironically, Jake Spoon decides not to go at all. Instead, he promises the town's only prostitute, Lorena Wood, known as Lorie, he'll take her to San Francisco. Jake and Lorena ride along with the cattle drive to begin their journey, however.
Ogallala also happens to be the destination of Elmira, the wife of Sheriff Johnson, as she runs away to meet up with her true love, Dee Boot. So the three groups head north. They encounter horse thieves, murderers, hostile Indians, inclement weather, and a few inner demons. | murder, melodrama | train | wikipedia | The Lonesome Dove mini-series contains every core element of a classic story of the mythic Old West: romance, tragedy, courageous and independent yet very human heroes, vicious yet believable villains, plenty of action, and the overall grit and determination of frontier life.
What makes the film even better are the truly exceptional performances by the first rate cast, that includes Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Ulrich, and Anjelica Huston, and the great musical score, which won a well-deserved Emmy.
This is the kind of film about the Old West that only comes along once in a blue moon, and lovers of Old West stories and movies (as well as real-life cowboys) watch it over and over.
It is a must experience.Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones top-line an outstanding cast in this epic-proportioned western which should have been worthy of a cinematic release for it captures beautifully the look, the feel and the time of the Old West as never before.In a nutshell, it relates the tale of two former Texas Rangers, Woodrow Call (Jones) and Gus McCrae (Duvall), both getting on in years, who manage a dusty but comfortable living running a cattle company just outside rundown Lonesome Dove, Texas.
A third ranger, Jake Spoon (Robert Urich), returns from up north, on the lam for an accidental murder, and perks Woodrow's interest in being the first to take a herd into the mostly unsettled northern region of Montana, while laying claim to an area considered `perfect cattle territory.' He convinces relaxed old-timer Gus, who is content these days with a bottle of whiskey and a whore, to join him for one last thrill to recapture their old "Texas Ranger" glory days and shake up their too sedentary lives.Re-stealing horses and a herd from Mexican bandidos, they sign on a team of men to undertake the arduous journey eventually braving about every type of adversity imaginable.
When it's not windstorms and snake-infested waters threatening life, limb and livestock, they have murderous horse thieves and vengeful Indians to contend with.What makes `Lonesome Dove' stand out proudly is not only its rich, panoramic beauty and intriguing story-lines, but its caring, sharply-defineated characters that keep this six-hour plus movie from ever wandering off.
Also contributing greatly are Diane Lane as the town whore who seeks a better life; earnest Ricky Schroeder as the youngest member of the team whose family tree is questioned; Danny Glover, the wise and dedicated team scout; Barry Corbin as the slow-thinking undersheriff; Frederic Forrest as the murderous redskin Blue Duck; Angelica Huston as Duvall's kind-hearted former flame; Steve Buscemi and Frederick Coffin as a pair of lusty lowlifes; Nina Siemaszko as a scrappy backwoods waif, and others too numerous to name.
It's such an interesting story and so-well photographed that you don't mind the long length.The acting is top-rate, led by Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones, with a deep cast that includes many well-known actors.
The story, sets, acting, character development, music,....all amazing.The production is as if you were plopped on a horse in the middle of a cattle drive in the old American West.
You can have the Hamlet DVD any day you want; I'll watch Lonesome Dove.Robert Duvall is the anchor and the soul.
And somehow Tommy Lee Jones steals the movie.A great story about great characters played by great actors.The Godfather movies, as good as they are, have not the legend or the nobility of Lonesome Dove.
They stuck very close to the source material which is good because Lonesome Dove is hands down the best novel ever.All the actors are cast perfectly and play the roles perfectly.
I would recommend reading the book first but if you don't it won't take much away from the experience.Lonesome Dove is a timeless classic that my dad showed me and I plan to show my kids too..
Lonesome Dove tells the story of friendship, love, tragedy, life, change, the frontier, the passing of generations.Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call are retired Texan Rangers, holed up in the small, dusty south Texas town of Lonesome Dove, a town with less going on than the nearby Rio Grande.
They off and go to Montana, along the way meeting death, life, former loves and new loves, and witnessing the closing of the American frontier.This film is six hours long, if you think of things that way, but really, it's far too short.
I remember the first time I saw Lonesome Dove I watched all six hours in one sitting.
The movie starts out in Lonesome Dove, Texas where Woodrow 'Cap'n' Call (Tommy Lee Jones) and Augustus 'Gus' McCrae (Robert Duvall) run a small outfit called Hat Creek Cattle Company and Livery Emporium who's sign proudly states "We Don't Rent Pigs!
Goats Neither," and in Latin "Uva uvum vivendo varia fit." In the interest of not telling you everything, you'll have to watch the movie to see if it means anything.Gus and Cap'n Call used to ride with the Texas Rangers years earlier with Joshua Deets (Danny Glover) and Jake Spoon (Robert Urich).
Tommy Lee Jones has never been more effective in a part, and Robert Duvall's Augustus McCrae is probably one of the greatest performances ever.This is a sad movie.
Hey, *I* have historically not enjoyed westerns, but this is quite possibly my all time favorite movie.I almost want to say this is not a "western" - just an superb realistic adventure which happens to take place in the "west." It is an incredible story about real people living through a very true and difficult era of our country.
The characters never do anything against their nature for dramatic effect."Lonesome Dove" is about people; about life; about love, faith, and perseverance in hard times.
It succeeds in demonstrating these things through human drama, realistic adventure, and touching humor.Just read the rest of the reviews about Lonesome Dove!WATCH THIS MOVIE..
The pace is just perfect, not hurried along like a 2 hour plus movie so it has a lovely feel and gives you a real sense of the bond the characters have for each other and the years they have spent together.
And Rick Schroder is far better than you could have imagined when he was doing "Silver Spoons" You can see how he developed into the character he now plays on TV.So if you love a good western and a good story, pop up some popcorn, recline back in your Lazy-boy and prepare to spend a few wonderful hours back in the old west..
I was about 10 years old when I first watched Lonesome Dove.My parents were away, working hard to provide for our family, and I was left at home with a few channel.
I have seen many films/series since, but none has made an impact as beautiful and true as Lonesome Dove.Gus and Call's friendship in this 4part masterpiece, has defined my very idea of what friendship could look like in real life.Today I have a couple of dear friends.
Tommy plays the best Woodrow there could ever be and Robert Duvall as gus i admire his character so much that I chose the name for my Rottweiller.
Find out about Col. Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving - how they set up their cattle drives from Texas to Colorado and Wyoming and what happened to them (expecially Loving and Wilson's fight with some Comanches) and you can see that the beauty of Lonesome Dove is knowing that the story is not just fiction but has a basis in historical fact, this just adds to the quality of this series..
Ironicially, as a rule I do not enjoy Westerns, but I considered Lonesome Dove to be the best and most powerful TV miniseries of all time.
After a void of something like 10 years.I have just re-visited "Lonesome Dove" It impressed and amazed me ,the first time I viewed it as a mini-series.
I own the entire Lonesome Dove Saga, I own the books, and I've read and watched them many times.
Robert Duvall is Gus McCrae, and Tommy Lee Jones, Woodrow Call, both former Texas Rangers who run a livery in Lonesome Dove in Texas.
Unlike Gus, he didn't have outlets, like drinking, gambling and whoring.The book and film, LONESOME DOVE, are remarkable achievements..
Dead Mans Walk and Street's of Laredo is good also.Excellent Acting and cast,great story and the sound track second to none.I thought TLJ and Duvall were outstanding in their portrayal Gus & Call.
Lonesome Dove is a real western that everyone can watch and enjoy.True friendship,Death,and adventure and a love story is lonesome Dove.
Somebody give us a mini series for television such as Commanche Moon to watch,besides Reality TV,CSI,Cold Case,Law & Order,NCIS,Numbers,Criminal Minds,Shark,Too close to home.Some network please.Joe. Truly a Great Movie.
Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall and Danny Glover make this film a Classic.
He then gave me a loan of LONESOME DOVE a series that I had heard great things about but I had never seen mainly because I'm not much of a fan of the Western genre .
Never mind Pacino and DeNiro , Robert Duvall is the greatest living American character actor alive today and once again he gives a greatly understated and consistent performance as Gus McCrae while Tommy Lee Jones ( An actor who can be very uneven ) gives one of his career best performances .
The film features several great actors, such as Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Danny Glover, and Angelica Huston, in their prime, with an excellent supporting cast.
The one thing you would have to ask for with a range of events, moods, and characters like that would be great actors, and Lonesome Dove certainly delivers in that department.
Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones couldn't have been cast more perfectly and they couldn't have played their characters any better.
Every character that shows up in Lonesome Dove, no matter how long, is always interesting and always does something great for the epic plot, and every actor gives it their all, always with fantastic results, no matter how big or how small the role.Lonesome Dove is simply one of the greatest things that ever happened to television.
I've ever seen an actor own a character like Duvall owned Gus McCrae in "Lonesome Dove." Twenty plus years after seeing it the first time, it's still greatness.
I'm trying to think of another movie or TV series that embodies everything I want in story telling as "Lonesome Dove" does and I can't.
I think one of the most romantic lines on film is when Gus say's 'Lorie, darlin' (also when Robert Preston whispers 'Till there was you' into Marian the Librarian's ear but I digress.) But all the characters are superb...Tommy Lee Jones, Diane Lane, Danny Glover, Robert Urich, Ricky Schroder, Angelica Huston and so many more...If you think you don't like Westerns, watch this.
If you love Westerns, watch Lonesome Dove.
Thankfully, they made the book into a mini-series because I cannot imagine Lonesome Dove being done justice in 2 hours.
Well, oh course Duvall as Augustus 'Gus' McCrae would have been greatly missed in Streets of Laredo since he dies in Lonesome Dove, but Streets of Laredo desperately needed Tommy Lee Jones to carry on as the lonely highly moral Woodrow F.
Robert Duvall's character Gus, has got to be one of the best roles I've ever seen him in.
In Lonesome Dove, not only does the movie hold true to the book, it gives us more of a real feel of how life on the plains and in the old west was really like.
From the opening scenes on the front porch of the bunkhouse with Gus and the 2 pigs, to the last scene with Call talking to the reporter, LD is a masterpiece.The casting in Lonesome Dove was simply oustanding, with Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones becoming Call and Woodrow, so good were they in their respective parts.
The supporting cast including Angelica Houston,Diane Lane, Danny Glover,Chris Cooper, Barry Corbin,Ricky Schroeder,Robert Urich(may you rest in peace),right down to Helena Humann as Peach, gave us the best supporting cast performances in a western series in years.
It exceeds excellence for a number of reasons; however, because of it's length (6 hours) and television pedigree, it is considered a mini-series, thus eliminating it from direct competition with standard length motion pictures.In my opinion, Lonesome Dove gives us perhaps the best acting ensemble ever produced.
Watching Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones play off each other's character is simply a joy.
Perhaps that is how LD should best be described: a compelling doc-u-drama, for the setting, characters and props are dead-solid accurate (check out Duvall's cap-and-ball pistol).Rent (or buy) the movie, prepare huge quantities of popcorn, and ready yourself for a wonderful story that will leave you talking about it for days..
For my money, Lonesome Dove, was the greatest TV mini-series of all time!.
So for the four or five nights that the Dove was on...I watched as true to life a story of the American west that I have ever seen.
As a historian of Plains Indians and the West, I found the true to life saga of Lonesome Dove, to be equal to the greatest western film ever made: The Searchers.
Robert Duvall plays Gus to the hilt, and Tommy Lee Jones gives a bravura performance as the stoic Woodrow, which unfortunately for the actors in the sequels, is a very hard act to follow.
Throw in characters like Jake Spoon, Newt, Deets, Pea-Eye, July Johnson, Roscoe Brown, (I could go on forever), and it just doesn't get any better.From "cutting cards for a poke" to "we don't rent pigs", Lonesome Dove is a fun show to watch, easier to do over a few nights rather than camping out in front of the TV for the entire 6 hours (unless you have that kind of time).
The film really is an epic in all proportions; a brilliant star-studded cast, a truly moving story, excellent characters that you really do feel for and a fantastic musical score are just few of many of the plus point of the film.Coming from a person who really does hate 'Westerns', you have got to take my word and watch this film.
Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall are always fun to watch, but I was sorely disappointed by the series as a whole, coming to it immediately after reading the novel.
I've seen the original Lonesome Dove series a number of times, and each time appreciated everything about the film.
They'd have gotten an idea of what REAL frontier life was like.Having never lived in those times, I find it easy to believe that life on the frontier was pretty close to what was depicted in the movie, from the lousy cooking, the dusty, treacherous trail rides, to the native Americans, who were by that time burning with hatred for the white man, after being decimated by the Army; the general lawlessness and ruthlessness, as exhibited by many of the frontiersmen and women characters in the movie.As for Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall, Anjelica Huston, Frederick Forrest, Danny Glover, and the rest of the cast, they were all born for those roles.
Still, this film shines, not only as a western, but as a story of great, gritty and real-seeming characters.
I don't like westerns, but I love Lonesome Dove.
Lonesome Dove is probably the greatest made-for-TV film of all time..
"Lonesome Dove" is the story of two best friends driving cattle and horses from Texas to Montana.
The cowboy characters drawn by Duvall and Jones in this movie (as Gus MacRae and Woodrow Call) are the best ever done in a western.
Superb performances from Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall are demonstrated in Lonesome Dove.
Lonesome Dove is truly one of the best min-series I have ever watched.
Tommy Lee Jones and Robert DuVall shine as never before.Lonesome Dove shows all sides of the untamed west and reveals it as no other movie in history has done.
It's development of characters is unparaleled, and the story is a timeless one that can be watched over and over, even if you're not a fan of westerns.I highly recommend this movie to any and all..
"Lonesome Dove" is not just the greatest television production of all time, but one of the best movies ever filmed.
Tommy Lee Jones' and Robert Duvall's best performances ever.
In this mini-series two of this century's greatest actors, Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall, show us why the Western genre is still the best medium for human drama and adventure.
Besides the performances of Jones and Duvall actors like Chris Cooper, Rick Schroder and Tim Scott also adds to the greatness of Lonesome Dove..
I've seen Lonesome Dove at least 10 times in my life.
The 200 Hour Lonesome Dove t-shirt.Watch this movie or read this book.
Even if you don't like westerns, this is the best movie (and book) ever.
If you watch it and end up liking the movie, you have to read the whole entire series by Larry McMurtry.
The other books were made into movies, but they were not as good as Lonesome Dove.
Lonesome Dove is quite possibly the greatest western film of all time.
The all-star cast, including Tommy Lee Jones, Danny Glover, Diane Lane, and Robert Duvall bring a truly amazing story to life.
Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall are perfectly cast as the lead characters and the other characters in the movie all had depth and realism!
it is the perfect western that can be watched over and over.IF you have not seen this epic,next rainy or snowy gotta stay in day.put on some beans and break out the bottle and take a trip back to the ol'west and enjoy the greatest cattle drive movie of all-time.This film is very close to the novel.This is a struggle of the human spirit as well as we see Call wrestle with his past as well as his further. |
tt0437232 | Catch a Fire | The film begins in "Northern Coalfields, South Africa, 1980". It revolves around Patrick Chamusso, a young, apolitical man (played by Derek Luke) who is accused of carrying out an attack against the government, and an Afrikaner police officer, Nic Vos, played by Tim Robbins. Vos is in charge of locating the perpetrators of a recent bomb attack against the Secunda CTL synthetic fuel refinery, which is the largest coal liquefaction plant in the world.
Patrick is unwillingly swept into Vos's investigation due to his inability to provide a satisfactory explanation for his whereabouts at the time of the bombing (he was actually having an affair with a woman not his wife). Eventually Patrick, his wife, Precious, (played by Bonnie Henna), and his family are tortured and savagely abused by Vos and Vos's subordinates. Desperate, Patrick says that he is willing to confess to a crime he did not commit to protect his family from torture. At last, Vos finally concludes that Patrick is innocent, and orders his release.
Fuelled by the anger at the injustices he and his family suffered, Patrick joins Umkhonto we Sizwe, the guerrilla military wing of the African National Congress and becomes exactly what Vos had initially accused him of being. This decision was an act of revenge against the government for killing his friend and tormenting not only himself but his wife as well. He attempts to execute a plan to attack Secunda, the oil refinery he used to work for, by first bombing its adjacent water supply facilities, and 15 minutes later triggering the main explosion within the refinery itself. This would allow the refinery's workforce to flee between the two explosions, and not be harmed. Also, the damage of the first bomb would reduce the possibility of successfully extinguishing the fire caused by the second, main explosion. Patrick succeeds in the first part, but the second bomb is discovered by Vos and deactivated.
Patrick is arrested and sentenced to 24 years in prison, after his wife goes to Vos and tells him where Patrick is, because she fell for a simple trick in which Vos left photographs of Patrick talking to a female member of the ANC. Through her unjust jealousy she sells him out. He is released early due to the abolition of apartheid.
Precious, who has remarried, is waiting for him and apologizes, and Patrick forgives her and he says he is sorry as well. Some time later, he has been trying to adjust to normal life but the pain he felt wouldn't leave him. One day, he sees Vos sitting out near a small body of water opposite to the side he and friends are on. He creeps over and through some brush sees that it is indeed Vos, and though a part of him wants to break Vos' neck, he decides that it is not worth it, and the real Patrick Chamusso is shown explaining that he told himself then and there that only through forgiveness would he truly be free. He left Vos alone, and went on to remarry and take in over 80 orphaned children in South Africa to provide a home for kids who lost their families during the anti-apartheid struggle. | revenge, suspenseful, murder, violence, romantic | train | wikipedia | This movie, set in the 1980's, depicts and contrasts the brutal oppression of White South Africa with the opposition of the ANC, most notably Joe Slovo, a hero of the time.
Told through the eyes of Patrick Chamusso, a gentle man whose quiet life becomes radicalized by oppressive forces, the movie is powerful, emotional and, curiously - for reasons mentioned, balanced.
The remarkable thing about Australian director Phillip Noyce's engaging political thriller, which is set in the South Africa's apartheid era, is that he has succeeded in making a thoughtful film in a genre strewn with pitfalls.Derek Luke plays Patrick Chamusso, a (real life) black African who becomes radicalised as a result of his wrongful detention and torture by South Africa's ruling white party.
The experience convert him to the cause as soon as he gets out and he's off to Mozambique to train as an ANC freedom fighter.Patrick's opponent is Tim Robbins, who plays Nic Vos, the Colonel in an anti-terrorist squad.
Though most violence is implied the film still does a very good job of portraying the brutality of the treatment that suspected terrorists in South Africa received.
Set in South Africa in the 1980's, the story tells the remarkable story of one man's personal journey from laborer and father to revolutionary of conscience.In addition, the subject of the film speaks loudly to the audience about the dangers of a government that misuses it's power and the sometimes forceful means that must be undertaken when peaceful measures fail.See the film, engage your conscience, and follow in the footsteps of a hero..
Patrick did nothing wrongat least as far as arson goes, the missing time was due to infidelityand as a result of being accused and beaten decided to do something his people could be proud of and try to stop the persecution.Director Phillip Noyce has brought to the table a tale that not only shows a sympathetic side to the black people of South Africa, but also a side of moral ambiguity to the whites.
All the scenes in the terrorist camp are intriguing and well-made, good people doing the only thing left that they can do in a world closing in on them.Emotions run high during the course of the film.
When Patrick Chamusso (Luke) is wrongfully charged with terrorist charges and his family violently offended by the leader of the operation Nik Vos, (Robbins) Patrick joins the rebellion to fight against the regime.As the film touches on the many tones of politics, racism, and economic problems in South Africa, the emotional and dramatic quality of the film is the beauty of it.
The picture shows life in Apartheid-era South Africa, it deals about the real story of Patrick Chamusso(Derek Luke), an oil refinery foreman, soccer coach and good father of family .
When happen an explosion in the refinery Patrick is arrested by police colonel Nic Vos(Tim Robbins).The secretive torture and sadism that follows in custody leads to his changing ideals.
Then he goes to Mozambique where is trained by the local terrorist guerrilla and he joins the ANC, African National Congress.This is an exciting and thrilling movie based on real events.This story about apartheid is very compelling made and deserving a fine treatment with poignant moments.It's completely convincing and makes a moving and powerful statement about the evil of the racism.
Superb cast with fine all round performances; particularly from Derek Luke, he does a very good job, he's surprisingly good in the role of dad turned terrorist, and excellent Tim Robbins as sadistic torturer.The remainder of the casting was also competent enough and did splendid acting.Evocative cinematography by Garry Phillips and Ron Fortunato.
The film tells the true story of Patrick Chamusso, a Mozambican who, like many residents of southern Africa, came to South Africa for work.
Many films about South African issues have been made - it's a pohotogenic place - and almost every one I've seen is more effective - like "Tsotsi" - because they respect the paradoxical isolation and global reach of politics there, not because they assumes the viewer wants to feel comfortable.
Patrick has a good life: he owns a car, has a beautiful wife and in his spare time, he coaches a local boys soccer team.The freedom fighters / terrorists of the African National Congress (ANC) are fighting to overthrow South Africa's white-led government.
The film doesn't dwell on the fact that Patrick is a refugee from the Mozambique civil war which ended in 1992, with over 900,000 dying from fighting and starvation.In many Hollywood films white South Africans are often portrayed as evil and sadistic.
At last we got to see this movie after nearly a year in the box.This movie is a true story of Patrick Chamusso during (1980-90s) South Africa's fight against apartheid regimes.
Derek Luke plays Patrick and Bonnie Mbuli plays his wife; whereas Tim Robbins plays Colonel Nic Vos who represents the monstrous evil of white rule.This movie depicted a making of a terrorist.
There are more than 16 regions within India where terrorist insurgency and naxal movements are flourishing to fight the evil of state government.The director Philip Noyce (Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games) has always made political statements and movies that show the ugly side of white supremacy.
Tim Robbin plays the Colonel (he has this next door looking guy) but gives cold shivers with his controlled performance.The beautiful close-up shots depict every emotion of the characters and I was in the movie since its beginning.
CATCH A FIRE is a very entertaining and instructive film about the 1980s South African problem with Apartheid - a time when the minority white population had political control over the far larger populace of blacks.
It is based on a true story of one Patrick Chamusso, a fine working man not affiliated with the growing number of terrorists fighting to unite the black citizens to overthrow the Boers who is driven to alter his life to join the militant party of the African National Congress when he has personal experiences of abuse by the controlling whites.Patrick Chamusso (a fine Derek Luke) supports his wife Precious (Bonnie Mbuli Henna) and two daughters as a foreman at the oil plant.
Yet when the conflicted Boer policeman Nic Vos (Tim Robbins) begins to bear down on Chamusso as suspect in a fire explosion at his plant, Chamusso's alibi conceals the fact that while away coaching the plant's boys' soccer team he steals away to see his illegitimate son and ex-girlfriend and this bit of secrecy to protect his wife's feelings causes the explosion with Vos that confines him to jail.Chamusso joins the military branch of the ANC, trains with them, is captured, abused, imprisoned and finally released with the rise of Nelson Mandela.
Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) leads an apolitical and peaceful life with his family until one day he is wrongly accused by a policeman (Tim Robbins) for terrorist actions, and is sucked into the freedom fighting accordingly.
Another fault is Tim Robbins who portrays a character so indistinct and ambiguous (the film goes to great lengths to blur black-and-white lines between good and even) that he ends up being nothing at all.
The score in fact is an integral component to the film as it bestows it with a musical flow of sorts, whilst delicately juxtaposing the vivacity of the freedom fighting blacks with the stiff and strained white South Africans.
The film is dedicated to Joe Slovo, portrayed in the movie as 'Head of ANC Special Ops', when in actual fact he was the leader of the South African Communist Party, and a Marxist and terrorist through and through.
A powerfully directed and acted drama that touches on the issues of terrorism.And in a way it favors terrorism like V for Vendetta did.That it is not entirely their fault that they turned into terrorists.It closely relates to the Iraq war,of how the US army takes over another man's land and forces them to become terrorists to fight for their freedom.The rage inside those people unleashes their inner demons and the only freedom they see is terrorism,but that leads to even worse results.This is a true story about South African family man, Patric Chamusso(Derek Luke) who is an oil refinery foreman and he teaches soccer as well during the hectic days of the 1980's.All he wants is a happy life with his family and he's happy with what he has.He has found happiness and peace.But when he along with his wife are jailed without much explanation,Patrick could not take it.After being beaten and harassed for unexplained reasons,he decides to fight back.He chooses to fight back for what the CIA has taken away from him,his Happiness.He joins an organization and fights back until he realizes that the system itself is corrupt.He is being sought by CIA agent Nic Vos(Tim Robbins) who interrogated him during his arrest.Then begins a furious action thriller with striking results.Philip Noyce has given many political dramas,especially with Harrison Ford ,adapting the Tom Clancy novels.So,it's no surprise that this film is a good one.It's got terrific setup and builds up the characters well.It's emotionally effective and delivers good action.It deals with very thoughtful issues of terrorism and its victims.And it nails it with a great job.Director Noyce has given you yet another effective drama that is comparable or somewhat better than the Harrison Ford films.The script is really well written and despite having flaws ,especially towards the end,it manages to bring about its message.It's really trying to say something about the American Invasion on Iraq and the state of the world today or one's country.And how one makes a choice to secure his/her freedom through terrorism.Strong performances are the main highlight of this tense thriller.Derek Luke may want to watch out this year for his nomination and surprising Tim Robbins is also fantastic in an anti-villain role.Luke's rage perfectly shows the character's feelings.How he was abused and how he wants to get back on the one's who did this to him.His methods are dangerous but he sees his victory in it.The action is solid,and there are thrills to be satisfied.But above all it's a really good political drama.Satisfying in most levels.A definite look is recommended.A well made action thriller that doesn't go over the top or preaches on its political terms,and in return has a thoughtful message to spread.A fine effort and will satisfy everyone.3.5/5 7.5/10 B+.
True-life account of South Africa's Apartheid-era about Patrick Chamusso (Luke giving a solid performance), a young man who is falsely accused of terrorism and faces great hurdles thrown down by a relentless policeman, Nic Vos (Robbins in a low-key yet affectively complex turn), who tracks Chamusso's sudden change of proper citizen to national threat.
This film is the remarkable story of Patrick Chamusso who was just trying to live a "normal" life and provide for his family until driven to join the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa when he and his wife are erroneously tortured after a crime they knew nothing of.The story demonstrates how one thing can send a person's life flying off track despite their best intentions.
Also amazing is the performance of Bonnie Henna as Precious, Patrick's wife.Written by Shawn Slovo (who also wrote "A World Apart"and whose parents were the white leaders of the anti-apartheid movement), the story is fascinating ...
The film is about South Africa during the brutal years of Apartheid (violent segregation), opening with a grim reminder of the seriousness of the issue, we see a montage of old BBC clips and a commentator giving us a brief overview of the situation, we see images of Blacks being shot, beat, and a world of oppression.
The film pays a great amount of time on Patrick Chamusso's family life, some may say this is to make the characters more human and the story more engaging, but it seemed to me that it should have dealt more with Apartheid.
Unlike that film, Catch the Fire explores deeply the conflicts and weaknesses of real-life Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) in1980-81 as he gradually becomes an avenger against the white regime, symbolized by Police Colonel Nick Vos (Tim Robbins), the chief of anti-terror operations.This is a true-story thriller director Phillip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence) carefully crafts to show the flawed nature of heroism and the conflicted brutality of oppressors.
Along the way to the repeal of apartheid in 1991, the film reminds us about the dangers of police detaining and torturing without challenge (a resonance with today's anti-terrorist laws) and the intertwining of personal passion and the larger issue of freedom (the hero protects his family by keeping a secret that eventually endangers them and the freedom movement).The title evokes the revolutionary spirit of Bob Marley's music in America, and the "freedom songs" the black prisoners sing disguise their own revolution aided by the African National Congress, whose communist ties the film discretely acknowledges and downplays in favor of the personal-responsibility theme.Noyce achieves a balance between the needs of private citizens and the tyranny of the state, showing how all agendas eventually become public when freedom is at stake.
The film is a well set drama about people struggling for their freedom in their own country, South Africa, based on a true story.
At the end, it turns to be a bit too hasty, and important events which would have enriched the story are left behind.Eventually, I just hope this great film starring Tim Robbins and the excellent Derek Luke will general attention on problems in Africa, and not only those of the past..
He is shown as a human character, he loves his wife and kids, he sings folk songs, and he runs a South African Guantanamo bay; hes a bad man.I cried at one point in the movie, and was interested throughout, the pacing was good.
Patrick is angered into joining the ANC and sabotage the refinery himself.This is a good movie because it shows the reason behind Nic Vos. He's not a simple monster which is the easy way to go.
Derek Luke, an American actor gives a good impression of the man.Chamusso's main antagonist is Nik Vos. He's a Boer and the head of the state's anti-terrorist branch.
Perhaps this was never as powerfully demonstrated as during the apartheid regime of South Africa, and that axiom is equally powerfully portrayed in this movie, which focuses largely on the life story of Patrick Chamusso, played by Derek Luke.
His life revolves around his family, his job, and the boys he coaches soccer to, but after a "terrorist" incident at the plant (which he was not connected to) he comes to the attention of the South African security forces, who are given a face in this movie by Nik Vos (Tim Robbins.) From that point on, Chamusso's life is turned upside down as he and his family are harassed repeatedly with ever increasing violence, to the point at which Chamusso chooses to join the ANC and fight for the end of apartheid by returning to South Africa as a saboteur, targeting the very plant he worked in.The story is well done.
The movie takes place in South Africa during the Apertheid-era where the white minority is controlling the nation's natural resources and the black majority is trying to break free from the chains of this oppressive regime.
Our hero, Patrick (Derek Luke) is actually an innocent man but subjected to terror of torture in the hands of the chief of anti-terror squad, Nic Vos (Tim Robbins).
All in all, the movie is good for people who have not heard about Apartheid before - or even about South Africa.
Patrick Chamusso, a man who has always stayed away from the politics of his native country, South Africa, suddenly finds himself being accused for an act of terrorism at the Secunda electric plant.
Phillip Noyce, the director, working on the material by Shawn Slovo, has come out with a film that makes a case for people like Patrick Chamusso who goes from a passive man into a terrorist that will do anything in his power to make a statement against the oppression the white rule has subjected him and his fellow black South Africans.
especially Nic Vos' (Tim Robbins), the anti-terrorist squad leader's, decision to take the captive Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) to his home, have him have dinner with Vos' entire family.Along with Richard Attenborough's "Cry Freedom" (1987) this is one of the most gripping and believable depictions of the apartheid RSA that I've come across.And now for usenet69, whose postings don't cease to puzzle me - for like a chameleon usenet69 is at times WHITE, and then he/she is BLACK.The following comments were written by registered user usenet69 (click his name to view all of his comments):'Catch a Fire' (2006) comment 'You are all ignorant', 17th January 2007:"(...) You have NO idea what you are talking about.
In Phillip Noyce's Catch a Fire Luke's work is again revealing.He is glaringly miscast.As Patrick Chamusso, a foreman at South Africa's Secunda oil refinery during apartheid, Luke must transform from an apolitical family man into an impassioned African National Congress "terrorist" against the Boer's Police Security Branch.
Derek Luke plays Patrick Chamusso, a young family man working at the Secunda oil refinery in South Africa.
He's done nothing wrong, but Nic Vos (Tim Robbins), the leader of South Africa's Anti-Terrorist group, is convinced of his participation in the attack.
A good movie, with high production values.Tim Robbins is Colonel Nic Vos, and he sounds authentic with either an Irish or South African accent.
Based on a true story, Luke stars as Patrick Chamusso, a revolutionary in the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa.
And, it's not a role that makes him the good guy, rather quite the opposite, so it took courage to accept it.As much as any film I've seen about South Africa's apartheid, this film gives one a good impression of what that era was like for Black people there. |
tt2094018 | Hours | With the exception of the opening and final scenes, which depict the 1941 suicide by drowning of Virginia Woolf in the River Ouse, the action takes place within the span of a single day in three different years and alternates between them throughout the film. In 1923, Virginia has begun writing the book Mrs Dalloway in her home in the town of Richmond outside London. In 1951, troubled Los Angeles housewife Laura Brown escapes from her conventional life by reading Mrs Dalloway. In 2001, New Yorker Clarissa Vaughan is the embodiment of the novel's title character, as she spends the day preparing for a party she is hosting in honor of her former lover and friend Richard, a poet and author living with AIDS who is to receive a major literary award. Richard tells Clarissa he has stayed alive for her sake, and the award is meaningless because he didn't get it sooner, until he was on the brink of death. She tells him she believes he would have won the award regardless of his illness. Richard often refers to Clarissa as "Mrs. Dalloway" - her namesake - because she distracts herself from her own life the way the Woolf character does.
Virginia, who has experienced several nervous breakdowns and suffers from bipolar disorder, feels trapped in her home. She is intimidated by servants and constantly under the eye of her husband, Leonard, who has begun a publishing business, Hogarth Press, at home to stay close to her. Virginia both welcomes and dreads an afternoon visit from her sister Vanessa and her children. After their departure, Virginia flees to the railway station, where she is awaiting a train to central London, when Leonard arrives to bring her home. He tells her how he lives in constant fear that she will take her own life. She says she fears it also but argues that if she is to live, she has the right to decide how and where.
Pregnant with her second child, Laura spends her days in her tract home with her young son, Richie. She married her husband, Dan, soon after World War II. On the surface they are living the American Dream, but she is nonetheless deeply unhappy. She and Richie make a cake for Dan's birthday, but it is a disaster. Her neighbor Kitty drops in to ask her if she can feed her dog while she's in the hospital for a procedure. Kitty reveals that the procedure is related to the fact that she has been unable to conceive, and may portend permanent infertility, and that she really feels that a woman is not complete until she is a mother. Kitty pretends to be upbeat, but Laura senses her sadness and fear and boldly kisses her on the lips; Kitty laughs it off as if it didn't happen. Laura and Richie successfully make another cake and clean up, and then she takes Richie to stay with Mrs. Latch. Richie runs after his mother as she leaves, fearing that she will never come back. Laura checks into a hotel, where she intends to commit suicide. Laura removes several bottles of pills and Mrs. Dalloway from her purse and begins to read it. She drifts off to sleep and dreams the hotel room is flooded. She awakens with a change of heart and caresses her belly. She picks up Richie, and they return home to celebrate Dan's birthday.
Clarissa appears equally worried about Richard's depression and the party she is planning for him. Clarissa, who is bisexual and has been living with Sally Lester for 10 years, had been in a relationship with Richard during their college days. She meets with Richard's ex-lover Louis Waters, who has returned for the festivities. Clarissa's daughter, Julia, comes home to help her prepare. Richard has taken a combination of Xanax and Ritalin and tells Clarissa she is the most beautiful thing he ever had in life, before he commits suicide in front of her. Later that night, Laura (the same who is the central character of the middle story), who is Richard's mother, arrives at Clarissa's apartment. It is clear that Laura's abandonment of her family was deeply traumatic for Richard, but Laura reveals it was a better decision for her to leave the family after the birth of her daughter than to commit suicide. She has led an independent, happier life as a librarian in Canada. She does not apologize for the hurt she caused to her family (Dan and their daughter are also both dead) and suggests that it's not possible to feel regret for something over which she had no choice. She acknowledges that no one will forgive her, but she offers an explanation: "It [her life] was death. I chose life." When Julia visits Laura in her bedroom, she treats her with kindness and sensitivity that Laura does not expect to receive.
The film ends with a voice-over in which Virginia thanks Leonard for loving her: "Always the years between us. Always the years. Always the love. Always the hours." | flashback | train | wikipedia | I will admit that I would probably not watched this movie if Paul Walker had not tragically passed away last Sunday.
This quiet little film certainly introduced me to a whole new and better Paul Walker."Hours" is about Nolan Hayes.
Just watch it (especially if you thought 'The Impossible' was a great piece of film)One of the core roles a man feels he needs to provide for his family is protection and to provide; this film shows this by putting Nolan (Walker) in scenarios where you feel his struggle to keep the only thing he has safe..
I watched this movie weeks before Paul Walker had passed and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I recently watched the brilliant Hours, and to say the great Paul Walker nailed this role is an understatement.What an honest and sincere portrayal of a desperate grieving father (Nolan Hayes) and the horrors of trying everything possible to ensure that his new born baby daughter (Abigail) survives, whilst on a ventilator machine in a hospital.It's simply just heart-breaking to watch and again, what a performance by Walker.All this includes the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina's devastation to add to the tension of this awesome movie.
The multiple flashbacks works extremely well to tell the back-story of Nolan's life and it reminded me of movies like 127 Hours.I have noticed that some critics and fans have complained that the movie is either too long or has some plot holes.
I just kept on thinking, the movie although it has a very simple story, covered what it needed too realistically and I didn't personally find any plot holes; plus the time-frame was just perfect.What a great shame that Paul Walker died recently, because although greatly missed, he should rightly so, be very proud of this movie (and many others that he had done previously), and had so much more to offer as a great actor.I urge everyone to see this movie as soon as possible - whatever the format for Walker's performance but also, the movie as a whole is genuinely great.
In August 2005, in New Orleans, Nolan Hayes (Paul Walker) brings his pregnant wife Abigail (Genesis Rodriguez) with Eclampsia to the Saint Mary Hospital.
"Hours" is a dramatic and tense movie with Paul Walker that has magnificent performance in the role of a father that struggles to keep his baby alive during the tragedy of the Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
the adrenaline pumping action movies that has made him a household name that would be remembered forever.Decently directed unfortunately quite poorly written by Eric Heisser, this script offers Paul Walker a herculean Hollywood challenge.
I have to admit a fan wouldn't see that Paul Walker is capable of pulling HOURS off as well as he does since it is pretty much a one man show much like Tom Hanks in CASTAWAY.
I guess if you are brave enough to take a jab at the challenge of writing a movie around a true disaster you need to be ready to take certain hits.To be released on the 13th December HOURS is the story of Nolan who loses his wife Abigail to the birth of their own daughter on the night of the devastating typhoon Katrina.
Nolan Hayes (Paul Walker) brings his pregnant wife (Genesis Rodriguez) to the hospital right as Hurricane Katrina is about to hit.
Also, initially, it does tend to lag a bit and might permeate a false sense of tedious pacing, so it's important that you be patient and allow yourself the chance to be rewarded as the pace and tension kicks in with further proceedings.Kudos to the Director for keeping his viewers engrossed till the end and making us care enough for the only two relevant characters in the entire film, to the point that we simply need to find out their eventual fate.
Yes, the suspense and tension is there, but in a much more dramatic and character driven sort of way.Coming down to the performances, there is virtually just one actor in the entire film and nobody else.
Take the scene where Paul Walker's character is being given very bad news from a doctor concerning his wife.
Hours should've been a film full of tension, but Heisserer failed to deliver by adding so many unnecessary and forced scenes and not relying on Walker's physical performance alone.The film takes place in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina as Nolan (Paul Walker) takes his pregnant wife, Abigail (Genesis Rodriguez), to a local hospital as she enters early labor.
It dragged during several moments making me feel like I was watching an over two hour film, when in reality it was just a 95 minute movie.
Paul Walker does a great job acting in this movie, and that pretty much is the only thing holding this film together.
first off allR.I.P Poul..it really broke our heart.we will miss u in F&FOK..this movie..his last movie..i know this movie about a guy and his daughter trapped at a hospital for a whole day and need Help but nobody is there and above that ..there will be some action in last 15 minutes..but dunno what to say honestlyfrom start to finish ..same place..same thing..leave daughter and look for something..get back and again and again and again same stuff for 75 minutes ..directing is poor..Paul acting was meh..i respect him but im 100% sure he's not good for movies he only need to act in F&F just for the fans...thats it..i cant even rate this movie 4..but i'll give it 3.
In this low budget small cast film Walker demonstrate that he was capable of providing a fine dramatic performance with the addendum of fast cars and wild action that brought him to fame.
Writer/director Eric Heisserer manages to make a film with big emotions confined to a hospital corridor and room, and given the presence of Paul Walker, it works.We are transported to New Orleans August 23, 2005 - August 30, 2005 when Hurricane Katrina's devastation destroyed the lives of many.
Nolan Hayes (Paul Walker) gets a call from his beloved wife Abigail (Genesis Rodriquez) that she is going into early labor and is being taken by ambulance to the hospital.
The degree of love that forms between the new father and the infant now named Abigail is palpably real.The film has weak points - a script that loosens when it should tighten, some extraneous business that doesn't add to the drama, some very un-medical information that must be taken with a grain of salt - but Paul Walker manages to involve us and make us care.
As this was the last full movie made by Paul Walker before he died in a fatal car crash, you can't help thinking that it's a total waste of a great actor who didn't really get the recognition that he deserved.
I couldn't imagine how it would be to be in a situation were you are in a hospital by yourself keeping your baby alive, so with that in mind, it wasn't all bad.Budget: $4million Worldwide Gross: N/AI recommend this movie to people who are into there deep dramas about a man trying to keep is baby alive with a generator in a hospital by himself.
Paul Walker did a great job in this film.I love his acting ability and he always fascinates me with his acting.In this film you'll see a guy who deals with his daughter during hurricane.You'll see despair and perseverance.In brief,it is a film that you should watch..
When it comes to acting, like I said earlier, Paul Walker carried the entire cast throughout the entire movie, and it is truly incredible.
you really feel his drive and emotion in this film such a great performance and movie all around, the only thing I didn't like is that it was focused around Katrina and how awful people acted after the hurricane.
With great actor like Paul Walker these movies are almost perfect.The Story-line was great.
It had BEAUTIFUL Ending and also it's very emotional film.I Recommend this movie to everyone, who love great Dramas and Especially to those who knew Paul Walker.Rest in peace.
not a big Paul Walker fan myself, but his acting in this film should, have won him an award for sure.
I would have liked to look-up the real guy and his daughter online to find out how their lives have been since Katrina.So despite not meeting my initial hopes and expectations, this film was a near-total success, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it..
It kind of surprised me when I realized that there hadn't been any major movies about Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it brought to New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast in 2005 – until "Hours" (PG-13, 1:37) hit theaters.
Like many smart filmmakers, Eric Heisserer, who wrote this film and also directs (for the first time), tells a very big story through the experiences of a very small group of people.
This whole situation is all the more poignant because the star of "Hours", Paul Walker, didn't live to see this movie released.
Abby dies and Nolan's baby girl is not yet breathing on her own, needing to be on a respirator for about 48 hours.Then, Hurricane Katrina robs the hospital of its power and the subsequent flooding takes out the back-up generators and forces the hospital to evacuate all its patients, staff, nurses and doctors.
Minutes stretch into hours and Nolan grows increasingly desperate for help to arrive before either he or his baby succumbs to their overwhelming circumstances."Hours" is both an excellent thriller and a great drama and is the kind of movie that can even make a tough guy tear up.
The tragedy and tension in the movie competed for my emotional attention with the sadness I felt believing that this film could have been a game-changer for Paul Walker's career.
One of the final movies of a fine actor of our time, Paul Walker.
He was more known for starring in Fast & Furious franchise, along with many other action movies, but I feel Paul Walker had only begun to mature as an actor, he will be sorely missed.Nolah Hayes (Paul Walker) is trapped in a hospital during her wife's labor and also hurricane Katrina, a mix of excellent timing and unfortunate fate.
The crucial aspect is how Walker delivers it with a hint of desperation.Hours is a simple movie elevated by a great actor, who delivered one of his last and best performance..
Just like "Gravity," this movie is basically a one-man show, and Paul Walker effectively and surprisingly carries all the dramatic weight needed to combat with Hurricane Katrina.This film centers around a man named Nolan Hayes who is in the hospital with his wife in labor.
Facing the hurricane's wrath, Nolan must fight the odds to keep himself and his baby alive.To see Paul tackle a role like this amazed me, because he was mostly an action star.
It's a little rough at the beginning as Walker's character Nolan reacts to hearing news that his wife has died during child birth and that his daughter, born premature, is on a respirator for at least 48 hours.
this is the list of depression movies like Tom Hanks in Coast Away when he was lost in island but in this movie it is hospital he has to protect his daughter baby born daughter his wifegave birth to her baby she died from that i find that very sad because when the daughter grows up the daughter will only live with Nolan Paul Walker not mum that is shame that is so sad.
Paul Walker does an amazing job and he made the film for me he made his character that everyone would care about him being desperate, this movie kinda suits for the weather because it is depression movie with bad weather, playing sad role like in i am legend this is kinda bit like that because dog is with him protecting him and baby this is not rip off like i am legend.
It's simply just heart-breaking to watch and again, what a performance by Walker, i have to say the great Paul Walker nailed this role is an understatement he just put's the heart on this movie and himself and Genesis Rodriguez just made characters in caring about them there is very sad scene with Paul and Genesis sitting together in room with baby she is ghost when i looked at Paul Walker crying i feel bad about him even i cried some of scenes were very it's like his saying i miss everyone that he loves specially his wife i find Genesis Rodriguez role very supporting she is not in all movie she was still hot with red dress i love the Love scenes with Paul Walker there is back stories it doesn't just show Paul in Hospital with Baby him talking i mean that would be boring i agree in 127 hours was slow just James Franco is at rock trapped doesn't do noting this movie did a lot Apart form 127 Hours this is so strong as it made cry so hard most people should respect Paul Walker i mean people say he is crap actor i mean why ?
It's a special breed who can claim so much screen time in a film and carry it so convincingly.There were a lot of tense moments that gave the viewer a thrilling ride through this man's ordeal, pausing just enough for a light encounter or a reflection on a building love story to tie it all together in a very interesting and entertaining way..
Immediately I wanted to see the film after watching the trailer as it seemed like Walker puts out his best acting performance yet!
After watching the film I was stunned by Paul Walker's performance.
If the plot holes were fixed and if they would gave some of the actors bigger roles in the film I think this could have been a really great film.My suggestion to people who want to see this movie or are fans of Paul Walker is see this movie.
Paul Walker was supposed to be lead roles in other films such as Nicholas Sparks newest movie "The Best of Me" and Agent 47.
Except for that aspect, which is only a small part, the movie was great and this is easily Paul Walkers best work.
Nolan (Paul Walker) tries to do whatever he can to save his newborn baby girl after all the hospital staff takes off to help save other patients.
It's a Macguffin, at best.) By the time other characters appear, you're already numb with boredom, and it's too late to save the film.But Walker's acting is good, so it deserves some stars..
I heard of this movie right after Paul Walker's death, it was his last film.
It's a story, placed in 2009 during Hurricane Katrina, about Nolan Hayes (Paul Walker) whose wife dies during childbirth and who is struggling to save his newly born child lying in neonatal incubator.
Here Walker, very good, showing his capabilities as an actor if given the right material, is forced to stay back at an evacuated hospital, to look after his infant daughter, after Katrina strikes.
Paul Walker was always been a good man in every movie he play.
this man risks life and limb to save his daughter and the ending of the movie will move you like never before.not a big Paul Walker fan myself, but his acting in this film should have won him an award for sure.
Walker did a good job acting and overall the movie is watchable unless you are one to have a hard time watching a story line that is utterly impossible and unbelievable - c'mon...
Instead it's a single location character drama for the most part, as the late Paul Walker is the sole resident of an evacuated hospital in New Orleans at the time of Hurricane Katrina.
Walker's okay - he was always a better actor than people expected given his popularity in the Fast & Furious films - but the pacing is slow and the direction fails to inspire, the movie only coming to life in the last 20 minutes or so..
The best thing about the movie is we get to see a different side to Paul Walker.
The Hurricane itself passed through without too much damage but a weakened and likely poorly-designed levee system allowed massive flooding, power loss, and a multitude of problems.This movie stars Paul Walker as Nolan Hayes, beginning as his wife is in labor for their first child.
The primary reason I watched this movie was because it had Paul Walker in it.
because it's a pretty realistic story and tells a story of a father who struggles under unimaginable situations to keep her newborn daughter alive during a hurricane.I would perhaps have ranked this movie even lower than 5/10, if not for Paul Walker..
It doesn't feel low budget and doesn't take anything from the story.Paul Walker is the star of this film.
Paul Walker is essentially, the entire show here, and he carries this film like a champ.
To be perfectly honest with you, I'm not sure how good this movie would have been without Paul Walker.
Though I admit to being a fan of the Fast and Furious franchise, this movie shows that Paul Walker's best acting still lay ahead of him before his untimely death.
(Spoiler alert) The movie is set in the hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, where Paul Walker's character, Nolan, battles to keep his premature, incubator dependent baby alive in a hospital devoid of power.
In "Hours", it sadly does; since Paul Walker's character can't get out of the room for more than two minutes, he basically spends all the movie's length in the same room.
A little morbid to watch this movie after the passing of Paul Walker. |
tt0317751 | Janwar | Mr. Srivastava lives a very wealthy lifestyle with his wife and two sons, Mahendra and Sunder. He plans to get his sons married to women from equally wealthy backgrounds. Mahendra falls in love with Seema, who is poor and lives with her stepmother. This creates considerable acrimony in the family, and Seema is not accepted as a daughter-in-law. Unable to find a solution, Mahendra takes to alcohol and falls in the bewitching clutches of a beautiful courtesan named Bahaar.
While vacationing in Srinagar, Sunder meets Sapna, who also comes from a poor family, falls in love with her and wants to marry her. She, too, falls in love with him. After the vacation, the two part company. The next time Sapna sees Sunder, he in the company of a pregnant woman and overhears that he is soon to be a father. Did Sunder decide to obey his father's instructions after all? If so, what is to become of Sapna? | romantic | train | wikipedia | Lighthearted Romantic Drama. Janwar Directed By Bhappie Sonie...Is A Romantic Drama....Script Is Fine....Screenplay Is Better For Such Script...Everything Works..Story Is About Mr. Shrivastava Who Lives A Very Wealthy Lifestyle With His Wife And Two Sons, Mahendra & Sunder.... Mahendra Falls In Love With Seema, Who is Poor, Lives With Her Stepmother... This Creates Acrimony in The Family, She is Not Accepted As A Daughter-in-law..... Unable To Find A Solution, Mahendra Takes To Alcohol And Falls In The Bewitching Clutches Of A Courtesan Named Bahaar.....While Vacationing In Srinagar, Sunder Meets Sapna, Who Also Comes From a Poor Family, They Fall In Love & Want To Marry..... After The Vacation, The Two Part Company.... The Next Time Sapna Sees Sunder, He Is In The Company Of A Pregnant Woman & Overhears That He is Soon To Be A Father.....So What Is The Reason... With Few Twists & Turns ...Finally We Have A Happy Ending...Shammi Kapoor As Sunder Is Similar To His Earlier Movies...He Does Well In The Romantic Scenes....Rajshree As Sapna Does Well With Her Performance ....Rehman & Shyama Both Did Fine....Above All Prithviraj Kapoor As Mr.Shrivastava Is Amazing ...He Is Too Good In Few of The Scenes.....Music Is Composed By Shankar Jaikishan Is Again Excellent....Mostly Rafi Songs Like "Tumse Accha Kaun Hai" "Meri Mohabbat Jawan Rahegi" & "Laal Chhadi Maidan Khadi" Are Well Written By Hasrat Jaipuri & Shailendra......Overall A Lighthearted Romantic Flick ....Good Songs & Interesting Screenplay ..Even Though Story Is Predictable Keeps You Moving...Must Watch For The Kapoor's :) |
tt0405422 | The 40 Year Old Virgin | Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) is a 40-year-old virgin who lives alone, collects action figures, plays video games, and whose social life seems to consist of watching Survivor with his elderly neighbors. He works in the stockroom at SmartTech, an electronics store. When a friend drops out of a poker game, Andy's co-workers David (Paul Rudd), Cal (Seth Rogen), Mooj (Gerry Bednob), and Jay (Romany Malco) reluctantly invite Andy. At the game, when conversation turns to past sexual exploits, the group learns that Andy is still a virgin.
The group resolves to help Andy lose his virginity. Throughout the next several days, the group's efforts prove to be unsuccessful, partly because all three men give Andy different and sometimes contradictory advice. They take him to have his chest waxed, which he gives up halfway. Cal advises Andy to simply ask questions when talking to women, which makes Andy seem mysterious. His advice proves to be the most helpful, when Beth (Elizabeth Banks), a bookstore clerk, takes a liking to Andy. Andy starts to open up, and begins to form friendships with his co-workers. After running into his ex-girlfriend Amy in a speed dating event, David, who is still obsessed over her, has an emotional breakdown while making a sale. Store manager Paula (Jane Lynch) sends him home and promotes Andy to fill in for him.
Jay attempts to quicken the process by hiring Andy a prostitute. When Andy discovers the hooker is a male transvestite, he confronts his friends and tells them that he will manage a date with a woman on his own. Andy lands a date with Trish Piedmont (Catherine Keener), a woman he met on the sales floor. During Andy and Trish's first date, as they are about to have sex, they are interrupted by Trish's teenage daughter Marla (Kat Dennings). Andy prepares to tell Trish he is a virgin, but Trish suggests that they postpone having sex. Andy enthusiastically agrees; they decide to postpone it to the 20th date. At work, Paula is impressed by Andy's salesmanship and promotes him to floor manager.
As Andy's 20th date draws closer, his friends begin to deal with the consequences of their lifestyles. David, still spiraling in his obsession with Amy, has become disillusioned with sex and has taken a vow of celibacy. Cal, worried about him, hires Bernadette (Marika Dominczyk), an attractive woman, to fill in for Andy. Jay gets into an argument with an obnoxious customer (Kevin Hart). He confides with Andy that his girlfriend Jill learned of his infidelity and broke up with him. Andy comforts Jay, who says that sex can ruin a relationship. Jill later decides to take Jay back (she is pregnant, and her misgivings about Jay as a father figure were what had spurred the breakup).
Andy and Trish's relationship grows, and Trish suggests that Andy sell his collectible action figures, which will earn him enough money to open his own store. Later, Andy takes Marla to a sexual health clinic, where Marla reveals herself to be a virgin. The counselor (Nancy Carell) remains sympathetic, while the other patients in the clinic laugh at Marla. Andy admits that he is a virgin as well, but only gains ridicule himself. On the way back to Trish's house, Marla tells Andy that she has known he is a virgin for a while. She promises to let Andy tell this to Trish by himself.
On their 20th date, Andy is still reluctant about sex and resists Trish, upsetting her. An argument ensues, in which Andy accuses Trish of pushing him into changing his life against his will. He leaves for the nightclub where Jay is celebrating his girlfriend's pregnancy. David finally relinquishes his celibacy and hooks up with Bernadette. Andy gets drunk and, after running into Beth, goes to her apartment with her. Marla convinces Trish to go and make up with Andy. By this time Andy has sobered up and, after witnessing Beth's methods of foreplay, he starts to have second thoughts. His friends arrives and encourage Andy to go back to Trish.
They leave together (except for Cal), and Andy returns to his apartment, where he finds Trish waiting for him. He attempts to apologize, but Trish, having found various suspicious items in his apartment, is now afraid that Andy may be some sort of sexual deviant. Andy tries to convince her otherwise and declares his love for her, but she leaves in alarm and disgust. Andy chases after her on his bike, but collides with her car and flies headlong into the side of a truck. Trish rushes to him in concern, and he finally confesses to her that he is a virgin. She is surprised to learn that this is the reason behind his strange behavior, as she does not consider it to be important, and they kiss.
Later, Andy and Trish are married in a lavish ceremony with everyone in attendance, with a sidelong mention of Andy's action figures having sold for half a million dollars. Afterwards, they consummate the marriage over a period of two hours and three minutes, transitioning into a musical scene where the characters sing and dance to "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In". | comedy, adult comedy, cute, flashback, humor, romantic, entertaining | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0066730 | 10 Rillington Place | The film begins in 1944 with John Christie murdering his neighbour Muriel Eady: he lures her to his flat in 10 Rillington Place by promising to cure her bronchitis with a "special mixture", then incapacitates her with carbon monoxide gas, strangles her with a piece of rope, and has (implied) sex with her corpse. He buries her in his flat block's communal garden, where a dog uncovers one of his previous victims.
In 1949, Tim and Beryl Evans move into 10 Rillington Place, west London, with their infant daughter Geraldine. Beryl is pregnant again and attempts an abortion by taking some pills. When she informs Tim, they have a violent argument, which Christie breaks up. Soon after, Christie offers to help Beryl terminate the pregnancy. He pretends to read a medical textbook one day in an effort to convince Tim of his expertise. Tim is essentially illiterate and cannot tell that Christie is lying. The Evanses agree to let Christie perform the procedure.
Christie occupies his wife, Ethel, by sending her to his office with some paperwork. He grabs his killing tools, makes a cup of tea, and hurries upstairs to Beryl. He is interrupted by a team of builders who are there to renovate the outbuilding. He lets them in, and when he sees they are well-occupied, he pours a new cup of tea and heads back upstairs. Beryl has a violent reaction to the gas, and Christie punches her in the face to knock her out. He then strangles and sexually assaults her.
When Tim returns, Christie tells him that Beryl died of complications from the procedure. Tim wants to go to the police, but Christie convinces him that he will be seen as an accessory before the fact. Christie suggests that Tim leave town that night, while Christie disposes of Beryl's body. He promises that he will place the baby in the care of a childless couple from East Acton. Tim reluctantly agrees, and leaves the house in the middle of the night. Christie then strangles Geraldine with a necktie.
Tim hides out with his aunt and uncle in Merthyr Tydfil, pretending that he is in town on business. He claims that Beryl and the baby are visiting her family in Brighton. Tim's relatives send a letter to Beryl's father, who telegraphs in response to say that he has not seen Beryl in months. When confronted by his relatives, Tim admits what (he believes) happened, and he visits the local police. He confesses to disposing of Beryl's body in the sewer after the botched abortion. Three London police officers lift the manhole, but do not find Beryl's body. A search of 10 Rillington Place eventually uncovers the bodies of Beryl and the baby in the bathroom, where Christie hid them.
When Tim is brought back to London, he is charged with the murders of his wife and daughter. In shock, and despondent over the news, he confesses to both crimes, though he is guilty of neither. During his trial, Christie is a key witness. Tim's defence shreds Christie's credibility by airing his previous criminal activity. Nevertheless, Tim is found guilty and hanged.
Two years after the trial, Ethel begins to fear her husband, and informs Christie she will move out to stay with relatives. When he begs her not to leave him, Ethel implies that he should be in prison. Christie murders her that night and hides her body under the floorboards. Later, he meets a woman suffering from a migraine in a restaurant. He pretends to be a medical expert and promises her a cure. He is next seen putting fresh wallpaper on a wall in his living room; it is implied that he has hidden the woman's body in the space behind the wall.
In 1953, Christie is living in a hostel. Meanwhile, new tenants are moving into the Christie's flat. They complain about the awful smell, and one of them peels off the wallpaper to find a space behind the wall, where they find three of Christie's victims. Soon after, Christie is noticed by a police officer in Putney and arrested. The film ends with an intertitle explaining that Tim Evans was posthumously pardoned and reinterred in consecrated ground. | murder | train | wikipedia | The name is taken from the scene of the murders; 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London.Chillingly portrayed by the great actor Richard Attenborough , Christie was a little mouse of a man who first lured his victims home on some pretext or other, usually by saying that he could perform some desired medical procedure on them, for example, an abortion, which was illegal at the time.
Another reason was that he was able to turn the suspicions of the police from him to a not very bright truck driver named Timothy Evans, (played by John Hurt) who was convicted of the death of his baby daughter, and was also suspected in the murder of his wife, but due to English law could only be tried for one or the other of them.
When Christie was found guilty and hanged as a serial killer of women, the body of Evans was exhumed and reburied in consecrated ground but this did nothing to hide the embarrassment of those who supported the death penalty.The film itself is a dark and brooding masterpiece which depicts life in post-war London perfectly.
The case of young and fully dim-witted Timothy Evans (so brilliantly played by John Hurt) who comes to lodge and whose pretty young wife (Geeson) becomes another victim of the serial killer Christie represented the height of British injustice when Christie himself was able to manipulate the facts to point the finger of guilt at Evans himself and who was actually hanged for the murder of his wife and child.
Three years after "the Boston strangler" ,Richard Fleischer brilliantly succeeds in transferring to the screen a horrible true story.The two movies do not look like each other though."Boston strangler" was spectacular,making the best use of the split screen I've ever seen."10 RP" is an austere bleak work ,all the more disturbing than its style is bald.Richard Attenborough(an extraordinary performance,on a par with Peter Lorre's"M") portrays one of those serial killers in the first half of last century.Two good examples :Landru ,whose character Charlie Chaplin used in "Monsieur Verdoux " and Claude Chabrol in his eponymous movie,or "Doctor Petiot" who was doing on a small scale (killing Jews to despoil them) what the Nazis were doing on a large one.
Christie ,Landru and Petiot are close relatives.They seem harmless,mediocre little men .Not the serial killer we meet in today's thrillers.And Christie is given the adequate treatment by his director:the poor house,the crummy flats ,the pubs ,the no-future of an uneducated generation (Fleischer lays stress on the fact that Tim cannot read and write ).This illiteracy is partly responsible for Tim's unfair revolting fate.Fleischer's style is plain;the trial scenes,when any director would have his actors overact is a lesson a lot of the current artists should pay attention to.The hanging could not be spookier.One cannot help but think that the last lines about Tim on the screen are a bit ironical.Matching Attenborough's awesome portrayal,is John Hurt's remarkable Tim:definitely not Gregory Peck as his wife thinks,macho but pitiful,a not very handsome whining lad who cannot hold a candle to his maleficent owner.You should see "the Boston strangler" and "10 Rillington place" one after the other.
Director Richard Fleischer is not portraying a serial killer monster like Hannibal Lector, but rather a boring and nice guy who turning to a mentally disturbed and brutal serial killer.The atmosphere in the dirty London suburbs is photographed in a very dark and intense way, as most of the scenes take place in Christie's old back street house.
Richard Fleischer directed several films dramatising real-life murders; '10 Rillington Place' is his re-enactment of John Christie's murders, adapted by Ludovic Kennedy from his book on the case.
He and his late wife Moira Shearer sometimes invited me to their home in Avebury.) This film, shot largely in the actual locations, benefits from note-perfect reconstruction of England and Wales in the ration-book days of meat-safes and doss-houses.I'm almost but not quite old enough to remember first-hand the scandal of Christie's murders, the false conviction and execution of Timothy Evans, and Christie's trial and execution.
10 Rillington Place is a creepy, eerie film about the true story of an innocent man, Timothy Evans, played by the wonderful John Hurt (who should be Knighted by now) is framed by his landlord, John Reginald Christie played the fabulous Lord Richard Attenborough, for the murder of his pregnant wife, Beryl, and infant daughter, Geraldine.
Both these women incorporate the faults (Beryl Evans is an inadequate mother and homemaker, Ethyl Christie won't tell the truth to save Tim Evans) for a complete performance.Just a couple of quibbles: In many scenes John Hurt is shown almost a full head taller than Richard Attenborough.
Brilliant underatted film about injustice.It tells two stories the life of serial killer John Reginald Christie and that of wrongly convicted and condemned Timothy Evans.Both of their characters are very well depicted in this very true and disturbing story.The film shows how the simple poor Timothy Evans was easily manipulated by the cleverer cold and cunning Christie.This is the only film that has given me nightmares,i think mainly because the film aims to be as realistic as possible.I never realised that they used the real 10 Rillington Place,i can understand now why the atmosphere of the film is so eerie and creepy,you've got to admit no other film is so convincing in giving you this effect,in the way this film does.The Shinning comes close,but then that was a much more expensive film and you know its really fiction.Dickie and John Hurt play their parts brilliantly,John Hurts Welsh accent is good and convincing,it shows how good an actor he really is.When Christy was eventually caught,he confessed to all his murders and later went on to confess to killing Beryl Evans,but always denied killing baby Geraldine,this is why Timothy Evans was not immediately given a pardon.No one was ever tried for killing baby Geraldine,so her death still remains unsolved.The chances are Christie was hoping to escape the death penalty by pleading insanity as it became established that Christies motives for murder were purely sexual ones,he had necrophillia,if he admitted killing baby Geraldine it would have blown his chances {he thought}.This would have proved him to be the cold blooded cunning psychopath capable of randomly killing anyone who got in his way.The film supports this view,this man was capable of anything,after all you cant believe a word of anyone who lies under oath in a court of law to let someone else go to the gallows for a murder that they had committed themselves.This is a brilliant anti capital punishment film,and along with the Derek Bently case which was a couple of years later shows just how easily an innocent person can be executed.This is a film that makes you think..
It creates a definitive 'world' in which the film can take place a world which seems very real and is put across through thanks to feelings that anything could happen and that anybody could run into anybody; this creates a very unpredictable and uncomfortable atmosphere, especially if you're like me and you didn't know the full story about the real life events of John Christie.The film is also shot in a way that makes it look very grimy and very bleak London in the 1940s and 50s is a perfect setting as run down houses and depressing to look at streets litter the exterior shots of the film when murder is in the air.
Also, the way in which these are shot is highly effective Christie talks to the victims in a calm and logistical way; convincing them it'll be alright and for a time, it seems like it will be; it's only when they start struggling after realising something's wrong that the tension really begins and the build up pays off.When the film finishes its little first chapter which is dominated by realistic dialogue, fabulous cinematography and a blinding performance from Attenborough as Christie; it then goes down another route which brings the character of Evans more into play.
The film remains dark, brooding and there is definitely an uneasy feeling as you watch some later scenes which I'm sure you know of yet I shall not spoil but the predictability that it was at the time regarding 'bad guys' and 'justice' is followed through in a rather easy and unsatisfying manner although the film DID stick true to what happened in real life.I think 10 Rillington Place is one of those films that will remain etched into British film and into film in general as if there was ever a template to somehow work around when making a thriller/horror like this one, 10 Rillington Place is perhaps the first place you'd look..
Judy Geeson is excellent as Beryl Evans, as is her screen husband John Hurt; Richard Attenborough similarly turns in a blistering performance as their sinister yet cunning landlord Christie.
Christie then uses his excellent wit against Evans to kill Beryl and Geraldine, and get Evans wrongfully sent to the gallows for the murders.I find it very hard to sit through movies over 90 minutes long, but 10 Rillington Place kept me hooked all through it's 2 hour running time.
Richard Attenborough (who most people my age will probably only recognise as the old bloke from Jurassic Park) puts in an exceptional performance in the true life story of John Reginal Christie and the murders at 10 Rillington Place.
From what i have read of Christie, Attenborough acts him out perfectly as the quiet, unassuming and nonthreatening landlord, whilst at the same time managing to hold a creepy undertone throughout.A young couple Timothy and Beryl Evans (played by John Hurt and Judy Gleeson) choose to stay at rundown 10 Rillington Place as Tim's big dreams of becoming a somebody have not yet come into fruition (quite possibly because he is a very slow and very stupid dreamer that will never amount to anything.) Tim knows he has done well in managing to persuade Beryl to not only live with him, but to also have his first child.
It would appear in the film that the sex life he had with his wife died a death many years ago so he took to preying on innocent women - those that had the misfortune of renting a room in his seedy, dark and creepy house.Through the film it is clear that Christie's wife had at least a good idea as to what her sick and twisted husband was up to and this is why she went to stay with her family in Sheffield - she simply couldn't face up to the horrific truth of what her husband really was while at the same time she couldn't bring herself to bringing it to the attention of the Police through loyalty to her husband, no matter how sick he was.Nothing gave me greater joy to see Christie captured by the Thames and then to go on to suffer the same fate as the innocent Evans, even though I am against capital punishment.It goes to demonstrate that, back in those dark days it was quite easy to con the Police if you had a decent intelligence and let an innocent take the flack for your terrible crimes.The film is deeply disturbing, upsetting and tragic.
The darkness of the times, the grim and gritty environment are masterfully recreated, and the cast could not have been better chosen: John Hurt, as the naive Evans, and Richard Attenborough, as the sinister Christie, give truly impressive performances.These two actors are in quite a few of my favorite films.
10 Rillington Place is a movie about John Reginald Christie, portrayed by a frightening Richard Attenborough, who was one of Britain's most controversial serial killers.
It's portrayal of John Reginald Christie as a serial killer haunted me back at my first viewing and continues to haunt me to this day.As we watch the film we see the the careful and evil planning of the murders and believe me it's just dark....it does make your skin crawl.
In the post WWII years in London, Christie rents out a flat to a struggling young couple, Timothy and Beryl Evans (John Hurt and lovely Judy Geeson).
American director Richard Fleischer could sometimes ham up his films but shows a sure footing here showing a shabby, dishevelled post war London in this film chronicling a notorious miscarriage of justice, one which took an important step in the abolition of capital punishment from the British statute books.Richard Attenborough is chilling as the softly spoken charlatan John Christie, who claimed to know it all and who enticed women to his home in the pretext of inducing an abortion but who used his gas set up to murder women and then it is hinted, committed sexual acts on their dead bodies before hiding the corpses.John Hurt plays the dim braggart Timothy Evans who moves in as a tenant in the house along with his wife and baby daughter.
Hence, there are a couple of artistic licences taken with this true-crime story, but the film maintains a vice-like mind grip with its atmosphere of fear, a tactic with which director Fleischer had already successfully dabbled in his earlier serial killer flick, "The Boston Strangler".Judy Geeson plays Hurt's ill-fated young wife, while Pat Heywood is Attenborough's ignorant spouse and the remaining cast includes Isobel Black, Andre Morell, Robert Hardy, Basil Dignam, Rudolph Walker and Reg Lye all in very minor roles.
Never glorifying in the subject but likewise, never shying away from how the devious and conniving Christie wormed his way into people's desperate lives, the main thrust of the narrative is about new tenants, illiterate Welsh Valley's Timothy Evans (a young, utterly superb John Hurt, sporting a fine accent) and his wife, Beryl (Judy Geeson).With the couple in arrears with their rent at Rillington Place, Beryl finds that she is, again pregnant.
This is the kind of Film that can be Used to Argue that one Need Not Fill the Screen with Blood and Gore to make a Disturbing, Horrific Movie that will leave Audiences Gasping, coupled with Sleepless Nights and Shivering Spines.Richard Attenborough and John Hurt along with a Fine Supporting Cast give Richard Fleischer's No Nonsense Direction a True Crime Film that can Stand Alongside Any in the Genre.It is Creepy, Unnerving, and Gut-Wrenching the way it uses Real Locations and Strangles the Viewer with Claustrophobic Sets and Enclosed Environs.
A Must See for True Crime Fans and Movie Lovers who Relish the same Old Story with a completely Different Edge.Note...The real life serial killings portrayed in this Film that lead to the subsequent trial and false conviction and execution of the wrong Man helped in the abolition of the death penalty in Britain..
on which this film is based, the real life British serial killer John Reginald Christie.The film is the story of a young couple, Timothy and his wife Beryl, who move into the flat above Mr. Christie's at 10 Rillington Place and befriend him, having no idea of the tragedy he will bring upon them.It is nicely paced, and there isn't much action.
This is the one film that deflects some attention from 'Jack the Ripper' occasionally, within the genre of flicks on serial killers.It focuses on the murders of John Reginald Halliday Christie at his notorious 'House of Horrors', which has become synonomous with the address in our minds, in 1940's-50's Notting Hill, West London.A pathetic character , Christie, played by Richard Attenborough, has an air of the respectable neighbourly clerk, when in fact at the start of the film, we can see him burying bodies - the result of his sex-crazed killings, in the back garden.Yet this story does not end there.
Some writers actually believe Evans was guilty of this murder or that of his wife, whatever the posthumous pardon may state, that was given for the murder of his baby.This debate goes on to today and helped along the abolition of the death penalty in the UK.A fine, grisly atmospheric film, portrayed well by Richard Attenborough as Christie, John Hurt as Evans, Judy Geeson as Beryl and Pat Heywood as Ethel Christie..
"10 Rillington Place" tells the true story of one of Britain's most infamous serial killers, John Reginald Halliday Christie, who between 1943 and 1953 murdered seven women, including his own wife, and one young child.
A number of masterful acting performances dominate this production of Ludovic Kennedy's novel.A deceitful and manipulative Christie is portrayed by Attenborough as he continually dupes the gullible Evanses played by Judy Geeson and John Hurt.He convinces Timothy Evans to rent an apartment which Beryl Evans is clearly unsure about playing upon his competitive nature as a Welshman saying he has another offer from an Irish couple.This seems to set the scene for Christie's continual control over Evans which eventually leads to him confessing to a crime that a vast amount of evidence points to Christie having committed.There are a number of ironic statements in the dialog such as "I don't want this house getting a name" when telling Beryl and Tim off for shouting at each other frequently.Evans tells Christie that he expects to be promoted to manager soon to which Christie replies "don't you need to be able to read and write for that?" Christie continually mocks Evans even after his wife's death.
Timothy Evans (John Hurt) and his wife Beryl (Judy Geeson) move into 10 Rillington Place near middle-aged John Christie (Richard Attenborough).
It wasn't until a couple moved in downstairs that the true evil of John Christie became known.Timothy Evans and his pregnant wife Beryl moved in to 10 Rillington Place in 1949.
Three years after Evans was executed, it was discovered that the murderer was actually John Christie and that he was a serial killer who had killed six other women (including his wife) in 10 Rillington Place since 1943.
Timothy John Evans (BAFTA nominated John Hurt) with his wife Beryl (Judy Geeson) and their baby move in to the upstairs flats of 10 Rillington Place owned by John Reginald Christie (Lord Sir Richard Attenborough). |
tt0072666 | Zaat | The film begins with Nazi mad scientist Dr. Kurt Leopold in his lab, where he has lived alone for about 20 years (it is revealed later in the film that he graduated cum laude from MIT in 1934). He is contemplating his former colleagues' derision for his "formula", which is described as "ZaAt" (read Z-sub-A, A-sub-T, but which he simply calls "Zaat"). This compound, it is later explained, can transform humans into sea creature hybrids and "mutate all sea life". He injects himself with the serum and immerses himself in a tank connected to an array of equipment of an unspecified nature, emerging as a furred, fish-like monster.
His first act of revenge on the society that he feels has wronged him is to release several smaller walking catfish around the town's lakes and river (filmed in the St. Johns River near Green Cove Springs, Florida), an annoyance to the townspeople, and releases Zaat into the local water supply, rendering many of the townspeople ill.
Leopold decides to kill the colleagues that scoffed at his work. He begins with a character named Maxson. In a lake where Maxson is fishing, Leopold swims under Maxson's boat, overturns it, and proceeds to kill Maxson and Maxson's son. Maxson's wife escapes, although she is in shock from the attack.
After killing Maxson, Leopold discovers a girl who is camping out alone on the shore of the lake. He approaches her, only to be deterred by her barking dog. The girl carries on with her business, unconcerned about the barking dog. Leopold retreats. Later, Leopold kills another colleague, Ewing.
His two colleagues now deceased, Leopold returns to the lake where the girl is still camping and waits for an opportunity to abduct her. His perseverance pays off when she strips down to a yellow bikini to go swimming. She dives into the lake, swimming carefree until Leopold catches her underwater. He swims with her to his lab, even as she struggles in vain to escape.
At the lab, the bikini-clad girl is lying strapped down in a mesh basket next to the large tank of Zaat. She is unconscious, and Leopold reveals his intentions to make her his mate. Leopold injects Zaat into her neck. As she is immersed into a tank of Zaat, the girl wakes up and struggles against the ropes holding her. The equipment malfunctions for reasons unknown, and her corpse, partially transformed, is pulled from the tank.
The movie strangely diverts from the storyline for approximately 10–15 minutes to show a lingering scene of the town sheriff Lou, watching a small group of youths playing religious folk music. After one of the youths (an acoustic guitarist, Jamie DeFrates, who also wrote the songs for the film) finishes leading the group in a song, the town's sheriff, Lou, places them all in the town's jail, presumably for their own protection. (This scene does not appear in all released versions.)
Leopold attempts to kidnap another mate. His choice is Martha Walsh, the lovely female member of the INPIT scientific team sent to investigate the weird happenings in the town (caused by Dr. Leopold). Leopold grabs her after her male counterparts leave her alone. Leopold takes her to his lab, but two of her companions (having unraveled the plot) are waiting there. Leopold kills them (including the sheriff) violently. He injects her with Zaat, readies her to be dunked into the tank, and makes his getaway, with canisters of Zaat. Martha's transformation does not go as planned and she gets saved from getting dunked in the tank by one of her dying male companions as Leopold flees toward the ocean. Despite being saved from the transformation, she appears to be in a trance and immediately follows Leopold into the sea. The movie ends ambiguously, with Leopold seen shot but not killed. | cult | train | wikipedia | I suppose it establishes some plot points and clarifies things for the audience, but there are so many ramblings and offshoots that you just kinda of give up and give in.The "monster" looks like an early draft of a Silurian costume from Doctor Who, with a fur neckpiece (??).
The opening narration dwells on them (giving us a good impression of Jacques Costeau as a Nazi gone bad), and at least one murder scene decides to insert random shots of fish in-between cuts.
This is one of the cheapest and ugliest, but it has a rough appeal to it nonetheless.A nerdy, evil little scientist who looks like Elmer Fudd decides to turn himself into a giant fish monster, and succeeds...sort of.
The unhappy ending was not something I saw coming, and was a shock since this film seemed to so very badly want to recapture the glory days of mad-scientist-making-monsters-in-their-basement-labs movies from the 50s.
I first read about this movie as being called ZaAt. Then I actually watch it under the name "Attack of the Swamp Monsters." THEN I hear about it once again as The Blood Island of Dr. Z as showed on MST 3k.
Sure, the FX are non existent, the acting and dialogue amateurish, and the monster looks incredibly inane - a "man fish" with fur around the neck and back to hide the zipper!
This main reason ties in with the peculiarity of a rarely seen and relatively unavailable film getting as high as over 2,000 votes.A reviewer from Tennessee got to the heart of this matter in his 2007 IMDb user's essay; he addressed another IMDb comment that bemoaned the majority of the reviewers having only seen ZAAT in its Mystery Science Theater 3000 dissection, which also happened to be the way the Tennessee reviewer saw the film.
And it especially becomes unfair if the satirized version has been abridged -- that's like a book reviewer who reviews a book based on only some chapters.Add to this formula the cynicism of a newer generation, who thinks it's "cool" to put down media-presented efforts; by doing so, such people think they are being smarter, and what a nice way to feel better.Of course ZAAT is a "bad" movie.
The producer obviously had a very low budget (I'd imagine his contacts with the Florida Marine facility might have inspired the "plot" -- without money, a film can be designed around the locations and other assets), yet still managed to come up with a stupidly imaginative film.I appreciated the quality of the monster suit, for one thing -- given what must have been the restraints of the budget and the local special effects talent.
(With a movie like this, you've got to appreciate what you get.)I'm giving the film a few undeserved stars as a reaction against the numerous IMDb snobs who don't even have the decency to watch the real thing.
And for those who have taken in the real thing, what DO these people expect when they watch a locally made monster movie from the 1970s that defines the word "cheesy"?
Crazy scientist living in the Florida swamps turns himself into a monstrous walking fish-man and proceeds to terrorize.Another drive in low-budgeter that probably would have been more at home in the 1950's rather than the early 70's.
The big rubber monster of the film is quite cheesy looking as it teeters around the swamps and struggles to swim in underwater scenes.
Not the worst of its kind, it certainly beats the similarly themed 1966 movie Curse of the Swamp Creature, but Zaat leaves much to be desired.Then again, what other horror film is there where the monster robs a drugstore?
Fans of rubber suited monsters movies will have a special place in their hearts for it & look on it as one of the best of the genre.
(I think people are being overly dramatic about it because it was featured on MST3K.) At least it didn't waste time getting to the creation of the monster.
Zaat didn't waste time, the monster was created in the first 5 minutes.Also, the ending was pretty good.
Let's face it, the MST3K airings cut almost 30 minutes out of the film so their segments could be added and they talked through the whole movie.
The plot drags on and on with no exposition except for a pathetic voice-over from the "villiain" who tells us all that they think he's mad, and "he'll show them someday".Anyway, after about 20 minutes of showing us this bad guy playing around with all sorts of pseudo-Frankenstein lab stuff, he finally turns into a walking fish-man.
"Zaat," or "Blood Waters of Dr. Z," as it is more well known, isa really horrendous excuse for a horror movie I've ever seen!This movie stole elements from other movies just to make a goodcut, and as it turned out, the result is not very good!Dr. Leopold is a lonely scientist who can't seem to get a date.So what does he do to solve this problem?
He uses special hydrochemicals to turn himself into a giant catfish monster and grabsunsuspecting babes that are swimming in some nearby waters!Those doesn't seem to be bad ideas, except the fact that he hasto become a fish monster!
The "awesome" monster costume...But the film has charm, and despite being a bad movie, it is not deserving of being on the bottom 100.
There's one thing that ZAAT has going for it that very few monster movies do: it delivers the goods early on and doesn't skimp.
It helps that the locals make some serious errors in judgement when confronting our hero (like the sheriff who starts to draw his gun when he runs afoul of our hero, then opts to use it as a club rather than a firearm), but that's a big part of what makes the movie so much fun.
I guess the best that could be said for it was that at times, the location scenery was very nice and the print we saw on Turner Movie Classics tonight did not deserve to look so clean and pristine (that alone stunned me).
Suspenseful music cues used at times when absolutely NOTHING suspenseful was going on and other gaffs and blunders that usually make these things entertaining, but not entertaining enough (if you ever have only an hour to live, watch this movie and you'll think you've lived another 9 days).I'm rather surprised I had never heard of this one until recently!.
The only reason I watched this (DVR'ed from Turner Classic Movies channel) was because I was a friend of Wade Popwell who played the monster.
Even though I watch a lot of bad movies, it's been awhile since I've seen a plot that made less sense than the one found in Blood Waters of Dr. Z.
I'm sure there's a reason I didn't give Blood Waters of Dr. Z the dreaded 1/10, but sitting here 12 hours after watching the movie, I can't come up with a valid explanation.One of the comments on IMDb bemoans the fact that the majority of people rating and reviewing Blood Waters of Dr. Z have only seen the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version (that's how I saw it also).
The monster in the cover art may be the best thing about the movie but it's as cheesy as you can get.Anyways, this poor effort is even better than most of today's direct to DVD flicks.This is Mystery Science Theater material.
This is a movie about a scientist who turns himself into a fish person to kill people.
"Zaat" also known as "Blood Waters of Dr. Z" or "Attack of the Swamp Creatures" and "Legend of the Zaat Monster", its a pretty awful monster movie that has serious problems, everything from the acting, to the pacing, this film gets most aspects wrong.
Its directed by Don Barton and Arnold Stevens (he's uncredited), none of them have worked in another movie after this one or even before, but I can tell that they did the best with what they had.The film starts pretty well, for a 70's trashy monster flick, its campy and cheesy but somewhat enjoyable for schlock movie standards, but as it goes on you realize that you have little or no character development (I know its just a monster movie, but if you have seen the movie you know what I mean, there is almost no real characters here) and not much happens in this film, or maybe stuff did happened, but its just too boring to even care.
But I will say that this movie shows the monster throughout most of the film, and it may not be a good monster costume, but they at least deliver the monster, I must give them credit for that, I also like the underwater footage with the animals and stuff, its kinda of riveting to watch.
One would think the spiteful Zaat would also kill all the fish, considering the fact that they too are non-fish-people, but no, Dr. Z assumes he can just make friends with them, and eventually become their leader, or maybe he gets to be leader as soon as he shows up, I'm not sure.I think this is one of those unfortunate cult "classics" that's been MST3Ked. Pretty typical, I guess, but personally, I'd rather just watch this pile of garbage without the stupid commentary, which is obviously designed for geeks who don't "get" B-cinema.
what's worse is that the opening credits say it was filmed on location in Switzerland, when the whole movie looked like areas in Florida no real estate agent would think about buying.
because they had an original story to tell and they were having a good time, as were the people who helped them, in Florida i have read........these kinds of movies helped keep drive-ins alive.....by the way, i think this film is a lot better than the first efforts i have seen on similar, or greater, budgets from wizards like spielberg, lucas and coppola........
now, actually as a scientist i was impressed by the science of it all and the use of technology available at the time .......i thought it flowed quite nicely and was very surprised by the quality of the actors even when considering everyone in front and behind the cameras were just amateurs with the exception possibly, of the cinematographer.......i have no idea why some of these people didn't stay in show business ......i think they would have done well especially when associated with such a great monster cult film like this.........an even more important part of the film from an historical aspect is the presence of charles manson and some of his family members as manson plays the guitar and sings a very touching song in the middle of the movie ..............all in all, i thought it was just great..
Zaat or Blood Water's of Doctor Z (made famous by MST3K) is a terrible made movie mainly due to the fact that the first 10-20 minutes of the movie are simply a mad scientist transforming himself into a "walking catfish" and talking to fish.
It was also a nice idea to be able to get the transformation scene on-camera and done rather quickly, as it looks really good and happens to be well-done and since it occurs really early-on, the fact that there's going to be a lot of time spent with it is a good thing.
Watching fish swim around in tanks or the open water while a narrator speaks over everything about the fascinating virtues of a fish isn't a way to begin a film of this value, as it will elicit feelings of boredom almost immediately, and especially since this sequence manages to last around fifteen minutes.
The continuing ability to focus on fish swimming around also carries over into the later parts of the film, so this one can feel like a nature documentary at times, and that's not a good way to feel during this one.
The entire first 15-20 minutes of the film is nothing but that irritating and nonsensical sort of claptrap.After all this annoyance and exposition, the doctor has now become some goofy sea monster--much like the ones you see in THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH and other such 60s laughable crap.
Also, inexplicably, the camera keeps jumping back and forth from the lame action to stock film of water animals--and it all seems so very irrelevant and cheap.Apparently the plot has something to do with revenge or making a female creature like himself or something, but it's never very clear.
Anyway, the monster goes around killing people for apparently no real reason and it's up to four brain dead characters played by incredibly bad actors to stop him.That's about the size of it.
Throw in the racist cracker sheriff, the Gil Gerard lookalike 'scientist' trying to catch the monster at the end, and the bad fake Vincent Price imitation voiceovers, and you have one of the worst movies ever.
If you enjoy films like ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES, CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURES or various other drive-in stuff then you might find yourself enjoying this mess even though it's pretty bad from start to finish.
For the life of me I can't understand a single thing about this movie as the entire "lets turn myself into a fish" routine never makes sense nor does his entire plan for kidnapping women to mate with.
What's even dumber is that a film like this would need the running time of 100-minutes, which is the real reason one wouldn't be able to laugh at this thing even more.
Now if you were to watch this film without mike and the bots on MST3K you would be bored to tears, in fact you would probably prefer going to work in a coal mine.
However, both films are also unimaginably bad, amateurishly put together and they actually make the aforementioned Creature look like it's "Citizen Kane".
Yet even this doesn't account for just how bad it is.The plot involves a bitter scientist who turns himself into a human catfish and releases chemicals into a small Florida town's water supply as part of his plan to turn humanity into fish and conquer the world.
Overall, I've seen worse but that's saying a huge amount as Blood Waters of Dr Z is still terrible, one of the lamest monster movies almost certainly brought to celluloid.
I'm not surprised that "Zaat" was put on IMDB's list of the worst movies of all time.The film is truly abysmal,but this doesn't mean that it isn't enjoyable to watch.The monster is actually really funny looking and wanders around killing many stupid people.The underwater photography is quite good and the acting isn't as bad as I expected.Highly recommended if you like trash cinema from early 70's.The plot:A mad scientist turns himself into a giant half man/half fish to try and rule the world!.
Also known as the Blood Waters of Doctor Z, this incredibly bad, lame film about a mad scientist who turns himself into a Manphibian, is a 27th rate Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Most of the time the movie uses "electronic music" which is highly annoying and then in some places they play what sounds like (and what might be) themes from CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON.
The Creature From the Black Lagoon looks way better than this thing and once again it is from an older film.
The episode gets a bit boring during the stretch where the guy is riding the door and they are just driving, but then ramps back up when the one guy wants to track the beast in his little toy car/boat and then proceeds to stumble through the swamp letting you know that the monster simply lucked out in this one as he had the four most incapable heroes ever.So the movie is rather bad and I am going to guess seeing an unedited version would not improve it much.
Still, as bad as it was, it is still a rather amusing film to watch and made for a very funny episode of MST3K..
From the opening shot of the scientist strolling along(like we want to waste our time watching some guy take a Sunday walk!) while the worst,most drab folk song that I have ever heard plays in the background(sashay through the sarcasm?!
What does that even mean, for chrissake?!) To the end shot of the girl moseying into the ocean to become mate to the stupid looking monster that the doctor transforms into, this movie is just dreadful.
He then strips (not a pretty sight) and immerses himself in a pool full of red water, by which he is turned into a hilarious looking "walking catfish monster" (guy in ugly rubber suit).
Said monster then spends the rest of the movie bumbling about in much the same way science guy did, only the monster kills people instead of doing science, all set to swamp sounds like "wuuuh" and the like, plenty of clips of water creatures spliced in for good measure.
It's a typical low-budget monster movie with a really bad costume, subpar actors, and some shoddy camera-work.The story is about a doctor who is really uppity that the world doesn't like fish as much as he does, so he does the rational thing and turns himself into an amphibious monster in hopes of conquering the world.
The best thing is you don't actually have to watch it now, it's that stupid.Not the worst movie ever, but it's really, really close.
This movie tells the story of a mad scientist who turns himself into a catfish monster wanting to capture a girl and take over the world.
low budget monster flick, which could be a good or a bad thing..
The movie is about an evil scientist named Dr. Z who transforms himself into a fish-like monster which is his "plan" to take over the world. |
tt0383058 | The Magic Flute | The opera begins with the overture, which Mozart composed last.
=== Act 1 ===
Scene 1: A rough, rocky landscape
Tamino, a handsome prince lost in a distant land, is pursued by a serpent and asks the gods to save him (aria: "Zu Hilfe! Zu Hilfe!" segued into trio: "Stirb, Ungeheuer, durch uns’re Macht!"). He faints, and three ladies, attendants of the Queen of the Night, appear and kill the serpent. They find the unconscious prince extremely attractive, and each of them tries to convince the other two to leave. After arguing, they reluctantly decide to leave together.
Tamino wakes up, and is surprised to find himself still alive. Papageno enters dressed as a bird. He describes his life as a bird-catcher, complaining he has no wife or girlfriend (aria: "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja"). Tamino introduces himself to Papageno, thinking Papageno killed the serpent. Papageno happily takes the credit – claiming he strangled it with his bare hands. The three ladies suddenly reappear and instead of giving him wine, cake and figs, they give him water, a stone and place a padlock over his mouth as a warning not to lie. They give Tamino a portrait of the Queen of the Night's daughter Pamina, with whom Tamino falls instantly in love (aria: "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön" / This image is enchantingly beautiful).
The ladies return and tell Tamino that Pamina has been captured by Sarastro, a supposedly evil sorcerer. Tamino vows to rescue Pamina. The Queen of the Night appears and promises Tamino that Pamina will be his if he rescues her from Sarastro (Recitative and aria: "O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn" / Oh, tremble not, my dear son!). The Queen leaves and the ladies remove the padlock from Papageno's mouth with a warning not to lie any more. They give Tamino a magic flute which has the power to change sorrow into joy. They tell Papageno to go with Tamino, and give him (Papageno) magic bells for protection. The ladies introduce three child-spirits, who will guide Tamino and Papageno to Sarastro's temple. Together Tamino and Papageno set forth (Quintet: "Hm! Hm! Hm! Hm!").
Scene 2: A room in Sarastro's palace
Pamina is dragged in by Sarastro's slaves, apparently having tried to escape. Monostatos, a blackamoor and chief of the slaves, orders the slaves to chain her and leave him alone with her. Papageno, sent ahead by Tamino to help find Pamina, enters (Trio: "Du feines Täubchen, nur herein!"). Monostatos and Papageno are each terrified by the other's strange appearance and both flee. Papageno returns and announces to Pamina that her mother has sent Tamino to save her. Pamina rejoices to hear that Tamino is in love with her. She offers sympathy and hope to Papageno, who longs for a wife. Together they reflect on the joys and sacred duties of marital love (duet: "Bei Männern welche Liebe fühlen").
Finale. Scene 3: A grove in front of a temple
The three child-spirits lead Tamino to Sarastro's temple, promising that if he remains patient, wise and steadfast, he will succeed in rescuing Pamina. Tamino approaches the left-hand entrance and is denied access by voices from within. The same happens when he goes to the entrance on the right. But from the entrance in the middle, an old priest appears and lets Tamino in. (The old priest is referred to as "The Speaker" in the libretto, but his role is a singing role.) He tells Tamino that Sarastro is benevolent, not evil, and that he should not trust the Queen of the Night. He promises that Tamino's confusion will be lifted when Tamino approaches the temple as a friend. Tamino plays his magic flute. Animals appear and dance, enraptured, to his music. Tamino hears Papageno's pipes sounding offstage, and hurries off to find him.
Papageno and Pamina enter, searching for Tamino. They are recaptured by Monostatos and his slaves. Papageno plays his magic bells, and Monostatos and his slaves begin to dance, and exit the stage, still dancing, mesmerised by the beauty of the music (aria: "Das klinget so herrlich"). Papageno and Pamina hear the sound of Sarastro's retinue approaching. Papageno is frightened and asks Pamina what they should say. She answers that they must tell the truth. Sarastro enters, with a crowd of followers.
Pamina falls at Sarastro's feet and confesses that she tried to escape because Monostatos had forced his attentions on her. Sarastro receives her kindly and assures her that he wishes only for her happiness. But he refuses to return her to her mother, whom he describes as a proud, headstrong woman, and a bad influence on those around her. Pamina, he says, must be guided by a man.
Monostatos brings in Tamino. The two lovers see one another for the first time and embrace, causing indignation among Sarastro's followers. Monostatos tells Sarastro that he caught Papageno and Pamina trying to escape, and demands a reward. Sarastro, however, punishes Monostatos for his lustful behaviour toward Pamina, and sends him away. He announces that Tamino must undergo trials of wisdom in order to become worthy as Pamina's husband. The priests declare that virtue and righteousness will sanctify life and make mortals like gods ("Wenn Tugend und Gerechtigkeit").
=== Act 2 ===
Scene 1: A grove of palms
The council of priests of Isis and Osiris, headed by Sarastro, enters to the sound of a solemn march. Sarastro tells the priests that Tamino is ready to undergo the ordeals that will lead to enlightenment. He invokes the gods Isis and Osiris, asking them to protect Tamino and Pamina (Aria and chorus: "O Isis und Osiris").
Scene 2: The courtyard of the Temple of Ordeal
Tamino and Papageno are led in by two priests for the first trial. The two priests advise Tamino and Papageno of the dangers ahead of them, warn them of women's wiles and swear them to silence (Duet: "Bewahret euch von Weibertücken"). The three ladies appear and try to frighten Tamino and Papageno into speaking. (Quintet: "Wie, wie, wie") Papageno cannot resist answering the ladies, but Tamino remains aloof, angrily instructing Papageno not to listen to the ladies' threats and to keep quiet. Seeing that Tamino will not speak to them, the ladies withdraw in confusion.
Scene 3: A garden
Pamina is asleep. Monostatos approaches and gazes upon her with rapture. (Aria: "Alles fühlt der Liebe Freuden") He is about to kiss the sleeping Pamina, when the Queen of the Night appears. She gives Pamina a dagger, ordering her to kill Sarastro with it and threatening to disown her if she does not. (Aria: "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen"). She leaves. Monostatos returns and tries to force Pamina's love by threatening to reveal the Queen's plot, but Sarastro enters and drives him off. Pamina begs Sarastro to forgive her mother and he reassures her that revenge and cruelty have no place in his domain (Aria: "In diesen heil'gen Hallen").
Scene 4: A hall in the Temple of Ordeal
Tamino and Papageno are led in by priests, who remind them that they must remain silent. Papageno complains of thirst. An old woman enters and offers Papageno a cup of water. He drinks and teasingly asks whether she has a boyfriend. She replies that she does and that his name is Papageno. She disappears as Papageno asks for her name, and the three child-spirits bring in food, the magic flute, and the bells, sent from Sarastro. Tamino begins to play the flute, which summons Pamina. She tries to speak with him, but Tamino, bound by his vow of silence, cannot answer her, and Pamina begins to believe that he no longer loves her. (Aria: "Ach, ich fühl's, es ist verschwunden") She leaves in despair.
Scene 5: The pyramids
The priests celebrate Tamino's successes so far, and pray that he will succeed and become worthy of their order (Chorus: "O Isis und Osiris"). Pamina is brought in and Sarastro instructs Pamina and Tamino to bid each other farewell before the greater trials ahead, alarming them by describing it as their "final farewell." (Trio: Sarastro, Pamina, Tamino – "Soll ich dich, Teurer, nicht mehr sehn?" Note: In order to preserve the continuity of Pamina's suicidal feelings, this trio is sometimes performed earlier in act 2, preceding or immediately following Sarastro's aria "O Isis und Osiris".) They exit and Papageno enters. The priests grant his request for a glass of wine and he expresses his desire for a wife. (Aria: "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen"). The elderly woman reappears and warns him that unless he immediately promises to marry her, he will be imprisoned forever. When Papageno promises to love her faithfully (muttering that he will only do this until something better comes along), she is transformed into the young and pretty Papagena. Papageno rushes to embrace her, but the priests drive him back, telling him that he is not yet worthy of her.
Finale. Scene 6: A garden
The three child-spirits hail the dawn. They observe Pamina, who is contemplating suicide because she believes Tamino has abandoned her. The child-spirits restrain her and reassure her of Tamino's love. (Quartet: "Bald prangt, den Morgen zu verkünden").
Scene change without interrupting the music, to Scene 7: Outside the Temple of Ordeal
Two men in armor lead in Tamino. They recite one of the formal creeds of Isis and Osiris, promising enlightenment to those who successfully overcome the fear of death ("Der, welcher wandert diese Strasse voll Beschwerden"). This recitation takes the musical form of a Baroque chorale prelude, to the tune of Martin Luther's hymn "Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein" (Oh God, look down from heaven). Tamino declares that he is ready to be tested. Pamina calls to him from offstage. The men in armour assure him that the trial by silence is over and he is free to speak with her. Pamina enters and declares her intention to undergo the remaining trials with him. She hands him the magic flute to help them through the trials ("Tamino mein, o welch ein Glück!"). Protected by the music of the magic flute, they pass unscathed through chambers of fire and water. Offstage, the priests hail their triumph and invite the couple to enter the temple.
Scene change without interrupting the music, to Scene 8: A garden with a tree
Papageno despairs at having lost Papagena and decides to hang himself (Aria/Quartet: "Papagena! Papagena! Papagena! Weibchen, Täubchen, meine Schöne") The three child-spirits appear and stop him. They advise him to play his magic bells to summon Papagena. She appears and, united, the happy couple stutter in astonishment and make bird-like courting sounds at each other. They plan their future and dream of the many children they will have together (Duet: "Pa … pa … pa ...").
Scene change without interrupting the music, to Scene 9: A rocky landscape outside the temple; night
The traitorous Monostatos appears with the Queen of the Night and her three ladies. They plot to destroy the temple ("Nur stille, stille") and the Queen confirms that she has promised her daughter Pamina to Monostatos. But before the conspirators can enter the temple, they are magically cast out into eternal night.
Scene change without interrupting the music, to Scene 10: The Temple of the Sun
Sarastro announces the sun's triumph over the night. Everyone praises the courage of Tamino and Pamina, gives thanks to Isis and Osiris and hails the dawn of a new era of wisdom and brotherhood. | good versus evil | train | wikipedia | My favourite Magic Flute.
I love this production of The Magic Flute, and it is my personal favourite of all the productions I've seen of this magnificent opera, and I have seen quite a few.
The Magic Flute has a wonderful story that never fails to captivate me when I see it, the characters I fell in love with immediately yes even with Queen of the Night and Mozart's music is up there with his very best work with highlights being the Queen of the Night Aria(a colouratura tour-de-force), Papagaeno's aria, Sarastro's aria as he comforts Pamina and gives her advice and the heartbreakingly-poignant Ah ich fuhl.This 2003 production looks positively radiant.
The sets are beautiful, the lighting is atmospheric and the costumes are eye-popping especially Queen of the Night which makes her even more regal and chilling.
The singing and acting is top notch and further complimented by excellent orchestra playing, conducting and direction.Willi Hartmann is an appealing and heroic Tamino, while Dorothea Roschmann is quite stunning with a heartfelt voice and acting ability.
Franz-Josef Selig is very noble and firm as Sarastro, the three ladies are beautifully blended not to mention strikingly beautiful and threatening, Aillish Tynan is witty and playful as Papagaena and the three boys also surprised me in the angelic tones to their voices.
Two performances made this for me.First, Simon Keenleyside, I loved his Papagaeno, always entertaining with a great voice to match.
Second, and more so, Diana Damrau as Queen of the Night, she is superb with a very flexible voice with even more impressive projection and diction and a presence that sends chills down your spine, Roschmann actually looked genuinely frightened of her and it is not hard to see why.I agree the comic side of Monastatos is slightly overplayed, but that isn't enough to hurt what is a brilliant production that I cannot recommend highly enough.
10/10 Bethany Cox. A very good version of The Magic Flute.
Diana Damrau sings as an angel and as a devil at once.
She scares Pamina so much that the poor girl actually shudders when Diana touches her.
She radiates megawatts of strength.
Truly outstanding.Papageno and Pamina are good enough.
Maybe Monostatos overacts the comic side of the role.
Sarastro, who happens to be my favorite character, is not a match to the Queen of Night.
Pamino and Papagena are, well, I have not fully made my mind on them.I'd give top scores to the orchestra and direction.
Costumes: good enough, some are a bit too modern.
Sarastro ought to look like a priest, but doesn't.A superb performance.
You will want to watch it again and again.
Don't allow Diana to sing out real loud, she might break some glasses..
The Best of the Lot. I have seen many performances of Die Zauberflote on stage, on TV, and on DVD.
This is by far the best of the lot.
All of the performers are terrific.
Many reviewers of the performance have commented on the outstanding work of Diana Damrau's Queen of the Night and Simon Keenlyside's Papageno and I completely agree.
However, I also want to underline the emotional realism that Dorothea Roschmann was able to bring to her part as Pamina and the heroic stoicism of Will Hartmann as Tamino.
Ailish Tynan, a singer whose work I was previously unfamiliar with, is a highlight as Papagena- whenever she showed up on stage, sparks flew.
Franz-Josef Selig as Sarastro was able to be regal without being boring (it helps when you have a bass like his) and the Queen's Three Ladies were simultaneously beautiful, amusing, and threatening (no mean trick).
Probably the thing that I liked best in this performance was staging the action in the Age of Enlightenment.
This underlined the philosophical elements that Mozart input into the opera and took away, or at least greatly diminished, the fairy tale, fantasy aspects that are often focused upon in other performances.
This staging also helped the humorous aspects of the Papageno/Pagagena relationship stand out since Ms. Tynan, dressed in garish 1960's/1970's garb, was an eye sore compared to the "proper" eighteenth century folk around her resulting in her performance being such a hoot (and was better than the P/P pair being dressed up as pseudo-birds).
All in all, this is a fabulous performance which I cannot recommend any more highly..
Simply brilliant.
Magic Flute is my favorite opera so I was searching the Youtube, looking for best performance of famous "Holle rache" aria.
My favorite performer used to be Edda Moser when I heard Dianna Damrau - she was nothing less than superb.
There are lot of good performances of that aria but when you hear Dianna you can hear not only music but also feel her emotions - hate and vengeance.
It was same with other two arias - sorrow in the first one and joy in the second.Next step, got that DVD and listen to the whole opera.
Magical Flute has quite a few important roles and usually some performers are excellent/very good and some not so good.
Here it is not just Dianna that excels in her performance, but virtually every singer is excellent and also an orchestra - even Mozart himself would be pleased.Simon Keenlyside masters the Papageno role both in singing and acting (esspecialy the comic side of his character) and Ailish Tynan as Papagena doesn't fade in their famous duo like some other singers.Willi Hartmann as Tamino and Dorothea Röschmann as Pamina with their clear voices goes well together.
Sarastro, Monostratos, Three ladies, Three boys I liked all of them.Scenography and costume design is simple but good - it doesn't hinder performance like for example in Metropolitan 2004 version where poor Erika Miklosa has to stand still whole time because of her costume.
The music is in the center here but director and choreographer have also done good job and there is enough space for good acting as well.
If you like Mozart and opera, watch this and you will watch it again and again..
The best Magic Flute yet!.
Thoroughly enjoyable, beautifully cast and superbly directed - a real feast for eyes and ears, combined with enough comic elements to keep it light and enjoyable.Diana Damrau is THE definitive Queen of the Night - none other has ever or will ever sing these arias in such silky, consummate, wrathful fashion.Her maidens have heavenly voices to compliment her - not a mean feat!Sarastro...
well, I love the voice but to be honest, he pales in comparison to The Queen!Momostatos is just pitiable - as he should be, being more of a victim rather than a monster.Tamino is a bit of a washout but his voice makes up for it - and has enough empty swagger to poke fun at the aristocracy he represents!Pamina is just lovely and has a gorgeous voice herself - she radiates maidenly innocence yet rises to the occasion (she's got more guts than Tamino).Papagena is spot on - earthy, shrewd and fun - a perfect match for Papageno.But all my stars really go to Simon Keenlyside - there will be no other Papageno like him - ever!
He is a delight both to listen to and watch as he seemingly blunders his way (but in reality is the sanest of the lot) through the opera.My only regret is I never had the opportunity to watch this stunning performance live.
I am delighted it has been immortalised on DVD and I think it's one of the best gifts one could give to an opera-phile! |
tt0044355 | Androcles and the Lion | Androcles, a fugitive Christian tailor, accompanied by his nagging wife, is on the run from his Roman persecutors. While hiding in the forest he comes upon a wild lion who approaches him with a wounded paw. His wife runs off. Androcles sees that the cause of the animal's distress is a large thorn embedded in its paw, which he draws out while soothing the lion in baby language.
Androcles is captured and is sent to the Colosseum to be executed with other Christians in gladiatorial combat. They are joined by a new Christian convert called Ferrovius, who struggles to reconcile his Christian principles with his violent inclinations. The Roman captain guarding them is attracted to the genteel convert Lavinia. Eventually the Christians are sent into the arena, but Ferrovius kills all the gladiators before they can harm any Christians. He is offered a job in the Praetorian Guard, which he takes. The Christians are to be released, but the crowd demands blood. To satisfy them, Androcles offers himself to be savaged by lions. But the lion that is supposed to kill him turns out to be the one that Androcles saved, and the two dance around the arena to the delight of the crowd. The emperor comes into the arena to get a closer look, and the lion attacks him. Androcles calls him off and the emperor is saved. He then declares an end to the persecution of Christians. Androcles and his new 'pet' depart together. | satire, philosophical | train | wikipedia | From 1938 to 1950 Pascal only produced three films but they were PYGMALION with Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller, MAJOR BARBARA with Hiller, Robert Morley, Rex Harrison, and Robert Newton, and CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA with Vivian Leigh, Claude Rains, Steward Granger, and Flora Robson.
However, Pascal only produced one last film, ANDROCLES AND THE LION.
The casting was quite unique, in that the roles were played by pretty well known actors: Newton again, Alan Mowbray, Reginald Gardiner, Victor Mature, Jean Simmons, and Maurice Evans.
He gives a nice performance as a soft-spoken, meek Androcles, who represents the truest spirit of Christianity of all the characters in the film (most of whom do not fully grasp the simplicity and quiet goodness at the heart of the faith).
Pascal and Howard Hughes did come up with an odd casting of the lead role that was not seen to it's conclusion to the everlasting loss of motion pictures.
Androcles was not originally cast for Alan Young, but for Harpo Marx.
There were discussions with Harpo to play the role, and there may have been some actual footage shot for about a month, when Hughes decided it was not going to work out.
Leaving a great hole in the story: what was the original film to be - was Harpo to perform his usual way (pantomime) or did he actually essay for the first time in his career to speak the lines.
In a lengthy letter to the editor in the October 1960 issue of "Films in Review," a very young Robert Osborne supplies some erudition on the casting of "Androcles and the Lion." According to the film historian, shooting began with Harpo Marx in the title role and continued under the direction of Chester Erskine for five weeks.
Osborne states that the film's producer and Shaw impresario Gabriel Pascal thought him "the perfect Androcles," and maintains that the rushes were thought to be "brilliant." However, RKO studio boss Howard Hughes had recently seen Alan Young on a TV show, and impetuously insisted that the part be recast.
The two other stars, Robert Newton and Jean Simmons, making her American film debut, were able to stay.Although IMDb trivia claims that Harpo was only considered for the role, Mr. Osborne's reputation, gravitas, and record of film scholarship gives this anecdote credibility.
Incredibly Fleischer ended up reshooting virtually the entire film when Hughes suddenly decided he now wanted Raymond Burr as the villain and had a large expensive set built in the studio tank for a superfluous sight gag involving Vincent Price that lasted only a few seconds on screen.Although it's unlikely that any of this footage will surface, if indeed it exists, but one can always hope.P.S. Victor Mature had a refreshingly off-beat sense of humor, and unlike other egotistical stars of the period, never took himself too seriously.
Such is the hammy comedy on offer here, Androcles And The Lion, adapted from a George Bernard Shaw play, is an enjoyable picture if one is prepared for just what a ham sandwich it is.
The cast, featuring Victor Mature, Jean Simmons, Alan Young and Robert Newton, play it as cardboard cutouts {Simmons possibly the only one taking it serious}, with the technical aspects so bad I dare you not to laugh out loud as Young dances with a man in a Lion suit!!Don't take it serious and you should be OK, and I'm certainly not annoyed that I sat thru it, but I would rather wrestle a Lion and two Tigers before I had to sit and watch it again!
A famously bad movie of a minor Shaw play, Androcles and the Lion isn't bad so long as one doesn't approach it expecting a sparkling and witty adaptation along the lines of Major Barbara.
To be fair to producer Garbriel Pascal, who loved Shaw's work dearly, and director Chester Erskine, an experienced theatre man, the play wasn't that good to start with.
In trying to make their picture look like a spectacle, and casting hunky Victor Mature in a major role, Pascal and Erskine at least give the viewer something pleasing and familiar to look at.
In the roles as early Christians, Alan Young and Robert Newton make a terrific pair, and ought to have been co-starred again.
Mr. Young's endearingly innocent, child-like and effeminate Androcles makes a fascinating contrast with Newton's bellowing, hyper-virile Ferrovius, and one wonders, if one adds to the mix the mere presence of Victor Mature, was going on subliminally in the minds of Pascal and Erskine when they cast this film.
In reference to a previous comment, the Lion's name, Tommy, comes from the original text of Shaw's play at the end of Act II.
Androcles also talks baby talk to the Lion while he is removing the thorn from his paw in the Prologue (or first scene) of the play.
Also I think Victor Mature does a pretty good job as the Captain, although some might be put off by the clash of his accent and acting style with the rest of the mostly British cast.
The sentiment certainly sets a bench mark for measuring what Shaw may have accomplished in his charming, witty examination of a "Greek wizard" Christian (Androcles) who finds animals of all stripes and species more lovable and easy to get along with than his long (and vocally) suffering wife and neighbors.It also may explain why Hollywood missed with this neatly produced filming despite a number of inspired casting choices (Maurice Evans as Caesar, Elsa Lanchaster as Androcles' wife & Robert Newton as the warrior/Christian, Ferrovius) and deft directorial touches.In trying to focus on the "family friendly" (deadly words in the Hollywood lexicon) aspects of Shaw's charming satire, the film gives a bad case of the "cutsies" to the central role (it would have been interesting to see this Alan Young performance before he became so identified with his role, Wilbur, in TV's iconic MR.
ED) and soft pedals or ignores most of the legitimately humorous byplay among his fellow Christians who wish martyrdom to wildly varying degrees and the infighting of the professional gladiators who echo (in somewhat more bloodthirsty fashion) the outrageous practicality of Captain Bluntschli in Shaw's early ARMS AND THE MAN.Having made the decision to play the lion *as* a lion (before or after Harpo Marx departed the production?), the delicious hold on adult satire Shaw infused his play with was probably a lost cause, but what remains remains a very pleasant diversion worth a Saturday afternoon.
For lovers of good Shaw however, it's more than a little watered down - perhaps most surprising of all, more watered down that the later equally enjoyable musical version Richard Rodgers and Peter Stone did for TV with Noel Coward as Caesar and Norman Wisdom as Androcles!.
This 1952 film was the first film version of a George Bernard Shaw play produced after the playwright's death, and the compromises are already obvious.Shaw had had artistic control over three films produced from his plays-- the 1938 "Pygmalion", "Major Barbara" (1941) and "Caesar and Cleopatra" (1945), and his influence had clearly been felt, some would say for both good and bad.
He had had absolute final say-so over the casting, and, after his experience with "Pygmalion", Shaw became somewhat more demanding and insisted that not a word be cut from both "Major Barbara" and "Caesar and Cleopatra", a decision that resulted in both of these excellent films being flops.
"Androcles and the Lion" clocks in at less than two hours.The casting suffers without Shaw's influence.
Because this is an RKO release directed by Chester Erskine, a not especially distinguished American director, the cast features two American actors in major roles, and the clash between their style of acting, and that of the British actors who HAVE had experience with Shaw, is apparent.
Some other American actors can be seen in bit roles.In a blatant effort to court the average movie audience who wouldn't recognize a Shaw play if it hit them in the face, movie hunk Victor Mature (yes, the very same actor who appeared in "The Robe" and "Samson and Delilah") is cast in the somewhat demanding role of a Roman captain trying to understand the Christian martyrs.
An actor like James Mason or Stewart Granger might have been perfect and would have had the necessary acting ability, but Mature, although apparently trying hard, comes close to wrecking the film and destroying its Shavian flavor.
And he gets second billing!Alan Young, whom most people will remember as Wilbur from the "Mr.Ed" TV series, is also American, but is a far better actor than Mature, and although his style sometimes seems as if it straight out of a sitcom rather than a Shaw play, Young does quite a good job in the all-important lead role of Androcles.
Or is that just another sop to the movie-going crowd who loves animals with cute names?The rest of the cast is just fine--Jean Simmons excellent, and not syrupy, as a devout woman willing to face martyrdom in the arena, Robert Newton, hilarious as a hulking strongman converted to Christianity who can barely be kept from singlehandedly demolishing his enemies, Noel Willman, Elsa Lanchester in the brief role of Androcles' wife, and, in his best screen performance, Maurice Evans (Dr. Zaius in the 1968 "Planet of the Apes") as the Roman emperor.
In the midst of the 1950s biblical craze, Hollywood created a film about a group of slaves who are rounded up and sent to the gladiator pit to fight a lion, because they are Christians.
That theme isn't necessarily a bad one, especially since Hollywood made a ton of biblical films in the 1950s and 1960s, but the ridiculous feel of the film ruins it, not to mention the over-the-top moronic performance of Alan Young as the title character, Maurice Evans as Caesar, Elsa Lanchester, Gene Lockhart, Robert Newton, Jim Backus—the list goes on.
Jean Simmons, a Christian slave, and Victor Mature, a Roman soldier who falls in love with her, aren't particularly over-the-top, but the few scenes they have together are hardly worth it.
In reality, if he'd been found hiding and protecting a slave, and if she'd repeatedly sassed her captors, they both would have been killed.Alan Young loves animals, so when he comes across an injured lion in the middle of the road, he coos it with baby talk and takes the thorn out of his paw.
I'm not even sure what the point of it all was (perhaps that, throughout all times, Christians have been annoyingly self-righteous, but at least during Roman days, you could feed them to lions), and it's a pretty big mess.
Alan Young plays Androcles, a comedic character with a hen-pecking wife (Elsa Lanchester, really playing it up - I have to wonder why they didn't have her carry a rolling pin).
Also among those sacrifices are Jean Simmons, a beautiful young Christian, and Robert Newton, a pious warrior.
Young is amusing in his way, and Evans is quite amusing, but the real reason to watch this film are for Simmons and Newton, both of whom are wonderful.
Victor Mature is the least successful member of the cast, playing an army captain who falls for Simmons.
Alan Young is perhaps most famous for playing Wilbur on Mr. Ed, but to my generation he's even better known as the voice of Scrooge McDuck in stuff like Mickey's Christmas Carol and, of course, DuckTales.
In the opening scene 2 "romans" are in discussion about the forthcoming games with 1 remarking..."Im going into the country to catch a load of Christians for your games"....then switches to the "lower members of society" who are laughing about "being fed to lions"....seriously poor dialogue which isn't worth any viewing time.
I assume back in his day, the Brits thought that George Bernard Shaw was incredibly brilliant and droll for concocting the play "Androcles and the Lion".
The film has wasted the talents of everyone associated with it and the likes of John Hoyt, Victor Mature and Jean Simmons clearly were given third-rate material.
I remember after all these years, watching Alan Young, Mr. Ed's owner, waltzing with a lion in the Coliseum in Rome.
Mr. Young, who apparently just turned 96 years old, a character actor of some merit, plays an insipid man who, in a most dingle-jolly way, is taken with a group of Christian prisoners to provide entertainment.
Why the pretty young Christian girl played by Jean Simmons would want anything to do with someone so boring, I don't know.
From that George Bernard Shaw used the fable to write a satire on the early Christian religion.
I'm not sure what Aesop or Shaw might have thought of Androcles And The Lion in this form.It's an interesting film and above all the acting of Alan Young in the title role as the almost child like Androcles the tailor carries the film over a couple of bumpy spots.
Later on Alan Young played that ultimate of animal lover Wilbur Post in Mister Ed.Shaw was trying to say that there are many kinds of Christians and there are other forces in personality that will determine which tenets of Christianity or for that matter any religion will dominate in one.
Gentle Christian woman Jean Simmons spurns the love of praetorian Victor Mature, but Newton's performance in the arena saves them all.Finally there's Young who is thought of as a sorcerer and that scares them more than possibly being a Christian.
He bears the cross of his partner with a cheerful acceptance, but you get the feeling that Christian martyrdom might just be a way out of a bad marital situation.Aesop might not recognize his tale, but enough of Shaw's observations on life remain intact in Androcles And The Lion..
This good deed later proves to be his salvation when he meets up with the lion again in the Colosseum.NOTES: Last of Gabriel Pascal's four films, all adaptations of Shaw plays.
Originally, Harpo Marx was cast as Androcles, Rex Harrison as Caesar, Dana Andrews as the Captain and George Sanders as Lentulus.
By the time this was all settled and shooting was ready to get under way again, only Jean Simmons and Robert Newton were still available to continue in their original roles.
As a result of Hughes' antics and his decisive interference, Androcles and the Lion is only remembered today as one of Hollywood's costliest failures.COMMENT: Commences in sprightly fashion, but unfortunately, mingled with the excellent wit, satire and comedy is a banal little romance involving Jean Simmons and Victor Mature of all people who rattles off lines about his "dooty" as a soldier until we are blue in the face with boredom.
Fortunately, a brilliant performance by Maurice Evans as Caesar virtually saves the film, though Gene Lockhart and Reginald Gardiner also contribute some deftly-played scenes.
Whatever the reverse of deja vu is you'll find it here inasmuch as three of the cast played similar roles in similar films within a year of two of this one.
John Hoyt went on to play Decius Brutus in Mank's Julius Caesar whilst Jean Simmons played an almost identical role to the one here in The Robe in which Victor Mature also appeared.
Other than that there is little remarkable in this fairly affable adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's satire on early Christianity written, as the majority of Shaw's work, for the theatre.
Alan Young makes a decent fist of the eponymous Androcles and though he played a couple more leads his career faded within the decade.
Jean Simmons made her US debut here and went on to enjoy several decades of success whilst most of Victor Mature's best work (Kiss Of Death, Easy Living, was behind him.
Jean Simmons as Lavinia is the best performance overall in this film.
Alan Young as Androcles.
A giant of a man who struggles with trying to be a good Christian but controlling his almost evil like temper that makes him want to beat up or kill those who get in his way.
I agree it would have been a good idea to decide which kind of movie was going to be made with Shaw's story.
The great playwright George Bernard Shaw takes a step up to the pulpit to preach the desires of the early Christians to either worship their savior (and just one God) or be willing to be put to death in this light comedy which will touch the soul (of those it doesn't offend) as did another movie from this era with the same co-stars in search of "The Robe".Fleeing from the Romans to the hills, milquetoast Alan Young and his harpy wife Elsa Lanchaster stop to rest when they are confronted by a male lion.
But Androcles is captured (whatever happens to his wife is never explained) and on the journey back to Rome to be fed to their own lions, he meets former sinners Jean Simmons and Robert Newton, as well as soldiers Alan Mowbray, Jim Backus and Victor Mature.
A huge cast of familiar faces pop up in a variety of smaller roles, with Maurice Evans as a very regal Cesar and Gene Reynolds as a pompous Roman longing to see at least one Christian being devoured.Obviously painted backdrops give a theatrical feeling to the Rome setting and several encounters with lions are phony, filmed in a truly comical manner.
A few gladiator battles show the violence and gore that the Christians must have had to deal with, and Newton's battle with several of them is extremely gripping as his character is torn over his past obsession with his bad temper which often lead to violence and his new devotion to Jesus.The love match between the beautiful Simmons and the masculine Mature is a reminder of their participation in "The Robe" the following year, as well as several other films made during this time. |
tt0160862 | She's All That | Zack Siler (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) is the big man on campus at his Southern California high school. His popular but narcissistic girlfriend, Taylor Vaughan (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe), ditches him for a faded reality TV star from The Real World, Brock Hudson (Matthew Lillard), whom she met on spring break in Florida. Although bitter over the break-up, Zack consoles himself by claiming that Taylor is replaceable by any girl from the school. Zack's friend, Dean Sampson, Jr. (Paul Walker), disagrees and challenges him to a bet on whether Zack can turn any random girl into the Prom Queen within six weeks, a coveted position held by the most popular girl in school. Dean picks out Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook), a dorky, solitary, unpopular art student, as his choice for Zack.
Zack approaches and attempts to befriend Laney in the hope of subsequently transforming her into prom queen material. His first encounter with her is a complete failure, when she pointedly ignores his advance and walks away from him. With help from Laney's friend, Jesse Jackson (Elden Henson), Zack eventually is successful in getting Laney to take him to a theater lounge frequented by artists and performers. Intending to deter him, Laney arranges for Zack to be called onto the stage and perform to his surprise. Zack manages to improvise a show with the Hacky Sack he happens to carry in his pocket. Laney is impressed by the performance, but rejects him again after he attempts to charm her.
Zack befriends her brother, Simon (Kieran Culkin), and in an attempt to stop this, Laney agrees to go to the beach with him once. She starts to make friends in the popular crowd as they get a chance to know her. Zack then successfully persuades her to attend a party at Preston's (Dulé Hill) house the same night, and he employs his sister Mac (Anna Paquin) to give her a makeover, transforming her into a stunning beauty. Laney's attendance at Preston's party sparks jealousy in Taylor, who then humiliates Laney, but Laney is consoled by Zack, who has by now developed a true affection for her.
As a result of her new appearance and Zack's interest, Laney is nominated for Prom Queen and begins an uneasy battle with Taylor for the crown. Taylor faces humiliation of her own when Brock informs her their relationship is over, and that he only used her to increase his own popularity (which proves successful with the producers of MTV offering him his own show). In the meantime, Dean begins to show an interest in Laney as her popularity begins to soar and Zack's victory becomes more imminent. Dean tries to invite Laney as his prom partner in an attempt to ruin Zack's attempt to boost Laney's winning chance with his own popularity, but Laney refuses. After falling out with Zack, Dean deliberately tells Laney about the bet and she forces a confession from Zack in public. Feeling objectified and betrayed, Laney refuses to see Zack again.
Unable to reconcile with Laney, Zack ends up attending the prom with his sister, while Taylor arrives alone, thinking that Zack is still interested in her despite his refusal of her advances. A disheartened Laney reluctantly dresses up after some persuasion from her father Wayne (Kevin Pollak) and goes to the dance with Dean when he shows up at her house in a tuxedo to invite her again to be his prom date.
At the prom, after a dance scene presided over by the school's resident DJ (Usher Raymond), Mac meets Jesse and they become friends. Dean boasts to Preston and others in the bathroom that he is succeeding in seducing Laney and has rented a hotel room with intention of having sex with her. Jesse overhears this and warns Mac and Zack. Taylor is then crowned Prom Queen with just over half the votes; she begins a long berating speech which is interrupted by the microphone being turned off by a teacher. By now, the students have seen Taylor for who she is, thanks to Mac revealing her actions against Laney and her involvement with Dean to sabotage Zack. As a result, Taylor is further humiliated when she loses her popularity and her friends. Laney leaves the prom with Dean, while Zack attempts to intervene but loses track of them.
When Laney returns to her home, Zack is there waiting for her, along with her father and Simon who are waiting up for her. Laney explains how she fought off Dean's advances by deafening him with an air horn. Zack confesses his true feelings to Laney, and asks for forgiveness as well as the chance to further their relationship, which she grants. Laney tells Zack that she is considering art school after graduation, and Zack jokingly tells her that she has inspired him to pursue a career in performance art. After their first dance and kiss, Laney asks Zack about his bet with Dean (which is now lost), and Zack responds that he will gracefully honor the terms.
At the graduation ceremony, the terms of the bet are revealed, Zack must appear nude on stage because he lost. After his name is called, Zack heads to the stage wearing only a graduation cap and strategically carrying a soccer ball. In the final shot he is not visible, but we see Laney with the soccer ball being thrown to her and the rest of the students reacting to Zack no longer having it for cover. | cult, comedy, entertaining, romantic | train | wikipedia | Silly but fun teen romantic comedy about a high school jock (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) who bets his friend (Paul Walker) that he can turn a geek (Rachael Leigh Cook) into the prom queen.
I still like it, yes, but now that I have seen so many more movies there are a lot of predictable, therefore lesser, parts.For starters it is set on a high school but the characters seem to be in their mid-twenties.
Of course he really falls in love with her, of course the bet comes out, of course the girl is mad, of course the movie end on the prom, and of course it will be a happy ending.Yes, predictable it is, but also sweet, even with an actor like Prinze.
Cool dance scene though, and Freddie Prinze Jr. is bearable Rachel Leigh Cook is likable (I personally thought she was pretty good in it) and notably talented actors like Kevin Pollak, Kieran Culkin, and Anna Paquin give the movie some supporting foundation.
(As an aside, a few months ago I purchased the movie on Blu-ray DVD and I finally had the opportunity to watch the movie in its entirety for the first time in 12 years.)I personally feel that, unlike many of the teen comedies released on the tail end of the oh-so-cynical seen-it-all '90s, "She's All That" was one of the far better movies from that time.
In other words, She really is All That.At the beginning of the film, all-American jock - star soccer player - and class president and essentially nice good-guy Zack Siler (Prinze, Jr.) is publicly dumped by his shallow, self-absorbed girlfriend Taylor Vaughan (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) for an annoying reality TV star from "The Real World" named Brock Hudson (Matthew Lillard, of "Scream").
Predictably, Zack starts to fall for Laney - especially after his younger sister Mackenzie (Anna Paquin) gives her an extreme makeover - and soon finds himself questioning his bet with Dean.As I stated earlier, there isn't a whole lot to the plot that hasn't been seen before in earlier, better teen pictures (like, say, for instance, 1987's "Can't Buy Me Love," which this film could be considered in some ways a modern update of).
Zak tries to get close with limited success but gradually he begins to get to know her and they become friends now all he has to do is get her accepted by the jet set.How many teen movies do we need, with their similar themes of jocks and geeks and the seemingly revolving casts?
The other problem is the fact that Laney is actually quite good looking before `the change' I prefer her look before Zak supposedly made her better.The film needs to pander to the teen audience so we get the obligatory `gross out' comedy in a few scenes which are funny but outside of that it's really very light melodrama between Zak, Laney and the jocks/cheerleaders.Prince is annoying but is actually alright here despite having a cardboard jock character.
I hate Matthew Lillard with a passion but here he does a good job sending up those reality TV `celebrities' and is very funny in his handful of scenes.Overall this is an acceptable teen film but really never gets to the point where you could call it more than good.
The story is comfortable predictable and all the performances (from Freddy Prinze to Rachel Leigh Cook and even Matthew Lillard - who's pretty hilarious) are great.
Slowly Zack starts to fall in love with her, while his best friend starts to be jealous and he will do anything to ruined the bet.Directed by Robert Iscove (Boys and Girls) made an enjoyable if predictable teen romantic comedy.
Zach Siler(Freddie Prinze Jr.) makes a bet that he can turn and unpopular girl Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook) into prom queen after being dumped by his girlfriend Taylor Vaughan (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe).
The story follows a smart, preppy, and popular teen (Freddie Prinze Jr.) called Zach who gets dumped by his girlfriend, but then takes a bet the to turn a outsider art girl (Rachel Leigh Cook has some great charm and sexuality) into prom queen.
Rachael Leigh Cook stars in this filled with clichés movie that may be better enjoyed by girls.
Don't get me wrong; I did watch it because I didn't have anything else to do and it aired on late cable and I ended up liking it for what it is: a typical teenager American flick with a message.There are many, many clichés like the nerdy girl who suddenly becomes very sexy and desirable and the jock who ends up falling in love with her.There are elements that make this a chick flick but on the other hand, there are some scenes that make it a clever teen comedy.I can recommend it for those who are still on their 20's and want to watch how young American society behaved in the late 90's.Leigh Cook shines in the lead role; she's perky, petit, sexy and fresh..
Why is America so shallow, put real ugly people in films what are they afraid off, here in the real world people like WATS name would be classed as very attractive, oh lets put some glasses on a stunning girl and call her ugly--then take the glasses off and oh look she's beautiful, the same can be said of ugly Betty, and the princess diary's, thats why i hate these silly films and the shallow message it sends out to the world, ugly ducklings should be ignored and pretty girls adored, OK i only watched about 25 Min's of this film because it became unbearable, if i turned my nose up at everyone who wore glasses and dowdy clothes i'dd be a very lonely young man, however i am not that fussy.Ugly betty---princess diary's-- shes all twaat, should be put in the ugly bin, put some REAL people in movies, fat people with spots and wort's make better actors anyway..
With: Freddie Prince Jr., Rachel Leigh Cook, Matthew Lillard, Paul Walker, Anna Paquin, Kieren Culkin, Kevin Pollak.This is a terrible acted, stupid movie with a horribly predictable plot.
Sure, we would like it if Mr. Stud could understand the value of the ugly duckling right from the beginning, but his transformation is as beautiful to watch as hers is fun.There are some particular aspects of this film that make this re-working of the story interesting.
While the story was typical, the two stars, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook made it watchable, and they both have very bright futures ahead of them.She's All That follows the same basic plot line we've all seen millions of times over.
Zach (Freddie Prinze Jr.) having just been dumped by his girlfriend for a Real World castaway (a very funny parody featuring Matthew Lillard), accepts the bet as a way of affirming his Big Man on Campus status.
So Zach and Laney start hanging out, having a good time, it looks like Zach will win the bet, but he's really falling for Laney, but then his friend spills the beans to her about the bet, and she gets upset, so Zach has to try and win her back, then everyone's all happy in the end.
I think from the time we all saw previews for this, we all knew how it was going to end.The reason this movie was as entertaining as it was, was due to both Prinze Jr. and Cook.
So, as I was saying earlier, the reason this movie was entertaining was because of Prinze Jr. and Cook being able to break out of their stereotypical roles and bring a real life likeable quality to the characters.
Nothing unexpected happens, and you all know what's going to happen right from the start, but with Prinze Jr. and Cook leading the way, it's still a good movie to see..
Not much else can be said about it.It was predictable from the get go.And much too many sub plots and characters ,for a movie with an hour and a half running time.Easily one of the worst films I have seen this year.Like I said earlier,it is an and a half I will never get back !!!!!.
She's All That features the most popular guy in high school (Freddie Prinze Jr.) betting that he can transform the biggest basket case in school (Rachael Leigh Cook) into the prom queen.
the only ugliness was Freddie Prinze Jr.'s acting.I've got a pet monkey that could play a better lead man.I feel like I wasted 2 hours of my life.Thank God I didn't pay money to rent it.from now on I will trust my gut on picking a movie.Id rather watch Jesus Get beaten over watching Freddie Prinze Jr. beat his dads name into the ground.No wonder his dad shot himself.I gave it a 5 for the Rachel Leigh Cook stairway scene.
So, She's All That has been on TV, but obviously, most movies on TV are so badly edited and you have to deal with commercials, so I finally broke down and rented this silly movie.She's All That is about a girl, Laney, who is supposed to be "the ugliest dorkiest" girl at school, even though she's not really ugly, Zach, the good looking popular jock, has just been dumped by his popular girlfriend and has made a bet with his friend that he can make any girl into a prom queen, so they pick Laney.
In this particular movie though, the stars are Freddie Prinze Jr, Rachael Leigh Cook, Matthew Lillard, Jodi Lynn O'Keefe, Usher Raymond, Kierian Culkan, Kevin Pollak, Tim Matheson, Eldon Henson, Anna Paquin, Susan May Pratt, Kimberly "Lil Kim" Jones, Paul Walker, and Clea Duvall.
Also, this movie had an awesome cast including Freddie Prinze Jr., Rachael Leigh Cook, Paul Walker, Jodi Lynn O'Keefe, Usher Raymond, Gabrielle Union, Matthew Lillard, Lil Kim, and more!!!
OK, I'll drive.And that is pretty much why I not only saw She's All that, but also brought a ticket so I could see it on the big screen and then kind of maybe purchased the VHS and watched it a lot more than it deserved to be watched.I know, I know, it's an obsession, but hey, she's cute AND she can emote a hell of a lot better than Jennifer Connelly and Jennifer Connelly won an Academy Award.So As a result I've seen an unfortunate amount of Cook's movies.And this one was exactly what I thought it was: a '90s teen version of the Taming of the Shrew.So you know, if you walked out of this with your mind blown by the plot...either you never read Shakespeare in high school--which if you are my age could ONLY mean that you were in an LD class...or it means you are a Millennial that has NEVER seen a teen movie before.In either case, you know the plot, the only difference between this movie and every other teen movie based on Taming of the Shrew is that this one stars Rachael Leigh Cook and is by definition slightly better than all the rest...regardless of actual quality..
about the movie, Freddie Prinze Jr. plays the local high school hunk,, his friend is played by a very young Paul Walker, I had totally forgotten that he was even in this movie to be honest,, and I've watched it several times..
it's time for the prom and the most popular guy at school get's dumped by a hottie, so she decides to hook up with this obnoxious guy she met a spring break,, so his heart is broken, and his friend is like hey you can have any girl at school, so he makes a bet that he can get the nerdiest , or ugliest girl at school,, so the friend picks out Laney Boggs,, who by the way was not ugly at all kinda cute,, but definitely a little nerdy,, great film I thought and Kiernan Culkin did a great job as well as the little brother,, this is a must see comedy,, don't pass this one by..
We know how the rest of the story plays out, but the film's smart script, adds a lot of funny touches, like Laney's after school hobby, an artist venting group.
Like any other predictable teen 90s movie, Zack starts to fall for the out of the ordinary, quirky Laney as he gets to know her.
SO he decides that his mates(one played by the late Paul Walker) can change any nerdy girl into a prom queen for Zach to take to the prom as part of a bet(like that other film that was released the same year 10 things I hate about you starring the late Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles).
To pick an unattractive actress to transform would send out the message that the only way you will ever be accepted is if you tart yourself up.The premise is quite thin and perhaps a more severe transformation would have been more entertaining but Freddie Prince Junior, as Zach, the jock who makes a bet that he can't transform the geekiest girl in the school Laney (Rachel Leigh Cook) into prom queen is charismatic and has nice chemistry with Cook.
"She's All That" (1999) is a school dramedy/romance flick -- more drama than comedy -- about a pretty, but outcast, mousy girl (Rachael Leigh Cook) who suddenly has a couple of popular guys interested in taking her to the prom (Freddie Prinze Jr. and Paul Walker).
She's All ThatThe only downside to being Prom Queen is that you can't behead any of your zit-faced subjects.Fortuitously, the Prom Queen in this teen-comedy is merely a pawn.Distraught over a break-up, Zach (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) makes a bet with his friend Dean (Paul Walker) that he can turn any female candidate into a royal consort before the prom.In charge of selecting a worthy contender, Dean decides on Laney (Rachael Leigh Cook), a dowdy art student.Accepting the challenge, Zach begins reworking the reject and eventually turns her into something very regal.But Zach's newfound feelings for Laney are jeopardized when she learns the truth.With doe eyed leads and a dumbed down plot, this slightly amusing adaptation of Pygmalion turns the ugly duckling anecdote on its ear.Besides, it doesn't matter who the Prom Queen is, the Prom King will inevitability be going home with the Prom Lady-in-Waiting.
With his reputation in jeopardy Zack bet best friend that he could turn any girl into the prom queen in six week.In my point of view, I really do enjoy this movie a lot.
I watched this movie very late..from it's premiere ..7 years late..and i get the feeling that it was better this way..now that i know and have seen most of it's actors..many of them who happen to be now very good and payed Hollywood stars..like Paul Walker or Gabrielle Union...so..i must say that for me this film was great..to see all these familiar faces together in one movie since they were kids made me like this movie a lot.i know most of the people don't like teen movies anymore but they still have their educational purposes and can be welcomed each year (at least for USA) with a new version and new actors..who might come for the future big screen as stars!
SHE'S ALL THAT **1/2 Typical teen comedy that has smirk-faced Freddie Prinze Junior and near-recluse Rachael Leigh Cook draw together in a high school setting.
" She`s all that " is not original but it`s a lot of fun.Freddie Prinze Jnr provides his best ever screen performance in the lead role while Rachel Leigh Cook is excellent as the girl he falls for and there is good from the likes of Matthew Liliard,Paul Walker,Kierian "Igby"Culkin and Kevin "Usual Suspects" Pollak.In all a good film......oh yeah and that Sarah Michelle Gellar school canteen cameo is absoluely priceless..
This Film Has A Great Plot and Cast which Inc's Freddie Prince Jr(I know what you did last summer)Rachel Cook(Josie and the Pussycats) Matthew Lillard (Scream) Paul Walker (Skulls) They are all very funny people and made me laugh again and again..
You know where the story is going, and what is going to happen, right from the start.Furthermore -- and I wish someone in Hollywood would listen to this -- high school is not anything like what's depicted in this movie.I'm sure there are many great stories that could be told about adolescence, the search for popularity, the need for acceptance, the difficulties of teen relationships, etc.
This movie is as bad as I first thought it would be, the only good thing is Rachael Leigh Cook that, like in "Tangled", made a movie that is a complete waste of time.
Although being very bad the film has it's moments, like the mixing of the school and the pool at the beginning, and the program "Real World L.A." being broadcasted with the character of the movie, but that isn't enough, there are a lot of things bad explained, want examples?
I think that Freddie Prinze Jr. enjoyed making it or he wouldn't be also in "Boys and Girls" another as bad as this one.The only good think I can say about the movie is that I've discovered that Rachael Leigh Cook (who is fabulous is AntiTrust, a must see computer movie) is left-handed like me..
The story goes..the popular guy in school gets dumped by the most popular girl - he then makes a bet with his friend and in the end falls for the school 'freak'.The bet is that Zach Siler somehow has to turn the 'freaky' Laney Boggs into the Prom Queen!!
This is an excellent movie with great acting from all the cast, but especially Racheal Leigh Cook and Freddie Prinze Jr. Good story line with a semi-twist at the end.
Though, the odd thing is that Laney is a girl who is a geek, Zach is like the most popular guy in the school and they get together.
This is a pretty good movie about high school relationships and stuff like that. |
tt0190335 | Kuraingu furiman 2: Fûsei kakurei | Yō Hinomura, a Japanese potter, comes into the possession of some film showing an assassination by an agent of the 108 Dragons, a powerful Chinese mafia. When he refuses to turn the film over to them, they kidnap him. Hypnotized, he is trained as an assassin for them and his body is tattooed with dragons. He is given the codename "Crying Freeman," because he cries after a kill and longs to be free.
One of his killings is witnessed by Emu Hino, a lonely and beautiful Japanese artist. Knowing he must kill her, she paints his portrait and waits for him to come. When he does so, she tells him that she is tired of being alone and wishes to end her life. She asks for a favor before he kills her - to make love to her, so that she will not die as a virgin. He grants her wish, but finds he cannot kill her and they fall in love. The killing she witnessed was of a yakuza boss, however, so the yakuza want to find her so that they can find the killer. One of the yakuza attempts to enter Emu's home and force her to disclose the name of the killer, critically injuring her. Freeman takes her to the hospital and tells her to meet him at Hinomura Kiln, where he intends to part with her. Instead, she accompanies him back to the 108 Dragons, where he tattoos her with tigers and they marry.
The heads of the 108 Dragons decide to name Freeman as their heir. He is given the Chinese name Lóng Tài-Yáng, and Emu is renamed Hǔ Qīng-Lán, as both pass the tests given to them. It proves not as easy as that, however, as they must contend with challenges to the leadership from Bái-Yá Shàn, the granddaughter of the leaders of the 108 Dragons, and attempts to destroy the Dragons from other underground organizations. | cruelty, murder, violence, flashback, revenge, sadist | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0476649 | Darna Zaroori Hai | Darna Zaroori Hai interweaves six stories into one film. Five children get lost in the middle of a forest until they find a haunted house. Inside, there is an old woman who agrees to tell them six scary stories, and they will all compete on who is able to sit through all six stories without getting scared.
=== Additional Story – Uncredited ===
Written and directed by Sajid Khan (director)
The first story is about a young film-buff named Satish (Manoj Pahwa), living with his mother. Satish has a habit of watching a Bollywood movie in theaters every Friday, on the last show of the day. He decides to watch the film Darna Mana Hai. His mother warns him not to take the graveyard shortcut because it's Friday the 13th, a new moon night, and witches might appear. He insults his mother, and takes the shortcut. He safely arrives at the cinema, buys his regular snacks, gets some change back, watches the movie and returns home. On his return, he once again uses the graveyard shortcut. Walking through the graveyard, he hears clinking footsteps and begins to run. He sees a witch and falls to the ground in terror. His fear leads to his death. It turns out the footsteps were actually the coins jingling in his pocket as he walked and the witch he saw was actually a poster for a movie, Darna Zaroori Hai.
=== Official Stories ===
=== Story 1 – Imaginary Ghost ===
Directed by Ram Gopal Varma
Five children arrive at a haunted house. The resident of the house, an old woman, decides to tell them six scary stories. The children decide to have a competition to see who gets scared first. The first story is about a professor, Sunil Khanna (Amitabh Bachchan), who is giving tuition to one of his Biotechnology student Altaaf (Riteish Deshmukh) at home. Every minute, the professor points out something (or someone) in his house. Once in the kitchen, once in the dining room and once on the sofa. The annoyed student decides to leave when the professor warns him not to leave the house, or the ghost will go after him as well. Curious, the student asks the professor about the ghost and the professor tells him that the ghost is an exact lookalike of himself, except he has a hollow face with a hat. The frightened student tries to run but the professor takes him in front of the mirror and points at his reflection. The professor's reflection in the mirror looks exactly like the ghost he talked about. After the story, one child, Nisha, goes down to the bathroom, only to come back as a ghost without revealing her real identity. Nisha sits down with the rest of the kids with a bowed head.
=== Story 2 – Spirits Do Come ===
Written and directed by Prawaal Raman
The second story is about a photographer, Kunal (Arjun Rampal), who confronts a strange house when his car breaks down. There, Varsha (Bipasha Basu) invites him in and claims she has been lonely for the past few years since her husband Rahul died. He tries to make a phone call but is confronted by Rahul. He gets scared and says that Varsha opened the door, but gets astonished on listening that Varsha is the one who had died 2 years ago, and not Rahul (Makrand Deshpande). They then confess to a scared Kunal that they were playing a prank on him. The two explain to Kunal that Rahul has been trying to call spirits and bring them down to earth. When Kunal interrupts by saying he's in hurry, Rahul plays as if he is calling a spirit of a mechanic. After a few moments, the three hear a door knock, and Rahul goes outside to check and then he screams for Varsha and while Kunal decides to stay inside the house. When she comes out, there lies Kunal dead in the driver seat of his broken-down car. The scream was from Rahul, who was horrified at seeing Kunal's dead body. The door was knocked by a trespasser and he asks them to inform the police. Just then, Kunal walks out and declares in a chilly voice that spirits do come, whenever you call them. But sometimes sending them back becomes very difficult and he laughs in a chilly voice. After this story, another child, Rohan, goes to the bathroom but he too returns as a ghost.
=== Story 3 – Accidents are Never Predicted ===
Directed by Vivek Shah
The third story revolves around a couple, Vishwas (Sunil Shetty), and his wife (Sonali Kulkarni) who both live with their son, Chintu. One fine day, the three are visited by an insurance agent Prabhakar Pandit (Rajpal Yadav) who keeps warning them about the risk of life and that accidents are never predicted. They kick him out of the house and their doorbell suddenly rings. They open the door only to find that there is no one there. They go back into the house but the bell rings yet again. It is the agent again, who claims it is raining outside and he has left his umbrella inside. He takes out many things such as a knife, rope and gun, which all represent different ways to die in life. Vishwas gets tired of him and asks him to leave. The agent then takes out the gun and threatens Vishwas and his family. Vishwas gets into a struggle with the agent which results in the agent being accidentally shot. Before he dies, as if confirming his statement, he says, "See sir, accidents are never predicted!" After the story, another child, Aditi, leaves the room to get water and comes back with same fate as the two previous ones.
=== Story 4 – Ghostly Audition ===
Directed by Jiji Philip
A film director, Karan Chopra (Anil Kapoor), decides to make a horror film. On the way to the sets, he gives a lift to a fine young woman, Riya (Mallika Sherawat), who pretends to be a ghost. Karan thinks she is just playing a prank and Riya later also claims that she was just joking. When stormy weather hits, Karan takes Riya to his mansion. The electricity and lights go out and Riya's face starts to gore with blood. Karan still thinks she's playing a prank, but when her voice turns ghostly, he falls to the floor and dies in shock. Riya takes off her mask, which was stained with fake blood, and a microphone that changed her voice to make it sound ghostly. It is revealed that she really was only playing a joke on him. She says that she was trying to audition for his new horror film, but it's too late now anyway since Karan has already died on his own bedroom floor. After this story, another child leaves the room to get water and also becomes a ghost.
=== Story 5 – A Bride's Revenge ===
Directed by J.D. Chakravarthy
The fifth story centres on Ajay (Randeep Hooda), a young man driving on the road. He finds a young woman standing on the highway. When he approaches her, he becomes frozen after seeing her face. Shortly after, he wakes up in a jail accused of murdering a man. A police officer, (Zakir Hussain), brings the mother of the murdered victim to the police station for justice. But the mother is shocked to find that Ajay is possessed by the spirit of a woman, who turns out to be her daughter-in-law, Sandhya. It's revealed that the mother-in-law, her husband, and son had burned the newly-wedded bride to death and her spirit has come back for revenge. Sandhya's spirit reveals that it possessed Ajay and killed the son. The spirit enters the police officer's body and shoots her mother-in-law. When the spirit leaves the officer's body, he realises what has happened and secretly buries the body. Ajay is released and is driving back to the city when he sees Sandhya's spirit in the backseat. She says that her father-in-law is away in the city on a business trip and she must complete her revenge. She assures him that she will not harm him—all he has to do is drop her off there. This last part was severely criticized by the Indian public as spirits, ghosts and spectres are believed to be able to freely transport themselves without the means that are used by humans.
=== Story 6 – The Ending ===
After all of the stories are over, one boy, Ashu, claims that he is still not scared. The old lady smirks as the lights of the house suddenly turn off. The stunned boy looks around him. The lights turn back on immediately and he sees that he is the only one in the room: as if no one was ever there. The lights go off and turn back on again, this time to reveal his friends, all of whom are now ghosts, giving him eerie smiles. The old woman appears back on her chair, giving him a witch's smile. Realizing what is going on, the boy tries to make a frantic escape out of the house but the doors are all jammed and locked. Just as the boy looks back at the upstairs room to see if he was followed out, he sees the old lady right beside him, smirking. The old lady's hair is snow-white and scattered; her killer smile gives the boy a heart attack and he dies at the scene. The next morning, the house is swarming with police and the media. The police clear away the bodies of the dead children. The old servant of the house tells the police officers that a long time ago, the house belonged to an old lady who loved children but unfortunately, she had no children of her own. He explains that once, he had left her for hours to get her some medication (just as the old lady had told the children), and when he returned, he found her dead. The film ends with a reporter reading the tragic story of a camping trip-turned-nightmare for the six children. He says that the exact cause of death of the children is still unknown and will most likely never be known, however, one thing is for certain- all the children died of cardiac failure or in simple words — fear. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1183921 | The Vicious Kind | The film opens with Caleb Sinclaire sitting in a diner, forlorn and smoking a cigarette. He begins to cry, but composes himself when his younger brother, Peter approaches the table. Peter is an idealistic college student on Thanksgiving break and Caleb is begrudgingly giving him a ride home. At school, Peter has found a new girlfriend, Emma Gainsborough, and Caleb immediately grills him for details. Emma and Peter met each other while Emma was on campus meeting some fraternity boys; while Peter says she’s a good girl and nothing happened, Caleb immediately perceives her as a whore. On the way to get Emma, Caleb reveals that he hasn't slept in a week.
Caleb is immediately antagonistic to Emma. Caleb drops them off at his father, Donald’s house, revealing to Emma that he and Donald do not get along and this will be the last time he will see them this weekend. Donald comes off as well-meaning, if somewhat flirtatious.
Caleb meanwhile, has been trying to sleep, but keeps seeing images of his last girlfriend, Hannah, who behaves and looks strikingly similar to Emma. Hannah has continuously called Caleb, so he drops off pictures of himself having sex with a prostitute named Samantha at her doorstep, ringing the bell and fleeing.
Caleb, arrives at work and belittles fellow worker JT. Later, Emma and Peter go bowling and Caleb secretly watches them. In the bowling alley lobby, Caleb bumps into Emma. They have an awkward conversation and she asks him for cigarettes, revealing she secretly smokes. Caleb obliges; Emma asking him to promise not to tell Peter, and Caleb asking not to reveal he was there to Peter or Donald.
Later Caleb runs into Emma. He ends up viciously physically and verbally attacking her, and threatens her not to hurt Peter, who is a good kid (and a virgin). Moments later, he breaks down, begging her forgiveness. Confused and outraged, Emma punches him, bloodying his nose and dropping him to the pavement. Caleb sits on the ground crying and apologizing.
That night, Emma sneaks out for a cigarette and meets Caleb trying to sneak around the yard with a camera. Emma wants an explanation about what happened earlier. Caleb goes into his belief on what he heard about her at school, his girlfriend Hannah who cheated on him, and his lack of sleep, which has further muddled his actions and behavior. Caleb eventually leaves, feeling better after these confessions.
The next morning, Donald and Emma go jogging together. Emma asks about Peter’s mother, and Donald reveals that she died when Caleb and Peter were young. Donald also says that his wife cheated on him prior to being diagnosed with cancer and that no one came to visit her in the hospital the last four months of her life. At work, Caleb reveals he managed to fall asleep for a few minutes the night before.
At a cheap restaurant, Caleb, Peter and Emma are together. Caleb and Emma get a few moments alone, and Caleb assures her that he doesn’t have feelings for her. Caleb ends up forcibly kissing her. Emma says nothing about it to Peter. Caleb privately warns Peter to watch Emma carefully, because she's been eyeing him. Peter says he’s in love with her and wants to give her his virginity, and Caleb laughs at the idea. Caleb apologizes for his ideas that she was a whore.
While Peter and Emma prepare to have intercourse, Peter reveals that what Donald told her is true, except that Caleb was the only one to see their mother before she died, and Caleb and Donald haven’t spoken to each other since. Caleb goes to see Samantha, and asks her if it’s normal to be in love with a perceived image of someone, even if that’s not who they really are (likening Emma to Hannah). Caleb asks Samantha if she was abused as a child, and Samantha is offended. Caleb loses his temper, then comes back and gives her a better tip, implying that his perception and treatment of women is evolving.
Caleb tries apologizing to Emma for kissing her and says he’ll try not to bother her anymore. Emma reveals she has accidentally locked herself out of the house, and Caleb manages to get them both inside through a window. Emma falls on top of Caleb, and they seem like they might be about to kiss. But she rebukes him and asks him never to see her again. Caleb leaves, and Emma returns to the place they embraced to masturbate.
At a bar, JT asks Caleb if he’s had sex with Emma yet, and he says no, but he wants to. He spots some men sexually harassing a woman and ends up fighting them, marking another change in him.
Peter tries to have sex with Emma but ejaculates prematurely. Caleb drives over to see Emma, and this time, she doesn’t rebuke him when he kisses her, and eventually, they end up having passionate sex in Caleb's old room.
Emma asks why Caleb was the only one to see his mother before she died. He reveals he was hurt by her cheating, and shut her out of his life. However, he eventually discovered that Donald had been the one cheating until his wife finally left, never thinking that he would refuse to let her see her sons. Caleb never told Peter because he was only 12. Emma tells Caleb she was a virgin. Caleb leaves and reminds Emma that Peter is in love with her. On his way out, he runs into his father who deduces what happened and says he’ll tell Peter. Caleb calls him a coward for erasing him out of his life; in the last 8 years, Donald never attempted to re-enter his life. They both hide quickly as Peter goes to Emma’s room, and Caleb dictates to Donald that he won’t tell Peter what he did, otherwise he’ll tell him Donald’s secrets and he’ll lose both his sons. Peter and Emma sleep together, and he loses his virginity to her.
The next morning, Donald drives them to the train station back to school. Donald confesses that he’s made mistakes to Peter, and that sometimes, people know what they are doing is wrong but they do it anyway, because the right thing is painful. On the train, Peter tells Emma he loves her, but it causes Emma to cry. The two of them alone again, Caleb rings Donald’s doorbell and Donald invites him in, their relationship beginning to mend at last. | bleak, romantic, comedy, entertaining, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0119338 | Hurricane | The film tells the story of middleweight boxer Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter, who was convicted of committing a triple murder in a bar in Paterson, New Jersey. His sentence was set aside after he had spent nearly 20 years in prison. The film concentrates on Rubin Carter's life between 1966 and 1985. It describes his fight against the conviction for triple murder and how he copes with nearly 20 years in prison.
A parallel plot follows Lesra Martin, an underprivileged youth from Brooklyn, now living in Toronto. In the 1980s, the child becomes interested in Carter's life and circumstances after reading Carter's autobiography. He convinces his Canadian foster family to commit themselves to Carter's case. The story culminates with Carter's legal team's successful pleas to Judge H. Lee Sarokin of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
In 1966, Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter was a top-ranked middleweight boxer, expected by many fans to become the world's greatest boxing champion. When three victims, specifically the club's bartender and a male and a female customer, were shot to death in a bar in Paterson, New Jersey, Carter and his friend John Artis, driving home from another club in Paterson, were stopped and interrogated by the police.
Although the police asserted that Carter and Artis were innocent and thus, "were never suspects," a man named Alfred Bello, a suspect himself in the killings, claimed that Carter and Artis were present at the time of the murders. On the basis of Bello's testimony, Carter and Artis were convicted of the triple homicide in the club, Carter was given three consecutive life sentences.
Throughout the trial, Carter proclaimed his innocence, claiming that his race, his boxing career and status and his work as a civil rights activist were the real reasons for his conviction. Eight years later, Bello and a co-suspect, Arthur Bradley, who also claimed that Carter was present at the scene of the crimes, renounced and recanted their testimony. As a result, Carter and Artis were convicted once again.
Afterwards, the plot goes back to Lesra Martin, who works with a trio of Canadian activists to push the State of New Jersey to reexamine Carter's case.
In 1985, a Federal District Court ruled that the prosecution in Carter's second trial committed "grave constitutional violations" and that his conviction was based on racism rather than facts. However, Carter was finally freed, and he summed up his story by saying, "Hate got me into this place, love got me out." | insanity, violence, murder, romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0037073 | The Million Dollar Cat | While Tom is throwing darts at an apple on Jerry's head à la William Tell (he even throws one between his legs while blindfolded), a telegram arrives. Though it is meant for his owner, Tom reads it himself and discovers that he has been left a million dollars in a will from his owner's eccentric aunt, making him ecstatic. Jerry also reads the letter and gets just as happy as Tom. Tom quickly learns why after he reads the telegram again, because the telegram has a condition that forbids him to ever harm any living animal, especially mice, or else he is likely to lose everything.
The next day, news of Tom's inheritance quickly spreads and he moves into 1 Park Avenue. Although he at first enjoys the attention and wealth he is given, Jerry decides to use the telegram's condition against Tom as revenge for tormenting him. He continually follows Tom, despite the cat's best attempts to get rid of him, and proceeds to take advantage of his freedom through various means, including slapping Tom's dickey in his face, assaulting him in his limousine, eating his sundae, and even throwing him out of bed whilst still falling asleep.
The next morning, after Jerry steals his bathroom towel, Tom decides to get rid of Jerry. After a few ideas, he eventually decides on hanging a fire exit sign on the window. He strikes a match to start a fire in front of the bathroom door, and Jerry promptly jumps out of the window. The cat cheers before sitting down to enjoy his breakfast, but when he grabs his napkin, however, he uncovers Jerry, who posts the telegram on the table and eats Tom's breakfast. As a final insult, he attacks Tom yet again with the rest of the breakfast material, reminding him that as long as the "Even A Mouse" rule stands, he can do whatever he wants to Tom, then he once again slaps Tom's dickey in his face. This proves to be the final straw: Tom has had enough and becomes enraged, and the shocked Jerry realizes that he has pushed the cat too far. Tom furiously grabs the telegram, tears it into pieces, and even shoves the "Even A Mouse" proviso into Jerry's mouth, literally making and forcing him to eat his words. Jerry swallows it in horror at what is about to happen, as Tom leaps into the air with a loud and insane scream before attacking Jerry with the crockery and broken breakfast tray. After a few seconds, he breaks the fourth wall that it will cost him his fortune but he is still happy and satisfied, and continues attacking Jerry. | psychedelic, comic | train | wikipedia | Money Can't Buy Tom's Happiness.
Tom gets interrupted from playing William Tell with darts (with Jerry being the poor victim with the apple on his head) when he gets a telegram stating his "eccentric Aunt Harriet" died and has left him a million dollars!Jerry is all excited, too, as happy as Tom. How could that be?
Well, points to the bottom of the telegram, which Tom didn't see.
It said "all benefits will cease should the cat bring harm to any living thing EVEN A MOUSE."Tom makes all the headlines in the New York City papers as he marches his way to a penthouse on Park Avenue.
(Jerry has a mouse hole with a veranda on top that says, 1/2 Park Ave. He wears a top hat, tails, gloves, etc., too!)However, as the story unfolds we get the message that "money doesn't buy happiness." Jerry hogs most of Tom's luxury items and food and each time the cat is ready to kill the mouse, Jerry pulls out the telegram reminding him he can't.
It's driving Tom nuts.
In the end, well, he'd rather be poor and happy by beating the crap out of Jerry.In all, I would label it slightly below-par, laugh-wise.
It looks like one of the earliest Tom and Jerry animated shorts.
The artwork is not up to par and it just has a primitive feel to it..
enjoyable.
Tom the cat stands to inherit a cool million dollars even on the stipulation that he can't harm one single living thing even a mouse.
So of course Jerry the mouse has a field day with this news and torments Tom unmercifully, but you can only push a cat so far.
This is a humorous cartoon.
Tom speaks in this one, but it's not as grating as it was in the "Zoot Cat" short so I didn't mind quite as much.
While it's not one of Tom and Jerry's best if you like these type of animated shorts, you could really do worse than this one.
This cartoon can be found on disc one of the Spotlight collection DVD of "Tom & Jerry" My Grade: B+.
The Million Dollar Cat. Yet another delightful Tom and Jerry cartoon.
The best?
Probably not.
The funniest?
Same answer really.
Entertaining?
In short I thoroughly enjoyed this cartoon.
It did have a nice story, probably not the most original but is still effective, and the sight gags are very funny and inventive.
What I loved most about The Million Dollar Cat though was the animation, the backgrounds were lovely, the colouring audacious, the characters well drawn and the skyscrapers wonderful and majestic to look at.
True, there are better looking Tom and Jerry cartoons, but for its time it is perfectly reasonable.
The music as always is energetic, while Tom and Jerry are both great as Jerry constantly reminds Tom "not even a mouse".
Overall, very entertaining and well animated.
10/10 Bethany Cox. One of my favorites!.
This is absolutely one of my favorite Tom & Jerry Short!
It Starts when Tom is playing dart and jerry is in the goal-table, Tom receive a telegram saying that his masters aunt has left 1 million dollars to Tom, he screams out his happiness and Jerry is wondering why he is so happy, then he goes and read the letter and it says that if Tom hurts a living thing, he loses all his money..
Tom moves to Park Ave and of course Jerry follows him to his new place, and torment him all the time by eating Tom's food, throwing him out the bed, using the shower all the morning knowing that Tom can do nothing to stop him..The next morning Tom is waiting to enter the Bathroom but jerry is in there and he opens the door and take Tom's towel and closes the door and Tom is trying to open the door but fails, He begins to think how he can get rid of Jerry and gets an idea!
He writes a paper where it says ''Fire Exit'' and put it in the window and he starts a little Fire and Jerry jumps down the skyscraper and Tom is so happy and go to eat his breakfast but then to his surprise Jerry appears with the cutlery and eat up all Tom's food, throwing food at him and degrade him, Tom get's Furious and tear the Telegram apart and press the teared paper in Jerry's Mouth and screams in anger and destroy the whole table and gets enraged against Jerry and he speaks too!
''Im throwing away a million dollars..
But I'm Still happy!'' And so it ends...Enormously funny entertainment!
If you haven't seen it i strongly recommend it!My Grade: A+.
The Million Dollar Cat. The Million Dollar Cat (1944) *** 1/2 (out of 4) One of the classics in the series, Tom receives a telegram telling him that he's inherited a million dollars but he can only keep it as long as he doesn't hurt anything.
Including a mouse.
Tom heads to New York City where he's living it up but it doesn't take long for Jerry to show up and begin tormenting him.
THE MILLION DOLLAR CAT is the one episode where I can say I really, really hated Jerry.
I mean, he's just so vicious and cruel to Tom here that you can't help but hope something happens to him so that Tom can enjoy his life and money.
This film features a lot of very funny moments but of course it's all building up to whether or not Tom flips out and gives up on the money.
Very fast, very fun and certainly one of the best..
Tom gets rich meanwhile Jerry goes to far..
In this picture from 1944, Tom gets an telegram that states he inherited a million dollars.
Provided he dosen't harm any living creature including an mouse.
Jerry loves the clause but Tom dosen't.
They end up in Park Avenue in an New York City apartment and throughout the picture, Jerry keeps reminding Tom about the telegram.
Which forces Tom to seemingly to make sure Jerry's death was acendental.
However, no matter what Tom does, there was Jerry not far behind.
They even shared an bed together expect that Jerry pushes tom off the bed and just when Tom is preparing to kill Jerry with an bat, he reminds Tom about the telegram.
So, Tom hits himself with the bat.
Eventually, Tom's had it and stuffed Jerry's mouth with the telegram,and starts his revenge with Jerry.
He tells the audience that he's throwing away an million dollars.
But, he's happy and resumes his revenge.
Now this is one of an few films that either character speaks as well.
I recommend it as well.This picture gets an 8 out of 10..
Meowlionaire moggy..
Aunt Harriet leaves Tom $1m on the condition that he doesn't harm a living thing, even a mouse.
Naturally, this gives Jerry free rein to torment Tom, but a cat can only be pushed so far...This one is a fairly predictable example of Tom and Jerry knockabout fun-nothing exceptional, but enjoyable enough for fans of the cat and mouse.
Jerry helping himself to Tom's food at every turn is vert amusing, as is his ability to suddenly appear despite Tom's best efforts to distance himself from the rodent (Jerry reappears even after being tricked into leaping out of the window of Tom's Park Avenue penthouse apartment).The finale holds few surprises, with Tom finally losing his patience and attacking Jerry.
He's thrown away his fortune, but he's happy!.
Manners vs.
millions.
"The Million Dollar Cat" is an American cartoon from 1944, so this one was released during the days of WWII, and this means it has its 75th anniversary next year.
It is a Hanna Barbera production and yes you guess correctly that here we got another Tom & Jerry cartoon and like the others it runs for 7 minutes, slightly under, and even without an Oscar nomination or even win, this is still today among the more, maybe even most, known starring the world's most famous cat-and-mouse duo.
Tom for once is the master of the house this time having sent mail to him even and he inherits a huge sum of money under the premise that he can never harm Jerry (or any other living creature) again.
I must say as a consequence Jerry is an unlikable nuisance really in here and is just annoying for the rest of the film.
Luckily, Tom's instincts prevail eventually and I am happy he's happy, even if it is still somewhat strange to hear him talk.
By the way, Bill Hanna voiced Tom himself there.
Overall, an okay little cartoon, one of the better T&J cartoons I'd say, but not one of the best.
See it if you like old animation. |
tt0114432 | The Shooter | During a mission in a country where "we are not supposed to be in", sniper Bob Lee and his spotter Don 'Donnie' Fenn are deemed to be expendable and are forced to find their own way out. Donnie is killed. 36 months later, Bob Lee Swagger reluctantly leaves a self-imposed exile from his isolated mountain home in the Wind River Range at the request of Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover), who appeals to him to help track down an assassin who is planning to shoot the president. Johnson gives him a list of three cities where the President is scheduled to visit and Swagger assesses a site in Philadelphia as the most likely. This turns out to be a set-up; while Swagger is working with Johnson's agents Jack Payne (Elias Koteas) to find the rumored assassin, the Ethiopian archbishop is instead shot while standing next to the president. Swagger is then shot twice by a city police officer, but manages to escape. Payne tells the police that Swagger is the shooter and this unleashes a manhunt for the injured sniper. However, he meets rookie FBI special agent Nick Memphis (Michael Peña), proclaims his innocence, disarms the agent, and steals his car.
Memphis is blamed for Swagger's escape and is informed that he will face disciplinary review, but argues that, given Swagger's training and experience, it is surprising that the president survived and the archbishop standing several feet away was killed.
Swagger takes refuge with Sarah Fenn (Kate Mara), widow of his late spotter and close friend, killed in the mission in Africa 3 years before. He later convinces her to help him and contacts Agent Memphis with information on the conspiracy. Memphis had been independently investigating evidence that Swagger may have been framed for the assassination, and is further made suspicious when he learns that the officer who shot Swagger was himself shot dead just hours later in a "mugging".
When the agents realize their secret is compromised, they kidnap Memphis and attempt to stage his suicide. Swagger pursues them and kills the captors. The two then join forces and visit a firearms expert who provides information on the FBI's ballistics report and a short list of people capable of taking a shot from a distance of one mile or more. Armed with the information and the realization they have actually found the last man alive who could have made the shot, Swagger and Memphis plot to capture the ex-sniper, whom they now know is the real assassin. Once they find him, he commits suicide after revealing that the archbishop was actually the real target and was murdered to prevent him from revealing the U.S. involvement in the massacre of an Eritrean village. The massacre was carried out on behalf of a consortium of American corporate oil interests headed by corrupt Senator Charles Meachum (Ned Beatty). Swagger records the ex–sniper's confession of his involvement in the African massacre, in which he also reveals that Swagger and his spotter Don were not supposed to survive. With Memphis' assistance, Swagger escapes from an ambush by mercenaries.
Payne and other rogue agents kidnap Sarah to lure Swagger out of hiding. It is suggested that a restrained and bruised Sarah is raped by the mercenary, Jack Payne, who captured her. With his new evidence and cat and mouse strategy, Swagger and Memphis are able to rescue her when Colonel Johnson and Senator Meachum arrange a meeting to exchange their hostage for the evidence of their wrongdoing. Swagger shoots several men who are hiding to ambush him, also seriously wounding Payne, the mercenary. Sarah picks up a gun and finishes Payne off. The Senator is allowed to escape, while Swagger and Memphis surrender to the FBI.
Swagger is brought before U.S. Attorney General Russert and the FBI director in a closed-door meeting with Colonel Johnson, Memphis, and Sarah also present. Swagger quickly clears his name by loading a round into his rifle (which is there as evidence, since it was supposedly used in the killing), aims it at the Colonel, and pulls the trigger — which fails to fire. Swagger explains that every time he leaves his house, he removes the firing pins from all his guns, replacing them with slightly shorter ones, thus rendering them inoperable until he returns. Although Swagger is exonerated, Colonel Johnson cannot be charged with his crime, as the Eritrean massacre was outside American legal jurisdiction. The attorney general tells Swagger that justice does not always prevail in today's world. "It's not the Wild West where you can clean up the streets with a gun, even though sometimes that's exactly what's needed." Russert then orders Swagger released and exonerates him of all charges.
At the senator's home, Johnson and Senator Meachum celebrate and plan their next move. Swagger breaks in and kills both conspirators and their men, arranging for the house to blow up as if by accident. In a final scene, he drives away with Sarah. | suspenseful, comedy, murder, violence, flashback | train | wikipedia | I quite like watching Dolph Lundgren movies that are high on atmosphere.
I'll get to that after a brief round up of the plot.So the Dolphage here is US Marshal Michael Dane, who has been sent abroad to kidnap Simone Rosset (Maruschka Detmers), a sniper who is accused of assassinating a Cuban official in New York, and bring her to trial.
It's morally wrong, as Rosset says in the movie, if the Czechs abducted a US citizen from Pittsburgh for trial in the Czech Republic, that would be a huge international incident.Thing is she may not even have done it, and Dane (like Waxman in Silent Trigger) has a troubled conscience.
Assumpta Serna's presence is welcome, she's an unbelievable sauce who actually appears to have more sexual power 10 years later in the Quay Brothers' superb movie PianoTuner of Earthquakes at the age of nearly 50.Purty places include the fabulous Czech restaurant, which I suspect is probably a little more touristy than the movie suggests (you can see Alphonse Mucha designs on the backs of the menus - famous artist of Prague).
Marta and Simone, one gets the impression, are experts at living.Although others have said that the special effects are not all that, I think there's a couple of pretty cool ones, take the leap to the metro car for example.
It's true that the movie is a cheapie compared with modern stuff, but I don't think a few cases of movie explosives were going to make this one better.The plot is fairly much all over the place, and the Cuban officials in the movie a big annoyance, the fact that Dolph is basically the adopted son of one of the spooks comes off as pretty silly, as does the major plot twist.
There's also a kind of strange beauty to the fights between Dolph and Simone, in that he's more than twice her size, and yet she has enough nouse to make them last out.The lasting value is in the film's aesthetics, and the haunting of Dane, as well as the occasional fairly cool special effect.
I didn't take this movie seriously, and I'll bet the actors had fun making this movie.The scenery and location were very impressive, the interaction between the main characters was good, with a touch of (unintended?) comedy throughout.
Some of the scenes were unbelievable, but that just added to the feeling that you couldn't take this seriously as an action-adventure movie.
If it isn't taken seriously, well that's the fun of it.I had never seen Dolph Lundgren act before, and was comparing him to Arnold...
both are hard workers.The story line is this movie's weakest point, along with a few minor characters who obviously were put in the movie for appearance but no acting ability whatsoever.Overall, I liked it and after repeated viewings, I still enjoy it..
Though this film would be classed as mediocre by most, I rate this movie fairly high.
The scenery is fantastic, the soundtrack is interesting with its combination of suspense and smooth jazz, and with Dolph Lundgren side-kicked with John Ashton you get a smooth, even dose of action, adventure and comedy.Though the movie does seem slow at times, and you tend to forget the characters names or the reason why Dolph is actually there in the first place, the movie does provide decent suspense and action throughout.I didn't like the fact that Dolph's main wound (his arm) was self-inflicted and rather, well...
Enough said.This movie is fantastic, you'll either rate it as a masterpiece or just a decent, action flick; but nothing lower..
As a Dolph Lundgren fan this film goes down as one of my prefered viewings.
I do like a good thriller, with some plot twists and tension.
This film has those but to a mild degree, your not going to get really excited at this compared to something like Mission Impoosble with its high production and A-list cast but for a B-movie this is a good film that is surprising in places and reasonably well written.Dolph plays Michael Dane, who is working with the FBI to try to capture a known assasin played by the sexy Maruschka Detmers.
Dane does not beleive she killed the Cuban Ambassador, but he still has to bring her into custody in the build up to a summit between the US and Cuba to try to get the two country's to shake and make up if you like.
one particular example is the inclusion of Dolphs character, he is flown in from New York to Prague simply to arrest this Woman, why on Earth she wasn't brought in before is beyond me, especially considering that her whereabouts were known.
A lot doesn't make sense but those minor quibbles aside, the film is nicely paced and is enjoyable.The acting is good, Dolph is assured and puts in one of his better performances, he has great chemistry with the excellent Maruschka who in turn also shows great chemistry with Assumpta Serna who plays Marta the possible lover of Simone.
That is another mystery of the film, the sexual preference of Simone (Detmers) this does kind of undermine the development of a relationship between Dolph and Maruschkas characters.
Also good is John Ashton as a bit of comic support as Danes Foster father and aid in the hunt for Simone.Furthermore, the action scenes.
Also later in the film when Dolph rescues Simones character and just after when they both escape.
The end is good to with the music helping to really build everything to a climactic crescendo.Overall this is a fairly decent thriller, with some nice lighting in the dark shots, and some nice and suitably dank locations.
Dolph and Maruschka have a great chemistry, and the twists in the film are good.
I was expecting top-grade action, especially since Lundgren was the star, but the movie is a real bore.
The script is (mostly) unsurprising, containing a major plot twist that you'll see coming from the first few minutes of the movie.
Although this film is not interesting for its acting or its story line, you must see it (even with the sound off) if only for the absolutely gorgeous set design, lighting design, and cinematography, which combine to make this film an eye-popping piece of eye candy.
I feel bad writing this review, since my far-from-perfect rating mostly reflects my disappointment in having expected a different kind of movie.
Honestly, HIDDEN AGENDA is a pretty good film from Dolph Lundgren's early DTV career...if you're looking for a spy thriller.
This is definitely a movie you'll have to check out for yourself to get the full gist of it, unless you're looking for a genuine action film like me - then you can save your money.The story: CIA agent Michael Dane (Lundgren) is assigned to apprehend the prime suspect in an ambassador's murder (Maruschka Detmers) in Prague and bring her to America, not knowing that he's about to be thrown into a web political intrigue and treachery.Considering that the film was made for a slim $7 million and as a cooperative effort among five countries, it looks admirably good.
There's one embarrassing instance early in the picture where the filmmakers had to fudge a laser pointer, but otherwise, director Ted Kotcheff's capabilities shine through - not only by successfully filming scenes you wouldn't expect to find in a cheap film, but also by making the East European filming location fun to look at.
Authentic Czech is spoken throughout, which is pretty nice, and the film maintains a sense of gravity and importance that'd be exceedingly rare in Lundgren's subsequent career.The movie isn't completely without good action.
However, the problem is that very little of the action is the kind that I like.
Lundgren once claimed to have injured himself before he could complete all of the scenes, which might explain the lack of more hand-to-hand action, but it's still disappointing.
Apparently Dolph's charms are so great in this picture that not even a lesbian character can withstand him.For most fans, I'd imagine the movie is at least worth a look, unless you're on the same page as me and would miss the almost-nonexistent fisticuffs..
****SPOILERS**** After the Cuban Ambassador to the UN is assassinated in New York City the CIA, with the help of Cuban government officials, trace the killer to be the daughter of an exiled anti-Castro Cuban living in the Czech Republic who's a professional assassin named Simone Rosset and using the name of Yanna Natova, Maruschka Detmers.
With a major meeting by the Cuban and US government set in Prague to re-establish diplomatic relations between those two countries it's expected that Simone will disrupt the meeting by trying to kill both the Cuban and US officials expected to sign that agreement.
Sending US Marshall Michael Dane, Dolph Lundgren, to arrest Simone and bring her back to the US to stand trial for the Cuban Ambassador's murder Michael is met by his long time friend and US government agent Alex Reed, John Aston, to help him in finding and arresting Simone.
Later as Michael is about to take Simone to the Prague airport to fly with her back to the US, to be tried for murder, Simone tells him that she never was in New York the day of the Ambassador's killing and never left the Czech Republic in five years; Simone also tells Michael that she'll never live to stand trial.
Simone's prediction comes sadly true when she's assassinated in a Prague hotel room after Michael saved her life from a number of assassin attempts that he foiled.
Realizing, too late to save Simone's life, that it's evident that there are those in higher ups in both the US and Cuban governments who don't want that signing to take place Michael goes to the signing ceremony in Prague to prevent it from being disrupted by the real assassins of the Cuban UN Ambassador.
Great action scenes that leave you black and blue just from watching them with Dolph Lundgren at his best as the reluctant hero who breaks with his superiors, to stop the very assassination that he was assigned by them to prevent, who think that the real killer is already dead.
Maruschka Detmers is the biggest surprise in the movie by being every bit as good as Dolph in the action scenes but also touches the heart-strings with her both sensitive as well as tragic performance as the doomed Simone.
Tremendous final under the streets and on top of the buildings of picturesque Prague with Dolph Lundgren, bloody T-shirt and all, saving the day by putting the bad guys on ice as well as single-handedly restoring US-Cuban relations for the first time in some forty years..
'The Shooter' (aka 'Hidden Assassin' which I find much cooler title) is quite trivial on the plot wise - special agent goes to Prague to catch supposed assassin, but things aren't like they seem.
By the time of filming this movie Dolph Lundgren's acting range had improved a lot and he is not as wooden as in some of his earlier movies.
Hidden Assassin (its proper name is The Shooter) is not just another mindless Dolph Lundgren actioner.
It's a fairly well-plotted and exciting political thriller with some fine acting and great action sequences.
Dolph plays a US Marshall (surprise, surprise) who is sent to Prague to find the assassin who killed the Cuban ambassador.
Detmers is a beautiful bisexual assassin who Dolph gets caught up with, and before long the two of them are walking on dangerous ground while trying to stay alive the whole time.
Overall, I would probably recommend this one over some of Dolph's most well-known movies (Red Scorpion, Universal Soldier).
There is some action here – car chases , fights and shootouts but it's all completely flat and joyless.
There is some suspense here and there , but it's simply not enough.The Prague looks nice and John Ashton ("Beverly hills cop") is OK as Lundgren's buddy.
Dolph is Michael Dane, a US Marshal on the hunt for Simone Rosset (Maruschka Detmers) a shapely assassin suspected of doing a Frank Sinatra and coming out of retirement to off a Cuban ambassador.
Rosset, however, pleads her innocence, and Dane uncovers doings of the murky variety when he investigates a little further.Detmers is an actress new to me, but she adds a touch of class to an otherwise pedestrian action movie.
Her character is obviously modelled on Nikita, but Simone is a part-time lesbian with a taste for good wine and a knack for jumping off high places.
On the plus side, the story does at least try to be a little different from the countless other mid-budget efforts out there, adding an unexpected twist that is well-timed and effective, and making use of some terrific Prague location work.This one is for those times when you really don't want to think about what you are watching; it's for when you want the film to do all the work and lay everything out for you without inserting any sly subtexts, etc.
The action set-pieces are a little workmanlike the budgets restricts them to a couple of car chases and a lot of gunfights but one, carried out on the rooftops of Prague, is pretty cool.No-one sitting down to watch a film like this should be doing so with high expectations, so it follows then that no-one should be disappointed.
Incredibly forgetful and incomprehensible hodgepodge about a U.S. marshal, Michael Dane (Dolph Lundgren) out to investigate the recent assassination of a Cuban ambassador to the U.S. in New York City.
His adventures lead him to the city of Prague in the Czech Republic where he must apprehend an apparent "suspect" (Maruschka Detmers), who may or may not be the one responsible for the killing.
He must then return her to New York City in the United States of America so that she may await trial for the murder.As time goes by, Dane and the alleged "professional assassin" are on the lam.
They run from the police, various bad guys, and lots of shootings occur.The gorgeous on-location filming at some of the finest monuments found at the Czech Republic are a mild virtue and THE SHOOTER (also known as HIDDEN ASSASSIN) has occasional suspense.Unfortunately, those are not good enough redeeming factors to give this film high marks.
The action in THE SHOOTER is abysmal, the guns blazing add nothing new to the genre, and these type of thrillers are becoming tiresome as they perish on the video shelves.
Hidden Assassin is one of the better 90's Dolph flicks..
When the Cuban ambassador to the U.N. is assassinated by a sniper, U.S. Marshal Michael Dane (Dolph) travels to Prague to apprehend the suspect.
As it turns out, the suspect is Simone Rosset (Detmers), and the relationship between Dane and Rosset becomes complicated.
Naturally, there is a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top - and Dane must fight hard to get to the truth.
Hidden Assassin - not to be confused with Silent Trigger (1996), or Hidden Agenda (2001) for that matter (although Silent Trigger has a similar plot that involves male and female snipers who are conflicted about their actions) - was made during the period in Dolph's career where he was trying to be more serious, and was appearing in films with a darker and more somber tone.
Whether intentionally or not on his part when he was choosing his roles, these 90's Dolphs are different from his 80's heyday.What follows is more intrigue than out-and-out action, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just a different animal from, say, The Punisher (1989).
The Prague locations are a highlight of the movie.
The cinematography is top-notch, and thanks to the interesting setting and good production values, as well as the big-sounding score, Hidden Assassin seems to be going for a classier vibe.Detmers recalls a more-sane Sean Young in her prime, and as far as casting goes, in lesser (?) hands, Dolph's role could have been played - should the dire need arise - by Frank Zagarino (similar hair).
We haven't heard too much from him lately.Hidden Assassin is probably one of the better 90's Dolphs, thanks to the quality of the technical aspects of the film, but had this movie been made in the 80's, it would have been a more full-throttle action film, and that would have been nice to see.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com.
(Credit: Google)I spent years trying to find a copy of this movie as I'm a loyal Lundgren fan.
Detmers unpredictably as Simone was fun to watch and she had good chemistry with Lundgren.
I'm not gonna go out of my way to recommend this movie to you but I guess you could do a lot worse as well when it comes to political thrillers.5/10.
Trashy action vehicle for Dolph Lundgren.
One other, often forgotten star of these straight-to-video bonanzas is Dolph Lundgren, who has been churning out his movies throughout the '90s to little recognition in and out of the genre.
At around the hour mark, the film suddenly changes into high gear, and is then packed with shoot-outs, car chases, and action up until the very end.
The action scenes may be clichéd (the old train-top chase is brought into play, for example) but they are frequently exciting, with lots of machine guns blazing and Lundgren escaping from death time and time again.Which brings me to the acting; lamentable, as to be expected.
There are many individual scenes of interest in this film; a moment where Lundgren cuts his own arm with a stanley knife (bet you can't guess how they did that!), a rooftop fight between Lundgren and a sniper, a shoot-out at a desert airport, and the finale, which involves a machine-gun battle between Lundgren and two of the main bad guys.
THE SHOOTER may be clichéd entertainment, but it delivers on the action front, and is quite enjoyable in a so-bad-it's-trashy way. |
tt4450826 | Minority Report | In April 2054, Washington, D.C.'s PreCrime police stops murderers before they act, reducing the murder rate to zero. Murders are predicted using three mutated humans, called "Precogs", who "previsualize" crimes by receiving visions of the future. Would-be murderers are imprisoned in their own happy virtual reality. The Federal government is on the verge of adopting the controversial program.
Since the disappearance of his son Sean, PreCrime Captain John Anderton has both separated from his wife Lara and become a drug addict. While United States Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer is auditing the program, the Precogs generate a new prediction, saying Anderton will murder a man named Leo Crow in 36 hours. Anderton does not know Crow, but flees the area as Witwer begins a manhunt. Anderton seeks the advice of Dr. Iris Hineman, the creator of PreCrime technology. She reveals that sometimes, one of the Precogs, usually Agatha, has a different vision than the other two, a "minority report" of a possible alternate future; this has been kept a secret as it would damage the system's credibility. Anderton resolves to recover the minority report to prove his innocence.
Anderton goes to a black market doctor for a risky eye transplant so as to avoid the citywide optical recognition system. He returns to PreCrime and kidnaps Agatha, shutting down the system, as the Precogs operate as a group mind. Anderton takes Agatha to a hacker to extract the minority report of Leo Crow, but none exists; instead, Agatha shows him an image of the murder of Ann Lively, a woman who was drowned by a hooded figure in 2049.
Anderton and Agatha go to Crow's hotel room as the 36-hour time nears, finding numerous photos of children, including Sean's. Crow arrives and Anderton prepares to kill him, accusing him to be a serial child killer. Agatha talks Anderton out of shooting Crow by telling him that he has the ability to choose his future now that he is aware of it. Crow however begs to be killed, having been hired to plant the photos and be killed in exchange for his family's financial well being. Crow grabs Anderton's gun and pushes the trigger, killing himself. Anderton and Agatha flee to Lara's house outside the city for refuge. There they learn Lively was Agatha's drug-addicted mother who sold her to PreCrime. Lively had sobered up and attempted to reclaim Agatha, but was murdered. Anderton realizes he is being targeted for knowing about Lively's existence and her connection to Agatha.
Witwer, studying Crow's death, suspects Anderton is being framed. He examines the footage of Lively's murder and finds there were two attempts on her life, the first having been stopped by PreCrime but the second, occurring minutes later, having succeeded. Witwer reports this to the director and founder of PreCrime, Lamar Burgess, but Burgess responds by killing Witwer using Anderton's gun. With the Precogs still offline, the murder is not detected.
Lara calls Burgess to reveal that Anderton is with her, and Anderton is captured, accused of both murders, and fitted with the brain device that puts him permanently into a dreamlike sleep. As his body is deposited into the prison, the warden tells him, "that all your dreams come true”.
Agatha is reconnected to the PreCrime system. While attempting to comfort Lara, Burgess accidentally reveals himself as Lively's murderer. Lara frees Anderton from stasis, and Anderton exposes Burgess at a PreCrime celebratory banquet by playing the full video of Agatha's vision of Burgess killing Lively. A new report is generated at PreCrime: Burgess will kill Anderton. Burgess corners Anderton, and explains that as he could not afford to let Lively take Agatha back without impacting PreCrime, he arranged to kill Lively following an actual attempt on her life, so that the murder would appear as an echo to the technician within PreCrime and be ignored. Anderton points out Burgess's dilemma: If Burgess kills Anderton, he will be imprisoned for life, but PreCrime will be validated; if he spares Anderton, PreCrime will be discredited and shut down. Anderton reveals the ultimate flaw of the system: once people are aware of their future, they are able to change it. Burgess shoots himself.
After Burgess's death, the PreCrime system is shut down. All the prisoners are unconditionally pardoned and released, although they are kept under occasional surveillance. Anderton and Lara are soon to have a new child together. The Precogs are sent to an isolated island to live their lives in peace. | paranormal | train | wikipedia | "Minority Report", the movie, was a visual delight with compelling action and a storyline that was multi-faceted, dealing with issues like guilt, free will, and technology.
I am sorry to say that Fox's 'Minority Report", the television show, has some of the same technological trappings, but none of the charm or surprise of the Spielberg film.The show opens eleven years after the abolishment of the Pre-crime Division.
Lara Vega (Meagan Good) is a cop who meets a man named Dash (Stark Sands), who might be connected to the old program, with the ability to see glimpses of crimes before they happen.
*My thoughts after having watched the pilot* What a bizarre and sad idea to set the show years after the events depicted in the film, rather than exploring the whole Precrime division idea from a new, TV series angle.
This means that the show has to clumsily explain in its first few minutes, through a boring and unimaginative voice-over, the premise and everything that has happened before, rather than surprising and challenging us with slowly making sense of this future world - one of the great pleasures a film or starting TV show has to offer.
It's like the producers had thought: 'Hey, let's spoil the mystery as soon as possible!' The whole writing in the pilot is the same - everything explained right away, no challenge anywhere, just watch and please don't think, you idiot TV viewers.
MINORITY REPORT the film hinged on a challenging idea - is it okay to arrest people for crimes they haven't committed yet?
Shows like this really give a bad name to TV series adaptations, giving fresh ammo to the people who say that movie versions are always better.
The characters, lead or secondary, are uninspired, unbelievable mediocrities, the acting is flat, the squeaky clean, bright, sugar-coated aesthetics of the show are insipid and a far cry from the movie's, while the writing is lazy (e.g. the way the characters meet and pair up in the pilot, *just like that*).
The film concluded with the idea that it was wrong to preventively arrest people because you can't really know what the future will be like, but the show is not interested AT ALL in that kind of stuff - the people Precrime had arrested really were criminals it turns out, and let's just go stop the baddies already.
You do actually feel like a precog while watching this - you know everything that's going to happen.
If you loved the movie, you may be mildly amused with the pilot's special FX and sci-fi predictions, but you'll hate the horribly clichéd writing.
I could live with the procedural elements, if they captured some of the tension and suspense demonstrated in the open of the movie with Tom Cruise's character stopping the domestic murder/suicide.
She shows no depth, comes across completely unbelievable as a detective and demonstrates such limited emotional range she comes across like corporate spokesmodel.All in all Minority Report the Series tarnishes the memory of the movie, which, though entertaining, was no Spielberg classic to begin with.
Unfortunately the show takes place a decade after the movie and misses out on what is likely a whole season of potential.
So Dash goes vigilante and tries to do it on his own.Without Tom Cruise and the other big stars of the original film, this series looks like a one-season wonder, if that.
Minority Report the movie was reasonably good and worth watching.
Essentially a show about one of the clairvoyants from the original movie now acting as a consultant to the police 10 years after the future crimes division was disbanded.
Compared to recent surge of sci-fi series, Minority Report is looking more refined with clearly better production.
While she does look fit, it doesn't translate to serious femme fatale personality.Its change to more humorous tone is different from the futuristic noir of the movie, it's not bad and probably better to accommodate TV series.
When you have an unlikeable and awkward character like that you need to really work to endear him, which only began much later in the series.
They retread ground frequently while trying to humanize them, the conflict is really apparent and at time jarring and I think ultimately that is what led to the show being cancelled so early on.It also suffers from what most cyberpunk TV shows suffer from, they never nail the low life aspect of the show.
As other reviews have stated, there is absolutely nothing original in this show, it has all the same plot elements as any other show you've already seen where the cop is helped by some other "unique" person.However, if you love over-the-top cheesy and poorly-acted shows that let you relive the wonderful cop-drama story lines you've already seen in every other show, you are in for a treat!On the bright side, I'm sure it will win lots of awards, most notably, "Most Worst New Show with the Worst Everything out of Everyone Ever of All the Shows"!
I don't know what is more painful, Meagan Good's disturbing eye-brows or her horrendous acting.And I simply cannot explain my irrational desire to slap Stark Sands upside the head - like my Nonna use to do when we behaved like idiots.
I love this kind of show and hope it runs a long time as it is enjoyable and easy to follow at the episode level with some interesting story arcs that extend to the season and series levels.
The people who have been overly critical are trying to compare it with either (a) the movie; or (b) top notch TV series (such as Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad, etc.).
And it has great special effects and sci-fi as well as the hottest leading actress on television.If you want some simple, enjoyable sci-fi cop stories with great visuals, give it a try..
the script was just mediocre even the supposedly thrilling moments weren't really jumpy or catchy as they're were meant to be, and the the Sci-Fi still not feeling the Wowzer Tech deal to make me engage more that it is really a Sci-Fi.i believe this is the first experience of TV screenplay writing for Max Borenstein and i think he got over-Encouraged to do this after he wrote Godzilla's screenplay ,, but i think this was a premature move .As for The Cast,, Stark Sands was just okay his face in feeling fear was fine but other than that it was senseless, Meagan Good is lovely but i think she should be more concerned about the other new show "Mr. Robinson" and just be more active on it,..
The first episode was not really great, although the more I stuck with it the more I liked it to the point where now I feel super disappointed if it was to be canceled.
I think people need to give it a chance, sci-fi shows don't always hit the ground running, they often need time to develop and 10 ten episodes is not enough to establish the world they are trying to create.
I think it is a huge mistake of people expecting this show to be like the movie.
I think Wilmer Valderrama is doing it because he needs the money, he hasn't been in anything good, and Nick Zano play the precong that isn't really very much a precog.
I watched the pilot for this new TV series and found it boring, poorly acted, and childish.
Minority Report, the series, leads on from the 2002 film focusing on one of the three Precogs who are freed from the PreCrime unit at the end of the film.
The pilot (which is all I've seen so far) has a lot of cute sci-fi tech in it that I quite enjoyed, although I won't be surprised if they can't keep up a lot of special effects in a weekly series.
True, underneath the sci-fi flash it's just a cop-works-with-psychic-to-solve-crime series, and the introduction of a story arc isn't really that intriguing, but I still enjoyed it.
This is a series in the "minority report" universe and it takes place 10 years after the events of the movie.
He partners unofficially with a Vega (Meagan Good) a homicide cop to help people and prevent crimes.
Stark Sands is a good cast in the role of Dash.The production as seen in the pilot has extremely high values for a TV show with very good visuals of the USA around 2065, and the whole atmosphere is realistic enough.The script doesn't try much to be original but it is OK.
I have seen a lot of people deciding between this show and TV adaptation of Limitless, a "yet another cop+savant procedural".Personally, I have to say that this show is so far way better than Limitless.
The technology, while futuristic, seems like something our existing technology leads to (lenses, holographic tables, etc), and is a bit more believable than a super drug that feeds on the "we only use 10% of our brains" myth.Main characters seem interesting, I think that Dash's behavior is pretty realistic for someone who spent their childhood in a water tank seeing only the horror of murders.
Vega is your typical "good cop", but I think she will need more time to be fully developed as a character.And while the plot so far seems like a "monster of a week" plot, it is way too soon to dismiss it out entirely, as the "threat" that Agatha sees is an interesting plot.I definitely think that if you are deciding between this and Limitless, go for Minority Report, if only for the much more superior visuals.
Fox has canceled a lot of great shows and I really don't know why people (like producers) even sign up with them at all.
Minority Report is a TV show not the movie if you want to watch the movie then do so.This is also not a sequel to the movie.So what if its a police procedural,as long as they are police these shows will be made.I liked it, the actors they chose play their parts well and are believable.These are good actors,the characters are solid.I have worked with people in real life who are the complete opposite of me so this does happen.
I like this series,whether its renewed or canceled does not take away from being a great show.Not every show has to have deep meaning and I like shows like that but I also enjoy being entertained.
But if you were a fan of the film you already knew this, so the set up for the show is no shock in that regard.You follow the weakest of the 3 precogs as he struggles with knowing parts of the future and how he hasn't been able to do anything with his visions since the precrime program shut down (in the film).The show does a good job setting up that the world is still trying to recover from the loss of precrime and drops us into that world as Dash (the weak one) has finally decided to seek help instead of failing to solve crimes on his own.So yea it's a police procedural with a gimmick, but it's well done in a campy sci-fi sort of way and if the ending of the movie minority report left you with a few questions, this show at least makes a valid attempt at answering some of them while creating new questions to push the plot forward.I don't want to say too much more as it would spoil the plot (everything I've typed so far has been in the trailers or you find out within minutes of the setup), but the show looks like it has a over arching plot as well that is being setup, not just criminal of the week routines, and the sci-fi elements are done respectfully and don't look out of place.(ie.
I mean I personally could come up with several ways that precrime could have been "used" without causing the problems that it did, or without the abuses in the system that happened both before and after, but again those are societal flaws in the civil liberties portrayed and the government which are all left overs from the film and the series is working within the confines of that narrative.I do wish they could have found a way to bring back Samantha Morton as Agatha, but her replacement does an adequate job of filling the role; and the replacement of the other two precogs is seamless enough due to them not really being shown much outside of the tank in the film and this show is meant to be several years later, so they don't have to look 100% the same.But overall, if you were a fan of the film this will probably find reasons to hook you.
From the concept , setup and style of script it is basically a guy (One of the twins) of the original movie , is a psychic helping a cop to stop murders (Rings any bells of other shows same setup, literally all the CSI style shows, with too much less originality, unlike almost human).The future visuals of it are not bad , but yet again Almost Human's was way way better.I really really hope that Spielberg's company does focus groups and figures out that lack of original concepts and CSI style new murder mystery every episode rather than a new wholesome innovative story is not what people want, there is too too much of that, and as a Fox production (Cable) it will not be attainable rating wise for it to survive.I hope any of the people responsible for the show scripts, set up an innovative concept that is a wholesome interesting catching story rather than a CSI mini case that will always get solved every time style.
If you like science fiction and can let your mind relax and stop looking for flaws every second this is actually a very enjoyable series.
In fact, I think Minority Report is filled with many interesting relationships between characters showing struggles with balancing good deeds with personal sacrifice.
If you're looking for fresh faces in an interesting futuristic series, I would say it's worth giving the Minority Report a ride..
If you have seen the movie, and would have liked to see what happens afterwards, this series (so far) is for you.
I really liked the movie and I was at first intrigued by the possibility of a series.
The book and movie are very interesting, yet this show takes all of that and dumps it in favor of the 1000th version of "quirky genius helps cop solve crimes." Yawn.Worse, it also continues the trend of network TV trying to subtly brainwash people into accepting wrong ideas as right.
We should not wait big shots or anything like, "Minority Report" relies on its own history to create a good presentation.
As the show progresses, the character development is exponential and only with a little patience, you'll see all the beauty that is hidden in superficial performances in the start."Minority Report" is the best series I've seen in aspects of the sci-fi genre.
It's just not good and it had potential but I'm sick of seeing these procedural cop shows where one cop is like super awesome...
The police partner is very poorly represented by Meagan Good, with a typically cast technician by Li Jun Li. Neither have any on screen presence and the inclusion of one original cast member is a poor attempt to relate to the movie.All suspense, acting and good script from the movie has been totally stripped out of this show with what can only be described as an empty shell of a show, with some glossy special effects for good measure.I really hope they don't make anything more than just this poor pilot episode.Go watch Mr Robot instead to see how a well written show looks!.
Again, this does contain spoilers.I remember watching Nick Zano on "What I Like About You" & I didn't think he was a very good actor back then so I wasn't thrilled to see him on this.
Her Father was killed on the job- that probably doesn't help.I can see how people wouldn't have liked it if they just watched an episode or two.
As time went on though, we've gotten to see the other pre-cogs (Agatha & Arthur) get involved in the story & a little bit of their lives right after pre-crime stopped.
I thought the special effects where good and the characters had personality.
It's really wonderful to see someone like Meagan Good in a role like this especially considering that Tom Cruise was the lead in the movie.
If the pilot is boring with sloppy writing, acting, and directing; then you know it's only going to get worse.Most Sci-Fi shows today are like video games.
I could be wrong and I don't think there will be a 2nd season of Minority Report and other than the official announcement this show has been cancelled.Good Sci-Fi shows to watch: The 100, Continuum (which ended this year), or 12 Monkeys (2nd season to air in Jan. 2016).I would recommend passing on this show, but it looks like everyone already has..
Meagan Good is basically in the Tom Cruise role of the cop who hunts down crimes before they happen, and Stark Sands is one of the three "PreCogs", who helps her do so.
I feel the actresses and actors knew the same, that it would be cancelled.Here is why this story was set to fail:1.) We found out Dash was a precog right away.
It's like they used the same story every episode but changed the people to a certain extent.
People wake up Tom Cruise is not walking through that door.I personally feel the pilot made good use of the source material especially the precogs.
Vega acted badly, or I guess they could have picked a better looking actress, whereas Dash's character was just plane stupid. |
tt0325191 | Sabah | Sabah is a 40-year-old single immigrant from Syria living in Toronto with her family. She is responsible for her mother's well-being. Since her father's death, her brother Majid has been the family authority figure.
His niece, Souhaire, does not want him choosing her husband. His marriage is rocky, and he insists on tradition. Sabah decides to start swimming again; an activity not allowed by Majid. At a city swimming pool she meets Stephen; they're attracted to each other. Because he's not a Muslim, Sabah hides their friendship from her family.
With passage of time, their relationship gets deep and at one point they share a kiss. Sabah's niece teaches her belly dancing which Sabah enjoys. One day, while visiting Stephen at his carpenter workshop, she decides to stay overnight with him. Informing her mother that she won't be back that night, she dances and has sex with him.
The next day, as she returns home, she faces her mother, brother, sister, sister-in-law and niece who are anxiously waiting for her. After some hesitation, she tells them the truth about her doings in the last few months. Majid responds by announcing that Sabah is no longer a part of the family, as Muslim traditions forbid marriage for Muslim women to non-Muslims. Sabah leaves and Majid decides to take care of their mother.
At Stephen's workshop, Sabah is met by her mother, sister and sister-in-law who insist that she speak to Majid. Majid tells her that the money their father left had run out eight years ago and he is supporting the family himself. Eventually both agree that the family must change. The women of the family are impressed by Stephen and his deep blue eyes.
The film ends with a feast at Sabah's family home. Stephen is mingling with his in-laws and everyone is having a good time.
Young stated that Sabah's family previously had "drawn" a "hard line" so the "[T]urnaround ending, though comically inevitable, seems dramatically forced". | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0093502 | Marusa no onna | A female tax auditor, Ryōko Itakura, inspects the accounts of various Japanese companies, uncovering hidden incomes and recovering unpaid taxes.
One day she persuades her boss to let her investigate the owner of a string of love hotels who seems to be avoiding tax, but after an investigation no evidence is found. During the investigation the inspector and the inspected owner, Hideki Gondō, develop an unspoken respect for each other.
She is promoted to the post of government tax inspector. When the same case reappears she is again allowed to investigate. During a sophisticated series of raids against the hotel owner's interests, she accidentally comes across a hidden room containing vital incriminating evidence. On the same day, she helps Gondō with his relationship with his teenage son. While she is doing all of this, she is neglecting her own son at home, calling him from her office at night and saying, "You can heat up your own dumplings in the microwave! You are big now! You are five!"
Six months later the two meet again. The man is tired after daily interrogations. She tries to persuade him to surrender his last secrets for the sake of his son. After she declines an offer to live with him, he cuts his finger and writes the name of the secret bank account in blood on a handkerchief of hers that he saved from the first time she investigated him. | dramatic | train | wikipedia | Tax Collectors Can Be Fun. Who would think a two-hour film (and subtitled for non-Japanese speaking viewers) about tax collectors could be interesting?
This was, although nothing extraordinary.....just pretty entertaining with an interesting lead character and strange soundtrack.I found Nobuko Miyamoro fascinating as the tax collector with all the freckles and the will to get the job done, no matter what it takes.
It was interesting to discover how much the Japanese were taxed (at least when this movie was made) and what lengths they will go to cheat on their taxes!The hot-tempered gangster had some funny lines, some naked breasts were seen here several times to keep things spiced up for the male audience.
The plot of A Taxing Woman is interesting/enthralling, regardless of the production date or language of the film.
Watching tax evasion cases unfold is surprisingly interesting, presented in a manner that shows the more human side of government organizations.
(OK, if not the 'human side', at least you get to see what it's like on the inside.) From a cultural perspective, a 1980s Tokyo is also interesting, with shots of the cityscape, pachinko parlors, love hotels, etc.One last comment: There is nudity in this film, but It adds to the story of the film, justifying why some of the characters do what they do..
Apparently the tax system and the art of cheating on your taxes in Japan is something most Westerners might be surprised to see.
Sure, MOST cultures have some people who try to avoid taxes--this is pretty much a given.
But the lengths to which they go in Japan and the lengths the tax investigators go to catch them is truly amazing and makes this film so unusual.The tax cheat in the film, Mr. Gondo, is a complex and unusual man.
In some ways, he's a slimy man with little to like--owning a string of "love motels" (i.e., hotels where prostitutes go with their clients or couples commit adultery) and mistreating his mistresses pretty badly.
But, oddly, through the course of the film, the viewer and the tax lady come to like him or at least recognize he isn't all bad.
This is important because otherwise, the film would have been far less interesting.
The lady tax investigator, Ryoko Itakura, is amazing as well--sort of like a superhero with amazing deductive powers.
Again, this made for a fascinating woman, as later you saw bits and pieces of her life that led you to believe she is a real person with real likes and dislikes--and even a liking for Gondo.All in all, this is one of the more unusual films I have seen--with a plot that is so unusual and a style that make it a standout film..
This film from director Juzo Itami, who also directed the excellent "The Funeral" is about Ryoko Itakura, a cute freckle faced bowl haircut style tax investigator.
She tries innovative ways to separate people from their hidden earnings, which is, after all, her job.
Nobuko Miyamoto, who plays Ryoko, is great, always looking like the only important thing is the job.
When she gets promoted to Tax Inspector her job with her new colleagues is to investigate developer Hideko Gondo, played extremely well by Tsutomu Yamazaki, to find out how he is cheating on his taxes.
Gondo is, of course, shrewd about hiding his money, so you're left to wonder whether they will succeed.
This is essentially a comedy, with a little drama and a bit of erotica (not involving Ms. Miyamoto's character), and it does have some heart.
It falls short of "The Funeral" in that the character development, aside from Ryoko and Gondo, is a little weaker.
I'm sure these people in Japan are as zealous as they seem in this film.
She's rather memorable, this taxing woman.
She is Nobuko Miyamoto, wife of the late and lamented director Juzo Itami, and a comedic star worthy of 'Saturday Night Live' in its better days.
She plays Ryoke Hakura, tireless tax inspector hot on the trail of shady tax dodger Hideki Gondo, played with rakish self-indulgence by Tsutomi Yamazaki.
Itami blends situation comedy with some soap opera angst (Japanese and American) to which he adds some ersatz action/adventure shtick (the chase scene near the end with Hakura legging it after Gondo's teenage son, comes to mind) seasoned with a touch of the traditional theater and a little zesty porn, well mixed.The result is interesting and a little jarring.I was most affected by the atmosphere of this strange and original comedy.
I found myself looking at the backdrops and the sets and into the faces of all those very neat Japanese bureaucrats as I followed Ryoko Hakura's tireless pursuit of the missing yen.
We can see that in the modern Japan a woman must navigate her way carefully through the sea of men, while a man must achieve financial success to command respect.
And yet there lingers still the flavor and the swagger of the samurai as seen in the scene where Gondo cuts his finger to write a bank account number in blood.Aside from getting a little soapy at the end, this is fine flick, sly and amusing.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!).
Besides the great performances by the two leads, portraying antagonists with similar world-views while on different sides of the law, I especially liked the permeating atmosphere of Japan that came through with the cinematography, the soundtrack, and the scene set-ups.
The final scene culminated the film's strong reminder of the almost unpleasant yet intense fascination I often felt in the urban environments of Japan in the late 80's and early 90's.
"That," I thought of the movie when it was over, "after setting aside all the comic exaggeration, is the real Japan." Like the movie "Shall We Dance?", it clearly showed a true aspect of Japan..
good rather than great, but well worth watching if you're interested.
I watched this movie with a friend from Japan who had a very high opinion it.
I must say it was helpful to have her watching the movie with us (in our college dorm), however, because she explained a number of things about Japanese tax code and evasion as well as the Japanese mafia that made the plot (and politics) of the story much easier to follow.
The characters are interesting and the story keeps you thinking.
A smart movie with a few things to say along the way.
Overall, I thought it was a good, but not great, movie.
The tax evader finds himself increasingly attracted to her brains and persistence, even as she gets closer to blowing his cover and getting him in hot water with the government.
The viewer can also see just where this man is coming from, since the tax system in Japan is painted as any Republican's worst nightmare.
This has the same director and central cast as the even more wonderful "Tampopo." The only problem I have with this film is the unbelievably annoying soundtrack; it's loud, piercing and doesn't leave my head until several days after I've seen the movie..
Japanese satirist Juzo Itami tackles yet another popular obsession in this often bitter comedy sure to strike a chord with any long-suffering taxpayer.
The film lacks the playful free-form structure of his earlier 'Tampopo', but compensates with more of the same inflated, deadpan humor, diluted here by a cruel (but not incompatible) streak of anger no doubt reflecting the director's own relationship with the Japanese IRS.
Itami's heroine is a plucky, incorruptible Internal Revenue agent (played by his own off-screen wife) involved in a high-tech, fast-paced game of cat-and-mouse with a ruthless, lecherous businessman trying to protect his illicit income by any means possible.
Her single-minded pursuit of the Almighty Yen in the service of her government is no less compulsive than the creative tax-dodges of her money-hungry target, and the exaggerated methods of detection and evasion give the film an irresistible comic energy.
The tempo doesn't really take off until the second hour, when the entire team of tax agents joins the chase, and their obsessive devotion to duty carries the film beyond the level of absurdity, transforming a colorless world of glorified accountants into an exciting, romantic adventure and showing just how shark-like the lure of money can be, on both sides of the law..
Sleek and funny movie about tax evasion, high rollers, lovable tax inspectors, love nests, gangsters, etc, in 1980s Tokyo.
I love all Jyuzo Itami's films and especially this one.
The movie gives you the feeling of being able to glimpse behind the wall of many closed worlds, from the multi-millionaire's exclusive world, to the back rooms of pachinko parlors and yakuza offices, love hotels and mistresses' apartments, to the inner workings of the banks and tax department.
Very funny with a strong, suspenseful pace, interesting settings, lovable characters, and heart warming moments.
For me, the combination of the humor + Japanese settings + tax evasion detective story + colorful characters + great soundtrack was just irresistible..
The movie delves into popular Japanese myths about how people hide their money, and how the government investigates people.This movie made Jyuzo Itami, and his wife Nobuko Miyamoto very famous in Japan.
The title "Marusa" became common word in Japanese culture after the release of this film.
Very rare that a husband and wife team succeeds so much in the film business for so many years.
The story is about government tax investigators investigating a love hotel magnate's flow of money.
Yakuza, concubine, wife, and even the bank are all in it.In Japan, where both corporate and personal taxes are astronomical, tax avoidance is topic of most successful people.
People can be taxed up to 97% in Japan, which makes us wonder if the people in this movie had the right to do what they were doing.
People in this movie no doubt were in this tax bracket.To put this in perspective, in the US, many high income salaried workers working in IT and other higher paying jobs are only facing around 57% tax.
Much of these taxes are used or managed in incompetent ways.
Taking all this into consideration, I think it's perfectly justifiable for people to try and shelter their wealth.So, the movie is somewhat gray in who were the real bad guys.
If I were in Gondo's shoes, I might have opted for novel ways to avoid tax too.
The movie has an interesting premise but seems to think character development can be entirely replaced with gratuitous nudity.
Yamazaki is very good as the sleazeball tax evader though.
A Taxing Woman is light entertainment at best, and not even particularly good at that.
The transfer to DVD is rather basic - no letterbox, a bit dark and very little in the way of special features - but despite disgust at the fact that the film hasn't been digitally remastered and given more than a bargain-basement DVD presentation, I love the film itself every bit as much as I did the first time I saw it.Philosophically, i.e. in terms of ethical theme, "A Taxing Woman" is one of those stories in which identifying a hero is difficult - no clear black and white, only greys.
Ryoko (Miyamoto Nobuko) and Gondo (Yamazaki Tsutomu) are of course the dueling protagonists, but each is anti-heroic, something I ordinarily can't stand: Gondo is the operator of a chain of Japan's ubiquitous "Love Hotels," where lovers go to find short-term lodgings for their trysts, who's got a complex system in place to evade Japan's horrific taxation; Ryoko is a tax auditor, later promoted to investigator, who, though admirable in her relentless dedication and competence, is party to some of the most horrendous legal assaults on businesspeople imaginable.
The film's moral doesn't crystallize until the final scene - Gondo states a defense of his right to pursue his own happiness via an oblique reference to kids happily playing in a park below, then makes a dramatic and symbolic statement about the root meaning of outrageous taxation by slicing his finger and revealing to Ryoko his long-sought hidden bank account - via an account number scrawled in his very blood.
After he walks away the camera lingers on the back of Ryoko's head, signifying her sudden crisis of conscience over her chosen profession.In terms of style alone "A Taxing Woman" is an absolute masterpiece.
The music, contrary to some claims here, is truly unique, memorable and nothing short of outstanding, much like Mancini's - fleshing out the farcical cat-and-mouse mood perfectly via two brief, repeating oboe (clarinet?) melodies laid over a bouncy 5/4 time signature that reappear at key points throughout the story.
The outrageous lengths to which the tax auditors and inspectors go to ferret out tax evaders is exaggerated (one would hope - I've never lived in Japan,) for great comedic effect.
This isn't a rolling-in-the-aisles slapstick comedy and isn't intended as one, but the bureaucrats' combination of ruthlessness and obsessive yet oddly endearing personal dedication to their task, balanced by the businesspeople's often intricate and similarly humorous schemes to hang onto their property in the onslaught, is the exaggerated core conflict that pulls you into the plot and makes the film irresistibly charming.The fairly simple plot setup in "A Taxing Woman" derives its incredible depth by the fact that it's almost entirely character-driven - Miyamoto and Yamazaki are such vivid personalities and the opposing chemistry between them so potent that you will find yourself thinking about them for weeks after the fact, as though they were your close personal friends.
That is my psychological litmus test for a great film: "Do the characters stay with me long after I've seen it?" "A Taxing Woman" succeeds in spades.A dose of gritty realism - though with a patina of humor as well - is added to the mix in the character of the violent Yakuza boss Ninagawa, played by Ashida Shinsuke.
That element is underscored in the real world by the fact that director Itami was attacked on the street and had his face slashed by five Yakuza in 1992 after the release of his film "Minbo no Onna," a.k.a.
The world lost a great artist, and "A Taxing Woman" remains a timeless masterpiece.
=======POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD======When can tax inspectors make you laugh?
In "A Taxing Woman," it is possible.
Ryoko is a divorced mother who also works for the Japanese Revenue Service.
She, with the freckles and page-boy hair cut, is a workaholic, steadfast and incorruptible in her duties (You can sort of understand why many people evade their taxes while watching this film.).
Her one stumbling block is Hideki Gondo, an expert on tax evading.
A business man that runs hotels, he uses scams and works with underworld figures, bankers and political figures to keep his money.
He's also a fool for love (he has 2 mistresses and a common law wife), and a devoted father.
It's a very funny movie, showing the depths that people will sink to hold onto taxable income (one tax evader tried to hide the signature seals in lipstick tubes), and the depths that the tax inspectors will go to catch their man/woman (inspectors digging into HUGE bags of trash to find documents).
The late Juzo Itami did an incredible job with this film, working with his usual group of actors, including his wife, Nobuko Miyamoto as Ryoko.
This is a charming film about a tax collector in Tokyo pitted against a gangster.
Directed and written by Juzo Itami, "A Taxing Woman" stars his wife, Nobuko Miyamoto, as the tax collector and Tsutomu Yamazaki as the tax-evading criminal.It's a fascinating glimpse into Japanese culture in 1987, when the picture was made.
Yamazaki plays the owner of a chain of love hotels, and he hides his income.
Miymato plays a recently-promoted tax auditor, and she is given the job of ferreting out his hidden income so that the proper tax is collected.
The cat and mouse game begins.The opposing actors have a real chemistry between them, and their blossoming love comes as no surprise.
Since the plot involves love hotels, we get some nudity, and because the cops and crooks are involved, there's a chase scene, too.
Miyamoto is shown as a tired woman with bags under her eyes, but she's an attractive and worthy opponent to our tax cheat.
That the crook is a complex man capable of - and worthy of - love takes the movie out of the ordinary comedy genre.If you like this comedy, there's an even lighter farce with the two lead actors you might enjoy: "Tampopo," which preceded "A Taxing Woman." "Tampopo" involves setting up the perfect raman restaurant, with chefs closely guarding their noodle recipes and other such nonsense.
An amusing movie with food eroticism."A Taxing Woman" was so popular, they did a sequel, but I liked the original so much I didn't see the sequel..
Director Juzo Itami's satirical take (he is also credited as story writer) on the eternal battle between taxing authorities and tax cheats especially involving yakuza run/affiliated businesses.
Itami's star is his wife Nobuko Miyamoto (a stunningly gifted comedienne) who plays a sweet-looking, but relentless and hard-nosed government tax agent for Japan's version of the US IRS.
Like rust, Miyamoto's character "never sleeps" and employs a unique (and amusing) set of tools and techniques to sniff out hidden income and tax evasion (such as counting cars and turnover in the parking lot of a love hotel).
Miyamoto almost manages to tie together what is really a collection of shorts (or skits)--labeled by the seasons--into a movie that smoothly progresses and builds to a climax.
Loss of focus (and opportunities) results in a drifting film that is much too long with gratuitous soft-porn and nudity making it still longer (and unfunny)! |
tt0291082 | Cinderella II: Dreams Come True | In the royal palace, Cinderella's mice friends Gus and Jaq head to a chamber where the Fairy Godmother is reading the story of Cinderella to the other mice. Much to their disappointment, Gus and Jaq arrive just as she has finished the story. With her help, the mice set off to make a new book to narrate what happens after the Happily Ever After, by stringing three segments of stories together into one narrative.
=== Aim to Please ===
Cinderella and Prince Charming return from their Honeymoon and Cinderella reunites with her mice friends and her dog Bruno. She is later put in charge of the palace banquets and parties while the King and Prince Charming are away. A sharp and snobbish woman named Prudence, introduces Cinderella to her assigned ladies in waiting: Beatrice and Daphne. However, Cinderella is dissatisfied with the way the traditions are run, and ends up falling over when it becomes too much to handle. She goes into her room and the mice find her crying, after they comfort her, Cinderella realizes that she does not have to follow the usual traditions around the palace and decides to organize the upcoming party in her own way. Prudence is appalled by the changes and exclaims at one point "It simply isn't done!" (with Jaq making fun of her words and dancing around with Gus), Cinderella enters the village and hands out invitations to all the commoners, Prudence points out that the princess should be inviting dukes and aristocrats and Cinderella is intent on doing so in addition to inviting everyone in the village. Later, Prince Charming and his father arrive at the party. Although he seems to be shocked at seeing commoners, the King is satisfied with everything. While sitting on their thrones, Cinderella tells Prince Charming that someday she will get the "Princess thing" right and Charming replies with "I think that day is today". The two kiss, ending the segment.
The mice add that story to the book as Jaq gets some magical help from the Fairy Godmother opening a bottle of ink. Proclaiming that he does not like "that magic stuff," Gus reminds him of his last encounter with it. Looking to impress Mary, a mouse who he has feelings for, Jaq allows the Fairy Godmother to tell his story.
=== Tall Tail ===
Jaq thinks he is too small to help Cinderella in the palace like he did in the first movie. The Fairy Godmother appears to help him out, and turns him into a human, six times taller than his height as a mouse so he can help out like everyone else. However, this does not stop Pom Pom, the palace's snobby cat (who became the mice's new nemesis as soon as they moved to the palace along with Cinderella), from chasing Jaq around. He is named "Sir Hugh", after coughing while trying to tell Cinderella that he is now human. After an incident with an elephant at a fair, he learns to be happy for who he is and is returned to his mouse form. Pom Pom makes a final attempt to eat Jaq but is picked up by a lady, who Jaq met as a human earlier, and had assumed Pom Pom to be his pet cat, she decides to find her "master" as Pom Pom tries to escape from her hold.
One of the mice uses the magic dust onto the art supplies, causing them to become animated. The supplies begin to almost destroy the nearly completed book until the Fairy Godmother puts a stop to it. As the mice survey the mess, they reminisce how they have seen worse and Jaq reminds them of the time Anastasia fell in love.
=== An Uncommon Romance ===
Anastasia, one of Cinderella's stepsister, falls in love with a kind but common baker, which her mother Lady Tremaine and older sister Drizella disapprove of. Lady Tremaine tells her daughter to never speak to the baker as she forbids it. After a mishap in trying to get Anastasia and the Baker together again, Cinderella's mice friends (including Jaq and Gus) run into Lucifer and the minute he sees them; he starts chasing after them. Anastasia meets the baker again but the chase involving the mice and Lucifer, causes Anastasia to get kicked by a horse into the baker's shop. However, she is distraught by this and runs out of the baker's shop. A few villagers laugh at Anastasia upon seeing her covered in egg yokes and she retreats to a quiet area with a small fountain, Cinderella finds her and tries to convince her step sister to do what she wants and not continue to obey Lady Tremaine. Lucifer enters the palace while still chasing Cinderella's mice friends but stops once he spots Pom Pom and falls in love with her she sees him too but dislikes him. The mice decide to help their old nemesis. That is, if Lucifer promises to stop chasing mice. The next day, The baker buys a flower garland to give to Anastasia who also buys one to give to him. As she heads near his shop, she sees him with another woman commenting on the garland. Anastasia assumes that the baker has left her for someone else and does not see the other lady's lover as she runs off in tears. When Lucifer and Pom Pom get together, Pom Pom goads Lucifer into breaking his promise and helping her catch the mice. In the ensuing chaos, a jug of water pours on Pom Pom and she leaves Lucifer. The baker goes after Anastasia but gives up and sits near a fountain (which is bigger than the one shown earlier), where Anastasia is. A goat appears and eats up most of his garland, reducing it to only a few flowers. The baker hears Anastasia crying and proves his love for her by placing one of the flowers from his garland into her hair, the moment between them is interrupted when Lady Tremaine and Drizella arrive. Cinderella; unknown to anyone else, arrives and secretly watches as Lady Tremaine berates Anastasia. She tries to pull Anastasia away from the baker again, but Anastasia finally stands up to her mother and declares that she and the baker are going to the ball together. Rather than argue with Anastasia's decision; Lady Tremaine makes her leave, shortly followed by Drizella. Later at the ball, Anastasia thanks Cinderella for helping her with Cinderella replying "Dreams do come true", the segment then ends.
The mice finish their book, and the Fairy Godmother asks if they are ready to show it to Cinderella. She is spotted out in the hallway and the mice follow after her with the book. They sing a reprise of "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo", When they catch up with her (with some assistance by the Fairy Godmother), she asks them what it is, Gus telling her is a book about them all. Cinderella thinks it is wonderful and asks if the mice would like to read it together, to which the mice give a resounding "Yes!". The movie ends as they gather in front of the fire and Cinderella begins to read. | fantasy | train | wikipedia | I don't mind the sequels for the modern films, (example: The Lion King) but the Disney-Disney movies, the ones that were directed and produced by Walt himself (example: Fantasia)should be left alone.
I love the original Cinderella movie, WHY RUIN IT WITH SUCH A CRAPPY SEQUEL?
We've all got to admit, Disney is attempting to keep the original feel to its sequels alive, but none can compare to the timeless stories created by Walt himself.
WILL DISNEY PLEASE STOP MAKING THESE SEQUELS AND LEAVE THE ORIGINALS ALONE??
When I first saw the huge life-size cardboard standup promoting Cinderella II in my local Hollywood Video, I was positively shocked and dismayed as to how far Disney has fallen in its attempt to strip-mine the memory of its classics in order to make an extra buck.
While the animation and voice-acting is top-notch, the story suffers as the film tries to describe Cinderella's "happily ever after" life in the castle.
Since any real conflict could possibly hurt that "happy" image, they appoint Cinderella head of the Ministry of Parties and allow her to demonstrate her unbounded optimism through several heavily contrived situations that mostly involve jokes about clumsy, amorous fat women (fat-acceptance advocates, watch out!) and mice being mindlessly chased by palace cats (who in real life would probably have servants to chase mice for them!) The mice are the real stars of this film, recreating their feature film roles pretty well and tying the loose, disjointed narratives together.
For a movie that purports to teach us how to be ourselves and feel good about ourselves, one would be shocked at the gross lack of characterization in the film.
I've always thought that Cinderella II was the worst movie I've ever seen, (followed by Peter Pan 2, and some other sequels like The Lion King 2 and the Hunchback of Notre Dame 2).
I still think the movie was a bad sequel, but that doesn't mean it's horrible.
One thing I really love about the Cinderella sequels is how faithful to the original character the writers are.
She's still the same person we all know and love from the 1950 classic (though her saying "ew" in the first story is absolutely cringe-worthy and out-of-character, but that's just one moment).
The songs in the movie are very good and are brilliantly sung by Brooke Allison, even if they are a little pop-ish and out of place for something like Cinderella.
The animation, while not nearly as good as the original or A Twist in Time, is nice and pleasant.And then there are the three "episodes" in the movie.
Even "Tall Tail", which I consider to be the weakest of the three stories, has its moments.Overall, we have a genuinely good movie that's way underrated and doesn't deserve the amount of hate it gets.
Of course the animation is really bad, and it's not a deep movie, but at least the writers put some thought into the story and didn't just go with the standard.
Ugh.) This movie is made of three separate stories instead of just one long yawn factory like some others I can think of (Cough.
They even involve a dour governess named Prudence (very nice to see a black-clad miser in a Disney film who is stodgy and stuffy instead of thoroughly evil.) and give one of the stepsisters a story of her own, and do something with Lucifer except having him be the (you guessed it) black, evil cat who does little but chase the mice.
(For example - Bambi's mother getting shot.) This movie was really great for my sensitive little girl who likes humor and happy endings.If you want to be snobby about what should be Disney's standards based on the past - skip this movie.
It's not one to watch over and over, once is enough, but if you don't even like thinking about what Disney could have done to Cinderella's life after Prince Charming, don't bother to even touch this one.
In reality though, it may just have been better for Disney to leave Cinderella alone although small kids may enjoy it, the movie lacks the "old Disney" feel that makes these movies special..
I thought Cinderella 2 (as well as 3) is a very cute and funny sequel for everyone to enjoy: kids and adults like me; I am 22 years old.I also found it a very informative film, it shows lessons on being true to yourself and following your heart.
Since this film has been divided into three flashbacks/stories, my favorite out of the three, is the story of when Jaq the mouse, became a human for a day - thanks to Fairy Godmother and her magic..
Very special things I saw where the not-knowing effects in the movie, started with the disney logo transforming into the Cinderella castle and ended as an old-story telling fairytale with your grandparents.The magic has returned in me.
The sequel to the ever popular Cinderella story reminded me somewhat of what they did with one of the Beauty & the Beast movies.
Although released over half a century after Disney's version of "Cinderella", this is a sequel to the popular animated feature from 1950.
I didn't find that film to be the masterpiece many people consider it to be, but thought it was pretty good.
I know I've pointed this out before with other films of this kind, but since this is yet another direct-to-video sequel from Disney (some of these are sequels to recent films from the company, while others are sequels to ones produced by Walt Disney himself decades earlier, and this is one of the latter), its mediocrity is not surprising.The Fairy Godmother helps the mice make a new book about Cinderella, featuring three stories taking place after the events of the first one.
In the second story, "Tall Tail", Jaq the mouse feels he can't be of any help to Cinderella due to his small size and decides he would rather be a human, but this may not work out as he expected.
Finally, in "An Uncommon Romance", Cinderella's stepsister, Anastasia, falls in love with a baker, but he is a commoner, so her mother and sister Drizella do not approve.
Cinderella begins to help her stepsister try to win this baker's heart, but the two of them don't exactly see eye to eye on how to do this.One thing these direct-to-video Disney sequels are good at is having inferior comic relief to their theatrical predecessors, and "Cinderella II: Dreams Come True" is no exception.
Some good traditional animation is featured here, with some nice, colourful backgrounds, but this is certainly not enough to make up for the significant problems this sequel suffers from.Having previously seen "Belle's Magical World", the second direct-to-video release featuring the characters from Disney's hit 1991 adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast", this "Cinderella" sequel naturally reminded me of that film.
Since I watched "Cinderella II: Dreams Come True" about three years after seeing Disney's third "Beauty and the Beast" release, comparing them may not be as easy, but at least I can say this "Cinderella" film has better animation, and I didn't find the stories to be QUITE as dull as the ones in the other mentioned direct-to-video release, so I guess this one is slightly superior.
In between the vignettes, we see the mice at work, and I personally think the antics of Jaq and Gus are the redeeming merits of this movie.The first vignette is the best, about Cinderella getting used to being to being a princess.
This was also marred by a rather ridiculous subplot about Lucifer falling in love with PomPom.The incidental music was very pleasant to listen to;however I hated the songs, they were really uninspired, and nothing like the beautiful Tchaikovsky inspired melodies of the original.The characters were the strongest development here.
As I mentioned, the mice were the redeeming merits of the movie, as they alone contributed to the film's cuteness.
I have to say also the animation is colourful and above average, and the voice acting was surprisingly good.All in all, a cute, if unoriginal sequel, that was marred by the songs and a lack of a story.
I know that you'll disagree, but let me tell you why I like it:I have fond memories of this film as a younger kid and I loved watching it every time.
You're helpful in your own way.Anastasia's story: People can change for the better.
Although Cinderella isn't the obvious choice for a sequel I love Jaq and Gus so I didn't hesitate.
You could actually understand every word the mice said, the animation is crappy, the palace is much much different from the first movie, there's new characters that were never mentioned before and were terrible, luckily the Prince didn't have many lines which kept him from sounding stupid.
Basically its like The Lion King 1 1/2 except its different stories all told by the mice.
I'll just put it out here, that was the Worst sequel to a classic Disney film I've EVER seen.
The stories were not so bad either.I liked Cinderella's voice better in this too.
I liked her personality in this too, she had more of a backbone, yet she was still kind.So, I'll give Cinderella II:Dreams Come True a 7/10..
A sweet and decent little anthology film that thankfully doesn't retreat the same morals and stories of its predecessor, but instead shows us where the characters ended up after "happily ever after".
Though far from very good, it still stands above it's straight-to-video-Disney-sequel brethren..
The Cinderella films, whether they be animated or live-action have given us great entertainment and this is the worst of their kind.
What really happens when you get classics is where Disney starts to make direct-to-video sequels.
Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (or as I like to call it "Dreams Don't Come True") isn't a terrible movie which is why I'm giving this a 3/10.
Kids will mostly like it, but for others, it's only a lackluster sequel to a great classic.Aside from it's beautiful animation and lots of great voice work, they seemed to be outweighed by it's flaws.
The plot has three stories and only one of them in which Cinderella follows her heart while preparing a party for royal people and commoners is the best aspect while the second and third stories, although cute, are pretty flawed.
At leas the mice are still pretty funny and probably steal every scene in most of the movie.Overall, Cinderella II isn't a terrible sequel, but with a better story and better characterization (not to mention even better songs), it would've been much better.
I never had an interest in seeing the Cinderella sequels, don't get me wrong, I love the original Cinderella, but I was nervous what they would do to the story, so I decided not to see them.
I think it was a little weird to watch because it had been almost 50 years since the first Cinderella was created, and hearing the new voices was a little strange, but this wasn't a bad addition to the Cinderella stories.What happened to Cinderella after she and the prince married?
The mice and the fairy godmother decide to write a book on Cinderella, what has happened to her and them.
The next story is how Jaq, the mouse, wants to help Cinderella, but can't, since he's so small.
And Cinderella's step sister, Anastasia, falls in love with the town baker, but her mother wishes for her to marry a higher class, and Anastasia learns that maybe a change in attitude will with the baker over.Cinderella II: Dreams Come True is of course the direct to video for Disney, and we always know for the most part, these movies are not going to compare to the first film, but I thought that Cinderella is a cute movie for the little girls.
I know I would have loved this movie so much if I were a kid, but I wanna be generous on the rating, because for a cartoon, you have to admit that it was cute.
It's not an ultimate charmer like the first Cinderella movie, that's for sure, but it's worth a look, I think.5/10.
I must say that "Cinderella II: Dreams Come True" is one of the worst movies ever made.
First of all, the movie was made during the height of Disney's sequel rampage.
(Disney also made "The Hunchback of Notre Dame II" and "Atlantis II," but I'm going to drop that topic because their original movies were never really classics in the first place.") Let me go ahead and say that I am an avid supporter of good Disney films, and I absolutely adore the original Disney "Cinderella." The sequel to "Cinderella," however, was a waste of time.
The character of Cinderella in the sequel was so very unlike the original girl that I grew up watching.
In the original, Cinderella was kind and loving.
I try to find the best in people, but in the sequel, Anastasia, one of the stepsisters, is good!
My question to the world: did the people at Disney watch the original "Cinderella" when making this sequel?
However, I do remember that I watched this as part of a "bad Disney sequels" double feature along with Hunchback of Notre Dame II.
The three-story format seems to work a lot better with the television-quality, way-too-bright-and-none-too-subtle art and animation; it was nice to see that they were trying to evoke episodes of a television show rather than labor under the pretense of it being an actual movie.
Well, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that she had a change of heart after Cinderella got hitched to her Prince (who sounds eerily like Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid; is there some funny business going on in Disney fairy-tale land?) It wouldn't seem that Anastasia, being somewhat ugly as well as formerly evil, would have too many prospects in the area of love, but her mother still wants to see her marry rich, which is why she is shocked and appalled when Anastasia falls in love with...a common baker!
Awww.Overall, Cinderella II is pretty bland and not very interesting, but it's definitely an improvement over other Disney sequels, because it's much less painful to have three small segments of sub-par animation and storytelling rather than one big dose.
I grew up watching the original Disney Cinderella, and have always loved it so much that the tape is a little worn.Accordingly, I was excited to see that Cinderella 2 was coming on TV and I would be able to see it.I should have known better.This movie joins the club of movie sequels that should have just been left alone.
It seems, to me, quite rough, and almost brutal, right from the (don't)Sing-a-longs to the characterization.While I remember the character's telling a story through a song, this film's soundtrack was laid over the top, and didn't seem to fit.
And we see part of Cinderella's hoop skirt, which doesn't feel right.The movie itself could have been it's own story, I think that it should have been just that.
Not the best Cinderella film, but somewhat better than expected.
Upon re-discovering it , thanks to the Nostalgia Chick, I decided to give it a go when purchasing it along with the other two Cinderella films in a box set.The animation is as good as that in 'Return to Neverland' and the colours are bright, but some of the music is pretty forgettable compared to the memorable songs in the original apart from the re-workings of 'Bibbidy, Bobbidy Boo' and 'It's What's Inside That Counts' where its lyrics match the animation quite well, particularly, "You got me in a spin" that plays as Lucifer spins around.
The second story where Jaq the mouse turns into a human is comical, but the fairground is somewhat anachronistic for the film's setting and the Fairy Godmother's suggestion of elephants being afraid of mice is clichéd because in reality, elephants are not afraid of mice and I've seen that cliché in previous works of animation, such as two of the 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons from the 1960s.
Being the 7 year old kid I was when this first came out on VHS, I watched this like it was another Disney Princess movie with no problem at all.
In this sequel, there's no real plot, as it is just three stories being told by the mice and fairy godmother about...nothing really.
The second story is about Jack complaining about being too small to help Cinderella now that she's a princess getting help from other people in the castle.
So the fairy godmother Grant's his wish of being a human so he could help Cinderella better.
The third story is about Cinderella helping her stepsister, Anastasia, win the heart of a Baker.This movie does not quite work because it focuses on things that honestly does not matter.
While the characters were not terrible, they still kind of lacked development, especially the prince because like in the first movie, we barely saw him.
Not that good for a sequel but not bad either.
The second story where mouse Jaq becomes human because of the fairy godmother's spell seems a bit out of place not contributing to the characters' development.
The best story is the last one where Anastasia (Cinderella's stepsister) falls in love with the town's baker.
She also makes friendship with Cinderella meaning that she was not as mean as the original movie portrayed her.
So the only part of this "movie" that's any good at all is the last third of it when Anastasia finds a love of her own.
This is the worst Disney sequel of all times, and that is really bad.
If you want a good sequel, go with Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time, or Return to Neverland. |
tt2446502 | Zombie Hunter | The film opens with a news report on "Natas", a strange drug which has been reported to induce zombie-like effects in those who consume it. The film then fast forwards in time, to an Earth mostly inhabited by zombies. The Hunter (Martin Copping) drives along a post-apocalyptic wasteland and meets a hostile "Death Angel". The zombie is reduced to purplish goo after Hunter rams his car at it. He proceeds to stop at a deserted filling station to fill his car's empty gas tank. Hunter enters the station's convenience store to check out any available supplies, but is ambushed by invading zombies. He eliminates them all after a gory battle and downs his sorrows by gulping a bottle of tequila. It is revealed that Hunter's daughter and wife have both died. Resuming his journey, Hunter unknowingly ventures into the turf of the survivors, who have not been infected by Natas. Thinking Hunter is a zombie, an unknown assailant takes a shot at him. Hunter survives nevertheless and is greeted by survivor Fast Lane Debbie (Jade Regier) upon regaining consciousness.
A flirty Debbie attempts to make out with Hunter but fellow survivor Alison (Clare Niederpruem) awkwardly walks into the room to hand him a can of cola, before coercing an annoyed Debbie to leave Hunter alone. Outside, Debbie accuses Alison of being a slut. The latter woman throws back the same insult and they start to quarrel. The audience is then introduced to Father Jesús (Danny Trejo), a pastor-like zombie slayer and leader of the survivor's colony. As the survivors assemble in a small room to have a meal together, a groggy Hunter joins the crowd and gets to formally know the other survivors. Alison and Hunter start to get romantically passionate with each other.
All is well until a wave of normal zombies and a monstrously large zombie somehow make their way into the survivor's camp. The survivors are able to fend off the normal zombies but the gigantic zombie is seemingly unstoppable to the point that even bullets do not faze it. Jesús rushes in to save them and is able to mutilate the hulking zombie with his axe by slicing off its arm. However, Jesús is unable to defeat him wholly and as a result, the zombie slices off his head. The remaining survivors scramble into a car and drive off to an airport in hopes of being able to find a working aeroplane to fly off with.
The zombies, unshakable, still manage to track them down. Consequently, all of the survivors, except for Alison, Hunter, and Alison's brother Ricky (Jason K. Wixom), are killed. Mustering their courage, they confront the zombies and begin shooting them. At last, only the giant zombie is left. Having run out of bullets, Hunter is impaled by the sharp-clawed zombie. Nonetheless, he miraculously finds the energy to detonate a grenade, wiping out the creature and destroying the rundown airport. Just as the bomb explodes, Alison and Ricky climb into a truck and drive off to safety.
Alison vows to always remember Hunter and his courageous deed, echoing that he had finally found what he yearned for — peace. In the aftermath of the explosion, Hunter is shown to be still alive. He explains that he feels cursed as the zombies never seem to be able to kill him and decides to take his own life before the credits roll. | violence | train | wikipedia | This movie was like watching a bad movie spawned from the "Borderlands" games mixed with elements blatantly stolen from the "Resident Evil" universe.The storyline was fairly straight forward, and anyone who have seen just a single zombie movie should be familiar with the essentials of the storyline here as well.
A lone stranger ends up with a small group of survivors in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.The dialog in the movie was just horrible.
Now, I am not saying that the people acting and portraying the characters were doing bad jobs, but the characters themselves were parodies on themselves and everything in the zombie genre.
Way to go Arrowstorm Entertainment...If you are credited as 'Sexy Zombie' in a movie, then you know everything is not right here.Yet, there is something to this movie that makes you stick around to the end, even though it is campy, cheesy and have low budget written all over it.
Worst Zombie movie I have ever seen..
Danny Trejo - which is probably the reason for most people to watch this flick - is only seen in three scenes and is just doing his usual job.
Their roles are clichés as you would expect from a movie like this, but their acting is so bad, that you cannot even take those clichés seriously.
Then there is the very bad CGI of those special monsters, which just look like they had been animated in the 1990s.
A movie that isn't good at all but since Danny Trejo is in it people will watch.
The way I think the movie got made is this; Hey everyone likes zombies, should we make a movie about them.
To prove my point...there is a scene where the group talks about how many zombies the hunter has killed that is interrupted by a woman stripping...using a pole that is conveniently located in the warehouse they are in, but since Danny Trejo is on the box people will watch.
The main character is not played by Danny Trejo who is only in it in order to get people to watch it.
There are two kinds of really, really bad zombie movies:Those with NO Danny Trejo...
Danny Trejo.Or as much Danny Trejo as the "producer/writer/director" could afford to hire, which seems to be roughly a half-day's worth in this case.Too inadvertently cheesy to qualify as the worst ever in its sub-genre, this grind house wannabe also boasts: absolutely no acting or directorial values; an unedited, witlessly amateurish imitation Frank Miller tough guy script; lots of gore, black gore, maroon gore, fuchsia gore, lavender gore, green gore, ecru gore; a gratuitous chain-sawing wielding maniac clown; never-explained CGI mutant space monsters; a single set of all-purpose fake intestines which are repeatedly pulled from various dead extras; characters who keep forgetting they're in the zombie apocalypse; a running visual gag involving masturbation; a geezer who repeatedly declares "I'm getting too old for this sh*t"; and a second-lead actress whose IMDb biog notes that she used to model for Japanese girlie mags and now sells lingerie at strip clubs in Utah.In sum: grade Z camp fare; awful, but minimally fun.
Eh...sometimes you're in the mood for a really bad zombie movie.
And for Danny, hey man, you're going for the money or what, Rise Of The Zombies (2012) was another disaster.
And if you have a close look here at Zombie Hunter you can see posters for Ozombie and Orcs, do I need to say more.
Just as you need an understanding of basic carpentry and the comprehension of executing a well designed plan, you need to DO THE SAME THING WHEN MAKING A MOVIE!I didn't care about any of these characters.
You just can't take Mad Max, Terminator, Snatch, Star Wars, (Danny Trajo's lines are written as if he were some kind of Ninja Yoda) and Dawn of the Dead, jumble it all up and think you've got something remotely entertaining.
Fairly decent and very cheesy direct to video zombie movie.
Zombie Hunter fullfills its obligations of a campy, low budget horror movie.
There is a lot of gore,blood,a cheesy storyline where drugs turn people into zombies ( sometimes giant zombies),hot chicks,a musclecar and Danny Trejo.
Danny Trejo unfortunately is not the lead,instead they got a guy who looks like Ripper Owens from Judas Priest to play a zombie hunting bad ass.
The film delivers a lot on zombies and gore.
Zombie Hunter is no classic,but should please most fans of the genre as passable entertainment..
Loved it..good campy zombie fun!.
Based on the other reviews one would think this is the worst zombie movie ever...it's not and I loved it!
I won't go into the plot, but people that love this genre realize this is not a serious movie, it is meant to be laughed at....Yes, there is bad CGI, bad effects and it is low budget.
The whole point of a zombie movie is either to be scared to death or spoof it and I could not stop watching.
If you are going in with the idea of watching a 'good' movie you're wrong.
The first scene already tells you what kind of film you're watching and when you are spoiled with Hollywood blockbusters and aren't familiar with this style of movie i agree you wouldn't like it.
If you enjoy the classic "B" Horror Flicks and the cheesy actors and lines then this movie is a Hoot.
Danny Trejo did a great job at being (The Badass Priest Character) If you are a serious type person..
The special effects was just classic "B" horror flick like the original Evil Dead Movies.
Great Stuff :) I personally look forward to seeing more of this kind of film in the future.
It has been a long time since I really enjoyed a great "B" horror movie.
I also loved the main actor Martin Copping He did a great job at portraying the hunter..
It's a small budget film but it does well with what it has to work with.The gist of the story is this: there is a street drug called Natas (Satan spelled backwards?) that is turning its users into Flesh Eaters.
Danny Trejo makes an appearance as a priest (a bad ass priest, of course) who has a group of followers who are looking to escape the zombies and find the Promised Land.
Oh, did I mention there is a killer clown as well?Without giving too much away just know that this movie packs a lot of action into the story.
There are a couple of good laughs in the film but nothing gratuitous that takes away from the solid horror moments.This is a solid horror/zombie flick that is perfect for watching with some friends on a Friday night..
Don't rent this if you're expecting this to be a Danny Trejo (leading) movie.
It's a shame because with a better lead and some of the action set pieces this would have been a lot more fun to watch.As it is, it's a nice try, but has too many clichés ruining the story and the very limited character definitions we get.
The film hasn't been released yet but has been featured at the Fantasia Film Festival and Fantasy Film Fest.The storyline is as follows: a zombie outbreak has been caused by a street drug called "Natas" and we follow Hunter, played by Martin Copping, as he goes around wiping out the Flesh Eaters.
He drives around in a beat up Camaro and looks a lot like Mad Max.Danny Trejo does another stellar job playing Danny Trejo.
This time he is a priest with a group of followers who are trying to escape the zombies and the run into Hunter who decides to give them a hand.Zombie Hunter is a low budget film but it makes do with what they have.
It hearkens back to the horror movies of the 80's where there was lots of action, gore and sex.
Some of the CGI leaves a lot to be desired but overall it is a well-produced film.As a zombie movie fan, this one may have just become my new favorite..
Review: You know a movie must be bad if Danny Trejo is the best thing in it!
Anyway, this movie is awful, but in some ways I think that it was deliberately made be be so bad, that you actually find it amusing.
The Zombies looked like they were made of rubber and the splatters on the screen were dreadful.
In this film he really does put the other actors to shame, but I'm not surprised after he has starred in millions of movies.
As for the other actors, if you can call them that, they seem like they just wanted to say that they had starred in a movie because they really are bad.
In all, a total waste of time.I recommend this movie to people who are I to there trashy zombie movies without much storyline, but loads of blood.
I could totally forgive the awful juvenile writing, terrible acting, and vfx if this movie didn't try to seem serious.I really took note of the low end costume design, instead of zombies looking tattered, their clothing was riddled with very clear and precise scissor cuts, fail!
If you are looking for a plot or good acting and writing, keep walking.
Zombie Hunter is aware of it's own campiness which it tries to ride off of the entire movie but yet feels too lazy to commit.
The repeating jokes, glaring continuity errors, 2D characters you don't give two craps for and flat (and I mean flat as a board) acting, makes the movie rather difficult to watch.
Okay, so we have a film called 'Zombie Hunter' and it stars renown B-movie actor Danny Trejo.
Sadly, right from the start we're treated to possibly the most corny monologue from the film's leading man (who isn't Danny Trejo, incidentally).
Seriously, his monologues are so bad, you'd think they were funny - perhaps a way of making sure we didn't take this film seriously.
There is no humour in this film.If you have a B-movie with no stars and little budget, you don't expect it to try and compete with Hollywood's A-list efforts.
While there are some attempts to spoof the well worn tropes of this type of endeavour, too often does Zombie Hunter cheat the audience, revel in its laziness and fail even to live up to the gimmicky promises plastered on the DVD case.
The weird highlight for me was in lead Martin "Hunter" Copping who's growling, monotonous delivery seemed to craft a character that was just as nonchalant concerning the apocalypse then about the junk in which he was starring.
But as I iterated early on, there are clear – and surprisingly successful – attempts to spoof the style of film in which Zombie Hunter eventually revels.
The film stars Danny Trejo which should give the game away as to what grindhouse type flicks this capitalises on.
The main character of The Hunter is basically 'Max Rockatansky' with a classic Clint Eastwood 'man with no name' vibe just for good measure.
I might also mention the guy in the role (Martin Copping) is Australian too haha what are the odds?!.So yes the main heroes look is a bit of a rip off but it works, he's cool, grizzled and dispatches zombies with aplomb.
You have the main theme of a 70's/80's Mexican grindhouse approach with a Mad Max main lead fighting zombies in a Resident Evil setting with an actual Resident Evil monster too (not sure where they came from though).
Trejo is playing 'Machete' again but with an axe, oh and there's a clear cut 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' homage/rip off too...got all that?.Being a low budget affair the effects are average, the blood n guts look fine but the CGI monster things aren't.
Of course there are a couple hot chicks in the survivor band too, one clearly being some ex-stripper/model/porn star type who is bad at acting but good at being slutty (I liked that).
zombies aren't bullet proof.I actually found myself liking this film mainly because of Copping's hero character, I'm not really a fan of the grindhouse genre/approach but the use of other styles and ideas worked well.
Its not fresh and new, we've seen this type of thing a billion times before but I personally liked this films style, the cut of its jib.
"Zombie Hunter" is an absolutely ridiculous film.
It's what makes the movie watchable and gives it such an entertaining air.After a zombie apocalypse, a loner (Martin Copping) with nothing left to lose drives cross-country taking out the walking dead whenever he crosses paths with them.
He soon finds himself leading the misfits as they flee for their lives when the flesh-eaters discover their hideaway.What could have easily been lost in a never-ending sea of movies centered on the walking dead rises above thanks to an obvious influence taken from Japanese films like "Mutant Girl Squad," "Helldriver," and "Vampire Girl vs.
Frankenstein Girl." All the hyper-tense action sequences, vivid colors, and ultra-violence found in those are mimicked here to mostly successful results.If what you're looking for is the realism of "Night of the Living Dead" or "The Walking Dead," don't gaze in the direction of "Zombie Hunters." There's tons of gore and beheadings, but everything's done in an extremely animated and tongue-in-cheek manner.
Just like the Japanese films this movie is influenced by, the brightly colored blood splatters across the screen as the zombies are sliced and diced.The special effects for "Zombie Hunters" are also intentionally cartoon- like.
It's evident because the quality shifts from scene to scene.For instance, the film will go from a scene of zombie monsters which look like Ray Harryhausen models to a sequence of a person getting a chainsaw drilled through their stomach with lifelike blood pouring forth.
The next scene features a zombie getting his head cut off as purple day-glo gore sprays out of it all over the camera lens.Although "Zombie Hunter" is not yet rated by the MPAA, I would consider it to be an "R." There's no nudity, but plenty of sensuality.
If you're a fan of the excessively gory and irreverently silly films of Yoshihiro Nishimura, then you'll no doubt enjoy "Zombie Hunter." Just don't watch the movie expecting Academy Award-winning performances or the serious atmosphere of George A.
This movie is a very failed attempt of some sort of Resident Evil kind of genre.
Every day a "wanna be" movie director comes out and puts a monkey in a wheelchair to write a failed script with zombies just because they can make a fast buck and that is a crime to the art of action horrors that keep zombies "alive" in our "brainz"!
Good Zombie Flick.
I went into seeing this with an open mind since now-a-days, with all the advances in makeup and CGI, doing a zombie movie to compete with the others is somewhat of a challenge for any filmmaker.
This is just a fun movie to watch.
If you are just in the mood for a good zombie/action/horror movie, give this one a watch.
Man, this movie was a wild-rid of a film!
I love me a good zombie movie and this was a good one all-right.
The story centers around "The Hunter" (Martin Copping) a man who has survived the zombie outbreak.
The Hunter eventually ends up with a small group of survivors which include Father Jesus (Danny Trejo) and two women who vie for the attention of the new guy.
A Good-Ol' Zombie Film.
I love action movies and this one is a good one.
A lot of people call it a horror movie, since it involves zombies, but it is definitely an action film.
But, keep in mind, Zombie Hunter is not for the faint of heart or anyone with a bad stomach for gore.
There are some parts that show it is not the biggest budget film, but the movie, as a whole, is good enough that is can easily stand up to some of the huge- budget zombie/action movies..
The viewer watches the newscast being looked at by Natas users.A year later, Hunter is out in the desert, killing the occasional zombie.
He and the car look pretty bad, but the drag him back to camp.The small group gets to know one another.
Soon the compound is attacked by zombies, including some sort of full-on mutant that looks like it was never a human.
Otherwise, the picture was rather low in quality, say mid-range VHS.Sound: 6/10 Not too bad, but with wretched incidental music.Acting: 2/10 Much to my disappointment, Danny Trejo's role was rather small, but that's where the +2 comes from.
When I was looking through Netflix trying to find a good zombie movie to watch, I came across this one and saw the story for it and the picture so I clicked on it and watched it.
It was terrible and it looked like someone went on Windows Movie Maker and pressed some buttons for 5 minutes and called it editing.
I understand that a zombie movie wouldn't be too realistic because "zombies" but with the huge monster who looked like Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy and a clown zombie with a chainsaw.
OK I hardly ever write reviews but for this I have to, This has to be the WORST film i have ever seen for so many reasons Zombie film usually rock but this was just rotten so so so bad i feel ripped off because it actually has the ingredients to be a great film its like they wanted to make it bad.
First it has 1 half big name in it Danny Trejo so you think it might be good, WRONG IT SUCKS, he gets wasted after a C%$p small part by a very very fake CGI monster. |
tt0027367 | Black Legion | When passed over for promotion at work in favor of a foreign-born friend, Frank Taylor (Humphrey Bogart), a midwestern factory worker, joins the anti-immigrant Black Legion, a secret white vigilante organization portrayed as related to the Ku Klux Klan. Dressed in black robes and hoods, Taylor and the Legion mount a torchlight raid and burn down the friend's chicken farm, driving him out of town, so that Taylor can gain the job he believed was his. Soon, however, Taylor's recruiting activities with the Legion get in the way of his work, and he is demoted in favor of neighbor Mike Grogan (Clifford Soubier). The Legion takes action again, attacking Grogan.
Under the continued influence of the Legion, Taylor becomes a brutal racist, and alienates his wife (Erin O'Brien-Moore). He starts drinking heavily and takes up with a loose woman (Helen Flint). When his friend Ed Jackson (Dick Foran) tries to counsel him, a drunken Taylor tells about his Legion activities. Taylor reports the conversation to Cliff, a co-worker and fellow member of the Legion, who initiates a false rumor that Jackson is a woman-beater. On the pretext of punishing him for that offense, the Legion kidnaps Jackson, planning to flog him. Jackson tries to escape. As he is running away, Taylor shoots and kills him; breaking down afterward with guilt and remorse, he exclaims, "I didn't mean to shoot!"
Taylor is arrested for the murder, and the Legion threatens his wife and son to prevent him from implicating the secret group in the crime. Taylor finally tells the truth, resulting in all the members of the Black Legion being convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. | murder | train | wikipedia | But it made a tremendous impact and viewing it almost 70 years later, still makes an impact.Warner Brothers as the working class studio was the only one who could have made a film like Black Legion.
Working class stiff Humphrey Bogart gets passed over for a promotion at a job, losing it to Polish American Henry Brandon.
This makes him ripe for the propaganda of a nativist crew of nightriders who call themselves The Black Legion.Another co-worker Joe Sawyer gets Bogart to join with a whole lot of bad consequences for just about every principal player in the cast.Since this film was about ordinary people it had a great message to tell.
Bad economic times usually bring out either the best or the worst in people.Humphrey Bogart is joined by a whole bunch of people from his film debut in The Petrified Forest.
While Hitler in Germany was doing away with the Jews,there were in other countries small groups whose leaders (the scene when Bogart attends the first meeting is revealing) yell " America just for the Americans!" Bogart portrays Frank ,a working man, a good husband, a tender father,a jolly good fellow,a nice guy.He's waiting for his promotion : to become a foreman will be the crowning a hard-working life .But there's just one problem: the job is given to a Hungarian,a self-made man who spends his days and nights in the books ,for he believes in the American dream.Frank's hatred will know no bounds.It will not be long till he falls into the hands of a KKK -like secret society,whose scapegoats are those aliens who take the bread out of our mouth,who steal our jobs ,our women and our land...Archie Mayo's film is absorbing and Bogart is extraordinary: little by little,a good guy turning into a monster;but that's not all.Mayo also puts the blame on the wealthy educated people who work behind the scenes :the scene when they do their books (well how much for the revolvers?)makes your hair stand on end.But what's fascinating in Mayo's movie is that it's still relevant today,and not only in America.In France ,in 2002,there was a man like THAT in the second ballot of the presidential election:a man who yelled "France only for the French!" and who is still yelling at my time of writing..
But considered purely as popular entertainment, it's pretty striking, with Bogart's performance hovering just this side of 'over the top' -- an amazingly youthful-looking Bogart, in comparison to his later starring roles...The issue of anti-immigrant prejudice has of course taken on new life of late -- if ever it really left -- and Bogart portrays convincingly how the man on the street can become sucked into an otherwise preposterous world of blood-curdling oaths and death's-head regalia, at first through petty personal grudge and then through the surge of power that comes with group action.
He depicts with equal conviction the disintegration of the man who finds himself pinned between that same power and what really matters in his life, and Erin O'Brien-Moore is excellent in the role of the wife whom another actress might have represented as too perfect to be true.And the anti-feelgood ending still comes as a shock, after all these years.
Justice is even-handed but implacable.The message isn't always terribly subtle, the music likewise, and the acting occasionally veers a little too far into bravura territory, vindicated by a reassuring speech to the effect that actually, no matter what you may have seen in this movie, Americans are inherently nice, tolerant people (just in case the audience might feel bad about themselves, presumably) -- but it's a brave attempt at covering contemporary events, despite the standard disclaimer, and still stands up pretty well as a film in its own right seventy years later.
Bogart plays a factory worker who was expecting a promotion, only to see it go to a "foreigner" (in this case, a Pole--and, by implication, a Jew, which is where the Klan gets involved).
Angry, resentful and worried about his future, Bogart gets caught up in a racist, Klan-like group called the Black Legion, which, in the manner of all fundamentalist right-wing terrorist groups, proclaims its patriotism and its "defense of God and country" against "dirty foreigners." The interesting thing about this film is that it really doesn't blame Bogart's character for what eventually happens; he's just a pawn in the political agenda of the right-wing business and political interests who actually control the group.
In this film Bogey's character, Frank Taylor, moves from a happily married family man, to a man filled with hate and finally to a man remorseful for the trouble he has brought upon himself and others.When Frank Taylor loses an expected promotion to a "foreigner", he becomes disillusioned and is coerced by a co-worker (Joseph Sawyer) into joining a secretive hate and Klu Klux Klan like organization called The Black Legion.
Despite pleas from his wife (Erin O'Brien-Moore) and best friend (Dick Foran), Taylor continues his terrorist activities leading to the inevitable tragic consequences.The subject of prejudice and hate organizations in a major studio production was quite daring for the 30s, given the introduction of the Production Code only a few years earlier.
Frank (Humphrey Bogart), a factory worker, is passed over on a promotion that goes to a Polish man.
In anger, he joins the Black Legion (basically the Ku Klux Klan) to punish all foreigners for taking jobs from "true Americans".
Humphrey Bogart stars as Frank Taylor, a working man who loses a bid to become foreman when a foreign-born man gets the job instead.
Not a bad movie for its time, since it tries to show how otherwise well-meaning men like Frank Taylor (played by Humphrey Bogart)can become involved in vigilante activities against foreigners and immigrants.
A frustrated Humphrey Bogart joins the "Black Legion," a 1937 film directed by Archie Mayo.
The film also stars Dick Foran and Ann Sheridan.Bogart plays Frank Taylor, a husband and father who expects to get a promotion at the auto plant where he works.
It shows.None of the 83 minute running time is wasted, and if some of the characters come across as caricatures,it is only in the interests of brevity and pace.A youthful Bogart delivers a fine performance as an ordinary working man of his time seduced by the specious ideology of the Black Legion, whose ideals clearly reflect that of a Ku Klux Klan very much alive in the US at that time.Although carrying a UK PG certificate, Mayo portrays flogging and beating scenes in a manner that although are understated, leave you in no doubt as to what is going on.Traditional family, friendship and civic values are naturally triumphed, but the insidious nature of xenophobia and the crippling effect of moral rectitude are skilfully played out in a sharp, pacey story.An almost textbook example of how to tell a powerful, entertaining story with a message in less than an hour and a half, with a fine Bogard performance merely the centrepiece of a strong supporting cast..
Bogart is fine in an early role as a young worker, dismayed at a Polish worker getting a promotion he was seeking, who joins the Klan (or the Black Legion as they call it here).
That said, here we have Humphrey Bogart playing the role of Frank Taylor who has worked at his job for many years, is well-liked and happy.
Unfortunately, because a Polish immigrant gets a promotion he thought was rightfully his, he angrily joins a secret society known as the Black Legion.
I was horrified, but it did exist: "The Black Legion was a secret vigilante terrorist group and a white supremacist organization in the Midwestern United States that splintered from the Ku Klux Klan and operated during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Black Legion (1937), a feature film, starred Humphrey Bogart.
Archie Mayo and Michael Curtiz co-directed this hard-hitting drama that stars Humphrey Bogart as Frank Taylor, a machinist in a factory who loses a promotion to a "foreigner", and has his disappointment turn to bitter hatred when he is coaxed on by a co-worker(played by Joe Sawyer) to join a secretive organization called the Black Legion, which preaches violence against all foreigners.
"Black Legion" was a very unusual role for Humphrey Bogart, but I think he got it because he was not yet an established star and Warner Brothers put him in many different sorts of parts.
The National Board Of Review named Humphrey Bogart as best actor & voted "Black Legion" as their favorite movie of 1937.
However Bogart's first successful "acting" role dates back to 1936 when he was given a very demanding leading role of Frank Taylor in Black Legion.
Bogie was chosen for the lead in Black Legion because Warner Bros needed an actor that looked "American" due to it's controversial subject matter.
Critics believed Black Legion would catapult Bogie to stardom & this movie was also in the top 10 list of best films of 1937.
But despite all the excitement this movie generated in 1937 it did not elevate Bogart to stardom, despite the success of Black Legion the major stars would outgross him every time.
Black Legion is as good as any film Bogie did later if not better.
When Black Legion was first being sold the studio promoted the film by saying "there is no Robinson or a Muni in the film but there is Humphrey Bogart".
Black Legion was inspired from true events from an organisation of the same name despite the film's false opening disclaimer.In Black Legion Humphrey Bogart plays the role of Frank Taylor, a family man who is a far cry from the likes of Rick Blaine or Phillip Marlowe.
He feels empowered by it and develops a false sense of security as he plays it tough to bolster his lack of confidence as rarely does Frank ever look totally comfortable within in the Black Legion itself.Frank Taylor is drawn to racial hatred and later to joining the Black Legion after he loses a job promotion of factory foreman to Joe Dombrowski, a foreign-born worker.
Likewise the comments later given by Ann Sheridan's character in relation to the idea of the Dombrowski's setting their own house aflame for an insurance payment in that they are "honourable people" and that "they wouldn't do a thing like that" gives the impression that they are pillars of the community and that the locals do not look on at them as foreigners.Essentially the factory in the film operated as a meritocracy and employed the best person for the job ("They will fill it the way they always have, move the best man up"); the essence of the American Dream - study hard and you will be rewarded.
Likewise the scene in which Frank first attends a secret meeting held by the Black Legion in which a Hitler-esque speaker who overtly finger points gives a riveting yet at the same time ridiculous speech in which he speaks of ethnic nationalism and delves in conspiratorial nonsense on how foreigners "Now enriched with the jobs they have chiselled away from Americans and drunk with the power of their stolen prosperity, they are plotting to seize and control our government".With movies such as Black Legion and others from the mid to late 30's you can't help but ask would it be better if it were made before the code?
Likewise Black Legion does distinguish itself as an interesting beast of a film in that it feels like it is in between being a B picture and an A picture.Interspersed between the main story is a love triangle subplot between Ann Sheridan, Helen Flint and Dick Foran.
"Black Legion" is one of the more controversial films from "Warner Bros" and it should have made Humphrey Bogart a star.
Black Legion (1937) *** (out of 4) Pretty hard-hitting Warner drama about factory worker Frank (Humphrey Bogart) who loses a promotion to a Jewish man so a friend (Joe Sawyer) introduces him to the "Black Legion", a KKK-type group.
Soon the men are pushing out those who they don't consider real Americans and Frank begins to lose control of his wife (Erin O'Brien-Moore) and best friend (Dick Foran).
This film pretty much just talks about foreigners and never mentions the fact that groups like this were going after blacks so leaving this out, as if they were important enough to throw into the subject, is a bit misleading and really goes again the message of treating everyone equal.
I'm sure many Americans were feeling frustrated just like this character so the movie lets us feel for him but then it makes sure that people know violence in these types of groups isn't the way to correct things.
Fine Warners muckraking, with Bogie in an atypical good-average-Joe-gone-wrong role, as an assembly line worker in a typical middle American town who is passed over for a promotion and grows quickly to resent the smart Polish guy who got the job.
It's a plausible story, still relevant in these days of teabaggers and Palinistas, and Bogie is ably supported by Dick Foran (as his more conscientious best friend), Erin O'Brien Moore (as his sad, increasingly desperate wife), and a young Ann Sheridan (whose character seems a bit too calm and forgiving in the final reels, considering what's been done to her loved ones).
When immigrant Dombrowski gets the promotion instead, Frank suffers deep humiliation making him vulnerable to Legion propaganda that blames foreigners, like Dombrowski, for taking good "American" jobs.
Some picture pre-war and after-war in Hollywood have this problem the Ultra-nationalism and damage the movie,here have Humphrey Bogart before became a star in a role of an American who loose your job's position for a stranger...so he joint a kind of gang called black legion taking he to help to pressing people and even committing murder to clean up the way for native American workers..l don't know if it was happened or it was one more a political movie propaganda from the 30'.
Humphrey Bogart, lean and mean in an early starring role, plays a factory worker in small town America who joins an organization not unlike the Ku Klux Klan--this after a foreign co-worker gets the promotion Bogie wanted.
Contrast that with the black anonymity of hooded members of the titled organization, and you have Warner Brothers take on another facet of injustice in pre-war America.Humphrey Bogart portrays Frank Taylor, a disaffected employee passed over for a promotion to a book reading, intelligent Polish worker.
And although this is a year after "The Petrified Forest", I have to rate this film and Bogart's performance here as far superior.Humphrey Bogart's acting as a simple factory worker who gets wrapped up in the Black Legion (a sort of KKK organization) is remarkable.
And then, when he murders his own friend (Dick Foran) he becomes a humbled and scared man who -- in the end -- stands up in court and names names, exposing the secret society, but also results in putting himself in prison for life.Dick Foran is good here, as in Bogart's wife Erin O'Brien-Moore.
**SPOILERS** Shocking exposer of a dreaded Klu Klux Klan like hate group using its dislike of, mostly non English speaking, foreigners then its usual dislike of blacks Jews and Hispanics to take its wrath out on.In the movie we have a happy go lucky Frank Taylor, Humphrey Bogart, who hasn't a mean or racist bone in his body get corrupted and radicalized by this shadowy group of dangerous troublemakers called the Black Legion.
It's when Frank lost out at being made foreman at his machine factory job to a son of Polish immigrants Joe Dombrowski, Henry Brandon, that he became rip picking for the Legion in it exploiting his frustrations of being skipped over for what they called a non-American.
That radical opinion on Frank's part soon lead to him losing his job at the factory in him trying to recruit fellow "All Americans" like himself into the Black Legion instead of doing his job.
Frank's radical and racist views also lead to his wife Ruth, Erin O'Brien, leaving him together with their 8 year-old son Buddy, Dickie Jones.With nothing to look forward to Frank descended into his own living hell that was the Black Legion whom its existence and members he was sworn to secrecy at the cost of his and his family members lives if he ever exposed them to the pubic or police.
As for Frank he'll never see the light of day in being giving a life sentence for the murder of his good friend Ed Jackson but he'll at least know that he, by putting the Black Legion out of business, in some way made up for it.P.S As it turned out "Black Legion" was in fact the first movie that Humphrey Bogart got top billing in.
It's enough to say that Bogart becomes embittered, joins an organization called The Black Legion that looks a lot like the KKK, and winds up murdering Dick Foran, his best friend, the son of an Irish immigrant who subscribes to "da Roman hierarchy".
Bogart plays Frank Taylor, a factory machinist that loses a promotion to a supervisory position to a harder working Polish immigrant(Henry Bradon).
A co-worker(Joe Sawyer)convinces Frank to join the secret society of the Black Legion, who believes in "American for Americans" driving away immigrants and racial minorities with ruthless violence.
An interesting scene - when they come out of the movies - one of the posters advertises "Public Enemy's Wife", a Dick Foran movie of 1936!!!Frank is becoming increasingly dissatisfied with life and troublemaker Cliff Moore (Joe Sawyer) introduces him to a secret society - the Black Legion.
Several examples are provided in this film.First, the promotion of a foreign-born worker(Joe)to shop foreman over the general consensus that Frank(Humphrey Bogart) deserved the promotion resulted in a night raid on Joe's house, burning his house and his father's chicken coup, and breaking things up. |
tt0022958 | Grand Hotel | Doctor Otternschlag (Lewis Stone), a disfigured veteran of World War I and a permanent resident of the Grand Hotel in Berlin, wryly observes, "People coming, going. Nothing ever happens", after which a great deal transpires. Baron Felix von Geigern (John Barrymore), who squandered his fortune and supports himself as a card player and occasional jewel thief, befriends Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore), a meek accountant who, having discovered he is dying, has decided to spend his remaining days in the lap of luxury. Kringelein's former employer, industrialist General Director Preysing (Wallace Beery), is at the hotel to close an important deal, and he hires stenographer Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford) to assist him. She aspires to be an actress and shows Preysing some magazine photos for which she posed, implying she is willing to offer him more than typing if he is willing to help advance her career.
Another guest is Russian ballerina Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo), whose career is on the wane. She is high strung and seemingly on the verge of a breakdown. When the Baron is in her room to steal her jewelry and she returns from the theatre, he hides in her room and overhears her as she talks to herself in despair about wanting to end it all, holding a vial of medication in her hand. He comes out of hiding and engages her in conversation, and Grusinskaya finds herself attracted to him.
The following morning, a repentant Baron returns Grusinskaya's jewels, and she is able to forgive his crime. Instead, she invites him to accompany her to Vienna, an offer he accepts.
The Baron joins Kringelein and Flaemmchen at the hotel bar, and she cajoles the ailing man into dancing with her. Preysing interrupts them and imperiously demands she join him. Irritated by his former employer's coarse behavior, Kringelein – who is aware of Preysing's many swindles – tells him what he thinks of him. Surprised by his uncharacteristic audacity, Preysing attacks Kringelein and the two men must be separated. The Baron is desperate for money to pay his way out of the criminal group he had been working with. He and Kringelein decide to get a card game going, and Kringelein wins everything, and then becomes intoxicated. When he drops his wallet, the Baron locates and quietly stashes it in his jacket pocket, intending to keep the winnings for himself. However, after Kringelein begins to frantically search for his lost belongings, the Baron – who desperately needs the money but has become very fond of Kringelein – pretends to have suddenly discovered the wallet and returns it to him.
As part of a current desperate merger plan, Preysing must travel to London, and he asks Flaemmchen to accompany him. Later, when the two are in her room, which opens on to his, Preysing sees the shadow of the Baron rifling through his belongings. He confronts the Baron; the two struggle, and Preysing bludgeons the Baron with the telephone, killing him. Flaemmchen comes in and sees what happened and tells Kringelein, who confronts Preysing. He insists he acted in self-defense, but Kringelein, who always hated Preysing, summons the police and Preysing is arrested.
Grusinskaya departs for the train station, fully expecting to find the Baron waiting for her there. Meanwhile, Kringelein offers to take care of Flaemmchen, who suggests they go to Paris and seek a cure for his illness. As they leave the hotel, Doctor Otternschlag once again observes, "Grand Hotel. Always the same. People come. People go. Nothing ever happens." | murder | train | wikipedia | John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Wallace Beery, and Joan Crawford all check into the Grand Hotel one day and their lives are never the same.
This was the Depression in America too and many could identify with her.No one epitomized class and old world elegance like John Barrymore, he was not better on film than here in Grand Hotel.
Beery is the only one in the film to attempt any kind of Germanic speech and he does succeed in his portrayal of the hateful industrialist Preysing.My favorite in Grand Hotel has always been Lionel Barrymore.
It's utterly wonderful!The whole cast is superb -- charming, desperate, vulnerable John Barrymore; cynical, sad, appealing Joan Crawford; pathetic, whining, irrepressible Lionel Barrymore; coarse, selfish, all-too-humanly cruel Wallace Beery; and of course, the great Greta Garbo.
Watching this transformation on screen is like seeing the two sides of Garbo.Edmund Goulding directs this 113 minute drama at a fast-pace, starting its opening with overhead camera shots of numerous switchboard operators connecting the incoming calls, followed by the brief introduction of the central characters conversing on the telephone in the hotel lobby: Senf (Jean Hersholt), the head hotel clerk, awaits the news of his wife who is about to give birth to their child; Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore), a bookkeeper, diagnosed with an incurable disease who quits his job to enjoy his remaining days to the fullest; Preysing (Wallace Beery), a no-nonsense industrialist staying at the hotel to negotiate a business deal with important clients; Suzette (Rafaella Ottiano), the maid to the famous Russian dancer, Grusinskaya, who expresses concern about her employer; Baron Felix Von Greigern (John Barrymore), an adventurer traveling with his Dachshund dog, desperately in need of money to pay off a heavy debt, planning his latest robbery by stealing valuable jewels from the famous ballerina; and Otternschlag (Lewis Stone), a scarred doctor who walks about the hotel lobby, observing the goings on, and reciting to himself quietly, "Grand Hotel, people come, people go, and NOTHING ever happens!" Things start to happen as Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford), a stenographer with ambition, is hired by Preysing as his personal secretary.
The studio loaded it with an A List of star performers: Greta Garbo, uttering her trademark phrase, `I want to be alone.' Radiant in love, one can only imagine the despair that awaits her after the film ends.John Barrymore, suave, sophisticated & ultimately tragic.Lionel Barrymore, in a performance that will stay in your memory, slowly dying.Wallace Beery in a heavy role, all bullying bluff & bluster.Joan Crawford, tough as nails & good as gold.Lewis Stone, Jean Hersholt, Rafaela Ottiano & Ferdinand Gottschalk all lend sterling support.There was concern that putting so much talent into one film, instead of spreading the stars out over 4 or 5 films, would lose the studio money.
In fact, this seems to be one of the first films to have relied in the prominent "names" it gathered to portray the different characters in the movie.By today's standards, the film is dated, but for a discriminating film fan, "Grand Hotel" is a classic because of the star turns one witnesses.
In fact, most of the complaints in comments submitted to this forum would have been different if this was 1932 and the film had just come out.The best advice for anyone new to this film is to sit back, relax, and enjoy the trials and tribulations of the people seen at Berlin's Grand Hotel.The biggest surprise of the film is the shortness of Greta Garbo presence in the film, in which for some unknown reason, she looms large above the rest of the players.
There are five centre characters hemmed in Berlin's Grand Hotel, a Russian prima ballerina Grusinskaya (Garbo), a moneyless Baron Felix von Geigern (John Barrymore), an accountant Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore), a dying man who decides to shell out all his savings by living in the luxury.
As for Otto, he is supposedly to be a sympathetic character, but myself find Lionel Barrymore's all-over-the-place acting quite annoying, wanting any trace of subtlety needed to counterbalance the haphazardly-paced narrative, together with Beery's hateful Preysing, an outrageously repulsive character, becomes the nadir of star-power vehicle (Beery won BEST LEADING ACTOR at the same year for THE CHAMP 1931 though).Director Edmund Goulding (THE RAZOR'S EDGE 1946, 7/10) is an important name in the Golden Age Hollywood - although never won any substantial accolade for his directing work, plus his filmography being too comprehensive to sum up thus it is difficult to extract his own directorial touch to be categorised as an auteur - his adroit skill in manoeuvring a large and elaborate set, the outstanding fluidity of shifting his camera within a confined interior and magnanimously permitting enough space for his stars to enjoy the spotlight, is undeniably a key factor is this polished hit of its era..
At the same time, industrialist Preysing (Wallace Beery) has arrived at the hotel in an effort to conclude a important business deal and has hired a stenographer named Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford) to assist him--but Preysing is unaware that company accountant Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and has taken rooms at the hotel, determined to enjoy himself before he dies.
These characters, along with Grusinskaya's maid (Rafaela Ottiano), the hotel doctor (Lewis Stone), and various hotel employees (including Jean Hersholt) collide repeatedly over the course of a few days--and none will emerge entirely unscathed from their encounters.John Barrymore was noted for his larger-than-life performances on the stage, and he brought that same quality to many silent films; less fortunately, he also carried into the sound era, and his performance reads as excessively large.
Although Garbo was a great star in the silent era, she quickly adapted to the new demands of sound in such films as ANNA Christie--but when faced with Barrymore's over-the-top performance she responds in kind, and the result is visually beautifully but incredibly mannered, and their scenes are not greatly aided by their dialogue, which is itself very much in "the grand manner." Although they are indeed fascinating, their performances are distinctly out of synch with the rest of the film, where a more natural style of acting is the norm.While Wallace Beery and Lewis Stone are quite good, and while Lionel Barrymore is unexpectedly effective (and much less mannered than his brother John), it is really Joan Crawford that points the way toward the new acting style.
Even so, there are plenty of compensations: Garbo at the height of her beauty; Lionel Barrymore's multi-layered performance; a Crawford classic; and always, always the lush look and feel of the movie.
Of course, it didn't do so well, being head and shoulders above both the original play and this "all-star" M-G-M romp.There is a reason why this is the only film to win "Best Picture" at the Academy Awards -- and nothing else."If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage," actors have maintained since, oh, Euripides.Here, what's on the page is cliché after cliché -- pretentious conceits that were already old and tired by 1932.What's fascinating is certainly not Goulding's hackneyed direction, but the various actors' more or less successful attempts to breathe real life into cardboard roles.At the top of that list is Lionel Barrymore.
Third-billed, and even with added Garbo scenes to keep Crawford from walking off with "Grand Hotel," she still does.Crawford and Lionel Barrymore not only make their clichéd lines and characters wholly believable, they literally walk off into the sunrise together at the end, as clichés often do.Wallace Beery is wonderful and dimensional and even heart-breaking as Preysing.
Grand Hotel is considered to be a fine example of the work of Greta Garbo, but I like other critics of this film on this website seem to agree that her performance is over the top, and on par with acting that took place in silent films, exaggerated and unreal.The best performance in the film is Joan Crawford.
The stenographer (Joan Crawford) has set her sights on the Baron believing him to be rich, while she is being eyed by her employer, a wealthy industrialist (Wallace Beery) who is the former employer of a dying man (Lionel Barrymore) who intends to spend his life savings experiencing what he has been missing out on all these years, who in turn is befriended by the Baron.
Oddly enough that film was superior to "Grand Hotel" in many ways, but didn't receive any Oscar nominations.Finally, much has been said about Greta Garbo's over-the-top performance in this one.
Garbo and the Barrymores, Crawford, Wallace Beery (compare if you can his performance with that of Gert Fröbe in the later German version) may be seen as larger than life each in his or her own right.It is not enough to judge this film on its own merits from the perspective of the twenty-first century.
It's not as overstuffed as some modern movies, focusing on just five characters: a hotel thief pretending to be a baron (John Barrymore), an industrial magnate (Wallace Beery), his secretary (Joan Crawford), an aging and neurotic ballerina (Greta Garbo), and a nebbishy, dying man spending his last days in the luxurious hotel (Lionel Barrymore).
"Cabaret" meets "The Love Boat" in this revolving sequence of interlinked stories set in a Berlin hotel in the early 1930s.There's John Barrymore as a penniless baron reduced to thieving for unguarded jewels in order to hold off a vicious creditor; brother Lionel Barrymore as a dying clerk determined to spend away his life savings in what's left of his life; Wallace Beery as a struggling, bad-tempered industrialist; Joan Crawford as a up-for-anything stenographer; and Greta Garbo as a legendary but fading ballerina."People coming...going" observes the facially scarred lobby lizard Otternschlag (Lewis Stone).
The meaningless bustle seems a foreshadowing of the war we know is coming to destroy this world for good, even if the only Adolf in evidence is the Baron's faithful dachshund, Adolphus.But the movie is hurt by the triteness of the story lines and the thinness of the acting.Lionel Barrymore's gentle Kringelein is an assay in scraping obsequiousness, pointing up the class difference between himself and the baron with a mawkishly heavy hand.
She looks like a '30s Eva Green with her lean, angular body and deep, flashing eyes; playing her scenes with a subtle coyness that hints both at the sexual abandon of Europe after the Great War and the nature of being a woman in what was then still decidedly a man's world."Have you ever seen a stenographer in a decent frock?" she asks the baron."I have indeed," he says, eyeing her."One she bought herself?""Grand Hotel" plays with libertine notions here and there, but doesn't really declare itself as much more than a costume drama and an event picture where the stars gathering together IS the story as much as any plot point.
Otto gets his by now hot in the collar boss even madder at him by stealing his pretty stenographer Flaemmchen or Flaem for short, Joan Crawford, who sees what a creep her, like Otto's, boss the Iron Prussian-like Preysing really is.The movie "Grand Hotel" also has as one of its guests the flat broke and compulsive gambler Baron Felix Von Geigern, John Barrymore.
***SPOILERS***It's then that Baron Felix finally sees the light and gives up his life of a cat burglar and con-artist but only after one last fling, in robbing Preysing room, which turned out to be fatal for him.Despite the major and established stars in the film, Greta Garbo the Barrymores and Wallace Beery, it was Joan Crawford, compared to the quality of acting talent she was up against, in a more or less supporting role who stole the films acting honors.
MGM rolled the dice and put Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore and Joan Crawford together for a memorable film.
But again, that was the style of the day, so how much can you discount the film for that?I would love to see this picture re-made, but left in the pre-WWII Berlin, and hopefully include a minor storyline of what was happening in Berlin at the time.A wonderful artifact from Hollywood's golden age, I would rate "Grand Hotel" a 8 out of 10..
John Barrymore gives one of his greatest performances as the down on his luck Baron Von Giagern,charming wistful and melencoly.Brother Lionel gives his greatest performance as the dying,but zestful Otto Kringelien.Lewis Stone is appropietly flippant and cynical as the enigmatic Dr. Otternslag and Joan Crawford shows us just how pretty and endearing she was in her early career.And then there is Garbo,the mystique that followed her to her grave must have started with her ethereal performance in this film.She is a wonder.
That is, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket.", to be Flip.The Film Features Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, and Wallace Berry.
It is fluffy to be sure, but it also happens to be wildly entertaining, so I guess you can call it a supreme success as it does exactly what it sets out to do.A bevy of big, big stars--Lionel and John Barrymore (where was Ethel?), Greta Garbo, Wallace Beery and a young Joan Crawford (before she turned scary)--act up a storm in this glorified soap opera that takes place solely in the eponymous hotel.
Best not to take too critical an eye with this one and just enjoy the goings on.Joan Crawford pulls the rug out from under every other cast member and walks away with this film; indeed, she's so good, she seems to be acting in a completely different movie.
This movie seems today a bit stiff and slow,but the story is still fascinating.John Barrymore gives a marvelous performance as the fatalistic thief and Joan Crawford is utterly beguiling in one of her most naturalistic roles.Greta Garbo's performance would have suited the silent screen better than it does here.Lionel Barrymore is just right for his part as a dying and meek clerk on a last spree.As the desperate and unlikeable businessman Wallace Beery is perhaps a bit too hammy..
Set in a ritzy hotel in 1928 Berlin, the film follows the little dramas of a group of guests, including the impoverished Baron, reduced to theft to survive, an aging ballerina, a dying man on his last fling, the corrupt industrialist, the young stenographer, not above prostituting herself for extra money.
Good drama film that was over promoted and over rated by the powers that be.The film is not all that great.The script was very average and so was the directing and cinematography.The story,although engaging was not that incredible either.What was nice was the performances of the great John Barrymore and Crawford.Lionel Barrymore over acted and was irritating.The same could be said of Garbo who could be excused though because she was portraying one those over acting type divas in this film.This is nothing compared to it's less propaganda promoted counterpart "Skyscraper Souls" which was ten times better than this film even if it featured a less stellar cast.See that masterpiece film first if possible before seeing "Grand Hotel".
Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore and Wallace Beery all deliver classic representations of what made them stars of that period.
The film shows us the importance of having money - Crawford's character needs it to make ends meet, John Barrymore's character needs it to be free from an entanglement, Lionel Barrymore's character has it and is able to enjoy life as a result, and it's an important part of both Garbo and Beery's standing.
The movie has a superb script and a cast of characters played by some of the great actors of the time: two of the Barrymores, Lionel and John, Greta Garbo, Wallace Beery, Joan Crawford, Lewis Stone.
There's Joan Crawford, looking like a classic movie star, and Lionel Barrymore, having the time of his life.
Baron Felix Von Geigern (John Barrymore) has wasted his inheritance and results to jewel thievery; Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore)is a man stricken with an incurable disease who decides to spend the last days of his life in pleasure; General Director Preysing (Wallace Beery) stays at the hotel to close an important business deal; Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford) is employed by Preysing as a stenographer (typist).
The central characters are the hotel's hard-drinking doctor (Lewis Stone), a bankrupt aristocrat/cat burglar (John Barrymore), a burned out ballerina (Greta Garbo), a greedy and exploitive manufacturing executive (Wallace Beery), an ambitious stenographer (Joan Crawford), and a terminally ill bookkeeper (Lionel Barrymore), whose paths cross during a stay at the high-class Grand Hotel.
Meanwhile Grusinkaya's loneliness is the price of her success and fame, like that of many a celebrity.Also, here in Grand Hotel, a young Joan Crawford's character, - played with great intuition - which is that of Flaemmchen states how she'd love to be in the movies.
Joan Crawford, young and sexy and not as mannered as she would be a couple of years later, almost steals the picture.Lionel Barrymore as the dying clerk on his last spree delivers a heart-wrenching performance.And then there's brother John as the suave jewel thief and he is magnificent.Those three are the heart of the movie.Wallace Beery as the industrialist plays more or less a caricature and the great Garbo doesn't really have much to do then look depressed and suddenly transformed by love.
With Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, and Joan Crawford, each character dominates the screen when they come on, making the other players seem like bit parts.
A young and vibrant Joan Crawford as a stenographer at the "Grand Hotel" and the two Barrymore brothers--Lionel and John--are the best things about this Oscar-winning film from 1932 that is now so dated as to be a museum piece with over-the-top melodramatics from Greta Garbo (as a weary ballerina) that had me cringing in embarrassment.
I especially liked Lionel Barrymore (as "Baron Felix von Geigern") and Joan Crawford ("Flaemmchen") in their respective roles but both Greta Garbo and Wallace Beery ("General Director Preysing") were also quite good. |
tt0088766 | The Bad Seed | Eight-year-old Rhoda Penmark appears to be what every little girl brought up in a loving home should be. Outwardly, she is charming, polite and intelligent beyond her years. To most adults, she's every parent's dream: obedient, well groomed, unassuming and compliant. She does her homework on time, gets good grades and attends Sunday school each and every week. However, most children who know Rhoda keep their distance from her, sensing that there is something not quite right about her.
Rhoda is the only child of Kenneth and Christine Penmark. Kenneth, a military officer, goes away on business, leaving his wife Christine, a beautiful homemaker, at their apartment home with Rhoda. Christine begins to notice that Rhoda is acting strangely toward one of her classmates, Claude Daigle, who mysteriously drowns at a school picnic not much later. When news of the boy's death reaches Christine and Rhoda, Christine notices Rhoda is indifferent about the loss. Claude's death is presumed accidental, but one detail was unexplained: his face was imprinted and dappled with strange crescent shaped marks. Christine learns that Rhoda quarreled with Claude over a perfect penmanship medal award that the boy won, but which Rhoda believed she deserved more, and has lied about the last time she saw her now deceased classmate.
Faced with Rhoda's deception, Christine begins to reevaluate a few troubling incidents from the past. After Rhoda had begged her parents for a pet dog, she quickly became bored with it, and the animal died in what Rhoda described as an "accidental fall" from the apartment window. An elderly neighbor in Baltimore had promised Rhoda a special necklace upon her death, and soon after died from a fall down the stairs while babysitting Rhoda, who now proudly owns the necklace. Additionally, Rhoda was once expelled from a school for repeatedly being caught lying to teachers and staff who described Rhoda as a "cold, self-sufficient child who plays by her own rules".
Disturbed by the idea that her daughter might indeed be the one behind all these tragedies, Christine begins investigating true crime stories and indirectly asks friends for advice under the guise of writing a novel. Soon Christine discovers that she was adopted as a young child and that her birth mother is Bessie Denker, a notorious serial killer who died in the electric chair, and of whom Christine has vague, fragmented memories. Christine feels responsible and blames herself for passing on the murderous "bad seed" genetic to her child, yet clings to the hope that Rhoda might have killed Claude by accident during a squabble over the medal, and is just too afraid to tell anyone. Christine writes a series of lengthy, tortured letters to her husband expressing her worries about Rhoda, but never mails them in fear of what may happen if he, or someone else reads the letters and goes to the authorities. Instead, Christine chooses to wait until Kenneth comes home to tell him in person.
In the meantime, Leroy Jessup, the crude-minded maintenance man who works and lives at the Penmark's apartment complex, is the only other adult besides Christine who even partially sees through Rhoda's phony yet charming facade. Believing that Rhoda's sweet persona conceals nothing worse than a mean streak, he relentlessly teases her about her supposed cruelty, pretending to believe her responsible for Claude's death. Rhoda is unfazed by Leroy's teasing, until he tells Rhoda that police can discover traces of blood even after the blood has been cleaned. To taunt Rhoda even more, Leroy then pretends to believe she used her cleated shoes to beat Claude, explaining the crescent-shaped marks left on the boy's face. Immediately after, Leroy realizes he has guessed correctly about Rhoda's dark secret by the way Rhoda reacts to his accusations. Afraid Leroy will expose her, Rhoda makes plans to shut Leroy up for good, waiting until he's asleep in his shed and lights his mattress ablaze before locking him inside, to be consumed by the flames. A horrified Christine witnesses the heartless murder from a distance: it occurs so quickly and smoothly she doesn't have time to get help or intervene. Other people attribute Leroy's death to be accidental by falling asleep while smoking, thus starting the fire.
Christine summons up the courage to confront Rhoda, who of course, initially attempts to lie and manipulate her mother before finally confessing to killing Claude, Leroy and their elderly neighbor in Baltimore, all the while shifting blame to the victims and expressing absolutely no remorse. Christine is now unable to deny her assumptions regarding Rhoda's appalling crimes and fears that Rhoda will eventually be taken out of society forever and end up like Bessie Denker in the electric chair. In a desperate attempt to prevent Rhoda from killing anyone else and to save her daughter from a fate nearly worse than death, Christine secretly gives Rhoda an entire bottle of sleeping pills so she will die painlessly in an overdose. Devastated by what she has done, Christine then shoots herself in the head and commits suicide.
Christine dies, but a nearby neighbor hears the gun shot go off and finds Rhoda, who is still alive, but barely so. She is rushed to the hospital and survives. A heartbroken Kenneth returns home from his business trip, believing that Christine had suffered a nervous breakdown. And with no one wiser as to what she has done, Rhoda is free to kill again. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0039628 | Miracle on 34th Street | Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) is indignant to find that the man assigned to play Santa in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (Percy Helton) is intoxicated. When he complains to event director Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara), she persuades Kris to take his place. He does so well, he is hired to play Santa at Macy's flagship New York City store on 34th Street.
Ignoring instructions to steer parents to buy from Macy's, Kris directs one shopper (Thelma Ritter) to a competitor. Impressed, she tells Julian Shellhammer (Philip Tonge), head of the toy department, that she will become a loyal customer.
Attorney Fred Gailey (John Payne), Doris' neighbor, takes the young divorcée's second-grade daughter Susan (Natalie Wood) to see Santa. Doris has raised her to not believe in fairy tales, but Susan's lack of faith is shaken after seeing Kris speak in Dutch with a girl who does not know English. Doris asks Kringle to tell Susan that he is not Santa, but he insists that he is.
Worried, Doris decides to fire him. However, Kris has generated so much positive publicity and goodwill for Macy's that a delighted Macy (Harry Antrim) promises Doris and Julian bonuses. To alleviate Doris's misgivings, Julian has Granville Sawyer (Porter Hall) administer a "psychological evaluation". Kris passes, but questions Sawyer's own mental health.
The store expands on the concept. To avoid looking greedy, competitor Gimbels implements the same policy, forcing Macy's and others to escalate. Eventually, Kris does the impossible: he reconciles bitter rivals Macy and Gimbel (Herbert Heyes).
Pierce (James Seay), the doctor at Kris' nursing home, assures Doris that Kris is harmless. Kris makes a pact with Fred – he will work on Susan's cynicism while Fred does the same with Doris, disillusioned by her failed marriage. When Susan reveals she wants a house, Kris reluctantly promises to do his best.
Kris learns that Sawyer has convinced young employee Alfred that he is mentally ill simply because he is kind-hearted. Finding Sawyer unwilling to budge, Kris hits him on the head with his cane. Sawyer exaggerates his pain in order to have Kris confined to Bellevue Hospital. Tricked into cooperating, and believing Doris to be in on the deception, Kris deliberately fails his examination and is recommended for permanent commitment. However, Fred persuades Kris not to give up.
At a hearing before Judge Henry X. Harper (Gene Lockhart), District Attorney Thomas Mara (Jerome Cowan) gets Kris to assert that he is Santa Claus and rests his case. Fred argues that Kris is not insane because he actually is Santa. Mara requests Harper rule that Santa does not exist. In private, Harper's political adviser, Charlie Halloran (William Frawley), warns him that doing so would be disastrous for his upcoming reelection bid. The judge buys time by hearing evidence.
Doris quarrels with Fred when he quits his job at a prestigious law firm to defend Kris. Fred calls Macy as a witness. When Mara asks if he believes Kris to be Santa, Macy starts to equivocate, but when pressed, he considers the business repercussions as well as the good Kris has done and states, "I do!" Afterward, Macy fires Sawyer. Fred then calls Mara's own young son (Bobby Hyatt), who testifies that his father told him that Santa was real. Mara concedes the point.
Mara then demands that Fred prove that Kris is "the one and only" Santa Claus on the basis of some competent authority. While Fred searches frantically, Susan writes Kris a letter to cheer him up, which Doris also signs. When a mail sorter (Jack Albertson) sees Susan's letter, he suggests they deliver the many letters to Santa taking up space in the dead letter office too. Fred presents Judge Harper with three of them, addressed simply to "Santa Claus" and delivered to Kris, asserting the Post Office has thus acknowledged that he is the Santa Claus. After mailmen dump another 21 full mailbags before him, Harper dismisses the case.
On Christmas morning, Susan is disappointed that Kris could not get her what she wanted. Kris gives Fred and Doris a route home that avoids traffic. Along the way, Susan sees her dream house with a "For Sale" sign in the front yard. Fred learns that Doris had encouraged Susan to have faith and suggests they get married and purchase the house. He then boasts that he must be a great lawyer since he proved Kris was Santa. However, when they spot a cane inside that looks just like Kris's, he is not so sure. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt2804026 | Aurangzeb | The story is set in the town of Gurgaon, an industrial city near NCT Delhi. The film is presented from the view of ACP Arya Phogat (Prithviraj Sukumaran). ACP Arya, a police officer, has been brought up by his uncle, DCP Ravikant Phogat (Rishi Kapoor). His father, police inspector Vijaykant Phogat (Anupam Kher), had lost interest in life years back, after messing up an operation to kill Yashvardhan Singh (Jackie Shroff), due to lack of evidence against him. Yashvardhan’s wife, Veera (Tanvi Azmi), had become a police informer against her own husband and had to run away from him with one of her twin children Vishal (Arjun Kapoor) while Ajay is left with Yashvardhan. Vijaykant hides Vishal and Veera – whom he has begun to love – and passes it off as a botched encounter for which he takes the entire blame. Suspended from the police force, Vijaykant has a tough time over the years, caught between the love for his real family and son ACP Arya, and his adopted wife and son. Years later, just before he dies, he reveals to Arya that he has another wife and kid but doesn't reveal their real identity. Vijaykant dies few days later and Arya goes to meet Veera. There he is shocked to see Vishal, who is the exact replica of Ajay (Arjun Kapoor).
Ravikant, who is corrupt to the core, hatches a plot to expose the criminal activities of Yashvardhan, a mission left incomplete by his brother Vijaykant. He joins forces with nephew Arya and convinces Vishal to enter Yashvardhan’s house, posing as Ajay. To facilitate matters, Ajay is kidnapped by Ravikant and Arya and held captive by them, paving the way for Vishal to take his place and leak information about Yashvardhan's illegal activities to the police. Vishal has to pose as Ajay not just in front of his own father, Yashvardhan, but also in front of Neena Wadhwa (Amrita Singh), Yashvardhan's paramour and business partner. Vishal also has to feign an affair with his twin brother’s girlfriend, Ritu (Sashaa Agha). As days pass, Vishal falls in love with Ritu. Vishal keeps leaking information about his dad to Ravikant and Arya, who move forward in their exposé with the help of the incriminating evidence. On the other hand, Ravikant and Arya unite Ajay with mother Veera and also try to brainwash him (Ajay) into spilling the beans about his father’s illegal businesses before them.
Over time, Vishal develops a soft corner for his father and pleads for his safety from police. He also wins the confidence of his father, who is unaware that Vishal has replaced Ajay in the house. Calamity befalls Yashvardhan because of action initiated by Ravikant, and he has to be hospitalised. Vishal manipulates things in such a way that Neena has to resign from Yashvardhan Singh’s company. Even as the tension between Arya and foster-brothers Ajay and Vishal refuses to be diffused, the task before Ravikant and Arya becomes very difficult. To make matters more difficult for Ravikant, his son-in-law, Vishnu (Sumeet Vyas), lays his hands on evidence against Ravikant’s equally corrupt police officer-son, ACP Dev (Sikandar Kher). Since Vishnu is the only honest cop in the family, he threatens to expose brother-in-law Dev and in order to prevent this Dev kills Vishnu. Ravikant also plans to take over Yashvardhan's empire with help from Neena. Ravikant orders Arya to kill Veera and Ajay. Arya, disillusioned by Ravikant's inhuman attitude, finally understands the choice his father Vijaykant made earlier to protect Vishal and his mother.
Meanwhile, Vishal is called for a meeting by Neena and her new partner, Bilal. Ravikant wants Vishal to use the meeting to give him more information about Yashvardhan. Ravikant plans things in such a way that Yashvardhan would be killed once the meeting between Vishal and Neena is over. Arya realises that Ravikant wants to eliminate Yashvardhan not as much to complete brother Vijaykant’s mission as to take over Yashvardhan’s business empire. Also, Vishal has revenge written all over him because Neena’s son, Inder (Kavi Shastri), had killed Ritu. Here, Ajay finally relents and agrees to help Arya but he also wants his dad, Yashvardhan’s safety. Arya asks Ajay to attend the meeting in place of Vishal. Ajay kills Inder and when Inder's gang tries to kill Ajay, Arya's police team encounters all. Meanwhile Arya has sent Vishal to the Hospital to save Yashvardhan. He also arranges his Police force to raid the Hospital. However Dev sends back the team. He later corners Vishal and Yashvardhan in the Hospital Store Room. Just when Dev was about to kill them, Ajay appears and shoots him. Ajay and Yashvardhan convinces Vishal to escape. Just when Vishal escapes Dev shoots and kills Yashvardhan. In retaliation Ajay kills Dev. When Dev's team was about to kill Ajay, Arya's police force rescues him by arresting Ajay. Arya helps Vishal and Veera escape. Ravikant meets Arya and Arya informs that he has the recordings of Neena's meeting which will expose Ravikant. Ravikant shoots Arya and just when he was about to kill him Vishal comes back and kills Ravikant.
Arya, even though injured, rides back to his pregnant wife Suman (Swara Bhaskar). Vishal and Veera gets back to their earlier life while Ajay is jailed. The film then moves one year forward where we are shown that Ajay has re-united with Vishal and Veera once he is released from Jail. We also hear a voiceover of Arya saying "This system of collection has been in place for years. The money from this system goes all the way up to the seniors and ministers. The nexus is not going to come to an end with just my Uncle's death. The DCP said that only two powers would survive - the politicians and the corporates. But if a policeman doesn't take bribes from any of them then he won't fear them either." In the final scene we see Arya leaving Veera's home once he makes sure that Ajay is re-united with his family. | neo noir | train | wikipedia | This review is not for the fan of Dabang, Bodyguard, Jab tak hai jaan and many more stupid movies comes around in past 2-3 years Honestly ask yourself how many times you went for a movie and it gives you a 2-3 hrs pain with it terrible story ding dong songs and a dumbass direction , for example almost every movie of Salman khan , Akshay kumar , Shahrukh khan and many moreThis movie is nothing like those , and Because of it I don't think it gonna get a big box office success.The story of this movie is so much strong that it will hold you all the time Acting , Honestly speaking I was never a fan of Rishi kapoor in early years But Now I am since his Epic Rouf lala act in Agnipath and Here he did it again Superb acting ,Prathiraj was good too , Arjun I think did good in Evil brother role , the good one was just OK , overall A good movie after a long time , Give it a go :).
In one of the scenes in AURANGZEB, Rishi Kapoor explains Prithvi that , "Baadshahi Bhaichaara nahin dekhti " which essentially translates as "Kingship sees no Kinship" - the famous dictum of the ruthless Mughal emperor.There is a forced attempt in debutant director Atul Sabharwal's modern action-crime thriller to draw references to the Mughal traitor.Set in present-day concrete jungle of Gurgaon, it is about how an illegal business is run in the garb of a real estate consultancy.Yashvardhan Singh(Jackie Shroff) plays the real-estate gangster businessman who runs his illegal empire through a shrewd lady,Nina(Amrita Singh)and Ajay(Arjun Kapoor) is his son.
A police team led by DCP Ravikanth(Rishi Kapoor) and his nephew,Arya(Prithviraj) want to break their stranglehold and send Ajay's lookalike Vishal to infiltrate their gang and be their informer.Now there is a hitch!
Aurangzeb boasts of an ensemble starcast and we get to see the veterans of Bollywood come under the same umbrella after a long time.Kudos to the director for performing such an arduous task in etching out all the characters with equal flourish.At the top of the pyramid is Rishi Kapoor playing the unflinching self-serving cop who enthralls the audience with a controlled act.The central character of the premise, Arjun Kapoor appears partly like the rebellious and wayward reckless brute Parma of Ishaqzaade and partly like the introvert Vishal and he does it efficiently.
Deepti Naval , in a short role as DCP's wife makes a strong impact and her character is a sharp contrast to Tanvi Azmi's in depicting how humanity can be put to shame in the greedy pursuit of wealth and power.New comer Sashey Agha is bold and beautiful but her role is reduced to just being a mole in this male-dominated saga.While Jackie Shroff appears suave,his grey beard notwithstanding , Sikander Kher and Swara Bhaskar are under- utilized.
Amrita Singh is first rate and she adds a mean edge to her character.With an appealing premise reflecting the gritty reality of the land dealings and the nexus of the corrupt politicians , bureaucrats and dishonest cops, this commercial potboiler has indeed good prospects at the box office.i go with 3.5/5 for Aurangzeb..
A directorial debut from Atul Sabharwal (writer of films like 'Phir Milenge'), Aurangzeb is a typical Indian masala entertainer from Manmohan Desai school.
Despite a double-role (as evident from trailers), it is actually Prithviraj Sukumaaran (Malayalam actor of Aiyya fame) and Rishi Kapoor who steal the show through their out-of-the-skin portrayals of characters.
Tanvi Azmi does a Nirupa Roy while Deepti Naval and Anupam Kher play a cameo. Plot & execution: Set in the real-estate mafia gullies of Gur-gaon (city), the film takes you through the lives of a real-estate king, judwa brothers, good & bad police officers, lots of blood-shed and gives a glimpse of what cooks behind the shining express-ways in our country.
The movie could have been a little less complex and dialogs a little less-filmy.In all, Aurangzeb is a crisp, pacy action drama Bollywood got to see after long time.
watched AURANGZEB ...intelligent plot filled with good Thriller n Drama within digestible ratio of Action...this flick gives the feel that Bollywood is really growing up(after 100yrs!)...its cast embedded well with the script n with their up to the mark acting n fare share of screen time...story is close to the reality of today's police n corporate world with a little exaggeration(does't look fake)of the events you/we see in the TV news nowadays...I won't ruin the thrill(of it) by telling its plot...all you should know is its a complete sensible entertainment(how it should always be) & thus its a _MUST WATCH.
Having watched almost all his Malayalam movies & the recent Aiyyaa, I can now say that his Bollywood future looks shimmering.Aurangzeb succeeds in capturing viewer's interest in less than ten minutes and then the bandwagon of twists, turns, identity revelations is enterprisingly mind-numbing, provided you don't compare it with the Hollywood.
Atul Sabharwal Directed 'Aurangzeb' is a fairly interesting crime-thriller, that works primarily for the Superb Performances it offers by its attractive star-cast.
AURANGZEB is a action/thriller film directed by Atul Sabharwal, starring Arjun Kapoor (in a double role), Sasha Aagha, Jackie Shroff, Rishi Kapoor & Prithviraj.The film revolves around two families; a family of policemen and one of policemen.
Yashwardan (Jacki Shroff) is the king of real estate empire and holds illegal rackets along with his son, Ajay (Arjun Kapoor).
As the movie progressed, the plot and everything was all good, but the film was lacking that certain 'something' that a crime/thriller film needed.
Normally films like that would be real dark, but the director manages to add some comedy at places here and there through Arjun Kapoor's characters.Honestly, I felt Atul Sabharwal did quite a good job directing the film but his script wasn't quite perfect.
And it felt as if he was trying to fit in so many things into just one movie.The acting in this film is finesse with great actors in this one.
Sasha Aagha was extremely unneeded, and you can even tell when an actress is added just for the looks and really can't act.And now after talking about ALL that, I'm going to jump onto talking about the next best thing about this film and that is ARJUN KAPOOR.
Arjun Kapoor's acting does stay with you, but the trailer is more memorable than the movie.Overall, I would rate Aurangzeb a 6.5/10, because of the plot and the acting that played a great impact on the film.
This movie was so entertaining and epic I really got entertained by seeing the fighting scenes of the movie Arjun does well in his both of his roles (Double role) Prithiraj is good Rishi is brilliant as the antagonist Jackie is brilliant The heroine is also impressive in her debut performance Songs are really impressive good plot good editing Overall 4/5.
Arjun Kapoor excels in acting both the characters, so do the other actors including Rishi Kapoor and Jackie Shroff.
However this principle of life is grasped in its true spirit by only one character of the movie - Ravikaant, the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Gurgaon (Haryana) who uses his kinsmen as well as others as mere pawns on the chessboard of his sky-high ambitions but the person he brainwashes to play Aurangzeb to suit his plan, does not do so despite agreeing initially for that.The story starts with aged Vijay (Anupam Kher), ex-cop who had lost his job because of a so-called encounter in which the wife and little son of a gangster Yashwardhan (Jackie Shroff) are said to have lost their lives.
In this family of cops with all the males including the son-in-law of the house being police officers, Aarya who himself is the Assistant Commissioner of Police, considers his corrupt uncle Ravikaant (Rishi Kapoor) as his role model.
Coincidentally, the son-in-law of the family is an honest person but for all others including Ravikaant's son Dev (Sikandar Kher), their police service is nothing but the business of collection, i.e., bribes from the outlaws.Suddenly Aarya comes to know from his father in his ending days that the wife and little son of Yashwardhan had not died in that so-called encounter.
An emotional relationship had developed between Vijay and Yashwardhan's wife Veera (Tanvi Aazmi) who had become police informer against her outlaw husband and after losing his job, Vijay has taken care of Veera just like a husband and her son Vishaal (Arjun Kapoor) just like a father.
Under this plan, Vishaal's twin brother Ajay (Arjun Kapoor's second role) is kidnapped and he's replaced by Vishaal in the life of Yashwardhan.
Two of the best Hindi movies I have seen this year have had Rishi Kapoor in them, and one of them is Aurangzeb.
It would be really great if this improves over time.With Indian cinema growing in quality content I am really happy that movies like Aurangzeb are more to come - it might be slow yet the changes is certain and it is for good...
Arjun Kapoor does a wonderful job at playing a double role of two twin brothers,while Pritvhiraj excellently portrays his character and adds some intensity to the film.
Real estate agent Yash (Jackie) is well known for his illegal activities in Gurgaon.But the police department headed by Ravikant (Rishi), Arya and Dev are unable to put him behind bars.That's because Yash's son Ajay (Arjun) leaves no evidence after every dubious job has been completed.
But dealing with many subplots, Sabharwal becomes oblivious he is diluting the intensity of the screenplay making it less enthralling for audiences.The suspenseful first half unwinds at a steady pace revealing the twin characters placed in different situations giving rise to some attention-grabbing scenes.But the second half then goes haywire as the twists and turns become more predictable with an engaging but overstretched climax.A taut script and crisper editing would have made the on-screen narration much more riveting.The film's strong point is its power-packed performances from the lead stars.
But Rishi Kapoor steals the thunder under everyone's noses giving an overwhelming performance as the stern police officer following the path of truth.The young and dashing Arjun Kapoor is a real delight to watch in a double role.Overall, Aurangzeb could have turned out to be a classic if sub-plots were present and the goings-on less complex..
Arjun Kapoor, producer Boney Kapoor's son plays our hero(es) here, taking on the double role of Ajay and Vishal, long- lost twins who're living completely different lives; while Ajay is the rich, reckless and spoiled son of a corrupt real estate developer, Vijay is
the other son living with his mother.
In many ways Prithviraj Sukumaran is as much a protagonist as Arjun Kapoor but since he isn't a big name in Bollywood, he doesn't share any space in the film's poster.
the second in line in the movie, Arjun Kapoor, is good with potential.
Tanvi Azmi, Jackie Shroff, and Amrita Singh are all delightful to watch; Prithviraj packs a strong, competent punch, but ultimately, its the old warhorse Rishi Kapoor who inadvertently and effortlessly completely overshadows everybody else.
After Ishaqzaade Arjun has again proved himself in Aurangzeb.Coming straight to the point its a very nice movie that all can watch.
Moreover all the films using this particular idea ideally need to have a much better second half wherein the contrasting identities get revealed to everyone with a shock and it all ends on a highly exciting note giving you a real good time in the theater.Now if a film uses this plot of double role in an emotionally tensed crime drama and yet fails to give you that thrill and excitement as promised with a pretty mediocre second half then its certainly not a good film at all, even if it has some worthy performances delivered by its talented cast.
In fact that is exactly the one line review of AURANGZEB which has Rishi Kapoor, Prithviraj, Amrita Singh and Jackie Shroff giving their best along with Arjun Kapoor trying it real hard but the film betrays them all due to its weak screenplay and uninteresting progression in the end.Admittedly, AURANGZEB has a fabulous start which impresses you a lot, displaying a fine blend of commercial and thoughtful cinema with all the family twists introduced in its initial 15 minutes.
Yet I can say that its debut director Atul Sabharwal has got the talent to bounce back with something worth watching for sure in the near future.In few words, the film can strictly be seen for Rishi Kapoor and Prithviraj alone as they have truly lived their characters on the screen superbly.
Tanvi Azmi is effective as the mother of twins but here we have two precious actors simply wasted like nothing namely Anupam Kher and Deepti Naval in a very questionable manner.Another laudable merit of the project is its Cinematography, which actually makes the film more interesting than it really is.
Well this is not quite that film but its title is very intriguing, Aurangzeb is the ultimate symbol we have of unbridled ambition and impatience getting the better of familial love.Yashwardhan(Jackie Shroff) is the undisputed king of the underworld in the NCR and his legal front serves as the ruthless machinery for all real estate activity that happens there.His ambitious business development head is Nina(Amrita Singh) who has planted Ritu(Sasha Agah) in the life of Yashwardhan's loutish son Ajay's (Arjun Kapoor) life to ensure that he keeps snorting cocaine and getting into fights and stays away from the family business.Watching with frustration is DCP Ravikant (Rishi Kapoor) who wants a lions share of the dealings he facilitates along with his son Dev and nephew Arya(Prithwiraj Sukumaran).
The wisest choice the director makes is to rein in the length to a relatively crisp 140 minutes.Rishi Kapoor as the nerve centre of the film gives a sincere performance as a very insincere man but is unable to make the leap from his sweater wearing, guitar strumming slightly potbellied heartthrob image to the ultimate baddie.Jackie Shroff brings screen presence but not much else to the film, Amrita Singh comes out of retirement to play a hammy stock character with too much concealer on her face.
Performance wise Arjun Kapoor is brilliant in his double role.(Even better than in Ishaqzaade) While I was expecting nothing from Prithviraj Sukumaran,(after watching Aiyya)he was totally outstanding and was a perfect fit for the role.
Rishi Kapoor was the head of the movie and played a very important role.
it is really worth the watch and look out for Arjun Kapoor, Prithviraj Sukumaran and Rishi Kapoor because they are hilarious..
A gangster had two twin sons, one (Vishal) was taken in the childhood by a cop along with his mother and then sent back to that gangster when he is grown up as a replacement for the other son when the other son (Ajay) is been hold hostage by the cops to destroy the empire of Jackie Sheroff (Yahswerdhan).The story revolves around Vishal played by arjun kapoor and the cop family as how to destroy the empire but meanwhile he grows emotions for his father.
Characters in this movie have done an exceptional job specially rishi kapoor.
Director Atul Sabharwal tackles the conflicting interests of conscience and conditioning with his robustly executed first film for Yash Raj.Against the relevant backdrop of land- grabbing in Gurgaon and its deep- rooted network within corporate sectors, political parties and corrupt law and order, Sabharwal weaves an old- fashioned yarn about family -- both close-knit and estranged.On one hand there's a family of cops -- Ravikant (Rishi Kapoor), his nephew Arya (Prithviraj Sukumaran) and son Dev (Sikander Kher).
To rave any more could lead to revelations that are best enjoyed on one's own.The other Kapoor, Arjun shows remarkable poise and volume in his second film and first double role in the company of stalwarts.
Film has a complex story with twists, turns etc and story is also character driven.Rishi Kapoor, Prithviraj stand out with amazing performances and Arjun Kapoor and Jackie Shroff are good.
Yashvardhan's wife, Veera (Tanvi Azmi), had become a police informer against her own husband and had to run away from him with one of her twin children Vishal (Arjun Kapoor) while Ajay is left with Yashvardhan.
The promos actually give away almost everything but yet the film does surprise you at places, it starts off well but starts running out of gas in second half.Another factor going against is it's predictability.Even several scenes are too filmyDirection by Atul Sabharwal is good in parts Music is okayArjun Kapoor tries his best to deliver in both roles, the character of Ajay comes naturally to him and the naughty streak works well, as the simpleton too he does a good job but he needs to improve more but yet he has the potential Prithviraj who hardly got to show any talent in his debut Aiyaa makes a superb job except his accent he is superb Jackie Shroff after appearing in a cameo in Shootout At Wadala makes a superb comeback, he is terrific Amrita Singh too seen after a hiatus is superb in her role Sasha Agha is okay, Rishi Kapoor is superb in his chameleon character, showing his versatility, the veteran is becoming more experimental day by day and he is simply awesome.
So I watched this movie it was good Indian flick gangster movie .Arjun Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor acting were superb but the script lacked as it was full of mood swings and I am telling you this as its not suspense movie but full of mood swings in characters which makes sometime during the movie frustrated.
Yashwardhan (played by Rishi Kapoor), the most important character of the movie is not given appropriate attention.
Arjun Kapoor and Prithviraj Sukumaran impresses by his acting.
Overall, it's a good one time watch but not a very entertaining movie. |
tt0337742 | Las Vías del Amor | Gabriel is an electronic engineer and former seminarian who is consumed with remorse and guilt; when he was a child he lost his brother Nicholas. That loss caused Gabriel's father a heart attack. His mother has never forgave him for that.
Gabriel tried to purge his guilt in the priesthood, but left the seminary because of an affair with Sonia, a humble washerwoman. Gabriel never forgot Sonia, despite being in a relationship with Sandra who he does not love. Upon discovering that truth, Sandra attempts suicide. Adolfo, a millionaire and owner of a nightclubs is in love with Sandra. Gabriel returns to be with Sonia and discoverer she's working as a prostitute and offers her to pay all her expenses, her mother’s treatment and an apartment to make her quit being a prostitute. But Gabriel's true love is far away, in Tlacotalpan.
Perla is a young, cute, and poor waitress who is also a clairvoyant. Her powers let her know that her boyfriend Paco is in danger, but he ignores her. Paco is killed and Perla discovers through her visions that his killer has a tattoo of a skull on the arm. Elmer is an employee of Don Geronimo, the owner of Tlacotalpan and Pearl's boss. Once discovered, Elmer blackmails Pearl to accept the marriage proposal from Don Geronimo if she does not want him to kill her father. After Gonzalo, who is Paco's best friend, comes to where Perla lives, Gonzalo wants to find the assassin of his friend he's to goes in some problems one of his problem is that he has a trafiking with Sebastian and Enrique, he is also Elmer's enemy. Gonzalo says Perla that he swears Paco he will protect Perla from Don Geronimo and Sebastian.
Perla accepts Don Geronimo's proposal who will show her a world of luxury and beauty which she always dreamed of. On a trip to Mexico with her boyfriend Don Geronimo, Perla encounters Gabriel, who will be her true love.
The wedding takes place and, during the banquet, someone murders Don Geronimo. Enrique blames Fidel who flees to the capital. Sick and penniless, Fidel is rescued by Leticia, a good, hardworking merchant who, by a twist of fate, is harassed and stalked by Sebastian, brother of Don Geronimo. Perla decides to go to the capital to find her dad with the help from Gabriel and the two slowly fall in love. But Sonia will make Perla's life miserable to win for Gabriel's love.
But these are not Perla's only problems. First is Sebastian, a criminal who seeks Perla and her father to avenge the death of his brother, there's also 'El Dandy', the pimp of Sonia, who Gabriel send to prison to defend Sonia and now seeks revenge and Enrique, the son of Don Geronimo who killed him because of the obsession he has with Perla and he will not rest until he finds her. | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0841046 | Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story | Dewey Cox begins his quest for stardom in Springberry, Alabama in 1946. While playing with his brother Nate, Dewey accidentally cuts his brother in half at the waist with a machete. This leads Dewey's father to frequently repeat the phrase "The wrong kid died" throughout the film. The trauma causes Dewey to lose his sense of smell "you've gone smell blind," states Dewey's mother. After his brother's death is announced by a physician making a house call, Dewey's mother sends him to the local store to buy some butter and a candle. There, he meets a blues guitarist, who lets Dewey play his guitar. Dewey is a natural.
In 1953, after a successful, yet oddly controversial, talent show performance, then 14-year-old Dewey decides to leave Springberry with his newly identified 12-year-old girlfriend, Edith. They soon marry and have a baby; Edith begins to criticize Dewey and insist that his dream of being a musician will never happen. While working at an all-African American nightclub, Dewey gets a break when he replaces singer Bobby Shad at the last minute, much to the delight of the Hasidic Jewish record executives attending the show.
Dewey then is brought to the studio where he is interrupted while recording a rockabilly rendition of "That's Amore". The recording executive berates Dewey as talentless. Backed into a corner, Dewey makes the first recording of "Walk Hard", the song inspired by a speech Dewey gave to Edith.
Within 35 minutes, the song becomes a hit, and Dewey begins to get caught up in the fame of rock and roll. When Dewey stumbles upon a room of groupies smoking with drummer Sam, Sam introduces Dewey to marijuana. Sam tells Dewey to leave because he "don't want no part of this shit" (a running gag throughout the film) but Dewey eventually tries it and continues to do so every time he finds Sam with a new drug. His attitude and drug problems cause him to become unfaithful to Edith. Dewey's father then returns to inform Dewey that Dewey's mother has died. Pa manages to make Dewey feel responsible for her death, contributing to an already high level of inner turmoil. Dewey is then introduced to cocaine, which leads to a change in his music to a louder, "Punk rock" type. With the addition of backup singer Darlene Madison, Dewey produces several more hit records. However, they become attracted to each other, and Dewey weds Darlene while still married to Edith, which leads to both women leaving him. He then snaps at his monkey companion, who is "only concerned with fruit and touching himself". Dewey is eventually busted after purchasing drugs from an undercover cop, serves time in jail, and spends time in rehab before Darlene returns.
They move to Berkeley, California in 1966 at the beginning of the '60s counterculture movement. Dewey writes protest songs for midgets. His singing style is then compared by a reporter to that of Bob Dylan, which Dewey angrily denies. In the next scene, a music video shows that Dewey's new song mimics Dylan's style, including opaque lyrics ("The mouse with the overbite explained/how the rabbits were ensnared/ and the skinny scanty sylph/ trashed the apothecary diplomat/ inside the three-eyed monkey/ within inches of his toaster-oven life.").
During a band visit to India, Dewey takes LSD with The Beatles, which causes Dewey to lose touch with reality yet again and have a Yellow Submarine-esque hallucination. Dewey becomes obsessed with every aspect of the recording process and is consumed with creating his masterpiece entitled Black Sheep (a homage to Brian Wilson's Smile). The band does not appreciate his insane style of music and his continuous abuse of the others in the group (Sam specifically berates Dewey ad nauseam for never paying for any drugs -- "Not once!"). As a result, the band breaks up; Darlene is also unable to deal with Dewey's insanity and drug problems and leaves him. Dewey goes through another stay in rehab, where he is visited by Nate's ghost. Nate ridicules Dewey's self-pity and tells him to start writing songs again.
Dewey is next seen jogging into the 1970s, and hosting a CBS variety television show. But his song-block prevents him from writing a masterpiece for his brother. (In the director's cut, Dewey remarries again, this time to Cheryl Tiegs.) Nate appears again and tells Dewey that he needs to tell Pa that he loves him. Although Dewey's father appreciates his courage, he challenges Dewey to a fight to the death with machetes. However, Pa accidentally cuts himself in half. Just before he dies, the senior Cox forgives Dewey and tells him to be a better father than he was. His death causes Dewey to have an emotional breakdown and he destroys almost everything in his home.
Dewey accepts that it is time to focus on spending time with his numerous children. Darlene returns to him in 1992, she is divorced and single. Dewey talks to Darlene about what he has done since they last met. After finally understanding what is most important to him, Dewey regains his sense of smell and they got remarried.
In 2007, Dreidel L'Chaim who is L'Chaim son, pays Dewey a visit to his house. Dewey becomes popular with younger listeners through rapper Lil' Nutzzak's sampling of "Walk Hard". Dewey is upset about this at first, but pays it little mind when he is informed that he is to receive the lifetime achievement award. Dewey is reluctant to play a song at first, fearing the temptations he once succumbed to, but his wife, children and grandchildren put their full support behind him. Dewey reunites with his band and he is finally able to fulfill his dream of creating one great masterpiece that sums up his entire life with his final song, "Beautiful Ride." A title card notes that Dewey died three minutes after the performance.
After the credits roll, a short black-and-white clip titled "The actual Dewey Cox, 2002" is played. | comedy, satire | train | wikipedia | It follows the formula nearly perfectly, and follows fake rock-star legend Dewey Cox (and yes, they do have plenty of puns with his name, but this is to be expected) through his life in the 50's, 60's, 70's and into today.The surprise of "Walk Hard" is that although it was written by the guys who made "Superbad" and "Knocked Up", and has the "formula spoof" similar to "Scary Movie" and "Epic Movie", this film manages to be quite intelligent, and manages to avoid overly gross out humor.
He plays the role from ages 14 to 71, and the goofy age difference between Reilly and how old of a character he is playing is another one of the film's ironic self-aware quirky jokes, in which he constantly reminds us of his age throughout the film so we can see this, as well as the purposely awkward looking make-up.Jenna Fischer is great as his love interest and duet partner, a parody of Reese Witherspoon in "Walk the Line", who falls on and off for Dewey throughout the movie based on his life decisions, another movie formula cliché.
It jumps into his problem a bit fast and doesn't go into depth into some areas of his life as much as others.However, despite being somewhat uneven, "Walk Hard" remains a very entertaining, very funny, and witty movie.
Watch especially for Lennon, McCartney and Buddy Holly.REVIEW: 3 out of 4 Java Mugs What is remarkable about this movie is the way we feel about the main character, Dewey Cox. It's easy to find sympathy for the likes of Johnny Cash and Ray Charles because we knew them as real people.
Riley actually becomes Dewey Cox, by singing his heart out and even helping to write many of the film's songs.Other performances are also worthy of note, particularly Fischer's sultry Darlene, Wiig's ever-pregnant Edith and Meadows' drug-addled drummer.Though Riley's singing is quite good, it is still nice to have the likes of Lyle Lovett, Jackson Browne, Jewel, Ghostface Killah and Eddie Vedder playing themselves and singing those Dewey Cox originals.
I think this movie is a different direction for Judd and his band, as it is more similar to Airplane in style than it is to Knocked Up. But that impressed me that they took that risk and made it work -- and it definitely worked as me and the rest of the theatre were laughing with regularity.Without getting too much into the details of the movie because I hate spoilers, the thing that made this movie great to me was the unexpected humor.
Reilly in the lead role, who obviously got a lot of the funniest lines, Tim Meadows as Dewey Cox's drummer really cracked me up, and Paul Rudd as Jon Lennon cracked up the entire theatre.It was definitely one of those movies where you're recalling a lot of funny parts a day later.
So while it may be a different type of movie than the Apatow groups' other work, the sense of funny is still there, and I think this is up there with the best comedies of the year..
And if there is a musical genre out there short of orchestral symphony, it gets sent up by this wonderful comedy.Not a movie for the kiddies by a long shot, but if you are familiar with music artists from the 50s on, and especially if you lived through those periods of time, the parody of styles and stars will leave you with sore sides from laughing.Make sure to listen closely to every lyric.
They don't miss a chance to make jokes subtle or broad, and they don't take it easy on anyone.Songs in the credits are just as funny as songs through the body of the movie, so make sure to wait around for those rather than switching off after the story itself fades to black.A personal favorite of mine are the scenes where Dewey discovers new drugs.
It was a truly hilarious movie, including the scenes where the band members convince him to try the drugs, a scene with the Beatles, the variety show stuff and interviews, all the scenes with the title character smashing the sinks, and the Walk the Line spoofs.
The film is filled with rips and references to movies such as Walk the Line and Ray. Walk Hard does all of this very well, but also has its own brand of humor and jokes that stand on their own.
From the time that the opening scene rolled, I knew that I was in for a treat.Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan show their comedic genius throughout the movie, whether it be through clever dialog between characters or the genuinely funny original songs.
The music performed by Dewey Cox does a great job of parodying various styles, from Dylan to Brian Wilson.John C.
In addition, some of the regulars from past Apatow films are also featured, but I don't want to ruin any surprises here.All in all, Walk Hard is a really solid comedy and a must see for any Apatow fans.
I would say one of the funniest references to "Ray" was Dewey Cox losing his sense of smell.Initially it looked like the movie would be very cheesy with punchlines being telegraphed well ahead of time.
It was dry, slow, gratuitous, and unlike other parodies, was sorely lacking in biting wit or cleverness.20 minutes into the movie, I thought to myself, "alright, it's got to start getting better, soon...they're running out of time." It didn't.
Spoof of every music biography you can think of with John C Reilly in the lead a Dewey Cox, a Johnny Cash style singer.
"Walk Hard" is another film from the Judd Apatow gang who brought you such inane gems as "Anchorman", "Talladega Nights", "40-Year-Old Virgin" and so on.
Other actors from SNL, The Office and Big Bang Theory add to the star-spotting extravaganza.The story is mostly a shameless mock-up of Johnny Cash's biopic "Walk the Line" but with scenes parodied from other musical biopics like "Ray" and "La Bamba".
A goofily predictable rise to fame of a music star story, this film mercilessly skewers the clichés, with over-the-top melodramatic scenes like the bigwig producer telling Dewey he sucks and will never make it, only to start singing his praises after Dewey strums 2 chords.
"Walk Hard" is an enjoyable experience but probably not intended to be a cult classic music comedy like the aforementioned Guest films which spawned an entire genre of sophisticated comedy (if you can consider a film called "A Mighty Wind" to be sophisticated).
He takes advantage of this role as he shows the funny side of doing an imitation of music biopics such as Walk the Line, Ray, and I'm Not There.In a weird way, it is interesting to see a comedy version of a music biopic.
Walk Hard has an ample amount of jokes in it but the great mix of stupid laugh out loud moments you would see in any Will Ferrell movie and the ironic, clever or well throughout jokes makes this film so appealing that it will keep your eyes glued to the screen.
John C Reily is fantastic in it and shows how much of a versatile actor he is, the music is great and the vast amount of cameos you get to see in the movie are brilliant.
If you are looking for a good comedy in recent time, I would strongly recommend Walk Hard.
This movie is a musical comedy which just simply tells about the life story of a fictional singer (Dewey Cox) who gains all his fame and fortune, yet simultaneously messes up his life by abusing drugs.
This movie is about a fictional musician named Dewey Cox. It sort of follows recent films like the ones about Ray Charles and Johnny Cash.
I'm thinking I just might buy the soundtrack.At different points you can see bits and pieces of 'Ray', 'Walk the Line' (of course), 'What's Love Got to Do With It', 'The Doors', every rock n' roll movie you can think of.
Prior to attending a showing of "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" I consulted the IMDb as I always do to see what other viewers thought of the movie.
Gotta admit, seeing that it got Golden Globe nominations helped me to believe it would less crude and sophomoric than the others.We walked out of the theater still laughing, both believing this might be the best parody movie since "Naked Gun".
Jokes that aren't even that funny to begin with, such as a jackass father repeating "the wrong kid died!" or Dewey tearing sinks out of the wall in his fits of rage, managed to recur throughout the film and made me sigh in disappointment.If you've seen Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Blades of Glory, or any VH1 Rock Documentary, then you've seen this movie.
"...and remember it doesn't say Cox, unless I say it tastes like Cox." This is an example of prime send-up, a parody that lovingly references everything in rock-music-bio-pics, from (the obvious centerpiece) Walk the Line, Ray, Don't Look Back, Elvis flicks, The Doors, and countless others, including a mention to Yellow Submarine and the eras of Motown, rockabilly, even punk (yes, more than a decade before there is punk a version of Walk Hard is played).
It follows the tradition of the ZAZ team (Airplane and Naked Gun) by delivering a joke or gag or just something weird every other second, and it builds up into one of the funniest movies in years.A friend of mine said recently that it takes someone to actually really like and admire what they're spoofing in order for it to be pulled off.
It's not simply about mashing up pop-culture references to make them stick, there has to be just something that clicks through the writing and acting.Walk Hard has that in spades- from the opening jokes (yes jokes, and they're running ones) about Dewey slicing his brother in half with a machete (with the brother still giving words of advice cut in half, and leading up to the also running gag "The wrong kid died!" line), going into playing the blues as a little white kid, to being 14 (and played by Reilly, of course) marrying a 12 year old fan, to the sudden bolts of inspiration for songs in the middle of a scene- not to mention the lyrics- it's already apparent this will be good stuff.
One of the superb character actors of his generation (yes, I'm sounding like a pompously sounding critic for now), he's fantastic as Dewey Cox, giving him a sensibility that goes past simple parody- we actually end up feeling for this drug-addicted adulterer who goes in and out of rehab and finally settles in with his few dozen children of various mixed ethnicities (the catching montage, by the way, is priceless).
Reilly also has the backup, acting-wise, of people from SNL (Meadows and Parnell), The Office (Fischer and Ed Helms) and of course past Apatow works (Rudd, Black, Long and Schwartzman give a movie-stealing scene as the Beatles in India).
As a fan of Will Ferrell-style comedy (and I've loved Reilly in other movies), as well as a fan of the Johnny Cash and Ray Charles biopics, I thought mixing the two couldn't go wrong.
There is that good old tasteless humor characteristic of Apatow films that could keep even the casual moviegoer laughing, but really what we have is a very studied recreation of the biopic that shakes a stick at trends we've seen but may not have noticed were trends.Dewey Cox goes through the phases of, essentially, every major music star between the '50s and the '70s.
What this really is, is a work of genius, a biopic that is really only necessarily funny because you know Dewey Cox did not really exist.Perhaps the tasteless and obvious jokes are not enough to give this movie the longevity it might deserve, but the perfection it attains in satirizing the biopic should.
That and not to a release a film like this at Christmas time."Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" stars John C.
The amount of familiar faces makes the film seem incredibly over-produced and some of the shortest scenes appear to have an unnecessary amount of money put into them.The film does have more humor in many respects than "Talladega Nights," but by no means comes close to matching up with "Knocked Up" and "Superbad." While those two films are somewhat more poignant and true-to-life, "Walk Hard" relies excessively on ridiculousness to be funny, more so than any of the Apatow predecessors.In short, "Walk Hard" is funny and at times clever, but mostly just over-the-top and dumb.
You could even go so far as to say it's our generation's "This Is Spinal Tap" in that a lot of people who originally saw it didn't get the joke at first.It's not just of the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk The Line", which it does parody heavily, but every biopic ever made.
"Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" made me laugh out loud.
Reilly stars as Dewey Cox in a spoof on music biopics.
This isn't Apatow's worst written film (see Celtic Pride or Fun with Dick & Jane for examples of those), but it's still a step down from his more accomplished funnier ones (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin) Walk Hard limps especially in the extended cut.
This film is a spot-on parody of every cliché-infested fake country music bio you have ever seen (despite the great performances) from "Coal Miner's Daughter" to "I Walk the Line" - which I remember hating for all the things it was not, mainly truthful and meaningful.
So much attention has been paid to the writing, the performance and the arrangements of the songs, in fact, in this film, that (1) it should have won Oscars for everyone involved, (2) this is the best original musical in a long time besides being a very good comedy and (3) the DVD has something like three hours of extras, deleted scenes unused songs and jokes, on top of the longer 2 hour version, all memorable and funny.
If you haven't seen "Walk The Line", "Ray", or get old classic music like The Beatles or Bob Dylan, you will be clueless at some parts.Reily plays Dewey Cox, who is guilty of cutting his successful brother in half.
Reilly is an amazing actor and great in every movie but "Walk Hard" is our absolute favorite.
Although I thought walk the line was a good movie, I couldn't help not liking this film.
Walk Hard traces the life of Dewey Cox, an infamous musician you've never heard of, from his boyhood in Alabama and his last days as a major music celebrity.This is a role the vastly underrated John C.
Walk Hard: The Story of Dewey Cox. Spoof movies have been around for as long as the art form of film has been entertaining people.
Making a huge splash with his first single, Walk Hard, Dewey goes on the road and we follow him through the ups and downs, the relationships, the drugs, and the destroying of multiple public and private bathrooms.Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow do a great job of making this movie feel like a real biopic and not just a series of skits formed together to make a movie.
While funny, the movie never feels as though it's making fun of the people presented in the biopics it's skewering like Johnny Cash or Ray Charles.
Not only do I think The Dewey Cox story is the best parody ever; I would have to say it could possibly be the funniest movie I have ever seen.
Reilly, to put it bluntly, SUCKS as a comedic actor and has no timing whatsoever.To sell a feeble attempt for a movie such as Walk Hard to a fickle public, you need a guy like Carrell or Jim Carrey to anchor it.
Reilly), showcasing the changes in his music as each decade passes, and the struggles he faces as a musician.Just when we figured we had enough of the typical singer bio-pic, co-writer/producer/comedy golden boy Judd Apatow has delivered yet another one, albeit his first real straight on parody since he first struck gold with The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
If this role does not spring board Reilly into more leading actor work, it just may give him the needed boost to be a singer (or at least, to do more musicals or head to Broadway).The supporting cast, although not nearly as funny as Reilly, all lend a hand in making Walk Hard a very funny movie.
It also helps that it seems like everyone has some sort of minuscule amount of chemistry with Reilly, allowing their jokes to fly very easily.Despite its faults, Walk Hard is a solid addition to the growing canon of Apatow comedies, and is one hell of a funny parody.
The film had fantastic pedigree; it's co-written by Judd Apatow, the man behind such hilarious comedies as"Knocked Up" and "Superbad"; it stars perennial sidekick John C.
It is basically making fun of a movie like 'Walk the Line' which tries to tell the serious story of a musician who went through tough times.
I had a hard time with this movie BECAUSE of that fact - I really liked Walk The Line and this made too much light of it.
well, anyone.John C Reilly has become truly capable of riding shotgun but with this film on his back it proves to have no legs straight out of the gate.It seems many of the movie-going flock has painted this as a Walk The Line/Johnny Cash spoof.
Film Review: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story Starring: John C.
I don't ever hear anyone talk about this movie but it's actually a pretty great parody of "Walk the Line".
Walk Hard has some very funny moments, but this film would be nothing without John C. |
tt0033317 | Adventures of Captain Marvel | During an archaeological expedition to Siam's volcanic Valley of the Tombs to find the lost secret of the Scorpion Kingdom, a device of great power, the Golden Scorpion, is discovered hidden inside a sealed crypt. While examining it, the device's quartz lenses are aligned and powerful energy beam erupts, causing an explosion, resealing the crypt. This allows young radio broadcaster and expedition member Billy Batson, who obeyed the warning on the crypt's seal not to enter, to be chosen by the ancient wizard Shazam. The wizard grants Billy the powers of Captain Marvel whenever he repeats the wizard's name. Captain Marvel's powers can only be used to protect those in danger from the curse of the Golden Scorpion. The crypt's entrance is quickly cleared, then Captain Marvel utters "Shazam"! and quickly resumes his Billy Batson alter ego.
The Golden Scorpion's power lenses are divided among the scientists of the Malcolm Archaeological Expedition so that its power can only be used by agreement of the entire group, who then return to the U. S. after their discovery. An all-black-garbed-and-hooded criminal mastermind, calling himself the Scorpion, steals the ancient device after their return and sets about acquiring the distributed lenses. Several expedition members are killed in the Scorpion's quest, despite Captain Marvel's continual efforts to thwart his plan. Deducing that the Scorpion always seems to know what happens during the scientists' meetings, Billy later confides to his friends, Betty Wallace and Whitey Murphy, his suspicion that the Scorpion may be one of the Malcolm archaeological team.
Discovering that one of the Golden Scorpion's power lenses was purposely left behind, cleverly hidden in the very crypt where it was first discovered, Billy Batson and the surviving scientists agree it must be retrieved. They return by cargo ship to Siam where, near landfall, they barely survive a typhoon before finally being rescued by Captain Marvel. They eventually retrieve the hidden lens, but it is stolen by the Scorpion. By accident, from a distance, the Scorpion observes Captain Marvel transforming back into Billy Batson. Capturing Billy and gagging him, the Scorpion interrogates him about his secret. Billy's tape gag is removed when he agrees to talk. "Shazam"! is his only response, and he transforms in a flash of light and smoke into Captain Marvel. The Scorpion's identity is then revealed to be one of the last surviving scientists, who is killed by a Siamese native who turns the idol's ray on him, vaporizing him.
Captain Marvel tosses the Golden Scorpion and its power lenses into a volcano's molten lava to prevent them from ever being used for evil. Upon its destruction, Captain Marvel is instantly transformed back into Billy Batson forever, the danger from the device's curse having now been eliminated. | mystery, murder | train | wikipedia | I was seven years old when I saw this serial in a theater in 1941.I now own 49 titles of Republic serials,mostly tapes and a few on DVD.This serial is my favorite.For those who have not saw this serial,I won't give away any secrets.The plot concerns a group of scientists and an ancient artifact with lenses that can turn any matter to gold,thus the owner could rule the world.A mortal ,Billy Batson ,is given the power to become Captain Marvel.The Captain fights the arch villain,the Scorpion,for 12 exciting chapters,to keep him from getting the lens.Marvel is played by former cowboy star,Tom Tyler in fine fashion.David Sharpe does the leaps and landings in realistic style.Flying scenes still look great today,with excellent special effects by the Lydecker brothers.The Scorpion is voiced by another actor,and should keep the viewer guessing until the final reel.Music by Cy Feurer,William Lava and others add more excitement to a fine serial.Whitney and English directed..
Billy Batson, during the dig, is given the powers of Captain Marvel by the enigmatic wizard Shazam to prevent the scorpion idol from being used for evil purposes.
So when Billy Batson says the word Shazam, he is transformed into Captain Marvel.
). Tom Tyler looks just like the character and coupled with David Sharpe during the stunt scenes ( which look better than anything ever tried today in this type genre ) elevates it from a kiddie serial into serious watching.
Captain Marvel is one of the best serials available and a true credit to the genre.
It offers plenty of the old-school, two-fisted action that you'd expect from an action serial, in addition to state-of-the-art (for the time) flying effects.
It also offers a great running mystery as to the identity of The Scorpion...which is ruined if you happen to read the cast list closely above :(If you're a fan of serials or old action movies in general, you'd do well to pick this up as it truly is a classic..
Tom Tyler, probably more familar to film buffs as Luke Plummer in John Ford's classic STAGECOACH, looks the part of Captain Marvel to perfection.
He has relatively few dialog scenes in the serial, however, and to some people this is an added bonus, as his extremely gravelly voice is not to everyone's taste Young Frank Coghlan Jr. is remarkably good as Billy Batson, and deserves additional acclaim as Republic's only juvenile serial hero.
Louise Currie, who was also to make a return date three years later in THE MASKED MARVEL, is a very likable heroine, and as for the Scorpion, he has got to be the best villain in serials, thanks largely to Gerald Mohr's voice.
The supporting cast includes silent serial great Jack Mulhall, and, as suspects for being the Scorpion, Harry Worth, Robert Strange, George Pembroke, Bryant Washburn, Peter George Lynn, and the wonderful scene-stealer John Davidson as the superstious Siamese, Tah Chotali.
After watching the serial, you simply have to conclude that Captain Marvel CAN fly.
Frank Coughlan, Jr., does creditable work as Billy Batson, while Tom Tyler (Stagecoach, Red River) makes a robust Captain Marvel.
The story tells of a young man named Billy Batson and how he, having refused to enter the tomb of an ancient people with a curse while being part of an archaeological/treasure hunting team, is bestowed great powers by Shazaam.
The 12 chapters of this serial tell of how each investor in the team was given a special lens of a gold scorpion found in the ancient tomb.
Each episode tells of various plots the scorpion invents to secure the lenses and thwart Captain Marvel.
The special effects in this film are extraordinary, especially the "flying sequences" and especially considering that this was done in 1941 (as a comaprison, watch the two Superman Serials, shot serveral years later, with the late Kirk Allen, where suddenly Allen turns into a cartoon when he takes off).
It was truly a marvel to watch how much thought was considered in the production of this film.The good writing along with some subtle twist of plots and cliff hangers on each of the 12 segments, were done in such a way to hold an audience interest.
The thought of miniature models for special effects by the Lydecker Brothers production of cars and volcanoes, were done so cleverly with different camera angle shots, it just demonstrated that they were really ahead of their time.Even if the same plot device was constantly repeated, this was so Billy wouldn't be recognized when he turned into Captain Marvel, it fitted the limitations of a 1941 film of a superhero movie.
I would go on to say I prefer this over Daredevil, both HULK movies(although the last one was better), the Ghost Riders series, who have far superior cinema technology for them to make a better superhero film.I recommend it for anyone who enjoys old films, the superhero genre, and curious how films like this were created, to go seek the time and view this serial picture..
I would guess that Steven Spielberg saw this, prior to making "Raider's Of The Lost Ark".The guy, Captain Marvel, does look silly running around in a cape...but, this is surprisingly good entertainment.
Possibly, superior to Tim Burton's "Batman"; the "Superman" movies, which featured Christopher Reeve; and, it's NOT bloody violence, like the action films of today.Highly recommended..
I saw this serial for the first time in 1954 under the name of The Return of Captain Marvel.
tom tyler looked like captain marvel in the comic books.
The powers themselves are cleverly designed around the limits of the camera.If you are going to watch any of these old serials for fun and you don't have any particular fetish, this may be the best you will find.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements..
It's because it isn't quite as hokey and silly as the others, has decent special effects and features Captain Marvel doing some VERY anti-heroic stuff that makes me laugh!
Tom Tyler, a stunt man and actor who later played the Mummy in one of the Universal monster movies,plays Captain Marvel with appropriate heroic stoicism.
I would recommend that any fan of escapist cinema and classic movies see at least a couple of the chapters, since it is such a fine example of what a good serial could be.
Tyler's Captain Marvel is truly one of the most awesome serial heroes, right up there with Buster Crabbe's Flash Gordon.
Frank Coghlan Jr. is perfect as Cap's alter ego, Billy Batson, and the rest of the supporting cast is good as well.Fans of the comic book and TV versions of Captain Marvel should be warned that this serial is, in several significant ways, very different from the Cap they remember.
The other factor is that this serial was filmed when the Captain Marvel comic strip was only 1 year old, before the tone and spirit of Captain Marvel had been established (the Captain Marvel comics did not really develop a consistent style or sensibility until about 1943 or so; it isn't till around that time that the really classic Captain Marvel stuff started coming out).Without spoiling too much, viewers should be warned that on at least 2 occasions, Captain Marvel summarily dispatches some of the minor villains.
But it also fits into a subtext that perhaps Captain Marvel has too much power, that he is perhaps like genie from a bottle, a quasi-demonic expression of the Id. This Captain Marvel, who gets a little too violent sometimes, and who Billy Batson only reluctantly calls upon, could be considered an early forerunner of the Incredible Hulk.Despite this Captain's occasional lapses into vigilantism, the overall spirit of this serial keeps within the norms of the era and the genre, and so is great fun and escapism.
Moreover, the total experience of this serial truly captures the expansive sense of magic, power and possibility of the early period of comic book superheroes.
This is vastly superior to either of the Superman serials (1948 & 1950) as well as the Captain Marvel 'Shazam!' TV series of the 1970's.
tom Tyler gives his all and takes no prisoners in his superhero role of captain marvel.
the scorpion is the perfect villain to fight and billy batson is well cast as is the star role.
each chapter leaves you wanting more and more as billy and friends rely on captain marvel and his powers to save them from certain doom.
with great flying scenes and well thought out plots and special effects this 1941 gem could easily stand up to any modern day hero film and leave it in the dust.
The special effects still hold up as "kinda kool".Unlike other serials where the villain spends all his time planning and failing to achieve one objective, Captain Marvel's nemesis 'The Scorpion' manages to prove one victory after another.
By repeating his name Shazam, Billy is turned into Captain Marvel.
The group decides to divide up the Golden Scorpion amongst themselves.This is an old fashion kids' comic book adventure serial.
(1974).I am sure many reading this review were in fact children of the 1940s and might be a bit confused by my review.To me, Marvel 74 came long before Marvel 41 and it is just too much of a struggle to see him seen in a totally different way in this 41 serial.However, I still like watching the Howard Lydecker flying effects seen in this 41 serial.
By simply saying the magic word "Shazam" aloud, Billy Batson (Frank Coghlan, Jr.) becomes the superhero Captain Marvel (Tom Tyler).
Billy must use the power of Captain Marvel to combat the evil Scorpion and prevent him from getting a super-powerful disintegrating ray.
It's a fun adventure story with great special effects for the time and dynamic action..
Adventures of Captain Marvel marked the beginning of a 70-year relationship between comic book heroes and live action movies.
In preparing to watch several superhero movies this summer, I finally-after about 30 years of reading and hearing about it-decided to watch the first of the cinema adaptations of a comic book costumed fighter, usually with "special powers" as they were then referred as, that appeared at a neighborhood theatre near you: Adventures of Captain Marvel.
Tom Tyler-often considered the strongest man of that time-is perfect as The Big Red Cheese (though his costume was actually blue/gray in order to look better in black & white) with his alter ego Billy Batson done in a nice brave and optimistic turn by Frank Coghlan, Jr. And his sidekicks, Betty Wallace (Louise Currie) and Whitey Murphy (William Benedict) also bring their own charm to the proceedings.
Now I'm sure some would be disappointed to not see the classic villains like Dr. Silvana or Mr. Mind here but the created-for-the-screen The Scorpion is good enough for this outing especially when he's suspected of being one of the archeology team Billy and his pals accompany to a cave which is, incidentally, where the wizard who gave Batson his powers, Shazam (Nigel De Brulier) resides.
Sure, there are some flaws-like why do the bad guys keep shooting at Cap's chest when they already know bullets won't hurt him-but overall, Adventures of Captain Marvel still provides thrilling entertainment galore (I was especially impressed when that driverless truck provided some POV shots that must have temporarily made some kids dizzy when they watched this at their theatre).
"The Adventures of Captain Marvel" (1941) is quite simply the best of its genre.
models, but there were also sequences that would make folks believe a man could fly some 37 years before "Superman: The Movie." Frank Coughlan, Jr. made an outstanding "Billy Batson." Young, adventurous, and conscientious.
This trio could have easily carried the movie without the super-hero gimmick.Of course Tom Tyler made a terrific "Captain Marvel." Stoic, gallant, and (surprisingly) edgy.
When TVland began running the 1970s Saturday morning Shazam a year or so ago, I learned of this old serial.I decided to compare the two and had not an ever-lovin' clue what to expect.There are the usual cliffhanger bits, I thought.Then the tied up Billy and Betty are in the shed about to be bombed."I'll call Captain Marvel on the radio," Betty says.
That aside, the reason for Billy Batson gaining the powers was different from the comic.Nitpicks aside, though, this is a very superior serial.
Telling the story of how Billy Batson becomes Captain Marvel in order to save the members of his archaeological party and then how he must uses his powers to prevent the villainous Scorpion from using the scorpion statute that they found for evil.
Due to long standing litigation brought against Fawcett by Superman/DC Comics,CM's publishers hollered "Uncle!", thus giving in to end the dispute.* So,it was with very little familiarity with Whiz Comics,Captain Marvel Adventures,and all the other family of comic magazines that this writer first viewed the serial version.
It was hard to be totally objective because every reviewer, be it in SCREEN THRILLS ILLUSTRATED or one of the Horror or Sci-Fi Movie Mags, had nothing but great reviews for CAPTAIN MARVEL.Well as usual, if one is to give analysis and commentary about an adapted character, the differences or changes must be noted and dealt with.While the serial boys in Hollywood are notorious for tinkering with the story lines,so in this case, they didn't disappoint us.They made CM's alter ego,Billy Batson, a teen ager.
It was here, during an excavation of one tomb, that Billy (Frank Coughlan,Jr., meets up with the spirit of the Wizard, SHAZAM!**, who tells him he is to become Captain Marvel (Tom Tyler).On the other hand,as in the comics,Young Billy is still a kid Radio Commentator on Radio Station WHIZ and does so in the serial (chapter 2 and others).
The Seral is filled with top action sequences, like all of Republic's.There are great sequences of the good Captain flying, taking off, landing and even administering a sort of savat maneuver to a bad guy.(French Foot Fighting, kind of like a pro wrestler's Drop Kick) All of these fine action scenes were a combination of trick photography,and use of a fine Stunt Man (David Sharpe)doubling for Mr.Tom Tyler.The use of a very lifelike dummy was the top rate special effect of the Brothers Lydecker (Howard and Theodore)and was the last ingredient in achieving the flying sequences, as well as the various explosions, volcanic eruptions, fires, etc.
I've only seen part of Captain America, and we'll see if I can get enough stomach to complete it (already understanding that they knowingly threw its source material to the winds), and enough of Superman to know that they were sloppy with it all because of the budget they were stuck with, and plan on getting all of it very soon.Captain Marvel shines not only because of how true they stay to the core of the character, but because the story remains interesting from start to finish, the audience is kept guessing on who exactly the villain is (I watched the entire movie with the hope they wouldn't go with the obvious choice of the Arab member of the good guy team, and they didn't disappoint), and you didn't always guess right on the cliffhanger resolution (Billy Batson didn't always shout 'Shazam!' to get out of a tight spot).Frank Coghlan's Billy Batson is convincing enough as a young boy (of course he was in his mid-20's) who gets plenty done by himself.
Tom Tyler is a very robust Captain Marvel who manages to impress during the action scenes (you watch Victor Mature in 'Samson and Delilah' and the assistance from wires, while lifting bad guys, is pathetically obvious, while Tyler's heavings move on a natural arc), though the voice is a bit uncharacteristic for a superhero.The supporting cast is pretty run-of-the-mill, and fills the slots of the character categories that seem obligatory in every serial, but the pacing, the tension, and the conflicts keep the story moving.During this time the issue of superheroes killing bad guys was still evolving as evident here with Captain Marvel, early on, subduing villains who were firing at him with a machine gun, only to turn it on a second wave of them charging at him.
Then later we see Captain Marvel gorilla-pressing a thug, then tossing him off the roof of a big skyscraper.Overall a worthwhile film when it comes to experiencing a cinematic artifact, and enjoying a good story..
A genuinely interesting storyline (especially for those of us who grew up on comics and/or pulp magazine reprints), augmented by some of the greatest flying effects ever devised (man-made, hands-on fx, courtesy of the Lydecker brothers), makes ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL a fanboy's dream come true.
Tom Tyler appears to have been born to play Marvel, and Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Billy Batson would've made a good Marvel, Jr.
"The Adventures of Captain Marvel" was the first of the serials/movies based on a comic book (as opposed to a comic strip, such as "Flash Gordon").
The story, while typical of the serial-genre, is good and the stunts (e.g. a double backflip kick worthy of Jackie Chan) and special effects (especially the flying scenes) are ambitious and well executed.
Gerald Mohr, the "voice" of "The Scorpion" ; Does "Captain Marvel" adumbrate or inspire *LOTR*, "STAR WARS* ?.
In this 1941 Republic "Captain Marvel" serial, the real-life actor, Gerald Mohr, was the "voice" of "The Scorpion," the villain of the piece.
You can find something "towards" Mohr's OTR roles in his Wikipedia page.Also, it should be noted that the Republic "Captain Marvel" serial adumbrated ( and possibly inspired ?
the voice-changing quality of the face-mask may have been used for effect, nevertheless, in the Republic "Captain Marvel" serial, the technique is used for concealment, to hide the real identity of the villain.
Thus, he cannot be betrayed by any of them.Could the "Captain Marvel" serial have inspired *STAR WARS* in this respect, of using a face-mask so to change the quality of the voice? |
tt1032846 | 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile | The film follows the story of Otilia Mihartescu (Anamaria Marinca) and Gabriela "Găbița" Dragut (Laura Vasiliu), two university friends in an unnamed Romanian town. The film is set in 1987, one of the last years of the Ceaușescu government. When Găbița becomes pregnant, the two girls arrange a meeting with Mr. Bebe (Vlad Ivanov) in a hotel, where he is to perform an illegal abortion (Communist Romania had a natalist policy against abortion).
At the college dorm Găbița and Otilia review the items they need for the day, and as Găbița nervously sits and waits in the room, Otilia barters and buys soap, cigarettes, etc. from school friends. Afterwards, Otilia takes a bus to visit her boyfriend Adi, from whom she borrows money. Adi asks Otilia to visit his family that night, as it is his mother's birthday, to which Otilia initially declines, but she relents after Adi becomes upset.
Otilia heads to a hotel where Găbița has booked a room, only to be informed by an unfriendly receptionist that there is no reservation under Găbița's last name. Otilia goes to another hotel, and after much begging and haggling is able to book a room at an expensive rate. Afterwards Otilia goes to a rendezvous point to meet with Mr. Bebe, although he had asked Găbița that she meets him and no one else. Mr. Bebe grows angry upon hearing that Găbița is not at the planned hotel.
Mr. Bebe discovers that Găbița's claim that her pregnancy was in its third month is a lie; in fact, it has been at least four months. The two women were certain that they would pay no more than 3000 lei for the abortion. However, it slowly becomes clear to the women that he expects both women to have sex with him. Otilia reluctantly has sex with Mr. Bebe so that he will not walk out on them, as does Găbița. Mr. Bebe then performs the abortion by injecting a probe and an unnamed fluid into Găbița's uterus, and leaves Otilia instructions on how to dispose of the fetus when it comes out. Otilia is exasperated by Găbița's lies, yet continues to help and care for her.
Otilia leaves Găbița at the hotel to go to Adi's mother's birthday. She is still disturbed but stays and has dinner with Adi's mother's friends, who are mostly doctors. They all talk about trivial things while Otilia and Adi remain silent. The phone rings in the background, but no one answers it. One of the guests then starts talking about lost values and respect to elders when Otilia accepts a cigarette offered to her in front of Adi's parents, which prompts Adi to bring the champagne in order to get the party over with. Adi and Otilia then go to his room where Otilia tells him about Găbița's abortion, and they start talking about what would happen if it was Otilia who was pregnant since Adi seems to be against abortion. After fighting with Adi, Otilia calls Găbița from Adi's house. Găbița does not answer, so Otilia decides to return to the hotel.
When Otilia enters the room Găbița is lying on the bed, and she tells Otilia that the fetus has come out and is in the bathroom. Otilia then wraps the fetus with some towels and puts everything in a bag, while Găbița asks her to bury the fetus. Otilia then goes outside and walks around for a while, finally climbing to the top of a random building, as Mr. Bebe had suggested, and dropping the bag in a trash chute.
Otilia then goes back to the hotel and finds Găbița sitting at the restaurant. She sits and tells Găbița that they are never going to talk about the episode ever again. Otilia stares blankly at Găbița before looking directly at the camera, just before the film cuts to black. | bleak | train | wikipedia | If you invest your time and emotions in this one, you will not be disappointed.The acting, camera work, cinematography are of the highest quality, especially given the budgetary restrictions and scarcity of available resources.This movie is yet more ample proof that one does not necessarily need a 200 million dollar budget to make a great film.
All in all a great "little" movie about a forgotten slice of history, a little known place and, a time of horrifying brutality and oppression i.e. the so-called Golden Age (epoca de aur), Romania and Nicolae Ceausescu.
Women will resonate with the story of the imposed tragedy at a personal and national level resulted from the anti-abortion policies in Communist Romania, and one cannot say it's only a pro-choice movie, it's a real indictment.
If you are Romanian and lived these times you may feel you returned in time and the end of the movie may seem the awakening from a recurring nightmare.And if you are a fan of good cinema you will admire the virtuosity of a director who learned perfectly the lessons of Jim Jarmusch and DOGMA and transfered them in the East European space.
Magnificent to follow as its character has its own life, its like a concatenation of first plans one near the other.In another memorable scene Otilia runs in the night to get rid of the aborted child.
It is just a daily life of a few Romanians during the period and you can feel it through this movie.For all other foreign film fan, this is an absolute must see for this year..
The movie is a drama of a human being that is oppressed by the communist regime in Romania, one of the most criminal regimes of this century.In the last years of the Romanian communism, the dictator's wife "Elena Ceausescu" made it clear for everyone that abortion is no longer permitted and that had a lot of implications later on.
4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days is supposedly the beginning of a series of films Mungiu is hoping to make called The Golden Age, each about life in Communist Romania.
As it is, 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days moved me and challenged me, made me feel and made me think, demonstrated the personal and political challenges of a heartbreaking choice that, in many ways, is no choice at all-- and that's a rare enough achievement, and one worthy of seeking out.This movie is a work of art.
Winner of last years Palme d'Or this Romanian film set in the eighties and is a cross between Richard Linklater's 2001 film 'Tape', in that the majority of the action takes place in one room between three central characters and Mike Leigh's 2004 film 'Vera Drake' in that its central theme is illegal abortion.
The setting is grim and the bleached out film stock adds to the jittery camera work and gives an uneasy feeling throughout, instantly you are transported to a time where people barter with tic tacs, cigarettes and powdered milk and the promise of sugar is a dream to many and a reality to only a few.
Although not an easy watch and considering the subject matter not something you can say you 'enjoyed' it is none the less a brilliant piece of film-making, subtle and emotive with very real character studies.
Another powerful film from Romania, FOUR MONTHS, THREE WEEKS, TWO DAYS, from Cristian Mungiu with tremendous performances from Ana Maria Marinca as Otilia and the lovely Laura Vasiliu, playing 'Gabita', in a story of abortion and the effect on family and friendship.
No wonder this jewel of a film won Cannes' Palme D'Or 2007.The film belongs to Ana Maria Marinca as her character Otilia commands the screen in scenes which drive the story forward and enforce the horror of not only abortion, but much more.
I cannot recall seeing any other Romanian film, but if this is what we have to look forward to from writer/director Cristian Mungiu, then we will have some great pieces of art coming from that country.I will not pretend to have any idea of what a woman (Laura Vasiliu) goes through in having an abortion, but I have a better idea after watching this film about a woman going through a "back alley" procedure.It is not just about abortion.
I'm sure it depicts perfectly the era when Romania was under Ceausescu's communist regime, but having seen so many foreign films focusing on social issues I didn't think there was anything special that stood out here, but I'm probably wrong because everyone else seemed to have loved this film.The film takes place during the final years of Ceausescu's communist regime in Rumania and it centers on a college student named Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) as she begins to make plans in order to help her roommate, Gabita (Laura Vasliu), have an abortion.
Featuring superb performances from Anamaria Marinca and Laura Vasiliu and spotless perfectly-shot long takes, more than abortion, this film also examines the friendship between the roommates as lies and cover-ups are discovered to better suit the purposes of one, and the romantic relationship told on the side when morality questions are raised.
This is Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca, who I saw in another fabulous European realistic portrayal of a difficult slice of life, the multi-culti German Bosnian "Storm." In "Four Months" she plays a Romanian, Otilia, a friend of a young woman who has arranged for an abortion, which is illegal at the time there.
Then it segues into a story of her attempts to help out her friend procure an illegal abortion in a hotel room under some harsh circumstances (i.e. the girl is timid and uneasy in her ignorance, the man performing it is cold and cruel and a professional pig, the general fear and loathing of the situation).
But Mingiu's style is something that took me totally off my guard, and I wasn't sure for the better.The film contends with the likes of Woyzek of having a ridiculous among of long-takes (and long as in ten-minute length, the variety that would've been impossible decades ago), with these characters in a bind of usually holding back emotions under these complex set of circumstances, where the fear of getting caught goes hand in hand with the problems of guilt in a society that shouldn't have that instilled in people in the first place.
It's a lot like if Bresson shot a home movie set in Romania in Communist era times of dread, where a character like the lead Otilia (Anamaria Minca) is so restrained we wonder if she'll suddenly burst at the seams at any moment.
As you probably already know, this movie tells a story of a girl who tries to have an abortion in 1987 communist Romania.
But this movie isn't necessary about abortion or communist Romania, and it will mean something to you no matter how alien the place, the characters or their problems are to you.
Whenever I read it in a review I feel as if Kubrick is the only other director's name the critic knows so he throws it in a few times with a copy-paste on the computer.With that being established I think to compare one specific element of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days to some of Stanley Kubrick's movies is warranted and worthwhile.
Much hyped winner of Cannes, and center of a firestorm concerning the wonky way the Oscars pick their foreign language nominees, this film was carrying a great deal of baggage with it when I sat down to watch it on IFC in Theaters on demand service on cable.The story of the film is simple, two young women, one of whom is pregnant, go to a hotel to get an abortion.Its 1980's Romania and abortion is simply not done.
The movie focuses on Bucharest college student Otilia Mihartescu's (Anamaria Marinca) plan to help her friend Gabita Dragut (Laura Vasiliu) have an abortion during the Nicolae Ceaucescu era.The movie has the feeling of a play, mostly set in one room with single shots running several minutes.
The entire film looks like it's been shot with a hand-held camera, but this won't make you sick, since most of the scenes involve casual dialog in homes and hotel rooms.
This film is SIMPLE and STRAIGHT; we can see, hear and even feel the style in from starting till the end.Director Cristian Mungiu is narrating an ordinary but real story which happens from time to time in every corner of this world.
Not until the half-hour mark of "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" (2007, Romania), Cristian Mungiu's Palme d'Or-winning sophomore full-length film, do the viewers get to know what it is that agitates and makes the two central young female characters go through all the motions at the film's initial minutes (which actually comprise a day's start).
And negotiating for an abortion during the waning days of Ceaucescu's Communist rule (the year is 1987), which makes it illegal and a criminal act and is thus punishable with imprisonment.The girl suffering from an unwanted pregnancy here is Gabita and the one helping her to get a "doctor" who will perform the forbidden act is her friend Otilia, both of whom are university students.
For even this encounter, where everything is supposed to proceed smoothly already, unexpectedly takes a not-that-slight detour.Lies, deceit, complications and compromise arise from this heady three-way encounter, the irreversible outcome of which is for Otilia and Gabita to lamentably prostitute themselves for the duplicitous Mr. Bebe before he can perform the sought-after "operation".On the surface, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" may just be put alongside many other abortion films that we know (like Claude Chabrol's "Story of Women" and Mike Leigh's "Vera Drake"), which are surefire shot for controversy given the divisive and tacky nature of the subject.
The story of two young women dealing with an unwanted pregnancy during the communist reign of Romania in 1987 when abortion was illegal is a slow-paced film that really did not say all that much to me.The performances are OK, the story doesn't really go anywhere and the film itself does not take any real political stance on the ever-touchy topic of abortion except to show the dangers of making a woman's choice illegal.Ultimately, the film left me feeling terribly underwhelmed, not having quite caught the point that the film was trying to make.
This is a very thick and heavy movie that makes you feel the frustration of the characters on a very intimate level.Filled with details and nuances behind every frame,where nothing is left hanging,or put there by mistake.This movie is not about abortion.In a weird way I consider this to be the background story, and the details are the ones that put the pieces of the central theme: A day in communist Romania.One of the greatest scenes by my opinion is the dinner table piece, where lot takes place and apparently nothing at all.Only a Romanian could fully understand the subtleties of the small dinner talk and the implications that every phrase had,making you feel quite uncomfortable and forcing you to reflect about the consequences that the communist regime had on the so called middle class citizens that were sentiently indoctrinated with socialistic beliefs and at the same time miserable about the ways things were back then.A very vicious circle.The camera work is great with a real cold feel to it,the actors do their work in a very natural and expressive manor,and the settings,well, considering that not much has changed in Romania in last decades,totally authentic.I consider this to be by far the greatest movie in the last two decades of so called "independent" Romanian Cinematography.It certainly deserves it's ten stars..
Surprisingly....Bad. This movie came to Romania as a big Hype because it was awarded with the french Palm D'or, so the french saw it even before romanians did...I can understand a low budget independent picture, but this one is horrible..The plot revolves around the avortion problem in the communist era (when it was declared illegal) and the so called drama of two young female students which must deal with a unwanted pregnancy...While the idea is mediocre as best, the finished product is terribly bad, boring and makes you feel no sympathy for the characters.
The backgrounds are typically for any romanian young director trying to make a name for himself in the occident, showing only the dirty aspects of life in Romania : garbage, homeless people, stray dogs and human misery in it's full glory, like this country or the communism had absolutely nothing good in it.
I must warn you that it is probably not the best choice if you don't like slow-paced films which have not a lot of dialogue at times, and where "nothing" seems to be going on for some sequences -although I assure you that there's always something happening, and if you give this movie a chance and you tune in with the emotions it strongly displays, it will be impossible to stop watching.The film is set in 1987's Romania, in the final years of Ceausescu's dictator regime.
The whole movie is the story of how both friends go about getting Gabita such a procedure, in a time where abortion was illegal and severely punished in Romania.The real and only protagonist is the friend, Otilia, who goes to great extremes in order to help Gabita.
We will accompany Otilia in her journey, and we will also learn about the communist society of the 80s Romania, the heavy bureaucracy and rigidness of everyday life, the class prejudices, the different lifestyles, etc.There are some sequences which might come across as difficult to watch, and this regards its contents (the movie didn't seem offensive to me, but the director doesn't limit himself in showing what he regards necessary for the viewer to see, and this might offend some sensitivities), but also the style -it's made almost like a dogma-style movie, with no music soundtrack, and some very long sequences.
If the film were to be diserecited, it would no doubt alienate foreign audiences; many of the friends I've viewed the movie with simply couldn't comprehend; however, it is little known to the world how life behind the "iron curtain" was all about.
Then Otilia leaves her Bucharest university campus and begins her harrowing journey.Set in the Communist Romania of 1987, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", is a story about oppression and about how living in a state of fear can create a sterling bond between the oppressed.
that is what the communism felt like for the Romanians.In that desert of choices and mistrust arose a friendship between two girls: Otilia, Gabita.I think the whole idea of the film is to show the humain relations in a prohibited environment: the small talk (from the birthday party), the argues, the negotiations, the silence from the end.
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu won the Cannes Film Festival's top prize Sunday with "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," a harrowing portrait of an illegal abortion in Communist-era Romania.The low-budget, naturalistic film about a student who goes through horrors to ensure that her friend can have a secret abortion beat out 21 other movies in competition for the Riviera festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or.The Director accepts the Palme d'Or from American actress Jane Fonda for his film "4 Luni, 3 Saptamini Si 2 Zile" ("4 Months, 3 weeks and 2 days"), during the awards ceremony at the 60th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on Sunday, May 27, 2007.
It's a new European art-house film which probably won't shock the ones familiar with the genre with its documentary-like narrative; but it does offer something to think about - and in addition to its captive storyline it does have a high cinematic value in both style and content.The year is 1987 and two female students are living in a shared apartment.
The scene at the dining table where the educated upper class are celebrating and seeking their own advantage.4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days grew out to be a mature film about a world where pregnancy becomes something that must be avoided like cancer, about a society where the ones in charge are regardless of the common people.
4 MONTHS 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS ('4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile') is a powerful film that asks us to witness several horrors - Ceausescu's communist Romania in 1987, illegal abortion, and the extremes/abuses of friendship.
Well, if that effect works, don't doubt about watching "4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days", a very good movie about a very heavy issue during a very hard time.
In a film with practically no music and with reality presented as it is, it's impossible to experiment more tension, one of Mingiu's major and most effective achievements here.There are a lot of things I would like to tell you about "4 months, 3 weeks and two days", to convince you of watching it; but I'll just give you some recommendations.
You don't know how it's been in the those years in the former communist countries, but this film is very realistic, This is what was happening in those days.I was much more taken with this story than any "action movies" that i've seen in the last half year, as it was a slice from real life.There was the "pro life" approach to social science, in witch birth control was made illegal, and doctors that risked abortions of unwanted pregnancies risked up to 10 years of hard prison.So now we live in a so much more liberal environment, where the state doesn't control the number of the children that every citizen can have, but the church does.
The other sees a Communist era set Romanian girl from about twenty years ago claw and scrape her way through life at university as she aids and helps out her friends here and there as the film builds to a pretty harrowing finale. |
tt0091554 | The Morning After | Charlie Lester is a public relations speech writer for an oil magnate. He is married with two children. As the film opens we see him drinking heavily at an office party and then having an argument with his wife Fran after he tipsily returns home. The song "Yesterday", sung by Joey Scarbury, is played several times in the film as Charlie continues in a downward spiral. He is given a jolting reason to quit drinking after his boss scolds him for appearing half drunk at an important business meeting, then ruining a dinner party at his home and even hitting his wife in a drunken rage. He is shown afterwards literally on his knees, begging her forgiveness.
It is revealed in the film that Charlie's father was an alcoholic and his mother was abusive, ignoring him while lavishing her affections on his younger brother. He breaks down as he tells this story to a therapist. In massive denial and pain, he drops out of therapy and continues to drink, culminating in a physical assault on Fran as she tries to drag him out of a bar. When he returns home, she informs him she is seeing a lawyer and filing assault charges. Charlie then becomes violently ill and vomits blood. His doctor informs him he may be suffering from liver damage and "either you stop drinking or you're going to drink yourself to death!"
In a desperate attempt to stop, Charlie takes a vacation and goes alone to a seaside resort. He winds up passed out on the beach. He suffers a terrifying attack of delirium tremens and wakes up in a mental ward. Even in this desperate circumstance, Fran stays with him and his sympathetic doctor informs him he can be helped, but his recovery is entirely up to him. Shortly afterward, Charlie escapes from the hospital and goes to a bar. He calls Fran and tearfully apologizes for all the pain he has caused her. He tells her he loves her and their children with all his heart but "It's no use...there's just no point...I'm no damn good, I never was...goodbye, my heart." The final scene shows Charlie alone, drunk and hopeless on a deserted beachfront. | neo noir, murder | train | wikipedia | Fonda and Bridges are both terrific, as usual, and the story of their meeting and falling in love along with the moral rebirth that love sparked in both would have made a fantastic movie.
Jane Fonda, Raul Julia, and Jeff Bridges are the main charactors in this suspense thriller.
Jane's falling star crashes right into Jeff Bridges who is always good as a laidback but tragically flawed loner.
Jane Fonda gives an incredibly nuanced performance as a spiraling down drunkard, she researched the tragic 40's star Gail Russell who drank herself to death at 36 to fully understand her characters plight of a once promising actress reduced to blackouts and infamy.
The rest of the cast gives good support starting with Raul Julia on down to a pre-stardom Kathy Bates in a tiny role, the problem is that the script that all this superior work is working with is ill conceived and not terribly well directed by the usually excellent Lumet..
While Jane's last Oscar nominated performance (before she retired from films) has its moments, the film falls apart after she takes off her blonde wig.
Some really well photographed scenery pops up near the first half and there's a long extended sequence that has her clean up the dead man's apartment, which is filled with many sly touches; alas the beginning is ten times better and more developed than the weak conclusion.
Jeff Bridges adds a nice touch to the story but was it really wise for the Fonda character to place all her trust in a total stranger?
But The Morning After merits a look anyhow, owing to the characters that it cultivates, and the performances of Fonda and Jeff Bridges in the two leads.
Actually, I can picture a movie that would omit the murder and just trail the genuine human development between Fonda and Bridges.
Indeed, the fact that nearly every opinion I've heard or read of this film seems unanimous in terms of James Hicks' script, including mine, even down to the 'It starts off well but then it gets really forced and jerry-built' gist, it seems pretty clear-cut what makes the film not quite work, though it'd be a misstep to write this movie off simply because the story is so rickety.
Fonda and Bridges are superb in the film, and their rapport, founded on skeletons in the cupboard, bitterness and ulterior motives, gets especially remarkable.
Before the schmaltzy final scene, not even close to prototypical of Lumet, there's a single shot in which all Bridges and Fonda do is face each other, and we know, and fee, that they want to have sex with each other.
Living in Los Angeles is part of the debilitating influence on the character played by Jane Fonda.
THE MORNING AFTER is one of those films that begins with an intriguing opening--JANE FONDA wakes up in bed next to a murdered man and, because she was in an alcoholic daze, can't remember even entering the man's apartment.
The weaknesses are offset somewhat by the good performance of JEFF BRIDGES as a helpful policeman who agrees to help Fonda solve the who-dun-it aspect of her plight.It's all beautifully staged and photographed in a sunlit Los Angeles and worth watching for the performances alone.
Fonda is at her best as the worried alcoholic who refuses to believe she could have committed the crime and Bridges provides some good chemistry as a co-star.But the ending (with its revelation) is a bit disappointing after all the build-up to a conclusion.
RAOUL JULIA and KATHY BATES have minor roles but the weak ending is hard to dismiss.Fonda won an Oscar nomination and deserved it for creating a dimensional character in a story thin on believable characters..
Jane Fonda, playing an alcoholic but also a sensual lady, is brilliant too and so sexy as she was in 1971, when she won the Oscar for "Klute".
You´ll enjoy watching "The Morning After", if you love LA, the sunny days and ladies like Jane Fonda..
One major error is when Jeff Bridges leaves Jane Fonda off and she goes back into the loft.
Jeff Bridges and Raul Julia also are very good here.
The great evacuation scene at LAX leaves lonely people like Fonda and Bridges behind, and is meant to explain the relative vacant feel of the town throughout the rest of the film.The bright autumn light and vacant cityscape during the film is a surrealistic version of LA, which even a native like me seldom gets to see.
The rest of the film is much like a "B" film noir picture, where we wonder (but not seriously) whether Jane's character may have actually done the deed in a drunken haze, and whether the Cop's will be able to get the right killer.I love this film, not only for the scenes of LA, but for the good suspense generated by the unseen evil lurking in the all too limited shadows..
Jane Fonda stars as struggling, alcholic actress who wakes up one morning next to a dead, murdered courpse, only she doesn't remember anything about the night before, doesn't even know who the murdered person is, or why she is being set up.Jane Fonda turns in a terrific Oscar nominated performance in this thriller that manages to entertain and scare every once a while, but mainly fails due to a poor script.
Jane Fonda plays a glamorously burnt-out alcoholic in Los Angeles who wakes up one morning after a bender and discovers a bloody corpse next to her in bed.
Jeff Bridges (talking slowly with narrowed eyes) is an ex-cop who helps Fonda piece together the previous night's events.
Jeff Bridges co-stars as a benevolent ex-cop from Bakersfield (who meets Fonda entirely by chance), and Raul Julia plays her ambitious hair stylist ex-husband.
Jane Fonda is convincing as a distressed alcoholic actress who couldn't quite make it and Jeff Bridges is perfect as a sluggish mysterious well-doer.
Jeff Bridges held his own easily with Fonda -- another excellent performance on his part.
Did I killed this guy?" That's what crosses the mind of Alex (Jane Fonda), an alcoholic and decadent actress whose major problem with drinking led her to this living nightmare.
To help with both her long time problem and this surprising new one comes an ex-cop (Jeff Bridges) who also had a bad history with alcohol.This film noir look-a-like is more of a drama about these two people helping each other overcoming bad things than a movie concerned in solving the murder of the guy who was with Alex.
It is more interesting to see how these unusual couple act together than to stay focused on the thrilling aspects of the story and its revelations.Not much of a memorable film, "The Morning After" is a good opportunity to see Sidney Lumet directing Fonda (Oscar nominated for her role here), Bridges, Raul Julia (playing the hairdresser Jackie, husband of Alex) and Kathy Bates (on a minor role).
Light and funny scenes between Bridges and Fonda fighting each other over a wrecked car's door or the magic trick pulled by the woman to make people disappear (always fails) are priceless.Positively enjoyable, a good film indeed.
I was a big fan of Jeff Bridges but not really for any of his films and certainly not this one - I just always liked him probably because I liked his dad so much.
Would you ever think that Jane Fonda and Jeff Bridges had chemistry on screen?
She finds help from a mysterious young man named Turner Kendall, played by Jeff Bridges, but suspense and mystery build as her situation becomes increasingly dire.
And so the mystery begins in this halfway decent suspense thriller of which there's not a whole lot to say.The Morning After is helped by strong performances and an engaging story that leads you on to want to know the outcome.
It starts out strong, opening with Jane Fonda's character waking up in bed next to a man with a knife in his chest.
During this panic she meets Turner, and this is where the mystery begins.The film builds its suspense nicely, but after a while it starts to flat line and doesn't get any more interesting until the end.
I can, however, give the movie credit for having a very exciting climax, but that leads into a final scene which wraps the film up a little too nicely.When you get right down to it, The Morning After is just sort of there.
It's a movie that tells a mildly interesting story with mildly interesting characters played by great actors.
Interesting Thriller has some flawed and silly moments but worth watching for the three terrific performances..
An struggling alcoholic (Two-Time Oscar Winner:Jane Fonda) awakens in a strange bed next to a highly controversial man, who is murdered.
She runs away from the murder scene and she finds herself protected to a redneck ex-cop (Jeff Bridges), who tries to help her.
While time is running out for the boozy lady.Directed by Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon, Guilty as Sin, 12 Angry Men) made an interesting, sometimes campy, suspenseful film.
This film has only a few thrills but it's the performances by Fonda, Bridges and a underrated turn by the late Raul Julia as Fonda's estranged husband makes this film worth a look.
Fonda and this film both look good, she as a haggard, fas been alcoholic, and sunny Los Angeles nicely photographed.
Bridges also gives a solid performance in this story that starts off on good fitting but gradually grows thinner as it progresses.
If you love Fonda and/or Bridges you might still enjoy this film, but for others I wouldn't go out of my way and seek it out..
The cast here is top-notch; Raul Julia, (I mean c'mon), Jeff Bridges in an unusual role, and Jane Fonda uniquely memorable as a has-been actress.
In this film, Jane Fonda experiences a disastrous morning after.
She wakes up next to a dead man and has no memory of the night before.Jane was up for an Oscar for her role as an alcoholic has-been actress, and she gives a fantastic performance as a boozy ol' broad.
Her leading man is Jeff Bridges, a former policeman recovering alcoholic, and he's the only ally in her quest to prove her innocence.If you like sexy mysterious thrillers, you're definitely going to want to rent The Morning After.
I'm not really a fan of Jeff Bridges, but Jane more than makes up for it.
She gets into trouble at the airport and picks up a ride with the slightly racist Turner Kendall (Jeff Bridges).Director Sidney Lumet is channeling a bit of his inner Hitchcock.
This movie once again proves that Jane Fonda is simply the best actress alive today.
I don't think Jane Fonda is capable of giving a bad performance, although her choices of film roles is sometimes questionable.
Jeff Bridges is a disabled marginally-functional ex-cop who takes in stray lushes; the perfect foil for Fonda's neurotically manic but sympathetic character.The suspense is fairly well placed, if at times heavy-handed, the plot thickening when a sympathetic former cop, Turner Kendall (Jeff Bridges) comes onto the scene who may or may not be trustworthy.
The Late/Great Sidney Lumet's 'The Morning After' is a A Well-Done Mystery Thriller!
TMA is definitely for fans who love Jane Fonda, and want to see her strut her stuff, where she's in top form, truly believable as an alcoholic ex actress, displaying a real range of emotions, all done so believably.
She meets a cop, Turner Kendall (great name played well by Jeff Bridges) that has us very much suspecting him.
Raul Julia is almost wasted really as Fonda's good friend, with a little bit of menace to his character, a homosexual.
He tries to help Fonda a bit, trying to stray the Bridges character away from her.
Bridge's ex cop character is fun to watch, very much cause he's real, He has flaws, and too, is not normally like the tough guy he usually plays.
She is believable and sympathetic as has-been actress Viveca Van Loren (aka Alexandra Sternhagen).Basically waking (after a drunken binge) to find herself next to a murdered man, the story sets a fast pace in the beginning.
Raul Julia as her ex-husband Joaquim Manero, who is on the periphery of her life, seemingly to help.Jeff Bridges as Turner, a disabled detective from nether world (Bakersfield) a bit exaggerated theme here, he is a country bumpkin, he has skewed values, but he does try to help Fonda sort the pieces of her life.
It is L.A., she is a failed actress who has seen better days- she still loves her ex-husband who has already moved to greener (and richer) pastures.Raul Julia is a Vidal Sassoon like character.
While the ending is a bit formulaic, Fonda's performance outweighs this, and she is well worth watching.
This is definitely one of Jane Fonda's greatest performances, in fact probably her greatest.
"The Morning After" is a murder mystery that features romance, blackmail and suspense but it's the relationship between the story's two leading characters that provides the main focus of the action and also most of the humour and interest that make this movie so enjoyable to watch.
What follows is loosely based on "The Blue Gardenia" (1953) and like its predecessor, this movie features a woman who was with a murder victim on the night he died, awakens the next morning unable to remember what happened and then has to put her trust in someone of whom she's not certain.Alex Sternbergen (Jane Fonda) is an alcoholic ex-actress who wakes up in a strange bed next to the corpse of a man she doesn't know and has no memory of how she got there.
The scene in which Alex escapes from the apartment where the killing had taken place is particularly memorable because at a time when she's feeling desperate and scared, being situated in a highly lit, deserted-looking street in which she's dwarfed by the structures around her, really emphasises her plight and reinforces the impression that, in these very open surroundings, there really is no hiding place.Jane Fonda and Jeff Bridges are both exceptional in this movie and the chemistry between them is the icing on the cake.
Fonda (in an Oscar nominated role) makes Alex's combination of toughness, vulnerability and self-doubt totally believable and Bridges is wonderfully subtle in a performance that creates a lot of distrust about how sincere he is in his concern for Alex's predicament.
I kind of like this movie, really always have.Jeff Bridges is outstanding, J.Fonda is great, and Raul Julia is also fantastic.On top of all that, Sydney Lumet does a decent job directing too.SPOILERS: Basically, Jeff Bridges shines as a Bakersfield ex-cop named Kendall Turner,a real good ole' boy, who has all sorts of hillarious remarks about minorities and prostitution, but in reality he's a decent guy who believes in old fashioned values.Fonda plays a lush, who is fixated on her past as an actress who never quite made it.The late Raul Julia plays a Hollywood hair dresser named Jackie, who is an estranged husband of Fonda.Without giving away too much of the plot, I'll just say it has a decent and unlikely ending, pretty well conceived.Fonda is not sure if she's being framed for a murder she didn't commit, or if she actually stabbed a porn photographer in the chest with a kitchen knife,while on one of her drunken binges.In one scene early in the film, it becomes apparent someone is hiding in a closet of a loft apartment,watching Fonda as she attempts to cover her tracks in the dead man's residence.A cat wanders into the closet, and when she calls for it, she notices the door has been closed,.....ON ITS OWN!!!
Nonetheless, the talents involved particularly Fonda and Bridges make it consistently watchable and involving starting with the opening scene.
The film captures LA well enough and provided Fonda with her last good film role and Oscar nomination to date..
Jane Fonda is Viveca, a faded actress and major drunk of this or any other generation, who wakes up in bed with a strange man next to her who happens to have a knife sticking out of his chest.
She gets drunk again, wakes up in the morning and tries to take a shower but finds the same dead body propped up in the shower stall.Her estranged husband, Raoul Julia, does what he can to help but he's involved with his tony hair dressing business and Fonda winds up turning to Bridges for safety, succor, and sex.Then the plot gets a little twisted.I think Sidney Lumet must have gotten lost during a binge in New York night spots and woke up in Los Angeles.
The viewer is supposed to applaud because, now, THAT'S the iconic Jane Fonda we know and love.
"The Morning After" is a tepid thriller about an alcoholic has-been actress (Jane Fonda, whose performance was inexplicably nominated for an Academy Award) who wakes up one morning with a dead man at her side and no recollection of what occurred the night before.
Of course by the time Bridges and Fonda are sucking face the viewer has already pieced everything together.
But I did find the relationship between the characters played by Fonda and Bridges to be interesting.
While the murder mystery angle of the movie is not that well done - making this portion of the movie tired and familiar - the parts of the movie that focus on the Fonda and Bridges characters interacting are good enough that the movie despite its flaws is worth a look..
Raul Julia's talent is completely wasted, and the only halfway decent acting is by Jeff Bridges; if not for him this movie would be utterly terrible.
It relies too heavily non-existent chemistry of Fonda and Bridges who must have an age difference here of 12 years - and there's little suspense or atmosphere of mystery. |
tt1778342 | The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore | Morris Lessmore sits on a balcony in the French Quarter of New Orleans writing a memoir. Suddenly a storm strikes, blowing Morris’s writing out of his book and blowing him off the balcony. While Morris frantically grabs for his book, the storm blows away the buildings.
After the storm, Morris finds the city and its residents devastated. He walks through the streets strewn with book pages and into the countryside. There he sees a woman fly past, magically suspended by flying books which she is holding with ribbons. She sends one of the books down to Morris. The book’s pages flip back and forth to animate an illustration of Humpty Dumpty, who urges Morris to follow him.
The flying book takes Morris to a library where other flying books live. Morris finds no humans there, but notices several portraits on the wall, one of which is the woman he had seen. In the story the books could talk to Morris.
Morris then becomes the proprietor of the library. He takes care of the books, even saving the life of an early French edition of Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon after it suffers a catastrophic injury falling from a shelf. He also gives out books to those who visit the library from the city still suffering from the effects of the storm. Eventually Morris begins to rewrite his memoir, sharing passages with the flying books who gather around him on the grassy hill opposite the library.
Years later Morris, now an old man, finally completes the book. Satisfied with his life’s work, he closes the book and heads for the door. The flying books swirl about him and Morris becomes young again. He then flies away, carried by flying books like the woman earlier. As he departs, his book, which had earlier been an ordinary book, becomes a flying book like the others, and returns to the library. Just then, a young girl arrives. She sits down on the steps of the library and begins to read Morris's book as the flying books gather around. The final scene shows Morris’s portrait added to the picture wall in the library. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | Charming, humorous, and poignant is the best way to describe The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore, a little piece about the power of stories and how they can positively affect our lives.
The animation utilizes a variety of techniques from CG to stop motion, and, combined with the great background and character designs, makes for pure eye candy.However, the real reason to check out Morris Lessmore is for the story.
It tells the story of a young man in love with books and writing who comes across a library full of living, flying books after his city is destroyed by a hurricane.
The books bring liveliness and joy back into his life, and in turn, he takes care of them.
More happens after that, but I won't dare spoil it for you, as you have to see it in order to really enjoy it.It's a brief piece at only fifteen minutes, but I assure you it's worth every second.
Thus I'm baffled at the current score-- I'm not saying I was expecting a 10 or even an 8, but not even a 7 seems too low a score for one of the best animated short films of the past year..
William Joyce Tells Us the Joy of Reading in This Beautiful, Poignant and Thought Provoking Short.
I must have read the longest part Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (almost eight hundred pages in length) not less than seven times.
I remember being disappointed with the way I ended it abruptly, but that isn't the point.
The point is that I wrote something original and I am absolutely proud of it, and what brought this creative drive in me were the precious Harry Potter books.The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a luminous display of the director's personal vision – to show how integral books are in developing a person's life.
Our protagonist, Mr. Morris Lessmore is a bibliophile who enjoys writing in his diary while sitting cozily in the balcony with just books surrounding him.
In this dark period, Morris wanders miserably till he is captivated by a beautiful lady who is soaring high in the air with flapping books around her.
A Humpty Dumpty book leads Mr. Morris to a huge library filled with books, and not plain books, but living and breathing ones.
Mr. Morris, who has lost nearly everything in the hurricane, now devotes all his time to books.
In this process, not only is he able to bring back happiness and a true sense of satisfaction in his life, but he also starts penning a novel and pledges to help the lives of other unfortunate souls by lending them books.What makes Fantastic Flying Books such a joyous watch is the beautiful manner in which director William Joyce brings books to life.
The entire story itself feels like a tale said by a mother to her young child at night – the opening scene takes us into a book with the film's title.
Also, colors begin reentering Mr. Morris' life only with the arrival of the books; his life comes alive after this.
An ironic thing to be noted is that the same books that infuse life in its readers are typed in black and white.Even with the advancing technology and changing cultures, our books are trying hard to stay relevant.
We have book readers, IPads and software to read online.
I say it's a good thing but it is only in our hands to include or reject books from our lives.
But everyone should give this short film a chance – its beautiful, poignant and thought provoking..
I found this 15 minutes movie totally by chance, as I was browsing the blog of a Portuguese books lover.
An old friend of mine came to my mind: a friendship of some sixty years.I was five or six, he was fifteen or sixteen by that time.
It was about anything one could imagine, about pirates and about explorers, about the North Pole and the South Pole, and about seas and oceans, about hunting exotic animals, and about what job to take when I would grow up.After two years or so I started going to school, and he entered the University.
A book about volcanoes followed, and then a book written by Sven Hedin about his travels all over the world.Years have passed, each of us was following his ways, while both sharing the passion for books.
Each time it was a book that was coming in our discussion.
When I left for America we met and he showed me three books he was reading somehow in parallel, about the American ways and about immigrant experience there.After many years I came back and our friendship was no more the same.
Anyway our last meeting brought the subject of books again, only this time to punctuate disagreements.
Life went on and electronic books became more and more sophisticated, advancing from desktops and laptops to tablets, while printed books remained the same, more and more forgotten on shabby shelves.I called him again today, after watching the movie: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore tells a story about printed books, about their pages, full of words and images, about living surrounded by books, dreaming while browsing the pages till you get lost in their stories.
A movie about the aggressiveness of electronic books, acting like a hurricane, destroying the spirit of words and of images, and about the way to reconstruct the lost spirit.
All this in an animation, in the form of a story for kids, a fantasy taking place in an atmosphere reminding sometimes The Wizard of Oz , maybe also a bit Le Ballon Rouge (while the hero somehow resembles Buster Keaton).Ironically, the story is based on a book that can be read now on laptops and on tablets, browsing the electronic pages and inviting the reader to play interactively.And I called my friend to tell him about all this, and I said that I would dedicate this text to him and to his love for the printed book, only he wouldn't be able to read it: the text is on the web..
After it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short, I felt compelled to give The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore a watch.
The movie is a product of such sheer ingenuity that it could have only come from the whimsical mind of filmmaker and author William Joyce.
The whimsical animation is a great visual factor, and the story takes influence from The Wizard of Oz in more ways than one.
It's hard not to be charmed by all the creativity, and despite a generously short running time, the film still manages to give a strong emotional punch.
I'd love to see something like this get a full length feature of its own, if it weren't for the fact that it would require way too much padding.
This film could be a precursor to some new and interesting talent in this genre, I certainly hope we hear more from the large team involved.The trailer for this short wasn't adequate but I wonder if any trailer could have been.
To sum up any elements in this film would miss several others and render the point confusing at best.Books are our children, but unlike people they never die which means they can go on delighting us and our human children many years after their authors are dust.
The animation is excellent, and most of the music score is the perfect accompaniment.The central theme in the short is the magic of books.
Books bring magic worlds to life.
Books accompany you through life and influence your life and your writing.
Books can be your best companions in life.
Books cheer you up, feed your soul, and bright your life especially when everything around your world is gray.There are a few cinematic elements in the film.
The main character is a mix of a young Buster Keaton and Chaplin; the end of the introductory part is definitely Dorothy being transported to the world of the Wizard of Oz; and one of the main books shows a classic character of Alice in Wonderland.
Those winks are to adults, because small children will probably not get them.This is quite a long short animated film, and I thought it was unnecessarily so.
My Favorite Animated Short.
I have seen some spectacular animation over the years.
I love good animation.
But I can safely say that The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is the only animated short that I have ever seen that made me cry.
If you have lived your life with books, as I have, you will be drawn into this world.
In fact if you are a book person this IS your world.The protagonist, Morris Lessmore, is heavily influenced by Buster Keaton.
and the 1939 Wizard of Oz and the all too real hurricane Katrina (the story opens in Louisiana and the studio that shot it, Moonbot, is located there).
Wandering along Lessmore spots a beautiful woman carried aloft on flying books tethered with ribbons.
The animated Humpty Dumpty pulls the protagonist into a world of enchanted books.
Anyone who loves books can tell you there's nothing fanciful here.
And when you meet Mr. Morris Lessmore give him my regards..
just that I reviewed it here first, before coming to this one, and was shocked at the difference.)This is a good film, to be sure.
It reminds me of Hugo (2011) in that respect, which I thought was also good, but the people who hand out awards seem to think is some kind of masterpiece.It's immediately out of date.
Books don't come on paper so much any more.
The internet is always on, and it's silent.Flying books?
And we've seen the idea that reading things keeps stories alive in Die Unendliche Geschichte (1984).Is a life lived without leaving a book implied to be worthless?I think I know what this short wants to be telling me, but what it actually is telling me is not real clear..
Lovely Animation, But Not Much Else.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is visually appealing but not much else.
The story could have been fleshed out a bit more, and for me, it didn't truly capture the joy that books bring.
I'll probably never watch this short again, however, unless it's randomly playing in a room I happen to be in.
If beautiful, stunning visuals are all that you need, then you'll love The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.
But if you're more story-driven (like me) you will find that this short could use a bit of work..
Best Short Ever - Do not miss this one.
I happened upon the best book called "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore." I don't know why this book grabbed my attention as it was sitting in the middle of a bookshelf between tons of other books.
I picked it up and opened it and wow my new favorite book.
I brought it home (yes I paid for the hard cover version) and read the whole thing.
I realized after reading the book that this was a short film as well.
My mom read the book before she watched the film and she cried.
This is not only my new favorite book but now its my new favorite short animation.
You wouldn't think that Hurricane Katrina would inspire a fantasy, but the Academy Award-winning short "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" is just that.
After seeing his memoirs destroyed by a hurricane, the titular character goes to a library where the books come to life.Books coming to life was an occasional theme in the early Merrie Melodies cartoons - usually involving puns - but here it takes on a more mystifying character.
The books are become a new part of the protagonist's existence.
I understand that director William Joyce worked on "Toy Story".
Probably the best of the nominees, it's the film most likely to receive the Oscar next week....
For the last several years I have gone to see the Academy Award nominated shorts--both live action and animated.
This year is a first for the animated category in that as we sat watching, I overheard a lot of murmurs about how bad the nominees were.
Fortunately, after three very sub-par films, the final three were excellent and it seems pretty clear that the race is between "La Luna" and "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore".
And, like the last couple years, following these nominees, they showed some animated shorts that were not nominees but were sort of like runners up--and the folks I talked to preferred these films to several of the nominees."The Fantastic Flying Books" is a very, very good film.
Even without some poor nominees against it, it would still be a film that is Oscar-worthy.
His book now is blank--all the words were blown off by the storm!
And, soon he encounters a strange woman who, along with her books, is flying by--literally!
Where it all goes from there is a nice little metaphor about the love of reading but I won't say more--partly because it's hard to describe and partly because I don't want to spoil it.
2012 Oscar winner for Best Animated Short, and it was well deserved.
At the end, there were no reasons for regret, and I was in full agreement with the Academy for acknowledging this work with the Oscar for Best Animated Short.*** WARNING: Possible spoilers ahead ***Is this film a sort-of sideways slap at technology, such as e-books and devices like the Kindle or Nook?
But the point I took away from this scene was that books live only so long as they are read, and to stop reading them is to kill them.
The other thing to remember is that while e-books offer a way to put the printed word in front of more people more economically, not everybody, especially in developing countries or following natural disasters, will have access to the needed technology or infrastructure to fully take advantage of e-books.
Not to mention that sometimes curling up with an actual physical book, turning the pages and idly wondering who else might have held this volume transcends the convenience of glowing letters on a glass screen.Librarians and bibliophiles will be drawn to this, of course, but one can only hope that ordinary people will also see this.
One hopes that they will take away the underlying lesson — that books and stories live on, but only so long as people continue to read, write, and tell them..
An utterly charming and poignant short well worth seeing.
First I feel I must say that, having more than 3000 books in my library and a lifelong fascination with animation, that I would be predisposed to like this short is almost a given.
That said, when a short is good enough for me to watch it half a dozen times in ten days, there's something more there than just personal inclinations would indicate.
Because it would be difficult to discuss this without some details from the short, from this point on, some spoilers will be present.The short starts with Lessmore writing in a journal.
A hurricane sweeps in and takes Lessmore and the house where he lives into the air.
There are nods to the Wizard of OZ, Buster Keaton and movies in general throughout the short.
Lessmore is deposited in a scene reminiscent of one of Keaton's more memorable screen moments and he seems cast adrift and abandoned until a series of events makes him the caretaker of an animated library of flying books.
It's a very visually effective short.Time passes companionably for Lessmore and his charges until, as he must, Lessmore finally takes his leave of of his idylls here and be replaced in turn by another.
It's a tender and bittersweet departure and the ending of the short is perfect.
This deservedly won the Oscar for Animated Short amidst some fairly strong competition and is well worth seeing.
What a wonderful short animation this was.Taking cues from fairy tales and silent comedy films, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore it's a very heartwarming and whimsical story about the love for reading and books, resulting in one of the most satisfying viewing experiences that I've ever had in my life.Not only was the animation of this short film wonderfully made (Having the same level of quality than some of best films from Pixar) but also, the plot was very inspirational, moving and subtle, having an unique charm that not many other movies (animated or not) had.
The final result is pretty, rewarding and moving, being able to express in a very sensitive way all the joy, sadness and hope that any story could contain.
And the most amazing thing is that it is able to do it in only 15 minutes.A must-see.10/10.
I wish there was more in the first 10 minutes of this short film that could have drawn the viewer in and guided him to the above profound question.
For the first two thirds, there's really not much substance to this little short movie.
It thrives beautifully on the animation and effects side, especially the books flying like butterflies, but beyond that, it falls kinda short to raise any true emotions.
And these days, great animation simply isn't enough anymore as there's hardly an animated movie, even when it comes to shorts, that doesn't captivate you with its craft.
The crew really did a good job on that one as they managed to make it sad and funny at the same time.
The last bit is very frequently what makes a film rise or fall in the viewer's memory and I'm pretty certain the excellent closure they gave it was one of the main reasons behind this one winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. |
tt0339727 | Stateside | Dorri Lawrence (Cook) is an actress and singer who resides in Hollywood, California. She has undiagnosed schizophrenia, which causes problems in her career. After another concert goes wrong due to her untreated disease, she is finally sent to get help for her schizophrenia.
Meanwhile, Mark Deloach (Tucker) is a rich high school kid miles away, attending a Catholic school. Though generally shy around girls and a good kid, he takes part in underage drinking. His brother, Gregory, who has secret sexual rendezvous with the prestigious Sue Dubois (Bruckner), has one of their dirty notes blamed on him. He and a buddy of his decide to pay him back by taking Sue back to her mother and reveal what's been going on with her and Gregory which they knew she will not approve of. In the process a DWI car crash occurs, resulting in the injury of both Sue and Father Concoff (Begley), the principal of their high school.
Sue's mother, Mrs. Dubois (Fisher), decides to press charges against Mark. However, a deal is made to have Mark serve in the Marine Corps instead of jail time.
Mark departs to his training and finds that the Senior Drill Instructor, Staff Sergeant Skeer (Kilmer), has taken an interest in him as his pet project due to Mark using the Corps to escape jail time. Eventually, Mark satisfies the tough platoon leader and Mark officially becomes a Marine.
Once back home he finds himself cutting ties with his friends and ends up befriending Sue, who is now in a half way house, and Dorri, who is her roommate. He also apologizes to Father Concoff, who accepts his apology though still angry with what occurred. Mark and Dorri set up a date with each other to go to a dance, but she doesn't get to go. Mark leaves her a gift. Later, he and Dorri go out on a date and Mark loses his virginity to her.
Dorri and Mark keep in contact through letters and phone calls, but eventually Dorri's illness worsens and she loses touch with reality. Friends and family beg Mark to help Dorri get treatment, but he opposes any suggestion that might separate them. Eventually, an intervention support group keeps the two away from each other.
Mark is deployed to overseas action and is injured in the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983. He returns home with an honorable discharge. Apart for two years, Dorri contacts Mark in a hospital where he has been healing from his wounds. They plan to marry and start a new life together. | insanity, flashback | train | wikipedia | Knowing a lot of the mental illness of schizophrenia, I can state that the producers of this movie have done a very good job of showing a real person with schizophrenia.
Cook does a great job of showing that person.Yes, movie is somewhat disjointed and the ending somewhat abrupt.
You know the one, where the girl and guy meet cute, fall in love during a musical interlude, break up, and get back together at the end, typically with the guy racing to the airport to catch the girl at the last minute before she boards her plane.
Stateside reminded me of movies that I saw back in the sixties, like The Graduate.
But haven't these people ever heard of "willing suspension of disbelief?" Besides, countless romantic stories have derived their drama from the fact that the guy and girl are so different from each other.
And unlike most 'opposites attract' movies, Stateside doesn't shy away from showing how difficult it would be for these two to have any kind of long-term relationship.These critics apparently missed the point of the movie.
It is about a bittersweet romance that would never have happened if not for Dori's mental illness.
If Dori had not been mentally ill, she would have married some rock star or movie star.
Before meeting Dori, he probably expected to fall in love with an average but mentally stable girl.
He gave up that prospect in order to do something he would have previously thought impossible-have a relationship with a real pin-up girl.Jonathan Tucker and Rachel Leigh Cook are outstanding as Mark and Dori, especially Cook.
She plays such a sweet, innocent and guileless beauty that you have no trouble believing that Tucker's character could fall in love with her despite her mental illness.
What she reveals is a very likable character.By the way, the story is based on the director's own life.
He was a rich kid who fell in love with a mentally ill actress.
Stateside breaks the mold of teen love stories.
The real-life Marine experience of director of Reverge Anselmo brings a sense of realism to the film that is often lacking in pictures about the military which tend to be heavy with political rhetoric and are often written by people who experience wartime from Berkley CA.This picture is enhanced by a spectacular soundtrack that compliments the film well.
Val Kilmer and Joe Mantegna combine for about 15 minutes of screen time.The reviews for this movie were mixed.
However, if you're looking for a romantic movie or a hidden gem drama, you can do a lot worse with an hour and a half of your life..
Having shared many conversations with Reverge Anselmo, I found him to be the honorable person portrayed in this wonderful film based on a time in his life.
I look forward to seeing future films from this talented writer/director, who presents glimpses of his interior with each project and who will meet with continued success telling stories that resonate with audiences..
The plot really hit home for my girlfriend and I because I'm going to be going to boot camp for the Marines in a month, so we just happened to pick it up and were instantly locked in.
Val Kilmer gives an amusing and extremely different performance as a Marine DI, he steals all of his scenes and his dialog with the recruits is hilarious.
While I liked the film i'll admit i'm being a little biased since i'm going to enlist in the Marines, this movie is not for everybody.
It's a good movie for men and women in the military who have to deal with being able to see the ones they love not as often as they'd like to.
It's just a sweet romance movie that has real and down to earth dialog, that will remind anybody about those little dorky moments that lovers have and always remember..
"Stateside" is 'based on a true story' and tells the tale of a rich teenager who gets into trouble and is allowed to avoid prison by enlisting in the Marines; he falls in love with a disturbed young woman.
Mark (Jonathan Tucker) is a prep school student with a strict father who sends him to the Marines; Dori (Rachael Leigh Cook) is an aspiring musician with a temper and mental problems.
They do a good job of introducing us to the characters; both are quite likable.The film picks up when our leads are falling in love.
I recommend "Stateside" for movie fans who want more to their romantic comedies..
It also seems to be missing a cohesive story, and good direction.The story follows a young marine (Jonathan Tucker) who can't help but fall in love with a mentally ill musician (Rachael Leigh Cook.) As he spends time with her, her recovery begins to slow to the point where he is forced to sever contact.
Believe me, by this point you won't care.I found the story hard to follow as the movie stumbled forward.
Sorry I squirt water on you from the broken water fountain
Will you marry me??' Give me a break.I was shocked to find that this isn't director Reverge Anselmo's first movie.
OK, all the blame falls on him.There is quite a fine conglomeration of talent gathered for this fiasco: Joe Mantegna, Val Kilmer, Ed Begley Jr, Penny Marshall, and Carrie Fisher all lend their faces to Stateside.
However, when he slowed down to talk to the boys from his heart, he was quite good.Jonathan Tucker does a good job as the lead, and Rachael Leigh Cook does a decent job as the mentally ill musician/actress.
It really could have used a bit more humor to offset the dramatic tension caused by the marine's relationship with his father, and by his forbidden romance with his famous, mentally ill soul mate..
In the 80's, the irresponsible teenager Mark Deloach (Jonathan Tucker) of a wealthy and powerful family causes an accident crashing his car and seriously wounding a priest and a school friend.
Later he meets the schizophrenic singer and actress Dori Lawrence (Rachel Leigh Cook) and they fall in love for each other.
However, their love becomes almost impossible when he has to travel overseas and she worsens her mental illness.I decided to see "Stateside" with no expectations, but I found a surprisingly good romance.
Based on a true story, the situations are original and I really liked.
Rachel Leigh Cook is very beautiful and charming, and it is her best performance among the many films of her filmography that I have seen.
Rachael was adorable in "Sally", but where I thought that was the epitome of understanding Mental Illness - this movie jumps Far Beyond into the world of a Talented Singer/Actress slipping into Schizophrenia.The first few scenes are a bit confusing, as we are introduced to the Characters and set up the situation.
Can True Love survive years of separation, and Mental Illness?
Fortunately the film is ideal for piecemeal viewing (watching a scene here and a scene there- not necessarily in sequence until you realize you have seen the whole thing) because it is nicely written and is actually more coherent and entertaining when viewed in little snippets.
Start with the standard Freddie Bartholomew (Captains Courageous", "Lord Jeff" etc.) rich kid from a neglectful home, add a bit of reckless prep school teen drinking which injures a Priest ("Cruel Intentions"), plus a boot camp coming of age story ("Full Metal Jacket"), for your love interest insert a female rock star and actress with mental problems ("Francis" and "Girl Interrupted"), and then a return from the war as a disabled veteran ("The Best Years of Our Lives").
Although "Stateside" doesn't work as a whole package and sets the all-time record for credibility problems there is still a lot of entertaining stuff here.
Jonathan Tucker is appealing in the lead role and actually brings some credibility to a character going through enough life changes for ten movies.
Rachel Leigh Cook basically does her Ruthie character from "The Big Empty", who I suspect is pretty much her real life self.
Her Dori character is supposed to suffer from schizophrenia, but if you don't know what that is going into the film, you won't understand it any better after viewing.
But since Dori's psychological problems are irrelevant to the plot this doesn't really get in the way of the basic story.
Although the lyrics for "Scotty Doesn't Know kept running through my head each time he was featured.The most compelling performance is by Agnes Bruckner, playing the best-named character this decade, Sue "of the Dubervilles" Dubois.
It gives you basic training, prep school, girl rockers, mental cases, romance, DWI, hospitals, sex, mansions, and Agnes Bruckner.Then again, what do I know?
I went to the Marines right out of high school and and I appreciated the authenticity the writer/director portrayed.
Just like in the movie, five young intercity men in my Infantry Company were sent to the Marines instead of prison by some very intelligent compassionate judges.
The dialog was right on and starkly honest; that's the way adolescent high school students and Marines talk and act.
I think all movies with plot developments that stretch a little bit should use the 'based on a true story' tag.
What did you shoehorn in there to make this point or that, or to throw viewers off the scent of trying to figure out who your actress girlfriend was?Val Kilmer was the most pleasant surprise of the movie.What was with the sequence where the rejected hero went drinking and hit on women with delightful facial pores and that had a predilection for taking shots of blue liquid and ended with a minor car accident with no consequences.Stateside had plenty of blind alleys like that.
The dialog tried to convey too much complexity like when the worker who runs the group home explains why the hero can't see Dorie anymore.
He used a snapshot freeze frame device which served little emotional purpose except to perhaps recreate one of the filmmaker's favorite photos of himself.What saved the movie for me were the scenes between the hero and Dorie.
Like maybe the band the mystery girl was in had some sort of connection to LA Punk band X with Exene Cervenka?The scene from the 'movie' Dorie was in seemed Bond like.Evil Dead came up in a conversation, though it seemed like she wasn't in that movie.
i was a bit distracted while watching the film the first time, thus i didn't get as good a feel for it as i would have liked to.thank you!
In 1983, Mark Deloach (Jonathan Tucker) is wounded as a Marine.
In 1980, Hollywood singer/actress Dori Lawrence (Rachael Leigh Cook) suffers a mental breakdown.
Mark Deloach is sent into the Marine Corps by his powerful father (Joe Mantegna) and the court.
Dori and Sue are released to a halfway house and become best friends.Other than a few meetings, Mark and Dorri don't spend that much time together until fifty minutes.
On leave, he meets a mentally disturbed young woman and falls instantly in love.
The radiant Agnes Bruckner plays their mutual friend, and tries to make the Marine understand that he cannot cure schizophrenia through love alone.
Lots of great period music, and many familiar faces in the adult roles, like Val Kilmer as the drill sergeant, Joe Montegna as the Marine's dad, Ed Begleyt Jr. as the priest and Penny Marshall as the head nurse.
A Real Love Story.
Greatly enjoyed this film because it portrayed a great love story that grew between Rachael Leigh Cook,(Dori Lawrence) and Jonathan Tucker, (Mark Deloach).
Mark Deloach came from a very rich family and his father had very little interest in Mark and when he got in trouble with a car accident and caused many problems, his father decided he should go into the Marine Corps.
This film shows the very rough training that marines go through and Mark Deloach proves he can become a good marine and comes home to a very cold reception in his father's large mansion.
Mark falls deeply in love with Rachael Cook despite the fact that she is a mental patient and all her professional nurses and doctors suggest that Mark stop seeing her and break off their relationship.
This movie showed me Rachael Leigh Cook is not just a pretty face..
I suppose it can also be said that every screen writer has one good story, their own life.
As he says in the DVD extras, this movie "Stateside", set in the early 1980s, is about 90% accurate, based on the writer/director's own life in the early 1980s.
It is a very unconventional love story, I enjoyed it, however it may not be for everyone's tastes.Mark (Jonathan Tucker) is a fairly typical rich high school graduate with too much time on his hands, he is involved in an incident where a girl riding in his car was badly injured, plus Father Conoff (Ed Begley Jr.) who was in another car.
So, "Stateside" is the story of what happened as a result.
Paying a visit to the injured girl, he quite accidentally meets up with Dori (Rachael Leigh Cook) who gets hit with an errant drinking fountain stream as she walks by him.
I have been a fan of Cook's, who has mainly played teenage fluff roles, but here as the troubled Dori shows that she is much more than a pretty face.The middle of the movie shows us Mark's basic training, the tough drill Sergent Skeer (Val Kilmer in a very good role) gets word that Mark is a rich kid there to avoid jail time, so is especially tough on him, but Mark takes everything in stride, and becomes a good Marine.
In the end Dori seems to be outgrowing her illness, appears to be stabilizing, she and Mark are destined to be together.
"Stateside", directed by Reverge Anselmo, was based on a real story, supposedly.
He also got good acting from his mostly young cast.We are given the premise of two wounded souls, that have to face a lot in their young lives, meet and fall in love.
Mark, the son of a wealthy man, is instrumental in the horrible accident he causes that paralyzes a priest and scars forever the beautiful Sue. He is given a choice of either going to jail, or joining the Marines; he opts for the latter choice.
Mark, a rich boy, grows up fast when he meets the bullish Sgt. Skeer, who makes his life impossible, finally gets to appreciate the younger man for his loyalty and the way he reacts to all his insults.Dori, a schizophrenic young actress and singer, happens to be Sue's roommate in an institution where they are sent for their problems.
Mark meets Dori as he goes to apologize to Sue. The two end up involved in a romance that consumes both of them.
Their plight is exacerbated when Mark is sent to Beirut, as part of a Marine contingent and is there as the attack on their headquarters leaves him with scars that are not as bad as what he has to endure when Dori is made to break with him.Rachael Leigh Cook and Jonathan Tucker are good as Dori and Mark.
Not great but interesting since based on a true story.
My biggest problem with the film is Val Kilmer playing a Senior Marine Drill Instructor....as a former enlisted Marine, I didn't buy it for a minute.
Also, couldn't we have a little summary at the end of the film (since it's based on a true story) of what happened to Mori??.
Much of the rest of the cast gets a moment or two to shine, which doesn't help a lot because none of them ultimately matter in the threadbare plot that does little but strand each character on screen with little to do.Mark Deloach (Jonathan Tucker) is a rich man's son who causes an auto accident that severely injures a priest (Ed Begley Jr.) and, somehow, causes a teenage classmate (Agnes Bruckman) to become emotionally disturbed.
To avoid prison, Mark gets shipped out to the Marines.
Dori Lawrence (Rachael Leigh Cook) is a schizophrenic celebrity who went away to the nuthatch after she started to break down on set and in public.That's the set up.
Mark and Dori fall in love.
And no, I'm really not leaving anything out.Stateside claims to be based on a true story.
I got to a point where I realized an awful lot of what I'd been watching wasn't going to lead anywhere or have any significance.The very pretty Rachael Leigh Cook does a nice job as Dori.
Mental illness is too often either overly charming or overly threatening in movies.
The relationship between Dori and Mark, a stupid guy the Marines have made so fearless he's unfazed by her imbalance, is the most appealing thing about Stateside.Unfortunately, it's one of only two things that work here.
His torments of enlistee Deloach are amusing, but nothing you haven't seen before.There are simply too many characters here who have nothing to do but orbit around Mark and Dori.
He's a nonentity as a high school kid, completely unexceptional as a Marine-in-training and the only distinguishing characteristic he ever has is his reflexive affection for Dori.Oh, and one other thing.
At the end of the movie, Dori and Mark finally break up.
About 5 minutes later, the story jumps forward in time two years
and Dori and Mark get back together.
I don't care what kind of tale you are telling, you can't have a climactic break-up and feel good reunion take place within 5 minutes of each other at the end of your movie.
It either falls flat or gives the viewer a case of emotional whiplash.If you don't care about plot and do care about Rachael Leigh Cook, you might enjoy Stateside. |
tt0055872 | The Creation of the Humanoids | The Earth is suffering the aftereffects of a nuclear war that destroyed 92 percent of humanity. Lingering radiation has caused the birth rate to fall below replacement level and the population continues to decline. A robotic labor force maintains a high standard of living for the survivors and the humanoids of the title are an advanced type of robot created to directly serve and otherwise work closely with human beings. These humanoids are built with artificial, ultra-logical personalities and they appear human except for their blue-gray "synthe-skin", metallic eyes and lack of hair. The humanoids periodically visit recharging stations they call "temples" where they also exchange all information acquired since their last visit with a central computer they call "the father-mother".
A quasi-racist human organization named The Order of Flesh and Blood is opposed to the humanoids, which the members disparagingly refer to as "clickers". The Order believes the humanoids are planning to take over the world and are a threat to the very survival of the human race. The Order does not stop at illegal violent actions, including bombings. At one meeting, its members are alarmed to learn of the existence of a humanoid which has been made externally indistinguishable from a human and which has killed a man. They demand that all existing humanoids be disassembled or downgraded to a strictly utilitarian machine-like form.
Scientist Dr. Raven (Doolittle) has developed a technique called a "thalamic transplant", which transfers the memories and personality of a recently deceased human into a robotic replica of that person. The human-humanoid hybrids that result awake from the process unaware of their own transformation, although their human personalities are shut off between 4 and 5 A.M., when they report back to the humanoids at the robot temple. As Dr. Raven describes the operation, "We draw off everything that makes a man peculiar to himself. His learning, his memory: these, inter-reacting, constitute his personality, his philosophy, capability and attitude. The human brain is merely the vault in which the man is stored." With the help of Dr. Raven, the humanoids are secretly replacing humans who recently died with these replicas.
One of the leaders of the Order of Flesh and Blood, Captain Kenneth Cragis (Megowan), meets Maxine, and although she is opposed to the Order they both fall in love. In the end they discover that they, too, are advanced humanoid replicas with the minds of deceased persons. Ironically, the "real" Maxine had died in a bomb attack which the Order intended to harm only robots. Dr. Raven, a once-human replica himself, explains to Cragis and Maxine that not only are they practically immortal in their new forms, they can also be the first humanoids upgraded to the highest possible level: after an alteration, they will be able to reproduce. Finally, Dr. Raven looks directly into the camera and tells the viewer, "Of course, the operation was a success...or you wouldn't be here." | sci-fi | train | wikipedia | According to the story, World War III has depleted the Earth's population, but reconstruction efforts are progressing rapidly with the help of a newly developed race of `humanoids' (hairless, green-skinned androids who possess high intelligence and who serve with total faithfulness).In fact, the androids are so intelligent and sensitive that many people want to have them destroyed, because they fear the androids will overthrow mankind.
One rebel scientist conspires with the android members of a secret group who strives to perfect the androids and make them even more human.Shot on a shoestring budget, the sets are fairly simple (although reasonably imaginative), and the acting is sometimes pretty bad.
Oddly enough, all these apparent flaws somehow endear it to the more forgiving viewers, perhaps because the film works so hard to put across some very strange and imaginative concepts, including a nifty little surprise ending.Watch for several recognizable props and costumes from classic science fiction movies, such as the glass tubes and the gray, one-piece uniforms from `This Island Earth'.
One of the `early prototype robots' seen during the film's opening prologue is actually one of the armored alien space suits from `Earth versus the Flying Saucers' -- and it was spray painted silver!There was, a few years ago, a prerecorded tape of this little gem available for rent at video stores.
This is a wonderful, thoughtful little film with timeless messages about prejudice and what it is to be human.
A lot of people comment on the low budget, but there were some A list Hollywood people involved in making this like the most famous make up man ever, creator of the Universal Frankenstein make up for Boris Karloff, Jack P.
The film is also a bit cerebral for some people, and does have a lot of talking in it, but like the best Science Fiction films and T.V. programs, like the Twilight Zone, THE STORY will make you think deep thoughts.
I have a lot more respect for film like this, doing a lot with a little through the WRITING and the STORY than I do virtually any modern film whose story, if there is one, has been dummied down assuming no one in the audience has a working brain.Much has been made about the fact that Andy Warhol loved this movie.
At the core of the film is "The Order of Flesh and Blood", a group who is very wary of the robots and their activities, and who constantly monitor the robots' activities.Without giving away too much of the plot, suffice to say that some of the robots have been entrusted to save man from himself, and the ending offers some interesting thoughts about what makes a human a human, and if robots are actually better at being human beings than human beings themselves.You can definitely see the inspiration this movie provided to later films such as Bladerunner, Terminator, and many others.The acting and many of the lines are cheesy, and the budget is minimal, but it's still a thought-provoking and entertaining film that gets the maximum out of the minimum.
In a world after nuclear war destroyed 92% of the human population, humanity uses blue-skinned humanoid robots called Clickers as servants and workers.
When the Order discovers Clickers are creating robots that are identical to humans and one of them has killed a man, conflict between the humans and Clickers seems inevitable.One of the smartest and most original sci-fi films of its time.
It's a movie full of ideas and great dialogue that gives you a lot to think about and still holds relevance to topical issues of today.
People need to learn to appreciate movies that are older and have a lot to offer, instead of just trying to update them to today's often crass and ostentatious "standards." Make new stuff for today and stop mining the past for ideas, please..
Even in the realm of the weird there is nothing else quite like "TheCreation Of The Hummaniods." Sure it's cheap, and it's got DudleyManlove(too small a role), but this dense, futuristic drama is milesfrom Ed Wood and explored ideas (yes, "Blade Runner") that would bejudged profound coming out of a film with a budget.
The movie has about as many camera set-ups as "Rope"; but a million times more story.
****SPOILERS**** A movie that you can really say is ahead of it's time about the aftermath of a nuclear war that destroyed over 90% of the human race.
Making it impossible for the human race to survive without the creation of a massive robot population to do the work that is needed for human survival.
A group is founded called "The Order of Flesh and Blood" that wants to put the robots back to where they no longer pose a danger to the human race.
It's because that humans have emotions that override logic which robots don't have.Cragis, Don Megowan, one of the founders of "The Order of Flesh and Blood" orders a raid on the home of a scientist Dr. Raven, Don Doolittle.
Dialog that you'll ever hear in a serious film about those subjects, It will also make you think like you never thought before about the future.
The scene between Cragis his sister Esme and the robot Pax as well as Cragis's girlfriend Maxine, Erica Elliot, alone is enough to make you change your views about what you think that the future is going to be.
It's too bad that the movie "Creation of the Humanoids" is not on tape or DVD and hasn't been broadcast on TV for the last fifteen years or so.
The movie viewing public is missing a real eye-opening film about future events that will shock and at the same time assure us about what we are to face ahead..
I just purchased "Creation Of The Humanoids" as part of a double feature released by Dark Sky(The other movie is War Of The Planets).I was hoping for a better print(I'd give it a 7.5 out of ten)but compared to what was available I can live with it.I remember watching this movie on Creature Features(here in N.Y. on Metromedia 5),and I've tried to locate a decent copy(I've bought several VHS tapes on ebay but they have a 6.5 quality at best).I always like this movie--given it's limited budget I think its still a cult classic.The acting is stilted at times(budget again),the script and direction is good(and not to mention the Jack Pierce make-up).With Hollywood remaking classics(The Omen,Starsky and Hutch,et al)how about putting together a decent budget and remaking this ?.
I watched this movie expecting a low-budget sci-fi B-movie, the kind with screaming helpless women and robots droning on about "DESTROYING HUMANS".
While the acting and dialogue are clumsy, the story is actually quite profound, with a philosophical message that I find quite to the contrary of that usually presented in films of this era - it's refreshing.
I recommend watching The Creation of the Humanoids just to appreciate the philosophical foresight of the writer to express ideas that have only recently begun appearing in popular film, even if he couldn't write convincing dialogue..
The ideas are familiar by now, the production values make Star Trek look extremely flashy, and the characters tend towards wooden, but somehow it's better than all the expensive monster movies that pass for sci-fi lately.
The acting is stiff, the script is overly talky, the film thinks it is profound, but is so only in a "let's get stoned and analyze the universe" sophomoric sort of way.
The ending, which is apparently meant to make the viewer leave thinking, is just silly.I first saw this in college - at MIT, with a bunch of Sci-FI geeks, and WE thought it was the worst movie we'd ever seen.
If that was our reaction, what would a normal, thoughtful film goer think?The only thing that gets it a 2 star rating are two quotes that have defined this movie for me for 35 years.Maxine: "What should we do about dinner?" Cragis: "Eat it."and...Cragis (speaking to a "clicker") "I'll pull your memory so fast, you'll never forget it."I read somewhere where this is Andy Warhol's favorite film.
And if you want to consider the idea of robot rights and what it is to be a sentient being this film could be for you.One problem.
Civil War uniforms against a futuristic set show where they spent the budget, but the android makeup isn't too bad.If you can get past the poor acting and low budget aspects of this, and be willing to listen and pay attention to a complicated story as it unfolds, I think you'll find it worthwhile.
The actors mostly are of the character variety and did lots of one-off guest appearances in TV shows from the 50's through the 70's like The Lucy Show, Bonanza and Kung Fu. One actor here, Don Megowan, starred in dozens of movies and TV episodes, but I'm sure he will always be best remembered as the bandit in Blazing Saddles that was chewing gum in line.So, while the low budget and B and C grade actors bring this down a bit in quality, and it does get a little preachy for my taste, the unique quality of the film definitely make it worth a look (as did that sparkling uniform combination of tight bullfighter pants and Confederate soldier's caps).
"The Creation of the Humanoids" is a very low budget film.
It's a shame, as I could see the basis for some later movies and TV shows in this--including "Star Trek", "Terminator" and "Battlestar Galactica"!The film is set in the future--a future where there are HUGE numbers of amazingly lifelike robots.
However, they have skin like Smurfs and talk a bit robotically--so most humans (aside from those from the Order of Flesh and Blood) accept them as a boon.
However, the robots have a secret--they're a lot more advanced than people think and are making robots who look and think like humans--and society might be inundated with them.
It takes on one of my favorite science fiction premises: the essential question of what makes us human (You can guess that Data was my favorite Star Trek: The Next Generation character.) And it really does a wonderful job of exploring that issue (I've never had an aversion to "talky" movies) But, I remember stumbling across this movie one late night and it's one of those that struck me as so stiffly written and acted that I just couldn't stop laughing.
In it, 92 percent of the Earth's population has been killed off by a 48-hour atomic war, and the so-called "Clickers"--humanoid robots with dozens of varying abilities--have been created to improve mankind's lot.
The film centers on a hunky dude named (The) Cragis, a gerontologist by day and a member of the robot-fearing Order of Flesh and Blood by night.
The film is also surprisingly well acted by its relatively no-name cast (the only name I recognized was Dudley Manlove, of "Plan 9 From Outer Space" fame!); Don Megowan as (The) Cragis is particularly good.
The look of the picture is also unique, with interesting sets and great use of color; the film FEELS like no other I have ever experienced.
(Roslem's Universal Robots), or the obvious connection between 'Clicker' and a very negative term for Americans of African descent, or the use of the Confederate Uniform or to Hitler's Brown Shirts and the way Jews were treated by the Germans...The entire film was designed to make us look deeply within ourselves.This film opened my eyes when I was a kid and again every time I watch it.This film makes early 'Star Trek' look second rate and is more fun to watch than 'I Robot' with Will Smith, because it requires the audience to think.
What is interesting as well is the fact that the humanoids (who are themselves an experimental fusion of man and machine) are able to turn dead humans into 'unconscious' humanoids and, by the end of it, are laying down plans to further enhance their race by eventually making themselves able to procreate!.
I haven't seen the movie since the late 60s but as I remember it, even though it was low-budget, it was still a great story and the ending was such a surprise, I would never have guessed it..
Creation of the Humanoids, The (1962) BOMB (out of 4) There seems to be a lot of debate over whether this film is downright horrid or way ahead of its time.
This movie might have a good idea hiding somewhere behind the badness and there's no question that this movie would influence upcoming films about human-robots but that doesn't take away from the fact that this thing looks incredibly cheap, has horrible acting, bad directing and goes on way too long.
The robots look pretty cheap but the make up was done by Universal legend Jack Pierce and what a shame his talents were being used in movies like this.
It seems this film has gathered a nice cult following over the years but the nice ideas behind some of the things in the movie isn't enough to make it good.
Following a devastating nuclear holocaust mankind is forced to create a race of highly intelligent and adoptable humanoid robots (derisively referred to as "clickers") in order to rebuild civilization.
This film is true to itself, and it gets better the more you watch it -you'll be surprised how "robotic" the so-called modern stuff you're watching is today!.
This is an above average sci-fi film without the usual special effects where the concept is the attraction , where you are asked to think about the possibilities .In this future man has all but destroy's himself , not to far fetched at all and humanoid robots are performing all the tasks man used to , even loving women .This of course makes the men that are left very afraid and ''The Order of Flesh and Blood ''is the agency that represents the fear of what man has done to himself .The humanoids are all about the good of man but man's blind fears blur this until the inevitable finally happens .This film is quite good and has a lot to say , give it a try and forget about cg and effects .Just let the film take its effect on you .Approach with an open mind !.
Also, the usual release date for this is 1962, when the evidence suggests it was made in 1960, which makes the film even more remarkable, given its themes and frank portrayal of a love between a human and a robot.
It is often said that this was Andy Warhols favorite movie, but I think this is no more than an unsubstantiated rumor.The ending is worth it all, really makes one think.Special note: This was famed makeup artist Jack Pierces last effort, he did the iconic Frankenstein back in the 1930's.All in all, worth the watch, I give it 5.6 stars..
I actually brought up the film during a discussion with a Marxist professor in the early 80's as an example of the attack on American morality by the far left.I liked the basic tenets of equality, but the sister's absurd attraction to a non-human served to subject the minds of young people to extreme non-traditional behaviors and narcissism.
Not surprised "they" claim it as one of Andy Warhol's favorite movies.This film serves as yet another example of sixties disestablishmentarianism.
I think it's good as a movie, but I think it would have also made a great sci-fi story on radio.
In a way, it might be even better, because it would let you concentrate entirely on the weighty ideas being discussed by the characters, without the distraction of visuals.Again, MAJOR SPOILER ALERT...I'll take minor exception to the premise of the ending, where it's revealed our current population are actually decendents of a species of robotic replacements for a human race that eventually died out.
Directed and produced by Wesley Barry, CREATION of the HUMANOIDS is a futuristic tale where post nuclear war survivors create blue-skinned, silver eyed human-like robots to serve mankind.
The human population is unaware that the fuse between man and robot, the humanoids, has actually formed a high standard work force and society.
But what actually arrives on screen is an odd mix of genuinely novel SF ideas (I particularly liked the Human / Robot 'marriage' idea that sees one of the characters transferring aspects of her personality to a robot and then falling in love with the refection of herself) and a stream of philosophical ponderings and anti-prejudice messages that must have been mind-blowing to a teenage drive in audience of the time (if they had managed to stay awake long enough to see them).
The film is unsurprisingly (but amazingly) adapted from a novel by Jack Williamson (at the time - as now - it was rare for Hollywood SF movies to be based on existing works).
The end result is a low-budget movie with crude special effects that plods along from one dialogue scene to another, with the only redeeming feature being that some interesting ideas about the future of robots are discussed, ideas that are beginning to seem more relevant than ever.There is an organization of Flesh and Blood that is prejudiced against robots, derisively referring to them as clickers, with obvious similarities to the Ku Klux Klan.
These advanced models think they are human, except at special times, when they realize they are robots and report back to the robot temple.Cragis falls in love with Maxine, and they plan to enter into a contract, which is what they call marriage in the future.
Robots created to serve Man are becoming the majority since human life is now fragile.
Trouble brews when the increasingly advanced robots prove themselves capable of killing humans."The Creation of the Humanoids" is one of those movies that's more notable for its intentions than what it ultimately accomplishes. |
tt0033373 | Ball of Fire | A group of bachelor professors (one was a widower) have lived together for some years in a New York City residence, compiling an encyclopedia of all human knowledge. The youngest, Professor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper), is a grammarian who is researching modern American slang. The professors are accustomed to working in relative seclusion at a leisurely pace with a prim housekeeper named Miss Bragg (Kathleen Howard) keeping watch over them. Their impatient financial backer Miss Totten (Mary Field) suddenly demands that they finish their work soon.
Venturing out to do some independent research, Bertram becomes interested in the slang vocabulary of saucy nightclub performer "Sugarpuss" O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck). She is reluctant to assist him in his research until she needs a place to hide from the police, who want to question her about her boyfriend, mob boss Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews). Sugarpuss takes refuge in the house where the professors live and work, despite Bertram's objections and their housekeeper's threat to leave because of her. In the meantime, Lilac decides to marry her, but only because as his wife she would not be able to testify against him.
The professors soon become enamored of her femininity, and she begins to grow fond of them. She teaches them to conga and demonstrates to Bertram the meaning of the phrase "yum yum" (kisses). She becomes attracted to Bertram, who reciprocates with a vengeance by proposing marriage to her. She avoids giving an answer to the proposal, and agrees to Lilac's plan to have the professors drive her to New Jersey to marry Lilac. After a series of misadventures, including a car crash, Sugarpuss realizes that she is in love with the Professor, but is forced to go ahead with her marriage to Lilac to save the professors from Lilac's henchmen. Bertram, meanwhile, unaware of Sugarpuss' love for him, prepares to resume his research, sadder but wiser, until he discovers her true feelings.
The professors eventually outwit Lilac and his henchmen and rescue Sugarpuss. She decides she is not good enough for Bertram, but his forceful application of "yum yum" convinces her to change her mind. | comedy | train | wikipedia | Not only is he a convincing complete geek, but he's funny, AND sexy!The story is pretty silly (inspired by "Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs", really): A group of dorky professors are writing an encyclopedia, and English Professor Cooper decides he needs more information on Slang.
Let's see, there's Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Haydn, Oscar Homolka, Henry Travers, S.Z. Sakall, Tully Marshall, Dana Andrews, Allen Jenkins and more!
Stanwyck is her usual fascinating self, but in this movie it's the men - the seven old bachelors and the younger Cooper in the "club" - that are the most entertaining.When you have directors and writers such as Howard Hawks and Billy Wilder behind the film, you know it's a winner.Because the story dealt with a bunch of encyclopedia writers trying to find out the latest slang words, the dialog in here is really funny.
Barbara Stanwyck plays a wise-cracking entertainer who moves in with 8 professorial types in "Ball of Fire," a marvelous Billy Wilder film, directed by Howard Hawks, that is loosely based on Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs!
And Hawks put together a superb list of supporting players including seven of our finest character actors to be Cooper's professorial colleagues, Henry Travers, Leonid Kinskey, Aubrey Mather, Oscar Homolka, S.Z. Sakall, Tully Marshall and making his film debut, Richard Haydn.These eight cloistered academicians are working off a grant to create some kind of ultimate encyclopedia.
She decides a good place to hide might just be the house where all these professors are quartered.It's quite a mismatch, scholarly and shy Cooper and brazen Stanwyck, In fact Hawks modeled Cooper's Bertram Potts on the character Cary Grant played in Bringing Up Baby which Hawks also directed.
At the center of the craziness that becomes the story (mostly towards the end and early on and a little in the middle) is a story that we know is formulaic- that a woman who is already attached (if not quite yet hitched) to someone else falls into an unlikely situation with another man and the two suddenly become really close, the man first and then the woman- but its the chemistry between a sexy pre-Double Indemnity Barbara Stanwyck with conservative Gary Cooper.If, ultimately, it doesn't have the machine-gun energy of His Girl Friday (then again, few movies do), it makes up for it with a fun premise that Hawks and Wilder ride out logically, as far as comedy premises can go.
There are a few key scenes that break the mold of the comedic antics (some of which, like Stanwyck showing the old men how to dance is hilarious and memorable): one is the bachelor dinner between the professors, when the one professor, played by Richard Haydn, talks about his marriage from many years before, and it becomes genuinely tender and sincere, not played for laughs, certainly not when they're all singing the song Gienevive.
Billy Wilder seems to have written this vehicle especially tailored to the talents of BARBARA STANWYCK and GARY COOPER because they never had roles in romantic comedies that suited them as well.Babs is a sassy stripper on the lam from the law and sheltered by seven old men (and one young professor) assigned to work on a dictionary of slang.
She teaches them a thing or two with her own street talk and soon insinuates herself into their affections, much the way Snow White did with the Seven Dwarfs.It's farce all the way, broadly played by the delightful cast of men, including S.Z. SAKALL, OSKAR HOMOLKA, RICHARD HAYDYN, HENRY TRAVERS, and DANA ANDREWS as her henchman lover.But it's her chemistry with Cooper that practically glows on screen, giving her character the softer touch and taking the brassiness out of her "Sugarpuss" characterization.Although the material is strictly "cornball" by today's standards, it's still a lot of fun to watch Cooper fall under her spell--and to watch Dana Andrews (in a good early role) getting his comeuppance."Sugarpuss" and "Potsie" are quite a pair!!
"Ball of Fire" is a silly and funny romantic comedy with Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper hilarious and showing a great chemistry.
This is the two masters' only joint collaboration (Wilder wrote, Hawks directed), and though Wilder complained about his script being misinterpreted (as he usually did before breaking out as a director of his own scripts), the result is one of the most delightfully entertaining comedies ever made.Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) and 7 other professors are working on the definitive encyclopedia that will most definitely give substantial space to the man who invented the electric toaster.
The names of many characters are hilarious.Seven of the support cast are professors working with Gary Cooper who plays Prof.
The real delights of the film were the seven elderly professors, particularly Richard Haydn whose comical one-liners and stuff-shirt demeanor keeps one laughing hysterically.This movie was by far one of the best I have seen for a long time, cleverly combining elements of comedy, romance, and drama..
Add Gary Cooper as a hopelessly naive professor and six lonely older men and you've got the formula for some highly entertaining comedy.Cast great character actors as the professors and throw in Dana Andrews and Dan Duryea and you've got a doz.Best screwball scene?
A 1940s riff on Snow White, it's a high point in screwball comedy, perfectly pairing Gary Cooper as a virginal professor out to learn about slang and Barbara Stanwyck as a vivacious gangster's moll who falls for his awkward charm in spite of herself.
The professors are all charming character actors most classic movie fans will know and love: Henry Travers, S.Z. Sakall, Oscar Homolka, Tully Marshall, Richard Haydn, Leonid Kinskey, and Aubrey Mather.
Directed by Howard Hawks, the master of rapid-fire comedic dialogue, it tells the story of nerdy language scholar Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper, in one of his best "aw-shucks" performances, along with "Mr. Deeds Goes To Town") who lives in a house with seven other stodgy, albeit older bachelor scholars, all of whom are working on an encyclopedia.Upon discovering that his knowledge of slang is outdated, Potts bravely ventures forth into the real world, where he discovers flashy (literally, as the dress she is first seen in is sequined and purposely lit so as to momentarily "blind" Potts when she shows up at his house in it) nightclub singer Katherine "Sugar Puss" O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck).
Gary Cooper (my all-time personal favorite actor) is absolutely sexy here, believe it or not, and Barbara Stanwyck is perfect as the title's sassy little "Ball Of Fire", with her brash, streetwise exterior but ultimately soft heart, climbing onto a stack of books to reach the 6'4" Potts so she can show him the meaning of "yum-yum".
Dana Andrews ("Laura") and Dan Duryea ("The Little Foxes"), are effective, if somewhat wasted, in small parts as typical stereotypical 1940's mobsters.You'd have to enjoy these kind of old screwball, dated comedies of the '40's to love this one...and I do.Side note: the roles of the seven professors (excluding Cooper's) were inspired by Disney's dwarfs from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"..
Professor Potts (Gary Cooper) goes off to research some slang and meets up with Sugarpuss (Barbara Stanwyck) who is wanted by the police in order to bring a murder charge against her gangster boyfriend Joe (Dana Andrews).
Ball of Fire (1941)This isn't Howard Hawks's triumph by any means, and I'm no fan of Gary Cooper, the star here (along with Barbara Stanwyck, who I love).
But there are some fun moments and great lines, and if you are chilling and don't expect something as moving as Holiday or as relentlessly hilarious as Bringing Up Baby, you might just love this.And there are sidelights that make it worth a watch for movie lovers--an early bit appearance by Elisha Cook, cinematography by Gregg Toland (same year and same photography as Citizen Kane), supporting roles by Oscar Homolka and Dan Duryea (more favorites), and writing by Billy Wilder.
Added to this is the knowing hand of director Howard Hawks and a stellar cast headed by Barbara Stanwyck as the show girl with a heart of gold, Sugarpuss, and Gary Cooper as Prof.
The screenplay is written by Hollywood legend Billy Wilder who also wrote The Apartment, Double Indemnity and Some Like It Hot and is loosely based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.A singer played by Barbara Stanwyck witnesses a murder and deceives eight professors into hiding her from the police.
The film uses comprehensible 1940's slang for much of the humour and explains most including an "Ameche" which I now know is a telephone.There are great performances from Stanwyck, Dana Andrews and oddly Gary Cooper.
And that's exactly what he decides to do: to leave their secluded study for once, to go out and gather new slang words and people who are liable to know a LOT more of them - and one of them is nightclub singer Sugarpuss O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck); and very soon he becomes not only romantically involved with her, but also PRETTY unromantically with her gangster friends...One of the very FOREMOST examples of the classic screwball comedy, this movie is a perfect example for its genre from the first to the last minute; directing and writing are 'super-duper', as Professor Potts' helpers from the street would say - and the performances, EVERY single one of them, are simply outstanding: Cooper and Stanwyck, the mobsters with Dana Andrews and Dan Duryea as leaders, and of course the lovable elderly professors who are so much wrapped up with their work - until Sugarpuss brings a breath of fresh air into their lives!
He recruits several candidates to meet in his study, and his recruitment efforts stop at Barbara Stanwyck, a nightclub singer named Sugarpuss O'Shea."Ball Of Fire", though somewhat dated, is great fun and part of it is recognizing all the old-fashioned slang expressions included in the script - a sparkling masterpiece written by the team of Chas.
And Roy Eldridge got the chance to display those high notes.The movie, itself, was a thorough delight that offered laughs galore thanks to the script, the Hawks direction, Gary Cooper and Stanwyck and some of the best-known character actors of the era including ole S.
This film has been compared with the Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", and come to think about it, it might have been an inspiration for another film classic.The chemistry between Gary Cooper, who plays Potts, and Barbara Stanwyck, that appears as Sugarpuss O'Hara, is what makes the comedy work the way it does.
A group of eight presidents are sharing a residence working on an encyplopedia of all human knowledge.The youngest one of them, Professor Bertram Potts is a scholar of grammar and language, who is researching modern American slang.He finds out his knowledge is very small, so he goes outside to learn more.He finds a saucy burlesque performer "Sugarpuss" O'Shea, who is down with the slang.But she doesn't want to assist him in his research until she needs a place to hide from the police, who want to question her about her boyfriend, mob boss Joe Lilac.So she finds a refuge from the professors' place.And poor Bertram has hard time concentrating on the work with her "yum yum".Ball of Fire (1941) is a terrific romantic screwball comedy from Howard Hawks.The great Billy Wilder was writing it.A musical version called A Song is Born was made in 1948 with Danny Kaye.Gary Cooper makes a perfect Bertram Potts.Barbara Stanwyck makes a perfect Sugarpuss.The fantastic seven other professors are played by: Oskar Homolka (Prof.
Magenbruch).There are lots of funny moments in this movie.The comical, old-fashioned boxing style Cooper uses is awfully lot of fun.The whole gang of professors is awfully lot of fun.This movie teaches us some great, hip slang words, like "yum yum" (kisses) or Ameche, meaning the telephone because Don played Mr. Bell in that movie.Of course, that slang is dated today, and you'd probably get punched in the nose using that today, but that's how hip people talked back then.Ball of Fire is great fun from the hip era..
All that changes when "Sugarpuss" O'Shea, a nightclub dancer on the run shacks up with the intellectuals and shakes up their outlook on life.Despite what seems like an overly contrived plot of professors spending years making an encyclopedia on slang, the genius of Wilder and Brackett comes alive in the pure fun of the dialog the characters are allowed to have.
This 1941 film is a great film and comedy for anyone who likes Gary Cooper,(Professor Bertram Potts) and Barbara Stanwyck,(Katherine "Sugarpuss", O'Shea.
The majority of old-movie buffs will probably enjoy "Ball of Fire." It has bucketloads of 1940s charm and a great creative team behind it, including acclaimed director Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder on writing duties and, of course, the ever-sultry Barbara Stanwyck as the femme fatale.And yet, it falls somewhat flat for me.
Regardless there still remains one very poignant scene in which Professor Oddly (the only bachelor of the group) recounts about his past wife and the men start singing.There are few other character entrances in film more entertaining than that of Barbara Stanwyck as Sugarpuss O'Shea (a not so innocent name by today's standard) as she enters the picture singing and dancing with Gene Krupa and his orchestra - could the character's fast-living personality be summed up in a more entertaining manner?
Howard Hawks's "Ball of Fire" is a loose reworking of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", replacing Snow White with a burlesque singer and the dwarfs with a group of professors working on an encyclopedia.When the language expert (Gary Cooper) realizes that he's out of touch with current slang he comes out of seclusion in order to remedy the situation.
Gloriously wacky "screwball" comedy, ably directed by Howard Hawks and featuring superb starring turns by Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, brilliantly supported by Cooper's band of encyclopedia-compiling old eggheads.
This film was definitely made for a 1941 audience with little thought to what future generations would think of it,and if you weren't around when the film was made,as I wasn't,the language spoken by the hipsters of the day can be very hard to keep up with.I enjoyed the film nonetheless,mainly because of Barbara Stanwyck.This lady had it all.She had charm,a vibrant personality,sex appeal,and the list of things she could do on screen was endless.It was her flare for comedy that shines in Ball of Fire.Gary Cooper was great as an unhip bookworm,and played off of Stanwyck very well.Though somewhat dated,Ball of Fire is a fun comedic roller-coaster ride to another time..
Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper give funny, sexy performances as a gangster moll and a nerdy professor, respectively, in this lightweight Howard Hawks offering from 1941.Stanwyck plays Sugarpuss O'Shea, girlfriend of a thug (Dana Andrews) who finds himself in hot water after a dead body turns up.
Eight professors compiling information for an encyclopedia provide refuge for sexy singer Barbara Stanwyck (as "Sugarpuss" O'Shea), who is hiding from police investigating gangster boyfriend Dana Andrews (as Joe Lilac).
Impressive sanitation worker Allen Jenkins is the one who prompts the professors to include a section on "slang" in their encyclopedia, allowing Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett to show off wit.****** Ball of Fire (12/02/41) Howard Hawks ~ Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Dana Andrews, Allen Jenkins.
The dress she wears for her nightclub performance is a real stunner.Anyway, Dan Duryea, who plays Pastrami in the movie, at one point talks about something he learned from the movies--and licks his thumb, then wipes the front sight of his gun.This is a clear reference to the movie "Sergeant York", which starred Gary Cooper and was directed by Howard Hawks, director of "Ball of Fire", and was made in the same year (1941).
Stanwyck, a nightclub performer, happens to need a hide-out -- unexpected complications in mobster boyfriend's life -- so she joins the seven scholars in their oppressive Victorian townhouse as a "research assistant." Some history value - I always like the assortment of European character actors in movies of this time, mostly driven to Hollywood by the war and accommodated there -- but I found most scenes of the 6 old guys (Cooper much younger) more suffocating and repetitive than amusing.
Professor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) and his six assorted old oddballs who are trying to put together an encyclopedia are forced by hoodlums (Dana Andrews, Dan Duryea, et al) to take in Sugarpuss O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck) and hide her from the police.
Nightclub performer Barbara Stanwyck must hide from the law so she visits the home of professor Gary Cooper who caught her "Drum Boogie" act while researching slang words for an updated dictionary.
(It should be noted that her "Lady Eve" co-star, Henry Fonda, was also her leading man in her now almost forgotten 1941 movie, "You Belong to Me", a screwball comedy that is actually quite good, if not the classic, that her other films of that year was.) Gary Cooper plays against type here as the wimpy professor who is hiding from the opposite sex and only finds it when he ventures out of the metaphorical woods he is hiding in and into the city jungle of Stanwyck's world.
The movie stars Gary Cooper as an English Professor named Bertram Potts who is working with a group of other professors on finishing an encyclopedia (which Potts estimates that it will take at least 3 years to finish) even while Potts is on an "investigation" on modern slang throughout town in order to learn more about it, then Potts ends up going to a nightclub where he meets a singer and burlesque girl named Sugarpuss O'Shea (played by Barbara Stanwyck in an Oscar nominated performance) who is singing a slang song called "Drum Boogie" which gives Potts a fine opportunity to write the slang words in the song on a page in his notepad.
Hilarious comedy from Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. |
tt0028315 | Stowaway | Barbara "Ching-Ching" Stewart is an orphan living in Sanchow, China. When bandits threaten, she is sent to Shanghai for safety. Accidentally separated from her guide, Ching-Ching finds herself in Shanghai all alone with her dog until she meets a westerner, Tommy Randall, a rich playboy traveling about the world by ocean liner. Ching-Ching then accidentally becomes a stowaway on his ship. When discovered, she is provided for by Tommy and Susan Parker, a passenger on the ship engaged to the son of her traveling companion, Mrs Ruth Hope. Susan and Tommy become romantically involved. Ching-Ching plays Cupid in furthering their romance. The couple realize they adore Ching-Ching and want to do the best for her after learning she will be put off the ship and sent to an orphan's asylum. Susan breaks her engagement with Richard Hope, Ruth's son, after discovering his selfish nature and marries Tommy. The two adopt Ching-Ching. | melodrama | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0390249 | Medal of Honor: Rising Sun | The game starts when U.S. Marine Corporal Joseph D. "Joe" Griffin wakes up on the USS California to the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He makes his way topside, putting out fires and aiding crewmen along the way, and, once topside, meets up with Gunnery Sergeant Jack "Gunny" Lauton, his commander, and Joe works to shoot planes and torpedoes. Soon after, however, he is blown off the ship, but is rescued by a PT boat carrying Gunny, Pfc. Frank Spinelli and Pfc. Silas Whitfield. Joe gets in the turret and shoots down planes to defend Battleship Row. After witnessing the sinking of the USS Arizona, they defend the USS Nevada as it attempts to escape harbor.
On January 1, 1942, Joe and Gunny are stationed in the Philippines, where they meet up with Joe's younger brother, Donnie, who is in a Marine demolition unit. Donnie and the demolition men need to blow Calumpit Bridge, but their demolition truck got captured. The three successfully get the truck back, and the bridge is blown, but Donnie is still inside a tank when it is overrun by Japanese soldiers, and is presumed dead. On August 7, 1942, Gunny, Joe and two other Marines are part of a midnight raid on Guadalcanal to take an airfield and destroy an ammo dump before the main assault at dawn. On October 14, 1942, however, the Japanese are hammering them with artillery from their position codenamed 'Pistol Pete'. Because of this, Gunny gives Joe two Marines and the mission to take out Pistol Pete. The mission is successful, and, along the way, they meet up with Martin Clemens, a real Scottish guerrilla fighter, 2 natives called Selas and Kiep and they rescue P.O.W. Lieutenant Edmund Harrison, a demolitions expert who blows up the guns for them. The mission is successful, and Joe is recommended by Gunny, and is put in the Office of Strategic Services and promoted Sergeant.
In March, 1943, Joe is sent to Singapore to infiltrate a top secret Axis summit led by Japanese Commander Shima. Along the way, he meets up with Pfc. Ichiro "Harry" Tanaka, a Japanese-American OSS operative, and Major Philip Bromley, a British SOE operative. Joe manages to steal German Colonel Kandler's uniform, and infiltrate the summit, where Japanese commander Mastaka Shima reveals the discovery a large quantities of gold in Burma; and introduces Serguey Borov, a Russian traitor of the Allies who plans to overthrow Hitler and Stalin to declare peace between Russia and Germany. Joe's cover is blown when Kandler suddenly bursts in, but Bromley arrives, and the two fight their way out of the hotel, and Tanaka picks them up in a double decker bus.
On April 26, 1944, the three are sent on a mission to investigate Japanese gold smelting operations in temples in Burma. While there, Raj, their Flying Tigers pilot, is shot down, and they set to work getting him back. Bromley and his men destroy four AA guns so the a proper air strike can be done, and Tanaka and Joe infiltrate the temples, and rescue Raj. The air strike destroys the gold smelting operation, and the mission is successful. On July 17, 1944, Joe falls out their plane while in Thailand while they are investigating a train with Shima's gold in it. He meets up with Bromley, and they blow up a train full of Shima's gold, but more of it is aboard Shima's supercarrier, so they fly there, and arrive the next day.
Bromley and Joe fight below deck, while Tanaka infiltrates the officer's quarters. Joe and Bromley are gassed and captured after much fighting, and Shima reveals to Joe he has Donnie on board. Tanaka manages to free Joe, but is personally killed by Shima. Joe fights through a lot more of the ship, and sees Shima getting away with his brother in a plane. Eventually, Joe and Bromley meet on deck, and steal a plane. After several failed takeoffs and shooting down many enemy planes, they get off the ship, and Bromley mourns Tanaka's death, but declares that they will search for Donnie.
The ending to Medal of Honor: Heroes revealed that Joseph was planning POW rescue raids which means that Donnie Griffin was eventually rescued by Joseph later in the war. | violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0030811 | Suez | During a tennis match in Paris between Ferdinand de Lesseps (Tyrone Power) and his friend Vicomte Rene de Latour (Joseph Schildkraut), the enthusiastic admiration of Countess Eugenie de Montijo (Loretta Young) for de Lesseps attracts the attention of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (Leon Ames). Bonaparte sees to it that both she and de Lesseps are invited to his reception. At the party, a fortuneteller predicts that Eugenie will have a troubled life, but also wear a crown, and that de Lesseps will dig a ditch. Entranced by Eugenie's beauty, Bonaparte arranges for his romantic rival to be assigned to a diplomatic post in Egypt, joining his father, Count Mathieu de Lesseps (Henry Stephenson), the Consul-General. De Lesseps impulsively asks Eugenie to marry him immediately, but she turns him down.
In Egypt, de Lesseps befriends two people who will have a great influence on his life: Toni Pellerin (Annabella), a tomboy being raised by her grandfather, French Sergeant Pellerin (Sig Rumann); and Prince Said (J. Edward Bromberg), the indolent heir of his father, Mohammed Ali (Maurice Moskovitch), the Viceroy (ruler) of Egypt. Toni makes it clear that she has fallen in love with him, but de Lesseps still pines for Eugenie. Count de Lesseps leaves for France, leaving his son to take his place.
One day, after a brief rainstorm in the desert, de Lesseps sees the water draining into the sea and comes up with the idea for the Suez Canal. He departs for Paris to raise the necessary funding; Toni goes along as well. He presents his proposal to Bonaparte, but is rejected. He is also disheartened to learn that Eugenie is now very close to Bonaparte.
France is on the verge of civil war between Bonaparte and the French Assembly, led by Count de Lesseps and others. Eugenie persuades Ferdinand de Lesseps to pass along Bonaparte's proposal asking the Assembly to disband, giving Bonaparte's promise to reconvene it once the civil unrest has been defused. Despite their misgivings, the members of the Assembly agree, only to be betrayed and arrested. Bonaparte assumes the throne of the revived French Empire, just as Count de Lesseps had feared. The news causes the count to suffer a fatal stroke. Ferdinand de Lesseps is outraged, but Toni persuades him to do nothing. In return for de Lesseps' help, Bonaparte (now Emperor Napoleon III), withdraws his objections to the canal, and construction commences under de Lesseps' direction.
The building of the canal progresses despite Turkish sabotage. However, Napoleon unexpectedly withdraws his support out of political necessity; he needs to appease Great Britain, and the British Prime Minister (George Zucco) is firmly opposed to the project. Prince Said bankrupts himself to keep the venture going, but it is not enough. De Lesseps goes to England to plead his case. The Prime Minister is unmoved, but the leader of the opposition, Benjamin Disraeli (Miles Mander), is enthusiastic about the project. Disraeli tells him to return to Egypt and pray that Disraeli wins the upcoming general election. He does, and funding is assured.
As the canal nears completion, an enormous sandstorm threatens everything. When de Lesseps is knocked unconscious by flying debris, Toni rescues him by tying him to a wooden post, but is herself swept away and killed. De Lesseps finishes the canal and is honored by Eugenie, now Empress of France after her marriage to Napoleon III. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0054817 | Five Minutes to Live | A man named Fred (Vic Tayback) sits in a dark room, detailing his most recent bank robbery. He talks about how he teamed up with hardened criminal Johnny Cabot (Johnny Cash) to execute his plan.
Cabot is to take the wife of the bank's vice president hostage. He is to hold her until he gets a call from Fred informing him that they have the ransom money. Cabot watches the Wilson house as the husband leaves for work and their son heads off to school. Posing as a door-to-door guitar instructor, Cabot talks his way into the house and takes Nancy Wilson (Cay Forrester) hostage.
At the bank, Fred enters vice president Ken Wilson's (Donald Woods) office and hands him a check for $70,000, informing Wilson that he will withdraw the funds to cover the ransom or his wife will die. He tells Wilson to call home for proof that Nancy is being held hostage, then informs him that if he does not call Cabot back in five minutes, Mrs. Wilson will die.
Wilson surprisingly responds that he's been planning to leave his wife anyway and run off to Las Vegas with his mistress, Ellen (Pamela Mason). He tells Fred that he will be doing him a favor by killing his wife. Fred does not believe that Wilson will let his wife die. He is proven correct, as time ticks by, when Wilson finally cracks and agrees to pay the ransom.
Fred calls Cabot and starts the clock over again. As five minutes tick away, Fred works on Wilson to hurry. Meanwhile, at the Wilson house, Cabot is enjoying terrorizing his hostage. He begins forcing her to listen to his songs about her impending demise, shooting at her and making sexual advances toward her. Back at the bank, Fred has been taken down by the police, who arrived after someone tripped the silent alarm. As a result, Cabot is getting nervous, having not received his expected call from Fred. Suddenly, in walks Little Bobby (Ron Howard), home for lunch.
The police arrive outside the house. In a panic, Cabot grabs Bobby and runs for it, running right into police gunfire. Bobby pretends as though he's been shot in order to get Cabot to put him down. After apparently being very upset by the accidental shooting of the young boy, Cabot shoots back and is killed by police. Nancy runs outside to find her son alive and well. The film ends with Fred finishing his story to the police, then Mr. Wilson driving to Las Vegas, but with his wife, not his mistress. | cruelty, murder, neo noir, cult, violence, claustrophobic, romantic, suspenseful, sadist | train | wikipedia | This strange little B-movie was originally titled FIVE MINUTES TO LIVE, but was re-released in 1966 as DOOR-TO-DOOR MANIAC because Cash' star had risen considerably in those years.
He stars as Johnny Cabot, a level-headed murderer who teams up with another con (Tayback) in a scheme to hold a bank president's wife hostage.
But what they don't know is that the bank president is planning to run off to Las Vegas with his mistress and couldn't care less about his wife.The production values are close to zero complete with bad direction, dragging scenes and an all out over-the-top music score, more reminiscent of your average bad '50s Sci-fi flick.
Fact is, there's a tense and very cleverly thought-out idea at the crux of this, which, at a glance, would appear to be a rather ordinary, assembly-line B crime picture.Something of a cult favorite today, chiefly for it's inclusion of Johnny Cash as a sociopathic thief/killer, one of a mottle who embark on a killing spree in a small U.S. town, ringing doorbells of random homes, then slaughtering whomever answers.
A low budget film that feature Johnny Cash as a killer who serenades his victims!
DOOR TO DOOR MANIAC (aka FIVE MINUTES TO LIVE) features then up and coming Johnny Cash as cold blooded killer Johnny Cabot.
Reasonably taut thriller concerning a twisted killer (Cash) recruited by crook (Tayback) to hold the wife (Forrester) of a bank manager (Woods) hostage at their house while Tayback extorts $70k at the bank for the safe release of the wife - confirmed by a series of phone calls at five minute intervals.
Complications emerge when the bank manager proves reluctant to pay the ransom, seeing an opportunity to become free of his wife and take up with his mistress (Mason).Co-star Forrester's script is functional, perhaps predictably giving her domestic characters more depth than usual, her performance benefiting from the extra attention in the dialogue.
Renowned tough-guy Tayback delivers his trademark mobster with all the expected motifs and the attractive Midge Ware has a brief role as Cash's ill-fated moll.As far as unconventional casting of singers in movies go, this is somewhere between Neil Sedaka's bizarre appearance in "The Playgirl Killer" and a traditional Elvis Presley vehicle.
This actually lowered my expectations for the film, as I'm not a massive fan of Cash and films that go down in history for the casting of a non-actor are often not very good...but this film has far more going for it than it's lead actor, and overall I've got to say that it's criminal that this hasn't won itself a more esteemed place in cinema history.
After explaining the situation to her husband, they offer him a trade; his money or his wife.Overall, it has to be said that this little thriller isn't very original as there have been a lot of films in this same vein; but Bill Karn's film approaches it's subject with a fresh view, and the way that the director continually ensures the tone is always bleak provides a major highlight.
It's easy to believe that the central character is in danger through Cash's loose cannon performance, and the way that the action focuses on two central locations; the family home and the bank, ensures that the plot always takes centre stage, and it is made interesting through its memorable cast of characters.
Even though Cash wasn't predominantly an actor, his performance is really good and the way that the director lets him play his guitar makes best use of him.
And on a personal note, I think it's good of Cash to put himself at risk to play a sadistic maniacal character.
The rest of the support cast play second fiddle to the musical genius, but each one gives a good turn and this ensures that the film is elevated above its low budget thriller status.
This movie is worth seeing for Johnny Cash's performance as a sadistic hit-man, but beyond that its pretty enjoyable.
Again, the lame attempts at feel-good family humor seem out of place and take away from the overall nasty feeling of the film, but Johnny's performance and the plot itself make this a film worth seeing!.
5 Minutes to Live is a great underrated and forgotten classic's and a personal fave, not only does this film feature Johny Cash but also a young Ron Howard and Vic Tayback (remember Alice) as the crime boss.
Nasty Thriller With -- Wait: Vic Tayback, Ron Howard, and Johnny Cash?.
Johnny Cash, in 1961, looking a little like Elvis, as a ruthless killer.
A killer, to be sure, who sings the title song and whom we see playing guitar.Donald Woods is a dead ringer for the Darren character in "Bewitched." He is a complacent suburban dad.
(And Pamela Mason turns in a good acting job but is a little implausible as Woods's mistress.) Before he got the job cooking for Alice, Tayback was apparently a crook.
I almost feel as if i should go back to the store and insist they let me pay them so more(it was that worth it to me) Johnny Cash's hair is perfect it's almost another character altogether.
And it stays cool most of the films as Johnny Cash does a good job playing the well dressed bad guy.
Five Minutes to Live (1961) ** (out of 4) Bizarre thriller about a couple thieves who take a woman (Cay Forrester) hostage to get money from her husband (Donald Woods) who just happens to be Vice President at a local bank.
One of the bad guys (Johnny Cash) stays behind with the wife while the other goes to the bank and unlucky for the woman, this guy is a raving maniac who enjoys to torture women.
Cash plays his guitar throughout the film and he even sings the title song, which never made it onto any of his Greatest Hits collections for obvious reasons.
That, of course, was never going to happen and Elvis could only Dream (he did manage to get one good Role and He Shined, King Creole (1958).But here His Sun Record Label Contemporary Johnny Cash had no such restrictions and went Hog Wild with this Low-Low-Budget Grindhouse Movie that was Raw and Raunchy.
Yet, it has a very interesting story line and some decent acting.You can see why Johnny Cash was more successful as a singer than an actor, but he's not bad here.
So those looking for a vehicle to showcase Cash's singing talents, might be a little disappointed.Vic Tayback does a good job as the hardened criminal mastermind.
Oh, and I have a gun with a silencer but it makes a big noise when I shoot it.Merle Travis and Johnny Cash are both country music legends who appear here as actors.
If it were not for the great names in the cast this one would have disappeared altogether like many other fun films that gave us a look at the technology and attitudes of 50 years ago.The only thing I missed seeing here was a revolving door at the bank.
That is always a great place for a shootout.The title song is so bad even Johnny Cash can't save it.
I want to watch it again after I have watched every other movie that has ever been made.Johnny Cash did do some other acting roles where he was pretty good.
This would be just another drive-in programmer were it not for the fact that none other than Johnny Cash plays the psycho who terrorizes the bank manager's wife and his restless energy is compulsively watchable.
(Who wants to see Johnny Cash rape a woman?) The movie itself is routine..
The mature issues involved make the intended audience problematic - it's not kinky enough to be a true exploitation thriller, certainly too kinky for straight movie houses of the era.Johnny Cash is the stand-out performance here, hands down.
Further, there is so much more of his character here that wants to be developed, such as his odd commitment to avoiding hurting the child played by Howard.The low budget leaves that undeveloped, and probably accounts for the lack of direct action the film desperately needs - there should be some truly violent act somewhere in the middle of the film's running time to balance off the tension (say, the killing of a real door-to-door salesman who happens into the hostage house by accident), but it never shows up.
Well, I won't spoil it; but the tone of the very last scene is decidedly late 30's or late 40's - doesn't fit the rest of the film at all.Definitely worth seeing, but don't expect any diamond in the rough - except for Mr. Cash, of course, running blues licks on his guitar in a manner not typical of his recorded musical performances of the time..
This film is also known by the title "Door to Door Maniac"--a title I much prefer.Over the years, Johnny Cash had several opportunities to act as well as his own television show.
The film involves two low-lifes, Johnny (Cash) and Fred (Vic Tayback) pulling off a big crime.
And what's going to happen to the wife?Johnny Cash's performance sure ain't subtle...but it is, at times, entertaining...especially when he destroys the lady's home just for kicks or seems to be on the verge of molesting the woman.
In his simple plan, he hires a hard-up hood, Johnny Cabot to take the wife of the bank's vice president hostage.
The characters are broadly drawn and dated.Opie is in the movie too and his scene plays like a TV commercial.In all, just not so good..
This movie isn't very good but it is interesting for huge Johnny Cash fans ,like myself,to see him in this movie.Johnny Cash was The Man and I'm a fan for life of his music.In this film Johnny Cash plays a hoodlum who happens to be named Johnny too.He and another thug ,played by Vic Tayback of "Alice" 'fame',plan to rob a bank by holding a bank employee's wife hostage and then forcing him to turn over 70 grand.Cash goes to the house and holds the wife while Tayback works the bank end.I'm not sure what movie the guy who wrote the plot synopsis for IMDb saw but it doesn't sound like this one.Also "Door to Door Maniac" is a horrible alternate name for this movie because the door to door salesman thing was about a 2 minute trick Cash's character used to get inside the house."Five Minutes to Live" is the real name of this movie.Cash even sings a song with that title in the film.Well anyway what makes this movie interesting,besides Cash, is the appearance of Merle Travis,another country music legend.He is the guy who wrote "16 tons" and a whole bunch more great songs.Ron Howard, who played Opie Taylor and is now a big time movie director,is also in this movie.This movie was made just about the same time that Howard would land the role as Opie on "The Andy Griffith Show".While this movie isn't great you'd be hard pressed to find another movie this unknown to have all those names in it.The movie itself is pretty bad.The script is sort of lame in places .The lighting and sound are awful.The film is totally silent during the opening and closing credits.I thought my DVD was bad but nope it was just how it was supposed to be I guess.
And everyone, except Cash and Tayback, were just awful actors.Cash is actually pretty good in this movie.He had the dark brooding looks and his trademark scar to make him look the part of the thug.The scenes where he tortures the wife inside her home are cool.Cash leers at her and breaks up her stuff and makes her put on a nightie and keeps messing with her until you feel kind of sorry for her.Cash shows some natural acting talent that would get better over the years.Like I said this movie would interest no one but Cash fans.But it's a great treat to see him in something so early in his career.Who would ever guess watching him in this thing that he would go on to be the greatest country artist of all time?.
A Creepy little slasher movie about a man (Johnny Cash) and his friend plot a bank robbery.
Bearing a 1960 copyright date and released the following year, by which time Hammer Films had made a superb, overlooked little thriller called 'Cash on Demand' in which the emphasis is on the bank manager and his tormentor, whereas here it's the wife (Cay Forrester) and psycho henchman (Johnny Cash) that comprises the film's core.
Having supposedly spent months planning this caper, mastermind Victor Tayback seriously crashs and burns with his careless last minute choice of Cash to provide the muscle - although despite killing two cops and a chattering female before the main event has even started in order to demonstrate what an itchy trigger finger he has, dear old Johnny Cash never really makes a convincing sadistic killer.The basic situation dates back at least as far as 'The Petrified Forest', and as the wife held hostage, Cay Forrestor's ordeal may have been inspired by Inger Stevens' at the hands of Neville Brand and then Rod Steiger in 'Cry Terror!' (now there was a scary pair!); although it's probably just coincidence that Terry-Thomas in 'Too Many Crooks' had recently shown a similar initial indifference to the use of his wife as a hostage as Donald Woods does here when he first gets the bad news.
As scriptwriter, producer Ludlow Flower's wife Cay Forrestor makes up for years of usually minor film roles by writing herself a showy part that she really gets her teeth into in which she also scripts herself some pretty rough handling (as well as a brief interior monologue at one point), and the rest of the cast are generally good too (including fellow country legend Merle Travis as Tayback's blustering, put-upon inside man).Historical note: in 1960 the silenced pistol that Cash spends much of the film waving in Ms Forrester's face is described by Tayback as having a "muffler" on it..
They will grab the manager's wife as a hostage, and then threaten to kill her if the money is not handed over.Tayback tells Cash he has spent months planning the job and that nothing can go wrong.
Cash is to grab the wife while Tayback goes to the bank to pay the manager, Donald Woods, a visit.
Tayback plays it cool and calls the house where Cash is holding the woman.
Johnny Cash gives a raw and disturbing performance, but this film is a nice watch.
Before making "Five Minutes to Live", Johnny Cash's only prior film credits included a handful of TV Western guest appearances.
After watching it though, it might just as well stay at the back of the pack.Well, to be fair, if you're a Johnny Cash fan, you'll want to catch this little gem, but for all the wrong reasons.
Otherwise I wouldn't get this at all.The single plot element that really could have taken this film over the top was the idea that bank president Wilson (Donald Woods) was OK with ex-con Fred Dorella (Vic Tayback) having his wife killed if he didn't fork over seventy grand.
That was a great idea to get Johnny Cash as a killer who plays guitar before violent action on his victims (remember Lino Ventura in Pensione Edelweiss).
The heist in itself isn't exciting at all and the ending is a complete change of tone in comic style, and we get the kid Ron Howard stealing the scene with a big laugh.So, Johnny Cash is the main attraction of this minor heist movie that would have deserved better script and direction.
(There are Spoilers) Being told in flashback by gangster Fred Dorella, Vic Taybak, we get the lowdown of the bank heist that he was involved with the on the lamb cop killer Johnny Cabot, Johnny Cash.Johnny fled him home state of New Jersey after a blotched warehouse robbery where his partner Pete,Max Manning, and two policemen were shot and killed.
Meeting New York hoodlum Fred Dorella Johnny not only gets the job that he's been craving for, as the both wheel and hit man, but as a bonus finds out who set him and the late Pete up in the blotched warehouse job back in Jersey.The plan thought out by Dorella to rob the Harper Federal Trust in Carmellia is foolproof with Johnny holding the bank's vice president Ken Wilson, Donald Woods, wife Nacny, Kay Forrester, hostage in her suburban home.
Johnny who would kill a man or woman just for looking at him cross-eyed or not appreciating his country & western music, he plays the guitar in his spear time, has this thing about shooting adolescents.Jonny Cash, in what seems to be his first movie role, has the time of his life playing the ruthless and murderous Johnny Cabot doing as good of a performance as you would have expected from a young James Cagney or Humphrey Bogart.
Even when Johnny is slapping Nancy, and threatening to blow her brains out, around he still finds time to play his guitar, Cash also wrote and sings the films title song "Five Minutes to live", and crack a number of jokes that puts off the edge of the tension that's built up in the film.
Maybe this wouldn't be too bad had there been some suspense along the journey, but there is precious little, one reason being that Johnny Cash (in his motion picture debut) isn't very good as the hostage taker.
Johnny Cabot is an ex-con looking for a way to make some quick cash.
The movie is wrapped up with a little bow, as Nancy and Donald drive off with grins on their faces and stars in their eyes.This overshadows the somewhat dark performance by Johnny Cash, and the first 10 minutes or so, which has several people shot down by Johnny. |
tt0043371 | Callaway Went Thataway | Mike Frye (MacMurray) and Deborah Patterson (McGuire), co-owners of an advertising firm, have a big hit when they recycle some old Western films starring "Smoky" Callaway (Keel) for a new television audience. Tom Lorrison (Fay Roope), the show's sponsor, is eager to make more films, but nobody has seen Smoky in ten years. Under intense pressure to produce the star, Frye hires Smoky's agent, Georgie Markham (Jesse White), to go look for him.
Help comes in the form of a letter from a real cowboy named "Stretch" Barnes (also played by Keel), who complains that his friends keep making fun of him because of his resemblance to Smoky. After one look at the enclosed photograph, Frye and Patterson travel to see him. They talk a reluctant Stretch into impersonating Smoky, telling him that Smoky is dead.
After a dinner with Lorrison and his wife Martha (Natalie Schafer), a big fan of the actor, Frye and Patterson get the go-ahead to launch a marketing campaign. Patterson heads out on a nationwide publicity tour with Stretch. As they spend time together, Stretch falls in love with her and eventually presents her with an engagement ring. She is reluctant to accept it, but he tells her to keep it and put it on only if she ever decides she loves him back.
Things get sticky when Markham finally finds Smoky in a Mexican bar. He has not changed a bit; he is still a selfish, womanizing drunk. Smoky is uninterested in going back to work, but Markham shanghais him and talks him into it on the boat trip back. Frye is not pleased when Smoky shows up in his office, but sees he has no choice. He sends Smoky to a health farm to get back into shape. However, despite strict supervision, Smoky manages to stash bottles of liquor everywhere.
When a woman accosts Stretch on the street and accuses him of not doing anything for needy children, he is moved. After some thought, he secretly hires a lawyer to set up a children's foundation which will receive all of his earnings except a modest allowance for him (and a wife).
When Smoky and Stretch meet by chance, Stretch discovers he has been duped and decides to go home. That night, the law firm's west coast representative (an uncredited Hugh Beaumont) shows up with the legal document setting up the charity foundation. Stretch comes up with a plan. With Smoky still out of shape, Frye and Patterson had begged him to make an appearance at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Stretch decides to accept, intending to sign the document in front of 90,000 fans and dignitaries. When Smoky learns of his scheme, he objects; the two men get into a brawl and Smoky gets knocked out. Frye and Markham try to intervene and suffer the same fate. When Smoky comes to, he realizes he cannot stop Stretch, so he goes back to Mexico since he would only get paid a modest salary for a lot of hard work. At the Coliseum, Stretch runs into Patterson, who not only approves of his plan, but is also wearing his ring. | satire | train | wikipedia | It's the early days of television and much of the programming consists of old western movies.
Suddenly, the films of Smoky Callaway (Howard Keel) are discovered by a new generation and he becomes a star once again.One problem: the real Smoky Callaway is a hopeless drunk who has disappeared somewhere in Mexico.
Enter Hollywood agents Frye and Patterson (Fred MacMurray and Dorothy McGuire), who need to find a replacement to make a new series of westerns and cash in on the merchandising possibilities.
They discover an actual cowboy, Stretch Barnes (also Keel) who agrees to impersonate Smoky.There's a Frank Capra feel as simple Stretch turns out in real life to be the white-hatted western hero that Smoky pretended to be onscreen.
Things get complicated when the real Smoky returns.The writing team of Panama and Frank (A Southern Yankee, The Court Jester, White Christmas) delivers another warm, funny movie that pokes fun at Hollywood superficialities and contrasts them with the genuine values of hometown America..
More specifically it is based on the renaissance of Hopalong Cassidy as an early television star.This film takes me back to when I was a lad in the early days of television when there was a need for programming.
The first films that were shown on early television were grade B product from the studios which were not about to be re-released for the big screen.
In fact I have a theory that John Wayne's rapid rise to number one at the box office may have been in large part to the showing of his pre-Stagecoach westerns giving him valuable publicity for the A product he was currently working on.But the guy who had the biggest benefit was William Boyd who made his last Hopalong Cassidy picture in 1948.
He had scraped together every bit of cash he could to buy all the rights to the Hopalong Cassidy films and character from producer Harry Sherman and author Clarence Mulford.
So when those Cassidy films became a big hit on early television Boyd's career revived and he became a tycoon with all the Hoppy merchandise.
And the craze was big, the film accurately depicts the merchandising bonanza that Hoppy was in real life and Smokey Callaway in this film.Like the Cassidy films in real life, the old films of B picture western star Smokey Callaway become a big hit on TV.
TV programmers Fred MacMurray and Dorothy McGuire would sure like to find him.
MacMurray and McGuire dispatch former agent Jesse White to locate Callaway who was quite a boozer back in the day and nothing like his screen image.In the meantime they locate a cowboy from Colorado who is a Callaway doppelganger.
But they get quite a bit more than they bargain for.Callaway Went Thataway is an enjoyable film about a forgotten era in our social history.
Cowboys don't have quite the image they once did in America and I'm not sure how today's audience relates to a film about early television which we pretty much take for granted.
"Callaway Went Thataway" is a slight comedy enlivened by some fine performances by Dorothy McGuire, Fred MacMurray, Howard Keel and Jesse White.
As television was threatening to take over the film industry, MGM produced this send-up of the TV western hero craze.
Smoky Callaway's old movies are being run on TV and are such a hit with kids that an enormous licensing potential develops for Smoky products and endorsements, plus the making of more Smoky movies.
One small problem - Smoky done left the corral 10 years earlier and no one - including his agent (White) knows where he went.
The ad agency partners (McGuire and MacMurray) find a lookalike, Stretch Barnes, a simple man with simple needs, and convince him to take Smoky's place, claiming that Smoky is dead.
All goes well until Smoky's agent finds the real Callaway, a womanizing boozer, and brings him back.This is a fun film for baby boomers who grew up with Gabby Hayes, Roy Rogers, The Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers etc.
Howard Keel is terrific in the dual role of sweet, sensitive, aw shucks ma'm Stretch and the hard-drinking slob Smoky.
McGuire is lovely in her role, and MacMurray does well as her less conscience-stricken partner.MGM takes the opportunity to plug its stars - there are cameos of Esther Williams, Elizabeth Taylor, and Clark Gable, and there are lots of future TV stars as well.
Besides Jesse White, there's Stan Frieberg, Natalie Schaeffer, and in an uncredited role, Hugh Beaumont.
Sure, kids have long since traded cowboy idols for computer screens, but the pointed humor surrounding Hollywood's money-making machine remains as fresh and timely as ever.
MacMurray and McGuire are Hollywood hustlers looking to cash in on cowboy Callaway's renewed popularity via that novel entertainment gimmick, television.
In a stroke of luck, a Callaway look-a-like turns up, and they hire him as an impersonator.
Then, however, the real Callaway (Keel, also) shows up and the fun really starts.Fine script from Panama and Frank.
Though the humor is mainly aimed at Hollywood types and film-making generally, it's never mean-spirited, and we end up liking MacMurray even though he takes real advantage of the innocent "Stretch".
That, no doubt, was to keep Hoppy happy since Cassidy's old films on TV were the movie's obvious inspiration.
Being one of those kids that long-ago lined up to meet the real Hoppy, I can testify that he was stone cold sober and a nice guy, to boot.
Now cut to scenes across the country to show children from all walks of life glued to their sets watching wichaway Callaway went.
The show has been pieced together from old movies, but it's such a success that now the public is demanding to see the real deal and nobody actually knows where Callaway is.
Enter a perfect double, an honest-to-goodness aw-shucks cowboy, and you can guess the rest.This is a predictable comedy which does little to distinguish itself, but it isn't without its charms.
Howard Keel is particularly entertaining in the dual roles of "Stretch" Barnes and "Smoky" Callaway.
Anyone who enjoys comedies from this time period should get a kick out of this film..
I knew I was going to like this movie when a 25-year-old Stan Freberg walked onto the screen in an early scene, playing an employee at an ad agency.
In fact, I would have given this movie a good rating just on the basis of all the TV icons in the cast: Fred MacMurray, Jesse White, Natalie Schafer, and in tiny cameos John Banner and Hugh Beaumont.
Howard Keel does a fine job in his dual role, while Fred and Dorothy try to please a cantankerous sponsor and keep their phony cowboy happy at the same time.
OK, I may be a little late to the party -- Howard Keel had a long, proud and successful career as a theater and movie star.
But he was amazing in the dual roles of good guy Stretch Barnes and bad guy Smoky Calloway.
Even though the two characters dressed in identical outfits through most of the movie, Keel's acting craft made it early to recognize whether you were seeing Stretch or Smoky.
I actually spend a few minutes wondering whether it was two different lookalike actors, and had to check into IMDb to confirm that it was the same guy.The film itself was a clever take on the television Westerns that were popular when I was a boy.
Fred MacMurray very nicely plays the role of a lovable on the outside, sleaze ball on the inside theatrical agent.
Dorothy McGuire played the opposite as his partner -- reluctantly sleazy on the outside, heart of gold on the inside.
Others include old standby Jesse White, and watch for Stan Freeberg as the nerd who works with MacMurray and McGuire.But really, Howard Keel was the star, and should have gotten top billing.
Initially, I thought that "Callaway Went Thataway" was going to be a well-intentioned, cornball/hokey 1950's film.
Stars Dorothy McGuire, Howard Keel and Fred MacMurray (playing against his usual good-guy, Steve Douglas - "My Three Sons" type) are all superb.
Of course, the Hollywood nightclub scene, in which Howard Keel's character, cowboy Stretch Barnes, has absolutely no idea at all who the unbelievably-stunning Elizabeth Taylor and the uber-macho Clark Gable are, is uproariously funny!
As previous posters have pointed out, look for such future, noteworthy television comedic actors as Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver of "Leave It to Beaver"), Natalie Schaeffer (Mrs.
"Callaway Went Thataway" is a gem that will not fail to delight and amuse you..
While CALLAWAY WENT THATAWAY isn't the deepest film I've seen, it sure was very perceptive and fun to watch.
I also wonder if maybe although the film has a disclaimer saying it ISN'T based on any celebrity they REALLY were lampooning several of the big-name cowboy stars (such as Gene Autry who was a lot like the original Callaway)--a lot like how A FACE IN THE CROWD was based on Arthur Godfrey, though the studio strongly denied this.The film is about a cowboy movie star from a decade ago who has suddenly gained a new following with kids thanks to television--just like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were re-discovered thanks to TV.
As a result of his fame, the advertisers are anxious to find the actor who played Smokey Callaway so they can make more films as well as public appearances.
The problem is that the actor was a big-time drinker and he just seemed to vanish after going on an extended bender in South America.
Even a private eye (Jesse White) can't find the guy, so Dorothy McGuire and Fred MacMurray (who own the advertising agency) go in search of a double to pretend to be Callaway.
In the process, they find a dead ringer--played by Howard Keel.
Leonard Maltin's guide indicated the film was excellent until this change, but I actually liked the finished product.
Also, it's worth a look for some cameos of other stars playing themselves, such as Clark Gable and Dick Powell (among others)..
Callaway Went In A Great Movie Way ***1/2.
There was always the great chase scenes and the hero saving the town and getting the girl at the end.You would think this picture would be like that from its beginning.
Instead, it turns into a comedy about what life should really be.When a cowboy star of past movies becomes popular once again, a team nicely played by Fred MacMurray and Dorothy McGuire look for him.
Our hero is Howard Keel in a non-singing role.
Trouble is that Keel has become a has-been hiding out in Mexico under the influence of alcohol and women.Jesse White is sent to look for him.
In the meantime, a double appears that the MacMurray-McGuire team will use.The story becomes heartwarming as the fake Callaway, Keel, in a double role known as Stretch, becomes enamored by the part but realizes that something has to be done with children who are impoverished and ill.
His setting up of a fund for them is wonderful but when he meets up with the "real" Callaway, all hell breaks loose.This movie has everything.
Comedy, helping and that old western spirit of a bygone era..
When Fred MacMurray and Dorothy Malone from Hollywood find this famous Cowboy, Smokey;Howard Keel, to make TV movies and lots of money, they end up hiring a standin, Stretch; Howard Keel.
Things get rough and hilarious when con men like Jesse White and his pal get involved; but all comes out well in the end.
The scene that impressed me the most was how the heck they filmed the fist fight between Fred and Howard (playing two roles together); does anyone know how they do it?
Howard Keel is the main reason for watching "Callaway Went Thataway"....
There's a delightful dual role for HOWARD KEEL as a has-been cowboy star who has vanished when his old pictures are shown on TV--and FRED MacMURRAY and DOROTHY McGUIRE are desperate to lure him back so they can make more dough off all the cowboy merchandise he inspires.
This was at a time when early TV was showing mainly the old Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers films for the kiddies.Persuaded to come back east and take on Callaway's role, Keel finds himself in a lot of funny situations once he takes on the assignment of playing the cowboy star.
Later in the film, when the real Callaway is being groomed for a comeback, Keel's performance in the dual role is really impressive.
There's never any mistake about which character he's impersonating, thanks to a subtle difference in nuances, looks and expressions.DOROTHY McGUIRE gets the glossy MGM treatment for her close-ups and looks wonderful as the sweet woman who develops an interest in the cowboy "Stretch" who's doing the Callaway impersonation.
FRED MacMURRAY gets every grain of humor out of the role of the fast-talking agent with money on his mind.
It's an enjoyable romp for all three stars with some guest appearances by folks like Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable and Esther Williams.Summing up: Pure fluff, but pleasant enough.
U.K. release title: The Star Said No. SYNOPSIS: When his corny old westerns prove a tremendous hit on television, a former cowboy star is lured back to Hollywood.PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: Keel plays two roles, and even fights himself, throwing the first punch by the ingenious use of a traveling matte.
And if Panama and Frank allowed the MacMurray character to be more cynical and less likable.
The principal players do wonders with their material and no-one will come away from Callaway feeling that he's wasted his time.
A little short-changed maybe, but Callaway is still sufficiently amusing and entertaining to rate at least seven stars out of ten..
Howard Keel is Smoky Callaway, who made a lot of B Westerns some years ago.
Now his movies are being shown on television and Smoky Callaway is everyone's hero, especially the kids who adore his wholesome character.
The problem faced by two advertising people -- Fred MacMurray and Dorothy McGuire -- is that although there is a strong market demand for Smoky in the way of personal appearances and commercial endorsements, Good Ol' Smoky Callaway has disappeared into the woodwork whence he came.
What can MacMurray and McGuire do?
The other ten dollars "seems to slip right through muh fingers." But he can't resist two large a week for impersonating the elusive Mister Callaway so before anyone (outside the immediate circle of conspirators) know it, Stretch Barnes is in La La Land endorsing cereals and male extension products and exercisers designed to develop rock hard abs.Stretch is a little guilty about all that money though.
An unscrupulous rival advertising agent (Jesse White) locates Smoky Callaway in a louche dive somewhere in Latin America where he plays the guitar nightly and gets drunk daily at the El Chicolo.Smoky wastes no time getting back to where the money is.
MacMurray and McGuire are frantic.
They've lied to good old Stretch and told him that the real Callaway was dead -- which, for all they knew, might be the case.
Now they must keep Callaway and Barnes separated while they hire a training team to get the truculent Smoky into shape, "physically, mentally, and morally." When he becomes human again, Stretch will be told the truth, replaced by Smoky, and sent back to the mountains he loves.
In a fit of pique he leaves for Latin America, and Stretch takes over the rest of the tour, making money that will mostly go to help kids who are poor and sick.A disclaimer at the end tells us that the movie was in no way meant to detract from the charitable civic efforts of real cowboy stars, whose movies were now beginning to show up and win audiences on TV.
That must be a reference to guys like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and Buster Crabbe, some of whom were much like Stretch Barnes, unpretentious and generous.It's funny, but not as funny as it might be, considering it was written, produced, and directed by Norman Frank and Melvin Panama and starred the first-rate light comedian Fred MacMurray.
As Smoky Callaway, Keel is drunkenly romancing a gal at the bar and mumbles to her, "You know, you remind me of a girl I knew in South America.
A spoof on the massive western trend of Hopalong Cassidy and the like.
When a western character comes into favor with the masses, a film company initiates a frantic search to find the original actor who portrayed that icon of wholesome American heroism, but when there are no leads, they decide on a good-hearted yokel who just so happens to resemble the cowboy of yore, and offer him a substantial salary if he will bring the character back to life for all the little kiddies who look up to him so admirably.By and by, an investigator manages to locate the original Callaway, who had taken residence in Mexico with some spicy senoritas and his chronic alcohol consumption.
He reluctantly agrees to assume his former role, much to the chagrin of the female chaperon accompanying the new cowboy, as she takes quite a fancy for him as he does with her, who after traveling across the country, become, shall we say, 'very well acquainted'.
A fight eventually ensues between the cowboys, and the real one wins out over the drunk.Amusing scenes include: in an effort to bring the drunken cowboy back to shape, he hides bottles of booze in various locations throughout this health ranch, including in a well bucket, and in a rock while jogging out on the trail.The well-meaning impersonator manages to gain possession of all of the money the character had been generating up to that point and sets up a fund for clinically ill children, after feeling deeply guilty since a stern woman admonished him about their conditions.
He eventually grows to embody the Callaway icon, and assumes the role whole-heartedly. |
tt0138563 | Kurt & Courtney | The film begins with a recap of Cobain's death and the media coverage which followed. Broomfield then interviews Cobain's aunt Mari who helped his love for music when he was a child. This interview is followed up with several from friends and schoolteachers who knew Cobain when he was growing up before moving onto Cobain's relationship with Courtney Love.
After establishing the background the film moves on to detail the accusations that Cobain was murdered. Broomfield interviews Tom Grant, a private investigator who has alleged that Love may have conspired to kill her husband, and wants the case re-opened by the Seattle Police Department. Grant was hired by Love, but thinks it was just so people would believe that she was innocent. Hank Harrison, Courtney Love's father, is interviewed, and states he also believes that Cobain may have been killed in a conspiracy organised by Love. He has written two books about Cobain's death.
The film also includes interviews with Portland drug culture celeb and former stripper, Amy Squier, about her explicit and personal knowledge of Kurt and Courtney's heroin use, and an interview with punk singer El Duce (real name Eldon Wayne Hoke), who claimed that Love offered him $50,000 to kill Cobain. El Duce claimed in the film that he knew who killed Cobain, but said he would "let the FBI catch him." Two days after that interview was filmed, El Duce was killed when he was hit by a train.
Broomfield also shows an interview with Al Bowman, a minor Hollywood promoter, along with Norm Lubow (in disguise and using the alias "Jack Briggs"). Both introduced Broomfield to Eldon Hoke.
The film also includes an interview with musician and friend of Cobain's Dylan Carlson, who had bought the shotgun that Cobain eventually used to kill himself.
Broomfield eventually moves away from the alleged conspiracy and the film turns into an investigation of Courtney Love's alleged suppression of free speech. Included in the film are phone calls from MTV saying that they were pulling out of financing the film (which was completed thanks to financing from private investors and the BBC), due to presumed pressure from Love.
There is also an interview with journalist Victoria Clarke (who wrote the book Nirvana: Flower Sniffin', Kitty Pettin', Baby Kissin' Corporate Rock Whores with Britt Collins) about how Love and Cobain had threatened her while doing research for her book on Cobain and Nirvana. Broomfield includes clips in the film of the threats made by Cobain and Clarke details the story of Love assaulting her.
The film concludes with Broomfield taking the stage at an ACLU meeting (where Love is a guest speaker) to publicly question Love about her attempts to suppress free speech and the irony of her representing the ACLU. He is pulled from the stage by Danny Goldberg, Cobain's former manager. | violence, murder, romantic, home movie | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0255868 | Carmen | Place: Seville, Spain, and surrounding hills
Time: Around 1820
Act 1
A square, in Seville. On the right, a door to the tobacco factory. At the back, a bridge. On the left, a guardhouse.
A group of soldiers relax in the square, waiting for the changing of the guard and commenting on the passers-by ("Sur la place, chacun passe"). Micaëla appears, seeking José. Moralès tells her that "José is not yet on duty" and invites her to wait with them. She declines, saying she will return later. José arrives with the new guard, who is greeted and imitated by a crowd of urchins ("Avec la garde montante").
As the factory bell rings, the cigarette girls emerge and exchange banter with young men in the crowd ("La cloche a sonné"). Carmen enters and sings her provocative habanera on the untameable nature of love ("L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"). The men plead with her to choose a lover, and after some teasing she throws a flower to Don José, who thus far has been ignoring her but is now annoyed by her insolence.
As the women go back to the factory, Micaëla returns and gives José a letter and a kiss from his mother ("Parle-moi de ma mère!"). He reads that his mother wants him to return home and marry Micaëla, who retreats in shy embarrassment on learning this. Just as José declares that he is ready to heed his mother's wishes, the women stream from the factory in great agitation. Zuniga, the officer of the guard, learns that Carmen has attacked a woman with a knife. When challenged, Carmen answers with mocking defiance ("Tra la la... Coupe-moi, brûle-moi"); Zuniga orders José to tie her hands while he prepares the prison warrant. Left alone with José, Carmen beguiles him with a seguidilla, in which she sings of a night of dancing and passion with her lover—whoever that may be—in Lillas Pastia's tavern. Confused yet mesmerised, José agrees to free her hands; as she is led away she pushes her escort to the ground and runs off laughing. José is arrested for dereliction of duty.
Act 2
Lillas Pastia's Inn
Two months have passed. Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercédès are entertaining Zuniga and other officers ("Les tringles des sistres tintaient") in Pastia's inn. Carmen is delighted to learn of José's release from two month's detention. Outside, a chorus and procession announces the arrival of the toreador Escamillo ("Vivat, vivat le Toréro"). Invited inside, he introduces himself with the "Toreador Song" ("Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre") and sets his sights on Carmen, who brushes him aside. Lillas Pastia hustles the crowds and the soldiers away.
When only Carmen, Frasquita and Mercédès remain, the smugglers Dancaïre and Remendado arrive and reveal their plans to dispose of some recently acquired contraband ("Nous avons en tête une affaire"). Frasquita and Mercédès are keen to help them, but Carmen refuses, since she wishes to wait for José. After the smugglers leave, José arrives. Carmen treats him to a private exotic dance ("Je vais danser en votre honneur ... La la la"), but her song is joined by a distant bugle call from the barracks. When José says he must return to duty, she mocks him, and he answers by showing her the flower that she threw to him in the square ("La fleur que tu m'avais jetée"). Unconvinced, Carmen demands he show his love by leaving with her. José refuses to desert, but as he prepares to depart, Zuniga enters looking for Carmen. He and José fight, and are separated by the returning smugglers, who restrain Zuniga. Having attacked a superior officer, José now has no choice but to join Carmen and the smugglers ("Suis-nous à travers la campagne").
Act 3
A wild spot in the mountains
Carmen and José enter with the smugglers and their booty ("Écoute, écoute, compagnons"); Carmen has now become bored with José and tells him scornfully that he should go back to his mother. Frasquita and Mercédès amuse themselves by reading their fortunes from the cards; Carmen joins them and finds that the cards are foretelling her death, and José's. The women depart to suborn the customs officers who are watching the locality. José is placed on guard duty.
Micaëla enters with a guide, seeking José and determined to rescue him from Carmen ("Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante"). On hearing a gunshot she hides in fear; it is José, who has fired at an intruder who proves to be Escamillo. José's pleasure at meeting the bullfighter turns to anger when Escamillo declares his infatuation with Carmen. The pair fight ("Je suis Escamillo, toréro de Grenade"), but are interrupted by the returning smugglers and girls ("Holà, holà José"). As Escamillo leaves he invites everyone to his next bullfight in Seville. Micaëla is discovered; at first, José will not leave with her despite Carmen's mockery, but he agrees to go when told that his mother is dying. As he departs, vowing he will return, Escamillo is heard in the distance, singing the toreador's song.
Act 4
A square in Seville. At the back, the walls of an ancient amphitheatre
Zuniga, Frasquita and Mercédès are among the crowd awaiting the arrival of the bullfighters ("Les voici ! Voici la quadrille!"). Escamillo enters with Carmen, and they express their mutual love ("Si tu m'aimes, Carmen"). As Escamillo goes into the arena, Frasquita and Mercedes warn Carmen that José is nearby, but Carmen is unafraid and willing to speak to him. Alone, she is confronted by the desperate José ("C'est toi ! C'est moi !"). While he pleads vainly for her to return to him, cheers are heard from the arena. As José makes his last entreaty, Carmen contemptuously throws down the ring he gave her and attempts to enter the arena. He then stabs her, and as Escamillo is acclaimed by the crowds, Carmen dies. José kneels and sings "Ah! Carmen! ma Carmen adorée!"; as the crowd exits the arena, José confesses to killing the woman he loved. | revenge, murder | train | wikipedia | radically underrated.
Before all, my English is far too poor to write anything.
But I can't believe my own eyes, seein' so PERFECT production with so PERFECT cast(marvelous Ramey, wonderful Baltsa, very good Carreras)with such low rating 3.4 !!!!!!!
3.4 ??????????????Jesus Christ and God in heaven, one must be blind and totally deaf voting this way.I want to say, that that Carmen (MET Carmen) is the BEST opera I've ever saw (and I saw hundreds of'em, I'm total opera freak)I vote with all my heart 10 PS How, for God's sake, is possible to vote 1, 3 or even 6 for that production ?
Please, write your comments, all you "wrongvoters"PS 2 Sorry for my ghastly English.
Try this, you' ll like it..
This 1987 production of Carmen is quite good.
There is a lot of great singing by Agnes Baltsa and Jose Carreras.Their spoken French lacks precision and fluidity but who cares?, probably not a lot of people will feel this.Agnes Baltsa displays a lot of knowhow as an actress as well as a singer.
Carreras as an actor, well...
but when this man sings you forget about it.And when you think that this was taped in 1987, it becomes rather poignant to see him singing with so much energy and art knowing that he would soon be diagnosed with leukemia.
Kudos for the sets, the costumes and the orchestra direction.« Carmen » can be ruined by badly inspired directors.This is certainly not the case.
I agree with the preceding review.
This is underrated.But I think there is an explanation.
There was once a man who said:« The medium is the message.» Nowadays, alas!
the medium is the culture.
This is traditional opera perhaps but if you consider what we usually see on television these days, this becomes an exceptional 3 hours in your experience as a television viewer.
Many thanks to the Met for keeping this DVD available in the stores and at so low cost.
By doing this they are truly contributing to the democratization of what is badly named « high culture »..
Another stark opera from Deutsche Grammophon.
I've seen "Carmen" before, and even the most modest productions tend to fill the stages with vibrant colors to help enrich Carmen's native atmosphere.But not so here.
The performances are very solid, but the backdrop is hard on the eyes.
Almost as if the director wanted a gritty presentation for this well known piece with an extremely memorable score.I personally found it hard to watch, though nice and easy to listen to.
In fact, as I stated, the performances are very solid, and the singing is top notch.
But the visuals don't compliment the live talent.What the viewer is left with is a mixed bag, probably aimed at presenting a more "real" Carmen.
It's worth looking at, but I've seen better, though admittedly I have not heard better.
Yet when it comes to opera one needs the other.
Judge for yourself..
I like it a lot.
At the time of when it was first premiered, I think Carmen was dismissed as having no memorable tunes.
Evaluating that opinion, I personally find that hard to believe.
While the characters are wonderfully depicted, Carmen is difficult to pull off but also one of my dream roles when and if I turn professional singer but goodness doesn't the character live long into the memory, and the story riveting, the music is a huge part of the reason why I consider Carmen THE French opera.This Met production I like a lot.
And I agree it is underrated, if 3.4 was indeed the score 7 years ago,(unless it was the result of not that many voters) then this is yet again another case of IMDb losing credibility, thank goodness it is much higher now.
The best Carmen I've seen so far is still the 1984 film with Domingo and Mignes-Johnson, but that's not a reason to dismiss this 1987 production, which is reliably done as is the case with the Met.The sets may be a little too gaudy and lacking in authenticity perhaps, however the costumes and video directing are truly excellent and the stage direction is very assured throughout.
The orchestra as always are wonderful and the conducting compliments the rhythms and melodies of the score very well.The performances are very good on the whole.
The weak link in my opinion is Jose Carreras, he looks dashing, has credible chemistry with his co-stars and has a truly lovely voice if a little faulty sometimes with the intonation and phrasing particularly in the first act, but the acting is rather rudimentary for my tastes.
However Agnes Baltsa is a wonderful Carmen, while not as beautiful perhaps as one would like she is flirtatious and sexy as Carmen should be and her singing is rich and flexible.Leona Mitchell is very poignant as Michaela, her act 3 aria had me weeping, but the best performance comes from Samuel Ramey as Escamillo in a role that he is perfect for(alongside Don Giovanni and Attila).
And when it comes to the highlight of the night, my immediate answer would be the Toreador's song, with such power and control not only is Ramey's performance of it the most powerful and most musical singing of the night his rendition is one of the best I've heard too(and yes I have heard Jose Vam Dam, Lawrence Tibbett and Ruggero Raimondi, they're excellent as well).In conclusion, a good production which I like a lot.
8/10 Bethany Cox. You must see Samuel Ramey perform the "Toreador Song".
Samuel Ramey's performance of the "Toreador Song" is so phenomenal, I have to go back and play that part of the opera at least two more times every time I watch the video.
The high note that hits in this area must be heard to be believed and Ramey's power is unparalleled by any bass past or present.However, I thought Jose Carreras was below par due to perceptible pitch problems throughout the opera.Agnes Baltsa is better than your average Carmen and sang rather well.Leona Mitchell is also rather good in her portrayal of Micaela and the supporting cast did a good job in acting and singing their roles. |
tt0034717 | The Falcon's Brother | Sleuth Gay Lawrence (George Sanders), known as "The Falcon," with his assistant, "Lefty" (Don Barclay), arrive at dockside to meet a Latin American cruise ship. On board is Lawrence's brother, Tom (Tom Conway) who is pronounced dead, a victim of suicide by homicide inspector Timothy Donovan (Cliff Clark). Diane Medford (Gwili Andre), Tom's shipboard companion offers sympathy, but Lawrence has Lefty tail her, as he already knew the body in the cabin was not his brother.
Tracking Diane to a fashion show at the salon of her employer Madame Arlette (Charlotte Wynters), Diane is greeted by her fiancé, fashion editor Paul Harrington (James Newill). Two other ship passengers, Latin American dancers Carmela (Amanda Varela) and Valdez (George J. Lewis) are there. Reporter Marcia Brooks (Jane Randolph) recognizes the Falcon, who follows Diane into her office. A shot rings out and Diane falls dead. The Falcon runs into the alley behind the salon and encounters his brother, Tom.
Inspector Donovan arrives at the scene and arrests Lefty while the Falcon is run down by a speeding car. Tom takes his unconscious brother to his apartment, where Marcia seeks information about the murder. Lefty is released with a suspended sentence, and learns that his boss will soon recover. Marcia informs Tom that the murder weapon is missing, prompting Tom to return to Arlette's salon to investigate.
Seeing Arlette at a nightclub, Tom informs her that the police have gun from the murder scene and are tracing its serial number. Arlette phones the Police Inspector and gives them Tom's whereabouts. Tom and Lefty search Arlette's, where they find the missing gun hidden in a mannequin. Donovan tracks them down at the salon, and when Tom introduces himself, the inspector arrests him for false impersonation, believing Tom Lawrence is dead.
After proving his identity, Tom is freed and directs Marcia to investigate Harrington's photographer, Savitski (Andre Charlot). Tom confronts Arlette with the gun, forcing her to admit that she hid the weapon to protect her love, Harrington who denies murdering Diane and is exonerated by a ballistics expert. Marcia discovers that Savitski is an illegal alien. After smoking a cigar, and about to reveal a clue about mass murders to Tom and Lefty, Savitski falls dead, dropping a pile of magazines.
Deducing that Savitski was killed by a poisoned cigar, the same way the suicide victim on the ship, was killed, Tom instructs Lefty to pose as the photographer when Valdez and Carmela enter his office with guns drawn. When Tom steps out of the shadows, the pair identify themselves as Mexican counter-espionage agents and explain that Diane was killed because she knew too much. After Tom notifies Donovan of Savitski's murder, he brings back the photographer's magazines. Certain that Harrington is involved in the murders, Tom and Lefty realize a magazine cover dated December 7, prophesying the Pearl Harbor attack and another magazine cover indicates an incident will take place that day at a New England inn.
Tom and Marcia speed off to stop the sabotage, while The Falcon regains consciousness and joins Lefty on a trip to New England where German agents have been preparing for an attack, and Harrington is one of them. After capturing Tom and Marcia and locking them in a bell tower, the agents go ahead with their plan to assassinate a Latin American envoy as his aircraft lands. Tom manages to ring the bell, just as his brother steps in front of the diplomat, sacrificing his own life for that of an ally. With the spy ring smashed, Tom takes up where his brother left, becoming the new Falcon. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0102753 | Rambling Rose | In 1971, a grown Buddy returns to his former family home and reflects back on his youth during The Great Depression when Rose (Laura Dern) came to live with his family in order to escape her miserable life in Birmingham where she was being forced into prostitution. The Hillyers are an eccentric family who take Rose in as a domestic servant. Rose quickly begins to admire Mrs. Hillyer (Diane Ladd) who is working on her doctoral dissertation and who she learns was orphaned at a young age, just as Rose had been. Rose also develops a crush on the paternal and warm Mr. Hillyer that the three Hillyer children and Mr. Hillyer become aware of while Mrs. Hillyer remains oblivious.
Eventually Rose kisses Mr. Hillyer who at first responds to her advances and then becomes angered at her and rebuffs her. Buddy witnesses Rose and Mr. Hillyer kissing and later, when Rose comes to talk to him at night, he repeatedly tries to grab and massage her breast just as his father had done while he was kissing Rose. Eventually to satisfy his curiosity Rose allows 13 year old Buddy to masturbate her. Afterwards she is apologetic and upset and begs him not to tell anyone.
The Hillyers begin to disagree about Rose's presence in their lives. Mr. Hillyer worries that Rose is too promiscuous and will begin to make their lives miserable but Mrs. Hillyer sees her promiscuity as her way of trying to obtain love and attention.
Strange men begin lurking around the house. Mr. Hillyer attributes this to Rose but she repeatedly denies knowing them. However, Rose is eventually arrested when some of her men begin brawling in a bar and she bites the finger of a policeman. Though the police and Mrs. Hillyer are willing to forgive Rose, Mr. Hillyer insists on firing her, but before he can Rose is hospitalized with pneumonia. The attending doctor reveals that Rose is likely not the poor country girl she portrayed herself as. After she recovers, Rose seems to be on her best behaviour but Mr. Hillyer eventually catches her with a man in her room. He fires her and obtains a position on a dairy farm in Tennessee for her. When he informs Rose she begins crying as she does not want her future child being born on a farm.
Mr. Hillyer believes she is lying about being pregnant and the Hillyers take her to a doctor where they learn that while she is showing signs of being pregnant she actually has an ovarian cyst and is sterile because of untreated gonorrhea contracted when she was 15. The doctor recommends a hysterectomy in order to control Rose's promiscuous behaviour. While Mr. Hillyer at first agrees to the operation Mrs. Hillyer argues against it and eventually persuades the two men. Rose is treated for her cyst and returns home where she eventually marries her first husband, David, the policeman whose finger she bit. In 1971, Buddy reveals that Rose married three more times and was eventually happy and faithful to her last husband. He goes to talk to his father who tells him that Rose died the previous week. When Buddy begins crying Mr. Hillyer tells him that Rose is a person who will never really die as she will live on forever in their hearts. | romantic, depressing, flashback | train | wikipedia | Appealing In Its Own Way. I haven't seen this film in quite a while but I have pretty good memories about it.
It's an intriguing film, something different and appealing even though some of the subject matter is "inappropriate."I saw the last word because it involves a 13-year-old boy whose hormones are raging and his brief relationship with a grown woman.
Other than that, I don't remember anything else objectionable.I like the photography and always enjoy seeing the old days - here it's the 1920s and 1930s - portrayed on today's films with the great cameramen and directors of today.
Also, the South has some beautiful scenery that is eloquently on display here.The story is well-acted with real-life mother-daughter Diane Ladd and Laura Dern, along with Robert Duvall and Lukas Haas.
The latter plays the young man and was already somewhat of a star after playing the young Amish boy in the 1985 film "Witness." Duvall is one of the finest actors of his generation so you always get a good performance out of him.This is a pretty low-key story but never puts you to sleep.
Modern day feminists might like this film was Ladd plays that role to the hilt.
I love the music score and the soft period lighting it provides in telling the story of Rose - a down on her luck teen-age almost adult girl who comes to live with a southern family during the depression in the 1930's.
I count this movie with others of its' kind (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER to name a few) as providing a wonderful opportunity to become a part of another's family memory.
These kind of movies are capable of evoking in us a remembrance of our own childhood and bringing out feelings of warmth and caring that many of us have in common.I highly recommend it for its beautiful photography and wonderful music..
This film is essentially character-driven and features excellent performances throughout, particularly the four principals-Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Robert Duvall and Lukas Haas.
Ladd and Dern mother and daughter in real life) give especially fine performances and deservedly received nominatins for the Academy Awards In the Actress and Supporting Actress categories.
Laura Dern's performance is astonishing as the Rose of the title who has a shady past and comes to live with a family headed up by Robert Duvall and Diane Lane (her real life mother) who gives a wonderful performance also.The story is a cobweb, if story it is, I haven't read the novel,and the plot is character driven all the way.The sexual content is handled sensitively and the fact that Rose is a 'nymphomaniac' of the era - i.e. she loves sex - is understood and tolerated by the family.The eldest child, Buddy, is played by Lukas Haas who has many good performances to his credit - and has never turned down a movie role since he was five - who has an evil streak according to his mother but keeps certain secrets about Rose along with his father who also has secrets.An amazingly tolerant and lovable family headed by a father with integrity - which was a bit of a stumble for me as Robert Duvall's incessant smirking does not translate as such to me.
In this limp Southern period piece a wholesome young belle with the innocence of an angel and the manners of a whore supposedly disrupts the progressive Georgia household of Robert Duvall and Diane Ladd.
The title role gives Laura Dern a vehicle for some overripe histrionics, but despite her promiscuity Rose is simply one saint in a family of saints, and every conflict quickly disappears to allow them all a chance to live happily ever after (Rose is even spared the consequences of her constant, physical 'search for affection' by a convenient inability to bear children).
2 characters stand apart in the film, one of the girl Rose played brilliantly by Laura Dern, and of the mother, played by Laura's real mom, Diane Ladd.
Robert Duvall is very believable as the head of the family in the southern in the 1930s.
I liked the gentle pace of the movie, and its buildup towards the end, where Diane garners herself for a confrontation with the self proclaimed keepers of the virtues, including her own husband.
I like the way their Diane's and Robert's characters undergo transformations, small ones but enough to keep the audience attached to the film at an emotional level.
Even days after watching the movie, you'd have the images of the cheerful, sometimes confused, lively and lovely Rose, flashing in front of your eyes.
And that's makes the use of a narrative, which some people didn't like about this movie, so appropriate.
If I had known someone like Rose in my lifetime, I would definately told this story to everybody I knew, many times over..
Director Martha Coolidge isn't especially graceful here, moving the film along in fits and starts, and when it becomes apparent that there isn't much to the story beyond the central situation, it just becomes a chore.
Real-life mother and daughter Diane Ladd and Laura Dern each earned Oscar nominations for their work (an Academy first), but young Lukas Haas (standing in, perhaps, for Willingham) gives the most interesting performance as the teenager with a crush on his family's flirtatious houseguest.
Robert Duvall was splendid in this movie.
I do not want to ruin it for people watching, so I can not tell you much but his acting was great as well as Laura Dern.
This movie had it all, love, conflict, compassion, passion and all great acting too!
Laura Dern offers a very realistic and convincing performance that marks her as a great character actress.
Duvall is wonderful in a role that demands a vast understanding of human emotion and character study of his part.
Uhhh...did that 14 year old just fondle Laura Dern?.
Unfortunately, Rose is an incredibly vexing character, and not is the way the movie intends.
Buddy recalls the Great Depression when Rose (Laura Dern) came to work for his family.
Rose flirts with father Hillyer (Robert Duvall) but he rebuffs her.
Young Buddy (Lukas Haas) has a sexual encounter with Rose.
Father wants to send Rose away while mother argues to keep her.This is a nostalgic jazzy rambling reminiscence of a compelling character.
I cringe when I hear Paul Newman, his wife Joan Woodward or Elizabeth Taylor trying to be "Southern." I liked "Rambling Rose" because, for once, the actors nailed it.
Only to be expected, I guess, since Diane Ladd is from Mississippi and Laura Dern is her daughter.
Well, he's just one helluva an actor.) Aside from the accents, the acting was outstanding.Also I thought the soft summery lighting was perfect, unlike some period movies that seem done in comic book colors.
I wonder where the location scenes were shot--anybody know?The story itself wasn't great, but was above average, IMHO..
Rambling Rose is one of my all time favorites...love Laura Dern.
Rambling Rose was a wonderful, sweet movie set in the south in the 1920-1930 period...with a great cast.
I loved it when Robert Duvall took on the old doctor head on...to save Rose.
Criminally underrated film with great Laura Dern performance..
It's unfortunate than few people have seen this film even though both Laura Dern and her mother Diane Ladd were nominated for Oscars for their performances.
Laura Dern is AMAZING as a sweet innocent whose unabashed sexuality shocks those around her.
A middle aged man remembers a girl that came to live with his family when he was in his early teens.
I will never cease to be amazed how historically inaccurate movies are or how morally bankrupt the people responsible for making films these days are.
It simply would not have happened and all the stupid reasons it might have happened are leftist writers pushing their agenda using a period movie to disguise their moral depravity.
Martha Coolidge's best film, this is a comedy-drama about Rose, a sexually aggressive girl (Laura Dern) who moves in with a well-to-do Southern family and changes their lives.
As close to perfect as it could possibly be, this film features a top-notch cast, evocative cinematography and set decoration that brings to life the Depression-era South, and a great score by Elmer Bernstein.
Standouts in the cast are Dern (no one else could have played this role) and Diane Ladd, who is heartbreaking as Rose's greatest defender.
Dern and Ladd were both nominated for Oscars, the first mother-daughter to do so for the same film and in the same year..
Laura Dern puts in the best performance I've seen here.
Robert Duvall is always worth watching and his role here is no exception.
Diane Ladd and Lukas Haas are nothing short of remarkable as mother and son in this quiet family-centered coming-of-age piece.
And, Laura Dern makes the difficult title role her own by making her character's weakness and vulnerabilities also her strengths and virtues.
Set in the South of the 1930's, film tells the story of "Rambling" Rose(Beautiful and appealing Laura Dern) who comes to the home of "Daddy" Hillyer(Robert Duvall), his wife "Mother"(Diane Ladd) and children, one of whom named Buddy(Lucas Haas) will come to love Rose, as she settles into their lives as a maid, but whose charm and beauty attract the attentions of all the local men, much to her employer's consternation, which will lead to a chain of events to have a lasting impact on the family, especially Buddy.Very well acted film recreates its specific time & place quite well, and has an interesting story and character development.
Gorgeous, touching film about a Southern family in the 1930s whose lives are disrupted by the arrival of Rose (Laura Dern), a so-called "loose" woman with a real heart of gold.
Dern is perfectly cast in the delightful title role, and her real-life mother Diane Ladd is brilliant as the matriarch of the conservative clan who does everything in her power to make sure the ignorant and self-righteous men around her don't harm the charming and "rambling" girl.
I feel like there's a really great film hidden somewhere inside here.
Laura Dern really is brilliant in this though, as is both Duvall and Ladd.
Lukas Haas should win a special award for "work ethic": he's hardly skipped a year for movies appearing since he was 7, and IMDb lists him with SIX in various stages of pre-production at this writing.
In the present one, he's 15 playing Buddy, a Depression-era 13-y/o whose family takes in Rose, a vivacious and sexually rather uninhibited young woman, especially for that time.
An ingénue nymphomaniac's turbulent life rooted in the 1930s depression period of southern USA, served as a housemaid in a hotel owner's home, our heroine Rose, an uncultured but stalwart gal whose miserable past is the hidden wound cuts her deep and being unaware of her sex-addicted disposition, her path of looking for Mr. Right is rather bumpy and poignant.
The film is narrated by Buddy, the eldest son of the hotel owner, Rose is his first love and always occupies a special place in his heart.
Although Rose is the potent pillar of the film, female director Martha Coolidge has steadily integrates a handful of equally vivid characters (young Buddy, his Daddy and Mother) into a moderate template of chanelling and rescuing Rose from her self-destructive hazard, despite of wanting any laudable gambits in highlighting the narrative skills and the plot is always stuck into a hoary frivolousness, the complete work is at best satisfactory.The film is noteworthy by setting a record in the history of the academy by virtue of a real mother-daughter pair garners two Oscar nominations in the same film, Dern and Ladd (a second collaboration in a film after Lynch's WILD AT HEART 1990, 7/10) both showcase their stunning acting bent.
Dern has nailed a quite innately delicate role since Rose is the damaged goods by nature, but her pure kindness and innocence hasn't been impaired and her female vulnerability is the real gem under the circumstance, even if she would mature gracefully later and give a more challenging and nail-biting performance in Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE (2006, 7/10), this film is among the crests of her filmography nonetheless.
Ladd, after the pompous and lavish turn in WILD AT HEART, unexpectedly chooses a more positive and orthodox good-lady embodiment, her award-worthy moment confidently present itself in the latter part of the film, and single- handedly salvaging Rose from the misogyny from seedy male-predominance.
But Duvall is also glittering in his category-fraud (I put him in leading) portrait of a man who is much wiser than he initially appears, and a juvenile Lukas Haas, almost being provocative while driven by curious sex impulse to take advantage of Rose, which might be the most contentious segment of the film per se, and at least he acts like a pro.
It's a great story about a young woman trying to start a new life by living with a family and taking care of the children and helping the mother out with household chores.
She falls in love with the husband, Robert Duvall, and the 13 year-old, Buddy, played by Lukas Haas falls in love with her.
Her real life mother, Diane Ladd, plays Robert Duvall's wife.
I've watched this movie many times...I think it was wonderfully put together.
My best friend is Evan Lockwood, the one who played Waski, Robert Duvall's youngest son in the movie.
I love hearing tales about his experience in this movie with Laura Dern, Robert Duvall, and the rest of this great cast.
I own this movie and recommend everyone to watch it at least once and admit to falling in love with Rose..
Good acting, middling movie.
The performances of Duvall, Ladd, and Dern are all excellent and I especially liked Ladd's quirky feminist humanist character.I did NOT like the flashback wrapper.
Laura Dern's best acting.
The story, set in 30's of states, present us with Rose, who is a maid at the household and somehow so sexy girl that men come around to watch her, which actually wasn't so accepted those days...It is a good movie that leaves you with a warm feeling for a person born on "wrong time"..
Quirky and Fun. Rose (Laura Dern) is taken in by the Hillyer family to serve as a 1930s housemaid so that she can avoid falling into a life of prostitution.
Rose's appearance and personality is such that all men fall for her, and Rose knows it.Some of this film is a little bit scandalous.
Perhaps there ought to be laws about certain things (though this was the 1930s and people didn't care back then).Laura Dern has made a nice career out of quirky roles.
I don't know the films of Martha Coolidge, but after seeing this one, I think maybe I ought to look for more..
Laura Dern is sort of underrated, maybe that is because Miss Dern has commingled movie acting with TV roles.
Laura Dern's acting competence is right up there at her feminine attractiveness.Different from the very popular Jurassic Park.
Ramblin' Rose is a movie with a practical transference into a role of a simple but level-headed call girl in the South during the Depression Era. The woman is very down to earth, homey, and very sincere.
Put it that way.The time is the nineteen-thirties, and Ramblin' Rose is a movie you could see with anyone, who is an adult and appreciates a good movie.
It feels like a seventies movie for some reason..
Time Line is Off. If Buddy was 13 in the 30's (when the majority of the story took place), he would have been in his 50's in the 70's (when the story was supposed to end).
The grown up Buddy who appears at the end of the movie was MAYBE in his early to mid 30's.
Other than that, cute movie coming from a Southerner.
Usually, Im picky about movies taking place in the South.
Laura and Diane (real life mother & daughter) are cute in it together..
I haven't seen this film in a while and was somewhat sickened by a scene where the boy, played by Lucas Haas.
I doubt if we'd have such a warmly accepted film or any chance of making a mainstream movie about it at all..
Since I started looking at Laura Dern movies and heard so much about this one, rental stores didn't have it.
It's a story that, for that period of time, has probably been played out thousands of times in real life all over the country.
A young girl without a family to raise her in those times is a real tragedy, and Rose was doing the best she could..very lucky to even get the job and the home.
I thought that Rose getting into bed with Buddy and what happened then was totally unnecessary to help the movie.
The acting was really quite wonderful all around, and Laura Dern can absolutely steam up a room.
She was a bit dim-witted, but always quite endearing.And even this warm, feel-good, sweetheart of a film made me think...So here's the question: If a young adult woman gets into bed with a thirteen year-old boy, and then allows him to fondle her to orgasm, does that make her a criminal?
But every person commenting on the film (rightfully) loves Rose, and loves her motives.and consider this: Would there ever be a film where a young adult male gets into bed with a thirteen year-old girl, and where one or the other fondles the other to orgasm, and the film goes on to develop that adult male into a sympathetic character?
I was profoundly impressed and affected by the writing and acting in several scenes with Diane Ladd.
Otherwise, generally a good film and fresh. |
tt2820528 | The Dark Defender | While drinking coffee with his sister Debra, Dexter is called to a murder scene at a comic book store. Talking to a witness about the victim, a shopkeeper who had been bludgeoned to the head with a snow globe, he sees a poster of The Dark Defender, a vigilante killer based on the Bay Harbor Butcher. Later, at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, Dexter falls asleep and dreams about the death of his mother, Laura Moser (Katherine Kirkpatrick). In the dream, he enters the cargo container where she was killed, dressed in The Dark Defender's cloak, and beats his mother's murderers to the ground, saving her. When he tells his sponsor Lila about his dream, she tells him that he must confront them to seek closure. He and Lila travel to Naples, Florida where one of the three men, Santos Jimenez, is alive and running a tavern. Having been warned by his girlfriend Rita Bennett's mother Gail (JoBeth Williams) to leave Rita (Julie Benz) and her children alone, Dexter tells Rita that he is going away while Gail is visiting. Leaving Lila in their motel room, he goes to Jimenez's bar and waits until all of the patrons have left. Dexter tries to explain to Jimenez how he feels, but Jimenez takes out a baseball bat and threatens to beat him. In response, Dexter disarms and brutally beats him, revealing his past to Jimenez as one of the boys he left in his mother's blood. Jimenez tells Dexter that his mother was killed because she was not only a narcotics informant to Harry Morgan (James Remar)—Dexter's adoptive father and a police officer—but also his lover. Dexter punches Jimenez and is close to killing him when Lila phones and he tells her that he is about to "use". Thinking that he is about to use drugs, she urges him not to go any further, because "using" will only leave him empty and alone inside. He returns to the motel, leaving Jimenez unconscious in the bar, and falls asleep in Lila's lap, distraught and completely drained.
When the morning comes, Lila tells Dexter of why she went into rehab. She had been dating a man who introduced her to methamphetamine, a drug that she became very addicted to. But when her boyfriend broke up with her, Lila set his former house on fire after getting high. But later on, she would find out that her boyfriend was squatting inside the house, and had been burned alive. Dexter asks her if she thinks that he was bad and deserved to die, something that Lila silently agrees to. Comforting her now, Dexter tells her "It's okay then."
Debra is insecure in her relationship with Gabriel because her ex-fiancé Brian Moser, the "Ice Truck Killer", kidnapped and tried to kill her. When she looks through Gabriel's e-mail, she sees that he has sent a book titled The Ice Princess to a number of publishers. She assumes that the book is about her and angrily breaks up with him. Discussing the break-up with FBI Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine), he gives her the background check that he had run on Gabriel, revealing that Gabriel is a children's writer, and Debra realizes that The Ice Princess is a children's book.
When Dexter visits Rita the next morning, Gail—who suspects that he is hiding something—announces that she will be staying in Miami and will live with Rita. Dexter realizes that he must protect his secrets, so he begins by cleaning his boat that night with a black light to detect any blood. He is unaware that the marina is being videotaped by the Miami-Metro Police, who believe that the Bay Harbor Butcher may be keeping his boat at that marina. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0091060 | Flodder | When it emerges that the Flodder family’s current state-owned house is on a toxic waste dump, the city council is forced to find somewhere to move them. Social worker, Sjakie, proposes to move the family to an upper-class neighbourhood hoping that the change in social environment will have a positive effect on the problematic family.
However the family fails to adapt and persists in their anti-social lifestyle which clashes with the values of the reserved upper class inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who try everything in their power to get rid of the Flodders. This results in several confrontations between individual members of the family and the upper class inhabitants.
The town council, being aware of the problems the family is causing, starts looking into alternative living accommodations, although Sjakie keeps insisting that the family should be given another chance. In the meantime son Johnny starts a relationship with neighbour Yolanda Kruisman, much to the fury of her husband.
This culminates at a neighbourhood meeting being held to discuss how to get rid of the family. Johnny and Yolanda walk in announcing their engagement. They decide to throw a party where everyone is invited. Meanwhile, the town council finds a suitable alternative house for the family, but Ma Flodder discovers she has inherited a large sum of money from Opa Flodder who recently died in a train accident. With the money she decides to buy the house in which they are living. The climax of the film is the engagement party, which is attended by everyone and quickly gets out of hand; the people from the neighbourhood however have a great time and finally start to appreciate the family as they are. In the mean time Yolanda’s husband goes to the army base where he works and takes one of the army tanks. In the finale of the film he destroys the house of the Flodders who take it with good humour. | humor | train | wikipedia | A brilliant and outragously funny satire of society.
"Flodder" is one of the funniest movies ever made and few people realise that it is a Dutch movie made by none other than the Holland version of John Carpenter, the famous Dick Maas, author and director of the thriller "Amsterdamned".
The Flodder family is the reincarnation of the term a-social.
When the whole family bunch, basically all bastards, criminals and sluts must be relocated from their City slum because of toxic waste under their house, the city council house no choice.
The only available space is in the "Zoendal" - the "Sun Valley" the best area in Amsterdam where all doctors, snobs and businessmen can afford to live their lives.
And where the central point of interest and politics is the tennis club of the community.
The Flodder family brings devastation to the tranquil world that ruled before.
They are simply unbelievable.
The characterisation is incredibly funny, beginning with Ma Flodder who searches other people's trash cans for food or making illegal liquor in her cellar and ending with the eldest daughter who is the biggest slut on earth.
Together they make the most horrible family imaginable, a sort of immoral mirror image to the Brady Bunch or the Waltons.
When the City counsel of Amsterdam hoped that the Flodders would show their good will to be more civilised in their new area, it turns out that Holland's most famous family would rather bring out the worst in the rich people of "Sun Valley"-wonderland.
The rest is a hilarious, brilliant and well made social satire that can be watched as a provocative movie as well as a straightforward comedy.
Dick Maas at his best.
I salute him!
Flooder was the Dutch smash hit in 1986 and brought two sequels and a tv series.
All of the sequels were nice but not as great as the original.Flodders (1986) is available on DVD in Germany in a dubbed German version in Dolby Digital 5.1.
under the name:"Flodders -Eine Familie zum knutschen"Why is First Floor Features, the producer of the movie not bringing the Dick Maas blockbusters out on DVD in the Netherlands, I wonder.
The are not even available on video there.
These movies have so much potential, still to this day and have a huge silent but true following..
Only a Dutchman could make such a movie!.
Dick Maas made and wrote his first of the Flodders-trilogy as a brilliant comedy without knowing that there would be two sequels which were not so strong.
The housing problem in Holland in cities like Amsterdam or Rotterdam is acute and there is above all the problem of illegal immigrants.
And what more is: living on a belt or next to a chemical plant can be dangerous.
Flodder is more than a simple comedy: it is also a social satire of the cool Dutch bourgeosie who wants to be isolated of the big towns where there is criminality and so on but who goes to the warm countries during holidays to change their mediocre existence.
Take Yolanda (Apollonia van Ravenstein), she is bored by her neighbourhood where never happens anything - there are f.i. no "café's" - and tired of her husband Kolonel Wim Kruisman (Herbert Flack) and she starts a sexual adventure with Johny Flodder (Huub Stapel).
Alcoholism is also a subject of the movie: the alcohol is made at home and consumed in high quantities and whisky is drunk in floods by Kolonel Kruisman.
This comedy is unsurpassed and is at the same time a sociological study of the escape out of town of the high-class citizens to the outskirts..
Brilliant.
Flodder is without a doubt the funniest film I've ever seen.
Timing is the keyword in this movie.
I've must have seen the movie for more than 30 times.
Every time I discover something new that makes me laugh out loud.
The acting is superb and so is the directing.
All in all, this is maybe the best movie ever made in Holland.10/10.
funny.
Although a poor film it contains more than enough good jokes, and that is just why it was being made.If you like the rude dutch sense of humor this would be a movie you certainly like.
Lots of influence of Brutti, Scorchi e Cattivi from Ettore Scola.
If you think flodder is a bit corny, go and see this tasteful movie..
crude humor, but entertaining.
An anti-social family moves, because of a ridiculous government experiment, into an upper class neighborhood.
The neighbors do not except the "Flodders" in their neighborhood.
Most of the jokes are about the inappropriate behavior of the Flodders and about the hypocrisy of the neighbors.
Mostly crude humor, but if you like that sort of thing than you will find this movie entertaining.
The characters are very stereotypical, which I think is a shame.
One never really connects with the characters.This movie clearly targeted an American audience rather than just a dutch audience..
Who to laugh about?.
Well, at first you are astonished and laugh about the Flodder-Family.
But if the movie continues you will see, that the freaks on this story are not the Family.
It may be the truth that, to identify freaks positively, you have to confront them with other freaks.Works still after 32 years.
One of my favourite movies..
The Beverley Hillbillies goes Dutch..
I ran this in my cinema.....
and for kids!
Oh dear!!...
in the 80s we used to screen midnight to dawn marathons for teenagers (and younger) who all came, pajama clad and spent the night at the movies.
THE FLODDERS was apparently some breakout hit in Holland so for the usual bizarre reason, it was rushed to Australia.
So, in the tradition of SEXTETTE, or UNDERSEA KINGDOM, or AT LONG LAST LOVE....
it was plonked into a midnight to dawn show for 'wake me up' value.
And eeeeeekkkkk!
a never ending stream of vulgar gags about this drunken fornicating spewing bumpkin family who move to a stylish suburb and the skid-marked mayhem they cause.
I clearly remember standing at the back of the theater watching from between my fingers as some oaf was fornicating on the bonnet of the family car...
when it was revealed - ha-ha- he didn't know it was (wait for it......) his daughter!
I ran screaming from my own cinema..
People here think that movie was made in Quebec!.
...and I thought the only things I knew about the Low Countries were wooden shoes, tulips, windmills and Rembrandt.
For the first eighteen years of my life, I thought that movie was made in Quebec.
In Canadian french, that movie and its two sequels were named "Les Lavigueurs Déménagent" ( The Lavigueurs are moving) after a poor Montreal family that won the lottery jackpot a few months before.
They were already the laughing stock of the province, then people started to think that movie was really about them!
The promoters thought they'd make a bunch of money out of what was "Flavor of the month" back then, not really smart, not really kind either.
The movie showed the Lavigueurs (Floodders) as ill-mannered, horny 24-7 (even incestuous!) hillbillies but if you ask me the real ill-mannered hillbillies without any class were the Quebec promoters for making money by covering other people's reputation in dirt.On top of that, the movie was one of the first foreign movies to be translated in joual (Quebec working-class slang) instead of the usual standard French and in the sequel, the family is said (still only in the Quebec version) to be from Saguenay.
Two more reasons for francophone viewers to think the movie is as quebecer as poutine and vachon cakes.The movie itself is still hilariously politically non-correct.
No matter what greedy promoters did here, it kicks butt all over the world!.
don't talk about OUR cinema in vain.
for me, "flodder" is one of the greatest dutch movie's ever made.
me coming from an average home and not being part of the "high society", i really enjoyed this movie, because i could relate.
i still at this time have something against people who think "they're sh*t doesn't stink" so i laugh my ass off watching it.
to me the best car chase ever is still the part where johnny (Huub Stapel) chases the tennis players who beat up his brother, ultimately ending the chase with those stuck up tennis players landing in a swimming pool of one of the recendents.
oh sure, films like the matrix reloaded and the island had cool effects in they're car chases, but it didn't make me jump to the edge of my seat.
flodder did though, because i WANTED the porche to crash or at least lose the chase.
i still think it's a classic, and i think it will always be.i've read some Belgium remarks about this movie and by some i'm insulted, not because of the movie but for example:"wearing wooden shoes" and saying that this movie is "average" don't talk about dutch cinema like that.
what good has Belgium contributed to cinema overall?
only hector (played by Urbanus) i really injoyed and further more you're movie's were not even worth mentioning.
THANK YOU..
A great Dutch classic.
This Dutch classic by Dick Maas, director of the highly suspenseful film 'The Lift' (De Lift - 1983) and the awful 'Sint' (2010), was a huge success in the Netherlands in the eighties, mostly appealing to those with the typical sense of humor of a teenager.I'm in my forties now and must admit I've seen it more than a dozen times and still enjoy it a lot.
It's quite rude but none more so than many other films I saw over the years and judging by Simon Pegg's and Nick Frost's success these days there's a more than willing audience for this kind of fun.The story is about a family of asocial misfits who are relocated to a villa in an upper class neighborhood, the only available place due to housing shortage.
Their eccentric behavior to say the least causes havoc among the local residents who take the law into their own hands trying to get rid of the family, eventually discovering they're not much different.
Housing issues are common in overcrowded areas in the Netherlands where in the eighties whole communities had to be taken down because of severe industrial pollution of the grounds they were built on.Most of the humor is of a sexual nature in a very basic sense.
It's with toe clenching satisfaction to safely observe so much obscenity but with an almost delicate touch that puts serious social problems into perspective.
Incest, alcoholism, neglect of the elderly, Dick Maas tackles them beautifully in a great social satire.Some reviews mention a typical Dutch sense of humor.
I think there's a certain amount of sexual obscenities and slapstick in films from loads of other countries and often with a much darker and scarier background.
If there must be a typical Dutch sense of humor I'd rather think of Alex van Warmerdam's films 'Abel' and 'The Northerners'.
If there's something typically Dutch in this film though, it's friendly rudeness.The film is done low budget but it doesn't make it any less enjoyable.
The acting is fine throughout the film and Nelly Frijda as Ma Flodder is epic.
She, Huub Stapel (Johnnie Flodder), René van 't Hoff (son Kees) and Tatjana Simic (daughter Kees) are showbiz veterans and as a team carry this film to a higher level than it's been given credit for.Look out for the memorable scene where daughter Kees for blackmail purposes seduces horny neighbor Neuteboom (Bert André).Followed by Flodder in Amerika!
(1992), Flodder 3 (1995) and a five season TV series (1993-1998). |
tt0995845 | The Courier | "The Courier" lives in a derelict flat where he has adopted a mouse as his pet. When he visits his old friend Stitch at his boxing gym, he is contacted by a stranger who tasks him with delivering a suitcase to a man known as "Evil Sivle". The stranger does not know where Sivle is and explains that the finding of this person is the actual task. It is made unequivocally clear that the courier is at no liberty to refuse this mission and shall expect his own death should he fail. After the client threatens their loved ones, Stitch sends his family into hiding. The courier starts by hacking into the FBI database. When he needs a pilot, Stitch assigns him his adopted daughter, Anna. Although skeptical of her skill, the courier comes to respect her.
The courier's attempts to find Sivle only lead to killings. After another associate of Sivle's has been killed right under his eyes, the police arrest the courier. To his surprise, he is soon released and finds out that his unrequested client works for the FBI. The courier visits him at home and learns that the suitcase is from Russia and that the FBI considers it the only chance to get to Evil Sivle, who is an infamous assassin. The FBI agent also points out that Evil Sivle is about to turn tables with the courier. The FBI agent gets to Anna and convinces her to leak information about the courier's progress on the promise that the FBI can help fix the mess. When the courier finds out, he becomes angry leaves her. Meanwhile, Sivle orders a duo of assassins to kill Stitch and Anna.
The assassins kill Stitch. As the courier and Anna mourn his loss, the assassins attack them. The courier sends Anna to safety with Stitch's family and bugs the assassins. When they detect the bug, the assassins feed him disinformation that leads to his capture and eventual torture. When they give him a rest, he escapes and kills them. Before dying, one reveals that Sivle is in Las Vegas. There, the courier realizes that the name Evil Sivle is "Elvis Live" backward. When he finally confronts Evil Sivle, an Elvis impersonator at a Las Vegas club, Sivle reveals the truth: the courier is actually Sivle, and the man he has found is Maxwell, his old partner. Maxwell killed everyone but Sivle and his son, and Sivle suffered amnesia as a result of an injury. After Maxwell taunts Sivle about the death of his wife, Sivle kills Maxwell, leaving him without any way to find his son. | revenge, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | Mickey Rourke and Lili Taylor, two actors who can really deliver the goods, were incredibly wasted and about a third of the way into it you realized it was going to be all style and no substance, and that was when I just stopped caring.
The movie started out great, getting to know the courier and his type of work, just finishing a job.
Our courier stumbles through his unlikely adventure to complete his job and gets, true to the movie, an ironic surprise ending that made no sense.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a specialist in delivering packages without questions in Hany Abu- Assad's, The Courier.
The best in this niche industry, Morgan is forced to take on a job to protect those close to him by delivering a package to someone who is supposedly dead.
A dark mystery unravels as he gets closer to discovering the truth about his target and himself.With notable performances on the small screen in Supernatural and Grey's Anatomy as well as a significant contribution in Zack Snyder's, Watchmen, one shouldn't be surprised with Morgan headlining a suspense thriller.
OK this film isn't bad.The first reason why it's disappointing it's because - just like Black Death (2010) - it tries to "keep it real" way too much ..
Some of the shots are truly amateurish, and often the camera-work fails to make a scene interesting.Having said that, The Courier isn't half bad, there are plenty things i liked in it, from the fight moves to the casting (the lead is a bit wooden, the girl fits the part OK~ish, the detective is perfect), and the whole production is pretty decent.I also don't subscribe to the whole "it's full of cliché'" thing; if anything, it tries to avoid clichés in a film genre where everything has already been done.
All in all, i can say that it's an interesting film to watch, even though i get the feeling the director has a background in TV - seriously, you (whomever you are) truly murdered what could have been an interesting flick.So, after all considerations, i give The Courier a decent 6/10 - better than MI3, and no Tom Cruise..
There is absolutely nothing worth seeing about this movie, that is basically being just a very standard modern action flick, with a poor story but even worse storytelling.Quite weird and surprising to learn that this movie got directed by Hany Abu-Assad, who definitely has class and skills in him and is mostly known for directing smaller type of movies, with a strong message in them.
They tried to create a smaller and more realistic type of action movie but the story and its characters really aren't suited for that.
I actually believe I might had liked this movie better, had it been done as a silly and over-the-top action-flick, in a more '80's type of style.The movie has a very simple concept but it makes things needlessly difficult.
That should give you an idea of how this movie is like.Those who are looking for a movie with plenty of action to enjoy will also end up feeling disappointed by this movie.
This movie feels like such an extremely low-budget one and things don't get any more exciting than a couple of poorly filmed gunfights.
Bad guys and gals hinder him at every turn and violence ensues, leading up to an inevitable confrontation and in this case a neat little twist that admittedly defies any sort of reason, yet is fun for the actors to play out and provides sensationalism, a trait that's commonplace in such films.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a haggard presence in any role, a guy you immediately feel rooted to in a scene.
He gets the lead role here, playing an underground criminal courier, passing along dangerous goods from one cloak and dagger person to another.
Mickey Rourke shows up late in the game as Maxwell, a mysterious Elvis impersonator and Vegas gangster who plays a crucial role in Courier's quest.
Trust Rourke to take a derivative, underwritten supporting character and turn the few minutes of screen time he has into utter gold that elevates his scene onto a plane which the film as a whole is sheepishly undeserved of.
The ending did make it a little better and the second half was entertaining but this is pretty much "Transporter 4".
Sometimes I sort of wish I never started doing something, so I guess in a way writing this review is very much like The Courier, essentially pointless and a complete waste of my time and not even getting to the level of 'so bad it's good'.
It's actually amazing that I've managed to write this much to be honest, I only finished watching The Courier 10 minutes ago and it's already slipping out of my brain to the extent that I'm not entirely sure what actually happened at the end anymore (the first half has gone already).
Normally this would be good as valuable brain space isn't being taken up by The Courier but I expect by the end of the day all memory of this very forgettable film will be erased from my memory which leaves the very real possibility that one day in the future I might see it's title when I'm looking for some rubbish action film to watch and actually waste my time by watching it again with a nagging sense of déjà vu and I won't be sure if it's because I've watched the courier before or that it's just generic rubbish.So that's 10 lines of text done (in fact more than 10 lines which is a lot more than The Courier deserves) so I'm going to do something more interesting than watching The Courier such as watching paint dry or sitting in a dark empty room..
the story was good , the music was average and the last thing the acting was average too , but that doesn't mean this movie was awful, because
Could have been a really good movie with a better writer and a decent director.
A Courier (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is tasked with delivering a package to a crime boss (Mickey Rourke) thought to be dead.
But like so many other movies nowadays, we feel a bit let-down when the screen goes black.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, an exceptional actor who never seems to be the right fit for his character, does the best he can with what he has.
"Yeah, I Watched That Movie." That is what I will say to people when they ask if I have seen "The Courier".
Excellent film starring Mickey Rourke who gives a fine performance.
and a cast of fine supporting actors.In the old studio days they would be called character actors and they would be part of a Studio stock company, for example John Ford has the same people like Jane Darwell, and Aldo Ray cast in his films, and Otto Preminger also had some of the same actors Such as Carol Lynley, and Keir Dullea and Jill Haworth,, and John Wayne cast many of the same people such as Glenn Corbett and Maureen O Hara, and Aldo Ray. The audiences never seemed to be bored and in fact looked forward to seeing these fine actors.
AND THEN be allowed to take the same plane back to the original departure location!Mickey Rourke gets worse with each movie.
Seriously, either the tax write-offs must be very attractive, or there are some considerably wealthy individuals who are just desperate to proclaim, "I'm making a movie" to their friends."The Courier" has so many flaws it's hard to know where to begin.
Add to that the father figure, who like some bad impression of Huggy-bear, seems to know everything and everyone that's happening on the street and, well...you're starting to get the picture.It's as if the writers were working from a "Scriptwriting for Dummies" book.
I mean why bother being a high-risk delivery man, which is clearly not paying off too well for him, when he could have a highly lucrative career working for Google?I could go on, but I feel the less said about this movie the better.
Suffice to say that of 968 films I've rated on IMDb, "The Courier" ranks as number 3 in my all-time worst list, only bested by "Little Nicky", and "2001, A Space Travesty".Regrettably one or two decent actors took part in this disaster, so it's clear that work is hard to come by in tinsel town these days.
Like a previous review mentioned, this movie actually started out fairly promising.
Though it seemed to be a lower budget and weaker scripted version of The Transporter, at least it had some credibility with favored actors like Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Til Schweiger, not to mention Mickey Rourke, and the action was fast paced and fun.Unfortunately, by the time Micky Rourke even shows the back of his head, I no longer cared.
The action sequences, though not terrible, no longer hold any weight due to the confusion caused by the messy script, and plot holes and character inconsistencies abound.Til Schweiger is totally wasted here, and Mickey Rourke is practically non-existent, though I can't say I blame him.
I found myself getting angrier that I was still watching this mess as the minutes rolled by.The end could not have been worse.
I was busy watching condensation roll down my glass by this time, then was startled back to the screen by the movie ending abruptly.So all in all, not good.
I give it a 3 for the first 30 minutes, and for Jeffrey Dean Morgan who did his best with what he had..
As a Rourke Fan (especially Angel Heart !!!) i found the new film from Director Hany Abu Assad quite amusing.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan was refreshing and most sympathetic, while our Star Til Schweiger was not as bad as i usually remember him.
Most impressing were a couple of good action sequences ( hard core torture with Miguel Ferrer) and the most hilarious scene I've ever seen Mickey in...him doing a rather short Elvis impersonation...as I said: hilarious.The Storyline lacks here and there an it does indeed remind one of "The Transporter" (I heard they had this movie already a couple of years in the pipeline, hence the "old" story) and "Angel Heart".
On the other Hand it is strict and forward,no big misleading story lines, which of course means that you know rather quickly, where the train is going...unless you have never seen Angel Heart, that is.One thing stroke me odd though, the End is a bit ...let's say unusual, or maybe I did not understand the film at all ;-)Do not expect a great action thriller - because it is not !
At start I liked the movie, the lead character, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (in someway resembles a younger version of Nicolas Cage ;-) plays a good role, very convincing.
The story appears interesting with some hints to movies like "the transporter".
I saw it coming: Stitch has to die and agreed to myself that if he does I stop watching the movie, well -of course- he did so at that moment I knew the story is one of the dozen and I stopped watching...
We (the watchers) have had enough of this kind of "really bad guy that kills almost everyone except the lead character movies"..
I had it at the top of my weekly movie viewing and I happen to really, really, like Jeffrey Dean Morgan although the poor guy has such a hard time finding his way in Hollywood and this won't help him one little bit.
They try to slap together a few ingredients from other like minded action films and things that someone "thought" would look cool on screen but its cheesy, incredibly cheesy, with terrible dialogue and a story that makes absolutely no sense.
I knew what I was in for right from the first scene (which seems to have very very little bearing on the actual story) but is blatantly done on a green screen so much so that it looks hokey.
There are some genuinely violent scenes, the shoot outs are actually not bad, and some of the cinematography and locations settings are actually pretty good but it doesn't even come close to saving this absolute garbage-fest.I love Jeffrey Dean Morgan!
His style of acting is better suited for porn films because the guy is just atrocious.
That's an anagram from Lives just to ruin the surprise for everyone...believe me I'm doing you a favour,) whom they show only in shadows and from behind to mask his identity when its obvious from voice, profile and the cover of the movie that its Mickey Rourke.
She is awful and the chemistry between her and Morgan is completely nil and awkward.As if the film couldn't get any worse they tack on this ridiculous non-sensical twist ending that is a complete laugh and is really the perfect lid on this garbage pail movie.
You are bound to think that this movie has Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a cheap version of Jason Statham in the role of the transporter; I hate to admit I did, and I'm a J.D. Morgan fan.
The plot is meant to have us discover the true identity of the courier and of his former associate in a surprise scene at the end.
Rourke has less screen time than his credit would have us hope for.It's sort of a mystery action, but the mystery part just doesn't quite keep you interested; that mystery, when it does get revealed/explained way at the end is somewhat of a letdown.
The fact that the key mystery figure, Evil Sivle played by Mickey Rourke, is masquerading as an Elvis impersonator, pretty lame anagram, would be enough to dissuade most from watching the movie.
Well, I guess now that I spoiled it for you, you can thank me by checking the box for useful review.I'm a hard core J.D. Morgan fan and I love long time character actor Mark Margolis, whose performance in TV highest rated series Breaking Bad leaves no doubt about his acting talent, so I stuck it out to the bitter end.
I think Morgan's career is getting hot, since his role as Clay in the 2010 movie The Losers; I liked his short role in the other 2010 movie Shanghai (not a popular release – it's a film noir genre that's not usually popular anyway).
Minor Spoilers Only.I rented this because my mother really like Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
I have a lot of trouble watching movies with her, as she dosen't want to watch a movie with an actor she dosen't like or she can't watch too violent movie and so on.When i saw this movie in the suspense category with that actor, i said why not, i was actually surprised she liked "The Loosers" when we watched it so i rented this.The movie start in a good way, the plot seem to show promise, the dark gritty feel is also pretty good, but sadly as the movie unfold and all, it lost itself into too many different stuff and the final twist have a hard time making sense.This movie was never meant to be a transporter rip-off or whatever, and i think if the screenplay was done better, it could had been really interesting but some elements poped out of nowhere and i dunno, like i said it lost itself.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, did a great job.
Then the ending with the couriers son, where did that come from and what happened to the son?
The end result...the movie didn't make any sense, it didn't have a cohesive plot.The writer/screenwriter truly failed at what could have been a very good action movie.What a colossal waste of money for the backers..
It had the dusty smell of comic book turned live action, but not in a good way.While Stitch is binding up his wounds from the opening sequence, The Courier gets a new case.
He's offered 120,000 USD if he succeeds; if not, people who like him, but don't know his criminal associations, will be enlightened, but not in a good way.
So he takes the job.The Courier (can't remember his name or early life) gets a clue to the whereabouts of his target, Evil Sivle (oi, Elvis Live) from the Internet, plus some porous online databases.
They manage to escape for a while, and the Courier gets a little information linking Evil Sivle and Maxwell.
-----Scores------Cinematography: 8/10 Dark, gloomy, but well-shot.Sound: 7/10 Eh, OK.Acting: 6/10 There are some good actors here: Mickey Rourke, Mark Margolis, Lily Taylor, Miguel Ferrer, and Josie Ho; Jeffrey Dean Morgan is not so bad either.
What I noticed about JDM in the movie is whomever took care of him...look up the word continuity.
But the movie itself is not good.
Morgan did carry this whole horrible movie alone and did well.
The courier delivered an empty box.The acting performance of Morgan was still enjoyable, but the story on its own is so far fetched and left more question marks at the end than any other movie.The beginning was promising, the action was at times alright.
And I suppose it's just me, but I didn't quite understand the end (I had to rewind it briefly) immediately and they didn't need to put the name "Mickey Rourke" on the movie poster.
Mostly you only saw his back (I suppose it was his), and then he acts like a bad looking Elvis for 3 minutes.
Looks like his face is fully injected with botox.Just another crap movie.More reviews at http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/.
But lets look at the movies cast for second first.
Now he either missed out on opportunities after that or didn't get offered better roles I suppose.Whatever it is, he is not alone in this movie.
But when I say main bad guy, you obviously having seen the movie (or not caring), should know that he actually isn't. |
tt0072409 | Willie Dynamite | We first see Willie Dynamite as the film's opening credits begin, with Martha Reeves singing the movie's title song, 'Willie Dynamite.' Willie is driving his 'pimped-out' purple Cadillac on the streets of midtown Manhattan. The front license plate reading the first part of his nickname - 'Willie,' and the back license plate reading the second part - 'Dynamite.' Willie's destination is a midtown hotel, to collect payment from his women - who work the midtown hotels, attracting the many businessmen, conventioneers, who are looking for sex.
Willie's 'stable' of seven women are of all ethnicities, dressed in vibrant outfits. Their entrance into the Business International Association convention - by entering as an ensemble through the hotel's main doors in-sync with the title song's description of them - has all the men in the room ogling them. Many conventioneers - including even a pair of police officers - take the women to their hotel rooms. Pashen is the newest hooker working for Willie, and she is last in line to hand in her payments. Willie gets mad at her for producing less than expected. Willie compares his business with those of a production line: "Seven girls out there. Every ten minutes, one comes off the production line, like that. This is a business, baby, a production line, and just like GM, Ford, Chrysler, Willie's comin' through." Willie tells of his dreams of being the number one, top-pimp in New York City.
Bell, currently the number one pimp, holds a 'pimp council,' and tells the gathered pimps of the police cracking down on prostitution activities across the city. Bell makes a business proposal, wherein each pimp will get his own area to run, instead of the pimps competing for territory. Everyone agrees, except Willie. He argues the idea would hurt his business. Willie says his women are akin to 'animals of the jungle,' having the need to 'roam free,' and 'conquer all that can be controlled.'
Soon after the meeting ends, Willie learns Pashen has been arrested. Cora is a social worker, who tries to get the prostitutes in jail, to get out of the business, and turn their lives around. Cora meets Pashen, and tries to educate her on the dangers of being a prostitute. Cora encourages Pashen to change her life, and, as she's so young and pretty, to become a model and get paid for it. Being naïve, Pashen dismisses the idea, believing she can make more money as a hooker for Willie. Willie comes to post bail and gets Pashen out of jail. While Willie is out of his apartment, Cora makes an unexpected visit, and tells the women they are being ripped off by Willie. They ponder what Cora said as she leaves the apartment. When Willie comes back, he learns Pashen has been arrested again and the other women are reluctant to work. Willie threatens them if they decide to not work.
Cora visits the jail and tries again to persuade Pashen to get out of prostitution. Pashen still insists prostitution - and being part of Willie's 'stable' - is okay, as she's making a lot of money, and she likes the men's attention while working, because she feels like someone 'important,' wanted & beautiful. Cora tells Pashen that she, too, was once a prostitute, on the streets. Cora sneaks into Willie's apartment to find records of Willie's bank accounts, which could provide evidence of his illegal activity, but, the materials she takes would not be able to stand up in court. After this second arrest, Pashen finally decides to take Cora's advice about pursuing modeling, and does a photo-shoot for which she gets paid. She tries to tell Willie she wants out, but, he tells her of his dreams and hopes for her (and for himself), which she's not able to refuse.
Willie goes to the hotel convention, and finds his territory has been invaded and his lead hooker, Honey, has been killed after a territorial battle. Willie's life is spiraling downward, as he finds all his bank accounts have been frozen, and he's under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. Two detectives chase Willie through New York. Willie's seven hookers are arrested after the hotel fight, but Willie can't post bail, and the women are sent to the women's detention center for holding. While in the detention center, Pashen's face gets cut, and she's traumatized by her loss of beauty.
When Willie returns home, he is met by Bell and his men, who tells Willie to quit the business, and a fight ensues. Later, Willie is caught by the same two detectives, for possession of drugs. They have to free Willie, as the evidence obtained was done so without a warrant. In the end, Willie thinks back on past events, and after hearing news of his mother's dying, leaves his car - and by inference, pimping - for good. The film ends with Willie walking happily down the streets. | violence, blaxploitation | train | wikipedia | ******SPOLIERS****** "Willie Dynamite" is miles above the average "Blaxploitation" films made in the 1970's by it's not glorifying the title character in any way but showing him as a ruthless as well as tragic and misguided person.
A person who's self-destructive lifestyle as a big time city pimp lead to disaster not only to himself but to all those around him: his women his friends his hangers-on and worst of all his sweet and church-going mother played by Royce Wallace.
Back in those days, the 70's, Willie Dynamite, Roscoe Orman, could easily have been made to be a hero for the youth of the inner city ghettos to be looked up to and emulated.
Thats how Willie was to those women who worked the streets and hotels for him selling their hot bodies for the only thing that mattered to him the bottom line: Cold Cash.
The film chronicles the rise and fall and in the end redemption of big city pimp Willie Dynamite after he saw his mother collapse in the courthouse, when she found out what Willie really did for a living, and later die in the hospital without Willie being able to tells her that he's sorry for what he did and get her forgiveness.
Willie let his mom on to believe that he was a record agent not a pimp.Willie's top hooker Pashen, Joyce Walker, who wanted to get out of the hooker business and become a fashion model after she was shown the light by Cora, Diana Sands, a social worker who tried to save girls like her from being exploited by pimps like Willie.
Pashen instead gets sweet-talked back into turning tricks by Willie's and ends up having her pretty face slashed while she was in the womens house of detention waiting to be bailed out by him.
Diana Sands steals the movie with her sensitive portrayal of a social worker who knows all too well what life on the streets can do from her sad and abysmal life as a young women and tries to get the girls working for Willie to save themselves from that life like she did.
We also see Diana change her opinion about Willie when he's destroyed by his fellow pimps as well as the law and becomes a broken and humbled person instead of the brash and arrogant pimp that she fought with throughout most of the movie.
It's Cora's tender and emotional scene with Willie at the end of the film made you want to reach for your handkerchief.
Finally Willie himself who went from a cold-hearted and unfeeling person who looked at both his hookers and the Johns who paid for their services only as dollar signs to where he became a sensitive and understanding person by the time the movie ended but it took a walk through hell for Willie to get to that point.
The movie also has fine location filming in and around NYC with a great musical soundtrack.It would be unfair for "Willie Dynamite" to be described as a "Blaxploitation" movie; It doesn't exploits it's audience it educates it..
The ad and plotline for this movie may give you the impression that Willie Dynamite is a typical blaxploitation actioner with heavy doses of violence and sex but that is not the case.
Willie Dynamite deals with a NYC pimp (Orman) who must deal not only with the police and a dedicated social worker (Sands), but also his fellow pimps who resent his increasing level of power within the city.
During the last third of the movie, the story switches gears as both Orman and Sands go through some major changes which cause them to alter their outlook and approach to their lives.
In doing this, Willie Dynamite goes in a different (and less sensational) direction than many films of this period chose to go.
The film also takes on a higher level of believability which helps to bring the two main characters to life.
Orman, believe it or not, went on to become a staple on TV's Sesame Street as Gordon!
In fact, Willie Dynamite has a great early 70s ambiance that many of the bigger movies of the time did not contain.
Willie Dynamite may not be the best known of the blaxploitation genre but it deserves more attention than it got..
Sure, it's got pimps, hos, bad cops, drugs and prostitution, even a ex-hooker with a heart of gold.
Highly entertaining and interesting as willie dynamite applies the principles of capitalism to enhance his business of managing sporting ladies.
But where there is greed and the quest to be second to none, one is always confronted with jealousy and envy from your fellow peers.The character Willie dynamite was immaculate in his dress from the beginning of the film to the end.
He displays the 70's pandering apparell that he wore to absolute perfection.I originally saw Willie Dynamite in 1973, and after watching it again today, after all of these years, it had the same impact.
If you like blaxploitations films, this is a must see!!!.
In the course of one week, poor Willie the pimp is getting the heat from rival pimps, from the cops (including the wonderful Albert Hall), and from a reformed prostitute who is trying to get Willie's girls' to unionize (`You can call me the Ralph Nadar for prostitutes', she snaps in one of the film's funniest lines).
He even gets the IRS on his ass, although that scene isn't terribly realistic since no pimp and/or drug dealer with even half a brain would put his earnings in a bank!.
The film breaks away from formula a number of times, and despite the OUTRAGEOUS costumes and decor (even the telephones are fur-lined!), we care about the people in this film.
You can't help enjoying the absolutely ridiculous outfits and mannerisms of the pimps.Everything from Willie's beyond gaudy car to even the characters' names (i.e. the white pimp named Milky Way) is pretty entertaining.But it does have some serious (well okay, maybe not serious) implications as well.
Especially since it also presented positive Black role models who came from similar situations, like Cora, a prostitute-turned-social worker on a quest to help rescue other young girls from a life on the streets..
Pimps as colorful as peacocks with land cruisers dressed in chrome.Roscoe Orman (Gordon from Sesame Street) plays Willie, a pimp who has the patter down pat and the clothing that rivals anything that your imagination can come up with.
They use every trick in the book to make his life hell and bring on him the wrath of his fellow pimps.Diana Sands, who was one of the top black actresses of the 50s and 60s, shined as the social worker.
Willie Dynamite is most certainly one of the most flamboyant pimps to ever grace the screen and his "stable" of beautiful women are frequently scantily clad, but don't let the smooth taste fool you, Willie Dynamite is not your average pimp film."Willie Dynamite" was at times thought-provoking, frequently intense and entertaining throughout.
Watching Willie Dynamite fall from pimp grace makes for some interesting drama.Roscoe Orman is great as the fallen pimp and Diana Sands is brilliant as always but there is much to be said about the performance of the young Joyce Walker, Willie's newest and most inexperienced 'treat'.
This Blaxploitation classic merits a viewing on at least two bases: one, you've got none other than Gordon of 'Sesame Street', a.k.a. actor Roscoe Orman, playing a pimp, and two, you have to love these COSTUMES!
"Willie Dynamite" (Orman) is a capitalism-oriented flesh peddler with a wardrobe to die for.
But he'll have a few thorns in his side: a pair of detectives (George Murdock, Albert Hall) out to righteously bust him, a mysterious enemy determined to screw him over, and a crusading social worker named Cora (Diana Sands), who acts as a patron saint to hookers.Directed with style by Gilbert Moses, "Willie Dynamite" is generally engaging entertainment.
There's a wonderful score provided by J.J. Johnson, and a rousing title theme song that gets you in the proper mood immediately.Orman is great fun playing a charismatic antihero.
Sands, sadly dying of cancer during this time, gives the best performance in the movie.
Roger Robinson, as an antagonistic pimp named Bell, is most amusing, but there may be viewers who will take offense to his stereotypical portrayal of a gay character."Willie Dynamite" is lively, funny, and sometimes touching.
Probably what might make most people give this particular Blaxploitation movie a look is the promise of "Gordon" from the children's television show "Sesame Street" playing a flamboyant pimp.
There definitely is some novelty to get from that, and the movie boasts other attributes such as good production values (including a lot of outrageous clothing choices).However, the end results overall are to some degree a bit unsatisfying.
The script also suffers from the fact that the narrative is more or less a collection of vignettes loosely connected together, rather than one strong story thread.If you like Blaxploitation movies from the 1970s, you'll probably find enough to enjoy here.
Good but not a pimp movie..
As all fans of exploitation cinema will know, there were many, many blaxploitation movies released during the 1970s after Melvin van Peebles left an incredibly impression on black audiences with Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song in 1971.
Tony Award-nominated Broadway director Gilbert Moses' Willie Dynamite is incredibly under-seen, but is one of the genre's most impressive works, shunning the usual hyper-stylised, lightly comic beats in favour of something more serious and dramatic, while also touching on themes such as black identity, racism and police corruption.New York pimp Willie Dynamite (Roscoe Orman) has built himself a mini-empire, training his girls to work like a production line to maximise profits and keep his many customers happy.
While his clothes are utterly outlandish (there are some of most ridiculous outfits ever seen in the genre here), Willie ain't no lovable scamp like Super Fly (1972), but a real piece of s**t; he regularly threatens his girls with violence, underpays them, and fails to offer any help when they get themselves arrested.
When he's late to turn up to court for his most recent arrival Pashen (Joyce Walker), prostitute-turned-social worker Cora (Diana Sands) takes a particular interest, and becomes intent on rescuing Willie's girls and ending his reign of terror.For a genre normally so rich in exploitative traits, Willie Dynamite contains no nudity and little violence, earning its adult rating instead for language and drug use.
Anyone familiar with Sesame Street will be left shocked at the sight of Orman wearing some of the most garish costumes ever committed to celluloid and trying to keep his bitches in check, and it's a very convincing performance.
The Pimp Of Sesame Street.
This one had a decent budget and starred the one and only Gordon from Sesame Street (Roscoe Orman).
I wonder if this role landed him the job as Gordon.This isn't really exploitative at all with no violence or nudity instead tells a story of a pimps hardships with the police always arresting his girls and shaking him down constantly.
His biggest problem seems to be his mother who obviously disapproves of his life choice.A great film all the way through but the only thing missing was a funky soundtrack..
I think Willie's acting was good too.
I think the movie as a whole had good acting.
I think people would of got killed doing the things they did in this movie.
I like the way Willie handled his business.
i'll never look at Sesame Street the same way again.
Roscoe Orman is Willie D, a sad sack of a pimp who embodies the Godfather of WWF(E)'s saying "Pimpin' ain't easy".
Willie's pimping clothes are, in a word, Dynamite (especially this one hilarious huge hat he wears at one point).
By the way, this isn't the last of Willie, oh no it ain't.
Hope he wasn't the one to pimp Ernie out to Bert.Best Line: (Willie in a line-up shouting about his coat) "It's Lamb!!
Well meaning liberal social worker tries to reform street-hardened pimp..
What is uncanny about Willie Dynamite is that the film is able to take this despicable, self-absorbed, sadistic pimp and humanize him.
How director Gilbert Moses and actor Roscoe Orman(as Dynamite)pull this off is worthy of applause.
Cora(Diana Sands, in a solid performance), a social worker, attempts to pry a lovely young prostitute, Pashen(Joyce Walker)from the clutches of Dynamite's powerful influence.
Willie Dynamite decides to take his pimping solo, splitting from his colleagues, securing wealthy clientèle for his girls.
Cora, understanding his dangerous nature, wishes to see Willie taken down, soon recognizing that despite his corrupt ways, he's still a human being in need of guidance.The film starts out as almost a comedy where these pimps, with their pomp and attitude, driving their colorful cars and wearing their vibrant custom suits, fur coats, and flashy hats, are almost caricatures, over-the-top creations broadly performed by the African-American cast.
But, as the film progresses, it gets dead serious and we see how the life style of a pimp can, in fact, lead to tragedies of severe magnitude.
It's a hoot seeing Orman, a fixture on Sesame Street, in the role of a lecherous pimp!
See "Gordon" from SESAME STREET playing a pimp!!!!.
Kids, let's think of some words that start with "P",...In probably the weirdest case of casting I can think of, Roscoe Orman plays the title character--who is a pimp!
Years later, Orman would achieve some notoriety playing "Gordon" on SESAME STREET--now THAT'S interesting casting!!
Now, although Willie is on top of his game, his world begins to crumble when an ex-hooker turned social worker decides that enough is enough.
She decides to declare war on Willie and things look really, really bad for the pimp-meister.However, when things go worst for Willie, the movie takes a very, very strange twist with the social worker--one that rather blindsided me.
While not at all believable, it was certainly an interesting twist.While this is a so-called "blaxploitation" film in many ways (especially due to the lead being a pimp), the film is much different than you'd expect.
Second, the film isn't all "black and white" with cartoon-like characters and silly stereotypes.
And finally, the story doesn't seem either anti-White or glorify evil by the time it's finished--and as such, is a much more three dimensional film that's worth a look.Needless to say, this film that, at times, glamorizes pimps may seem like the ultimate misogynistic film, but stick with it.
Rabid feminists probably should not watch this film or they'll suffer a stroke, but if they'd bear with it, by the end it does have a positive message and is not a "pro-pimp" film like THE MACK!!!.
Now, thanks to Arrow Video, one that is rarely seen makes its way to blu-ray, WILLIE DYNAMITE.From the opening credits with the theme song sung by Martha Reeves while we watch Willie (Roscoe Orman) driving his pimp mobile to views of the ladies who work for him picking up johns at a convention we can tell where this movie is going.
This movie apparently plans to do the same thing with the story of a pimp.Willie dreams of the big time, of being the number one pimp in New York City.
And he makes sure that his girls are doing the job he uses them for or out they go.A gathering of pimps in the city is called by Bell (Roger Robinson).
The police crackdown on Willie and his girls.
She is approached by Cora (Diana Sands), an ex-hooker turned social worker who's trying to get the girls to go straight.
One has to wonder if the outfits worn by the pimps in the film were what was being worn or what was stereotypical Hollywood versions.
If while watching the film you keep thinking to yourself that Roscoe Orman looks familiar the odds are you watched him as a kid.
If you're a fan of Blaxploitation films then pick this one up today..
Willie is trying to keep his position as the most profitable pimp in the city, but the heat are coming down hard.
He has an enemy in a politically active social worker trying to liberate the women in his stable, and he has pressure from the other pimps to follow a group plan to out-maneuver the law.
Willie doesn't want to deal with any of it; he just wants things to continue the way they have been.
Willie then decides to rethink things, and the social worker turns supportive, offering him compassionate council, and with one conversation, he decides to turn his life around.
Bell was an entertaining protagonist, with the highlight being the first scene of the movie: the pimp council.
An Interesting Film Depicting the Life of a Pimp.
"Willie Dynamite" (Roscoe Orman) is a pimp who has a stable of 7 prostitutes who earn him a very lucrative living.
Not only that, but a social worker named "Cora Williams" (Diana Sands) becomes concerned about one of his prostitutes by the name of "Pashon" (Joyce Walker) and decides to put Willie out of business.
Anyway, rather than divulge the entire story, I will just say that this was an interesting film depicting the life of a pimp from his point of view.
Not great by any means, but for a blaxploitation film dealing with this particular subject matter I suppose it deserves a rating of slightly better than average..
A not too bad blaxploitation film with a "happy ending." A reformed prostitute (Diana Sands) attempts to bring a fairly inept pimp down while the cops are on him like glue.
Roscoe Orman plays the title role, a pimp who's seen better days, and he's woefully upstaged by his ridiculous outfits.
Sands brings a lot of class to the film and Thalmus Rasulala is in it too. |
tt0068950 | Mimì metallurgico ferito nell'onore | Set in both Sicily and mainland Italy, the film follows the adventures of a man nicknamed Mimi (Giancarlo Giannini). Mimi is a poor labourer who is pressured by his employers to vote for the mafia candidate in a local election. Frustrated by the system and assured that the ballot will be secret Mimi votes for the communist representative instead. However he is fired and assured he will never work again as the ballot was not secret. Disgusted Mimi flees to Turin, while his wife, Rosalia, stays in Sicily.
In Turin Mimi finds illegal construction work. When he witnesses one of the labourers falling to his death he helps the man into a van thinking that he is being brought to the hospital. When he discovers that his mafia bosses actually plan on dumping the body he tells him that his wife is the goddaughter of Liggio, a powerful mafioso. As a result, he is given a good union job at a factory. He also becomes further embroiled with the communist party.
One day Mimi sees the beautiful Fiore on the street selling sweaters. When she and her friend are attacked he helps them and learns that she is a trotskyist. When they walk in the park he kisses her and then attempts to grope her. Fiore fends him off and says that she is a virgin and will not make love with a man until she falls in love. Mimi continues to see her until finally, heartbroken he tells her that he loves her but cannot bear to be around her as he feels she will never return his love. Fiore finally tells him she loves him back. Aware that Mimi is married, Fiore nevertheless takes him as a lover and finally becomes pregnant, giving birth to a son, Mimi.
At the christening for their child Mimi goes to get more champagne and happens upon a murder perpetrated by the mob. Though he is supposed to be shot Mimi nevertheless ends up with only a scratch and, when the police question him, refuses to divulge any answers. As a result, he is promoted at work to a management position in Sicily. Terrified that his wife will discover his second family, Mimi hides Fiore and their child and pretends to always be too exhausted for sex. This causes the people of the town to gossip and begin to believe that Mimi is a homosexual. He is finally taken out by a few of his friends who tell him that Rosalia is pregnant with the child of another man, Amilcare. Mimi is outraged and after attacking Rosalia he tells her about Fiore and his son. Rosalia then decides to keep her child and refuse to divorce Mimi gloating that her bastard child will bear his last name, while his son with Fiore will have a different name.
To avenge his honour, Mimi seduces Amalia, the wife of Amilcare. After sleeping with her he informs her that Amilcare had impregnated his wife, Rosalia. Initially horrified, Amalia decides that the best way for the two of them to get back at their cheating spouses is to conceive a child together, leading to monthly visits between the two.
When Amalia is several months pregnant Mimi confronts her husband on the town steps telling everyone that his wife is bearing Mimi's child. Enraged, Amilcare threatens to shoot Mimi, however Mimi, who had considered the possibility and warned Amalia to empty Amilcare's gun is unconcerned. However a man who works for the mob, who had been assigned to watch over Mimi, sees Amilcare reach for the gun and shoots him, then shoves the smoking gun in Mimi's hand. Mimi is thrown into jail for Amilcare's murder. While in jail he is visited by a man from the mob again who tells him that for taking the fall for the murder he is now a respected man and offering him a job when he comes out. Mimi refuses. However, when he is finally released Mimi is excited to see Fiore and little Mimi waiting for him. He is soon overwhelmed by his child with Amalia as well as with Amalia, and Rosalia's bastard son, all of whom clamour around him calling him Papa. In desperate need of money Mimi goes to work for the mob, propping up the election of Vico Tricarico.
Disgusted that he has abandoned his communist ideals Fiore leaves, taking young Mimi with her. Mimi chases after her, mourning his lost ideals. | revenge, satire | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0418141 | Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster | The Mystery, Inc. gang travel to Loch Ness in Scotland to see the famous Blake Castle, the home of Daphne Blake's Scottish ancestors as well as her cousin, Shannon. The castle grounds are home to the first annual Highland games, composed of many traditional Scottish sports. When they arrive, Shannon informs them that the castle has recently been terrorized by the Loch Ness Monster. Shannon says she has seen the monster and it is indeed real, a position shared by Del Chillman, the Loch Ness Monster enthusiast and amateur cryptozoologist, and Professor Fiona Pembrooke, a scientist who has stalked her whole career on proving the monster exists. Taking the opposite end of the argument are Colin and Angus Haggart, their father Lachlan, local competitors in the games, and Sir Ian Locksley, the head judge of the games (as well as director of the Scottish natural history museum). Locksley and Pembrooke share a mutual hatred for each other (she was Ian's research assistant at his museum until he fired her for spending too much time on the Loch Ness Monster's trail).
That night, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy are chased by the monster, and destroy the playing field in the process. Velma discovers that the Loch Ness Monster tracks head into town instead of the loch. The next day, the gang and Shannon travel to Drumnadrochit. After enlisting the help of the Haggarty's to rebuild the field, Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shannon take Professor Pembrooke's boat, filled up with out of date research equipment, to search for the Loch Ness Monster by sea, while Shaggy and Scooby take the Mystery Machine and search by land. While Shaggy is distracted, a hand switches a sign on the road leading to Shaggy getting lost. Both groups are attacked by the Loch Ness Monster, which is seemingly in two places at once.
After returning the badly damaged boat back to Professor Pembrooke, the gang discovers Sir Ian has taken it upon himself to patrol the waters with a high-tech ship to prevent any further "peculiarities", as he is still not convinced of the monster's existence. On Locksley's ship, the gang and Shannon find something deep in the loch using sonar equipment. They take Locksley's mini-sub down to investigate. In the water, the gang is attacked by the Loch Ness Monster, but is saved by a large magnet claw on the ship (before reaching the surface, the Loch Ness Monster knocks the submarine's sonar camera off of its hull). When they return to Blake Castle, they find Del sleeping in the Mystery Machine, who explains his van has been stolen. The Loch Ness Monster later chases the gang, Shannon and Del into a bog, where it is revealed to simply be a canvas covering Chillman’s van. Fred deduces the Loch Ness Monster to be a decoy, and sets up a trap to catch the real one.
Fred sends Shaggy and Scooby out on the loch to act as bait, while he and Del prepare to use nets to surround the cove to capture the Loch Ness Monster. A large fog appears, blocking visual contact with Shaggy and Scooby. Making matters worse, Locksley’s crew mutinies because they want to capture and sell the Loch Ness Monster, and capture Daphne, Shannon, and Locksley himself. The Loch Ness Monster attacks Shaggy and Scooby, chasing them out of the cove. Locksley’s ship attaches to the nets, dragging Del and Fred with it. The crew attempts to harpoon the Loch Ness Monster, but Daphne and Shannon distract them long enough to make them miss. Just as the Loch Ness Monster is about to attack Del, Fred, and Locksley Daphne captures it by using the ship’s magnetic claw. All of a sudden, a second Loch Ness Monster appears and gives chase to Shaggy and Scooby, but falls into a previously set trap. This monster is revealed to be a huge puppet controlled by the Haggart brothers, and the one Daphne captured is revealed to be a home-made submarine operated by Professor Pembrooke. Pembrooke used a secret entrance in her boat to go into the Loch Ness Monster and operate it. She also hired the Haggart brothers to man the second monster on the assumption that they wanted to sabotage the games, but Angus and Colin reveal that they just wanted to do it as a prank. Velma explains that Pembrooke’s plan was to use her machine to convince Locksley the real monster existed, and enlist his aide in finding it.
The next day, the games begin on schedule, but Locksley calls everyone to his ship to look at new pictures of the monster that his mini-sub's sunken (and yet obviously still working) camera had taken, at a depth well below what a ramshackle home-made submarine like Pembrooke's could survive. These, plus three other photos that Pembrooke had taken several days earlier are enough to convince him that the Loch Ness Monster might be real. The film ends with the gang leaving Blake Castle, during which Velma admits that she is actually glad they didn't find out if the Loch Ness Monster was real. Velma's reason for this being, "Some mysteries are best left unsolved." The final scene shows Scooby briefly seeing what could be the real Loch Ness Monster swimming by them in the water. | psychedelic, horror | train | wikipedia | Better than the last one.
Scooby Doo and the Monster of Mexico was no doubt the weakest of the modern Scooby Doo animated features.
Loch Ness Monster is a considerable improvement.This time the gang head off to Scotland to see the Highland Games and visit Blake castle, Daphne's ancestral home.
And wouldn't you know, the castle happens to be in the 'quaint' fishing village of Drumnadrochit, on the shores of Loch Ness.During their stay they meet a few interesting folks.
First there is Fiona Pembrooke, a scientist who has drowned all of her money into finding the Loch Ness Monster.Sir Ian Locksley, the boss of the National Heritage Museum of Scotland, he is staunch non-believer of Nessie.The Haggarts, the own a cozy Inn on the shores of the loch.
The sons are a couple of local jokers, always into mischief.Del Chilman, a wild, paranoid hippie dude who is convinced the monster is out there and will stop at nothing on find her.And finally, Duncan MacGubbin, the dock master who has seen Nessie too many times to count.Most of these characters are stereotypes, which gets a bit annoying as this is teaching younger audiences a load of crap and giving the wrong impression.
However if you can immune yourself to it you'll be alright.
Being from Scotland I can't help but wince at the awfully mimicked Scottish accents.
Fact: We DON'T sound like that.Soon enough Nessie, looking rather more demonic than 'usual', shows up and causes havoc.
Looks like the gang have another mystery on their hands.
The usual chase scenes, clues and Shaggy's wacky disguises follow.
There are plenty of laughs.
The animation is splendid, with some atmospheric scenes and locations.
And the plot a lot better than Monster of Mexico.The only bad thing this time around is the music.
I miss Louis Febre's scoring and the songs here are pretty rotten too.
Where are the Hex Girls when you need 'em?The region 2 DVD is in crystal clear 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen (the region 1 ain't) with Dolby 5.0 sound.
Some okay extras are included.
Definitely worth getting..
the best Scooby Doo adventure yet.
good job.that's how i would describe this animated Scooby-Doo adventure.this is so far the best of the animated Scooby movies i have seen.i liked the story.i thought it had some depth to to it.the movie is also well paced.it doesn't get boring for a minute.it also has an interesting group of characters(besides Scooby and Shaggy and the gang,of course)plus,the movie was a real blast.i has a lot of fun watching it.i also liked the great Scottish music.it was very catchy and infectious.naturally,we know that Scooby and the Gamg will solve the mystery,but it's still fun getting to that point.the animation is also pretty good for this movie.i would love it if they did a 3D animation Scooby adventure,but we'll just have to wait and see.for me,Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness monster is a 7/10.
An entertaining Scooby Doo film - this time animated.
One of quite a few cartoon Scooby Doo films, "Scooby Doo and the Loch Ness Monster" turns out to be entertaining, exciting, interesting, funny and also does a surprisingly good interpretation of the Highlands of Scotland.
One annoying aspect of the film is the voices of many of the characters - American people trying to sound Scottish in this film are unfortunately not succeeding all that well (although some people do better Scottish accents than others).Daphne has come to the Highlands to see her cousin Shannon and the Highland games at Blake Castle.
Gravely Shannon tells the gang that she believes to have seen the Loch Ness Monster.
When yet more chaos arises, the Mystery Inc Gang have another mystery on their hands...Good for Scooby Doo fans and for people who want to find out more about Scotland!
Enjoy "Scooby Doo and the Loch Ness Monster"!
Love or hate it, you'll know before you start watching.
My son Adam (5 years old) is a big Scooby Doo fan.
He like this film a lot.
He particularly liked when the Loch Ness monster tried to attack Shaggy and Scooby.
The vote score is his choice and reflects his love of the characters.Having seen the "Vampire Rock" film first, this, not surprisingly, was very similar as they repeat a well worn basic plot in a different setting.Few adults will come across this without having their own memories of the TV cartoon series and even fewer will watch it without children.
You either like this or love it.
I loved Scooby Doo for half an hour as a kid, I am happy my son loves it, I can just about put up with it now..
An Honest Review.
Wow, Scooby Doo made a come back.First of all, the little references they make in the film are enough to hold an adult's attention and enough to give you the "we are doping a parody of pop culture with this again" kind of feel.......if now a King/Rice thing like the first two new movies, at least full of references that are throw backs for old Scooby fans.And then, well, there is the whole Monster deal, the curse deal, tyhe back to the Spooky roots deal.If the others failed, Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster is where they rebounded and took over the game again..
Scooby Doo and the Loch Ness Monster is a considerable improvement on Scooby Doo and the Monster of Mexico!.
Monster of Mexico I do agree is the weakest of the modern Scooby Doo movies, mainly because of the weak plot and how predictable it all was.
Loch Ness Monster however, is a considerable improvement, with gorgeous animation, honestly Scotland looked beautiful.
The music is good, and the plot is well thought out.
Plus, there is some great dialogue, and the voice acting was fabulous, with Casey Kasem a consistent delight as Shaggy, and the beautiful Scottish singer Sheena Easten a pleasant surprise in a guest starring role.
In fact, my only complaints were some strange accents in one or two members of the voice cast, with the exception of Easten whose accent did sound genuine, and somehow the Loch Ness Monster wasn't as well designed as it had potential to be.
Overall, a solid and enjoyable Scooby Doo film.
8/10 Bethany Cox. Stop trying to act Scottish.
Terrible Scottish accents.
Music and accents were more Irish.
Salamanders don't live in Scotland.
There were more errors that could have been avoided had the writers actually educated themselves about Scotland.
Dull.
Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster (2004) ** (out of 4) Scooby and the gang head off to Scotland to see family members when the legendary sea creature shows up.
This here is a minor step up over Legend of the Vampire but it still falls short when compared to the TV show.
The animation is a little better here and even the voices seem more energetic this time out.
Also worth mentioning is that there are some fun supporting characters and the mystery is decent.
Once again the big problem is that the film is so dumbed down that it's hard to get too involved..
It is cool, daddy-o!.
Me and mummy were watching 'Scooby Doo and the Loch Ness Monster' in the TV, when a dinosaur came along to me and mummy.
Mummy ran away, but I laughed and made the dinosaur go away, by pointing my remote control at it, and hitting the eject button, which ejected me and mummy back out of the TV and into the sitting room, where we had a cup of tea waiting for us brewed by Daddy.
Daddy parped.
Mummy laughed, because of her sense of humour, and banged her head.
This made mummy sad, but I laughed so much that mummy laughed too.
Then Daddy parped so much he nearly killed himself.
"Sumbulumba!" I said, "Woe" said daddy, and sipped his tea contentedly..
What happened to Scooby?.
So far with the made-for-video Scooby movies made since 1998, I kinda liked "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island," I really liked "Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost," I didn't care much for "Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders," and I also liked "Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase." After that, Warner Bros.
Animation switched doing the movies in a retro format that was faithful to the original "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" TV series, with the original voice cast, animation style, classic sound effects and remakes of the old Scooby-Doo background music.
As a result, I loved "Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire," and I also really liked "Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico." Unfortunately around the same time, a new Scooby series was made that was based off the 1998-2001 made-for-video Scooby movies with plot styles from the original series, "What's New, Scooby-Doo?" and was a mockery to the franchise, until "Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue" came around in 2006.
For some reason, starting with this movie, they began doing Scooby-Doo movies that were basically 70-minute episodes of "What's New, Scooby-Doo?" While the plot is rather mediocre, and the animation isn't that great, and they drastically cut down the use of the old H-B sound effects (which was also done with the 1998-2001 movies and the "What's New" TV series).
Thomas Chase's music is pretty decent, I liked his "Dexter's Laboratory" compositions, and here it sounded like they used a real orchestra instead of synthesizers like on "What's New?" And they also went and changed Daphne and Velma's voice actors back to Grey DeLisle and Mindy Cohn.
Frank Welker still voices Scooby here, and Scooby doesn't say much, like he has in the series and post-2002 movies, maybe because Welker's Scooby-Doo does not sound as close to the original (he sounds more like Brain from DiC's "Inspector Gadget") I thought Del Chillman was an amusing character, though.
However, the actual monster, though it was a fake, seemed to be animated in a pretty dark manner, which could probably scare younger viewers, which the 2002-2003 movies and the post-2005 films have been avoiding (this is what "Zombie Island" was criticized for!) So this movie was not only different from the last two in animation and audio, it's also darker as well.
If you're a die-hard Scooby-Doo fan, it's worth watching on Cartoon Network or renting, but if you must collect the movies, that is when it's worth buying.
I'm not sure if this film is suitable for kids under eight years old, though..
Scooby Doo triumphs again.
After not being such a big fan of the previous installment into the Scooby Doo movie series (The Monster of Mexico), this movie was a giant step in the right direction.
I thought everything in this movie was very well done, not only the plot, but the voice acting, and the jokes as well.Everyone knows the story of the Lochness Monster, which is where this movie takes place, in Scotland.
Daphne's cousin runs the Lochness games, which is in fact terrorized by the Lochness monster, and the rest of the movie is spent trying to view, and capture the reptilian beast, yet Scooby and Shaggy don't seem to have a problem finding him.
I definitely do not want to give away anymore of the movie, but I can say that it was very enjoyable, and funny right up until the end, as the jokes in these movies seem to be getting funnier and funnier, as well as the plot deeper and deeper.After enjoying 19 years of Scooby Doo, I can safely say I find the shows better than ever and can not wait until the next movie....
Not bad I guess.
I watched this movie and I can say that while it is still a good Scooby-Doo cartoon it is not the greatest but it is way better than Scooby-Doo and the legend of the vampire and is an improvement from Scooby-Doo and the monster of Mexico, but it just doesn't compare to some of the old Scooby-Doo cartoons like Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island but still gives me the smile I want when I watch a Scooby-Doo cartoon.
In this cartoon you are guaranteed many laughs, many good twists and turns, I found it was a bit dragged out but nothing to bad, it also has a semi-predictable ending, but you will definitely enjoy it no matter how old you are.Scooby and the gang travel to Scotland to join Daphne's cousin Shannon Blake for the very first highland games, it was going to be a great time for Scooby-Doo, Fred, Velma, Daphne, and Shaggy but they high they hear the story of the legendary Loch Ness monster and begin to get curious.
During the gangs very first night while staying in Scotland Shaggy and Scooby decide to get a late night snack from the kitchen, while searching through every scary hallway they come face to face with Nessy her self and they are put in a terrifying chase that they will not soon forget.
After Scooby-Doo and Shaggy are safe from the Loch Ness monster they tell the rest of the gang what happened and they are immediately on the case.
Along the way they are met with classic and funny gags, lots of clever twist and turns, but the story can seem a little dragged out but still enjoyable, the ending I found was predictable but many may not find it predictable.The plot and setting once again return to the old classic Scooby-Doo where by the end we find out that there was a person behind the mystery the whole time.
It still brings back the old feelings and that one of the things I like most about this cartoon.The storyline the movie follows is not bad, it gives us a good and original mystery, many good and funny gags that always gives a smile, good twists and turns apart from the ending which was kind of predictable, while the story is a little dragged out it is still entertaining and enjoyable.Once again this cartoon has all star voice cast such as: Frank Welker as Fred and Scooby-Doo, Mindy Cohn as Velma, Grey Delisle as Daphne, and Casye Kasem as Shaggy.
All the voice actors do a great job at the character they are playing.Overall this is a good Scooby-Doo cartoon still not the best but definitely a step up from the previous Scooby-Doo cartoons.
When the movie ended I still had the smile I started out with and I am still and always will be a huge Scooby-Doo fan.
So make sure you rent or buy Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness monster as it is not the best but it is still guaranteed entertainment and enjoyment for people of all ages.Overall rating: ******* out of ********** ***1/2 out of ***** |
tt0271219 | Tadpole | Oscar Grubman (Aaron Stanford) is a 15-year-old boy, portrayed as mature beyond his years, traveling home from school for Thanksgiving. He speaks fluent French, quotes Voltaire and finds girls of his own age to be inexperienced in life. When an attractive girl from his school, Miranda Spear (Kate Mara), who is obviously interested in him, approaches Oscar, he politely brushes her off. Oscar confides in his friend Charlie (Robert Iler) that he is in love with a mature woman and plans to win her heart during Thanksgiving break.
Oscar arrives at the apartment of his father, Columbia University history professor and author, Stanley Grubman (John Ritter), and stepmother, the passionate cardiologist, Eve (Sigourney Weaver). That evening, the Grubmans hold a party where Stanley introduces him to a girl of his age, but Oscar rebuffs her as well while staring at the object of his affection: his stepmother.
Oscar tries to open up to her, but the unsuspecting Eve doesn't pick up on any of his advances. Stanley tells him to walk the girl home, but he hails her a cab. Depressed from his failure with the older woman, Oscar goes to a bar and gets drunk. He bumps into Eve's best friend, chiropractor Diane Lodder (Bebe Neuwirth), who offers to take him to her own apartment seeing his current condition. Once there, Diane begins to massage him and they end up having sex. Oscar wakes the next morning and has an awkward encounter with Diane's boyfriend, Phil.
Back at home, Oscar plans a surprise lunch for Eve but first Stanley inquires about where Oscar spent the night. Oscar makes up a story about meeting Miranda Spear from school. He brings lunch to Eve at her lab, where he opens up to her once more, pondering the use of the heart as a symbol for affection. Together they decide that the liver should be the new symbol for love.
Their conversation is interrupted by a phone call from Stanley, who mentions that Diane will be joining them for dinner. Worried that Diane will tell Eve about their tryst, Oscar finds Diane at a tea room with several of her friends. All act as though they know about the previous evening, and most of the women twice his age flirt with him. Oscar makes Diane promise to keep last night a secret from Stanley and especially Eve.
At dinner, Diane drinks and behaves coyly. She plays footsie with Oscar and flirts with him in French. After she excuses herself from the table, Oscar follows to confront her. She kisses him while not being totally out of Stanley's view, after which Diane admits to Stanley and Eve that she and Oscar are lovers.
The next day, Diane explains to Eve that she found Oscar a charming young man. Eve condemns her for seducing a mere 15-year-old, but Diane says many women would have done the same, including perhaps Eve. Later that day, Eve and Oscar play a tense round of tennis, lobbing insults at each other, ending up with Oscar getting hit in the head with a ball. Oscar explains to Eve that he only did what he did with Diane because he was drunk and she was wearing Eve's scarf. Eve immediately understands that he is in love with her. They share a passionate kiss but Eve eventually breaks away.
At the end of Thanksgiving break, Eve and Stanley take Oscar to the train. Eve asks Oscar how his liver feels and he replies that it hurts, but is not broken. She also tells him how much she loves his father. On the train, Oscar meets up with Charlie, and runs into Miranda. Miranda quotes Voltaire, "If we do not find something pleasant at least we will find something new," and looks longingly at Oscar. Charlie notices this and Oscar tells Charlie that Miranda smells nice. Charlie asks about Eve and Oscar states that his obsession with Eve was not as important as it seemed. Charlie doesn't understand his friend, but Oscar smiles as the train rolls on. | psychedelic, philosophical | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0055214 | The Naked Edge | In the aftermath of a theft and murder, Martha Radcliffe (Deborah Kerr) increasingly suspects her husband George Radcliffe (Gary Cooper), whose testimony in court convicted the main suspect, of being the real culprit.
Businessman Jason Root (Martin Boddey) is stabbed to death on a night when George and a clerk named Donald Heath (Ray McAnally) are the only other employees working at the office. A mailbag full of money is stolen in the process. George sees Heath in the Boiler Room when he runs after the murderer right after he hears Root crying after being stabbed; George, who is seen sweating nervously both during the trial and later, insists that Heath must have been the murderer, and Heath is convicted. Several years later a lost mailbag is found and the Radcliffes receive a letter long delayed that was in the bag. The letter, which Martha reads, contains a blackmail threat from Jeremy Gray (Eric Portman) accusing George of the crime.
As the story unfolds, clues pointing to George quickly accumulate. These include a new business he started soon after the trial, using money that he claims to have made in the stock market; his own desperate desire for success; his lying to his wife in order to secretly search for Gray; the suspicious new business with an unknown man, Morris Brooke (Michael Wilding) right after the trial; and Gray's claim, when Martha finds him, that he was an eyewitness to the crime and George was the murderer.
George and Martha repeatedly have conversations in which she vacillates between questioning him and insisting she believes in his innocence, and he alternates between insisting that she believe in him and telling her to make up her own mind. Tension is built by the repeated appearance of George's old-style shaving razor, his insistence that she join him at the edge of a cliff, references to his masculine virility, and his warning that her investigation could threaten his business.
At the conclusion, a man tries to kill Martha after being seen sharpening George's razor. The man turns out to be Gray. George rescues his wife just in time and subdues Gray as the police arrive. | murder | train | wikipedia | Cooper and Kerr in a Hitchcock-Like that is Hitchcock-Lite.
Michael Anderson's 1961 thriller, "The Naked Edge," is a nicely done mystery that echoes Hitchcock's "Suspicion" in many respects.
Although looking tired as Radcliffe, Cooper manages, like Cary Grant in "Suspicion," to maintain his nice-guy image, while suggesting something darker and enigmatic.
Kerr is at the center of the film as clues surface, her suspicions grow, and she seeks the truth behind both the murder and her husband's inexplicable behavior.A stellar cast of stalwart British actors support the stars; led by Hermione Gingold and the priceless Wilfred Lawson, the list includes Michael Wilding, Peter Cushing, Eric Porter, and Diane Cilento.
While Anderson is not Hitchcock, and "The Naked Edge" is not "Suspicion," the director manages to maintain a brisk pace, build tension and suspense, and reach an exciting and satisfying climax.Well done throughout, "The Naked Edge" will grip viewers and keep them absorbed to the end and beyond, when a voice-over warns the audience not to divulge the ending.
Of interest for more than just a great American star's final role or for another opportunity to admire the always radiant Deborah Kerr, the film is a taut thriller that delivers.
Not-bad adaptation of Max Ehrlich's novel "First Train to Babylon" turned out to be Gary Cooper's final film (he died before its release).
An American Air Freight sales manager in London testifies against a fellow employee in a murder/robbery trial; five years later, with the manager and his spouse now living in luxury, the wife begins to suspect that her husband was the killer the entire time.
Hurt by a seemingly lower-end budget--and by a script that doesn't always make sense--this is still a most unusual project for Cooper, who manages a fine performance.
Deborah Kerr stays wide-eyed and white-knuckled throughout as Cooper's wife; she's also quite good, though the godawful shlock music by William Alwyn underlines all of her suspicions with a thundering of drums that could wake the dead.
The suspense of this film evokes the work of Alfred Hitchcock.
Creative shot selection (especially the preparation of the wife's death), fine performances (especially from Deborah Kerr), and a compelling plot create an entertaining movie experience, 7/10.
Deborah Kerr is torn asunder by her increasingly agonizing suspicion of her husband Gary Cooper as a murderer..
In Gary Cooper's last performance you can see that he is almost washed up, acting like an old age Roark (from 'The Fountainhead') stiffer than ever with very little stamina left, while fortunately Deborah Kerr makes up for it completely in her superb rendering of a married lady who just can't make things add up, wavering between an increasing suspicion of her husband's possibly having committed an heinous murder while at the same time refusing to believe it could be true.
The film begins with the murder trial with Gary Cooper sweating from the beginning, he himself can't make things quite fit while he is perfectly convinced that he couldn't be wrong, while the triumph of the film is the very clever story.
By the accumulating inconsistencies a suspense is mercilessly built up and increased all the way to the bitter end in a virtuoso thriller more like Hitchcock than any Hitchcock.
The real turning point though is the marvellous scene with Diane Cilento as the victim's wife, whom Deborah Kerr visits with traumatic consequences, which really triggers her suspicion and conviction that nothing in this story fits.
The last film of Gary Cooper is an enjoyable thriller-drama.
But this one kept my attention from beginning to end.The story is about a man(Cooper) who's a witness to a murder and thanks to whose testimony the killer is locked away.
Years later, Cooper's wife(Kerr) starts to suspect her husband.
Cooper is very good in his last role as the husband, but Kerr was less convincing as his wife.
But if you don't like old films, this is a good movie to help you with that.
From there we are taken through a very suspenseful ride in trying to figure out wether a woman is right in suspecting her husband for murder, accusing the wrong man for murder, or covering up for the murderer.
Gary Cooper's last film is a Hitchcock like tale of a man who wrongly identifies the killer of his boss during a robbery.
Years later a mail pouch that was lost during another robbery and a blackmail letter is delivered to Cooper.
Wife Deborah Kerr now thinks her husband did it and becomes fearful.This sounds a lot like Hitchcock's Suspicion and in fact the whole film is a case of Hitchcock wannabe.
It utilizes innovative camera and editing techniques that echo Alfred Hitchcock's scary scenes from Psycho, alludes to sex in a way few films had been able to do since the fall of the Hays Code, and put the word "naked" in the title!
Years later, he's a successful businessman, and he and his wife Deborah Kerr are living a life of luxury.
Although Deborah's character isn't written to be the smartest tool in the shed, she does a good job exuding her fear and doubt without turning it into a melodrama.
This is the only movie I've seen where Gary Cooper plays a bad guy!
There's a scene where Deborah Kerr gets lost and when she runs up and down the streets, the camera is hand-held.
Gary Cooper's last movie and unfortunately not one of his best.
In many cases the music is aided by quick and ultra-sharp close-ups that makes you think that your seeing a Mel Brooks comedy of an Alfred Hitchcock film like the 1977 movie "High Anxiety".
Gary Cooper in his last movie, before he died on May 13, 1961, looks drawn and tired as George Radcliffe a witness to the murder of his boss Jason Roote, Martin Boddey,and the robbery of 60,000 pound-sterling from the London office of the Jason Roote Air-Fright corp where he works.
Radcliffe seems to be hiding something about the crime that happened at the Jason Roote office from his wife Martha, Deborah Kerr.
That's the main core of the story in the movie "The Naked Edge" but you have to suffer through almost 90 minutes of ridicules Hitchcock-like dramatics to get to the truth in the last ten minutes or so of the movie which, the films totally contrived ending, didn't seem worth sitting through.
Even top stars like Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr as well as Eric Portman and Peter Cushing couldn't save this turkey.
We see at the start of the movie George Radcliffe testify about a murder and robbery at the Jason Roote office in a weird dream-like flash-back where Roote is murdered, off-screen.
Watching the film is like going 15 rounds in the ring with a 30 year-old Rocky Marciano that in the end leaves you totally punch-drunk from the pounding to your five senses that the movie gives you.
The blasts of music and eye-popping close-ups as well as the strain on your brain make any kind of sense of what your seeing on the screen moot.A key piece of evidence shows up five years after the Roote murder that's in a letter that was lost in the mail addressed to Radcliffe that's being used to blackmail him for the crime.
Radcliffe also came into a large sum of money just after the Roote murder which he tells his confused and surprised wife Martha that he made in a "Killing" in the stock market.
You sit through the rest of the movie wondering if Radcliffe did or did not kill Jason Roote and stole the 60,000 in pound-sterling.
The really off-the-wall and obnoxious ending in the movie is far worse then the murder/robbery in the film "The Naked Edge".
There is a stylistic feel to this film, a clever use of dark and light tones and an impressive use of camera angles and close ups which does give more than a nod towards Hitchcock, though perhaps at times it is a little overdone.
It draws you in and holds you tight until the end.I thought Cooper and Kerr were well matched and that Kerr played exactly the woman the character would have to be, i.e sheltered, very frightened, way out of her depth and near suicidal.I thought the scene where she's watching a concert on TV was particularly telling, I felt that she's waiting there, expecting Cooper to come and kill her, indeed, surrendering to this fate as the only way out.
That's why she has the TV so loud, so she can't hear him approaching and to drown out her own thoughts.The scene where she's desperately trying to get out of the flat blocks complex was good too; certain that her husband's the murderer she can see the outside world but can't become part of it.The tension was taut and maintained throughout.
Gary Cooper is no Cary Grant; however, the plot of the film is so compelling that it carries both of the main characters along with it.
Like Suspicion, this film depicts a wife who has grave doubts about her husband; there is even a scene quite similar to Suspicion with the drive to the dangerous steep fall.
Deborah Kerr carries it off well as his doubting wife.
The subplots in the film add to the suspense, as it appears a man has been wrongly convicted of murder from the testimony of Cooper.
A sales manager (Gary Cooper) fingers coworker (Ray McAnally) for the murder of his boss and theft of a large sum of money.
After the trial, Cooper tells wife Deborah Kerr that he is purchasing a business with a large sum of money he made from a killing in the market.
With the prodding of blackmailer Eric Portman, Kerr grows increasingly suspicious that her husband was guilty of the murder and theft.
Cooper was horribly miscast: He was too old for this role - he looked ridiculous next to Kerr discussing how they were struggling to make it.
Nevertheless, the cast is good and turned in fine performances with the exception of Cooper, who struggled with the dialog, and Michael Wilding who is mostly wasted.
All I knew was that Gary Cooper's (his last film) character was witness to a murder while working late in his office one night and that his wife (Deborah Kerr in a really bad performance) suspected that he did it.
I believe that there was just no comparing this film to "Psycho" that it didn't even make "Psycho"'s shock grade, except maybe for the murder scene at the very beginning.
I don't know if Gary Cooper was ill at the time of the shooting but his performance is very wooden and lifeless.
This was easily one of the worst films I have sat all the way through.While Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr did the best they could with a repetitive, unimaginative script, the two stars lacked chemistry which didn't help.Further holding back the film was the laughable music, an early instance of music telling people exactly what to think, feel and expect.The directing was uninspired, etc.
When the film begins, George Radcliffe (Gary Cooper) is in court testifying in a murder case.
Another man is subsequently convicted of the murder and the story jumps ahead several years.
Well, instead of going to the police like any sane woman, she whines and way, way overacts for the entire rest of the film and I don't think I've ever seen Deborah Kerr more shrill and awful.
The problem is that NOTHING IS HAPPENING in these scenes and the music is totally inappropriate!!!"The Naked Edge" could have been a very good film.
No, the problem is something that I would pin on three things...and sadly, it's Gary Cooper's last film and he deserved better.With different music and a different actress (or different direction) it could have easily earned an 8 or possibly a 9.
Gary Cooper's swan song gives Deborah Kerr the chance to shine.
Those who think Gary Cooper (who might well have suspected his days were numbered as he'd just undergone an op for prostate cancer) turns in less than his usual powerful performance are incorrect in my view.
True, his role lumbers him with having to respond to his wife's perfectly reasonable suspicions in a way that is consistently ambiguous, and one might argue he feels hurt that he should have to explain his innocence to someone who should trust him implicitly, so he's purposely evasive — except he's already argued against that very position early in the film, accepting that sometimes one can demand proof even where convention dictates it shouldn't be necessary.
The obvious conclusion is that it was a plot device to keep him firmly in the frame for the murder throughout.Yes, the music is rather blaring and obvious at times - a common feature of British thrillers in the '50s/'60s.
Perhaps the style was what was ordered, and not entirely of his own choosing.This is a must-see for fans of Gary Cooper and of Deborah Kerr, who here is both radiantly beautiful, and effective in her role.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie which, like many Hitchcock films, has some creaky moments and plot inconsistencies, but certainly keeps the tension going right to the end..
***** Mild Spoilers Ahead *****"The Naked Edge" is the last film that the famous American actor Gary Cooper was in, wrapping up a career which lasted for over thirty years.In "The Naked Edge", Gary Cooper portrays a business man who has been accused, but acquitted of murder.
His wife(Deborah Kerr) opens a letter which contains blackmail threats against her husband.
Her husband is aware of her conclusion and it begins to look as if he may kill her too!Deborah Kerr, as usual, delivers a terrific performance.
Gary Cooper does his best with the dialogue and the role he is given, but it isn't enough to make this film believable to the discerning viewer.
The dialogue between the characters is contrived to leave every situation open to the possibility that Gary Cooper is the murderer.
The film would have turned out better if the director would have been stabbed instead of the victim in the movie!
It's not nice to patronize your audience when you are making a serious mystery or suspense film.
It's too bad, because both principal actors, Deborah Kerr and Gary Cooper deserved better.
Let's just say it takes melodramatic background music in a film to new lows.It's a shame I can't give this movie a better review because I so wanted to like it.
Thankfully, the superb acting talents of Deborah Kerr and Gary Cooper can be seen in many other great movies which they starred in.
The plot was interesting and intelligent, and I am glad Gary Cooper turned out to be the good guy after all!
Deborah Kerr was beautiful, ladylike and stylish and with that kind, innocent quality, as always.I like movies about moral questions, that make me think "what would I have done?".
Today I would probably have turned a blind eye, kept quiet, not risked the good life I had finally achieved (or rather: that my husband had achieved for me), and the life with the man I loved.
The film stars Gary Cooper, Deborah Kerr, Diane Cilento, Ray McAnally, Peter Cushing and Eric Portman.This is a cracking thriller, filled with plenty of tension and good performances.
The film struck me as being very similar to Hitchcock's Suspicion, focusing on the wife beginning to doubt her husband and fear for own safety a little.George Radcliffe(Gary Cooper)witnesses a murder and robbery.
Donald Heath(Ray McAnally)is arrested for the crime, he strongly insists that he is innocent but at the end of the trial he is found guilty and sent to prison.Some time later Radcliffe's wife Martha(Deborah Kerr)receives a blackmail letter which claims George was the killer.
Up until the final scene we're not sure just how innocent or guilty George is and that adds to the suspense and tension the film builds up.
Cooper plays the character in a way that you can see guilt if you look for it, you can also see innocence too and you're never entirely sure what to make of him.Cooper and Kerr are excellent, I think it's a real shame that they never made other films together.
Diane Cilento is very good as the wife of Heath, she knows her man is innocent and will stand by him no matter what, she believes George is the real killer.
Eric Portman is creepy as the mysterious blackmailer.I think the music spoils the film, it is much too loud and intrusive in scenes where music wasn't needed.
A visually elegant psychological mystery thriller, with stylish direction by Michael Anderson, an intelligent script by Joseph Stefano, and strong performances by two acting legends, Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr.
William Alwyn's music almost turn the story into a parody of a suspense movie -- "The Naked Gun" rather than "The Naked Edge." It's awful.But it's concordant with the direction by Michael Anderson.
All this, and more, foments uncertainty in the mind of his wife, Deborah Kerr, who -- and I hate to use this expression -- is as lovely as she's ever been.
Cooper began spending money to buy property a year after the murder and theft.
Anyone could understand my account, despite the rusty stains of dried blood and the gloss of vulgar expressions.The performances are professional enough, although it's difficult to watch someone like Gary Cooper acting not just like a murderer but like a particularly dumb one.
** A silly film - but being an ardent admirer of Deborah Kerr please be warned of my total biased feelings towards her **.
Other than that she gives her best of what there is of the film - including being married to the usual wooden unsmiling Gary Cooper which was a silly movie-miss-match in my opinion, almost as silly as his 'marriage' to Grace Kelly in 'High Noon'.
As Ms Kerr oozes class Gary Cooper looks lost without his shred of straw dangling from his mouth. |
tt0369994 | Strangers with Candy | The series' main character, Geraldine Antonia "Jerri" Blank (played by Amy Sedaris), was a "junkie whore"/runaway returning to high school as a freshman at age 46 at the fictional Flatpoint High School (home of the Concrete Donkeys) in the town of Flatpoint.
Created and written by Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, Stephen Colbert, and Mitch Rouse, the show was a spoof of the after school specials of the 1970s and 1980s and was also inspired, at least in part, by a 1970 public service film, The Trip Back, that featured a reformed drug addict named Florrie Fisher (see "Origin" below). Sedaris, Colbert, Dinello, and Rouse were cast members of the short-lived Comedy Central series Exit 57; they, along with Greg Hollimon and many other stars of the series, were also alumni of Chicago's Second City comedy troupe.
According to the show's animated introduction, Jerri ran away from home and became "a boozer, a user, and a loser" after dropping out of high school as a teenager, supporting her drug habits through prostitution, stripping, and larceny. She has been to prison several times, the last time because she, in her words, "stole the TV."
Every episode featured a theme or moral lesson, although the lessons were often amoral or warped; in an episode about eating disorders, Jerri learns that it is acceptable to become bulimic because it will get people to pay attention to you. When Jerri's father passes away in the episode "The Goodbye Guy," Jerri learns the valuable lesson, "You never really 'lose' your parents. Unless of course they die. Then they're gone forever. And nothing will bring them back." In another episode, "Bully", Jerri learned that "violence really isn't the only way to resolve a conflict, but it's the only way to win it."
Each episode ends with the cast and other featured actors from the episode dancing. | comedy, satire | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0067321 | La figlia di Frankenstein | Somewhere in Western-Central Europe in the 1860s, a trio of grave robbers, led by a man named Lynch (Herbert Fux), deliver a corpse to Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotten) and his assistant Dr. Marshall (Paul Müller), for obvious reanimation purposes.
Baron Frankenstein's daughter Tania (Rosalba Neri) arrives from school, having completed her studies in medicine, and is greeted by her father and his young servant, the handsome but mildly retarded Thomas (Marino Masé). Tania reveals to her father that she has always understood his work with "animal transplants" to be a cover for his work reanimating corpses, and that she intends to follow in his footsteps and help him in his work.
The next day, Frankenstein, Tania, and Marshall witness the execution of a criminal who is hanged down a well, Frankenstein and Marshall both have an eye toward harvesting the criminal's body for their experimentation. Law enforcement agent Captain Harris (Mickey Hargitay) arrives to harass Lynch at the hanging. Harris claims to be on to Lynch's grave robbing.
That evening, having harvested salient body parts, Frankenstein and Marshall successfully reanimate a gruesome giant corpse with a scarred, misshapen head (Peter Whiteman) as Tania secretly watches. Almost instantly,however, this monster bear-hugs Frankenstein to death - breaking his back - then walks out of the castle. Tania and Marshall report the murder to Harris, but claim that it was a burglar. Harris points out that according their description, the burglar would be over seven feet tall.
The monster, roaming the countryside, comes across a couple having sex out in the open, and after scaring away the man, picks up the woman, who screams and then faints. The monster then carries her later body and drops it into a river, and when the body is later found two men, the monster kills one by breaking his neck. After Harris questions Lynch, and Lynch refuses Tania's offer for more grave-robbing work, the monster breaks into Lynch's home while he is having sex with a local whore, and kills Lynch by beating him to death. The monster then kills a local farmer and his wife, and Lynch's two grave-robbing friends.
Tania then goads Marshall into admitting harboring romantic feelings for her. She responds to his affections, but says that while Marshall's body is old, she finds the body of Thomas young and attractive. The "solution" to this situation will be to transplant Marshall's brilliant brain into the brain-damaged Thomas's young healthy body. To accomplish this, Tania seduces Thomas into having sex while Marshall secretly watches, and Marshall kills him with a pillow during their lovemaking.
Tania then successfully transplants Marshall's brain into Thomas's body. Thomas now speaks with Marshall's voice and his body has become inhumanly strong as well. Meanwhile, Frankenstein's monster has continued to terrorize the town, and the local villagers, having had enough, arrive with torches and pitchforks to destroy the castle by setting it on fire. In the chaos, the monster returns, knocks down Harris, and has a fight with Marshall/Thomas, who cuts off his arm. When the monster bear-hugs Marshall/Thomas, Tania stabs him in the back with a sword, and Marshall/Thomas kills him by puncturing his head open with a metal handtool. The monster is defeated, but Tania has made it clear that she has no allegiance to Marshall.
Harris arrives with Thomas's sister Julia (Renate Kasché) to see Tania and Marshall/Thomas naked and enjoying post-fight sexual intercourse as the castle burns beside them. However, during their lovemaking, Marshall/Thomas chokes Tania to death as the flames of the fire consumes them. | revenge | train | wikipedia | It's as good a reason as any I've heard in a movie for creating a monster.I've always thought that Lady Frankenstein was better than its reputation suggests.
Lady Frankenstein comes across to me as an Italian Hammer-style film - rich, vibrant colors, nice Gothic touches, attention to details, and a lot of fake looking blood.
Joseph Cotten, Rosalba Neri, Paul Muller, and even Mickey Hargitay give performances that are as good as most any other Italian horror film of the period.
After her father's death, played by Joseph Cotton who must be wondering how the hell he's gone from Citizen Kane to cheap euro-horror, by the hands of the Baron's creation with a brain supplied by a man that eerily resembles Patrick Swayze circa Point Break, the nubile doctor Tania Frankenstein becomes determined to advance in her father's morbid work.
At that time , nothing interested me more than Rosalba Neri's outstanding appeal to the senses , though I was still a young boy - this shows the extent to which Rosalba's beauty could be really something very special.Upon seeing it a second time just a few months ago , I came to discover that it's more than a movie with a really sexy actress in it.What struck me most was the atmosphere of the film , which makes you feel as though you were living in that very village and castle , among those people each of whom seems to want to hide something.The only week point , I found is Joseph Cotten's performance as Baron Frankenstein - maybe because I've seen him in some of his earlier , and much better parts.As for Rosalba Neri , I can simply say that she is incredible .Her strong desire to create a more powerful monster than the one her father did , and her unflinching determination to carry on her task till the end give to the character of Tania a strength that I've never felt in any of Rosalba's many other performances..
She carries this movie pretty much by herself--Joseph Cotton is good as her father but he is killed off early, and Mickey Hargitay isn't bad but is horribly miscast as a 19th century police detective.
Mel Welles, you might remember him as Mr. Mushnick in Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors, directs this somewhat interesting yet wholly twisted tale of Dr. Frankenstein's daughter carrying on her father's work after his death and creating a creature not for its intellectual ability or its likelihood to be/do good but rather for its sex appeal.
You see, Tania Frankenstein, though a doctor and scientist in her own right, is concerned with really nothing more than satiating her primal desires for the stable boy and making some super sex slave by using his body with the excellent brain of a man she does not love.
Baron Frankenstein (who is played by Joseph Cotten here) has a beautiful daughter in this film, and young Lady Frankenstein (Rosalba Neri) is just as dedicated to recreate life as her father is...
When Baron Frankenstein is killed by a monster he created,his daughter Tania and his lab assistant Marshall continue his experiments.The two fall in love and attempt to transplant Marshall's brain in to the muscular body of a retarded servant Stephen,in order to prolong the aging Marshall's life.Meanwhile,the first monster seeks revenge on the grave robbers who sold the body parts used in its creation to Dr.Frankenstein.Soon it comes after Marshall and the doctor's daughter...Inspired by the Universal horror films,looking like Gothic Hammer films and containing a fair dose of European style blood and nudity "Lady Frankenstein" is an enjoyable horror film with a bit of romance thrown in.Gothic sets for Frankenstein's castle are certainly impressive and incredibly sensual Queen of Italian Horror,Rosalba Neri is a joy to look at.I have seen the American version of the film,the original European cut runs 15 minutes longer..
Even if it means taking Mary Shelley's classic monster tale and updating the story with a feminist twist.B-movie actor Mel Welles (best known for playing Mr. Mushnik in the original LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS) directs this muddled tale of a beautiful med school graduate (Rosalba Neri) who decides to take the place of Baron Von Frankenstein by creating a monster of her own.The entire movie suffered under the guises of a low budget, and it truly shows for itself.
While the initial idea is to stop the monster, Baroness goes a secondary route in hoping to complete her father's dreams by transforming the brain of her older husband in to the body of a young man named Tom. Love, both physically and emotionally, flies rampant throughout all phases of the Baroness' plans – and even when fire, anger, and destruction surround our characters, it doesn't stop the love that they have
.literally."Lady Frankenstein" has the feel of a classic midnight movie.
That is, until I recently saw the 1971 Italian film "Lady Frankenstein" starring Rosalba Neri (AKA Sara Bey) in the title role of Tania Frankenstein, the beautiful daughter of Baron Frankenstein.So what sets "Lady Frankenstein" apart from all the other Frankenstein incarnations?
In addition, you get everything else you'd ever want in a Frankenstein picture -- sincere but sincerely mad "scientists," dungeons, monsters on the rampage, beautiful damsels, horse-drawn carriages and torch-carrying village mobs out for blood.Make no mistake, despite the limitations of being a Grade-B Italian flick from 1971 this is a powerful horror film about the insanity of obsession (for achievement, honor, love, loyalty, lust, money and revenge) and its consequences.
I recently saw this movie for the first time after reading about it previously online on various sites..............usually gets bad reviews,but I found it to be a decent movie with fair acting and great sets and costumes.The dubbing was a bit bad but after a few scenes I barely noticed at all.Joseph Cotten must have needed some cash but he played his part quite well as usual.Rosalba Neri was very good as The Lady Frankenstein,and former Mr. Universe,Mickey Hargitay was adequate as the inspector.The monster could have been better, but then again who says the monster always has to look like Karloff or Glenn Strange?
She carries out the experiments alongside Marshall, her father's assistant, but when he finds out that she can't love him because of his body, they decide to transplant his brain into a better body and have the new monster kill the original monster...I'm a big fan of Hammer's Frankenstein series, and I'm also a big fan of Italian rip-off cinema; so this is a favourable meeting of two different styles as far as I'm concerned, and indeed I enjoyed the film immensely.
Italian horror fans will also be glad to know that the film features a performance from popular American export, Joseph Cotton as Baron Frankenstein.
Although I had previously watched this one some time ago on Italian TV, I found it to be a surprisingly tolerable potboiler this time round, buoyed by an international cast of familiar faces (including a bemused Joseph Cotten as the Baron) and, contrary to many another film of the Euro-Cult sub-genre, an incident-packed plot in place of lethargic pacing.The creature itself looks a bit dodgy and Cotten is a bit too old to be taken seriously as an eager scientist still dabbling in creating life-forms out of corpses (one would have thought that he would have made himself an army of them by now and not struggling at perfecting his technique still) but Ms. Neri does look good in and out of costume and reliable Herbert Fux probably comes off best as a lecherous grave-robber/blackmailer..
Really bad Italian horror movie, a sort of remake of Hammer infamous Frankenstein must be destroyed, this time with a lady Frankenstein taking over the business from father.
Lady Frankenstein (1971) *** (out of 4) Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotten) and his assistant (Paul Muller) might have discovered the way to bring life to the dead but the doctor doesn't want his daughter Tania (Rosalba Neri) to be involved with the experiments.
Soon the monster comes to life and goes on a killing rampage, which has the daughter wanting to get into the game and clear her father's name.Mel Welles, no relation to Orson, will always be best remembered for his role in Roger Corman's THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS but he also directed this picture, which has gathered a pretty large cult following over the years.
I've always thought the large head, mutilated face look of the monster here was excellent and it's really too bad he didn't get even more action.The cast is also great fun to watch with Cotten learning from his friend Vincent Price that these types of horror movies paid well.
Fresh out of medical school and eager to prove her abilities as a "surgeon," Dr. Frankenstein's daughter (Rosalba Neri) sets out to build her own monster-to kill the one created by her late father, which is now running amok terrorizing the locals.
Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotten) and his best friend Dr. Charles Marshall (Paul Muller) are on the brink of creating life from human spare parts (provided by loathsome grave-robbers, of course), when the baron's beautiful daughter Tania (Rosalba Neri), a recently qualified surgeon, shows up at her father's castle, desperate to help him with his work.Soon after, the baron and Charles succeed in bringing their creation to life, but regret having used a damaged brain in their experiment when the monster, disfigured by fire, kills the baron and goes on a murderous rampage.
While the monster is out and about attacking the locals, Tania comes up with a brilliant idea: transplant Charles's superior brain into the perfect body of dimwitted villager Tom, thereby preserving her father's reputation whilst simultaneously providing herself with a perfect lover.Lady Frankenstein is a prime example of cheesy '70s Gothic Euro-horror, with all the trappings one expects from such a film: thunder storms, a creepy castle, a hunchback, an angry mob with flaming torches.
The movie is entertaining in its way, not great but somewhat entertaining.The film is basically the classic story of Frankenstein but with a little bit of a twist to it because Baron Frankenstein's daughter, Tania, who is a surgeon herself, is there to continue with the experiments after the monster kills her father.
Top-billed Joseph Cotten doesn't have much screen time as weary Baron Frankenstein, but that's OK, his beautiful nympho daughter Tania ("Sara Bay"/Rosalba Neri) has just returned from med school eager to contribute to her father's experiments.
After the baron's first lightning-born creation backfires in a big way (killing him and then escaping the castle to kill some grave-robbers and a few random naked women), Tania decides to redeem the family name (and make sure she is kept sexually satisfied!) by transferring the brain of her obedient, older doctor lover (Paul Muller) into the virile body of a hulking half-wit.Despite the low-grade quality of much of this production, it's still highly entertaining, genuinely fun and is blessed with a fantastic performance by the great Rosalba Neri; an engaging, vicious, demanding, sexy femme fatale who is sick of everyone treating her like a little girl, gleefully attends a public hanging and uses both her brain and her body to manipulate everyone around her to get what she wants.
For once, the advertising wasn't overstated, with the picture of the voluptuous female scientist and her creation and the tag line " Only the monster she made could satisfy her strange desires!"The real surprise of this movie is the unexpectedly straightforward and quite dramatic scenes of Joseph Cotten as Baron Frankenstein and Paul Muller as his assistant creating the monster.These are classic moments straight out of the original 1931 James Whale movie, with some obvious Hammer Films influence as well.Sarah Bay /Rosalba Neri is remarkable as the beautiful, scheming daughter of Frankenstein, determined to create her own monster and clear her father's name.
After Baron Frankenstein (a dignified portrayal by Joseph Cotten) gets killed by his hideously disfigured creation (hulking Paul Whiteman), the Baron's smart, feisty, and determined daughter Tania (ably played with devilishly sensuous aplomb by the ravishing Rosalba Neri) decides to make her own creature using the brilliant mind of her assistant and the hunky muscular body of a dim-witted servant in order to make the perfect lover and killer.
Since hearing about how much fun the Joseph Cotten Spaghetti Western The Hellbenders is,I felt that it was worth picking his Italian Gothic Horror Lady Fankenstein,and although Frankensteins monster is a bit too underused,this is still a very entertaining,low-budget Gothic Horror.The plot:After attempting for twenty year to bring back animals from the dead,Dr Fankenstein decides that with age catching up on him,it is time for him to step up his experiments and replace the animals with humans!.Having sorted an unofficial contract with a group of grave robbers,Frankenstein investes heavily in the gang,hoping the they at one point will get hold of a "fresh" corpse.Eventally his wish is granted,when the robbers bring to him a corpse that is only 6 hours old.Seeing thunderstorms gathering from above,Frankenstein dismisses the pleas from his assistant Dr Charles Marshall to check the damaged-looking brain,and to instead seize the moment.Shortly before he starts the operation,Frankenstein gets a surprise visit from his daughter:Dr Tania Frankenstein,who tells him to leave the operation,so she can attempt to help him achieve his goal in another way.Feeling that he has got to the point of no return,and also wanting to gain the success on his own,Frankenstein orders Tania to leave him and Marshall on their own.Initially thinking that his experiment has failed Fankenstein is left a bit surprised,when his creation awakes,and bear hugs him to death!.Barely escaping from being attacked himself,Marshall goes to give Tania the bad news.Whilst they both try to get to grips with what has happened,they suddenly get a knock at the door from the police,who are asking them to explain reports about a strange looking man, (who was seen leaving Dr Frankenstein's mansion)who is going around brutally killing people.Realiseing that everyone is starting to suspect that they are some how involved in the killing spree,Tania starts explaining to Marshall that the only one way to destroy her farther's monster,is to create a monster of their own.
View on the film:Looking at the "missing scenes",I feel that whilst they don't add a huge amount of extra things to the story, (such as explaining what led Dr Fankenstein to start his experiments)they do help to expand on a few small bits in the film.(such as explaining how the operations work.)Checking the screenplay credits on IMDb,I was startled to find that the film has a total of 7 writers!, (not including Mary Shelley)especially due to the film having a great screenplay,which moves at a surprisingly fast pace,with the film having a new plot turn,every 15 minutes or so.For the directing,Mel Wells and Aureliano Luppi spilt the film into two,by having the first section of the film, (which centres on Joseph Cotten's gleeful performance as Dr Fankenstein) being filmed in a good,light Gothic style,with Cotten impressively being able to make the scene where he (unknowingly) says goodbye to his daughter,be surprisingly not goofy,but instead tender.Almost from the moment of Cotten being killed by a disappointingly under-used monster,Wells and Luppi massively turn up the sleaze factor of the film,with the directors showing lead actress Rosalba Neri ravishing beauty.Although the film does risk falling into a sleaze pit,Neri always makes sure that it never falls down the pit,thanks to her, (and a warm-hearted performance from Paul Muller as Marshall) keeping the Gothic Horror elements of the film alive for its whole running time,which leads to a weird,reverse-Beauty and the Beast style ending.
Final view on the film:A very enjoyable,low-budget Gothic Horror,with a great,constantly moving screenplay and very good performances from Joseph Cotten and the under-rated,beautiful Rosalba Neri..
The twist is that Tania Frankenstein (Rosalba Neri, Lucifera: Demon Lover, Amuck!) has completed her studies in medicine and is eager to help her father with his secret work.The next day, the Frankensteins and Marshall watch a criminal be hung and run into Captain Harris (Mickey Hargitay, the former husband of Jayne Mansfield and father of actress Mariska Hargitay, who was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1980 made for TV movie The Jayne Mansfield Story), who already suspects them of graverobbing.That night, Frankenstein brings the man back to life -- a scarred, weird headed, giant-eyed beast -- who pretty much instantly hugs the Baron to death.
The flames consume them as Marshall begins to choke out Tania.Lady Frankenstein isn't a great movie, but has a great lead who can do anything a man can do, if a man wants to bring the dead back to life and have sex with their reanimated corpses.
This movie essentially begins with a man named "Baron Frankenstein" (Joseph Cotten) conducting secret experiments with his assistant "Charles Marshall" (Paul Muller).
When the Baron is killed by his latest creation, Tania & her father's assistant Dr. Charles Marshall (who has secretly become her lover) decide to make a new creature to destroy the rampaging monster.
Now husband & wife, they start work on the new creature while the police captain investigates the original monster's killing spree & begins to connect the dots leading to the doctors.The Frankenstein legend is one of horror's great stories.
From this point on, his beautiful daughter Tania (as played by the gorgeous Rosalba Neri) takes up his experiments where he left off which makes for an unusual slant on the story, loaded with themes of death and, most prominently, sex.
Dr. Frankenstein (Joseph Cotton!) is making a monster when his daughter Tania (Rosalba Neri as Sara Bay) returns from college with a medical degree to help her father.
Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotten, from "Citizen Kane") dies after bringing his creation to life; his daughter Tania picks up where he left off, using monster-making as a way to manipulate her johns and satisfy her sexual urges (so typical!). |
tt0044825 | The Las Vegas Story | Happy (Hoagy Carmichael), as the piano player at the Last Chance casino in Las Vegas, wonders what split up Linda Rollins (Jane Russell) and Dave Andrews (Victor Mature). Dave went off to fight in the South Pacific, but when he returned, Linda was gone. Happy soon finds out.
Linda reluctantly returns to Las Vegas by train when her husband Lloyd (Vincent Price) insists on vacationing there. Fellow passenger Tom Hubler (Brad Dexter) hurriedly gets off as well when the Rollins do. Linda discovers that her husband is in some kind of financial trouble, possibly criminal as well, and suspects he is trying to raise money by gambling. The first night, Lloyd insists she wear her necklace, appraised at $150,000, when they go out. She encounters Dave, now a lieutenant with the Sheriff's Department, who is initially none too pleased to see her again.
The next day, Hubler tries to become friendly with Linda at the hotel pool, but she brushes him off. He later informs Lloyd that he has been assigned by his insurance company to watch him and the necklace.
Lloyd obtains $10,000 credit with Clayton, owner of the appropriately named Last Chance casino, by putting up Linda's necklace, but inevitably loses it all gambling. He tries to get Clayton to advance him more credit, but is turned down. Early the next morning, Clayton is found stabbed to death, and the necklace is missing.
Dave arrests Lloyd. Lloyd tries to get his wife to provide him an alibi, but as she was with Dave at his home at the time, she cannot lie for him.
Dave, however, figures out the real killer's identity when Hubler slips up and reveals the location of the stabbing. After the murderer left, Clayton managed to try to reach the telephone before dying. Dave phones Linda to warn her, but Hubler finds out and kidnaps Linda. With roadblocks set up on all major highways and a description of his rented car, he steals another car, killing the owner when he objects. Dave takes a helicopter and spots the speeding vehicle. He and the pilot manage to force Hubler to leave the car at an abandoned base. Hubler wounds the pilot and forces Dave to throw out his gun by threatening to kill Linda, but after a chase and a fight, Dave is able to retrieve a gun and shoot Hubler dead.
Back in Las Vegas, Linda decides to break up with her husband and remain in Las Vegas. Lloyd is arrested for embezzlement and other charges. | murder | train | wikipedia | Las Vegas 1952 would have been the place to be so a film starring the beautiful Jane Russell being the affection of not one, not two, but three men made it a place that all men would want to visit.
Jane Russell who plays a former Las Vegas lounge singer named Linda Rollins and is currently married to an addictive gambler named Lloyd Rollins (played by Vincent Price) who prefers the crap tables to bedding his gorgeous wife Linda.Linda would prefer to avoid Las Vegas all together since her past memories have her in the arms of a recent army veteran named Dave Andrews (Victor Mature) who she abruptly left Las Vegas apparently never to see him again.
Now Dave Matthews is a Lieutenant with the Las Vegas police department and when Linda's expensive but insured diamond necklace goes missing and the slimy Fabulous Las Vegas casino owner is found murdered, it is up to Lieutenant Dave Matthews to find the killer and he has a couple of suspects in mind which include his former lover Linda Rollins and her husband Lloyd.I chuckled when I saw Victor Mature with his overly exaggerated broad shoulders (nothing that hidden shoulder pads under his suit jacket couldn't assist with) meeting his former lover the now unhappily married Linda Rollins.
There is an insurance investigator named Tom Hubler (Brad Dexter) also trailing the Rollins couple to ensure her very expensive diamond necklace stays safe but needless to say it vanishes under mysterious circumstances and the Fabulous casino owner is murdered on the floor of his own casino.The film was novel for its time having the early Las Vegas strip as the backdrop, the gorgeous lounge singer Jane Russell with her piano playing Hoagy Carmichael having one or two numbers to shine, an insurance investigator, a lieutenant of the Las Vegas police department and what film would not be complete without a despicable addicted gambler like Vincent Price?It is a decent crime/drama/romance film which holds up pretty well for being 66 years old..
Sadly, we learn today of the passing of Victor Mature.And while not receiving critical acclaim, The Las Vegas Story stands in my memory as an all-time favorite.Victor Mature, when coupled with Jane Russell make the screen absolutely 'sizzle'.
My Resistance Is Low. Substitute Victor Mature for the part that Robert Mitchum normally played in these RKO films of the Fifties and you've got The Las Vegas Story.
Jane's diamond necklace also is missing which is seen quite reasonably as a motive as Price said it was in the hotel safe.Things pretty much go as they normally do in these noir films, some good action sequences a nice car chase through an atomic bomb testing site in the end.What sets The Las Vegas Story apart is the presence of that old music master Hoagy Carmichael.
He and Russell end the film singing his Academy Award nominated song My Resistance Is Low.So will your's be once exposed to the talents of Hoagy Carmichael..
Jane Russell's performance in "The Las Vegas Story" couldn't really be classified as acting since most of what she does here is react in a series of carefully posed close-ups.
Russell's a former Vegas chanteuse who returns to her old digs after a stint in Palm Springs and a marriage to gambling-addict Vincent Price; she crosses paths again with ex-flame Victor Mature, now a police lieutenant, yet doesn't bat an eyelash when her hubby is eventually jailed on suspicion of murder.
Shady business man and compulsive gambler Vincent Price and luscious wife Jane Russell get off the trans-continental train they're on on their way to LA to do some gambling in Las Vegas.
As well there is another back story about Russell and Las Vegas detective Victor Mature, who seem to have met a while ago when she was a singer at a casino where Hoagy Carmichael is the long time pianist and band leader.
For my money, Price, Carmichael, and the vintage Vegas scenes are the only really compelling reasons to watch, except for a decent chase between a helicopter and a Mercury woody across the desert which leads to an interesting fight in an abandoned military base..
Jane Russell, (Linda Rollins),"Outlaw", was very pretty in 1952 and gave an outstanding performance as well as a singing act performed with Hoagy Carmichael (Happy) at the piano.
Linda is married to a gambling con-artist named Lloyd Rollins, (Vincent Price) who is hitting rock bottom with large gambling debts and tries for a big break at the Casion's in Las Vegas.
However, Victor Mature,(Lt. Dave Andrews) knows Las Vegas and the people behind the scenes who informed him that Lloyd Rollins was in town to start some trouble in the Casion's.
Russell, Mature and Carmichael make this a very entertaining film with murder and plenty of old time tunes.
(Minor Spoilers) On their way to L.A from Boston Mr Llyod Rollins, Vincent Price,insists to his wife Linda, Jane Russell,on stopping at Las Vages to relax and play at the dice table in the Fabulous Casino/Hotel.
Meanwhile Linda runs into an old flame Dave Andrews, Victor Mature, who she left when he was sent to the Pacifice during WWII.Dave, to Linda's surprise and regret, is not only living in Vages where she met him when she was a singer at "The Last Chance" casino but he's an officer in the Las Vegas police Dept and in charge of the Vegas Strip where the casinos are located.
Who's job it is to make sure that Linda's necklace is safe and sound being that it's insured for $150,000.00 by the company that he works for.All these stories come together when Clyton is later found murdered at the his place with the casino's daily cash profits missing.
Needless to say, Russell and Mature ultimately get to rekindle their affair, but the path runs far from smoothly: apart from their own mutual resentment, Price does not look favourably upon his wife's former conquests, while complicating things further is the expensive necklace Price uses as a guarantee in order to try his luck at one of the leading casinos (which is being closely watched by insurance investigator Dexter).
As for Price, he is ready to pay the price {sic} of his own criminal activity back home i.e. embezzlement.The film is reasonably enjoyable, with most of the expected noir elements intact – including its fair share of hard-boiled dialogue, not to mention having Russell and Carmichael warble a number of songs – but the contrived scripting (by Earl Felton and Harry Essex, who ought to have known better!), cornball attempts at comedy (mainly having to do with Sheriff Flippen betting what Mature's next move will be with respect to both solving the case and sorting out his private life!) and an incongruous sentimental streak (clearly evoking CASABLANCA {1942} in the subplot involving a couple of underage elopers!) prevent the promising mixture from rising to greater heights..
So what's going to happen when the former lovers meet as they must, especially when a valuable necklace disappears and a casino murder complicate things.The movie promotes Vegas's strip at a time when the town was emerging as a gambling-vacation center.
Like another viewer, I was reminded by this sequence of the work of Alfred Hitchcock, and wondered if it could have served as an inspiration for the famous "crop-duster" scene in "North by North-West".The leading man, Victor Mature as Dave, gives a rather static, wooden performance; he tended to be better in historical dramas in which his impressive physique and screen presence made him stand out.
Dull crime film is greatly elevated by glamorous the Jane Russell as a former torch singer returning to Las Vegas with her rich husband, a charming Vincent Price, only to encounter her old flame, police detective Victor Mature, who both run afoul Vegas thug Brad Dexter.
"The Las Vegas Story" was produced by Howard Hughes at RKO (who famously produced Russell's scandalous western "The Outlaw") and was directed by journeyman director Robert Stevenson, who later directed a number of pictures at Disney including classics like "Mary Poppins" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" to lesser Disney fare like "The Gnome-Mobile" and "In Search of the Castaways," so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that this film lacked any real creative spark.
Overall, "The Last Vegas Story" does offer an exciting climax involving a helicopter chasing a car and a shootout at an airport hanger, but other than that, it's all quite bland (outside of the never bland Ms. Russell)..
A love triangle story of an investment broker (turned gamble-looser), his wife who is a singer, and her ex-man (a local cop), all of whom tied together in a murder of the casino owner in Las Vegas.
Beautiful lounge singer Jane Russell (as Linda) returns to Las Vegas with gambling husband Vincent Price (as Lloyd Rollins), then gets involved with former boyfriend and local lieutenant Victor Mature (as Dave Andrews).
Later on, Carmichael wrote two tunes for Russell to sing in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953).**** The Las Vegas Story (1/1/52) Robert Stevenson ~ Jane Russell, Victor Mature, Vincent Price, Hoagy Carmichael.
THE LAS VEGAS STORY is a typical film noir featuring the usual '50s staples of cops, robbers, fences, gamblers, and the inevitable femme fatale, this time around played by the flame-haired Jane Russell (who I never liked much, but there you go).
For much of the running time this is a three-hander between dedicated cop Victor Mature, gambler Vincent Price, and the latter's wife, played by Russell.The Las Vegas backdrop is a lively one but there's a lot of sub-romance stuff going on which drags the pace down somewhat, and the sub-plot about a pair of teenage lovers is hardly gripping material either.
Mature seems to be sleepwalking through his role, although Russell works hard and Price is immediately likable (although I'm spoilt by his horror roles and wished he could have been a bit more, well, macabre).Things eventually pick up when murder enters the frame, which leads to a breathtaking extended chase climax involving helicopters, high rise stunts, and more besides.
A fine cast including Vincent Price, Jane Russell,Victor Mature and Brad Dexter make this an entertaining watch.
The Las Vegas story isn't a classic by any means but it is always good to watch legends of the screen and so for me this was an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours..
A poor man's Casablanca but this movie is a messy hybrid of a murder mystery and musical romance.Howard Hughes continues with his obsession of Jane Russell who plays former Vegas crooner Linda.
She has returned reluctantly to Vegas with her wealthy husband Lloyd Rollins (Vincent Price) wearing an expensive necklace and Lloyd with a need to gamble after receiving a startling telegram.Hot on the heels is an insurance man (Brad Dexter) following them and Linda meets up with her ex boyfriend (Victor Mature) who left to fight the war and is now working in Vegas as a detective which includes hanging around casinos and stopping under aged runaways from getting married.However Lloyd has accumulated gambling debts, the necklace has gone missing and the nasty casino owner ends up dead with Lloyd as the prime suspect.All this plus songs and tunes from Hoagy Carmichael playing the resident entertainer Happy.
Even Linda finds time to join in for a song.A surprisingly decent acting display by Mature, Price is a scene stealer without camping it up and Russell effortlessly provides the beauty.
Jane Russell is OK to look at and Vincent Price gives a Good, if Typical, Villainous Performance.
Although it's ostensibly a murder mystery, "The Las Vegas Story", with its romantic sub-plot, musical interludes and action-packed finale looks more like a movie that was conceived as a "piece of entertainment" with something for everyone.
If it was indeed designed to appeal to a mass audience, it clearly failed because it didn't turn out to be a commercial success but the finished product is undeniably entertaining, primarily because of its all-star cast and Hoagy Carmichael's songs.Ex-nightclub singer Linda Rollins (Jane Russell) reluctantly returns to Las Vegas at the insistence of her wealthy husband Lloyd (Vincent Price).
To this end, Lloyd gets Linda to flaunt her $150,000 necklace at "The Fabulous" casino but the manager is still only prepared to offer him $10,000 credit.Linda's discomfort at returning to her hometown is obvious and after Lloyd encourages her to go ahead and get her past out of her system, she visits "The Last Chance" where she used to work and reminisces briefly about singing with the establishment's pianist, Happy (Hoagy Carmichael) and regularly being watched by a soldier who always sat at the same table.
She's pleased when she meets Happy again and as they play one of their old numbers together, Dave, who's now a local police detective walks in and is less than happy to see the woman who he still carries a torch for but who had also ended their relationship so cruelly.After Lloyd uses up all his credit at "The Fabulous" and is asked to leave, he uses Linda's necklace as security to get further credit at "The Last Chance" with the agreement of its owner Mr Clayton (Robert J Wilke).
A scene in which a helicopter flies through a hangar and another in which Victor Mature is seen jumping to the ground from a great height are particularly impressive and well-shot.Stevenson also contributes to the movie's overall characteristic of exploiting Jane Russell's presence to the full by drawing attention to her looks and physique at every possible opportunity.
Victor Mature and Jane Russell also do well and Hoagy Carmichael's contributions, both as an affable character and for the quality of a couple of his songs ("I Get Along Without You Very Well" and "My Resistance Is Low"), adds a great deal of enjoyment and charm to the whole proceedings..
"The Las Vegas Story" unhappily teams Jane Russell with a 'beautiful hunk of man' (Victor Mature) in a poor romantic-triangle crime story, unfortified by the Nevada gambling capital backdrop...The plot is about a former café singer Jane who has been wed to a New York investment broker (Vincent Price).
Jane - with a shady past - is unwilling to stop at Las Vegas, because years before, when she had been a singer at the downtown Last Chance Club, she fell in love with Mature of the U.S. Air Force who went overseas without asking her to wed him...
The sleazy picture ends with Price turning out to be wanted back in New York on embezzlement and grand theft charges, which leaves Jane free to remain in Vegas, to take back her old singing job, divorce Price, and revive her old relationship with Mature...In the course of the picture Jane sung 'I Get Along without You Very Well' and 'My Resistance Is Low.' Much more effective as musical-interlude relief from the tedious plot is Hoagy Carmichael's number, 'The Monkey Song.'.
Reading posts on IMDb's Film Noir board,I found an excellent review for a Noir whose title sounded familiar.Checking my TV recordings,I found that it had recently aired in a double bill of rare Jane Russell movies, (the other being the easy-going Adventure flick Underwater!) which led to decided it was time to splash out in Vegas.The plot:Since walking out on Las Vegas, Linda Rollins has kept her back turned on ever looking back at the past.
Treating his wife to a glistering necklace,Lloyd bets everything with the necklace,and loses it all (with casino owner Clayton not wiling give him a second chance.) Getting a call the next day,Andrews (who is now a cop) discovers that Clyton has been killed,and an expensive necklace has gone missing.View on the film:Gliding back to Vegas, Jane Russell (who looks very glamorous in the lavish dresses) gives her Femme Fatale Linda an elegant,playful edge,which becomes fully revealed in songs smoothly performed by Russell,who clouds Linda with an unease about being reunited with her past.
A perfect match for Linda/Russell, Vincent Price gives a deliciously wicked performance as Lloyd,whose sharp exchanges with Linda, Price twist and turns into a mix of comedic and Film Noir menace.Caught between the couple, Victor Mature gives a firm, stoic performance as Andrews,but struggles to find breathing room between Russell and Price.Sliding like Flubber from live-action Disney flicks to Film Noir,director Robert Stevenson & cinematographer peel open the haunted Vegas past of Linda in stylish overlapping images that roll a ghostly atmosphere into the casino.
Victor Mature gives a real teak-and-leather performance as the male lead; he looks a little like Jerry Orbach, but he has all the charisma of a side of sweaty beef, and hangs like a dead weight in all the scenes he's in, particularly those with Jane Russell.
Despite the script, Vincent Price is pretty good, segueing from cheerful husband to cold, desperate gambler effortlessly, but he seems to get lost halfway through the film.Shining out amongst all this mediocrity is Jane Russell, probably the most wasted film actress of her time.
Like many films of the period, it includes a couple of musical numbers, totally unnecessary but here rather well done (the first, as a piano tune triggers a memory in Russell of her time as a singer, actually has more emotional impact than any of the dialogue scenes).
Routine crime drama with Jane Russell as a singer, disillusioned with life due to her marriage to gambler Vincent Price, who has a lot of other things on their mind.
The two stop off in Las Vegas, where Russell used to sing at gambling place and play lover to Victor Mature, a cop on the local force.When Price experiences a losing streak at the tables, he borrows on Russell's expensive piece of jewelry.
As it turned out the film itself wasn't too hard to take with, apart from the three leads - Victure Mature, Jane Russell, Vincent Price had nice turns from the likes of Will George and Brad Dexter. |
tt0039895 | They Made Me a Fugitive | Clem Morgan, demobilised from the Royal Air Force and unemployed after the war, is drawn into the world of crime. His psychopathic crime boss Narcy (short for Narcissus) deals in the black market, transporting goods in coffins to his headquarters in a funeral parlour. Clem finds the activity harmless enough, until one day he finds drugs in the latest coffin. Clem objects and tells his girlfriend, Ellie, that he will quit after one last job that night, the looting of a warehouse. Narcy betrays him, triggering the burglar alarm while he is inside. Clem manages to get back in the car with Narcy and another member of the gang, Soapy, before they drive off. When Narcy orders Soapy to run down a policeman, Clem grabs the wheel in an unsuccessful attempt to save the man's life and the car crashes into a lamppost. Narcy knocks him unconscious and has him moved to the driver's seat before fleeing with Soapy. Inspector Rockliffe arrives on the scene with other police officers to find the police officer dead and Clem injured in the car.
Clem is convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to fifteen years in prison in Dartmooor. Sally Connor, Narcy's girlfriend, visits him in prison, telling him that Narcy is now with Ellie (who has not visited Morgan in prison) and that she knows he was framed as she was told so by Cora, Soapy's girlfriend. Sally offers to try and persuade Soapy to give evidence but Clem tells her to go away.
Back in London, Sally tells Cora that she has seen Clem and wants to go and speak to Soapy to get him to tell the police what really happened, but Narcy has found out that Sally has gone to see Clem in prison and brutally beats her up.
Clem escapes from prison and the police start a manhunt for him. He seeks shelter in a remote farmhouse, where Mrs. Fenshaw lets him bath, shave and change his clothes, and also cooks him some food. Mr. Fenshaw comes into the room, but turns out to be a hopeless drunk who is hardly aware of his surroundings. Mrs.Fenshaw then tries to get Clem to shoot her husband, stating that as he is already a murderer it won't make any difference to him. Clem refuses and leaves, but he has handled the gun, leaving his fingerprints on it, and Mrs. Fenshaw uses it to shoot her husband dead.
Clem is now wanted for the murder of Mr. Fenshaw as well, but maks his way back to London and goes to stay with Sally; he then manages to escape both the police and Narcy, but Sally is kidnapped by Narcy and his gang and taken to their hideout, where Cora is already being held. Cora is forced to tell Narcy where Soapy is hiding out (in a room in a rundown hotel nearby) and Narcy sends Jim to go and kill Soapy, which he does.
Clem, whilst trying to find Cora and Soapy, is caught by Rockliffe, who tells him that he is not convinced by Mrs. Fenshaw's story, the first indication that the police might believe in Clem's innocence. In order to use him as bait, Rockliffe lets Clem go, and he goes to the Valhalla funeral parlour to meet with Narcy's gang. After knocking other members of the gang out, Clem and Narcy end up fighting on the roof of the parlour, before Narcy falls to the ground. Rockliffe, Sally and Clem gather round, begging Narcy, who is dying, to tell the truth about who killed the policeman but Narcy sticks to his story and repeats that it was Clem, before dying. Rockliffe leads Clem away, whilst Sally promises to wait for him. The ending is rather ambiguous, as Clem presumably has to return to prison, and he is also facing a possible murder charge; all that Rockliffe can do is promise to look at any new evidence that comes up. | revenge, murder, sadist | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0088256 | Thief of Hearts | A burglar, Scott Muller (Steven Bauer), teams up with Buddy Calamara (David Caruso), a valet at a high-society restaurant. Buddy keeps an eye on Mickey and Ray Davis, a rich married couple, while Scott robs their home.
One night, one of the items Scott takes is a diary belonging to the wife (Barbara Williams). Scott reads the diary and discovers that the wife, Mickey, an interior designer, yearns for a more interesting life. He quickly becomes infatuated with her. The diary is full of her fantasies and dreams, so Scott plans to turn these into reality.
Mickey's husband, children's book author Ray Davis (John Getz), gets too involved in his work and neglects his wife's needs. Scott uses his inside knowledge to seduce her, using the pretext of needing someone to re-design his apartment, and posing as a school supply company CEO. The forbidden romance soon blossoms into a passionate sexual relationship, as Ray becomes suspicious.
During another robbery, Buddy kills a policeman who spotted them. Scott becomes more and more tense when Mickey starts asking questions about him and his past. Ray decides to follow Scott with his friend and publisher Marty Morrison (George Wendt). They snoop around the building used by the robbers and find out Scott is the thief who stole his belongings.
Buddy sees Ray there. He tells Scott, who, visibly agitated, goes to see Mickey, asking her to leave the city with him, revealing he was the one who stole her diary. Her husband arrives and fights with Scott, and when Mickey comes to her husband's aid, Scott leaves.
When the Davises go to a restaurant, Scott breaks into their home and reads Mickey's latest diary entry. Buddy intends to rob them again and Scott tries to stop him. They fight and one gets stabbed with Buddy's knife. The married couple come home to find the last standing intruder still in the house.
Mickey gets out her pistol and aims at the masked man. A gunshot is heard and the man stumbles down. The police arrives and it is revealed that the man shot was Buddy. Mickey goes to the bedroom and finds out that Scott is there, alive but wounded. Rather than be arrested for having shot Buddy, he escapes from the police through the window as Mickey watches him running in the dark. | pornographic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt3405236 | Raees | Raees, from Fatehpur, Gujarat gets involved in illegal liquor trade at a very young age. Along with Sadiq, Raees works for a notorious gangster Jairaj, smuggles alcohol illegally by bribing the police. Though he is a smuggler, he lives by the philosophy, as taught by his mother that every occupation is good, and no religion is greater than any occupation till it does not cause any harm to anyone. He decides to part ways with Jairaj and start operating on his own. He meets Musabhai and Nawab in Mumbai, and with their help he starts his bootlegging business. Meanwhile, an honest police offer of the IPS cadre, J. A. Majmudar, wants to end this illegal liquor trade.
Raees is already in love with Aasiya and she accepts the proposal to marry him and the two soon get married. Majmudar gets transferred to Fatehpur, and starts a major crackdown on alcohol dealers. All the dealers decide to collaborate except Raees. Majmudar continues to gather intelligence about Raees, and Raees consistently find ways to avert him and continues on with his trade. Due to his differences with Raees, Jairaj tries to get Raees killed. Musa informs Raees about Jairaj’s attempt and Raees survives by killing Jairaj and his associates at a bar.
Majmudar gets transferred from Fatehpur to Kutch. Gujarat's Chief Minister and Pashabhai, dealing with politics supports Raees for liquor and money. With his money, intelligence and tact, Raees wins over the administration. He also assists his community by offering employment to women to sew cloth bags, which he uses to smuggle alcohol and get them delivered to homes. In the meantime, Aasiya delivers a baby boy. Raees is offered a project by the Chief Minister to eliminate the illegal occupants at a land and construct a housing project. Still a hindrance to Raees' business, Raees manages to get Majmudar transferred to control room department, where he thinks he won’t be able to impact his business at all. However, tables turn with Majmudar's transfer as he starts listening in to all the Raees' telephonic conversations and get the updates of his every move. Pashabhai plans a march to end illicit liquor trade, as a part of his election campaign, which would pass through Raees' area. Raees assaults him the march. The CM advises Raees to go to jail for a while for his act but assures he would get all the facilities and carry on his trade from there. While still locked up, the CM and Pasha form an alliance, that could potentially wipe out Raees’s whole business. To counter them, Raees decides to fight the election from jail and wins.
Raees visits the location of the housing project with his wife and paints a picture of tall houses. He dreams that there would be abundance in the air of that locality, where there would be no poverty or hunger. Meanwhile, Majmudar gets transferred back to Fatehpura as SP – Crime.
Communal riots break out in the state. People start running out of food. Raees dispatches free food to four localities the city, which takes a heavy economic toll on Raees. Considering Raees a threat, the CM puts Raees housing project in green zone. The construction of the project comes to a halt, as it is banned by the government. Raees suddenly finds himself broke with all his money dwindled on housing project, elections and dispatching food supplies.
Moosa offers to help Raees by offering him money for an assignment to smuggle gold from Doha. Raees returns the money of all his investors in the housing project. News breaks that there have been five serial bomb blasts in north India, killing several people. Police investigations lead to Raees, where the gold he smuggled, contained RDX and Raees was unaware of this fact. Raees is morally devastated by this shock because his philosophy was broken. Majmudar wants to arrest Raees but considers he might escape due to the corrupt system. Raees kills Moosa for betraying his trust and killing innocent people to incite communal riots. Majmudar orders his officers to shoot Raees at sight, but Raees brings press with him and surrenders and is well aware Majmudar would kill him. Majmudar takes him to an isolated place and shoots him. As he is being shot, Raees experiences a dramatic flashback of his entire life as he falls down dead. | romantic | train | wikipedia | The movie can feel a bit long, but if you're going for a great Shah Rukh performance and some good old popcorn- entertainment,And It Gives A Good Message To Viewers.
Raees SRK has shown and proved " Form is temporary, Class is permanent " Shah Rukh Khan and Nawazuddin 's bravura performances, Action sequences, Well researched script, Music, Screenplay , Editing, and Climax.
After 25 years, Shah Rukh has played another negative role which honestly is something that I've wanted to see for such a long time.I don't want to give too much away, but "Raees" is in line for one of the best films of the year, and thankfully I have gotten the chance to watch it..
Everything was perfect like what audience want from a film .Shahrukh khan has come back in his best avatar looking forward to break most of the records!.
This movie is brilliantly directed (Rahul Dholakia has done a great job), well edited, amazing background score with superb songs & have good screenplay with great classic dialogues.The way characters are established in RAEES will remind you of great movies like Baazigar & Deewar.
The second half of movie is very emotional (The scene where RAEES breaks town in her wife laps after he realizes about his bankruptcy is one of the best scenes ever).From performance point of view SRK shows why he is the best, his acting is terrific.
What you see in RAEES is a Character Portrayal at his best (not a role played like other actors do in Bollywood including SRK himself.
Story:Its a story about the rise of a small boy from slums of Gujarat to its elite personalities.As his power grows he comes into sight of Police that's when comes Majmudar(Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who challenges his business and tries to bring him down Story looks as simple as any other gangster flick but there's more to it than just that.Its a multidimensional story and has many layers attached to it.It doesn't have a single genre.It has high octane action(which will make classic Bollywood fans happy),Romance(For typical SRK fans),Drama(For Nawazzudin fans).Overall it will appeal to everyone.
Nawazzudin as always does a great job.He has done equally good work if not more than SRK.He is a highlight of the movie.
Mahira Khan does a great work on her character as Raees's love interest.This Pakistani actress muted her every hater in India and told everyone with her acting that she is no less than anyone else.
On one hand, you see Khan doing his snarling Josh-meets-Don impression, and on the other you see a middle-aged Rahul aching to open his arms and show you the omnipresent glycerin in his eyes.Therefore, Raees ends up as a film that is just about mediocre enough to pass off as "mainstream" – a euphemistic term used to justify dated plots, simplistic caricatures, incessant hamming, pulpy 70s hangovers (I blame Sriram Raghavan and Balaji Telefilms), unauthentic dialects, venomous background scores, redundant heroines and underutilized talent.
The Robin Hood of Fatehpura breaks away from his greedy mentor (Atul Kulkarni), monopolizes the illegal-alcohol market in a rather Chopra-Sharma (Baazigar fans only) manner, before starting a cat-and-mouse game with super-cop Jaideep Majmudar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui; a Godsend) – an equation that the writers will have you believe is far cleverer than it looks.
Though the story is not new..a rise and fall of a righteous don has been done to death in Bollywood from times immemorial, but what sets Raees apart is Sharukh Khan, his performance and the amazing screenplay.Jaideep Majumdar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) reminiscences his tryst with bootlegger Raees (Sharukh Khan) way back in the 90's.
His rise disturbs the local don who tries killing Raees and fails and ends up getting killed by him.Jaideep Majumdar, a honest police officer is hot on the trail of Raees and uses every method at his disposal to bring Raees down, but he is unsuccessful as Raees has the support of both the ruling and the opposition party.But soon, Raees's ego makes him a commit one fatal error which turns things in favor of Majumdar
..Sharukh is back to doing what he does best, hogging the screen time and also giving one of his career's best performances, his ire when called Battery, or when he is weeping away to glory in his wife's arms after a major setback or his astounding performance in the climax undoubtedly proves the crown is still his.Mahira Khan performs well in what little screen time she has, as the only person who gets away after making fun of Raees's short sight.
Wish she had more screen time.Nawazuddin Siddiqui is wow as Jaideep Majumdar, the scenes involving him intimidating his superiors, or the several faceoffs with Raees showcase his talent.Sunny Leone brings the house down with the peppy item LAILA and her tumka's are well synchronized to the beatsK U Mohanan's Cinematography captures rustic Gujrat at its best, the filters highlighting the era in which the film is basedDeepa Bhatia's editing ensures the movie does not drag and uses the scissors the right way in making the film crispy and entertaining.Rahul Dholakia's direction is top notch and it is not a mean task handling two live wires Sharukh and Nawazuddin together, but he has managed to extract the best possible scenes involving both of them.
'Raees' Synopsis: Criticizing the prohibition of alcohol, prostitution and illegal drugs in Gujarat, this film unfolds the story of a cruel and clever bootlegger Raees (Shahrukh Khan), whose business is challenged by a tough cop (Nawazuddin Siddiqui).'Raees' is an uneven saga of a bad-ass.
Art & Costume Design are fair.Performance-Wise: Shahrukh Khan as Raees, looks the part & even gives his best.
A must watch for shahrukh lovers.From the beginning of the movie till the end the two dialogues are used frequently making them cliché.direction and screenplay along with the story would have been better.the movie highlights the era of raees in fatehpura city of gujarat and how a typical honest cop chase him and gets himmahira kahan in her debut role does a great job.
Director should have concentrated in trimming the second half.It's a must watch if you are a die-hard Shah Rukh fan, but as a common movie goer few might find it boring in the second half..
"Engaging Gangster flick with srk's and nawazuddin's good performance but the story is bit old and could have been better but overall it is a watchable flick"My rating- 3.3/5 Positives- 1.)Direction and screenplay- Direction was good and director succeeded in fusing correct elements required for this movie.
Screenplay was equally good but story was little used and old and this brings slightly downfall to this movie.2.)Srk , Nawazuddin and Mahira - Srk as usual did his role neatly.
Well, it was almost there with few glitches and few engaging moments ...Inspired by the true story of liquor don, Abdul Latif, who ruled Gujarat and even few parts of India, "Raees" tells the rags-to-rich tale of Raees Alam (played by Shah Rukh Khan) who faces the heat at the peak of his supremacy by a tough cop (played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui).From the director of National Award winning,"Parzania" and "Lamha", Rahul Dholakia gives his first attempt at the commercial potboiler and is fairly successful.
Talents like Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub and Atul Kulkarni are wasted due to under-written roles.Overall, "Raaes" is watchable only once for electrifying performances by Shah Rukh Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
The poor screenplay is the major drawback of #raees wish it were more crisp so that the movie would be even more gripping :( The background score is all lovely; songs were good, could have been even more better for the commercial movie lovers ;) its -> DANDHA vs DHOKA ?
Raees is not the type of movie one would want to watch twice unless you are a blind SRK fan..
Mahira is the worst choice for the role, may be they just wanted to milk some money in Pakistan.The film overall has no novelty value and SRK is just trying too hard to look cool than a gangster selling illegal alcohol.
Three back again to again critically acclaimed shows by Shah Rukh Khan.Just when everyone thought that "HIS TIME IS ENDED-HE CAN'T ACT ANYMORE"That very moment he says "APNA TIME SHURU".I've viewed Kaabil too which includes Hrithik Roshan who also provides job best performance but its nothing at all in comparison to what Shah Rukh did.Back to movie now.......
Story:Its a tale about the surge of a tiny youngster from slums of Gujarat to its top notch personalities.As his vitality grows he makes sight of Law enforcement officials that's when comes Majmudar(Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who issues his business and will try to bring him down Story looks as easy as any other gangster flick but there's more to it than simply that.Its a multidimensional account and has many levels mounted on it.It generally does not have an individual genre.They have high octane action(which can make classic Bollywood followers happy),Romance(For typical SRK supporters),Drama(For Nawazzudin lovers).Overall it'll charm to everyone.
I did not want to watch this one but my friends fetch me there.They were very enthusiastic about this film but in last they end up felt cheated with the hype.Another meaningless flick from SRK.He did what he do best is to create hype without any substance.Another formula movie with an item number and some cheesy dialogues.I would say he is done and should concentrate doing other things rather than acting.And I was right I shouldn't have wasted my time.and neither should you.regardsVaibhav.
the stupidest thing is it tries to convey a bootlegger,mafia and suspected terrorist as robinhood divine soul.nothing new about srk except the surma in eyes and beard.1st half is super boring though 2nd half is better but only because of nawaz.mahira khan is as dull in acting as possible.it's just a waste of time and money,watching this movie.though if you want to give it a try,download it from torrent instead of going to theatres.
The film's plot is tight between SRK and Nawazuddin while Mahira's character is for the Bollywood fans.
Well, in the end, the film is all about SRK's looks and his charm and as he has told time again, he just wants to entertain the audience and due to this, we cannot expect him to do a Swades or a Chak De again..
Over all Raees Movie is cat and mouse chase between Shah Rukh Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui which is one of the highlights of the film.
After a long gap Shah Rukh will be seen playing a baddie in a film.The Outstanding performances of Nawazuddin,Zeeshan and Mahira did leave an impression.
Don't Miss the Film Must Watch in Theaters.If you are in the mood to watch an intense Shahrukh Khan doing some hard-core 'dishoom- dishoom' and mouthing dialogues like 'Din Aur Raat Logon Ke Hotein Hai, Sheron Ka Zamaana Hota Hai', then Raees might be your pick for this week.
Beautifully directed with good writing and acting makes Raees worth watching at cinema ticket prices.
Raees is one of the most worst movie I have ever seen..But in films starring SRK, other characters often exist only in context to him.
And his macho, gangster look neither suited him nor the story demanded in romantic scenes but hey, he's SRK and you're watching a bollywood masala movie.
Excellent movie...Shah Rukh Khan returns in and as Raees.ShahRukh Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui did best acting.
In the trademark Nawaz style, he delivers some comic relief while playing the Tom to Khan's Jerry.The movie can feel a bit long, but if you're going for a great Shah Rukh performance and some good popcorn- entertainment, it might just 'raees' to the occasion.Love this film.
The only thing that was good, was that it was fast excluding the last 20 minutes that you'd expect to be slow 2/5Acting: can we get better than Shahrukh playing a negative role and an amazing actor like Nawazzudin Siddiqui playing the cop?
Produced under the banners of Red Chillies Entertainment and Excel Entertainment, Raees stars Shah Rukh Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Mahira Khan.
Overall, Raees makes for an engaging cinematic experience that takes a departure from the recent films of Shah Rukh Khan.Regardless of film's show at the box-office, Raees is a film that no SRK fan can afford to miss.My Rating : 8/10.
- When Inspector got information that the main culprit is Musa, not Raees, why don't he went to arrest Musa, instead he went for Raees.Overall, dialogues were well written, well communicated, especially between SRK & Nawaz Ul Din Siddiqui, cast is heavy and success is already ensured as public loves him, like N Ul Din Siddiqui and this time, he took Pakistan's most famous actress Mahira Khan as heroine..
This is a typical 1980's movie with thunderous chemistry between Srk and Nawaz and worthy action sequences.Raees is a must watch if you intend to whistle on entries and lines ..
what has happened tohim always choosing worst script and no dedication towards acting always makes worst movies and promote it as if he has done a brilliant work , only marketing is going on nowadays no acting poor story even songs also not good i will never again watch his movies instead of promoting he should focus on better script and best director .i think he should learn acting from junior artist and join a better acting school again .
The way how he plays Raees Alam is really good as expected, however, Raees Alam is the main reason to watch this film, SRK did an amazing job acting as a 25 year old despite being 50 right now.
It's been a long time since Shahrukh fans have wanted to see the star in a role that showcased his entire range as an actor and that wait comes to an end with Raees.
*__* Nawazuddin Siddiqui Is One Of Those Actors Who Is Watchable In Any Kind Of Movie 😎Mahira Khan Has Made Her Presence Felt And Other Supporting Cast Was Very Good.
But the execution matters and sharukh seems to have been born for this role.There was a phase where he had started trying out a genre of films that weren't appreciated in India,but nowadays with fan,dear zindagi and recently raees I feel he is indeed displaying what an actor he is.Over ambition and greed consumes man,and that was the message the film was trying to convey.Nawazuddin sir has also displayed how he can be a bad guy as well as a good one.Mahira Khan was underutilized in my opinion,but she does have a bright future ahead.So in my opinion ignore the hateful comments and go watch this flick,it will be worth your time,irregardless of whether you are a sharukh fan or not....
If you are a fan of SRK / Bollywood / Action thriller RAEES will never disappointed you.
Rahul Dholakia's direction was good as well as he portrayed the screenplay properly without giving much time to each incident and keeping entertainment in songs and action and not in the real part of the film.
Though the story is not new..a rise and fall of a righteous don has been done to death in Bollywood from times immemorial, but what sets Raees apart is Sharukh Khan, his performance and the amazing screenplay..
What's good: Gripping script, Masterclass performances of Srk and Nawaz, Excellent Direction, Excellent Dialogues, Action, Great music, Excellent cinematography, use of eyes instead of dialogue in many scenes.
Mahiraa is very fresh and her chemistry with SRK is simply superb!Characters are established in RAEES so nicely that it reminds you great movies like Deewar & Sholay.
So much of hype isn't needed for the movie,but watch the film as a film and enjoy the most with shah rukh khan's action and dialogues..
Srk and Nawaz acting is good but story, screenplay and action can't hold you in theater.
What a performance after a long time.SRK effortlessly portrays Raees character.
A must watch film.I have seen both Raees and Kaabil.Kaabil is an OK movie.
SRK is great as Alam Raees and this act will certainly give him a good credibility for next few years even he makes bad movies like Dilwale again...
Raw, substandard, and sickeningly acerbic.BOTTOM LINE: Rahul Dholakia's Shah Rukh Khan-starrer "Raees" is a very purposeful film, with the aim being to establish the story of an established historic character at a time when prohibition of all types seems to be rampant in the country.
Srk makes the character very apt.# Nawazuddin Siddiqui is an entertainer and an excellent actor at the same time in the film.
The actors supporting him, from Mahira to Nawaz are also fabulous and hats off to the national award winning director, Rahul Dholakia for making the film.
The actors supporting him, from Mahira to Nawaz are also fabulous and hats off to the national award winning director, Rahul Dholakia for making the film.
After 25 years, Shah Rukh has played another negative role which honestly is something that I've wanted to see for such a long time.I don't want to give too much away, but "Raees" is in line for one of the best films of the year,I m feeling lucky to ,I have gotten the chance to watch it.
RAEES is a very realistic and original movie which has awesome story line, music , screenplay , acting and dialogue .
Three back to back critically acclaimed performances by Shah Rukh Khan.Just when everyone thought that "HIS TIME IS ENDED-HE CAN'T ACT ANYMORE"That very moment he says "APNA TIME SHURU".I have watched Kaabil too which has Hrithik Roshan who also gives a career best performance but its nothing compared to what Shah Rukh has done.Now back to movie.......
Three back to back critically acclaimed performances by Shah Rukh Khan.Just when everyone thought that "HIS TIME IS ENDED-HE CAN'T ACT ANYMORE"That very moment he says "APNA TIME SHURU".I have watched Kaabil too which has Hrithik Roshan who also gives a career best performance but its nothing compared to what Shah Rukh has done.Now back to movie....... |
tt0097236 | Dream a Little Dream | Bobby Keller (Corey Feldman) is a slacker high school student who, while running through a short cut through a backyard in his neighborhood one night, collides with Lainie Diamond (Meredith Salenger), over whom Bobby has recently been obsessing. During the collision, elderly professor Coleman Ettinger (Jason Robards) is performing a meditation exercise in the yard with his wife Gena (Piper Laurie), theorizing that if he and his wife can enter a meditative alpha state together voluntarily, they will be able to live together forever. However, just as the Ettingers are on the verge of completing their meditation experiment, the teenagers' collision renders both teens unconscious, enacting a type of body switch between the four characters.
Bobby wakes up in his bedroom to find his best friend Dinger (Corey Haim) and his parents asking him if he's okay, but "Bobby" has no idea who these people are because he is actually Coleman trapped in Bobby Keller's body. Coleman leaves the house to find his wife but returns when he cannot find her or make any sense of the situation. On his return to Bobby's home, Coleman plays up the role of Bobby for his family and friend, just wanting to go to sleep to see if the alpha state he attains in dreams will give him any clue to what has gone wrong with the experiment.
In his dream, Coleman is greeted by the real Bobby, who appears to be trapped in a dream partially generated by Coleman's own subconscious. Coleman discovers that Gena, skeptical of her husband's "dream state" theory from the beginning, is also trapped in the dream but is unable to communicate with him because part of her mind has been transferred to Lainie's body. Bobby informs Coleman that he has very little time to prevent what's left of his wife from forgetting about him and becoming lost in the dream forever.
Bobby claims to know the secret to switch them all back, yet is reluctant to help Coleman do so, finding the dream-world he now inhabits to be more satisfying than the physical world in which he existed as a troubled teen. Coleman realizes he only has a few days (while pretending to be Bobby) to overcome generation gaps, high-school bullies, Lainie's violent and unstable boyfriend Joel, and Lainie's bitter and manipulative divorced mother in order to improve Bobby's grades, love-life, relationships with his family and friends, and connect with Lainie (who is not particularly fond of Bobby) enough to convince her to recreate the meditation experiment that might save his beloved wife. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0027538 | Donald and Pluto | Donald is a plumber fixing pipes in the basement of a house (presumably Mickey's house, since Mickey is mentioned on the title cover of the episode). Donald first has trouble with pulling his hammer off a magnet, which it gets stuck to. When he unscrews the lid covering the pipe, water spurts out and hits Donald in the face, angering him. To stop the flow, Donald uses the magnet to pull a larger hammer toward himself, which he uses to put on another lid to the hole. In doing so he accidentally wakes Pluto and later accidentally pulls Pluto's bone away from him. While Pluto wrestles with the magnet to get his bone back, he swallows the magnet and gets his bone stuck to his bottom. As he fights to get the bone, he tumbles into the pile of furniture Donald is standing on, causing Donald to come crashing to the ground. Pluto eventually runs into the kitchen and the magnet inside him causes many cooking items to be pulled onto his rear.
Pluto's erratic actions eventually cause the dishes to fall off, but his bone continues getting stuck to him and annoying him. As he tries to get it off, he backs into the clock and gets stuck to it. After breaking free of the clock by destroying it, he pulls a much smaller alarm clock to him. He engages in a fight with the clock, soon realizing that if he makes minor movements along the wall rear-end first the clock will not come to him. However, he trips over a rolling pin and the clock sticks to him again, but he loses it in a polar bear rug. His dish sticks to him again and the magnetism causes knives and forks to come out of a drawer and chase him. The chase eventually causes Pluto to end up in the basement again. There, the magnet inside him sucks the nails out of the ladder Donald is standing on, causing it to fall apart under his feet. Donald falls into a tank and is pulled out through a wringer. After an angry outburst he gets stuck to Pluto's bottom and is dragged into the roof of the basement.
Pluto is chased by the angry Donald through the house and onto the roof, where the magnetism causes Donald to be pulled into the roof and along the ceiling with the floor separating the two (it looks as if there is an invisible track Donald is hanging from). Donald is dragged into a ceiling fan, activating it and spinning both Donald and Pluto around. Donald gets an electric shock when he pulls out a lamp and is later bumped across the ceiling when Pluto crawls over a ladder. Pluto eventually makes his way downstairs where Donald falls to the ground and bounces back into the basement when he is pinned to the wall by his own tools. Pluto finds him and begins happily licking him as he squawks angrily. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0163579 | Chill Factor | Ten years after a covert military experiment on a remote Pacific island went wrong and killed eighteen servicemen and his assistant, Dr. Richard Long (David Paymer) is still trying to forget the havoc and death that his experiment caused.
Living in the small town of Jerome, Montana, Long still conducts scientific experiments at the local base, but far more enjoys his time fly-fishing with Tim Mason (Skeet Ulrich), who works in the local greasy spoon and has a checkered past.
Long's life changes, and then ends, when he's visited by Colonel Andrew Brynner (Peter Firth), a former military officer who took the blame and served ten years in Leavenworth for Long's experiment.
Now a free man with a score to settle with the government, Brynner has assembled a team of high-tech terrorists, including an icy woman named Vaughn (Hudson Leick), and plans to steal and then sell "Elvis"—Long's highly volatile, blue crystal substance—to the highest international bidder, thus having his revenge against the government for covering up its existence, and making him a scapegoat for their handling of the weapon.
Unfortunately for Brynner, Long has already delivered "Elvis" to Tim, along with the directions that the substance must remain below fifty degrees, or it will detonate, and kill everyone within several hundred miles of it.
After Mason and Arlo (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a wisecracking ice cream delivery man, have a run-in with Brynner, they set off en route for Fort Magruder, some ninety miles away. The two don't get along with each other—Arlo only agrees to transport the substance in his ice cream truck because Mason held a gun on him—but they find a common bond in trying to avoid Brynner and his team.
With the help of Colonel Leo Vitelli (Daniel Hugh Kelly), Arlo and Mason try to survive Brynner's attacks, avoid the local deputy, Pappas (Jim Grimshaw), who's also hot on their trail, and keep "Elvis" below fifty degrees.
Arlo and Mason finally reach the base, but get ambushed by Brynner and his team who plan on detonating the device in an abandoned weapons test facility. Brynner does not want to leave witnesses,and decides to kill both of them. However, the military arrives and rescues Arlo and Mason before the device explodes, killing Brynner and his men. Colonel Vitelli arrives and congratulates them on a job well done, but Arlo and Mason threaten to expose the U.S. government for using unstable nuclear weapons for the past decade. Vitelli decides to pay them both to keep them silent, but also threatens to have them killed if they say a word about what had happened. All three of them leave the area in a helicopter. | revenge, murder | train | wikipedia | I've always looked upon Cuba Gooding Jnr as a semi decent actor but if this is the kind of film he is going to be starring in, then I can see him descending the same way as Charlie Sheen.You can see from the outset that the makers tried to make one of those high octane action thrillers, which are ten-a-penny these days.
But when you've got a budget that would struggle to finance an episode of quantum leap, then maybe making a film of this kind wasn't such a good idea.They make use of computer graphics in a lot of the action scenes which, to be honest, doesn't look the worst I have ever seen, but still prompts you to snicker at how bad it is.
The most ridiculous of which occurs at the end of the movie, when a chemical weapon which we have been told has the power to blow up basically a quarter of America, detonates in a tunnel.At this point we are subjected to rotten computer graphics which are so bad that I instantly had flashbacks of Dean Stockwell and the film-making atrocity that was the Langoliers.But the story is complete nonsense, so even with a budget the size of Lord of the Rings, there would be no way of making the whole thing believable anyway.
So you can perhaps see where the producer was coming from i.e. lets make a cheap action thriller and we'll plaster Cuba Gooding's face over the front cover and we'll maybe make some money.It would've have been better if Eric Roberts had been given the leading role..
He shots the scientist but he flees with the weapon to the convenience store where the clerk Tim Mason (Skeet Ulrich) and an ice-cream trucker driver Arlo(Cuba Gooding Jr.) are negotiating.
"Chill Factor" is not a bad film; indeed it is slightly above average for this type of action movie.
Cuba & Skeet deliver some good comedy lines to take a bit of the edge off the intensity of this film.
It was action-packed, fun to watch and a great way to spend a Saturday night at home, either by yourself or others.Out of ten, I give this film a 7.
This is one of those movies, an action flick with tongue firmly placed in cheek that is very much in the vein of Con Air with its sense of humour.The plot is basically one part road movie, one part 'Speed' and two parts 'The Rock,' as two blue-collar losers in the shape of Skeet Ulrich and Cuba Gooding Jr find themselves in possession of a top secret military chemical weapon that will detonate and kill millions of people if its temperature exceeds 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
They are just a pair of ordinary guys thrust into a situation beyond their control rather than muscle-clad, indestructible body-builders or Kung Fu experts and they only really survive unscathed by bumbling through the fight scenes.You can tell the cast are having a great time and in all honesty, Cuba Gooding Jr seems to be enjoying himself so much it's a surprise he doesn't grin like a cheshire cat throughout the whole movie.
If you like action with wit, this is a good movie to rent..
Despite a respectable budget, the movie looks quite cheap, sometimes embarrassingly so, like when you see a guide cable hooked to the boat, or when you see that a major highway up a mountain is A DIRT ROAD (?!) The protagonists are annoying little jerks, and you feel sorry for Gooding for playing a foul-mouthed stereotyped hustler.
There's only one reason to watch "Chill Factor", and that's Peter Firth (Colonel Andrew Brynner) and his bunch of totally useless elite commandos / terrorists.The plot is awful, the dialogue is terrible, and it makes you wince to think that Cuba Gooding Jnr once won an Oscar.
Maybe this film might not have the greatest plot I know, but it sure as heck keeps you entertained throughout the whole movie.
Cuba Gooding Jr,an ice cream delivery driver,and Skeet Ulrich,an employee at a diner, are transporting a secret chemical weapon,named Elvis,that if exceeding the temperature of 50 degrees will detonate killing 3 million Americans and annihilating everything for miles around.
In spite of several clichés and improbable scenes, the movie was not boring or annoying to watch - thanks to Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Arlo, Peter Firth as Andrew Brynner, and David Paymer as Dr. Richard Long, above all (Skeet Ulrich as Tim Mason was uninviting to me).
Fortunately or unfortunately, film-makers like Tarantino, Schumacher, The Coen Brothers, Scott etc have no monopoly on making action movies..
Chill Factor's purpose is nothing but a funny, quirky, feel-good action film.
The first twenty-five minutes were looking sort of grim, but the pairing of Cuba Gooding Jr. and Skeet Ulrich worked in the film's favor because the script made Cuba's character smart and funny.
If I saw Chill Factor as a kid, I think I would've found my new favorite film.When compared to Cuba Gooding Jr.'s previous action film, Judgment Night, this is greatly inferior.
This 3rd rate action adventure guy flick will probably set Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s career back about 10 years.
This film is basically a variation on `Speed' where instead of keeping the bus above 50 mph, they had to keep the unstable chemical warfare bomb below 50 degrees.Two regular guys (actually two screw ups) must save the world from a group of rogue military mercenaries who are trying to steal a potent chemical weapon and sell it on the open market.
The dialogue between Arlo (Gooding) and Tim (Skeet Ulrich) is mindless tripe that attempts to be funny but merely makes the characters seem pathetic.
The movie that marked the end of the careers of Cuba Gooding Jr. and Skeet Ulirch..
Skeet Ulrich and Cuba Gooding Jr. once started out their careers as promising new actors, Gooding Jr. had even already won an Oscar at the time of this movie.
The movie tries to be like a buddy flick, in which two totally different mismatched persons just by chance end up with each other, running from a couple of bad guys who want to have a new deadly chemical weapon that detonates when it reaches temperatures over 50 degrees.
The movie does have some big names in it, next to Ulrich and Gooding Jr., such as David Paymer and Peter Firth.A movie that is as bad as its concept.4/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
The only condition is that the weapon must be kept below 50 degrees Fahrenheit or else it will go off and kill everything for hundreds of miles.When I sat to watch this it was really because it had been a good few weeks since I had seen a really bad film from the plot summary I had assumed that this would be one, even with my low expectations.
The director is owed a lot of credit, despite the clichés he really keeps the pace up and makes this better than it should have been.The acting is not good but is acceptable and is all that is needed for this sort of film.
Firth plays a traditional bad guy and Paymer seems to have taken his misguided scientist straight from the cliché text book.Overall this is a poor film.
If you went to this movie after watching the trailer and didn't expect it to be a great diversion rather than a serious action-thriller, you weren't paying very close attention when Skeet Ulrich's character brandishes a gun and for the second time says "I need your truck," and Cuba Gooding, Jr., responds, "How far you got to go?" From that point on in the trailer, you SHOULD be clued in.
Chill Factor has little originality, with sloppy direction, and a straight to cable feel.The only thing that kept me watching was counting how many times the main characters uttered the words 'Oh S***' - if you ever watch it, you'll be surprised by how often the writer relies on these words to convey 'fear/tension/disbelief'.
As long as your gripping your armchairs during the suspense....laughing at the actors 'well timed catch phrases' and waiting for the final battle against good and evil it does not matter that you have seen the same typical movie.
This movie could have been better if it weren't such a stereotypical, predictable rip-off of Speed and other such genre movies.I wish original and good writing would make a return, instead of brain-dead plots and trite dialogue that rely on effects and actors' energy to create "eye candy"..
It's like were put in a middle of an action movie with bad guys chasing good guys and thats it.
What a waste of time for the talented Cuba Gooding Jr. The talented cast entices the viewer to sit through the entire movie, waiting for it to get better.
Cuba Gooding Jr. continues to act his "show me the money" routine, which really is getting tiresome, and Skeet Ulrich acts as if he doesn't want to be in the film.There are a couple of stunt scenes which are notable, but all other prodution areas of this film are just plain awful.This action thriller is definately missing the action and the thrills..
Cuba Gooding Jr. is getting on my nerves!!!!!I think he was good in As Good As It Gets and maybe in Jerry Maguire....but after A Murder Of Crows, Instinct and Chill Factor, I guess he's ready to make straight to video movies(A Murder of Crows didn't play at the theatre).
Skeet Ulrich is not very amazing....not as bad as Cuba Gooding Jr.!
This movie is a lot similar to "broken arrow" from a few years ago.It was also like watching any buddy action movie (ie Leathal Weapon movie) It will be ok for a rental?perhaps there is some deleted parts that maybe would overall better .
The only thing in Chill Factor was the a/c in the movie theater!!You have seen better from the films stars cuba gooding was awesome in "What dreams may come" and Ullrich was awesome in "Scream "and "Phantoms"!!!If you must go leave your mind at the door and be ready for a mind numbing action movie!!.
After watching this movie, I have to say Cuba Gooding Jr. has got to find a new agent.
A movie has got to be pretty bad if all they can put in the trailer as the tagline a protesting Cuba deadpans(where Skeet Ulrich points a gun to Cuba) "How far do you wanna go?" A good action/comedy usually makes you lose all your senses as you go through a wild roller coaster ride.
This film could have been edited down to a fairly impressive 28 minute short...But not to be completely negative, Cuba Gooding Jr. was very entertaining and Cinesite's sequence in the beginning is really impressive for the anemic budget I'm sure was allotted for visual effects.
Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. sometimes overplays his character (a la "show me the money" attitude) and Skeet Ulrich seems timid at times, but the two actors pull it off as a team.
Whereas other buddy films like "Lethal Weapon", and "Thelma and Louise" prospered with the idea, the chemistry between Cuba and Skeet didn't quite click for me.
Chill Factor was definitely an enjoyable movie for an action film fan.
Of course, they need it for the movie buddy duo road trip genre.The setup is silly just to bring about the unlikely scenario of two bickering guys in an ice cream truck carrying a super weapon being chased by militaristic bad guys.
Cuba Gooding Jr. and Skeet Ulrich are all jokes in this movie as they transport an explosive in an ice cream truck.
In `Chill Factor,' Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Skeet Ulrich star as two average guys who find themselves in a stolen ice cream truck transporting a volatile chemical weapon capable of destroying all animal life within a 500-mile diameter if the material (shades of `Speed') rises above 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Hot on their tail come the men (and one woman) who will stop at nothing to retrieve the explosive as well as a dimwitted sheriff who mistakenly believes the two young gentlemen are responsible for the death of the scientist who both invented the substance and guards it from falling into enemy hands.`Chill Factor' is a decent enough action film, short on credibility and originality but high on energy and visual attractiveness.
On the positive side, director Hugh Johnson knows how to keep the action moving forward at a brisk pace and Gooding and Ulrich, despite the fact that the screenplay offers neither actor much of a chance to flex his thespian muscles, at least make for a likeable movie-buddy team.
Still, one wonders whatever happened to Gooding, Jr.'s career which seemed so promising just a few years back after he won the Academy Award for his work in `Jerry Maguire.' Likeable as he is in `Chill Factor,' one would like to see this performer applying his talents to more challenging and worthy fare than he has of late been doing..
The plot, such as it is, involves a deadly substance, developed by the Paymer character, that Ulrich and Gooding, as two ordinary guys, are trying to keep out of the hands of the bad guys, a highly trained paramilitary group.
Some of the action parts are nice, but you don't really care about the characters and through the movie you have the feeling nothing bad is going to happen to our main characters (like in James Bond).
Overall, it is funny maybe entertaining to people who did not see many action movies and get excited when a bomb goes off but pointless and predictable.Too bad, The previews looked good..
It isn't until roughly 20 minutes that Cuba Gooding Jr. gets introduced and the movie actually starts.Gooding Jr steals his employer's ice cream truck just to be spiteful and hopes to rip people off along the way.
'Chill Factor' is not a terrible movie, thanks in large part to Cuba Gooding Jr. As a part comedy movie, everything funny comes from him.
That's just the way it is with chase movies.So aside from a handful of good action bits and Cuba Gooding Jr's hilarious performance, 'Chill Factor' is an empty dud..
Ulrich takes off with it, teaming up with an ice cream delivery man (Cuba Gooding Jnr, who's fast gabbling got on my nerves) pursued by Firth and his posse, where from here, it's an almost non suspense filled chase, with a couple of high thrills, but really just steady driving, nothing happenings, going on, here, where we're left with CBJ's ranting (someone give me a gun).
He ends up with elvis and most of the movie is a typical chase scene with a second guy, Tim(Skeet Ulrich) fighting with Arlo as they try to avoid Brynner and his crew.
acting at its worst (except cuba, he was ok but far from good), totally predictable and cheap storyline, cheap cliché everywhere, brainless dialogues, try-hard-but-fail kind of comedy, cheap wanna-be effects and action, ultra-unrealistic, ...
if you still think this one was good you better take a break from action movies and get back into reality..
The cast: Cuba Gooding Jr. and Skeet Ulrich were great as the protagonists and I love Hudson Leick (pity she didn't have a larger role in this one).
Skeet ulrich (scream) does very well as Tim macson Cuba gooding Jr is alright as Arlo the ice cream dude.
But then check this out: In comes our heroes (Skeet Ulrich and Cuba Gooding, Jr.) who are tasked with transporting the deadly weapon to a safe haven after Paymer (who is mortally wounded by the slightly ticked-off Firth) shows up with this top-secret, explosive weapon tucked under his shirt (???).
A good robot movie needs lots of great cliches so you can have fun predicting them.
this is a good movie for people who like action and comedy.
I loved this movie I was not sure what it would be like as I did not know many of the actors but I laughed almost all the time the actors played off each other very well the story was really good "not too far fetched" the scenery was awsome the car chase up the mountain road WOW!.
Chill Factor is a mish-mash of other, better action films.
If you like action movies then I think you would enjoy Chill Factor.
So take some bad acting and some bad dialogue and try to overlook them because when Cuba and Skeet get together, the film never stops entertaining.
I loved Cuba Gooding Jr. and Skeet Ulrich.
Cuba Gooding stars in this action drama about a terrorist and a really nasty chemical weapon.
This was the case with Chill Factor but this movie wasn't as entertaining as I thought it was going to be.The story revolves around a military science experiment that goes bad.
In walks Skeet Ulrich and Cuba Gooding Jr's characters.
Some films - notably the first Lethal Weapon - manage to straddle the divide to good effect, but not this movie.
But CHILL FACTOR, wants to be another big action film with little plot and big action scenes.
The only thing in this film that somewhat stands out is the acting by the two leads (Gooding Jr. and Ulrich).
Chill Factor (1999): Dir: Hugh Johnson / Cast: Skeet Ulrich, Cuba Gooding Jr., David Paymer, Peter Firth, Kevin J.
The chemistry between Skeet and Cuba is good enough and it has a couple of spectacular action sequences, but when all is said and done that doesn't make it anything more than a run of the mill, average Buddy, Buddy film.
It had some decent comedy in it at times, and the truck chase scene on the highway is by far the film's most effective action sequence, but I had to put up with a lot of silly dialog and a rather bland villain for my liking. |
tt0119216 | The Good Life | On his 40th birthday, Tom Good is no longer able to take his job seriously and gives up work as a draughtsman for a company that makes plastic toys for breakfast cereal packets. Their house is paid for so he and his wife Barbara adopt a sustainable, simple and self-sufficient lifestyle while staying in their home in The Avenue, Surbiton. They turn their front and back gardens into allotments, growing soft fruit and vegetables. They introduce chickens, pigs (Pinky and Perky), a goat (Geraldine) and a cockerel (Lenin). They generate their own electricity, using methane from animal waste, and attempt to make their own clothes. They sell or barter surplus crops for essentials they cannot make themselves. They cut their monetary requirements to the minimum with varying success.
Their actions horrify their kindly but conventional neighbours, Margo and Jerry Leadbetter. Margo and Jerry were intended to be minor characters, but their relationship with one another and the Goods became an essential element. Under the influence of the Goods' homemade wine, called "peapod burgundy" (the strength of which becomes a running joke), their intermingled attractions for one another become apparent. Both couples are childless. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0020530 | Un chien andalou | The film opens with a title card reading "Once upon a time". A middle-aged man (Luis Buñuel) sharpens his razor at his balcony door and tests the razor on his thumb. He then opens the door, and idly fingers the razor while gazing at the moon, about to be engulfed by a thin cloud, from his balcony. There is a cut to a close-up of a young woman (Simone Mareuil) being held by the man as she calmly stares straight ahead. Another cut occurs to the moon being overcome by the cloud, then a cut to a close up of a hand slitting the eye of an animal with the razor, and the vitreous humour spills out from it.
The subsequent title card reads "eight years later". A slim young man (Pierre Batcheff) bicycles down a calm urban street wearing what appears to be a nun's habit and a striped box with a strap around his neck. A cut occurs to the young woman from the first scene, who has been reading in a sparingly furnished upstairs apartment. She hears the young man approaching on his bicycle and casts aside the book she was reading (revealing a reproduction of Vermeer's The Lacemaker). She goes to the window and sees the young man lying on the curb, his bicycle on the ground. She emerges from the building and attempts to revive the young man.
Later, the young woman assembles pieces of the young man's clothing on a bed in the upstairs room, and concentrates upon the clothing. The young man appears near the door. The young man and the young woman stare at his hand, which has a hole in the palm from which ants emerge. A slow transition occurs focusing on the armpit hair of the young woman as she lies on the beach and a sea urchin at a sandy location. There is a cut to an androgynous young woman, with bobbed hair and dressed in rather masculine attire, in the street below the apartment. She pokes at a severed human hand with her cane while surrounded by a large crowd and a policeman.
The crowd clears when the policeman places the hand in the box previously carried by the young man and gives it to the young woman. The androgynous young woman contemplates something happily while standing in the middle of the now busy street clutching the box. She is then run over by a car and a few bystanders gather around her. The young man and the young woman watch these events unfold from the apartment window. The young man seems to take sadistic pleasure in the androgynous young woman's danger and subsequent death, and as he gestures at the shocked young woman in the room with him, he leers at her and grasps her breasts.
The young woman resists him at first, but then allows him to touch her as he imagines her nude from the front and the rear. The young woman pushes him away as he drifts off and she attempts to escape by running to the other side of the room. The young man corners her as she reaches for a racquet in self-defense, but he suddenly picks up two ropes and drags two grand pianos containing dead and rotting donkeys, stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments, two pumpkins, and two rather bewildered priests (played by Jaime Miravilles and Salvador Dalí) who are attached by the ropes. As he is unable to pursue, the young woman escapes the room. The young man chases after her, but she traps his hand, which is infested with ants, in the door. She finds the young man in the next room, dressed in his nun's garb in the bed.
The subsequent title card reads "around three in the morning". The young man is roused from his rest by the sound of a door-buzzer ringing (represented visually by a martini shaker being shaken by a set of arms through two holes in a wall). The young woman goes to answer the door and does not return. Another young man, whom we see only from behind, dressed in lighter clothing, arrives in the apartment, gesturing angrily at him. The second young man forces the first one to throw away his nun's clothing and then makes him with his face to the wall, as if in disgrace.
The subsequent title card reads "Sixteen years ago." We see the second young man's face for the first time (and discover that he is also played by Pierre Batcheff) as he admires the art supplies and books on the table near the wall and forces the first young man to hold two of the books as he stares at the wall. The first young man eventually shoots the second young man when the books abruptly turn into pistols. The second young man, now in a meadow, dies while swiping at the back of a nude female figure which suddenly disappears into thin air. A group of men come and carry his corpse away.
The young woman returns to the apartment and sees a death's-head moth. The first young man sneers at her as she retreats and wipes his mouth off his face with his hand. The young woman very nervously applies some lipstick in response. Subsequently, the first young man makes the young woman's armpit hair attach itself to where his mouth would be on his face through gestures. The young woman looks at the first young man with disgust, and leaves the apartment sticking her tongue out at him.
As she exits her apartment, the street is replaced by a coastal beach, where the young woman meets a third man with whom she walks arm in arm. He shows her the time on his watch and they walk near the rocks, where they find the remnants of the first young man's nun's clothing and the box. They seem to walk away clutching each other happily and make romantic gestures in a long tracking shot. However, the film abruptly cuts to the final shot with a title card reading "In Spring," showing the couple buried in beach sand up to their elbows, motionless and perhaps dead. | absurd, cult, avant garde, psychedelic, murder | train | wikipedia | Un Chien Andalou(1929) like the rest of Bunuel's early works experiments with use of film image and surrealism.
Un Chien Andalou(1929) was an artful collaboration between two surrealistic masters in Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali.
fascinated by the interest of human faces and the rapid changes of place, [a] cultivated individual placidly accepts the most appalling themes...and all this naturally sanctioned by habitual morality, government, and international censorship, religion, dominated by good taste and enlivened by white humor and other prosaic imperatives of reality." - Luis BunuelUn Chien Andalou exists to shock the viewer of this stupor that Bunuel elucidates above.
I kept coming back to the gallery few more times and I never was tired of both short films.The inspiration for "Un Chien Andalou" began with the dreams of two young rebellious men, the artists and the friends, Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali.
It is also could be in the establishing and following by both artists the certain rules, "No idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind will be accepted...We had to open all doors to the irrational and keep only those images that surprised us without trying to explain why." Perhaps, Dali and Bunuel intended their film to be experienced directly, on the visceral level, and not analyzed by the viewers..
As movies get more and more codified it's a real joy to watch something like this, utterly freewheeling.What makes 'Un chien andalou' exciting for me is that it's so replete with imagery that an instinctual human fear of anarchy kicks in and you can't help trying to piece it all together somehow, as if it were one of those 3D art posters and if you stared at it long enough you'd finally "get it." Yet it just can't be understood in any conventional way, and anyone who tells you otherwise is simply trying to push their own subconscious on you.I don't have anything against Wagner but this film should definitely be watched without the distraction of the score that Buñuel added later..
After that , there take place several bizarre events such as a man has a hole in the palm from which ants emerge , it is shown literally ; later on , a man pulls a piano along with the tablets of the Ten Commandments and a dead donkey and two priests being dragged with the piano (a priest is Salvador Dalí) ; a woman pokes at a severed hand in the street with his cane (legend has it that the severed hand used in the street scene was a real hand, and Dali convinced a man to cut it off in exchange for enough money to buy lunch) , among others .Abstract film that marked strong polemic in the epoch when it was realised , especially its sliced eyeball at the beginning , and still packs a punch even nowadays .
After editing the feature , Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí didn't know what to do with it , as an acquaintance introduced Buñuel to Man Ray, who had just finished Les Mystères du château Dé and was looking for a second film to complete the program , the two movies premiered together at the Studio Ursulines ; it made a deep impression on the Surrealist Group, who welcomed Buñuel into their ranks .
With financial help from his mother and creative assistance from Dalí, he made his first film , this 17-minute "Un Chien Andalou" (1929), and immediately catapulted himself into film history thanks to its disturbing images and surrealist plot .
This is sort of like a home movie based on dreams by a psychotic sadist--with no comprehensible plot, violent and repellent images (such as a close up of an eyeball being slashed by a razor, a severed hand laying in the street, a woman being run over, a pointless murder, etc.).
In fact, I can't help but think that the film's creators, Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, just created this movie as a way to laugh at intellectuals and wannabes who just ate this crap up and declared it to be "high art".By the way, this film is highly reminiscent of Jean Cocteau's BLOOD OF A POET--another home movie full of really interesting images (but zero plot) that is adored by the elite.
Not even by a surrealistic country mile.Over the years I have heard nothing but loud applause and excited praise for this silent-era film which is held up in such high-regard and considered to be the very first of its kind to emerge from the early 20th Century's "Surrealist Movement" of film-making.Sure, 86 years ago Un Chien Andalou may have totally shocked and disgusted its audience (as it was clearly intended to do).
But, today, for the jaded, "seen-it-all" viewer, this 16-minute short only succeeded in its demented, little mission by holding my attention for but a few brief sequences.Directed by Spanish, avant-garde, film-maker, Luis Bunuel, Un Chien Andalou's story was hatched from the unhinged ideas that seeped out of Salvador Dali's head..
The film 'Un chien Andelou' is an early Bunuel film and is one that adopts the surrealist style which was very popular for the late twenties.Watching this film is like watching a strange dream that you once had and one that didn't follow any sort of logical story line.
'Un Chien Andalou', the (in)famous collaboration between cinematic provocateur Luis Bunuel and arch-Surrealist Salvador Dali, is one of those films that you simply have to see.
This is, in part, due to the singularly unique viewing experience it affords as well as a reflection of the status it has achieved since it was first shown in 1929.The story goes that (once upon a time) Bunuel and Dali were having a conversation about some dreams they had recently had (a cloud "cutting" the moon and ants in a hand respectively) which inspired them to make a film loaded with provocative and shocking imagery and a wholly confounding anti-narrative designed to be resistant to rational explanation and to confront the complacency of the audience.
This is because, despite the dream-like appearance of the film, 'Un Chien Andalou' is actually the result of Bunuel and Dali's careful (and employing all their rational faculties) subversion of cinematic conventions to contradict normal notions of temporal cause-and-effect.
"Once upon a time..." Spanish director Luis Buñuel's directorial debut 'Un Chien Andalou' (An Andalusian Dog), collaborated with the prominent artist and close friend Salvador Dali, is a seventeen-minute silent, stark and surrealist film.
Excitedly, Buñuel responded to Dali, "There's the film, let's go and make it!" The entire film plays out as a dream, albeit not a pleasant one, as uncanny images appear and disappear only to be followed by even more bizarre ones moments afterwards: a thinly-veiled cloud cuts across the moon as a straight razor cuts through the eye of a middle-aged woman (Simone Mareuil), although it was actually a calf's eye in reality.
Surreal, avant-garde, call it what you will – Bunuel and Dali certainly knew how to create an eye-catching image, and we'll never know what other absurdities they might have dreamed up together (geddit?) if they hadn't fallen out.
"Un Chien Andalou" (or "An Andalusian Dog," a title which has effectively nothing to do with the film) is virtually a trailer to Luis Bunuel's entire career, containing all the themes the surrealist would later tackle in masterpiece after masterpiece.
This bizarre 1929 short is still polemic in the present days, and I believe this was the intention of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali when they produced this film, i.e., to become well-known by the artistic world.
This movie has one of the strongest scenes ever, with a woman's eye being cut by a razor blade, followed by surreal, irrational and disconnected images.
If you expect to see a film, you will be disappointed - Un Chien Andalou just comes across as some kind of demented practical joke by its masterminds, Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali.
Some people say that it is full of hidden meanings, but in my personal opinion, it is just one big farce by two artists who knew they would one day achieve great things.You should certainly see it if you want to call yourself an educated film viewer; just don't expect it to be classic Bunuel genius like "Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie" for example.
Un Chien Andalou is a compelling silent-movie depicting the nonsensical dreams of Luis Bunuel and collaborator Salvador Dali.
Director Louis Buñuel, collaborating with artist Salvador Dalí, delivers a series of perplexing images, some of which are extremely disturbing (the slicing of a woman's eye with a straight razor), some of which are daring (the fondling of a naked pair of breasts and a bare ass), and many of which are downright bizarre (a man pulling two pianos weighed down by dead donkeys and a pair of priests!?!).Other memorable imagery includes ants crawling out of a hole in the palm of a man's hand, an androgynous woman poking a severed hand with a stick, and a guy losing his mouth only to have it replaced by the pubic hair from a lady's armpit.
'Un Chien Andalou' successfully painted this age-old picture in a daring new language.Whether a grinning male watches from his window as an androgynous woman with a severed hand in a box is mowed down by a car, or a woman shuts her aggressively advancing partner's hand in the door to trap him (a hand which is bleeding ants, stigmata-style), or a man is chastised for his lust by a father-figure (who is revealed as the woman's new lover and is shot to death by the original) -- or whether, infamously and iconically, a hand (Buñuel's, in a brief cameo) slashes a woman's eyeball from its socket (is the razor the penis and the eyeball the hymen?), this film's tone is one of extreme sexual anxiety.
Although it's best known for the infamous eye-slicing scene, Bunuel and Dali's film is really more of a series of visual rhymes tied together with dream logic where space and time are irrelevant.
Bizarre, and Fascinatingly So. In the late 1920's, surrealists Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel collaborated on this fabulously bizarre short film.Following what barely represents a narrative, "Un chien anadolou" feels like a dream or, rather, a nightmare, for it manages to be quite terrifying in places.
Weird and cool, its easy to see the impact this dreamlike work of art and other Bunuel films had on David Lynch's career.Based on two strange dreams Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel had, the movie lacks a narrative and is hard to explain, its more like an abstract experience the viewer will understand only after watching it.Its a little more interesting than I expected it to be.
Oscar-nominee Luis Buñuel (That Obscure Object of Desire, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), the father of film surrealism, joins with another surrealist, Salvador Dalí, in his first film as a director.The film opens with a man cutting a woman's eyeball, but it get stranger as we see ants come out of a man's hand, and, well, it just keeps getting more bizarre.Don't look for a plot as it is more like free association, where psychoanalytic patients are invited to relate whatever comes into their minds during the analytic session, and not to censor their thoughts.Programmed for a short run, this film lasted eight months in the theater..
One of the most famous short films in the world is definitely Luis Buñuel's debut, "Un Chien Andalou" (literally, "An Andalusian Dog"), an not without a reason, as this 16 minute film's influence extents beyond the cinema and is considered a milestone of the surrealist movement of the late 20s.
The brainchild of director Luis Buñuel and painter Salvador Dalí, "Un Chien Andalou" has become an important work of art, necessary to understand the work of these two masters of surrealism, and their influence over the surrealist movement.Conceived as a series of scenes without an apparent order, the film has no explicit plot and instead it follows a dream logic where the "dreams" share only actors, characters, themes or motifs, without being explicitly "connected".
While unsettling at times and definitely aggressive, the movie is a joy to watch even when the experience is more akin to watch moving canvas rather than a movie the way we are used to it.The film is hard to understand, and ambiguous enough to the point that probably only Buñuel and Dalí knew exactly what it was supposed to mean.
Probably the first shocker of Cinema's history, this disturbing display of gore was Bunuel invitation to change our own perspective, to look at movies from the other side of the curtain, from behind our eyes whatever it means.The eye-moment breaks the ultimate taboo by depicting the most repulsive thing ever for a viewer, it equals watching a castration from a man's perspective.
Change your perspective; "welcome to my world", Bunuel didn't miss his entrance in the Pantheon of great directors, paving the way for a new surrealistic art-form.Surrealism consisted on expressing some superior forms of reality essentially lying on an association of dream-like images, faithful to Freudian free associations of ideas and the natural thinking process of the mind.
The images are indeed so rich, that we might accept the film for the true escapism it offers us.But to deny a consistence would also diminish its merit, Bunuel never conceded surrealistic aesthetics for nonsense, surrealism is a way to transcend the reality by sweeping off every convention but within its own illogic, "Un Chien Andalou" has a consistence on its own, which might explain the film's positive reception that surprised Bunuel and shocked Dali.
Bunuel was said to have carried some stones in his pockets just in case, but he was really underestimating his talent if he thought his films would only shock, he probably forgot that he was influenced by a poet and a man of images.And "Un Chien Andalou" carries these two characteristics, a unique style and harmony and a sense of poetry that makes any quest for a meaning useless, except if we let ourselves transported by this incomprehensible succession of subversives images.
"Un chien andalou" has no story or any kind of clear message, it contains no real characters or even a context for the things that are happening.The movie was made by the surrealist artist Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel and if you know anything about painters that first name should give you a good indicator that your in for a unique experience.Have I gotten anything out of seeing it?
It was called "Un Chien Andalou", and it shocked the world.Buñuel and Dalí wanted to prove that cinema shouldn't be reserved only to attract and please the masses, but that it should also displease them and portray images that are emotionally close to the author and dream-like in sequence.
In cinema giant's Luis Bunuel first scene of his first film we are given immediate indication of what a powerful effect this man will have on the art form for the next eighty years.
What if we made a film with this as a starting point?It's from this conversation between Bunuel and Dali that the genesis of "un Chien Andalou" (1929) was created.
An absence of story, only a sequel of mostly outlandish and vaguely eerie images, no logical link between them.However, "un Chien Andalou" like surrealism derives a part of its influence from Freud's theses who contended that orgasm was a sort of small death and that explains why Bunuel shows to the audience a close-up of Pierre Batcheff with a head's corpse.
If you were wondering if David Lynch was the first talented director to try to shock, repulse and offend his audience,for no better reason than because it is fun to do so...the answer is no.Luis Bunuel, with the help of Salvadore Dali created a movie which, although only 15 minutes long, manages to : 1.
4. A beautiful young woman stands in the middle of a street while traffic goes by...there are several close calls before one car actually does run her over."Un Chien Andalou" is considered Surrealist, but this is due to the fact that Dali, the great Surrealist painter was co-directorand that the film has no plot.
Un Chien Andalou (1929) is Luis Bunuel's eye popping (or, "eye slicing") and surrealistic short film that he co-wrote with the infamous surrealist artist Salvador Dali.
Luis Buñuel's short film, "Un Chien Andalou" is basically a series of surreal and shocking images, set to a great musical score, that don't appear to have any meaning or even any relevance to each other.
However I can freely admit to this because for me the value was not really in following the plot and understanding (although reading about it in the book before watching was a good idea I think).What value I got from the film was more to do with seeing Dali's imagery come alive on the screen because for the vast majority of the running time it is like being inside one of his paintings and it is a dizzying and quite unsettling experience albeit a very worthwhile and enjoyable one.
They decide the best way to accomplish this is to give the film no plot, no story, no definite characters, fill it with shock imagery, and hope the weirdness makes people think it's a work of art.That's this movie in a nutshell...
Un Chien Andalou is a solid surreal film that should be watched to see how Dali can play with our minds.
Un Chien Andalou-which Bunuel and his then best friend Salvador Dali first showed to the world in 1929-begins with a close-up of a razor slicing open the eyeball of an actress.
Luis Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou (meaning An Andulasian Dog) is a movie with really no particular plot, in which all it is is just surrealist images such as the famous eye slitting scene, or the horse being dragged on top of a piano. |
tt0258970 | Sleeping Beauty | After many childless years, King Stefan and Queen Leah happily welcome the birth of their daughter, the Princess Aurora. They proclaim a holiday for their subjects to pay homage to the princess, and at the gathering for her christening she is betrothed to Prince Phillip, the young son of Stefan's friend King Hubert, so that their kingdoms will always be united.
Among the guests are three good fairies called Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, who have come to bless the child with gifts, beauty and song. Before Merryweather is able to give her blessing, the evil fairy Maleficent appears, only to be told she was unwanted. Maleficent turns to leave, but when Queen Leah asks if she's offended, the evil fairy curses the princess, proclaiming that Aurora will grow in grace and beauty, but before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. King Stefan and Queen Leah are horrified and beg the three good fairies to break the curse. Unfortunately, they are not strong enough to break it, but Merryweather uses her blessing to weaken the curse so that instead of dying, Aurora will fall into a death-like sleep from which she can only be awakened by true love's kiss. King Stefan, still fearful for his daughter's life, orders all spinning wheels in the kingdom to be burned. The fairies do not believe that will be enough to keep Aurora safe, and so they spirit baby Aurora away to a woodcutter's cottage in the forest until the day of her sixteenth birthday.
Years later, Aurora, renamed Briar Rose, has grown into a beautiful teenage girl. On the day of her sixteenth birthday, the three fairies ask Rose to gather berries in the forest so they can prepare a surprise party for her. Rose is friends with the animals of the forest and sings them a song, Once Upon a Dream. While singing in the forest, Rose attracts the attention of Prince Phillip, now a handsome young man. He races to find the owner of the beautiful voice and is instantly struck by Rose's grace and beauty. Rose at first is frightened at the sudden appearance of the stranger, but Philip soon puts her at ease. They instantly fall in love, unaware of being betrothed years ago. Rose asks Phillip to come to her cottage that evening.
While she is out, Flora and Merryweather argue about the color of Aurora's ballgown. They fight, attracting the attention of Maleficent's raven and revealing the location of Aurora. Back at home, Briar Rose is thrilled to tell her guardians she met a man and fell in love. The fairies tell Aurora the truth about her heritage, that she is a princess and already betrothed, and tell her she must never see the man she met again. Heartbroken, she leaves the room. Meanwhile, Phillip tells his father of a peasant girl he met and wishes to marry in spite of his prearranged marriage to Princess Aurora. King Hubert fails to convince him otherwise, leaving Hubert in equal disappointment.
The fairies take Aurora back to the castle and leave her alone in a room to wait for her birthday celebrations where she will finally get to see her parents. Maleficent then appears and magically lures Aurora away from the fairies and tricks the princess into touching an enchanted spinning wheel. Aurora pricks her finger, completing the curse. The good fairies place Aurora on a bed in the highest tower and place a powerful spell on all the people in the kingdom, causing them to fall in a deep sleep until the spell on their princess is broken. While doing so, they overhear a conversation between the two kings. From King Hubert's conversation with King Stefan, the fairies realize that Prince Phillip is the man with whom Aurora has fallen in love. They rush to find him, but he is kidnapped by Maleficent who is waiting for him at the cottage in the woods. She shows Phillip the peasant girl he fell in love with is the now-sleeping princess. She tells him she plans to keep him locked away until he's an old man on the verge of death, then release him to meet his love, who will not have aged a single day.
The fairies find and release the prince, arming him with the magical Sword of Truth and the Shield of Virtue. Maleficent tries to stop Phillip by surrounding Aurora's castle with thorns but fails. She then transforms into a gigantic dragon to battle the prince herself. Ultimately, Phillip throws the sword, blessed by the fairies' magic, directly into Maleficent's heart, causing her to fall to her death.
Phillip awakens Aurora with a kiss, breaking the spell and thereby wakes everyone in the palace. The royal couple descends to the ballroom, where Aurora is happily reunited with her parents, while King Hubert is confused of how the two young royals met. Flora and Merryweather resume their argument over the color of Aurora's ball gown, magically changing it from blue to pink while the happy couple waltzes. The last color to appear is pink. Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip live happily ever after. | good versus evil, fantasy | train | wikipedia | Very cute. I remember the Jetlag productions with fondness, and Sleeping Beauty was one of the ones that I had vivid memories of. Re-watching it as part of my quest to re-visit the Jetlag, Golden Films and Burbank animations, my memories were mostly correct. The animation is quite good here, the backgrounds are colourful and the character designs especially that for Odelia are an improvement over those of Alice in Wonderland for example. The music score has many lovely whimsical moments, and I loved two of the three songs, Follow Your Heart especially is very sweet. The story is always charming in its tone, and the dialogue likewise without feeling overly-simplistic(again like Alice in Wonderland). Most of the characters are likable too, the best two being Primrose and Princess Felicity, both endearing and never annoying characters. That is not to say that this Sleeping Beauty is perfect though. Just Keep On Going is actually a good catchy song, but would've worked a million times better without the narration(which completely drowned out the last part) on top of it. I didn't care also for the character of Prince Richard, for me one of the Jetlag's silliest and more empty characters. Finally, the voice work while again far more emotive than Alice in Wonderland is inconsistent, the best cases were Aura and Amoratta, whose voices are fresh and charming, Felicity is suitably soothing and Primrose's high pitched voice worked for me. Odelia also wasn't too bad, the character herself is well animated and the dialogue is good, but there were times when the voice didn't quite fit the character, coming across as too nice. I didn't care for Melody, whose voice was more annoying than beautiful, or for Richard whose voice was just as bland as the character. Overall though, a cute Jetlag animation. 7/10 Bethany Cox |
tt0061744 | Hamraaz | Kumar (Sunil Dutt) is a well-known stage actor in Bombay, who performs plays along with his partner Shabhnam (Mumtaz). While on a trip to scenic Darjeeling, he meets and falls in love with Meena (Vimi), the only daughter of a wealthy military contractor, Verma (Manmohan Krishna). Shortly thereafter, Kumar and Meena get married and return home to Bombay. Four years later, Meena's dad passes away after telling her something that he had hidden.
Soon, Kumar notices that Meena does not accompany him to the stage any more, and excuses herself on the pretext of being ill. He finds clues that suggest that she is meeting somebody else on the sly. Suspicious, Kumar makes the excuse of going to Pune, and instead dons a beard and goes by the name of S.N. Sinha. He checks into a hotel, and writes his name in the hotel register. That night, he returns to his home, to find the door open, and before he can investigate anything, he hears a gunshot. Kumar runs into the room and finds Meena dead, shot in her chest.
Enraged, he decides to call the police station, but realizes that he will be implicated in the murder - his fingerprints are on the gun, he is in disguise, and he is next to the body. Kumar returns to the hotel instead, and smokes a lot of cigarettes. The case is assigned to Inspector Ashok (Balraj Sahni), and the next day, when Kumar "returns" to Bombay, Ashok observes that Kumar knows which room the body is in, without being told by anyone.
The coconut seller near Kumar's house says that he saw a bearded man in the area the night of the murder, and the owner of the hotel which Kumar had checked into calls the police, saying that a bearded man had checked into his hotel. The cigarettes that Kumar had smoked are recovered, and handed over to Ashok. When he visits Kumar at his house the next day, Kumar offers him the same brand of cigarette, rousing his suspicion. Soon, more clues surface, pointing at Kumar as the killer.
In a fit of haste, Kumar decides to run away from the growing suspicion of Inspector Ashok. His friend, lawyer Jagmohan (Iftekhar), says that he will now definitely be implicated as the murderer of Meena. Desperate, he finds a clue about the suspected killer from his home - a key with room number of a hotel. Kumar visits the room as a last attempt to clear things before he is caught. There, he meets Captain Rajesh who calms him down and tells him that none of them is the real killer. He tells Kumar that he is his wife's first husband, who was supposedly killed on the front, and how he wanted her to acquire their illegitimate child, Sarika, because she wouldn't be able to raise a child born out of wedlock.
Captain Rajesh tells Kumar that whoever the killer is, he was seen by Sarika because she was present in the room where Meena was murdered while both mother and daughter were playing and their activities being recorded by a video camera. Together, they try to find the girl, eventually tracing her to Ooty. Unknown to them, Inspector Ashok is on their trail. Soon, they both are arrested by him with the help of Ooty Police. Kumar explains his case, and they try to find Sarika, and she is at the house of a man called Tejpal (Madan Puri), who tries to run away from there. Shabnam and Jagmohan arrive with the videotape of the night that Meena was murdered. It is revealed that Tejpal is the killer, but he quickly draws a gun and picks up Sarika, threatening to kill her should any of them try to stop him.
Captain Rajesh manages to save Sarika from Tejpal, but he is shot twice by the latter. Now free to attack him, Ashok draws his gun and shoots Tejpal, and Kumar rushes over to Captain Rajesh. Tejpal is killed by Ashok and Sarika is safe. Captain Rajesh dies, and at the end of the movie, Kumar tells Shabnam that he cannot work - Meena was his only inspiration. Shabnam shows him Sarika sitting in Meena's seat, and he embraces Shabnam. | romantic, murder | train | wikipedia | Wonderful suspense thriller with beautiful songs.
The movie starts with an ordinary love story of a girl with a military man, they marry without telling the girl's father.
The girl's father somehow agrees and asks them to do the marriage again.
War breaks out and the husband dies in the war leaving the girl pregnant.
Father of girl tells the girl that the child was born dead.
The girl marries a stage actor Kumar, played by Sunil Dutt.
First half is full of good songs, and beautiful surroundings of Darjeeling.
No one can even imagine what the second half can be.
The second half is suspense thriller, young Sunil Dutt plays the role of chasing husband very well.
Balraj Sahni is, as always, at the top of the affairs, as a police inspector.
Balraj Sahni's styles eventually suggest that probably Amitabh copies him a lot of times.
Suspense goes on till the last 7-8 minutes of the movie.
Raaj Kumar is not so good, but Dutt sahib has done phenomenally well.
A must watch movie.
I still remember when I was a child I saw this movie first time on Vishal cinema in New Delhi, and my father when I told him that I saw Humraaz, he embraced me.
Its a far far better movie than today's suspense thrillers..
great film.
I feel this movie is awesome.
It had a very 60's Hollywood suspense theme.
The background music helped create the mood of suspense while viewing Sunil Dutt's goal to sidetrack the police.
The camera shots were awesome, especially when Sunil Dutt is in the hotel room and he has his hands on his face and the white lighting hits his face.
The film had a great glamor to it with actors like Sunil Dutt and Raj Kumar.
The main actress (Meena) was very elegant and high maintenance.
Sunil Dutt did an awesome job in the film of being the lovable husband to the suspicion husband.
It appears that he is already in the interrogation room of the police station.
I wish they made Bollywood films like this today..
excellent songs and interesting story.
First off i must say that this movie soundtrack is one of the best soundtracks of the 60's.
The story is very catchy and will keep you entertained through the entire movie.
Most of the cast acted well, Sunil Dutt being the best.
Sunil Dutt is very convincing as kumar, while vimmi could have been better.
I felt as if a better actress was casted as her character the movie would have been better (ex.
asha pareh, sadhana or saira banu).
Raaj kumar did well in a short but sweet role and Mumtaz as always was very pleasant to watch.
Anyone who likes mysteries will love this one....will all the being said i believe that the movie is worth a watch...i give it 7/10.......very good..
one of b r chopra's best!.
Hamraaz meaning confidante is a suspense movie directed by B.R.Chopra, known for his movies like Naya Daur,Sadhna,etc.Hamraaz is one of his best movies.It is about Meena,daughter of an army general who secretly marries Rajesh an army officer without telling her father about it.On the day of their marriage Rajesh has to leave to the border upon declaration of emergency.Later she gets the news of his death.She becomes pregnant with his child which supposedly dies after birth.She is then married of to Kumar,a renowned actor from Mumbai.Four years later Meena's past seems to have come back to her life and one day she get's murdered.The solving of this murder forms the rest of the story.The direction is good.The camera work,music and art direction stand out.
Amongst the actors,Sunil Dutt,Raaj Kumar and Mumtaz stand out.Vimi is unimpressive.The supporting cast comprising of Achala Sachdev,Jeevan, Madan Puri,Iftekhar,Jagdish Raj,Nana Palsikar,Manmohan Krishna,Balraj Sahni,etc are all good.Madhumati and Manohar Deepak have danced extremely well in the song 'Na mooh chupake jiyo'.The movie could have been faster.Though not boring,the appearance of all the songs within the first one hour becomes quite monotonous.But the songs are very melodious.They have been well sung and well composed.Overall,the movie is good and a must watch..
An outstanding mystery follows classic songs.
Hamraaz (1967) is my most favourite suspense-thriller which was a blockbuster in its time and re-released several times thereafter.
I had seen this great movie in theatre in Kolkata (then Calcutta) in 1989.
This excellent movie is the brain-child of the legendary director - late B.R. Chopra.
If you want to watch an edge-of-the-seat genuine suspense-thriller with an excellent musical score, this masterpiece starring Sunil Dutt, Raaj Kumar, Vimi, Mumtaaz and Balraaj Saahni is there for you which, in my opinion, is the best musical suspense-thriller ever made in Bollywood.Hamraaz (someone who knows your secret) starts with the hidden marriage of Vimi, the daughter of a military contractor at Darjeeling who finds herself pregnant after hearing the news of the death of her husband, Raaj Kumar in the 1962 war.
After delivery, her father informs her that she had delivered a dead child.
Time passes and Sunil Dutt, a famous theatre artist, enters her life, proposes her, marries her and takes her to Bombay without knowing about the secret marriage and delivery issues of his wife's life.
A few years later, Vimi is informed about her child living in an orphanage of Bombay by her father when he is on his death-bed.
Vimi meets her child (daughter), takes her to her home and requests Sunil Dutt for her adoption which is refused by Sunil Dutt on the plea that she won't treat that child as her own when she herself delivers his child later on.
Since then the activities of Vimi start creating suspicion in the mind of Sunil Dutt and the suspense begins.
Sunil Dutt spies on his wife only to find herself as murdered and himself becoming a suspect in the eyes of the investigating officer, Balraaj Saahni.
These and the following events, the thrill and the unfolding of the mystery; everything combines to a very very big treat for the suspense-thriller fans.Music is a great strength of the movie and the first hour is dedicated to music and romance only.
Saahir Ludhianvi has written five great songs for this movie and Ravi has composed great music for them.
Four are Mahendra Kapoor's all time great solos - 1.
O Neele Gagan Ke Tale, Dharti Ka Pyar Pale, 2.
Na Munh Chhupa Ke Jiyo Aur Na Sar Jhuka Ke Jiyo, 3.
Kisi Patthar Ki Moorat Se Mohabbat Ka Iraada Hai, 4.
Tum Agar Saath Dene Ka Vaada Karo, Main Yun Hi Mast Naghme Lutaata Rahoon.
And the fifth one is a Mahendra Kapoor-Asha duet - Tu Husn Hai Main Ishq Hoon, Tu Mujhme Hai Main Tujhme Hoon - in which classic love stories from the history have been shown as a theatre-play.
The melodious compositions coupled with the meaningful and touching lyrics make the album very precious.
The picturization of the songs is also laudable.The beauty of the narrative is that all these five songs are over within the first one hour of the movie and immediately thereafter the viewer finds himself enveloped in a non-stop suspense drama lasting for more than two hours.
But the length of the movie does not allow the viewer to get bored even for a single moment.
It is thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end.
The speed of the narrative after the songs are over, is so fast that the viewer keeps on watching holding his / her breath without getting any time to pause and think from the master storyteller.The screenplay of Hamraaz is simply brilliant and when the viewer is out of the theatre (or finished with the VCD / DVD or the satellite telecast), then only he / she realizes what a hypnotic state he / she has been in for the previous few hours.
Through the spellbinding narrative, B.R. Chopra has been able to clarify with conviction the difference between reading a mystery and watching a mystery.
It underscores the superiority of the visual medium in presenting a mystery over the medium of words.
It's a suspense-thriller in which the spectator not just watches the mystery but lives the mystery shown on the screen.
The white-shoes of the mysterious person whose identity is revealed just before the climax, is something unforgettable for the spectators.All departments of the movie are up to the mark.
The scenic beauty of Darjeeling has been very well captured by the cinematographer.
Production value is quite high according to the repute of the prestigious B.R. Films banner.The heroes have done exceedingly well, especially Sunil Dutt.
Vimi does not show any acting talent in her debut movie but she looks extremely beautiful and that has made up for her acting deficiency.
Mumtaaz also looks very pretty.
Herself alongwith the complete supporting cast, has performed satisfactorily.
We can also see Sarika in this movie as a child artist and hers is also a heart-winning performance .Considering the plot, the acting, the tight screenplay with excellent direction and above all, the music; the movie easily finds itself in the list of all time great suspense-thrillers of Bollywood.
Any mystery-fan who has not seen Hamraaz, should not miss it.
However this movie is equally recommendable for the audience of romantic musicals also.
It's truly outstanding and nothing short of a textbook of filmmaking for the contemporary filmmakers..
an OK movie.
This movie has a good cast and songs(Tum Agar Sath Daine Ka Vaada Karo)(Naa Mun Chuppa Ke Jiyo).Although the movie was a hit at its time but the main flaw is its direction.Initially the film seems to be a love story which then changes to an unfaithful type story and then to a mystery type of movie.Sunil Dutt gives a good performance as a man trapped under a mystery.Raaj Kumar also gives a good performance though his character is of no appeal or anything.The end of the movie is very strange and the presence of Raaj Kumar was not even needed in my opinion.On the whole the movie can be given 6 because of its good songs and some appealing thrilling moments but still direction really decreases it value. |
tt0104291 | Forever Young | In 1939, Captain Daniel McCormick (Mel Gibson) is a United States Army Air Corps test pilot. After a successful run and subsequent crash landing in a prototype North American B-25 Mitchell bomber at Alexander Field in Northern California, McCormick is greeted by his longtime friend, Harry Finley (George Wendt) who's a scientist. Finley confides that his latest experiment, "Project B", has succeeded in doing the impossible. The machine, built by Finley and his team of scientists, is a prototype chamber for cryonic freezing. When McCormick's girlfriend, Helen (Isabel Glasser) goes into a coma from an accident and the doctors doubt she will ever recover, McCormick insists he be put in suspended animation for one year, starting November 26, 1939, so he will not have to watch Helen die.
Fifty-three years later, two boys are playing inside a military storage warehouse which is being emptied in preparation for its demolition. They discover the suspended animation chamber containing McCormick and are enticed by it. Believing it to be a miniature submarine, they proceed to play with its dials and controls and accidentally activate the restoration process. The chamber opens and McCormick reflexively grabs one boy's coat, causing them to flee in terror, leaving the coat clasped in McCormick's hand. Shortly after, McCormick awakens to the realization that it is now 1992. After appropriating shorts and a shirt from a clothesline, he first approaches the military about his experiences. When they dismiss him as crazed, McCormick becomes more determined to learn what happened to Finley, Helen, and the world that has seemingly evolved overnight around him.
An address tag inside the jacket leads McCormick to the owner, 12-year old Nat Cooper (Elijah Wood), one of the two boys who opened the chamber. Though the boys are initially terrified, McCormick is able to calm Nat and his friend with the truth of his story. While hiding in Nat's tree house with a secret stash of junk food, he witnesses Nat's single mother Claire (Jamie Lee Curtis) being assaulted by her abusive, alcoholic ex-boyfriend, and goes to her defense. After McCormick receives a gash in the fight, Claire, a nurse, fixes it up and a bond develops between the two. This bond is strengthened when she offers McCormick a place to stay, until he can discover what to do with his search. Nonetheless, McCormick's time is running out, as his body starts to age rapidly because the suspended animation chamber process was not entirely successful.
When another "aging attack" practically cripples McCormick, Claire is told the amazing truth. Susan, Finley's daughter, informs him that her father died many years earlier before she was born (the government later specifies it was a warehouse fire in the early '40s, while trying to save the frozen McCormick from the chaos). Susan also gives McCormick her father's journals, hoping he can use them to reverse his own condition. However, according to the journals, the subject did not properly stop aging, but rather postponed it, thus explaining Daniel's own rapid aging. Before leaving, Susan gives McCormick one further revelation: Helen is alive. The government is also after McCormick, but in the end, Claire hands over the crucial information on "Project B" and no one is arrested as the government investigates what went wrong. Claire gave the government the journals that Harry wrote, to help them to fix their problem. Claire notices Nat is gone and he was last in the plane with Daniel. The Government will wait for Nat and Daniel to get back and escort them back home, so they can finish their research on Harry's machine and research from the hospital on Daniel's condition too.
McCormick's final task is to find Helen in the present day. McCormick commandeers a B-25 bomber from an air show with Nat a stowaway on board. Nat helps McCormick land when another attack nearly kills him. His true age having finally caught up with him, the now-elderly McCormick reunites with the elderly Helen and asks her to marry him and she accepts. | cult, romantic | train | wikipedia | Without a clue what happened to him or what to do, Daniel turns to the two boys for help.It sounds rather corny and obvious and, in a way, I suppose it is but by not ever playing it for laughs or being self-mocking the film creates a tone that means it all works as long as you meet it on its terms.
Wood works well with Gibson, which I suppose is the important thing.Overall this is a solid and enjoyable romantic film that is a bit slushy and melodramatic.
I first saw this movie when I was ten years old and have been in love with mel gibson ever since.
This movie hits all the requisite points for the classic love story.Love lost - love found - mistaken death of love one - sacrifice - the hero almost falling for another woman - a cute boy facilitating the reunion - the evil group trying to stop the reunion - a great escape - the reunion scene in a very scenic locale with great camera shots - Mel Gibson.I went to see it mainly because it had a science fiction angle.
Mel Gibson in Forever Young is particularly effective when dealing with the son of Jamie Lee Curtis; you know she's already committed and he cannot hang around, but you find yourself wishing the boy could have Mel for his new dad.Not offering more shows like this is why theaters have so few under-12 and over-35 movie goers..
Daniel asks his best friend Harry Finley (Wendt) if he could be the specimen for Harry's cryogenics project, soon enough he is in a deep frozen sleep and wants to be woken up when Helen gets better.
It's 50 years later and two boys Nat (Wood) and Felix (Gorman) accidentally stumble upon Daniel and he's brought back to life, he becomes friends with Nat's mother Claire (Curtis) who introduces him into the 1990's.
Forever Young takes place in 1939, where Daniel (a pilot played by Mel), after being unable to propose to his girlfriend who soon afterwards falls into a coma, decides to be frozen by his best friend for a year's time.
This starts a rather amusing and interesting walk through the streets, and a reunion with the boy, who, with the aid of his mother (played spectacularly by Jamie Lee Curtis), help him on his search to untangle his past -- bringing him to the sudden realization that true love can't wait.
This film has it all: drama, action, romance, bits of humor, a well-written script, a wonderful cast, spectacular scenery, and most of all, a gorgeous Mel, who plays his role of the daring, young test pilot to a tee.
Now, in conclusion, I highly recommend this excellent drama that will warm your heart and stay with you eternally to any Mel Gibson or Jamie Lee Curtis fan who hasn't seen it.
and I'm glad I didn't know that, because it would have tainted my opinion.I expected a sappy love story with a sappy Mel Gibson who takes a nap to wake up and find himself falling in sappy love with the ugly, but sappy, Jamie Lee Curtis and adopting her sappy and bug-eyed son, Elijah Wood.
No sappiness, and Mel Gibson wasn't even sucking as hard as he tends to suck (see "What Women Want" for really hard sucking).I really liked this film, it kept me from going to sleep on time.
it's not a masterpiece, i mean the main idea was a little unoriginal and the ending was predictable, but it was a funny and enjoyable movie to watch, especially the chemistry betwean mel Gibson and jamie lee curtis(two great actors) and also elijah wood which was pretty great.
mel Gibson did a fine job.it is not his best work but he was good,the most important thing he did was not letting the character be a boring one.elijah wood was also funny and i was kinda surprised to see him in this movie.afterall this movie cannot be considered as a masterpiece or an influential film,but the very important point is that it's not trying to.this film is supposed to be amusing and entertaining and to be "light" for it's audience,and imo it's very successful in it's own way.
FOREVER YOUNG has some big names, like Mel Gibson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Elijah Wood, and George Wendt (Cheers).
Forever Young is one of my all time favorites, it combines a great story with excellent performances from Mel Gibson,Jamie Lee Curtis and child actor Elijah Wood.
Definitely one of my favorite Gibson flicks,and I always enjoy watching Elijah Wood who in my opinion was one of the finest child actors of his time..
Forever Young is a brilliant movie, which has been wonderfully directed by Steve Miner and acted by the brilliant Mel Gibson, Jamie Lee Curtis and a young Elijah Wood who all give great performances here.
But Mel Gibson despite playing a tired sort of character, does well at acting bemused, and Jamie Lee Curtis provides charming support.
Tragedy takes his sweetheart away
" according to the film's official synopsis.With his sweetheart in a coma, and given almost no chance of recovery, Mr. Gibson asks to be cryogenically frozen for one year.
Anyway, Gibson awakens in 1992, and moves in with young Elijah Wood (as Nat Cooper) and his mom, nurse Jamie Lee Curtis (as Claire).After the camera lovingly shows his nude profile, a very fit and good-looking Gibson finds some clothing to wear, and goes to use a pay phone, outside a Ralph's supermarket.
And, cute little Veronica Lauren, recently "Sarah" in "Dark Shadows", is definitely worth serenading.**** Forever Young (12/11/92) Steve Miner ~ Mel Gibson, Elijah Wood, Jamie Lee Curtis.
Daniel Mc Cormick's (Two Time Oscar-Winner:Mel Gibson) girlfriend Helen (Isabel Glasser) went to a deep coma after getting hit by a car.
Which Daniel wants their help to find his best friend and his girlfriend if they are still alive but slowly Daniel finds himself in a strong bond with Nat and a kind friendship with Nat's mother Claire (Jamie Lee Curtis).Directed by Steve Miner (Day of the Dead "2007", House, Texas Rangers) made an enjoyable, if corny fantasy drama with the right amounts of comedy and romance.
The movie's best moments are the scenes between Gibson and Wood makes this premise works.
As trivial as this movie may seem , I think that the subjects of love forever , learning to heal and helping a fatherless young boy become a young man is way more profound then the self important movies Mel has been pumping out in recent years.I think that stories are the best way to get messages out there.
Mel Gibson plays a military test pilot who agrees to become the subject of a cryogenic experiment after the love of his life ends up in an 'irreversable' coma in 1939.
Plot In A Paragraph: It's 1939 and test pilot Daniel McCormick (Mel Gibson) asks his best friend Harry (George Wendt) to use him as a guinea pig for a cryogenics experiment.
Just for someone who has a broken heart...in the begining start well on sci-fi genre,while in the future became a melodrama and some childsh acting,perhaps miscasting by Jamie and Isabel who weren't in the level of Gibson,great to see Elijah Wood as a child,the picture didn't take off,a bit slow dow.....but still interesting to see,if you don't have anything to do!!Not convincing!!Resume:First watch: 1996 / How much: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.
This film tells the story of Daniel McCormick, an aviator who decides to take part in an innovative scientific experiment with cryogenics after his girlfriend, whom he would ask to marry him, be run over by a car and enter the hospital with little chance of recovery.
The cast is led by Mel Gibson and features Jamie Lee Curtis and young Elijah Wood in supporting roles.
While the film as a whole is only decent, it is fascinating to get a glimpse into the early film musings of Abrams.For a basic plot summary, "Forever Young" tells the story of Captain Daniel McCormick (Gibson), a military test pilot in 1939 who sees his fiancée Helen (Isabel Glasser) involved in an accident and rendered comatose.
Overcome with grief, Daniel persuades inventor friend Harry Finley (George Wendt) to enroll him in an experimental freezing process (to last a year) so he doesn't have to watch the love of his life slowly die.
Taken in by single mother Claire (Jamie Lee Curtis) and son Nat (Elijah Wood), Daniel must assimilate back into culture while at the same time untangle those missing years.There are unique elements to this script that I see Abrams' handprints all over.
The premise is interesting, the acting is quite good, and there really are some great scenes featuring Gibson and Wood (their chemistry almost steals the show at times).
I enjoyed it just as much this time as when I saw it back in the early nineties.Mel Gibson is young, handsome (sane) and plays a 1939 test pilot who volunteers for a top secret experiment, after his lady love is injured in a car accident and falls into a coma.
Daniel then comes to the rescue of single mom Jamie lee Curtis who in turn aids in his recovery and helps him try to find the scientist (or at least a relative) of those responsible for his 50 year freeze.The movie is part comedy, part adventure, some sci fi and a heartbreaking romance rolled into one.
The bad guys here are the FBI, looking to detain Daniel and learn from his involvement in the top secret experiment.One of my favourite scenes is when Mel teaches Elijah to fly in a pretend B52 bomber made from bits and pieces, glo lites, kitchen utensils and odd switches, but they film it in a way that it feels like they've taken off, and in a child's mind you believe.
"Forever Young" seems to have a mix of both commercial and personal sides, and despite a few flaws in its screenplay it still entertains and holds your attention.The basic plot line has Gibson as a military test pilot in 1939 who wants to propose to the love of his life played by Isabel Glasser, but he chickens out, and as he does so, she goes comatose and nearly dies from being hit by a car.
After saving Wood's mother played by Jamie Lee Curtis from nearly being abused, he briefly moves in and begins a minor relationship with her until the climax, which I won't give away.So yeah it definitely has the ingredients and clichés of a made-for- TV movie.
Around that theme there is a touching love story and re-meeting 50 years later between Mel Gibson and Isabel Glasser.
In the middle of the film the action is well carried by Jamie Lee Curtis as a single mother looking for a father for her child - extremely well-played by Elijah Wood.
Mel Gibson plays a man frozen in 1939 after his girlfriend enters a coma and reawakens after 53 years.
However, the film does have its moments, very few, but that make this movie average.'Forever Young' really isn't good because it's too unbelievable.
Jamie Lee Curtis shines as Wood's mother and overall the film is enjoyable, but is a little too manipulative and sappy to be completely successful.
He actually proves to be quite likable as a romantic lead, and makes Forever Young a sweet, endearing romantic fable.In 1939, Mel plays Captain Daniel McCormick, an Air Force test pilot.
He stays frozen in the capsule for over 50 years.Daniel is eventually thawed out by two boys, Nat and Felix (Nat is played by a young Elijah Wood).
Staying with Nat and his mother Claire (the delightful Jamie Lee Curtis), Daniel tries to piece together the last 50 years.To enjoy Forever Young, you will probably have to suspend disbelief quite a bit.
In the same way Robert Zemeckis brought a Frank Capra style of storytelling to BTTF, the director Steve Miner also brings a gentle, benign touch to this story.The greatest discovery of all is the fact that Mel Gibson manages to make this film work.
Jamie Lee Curtis adds sterling support as always, and she gets a lot of good scenes with Gibson.Elijah Wood also puts in an excellent performance, showing incredible maturity for his age.
I know at least two of them that were made in 1991-1992 and they were both fun to watch: this movie and "Late For Dinner."The good things that this particular film has going for it are: 1 - Mel Gibson plays a very likable lead character in "Captain Daniel McCormick;" 2 - there is a nice 1940s atmosphere in the beginning with a sweet-looking Isabell Glasser, who exhibits one of the sweetest faces and smiles I've seen on film; 3 - there is a good mix of humor, drama and intrigue, as well as fantasy in the story; 4 - there is a nice, almost tear-inducing ending.The kids in the movie were a little pushy but not too bad.
It is a touching love story.This movie also shows how a boy would want a man he meets as his father.
The movie shows it does work, but that it is not a solution after all.The acting by Mel Gibson and Elijah Wood makes it a very nice movie to watch.
I curl up with this movie occasionally because a) it's a ripping little yarn, b) it's got Mel Gibson in it, and c) because it's as comforting to me as a warm blanket or a cup of hot chocolate.Gibson plays Daniel McCormick, an army test pilot in 1939 who is about to propose to his girlfriend, Helen (Isabel Glasser) when she is hit by a truck and falls into a coma.
Mini-Frodo is quite good as the boy Nat, who befriends Daniel, and his own little love story in the film is quite sweet "you are my sunshine, my only sunshine..." reminded me of all the silly crushes I had at that age.
I also liked the fact that while he was obviously attracted to her, Daniel did not get it on with Jamie Lee Curtis' character, but that the story really was about his "true love".
All the characters are just great, and they were all extremely likable as well, plus Mel Gibson and Jamie Lee Curtis are simply amazing in this!.
Elijah Wood is excellent as the kid,and was really likable, and I thought this was very well written and made as well, plus Mel Gibson's aging make up was really cool!.
Mel Gibson is amazing as always and is amazing here, he is extremely likable funny, charming had excellent chemistry with Jamie Lee Curtis,Isabel Glasser and Elijah Wood, had lots of charisma and had a really cool character, as he looked pretty comfortable with his role!
Overlooked in error, he is accidentally woken in 1992 at which point, with the help of a nurse and her son, he tries to make some sense of what has happened to him.Forget the science fiction element - the cryogenesis is unconvincing, and the "catch-up" ageing afterwards is, as far as I'm aware, completely without any sort of scientific or logical foundation.What you are left with is a romantic fable, cross-matched with some fish out of water humour, a dab of suspense, and some pleasing relationships between the characters.Curiously, the heart of the movie is not Mel Gibson (who is perfectly satisfactory as Daniel) nor Jamie Lee Curtis (whose samaritan nurse Claire is almost an incidental character), but 10-year old Elijah Wood who, even at that age, holds centre stage effortlessly for much of the film.Don't expect it to make any sense, and you may well enjoy it..
Performances are weak, as is the comedy, in a movie which played a lot like a cross between "The Rocketeer" and "Somewhere in Time".With too many ridiculous situations and a hastily explained script, "Forever Young" remained too hokey to even make an effective love story.Monday, April 12, 1993 - Balwyn Cinema.
I haven't seen this film in a long time but I will try and give you my take on the film.Forever young came out in 1992 and stars Mel Gibson and Jamie Lee Curtis and tells the tale of a US Navy officer named as Daniel who his chronically frozen due to the love of his life dying.
He later befriends the young boy who found him and his single mother(played by Jamie Lee Curtis and Elijah Wood) and discovers that since he was frozen he is slowly becoming older and his immortality is slowly fading away.
Mel Gibson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Elijah Wood, Isabel Glasser and George Wendt star in this 1992 sci-fi drama.
This begins in 1939 where we meet test pilot, Daniel (Gibson) who has a girlfriend, Helen (Glasser) and best friend, Harry (Wendt) who is a scientist.
Mel Gibson is good at bringing out this side of Daniel's character.Just when the film seems to be developing into a romantic comedy which will end with Daniel and Claire falling for one another, and then changes direction with the sudden revelation that Helen did not die in 1939 but is still alive.
Daniel McCormick (Mel Gibson) loves his girlfriend Helen (Isabel Glasser) very much and is keen to propose marriage to her, but he cannot pluck up the courage, and then to his shock she is hit by a car.
She is put into hospital suffering a coma that doctors say she will not wake up from, so with the success of his friend's experiment, Daniel asks Harry Finley (George Wendt) to cryogenically freeze him in a capsule for one year so he does not have to watch her die.
Gibson is charming as the man from the past who will do anything to be with his love, Curtis is nice as the single mother who he likes and she admires, and young Wood proves himself a great early talent. |
tt0814207 | Marvel: Ultimate Alliance | The game begins with Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil launching an attack on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier U.N.N. Alpha. Nick Fury sends out a distress call to all available super heroes for assistance. Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor and Wolverine respond to the call. Along with the other heroes, they save the Helicarrier from the forces led by Scorpion, Bullseye, Winter Soldier, Radioactive Man, and Fin Fang Foom. In the wake of the attack, Nick Fury is given permission to start a task force to confront the Masters of Evil and Iron Man allows them to use Stark Tower as their headquarters. Fury asks the heroes to investigate an odd message received from Dum Dum Dugan on the Omega Base, a S.H.I.E.L.D. mobile research facility. The team defeats supervillains MODOK, Crimson Dynamo, and Mysterio to prevent the Omega Base from crashing in to a dam and launching several gamma bombs. With their mission successful, the heroes travel to Atlantis, where the inhabitants are being mind-controlled by Attuma, who has usurped Namor from his throne. With the help of nano-technology that enables them to breathe and move freely underwater, the heroes are able to save Namor and defeat Attuma and Tiger Shark. After defeating Attuma, the heroes encounter Mandarin, who unleashes the Kraken, which the team defeats by toppling pillars on it.
They then travel to the Valley of Spirits to confront Mandarin in his palace. After his defeat, he reveals that he attempted to take command of the Masters of Evil and, upon failing, left the group. He suggests that the Mandarin they saw in the catacombs was actually Loki, god of mischief. Upon returning to base, the team learns that Nightcrawler and Jean Grey have been kidnapped. Due to the involvement of mystical forces, Nick Fury has the team relocated to the Sanctum Sanctorum. Professor X tracks Nightcrawler to Castle Doom, but upon trying to transport the heroes there they are sent to Murderworld by a spell from Baron Mordo. After defeating a mind-controlled Jean Grey, Rhino, and Shocker, the heroes battle a large mech, piloted by Arcade. Victorious, the heroes learn that Dr. Doom has used Nightcrawler to access Mephisto's Realm, and the team is sent in pursuit.
Upon arriving, minions of Mephisto kidnap Jean Grey and Nightcrawler. Blackheart, Mephisto's son, puts them in separate cages above the Infinity Vortex, stating one must be saved and the other sacrificed before the team can defeat Mephisto. During their battle with Mephisto the sacrificed hero returns, resurrected by Mephisto, but now under his control. As a final effort, the resurrected hero sacrifices their life to defeat Mephisto and allow the team to escape. Meanwhile, in Asgard, a massive army of Super Soldiers attacks and imprisons the Asgardian gods. The heroes travel to Valhalla to liberate it from its invading force and free Heimdall (who is guarded by Rhino and Shocker), Tyr (who is guarded by Scorpion and Lizard), and Balder (who is guarded by Enchantress and Executioner). Then they fight the Wrecking Crew to open Bifrost Bridge in order for reinforcements to arrive. Looking for Odin in Niffleheim following a fight with Kurse and Ulik, they find his shattered Twilight Sword and learn from Ymir that Doctor Doom and Loki have taken Odin to Raven's Spire. After Loki is seemingly defeated at Raven's Spire, the team frees the Destroyer Armor to use against Doctor Doom. Loki, disguised as Fury, reveals himself and his plot to have the heroes free the armor for nefarious purposes. As heroes defeat Loki and the armor, Doctor Doom appears and reveals that he has stolen Odin's power. He uses it to attempt to eliminate the heroes, but Uatu the Watcher saves them and transports them to the Inhumans' base on the moon.
Uatu reveals the only way to defeat Doom is to acquire a piece of the M'Kraan Crystal and steal the Muonic Inducer from Galactus (who is currently attacking the Skrull homeworld). The team is sent to the Shi'ar Empire where they fight Deathbird and the Imperial Guard in order to restore Lilandra Neramani to the throne and gain a portion of the M'Kraan Crystal. After retrieving the crystal, the heroes travel to the Skrull homeworld and with the help of the Silver Surfer, the heroes disable Galactus and steal the Muonic Inducer. Meanwhile, Doctor Doom conquers Earth, corrupting and creating clones of many of the heroes. In a final effort, the team travels to Latveria to confront Dr. Doom. The heroes use the M'Kraan Crystal and Muonic Inducer to weaken Doom. As the heroes weaken Doom, he is blasted by a bolt of lightning sent by a rejuvenated Odin, leaving nothing but his mask behind. As the heroes meet on the repaired Helicarrier, Nick Fury informs the heroes that the team must disband and asks if S.H.I.E.L.D. can count on them when another threat happens. Captain America assures Nick that the world can count on them. Meanwhile, Galactus vows revenge on the heroes who stole from him and plans to destroy Earth.
=== Characters ===
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance features over 140 characters, and in addition the heroes battle evil versions of both themselves and other heroes throughout the game. Some heroes also appear as a villain under mind control, such as Jean Grey. In game each character has a set of four alternate costumes however three of these costumes must be unlocked. However, some of the characters costumes are also other superheroes in the Marvel Universe. This includes Iron Man as War Machine, Thor as Beta Ray Bill, Spider-Woman as Spider-Girl and Julia Carpenter from the Secret Wars, Ghost Rider as Phantom Rider and Ms. Marvel as Sharon Ventura. Also, there are various upgrades that can be attached to characters for boosts in power, speed, defense, etc.
^a Also appeared on Game Boy Advance version.^b As a Special Striker for the Game Boy Advance version.^c Exclusive to the 7th generation console (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii) versions.^d Exclusive to the Game Boy Advance version.^e Exclusive to the PSP version.^f Exclusive to the Xbox 360 Latest Editions. Originally as a downloadable content, separated from the full game, later as part of the Gold Edition's game disc and Games on Demand Edition's digital game bundle.^g Exclusive to the Remastered Editions. | good versus evil, psychedelic | train | wikipedia | Good game featuring many marvel characters..
Basically a semi sequel to the x-men legend games, this game has a massive team of heroes working together to stop Dr. Doom's evil plans.
The heroes have their varying strengths and weaknesses as was the case in the legends games.
Though I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed in the fact that strength was ignored in that you could not really lift anything big.
Still, you had your far away type attackers, your attackers best suited for close combat and those who were rather good at both.
You can mix up your teams and if you happen to put a particular team together you can get a boost to a stat (putting all the members of the fantastic four together for example).
Of course, you have your favorites that you use best, for me it was Spider-man and Deadpool, and you have your characters you wish were here but are not...Cyclops and the Hulk.
There are plenty of villains to fight as well as you have Dr. Doom, Arcade, Ultron, and many others.
The game is not perfect, as some of the levels are very repetitive and playing this just makes me want to play a more conventional role playing game with the super heroes...still it is fun and fast paced.
And from the ending I would wager there will be a sequel..
A definite step up.
This is a review of the version for the PC.
Something that I did not know before I started this became clear to me immediately when I did: That this is a spiritual successor to the X-Men Legends series.
Anyone who liked those should enjoy this, as well.
There is again a ton of characters(and their personalities are essentially all spot-on, not to *mention* their bad-ass abilities), locations(Asgard, Atlantis, and you'll go to outer space and walk on(!) a spacecraft in motion) and facts(yes, it's kind of a lexicon about it) surrounding what has now been extended to the entire Marvel universe.
The story-telling tools are scripted sequences, in-engine videos that operate as briefings(and they are a tad forced, reiterating info that you can find by talking to NPC's; with that said, they are less so than those of XML2, and downright engaging and entertaining at their best; you see the enemies talk to each other at times, as well, only they tip-toe around enough to not let the player know what the intended outcome of their master plan is, which can get a little awkward) and finally, a handful of fully CGI cut-scenes that I'm pretty sure you'll find mention of if you look up the word "awesome" in very recent dictionaries.
Voice acting leaves little to be desired(and they tend to be well-cast), if Black Widow sounds like Molly from The Punisher game of 2004, which can be a tiny bit distracting.
I think it is the same actress.
That is minor, and this has Adrienne Barbeau as Sif, and that's not where the talent in that department ends.
Audio in general is impeccable(if there are a ton of reused FX); the music is incredible, well-composed and helps the epic tone and flavor of this, and tends to fit the situation.
The one issue is the volume...
seriously, this cranks it up in tense situations, so you either have to tolerate it being louder for a while, or turn it down and then back up so that you can hear anything once it returns to the other score.
This contains unlockables, like the discs that are now comic missions, much bigger, with time constraints and often a prologue about who you are playing it as, and that is nearly invariably fixed, one per each.
It appears to have been made by the companies responsible for the first two.
The map remains the same, as does the overall design - saving is done by checkpoint where you can teleport to others and change who your team consists of, or their outfits.
You have to turn the camera a lot of the time, but hey, it works.
This has a reasonable length, and it doesn't wear out its welcome.
The plot is interesting, with unexpected twists that hold up.
Apart from the return of what was already great, this improves on a number of things.
It genuinely gives you the feeling that you are accomplishing something.
The targeting is good, largely automatic.
Enemies and areas are rather diverse.
The levels continue to be entirely linear, and get shorter as you go along(with that said, they're plenty big to begin with), and with their atmosphere and the dynamic touch(there is a ton of stuff going on, for example in the background) to the environments, it makes those of the previous 2 look static by comparison, and you can return to the majority of them later on.
Attacks and the types that you can play as are nicely varied(it doesn't seem to matter particularly who you choose), and everyone is sure to find favorites among them.
There is limited mid-air combat for the fliers(and flight is easy to do), and you can jump and strike(in the landing), which can be charged up, same as your Smash move.
You can now do additional Throw moves, not merely toss the foe in any of the four directions, you can beat them up, and do this other trick that is specific to the guy you're playing as, and steal and wield weapons(and those are sure strong, if they do break, and you have to put it away to use anything else to dish out punishment with) from some, or simply snatch their gun or shield to remove the advantage that it gives them.
Now you can't carry health or energy pickups, and as a trade-off, you can earn them by whaling on opponents.
You have more control over your powers(several of them can be recognized from earlier in the franchise, if assigned to others), and you can steer Cap's shield, to name one thing.
It is now about 8 per person(and there are projectile, radial and mêlée for most of them, no one is useless), with exceptions, and you assign a key to activating each, and you thus can use any of them anytime you want(save for the final one, that is one that needs storing energy, and is *worth it*), unless you're using a game-pad or something.
"Reviving" fallen comrades now takes time and costs nothing.
A second player can drop in or out at any time.
The graphics are fantastic.
They clearly put effort into this, and the new stuff makes it enduring.
Unfortunately, there are problems.
This never feels difficult or risky, and It tries too hard, constantly chucking this or that(that you can remember from the graphic novels) at you.
And a bit of the stuff that is in this to keep it from growing stale(hit this or that button when prompted to, once or tap it) has been seen elsewhere, and here, it is frankly not quite as impressive as it was in other games.
It can be repetitive and frustrating.
This is clearly rushed and not perfectly smoothed out.
There are shortcuts taken, bugs and glitches(noticeable in the AI).
And it is not as addictive or fun as it could be.
I recommend this to fans of the source material; this is an enjoyable and respectful production about it.
One Hell Of A Game.
Don't Lie & Say When You Were A Kid You Never Wanted To Be A Super Hero.
With This Game You Can Make That Dream Come True.
The Whole Marvel Universe Is In Your Grasp.
You Can Play As Wolverine, Spiderman, Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, The Thing, Elektra, Iron Man, Daredevil, Black Panther, The Invisible Woman, The Silver Surfer, Mr. Fantastic, Luke Cage, Doctor Strange, Ronin, Deadpool, Human Torch, Black Panther, Colossus, Hulk, Storm, Cyclops, Hawkeye, Blade, Ms Marvel, Jean Grey e.t.c. The Plot Is That Dr. Doom has assembled a new version of the Masters of Evil in his pursuit of becoming a god.
After an attack upon S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier U.N.N. Alpha, Nick Fury is given the OK to start a task force consisting of Marvel's superheroes to combat the Masters of Evil and uncover Dr. Doom's plot.
There Are Also Sub-Plots But If You Don't Mind I'll Not Say Anything.
This Game Is Also Fun To Play As Well As The Comic Book Missions.
Also Some Of The Characters I Listed Are Only Available On X-Box 360 So Thats Just My Heads Up Before You Buy It.
"Logan Buddy Its Me Deadpool I Shot You" - Hulk V.S Wolverine.
Awesome Game To Play Over..
Marvel Ultimate Alliance is a great super hero video game.
The fact that there are so many different Marvel Characters to choose from makes this a great game.
Whether it be Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Storm, Thing, Deadpool, Spiderman, Thor, or many others there are so many awesome characters to choose from.
Colossus is also a great character but you can only use him in the X Box 360 version.
The controls are pretty simple in this game and it is pretty easy to figure out where to go by using the map.
THe game is very similar to the game "X Men Legends" but much improved.
Graphics are awesome as well.
Basic plot is that all of the marvel heroes formed an alliance to go against Dr. Doom.
One thing that I will complain about though is that many classic Marvel Villains including Dr. Octopus, Venom, Magneto, and Juggernaut you do not fight in this game.
But other than that this game is perfect..
This is what Marvel Nemesis should have been.
The game play is exactly like X-men Legends.
So if you've played those games it shouldn't take long to adjust to this one.What more can I say?
Its Marvel.
Fans have waited so long for this.
Miss Marvel, Silver Surfer, Blade, Daredevil, Elektra, Spiderman, Nick Fury, Captin America, Thor, the Fantastic 4, Deadpool, Ghostrider,Ironman all put into 1 game.Shame more couldn't be done with the X-men.
The X-men in this are Storm, Wolverine and Iceman.
Not a bad selection but anyway the X-men already have more games than the other characters combined.The downside which is not the fault of the makers of this game: There is no Punisher or Incredible Hulk.
Other game companies owned the rights to those characters.
Bruce Banner does appear in the game briefly though.There are some characters I've never heard of like Luke Cage, instead of him may be they should have put another character off Blade like Whistler.
By the way although some characters aren't playable, they still appear throughout the game like Jean Grey, Nightcrawler...Gameplay is really simple.
Its also helpful that up to 3 people can help you, that comes in handy for some levels where there are a lot of enemies..
Whoa!
X-Men Legends got more characters and a better storyline!.
Well then, kiddies, heres my review of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.Well, I own both X-Men Legends one and two.
Both are great games.But then I got M:UA for Christmas.
Booooyy was i stoked.I had once played some of Marvel Nemesis: I would not recommend anyone to play it unless there's no walls around with drying paint, which would be more fun.Well, I began playing Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and I thought "Gee, what other game does this remind me of?"Didn't take me long to connect the dots.The first thing I noticed was Captain America...(AN- I HATE CAPTAIN America XD) But then, I noticed Spider-Man. I noticed that instead of flying like some people do or just doing nothing, he was able to web-swing.
My instant reaction was "Frickin' sweet!" That was a definite improvement from the X-Men Legend games, where either your character could fly, double jump, or do absolute squat.
Or in the second one's case, teleport.As I played through the game, i noticed how awesome the storyline was.
Kudos to the writers!
It took me by surprise a few times, especially when Doom got Odin's power.
And then they told me I was going to have to fight him.
I agreed with Deadpool..."I want my lawyer, i want my mommy!
...i want my lawyers mommy." And then, upon beating the game, another surprise was in store for me- according to all the things I had done and hadn't done, the story and outcome of the world changed!
And of course, being the good little girl I am, i had done everything possible that was good.sometimes there were improvements needed though.
Like when you have to save Lilandra.
You get two minutes to destroy Deathbird's machines, AND save Lilandra.
When I first saw this I thought "All right, easy enough..." ha-ha.
I was wrong.
I tried to save Lilandra first.
But then i noticed that no matter how many powers I used, the stupid things were bloody impossible to free her!
and even more helpful, I tried to call my teammates for help, but apparently Deadpool Spider-man and Iron man like to run off in the other direction when I call for help.So, I decided to just blow up Deathbird's machines and perhaps that would save Lilandra?
yeah right.
no such luck.
Right after destroying her machines with five seconds left to spare, it shows me a cut scene of Lilandra dying.Were you in my house at the time, you would have heard me going "WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!?!
ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO SAVE HER!!!!!DANG YOU MARVEL1!!!!!" Right.
See I don't like to lose, and losing to Lilandra made me upset, but the fact that it was impossible to do even with the power of the Human Torch's continuous flame made me uber angry.PS- I played the game again and after losing five times to the level, i finally freed Lilandra and defeated Deathbird.
it just took a WHOLE lot of strategizing.All in all, a pretty great game!
two thumbs up!
PS- sorry to all you readers who were forced to witness my insane ramblings...Spider-Dude11 signing out!.
Marvel Ultimate Suckfest.
I hate this game!
I have just completed it and will NEVER play it again!
I have been robbed of several hours of my life.
Its the most all over the place, repetitive trash I have ever had the misfortune of playing.
Now I played it on the PS3 version and this sadly sucked big time.
First thing I want to address - is the PS3s horrible sucky six axis control system in this game - both PS3 and game are as guilty as one another here - this system in so many key spots of the game makes it a complete nightmare - because the controls don't work - there is a less than 50% chance of it responding or responding in time - and the number of times i messed it up and it did it anyway????
Instead of giving the option to press a,b,x,y, up, down etc as you would get on xbox version - no - your stuck with this.
PS3 tried to emulate the Wii and messed it up - and Ultimate Alliance using it every damn opportunity and if u fail its game over and u have to go back do it again!
The Galactus level this is incredibly annoying!The characters - they are awful - they throw a load in, and you think cool - but no - there are so many because they are mainly rubbish and you have to work through them to find ones that actually stand up in a fight!
The rest are pointless and less known, some you have to earn - which is OK - and some fan favourites ie spiderman are awful!
Ironman can barely do anything - get the AI to land him on the level and not on a hole would be nice!
Hulk isn't even in it, nor is Punisher!
Half the potential cast is made up of X-men - but i played X-men Legends already!The graphics are bad - the cutscenes are awesome - but the game - the camera jumps about, they are so distant and when you zoom in - its pointless as can't see anything around you.
Half the time you lose sight of the character you are, you can get stuck on invisible walls, or boxed in by your team mates and be stuck!
The audio is annoying, same several tracks over and over!
The Voice acting is rubbish - spiderman sounding like a weeny 12 yr old, the Thor guy sounding annoying!
agh!!!The story is OK - with Dr Doom taking over the world, but it goes off very random to try to explore everywhere in Marvel universe - but so many characters, costumes, points etc - you can never get enough expensive points to get everyone you need!
Some levels you can't go back to!
The bosses are OK - they were more fun - especially where you had to use environment against them ie the Krakken - but sadly it happens all at once and you can't get a good look about to discover what you need when your being thumped whilst still laying on floor!
The boss fights are too few and far between - you think with the number of heroes in this against their sheer army of enemeies - they could appear more often!There is no replay value - it was a cheap cash in, I will avoid the sequel!
Shame as X-men Legends was good fun!
Shame this went so badly wrong!
This game sucks |
tt1528401 | Electric Dreams | Miles Harding is an architect who envisions a brick shaped like a jigsaw puzzle piece that could enable buildings to withstand earthquakes. Seeking a way to get organized, he buys a personal computer to help him develop his ideas. Although he is initially unsure that he will even be able to correctly operate the computer, he later buys numerous extra gadgets that were not necessary for his work, such as switches to control household appliances like the blender, a speech synthesizer, and a microphone. The computer addresses Miles as "Moles", because Miles had incorrectly typed his name during the initial set-up. When Miles attempts to download the entire database from a mainframe computer at work, his computer begins to overheat. In a state of panic, Miles uses a nearby bottle of champagne to douse the overheating machine, which then becomes sentient.
A love triangle soon develops between Miles, his computer (who later identifies himself as "Edgar"), and Miles' neighbor, an attractive cellist named Madeline Robistat. Upon hearing her practicing a piece from Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach on her cello through an air vent connecting both apartments, Edgar promptly elaborates a parallel variation of the piece, leading to an improvised duet. Believing it was Miles who had engaged her in the duet, Madeline begins to fall in love with him in spite of her ongoing relationship with fellow musician Bill.
At Miles' request, Edgar composes a piece of music for Madeline. When their mutual love becomes evident, however, Edgar responds with jealousy, canceling Miles' credit cards and registering him as an "armed and dangerous" criminal. Miles shoves the computer and tries to unplug it, getting an electric shock. Then the computer retaliates by harassing him with household electronics.
Eventually, Edgar accepts Madeline and Miles' love for each other, and appears to commit suicide by sending a large electric current through his acoustic coupler, around the world, and back to himself.
Ultimately, a pop song, "Together in Electric Dreams," written by Edgar as a tribute to Miles and Madeline, plays on radio stations across California. | non fiction | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0790628 | The Incredible Burt Wonderstone | In 1982, young Albert is harassed by bullies. His mother gives him a special magic trick set by veteran magician Rance Holloway as his birthday present. He studies the instructional video and begins to practice some tricks, attracting the attention of a classmate, Anthony. They practice together and eventually become professional magicians Burt Wonderstone and Anton Marvelton, earning them success and an ongoing headlining act at the Bally's Hotel in Las Vegas. However, after ten years of performing the same tricks over and over again, Anton is fed up with Burt's ego, which has already cost them previous female assistants, all called "Nicole" in the act. In a rush, Burt enlists production assistant Jane as the new Nicole.
Burt and Anton encounter up-and-coming street magician Steve Gray performing a unique yet horrifying card trick for his TV magic show, Brain Rapist. Audience numbers soon dwindle at Burt and Anton's show, upsetting Bally's owner Doug Munny. Taking a cue from Gray's endurance-based stunts, Anton suggests that he and Burt try a similar tack—locking themselves in a Plexiglas cage called the Hot Box hung above ground. Overconfident, Burt does not prepare for the stunt and almost instantly falls into a panic, causing the stunt to fail and injuring Anton. Anton angrily ends his partnership with Burt, and Jane also quits.
Burt refuses to change his act, staging his two-man show alone to disastrous results. Munny shuts down the production and Burt, having squandered his earnings over the years, is left broke. Despondent, Burt tries to find work and is eventually hired as an entertainer at an assisted-living facility catering to former Vegas entertainers. There he meets Holloway, who retired several years before because he found that he was no longer happy performing. Holloway counsels Burt about magic, inspiring him to remember the initial wonder that led him to become a magician. Burt is shocked to see Jane—herself an aspiring magician—working for Gray. Appalled by Gray's style, Holloway and Burt polish their own tricks. Jane visits her grandmother at the facility and patches things up with Burt.
Doug is opening a new casino-hotel and is offering a five-year contract to the winner of a talent search on the casino's opening night. He invites Burt to do a magic show at his son's birthday party, but Gray also appears and tries to upstage Burt with his own tricks. Disgusted by Gray's actions, Jane leaves his show. Burt reconnects with Anton, who has been distributing magic sets in Cambodia. A drug found in Cambodia called kratom that puts users into a deep sleep gives them an idea for a sensational trick.
At the talent search show, Gray's performance involves him drilling into his brain, claiming it will not affect him. This however, backfires, leaving Gray with brain damage. Holloway then introduces Burt, Anton, and Jane's performance, the "Disappearing Audience". The group secretly sedates the audience with kratom sleeping gas and then transports them to an outside location in the same seating arrangement. The audience awakes and responds with awe, and Doug awards the headlining act to Burt and Anton; they ask Jane to be their opening act. The trio then performs the Disappearing Audience trick again, returning everyone to the casino theater, as now mentally-impaired Gray watches on with the drill bit still in his skull.
As the film ends, the final scene shows how Burt, Anton, Holloway and others transported the audience to the open area, by unceremoniously dragging and transporting the unconscious audience members to the area, and hauling them back to the theater in a moving van. | bleak, entertaining | train | wikipedia | As apposed to the 1 min hacker of pentagon in every film.It's a genuinely funny the story of two life long friends and magicians who share a magical act and are threatened by the modern chris angelisc magician played by Jim Carrey.
Its a innocent throw back to the era of stage magicians when rabbits from hats would trigger gasps of amazement by crossed legged kids watching in the front row.The introduction of a 'Criss Angelesque' character was to show the shift in social attitudes in regards to what we consider entertainment is (and jim carrey does it hysterically).Yes the story is not meant to be compared to anything of a serious nature but does have some underlying content that should make us think a little.Today when films like 'Kickass' and 'Jackass' seem to warrant high ratings and are viewed by kids its sad to see such a fun, innocent and laughable film getting a bad rap.In Australia at my cinema everyone was in hysterics (and this was a late session 1/4 full).If you liked Jerry Lewis and can still laugh ...
In a time when there is little in the theater to get excited about, this is a film I quite enjoyed.Steve Carell plays magician Burt Wonderstone, the boastful, self-indulgent, and obnoxiously asinine half to Steve Buscemi, who are partners, and best friends since childhood, in the magic business in Vegas.
However, both Burt's obnoxiousness and a new street magician, played by Jim Carrey, soon get in the way of his success, and he's forced to re-examine what his career means to him.While the magic might be a mystery here, the plot isn't, and it's a plot that goes through all the motions and hits all the points.
Rounding out the cast are an underused Steve Buscemi, who disappears for a good chunk of the film, Olivia Wilde who seems like a bit of a mismatch for the goofy Carell, and James Gandolfini as James Gandolfini running a casino.
It was so pathetically funny watching their ego's destroy them.If you normally don't enjoy comedy from Steve Carell and Jim Carrey then you probably won't like this movie.
They just don't get it.Before CGI, before VFX, all people had were real magicians doing elaborate and jaw dropping acts, in theaters, where live audiences were entertained, not some recorded and processed show.The movie essentially captures that golden age and blends a heart-warming story with magic.Stellar performances by Steve Carrell, Steve Buscemi, Jim Carrey and Olivia Wilde.
'THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE': Three Stars (Out of Five) A movie with a cast like this (Steve Carell, Jim Carrey, Steve Buscemi, Alan Arkin, Olivia Wilde and James Gandolfini) can't be all bad and I'm a little puzzled at how poorly it's done at the box office.
Carell, Carrey and the rest of the cast have all done much better work but this isn't too big of a blemish for any of their resumes.The film stars Carell and Buscemi as popular magicians, Burt Wonderstone and Anton Marvelton, who've had a sold-out stage act on the Las Vegas Strip for years.
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is not really a bad movie if you can get through the fact that the entire film itself is basically a magic show, but that being said, this is still a pretty funny movie that has plenty of well-timed jokes, lots of acting talent, pretty cool stunts, and Jim Carrey's best performance in ages.
But as Burt is trying to get himself back into the show, he has to compete with a rising star named Steve Gray who takes magic to a whole new level.This film features a talented cast and for the most part, they do their job well.
James Gandolfini was pretty good here as well, though I feel like he was miscasted and finally Alan Arkin was very good despite his small screen time.Overall, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is a pretty fun movie and it can be very funny at times.
And, even though I thought "I Love You Phillip Morris" (a film nobody saw) was an excellent movie, this particular comedy about a silly little magician rivalry contains the funniest (and most watchable) performance Jim Carrey has given in over a decade.The premise surrounds nerdy boyhood best friends, who grow up to become the infamous stage magicians Burt Wonderstone (Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi); sort of an American version of Siegfried and Roy without the tiger.
But when a Criss Angel-esque street magician named Steve Gray begins to take the duo's fan base away by performing a myriad of gruesome and outlandish "magic tricks", Wonderstone and Marvelton must find a way to freshen up their act before their style of magic is left in the past.The Acting: Yes this film also stars Olivia Wilde and Alan Arkin.
Even Buscemi, who is not at all a comedic actor, is used strategically well, as a sort of comedic voice of reason.Final Thought: While I understand that a majority of critics have called this film a "hit and miss", focusing on the simplistic storyline rather than the hilarious performances, or hiding behind the vastly overused "all comedy is subjective" theory, which some critics fall back on in order to undersell funny movies, it is my opinion that many of these "rotten tomato" opinions are unfairly misguided.
try again gang.more details: The only characters that engendered real empathy from audience got no real depth or screen time Somehow Jim Carrey, S Carrell and J Mohr magically were transformed into non-funny entertainers (though Carrey struggled through with a couple nice fleeting seconds of what might have been) The story -incredible as in "in...credible"The only good news is that the way they skewered a certain uber-powerful Vegas billionaire was such that I trust he may ensure this writing/directing team does not commit this type of malpractice again.ps: postcredit snaps of audience getting abused - very very very symbolically accurate to my experience too - was that a wink/nod to what was just done?.
Let me begin this review by stating one thing: This was a very funny movie!The cast - Steve Carell (Burt Wonderstone) plays a schmaltzy, self centered, egotistical Vegas magician perfectly.
It also goes to show just how far we've taken the idea of "magic" and what "magicians" should be.The movie is fun, funny, and a bit predictable at times, but the predictable moments are still pulled off for a few laughs, such as when Burt and Anton are "testing" their knock-out vapor.
And everyone is hating Jim Carrey role only because his role is obviously making fun of street magicians like Cris Angel and David Blaine combined.The jokes are not the best, but it isn't lame like the jokes in Scary Movie.Storyline doesn't feel too original and is predictable, but still it is interesting.It totally remains me of my childhood when my dad bought me a Mark Wilson video course in magic kit!!.
The plot is awful with Jim Carrey playing a "Cris Angel" type character with pain based magic, who is challenging a traditional duo magician act (Carell and Buscemi)found in the big hotels in Vegas.
However, Steve Buscemi as Carell's partner in magic is watchable as usual, old magician and mentor Alan Arkin was at least funny in some spots, and a bright light (if there was one) was Olivia Wilde, although her character and place in the storyline as a female magician intern was weak, and did not mesh with the plot.
This supposedly humorous look at a declining, egotistical Vegas magician, Burt Wonderstone, and his partner, Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi), is rarely funny or magical.
The sequined jumpsuits and flowing wigs of Siegfried & Roy are there in their cheesy glory, but the camp falls flat around this film.Incredible tries to make weighty the passage of the old-style Las Vegas entertainer to the new, embodied by the buff Steve Gray (Jim Carrey), whose modern ethic is to lie on coals or shoot himself in the head, among other oddly sadistic stunts.
Once again Alan Arkin plays a memorably small role, this time as the old magician who first inspired the little Burt.This film is neither the commercial magic of David Copperfield (who does a cameo here) or the downright silliness of Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent (one of his absurdly divinations may remind you how humorously deficient Incredible is: "May a desert weirdo lower his figs into your mother's soup").An inherent liability for a film about magic is the tricks could be taken as movie magic and lose their basic charm.
All those have a gravitas that comes from excellent writing, not strength in screenwriter Jonathan Goldstein (Horrible Bosses) this time around.Although The Incredible Burt Wonderstone would have liked the mix of humor and magic in the renowned Penn & Teller act, what it ended up with was very bad Judge Harry T.
He cherishes a onetime birthday gift from his absentee mother, a Magic Kit by Rance Holloway (Alan Arkin).Steve Buscemi is Anton Marvelton, a gangly, girly-looking, sickly kid who became Burt's best friend, confidante, ally, and when Burt Wonderstone eventually became a world-class magician, his assistant and partner.James Gandolfini is hotelier Doug, a self-absorbed, profits-oriented businessman who can't even remember his kid's age (10) but promises to grant the kid's birthday wish -- a magic act by the incredible Burt Wonderstone (one of Doug's clients).
Alas, Wonderstone's star is waning, eclipsed annoyingly by street magician Steve Gray (Jim Carrey), whose brand of magic would be right home on those dime-a-dozen reality TV shows featuring obscure magicians suddenly rising to fame with less-than-orthodox gimmickry.It doesn't help that Wonderstone has an ego the size of a Harry Houdini human aquarium (I'm mixing metaphors here, or do I say, legendary objects), and he's quite used to luxurious hotel rooms with the help obsequiously catering to his every whim; international fans filling his Las Vegas act with thunderous applause; women succumbing to his (vapid) charm and ending up on his rather gigantic bed.Enter the beautiful Jane (Olivia Wilde), who has been a staff for 10 years on the classic Wonderstone/Marvelton act, and is suddenly thrust (unwantedly) into the limelight to replace the umpteenth female assistant quitting in frustration and tears (the female assistant in magic shows is always sawed in half, remember?).
However, Carell works his magic on me with THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE, for, pitted beside a comic fireball like Jim Carrey, he avoids mugging or overacting but instead goes for natural comedy.
Cunningham (art director for TRAFFIC, OCEAN'S ELEVEN, SIGNS, SOLARIS, VAN HELSING, 2009's STAR TREK, ANGELS & DEMONS, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, BRIDESMAIDS), as well as the great musical scoring by Lyle Workman (THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN, SUPERBAD, YES MAN, American REUNION, 21 AND OVER).Matthew Clark (Emmy nominee for a 2006 episode for his work on the TV show "30 ROCK") photographs the film beautifully, for a movie about magic and magicians need more razzle-dazzle than is usual.
The film is also edited magically (excuse the pun) by Lee Haxall (MEET THE FOCKERS, BEERFEST, THE LOVE GURU, CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE, THE CHANGE-UP).Carell surprises, Carrey is his usual manic self (you truly hate his character, but he gets his just desserts at the ending), Wilde is beautiful, Gandolfini and Arkin shine in their key roles, and Buscemi is simply terrific (why don't somebody give this guy his own movie!).
what was the point?Having heard about this movie before and looking at the list of actors in it, I had high hopes for it, as each of them have been pretty good in different roles up to now.But somehow after watching this movie I ended up disliking all of them, In my view there is lots of talent in this movie but somehow it has been wasted, I did not find this movie funny at all, i did not feel any chemistry between the actors and somehow it felt as thou they do not really know how they should try to make the audience laugh.
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone promised to be an inventive comedic spectacle that teams two of the funniest men alive (Steve Carrel and Jim Carrey) to provide a barrel of laughs and cash in as the spring's biggest movie.
In this case, we have two young boys who are both a bit nerdy and anemic who are bullied at school and escape their lonely childhood by practicing magic tricks which they then turn in to a successful 30 year professional career as big box office stage magicians.The two magicians are played by Steve Carell as the Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Steve Buscemi as Anton Marvelton.
Strong supporting roles are played by Olivia Wilde as their able assistant Jane on stage, their mentor Alan Arkin as magician and video magic trainer Rance Holloway and rounding out the cast as their arch nemesis performer is a wonderful performance once again by Jim Carrey as Steve Gray.
That mostly doesn't happen here, with quite a few bits of sleight of hand presented as single takes with no obvious trick photography.The story is a "feel good" one, with the characters growing into better people in a better situation by the end.The one really outrageous thing in the mix is Jim Carrey's stunts, which display the combination of fearlessness, craziness, and exaggeration with which he burst on the scene twenty-five years ago.
What a pile of crap this was,watched the trailer and was like 'jim carey,steve carel ,steve buscemi in the same movie,could work,how wrong was i!i gave it a 2 and crediting it to the agents of these brilliant actors and actress (olivia wilde) who was able to convince them that doing this movie was a good idea,u guys clearly are the Ari Golds.
Let's be honest, if you put Steve Carell, Jim Carrey and Olivia Wilde, Steve Buscemi and Alan Arkin in a different movie with a different plot, you would think it had potential to be hilarious!
The problem is the wonder of magic does not translate to the big screen because movie magic is way more impressive than anything an 8 year-old learns from a VHS tape and cardboard box with cards and ropes.Carell, Buscemi and Gandolfini are goofy, in a light-hearted enjoyable kind of way, Olivia Wilde even eventually finds her place in the movie, but "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" just isn't funny.
But what's more interesting here to note is the changing fortunes of the characters, and how ti mirrors the real life situation of the actors who played them, and that itself is magic of sorts.Back when Jim Carrey was at the top of the game and headlining Bruce Almighty, Steve Carell only had a bit role as a television anchor, but the impact of that role could not be understated because he literally blew away the competition with those limited minutes provided.
In Burt Wonderstone's case, it meant growing out of his nerdy shell, and becoming incredibly successful at his chosen career path, together with best pal Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) they own the strip in Vegas with their magic acts, and with that comes big money, instant recognition, and alas, plenty of ego in Burt's case.Which makes him a big A-hole character, and we're soon introduced to the fact that their partnership and friendship have become strained because success had gone to Burt's head, that he starts to treat people like dirt.
Plus that little bit of encouragement and requisite romantic interest in the form of Jane (Olivia Wilde), an aspiring magician herself, who finds the glass ceiling in her chosen profession limiting her ambitions to just being a magician's assistant.While the middle sections may sag due to expected plot development, Don Scardino had wonderful bookends for the movie, with that almost complete sequence of A Magical Friendship that Burt and Anton performs with their music and chosen routines, and that in the finale which will, erm, knock your socks off with its sheer audacity, and of course with that tinge of slapstick comedy that runs through its end credits roll.
Then there's Jim Carrey hamming it up as a renegade street magician, then you're all set for quite an enjoyable time with this film offering, that will work a lot more if you, like me, grew up being a fan of magic and shows of illusion.
I was very entertained by this one, It has been a long time since Jim Carrey has been in a crazy role like this, even though he is a bi-character it is very good seeing him again as his old self.The main character is Burt Wonderstone played by Steve Carell and his sidekick Anton Marvelton played by Steve Buscemi, it is a very good couple even though they are a strange constellation :) This magician couple have amazed audiences for many years in Las Vegas, but now the younger more mystical and wild Steve Gray played by Jim Carrey have been captivating audiences on the street and that makes Burt Wonderstone seem old and outdated.A lot happen during the course of the movie, some is fun, some is a bit lame, some is extreme and some too much.
But no, he continues to think only of himself.The script completely overlooks the fact the Burt Wonderstone is so undeserving of any success over his rival.Jim Carrey and Steve Buscemi are the only 2 who come close to making this film watchable and yet the script restricts all of that talent.It seems a shame to have wasted all of these talented performers on such an inept movie.
Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, Jim Carrey, James Gandolfini, Alan Arkin....an unbelievable cast stuck in a terrible script.Some serious tweaking to the script could have really saved this film from the disaster that it is.It's not even funny..
And though it was a little disappointing, I still had a good time.Burt is a magician, and his partner, Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) grew up as best friends and got through their adolescent years watching magic tapes from Rance Holloway (Alan Arkin). |
tt1191971 | Zone of the Dead | In 1986, in Chernobyl a mass grave of bodies is discovered, resembling victims of the Plague. The Chief of Bureau (Eugeni Roig) arrives at the scene and is informed that a man cut himself on a corpse’s ribcage and died of infection minutes after. Seconds later, that same man rises up attacks them both.
Twenty years later, a local professor (Steve Agnew) is trying to catch a train out of Pancevo, Serbia, but finds that all railroads have been closed down as part of a military exercise. While he tries to make a call, a train comes in carrying a deadly biohazard agent monitored by a scientist in a hazmat suit, who asks for permission to pass through. Before he can, a trio of drunken off-duty soldiers emerge and harass the station guard taking his weapon and inadvertently rupturing the tank, releasing the chemical agent into the atmosphere. All the soldiers and the station guard are infected by the gas, becoming zombies but the professor manages to escape.
Meanwhile, INTERPOL Agent, Mina Milieus (Kristina Klebe) is tasked transporting a mysterious prisoner (Emilio Roso) is from Serbia to Belgrave, while under the supervision of Agent Mortimer “Morty” Reyes (Ken Foree), an ex-CIA agent and on the verge of retiring, along with his partner, Inspector Dragan “Dra” Belic (Miodrag Krstovic). While Mila is in awe of Morty, she is also nervous as this is her first assignment in the field. Marty assures her that she will be fine, considering this to be the easiest assignment he’s ever had.
The Chief of Bureau meets with the President and informs him about the accident at the train station in Pancevo. He discloses that the agent in the tank was capable of reanimating dead cells and advises that he not bother with evacuation, but contain the incident and let the National Guard deal with the rest.
Back in Pancevo, a young reporter, Jan (Marko Janjic) is wasting his time at a minor concert, and is eventually convinced by his girlfriend Angela (Ariadna Cabrol) to leave along with her friend, Jovana (Iskra Brajovic). At the same time, the professor is trying to escape the growing number of infected. He comes across another escaped felon, Armageddon (Vukota Brajovic) who states the End of Days has arrived, and has made it his personal mission to eradicate the zombies. The professor runs away and meets Jan and the girls, who allow him to come into their car,
The two INTERPOL vans arrive in Pancevo just as the driver, Petrovic hits a zombie. When they go out to investigate, several more arrive separating them from Agents, Bottin (Vahidin Prelic) and Savini (Zeljko Sesta). They attempt to contact Headquarters for backup, there is no signal. Upon finding the second van, containing the Prisoner, Morty finds Bottin and Savini are dead and more zombies are coming. The Prisoner tells them to shoot the zombies in the head, which proves to be successful, but they are quickly overwhelmed: Petrovic is devoured and Dra is bitten on the hand. With little choice, they are forced to take shelter in a nearby abandoned police station.
While reconnoitring the area, Morty and Dra find the professor, Jan and the girls, and bring them back to the reception. The Prisoner attempts to flirt with Mila, but she rebuffs him, although she is put off by how he knew she was a rookie. Meanwhile, Armageddon continues his rampage on the zombies, using multiple weapons at his disposal. He enters a local TV Station and broadcasts his declaration of the apocalypse to Pancevo, including the station. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Morty decides to activate the generator and find a way out. Dra is unable to come with him and has begun to succumb to infection, resulting in Morty freeing the Prisoner and taking him along. After turning the power on, several zombies break in and nearly kill Morty, but the Prisoner saves him. Dra subsequently dies and reanimates forcing Mila to shoot him. Jovana, driven insane by the turn of events, breaks down the barricade, allowing herself to be eaten. The professor also chooses death, by Morty’s gun, feeling that “there are worse things.”
The group escapes and heads towards the river through the train tunnels. The Prisoner reveals to Mila that he knows of the zombies because his father was one of them as a result of the incident in Chernobyl. He goes on to explain the President will most likely ‘cleanse’ the city to prevent the spread of infection. Upon arriving at the shipyards, they find a horde of sleeping zombies which are awoken by the Hazmat zombie. Morty leads the zombies away while the rest of the group makes for the boat.
Morty runs out of ammo and gets trapped inside a train, while Jan takes the boat and abandons Angela. Just as she is about to be eaten, Armageddon arrives and supplies the group with weapons; Mila with a rifle, and the Prisoner with a broadsword. The three proceed to kill the zombies, while Morty escapes the train, taking a gun from the Prisoner and helping them out. Armageddon finishes off the undead and the Prisoner decapitates the Hazmat zombie, apparently ending the threat.
Later, the President announces that he will cooperating with NATO to bring all those responsible for the bioweapon to justice, much to The Chief of Bureau’s chagrin. The President considers his decision to be “a necessary evil” and expects the Chief to resign, effective immediately. Mila allows the Prisoner to leave, despite having some ammo in her guns, showing respect for him. Morty congratulates her on her efforts, in spite of the mission not being completed, saying he messed up his first one as well. Milo asks who the Prisoner was, to which Morty replies: “Nobody Special.”
As they leave, Armageddon completes his prophesy, possibly answering Mila’s question: “And he shall raise his hands with the Sword of Vengeance. The Flaming Blade of the Lord’s Retribution. And his eyes were as a flame of fire… And he had a name written… which no man knoweth but himself.”
In the final scene, Jan has taken the boat up the river, only for it to run out of gas. As he heads to the cabin to look for more, the infected captain lurches out and tackles them both into the river. | violence | train | wikipedia | Ken Foree is an absolute legend and it's great to see him returning to the zombie horror genre.And now for the bad news, which is absolutely everything else.
Having read some good reviews on this film, I decided to give it a go as I'm a big fan of zombie flicks even bad ones.
It is not entirely without its saving graces: Ken Foree is as good as the silly, uninventive script and laughable dialogues allow; make-up efx are solid, but barely visibly because of the overuse of shaky-cam which spoils every action scene.
Many low budget zombie films are still effective, however, Zone of Dead isn't one of them and is poorly put together.
Directors Milan Konjevic and Milan Todorovic over use the shaky cam look and there's no getting away from Konjevic's sub-par screenplay.Kristina Klebe as Agent Mina Milius lights up the screen and of course there's Ken Foree but they can't save that poor script which is badly delivered by the majority of rest of the cast.It faults are to distracting for you to sit back and enjoy it as much as it may deserve.
OK, I get it: zombie movies don't need great acting, or a good story or decent camera work to be watchable or entertaining.
So I've come across my fair share of low budget movies and cheesy acting in my time, but absolutely nothing compares to this film.Straight up, I couldn't sit through the whole film.
The average guy on the street could give a better performance than almost every single member of the cast, with a few "yeah okay" exceptions.If you're a fan of zombie movies, don't rent or buy this piece of crap.
Don't let your kids and teenagers watch terrible, pompous remakes of old Romero classics, let them see what we saw all those years ago - a genuine attempt to make a compelling zombie film that fails terribly due to a lack of money and talent in every category.
It's not the best zombie movie ever made, not by a long shot, but I had a great time watching it.Ken Foree (from the original Romero's Dawn of the Dead) is one of my favorite horror actors.
And I liked Kristina Klebe very much as well - she's very good with the shotgun.The other actors are in the movie for the body-count, but this is a zombie movie after all - we need to have some victims, don't we?
The acting, direction and dialogue are rather wooden and stilted for the most part as with Romeros classics but that said it does give this film the look and feel of the originals and thus makes it an entertaining way to spend your viewing afternoon.
Plenty voiced itself positive on this new film, Serbia's first ever foray into serious horror territory, but also, some people are only too happy to level severe negative criticism based, it seems, purely on the fact that "Zone of the Dead" is not Dawn of the Dead, or Day of the Dead, or even Diary.Well, Milan Todorovic is no George Romero, but the more careful dissection of this film shows us he never fostered such intentions.
The acting is wooden and uninspired, the effects only so-so and the plot isn't very original at all.The lighting is also quite bad.I'm not sure what else to say about it except that the majority of the voters here must have been involved in the production because 5.9 is an unbelievably high number for this film.
People who worked on it and other Serbians are actually disliking IMDb reviews in order to make the film look not-as-bad as everyone claims.This film is the worst zombie related thing i've ever seen.
The plot is very Carpenteresque and pits a group of police officers escorting a prisoner against the zombie infestation caused by an ecological disaster.Zone of the Dead doesn't try to expand and bend the genre territory, it opts to be exploitation in the Italian sense and reminds of Italian exploitation films from the early 80s with Fred Williamson in charge.
Only this time, Ken Foree, the sole zombie film icon, is in charge and headlines this production.
It is very uncommon for Serbian cinema that the violence and zombie mayhem are handled quite well, and Zone of the Dead delivers the goods on the level of contemporary B-movie fare.
Special kudos go to Miroslav Lakobrija, this film's makeup wiz who did a great job with all kinds of bloodletting and zombie prosthetics.Ken Foree is quite solid in his first leading role in over 30 years and Kristina Klebe uses her opportunity to expand on the 'scream queen' reputation gained in Rob Z|zombie's Halloween remake.
The only zombies missing are those who rose form the grave.Zone of the Dead is a must for the genre fans, not just as a curio since it was made in Serbia, but also as a much needed shot of VHS era Italo influence exploitation that you may need in these ironic genrebending times.
It's very fast paced and exciting, just like a zombie movie should be.It is a story about a young Interpol agent Mina (played by smoking' hot Kristina Klebe of Rob Zombie's Halloween fame) and her assignment in Serbia.
Well what can I really say about this film that I haven't summed up with the vote, this film was awful, a real shame, I found this in the bargain bin at Asda and now I know why.I was originally excited to see Ken Foree return to a zombie movie role, but that excitement soon wore off, the acting from everyone involved in this movie including Ken was just wooden and without real emotion, there is no sense that they are trapped in a "Zone of the dead" The special effects are terrible, almost seeming that the budget was so tight after waisting most of it on beer for the zombie extra's, I think that the makeup effects make the "long dead zombies" look like white faced clowns with bust noses.I managed to watch to the end of this movie for the simple fact that I was hoping that it would get better and that I hadn't just waisted my £3, sadly this was not the case.
The acting was horrible; the effects were bad (even with the proper lighting) and the plot just lacked and lacked and lacked....and i enjoy a decent zombie flick from time to time; but this was terrible.
This film doesn't really waste any time getting to the good stuff, which, in a zombie film, basically means it's not long before all our actors are running about shooting shambling corpses in the head and arguing with each other.
You're thinking "But wait, there's been about a million of these zombie films out lately, and I'm sick of them." Well, you'd be right, I'm pretty sick of them too, but this one has Ken Foree in it?
BUT -yes there is a BUT here- if you're a fan of those bloodthirsty creatures called zombies, walkers etc and you love to see shooting, chopping and all the relevant stuff these movies produce and provide, you can gather some friends, make some popcorn, watch it and then, turn off your DVD and just forget about it..
The good thing about zombie films is that they're inherently entertaining.
I knew that it was a cheap and cheerful B-movie, I wasn't expecting too much from it, and I was fully prepared to disengage my brain and have a good time.It's worth noting that this is Serbia's first zombie film, although don't let that excite you too much; as with much foreign fare these days, it's content to rip-off American content, inevitably in this case Romero's dead trilogy (which is referenced at numerous points in the narrative).
I have a lot of goodwill towards Foree for his role in that movie, so I was even more interested in watching this as the credits rolled.It's not really surprising that this film doesn't turn out to be very good at all.
It's a classic B-movie in the sense that everything that takes place is familiar from other, better productions; one film that's content to rip-off rather than try its hand at something more original.
The story of a zombie outbreak is told on the cheap, as a group of rather uninteresting characters barricade themselves inside a police station and try to figure out what to do about the ravenous creatures outside.Sadly, the predictable storyline is made worse by the two directors, who seem unable to give their film any suspense or real drive.
The film also feels rather restrained, despite one or two unpleasant moments, and even Foree himself isn't very good; he seems tired and subdued, and he isn't a patch on the menacing character he played in Romero's movie.
Likewise, the majority of the film's fun action-packed encounters come from its two big set-ups as there's the assault on the abandoned police station with the other survivors there to help in taking out the creatures, assisting the barricades and generally making for an extra few bodies to pile up in terms of kills with the ravenous zombies breaking in and then taking on the group in a strong series of firefights that's highly enjoyable with all the bloodshed and wounds doled out in here.
Being filled with great-looking zombies that are suitably rotting and grotesque which makes them look all the better against the graphic, blood-splattered carnage, this film has a lot of positives that hold this up rather nicely.
(8%) After the first ten minutes or so this is a bit of a trial to watch, then the zombies show up and it gets a little better, and when Dawn of the dead legend Ken Foree makes an appearance you start to wonder if this could be something worth investing interest into.
Well sadly this isn't worth ten minutes of anyone's time; never mind 90, as this clearly made by annoying zombie movie fans is a huge waste of effort mainly because it's just so lacking in ideas.
Someone thought they were being oh-so clever when they cast Dawn of the Dead star Ken Foree in this zombie film and then had him reference his role in the Romero classic, when in reality this is one of the most embarrassingly trite things to do in a modern zombie film (along with calling a character Savini, which they also do here!).In fact, there is absolutely nothing innovative or clever about this sorry affair that trots out all the expected zombie movie clichés—which might not have been quite so bad if the film hadn't been performed by a bunch of untalented Serbians struggling with the English language and directed by a pair of horror rookies who clearly think that an excess of shaky cam makes a zombie attack more scary (and who also have their undead roaring like wild animals just to be sure) .Some reasonable make-up/gore effects prevent the film from being a complete waste of time, and a few unintentional laughs can be had from an out-of-shape Foree as he attempts to outrun the undead (even the slow ones—this film features zombies of all speeds) and struggles to squeeze his gut through the window of a railway carriage.3.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 4 for the blood 'n' guts..
If you don't value the precious minutes that this movie will take from your life, then go ahead-- watch it, but I warn you...The Best Thing About This Film Is: The end credits when they start to roll and you realize that the torture is FINALLY over..
Overall, the 15 minutes that i saw were so bad that i will forever remember this as the most laughable attempt at making a horror film that i have ever had the misfortune of viewing.Don't waste your time on this..
Reading the reviews of this film makes me wonder if the writers we related to the filmmakers.As a lover of Zombie movies (especially the early 1980's Italian explotationers) I expected from the reviews a cheesy but entertaining film.Sadly i got a badly acted, weak plotted pile of Zombie droppings.The Dialoge is bad and mangled by the speakers, The Shaky cam is headache inducing (This is to overused in modern-films anyway!), The 'Zombies' can't make their mind up if they are Slow or fast moving...And so on and so on...Nice to see Ken Foree but one link to a better film (Romero's Dawn of the Dead) does not make a reason to watch this!
This movie drowns under formulaic plot points you will already be tired of if you've watched any of several (hundred?) zombie films released before.
I really love zombie movies, the good ones and the bad ones.
But if you aren't a zombie fan, then this movie is probably not for you.It has about as much drama as a Resident Evil video game, and the acting isn't much better.
The lighting is kind of terrible in some scenes, the camera-work isn't always consistent, the dialogue is cringe-worthy enough to be funny, the plot is asinine and the sound editing is poor.Now, if you're like me and you're in the mood to see a bada$$ movie with characters that don't make stupid decisions and instead decide to kick butt and take names, then you'll love Zone of the Dead.
Armageddon the "Lunatic" is fantastic and entirely refreshing to the zombie genre (if you're a fan of shooter games this guy will have you cheering from your seat) and the "Prisoner" is a dead-ringer for Rico Rodriguez from the Just Cause games (and he acts like Rico, too, which is awesome).
However, if you thoroughly enjoyed movies like The Horde, Dawn of the Dead, Escape from New York, Vampires, Assault on Precinct 13, The Thing or any other classic action-horror flick then you have to add Zone of the Dead to your collection.I hope the director gets a bigger budget and makes more movies like this.
I rly don't know what to say...this movie is just plain terrible.Dialogues are just plain awful,there is to much shaky cam every action scene is like an earthquake and etc.
Well, this movie have good intentions and manages to deliver a fairly decent entertainment value.As a zombie genre fan, I had to see this movie, and I am not disappointed that I did.
You got to love humor like that.The make-up and wardrobe of the zombies was quite nice, though I think glazed over milky white lenses would have been better, as it would have added that special zombie depth to the living dead in the movie.And of course, a Serbian zombie movie!
This movie could have been good, I wouldn't have been great though.It is a low budget film, had some good moments but a lot of parts just didn't make any sense.there's a lot of parts where, the 'super decorated' Mr. Know-it-All ex-military ex-CIA guy, seems like he does not know anything.
They decide that their only hope for survival is to make it to the river & steal a boat to sail to safety but with no ammunition the odds are against them making it that far...Also known as Apocalypse of the Dead this Serbian, Italian & Spanish co-production was written & directed by Milan Konjevic & Milan Todorovic who must take the blame for making such a piece of crap, even as far as low budget European zombie films go Zone of the Dead is awful.
Also keep watching as the end credits come up, after a minute or two there's an ultra low budget reenactment of the opening sequence from the classic Italian splatter zombie film Zombie 2 (1979).Besides being a terribly written film Zone of the Dead fails to deliver the horror aspects too, whenever there are zombies on screen the camera shakes about violently in a way that I just hate.
Forget about any scares or suspense as this thing is a real chore to sit through, it drags & is so blandly filmed in boring locations that I can barely remember it & I only just finished watching it twenty minutes ago.The IMDb says that Zone of the Dead had a budget of about $1,700,000 which I think is total rubbish, there's no way a film this cheap looking & badly made cost that much.
The legendary Ken Foree needs a better agent & is wasted.Zone of the Dead is awful, there's nothing else I can say as it has just about every zombie cliché in the book, is badly made & acted & has no sort of coherent logical story to maintain your interest.
Zone of the Dead is one of those terrible films that the only thing worse than watching it is watching it again....
The end of times apocalypse starts in Serbia with zombies just like the good book, and a few others predicted.
Great retro acting set in Serbia , lots of bad critics on here , I think they have only seen walking dead and the like.
A Low-Budget, Serbian Zombie Movie.
Anyway, for a low-budget, Serbian zombie movie this particular film wasn't too bad.
Having said that however, I should also point out that I enjoy movies in this genre and I appreciate it when the director (in this case Milan Konjevic and Milan Todorovic) tries to make a straight zombie movie rather than something supposedly humorous—or even worse—a film that tries to be "so bad it's good".
However I am a huge zombie fan and I haven't seen very many Zombie Movies that have not entertained me.Zone of the Dead is one of my favorite new zombie movies.
I honestly looked much better films than this, but this movie is not as bad as you wrote, because I watched much worse movies of this genre than this one.Movie has interesting scenes in which I enjoyed, that makes it worthwhile to look. |
tt0114011 | Now and Then | In 1991, four childhood friends reunite in their hometown of Shelby, Indiana. Samantha Albertson (Demi Moore), a science-fiction writer, narrates the story. As an adolescent (played by Gaby Hoffmann) Samantha was considered the "weird" girl who liked performing seances and was interested in science fiction and the supernatural. Roberta Martin (Rosie O'Donnell), a doctor, was a tough tomboy (played by Christina Ricci) whose mother died when she was four years old. Chrissy DeWitt (Rita Wilson), who lives in her childhood home, is married and about to give birth to her first child. As a naïve youngster (played by Ashleigh Aston Moore), she was overly sheltered by her mother. Tina "Teeny" Tercell (Melanie Griffith) is a successful Hollywood actress; as a child (played by Thora Birch), she had always dreamed of fame. Teeny and Samantha have not visited their hometown in ten years.
The story flashes back to 1970 when the girls had two goals: saving enough money to buy a tree house and avoiding the Wormer brothers. One night, they sneak out to the cemetery to perform a seance. A cracked tombstone convinces them they have resurrected the spirit of a young boy identified only as Dear Johnny, who died in 1945 at the age of twelve. Intrigued, they search for information at the library but find nothing.
Later, while heading for the library in a nearby town, they spy the Wormer brothers skinny dipping in the lake. To retaliate for a prank the boys played on them, the girls steal the boys' clothes, tossing them onto the road while riding off. At the library, Roberta discovers an article about her mother being killed in a car accident, a fact previously unknown to her. Samantha finds a story about Dear Johnny and his mother tragically dying, but a part is missing, leaving the cause of their deaths a mystery. The girls then visit a local psychic (Janeane Garafalo) who determines he was murdered.
Samantha goes home and unexpectedly meets Bud Kent (Hank Azaria), a man her newly-single mother invited to dinner. Upset, she storms out and flees to Teeny's. They hang out in the tree house display at the store where Samantha confesses her parents are getting divorced. Teeny comforts her, then breaks her favorite necklace in two, giving one half to Samantha as a "best friends for life" bracelet. On their way home during a thunder storm, Samantha loses it in a storm drain. When she climbs down to retrieve it, the water rises, trapping her. Crazy Pete, an old vagrant, pulls her out. Grateful, the girls now see him differently. At the same time, Roberta is playing basketball in her driveway when Scott Wormer (Devon Sawa) suddenly arrives. They question why they fight all the time before sharing a kiss.
The next day, the girls consult Samantha's grandmother (Cloris Leachman) about Dear Johnny's death, and discover from a newspaper article that he and his mother were murdered. Roberta becomes upset and angry that two innocent people were killed and also by the realization that her mother died violently, contrary to what she was told. Samantha announces that her parents are divorcing, and the four make a pact to always be there for one another.
To put Dear Johnny's soul to rest, the girls go to the cemetery to perform another seance. Johnny's tombstone suddenly rises surrounded by bright light. A figure appears from behind, but it is only the groundskeeper who explains that the stone was damaged and is being replaced. The groundskeeper explains he was the one who cracked the tombstone. Realizing they never resurrected Dear Johnny, they agree to stop the seances. While leaving, they notice Crazy Pete, and Samantha follows him back to Dear Johnny's grave. Realizing that he is Dear Johnny's father, she comforts him, while he advises her not to dwell on things. Some time after, the tree house is finally bought, and Samantha narrates, "The tree house was supposed to bring us more independence. But what the summer actually brought was independence from each other."
The film returns to 1991, and Chrissy goes into labor and gives birth to a girl. Later, in their old tree house, it is revealed by Roberta that Crazy Pete had died the previous year. They then discuss how happy they are in life and make another pact to visit more often. | paranormal, flashback | train | wikipedia | In this coming-of-age story set in both the 1970s and 1990s, the younger cast is brilliant and natural, particularly Christina Ricci and Gaby Hoffmann.
And at these points, the movie groans along like a garbage disposal with too many potato peels crammed in it.Remarkably, the dismal acting of these veteran actresses isn't as bad as the lack-luster script during these "flash-fronts".
Fast-forwarding the tape won't rob anyone of the film's message (something like "friendship is forever," or "don't go into cemeteries at night"), and it'll save you about 30 minutes of fidgeting, waiting for the film to turn back to the four girls.
In the younger days, samantha is played by Gaby Hoffmann, Roberta by Christina Ricci, Teeny by Thora Birch and Chrissy is being played by Ashleigh Aston Moore.
The story is just so great, i could watch the movie all over again.It makes you think that real friends do exist.
The movie is like Stand By Me, except it shows girls's perspectives.
The film is a good and fun movie to watch for fun.
It was cute, the plot was good, it actually kind of reminded me of another fantastic film called "Stand By Me", but in a girl's perspective of course.
Although I did not enjoy the 'Now' version of the film, where the four girls are grown up and re-uniting, mostly because i feel the characters dont really like eachother anymore, i loved watching the 'then' part with the four girls growing up in 1970's USA.
Watch as we follow Christina Richie and friends growing up through fun times (Devon Sawa getting his clothes stolen) and bad times (Richie finding out how her mum died).
Best compared to "Stand By Me" and "Man in the Moon," this tender movie gently touches base with the delicate time period when young girls experience the confusions and emotions that are present in the process of puberty.
The film details the lives of four best friends, Samantha (Gaby Hoffmann), Teeny (Thora Birch), Roberta (Christina Ricci), and Chrissy (Ashleigh Aston Moore).
The adult actresses, including Rosie O'Donnell, Rita Wilson, Demi Moore, and Melanie Griffith, appear only as wraparound bookends to fill the audience's desire to see whom the girls turn out to be.
The film seems unclear of what it is about, whether it wants to detail the lives of four adolescent girls, discovering the death of Dear Johnny, childhood mischief: the story is so easily distracted.
Like all movies you watch when you are 11, it has that nostalgia value that no critic can touch.
A shoddy re-hash of Stand By Me. Virtually every wannabe feminist film since Thelma and Louise has taken its cue from a male film, but instead of doing an imaginative variation like T&L, has settled for out and out rip off and a simple minded "girls are better than guys" message.
reminisce at their friend's baby wake 20 years later about the summer where they tried to solve the death of a boy in their town, which is acted out by the likes of Christina Ricci and Thora Birch.
The only noteworthy thing in the entire the film is how anyone could have thought that the elf-like Ricci could have grown up to become Rosie O'Donnell!.
Samantha (Demi Moore) is called home to Shelby, Indianna for her childhood friend Chrissy (Rita Wilson)'s coming childbirth.
The four friends Roberta (Christina Ricci), Teeny (Thora Birch), Samantha (Gaby Hoffmann), and Chrissy (Ashleigh Aston Moore) try to earn enough money for a tree house.
Every girl can relate to one of the four characters and it reminds you of a simpler time where all that mattered were boys, having fun and navigating your way through growing up.
Accept it and hope they have supportive friends who they can share their journey with.If you watch the movie with an open heart you will find a great cast that feels real in their characters, a brilliant soundtrack that increases your nostalgia level and a deep and meaningful storyline.
It deals with subject matter that many adolescent movies steer clear of, just because you are young does not mean you haven't experienced hurt and pain like an adult.
Overall this is a touching movie that most girls and maybe some boys will probably enjoy watching and parents will probably enjoy it as well.
It really does give off a nostalgic feel because of the friendship, even if you didn't go through the same things the girls did in the movie.
This film was a wonderful piece of work if you are in one of those moods where you feel the need to reminisce, and appreciate life for all it has to offer, when young and old.
I like the coming of age story of four young girls in the summer of 1970, and the soundtrack contains all sorts of great songs from that time period.
In my honest opinion, "Now and Then" should be in the same category as "Stand By Me" and "The Goonies" as far as children/pre-teen/teen coming of age movies.
I just feel that the storyline regarding them as adults could've been expanded on a lot more, even if it meant making the movie's running time a bit longer than the filmmakers intended.All in all, despite my one grievance, "Now and Then" is an honest, funny, and sweet coming of age movie which will always be a classic in my mind..
'Now And Then' is about a group of women who return to their old treehouse and reminisce about the one summer that truly changed their lives...With an all star cast, 'Now And Then' features Melanie Griffith, Demi Moore, Rita Wilson and Rosie O'Donnell, with Thora Birch, Gaby Hoffman, Ashleigh Aston Moore and Christina Ricci playing their younger counterparts.Teen star Christina Ricci ('Casper', 'The Adams Family') is great - as is Ricci's 'Gold Diggers' co-star, Ashleigh Aston Moore - as the mis-informed Chrissy.
'Now And Then' is about a group of women who return to their old treehouse and reminisce about the one summer that truly changed their lives...With an all star cast, 'Now And Then' features Melanie Griffith, Demi Moore, Rita Wilson and Rosie O'Donnell, with Thora Birch, Gaby Hoffman, Ashleigh Aston Moore and Christina Ricci playing their younger counterparts.Teen star Christina Ricci ('Casper', 'The Adams Family') is great - as is Ricci's 'Gold Diggers' co-star, Ashleigh Aston Moore - as the mis-informed Chrissy.
The acting is A-Grade (the young girls look very promising) and the finished product is a film all the cast should be proud of..
The acting is A-Grade (the young girls look very promising) and the finished product is a film all the cast should be proud of..
The movie now and then is one of my favorites and will continue to be.It is the story of four best friends Roberta,Teeny,Samantha,and Chrissy.It shows two parts of their lives.
Then when they were young twelve year olds discovering love,boys,and true friendship.It takes place during the summer of 1970 where the girls go on a crazy adventure to find out about a spirit they thought they released during one of their séances.
This movie is great for girls of all ages.I love it,and I think other people will to :].
It is definitely the perfect girl summer movie.
Whenever I think of this movie, I think of all the great times these girls had together.
Charming if familiar coming of age tale is helped by good performances by the young female cast..
Four long time friends (Demi Moore, Rosie O'Donnell, Melaine Griffen and Rita Wilson) are reunited, since they didn't seen each other in years.
They talk about the best summer they ever had as Kids (Gaby Hoffman, Christina Ricci, Thora Birch and Ashleigh Aston Moore) and the difficulties they had growning up.Directed by Leslie Linka Glatter made an familiar, coming of age dramatic comedy.
The casting for the young actresses were spot on match with their adult counterparts played by big stars like Demi Moore, Melanie Griffith, Rita Wilson and Rosie O'Donnel.
when i was like 12 years old i saw this movie with my best friends and we loved it ...
I would recommend it to everyone, its a film that suits all ages and people, I would say its more of a chick's film, but I do know guys who have watched it and liked it.There are so many true phrases in the film, the best ones have to be when crazy Pete is talking to Sam by dear Jonny's grave, and the speech at the end by Sam, in the tree house holding the baby.
I have heard so many people refer to this film as a female version of "Stand by Me." Yes, I see similarities between the two films, mainly along the lines of friendship, growing up, family issues, the dead, and drifting apart with age.
Some parts are cheesy, but it has a great message and is timeless.Four childhood friends: Samantha, Roberta, Tina, and Chrissy make a pact one summer to be there for one another when needed.
While the adult actors: Demi Moore, Rosie O'Donnell, Melanie Griffith, and Rita Wilson provide great opening and closure to the film, it is the young actors who carry its weight.
But the film is a great reminder that in a cynical day and age, our friends are not lost!.
I will always remember this film because of the easy going lifestyle in the movie, the memorable characters, and the funny script.But now when I go and watch it again now, one question will always pop into my head.
Ashleigh Aston Moore..what ever happened to her?The casting is great, and truthfully, the 'then' kids provide a better performance than the adult 'now' women.Being released in '95, when Demi Moore was the apple of Hollywood, Christina Ricci was making it big with Casper, and Melanie Griffith's relationship with Antonio Banderas was in the spotlight, this movie would have generated quite a lot of hype.The best thing about this movie is the wonderful nostalgic feeling, that it leaves you at the end- making it a good feel good finale.I believe that Leslie Linka Glatter did an excellent job in directing- even the 'not so good' scenes were enhanced by a catchy vintage song from back in the days, which made you go along with it.Check out Dewon Sawa's first performances as Scott Wormer, and Brendan Frasier as the Vietnam Vet. All in all this movie speaks a lot about friendships- and being a pure chick flick, doesn't stop this movie from being soppy, girly or ditsy.As for my personal rating, i would give it without a doubt a 5/5..
I was seven, she was five, and we both fell in love with the music, characters (and the actresses that played them), the plot, and the movie in general.
This is a great movie, following Young Roberta through her years of "Girls can't play softball!" Christina Ricci is perfect.
My friends and I took on the parts of the girls and would act out scenes from the movie (by middle school, we moved on to Coyote Ugly).
In any case, I watched this movie again a few weeks ago and it reminded me of the good ol' days on the playground pretending to be Sam. This movie sums up my childhood, and i feel a bit nostalgic every time I see it.
Even as a seventeen year old "boy", I really enjoyed parts of this movie ;-)For me it's a kind of reference for that often told story of the summer of first love: all of the well-known cliché-characters - the four girls and their special patterns of behavior in relation to each other, the guys, the strange old man...
In addition to the unmotivated kind-of-story with it's incredibly boring and unmoving ending, all actresses deliver such a bad work, that Demi Moore actually makes the best impression to me - and she's not better at all than in her other movies.In order to rate this film in an honest way an AS IT IS, I can give it only 6 out of 10 - I highly recommend it, nevertheless..
I thought those four girls did a very good job, and I especially liked how Christina Ricci beat the snot out of that kid during the softball game.
This movie is about four young girls who made a promise to each other to always be there for one another, and then when they are older, that promise comes into affect.
The movie shows the girls growing up within a summer of there childhood.
I watched this movie over and over again because its great how these girls have such a great friendship that they can be so close but there is always someone else in the group that they consider their best friend out of all of them and though some might not stay that way its going to end up that way because of their promise..
Great movie about four young teenagers out for an adventure to find out how a certain boy died.
This is a touching story about 4 girls growing up as best friends.
This was an excellent movie with superb performances given by Christina Ricci, Gaby Hoffman, Thora Birch, and Ashleigh Aston Moore.
Every great once in a while a movie comes along and makes you feel that you know what it's like to be a certain person or at least their friends, crying with them, or laughing with them.
This is great movie for fans of "Stand By Me." Four friends make a promise when they're 12 to get together whenever one of them needs support.
I liked the way they had the adults and the kids.I loved this movie so much!
Once they meet up, they all go into there tree house, which they got when they were younger and they remember one certain summer, where they all had a lot of fun and found out different things about each-other and themselves.Theres a great cast in Now and Then, including Gaby Hoffmann, Christina Ricci, Thora Birch, and Ashleigh Aston Moore, who play the young Sam, Roberta, Teeny and Chrissy and Demi Moore, Rosie O'Donnell, Melanie Griffith and Rita Wilson, who play them when they're older.
The perspective of Samantha is like a young girl, and there isn't much to say about this awesome movie without spoiling its magic.On a scale from 1-10 i give it an 11+!.
Okay, so it's not really much like real life, it's a bit too idealistic, but it was way better then Stand By Me. I've tried watching that film more than 3 times, and I've never watched it all the way through.
If you do like "Stand By Me" I would recommend this movie as well..
Now and Then is a movie based in Shelby, Indiana back in 1970 when four best friends, Samantha, Roberta, Chrissy, and Teeny made a pact that whenever one of them needed each other, they would be there for each other, always.
I think all the four girls have done a brilliant job - from child actresses, some of them have starring roles in movies now.
This movie is NOT a cheap 'rip-off of "Stand By Me"' It is an intelligently thought out plot mixed with great acting by four teenage girls, and a lot of true life experiences no matter what time period you grew up..
If you're 12 years old, and a girl, I totally recommend this movie.
This movie about a summer where four friends find themselves is one of the best "Chick Flicks" I have ever seen.
(Even my brother likes this movie) It's got enough comedy to allow men and women to watch and enjoy it.
Although it sounds like an old cliche, Now and Then is really a coming of age movie.
It reminds me of me and my friends - the 4 younger girls are there for each other through the tough times and the good.
The plot struck me as a female version of "Stand By Me", set in a different part of the country with the added battle of the sexes.Best thing about this movie, apart from the casting, is the soundtrack.
Missed viewing this film in 1995 and was able to enjoy viewing all the great actors in the film and the wonderful portrayal of young girls growing into a very warm and loving relationship.
Four friends growing up in suburban Indiana; tomboy Roberta (Christina Ricci), future celebrity Teeny (Thora Birch), writer Samantha (Gaby Hoffman) and fat, goody-goody Chrissy (Ashleigh Aston Moore) spend the best summer of their lives in 1970 and make a vow to return to each other when they are in need.
This movie, made in 1995, is so much like STAND BY ME I could have thought I was watching the same movie with females replacing the boys.
This film does have its moments, mostly upon when talking about the performances by its young stars, which, for this movie, are the only stars.
And, even this:there is a fat scaredy cat in the girls' group, JUST like in STAND BY ME, yet again, the producers claim no relation.Right down to it, ** out of ****, since this movie wasnt SO bad.
I think that it was a great movie but it was kind of obvious that they were trying to do another "Stand by me" except with girls!!I totally recommend it to anyone who wants to be happy and cheerful!
If you enjoy coming of age movies like Stand by Me, Now and Then is its feminine counterpart.
Demi Moore, Rosie O'Donnell, Melanie Griffith, and Rita Wilson play the best friends "Now".
Christina Ricci, Gaby Hoffman, Thora Birch, and Ashleigh Aston Moore play the best friends "Then".
This movie is also great for Ricci, playing the highly insecure Roberta, the boys watching will have dreams about her when they see her shirtless. |
tt0097191 | Desperate for Love | Alex Cutler and Cliff Petrie are 17-year-old teens who have been close friends since they were young. Alex is the most popular guy in school, with a promising future, while Cliff is an introverted teen who has never had a girlfriend. Lily Becker, an attractive cheerleader who is very popular despite the fact that she is known for being promiscuous, has been dating Alex for a while and is planning to marry him after graduation. Alex's father, however, feels that he should go to university and points out to him that Lily comes from a different environment. Moreover, he and Lily's father, the town's notorious low life hunter, are sworn enemies. Always doing what his father tells him to, he breaks off his relationship with Lily, which shocks and upsets her.
Feeling depressed, she looks for comfort at Cliff, who she knows has a secret crush on her. Initially, Cliff does not respond to her flirtations, thinking that she might still love Alex. However, they soon find out that they have a lot in common. They both feel as if they are worth nothing and that they will never have a successful career. Lily confides in him that she is upset that she is often treated as trash and that men desire her, until she gives in. Knowing that he thinks very highly of her, Lily seduces Cliff and even plans on marrying him. When Alex finds out, he responds furiously, immediately ending his friendship with Cliff. He soon regrets having broken up with her and they soon reconcile. When Lily breaks the news to Cliff that she and Alex are a couple again, he is crushed.
One month later, Alex and Cliff befriend each other again. Alex promised Lily to elope with her, but in the end, he is too afraid to commit himself to her and she is eventually stood up. Crushed, she returns home in tears, which angers her father, who already wasn't fond of Alex. In a mad rage, he grabs his rifle and goes into the woods. Meanwhile, Alex and Cliff are hunting in the same woods as well. The next day, Alex is reported to be missing. Crushed, Lily again finds comfort with Cliff, who she thinks killed Alex out of love for her. Always wanting to be loved by someone, she feels attracted to him, rather than being angry at him. However, she soon gives him in to the police, with the claim that he murdered Alex. After Alex's funeral, Cliff is arrested by the police.
Two years later, the murder trial against Cliff is fully in progress. Lily claims that Cliff admitted to her that he killed Alex out of love for her. Cliff's attorney interrogates her, trying to prove that she is a promiscuous and untrustworthy girl. He claims that Cliff could not kill someone out of love for Lily, because, according to him, there was no love between them. In an emotional testimony, Lily admits that she was not in love with Cliff, but that he loved her very much. Cliff feels that he no longer can co-operate with the trial and is voluntarily found guilty for murdering Alex. He is sentenced to jail for eight years, but is released on parole after four years, in October 1988. | murder | train | wikipedia | $0.88 and worth every penny.
although i am not a big fan of either Christian Slater or Brian Bloom i found this movie as okay as one could say about any other made-for-TV movie.
there were too many times where i felt like i was left hanging, too much i had to add to the story to have it make sense and DID HE DO IT OR DID HE NOT?
if he loved Lily enough to go to jail for murder, did he love her enough to commit murder?????
i guess i and others asking the same question will never know.
i got this movie out of a $0.88 bin and it was worth every penny, if i had paid $0.99 then that would be a whole new story!!!!
it's a good movie to watch when you don't really feel like watching a movie, you don't want to concentrate on a story line, and you could even be happy calling it an early night and passing out on the couch.
i would recommend it to those with great patience and little opinion..
I stumbled onto this while channel surfing and after sampling a few minutes I didn't want to turn it off.
The all-too-familiar love triangle theme is played out with two best friends in high school, torn apart by sultry sexpot and fellow classmate Lily, who'll do anything (and any one) to get her out of this hick town.
She bounces back and forth between confident jock Alex and his shy pal Cliff, who's always there to pick up the pieces when Alex lets her down.
In spite of the strain Lily puts on their friendship the 2 boys manage to hang through it all - until Alex disappears after a hunting trip with Cliff.
When Alex's body is found the police pick up Cliff immediately, as the love triangle was no secret to anyone.
Before Cliff's arrest Lily had tried desperately to get him to confess, but to no avail.
While almost everything points to Cliff as the culprit, Lily's father should also have been under suspicion, for he had threatened Alex to keep him away from Lily and he's also no slouch with a rifle.As the shooting was never shown, everyone's in the dark when the murder trial begins, including the audience.
Lily's betrayal of gullible Cliff on the witness stand seams to be sealing his fate when he throws his hat in the ring for her yet again and decides to plead guilty to manslaughter to save Lily from further grueling cross-examination on the witness stand.
His gallantry earns him 8 years in prison and left me wondering what about the ballistics evidence?
The bullet(s) in Alex' body should have pointed to the culprit as the one who's rifle matched the bullets, but such trifles are never mentioned.
Thus we never find out for sure who killed Alex, but at least the producers were kind enough to show the terms of Cliff's sentence in the screen credits at the end.
And now that the movie's over, who killed Alex?
I'm still wondering.The actors are quite competent and here's a chance to see a very young Christian Slater before he became famous.
Tammy Lauren is fetching and believable as the poor "white trash" girl who knows what she's got and how to use it to bring the hormones of teen-aged boys to a boil.
As Cliff's attorney for the defense puts it, she thinks she's been spending all her time looking for "L-O-V-E," when the operative word should be "S-E-X." The movies's final scene shows Lily, looking depressed and leaning against the mill where she lured the boys for those "love" trysts.
Now she must face her own fate as a pariah, still stuck in this future-less town, knowing she's ruined lives and families.
Clearly she's serving out her own sentence, but one feels it isn't long or harsh enough..
Amazing performances.
I am not a very big watcher of the Lifetime network, but the other night I caught this movie on and was instantly hooked.
I was born in a town very similar to the one in which the characters are engulfed and I found the performances and direction to be frighteningly accurate.
I had never heard of this movie and I was so impressed that Christian Slater could give such a believable performance.
I moved to Los Angeles California after high school and now I live in Washington, D.C. I studied film and theatre so I lost my small southern town dialect, but movies that can truly capture the essence of the the lifestyle that these people must endure never fails to amaze me.
I do not see it very often is a film, but "Desperate for Love" accomplished it magnificently..
terrible print, horrible editing, acting pretty good, plot interesting.
Paid less than the price of a rental for the DVD, but it was clearly printed from a VHS tape in mediocre condition.
The editing was brutal, but I'm not sure that it was the tape's fault, I think the software used to master the DVD was crap.
The result is a very chopped (jarring) feeling ...
I felt like the last 10 seconds of every major segment was lost.Anyway ...
the acting is quite good in my opinion.
Christian Slater gives a good account of himself, but it's another dark performance, which is his specialty.
The girl emotes well, as does the mother.
All in all, I found it easy to get and stay in the story.The plot is pretty standard, but since it is based on true events, it would be kind of hard to criticize on that anyway.
I have to say that I enjoyed it.
It is certainly worth the low price being charged these days, especially if you like Christian Slater..
An emotional thriller..
Desperate for love is the emotional thriller that will force the viewer to question every loyalty they have ever had in life.
While the cover for this movie claims that Cliff Petrie was "desperate for love" I personally believe that the true desperation was held within Lily Becker.
Cliff Petrie gives us one simple example of pure, unadulterated love.
Meanwhile Lilly Becker clearly displays fear, depression, and anxiety along with a cunning and seductive deception..
If you watch this movie, you have to be desperate!!!.
Christian Slater is Number 10 on my list of favorite actors, so I bet you're anticipating a splendid review of this movie.
First of all, it's a TV movie--which I didn't know before watching it--and I'm not part of the "Lifetime Movie of the Week" crowd.
I hardly consider anything that goes direct to network television (this excludes movies that goes direct to premium cable stations) actual "movies." So this was a supreme cheese-fest for me.
Why it grabbed a 5.2 rating, which is high for a movie of this sort, is beyond comprehension.
This is one of those movies you have to go rooting for in the 99-cent bin, and please realize there's a logical reasons why those movies are priced 99 cents!
And may I add, the girl who plays Slater's love interest--I think her name's Tammy Lauren--is NOT an attractive woman!
He'd HAVE to be desperate if he wants to get with that girl.My advice to all those who appraise Christian Slater--DON'T GET SUCKED IN!!!
Use that 99 cents you're about to spend on this movie to add to the ten or so bucks you're about to spend on "Very Bad Things" or "Untamed Heart."
Not Christian's best work.My score: 1 (out of 10).
An interesting Plot.
Okay, so the movie wasn't bad.
It had an interesting plot and the actors shined.
Christian Slater was excellent (was there ever a doubt?
The man is a genius) and so was the rest of the characters.
There was only one hole in the whole movie- the ending.
It was just too "cliff hanger-ish" Sure, there was a definite outcome, but it didn't satisfy the viewer.
It is not an awful movie (not like that sad Notting Hill) but it was no Double Jeopardy either.
On a scale from 1-10 I would give it a 6.
I don't think it would be a COMPLETE waste of time to see it..
Getting Out of That Backwater.
Christian Slater and Brian Bloom are a couple of best southern high school buds.
But cheerleader Tammy Lauren gets between the two of them as if background getting between wouldn't be enough.Brian's the high school rich kid who's the star football player and of course gets all the girls in high school.
Christian is the kid from the wrong side of the tracks, he's the kind who will join the army just to get out of the place he is.
In fact if it wasn't for Tammy deciding that marriage was the way to get out of that backwater town they all come from, it's probably what Slater would have done.Brian goes missing and later Christian's arrested for the crime.
Both of these two are a couple of New York metropolitan area kids and they sound it.
Even actual location shooting can't cover up their New York speech pattern though they both valiantly attempt to sound like they're from Georgia.
Even giving allowances that this is a made for TV movie, it's still a pretty bad film.
Christian Slater's career was just getting going at this time on the big screen, how they talked him into this is a mystery.He should have done something to get out of doing this film..
Desperate for entertainment.
(spoilers).
Good lord, what a terribly boring made-for-TV movie this was!
I assume that all of the good reviews (of what few reviews their are to begin with) are from those who's nostalgic overload clouded good judgment because this certainly isn't anything I'd recommend to anyone was looking for entertainment.Based on a true story, Christian Slater, Brian Bloom, and Tammy Lauren play three high school friends in rural Georgia.
Bloom plays the pretty boy jock who's chances of moving out of the Georgia town are high since college prospects come naturally to a football talent.
Slater is socially inept and isn't likely to go anywhere.
Like his dad, he assumes that people expect his only mobility beyond their town will be the state pen.
And Lauren plays a naive teen who is desperate for the attention of Bloom's character.
We've seen this a billion times before (Promised Land was one of the more depressing versions, and mostly told as an outcome of this narrative).So, Bloom's parents don't like Lauren's crazy father and forbid him from seeing her, which I suppose is fine with him since she won't stop nagging him about getting married.
Meanwhile, Slater doesn't think that Bloom's character treats the girl (who he is secretly infatuated with) right and yada...yada...yada...you can figure out what he's on trial for murder (this being told in flashback format).Unfortunately, the characters are a bunch of self-important whino's, especially Lauren and Slater's characters.
And characters like that evoke little empathy in a story where they may be misunderstood kids or whatever, so then what's the point?
There is nothing remotely interesting, and very little social commentary to at least accompany the events.
Sure, I got lured into it because it was a late 80s Slater and Bloom team-up, but you'd be wise to avoid the eighty minutes or so of boredom and take my advice--skip it..
sad but true.
Considering this movie was made in 1989 and was made for tv as it relates a true story, I thought it was very touching in the sense that it just gets to you to see how much someone can love someone else and that this last one cannot even realize it.
Even worse, Lily didn't take that love seriously because she wast lost in her own little fantasy romance....
Pretty terrible.
I agree with the other user comment.
I just saw this movie today and it was horrific and incredibly boring.
Christian Slater's good looks and charm were not even enough to save this movie.
I'd rather clip my grandmother's toenails than watch this movie again..
I don't suppose that I would be considered a "Hick".
I was born in Oak Park, Illinois, I was brought up in Chicago.
Even still, calling this film a CRAZY HICK MOVIE was offensive.Now. I'm 22 now, so I was 10 when this movie was made.
I most likely saw it for the first in the early 1990's, and I still love it.
I watch it every chance I get.This movie had everything.
Suspense, Drama, Comedy.I thought that Brian Bloom played his Rich Boy role quite well.
He simply has those Rich Boy looks, he still has those gorgeous eyes that just make you shake your head.Anyway.
I am NO fan of Christian Slater's.
But he acted good in this movie.
The role he played, was annoying though.
Kinda made me want to puke.I don't know the Lead Female's name, but her name was Lily in the movie.
Lily is an outright FOOL.
I hated her.
She made me sick, sick, sick.
And sicker..
a crazy hick movie.
a crazy hick movie.
i'm a hardcore christian slater fan and i couldn't even watch this entire movie..
it's awful...
maybe i didn't like it because i'm not a small town white trash cow girl..
[at one point Christian Slater actually talks about how he can't do his "raising a bull" school assignment because his family needed money so they had to sell it]..
i bought the movie for $5 and i'm willing to give it to the first person who wants it..
i haven't even watched the whole thing..
i couldn't stand it..
What do you expect from an 80s TV movie?.
This old VHS tape was resurrected and dubbed to DVD (with little skill) because and only because Christian Slater's name has come to have commercial value.
Without his presence in this film, there is no DVD.
From the IMDb reviews I've read it seems unlikely anybody got rich on this threadbare scam.
Most reviewers here seem to have found their copies in 99c bins.
Slater is fine and so are the actors around him.
The person of greatest interest to me was actually Veronica Cartwright (who plays his mother).
I've seen the face (and those haunted eyes) before, although perhaps not so young-looking.
What really amazed me though was how many acting credits the woman has.
It looks like she didn't take many holidays during a peak 20 year period.
Seriously, have a look at her resume.
Can you name a lot of TV shows she HASN'T appeared in?
Just to use up my spoiler warning, let me point out the question many of you did: Who dun it?
Are we supposed to assume Christian did?
That was far from clear to me..
This movie I used for therapy purposes.
It was very helpful..
I use movies for therapy.
It is called cinema-therapy.
My interest went to Cliff immediately as one who loved no matter what.
At first it bothered me, and I felt he was stupid for allowing this girl to make a fool of him.
But the film forced me to step outside of my opinions and look at this character in a more objective manner.
Not until the end did I realize the depth and extent of his ability to love.
To take the "rap" for something one didn't do purely to save the feelings of the one you love is way up there in the greats for unconditional love.
It helped to expand my horizons by showing me that true love "IS" no matter what the world says.
It stands without shame.
It is free and pure.
What a gift for someone to love you like that!
Even more how wonderful to be that selfless and loving.
Somethings to ponder... |
tt1691920 | I Melt with You | Former college friends—Ron (Jeremy Piven), Jonathan (Rob Lowe), Richard (Thomas Jane), and Tim (Christian McKay) reunite in Big Sur during Spring Break to celebrate Tim's 44th birthday. Each of the men enjoy some degree of professional success but are unfulfilled with their lives: Ron is a rich stockbroker, but is currently facing indictment from the SEC for embezzlement. Jonathan runs a successful medical practice, but all of his patients are wealthy drug addicts, he and his wife are divorced, and their young son identifies more with his mother's new husband than with Jonathan. Richard is a published author, but he has only written one book and now teaches high school English. Tim, an open bisexual, was until 5 years ago living in a happy relationship with a man, until accidentally causing the fatal car crash that took the lives of his boyfriend and his sister, Jill.
The four friends party for several days at a beach side mansion, during which the men consume massive quantities of drugs provided to them by Jonathan, including oxycodone, ativan, dilaudid, adderall, ketamine, medicinal marijuana, hydrocodone cocaine and morphine. After reminiscent conversation they head into town for food and to pick up women. Richard convinces a young waitress to bring her friends back to the house. Tim engages in a three-way with two of the revelers, during which they role play the parts of Tim's dead boyfriend and sister. Early in the morning, Tim hangs himself in the shower. Richard, Ron, and Jonathan find him, along with a note he left behind. The note contains the text of a suicide pact the men made in 1986, promising that they would kill themselves together if they found life unfulfilling in middle age. Afraid that the police will find the note and blame them for Tim's death, they bury him on the beach behind the house. Ron disagrees with continuing the fulfillment of the suicide pact, which results in Richard and Jonathan mocking him as a coward and a liar. Ron goes to an airport in an attempt to return home, but cannot bring himself to board the plane after listening to worrisome voicemails by his wife, indicating that federal agents are at their house and waiting to arrest him. He returns to the mansion and the three friends reunite.
Going into town for lunch, the men eat at a restaurant where an elderly man goes into cardiac arrest. Jonathan saves his life, drawing the attention of police Officer Boyde (Carla Gugino). Coming to the house to thank Jonathan, Boyde encounters an inebriated and agitated Ron. Believing that Boyde knows something is wrong, Ron attempts to get her to leave, raising Boyde's suspicions.
Later, Richard finds Ron in his room, unwilling to return home to the waiting federal agents. He tells Richard that he is frustrated with where his life has ended up, cannot face his wife and family, and no longer wants to live. Richard agrees to help him end his suffering and smothers him to death with a pillow. The next morning, Richard and Jonathan bury Ron beside Tim.
Richard and Jonathan go into town to party more, where Richard provokes two young men into beating him up. Jonathan, having decided to end his life, calls his son, asking the boy to promise him to remember who his real father was. After Jonathan's ex-wife interrupts, he uses a stethoscope to make a tourniquet and gives himself a fatal overdose of intravenous sedative, most likely a barbiturate. Richard discovers his body just after he intended to tell him that he couldn't go through with the suicide pact and buries Jonathan beside the others.
The next morning Boyde arrives at the house to check in on the men, the bar fight and Ron's suspicious behavior leading her to believe that something criminal is occurring. Entering the mansion, she finds a disturbed Richard has covered the inside of the house in artistic recreations of the text of the suicide pact. Richard tells that his friends are dead and then flees in a sports car, leading Boyde on a high speed chase to the Point Sur Lighthouse. When Boyde arrives, she finds Richard's car with the suicide pact on the front seat and Richard near the edge of the cliffs above the ocean. Boyde attempts to talk Richard away from the edge, but Richard states he would "miss his friends too much" and jumps while Boyde looks on in shock. The film ends on a close up of the suicide pact and the four friends each narrating a line. | flashback | train | wikipedia | Before I saw it, I'd read reviews about "self-indulgent, whining white guys," but I think these people missed the point entirely.
Weird and crazy, mostly out of focus and shaky/abnormal shot help portray the chaos of this film.If you honestly sit and watch this film for what it is (an experiment to dive into the soul and inner thoughts of middle-aged men) and not the next Hollywood Blockbuster then I think people may enjoy it more..
I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing tho- people make movies for certain audiences all the time.I don't usually write reviews but I felt like there was too much hate for this movie out there.
It tells a story, the acting is good, the movie making is good, there are a few parts that are not completely clear- I'm not sure if that is writing or editing or directing.Depending on how you look at the movie you might consider it a psych study on a group dynamic amongst males over time.
I loved the camera use effects etc , very real , comes with a great cast and soundtrack also , I don't think the actors could have performed any better.
Late last year, I had the chance to preview a little film titled "I Melt With You." It's an ensemble drama featuring Rob Lowe, Jeremy Piven, Thomas Jane and Christian MacKay. This film opened in the thick of the Holiday Movie Season.If your idea of a holiday movie treat leans toward the likes of "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" or "Arthur Christmas" or "The Muppets," this film is NOT for you.
It is a strongly acted, strongly directed film that sucks you in and doesn't let go.Every year, four "forty-something" college friends leave their careers and families behind to gather in a sort of mini-reunion where they live the weekend as if they were back in school - lots of sex, TONS of drugs, and the obligatory (punk) rock and roll.
By the virtuosity of the complete package, a flawless portion of the film, with amazing realistic relations and events.After things go wrong, in more ways then one, the movie kinda goes on another road.
To end it all like they did, was in my opinion, a bad way, and the film simply goes downhill.Why the incredibly high score then?
For a film that I followed since the announcement of Jeremy Piven joining the cast last year, I wan't sure what to expect after the poor reviews coming from Sundance and people in general.
I can see why this film was rejected by the general public - it's a dark, depressing movie and it is way ahead of it's time.
I think that in the future (10 years?) "I Melt With You" will be considered "One Of Those Films..."I have spent the last four nights watching everything on this DVD.
It reached inside my head and turned it into a cocktail shaker.Listen to the very first lines in the movie - a premonition for the next two hours.People have written that the first part was "exciting and original" but the second was "dull and predictable" - gosh, do you think this has anything to do with the whole point of the movie?Thomas Jane is absolutely stunning, Rob Lowe is like you've never seen him and Jeremy Piven and Christian McKay are truly unforgettable.
Watch this movie and you will see where the Industry is going.I think there are truly great movies and there are movies that come along at the perfect time in ones' life.
I think I heard the term man-gina while I was trying to fast forward to find the point, and that's what I would expect you'd have to have to like this film.
You would be better off watching something from your wife's drama collection and pretending they were guys.I'll try to finish it, but reading another post suggesting the 1st hour was the good part, there may be a reason this trash grossed ~$4000.I was a fan of Piven and Lowe and heard this was a thriller.
Having just watched this on Netflix and read all the IMDb reviews, some of which are very thoughtful, I'm stunned that no one seems to have picked up on the central point of the film - even though it's made explicit by the filmmakers.
It's drugs, substances, intoxicating: if yourself, or your friendships are based solely around intoxication, you're going to be in a very bad way at certain, important moments of truth.So, as we get more permissive about drugs - which isn't necessarily a bad thing - it's good to have brave movies like this one, revealing what happens when lives based solely on intoxication realize they no longer have a tether to who they really are; and likely never did..
Having no idea where this movie would lead me, I watched in wonderment as the beautiful camera work told the story as much as the acting did.
Being a middle aged man myself, this film was just so beautifully written, shot and played by all involved, in a realistic and sad way for some.
Only to continue to follow them in an adventure leading absolutely nowhere for the first 40 minutes of the movie.You think things might just pick up when Thomas Jane brings back a group of college co-eds to party the night away.
It picks up with the disgust and despair from a foolish college pact.Why stars like Jeremy Piven and Rob Lowe wasted a minute of their time on this is beyond me.
the movie gets as devastated as could possibly get, it's almost like it looks to be self- destructed on a way that u can't even imagine - very stupidly and very ugly.
The soundtrack is one of the greatest one i've heard in years, and have to say it's one of the strongest asset of this "weird movie" (i also recommend the song from the trailer "Cameras - Defeatist").I find it very difficult to rate it, but i do one thing know - this could have been great..
Every once in a while i get to watch something great like this flick and i spend hours thinking about it and just wondering about my life and how it turned out.
After reading countless negative reviews on this film, I feel like a real outcast when I say I enjoyed it and this is why.
The fundamental concept to the movie is quite far fetched until you look deep in to the characters lives and circumstances and realize that its all very possible.This is a film for 25 - 55 year old guys to be watched by yourself or with other guys ...
A prior dabbling with recreational drugs also helps the appeal to the characters personalities and occurrences in the movie.Only thing was the music sometimes drowned out the speech but it does give it the feel of an abstract / indie movie.Good acting, especially from Piven..
People go into it thinking its a Hollywood blockbuster and their surprised by the indy film feel to it.This is about 4 lifelong friends who meet up and spend a week together just like they do every year.
I couldn't wait to see this, but after watching this movie the best thing about it is the extrodanry Soundtrack!
What this movie lacks in plot, it makes up for with memories of excessive drug use, I was the pot smoker, and the music is one of the best Soundtracks that I've ever heard!
Sadly, this film was a terrible reminder of the friends I've lost over the years to excessive drug use..
It can drive people to do things suddenly and out of impulse, often to the destruction of everyone around them.Welcome to "I Melt With You." This artistic, visually stunning drama takes four middle-aged college friends, each with their own baggage, to the coasts of central California for a rowdy reunion of one week.
If these sequences were shortened by 50%, there would be no effectiveness lost to the film's message and there would've been ample more time to develop more likable characters.And man, trust me when I say that these guys are some real Grade-A douchebags.
If you are a 44-year-old man who snorts coke with his college friends and never reached emotional maturity, then maybe you'll relate.Overall, yes, this film offers some good things but they're nothing that can't be had in better and larger quantities in other great addiction dramas.
The film progresses to some really dark, unsettling places, involving a pact the four of them made 25 years before, and the ramifications of where their self disappointed lives have ended up.
I enjoyed this movie, although it took me a couple runs to get through it due to the tedious drug binging scenes that almost make you feel like you are high as well!
I think the movie was filmed in Big Sur, CA...
I watched "I Melt with You" right after I watched "Husbands." On the surface the movies have a lot of similarities, both featuring middle-aged men at a crossroads in their lives, overindulging their Ids in a desperate attempt to relive the good times they left behind when they became responsible adults.
But the movies have a lot of differences, too, the chief one being that "Husbands" was written and directed by the acclaimed John Cassavetes; "I Melt with You" was decidedly not.In "I Melt with You," four friends, all age 44, gather at a rented mansion in Big Sur for their annual reunion.
Richard (an over-the-top Thomas Jane) is a failed novelist now teaching high school English; Jonathan (Rob Lowe) is a doctor/drug dealer; Ron (Jeremy Piven) is a money manager dodging the SEC; and Tim (Christian McKay), in what just as easily could have been the "token black friend" role, is defined by his homosexuality and thoughtful demeanor so I guess we don't have to know what he does for a living.
Upon the guys' arrival at the vacation manse — which, I should mention, seems more within the actors' price range, not their characters' — the movie becomes "Less than Zero: The Reunion." Their week proceeds thusly: Get drunk and do coke.Drink some more and do more coke, plus pop some of those pills that Jonathan brought.Do donuts in Richard's Porsche while snorting coke.Do still more coke.Splash naked in the ocean.Get drunk and do coke, with some pills to mellow things out.More cocaine!
No matter how artful director Mark Pellington's camera angles are, no matter how beautiful the lighting, no matter how cool the soundtrack, watching Jane, Lowe, Piven and McKay Hoover up mountains of cocaine and talk about p---y hair gets real tedious real quick.
In real life if these guys ingested as much drugs and alcohol as they do in this movie they'd be in an emergency room by the second day of their gathering — or dead.
This is where I should bring up that Carla Gugino is in this too, as a cop/deus ex machina, but I'm betting she wouldn't be offended if you forgot she's part of this movie.I didn't exactly like "Husbands" — I thought parts were better than the whole — but I appreciated what Cassavetes was trying to do, not to mention it features some strong acting.
If I were to write this review imitating Chris Traeger, a character played by Rob Lowe on the show 'Parks and Recreation,' I would undoubtedly start off by saying that this was LITERALLY one of the most disappointing movies I have ever seen (and keep in mind, Chris is normally a beacon of positivity).
Following four middle aged college friends who come together for a weekend of fun, booze, and drugs, 'I Melt with You' had the potential to be a modern 'Return of the Seacacus Seven,' but ended up being closer to the annoying younger brother of 'The Big Chill.' Director Mark Pellington, who is more commonly known for his documentary work, boldly takes a swing and a miss.
I was expecting a lot more because of the ''omg this film was awesome'' reviews displayed on here.The movie included a few nice songs.The cinematography is very good,that made it more easy to watch but still,like I always say: stay away from the ''kids know how to party'' teen flicks and it's all good...Why?
because that stuff gets old after 10 minutes,and even more when that's the only thing it has to offer to the audience.Points to be mentioned 1:Four old men reunited go on a drug trip,recycled situations/images of other movies.
I wonder if there's a word yet to describe the characters in "I Melt with You." These would be four male friends, all forty-four years of age, who have led separate lives since their college days but make it a point to reunite once a year.
Basically the way I see this movie is 4 guys killing themselves or each other because they can't party like they did when they were younger.
If you, like me, have watched the trailer for "I Melt With You" and are attracted to the allure of a philosophical tale about men confronting the harsh realities of late middle-age, think again.
(Come on, Mark Pellington, give me a break!) Like an MTV music video, the film carries along with truly effective moments of presenting the despair and dissatisfaction these four men recognize in their lives (as they continue to drink and drug themselves into oblivion), but then there is a turn for the worst when the sensitive Tim...I don't want to commit spoiler-violation-treason here so let's just suffice to say the film continues its downward spiral from here as it attempts to glorify the most selfish of acts.
it checks all the boxes, and almost tricks you into thinking you're watching a movie that is way better than it really is.
If this is the sort of thing your into, its a GREAT film, and probably attempts to publicize the position of a lot of men my age's current situations, but one cant help but think it is glorifying a very dark solution....
I wasn't entirely sure what this movie was going to be like when I started watching it.
It is a whirlwind ride of manic psyches, drugs, alcohol and something akin to a bad acid trip.Having made a similar evaluation of my own life several years ago, I could completely relate to the characters' vow and how it effected them during this week of debauchery.This movie is not for the faint of heart and take the viewer on a ride into places of the human psyche that aren't so pretty.
If you are (like me) a forty year old man looking forward to a boys-behaving-badly weekend with your old friends - do not watch this film.
Talk about taking a wrong turn to Negative town - if you want to feel empty and soulless and wander around asking, 'what does it all mean, what's the point of anything anyway?' for a few days - Watch this film..
Richard (Thomas Jane) is an English teacher with one published book to his credit, who is trying to reprise the free spirited, artsy bad boy he clearly was in college; Ron (Jeremy Piven) is a family man and stockbroker with the forces closing in on him, from a career that may not be as legitimate; Jonathan (Rob Lowe) is a divorced doctor pocketing cash on the side by making illegal sales of prescription drugs and a relationship with a young son that's clearly going south; and Tim (Christian McKay), a man who made one deeply fatal mistake in life that may have damaged him beyond curing.
I look at this film and I think of my friends, and I hope to God that we don't end up like the four main characters in this film.
During a party sequence in the film, the four characters find themselves in deep conversations with peers half their age, and in a way, representations of what they were like at that age, before family, career and responsibilities got to them.
Jeremy Piven has always crafted a career of playing the angry neurotic that he's performed well in films like "Very Bad Things" and "Entourage", and his character's descent into his own personal hell is something to watch.
But the four men take this film seriously as an actors piece, and they do it perfectly."I Melt With You" will slip into the abyss of the thousands of movies that get forgotten each decade.
In the sense that this movie strongly evoked my feelings (I had to hit the pause button often)- and forced me to consider my life story: it was a bitter pill, hard to watch but had some good effects..
The problem with watching a film such as this, and thinking that you could have done something more entertaining and enjoyable with the time, is that you don't know until you have watched it.
That opens the second half of the movie wherein misery, grief, self-pity and a long-dormant suicide pact are called into question, and what do think the odds are that they are going to make good on that very suicide pact.Pellington's visual style is to twist and turn the camera so that we feel the nausea of the drugs and of the inner-turmoil, but all it does it wear us out.
To read the lyric is imperative to understanding the film: '(Let's stop the world) I'll stop the world and melt with you/ (Let's stop the world) I've seen some changes but it's getting better all the/ Time / (Let's stop the world) There's nothing you and I won't do/ (Let's stop the world) I'll stop the world and melt with you/ The future's open wide'When four 40-something college friends - Richard (Thomas Jane), Ron (Jeremy Piven), Jonathan (Rob Lowe), and Tim (Christian McKay) - meet up for their annual reunion, things start to spiral out of control, and a suicide pact they made as young men is revisited. |
tt2043933 | Night Moves | Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman) is a retired professional football player now working as a private investigator in Los Angeles. He discovers that his wife Ellen (Susan Clark) is having an affair with a man named Marty Heller (Harris Yulin).
Aging actress Arlene Iverson (Janet Ward) hires Harry to find her 16-year-old daughter Delly Grastner (Melanie Griffith). Arlene's only source of income is her daughter's trust fund, but it requires Delly to be living with her. Arlene gives Harry the name of one of Delly's friends in Los Angeles, a mechanic called Quentin (James Woods). Quentin tells Harry that he last saw Delly at a New Mexico film location, where she started flirting with one of Arlene's old flames, stuntman Marv Ellman (Anthony Costello). Harry realizes that the injuries to Quentin's face are from fighting the stuntman and sympathizes with his bitterness towards Delly. He travels to the film location and talks to Marv and stunt coordinator, Joey Ziegler (Edward Binns). Before returning to Los Angeles, Harry is surprised to see Quentin working on Marv's stunt plane.
Harry suspects that Delly may be trying to seduce her mother's ex-lovers and travels to the Florida Keys, where her stepfather Tom Iverson (John Crawford) lives. In Florida, Harry finds Delly staying with Tom and a woman named Paula (Jennifer Warren). Harry, Paula, and Delly take a boat trip to go swimming, but Delly becomes distraught when she finds the submerged wreckage of a small plane with the decomposing body of the pilot inside. Paula marks the spot with a buoy, and when they return to shore, she appears to report the find to the Coast Guard.
Harry persuades Delly to return to her mother in California. After he drops her off at her California home, he still is uneasy about the case, but focuses on patching up his own marriage. He tells his wife he will give up the agency, something she has wanted him to do for a long time, but then he learns that Delly has been killed in a car accident on the set of a movie.
Harry questions the driver of the car, Joey, who was injured. Joey lets him view footage of the crash, which raises Harry's suspicions about Quentin the mechanic. He goes to the home of Arlene Iverson and finds her drunk by the pool, not particularly grief-stricken over the death of her daughter. Arlene now stands to inherit her daughter's wealth. Harry tracks down Quentin, who denies being the killer, but tells him that Marv Ellman was the dead pilot in the plane and that Ellman was involved in smuggling. Quentin manages to escape before Harry can learn more.
Harry returns to Florida, where he finds the body of Quentin the mechanic floating in Tom's dolphin pen. Harry accuses Tom of the murder, they fight, and Tom is knocked unconscious. Paula admits she did not report the dead body in the plane because the aircraft contained a valuable sculpture that they were smuggling piecemeal to the United States. Harry and Paula set off to retrieve the sculpture. While Paula is diving, a seaplane arrives and the pilot strafes the boat, machine-gunning Harry in the leg. The seaplane lands on the ocean, but when the pilot sees Paula surface with the sculpture, he charges the plane at her and she is killed. The impact of the pontoons on the surfaced sculpture shatters the seaplane, and as the cockpit submerges into the ocean, Harry is able to see through the glass window beneath his boat that the drowning pilot is Joey Ziegler.
Harry unsuccessfully tries to steer the boat which is now travelling in circles.
=== My Night at Maud's ===
An often quoted line from Night Moves occurs when Moseby declines an invitation from his wife to see the movie My Night at Maud's: "I saw a Rohmer film once. It was kinda like watching paint dry." The exchange from Night Moves was quoted in director Éric Rohmer's New York Times obituary in 2010. Penn himself was an admirer of Rohmer's films; Jim Emerson has written that, "Harry's remark, as scripted by Alan Sharp, is a brittle homophobic jab at a gay friend of his wife's." Bruce Jackson has written an extended discussion of the role of My Night at Maud's (1970) in Night Moves; viewers familiar with the earlier film may recognize that its protagonist and Moseby have related opportunities for infidelity, but respond differently. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0070913 | Che? | === Part 1: The Argentine ===
In Havana 1964, Che Guevara is interviewed by Lisa Howard who asks him if reform throughout Latin America might not blunt the "message of the Cuban Revolution."
In 1955, at a gathering in Mexico City, Guevara first meets Fidel Castro. He listens to Castro’s plans and signs on as a member of the July 26th Movement.
There is a return to 1964 for Guevara’s address before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, where he makes an impassioned speech against American imperialism, and defends the executions his regime has committed, declaring "this is a battle to the death."
March 1957. Guevara deals with debilitating bouts of asthma as his group of revolutionaries meet up with Castro’s. Together, they attack an army barracks in the Sierra Maestra on May 28, 1957.
On October 15, 1958, the guerrillas approach the town of Las Villas. The Battle of Santa Clara is depicted with Guevara demonstrating his tactical skill as the guerrillas engage in street-to-street fighting and derail a train carrying Cuban soldiers and armaments. Near the film‘s end, they are victorious. With the Cuban Revolution now over, Guevara heads to Havana, remarking "we won the war, the revolution starts now."
=== Part 2: Guerrilla ===
The second part begins on November 3, 1966 with Guevara arriving in Bolivia disguised as a middle-aged representative of the Organization of American States hailing from Uruguay, who subsequently drives into the mountains to meet his men. The film is organized by the number of days that he was in the country. On Day 26, there is solidarity among Guevara's men despite his status as foreigner. By Day 67, Guevara has been set up for betrayal. He tries to recruit some peasants only to be mistaken for a cocaine smuggler. On Day 100, there is a shortage of food and Guevara exercises discipline to resolve conflicts between his Cuban and Bolivian followers.
By Day 113, some of the guerrillas have deserted and the Bolivian Army has discovered their base camp. Much to Che's disappointment Tamara "Tania" Bunke, Guevara's revolutionary contact, has botched elaborate preparations and given away their identity. On Day 141, the guerrillas capture Bolivian soldiers that refuse to join the revolution and are free to return to their villages. CIA advisers arrive to supervise anti-insurgent activity and training. On Day 169, Guevara's visiting friend, the French intellectual Régis Debray, is captured at Muyupampa by the Bolivian Army, which launches an aerial attack on Day 219.
Guevara grows sick and by Day 280 can barely breathe as a result of his acute asthma. On Day 302, the Bolivian Army kills Tania Bunke, Juan Acuña Ñunez, and several others in Che's forces in an ambush as they attempt to cross the Vado del Yeso after a local informant tells the Bolivian troops about the movements of the rebels. By Day 340, Guevara is trapped by the Bolivian Army in the Yuro Ravine near the village of La Higuera. Che is wounded and captured. The next day, a helicopter lands and a Cuban American CIA agent Félix Rodríguez emerges. The Bolivian high command are then phoned and give approval for Guevara's execution. He is shot on 9 October 1967, and his corpse lashed to a helicopter's landing skids and flown out.
In a final flashback scene, Guevara is aboard the Granma in 1956, looking out over the ocean. He sees the Castro brothers alone at the bow of the ship; Fidel is talking and Raúl is taking notes. Guevara hands a peeled orange to one of his comrades and returns his gaze to the lone brothers before the scene fades to black. | absurd, psychedelic, comedy | train | wikipedia | It is a no holds barred comedy that breaks ground that "Happiness" will sweep in to master.Polanski combines his psychedelic absurdity of "The Magic Christian" with the stark strangeness that he would later delve into in "The Tenant." It is a valiant attempt to create a surreal sexual comedy.
For most films, the lack of any depth to the characters will turn away even the most devoted viewer; but "What?" creates entertaining caricatures that bobble and bump into one another, with surprisingly charming results.
He plays Alex, a smarmy ex-pimp who lives in one of those terminally fabulous villas that only seem to exist in Italian movies.
He gets his other kicks by dressing up as Napoleon or crushing ping-pong balls with his feet.Among the villa's other denizens are an arthritic pianist, a clutch of sex maniacs, an American husband and wife who bicker endlessly about time zones, a stone-faced German nurse who reads Nietzsche, a pair of sun-bronzed lesbians and a dying millionaire who expires with a blissful smile on his face - after getting a glimpse of the heroine's private parts.
Sydne Rome plays a backpacking American hippie chick who escapes from an attempted gang rape on the Italian autostrada.
is one of those few movies to play on the obvious notion that 99% of all pornography is just plain silly - hence unwatchable to any viewer with even an elementary sense of the ridiculous.
Not only is it far and away Roman Polanski's funniest film.
It was in the spirit of those times that Polanski made "What?" "What?" could be defined as a surrealistic modern "Alice in Erotic Land".An innocent young and beautiful American woman, Nancy (Sydne Rome) - She is hitchhiking in Italy.
Among the characters there is a former pimp, Alex (Marcello Mastroianni), two french lesbians, a priest that watches everything with disapproving eyes, the paraplegic patriarch of the house with his serious-looking Nietzsche-reading German nurse, and even Polanski is present, as Mosquito, that has no love left for Alex, the pimp, with whom he's always arguing.Nancy, interpreted by the gorgeously beautiful Sydne Rome, will be the object of desire of every male (excepting maybe the priest) inhabiting the villa.
Even the growling dog falls under her charm, and the same happened to me.Sydne Rome, in an interview in the DVD (released in Italy), defined "What?" as an erotic dream.
This is exactly what I think.Alex, the pimp (Marcello Mastroianni), will persuade her to engage in kinky sexual games.
But don't you expect the sleaze displayed by other Italian films of the time - by these standards "What?" can be considered tamer than its Italian brothers.
Still in some scenes Sydne Rome is shown in the nude, and in many others she's wandering around the house semi-naked.
In the strange sexual games that happen between her and Alex, Sydne Rome has her clothes on.
The beautiful Sydne Rome, with her angel face and her large innocent eyes, and Marcello Mastroianni, wearing either a leopard skin or a Napoleon costume...
As Polanki has worked with a tight script and hasn't given much way to improvisation, "What?" seems sometimes more a theater play than a film.
"What?" is a surrealistic comedy which is based mainly on the actions and words of the characters, as it happens in any good theater play.
The characters are somewhat poorly developed, the film is a giallo that has psychoanalytical motives - a labyrinth, a killing, loss of memory, a white villa by the sea (yes!).
The same cannot be said for "What?".Polanski with "What?" wanted to make a sunny, dreamy and sexy film, and, in a way, he almost got there, but if he had let himself really go and had given the actors more freedom ....
The parallel between the story of "What?" and "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Caroll is very interesting, and maybe this film is the most precise adaptation of Caroll's crazy story, precisely because it really shows all the sexual content of Alice's dream trip.
The movie construction reminds the "passage" of Alice "behind the mirror": she escapes the cruel world (the rapists) when she goes down to the "loonies house".
Mastroianni's pimp character reminds of the Mad Hatter, because he keeps asking Sydne Rome if she wants to have tea with him around five o'clock.
Polanski's character can also be seen as the Mad Hatter sidekick in the book: he keeps fighting with Mastroianni all day long, as if it was some kind of game between them.
At the same time he was shooting "What?" in Italy, Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey shot "Flesh for Dracula" nearby, and that explains Polanski's apparition with mustache in a scene of this film.
Of course, the "sexual innocence" of Sydne Rome put the film on the rank of "erotic fantasy".
The tribute to "Alice" is clear, but it seems that the film may have influenced a great Italian erotic illustrator, Milo Manara, whose sexy heroins really look like Sydne Rome, and are often place in similarly "unvolontary" sexual situations (oooh, the pooor girl lost her clothes, what a shame!).
Anyway, this is a crazy absurd funny and sexy film, that never takes itself seriously (at the end, Rome yells to Mastroianni: "Don't worry, this is only a film!")with a very colorful and "sunny" atmosphere..
But somebody with a rest of intellect, whose mind is not totally standardized to American mainstream taste, will realize that it actually is not about a soft porn or a comedy but about the visualisation of a dream.
This film truly is one of my all-time favourites.
For a Milo Manara fan, like myself, this film should do the trick.
With all it's weaknesses this film is a masterpiece in capturing some of the most hope-to-part-of -dream sequences I can come up with.Here Polanski is on a playful mood, which most certainly resonates with me.
Sydney Rome is an American traveling in Italy who flees to a private villa after being attacked by some really inept rapists.
Within the estate she meets a bunch of crazy people, including former pimp Marcello Mastroianni in what has to be the craziest, most outlandishly go-for-broke performance of his career.
Comparisons to Alice in Wonderland (always mentioned in conjunction with this film) are a huge stretch, I think.
At best it's like Lewis Carroll reinterpreted by a horny high schooler who still giggles when he hears the word "breast." Nevertheless, for the first half hour or so I thought this was one of the funniest movies I had ever seen.
Unfortunately it climaxed with Mastroianni crawling around in a tiger hide making meowing noises (whereupon Rome starts "taming" him with the whip).
After that the film never really recovers the energy it started out with and viewers are left with little to do but wonder how Rome will be humiliated next (first her shirt is ripped, then stolen, then she walks around wearing a napkin until she finds another shirt, but then her pants are stolen, finally she loses the shirt, etc).
I watch What?, Roman Polanski's movie about a woman who unintentionally enters into an Italian villa filled with folks that Luis Bunuel might have concocted after a few Martini's, and wonder, what's the point?
There's the pimp, played by Marcello Mastroianni, who loves the feel of crushing ping pong balls with his feet, dressing up as tigers and admirals for sexually sado-masochistic endeavors; there's the guy who plays piano beautifully and doesn't respond when someone talks to him during his incessant playing; there's Polanski himself playing a character named 'Mosquito', a fellow with a fake beard and a strange thing for Sydney Rome's character's jeans, which he steals in her sleep.
This doesn't even include random people like the woman walking around naked for no reason.There is no distinct plot, but rather it follows that illogical line of logic one could find in the Exterminating Angel (or Alice in Wonderland for that matter), or perhaps as just a parody of the creation of a 'sex diary' that Rome carries on her person everywhere.
There's even time for the villa's wise-old dying patriarch, with his bushy beard and eyebrows who nearly passes on on at a big dinner, only to recover and become with obsessed with Rome's shirt.This all said, it's not altogether excellent.
The good news is the bevy of Italian character players, people one's never seen before (or non-Italian ones like Hugh Griffith), hit their marks and can be hysterical on the whole.None, however, are quite as good as Mastroianni.
So that his sudden appearances qas he spies on Rome are funny on their own, but one he gets into 'uniforn' in those sex-role play scenes (particularly that tiger, good Lord), or fetishizes that ping pong ball, it's a kind of outrageous perfection.What?
Roman Polanski's bizarre, unfunny, yet beautifully-made film about a beautiful but naive American who becomes trapped in a decadent setting of horny Italians and indifferent foreigners is almost too embarrassing to be associated with the great director.
And yet, it kept my interest practically the whole way through.Roger Ebert has often noted that it takes a great director to make a truly awful film.
Polanski surely is talented but is this film a travesty?
The truth of the matter remains that it is surely one most Polanski fans either have not seen or are avoiding like the plague.
Maybe this is Polanski trying to relax and make a comedy, mixed inevitably with his trademark absurdity and sadness.
In the end, the traits which make Polanski unique remain visible despite the surface appearing much too seedy and unwholesome for the average film viewer.
It is beautifully dated as evidenced by the film quality and the attitudes towards sex.The main character is a young woman hitchhiking across Europe.
She is given a room and, within moments, begins undressing under the peeping eye of a perverted former pimp played by Marcelo Mastroianni, which causes the hippie girl to embark on a mysterious sexual journey.
One inhabitant constantly groans in his room; a mysterious voyeur watches the girl through a hole in her wall; two women wander through the terrace both wearing fancy hats but only one wearing clothes; and of course Mosquito played by the man himself, Roman Polanski.
A day after the girl stays in the house, she starts believing she is having déjà vu, each sexual fantasy after the next haunt her over and over again.I certainly don't consider this to be one of Polanski's best.
Due to the content, it is rather sad to see a great actor like Mastroianni in such a poorly developed film like this.
Polanski, a filmmaker that previously showed the world he could make great films then decides to make such a poor film as this.
Then again this is a hippie film, so for the times I guess it was ok.
Polanski is suitably quirky in a particularly quirky role and if the whole thing appears like some LSD inspired wonderland, it has been lovingly made with some style and is a joy to watch..
A direct quote from Polanski "My wish was to make a film without costumes first of all, preferably without clothes at all.
For the most part is a throwaway sex comedy, a film to pick up the spirits at the time depleted director - An absurd Italian Sex farce for which in Italy at least was a success.It's no more than a series of vignettes with no real beginning, middle or end.
Nancy (Sydne Rome) after escaping a trio of inept rapists stumbles into a rambling coastal estate wearing little more than an napkin throughout.Certainly a misstep in Polanski's oeuvre but it's not without its moments of genuine humour and flashes of his trademark shots.
It's sad to see Marcello Mastroianni wallowing in this mess.This is Polanski's worst film by a wide margin.
"What" is Polanski's absolute nadir .It's incredible that,helped by his excellent collaborator Gerard Brach ,he could produce nothing but this drivel:it's an insult to mention such names as Carroll (the elevator is the mirror ?) or Borges .The dialog is never funny,being mean,vulgar, pretentious,almost exclusively revolving around sex .Polanski himself appears as he did in "the fearless vampire killers" and later would in the highly superior "Chinatown" and "Le locataire" (the tenant).At a pinch ,you might find something "polanskiesque" in this turkey:the conspiracy against a lonesome hero ,like in his masterful "Rosemary's baby' or "the tenant" ;the claustrophobia which is present in almost all Polanski's canon,not only the two mentioned works ,but also "repulsion" "cul de sac" "knife in the water" "death and the maiden" ,all these stories which happen "in camera".The Carroll/Borges subject will be used again by Claude Chabrol in 1976 in his "Alice ou la dernière fugue" with much better results.For Polanski's diehards.Barely..
Basicly the film has a dream like quality, similar to Fellini, with repetition accentuating this, with reality revolving and entwinning.
Wow, while watching I could not quite believe that an insane movie like this does in fact exist.
Then eventually, this end on a meta-level where actors do actually make comments on the movie being a movie.Lucky me that Amazon Prime came along with the streaming proposal of an unknown film on my search for some Polanski movie.
I opted to go for it.That the movie does actually work despite its absurdity and its odd sex scenes must be accredited to a great deal to the flawless performances by its protagonists Sidney Rome and Marcello Mastrioianni next to the genius of its director.
At the same time, the movie is just way too bizarre to come anywhere near to such a poor evaluation.
What else would you call a woman's leg that is being painted blue midway for no real reason and stays like this for the rest of movie.It is quite a pity that uncompromising, experimental films like this are no longer produced nowadays.
A young American woman (Sydne Rome) traveling through Italy finds herself in a strange Mediterranean villa where nothing seems right.The film opens with a rape attempt -- very odd for any comedy, even more odd coming from Polanski, given his reputation now.
Sydne Rome spends a fair amount of this film topless, bottomless or both.
(The scene immediately called Monty Python's "Meaning of Life" to mind.)The dreaded Marlboro cigarettes show up that appear in so many of Polanski's films.
making the absurdity even more absurd.When producer Robert Evans was trying to coax Roman Polanski to direct Chinatown (1974), he found Polanski thoroughly absorbed with this film, to the extent that he had bought a 50% share in it.
Evans eventually lured Polanski by saying that whatever "What" made in its opening week, he would pay him as his salary for directing "Chinatown".
Polanski readily agreed to this, expecting "What" to do well as he considered it the best thing he had done up to that point.
But Roman Polanski is such a good filmmaker, even his worst efforts shine with talent, intelligence, and humor.Allegedly based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the movie opens with Nancy (Sydne Rome), a tourist traveling through Italian; as we meet her she's about to be gang raped by a trio of sleazy Italians who gave her a ride.
Then there's Roman Polanski playing Mosquito, who's called that way because of his big sting, although it's not what you're thinking about.
And finally there's the real star of the movie, Marcello Mastroianni, giving the movie's best performance as Alex, a sado-masochist ex-pimp who likes to be whipped while dressed as a tiger and doesn't mind abusing Nancy while dressed as a Navy admiral.What?
is indefinable: it has no plot, no logic, it flows like a dream and makes as much sense as one.
The characters' personality changes all the time, the absurd is always intruding, and poor Nancy is caught in the middle.
The movie is full of bawdy humor, unapologetic sexism, gratuitous nudity (as the movie progresses Rome finds herself with less and less clothes until she's naked), and silly violence.There are two types of strange in cinema: there's mainstream strange - Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, Charlie Kaufman: for some reason people find these filmmakers difficult, complex, confusing, when in fact they make a lot of sense by the end of the movie.
Roman Polanski's movie belongs in this group.It's not for everyone, which is a pity, for underneath the nonsense there is a movie with a great sense of humor and beautiful cinematography..
It almost seemed like a dream to me than a movie.
Sydne Rome was pretty much nude the entire movie, and she was stunningly beautiful back in 1972 so that was a definite plus in my book.
Marcello Mastroianni thoroughly convinced me during the movie.
The entire time I was lost and laughing so the movie did its job.
Because of this movie, I am compelled to watch more of Roman Polaski films.
Even though I knew this film was an early-ish Roman Polanski I still wasn't prepared for the overt stamp of perversion running through it.
It's a shame that we have his thoughts directed on celluloid as his thoughts are the worst thing about him - cue a very perverted film.I watched this in 2014 and it looked like it was made in the seventies, not sure if shortly after the US Government tried to deport him but they should have based on this film alone.
I think Mr Polanski had so many other things on his mind when making this film he forgot how to direct it.
In keeping with Bitter Moon which was also another turkey, avoid this film if you actually want some substance to your main character and some depth to the story..
If there really is a message, as the critics suggest, it's at least thoroughly hidden.Knowing that Polanski put quite some effort into this film, I can't help but think that probably he saw something else in it. |
tt0112495 | Beyond Rangoon | Andy Bowman persuades her sister Laura to go on a trip to Burma after Laura’s husband and son are killed in a home invasion and Laura had gone into a deep depression. One night, unable to sleep because of nightmares, Laura leaves her hotel in Rangoon and gets caught up in an anti-government protest. She is very impressed by the bravery of Aung San Suu Kyi.
When her tour group leaves the country, Laura cannot leave with them as her passport was stolen the previous night. While staying behind waiting for her new passport, she meets U Aung Ko, who acts as an unofficial tour guide and drives an ancient Chevy. He takes Laura out into the countryside to a Buddhist monastery. The car develops problems, but fortunately they are able to coast to the house of some of Ko’s friends and former students. Laura learns that Ko used to be a college professor, who was banned from teaching for supporting anti-government activity led by his former student Min Han. She has a breakdown and tells Ko what happened to her family.
The next morning they learn that the 8888 uprising began the previous day. Ko takes Laura to a station to get train back to Rangoon. She sneaks on board, but the soldiers start beating Ko and when Min Han intervenes, Han is shot and killed. Laura gets Ko into the car and they leave, pursued by the soldiers, but Ko is shot and wounded. They end up crashing into the Irrawaddy river, but get away from the soldiers. They get on a raft taking bamboo to Rangoon. Laura, who is a doctor operates on Ko to remove the bullet.
The next day the raft stops at a village. Laura goes to find drugs to treat Ko. She reluctantly accepts a pistol from one of the crew. At a clinic Laura finds the drugs she needs, but has to shoot a soldier to keep from being raped. When they arrive in Rangoon, the city is in the throes of a full-scale revolt. When Laura attempts to get into the US embassy the military tries to arrest her for helping Ko. The student demonstrators rescue her and Ko. After they witness soldiers killing civilians they get put on a truck heading for the border. Near the border the group has to abandon their truck and make run through the jungle. They meet up with a group of Karen rebels. Laura has a dream where her son Danny tells her she has to let him go. Ko urges Laura to do so, telling her, "All things pass, Laura. They are shadows as we are shadows. Briefly walking the earth, and soon gone."
The next day, Laura and her group of refugees make a harrowing river crossing into Thailand under mortar fire and reach a refugee camp. Having found a new purpose in life Laura begins helping at the camp’s hospital. | violence, historical | train | wikipedia | If you allow yourself to identify with the Patricia Arquette character, you will find it to be a very moving story of a woman regaining a sense of purpose to her life, and finding a new will to live.Arquette's performance is brave because it is purposefully "wooden" -- it's a way of defining her character's spiritual death, her complete lack of a desire to be alive.
What is moving is how in the course of the story, she is reawakened -- by the Burmese landscape, by the beautiful quality of its people and landscapes, and by the primal choices she is forced to confront.Boorman supports this visually (and Hans Zimmer supports it with one of his most gorgeous, haunting scores) with an often static camera and with a propensity to shoot through glass, windows, windshields, etc.
During their escape through the Burmese jungle, tracked by the military, Laura finds herself forced to fight her way back into life.
I discovered a city, a country, a lost revolution and even a Nobel prize winner thanks to this masterpiece of cinema.If you haven't seen this movie, you can't say you've seen anything .A great lesson of courage, humility and life.I haven't seen anything as good since.T.E. Saturday, January 9th, 1999.
Patricia Arquette plays American doctor Laura Bowman, who takes a holiday to Burma in an attempt to heal her spirit after the murders of her husband and young son.
She is left behind in Rangoon during a military crackdown and leaves the city with an aging man who works as a "tour guide." But he is no simple tour guide; he is a professor who introduces her to the life outside of the tourist traps ...
the two of them get caught up in the political upheaval and Laura sees with her own eyes how the government betrays and oppresses its own people.This movie is one of my favorites because of its themes.
Thirdly, it's about compassion and sacrifice, and people coming together - without even knowing each other - to endure pain and fear.Just about every beautiful scene in this movie is important; nothing is wasted here.
An Underrated Film that Has not Aged with Top-Notch Performance of the Gorgeous Patricia Arquette.
In the 90's, the American doctor Laura Bowman (Patricia Arquette) travels to Burma (presently Myanmar) with her sister and also doctor Andy Bowman (Frances McDormand) to recover from the loss of her beloved husband and son that were murdered in a theft at home.
Laura sees a political pro-democracy manifestation to support the leader Aung San Suu Kyi and she decides to participate; however she loses her passport and she is not allowed to leave Rangoon.While waiting to have another flight, Laura meets the unofficial tourist guide U Aung Ko, who is also a leader of an underground movement, and she decides to visit the countryside of Burma.
However, the military dictatorship represses the movement and Laura, U Aung Ko and several civilians try to escape to Thailand in a dangerous journey."Beyond Rangoon" is an underrated film that has not aged, with top-notch performance of the gorgeous Patricia Arquette, I saw this film twice on VHS in the 90's and it is amazing that the military dictatorship still does exist in this country.
In accordance with the statement of John Boorman in the Extras of the DVD, the dramatic scene when the commander orders to shoot the politician Aung San Suu Kyi did really happen.
This movie was working toward two goals: to make a political point and to tell a scary adventure story.
Beyond Rangoon finds a good balance between politics and storytelling.I already knew that Aung San Suu Kyi had won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, and knew something about the oppressive political situation in Burma, so the political message of the movie was mostly a dramatization of what I already knew.
But I thought the movie did a good job of telling about Aung San Suu Kyi and the mostly-faceless dictators who have for years tried to silence her.
The directing is strong also, keeping up the tension throughout the race to escape the forces of the dictatorship.This movie had additional impact on me and my wife because of other events of the same time period.
This film should be seen by as many people as possible as it concentrates on the human rights problems in Burma.
Patricia Arquette is superb as the American lady who due to personal tragedy has become reckless with her own life decisions and gets caught up in the ensuing conflict.
It makes you empathize with the people under such a government and makes you want to learn more about their lives, their struggles and a potential leader Aung San Suu Kyi. It makes one wonder why our government will interfere places we are not wanted yet ignore those who ask our help..
A touch of the exotic east would take me away from everything that reminded me of what had happened..."So begins the film "Beyond Rangoon", about an emotionally troubled American who is urged by her sister to take a vacation in Rangoon, Burma to try and get over the devastating loss of her husband and child.
Aung San Su Kyi was a woman who was trying to bring Burma (Now Myanmar) to democracy, but was denied by the government.
Patricia Arquette portrays the American, Laura Bowman, with depth, very frozen by the horrors of her loss, "I tried finding something in those stone statues, but nothing stirred in me.
Patricia Arquette amazingly portrays Laura Bowman, who we meet as a shut-down and quit despondent young doctor, unable to deal with her grief over the loss of her husband and son.
Throughout the course of the film, as she is trapped in Burma, witnesses the Democratic uprise and massacres in the capital city of Rangoon, flees for her life, and saves her tour-guide's (U Aung Ko's) life, she is regaining her will to live.
Patricia Arquette, as usual, gives a wonderfully convincingly and believable performance as the emotionally wounded Laura.
Superbly directed by John Boorman, and intensly acted by Patricia Arquette, this film can easily be called one of the best films of the 90's.
"Beyond Rangoon" is mostly a petite, robust Arquette running barefoot all over Burma from the military junta bad guys while trying desperately to help a wounded super good guy professor.
The film mechanically tells its by-the-numbers story about a recently widowed American physician on vacation who gets stuck in the traveler's favorite vacation spot, Burma (yeah, right!), in the midst of a clash between restless citizens and the ruling military junta.
etc etc What is meant to be a political and educational statement about the so called atrocities of a military dictatorship in Asia ends up as a "How To" travel guide for disillusioned Americans....especially those who wish to protest that the water in the hotel does not work....
"excuse me....do you know where is MacDonalds?" This movie is meant to be a serious drama but ends up as a parody and rip-off of all those "killing fields" type of films designed to confirm tha Asian stereotype held by much of western "civilization" and re-inforced by Hollywood Fantasies such as this.....
Boorman is a fine actor and has made many great movies - like "Excalibur" and "Hope and Glory" but this is a total failure.
It is impossible to "unite" with the actors and actresses world in so short a time and therefor one only looks at this movie and don't feel anything about the horrors that it is supposed to make you upset about.
But there is at least one thing good about this movie and that is the performance of Arquette - very convincing and colorfully done, but why didn't you give her an other half hour to give us more depth?
They seem to rely on emotions, sometimes clichéd (not always a bad thing, and you do handle it well, in that your people say what one would expect a person to really say in that situation, even if it has that feel of a cliché), and lots of water and green vegetation, mud, earth, breath in the cold, dragon's breath, stuff like that.Your films remind me of David Lean and David Attenborough, which makes sense, but, as you would probably agree, more dreamy.A possible misgiving is an expectation set up with your stuff that right away tips me in a certain direction, and takes away possible surprise.Not so with Beyond Rangoon, which I found was beyond the others you have done that I am most familiar with (Emerald Forest, which I need to see again, and Excalibur).Beyond Rangoon is the story of one woman set against the backdrop of events in Myanmar (Burma).
I always like Patricia Arquette, and her leading man in this film is just great.
Actually, she's the lead in this film, and that is what is great.So much of the film is told with film language, that is, images, that I can see some critics being a little impatient with it, but it is probably because they overanalyze and find it fearful to feel anything too deeply.Anyone out there wondering if this movie is worth it should watch it to find out.
The most amazing performance in this film is by a Burmese man whose own name is the same as that of the character he plays, U Aung Ko. This is the only film in which he ever appeared, according to IMDb, so he was not an actor but 'a real person'.
Then I discovered that our hero lives in exile in Paris, having left Burma to live in France in 1975 (where he had previously studied at the Sorbonne), where he is married to a French woman, has assisted in the preparation of a documentary film about his country's plight, and works as a translator and language teacher.
The other lead in the film is Patricia Arquette, who gives a magnificently stalwart and powerful performance and clearly endured a great deal of physical hardship in doing so.
Frances McDormand appears early in the film as Arquette's sister who has to leave her behind because she is forced to leave Burma with a tour group while Arquette is stranded while she waits for travel papers from the incompetent US Embassy.
Arquette has been widowed and is recovering from intense grief, and as a result of her amazing adventures which ensue 'beyond Rangoon' when she gets out into the countryside (officially barred to foreigners), she finds a new meaning and value to life in helping others.
And yet those same parents who are content to let their kids sit around all day watching meaningless blood and gore on the screen with fictitious 'action heroes', and play computer games where everybody gets rewarded for killing other people (is that sick or what?), would doubtless complain because there are many grim real life situations portrayed here.
It came to be in my mind, a story about Aung San Suu Kyi, and the struggles of women to remain strong in the face of uncertainty, danger, and sadness.
It was high time a movie about the situation in a largely ignored Asian country like Myanmar had to be made and Beyond Rangoon is Hollywood's answer.
When I heard a movie was made on my real-life experience which I was too young to absorb, I had to get the DVD and needless to say, I could hardly have any complaints about it as it is an eye-opening wonder for me..
This is a great film in many different ways...perhaps the most important is that it introduces Western audiences to the remarkable, tragic story of Aung San Suu Kyi and her fight for freedom and democracy.
When an American tourist comes to Burma with her sister to try and move on from the murder of her husband and son.
She discovers a world of atrocities that have not been exposed to the media.There's no denying that there is a great story here it is a powerful tale of injustice, military rule and massacres that happened away from the public eye.
Outside of Arquette the support cast are good U Aung Ko in particular, but McDormand and Grey are OK.The film continues with Hans Zimmer's standard `Far East' score (compare this to Black Rain to see what I mean) and Arquette discovering herself and spuing philosophy everywhere.
However at the end the film acts as a metaphor for why the US didn't know about events in Burma because no one cares about massive deaths unless a Westerner is involved.
But if one American was killed then it would be the lead story with politicians running from all corners to comment on it.The film manages to take a terrible, emotive story and make it into a beautifully shot drama about one American woman who only sees things in terms of how they affect her.
I think the Burmese people deserve better films to illustrate their struggle..
Not so the music from Hans Zimmer, which, as often happens in other films with his music, one senses the plagiarism as he wanders about from cuasi-Isham to almost Vangelis forms; Boorman's directing was rather loose at times and some poor editing did not help.
Notwithstanding all this, the film maintains interest precisely because it is Burma now Myanmar which is the true protagonist of the unfolding story not the actors.
Patricia Arquette is in this movie.
Her guide is injured by soldiers and she spends the rest of the movie trying to get him and herself to safety.Every time I watch this it reminds me that we in the United States forget that to a peasant living under military rule, SOCIALISM, where at least eating is virtually guaranteed, looks pretty darn good..
It makes me thankful to live in a country where the Government isn't likely to shoot people in the streets.The story of Laura Bowman was a good thread to hold the story of political struggle together..
Patricia Arquette plays wonderfully a widow whose husband and son has been murdered and she goes with her sister on a a trip to Burma to try to forget the horrible thing.
Boorman tries to capture the life of the people of Burma and he did a great job.
A peaceful vacation to Burma for two sisters (Patricia Arquette, Frances McDormand) turns nightmarish when they get caught in the middle of a political oppression.
I always wanted to see this film and when I finally got to I knew I was in for a nice surprise when John Boorman's name appeared on the screen.
Known mostly for his epic films (he directed the first Conan and wrote Apocalypse Now) put together in the classic Hollywood structure, this one fits nicely with his catalog.I also can't express how perfect the timing was considering that Myanmar (Burma) is once again experiencing an uprising by monks and students against the military "junta" run government which is the very same one (there has been a change of leadership since but it's essentially the same) depicted in the movie from 1988.
Based on an actual story, John Boorman shows the struggle of an American doctor, whose husband and son were murdered and she was continually plagued with her loss.
A holiday to Burma with her sister seemed like a good idea to get away from it all, but when her passport was stolen in Rangoon, she could not leave the country with her sister, and was forced to stay back until she could get I.D. papers from the American embassy.
Although the scenes can not cover the entire brutalities, such as using rape as a weapon, carried out by the regime, the film indeed portrays the events with a moving plot; Patricia Arquette, a tourist in Burma, witnesses the inspiration of Burmese students who are willing to sacrifice for freedom.Turning this VHS into DVD would be helpful in letting the world glimpse at the human rights conditions in Burma.
I know that a lot of Italian films are done this way, I have no idea why this movie was done this way, (though I suspect that the Asian actors' accents were too thick and it just became easier to loop entire scenes to preserve the sound ambience).
As it is love or hate the movie you should still come away with the idea that there still exist military dictatorships in the world in this century, and until one of our own is hurt we ignore their oppression.Aung San Suu Kyi, is the female political leader in the movie.
Beyond Rangoon is intelligent, detailed, involving and thoroughly engrossing,with an exceptionally brave performance by Patricia Arquette.The political backdrop of the squelching of the Burmese embryonic democracy movement told from the perspective of a visiting American doctor recovering from her own personal tragedy is a nice juxtaposition.Here we see Patricia Arquette leave her own personal grief behind to embrace a greater grief.Another excellent film by an engaging director..
The movie is pretty atrocious at times and you'd need to have some appreciation for the country of Burma to really enjoy it.
A young women -Laura, excellently portrayed by Patricia Arquette, is encouraged by her sister to take a vacation in Rangoon to get over the devastating loss of her Husband and child.
Its not long before she gets herself entwined in the true life battle between the Military dictatorship and the forces of democracy lead by Aung San Su Kyi. Kyi is leading a opposition to the Military rule in Burma (Now Myamar) and Laura goes and watches one of Kyi's speeches.
A powerful movie that has recovered much of its meaning in this second half of 2007 after the new desperate movements of the Burmese people against their tyrants.
John Boorman denounces the Burmese military dictatorship in this drama filmed with energy and lyric, where is also outlined a reflection on the pain and the freedom. |
tt1865368 | Frenemies | The story takes place involving three intertwined stories told by teenage friends who all go to the same school. The first story focuses on how a kid and a dog who are best friends become frenemies and how they become best friends again. The second story focuses on how two BFFs become total frenemies over a senior editor job. The third and final story focuses on two lookalikes who swap lives with each other, similar to The Prince and the Pauper.
=== Jake and Murray ===
The first story focuses on a science whiz teenage boy at Waterbury High School named Jake Logan (Nick Robinson) who is best friends with his dog, Murray (Winston). A popular girl named Julianne (Stefanie Scott) tries to come between them as she tries to get Murray out of her way as Murray sees right through her ruse. Determined to get another "A", she hatches a plan to get Murray out of her way for good. She steals Jake’s national prize certificate in molecular astrophysics from NASA, drenches it in her perfume, and drops it through the mail slot in Jake’s front door. Just like Julianne expected, Murray takes Jake’s NASA certificate into the bathroom and attempts to flush it. Jake, who is able to save his certificate, gets angry and yells at Murray to go away. Murray follows his command and runs away from home. A classmate named Savannah O'Neal (Mary Mouser), who loves to skate board and has a crush on Jake, finds Murray and takes him to her house. The next day, Jake starts to worry that Murray might not return, but manages to finish his and Julianne's science project. At school, Jake attempts to dress cool to impress his classmates. But when he discovers Julianne's scheme, Jake refuses to give her the project. Savannah uses this opportunity to expose Julianne’s ruse of using "people" to get A’s which results in Julianne being caught. Murray runs in and knocks over Julianne and the science project. Although the project is destroyed, Jake is happy to see Murray and they become best friends again.
=== Avalon and Halley ===
The second story focuses on two female teens, Avalon Greene (Bella Thorne) and Halley Brandon (Zendaya) who created a web magazine called "GeeklyChic." In the school library, Halley gets a call from her and Avalon's favorite New York City publishing company, Burns Publications, run by the stunning Cherie St. Claire (Jessalyn Wanlim). Halley thinks her older brother Kendall (Jascha Washington), who is into men's fashion, is playing a prank on her until she sees him doing a service project right out the window of the library and realizes she really has received a call from Cherie. Cherie invites them to go to the publishing company’s headquarters in the beautiful Manhattan, New York to ask them something that could change their lives. During the talk, Cherie tells Avalon and Halley that she likes their web magazine and offers to buy it, but decides to only let one of them be the senior editor, because she believes that the quality of the writing will be better. Cherie decides to let each of them write a cover article and will judge who wrote the best article as that writer will become the senior editor. At school, Avalon encounters with classmate Walker (Connor Price), who allows her to contact a French singer named Jean Frank. Now, the two girls decide to interview Jean after his first American sold-out concert which leads them to become frenemies. Meanwhile, Jean reveals himself to the girls that he's American and his real name is Johnny Frankewski. At the end, they decide that they will share the article. Cherie becomes angry and decides not to hire either of them, because of their immaturity with the situation. The television show "Teens Now" picks up their article about Jean changing his image as he was only posing as a singer from Paris, France. "Teens Now" also broadcasts their blog’s website for their audience to check out. Seeing that their web magazine has gone global on their hit counter map, Avalon and Halley make up as best friends again.
=== Savannah and Emma ===
The third and final story of the film focuses on Savannah O’Neal and Emma Reynolds-teenage alter egos (both roles are played by Mary Mouser) who trade places because they each believe the other's life is better. Savannah is a teenage tomboy who loves skateboarding and lives with her dad and three brothers. She has a crush on Jake Logan and attends Waterbury High School with Avalon, Halley, Jake, and Julianne. Emma is a teenage rich girly-girl who goes to a private school. Thinking the other has the better life, they trade places (under the persuasion of Halley and Avalon) when they meet at the mall. They soon discover the other didn't have the glamorous life that they thought the other had. Emma (disguised as Savannah) gets a date with Jake and during the date Emma starts acting romantic, causing Savannah to get mad and say "That's (meaning Jake) my boyfriend!" which leads to Emma getting upset when she finds out that Savannah went out with Lance (Dylan Everett) who was Emma's previous boyfriend and the two start fighting and Savannah storms off. Later, at Emma's birthday ball, "Emma" (really Savannah) dumps Lance. The real Emma is overjoyed when she hears about this, because she had been trying to get rid of them ever since they started dating; however, she had never gotten the courage to do so. The girls forgive each other and switch lives once more. Avalon and Halley then lead everyone in a lively dance to "Pose" (by Stefanie Scott) as the film ends. | comedy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0058988 | The Bounty Killer | Two of the highest ranked bounty killers in the Thrice Burned Lands, Drifter (Matthew Marsden) and Mary Death (Christian Pitre) team up to exterminate a party full of yellow-tied corporate criminals. Drifter’s explosive killing style is in stark contrast to Mary’s graceful way of delivering death to white collar scum. Despite their difference in style, they exhibit level of comfort with one another that seems to indicate a long and dynamic history between these celebrity assassins. After the fight moves to a skyscraper’s rooftop, Drifter disposes of his intended target and saves Mary from falling to her death.
The bounty killers ride into the bustling town of San Dalloosa, Drifter on his chopper, Mary in her signature cherry-topped death machine. They arrive at Daft Willy’s Chop Shop and Bounty Supply, a converted jet fuselage from the Corporate Wars where bounty killers exchange the bodies of slain targets for cash. A crowd has gathered at the entrance to welcome the heroes. Drifter doesn’t attract the same amount of attention from the paparazzi as Mary Death—how could he? She’s stunningly beautiful—a chiseled, unrepentant killer in thigh high boots. She greets her fans and the press, telling them “I never pull out before the big kill.” While Mary basks in her fans’ adoration, Drifter meets an exuberant gun caddy for hire named Jack LeMans (Barak Hardley). Drifter is not in the mood to hear Jack’s very enthusiastic offer of service, so he leaves him at the gate and heads on into Willy’s.
Inside we meet the proprietor, Daft Willy (Kevin McNally). He’s a cantankerous English thug in a blood-soaked apron who will log your kills for the Council of Nine while delivering you a healthy, filth-laden dose of sass. Willy tells Drifter a new death warrant has been issued for their friend Snaggletooth Harry. Drifter’s distress over this revelation attracts the attention of Mary, who enters with a cart full of dead executives. She’s curious to know why he’d make such a big deal out of a small-time collar, telling him “He must be your snitch.” Just then, Jack springs out of Mary’s cart. Willy, Drifter and Mary all pull their guns. Jack pleads for one chance to prove he’s the world’s greatest gun caddy. Drifter decides to give him a shot, knowing he’ll probably be dead within a week anyway. After the bounty killers leave, Daft Willy receives a new death warrant on his Council-Comm printer. The look on his face tells us this isn’t your everyday warrant.
Jack and Drifter practice tossing guns back and forth from Drifter’s chopper to Jack’s scooter. They’re on their way to Harry’s Whisky Saloon in Drip Rock to find out why he’s a wanted man. Meanwhile, Mary works on her Mustang’s rear differential which was overstressed by the massive pile of bodies she towed on her trailer. She fixes the car, kicks the trailer away and vows to her car, “No more attachments, just like mama.” At that moment, a tiny car approaches. Out pops Greg Gunney (Jeff Meacham), a sleazy salesman in a sport coat/turtleneck combo. He offers Mary a chance to “join the team” and use her celebrity to endorse his company, Wasteland Resorts—a subsidiary of Second Sun Enterprises, the mysterious company of yellow-ties Mary encountered at the loft party. Mary sees through Greg’s scheme and executes him and his bodyguard with her signature go-go boot spur-kick-to-the-throat move. Upon searching his car she finds a disturbing death warrant—it’s for Francis Gorman, aka “Drifter.”
Back in Drip Rock, Drifter finds that Harry is dead, his body surrounded by copies of the Francis Gorman death warrant. It’s a trap. Mary arrives in Drip Rock and confronts Drifter about the poster. She’s furious that he lied to her. Drifter assures her there is some sort of mistake and he’s going to the Council building to work it all out. She won’t let him off that easy. “I’m going with you, and that’s not a request.” She fires her gun at Drifter which sends him flying out the second story window. Upon landing he’s attacked by several yellow-tied goons. He calls to Jack to grab the bikes. Though grossly outnumbered, the bounty killers eliminate their attackers while arguing about whether or not Mary gets to tag along to see the Council. Just as the last goon drops dead from his sniper post, Jack and Drifter haul ass out of town. Mary puts her hair up and struts to her Mustang.
Outside the town, Mary fires at Drifter and Jack. Jack tells Drifter she won’t be a problem because he modified the car’s boosters while they were in Harry’s Saloon. Mary kicks on her boosters, sending the vehicle into a violent donut spin before bursting into flames. Jack: “That’s not supposed to happen.” Drifter looks back to a soot-covered Mary to make sure she’s alive. She looks back to Drifter with deep anger in her eyes.
Back in Drip Rock, a slick Corvette stingray enters the town square, now littered with the bodies of several yellow ties. Behind the wheel is Van Sterling (Gary Busey), a high ranking executive at Second Sun. He questions one of the struggling henchmen and learns the bounty killers got away and are on their way to the Council. Van then answers a call on his briefcase video phone. He relays the information about the bounty killers to his boss, a severe business woman in yellow stilettos by the name of Catherine (Kristanna Loken). She encourages him to “finish the job” or she will have no choice but to terminate him. Van promises to track down the bounty killers and “keep the killing alive.”
Later that night, Drifter explains to Jack that he’s a wanted criminal and that he should take off. Jack vows to stay. Suddenly, out of the darkness, Drifter is approached by a skull-faced assassin who holds a knife to his throat. This is a Gypsy.
Drifter and Jack are tied to a pole in the middle of a rambunctious celebration at a Gypsy camp. Heavy drinking, fire dancing and other revelry surround the two prisoners. From the largest tent enters the Gypsy Queen, Mocha Sujata (Eve Jeffers). Mocha interrogates Drifter, wanting to know the location of Nuri, a Gypsy girl who escaped their camp many years ago. “She mentioned the name Drifter.” Mocha, not happy with Drifter’s refusal to give up any information, orders another Gypsy to burn him with her fire wands. Despite the extreme torture, Drifter keeps his mouth shut. Mocha calls off the interrogation for the night, leaving the prisoners alone. Drifter confesses to Jack that the Gypsies are looking for Mary. Jack doesn’t understand why Drifter would risk their lives for a woman who tried to kill them, but then realizes that Drifter must be in love with Mary. Drifter explains how he first met Mary many years ago when she lived her life as a Gypsy named Nuri. Nuri approached him while he was in the company of a prostitute Estelle (Mindy Robinson) and demanded he teach her how to be a bounty killer. While training her, they fell in love. But the relationship ended when Drifter suggested they get a place together and settle down.
At daybreak, the Gypsies are all passed out from a hard night of knocking back pots of roach liquor. Drifter and Jack have cut themselves free from the pole. They climb atop a Gypsy coach (an Airstream trailer pulled by three motorcycles) and make their escape from the camp. Upon hearing the engines’ roar, the Gypsies awake and chase after their prisoners. A Western-style stagecoach scene unfolds when Jack and Drifter try to eliminate their pursuers. A bazooka finishes them off and allows the guys to ride off into the desert.
Mary arrives at the Thirsty Beaver, the bounty killer training facility and tavern where she lived during her training with Drifter. Inside she finds the Beaver’s owner, Lucille (Beverly D’Angelo). Lucille helps Mary get cleaned up and back on the road with her old Gypsy bike. She makes sure Mary leaves with her chest-plate armor, telling her “Sometimes it pays for a girl to be practical.”
Jack and Drifter pull the Gypsy coach up to a small shack in the middle of what appears to be a junkyard. Outside the shack is a Chevy Nova painted up in Pabst Blue Ribbon race car livery. Drifter tells Jack they need the help of the car’s driver, a coyote named Jimbo (Abraham Benrubi), who will help them get across the Badlands and over to the Council building. Jimbo tells the guys there’s too much risk and that he’s not willing to do the job no matter what price they’re willing to pay. Drifter convinces Jimbo by offering him a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon, Jimbo’s favorite drink and a rarity in the post-apocalyptic world.
Mary is lost in the Badlands, a war-torn city engulfed by a violent nuclear storm. She sees a beacon that leads her to Azimuth’s map shop. Inside she meets the mapmaker and pleads with him to help her find her way out of the Badlands and over to the Council building. He refuses to help her until he looks up and realizes she’s the famous Mary Death. He then offers to help in exchange for an autograph.
Jimbo successfully makes his way through the Badlands in record time. To celebrate, he cracks open a can of Pabst. “Now I can die a happy man.” Just then Jimbo is shot in the arm by an unseen assailant. The car takes several more hits from a sniper in the hills while Drifter, Jack and Jimbo take cover. Drifter soon realizes the shooter is Mary. He convinces her to come down from the hill and talk it out. Mary points a gun at Drifter and tells him he’s a dead man. Jack has had enough. He loses it, exclaiming that he’s sick of all the guns and the Badlands and Gypsies trying to eat them. He tells Mary that Drifter was beaten to hell by the Gypsies but never gave her up because he loves her. He also points out that Mary could have easily shot Drifter, but she didn’t because she loves him. Mary drops her gun and agrees to let them use her map to get to the Council.
The group arrives at the Council building and finds the village destroyed by an army of yellow-ties. Inside the Council chamber are the slain bodies of the Council judges. Drifter explains how he knew there must be something wrong. He knew the Council personally. In fact, he was offered a position to be the tenth judge but refused in order to become the first bounty killer. Mary is distraught by the Council’s death, but agrees they must go after those responsible—Second Sun. Just then our heroes are captured and surrounded by another group of yellow-ties including Van and Catherine, who we learn was once married to Drifter. Catherine explains her plan to pin the death of the Council on Mary Death so Second Sun can step in and promise a better life to the survivors of the Thrice Burned Lands. Just when we think all is lost both groups are attacked by Gypsies! During the fight, Jimbo is shot again but saved by Jack who hides him in the trunk of the Nova. Mary leaves Drifter to fight with Mocha. Then Jack leaves Drifter to fight with Van. Drifter is then knocked unconscious and taken aboard the Second Sun helicopter with Catherine. They fly away as the battle rages on. Mary kills Mocha, but is severely injured in the process.
Mary awakes in a Gypsy tent to find Jack at her bedside. He tells her the Gypsies are now under her control because she killed their queen. They make a plan to free Drifter from Second Sun with the help of Mary’s new Gypsy army. Inside Second Sun we find Drifter shaven and wearing a suit. He’s tied to a chair in a glass office. Catherine enters and tells him she’d like to reinstate his position as CEO of Gorman Enterprises, now owned by Second Sun. She thinks his “Drifter” celebrity will inspire market confidence. “Run this company with me, Francis. It’s the only thing you’ve ever been good at.” Just then Mary and Jack burst into the office bullpen with their Gypsy army. They knock Catherine unconscious and rescue Drifter. Jack, now a quick and precise gun caddy, assists Drifter and Mary as they unleash their fury upon the employees of Second Sun. Just as they’re about to make their escape, Mary is shot down by Catherine. Drifter kills Catherine and runs to Mary’s lifeless body. He then realizes Mary is wearing a chest-plate. Jack and Drifter carry Mary to safety.
Mary and Drifter spend two weeks naked in each other’s arms back at the Thirsty Beaver. Jimbo gives Jack his last can of Pabst to thank him for saving him from the Gypsies. Mary, now in a new black leather get-up, comes down the stairs and hops into her new cherry-topped death machine, a gift from Jack to make up for blowing up her old one. She tells Jack she’s off to do battle with another branch of Second Sun then hits the gas and takes off. Drifter runs out, stabbed again in the spleen by Mary. She looks to him in the rearview: “Come and get me, old man.” | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | The Pharisees.
The Bounty Killer is directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and written by Ruth Alexander and Leo Gordon.
It stars Dan Duryea, Rod Cameron, Audrey Dalton, Richard Arlen, Buster Crabbe, Fuzzy Knight and Johnny Mack Brown.
Music is by Ronald Stein and cinematography by Frederick E.
West.Willie Duggans (Duryea) arrives in the Wild West and quickly becomes exposed to its violence.
Finding that big money can be made by bringing in bad guys, he takes up arms and plans to make enough money to set him up for a future with Carole Ridgeway (Dalton), a beautiful saloon singer.
But the job isn't easy, physically, emotionally and mentally.It's a film that asks some forgiveness from Western fans, you are asked to accept Duryea being too old for the role, some iffy production issues, coincidences and some giant leaps of faith.
Yet if you can do that and just roll with its high energy willingness to keep the Western traditional in the mid 60s?
Then this is better than a time waster.Ultimately it's a message movie about the cycle of violence and how said violence can corrupt the most amiable of minds.
The screenplay deftly brings in to the equation the roles of normal outsiders who don't mind violence as long as it is for their own ends, something which brings the best sequence in the film to the fore and lets Duryea once again show his class.
Backing the superb Duryea is a roll call of Western movie veterans, all of which - with the leading man - make for a reassuring presence at our Oater dinner table.
Neatly photographed out of the Corriganville and Glenmoor ranches in California, this may be a "B Western" trying to keep the traditional Western afloat in the mid 60s, but it's honourable in intent and entertains the Western faithful royally.
The versatile Mr. Dureya.
What absolute nonsense that a previous reviewer states that Mr. Dureya cannot carry off nice in this film.
The guy was acting for over 30 years and was a brilliant, versatile actor.
Sure , he could play villains to perfection and because of this was well known and cast in these parts.
But during his 30 years of film acting he frequently was cast as a good guy and he played these roles well.The Bounty Killer does ask too much in his age, sure, the part was written for a younger guy but as Dureya is so exceptionally good as the naive easterner it still works well.It's a wonderful film, it's low budget but it's a fine well acted and well written western..
Dureya the magnificent.
This amazing and wonderfully evocative film is one of the last films for the fine character actor Dan Dureya.
This film provides him with a star role and it is a tour DE force performance.
A wonderful cast of b western actors give magnificent support and Audrey Dalton shines as the love interest.
Fuzzy Knight gives his best ever screen performance in a poignant role.
Buster Crabbe makes a fine villain and Richard Arlen also effective.About the youngest guy is Peter Dureya - this is Dan's son and his role has a chilling significance for the film, you will have to watch it to see why.
This western was penned by actor Leo Gordon and it's a strong study of character.
Dureya plays an innocent tenderfoot arriving in the west from the civilised East.
As he encounters the different characters of the film he absorbs them and totally changes in attitude.
At first he is a nice, gentle guy but after witnessing a killing by bad guy Rod Cameron ( who in fact saves his life by doing so ) he sets out to earn money- eventually he becomes a bounty killer and then out for revenge he chases a whole gang .
determined to eliminate them all.
The ending is memorable and a fitting end to a wonderful film.
Long neglected, try and search this one out , it will reward you with a viewing treat.
One of the finest westerns ever and all shot on a shoe string.
10 out of 10 without any low points at all..
A film to see some oldies!.
I have just seen this old western on spike TV (UK) today 10/11/16, it was fun to pick out the older stars who at one time or another were top billing in their day.I spotted the Sheriff was Johnny Mack Brown, Richard Arlen, Buster Crab, Bob Steel who was a B movie star in his early days I did not spot that the love interest was Audrey Dalton, until the credits rolled, all in all a good film if a touch one paced.
Dan Duryea was good value as usual, his best roles for me were when he opposite Audie Murphy, they did a few films together and seemed to hit it off.
I try to keep up with the movie channels here, in the hope that some of these old westerns are shown, we have nothing to match these old films today, and quite frankly there are not the suitable actors around who could do these parts..
I'm off to order this movie.
I hope it is on DVD by now..
I grew up watching movie matinée at 4:00 after school.
Immediately after, my brother and I went outside to recreate what we had seen.
We were awesome.
Most movies these days don't catch my attention, but when I saw the cast of this one, I was taken back to another time.Bounty Hunter was more than I could have asked.....not quite as predictable as most, and with some lessons to be learned.
Oh, my gosh, Johnny Mack Brown, Bob Steele!
Never understood what a sawed off double barreled shot gun loaded with cannon sized shells could do.
Yikes, 3 in one shot!
I liked it sufficiently to research it.
When I found out who his final killer was in real life, it rocked me for a moment.
The person who said the actor was too old.....awwww gimmee a break..
Interesting -- But The Star Is Too Old and the Budget Too Small.
Dan Duryea -- innocent(!?) and decent rube from Vermont, goes west and decides to become a bounty hunter.
Embittered by circumstances, he becomes the mean, Dan Duryea-esquire sneering nasty man known as the BOUNTY KILLER.This episodic movie, chock full of old western stars, is a real frustration, because the elements to an Anthony Mann style western are there -- an intriguing premise, great acting by Duryea in the second half of the movie, and malicious murder of a cheerful sidekick.
But...Well, first and foremost, the role is written for someone who is no older than 30 and who can play somewhat clueless innocence.
Duryea looks every bit of 55, which makes his pursuit of the young, pretty heroine a touch creepy.
Also, for the first half of the movie, Duryea's attempt to portray youthful innocence is simply awful.
Oddly enough -- for someone who, by all accounts, was a nice guy who only married once -- Duryea cannot carry off nice and he really cannot carry off clueless.
It is a relief when the script, about 30 minutes in, finally allows him to be sly and tricky.
(The performance gets much better when circumstances turn Duryea bitter -- and he gets to show us a darn good depiction of a good man gone drunk and evil.)Secondly, this movie was made on the cheap, and it shows badly.
All the outdoor dramatic scenes take place on the same cheesy "outdoor" set, with a photograph of the desert mountains serving as a backdrop to the plastic trees.Third, the plot has some big old holes and lines that no actor could make sound right.
Also, the ending, alas, is really, really, really predictable.All in all, this movie is worth seeing, but it probably won't seem that way until you've gotten through 30 minutes of the movie.
Fans of the genre should stick it out..
One Of The Worst -- Ever.
I gave this movie a look because of some of the cast members, then found myself watching it because I couldn't believe how hilariously bad it was.With one of the most cliché-riddled scripts and some of the most horrific acting, the cast and crew created one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
It was so bad, in fact, I think if I were a self-respecting cast member I would have pooled my money with my fellow actors, bought up all of the prints and hauled them off into the desert for a decent burial.Why anyone would distribute this flick; theater owner would exhibit it; a backwoods TV station/network would buy it, is beyond me.
Unless you too are in need of a good laugh, don't waste your time on this turkey!.
It Doesn't Take Much To Make One a Killer.
Dan Duryea is a naive Easterner fresh off the stage and he gets in a fight with a town bully.
Gunfighter Rod Cameron pulls him out of the scrape by killing the bully.
Duryea then takes up with Audrey Dalton, the bully's mistress.Duryea and Fuzzy Knight take a job guarding a payroll and get the best of some outlaws who try to rob them.
There's a bounty on the leader and Duryea decides this is a good way to make some easy money.He meets his match with Buster Crabbe though who kills Fuzzy Knight and shoots Duryea, leaving him for dead.
Of course he recovers and sets about wreaking a terrible vengeance.This vastly underrated B western has a wonderful cast of some old time actors getting together for a last hurrah.
Kind of like The Over the Hill Gang, but this one is quite serious and quite good.Duryea's transformation from a naive tenderfoot to a stone cold killer is truly astonishing.
He uses a sawed off shotgun with deadly results and there's one scene where he's drunk and caressing his weapon like a phallic symbol across his lap.
The meaning is rather obvious.It's a great film for nostalgia lovers.
Besides those already mentioned, people like Johnny Mack Brown, Eddie Quillan, Emory Parnell, Grady Sutton, Richard Arlen, Bob Steele, and many others.
And the first movie cowboy of all Gilbert "Broncho Billy" Anderson has a small role with a few lines in a saloon.With this great B movie cast and a wonderful original script by Ruth Alexaner and Leo Gordon, The Bounty Killer, is an undiscovered gem for western fans.
The ending will astonish you..
One more cult movie for me....
That's the third time I Watch this little gem since thirty years now.
What a shame.
The story reminds me ONE FOOT IN HELL, starring Alan Ladd as an ordinary farmer who becomes a ruthless cold blooded killer because the people of a little town let his wife die.
In this movie I am talking about, directed by the serial vet director Spencer Gordon Bennett, whose it is the last movie - am not Deadly sure - Dan Duryea is terrific as the tenderfoot against violence who becomes a cold blooded killer, a Bounty hunter.
Terrific.
OK, this feature is cheap at the most, and only old timers play in it.
The Relationship between Duryea and the Rod Cameron's character is very interesting too.
Cameron looks like the man who protects Duryea at the beginning of the movie, Duryea who is fascinated by Cameron, and in the end, all changes !!!Terrific.
I LOVE THIS.
That changes.
But this kind of screenplays, not exactly the same, appeared more often in westerns than in crime flicks.
Characters studies.
Offbeat schemes.
See for instance Budd Boetticher's movies, starring Randy Scott for most of them.
That's what I purchase as a moviebuff, and also as a novel writer and reader.
It was also a delightful feeling to find in this film such old timers as Fuzzy Nght, Buster Crabbe, Johnny Mac Brown, and many more grade B movie stars from the thirties and forties.
The final scene between Duryea's character and the Young man - his actual son in real life - is unforgettable too..
a minor gem -- but a gem nonetheless.
I suspect the bad reviews were written by people who know little about film making -- or human psychology.
They wouldn't recognize a well-structured, well-written script if it sat in their faces.Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first.
What ought to have been one of the all-time-great Westerns is significantly weakened by Spencer Gordon Bennet's slack direction that misses the story's quirky, off-kilter qualities.
That it survives is due largely to the solid -- sometimes witty -- script, and decent-or-better performances.The story has its share of twists, including a surprising-but-logical ending I won't reveal.Another surprise is Duryea's reaction to Knight's murder -- he lays his head on Knight's chest and cries.
(In an odd coincidence, the dying Richard Arlen was kissed by Buddy Rogers in "Wings".)Dan Duryea's son plays an important role.
That his voice is almost identical to his father's might have been the reason Peter Duryea was cast.
And we also get to see a cameo from "Broncho Billy" Anderson, the first motion-picture cowboy star.
*It's dangerous to warmly praise a virtually unknown B film, as viewers often expect things the film doesn't deliver.
But I don't think you're going to be disappointed.
And you can see it for free on YouTube.* Broncho Billy's sister, Leona, is remembered for her on-pitch-but-croaky voice.
"Music to Suffer By" is available on CD.
"One minute he was alive, and then he was dead.".
I've seen hundreds of Westerns, and this might be one of the dumbest, well maybe that's not the right word, but certainly one of the most ill conceived Western stories I've ever come across.
The premise of a green tenderfoot Easterner arriving out West and becoming a gunfighter isn't the problem, it's just that the story here didn't seem to be written with any conviction.
Dan Duryea's character Willie Duggan is clueless when he first arrives at the Silver Lady Saloon, and proves it by ordering up a hot pitcher of coffee and another one of hot milk!
By this time in his career, Dan Duryea had plenty of movie and TV credits, so I can't believe he played his character this badly without being directed in such a manner.
As viewers, we're never really given any reason for Willie's motivation to become a bounty hunter, other than the easy money he and partner Captain Luther (Fuzzy Knight) picked up for bringing in Big Jim Seldon (Red Morgan) almost by accident.
So when Willie declares he's going to go full time and bring in wanted outlaws alive, I was just as incredulous as the sheriff.
In any other picture there would have been screen time spent on showing Willie practicing with a gun and mastering his quick draw technique over a period of time, but here he became a gunman in no time at all.If anything, the draw for me was catching a host of veteran movie cowboys riding into their career sunset with the likes of Johnny Mack Brown, Buster Crabbe, Bob Steele and Fuzzy Knight on hand.
Crabbe seemed to have the lion's share of the screen time among them as outlaw Mike Clayman, and I had to do a double take when his gang arrived to rescue him from Willie and the Captain; his henchman Jeb (John Reach) actually pushed a horse out of the way with his hands!
That's about when I gave up on the picture.But I stuck around to the conclusion because that's the vow I made myself to review these movies.
With bad writing, terrible dialog, and a main character who goes from milquetoast to vicious killer, I can only surmise that the film makers meant to make the picture this bad on purpose. |
tt0057637 | Vechera na khutore bliz Dikanki | 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
But Jerry emerges from his hole avoiding a Christmas-themed mousetrap placed by his hole. Jerry nears the Christmas presents, jumping merrily around the tree, licking candy canes and jumping onto a plush toy lion that squeaks. Jerry continues jumping on the soft toy, but bounces too hard and lands on Tom, who he inadvertently wakes up. Tom snarls and just before he can eat Jerry, the quick-thinking mouse grabs a nearby "Do Not Open 'Til Xmas" sticker and slaps it on Tom's mouth.
Jerry is chased among the myriad of toys (briefly stopping to fire a trick cannon's cork stopper at Tom) and hides inside a Christmas fairy light, causing him to glow. Not fooled, Tom grabs Jerry and is promptly electrocuted. Jerry hides among some toy soldiers, but Tom spots him and the mouse runs off, saluting the cat like a real soldier would. Tom chases Jerry, but is stopped by the barrier of a miniature level crossing. A toy train passes by, with many carriages. Jerry sits on top of the caboose, waving cheekily at Tom and pulling faces. As the train enters a model of a tunnel and Jerry hits his head, knocking him onto the track. He runs through the tunnel, pursued by Tom, who knocks the tunnel over. Jerry hides inside a boxing glove and boxes the puzzled cat in the face before running off behind the Christmas tree. Tom, now arming himself with a boxing glove of his own, follows him and spots him jumping into a jack-in-the-box. Opening up the box, Tom is punched by the boxing glove stuck on Jack's head and is knocked out. Jerry jumps out and holds it up in victory like a boxing referee.
Tom chases Jerry once again, but Jerry holds out a piece of mistletoe in front of him and persuades an embarrassed Tom to kiss him. Tom blushes and while his back is turned, Jerry kicks him in the rear. The mouse darts through the letterbox slot into the outdoors. As Tom opens the lid of the letterbox to see where Jerry has gone, Jerry hurls a snowball at his face. Tom angrily barricades the slot so that Jerry cannot get back into the house.
While Jerry trudges up and down in the heavy snow in a vain attempt to warm himself, Tom fluffs up his cushion and prepares to sleep. He is unable to settle himself; heavenly choirs sing carols, pricking Tom's conscience with the message of Christmas peace and goodwill. He first props open the slot to allow Jerry back in and when the mouse does not reappear, ventures anxiously outside to find Jerry, frozen. Fearing for Jerry's life, he brings the frozen mouse indoors and warms him up by the fire, saving his life. Slowly, Jerry regains consciousness, but is wary of the cat. Tom hands Jerry a candy cane, his Christmas present. A delighted Jerry licks his cane, but then quickly reacts to prevent Tom drinking from his bowl of milk. He dips his cane into the bowl and a loud snap is heard. Jerry uses the cane to fish a mousetrap that he had earlier planted in the bowl. Tom appreciates Jerry's warning and the mouse runs back to his hole. He uses his candy cane to hook the cheese off the mousetrap. Instead of snapping like a usual mousetrap does, the spring slowly comes down, ringing the tune of "Jingle Bells" as Jerry smiles in admiration to the "musical mousetrap". | romantic, historical fiction | train | wikipedia | Wonderfully funny fantasy.
In the best tradition of Soviet fantasy, Dikanka is entertaining from start to finish.
There isn't much a plot (hijinks during the night), but the practical effects are charming, and I laughed harder than I had in a long time.The best element is the Devil himself.
Rather than a figure of fear and evil, the Devil is a hairy, silly fellow who keeps busy by tormenting a blacksmith who drew a religious picture that the Devil found particularly offensive.
In addition, there are a horde of lusty and/or drunken townsmen, and a cameo by the Tsarina herself.
Also, a "Three's Company"-esquire set piece where character after character must hide out in the local witch's hut..
Your typical soviet film with a catch.
This film can be considered a time capsule.
It's based on a short novel written by Gogol and I believe that this is a great adaptation.
Everything is well though out: the mixture of Ukrainian and Russian, the costumes, the characters, everything.
The practical effects are clumsy at times, but that's exactly why they are so memorable and enjoyable.
It's a little bit predictable and typical, but it does have a catch: compared to other soviet films, it doesn't have a political influence.
The action takes place during the time of Tsars, which is understandable if we remember that Gogol lived in the first half of the 19th century.
The fact that this - soviet - film doesn't force a particular political view on you makes it even more enjoyable.There are indeed other films that are not politically driven, but besides this, "The Night Before Christmas" has the...
devil.
A clumsy devil.
He's actually not that evil, but rather helpful and charismatic.
As a whole, the film, in my opinion, is good.
Not perfect, but good.
You should definitely give it a try if soviet films are your cup of tea or if you don't have time to read the original short story..
Russian fairy tale for children.
I have seen a few Russian fairy tales and adventure movies from the same time which I enjoyed watching.
This one about a blacksmith/painter and the devil and their struggle with each other I did find quite lackluster though.The movie has nice color pictures for this sort of story.
But the story feels like it moves in slow motion.
The movie is only just over an hour long but I was bored before it ended.
Things like special effects were handled by showing the movie backwards all the time.
10th time you see the movie going backwards it is not cute anymore.You can find much better Russian movies and fairy tales from the same time period.
I would suggest watching Mariya-iskusnitsa (1960) instead that I found more entertaining..
A Charming Love Story.
The film 'Night before Christmas' is based on a short story from Nikolai Gogol's work 'Evenings on a farm near Dikanka'.
The story opens with a stunning winter scenery of Dikanka, Ukraine with a witch flying across the night sky and the devil roaming around and tormenting people.
Meanwhile, the simple village blacksmith, Vakula is pining away for a dazzlingly beautiful village lass, Oksana.
With a caprice that matches her beauty, she teases the blacksmith to bring her the Tsaritsa's slippers.
In his love for Oksana, the blacksmith really sets out to St. Petersburg to ask Queen Catherine the Great for her slippers.
'Night before Christmas' is a love story that is charming in its simplicity..
The Night Of Christmas.
Preparing on Christmas Day to watch Christian-Jaque's magnificent The Killing of Santa Claus (1941) again, I searched for a title to double bill it with.
Finding The Scarlet Flower (1978) an alluring Fantasy film from the Soviet Union that I viewed earlier this year,I was very happy to stumble on a X-Mas themed Soviet Fantasy title, which led to me going back to the night before.View on the film:Continuing a run of Fantasy titles, auteur writer/director Aleksandr Rou enchants with an utterly delight Christmas atmosphere, spun by Rou & cinematographer Dmitri Surensky weaving the camera down the streets of the snow-covered village.
Gliding by on a 66 minute runtime, Rou rolls into the surreal with sparks of primary colours shimmering on the screen from lush dissolves, and Rou skilfully blending rustic Comedy into the tale, such as the cute, mischievous Devil being used as a mode of transport.
Sending Vakula out to find the Tsaritsa's slippers for his love Oksana, the screenplay by Rou's adaptation of Nikolay Gogol is strung with whimsical flourishes which thread Vakula and the Devil into the bustling small-town dramas, as the locals prepare on the night before Christmas. |
tt0049830 | The Teahouse of the August Moon | Misfit Captain Fisby (Glenn Ford) is sent to Americanize the village of Tobiki on Okinawa, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands. His commanding officer, Colonel Wainwright Purdy III (Paul Ford), assigns him a wily local, Sakini (Marlon Brando), as interpreter.
Fisby tries to implement the military's plans by encouraging the villagers to build a school in the shape of a pentagon, but they want to build a teahouse instead. Fisby gradually becomes assimilated to the local customs and mores with the help of Sakini and Lotus Blossom, a young geisha (Machiko Kyō).
To revive the economy, he has the Okinawans manufacture small items to sell as souvenirs, but nobody wants to buy them. These include cricket cages and wooden Japanese footwear called geta. Then Fisby makes a happy discovery. The villagers distill a potent sweet potato brandy in a matter of days which finds a ready market in the American army. With the influx of money, the teahouse is built in next to no time.
When Purdy sends psychiatrist Captain McLean (Eddie Albert) to check up on Fisby, the newcomer is quickly won over. This, even after Fisby greets McLean wearing geta, an army bathrobe (which Fisby claims is his kimono) and what Fisby terms an "air-conditioned" straw hat (the latter being headwear worn by Okinawan farmers). McLean later proves to be enthusiastic about organic farming.
When Purdy doesn't hear from either officer, he shows up in person and surprises Fisby and McLean, the latter wearing a yukata (summer-weight kimono). They are leading a rowdy song at a party in full swing in the teahouse. Purdy orders the building and distillery destroyed. In a burst of foresight, the villagers break up old water urns rather than the brandy storage and only dismantle the teahouse, hiding the sections.
Ironically, the village is chosen by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP) as an example of successful American-led democratization. This leads to Colonel Purdy's regretting his actions and to reassembling the teahouse. | satire | train | wikipedia | The wonderful cast - Glenn Ford, Paul Ford (ironic - no relation!), Eddie Albert, Marlon Brando and Harry Morgan - do a fine job of playing out the movie's humorous meditation on culture clash, and the ability of a strong but flexible people to maintain their Eastern ways in the face of Western "aid".
Brando, in particular, is surprising; this is about as far from Stanley Kowalksi or Terry Malloy as you can get, and one would not think him able to do much with a humorous, cross-racial characterization, yet the brilliant and convincing manner in which he pulls it off reminds us of the great thespian talent he once possessed and which he tended to squander as his life progressed.
I believe this film had its origins in a very successful stage play; we can thank the forces involved for committing this funny, charming, and ultimately heart-warming story to celluloid.
It has a very enjoyable mix of some excellently-cast actors, from the laid-back Glenn Ford, the frenetic Eddie Albert, and the pompous Paul Ford, to the host of beguiling Japanese actors.
Casting Marlon Brando as Sakini requires a little suspension of belief, but his contribution quickly adds to the seductive quality of the movie.
It turns out to be a good send-up of the officious, but largely benign, senior military leadership of the era, but largely revolves around Glenn Ford's character, Capt.
It is a very nice little comedy to be enjoyed, but it clearly is not meant to be a documentary representation of U.S. Military occupation forces, and if it is viewed as such, much of the magic of the movie will be lost.
this role was a real challenge for Brando and he is fabulous and steals movie although Glenn Ford is great too.
From the patently ludicrous comedy turn by Marlon Brando to the patented comic shtick by the wonderful Paul Ford.
With Glenn Ford and Eddie Albert sandwiched in the middle in a farcical romp that barely lets you stop laughing long enough to catch your breath.Ah, the mighty American conquerors, hornswoggled by the "simple peasants" of the beaten nation.
***** out of *****And by the way, when I sent this tape to my daughter she called me and said she liked the film but I told her Marlon Brando was in it, and he wasn't!
Casting Marlon Brando in this film as Sakini, a Japanese interpreter for American troops in post WW-II Japan is considered by many critics and film historians alike as one of the worst casting errors ever made in a film history.
In my opinion, though, Marlon Brando is the one responsible for turning this quite an average film into a hillarious comedy.
With a little bit of make up and great effort from actor's part to learn Japanese mannerism and language in order to get an accent in his speech we have here Marlon Brando in his most unimaginable role.
The rest of the cast is also quite good, namely Paul Ford as Colonel Waiwright Purdy III, a somehow cliche figure of stubborn, narrow minded US military officer and Glenn Ford by his side as Captain Fisby, for whom Brando's character Sakini ends up working as an interpreter and, of cause, unforgettable Machiko Kyo, as a spirited geisha, whom lovers of Japanese cinema must remember from Akira Kurosawa's films.
Directed by Daniel Mann (Butterfield 8, Come Back, Little Sheba) and based on John Patrick's stage play that was a big hit on Broadway at it's time, The Teahouse of the August Moon is slow in parts and in terms of some aspects of the story considerably aged and outdated but still funny and entertaining movie.
This movie was the first chance to see Marlon Brando in a truly comical role, not the "He Man"-unbelievably good!
Marlon Brando is excellent as Sakini, Eddie Albert is fantastic as Capt.
Marlon Brando stars as a Japanese interpreter and Glenn Ford plays a captain who has been in almost every branch in the military.
Ford is ordered to go to a Japanese village to teach the people about democracy and to build a schoolhouse in the shape of the pentagon.
I thought Glenn Ford was great here and Brando also did a good job..
If I hadn't been told ahead of time that it was Marlon Brando, there is no way you could have convinced me that it wasn't a native Japanese actor doing the part.
He pushed for the movie to be made and insisted that he be given the role of "Sakini" so it was Brando himself who did that casting!
The story line is extremely humorous and the cast (including Paul Ford, Glenn Ford, Eddie Albert) is perfect.
The first time I watched the film, at the end on the credits I read Marlon Brando, I could not believe my eyes, who on earth was Marlon Brando on the film(I did not know at first he was on the credits), I realize them he was Sakiri the Japanese servant, to my taste, it is one of the best characters he has ever played, he speaks, walks, smiles and act like a real Japanese village guy.
Glen Ford also does a five star performance, specially when he had to drive his jeep with at least 10 unexpected passengers including a goat, also when he meets for the first time his geisha and she dress him up with a kimono, wooden Japanese sandals and straw hat.
Vern J Sneider author and John Patrick playwright Starring Glen Ford, Marlon Brando.This film is the one most people will recall as the one that features Brando playing an oriental coolie.
Marlon Brando commands attention every moment he is on screen, but its Glen Ford whose performance I most enjoy.
It is still an enchanting comedy with bright touches of satire, a few old- fashioned jokes and moving realizations by ordinary people –both American and Japanese-, which compensate for its artificiality, verbosity and Marlon Brando's forced characterization of the Japanese narrator.
It does so with film editing that gives good rhythm to the plot (which has by itself a lot of vitality in the way it was directed); fine and fluid camera-work and funny performances by Glenn Ford and Machiko Kyo (who also dances a beautiful choreography).
Leads David Wayne and John Forsythe were dropped from the film version as MGM wanted film names and they signed Marlon Brando as Sakino and Glenn Ford as Captain Fisby.
It did allow the Paul Ford who had originated the role of Colonel Purdy on Broadway to repeat it for the screen and for the sake of the film I can't see how Calhern would have been better.To say that the occupation of Japan went a whole lot better than what's going on now in Iraq is an understatement.
But in occupation duty it serves him well as it turns out.Ford with Okinawan interpreter Marlon Brando is assigned to a small village where he throws away the plan because the villagers very democratically decide they have their own ideas.
Suffice it to say that Ford recognizes this and instead of a schoolhouse as per the manual, allows the Okinawans to build a teahouse.Marlon Brando's role functions in the play and also as a Greek chorus narrator.
Obviously, nowadays it makes us cringe that Marlon Brando plays a Japanese person, but "The Teahouse of the August Moon" is still a laugh riot.
Glenn Ford is also very accomplished as the butt of the main joke(s) and plays off very well in his scenes with Brando.
Not only did the studio pick an actor who looked COMPLETELY non-Japanese, but his part looked like a live-action version of the old Hoshimoto cartoons (as for his 'method acting', I think Marlon Brando watched dozens of these before attempting the part).
tried it again recently on tcm; so bad couldn't stay but dipped in again later and still terrible: story of recent post-war GIs goofed by locals is hackneyed; so is script; it tries to be funny but isn't really, and then loses it trying to show the perils of occupation- and how human the Japanese really are; yeah, if you want to forget the little tidbits like officers practicing beheadings of GI prisoners at the stern of a ship; great funny stuff for the movie?
oh, not quite; and movie-wise it is almost a stage play filmed, incredibly static, phony backdrops, just dreadful; so lets say you tuned in just for brando- normally a good enough reason; holy cow- between the makeup, done as much as they could native Japanese, the put on accent, afraid it's akin to jolsen in blackface.
I love Marlon Brando and I love comedy movies.
A few years after the end of the American occupation in Japan, one of many films about this time was produced; however, Hollywood decided to give this one had a comedic twist.
Daniel Mann's The Teahouse of the August Moon takes place in the village of Topiki in Okinawa during the American occupation of Japan, and stars some of the 1950s most popular actors of the time, including Glenn Ford who plays the clumsy military Captain Fisby, Paul Ford (no relation) who portrays Colonel Purdy,and Eddie Albert, who plays psychiatrist Captain McLean.
Although he is on screen for most of the film, Marlon Brando was unrecognizable to many audiences in his role as Sakini, the Japanese interpreter.
Based off of the play of the same name, The Teahouse of August Moon sends many mixed messages about Japanese and American relations after World War II.
The film came out shortly after the occupation had ended, and, without the access of the current twenty-first century media, Teahouse was one of the only ways that Americans were to obtain images and feelings toward and Japanese people and their history and culture.
For instance, in the beginning of the film during a scene between Sakini and Colonel Purdy, and later Captain Fisby, Purdy offhandedly murmurs comments such as "Can't you natives ever learn anything about custom?" and later when Fisby offers to learn the language, Purdy replies "No need; we won the war!" These comments, which were intended to and do have audiences laughing, are putting the image of Japanese people being dumb and unable to learn, and insignificant and that people shouldn't and don't have to learn about their culture.Although the film is stained with the fore mentioned vulgarities, some of the actor's performances and beautiful, although most likely inaccurate, set designs cannot go unnoticed.
Her, as well as Eddie Albert, Glenn Ford, and, unfortunately, Marlon Brando all received Golden Globe nominations, but all failed to bring home the award.Although many people in today's society may roll their eyes at yet another attack of political correctness, it is essential to note that films, in both the past and present, shape people's perceptions of the world.
Marlon Brando has never been as ridiculous as in this one.Casting him as a Japanese translating his "compatriots" into pidgin English was a bad idea gone wrong.One wonders why the Japanese chose him for their interpret whereas the tribe's old man spoke better Shakespeare 's language than he did.Glenn Ford is ill-at -ease in the comic genre and his fighting with the geisha who tries to take off his clothes is sinister slapstick comedy.The direction is as static as it can be ,and it 's really filmed stage production.The screenplay in not that much original and finds some of its inspiration in Billy Wilder's "A foreign affair"(1947),the Japanese replacing the German.Daniel Mann is no match for Wilder as far as directing and writing are concerned and the she-goat easily steals the show..
This is an excellent film on many levels, but one overlooked aspect is the role of the organic health food addict/Army shrink and performance by Eddie Albert.
Brando and his people are genius in getting the U.S. military (via Ford and later Eddie Albert) to get what they want in their village, not what the U.S. was to build.Brando in full make-up and faux Japanese speech is hilarious.
After winning World War II, the United States sends enthusiastic Glenn Ford (as Captain Fisby) to Okinawa, Japan.
Translating for Mr. Ford is savvy Asian-mannered Marlon Brando (as Sakini).
They want the Americans to build them a traditional teahouse, instead, with geisha girls like beautiful Machiko Kyo (as Lotus Blossom).
Comedy results from the Americans unexpectedly succumbing to Japanese culture...Director Daniel Mann enjoyed much success bringing stage dramas to the motion picture screen, but was less successful with comedy...This one may dip due to the lack of bigger comedians in the roles, but Marlon Brando and Glenn Ford are closer to original Broadway players David Wayne and John Forsythe than they would be to Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.
The sly humor works, but scenes go on too long without amusing; most of this material should be shorter and snappier on film.***** The Teahouse of the August Moon (11/20/56) Daniel Mann ~ Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford, Eddie Albert, Paul Ford.
According to Wikipedia at least, the book, play, and film were enormously popular for about 25 years, when political correctness set in, and liberals were oh-so-terribly aghast at Marlon Brando playing an Okinawan with a heavy accent.
But it's Brando's character who is the most admirable in the movie -- sharp, perceptive, and cunning, but also warm, generous, and forgiving.All told, it's the Okinawans who come off well -- it is we Americans who seem rather ridiculous, with our notions of winning hearts and minds and spreading democracy.
I've known that there was a film with the title "The Teahouse of the August Moon" for years but never had any interest in viewing it.
I probably had it confused with "Sayonara", Marlon Brando's other post WWII Japan film.
As "The Teahouse of the August Moon" illustrates, there seems to be a national compulsion to change the world and a chronic failure to realistically evaluate the complexities of these little adventures.On the flip side, many of those who attack the film as racist are also critical of "Eurotrip" for its stereotyped portrayal of Europe; failing to recognize that the target of both films is America and its simplistic view of the rest of the world.Anyway, "Teahouse" takes place shortly after the end of WWII as Captain Fisby, a Army Civil Affairs officer (Glenn Ford), is detailed to an Okinawan village to teach the natives about "democracy".
Marlon Brando plays a native interpreter and carries it off quite nicely, in fact the whole cast is solid with Kyo unexpectedly effective and very charming.
Brando disappears into the role of Sakini, an interpreter assigned to Captain Fisby, Glenn Ford.
Basically it's a story of Glen Ford going native, seduced by Marlon Brando, Machiko Kyo, a horde of Okinawan villagers, with Eddie Albert as a closet hydroponicist who gets sucked in along the way.It has its weaker moments when it becomes a little cute, the way sitcoms are cute, and the ending is a feel-good addendum that tries to graft a happy ending onto an unhappy situation.
The ending is less organic than Eddie Albert's vegetables.Marlon Brando -- well, he's not Japanese.
Worth watching for Brando's performance as a Japanese villager.
Dear Marlon Brando,you were an unusual casting choice for the role of Sakini, a sort of a Japanese man Friday to occupying American forces looking to spread democracy across Japan.
I would love to hear the story behind your casting as a Japanese villager.The film is a farcical and feel good social satire about American attempts to spread their values and way of life in the village of Tobiki, Okinawa after World War 2.
Glenn Ford is the good hearted solider who is trying to impart the merits of democracy to the unsuspecting villagers with the help of Sakini.
The Americans poke gentle fun at themselves,Paul Ford does his good-natured bumbler schtick and Marlon Brando has great fun with those actor's friends the funny accent and make - up.There is some cod Japanese philosophy and the average American's ignorance of the rest of the world is lampooned.
At 17 I thought Brando's portrayal of a Japanese interpreter was brilliant and hilarious.Nearly fifty years later and I can't think of any other European/American actor who could have pulled it off.
It is probably not a film for today;it may well be rediscovered in a more gentle age when the thought police are no longer trying to apply 21st century sensibilities on fifty year old movies.
SYNOPSIS: Captain Fisby (Glenn Ford) is sent by Colonel Purdy (Paul Ford) to an Okinawan village to aid its recovery and welfare.
An American Army officer (Glenn Ford) is sent to establish the recovery and welfare of an Okinawan village, with a rascally Japanese interpreter (Marlon Brando) as an assistant.
Maybe I was more prepared for it, as I had already seen Mickey Rooney as a Japanese in Breakfast at Tiffany's.I am also a great fan of Glenn Ford and Eddie Albert, both of whom give great performances in this picture as the two G.I.'s who are charged with transforming the Japanese village of Topeki into a showpiece of American post WW2 occupation, but do they successfully transform the village, or do the villagers transform them?I think that Teahouse of the August Moon is a brilliant film, with several great actors driving it.
The classic twist in this film is that the "Conquered" Japanese race ends up getting their own way in the end, after playing the Yanks like a fiddle all the way along.I'm looking out for the DVD, as my VCR wouldn't record when I tried to catch it today; oh well !!
And then I wonder what might have possessed the man to take on a role like that of Sakini, a Japanese interpreter for the U.S. military.
Glenn Ford looked a little out of his element here as Captain Fisby, but his character seemed to be written that way so it worked. |
tt0055024 | It Happened Here | === Setting ===
The film opens with the statement: "The German invasion of Britain took place in 1940 after the retreat from Dunkirk." After months of fierce resistance and brutal reprisals, the occupying forces manage to restore order, largely suppressing the resistance movement. However, due to demands from the Ural Mountains front, most German troops are eventually removed from Western Europe, and the garrisoning of Britain is largely carried out by local volunteers to the German army and the SS.
England appears to be governed by the British Union of Fascists (the situation in the rest of the British Isles is unclear but presumably similar); the followers are referred to as "Blackshirts", wear uniforms with the Flash and Circle, and a framed portrait of Oswald Mosley appears in a government building, alongside one of Adolf Hitler. Meanwhile, the United States, having entered the war, stations its U.S. Seventh Fleet off Ireland. The Americans begin bombing raids on the southwest coast of England, as well as supplying men and equipment to a resurgent partisan movement.
=== Story ===
Set in 1944–1945, the story focuses on an apolitical Irish district nurse, Pauline. Following an upsurge in partisan activity in her area, she is forcibly evacuated from her village by the Germans and their collaborators and witnesses an attack on German forces by a group of British partisans, during which a number of her friends from the village are killed in the crossfire. The attack (and more particularly the deaths) influences her subsequent views and decisions.
She is evacuated to London, where she reluctantly becomes a collaborator, joining the medical wing of the Immediate Action Organisation (IAO), a kind of quasi-paramilitary medical corps and is re-trained as an ambulance attendant. Although at first reluctant and intent on remaining apolitical, Pauline begins to show the effects of fascist indoctrination in her behaviour. It is a reunion with old friends (an antifascist doctor and his wife) that gives Pauline pause and when she subsequently discovers they are harbouring an injured partisan she reluctantly agrees to help.
Gradually Pauline learns more about the impacts of the German occupation and she sees her friends arrested. The discovery of her association with the antifascist couple by her superiors in the IAO leads to her demotion and transfer to another part of the country. She welcomes the move at first, as her new job appears to have less of the paramilitary trappings. However Pauline discovers that she has unwittingly taken part in a forced euthanasia programme and killed a group of foreign forced labourers who had contracted tuberculosis.
The film ends with Pauline being arrested after protesting and refusing to continue but before she can be put on trial, she is captured by the resurgent British Resistance and agrees to work for them as they fight to liberate the country with the help of arriving American troops. In the finale, Pauline tends a group of wounded partisans while, out of her view, a large group of soldiers from the Black Prince Regiment of the British Legion of the Waffen-SS who had surrendered are summarily shot, a scene reminiscent of an SS massacre of civilians earlier in the film. | alternate history, murder | train | wikipedia | This augments the feeling of realism and makes it an even bigger shock to see German troops marching through London, or relaxing off-duty, taking in the sights and admiring the women.
The wrong-headed justifications of Fascism that pepper this film sound like real people's words and they're spoken by what clearly are real people, who are taking a little time off from their real jobs to appear in the film.
For instance, the fat, middle-aged, bureaucratic bully who voices many of the arguments has to have been in real life a school teacher or a bank manager: he looks and sounds the part in a way that studio actors working from a polished script could never manage.The ending is forced, but only because you feel that the film would be endless without a forced ending.
Although a lot of things take place that are genuinely shocking (I won't list them as I'd have to announce spoilers), the point of the film isn't to relate a narrative that has a defined beginning, middle and end.
The point is to make you feel that this is all real and make you wonder what your response would have been if the Nazis had started running your country..
`It Happened Here' Directed by Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo is a Classic of British Cinema.
The Film is remarkable in its authenticity, given the fictional scenario, the invasion of Britain by the Nazis during World War Two. The look of the Picture is very raw and earthy which adds to its realistic style.The German soldiers look perfect, I say this because it is so rare that Directors make such a concerted effort for perfection.Andrew Mollo and Kevin Brownlow are two of the most talented and unrecognized Directors in Britain.
This Film is an example of the best of British Independent Film making and should be seen..
The documentary footage of Nazi soldiers parading around London etc appears ever so real.
I found it to be well made, and contained some very powerful images, of the German forces in occupation.My only reservation is that I found it difficult to track the passage of time within the film.The film deals with a woman, who is relocated to London, following Partisan activity at her home village.
The film presents the Partisans as terrorists, whose methods differ little from the Nazis, although their objectives are purer.
What's most amazing about this film is that it was made by teenagers and looks good even for being shot in 16mm.
The narrative loses a lot of steam after an hour (I think this film was expanded from a short) but the faked newsreel shown in a cinema halfway through the movie is totally flawless in its imitation of German propaganda films..
Nightmarish, stomach-churning fantasy of what England would have been like under German occupation.
A thought-provoking war drama, which began life as the spare-time project of an 18-year-old film-lover and his 16-year-old friend.
Based on the counter-factual premise that Britain was successfully invaded following the Dunkirk retreat and liberated by the Americans at the end of World War II.
It is a film concerned with what war and military occupation does to people's minds.
The way ID cards/papers were used, the attitude of some people that collaborated, and the resistance starting to fight back, it was just brilliant.I'd love to see it again,let's hope it is screened on TV but I don't remember seeing it on TV to date, unless it was during the 80's when I was working abroad..
It certainly makes you think about how it might have been had Hitler succeeded.The book 'How It Happened Here' is due to be re-issued with a revised content and updates.The new book 'How It Happened Here' should be out in August but check availability on amazon or at the publishers website ukapress.comThe DVD for this film is also available now with a great review on dvdtalk.com http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s100here.htmlIn all, it's a film that hasn't had enough exposure.
Being a Londoner, and born but a few months after England declared war onGermany, this film has always held a special significance for me.
I originally saw it when it opened in London: a mere twelve years after the worst war in living memory, had ended.
In his book, "How It Happened Here", co-director, Kevin Brownlow explains how he got the idea tomake this film.
It got Brownlow thinking: "what if....."On a budget that can only be described as miniscule, it took Brownlow and his co-director, Andrew Mollo, eight years to complete the film.
'It Happened Here' is the only British war film which gives a true and accurate idea of what war is about: it is about civilians.All war films, with the exception of this one and a tiny handful of others, deal with boys in their uniforms shooting at each other in glorious Technicolour.
with having to collaborate to a varying extent in order to earn a living, in fact with the real dilemmas which only those who lived through the Nazi occupation can truly understand.
Collaboration is a slippery slope, well handled in the film as it is too in the French film 'Lacombe Lucien', where a feckless young man, rebuffed by the resistance, slips almost accidentally into collaboration for a bit of an adventure and some status.A recent article in the London press explained that the lengthy disquisition on the necessity of fascism in occupied Britain, as voiced by an English militiaman in the film, was in fact a pro-fascist argument put forward by a real leading British fascist, who made use of the film to expound his views.
This argument appealed to many 'right-thinking' people in occupied Europe as, barely a couple of years after the war, many right-thinking people thought that the communist menace should be eliminated.As a result of the filmed fascist diatribe, United Artists ordered Brownlow to remove this section (6 minutes, I think) and the film was originally screened without it.When the resistance to foreign occupation in Iraq is labelled terrorism, well, that is exactly what the German occupiers said about all resistance movements in Europe.
At the end of the war, these movements settled scores with collaborators and presumed collaborators, with unofficial executions running into the tens of thousands.Nothing wrong then, in having the British resistance in this film shown as behaving mercilessly.
Upon first viewing It Happened Here, I was struck by the poor quality of the film.
After reading of Brownlow's financial struggles in making the film, I'm awed at his creative use of available funds.
The British of this film can be seen in its careful (and to most, slow) development.If one, however, wishes to view an artistic film (and has the patience and culture to do so), I would highly recommend It Happened Here.
Well that's what happens in the 21st Century but away back in the mid 1950s two ambitious amateur film makers Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo pulled out all the stops to make an alternative neo-realist film featuring a scenario where Operation Sealion was a success and Britain is under the fascist jackboot and these two idealists managed to pull out all the stops .
All I really know about the behind the scenes story is that it took them eight years and seven thousand pounds sterling of their own finance to produce it From a technical point of view IT HAPPENED HERE is somewhat crude .
Filmed in black and white it resists the temptation to intercut real life footage of the second world war and instead everything on screen is pre-filmed for the camera .
Be thankful that democracy doesn't allow such people to rise to the top .If there's one problem with the film's politics it's equating the resistance not being all that different from the methods employed by the fascists and the film is book ended in that both sides have the justification of "If you're not for us you're against us".
I can understand what the makers are trying to do but is it actually true that "The appalling thing about fascism is that you've got to use fascist methods to get rid of it." Presently in Syria the Kurdish YPG and their Arab comrades in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are engaged in a war against Daesh and the fascist Assad government who are backed by proxies from Russia , Iran and Turkey and yet never stoop to the methods of the regime they are fighting .
Fascists use the word "Jewry" while leftists use the word "Zionists" and only the phraseology is different If nothing else IT HAPPENED HERE gives an interesting window on the world of what things would be like if the Nazis had won the Battle Of Britain .
Kevin Brownlow was appearantly only 18 years old when he came up with this idea and asked his then 16 year old friend Andrew Mollo if he could help out.
Even though her political views are different she has no choice, and joins but soon ends up in more trouble then before.The biggest problem with this film for me is the very bad audio, sometimes the young directors don't seem to know what kind of story they want to tell.
Also some of the acting is flawed but becomes even more creepy when you know that some of the actors were real English neo Nazis.But this must be one of the best alternative history films I have ever seen so far.
The film gives off a really good authentic feeling, something many films today lacks.And the ending serves as reminder of fascism, war crimes, evil that men do, regardless of political views..
A previous reviewer couldn't recommend the film too highly and said you owe it to yourself to see this.I can't go along with that.A lot of British people have tried to cheer themselves up with the thought that Hitlerism could never have taken root in Britain, because we're all so jolly decent and we'd never have put up with Onkel Adi.This film does a pretty good job of saying "Bull***t!" to that idea.
Collaborating with the occupying power is a fairly obvious strategy for people who want a quiet life, or hope for advancement in the new society, because they don't believe that the occupation will be defeated.And if state-managed news media tell you only what they want you to hear, and portray things in an extremely odd light, then it's not surprising that people start to believe this stuff and spout it themselves.The basic narrative device is to follow the adventures of an Irish nurse who claims to have little experience of or interest in politics.
Men and women are capable of much worse than they think; fascism is a disease so virulent that one needs to adopt some of its own methods to have a chance of defeating it, and very few people are immune to its temptations (especially when agreement makes for a much less uncomfortable life).It's a very earnest film, but it isn't very interesting dramatically.
Think about it...Kevin Brownlow was 19 and his friend, Andrew Mollow, 16 when they started making a film.
Using lots of seemingly documentary footage and mostly non-professional actors, they made an alternative history film that looks for all the world like a traditional documentary.
While this notion offended many when the film debuted in 1966, this was a realistic scenario, as locals did work hand in hand with the Nazis in many countries--such as in France and the Ukraine.
According to the film, these local fascists were needed because the war against the Soviets was not going well and they needed all the troops they could spare (just like what really happened in WWII).The story focuses on an Irish nurse who goes to work with the fascist British government.
Because writer/director Brownlow was filming this on the cheap, he used 16mm film and the sound was often quite poor--especially at the beginning.
I also was very impressed with the pro-Nazi propaganda film that was shown in the theater--it looked quite real.
Like Peter Watkin's "The War Game" which came out around the same time and which imagined life, or what was left of it, in Britain after a nuclear attack, Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's "It Happened Here" imagines a Britain under the jackboot as if Hitler had succeeded in invading after the retreat at Dunkirk and like "The War Game" is filmed as if it were a documentary.
Interestingly, it shows that the British resistance could be just as brutal as the Germans are usually shown in this kind of film, making this the perfect companion piece to Cavalcanti's masterpiece "Went the Day Well"..
We owe a debt of gratitude to Brownlow & Mollo for the making of this film.
I had never seen it until today, Dec25th 2011.It's a remarkable film especially when you consider it's meagre budget (said to have been $20,000), the ages of the film's makers, who were 18 & 16 and the eight years it took to produce.
The attention to detail is meticulous; the cinematography is inspirational; the subject matter is horrific and so very nearly came to pass; the poor sound quality and grainy black & white adds to the realism; the dark and brooding scenes are terribly atmospheric.I was born in 1949, close enough to the end of World War II to almost feel I was a part of it.
Anyone who thinks it glorifies Fascism and is anti-Semitic has missed the point completely.First thing tomorrow I'm going to post it to my 16year old granddaughter studying Government & Politics.
It should be made a compulsory part of the school curriculum.I can't thank Brownlow & Mollo enough for making this film and am just so sorry it took so long to discover it..
A very special film about something that never happened but it could have happen: the conquest of Britain by Nazi Germany.
All the actors do an excellent job, not about to play a role, you say that everything is filmed "live", every character in their daily life under the occupation of Hitler's army.
But not one does look so real like this film looks, whose subject is not true at all..
IT HAPPENED HERE (Kevin Brownlow & Andrew Mollo, 1965) ***.
It presents an interesting conjecture, to be sure, but one wonders what point was being made so long after the threat had been nipped in the bud, as it were
unless an analogous contemporaneous scenario (say, the Communist oppression rife in Eastern European countries) was being addressed!Anyway, the background to the movie under review is itself worth documenting: writer/director/cinematographer/editor Brownlow is best- known as a champion of film preservation (whose sterling work in the field was recently rewarded with an Honorary Oscar!); he was slated to introduce a September 2002 screening I attended of Erich von Stroheim's THE WEDDING MARCH (1928) at London's National Film Theatre but he eventually relegated it to an underling!
Besides, Brownlow and his collaborator Mollo were still in their teens when they began work on IT HAPPENED HERE – which took some 7 years to complete!
Bad acting, poor visuals, in fact nothing could count as slightly favorable.Perhaps only British people gave it good reviews, but I cannot..
I never knew this movie existed and I am still somewhat shocked after just watching this film at the incredible job that was done by a couple of independent film-makers.If someone had told me prior to seeing this movie that a couple of teenagers had produced an amazing movie based on the occupation of England by the Nazis in World War II, I would have said impossible.The movie lacks a little in quality because it was shot in 16mm and in some situations lacks the necessary lighting needed to bring off certain scenes, however, as the Summary above states, you can choose only ONE of the three criteria to work with.
The producers did not have budget, or top quality equipment, or big name actors to work with, but they DID have time and they used it to create what can only be called a masterpiece.I have never lived in a country under occupation and I hope that I never will, however, I can understand the need for people to get on with their lives and even the necessity to actually collaborate with an enemy simply to survive.As it was put to our main actress in this movie, "You can nurse for us or you can stay home and nurse your empty stomach." She had no choice even though she wanted no political affiliation.
I don't hand out 1's and 10's often, and while the production on this film is quite low, with the sound quality for dialogue being the absolute worst, this film is totally compelling and you will be grateful you gave it a chance.The movie is shot as a pseudo documentary, following the life of Pauline, a strangely attractive nurse who must relocate to London in a world where Nazi Germany has more than a foothold in England; Soldiers occupy the nation and many British citizens have become their collaborators.
You should read the interesting history behind the making of this film which took something like 6 years to complete, if you can believe it.
You see the daily life of citizens in a country where all their normal daily routines have been stamped out and they are recast in the roles of pseudo-Nazis whether they like it or not.
It Happened Here starts off stunningly, perfectly recreating a newsreel/fly on the wall documentary style with convincing recreations of German occupation and naturalistic acting.Warning, possible spoilerAs the plot develops, however, it introduces a "need to use fascist methods to overcome fascism" theme that is clumsily handled until, in the unconvincing ending, the anti-Nazi partisans are made out to be every bit as loathsome as their enemies. |
tt0088708 | American Ninja | Private Joe Armstrong (Michael Dudikoff) is conscripted into the U.S. Army by a judge, as an alternative to prison. Joe ends up fighting off the Black Star Order of ninjas while stationed in the Philippines. He saves Patricia Hickock (Judie Aronson) — daughter of Colonel William Hickock, Joe's commanding officer — from a kidnapping attempt. Although the rest of Joe's platoon is wiped out by the Black Star ninjas, Joe's popularity with his fellow GIs takes a nosedive, even as he is targeted for revenge by the Black Star Master ninja (Tadashi Yamashita).
While performing chores on the base, Corporal Curtis Jackson (Steve James) goads Joe into a fight. Jackson proves no match for Joe's ninjitsu expertise, which greatly impresses their fellow soldiers to boot. Shortly thereafter, Jackson discovers that Joe is an amnesiac; he remembers very little of his past, other than running with various street gangs and mastering a number of exotic martial arts. The grateful Patricia organizes a date for herself with Joe. Jackson and a third soldier, Charley Madison (Phil Brock), sneak Joe off the base. They are caught during dinner by Sergeant Rinaldo, who is in the middle of a business meeting with black marketeer Victor Ortega (whose payroll the sergeant is on). To get Joe out of the way, Rinaldo leads him to an abandoned warehouse - ostensibly for the purpose of dropping off supplies. Black Star ninjas ambush Joe, who defeats all of them. Then Joe's truck is stolen and he gives chase using a motorcycle. The truck driver runs Joe off the road, wiping out the bike; thinking Joe dead, the driver brings the truck to Ortega. Joe, however, hides under the truck and is brought to the heart of Ortega's operation - which encompasses the Black Star ninja training camp.
Ortega is paying the Black Star Order for weapons stolen from the Army, which he then resells to the highest bidder. Joe is discovered by the ninjas-for-hire, but escapes with the aid of Ortega's servant Shinyuki (John Fujioka). Joe returns to the base, where he is promptly arrested by military police who think he is fencing the arms. Jackson realizes that Joe has been set up, but his protests are wasted on Rinaldo. The Black Star Master infiltrates the stockade that night, slaughters the on-duty MPs and then tries to slaughter Joe as well. But Joe's would-be-assassin is thwarted by the sudden arrival of MP reinforcements, none of whom see the Black Star Master fleeing the scene. One of the dead MPs is found with a throwing star lodged in his head, which further implicates Joe in the bizarre goings-on.
Only Jackson, Charlie, and Patricia believe that Joe is innocent of the charges he now faces. They tell her father everything they know about the hijacking and murders, but he just scoffs at their story. After briskly dismissing them, Colonel Hickock meets Rinaldo in private - revealing that the Colonel himself is on Ortega's payroll. Colonel Hickock orders Rinaldo to finish off Joe. Then the Black Star Master steals into the Colonel's residence and kidnaps Patricia, since her father is becoming a less-than-reliable partner. Rinaldo attempts to run Joe off the road, only to be killed himself. Joe returns to Ortega's mansion and the Black Star training camp, where he is reunited with Shinyuki.
It is revealed that Shinyuki adopted Joe at birth after the boy's parents died. He trained Joe in the ways of ninjitsu, until the two were separated by a bomb blast; each has believed the other to be dead for years. Now Shinyuki completes Joe's training and they launch a surprise attack on the Black Star camp. Shinyuki sacrifices his life to help Joe defeat the Black Star Master; meanwhile, Colonel Hickock leads his own assault on the Ortega manor, both to rescue his daughter and to tie up loose ends - in other words, wipe out anything that might connect the Colonel to Ortega's weapon-jacking. Ortega flees by helicopter with Patricia as his hostage, after gunning down her father. Joe, however, infiltrates Ortega's chopper; he and Patricia jump to safety just before Jackson shoots down the helicopter, killing Ortega. | comedy, murder, cult, violence, flashback, action, revenge | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0119991 | Rebecca | A naïve young woman (Joan Fontaine) is in Monte Carlo working as a paid companion to Edythe Van Hopper (Florence Bates) when she meets the aristocratic but brooding widower Maximilian "Maxim" de Winter (Laurence Olivier). They fall in love, and within two weeks they are married. The young woman is now the second "Mrs. de Winter."
Maxim takes his new bride back to Manderley, his large country house in Cornwall. The housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), is domineering and cold, and is obsessed with the beauty, intelligence and sophistication of Maxim's dead wife Rebecca, the first Mrs. de Winter, preserving her former bedroom, the master suite, as a shrine. Although dead, Rebecca's presence is nonetheless pervasive - several things throughout the house - stationery, handkerchiefs, bed linens, even the master bedroom door - bear her ornate "R" or "R de W" monogram. As her closest confidant, Mrs. Danvers regularly comments on Rebecca's exceptional grace and style. When asked what Rebecca was like, Frank Crawley (Reginald Denny), Maxim's best friend and manager of the estate, absent-mindedly tells the new Mrs. de Winter that Rebecca was an exceptional beauty.
The new Mrs. de Winter is intimidated by her responsibilities and begins to doubt her relationship with her husband. The continuous reminders of Rebecca overwhelm her; she believes that Maxim is still deeply in love with his first wife. She also discovers that her husband sometimes becomes very angry at her for apparently insignificant actions. She also meets Rebecca's so-called "favorite cousin," Jack Favell (George Sanders), who visits the house while Maxim is away.
Trying to be the perfect wife, the young Mrs. de Winter convinces Maxim to hold a costume party, as he had done with Rebecca. She wants to plan her own costume, but Mrs. Danvers suggests she copy the beautiful outfit in the portrait of Lady Caroline de Winter, an ancestor of Maxim's. At the party, when the costume is revealed, Maxim is appalled; Rebecca wore the same outfit at the ball a year ago, shortly before her death.
Mrs. de Winter confronts Danvers, who tells her she can never take Rebecca's place, and almost manages to convince her to jump to her death. An airborne flare reveals that a ship has hit the rocks. Mrs. de Winter rushes outside, where she hears that during the rescue a sunken boat has been found with Rebecca's body in it.
Maxim admits to his new wife that he had earlier misidentified another body as Rebecca's, in order to conceal the truth. His first marriage, until now viewed by the world as ideal, was in fact a sham. At the very beginning of their marriage Rebecca had told Maxim she intended to continue the scandalous life she had previously lived. He hated her for this, but they agreed to an arrangement: in public she would pretend to be the perfect wife and hostess, and he would ignore Rebecca's private wanton lifestyle. However, Rebecca grew careless, including an ongoing affair with Jack Favell. One night, Rebecca told Maxim she was pregnant with a child that was not his. Laughing at Maxim's dismay, Rebecca proclaimed that the child, presumed to be a boy and legally Maxim's son, would thus inherit his beloved estate Manderley. During the ensuing heated argument she fell, hit her head and died. Maxim took the body out in her boat, which he then scuttled.
Now assured of her husband's love for her and not his first wife, the new Mrs. de Winter sheds the remnants of her girlish innocence. She begins to coach her husband how to conceal the mode of Rebecca's death from the authorities. In the police investigation, deliberate damage to the boat points to suicide. However, Favell shows Maxim a note from Rebecca, which appears to prove that she was not suicidal; Favell tries to blackmail Maxim. Maxim tells the police, and then falls under suspicion of murder. The investigation reveals Rebecca's secret visit to a London doctor (Leo G. Carroll), which Favell assumes was due to her illicit pregnancy. But the police interview with the doctor establishes that Rebecca was not actually pregnant; the doctor had told Rebecca that she was suffering from a late-stage cancer instead.
The coroner renders a finding of suicide. Only Frank Crawley, Maxim, and his wife know the full story: that Rebecca told Maxim she was pregnant with another man's child in order to try to goad him into killing her, an indirect means of suicide that would also have ensured her husband's ruination and possible execution.
As Maxim returns home from London to Manderley, he sees that the manor is on fire, set ablaze by the deranged Mrs. Danvers. The second Mrs. de Winter and the staff escape the blaze, but Danvers is killed when a ceiling collapses on her. Finally, a silk nightdress case on Rebecca's bed, with a beautifully embroidered "R" - Rebecca's proud emblem of ownership - is consumed by flames. | gothic, melodrama | train | wikipedia | Mr. Dance is an excellent actor and he gives a very good performance as Maxim.
Diana Rigg portrays Mrs. Danvers rather as a tragic character than as a villain.
I found Charles Dance to be a much more believable Maxim de Winter, with some definite sex appeal that was lacking in Olivier's portrayal.
Emilia Fox was perfectly charming as the 2nd Mrs. de Winter, managing to come across as shy and unsure of herself without appearing too passive or neurotic.
As has been stated in other reviews, the romance between the two was far more believable and realistic in this version.Diana Rigg gives quite a different portrayal of the creepy Mrs. Danvers than Judith Anderson did, and I found Rigg's more humane and pathetic (although still sinister) housekeeper more three-dimensional.
The supporting characters are also good, and I even enjoyed Jonathan Cake's scenery-chewing portrayal of Jack Favell.All in all, a great effort, well worth watching..
I thought this was marvellous, and that Charles Dance as Maxim, Emilia Fox as The Second Mrs De Winter, and Diana Rigg as Mrs Danvers, were note perfect - but that's before I saw the 1970s version with Jeremy Brett, Fox's mother Joanna David, and Anna Massey.However, this 1990s version runs a close second.
It isn't as involving to watch, and Dance has a certain dryness that perhaps does not work all through the piece - but the cast do well (including Faye Dunaway as Fox's chaperone).
Set pieces are excellent, there's beautiful scenery, and a tight script, and all this is good.You rarely see watchable literacy adaptations of this quality, and this version of 'Rebecca' does not really disappoint.
On the whole, I think this "Rebecca" is very good - and stands its ground along side Hitchcock - not as a comparison, but as a different approach.
I do believe the British version (with the honeymoon scene) may have been shown originally on Masterpiece Theatre, but in the US release DVD, it (along with a couple other scenes I like) were cut.
First of all, I enjoyed the old classic version of the 1940s REBECCA with Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine and I have seen it over 100 times in my lifetime.
However, I find myself very captivated by this 1997 version by Masterpiece Theatre and with its great actors, the assemble cast, the music score, the filming location and the more detailed storyline, which is simply superb and very well done.
I believe the 1997 version is the best version of Rebecca, second to the book.
Further, I have seen ALL the versions of Rebecca and have read the book by Daphne Du Maurier and can actually comment in good faith that this is simply the best adaptation with more details about the characters that you don't see in the 1940s version.
With this superb 1997 adaptation, you are able to see a more deeper version of both Max and the second Mrs. DeWinter's characters played by Charles Dance and Emilia Fox. You see that they are in love in this version whereas in the Hitchcock version, it's not so obvious.
You also get a better sense of Mrs. Danvers' character who you almost feel sorry for in this adaptation.
Additionally, you'll see a few glimpses of what the beautiful Rebecca might look like.I believe this 1997 version of Rebecca stands alone as a great love story and great mystery that will keep you captivated..
The acting was just as good as the previous versions and the photography was the best, far better than most theatrical movies.
I especially liked the young Emilia Fox as the new Mrs DeWinter.
Charles Dance was very well cast as Maxim, not as stuffy as Olivier.
I found Diana Rigg a bit over the top, but the supporting cast were very good, especially Faye Dunaway.
It is mentioned in Alfred Hitchcock's masterful version of the book, by Dame Judith Anderson.
Now, in context of the film, it was definitely closer to the book than Hitchcock's version (which you can blame David O.
The lighting and photography do nothing to set the suspense and sense of dread in Manderley that is supposed to be the lingering spirit of Rebecca, very unlike the book and 1940 movie.
The acting was pretty much all excellent and solid but Charles Dance as Maxim was VERY different.
Emilia Fox as "I" was good too.If you liked the book Rebecca see the Hitchcock version also and compare the two.
Charles Dance is an absolute heart throb and young Emilia Fox's acting is outstanding!
Fox and Rigg are also perfectly suitable for the role, while Fontain is too tall (and too beautiful and maybe a bit fatter than a little girl as the role is) and the other Mrs Danvers is too young.
But I think the scene in bed in Dance's version(when Maxim was telling the truth of Rebecca) does harm to the elegance and reserveness of his.
If Charles Dance hadn't been the perfect, slightly crotchety, dashingly attractive and aristocratic Maxim de Winter, I wouldn't have even given this 2 stars.
But beyond that ...I think my main problem is with the Emilia Fox as the second Mrs. de Winter.
She seemed colorless, insipid and wimpy and lacked what I'd always believed was an essential sweetness which originally attracted Max. Occasionally the chemistry between Fox and Dance was good, especially the marriage bed scenes, but overall the direction and performance created a second Mrs. de Winter that made little sense to me.Also, Diana Rigg's much-touted performance left me cold; although, to be fair, in both her case and Fox's, I suspect that a large part of the problem was in the script and direction, which tended to be cadenced and lingering to the point where it seemed contrived to me.And, sigh, at a certain point Frith's villainy became a bit over the top, and he habitually hit the same note again and again, the same facial expressions, the same sneer, the same smarmy charm, all of which was very effective in his first scene, but didn't wear well with repetition.Essentially, I spent most of the movie, a retelling of a favorite story of mine, checking my watch to see how much longer I needed to endure it..
I have not yet seen this movie, but my sister and I are reading through Rebecca right now, and I'd like to explain to those who misunderstood: Mrs. De Winter had herself announced as Caroline De Winter because she was dressed as that lady (the lady in the painting)and acting that part.
Caroline is not her name; the point is that you never even know what her name is.I have seen the old version of this movie, and in my opinion and that of my sister, as we read the book, Laurence Olivier is absolutely the definitive Maxim De Winter in every way..
This production has no romance, no mystery, no suspense, and no atmosphere -- all of the things that made Hitchcock's version a masterpiece.The only thing that makes this film watchable is Diana Rigg's new take on the character Mrs. Danvers.
I found her to be the only believable character in the production -- different than Judith Anderson's interpretation nonetheless, but well done.If you've never seen a film version of Rebecca, watch the Hitchcock version instead of this one..
When I found the Alfred Hitchcock version, I didn't agree at first with how harsh Maxim always seemed, but the movie really did the book justice, the setting and lighting.
Over all I'd say watch the Alfred Hitchcock version if you want beautiful settings and handsome actors that get to the core of the characters..
I've always rather enjoyed the earlier version of Hichcock's thriller, "Rebecca," having read the novel, and so I borrowed this one from the library to see what was different.
Emilia Fox is pretty good, but Charles Dance seems much too old to be Maxium - and the ladies complained how plain and uninteresting he was, whereas Max was always said to be a very handsome man.
I do see that this TV version of the wonderful Daphne Du Mourier book has those who both love and hate it.
The story is more faithful(if not entirely) in tone to the Hitchcock film and the romance possibly broader, and is dealt with in an atmospheric manner and is just as suspenseful as the previous two versions.
Charles Dance might be too old for Maxim and I did find Jeremy Brett more believable, but I did in a way find him attractive and thought he captured the darkness and angst of the character quite well.
I actually found the weak link to be Emilia Fox, I do have huge affection for Joan Fontaine in Hitchcock's film and I also much prefer her mother Joanna David as an actress so I may be biased, but Fox for a character as shy as the second Mrs De Winter seemed too beautiful, elegant and dare I say wan.
The supporting cast are even better, Faye Dunnaway is always a pleasure to watch, and Jonathan Cake is a suitably smarmy Jack, but top honours go to Diana Rigg as a sinister yet also humane Mrs Danvers.
This two-part TV adaptation of the famous Daphne Du Maurier benefits hugely from a pitch-perfect piece of central casting: Charles Dance as the mysterious Maxim de Winter and Emilia Fox as his new wife.
I wasn't bothered: there are enough interesting supporting characters (the friendly gardener, the mad fisherman, the caddish acquaintance) to keep the attention hooked, and the sumptuous locations make this a delight to look at.The nature of the mystery kept me guessing right until the end, and it helped that I hadn't read the novel or seen any of the other adaptations (including the famous Hitchcock film).
It also goes without saying that Diana Rigg makes for a masterful villain as Mrs Danvers, putting memories of her pin-up days long in the past.
Only Faye Dunaway's fruity acting as Mrs Van Hopper kept you awake.Charles Dance looks too old as Maxim de Winter, almost a cradle snatcher as he woos young, inexperienced and rather plain Emilia Fox and swiftly marries her, only months after the death of the first Mrs de Winter.When he brings his new bride to his mansion, Manderley, she is overburdened by the hovering spectre of his late wife who was beautiful and well liked especially by the demented housekeeper Mrs Danvers (Diana Rigg) who adored her.Max just sulks in the background as the new, young Mrs de Winter can do no right.
However the truth about the first Mrs de Winter soon comes to light and Max has to reveal his dark secret.The second episode was much better than the first as we gets to the kernel of Daphne Du Maurier's story but then it is also Jonathan Cake's turn to ham it up.Dance and Fox have very little chemistry together and the whole thing looks a little too old fashioned even for 1997..
Oh I wish I were Emilia Fox. Charles Dance as Maxim De Winter captured my heart- I will dream of him as he romanced this young lady with love and romance.
I have of course seen the '42 Olivier version as well.My verdict on this version ('97) is that everyone is wonderful except Charles Dance.
He's all freckled and spotty and not the slightest bit attractive.That being said, I have no idea why all the film versions skip (at least as far as I have noticed) the -- to my mind-- crucial scene in the book when the narrator finally tells Mrs. Danvers that she doesn't much care what the former Mrs. DeWinter would have done because SHE is Mrs. DeWinter now.
This is after the "You should be the one who's dead" in Rebecca's room/shipwreck/Maxim's confession scenes.It may be that one version includes this, but I don't recall seeing it...Anyway, Charles Dance?!
I have always found Lawrence Olivier's portrayal of Maxim de Winter to be distant and forbidding, which detracted from the Hitchcock version of Rebecca, although that film has so much to recommend it.
This lovely, warm adaptation is blessed by Charles Dance who makes Maxim a much more attractive man worth fighting for and Emilia Fox is a wonderful actress, even at this young age.
I saw this when it was originally shown on TV in 1997, and have just seen it again - I think I liked it better this time.
In some ways I prefer this version to the Alfred Hitchcock production but overall I think the old movie adheres closer to the book.
Charles Dance and Emilia Fox are very believable as lovers, very sweet love scenes.
Charles Dance puts Maxim De Winter to shame.
She is not at all evil or sinister like the Mrs. Danvers in the book.
Even in the credits the actress Emilia Fox was said to have played the "Second Mrs. DeWinter".
I don't know why she was not credited as Caroline.I thought this movie was very well done, and even better than the original version with Joan Fontaine.
Diana Rigg played an amazing role as Mrs. Danvers.
In this version is was great that they actually showed Rebecca, even though it was just her eyes and mouth, but it added to the mystery..
After reading the book I was interested in seeing the different versions of Rebecca.
Charles Dance is a brilliant actor but one is forced to wonder who on earth cast him as a romantic lead?)I was expecting a good film, but this movie was disappointing in every aspect.The characterisation was poor and the writing was dull.
The scenery is beautiful and Diana Rigg makes Mrs. Danvers a real person instead of a cardboard villain, but it's not enough.
I read the book by Daphne Du Maurier, and after loving it so much, I decided to watch this latest adaptation.
Charles Dance as Maxim de Winter surpasses all expectations one might have (and isn't too bad to look at either!).
In this version, he portrays Max as more romantic (perhaps more so than other adaptations), something which adds a touch of realism and allows for a different perspective of his character.
Emilia Fox as the second Mrs. de Winter is refreshing and plays her character with the perfect amount of insecurity over the haunting presence of Max's first wife, Rebecca.
Fox also presents her character as nothing but loving and dedicated towards her much older husband, with passion and romance that helps justify many a scene in this version, presented very aesthetically and with realism.
Remaining supporting cast of Faye Dunaway as the pleasantly extrovert Mrs. Van Hopper and Jonathan Cake as the wild living, slightly devilish cousin of Rebecca, Jack Favell, are perfectly suited to their respective characters.
Who did not wish for something like this (minus Mrs Danvers of course!) to happen, when one was in the same age as the new Mrs de Winter..?
The Rebeccas of this world win every time...This movie is a very good rendering of the story, better than even the Hitchcock version.
In the novel Mr de Winter was not there in time to try to save Mrs Danvers, and even if he had been - why should he..?
Maybe Mr the Winter wanted his line to end with him, after all the tragedies.I miss one thing in this version though: the eeriness, spookiness.
Emilia Fox is good in the role as the second Mrs de Winter, although maybe a bit too cheeky towards Mrs van Hopper in the beginning, before she new that she would be able to quit her job.
Charles Dance is quite right as a mysterious, debonair lord of the manor, of course, but I find the age difference (which is about ten years larger than between the characters in the novel) a little off-putting.
But in this movie, at that point I thought that they would be quite well-matched - and that it was instead strange and wrong that he should start to form an attachment with a young and innocent girl...All in all, this is a very good production of "Rebecca"!.
I wanted so much to like this version of "Rebecca." I had seen both the Hitchcock movie and the 1979 Jeremy Brett/Joanna David/Anna Massey version, and read the book countless times.
A new version with another talented cast seemed like a great idea.Unfortunately it didn't work.
Charles Dance is nobody's idea of Maxim de Winter.
The Hayes Code of the 1930s and 1940s said "good guys" couldn't deliberately do bad things, so the Hitchcock version's key plot change was a concession to Industry Standard.
Or did they decide that the book, which had been a classic and a commercially viable success for almost 60 years, needed improvement?VERDICT: If you haven't read "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier, this may seem like a serviceable, if not very thrilling, story.
Maybe we should do it again and not watch anymore Brit TV until they give us a proper version of "Rebecca.".
Watch the Hitchcock version instead.
Totally miscast - Emilia Fox is too confident, beautiful and elegant to play the plain, awkward, painfully shy second Mrs De Winter.
Charles Dance is too old to play Max De Winter (he's supposed to be 15 - 20 years older then her, not 30) and he lacks any sense of darkness or anger.
Only Diana Rigg, as Mrs Danvers comes anywhere near creating a character similar to the book.The directing is of the 'point and shoot' variety, with no subtleties.The one trick, with Mrs Danvers and the light, is lifted straight from Hitchcock.In fact the whole thing has no sense of mystery or doom or tragedy.
Watch the Hitchcock version, with its great acting, sense of tragedy and doom, deep romance and a script practically lifted from the book, instead.. |
tt1460798 | Henry & Me | Jack (Austin Williams) is an eleven-going-on-twelve year old boy living a privileged life in upstate New York. He and his parents (Joseph Gian and Lucie Arnaz) are major fans of the New York Yankees and have attended many of their games. As he and his father are called to dinner, Jack goes through a temporary state of anemia and drops the ball. His parents are convinced that something is terribly wrong with their son.
The scene switches to Jack in the hospital, where he has contracted cancer to the point where he is completely bald. As he is carted away for an operation, his parents stay behind, and his chaperone Nurse Cyndi (Cyndi Lauper) sings a jaunty tune of "Take Me Out to The Ball Game" to no avail of lifting the boy's spirits. She leaves Jack outside the room, but not before she treats Jack with a sedative to give him "sweet dreams". Unhappy with the hardships brought upon by his newly contracted illness, Jack contemplates the (seemingly) final moments of his life until he is greeted by a guardian angel taking the form of a Yankees executive named Henry. At first, Jack is hesitant to watch the game while he waits, but unwittingly accepts Henry's offer and the man takes him into a imaginary plane of existence where the 20th century is timeless, illness has no existence, the Yankee players of the past are alive and well and most of all, his hair is back.
Henry and Jack's first stop is early 1930, where they meet Babe Ruth (Chazz Palminteri) in a small field surrounded by corn. He convinces Jack to take the bat, and after a nervous fib about a peanut allergy, strikes out three times. Babe convinces him to try again, yet this time, his fellow teammates laugh Jack off for his age. After successfully stealing home run, Jack bids goodbye and rides off in Henry's 1935 Cord 810 convertible for a fun-filled drive into the skies.
Jack and Henry's next stop is mid-1960, where, to Jack's surprise, the original Yankee Stadium is still standing next to the new one. Then in the Yankees' locker room, he meets Lefty Gomez (Luis Guzman), Mickey Mantle, Bobby Murcer and Thurman Munson. Again, Jack is forced into a position on the team, this time to throw the ball from the pitcher's mound. When an actual game ensues, Munson encourages Jack to pitch the ball to Mantle, but he refuses (by saying that he is not a real pitcher). Despite Jack's inexperience, Munson and Jack continue with an upbeat exchange of words until Jack's blood pressure starts to drop, realizing that the game he is fighting for is his life in the physical world. A short montage set to a ballad version of "Time After Time" shows Jack in what appears to be Heaven, watching several moments of his life up to the hospital with other kids, and making him concerned for his parents. When he asks Cissy, a girl he met on Henry's subway train, if she misses her mother and father, she replies "every day", implying that she too is dead and is living in the imaginary world as a spirit. Cissy and some other baseball kids bid Jack goodbye, but not before she shouts back "We're all rooting for you!" With that, Jack wins the battle, and the game.
Automatically transported to the present, Jack meets the elderly George Steinbrenner, who offers him a place on the team. With the permission of the other team members, among them Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson and "Goose" Gossage, encourage him to be a winner. Magically outfitted with a real Yankee uniform fit for his size, Jack soon finds himself playing alongside Curtis Granderson and Hideki Matsui in a large scale game against the nondescript Boston Red Sox. After the Sox pitcher tips the pitch, causing Matsui to hit the ball into the team bench, Jack quickly whispers Babe Ruth's words into Matsui and later on, he bats the ball so hard it goes straight into the hall of fame.
Nighttime falls and Jack asks Henry if he can meet Joe DiMaggio, Roger Maris and Billy Martin, but Henry suggests saving it for another time and decides to have Jack return home. With an impending rainstorm reflecting the borderline of his decision, Jack is unwilling to return to his unhealthy life and considers staying where he can give his body all the health and exorcise he deserves. After running off, leaving his cap behind, Jack is found by Henry in his chair and reveals that he is Lou Gehrig, another player stricken by disease. Taking his advice that he should keep playing for his life, Jack finally gives in and waves goodbye to Henry, Lefty and Babe Ruth, who arrive just in time to see the boy leave into the real world.
Now back in the hospital, Jack wakes up to the joy of his parents and to his surprise is visited by the team. Although Jack is confident that his hair will grow back, Mr. Steinbrenner gives him the right of being called a New York Yankee with a pin, the same kind worn by Henry.
In a post-credits scene, Henry and Ruth pick up Mr. Steinbrenner in his Cord. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | Great Movie!. Thanks to Hulu, I was able to see this movie. I glanced over it, then after awhile , I said, I should watch this before its taken down (hulu takes movies down some reason..space maybe for newer movies to come in?)Anyway, glad I did, very inspirational movie, I felt at times I wanted to cry. It's so unique, its rare I think, I don't think many know about this movie, its no so big like Pixar or from a company I ever heard of, but its still great! I recommend this movie, good animation, funny at times, its worth a watch. I'm not sure if its on DVD but if it is, I'd buy it :) One thing I didn't understand was, the boy has cancer, and they kept telling him to believe and to have faith, how can faith change the cancer inside you, to fight it off? I guess it's because you never know what will happen, but hope for the best, but at the same time, not getting your hopes up or dashed dreams! Great movie, I love it!. A solid family movie good for the kids and adults. I gave this animation a high rating because it was kind of inspirational. As I watched the movie and listened to reasons Jack made for not being able to do the things it reminded of me and the reasons I make for not being able to do the things I wanted in my life. Reminded me of how safe I played everything and wanted to keep things status quo. It was great to watch Jack make a change in his perspective with help from Henry to expand the small world he lived in to one with more possibilities. Nowadays they don't make very many movies animation or otherwise to inspire one to expand and grow. Instead, we get lots of movies with special effects, violence, fear, survival, sex, vampires, etc.. So cheers for one focused on how to believe in possibilities outside your limitations. |
tt0078176 | Romeo & Juliet | The play, set in Verona, Italy, begins with a street brawl between Montague and Capulet servants who, like their masters, are sworn enemies. Prince Escalus of Verona intervenes and declares that further breach of the peace will be punishable by death. Later, Count Paris talks to Capulet about marrying his daughter Juliet, but Capulet asks Paris to wait another two years and invites him to attend a planned Capulet ball. Lady Capulet and Juliet's nurse try to persuade Juliet to accept Paris's courtship.
Meanwhile, Benvolio talks with his cousin Romeo, Montague's son, about Romeo's recent depression. Benvolio discovers that it stems from unrequited infatuation for a girl named Rosaline, one of Capulet's nieces. Persuaded by Benvolio and Mercutio, Romeo attends the ball at the Capulet house in hopes of meeting Rosaline. However, Romeo instead meets and falls in love with Juliet. Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, is enraged at Romeo for sneaking into the ball but is only stopped from killing Romeo by Juliet's father, who does not wish to shed blood in his house. After the ball, in what is now called the "balcony scene", Romeo sneaks into the Capulet orchard and overhears Juliet at her window vowing her love to him in spite of her family's hatred of the Montagues. Romeo makes himself known to her and they agree to be married. With the help of Friar Laurence, who hopes to reconcile the two families through their children's union, they are secretly married the next day.
Tybalt, meanwhile, still incensed that Romeo had sneaked into the Capulet ball, challenges him to a duel. Romeo, now considering Tybalt his kinsman, refuses to fight. Mercutio is offended by Tybalt's insolence, as well as Romeo's "vile submission", and accepts the duel on Romeo's behalf. Mercutio is fatally wounded when Romeo attempts to break up the fight. Grief-stricken and wracked with guilt, Romeo confronts and slays Tybalt.
Montague argues that Romeo has justly executed Tybalt for the murder of Mercutio. The Prince, now having lost a kinsman in the warring families' feud, exiles Romeo from Verona, under penalty of death if he ever returns. Romeo secretly spends the night in Juliet's chamber, where they consummate their marriage. Capulet, misinterpreting Juliet's grief, agrees to marry her to Count Paris and threatens to disown her when she refuses to become Paris's "joyful bride". When she then pleads for the marriage to be delayed, her mother rejects her.
Juliet visits Friar Laurence for help, and he offers her a potion that will put her into a deathlike coma for "two and forty hours". The Friar promises to send a messenger to inform Romeo of the plan so that he can rejoin her when she awakens. On the night before the wedding, she takes the drug and, when discovered apparently dead, she is laid in the family crypt.
The messenger, however, does not reach Romeo and, instead, Romeo learns of Juliet's apparent death from his servant Balthasar. Heartbroken, Romeo buys poison from an apothecary and goes to the Capulet crypt. He encounters Paris who has come to mourn Juliet privately. Believing Romeo to be a vandal, Paris confronts him and, in the ensuing battle, Romeo kills Paris. Still believing Juliet to be dead, he drinks the poison. Juliet then awakens and, finding Romeo dead, stabs herself with his dagger. The feuding families and the Prince meet at the tomb to find all three dead. Friar Laurence recounts the story of the two "star-cross'd lovers". The families are reconciled by their children's deaths and agree to end their violent feud. The play ends with the Prince's elegy for the lovers: "For never was a story of more woe/Than this of Juliet and her Romeo." | tragedy, romantic | train | wikipedia | He seemed much older than Juliet, too, which would be interesting if it were part of the play but it isn't.Much more affecting were Juliet herself, the Nurse, and old Capulet.
I couldn't help comparing Mercutio and Friar Laurence unfavorably with their Zeffirelli counterparts.It was nice to get more of the dialogue than some other film versions preserve, but on the other hand some of the cuts took away familiar lines and such cuts are always jarring..
Alan Rickman is good, but others are too.
I liked it better than what was then the latest movie version, because the movie cut out too many lines.
I'll admit that Alan Rickman made an excellent Tybalt, but that's not the only memorable performance in that production.
The big surprise for me was Celia Johnson as Juliet's nurse.
(It was years later, after her death, I believe, that I saw her in her most famous role in the David Lean movie "Brief Encounter".) It's been over twenty years since I've seen that TV production and I don't think I'll ever forget it..
Celia Johnson is good as the Nurse.
Michael Hordern is good as Capulet, though it's his usual neighing and whinnying and not a patch on his King Lear.
Alan Rickman is good as Tybalt, in the first of his "yuk" roles that would make him famous.
Christopher Strauli's Benvolio is sympathetic.The sets are pretty, if not stunning as in some of the other BBC Shakespeare's.And that's it.
Rebecca Saire turned 15 during production, and hasn't a clue about how to act Juliet - she opens her eyes real wide and whines every line in exactly the same way.
If I had a dagger, I would have offered it to them hours earlier.Anthony Andrews is unspeakable as Mercutio, a great shock if you remember his fine work in "Brideshead Revisited." He breaks the mirror of Shakespeare's verse into a thousand shards of two or three words each, and then shouts the fragments in as disconnected and unintelligible manner as possible.
However there is humor when in a later fight, Romeo apparently knees Tybalt right in the cobblers.
I have noted with some surprise the extremely negative criticism of many viewers who have commented on this version of Shakespeare's' famous play, particularly with regard to Patrick Ryecart's portrayal of Romeo.
I can see how his performance could be considered wooden but in my opinion he has managed, with some success, to bring about a much more naturalistic depiction of the character.Certainly, there are times when he should have perhaps brought out more emotion in his performance (such as the ballroom scene) but, for the most part, his understated portrayal works.
His Romeo is a complex character whose extreme emotional state is always writhing beneath the surface and bubbles up beautifully when the occasion demands it.
Whether it be expressions of rage or love, Ryecart manages to get it right what is perhaps the most faithful film version of this classic tragedy.Rebecca Saire, who for once has been well cast in a BBC production in terms of her character's age, performed well as Juliet.
Sweet yet sensitive, and deeply in love : a classic portrayal in a classical reading of Shakespeare.In terms of the other memorable cast members, Alan Rickman did a good (but not a great job) as Tybalt, and I think that certain other reviewers have overpraised his performance due simply to his later celebrity.
There is more to the character than his being simply broody (something which seems to be Rickman's essential reading of every role he plays).
Anthony Andrews was as crazy and eccentric as I imagine Mercutio being; and if there ever was a faithful portrayal of an Elizabethan father, Michael Hordern pulled it off with gusto.
Celia Johnson was great as a well-meaning and loving yet overly fussy Nurse.I enjoyed this production as a faithful version of the text without the overly dramatic nature of later film versions (particularly Luhrmann's).
I feel that the director has come as close as possible to a reading that Shakespeare would recognise.
A Fine Version of Shakespeare's Tragedy!.
Everybody knows the story of William Shakespeare's tragic love affair, Romeo and Juliet.
Rebecca Saire and Patrick Ryecart are perfectly cast as Juliet and Romeo.
Alan Rickman was great as Tybalt.
Sir Michael Hordern has a small role as Lord Capulet.
This is fine and faithful version able to be shown to high school students studying this play as part of the curriculum.
Another good performance of the greatest play ever written.
Rebecca Saire and Patrick Ryecart and quite interesting as the leads.
Saire gives a very good interpretation of Juliet and owns her scenes.
The play is not the romantic tragedy it is reputed to be.Perhaps the production values could have been better if it had not been filmed in the style of a 1970s BBC program.
Very good background music in the credits and the musicians in the party scene are playing authentic instruments.This performance is from the first two seasons of BBC Shakespeare and is shows the original purpose which seemed to be to sell the package to school libraries from class discussion.
Later they did more original interpretations of the plays and some of the actors in this are in the later plays; Ryecart, Michael Hordern, and Vernon Dobtcheff are the ones I saw..
Saw this Movie in College about 10 Years ago now in a Shakespeare class and Absolutely loved the movie and have been looking for this movie.
It's an Old Movie and yes the special effects are not great but is very true to Shakespeare and what you see would be more like what it would have actually been like when Shakespeare wrote the Play.
A movie true to Shakespeare true nature not a Hollywood version.
So in essentially you have almost gone back in time and watch it as if Shakespeare himself was directing it.
But your not going to get great special effects so if that what you looking for look more but if your looking for something that has stayed with the Nature and the spirit of Shakespeare this is your movie..
While not as atrocious as others have described it, this TV version of Romeo and Juliet leaves much to be desired.
No, what's lacking are riveting performances, primarily from the lovers themselves.Patrick Ryecart may be the most passionless Romeo I have ever seen.
He is the definition of bland, almost sleepwalking through his scenes, only coming alive during the part where he kills Tybalt in a fit of rage.
Rebbecca Saire does better as Juliet, but not by much.
Though she is the closest in age to her character than any other screen/TV actress I've ever seen (Saire was 14 at the time of filming, only a year older than Juliet is in the play), her portrayal of the character is too subdued and lacking in sexuality.Luckily, most of the supporting cast is passable, if not great.
There are only two standouts in the line-up: Anthony Andrews is an entertaining Mercutio and a young Alan Rickman makes for a wonderfully loathsome Tybalt.Honestly, this is probably my least favorite R&J screen adaptation thus far.
Though it does cut some of the text, it's prettier to look at and features more poignant, passionate performances than this lifeless TV movie..
I am bias as I am Shakespeares biggest fan and not a big critic on the various performances because I find every adaptation I see I enjoy because of the variety.
Which I think Shakespeare himself would also enjoy the wide different attempts at his works.
I enjoyed seeing Alan Rickman in hid first TV role.
If you are a true Shakespeare fan leave your eyes open and your opinions wide as I truly believe the great man himself would do exactly that 400 years on.I like all the BBC Shakespeare collection.Well done the Beeb !.
I watched this in high school and thought it was okay, not great, a little over-acted, but okay.
I am reviewing this because I just found out that Alan Rickman plays Tybalt in this.
In my opinion Alan plays the role with gusto and power.
Not over-acting like the other characters.
Some of the excisions in III.i (along with the staging of the sword fights in that scene) have the effect of presenting Tybalt as a less bellicose character than the full text suggests.The best performances are those of Michael Hordern (Capulet), Celia Johnson (Nurse), Anthony Andrews (Mercutio), Alan Rickman (Tybalt), and Joseph O'Conor (Friar Laurence).
None of those performances is impeccable, but each of them is at a high level.Rebecca Saire (Juliet) is not up to the demands of her role in some of the crucial scenes in the first half of the play, but she improves considerably after a mediocre rendering of the "Gallop apace" soliloquy.
Patrick Ryecart (Romeo) is excellent in the bedroom scene, but his performance otherwise ranges from poor in the early parts of the play to mediocre in the later parts.
Moreover, whereas Saire's physical appearance is just right for Juliet, Ryecart's physical appearance is unlikely to set aflutter the heart of any fourteen-year-old girl.The sword fights are staged more impressively than in any of the other BBC Shakespeare productions, and the sets are generally well crafted.
This production on the whole is pretty good, but it could have been excellent if the eponymous characters had been better portrayed..
Have to admit, this version disgraces Shakespeare upfront!
Juliet had good skills as a teen but she can't give emotional depth to her lines and we really can never connect to her.
It's still good to see if you're on the hunt to see every Romeo and Juliet ever made in the history of film.
For my first taste of Shakespeare on stage, I cannot believe what these people did to a perfectly good play.
-Let's start off with the good bit, shall we?-Alan Rickman is alright, although some of his dialog could have been delivered with more feeling.
The actor, while not only completely wooden and deadpan, could not read his lines with any gusto at all.
He was completely out of focus, had difficulty even looking Juliet in the face, and absolutely NO grace with the lines that he was given.
Juliet is almost passable, but she gives no depth to her character,and seems to be completely out of touch with the play.
I was forced to endure this half-baked production of Romeo and Juliet.
'Romeo and Juliet' is one of William Shakespeare's, one of the greatest and most important playwrights that ever lived, most famous plays and also one of my favourites of his and overall.
It is such a lovely, powerful story, that is the quintessential depiction of passionate love descending into tragedy perhaps, chock-full of iconic lines and speeches and characters hard to forget.The available versions of 'Romeo and Juliet' are variable, the best being the Zeffirelli and Leslie Howard versions.
Consider this 1978 BBC version, one of the BBC Shakespeare adaptations from the late 70s and early 80s (an interesting series of adaptations/performances but with both hits and misses), one of the weaker available versions of 'Romeo and Juliet' and one of the lesser adaptations of the series.
That is not saying that this 'Romeo and Juliet' is terrible, far from it.
It's most of the supporting cast that are the main reason to see it, so good in most cases that it brings the production up more than one star.
Michael Hordern plays Capulet with dignity and gusto, for me he was the best of the bunch, and Celia Johnson is a sympathetic and un-fussy nurse.
The most interesting piece of casting though is Alan Rickman pre-'Die Hard' (a landmark performance in a genre benchmark), who makes for a suitably loathsome Tybalt.
John Gielgud is interesting in a small role and Joseph O'Connor performs, if not completely lives, Friar Lawrence very well.
Even with the omissions, it is a faithful interpretation, is coherent and flows, the supporting actors clearly having a feel for Shakespeare and with evidence of experience.Visually, it is not exceptional and somewhat simple, have actually seen worse, but the simplicity works and doesn't look drab or ugly.
The staging has parts that are better than others, the ballroom, fight and tomb scenes fare best, even if the fight scenes are slightly balletic in places.However, a major problem is the performances of the two leads, a problem so major that it brings the production down significantly.
Apart from his rage and upset in the culmination of the big tragic fight scene, which was intensely moving, Patrick Ryecart is rather wooden and was in need of more expression and nuance as Romeo.
Rebecca Saire does have the advantage of being the most age appropriate Juliet of all the available versions and shows more emotion than Rycart (she does well in the tomb scene), but her inexperience shows in her mostly bland, wide-eyed and too subdued performance.Ryecart and Saire's chemistry doesn't properly ignite and the balcony scene completely lacks passion and comes over as very static.
Count me in as another person who found that Anthony Andrews doesn't work as Mercutio, he certainly seems to be having fun with the character but he really does overact in especially in the facial expressions that it gets tiring.On the whole, not a bad production but really could have been better.
Easily the best known of all the Shakespeare plays, it has been seriously let down here.
Shoddy direction, stagnant studio work and erratic performances spoil a fine tragedy.In the town of Verona, the Capulets and the Montagues have been feuding for centuries but tragedy is imminent when Romeo (Patrick Rycart), a Montague, falls in love with Juliet (Rebecca Saire), a Capulet.
Bloodshed soon erupts...The studio work, especially in daytime scenes, seriously stagnates the energy of the play.
The stage fighting looks horrendous, with far too much stretching and running around to be engaging.Patrick Ryecart is too lightweight to be a truly effective Romeo.
Rebecca Saire is too youthful to be a good Juliet - she captures the character's naiveté but a little more sassiness would have been welcome.The supporting roles don't fare much better.
Joseph O'Connor's Friar Laurence is fine but too many of his best lines have been cut.
Anthony Andrews' Mercutio belongs on stage and not on camera.
Alan Rickman, underplaying his role, has virtually no presence as Tybalt.
He did develop an edge and intensity to deliver some fine screen performances in later years, but that isn't in evidence here.
The Prince can be a fine role with his brief appearances but actor Lawrence Naismith fails to give the part any authority on camera.
Only Micheal Hordern, in probably his best role in this series, comes out of this with any dignity.
His Capulet is well-played and a joy to watch.See one of the other versions of this story instead..
The dreadful and dreaded drama had to come sooner or later and it is the twentieth play of that series we watch.
From the very start the star Juliet meets with the meteor Romeo in pure love, a tempestuous love at first sight that needs no explanation and accepts no excuse or no opposition.
They are young indeed since Juliet's age is lengthily discussed with plenty of humor from the nurse and some rather nostalgic pleasure from the mother.
Juliet is not yet fourteen and as the mother says some ladies of note in Verona at her age are already mothers of a child.But Shakespeare does not condescend to make that love story in any way lurid.
Juliet does not even want to bring the moon into their story because that moon is inconstant, and that is a key to Shakespeare's style and power.This moon and her three phases (in Shakespearean times it had only three phases), waxing, full and waning, is the most wicked character you can imagine.
The Capulet and their daughter Juliet are three and one will have to die.
And the play had started with the three social brawls and the three street battles caused by each of the two families.That couple is doomed because there will always be someone in-between the two lovers, good or bad, who will bring doom.
Tybalt wants to prevent the relation between Romeo and Juliet.
Three is trouble, three is drama because a third element, character or whatever, always jumps between the two lovers directly or indirectly, like the death of Tybalt between Juliet cousin to Tybalt and husband to Romeo but who is also cousin to Juliet and step-cousin to Romeo.But this play has another dimension that is a lot less known or considered.
This play is a tremendous pamphlet for the freedom of women in love, but also in life.
It is a feminist play before all ages and probably the best homage Shakespeare could deliver to his Queen and supporter Elizabeth I without being indecent or superfluously flattering.
That's the political dimension of this play, and it is also the best testimony England was advanced on all other countries at the end of the 16th century, at least 100 years ahead, and such dramas will only be put to the stage in France at the end of the 17th century, and in Germany with people like Goethe and Schiller one more century later, and the Italians will touch the problem essentially through religious Vespers, operas or other rites to Mary, Mary Magdalena and others starting at the end of the 1'th century in painting and in the 16th century with Monteverdi.This play has become a source of inspiration for many other artists in all arts and it is still played with the greatest success we can imagine, and this production by the BBC is quite in line with this fame and power, though maybe slightly too slow, but they preferred that to shortening some sections as many have done in the cinema particularly.FDr Jacques COULARDEAU |
tt0415949 | Keeping Up with the Steins | Benjamin Fiedler (Daryl Sabara) is the 13-year-old son of Jewish couple Adam and Joanne Fiedler (Jeremy Piven and Jami Gertz). After attending the elaborate bar mitzvah party for the son of Arnie Stein (Larry Miller) - which was done on a cruise ship, with a Titanic theme - Benjamin's parents decide to go all out for his bar mitzvah. The plan is to rent Dodger Stadium for the bar mitzvah party, complete with movie stars and everything. Adam even kombooks Neil Diamond to sing the National Anthem. However, Benjamin does not want to go through with it, as he does not even understand the words of the haftorah he has to read as part of his bar mitzvah rite. To try to stall the planning, he secretly invites his grandfather Irwin (Garry Marshall), who is now living on an Indian reservation with a New Age woman named Sacred Feather (Daryl Hannah). When Benjamin's grandfather arrives, it puts a kink in the planning - as Irwin had a falling out with his son Adam, both for having left Adam when he was a teenager, and for Adam's own humiliating bar mitzvah. Irwin must then pull off somehow reconciling with his son while helping his grandson deal with the question of what it means to be a "man."
Now appreciating his bar mitzvah not as an excuse to throw a party but rather as a rite of passage in his Jewish life, Benjamin gets up the courage to tell his parents to call off the over-the-top bash they had planned. After he does very well at the service the party is just a casual backyard affair with lunch, a klezmer band (with a guest-star singer and guitarist, as Adam "couldn't cancel Neil Diamond") and lots of family and friends. | satire | train | wikipedia | Interesting thing about having seen 'Keeping Up with the Steins' on a Sunday at Fallbrook in the Valley - there was a fieldtrip of some school that had seen fit to come see the film as a group, then hold a sort of Q&A in the lobby.
I love being in a full theatre when going to a film, particularly a comedy as you'll get laughs out of people that become infectious and actually make seeing the film that much better of an experience.Another interesting thing about the 'Steins' film: while Jeremy Piven and the young hero of the film are the driving characters, the lasting memories of a film-goer actually belong to Gary Marshall & Doris Roberts.
Marshall delivers the father figure as likable to an audience as the characters he created on network television back in the 70's.One more interesting thing about the 'Steins': you don't have to be Jewish to appreciate the humor, you just have to recognize the strengths and failings of every human being represented in these characters..
There is more than one person coming-of-age.In a nutshell, it is the story of an angst-ridden thirteen year old boy whose troubles are doubled by his pending bar mitzvah.His father (Jeremy Piven) is a Hollywood agent intent on turning the bar mitzvah into a recruiting event to keep and grow his client base.
This is complicated when his former partner, played by Larry Miller, throws a mega bar mitzvah for his own son, with the same intention in mind.Piven's angst at creating the perfect bar mitzvah/recruitment event is made worse by the arrival of his hippy-like father (Gary Marshall), who is attached to an early 40-something New Ager (Daryl Hannah) and teaching English to children on the Navajo reservation.
Marshall's and Piven's characters are estranged, the father having walked out on Piven and his mother (Doris Roberts) 26 years earlier.We have an angst-ridden triangle between the three men: grandfather, father, and grandson.
(And I won't venture a guess, because I don't want to spoil the ending for anybody.) Go back and watch how Chaplin created and then unknotted tension in "City Lights", how Sam Woods did it in "A Night at the Opera", how Marshall did it in "The Flamingo Kid" (another coming-of-age story), or even how it's done in the simplest episode of Piven's "Entourage".
We saw this in a small art house movie and I gotta tell you, they should make a heck of a lot more movies like "Keeping Up With the Steins" than the big block-buster movies which everybody sees and are basically wastes of time.
This will not be a big market high grossing film, but if what you want is true entertainment and a feel good movie do not miss this.
Well, if you call attempts at reading Hebrew "Jewish".The Fiedlers are trying to one-up the Steins post-Bar Mitzvah party.
But none the less I am convinced that you will find this movie funny if you are Jewish.
As a coming of age story I would give it a 5 but as a Jewish comedy I would give it a 9, so that brings us to a seven.
Jermey is funny as always and a couple camio roles that I don't wish to reveal really brings the whole movie together and at the same time has you brawling in your seats..
His grandfather left his son and wife for another life where he teaches on the Navajo Indian reservation in New Mexico with his new younger girlfriend played by Daryl Hannah.
Anyway, the story about the coming of age and how unconventional grandfather relates to his conventional son and his family is worth watching.
Garry Marshall clearly must have called in a lot of favors to get this film made for his son, as we see Darryl Hannah, Richard Benjamin, and Neil Diamond being dragged into this eminently forgettable film.The plot was alternately clichéd and incredibly unrealistic.
Keeping Up With the Steins-A Return to Basic Jewish Bar Mitzvahs***.
This comedy hits it right on the head detailing that the idea of the Bar Mitzvah in the Jewish religion has been long-lost.
In addition to the obvious plot, we are subjected to an estranged relationship by a father's abandonment of his family 26 years before and his attempt to reestablish a relationship with his bitter son at the time of his grandson's Bar Mitzvah celebration.Nice seeing Richard Benjamin back in films after many years behind the camera.
The movie is about a boy about to have a bar mitzvah and his internal struggles he goes through.
Keeping Up With the Steins deals touches on that and the kid's father trying to out do his neighbors and prove he's doing better than those who failed him in his life.
There isn't much more you can say about the plot, than that.The performances here are better than adequate, and the direction seems competent enough, but the truth be told, this movie doesn't seem to know whether it wants to be a comedy, a drama, or some uneven measure of both.
Piven and his dad (played by Garry Marshall, dad of director Scott Marshall) have their bitter moments, but for the most part it is played pretty straightforward as a coming of age comedy with more adult roles than usual.Daryl Sabara plays 13 year old Benjamin Fiedler, who is preparing for his bar Mitzi's, the rite to manhood in the Jewish religion.
"Helping" him are Richard Benjamin as his Rabbi and his long lost grandfather played by the charming Garry Marshall, who shows up with his significantly younger hippie girlfriend played by Daryl Hannah (the second "Kill Bill" reference of the film).
Benjamin is a wreck as his parents compete with the Stein's over the size of the party, while he dreads the chants that must be performed in front of the audience.The best scenes are between Marshall and Sabara, but Piven delivers his usual fine work as the bitter dad/grown-up son.
The film opens on a half-million dollar party with a "Titanic" theme on a real cruise ship, complete with the young man of the hour at the bow of a mock cruise ship sailing through icebergs, spreading his wings and screaming to the world, "I am the King of the Torah!" From that tasteful opening, the preparations for the next bar mitzvah celebration become a tad ostentatious.
There are a few moments when we silently scream, "Ouch!" Who wants outsiders seeing us at less than our best?Garry Marshall as the granddad invited back into the family after decades away is the voice of sanity who swims naked and tells truths.
Daryl Sabara as the about-to-be Stein bar mitzvah, is wonderful: capable of a wide range of believable emotions.
This is actually a nice film, and probably a very good family film that you can let teens see and they won't be bored/embarrassed (like "cheaper by the dozen").
Being Jewish myself, this film reminded me a lot of my Bar Mitzvah and how crazy things get!
The Child is The Father of The Man. This endearing movie is a coming of age film in an upper upper middle class family in a Jewish neighborhood in LA.
Of course his friend Zachary Stein (Carter Jenkins)who precedes Ben warns "this doesn't mean you can drink or drive a car.The Stern family threw a lavish affair with a movie theme based upon the Titanic.
Adam Fielder (Jeremy Piven) is not a little sore that his own bar mitzvahs was a subdued affair and that his father Irwin Fiedler (Garry Marshall) deserted the family.Religion and the meaning of the rite has taken a back seat to the planning of an extravagant event.
As Dad bristles with a contempt grandma Rose (Doris Roberts) cannot bring herself to bear, grandpa with his ding-a-ling left-over hippie girlfriend Sacred Feather sets up his rusty RV on the driveway depreciating the property values.Can Ben and Grandpa Irwin set the ceremony back on track?There is an excellent performance of Richard Benjamin as Rabbi Schulberg.While there is a gratuitous nudie scene when grandpa goes skinny dipping in the Fielder's pool with Sacred Feather, the film is excellent family comedy which speaks to a universal theme, the importance of simplicity and the eloquence of understatement.
Adam (Jeremy Piven) and Joanne Fiedler (Jami Gertz) have their son Benjamin (Daryl Sabara)'s bar mitzvah coming up.
They attend Adam's former best friend and Hollywood agent partner Arnie Stein (Larry Miller)'s son Zachary's grand bar mitzvah.
He doesn't like his parents' outlandish plans and invites his wacky estranged grandfather Irwin (Garry Marshall) who is living with Sacred Feather (Daryl Hannah) on an Indian reservation.This dysfunctional family is wacky.
The plot revolves around a young Jewish boy who is about to go through his bar mitzvah.
The performance of Daryl Sabara (playing Benjamin), Jeremy Piven (playing Benjamin's dad) and Garry Marshall (playing Benjamin's grandfather) really carried the movie amazingly well, and they made it worth watching the movie.Story-wise then "Keeping Up With the Steins" is adequate, but I am not overly familiar with Jewish customs and traditions, so how well the movie translates to real life I have no idea of.However, this is the type of movie that you watch once, then am likely to never watch it again.
A film full of great "turns", cleverly cast, performed with brio and written with wry, sly wit and not a little satire--KEEPING UP WITH THE STEINS was a delightful discovery on late-night BBC TV -Channel 1-where it was screened ,mid-week, in its entirety without any commercial breaks and with its closing credits surprisingly intact.This social and family comedy,dating from 2006,was apparently released in the UK in 2009,and has an amazing roster of talents on screen.It casts the traditional US-movie-theme of "I love you,Father" within a sharply-observed showbiz milieu,as well as setting it amusingly in a very specific community.To see it programmed here on nationwide TV made a timely riposte, in view of certain events across the other English Channel.....
It's really a sweet little story about a boy who tries to reconcile his embittered father with his paternal grandfather, who disappeared from his family's life for many years and has only recently reappeared.
Nothing's really new here, and while the material may not have been enough to sustain a theatrical film, it's a nice little time-waster if it shows up on TV.
Keeping up with the Steins is about a young Jewish boy named Fiedler in the days leading up to his bar mitzvah who learns what becoming a Jewish young adult is all about.
An additional plot point is the initial scenes as everyone is taking part in the Steins bar mitzvah on a cruise ship very expensive and intricate planning.
You'd think a movie about a boy and his bar mitzvah would a) be a coming of age story and b) be a bit opaque to those not of the faith.
This is how the movie opens and no spoiler here as it is in the trailer with the Steins' son Zach's (Carter Jenkins) flamboyant bar mitzvah on a cruise ship.
Adam Fiedler (Jeremy Piven) is a successful Hollywood agent and used to work for Arnie Stein (Larry Miller).
Adam wants his son Benjamin's (Daryl Sabara) bar mitzvah to outclass Zach's.
Now Irwin is back in Adam's life because Benjamin invited him to the bar mitzvah and - well- sparks fly.
Oddly, the story about how outlandish Benjamin's bar mitzvah party could be is secondary but is where the laughs are.
You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy this heartwarming, funny movie about a Hollywood agent Adam Fiedler and his nearly-13-year-old son Benjamin.
When their neighbors, the Steins, throw an over-the-top Bar Mitzvah party with the theme the movie Titanic, Adam plans to top the Steins with a baseball blast at Dodger Stadium.
Benjamin, not sure what he really wants but resentful of his father's bluster, secretly invites his grandfather to come to the party--two weeks early.
You see familiar faces such as Doris Roberts, Garry Marshall, Richard Benjamin, Darryl Hannah, and Larry Miller, as well as Jeremy Piven, Jami Gertz, and Daryl Sabara as Adam, Joanne, and Benjamin Fiedler.
The film is actually about a broken family, forced together on the eve of a child's Bar Mitzvah.
Benjamin Fiedler (Daryl Sabara) is turning 13, which in the Jewish religion means that he is about to become a man.
Jeremy Piven stars as the son and believe it or not he's a big time Hollywood agent, living in a life of luxury.
The star of the film is Spy Kids, Daryl Sabara, who I have never liked.
The family reminded me a lot of the movie The Other Sister, funny, sweet, touching, mega moms.
So I saw this movie, not really knowing what it was about, and even then I was disappointed.First off, a lot of what they do relating to the actual bar mitzvah is simply wrong.
They call it "Keeping Up with the Steins", open up with a Stein bar mitzvah, then ignore them for the entire movie until the very end.
How about "get over it, this day is about your son, deal with your issues later." The day of the bar mitzvah is not the time to let that happen.Also, someone rediscovering Judaism, learning his Haftarah, and doing all that other stuff in less than a week?
This *seemed* like such a good idea.While most Jewish parents try to give their kids a nice bar/bat mitzvah--because this is such an important event in an observant Jew's life--there are a few who go to extremes, as exemplified by Zachary Stein's parents at the beginning of the film.
Rather, it seems to end up centering largely on the unfunny Garry Marshall character, Irwin Fiedler (the Bar Mitzvah boy's grandfather).Turns out Grandpa Fiedler ditched his family years ago--it's not clear if he ever paid child support, but it's a safe bet he didn't, seeing as how he couldn't seem to earn money back then, a major bone of contention in his marriage to Grandma Fiedler--and his son (the Bar Mitzvah boy's father, Adam, played by Jeremy Piven) remains resentful about having been abandoned.The movie, IMHO, tries to drum up a bit of sympathy for Grandpa Irwin, portraying him as a good, decent guy in several uninspired scenes where he helps his grandson.
When we first meet the people in this mildly funny movie, they are in the middle of a bar mitzvah with a Titanic theme.
This party cost about half a million dollars to Arnie Stein, a Hollywood type that can well afford it.As Benjamin's own bar mitzvah approaches, his parents, Adam and Joanne Fiedler must make a decision about how big a party they want, and what theme will their son choose.
Little prepares him for the character his grandfather turns out to be.Irwin, who left his family when Adam at a young age, comes to town with his New Age-type girlfriend, who goes by the name of Saved Feather, to stay at his son's mansion.
The old man is a changed man and his love for his newly found family serves to get Adam's forgiveness.Scott Marshall, the director, who is the son of Garry Marshall, follows in his own father's foot steps and finds his way into this ethnic comedy that shows how people must compete with one another to show who is the one giving the best and most elaborate party, something that probably the children feel too overwhelmed, as it's the case with Benjamin.
The film points out to basic problems in our society in which we must outdo our friends, and even our own family, in order to prove we are superior, or just to prove we have more money than they.Garry Marshall steals the show with his Irwin.
Larry Miller and Richard Benjamin are seen in supporting roles.Much has been said about this comedy as far as being targeted to Jews, but in our experience, not being Jewish, we found it speaks a universal language and people of other backgrounds will enjoy it as well..
His bar mitzvah really did become his coming of (religious) age ceremony, not just a preliminary to an over-the-top party.
However, this movie did show the kid "Benjamin" as a dynamic character who did grow and change for the better.
A fairly powerful man in the entertainment (read: movie) business, who has been a poor father to a son that is fairly incompetent at life.
The "films" in this story are bar mitzvah parties, and the one we are competing with is (no fooling) "Titanic." You'll insert yourself as the apologetic grandfather, newly full of wisdom about the meaning of life (because of experience on an Indian reservation).
Mom is played capably by Jami Gertz.The movie was directed by a Marshall, and it was nice seeing Garry Marshall in a featured role as the Fiedler grandpa who, long estranged, shows up with a young girlfriend (Daryl Hannah).Always reliable Doris Roberts is the grandma Rose Fiedler.
And they had just shown X Men 3 (its a 6 hour flight) and up pops the Jewish kid talking about his Bar Mitzvah, MAN!
I started looking around to see if anyone was like gonna freak out because this movie is unmistakably Jewish!
It's no American Pie because the kid is only 13 and its really not for kids, so this movie is really hard to like a whole lot, but I did watch it through because I was on a flight and I chuckled a little.
Most of the first half hour of the film is boring and not very funny, mostly low brow gags, especially Garry Marshall's nude scene.
So it comes across like a long sitcom instead of a movie..
Great Little (Jewish) Film.
It SO reminds me of my own family and what it was like when I had my Bar-Mitzvah, not that mine was as elaborate but the FAMILY dysfunction was told with sensitivity and humor and is very authentic for many Jewish families. |
tt0089869 | The Quiet Earth | 5 July begins as a normal winter morning near Hamilton, New Zealand. At 6:12 a.m., the Sun darkens for a moment, and a red light surrounded by darkness is briefly seen.
Zac Hobson (Bruno Lawrence) is a scientist working for Delenco, part of an international consortium working on "Project Flashlight", an experiment to create a global energy grid. He awakens abruptly; when he turns on his radio, he is unable to receive any transmissions. Zac gets dressed and drives into the deserted city. Investigating a fire, he discovers the wreckage of a passenger jet, but there are no bodies, only empty seats.
He enters his underground laboratory; a monitor displays the message "Project Flashlight Complete". The mass disappearance seems to coincide with the moment Flashlight was activated. He notes on his tape recorder:
"Zac Hobson, July 5th. One: there has been a malfunction in Project Flashlight with devastating results. Two: it seems I am the only person left on Earth."
From this point onward, Zac refers to the crucial moment and its result as "The Effect".
After several days, his mental state begins to deteriorate. He puts on a woman's slip and alternates between exhilaration and despair. Eventually he breaks down altogether. He assembles cardboard cutouts of famous people (including Adolf Hitler, Elizabeth II, and Pope John Paul II) and addresses them from a balcony. He declares himself "President of this Quiet Earth", then goes on a rampage. He later bursts into a church and shoots a statue of Jesus off a crucifix. After accidentally crushing an empty pram, he puts the barrel of a shotgun in his mouth, but changes his mind when he witnesses an explosion resulting from his destruction.
He settles into a more normal routine. One morning, a young woman named Joanne (Alison Routledge) appears. Zac is attracted to her, and after a few days together they have sex. They decide to scour the countryside for other survivors.
They find a third survivor, a large Māori man named Api (Pete Smith). The three determine why they survived: at the instant of The Effect, they were all at the moment of death—Api was being drowned in a fight, Joanne was electrocuted by a faulty hairdryer, and Zac had overdosed on pills in a suicide attempt. He had realized there were serious dangers with the experiment and was guilt-ridden for not speaking out.
A love triangle develops, but Zac is more concerned about his observations: several universal physical constants are changing, causing the Sun's output to fluctuate. Zac fears that The Effect will occur again and decides to destroy the Delenco facility in an attempt to stop it.
The three put aside their personal conflicts and drive a truckload of explosives to the installation, only to be stopped at the perimeter when Zac detects dangerous levels of ionising radiation emanating from the plant. He says that he will go to town to retrieve a remote control device that will allow them to send the truck into the facility.
While Zac is gone, Joanne and Api have sex. Afterward, Api tells Joanne that he will sacrifice himself by driving the truck; he doubts that Zac's device will be capable of controlling the vehicle. They then hear the truck and realise that Zac did not go to town after all. He drives the truck onto the weakened roof of the underground portion of the laboratory, which collapses. Just as the effect reaches a maximum, he triggers the explosives.
Once again a red light is seen surrounded by the dark tunnel. Zac finds himself lying face down on a beach. There are strange cloud formations, resembling waterspouts, rising out of the ocean. As he walks to the water's edge, an enormous ringed planet slowly appears over the horizon. Zac stares in disbelief, then realises he is still holding his tape recorder. He lifts it up as if to speak, then lowers it, completely bewildered.
=== Ambiguous ending ===
The precise meaning of the final scene is left to the audience. In his commentary on the Umbrella Entertainment DVD release, writer/producer Sam Pillsbury states, "...we all thought it was quite simple; I mean, our intention was just that, what happened was, he died at the moment of the effect for a second time and he's now found himself in another world, what the hell's he gonna do...", he then says, more or less jokingly, that director Geoff Murphy being "a Catholic or lapsed Catholic, [it] may well have been something to do with purgatory, and y'know, you being trapped in cyclical and going back into having to relive your thing until you work out your karma, [something; possibly 'if I'm not'] mixing my metaphors; anyway, enigmatic is good, I think, to a certain extent..." | cult, alternate reality, psychedelic, romantic, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0045573 | Born to the Saddle | Bent on revenge for the death of his father and the theft of their ranch, young Bill Walton rides into town seeking the aid of his uncle. As he rides into town, he takes a bullet meant for gambler Matt Daggett and across the street lies his uncle, victim of the gambler's gun. Dagget looks on Bill as 'good luck' and nurses him back to health and gives him the job of training "Blue Chip", the fastest quarter horse in the west, for a big race. Bill doesn't know that Dagget plans to fix the race and put his own money on another horse at heavy odds. Quartered at the nearby ranch of John Grant, Bill meets Jerri Marshall, daughter of Bob Marshall, who lost "Blue Chip" to Daggett in a crooked gambling deal. Grant gets mixed up in a stage coach robbery and killing and rides back to the ranch with Daggett henchman Red Roper. When Roper tries to molest a woman, Bill bluffs him with an empty gun and forces him back to town. Roper is arrested for the killing and implicates Grant. Incited by Daggett, who fears exposure as the outlaw leader, a paid mob breaks into the jail and both Grant and Roper are hanged, but Grant, barely able to touch a plank with the toe of his boot, clings to life until Bill finds him and cuts him down. On the day of the race, Daggett lures Bill away from "Blue Chip" long enough for a wire to be twisted around the horse's leg at the fetlock. "Blue Chip" goes lane partly through the race but races on in agony and wins. Daggett tries to hide his treachery by blaming the lameness on a broken leg and draws his gun to shoot the horse. Marshall intervenes and is shot by the gambler. Bill discovers the wire and now also knows that Daggett is the outlaw leader responsible for his father's death and the hanging of his friend Grant. Bill heads for the saloon to confront Daggett. Just as the gambler turns to fire on Bill, Grant appears. When the smoke clears both Daggett and Grant are dead. | revenge | train | wikipedia | Amazing!.
I thought this film was so well done.
This is a tale of young man growing up trying to make sense of it all.
After his uncle is killed by a mover and shaker named Matt Daggett in town, Young Billy (played amazingly by Chuck Courtney) gets shot by his uncle which was meant for Daggett!
Daggett and his wife take Billy in, and nurse him back to health.
After realizing he doesn't have anywhere to go, Mrs. Daggett wants to keep him, while Mr. Daggett wants to get rid of him.
He shleps him off to a close friend of his named Grant.
Luckily, Grant has a horse that Billy immediately takes a shine to!
He then immediately starts to train the horse for The Big Race.
Problem is, Daggett doesn't want the horse to win...There's lots of twists and turns in this one, all of it is quite engaging and fun.
Donald Woods, who plays Daggett, is quite great in this as his character become a real asshole.
There are some bits of spousal abuse in this, which is quite surprising for a film of this type, but it really adds to the character of course.
Chuck Courtney is the lead here, and he's just great.
Reminds me of an older Brandon DeWilde (after Shane).Print is somewhat contrasty in some places but all in all, quite in great shape.
Don't miss this one!.
Fine little black & white western from the '50's..
This movie really ain't anything too spectacular but it's a pleasant enough western to watch.It's a pleasantly slow going movie (which western isn't?) and takes it time to set up things and characters.
Granted that it doesn't have the most interesting story or main character but it's all good enough to maintain your interest throughout.
It's not a movie that bores, even though not an awful lot is happening.
So just don't expect any long big gun fights or anything of that sort.
It's a pretty 'innocent' sort of western.It doesn't have an all too common main story for a western, which is also involving domestic violence and an horse race, among other things.
This is a sort of a 'pleasant' change and approach to the genre.
It works out original, since the movie starts off as your typical revenge flick but in the end the story has a whole lot more in it.
It however on the other hand at times also means that this movie isn't the most interesting the genre has to offer.Guess it's a sort of a pointless redundant movie to watch but when you do watch it you most likely won't be bored or regret it, especially of course when your a fan of the western genre and western's from the '40's/'50's in particular.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
Great story with good performances and directing, and even better riding.
Even though he had been in 13 movies before "Born to the Saddle," he was credited here with "Introducing Chuck Courtney."Chuck Courtney was by no means the biggest name, and he didn't carry off the acting honors, but he was quite obviously the real rider and real stunt rider: Part of what earns "Born to the Saddle" a 10-star rating was Courtney's trick mounts.Was he a born Westerner?
Well, yes: He was born in Los Angeles.
And you can't be born much farther west.I always hate to admit to any lack of knowledge when it comes to Western movies, but I had not heard of him before watching this YouTube movie in April of 2017.
Since watching him in this, I did a bit of research.
Chuck Courtney was a busy actor, in movies and TV, with such roles as the Lone Ranger's nephew, and as Davod in "Star Trek."And he did a lot of stunts, obviously, judging from his performance in "Born to the Saddle," a very talented horse-man.He was very ably accompanied in this movie by the beloved Rand Brooks, who might be most famous for either his role as Scarlett O'Hara's first husband in "Gone With the Wind," or his role as Corporal Boone in the TV series "Adventures of Rin Tin Tin."In my opinion, though, he out-did himself in "Born to the Saddle," playing a much tougher character than usual, and deserving all the praise he can get.There were three strong women roles, the youngest being played by Dolores Prest, about whom nothing is known here, but she was really cute, very outgoing, and deserving, judging from this only known role, to have been a star.Karen Morley was the central female, vied for by both of the male characters played by Donald Woods and Leif Ericson -- and all three kept our attention."Born to the Saddle" had an excellent story, by Gordon Young, with many levels of interesting characters, all well played and well directed.There are several versions of this movie at YouTube, including one in the original Cinecolor, but it's jumpy and hard to watch.
Do sample all the versions and find the one that plays best, but do watch "Born to the Saddle." You should be impressed and pleased..
Darn you, Daggett!.
Considering that this was a low-budget western, I was shocked how good it was.
While some might find it all a bit hokey, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this one.When the film begins, a young man arrives in a strange town.
He's looking for his uncle and accidentally walks into the middle of a shootout with his uncle and another man.
In the process, young Bill (Chuck Courtney) is shot but he saves the life of the gambler, Matt Daggett (Donald Woods).
Daggett seems to appreciate this and helps the young man during his recuperation...too bad Daggett is a wolf in sheep's clothing!
Through the course of the film, Bill starts to see Daggett's true side...and a showdown between them appears inevitable...especially since Bill is such an honest and earnest young man.The film has a lot of surprises.
Sure, it has a few of the usual B-western clichés...but it also violates many of them and offers some nice surprises.
Overall, a very good and shockingly enjoyable picture.By the way, although this film apparently was originally in color, the copy I got from archive.org was black & white.
Also, I noticed folks with balloons in the film and assumed they were a rather recent invention.
However, I checked and they developed them in 1824...so this isn't an anachronism..
Blue Chip Special.
For a C film western that was independently produced with a scarcity of production values Born To The Saddle turned out not so bad.
Some second line performers were in this one and one of them broke his usual typecasting.The protagonist of the story is young Chuck Courtney who is coming to town looking for his uncle.
The uncle is looking however toward crooked gambler Donald Woods and Courtney steps in the way and takes a slug from his uncle's gun meant for Woods whereupon Woods kills him.
After that Woods kind of adopts Courtney and since Courtney and his late father used to break and train wild stallions, Woods has Courtney training a new colt he has named Blue Chip.There's a big race that Woods is planning to fix and Courtney is a small part in some long range schemes.
Woods also has a few other crooked irons in the fire as well.Woods was always a competent actor, but was usually typecast in nice guy roles as the hero's best friend.
Here he does something completely offbeat and isn't half bad.Karen Morley made her farewell big screen appearance the wife of Donald Woods who we would now call a 'battered spouse'.
Morley and husband Lloyd Gough were blacklisted and this was the only work she could get, away from the big studios.
Her role is not fully developed and she makes the best of what she was given.Born To The Saddle could use some restoration.
Hopefully someone who wants to preserve the work of Karen Morley might finance the effort. |
tt0061098 | To Trap a Spy | U.N.C.L.E. suspects that the U.S. industrialist and tycoon Andrew Vulcan, an officer of WASP (an international criminal organization), plans to kill Prime Minister Ashumen of the newly independent African nation of Western Natumba. Solo is assigned by Mr. Allison, the head of U.N.C.L.E., to thwart the assassination and find out why it was planned. Solo thereafter recruits Elaine May Donaldson, a college girlfriend of Vulcan's and who is now a suburban housewife, to help get information from Vulcan on his plans. Solo's thought is that only a personal connection can obtain the information, and Vulcan has neither wife nor close friends. Elaine is given the cover story of being a wealthy widow and is able to not only get Solo the details of the assassination plot, but drugs Ashumen so he is unable to take the tour of Vulcan’s factory which Solo believes will result in Ashumen’s death. Vulcan’s target, though, turns out to be two of Ashumen’s ministers who do not agree with his plans for having Vulcan set up factories in his country. With Ashumen as Premier and Vulcan running the primary industry there, Western Natumba would become a puppet nation of WASP. After a run-in (and brief romantic tryst) with WASP agent Angela, Solo finds out the truth, is captured along with Elaine, and left to die in what is supposed to look like an industrial accident. Solo and Elaine escape, rescue the ministers, and Ashumen and Vulcan die instead in the “accident” they themselves set up. Elaine is returned to her normal life, which she appreciates all the more after the excitement and danger of an U.N.C.L.E. adventure. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0111280 | Star Trek: Generations | In the year 2293, retired Captain James T. Kirk, Montgomery Scott, and Pavel Chekov attend the maiden voyage of the Federation starship USS Enterprise-B, under the command of the unseasoned Capt. John Harriman. During the voyage, Enterprise is pressed into a rescue mission to save two El-Aurian ships from a strange energy ribbon. Enterprise is able to save some of the refugees before their ships are destroyed, but the starship becomes trapped in the ribbon. Kirk goes to deflector control to alter the deflector dish, allowing Enterprise to escape, but the trailing end of the ribbon rakes across Enterprise's hull, exposing the section Kirk is in to space; he is presumed dead.
In 2371, the crew of the USS Enterprise-D celebrate the promotion of Worf to Lieutenant Commander. Captain Jean-Luc Picard receives a message that his brother and nephew were killed in a fire, meaning the storied Picard family line will end with him. Enterprise receives a distress call from an observatory in orbit of the star Amargosa, where they rescue the El-Aurian Dr. Tolian Soran. The android Data and engineer Geordi La Forge discover a compound called trilithium in a hidden room of the observatory. Soran appears, knocks La Forge unconscious, and launches a trilithium solar probe at Amargosa. The probe causes the star to implode, sending a shock wave toward the observatory. Soran and La Forge are transported away by a Klingon Bird of Prey belonging to the treacherous Duras sisters, who had stolen the trilithium for Soran in exchange for the designs for a trilithium weapon. Data is rescued just before the station is destroyed by the shock wave.
Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), Enterprise's bartender, tells Captain Jean-Luc Picard more about Soran; they were among the El-Aurians rescued by the Enterprise-B in 2293. Guinan explains that Soran is obsessed with reentering the "Nexus", an extra-dimensional realm where time has no meaning and anyone can experience whatever they desire. Picard and Data determine that Soran, unable to fly a ship into the ribbon due to the uncertainty that the ship will survive long enough to ensure his success, is instead altering the path of the ribbon by destroying stars, and that he will attempt to re-enter the Nexus on Veridian III by destroying its sun—and, by extension, a heavily populated planet in the system.
Upon entering the Veridian system, Enterprise makes contact with the Duras Bird of Prey. Picard offers himself to the sisters in exchange for La Forge, but insists that he be transported to Soran's location first. La Forge is returned to Enterprise, but he inadvertently reveals Enterprise's shield frequency, allowing the Duras sisters to inflict crippling damage on Enterprise. Enterprise destroys the Bird of Prey, but has sustained irreversible damage to its warp core. Commander William Riker orders an evacuation to the forward saucer section of the ship which separates from the star drive. The shock wave from the star drive's destruction sends the saucer crashing to the surface of Veridian III.
Picard fails to talk Soran out of his plan and is too late to stop him from launching his missile. The collapse of the Veridian star alters the course of the Nexus ribbon as predicted, and it sweeps Picard and Soran away while the shock wave from the star obliterates everything in the system. In the Nexus, Picard finds himself surrounded by the family he never had, including a wife and children, but realizes it is an illusion. He is confronted by an "echo" of Guinan. After being told that he may leave whenever he chooses and go wherever and whenever he wishes, Guinan sends him to meet Kirk, also safe in the Nexus. Though Kirk is at first reluctant to leave, Picard convinces Kirk to return to Picard's present and stop Soran by assuring him that it will fulfill his desire to make a difference.
Leaving the Nexus, the two arrive on Veridian III minutes before Soran launches the missile. Kirk distracts Soran long enough for Picard to lock the missile in place, causing it to explode on the launchpad and kill Soran. Kirk is fatally injured by a fall during the encounter; as he dies, Picard assures him that he made a difference. Picard buries Kirk before a shuttle arrives to transport him to the wreckage of the Enterprise saucer. Three Federation starships enter orbit to retrieve Enterprise's survivors. | cult | train | wikipedia | Even though Star Trek will always work better as a TV Series, this is actually a very good film and I'll explain why below.Originally I wasn't too fussed on the film because I was an avid Trekkie who had loved 'The Undiscovered Country', had been a huge fan of the TNG series and remembered that Scotty said in Relics that "I'll bet Jim Kirk himself hauled the old gal outta mothballs" and thus the film had what I considered a major plot hole as a result of Kirk dying.
Above average Sci-fi action drama movie that has a modest production in comparison to the average high qualily fare STAR TREK film.This 7th Star Trek movie played more like a special TV episode which although still good,kind of let down a lot of high expectations due to a great potential storyline and incredible trailers.The movie was rushed and the screenplay/script really took the steam out of the storyline.Also,the special effects were very trimmed down.Still,if one is a big Star Trek fan,you will never forget the emotional scenes of Captain Kirk(what a guy!) and the great acting of Shatner (not to be outdone by Stewart!) here.Yes,this one could have been so much better but I would take a Star Trek movie over the majority of Scifi movies out there!For Star Trek fans only.......
Kirk (Shatner) , Scotty (recently deceased James Doohan) , Chekov (Walter Koenig) and even a Sulu's daughter(Kim), they are reunited with the new crew from USS-17o1 , as captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) , Data (Brent Spiner), Worf (Michael Dorn) , Laforge (LeVar Burton) , Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Dr Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) , plus an uncredited Woopi Goldberg in a brief apparition .
78 years apart, both Kirk (William Shatner) and Picard (Patrick Stewart) find themselves sucked into the "Nexus" - a huge energy "ribbon" in which time has no meaning - where they meet each other and join forces to defeat this instalment's villain - Dr. Soren (Malcolm McDowell, in what I thought was an excellent performance; he's one of the better villains to appear in the Star Trek movies.)James Doohan (Scotty) and Walter Koenig (Chekhov) both make appearances at the beginning of the movie (which opens in the era of the original cast) and - given the premise in which they appear (kind of an honorary visit to the Enterprise "B" as it prepares to launch for the first time) - their ages really don't matter that much.
Brent Spiner I thought was extremely good playing Data, who has recently added an "emotion chip" to his positronic brain, and is having to adjust to his new feelings while trying to do his duty.The movie revolved, though, around Stewart and Shatner.
Fans of the original series may not like the transition from old to new, but I personally prefer the crew of The Next Generation, and having been familiar with these characters through the show's seven season run on TV, seeing them on the big-screen was a welcome sight.
Personal preference aside, Generations does a fine job of delivering an engrossing tale packed with exciting action and understated humor.The plot involves an energy ribbon called the Nexus, a place where time has no meaning, where you can live out your greatest joys without fear or worry.A near deranged scientist, named Soran (Malcolm Mcdowell), has amassed a horrific plan to enter the Nexus, one which could cause monumentous destruction and kill hundreds of millions.
I had no problem with the storyline which many found weak, laughed up a storm at the humour, loved the musical score, was dazzled by the special effects, was impressed by the acting (superior to that of the cast of the older series), and recognised the climax at the correct point in the film - the meeting of Kirk and Picard - old and new captains of the Enterprise.
I understand that Picard and Data are seen as the most popular characters in the Next Generation that appeal to the general public, but the story lines that get played out for the two of them in the movies (family and finding humanity) have already been done in the series.Those two themes - Picard's family and Data's quest for humanity - are central parts of this film, and take up a lot of the time, but the other characters do get their moments, and being the gracious professionals that they are, Frakes, Sirtis, McFadden, Burton and Dorn all give fabulous performances.
Whoopi Goldberg appears unbilled as Guinan, and Patti Yasutaki also appears as Nurse Ogawa."Generations" also features three members of the Original Trekers, Captain Kirk, Scotty and Chekov, the latter two in small roles, while Kirk has a much larger role, yet his scenes, alongside Picard, are the slowest and most boring part of the film, even if they are confronting the enemy together.One of the enemies in "Generations" is a mad man, well played by Malcolm McDowell, the others are the two Klingon sisters who appeared towards the end of the Next Generation series, and make welcome appearances once more.
The flaws and deficiencies of the previous installments' plots are already taken over by a new,superior conception.If the fantasy in "ST 7" still reminds the far-fetched and flippant schemes from "ST 5",etc.,in exchange it already has a fine plastic accomplishment and an intelligent treatment of the theme,easiness and fluency,infinite charm,abundant fun.The intellectual and reasoning level improves steadily,gets better from one movie to another.The same is true for the plastic level (the first "Star trek" movies were,sometimes,slatternly,sleazy,worn down).The same theme (the quest for happiness,youth) appears first in "ST 5",and it is a stupidity,done without any sense of concreteness;then,it will be retaken and treated in far better and more concrete in "ST 7" and "ST 9"."ST 9" is delightful,clever and most appropriate in representing the theme.As the treatment of the theme progressively gains in value,from one installment to the other,the theme itself is more and more modified and modeled to fit the frame of humanity,by loosing the fantastical features.The search for a "God" very unmeaning conceived becomes the search for the Nexus (and McD.
does a lot for giving this search the human density needed),then it becomes a peaceful planet of the youth,more tangible and falling under the senses.The conception's progress is obvious.First,a fake "God" (in "ST 5");then,an illusory "Heaven" (in "ST 7);then,an earthly Paradise (in "ST 9").A show with no women is no fun.It simply can't do without women.Even if it is a show for boys,it doesn't mean women must lack."Star Trek" excels in showing very womanly women.Mrs. Sirtis should have got more than this bit part.The Klingons from the "Bird of prey" behave very much as our present day humans would,it's almost like an irony (probably unintended) to see these sordid beings act the way the men of today do.
Kirk (Shatner) gets one last great performance in the story, and Picard (Stewart) gets to show a more dramatic side than is usually apparent in the series.Many humorous moments (like most Star Trek movies) appear, especially in the first scenes as Kirk is made to feel old (the captain of the new Enterprise mentions having read about Kirk in history books); and, of course, unexpected events occur on an unprepared ship with a minimal crew.The Next Generation cast performed quite well; Commander Data (Brent Spiner) got to go outside the usual "Data" role; Spiner's performance was exceptional in this particular film; this film helps one to appreciate how difficult the Data character must be to perform; playing a non-human character can at times be much more difficult than a human character -- at least for a human actor...All in all, a great story line, and a great transition for original Star Trek fans to get a feel for the Next Generation crew, how it all fits together in the time-line.
The death of Kirk I thought was done very tastefully with no overacting from Shatner and I was sad to see him go as I'm also a big fan of the original Trek movies (including "V") and the final "Oh my" is heart wrenching.
Suddenly, their sacred cash cow was gone, and the Next Generation series, which was in its fourth season by the time the original crew were put out to pasture, was not living up to the enormous international sensation it followed.When the first Star Trek feature film was released, it dared to do something different by offering a very scientific and researched future.
Given the adventures that Kirk has had in previous outings, to rewrite his history so that he goes out on a note like this is insulting to those who paid good money to see the previous six films.I'll admit it, I've never found the Next Generation cast a tenth as interesting as the Original Series cast.
A villain called Soren wants to go inside the Nexus/Energy ribbon which almost destroyed his ship 78 years prior to the time frame of Star Trek The Next Generation.
Kirk seems to be saying, "Get me out of this franchise!" with each passing line, while Captain Picard's constant attempts at pathos are nowhere near as convincing as they proved in the series and the other movies.Additionally, the naval holodeck scene at the beginning is nowhere near as funny as it was meant to be and the rest of the film is populated with new characters who are either dangerously gutless (the captain of the Enterprise-B) or disturbingly one-dimensional (Soran).
Lets see--Star Trek, the Next Generation takes place about 80 years in the future from the end of the original's series movies.
A real stinker in the series -- Malcom McDowell is wasted,Kirk's death scene is ridiculous, Picard cries like a newborn babe, Data trembles like a bunny, and the special effects of the Enterprise's crash scene look like they could have been done in my backyard with a Wham-o frisbee and an 8 mm camera.Only because its a Trek movie, it's worth seeing for s's and giggles--.
Stewart's role is greatly extended at the expense of all others, a pity as he's given little of interest to do.The film's screening formed part of a Star Trek evening, following on from a broadcast of the original series episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
It is also incredible that the long-awaited meeting of the captains was presented in a such a slow-moving, pedestrian vehicle.The story was far from epic, the villain nowhere near as grand as Khan or General Chang, and both captains emerged looking old and feeble.Finally, and most importantly, Captain Kirk should never have been killed off since he IS Star Trek.
The movie wasn't a complete waste: the opening with three of the original crew helping "Cameron" (from 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off') helm Enterprise B, McDowell's performance (other than his finale on the desert planet,) the "Nexus" scene that joined Kirk and Picard were great and (no spoiler) Kirk's demise in a desert scene, much like a lot of the original TV show's backdrops.
Moore & Brannon Braga, also responsible for producing an unfortunately epic-failing prequel "Enterprise" television series from 2001 before given his former employee the death-wish-stapping with a never-seen-before parodic entrée created by stand-up-comedian Seth MacFarland "The Orville" in season 2017/2018; nevertheless here with serious as highly-emotional feature installment for Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his faithful, seven season approved crew under slow-but-solid former-television-episode director David Carson.Actor Patrick Stewart as already incorporated Captain Jea-Luc Picard carries this unusually-metaphysical, mind-stretching approach of a newly-received "Star Trek" science-fiction entertainment movie proudly presented by "Dom Perignon" granting Hollywood Major "Paramount Pictures", when a beauty of a timeless spaceship "Enterprise NCC-1701-D" gets inaugurated under watchful eyes of now more Admiral James T.
The "Star Trek" Franchise did Not have to Fuse the Original and the "Next Generation" On the Big Screen in the First Film from the New TV Series...but THEY DID!
Kirk and Picard's On Screen Meeting, Data's Emotion Chip, the Klingon Confrontation, and some Outstanding SFX.The Film is Extremely Corny in Spots and as a Whole it doesn't Mesh very Well, but Overall it is Certainly Worth a Watch for Hardcore Fans (in fact a must see considering the series transition) and Casual Observers can have some Fun with the Iconic Display.There would be Better "STNG" Films to come and there were Better "Star Trek" Movies before.It could Never Capture the Old Crew without the Presence of Spock, Bones, and Sulu and given what was here to Work With, it can be Considered Worthy.This was a Challenging Ploy that Didn't quite Come Together and could be Termed a "Misfire", and it is, but the Tricky Trek Transfer from One Generation to the Next is at Least Done with a Modicum of Honor and Respect..
Even if it was a film with just Picard it would have been quite mediocre.It just lacks focus and direction in the script writing and in general it just feels like they really had to pull out all movie clichés just to get the story to work.It is watchable and it can be entertaining at times so I would still say to give it a watch especially if you are doing a Star Trek Bluray marathon (like I am doing) but just be prepared to experience a mediocre Star Trek film..
Though the Star Trek franchise as a whole was at a high in 1994 with two acclaimed TV series airing and the films coming off a great finale in 'The Undiscovered Country', to me, 'Generations' wasn't the proper next step to take.Sure, it's hard to let go of beloved characters, but 'The Undiscovered Country' felt like the perfect send off for all of the original cast members, including Captain Kirk.
It's impossible to top the original crew, but there's enough personalities and likable characters, including Stewart's stern but sympathetic Picard.As far as the actual plot itself goes, it pretty much follows the same Star Trek formula, except for the trippy Nexus sequence where Picard and Kirk are stuck in a time loop.
So overall, Generations is a middle of the road Star Trek adventure, but at the very least, it gives the new crew some time to shine.+Picard & Kirk+Nexus+Beautiful score-Choppy first half-Formulaic6.3/10.
Star Trek: Generations is a good movie with a storyline that dosen't really go anywhere for a very long time but a very inspired cast like there always is in Star Trek.It definitely wasn't a fantastic start for the Next Generation crew,it being their first movie,but I don't think its as bad as most people make it out to be,I don't think its the worst Star Trek but its certainly not the best,these movies are sometimes outstanding (The Wrath of Khan) and other times awful (The Final Frontier),I would put this right in the middle.The plot was sometimes very frustrating because it just didn't know were it was going for such a long time,but the impressive cast made it bearable,I really enjoyed Malcolm McDowell as the villain,he always delivers very creepy performances and he fit perfectly into the Star Trek universe.I didn't really appreciate William Shatner's performance,it all felt very forced and I think this movie would have been better off just focusing on the Next Generation crew instead of bringing in members from the original series.Fans of Star Trek:The Next Generation will definitely be disappointed,but will still appreciate the casts strong performances.Captain Kirk (William Shatner) disappears on a mission,seven decades later,Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) encounters similar peril and only the two captains can save the Enterprise..
The plot here is just a convenient device to string all these things together and pack them into a movie that makes a little bit of sense, though perhaps no more than a typical Jerry Bruckheimer production.So while the writing attempts to cram almost everything that can ever possibly be in a Star Trek movie into the screenplay and was perhaps not such a good starting point to begin with, everyone involved did a wonderful job of turning this somewhat messy script into a movie that, while still being somewhat uneven, is all-around entertaining and never misses a beat (save for some of the Nexus sequences, where the gratuitous horseback riding was apparently mostly inserted to stroke Shatner's ego and not because it benefited the movie in any way).A beautiful cinematography with lots of picturesque darkness and deeply saturated colors needs to be counted among the movie's virtues, but also a rousing score by Dennis McCarthy, and finally top-notch acting, especially by Stewart who portrays a wide range of emotions between regret and boundless joy with absolute believability, similar to his performance in such highly regarded episodes of the series such as "The Inner Light".
And the film is fill with great quotes from Picard, Riker and others.This film has that feel of The Next Generation TV show that's how I felt when I was in the theater it felt like watching a long episode of the series which isn't a bad thing at all because it complement what makes the Next Generation great for Star Trek fans.
"Star Trek: Generations" has received its fair share of criticism from fans, for the plot and the idea of Kirk and Picard meeting.
After the success of the TV series, 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', and after the endless debates of who was the better Captain, Kirk or Picard, this is the film that Rick Berman and co.
..."Star Trek: Generations" - I'm assuming - was hyped because it was pairing both Cpt. Kirk (William Shatner, yay!) and Cpt. Picard (Patrick Stewart, oh my!) together for the first time - I'm sure Trekkies were wetting their pants because of this.
I have only ever really watched the Next Generation series of Star Trek and I am not what you would call a `die hard' fan so I was not at all disappointed that this film sees the final end of Captain Kirk. |
tt0024962 | The Rise of Catherine the Great | This historical drama recounts the events that led to the accession of Catherine the Great, Empress of all the Russias. The film opens with the arrival in 1744 of Princess Sophie Auguste Frederika – whose name would be changed to ‘Catherine’ – from her father’s court of Anhalt-Zerbst (in modern Germany) to the court of the Empress Elizabeth. "Little Catherine" is to marry the Grand Duke Peter, nephew and heir presumptive of the unmarried and childless Empress Elizabeth.
Peter already displays signs of mental instability and a sharply misogynist streak. He rejects Catherine on their wedding night, reacting to something innocently said by his French valet, claiming that she used feminine tricks to win him over. In time, though, Peter accepts her and they have a happy marriage for a while. Meanwhile, Catherine gains important experience of government from working as principal aide to the empress.
The empress dies and Peter becomes tsar, but his mental illness is starting to get the better of him, along with sheer boredom in the job. Catherine still loves him despite beginning a very public love affair with one of her best friends – until one night when Peter goes one step too far in publicly humiliating his wife. She ceases to love him, which enables her to be clear-headed in supporting a planned coup d'état. The following morning, he is arrested and Catherine is made Empress of All the Russias.
The elevation is marred by Peter’s murder that very morning, contrary to Catherine’s command. Grigory Orlov explains that everything has a price, and the crown has the highest price of all. The film ends, with Catherine in tears on her throne, while the cheers of the crowds are heard outside. | tragedy, insanity, romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0428251 | Venom | The story opens with a Creole woman digging up a small briefcase from the ground in the pouring rain. She then proceeds to get in her car and drives down the Louisiana road. Meanwhile, at a local burger joint, high school senior, Eden (Agnes Bruckner), is working with her best friends, Rachel (Laura Ramsey) and CeCe (Meagan Good) while the rest of her friends hang around the place. Ricky (Pawel Szajda) is aimlessly flirting with Patty (Davetta Sherwood) and Tammy (Bijou Phillips) by giving them alcohol. Eric (Jonathan Jackson) and Sean (D. J. Cotrona) talk about important matters until Ray Sawyer (Rick Cramer) pulls up in his tow truck. Everyone stares and whisper rumors about him while Ray picks his order up. Ray is Sean's biological father. After he leaves, Rachel says how much he scares her, while Tammy flashes Ray while he eats in his truck. After work, Eden begins to bike home alone, but Eric catches up to her to talk to her about going to college in New York. While they were talking, Ray drives up and asks if Eden's alright. When he is sure, he begins to leave when another car, carrying the Creole woman from the beginning of the film - who is CeCe's grandmother - passes by. CeCe's grandmother's car falls halfway off the bridge. Ray gets out of the truck and helps Eric save the woman. Ray saves her, but the woman begs Ray to get the suitcase. As Ray reaches into her car to get it, the suitcase lid flies open as the car falls off of the bridge and begins to sink into the water below. Upon opening, the suitcase releases several horrifying snakes. As the car sinks into the bayou the snakes attack Ray. The ambulance arrives to find Ray dead along with CeCe's grandmother. CeCe arrives shaken up over the tragedy, and takes a charm that was on her grandmother's corpse. CeCe then surprises Eden and Eric by questioning them about the condition of Ray's body.
The same night at the coroner's office, the coroner examines Ray's dead body apparently having been bitten by venomous snakes – presumed to be water snakes. The coroner leaves the area and comes back to see Ray's body missing and then he is killed by Ray's possessed body. Deputy Turner is also killed while returning Ray's tow truck to the shop. The next day Eden is still recuperating from the night before. She visits her father's grave in the cemetery, and sees Ray's tow truck driving by. Rachel and her boyfriend, Sean, are at the lake, with Sean showing little emotion to Ray's death. He drank heavily leading to him ditching Rachel with Eden and having Eric chase after him. Meanwhile, Tammy and Patty are planning to go to the mall to shoplift and they come across Ray's towing business. Patty goes to pee, while Tammy fixes the tires. When she is done, Tammy goes to look for Patty, only to find her impaled by battery clamps attached to chains leaving her to hang. Tammy tries to escape but Ray traps her in the garage and crushes her torso with a lowered car and then sandblasts her face off with a blasting pump.
As Eric follows Sean to Ray's garage, Sean begins to show anger at Ray's death for his abandonment. Sean enters the area to find a picture of him when he was a little kid – showing that Ray did care about him. Sean storms out toward the garage and finds the remains of Tammy strewn around the floor. The night leads to Eden going to CeCe's grandmothers house, where she has a plethora of voodoo materials. CeCe then tells her that the snakes that killed Ray were full of the evil that her grandmother took out of men to purify their souls. Ricky, Rachel, Sean, and Eric arrive at CeCe's and find out what is going on. They try to escape town but their car is turned on its side preventing anyone from leaving the bayou. The kids all see Ray and begin to run and Ricky is caught by Ray when his leg is pinned to the stairs by a crowbar. His arm is then ripped off, causing him to bleed to death. Ray cannot enter the house because the house has been blessed with voodoo spells.
As the others panic inside, they look and it seems as if Ray is gone. Ray throws a chain through a window and winds it around Sean's neck, then drags him outside, while Eden grabs a rifle from the bedroom. Ray slashes Sean's face with his crowbar and then impales him through the chest. Eden and Eric shoot Ray with the rifle to buy them time to drag Sean inside and try in vain to stop the bleeding, but he dies on the floor. Rachel cries over the loss of her boyfriend, while Eden talks CeCe into turning Sean's body into a human voodoo doll to control Ray. Meanwhile, Ray hooks the towing hook to the foundation of the house and pulls a whole room off the house, dragging Eric and Rachel with it. Eric and Rachel run to get back inside, while CeCe finishes the spell, despite her leg being crushed by a support beam.
Ray begins to climb the wreckage toward CeCe, but CeCe stabs Sean's body several times to slow Ray down in his advance. Ray finally reaches her and takes the knife from CeCe to slash her throat, while Eden, Eric and Rachel leave. As the remaining three try to escape, Ray follows in his truck and pulls beside them. He tosses a chain around Rachel's neck and drags her halfway out of the car, but Eden grabs hold of her legs. As both cars are accelerating, Rachel screams and is impaled on a dead log. Eric and Eden then try to pass through the swamp to escape Ray, who dives beneath the murky water. As Eric and Eden head for dry land, Ray attacks, missing them both, but separating them. Eden ends up in the graveyard, and Eric deeper in the swamp. Eden makes her way into a crypt where she finds an altar and an open casket where all the victims are kept. Eden tries to leave but Ray comes and locks her in. In panic, Eden hides beneath Patty's body. Eric is then thrown into the crypt by Ray, who then goes to the altar. Eden starts to cry until Eric opens his eyes.
Eden can not hide her gasp, unknowingly drawing Ray's attention. As Ray looks in to inspect the bodies, he grabs Eden's foot, but Eric begins to groan to protect Eden. Ray then stabs Eric in the head with a screwdriver. Eden then fights Ray by setting him on fire and pushing him down a chute, but he drags her with him. She then uses a charm she got from CeCe that protects against evil. Ray submits, but the snakes possessing his body emerge to try to take the charm from her. Eden escapes up the chute, using the charm as a diversion. Eden then traps Ray and the snakes in the chute. As she tries to drive off in his tow truck, she hears an inhuman shriek, signaling Ray is back. Ray chases Eden out of the truck before she can do anything and she runs to hide in the bayou. She hides behind a bush close to Ray. He hears a rustling and hacks the bush, revealing she is not there. Just then the tow truck emerges through the underbrush and crushes Ray in half against a tree, killing him. Eden then staggers off into the trees, and the two snakes can be seen crawling out of Ray's decomposing torso to find another host. | violence | train | wikipedia | I had never heard of it, but luckily I have access to rental screeners before they are released, otherwise I never would have seen this film.Typical story, guy gets killed, guy comes back to life, guy starts killing people.
A bit of voodoo gets thrown in just for good measure.Sure, the story isn't the greatest, and it's not going to win any Oscars for best actors, but the film still is a fun little time waster for all horror fans out there.If you enjoy the slasher films of the late 70's and the 80's, be sure to check this one out.
The movie is your typical, teens outside in a wild area (this time a swamp instead of the woods) and are stalked and brutally murdered off by a killer who is literally unstoppable.If you want to go see a movie were people get killed and their is a lot of blood and gore, then go see this now.
If you want a movie that has good acting, great story, and is smart and suave, hold off of this and check out Cry Wolf.Or better yet, try to go out and see booth..
While the acting for the most part is typical teenager and a little disappointing except for the bad guy, the film looks fantastic, the actions sequences are great as well as the kills, some of which were hard to watch due to their realism.
While it is marketed to resemble a dozen movies similar to it, Venom has better than average plot development, an effectively eerie mood, and good suspense.
The film also avoids many horror movie clichés that would have otherwise dragged it down to a lower level.Venom is evocative of many Wes Craven movies, especially Cursed, where another kind of "monster" is out attacking young people.
The teenager Eden (Agner Bruckner) decides to pay a visit Cece (Meagan Good), the granddaughter of the voodoo priestess, with her friends trying to find an explanation, and they are advised to leave the place, since Ray is possessed by the souls of the most despicable villains milked by her grandmother from sinners.
While Ray is trying to reap more souls, the group has only the protection of the spelled house and a charm.When I see a slash movie, I certainly foresee the story: original and savage deaths; gore; beautiful unknown actresses; a few of survivors in the end, if any; a good soundtrack; and a hook for a possible sequel.
Nothing too memorable but just good enough to watch it.People tend to call these type of movies new age horror but fact is that these type of movies have been around since the '70's, in which a bunch of hot looking teenagers are all getting killed one-by-one by a maniac/monster.
He also wrote the previous Gillespie directed movie "I Know What You Did Last Summer", which became a success, though probably only because it got released so shortly after the success of "Scream" and the genre was hot and popular again at that time.This is not the type of horror movie that should ever scare you, it's more a movie that entertains with its horror, perhaps of the reason that everything happens in such a predictable way.
Just too bad that the didn't really used much of the voodoo concepts to make this movie a bit more interesting and original to watch.It's enjoyable enough for the fans of the genre and certainly not as bad as everyone tries to make you believe it is.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
If you don't spend too much time thinking about the plot and manage to overlook the general lunacy, Venom offers 90 minutes of dumb fun.As a horror fan, the most interesting aspect of the film for me was the joining of two horror sub-genres (for want of a better description) - the voodoo/hoodoo and slasher genres.
There are better voodoo films, Wes Craven's "The Serpent and the Rainbow" comes to mind, and certainly many better slasher films, but it was fun to watch the director mix the genres.Ray, originally known as "Jangles" in the computer game, makes for an interesting villain.
The director also gets carried away with CGI effects as the film progresses and spends far too much time making snake eyes move under Ray's skin than concentrating on the good, old fashioned gore that makes the first half of the film so enjoyable.The film's finale is fairly predictable and by then I had lost interest.
Gillesepie did a good job with I Know What You Did Last Summer, and he surely showed his skills directing this movie.VENOM (2005) stars: (1-30-06) Agnes Bruckner, Jonathan Jackson, Laura Ramsey, D.J Cotrona, Bijou Phillips, Rick Cramer, Meagan Good, Method Man, Pawel Szadja, and Davetta Sherwood..
But the action is quite good, mixed with a nice little bit of Vodoun, some competent performances, and a solid story line, this was highly enjoyable.This film works hard to deliver some excellent suspense, and it succeeds, leaving you on the edge of your seat here and there.
Venom Dimension 2005 color 85 minutes Horror-Thriller Agnes Bruckner, Johnathan Jackson, Laura Ramsey, D.J. Cotrona, Rick Cramer, Megan Good, Bijou Phillips, Method Man, Pawel Szajda and Stacey Travis star.
So dimension finished this film and fast tracked it for a September release instead of taking a bit more time to develop it slightly and marketing it better so people actually know it exists.
There is a town bad ass named Ray whom the kids tease and one night while riding her bike(because she's saving money for med school) home Eden (By far the worst name for a white character or anyone for that matter) has a run in with her ex boyfriend because of college reasons and becomes part of an accident involving a creepy old woman, Ray and a devilish suitcase.
However the good outweighs the bad and Venom makes for a fun night out at the movies especially with a date.
We're in front of our typical slasher film; good guy dies in a freak accident, then comes back to life turned into an evil killing machine.
It's a pretty overused formula, but in this case it works; the characters are likable and you find yourself rooting for them but at the same time, thinking about which one of them is going to get the nastiest demise next.Even though I'm not the kind of guy who gets scared by slasher movies, I did with this one.
The atmosphere was great, it was dark and intriguing; the surroundings were obscure (with the exception of the party at the lagoon and the gas station scene where the girls go for some fuel), those aspects helped the movie a lot and honestly, I can't think of any other place better for the story than the swamps of Louisiana; they nailed it at this one.The killings were really gruesome (as expected), the sequences were mostly intense, like the one at the grandmother's house and the last fight between our leading lady and the villain.
Venom is to me, an above average flick which brings u flashbacks to the good ol' -80's when every horror movie was like this, with the big difference, this one is pretty good.The director made a descent job out of a descent material, the actors acted...
The acting with a few of the actors was, like I said before, a little shaky, and the graphics were okay for a lower budget horror flick (as they all are), and the movie was definitely better than any Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th that I have ever seen.
"Venom" deals with the same voodoo storyline as the far superior "The Skelton Key." It is about what happens when a car accident between a truck driver and a voodoo priestess lets loose some nasty looking snakes, and ends up attacking the usual group of teenage friends.
A Very decent slasher film with some emerging young stars in the cast like Agnes Bruckner (Blood & Chocolate), Laura Ramsey (The Covenant, The Ruins).
the death scenes were good definitely enough blood some good voodoo violence is great for a movie.it was a little predictable in some parts but not enough to ruin it for me.
Venom wasn't the greatest thing ever, but it's something that I would sit through again and againYou're not gonna find any Oscar-worthy acting here, but it's not putrid like the acting in the Black Christmas remake.Some of the kills were very inventive, and I liked the idea of this lonely, harmless man turning into a serial killer who is no Freddy or Jason or Hannibal, but he is smarter than some of the other brain-dead serial killers that appear in slasher films these days.
Overall, if you are looking for an Oscar movie with this, than turn elsewhere, but if you are looking for a good slasher film for a Saturday night, than I would say rent this.
The other scenes here are just as fun with the thrilling stalking scene in the garage workshop taking out the friend using the car equipment to trap and terrorize her, a rather fun chase through the woods as they try to escape his monster towing truck in their small jeep that includes one of the film's best kills and a truly creepy stalking out in the bayou swamps where he continually dives under to sneak up on them which really uses the locations and scenery to absolutely great effect.
i haven't actually seen this movies and i was wondering and wanting someone to tell me the following: Does the guy that gets ripped out the window die and if so how, does Meagan good (the black girl) die if so how, does the blonde who goes flying from the jeep to Rays truck die and if so how, and does Bijou Phillips who plays Tammy (the ditsy brunette) die and if so how.
I think that if the director was given a more promising script and group of characters like I know what you did last summer, he could have made a better film.
The zombie is now possessed by the snakes, which are the souls of evil men and is adding to his list.Among the victims are Jonathan Jackson (Riding the Bullet), Meagan Good (Waist deep, Stomp the Yard), Bijou Phillips (Hostel II), Laura Ramsey, and Davetta Sherwood.Slashed throats, knives in head, crowbar as tool of choice, and a really great ending.If blood and gore are your cup of tea, then this has what you are looking for..
I don't think that I've ever seen a worse horror movie and that says someone who liked ''I know what you did last summer''.
Because it really doesn't hold a candle to the 70's and 80's gold-era of horror, this is of course where personal taste comes in.This movie just falls into the category of "New generation of slashers" in my book, the cast is the typical ones 18-24 years and potential models.
That's like watching a porno movie and hope for a great story in the meantime.Why the old-school slashers still works, at least for some people.
I've read a few of the previous reviews,and can only assume a majority who favourably rated it,either haven't seen nearly enough films,or more than likely are around there teen years and thus end that explanation.Its truly terrible for all the reasons Hollywood is mocked for its machine like output of predictable dirge for the teenage masses.We have a collage of all the worst recent horror flicks made into a brand new,but even more awful slash flick.
Not Bad. Venom (2005) ** (out of 4) A voodoo woman is killed in an accident and the man trying to save her gets bitten by her thirteen deadly snakes.
The movie start with ray who helping to kids out the car after crash however there is some kind old box on the back seat as he goes to get the car that was half hanging of a very low bridge , Which falls and snakes come out the box, this is as some really bad effects and ray is taken to morgue only for his body to go missing.Then people are being killed of one by one by ray, Who Seem to be some kinda of voodo zombie snake man The acting in this movie as got be some of the worse I ever seen in a very long time.I am going to give this movie a 3 out 10.
He also manages to make the teenagers not unlikable well rounded characters but at the end of the day you're left with the feeling VENOM is merely an adeqoute film on a story that's been done to death and would have been better getting released straight to DVD.
Go out and make a better one." Thankfully most of the critics of horror films will never write, nor direct any movie for cinema so we won't have to suffer their "I told you so's", thank goodness.So on a more positive note - as one viewer fairly pointed out "...had this been made in the 1970's..." a fairly astute comment simply given the fact that "Venom" is knowingly a hark back to the days of Sean Cunningham and the events of 'Camp Crystal Lake'.
Sure, they didn't manage to create a new Jason, or a Michael Myers, but the film is certainly no worse than "Friday 13th", but neither is it any better.A reliance on CGI in modern film-making means that writers, producers, and directors MUST look for something fresh and original in order to satisfy the 'horror-saturated' audiences of today, whose tastes are not necessarily more sophisticated but certainly more demanding in terms of creative blood-letting.
It felt like she didn't really believe in voodoo herself so it made it hard for the audience to really care.The death scenes were pretty good and effective.
Really cool.FINAL VERDICT: It's good enough to watch if you like the slasher films..
But that won't completely stop him, and he begins to kill them one by one as they flee through the swamps in a dash to save their lives."Venom" is no superior horror film, it's your average chop and slash teen horror movie with a supernatural bent, but it's still a very fun movie and keeps you entertained.
There are some pretty wildly creative sequences (the girl strung between the two cars was great), and there are quite a few spooky moments.The bottom line is, "Venom" is your standard slasher movie mixed with some voodoo and magic, and it turned out to be pretty decent.
I rented this DVD because let's face it there is nothing good out there and it doesn't look like the situation is going to improve any time soon
I was ready for a generic, mindless tubetop slasher film and this is exactly what I got.
The Voodoo woman's niece Cece (Meagan Good) then tells the tale of how there were 13 evil souls captured within the snakes in the box & now Ray has come back as a zombie killing machine as he is now possessed by them...Originally to be called Backwater, based on a video game that wasn't even made when it came out & virtually ignored by it's distributors Dimension Venom was directed by Jim Gillespie I personally thought it was OK, it isn't any sort of masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but it was fun in a cheesy way.
I saw the trailer for Venom last year and I thought it didn't give a lot away and the guy with the chains actually looked like he might be a really good villain.
So I give them some credit in the sense that I will always remember that.The thing that surprises/disappoints me about Venom the most is that the first 20 minutes or so, the acting is actually pretty good and you can sort of get into the story.
Also, there is a scene where the characters spend about 15 minutes preparing a body to be a real-life voodoo doll and when it comes time to use it, it BARELY works and is used for about 1 minute and then forgotten about and never mentioned again.The only people who will like this movie are people in the 12-17 age group who think "OMG ROXXORZ a Zombie movie I'm so scared!!" After the "zombie man" makes his appearance, all of the acting and the story goes right down the tubes.
I suppose i expected a bit more from this considering that it came from Jim(i know what you did last summer)Gillespie which i thought was quite good.The overall look of Venom and where it was filmed is really good which is what makes me feel like it could have been a lot better.This wasn't a direct to video release although it probably should have i don't think it even took £1 million at the box office in America.
Venom is a film that doesn't use the horror movie formula.
If you've seen any other "teenagers getting killed" horror movie, you've already seen everything in Venom.
If you have 90 minutes to kill and want to watch a horror movie that believes you can defeat a magical enemy by just hitting them hard enough, you could rent Venom.
All of the most interesting characters are immediately killed off in the first third of the movie and then it just becomes a not-particularly-interesting countdown until we know it's just The Creepy Janitor and The Final Girl.I suppose I must be a little jaded, but as a horror film fan, I'm left wondering why I should have bothered when I could easily have written a better screenplay myself.
"Hi, this is a horror movie fan watching yet another slasher film with dumb teens getting butchered to bits. |
tt4193394 | Indignation | Set in America in 1951, the second year of the Korean War, Indignation is narrated by Marcus Messner, a Jewish college student from Newark, New Jersey, who describes his sophomore year at Winesburg College in Ohio. Marcus transfers to Winesburg from Robert Treat College in Newark to escape his father, a kosher butcher, who appears to have become consumed with fear about the dangers of adult life, the world, and the uncertainty that awaits his son.
At Winesburg College, Marcus becomes infatuated with a fellow student, Olivia Hutton, a survivor of a suicide attempt. The sexually inexperienced Marcus is bewildered when Olivia performs fellatio on him during their one and only date. Marcus' mother objects to his dating someone who attempted suicide and makes him vow to end their relationship.
Marcus has an adversarial relationship with the dean of men, Hawes Caudwell. In a meeting in Dean Caudwell's office, Marcus objects to the chapel attendance requirement on the grounds that he is an atheist. In this meeting, he quotes extensively from Bertrand Russell's essay "Why I Am Not a Christian". Later, the dean finds Marcus guilty of hiring another student to attend chapel in his place; when Marcus refuses to attend double the number of chapel services as punishment, the dean expels him. His expulsion allows the U.S. Army to draft him and send him to fight in Korea where he is killed in combat. Early in the novel, Marcus explains that he is dead and telling his story from the afterlife; later it is revealed that he is unconscious from his combat wounds and the morphine that has been administered.
The Winesburg setting is a homage to Sherwood Anderson's book Winesburg, Ohio. | flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt4939956 | Spotlight | In 1976, at a Boston Police station, two policemen discuss the arrest of a Catholic priest for child molestation and the presence of a high ranking cleric talking to the mother of the children. The Assistant District Attorney then enters the precinct and tells the cops not to let the press get wind of what happened. The arrest is hushed up, and the priest is released.
In 2001, The Boston Globe hires a new editor, Marty Baron. Baron meets Walter "Robby" Robinson, the editor of the newspaper's "Spotlight" team, a small group of journalists writing investigative articles that take months to research and publish. After Baron reads a Globe column about a lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, who says that Cardinal Bernard Law (the Archbishop of Boston) knew that the priest John Geoghan was sexually abusing children and did nothing to stop him, he urges the Spotlight team to investigate. Journalist Michael Rezendes contacts Garabedian, who initially declines to be interviewed. Though he is told not to, Rezendes reveals that he is on the Spotlight team, persuading Garabedian to talk.
Initially believing that they are following the story of one priest who was moved around several times, the Spotlight team begin to uncover a pattern of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in Massachusetts, and an ongoing cover-up by the Boston Archdiocese. Through Phil Saviano, who heads the victims' rights group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), they widen their search to 13 priests. They learn through Richard Sipe, a former priest who worked at trying to rehabilitate pedophile priests, that statistically, there should be approximately 90 abusive priests in Boston (six percent of priests). Through their research, they develop a list of 87 names, and begin to find their victims to back up their suspicions.
When the September 11 attacks occur, the team is forced to de-prioritize the story. They regain momentum when Rezendes learns from Garabedian that there are publicly available documents that confirm Cardinal Law was made aware of the problem and ignored it. Although Rezendes argues vociferously to run the story immediately before more victims suffer and rival newspapers publish, Robinson remains steadfast to research further so that the systemic problem can be more fully exposed. After The Boston Globe wins a case to have even more legal documents unsealed that provide the evidence of that larger picture, the Spotlight team finally begins to write the story, and plan to publish their findings in early 2002.
As they are about to go to print, Robinson confesses to the team that he was sent a list of 20 pedophile priests by lawyer Eric MacLeish in 1993, which he never followed up on. But Baron still commends him and his team's efforts to expose the crimes now. The story goes to print with a web link to the documents that expose Cardinal Law's inaction, and a phone number for victims of pedophile priests. The following morning, the Spotlight team is inundated with phone calls from victims coming forward to tell their stories.
Lastly, a list of places in the United States and around the world where major scandals involving abuse by priests took place is presented, and a statement is made that Cardinal Law resigned, and was eventually promoted to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, one of the biggest churches in the world. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1355207 | Korkusuz | The film begins with Huo Yuanjia fighting and defeating three Westerners: a British boxer, a Belgian lancer and a Spanish fencer. While waiting for the fourth match to begin, Huo remembers his father Huo Endi teaching martial arts. The story is then told in an extended flashback. Watching his father fight, the young Yuanjia wants to participate, but his father is concerned about his asthma. Yuanjia sees his father in a leitai match with Zhao, who won the fight dishonourably by retaliating when Huo Endi held back what would have been a fatal blow. Humiliated by his father's defeat, Huo Yuanjia vows to regain the Huo family's honour and pride. He practices martial arts behind his father's back. As the years pass, Huo Yuanjia defeats several opponents in leitai matches and becomes a famous martial artist in Tianjin. As he becomes successful, he becomes arrogant and ruthless towards his opponents, compared to his late father who advocated showing mercy to opponents.
When a rival martial arts master named Qin Lei injures one of his followers, Huo feels insulted and confronts Qin at a restaurant owned by Huo's childhood friend, Nong Jinsun. After failing to talk his friend out of fighting and fed up with his ruthless behavior, Jinsun ends his friendship with Huo. The confrontation escalates into a fight between Huo and Qin, in which Huo emerges as the victor by killing Qin with a fatal blow. Qin's godson seeks vengeance and kills Huo's mother and daughter in retaliation. Huo goes to Qin's house, where Qin's godson admits to the murders before killing himself. Huo learns that it was his follower who had insulted and provoked Qin, which prompted Qin to beat him.
Wrecked with guilt, Huo flees Tianjin, and wanders aimlessly for many months. He nearly drowns in a river, but is saved by Granny Sun and her blind granddaughter, Yueci. They bring him back to their village. Huo, guided by their kindness, begins to learn the value of compassion and mercy.
In 1907, Huo returns to Tianjin and sees the changes that have taken place. He apologizes to Qin's family and reconciles with Jinsun, who is now a businessman. He challenges the American wrestler, Hercules O'Brien. Prior to the match, Huo requests that he and Hercules fight with honor and civility to which the Announcer, taking advantage of the language barrier, deliberately mistranslates Huo's request to "He wants to kick your butt". During their match, Huo saves O'Brien from being impaled on some nails and wins the gratitude of O'Brien, who names Huo the victor. Huo's fame spreads with successive bouts against other foreign fighters. In 1909, with funding from Jinsun, he founds Chin Woo Athletic Association in Shanghai.
The members of the foreign chamber of commerce fear that Huo's victories might fan anti-foreign sentiments among the Chinese people and thus become a disadvantage to them. They propose a match between Huo and four foreign champions. Huo takes up the challenge, even though he will have to fight four bouts in a row. Before the matches, Huo meets the Japanese champion Tanaka for tea and strikes up a friendship.
The film then returns to the competition shown in the opening scenes. On 14 September 1910, Huo, after defeating the European challengers, faces Tanaka. In the first round, they fight with their weapons of choice. Huo uses a sanjiegun while Tanaka uses a katana. In the heat of the fight, they accidentally exchange weapons. However, Huo is able to handle the katana proficiently, while Tanaka fumbles with the sanjiegun. Huo offers to exchange weapons with Tanaka, and the first round ends in a draw. Before the next round, Huo unknowingly drinks tea poisoned by the members of the foreign chamber of commerce. In the second round involving unarmed combat, Huo has difficulty breathing and begins to lose his strength. He collapses and starts coughing blood, the result of arsenic poisoning. Tanaka and Huo's supporters demand that the match be halted and postponed, but Huo wishes to continue, since he is going to die in any event. Huo is dominated by Tanaka but manages to deliver a blow to Tanaka's chest, using the same technique that killed Qin. He then collapses. Tanaka, aware that he would have died had Huo used more force, declares Huo the victor as Huo dies.
In the epilogue, Huo's spirit practices Wushu on a field while Yueci observes him. Huo turns to her and smiles, indicating a lovers' reconciliation. | cult, murder, violence, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0044486 | Carrie | Several people are being interviewed in a police station, including a high school student, Sue Snell (Kandyse McClure) and gym teacher Miss Desjarden (Rena Sofer). Detective John Mulcahey (David Keith) is investigating the disappearance of high school student Carrie White (Angela Bettis). These interviews are interspersed with flashbacks to previous events.
The film then features a flashback of two weeks before the prom at Ewen High School. Carrie is a shy and withdrawn girl tormented by the popular girls; Christine "Chris" Hargensen (Emilie De Ravin) and Tina Blake (Katharine Isabelle) are especially vicious. After gym class, Carrie has her first period in the shower, and she panics. The other girls swarm the shower and taunt her. Hearing the commotion, Ms. Desjarden comes into the shower, and comforts Carrie as a light bulb shatters above them. Later, Principal Morton (Laurie Murdoch) decides to send Carrie home, but calls Carrie the wrong name (he calls her "Cassie", instead of "Carrie.") Carrie corrects him repeatedly, finally yelling as his desk suddenly moves several inches. As Carrie gathers her belongings to leave, she is the victim of a practical joke at her hallway locker, where the words "plug it up" are written on her locker door and when she opens the door, tampons fall out and onto the floor. On her way home, Carrie is accosted by a boy on a bicycle, whose joke goes wrong when he seemingly flies off his bike and crashes into a tree. When she reaches home, Carrie has a flashback to her own childhood before entering the house. Carrie's fanatically religious mother, Margaret White (Patricia Clarkson), who considers menstruation a sign of sexual sin, locks Carrie in her "prayer closet" as punishment.
The next day, Ms. Desjarden gives the girls a week's detention for their bullying. If they skip the detention, they face suspension and refusal of their prom tickets. Chris storms out in protest. After Chris' father John Hargensen, a lawyer, unsuccessfully attempts to get her prom ban rescinded, Chris enlists her boyfriend Billy Nolan to get revenge on Carrie. Meanwhile, Carrie discovers she has telekinesis, the ability to move or control objects with her mind. Carrie has a telekinetic episode in class and, when she goes home, practices her rediscovered talent. Sue, trying to atone for tormenting Carrie, asks her boyfriend, Tommy Ross (Tobias Mehler), to take Carrie to the prom. After some hesitation, Carrie agrees. When Carrie tells her mother about the prom invitation, Margaret forbids her to go; Carrie uses her powers to finally confront her mother, and Margaret seemingly gives in.
As prom night approaches, Chris and Billy prepare their revenge on Carrie when they find out that Carrie is on the Prom Queen ballot. On the day of the prom, Tina switches the ballots, and Carrie and Tommy are declared the Prom King and Queen winners. As Tommy and Carrie take their place onstage, Chris, who has been hiding with Billy in the rafters, pulls a rope to tip a bucket, sending a wave of blood onto Carrie. Chris and Billy run; when Chris releases the rope, the bucket falls on Tommy's head, knocking him out. Carrie goes into a shock-induced trance and telekinetic mayhem ensues. She locks everyone inside the gym and sets fire to it. She kills Tina by crushing her, and then electrocutes most of the remaining students, including Roy and Helen, killing everyone except for a few students, including Norma, who escape through a vent with Ms. Desjarden. Carrie then leaves the burning gym, unleashing a wave of destruction in the entire town. Chris and Billy see her walking in the road. Billy tries to run her down but Carrie tosses their truck into a pole, thus killing them.
When Carrie arrives home, she gets into a bathtub, where she finally snaps back to herself but cannot remember what happened. Margaret comes into the bathroom and calls her a witch for destroying the whole town; she then drowns Carrie in the tub. With her last ounce of strength Carrie stops her mother's heart. Sue finds Carrie near death and manages to revive Carrie with artificial respiration. At Sue's suggestion, Carrie fakes her death and Sue sneaks Carrie out of town to Florida. As the two drive off, Carrie has a nightmarish vision of her mother. When Carrie wakes, she looks at Sue and hallucinates Chris lunging at her. Noticing this, Sue asks her if she wants to stop for a moment, but Carrie tells her to keep driving. | romantic, melodrama | train | wikipedia | In Columbia Clay, Missouri, the young and naive Carrie Meeber (Jennifer Jones) boards the train expecting to meet her older sister in Chicago and have a better life in the big city.
Unable to find another job, she looks for Charles, and he invites her to have dinner at the Fitzgerald's, the most expensive restaurant of Chicago, where she meets the elegant middle-age manager George Hurstwood (Laurence Olivier).
Meanwhile, Carrie matures and becomes successful in her business."Carrie" is a cruel classic romance, with a stunning performance of the great British actor Laurence Olivier, who surprisingly was not nominated as Best Lead Actor to the Oscar.
Jennifer Jones, Eddie Albert and Miriam Hopkins give credibility to their characters with their great performances.
The romantic and dramatic story does not have the usual commercial happy end of Hollywood movies, but a credible and realistic conclusion, and maybe that is why I loved this film.
This was a pretty powerful melodrama, thanks to the great performance of Sir Laurence Olivier.Olivier plays an unhappily-married older man who falls for the young and beautiful Jennifer Jones (not hard to understand!).....and pays a huge price for his adultery.
Olivier is near-mesmerizing in this film and Jones is absolutely gorgeous, as she was in "Portrait Of Jennie," made about five years prior to this film.Eddie Albert was a bit annoying (but effective) in his role and Miriam Hopkins is downright brutal in her small part as Olivier's wife.
Not for nothing is Laurence Olivier heralded as one of the greatest actors of our time, and if ever a film proved it, it's "Carrie," an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's "Sister Carrie." Dreiser is the man who brought us "An American Tragedy," remade as "A Place in the Sun." Poor Dreiser - he must have been one miserable human being to write such stories of man's desolation."Carrie" is the story of a distinguished man, George Hurstwood (Olivier) who runs a large Chicago restaurant, and how his obsession with a beautiful young woman, Carrie (Jennifer Jones) destroys his social standing, his reputation, and his life.
Miserable in a loveless marriage to Julie (Miriam Hopkins), George meets Carrie while she is living with a salesman, Charlie (Eddie Albert).
But his troubles are just beginning.William Wyler skillfully directed this film, which has one of Olivier's best screen performances as George.
He will break your heart.As Carrie, Jennifer Jones is excellent as an unhappy young woman who, because of poverty, innocence, and George's determination, is dragged into a downward spiral.
George is such a weak man that the only type of person he could ever dominate would be someone like Carrie - and finally, he isn't even able to dominate her.Hopkins was a master at playing a shrew, but more than that, she was a brilliant actress who knew the art of playing period pieces, as she demonstrated so admirably in "The Heiress." Eddie Albert is good in the familiar role of a likable salesman, but it had an added twist - this one had ulterior motives, but he was so smiley and gregarious, you almost couldn't believe it.Well worth seeing but have a box of tissues nearby.
When he finds she is not to be won over he must sacrifice everything to have her, including forfeiting his property and assets to a shrew of a wife, played unmercifully by Miriam Hopkins.Olivier's eyes are captivating in every scene with Jennifer Jones, his manners are impeccable the chemistry between them is dazzling.
I love this film and it is much more idealistic than the book which describes Carrie as disillusioned when Hurstwood can't support her and thinks him old and useless.
When Hurstwood's son surfaces Carrie encourages him to seek him out for help and decides to leave only for his benefit.Carrie is not portrayed in the film as the selfish character in Dreiser's novel.
Women who take their handkerchiefs to the cinema have always seemed indifferent to the film: indeed the only admirers I have personally found have been male, possibly identifying with the debonaire restaurateur, Hurstwood (magnificently played by Laurence Olivier), sowing the seeds of his downfall through human weakness which destroys everything except his innate dignity.
An unusual film to come out of Hollywood in the Fifties, it now emerges as one of the finest American films of that period.Jennifer Jones, Eddie Albert and Miriam Hopkins all deliver top-notch performances - subtle, believable, multi-dimensional and real.
Jennifer Jones is rather tepid playing Carrie Meeber, a small town girl who becomes involved in her first romance with a classy restaurateur from the big city.
Laurence Olivier's performance as Carrie's lover is sly and seductive, but there isn't any real chemistry between he and Jones, and Olivier could just as well be acting to a mirror (he's very good, very charismatic, and yet highly enamored of his own presence).
Superior film with Jennifer Jones and Laurence Olivier.
In a way they're reliving author Theodore Dreyser's other great masterpiece "An American Tragedy." In that classic as well as Carrie we see the differences within social classes in the U.S. and how it leads to ultimate ruin.Laurence Olivier proves he was a genius by giving a restrained, masterful performance as a wealthy man driven to ruin by his unhappy marriage to an embittered Miriam Hopkins and his love for Carrie (Jennifer Jones) who he meets when her beau (Eddie Albert) brings her to the restaurant he manages.
Albert more than holds his own in scenes with both Miss Jones and Olivier.When an embarrassed Olivier walks away from his son who he doesn't wish to be seen by him, it's a similar rejection faced by Barbara Stanwyck in that famous wedding scene of the great "Stella Dallas."It's still basically the same story with one person making it to the top as their spouse falls.
This filming of Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie focuses more on Laurence Olivier's character of George Hurstwood more than on the title character that Jennifer Jones portrays.
And one day accompanied by Eddie Albert, walks Jennifer Jones into his place and he flips for her.Carrie's a young girl from the farm gone to Chicago to seek life.
Melodrama had come a long way between the thirties austere black and white Stahl tear-jerkers to the fifties flaming Sirk extravaganzas ,which were often remakes of the first director's works ( "when tomorrow comes" "imitation of life" "magnificent obsession")At the beginning of the fifties ,Wyler -who had already approached melodrama ("Mrs Minniver","little foxes" and even elements of his admirable "best years of our lives) opted for full bore weepie,the "enough is enough" genre and thus anticipated on the great maudlin movies of the fifties which was another golden era for the style,not only Douglas Sirk but also Minelli,Cukor,Dmytryk ,King...
Jennifer Jones ,the romantic actress par excellence ,is the bridge between the two eras:she has nothing to do with Irene Dunne or Margaret Sullavan because she's primarily an intuitive:her face is constantly longing for the love which ceaselessly eludes her :no actress succeeded as she did as far romantic passion is concerned ("duel in the sun" "madame Bovary" "Ruby Gentry" are good examples).And yet,despite the title,the plot focuses on Olivier's character.the great thespian is very moving,going from riches to rag with equal command.The plot encompasses everything that makes a melodrama a delight for afficionados of the genre.Olivier's downfall is almost realist -and sometimes recalls Murnau's "der Letzte Mann" (1924).Wyler depicts his plight and humiliation in lavish detail .That's strange,because ,generally ,man is spared in melodramas .The legendary depth of field you can find in any Wyler movie is used with great results in the scenes when Carrie comes for the first time in the luxury restaurant where she's invited..
This is a curious little sleeper from 1952, a grim, objective look at the upward mobility of a country girl who first adapts to the needs of the men around her, and then moves on to a successful stage career on her own, leaving one of the men in abject poverty.Today Carrie succeeds not only because of it's splendid recreation of a time, but as one of the few American vehicles where the legendary Laurence Olivier, (who often walked through a character role for the paycheck) performs to his best advantage, evolving from an assured man of the world to a pathetic morsel at the bottom of the heap, a restrained and beautifully measured performance given 13 years later than his dynamic Heathcliff for the same directer in 1939's Wuthering Heights.Jennifer Jones, too, is a good deal less hysterical and florid than usual; the music score by David Raksin underscores without bombast, and the supporting cast provide excellent contrast.
It's peopled by such unlikeable, unappealing characters that by the time it's over and LAURENCE OLIVIER lands in a flophouse while JENNIFER JONES has achieved success, it has a deja vu feeling that you've seen this tale before in a little something called A STAR IS BORN.The production values are splendid, as you would expect in a Paramount film under Wyler's auspices, and the supporting cast includes EDDIE ALBERT (as a traveling salesman, the kind he's played before), and MIRIAM HOPKINS (as a shrewish wife who doesn't give the viewer any sympathy for her character).Motivations by the principal characters are somewhat muddied which is probably a script problem, but I lost interest in the tale long before it reached its painful end.It failed to win any acclaim from the critics except for Olivier's performance and was doomed to box-office failure.
Olivier and Albert certainly play supporting roles in this terrific William Wyler flick, but as in the Dreiser novel, Jones/Carrie is the star.
But the first wife is much worse, far more grasping, self-serving, and vicious than Carrie.Jones is good here, but Olivier is amazing..
The two characters, Jennifer Jones as Carrie and Laurence Olivier as Hurstwood totally and completely evolve and change.
This is a much more serious film then Holiday and this movie starts out with Jennifer Jones leaving her family in a small town to go to Chicago to live her sister and her husband.
Jones then meets Laurence Olivier who owns a big restaurant in town and they quickly fall in love.
There is a lot more that happens and i think Laurence Olivier is a great actor but he just wasn't right for this role but Jones does a good job..
Thanks to the superb craftsmanship of William Wyler, Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Mirian Hopkins, Eddie Albert, and production crew including David Raskin, this is Hollywood at its all-time best.Every aspect of this drama is remarkably presented, and it is a tribute to the entire production department that all elements come together so brilliantly.Olivier's decision to tone down his work (probably with the help of Wyler) truly enhances his effectiveness.
Once this particular scandal breaks out, Carrie gives him the boot and sets her sights on becoming a successful actress.This particular aspect of the story can be compared to IN THIS OUR LIFE, when Bette Davis ruins one man after the other, thinking constantly of making it big and only wanting pleasures for herself, not thinking about the consequences that will be caused in her wake of self-destruction.Another similar story line can be found in THE CATERED AFFAIR when Bette Davis again, runs her poor husband, Ernest Borgnine, and her family bankrupt when she tries to throw her daughter a lavish wedding.The only difference in this story is that Jennifer Jones' character, Carrie, finally comes to her senses and discovers that she has a conscience and decides to make things right by regenerating Olivier from destitution and poverty.While this wasn't one of Jennifer Jones' better films, it was certainly interesting to watch her portray such a heartless and selfish character.
Although she does come good in the end, I would have preferred to see how her character would have unfolded had she remained a selfish and heartless person.Overall, this film is a must for Jennifer Jones fans.
Based on the Theodore Dreiser novel, "Sister Carrie." Jennifer Jones plays Carrie Meeber, a young woman who moves to Chicago to find work and better herself.
I selected this film to watch mostly because of Jennifer Jones (I'm male, so shoot me), and having Sir Lawrence Olivier never hurt a movie.
She is young and impressionable, and develops a precocious infatuation for him!!Carrie (Jennifer Jones) is the main character in the movie, quite a bit of this film is through her eyes!..Initially, Charlie's (Eddie Albert's) wife, she does not feel comfortable with him entirely!!
Carrie becomes enthralled with Lawrence Olivier's character, she is easily cajoled, and thus very susceptible to George Hurstwood's professional charm!!...So now, Carrie wants to be married to an older, more distinguished man, whom she feels she can devote her life to!!...What is the problem with falling in love with this married man?
Performances by Jennifer Jones, Eddie Albert, Miriam Hopkins and of course Sir Lawrence Olivier, were to say the least, phenomenal!!.
William Wyler directed this film ("Director of Best Years of Our Lives") This movie stands behind his fabulous reputation, and ultimately delivers with noteworthy critical acclaim as well!!
Comparison is expected, but ultimately unfair in this case, as 'Carrie' is unique in it's own right.Olivier gives possibly the best film performance of his career as George Hurstwood, the tragic figure of the tale.
Jones is just as good as Carrie, the unknowing young girl who is first taken up one older man (Eddie Albert), than is the objective of affection and/or lust for another (Olivier).
Jones must surely be one of the greatest film actresses of all time; her ability to play such a range of characters (Carrie, Pearl Chavez, Bernadette) on screen is compelling.
The advertising makes it look like a glossy romance, and it is much deeper and darker.***Do not miss this one, it is highly regarded for all the right reasons.This movie really should have been called "George,"as it is the story of a man (Laurence Oliver) who ruins his life for love.
Jennifer Jones, playing Carrie, also gives one of her best performances, and their chemistry is fantastic.
Second to "Here Comes the Groom" as Paramount's top-grossing Australian release of 1952.COMMENT: One of Wyler's finest achievements, this memorable adaptation of Dreiser's first novel, is not only forcefully acted by its principals, but splendidly set and produced.Among many memorable scenes is one of the most haunting ever put on film.
The characters seem so convincing it's not surprising to learn that they were drawn from real people and events.Jennifer Jones plays Carrie, a young country girl who becomes involved with two men, Charles Drouet and George Hurstwood, in turn-of-the-century Chicago.
Through these difficult relationships, Carrie becomes a wiser, more independent woman, ultimately achieving fame on the stage.Eddie Albert plays Charles Drouet, and to his credit his performance holds up well against Olivier's tour-de-force.Laurence Olivier plays George Hurstwood, the older man who wins Carrie over with his suave demeanour, and respected position as the manager of a big hotel.
But as his position and powers decline, he becomes increasingly dependent on Carrie while she gains inner strength and leaves him.The harsher tone of the novel was softened in the movie version, especially with George Hurstwood's character.
The story surrounds small town girl Jennifer Jones who moves to Chicago, finds hardships but eventually love with the married Laurence Oliver who can't get rid of venomous spouse Hopkins.
You'll want to reach through the screen and throttle her, just like Bette Davis did in "Old Acquaintance"The lovely Jones is of course the focus, initially having alleged inappropriate relations with gregarious businessman Eddie Albert through whom she meets Olivier at the restaurant he runs (owned by Hopkins whom he signed it over to we find out).
Live Wisely and Prosper - A Tale to Learn By. Jennifer Jones is Carrie, based on the novel, Sister Carrie, by Theodore Dreiser, author of the novel which prompted the film, A Place in the Sun. Dreiser's themes in his novels dealt heavily with society and his characters' desire to or lack of desire to conform with the rest of the people around them.
But while Jennifer Jones is always beautiful and is the title character, the film really belongs to Laurence Olivier.
Director William Wyler's production values making us the viewers delve into the mindset of Theodore Dreiser's characters and Olivier's performance are superlative, making this a film not to be missed by serious film buffs, especially those interested in the mores of yesteryear.
It stars an actor as distinguished as Laurence Olivier and Jennifer Jones, one of the screen's great beauties of the forties and fifties.
This "Carrie" was made in 1952, a year after another of Dreiser's novels, "An American Tragedy", was filmed as "A Place in the Sun".
The film tells the story of Carrie's relationships with two men, a salesman named Charles Drouet whose mistress she briefly becomes, and George Hurstwood, the manager of an upmarket restaurant.
a martini for me, dry, and keep them coming.The mess: Adulteress/actress Jennifer Jones is typecast as Carrie, who lives as a kept woman for most of the movie.
You can't teach a man..' 'the director who gets Laurence Olivier to play a role in his film is fortunate indeed.
So exquisitely done and painful to watch.All the performances in this film are excellent especially Eddie Albert's, nicely juxtaposing Olivier's.
Which made the ending all the more poignant, when she realised she didn't have the power to feel, therefore to love.Stunning Jennifer Jones had the beauty of Carrie but she was married to producer David O.
Jennifer Jones' Carrie is a sensitive young woman who yearns for the respectability marriage would bring, however she was not to find it with Charlie Drouet (described in the book as a "masher") - Eddie Albert is very good in the role but a bit too sincere for the shallow Drouet - why didn't he marry her?? |
tt0211661 | Terror Tract | === "Nightmare" ===
In the first story, "Nightmare", a businessman discovers his wife cheating on him（best sex sence） and plans to shoot the boyfriend and make it look like she did it, then hung herself. But the boyfriend manages to kill him and dumps the body in a nearby lake, but then needs the car keys from the pocket of the body to get rid of a telltale car. The wife has had a number of terrible nightmares that her husband comes back from the dead to get revenge on her and when the door creaks open she blasts the figure behind it only to find she has killed her boyfriend. She is found hanged by the law, but her body is covered in water and you are led to believe that the dead man killed her finally.
Starring:
Rachel York as Sarah Freemont
Carmine Giovinazzo as Frank Sarno
Fredric Lehne as Louis Freemont
Wade Williams as Clay Hendricks
Carl Strano as Chief Of Police
Jeff Ricupito as Police Officer
Brent Strachan as Police Officer
Julieann Getman as Police Officer
Harrison Held as Medical Examiner
=== "Bobo" ===
In the second tale, "Bobo," the Gatleys are a perfect family with father and daughter having a perfect relationship. Then the daughter finds a small monkey in their tree and persuades her father to allow it indoors. The monkey, tame around the daughter, hates everyone else. The monkey alienates his daughter from him and after it bites Ron, he puts it near a cage next to the (big) dog who hates it. Next morning the dog is found stabbed to death and the monkey gone. The police don't want to know about monkeys so Ron bribes an animal catcher to get it but he ends up stabbed to death too so again Ron has to hide the body. His wife and daughter now doubt his sanity as he goes after the monkey with a gun but it eludes him, and his bear trap, and then it kills his wife. Beyond anger, he goes to his daughter's room where he suspects the monkey is. It attacks him and he loses his rifle but manages to trap the monkey only to see his daughter holding the rifle pointed at him. He shouts at her to give him the gun but she shoots him. She tells the police what happened when they finally turn up, and never says another word after that.
Starring:
Bryan Cranston as Ron Gatley
Katelin Petersen as Jennifer Gatley
Jodi Harris as Carol Gatley
Marcus Bagwell as Pound Dispatcher
=== "Come To Granny" ===
The third story, "Come To Granny", involves a troubled teenager with psychic abilities who visits a therapist. He tells her of his crazy visions in which he sees the Granny killer killing his victims. When he has these visions it looks to bystanders that he is having a fit. A vision when with his girlfriend drives her away, and she too becomes a victim of the killer, something he has seen previously. He warns the therapist that she is to be the next victim of the vicious serial killer but she thinks that he is the killer and runs from him. He falls onto her letter spike in trying to reach her and is badly injured but slowly follows her. She manages to get the lift but out comes Granny with a cleaver and Sean who was trying to give her a gun to defend herself collapses (and dies?).
Starring:
Brenda Strong as Dr. Helen Corey
Will Estes as Sean Goodwin
Shonda Farr as Jasmine
Barbara Jansen as Margaret Goodwin
Jerry Day as Robert Goodwin
Branwen Mayfair as Woman Victim
Lynda Kay Parker as Teacher
Rafaella Forero as Cleaning Woman
Allen Simpson as Jasmine's Friend
Lance W. Dreesen as Granny Killer (Also co-director; credited as "?")
=== The Ending ===
The film ends with the couple refusing to buy any of the houses. The real estate agent finds out he has failed to meet a deadline and his son is put on the phone and you get the impression that something bad is going to happen to him. The estate agent goes mad and stabs Mr Doyle in the neck and as he collapses to the floor with blood spurting from his neck, starts stabbing him in the back. Mrs Doyle after an effort gets the front door open and runs out to see a neighbor about to use a lawn mower on a cat buried up to its neck. As she gets in the car to drive off, the estate agent tries to get her, and Bobo the murderous monkey appears on her windscreen. As she drives off screaming, she sees people being shot at, a human leg hanging out of a wheelie bin, an explosion, a car trying to run over a man and so on as she tries to get as far away as possible from this evil area. | violence, comedy, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | Real estate man John Ritter shows three houses to a young couple (David Deluise, Allison Smith).
It's worth seeing for the bits involving Ritter (who's very good) and the final story..
The suburban real estate agent Bob Carter (John Ritter) is driving the newlywed Allen Doyle (David DeLuise) and his wife Mary Ann Doyle (Allison Smith) through a suburban area expecting to sell a house to them.
"Terror Tract" is an excellent horror film with a lead storyline and three segments.
"Nightmare", "Bobo" and come to Granny" are highly entertaining and the lead segment "Make Me an Offer" has a surprising and hilarious conclusion.
They tie it all together with a story about a real estate officer who desperately, DESPERATELY needs to sell homes to a newlywed couple, and ends up telling them the stories behind each house.
The first story, "Nightmare", is a love triangle story that involves a murdered husband coming back from the dead to kill his wife.
The third story 'Come to Granny' is the real gold nugget in this piece, the shining work of the film.
And the ending is a good exercise in chaotic insanity that will leave a bewildered smile on your face as the credits roll in."Nightmare" is a solid little story, but not overly memorable, and could've been omitted for a better one, or just to elongate the duration of "Come to Granny." This story felt way too long and was rather boring in some parts, although the ending was nice and the murder scene at the beginning was well executed (heh...pun...).
It was a step up from the bland "Nightmare", but still not world class and could not stand on it's own as a real movie.Then we reach the high point of our little anthology, "Come to Granny." It's the story of a troubled, dark young man who comes into the office of a psychiatrist late in the evening, and begins to tell the tale of how he sees the murders of 'The Granny Killer', a brutal psychopath who wears a mask resembling an old woman, and how his life was ruined because of it.
Worth the rental of the entire anthology by itself.The ending of the film itself, like I stated above, is a good little burst of chaos and blood and gore, and pretty funny.
John Ritter hamming it up royally among granny masked killers, malevolent monkeys, and at least one zombie.
Well it's all part of Terror Tract, an enjoyable anthology which follows a young couple looking at homes with a kindly (if a little strange) real estate agent (Ritter).
Story Three: A young man believes he shares a psychic connection with a brutal serial killer adorned in a granny-mask.
From the description on the back of the box, it sounded like it was just a single-story clichéd horror film about a psycho who takes his job too seriously.
The film features three different horror stories, all of them are retold by John Ritter's character.
The stories his character tells make up the stories in the movie.The first horror tale is entitled `Nightmare.' It's plot revolves around a young woman who is caught cheating on her husband with another man.
I particularly didn't enjoy this story very much, because it has the typical story of a wife cheating on her husband, and someone ending up getting killed.
The dialogue is lame and derived from old campy horror tales, and each character is just what you would expect: The wife who participates in the murder of her husband, and slowly slipping into insanity because of all the strange things happening, and the lover who seems to never show consideration towards anyone else.
Overall, however, this story is the worst out of the bunch, but the movie does get better.
After the couple is disgusted after the realization of the house's past, they go to house number two, which leads to story number two, entitled `Bobo.' Bobo, is about a typical family who finds a seemingly normal monkey in the backyard.
I like the fact that the `evil killer monkey' story is handled quite well, and there's enough blood for the average horror fan.
It is the second best out of the three stories.Overall score (for the segment BOBO): 7 ½ out of 10.The final segment is `Come to Granny,' a somewhat scary story that ahs a somewhat scary villain (the only scary thing from the villain is his/her voice).
Overall score (for the segment COME TO GRANNY): 8 out of 10.Now, there's technically a fourth segment, which involves John Ritter's character and the couple, but it's not really a segment.
John Ritter delivers a great performance, and creates a lot of character, however, the couple does not deliver a good performance.
The ending is somewhat funny, just the thought of what's happening before the credits roll will make you laugh.Overall, Terror Tract was one of the my favorite B-movie quality horror movies.
The script varies from good to bad, it depends on which segment, and the story lines are good old fashioned campy horror.
(the house on)Terror Tract is a recent and rather good horror film that should have deserved a bit more praise and credit than it actually got at the time of its release.
It certainly isn't a highlight, but it is good enough to take the test with similar movies like "Creepshow" and "Tales from the Darkside".
The late John Ritter portrays a real-estate manager who's showing some fancy and luxurious houses to a young couple.
Actually, the whole wraparound story starring John Ritter is the best part of the entire movie...it contains a terrific opening on the "eat or be eaten" theme and the finale is just great.
The House on Terror Tract certainly isn't a must-see, but you won't regret it if you spend your time watching it.
I'm a sucker for John Ritter due to my longstanding love of "Three's Company," so when I stumbled across this flick while browsing through On Demand horror movies, I was quick to download it.I wasn't expecting much, but I found myself laughing right from the opening credits, and I was thoroughly engaged during these "Tales from the Darkside"-type stories.
my friend was looking in the movie place one day and stumbled upon this film and thought it would be good and scary...
While watching this movie, i realized that the actors in this film were excellent.
With each failed story, they realize there is a reason why he's intent to close a sale.The Good Stor(ies): Nightmare-Returning home early, a husband finds his wife having an affair and confronts them about it, attempting to put an end to it by setting it up like they killed each other.
It's even got a great brawling scene that comes of rather well, and despite being a little overlong, it still leaves a good feeling afterward.Come to Granny-Consumed with guilt, a young man offers to see a psychiatrist about a mysterious killer known as the Granny Killer, which has been plaguing the area.
There's also a lot to like about the twist which plays well with the storyline as well, and the villain also sports a really wicked-looking granny mask that is quite terrifying, and the puns at the kills are clever and funny.
This was just an all-around good segment.The Bad Stor(ies): Bobo-Waking up one morning, a couple find their daughter concerned over a monkey she found in the backyard.
It's a great visual and the only good thing here, as the rest of the segment consists of him running around trying to kill it for no reason.
The late John Ritter's character is a believable and fun performance - especially in the end.
Bob Carter (John Ritter), a suburban real estate agent, tries to get a kindly couple, Allen and Mary Ann Doyle, to buy a house only to give them horrifying stories about the pasts of three of them.What really sells this film is the "before they were stars" appeal of it.
The "Nightmare" segment features Wade Williams years before his big break on "Prison Break".The "Bobo" segment features Bryan Cranston, just as he was hitting it big with "Malcolm in the Middle" and years before "Breaking Bad" made him an A-list star.And the "Come to Granny" segment has Brenda Strong, who was already quite successful, but this was again years before her biggest role: on "Desperate Housewives".Beyond that, it is a slightly above average horror film.
Another anthology which is stable as more of dark comedy Horror movie A a real-estate agent (Played by Late John" Ritter trying to sell a variety of houses to a young couple;They 3 different house and they all seem have very Dark Pass!
When any another scary scenes happen you already know that already try to creep out with also the same scenes twice , one tiny thing changes in those scene, Its got boring, I didn't really care the near the end of this story, Decent story but ruined by to many fake scare too close to each other!
4/10After hearing that Story, the young couple didn't what to buy this house, so go to other house, which they love Until Man tells them story about this house "Bobo," Normal nice family father and daughter getting along really well, until she finds the monkey in the tree.
At end, we do see attack one person in the movie, which far to late the story, I thought attack was decent.
The acting was really good in this story from whole cast!6/10 Again Young couple pass on this house And they go too next house Come To Granny" Teenager who seem have psychic abilities and he goes to see a therapist, he tells her he as crazy visions in which he sees the Granny killer killing his victims.
This one was Decent story but very predicable and some of worst acted segment in this movie and I didn't like the Idea of Granny kill Mask.
The last scenes was bloody funny, the whole neighbour hood was crazy, every house some thing bad was going on.I give this movie 7 out of 10.
The second story was strange in a way but also fun to watch,bobo totally spooked me out.
Nearly all the actor in it is lame.I think the doctor is the only one that made the movie likeable.Her scared expression when the guy explain about his prediction was really good.Two thumbs up for you Brenda Strong.
Another good acting is in the bobo(2nd story) slot.The father's performance was the best.I hope you will go far after this movie.As for the other actors they are just okay.
John Ritter is an increasingly desperate real estate agent, looking to make a sale to a newlywed couple.
Ritter is a riot as the agent-with-a-secret, but the best performance of the film is by Bryan Cranston, as a man driven to the point of madness in his battle of wits with an evil monkey that his daughter has adopted.
I would like to watch this movie with John Ritter by my side one day, but I am afraid that won't happen soon.
Bob Carter (the late great John Ritter) is a real estate agent who introduces three houses each with a peculiar back story to a couple in this Entertaining little horror-comedy.
Predictable, but entertaining thanks in part to Prison Break's Wade Williams in a bit part and the cuteness of Rachel York,The second tale is pretty much A father (Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad and Malcolm in the Middle) versus an evil monkey.
It's cheaply done, the acting is terrible (although I think John Ritter's unselfconscious portrayal of a desperate real estate agent is great -- you gotta hand it to the man, he's not ashamed to throw himself into some of the stupidest parts in some of the worst films), it's not even SCARY.So don't watch it trying to get scared.
That's what makes truly GREAT horror -- some scary moments (all right, the Granny Killer vignette freaked me out a bit), but a lot of moments where the movie points to its own ludicrousness and can have a chuckle at its own expense.This is why I like B-grade horror better than slick, stylish horror full of dark symbolism and erudite references -- you get lots of envelope-pushing gore, sex, cheap thrills, and some laughs.
John Ritter stars as a real estate agent showing three homes with blood soaked histories, which result in three terror tales.Horror film is devoid of any horror or suspense and features poor performances from all involved.
John Ritter plays a down on his luck real estate agent who is losing sales by telling potential buyers the horrific stories while showing them houses.
The first story, "Nightmare" is about a husband who finds out his wife has been cheating with him.
The second story, "Bobo" was about a little girl (Katelin Peterson) who finds a monkey in the back yard and convinces her parent to let her keep in until they find the owner.
As far as horror is concerned, this movie doesn't really have any (except for the granny mask in the last story--skeery!)But it's not boring.
Second story with a bratty little girl and her father felt longer than it was but that's because of how much was packed into it.Malcolm in the Middle's Bryan Cranston made it better than what it was.
With several well-placed scares, morbid humor that is actually refreshing and funny, and a trio of well-constructed and concise stories, Terror Tract is far better than you'd expect from a direct-to-DVD offering from USA Pictures.
In almost all conceivable aspects, this film succeeds admirably as a light-hearted horror anthology that supplies enough actual horror and liberal gore to satisfy even those with the darkest appetites for the genre.The presence of beloved late television icon John Ritter elevates the film tremendously, and the framing story he leads is every bit as good as the segments he introduces.
Ritter is delightful here, and he seems to be having a great time with the witty and twisted material.The first segment is sort of a reversal of "Something To Tide You Over" from the best horror anthology film of all time, Creepshow.
This one concerns a murderous monkey named Bobo that stalks the family of a little girl who takes him in, and while the rote story doesn't offer any surprises, it's about as well-realized as a tale about a killer monkey can be.
The story is perfectly suited for a 20-minute anthology piece, and even though you guess the twist a mile away, like the rest of the film, it's such a well-crafted and enjoyable bit of obviousness that you won't really care that you saw it coming.
It really is a fantastic little film, and John's just dying to show you some houses.
A prosperous real estate agent (John Ritter, in an amusing performance) is in desperate need of a break and hopes a newlywed couple will buy one of three homes he plans to show them on a sunny afternoon...but his duty to abide by the rules to tell of the history regarding each domicile makes the sales pitch especially difficult!The first home involves an affair, attempted murder, real murder, a cover-up, missing car keys, accidental murder, and a suspicious hanging which might include a vengeance seeking husband from beyond death, rising from the resting place of a watery lake grave.The second home involves a homicidal monkey and the little girl it loves.
John Ritter plays a real estate agent who takes his job very seriously.
"Terror tract" ,although not very scary is at least very entertaining and very funny .The three segments are good ,with the middle one the best.The first quality of this movie made up of sketches is its lack of pretension ,which is not the case of Stephen King's overrated stories.The first one ,about the eternal love triangle and the third one which deals with a neurotic adolescent,a shrink and a serial killer are run of the mill but they have some good unexpected twists in store.But come on come on come on is such a joy come on and take it easy !everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey!That 'w what the young girl of the second segment could sing.The monkey Bobo easily steals the show.The story is very original:a father adores his daughter:but the nice little girl finds a monkey and his father is no longer number one on the love charts.To reveal more would be a spoiler ,but it's the only segment which retains a certain ambiguity:is the monkey evil or is the dad going off his nut?Probably both ,but I would give the animal a supporting part AA..
A real estate agent is showing houses that has histories of horror.
Much like the first story, this one is somewhat predictable (less than the first one though) but that doesn't mean that it's not an interesting, enjoyable watch.
The stories are ridiculous, the acting is horrible, especially in the first story (whoever the wife is, she needs to find a new profession!!!) The movie is just a laugh, and it shames me to watch it.
As for plot holes...The husband comes in to find his wife with another man, he's going to kill him, and have her hang herself, making it look like a murder/suicide.
No one will ever find it (nope...never.) The wife, back at home, is having nightmares of her husband coming back to the house all wet and slimey and killing her.....the lover comes back and "protects" her.
The rest of the movie drags on like this, I couldn't even review the end, because I was so bored, I was barely watching.
In between stories, you see John Ritter try to sell the houses that these various events took place in to a young couple...this whole deal is laughable as well, and it does nothing to improve an awful movie to begin with. |
tt0079640 | North Dallas Forty | Wide receiver Phil Elliott (Nolte) plays for a late 1960s era professional football team based in Dallas, Texas named the North Dallas Bulls, which closely resembles the Dallas Cowboys.
Though considered to possess "the best hands in the game", the aging Elliott has been benched and relies heavily on painkillers. Elliott and popular quarterback Seth Maxwell (Davis) are outstanding players, but they also characterize the drug-, sex-, and alcohol-fueled party atmosphere of that era. Elliott wants only to play the game, retire, and live on a horse farm with his girlfriend Charlotte (Dayle Haddon), who appears to be financially independent, and has no interest whatsoever in football.
The Bulls play for an iconic coach (Spradlin) who turns a blind eye to anything that his players may be doing off the field or anything that his assistant coaches and trainers condone to keep those players in the game. The Coach is focused on player "tendencies", a quantitative measurement of their performance, and seems less concerned about the human aspect of the game and the players. As one player (John Matuszak) finally erupts to a coach (Charles Durning): "Every time I call it a game, you call it a business. And every time I call it a business, you call it a game." The coaches manipulate Elliott to convince a younger, injured rookie on the team to start using painkillers.
Elliott's non-conformist attitude incurs the coach's wrath more than once, and at one point the Coach informs Elliott that his continuing attitude could affect his future with the Bulls. After the Bulls lose their final game of the season in Chicago, Elliott learns that a Dallas detective has been hired by the Bulls to follow him. They turn up proof of his marijuana use and a sexual relationship with a woman who intends to marry team executive Emmett Hunter (Dabney Coleman), brother of owner Conrad Hunter (Steve Forrest). Though the detective witnessed Quarterback Seth Maxwell engaging in similar behavior, he pretends not to have recognized him.After they tell him he is to be suspended without pay pending a league hearing, Elliott, convinced that the entire investigation is merely a pretext to allow the team to save money on his contract, quits the game of football for good. | satire, flashback | train | wikipedia | North Dallas Forty rates as one of the all-time best sports movies ever made and is probably the best football film ever.
Nick Nolte gives one of his best performances as a world weary receiver facing the end of his playing days and still not wanting to become a full-fledged adult.
written by pete gent, a former dallas cowboy in the 60's, it gives a great look inside the mentality of professional football ...
i enjoyed this film because i played ball at the college level in the early 70's, and i feel it's the most realistic portrayal of the emotional seesaw that a football player goes through.the film shows what happens in a society where professional athletes are idolized, and the things they can get away with ...
the problem is that each high gives way to when you either make a mistake on the field, or come down from the "off-the-field" high.if you were a football fan in the 60's-70's, you can just see the dallas cowboys in this film!
This movie was ahead of its time in its depiction since no other movie on professional football had ventured into this area exposing drug use, both off the field casual usage and to get players on the field, and indifference of ownership and coaching staff to players feelings and thoughts.Nick Nolte was exceptional as Phil Elliot, the wide receiver whose character was based on Pete Gent, a wide receiver with the Dallas Cowboys who authored the book (North Dallas Forty) the movie was based on.
Mac Davis was great as quarterback Seth Maxwell, the jaded athlete who knows how to "bend" the rules to remain in good standing with the team.Supporting cast, especially GD Spradlin as the coach modeled after Dallas Cowboys coaching genius Tom Landry, was excellent.
It's both a dark and funny look at professional football, succeeding on both levels, with special emphasis put on the way the pro machinery chews up players and spits them out.
Mac Davis plays the fun-loving quarterback who is serious about keeping his position both with the team and the ladies, and knows all the tricks, whether it's before, during, or after the game.
And Bo Svenson and former pro player John Matuszak are a couple of linemen who play by the same rules on the field and off.It's a complex movie with so much going on in some scenes (just like a football game) that it deserves to be seen more than once.
The coach actually has to tell the team to put out their cigarettes five minutes before the big game!On substance, the movie is still right on the mark.
Although we try to unsuccessfully bury some of those problems today, they sneak out anyway in Bret Favre's pain killers or OJ Simpson's arthritis.One problem: if Nolte really is the best receiver on the team with the best hands in the league, why isn't he playing?
Interrupting this scene's quiet, almost meditative atmosphere are Elliot's loudmouth friends, clearly intoxicated, who want to go out and cause a ruckus with their shotguns.What we see in the first few minutes of North Dallas Forty are what we never see in sports - the morning after the game.
Because we see the lead character in such a vulnerable, often powerless light despite being a very good football player is why North Dallas Forty is so skilled on its feet as a film.
Written by a trio of thoughtful and thoroughly ambitious people - Peter Gent, Kotcheff, and Frank Yablans - the film manages to be less entertaining and sensational, like a typical sports film, and more heartbreaking and an often immersing watch.We set our sights on Elliot, who is becoming greatly dissatisfied with the way the NFL operates (his team is the fictional North Dallas Bulls, which mirror the Dallas Cowboys, FYI).
All for a game that will be out of the immediate mindset of even the most heartened-fans in no more than two weeks or so.On a final note, the promotional poster/home video release images for North Dallas Forty are criminally misleading ones, showing two football players, one dousing himself with water, the other hoisting his helmet while they both lounge in two cowboy boots with two woman grappling to get at them on both sides of the boots.
Seen this movie a few times on TV and it is a superb football film.
Good, fun all round film with great thought put into the story especially when entering Nolte's problems with team management/owners.
Pete Gent was a maverick in his NFL career, but it would seem his alter-ego, Phil (Nick Nolte), while possessing this same nature, is significantly more accomplished in his pro career (even if on the coach's "secondary list" in the film).
The primary "athletes" in the film - played by Nolte, Davis, Matuszak and Svenson are realistic, interesting, tough and bawdy.
Phil Elliott (Nick Nolte) is a worn out wide receiver for the North Dallas Bulls professional football team in the 70s.
People unfamiliar with this movie will note that there's not necessarily a lot of game action; the concentration is on the action taking place off the playing field.The pivotal character is Phillip Elliott (Nick Nolte), a weary seen-it-all veteran of the game, a top notch receiver conscious of all the punishment that his body has taken over the years.
Phillip knows the game very well, but he's not too interested in playing a different sort of game, with the hard-driving coaches (G.D. Spradlin and Charles Durning) and the greedy team owner (Steve Forrest).
Fortunately, he does have one good friend: star quarterback Seth Maxwell (singer Mac Davis).This is scripted by director Ted Kotcheff ("First Blood"), producer Frank Yablans, and author Peter Gent, who wrote the semi-fictional novel on which the movie is based.
Based on the Dallas Cowboys team of the early 1970s, it takes its time telling the story, contrasting the more philosophical and low key nature of Phillip with gung-ho defensive players like O.W. Shaddock (real life football star John Matuszak) and Jo Bob Priddy (amusing live wire Bo Svenson).
The coaches want 100% to win games and win the season, but do the owners see the people inside the uniforms?Written by ex-player Peter Gent this film wanders between love for the game and admiration for the players and the flip side where the players are overpaid little boys in men's bodies who are seen as disposable by club owners.
The players are clearly childish and irresponsible, violent men but yet the film weakens on that point after hinting at it, likewise the film condemns part of the game but then happily indulges in big game action near the end of the film.Nolte is pretty good, but he also seems a little unsure about whether his character loves the sport or hates everything about it except the game.
The reason for Haddon's love interest is beyond me but Durning and Spradlin give good support as coaches.Overall this is an interesting film, which is strongest at the start and end, the middle section lacking structure and focus.
Though they should be forgiven due to his great contributions to film.The movie is about a receiver in the NFL and his conflicts with people and the team he plays for.
Pete Gent's North Dallas Forty was a great book about the fear and desperation of being a marginal football player in the NFL, even if it's outlook on sex, drug use and authority seems rather sophomoric and dated now.
Nolte captures the rebelliousness of wide receiver Elliott/Gent, while Mac Davis, in a true casting coup and career performance, does a great turn as the Dallas quarterback Maxwell/Meredith.
So ND40 basically plays like a voyeuristic behind-the-scenes look at what goes on in a professional football team.
BTW, it's nice to see that Nick Nolte looks as bad in this 1979 film as he does (25 years later) today..
"Better football through chemistry" is a line of Nick Nolte's as he's being shot up with painkillers before the big game.
The new findings that NFL teams sent injured players into games full of drugs gives this film new meaning.
So, like a lot of fans of 'America's Team' in Texas, and across the country, I was extremely angered and offended when I first heard that a major Hollywood movie was released that was a scathing indictment of not only the Dallas Cowboy's, but professional football as well.
And, I vowed then, to never ever watch that blasphemous film that dared criticized the sacred sport of football and its most important team.I guess, I was in a rather sacrilegious mood one day when I decided to watch 'North Dallas Forty' on cable 15 years after the movies original theatrical release.
Like Mac Davis's colorful character Seth Maxell/Don Meredith for example closed sometime in the mid-late 80's.Therefore, I'm recommending a 'North Dallas Forty' reboot that's based on ex-Cowboy player Thomas Henderson's '87 autobiographical novel "Out of Control: Confessions of an NFL Casualty" as the main source material for a sequel to 'North Dallas Forty'.For those of you who don't know?
Then wound up playing in only a few games with other NFL teams until retiring after a career ending neck injury in '81.So, in other words, he was at the pinnacle of success in the NFL just 7 months prior to North Dallas Forty's original release in August of '79, and at its lowest depths just 3 months afterwards.And, let me tell you, the stuff Thomas Henderson covers in his personal account of his experience in the NFL, makes 'North Dallas Forty' controversial indictment of the Cowboy's organization and professional football as a whole, look like a white wash by comparison.Most of the events in Thomas Henderson's book take place during the mid-late 70's, just before the over-the-top deifying worship of football players and professional athletes in general began in the 80's by means of new cable channels like ESPN and HBO for example.
That is if the modern mass-media actually had an interest in educating the public about the people and the sports organizations that they worship?(which, apparently they don't) So, to sum up, I think you could still have a sequel to North Dallas Forty by staying true to the overall theme of the movies scathing indictment of the NFL, its players, coaches and the owners directly involved in putting on the weekly gladiatorial show.
Then I imagine the movie beginning with an over middle aged ex-NFL star who played for a franchise in Dallas, TX as the main character.
(After all those Monday evenings on TV, who could ever think of Tom Landry, Don Meredith or straight-laced Roger Staubach the same way again.) (Then too, fans might check out 1949's "Easy Living", a less caustic but also revealing film on the earlier days of pro football.) All in all, the screenplay of North Dallas is one of the best from the period -- humorous, savvy, and richly ironic -- the final boardroom scene arguably among the most compelling of any on sports.
The movie is overall a pretty scathing look at pro sports, showing in one scene how they give a player a shot so that he can keep playing even while injured.
Bush would probably own the team and everything would thus be connected to the oil industry - although it might have been even back then.Anyway, this is a very good sports movie, even better than "All the Right Moves".
NORTH DALLAS FORTY is often billed as one of the all-time great sports films (and the best to do with football).
NORTH DALLAS FORTY is a decent film with decent performances, with a beat-up Nick Nolte and holier-than-thou Mac Davis leading the way.
Released in 1979, "North Dallas Forty" stars Nick Nolte and Mac Davis as receiver and quarterback for the fictitious North Dallas Bulls professional football team.
Various NFL players are on hand, such as Bo Svenson and John Matuszak.The film plays like a docudrama and attempts to show the grim reality of professional football and what it takes to be a champion team.
Moreover, the characters aren't all that interesting, although Spradlin shines as the coach and Nolte's good as the cynical and burning out protagonist.The film runs 119 minutes and was shot in Los Angeles, CA.GRADE: C+.
The film really tries to belabor the point that playing professional football is hard on the body, with Nolte wincing in pain with almost every movement he makes.
The ending of the book was also considered real shocking along with some of the characters that made it up which was all Hollywood's doing I am sure, and the Delma Huddle/ Bob Hayes character was also played down except where it was necessary with his injuries and the drama leading up to Nolte's quitting speech "B.A., B.A., you, the owners the coaches, you're the team...
Franchises in the NFL, which had reportedly originally cost $100.00, now hovered in the Million$, as teams played their schedules in increasingly modern facilities.The story/screenplay of NORTH DALLAS FORTY(1979) is by Pertr Gent, former Pro Footballer with the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants.
And as for the names of the various teams, we have ones like 'North Dallas Bulls' and 'Chicago Maurauders', but when a game is portrayed in the film, we all know who'w who in the real life counterpart.The whole drama unfolds in the space of a little better than about 2 weeks time.
We are shown the life of a pro athlete, how they want for nothing, but crave everything intangible, like Love, Security, Respect and Home.The relationships of players as "friends" and the intricate construction of the Pro Sports Team "Office Politics" are given a thoroughly complete, through the microscope examination.It is in the end, that we and our story's protagonist are suddenly made aware of what we really are to the public and the Ownership.The point of view is of Author Peter Gent, who did go through several seasons on the rosters of both Dallas and N.Y.Giants.
He did a great job in this movie.I'd recommend it, but if you REALLY want this story, read the book for more drinking, drugs, sex, and on-field FOOTBALL ACTION..
The North Dallas Bulls are the ultimate "corporate whores", aptly observed by Seth Maxwell, who justifies their fate by stating: "We may as well be the best." One of the nicest surprises of 1979 was Mac Davis' performance as Seth Maxwell, who along with Nick Nolte's stellar performance in the lead, give an already gritty film that much more depth.
When I watched this movie again I did not realize how little football is actually in this film.
This film shows the reality of the football business, and price one pays both physical and mentally in pro sports.
Story is about a fictional football team from Dallas, Texas where we see cold hearted management and players that must endure incredible amounts of pain to be able to play.
Phillip Elliott (Nick Nolte) is a veteran wide receiver who has gone through many operations and walks with a limp and must take assorted pain killers not to play football but to just be able to get through the day.
Finally after a star player gets injured Elliott is told that he is going to start in an important game but come game time coach Strothers has changed his mind.
During the game Elliott gets to play and does very good but a few days later management has decided his future with the team.This film is directed by Ted Kotcheff who was a pretty good director during the 1970's but he couldn't hold on to his success and has basically directed television ever since.
The film works on two levels and the first is the way that it shows how players are used by both coaches and management.
Mac Davis wasn't known as a good actor when this was made but he's good here as the quarterback who knows how to play the game (Not football) and keeping his players cool.
Nolte's performance I think is one of his most underrated and while he physically may not exactly look like a player he perfectly embodies an individual who has sacrificed his own body to play the game.
The scene where his girlfriend wakes up in the middle of the night and catches him trying to crack and twist his pain ridden body back into place has become a near classic and if anyone wants to know what it's like to be a football player than they can watch that scene.
Very entertaining film has only a few minutes of actual game playing because it's emphasis is on the players and their manipulation and that in itself is an achievement but none of that would matter without Nolte's rock solid performance..
Ted Kotcheff's version of Peter Gent's book casts Nick Nolte as a not quite over the hill pro football player struggling through the morass of corporate politics, crazy team- mates and myriad injuries.
It's a great performance and he's well matched with Mac Davis as team quarterback and best friend.
It stars Nick Nolte, the star before he did "48 Hrs." is in his excellent performance as a football star in "North Dallas Forty".
His character is Phil Elliot who is a football player.
Jo Bob is a major one, because he always seems to pick a fight.But in all, this film is not such a big film, but with Nick Nolte and Mac Davis, this film is one of my favorites to watch for a long time.
It's worth watching if you like football films..
Charlton Heston played a similar role in the much better "Will Penny," as an aging cowboy realistically reduced to a life of three baths a year.Nick Nolte has some good scenes in this one.
He's a laid-back football player for the North Dallas Bulls. |
tt1002992 | House of Fears | The film opens with a man and a woman arriving at a digging site somewhere in Africa. The man enters a nearby cave, and finds all the workers brutally murdered, while the woman discovers a monkey statue. As the pair flee the scene, the woman takes the statue with her.
In Salem, Oregon, America a security guard, Hamadi (Kelvin Clayton) arrives at 'The House of Fears' with his guard dog. Entering the haunted house, Hamadi finds a box containing the monkey statue. He senses something is wrong, but is attacked by his dog before he can leave.
Meanwhile, Samantha (Corri English) has recently moved in with her step-sister, Hailey (Sandra McCoy), after her mother remarried. While Hailey is sneaking out to a party, she is caught and made to take Samantha, much to the displeasure of Hailey, as they do not get along. While at the party, Hailey and her group of friends, Carter (Corey Sevier), Zane (Eliot Benjamin), Devon (Michael J. Pagan) and Candice (Alice Greczyn) decide to sneak into the 'The House of Fears' to get a sneak peek, before the opening the following night, Samantha is also brought along.
As the group arrive at the haunted house, Zane allows them in and switches on the power, bringing the house to life. He attempts to contact his co-worker Hamadi on the radio but can not reach him. Devon and Candice find the monkey statue, but are told to leave it in the box by Zane. As Zane leads the group through the house, an angry Hailey picks on Samantha, while Zane attempts to get Candice to break up with Devon. As they all begin to have fun, Hailey apologises to Samantha for bullying her, telling her she is still angry at her dad for remarrying. Zane realizes that he will not be able to break up Devon and Candice, so switches plans and asks Carter to swap dates with him. Carter agrees, disappointing Hailey as she likes Carter. Zane reveals to the others his fear is sharp knives, Candice being scared of suffocating and Hailey being claustrophobic.
Zane sneaks off from the others and dress up in a miners suit. He jumps out at the group to scare them, before sending them off into the ancient Mummy section of the house. Zane stays behind to re-dress the mannequin he took the costume off. After doing so, the mannequin comes alive and stabs him to death.
While in the mummy's tomb, Hailey tells Carter her feelings about his swapping dates, causing the pair to fall out. Suddenly, a faulty prop cuts Candice's arm and the group hear the dying screams of Zane, prompting the group to want to leave. They go back to tell Zane, but find a pool of blood, and Candice realizes someone else is in the house. The group believe it to be another joke by Zane, and make Candice stay. However, Samantha soon finds Zane's body, and the group discover their phones do not work in the house. They panic and try to leave, all the while being stalked by a mysterious shadow. They go to the back-stage of the house to escape, but Candice is seperacted from the others. She becomes lost and winds up in the mummy's tomb, where she becomes trapped when the doors close. The rest of the group realize her absence and return to find her, guided by her screams. In the mummy's tomb, sand begins to pour out of the roof, filling up the room. The group make it to the door, but find it sealed shut. Suddenly, mummified hands emerge from the sand and pull Candice under, suffocating her. The sand clears away and the group manage to open the door to find a dead Candice. Devon mourns his girlfriend, before they decide to move on.
They make it to the front door, but the key will not work in the lock, and they discover the phone in the office missing. They find a map that shows them another exit, however it is on the other side of the house. They gather weapons, including a gun and a circular saw, before making their way through the house. They make their way to an Insane Asylum, where they find a terrified Hamadi begging for help. They try to help him, however he tells them the statue will bring their fears to life. At first they do not believe him, however Samantha reminds the others of the statue they found earlier, and that both Zane and Candice were murdered by their fear. Suddenly, the group are attacked by a scarecrow. They all flee, apart from Hamadi who is attacked by his evil dog. As they regroup after escaping, Samantha tells the others her fear is a scarecrow. Before long, a creepy grave-digger attacks the group. They escape the man, and run into another room where Samantha hears the office phone ringing. She finds the phone, but the scarecrow once again appears. Samantha, Hailey and Devon flee while Carter fights the scarecrow, but is ultimately electrocuted to death.
The remaining survivors enter a clown section, where Devon becomes separated from the others. A clown stalks him, hysterically laughing. Devon attempts to shoot the clown dead, but the girls find him and they run into a house of mirrors. As they make their way through, Hailey is attacked by the grave-keeper and dragged away from the others. She attempts to escape, but she is knocked out by the man. She awakens some time later in a coffin, the man barricading her in. While Samantha and Devon attempt to find her, they are attacked by the clown, who drags Devon off into the darkness before killing him. As Samantha finds the exit, she hears Hailey screaming for her help. Samantha decides to go back to rescue her, and manages to defeat the grave-keeper and save Hailey.
As the girls make their way to the exit, the scarecrow shows up and chases them. It catches up with them, and they manage to cut one of its arms off with the circular saw, however this breaks in the process. They run away, only for Samantha to be once more attacked. As the scarecrow is about to strangle her to death, she manages to break the statue, killing the scarecrow and allowing her and Hailey to escape The House of Fears.
As they exit the House of Fears, the statue can be seen shaking, presumably to reassemble itself. | paranormal | train | wikipedia | if you're going into this knowing it will be just another horror movie where horny teens end up somewhere and get hacked up, that's what it is.
The movie didn't attempt to change or go beyond the horror genre that we've been looking at for the past "forever," but again, if you go in knowing this, you'll end up liking it.
House of Fears was a pretty cool premise, but the movie was destroyed by a lame script and a cast that just wasn't very good.
Some kids at a party decide to break into a haunted house exhibit, when suddenly their fears all come to life.
It sounds like a good movie and that cover is great, but the story seemed to be written by a fourth grader.
It's got an awesome cover and very well written description, but the truth is this film is nothing but a waste of time, that you might find mildly entertaining, just because of how bad it really is..
Every night I'll trundle upstairs to bed and stick a film on, very often I'll roll the dice and watch the first one I see on Youtube which is normally a big mistake.This time I came across House Of Fears starring Corey Sevier and found myself interested in this mid budget horror title which has overwhelming similarities to Dark House (2009).I ended up falling asleep and chose to pick it up the next day only to realise upon going on IMDb that I'd already seen it.This is the first time this has ever happened, though a couple of scenes seemed familiar (Especially the sand pit part) I thought it was just because I watch so many films.What does this tell you about House Of Fears?
The Good: Perfectly watchable effort Decent concept The Bad: Generic Things I Learnt From This Movie:I am capable of forgetting a watched a film altogether even when watched again!.
A good horror film....
I enjoyed watching House Of Fears and found it to be a good film.
The night before a local haunted house opens for Halloween, six friends break in for a evening of fun.
Being a fan of the horror movie genre after watching this movie I have to say it is one of the better low budget horror films.
Has a pretty solid story and a well written script.The one thing I really enjoyed about this film is the way it tackles each characters individual fear such as clowns, suffocation, Ghosts etc.
To sum it all up don't watch this movie with high expectations or you WILL be disappointed I recommend this movie to any hardcore horror fan especially fans of the low budget type slasher films just don't expect an Alfred Hitchcock or Wes Craven type flick..
A relatively tame film about teenagers who sneak into a common fear-themed haunted house attraction before it's due to open, where their fears actually can come to life and kill them because of an evil statuette.
Possibly the lack of violent or sexual content was due to the movie being shot in the very Mormon state of Utah?The things they're afraid of are not very focused, in that they don't just attack or kill the person who has the fear, but go after everybody.
In the advertising for the film I'd read, there was mention of "sinister clowns, killer scarecrows." There's really only one of each and the clown barely gets any screen time at all.The characters aren't particularly interesting.
A shame more use wasn't made of her.The director is listed as the producer for an upcoming film titled Hell House, which oddly appears to have the same plot..
I did not expect it to be great, which is about correct.It's just another simple teen slasher movie that we've seen a million times before.
A bunch of good looking dumb cliché teens break into a house only to get killed.....very original.
For a good and original horror movie look elsewhere..
I expect a horror movie to be either or both scary/funny and include violence with hopefully nudity at least.
When an ancient evil relic is found and brought to an American haunted house, you just know bad things are going to happen.
Such is the basis for Ryan Little's House of Fears, a horror film that starts out exceeding every expectation only to fall into general horror clichés and generic devices.The relic, as it is explained, will tap inside the minds of its victims and prey upon their deepest nightmares.
So when a group of six friends sneak into the haunted house exhibit a night before the official launch, well, to quote Drowning Pool – "Let the bodies hit the floor!" In perfect horror symmetry, the group of friends consist of three boys and three girls.
Pagan round out the cast) we watch as each of them reveal their innermost fear and further observe as their nightmares come to life in the forms of killer clowns (not from outer space, unfortunately), a scarecrow and fears of suffocating and claustrophobia.
All their fears are realized inside the already spooky haunted/funhouse which adds quite a bit to the atmosphere of the film.The script, penned by Stephen A.
The six make the usual dumb horror film moves such as splitting up, fighting amongst themselves, shaking when trying to load a gun at an opportune moment and talking about not being able to leave a dead friend behind before trying to save their own skin.
Yawn.We couldn't help but think that just a little help from smarter written characters would have propelled House of Fears into the horror geekdom mainstream.
And we did think the idea of a funhouse being the setting was a device not used often enough in horror.But instead of making House of Fears a must-see, it falls into the 'meh – it's alright' category.
Yeah some things were predictable but seriously what horror movie isn't!
Haunted house films aren't too common anymore, and unfortunately, some don't handle the concept well.People in a haunted house doubling as a fake haunted house get terrorized by various apparitions, pretty similar to the Fangoria horror festival's "Dark House" but without the cheese.The problem?
When a horror movie isn't scary, I'd prefer watching a cheesy film over one that leaves me thinking, "okay, that guy died, meaning after this character, this one, and this one die it'll be time for protagonists to defeat (insert villain here)".Dark House was very fun; House of Fears was memorable despite not being good, but I must admit because I've recently seen Dark House, this movie seemed less entertaining than before, and it wasn't all that entertaining to begin with.Maybe worth a rental, otherwise, watch some other film..
Six friends sneak into a haunted house the night before it opens for Halloween, only to find that their evening of fun has turned into their worst nightmare.Corri English (playing Samantha) may now be known to horror fans who watch "Holliston" (if you do not watch it, you should), but she was largely unknown when appearing here in a starring role.
And a haunted houses where the fears come to life is always a steady source of horror goodness.
What can I say about this typical teenage horror, a rather boring flick with nothing special, except towards the end the horror really comes in but for the geeks it will still be too low to call it a decent flick.There's no gore and the acting was sometimes laughable.
Quickly judging by the brief synopsis and a peek at the picture stills on the back of the DVD cover, "House of Fears" simply looks like just another umpteenth dull new horror slasher with an unoriginal plot, pretty but one-dimensional teen characters and tame and uninspired killing sequences.
Sad but true, "House of Fears" is as dumb and derivative as it looks, and I simply cannot believe that in this day and age – with an horror offer that is already supersaturated – producers are still willing to put money into projects like these.
The attraction, the House of Fears, supposedly is the best thing out there in carny land.
Anyway, one little relic inside the house will turn the teenagers' night into the ordeal of their life, namely an African mini-statue that actually generates people's deepest fears and brings the monsters to life.
I see what you're thinking
How bad can a movie possibly be when it features murderous clowns, pale-skinned undertakers and scarecrow monsters?
I honestly don't know, but "House is Fears" is boring, unexciting, stupid and 100% suspense-free.
There's a scene early in the film, showing a woman shopping for sinister scenery for the House of Fears in Africa and discovering the cursed statue.
This scene is completely irrelevant and I suspect the creators just wanted to showboat like "Hey look, we went on a field trip to make this film!" The acting performances are decent, especially from beauties Corri English and Sandra McCoy, but it's hardly their fault that the characters are too bland and annoying to be memorable.
Fans of gory killings and macabre imagery will be tremendously disappointed, as "House of Fears" is the type of horror that wouldn't even upset 12-year-old Hannah Montana fans..
House of Fears starts in a region of Africa where a archaeological dig has uncovered some artifacts including a little statue that is possessed by an evil god, an evil god that know's peoples fears & turns them into reality in order to kill that person.
Jump to Salem in Oregon in the US where stepsisters Samantha (Corri English) & Hailey (Sandra McCoy) are enjoying a party at a friends house when Zane (Eliot Benjamin) suggest they & a few other select friends visit the soon to open House of Fears attraction where he is the tour guide & as such has a set of keys to enjoy a sneak peek before it opens to the general public.
It just so happens that the little possessed statue is also there for decoration & the teen friends soon find themselves being killed by their worst fears which become reality...Executive produced & directed by Ryan Little this fairly tame teen slasher has a decent enough idea behind it & has pretty good production values but ultimately it never delivers on it's promise & it just ends up being another faceless low budget horror film the likes of which clutter video shop shelves & fill bargain bins right across the world.
The usual problems plague House of Fears, a shallow script that has an OK concept but never builds on it as dumb teen character's wander around a lot, stop to talk about how they shouldn't stop (I'm not joking) & eventually split up so they can get killed off.
Then there's that concept about this demon god thing turning peoples fears into reality to kill them, there could have been some great sequences built around this with all sorts of possibilities as & there could have been some psychological depth here to as character's have to face up to their greatest fear & overcome it but instead we just get a killer scarecrow & an undertaker who just turn out to be the Freddy or Jason murderer character, there's very little imagination here & it's predictable too.
The first half of the film has these six teens looking around this House of Fears after hours & this is probably the films highlight as several cheap but reasonable jump moments are shown & the locations & sets are surprisingly good but once the killing starts it's strictly teen slasher territory & not particularly good teen slasher territory either.
This could have been pretty good but as it is it isn't.The production values are surprisingly good with nice sets but the shot on video look cheapens it, I so wish filmmakers still used proper grainy film like they used to.
House of Fears is very tame indeed, there's no real gore or violence in it, there are a few dead bodies seen with a bit of blood dribbling out of one's mouth, someone is electrocuted & that's about it.
Although the film is supposed to be about peoples fears it's not scary in itself, simply not enough happens but there are one or two cheap horror film moments that do work to an extent but nothing groundbreaking or sustained.
Although made in 2007 House of Fears was only released on DVD in the states at the end of 2009 & you can see why.This looks alright to be fair to it but that's not really enough reason to see it.
The acting isn't that good from anyone involved who were obviously cast for their looks rather than their thespian ability.House of Fears is another low budget horror slasher that doesn't really distinguish itself from the crowd except that it's even tamer than most modern low budget horror & it had potential that it didn't live up to.
But my greatest fear is that the next 5000 horror films are all going to be about teenagers.What is it with those demons and monsters lately?
The set-up for this trite horror flick is about as unique as it gets: six teenagers enter a building (not a house) and get wiped off one by one.
In HOF you've got none of those necessary requirements.Hence: the number of deaths in a horror movie - necessary to keep the viewer interested - is inversely proportional to the quality of the director and the material.
We're trapped in a house of fears and already 3 people have died!" Well, 4 actually, Samantha.Filmed In Utah.
Are there any good horror films anymore?.
I've seen some decent, gory sickening cringe worthy horror films.
As soon as they enter the haunted house you know Zane will be the first to die.
A group of teenaged, sex driven individuals, who think it would be a good idea to go to an unopened haunted house, with a security guard MIA, seeing creepy things.Spoilerthe ending?
Nope.The movie gave it's own best comment: "This is a house of lame".
as a horror movie cliché check list.This thing was like a made for TV movie commissioned and then rejected by the CW network.
I've seen films with a lower budget that where ten times better because of the story and plot.
The general idea (freaky statue that actually makes your fears come to life and kill you) was good but could have been done way better.
Honestly I hope the makers of House of Fears either learn from the mistakes made here and go on to make much better films, or find a new line of work.I will give the film one good point: Towards the beginning one of the guys dresses up as a killer and jumps out at the others.
It should have been titled "Wasted Potential" that would have been more accurate.This is probably the only "horror" film more boring than The Blair Witch Project.
There we are introduced to the guy - and since her behavior warrants it, I'm just going to keep calling her princess - is interested in, Carter, and his best friend Zane who works at a special haunted house that has 9 areas dedicated to your fears and is all automated, and decorated with things from around the world.
Zane is very interested in furthering things with a girl named Candice, so he suggests they all go to the Haunted House, aptly called House of Fears, which opens tomorrow.
Halloween house horrors.
HOUSE OF FEARS is a low budget, straight to video horror film about a bunch of teens trapped inside a Halloween haunted house that's guaranteed to make your worst fears come true.
Good movie that targets your fears.
House of Fears appeared to be just another lame excuse for a movie about teens being stupid and getting killed.
It's not like other scary movies at all, not only does it target your fears but it plays around with them.
The six teens at the beginning who sneak into a haunted house the day before it opens, admit to their biggest fears to the guy who works at the haunted house, who is one of the friends.
All of their fears is what ends up killing them.
Although some of the acting could be better and sound effects could be more believable, I would recommend this movie to anyone who really loves scary movies like I do and is just looking for something to actually be scared of.
House of Fears was great!.
I don't know what movie some of the previous reviewers were watching, or exactly what standard they want to hold a horror movie to (Orwell???), but House of Fears was a great movie!
We're talking about a low budget horror film that was made with no well-known talent at the time.
But there was a lot to like about this movie.First, are there really that many original stories left for horror movie setups?
You've got a basic haunted house story here, but they mix things up with the characters - two step-sisters who hate each other but who enter the haunted house together when one begs the other not to ruin the night for her.
And really - you'd have to have 40 teenagers sneaking into the haunted house to satisfy the blood lust of some of these so-called horror fans!
Not only is House of Fears watchable, it's a darn good movie!
You'll enjoy watching House of Fears and remembering years later that some of tomorrow's well-known actors were in it..
There is no reason to believe a low budget horror film has been inspired by a literary giant like Orwell so I won't sully his memory by mentioning him anymore But still there is something of Room 101 to this story .
A bunch of teens break in to a haunted house attraction and then strange things start happening like being killed by the horror attractions . |
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